***************************************************************** 11/23/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.280 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Calls for Verifying Iran Nuke Claims 2 Reuters: Iran objects to wording in nuclear resolution-UK 3 Independent: Iran suspends uranium enrichment and opens way to fresh 4 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Nuclear North: a joust with Tokyo over langua 5 Korea Herald: Roh promotes nuclear settlement, trade 6 US: [du-list] Give the gift of hope this holiday season 7 US: No Nukes is Good Nukes -- and we're just a bunch of 8 US: [du-list] We appear evil 9 US: [NYTr] Major Bush Defeat: Congress Nixes New Nuke Weapons 10 US: [shundahaialerts] Victory! Funds For New Nukes Cut From 11 US: Fw: [Bananas] RELEASE: ANA Cheers Congressional Cuts to Nuclear 12 US: Deseret news: Utah share of federal cash: $250 million 13 US: Capital Times: Nuke plant decision hints at new PSC 14 US: NR: Green groups failed to inject the environment into the elect 15 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah reaps quarter-billion in federal spendin 16 US: Daily Press: Nuclear nostalgia 17 US: MSNBC: A New General For Senate Dems 18 Sign-on letter to protest Japanese reprocessing plant 19 allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Halliburton Returns Radioactive Material 20 TheStar.com: Sifting through claims on nukes NUCLEAR REACTORS 21 US: SD UT: San Onofre reactor restarted after abrupt shutdown 22 US: JS Online: Point Beach nuclear reactor shut down to fix leaking 23 UK Evening Times: Whistleblower in uni rector bid - 24 US: Rutland Herald: Historic Yankee hearing ordered 25 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Panel: Uprate claims accepted 26 US: NRC: NRC Revises Regulations for Structures, Systems and Compone 27 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find NUCLEAR SAFETY 28 US: [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Congress Keeps COOL; Anti-Food Irradiation 29 US: [du-list] Legislator Takes Up Veterans' Cause; Will Back 30 US: KRT Wire: Dangerous testing went beyond vets to orphans, prisone 31 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utahns to team up on N-testing and environmen 32 US: Times-News: Downwinders to AG: Sue the fedsBy Michelle Dunlop 33 US: Hawk Eye: UI to keep filing IAAP medical claims NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 34 US: AP Wire: Congress approves MOX funding, but no money for new nat 35 Nevada Appeal: Reid's aide to be on agency deciding Yucca license 36 Las Vegas RJ: DOE revises Yucca schedule 37 Las Vegas SUN: DOE's schedule change could benefit Nevada 38 RGJ: Yucca license request behind schedule 39 Waste News: Congress OKs spending $500 million to continue Yucca Mt. 40 US: PE.com: Resident hot about higherwater rates NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 41 ABQjournal: Small Firms Criticize LANL on Contract Offers 42 Deseret news: Another review for Rocky Flats? 43 Tri-City Herald: Spending bill includes state projects 44 Chattanoogan: Wamp Secures Funding For Regional Projects - 45 Rocky Mountain News: Allard orders probe of cleanup at Flats 46 DenverPost.com: Allard wants GAO review of Flats cleanup 47 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald OTHER NUCLEAR 48 [du-list] DU in the news - 25th Nov. 04 49 Publications: Book "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear 50 Publications | Book "USSR Nuclear Tests. Hydronuclear Experiments. P 51 Publications: Publications of the Analytical Center ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Calls for Verifying Iran Nuke Claims By JENNIFER LOVEN ASSOCIATED PRESS CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - President Bush said Monday that he hopes Iran's claim that it has suspended uranium enrichment and has no nuclear weapons ambitions is true, but "there must be verification." Iran must "earn the trust of those of us who are worried about them developing a nuclear weapon," Bush said at a seaside news conference during a four-hour visit with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Earlier Monday, Iran announced it has suspended uranium enrichment. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said he believed Iran had stopped its enrichment activities - the central part of an agreement with Europe designed to head off possible U.N. sanctions. "Let's say, I hope it's true," Bush said. But, he added, "I think the definition of truth is the willingness of the Iranian regime to allow for verification." Iranian leaders "have said some things in the past, and it's very important for them to verify" that Tehran is not attempting to acquire nuclear weapons, Bush said. He said that it wasn't just the United States that was concerned. "France, Great Britain and Germany and other nations around the world understand the dangers of the Iranian government having a nuclear weapon." The United States had sought to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, a step that could lead to sanctions. However, if the International Atomic Energy Agency rules that Iran is honoring its commitment to suspend enrichment, it would blunt any call for sanctions. Bush's comments on verification echoed the late President Reagan's famous "trust but verify" insistence to Soviet leaders on the subject of enforcing nuclear-arms reduction agreements. Speaking in their shirt sleeves at two waterfront podiums set up overlooking the Caribbean city, Bush and Uribe talked about working together to combat drug trafficking and establish free trade across the hemisphere. Uribe linked his government's fight against rebels and drug traffickers to the larger war on terrorism. "We have made a major effort which translates into greater security," Uribe said. Bush said he would ask Congress to renew U.S. support for anti-drug efforts. He noted that over five years, Washington has given more than $3 billion in aid to Colombia to combat cocaine production and the leftist rebels that finance themselves through drug-trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. "The drug traffickers who practice violence and intimidation in this country send their addictive and deadly products to the United States," Bush said. "Defeating them is vital to the safety of our peoples and to the stability of this hemisphere." "This war against narcoterrorism can and will be won, and Colombia is well on its way to that victory." The drug trade - and the deadly Marxist insurgent groups that control it - led to extraordinary security measures for Bush's visit. About 15,000 Colombian security forces were deployed for protection. Helicopters swooped low over Bush's motorcade. U.S. Navy commandoes, toting assault rifles and peering through binoculars, patrolled the Caribbean waters in rubber boats, joining submarines and battle ships. Radar was used to search for hostile aircraft or missiles. Bush visit here was the final stop of a three-day Latin American trip aimed at improving the U.S. image in the region. The meeting with Uribe also was meant to underscore Bush's commitment to Colombia's war against drug trade as part of the war on terrorism, officials said. Both leaders also were interested in advancing negotiations on an Andean free-trade pact with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. In the two years since Uribe came to power, some measure of stability has been restored, with lower crime rates and kidnappings. Plan Colombia has helped jail scores of traffickers and reduce the coca crop by 20 percent for two years in a row, the official said. And the battle against rebel groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, and the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN - is being expanded from the capital of Bogota to more rural areas, the official said. But the efforts have still failed to visibly reduce cocaine production or keep it off U.S. streets. And the 40-year-old insurgency continues to claim an estimated 3,500 lives every year. Eric Olson of Amnesty International USA said his organization remains concerned that both army and paramilitary forces continue to carry out gross human rights - separately and working in concert - typically with complete impunity. Bush needs to tell Uribe "that the continued links between armed forces and paramilitaries is unacceptable," Olson said. While in Cartagena, Bush shook hands with more than a dozen elementary school-aged baseball players. "There's a champ, right there," Bush said, pointing to Orlando Cabrera, a Colombian native who plays for the world champion Boston Red Sox. Bush was to end the day in Texas, where he was spending the rest of the week and the Thanksgiving holiday at his ranch. -- ***************************************************************** 2 Reuters: Iran objects to wording in nuclear resolution-UK By Madeline Chambers SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Iran has raised objections to the wording of a draft U.N. resolution on its nuclear activities, including the suspension of its uranium enrichment programme, Britain said on Tuesday. The draft resolution, due to be submitted to a Thursday meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors in Vienna, follows Tehran's suspension on Monday of activities that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. The suspension is likely to thwart U.S. efforts to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, but countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board were still negotiating over the resolution's wording. The United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop atomic bombs under the veil of a nuclear power project but Iran says it only wants to generate electricity. "Iran made strong representations about some parts of the agreement," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw after meeting his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi on the sidelines of a conference on Iraq. Officials at the conference and diplomats in Vienna said Iran was concerned about the wording of two paragraphs in the EU-drafted resolution, specifically on the suspension of uranium enrichment activities and its monitoring by the IAEA. "Iran's problem is the way the suspension is described and the way its monitoring by (IAEA chief Mohamed) ElBaradei is described," a senior British official said. He said it has always been essential to Iran that the suspension is recognised as voluntary and it wants to avoid a 'trigger clause' which would refer Iran to the Security Council if it breaches the suspension, something the U.S. has demanded. INDIRECT TRIGGER However, Iranian officials are concerned about what they see as an indirect trigger in the text. The text says that it is "essential" that Iran keep all parts of its enrichment programme suspended if Iran's case is to be resolved "within the framework of the Agency". While not a direct threat of a Security Council referral, this wording hints that it could be considered, which makes it troublesome for the Iranians, diplomats said. "We have 48 hours of hard work to do," said the senior British official. Enriched uranium is used as a fuel in nuclear power stations but highly enriched uranium can be used in a nuclear warhead. France, Britain and Germany circulated the draft resolution on Monday. The three countries led the European Union effort to persuade Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities in the hope that it will eventually scrap enrichment for good. The draft urges Iran to "sustain the suspension" and says ElBaradei should "report immediately to the IAEA board should the agency encounter evidence that the suspension is not fully implemented, or be prevented from monitoring all elements of the suspension". Kharrazi has already met German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and will meet French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier later on Tuesday to discuss the issue. "We have been involved in a step-by-step negotiation with the Iranians. It is in everybody's interests that this should be resolved in a sensible and satisfactory way," Straw said. IAEA inspectors are verifying the suspension and hope to confirm it has been implemented at Thursday's board meeting. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Vienna) ***************************************************************** 3 Independent: Iran suspends uranium enrichment and opens way to fresh nuclear deal with EU [http://www.independent.co.uk] By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 23 November 2004 A claim by Iran that it has suspended uranium enrichment appears to open a three-month window for a compromise over what it insists is its peaceful atomic energy programme. But the US remains convinced that Tehran remains determined to develop nuclear weapons. The suspension was announced yesterday by Iranian state radio, as what it called a "confidence-building" move, before negotiations resume on a long-term deal between Iran and the European Union. "I think pretty much everything has been stopped," Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said. IAEA inspectors will verify the shut-down so that it can be formally ratified by an IAEA board meeting in Vienna on Thursday. What happens thereafter largely depends on the EU and the as yet unspecified economic and political co-operation deal it has promised Tehran, which is also expected to offer EU help with civil nuclear technology. Kamal Kharrazi, the Foreign Minister, said: "After three months we will evaluate," stressing that the goal was an agreement with the EU "that convinces them we are not planning a bomb, but that will permit Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes". Hard-liners have accused the government of sacrificing the country's interests. Washington, however, is convinced that the entire exercise is being used by Iran as a smokescreen. Only reluctantly has the US dropped its demand for Iran to be brought before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. At theAsia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Chile, President George Bush left no doubt that preventing nuclear proliferation was his top foreign policy for the second term, taking direct aim at North Korea and Iran. US suspicions have been given extra edge by recent events - ranging from claims that the Iranian regime was operating a secret enrichment facility in Tehran, to the admission that it had already produced hexafluoride gas used in the enrichment process. Mr Kharrazi has flatly denied that Iran had bought weapons-grade uranium abroad - a claim advanced by an opposition exile group - or that it was developing a missile to carry a nuclear warhead, as alleged last week by General Colin Powell, the outgoing Secretary of State. The US information appears to be based on a single uncorroborated source, but General Powell is not backing down. "I stick by it," he said yesterday. The EU deal was reached after talks in Paris between officials from Britain, France, Germany and Iran. Tehran insists it is entitled to pursue peaceful atomic energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory. © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd ***************************************************************** 4 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Nuclear North: a joust with Tokyo over language November 24, 2004 KST 11:29 (GMT+9) 9th in a series November 24, 2004 ¤Ń Two days before the South Korea-Japan summit, senior officials of the two countries were coordinating the wording of the joint statement on June 5, 2003, in Tokyo. Lee Soo-hyuck, South Korea's deputy foreign minister, and Mitoji Yabunaka, Mr. Lee's counterpart, were struggling to find common ground on North Korea's nuclear problem in a second day of discussions. "We should say that tougher measures should be taken if North Korea worsens the situation. That was agreed at the Japan-U.S. summit on May 24," Mr. Yabunaka claimed. "At the May 15 South Korea-U.S. summit, the joint statement said further steps would be taken, and South Koreans criticized the expression severely because it left room for a military option," Mr. Lee said. "Including a stronger expression such as ˇ®tougher measures' is not acceptable." A senior Seoul official said, "We told Japanese officials that domestic opinion was not favorable toward the planned Roh-Koizumi meeting. "We pointed out that President Roh Moo-hyun was visiting Japan on Korea's Memorial Day, and that Japanese lawmakers were scheduled to vote on emergency legislation enabling Japan to actively respond to a war," he said. "We told the Japanese it was a serious concern that the joint statement might increase tensions on the peninsula. Japan, however, persisted in including the possibility of taking tougher measures, so we had to say that no joint statement should be issued." Tokyo, however, claimed that a joint statement was necessary. After Mr. Yabunaka briefed Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and the prime minister on the situation, the deadlock was broken. Japan yielded, omitting the expression from the statement, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would use those words during the press conference after the summit. "To help solve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully, the two leaders strongly urged the North not to take any more actions to aggravate the situation. In this connection, the two leaders reaffirmed the principles agreed to in the Korea-U.S. summit and Japan-U.S. summit held on May 14 and May 23 respectively and decided to continue to strengthen Korea-Japan coordination," the statement read. Before and after Mr. Roh's meetings with Japanese and U.S. leaders, North Korea did not stop its nuclear blackmail. During a visit by U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (Republican of Pennsylvania) to Pyeongyang from May 30 to June 1, Paek Nam-sun, North Korea's foreign minister, told the U.S. legislator that Pyeongyang had nearly completed the reprocessing of its 8,000 spent fuel rods. That was a month after signs of possible reprocessing were detected at North Korea's nuclear facility in Yeongbyeon. North Korea then began using the term "nuclear deterrent power." On June 18, North Korea' Foreign Ministry spokesman said his country would continue to reinforce its nuclear deterrent power as means of self-defense. North Korea's actions were connected with U.S. pressure on the country. During his visit to Poland on May 31, Mr. Bush first made public a new plan to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. "On May 31st in Krakow, Poland, President Bush announced a new effort to combat weapons of mass destruction, called the Proliferation Security Initiative," John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, told the international relations committee of the House of Representatives on June 4, 2003. "Our goal is to work with other concerned states to develop new means to disrupt the proliferation trade at sea, in the air, and on land. The initiative reflects the need for a more dynamic, pro-active approach to the global proliferation problem. It envisions partnerships of states working in concert, employing their national capabilities to develop a broad range of legal, diplomatic, economic, military and other tools to interdict threatening shipments of WMD- and missile-related equipment and technologies." Mr. Bolton also said the initiative would prevent North Korea's transfer of weapons of mass destruction and would influence the North Korean regime. "The United States also decided to use the card of referring the matter to the UN Security Council," Philip Reeker, deputy spokesman of the State Department, said on June 21. "We have looked for the UN Security Council to take steps to demonstrate the international community's concern with the nuclear weapons program that is being pursued by North Korea." "One of the things, one of the possible ways forward we have looked at, is a presidential statement," he said. "That is a format that where the UN Security Council, through its presidency ˇŞ as you know, it has a rotating presidency ˇŞ can make a statement that expresses the views of the Security Council on behalf of the international community," Washington was saying it wanted to deal with the North's nuclear aspirations as a threat to peace and security of the international community. Nothing appeared near to ease the Washington-Pyeongyang tensions. by Oh Young-hwan, Jeong Yong-su myoja@joongang.co.kr> [http://joongangdaily.joins.com/faq.html] Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 5 Korea Herald: Roh promotes nuclear settlement, trade 2004.11.24 By Seo Hyun-jin [http://www.voiceware.co.kr] President Roh Moo-hyun returned to Seoul last night after 12 days of whirlwind summit diplomacy in South America geared to promoting a peaceful resolution of North Korea's nuclear standoff and boosting economic relations with other countries. Roh enlisted international assistance to defuse tensions surrounding the nuclear issue when he met leaders attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Santiago on Nov. 20-21, and acquired a bridgehead to South America by agreeing on a series of economic cooperation measures during summit talks in Argentina, Brazil and Chile before the international gathering. Touted as his foremost achievement during the trip is that he created a better environment for speeding up multilateral negotiations on the North Korean nuclear issue. Roh agreed with U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao that they will enhance their efforts to open a new round of six-party talks as early as possible. South Korea, the United States and China are key members of the nuclear talks that also involve North Korea, Japan and Russia. Concerned parties are expected to put more pressure on Pyongyang to attend the fourth round of the crucial talks, which could not open in September as scheduled due to Pyongyang's rejection in a delaying tactic seen as reflecting its desire to await the outcome of the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election. Amid concerns the re-elected Bush may take hardline policies toward the North, the Roh-Bush summit gave a positive signal to both Pyongyang and Seoul. The two leaders agreed to give top priority to solution of the prolonged nuclear problem as well as pursue peaceful and diplomatic ways. Bush reaffirmed that he has no intention of attacking the communist country. "During his meeting with President Bush, President Roh clarified our ideas for breaking the nuclear deadlock and the two presidents broadened mutual understanding about the nuclear issue and other bilateral issues," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said. But the optimistic assessment by South Korean officials about Roh's nuclear diplomacy will be offset if Pyongyang continues to refuse to attend the talks and thus give hardliners in Washington more support for their view that the United States should get tougher. This will increase the possibility of conflicts between South Korea and the United States on how to deal with the isolationist country since the South opposes applying tougher measures on the North. Some experts say North Korea may need more time to decide on its stance in dealing with the second-term Bush administration in which neo-conservatives will take key posts. On the economic front, Roh made major strides to enhance exchanges and cooperation between South Korea and the resource-abundant South American region. Roh was the second South Korean president to visit the region, following former President Kim Young-sam's trip in 1996. Roh agreed with the leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Chile to upgrade bilateral ties to enable comprehensive cooperation in the 21st century He obtained agreements that both sides will launch a joint study on the feasibility of a trade agreement between South Korea and the South American common market grouping Mercosur, which will provide major inroads for South Korean companies into the region. Roh's visit secured Seoul's participation in the Inter-American Development Bank as a full extra-regional member, laying the groundwork for Korean firms to join the government procurement market in South America. Exchanges in the area of natural resources and information technology will also increase as South Korea reached a set of agreements with the three South American countries to that effect. With the trip, Roh completed his diplomacy in emerging markets in BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India and China. The president visited China last year, Russia in September and India in October. His third round of summit diplomacy this year provided an important opportunity to increase Seoul's standing in the international community. While attending the APEC forum, Roh urged the other 20 members to join hands in fighting against terrorism and corruption. He also underscored Seoul's commitment to the successful hosting of next November's APEC meeting in the southern port city of Busan. (shj@heraldm.com) By Seo Hyun-jin 2004.11.24 ***************************************************************** 6 [du-list] Give the gift of hope this holiday season Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:07 -0800 Dear Friends, The holidays are quickly approaching and you still haven’t decided what to give your loved ones? How about giving them the gift of hope and courage in these troubled times. Give them the new book, The Ambushed Grand Jury (The Apex Press, 2004), the true story of a government nuclear coverup and how ordinary citizens caught them red-handed. All of the authors’ profits from the sale of The Ambushed Grand Jury go to environmental and nuclear watchdog groups, so you will be giving a gift to them and to our shared future as well. Simply, scroll the list of organizations and click on The Military Toxics Project for proceeds from the sale to go to MTP. Just click on this link: http://ambushedgrandjury.com, and then click on the BUY THE BOOK link. We will send the book out ASAP. If you want us to include a plain white card that says “A gift to you from (your name)”, just let us know at contact@ambushedgrandjury.com or just fill out the appropriate box on the online order form. There ­ your shopping will be done, with no need to run around crowded stores. You can spend more time reading The Ambushed Grand Jury yourself. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this email. Happy Holidays from The Ambushed Grand Jury Citizens’ Investigation team. For more information about us or the book, see ambushedgrandjury.com. If you’d like to help, will you consider sending this email on to some friends? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 7 No Nukes is Good Nukes -- and we're just a bunch of Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:16 -0800 November 23rd, 2004 Requested OP-ED To The Editor: So let me get this straight: They've installed these metal plates thousands of times across the country, in coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, and nuclear plants. Only San Onofre's staff couldn't do it right. Not only could they not tighten the bolts correctly, or use bolt-locking devices (of which there have been quite a few invented over the years), or check the bolts a reasonable time later to ensure they were NOT loosening, or use a bolt-locking chemical (yes, they make industrial-strength versions), but in all the combined years of experience installing these aluminum plates, vibrational loosening had never occurred before anywhere else. So NO ONE thought about where the plate might end up if it DID fall! I'm supposed to believe that only San Onofre is so unlucky -- it's not that they're cutting corners, or hiring unskilled workers, or are trying desperate measures to keep their plants operating, and it's certainly NOT because they aren't being properly inspected. And it's not that they're dumb. They're just frighteningly unlucky, that's all! And how did a ground wire (the original reported cause of the recent SCRAM) become an aluminum plate, anyway, in the later reports? Regarding the damage done when the plate fell, apparently that's STILL not being considered for next time, because the solution appears to be to use a bigger hammer (or a bigger screwdriver or a bigger wrench) to hammer on or screw on or bolt on a bigger aluminum plate -- and when THAT one falls -- not in a mere 90 days like this one, but in 39 years, the expected additional life of the plant, now that they've got their first extension for the next 20 years -- what damage will THAT do? SCRAMing a 59-year-old reactor will be a very risky thing to do. The fact is, despite the current loss of BOTH reactors (one being already down for refueling and "maintenance"), the lights in SoCal have stayed on and we don't need to restart EITHER reactor -- in less time than it takes to refuel the plant, we could build -- temporarily -- a thousand megawatts of additional capacity and then nearly as quickly -- over the next year or so -- we could replace that with offshore wind power and other renewable options. (Note: Had the lights actually gone out, it would have been due to corporate shenanigans, NOT genuine need! Replacement power for California's four reactors IS AVAILABLE.) These are not the dreams of scattered visionaries, EVERY reasonable economic outlook requires that we reject nuclear power. Otherwise, our children will be saddled with additional millions of pounds of nuclear waste, OR the results of a nuclear Chernobyl -- or WORSE -- right here in our own yards. A SCRAM of a reactor is VIOLENT. It is DANGEROUS. It WEARS OUT the plant. Those hundreds of thousands of gallons of swiftly circulating water do NOT come to a halt quietly. It strains every bolt, every weld, every pipe, every vessel that surrounds it. A SCRAM should really NEVER be done -- and never NEED to be done. Normal shutdowns are elongated, drawn out affairs, and if more than a few SCRAMs occur to any one reactor within any one year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- even that lapdog agency -- starts to show concern and starts slapping wrists all over the place. San Onofre's two operating reactors are already OLD -- that's why things like this keep happening. Their parts need constant vigilance for there to be any chance of safe operation. But TIME AND TIME AGAIN we've seen, instead, failure at the plant -- oh, there was a power failure (8:50 am) -- I think maybe they are trying to restart it. That sometimes drains the whole SoCal power grid. Restarts are also somewhat violent affairs, especially to the power grid. When a nuclear plant SCRAMs, we lose, in an instant, about 1,000,000,000 watts of power. Delicate electronic equipment all around the local counties -- San Diego, Orange, and even Imperial, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties -- can be damaged by power drops of that magnitude. A more distributed solution -- built from a combination of solar, wind, and other renewables such as tide and wave power -- would mean we would have safe energy, reliably backed up with links to international power sources. In emergencies (when SoCal is a sink instead of a source of power, like it should be) things like Canadian hydro could supply our needs for brief or peak periods. If we are too poor to do all that -- if we are sticking with the ugly nuclear solution because these things sound too expensive or too complicated or too "futuristic" -- then we are not the high-tech nation we think we are. It's all possible TODAY. If we don't change, we're just a bunch of cheapskates living off our children's misery. Sincerely, Russell Hoffman Concerned Citizen Author, "POIFU" (Poison Fire USA, an animated chronology of nukes in America) Carlsbad, CA ************************************************* ** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY ** Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and Chief Programmer ** P.O. Box 1936, Carlsbad CA 92018-1936 ** (800) 551-2726 ** (760) 720-7261 ** Fax: (760) 720-7394 ** Visit the world's most eclectic web site: ** http://www.animatedsoftware.com ************************************************* IF YOU RECEIVED THIS EMAIL IN ERROR AND/OR DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE ANY MORE EMAILS FROM US FOR ANY REASON, PLEASE CONTACT RUSSELL HOFFMAN AT: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com MailTo:rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com?Subject=Unsubscribe-me-please . Please be sure that "Unsubscribe-me-please" appears in the subject line. ***************************************************************** 8 [du-list] We appear evil Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:47 -0800 We appear evil The Salt Lake Tribune 11/20/2004 http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2469436 A bubble of interest seems to be occurring on the Web: Google recently had 360,000 hits for "depleted uranium" all within a 24-hour period. I've been following reports of the United States' use of depleted uranium ammunition over the past couple of days on the Web. Our use of this poison has hurt our troops and the people of Iraq and Kosovo. It appears that thousands of tons of this very dense material were used in the Gulf War of 1991. It was used in Kosovo and again in Iraq. It is radioactive and remains dangerous virtually forever, longer than man has walked on Earth. Its most horrible effects appear not from cancer, but in human fetuses. We have been terrified by the thought of some terrorist setting off a dirty bomb and poisoning a U.S. city. Meanwhile we have spread radioactive uranium all over Iraq. Who answers to the Iraqi mothers whose babies cannot live, poisoned in their wombs by dust or vapor from uranium. The earth, air and water in Iraq has been contaminated by our use of depleted uranium munitions. We would call it a war crime if someone else did it. We've sunk to the level of our adversaries the terrorists. The radiation dangers are long-term effects. In the short term, the attack on Fallujah during Ramadan is just the perfect recruitment device for future terrorists. We do appear evil. Steve Worcester Salt Lake City -- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a home for your web domain? 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Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 9 [NYTr] Major Bush Defeat: Congress Nixes New Nuke Weapons Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:15:11 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Chicago Tribune - Nov 23, 2004 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0411230232nov23,1,4280492.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed Arms Control Activists Hail Bush Setback By Michael Kilian Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- The defeat over the weekend of President Bush's attempts to fund research and possibly development of a new family of nuclear weapons was hailed Monday by arms control advocates as their biggest success in more than a decade. They were reacting to the approval by the Senate and House of a spending bill that eliminates funding for the nuclear "bunker buster" as well as other "advanced concept" tactical nuclear weapons. "This is the biggest victory that arms control advocates in Congress have had since 1992, when we were able to place limits on nuclear testing," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the leading opponents of the Bush administration's nuclear arms program. "If we are to convince other countries to forgo nuclear weapons, we cannot be preparing to build an entire new generation of nuclear weapons here in the U.S." The administration had argued that it was important at least to study such weapons at a time of great threat against the United States. But congressional sources said Republicans joined with Democrats in opposing the program because of the example it would set while the U.S. is trying to compel North Korea and Iran to abandon their nuclear arms efforts. In addition, lawmakers were concerned by the budgetary pressure of the costly Iraq war and the spiraling deficit. The Bush administration, which is likely to continue making the program a priority in the president's second term, had sought $27.6 million to continue work on the bunker buster or Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a nuclear weapon that would be aimed at an enemy's underground sanctuary. The goal would be to deny enemies havens for weapons of mass destruction or to hide from U.S. forces. Rationale for bomb "We want, in some hypothetical future confrontation with a hypothetical generic dictator, to make it absolutely clear that he doesn't have an invulnerable sanctuary," Linton Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said recently. An agency spokesman acknowledged the congressional action was a setback, but attributed the defeat to legislative procedure. "We are of course very disappointed that there was not funding for all the administration requests for the NNSA," agency spokesman Bryan Wilkes said. "We think that if the issue had come to a specific floor vote on it we would have prevailed. Instead, it was caught up in the appropriations process." He said he did not know if the nuclear weapons programs would be included in Bush's fiscal year 2006 budget requests. The White House had outlined plans to spend more than $500 million on the penetrator project over the next several years, which some analysts said was enough to move the weapon into production. Bush also had asked for $9 million for further research into the possible development of "advanced concept" low-yield tactical nuclear weapons that could be used on a battlefield. In addition to eliminating the funding requests, Congress slashed to $7 million from $29.8 million a White House request to build new nuclear warhead facilities, or "pits," and cut $30 million that the administration had planned to use to speed resumption of nuclear testing, if that proved necessary. Though Brooks argued it was not the intention of the White House to start "some bad new nuclear arms race," critics argued these actions would have precisely that effect. Russian's observation Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had said that pursuit of these programs would be "a case of letting the genie out of the bottle." According to the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, Russia still has about 3,400 tactical nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era that the U.S. would like eliminated. A major stumbling block to the administration's plans was a maverick Republican, Rep. David Hobson of Ohio, chairman of the House Appropriations energy subcommittee, who feared the funding would lead to a new arms race. Unlike other military programs, nuclear weapons are overseen by the Energy Department, which is monitored by Congress' energy committees. "What worries me about the nuclear penetrator," Hobson told one symposium when the administration proposal was being debated, "is that some idiot might try to use it." Though Bush can seek money for nuclear weapons research in his budget next year, opponents hope Congress' action will make clear that lawmakers are reluctant to go along. In addition to the financial and diplomatic arguments, critics questioned the new weapons' likely efficiency. The penetrator would not reach deep enough to knock out bunkers far underground, they argued, and it would release deadly radioactive clouds no matter where it was detonated. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the decision "a consequential victory for those of us who believe the United States sends a wrong signal to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door and beginning testing and development of a new generation of nuclear weapons." Copyright ) 2004, Chicago Tribune *** Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com US Congress Rejects Funds for New Nuke Weapons Washington, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) The US Congress denied a requested fund of 36.60 billion dollars for the development of new nuclear weapons, La Opinion daily reported Tuesday. Along with a requested 338 billion-dollar fund for non-military expenses, the government of President George W. Bush also asked Congressional approval of funds to produce new and small nuclear arms. However, Democrat congress people warned that the approval of such account could trigger a new nuke arms race, even among enemies of the US, the daily added. The Bush administration affirms it aims to develop a study rather than producing weapons, but these statements are inconsistent with the requested million funds for such warlike plans. The US plans to put arms in the space have forced other countries to follow similar stances, as they are concerned over a new military escalation that, according to experts, is reducing the necessary accounts for the development of Third World nations. The increase of the US military presence in Iraq multiplies the expenses resulting from the occupation of this country; something that contradicts Bush4s announced plans to reduce the huge and unprecedented fiscal deficit. sus/dig/ool *** The Macon Telegraph - Nov 22, 2004 http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/10248646.htm Congress strips funding for controversial defense initiatives BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The Republican-led Congress has rejected the Bush administration's request for $36 million to study new low-power nuclear warheads and a weapon that could smash into deeply buried bunkers. Though the administration could try to restore the funds, the bipartisan actions suggested that several of President Bush's most contentious defense initiatives could be dead. The decision last weekend was overshadowed by the controversy over the collapse of White House-backed intelligence reform legislation. "Bipartisan rejection of the funding requests sends a strong signal that Congress does not buy the administration's flimsy arguments for new nuclear weapons and new nuclear missions," asserted Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group. Brian Wilkes, a spokesman for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons programs, said the agency was disappointed that Congress denied the funds for the bunker buster study and new weapons research. "We are going to take some time to look at the numbers and assess what we are going to do," he said. Critics argued that the nuclear bunker buster study, research into new kinds of nuclear warheads and the administration's other nuclear weapons initiatives undermine U.S. security by encouraging other countries to develop nuclear arsenals. "It's a little hard to tell other countries of the world not to develop nuclear weapons or new nuclear weapons when ... we are going to do it," said Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, who led a bipartisan effort to eliminate the funds. Hobson said that at a time that the federal budget is under serious strain, the funds were better spent on efforts such as ensuring that the nation's existing nuclear weapons remain safe and dependable as they age. The House of Representatives and the Senate last weekend approved a $388 billion spending package to fund scores of domestic government agencies whose 2005 budgets hadn't been passed before Congress adjourned for the Nov. 2 elections. Stripped from the NNSA appropriation was $27 million to complete a three-year study by the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos nuclear laboratories into whether two existing models of nuclear warhead could be modified into a weapon that could destroy deeply buried underground facilities. Administration officials contend that the United States might require such a weapon because potential foes, such as North Korea, have been building hardened underground facilities that could be used to produce and store chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. They argue that a weapon that could burrow deep into earth and rock before exploding might destroy enemy underground bunkers without releasing large amounts of radioactive fallout that could kill large numbers of civilians. But many experts contend that it would be impossible to limit such fallout or produce a casing for a weapon that could withstand the impact of being dropped from high altitudes. "At the end of the day, there are many people who don't believe it will work anyway," said Hobson. "I don't see wasting the money." Also stripped from the massive spending package was $9 million the administration sought to continue research into new nuclear weapons concepts, including warheads with low explosive power. The administration said such low-yield nuclear weapons could be used to destroy enemy chemical or biological weapons stockpiles. Opponents charged that the Bush administration's so-called Advanced Concepts Initiative really was aimed at developing tactical nuclear weapons that could be used on the battlefield. Low-yield nuclear warheads are defined as those whose explosive power is equal to that of 5,000 tons of TNT or less. The U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 was a 13-kiloton weapon. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was the Russian Tsar Bomb with a force of 50-megatons, the equivalent of 50 million tons of TNT. ) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 10 [shundahaialerts] Victory! Funds For New Nukes Cut From Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 18:11:44 -0800 FUNDS FOR ATOMIC BOMB RESEARCH CUT FROM SPENDING BILL Washington Post -- November 23, 2004 by Walter Pincus Congress has eliminated the financing of research supported by President Bush into a new generation of nuclear weapons, including investigations into low-yield atomic bombs and an earth-penetrating warhead that could destroy weapons bunkers deep underground. The Bush administration called in 2002 for exploring new nuclear weapons that could deter a wide range of threats, including possible development of a warhead that could go after hardened, deeply buried targets, or lower-power bombs that could be used to destroy chemical or biological stockpiles without contaminating a wide area. But research on those programs was dropped from the $388 billion government-wide spending bill adopted Saturday, a rare instance in which the Republican-controlled Congress has gone against the president. The move slowly came to light over the weekend as details of the extensive measure became clear. Dropping the programs was praised by arms-control advocates and some members of Congress who tried unsuccessfully for several years to kill them. These opponents argued that such research by the United States could trigger a new arms race, and that the existence of lower-yield weapons -- sometimes called "mini-nukes" -- would ultimately increase the likelihood of war. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) described Saturday's result as "a consequential victory for those of us who believe the United States sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door." President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget contained $27 million to continue research on modifying two existing warheads for the earth-penetrator, or "bunker-buster," role, and it projected nearly $500 million over the next five years should a weapon be approved. While Feinstein and other Democrats had failed earlier this year to bar authorization of the program, it was a Republican, Rep. David L. Hobson of Ohio, who lead the successful effort to keep the programs out of the omnibus appropriations bill adopted Saturday. Hobson, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, oversaw dropping the money from an appropriations bill in June, and House-Senate conferees accepted that action in Saturday's bill. The Bush administration, Hobson said yesterday, "should read this as a clear signal from Congress" that any attempt to revive the funding in next year's budget "would get the same reaction." He added that he had not heard any threat of a veto and "nobody has come to me and said we can't have this." The action caught the administration by surprise. A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the nuclear weapons programs and the national nuclear laboratories, said the matter was under study. "We are disappointed Congress has not followed the administration's request in several areas, and we will assess what we will do down the road," said Bryan Wilkes, the security agency's spokesman. He added that it was too early to talk about what will be in the fiscal 2006 budget that will go to Congress in January. Also cut from the nuclear program was $7 million for selecting a site for a $4 billion facility that would build what are called plutonium pits, the nuclear triggers for thermonuclear warheads. Arms-control advocates had opposed the facility, arguing that with a sharp 50 percent reduction in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, a small facility operating now at Los Alamos National Laboratory could produce enough pits for the U.S. arsenal. Hobson said he decided the research money should be deleted after visits over the past two years with scientists and managers at the nuclear labs and test sites, and after watching steps being taken by the administration to cut the nuclear stockpile and designate "smart" conventional weapons for tasks once assigned to atomic warheads. He said that the $9 million Bush request to study ideas for new low-yield weapons had been redirected into studies of "current technologies to make existing warheads more robust and easier to maintain without more testing." Hobson added he had been against developing smaller-yield weapons "that someone might use," and instead wants the nuclear labs to employ modern technology to make "more reliable replacements" for the current warheads. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), whose attempt to cut the new nuclear weapons program authorization in past years had failed, described what had occurred as a reversal of "the Bush administration's dangerous disregard for nuclear nonproliferation." She noted the "growing bipartisan concern and distrust" of the administration's nuclear policies and commended Hobson "for recognizing the need to halt spending for nuclear 'bunker busters' and an arsenal of new nuclear weapons." Hobson also received praise from Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, who said the Ohio legislator "has shown enormous courage to break ranks with the White House and apply common sense on its excessive and extreme nuclear proposals." Kimball warned the administration to "carefully consider whether it will try to revive its controversial nuclear weapons research programs." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" Shundahai Network PO Box 1115 Salt Lake City, UT 84110 Office: 801.533.0128 Fax: 801.533.0129 mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.Shundahai.org ======================================================== It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth." Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< Shundahai Network Action Alerts You have received this e-mail because you either signed up on the Shundahai Network list, or are considered someone who is interested in these types of issues. If you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with the word "Remove" in the subject line. IF you were forwarded this email by a friend and would like to sign up to this list to receive monthly updates please reply to nationaloutreach@shundahai.org with "Subscribe Action Alerts" in the subject heading. |<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|<>|< ***************************************************************** 11 Fw: [Bananas] RELEASE: ANA Cheers Congressional Cuts to Nuclear WeaponsPrograms Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 22:03:29 -0500
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Bridgman
To: bananas@lists.drizzle.com
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 3:58 PM
Subject: [Bananas] RELEASE: ANA Cheers Congressional Cuts to Nuclear WeaponsPrograms

Here’s the release we just issued in response to the final energy & water numbers. Feel free to forward to local media, repurpose with your organization’s name, highlight your local issue, etc. - Jim

 

 

 

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 22, 2004

Contact: Susan R. Gordon: 206-853-6399

Jim Bridgman: 202-544-0217 ext.3

 

ANA Cheers Congressional Cuts to Nuclear Weapons Programs

 

Washington, DC: In a stunning move, conferees to the Fiscal Year 2005 Omnibus appropriations cut or eliminated funding for a number of key nuclear weapons programs. “Thanks to the leadership of Chairman Hobson and the hard work of his like-minded colleagues, and a strong push this year from thousands of concerned citizens across the country, we have won a major victory against new nuclear weapons,” said Susan Gordon, ANA Director.

 

“These budget cuts represent an important shift in the debate on U.S. nuclear weapons policy,” noted Jim Bridgman, ANA’s Program Director. “Chairman Hobson recognizes the provocative nature of new U.S. nuclear weapons programs at a time when we are trying to emphasize the importance of nonproliferation, and has wisely, and rather courageously, fought to curb the administration’s nuclear appetite.”

 

The final Energy & Water Development Appropriations, part of the FY2005 omnibus bill, zeroes out funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a program to modify existing nuclear weapons for new bunker-busting missions, and the Advanced Concepts Initiative, an open-ended program that involved research into low-yield nuclear weapons.

 

According to Committee Staff, the conferees split the difference on enhancing the readiness for conducting underground tests at the Nevada Test Site between the Administration’s request of $30 million and the House-passed total of $15 million, for a final figure of $22.5 million. The conferees also restricted the test readiness level to 24 months, rather than 18 months as the administration has planned.

 

Funding for a new nuclear bomb plant, the Modern Pit Facility, was cut from a request of $29.8 million, to a final level of $7 million. However, work on the final Environmental Impact Statement will be allowed to continue without choosing a site.

 

Funding for the Life Extension and Stockpile System Programs, meant to upgrade aging nuclear weapons, was cut by $41 million. ANA has been critical of these programs as unnecessary in lieu of anticipated reductions under the Moscow Treaty and for crowding out needed warhead dismantlement, performed at the same facilities. The conferees effectively doubled funding for dismantlement, from the prior year’s level of approximately $38 million to $75 million.

 

In environmental cleanup, the conferees provided $7.034 billion for Defense Environmental Management, including $6.096 billion for Defense Site Acceleration Completion and $937 million for Defense Environmental Services. This represents an increase above the administration’s request, with almost all of the increase going to the 2006 closure sites, particularly in moving materials off of the Mound site in Ohio.

 

Cleanup funding for high level waste, $350 million in the request, was funded at $291.9 million by the conferees. ANA opposed the unofficial high level waste sub-account from the beginning as it was designed to blackmail states into agreeing to accept the Energy Department’s plans for Waste Incidental to Reprocessing. This prediction appears to have become true as Washington opted out of the language providing DOE with an authority to reclassify high level waste in the Defense Authorization bill, and funding for cleaning up Hanford’s high level waste tanks was cut in half in the conference bill.

 

In nuclear waste disposal, the conferees provided $577 million for Yucca Mountain, the same funding that was provided in Fiscal Year 2004. This still represents a reduction of over $300 million from the administration’s request, due to the administration’s gambling on Congress approving the use of the Nuclear Waste Fund for ongoing Yucca expenditures.

 

In fissile materials disposition, the conferees note the ongoing delays in the plutonium disposition program and adopt the cut of $25 million approved in the defense authorization. However, the Mixed Oxide fuel fabrication facility, cut significantly by the House earlier in the year, received full funding of $368 million, as did the Pit disassembly and conversion facility, at $32.3 million. Construction of facilities in either Russia or the United States has not started, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in unused balances from prior years.

 

Conferees met new spending limits by enforcing an across-the-board cut of 0.8% to all non-defense and non-homeland security appropriations. All Energy & Water appropriations, including both Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration will share in this budget cut.

 

--30--

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Bridgman, Program Director

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

jcbridgman@earthlink.net

202-544-0217; 6143 (fax)

322 4th Street, NE

Washington, DC 20002

www.ananuclear.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 Embedded Content: image0012.jpg: 00000001,48ae8533,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 12 Deseret news: Utah share of federal cash: $250 million [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, November 23, 2004 By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — Utah's congressional delegation is still adding up the Utah-bound dollars in the omnibus appropriations act that now awaits the president's signature. A pond, foreground, sits atop uranium mill tailings at Atlas Minerals near Moab. The appropriations act includes $7.8 million for cleanup. Ravell Call, Deseret Morning News But it is becoming clear that the Beehive State will rake in roughly $250 million, much of it for road and water projects, environmental cleanups and research at Utah universities. "These projects represent important economic and health and safety needs for people throughout Utah. The money supports high-priority projects underway that contribute to a better quality of life for all of us here," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. According to information collected by the offices of Matheson and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, the larger Utah appropriations include: • $9.9 million for University of Utah and University Medical Center light rail. • $8 million for the Ogden-to-Salt Lake commuter rail. • $20 million for water-conservation projects related to drought relief. • $48 million for the Central Utah Project, including $15 million for fish, wildlife and conservation. • $7.8 million to continue environmental remediation of the Atlas uranium mill tailings site near Moab. • $5 million to the University of Utah as part of a partnership to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program, charged with maintaining the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons in the absence of underground nuclear testing. • $19 million to Utah counties as payments in lieu of taxes. • $3.2 million for sage grouse recovery. • $3 million for environmental compliances related to oil and gas development on federal lands. • $10.9 million for various Utah reservoirs managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. • $3.5 million for a poisonous-plant laboratory in Logan to address the impact of the plants on livestock and for bioterrorism research. The bill also includes dozens of small appropriations for everything from Mormon cricket control to money to look into the problem of chronic wasting disease. About $1.7 million alone goes to study bees and bee pollen at Utah State University. There are plenty of highway projects that spread the money around the state. $2.5 million will go toward an I-15 interchange in St. George, and another $1 million for the Northern Corridor, also in St. George. There is $3 million for work on Highway 6, often billed as Utah's most dangerous highway. There is $1.5 million for reconstruction of 1300 East in Sandy, $5 million for I-15 reconstruction in Salt Lake County and $1 million for I-15 reconstruction in Utah County. In general, mass transit fared well. About $2 million was set aside for UTA intermodal facilities and $5.8 million for statewide buses. Light rail, commuter rail and even a central Utah rail received funding. It seems there was something for everyone in the bill. Conservationists will like the $500,000 for USU to study renewable energy, hikers will like the $1.8 million more for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, former governor Mike Leavitt will like the $800,000 for his pet project Western Governor's University, and dinosaur lovers will like the $560,000 for new buildings at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. There is money for new campgrounds, new airports, new sewer systems and a new Elizabethan theater in Cedar City. And if a lot of that smells a lot like political pork, perhaps it's because the bill includes $300,000 to fund a program addressing the discharge of animal wastes at concentrated animal feeding operations. That would include Utah pig farms. E-mail: spang@desnews.com [spang@desnews.com] © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 13 Capital Times: Nuke plant decision hints at new PSC Tuesday, November 23, 2004 8:31 PM [dpunzel@madison.com] , business editor By Mike Ivey [tctvoice@madison.com] Mike Ivey has been a reporter and columnist at The Capital Times since 1986. During that time he has covered sports, local news, environment and business. Ivey has won numerous journalism awards in his career, including first place for investigative reporting from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 2002. [mivey@madison.com] [mivey@madison.com] Concerns that Gov. Jim Doyle's Public Service Commission is in the pocket of the utility industry may have been exaggerated. Just two weeks ago, statewide consumer groups charged the powerful regulatory agency with secretly collaborating with Wisconsin Energy Corp. of Milwaukee in drafting a decision on a $425 million environmental cleanup at two power plants. But in a stunning vote Friday, the PSC voted 2-1 to reject the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant to Dominion Power of Richmond, Va. It's the clearest signal yet that the Doyle controlled PSC isn't in bed with the companies it regulates - an allegation frequently leveled during the Tommy Thompson administration. The decision also is creating waves nationally just as the nuclear power industry is repositioning itself for perhaps the first expansion since 1973. "It's the first time I've ever heard of a nuclear plant sale being stopped," said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, D.C. One of the nation's largest and most-respected utility companies, Dominion had offered $220 million to buy the aging nuclear facility in Kewaunee, located about 35 miles southeast of Green Bay and opened in 1968. The plant is co-owned by Alliant Energy of Madison and Wisconsin Public Service of Green Bay. The 543-megawatt plant generates electricity to power the Green Bay metropolitan area. Dominion had proposed transforming the plant into a wholesale energy seller, or merchant plant, meaning the company would sell the electricity on the open market. But PSC chairwoman Burnie Bridge, a Doyle appointee, said allowing the sale to go forward would remove the plant from state oversight. "Wisconsin citizens, in my view, deserve a local voice," she said. "I am unable to find the sale is consistent with the public interest." Mark Meyer, Doyle's other appointee, also voted against the sale. Bert Garvin, the remaining PSC appointee of? Thompson, cast the lone vote in favor. Officials from Dominion, Alliant and WPS all expressed disappointment with the PSC action. They said the deal as crafted would have been good for ratepayers, utility investors and the environment. For customers, they would not be responsible for operation of the plant or shutdown when its operating license expires in 2013. The proposed sale would have returned some $200 million in a decommissioning fund to Alliant and WPS customers. From a national perspective, the denial of the sale comes as Dominion and two other national utilities are exploring expanding nuclear power operations in Virginia, Mississippi and Illinois. "There's a tremendous consolidation going in the nuclear power industry," said Gunter, predicting that a handful of companies will eventually control the nation's 103 operating nuclear reactors, three?in Wisconsin. Gunter warned that the consolidation will leave consumers picking up billions of dollars in leftover costs from nuclear construction projects. "It amounts to a corporate shell game," he warned. Where the Kewaunee case goes from here isn't clear. Appeals and lawsuits could be forthcoming. But if nothing else, the Kewaunee decision helps put the public back in the Public Service Commission. Capitol City trail degraded?:Fans of the Capitol City state trail were shocked last week when they saw bulldozers moving dirt around on the north side of the trail near Eagle School in Fitchburg. What's this, more vinyl-sided monstrosities right next to one of the most scenic sections of the popular trail? Not to fear, says Fitchburg city engineer Paul Woodard. He said a short section of the trail is being realigned by Fitchburg Research Associates, which owns significant sections of wetlands on the north side of the trail. "No subdivision is going next to the trail," Woodard said, although he acknowledged that long-range plans do call for development on the south side of the trail. Enjoy the solitude while it lasts. Mike Ivey is a business reporter at The Capital Times. He can be reached at 252-6431 or at [mivey@madison.com] Published: 10:02 AM 11/23/04 Copyright 2004 The Capital Times ***************************************************************** 14 NR: Green groups failed to inject the environment into the election. Jonathan Adler on Environment and Election 2004 on National Review Online [author@nationalreview.com] November 23, 2004, 8:47 a.m. The Disappearing Environment Green activists sought to make environmental protection a central issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. They spent millions on the effort, but have little to show for it. Environmental issues were scarcely discussed on the campaign trail, and President Bush was reelected. While marginally important in some local races, "the environment" did not even register as a national issue this year. Environmentalist attacks on the president began early and were repeated often. The Natural Resources Defense Council compiled a list of several hundred alleged "major rollbacks" of environmental protection. The League of Conservation Voters endorsed Senator Kerry early in the year while giving the president's environmental policies a failing grade. The activist-friendly Environmental Media Services launched [http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/] to disseminate "information on the Bush Administration's assault on our environment and public health" to the press. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club's Carl Pope and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began speaking tours promoting their respective books assailing caricatures of President Bush's environmental record. The lion's share of these attacks were misleading and exaggerated — just the sort of thing one might expect in a partisan political campaign — and they had little effect. One of the larger efforts was the creation of [http://www.environment2004.org] , a new organization "dedicated to highlighting the environmental stakes in the next election and, by shining a spotlight on the anti-environmental record of President George W. Bush and his allies, to assuring their defeat in 2004." Spearheaded by several former Clinton-administration environmental officials — including Carol Browner, Bruce Babbitt, and George Frampton — Environment 2004 sponsored ad campaigns and public events in battleground states, including billboards in Florida linking Bush's global-warming policies to hurricanes. "People there need to know that Bush is doing practically nothing to prevent hurricanes from getting worse in the future from global warming," explained Environment 2004 executive director Aimee Christensen. Floridians didn't buy it, and Bush won the state handily. Despite their best efforts, green groups were unable to make environmental protection a major issue. Environmental concerns were rarely debated in most states, as voters focused on national security, the economy, and various social issues. Shrill warnings that the environment was "under siege" garnered little public attention. After decades of apocalyptic predictions and scare stories, the public has learned to discount environmentalist hype. Few doubt that George W. Bush is a less zealous advocate of environmental regulations than John Kerry or Al Gore. But they won't swallow over-the-top charges alleging Bush has declared "war" on the environment or is placing American families at risk. Environmentalists have cried wolf so many times that their direst warnings now ring hollow. Although most pundits assume environmental issues always work to Democrats' advantage, the Kerry campaign understood otherwise. Indeed, Senator Kerry shied away from making the environment a centerpiece of his campaign. While he often talked about energy, Kerry's proposals emphasized oil independence, alternative fuels, and the economic aspects of energy policy, rather than the environmental aspects of energy policy. Kerry rarely mentioned global warming, air pollution, or new source review. In many battleground states, Senator Kerry's image as the "greener" candidate was less an asset than a liability. Michigan autoworkers did not want to hear that Kerry called for higher automobile fuel-economy standards, and support for a U.N. global-warming treaty would not sit well with coal workers in West Virginia. It is no wonder Democrats removed their platform's endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol. Only where Kerry and his surrogates could tie Bush-administration policy to a specific local concern, such as planned nuclear-waste disposal in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, did they make environmental protection a central talking point of the campaign. Of course the Bush campaign rarely discussed environmental issues either, instead emphasizing security, the war on terror, recent economic growth and the president's plans for a second term. Environmental matters have never been a high priority in this administration. Yet it is simply false to allege that the nation's basic environmental regulatory framework has been gutted under President Bush. In the end, such charges failed to resonate because they are not true. Green activist groups not only failed to elevate the salience of environmental issues, they may have also hurt their standing in Washington. By aligning themselves so closely with partisan, anti-Bush efforts, D.C.-based environmentalist groups further cemented the perception that they are an arm of the Democratic party — at least when it comes to elections. If their efforts had been successful, perhaps environmentalists would have been rewarded with administration posts and a seat at the table to propose desired policy reforms. But they weren't successful, and now they'll reap the consequences. As President Bush and the Republican Congress consider further reforms to the nation's environmental laws, environmentalist groups may well find themselves on the outside looking in. And they will have only themselves to blame. — NRO contributing editor [http://www.jhadler.net] is an associate professor and associate director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. [http://www.nationalreview.com] ***************************************************************** 15 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah reaps quarter-billion in federal spending bill Article Last Updated: 11/23/2004 02:19:48 AM Awaiting Bush's signature: Water and transportation projects top the list By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune WASHINGTON -- Utah will reap nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in transportation, construction and research projects from a $388 billion spending bill awaiting President Bush's signature. Congressional staff spent Monday poring over the 1,400-page bill, since it was passed with such haste over the weekend that few knew what was in it. The Utah projects alone ranged from combating drugs to studying bee biology and renovating a dance academy. Taxpayer watchdog groups and fiscal conservatives blasted the bill as being loaded with nearly $15 billion in unnecessary pork-barrel spending. "This bill in no way reflects the fiscal realities of our times," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the funds are important improvements to life in the state. "These projects represent important economic and health and safety needs for people throughout Utah," he said. "The money supports high-priority projects under way that contribute to a better quality of life for all of us here." The big-ticket items included $48 million for the completion of the Central Utah Project -- a project begun in 1959 to channel water from the Uinta Mountains to Salt Lake and Utah counties -- and $10.9 million for various other Bureau of Reclamation water projects throughout the state. The state and counties will receive $19 million to offset lost property tax revenue as a result of ownership of federal land in the state. The federal government owns about 70 percent of Utah land. Sen. Bob Bennett and Matheson secured more than $7.8 million to continue remediation and possible relocation of the Atlas Uranium Tailings pile. The tailings sit along the banks of the Colorado River. Contaminants from the pile seep into the river, threatening endangered fish and possibly the water supply of downstream users. The bill includes nearly $59 million in Utah transportation funding, including $10 million for light rail lines in Salt Lake City, $8 million for Salt Lake-to-Ogden commuter rail work. "Commuter rail is an important component in addressing Utah's growth, particularly along the Wasatch Front," Bennett said. "Just as light rail has helped alleviate congestion on the highways, commuter rail will also help ease this challenge." It also allocates $11 million for improvements and planning at Salt Lake International Airport and others around the state, and $2 million for an access road in the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a project backed by Rep. Rob Bishop. There is more than $40 million in agricultural spending for projects like controlling Mormon Cricket populations at a cost of $1 million, a $20 million environmental conservation program, and more than $15 million for Utah State University research projects on rangeland management, drought and air quality and $1.6 million to study bee biology. As the only member of the appropriations committee in the Utah delegation, Bennett was a key player in seeing the Utah funds into the bill. Other Utah funds include: * $28 million so a compensation program for Downwinders -- people sickened from their exposure to fallout from Cold War nuclear weapons tests -- so the fund would not run out of money and be forced to issue IOUs to those suffering from cancers and other illnesses. * $5 million for the Utah Museum of Natural History site preparation. * $1.7 million for various justice and law enforcement programs in the state. * $1.8 million for an expansion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. * $3.2 million for sage grouse conservation. * $3 million to help the Bureau of Land Management expedite oil and gas applications and nearly $5 million in other public lands projects. * $3.45 million for various education programs, including $800,000 for teacher training through the Western Governors University. * $3.5 million in various community revitalization projects, including $1 million for work on the Utah Shakespearean Festival Elizabethan Theatre in Cedar City and $1.1 million for the Box Elder Dance Academy in downtown Brigham City. © Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 16 Daily Press: Nuclear nostalgia [http://dailypress.com/] HAMPTON ROADS, VA.November 23, 2004 9:31 PM $2M APPROVED FOR DECOMMISSIONING NS SAVANNAH The commercial vessel, now in the ghost fleet, was one of a kind when it was launched in 1959. BY DAVE SCHLECK [dschleck@dailypress.com] 247-7430 FORT EUSTIS -- Four decades have passed since Joe Seelinger served on the Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered commercial ship. Monday morning, he stepped aboard a time capsule of his past now languishing in the gentle currents of the James River. Seelinger's memory served him well while standing on deck amid peeling paint and the putrid smell of seagull droppings. His former employer, the Maritime Administration, brought him along to help announce that Congress just approved $2 million for decommission work on the NS Savannah - NS standing for nuclear ship. Launched in 1959, the Savannah was both a cargo ship and a diplomatic cruise liner, visiting 20 states and 22 foreign countries during eight years at sea. Seelinger, who worked as a nuclear engineer on the ship in 1964, recalled visiting cities like Oslo and Copenhagen. "When we'd get into port, they'd have tall ships sailing around us," Seelinger said. "There were lines of people that seemed a mile long, waiting to go on the ship." Unlike most cargo ships, the Savannah had a pool, a beauty parlor and a dance floor to amuse guests and dignitaries. Its interior design looked like something out of the 1960s futuristic cartoon "The Jetsons," with odd-shaped vinyl chairs, saucer-like ashtrays and bright orange swivel stools. The dining room's light fixtures are shaped like atomic nuclei with swirling electrons - a nice touch, said John Jamian, deputy administrator for the Maritime Administration. He led a tour of the ship, which is now dimly lit with spare electricity that obscures the vessel's former brilliance. "You can imagine this room with 60 passengers having cocktails," Jamian said. "Full of life." Seelinger walked the promenade. Only a few rays of sunlight made it through the weather-stained windows. Moss and weeds poked out of the cracked and faded floor tiles. "They had deck chairs out here, and you could look out these windows," he said. "It's beauty you get no appreciation for now." The Savannah is anchored apart from most of the other ghost fleet ships. The port side overlooks a floating nuclear power plant called the Sturgis, which the Army used to provide electricity to the Panama Canal in the 1970s. The starboard side overlooks the Mormacwave, a retired ship scheduled to leave the fleet this morning for a scrap yard in Texas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower championed the Savannah as part of the "Atoms for Peace" campaign. The ship's brochure describes the Savannah as "a floating messenger of peace, representing to the peoples of the world yet another step forward in the unceasing quest to harness the powers of nature for the betterment of mankind." The Savannah may have been too far ahead of its time. Although the brochure lauds the ship as "the first short step down a long road that may hold promise for the issue of nuclear power in commercial ships of the future," the Savannah proved too costly to operate. Germany and Japan also experimented with non-military nuclear ships but also failed due to the expense. The Savannah was retired in 1971 and became a floating museum in South Carolina until 1994, when the Maritime Administration repainted the ship and towed it to the James River. During Monday's tour deep inside the vessel, Seelinger and Jamian paused by the glass-encased observation deck overlooking the engine room. About 682,000 thimble-sized pellets of enriched uranium oxide once fueled this ship, which had a cruising speed of 21 knots. One fueling could take the ship 336,000 miles. The nuclear reactor was shut down in 1975, when the government removed all nuclear fuel, cooling water and other contaminated materials. But the nuclear reactor remains behind a locked door, opened once a year by inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The first phase of the decommissioning work early next year will include a survey of what is left inside the ship and a plan on how to remove it. The Maritime Administration wants to spend about $25 million over five years to fully decommission the ship. In a few years, the ship will be brought to a dry dock at a yet-to-be-determined location for more work. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will oversee every step of the process, which will include information meetings for the public. Maritime officials stressed that the ship's safety threat is minimal. Touring the inside of the ship exposed individuals to less radiation than a visit to a dentist's office, they said. Seelinger, who retired from the administration about a year ago, said he is working with several people interested in preserving the ship as a museum. He said he would like the ship to have a different fate from most of the vessels in the reserve fleet. "I certainly hope this ship will not be scrapped." n Copyright ©2004 Daily Press ***************************************************************** 17 MSNBC: A New General For Senate Dems [http://msnbc.msn.com] A New General For Senate Dems They may be in better shape for battle with Minority Leader Harry Reid in charge Updated: 7:00 a.m. ET Nov. 23, 2004 When Republicans introduced a series of bills to ban betting on college sports, Nevada Democrat Harry Reid used his clout as Senate Minority Whip to counter with a blizzard of amendments, including one bill to ban such gambling in every state but Nevada. The GOP's anti-gambling effort fizzled amid the confusion. When the Bush Administration refused this year to appoint to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a Reid ally -- who also opposes a nuclear waste dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- Reid blocked more than three dozen Administration appointments in retaliation. When it comes to watching out for his home state, Harry Reid is a master at wielding his intimate knowledge of Senate procedures to thwart the majority Republicans. "In the art of legislative jujitsu, Reid is a black belt," says Rutgers University political scientist Ross K. Baker. But now Reid has to go beyond local concerns and tactical skills to set his party's strategy on Capitol Hill -- and its image for the nation. Elected Senate Minority Leader on Nov. 16, Reid and his shrunken Democratic caucus face a GOP emboldened by President George W. Bush's reelection and Republican gains in Congress. For now that will mostly mean blocking Republican initiatives. With 44 Democrats and one allied independent in the Senate, Reid has one major weapon: the threat to delay and filibuster Bush nominees and legislation. "The Democrats will be in a reactive mode for now," says Norman J. Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute. "What they need is not a great public spokesman, but someone just like Reid who is tough without appearing abrasive and who knows how the Senate operates and can use leverage." The low-key 64-year-old will take a quieter approach to leading the Democrats than did his smooth and telegenic predecessor, Tom Daschle, who lost his South Dakota seat on Nov. 2. Senate Republican leaders broke an unwritten rule about campaigning directly against an opposition leader and targeted Daschle for defeat, charging that he was an obstructionist liberal in a moderate's clothing. Wary Democrats are now hoping that Reid's Western roots and values will protect him from the same charges. "The Republicans won't be able to claim he's out of touch with the public just because he resists extremist judicial appointments," says Jennifer Backus, a Democratic consultant and former Reid staffer. FIRST TEST In fact, Reid can draw on moderate and even conservative political credentials -- far more so than Daschle. Reid voted for the ban on partial-birth abortion, co-sponsored a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning, and voted for the 2001 USA Patriot Act, the 1990 Gulf War Resolution, and the 2003 authorization to invade Iraq. He has opposed a federal ban on assault-style weapons. And Reid, the son of a hard-rock miner, has resisted calls by environmentalists for restrictions on mining. But when he's leading Democrats into battle, Reid promises to stick with strongly held Democratic positions. "I would rather dance than fight, but I know how to fight," said Reid, a former amateur boxer, on accepting the post on Nov. 16. His first test is likely to involve Bush's judicial appointments. Chafing at Senate Democrats' refusal to approve 10 nominees to seats on federal appeals courts, Bush probably will quickly reappoint several of the conservative candidates. Even more controversial will be any nominations to replace some of the aging Supreme Court justices -- with ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist likely to be the first to retire. Democrats fear most the appointment of an anti-abortion conservative who will tip the delicate balance of the court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Reid, though a foe of abortion himself, will resist -- with filibusters if necessary -- any such attempt to reverse the 31-year-old abortion ruling. Meanwhile, any efforts by Republicans to change the rules of the Senate to outlaw such delaying tactics -- under consideration by the GOP leadership -- would be "a huge mistake," Reid warned. THE DUST SETTLES Bush's top economic priorities could come under fire as well. Current and former staff members insist Reid will strongly resist any efforts by the Bush Administration to overhaul Social Security with private savings accounts. He'll also fight efforts to pass additional tax cuts or any tax simplification that boosts the budget deficit. "We have a huge debt in this country created during the last four years, and even Republicans are beginning to complain about that," said Reid. On the other hand, Reid joins other Democrats who charge that the Administration's No Child Left Behind education reforms are "underfunded." Democrats admit they can't block everything, so some compromise is likely. Reid, a former trial lawyer, acknowledges that high insurance premiums for doctors are a growing problem. One answer: a Democratic bill to give doctors a tax credit for "exorbitant premiums." Reid also signaled that he wants a higher minimum wage, an oft-used sweetener for Democrats voting for GOP-backed bills. But as the dust settles from a fractious election, the political rhetoric remains rancorous. Referring to his two new deputies, Reid said on Nov. 16: "We're not three patsies. We believe in certain things, and we will fight for them." Given his knowledge of the legislative battlefield, he should prove a dangerous opponent. By Paul Magnusson in WashingtonCopyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. © 2004 MSNBC.com ***************************************************************** 18 Sign-on letter to protest Japanese reprocessing plant Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:25 -0800 Dear Friends: Our colleagues at NIRS/WISE-Japan are seeking signatures on the following letter in protest of the planned operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Japan. We hope you and your group will sign on to this letter, which is being presented to Japanese authorities, and bring international pressure to stop this dangerous project. To sign on, please provide your name, organization, city and country to Satomi Oba at kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp Additional contact information is at the bottom of this letter. Thank you for your help! Michael Mariotte Executive Director Nuclear Information and Resource Service Washington, DC The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant – A Menace to the World Atomstopp International Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) World Information Service on Energy (WISE) We of Atomstopp International, NIRS, WISE, and like-minded organizations gathered in Linz, Austria, for the international symposium, “The Lie of the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy－Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power Plants – Two Sides of the Same Coin” held on October 1-2, 2004, wish to express our grave concerns regarding the up-coming uranium testing and planned operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Rokkashomura, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. We demand that the Japanese government and local leaders reconsider Japan’s plutonium program and make the wisest, most courageous decision not to start up the reprocessing plant, which would be a menace to the world. Similar facilities at La Hague, France, and Sellafield, UK, have been subject to claims and protests from neighboring countries because of the continuous contamination of the surrounding seas caused by the operation of those plants. It is a fact that reprocessing is an extraordinarily dirty and dangerous chemical process involving huge amounts of radioactive materials. It also results in radioactive waste of extremely long-life for which there is, so far, no safe solution for storage in the world. This dangerous process originates from military purposes, separating bomb material from the spent fuel from nuclear reactors. There are more than a dozen cases in the world, for example India, Pakistan or Israel, where nuclear weapons have been developed or attempted from the so-called “peaceful use of atomic energy.” Even in South Korea, scientists have recently admitted to conducting illegal experiments on uranium enrichment and plutonium separation. From the viewpoint of nonproliferation and disarmament, plutonium separation as well as uranium enrichment should be generally restricted and on such a basis, operation of such a huge facility as the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant should not be approved. We are aware that Japan has already obtained 40 tons of plutonium stored at the facilities in France, Britain, and Japan. Plutonium is an extremely toxic and military substance, and leading Japanese NGOs have stated that there will be no realistic possibility for using plutonium, in fast breeder reactors or in conventional light water reactors as MOX fuel. Even separated reactor-grade plutonium can be used in a nuclear weapon! We were horrified at the news of the August 9 accident at the Mihama nuclear power plant that killed five people. The record of seven fatalities, five in Mihama this year and two at Tokaimura in 1999, and various serious casualties at Japanese nuclear facilities is regrettable and extremely serious. There have also been many shameful incidents of falsification and cover-ups relating to nuclear power plants in addition to the concerns of seismic instability in Japan. If an accident, or an attack, were to occur at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, the entire region could be affected by the disaster as well as the wider world for the foreseeable future. Since September 11, 2001, the world has become a more dangerous place. Specifically, more than 400 nuclear power plants and relating facilities could be a potential targets of military action or terrorism. What we should not do is add to the danger by constructing or starting operations at such facilities, but instead phase-out nuclear energy and choose safe and sustainable energy. We fervently urge the leaders of Japan to listen to the local voices of opposition, from both the public and NGOs, and immediately reverse the decision to conduct the uranium testing scheduled and also reconsider the controversial plutonium program entirely. We act in solidarity with the local people of Aomori Prefecture, and the Japanese citizens engaged in the difficult task of stopping the nuclear fuel cycle – death chain of nuclear activities. We would also enncourage the Japanese media and politicians to strengthen the campaign to stop nuclear madness once and for all. Sincerely yours,  Signatures: 1. Mathilde Halla Atomstopp Platform gegen Atombefahr WISE Austria Austria 2. Peer de Rijk Director World Information Service on Energy, WISE, Amsterdam, Netherlands 3. Solange Fernex WILPF France F - 68480 - Biederthal France 4. Linda Gerrard, Swansea Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Wales UK 5. Brian Jones, Mor Di-Niwclear Wales UK 6. Gina Gillig BĂśRGER GEGEN ATOMREAKTOR GARCHING e. V. Im Ried 1 7. Christiane Schmutterer ARGE ja zur Umwelt, nein zur Atomenergie Redaktion Neue Argumente Wien, AUSTRIA 8. Vladimir Slivyak Ecodefense Moscow/Russia 9. Ali Eltari Albanian Ecological Club- International Friends of Nature Albania 10. Anna-Liisa Mattsoff No More Nuclear Power movement, Finland 11. Laura Radiconcini Member of the National Direction Amici della Terra (FoE Italy) 12. Helga Krause Member of the Bavarian Workgroup Energy and Climate of the Bund Naturschutz Germany 13. Oleg Bodrov, NGO GREEN WORLD Chairperson, Sosnovy Bor, St.Petersburg Region, Russia 14. Kristin MĂĽhlenhardt-Jentz MĂśTTER GEGEN ATOMKRAFT e.V. NĂĽrnberg, Germany 15. Andrew Hund Coordinator, Alaska/Arctic Environmental Defense Anchorage, Alaska, USA 16. Natalia Mironova President of the Movement for Nuclear Safety Assistant of the Legislator of the State Duma of Russia Member of the High Ecological Council of the Russian State Duma President of the Association of the antinuclear organisations of Russia 17. PD Dr. med. vet. Jean-Luc Riond (DVM, PhD) President 　PSR/IPPNW Switzerland (Physicians for Social Responsibility/International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war) 18. Alexey Yablokov, Center for Russian Environmental Policy Moscow, Russia 19. Michael Mariotte Executive Director Nuclear Information and Resource Service Washington, DC, USA 20. Mandy Meikle, The Scottish Green Party, Scotland, UK 21. Valerie Heinonen, o.s.u. Ursuline Sisters NY, USA 22. Pablo Bertinat Taller Ecologista - WISE Argentina Rosario, Argentina 23. S.P. Udayakumar People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy India 24. Lea Launokari Women for Peace, Finland  25. Lea Rantanen Grandmothers for Peace, Finland 26. Anneli Pääkkönen Weeping Women, Finland 27. Ingeborg Kleinhans WISE-Sweden Stockholm, Sweden  Contact: Satomi Oba            Director of Plutonium Action Hiroshima, Chairperson of WISE Japan            22258-14, Ichikawa, Shiraki-cho, Asakita-ku, Hiroshima City, 739-1411, Japan            Phone/Fax: 81-82-828-2603            Email: kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp ***************************************************************** 19 allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Halliburton Returns Radioactive Material [http://www.thisdayonline.com/] The Publisher's Posted to the web November 23, 2004 Mike Oduniyi Lagos UN agency offers training in nuclear energy Halliburton Energy Ser-vices Nigeria Limited has said it has ensured the safe return of the radioactive material stolen from its custody in 2002 to the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency. The company said the radioactive material was returned on October 5, 2004. The Federal Government slammed a ban on the oil service firm last September following the disappearance of the materials from the country. The radioactive material, which is a data-collecting tool used in oil well drilling, was stolen in 2002 while in transit from Escravos to Port Harcourt by unknown third parties under circumstances, which are still being investigated. The material was however found in Germany this year after a comprehensive search organised by Halliburton and various other investigative authorities. In accordance with the company's strict safety policy, the material, when found, was taken to the Head Office in Houston, Texas, USA where it was confirmed to be intact and un-tampered with. According to the Vice-President, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited, Mr. Remy Caulier, "There has been a lot of misunderstanding over this matter. We have never been opposed to efforts to retrieve and bring back the material to the country. "The sources were recovered in Germany and were taken to our facility in Houston to ensure that there was no risk of contamination or exposure to the public. The fact that we are committed to cooperating with the government on this matter is not questionable." Halliburton as a corporation is organised into two distinct business units. One is the Energy Services Group of which Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Ltd. is a part and the other is the Engineering and Construction Group that is the KBR part. Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Ltd is Nigeria's leading upstream oil services Company and has been operating in the Nigeria for the past 45 years. Meanwhile the World Nuclear University (WNU) will soon be inviting applications for its first Annual Summer Institute, a fellowship offering a career-building experience for future leaders in nuclear science and technology. The first WNU Summer Institute will be hosted by the US Department of Energy and will take place in July and August 2005 at the Idaho National Laboratory. Some 60 WNU Fellows will be selected from among the world s leading nuclear students and nuclear professionals. The successful applicants will participate in a 6-week training programme on a broad spectrum of nuclear energy issues, and engage in team-building and leadership exercises. The curriculum will feature presentations from leading nuclear experts on topics ranging from global settings, international regimes, technology innovation, and nuclear energy operations. Among them will be WNU Chancellor and former IAEA Director General Hans Blix. The deadline for receipt of applications will be 1 December 2004. Inaugurated in September 2003, the WNU is a partnership of the world s leading institutions of nuclear learning. The WNU's four "founding supporters" are the IAEA, the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD, WNA, and WANO. Its mission is to foster inter-institutional cooperation and establish accepted global standards in professional and academic qualification. More information on the WNU Summer Institute is available at the WNU website. Make allAfrica.com your home page Copyright © 2004 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by ***************************************************************** 20 TheStar.com: Sifting through claims on nukes [http://www.thestar.com/] Tue. Nov. 23, 2004. | Updated at 06:54 PM STEPHEN HANDELMAN North Korea could now have as many as 10 nuclear weapons. Iran may be building its first. All of a sudden, the world looks a little more dangerous than it did last month. Except we don't know whether these allegations, both of which surfaced in the past week, are true. Blame it on the global atmosphere of mistrust, which is turning out to be one of the most notorious consequences of the Iraq war. Analysts are now paying more attention to the sources of intelligence reports than the intelligence itself. Considering how often "intelligence" ends up being the opposite, that should be healthy. But, in some areas, it can lead to paralysis. The pseudo-proofs of Iraqi nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the months before the war have done incalculable damage to the science and politics of curbing arms proliferation. That's a shame, because the threat posed by such weapons falling into the hands of what academics call "non-state-actors" (read: terrorists) has never been greater. During the U.S. presidential campaign debates this fall, John Kerry and George Bush were asked what they considered the most serious challenge of the next four years. They each answered WMD proliferation, a remarkable show of agreement that was buried in reporting about the campaign. Where they differed, of course, was how to deal with the issue. Kerry was committed to direct negotiations with the two most worrying would-be nuclear powers (Iran and North Korea), while Bush preferred to operate on two tracks: first, through a coalition of countries that could offer economic and energy assistance in return for nuclear concessions, and the second through unilateral pressure that ranged from sanctions to outright military attack, in what one U.S. official last week called the "good cop, bad cop" approach. It is now, of course, Bush's approach that has carried the day, though, since the issue never became part of the campaign, it's hard to claim any electoral mandate for it. Not that it would matter: No voter was ever asked to approve the "pre-emptive foreign policy" which the president used to justify the Iraq invasion. In any case, the problem of winning over foreign skeptics — particularly in Asia and the Middle East — overshadows the policy choices themselves. It may even undermine them. What can we, in fact, believe? The allegations about North Korea's nuclear weapons come from a prestigious international organization, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which lists former Canadian policymakers on its board. The ICG, which has been paying close attention to the North Korea issue for several years, says now that any doubts about that country's nuclear capabilities should be removed. "It almost certainly has enough bombs to deter an attack and still have some to sell to other states or even terrorist groups," the ICG concluded in a 36-page report released Nov. 15. It urged Washington to give up the diplomatic approach pursued over the past four years (it involves negotiating as part of a condominium with North Korean neighbours China, Japan, South Korea and Russia) and hold face-to-face talks with Kim Jong-il's regime, while shelving for the moment other issues that have occupied policymakers about North Korea, such as human rights and economic reforms. To those inside the administration who are skeptical that North Korea can ever negotiate a deal, the ICG responds, "The only way to find out once and for all is to offer it one." Iran is more complicated. The consensus among Western allies is that Iran is actively pursuing uranium enrichment programs at its reactor in Isfahan. But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell upped the ante last week when he accused Iranians of developing a missile that could carry a nuclear warhead. His assertion, it turns out, is based on one intelligence source. Iran has called the charge "baseless," even as it has agreed to call a temporary halt on uranium enrichment (which was supposed to begin yesterday). But the Americans, and some Europeans, say the evidence is unimpeachable. The U.S. has not said how it will react to an Iranian refusal to make its enrichment halt permanent, but there are already rumours of military action. Given recent history, few are willing to give Washington the benefit of the doubt. Bush, in Chile last weekend for a meeting of Asian and Pacific nations, including Canada, lumped both nuclear challenges together. The threat, he said, was "very serious." He's right. But the more serious challenge is to win back the kind of global trust necessary to deal with it. Stephen Handelman usually appears every second Tuesday. Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All ***************************************************************** 21 SD UT: San Onofre reactor restarted after abrupt shutdown SignOnSanDiego.com By Adam Klawonn UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 23, 2004 SAN ONOFRE  A reactor at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station that shut down Friday was restarted yesterday and could be fully online by tomorrow, a plant spokesman said. "Possibly, if everything goes perfectly," said San Onofre spokesman Ray Golden. Unit 2 shut itself down Friday after ground wires in its electrical generator unexpectedly shorted out. That meant both of San Onofre's reactors were then off, because Unit 3 is being refueled. After Unit 2 shut down, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., a co-owner of the plant, urged customers to conserve household energy through yesterday. Crews investigating the incident over the weekend discovered that normal vibrations from Unit 2's turbine shook an aluminum plate loose and into an electrical conduit, causing the shutdown, said San Onofre spokesman Ray Golden. The plate is part of something called the "isophase bus," electrical ductwork running between the electrical generator and the main transformer. The plate was replaced during the last outage at Unit 2 roughly two years ago, Golden said, and a new part less prone to vibrations was brought in and was being installed. Adam Klawonn: (760) 476-8245; adam.klawonn@uniontrib.com [http://www.uniontrib.com/ the Union-Tribune | Contact the Union-Tribune © Copyright 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 22 JS Online: Point Beach nuclear reactor shut down to fix leaking pipe By THOMAS CONTENT tcontent@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 22, 2004 One of the two reactors at the Point Beach nuclear plant was shut down last week to fix a leaking steam pipe. The leak occurred in a pipe that connects the steam generator to the turbine of the Unit 2 reactor at Point Beach, said Maureen Brown, a spokeswoman for Hudson-based Nuclear Management Co. The leak was detected Friday afternoon, Nuclear Management Co. told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The reactor was shut down at 8:18 p.m. Friday so that repairs could be made. The two-unit Point Beach plant generates 1,036 megawatts of electricity and is owned by Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. Hudson-based Nuclear Management Co., a company that runs reactors for utilities, operates the plant. The leak was detected in the secondary, or non-nuclear, part of the plant. Nuclear-plant operating standards required that the reactor be shut down before the repairs could begin. "This is an issue where we identified something that needed to be corrected and we took the unit off-line to make those repairs," Brown said. It was unclear how long the reactor will remain out of service. Nuclear Management doesn't comment on when reactors will restart, Brown said. The Point Beach repair comes while Wisconsin's other nuclear plant, Kewaunee, is shut down for refueling and inspections. During the Kewaunee shutdown, which began Oct. 9, contractors are replacing the vessel head cover at a cost of $20 million. The Point Beach Unit 1, which was shut down last spring for refueling, inspections and repairs, remains operating at full power, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. From the Nov. 23, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now. [http://www.jsonline.com/services] All rights reserved. Journal Sentinel Inc. is a subsidiary of Journal Communications [http://www.jc.com] ***************************************************************** 23 UK Evening Times: Whistleblower in uni rector bid - RECTOR BID: Vanunu [wendy.miller@eveningtimes.co.uk?subject=Comment%20on%20your%20ar ticle%20'Whistleblower%20in%20uni%20rector%20bid'] A nuclear whistleblower kidnapped and jailed by Israel today launched a bid to become rector of Glasgow University. Mordechai Vanunu, 49, who was freed in April after serving 18 years for exposing details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme to a British newspaper in the 1980s, will be nominated by student representatives. The post of university rector has been vacant since February when comedian Greg Hemphill stood down after three years. Vanunu's bid to be rector is backed by student groups. He said today: "I think if they can give me this opportunity to help my cause and in return I would like to help Glasgow. "I know of Glasgow from what my friends and supporters have written to me." Michael Napier, of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Society, added: "This is a way to bring a case for the abolition of weapons of mass destruction across the Middle East to a wider audience of Glasgow University students. "There is a tradition here of electing rectors who live abroad, which we hope to build on, and I think Glasgow University students are keen to build upon it." Past rectors include Winnie Mandela, who couldn't attend when she held the post in the 1980s because of restrictions imposed by South Africa's apartheid regime, musician Pat Kane and Richard Wilson, who played grumpy Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave. Since being released from prison earlier this year Mr Vanunu has since been re-arrested and accused of leaking classified information and breaching strict restrictions which limit associations with foreigners. Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights ***************************************************************** 24 Rutland Herald: Historic Yankee hearing ordered November 23, 2004 By [susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com] Herald Staff The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold its first-ever hearing on a requested power boost at a U.S. nuclear reactor — Vermont Yankee in Vernon. "It's unique," said David O'Brien, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Service. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an arm of the NRC, found merit in safety concerns raised by the Douglas administration and an anti-nuclear group about the proposed 20 percent power increase at Vermont Yankee. In a decision issued late Monday afternoon, the quasi-judicial board said it found grounds in two issues raised by the DPS and in two issues raised by the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold a hearing on the concerns related to the so-called uprate — for the first time in the NRC's history. The state, whose attorneys argued last month in preliminary hearings in Brattleboro that such a review was needed, had raised seven areas of concern about Entergy Nuclear's plans to boost Yankee's power. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board accepted two, O'Brien said. "The NRC says we are asking valuable questions," he said. "They would not grant a hearing otherwise." The state had argued that Entergy's redesign of its Vernon reactor would make it less reliable in case of an accident because it eliminated one level of safety — in this case, the emergency core cooling pumps. The state's other contention that was accepted for further review dealt with Entergy's calculations about the pressure in the reactor's containment in the event of an accident. "We're just generally very pleased; this is unique," O'Brien said, noting that the state had hired an outside attorney whose specialty was the NRC. O'Brien said that, while his department was concerned that the uprate could make the plant unsafe in certain emergency conditions, the goal of his agency was not to shut the plant down. "There's a bright line of distinction between the department's approach and that of NEC's approach and goals," O'Brien said. "We're not here to shut down Vermont Yankee. Our goal is to make sure that it's safe. What we want to accomplish in these hearing is that the public health and safety is being conserved," he said. Sarah Hofmann, senior staff counsel for the Department of Public Service, said the next hurdle was to determine the type of hearing the federal board would grant the state. A little-known provision of the Atomic Energy Act gives a state certain rights to "interrogate" witnesses, and Hofmann said the state hoped for the more traditional hearing, which would include open cross-examination of Entergy's witnesses. "We're pleased that we're in the door," Hofmann said. "We've asked that all the hearings be held in Vermont." The other type of hearing would be largely on paper — with the three judges on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board submitting questions to a group of experts assembled by Entergy, the state and the New England Coalition. Raymond Shadis of the New England Coalition said late Monday afternoon he was unaware of the decision and he declined comment until he had a chance to study it. NEC's concerns that warrant a closer look include safety concerns about the seismic integrity of the plant's wooden cooling towers. The coalition also argued that the plant should be tested for large power transients as part of the uprate process. Entergy spokesman Laurence Smith said the company's attorneys were studying the decision and would have no comment at this time. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the upcoming hearing was the first of its kind. "Up until now, no one has pursued a hearing on a power uprate," he said. The NRC has granted every power boost that has been submitted for approval, but the majority of the increases have been in single digits. Vermont Yankee, which has been generating power for 30 years, is one of the smallest and oldest plants to seek the largest percent power increase — 20 percent, or 110 megawatts. Entergy hopes to push the plant to produce 650 megawatts, up from 540 megawatts. Vermont Yankee, which is the state's only nuclear power plant, sells about half of its production to Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Corp. It represents about one-third of all the electricity used in Vermont. Entergy, which had opposed both the state's and the coalition's requests for a full hearing, has 10 days to appeal the decision. Contact Susan Smallheer at [susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com] . © 2004 [http://www.rutlandherald.com/] ***************************************************************** 25 Brattleboro Reformer: Panel: Uprate claims accepted November 23, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- On Monday, the panel charged with granting hearings in the Vermont Yankee uprate case accepted two legal challenges from the state and two from the New England Coalition. Both parties are challenging the application of Vermont Yankee, which is owned by Louisiana-based Entergy Nuclear, to increase power by 20 percent. The application is currently under review by the Nuclear Regulator Commission. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel, which is part of the NRC but independent of its staff, held hearings on the challenges on Oct. 21 and 22 in Brattleboro. The Vermont Department of Public Service originally submitted five contentions, while the coalition submitted seven. By accepting the challenges, the panel is declaring that they have legal merit and must now decide what kind of hearing procedure it will hold to resolve them. There are two options. One is for a formal hearing that is run like a court trial, with witnesses giving testimony under oath and lawyers cross-examining them. The other is a process that is done entirely in writing, with the exchange of information done through the submission of documents. Both the state and the coalition requested full court-like hearings. The panel will issue a separate order on the type of hearing it will conduct, but did not indicate when the order will be issued. Any decision made by the panel can be overturned by the five-member commission that heads the NRC. Decisions by the commission can be appealed in federal court. Representatives from Entergy and the coalition declined to comment on Monday, stating that more time was needed to review the document. A phone call to David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, was not immediately returned. All five of the state's contentions focused on Entergy's proposal to take credit for containment overpressure. If the plant increases power by 20 percent, the water in the containment tank will be hotter. This presents a problem if there were to be a loss of coolant accident -- that is, if the system that carries water into the core to keep it cool were somehow damaged. Under such conditions, the emergency pumps would need to take over by circulating water out of the containment tank into a storage water tank and back in. But the hotter water in the containment tank would form bubbles, as it does when steam forms, and the bubbles would interfere with the ability of the emergency pumps to work. If the emergency pumps cannot circulate the water, the core becomes exposed, resulting in a meltdown. Engineers at Entergy, however, contend that there will be enough pressure in the containment tank to prevent the bubbles from forming. This is known as taking credit for containment overpressure. Although there is an NRC regulatory guide against this practice, guides do not have the same weight as regulations and do not have to be followed. Because of this, the panel rejected most of the state's contentions. It did, however, agree with the state's argument that taking credit for containment overpressure would violate two design criteria and that Entergy has not shown that the pressure needed will be available for the pumps to work. Of the seven challenges submitted by the coalition, the panel agreed to hear one dealing with the need for large transient testing and one on the seismic and structural integrity of the cooling towers. Large transient testing is checking how systems react to significant changes in conditions such as pressure, water flow and temperature. In Entergy's application, the company requested exemption for testing the system under uprate conditions. The panel agreed with the coalition that the issue of whether the test is necessary warrants a hearing. The panel also agreed to hear the coalition's arguments about whether the cooling towers have been sufficiently analyzed for their ability to withstand an earthquake. Monday's order also addressed the state's request that amendments to the petition be allowed without having to meet the NRC's late filing criteria. The state included this request so that it could file more contentions based on information from the NRC's engineering inspection of Vermont Yankee. The inspection was completed in September, but the final report is not expected until January. The panel rejected this request, saying that the activity of the NRC staff does not change the filing regulations. While the state, and the coalition, are free to submit amendments, both parties must meet all the stringent NRC criteria for late filings. Earlier in the month, the NRC released the preliminary findings of the inspection which found that the plant could withstand the uprate. This does not, however, mean that the staff will ultimately approve the uprate as the inspection is just one of many criteria considered in the review process. A decision on the uprate was originally expected in early 2005, but was pushed back by several months by the NRC due to ongoing concerns about cracking in the steam dryers and other issues related to increased power generation. Although the NRC has approved many other uprates, this is the first time that one has been challenged. If a formal hearing is granted, it is not clear if it will be held in the area or closer to the NRC's office in Rockville, Md. The state argued for a local venue. Copyright ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc., a ***************************************************************** 26 NRC: NRC Revises Regulations for Structures, Systems and Components for Nuclear Power Plants News Release - 2004-14 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-148 November 23, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has amended its regulations that apply certain controls to nuclear power plant structures, systems and components (SSCs), based on their safety significance. The change goes into effect Dec. 22, 2004. NRC regulations require nuclear plants to have conservative safety margins, strict procedural controls and multiple safety systems to protect public health and safety. Special regulatory controls -- rigorous design qualifications, record-keeping, maintenance and testing requirements -- are used to ensure that SSCs necessary to safely shut down a nuclear reactor and prevent radioactivity from traveling off-site will function effectively during and after an accident. These requirements encompass a very broad scope of SSCs -- some of which are very important to safety; others of which, experience and new analytical techniques indicate, provide only a minimal contribution to safety, thereby possibly focusing NRC staff and licensee resources on issues of minor safety significance. The new regulation can be voluntarily adopted by plant operators as an alternate set of requirements. The changes incorporate up-to-date analytic tools and risk insights to further enhance plant safety by enabling nuclear power plant licensees to more precisely determine the safety significance of SSCs. If licensees adopt the change, some SSCs of "low safety significance" would be subject to less stringent requirements than currently exist, although they must remain capable of performing their safety-related functions. Conversely, some SSCs of greater significance would be subject to new requirements. This enables both nuclear power plant licensees and the NRC to more efficiently focus their resources on issues of greater safety significance, said David Matthews, Director of the Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs in the NRCs Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The NRC received about 200 public comments on the changes during the agencys rulemaking process. Each of the comments was reviewed in detail, and were incorporated as appropriate into the revised regulations. The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards reviewed the changes in June 2004 and had no objections to their going into effect. To ensure the new regulations are implemented properly, the NRC staff has developed, for trial use, Regulatory Guide 1.201, Guidelines for Categorizing Structures, Systems and Components in Nuclear Power Plants According to Their Safety Significance. The current draft of that guide is available on the NRCs Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/20 04/secy2004-0109/attachment5.pdf [PDF Icon] . Last revised Tuesday, November 23, 2004 ***************************************************************** 27 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding FR Doc 04-25904 [Federal Register: November 23, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 225)] [Notices] [Page 68179] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr23no04-88] of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc.'s Facility in Newark, DE AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathy Dolce Modes, Materials Security & Industrial Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406, telephone (610) 337-5251, fax (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: [kad@nrc.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc. for Materials License No. 07-13441-02, to authorize release of its Delaware Technology Park facility in Newark, Delaware 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 proposed action is to authorize the release of the licensee's Delaware Technology Park facility in Newark, Delaware for unrestricted use. The licensee's Delaware Technology Park facility was added to their NRC license on August 8, 1997, to use radioactive materials for research and development purposes. On July 16, 2004, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc. requested that NRC release the Delaware Technology Park facility for unrestricted use. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc. has conducted surveys of the facility and determined that the facility meets the license termination criteria in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc. will continue licensed activities at another location, as authorized by the license. The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed 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 E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc. 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 proposed license amendment to release the facility for unrestricted use. The NRC staff has evaluated E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc.'s request and the results of the surveys and has concluded that the completed action complies with the criteria in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20. The staff has found that the environmental impacts from the proposed 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 proposed action are expected to be insignificant and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action. IV. Further Information Documents related to this action, including the application for the license amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents related to this Notice are: ML043000055 (the Environmental Assessment), ML042110242 (Initial Request), ML042660405 (Decommissioning Report), and ML042790369 (Decommissioning Report--Revision 1). 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 (PDR) 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 to: [pdr@nrc.gov] . These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, this 16th 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. 04-25904 Filed 11-22-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 28 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Congress Keeps COOL; Anti-Food Irradiation Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:27 -0800 Victory in Congress: COOL still Mandatory; CAFOs not Exempt from Enviro Regs! Consumers, farmers and environmentalists won two battles in Congress over the weekend, thanks in part to your actions! First, attempts by Congressional leadership to eliminate mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) failed. This is a big win for domestic farmers, who benefit from COOL because it allows them to distinguish their products in the supermarket. It is also a big win for consumers, who have the right to know where their food comes from. Second, an amendment by Senator Larry Craig of Idaho to exempt confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from air emissions reporting also did not make it into the budget bill. CAFOs often produce huge amounts of animal waste that contaminate water and air, and severely impact the environment and health of surrounding communities. Many of you made phonecalls or sent emails on these important measures, and we think your actions made a big difference -- thank you for all your efforts! ********** International Anti-Food Irradiation Week Activists in Milford, Pennsylvania, a community fighting a cobalt-60 food irradiation plant, coordinated events for their second annual Anti-Food Irradiation Week with Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott. Read the article below. Activists in Australia coordinated anti-food irradiation activities as well. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_2rallynov22,0,3188288.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed >From The Morning Call Peace Prize nominee highlights dangers of irradiated food Lower Milford plant could increase risks of terrorism, crowd told. By Charles Malinchak Special to The Morning Call November 22, 2004 A Nobel Peace Prize nominee warned an audience Sunday of the dangers of irradiated food, including possibly harmful effects to consumers and potential terrorist strikes against the irradiation plant. Dr. Helen Caldicott, speaking before more than 60 people in Quakertown Community High School during a rally for International Food Irradiation Day, also took the United States to task for its conspicuous consumption. Caldicott, founder of the Nuclear Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., was part of the program organized by NoCobalt-4-Food of Milford Township. In addition to speakers at the high school, the program included a morning prayer ceremony beside Unami Creek in the township conducted by members of the Lenni Lenape and Cherokee tribes. The daylong event was designed to bring public awareness to the potential hazards of food irradiation, which became a local issue after the opening of CFC Logistics in the township last year. The company is a federally licensed irradiation facility that uses cobalt 60 to kill food bacteria. During her hourlong talk, Caldicott said food that undergoes irradiation is hit with enough radiation to kill a human. Irradiation is designed to kill food bacteria and fungus, which Caldicott said has become a problem because of ''sloppy, inefficient factory farms.'' Caldicott said besides the dangers of eating food exposed to radiation, having a facility such as the one in Milford Township is inherently dangerous. Because the cobalt 60 must remain cool, she said, ''a terrorist wouldn't even need a bomb or a gun.'' ''All they would have to do is fly or drive into a cooling pond,'' she said. ''… That would cause the release of 30 times the amount of radiation in a single rod.'' Caldicott sees irradiation as a misuse and tied it to an American society that wastes energy. ''Why does Europe use 50 percent less electricity than the U.S.?'' she asked. '' …What God-given right do you have to live so extravagantly?'' Patty Lovera, another speaker and deputy director of the Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, said the Food and Drug Administration doesn't know what effect irradiated food has on humans. ''We want it thoroughly investigated before it goes into widespread use,'' she said. Even though the FDA has authorized its use, she said, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offered irradiated meat to schools all over the country and all but Minnesota, Texas and Nebraska refused. ''Those states later refused because they found irradiated beef was 50 to 80 cents more per pound,'' she said. This is the second annual event NoCobalt-4-Food has held to recognize the date. Last year's program drew about 300 people. At the morning prayer ceremony, held at the farm of Philip and Judy Stein off Allentown Road, Lenape Nation spokesman Jim Beer said irradiation is ''basically food pollution.'' ''We hate what it symbolizes,'' he said in reference to the CFC facility. ''We hate what it does, but we can't tear it down. We must be peaceful and firm and stand against it.'' Charles Malinchak is a freelance writer. Copyright * 2004, The Morning Call ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracy Lerman Senior Organizer Public Citizen, California Office 1615 Broadway, 9th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 ph: 510-663-0888 x 103 f: 510-663-8569 tlerman@citizen.org http://www.citizen.org/california ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ********** If you do not wish to recieve these emails in the future, please send a email to tlerman@citizen.org with "unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the subject line. ***************************************************************** 29 [du-list] Legislator Takes Up Veterans' Cause; Will Back Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:51 -0800 Legislator Takes Up Veterans' Cause Will Back Depleted Uranium Tests The Hartford Courant By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS November 21, 2004 http://www.ctnow.com/news/health/hc-dubill1121.artnov21,1,7836871.story?coll=hc-headlines-health Eddie Miles' legs were blown off in Vietnam. Despite his injuries, the Army veteran spent much of the rest of his life obtaining artificial limbs for Vietnamese and Cambodian children injured by the landmines the war left behind. Inspired by the work of Miles, a high school friend of hers, state Rep. Patricia Dillion, D-New Haven, says she is committed to helping those Connecticut National Guard veterans who were exposed to depleted uranium during the wars in Iraq. "What [Miles] taught me," Dillon said, "was that the war never ends, because the people who are affected by it continue to suffer, but the politicians forget about it." Dillon, Democratic deputy majority whip in the House, will propose a bill in the General Assembly to provide for independent laboratory health screening of service members from Connecticut who may have been exposed to depleted uranium munitions dust. The bill probably would have to go through the health and appropriations committees. During the past three years, Dillon has obtained documents and searched the Internet to find what she considers proof of the health dangers those exposed to depleted uranium, or DU, dust can face. The dust is a byproduct of exploding DU munitions used by the United States and Great Britain in Iraq. As a legislator and community activist, Dillon, 56, has been involved with financial and other issues for the veterans hospitals in Rocky Hill and West Haven. Her husband, Dr. Jack Hughes, teaches at the Yale University School of Medicine and is an internist and part-time physician at the VA hospital in West Haven. Dillon said she decided to get involved because veterans hospital administrators and veterans advocates constantly discussed the health crisis faced by veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, including illnesses they believed were related to depleted uranium dust. As planning began for the present war in Iraq, Dillon said, she began to worry that more soldiers would be exposed. In April, Dillon said, she read in the New York Daily News that independent tests determined that four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard unit probably had become contaminated with dust from the depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops in Iraq. When her legislative aides called New York Guard officials to find out what was wrong with the soldiers and what the state was doing about it, Dillon said, they "hit a brick wall of silence and bureaucracy." The same month she read in the British newspaper The Guardian that British soldiers returning from the war in Iraq were being tested for depleted uranium exposure. That convinced Dillon that Connecticut needs to do the same. Even though federal law requires blood and health tests for returning war veterans, Dillon said she is not convinced the Pentagon or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is properly screening service members for possible DU poisoning. Dillon said she plans to lobby hard for her bill when the legislative session opens in January because the health effects of depleted uranium are a "hot button issue." The U.S. Department of Defense has long ignored DU's toxic dangers just as it ignored landmines after Vietnam, Dillon said. The Defense Department insists the dust is only dangerous when inhaled in large quantities, usually an unlikely event. The United States and Great Britain used tons of DU to destroy tanks and bunkers in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. They continued to use it in the Balkans, Afghanistan and the present war in Iraq. The inhalation of DU dust by soldiers and civilians has long been suspected as one of the causes of the illness known as gulf war syndrome. Depleted uranium is a toxic, heavy metal byproduct of uranium enrichment for use in nuclear weapons and reactor fuel. It is also used in munitions, ballast for airplanes, tank armor and other products. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Its use on the tip of shells fired at tanks is lauded by the military because it ignites a fiery mass that can destroy or disable a tank with a single shot. But the fine DU dust created by the blast can blow in the wind for many miles and if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin in sufficient quantities can cause lung cancer or kidney ailments. In 2002 at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., researchers found that even though the alpha radiation from depleted uranium is relatively low, internalized DU as a metal can induce DNA damage and carcinogenic lesions in the cells that make up bones. Last December at a national conference of state legislators, Dillon asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the states' partnering with the Defense Department to pay for health care for returning troops. Rumsfeld, she said, promised to consider less wartime reliance on the National Guard, but did not comment on partnering with states on funding military health care. One urine screening test for depleted uranium exposure by an independent lab can cost as much as $2,500, said Tedd Weyman, who works for the Uranium Medical Research Center in Toronto. Because his center does not make profits from the tests, it charges $1,100 per test, he said. But if a state has an available mass spectrometer capable of measuring isotopes in parts per billion, he said, it could reduce that cost to $500. Federal urine tests presently performed on veterans are insufficient to do the job, he said. More than 32,000 veterans of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are said to have illnesses many of whose causes have not been identified. Dillon is not convinced federal help is on the way. After talking to administrators in state hospitals and veterans advocates, she decided to offer the bill, which, if adopted, would require depleted uranium exposure screening for all state service members returning from the war. Dillon's friend, Eddie Miles, died in January at age 60. An obituary in the Manhasset Long Island Press said Miles' quest for artificial limbs for the children took him throughout the world raising money, generating medical research and support and, in 1991, establishing a prosthetics clinic at Kien Khleang, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Michael Bennett, a spokesman for Miles' organization, the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, said: "We certainly support any and all efforts to ensure the health and welfare of our troops as they return home. This [legislation would be] a great step toward recognizing the risks of depleted uranium on the battlefield." Jose Llamas, a spokeswoman for the VA in Washington, said the VA does not screen veterans specifically for DU exposures, but its representatives and literature make the veterans aware of DU's potential health dangers. Dillon said the DU bill is in part dedicated to Miles. "I don't want this war to be like Vietnam, where public officials waved the flag and no one did anything about it [except the veterans]," she said. "We should learn from our mistakes." -- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a home for your web domain? We recommend our provider, Hosting Direct https://support.hostingdirect.net/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=nucnews ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 30 KRT Wire: Dangerous testing went beyond vets to orphans, prisoners | 11/23/2004 | BY DAVID ZEMAN Knight Ridder Newspapers DETROIT - (KRT) - In February 1953, the Pentagon issued tough new rules to protect people who took part in experiments. Military researchers were required to warn volunteers of the dangers involved and have them confirm in writing that they were not coerced. The directive was blunt, uncompromising and humane. And two months later, it was gutted. In April 1953, the military helped the CIA launch a Cold War program known as MKULTRA, in which unsuspecting servicemen and civilians were given LSD and other psychedelic drugs to study their use as truth serums. This cycle of government deception continued well into the 1970s, with thousands of Americans exposed to nuclear radiation, plutonium injections, chemical sprays from airplanes, open-air nerve agents and mescaline in secret tests. The tests flouted the principle of informed consent in the Nuremberg Code, drafted after the Nazi war-crimes trials in 1947 as an ethical standard for human experimentation. Sometimes the victims were military personnel. Often they were from society's most vulnerable populations: mentally ill people, prison inmates, poor or illiterate people, pregnant women, children who were retarded or orphaned, drug addicts or prostitutes. "You've got to ask yourself, how did these scientists sleep at night?" said David Rothman, director of the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at Columbia University and an expert on the history of human research. The scientists slept, said expert Jonathan Moreno, by convincing themselves that their tests ultimately would save lives. "They came to view their work as a patriotic thing to do," said Moreno, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia and author of "Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans." "And they came to think that the volunteers knew what was going on, even if they didn't know all the details." The Cold War tests mimicked many of the elements of the World War II chemical experiments. The soldiers exposed to LSD, for instance, were lured with promises of liberty passes and a guarantee that they could avoid guard or kitchen duty if they remained silent. During the Cold War, however, the CIA largely funded the tests. The spy agency was feverishly studying mind-control techniques amid reports that captured U.S. troops were being brainwashed in the Korean War and that Soviet and Chinese scientists were testing truth serums. In the U.S. tests, Americans were surreptitiously given the hallucinogens LSD or mescaline; PCP (angel dust), a highly addictive anesthetic that can cause delusions and mood swings, or BZ, a hallucinogenic incapacitating agent. Many of the people tested suffered hallucinations, flashbacks and permanent personality changes. In one notorious case, a CIA operative slipped LSD into the after-dinner drink of Army biochemist Frank Olson in 1953. He grew increasingly agitated and paranoid. So the CIA shipped Olson to New York City to see a doctor. In the predawn hours of Nov. 19, 1953, Olson crashed through his 10th-floor hotel window onto 7th Avenue below. His death was ruled a suicide. Olson's family did not learn that he was given LSD until 1975. Relatives eventually received a $750,000 settlement and an Oval Office apology from President Gerald Ford. They continue to assert Olson was pushed to his death, a charge the CIA has denied. The agency destroyed its MKULTRA records in 1972. During the Cold War, the government also exposed tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen to radiation in tests designed to gauge troop readiness during nuclear attack. Recruits were positioned within a mile or so of a nuclear detonation and told to cover their eyes. They reported that even with their eyes shut they could "see the bones in their forearms at the moment of the explosion." They were never warned of the long-term dangers of radiation exposure. Indeed, most were not classified as research volunteers; they were soldiers engaged in training exercises, according to Moreno. Studies later linked the "atomic soldier" tests with inoperable cancer or leukemia. Government research abuse was not confined to the military. In the 1960s and early 1970s, a series of scandals in academic and government research studies on institutionalized patients with mental illness, orphaned children, and the impoverished sparked outrage, most notably in 1972 when the Tuskegee syphilis study was exposed. In that case, government scientists deliberately withheld penicillin from illiterate black men for decades to study the course of the disease. "There was a kind of vague understanding among researchers that anyone being taken care of in a charitable institution had a moral obligation to give something back to society," Moreno said. The scandals produced wide-ranging reforms in federally funded testing, including the requirement of independent peer review. In 1976, Ford signed an executive order banning intelligence agencies from using humans in drug experiments without their informed, written consent. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan later expanded the order to all human tests. "What went on back in the 1950s and `60s could not go on now," Rothman said. "Are there aberrations? Yes. Are there guys who approach or cross the line? Yes. But you cannot now infect mentally retarded children in institutions with hepatitis to study it; it can't be done. In the war against disease, the lines are much more clearly drawn." --- © 2004, Detroit Free Press. Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com [http://www.freep.com] . ***************************************************************** 31 Salt Lake Tribune: Utahns to team up on N-testing and environment Article Last Updated: 11/23/2004 02:12:05 AM Legislation: It would require mandatory environmental reviews before underground tests By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune Jim Matheson WASHINGTON - Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson plans to join forces with Republican Sen. Bob Bennett to reintroduce legislation next year for mandatory environmental reviews before underground nuclear weapons testing could resume in Nevada. The pair of Utah lawmakers introduced similar bills requiring congressional authorization of any new detonations at the Nevada Test Site northwest of Las Vegas, but both measures are considered dead as the current session sputters to a close. With Congress approving a 2005 energy spending bill that eliminates funding for studying new versions of existing nuclear weapons Saturday, Matheson said he hopes to work with Bennett to craft a single piece of legislation that would protect downwinders from potential exposure to radioactive fallout or contamination. "I was very pleased by Sen. Bennett's bill and I like some of the changes he put in his, so I'm hoping we can work together to reintroduce a new bill in the next Congress," Matheson said. "I believe there is the opportunity to make a lot of progress on this, especially with bipartisan support and having a companion bill in the Senate." Said Bennett's spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest: "Senator Bennett looks forward to coordinating with Congressman Matheson on that legislative effort next year." Introduced in March, Matheson's "Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act" would require environmental reviews on health and safety of a proposed underground test and require Congress to authorize resumed tests. It also would increase Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency responsibility for radiation level monitoring, authorize independent radiation fallout monitoring, and authorize a study on long-term health effects of radiation exposure. Bennett's bill, which was introduced in September, essentially duplicated Matheson's measure, but also added provisions such as requiring the installation of radiation monitoring stations in any Utah county that requests one and establishing a citizen review board to meet with DOE to discuss testing concerns. The bill also would order the National Academies of Science to study the adequacy of current radiation release prevention measures used at the test site. Such pre-authorization testing legislation would face hurdles. Lawmakers whose home states include DOE weapons labs worry that increasing the public participation requirements for resumed testing could mean endless delays and ultimately threaten America's nuclear defense posture. Nuclear policy watchdogs from the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL) met with Bennett's staff last week in Washington to challenge a statement the senator made to The Salt Lake Tribune last month on the potential health threat of underground testing to people living downwind from the Nevada Test Site. Because above-ground tests ended in 1962, Bennett told The Tribune he believes "clearly prior to 1962 there were downwinders, but after that, scientifically it's harder to make a case for anybody who's 42 years or younger." Vanessa Pierce, HEAL's program director, said they have asked Bennett to review a 1988 study by the now-defunct congressional Office of Technology Assessment that concluded since 1970, 126 underground tests in Nevada resulted in radioactive material entering the atmosphere. The OTA study found while safeguards were incorporated into each underground nuclear bomb detonation, "there can never be 100 percent confidence that a test will not release radioactive material." © Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 32 Times-News: Downwinders to AG: Sue the fedsBy Michelle Dunlop [http://www.magicvalley.com/] Tuesday, November 23, 2004 • Twin Falls, Idaho Times-News writer BOISE -- The federal government targeted Idahoans while testing nuclear weapons and should compensate state residents appropriately, said one group of downwinders in a letter to the attorney general on Monday. "I'd like to have the attorney general get involved," said House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum. "I think it's just another alternative for compensation." Sixteen individuals, including Jaquet, signed a letter addressed to Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden requesting that Wasden file a class action lawsuit against the federal government and private corporations for the detrimental health effects caused by nuclear testing during the 1950s and 1960s. The iodine-131 component of nuclear fallout has been linked to cancer. During a hearing earlier this month, downwinders testified in front of representatives of the National Academy of Sciences about including Idaho under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. While residents living in specific counties of Nevada, Utah and Arizona during testing at the Nevada Test Site qualify for federal compensation, Idahoans do not. The National Academy of Sciences intends to make its recommendation to Congress in March. The letter's senders addressed three main areas of concern: time, the amount of compensation and the types of illnesses considered for compensation. Time is of the essence, said Jaquet. There are people who need compensation now in order to pay medical bills, she said. Currently, Idahoans would have to wait for Congress to decide whether to include the state under its compensation program before applying to receive compensation. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act allows downwinders to receive $50,000 in federal compensation; it recognizes 20 types of cancer including thyroid, breast and stomach cancers. "People have bills in excess of $50,000," Jaquet said. The letter suggests the government should compensate downwinders not only for medical bills, but also for pain and suffering. The same act that compensates downwinders $50,000 pays miners -- who knowingly assume some risk with the job -- $150,000. The letter suggests a higher level of compensation for downwinders: "We were innocent bystanders hundreds of miles away. So $250,000 appears appropriate." Jaquet would also like to see the government consider compensation for autoimmune disease, such as Multiple Sclerosis. One of Jaquet's constituents, Fred Trenkle of Shoshone, has conducted studies on the high concentration of autoimmune disease cases near Shoshone. Trenkle also signed the letter to Wasden. "I think that maybe it's bigger than what we thought," Jaquet said. Bob Cooper, a spokesman for the attorney general, could not comment specifically on the letter, but said that Wasden would respond to the letter's senders directly. "As a general rule, the attorney general does not file class action suits," Cooper said. Instead, private attorneys typically handle lawsuits like this, he said. "There may be a misunderstanding of the legal system," Cooper said. Copyright © 2004, Lee Publications Inc. Magicvalley.com is an on-line division of The Times-News, published daily at 132 W. Fairfield St., Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary ***************************************************************** 33 Hawk Eye: UI to keep filing IAAP medical claims [http://archive.thehawkeye.com] Tuesday, November 23, 2004, Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST By KILEY MILLER [kmiller@thehawkeye.com] MIDDLETOWN — Former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant workers can breathe a sigh of relief: The University of Iowa should be helping file medical claims for at least another year. An omnibus spending bill passed Saturday by the Senate included $300,000 for the College of Public Health to continue collecting medical records and completing claims forms for workers and retirees. An additional $500,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency was directed toward "improvements" at the plant, according to a press release from Sen. Charles Grassley's office. No specifics on that money were available Monday afternoon. Also in southeast Iowa, another $4.8 million in government money will be spent on Lock and Dam No. 19 in Keokuk to continue rehabilitation work, including replacement of the 53–foot–tall gates on the 1,200–foot–long lock. The gates are being built now, and installation is projected for November 2005. The House of Representatives could forward a corrected version of the appropriations bill Wednesday to President George. W. Bush for his signature. Laurence Fuortes, the University of Iowa's lead investigator for the IAAP medical claims, had heard rumors help was on the way for the cash–strapped screening program. Fuortes and his colleagues have been working with a "no–cash extension" from federal regulators since September, tapping into money leftover from previous federal appropriations to continue testing former workers for radiation–induced cancers and chronic beryllium disease. "We were committed to working with the people (in Burlington) no matter what," Fuortes said. "But if this turns out to be true, we would be very grateful." Fuortes believes there may be up to 800 former IAAP workers in the area who have yet to be screened for illnesses related to their time manufacturing nuclear and conventional weapons. He hopes to reach those people, and help others who may be having difficulty filing the appropriate paperwork for government compensation. "There are people who are getting responses from the Department of Labor who might need further screening," Fuortes said. "Or their claims might be denied because there was not sufficient documentation in their medical records." He said the U of I team can help by obtaining and reviewing plant X–rays or other pertinent health information. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 · 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · [webmaster@thehawkeye.com] ***************************************************************** 34 AP Wire: Congress approves MOX funding, but no money for new national lab | 11/23/2004 | Associated Press AIKEN, S.C. - A congressional spending bill recently approved and awaiting President Bush's signature includes $300 million for a facility that would convert weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. But funds for the newly designated Savannah River National Laboratory were not restored in the final spending bill. Construction of the mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel facility at the Savannah River Site has been delayed. It was expected to begin last spring. According to the United States and Russian agreement to get rid of 68 metric tons of plutonium, the programs must run parallel and DOE officials have said there have been delays in Russia, which wants the United States to assume plant liability in their country. Members of Congress wrote in the bill they were disappointed a solution for liability was not negotiated. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressed optimism in a statement. "The Bush administration understands how important it is we get this project moving so we can take this material off the market and terrorists cannot get their hands on it," he said. The site also will receive about $1.15 billion for cleanup and operations, including about $162 million to accelerate the cleanup, removal and storage of about 37 million gallons of high-level waste in 49 underground tanks. A decision on the modern pit facility, a $4 billion plant that would make plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons, will not be made until fiscal year 2005. --- Information from: The Augusta Chronicle, http://www.augustachronicle.com/ [http://www.augustachronicle.com/] ***************************************************************** 35 Nevada Appeal: Reid's aide to be on agency deciding Yucca license H. JOSEF HEBERT November 23, 2004 WASHINGTON - In a deal to let 175 of President Bush's nominees take office, an adviser to new Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Senate's staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues. In turn, Reid, who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations. In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: The White House promised Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which zipped through the Senate. Also, it was agreed that a Republican nominee to the NRC, retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert H. Konetzni, would be put on the commission and probably become its chairman late next year. The White House already had sent Konetzni's nomination to the Senate this month, hoping to resolve an impasse that had kept the president's nominations in congressional limbo. Among them were senior positions across the executive branch and at such entities as Amtrak, the Social Security Administration and the judiciary. Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Reid's desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the facility next year. Under the compromise reached on the NRC nominations, Jaczko agreed not to participate in any Yucca Mountain related matters for the first year of his two-year term. The licensing process is expected to take at least three years once an application is received from the Energy Department next year. Margaret Chu, director of the DOE office that heads the Yucca program, recently informed regulators the department would not meet a Dec. 31 target to submit a license application, officials said Monday. It had been widely believed the target would be missed because of financing problems and adverse court decisions involving radiation standards. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who opposed Jaczko's nomination, said he was comfortable with the arrangement after, he said, the White House assured him Jaczko would not be renominated by the president after his two years. A Reid spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said that the agreement "in no way prohibits (Jaczko) from being renominated." By law three of the five commissioners at the NRC must be of the same party as the president. The commission currently has two Republican and one Democratic member. Jaczko, a physicist who joined Reid's staff in 2001 as a nuclear adviser, did not return telephone calls to his office Monday. "Greg is eminently qualified to serve as a commissioner. He is a scientist first and has the background and experience necessary to evaluate information objectively," Reid said in a statement. Domenici and 15 other Republican senators informed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that it would be impossible to confirm Jaczko without senators first having the opportunity to question him at a formal hearing. "A nominee as controversial as Greg Jaczko will not be confirmed ... for the sake of political expedience," said Domenici. An appointment to a post while Congress is in recess does not require Senate confirmation but is good for only the length of the congressional session, which is two years. A normal NRC appointment is for five years. --- On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission: [http://www.nrc.gov] Yucca Mountain Project: [http://www.ymp.gov] Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: [http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste] All contents © Copyright 2004 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 36 Las Vegas RJ: DOE revises Yucca schedule Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Application won't be submitted by Dec. 31 By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Still working out segments of an elaborate licensing plan, the Energy Department said Monday it will not meet its schedule to apply by the end of the year for approval to build a Nevada nuclear waste repository. "We are revising our original goals," said Margaret Chu, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Chu did not specify when the department would complete a 5,800-page license application to be judged by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the Yucca Mountain Project. But she and other DOE executives indicated at a meeting with NRC officials it could be mid-2005 or later. The NRC might begin a multi-year review late in 2005, but that could change as well depending on government progress to set new radiation safety standards for the nuclear waste burial complex. John Arthur, Yucca Mountain deputy director, said he could not say whether the licensing delay will cause DOE to push back its 2010 goal ultimately to have a repository operating and accepting nuclear waste. "We do not anticipate significant delays," Chu said. "We remain focused on implementing the nation's policy for nuclear waste management." DOE's announcement had been anticipated for weeks by industry and state officials and members of Congress. Officials had been reassessing the schedule since legal and administrative rulings this summer set back the program. "We're disappointed but at the same time we understand why they made the decision," said Mitch Singer, a Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman. "They want to file the best license application they can and they want to take a little more time to do that." Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., believes the delay illustrates DOE disorganization, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. "It comes as no surprise to anyone the project is fraught with mistakes," Hafen said. The schedule change carries ramifications for Bechtel-SAIC, the project's managing contractor that employs 1,444 workers, mostly in Southern Nevada. It throws into question a $15.2 million DOE payment to Bechtel tied to finalizing a license application by Nov. 30, and a $22 million award the company would receive if NRC docketed an application by March 2005. Arthur said the Bechtel-SAIC contract was being reviewed. "With the changes that have happened and other factors, some of them external, we are having to sit down and look at the fee structure," Arthur said. Bechtel "will get paid, it is just how much and in what time frame." Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it would be wrong if Bechtel-SAIC were to profit from Yucca Mountain slippage. "It doesn't make any difference if there were external factors to DOE or not," Loux said. DOE officials also are weighing 2005 spending for Yucca Mountain that Congress passed over the weekend. The $577 million budget is $303 million less than what DOE requested for repository designs, to ramp up work on transportation segments and to begin preparing power plants to move spent fuel by the end of the decade. Arthur said an undetermined number of workers will face layoffs as managers look to rebalance resources to focus on repository licensing and design issues. Explaining the schedule change, Arthur said a September review of the 5,800 page license draft written by Bechtel-SAIC turned up areas that project managers want to strengthen before handing over to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "To be blunt, we saw some things that we did that should have been done differently," said Joseph Ziegler, the project licensing director. Arthur said uncertainty over radiation safety rules contributed to the delay. The Environmental Protection Agency is setting out to reformulate a radiation standard that was voided by a federal appeals court in July, but has not said when a new one would be proposed. Michele Boyd, energy legislative director for the Public Citizen watchdog group, said "it is quite astonishing that DOE considers itself close to a high quality license application when the fundamental health regulations remain in flux." Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 37 Las Vegas SUN: DOE's schedule change could benefit Nevada Today: November 23, 2004 at 11:19:54 PST By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada feels a little less pressure now that it is clear the Yucca Mountain project's license application is still a few months off. There is still a lot of work ahead in the fight against storing 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste in the state, but based on the Energy Department's announcements Monday, the state's attorneys have more time to work. "Our scope of work has gone down dramatically," said Joe Egan, an attorney hired by the state to handle Yucca issues. "It's no longer an emergency in terms of timing." The department said Monday it would not submit its license application for the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, next month as planned. The department also will not finish loading documents into the project's database until sometime next year. The nuclear industry is "disappointed" said Steve Kraft, director of waste management at the Nuclear Energy Institute, but agrees that the department should not submit an incomplete application. "If it is going to take them some extra time, then by all means let them take it," Kraft said. "We understand why and certainly would want them to get it right." Margaret Chu, the director of the civilian radioactive waste program, told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the department would let it know about a new schedule for the license application sometime in February or early 2005. She said she did not want to arbitrarily name a new date and run the risk of missing it too because that would undermine the department's credibility. Chu said the delay was caused by a combination of an internal review of the draft application, the federal court decision throwing out the radiation protection standard and questions surrounding the project's documents. Nevada has been waiting for the department to recertify its documents ever since a commission panel said the initial certification did not satisfy commission rules earlier this year. Once the department gets all it documents onto the network, Nevada has 90 days to go through it and get its own documents online. The network is supposed to contain all documents related to work on the application, from lengthy technical documents to e-mails between department employees. Nevada can add any documents it feels the department did not include or that might help the state's challenges. Egan and the state's other attorney can also fine tune those challenges and finish more technical work between now and whenever the department files the application. Congress approved $2 million for the state's work on the project and $8 million for local governments, an increase from the state's $1 million and local government's $4 million received for fiscal year 2004. Meanwhile observers on Monday were mulling how two new members of the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission might affect the Yucca project. A deal that grew out of negotiations involving Reid, White House officials and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would allow a top Reid aide, Greg Jaczko, to take one of the open seats on the commission as early as January. But Jaczko likely would be limited to a two-year stint unless Reid could somehow convince Bush to renominate him. And Jaczko would recuse himself from Yucca matters during his first year, under the agreement. That means Jaczko also likely would be limited on Yucca topics in his official interactions with Nuclear Regulator Commission staffers, commission spokesman Scott Burnell said. Still, it likely would not necessarily bar him from having a private conversation with another commissioner, Burnell said. Reid's compromise on Jaczko may be an early indication of how he plans to make good on a pledge to work toward compromises with the Bush administration, one observer said. "It's consistent with what I understand to be Harry Reid's style," UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. "And that is that he is not one to provoke confrontation for its own sake." Reid had been holding up 172 other nominations to federal posts, irking Republicans but ultimately earning Jaczko a seat, albeit with limits. "I don't think he sold out," Jelen said. "It was probably the best he could do." Reid believes the deal was a good one because the commission won't take much action on Yucca anyway in the next year, and because in two years Reid can fight to keep him on the commission, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Two anti-Yucca activists were reluctant to criticize the deal struck regarding Jaczko's nomination. But two others said they were disappointed. The public suffers under the compromise, said Navin Nayak, environmental advocate at U.S. Public Interest Research Group, who tracks Yucca issues. The nuclear industry traditionally has had no trouble winning Senate approval for commissioners who likely support Yucca, but someone seen as possibly critical of the project now has to recuse himself from Yucca matters for a year, Nayak said. "It's a pretty bad deal," Nayak said. Pro-Yucca lawmakers have notably lessened the impact Jaczko could have on the commission, especially if he only serves two years, said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Pro-Yucca nuclear power industry leaders saw Jaczko as a real threat, he said. [http://www.vegas.com/mediakit/] Vegas.com. All contents © 1996 - 2004 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. Nevada's Largest Website ***************************************************************** 38 RGJ: Yucca license request behind schedule ||| Home [http://www.rgj.com/] Doug Abrahms [online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 11/22/2004 11:17 pm WASHINGTON — The Energy Department admitted Monday what many critics had been saying — its application to the Nuclear Energy Commission to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is running behind schedule. Agency officials said the application isn’t ready and won’t be filed this year as originally expected. “We want to make sure that we have a document that stands up to the necessary rigor” of the license process, said Allen Benson, an agency spokesman. “This was a target (date) that we had imposed on ourselves.” The Energy Department was handed a setback this summer when a federal appeals court ruled it must change the radiation standard for the project to better follow guidelines set by the National Academies of Science. The NRC is expected to take at least three years to review Yucca Mountain’s license application. The Energy Department has said the repository would start accepting spent nuclear fuel from reactors around the country by 2010. “It comes as no surprise to anyone that they can’t meet the deadline. The whole project is fraught with problems,” said Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. In another development related to Yucca Mountain, the White House and Senate Republicans agreed Sunday to name Gregory Jaczko, a Reid staff member, to serve on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will determine whether to grant Yucca Mountain’s operating license. Reid had held about 175 nominations for federal positions until the Bush administration agreed to appoint Jaczko. Jaczko, who has doctorate in particle physics, must recuse himself on all Yucca Mountain matters for one year and his term will run out in two years under a compromise worked out by Senate leaders and the Bush administration. “Essentially the main responsibility of the NRC is to look out for the public’s safety for commercial nuclear projects,” Hafen said. “Senator Reid wants to make sure there’s an objective person on the commission to look at the facts.” Retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert Konetzni also was appointed to the five-member commission. Senate Republicans had refused to approve Jaczko’s appointment without a hearing. The Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents electric companies that own atomic reactors, also opposed Jaczko. “In light of his work on behalf of Sen. Reid opposing the Yucca Mountain project, Mr. Jaczko’s ability to serve on the commission in an impartial manner on general nuclear issues and Yucca Mountain in particular is an open question,” said John Kane, a senior vice president for the trade group. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 Waste News: Congress OKs spending $500 million to continue Yucca Mt. project | Waste Management/Recycling/Landfill Headlines [Wastenews.com Nov. 23 -- Congress agreed to a $338 billion spending bill for the federal government in 2005 that would include more than $500 million to further development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada. However, the bill also slashes more than $250 million from funds that would allow local governments to improve water quality by upgrading their sewage treatment systems. The measure cleared Congress on Nov. 20, and members of Congress expect to forward it to President Bush for his signature after removing some controversial language apparently placed into the bill unbeknownst to most congressmen. The inserted language would make it easier for some members of Congress and their aides to review individuals´ income tax returns. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed confidence the offending language would be dropped and the bill forwarded to the president. webmaster@wastenews.com [webmaster@wastenews.com] ***************************************************************** 40 PE.com: Resident hot about higherwater rates | Inland Southern California | San Bernardino Metro 01:28 AM PST on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 By K. FRANKE SANTOS / The Press-Enterprise RIALTO - Faith Jones wants to know why her water bill is so high. The 55-year-old, who lives on a limited income, thinks that the water rate increase imposed in April, along with a surcharge to pay for both perchlorate cleanup and litigation, was too drastic. Her last water bill was $49.56, compared with $35.28 during the same period last year, she said. Her base rate went from $5.30 to $12. Kurt Miller / The Press-Enterprise Rialto resident Faith Jones questions why she is being charged monthly on her water bill for perchlorate cleanup. "It's true they hadn't raised it in a long time, but they could have snuck up on that one instead of immediately going double," she said. But the thing that most irritates her is the perchlorate charge, which she doesn't think she should pay. Last month, it made up about 15 percent of her bill. Since the charge was imposed, the city has collected $913,000, said June Overholt, Rialto's chief financial officer. It is projected to collect $2.5 million annually, she said. The perchlorate treatment is a "necessary component of serving safe, clean water," said Robert Owen, Rialto city attorney. The surcharge eventually will pay off, Owen said. The lawsuit the city filed in January against the federal government and 41 other agencies over the contamination is the strongest case of its scope he has seen in his career. "The real issue is whether we spend $10 (million) to $15 million ... with the likelihood of recovering tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars," he said. Once the lawsuit is settled, the perchlorate surcharge will be refunded to the ratepayers, he said. The city has established a program to track people who move out of Rialto's service area, he said. The only way to treat perchlorate contamination is at the wellhead, estimated to cost up to $700,000 per well annually, he said. The city has 13 wells, five of which have been affected by perchlorate. The city's programs must pay for themselves, Owen said, a practice that was begun during a financial crisis in 2000. The city then was on the verge of insolvency and was borrowing from one fund to pay for another, he said. Perchlorate is a rocket fuel and firework component that is highly water soluble, so it moves quickly through the aquifer. The plume contaminating Rialto's aquifers from a 160-acre site in north Rialto that over the past 50 years has been used for military and industrial purposes. Owen said it probably will take five years to bring the city's lawsuit to completion. The city's water system serves about half of Rialto's residents. The other half is served by West Valley Water District, which does not impose a perchlorate surcharge. Rialto went on its own in filing a lawsuit, said Anthony "Butch" Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water District. "The rest of us didn't see the merit in jumping into a long-term fight with the federal government and the county," he said. Water provided by West Valley, Fontana and Colton has been affected by the contamination. The surcharge is costing those served by Rialto a lot of money, Araiza said. West Valley has paid for its treatment through money from Prop. 50 bonds, from the state Water Resources Control Board, from the federal government and from a settlement with the B.F. Goodrich Corp. Araiza said West Valley eventually may join Rialto's lawsuit, but added that he doesn't anticipate that happening soon. Reach K. Franke Santos at (909) 806-3065 or fsantos@pe.com [fsantos@pe.com] More headlines... [http://www.pe.com/pe/] © 2004 Belo Interactive Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 ABQjournal: Small Firms Criticize LANL on Contract Offers Albuquerque Journal newspaper. Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Albuquerque Journal--> By Heather Clark The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE— Rudy Gonzalez sold his house in Virginia, moved back home to the Southwest and set up the office for his new construction company in a Downtown apartment. After Builtek Construction Inc. finished its first job building housing for U.S. Border Patrol agents in Big Bend, Texas, the 30-year-old entrepreneur was broke. But his small company had the start of a good reputation, and six years later, Builtek has a $2 million subcontract to build the walls and doors of a nanotechnology facility at Sandia National Laboratories. Walking among workers in hard hats and construction equipment in the partially finished structure, Gonzalez said, "If it wasn't for Sandia, a company like mine would have never seen a project like this." Still, Gonzalez and other small business advocates say national laboratories could do more to support small companies by increasing direct contracts to them. At Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, there has been a recent decline in the amount of money going to small businesses. On the other hand, Sandia and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project near Carlsbad have seen increases in money paid to small companies. Richard Marquez, Los Alamos lab's associate director for administration, said the lab's efforts to recruit small businesses were sidetracked by a procurement scandal early last year. That resulted in the drop in money spent on small business contracts— from $431 million in fiscal 2002 to $417 million the next fiscal year. "We've got to stop that trend and get it back up to a healthy profile," Marquez said. In July, the lab was able to begin refocusing its efforts and some contracts suitable for small businesses are now in the pipeline, he said. But small businesses doing work at Los Alamos have yet to feel the effects. The lab has "been in a shutdown mode, and it's had a huge impact on small business people," said Tina Cordova, president and co-owner of Queston Construction Inc. Her company has not seen a direct contract from Los Alamos in 18 months, although it has typically had as many as 20 employees working there, she said. Praise for Sandia Even with his work at Sandia, Gonzalez said his company has had a tough few months, working with a large out-of-state company and nearly going bankrupt after 41/2 months of delays. Gonzales said Sandia worked with him and increased his contract to cover the additional expenses. "To their credit, they came on board," he said. Gonzalez believes the labs should put mechanisms in place so large contractors can't save construction costs on the backs of small businesses. Theresa Carson, manager of supplier information and relations at Sandia labs, said the lab has taken a lot of initiatives to encourage small businesses— from small business fairs to posting business opportunities on its Web site. Sandia and WIPP have also unbundled contracts— breaking large projects into smaller jobs that small businesses can bid for. Sandia's efforts have increased the amount of money going to small business from $360 million in fiscal year 2001 to $459 million two years later. But the percentage of contracts going to small businesses decreased from 69 percent to 53 percent over the same period. The percentage decline was due to larger companies getting contracts on the Mesa Project, the largest capital construction project ever undertaken at the lab. But, Carson said, the lab tried to protect small businesses by requiring large companies to include them as subcontractors. The move allowed companies like Gonzalez's to get some of the business. LANL changes And although this year has been tough for small businesses trying to get contracts at Los Alamos, Marquez said that's about to change. He is shooting to have at least 50 percent of the lab's procurement dollars going to small business— up from the 43 percent in fiscal year 2003. The lab's Business Advisory Council is working on such issues as how to make bidding for lab contracts more transparent by better communicating business standards to small businesses, he said. "We typically haven't done a very good job of communicating those in advance," he said. Marquez also said town meetings with small business owners are helping. Cordova, who has attended two such meetings, agreed they have been "very beneficial." The Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Project is the bright spot when it comes to small business. In fiscal year 2003, 86 percent of the procurement money was paid to small firms, said Bob Prentiss of Washington TRU Solutions, which runs WIPP. The money going to small business has increased from $20 million in fiscal year 2001 to $38.6 million two years later. "There's this tremendous versatility and expertise out there in the small-business world," Prentiss said. Owners of small companies like that kind of talk. Cordova said a lot of the historical animosity between the labs and small businesses could be relieved if the labs recognized the role small business already has played in their operations. "A group of scientists didn't get together and build the brick and mortar" at Los Alamos, Cordova said. "That was done by the men and women of New Mexico." Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 42 Deseret news: Another review for Rocky Flats? [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Senator calls for further government scrutiny of cleanup By Robert Weller Associated Press DENVER — Sen. Wayne Allard asked for another government review of the cleanup at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant Monday after critics said the project overlooks sites where radioactive waste was secretly dumped. "We need independent assurance that the cleanup is on time, on budget, and that the site meets the stringent environmental standards outlined for the contractor when the project began," Sen. Allard, R-Colo., said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office. It would be the GAO's third review of the $7 billion cleanup at the site, owned by the Department of Energy. The DOE and the cleanup contractor, Kaiser Hill Inc., have insisted the work is sound. "We welcome the review. We have periodic reviews all the time," said DOE spokeswoman Karen Lutz. Lutz said the cleanup is on track to finish on schedule in December 2006. She said the DOE would cooperate fully with the GAO. The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, which raised new questions about the cleanup last summer, also welcomed the review. The group has suggested the cleanup plans do not include places where waste was secretly dumped or buried. "I would personally prefer a review by an independent group without any ties to government, but this is an improvement," said Leroy Moore, a founder of the Boulder-based group, which has been highly critical of the cleanup. "One of the things the GAO needs to do is get their hands on the files of the Rocky Flats grand jury investigation and see what they can learn that the public has never known," said Moore. The report of the federal grand jury that investigated alleged environmental crimes at Rocky Flats in 1989 was ordered sealed after prosecutors declined to allow the grand jury to charge employees of DOE Rockwell International Corp., which ran the plant under contract. The company paid an $18.5 million fine. Rocky Flats, about 10 miles west of Denver, manufactured plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads until 1992, when it was shut down by a combination of safety concerns and the end of the Cold War. A portion of the area is to be turned into a wildlife refuge once the cleanup is finished. Allard, chairman of a Senate subcommittee that monitors the cleanup of former nuclear sites, asked the GAO to determine whether the cleanup will sufficient to allow the site to become a refuge. After a 2001 review of the project, the GAO said Kaiser-Hill and DOE were unlikely to finish on schedule, citing uncertainties about the extent of contamination in the soil and the how much soil could safely be allowed to remain. On the Net: www.rfets.gov [http://www.rfets.gov] © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 43 Tri-City Herald: Spending bill includes state projects This story was published Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004 By Annette Cary and Les Blumenthal Herald staff writers Tucked into the $388 billion spending bill approved by Congress are hundreds of millions of dollars for Washington projects and programs ranging from $2 billion for Hanford Nuclear Reservation cleanup to developing a Hanford Reach Visitor Center in Richland. The bill approved Saturday includes $235 million earmarked for roads, highways and mass transit on top of $600 million the state will receive in formula funding from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration. "By investing in our transportation infrastructure, we are creating good-paying construction jobs today and paving the way for future economic growth," said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee. The omnibus measure, approved by wide margins in both the House and the Senate, wraps nine appropriations bills into one and, overall, keeps a tight lid on domestic spending. In Central Washington, the bill provides $2.25 million for widening Highway 12 to four lanes from Wallula Junction to Walla Walla and $1 million to construct a sound barrier wall and relocate an irrigation main along the Richland bypass highway. The proposed Hanford Reach Visitor Center would receive $750,000. The $32 million center will be dedicated to telling the history of the Reach and informing visitors of recreational opportunities. An additional $1 million was provided to improve automobile access to the visitors center site and Columbia Point South Road. At Hanford, the roughly $2 billion will be spent to keep environmental cleanup on track. Department of Energy officials were analyzing the bill Monday to determine specifically how much individual cleanup projects would receive. The budget proposed for Hanford in February did not include $64.1 million set aside to be spent on Hanford only when the issue of reclassifying high-level waste is resolved to the administration's satisfaction. The final bill included half that amount, $32.05 million. "The final bill does send a message on the need for Washington state and the Department of Energy to reach an accord on the situation created by the federal court ruling on high-level waste," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in a prepared statement. He had pushed for the full amount to be restored. The federal court ruling overturned a lower court's ruling barring DOE from reclassifying high-level waste left in underground tanks at Hanford from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Waste may be reclassified in South Carolina and Idaho, which did not have similar money withheld from budgets for cleanup in those states. But Washington state officials opposed a similar change, and its congressional leaders, including Hastings, blocked legislation allowing waste reclassification at Hanford. The overall environmental management budget for DOE sites was set at $7.32 billion. That's a $429 million increase over fiscal year 2004. Hastings said a record level of funding was maintained in the final Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, but all nonmilitary programs are subject to an 0.8 percent across-the-board reduction. Completion of the fiscal year 2005 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill was not announced until Saturday, as wrangling continued over the future of the Yucca Mountain Project, where some of Hanford's worst waste and waste from nuclear power production is set to go. The bill set funding for the project at $577 million. That equals last year's appropriation, rather than including $303 million more that the president had requested. The bill also provides $8 million for the HAMMER training center, which is a $2 million increase. HAMMER will use the extra money as its role in homeland security is increased, Hastings said. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will receive $10 million for its transition to new facilities for about 1,000 workers who currently work in the 300 Area at Hanford. The money will be used for design of new office and laboratory space and will keep the national laboratory on track to leave the 300 Area in 2009, said PNNL spokeswoman Andrea Turner. Also included in the spending bill was $790,000 to allow the University of Washington to continue the Hanford Production Workers Medical Screening Program and to initiate medical screening of current workers at the Hanford tank farms. Efforts to preserve Hanford's B Reactor also received a boost. Language written by Hastings was incorporated into the bill, directing the National Park Service to spend a portion of its budget for the next year on the study. In October, a bill calling for a study to preserve Hanford's B Reactor and other Manhattan Project facilities was signed by the president, although it did not provide any money. No dollar amount was included in the spending bill that passed, but Hastings' office said total cost of the study is expected to be less than $1 million. The B Reactor was the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor and produced plutonium for the bomb that dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping end World War II. The wine industry will benefit from $280,000 to develop and build the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser to boost wine tourism. The bill also includes $325,000 for virus-free grape plants developed at Prosser's Agriculture Research Service Center. Water project funding includes $1.5 million for Black Rock and $250,000 for the Odessa Subaquifer. The $1.5 million will be used to continue a 2-year-old study of the potential for increasing water storage in the Yakima River Basin, possibly with a new Black Rock Reservoir. About $2.5 million has already been spent on the study. The $250,000 will be used to begin studying the Odessa Subaquifer depletion and possible solutions. Part of the irrigation acreage in the Columbia Basin Project uses water pumped from the subaquifer rather than the Columbia River. Also included was $9 million for Columbia River dredging to maintain barge travel and to enhance or create more than 2,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat. Oregon and Washington have agreed to provide $55.4 million and a contract is to be awarded in 2005. The Columbia Groundwater Management Area will receive $500,000 in its sixth year of consecutive funding. The project addresses nitrate contamination. Several bus systems will receive money. Ben Franklin Transit will receive $1.05 million to help build a new maintenance and operations facility. Grant Transit in Grant County will receive $800,000, Valley Transit in Walla Walla will receive $500,000 and Columbia County Transit will receive $50,000. Kennewick will get $500,000 for improvements to its water system. The Port of Walla Walla will receive $750,000 toward a $5 million public water system near Burbank. It will allow development of a light-industrial park and provide potable water for Burbank residents. In Walla Walla, $250,000 will be spent toward a plan for surplus buildings and other property at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The plan would provide the local community with a historically significant economic development opportunity, according to Murray's office. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 44 Chattanoogan: Wamp Secures Funding For Regional Projects - 11/22/2004 - [the chattanoogan.com WASHINGTON – Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN) said he helped deliver critical energy and water, transportation, interior, law enforcement, and economic development funds for the Third District of Tennessee and the State of Tennessee through his position on the House Appropriations Committee with this weekend’s House and Senate passage of the FY05 discretionary spending bills. In a year of many war-time budgeting priorities, these bills pare back spending levels for many discretionary programs while continuing support for veterans health care, manpower and resources for fighting the War on Terror, and maintaining our highway and infrastructure investments, he said. “We succeeded in holding the line on spending under the budget cap of $821 billion while protecting many important regional priorities for the State of Tennessee,” said Congressman Wamp. The following categories include funding levels and descriptions for projects affecting East Tennessee: RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT “Economic development through research and technology is expanding in the Tennessee Valley,” said Congressman Wamp. “From Chattanooga’s Enterprise agenda to the work of the East Tennessee Economic Council, we are advancing a research and technology agenda in East Tennessee from year to year.” $1 million for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga SimCenter Program This includes a $600,000 earmark in the Energy and Water section for climate change research and a $400,000 earmark in the Labor-Education bill to simulate and assess how bioterrorism could affect critical facilities, such as hospitals, health departments, and police centers. $400,000 for Connect the Valley Initiative This funding will enhance The Enterprise Center and increase the effectiveness of the many research initiatives to meet the needs of businesses and industry within the Valley. $400,000 for the University of Tennessee Corridor Initiative This funding continues an information-sharing initiative among institutions, businesses, and individuals. It also seeks to continue the Riverbend Technology Institute which steers the technology future of the Valley Corridor region. The funding will implement a fast-track certification program for business executives and government leaders for purposes of linking technologies to businesses, as well as networking with other corporate and government leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, academic, and venture capitalists. $400,000 for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Health and Performance Institute This funding provides ways to promote best practices and treatment protocols for health enhancement initiatives. The Institute will propose lifestyle changes as well as disseminate information regarding the latest technologies and best practices for healthcare. $400,000 for the Tennessee Valley Workforce Aging Management Program (WAMP) to Chattanooga State Technical Community College The WAMP Initiative will continue to be a catalyst to business and industry in the Valley Corridor for workforce retraining, technology education and technology transfer. This program coordinates and focuses the collective technology capabilities of Corridor community colleges and technology centers to retrain the Corridor workforce, enhance Corridor business and industry recruitment efforts, and serve as a vehicle for technology transfer. $300,000 for Technical Workforce Development Training Partnership for Southeast Tennessee Development District (SE TN Development District) This project is a management, labor and educational partnership to train beginning and mid-career electrical technicians the skills to replace their retiring colleagues. This project will equip new training facilities with voice, data, video trainer equipment and materials. $300,000 for the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults This funding assists people in Chattanooga and surrounding counties to provide an array of first-rate, professional services in the areas of counseling, education, prevention, emergency and victim services, and programs for persons with disabilities. $200,000 for the City of Oak Ridge (For integrating math, science and technology disciplines at the new high school) This funding will provide needed resources and challenging math and science educational opportunities to gifted and talented students. The result will be higher quality instruction and enriched experiences to all students. $600,000 for the Children’s Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center The new children’s hospital needs to provide more space and expanded services. The facility is designed to enhance family member involvement in the care of children, both in inpatient and outpatient settings. Research indicates that family-centered care has a positive effect upon a child’s recovery. $500,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital · This funding supports The Clinical Informatics project that checks drug doses and predicts potential toxic interactions among drugs. It will create a prototype for other institutions nation-wide for cancer patient care. $750,000 for the UT Health Science Center The University of Tennessee at Memphis is the largest academic health science center in the southeastern United States. It is affiliated in education and research with numerous health care institutions in Memphis and the surrounding area. As one of the nation's leading academic health care centers, it offers outstanding academic and clinical programs, exceptional faculty, and state-of-the-art research facilities. $250,000 for Hamilton County Center for Entrepreneurial Growth Incubator This funding will provide a facility to house the Center’s currents clients and allow space and resources for continued growth. $100,000 for Oak Ridge Center for Entrepreneurial Growth Incubator This funding will provide for the expansion of successful business counseling programs and to prepare new technology companies for financing at various stages of their development. $705,000 for the University of Tennessee West Tennessee Mississippi River Cropping Systems Unit This funding provides research for maintaining the best crop management practices while limiting erosion and optimizing disease control and protect soil and water quality. West Tennessee needs regional research on developing new varieties and cropping systems that will improve disease resistance, enhance value of the crop and protect the regional soil and water resources. This is $75,000 over the FY04 funding level. $1.75 million for the University of Tennessee Appalachian Horticulture Research Initiative This funding supports an interscholastic program by the University of Tennessee, Tennessee State University and Mississippi State University to develop new ornamental cultivars through traditional technologies and genetic engineering. The horticultural team has an international reputation for excellence in woody plant crops and has a proven record of innovation and problem solving for ornamental horticultural industries. This is $200,000 over FY04 funding level. $6.28 million for Wood Utilization Research (OR, MS, NC, MN, ME, MI, ID, TN, AK, WV) The UT Institute of Agriculture Tennessee Forest Products Center has an ongoing project that has been instrumental in significantly improving the quality of lumber and the manufacturing efficiency of saw mills in Tennessee, and is making a major contribution to the sustainability and productivity of the Tennessee forest industry. UT will receive approximately $400,000 of this funding level. TRANSPORTATION “This bill makes the federal government a partner in the exciting infrastructure projects occurring in East Tennessee,” said Congressman Wamp. “Enterprise South represents the best potential of Tennessee’s industrial and commercial parks, and this funding will encourage the State of Tennessee to move forward with critical transportation improvements.” $2.5 million for the Enterprise South Connector Road This funding for the Enterprise South Connector Road will link the new I-75 interchange to State Highway 58 through the Enterprise South industrial park. This essential project will provide access through Enterprise South and brings the federal commitment to this project to $3.5 million. $1.5 million for the Taxiway Alpha North Reconstruction This funding will provide the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport with funds for the Taxiway Alpha “A” North Reconstruction project, which will repair pavement deterioration. This reconstruction will maintain access to the airfield, maintain safety, and support the airport’s flight schedules. $125,000 for the Advanced Transportation Technology Institute (ATTI) · This funding provides the development of material and systems that support electric, hybrid-electric, and other clean fuel industries. It will also support local initiatives such as the East Tennessee Clean Fuel Coalition and the University of Tennessee/Chattanooga advanced transportation activities. The goal of these projects is to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and work toward more environmentally-friendly alternatives. $6 million for the Tennessee Statewide Jobs Access Project This funding will provide transit services throughout Tennessee in order to connect low-income residents to new and existing job opportunities. $9.5 million for the State of Tennessee Bus Facilities This funding will enhance public transportation systems in Tennessee through the purchase of additional buses and construction of more bus facilities. OAK RIDGE OPERATIONS "From the national security challenges we face in the new era to scientific and research investments and environmental management, this bill is very good for the Tennessee Valley and, most importantly, good for America,” said Congressman Wamp. Y-12 National Security Complex This manufacturing facility, funded at $130 million over FY05 Budget Request, plays an important role in the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex. This bill provides $114 million, which is $50 million over the administration’s budget request, for the construction of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF). The new HEUMF when completed in 2007 will provide a single secure location for storing all highly enriched uranium at the complex. Officials say this premier facility will be the most secure of its kind in the country using the most sophisticated technology and the latest security expertise. The bill also includes $50 million over the DOE budget request to tear down outdated buildings, modernize production facilities, and reduce of the size of Y-12 to streamline manufacturing and cut security costs. The safeguards and security account was increased by $30 million over the budget request as officials continue to work to fortify security at Y-12. The total increase for the Y-12 National Security Complex in this bill is $130 million above the Administration request. Oak Ridge National Laboratory · Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) - Full funding at $113.6 million. This will be the world’s most powerful neutron scattering facility when completed in 2006. · Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) – Full funding at $17.8 million. This will be the first of its kind and leverage ORNL’s unique neutron scattering capabilities. · Advanced Scientific Computing – Additional $30 million. The Department of Energy recently announced the development of a new supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). · Science Laboratory Infrastructure - $42.3 million - This will continue modernization of the ORNL facilities, assuring continued success and innovation. · Fusion Energy Science Research – Additional $12 million – This will fund research addressing the backlog of domestic projects in this field. · Energy Reliability and Efficiency Laboratory (EREL) – Funded at $775,000 - The EREL will research and develop electricity transmission and distribution technologies, distributed energy resources and demand responsive building systems in order to create an improved electric grid. · Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation – Details are pending, but programs are fully-funded. Environmental Management · Provides adequate funding to move forward with Oak Ridge’s accelerated cleanup plan. LAND AND WATER STEWARDSHIP $400,000 for Moccasin Bend Design Concept Plan Moccasin Bend has a rich and varied cultural history, with evidence of human occupation extending to the earliest human cultures in North America. Moccasin Bend National Archeological District will use this funding to begin designing the plan for the visitors’ facility, which showcases this treasured resource. Cherokee National Forest $400,000 for the Cherokee National Forest Chilhowee Campground Improvements This funding will provide the Chilhowee Campground with various needed recreational upgrades, such as new eating area equipment, more logical parking opportunities, and better access to fishing sites. $350,000 for the Ocoee Whitewater Center–maintenance &interpretive upgrades This funding will provide needed maintenance and repair for the Center since the influx of tourism from the 1996 Olympic Games. Such items include: better parking lot lighting system; wastewater system maintenance; and reconstruction of sections of the Tanasi Trail System. $150,000 for the Ocoee &Hiawassee Corridor Management Plan This plan will be used as a basis for coordinated management and as a guideline for facility improvements to increase recreational use and economic opportunities. It will allow the Forest Service to determine future needs in the area where it will develop a corridor management plan for the Ocoee and Hiwassee Rivers. $500,000 for the Cherokee National Forest Land Acquisition of Tennessee Mountains Tract Continued funding to acquire key areas along the Appalachia Trail and protect critical natural resources including wildlife habitat and fragile mountain watersheds. $2 million in President’s Budget for NBII, Southern Appalachian Information Node In keeping with the President’s FY05 Budget request, the mission of NBII is to systematically organize, access, and display biological information to have this data readily available. Partners in this project include: ORNL, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. $1.5 million for Scott’s Gulf The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will manage this important land as a Wildlife Management Area to protect migrating birds, aquatic species and other wildlife. $3.5 million for the Walls of Jericho The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will manage this important land as a Wildlife Management Area. The Walls of Jericho tract is on the southern Cumberland Plateau. Great Smoky Mountains $2.171 million for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park Water and Sewer System This funding replaces the Smokemont water and sewer system with a new municipal system. The project has been identified by the National Park Service as a high priority. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is our nation’s most visited park. $500,000 for the Great Smoky Mountains NP (Institute at Tremont) Each year 4,000 students and teachers from 13 states experience the magic of the Great Smoky Mountains through Tremont’s science and education programs. The institute has been providing residential environmental education services since 1969, and the unparalleled diversity of the Smokies creates a unique educational opportunity. $400,000 for the Tennessee Civil War Heritage Area (NHA) NHA is a statewide partnership of the NPS and is the only statewide national heritage area. It preserves and interprets the stories, effects, and legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Tennessee. $750,000 for the Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge The LHNWR encompasses one of the best remaining bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Federal acquisition, restoration and management will reduce sedimentation, other water-borne contaminants and altered hydrology by restoring altered watercourses. It will also eliminate the increased risk of development in the beautiful sacred lower watershed. $750,000 for the Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge This funding will acquire some of the largest areas within the boundary of the Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge which contain Bald Cypress. This process is essential to the long-term objective of conserving naturally occurring habitats of the Lower Mississippi River Valley Ecosystem. Season flooding supports migratory waterfowl and songbird species that use the refuge as a wintering habitat. $450,000 for the Memphis U.S. Fish and Wildlife Port of Entry Funding provides for personnel needs at the port of entry because of the large volume of wildlife and wildlife products being imported and exported through this port. $6.5 million for Wooly Adelgid, Sudden Oak Death, and Southern Pine Beetle Increased funding to combat sudden Oak Death, Southern Pine Beetle, and the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. These exotic pests have proven to have huge impacts on forests and trees and are a very real threat to the native forests in Tennessee. $400,000 for the City of Dayton’s Water Treatment Plant This funding supports a water treatment process called flocculation and settles basins so that existing basins can be repaired as a first step towards the plant’s expansion. $250,000 for Anderson County Water Extension Lines North central Anderson County has been plagued by contaminated well water. This funding will help provide Anderson County residents with safe drinking water. $200,000 for Spring City, Tennessee Water and Sewer Replacement This funding will replace the corroding water and sewer lines and improve water quality for the residents of Spring City. $100,000 for Roane County for Water Infrastructure Improvements Roane County’s well contamination rate is 75%. This project will provide safe, potable drinking water to approximately 300 households. $50,000 for the City of Bean Station Bean Station needs federal funding to evaluate a site on the Cherokee Lake that is a likely candidate for a new wastewater treatment plant for the city. Claiborne County Potable Water Lines and Extensions/Storage The proposed project funding would provide potable water for two areas of Claiborne County where there are over seventy percent contamination of the residents’ wells and springs. This project would provide drinkable water to 600 more households and would secure three water storage tanks to serve the other two water line extension requests to provide more reliable, safe water for Claiborne County. The bill encourages this project to be funded. City of Harrogate Sewer System Ineffective sewer and septic waste systems polluted surface and groundwater contamination in Harrogate. This funding will improve the town’s sewer connections and clean out current pollution so residents will have acceptable sewer service. The bill encourages this project to be funded. Sewer System for City of Blaine The City of Blaine is currently without a public sanitary sewer system due to rocky terrain, poor soil conditions, and a lack of available space. This proposed funding enables them to develop a sanitary sewer system for the City. The bill encourages this project to be funded. LAW ENFORCEMENT “Working with Tennessee’s U.S. senators, we have doubled the amount of funding for the State of Tennessee to combat the meth problem,” said Congressman Wamp. “The combined effort by federal and state agencies will use this necessary funding for proper training, equipment, and enforcement officers to attack this problem head-on, not just here in East Tennessee where this effort originated, but all across the State of Tennessee.” $2 million for East TN Methamphetamine Task Force · Over the past several years, the use, production, and distribution of methamphetamine have proliferated throughout the State of Tennessee. This doubles the funding for the Meth Task Force to operate, train, and purchase equipment. Federal and state agencies are working directly with local law enforcement offices in a cooperative effort to combat this growing epidemic. $250,000 for the Chattanooga Drug Court To establish a drug court in Hamilton County patterned after the very successful Nashville Davidson County court. $250,000 for the Law Enforcement Innovation Center This funding provides innovative and technologically-based training and technical assistance services to law enforcement agencies and communities. LEIC programs address the need for safer communities, reduced domestic violence, reduced gun violence, and improvement of the quality of life for all citizens. LEIC brings law enforcement professionals and people in the community together to solve problems and help make southeast Tennessee a safer place to live. MISCELLANEOUS $66 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission · Regional economic development throughout the ARC counties in Tennessee [news@chattanoogan.com] (423) 266-2325 © 2004 Site designed and copyrighted by Three HD ***************************************************************** 45 Rocky Mountain News: Allard orders probe of cleanup at Flats Independent review will see if progress meets standards By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News November 23, 2004 Sen. Wayne Allard has ordered the investigative arm of Congress to determine if Denver's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant is being cleaned up to the required standards. "We need independent assurance that the cleanup is on time, on budget and that the site meets the stringent environmental standards outlined for the contractor when the project began," Allard, a Republican from Loveland, told the Government Accountability Office. John Corsi, spokesman for cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill, said the company is confident it will meet its commitments. The sprawling plant 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver produced 70,000 plutonium centers for nuclear bombs between 1951 and 1989, when it shut down because of environmental and safety concerns. The $7 billion cleanup started in 1995 and is supposed to reduce the factory to meadow by 2006. Kaiser-Hill is running six months to a year ahead of schedule. It stands to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses if it finishes early and under budget. The speedy cleanup is partially the result of a change in the cleanup plan, which allows Kaiser-Hill to leave two basements rated as low-level nuclear waste buried in the ground. Originally, all waste was to have been removed and shipped to specialized nuclear waste dumps. Kaiser-Hill also hoped to speed up the process by using explosives to implode two plutonium buildings, after the upper walls were cleaned up. But it recently decided against using explosives on Building 371 because a central vault could not be sufficiently decontaminated. Instead, the building will be chopped with heavy construction equipment, Corsi said. The company also has credited its speed to its uninterrupted ability to ship plutonium and radioactive waste to several storage sites out of state. At this point, three major plutonium buildings remain, said Karen Lutz, spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, which runs nuclear weapons production in the United States and oversees the cleanup of Rocky Flats. Local watchdog Victor Holm, chairman of the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, said he was happy to see an independent review by the GAO. Other agencies overseeing Kaiser-Hill's cleanup have ties to the weapons plant, he said. The Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments also plans to have an independent review of the soil cleanup, he said. The last time the GAO looked at Rocky Flats was in 2001. It concluded that "closure by 2006 is unlikely" because too much of the pollution problem remained unknown. At the time, Kaiser-Hill was having difficulty heating the plutonium to stabilize it for shipping. It also had safety problems and a shortage of shipping casks for radioactive material. The new study is expected to produce an interim report in the spring and a final report by August. Allard, chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the cleanup, also may hold a hearing. By the numbers 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver lies the sprawling plant 70,000 plutonium centers for nuclear bombs were produced between 1951 and 1989 $7 billion cleanup started in 1995 and is supposed to reduce the factory to meadow by 2006 ***************************************************************** 46 DenverPost.com: Allard wants GAO review of Flats cleanup By Kim McGuire Denver Post Staff Writer Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has asked the Government Accountability Office for a third review of the $7.2 billion cleanup at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. "We need independent assurance that the cleanup is on time, on budget and that the site meets the stringent environmental standards outlined for the contractor when the project began," said Allard, chairman of the Senate Armed Services panel's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, which oversees Department of Energy nuclear-cleanup projects. Specifically, the Loveland Republican has asked the congressional research office to assess whether the job will be done by 2006 and meet all requirements of the original cleanup agreement. Allard also wants the office to evaluate whether the cleanup will be sufficient to protect human health and the environment after it becomes a national wildlife refuge. For four decades, until an FBI raid shut it down for safety violations in 1989, Rocky Flats built plutonium triggers for more than 70,000 nuclear warheads. Consequently, portions of the sprawling site between Boulder and Golden were contaminated with radioactive elements. Allard has twice before requested that the GAO assess the Rocky Flats closure plan. Those two assessments primarily focused on the cleanup's pace and budget. "We welcome this review and will cooperate in any way we can," said Karen Lutz, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy. The Rocky Flats cleanup is overseen by several federal and state agencies and monitored by several other groups. "Bringing in a third party to report on matters that relate to the budget and the technical side of things should always be part of the process," said David Abelson, executive director of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Governments. Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com [kmcguire@denverpost.com] . All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 47 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald FR Doc 04-25913 [Federal Register: November 23, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 225)] [Notices] [Page 68136-68137] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr23no04-42] AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Fernald. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Saturday, December 4, 2004 8:30 a.m.--12 noon. ADDRESSES: Fernald Closure Project Site, Crosby Township Senior Center, 8910 Willey Road, Harrison, Ohio 45030. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doug Sarno, The Perspectives Group, Inc., 1055 North Fairfax Street, Suite 204, Alexandria, VA 22314, at (703) 837-1197, or e-mail; djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com [djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities. Tentative Agenda Goals Update status of post-closure education facility Understand the status of Legacy Management 8:30 a.m.--Call to Order 8:30 a.m.--Updates and Announcements 9:15 a.m.--Post-closure Education Facility, Status of Trailers/ Warehouse Legacy Management Report on Rocky Flats Museum 9:45 a.m.--Legacy Management and Institutional Controls Plan Timeline, DOE Response to Environmental Protection Agency Comments 10:15 a.m.--Break 10:30 a.m.--Planning for Fernald Citizens' Advisory Board History/Final Report 11:40 a.m.--FY 2005 Meeting Topics 12 noon--Adjourn Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. Written statements may be filed with the Board chair either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board chair at the address or telephone number listed below. Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provisions will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Gary Stegner, Public Affairs Office, Ohio Field Office, U.S. Department of Energy, is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments. This notice is being published less than 15 days before the date of the meeting due to programmatic issues that had to be resolved prior to publication. Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by writing to the Fernald Citizens' Advisory Board, Phoenix Environmental Corporation, MS-76, Post Office Box 538704, Cincinnati, OH 43253-8704, or by calling the Advisory Board at (513) 648-6478. [[Page 68137]] Issued at Washington, DC, on November 18, 2004. Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 04-25913 Filed 11-22-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 48 [du-list] DU in the news - 25th Nov. 04 Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:58:19 -0800 Tuesday, November 23, 2004 11:08 AM PST Your Keyword News Alert for [depleted uranium] matched the following stories: The Star Online, Mon, 22 Nov 2004 3:08 PM PST Australia mulls uranium exports to China http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/11/23/latest/19784Australia&sec=latest CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia is considering uranium exports to China and has begun discussions with Beijing on whether it can commit to Australian rules that the product not be used for military purposes, the government said Monday. Edinburgh Evening News, Tue, 23 Nov 2004 4:47 AM PST Every day's a battle for sick troops http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1347792004 AT first glance David Beatonâ?Ts home looks much like any other in a Lothian village. A few ornaments - two dogs and a horse - are arranged above the fireplace in the lounge. There is a stereo playing near the door with an old heavy metal record propped up against it. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 49 Publications: Book "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" [The Analytical Center for Non-proliferation]] [[NPC Logo]] Book "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" [[Cover]] [ jpg 600x413x24bpp 72.9Kb ] The book is an official publication of Minatom. It contains factual data on general characteristics of all nuclear tests and all peaceful nuclear explosions conducted by the USSR. The presented information is the result of long-term efforts of experts from Minatom and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the analysis of the original data contained in numerous classified documents. In its type the book is similar to the US Department of Energy open publication "United States Nuclear Tests. July 1945 Through September 1992". Availability of these two symmetric publications gives an opportunity to conduct fairly concrete and informative comparison of nuclear testing programs performed in the USSR and the USA. You can download report "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" in pdf format from here. The book consists of the following sections: + Foreword of V.N. Mikhailov, Russian Federation Minister of Atomic Energy + Section 1. Classification of Soviet Nuclear Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions; + Section 2. Soviet Nuclear Weapons and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (Summary Table); + Section 3. USSR Nuclear Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (1949-1990); + Section 4. USSR Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (Employment of Nuclear Explosive Technology in the Interests of National Economy); + Section 5. Total Energy Release of the USSR Nuclear Tests and Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes. + The book "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" has been prepared by an editorial board consisting of specialists from the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation headed by Member of Academy V.N.Mikhailov, Minister of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (1992-1998). Editorial board: I.A.Andryushin V.V.Bogdan S.A.Vashchinkin S.A.Zelentsov G.E.Zolotukhin V.M.Karimov V.V.Kirichenko A.M.Matushchenko Yu.A.Silkin V.G.Strukov K.V.Kharitonov A.K.Chernyshev G.A.Tsyrkov M.P.Shumayev The book was published in 1996 by RFNC-VNIIEF printing office. Copyright © 2001-2004 Analytical Center ***************************************************************** 50 Publications | Book "USSR Nuclear Tests. Hydronuclear Experiments. Plutonium Inventory" [[The Analytical Center for Non-proliferation]] [[NPC This book continues the catalog "USSR Nuclear Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" published in 1996. The book contains (1) the data on the altitude of explosions of most atmospheric nuclear tests, (2) a list of hydronuclear experiments conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site for special research purposes, and (3) plutonium inventory of nuclear tests and hydronuclear experiments from 1949 through 1963. You can download book "USSR Nuclear Tests. Hydronuclear Experiments. Plutonium Inventory" in pdf format from here. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to be installed. It can be freely downloaded from here [http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html] . The book consists of the following sections: + Introduction. + Section 1. Soviet Nuclear Weapons Tests (1949 through 1962); + Section 2. Hydronuclear Experiments at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, USSR (1958 through 1989); + Section 3. Plutonium Inventory of Soviet Nuclear Weapons Tests and Hydronuclear Experiments Conducted (1949 through 1963). The book "USSR Nuclear Tests. Hydronuclear Experiments. Plutonium Inventory" has been prepared by an editorial board consisting of specialists from the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy headed by Member of Academy V.N.Mikhailov, Minister of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (1992-1998). Editorial board: I.A.Andryushin N.P.Voloshin R.I.Ilkaev A.M.Matushchenko A.B.Sel'verov V.G.Strukov Yu.M.Styazhkin A.K.Chernyshev The book was published in 1998 by RFNC-VNIIEF printing office. Copyright © 2001-2004 Analytical Center ***************************************************************** 51 Publications: Publications of the Analytical Center [[The Analytical Center for Non-proliferation]] [[NPC Publications of the Analytical Center + Book "Nuclear Testing in the USSR. Volume 3. Nuclear Weapons. Military and Political Aspects" [details »] + Anniversary Booklet "50 Years of Peace. To the 50th Anniversary of the Tests of the Soviet Atomic Bomb" [details »] + Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing [details »] + Book "World on the Threshold of the 21st Century" [details »] + Book "Nuclear Disarmament, Nonproliferation and National Security" [details »] [[Y.K.Zavalishin]] "We have maintained good friendly relations with those who established the Nonproliferation Center in the course of many years. I like how they organically combine sound conservatism and active efforts to publicize our accomplishments and capabilities, and that they do this based on the profound knowledge of the subject matter and real facts. We have several times discussed our conversion problems, and these discussions were always constructive and interesting. I am sure that the website of the NPC will be informative and useful for those who are interested in the past, present and future of our industry." -- Y.K.Zavalishin Director General (1990-2000), Avangard Plant Publications of the Center's Specialists + Book "Nuclear Testing in the USSR. Volume 1. Objectives. General Characteristics. Organization of USSR Nuclear Testing. First Nuclear Tests" [details »] + Book "Nuclear Testing in the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Nuclear Testing Technologies. Environmental Effects. Safety Provisions. Nuclear Test Sites" [details »] + Book "Nuclear Testing in the USSR. Volume 4. The Use of Nuclear Explosions In the Interests of National Economy, and for Applied and Fundamental Research" [details »] + Book "Security of Russia's Nuclear Weapons. Legislative Basis. Scientific and Engineering Approaches. Logistics. Life Cycle" [details »] + Book "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions. 1949 through 1990" [details »] + Book "USSR Nuclear Tests. Hydronuclear Experiments. Plutonium Inventory" [details »] Copyright © 2001-2004 Analytical Center ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************