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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 [NYTr] Opposition Group Peddles WMD Tales...about Iran
2 BBC: Iran rejects nuclear site charge
3 Japan Times: Iran strikes another nuclear deal
4 Manila Times: OPINION Significant changes in North Korea
5 US: Guardian Unlimited: House Ready to Send Bush Debt-Limit Hike
6 US: The Nation: Why Bush Scored in Nevada
7 US: Pasadena Star-News: Congress OKs grant funds for missions, water
8 US: UCS: National Academy of Sciences Finds Political Questions Inap
9 ITAR-TASS: Govt to discuss investments, finances RAO EES Rossii
NUCLEAR REACTORS
10 US: [NukeNet] Nuclear power play fizzles
11 Times Business: Power plant shutdowns hit British Energy rescue plan
12 Xinhuanet: Brazil, Germany replace decades-old nuke agreement with n
13 Japan Times: Atomic energy's second wind
14 Korea Times: KEDO Chief Comes to Seoul
15 St. Petersburg Times: New Reactor Bound for Plant in India
16 US: The News-Herald: Utility taking NRC warnings seriously
17 US: TheDay.com: Millstone Tax Case Turns On Definition Of alteratio
18 Hindu News: BARC's refurbished reactor attains full power operation
19 US: NRC: Carolina Power & Light Company; Notice of Receipt of Applic
20 US: NRC: Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear
21 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find
NUCLEAR SAFETY
22 [du-list] UPI: medical evacuations
23 [du-list] bosnians say NATO bombs brought angel of death
24 Bellona: G8 to build new bridge for nuclear train in Severodvinsk
25 BBC: The watchers from nuclear bunkers
26 US: Hawk Eye: Radioactive metal still not identified
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
27 [NukeNet] Politics of Reprocessing in Japan
28 US: Bradenton Herald: Consultant hired for Tallevast cleanup
29 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca Mountain prominent issue for lame duck Congress
30 RGJ: Earthquake experts to present research, celebrate colleague
31 Salt Lake Tribune: Yucca Mountain fight sinks Senate vote on energy
32 US: DentonRC.com: Delay urged in waste issue
33 US: DenverPost.com: Tumbleweeds may soak up toxics
34 US: CBS 2 - New York News: How Secure Are Radioactive Waste Shipment
35 US: Tewksbury Advocate: Towns sharing info on perchlorate rates
36 US: Billerica Minuteman: Selectmen back perchlorate plan
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
37 [du-list] DOE changes secretaries Piketon, Ohio
38 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: No disconnect over Hanford cleanup
39 ABQjournal: Governor Backs UC As LANL Manager
40 Tri-City Herald: BNFL gets contract for K Basins work
41 Tri-City Herald: DOE cleanup chief tours Hanford
42 Salt Lake Tribune: Richardson speaks on Los Alamos contract
43 GM: Shuffling is afoot in Bush administration's environment-related
44 KTVB: Project would consolidate power-system production at INEEL
45 lamonitor.com: DOE looks for input
46 DOE: Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee
OTHER NUCLEAR
47 [RENEWABLEWG-LIST] Notice of Committee Workshop
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1 [NYTr] Opposition Group Peddles WMD Tales...about Iran
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:16:58 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Sigh. This is where we came in... CIA-supported exile opposition group
peddles CIA-produced scare stories about non-existent nuclear weapons
program to whip up support for another criminal war against all common
sense, morality, and the judgement of UN watchdog agencies. Will they
send Condi Rice to the UN to put on a slide show? Will The New York
Times give Chemical Judy Miller free rein again to spew the lurid
third-hand fantasies all over their front page? And what of Tony Blair,
poodle extraordinaire? Will he go along again? Just how dumb is the
American public? Will they believe next month that Iran was responsible
for al Qaeda and 9/11 as they believe today Saddam Hussein was? Stay
tuned...-NY Transfer]
The New York Times - Nov 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/international/middleeast/17iran.html
Group Says Iran Has Secret Nuclear Arms Program
by Douglas Jehl
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - An Iranian opposition group says it has new
evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert Defense
Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to United
Nations inspectors.
The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to
announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that
inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to
produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part
of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended purely
for civilian purposes.
A senior official of the group, Muhammad Mohaddessin, said in a
telephone interview late on Tuesday that the group had shared the new
information "very recently'' with the International Atomic Energy
Agency. But he and other officials of the group said it had not
discussed the matter with the United States government, and its claims
could not be verified.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not return messages seeking
comment on the assertion.
The group, based in Paris, is the political arm of the People's
Mujahedeen, which is listed by the United States government as a
terrorist organization because of its involvement in attacks on
Americans in the 1970's. But the group also has a successful track
record in gathering intelligence on Iran, and was the first, in 2002, to
disclose the existence of what was then the secret Iranian nuclear site
at Natanz.
United Nations inspectors "should not be fooled or deceived by the
Iranian regime,'' Mr. Mohaddessin said.
A spokesman in Washington for the National Council for Resistance in
Iran provided a seven-page summary of the assertion to The New York Times.
It says that the previously undisclosed site, in northeastern Tehran,
covers 60 acres and houses biological and chemical warfare projects as
well as nuclear activity. It says that the site, known as the Modern
Defensive Readiness and Technology Center, now houses operations
previously carried out at another Defense Ministry site in Tehran that
was destroyed by the Iranian government this year before international
inspectors could visit it.
The assertion by the opposition group is surfacing in a week in which
France, Britain and Germany announced a formal agreement with Iran
committing the country to freeze a critical part of its nuclear program
in exchange for an array of possible rewards.
As part of the pact with the Europeans, the International Atomic Energy
Agency said Iran had promised to suspend its uranium enrichment program
starting a week from now. But the agency said it could not rule out the
possibility that Iran was conducting covert activities.
"All the declared nuclear material in Iran has been accounted for, and
therefore such material is not diverted to prohibited activities," the
agency said in a report, referring to possible Iran nuclear weapons
activity. "The agency is, however, not in a position to conclude that
there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."
The United States and European countries have argued that Iran's nuclear
program is intended to produce weapons. Iran's leadership has insisted
that is not engaged in a nuclear weapons program but has the sovereign
right to enrich uranium.
Officials of the opposition group said they believed that the Iranian
Defense Ministry and Revolutionary Guards Corps were pursuing their
program in secret and had not told Iran's atomic energy agency of the
existence of the facility in Tehran.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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2 BBC: Iran rejects nuclear site charge
Last Updated: Thursday, 18 November, 2004
[A general view of Iran's first nuclear reactor, being built in
Bushehr]
Iran's enrichment activities are under international scrutiny
A senior Iranian official has denied allegations that Tehran is
hiding a nuclear bomb facility.
The National Council for Resistance in Iran - an exiled
opposition group - said a secret uranium enrichment site had been
built just north of Tehran.
But Hossein Moussavian, one of Iran's top negotiators, said the
facility had nothing to do with nuclear activities.
Iran also said that four people have gone on trial in Tehran for
allegedly spying on nuclear facilities.
The NCRI - an exiled opposition group - said on Wednesday that a
secret uranium enrichment site had been built just north of
Tehran.
The NCRI is the political wing of the People's Mujahideen
Organisation. Both are banned as terrorist groups in the US and
EU.
There was no confirmation of the identity of the suspects sent to
trial, but Iranian intelligence minister Ali Yunessi said in
August that a number of people arrested on nuclear spying charges
were linked to the two opposition groups.
'Deliberate' timing
The group first revealed the existence of two key nuclear sites
in Iran four years ago, prompting international inspections.
This time it alleged that the former head of Pakistan's nuclear
programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had given Iran designs for a
nuclear bomb, as well as highly enriched uranium.
Many in Tehran saw these allegations as deliberately timed to try
to scupper a deal over Iran's nuclear programme with Europe,
reached days ago.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he could corroborate
some of the charges made by Iranian dissidents based on
intelligence he had received.
Mr Powell said intelligence showed Iran had been actively working
on adapting its missiles to carry nuclear warheads.
*****************************************************************
3 Japan Times: Iran strikes another nuclear deal
Thursday, November 18, 2004
EDITORIAL
Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear programs while it
continues negotiations with European nations on the future of
those efforts. While the government in Tehran is pleased with
the results of the discussions, other nations, worried about the
possible proliferation of nuclear weapons, should be more
cautious. This is the second deal the parties have signed; the
speed with which the first came apart is grounds for concern. In
addition, contrary to many reports, Iran has not agreed to end
its nuclear program, merely to suspend it. The final outcome
will show how serious the world is about halting the spread of
nuclear weapons.
Iran has long had a nuclear energy program. Since its
inception, there were questions about its nuclear weapons
ambitions, but Tehran always denied that it wanted anything
other than a peaceful, civilian program. Those assurances were
deflated two years ago when an Iranian exile group provided
accurate information about secret facilities that were being
used for uranium enrichment and conversion. An intensive
investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency has not
yielded evidence that Iran is trying to build a bomb, but
suspicions have increased with the discovery of weapons-grade
uranium on enrichment centrifuges and Iran's admission that it
produced small amounts of plutonium.
Last October, Britain, France and Germany tried to head off a
crisis and negotiated a deal that would suspend Iran's nuclear
programs. The agreement allowed Iran to avoid official censure
by the IAEA -- which was being pushed by the United States --
and would have obliged the U.N. Security Council to take up the
matter. That deal quickly unraveled amid a dispute over terms.
The United States then renewed its push for censure by the
IAEA. The agency's board of governors meets later this month,
and continued suspicions about Iran's nuclear efforts would have
generated pressure to take the problem to the Security Council.
This agreement vents that pressure. Tehran has agreed that it
will suspend enrichment activities as long as negotiations with
the Europeans continue.
The Iranian problem goes to the heart of flaws in the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty regime. The NPT gives treaty signatories
the right to develop civilian nuclear programs and even
facilitates their access to that technology. In return, a
government gives up its nuclear weapons ambitions. It has become
clear in recent months that the bargain is fraught with
loopholes. Countries can cheat: They can acquire the technology
needed to proliferate -- openly or secretly -- and then "break
out" with a weapon. Worse, the IAEA's ability to prevent that is
limited, as has been proven by the revelations surrounding the
"black market" created by Pakistan's A.Q. Khan and the North
Korean nuclear crisis.
It is impossible to know Iran's intentions. The key question
is, if Tehran wants nuclear weapons can the world dissuade it?
The European three are determined to test that proposition. As a
first step, a team from the IAEA will seal Iranian nuclear
facilities and equipment. Then the four countries will set up
three negotiating groups: one to focus on nuclear issues, one on
nonnuclear cooperation between Iran and Europe, and the final
one to examine regional security issues. The groups will report
every three months to a steering committee made up of senior
participants.
A deal hinges on two considerations. The first consists of
security assurances to Iran. Having fought a long war with Iraq,
having watched the U.S. invade Afghanistan and Iraq and having
been labeled a member of the "axis of evil," Tehran may well
feel that nuclear weapons are needed for national security. The
rest of the world must convince Iran that its security is best
assured by means other than nuclear weapons. The second
component is economic. Europe must offer Iran trade incentives
sufficient to offset the gains -- material or otherwise -- to be
had from developing a nuclear program.
These issues should look familiar. They are also at the heart
of discussions with North Korea over its nuclear program,
although those negotiations are more thorny due to the
involvement of other issues such as the past abductions to North
Korea of Japanese nationals. The Iranian negotiations have made
more progress than those with North Korea; Pyongyang says it
wants (and sometimes even claims it has) a nuclear deterrent,
and there is as yet no freeze on its nuclear programs. A deal
with Tehran would prove that diplomatic engagement works and
could provide a model for talks with North Korea. Failure will
force the United Nations -- the international community -- to
take up the issue and test its very commitment to the NPT and
nuclear nonproliferation.
The Japan Times: Nov. 18, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
4 Manila Times: OPINION Significant changes in North Korea
[http://www.manilatimes.net]
Friday, November 19, 2004
Significant changes tc "Significant changes "in North Korea
By Charles Whelantc "By Charles Whelan", Agence France-Pressetc
""
SEOUL—Significant changes may be taking place in North Korea if
reports are confirmed that Kim Jong-Il, the nation’s hereditary
dictator, is modifying his leadership style, analysts and
experts said Thursday.tc "SEOUL—Significant changes may be
taking place in North Korea if reports are confirmed that Kim
Jong-Il, the nation’s hereditary dictator, is modifying his
leadership style, analysts and experts said Thursday."
Officials, diplomats and analysts agreed that reports of Kim
having ordered curbs on the cult of personality surrounding him
for decades needed to be confirmed before conclusions could be
drawn.tc "Officials, diplomats and analysts agreed that reports
of Kim having ordered curbs on the cult of personality
surrounding him for decades needed to be confirmed before
conclusions could be drawn."
“Nothing has been proven yet. There is no way for us to confirm
these things right now. It takes time,” said an official at
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with
the Stalinist state.tc "“Nothing has been proven yet. There is
no way for us to confirm these things right now. It takes time,”
said an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which
handles relations with the Stalinist state."
If confirmed, the developments would be regarded as
“significant,” he said.tc "If confirmed, the developments would
be regarded as “significant,” he said."
North Korea is one of the most secretive states and events
inside it are notoriously hard to monitor.tc "North Korea is one
of the most secretive states and events inside it are
notoriously hard to monitor."
However, western diplomats living in Pyongyang have reported
that portraits of Kim have been disappearing from public
buildings in the capital and elsewhere in recent weeks,
according to diplomats and reports here.tc "However, western
diplomats living in Pyongyang have reported that portraits of
Kim have been disappearing from public buildings in the capital
and elsewhere in recent weeks, according to diplomats and
reports here."
“It is definitely happening. The question is why,” a foreign
diplomat based in Seoul told AFP.tc "“It is definitely
happening. The question is why,” a foreign diplomat based in
Seoul told AFP."
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that Kim himself
had ordered the removal of the portraits that hang in homes,
offices and public buildings alongside those of his father Kim
Il-Sung, the founder of the communist state who died in 1994.tc
"South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that Kim
himself had ordered the removal of the portraits that hang in
homes, offices and public buildings alongside those of his
father Kim Il-Sung, the founder of the communist state who died
in 1994."
The order was issued three weeks ago because the leader was
concerned that he “has been lifted too high,” the agency said,
quoting a source who has “good connections” in Pyongyang.tc "The
order was issued three weeks ago because the leader was
concerned that he “has been lifted too high,” the agency said,
quoting a source who has “good connections” in Pyongyang."
South Korean government officials said they had noticed no
distinct change inside North Korea and there appeared to be no
indications of instability.tc "South Korean government officials
said they had noticed no distinct change inside North Korea and
there appeared to be no indications of instability."
Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young said Kim Jong-Il was
“carrying out his job normally.”tc "Unification Minister Chung
Dong-Young said Kim Jong-Il was “carrying out his job
normally.”"
Some North Korea watchers said the move could signal change. The
Stalinist state embarked on economic reform and opening two
years ago when it eased controls on wages and prices.tc "Some
North Korea watchers said the move could signal change. The
Stalinist state embarked on economic reform and opening two
years ago when it eased controls on wages and prices."
But no relaxation of political control followed as Kim and his
clique elite grappled with a nuclear standoff with the outside
world.tc "But no relaxation of political control followed as Kim
and his clique elite grappled with a nuclear standoff with the
outside world."
Other analysts said it was more likely that, Kim, aware that his
personality cult was the subject of ridicule abroad, was trying
to improve his image.tc "Other analysts said it was more likely
that, Kim, aware that his personality cult was the subject of
ridicule abroad, was trying to improve his image."
Two years ago, they noted, Kim instructed the General
Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a pro-Pyongyang
organization grouping tens of thousands of ethnic Koreans, to
remove his portraits from their premises and drop the
personality cult because it triggered derision among the
Japanese.tc "Two years ago, they noted, Kim instructed the
General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a
pro-Pyongyang organization grouping tens of thousands of ethnic
Koreans, to remove his portraits from their premises and drop
the personality cult because it triggered derision among the
Japanese."
“In 2002, Chair Kim told the [pro-Pyongyang] General Association
in Japan to abolish its ideology class and remove his
portraits.tc "“In 2002, Chair Kim told the [pro-Pyongyang]
General Association in Japan to abolish its ideology class and
remove his portraits."
If it’s true that portraits are being taken down, this could be
in line with the 2002 directive,” said a South Korean
official.tc " If it’s true that portraits are being taken down,
this could be in line with the 2002 directive,” said a South
Korean official."
Kim, 63, took power after the death of his father in 1994. He
built his own personality cult to rival that of his father but
never took on all the trappings of power held by the elder Kim,
including the title of president.tc "Kim, 63, took power after
the death of his father in 1994. He built his own personality
cult to rival that of his father but never took on all the
trappings of power held by the elder Kim, including the title of
president."
Since he took power, North Korea has lurched from one crisis to
another, passing through drought, natural disasters and mass
starvation to the current international standoff over its
nuclear weapons drive.tc "Since he took power, North Korea has
lurched from one crisis to another, passing through drought,
natural disasters and mass starvation to the current
international standoff over its nuclear weapons drive."
By deflating his own personality cult, Kim may be seeking to
dodge some of the blame, say some experts. He also may be
seeking to escape some criticism over North Korea’s human rights
record, they add.tc "By deflating his own personality cult, Kim
may be seeking to dodge some of the blame, say some experts. He
also may be seeking to escape some criticism over North Korea’s
human rights record, they add."
“It may have to do with Kim Jong-Il’s attempt to change his
image as a demi-god, infallible leader to an ordinary leader,”
said Koh Young-Hwan, a North Korean specialist at Dongguk
University in South Korea.tc "“It may have to do with Kim
Jong-Il’s attempt to change his image as a demi-god, infallible
leader to an ordinary leader,” said Koh Young-Hwan, a North
Korean specialist at Dongguk University in South Korea."
Kim has also taken a lower profile, rarely appearing in the
media, since the death of a woman believed to be his wife in
August after a long battle with breast cancer, experts said.tc
"Kim has also taken a lower profile, rarely appearing in the
media, since the death of a woman believed to be his wife in
August after a long battle with breast cancer, experts said."
“He wasn’t seen in public for a couple of months after that,” a
foreign diplomat in Seoul said, referring to the death of Ko
Yong-Hui, believed to be his second wife.tc "“For what does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul?” so quotes one of my coffee shop friends at the uptown
Cebu mall. "
Copyright (c) 2001 The Manila Times | Terms of Service
The Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 Guardian Unlimited: House Ready to Send Bush Debt-Limit Hike
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday November 19, 2004 1:01 AM
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats accused Republicans of disastrous
economic policies as Congress moved Thursday toward shipping
President Bush an $800 billion increase in the federal borrowing
limit.
The House prepared to vote final approval for the boost as White
House and bipartisan congressional bargainers moved to the verge
of agreement on a year-end spending package expected to total
$388 billion. Negotiators said just a handful of issues remained
unresolved, and a package might be ready for votes by late
Friday.
With the government facing imminent default because it has
depleted its authority to borrow money, the debt limit bill would
pump up its borrowing cap to $8.18 trillion. That is 70 percent
the size of the entire U.S. economy, and more than $2.4 trillion
higher than the debt Bush inherited upon taking office in 2001.
``Our great-great-great-great-grandkids are going to pay it back
with interest, to China and the others who are financing our
government and our spendthrift ways,'' Rep. Peter DeFazio,
D-Ore., argued during House debate.
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., countered: ``We can demagogue it.
We can keep putting on all sorts of messages to feel good or draw
political lines. ... But the reality is, we keep screwing around
with this thing, we're going to shut the government down.''
Lawmakers hope to end their postelection session, which began
Tuesday, by passing both the spending and debt-limit measures and
possibly an intelligence agency overhaul by this weekend.
Negotiators spent Thursday clearing away final disputes on the
massive spending bill. They agreed to $577 million, the same as
last year, to continue developing a nuclear waste storage site at
Yucca Mountain in Nevada, one lawmaker said.
Remaining problems included an effort by some legislators to curb
Bush's plan to contract out federal jobs to private businesses,
as well as a plan to pay for some of the bill's increases by
cutting unspent defense funds.
The bill would grant increases to priorities like veterans'
health care and the FBI, and will probably contain thousands of
home-district projects.
Hewing to Bush's demands to curb domestic spending, it also would
cut grants for local water improvements and research supported by
the National Science Foundation, while holding the federal
subsidy for Amtrak to $1.2 billion, the same as this year.
Aid to help refugees in Sudan's war-torn Darfur province would be
$404 million, including $93 million to be transferred from Iraq
reconstruction money that is being spent at a snail's pace.
Spending-bill bargainers also sorted through a stack of policy
changes that lawmakers and lobbyists were trying to shove into
one of the last measures Congress will approve this year.
Congressional aides said they believed a milk subsidy extension
sought by midwesterners and an effort to repeal required
country-of-origin labels for meat would not make the final bill.
Also thwarted was a drive to ease rules designed to protect
endangered species from pesticides, the aides said.
The spending measure, covering the government budget year that
started Oct. 1, is an amalgamation of nine separate bills
financing all federal agencies except the Pentagon and the
Department of Homeland Security. Republicans put off the
legislation until after the election because of fights over
spending levels and legislative riders.
The GOP-led Senate approved the debt limit increase on Wednesday,
52-44, almost strictly along party lines.
The fight over raising the debt limit has become a staple of the
Bush years, which will have now seen three such increases and two
consecutive record annual deficits.
The government reached the current $7.38 trillion cap last month,
paying its bills since with investments from a civil service
retirement account, which it plans to repay. Even so, Republican
leaders postponed the showdown vote until after the election,
realizing Democrats would use the issue to highlight the red ink
of the Bush years.
``This issue is easy to demagogue'' and vote against, said Rep.
David Dreier, R-Calif. ``But it's not the right thing to do.''
Democrats blame Bush's tax cuts and a GOP refusal to require
budget savings to pay for tax reductions or spending increases.
``I am not going to ratify a policy that I believe is going to
drive this country to the brink of ruin,'' said Rep. Charles
Stenholm, D-Texas, a longtime deficit hawk who conceded that his
opposition to tax cuts contributed to his defeat on Election Day.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
6 The Nation: Why Bush Scored in Nevada
Home Issues December 6, 2004 issue
article | Posted November 18, 2004
by Sasha Abramsky
[N] evada went for Bush, but it shouldn't have.
No, I don't mean that its voting machines were rigged, or that
Republicans engaged in widespread voter intimidation. What I
mean is that on most big-ticket issues--on the sorts of issues
that, historically, elections turn on--most Nevadans disagreed
more with the national Republican Party than they did with the
Democrats. On what is arguably the single biggest issue facing
the state, the opening of a vast nuclear waste repository at
Yucca Mountain, a statewide survey conducted by the Office of
the Governor's Agency for Nuclear Projects in the run-up to the
election showed that 77 percent were opposed to the project,
which is supported by Bush but opposed by Kerry. Knocking on
doors, canvassers also found strong unease about the direction
of the war in Iraq, the state of the economy and job
security--the critical "Are you better off today than you were
four years ago?" litmus test posited by no less a conservative
icon than Ronald Reagan. They also expressed concern about
Bush's water distribution policies in the arid West, about
recent judicial rulings encroaching on Native American tribal
sovereignty--a big issue in Nevada--about Bush's proposals on
Social Security, the lack of affordable healthcare, the price of
gasoline and so on.
[http://www.thenation.com/sam/public/click.mhtml/397/0] Yet on
election day, George W. Bush won Nevada by 21,567
votes--mirroring the nation, the split was 51 percent to 48
percent. This was just slightly slimmer than the 21,597 edge
Bush enjoyed four years earlier.
"The worst part is not comprehending the other side," says
Sheila Leslie, a liberal State Assemblywoman from the northern
city of Reno. "I've talked to many, many people who voted for
that man, and I still don't understand it. They agree he's wrong
on Iraq, tax cuts, the environment, and they still voted for
him. The tipping point, they can't seem to articulate. They
didn't line up the policies of the President with their own
personal views, because if they'd done so they would have voted
for John Kerry. It was a gut vote, not an intellectual one. It
makes no sense. It wasn't a rational vote."
Indeed, many Nevadans who voted for Bush turned around and
supported Democrats in other races. Sheila Leslie's share of the
vote went from 53 percent in 2002 to 63 percent this time
around. In the Washoe County area, of which Reno makes up the
major part, Democrats picked up two State Assembly seats,
helping to insure that the State Assembly stayed in Democratic
hands and balancing a Republican State Senate and a moderate
Republican governor (who used to be a Democrat), Kenny Guinn.
Democrat Harry Reid--soon to become Nevada's first Senate
minority leader--was comfortably re-elected (though Reid made
sure to ally himself with the gun lobby and the mining
interests, and appealed to culturally conservative Bush voters
with his anti-choice stand). And a state minimum-wage initiative
passed overwhelmingly. Moreover, legislators who had supported
Governor Guinn's move to raise $900 million in taxes in 2003 as
an emergency measure to keep the state's schools open were
mostly re-elected--despite harsh campaigns against them by
right-wing Republicans and conservative media outlets.
Strategists on both sides point to cultural issues as a crucial
factor in Kerry's defeat. "The economy, taxes, healthcare, that
was lower down the list," says Earlene Forsythe, chair of the
Nevada GOP and a longtime Washoe County resident. "The
number-one issue was morals." Number two, according to Forsythe,
was terrorism. AP exit poll data actually suggested a slightly
more complex scenario: Fully one-quarter of voters said
terrorism was their number-one concern, and 88 percent of these
voters supported Bush. Number two was Iraq--and the voters who
cited that as their top issue broke solidly for Kerry. But
number three, beating out the economy and taxes, was morals, and
three-quarters of those voters chose Bush. Forsythe says the
Republicans identified and targeted two key new-voter blocs in
Nevada: the "moral moms" and the "security moms." "They felt
safer with Homeland Security with Bush at the head," Forsythe
explains. "He promised to bring it to the terrorists and keep it
away from our homeland. So they trusted him."
Analysts on the Democratic side agree that many voters were
primarily motivated by these concerns, although they are less
certain about why. "Whenever a group of people will vote for a
President, put a man in power and do that against their own
self-interest, their economic self-interest..." begins Richard
"Skip" Daly, business manager of the Laborers, Hod Carriers,
Cement Workers and Miners Local Union 169, before stopping and
rewording his thought. He tries again: "They voted for a
Republican who's got the biggest deficit spending ever; they
voted against all of their self-interest. And the issue that
came out in exit polling was 'we voted on the moral values.'
What that says to me is, these people believe it's more
important than their family's well-being that we don't have
abortion. And, to me, that is an intolerance that we have not
experienced in this country since we put into insignificance the
Ku Klux Klan."
With five Electoral College votes, Nevada was one of the key swing
states of the desert West. Much of the pro-Kerry effort was
focused on the state's second city, Reno, nestled in a high
desert bowl, surrounded by mountains that, by the time of the
election, were thickly blanketed in snow.
Almost every week, from early September onward, hundreds of
volunteers--mobilized by trade unions, by grassroots
organizations such as America Coming Together and MoveOn.org, and
by the Democratic Party itself--turned out to canvass the town.
They reminded people at the door that 86,000 Nevadans had lost
their health insurance since Bush came into office, that workers
were losing overtime pay because of new laws rammed through by
Bush's Congressional allies; they talked to Latino immigrants
about deportations, detention without trial and other rollbacks
of the rights of migrants; talked to Native Americans at the
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony about tribal sovereignty. The week
before the election, it seemed that half of Northern California's
activists had decamped across the rugged Sierra Nevada, driving
I-80 over the winter-wonderland landscape of the Lake Tahoe area,
7,000 feet above sea level, down into the old casino-lined
streets of downtown Reno and out into the desert suburbs, to put
on one last great push for John Kerry.
Reno was bombarded with an unprecedented number of TV and radio
political ads. Kerry came to speak before a crowd of 12,000
people, Edwards visited, Teresa Heinz Kerry visited, Elizabeth
Edwards came to the county three times, Bush came twice (the
first President to campaign in Reno since Reagan, in 1984, says
Forsythe) and Laura Bush and Dick Cheney each dropped in three
times.
The Kerry campaign's Nevada strategy was to shore up the
Democratic majority in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and to
about two-thirds of the state's population, and to tamp down the
Republican majority in Washoe County, home to roughly 20 percent
of the state's population. It didn't work. When the votes were
tallied, the Democrats had managed to narrow Bush's margin in
Washoe County to 4 percent, down from 9 percent in 2000; but that
achievement was diluted by the fact that 67 percent of Washoe
County's registered voters came out to vote, a lower percentage
than in any other county in the state--thus numerically
diminishing the signficance of Kerry's percentage gains there.
And the strategy failed entirely in Las Vegas. In Clark County
Kerry did win, but only by 26,000 votes, out of a total of over
half a million cast, nowhere near enough to cancel out the
conservative bent of the rest of the state.
This was particularly disappointing given that the county had
nearly 44,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Indeed,
according to an article by John Judis, posted on the online
version of The New Republic in August, in the first eight months
of 2004 Democrats picked up a net gain over the Republicans of
more than 15,000 new registered voters in Clark County, much of
it due to the registration of Latino migrants. One Latino group
alone, Voices for Working Families, claimed to have registered
23,324 new voters by late September.
But after all was said and done, on election day Latino voters,
in particular, appeared to respond to the Republican Party's
conservative "morals" message--as large numbers of Latinos also
did in Reno, according to both Democratic and GOP strategists
there. Before the election, newspapers reported that Republican
strategists thought they would need 40 percent of the Latino vote
to win. AP exit poll data suggest they hit that target.
After the election, local Republicans were gleeful that their
focus on "values" had paid off. "The Republicans embraced family
values and morals, which is what this race was all about," Washoe
County Republican Central Committee spokesman Bob Larkin argues.
"The liberal portion of the Democratic Party was ostracizing
Latinos because of their family values, and the Republican Party
was embracing them." The GOP's Forsythe also believes this issue
won it for Bush in Nevada. "We were able to get the Christian
vote out," she says proudly. "The people from the churches. We
went fishing where the fishes are. We targeted precincts. 'Moral
moms' wanted to get back to family values. They're not antigay,
but they're anti-gay marriage. That was very important to
them--and abortion."
Catholic churches like Little Flower, in southwest Reno, had
targeted Latino voters with pamphlets and sermons on abortion and
gay marriage. Canvassers in Latino neighborhoods found that
especially among men, these were bedrock issues--far more so than
was the case in white communities in Reno, where more people were
concerned about terrorism and Iraq, and where the Republicans
concentrated more on pushing the fear buttons. "We would knock on
a door where the woman is the citizen," says Tahis Castro, a
61-year-old, originally from Costa Rica, and a longtime organizer
with the Culinary Workers Union. "And the husband, who is not a
citizen, comes up and asks, 'Is he supporting gay marriage
between man and man, and woman and woman?" The Republicans
saturated the two Spanish-language TV stations, Univision and
Azteca America, with ads on terrorism and taxes--but even more so
on "values" and religion.
By contrast, on the English-language stations, the infamous
wolves ad ran more frequently than ads about "values." Anti-Kerry
spots also ran--on the Karl Rove principle of shoring up your own
weak spots by attacking your opponent's strong suits--accusing
Kerry of flip-flopping on Yucca Mountain, leaving unsaid the fact
that Bush was strongly in favor of the dump.
On election day Spanish radio ads warned those who hadn't yet cast
ballots about the moral carnage that would result from a Kerry
victory. And GOP precinct organizers worked their lists, feeding
off an unprecedented statewide effort that involved more than 2
million mail drops and more than 200,000 volunteer phone calls,
and using PalmPilots to e-mail back to local HQ the names of
likely Republican voters who hadn't yet voted, who needed to be
prodded to turn out as the day wore on.
Castro says that union canvassers tried to hammer home the
message that the election was about "jobs, overtime, healthcare,
education for Latinos and respect on the job." Yet it appears
that a substantial minority of union members didn't respond. In
2000 fully 49 percent of union members who voted in Nevada
favored Bush. The data for 2004 is not yet fully available,
although exit polls suggested 43 percent union support for Bush
in Nevada, consistent with the nationwide figure for this year's
election.
At the same time, outside Nevada's urban centers, in the sparsely
populated, non-unionized rural counties, Bush consolidated his
support, apparently defeating Kerry on "morals," especially among
the Mormon communities of eastern Nevada, and also on wedge
issues of more concern to Western Goldwater/McCain Republicans.
Hunters and sportsmen, fired up by a strongly pro-Second
Amendment speech delivered by Cheney in the conservative
community of Elko and buoyed by the Republican Party's leafleting
of Nevada's gun shops, came out against the Democrats'
gun-control policies--policies that some Western progressives say
must now change. The Democrats, says Bob Fulkerson, director of
the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (who took time off
from his non-partisan job to campaign for the Democrats) should
say something "about the sanctity of the right to keep and bear
arms. In the West, it's part of what we're about. It kills us
with labor unions here. I'll bet a hundred dollars that the labor
voters who voted for Bush did so on guns. They're hunters and
love their guns."
The mining industry--and, the county results suggest, many mine
workers--reacted against Kerry's calls for stricter environmental
standards and antipollution measures. And ranchers came out
against "big government"--which the Democrats are seen here to be
creatures of. "The Bureau of Land Management in rural Nevada is
like Satan," explains 74-year-old Nevada historian Jim Hulse,
professor emeritus at the University of Nevada in Reno and author
of books such as The Silver State, over a coffee in his house
west of downtown. "BLM people are not at all welcome in their
efforts to manage the range lands or restrict off-road usage.
They're anathema to rural Nevada." In counties defined by mining
and ranching, Bush got two to three times as many votes as Kerry.
These disparate groups, when added to the much larger urban vote
totals from Las Vegas and Reno, proved numerically strong enough
to keep Nevada red.
Three days after the election I headed to Reno and parked myself
in the gaudy Circus Circus casino-hotel--one of only two fully
unionized casinos in the city--for four days, in a twelfth-floor
room looking out across the gridlike streets to the snowy slopes
beyond. The casinos were in full swing, and the video arcades at
Circus Circus--with games-of-the-times like Target Terror--were
jammed, as were the bars, strip clubs and instant-wedding chapels
around town. As I listened to conversations, hardly anybody
seemed to be talking politics. Reno must be a particularly
galling town for obsessive political types to live in; it is,
after all, where people come to deliberately block out the "real
world," the world of politics and wars (the Falluja offensive was
just getting under way) and economic uncertainties, behind a
great canopy of blinking, twitching neon pizazz.
There was an irony in talking with residents about the electoral
victory of moral fundamentalism while garrisoned in a junior
version of Sin City, surrounded by casinos and bars and topless
cabarets, by porno booths and, in the desert counties outside
town, legalized brothels. Quite clearly, these sin palaces were
not about to go out of business anytime soon. In fact, the
economic elite of northern Nevada that profits from the "sin"
business loved the Republican victory--loved the lower taxes it
heralded, the deregulation of the workplace, the tilting of the
playing field ever more steeply against organized labor.
The election outcome has certainly emboldened powerful
fundamentalist figures in already conservative parts of the
country--Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, etc.--and strengthened
their position in Washington. But in places like Nevada and, even
more, California and New York, Bush's victory--largely cobbled
together, in Nevada at least, on the issues of gun control,
abortion, gay marriage and fear of terrorism--may be felt most
immediately in other areas: for instance, in changes to the
economic and regulatory role of federal government, the compact
between government and citizen on Social Security, taxes,
workplace protection, environmental safeguards and the provision
of healthcare. Republican Bob Larkin--the local spokesman who'd
previously told me the election was all about "values"--talks
about how Bush was "hired" by Republicans to bring about economic
deregulation and expansion.
"In an area like Reno," says Rich Houts of the Building and
Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada, a huge man with
an unkempt, bushy beard, "it'd be very easy for employers to find
loopholes to exempt employees from overtime. In the service
industries, the casinos, they rely on overtime to survive. If
they lose overtime, working two jobs they still won't survive.
I'm worried about more attacks on our union--like they did to the
TSA [Transportation Security Administration] folks; saying, 'You
can't belong to unions.' Or coming up with legislation that ties
our hands so bad we can't function. Privatizing Social Security
is a major concern for us. [Bush's] attack on overtime pay--it's
just going to keep getting worse. The workplace is going to
become a much more dangerous place to be."
"The intellect and the ability of freethinking is not in the hearts
and minds of the people who voted," asserts Skip Daly. He was
sitting in an office on the wall of which hung a poster with
Pastor Niem”ller's famous quote about the Nazis, "First they came
for the Jews...."
"I believe the Republican Party is saying, 'We're no longer going
to protect the minority.' I'm dumbfounded at where, when I follow
these things to their conclusion, this country is headed. Please
tell me I got it wrong. I just don't think people are thinking. I
don't. It's dumbfounding to me. We've turned a corner."
Vicki LoSasso, a 56-year-old women's rights organizer, who helped
coordinate drivers to take people to the polls and who recalled
proudly that more than 1,000 volunteers descended on the town's
Democratic headquarters the weekend before the election, was
feeling particularly galled by the outcome. "We put so much into
this, and it really felt like it was going to make a difference,"
LoSasso says. "And we still lost." She worried about a new round
of cuts to federal grants for programs tailored to abused women
and children--the government recently cut $325,000 in Violence
Against Women Act grants to Nevada. She was also concerned about
a moral tyranny--not necessarily one that would be imposed on
Nevada overnight but a creeping cultural transformation that
would emanate outward from the fundamentalist core of the
country. "I honestly have some deep fears about the whole country
becoming a theocracy if the trends we see continue." Deep down,
LoSasso felt it was possible the Republicans had rigged the
electronic voting machines to insure a victory. But, at the same
time, she also realized it was likely they had simply outvoted
the rest of us. "What's more frightening is that they might not
have stolen it." She laughs nervously, a middle-aged blond woman
in Southwestern jewelry and casual-but-expensive winter clothing.
"If they didn't steal it, there are more of them than there are
of us."
"I'm trying to figure out where I fit in a post-11/2 world,"
LoSasso bluntly stated. Tahis Castro told me that the only other
time she'd felt so bereft, so personally affected, was when her
mother had died. A third woman suggested America was "rushing
forward into the 1950s."
Reno is a historically small "c" conservative town, with weaker
trade unions than in Las Vegas. Yet it still has a healthy
underside of radicalism. Some of the people who make up this
radical underside told me they now feared "payback." Their fear
was likely exaggerated in the misery of the moment; but some of
it was based on real evidence of a vindictive conservatism, which
targets dissenters as if they were enemies rather than simply
political opponents.
A few days earlier the tax-exempt status of the NAACP had come
under scrutiny after its president had made supposedly anti-Bush
speeches; in Reno, the head of the state ACLU phoned me and asked
me not to quote his staff making anti-Bush comments because the
organization didn't want to suffer the same fate as the NAACP.
NAACP staffers and other African-American community activists,
meanwhile, talked of an "under the wire," but all-too-real,
attack on civil rights and affirmative-action programs in a state
with more than its fair share of white supremacist groups and
disaffected young skinheads. "I wonder if these far-right groups
see it as an opportunity to be more visible," mused Janet Serial
of the NAACP, after she'd mentioned that Reno was known to some
as the little Mississippi of the West. "They're there, and they
played a big part in this election."
Union organizers, such as Skip Daly and Rich Houts, anticipate a
Republican push for national right-to-work laws specifically to
damage union power as payback for their support of Kerry. "We're
going to have to educate our members," Houts argues. "Most
rank-and-file members have the attitude, 'We've got a union
contract, so we're protected forever'--not realizing one sweep of
the pan, or one bill, could take away that contract. It may not
affect union members immediately, but there will be a long-term
effect once they start negotiating contracts in a year or two."
Republicans and Democrats in Reno have very little common ground
politically these days. But both groups agree that the
Republicans' conservative "morals" message, along with the GOP's
ability to tap into the populace's fear of terrorism, contributed
handily to Bush's narrow election victory in Nevada. If I were a
betting man, however, I'd have found a bookie in some neon-lit
corner of town and wagered a fair sum that Houts was right:
Despite the voters' concerns about morals and terrorism, the
election's impact on Reno's residents would be primarily
economic. The casino workers stand to lose overtime pay; more and
more working families will probably lose access to health
insurance; trade-union members will sooner or later run up
against newly emboldened employers during contract negotiations;
and more poor people are going to find their access to government
programs in jeopardy, while their wealthier neighbors in the vast
estates dotting the foothills around town will see their tax
bills lowered, and lowered again, as the second Bush term gets
under way.
about
Sasha Abramsky
Sasha Abramsky, the author of Hard Time Blues (St. Martin's) and
co-author of the Human Rights Watch report Ill Equipped: US
Prisons and Offenders With Mental Illness, is working on a book
on disenfranchisement in the United States.
Privacy Policy Copyright c 2004 The Nation
*****************************************************************
7 Pasadena Star-News: Congress OKs grant funds for missions, water cleanup
pasadenastarnews.com
Article Published: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 -
THE SAN GABRIEL MISSION will benefit from a portion of $10
million approved by Congress on Wednesday for refurbishing
California’s 21 aging Spanish missions. Top, the bells of the
mission are cleaned.
By Lisa Friedman , Washington Bureau
The San Gabriel Valley reaped millions of dollars Wednesday as
Congress approved funding to restore a historic mission and
expand a massive groundwater cleanup program.
In a unanimous vote, the House dedicated $6.5 million to build
and operate treatment plants to clean perchlorate and other
toxins from the water in the San Gabriel Valley. It now heads to
the president's desk.
The action came as good news to a San Gabriel Valley official
in Washington this week to talk to lawmakers about the water
problems.
"We are always happy in the sense that what we are looking for
is early cleanup in the San Gabriel Valley,' said Bob Kuhn, a
board member of the San Gabriel Basin Water Authority, which is
overseeing water cleanup. "And without the federal money it
makes it very, very difficult to get these projects started.'
He was not sure which projects the funds would be earmarked for,
but added: "It's very good news for the San Gabriel Valley.'
The authority was established by the state in 1993 to develop
groundwater treatment programs in the San Gabriel Basin.
Removing the moving plume of contaminated water from the San
Gabriel Basin is expected to take at least 30 years, officials
say, and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Also without opposition, lawmakers approved $10 million in
matching grants to restore and preserve Mission San Gabriel
Arcangel and California's 21 other aging Spanish missions.
"It's a huge deal for California in the sense that the missions
are really where California began,' said Knox Mellon, executive
director of the nonprofit California Mission Foundation, which
is overseeing the restoration.
"The missions are California's pyramids,' Mellon said. "This is
the Western frontier, and the missions sort of started
civilization here in California.'
But Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for the
Separation of Church and State, said his organization intends to
file suit challenging the legislation.
"This is a clear violation of the Constitution,' Conn said.
"You can't take taxpayer money and use it to maintain houses of
worship.'
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who pushed hard for funding in a
Senate version of the bill that passed earlier this year, called
passage "a tremendous victory for the state of California.'
The bill now heads to the White House for President Bush's
signature.
Foundation officials estimate it will cost more than $50
million to restore and repair all of California's missions.
Mellon said he believes the matching grants will ease the path
to greater fund-raising for the project.
While Mission San Gabriel does require repair and some
retrofitting of its exterior walls, Mellon said it is in better
shape than others in the state.
By far the most severely damaged of California's missions is
Mission San Miguel Arcangel in San Luis Obispo County. It
sustained $25 million to $30 million in damage during the Dec.
22 earthquake.
The building and grounds remain closed to the public.
"It is in absolutely critical condition. Another minor tremor
could bring down the main part of the mission,' Mellon said.
The groundwater bill increases federal funding for the San
Gabriel Basin groundwater cleanup project.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, who sponsored the
legislation, initially called for expanding the program's $38
million ceiling by $12.5 million. She agreed to cut the amount
after objections by the White House and Senate, aides said.
The program, which has been in existence since 1992, provides
funding to build treatment plants to remove contaminants in the
aquifer that serves about 1.1 million Southern California
residents.
Local officials maintain that the relatively recent discovery
of perchlorate, a toxin used in rocket fuel that has been linked
to thyroid problems, has made the job even bigger than expected.
-- Staff Writer Phil Drake contributed to this story. Lisa
Friedman can be reached at (202) 662-8731 or by e- mail at
lisa.friedman@langnews.com .
Copyright © 2004 Pasadena Star News
*****************************************************************
8 UCS: National Academy of Sciences Finds Political Questions Inappropriate
[Union of Concerned Scientists]
November 17, 2004
Scientists should not be asked party affiliation, voting record
Statement by Kurt Gottfried, Chairman, Union of Concerned
Scientists
NAS Report
in Global Environment
Restoring Scientific Integrity
"In a report released today on the presidential appointment
process, the National Academy of Sciences strongly stated that it
is inappropriate to ask scientists and other technical experts
their political party affiliation, voting record, or personal
positions on particular policies when considering them to serve
on federal science advisory panels.
"The report echoes the concerns voiced this year by more than
6,000 scientistsincluding many Nobel laureates, National Medal
of Science recipients, university presidents and leading medical
researchersthat nominees for science advisory panels should be
judged only on their expertise and professional qualifications.
To do otherwise undermines the integrity of scientific input into
policy decisions and can compromise public health, safety and the
environment.
"The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with the
scientists. A recent national survey found that two-thirds of the
public felt it is not acceptable to ask about party affiliation
or recent presidential voting when considering a candidate for an
advisory committee.
"Congress should move forward to strengthen and enforce rules
governing appointments to scientific advisory panels to forbid
this improper line of questioning. Now that the constraints of
the campaign season are over, the administration should follow
the NAS recommendations and move quickly to restore the stature
of the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to
assistant to the president."
To set up interviews or for UCS info, contact:
SUZANNE SHAW 617-547-5552
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 11.17.2004
*****************************************************************
9 ITAR-TASS: Govt to discuss investments, finances RAO EES Rossii
18.11.2004, 10.51
MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian government will
continue to examine investment programmes and financial plans of
subjects of natural monopolies in 2005 at its Thursday meeting,
Tass learnt from a source at the government.
While the cabinet concentrated on the operation of railway
transport last week, the functioning of the national power
industry will come under discussion. Minister of Industry and
Energy Viktor Khristenko will inform the meeting of projects of
an investment programme in the power industry as well as
financial plans of the Unified Energy Systems of Russia Power
Company (RAO EES Rossii) and the Rosenergoatom Concern.
It is planned to channel the main investments in the power
industry to build the most important energy projects: the Bureya
hydropower station, Kaliningrad heat and power station, Sochi
heat and power station, Irganskaya hydropower station,
Zelenchugskaya hydropower station and Ivanovskaya district power
station.
The nuclear power industry will channel its investments to build
the Kalininskaya and Volgodonskaya nuclear power plants. The
companies plan to use part of investments to develop the
operating power transmission systems and to ensure non-stop
operation of power systems.
All in all, the investment programme of the RAO EES Rossii
holding may rise up to 129 billion roubles in 2005 (it totaled
102.4 billion roubles this year). On the contrary, the programme
of the Rosenergoatom Concern will slide from 26.5 billion
roubles to 23.6 billion roubles. According to the source, the
drop is attributed to the fact that the concern “does not plan
to put into operation major projects in 2005”.
As for restructuring the power industry, the source noted that
the cabinet would not discuss this item at its Thursday meeting,
since a special government meeting will deal with this question
on December 2. The cabinet will discuss then a chance of
privatizing wholesale generating companies to be created under
the reform of RAO EES Rossii as well as the question on boosting
the market of free power sales.
According to the source, the market sells now eight percent of
electricity, while the maximum level is set at 15 percent. “The
sector of free trade should be boosted,” the source stressed.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
10 [NukeNet] Nuclear power play fizzles
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:34:11 -0800
Check out this editorial. The plant owners get scorched in this Editorial.
Nuclear power play fizzles
Published in the Asbury Park Press 11/17/04
An Asbury Park Press editorial
We're pleased the state League of Municipalities, which is holding its
annual convention this week in Atlantic City, had the good sense to keep a
resolution supporting license renewal for the Oyster Creek nuclear power
plant off its agenda.
While the matter is very much a statewide concern, putting up for a vote a
resolution that was drafted by plant owner AmerGen would have been beyond
offensive. AmerGen, acting in concert with the only town in a 10-mile
radius of Oyster Creek that would feel the least bit glum if the plant were
mothballed -- host Lacey -- drafted a resolution that urged the league to
formally support the continued operation of the plant after its license
expires in 2009.
"We saw the resolution as a way to educate folks and as a way to have a
debate based on the facts," said James L. Laird, AmerGen's chief flack.
Yeah, right. Decisions about whether the risks of keeping the aging nuclear
plant open outweigh the benefits should be based on a thorough airing of
all sides of the issue by key decision-makers -- not a show of hands by
municipal officials whose only familiarity with the subject is a handout
from AmerGen spinmeisters.
Rob Sargent
Senior Energy Policy Analyst
National Association of State PIRGs & affiliated organizations
44 Winter Street
Boston, MA 02108
P: 617-747-4317
F: 617-292-8057
C: 617-312-7546
rsargent@pirg.org
www.pirg.org
Arizona PIRG * CALPIRG * Environment California * CoPIRG * Environment
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11 Times Business: Power plant shutdowns hit British Energy rescue plan
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk]
November 19, 2004
By Angela Jameson
BRITISH ENERGY, the troubled nuclear group, has hit another hitch
in its mammoth restructuring after two of its power plants were
hit by unexpected shutdowns.
The nuclear group is seeking to extend its restructuring
agreement with bondholders, banks, British Nuclear Fuels and the
Government, in case it misses a January 31 deadline.
As a result the debt for equity swap that will hand ownership of
the group to the company’s creditors could be postponed,
potentially leading to a delay in the return of the shares to the
stock market.
The nuclear group gave warning yesterday that it may not be able
to meet its financial obligations and that insolvency remains a
possibility while the restructuring is uncompleted.
Shareholders, who have made big losses on their investment in the
privatised nuclear group, were expecting to see the company
relisted on the Stock Exchange in January, ahead of the
restructuring completion.
British Energy shares were delisted last month to prevent rebel
shareholders from derailing the restructuring plan. Shareholders
will get only 2.5 per cent of the company under the deal. They
had argued that rising wholesale electricity prices meant that
they should have a larger share of the company that emerges from
restructuring.
British Energy said yesterday that two units at Heysham and
Hartlepool remained shut down after a problem in October. The
power plants are not expected to be started before mid-December.
“In the light of the delay to the restart of Hartlepool and
Heysham 1, the company has decided it is prudent to seek an
extension to the present restructuring long stop date of January
31, 2005,” the company said.
An extension requires the approval of bondholders and other
creditors, including BNFL, as well as the Secretary of State. The
creditors are expected to give their approval shortly.
British Energy said it has reduced its target for nuclear output
for the financial year 2004-05 because of the plant shutdowns.
*****************************************************************
12 Xinhuanet: Brazil, Germany replace decades-old nuke agreement with new
energy pact
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-11-19 09:53:30
BRASILIA, Nov. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Brazil and Germany decided
on Thursday to replace a nuclear agreement taking effect in 1975
with an energy cooperation pact focusing on renewable energy
production.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and his German
counterpart Joschka Fischer made the announcement after a meeting
here Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this month, Germany sent an official request to
Brazil over the replacement, which was accepted by the Brazilian
government.
Amorim said his country does not need the aid of Germany to
develop nuclear energy.
"I believe the Brazilian-German agreement was important, but
nowadays the uranium-enrichment program does not depend on
foreigncooperation," said Amorim.
Brazil's uranium-enrichment plant in Rezende, Rio de Janeiro,
has remained disputable in the international community as local
authorities refused to complete international inspections of the
facilities.
Last month, environmentalist institutions complained to the
German government that Brazil seemed to use German investment and
technology to build four new nuclear plants. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
13 Japan Times: Atomic energy's second wind
Thursday, November 18, 2004
By DAVID HOWELL
LONDON -- American utility companies are returning to the idea
of building nuclear power stations. They believe they can get
approval for licenses to start doing so by 2007, and they also
believe, despite bitter past experience, that safety problems
can finally be solved and the economics can be justified.
This is bold thinking, but is it realistic? All over the world
nuclear power programs have long been in limbo for years and a
huge political resistance has developed. Although accidents have
been rare and performance generally reliable, America's Three
Mile Island incident in 1979 and, even more, the Soviet Union's
Chernobyl disaster in 1986 have left an indelible imprint of
fear that no amount of statistics showing years of safe
operation seem able eradicate.
An even deeper fear focuses on the handling of radioactive
waste. The public remains convinced that the super-toxic
material left over from nuclear electricity generation cannot be
transported, stored or disposed of safely.
In vain the nuclear industry has pointed out that the
quantities involved are minute (all the waste ever generated by
nuclear power stations so far would probably cover no more than
three football fields) and that poisonous radioactive material
can be encased in glass (vitrified) and buried for centuries
until it is harmless. But the public remains skeptical.
Then there is the cost problem. The issue that has long
frightened investors away from the nuclear power industry is the
colossal cost of eventually decommissioning a plant. It is what
made nuclear power so unattractive to financial markets in
Britain back in the 1980s when the rest of the electricity
industry was successfully privatized.
These are still formidably steep mountains to climb, so why the
revived optimism? The answer is that nuclear advocates now think
that new designs and technical innovation can overcome safety as
well as cost problems. They argue that the danger of a nuclear
reactor core being drained of coolant and overheating, as
happened at Chernobyl (and as depicted in the mythical but
chilling movie "The China Syndrome"), can be eliminated with new
designs.
They also maintain that decommissioning costs can be
drastically cut and that electricity can be generated from new
nuclear stations for about $1.70 a kilowatt-hour over the
reactor's lifetime, compared with $1.80 for coal-fired stations
and much more for oil and gas.
But much more significant than any of these semi-technical
issues are two new "drivers" that nuclear enthusiasts point to.
The first is, quite simply, that nuclear power is clean -- it
produces no carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions. Of course, the
process of constructing a nuclear power station, with its
megatons of concrete and metal, is highly energy-intensive. But
once the plant is up and running, it is goodbye to the CO2
pollution that many fear is threatening the planet.
The second big new "driver" for the cause of nuclear energy is
that oil and gas supplies are becoming less and less reliable.
There may be plenty of oil and gas left, both in discovered
reserves and in hidden, more remote areas (such as under the
Arctic ice cap). But at what cost can it be extracted and will
it keep flowing? Those are the questions.
More and more hydrocarbon energy deposits are destined to come
from regions that are very unreliable politically. How painful
will the price of a barrel of oil get to cover the vast risks of
interruption, sabotage, terrorism, blackmail, insurgency,
revolution -- not to mention natural disasters like earthquakes?
Can countries afford to rely on the boiling Middle East,
unsettled Nigeria, unpredictable Russia, troubled Venezuela,
embattled Algeria, for example, for their daily light, heat and
industrial production?
Nations and societies that are self-sufficient in oil can
perhaps sleep a little easier in face of all these dangers. But
America has long ceased to be one of these. Since claiming
self-reliance in energy 40 years ago, it has allowed itself,
almost absentmindedly, to drift into the hair-raising position
of having to import 73 percent of its daily oil needs from the
outside world.
Of course, what goes for America goes for other countries, too,
but at least some of them are getting prepared. Japan has made
strides toward using less oil and is thinking, however
reluctantly, about expanding nuclear power further.
Finland, always a center of green issue concerns, has bitten
the bullet and is building six new, state-of-the-art, nuclear
stations. Even Germany is overcoming its long-held hesitations.
Admittedly the wider dangers of nuclear power in an age of
terrorism cannot be overlooked. The tightest possible
international monitoring of all nuclear activity is essential if
nuclear materials are not to slip into irresponsible hands.
But the plain truth of the world's energy future is now written
in letters a mile high: Burning fossil fuels has become both a
high risk and threat to the planet.
Renewable energy can help at the margin, but even giant wind
farms have a big environmental downside. Conservation and solar
panels can do their part, especially in the home, but the
massive power that industry and 21st-century life need will have
to come increasingly from safe nuclear energy. The experts know
this as do the technicians, but dare the politicians break the
news to a still nervous public, or will they wait until the
lights go out, industry seizes up and the heating fails -- by
which time it will be too late to take remedial action.
As President George W. Bush settles into his third term, his
advisers are rightly warning him that America needs a radically
new energy policy. Could this be the time for some real
leadership?
David Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former
chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a
member of the House of Lords.
The Japan Times: Nov. 18, 2004
*****************************************************************
14 Korea Times: KEDO Chief Comes to Seoul
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
Charles Kartman, the U.S. representative to the Korean Peninsula
Energy Development Organization (KEDO), flew into Seoul via
Beijing on Thursday after completing his four-day visit to North
Korea.
He met with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and South
Korean ambassador to KEDO Chang Sun-sup later that day.
While in Beijing, Kartman told reporters he had a ``good
talk¡¯¡¯ with the Northern officials and that it has not yet been
decided whether KEDO¡¯s project to build two pressurized
light-water reactor (LWR) units in the Stalinist country will be
suspended another year.
Despite positive comments from the head of KEDO, the prospect for
the project remains gloomy due to the current stall over the
six-way talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program and the mounting
pressure from the U.S., one of the key financiers for the
project, to pull the plug.
Other member countries of KEDO, such as South Korea, Japan and
the European Union, have sought to keep the project afloat for
one more year in the hope that the nuclear issues will be
resolved through negotiations with Pyongyang in the course.
KEDO is a U.S.-led international consortium established in 1995
following the Agreed Framework between the U.S. and the North in
1994, with the goal of building two LWRs in Kumho on the eastern
coast of North Korea in return for the freeze and ultimate
disarmament of the North¡¯s nuclear programs. The board of the
organization decided to suspend the construction of the reactors
in November last year as a result of the second nuclear crisis in
October 2002.
saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr 11-18-2004 17:36
*****************************************************************
15 St. Petersburg Times: New Reactor Bound for Plant in India
#1022, Friday, November 19, 2004
By Irina Titova
STAFF WRITER St. Petersburg's Izhorskiye Zavody on Thursday
shipped a new nuclear reactor body that will be the first power
unit of India's Kudankulam nuclear power plant to the city's sea
port.
Izhorskiye Zavody, which are part of United Machinery Plants
(OMZ) holding, signed a contract with India for the construction
of two nuclear reactor bodies for Kudankulam's station in 2002.
"We were so sure of our partners that we started to produce the
first reactor bodies four months before the official contract was
signed," said Yevgeny Sergeyev, general director of Izhorskiye
Zavody, said at a ceremony sending off the reactor.
Sergeyev said the reactor was completed six months before
deadline.
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which is under construction
in the state of Tamilnadu, will supply electricity to four
southern Indian states. Russian and Indian specialists are
building the plant.
Construction started in 2002 under an agreement signed by the
Soviet government and India in 1988. The first reactor is to
start producing in 2007, the second in 2008. The contract
includes the shipment of 21,000 tons of equipment for the station
for almost $300 million.
The second reactor body is to be finished next year.
Apart from OMZ, several other Russian enterprises are making
equipment for the Kundankulam plant. The city's Electrosila plant
of the Power Machines Company (PMC) is completing comprehensive
tests on a 1,000 megawatt turbo generator for the station.
The water-cooled reactor is one of the most modern reactors in
Russia and has a good reputation in Russia and abroad, Izhorskiye
Zavody's press service said.
However, Vladimir Chuprov, coordinator of Greenpeace's energy
campaign in Moscow, said such reactors are not completely safe.
Similar reactors installed at the Bolokovo Nuclear Power Station
in the Saratov region recently had a number of problems, he said.
Chuprov said European countries and the United States have not
been building any new nuclear power stations although Finland is
considering constructing one.
Many countries do not build new nuclear stations because they do
not find them economically profitable and worry that they don't
have space to bury nuclear waste, he added.
"The countries that are interested in new nuclear power stations
are Brazil, India and China," Chuprov said.
In 2001 and 2002 Izhorskiye Zavody shipped similar reactors for
Chinese nuclear power station Tyanvan, he added.
Russia should pay more attention to developing alternative
energy production because it is much safer, can be more
economically profitable, and because the Earth will run out of
uranium in less than 100 years, Chuprov said.
It is not possible to use spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power
stations for nuclear weapons unless it is refined at a special
plant, but spent nuclear fuel can be used for harmful actions, he
added. More news and business stories: Boeing Flies $2.5 Billion
Into Russia's Lap
[Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 1993-2004
*****************************************************************
16 The News-Herald: Utility taking NRC warnings seriously
Thursday 18 November, 2004
It's the little things. They can really add up.
That seems to be the gist of the complaints the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission has with a series of recent problems at the
Perry Nuclear Power Plant.
Seven executives of First Energy Corp. met with representatives
of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week at the Renaissance
Quail Hollow Resort in Concord Township to probe into the recent
incidents that got the attention of the NRC.
The numerous problems at the plant caused the NRC to place it
under its highest level of scrutiny while still being allowed to
operate. Only one other nuclear plant in the country, Point Beach
in Wisconsin, has that dubious distinction.
Although a spokesman for the NRC, Viktoria Mitlyng, said the
federal regulatory representatives were "in a listening mode" and
planned to form no conclusions following the meeting, she made it
clear that it was not any single incident that caught the
agency's attention, it was several small ones.
The incidents were classified as "white" by the NRC, which
signifies a low-level of safety significance. Green, white,
yellow and red are the progressive levels indicating relative
safety threats.
Mitlyng underscored her "little things" observation when she said
the three issues that got the NRC's attention weren't problematic
in themselves, but the fact that there were three merited the
agency's concern.
That should be all the warning that First Energy officials should
need - avoid the small problems. Not only will attention to
details prevent larger problems, it will also keep the Perry
Plant off the NRC's radar screen.
The First Energy representatives, for their part, didn't dodge
the issue or offer excuses. They owned up to the mistakes - some
involving repeated failures in the same pump system - and pledged
a conscientious effort to do better.
"We're not happy with the plant's performance, either," said Todd
Schneider, a spokesman for the company. "We knew it could do
better, and we're committed to making sure it will do better."
One of the plans for upgrading safety procedures, Schneider said,
is a recently implemented fleet management style that will give
the company better supervision over three separate plants -
Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania, Davis-Besse near Toledo and Perry.
Oversight over all three plants provides an opportunity to
recognize minor problems to ensure they don't escalate, he said.
Mitlyng said the Perry plant will be given the winter months to
implement its new policies before scheduling a visitation by 15
inspectors in the spring. That will give First Energy plenty of
time to address any potential problems and bring the Perry plant
up to the standards that are expected by the government, the
company and the community.
©The News-Herald 2004
*****************************************************************
17 TheDay.com: Millstone Tax Case Turns On Definition Of alteration'
Thursday, Nov 18, 2004
Dominion argues air pollution devices deserved tax credit
By PATRICIA DADDONA Day Staff Writer, Waterford Published on
11/18/2004
New Britain Attorneys for Dominion, the owner of Millstone
Power Station in Waterford, argued with town lawyers Wednesday in
New Britain Superior Court over tax credits for air pollution
control devices at the Millstone 3 reactor.
At stake is an estimated $3 million a year in tax revenue for
the town or, conversely, in tax credits for the company.
The devices monitor and manage steam and radiological emissions
at the reactor using mechanical and chemical systems for plant
ventilation, leak-detection and other functions. Under state law,
the Department of Environmental Protection requires business
taxpayers to certify whether there have been any alterations to
such equipment before granting or renewing tax exemptions for air
pollution control.
Wednesday's court session dealt with whether the devices have
been altered and whether they still qualify for tax exemptions
first issued in 1994.
In the first half of what is expected to be a two-part appeal
before Judge Arnold W. Aronson, Dominion attorney Charles D. Ray
of the Hartford firm McCarter &English argued that the town
assessor erred in failing to credit Dominion three years ago for
the devices, which had been certified as tax exempt since 1994.
The town's attorneys, Daniel E. Casagrande of the Danbury firm
of Pinney Payne, P.C., and Anthony Roisman of NLS in Lyme, N.H.,
countered Wednesday that Town Assessor Michael Bekech correctly
applied the law when denying tax credits. The law, they said, is
clear and unambiguous.
Filed in 261 separate counts in 2001, Dominion's tax appeal
challenges the town's property tax, which is based on an
appraised value of Millstone of slightly less than $1.2 billion.
The company states that the three nuclear reactors and associated
buildings were really worth only $854 million.
Dominion bought the power station with three plants, two of them
operational, for $1.3 billion, less than half the $3 billion or
more the property was worth before deregulation introduced
competition into the nuclear marketplace.
The judge will rule on the validity of air pollution control
exemptions, which account for 83 counts of the appeal, after
receiving briefs and final oral arguments in January. In
February, attorneys will argue the merits of their appraisers'
views.
The judge's ruling on the tax exemptions alone could affect as
much as $2 million a year in payments for Dominion, said John R.
Malin, another Dominion attorney from McCarter &English.
It was not until Judge Aronson was considering whether to stop
hearing expert witnesses, and rely on written briefs from each
side, that the court heard testimony on what alterations might
have been made to the pollution devices.
Dominion called the town assessor, Bekech, to the stand in an
effort to show he could have investigated more before denying
Dominion's exemptions.
Bekech testified that before he denied the exemptions,
Dominion's tax supervisor claimed, no alterations ... have
materially changed since 1994. A Dominion engineer added that
the function and form of the equipment did not change. Those
answers did not satisfy him, he said.
The statute, I believe, is very clear, he said. It says,
altered in any manner.'
We disagree that any change is an alteration, said Ray,
representing Dominion. If you go down that road it is going to
end up being a silly result, because that can't be what the
legislature intended ... The essential structures certified in
1994 were not changed as a result of whatever little changes were
made.
Aronson allowed testimony from Dominion's second and only other
witness, nuclear mechanical engineer David Miller of Sargent
&Lundy, who has 28 years experience in the nuclear industry. The
firm is an engineering and business consultant for the electric
power industry.
Miller explained the findings of a report he compiled for
Dominion. Of 10,350 design changes at the reactor, 1,115 were
associated with air pollution control, and of those, 1,086 were
minor, he said. Of the 29 significant changes, only two might
have the potential to affect a system's function, he said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, not the DEP, would regulate
such changes, Miller said.
The change was minor, Miller wrote repeatedly when describing
modifications to seven systems, and did not alter the air
pollution control function; therefore this change was not
considered a change to the tax exemption certificate already on
file.
In other words, he said, the change did not necessitate a change
in the license or design amendment to the plant through the NRC.
The word alteration is just not used in the power business, he
added, so he had to analyze the changes closely. He explained
several of them, translating highly technical terms into words
the average person could understand.
Under cross-examination, Roisman, the town's attorney, elicited
testimony from Miller establishing that even re-painting a piece
of air pollution control equipment could actually be a major
undertaking, and involved safety analysis, temperature and other
standards.
For instance, paint that peeled and chipped could block a pump,
which could conceivably contribute to an accident, and so is not
trivial, Roisman said. Miller agreed.
Aronson asked attorneys to file briefs on Jan. 7. The trial
could resume in February.
p.daddona@theday.com
Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | ©
1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
18 Hindu News: BARC's refurbished reactor attains full power operation
Friday, November 19, 2004 : 0300 Hrs
[http://www.hindu.com/folio/]
Mumbai, Nov 19. (PTI):
Bhabha Atomic Research Center's (BARC) refurbished research
reactor, CIRUS, attained its full power operation of 40 MW
(thermal) on November 10, 2004.
The cost of refurbishment was just about five per cent of the
cost to build a similar new reactor and the refurbishing outage
was utilized to upgrade several safety features of the reactor,
in line with current safety standards, a BARC release said here
on Thursday.
Also, a desalination unit of 30,000 liters per day capacity was
integrated with the reactor towards demonstration of utilization
of waste heat from nuclear reactors, the release added.
Supply of radioisotopes from CIRUS will augment the production
from `Dhruva' reactor to meet the growing requirement of
radioisotopes in the country for various industrial, medical and
agricultural applications, it said.
After refurbishment, CIRUS has now got a new lease of life of at
least 15 years and its continued contribution in meeting the
societal needs.
Director of the BARC, Dr S Banerjee has complemented all the
operating personnel, scientists and engineers who have developed
ingenious techniques for refurbishment and others who are
responsible for this achievement, the release added.
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of
*****************************************************************
19 NRC: Carolina Power & Light Company; Notice of Receipt of Application
FR Doc 04-25587
[Federal Register: November 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 222)]
[Notices] [Page 67611] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18no04-128]
for Renewal of Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Units 1 and 2
Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-71 and DPR-62 for an
Additional 20-Year Period The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC or Commission) has received an application, dated October
18, 2004, from the Carolina Power & Light Company, now doing
business as Progress Energy Carolinas, Inc., filed pursuant to
Section 104b of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and 10
CFR part 54, to renew Operating License Nos.
DPR-71 and DPR-62 for the Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Units 1
and 2. Renewal of the licenses would authorize the applicant to
operate the facility for an additional 20-year period beyond the
period specified in the respective current operating licenses.
The current operating licenses for the Brunswick Steam Electric
Plant, Units 1 and 2, expire on September 8, 2016, and December
27, 2014, respectively. The Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Units
1 and 2, are boiling water reactors designed by General Electric
Corporation, and are located in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
The acceptability of the tendered application for docketing, and
other matters including an opportunity to request for a hearing,
will be addressed in a subsequent Federal Register notice.
Copies of the application are available for public inspection at
the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville,
Maryland, or electronically from the Publicly Available Records
(PARS) component of the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML043060391. The
ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room is accessible from the NRC
Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
.
(Note: Public access to ADAMS has been temporarily suspended so
that security reviews of publicly available documents may be
performed and potentially sensitive information removed.
Please check the NRC's Web site for updates on the resumption of
ADAMS access.) In addition, the application is available on the
NRC's Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/lice
nsing/renewal/applications.html] while the application is under
review. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should
contact the NRC's PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209,
301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . The
staff has also verified that a copy of the license renewal
application for the Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Units 1 and
2, has been provided to the North Carolina University at
Wilmington, William Randall Library, 601 South College Road,
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of November 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
P.T. Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental
Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-25587 Filed 11-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
20 NRC: Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear
FR Doc 04-25588
[Federal Register: November 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 222)]
[Notices] [Page 67612-67613] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18no04-129] [[Page
67612]]
Operations, Inc.; Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact
Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is
considering issuance of an exemption from 10 CFR Part 50.54(o)
and 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix J, for Facility Operating License
No. DPR-28, issued to Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy or the licensee) for
operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VYNPS),
located in Vernon, Vermont.
Therefore, as required by 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this
environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact.
Environmental Assessment Identification of the Proposed Action
The proposed action would exempt Entergy from requirements to
include main steam isolation valve (MSIV) leakage in (a) the
overall integrated leakage rate test measurement required by
Section III.A of Appendix J, Option B, and (b) the sum of local
leak rate test measurements required by Section III.B of Appendix
J, Option B. The proposed action is in accordance with the
licensee's application dated July 31, 2003, as supplemented by
letters dated October 10, November 7 (2 letters), November 20,
December 11 (2 letters), and December 30, 2003, and February 10,
February 18, February 25, March 17, May 12, and July 20, 2004,
for exemption from certain requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(o) and 10
CFR Part 50, Appendix J. The Need for the Proposed Action Section
50.54(o) of 10 CFR Part 50 requires that primary reactor
containments for water cooled power reactors be subject to the
requirements of Appendix J to 10 CFR Part 50. Appendix J
specifies the leakage test requirements, schedules, and
acceptance criteria for tests of the leak tight integrity of the
primary reactor containment and systems and components which
penetrate the containment. Option B, Section III.A requires that
the overall integrated leak rate must not exceed the allowable
leakage (La) with margin, as specified in the Technical
Specifications (TSs). The overall integrated leak rate, as
specified in the 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix J definitions, includes
the contribution from MSIV leakage. By letter dated July 31,
2003, the licensee has requested an exemption from Option B,
Section III.A, requirements to permit exclusion of MSIV leakage
from the overall integrated leak rate test measurement. Option B,
Section III.B of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix J requires that the sum
of the leakage rates of Type B and Type C local leak rate tests
be less than the performance criterion (La) with margin, as
specified in the TSs. The licensee's July 31, 2003, letter also
requests an exemption from this requirement, to permit exclusion
of the MSIV contribution to the sum of the Type B and Type C
tests.
The above-cited requirements of Appendix J require that MSIV
leakage measurements be grouped with the leakage measurements of
other containment penetrations when containment leakage tests are
performed. These requirements are inconsistent with the design of
the VYNPS and the analytical models used to calculate the
radiological consequences of design basis accidents. At VYNPS,
and similar facilities, the leakage from primary containment
penetrations, under accident conditions, is collected and treated
by the secondary containment system, or would bypass the
secondary containment. However, the leakage from MSIVs is
collected and treated via an Alternative Leakage Treatment (ALT)
path having different mitigation characteristics. In performing
accident analyses, it is appropriate to group various leakage
effluents according to the treatment they receive before being
released to the environment, i.e., bypass leakage is grouped,
leakage into secondary containment is grouped, and ALT leakage is
grouped, with specific limits for each group defined in the TSs.
The proposed exemption would permit ALT path leakage to be
independently grouped with its unique leakage limits.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The NRC has
completed its safety evaluation of the proposed action and
concludes that the calculated radiological consequences remain
within the criteria of 10 CFR 50.67. The details of the staff's
safety evaluation will be provided in the exemption that will be
issued as part of the letter to the licensee approving the
exemption to the regulation.
The proposed action will not significantly increase the
probability or consequences of accidents. No changes are being
made in the types of effluents that may be released off site.
There is no significant increase in occupational or public
radiation exposure.
Therefore, there are no significant radiological environmental
impacts associated with the proposed action.
With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed
action does not have a potential to affect any historical sites.
It does not affect non-radiological plant effluents and has no
other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant
non- radiological impacts associated with the proposed action.
Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no action''
alternative). Denial of the application would result in no change
in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of
the proposed action and the alternative action are similar.
Alternative Use of Resources This action does not involve the use
of any resources than those previously considered in the Final
Environmental Statement dated July 1972 for VYNPS.
Agencies and Persons Consulted On May 13, 2004, the NRC staff
consulted with the Vermont State official, Mr. William K. Sherman
of the Vermont Department of Public Service, regarding the
environmental impact of the proposed action. The State official
had no comments on the environmental impact of the proposed
exemption, but provided comments on the associated Technical
Specification changes discussed in the July 31, 2003,
application. These comments will be addressed in the Safety
Evaluation documenting the staff's review of that proposed
change.
Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the
environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed
action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the
human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to
prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed
action.
For further details with respect to this action, see the
licensee's letter dated July 31, 2003, as supplemented by letters
dated October 10, November 7 (2 letters), November 20, December
11 (2
[[Page 67613]] letters), and December 30, 2003, and February 10,
February 18, February 25, March 17, May 12, and July 20, 2004.
Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
Publically available records will be accessible electronically
from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should
contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at
1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to
pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . (Note: Public access to ADAMS has
been temporarily suspended so that security reviews of publicly
available documents may be performed and potentially sensitive
information removed.
Please check the NRC Web site for updates on the resumption of
ADAMS access.) Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of
November, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Richard B. Ennis, Senior Project Manager, VY Section, Project
Directorate I, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-25588 Filed 11-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
21 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
FR Doc 04-25589
[Federal Register: November 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 222)]
[Notices] [Page 67613] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18no04-130]
of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Ponce School
of Medicine's Facility in Ponce, PR AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Orysia Masnyk Bailey, Materials
Security & Industrial Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials
Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania, 19406, telephone (404) 562-4739, fax (404)
562-4955; or by e-mail: omm@nrc.gov [omm@nrc.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is issuing a license amendment to the Ponce
School of Medicine for Materials License No. 52- 19547-01, to
authorize release of its facility in Ponce, Puerto Rico for
unrestricted use. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment
(EA) in support of this action in accordance with the
requirements of 10 CFR part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has
concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is
appropriate. The amendment will be issued following the
publication of this Notice.
II. EA Summary The purpose of the action is to authorize the
release of the licensee's Ponce, Puerto Rico facility for
unrestricted use. The Ponce School of Medicine was authorized by
the NRC from October 15, 1981 to use radioactive materials for
research and development purposes at the site. On February 4,
2003, the Ponce School of Medicine requested that the NRC release
the facility for unrestricted use. The Ponce School of Medicine
has conducted surveys of the facility and provided information to
the NRC to demonstrate that the site meets the license
termination criteria in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20 for
unrestricted release.
The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license
amendment. The facility was remediated and surveyed prior to the
licensee requesting the license amendment. The NRC staff has
reviewed the information and final status survey submitted by the
Ponce School of Medicine. Based on its reviews, the staff has
determined that there are no additional remediation activities
necessary to complete the proposed action. Therefore, the staff
considered the impact of the residual radioactivity at the
facility and concluded that since the residual radioactivity
meets the requirements in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20, a Finding
of No Significant Impact is appropriate.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has prepared the
EA (summarized above) in support of the license amendment to
release the facility for unrestricted use.
The NRC staff has evaluated the Ponce School of Medicine's
request and the results of the survey and has concluded that the
completed action complies with the criteria in subpart E of 10
CFR part 20. The staff has found that the environmental impacts
from the action are bounded by the impacts evaluated by
NUREG-1496, Volumes 1-3, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement
in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License
Termination of NRC-Licensed Facilities'' (ML042310492,
ML042320379, and ML042330385). On the basis of the EA, the NRC
has concluded that the environmental impacts from the action are
expected to be insignificant and has determined not to prepare an
environmental impact statement for the action.
IV. Further Information Documents related to this action,
including the application for the license amendment and
supporting documentation, are available electronically in the
NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS),
which provides text and image files of NRC's documents. The ADAMS
accession numbers for the documents related to this Notice are:
The Environmental Assessment (ML042720062), and Letter dated
February 4, 2003 transmitting the Final Status Survey Report
(ML030430358). On October 25, 2004, the NRC terminated public
access to ADAMS and initiated an additional security review of
publicly available documents to ensure that potentially sensitive
information is removed from the ADAMS database accessible through
the NRC's web site. Interested members of the public may obtain
copies of the referenced documents for review and/or copying by
contacting the Public Document Room pending resumption of public
access to ADAMS. The NRC Public Documents Room is located at NRC
Headquarters in Rockville, MD, and can be contacted at (800)
397-4209, (301) 415-4737 or by e-mail at
pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . These documents may be viewed
electronically at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), O 1 F21,
One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD,
20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a
fee. The PDR is open from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except on Federal holidays.
Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 10th day of November,
2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John D. Kinneman, Chief, Materials Security & Industrial Branch,
Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I.
[FR Doc. 04-25589 Filed 11-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
22 [du-list] UPI: medical evacuations
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:35:13 -0800
The following article raises several points.
1. The changing of the rules in mid-game, so to speak, as the definition of
a casualty given by the Pentagon in December (see Mark Benjamin's other
articles on this) is set aside to give way to one wherein "most medical
evacuations did not count" suggests that somebody has something to hide.
2. Benjamin has had to dig deep to get these numbers, and it is obvious that
the Pentagon does not want them readily available to the public. Daniel
Zwerdling, from National Public Radio, last December encountered similar
difficulties in trying to get an authoritative figure. In the end, the only
one he could come up with was some 7,000 evacuations from Iraq as of the end
of 2003, and that was for the Army only, for the other branches of the armed
services told him that they had no figures.
3. To merit a medical evacuation, a service member must ordinarily be ill
enough to be considered "lost to the organization".
5. The number of 5,375 evacuations owing to mental problems is significant
given the military's tendency to classify people with "Gulf War syndrome" as
suffering from post-traumatic stress.
5. The bone problems, diarrhea and persistent fever could all well be
symptoms of radiation poisoning. The "muscle strain, back pain, kidney
stones" would not per se be such symptoms, but they could represent mistaken
diagnoses. Thus, the kidney pain, for example, would be attributed to kidney
stones, while actually being caused by uranium contamination.
6. The persistent silence of the Pentagon on a matter as serious as the
health of its own troops, and its willingness to play with the figures
bespeak a profound malaise the cause of which is obviously a source of great
concern. As great a cause of concern is equally obviously the reaction of
the public should the problem be made known.
Robet James Parsons
_______________________________________________________________________________
Press Reports on U.S. Casualties: About 17,000 Short, UPI Says
By Mark Benjamin, UPI
Published: September 15, 2004
NEW YORK (UPI) Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq
and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly
cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press
International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to the
Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted.
The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq.
The military has evacuated 16,765 individual service members from Iraq and
Afghanistan for injuries and ailments not directly related to combat,
according to the U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for the
medical evacuations. Most are from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Pentagon's public casualty reports, available at www.defenselink.mil,
list only service members who died or were wounded in action. The Pentagon's
own definition of a war casualty provided to UPI in December describes a
casualty as, "Any person who is lost to the organization by having been
declared dead, duty status/whereabouts unknown, missing, ill, or injured."
The casualty reports do list soldiers who died in non-combat-related
incidents or died from illness. But service members injured or ailing from
the same non-combat causes (the majority that appear to be "lost to the
organization")are not reflected in those Pentagon reports.
In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon gave a different definition that
included casualty descriptions by severity and type and said most medical
evacuations did not count. "The great majority of service members medically
evacuated from Operation Iraqi Freedom are not casualties, by either
Department of Defense definitions or the common understanding of the average
newspaper reader."
It cited such ailments as as non-casualty evacuations. "Casualty reports
released to the public are generally confined to fatalities and those
wounded in action," the statement said.
A veterans' advocate said the Pentagon should make a full reporting of the
casualties, including non-combat ailments and injuries. "They are still
casualties of war," said Mike Schlee, director of the National Security and
Foreign Relations Division at the American Legion. "I think we have to have
an honest disclosure of what the short- and long-term casualties of any
conflict are."
A spokesman for the transportation command said that without orders from
U.S. Central Command, his unit would not separate the medical evacuation
data to show how many came from Iraq and Afghanistan. "We stay in our lane,"
said Lt. Col. Scott Ross. But most are clearly from Operation Iraqi Freedom
where several times as many troops are deployed as in Afghanistan.
Among veterans from Iraq seeking help from the VA, 5,375 have been diagnosed
with a mental problem, making it the third-leading diagnosis after bone
problems and digestive problems. Among the mental problems were 800 soldiers
who became psychotic.
A military study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July
showed that 16 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq might suffer major
depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Around 11
percent of soldiers returning from Afghanistan may have the same problems,
according to that study.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Benjamin, UPI
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23 [du-list] bosnians say NATO bombs brought angel of death
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:35:07 -0800
> > WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 526, November 15, 2004
> >
> > INVESTIGATION:
> >
> > BOSNIANS SAY NATO BOMBS BROUGHT "ANGEL OF DEATH"
> > Many Bosnians blame high cancer rates on NATO's use of depleted
> > uranium munitions in 1995, but scientists remain divided over the
> > alleged link.
> > By Ekrem Tinjak, Faruk Boric and Hugh Griffiths in Han Pijesak and
> > Sarajevo
> >
> >
> > ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ***************
> >
> > AFGHAN PRESS MONITOR. Available on the web or through subscription,
> > please go to: http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?afghan_apm_index.html
> >
> > IWPR AFRICA REPORTS. For IWPR's pilot issue of Africa Reports go
to:
> > http://www.iwpr.net/africa_index1.html
> >
> > NEW VACANCIES. Visit
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?top_vacancies.html
> > for more information.
> >
> > FREE SUBSCRIPTION. Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full
range
> > of electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/sub_form.html
> >
> > ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ***************
> >
> > INVESTIGATION:
> >
> > BOSNIANS SAY NATO BOMBS BROUGHT "ANGEL OF DEATH"
> >
> > Many Bosnians blame high cancer rates on NATO's use of depleted
> > uranium munitions in 1995, but scientists remain divided over the
> > alleged link.
> >
> > By Ekrem Tinjak, Faruk Boric and Hugh Griffiths in Han Pijesak and
> > Sarajevo
> >
> > In the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici, the local imam, Hazim Effendi
Emso,
> > looks out over an overflowing cemetery. The field in the middle of
this
> > grimy industrial suburb of Sarajevo is dotted with new graves.
> >
> > "It is only recently that the number of funerals has increased.
> > Almost every day, a funeral," he said sadly.
> >
> > The birth and death dates etched onto recent gravestones show a
number
> > of those buried here died in middle age. Many are from the Hadzici
> > district of Grivici.
> >
> > "A large number of the people from Grivici died of cancer but it
was
> > only this year that we started keeping records on deceased people,"
> > the Imam continued.
> >
> > In the remote Romanija mountains, 64 kilometres north of Grivici,
some
> > 1,000 metres above sea level, a different local religious leader
faces
> > the same problem.
> >
> > Branko, a Serb Orthodox cleric in Han Pijesak, in Republika Srpska,
RS,
> > points to a map on the wall of the head teacher's office.
> >
> > "This is the village of Japaga. Around 100 people live here but in
1996
> > many people died from cancer," he told IWPR.
> >
> > "The first was the army base cook, Mrs Ljeposava, who died aged 45,
> > as did Mrs Todic.
> > Then it was Budimir Bojat, who died aged 60, and Goran Basteh who
died
> > at 45, all from cancer."
> >
> > The priest turned from the map to papers on the table. "Every year
in
> > Japaga at least one young man dies of cancer," he continued. "This
> > is not normal in such a small village."
> >
> > At first glance, the communities of Hadzici and Han Pijesak appear
very
> > different. One is a mainly Muslim settlement in an industrial zone
while
> > the other is a series of Serb mountain villages in one of Europe's
> > last unspoilt wildernesses.
> >
> > But residents of both communities say they suffer from an
abnormally
> > high cancer rate and they believe it is the result of Depleted
Uranium,
> > DU, munitions, which were used during NATO's September 1995
airstrikes
> > on Bosnia.
> >
> > DEPLETED URANIUM - A LEGACY OF BOSNIAN WAR
> >
> > The United Nations describes DU as a by-product of the process used
to
> > enrich natural uranium ore for use in nuclear reactors and weapons.
It
> > is an "unstable, radioactive heavy metal" that emits ionizing
> > radiation of three types - alpha, beta and gamma.
> >
> > The United States, together with other NATO member states, uses DU
in
> > armour-piercing shells for both tanks and planes.
> >
> > NATO aircraft used DU against the Bosnian Serb army in August and
> > September 1995 to bring a quick end to the vicious three-year
conflict
> > in the former Yugoslav republic.
> >
> > "The aim was to disrupt the Bosnian Serb forces' command and
> > control structure and degrade their fighting capabilities," a NATO
> > source in Sarajevo said. "We were not trying to destroy the army."
> >
> > According to NATO, from September 5-11, 1995, their planes fired
5,800
> > DU shells in the vicinity of Han Pijesak and Hadzici. More than 90
per
> > cent of all such ammunition fired in Bosnia during the airstrikes
fell
> > in just these two locations.
> >
> > NATO states a total of 2,400 DU rounds were directed against at the
Han
> > Pijesak army base, next to the village of Japaga. A further 1,500
were
> > fired at the Hadzici tank repair facility, close to Grivici.
> >
> > Scientists of the UN Environmental Programme, UNEP, discovered DU
> > contamination in air, water and ground samples taken from Hadzici
and
> > Han Pijesak in October 2002.
> >
> > "We found DU ammunition on the ground and we found DU dust in
> > buildings that were being turned into shops in Hadzici," Pekko
> > Haavisto, chief of the UNEP mission, told IWPR.
> >
> > "In Hadzici we also found two wells that had small amounts of DU in
> > the water, eight years after the conflict.
> >
> > "At Han Pijesak army base, we found DU dust in buildings, tanks and
> > other equipment and we were concerned that conscripts using this
> > equipment might be affected."
> >
> > However, UNEP did not agree that its findings had confirmed Bosnian
> > fears that local high rates of ill health were linked to the NATO
> > bombing campaign.
> >
> > "The extremely low exposure identified in the mission indicates it
is
> > highly unlikely that
> > DU could be associated with any of the reported health effects,"
said
> > a report by the UN body in 2003.
> >
> > But locals in Han Pijesak and Hadzici do not agree with this
> > conclusion. They insist that
> > DU contamination must be responsible for what they say are
abnormally
> > high rates of cancer.
> >
> > NO ONE TAKES UP DECONTAMINATION MONEY
> >
> > Although the UNEP recommended in its report that buildings and
ground
> > affected by DU should be decontaminated, an initial investigation
by
> > IWPR showed that little or nothing was happening.
> >
> > When IWPR visited the RS Han Pijesak army base, targeted years
before
> > by NATO, we found a destroyed T62 tank still rusting close to the
> > perimeter fence. The sentries who stopped us from going any further
said
> > as far as they knew, the sites affected by DU munitions had not
been
> > decontaminated.
> >
> > "We walk across that ground often and nobody has ever warned us of
the
> > dangers," one sentry added worriedly.
> >
> > In the Federation, the complaints are similar. "We moved back in
> > 1997, two years after the bombing," Suljo Drina, of Grivici, said.
> > "But the ground was never decontaminated. Now my father has throat
> > cancer."
> >
> > In 2002, the Federation government allocated 138,000 Bosnian
> > convertible marks to decontaminate the Hadzici sites, and the
Sarajevo
> > canton authorities were asked to contribute an additional 123,000
> > marks, but nothing has yet been done.
> >
> > The money, it appears, never reached its intended beneficiaries.
"We
> > just don't have the
> > money," Mustafa Kovac, head of civil defence headquarters of
Sarajevo
> > canton, added.
> >
> > "We need equipment to measure radiation, equipment to protect our
> > staff and we need to provide training for them - but there are no
> > funds."
> >
> > Pekko Haavisto, of UNEP, told IWPR the European Union had offered
to
> > fund the clean-up process but the money had not been taken up
locally.
> >
> > "The UNEP also told authorities in the Republika Srpska and the
> > Federation at a training seminar that we could offer on-site
training
> > during any decontamination process," he said, "but nobody came
> > forward with a request."
> >
> > INFORMATION BLACK HOLE FUELS PUBLIC FEARS
> >
> > Bosnian doctors say a lack of publicised research into the health
> > effects of DU has created a climate of distrust.
> >
> > "What confuses me is that the UNEP report said radiation levels in
> > the contaminated areas in Bosnia were harmless," Dr Zehra
Dizdarevic,
> > Sarajevo's health minister, told IWPR.
> >
> > "But on the other hand there were 24 recommendations in the same
> > report about how the area could be protected from contamination and
> > cleaned up.
> >
> > "It is difficult to establish whether somebody is suffering from
> > cancer because they live near a still-contaminated area. With no
> > research, nobody can deny this claim, either.
> >
> > "The UNEP report said that more scientific work was needed and that
all
> > health claims should be investigated. Yet this has not happened."
> >
> > Dr Lejla Saracevic, director of the Sarajevo radiology institute,
> > agrees that lack of reliable information is a serious problem.
"There
> > has not been any serious research on this issue," she said.
> >
> > "Although the Federation government has set up an expert working
> > group, of which I am a member, there is a lack of funding and
general
> > interest, which means nothing has been done."
> >
> > RS doctors largely share these concerns about a lack of
information.
> > "While there has been considerable increase into cancer-related
> > disease in Han Pijesak since the war, without research as a part of
a
> > serious investigation, I cannot say that this is due to DU," said
Dr
> > Ljuboje Sapic, a lung disease specialist at the health centre in
Han
> > Pijesak.
> >
> > "The little research that has been done on DU is still based on
> > assumption and conjecture," Sapic added. "We need statistics and
> > hard facts."
> >
> > In fact, all Bosnian health officials interviewed by IWPR said the
lack
> > of statistical data was a major obstacle in establishing cancer
> > mortality rates in the areas affected by NATO bombing. The dearth
of
> > such statistics means it is difficult to track the rate of the
alleged
> > increase in cancer during the post-war period.
> >
> > "I can tell you we have had an increase in the number of cancer
> > patients but we cannot confirm or deny a link to depleted uranium,"
> > said Dr Bozidar Djokic, director of the health centre in Han
Pijesak.
> > "We have no statistics with which to make a comparison."
> >
> > Colleagues in the Federation echo this. "When we say that there is
an
> > increase of sick people, it does not mean anything," said Dr
> > Saracevic. "How can we quantify an increase, when we do not know
> > exactly how many sick people there are now, compared to last year,
or
> > the preceding years?
> >
> > "We also know the people who lived in Hadzici during the
bombardment
> > are now living in the Serb entity. They should be medically
examined
> > too, if we are to get to the bottom of this."
> >
> > After the 1995 Dayton peace agreement awarded Hadzici to the
> > Federation, most Serbs from there were obliged to resettle in RS.
Many
> > now live in the small town of Bratunac, in eastern Bosnia.
> >
> > IWPR travelled to Bratunac. Although we could find no official
> > statistical data to confirm an increase in cancer rates there,
local
> > doctors produced much anecdotal evidence.
> >
> > According to Dr Svetlana Jovanovic, of Bratunac's health centre,
> > since 1996 approximately 650 of the 7,000-odd people who left
Hadzici
> > have died and been buried in the town's fast-filling cemetery.
> >
> > Dr Jovanovic claims that after examining the bodies, she believed
40 of
> > these 650 had died from cancer or leukaemia.
> >
> > "If approximately 7,000 people from Hadzici moved here, we can
> > estimate that the malignancy rate is unusually high compared to the
> > overall estimated mortality rate in the country," Dr Jovanovic
said.
> >
> >
> > "But we don't have any statistics from elsewhere to make official
> > comparisons and conclusions."
> >
> > What is beyond doubt is that the overall mortality rate in Bratunac
is
> > much higher than it is in Bosnia as a whole. In 2002, the death
rate in
> > the country was 7.9 per thousand. In Bratunac, for the period 1996
to
> > 2003, it was 11.2. More people die in Bratunac than in the rest of
> > Bosnia. The question is why.
> >
> > SCEPTICISM OVER DU RISK
> >
> > The 2003 UNEP report, as we said earlier, would not be drawn on the
> > issue of DU and cancer. Citing insufficient information, it
concluded
> > that "due to the lack of a proper cancer registry and reporting
> > systems in Bosnia, claims of an increase in the rates of adverse
health
> > effects stemming from DU could not be substantiated".
> >
> > Scientists from the World Health Organisation, WHO, also are
sceptical
> > regarding claims that DU may be a health hazard to Bosnia's
> > population.
> >
> > "From the information we have at the moment we don't believe
> > civilians are at risk," said
> > Dr Mike Repacholi, WHO's Geneva-based radiation programme
> > coordinator.
> >
> > He admitted, however, that the research deficit made final
conclusions
> > hard to draw. "We have gaps in knowledge where we need focused
> > research in order to make a better assessment of health risk," he
> > said.
> >
> > The International Atomic Energy Authority, IAEA, takes much the
same
> > line. Tiberio
> > Cabianca, of the IAEA's nuclear safety department, was part of the
> > ten-day UNEP mission to investigate DU in Bosnia in 2002.
> >
> > "From a radiological point of view, the IAEA does not view DU as a
> > health threat to the civilian population in Bosnia and
Herzegovina,"
> > he said.
> >
> > "From our samples, we found that DU munitions had contaminated
local
> > water supplies and we also found DU dust particles suspended in the
air.
> > However, contamination levels were very low and did not represent
an
> > immediate radioactive risk."
> >
> > However, UNEP's Pekko Haavisto qualifies that conclusion, recalling
> > the considerable time lapse between the period immediately after
the
> > NATO bombing campaign, when contamination would be highest, and the
time
> > of the scientific study.
> >
> > "When we conducted our ten-day study, our experts could not find
any
> > direct impact on human health. But this was 2002, so we could not
say
> > what the health impact was in the years previously," he said. "We
> > did not carry out any tests until eight years after the bombing.
> >
> > "The UNEP report was based on mainstream scientific thinking on DU
> > which says that
> > DU has a limited health impact outside the immediate contamination
> > zone. But there is a group of scientists who think that lower
levels of
> > DU radiation have a greater effect, and
> > they have criticised our report."
> >
> > DISAGREEMENT OVER MEASURING CONTAMINATION
> >
> > But some scientists say the problem is all in the measuring
mechanism
> >
> >
> > One scientist who believes DU is far more hazardous than has
previously
> > been acknowledged is Dr Chris Busby, of the British ministry of
> > defence's oversight committee on depleted uranium.
> >
> > Dr Busby conducted his own studies in Kosovo, where DU was also
used.
> > "UNEP say small amounts of DU in the air are harmless, however this
> > is not the case," he told IWPR, adding that in his view, "they used
> > the wrong risk models."
> >
> > "The conventional risk model is based on a whole human body or
organ
> > versus one DU particle," he explained.
> >
> > "But when a DU particle is inhaled, what happens is that a very
small
> > area of tissue will be exposed. It's not the whole body we should
be
> > measuring the effect of DU against, but the few affected cells."
> >
> > Professor Malcolm Hooper, emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry
at
> > the University of Sunderland, agrees that this is a better way of
> > measuring the strength of contamination.
> >
> > "Depleted uranium is a health hazard for the local population
because
> > DU particles are first washed into the water system. Then, when the
sun
> > comes out, light and heat stimulates the particles and they are
> > suspended in the air once again," he told IWPR.
> >
> > "The UNEP report was totally compromised. They went in seven years
> > too late and the sites they went to had been sanitised - the
destroyed
> > vehicles and much of the visible ammunition had been removed."
> >
> > Finally, Professor Hooper recalled the controversy surrounding
former
> > Italian soldiers who served in both Bosnia and Kosovo.
> >
> > The first suggestion of a link between DU and cancer followed the
> > mysterious deaths of a number of young Italian soldiers who had
served
> > there.
> >
> > Italian TV dubbed it Balkans Syndrome and the foreign press soon
picked
> > up the story, feeding a media frenzy.
> >
> > Fears over DU in Bosnia first surfaced in December 2000, with the
> > reported death from cancer of Salvatore Carbonaro, aged only 24.
> >
> > Carbonaro was the sixth Balkan veteran to die from cancer and
differed
> > from the other five in that he had only served in Bosnia, not in
> > Kosovo.
> >
> > Until then, NATO had not even admitted it had used DU in Bosnia.
But in
> > December 2000 Italy's defence minister, Sergio Mattarella, admitted
> > that the alliance had, adding that Rome had only just been informed
of
> > this.
> >
> > Mattarella then ordered an inquiry, under Professor Franco
Mandelli, to
> > investigate the potential association between cancer incidence and
DU.
> >
> > A member of Mandelli's team, Dr Martino Grandolfo, told IWPR that
it
> > had found a statistically significant excess of Hodgkin's Lymphoma
- a
> > form of leukaemia.
> >
> > "The percentage of cases of Hodgkin's Lymphoma amongst Italian
> > troops who served in Bosnia and Kosovo is more than double the
amount
> > found in soldiers who stayed in Italy," he told IWPR. "But at the
> > moment, we don't know why this is."
> >
> > The number of Italian Balkans veterans who have since died from
cancer
> > rose to 27 by July 2004 - and campaigners claim that the real
figure is
> > even higher.
> >
> > "The figure is actually 32 or 33, and the number of veterans living
> > with cancer is in the hundreds," Falco Accame, a former naval
officer
> > and military researcher, who is chair of Italy's Anavafaf veterans'
> > group, told IWPR.
> >
> > The public outcry has forced the government to establish a DU
> > parliamentary commission in the Italian senate to investigate
further.
> >
> > But Accame told IWPR that in the meantime, aside from the
compensation
> > paid to the dead servicemen's families, the state had not formally
> > recognised any link between DU and cancer.
> >
> > "As was the case with [health concerns over] cigarettes and
asbestos,
> > we cannot be certain that DU is responsible for the deaths of all
these
> > soldiers," Accame added.
> >
> > "Instead, what we are dealing with here are probabilities."
> >
> > However, this official unwillingness to admit any link between DU
and
> > cancer may be changing.
> >
> > In a landmark judgment on July 10, 2004, a Rome court ordered the
> > Italian defence ministry to pay 500,000 euro in compensation to the
> > family of Stefano Melone, a Balkans veteran who died of cancer in
2001.
> >
> >
> > The court declared Melone had died "due to exposure to radioactive
> > and carcinogenic substances" and listed DU among those substances.
> >
> > The dead soldier's widow Paola Melone told IWPR that this was "a
> > historic case", adding that a civil court had "now acknowledged
that
> > DU is a carcinogenic agent and listed it as one of the possible
> > causes" of her husband's death.
> >
> > "This case has set a precedent and we are organising a conference
> > here in Italy for other dead serviceman's families, to help them
with
> > pending cases," she added.
> >
> > IN BOSNIA, INEXPLICABLE DEATHS CONTINUE
> >
> > Back in Bosnia, however, there is no such talk of court cases,
> > parliamentary commissions, or even of decontamination.
> >
> > As the debate rages over cause and effect in Italy, locals in
Bosnia
> > say people are continuing to die inexplicably.
> >
> > Ahmed Fazlic-Ivan, vice-president of the Grivici district, lives
300
> > metres from the bombed Hadzici tank repair plant.
> >
> > "We only learned about DU in 2002, when the UN inspectors came
here,"
> > he told IWPR.
> >
> > "My father died of lung cancer in March of this year. There are 700
> > people living in Grivici and 56 have died in the last two years,
most of
> > them from cancer or diabetes.
> >
> > "Here we often say that Azrael, the Angel of Death, has come to
Grivici
> > - and that he takes everyone away."
> >
> > Ekrem Tinjak and Faruk Boric are Sarajevo-based journalists. Hugh
> > Griffiths is an IWPR investigations coordinator.
---------------------------------
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24 Bellona: G8 to build new bridge for nuclear train in Severodvinsk
Northern Dimension fund in the frames of Global Partnership
program will finance the construction of the new railway bridge
and reconstruction of the old one in Severodvinsk, ITAR-TASS
reported on October 22.
2004-11-18 15:29
Yagrinsky Bridge in Severodvinsk connecting Zvezdochka plant
engaged in nuclear submarine dismantling, with the ”continent”.
The bridge was built 50 years ago and was not originally designed
to sustain 160 tonnes trains loaded with spent nuclear fuel. The
new project includes construction of the new railway bridge and
reconstruction of the old one, which is to become 3 meters wider
for the traffic. The price tag for the whole project is about
$15m. The project has to pass the final expert authority in
Moscow for approval. Zvezdochka plant is hoping to get financing
from the state budget and some part from the Northern Dimension
fund operating in the frames of Global Partnership program.
However, the media sources reported that the state budget had no
money for the bridge repairs. The construction is scheduled to
start next year and finish by 2007, Dvina-Inform reports.
2002-10-04 IPWG
Bellona position paper on NDEP
2004-10-01 The Russian Northern Fleet
Bridge can collapse with passing spent nuclear fuel train in
Severodvinsk
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no]
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no]
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
25 BBC: The watchers from nuclear bunkers
Last Updated: Thursday, 18 November, 2004
By James Lynn BBC News
[Hawkshead nuclear bunker]
Hawkshead bunker was constructed in October 1965
Two former nuclear bunkers, each about the size of a small
caravan, have sold at auction for a total of £18,000.
One of the underground monitoring posts, in Stannington,
Northumberland, fetched £7,000 and another at Hawkshead, Cumbria,
went under the hammer for £11,000 at the auction on Thursday.
As an architectural curiosity the bunkers, two of around 1,500 in
the UK, are much sought after, but the story of their Cold
War-era occupants is less well known.
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a voluntary organisation,
entrusted with the task of monitoring and recording a nuclear
attack on the UK.
Its job was to find out how many nuclear bombs were falling,
where they might land, and to track the radioactive dust - or
fallout - thrown up by any explosions, as it drifted across the
country.
Three volunteers would carry out their task from each bunker,
using an array of equipment crammed into the small room.
If a nuclear bomb or bombs were dropped nearby they were required
to measure the detonation power, as well as the movement of
radioactive dust.
[Inside the Stannington bunker]
Some ROC equipment still remains inside the Stannington bunker
Using sirens, they could warn the public of an imminent air or
missile attack, or approaching fallout.
Subterranea Britannica, a society devoted to the study and
investigation of man-made and man-used underground places, has
catalogued all of the bunkers and studied the role of the ROC.
According to society member John Smiles, the military used alert
states to indicate the severity of the situation. These were
"black" (no threat), "black special" (possible threat), "amber"
(high state of readiness) and "red" (war).
He said: "Amber was reached at the height of the Cuban missile
crisis. Fortunately, that situation went no further, although
fingers were on triggers.
"In the event of a nuclear attack, the bunkers were only intended
to be manned for a total of two weeks.
"If there had been a blast nearby, the volunteers inside would be
protected and could monitor the situation from the shelter.
"However, they could be instructed to go outside the bunker and
check the infrastructure, for example to find out if a road was
blocked.
[Nuclear explosion] Volunteers were expected to measure the force
of explosions
"Anyone sent outside the bunker sooner than two weeks after a
detonation would most certainly be exposed to a fatal dose of
radiation.
"But after that time, radiation levels would have dropped enough
to allow them to go outside for a limited period of time, perhaps
to seek out alternative shelter and supplies.
"And anyone they encountered would most likely be in a worse
state than them, having not being sheltered from the worst of the
radioactivity."
The monitoring posts at Stannington and Hawkshead, both built in
the 60s, are both well preserved and still contain much of the
original equipment used by the ROC.
Many of the other sites around the country are slightly the worse
for wear, either demolished or wrecked.
Mr Smiles said: "Usually, they're very popular with local kids.
It doesn't take long for them to get in and trash the place.
"In fact, it's not unknown for them to use some kind of
industrial cutting equipment to get past the hatch.
A computer will do exact what it's told following a nuclear
strike, and won't be worrying about its family. John Smiles,
Subterranea Britannica
"But Stannington in particular is probably one of the best
preserved bunkers in the country.
"Looking at the Stannington photographs, you can see a circular
dish on the wall - that's the mounting for the bomb power
indicator. And the metal pipe running to the roof was used to
measure radiation levels outside.
"There would also have been a radio, to talk to the command post,
and a simple one-way telephone. That wouldn't be much use; you
can probably imagine the kind of damage a nuclear explosion would
do to telegraph poles and telephone wires."
All posts were issued with hand-operated sirens and maroons - a
type of firework which makes loud bangs - for alerting the
public.
Using the siren to sound the "red" warning (a rising and falling
note) indicated an imminent air or missile attack and the "white"
warning (a steady note), indicated "all clear".
Computers' job
With the approach of radioactive fallout the maroon would be used
to sound the "black" warning - a series of three explosions at
close set intervals.
Following re-organisation in the 1960s some of the bunkers were
closed, and in 1991 it was decided by the Home Office &Ministry
of Defence that the ROC would cease active training. The
remaining underground posts were closed at the end of September
that year.
The ROC's job is now carried out by computers - monitors
positioned around the country, which can automatically detect and
pinpoint any missile attacks, and monitor fallout and radiation
levels.
This is perhaps for the best, speculates Mr Smiles.
He said: "A computer will do exactly what it's told following a
nuclear strike, and won't be worrying about its family."
*****************************************************************
26 Hawk Eye: Radioactive metal still not identified
[http://archive.thehawkeye.com]
Thursday, November 18, 2004,
By MATTHEW LeBLANC mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
[mleblanc@thehawkeye.com]
Scientists say they still cannot identify a radioactive chunk of
metal found at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in August, but
they're pretty sure it isn't from nuclear weapons work done
during the Cold War.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews found the object, which
resembles a drawer pull, during a sweep of a section of plant
grounds. The object tested positive for low–level radioactive
isotope Cesium 137.
Sharon Cotner, of the Corps' St. Louis office, said Tuesday
initial attempts by researchers to identify the piece have been
unsuccessful, but that it does not appear to be related to Atomic
Energy Commission work conducted from 1944 to 1974 at the
Middletown plant.
"Initial appearances indicate it's not from AEC," Cotner said.
"We are still working on identifying the source of it."
Prompted by claims of former workers that there might be
radioactive material still on plant grounds despite years of
cleanup efforts, environmental crews swept four areas of the
grounds in August. Three of the areas contained no radiation,
while the fourth area yielded the small, metal object, which was
buried about 8 inches below the ground.
Corps crews continue to review historical and scientific data to
determine what the object is and where it came from. It will soon
be destroyed, Cotner said.
"Those records have been examined, and it's not showing anything
yet," said Brian Harzek, a radiation protection specialist with
the Corps. "But there's a lot of records."
Workers at IAAP built, test–fired and disassembled components of
nuclear and conventional weapons. The AEC, a precursor to the
Energy Department, oversaw the work.
Cotner said work to identify the object will continue.
"It really is an interim process," she said. "Where we began was
that historical data. We did some interviews. We just keep
building on the data."
Environmentalists are quick to point out that radiation emitted
from the object found on IAAP grounds pose no threat to humans.
In a meeting last month, Harzek said the levels are only a
fraction of what a human would be exposed to during a chest
X–ray.
Cesium 137 is a low–level isotope often found in density gauges
and for machine calibration in various industries.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
[webmaster@thehawkeye.com]
*****************************************************************
27 [NukeNet] Politics of Reprocessing in Japan
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:34:06 -0800
The following series of articles about Japan's reprocessing policy
appeared in Kyodo News over the last three days. They give some
insights into the politics behind this issue.
Philip White
18 November 2004
Lively Diet debate on reprocessing issue unlikely (Part 3 of 3 part
series)
By Satoshi Toi
Kyodo News, Tokyo Now
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041118050
17 November 2004
Doubts raised about need for fast-breeder reactors (Part 2 of 3 part
series)
By Satoshi Toi
Kyodo News, Tokyo Now
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041117091
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041117042
16 November 2004
Criticism about spent nuclear fuel reprocessing persists (Part 1 of 3
part series)
By Satoshi Toi
Kyodo News, TokyoNow
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041116059
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
3F Kotobuki Bdg, 1-58-15, Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003
Phone: 81-3-5330-9520
Fax: 81-3-5330-9530
http://cnic.jp/english/
cnic@nifty.com
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings at:
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28 Bradenton Herald: Consultant hired for Tallevast cleanup
| 11/18/2004 |
[The disused commercial property at the southeast corner of
Tallevast Road and 15th Street E., currently owned by WHOGAS,
Inc., of Sarasota, is being tested to determine if environmental
contamination still exists.]
PAUL GONZALEZ VIDELA-The Herald
The disused commercial property at the southeast corner of
Tallevast Road and 15th Street E., currently owned by WHOGAS,
Inc., of Sarasota, is being tested to determine if environmental
contamination still exists.
SCOTT RADWAY
Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - Tim Varney can run off a laundry list of
professional qualifications, including a bachelor's degree in
geology and geochemistry. He holds a master's degree and
doctorate in public health. He is a licensed geologist in
Florida and a registered hydrogeologist.
He is also certified in handling hazardous materials.
And he's been hired by the community in Tallevast to sift
through testing results and other information stemming from
contamination from the former American Beryllium plant.
"There needs to be a good sharing of information. Trust within
the community has broken down," Varney said.
Varney said he plans to act as an advocate for residents in
assuring that the cleanup of groundwater contamination by
Lockheed Martin - the company that inherited the old plant - is
done correctly. He will also help residents understand the reams
of scientific information being supplied about health issues.
Varney is director of health risk assessment with Chastain
Skillman, a consulting firm he said has a corporate office in
Lakeland but works on projects across Florida and out-of-state.
Chastain Skillman's services includeengineering consultations
and aid in dealing with environmental hazards and work and
community health issues, Varney said.
In the region, Chastain Skillman has done consulting for schools
in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Varney confirmed one more
recent project in the Tampa area where a group of students
became ill, possibly from fumes from a floor refinishing at a
school.
"I have been before as many as 12 news cameras in the past," he
said.
Varney will be paid by Lockheed Martin, which as part of a
consent order with the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection agreed to give Tallevast $25,000 per year for a
consultant.
Laura Ward, president of Family Oriented Community United
Strong, said the community received a list of possible
consultants from DEP, but they wanted to find someone on their
own.
Chastain Skillman was suggested by Ed Cottingham, an attorney
who works for the prominent South Carolina firm Motley Rice
retained by residents, Ward said.
"We think we found the technical adviser we need. He is going to
be our guide to get through this," Ward said.
And Varney said it is going to be a long journey. To clean up
the contamination caused by the plant it could take decades and
millions of dollars. But Varney said at this stage all the
important players are at the table to get it done.
Scott Radway, environmental reporter, can be reached at 708-7919
or at sradway@bradentonherald.com [sradway@bradentonherald.com] .
*****************************************************************
29 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca Mountain prominent issue for lame duck Congress
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Landscape muddied by conflicting reports
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Yucca Mountain has emerged as a major focus as
federal lawmakers try to complete a lame duck session and
adjourn for the holidays.
The proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository figures
prominently in debates about federal spending. It also is at the
heart of an apparent stalemate among Senate powers over filling
vacancies at the federal agency that regulates nuclear power.
The landscape was further muddied on Wednesday by conflicting
reports about whether the Bush administration is trying an
11th-hour move to overturn a July federal court ruling that
threw out an Environmental Protection Agency radiation standard,
placing the project in turmoil.
Marnie Funk, spokeswoman for Senate Energy Committee chairman
Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the White House has sent proposed
legislation to Domenici that addresses the court ruling.
Funk said the proposal, along with a second provision that
changes accounting rules for that Yucca Mountain construction
fund, "are in play, they are in negotiations."
Chad Kolton, an official at the White House Office of
Management and Budget, said that was not true. Kolton said the
administration planned to abide by a campaign promise by
President Bush not to interfere with Yucca Mountain court
rulings.
"OMB has not been pursuing any initiative related to the EPA
rule," Kolton said.
Whether true or not, there does not appear to be much appetite
among lawmakers to pursue much more than absolutely necessary
when it comes to resolving Yucca Mountain matters this year,
according to a variety of officials.
Any attempt to make big changes this late would ignite
controversy at a time most members are eager to go home, they
said. Lawmakers said they hope to wrap up by the weekend.
Aides to Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., said
they have not detected efforts by repository supporters to push
hard for major changes that would affect the Energy Department
program, including potential alterations to the federal court
ruling.
But in the final days of a congressional session, most anything
can be possible as lawmakers and lobbyists frantically jockey to
get key legislation passed, or killed.
"This is standard operating procedure around here," Rep.
Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. "There is almost a desire to
create this confusion so nobody knows what's going on. You end
up fighting windmills instead of negotiating the issues."
Lawmakers stalemated over Yucca Mountain for much of the year,
unable to solve nagging budget, accounting and personnel
problems.
With days remaining in the session, Congress will likely vote
to freeze Yucca Mountain spending at last year's level, or about
$577 million, according to lawmakers and lobbyists. Still to be
settled is whether the freeze would extend for a full year, or
for only several months while negotiators keep working on a new
repository budget bill, they said.
A budget freeze could force the Energy Department into another
reshuffling of the Yucca program, raising new questions about
DOE schedules for the repository.
Reid, White House officials and Republican senators continue to
negotiate whether to confirm Reid's science adviser, Gregory
Jaczko, to fill a vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The nuclear industry strongly opposes Jaczko, who it believes
is a guaranteed vote against the Yucca Mountain Project when the
NRC reviews it. Reid has blocked dozens of President Bush's
nominees to high-ranking federal jobs in order to force the
president to approve Jaczko.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
30 RGJ: Earthquake experts to present research, celebrate colleague
[online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
11/17/2004 10:49 pm
What: James Brune’s 70th Birthday Science Symposium.
Where: University of Nevada, Reno, Harry Reid Engineering
Laboratory.
When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday; 8:40 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.
Brune’s birthday celebration is at 3 p.m. Friday.
Some of the world’s leading earthquake experts will present
their research during a two-day symposium that begins today at
the University of Nevada, Reno.
The symposium also will include the celebration of UNR
seismology professor James Brune’s 70th birthday.
“The best birthday present anyone could give Jim is to challenge
him scientifically,” said John Anderson, director of the Nevada
Seismological Laboratory. “That is exactly what we plan to do —
present him with new, exciting science.”
More than 40 of Brune’s former students and co-authors are
scheduled to present their most recent research results in
seismology.
That will include presentations on “Earthquake Doublets and
Multiplets in the Yucca Mountain Range” by David Von Seggern of
UNR and “The Earth’s Inner Core: Evidence for Super-Rotation” by
Paul Richards of Columbia University.
Richards, co-author of “Quantitative Seismology,” was one of
Brune’s first students.
“Jim has been a mentor and a colleague to many of the brightest
minds in this field,” said Rasool Anooshehpoor, a UNR associate
research professor of seismology and one of Brune’s closest
research partners.
Five scientists are scheduled to come from Mexico, where Brune
established a research network with Mexican seismologists more
than 35 years ago.
International researchers from England, New Zealand and
Switzerland also are expected to attend the symposium.
Brune also will be honored for the more than 200 publications he
has contributed over the past 45 years.
In 1997, he received the Medal of the Seismological Society of
America, the highest honor in his field.
Brune earned a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from
UNR in 1956 and a doctorate from Columbia University in 1961.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com]
*****************************************************************
31 Salt Lake Tribune: Yucca Mountain fight sinks Senate vote on energy
spending
[http://www.sltrib.com]
Article Last Updated: 11/18/2004 08:28:06 AM
The fallout: Without a vote, there won't be a showdown over
funding nuclear weapons testing
By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Prolonged wrangling over future funding for the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada has apparently
derailed any chance of a Senate vote on a 2005 energy spending
bill this year.
That means a rumored showdown in the Senate Appropriations
Committee this week over the Bush administration's request to
continue studies on modifying existing warheads into burrowing
"bunker buster" bombs isn't likely to happen.
Instead, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that holds
the purse strings on nuclear programs, Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-N.M., is advocating passage of a long-term continuing
resolution. Such a measure would keep spending for Department of
Energy programs at existing levels through the new fiscal year.
Anti-nuclear organizations had been urging supporters to
lobby subcommittee members, including Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah,
to strip funding for weapons research. The groups fear studies
will ultimately lead to test firings in Nevada.
The Bush administration's request for $27 million to study
the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator" and $9 million to study
advanced nuclear weapons concepts was deleted from the House
version of the energy spending bill in September. All three of
Utah's House members voted in favor of the cuts.
If the nuclear weapons funding is included in a continuing
resolution, it is expected to pass both the House and Senate
with support of majority Republicans. However, 2nd District Rep.
Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has previously voted against continuing
resolutions that include the weapons study funds and his
spokeswoman said Wednesday that he would probably oppose such an
approach.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham have pressured Senate leaders to restore the
money cut by the House, along with hikes in the Nevada Test
Site's budget to shorten the time it would take to prepare for a
resumption of underground testing. Although such tests are
currently banned under a moratorium, the Bush administration
wants greater flexibility to verify that aging nuclear weapons
are still operational.
Domenici's decision not to press ahead with a Senate energy
bill indicates that deadlocked negotiations with Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., over future funding of the Yucca repository have
been abandoned for this year.
"I'm willing to work with him on the funding for Yucca
Mountain," Reid said. "I would rather we did not do a continuing
resolution. I would rather that we were able to come up with
some meaningful legislation."
The Capitol Hill newspaper Congressional Quarterly reported
that any potential deal sank when the White House asked that the
Senate bill allow using a nuclear utility industry trust fund to
help pay for Yucca's completion. The White House also reportedly
supported a rider authorizing Congress to dictate safety
standards for the project.
The latter provision would circumvent a federal appeals court
ruling earlier this year that found the Environmental Protection
Agency standards used to design the repository did not
adequately address safety concerns over the hundreds of
thousands of years the waste would remain toxic. Some lawmakers
have said the court-ordered standards are virtually impossible
to meet and could doom Yucca Mountain's completion.
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
32 DentonRC.com: Delay urged in waste issue
News for Denton, Texas | AP: Texas
11/18/2004
By NATALIE GOTT / Associated Press
A state senator said Thursday that the Legislature needs to have
a say in a company's bid to accept millions of pounds of
radioactive material from U.S. weapons programs.
Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, sent a letter last month to the
Texas Department of State Health Services asking officials to
delay decisions that would affect Dallas-based Waste Control
Specialists' bid until lawmakers had a chance to review the
issue. The Legislature meets in January.
"A decision to accept this quantity and quality of radioactive
waste involves numerous policy decisions that need to be
carefully weighed by the Legislature and all appropriate state
agencies," Duncan wrote as he laid out a series of questions and
concerns he had on the issue.
Waste Control Specialists wants to store and dispose of the
material, mostly uranium mill tailings, at a site in Andrews
County, where it already treats, monitors and stores low-level
radioactive material.
Waste Control Specialists has asked the state health agency for a
license to dispose of the uranium tailings. It also wants its
state license amended to expand the amount of radioactive
material that can be stored.
The state health agency said it could not delay a decision on
Waste Control Specialists' request to amend their license. But
lawmakers likely will have time to discuss the issue because the
department's technical review of the company's application for a
disposal license is not expected to be finished before September.
Duncan said the Waste Control Specialists proposal calls for
storing and disposing of as much as 153.6 million pounds of the
material, which would fill more than 700 railcars with a volume
of more than 1.2 million cubic feet.
He claims the material is substantially more radioactive with a
longer half-life than the low-level radioactive waste that could
go to the Andrews site under legislation lawmakers approved last
year.
The company objected to Duncan's delay request and said it is not
true that the material will be substantially more radioactive
than the law allows. Kent Hance, an attorney for Waste Control
Specialists, also noted that the company received a license in
1997 to authorize the receipt, storage and processing of
radioactive material.
"An unbiased, scientific analysis will show that the WCS facility
is an appropriate regulatory and environmental alternative for
the management of this material and WCS hopes the DOE will
consider its facility," Hance wrote in a letter to the health
department.
The material is now at a site owned by the U.S. Department of
Energy in Ohio. The energy department is looking for companies
that could store and dispose of the material.
Four other states approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to dispose of the uranium tailings have rejected the
material, Duncan said. His office said the states are Utah,
Illinois, Colorado and Washington.
___
On the Net:
© 2004 Belo Interactive Inc.
*****************************************************************
33 DenverPost.com: Tumbleweeds may soak up toxics
Published: Thursday, November 18, 2004
By Electa Draper Denver Post Staff Writer
Post / Shaun Stanley
A tumbling tumbleweed rolls across Colorado 141 near Naturita.
Troublesome weed and symbol of the West's vast open desert, the
tumbling tumbleweed captures more than imaginations - it traps
uranium.
The recently released work of New Mexico Tech researcher Dana
Ulmer-Scholle shows that a good crop of tumbleweeds, harvested
before they begin their windblown travels, could be an effective
tool in absorbing toxic heavy metals from soil at inactive
uranium mines, battlefields and other contaminated areas. The
Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are as many as
12,000 inactive mines in the Western United States.
With Department of Defense funding, Ulmer-Scholle tested
tumbleweeds at two New Mexico sites, an old mine near Grants and
an unidentified military training facility. Such sites and
battlefields, contaminated by depleted uranium from spent
armor-piercing munitions, are hard and costly to clean up the
conventional way - removing, transporting, reburying and encasing
tons of dirt.
Enough weeds could get some jobs done in a decade or so,
Ulmer-Scholle said.
It's long been known that some plants absorb metals they don't
need, Ulmer-Scholle said. There are arsenic-loving ferns.
Old-time uranium prospectors learned to train their Geiger
counters on junipers to find buried uranium lodes. And
Ulmer-Scholle had hoped that some native grasses also would be
good at uranium capture.
"That would have been really popular with environmentalists," she
said with a sigh.
But nuisance tumbleweeds, both the somewhat spherical Russian
thistle and the Christmas tree-shaped kochia, absorb uranium at
much greater rates.
Workers cultivating tumbleweeds to soak up uranium would have to
monitor them carefully to prevent their uncontrolled spread in
places where they aren't already found - such as Iraq,
Ulmer-Scholle said.
The uranium-enriched plants would probably be harvested and
burned. The uranium would be filtered out and disposed of in
hazardous-waste storage facilities.
The tumbleweed is an icon of the West, but it is actually an
intruder from Russia's Ural steppes. The first reports of
tumbleweeds in the United States came in 1877 in South Dakota,
where Ukrainian farmers apparently accidentally imported their
seeds along with flax seed, said David B. Williams on the Desert
USA Extreme Gardening website.
The plant starts out with tender green shoots and small green
flowers relished by mice and bighorn sheep, but the mature
thistle is a grayish-tan skeletal tangle that can achieve the
size of a cow or small car.
"When they mature, they are quite painful to handle,"
Ulmer-Scholle said.
The mature weed, also known as "wind witch," begins drifting to
disperse its seeds, typically 250,000 to 280,000 per plant.
Perhaps the old poem, popularized in a 1940s song by the Sons of
the Pioneers, said it best: "See them tumbling down. They're
pledging their love to the ground."
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or
[edraper@denverpost.com]
--> All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other
*****************************************************************
34 CBS 2 - New York News: How Secure Are Radioactive Waste Shipments?
[http://www.cbs.com/]
Thurs., Nov. 18
Video
Toxic radioactive materials being shipped across the area,
Cheryl Fiandaca reports.
+ A CBS 2 Special Report
NEW YORK (CBS) Truckloads of radioactive waste are shipped
every day from nuclear facilities to long term storage. In many
cases, the trucks are unguarded and are on city streets and
highways. So who's protecting the hazardous waste? And is it
safe?
CBS 2’s Cheryl Fiandaca reports.
They test the containers that carry radioactive waste to make
sure they can survive even a collision with a train. But no one
knows if they could survive a terrorist attack.
And some say if they don't find out soon, the results could be
catastrophic.
“You have tens of thousand of these trucks going on the highway
each year, these waste trucks are essentially dirty bombs --
they only need to be exploded,” says nuclear waste management
expert Dr. Marvin Resnikoff.
High level radioactive waste is routinely trucked out of New
York with an escort and in secrecy. But trucks carrying
low-level radioactive waste are unguarded on their cross country
trip from facilities like Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long
Island to long term storage on the West Coast.
“The Department of Homeland Security has a lot of loose ends
they need to tie up and this is probably one of them,” says
Adrienne Esposito from the Campaign for the Environment.
“The security is built into that package. These packages are
designed to withstand tremendous forces. Type b casks are
designed to withstand the strike of a locomotive,” explains
George Goode from Brookhaven National Laboratory. “But what
about a bomb?” Fiandaca asked. “I can't speculate. I really
don't know,” he said.
The Department of Transportation has security plans for
transporting hazardous materials. But some scientists and
activists say it isn't good enough.
Many shipments of low level radioactive waste are transported in
55-gallon drums on trucks that are clearly marked as carrying
hazardous materials. Those same trucks drive through
communities, cross bridges, stop for fuel and stay overnight at
hotels all across the country without any security at all.
“There are anti-tank missiles that are accurate up to three
kilometers in distance. You don't have to be right next to the
container and will actually go through a meter of steel. It
could slice these containers like butter,” says Dr. Resnikoff.
And it's not just the risk of terrorism that has raised concerns
about shipping radioactive waste.
“Over the past few years we have lived with very severe cancer
in children, rare forms of cancer that we never had before. And
you have to wonder -- radioactive waste is such a deadly, high
poisonous material, maybe that’s one of the causes . Who knows.
There's a lot of maybes out there,” says Geri Barish from the
Long Island Breast Cancer Coalition.
While there are a lot of maybes, one thing seems clear.
“The problem is we are faced with bad choices. We either have
the choice of leaving some highly radioactive waste in place and
will take 87,000 years to degrade and become harmless or we have
to move it to a safe secure facility. Both of those options have
risks,” Esposito says.
Starting next year and over the next several years, Brookhaven
National Laboratory is scheduled to disassemble and truck parts
of a graphite reactor to Utah. Officials at the lab say the
shipments will only stop if the threat level is elevated.
(MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.)
© MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
35 Tewksbury Advocate: Towns sharing info on perchlorate rates
TownOnline.com -
Photo Gallery
The Olin site which is linked with the contamination of wells in
Wilmington. That action spurred the need for a long-range water
plan. (Photo by Franklin B. Tucker)
By Esther Friedman/ Staff Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2004
BILLERICA - Officials from Billerica and neighboring Tewksbury
officials will work together to address higher-than-recommended
levels of perchlorate found in Tewksbury's drinking water supply
after tests showed a link between the problem and the Billerica
waste-water treatment plant.
Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to create a task force
after Jerome E. Selissen, vice chairman of the Tewksbury Board
of Selectmen, presented a plan for the two communities.
The plan calls for both communities' town managers, water
treatment plant directors, water and sewage directors and hired
consultants meet on a regular basis to exchange information.
Tewksbury draws its drinking water from the confluence of
the Concord and the Merrimack rivers, down stream from
Billerica's waste-water treatment plant. The water leaving
Billerica's waste-water treatment plant also tested high in
perchlorate in a number of tests conducted this fall. The state
Department of Environmental Protection is analyzing test data to
determine where the chemical originates.
The Tewksbury selectman also plans to invite officials from
the City of Lowell, whose waste-water treatment plant is also
being tested, to join the two towns in seeking solutions.
"We know we are a source," Billerica Town Manager NAME
Montuori said. "We just don't know how much."
He said that he fully supports the creation of a joint task
force.
"If the issue is communication, the last thing we want to
say is no," he said.
Montouri said the town has spent about $10,000 on
perchlorate testing and consulting so far.
Selectmen Michael Rosa and Ellen Rawlings said the two
towns have already been cooperating.
"I thought we were already working towards this," Rosa said.
In an interview after the meeting he added, "I didn't know
there was a need to form a task force...[Billerica has] been
very cooperative. There's no need to hide anything."
In response to Rosa and Rawlings' concerns, Selissen said
he would like to formalize the exchange of ideas and information
"so one community can know what the other community is doing."
Acknowledging that the two towns, Billerica and Tewksbury,
have collaborated since the chemical was discovered this summer,
Selissen said, "This would be a day-to-day task force to
formalize what's been going on to this point. We feel with the
two towns working together, we can get a resolution to this
problem."
Tewksbury's drinking water tested with
higher-than-recommended levels of perchlorate in August.
Throughout the fall, the state Department of Environmental
Protection conducted tests of water in and around waste-water
treatment plants in Lowell and Billerica.
Perchlorate, a chemical found in rocket fuel and laboratory
waste among other sources, has been linked to thyroid problems
which effects normal development. Pregnant and nursing mothers,
children under 12 and people with hypothyroidism are high risk
populations.
"People are very upset about it," Selissen said.
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
*****************************************************************
36 Billerica Minuteman: Selectmen back perchlorate plan
TownOnline.com:
By Esther Friedman/ Staff Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2004
The town will work with Tewksbury officials to address
higher-than-recommended levels of perchlorate found in
Tewksbury's drinking water supply after tests showed a link
between the problem and the Billerica waste-water treatment
plant.
Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to create a task force
after Jerome E. Selissen, vice chairman of the Tewksbury Board
of Selectmen, presented a plan for the two communities.
The plan calls for both communities' town managers, water
treatment plant directors, water and sewage directors and hired
consultants meet on a regular basis to exchange information.
Tewksbury draws its drinking water from the confluence of
the Concord and the Merrimack rivers, down river from
Billerica's waste-water treatment plant. The water leaving
Billerica's waste-water treatment plant also tested high in
perchlorate in a number of tests conducted this fall. The state
Department of Environmental Protection is analyzing test data to
determine where the chemical originates.
The Tewksbury selectman also plans to invite Lowell, whose
waste-water treatment plant is also being tested, to join the
two towns in seeking solutions.
"We know we are a source," Billerica Town Manager Montuori
said. "We just don't know how much."
He said that he fully supports the creation of a joint task
force.
"If the issue is communication, the last thing we want to
say is no," he said.
Montouri said the town has spent about $10,000 on
perchlorate testing and consulting so far.
Selectmen Michael Rosa and Ellen Rawlings said the two
towns have already been cooperating.
"I thought we were already working towards this," Rosa said.
In an interview after the meeting he added, "I didn't know
there was a need to form a task force...[Billerica has] been
very cooperative. There's no need to hide anything."
In response to Rosa and Rawlings' concerns, Selissen said
he would like to formalize the exchange of ideas and information
"so one community can know what the other community is doing."
Acknowledging that the two towns, Billerica and Tewksbury,
have collaborated since the chemical was discovered this summer,
Selissen said, "This would be a day-to-day task force to
formalize what's been going on to this point. We feel with the
two towns working together, we can get a resolution to this
problem."
Tewksbury's drinking water tested with
higher-than-recommended levels of perchlorate in August.
Throughout the fall, the state Department of Environmental
Protection conducted tests of water in and around waste-water
treatment plants in Lowell and Billerica.
Perchlorate, a chemical found in rocket fuel and laboratory
waste among other sources, has been linked to thyroid problems
which effects normal development. Pregnant and nursing mothers,
children under 12 and people with hypothyroidism are high risk
populations.
"People are very upset about it," Selissen said.
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
Inc.
*****************************************************************
37 [du-list] DOE changes secretaries Piketon, Ohio
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:33:54 -0800
November 17, 2004
DOE changes secretaries
Piketon
Jeff Barron, PDT Staff Writer
PIKETON - The resignation on Monday of Energy Department
Secretary Spencer Abraham should not affect operations at the Portsmouth
Gaseous Diffusion Plant, officials said.
The DOE owns the plant and leases it to the United
States Enrichment Corp. USEC plans to build a commercial enrichment plant
in Piketon by 2009, and also plans to open a plant to test a new uranium
enrichment process next year.
"We have a good working relationship with the Department
of Energy," USEC Communications Director Elizabeth Stuckle said Tuesday.
"We expect that will continue in the future."
Scioto County Economic Development Director Steve Carter
is a Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative Board of Directors member.
That agency is a liaison between the local community and the DOE.
Carter said since Abraham dictated national energy
policy, his resignation would have little local impact. He also said the
DOE and USEC have already agreed to long-term projects.
"Locally, we always have a plan and we continue to make
progress over time," Carter said. "I've seen four or five DOE secretaries
change, and it doesn't affect us."
Dan Minter, Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical and
Engineers Union President, said he is not surprised at Abraham's
resignation because cabinet changes usually occur when a president is
re-elected.
"We hope to continue working with him as he prepares to
exit," Minter said. "And it is critical that we have a close relationship
with his successor, whomever that happens to be."
President George W. Bush has not yet named Abraham's
successor.
Abraham was not the only cabinet member to resign
Monday. Secretary of State Colin Powell will leave and be replaced by
national security advisor Condoleeza Rice. Also resigning were Education
Secretary Rod Paige and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.
Abraham, 52, a former senator from Michigan, joined the
administration after he lost a bid for re-election, becoming the nation's
10th energy secretary. Abraham struggled to persuade Congress to endorse
the president's broad energy agenda.
In a related issue, USEC President and CEO William
Timbers urged Bush and Congress to develop a strategic national energy policy.
"If necessity is the mother of invention," Timbers said
in a statement, "then America is the right place to develop inventive
solutions."
He said there are four ways to further develop the
energy policy:
. The establishment of incentives to increase the supply
of all domestic energy resources.
. Research and development on advanced coal, nuclear,
natural gas and energy-efficient technologies.
. Incentives to increase energy efficiency.
. Bold initiatives to accelerate results.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. JEFF
BARRON can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.
Story created Wednesday, November 17, 2004.
*****************************************************************
38 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: No disconnect over Hanford cleanup
[seattlepi.com]
[OPINION]
Thursday, November 18, 2004
By HELEN WHEATLEY GUEST COLUMNIST
I was at my twin boys' preschool the other day, supervising
outdoor playtime. The kids had invented a new game called "Look
for John Kerry." They dug for him in the sand pile. They searched
in the trees. They checked under the slide. No John Kerry. "I
think," said their teacher, "this election had a strong effect on
their parents. Don't you?"
I do. Election Day ended with many tired, discouraged people. I
know the feeling. But I was an active supporter of Initiative
297, the measure to prevent nuclear waste dumping and push for
safe cleanup at Hanford. We won big time: 69 percent statewide.
It is worth taking a close look at the election results, and not
just because it helps some of us feel a little better. Initiative
297 unites the people of Washington. It won in the west and it
won in the east. Republicans and Democrats voted for it. Instead
of turning Hanford into a national nuclear waste dump, we want it
to become a place we can return whole to our children.
George W. Bush won Spokane by a very comfortable margin, and
voters there favored I-297 by an overwhelming 71 percent. Most
Eastern Washington counties approved the measure by 60 percent or
more. The no vote was decisive only in Benton County, where
Hanford drives the economy and the initiative endured a heavy
barrage of criticism from Hanford contractors and the local
media. Even there, far more people voted for I-297 than for
Kerry.
The transportation of nuclear waste is a concern in Eastern
Washington, but the issues go beyond that. The federal
government's poor record of stewardship at Hanford influenced the
vote of Republicans and Democrats alike. Many have strong
personal feelings about protecting the health of downwinders and
Hanford workers. There is widespread concern about the use of
irrigation water downstream from Hanford. More than a million
gallons of high-level nuclear waste have leaked from storage
tanks and the Department of Energy has thrown up its hands and
admitted that it has no effective plans for cleaning up the
groundwater.
In Western Washington, residents of every county connected to the
Columbia River, the Pacific Coast and to Puget Sound voted
enthusiastically for I-297. Hanford is part of a region where the
Columbia River has shaped natural and human history in
far-reaching ways. We want a clean river, providing safe water
and feeding healthy nutrients into the ecosystem all the way to
the Pacific.
The task is to make sure elected officials take note of the
remarkable message of I-297. Members of Congress must do
everything they can to stop the U.S. Department of Energy from
turning its back on cleanup. Nuclear waste can't be reclassified
just to avoid meeting higher standards. Cleanup should be
properly funded, with adequate money going into research.
Groundwater must become a priority. A healthy river is a regional
treasure and a national asset.
With I-297, state officials have a new tool to pursue safe
cleanup aggressively and stop waste dumping from other nuclear
weapons plants. To accomplish this, they must defend the
initiative, enforce state laws and put resources into protecting
our health and environment wherever Hanford affects us. Instead
of playing hot potato with radioactive waste, we should join with
other states to redefine our national approach to healing the
land from the ravages of the Cold War.
Our new governor and attorney general have a tough job ahead.
Thanks to I-297, they know they have a remarkably unified
electorate behind them. Helen Wheatley is board chair of Heart of
America Northwest, the Hanford watchdog group that sponsored
I-297.
[Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA
98119 (206) 448-8000
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
[newmedia@seattlepi.com]
©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
*****************************************************************
39 ABQjournal: Governor Backs UC As LANL Manager
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Albuquerque Journal--> By Michelle Locke
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES— New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said the
University of California is doing a good job taking care of the
nation's nuclear stockpile and should fight to retain its role
as manager of the Los Alamos weapons lab.
"For the good of the country, its national defense, the
state of New Mexico and, I believe, for the good of this
university, I am here today to encourage you to compete for the
continued management of Los Alamos," Richardson told UC's
governing board of regents as they met Wednesday in Los Angeles.
UC spokesman Chris Harrington said the regents found
Richardson's comments constructive and that the board was
grateful Richardson, a former Energy Secretary, came to meet
with them.
Harrington said the regents were especially interested in
what Richardson had to say about UC possibly joining with an
industrial partner to manage LANL. UC has been in ongoing
discussions with several potential partners for several months.
"They actually had to ask regents to give up asking
questions at one point because they were running out of time,"
Harrington said.
"I believe I made some progress with the regents,"
Richardson said during a telephone conference call after the
meeting.
The endorsement follows some turbulent times for Richardson
and the university. As energy secretary in 2000, he was
embarrassed by security lapses at the lab that partly were
blamed for taking him out of the race as a possible running mate
for presidential candidate Al Gore.
Richardson made a joking reference to those days, telling
regents he had "stood with UC through thick and thin. Through
good times and bad times. Mainly bad times."
But he was all seriousness as he urged regents to bid for
the contract.
"If you pursue the competition strongly, I believe UC will
win and the nation will be better off," he said.
The university's contract to operate Los Alamos expires in
September.
UC has managed the New Mexico lab for 60 years on no-bid
contracts. But the security slip-ups and allegations of sloppy
fiscal procedures prompted federal officials to insist on open
bidding when the current contract expires next year.
University officials have not decided whether they will
bid, although they have instructed staff to prepare as though
they were going to compete.
Richardson said it's crucial that UC find an industrial
partner so the university can delegate security, safety and
hazardous-waste disposal problems, areas where the university
has had problems. That would leave UC free to concentrate on its
specialties of science and research, said Richardson, who
suggested that the University of New Mexico might make a good
third partner for UC.
"It would bring a stronger connection for UC to the state,"
he said. "It brings research and management capability and a
stronger knowledge of the state."
Possible competitors include the University of Texas and
Texas A. However, Richardson said he doesn't anticipate "too
many takers."
"I know of at least three" entities that intend to bid on
the contract, he said, though he declined to name them.
Some regents questioned whether it's in UC's best interest
to expose the university to the possibility of more of the kind
of bad publicity that problems at Los Alamos have brought.
Others wondered whether the political deck is stacked against UC.
But Richardson assured regents that he believes measures
have been taken to fix management problems at Los Alamos.
Regarding the partisan issues, he said that when he was
energy secretary procurement was separate from politics. He
believes the decision on this contract will be made by long-term
department employees who will "do the right thing."
UC has managed Los Alamos since it was formed to work on
the atom bomb in World War II. It has managed a second weapons
lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern
California, since it was founded in 1952.
Richardson said choosing not to bid on Los Alamos might be
the easy decision, but not the right one.
"There is no institution of higher scientific and
technological quality than the University of California," he
said.
Journal staff writer Adam Rankin contributed to this report.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
40 Tri-City Herald: BNFL gets contract for K Basins work
This story was published Thursday, November 18th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
BNFL has won a $24 million contract to treat and package
radioactive sludge retrieved from Hanford's K Basins near the
Columbia River.
The contract, which runs through January 2007, was awarded by
Fluor Hanford, the Department of Energy's contractor for cleaning
up and removing the basins.
"The work the BNFL Inc. contract team will perform is an
important part of our strategy for closing the K Basins," said
Pete Knollmeyer, Fluor Hanford vice president, in a prepared
statement. "Removing the sludge form the basins will allow us to
close the basins, remove the facilities themselves and ultimately
allow the DOE to address any soil contamination under the
basins."
The K Basins were built in the 1950s to hold fuel irradiated in
Hanford reactors before plutonium was removed for the nation's
nuclear weapons program. When fuel processing ended in the
mid-1980s, 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel were stranded in the
K Basins.
Already past its design life of 20 years back then, the K East
Basin has leaked contaminated water 400 feet from the Columbia
River. Fluor recently completed work to remove the fuel.
But now it must remove and treat 65 cubic yards of radioactive
sludge in the indoor pool that formed as fuel corroded and
concrete sloughed off the walls.
BNFL will treat 57 cubic yards of the fuel. The remainder of the
sludge is less contaminated and is being handled separately.
BNFL will install equipment near the K West Basin to dry the
sludge, mix it with a specially formulated concrete and place the
treated mixture into containers for disposal. The contract does
not specify where the sludge will be taken for disposal.
Fluor Hanford began retrieving sludge from the K East Basin and
consolidating it into underwater containers Oct. 31.
BNFL's team includes Fauske &Associates, Los Alamos Technical
Associates, Vista Engineering, Mid-Columbia Engineering, Nuvotec
and Parsons.
BNFL is not new to K Basin work. Last year the company won a $5
million contract from Fluor to build equipment to retrieve the
radioactive sludge from the K West Basin.
This year BNFL was awarded a $12 million contract on another
Hanford project, the $5.8 billion vitrification plant to turn
radioactive waste held in underground tanks into glass logs for
permanent disposal.
BNFL is designing and supplying the vitrification plant's
automated sampling system.
BNFL's Richland office is the headquarters for much of its
nationwide DOE operations. It is a Virginia-based American
subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. of Great Britain.
"It is important for the future cleanup of the Hanford site that
contractors with an in-depth knowledge of the site get the
opportunity to use their experience and know-how to solve
Hanford's cleanup issues," said Philip Strawbridge, BNFL Inc.'s
chief executive, in a prepared statement.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
41 Tri-City Herald: DOE cleanup chief tours Hanford
This story was published Thursday, November 18th, 2004
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
The Department of Energy still is evaluating its options on
Initiative 297, said Paul Golan, DOE's acting assistant secretary
for environmental management, Wednesday.
Golan, who holds the position sometimes called the cleanup czar,
spent two days visiting the Hanford nuclear reservation just two
weeks after Washington residents voted to ban importing
radioactive waste to Hanford until waste already there is cleaned
up.
In Benton County, the only county that voted against the
initiative, residents have been concerned that DOE's nationwide
cleanup plan calls for importing some low-level radioactive waste
to Hanford but sending far more radioactive material from the
site to Nevada, New Mexico and possibly South Carolina.
Speculation has focused on whether DOE will challenge the
legality of the initiative.
The nation will have to work together to clean up and shut down
its nuclear sites left from the Cold War, Golan said. Hanford
made plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. When
DOE's nuclear complex was built, it was integrated across the
nation and the cleanup must be the same, Golan said.
"We will do it on our watch," he said.
DOE continues to push to open Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a
national nuclear repository, he said. Some of Hanford's worst
waste is planned to be turned into glass logs at a $5.8 billion
vitrification plant now being built at Hanford and sent to Yucca
Mountain for disposal. The state of Nevada is fighting to prevent
the mountain from being used as a national repository for nuclear
waste.
Just as it took years of work to open a national repository in
the New Mexico desert for DOE wastes tainted with plutonium, it
will take some time for Yucca to open for high-level radioactive
waste and nuclear industry waste, Golan said. Hanford wastes
already are being sent to the New Mexico repository, the Waste
Isolation Pilot Project.
DOE also is working to find a place to ship leftover plutonium,
Golan said. Hanford officials would like to start moving the
plutonium kept in a heavily guarded vault in central Hanford to a
more appropriate location in 2005.
"We're looking for a complete solution, and we do not have that
yet," Golan said, although talks continue to send the plutonium
to the Savannah River, S.C., nuclear site.
The Hanford Advisory Board and boards for other nuclear sites
across the nation are warning that challenges to disposing of
waste at several DOE sites, including Hanford, are creating the
risk of gridlock.
In a letter still making the rounds of site advisory groups for
signatures, nine board chairmen warn that the challenges to waste
disposal create the potential for skyrocketing costs and delays
in cleanup. They're calling for a national forum to produce a
technically and fiscally sound solution to dispose of waste and
nuclear materials across the DOE complex.
Golan said he had not seen the letter, but that DOE is committed
to working with communities and regulators.
He said he expects substantial progress in cleanup at Hanford and
other DOE nuclear sites to continue in the next few years.
"Look at the magnitude of work and how much safer Hanford has
become in the last three years," Golan said after touring the
site. "Urgent risks are removed."
In 2004, Hanford workers emptied the last of the high-level
radioactive liquid waste from the site's leak-prone underground
tanks and finished stabilizing the plutonium left at the end of
the Cold War in the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Within the last
month, workers finished removing 2,300 tons of irradiated nuclear
fuel that were corroding in leak-prone indoor pools 400 yards
from the Columbia River.
Progress also has been made in preparing old reactors for
long-term storage and digging up contaminated dirt near the
Columbia River.
The tour "left a lot of good impressions of Hanford," Golan said.
He's pleased with the contractors at the site and with its local
DOE leadership, he said, singling out Roy Schepens and Keith
Klein, who manage DOE's two Hanford cleanup programs in the
Tri-Cities.
Golan has served as acting assistant administrator since Jessie
Roberson resigned in July, but this was at least his sixth trip
to Hanford, he said. He was worked at DOE headquarters since
2000.
He met with representatives of the Yakamas, the Nez Perce and the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation on Tuesday
and Wednesday to continue government-to-government discussions,
he said.
DOE has offered the tribes eight additional internships for high
school or college students to work on science or technical
projects, Golan said. He's also interested in more use of a
Mid-Columbia-based bus equipped for training and education, he
said.
After Golan left Washington, D.C., to tour the Rocky Flats,
Colo., and Hanford nuclear sites this week, Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham resigned. Abraham had a strong commitment to
nuclear cleanup and seeing him leave is tough, Golan said.
When Abraham was energy secretary, cleanup spending at Hanford
increased to about $2 billion a year, although that is expected
to decline in coming years.
Golan also discussed the protests that have become routine when
Hanford contracts have been awarded in recent years. The
transition of the contracts have been delayed while protests are
decided.
"We're going to have to deal with it," he said. Because of the
strong bid proposals made for Hanford contracts, the losing
contractors' protests are understandable, he said.
With substantial progress made to clean up Hanford along the
Columbia River, attention is turning to how to clean up central
Hanford. It has some of the most technically challenging and
heavily contaminated cleanup projects.
DOE will be applying knowledge learned on other cleanup projects,
Golan said. The goal is to keep the workers safe, protect the
environment and respect the taxpayer, he said.
"We're not going to be perfect," he said. But "there are a lot of
great things we can do here."
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
42 Salt Lake Tribune: Richardson speaks on Los Alamos contract
[http://www.sltrib.com]
Article Last Updated: 11/18/2004 05:10:28 AM
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson urged the
University of California on Wednesday to fight to keep its
contract to manage the nation's top nuclear laboratory.
Richardson addressed members of the university's governing
board as they met in Los Angeles, telling them the university
has been a good steward of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
and urging them to seek renewal of the contract to operate the
lab in northern New Mexico.
The university has managed the lab for 60 years on no-bid
contracts. But security slip-ups and allegations of sloppy
financial management prompted federal officials to insist on
open bidding when the current contract expires in September 2005.
University officials have not decided whether they will seek
the contract, although they have instructed staff to prepare as
though the school were offering a bid.
Richardson said the university should join forces with
industry so the school can delegate security, safety and
hazardous waste-disposal problems to another party.
That would free university officials to concentrate on
scientific research, said Richardson.
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
43 GM: Shuffling is afoot in Bush administration's environment-related slots
By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist Magazine | Muckraker |
18 Nov 2004
By Amanda Griscom Little
18 Nov 2004
There's so much talk of hirings, firings, retirings, and
resignations at environment-related agencies in the Bush
administration that it feels almost as though a whole new regime
were coming in, when in fact we're likely to get four more years
of the same policy aims.
[Veneman and Abraham] Ann Veneman (left) and Spencer Abraham.
Photo: USDA. Departing at the cabinet level are Ann Veneman and
Spencer Abraham, secretaries of the Department of Agriculture and
Department of Energy, respectively, both of whom threw in the
towel this past week in the shadow of Colin Powell's resignation
from the State Department. Their exits don't come as a huge
surprise -- both jobs are short on glamour and long on hassles,
and neither administrator had racked up a legacy of
history-book-worthy achievements.
Veneman presided over the launch of the USDA's national
organic-standards program in 2002, but this year was criticized
for trying to weaken organic standards, a move she was forced to
back down from. She's also been lambasted by environmentalists
for pushing controversial initiatives at the Forest Service, most
notably the rollback of the Clinton-era roadless rule. Her record
on mad cow disease was applauded by industry and criticized by
health groups. Republicans praised her for working with farmers
to preserve private land, but as a fiscal conservative, she was
also criticized by the farm lobby for advocating reduced
agriculture subsidies. By all accounts, Veneman has been
unflappably dedicated to her post in the past four years, even
after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. She's now
likely to take some time off.
None of the rumored potential replacements for Veneman would
change the agenda much. At the top of the list is Rep. Charles W.
Stenholm (D), a 13-term Texas congressperson who lost his seat in
this month's election (but don't be fooled by his party
affiliation; he's an old-time Southern Democrat whose voting
record is hard-line Republican). Also on the list is another
Texan Democrat, Pete Laney, a farmer, old friend of the
president, and former speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives. Then there's Ambassador Allen Johnson, chief
agriculture negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative, who works to expand U.S. agriculture trade
worldwide, and William Hawks, undersecretary of agriculture for
marketing and regulatory programs.
Ultimately, the pick won't make too much of a difference to
environmentalists given that Mark Rey, assistant secretary of
agriculture who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, is expected to
stay on and stick to his pro-industry course.
Abraham, for his part, launched the Bush administration's
FreedomCAR initiative to develop commercially viable
hydrogen-powered cars over the long term, which was dismissed by
critics as a red herring to avoid the challenge of developing
fuel-efficient cars in the near term. He may soon be spending all
of his time thinking about cars. Word is that Abraham is up for
the top position at the auto industry's biggest trade group, the
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, D.C. -- a
natural fit given that Abraham served as Michigan's senator for
six years. (White House Chief of Staff Andy Card had been
expected to take that post -- similar to one he held from 1993 to
1998 -- but now that Card is staying on in his role on
Pennsylvania Avenue, Abraham seems to be second in line.)
The frontrunner for Abraham's position is William Martin, who
served as deputy energy secretary under President Reagan and
currently heads DOE's panel on nuclear issues. A strong supporter
of designating Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste dump,
Martin would face tough questions from the new Senate minority
leader, Harry Reid (D) of Nevada. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony
Garza is also a top contender, having ties to Bush as a former
chair of the Texas Railroad Commission, and now strong
connections to Mexico, which is one of the top oil suppliers to
the United States. Lower on the list are Kyle McSlarrow, the
current No. 2 at DOE, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (R), and, last but
not least, Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn (some
might say that putting the energy industry's most powerful
lobbyist at the head of the DOE would be apropos, however
indiscreet, for the Bush administration).
[Gale Norton] Gale Norton. Photo: U.S. DOI. EPA Administrator
Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton haven't made a
peep about their futures; all signs point to them staying put.
Some Beltway insiders expected Leavitt to be just a placeholder
at EPA, to hold out until the end of Bush's first term with the
understanding that he would get an upgrade after doing the dirty
work on the heels of Christie Whitman's uncomfortable departure
from the agency. The rumor mill had it that Leavitt wanted
Interior, according to former EPA enforcement chief Sylvia
Lowrance.
That's not looking like much of an option now given that Norton
doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Norton is rumored to have had
high hopes of replacing Attorney General John Ashcroft, having
served as Colorado's AG before coming to Interior, but she lost
out to Alberto Gonzales.
[Mike Leavitt] Mike Leavitt. Photo: U.S. Senate. Leavitt doesn't
seem too disappointed with the current state of affairs. He told
the press excitedly last week that the election validated the
Bush administration's approach to environmental policy, and he
[http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-me-enviro10
nov10,1,1046635.story?coll=la-news-a_section] that more than a
third of EPA's staff would become eligible to retire in the next
four years, "giving him a chance to remake [the agency] from the
inside out."
Lowrance, who served more than 20 years at EPA, was rankled by
the pronouncement: "It's clear that there's a desire [in the
Leavitt EPA] to get rid of some of the most seasoned career
staff, most of whom have served both Democratic and Republican
administrations well. It's so unfortunate that this
administration can't embrace them."
Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, sounded even more despondent: "My guess is
Leavitt will get just what he wants, waves and waves of
retirements, but there's no guarantee that these civil servants
will even be replaced given the huge budget cuts that are likely
in store for the EPA. At the end of the next four years, the
agency could be a walking corpse, or at least crippled to the
point that it can't effectively do its job."
By that point, Leavitt might not be heading the agency.
According to one energy-industry lobbyist who spoke to Muckraker
on condition of anonymity, Leavitt will stick around for now, but
probably not for Bush's full second term: "I am sure there is a
bigger role ahead for Mike Leavitt -- he's a rising star."
Neither is Norton expected to stay for the long haul: "My guess
is that Norton will go and run for Colorado governor," said the
lobbyist, in which case Leavitt might get his desired post in
2006, when the Centennial State's governorship comes up for
election. Ultimately, this musical-chairs game is more
entertainment than substance. No matter who sits where, the Bush
administration has made its agenda clear, along with the fact
that it doesn't take kindly to renegades.
Muck it up: We welcome rumors, whistleblowing, classified
documents, or other useful tips on environmental policies,
Beltway shenanigans, and the people behind them. Please send 'em
to [muckraker@grist.org] . - - - - - - - - - -
Amanda Griscom Little writes Grist's
[http://www.grist.org/news/muck/] column on environmental
politics and policy and interviews green luminaries for the
magazine. Her articles on energy and the environment have also
appeared in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The New
York Times Magazine.
< Previous [Sign Me Up] Sign up for free environmental news
by email.
[ class=] Article Tools Print this story Email this story Write
to the editor New in Grist ... You Put Your Right Foot in ..., in
Muckraker. Shuffling is afoot in Bush administration's
environment-related slots. Soy Story, in Ask Umbra. What are the
environmental impacts of soy? Kick the Habitat, in Muckraker.
Congressional Republicans are taking aim at the Endangered
Species Act. From the Archives Kick the Habitat, by Amanda
Griscom Little. GOP has set its sights on revamping the
Endangered Species Act. It Takes a Value Village, by Amanda
Griscom Little. Election serves as whack upside the head for
environmental community. Frankenbill, by Amanda Griscom Little.
The energy bill is alive -- alive! -- and that could be bad news
for ANWR. Muckraker Archives
sm)] ©2004. Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
44 KTVB: Project would consolidate power-system production at INEEL
12:06 PM MST on Thursday, November 18, 2004
Associated Press
ARCO -- The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory could become the sole production site for power
systems fueled by plutonium-238.
The government is evaluating the proposal to build the
radio-isotope power systems used in both space exploration and
national security in eastern Idaho.
Two other sites are currently involved in production. But neither
has the reactor that is critical to the process.
The $230 million plant was not expected to generate many new
permanent jobs. But federal officials maintain the amount of
radioactive waste the production process would generate would be
minimal.
The government intends to decide on the project next fall. It's
holding hearings next month in eastern and southern Idaho to
gauge public reaction.
©2004 Belo Interactive Inc.
*****************************************************************
45 lamonitor.com: DOE looks for input
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
[http://www.lanl.gov/worldview]
[http://www.lac-nm.us]
ROGER SNODGRASS, [roger@lamonitor.com] , Monitor Assistant
Editor
POJOAQUE - The secretary of energy has resigned. Who the new boss
will be and what he will do when he is confirmed is anybody's
guess. The department is operating on a continuing resolution
that may stretch well into next year.
The Los Alamos Site Office has many new and acting officials,
some working to correct recent problems and mistakes.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory contract is up for bid. A
request for proposal will include details of the environmental
restoration project that is still coming together.
And the New Mexico Environment Department has incorporated
penalties and deadlines into a complicated environmental cleanup
prescription, spelled out in a hard-won, but still unsigned,
agreement known as the consent order. John Ordaz, the assistant
manager for environmental management painted that picture for the
Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board, a DOE chartered
group responsible for public input on environmental matters.
Ordaz spoke at a meeting Wednesday evening.
"As stakeholders you should expect a good relationship between
DOE and NMED," Ordaz said. "We are making progress." With NMED's
James Bearzi in attendance, vouching for Ordaz's characterization
of the agreement, NNMCAB members looked inside the work plan and
schedule for signs of activity and opportunities to weigh in with
their advice.
"What's going to get done this fiscal year? Are there just
studies going on? Are we going to see trucks moving stuff off the
mountain?" board chair, Timothy DeLong asked Ordaz in introducing
his presentation about plans for the next two years.
The immediate schedule is heavily weighted with preliminary steps
in the rehabilitation process, including seven work plans, six
investigative reports and two corrective measures implementation
plans.
Penalty deadlines have been established for 15 deliverables,
although the dates will slip if there are delays in obtaining
approvals from NMED, Ordaz said.
Other scheduled work for FY2005 includes drilling, sampling and
analysis for 14 intermediate and regional groundwater wells,
several site characterizations at material disposal areas in the
DP Site area at Technical Area 21 and the Waste Disposal Site at
Technical Area 54. Additionally, canyon investigations will take
place in Mortandad, Los Alamos/Pueblo and Pajarito canyons.
Actual corrective actions are planned for the airport, town site
and a solid waste management unit at S-Site in Technical Area 16.
Ordaz said the problem that arose concerning the airport landfill
remediation was "a mix up," and that a resolution was well under
way.
After protestations by officials from Los Alamos County, the
pilots, and the FAA, he said, "We agreed to put a stop to the
work and solicit feedback from all the stakeholders."
The plan now calls for an environmental assessment to be
prepared. Ordaz said a public scoping meeting would be held in a
few weeks.
"This was an example of where we did something wrong and should
hopefully learn something from these situations," he said.
Ordaz offered two separate graphs for funding scenarios for
FY2005, one based on a continuing resolution and one based on new
appropriation requests, both showing a leveling off of funding
and a decline in the next few years.
The CAB members were concerned about an impending transfer of
environmental management responsibilities to the National Nuclear
Security Administration, at which point their institutional
arrangements would need to be updated.
Ordaz assured them that he was already working on making sure
their budget, as well as funds for the Pueblos and the NMED DOE
Oversight Bureau, was duly transferred to NNSA, when the time
came in FY2006.
Earlier in their meeting, the Board heard a presentation on the
Environmental Protection agency's draft compliance plan for
surface water pollution monitoring and management, a permission
in the clean up program that NMED does not control, while the
approval of the consent order awaits approval of the EPA plan.
The board voted to submit its comments on the draft document, as
prepared by a special ad hoc committee with some minor editorial
changes.
Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety asked the
board to hire an outside consultant to review the laboratory's
storm water monitoring plan, which was only now available. Her
concern was that the schedule for the permit was going to take a
long time and might be misguided and inadequate, given the
increased radioactive surface water pollution already reported.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
46 DOE: Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee
FR Doc 04-25536
[Federal Register: November 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 222)]
[Notices] [Page 67583-67584] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18no04-90]
Name: Public meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee on PHS
Activities and Research at DOE Sites: Oak Ridge Reservation
Health Effects Subcommittee (ORRHES).
Time and Date: 6 p.m.-8 p.m., November 30, 2004. Place: Oak Ridge
Mall, Alpine Meeting Room, 333 East Main Street, Oak Ridge, TN
Telephone: (865) 482-2008.
Status: Open to the public, limited only by the space available.
The meeting room accommodates approximately 50 people.
Background: Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in
October 1990 and renewed in September 2000 between ATSDR and DOE,
the MOU delineates the responsibilities and procedures for
ATSDR's public health activities at DOE sites required under
sections 104, 105, 107, and 120 of the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA
or ``Superfund''). These activities include health consultations
and public health assessments at DOE sites listed on, or proposed
for, the Superfund National Priorities List and at sites that are
the subject of petitions from the public; and other
health-related activities such as epidemiologic studies, health
surveillance, exposure and disease registries, health education,
substance-specific applied research, emergency response, and
preparation of toxicological profiles. In addition, under an MOU
signed in December 1990 with DOE and replaced by an MOU signed in
[[Page 67584]] 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) has been given the responsibility and resources for
conducting analytic epidemiologic investigations of residents of
communities in the vicinity of DOE facilities, workers at DOE
facilities, and other persons potentially exposed to radiation or
to potential hazards from non-nuclear energy production and use.
HHS has delegated program responsibility to CDC. Community
involvement is a critical part of ATSDR's and CDC's energy-
related research and activities and input from members of the
ORRHES is part of these efforts.
Purpose: The purpose of this meeting is to address issues that
are unique to community involvement with the ORRHES, and agency
updates.
Matters to be Discussed: Agenda items will include a brief
discussion on the ATSDR project management plan and the schedule
of Public Health Assessments to be released in FY2005-2006, and
updates and recommendations from the Exposure Evaluation,
Community Concerns and Communications, and the Health Outcome
Data Workgroups, and agency updates.
Agenda items are subject to change as priorities dictate.
Due to programmatic issues that had to be resolved, the Federal
Register notice is being published less than fifteen days before
the date of the meeting.
Contact Persons for More Information: Marilyn Horton, Designated
Federal Official and Committee Management Specialist, Division of
Health Assessment and Consultation, ATSDR, 1600 Clifton Road,
NE., M/S E-32 Atlanta, Georgia 30333, telephone 1-888-42-ATSDR
(28737), fax (404) 498-1744.
The Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, has been
delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices
pertaining to announcements of meetings and other committee
management activities, for both CDC and ATDSR.
Dated: November 10, 2004.
Alvin Hall, Director, Management Analysis and Services Office,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 04-25536 Filed 11-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-18-P
*****************************************************************
47 [RENEWABLEWG-LIST] Notice of Committee Workshop
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:38:40 -0800
The California Energy Commission's Renewables Committee (Committee)
will conduct a workshop to seek public comment on a proposed pilot
Performance-Based Incentive program and other changes to the Emerging
Renewables Program Guidebook.
for more information please visit:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/renewables/02-REN-1038/notices/2004-11-18_cmte_workshop.html
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Web Development Team
California Energy Commission
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for
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