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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Las Vegas SUN: Powell Regrets Iraq Weapons Claim for War
2 Las Vegas SUN: Reports on N. Korea Nukes May Lack Proof
3 Korea Herald: Head of U.N. nuke watchdog due Sunday
4 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog chief ElBaradei heading for South Korea
5 Xinhuanet: US reiterates diplomatic solution to DPRK nuclear issue
6 US: [NukeNet] US Policy Supports Nuclear Power Terrorism
7 Guardian Unlimited: Brazil Attacks Nuclear Reports
8 Interfax: Russia maintaining nuclear parity with U.S. - Ivanov
9 Times of India: IAEA nails Musharraf's nuke lies -
10 UPI: Pakistan denies IAEA access to Khan -
11 DAWN: IAEA denied access to A.Q. Khan -
NUCLEAR REACTORS
12 US: NRC: Carolina Power & Light Company; Notice of Partial Denial of
13 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Notice
14 US: Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Fuel Still Missing From Calif.
15 BBC: Higher costs hit British Energy
16 US: Hampton Union Editorial: Rules needed for flights over nuclear p
17 People's Daily: China displays new nuclear reactor
18 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy reveals £115m loss
19 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear group hit by £115m loss
20 US: NRC: NRC Offers Opportunity for Hearing on Relicensing Applicati
21 US: NRC: NRC Web Page Describes Process for Updating Guidance on Rea
NUCLEAR SAFETY
22 US: DHHS: CDC: Radiation Safety Board
23 Vive le Canada: Depleted Morals
24 US: ONN. Ohio News Now: Lawmakers debate how to reform nuclear worke
25 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Medical Uses of Isotopes To Hold
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
26 Protesters prepare for chase as plutonium ships near UK
27 Las Vegas RJ: NUCLEAR WASTE: Congress stuck on Yucca Mountain
28 US: Las Vegas RJ: Low-level waste repositories draw interest
29 US: Inyo Register: Water workshop plies options
30 Bellona: Bridge can collapse with passing spent nuclear fuel train i
31 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush should keep Yucca promise
32 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca budget may have to wait
33 AU ABC: Garrett slams Coalition's approach to nuclear waste
34 KESQ CA: Decision on Nevada nuclear dump funding to come after elect
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
35 Tri-City Herald: Plans for Hanford Reach center released
36 Guardian Unlimited: First Los Alamos Nuclear Materials in Nev.
37 lamonitor.com: Classified matter custodian objects to LANL crackdown
OTHER NUCLEAR
38 EU Business: France likely to win battle with Japan over nuclear fus
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Las Vegas SUN: Powell Regrets Iraq Weapons Claim for War
By BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Secretary of State Colin Powell ventured into the thick of the
presidential campaign Friday by challenging John Kerry's attacks
on President Bush's leadership of the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
At a news conference in Atlanta, Powell disagreed with the
Kerry's contention in Thursday night's presidential debate that
Bush missed an opportunity to capture terrorist leader Osama bin
Laden.
He also dismissed the Democratic candidate's suggestion that
Powell had been compelled to apologize for asserting at the
United Nations that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had amassed hidden
stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Then, in Washington, Powell took on Kerry over his assertion
that Bush had sidestepped U.S. allies in going to war in Iraq
and in his overall approach to world problems.
"I don't accept that characterization," Powell said in response
to a reporter's question as Powell escorted the foreign minister
of Belgium, Karel De Gucht, from the State Department after a
30-minute meeting.
He said, however, referring partly to Belgium's fierce
opposition to Bush's decision to go to war last year, "It
doesn't mean we get a blank check from (the allies)."
In the Bush-Kerry debate Thursday night, which dealt solely with
foreign policy, Kerry described the president as a failed leader
for invading Iraq without the support of most U.S. allies; for
letting the Iraq war take precedence over the global fight
against terror; and for failing to find and eliminate bin Laden.
The leader of the al-Qaida terror network had been cornered in
the mountains of Afghanistan, but instead of using well-trained
U.S. forces to kill him the administration "outsourced" the
assignment to Afghan warlords, Kerry said. Only a week earlier,
those warlords had been fighting the United States, he said.
Powell, in Atlanta, called that allegation "a stretch."
"I can assure you that we are looking for Osama bin Laden,"
Powell said.
The retired four-star Army general added: "With respect to a
specific tactical operation and who might have been in Tora Bora
that day or not, I have no reason to believe our commanders
mishandled that."
At the same time, Powell defended the administration's prewar
stand on Iraq.
As he has before, the secretary said the allegations he
presented to the Security Council in February 2003, that Saddam
had secret arsenals of banned weapons, reflected the best views
of the intelligence agencies.
"We got it wrong," Powell said. "We have seen nothing to suggest
that he had actual stockpiles."
He blamed "bad sourcing" and did not apologize for his U.N.
presentation, which had been designed to rally support in the
United Nations for the coming war. He said, "I am not only
disappointed, but I regret that the information was not
correct."
A Republican centrist with appeal to moderate voters who might
decide the election, Powell is a valuable asset for Bush in his
race with Kerry to hold on to the presidency.
As the campaign heated up during the summer, Powell said as
secretary of state, he was obliged not to engage in "parochial
debate."
At the same time he has defended Bush's foreign policy, and in
taking reporters' questions Friday in Atlanta and in Washington
he challenged Kerry across-the-board.
"I assure you that we will prevail, and we will be successful,
and Iraq will be better off for it, Afghanistan will be better
off for it, and the world will be better off for it," Powell
said.
Meanwhile, Powell's deputy and close friend, Richard Armitage,
went even further in boosting Bush over Kerry in an interview
with reporters from NATO countries, released by the State
Department.
"I think George Bush will be elected to his second term,"
Armitage said. "I think the American people like his clearer
vision, his strength of views, even if they don't agree with him
sometimes. They like that."
---
On the Net:
State Department: http://www.state.gov [http://www.state.gov]
--
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2 Las Vegas SUN: Reports on N. Korea Nukes May Lack Proof
By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) - North Korea may have only a single nuclear
weapon and there is no proof that the reclusive country has
actually produced any, the head of a group trying to disarm
North Korea's atomic program said in an interview Friday.
Figures up to a half-dozen and sometimes more are circulated in
discussions of North Korea's self-proclaimed program. South
Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said in April that
North Korea could make eight bombs by reprocessing 8,000 spent
nuclear fuel rods.
On Thursday evening, Democratic presidential candidate John
Kerry criticized President Bush for not opening direct dialogue
with North Korea on nuclear disarmament, saying: "Today, there
are four to seven nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea."
"When you get into this discussion about the numbers, it quickly
sort of becomes people seeking facts," said Charles Kartman, the
executive director of the New York-based Korean Peninsula Energy
Development Organization, known as KEDO, told The Associated
Press.
"They feel comfortable with the numbers because they imply
facts. These aren't facts. They're worst-casing all sorts of
stuff. There may be zero. The number of proven weapons is zero,"
Kartman told The Associated Press.
Experts believed in the mid-1990s that North Korea might have
reprocessed some plutonium from its Russian-supplied reactor
complex at Yongbyon, because the International Atomic Energy
Agency found traces of it in a chemical analysis of samples from
the site.
"There is a maximum amount of plutonium that could have been
reprocessed, and if that is true, then depending on the state of
North Korean technology, it would have been sufficient for one,
or at most, two (weapons)," Kartman said.
Now when you get to the number two, you are really applying the
worst case scenario. Everything has to run right," Kartman said.
"You're not going to get too many responsible scientists going
along with the number two" from that time period in the
mid-1990s.
KEDO was formed in 1995 to finance and build two light-water
reactors, from which it is difficult to extract weapons-grade
plutonium, to replace North Korea's graphite-based reactor at
Yongbyon. The executive board members of KEDO are
representatives of the United States, South Korea, Japan, and
the European Union.
Kartman has been executive director of KEDO since 2001. From
1998-2001 he was U.S. ambassador to the Korean peace talks, and
had been deputy assistant secretary of State for East Asian and
Pacific Affairs, and was previously posted to the U.S. Embassy
in Seoul, South Korea.
KEDO's arrangement to build the new reactors and also supply
energy-staved North Korea with heavy fuel oil in the interim
unraveled in late 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea
acknowledged having a clandestine uranium-based program in
violation of international agreements.
The KEDO reactor project was suspended, but not scrubbed, for a
one-year period last Dec. 1. Discussions are under way among the
KEDO parties over whether to extend the suspension for another
year, as a possible inducement for more North Korean cooperation
in disarmament.
The nuclear puzzle in the North became more complicated this
week when North Korea Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told
reporters at the United Nations that his country has turned the
plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear
weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear
threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia.
--
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3 Korea Herald: Head of U.N. nuke watchdog due Sunday
2004.10.02
The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog will arrive in Seoul on
Sunday for a four-day visit that will include talks with top
security officials on nuclear experiments carried out by South
Korea, officials said yesterday.
The main purpose of the visit by Mohamed ElBaradei, director
general of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to attend
an international disarmament conference, the Pugwash Conference
on Science and World Affairs, scheduled for Oct. 5-8. ElBaradei
is to address the conference on Wednesday.
2004.10.02
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4 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog chief ElBaradei heading for South Korea
[http://www.spacewar.com/]
VIENNA (AFP) Oct 01, 2004
UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei leaves Vienna
Saturday for a trip to South Korea and Japan, that comes as his
agency is investigating Seoul for hidden atomic activities and as
the agency's head is being tipped as a possible Nobel Peace Prize
winner.
ElBaradei's trip to South Korea, where he is due to address a
conference in Seoul, was scheduled before news broke of South
Korea's activities, according to International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
"He's also using the opportunity to take up a longstanding
invitation by South Korea to make a bilateral state visit. There
are a number of topics he wishes to discuss and of course he
understands that the recent revelation about nuclear experiments
will come up in the discussions," Fleming said.
IAEA inspectors were last week in South Korea to investigate
Seoul's past secret experiments involving potential ingredients
for nuclear bombs.
Yonhap news agency said inspectors had taken about 20 samples of
nuclear material and waste back to the IAEA's headquarters in
Vienna.
Seoul revealed in September that its scientists secretly enriched
a tiny amount of plutonium in 1982 and uranium in 2000.
South Korea says the laboratory experiments were not linked to
nuclear weapons programs. ElBaradei, however, has expressed
"serious concern" about the activities.
ElBaradei travels Wednesday to Japan, where he will be on Friday
when the Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced in Oslo.
Observers have said they expect the Nobel committee this year to
hail efforts to halt nuclear arms proliferation, tapping as
likely winners the IAEA and its chief ElBaradei.
After playing a vital role in the inspections of former Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal and the search for his
suspected nuclear program, the IAEA is currently struggling to
get Iran to halt controversial uranium enrichment-related
activities and to get to the bottom of North Korea's secretive
nuclear program.
All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
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5 Xinhuanet: US reiterates diplomatic solution to DPRK nuclear issue
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-02 03:36:01
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States on Friday
reiterated its position of resolving the nuclear issue of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) through diplomatic
means.
"The United States believes that the best and most effective
way to denuclearize the Korean peninsula is through a diplomatic
solution in a multilateral context," State Department deputy
spokesman Adam Ereli said at a news briefing.
"That multilateral context is the six-party framework ... We
have chosen to go this route precisely because the bilateral
experience failed, and that when we did have bilateral engagement
with North Korea, they signed agreements which they promptly
violated," Ereli said.
"I think what we see in our dealings with the other partners,
the other four partners in the six-party process, is a
recognitionthat it has achieved some important results," Ereli
said.
US President George W. Bush said on Thursday that he would
continue the six-party talks to try to resolve the DPRK nuclear
issue.
The United States has said that it was still committed to the
six-party process despite that the talks were not taking place
this month as scheduled.
Three rounds of the six-party talks, hosted by China, have
beenheld. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
6 [NukeNet] US Policy Supports Nuclear Power Terrorism
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:15:59 -0700
------- Forwarded message -------
From: CAN
To: can@nukebusters.org
Subject: Nukes and Terror
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 07:15:30 -0400
NRC petitioners seek reactor license suspensions
By Kathryn Casa
Vermont Guardian
The nuclear power struggle in the Middle East has
grave implications for
security in and around commercial reactors in the
United States, especially
those of the vulnerable Mark I and II designs
common to New England,
according to a nuclear safety expert.
"Nuclear power plants are strategic targets and
should be considered as
such in the context of national security," Gordon
Thompson, executive
director of the Institute for Resource and
Security Studies in Cambridge,
Mass., told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
Petition Review Board
during a national conference call on Sept. 23.
Thompson resurrected the specter of nuclear
terrorism in his testimony on a
broadly backed petition that calls upon the NRC to
suspend the operating
licenses for all Mark I and Mark II boiling water
reactors pending
development of an in-depth defense plan for each
plant.
The petition was signed by 45 organizations
including the Union of
Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club,
and citizens groups
including the Brattleboro-based New England
Coalition and the Citizens
Awareness Network in Rowe, Mass.
More than three years after 9/11's catastrophic
proof that commercial
aircraft can become weapons of mass destruction,
the NRC's line of defense
is still aimed at ground-based attacks and is
overly reliant on airport
security and industry promises, Thompson and other
critics charged.
Thompson was referring to news reports last week
in the Israeli daily
Haaretz that Washington has agreed to sell Israel
500 one-ton
"bunker-buster" bombs that would allow Israel to
disable or forestall
Iranian nuclear capability.
Iran maintains that it is developing its nuclear
program for peaceful
purposes, and has vowed to react "most severely"
to any U.S.-backed Israeli
action.
This means "that attacking nominally civilian
nuclear facilities is,in
effect, a declared option by the United States
government," Thompson told
the NRC panel. "In my view, that creates a
situation in which, to put it
bluntly, U.S. civilian nuclear facilities are put
on the table as potential
targets, not necessarily by the government of
Iran, but by people who are
not accountable to that government but are
sympathetic to that position."
In his testimony, Jim Riccio, nuclear policy
analyst for Greenpeace, handed
the panel what he said were 17 pages of documents
listing U.S. airports
within 10 miles of nuclear power plants. "Even
more disturbing is that .
when you actually read the documents, you realize
that the analyses are
sugarcoated because you're relying on commitments
(from the nuclear
industry)."
"We are extremely frustrated at the inability of
this agency to take
action," he concluded.
Diane Screnci, a Region I NRC spokeswoman in
Boston, rebuffed the charges
that the NRC has failed to act, saying security at
the nation's 104 nuclear
power plants has sharply increased since Sept. 11.
"There was already
security prior to 9/11," Screnci said, "and since
then we've enhanced
security drastically."
Mark I and II reactor designs are particularly
vulnerable to attack because
the spent-fuel pools are elevated high above
ground level with a hollow
core beneath, and are unprotected from above; the
reactor vessels are above
ground level; and in the Mark I, the reactor
containment is a thin, steel
shell, according to the petition.
Thirty-one U.S. reactors are Mark I or Mark II
boiling water designs. In
the Northeast they are: Vermont Yankee (Mark 1),
Nine Mile Point 1 (Mark
1), Nine Mile Point 2 (Mark 2) and FitzPatrick
(Mark 1) in Oswego, N.Y.,
Pilgrim 1 in Plymouth, Mass. (Mark 1), and
Millstone 1 (Mark 1) in
Connecticut.
Although Millstone 1 was shut down in 1995, its
storage pool still contains
24 years worth of spent fuel.
With their large, flat planes and elevated
spent-fuel pools, Thompson said
Mark I and II reactors should be the NRC's highest
security priorities.
A forthcoming study by the National Academy of
Sciences is expected to
confirm that the NRC is not doing enough to
safeguard spent-fuel pools,
said CAN's Deb Katz. "The NRC is basically being
proactive in protecting
the (nuclear) industry," she charged.
"I would disagree with that," the NRC's Screnci
responded. "The role of the
NRC is to insure that the public is protected
while people use nuclear
materials. It is a responsibility we take
seriously and we work every day
to carry it out."
Katz reminded the panel that in 2002 attorneys
general from 26 states
including Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
New York, wrote a letter
to leaders in Congress about "the specific
vulnerabilities of fuel pools to
terrorism, and their grave concerns that not
enough had been done to deal
with this issue and the potential for sabotage."
"The issues we are raising are concerns not just
of people who live in
these communities, but of the states who are going
to be responsible and
accountable for any catastrophic event that would
devastate their state,"
Katz said.
Another witness, Raymond Shadis of the New England
Coalition on Nuclear
Pollution, said measures the NRC has implemented,
such as mixing
less-dangerous old fuel rods with more vulnerable
new ones, are
insufficient. The NRC also has allowed plant
operators to "rerack" their
fuel pools, essentially narrowing the space
between the rods as more spent
fuel is produced.
Shadis also charged that Vermont Yankee, on the
shores of the Connecticut
River in Vernon, remains highly vulnerable to an
attack from the river.
There is a state park and an unlit boat launch
ramp directly opposite the
plant on the New Hampshire side of the river,
which he said is not
patrolled at night, and are readily accessible
from a major highway. "At
this point there does not seem to be any apparent
barrier that would
prevent landing a boat on the shore underneath the
structures of the
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant," Shadis said.
VY spokesman Rob Williams said the plant's parent
company, Entergy, has
entirely revamped plant security, with more than
$8 million spent on
security upgrades since 2001. "That includes guard
towers at key vantage
points, additional fencing, surveillance-equipped
barriers, security staff,
and weapons, as well as a new process of
interaction with local law
enforcement."
Williams called VY "an industry leader, as well as
a model for other
facilities upgrading security."
The Sept. 23 hearing was held to give petitioners
the opportunity to
provide additional explanations for their
requests, PRB chairman Jim Lyons
said.
The petition calls on the NRC to conduct a
six-month study on the
structural integrity of Mark I and II reactors,
hold a national conference
on the design, develop a comprehensive plan to
hear stakeholders' concerns,
and create local oversight panels.
The review board is expected to respond to the
petition within 120 days.
Deb Katz
Citizens Awareness Network
Box 83 Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
413-339-5781
can@nukebusters.org
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7 Guardian Unlimited: Brazil Attacks Nuclear Reports
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday October 1, 2004 9:01 AM
By VIVIAN SEQUERA
Associated Press Writer
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil on Thursday rejected reports that
it isn't giving United Nations inspectors full access to its
uranium enrichment facilities because it wants to hide technology
purchased on the nuclear black market.
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told The Associated Press that
Brazil only wants to preserve the know-how of technology it has
developed over the years and pointed to the country's
constitution, which says nuclear energy can be used for peaceful
purposes only.
``Brazil is a country with uranium-enrichment technology of its
own. It does not belong to the category of nations which are
learning technologies,'' he said. ``I don't think there is any
concern about Brazil.''
On Thursday, the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper cited a former
U.S. Defense Department official as saying the International
Atomic Energy Agency suspects Brazil purchased its uranium
centrifuges from Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear scientist
who diverted nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran.
The science and technology ministry denied the claim but did not
directly respond to the charges. It said critics must prove their
accusations.
Estado cited Henry D. Sokolski, a former Pentagon official who
heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a think-tank
based in Washington D.C. He claims he learned of IAEA's fears
through contacts at the U.N. agency whom he did not identify.
Brazil claims that the centrifuges at its plant in Resende, about
60 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, use advanced technology
that could be stolen by other countries if the inspectors are
allowed to view it.
But analysts doubt Brazil has developed technology that is
radically different from what is used at other uranium enrichment
plants and point out that technological advances are
traditionally protected with patents.
Last week, the government said it was near an agreement that
would allow the IAEA to inspect its uranium enrichment facilities
without granting inspectors full access.
The deal reportedly would ``preserve the country's technological
and commercial secrets,'' the science and technology ministry
said in a statement.
According to the ministry, IAEA inspectors who plan to visit the
plant on Oct. 18 will have access only to features essential to
safeguards but not to the ``body'' of the centrifuges used to
enrich uranium.
Brazil expects its uranium enrichment plant to be ready in
October. The government wants to use the enriched uranium to fuel
its Angra I and II nuclear power plants, which produce 4.3
percent of the nation's electricity.
Brazil has the world's sixth-largest uranium reserves but
currently must ship the ore out of the country to be processed
for use in its nuclear power plants.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
8 Interfax: Russia maintaining nuclear parity with U.S. - Ivanov
[http://www.interfax.com]
Oct 1 2004 3:27PM
ORYOL. Oct 1 (Interfax) - Russia is maintaining its nuclear
parity with the United States, Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Ivanov said.
"We are buying as many [intercontinental ballistic missiles] as
we need to maintain nuclear parity, however not the Cold War-era
parity, rather, parity taking into account the interests of
state security," Ivanov told reporters in Sochi on Friday.
© 1991-2004 Interfax
All rights reserved
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution.
*****************************************************************
9 Times of India: IAEA nails Musharraf's nuke lies -
[http://www.indiatimes.com]
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2004 12:29:06 PM ]
WASHINGTON: Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf brazenly
lied that the world community had not asked for access to nuclear
proliferator A Q Khan, fresh disclosures by the International
Atomic Energy Agency has indicated.
Officials of the IAEA on Thursday publicly rebutted Musharraf's
claim in a television interview last week that "nobody" had asked
to question Khan in connection with the spread of nuclear
technology and materials.
"We have not been allowed by Pakistan to talk to the man,"
Mohammed El Baradei, the Director-General of the Agency said in a
BBC interview aired on Thursday.
Asked why then Musharraf had made such a statement, El Baradei
said: "I can tell my Pakistani friends that I will be happy to
send a team tomorrow to talk to him if we can, absolutely."
In an interview with ABC World News in New York last week,
Musharraf was explicitly asked by anchor Peter Jennings why he
had not made Khan available to the US and IAEA for questioning.
Continued...Next >>
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. |
*****************************************************************
10 UPI: Pakistan denies IAEA access to Khan -
(United Press International)
October 01, 2004
Vienna, Austria, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Pakistan says it will not allow
the U.N. atomic energy agency to interview confessed smuggler of
nuclear technology Abdul Qadeer Khan.
"The Pakistanis have made it clear that while they will provide
the IAEA all information available to them, direct access to Khan
will not be possible, "International Atomic Energy Agency
spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said, according to a report in the
Pakistani Daily Times Friday.
The IAEA has repeatedly asked Pakistan to help it investigate
the international black market run by Khan, who last February
admitted passing nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North
Korea.
The agency says it needs Islamabad's cooperation in comparing
traces of highly enriched uranium found in Iran with samples from
Pakistan, to verify that Iran is not attempting to develop
nuclear weapons of its own.
Pakistan has supplied results from its samples, but has not
granted IAEA inspectors access to the country to do their own
sampling, which they say is critical to their analysis of Iran's
capabilities.
[UPI Perspectives]
*****************************************************************
11 DAWN: IAEA denied access to A.Q. Khan -
DAWN - 01 October, 2004
15 Shaban 1425
VIENNA, Sept 30: Pakistan has refused to let the UN nuclear
watchdog interview scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, agency chief
Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday.
"We have not been allowed by Pakistan to talk to the man," Mr
ElBaradei, who is director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), said in the BBC World Service interview.
It was the first time the IAEA has admitted that Pakistan is
refusing to let it see Dr A.Q.Khan. The IAEA has been asking
Pakistan regularly to help it investigate the international black
market allegedly run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Pakistan's cooperation with the probe is crucial in resolving how
Iran, and other states like North Korea, have supplied themselves
with nuclear parts and technology that can be used to make atomic
weapons.
Asked why President Pervez Musharraf said recently that nobody
had asked to question Dr A.Q. Khan, Mr ElBaradei said: "I can
tell my Pakistani friends that I will be happy to send a team
tomorrow to talk to him if we can, absolutely."
Mr ElBaradei said Dr Khan's network had "more than 30 companies
and 30 countries all over the globe involved in this fantastic
sophisticated illicit trafficking". But Mr ElBaradei said "as far
as I know Mr Khan has not talked to any non-Pakistani until now".
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said in Tehran in August
that his country was cooperating with the IAEA probe into Iran's
suspect nuclear programme but ruled out allowing international
inspectors into Pakistan.
He pointed out that Pakistan was not a signatory to the NPT
(nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), which mandates the IAEA to
monitor compliance with international safeguards.
The agency's inspectors have found traces of highly-enriched
uranium inside Iran, leading to suspicions that Tehran has been
trying to produce nuclear bombs and not just atomic energy as it
insists.
But Tehran maintains the traces found their way into the country
on equipment bought from Dr Khan's network. The IAEA wants to
take so-called "environmental samples" from Pakistan to compare
them with those found in Iran - crucial in verifying Tehran's
claims.
Pakistan has supplied results from sampling it has conducted
itself, but has not allowed IAEA inspectors into the country to
do their own sampling, Mr ElBaradei said in a report earlier in
September.
Mr ElBaradei said the IAEA needed results from its own testing to
be able to draw definitive conclusions. He told the BBC that he
did not think Iran was an "imminent threat" to make nuclear
weapons and that "verification and diplomacy" remain "the only
way to resolve" questions about Tehran's ambitions.
He said Iran was "as far away as any country that has the
know-how to enrich uranium . . . maybe one year, maybe two
years". Enrichment makes uranium fuel for civilian nuclear
reactors but can also produce the explosive material for atomic
bombs. -AFP
© The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2004
*****************************************************************
12 NRC: Carolina Power & Light Company; Notice of Partial Denial of
FR Doc 04-22047
[Federal Register: October 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 190)]
[Notices] [Page 58983-58984] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01oc04-116]
Amendment to Facility Operating License and Opportunity for
Hearing The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the
Commission) has denied a portion of an amendment request by the
Carolina Power & Light Company (the licensee) for an amendment to
Renewed Facility Operating License No. DPR-23 issued to the
licensee for operation of the H. B. Robinson Steam Electric
Plant, Unit No. 2, located in Darlington County, South Carolina.
The Notice of Consideration of Issuance of this amendment was
published in the Federal Register on April 1, 2003 (68 FR 15758).
The purpose of the licensee's amendment request was to revise the
Technical Specifications (TS) to fully implement the alternative
source term (AST).
The NRC staff has concluded that the portion of the licensee's
request regarding use of the AST for loss-of-coolant accidents
cannot be granted. The licensee was notified of the Commission's
denial of the proposed change by a letter dated September 24,
2004.
By 30 days from the date of publication of this notice in the
Federal Register, the licensee may demand a hearing with respect
to the denial described above. Any person whose
[[Page 58984]] interest may be affected by this proceeding may
file a written petition for leave to intervene pursuant to the
requirements of 10 CFR 2.309. A request for hearing or petition
for leave to intervene must be filed with the Secretary of the
Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001 Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, or may
be delivered to the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR),
located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, by the above
date. Because of continuing disruptions in delivery to mail to
U.S. Government offices, it is requested that petitions for leave
to intervene and requests for hearing be transmitted to the
Secretary of the Commission either by means of facsimile
transmission to 301-415- 1101 or by e-mail to
hearingdocket@nrc.gov [hearingdocket@nrc.gov] . A copy of any
petitions should also be sent to the Office of the General
Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001, and because of continuing disruptions in delivery of
mail to the U.S. Government offices, it is requested that copies
be transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to
301-415-3725 or by e-mail to
OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov [ OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov] . A copy of any
petitions should also be sent to Steven R. Carr, Associate
General Counsel--Legal Department, Progress Energy Service
Company, LLC, Post Office Box 1551, Raleigh, North Carolina
27602, attorney for the licensee.
For further details with respect to this action, see (1) the
application for amendment dated May 10, 2002, and supplemental
letters dated March 12, 2003, April 10, 2003, March 5, 2004, and
July 22, 2004, and (2) the Commission's letter to the licensee
dated September 24, 2004.
Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's
PDR, located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike
(first floor), Rockville, Maryland, and will be accessible
electronically through the Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System's Public Electronic Reading Room link at the
NRC Web site http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
.
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems
in accessing documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC
PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737,
or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Rockville,
Maryland, this 24th day of September 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Edwin M. Hackett, Director, Project Directorate II, Division of
Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-22047 Filed 9-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
13 NRC: Sunshine Act Notice
FR Doc 04-22199
[Federal Register: October 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 190)]
[Notices] [Page 58984] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01oc04-117]
DATE: Week of October 4, 2004.
PLACE: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
STATUS: Public and closed.
ADDITIONAL MATTER TO BE CONSIDERED: Week of October 4, 2004
Thursday, October 7, 2004 9:25 a.m.--Affirmation Session (Public
Meeting) (Tentative) d. Citizen's Awareness Network's (CAN)
Motion to Dismiss the Yankee Rowe License Termination Proceeding
or to Re-Notice It (Tentative) e. Duke Energy Corp. (Catawba
Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2); Licensing Board's certification
of its ruling on ``need to know'' during discovery (Tentative)
The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on
short notice. To verify the status of meetings call
(recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more
information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415- 1651.
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the
Internet at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-makin
g/schedule.html] . * * * * * The NRC provides reasonable
accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these
public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript or
other information from the public meetings in another format (
e.g. braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability
Program Coordinator, August Spector, at 301-415-7080, TDD:
301-415- 2100, or by e-mail at aks@nrc.gov [aks@nrc.gov] .
Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be
made on a case-by-case basis.
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition,
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic
message to dkw@nrc.gov [dkw@nrc.gov] . Dated: September 28, 2004.
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 04-22199 Filed 9-29-04; 9:46 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
14 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Fuel Still Missing From Calif.
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday October 1, 2004 11:46 PM
EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Utility officials have yet to locate four
pounds of missing radioactive nuclear fuel at a shuttered nuclear
power plant, but federal regulators insisted the search must
continue.
``You have to exhaust all avenues to find it, and we expect you
to continue searching for it,'' Bruce Mallet of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission told Pacific, Gas &Electric Co. officials
at a public meeting Wednesday.
Three pieces of a nuclear fuel rod were discovered missing during
an inventory in June at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant, and may be
among hundreds placed in a deep storage pool before the plant
closed in 1976. So far, a search has yielded 40 fuel fragments
that are being analyzed to see if they match the missing pieces.
Gregory Reuger, PG's chief nuclear officer at the plant, said
documents give conflicting clues. One set of records state the
pieces were shipped; another, that the shipment was canceled and
the pieces placed back in the pool.
Regulators and utility officials said they believe there's no
public danger, and that there's no chance the missing fuel may
have gotten into the wrong hands.
``We are confident that if the segments are not found in the
pool, then they were transferred to a facility licensed to accept
radioactive material,'' said regulator Mark Satorius.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
15 BBC: Higher costs hit British Energy
Last Updated: Friday, 1 October, 2004
[Power station control room]
British Energy produces about a fifth of the UK's electricity
Troubled nuclear power company British Energy has reported a
first-quarter loss but said it is making progress on its debt
restructuring plans.
Higher operating costs and lower-than-expected output led to a
£115m ($207m) loss for the three months to 30 June.
To avoid going into administration, British Energy is planning a
debt-for-equity swap which will see its creditors take control of
the firm.
British Energy nearly collapsed in 2002 after a slump in
wholesale power prices
"Progress has been made towards the completion of the proposed
restructuring, but it still remains subject to a number of
significant uncertainties and important conditions," said British
Energy in a statement.
On Thursday, a key shareholder in British Energy, investment
company Polygon, dropped its opposition to the £5bn restructuring
plan.
Polygon was unhappy at the terms of the deal, which will leave
existing shareholders with just 2.5% of the company.
But Polygon decided there was no "commercial logic" in pursuing
its complaint.
As part of the restructuring move, British Energy's shares will
be delisted from the London stock market later this month.
*****************************************************************
16 Hampton Union Editorial: Rules needed for flights over nuclear plants
Fri. October 1, 2004
Apparently there is nothing in the law that prohibits helicopters
- or anything else, for that matter - from flying directly over
the Seabrook nuclear power plant. How’s that for homeland
security?
Last week, the Air National Guard at Otis Air Force Base on Cape
Cod scrambled two F-15 fighter jets after a security guard at
Seabrook Station noticed a helicopter flying over the plant.
The same type of fighters were scrambled from Otis after
terrorists crashed two hijacked airliners into the World Trade
Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The situation at Seabrook escalated quickly after the
helicopter’s pilot did not respond after officials tried to make
radio contact.
When contact was finally made, the helicopter pilot was ordered
to land at Manchester Airport.
And that was it.
End of story.
Because there’s no law against flying over the nuclear power
plant.
"(Pilots) have an advisory not to circle over the plant, but
there is no direct prohibition of it," Jim Peters, a spokesman
for the Federal Aviation Administration New England Region, told
Seacoast Newspapers.
How is this possible?
How, when every other word we read in our newspapers or hear on
our televisions is about terrorists, can we possibly allow free
access from the air over our local nuclear power plant, or any
such plant?
The Federal Aviation Administration needs to wake up. What if
the helicopter pilot weren’t just a confused citizen, but a
terrorist?
It doesn’t take a counter-terrorism expert to see that this
situation poses a threat.
We need laws that provide some regulation for flights over our
nuclear power plants.
- The Hampton Union
Copyright © 2004 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please
*****************************************************************
17 People's Daily: China displays new nuclear reactor
[http://english.peopledaily.com.cn
UPDATED: 12:49, October 01, 2004
Atomic energy experts pose for a photo after watching the
display of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, designed at
prestigious Tsinghua University, at a location roughly 40 km
north of downtown Beijing Sept. 30, 2004. China showed off its
first new generation of reactor on Thursday in an effort to
demonstrate not only its safety and reliability but its progress
in overcoming its chronic energy shortage. More than 60 atomic
energy experts from over 30 countries watched the safety
operation, in which the reactor successfully cooled down after
the control stick was pulled out.
Atomic energy experts pose for a photo after watching the
display of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, designed at
prestigious Tsinghua University, at a location roughly 40 km
north of downtown Beijing Sept. 30, 2004. China showed off its
first new generation of reactor on Thursday in an effort to
demonstrate not only its safety and reliability but its progress
in overcoming its chronic energy shortage. More than 60 atomic
energy experts from over 30 countries watched the safety
operation, in which the reactor successfully cooled down after
the control stick was pulled out.
Atomic energy experts watch the display of a high-temperature
gas-cooled reactor, designed at prestigious Tsinghua University,
at a location roughly 40 km north of downtown Beijing Sept. 30,
2004. China showed off its first new generation of reactor on
Thursday in an effort to demonstrate not only its safety and
reliability but its progress in overcoming its chronic energy
shortage. More than 60 atomic energy experts from over 30
countries watched the safety operation, in which the reactor
successfully cooled down after the control stick was pulled out.
Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved
*****************************************************************
18 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy reveals £115m loss
renewables: fossil volatility costs more
Friday October 1, 2004
British Energy today announced a quarterly loss of £115m, weighed
down by operating and one-off costs.
BE, which is preparing to delist its shares as part of a
government-backed debt restructuring programme, said its
performance in the three months to June 30 had been affected by
lower than expected output from its eight nuclear power stations.
The group was also unable to fully benefit from the recent sharp
rise in electricity prices because it had sold most of its output
for the coming year in advance, at fixed prices below current
market value. BE, the UK's biggest power generator, had
anticipated a drop in prices.
"The overriding concern of British Energy was to reduce the
group's exposure to potential falls in the market prices of
electricity," the firm said in a statement. "Therefore, the
company sought to sell forward virtually all of our planned
generation. As a result, it has not fully benefited from the more
recent rises in market prices."
Seasonal repairs and unplanned stoppages of more than 14 days at
Sizewell B, in Suffolk, Torness, in East Lothian, and Heysham, in
Lancashire were blamed for the weaker nuclear output figure,
which was down 12% at 15 terrawatt hours.
In June, BE showed signs of some trading improvement, reporting
pre-tax profits of £232m in the year to March 31, compared with
losses of £4.3bn a year earlier. Today's first quarter results -
the first time BE has published figures for the period - included
UK operating losses of £36m.
BE also said it was making progress with its planned
restructuring, implemented after it almost went bust in 2002 due
to falling power prices.
The programme yesterday received a boost when Polygon Investment
Partners gave up an attempt to derail it. Polygon and another
institutional investor had called a special meeting of
shareholders after claiming that the planned debt for equity
swap, which will hand control of the group to creditors, would
leave them with an inadequate stake.
BE said the agreement - recently backed by the European
commission - was the only option open to it, adding that it would
face administration if the proposals were blocked.
The restructuring plan, drawn up in October 2003, involved banks
and bondholders agreeing to write off £1.3bn in debt in return
for control of the group.
Useful links
[http://www.british-energy.com/]
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
19 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear group hit by £115m loss
Press Association
Saturday October 2, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
British Energy announced losses of £115m for one quarter
yesterday after the ailing nuclear generator was weighed down by
operating and one-off costs.
The group - preparing to delist its shares as part of
government-backed debt restructuring - said its performance in
the three months to June 30 had been affected by lower than
expected output from its eight nuclear power stations.
British Energy was unable to benefit fully from a recent sharp
rise in electricity prices as it had positioned itself against
potential falls in the market by forward-selling its planned
generation.
Seasonal repairs and stoppages at Sizewell B, Suffolk; Torness in
East Lothian, and Heysham, Lancashire, were blamed for the weaker
output, down 12% at 15 terrawatt hours.
In June, British Energy reported pre-tax profits in the year to
March 31 of £232m. Yesterday's results included UK operating
losses of £36m.
The nuclear industry
Graphics
The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf)
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09
/17/nuclear_ship.pdf]
Nuclear map of Britain
US nuclear map
Useful links
British Energy [http://www.british-energy.com/]
Department of Trade and Industry [http://www.dti.gov.uk/]
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
[http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm]
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/]
Greenpeace [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/]
HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm]
UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/]
National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/]
Friends of the Earth
[http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc
lear/index.html]
World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/]
World Nuclear Transport Institute [http://www.wnti.co.uk]
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
20 NRC: NRC Offers Opportunity for Hearing on Relicensing Application for NIST Test Reactor
News Release - 2004-12 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-122 October 1, 2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a notice of
opportunity for hearing on the application by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to extend the
license of its test reactor in Gaithersburg, Md., for an
additional 20 years.
NIST submitted the license renewal application on April 9, and
the NRC has determined that the application is complete and
acceptable for docketing. Details of the acceptance review and
the opportunity to request a hearing were contained in a Federal
Register notice published Sept. 21.
The NIST reactor operates at 20 megawatts thermal. It is used
extensively for a wide range of government and private research;
to characterize the structure and dynamics of materials; to
develop material and radiation standards; to generate
radioisotopes for analysis; and to study the effects of
radiation on various materials.
The reactor began operation in 1967 and had its operating
license renewed for 20 years in 1984. The current operating
license expired May 16, 2004, but is considered to remain in
effect because NIST filed its renewal application within the
required period.
Any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding has
until Nov. 22 to file a request for a hearing and petition for
leave to intervene with respect to the renewal of the license.
The NRCs rules for requesting a hearing are contained in 10 CFR
2.309, and spelled out in the Sept. 21 Federal Register notice.
Last revised Friday, October 01, 2004
*****************************************************************
21 NRC: NRC Web Page Describes Process for Updating Guidance on Reactor License Renewal
News Release - 2004-12 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-123 October 1, 2004
The NRC is revising its guidance documents for reviewing nuclear
power plant license renewal applications. Information on the
revision process, including its schedule, correspondence, NRC
presentation materials, and meeting information, is available on
the NRCs Web site at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/guidance/
updated-guidance.html.
The revision incorporates what the NRC has learned during the
renewal of 26 reactor licenses since March 2000, and covers
NUREG-1800, "Standard Review Plan for License Renewal
Applications for Nuclear Power Plants," as well as NUREG-1801,
"Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) Report." If the NRC
approves industry-proposed guidelines for submitting renewal
applications, the agency will also revise Regulation Guide
1.188, "Standard Format and Content for Applications to Renew
Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses." The NRC is currently
reviewing 18 license renewal applications.
Preliminary drafts of the revised documents are available for
public viewing through the Web page above, and the public can
officially comment on the documents starting Feb. 1, 2005. Any
questions should be directed to Jerry Dozier at 301-415-1014 or
Amy Hull at 301-415-4095.
Last revised Friday, October 01, 2004
*****************************************************************
22 DHHS: CDC: Radiation Safety Board
FR Doc 04-22044
[Federal Register: October 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 190)]
[Notices] [Page 58915] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01oc04-63]
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Advisory
Board on Radiation and Worker Health
In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) announces the following committee meeting:
Name: Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH),
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Subcommittee Meeting Time and Date: 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.,
October 19, 2004.
Committee Meeting Times and Dates: 1 p.m.-4:15 p.m., October
19, 2004. 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m., October 19, 2004. 8 a.m.-4 p.m.,
October 20, 2004.
Place: The Westin St. Francis, 355 Powell Street, San
Francisco, California 94102, telephone 415/397-7000, fax
415/774-0124.
Status: Open to the public, limited only by the space
available. The meeting room accommodates approximately 65 people.
Background: The ABRWH (``the Board'') was established under
the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
Act (EEOICPA) of 2000 to advise the President, delegated to the
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), on a variety of
policy and technical functions required to implement and
effectively manage the new compensation program. Key functions of
the Board include providing advice on the development of
probability of causation guidelines which have been promulgated
by HHS as a final rule, advice on methods of dose reconstruction
which have also been promulgated by HHS as a final rule,
evaluation of the scientific validity and quality of dose
reconstructions conducted by the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for qualified cancer
claimants, and advice on petitions to add classes of workers to
the Special Exposure Cohort.
In December 2000 the President delegated responsibility for
funding, staffing, and operating the Board to HHS, which
subsequently delegated this authority to the CDC. NIOSH
implements this responsibility for CDC. The charter was issued on
August 3, 2001, and renewed on August 3, 2003.
Purpose: This board is charged with (a) providing advice to
the Secretary, HHS on the development of guidelines under
Executive Order 13179; (b) providing advice to the Secretary, HHS
on the scientific validity and quality of dose reconstruction
efforts performed for this Program; and (c) upon request by the
Secretary, HHS, advise the Secretary on whether there is a class
of employees at any Department of Energy facility who were
exposed to radiation but for whom it is not feasible to estimate
their radiation dose, and on whether there is reasonable
likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the
health of members of this class.
Matters to be Discussed: Agenda for this meeting will focus
on Program Status Reports from NIOSH and Department of Labor;
Special Exposure Cohort Petition Process Procedures; Scientific
Research Issues Update; Site Profile Reviews; Subcommittee Report
and Recommendations; and Board working sessions. There will be an
evening public comment period scheduled for October 19, 2004, and
a public comment period at midday on October 20, 2004. The
Subcommittee will convene on October 19, 2004, from 9:30
a.m.-11:30 a.m.
The agenda is subject to change as priorities dictate.
Contact Person for More Information: Larry Elliott, Executive
Secretary, ABRWH, NIOSH, CDC, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati,
Ohio 45226, telephone 513/533-6825, fax 513/533-6826.
The Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, has
been delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices
pertaining to announcements of meetings and other committee
management activities for both CDC and the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry.
Dated: September 20, 2004. Alvin Hall, Director, Management
Analysis and Services Office, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. [FR Doc. 04-22044 Filed 9-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING
CODE 4163-19-P
*****************************************************************
23 Vive le Canada: Depleted Morals
Canada"> [http://www.vivelecanada.ca]
Thursday, September 30 2004 @ 08:47 AM MDT
Contributed by: Reverend Blair
Views: 304
If I could shed a tear for every home that bombs destroy,
I'd never stop crying,
If every broken brick were a heart of a little girl or boy,
All the world's children would be sighing,
If I could hold each shattered body, each baby stilled at birth,
I'd have no time for loneliness,
I'd spend all my time embracing the people of this savaged
earth,
Feeling the poisoned wind's caress,
And the billionaires are laughing in some safe place in America,
Sing a song for Basra. –David Rovicks, Sing a Song for Basra
The use of depleted uranium by US and British military forces is
a fact. They use it and, most likely, have a better
understanding of its long-term effect than they are admitting.
In a March 18, 2003 article
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/2860759.stm] the BBC quoted
Colonel James Naughton of US Army Materiel Command as saying,
regarding the use of depleted uranium ammunition and armour,
"Who's asking the question? The Iraqis tell us 'terrible things
happened to our people because you used it last time'.
"Why do they want it to go away? They want it to go away because
we kicked the crap out of them, OK?
"I mean, there's no doubt that DU gave us a huge advantage over
their tanks. They lost a lot of tanks.
"Their soldiers can't be really amused at the idea of going out
in basically the same tanks with some slight improvements and
taking on Abrams again."
Contrast that with statements made by Professor Doug Rokke.
Clearly a man with some credibility when it comes to the effects
of depleted uranium weapons, Rokke, a ex-director of the
Pentagon's depleted uranium project, former professor of
environmental science at Jacksonville University and onetime US
army colonel who was tasked by the US department of defence with
the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up was
quoted in the article [http://www.sundayherald.com/32522] as
saying, There is a moral point to be made here. This war was
about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet
we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves. Such
double-standards are repellent,
Later in the article, Rokke is further quoted as saying, A
nation's military personnel cannot wilfully contaminate any
other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then
ignore the consequences of their actions.
'To do so is a crime against humanity.
'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban
DU.
So what is depleted uranium?
[http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Estgvisie/VISIE/depleted_uranium1.html]
It is basically waste left over from the production of nuclear
weapons or nuclear energy. It is free to the arms manufacturers
because it is waste. It is used to harden shells to give them
more penetrating power. It is more effective than tungsten
because it is much easier to work, tungsten is expensive, and
depleted uranium weapons have the added advantage of being
self-sharpening. It is a very effective weapon for attacks on
armoured vehicles and under ground bunkers.
It is also more dangerous than we are being officially led to
believe. Studies on it by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
[http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/du/en/] and the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
[http://postconflict.unep.ch/actbihdu.htm] have largely ignored
the internalisation of depleted uranium material, instead
looking only at the external radioactive effects. The oft quoted
Rand Report
[http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/cover.html] has
left out some evidence and the epidemiology the report is based
on dealt with naturally occurring uranium dust, not depleted
uranium.
When that is pointed out, the usual retort is that depleted
uranium is less radioactive than naturally occurring uranium.
That is, like many of the official lies,
[http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0108-05.htm] almost true.
Depleted uranium, in a pure form, is less radioactive than
naturally occurring uranium. What gets used in weapons is of
questionable purity though.
Depleted uranium used to manufacture weapons is a byproduct of
the nuclear industry, waste that somebody found a use for. It is
not pure. It may contain plutonium and other impurities that
makes depleted uranium far more dangerous.
[http://www.cadu.org.uk/info/nuclear/3_1.htm]
While it is convenient for users such as the US government to
deny the long-term detrimental effects
[http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html] of depleted uranium, those
effects are becoming more and more clear. The potential
contamination from deleted uranium caused the UN, in an April
2003 press release
[http://www.un.org/apps/news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=6834&Cr=iraq&
amp;Cr1=environment&Kw1=depleted+uranium&Kw2=&Kw3=]
on environmental problems in Iraq to state, The report says
another priority should be a scientific assessment of sites
struck with weapons containing depleted uranium (DU). It
recommends guidelines be distributed immediately to military and
civilian personnel and to the general public on how to minimize
the risk of accidental exposure to DU. The intensive use of DU
weapons has likely caused environmental contamination of as yet
unknown levels and a study would require receiving precise
coordinates of the targeted sites from the military. Clearly,
even with the inadequacies of the UNEP report on depleted
uranium, the United Nations recognises that depleted uranium is
not harmless, as its advocates claim it to be. The UN
Sub-Commission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights
designated depleted uranium to be a weapon of mass destruction
1996 and resisted attempts
[http://www.rense.com/general33/du.htm] by the United States and
United Kingdom to have depleted uranium stricken from the list
of weapons of mass destruction in 2002.
The United States and Britain love depleted uranium weapons
though. They used them extensively in the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq
and Kuwait, again in the Balkans, then in Afghanistan and once
again during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The use of depleted
uranium weapons is increasingly linked to Gulf War Syndrome in
American and allied soldiers who served in the Gulf War, and
allied troops who served in the Balkans. Cancer rates and other
health problems among veterans who served in these wars and the
civilians who were innocent bystanders have skyrocketed in the
time since the wars, as have birth defects among their
offspring. Despite the growing evidence that these weapons cause
serious health effects years after their use, the US and UK
defend their use. Increasingly, being an ally of a country that
uses depleted uranium means that your people are being exposed
to the risk of debilitating toxins. This alone should be enough
to discourage countries like Canada from taking part in the
foreign adventures of the United States.
The United States is estimated to have sold depleted uranium
weapons to almost thirty countries, and has used depleted
uranium weapons in urban, suburban, and agricultural areas, yet
there is little doubt that if such ammunition was used in a
populated area in the United States it would be dubbed a dirty
bomb and the people who used it accused of using weapons of mass
destruction. Depleted uranium weapons are nuclear devices, after
all. They contaminate air, land and soil. They affect the DNA of
human beings.
While the US tries to muddy the issue by bringing in the
possibility Saddam Hussein exposed his own people to biological
and chemical weapons, thus causing the rising rates of cancer,
they cannot explain the rising cancer rates among people who
were exposed to depleted uranium in Bosnia and Kosovo. While
those who believe in the destructive power of depleted uranium
mutter platitudes and lies to defend their unconscionable use of
such a weapon, real people are dying. That includes children not
yet born and soldiers who did not sign up to be exposed to
elements likely never heard of before becoming soldiers and were
not told the dangers of being exposed to radioactive weapons.
It is time that the Canadian government stepped up to the plate
and called for a complete ban on the use of depleted uranium. Up
until 1998 Canada did have depleted uranium tipped weapons on
some of its ships, but changed to tungsten-tipped ammunition
after that...presumably because it had been listed as a weapon
of mass destruction by the United Nations It is time we admitted
that the use of such weapons is a crime against humanity, owned
up to our error in ever having them in our arsenal, and moved to
bring those that continue to use them to trial in international
court. The use of depleted uranium weapons is against
international, British, and US law. A war crime is a war crime
no matter who commits it, how much money they have, or whether
they refer to the head of their country as the leader of the
free world.
Nobody is free when such weapons are used with impunity.
Depleted Morals
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 30 2004 @ 10:35
AM MDT
When science at the United Nations becomes evidence-based, as
science should be, rather than politics-driven, the way it is at
the UN, then perhaps this issue will be taken more seriously.
Currently there is no actual proof that depleted uranium is
responsible for any more disease than any one of hundreds of
possible factors that people in war get exposed to, the nature
of war is dangerous that's why it's called war.
[ Reply to This
[http://www.vivelecanada.ca/comment.php?sid=20040928204701877&
;pid=13364&title=Depleted Morals&type=article] | #]
Depleted Morals
Authored by: gaulois
[http://www.vivelecanada.ca/users.php?mode=profile&uid=750]
on Thursday, September 30 2004 @ 10:57 AM MDT
Could the "science" and "evidence" you are refering to
something you simply buy like anything else to support someone's
aims? There seems to be plenty of science and evidence on how
decaying well scattered isotopes have been known to interact
with lifeforms. At minimum I would consider not inflicting it on
people that fight on your own side (aka "do no harm")... Perhaps
you are not helping the case for using more DU by your
intervention. You are making the case very well that we should
just ban it. I look forward to an analysis similar to yours on
Fox-news and CNN in regards to this matter. That will prove it
for sure. I doubt however this topic will be even mentionned by
these media on the eve of the election.
---
"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others
somehow"
[ Reply to This
[http://www.vivelecanada.ca/comment.php?sid=20040928204701877&
;pid=13367&title=Depleted Morals&type=article] | #]
Depleted Morals
Authored by: gaulois
[http://www.vivelecanada.ca/users.php?mode=profile&uid=750]
on Thursday, September 30 2004 @ 11:48 AM MDT
Thank you too dear anon to remind us that Kerry better brings
DU up at tonight debate. I am sure Bush will have the most
insightful thoughts on this "crime against humanity" small
matter. Reality exceeding fiction?
You may find some interesting "evidence and science" at:
forum.johnkerry.com/index.php?showtopic=83958&am
[http://forum.johnkerry.com/index.php?showtopic=83958&hl=&quo
t;depleted+uranium"]
---
"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others
somehow"
[ Reply to This
[http://www.vivelecanada.ca/comment.php?sid=20040928204701877&
;pid=13370&title=Depleted Morals&type=article] | #]
Depleted Morals
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 30 2004 @ 06:29
PM MDT
Travel to Iraq or Kosovo and ask the locals why their children
are being born without brains, or eyes.
I love when rightwingers parrot the official line. Just for you
parrot: www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/30/141
[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/30/1411222]
American soldiers are now giving birth to these children.
Thousands from the first Gulf War are still sick. But hey don't
believe science and reality, just keep on relying on Fox to keep
you informed.
peace
*****************************************************************
24 ONN. Ohio News Now: Lawmakers debate how to reform nuclear worker comp program
October 1, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Congressional lawmakers agree a program to
compensate sick nuclear weapons workers is broken, but how to fix
it is the subject of debate on Capitol Hill.
The program is for tens of thousands of people nationwide who
helped build Cold-War era bombs or cleaned up the waste left
behind. Many got sick from harsh toxins and are seeking lost
wages for time spent off the job.
In Ohio, the program was designed to help workers from 35 sites,
including the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon and
the Mound site in Miamisburg.
Others worked at facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky,
New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and the state of
Washington.
Legislation passed by the Senate would move the program from the
Energy Department to the Labor Department, which is said to be
doing a good job handling a separate compensation program for
nuclear workers. In contrast, the program run by the Energy
Department has been bogged down by delays.
The Energy Department is supposed to help workers file for
assistance under state worker compensation systems. Federal
contractors pay the claims and get reimbursed.
The Senate proposal would require the government _ not the
contractors _ to pay the bills. In some cases, contractors are
long gone. In other instances, the government can't compel
contractors to pay the claims, because they are privately
insured.
The Senate proposal is included in a larger defense bill. The
House defense bill does not include such a measure, and lawmakers
from both chambers are trying to negotiate a compromise.
Some lawmakers who represent the workers say a proposal put
forward by the House negotiators doesn't go far enough.
"The House plan I have seen is a far cry from the sound plan the
Senate passed," said Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield, who represents
workers at a uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Ky.
House negotiators agree the Energy Department program should be
moved to the Labor Department. However, they disagree with House
and Senate members who represent the sick workers over the level
of benefits the workers should get.
The proposal in the Senate bill would require the Labor
Department to use individual state worker compensation laws when
determining how much employees should get.
House members believe such a system is too complicated. They say
a better approach is to offer various lump sum benefits which
vary depending on how sick a person is.
House and Senate lawmakers who represent the workers say that
approach fails to give workers something equivalent to what they
have lost.
The compensation program run by the Labor Department program is
entirely different from the Energy program. It pays workers a
lump sum of $150,000 only if they got cancer due to radiation or
lung diseases associated with beryllium or silica.
Workers are now allowed to apply for benefits under both
compensation programs, and many of them do that.
Lawmakers who represent the workers say that's only fair since
the lump sum is an apology for putting workers in harm's way,
while the other program is supposed to replace lost wages.
A House proposal would limit the degree to which workers could
apply for assistance under both programs.
"It just seems like we are once again trying to sock it to the
worker, while pretending to reform a program," said Rep. Ted
Strickland, D-Ohio. "I don't think it's fair."
A call to the House Armed Services Committee seeking comment on
the negotiations was not immediately returned.
The government previously kept quiet about the toxins the workers
were exposed to at the nuclear sites. Four years ago, after the
Clinton administration apologized to the workers, Congress passed
the dual compensation programs.
House and Senate negotiators are trying to work out their
differences so they can produce a compromise defense bill before
Congress adjourns next week for a lengthy recess.
On the Net:
Labor Department compensation program:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/owcp/eeoicp/main.htm
Energy Department compensation program:
http://www.eh.doe.gov/advocacy/stat_research.html
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2004,
WorldNow and Dispatch Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
25 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Medical Uses of Isotopes To Hold a Teleconference Oct. 5
News Release - 2004-12 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-121 September 30,
2004
Medical Uses of Isotopes will hold a public teleconference Oct.
5 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to discuss recommendations to add a
minimum number of training hours to the alternative training
pathway for Authorized Nuclear Pharmacist status and Authorized
User status.
Any member of the public wishing to participate in the
teleconference must contact Angela McIntosh, at 301-415-5030 or
arm@nrc.gov [arm@nrc.gov] for the phone number and pass code.
The transcript and written comments will be available on the
NRCs Web site, at www.nrc.gov and through the NRC Public
Document Room on or about Nov. 12, 2004. Minutes will be
available on or about Dec. 17, 2004.
Last revised Thursday, September 30, 2004
*****************************************************************
26 Protesters prepare for chase as plutonium ships near UK
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:16:00 -0700
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=567215
Protesters prepare for chase as plutonium ships near UK
By John Lichfield in Paris
30 September 2004
Anti-nuclear protesters are preparing for a game of cat and mouse with
French and British authorities as two ships loaded with weapons-grade
plutonium approach the Channel in the next few days.
The two British ships, with an escort of Royal Marine commandos, are
transporting 140kg of military-surplus plutonium - enough to make 30
nuclear warheads - for experimental conversion to nuclear fuel in the south
of France.
The ships, which left Charleston, south Carolina, on 20 September, are
designed to carry radioactive materials. Their progress across the Atlantic
is being monitored by satellite and aircraft.
A Greenpeace ship, L'Esperanza, and a flotilla of yachts, hope to impede
the plutonium shipment before it reaches Cherbourg for a 600-mile road
journey to a nuclear processing plant in the Rhône estuary.
The precise whereabouts and movements of the British-flagged, nuclear
transports - the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Pintail - are being kept
secret to prevent protesters from intercepting them at sea. Greenpeace
officials expect the ships to dock in Cherbourg this weekend, probably at
night.
"The US and France are unnecessarily threatening international security and
the environment. There is no conceivable justification for this transport,"
said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.
The US will have no capacity to convert military plutonium into nuclear
power station fuel - a process never attempted before - until next year.
Washington has awarded a €243m (£167m) experimental contract to convert the
plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors - mixed oxide fuel or Mox - to the
French company, Areva. Once converted, the fuel will be shipped back to the
US early next year.
The contract for transporting the material has been awarded to a British
company, whose ships are - exceptionally - being guarded by a unit of Royal
Marine commandos.
Greenpeace and other anti-nuclear campaigners say that the movement of
weapons-grade plutonium half the way around the world in this way is an
invitation to catastrophe: either a radioactive leak or an attempt by a
terrorist group to seize the shipment to make a nuclear bomb of its own.
Protests are planned all along the route from Normandy to the Rhône estuary
but the plutonium is expected to travel at night along a secret route.
The consignment represents a tiny portion of the 34 tons of excess weapons
grade plutonium which the US must dispose of as part of a disarmament
agreement with Russia.
Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, a spokesman for Areva, accused Greenpeace and
other "militant ecologists" of hypocrisy. He added: "They fought for years
for the elimination of military-grade plutonium and now they are protesting
against a process which is part of that elimination".
Greenpeace says that military-grade plutonium should not be recycled for
peaceful purposes but mixed with radioactive waste, solidified or
vitrified, and stored.
_________________________________________________________________
Get ready for school! Find articles, homework help and more in the Back to
School Guide! http://special.msn.com/network/04backtoschool.armx
*****************************************************************
27 Las Vegas RJ: NUCLEAR WASTE: Congress stuck on Yucca Mountain
Friday, October 01, 2004
Unable to agree on 2005 funding, legislators to wait until after
Election Day
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Unable to break a stalemate over Yucca Mountain
funding for next year, Congress has decided to put off the fight
until after Election Day.
Lawmakers might receive a signal from voters whether to
continue developing a nuclear waste repository in Nevada or to
scrap the project, depending on who they elect as president,
analysts said.
The House and Senate on Wednesday enacted temporary spending
bills to keep government departments operating beyond Friday,
the start of the new fiscal year.
The agencies were given authority to continue spending money at
this year's levels until Nov. 20. Lawmakers plan a lame-duck
session after the Nov. 2 elections to complete work on 2005
spending and other unfinished business.
Ballot returns might influence what Congress does on Yucca
Mountain during the session, said Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste
director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners.
If Sen. John Kerry wins the presidency, "Congress could go with
a low number and say we need a timeout," O'Connell said. Kerry
has told voters in Nevada he would kill the repository program
if elected.
If President Bush wins, O'Connell said, Yucca backers
"presumably would try to boost up" spending on nuclear waste.
The Defense Department is unaffected by the stopgap spending
bill because Bush signed its fiscal 2005 share into law in
August. But Congress has not finished 12 other bills that set
spending levels for other government agencies, including the
Department of Energy.
Lawmakers have been unable to finish the spending bill for
energy and water projects because of Yucca Mountain. Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the leaders of the
Senate energy and water subcommittee, have been unable to agree
on an amount for the repository program.
Reid said other problems exist with the energy and water bill
besides Yucca Mountain. Legislators disagree over studies for
"bunker buster" nuclear weapons and spending for water projects.
"Once again, the Republicans have failed to move Congress to
get its work done in a timely manner," Reid said in a statement.
The temporary spending bills allow DOE to spend prorated
portions of $577 million on Yucca Mountain, the same amount they
were given for 2004, officials said.
Nevada might be entitled to part of the temporary funding, said
Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.
He said he planned to ask DOE for $80,000 or more, a pro-rated
share of what the state received last year.
Congress has been stymied all year over the Yucca Mountain
budget.
The Bush administration asked for $880 million to continue
repository work in 2005 but added a wrinkle that had the effect
of undercutting its request.
The administration assumed that $749 million would come from
restructuring the nuclear waste fund that pays for the Yucca
project. But Congress refused to go along, leaving the Energy
Department with only $131 million to spend on the Nevada program
without making deep cuts in other energy priorities.
Domenici, the Senate subcommittee chairman, proposed a one-time
surcharge on nuclear utilities to raise $466 million. But he ran
into resistance from the nuclear industry and fiscal
conservatives who saw the plan as an energy tax.
Twenty-six conservative leaders sent a letter to Domenici on
Sept. 22 that urged him to abandon the idea.
"Imposing a half-billion dollar tax hike on this important
industry and forcing them to pay for government mishandling of
the budget is not the way we as conservatives believe a
Republican-controlled Congress should proceed," the letter said.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas RJ: Low-level waste repositories draw interest
Friday, October 01, 2004
Senator says Congress might have to set up sites for disposing
of growing volumes of medical, industrial materials
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Congress might consider establishing federal
repositories for low-level nuclear waste, after states have
failed to open new facilities on their own, a Senate committee
chairman said Thursday.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he was interested in the idea,
which was raised during a hearing on disposal for growing volumes
of medical and industrial materials that become contaminated with
radioactivity.
"I like the suggestion as a practical one," Domenici said. "We
have a lot of public land" that could host repositories.
Licensed commercial sites in South Carolina, Washington and Utah
that accept low-level radioactive waste will run out of storage
capacity or face volume restrictions later this decade, while
efforts to open new sites have failed so far, members of the
Senate Energy Committee were told.
Domenici said the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
will begin work on a low-level nuclear waste bill next year.
"While not an immediate problem, we must now play close attention
to prevent a potential future crisis," he said. Low-level waste
is distinct from and not as radioactive as high-level waste
generated by power plants that the Energy Department plans to
bury at a Yucca Mountain repository over the objections of Nevada
leaders. Domenici did not mention possible locations for
low-level nuclear waste repositories. But a California official
who appeared before the Senate Energy Committee said a low-level
waste disposal area the Energy Department operates at Frenchman
Flat on the Nevada Test Site is underutilized and might be able
to store more material while Congress considers a long-term
solution.
A 2001 DOE study concluded the test site and a burial site at
the Hanford Reservation in Washington are being used at less than
50 percent capacity, said Alan Pasternak, technical director of
the California Radioactive Materials Management Forum.
Nevada leaders plan to closely watch the issue, believing the
state could be proposed as a possible recipient for more nuclear
waste, according to Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for
Nuclear Projects. "Clearly, most people in Nevada would just as
soon see importation of low-level waste halted to Nevada," Loux
said. "Most people believe Nevada has done its share." A
commercial low-level radioactive waste dump that operated in
Beatty was shut down in 1979 by then-Gov. Bob List after a series
of environmental and safety problems, Loux said. Michele Boyd,
energy legislative director for the Public Citizen watchdog
group, said ongoing fights over the Yucca Mountain Project should
discourage the idea of creating a national repository for
low-level nuclear waste. "The government's attempt to force a
high-level waste dump at Yucca Mountain has been a fiasco and
does not bode well for a federal low-level waste dump," Boyd
said.
But Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste director for the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said burial for
low-level radioactive material might be "somewhat easier to
sell." Plans for regional repositories have run into opposition
from potential host states. Nebraska was sued and has been
ordered to pay a $151 million judgment after leaders were found
to have plotted to keep a dump from being built in a rural
county.
Pasternak urged senators to get the federal government more
involved.
"States have failed to provide the necessary disposal
infrastructure and are unlikely to do so," he said. "A long-term
national solution might include congressional authorization for
one or two disposal facilities, possibly by the Department of
Energy or commercial entities, on federal land," he said. The
California Radioactive Materials Forum is an association of
public and private groups that promoted nuclear waste disposal at
Ward Valley, 21 miles west of Needles. Efforts by U.S. Ecology to
open a Ward Valley dump were abandoned five years ago after
meeting strong opposition from American Indian tribes and
environmentalists.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
29 Inyo Register: Water workshop plies options
County officials continue to put heads together on ways to
address future of department
By Jon Klusmire
The Inyo Register Staff Friday, October 1, 2004 9:26 AM PDT
Trying to parcel out the chores and duties of the Inyo County
Water Department is a task akin to slicing a river into separate
streams.
However, the Water Department is in charge of several tasks that
are more like tributaries, and could be cut off from the main
flow of the department's work.
County officials and staff spent Tuesday brainstorming about
which other county departments could do some jobs currently
handled by the Water Department, and came up with a surprisingly
broad band of options. The exercise in winnowing down the
department's essential tasks and goals from those deemed less
important will be critical in two respects.
The tasks that form the core responsibilities of the Water
Department must be maintained, all agreed, even if the Board of
Supervisors decides to change the structure and organization of
the department. Possible organizational changes under
consideration include simply shifting some of the Water
Department's responsibilities to other county departments,
redefining the department's mission but keeping the Water
Department a stand-alone operation, or some sort of merger that
would make the Water Department simply another part of an
existing department, such as Planning.
Plus, any changes to the current way the department operates
will be a key consideration when the board addresses the vexing
question of how to replace outgoing Water Director Greg James.
James is unique among county department heads because he's a
lawyer, thus is able to both manage the Water Department and do
its legal work. James will leave his full-time post at the end
of this year, but will remain the department's part-time legal
counsel through 2005.
Deciding what skills and expertise any new Water Department
director possesses represents "the crux of our considerations"
about the future direction of the department, observed Fourth
District Supervisor Butch Hambleton.
If Tuesday's workshop is any indication, there are a number of
programs currently under the care and direction of the Water
Department that a new director might not have to deal with.
But the workshop also provided a good indication of what will
likely consume most of the new director's time.
At the end of the workshop, participants identified four issues
as "the most important" facing the department: groundwater and
surface water management; the Lower Owens River Project; disputes
and litigation; and enhancement and mitigation projects.
Those four top picks were chosen from the 15 "ongoing and future
activities and issues" currently handled by the Water Department
and addressed at the gathering.
The biggest challenge facing any reorganization or change in the
focus of the Water Department is that "all the issues are
interrelated," noted Doug Daniels, Water Department program
manager. Groundwater and vegetation monitoring are linked, and
also come into play when enhancement projects are considered, for
example.
Unsaid but understood was that the full range of expertise and
knowledge, plus relevant historical data from ongoing monitoring
and field work, come together when the department crafts a legal
dispute.
The county's University of California Cooperative Extension Farm
Advisor Rick Delmas, who is paid by the state, not the county,
facilitated the workshop. Delmas noted the workshop would not
delve deeply into specifics or the mechanics of the work being
discussed. Instead, the goal was having a broad, general
discussion about what activities can be handled only by the Water
Department, if any other county department was duplicating that
effort or what departments could, conceivably, assume some or all
of the tasks being discussed. Also a consideration was
"contracting out" jobs or activities to consultants.
The first issue addressed, groundwater and surface water
management, brought to the fore James' dual role as manager and
lawyer.
Ellen Hardebeck, president of the Eastern Sierra League of Women
Voters, said monitoring and managing water was "the primary
purpose of the Water Department," and no one disagreed. And the
Water Department staff are the only qualified, experienced
employees for the job, it was agreed.
But First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius brought up a key
concept driving the entire exercise: "Can the work and people be
managed in a different place?" besides from inside the Water
Department.
At a previous workshop, James said he spends about half his time
on legal issues with the other half devoted to both managing the
department and helping shape ongoing projects.
James' split duties opened the door to two possible ways to
handle another key issue, disputes and litigation.
One proposal for handling those legal issues when James leaves is
to have the County Counsel's Office perform the Water
Department's legal work, and add a full-time attorney to do so.
But Fifth District Supervisor-elect Richard Cervantes suggested
the department's legal work could be contracted out to an outside
attorney, with James being the first choice.
Either option assumes it will be highly unlikely, or too
expensive, to find a new Water Department director who will have
both the legal and management expertise needed to do the same
amount, and type, of work James currently performs.
The dual nature of the last two of the top four needs also
produced dual ideas about how to get the work done.
Both the Lower Owens River Project and completing enhancement and
mitigation projects are two-phase operations. Arcularius pointed
out the county is in the first stage, essentially working the
water- and legal-related issues involved in getting LADWP to
complete projects. But once those projects are completed, the
county's role will shift into a less intense, and time-consuming
effort to simply monitor and regulate the finished products.
The County Counsel's Office could handle the legal work, it was
noted, while Arcularius said several county departments - Public
Works, Parks or Planning, for example - have the ability to
manage timelines, work to reach consensus with Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power on schedules and "get projects
going," then continue to monitor them.
Another key Water Department function is staffing the Water
Commission, Technical Group and Standing Committee. Those duties
not only require the precise expertise of Water Department staff,
but are also mandated chores and procedures that the county uses
to interact with and sometimes confront LADWP.
Although under previous consolidation schemes the Planning
Department had been identified as a likely choice for assuming
the oversight and management functions of the Water Department,
when it came to actually doing Water Department work, the
Agriculture Department was the most-mentioned alternative.
Agricultural Commission George Milovich pointed out most of the
valley floor is covered by ranchland or pastures. The Ag
Department was mentioned as one source of "skills and expertise"
that could be applied to activities or issues that involve a link
between plants and water, or monitoring vegetation. Those are
significant parts of the Water Department's key tasks.
A variety of combinations and permutations were mentioned as
possible routes to handle some of the less splashy (pun
intended), but important Water Department tasks. Those include
the Saltcedar Program, the Big Pine Ditch System, GIS programming
and management, database management and well permits.
Four of the 15 activities were identified as candidates for
takeover by "outside contractors." Those included the sporadic
work involved in protesting Las Vegas' groundwater pumping
project, the Water Department's public information program and
the issue of exporting of water not owned by LADWP.
In addition, consultants or contractors could assume most of the
Water Department's chores revolving around providing consulting
advice and legal work to other county departments. James pointed
out that, for example, a developer must pay for water studies for
a housing project, and the Planning Department only recently
included the Water Department in Yucca Mountain-related studies,
which are funded by the federal government.
The next Water Department workshop will see the completion of the
"facilitated discussion" about the future direction of the Water
Department and include direction from the supervisors about
potential organizational options. That workshop will be held near
the start of the next Board of Supervisors' meeting on Tuesday,
Sept. 21.
©2004 The Inyo Register [pub@inyoregister.com]
*****************************************************************
30 Bellona: Bridge can collapse with passing spent nuclear fuel train in Severodvinsk
All nuclear spent fuel trains pass the dangerous bridge on its
way to the reprocessing plant in South Urals.
2004-10-01 17:30
According to the specialists, Yagrinsky Bridge in Severodvinsk
connecting Zvezdochka plant engaged in nuclear submarine
dismantling, with the ”continent”. The bridge was built 50 years
ago and according to the former Science Research Institute
”Promtransproject”, where it was designed, the bridge moved
horizontally and the main bridge girders lost the possibility for
temperature expansion. In other words the bridge can collapse
when the heavy trains with spent nuclear fuel or scrap metal
pass, daily MK in Arkhangelsk reports.
Zvezdochka’s press secretary Nadezhda Scherbinina said to
Regnum.ru that the shipyard’s management is constantly raises the
issue of the bridge problem at the meetings with the foreign
partners. The cost of the repairs is kept secret. The state
budget has no money for the bridge repairs, so there is a
possibility that the bridge can be repaired in the frames of G8
Global Partnership program, as it also stipulates safety of the
place where dismantling takes place. Scherbinina confirmed the
need of the reconstruction but denied the possibility of the
nuclear accident claiming that before each train with nuclear
fuel passes, a thorough technical evaluation is conducted. She
states the bridge cannot collapse now or even in 3 years. ”It
just can’t happen” she said to Regnum.ru.
Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President:
[frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00
Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo,
Norway
*****************************************************************
31 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush should keep Yucca promise
It's been four years since George W. Bush promised our governor
he wouldn't support Yucca Mountain unless the science did too. I
certainly haven't forgotten that, or the fact he broke his
promise and signed legislation that will send 77,000 tons of
nuclear waste from all over the country into our communities.
Our own Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects predicts well
over 100 accidents to occur during the decades this toxic
material will rumble through our neighborhoods. Just one
accident could contaminate 40 square miles.
Nevadans owe it to themselves to urge President Bush to keep
his commitment and use his power to stop Yucca Mountain. Bush
may not have thought much of it when he made his promise, but it
sure meant a lot to us.
COURTNEY PURCELL
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32 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca budget may have to wait
Vote won't come until after election
By Suzanne Struglinski
SUN
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- A final Yucca Mountain project budget number will
most likely not be known until after Election Day.
Congress will go home next week, after the start of a new
fiscal year, and has left some government agencies operating at
2004 levels until Nov. 20. Lawmakers will have to come back to
pass a handful of the 13 spending bills still not done,
including the energy and water spending bill that funds the
Energy Department.
The House approved a $131 million budget for the planned
nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas earlier this year, leaving it $749 million short of the
department's request. The Senate did not come up with a number
for the project, although negotiations are said to have taken
place.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the top Democrat on the Senate
Appropriations subcommittee that controls the Energy
Department's budget, said he did not expect anything to change
on the impasse until after the election.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had suggested charging nuclear
ratepayers an additional fee to help make up the difference,
drawing criticism from the nuclear industry.
The Nov. 2 election will likely have an effect on the project,
depending on who wins the presidential race and which party
controls the House and Senate. While the newly elected would not
take office until January, the outcomes could be felt during a
lame-duck session.
Steve Kraft, director of waste management at the Nuclear Energy
Institute, did not want to speculate on what Congress would do
after the election. Kraft said regardless of who wins, he would
want them to look at the situation and realize this is a project
the needs to move forward.
"This program is not a done deal," Kraft said. "It still has to
go through a lot of scientific and regulatory wickets."
In addition to requesting the highest budget for the project
since its inception, the department also wanted to change the
budget rules for the project. The House approved letting the
department tap directly into the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account
support by nuclear power ratepayers to fund the repository, but
House supporters admitted it would be extremely difficult to get
the idea through the Senate, based on Reid 's and Sen. John
Ensign's, R-Nev., opposition to it.
Ensign sits on the Senate Budget Committee and stopped the
change from getting into the overall budget resolution that
guides the spending process.
Until a new budget is established, the department will continue
to receive the $577 million it did for this fiscal year. Energy
Department spokesman Joe Davis said he had no comments on the
Yucca budget.
*****************************************************************
33 AU ABC: Garrett slams Coalition's approach to nuclear waste
[http://abc.net.au/] [ABC Utilities Navigation Bar]
Friday, 1 October 2004
High-profile Labor candidate Peter Garrett says the Federal
Government's approach to the placement of a nuclear waste dump is
in a shambles.
Yesterday, the Coalition ruled out building a dump on the
Australian mainland.
While campaigning in the marginal Darwin-based seat of Solomon
today, Mr Garrett said Labor would not impose dumps on the states
and territories.
Mr Garrett says the Coalition's approach is a disgrace.
"This has been policy on the run from the minister and from the
Howard Government," he said.
"They've got no strategy, no science, no clear time-line about
it.
"I mean islands have popped out of nowhere, there's every
likelihood that were the Howard Government to be re-elected that
it could impose its will upon the Northern Territory in a way in
which it can't impose it on other states.
"What's the question about sea transit of nuclear waste, what's
the question about islands in the South Pacific or islands just
off the top here of the Northern Territory?"
Mr Garrett says after months of debate, there is no guarantee the
Coalition's approach will not change again.
"Suddenly we get this last minute, okay we're going to start to
put it on islands, I mean it's ridiculous policy running," Mr
Garrett said.
But CLP Member for Solomon Dave Tollner says the Government's
approach is sensible.
"But what we haven't seen is any sort of coherent plan whatsoever
from the Australian Labor Party about what they intend to do," he
said.
Mr Tollner did not speculate about what offshore areas would be
considered for the dump. [ more news ] Last Updated: 4:18:00 PM
(ACST)
[ABC Online] [http://www.abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm] |
[http://www.abc.net.au/privacy.htm] | Information about the use
*****************************************************************
34 KESQ CA: Decision on Nevada nuclear dump funding to come after election
NewsChannel 3 Palm Springs,
October 1, 2004
LAS VEGAS It's going to be after the presidential elections
before Congress decides how much money to spend next year on a
national nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
That's because the leaders of the Senate energy and water
subcommittee -- Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, and
Pete Domenici, a Republican from New Mexico -- haven't been able
to agree on spending for the Yucca Mountain project.Analysts say
lawmakers also might also look for a signal from voters whether
to continue developing the repository 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.Senator John Kerry has told voters in Nevada he'd kill the
Yucca program if elected.President Bush backs the repository and
authorized the Yucca project along with Congress in 2002.
For now, temporary spending bills are letting the Energy
Department spend the same amount on the Yucca project as it spent
in fiscal 2004.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2002 -
2004 WorldNow and KESQ. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
35 Tri-City Herald: Plans for Hanford Reach center released
This story was published Friday, October 1st, 2004
By Cara Fitzpatrick Herald staff writer
As long-awaited designs for an interpretive center at Columbia
Point South near completion, the proposed $32 million center's
footprint has grown by about 30,000 square feet. It now includes
an 80,000-square-foot campus with a great hall, interactive
galleries, office space, classrooms, gift shop, cafe and a
220-seat auditorium.
Architects and museum designers released schematic designs of the
Hanford Reach National Monument Heritage and Visitor Center to
members of the Richland Public Facilities District and the
center's partners in mid-September and now are "tweaking" the
design, said Ron Hicks, the center's interim executive director.
The plans are just months from completion and public perusal, and
Hicks is clearly enthused with the work so far on the center.
"I think it's going to be the heart of the Tri-Cities," he said.
The price tag also may go up, but Hicks said much of the design
may be scaled back if the money doesn't come through. Final
designs are expected to be finished in February and construction
is tentatively scheduled for fall 2005.
"We basically have about one-third of the funding in hand and
another third has a high probability of coming through," he said.
"It's the last third that we haven't explored."
But Hicks said the facilities district and center's governing
body are looking at doing a feasibility study to determine what
kind of fund-raising can be done.
"If $32 million is all we have, then it will be a $32 million
building," he said.
The project has been designed with the understanding more money
might not come through, said Kevin Carl, project manager from
Jones &Jones Architects of Seattle.
"Using a campus approach helps us move forward with an uncertain
amount of money," he said.
The project will probably be built in phases, with an emphasis on
completing the galleries and museum spaces first, then
classrooms, offices and other administrative items, he said.
Architects began sketching out a story line and layout for the
center about nine months ago, beginning with the basic notion
that the museum should reflect the Mid-Columbia's natural
landscape and its history.
"If it was going to succeed, it had to be rooted in the
community," said Bruce Arnold, project architect from Jones
&Jones.
Input on the design came from the Richland Public Facilities
District and each of the project partners, including the CREHST
museum, the Friends of the Hanford Reach National Monument, the
Tri-Cities Visitor &Convention Bureau and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
Arnold said hearing from so many organizations was challenging
and has led to some of the increases in size and budget. But he
said it also has brought a lot of perspective.
"There was a real strong coming together," he said.
Jones &Jones also worked with an exhibit designer, Hilferty
&Associates of Athens, Ohio, to determine how the architectural
designs meshed with proposed exhibits.
Permanent gallery space will be dedicated to the history of the
Mid-Columbia, beginning with its geologic origins and including
the Native American tribes, Hanford, World War II and the Cold
War. It also will include the designation of the Hanford Reach
National Monument and future preservation of the land.
Additional gallery space will be left for a rotation of changing
exhibits.
Some details of the designs and models are expected to be shown
at a booth from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Richland Community
Center
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
36 Guardian Unlimited: First Los Alamos Nuclear Materials in Nev.
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday October 1, 2004 2:16 AM
By LESLIE HOFFMAN
Associated Press Writer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Federal officials said Thursday that the
first shipment of weapons-grade nuclear material has been sent
out of a steep canyon at Los Alamos National Laboratory that some
warned was vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
The Energy Department has been working since December 2002 to
move the highly enriched uranium and plutonium from Los Alamos'
Technical Area 18 to the Device Assembly Facility, a
high-security storehouse in a remote area of the Nevada Test
Site, northwest of Las Vegas.
The first transfer was completed Thursday.
TA-18 was built in the 1940s at the bottom of a steep canyon, and
critics have raised security concerns about the site. Lab
officials have said they are able to protect the material, but
add that the cost of maintaining security there is high.
The transfer is aimed at consolidating the National Nuclear
Security Administration's nuclear materials in a newer, more
secure facility, officials have said. The NNSA is an arm of the
Energy Department responsible for overseeing the department's
nuclear complex.
Lab watchdogs have pushed for the transfer, arguing it will
improve national security and save taxpayers money.
It was temporarily put on hold last summer when cost estimates
soared to $310 million - a more than threefold increase from
initial estimates.
The NNSA plans to relocate the most sensitive weapons-grade
nuclear material by September 2005 and move the remaining
material by 2008.
Completion of the first shipment reinforces ``NNSA's commitment
to relocate TA-18 activities to a newer, more secure location,''
said Everet Beckner, deputy administrator for defense programs.
NNSA spokesman Bryan Wilkes said only that a ``specialized
transportation system with very high security'' was used to
transport the material on unspecified roads. He said the agency,
for security reasons, would not disclose the amount of material
transferred.
Lab employees at TA-18 study nuclear materials to see how they
will react in certain situations, train Nuclear Emergency Search
Teams and International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, and
support nonproliferation efforts, among other tasks.
---
On the Net:
National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov
Los Alamos National Laboratory: www.lanl.gov
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
37 lamonitor.com: Classified matter custodian objects to LANL crackdown
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
[http://www.lanl.gov/worldview]
[http://www.lac-nm.us]
ROGER SNODGRASS, [roger@lamonitor.com] , Monitor Assistant
Editor
A former custodian of classified matter and media feels she has
been unfairly removed from her job in the Chemistry Division of
Los Alamos National Laboratory. Barbara E. Nelson broke silence
in a letter to the editor of the Monitor Sunday in which she
expressed dismay about what she considered generally abusive
treatment during the continuing shutdown at the laboratory.
LANL has been engaged in total suspension of operations since
July 16, although all low-risk and some medium risk activities
have resumed since then.
Nelson works in the division where a student was seriously
injured in a laser accident on July 14.
She was working in the field of classified matter, an activity
that has been under special scrutiny after two pieces of
classified media were declared missing from the Dynamic
Experimentation (DX) Division on July 7. Classified matter
includes both classified media and classified documents.
Although she was not implicated in either of the highly
publicized incidents, Nelson felt she and others had been caught
in the crossfire. She said her experience contradicts assurances
given to the workforce by lab Director G. Peter Nanos that honest
mistakes would not be punished.
"I have never felt so betrayed, nor made to feel so ashamed to be
a mere fallible human being before in my life," she said in her
letter.
The laboratory responded with a prepared statement Thursday.
"During the early part of the work suspension, managers did make
many temporary duty assignments to position personnel in such a
way as to achieve resumption as effectively and efficiently as
possible," said James Rickman of the Public Affairs Office. "The
temporary re-assignment of duties in this specific instance did
not involve a change of salary or job level and was not punitive
in any way."
In an interview Monday, she said her group leader had retired
just before the upheaval began at the laboratory and the new
acting group leader overreacted.
"My job went under a microscope," she said. "They found mistakes.
One was an assumed mistake that was not verified."
But the consequence was that she said she was reassigned to a
different position, where she is now.
The aggravating factor for Nelson was her stated belief that the
laboratory itself has failed to support the people who had these
risky responsibilities.
Despite the high "consequences of error" involved in the
positions - including the personal risk of going to jail - she
said training amounted to reading several pages of on-line
material and passing tests of about 15 questions each.
When she became a classified matter custodian two-and-a-half
years ago, she said she inherited a good deal of material that
was considered CREM (Classified Removable Electronic Media) as
well as other legacy classified matter, which had not been
brought up to modern standards.
She said she took it upon herself to attend a four-day training
session in Albuquerque for Classified Matter Protection and
Control (CMPC) to be brought up to speed on current rules and
regulations.
Her perception was that before then, she was thrown into deep
water and it was up to her to sink or swim.
She said that the message she got during the shutdown was, "This
is your job, but if you've screwed up we're not going to support
you."
She said she did not know enough about the problems in the
Dynamic Experimentation (DX) Division to say what happened there.
Subsequent reports, including a statement by Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-NM, have raised doubts about whether the classified media was
actually missing or is thought to be missing because a pair of
unused labels were found.
Energy Secretary Abraham, citing past problems with classified
media, announced last May a plan to move to diskless workstations
in the Department of Energy complex. A week after the stand down
at LANL, which included a suspension of CREM activities, Abraham
extended the suspension of CREM activities throughout the
department.
Nelson said she had attempted to express her viewpoint on the
public forum of the laboratory's News Bulletin, but after a
six-week delay in which she understood that her letter was sent
to an ombudsman who declined to comment or provide a rebuttal and
then to the public affairs office.
Nelson gave up at that point. She said, "As far as I known, it
never came back from public affairs."
The public forum of the laboratory's News Bulletin has a set of
policies that excludes some letters.
Nelson said she had little faith in the normal grievance process
because the managers "appear to be so busy with the shutdown
process."
Nelson emphasized that her statements in her letter and
quotations in this article were to be understood as her personal
opinion and not the official position of the laboratory.
[http://www.dncu.org/]
[http://www.lanb.com/]
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
38 EU Business: France likely to win battle with Japan over nuclear fusion
site: minister
01 October 2004
France's minister for research on Thursday expressed optimism
that his country would win the battle with Japan, the United
States and South Korea for the siting of a high-tech nuclear
fusion research project.
"Given the situation today, it's Cadarache," said Deputy Research
Minister Francois d'Aubert, referring to the site proposed by
France for the 10-billion-euro (12-billion-dollar) International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
If a dispute with the United States, South Korea and Japan, which
proposes the Japanese site of Rokkasho-mura, is not resolved
before, the European Union is expected to decide on November 25
to start construction at Cadarache, in southeastern France.
"There can always be unexpected developments," said d'Aubert.
"There is of course a political angle, and that could change
things. But frankly... we are on the right track," he said,
during a visit to Cadarache.
He added that whichever of the two countries did not get the
potentially lucrative site could be compensated. "There can't be
a loser for ITER," he said. "If Cadarache is chosen, there can be
compensations for the site that was not chosen."
The EU has said it is keen to go on working within the
international ITER framework, which also embraces China, Japan,
Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The United States and South Korea support the Japanese site,
while China and Russia have backed the EU bid for the reactor to
be sited at Cadarache.
The project aims to build the world's first working prototype
reactor for nuclear fusion, which is billed as a clean, safe,
inexhaustible energy source for the future.
Wrangling over the decision is expected to focus on a meeting of
the six ITER partners in Vienna in mid-October, hosted by the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
Text and Picture Copyright © 2004 AFP. All other copyright ©
2004 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is
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