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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 Korea Herald: Japanese defense chief to visit next week
2 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Restarting six-way talks
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.K. Website Shows How U.S. Is Still View
4 Korea Times: Amb. Hill Emerges as Nuclear Negotiator
5 Korea Times : Nuclear Stalemate Clouds Korea
6 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Congressman Heads to North Korea
7 US: WorldNetDaily: Bye-bye Bolton?
8 US: Boston Globe: Opinion Get serious about nuclear security
9 Independent: Bechtel and Lockheed in frame as Labour plots nuclear s
10 [DU-WATCH] Israel's Secret Weapon
11 asahi.com: IAEA chief urges 5-year nuke hold
12 Watertown TAB &Press: Con Com: No playing field on former Army site
13 Guardian Unlimited: Video of Secret Israel Nuclear Site Shown
NUCLEAR REACTORS
14 [du-list] Tsunamis and a Nuclear Threat
15 US: [NukeNet] Re: [NRC_CONCERNS] Exelon takes over pre-merger;
16 US: SitNews: Another Hostage Situation (Diablo Canyon editorial)
17 PTI: 70 Indian nuke engineers pass out from Russian training centre
18 Reuters: Russian reactors favoured for Bulgarian nuke plant
19 US: YDR: What’s TMI worth?
20 US: The Day: NRC To Seek Comment On Environmental Assessment
21 US: APP.COM: Risk to humans from nuclear-plant radiation is well doc
22 US: APP.COM: Feds deny N.J. aid to check radiation
NUCLEAR SAFETY
23 US: [NYTr] The High Cost of "Cheap" - US Nuke Sub Runs Aground
24 CENSORED(#4) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
25 US: US nuclear sub runs aground
26 US: US nuclear sub runs aground
27 US: Increasing Pressure on the US Congress on the Depleted Uranium i
28 US: BREAKING NEWS: ALASKA - SECRET BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL, RADIATION E
29 US: [du-list] Fw: Increasing Pressure on the US Congress on the
30 US: Bellona: US attack sub runs aground in the Pacific
31 US: BBC: US nuclear submarine runs aground
32 US: Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs: New Cause of Thyroid Cancer Dis
33 US: SF Chronicle: Nuclear submarine runs aground south of Guam; abou
34 US: Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Nuclear Submarine Runs Aground
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
35 US: The Australian: Demand explodes for slice of yellowcake pie
36 US: The Australian: Uranium mining emerges as election issue
37 US: Bradenton Herald: Arsenic found in Tallevast soil tests
38 US: heraldtribune.com: Dump the phosphate plan
39 US: Hawk Eye Newspaper: Microbes cleaning IAAP contamination
40 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Even after election, Huntsman brings in dough
41 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Opinion Learning curve
42 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Envirocare radiation personnel stay put
43 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium mining in San Juan may return
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
44 [DU-WATCH] RENEWED CALLS FOR NUKE ARMS BAN
45 US: FPI BREAKING NEWS: 2,051 'Known' Nuclear Tests!
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
46 Rocky Flats: Govt Lied About Contamination
47 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada security panel wants no-bid contract with Bech
48 thedailytimes.com: DOE appointee has history of violations
49 ABQjournal: LANL Impact Under DOE Review
50 ABQjournal: LANL May Lose Task to Sandia
51 Tri-City Herald: Company chosen to create drawings
52 Tri-City Herald: DOE audit finds delay in closing risky wells
53 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Savannah
54 LA monitor: Pajarito Corridor restricted further
55 lamonitor.com: DOE seeks input on environmental review
56 PhysOrg: GM, Sandia to advance hydrogen storage
57 Albuquerque Journal: LANL Impact Under DOE Review -
58 Albuquerque Journal: LANL May Lose Task to Sandia -
OTHER NUCLEAR
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Korea Herald: Japanese defense chief to visit next week
2005.01.08
Japanese Minister of State for Defense Yoshinori Ono will visit
Seoul on Wednesday for an annual session with South Korean
Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung, the ministry said yesterday.
During a two-day visit, the two chiefs will discuss Tokyo's
revised defense guidelines, North Korea's nuclear weapons program
and other pending security issues involving South Korea, Japan
and the United States.
He is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and
visit the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
During the talks, South Korea will demand Japan maintain a
transparent defense policy to prevent distrust and concerns among
neighboring nations, Maj. Gen. Han Min-koo told reporters.
*****************************************************************
2 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Restarting six-way talks
2005.01.08
It takes little imagination to assume that North Korea will
continue to be at the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda
during President George W. Bush's second term in office. It has
been one of his national security goals to stop Pyongyang from
pursuing its nuclear weapons program.
No progress has been made in the efforts to resolve the conflict
at the six-way talks involving South Korea, China, Japan and
Russia, as well as North Korea and the United States. It is
primarily Pyongyang that is to blame because it has stayed away
from the multilateral negotiating table for six months.
It may have been tactically wise of Pyongyang to suspend the
talks ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November to see
which of the two candidates, Bush or John Kerry, would win. But
it would be an act of downright stupidity should it decide to
continue to boycott the talks.
The nuclear crisis is getting worse. That is what the U.N.
nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says in
demanding that it be resolved by the end of this year. It
believes North Korea has produced an amount of plutonium large
enough to make six nuclear weapons since its inspectors were
expelled from the communist state on Dec. 31, 2002.
Now Pyongyang will soon have to decide whether it will return to
the talks for earnest negotiations or face Washington-initiated
diplomatic sanctions. It cannot afford to remain complacent any
longer about what Bush said late last year: at the request of
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, he promised not to use
military force as a means of pressuring Pyongyang to renounce its
nuclear ambitions.
It is safe to believe that Pyongyang's continued boycott will
invite nonmilitary punitive action from the United States. With
diplomatic pressure probably being the first among his cards, he
will certainly consider how much he will apply on the North
Korean communists to achieve his foreign policy goal.
This assumption is in line with a news report that Bush will
decide to bring the case to the U.N. Security Council if
Pyongyang refuses to commit itself to participating in the talks
by Feb. 2 when he is scheduled to deliver his State of Union
address.
If the report is accurate, the United States will first seek a
Security Council resolution calling on Pyongyang to scrap the
nuclear program. Should it refuse to comply with the resolution,
Washington will tighten the screws and call for trade and other
sanctions.
In case China vetoes its moves in the Security Council, the
United States will certainly seek to line up its allies and
friends, Japan in particular, to chastise the North Korean regime
with their own sanctions.
Japan would be most receptive to the U.S. request because it is
under public pressure to take punitive action against Pyongyang,
which is accused of lying to Tokyo about the remains of Japanese
abductees. North Korea is vulnerable to a threat from Tokyo, with
remittances from pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan being a
major source of hard currency.
North Korea will do well to send a message to Washington as soon
as possible that it would return to the six-party talks,
preferably without any strings attached. It may do so when a U.S.
congressional delegation arrives in Pyongyang next week.
When the six-party talks reopen, the North will have to stop
dragging its feet in negotiating the terms of dismantling its
nuclear program. Concluding the negotiations at an early date
will be the first step it needs to take if it is to speed up the
task of developing its backward economy with outside help and
feed starving people on its own.
*****************************************************************
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.K. Website Shows How U.S. Is Still Viewed as Hostile
Home> National/Politics Updated Jan.7,2005 19:19 KST
North Korea, Uriminzokkiri, the North's state-run Internet site,
said Friday that no dialogue or meetings would have any
significant value unless the U.S. abandoned its hostile policy
toward the state.
A group of U.S political representatives is scheduled to visit
Pyongyang from Jan. 11-14 to discuss the nuclear dispute that
has frequently ground talks to a halt.
The website accused Washington of supporting a regime transition
in the North and developing a plot to establish a consultative
body across the Northeast Asian region.
Japanese media reported Tuesday that Washington has considered
setting up a consultative body with South Korea, Japan, China
and Russia in order to check the influence of a rapidly
expanding China and take the lead in coping with the North's
potential collapse.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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4 Korea Times: Amb. Hill Emerges as Nuclear Negotiator
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill is rumored to
lead the American delegation to the six-party talks over North
Korea¡¯s nuclear problems. But diplomatic sources here said
Sunday that evidence was yet lacking to prove the ``hasty¡¯¡¯
prediction.
With the new U.S. security lineup slowly taking shape for
President George W. Bush¡¯s second-term administration, it has
been a matter of grave concern for South Korea who will be picked
up as the chief nuclear negotiator representing the U.S. side.
Since National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was named as
the new secretary of state, Michael Green, who has worked with
her as the senior director for Asian affairs at the National
Security Council, has been tapped as one of the most viable
candidates to replace Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian
and Pacific Affairs James Kelly.
But the general predictions faced unexpected variables when Rice
recently selected Robert Zoellick, the administration¡¯s top
trade negotiator, as her deputy, instead of John Bolton, under
secretary of state for arms control and international security.
And the envisaged departure of the hawkish official seems to be
generating a chain reaction in the scheduled shakeup, including
the appointment of chief nuclear negotiator.
Quoting unidentified diplomatic sources in Washington, South
Korea¡¯s Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday that Christopher
Hill, the top U.S. envoy in Seoul, is emerging as a highly
probable candidate as Kelly¡¯s successor.
Yonhap reported one of the sources had even stated that Amb.
Hill ``has already been designated¡¯¡¯ for the new job.
Despite the fact that he has served in Seoul for only about five
months, the report stressed that Hill enjoys special privileges
from President Bush and has been invited to the Crawford Ranch in
Texas.
A career diplomat with wide experience in troubled areas
suffering from regional conflicts, Amb. Hill has come to South
Korea, still technically at war with the communist North since
the 1950-53 Korean War, after finishing his service in Poland
last autumn.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul, however, said it could not provide
any official confirmation because they had not heard of such
information before.
``I don¡¯t think we need to make an official response to that
media report at the moment since we haven¡¯t heard any stories
like that,¡¯¡¯ an embassy official told The Korea Times.
Diplomatic officials in Seoul, including those deeply involved
in the six-party process, also dismissed the report as ``not very
well-founded,¡¯¡¯ saying there has been no hints of such an
appointment.
``We didn¡¯t receive such information from our U.S.
counterparts, though it is not our duty to inform each other in
advance of such personnel reshuffles,¡¯¡¯ a senior diplomat told
The Times. ``We¡¯ll have to wait until at least late next month
to see.¡¯¡¯
The six-party talks, launched in August 2003 to find a
negotiated resolution to the nuclear standoff, have been stalled
after the third round of talks in Beijing last June as North
Korea has boycotted the talks thereafter citing the ``hostile¡¯¡¯
U.S. policy.
A fourth round was supposed to be held by the end of September
last year, but did not take place with North Korea dragging its
feet. Experts say it would be possible only after next month as
the North is expected to decide whether to return after seeing
the future direction of the Bush administration¡¯s foreign
policies, to be articulated in his State of the Union address.
About 15 months after the ambitious first conference, most of
the starters _ who had laid the groundwork in settling down the
format, but failed to make substantial progress _ have already
passed, or will soon pass, the baton on to their successors.
The nuclear dispute emerged in October 2002, after U.S.
officials claimed that the North Koreans admitted to having a
secret nuclear weapons program, based on highly enriched uranium.
The six-party process, which also involves China, Japan and
Russia, is a multilateral dialogue format, aimed at arbitrating
between the U.S. pursuing a comprehensive denuclearization of the
communist state, and North Korea wanting compensations, such as
economic aid and security guarantee from the U.S.
jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 01-09-2005 17:21
*****************************************************************
5 Korea Times : Nuclear Stalemate Clouds Korea
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Special
This is the fifth in a series of New Year¡¯s contributions by
Korean and foreign experts on key issues on Korea - ED.
By Peter Hayes
Over the five decades since the Korean War ended, the U.S.
foreign policy elite have constructed an enduring and powerful
alliance system in East Asia. Aimed initially at the Sino-Soviet
bloc, and later separately against China and the former Soviet
Union (FSU), these alliances were built around a core set of
common values and principles including a commitment to
anti-communism, open markets, and social and political
stability.
This alliance system was hegemonic rather than imperial; that
is, its power derived primarily from the consent of allies to
American leadership rather than outright coercion.
American hegemony over the past half century also rested on its
ability to divide and rule between competing great powers such
as China and Russia via their natural affinities with the elites
and societies of Korea and Japan, thereby sustaining a balance
in Northeast Asia.
Undergirding these bilateral alliances with the United States
that were bound together into a regional system by American
unified commands such as U.S. Forces Korea and Japan and by
wide-ranging service commands such as the U.S. 7th Fleet, was a
common reliance on the projection of the American nuclear threat
to deter countervailing threats from China and the FSU.
This unique capacity was symbolized by the forward deployment of
nuclear weapons on the territory of Korea, Taiwan and Japan, as
well as offshore on aerial and naval delivery systems. Thus,
American power was based on a uniquely nuclear hegemony with a
well-organized division of labor, a legitimating ideology and an
unrivalled set of power capacities.
Great power competition in this area also endowed small states
such as North Korea with room to maneuver and to play off
contenders desirous of influencing events on the Korean
peninsula.
The flip side of increasing Japanese and South Korean
incredulity that an American president would ever risk a nuclear
attack on the U.S., which led to increasing pressure for local
nuclear weapons, was the North Korean reaction to the bluster
and threat displays of the Reagan era. It was about 1987 that
the North began to explore and then pursue actively a nuclear
weapons program with which to check American nuclear threats.
The end of the Cold War from about 1991 prompted a flurry of
adjustments in force postures in this region that initially
looked hopeful. President George Bush Senior opted to remove
forward-deployed nuclear weapons on political and military
grounds, which immediately prompted North and South Korea to
undertake new non-nuclear obligations and to take small steps
toward denuclearising the entire peninsula.
However, President Bill Clinton never developed a regional or
peninsula-wide vision of a cooperative security framework to
supplant the Cold War insecurity system. It took only a few
years for the U.S. and North Korea to revert to old Cold War
behavior of threat projection, verbal hostility and military
confrontation, even as minimal cooperative steps in nuclear
monitoring, humanitarian aid and joint recovery of remains of
U.S. missing-in-action went ahead.
The inconvenience posed by North Korea was a welcome thorn in
the American side as far as China was concerned and a reminder
that the U.S. was responsible for managing the Demilitarized
Zone. For its part, Russia was preoccupied with domestic
reordering in the Far East; and South Korea vacillated between
fear of being sold out and fear of precipitate American action
over the nuclear issue.
This top-level failure of leadership led to a stop-start pattern
in engagement with the North by the U.S. and its allies and to
increasing conviction in Pyongyang that the U.S. would never
lift sanctions against it to allow it to move from a
narco-criminal, extractive rentier state to a modernizing and
accumulating state on the model of the South of the early 1960s.
Far from being the ``barrier that makes the water flow¡¯¡¯ _ a
metaphor in common use in Pyongyang to explain its nuclear
threat strategy in the early 1990s _ the nuclear issue became an
enormous weight hung around the neck of the North Korean regime
which it could neither carry nor cast off.
The nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington continued
until the rise to power of the President George W. Bush
administration after the elections of 2000. For a brief period
until late 2001, the Bush White House could have re-ordered this
gridlocked state of affairs. After 9/11, the North extended its
sympathies to the victims and committed itself against
international terrorism.
If, at this moment, the Bush administration had exploited the
North¡¯s economic dilemmas and extended politically to
Pyongyang, it could have simultaneously enlisted it in the
global war against terrorism _ and what better partner than a
regime with the terrorists¡¯ rolodex and an ability to reach out
to them in a lethal way _ and orchestrated a sequential trade-in
of all North Korea¡¯s nuclear weapons capacities, including
enrichment, all paid for by Japanese and South Korean taxpayers.
Instead, the Bush administration embarked on a strategy to
dislodge Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq; began a global war on
terror on multiple fronts; and ignored and then attempted to
isolate the North in a regional strategy culminating in the
six-party talks.
This inversion of American global security priorities, which
should have begun with disarming North Korea¡¯s nuclear threat,
followed by an adept and flexible strategy to reduce the threat
of global terrorism, followed at long last by an attack on Iraq,
accelerated North Korea¡¯s acquisition of nuclear weapons, gave
it increased room to maneuver among the great and medium powers
of the region to strike separate deals, and neglected its
ability to assist in the war on terror, a prospect which
continues to threaten the U.S., its allies and friends, and even
its adversaries.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld¡¯s topped this blunder by
prematurely restructuring U.S. Forces Korea in 2003 and 2004
from a front-line trip-wire force into a rear-deployed capacity
with an increasingly global mission outside the Korean
peninsula. This revision led many conservatives in Tokyo and
Seoul to question American intentions and capacity to deter and
defend its East Asian allies and to entertain go-it-alone
options, including homegrown nuclear weapons.
The recent revelations about South Korea¡¯s nuclear experiments
have emphasized how delicately balanced the non-proliferation
regime has become in the region and how quickly regional states
could move out from American extended deterrence toward
independent nuclear forces.
Change is unstoppable and often good. When initiated from
popular impulses or visionary leadership, it inevitably
re-orders affairs between states and peoples. But thoughtless
change, initiated from the top-down, especially when motivated
by short-term and ad hoc political considerations, is unlikely
to have positive effects in a region still rent by historical
and cultural antagonisms as well as divided by diverging
interests in the present.
This is the problem facing Korea in 2005. The change that is
emanating from the second Bush administration is orchestrated by
political appointees from the top echelons of the White House,
the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State
Department. The professionals in statecraft have been largely
pushed aside, purged or have left in disgust. The carefully
constructed institutions between the allies as well as the
global and regional systems for managing crises between states
have been eroded from inside out, leaving only raw power as the
basis for resolving conflicts.
This situation is not the result of the militarisation of
alliance politics _ Koreans rejected military rule in 1987, and
the U.S. military in Korea have been a stabilizing force in the
gyrating global strategies of the Bush White House.
Rather, it is the result of confusion and ignorance, of frantic
efforts to dismantle domestic and international habits and
procedures that blocked an agile and potent response to
transnational terrorism after 9/11, and of a black-and-white
``for us or against us¡¯¡¯ mentality that rules the White House
today. Increasingly, the U.S. demands compliance from allies and
friends based not on consent but on its coercive capacities,
signalling a shift from hegemonic to imperial hyperpower.
Left behind is an obsolete set of crumbling alliances and an
ossified national security system in the U.S. that, like a
gigantic, far flung network of termite nests, has been eroded as
much by termites at the top as by the impact of time and
weather. This fortification is far more fragile than it appears
and is a weak basis for achieving peace and security in the
region and on the Korean peninsula.
Thus, it is once again up to Koreans to determine their own
destiny and to set their own course as to how best to unify the
Korean nation without falling off the precipice into
catastrophic war in the short term while avoiding the trap of
nuclear proliferation in what will be a unified Korea in the
long term.
A war on the peninsula would wreak havoc on a similar scale to
the tsunamis and earthquake in South and Southeast Asia that
heralded the New Year. It is up to small and medium states
aligned with each other to supplant American nuclear imperialism
with a multilateral system that recognizes great power but
deflects its force in positive, cooperative directions. That is
the task for 2005.
Peter Hayes is director of the Nautilus Institute in San
Francisco (www.nautilus.org) and author of ``Pacific Powderkeg:
American Nuclear Dilemmas in Korea.¡¯¡¯
01-07-2005 19:47
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6 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Congressman Heads to North Korea
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday January 8, 2005 5:46 AM
BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. congressman traveling to North Korea
Saturday said he will discuss the communist regime's nuclear
program and human rights issues during talks with officials in
Pyongyang.
The United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia
have held three rounds of talks since 2003 to find a way of
ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. But there have
been no breakthroughs and the nations have yet to set a date for
a new round of talks.
``I anticipate meeting with North Korean officials, discussing
about the nuclear program, hopefully their reintegration into the
international community,'' said Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat
on the House International Relations Committee.
Lantos made his comments in Beijing while waiting to board a
flight to the capital Pyongyang. He was traveling with his wife
and four aides.
``I am going to do my utmost to see if we can move the North
Korean relationship with our partners, Japan, South Korea, China
and Russia, closer to a constructive path,'' Lantos said.
The 76-year-old congressman was a sponsor of the North Korean
Human Rights Act enacted in October. The legislation allows
Washington to spend up to $24 million a year in humanitarian aid
for North Koreans - much of it for refugees who have fled their
country.
North Korea reacted angrily to the law, saying it caused
``slander and insult'' to Pyongyang and proved Washington's
intention to topple the communist nation.
Lantos is expected to leave Pyongyang Tuesday. His trip comes
days ahead of a separate bipartisan congressional delegation
organized by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. That group is to meet with
high-ranking government officials and visit schools, shopping
centers and other community areas in Pyongyang next week.
Weldon led a group of lawmakers to the country in May 2003.
Other members of the Weldon group include Reps. Solomon Ortiz,
D-Texas, Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Fred Upton, R-Mich., Roscoe
Bartlett, R-Md., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
7 WorldNetDaily: Bye-bye Bolton?
Posted: January 8, 2005
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Mohamed ElBaradei will serve a third term as director general of
the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Since abject failure appears to be a criterion for being awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, look for John Bolton –
currently undersecretary of state – to be the next recipient.
You see, Bolton has been "point man" in the Bush administration's
campaign to discredit and/or supersede ElBaradei and his pesky
IAEA nuke proliferation-prevention regime.
How pesky?
In President Bush's first State of the Union message, he
essentially accused North Korea, Iran and Iraq of having
clandestine nuke programs:
"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an
axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.
"I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not
stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of
America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to
threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."
But – at that time – North Korea, Iran and Iraq were signatories
to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. All three had their
"declared" nuclear facilities subject to IAEA periodic
inspection, and both Iraq and North Korea were subject to
additional stringent IAEA surveillance.
The IAEA nuke proliferation prevention regime applied to Iraq was
especially severe. The IAEA Action Team on Iraq had been granted
extraordinary authority by U.N. Security Council Resolution 687.
To wit:
a. Identifying Iraqi facilities capable of enriching or
extracting nuke-usable materials;
b. Assessing Iraqi industrial capabilities for constructing such
plants;
c. Identifying Iraqi plants capable of producing non-nuclear
components of nukes;
d. Searching for evidence – including analysis of ongoing
research and development activities – of an Iraqi nuke program.
[This extraordinary authority given by the Security Council to
the IAEA for Iraq then became the basis for developing the 1997
Model Additional Protocol to be added to all existing IAEA
Safeguards Agreements.]
As for North Korea, under the U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework of 1994,
all existing North Korean "nuclear" activities had been "frozen"
– under IAEA lock and seal – in return for a promise of free
nuclear power plants and an interim supply of free fuel-oil.
z If the IAEA had determined that a) Iraq was not in compliance
with Security Council resolutions or that b) North Korea was not
in compliance with the Agreed Framework or that c) Iran was not
in compliance with its Safeguards Agreement, it could have asked
the U.N. Security Council to impose "sanctions," which could –
under the U.N. Charter – include the use of military force.
However, the IAEA had made no such determination.
Obviously, if Bush was to impose regime change on Iraq, Iran and
North Korea on the pretext they had nukes, the IAEA nuke
proliferation-prevention regime had to be discredited or
superseded.
So, Bush announced his own National Strategy to Combat Weapons of
Mass Destruction in late 2002 and developed from it the
Proliferation Security Initiative of 2003, whose objective was to
create a web of international "counter-proliferation
partnerships" to prevent "proliferators" from "carrying out their
trade in WMD and missile-related technology."
According to Bolton, the PSI was necessary because "proliferators
and those facilitating the procurement of deadly capabilities are
circumventing existing laws, treaties and controls against WMD
proliferation." Unlike the existing U.N. nuke
proliferation-prevention regime, "PSI is not diverted by disputes
about candidacies for director general, agency budgets, agendas
for meetings and the like."
Bolton began implementing Bush's PSI almost nine months after
Bush had unilaterally abrogated the IAEA-monitored Agreed
Framework with North Korea and several months after Bush had
defied the U.N. Security Council by unilaterally invading and
occupying Iraq.
Bolton claimed the PSI was presaged by Security Council
Resolution 1540 of 2004, which reaffirmed the UNSC President's
Statement (S 23500) of Jan. 31, 1992.
Bolton to the contrary, that statement actually includes the
following reaffirmation of the NPT and the role of the IAEA in
preventing nuke proliferation:
"On nuclear proliferation, they [Council members] note the
importance of the decision of many countries to adhere to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and emphasize the integral role in the
implementation of that Treaty of fully effective IAEA safeguards,
as well as the importance of effective export controls. The
members of the Council will take appropriate measures in the case
of any violations notified to them by the IAEA."
Bolton has been demanding, publicly and privately, that ElBaradei
be replaced. Well, that's not going to happen. But stay tuned.
Maybe Bolton will be replaced … so as to be eligible for the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico.
[WorldNetDaily.com]
webmaster@worldnetdaily.com
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*****************************************************************
8 Boston Globe: Opinion Get serious about nuclear security
Boston Globe
January 9, 2005
LAST SUNDAY Lawrence J. Korb contributed a discussion of the
perils of nuclear weapons proliferation and the need to become
more effective in defeating it ("Bush failing at nuclear
security," op ed). In reading it I felt as if I were watching
Cassandra yet again prophesizing future perils but being ignored.
The inability to motivate the citizenry in a democracy to
protect their interests is tragic, and with nuclear weapons the
tragedy is most intense. History is full of examples where
technological changes transformed formerly dominant societies
into losers.
Our politicians claim that nuclear weapons proliferation is the
world's greatest problem, but our actions do not reflect this as
a reality. We should consider whether it is time to institute a
Pax Americana, using a combination of incentives and
punishments, where nuclear weapons are concerned. The time for
action is growing very short. For example, instead of punishing
new and potential nuclear weapons states we squander our
international influence and military resources in the Iraq
folly. Instead of making an example of nuclear scientist A.Q.
Khan and Pakistan for actively promoting the spread of nuclear
weapons, we humor them into helping us deal with the problems of
Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, which are serious, but less so than
nuclear weapons.
Should we continue as we have been going we may soon regret
missed opportunities. Once nuclear weapons start being set off
we may be astounded at our helplessness and peril. Should that
happen, the subsequent allocation of blame will be as useless as
it is likely to be vicious.
MICHAEL W. GOLAY
Cambridge
The writer is a professor of Nuclear Engineering at MIT. [ /]
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company. [ /] More News
*****************************************************************
9 Independent: Bechtel and Lockheed in frame as Labour plots nuclear sell-off
Editor's Choice
By Jason Nissé
09 January 2005
The Government is to enter detailed talks to sell British
Nuclear Group, the main operating subsidiary of BNFL, as part of
the first stage of a break-up of the troubled nuclear fuels
group.
It is understood to have contacted two US companies, Bechtel and
Lockheed Martin, which it thinks could take control of BNG, a
move that has angered potential bidders such as the project
management group Amec.
The sell-off process is being led by Richard Gillingwater, the
former merchant banker who was appointed as head of the
Government's Shareholder Executive 18 months ago. This body,
based in the Cabinet Office, has been given the task of
improving "the Government's performance as shareholder in
businesses such as Royal Mail, BNFL and the Royal Mint".
The Government formally gave up trying to privatise BNFL in
2003, and later unveiled plans to hive off all the liabilities
of the UK's nuclear legacy in a body called the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority. The NDA is due to assume control of
BNFL's troubled Sellafield plant and its unsuccessful Thorpe and
Mox spent-fuel reprocessing businesses from April, although the
process is being investigated by the European Commission after
allegations that it involves illegal state aid.
The new BNFL will be made up of four businesses - Westinghouse,
which owns nuclear reactors in the US; Spent Fuel Services,
which will operate the Thorpe and Mox plants for the NDA;
Nuclear Sciences & Technological Services, a consultancy; and
BNG.
This business, run by Lawrie Haynes, a former water and telecoms
executive, will be bidding for clean-up contracts from the NDA.
It also owns BNFL Inc, which has major contracts with US nuclear
facilities, and is claiming around $500m (£270m) compensation
from Washington over these deals.
Informal soundings about the sale are understood to have already
been made with Bechtel and Lockheed Martin, and detailed talks
could take place as early as this week. However, no deal is
expected to be announced until after the general election
expected in April or May.
If the Government sells the business to Bechtel, it will cause
the most almighty row. Bechtel has been advising the NDA on its
clean-up plans and is precluded from bidding for any clean-up
contracts for at least two years after the NDA is created.
However, buying BNG will mean it gets around this.
Bechtel, a private company based in San Francisco, is also known
for its opposition to unions. BNG has strong union
representation among the 3,000 staff at its operations.
Amec, which is also bidding for clean-up contracts, is
understood to be unhappy about not being approached by the
Government. "If they are serious about selling BNG, then we are
seriously interested in talking to them about it," a spokesman
said.
BNFL denied that it had been a party to any sell-off talks
concerning BNG. "We are not involved or aware of any such
discussions," it said.
©2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
10 [DU-WATCH] Israel's Secret Weapon
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 01:40:41 -0600 (CST)
This film is the story of the bomb, Vanunu and Israel's wall of silence.
http://207.44.245.159/article6558.htm
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11 asahi.com: IAEA chief urges 5-year nuke hold
By YUKIO AOKI, The Asahi Shimbun
VIENNA-Calling for a ``structural adjustment'' to nuclear
nonproliferation, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Wednesday proposed
a five-year moratorium on constructing uranium enrichment and
nuclear reprocessing facilities.
ElBaradei spoke in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun.
He said the proposal would be taken up during a review of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) at a May conference in New
York.
A comprehensive adjustment of the NPT has become more urgent with
recent revelations that a nuclear black market has brought
nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya, he said.
ElBaradei suggested a freeze on constructing new uranium
enrichment and nuclear reprocessing facilities would be one way
of placing ``some limitation on the right of every country to
develop a full (nuclear) fuel cycle.''
He said the moratorium could last for five years, or ``until we
have completed our work on how we can have an international
arrangement for the fuel cycle.''
He added, ``We have enough capacity in the world for enrichment
or reprocessing.''
ElBaradei did not discuss the effect of a moratorium on Japan's
push to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho,
Aomori Prefecture. Experiments with depleted uranium began at
Rokkasho in December.
He said the moratorium would likely only apply to countries that
do not have the capability for enrichment and reprocessing,
hinting Japan may be allowed to go ahead with the Rokkasho
project.
ElBaradei added that nations with nuclear weapons must convince
other nations to stop trying to develop nukes.
``We should not forget the commitment by the weapons states to
move toward nuclear disarmament,'' he said, referring to a pledge
made at the 2000 NPT review conference.(IHT/Asahi: January
7,2005)
Herald Tribune/Asahi
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 Watertown TAB &Press: Con Com: No playing field on former Army site
TownOnline.com -
By Dan Atkinson/ Staff Writer
Friday, January 7, 2005A Cambridge school has expressed interest
in building on the former GSA cleanup site on Greenough
Boulevard, but the Watertown Conservation Committee said the
land is unfit for construction, and should be returned to a
wetland.
Buckingham, Browne and Nichols, a private school with a
location right on the Cambridge-Watertown border, requested
information about the site on Dec. 8, according to Greg Watson,
the town planner. The school is interested in building an
athletic facility on the site, according to Conservation Agent
Bruce Roberts. The site is currently owned by the federal
government.
Officials from the school were not available for comment
due to a snow day.
The site was formerly used by the Army to stabilize scraps
of uranium, which led to soil and water contamination. The site
was declared free of harmful radiation levels in 2003, but the
Conservation Committee maintains the contamination present is
still too much for any construction to take place, according to
Chairwoman Marylouise McDermott.
"It's ridiculous; there's dangerous material located on
that property," McDermott said, citing concerns about lead
content. "There's no way it should be used for anything other
than what it was originally intended to be - a wetland."
Roberts said that although the chemical content of the site
was in dispute, the town and the federal government agree that
the site is too dangerous for development because of its water
content. The area used to be a pond that the Army then filled,
Roberts said, and the water level in the area is either at
surface level or a few inches below the ground.
"The only thing all parties involved in the site agree on
is that any kind of upland development is impossible," Roberts
said. "The entire area is a wetland."
But besides the issue of ground stability, Roberts agreed
that pollution was still an issue.
"Future development of the site is supposed to not contain
a playground," he said. "If there's no playground allowed,
what's in the nature of [a playground] that doesn't preclude the
development of all other things?"
The Conservation Committee must approve any developments
for the land, and McDermott said she had no intention of letting
an athletic facility be built.
"This venture is ludicrous; we'll fight it till the end,"
she said. "First because of the danger, but also because the
land must be returned [to wetland status]."
Dan Atkinson can be reached at datkinso@cnc.com.
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
*****************************************************************
13 Guardian Unlimited: Video of Secret Israel Nuclear Site Shown
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday January 7, 2005 9:01 PM
By PETER ENAV
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli television station broadcast a video
of Israel's top secret nuclear facility in the southern town of
Dimona on Friday, the first detailed video of the site ever
shown to the public.
The 14-minute video depicted a pastoral setting of
well-manicured lawns and palm trees, swaying gently in a light
desert breeze. The reactor dome loomed in the background,
flanked by a three-story building.
Previous footage of the site lasted only seconds and had been
limited to long-distance shots showing only the outline of the
reactor building. The Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona in the
Negev desert is one of the most sensitive sites in Israel, and
any photography is forbidden.
Shiloh Debeer, head of news at Channel 10 television, which
broadcast the video, would not say how it was obtained. However,
Israel's normally cautious military censor approved its release,
suggesting it was produced in cooperation with Israel's top
secret nuclear agency.
Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its
nuclear program, neither confirming nor denying that it has
nuclear weapons. It has said that the Dimona reactor is used
only for peaceful purposes.
In 1986 former technician Mordechai Vanunu gave information and
pictures of the Dimona facility to London's Sunday Times. On the
basis of his revelations, experts concluded that Israel has the
world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, consisting
of hundreds of warheads.
Vanunu was released last year after serving 18 years in prison
for treason and espionage.
The Channel 10 video offered no close-ups of the Dimona nuclear
reactor or interviews with officials about the facility. It
concentrated on wide-angle shots including buses bringing staff
to the site, well-ordered lines waiting to use a cash machine
and a leisurely soccer game nearby.
Repeated glimpses of a brilliantly landscaped garden underscored
the image of a laconic and pastoral setting.
Israel has been criticized by Egypt and other Middle Eastern
countries for failing to rid itself if its reported nuclear
arsenal.
In recent months it has stepped up a campaign to prevent Iran
from developing nuclear weapons, encouraging U.N. sanctions
against the country. Iran acknowledges it has a nuclear program,
but says it is peaceful, aimed at generating electricity.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
14 [du-list] Tsunamis and a Nuclear Threat
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:17:30 -0800
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/20895/
Tsunamis and a Nuclear Threat
By J. Sri Raman, TruthOut.org. Posted January 5, 2005.
The giant waves inundated part of Kalpakkam's nuclear plant, but
local officials continue to deny radioactive leaks.
Item ends..
The nuclear part of the combination ruled out a full report for for two
reasons. No one can easily dent the disaster-proof secrecy that surrounds
any nuclear plant. The second reason lies in the threat of radioactive
leaks. Camera crews cannot capture these as easily as images of corpses and
debris floating in turbulent waters.
There can be slower nuclear horrors than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For about
two decades environmentalists have talked of Kalpakkam as a disaster of
this less dramatic kind. The tsunamis may well have made the situation worse.
The incomplete and almost instantaneous post-tsunami official report
peremptorily ruled out any damage to the complex. Even more emphatically,
it denied any radioactive leak. The report, however, acknowledged the havoc
in the entire Kalpakkam area, which is home to a sizeable fishing community
that also houses employees of the nuclear complex. The day after the
disaster, at least 60 lives were reported lost in the employees' township
and some 250 in the rest of the area. The toll, unofficially much higher,
has continuted to mount.
No official concern was voiced over the complex, which comprises two
pressurized heavy water reactors and a test reactor, a reprocessing plant
and an under-construction prototype fast breeder reactor or PFBR. The
authorities claimed that, while one of the heavy water reactors had been
closed for "re-tubing" before the tsunamis, the other was shut down the
moment an inordinate amount of seawater was detected entering the
pump-house for the coolant unit. (The second reactor was re-started seven
days later.)
Not a word has been said about the reprocessing plant and its central waste
management facility. No reassurance has been forthcoming about the most
crucially radioactivity-linked components of the complex. India's nuclear
establishment is not known for innocent or accidental omissions in
statements of this kind.
The authorities could not have concealed the deaths of employees in the
Sunday disaster. The complex has lost scores of scientific and technical
personnel, ranging from a design engineer of the test reactor washed away
while praying in a church mass, to others carried away by monster waves
from within the about 500 houses destroyed in the sprawling township. What
of the humble woman worker who many say met her death inside the complex?
What of the two male workers, posted at the waste discharge point at the
seafront jetty, who are reported missing?
Doctors for Safe Environment, a forum of physicians asking these questions,
has been raising larger questions about Kalpakkam for years. V. Pugazhendhi
of the forum, who has carried out painstaking health research in the
Kalpakkam region, explains why radioactive leaks here do not belong to the
realm of fantasy.
According to a survey under his guidance, the incidence of multiple cancers
of blood and bone worked out to three per population of 25,000 in the age
group of 15 to 50 for seven months from May to October 2003 in the
Kalpakkam area. Set this against the normal figure of 1.7 per population of
100,000 in the same age group for a year, he suggests, and you see the
result of radioactive pollution.
R. Ramesh of the same forum points to yet another peril in the making. He
says that "land subsidence" in coastal areas should be expected as an
inevitable consequence of tsunamis - and underscores the fact that the fast
breeder reactor's site is just three to 5.6 meters above the sea level.
Objections to the construction of the fast breeder reactor have been raised
before. The opponents of the plan originally argued that the plan violated
the 1991 law against such environment-unfriendly constructions in the
terrain defined as the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ). The official reaction
was to amend the law to exempt nuclear plants from its purview. Kalpakkam
is only one of the many nuclear installations that endangers India's
coastal environment.
King Canute of England and Denmark, the legend says, could not stop the
waves. But the rulers of India can prevent tsunamis from wreaking nuclear
havoc.
Freelance journalist J. Sri Raman is the author of Flashpoint (Common
Courage Press, USA). He lives in a fishing village in Chennai, India.
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15 [NukeNet] Re: [NRC_CONCERNS] Exelon takes over pre-merger;
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:17:33 -0800
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
HI Dave,
Sure. a week is all I'll need to UNPLUG it. ;-)
Norm
On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:06:25 -0500, Dave Lochbaum
wrote:
>Hello Norm:
>In the 8 years I've been at UCS, Salem/Hope Creek have had high turnover
>at the CNO spot. There was a guy whose name escapes me now, followed by
>Leon Eliason, then Harry Kaiser, then Roy Anderson, then Chris Bakken,
>and now William Levis.
>At the Hope Creek public meeting next week, I'm going to check out all
>of the sign-up lists on the table in the back. Perhaps there's one to be
>CNO that we've overlooked in past meetings. Maybe you and I could each
>be Salem / Hope Creek CNO for a week like so many others on the planet
>have been. If so, I'll let you go first.
>Thanks,
>Dave
>
>
>>>>ncohen12@comcast.net 01/06/05 08:23PM >>>
>
>Investor News NYSE:PEG
>For further information, contact:
> Brian Smith, Director, Investor Relations Phone: 973-430-6564
> Sue Carson, Director, Financial Communications Phone: 973-430-6565
> Greg McLaughlin, Sr. Investor Relations Analyst Phone: 973-430-6568
> Jairo Chung, Sr. Investor Relations Analyst Phone: 973-430-6596
>January 6, 2005
>EXELON CORPORATION PREPARES TO PROVIDE
>OPERATING SERVICES FOR PSEG NUCLEAR PLANTS
>Bakken Offers to Step Aside as CNO of PSEG Nuclear
>Levis of Exelon Nuclear Slated to Take Leadership Role
>At Salem/Hope Creek Stations
>Frank Cassidy, president and chief operating officer of PSEG Power LLC,
>the parent company of
>PSEG Nuclear, today announced the first steps in the process of
>implementing a Nuclear Operating
>Services Contract the company signed on December 20, 2004 with Exelon
>Corporation. The contract
>calls for Exelon to provide management services for plant operations at
>PSEG’s Salem and Hope Creek
>Generating Stations in Lower Alloways Creek Township, NJ for a period of
>two years with a potential
>three-year renewal.
>Cassidy said the contract, effective January 17, calls for Exelon
>personnel to work full time in the
>PSEG nuclear organization and to implement the Exelon Nuclear Management
>Model. “That working
>model has proven to be highly successful across the entire Exelon nuclear
>fleet,†said Cassidy, “and we
>expect it will produce the same quality results here at our Salem/Hope
>Creek plants. Exelon is
>recognized as one of the premier nuclear operators in the world and is
>the
>single largest nuclear operator
>in the United States. The company has an outstanding track record of
>consistent, safe, reliable
>operation, and it will be bringing the same working formula used at its
>17
>nuclear units to our three units
>here in New Jersey.â€
>While the recently announced merger between PSEG and Exelon is expected
>to
>take 12-to-15
>months to receive the required regulatory approvals, the nuclear
>operating
>services contract will begin on
>January 17. It calls for Exelon to provide seasoned managers to begin
>working at Salem/Hope Creek
>immediately and for some PSEG Nuclear employees to transfer to Exelon
>nuclear sites.
>Cassidy said, “It is understandable that Exelon would want to have its
>people who are trained in
>its Nuclear Management Model as part of the operating team. As a
>long-time
>co-owner, Exelon is very
>familiar with our operation, our staff, and our decision-making. The
>transition should be as seamless as
>possible.â€
>Change in Leadership
>Cassidy also announced that A. Christopher Bakken III has decided to step
>aside as president of
>PSEG Nuclear and chief nuclear officer (CNO) also effective January 17.
>“Speaking personally, this is
>the most painful part of the transition,†said Cassidy. “Chris Bakken has
>been an anchor for this
>company during a very difficult period. He has exhibited what we all knew
>he could deliver: great
>integrity and good judgment under very challenging circumstances; an
>enviable ability to motivate and
>guide a workforce through a period of great change; and the capacity to
>build trust with organized labor,
>with regulatory authorities, and with public officials and community
>leaders throughout the region. He is
>a superb talent. While he has chosen to step aside, we will not lose his
>counsel and support. He will
>remain with PSEG Power to assist in the transition and will be working
>with me as senior vice president
> Power Transition.
>Bakken said, “This is a very common sense decision for me. Exelon has a
>proven track record
>of building successful organizations. Plainly put, it deserves the
>opportunity to provide its own leadership
>trained in the working model and to bring in the leadership team they
>feel
>can run their system.
>“I’m proud of what we’ve managed to accomplish at the site in the seven
>months I’ve been CNO.
>I feel I have helped stabilize the safety conscious work environment
>issues we faced. We’ve greatly
>improved labor management relations. We have invested over $70 million
> and some 330,000 hours of
>work to restore and upgrade many of the systems at the Hope Creek
>station.
>We’ve made significant
>progress on our corrective and elective maintenance backlogs and they are
>on track to be top quartile by
>the end of 2005.
>“PSEG and the people in this state and in this region deserve a
>first-rate
>nuclear operation: one
>that is unquestionably safe and one that is consistently rated among the
>top performers in the nation.
>Exelon has proven it can deliver on that promise and it will prove it
>again here in New Jersey.â€
>Cassidy announced that Bill Levis, currently vice president of
>Mid-Atlantic Operations for Exelon
>Nuclear, has been designated senior vice president and CNO for Salem/Hope
>Creek. Levis brings some
>21 years of experience in commercial nuclear operations and has most
>recently been responsible for
>executive oversight of the day-to-day operations of Limerick, Peach
>Bottom, TMI-1 and Oyster Creek
>Stations. His broad experience includes start-up, engineering,
>operations,
>performance recovery, and
>sustaining excellence. In each of his positions over the years he has
>made
>significant overall operating
>improvements in the units he has managed which have resulted in their
>performing at the highest levels
>in their history.
>Cassidy said the new team will manage daily operations but that PSEG
>Power
>will remain the
>license holder and retain responsibility for management oversight until
>the close of the merger and have
>full authority with respect to marketing its share of the output from the
>facilities. Accordingly, Levis will
>report directly to Cassidy.
>Christopher M. Crane, senior vice president of Exelon Corporation and
>president and chief
>nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear will provide ongoing technical support
>to Levis and will make certain
>that the broadly diverse and highly respected skills of the entire Exelon
>nuclear organization will be made
>available to Levis and to PSEG. Crane has worked in the nuclear industry
>for some 25 years and was a
>major part of the ComEd nuclear program recovery. He leads a fleet of 10
>nuclear stations in the United
>States with 17 reactors having about 17,000 MWs of capacity. It is the
>third largest fleet in the world and
>the largest in the country.
># # #
>This filing contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
>Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
>1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about
>the benefits of the business combination
>transaction involving Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated and
>Exelon Corporation, including future
>financial and operating results, the combined company’s plans,
>objectives,
>expectations and intentions and other
>statements that are not historical or current facts. Such statements are
>based upon the current beliefs and
>expectations of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated’s and Exelon
>Corporation’s management, are subject
>to significant risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from
>actual future experience involving any one or
>more of such matters. Actual results may differ from those set forth in
>the forward-looking statements. The
>following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ
>from
>those set forth in the forward-looking
>statements: the timing of the contemplated merger and the impact of any
>conditions imposed by regulators in
>connection with their approval thereof; the failure of Public Service
>Enterprise Group Incorporated and Exelon
>Corporation stockholders to make the requisite approvals for the
>transaction; the risk that the businesses will not be
>integrated successfully; failure to quickly realize cost-savings from the
>transaction as a result of technical, logistical,
>competitive and other factors; the effects of weather; the performance of
>generating units and transmission
>systems; the availability and prices for oil, gas, coal, nuclear fuel,
>capacity and electricity; changes in the markets
>for electricity and other energy-related commodities; changes in the
>number of participants and the risk profile of
>such participants in the energy marketing and trading business; the
>effectiveness of our risk management and
>internal controls systems; the effects of regulatory decisions and
>changes
>in law; changes in competition in the
>markets we serve; the ability to recover regulatory assets and other
>potential stranded costs; the outcomes of
>litigation and regulatory proceedings or inquiries; the timing and
>success
>of efforts to develop domestic and
>international power projects; conditions of the capital markets and
>equity
>markets; advances in technology;
>changes in accounting standards; changes in interest rates and in
>financial and foreign currency markets generally;
>the economic and political climate and growth in the areas in which we
>conduct our activities; and changes in
>corporate strategies. While we believe that our forecasts and assumptions
>are reasonable, we caution that actual
>results may differ materially. We intend the forward-looking statements
>to
>speak only as of the time first made and
>we do not undertake to update or revise them as more information becomes
>available. Additional factors that could
>cause Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated’s and Exelon
>Corporation’s results to differ materially from
>those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the
>2003
>Annual Reports on Form 10-K, and
>Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September
>30, 2004, and the current reports on
>Form 8-K filed on December 21, 2004, and December 20, 2004, of Public
>Service Enterprise Group Incorporated
>and Exelon Corporation, as such reports may have been amended, each filed
>with the Securities and Exchange
>Commission and available at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s
>website, www.sec.gov.
>Additional Information
>This communication is not a solicitation of a proxy from any security
>holder of Public Service Enterprise Group
>Incorporated or Exelon Corporation. Exelon Corporation intends to file
>with the Securities and Exchange
>Commission a registration statement that will include a joint proxy
>statement/prospectus and other relevant
>documents to be mailed by Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated
>and
>Exelon Corporation to their
>respective security holders in connection with the proposed merger of
>Public Service Enterprise Group
>Incorporated and Exelon Corporation. WE URGE INVESTORS AND SECURITY
>HOLDERS TO READ THE
>JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS WHEN
>THEY
>BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT
>PUBLIC
>SERVICE ENTERPRISE GROUP INCORPORATED, EXELON CORPORATION AND THE
>PROPOSED
>MERGER. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain these
>materials (when they are available) and other
>documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission free of
>charge
>at the Securities and Exchange
>Commission’s website, www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the joint proxy
>statement/prospectus (when it becomes
>available) may be obtained free of charge from Public Service Enterprise
>Group Incorporated, Investor Relations,
>80 Park Plaza, P.O. Box 1171, Newark, New Jersey 07101-1171, or from
>Exelon Corporation, Investor Relations,
>10 South Dearborn Street, P.O. Box 805398, Chicago, Illinois 60680-5398.
>Participants in Solicitation
>Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated, Exelon Corporation, their
>respective directors and executive officers
>and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of
>proxies in respect of the proposed
>transaction. Information regarding Public Service Enterprise Group
>Incorporated’s directors and executive officers
>is available in its proxy statement filed with the Securities and
>Exchange
>Commission by Public Service Enterprise
>Group Incorporated on March 10, 2004, and information regarding Exelon
>Corporation’s directors and executive
>officers is available in its proxy statement filed with the Securities
>and
>Exchange Commission by Exelon
>Corporation on March 12, 2004. OTHER INFORMATION REGARDING THE
>PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROXY
>SOLICITATION AND A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR DIRECT AND INDIRECT INTERESTS, BY
>SECURITY
>HOLDINGS OR OTHERWISE, WILL BE CONTAINED IN THE JOINT PROXY
>STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND
>OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS TO BE FILED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
>COMMISSION
>WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE.
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice
UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr Ave, Linwood
NJ 08221; 609-601-8583; cell 609-742-0982
ncohen12@comcast.net; http://www.unplugsalem.org
http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org
"Life is a jelly donut. You don't really know what
its about until you bite into it. Then, just when you decide
its good, you drop a big glob of jelly on your best t-shirt."
Janet Evanovich
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16 SitNews: Another Hostage Situation (Diablo Canyon editorial)
by Bob Ciminel
January 08, 2005
California utility, Pacific Electric and Gas Company (PG&E),
owns and operates the 2,100-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear power
plant located on the coast near San Luis Obispo, an area often
referred to as the "Middle Kingdom," with apologies to J.R.R.
Tolkien. As part of the plant's owner-controlled area, that area
where the owner can control access to the property, PG&E owns
12,000 acres, which includes 11 miles of pristine coastline.
None of this coastline is accessible to the public, and for good
reason.
Before the events of September 11, 2001, the purpose of the
owner-controlled area was to provide a buffer zone that could
reasonably ensure an uninhabited and unoccupied "no-man's-land"
in the event of an emergency at the power plant. After 9/11,
although the need to protect the public remained in effect,
security issues also required an effective means of controlling
the area around the plant.
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant
Photo courtesy Pacific Gas & Electric Company
With the government's inability to open the Yucca Mountain
Project underground spent fuel repository in Nevada because of
more than 20 years of stalling tactics by environmental groups,
antinuclear groups, and Nevada state and federal agencies, our
nation's nuclear power plants are building interim spent fuel
storage facilities at the plant sites. Here, the spent fuel is
stored in high-integrity casks until the Federal government
takes ownership and the fuel transferred to Yucca Mountain, as
mandated by Congress in the Eighties. As with anything to do
with nuclear power, the same local, state, and federal agencies
that licensed the power plant must also review, approve and
license the interim storage facilities.
In the case of Diablo Canyon, one of the state agencies involved
is the California Coastal Commission (CCC). On December 8, 2004,
the CCC gave unanimous approval to allow Diablo Canyon to begin
construction of an interim storage facility, with one condition
- PG&E must grant the public access to three miles of coastline
on the plant site. This was not an original stipulation by the
CCC. The Commission added the stipulation after the San Luis
Obispo Mothers for Peace, the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra
Club, and several individuals, all of whom are staunch opponents
of the Diablo Canyon power plant, appealed the County Planning
Commission's issuance of a coastal development permit to the
station.
The opponents of Diablo Canyon are not interested in opening up
the site to public access for the good of the citizens. Because
they understand the legalities associated with operating a
nuclear power plant, they recognize that allowing the public
into the owner-controlled area, which effectively reduces its
size. This will require Diablo Canyon to reassess its safety and
security plans, and in all probability lead to changes in
radiation dose projections, evacuation plans, security, normal
operating dose predictions, and environmental monitoring
programs, all of which require public meetings and more
opportunities to intervene and raise more questions.
As a disinterested reader, you are probably asking yourself, "So
what? Raising more questions probably will make the plant
safer." The "so what" issue is not about safety, it is about
economics. Without an interim spent fuel storage facility,
Diablo Canyon will eventually be unable to refuel its twin
reactors and the plant will shut down. The California electrical
grid, of which the "Middle Kingdom" is a minor customer compared
to the population centers in northern and southern California,
will lose over 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity. The
Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants now provide over 15%
of the electricity generated within the state's borders. Losing
7.5% of that capacity will make the state even more dependent on
outside sources, which currently provide 22% of the state's
electrical generation capacity. Electricity prices will rise,
but a few brave souls will be able to enjoy the smell of
decaying kelp, ride surfboards in the huge Pacific swells that
often overwhelm the Diablo Canyon intake pump house, dip their
toes in frigid water, and leave their trash and garbage on three
miles of what was once a pristine coastline.
Bob Ciminel ©2001 - 2005
Sitnews: Ketchikan, Alaska
*****************************************************************
17 PTI: 70 Indian nuke engineers pass out from Russian training centre
Jan 8, 2005 04:34:00 PM
Moscow, Jan 8 (PTI) Seventy Indian nuclear engineers have
successfully passed out of a Russian training centre ahead of
their posting in Kudankulam atomic power station in Tamil Nadu.
After the training at Russian Nuclear Power Agency's
"RosEnergoAtom" centre in Novo-Voronezh in southern Russia, the
engineers are to undergo a six-week practical training at Kalinin
nuclear power plant in Tver region north of Moscow, where a
VVER-1000 nuclear reactor was recently commissioned.
Kudankulam power plant, being constructed with Moscow's
assistance, is to have two similar light-water nuclear power
units. First among them with 1000 mega watt capacity is to be
commissioned in 2007.
"These are highly qualified engineers, all of them with higher
education, which they received from various Indian universities,"
chief of the training centre, Alexander Ivanchenko, was quoted as
saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
In all 150 Indian specialists are to be trained in Russia to work
as operators and maintenance engineers at Kudankulam power plant
which would have 2000 megawatt capacity after completion in 2008.
The centre in Novo-Voronezh has the most modern training
facilities including simulators allowing the future nuclear
reactor operators to gain experience in managing crisis
situations similar to the Chernobyl disaster. PTI
© Copyright PTI 2003-2004
*****************************************************************
18 Reuters: Russian reactors favoured for Bulgarian nuke plant
Fri Jan 7, 2005 10:38 AM ET
By Tsvetelia Ilieva
SOFIA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Bulgaria should build a new 2,000
megawatt nuclear power plant with Russian-designed reactors and
consolidate all its nuclear assets in one company, the
government's adviser on the project said on Friday.
The Balkan country is building the plant to maintain its
position as the leading power exporter in southeast Europe as it
shuts down two ageing Soviet-made nuclear reactors before joining
the EU in 2007. "Our analysis is based on the capital cost of
different options ... and it shows that two options are superior
to others," said Djurica Tankosic, a vice president of UK-based
consultants Parsons, during a public discussion of the project.
He said Bulgaria should either build two new 1,000-megawatt
VVR-B466 reactors, or build one new one and modernise a
1,000-megawatt VVR-B320 unit that it bought during a previous
attempt to build the plant that stalled last decade.
All of the proposed reactors are Russian designed, giving an
advantage to two of three groups vying to build the plant that
have experience with that type of equipment.
In one of them, France's Framatome has teamed up with Russia's
Atomstroiexport and Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile,
Research) .
The second comprises Czech engineering firm Skoda Praha
(SKOD.PR: Quote, Profile, Research) , which is working with
Citibank (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Italy's Unicredito
(CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and Czech Komercni Banka
(BKOMsp.PR: Quote, Profile, Research) .
The third consortium is led by Canada's Atomic Energy Canada
Ltd. and also groups Italy's Ansaldo Nuclear (ANSD.UL: Quote,
Profile, Research) , U.S. Bechtel, and Japan's Hitachi Corp.
(1970.T: Quote, Profile, Research) .
Atomic Energy Canada has complained that Bulgaria is biased
against their offering of CANDU-type reactors, which the adviser
has deemed less suitable. The consortium has said it may pull out
of the contest.
Tankosic said the two preferred options -- priced at 2.68
billion and 2.73 billion euros, respectively -- showed an
insignificant cost difference, while the financial advisor on the
project, Deloitte &Touche, said if either option was chosen, the
deal's total price tag would be around 3.5 billion euros.
Bulgaria has already sunk $1.0 billion into the site -- located
some 250 kilometres northeast of Sofia at the Danube River town
of Belene -- for infrastructure and the uninstalled VVR-B320
unit, but the project bogged down due to financial problems in
1990.
Belene is expected to come on line in around 2011.
CONSOLIDATION
Former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg's centrist government is now
expected to launch tenders and choose an option and builders for
the plant by June.
The advisers also suggested Bulgaria consolidate its nuclear
assets to be able to provide more solid collateral and secure
better financial conditions for the deal.
Energy Minister Milko Kovachev has said the two 1,000 megawatt
units at Bulgaria's existing nuclear power plant at Kozloduy
will be transferred to a new company that also will build and
operate the Belene plant.
He has said the state will seek investors to take part in
financing the project, but will still keep at least a 51 percent
stake in the generator.
*****************************************************************
19 YDR: What’s TMI worth?
York Daily Record
[ydr.com]
Friday, January 7, 2005
Exelon’s planned merger with PSE has a human face. Our experi
ence at Three Mile Island demonstrates the raw underbelly of
“synergies of scale,” and also the complexities asso ciated with
“deregulation math.”
Exelon purchased TMI-1 for $99 mil lion when the facility had a
book value of $512 million. Jobs soon started to leave the
community.
Staffing levels at TMI have plum meted from 804 in 1998 to 550 in
2003. I presented these staffing figures to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission on April 9, 2003. The NRC told me they
didn’t know how many people worked at the plant, but assured the
community it didn’t matter. The NRC also claimed they were
precluded from considering economic impact when evaluating a re
actor’s operations.
The following year, on April 30, 2004, a different group of NRC
officials still had no idea how many people worked at TMI. Those
in attendance were baffled when the NRC announced at the same
meeting it was increasing oversight at TMI since, “Personnel
didn’t consistently recognize degraded conditions. And,
therefore, did not identify degraded conditions in a timely
manner.”
The NRC does not know how much ||ýPage=006 Column=001
OK,0034.01þ|| TMI is worth, although it approves plant sales.
Exelon is disputing Dau phin County’s $64.9 million assessment of
TMI, alleging the plant is only worth $5 million. Yet last
September Exelon spent $18 million to replace the reactor vessel
head at TMI. Nobody at Exelon or the NRC has been able to explain
how the entire plant is worth $13 mil lion less than a
replacement part.
ERIC EPSTEIN, CHAIRMAN THREE MILE ISLAND INC. HARRISBURG
Copyright © York Daily Record 2005 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
20 The Day: NRC To Seek Comment On Environmental Assessment
TheDay.com, New London, CT
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Published on 1/8/2005
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will seek public comment
Tuesday on its environmental assessment of plans by the owner of
Millstone Power Station to extend the life of two reactors.
The NRC will present its findings and accept public comment at
1:30 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut has asked the NRC to extend
licenses for Millstone 2 and 3 through 2035 and 2045,
respectively.
In its evaluation of Dominion's application, the NRC largely
found that the adverse effects of renewing two reactor licenses
are negligible or can be lessened through steps the company is
already taking.
The federal agency also reported that the number of female
winter flounder near Millstone Power Station in Niantic Bay has
reached critically low levels. NRC experts could not, however,
definitively link that decline exclusively or even primarily to
fish being caught in reactor equipment.
Patricia Daddona
1998-2005 The Day Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
21 APP.COM: Risk to humans from nuclear-plant radiation is well documented
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/09/05
The "baby teeth" project has demonstrated that when seven
nuclear power plants closed, the health status of children
improved in the areas surrounding the plants.
It is irresponsible that AmerGen Energy Co., owner of the
Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, made misleading
statements about nuclear radiation in a recent mass mailing sent
to residents.
What is quoted from the National Academy of Sciences is true:
We do have a lot of information and that information,
accumulated over decades, points to damage caused by nuclear
radiation.
It is true as well that there are natural sources of radiation
from the earth and outer space. What is important is the
difference between "natural" radiation and that generated by
nuclear power plants. Every plant, in the course of operation,
continually gives off some 200-plus radioactive elements. Some
of these have short half-lives, some long; they emit beta, gamma
and alpha radiation of varying energies. They are taken up by
living plants, animals and humans, and concentrate in various
organs in the body.
For example, the radioactive forms of iodine (I-129 and I-131)
concentrate in the thyroid gland. Both congenital hypothyroidism
and thyroid cancer have increased in the population in proximity
to nuclear power plants.
Radioactive strontium (Sr-90) acts like calcium and
concentrates in the bones and teeth of the unborn and young
children. Sr-90 never existed before the advent of the nuclear
industry. Sr-90 is a powerful beta emitter, radiating the tissue
in which it embedded. It decays to yttrium (Y90), which gives
off a second beta particle, increasing the likelihood of damage
to cellular structures and DNA. Increasing levels of Sr-90 are
linked to increased fetal losses, neonatal deaths and cancer in
children as well as adults living in proximity to nuclear power
plants.
The AmerGen letter states: "Adverse health effects from low
doses of radiation from a nuclear power plant .'.'. cannot be
distinguished from health effects from other sources of
low-level radiation." That is why the research by the Radiation
and Public Health Project, collecting baby teeth and measuring
levels of Sr-90, has been so important. That research has proved
that Sr-90 is highest in proximity to nuclear plants, and has
linked it to increasing incidence of cancers and other adverse
health effects. Furthermore, the project has demonstrated that
when seven nuclear power plants closed, the health status of
children improved in the areas surrounding all seven plants.
Other radioactive elements interchange with nonradioactive
elements in animals and plants, and result in damage. Carbon-14,
with a half-life of some 5,000 years, accumulates in any portion
of the body or plant as it displaces a nonradioactive carbon
atom.
The European Committee on Radiation Risk has clearly
demonstrated the adverse health effects of low-level nuclear
radiation risk. High levels of nuclear radiation may kill a
cell. Low levels damage the machinery of the cell, allowing for
altered repair and the development of genetic and carcinogenic
alterations.
Hundreds of research articles have been published, linking
radioactive elements to damage to humans, animals and plants.
There are safer, less costly ways to generate electricity.
These include solar, wind, natural gas and hydroelectric power.
And lastly, conservation is important.
Some 15 to 20 percent of U.S. electrical power comes from
nuclear plants. It is very likely that if the public understood
the contribution of nuclear power to cancer in children and
adults, and fetal and neonatal loss, most citizens would be more
than willing to cut their use of electrical power by 20 percent
to prevent the illnesses and losses that so many are bearing.
Dr. Janette D. Sherman
INTERNAL MEDICINE AND TOXICOLOGY
ALEXANDRIA, VA.
*****************************************************************
22 APP.COM: Feds deny N.J. aid to check radiation
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Published in the Asbury Park Press
1/09/05
By NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU
LACEY -- Radiation monitors that would sound alarms in Trenton
if readings around the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant climbed
to unhealthy levels remain broken and beyond repair after the
federal government denied the state funding to replace them.
Now officials are looking for other ways to buy new monitors for
the real-time system, which is required under the state Radiation
Accident Response Act, and would help determine the extent of an
accidental radiological release without sending emergency
response personnel into contaminated areas to assess the damage
with hand-held devices.
State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner
Bradley M. Campbell during an interview Friday continued to tout
the system as one of the most sophisticated in the nation among
state governments, but the funding proposal his agency submitted
to the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the system's
integrity has declined.
It said the "existing system is 15 years old and both hardware
and software components of it are no longer functional and no
longer repairable."
"Oh, that's great," Tinton Falls retiree Doris Piserchia said
sarcastically. "They should close that plant and bury it."
But Lacey resident Charlie Yuhl, who worked on Navy ships that
repaired nuclear submarines, said he trusts the people running
the plant to monitor radiation levels.
"It's going to be as safe as any man-made thing can be," said
Yuhl, of the plant.
State officials asked for $100,000 to replace 10 of the
surveillance system's 19 monitors located near population
centers, schools and parks within 2.5 miles of the plant -- home
of the county's oldest commercial reactor -- but the program they
applied through excluded radiation protection projects.
The funding proposal called the project "critical" because the
reactor could become the nation's first to operate longer than 40
years. Plant owner AmerGen needs a 20-year license renewal from
federal regulators to continue operation past 2009. It plans to
apply for the extension in July.
Degradation from old age and inclement weather has rendered
computer hardware and batteries in some monitors unreliable,
Campbell said.
Old parts have resulted in shoddy performance by one-fifth of
the monitors around Oyster Creek and three other reactors in
Salem County, he said.
Nevertheless, government leaders in other states continue to
hold New Jersey's monitoring program in high regard, according
to Campbell and others familiar with tracking radiation doses
around reactors.
"At the moment, it is functioning well," he said. "We believe
that it is a model system."
Pennsylvania, for example, lacks a real-time monitoring system,
according to that state's Department of Environmental
Protection. Instead, on a weekly basis, state personnel collect
and analyze air filters around each of its nine operating
reactors on five sites.
New Jersey's monitors in the Continuous Radiological
Environmental Surveillance and Telemetry Network, or CREST,
provide state officials with up-to-the-minute data -- gamma
radiation levels, wind speed and wind direction -- that would
enable emergency management officials to react intelligently
during a radiological release.
The network's monitors, $10,000 devices located on telephone
poles and protected by barbed-wire fences, transmit the
information over dedicated telephone lines to a computer in
Trenton.
State officials installed one monitor in each compass sector to
reduce the chance of having a release go undetected. They later
put some around casks holding spent nuclear fuel on plant
property. Other monitors surround Salem 1, Salem 2 and Hope
Creek reactors on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek.
Gamma radiation, a product of nuclear fission, can kill in high
doses. It does so by penetrating living cells, a result that has
been honed by oncologists to eliminate cancers.
State radiation monitoring programs operate independently of
similar systems, on-site and off, run by plant owners and
overseen by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Officials in charge of monitoring radiation levels at Oyster
Creek said they are confident in the plant's surveillance
system. Nearby residents, they said, should feel safe, despite
the decline in the state's system.
Several systems within plant boundaries would immediately
detect dangerous radiation levels and alert control room staff
to any unusual readings, according to plant officials. Plant
workers, they said, would then quickly find the problem's source
and solve it.
A monitor placed atop the plant's iconic stack would detect
radiation within the ventilation system. Radiation personnel
also watch monitors that keep track of the sewers and the salt
water pumped through the reactor to cool the steam used to
generate power.
"Any pathway that would lead to the environment, you will find
a monitor there," said Lynn Newtown, plant manager of chemistry,
environment and radioactive waste.
News of the problem with the state's system should bolster
advocacy groups and government officials that want the plant
closed when its license expires in 2009, said Brick Mayor Joseph
C. Scarpelli, a license renewal opponent. Its condition, he
said, shows how degradation can increase the possibility of an
accident when running and monitoring an aged reactor.
"It makes me feel even more strongly that this plant should not
stay open past 2009," he said.
Residents around Oyster Creek should form their own radiation
monitoring group, said Eric Epstein, coordinator of the EFMR
Monitoring Group, which tracks radiation levels several times
daily around three reactors at the Three Mile Island and Peach
Bottom plants near Harrisburg, Pa.
"Even though the state is there, I think you can supplement
what the state does," he said. "It doesn't hurt to have another
set of eyes."
Volunteers at 90 locations -- in-cluding homes, churches and
union halls -- check and record data five times daily using
hand-held monitors. EFMR members are trained by a college
professor on how to use the monitors before taking readings,
said Epstein, 45.
Dave Giombetti, a license renewal supporter who's raised a
family in Lacey and owns a marina there, said he would like to
see fewer groups critical of Oyster Creek.
"Personally, I think they're out of control, all these groups,"
he said.
Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com
Go Back | Subscribe to the Asbury Park Press
*****************************************************************
23 [NYTr] The High Cost of "Cheap" - US Nuke Sub Runs Aground
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 15:30:29 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[The increasingly overtaxed US military now appears to be unable to use
(or maintain properly) Navy depth sounders. Here's a real rookie's
mistake. When you skimp on education and training, this is the
result. That this could happen on a sonar-loaded US Navy nuclear
sub is a scandal.-NY Transfer]
Reuters via Yahoo - Jan 8, 2005
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=3&u=/nm/20050108/wl_nm/arms_guam_submarine_dc
U.S. Nuclear Submarine Runs Aground Off Guam
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. nuclear submarine ran aground 350 miles
off the Pacific Ocean territory of Guam, injuring about 20 crew members,
one of them critically, the Navy said on Saturday.
There was no damage to the nuclear reactor that powers the USS San
Francisco in the accident that occurred at noon on Saturday Guam time (9
p.m. EST on Friday), according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The ship's hull was also intact, said Petty Officer Alyssa Batarla.
She said the Los Angeles-class submarine was able to resurface and head
back to its base in Guam, where it was scheduled to arrive on Monday.
The submarine was carrying 137 crew members and was en route to a
routine port visit in Brisbane, Australia, when it ran aground. The
accident is under investigation.
*
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24 CENSORED(#4) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 21:00:12 -0600 (CST)
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html
(#4) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
URANIUM MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, January 2003
Title: UMRCs Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation
Enduring Freedom and Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision
Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects
Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team
AWAKENED WOMAN, January 2004
Title: Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan
Author: Stephanie Hiller
DISSIDENT VOICE, March 2004
Title: There Are No WordsRadiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs
Author: Bob Nichols
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, April 5,2004
Title: Poisoned?
Author: Juan Gonzalez
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
Title: International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The
People vs. George Bush
Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.
Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie
Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops
have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted
and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States use
of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries
are bound to feel the effects as well.
In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC)
studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of
the samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to
2000% higher than normal levels. The UMRC research team studied six
sites, two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians
were tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the
United States and its allies.
NDU is more radioactive than depleted uranium (DU), which itself
is charged with causing many cancers and severe birth defects in
the Iraqi populationespecially childrenover the past ten years.
Four million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in
2003 alone. Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning
armed forces. Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving
in Iraq were tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted
at the request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the
cost of $1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found
that four of the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU,
likely caused by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired
by U.S. troops. Several of the men had traces of another uranium
isotope, U-236, that are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.
Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets,
tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of radioactive
uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of weapons, on
detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when inhaled, goes
into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion
years. Basically, its a permanently available contaminant, distributed
in the environment, where dust storms or any water nearby can
disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic particles that
slice through DNA.
UMRCs Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute
symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of
internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in
newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and
smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell,
followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory
tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles
and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in
the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull,
lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping
difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference held October 2003 in Hamburg,
Germany, independent scientists from around the world testified to
a huge increase in birth deformities and cancers wherever NDU and
DU had been used. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the
Ryukyus University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used
in Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki
bombs. The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000
Nagasaki bombs.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference, a demonstration by British-trained
oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali showed photographs of the kinds of birth
deformities and tumors he had observed at the Saddam Teaching
Hospital in Basra just before the 2003 war. Cancer rates had increased
dramatically over the previous fifteen years. In 1989 there were
11 abnormalities per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per
100,000an increase of over a thousand percent. In 1989 34 people
died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The 2003 war
has increased these figures exponentially.
At a meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan
held December 2003 in Tokyo, the U.S. was indicted for multiple war
crimes in Afghanistan, among them the use of DU. Leuren Moret,
President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental
Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, testified that because
radioactive contaminants from uranium weapons travel through air,
water, and food sources, the effects of U.S. deployment in Afghanistan
will be felt in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China and India. Countries
affected by the use of uranium weapons in Iraq include Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.
UPDATE BY BOB NICHOLS: (Oklahoma City) Throughout the world people
are familiar with the "smoking gun" solution so prized by murder
mystery writers. Many think that once the smoking gun in any mystery
is discovered, it is time for the "bad guys" to give up. Wish it
were only so.
The smoking guns are Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin
Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone from New York's 442nd Guard Unitthey
are the first confirmed cases of inhaled uranium oxide exposure
from the current Iraq conflict. Dr. Asaf Durokovic, professor of
Nuclear Medicine at the Uranium Medical Research Centre
http://www.umrc.net/ conducted the diagnostic tests. The story was
released April 3, 2004 in the New York Daily News. There is no
treatment and there is no cure.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html
Leuren Moret reports, "In my research on depleted uranium during
the past 5 years, the most disturbing information concerns the
impact on the unborn children and future generations for both
soldiers serving in the depleted uranium wars, and for the civilians
who must live in the permanently radioactive contaminated regions.
Today, more than 240,000 Gulf War veterans are on permanent medical
disability and more than 11,000 are dead. They have been denied
testing, medical care, and compensation for depleted uranium exposure
and related illnesses since 1991."
Moret continues "Even worse, they brought it home in their bodies.
In some families, the children born before the Gulf War are the
only healthy members. Wives and female partners of Gulf War veterans
have reported a condition known as burning semen syndrome, and are
now internally contaminated from depleted uranium carried in the
semen of exposed veterans. Many are reporting reproductive illnesses
such as endometriosis. In a U.S. government study, conducted by the
Department of Veterans Affairs on post-Gulf War babies, 67% were
found to have serious birth defects or serious illnesses. They were
born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, had missing organs, missing
legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations."
"LIFE Photoessay:" http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html
Moret concludes, "In Iraq it is even worse where babies are born
without brains, organs are outside the body, or women give birth
to pieces of flesh. In babies born in Iraq in 2002, the incidence
of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births)
than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births. Takashi
MORIZUMI's photos: in http://www.savewarchildren.org/ record the
tragedy in Iraq."
For more information on the American President's continuing campaign
of contaminating the land, check the World Uranium Weapons Conference,
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/ , Check the Uranium Medical
Research Center and Dr. Asaf Durakovic at http://www.umrc.net/ ,
and for updates on the related Nuclear Power Plants see Russell
Hoffman's website at: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm
*****************************************************************
25 US nuclear sub runs aground
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 22:02:46 -0600 (CST)
http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2005/01/10/57772.html
US nuclear sub ran aground, one dead
00:52 2005-01-10
A US sailor died of injuries sustained when a US
nuclear submarine ran aground in the Pacific the day
before, a spokeswoman for the US Pacific fleet told
AFP.
Twenty-three other crew members were being treated
"for a range of injuries including broken bones,
lacerations, bruises and a back injury," Petty Officer
Alyssa Batarla said Sunday.
The vessel's nuclear plant was not damaged in the
accident, which happened while the USS San Francisco
was conducting underwater operations Saturday 560
kilometers (350 miles) south of its base at Guam,
wrote the Turkish Press.
Guam, a territory of the US, is one of the American
military's most important bases in the Pacific.
The Los Angeles-class submarines are 109.73m (360 ft)
long and are classed as attack vessels, designed to
counter enemy submarines or surface vessels. They are
equipped with a single nuclear reactor.
The vessels carry a crew of 137, as BBC News reported.
+++++
http://www.kuam.com/news/12137.aspx
Injured sailor aboard U.S.S. San Francisco dies
by Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Number of injured onboard nuclear submarine now 23
Friends and relatives are mourning the death of a Navy
sailor aboard the U.S.S. San Francisco, after the
nuclear submarine ran aground during a submerged
operation. The sailor, whose name is being withheld
pending a mandatory 24-hour period, died from critical
injuries he sustained when the submarine ran aground
350 miles south of Guam Saturday afternoon.
"Our sincerest condolences and prayers go out to the
family and friends of the sailor," stated in a media
release from the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces
Marianas.
The number of injuries from the incident has gone up
from 20 on Saturday to 23 on Sunday. Injuries range
from broken bones, laceration bruises, and a back
injury. Currently medical personnel, including a
doctor, remain on board and are treating the injured
crew.
The submarine is continuing its way toward Guam. It is
being escorted by the Coast Guard cutter Galveston
Island and U.S.N.S. GySgt. Fred W. Stockham. It is
expected to return to its homeport on Guam Monday
afternoon (Guam time). The U.S.N.S. Kiska and military
aircraft are also continuing to provide assistance as
required.
The U.S.S. San Francisco was homeported in Guam 23
months ago. It is staffed by a crew of 137 sailors.
The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine is one of
the three currently homeported on Guam as part of the
U.S. Naval Forces Marianas Submarine Squadron 15. The
U.S.S. Corpus Christi was homeported on Guam in
October of 2002, while the U.S.S. Houston arrived in
Guam in December of last year.
The U.S.S. San Francisco is designed to seek and
destroy enemy submarines and surface ships. Its other
missions range from intelligence collection and
Special Forces delivery, and to strike warfare using
Tomahawk cruise missiles. According to the Navy there
were no reports of damage to the reactor plant, which
is operating normally."
According to COMNAVMAR Public Affairs Lt. Arwen
Consual, an investigation is underway at this time.
"The U.S. Navy's main concern is for the injured and
that the submarine makes its way back to Guam as
safely as possible," she added.
The last major incident regarding a U.S. Navy
submarine was in 2001, when the U.S.S. Greenville
crashed into a Japanese fishing vessel off the state
of Hawaii. Nine people - Japanese men and boys - were
killed. The commander was later reprimanded and was
forced to retire.
+++++
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=16549
USS San Francisco Runs Aground off Guam
Story Number: NNS050108-01
Release Date: 1/8/2005 8:31:00 AM
From U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- The Los Angeles-class
submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711) ran aground
while conducting submerged operations approximately
350 miles south of the island of Guam today.
The incident occurred at approximately 4 p.m., Jan.
7, Hawaii Standard Time (12 noon, Jan. 8, Guam Time).
The extent of the injuries and damage aboard San
Francisco is still being assessed, but includes one
critical injury and several other lesser injuries. The
submarine is on the surface and is making best speed
back to their homeport in Guam.
There were no reports of damage to the reactor plant
which is operating normally.
Military and Coast Guard aircraft are enroute to
monitor and assist in the situation.
Further releases and announcements will be made as
information becomes available.
For further updates and information, please contact
the U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office at (808)
471-3769.
For more news from around the fleet, visit
www.navy.mil.
+++++
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/10603001.htm?1c
Sun, Jan. 09, 2005
Manchester sailor hurt in sub crash
Joseph Ashley, 24, critically injured after vessel
runs aground. 19 others are hurt
By Doug Oplinger
Beacon Journal staff writer
A Manchester man was critically injured when the
attack submarine USS San Francisco ran aground about
350 miles from its home port of Guam.
Joseph Ashley, 24, a 1999 graduate of Manchester High
School, was among 20 sailors who were hurt in the
accident, his father, Dan Ashley, said Saturday.
The parents were notified by the Navy early Saturday
morning that their son was the most seriously injured.
He suffered severe head injuries, and was unconscious
but breathing on his own, Dan Ashley said.
Later in the day, the parents were told that an
amphibious plane had landed alongside the
nuclear-powered vessel and was preparing to transport
their son to a hospital in Okinawa, Japan.
Dan Ashley said the Navy had arranged for both parents
to fly to Okinawa today.
Joseph Ashley, a machinist mate 2nd class, has been in
the Navy about four years and recently re-enlisted,
his father said. He has been on the USS San Francisco
for more than two years.
In high school, Joseph was a drummer in the Manchester
High School marching band and active in Boy Scouts,
his father said.
A younger brother is in the Army and scheduled to
serve in Kuwait later this year, Dan Ashley said.
The Navy said there were no reports of damage to the
USS San Francisco's reactor plant, which was operating
normally, according to the Associated Press.
The 360-foot submarine was headed back to its home
port in Guam, and the Friday afternoon incident was
under investigation, said Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman
for the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
He said there was no information yet on what the
submarine struck.
The sub has a crew of 137, officials said.
Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest
of Hawaii.
=====
//////\\\\\\
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today!
http://my.yahoo.com
*****************************************************************
26 US nuclear sub runs aground
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 20:02:29 -0800 (PST)
http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2005/01/10/57772.html
US nuclear sub ran aground, one dead
00:52 2005-01-10
A US sailor died of injuries sustained when a US
nuclear submarine ran aground in the Pacific the day
before, a spokeswoman for the US Pacific fleet told
AFP.
Twenty-three other crew members were being treated
"for a range of injuries including broken bones,
lacerations, bruises and a back injury," Petty Officer
Alyssa Batarla said Sunday.
The vessel's nuclear plant was not damaged in the
accident, which happened while the USS San Francisco
was conducting underwater operations Saturday 560
kilometers (350 miles) south of its base at Guam,
wrote the Turkish Press.
Guam, a territory of the US, is one of the American
military's most important bases in the Pacific.
The Los Angeles-class submarines are 109.73m (360 ft)
long and are classed as attack vessels, designed to
counter enemy submarines or surface vessels. They are
equipped with a single nuclear reactor.
The vessels carry a crew of 137, as BBC News reported.
+++++
http://www.kuam.com/news/12137.aspx
Injured sailor aboard U.S.S. San Francisco dies
by Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Number of injured onboard nuclear submarine now 23
Friends and relatives are mourning the death of a Navy
sailor aboard the U.S.S. San Francisco, after the
nuclear submarine ran aground during a submerged
operation. The sailor, whose name is being withheld
pending a mandatory 24-hour period, died from critical
injuries he sustained when the submarine ran aground
350 miles south of Guam Saturday afternoon.
"Our sincerest condolences and prayers go out to the
family and friends of the sailor," stated in a media
release from the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces
Marianas.
The number of injuries from the incident has gone up
from 20 on Saturday to 23 on Sunday. Injuries range
from broken bones, laceration bruises, and a back
injury. Currently medical personnel, including a
doctor, remain on board and are treating the injured
crew.
The submarine is continuing its way toward Guam. It is
being escorted by the Coast Guard cutter Galveston
Island and U.S.N.S. GySgt. Fred W. Stockham. It is
expected to return to its homeport on Guam Monday
afternoon (Guam time). The U.S.N.S. Kiska and military
aircraft are also continuing to provide assistance as
required.
The U.S.S. San Francisco was homeported in Guam 23
months ago. It is staffed by a crew of 137 sailors.
The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine is one of
the three currently homeported on Guam as part of the
U.S. Naval Forces Marianas Submarine Squadron 15. The
U.S.S. Corpus Christi was homeported on Guam in
October of 2002, while the U.S.S. Houston arrived in
Guam in December of last year.
The U.S.S. San Francisco is designed to seek and
destroy enemy submarines and surface ships. Its other
missions range from intelligence collection and
Special Forces delivery, and to strike warfare using
Tomahawk cruise missiles. According to the Navy there
were no reports of damage to the reactor plant, which
is operating normally."
According to COMNAVMAR Public Affairs Lt. Arwen
Consual, an investigation is underway at this time.
"The U.S. Navy's main concern is for the injured and
that the submarine makes its way back to Guam as
safely as possible," she added.
The last major incident regarding a U.S. Navy
submarine was in 2001, when the U.S.S. Greenville
crashed into a Japanese fishing vessel off the state
of Hawaii. Nine people - Japanese men and boys - were
killed. The commander was later reprimanded and was
forced to retire.
+++++
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=16549
USS San Francisco Runs Aground off Guam
Story Number: NNS050108-01
Release Date: 1/8/2005 8:31:00 AM
From U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- The Los Angeles-class
submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711) ran aground
while conducting submerged operations approximately
350 miles south of the island of Guam today.
The incident occurred at approximately 4 p.m., Jan.
7, Hawaii Standard Time (12 noon, Jan. 8, Guam Time).
The extent of the injuries and damage aboard San
Francisco is still being assessed, but includes one
critical injury and several other lesser injuries. The
submarine is on the surface and is making best speed
back to their homeport in Guam.
There were no reports of damage to the reactor plant
which is operating normally.
Military and Coast Guard aircraft are enroute to
monitor and assist in the situation.
Further releases and announcements will be made as
information becomes available.
For further updates and information, please contact
the U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office at (808)
471-3769.
For more news from around the fleet, visit
www.navy.mil.
+++++
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/10603001.htm?1c
Sun, Jan. 09, 2005
Manchester sailor hurt in sub crash
Joseph Ashley, 24, critically injured after vessel
runs aground. 19 others are hurt
By Doug Oplinger
Beacon Journal staff writer
A Manchester man was critically injured when the
attack submarine USS San Francisco ran aground about
350 miles from its home port of Guam.
Joseph Ashley, 24, a 1999 graduate of Manchester High
School, was among 20 sailors who were hurt in the
accident, his father, Dan Ashley, said Saturday.
The parents were notified by the Navy early Saturday
morning that their son was the most seriously injured.
He suffered severe head injuries, and was unconscious
but breathing on his own, Dan Ashley said.
Later in the day, the parents were told that an
amphibious plane had landed alongside the
nuclear-powered vessel and was preparing to transport
their son to a hospital in Okinawa, Japan.
Dan Ashley said the Navy had arranged for both parents
to fly to Okinawa today.
Joseph Ashley, a machinist mate 2nd class, has been in
the Navy about four years and recently re-enlisted,
his father said. He has been on the USS San Francisco
for more than two years.
In high school, Joseph was a drummer in the Manchester
High School marching band and active in Boy Scouts,
his father said.
A younger brother is in the Army and scheduled to
serve in Kuwait later this year, Dan Ashley said.
The Navy said there were no reports of damage to the
USS San Francisco's reactor plant, which was operating
normally, according to the Associated Press.
The 360-foot submarine was headed back to its home
port in Guam, and the Friday afternoon incident was
under investigation, said Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman
for the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
He said there was no information yet on what the
submarine struck.
The sub has a crew of 137, officials said.
Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest
of Hawaii.
=====
//////\\\\\\
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today!
http://my.yahoo.com
*****************************************************************
27 Increasing Pressure on the US Congress on the Depleted Uranium issue
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 15:02:49 -0800 (PST)
Dear DU Friends and Ken - Here is my list of people
(which will not appear on future messages) who I think
would like to hear about the DU issue from Congressman
McDermott's office and what is going on in the US
Congress on this issue.
For those on the list, this is the message from
Congressman McDermott in Dec. regarding increasing the
pressure to stop the use of DU:
This 12/11/04 from US Rep. Jim McDermott: "Hammer on
the DU issue...This issue has very strong moral and
scientific fundamentals, and it is indefensible to
continue using DU. If the administration does not
stop, it will reach the point that political heads
will roll." Dr. McDermott displayed a large stack of
materials/reports. "Do not accept endless "studies"
from the military or political establishment. The
science is conclusive. Go for broke, on DU."
We are reaching a critical mass situation in terms of
getting it into the media in the US, and informing the
public. We have had powerful articles this year in
Rolling Stone Mag., Vanity Fair Mag., World Affairs
Journal, Al-Jazeera, and many many more. The World
Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg in 2003
has had a great positive long term impact on the
issue. The Spanish video team who made a film of the
Hamburg Conference, won a prize for the film at the
New York Film Festival. The International Action
Center is updating "Metal of Dishonor" which will be
coming out in about one months. Be sure to get it -
its their best seller.
Presidential Candidates Dennis Kucinich and
Ralph Nader put the DU issue on their campaign
platforms. And of course the various DU bills
sponsored in Congress by Congresswoman Cynthia
McKinney and Congressman McDermott are keeping the
issue in the face of Congress. Cynthia McKinney is
back in Congress and will certainly add to the
pressure with Jim McDermott and Dennis Kucinich as
well as others.
Please continue to speak out on this issue, it's time
to go for broke. If you dont want to be on this list,
please let Ken know. He sends just a few messages a
year out, so you wont be getting a mailbox full, but
this is a way to stay informed about what Congress is
doing about this global tragedy.
Leuren
--- "Kadlec, Ken" wrote:
> Time for me to get organized -
>
>
>
> If you have been getting my rather infrequent
> e-mails on DU and would rather
> NOT - please let me know and I'll drop your name
> from the list.
>
>
>
> If you know of someone who is (or should be)
> interested in being on the
> list, please send me their names and e-mail
> addresses - and, if possible, a
> little about who they are - so I have a feel for the
> audience I'm reaching.
> There are currently about 50 on my list and it takes
> the same amount of my
> time to reach 100. This issue HAS to start heating
> up as people and the
> press are starting to ask more questions. We need
> to get the word out to
> inquiring minds. (all messages are sent bcc - so
> e-mail addresses will be
> confidential)
>
>
>
> Thanks for your time and patience -
>
>
>
> Ken Kadlec
>
> Office of Congressman Jim McDermott
>
>
>
> Note: If you prefer to develop your own list and
> forward any messages that
> I send that you feel are worthwhile, feel free to do
> so.
>
>
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
*****************************************************************
28 BREAKING NEWS: ALASKA - SECRET BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL, RADIATION EXPERIMENTS
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 21:48:25 -0800 (PST)
ARCHIVE THIS DOCUMENT IMMEDIATELY... BEFORE IT
DISAPPEARS
DO NOT RELEASE UNTIL MONDAY JANUARY 10
SECRET BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL AND RADIATION EXPERIMENTS
IN ALASKA 1952-1970+
CANADIAN GOVT IN AN UPROAR,
BUSH CLASSIFIES SECRET DOCS LAST WEEK
CONTACT GULF WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION FOR INTERVIEWS
OR MORE INFORMATION -
JOYCE RILEY RN BSN (573) 378-6049
www.gulfwarvets.com
www.thepowerhour.com
PLEASE ARCHIVE THESE DOCS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THIS
REPORT (ABOUT 40 PAGES) DISAPPEARS. PRES. BUSH HAS
JUST CLASSIFIED THE FORT GREELEY REPORT BY EXECUTIVE
ORDER BUT IT WAS ALREADY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. PLEASE
PRINT OUT AND BURN A CD IF YOU CAN. POST ON YOUR
WEBSITE AND DISTRIBUTE AFTER MONDAY.
http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/greely_breakingnews.htm
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
*****************************************************************
29 [du-list] Fw: Increasing Pressure on the US Congress on the
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:26:11 -0800
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leuren Moret"
To: "Kadlec, Ken" ; "HarveyKaren SnowshoeFilms"
; "Jay Shaft" ; "Janette
Sherman" ; "SHIMIZUTaketo" ;
"Albrecht Schott" ; "Taeko Schubert"
; "SCOOP.com" ; "Floyd Sands"
; "Deborah Berman Santana"
; "Yoshio Sasaki" ; "Shoji
Sawada" ; "Carolyn S. Scarr"
; "Bob Schaeffer" ;
"SUSANNE THORBEK" ; "RezaFiyouzat Tokyo"
; "YukimiHayakama TokyoShimbun" ;
"TraprockCharles" ; "BobKoehler TRIBUNE"
; "Chieko TABE" ; "Haruhisa
Takase" ; "TeruyoGood" ;
"Helen Thomas" ; "Katsuma YAGASAKI"
; "YasminSooka" ; "Yoshida
YOSHIHISA" ; "YumiKikuchi"
; "Dai Williams" ; "Dennie
Williams" ; "Brian Wilson" ;
"VictorThorn WINGS" ; "P Winkler"
; "Philippa Winkler" ;
"Carol Wolman" ; "Anne Paxton Wagley" ;
"Harvey Wasserman" ; "Graham Watson"
; "Alfred Webre JD MEd2004" ; "Maj
Wechselmann" ; "Vieques" ; "Bruno
Vitale" ; "UNEPEric" ;
"UNEPNick" ; "UNObserver" ;
"Masayo Baillet" ; "FusakoDeAngelis"
; "Yuko Honda" ; "Hiroshi
Kashiwagi" ; "Miho Kim" ;
"KyokoKawashima" ; "Hiroshi Miyazaki"
; "Takashi Morizumi" ;
"Nahoko Nishizawa" ; "Mariko Watanabe" ;
"Maiko Yoneyama"
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 11:03 PM
Subject: Increasing Pressure on the US Congress on the Depleted Uranium
issue
> Dear DU Friends and Ken - Here is my list of people
> (which will not appear on future messages) who I think
> would like to hear about the DU issue from Congressman
> McDermott's office and what is going on in the US
> Congress on this issue.
>
> For those on the list, this is the message from
> Congressman McDermott in Dec. regarding increasing the
> pressure to stop the use of DU:
>
> This 12/11/04 from US Rep. Jim McDermott: "Hammer on
> the DU issue...This issue has very strong moral and
> scientific fundamentals, and it is indefensible to
> continue using DU. If the administration does not
> stop, it will reach the point that political heads
> will roll." Dr. McDermott displayed a large stack of
> materials/reports. "Do not accept endless "studies"
> from the military or political establishment. The
> science is conclusive. Go for broke, on DU."
>
> We are reaching a critical mass situation in terms of
> getting it into the media in the US, and informing the
> public. We have had powerful articles this year in
> Rolling Stone Mag., Vanity Fair Mag., World Affairs
> Journal, Al-Jazeera, and many many more. The World
> Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg in 2003
> has had a great positive long term impact on the
> issue. The Spanish video team who made a film of the
> Hamburg Conference, won a prize for the film at the
> New York Film Festival. The International Action
> Center is updating "Metal of Dishonor" which will be
> coming out in about one months. Be sure to get it -
> its their best seller.
>
> Presidential Candidates Dennis Kucinich and
> Ralph Nader put the DU issue on their campaign
> platforms. And of course the various DU bills
> sponsored in Congress by Congresswoman Cynthia
> McKinney and Congressman McDermott are keeping the
> issue in the face of Congress. Cynthia McKinney is
> back in Congress and will certainly add to the
> pressure with Jim McDermott and Dennis Kucinich as
> well as others.
>
> Please continue to speak out on this issue, it's time
> to go for broke. If you dont want to be on this list,
> please let Ken know. He sends just a few messages a
> year out, so you wont be getting a mailbox full, but
> this is a way to stay informed about what Congress is
> doing about this global tragedy.
>
> Leuren
>
>
>
>
> --- "Kadlec, Ken" wrote:
>
> > Time for me to get organized -
> >
> >
> >
> > If you have been getting my rather infrequent
> > e-mails on DU and would rather
> > NOT - please let me know and I'll drop your name
> > from the list.
> >
> >
> >
> > If you know of someone who is (or should be)
> > interested in being on the
> > list, please send me their names and e-mail
> > addresses - and, if possible, a
> > little about who they are - so I have a feel for the
> > audience I'm reaching.
> > There are currently about 50 on my list and it takes
> > the same amount of my
> > time to reach 100. This issue HAS to start heating
> > up as people and the
> > press are starting to ask more questions. We need
> > to get the word out to
> > inquiring minds. (all messages are sent bcc - so
> > e-mail addresses will be
> > confidential)
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for your time and patience -
> >
> >
> >
> > Ken Kadlec
> >
> > Office of Congressman Jim McDermott
> >
> >
> >
> > Note: If you prefer to develop your own list and
> > forward any messages that
> > I send that you feel are worthwhile, feel free to do
> > so.
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do?
> http://my.yahoo.com
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http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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30 Bellona: US attack sub runs aground in the Pacific
A US nuclear attack submarine ran aground in the Pacific Ocean
Friday for reasons as yet unclear about 420 kilometers south of
Guam, injuring at least 20 sailors of the submarine’s 137-member
crew—one of them critically—as the vessel was engaged in a
five-month patrol, US naval officials said Saturday.
In this photo, released by the US Navy after Friday, the
attack submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711) is escorted by two
harbor tugs returns to Apra Harbor, Guam.
AP/US Navy
Charles Digges, 2005-01-08 21:34
There have been no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco'
single reactor plant, which was operating normally after the
accident, the US Navy said interviews with Bellona Web Saturday.
Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at
Pearl Harbor, said the Friday afternoon incident is under
investigation and the 109-metre submarine is headed back to its
home port of Apra Harbour, Guam—a US territorial holding in the
mid-Pacific.
US military ships and planes were rushing Saturday to the
western Pacific to rescue the nuclear submarine and its injured
crew and escort it back to the island of Guam.
Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately available,
said Yoshishige. The crew consists of 12 officers and 115
enlisted personnel, and it remained unknown Friday how many of
the 20 injured in the mishap were officers and how many were
enlisted.
The USS San Francisco is a Los Angeles class “fast attack”
submarine with a submerged water displacement of 6,900 tonnes.
It carries four torpedo-tubes, which can launch Tomahawk cruise
missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. But
Yoshishige would not comment on the condition of the weaponry
the USS San Francisco was carrying or if it was, indeed,
carrying them.
Italy furious after US Navy tried to cover up sub accident
The US Navy covered up for nearly a month an incident during
which a 7,000 tonne nuclear powered submarine from the US Navy’s
Sixth Fleet in Italy ran violently aground in the Mediterranean
Sea north of Sardinia last month, a US Naval official confirmed.
Other recent US sub incidents–the USS Hartford
The incident with the USS San Francisco is somewhat reminiscent
of another US Navy submarine mishap in November 2003, when the
USS Hartford, of the US 6th Atlantic Fleet ran aground in the
Mediterranean Sea north of Sardinia. In this case, though, the US
navy sought to hush the incident, which it did successfully for a
month until relatives of the Hartford’s crew began speaking to
the press about the reasons behind the submarine’s early arrival
to its home port Sardinian base at La Maddelena, Italy.
Italian officials were furious with the US Navy for its cover up
of the incident. One US naval official speaking with Bellona Web
on the condition of anonymity after the accident, said Washington
had “admittedly tried to keep a lid on the accident.”
The USS Harford during a dive.
US Navy
The USS Hartford—also Los Angeles class submarine—hit the rocky
sea-bed of the Mediterranean on October 25th, 2004 with such
force that rudders, sonar and other electronic equipment were
severely damaged, the US naval official said. The 114-metre long
USS Hartford had left its Sardinian base at La Maddelena
carrying Tomahawk missiles, possibly loaded with nuclear
warheads, though US naval sources would not confirm this
information at the time of the incident and still have not.
Over 25 years of the USS San Francisco
Built in Newport New, West Virginia at a cost of $900 million
and first put to sea in October, 1979. The sub was initially
based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After a series of technical
upgrades between 1989 and 1990, the USS San Francisco was
re-launched and reassigned to the territorial port at Guam.
The USS San Francisco has never, until now, been involved in any
serious incidents, said naval spokesman Yoshishige. The vessel
completed two highly successful deployments to the western
Pacific in 1992 and 1994 with ports of call in Hong Kong,
Singapore, Chinhae, South Korea, Guam, Sasebo, Japan and
Yokosuka, Japan..
The Los Angeles class has recently become the most common type
of US attack submarine in the US naval fleet since 2004.
In light of the USS Harford and USS San Francisco
incidents—falling within 13 months of one another—another US
naval spokesman, who requested anonymity, said that the US navy
was “not as yet considering our large deployment of Los Angeles
class submarines, but this will surely be examined in the
upcoming investigation.”
Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
31 BBC: US nuclear submarine runs aground
Last Updated: Saturday, 8 January, 2005
[USS San Francisco (file picture)]
The San Francisco's nuclear reactor has not been damaged
A US nuclear submarine has run aground south of the Pacific
island of Guam, injuring several sailors on board.
The nuclear reactor on the USS San Francisco was not damaged in
the incident, which is currently being investigated, the US Navy
said.
One of the sailors is reported to have sustained a serious
injury.
The submarine is on its way back to its base on Guam, nearly
600km (350 miles) north of where the incident occurred. It is due
to arrive on Monday.
The incident occurred at 0200 GMT on Saturday, the US Navy said
in a statement.
"The extent of the injuries and damage aboard San Francisco is
still being assessed, but includes one critical injury and
several other lesser injuries.
"There were no reports of damage to the reactor plant, which is
operating normally.
"The submarine is on the surface and is making best speed back to
their homeport in Guam."
Military and Coast Guard aircraft have been sent out to monitor
the submarine.
Guam, a territory of the US, is one of the American military's
most important bases in the Pacific.
The Los Angeles-class submarines are 109.73m (360 ft) long and
are classed as attack vessels, designed to counter enemy
submarines or surface vessels. They are equipped with a single
nuclear reactor.
The vessels carry a crew of 137.
*****************************************************************
32 Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs: New Cause of Thyroid Cancer Discovered
Reported January 7, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new discovery reveals a new cause of
thyroid cancer. The research focused on Chernobyl residents who
were exposed to high levels of radio iodide after the 1986
nuclear plant accident. Study authors say the exposure resulted
in genetic changes in their cells.
The research was led by scientists from both Cincinnati
University and the University of Munich. Researchers say in 70
percent of papillary thyroid tumors, one of three genetic
changes happen. The genes affected include BRAF, RET or RAS.
When patients have not been exposed to radiation, the changes
generally happen with the BRAF gene. However, in patients who
are exposed to radiation the gene changes occur in the RET gene.
In both cases, the gene changes or mutations transform normal
cells into malignant cells.
The new research uncovered a novel gene mutation with Chernobyl
residents. Researchers say part of the AKAP9 gene and the BRAF
gene are involved. The fusion of these genes results in BRAF
signaling normal cells to transform into malignant cells. This
is a new discovery of cause for patients with thyroid tumors.
In an accompanying editorial, researchers in Naples, Italy, say
the discovery of the chromosomal rearrangement is remarkable.
They add that these findings represent a major breakthrough in
the knowledge of genetic events involved in the cause of
papillary thyroid tumors.
SOURCE: The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2005;115:93-101
webdoctor@ivanhoe.com Copyright © 2005 Ivanhoe Broadcast News,
Inc. 2745 West Fairbanks Avenue Winter Park, Florida 32789 (407)
740-0789
P.O. Box 865 Orlando, Florida 32802
*****************************************************************
33 SF Chronicle: Nuclear submarine runs aground south of Guam; about 20
sailors injured
-
Saturday, January 8, 2005
(01-08) 17:51 PST HONOLULU (AP) --
A nuclear submarine ran aground Saturday about 350 miles
south of Guam, injuring around 20 sailors and sustaining severe
damage, the Navy said.
There were no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco's
reactor plant, which was operating normally, the Navy said. One
of the sailors suffered critical injuries.
The 360-foot submarine was headed back to its home port in
Guam, and the incident was under investigation, said Jon
Yoshishige, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl
Harbor.
He said there was no information yet on what the submarine
struck.
The extent of the damage would not be known until the
submarine arrived at Guam Monday, Yoshishige said.
Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately
available, but Yoshishige said an initial assessment put the
number injured at around 20. The sub has a crew of 137, officials
said.
Navy and Coast Guard aircraft from Guam were sent to monitor
the submarine and assist if needed, the Navy said.
Located west of the international date line, Guam is a U.S.
territory about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii. On the Net:
U.S. Pacific Fleet: www.cpf.navy.mil
URL:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/01/08/national1412EST0513.DTL
c2005 Associated Press
*****************************************************************
34 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Nuclear Submarine Runs Aground
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday January 8, 2005 1:46 PM
AP Photo NY112
HONOLULU (AP) - A nuclear submarine ran aground about 350 miles
south of Guam, injuring several sailors, one of them critically,
the Navy said.
There were no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco's
reactor plant, which was operating normally, the Navy said.
Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at
Pearl Harbor, said the Friday afternoon incident is under
investigation and the 360-foot submarine was headed back to its
home port in Guam.
Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately available.
The sub has a crew of 137, officials said.
Military and Coast Guard aircraft from Guam were en route to
monitor the submarine and assist if needed, the Navy said.
Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.
---
On the Net:
U.S. Pacific Fleet: http://www.cpf.navy.mil
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
35 The Australian: Demand explodes for slice of yellowcake pie
[January 08, 2005]
Bloomberg
URANIUM prices, already up more than 40 per cent in the past
year, are set to rise further as stockpiles of the nuclear fuel
dwindle and supplies are sought for reactors being built in
China, India and Russia.
"You have gone from a buyers' to a sellers' market," says Bob
Mitchell, who holds physical uranium valued at more than $US26
million ($34million) for Adit Capital Management in the US. "Most
reactors under construction haven't secured long-term supply and
there is no inventory left among utilities."
Commercial stockpiles of the fuel -- used to generate 16per cent
of the world's electricity -- dropped by 50 per cent between 1985
and 2003 because mine output could not keep up with demand,
according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reporting
last September.
Mine expansions may not meet demand, boosting prices for uranium
miners such as Cameco, the world's biggest, and Rio Tinto's
Energy Resources of Australia.
Cameco shares rose 68 per cent last year and ERA, 68 per
cent-owned by Rio, surged by 94per cent.
Paladin Resources, an Australian company that plans to mine
uranium in Namibia, rose ninefold.
China is preparing to award an $US8-billion contract to build
four reactors in the world's biggest nuclear power construction
program.
The country plans to build 27 plants to meet a target of
boosting nuclear energy output fivefold by 2020.
India aims to build 17 reactors to triple nuclear power capacity
by 2012. Russia plans 25 reactors by 2020.
"Uranium prices will advance in 2005," says Mitchell, who also
owns Cameco shares as part of the $US200 million he helps manage
at another fund, Touchstone Investment Managers. "In China,
they'll have to build a couple more reactors a year."
Adit has 835,000lb of uranium concentrate and 140tonnes of
uranium hexaflouride, a uranium gas, at nuclear conversion
facilities in the US and France, Mitchell says.
Spot prices of uranium increased to $US20.50/lb as of December
31, according to Metal Bulletin, on concern about supply
shortages.
That's the highest since 1984, says a September report by Jeff
Combs, president of Ux Consulting, which publishes spot uranium
prices.
The spot market, which makes up about 12 per cent of uranium
sales, according to the World Nuclear Association, sets a price
reference for long-term contracts between miners and utilities.
Uranium prices rose to a record of more than $US40/lb in the
late 1970s, says Combs.
Contract prices paid by power companies may rise to $US27/lb
this year from last year's $US20/lb, says National Bank
Financial analyst Ian Howat. Long-term prices may rise to
$US26/lb, according to Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Ian Preston,
in a recent report after attending a uranium conference in
Sydney.
"It looks like current prices are here to stay and possibly rise
significantly," says Craig Kinnell, acting chief executive of
ERA, the world's third-biggest uranium miner.
"Inventories are falling and there has been little response to
that in the way of more mine supply. Our contract prices have
risen to reflect the spot price rises."
China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer after the US,
aims to double electricity-generating capacity by 2020, with 4
per cent of that coming from nuclear reactors.
China has begun talks with Australia, holder of the world's
largest uranium reserves, to enable the fuel to be exported by
Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest miner, and WMC Resources,
which owns the biggest deposit of the radioactive metal at its
Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. However, China needs to
show it won't use the uranium for military purposes before the
federal Government will allow it to buy Australian uranium.
In November, WMC, which is the subject of a $7.4 billion
takeover bid by Swiss-based Xstrata, increased its long-term
uranium forecast to $US30/lb, saying that its Olympic Dam
deposit could become the world's biggest uranium mine if a
$4-billion expansion is approved.
Cameco plans to increase production 18 per cent at Canada's
McArthur River, now the world's biggest uranium mine.
"We've got customers who are highly concerned about the supply
chain of uranium," says WMC's Brook, who's also in charge of the
company's uranium marketing. "I can assure you the pricing that
they have in mind is not going backward. Our expansion and one
planned by Cameco won't fill the gap" between supply and demand.
The World Nuclear Association estimates world demand will
outpace supply by 11 per cent by 2013.
The decline in stockpiles has been hastened by the October 2003
decision by Russia, the world's second-biggest uranium exporter
after Canada, to limit exports to conserve fuel for the 25
plants it wants to build by 2020.
Reactor fuel made from scrapped Russian nuclear weapons now
powers one in 10 US homes, according to the Washington-based
Nuclear Energy Institute trade group.
Fund manager Tim Barker at BT Financial Group in Sydney says a
lack of transparency in the uranium market and potential
increases in supply from dismantled nuclear weapons makes it
hard to quantify supply shortages.
"We've been waiting for the supply gap to appear for quite a
while, and have heard stockpiles are running down so many times,
I've lost count," says Barker. "I'm not sure the ultimate size
is very well known. I suspect there's a fair amount of
self-interest in the information that's available."
Mines produced about 55 per cent of the uranium used in 2003,
according to the nuclear association's website. The shortfall
was made up from other sources, such as stockpiles that the
association says are "largely depleted", and former
weapons-grade uranium.
"There has been a 15-year period of inventory liquidation, there
is not a lot of new mine supply," says Mitchell at Adit Capital,
who adds that the fund he started in October is the first to buy
physical uranium. "Even at $US30/lb, you won't get the world
flooded with uranium."
© The Australian
*****************************************************************
36 The Australian: Uranium mining emerges as election issue
[January 07, 2005]
January 07, 2005
URANIUM mining in Western Australia has emerged as an election
issue after the Gallop Government said a vote for the Coalition
was a vote to allow mining of the nuclear fuel.
State Development Minister Clive Brown today reaffirmed the
Government's strong stance against uranium mining in WA, saying
economic arguments in favour of allowing the practice were the
same as those made in favour of asbestos mining.
Mr Brown said he believed the people of WA did not want to see
uranium mined in their state, and would have a clear choice at
the poll.
"It is a very stark choice and there will be lots of views," he
said.
"But our position is and for many years has been ... that we do
not support the mining of uranium in WA.
"We have taken action for over two years to prevent any mining
leases being issued that would allow uranium to be mined, and it
is clearly the position we take into the next state election."
Although no legislation exists in WA to prevent exploration for
uranium, the Gallop Government since 2002 has said applications
to mine uranium deposits will not be granted.
But after Opposition resources spokesman Norman Moore indicated
this week the Coalition would overturn the ban, uranium producer
Paladin Resources said they thought mining of deposits in WA was
inevitable.
Mr Moore said today the Coalition was willing to look at the
issue of uranium mining, which he said was separate to other
issues surrounding nuclear material.
"We have already said that there would be no nuclear power
station, there will be no dumping of nuclear waste, and we will
not allow the import of nuclear waste into WA," he said.
"But what we have said is that if a company wants to mine
uranium to export it overseas, then we will consider it on its
merits."
Mr Brown said the argument that a ban on uranium mining robbed
taxpayers and mining companies of the chance to generate income
had been used before.
"They said the same thing about asbestos – that was exactly the
same argument that was used about asbestos," Mr Brown said
"People get exploration licences and exploration licences allow
them to explore for any mineral.
"If they want to explore for something they know is not going
to be allowed in WA, we can't help that foolishness."
WA's potentially lucrative uranium deposits have long attracted
interest from overseas, with Canadian miner Aldershot Resources
applying last month for a licence to explore for uranium at
Yuinmery, 500km south-east of Perth.
But Mr Brown told the company immediately that it would not be
allowed to mine uranium even if it found deposits.
© The Australian
*****************************************************************
37 Bradenton Herald: Arsenic found in Tallevast soil tests
| 01/07/2005 |
SCOTT RADWAY
Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - Low levels of arsenic were found in soil samples
from two side streets in this minority community already plagued
with deep contamination fears.
Even though the levels were slightly above residential
standards, the news from a county environmental study was
another surprise to residents in this 85-home, tight-knit
neighborhood.
"Every time there is a new finding it just gets scarier," said
Wanda Washington, president of the Tallevast community group
Family Oriented Community United Strong or FOCUS. "That was
certainly something I was not expecting."
County environmental manager Paul Panik said it is not uncommon
to find arsenic in soil.
Manatee County requested the environmental study before
beginning a project to install permanent water pipes to 16th
Street East and 18th Street East.
The county first installed temporary water pipes last year when
it was discovered a potentially cancer-causing solvent known as
trichloroethylene, or TCE, had leaked from the old American
Beryllium Co. plant into the neighborhood wells.
Lockheed Martin Co. is responsible for cleaning up the
groundwater and soil contamination and is attempting to map its
extent with extensive water and soil sampling. That report is
due to the state Feb. 1, Lockheed officials said.
Panik said the county paid for the study because of the unknown
extent of the contamination and the permanent water line project
would require digging and pumping water.
On 18th Street East, two soil samples were found with arsenic
levels slightly above residential standards, according to the
study done by Professional Service Industries for the county.
There was one sample found on 16th Street East.
TCE was found on 18th Street East but earlier tests had already
documented TCE there; so that was not a surprise, Panik said.
PSI recommended a number of measures to protect people from
possible exposure to arsenic during the water line installment
project, including wetting down the ground to prevent dust
rising and conducting air screening, the study said. Safety
measures were also proposed for handling the TCE and properly
disposal of water and soil.
But Washington said from the community perspective, there is
still a concern about exposure if the project is performed.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection received the
study Thursday. William Kutash, a DEP Southwest district
environmental administrator, said the study would be reviewed to
ensure human health was protected throughout the project.
That review could take a few weeks, he said.
At high levels, arsenic can kill, according to the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Long-term exposure to
lower levels can "cause a discoloration of the skin and the
appearance of small corns or warts," the ATSDR Web site said.
The soil findings are one of many revelations that have shaken
this community. The widespread TCE groundwater contamination was
perhaps the most startling. Community members and former workers
are also concerned about exposure to beryllium from the old
plant.
The county is investigating the abandoned factory on the corner
of Tallevast and 15th Street East as a second TCE contamination
site. Those TCE levels are expected not to be high and not to
have spread off site, Panik said, but the final report is not
yet completed.
The county hired PSI to do that study in advance of buying the
land for a road-widening project for Tallevast Road.
Amid the uncertainty, residents asked the county commission in
December to consider a temporary building moratorium for
Tallevast. The commission is now drafting that resolution.
Washington said the community's concern with soil contamination
had centered largely around soil from the old American Beryllium
plant that was trucked as fill into the community years ago.
Some arsenic was found in those areas in earlier tests.
Washington said finding arsenic in areas where no one reported
fill being dumped was alarming.
"Even in a small amounts, the cumulative risk from what is out
here is scary," Washington said.
Washington called for expanded soil testing.
"I want to know what is out there," Washington said.
Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said the state-approved testing
plan calls for extensive soil testing outside of the areas where
plant soil was moved. Rymer said Lockheed is testing for arsenic
as part of that sampling.
"But until we have the results from this current round of
testing we will not know if expanded testing is necessary,"
Rymer said. "We will provide that data as soon as we are able."
Scott Radway, environmental reporter, can be reached at 708-7919
or at sradway@HeraldToday.com.
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38 heraldtribune.com: Dump the phosphate plan
Southwest Florida's Information Leader
Burying waste at landfill could worsen environmental threat The
phosphate industry and environmental regulators are desperate to
get rid of close to 1 billion tons of waste stacked up in
towering mounds in Manatee County and other parts of Florida. But
that desperation is no excuse for adopting a shortsighted plan
that could worsen the existing environmental threat.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved a
pilot project that would let the industry spread some of the
waste, known as phosphogypsum, at a landfill in Brevard County.
The hope is that the waste, a byproduct of making fertilizer,
will help decompose the garbage and extend the life of the
landfill.
But the experiment carries significant risks, as critics of the
plan, including the local environmental group ManaSota-88, point
out.
Phosphogypsum is mildly radioactive. No safe, practical use for
it has been approved. That's why the industry has been stacking
it up, at a rate of about 30 million tons a year, in giant
mounds, primarily in Central Florida.
The mounds aren't safe, either, as Floridians have witnessed
repeatedly in recent years.
State officials have spent millions of dollars draining pools of
highly acidic water atop a sprawling phosphogypsum stack at the
abandoned Piney Point fertilizer plant north of Palmetto, in an
effort to avoid a catastrophic spill into a tributary of Tampa
Bay. Similar threats arose elsewhere in the bay area and Central
Florida during the recent hurricane season.
Transferring phosphogypsum to landfills doesn't seem like a wise
alternative to stacking it up. The long-term effects of such a
plan will be difficult to predict with any reliability, based on
the results of a short-term experiment in Brevard.
Environmental regulators have long been concerned about the risk
of cancer associated with the radioactive content of
phosphogypsum. In addition, there's a significant -- and
well-established -- possibility that the material could leach
into ground water.
Why, suddenly, are these concerns so easy to set aside? Have the
crisis at Piney Point and the problems with other gyp stacks
pushed regulators to embrace desperate measures?
What's needed isn't a risky experiment. As we've said before,
what's needed is a comprehensive study of the effects of the
phosphate industry -- from mining to processing to waste disposal
-- on Florida's environment.
The analysis is all the more vital now because mining companies
are planning a major expansion into Southwest Florida, close to
the Peace River, which empties into fragile Charlotte Harbor and
is a major source of the region's drinking water.
The last comprehensive study was conducted almost 30 years ago.
Mounds of evidence about the industry's impacts -- from mining to
fertilizer processing -- have accumulated since then.
Unless lawmakers in Florida's congressional delegation intervene
quickly to stop the EPA-approved plan, it looks as if
environmental regulators and the phosphate industry will truck
all that evidence -- along with the phosphogypsum -- to the dump.
*****************************************************************
39 Hawk Eye Newspaper: Microbes cleaning IAAP contamination
Friday, January 7, 2005 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
Plant efforts encourages feeding on explosive compound.
By KILEY MILLER
kmiller@thehawkeye.com
MIDDLETOWN — Sugar–chomping magic bugs destroy dread pollutants
in epic struggle of good versus evil.
What sounds like a B–grade movie plot is really the latest plan
for purifying contaminated ground water at the Iowa Army
Ammunition Plant.
According to Rodger Allison, environmental restoration manager
at the plant, a dextrose solution injected into polluted water
on the southern half of the plant will feed microbes that break
down the contamination.
Microbes already are at work cleaning the water. The dextrose
just helps the process along.
"We inject food and kind of grow the magic bugs," Allison said.
"It's really nothing more than natural microbial activity."
Five to 10 temporary wells placed late last year along Old
Highway 61 near Shipley Construction act as ports to carry the
sugar to the pollution.
Monitoring wells in the area revealed high levels of the
explosive compound RDX back in 1999. Army officials have kept an
eye on the plume and now are attacking the problem with the
dextrose and microbe program.
The Army has used the dextrose approach in other parts of the
country. Allison said the effort along the old highway is a
pilot project to gauge its potency here.
"We want to know if it's going to work effectively at the
contamination levels that we have and in the types of soils we
have," he said.
While reasonably positive the dextrose will do the job in the
sandy soil where the wells are placed, Allison is less certain
about potential effectiveness in other areas where the ground is
largely clay.
A few of the wells will be left in place, in case the microbes
get the munchies again.
"We'll let the dextrose spread out, and then we'll check to see
if there's a diminished level of the explosive contamination,"
Allison said.
Allison, the public face of the cleanup for the past several
years, will be away from the plant for the next three months to
attend the Army Management Staff College. Installation
Supervisor Leon Baxter will have direct responsibility for
environmental restoration efforts in his absence.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 ·
*****************************************************************
40 Salt Lake Tribune: Even after election, Huntsman brings in dough
Article Last Updated: 01/08/2005 02:50:46 AM
Special initiatives: But the governor returns $40K to
Envirocare's new owner
By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune
The governor's fund-raising machine continued chugging along,
even in the weeks after he won Utah's top office.
Jon Huntsman Jr. raised about $675,560 since the week before
the election, with nearly two-thirds of that going into his
newly created political action committee dubbed the "Governor's
Special Initiative Office," according to year-end financial
disclosure statements returned earlier this week.
Not counting the special initiative cash, Huntsman raised
$3.95 million for his gubernatorial campaign, spending all but
$11,000. The totals fall within the campaign's previous
estimates.
Since beating out Democratic challenger Scott Matheson Jr. -
who raised $2.1 million - Huntsman has received some big-money
donations for his special initiatives.
Real estate broker J. Steven Price donated $40,000 on Dec. 1,
the same day Republican-insider and businessman Ladd Christensen
handed over $25,000.
Steve Creamer, who is buying Envirocare of Utah, gave
Huntsman's PAC $25,000 on Dec. 14. The next day, Envirocare of
Utah owner Khosrow Semnani announced he had sold his company to
Creamer and a New York investment firm. Creamer in October
contributed $15,000 to Huntsman's campaign. Huntsman's campaign
has decided to return the $40,000 to Creamer, worried that
keeping it would make them look sympathetic to Envirocare's
attempts to store hotter types of radioactive waste in Tooele
County.
Huntsman's Chief of Staff Jason Chaffetz said the PAC money
has been used primarily to pay for his transition staff and
expenses. One of those staffers is Russell Skousen, who received
nearly $3,700 for policy consulting for the month of December.
During that time, Skousen was finishing his term as a Salt Lake
County Council member. Huntsman has since tapped Skousen for
Commerce Department director.
During the campaign, Huntsman loaned himself $275,000 and
took out loans for another $499,900. Chaffetz said it will take
some time, and a number of fund-raisers, to cover those
expenses, but promised the banks would be repaid before Huntsman
pays himself back.
"Jon personally made contributions into the campaign, which
he felt was important, but he never wanted to self-fund it,"
Chaffetz said. "He did a personal loan with the intention of
paying himself back."
mcanham@sltrib.com
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
41 Salt Lake Tribune: Opinion Learning curve
Last Updated: 01/07/2005 11:20:49 PM
Memo to Gov. Jon Huntsman:
As valuable as your business experiences and contacts will be
to the bettering of Utah's economic future, there are some
serious differences between the way things are done in the
business world and the way they are - or, at least, ought to be
- done in government.
For example, all that
you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours stuff is right out.
It's just not acceptable, even if you are clever enough to
get someone to scratch your back without ever actually having to
scratch theirs in return.
That's why you are going to take some well-deserved, but
probably short-lived, heat for taking so long to return a total
of $40,000 in political contributions from the soon-to-be owner
of Envirocare of Utah.
You can say, governor, and even believe that the $15,000
Steve Creamer gave your campaign before it was publicly known he
was buying the Tooele County nuclear waste dump, and the $25,000
he gave to your political action committee just about the time
that he went public with the plan, won't actually buy him any
influence in your court.
But public officials simply cannot operate that way and
retain their credibility, especially on such hot-button issues
as hot nuclear waste.
Your chief of staff told The Salt Lake Tribune the other day
that your own camp was troubled, even to the point of feeling
“abused,” by the contributions from a person who is going to
embody one of the state's most controversial issues. Major-domo
Jason Chaffetz said he certainly hoped that Creamer didn't think
that the contributions were going to help him get his way, or
what might be his way, on a license to store more dangerous
classes of waste.
But what else was anyone, whether it's Creamer or those who
fear him, supposed to think?
You were right to return Creamer's donations. You were right
to have your spokesman say that the donations were improper and
that they weren't going to inappropriately influence state
policy. That much looks good, sounds good and is probably even
true.
But the fact that nobody actually moved to return the
donations and disassociate your campaign and, now, your
administration from that tainted money until after the
question was raised by this newspaper is a real rookie mistake.
All of this is another reminder that the question of allowing
Envirocare, or anyone else, to accept class B and C nuclear
waste for storage in Utah is a nasty political issue that is
likely to haunt you until you take the simple step of issuing
the ban on such waste that state law empowers you to order.
Do it now, governor, and you might even be able to keep Steve
Creamer's money the next time around.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
42 Salt Lake Tribune: Envirocare radiation personnel stay put
Article Last Updated: 01/08/2005 02:51:00 AM
Envirocare of Utah doesn't anticipate any changes in radiation
safety personnel, a state regulator said Friday. Division of
Radiation Control Director Dane Finerfrock told the division's
board of directors that Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani in a
Dec. 23 letter informed the state that Steve Creamer, who with a
New York investment firm has concluded purchase negotiations for
Envirocare, will be the firm's president and chief executive
officer. Semnani on Dec. 15 announced he had sold his
radioactive-waste disposal company.
Envirocare officials released few details about the sale, but
promised to reveal more at a news conference later this month or
in February, after the sale closes. Finerfrock said that
Envirocare's current method of financial assurance, an
irrevocable letter of credit from Wells Fargo bank, would stand
under the new ownership.
The new owners, who will operate as a limited liability
corporation, do not have to disclose their financial
capabilities, nor is the radiation control division required to
examine the principals' past business activities. Lindsay
Goldberg & Bessemer is backing Creamer's purchase of the facility
80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
The New York firm invests primarily in privately held businesses
with long-term potential, according to Envirocare's announcement.
Envirocare did not reveal the price, and probably won't, but
industry insiders estimated the company sold for well more than
$500 million.
The radiation control division must review plans for any changes
before transferring Envirocare's permits, including its
regulatory permit to accept so-called Class B and C waste, which
is hotter than waste the company now receives. None of the
division's review is subject to public comment, Finerfrock said.
- Patty Henetz
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
43 Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium mining in San Juan may return
Article Last Updated: 01/08/2005 02:50:47 AM
High prices promise big profits; 'bad ideas never die,' critics
say
By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune
Surging uranium prices could prompt uranium mines to reopen as
early as this year in San Juan County, boosting the fortunes of
an impoverished area that is home to one of only two operating
uranium mills in the nation, a mining executive said Friday.
Ron Hochstein, president of International Uranium Corp.
(IUC), said the economics of uranium have changed from a buyer's
to a seller's market, with global demand for the ore far
outstripping its supply and prices higher than at any time
during the past 20 years.
The company's White Mesa mill near Blanding already was
scheduled to restart operations in March to process so-called
"alternate feed" materials from California mining operations and
place the remains in an on-site disposal cell, Hochstein said.
But now that the price of uranium has reached $27 per pound,
and expected to reach $30 per pound by the end of the year,
mining and processing the ore instead of leaching waste from
other mines has become a more attractive venture, Hochstein said.
''It's looking like it could be quite a permanent 'up'
market,'' he said. ''We're seeing a tremendous mount of growth
in nuclear power, particularly in Asia and India.''
Hochstein, who made his comments during a meeting with the
state's Division of Radiation Control Board to discuss
remediation plans for a chloroform plume discovered five years
ago at the White Mesa site, said he expected IUC to decide
within the year whether it would resume uranium mining and
processing.
Hochstein said that the global demand for uranium to power
the plants already is nearly double the ore's production, and
said he expected a revitalized uranium mining industry in the
western United States could yield up to 2 million pounds of ore
per year.
"We potentially see a real boom again in San Juan County for
uranium mining," he said.
San Juan County Administrator Rick Bailey agreed. "We would
support uranium mining returning," he said during a telephone
interview. "We have watched that price pretty carefully, and
are excited mining operations . . . could financially get back
into business. A lot of old-time miners are still there, waiting
for the right time."
Bailey noted that the county also awaits a copper mine and
mill in Lisbon Valley, about 20 miles northeast of Monticello,
which he said could bring 80 to 100 well-paying jobs. That would
be proportional to 10,000 good jobs in Salt Lake County, he said.
Mining revenue "could help put a kid through school, provide
the sort of things that in a small rural area are not taken for
granted," Bailey said.
White Mesa mill and Cotter Corp. in Ca on City, Colo., are
the only two uranium processing mills still operating in the
United States. Hochstein said that puts the White Mesa mill five
to seven years ahead of even such uranium-rich locations as
Western Australia, which is closer to the vast Asian nuclear
market but hasn't tapped its potential due to a state government
moratorium on uranium mining.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that China will
soon award an $8 billion contract to build four nuclear reactors
as part of a plan to build 27 nuclear plants and boost its
nuclear energy output fivefold by 2020. India plans to build 17
reactors, tripling its nuclear capacity by 2012. Also driving up
the price of uranium is Russia's decision to reduce uranium
exports to retain resources for the 25 new plants it wants to
build by 2020.
Steve Erickson, an environmental activist who has been
critical of IUC's plans to leach and store the lead-laden
California mine waste, said uranium mining would be preferable
to allowing the White Mesa mill to store toxic waste.
"It might turn out to be beneficial for San Juan County,
though we're not crazy about more nuclear power plants,"
Erickson said.
Environmental activist Jason Groenewold, who attended the
Radiation Control Board meeting, was surprised by Hochstein's
statements. Considering the toll on public health Utah's mining
history has taken, he said, "it just seems like bad ideas never
die, but people who implement them do."
Hochstein said he expected Groenewold, who is spokesman for
the anti-nuclear organization Healthy Alliance Utah, would with
others protest plans to resume uranium mining. But he added that
a lot has been learned over the past half-century about the
negative effects of uranium mining, particularly how radon
exposure can cause cancer.
Uranium mining boomed in Utah following World War II, when
Charles Steen in 1952 struck a deep bed of nearly pure uraninite
near Moab, the one-time "uranium capital of the world." Steen's
mill, bought by the Atlas Corp. in 1956 and operated until 1984,
left 12 million tons of radioactive tailings next to the
Colorado River. The federal Energy Department is studying how to
relocate the mill tailings.
By 1955, about 800 mines operated on the Colorado Plateau,
but by 1962, the industry screeched to a halt. By 1970, the
federal Atomic Energy Commission stopped buying uranium
altogether, and the uranium-fueled economy of southeastern Utah
collapsed. A brief resumption of the industry in the mid-1970s
died quickly.
Hundreds of miners in the Four Corners area died of lung
cancer after working in the unregulated mines, but it wasn't
until 1989 that Congress first passed legislation to compensate
radiation victims.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
44 [DU-WATCH] RENEWED CALLS FOR NUKE ARMS BAN
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 12:47:29 -0600 (CST)
I urge everyone concerned about the threat posed nuclear weapons
to sign petition at www.abolition2000europe.org
<-----Original Message----->
Sent: 1/5/2005 3:57:52 PM To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Subject:
[du-list] GREEN MEP RENEWS CALL FOR NUCLEAR ARMS BAN
NEWS RELEASE
From the office of the South-East England's Green MEP Caroline Lucas
January 5th, 2004
GREEN MEP RENEWS CALL FOR NUCLEAR ARMS BAN
GREEN Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has renewed her commitment to a complete
ban on all nuclear weapons ahead of a UN-sponsored nuclear disarmament
conference taking place in New York later this year.
Dr Lucas, a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
National Council as well as Green Party MEP for South-East England,
has signed the 'Declaration for a Nuclear Weapon Free World' which
hopes to attract millions of signatures before May's seventh Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference.
She said: "The 'official' nuclear states - the UK, France, the US,
Russia and China - have all made legal commitments to dismantle
their nuclear arsenals, but none have done so.
"The reality is, in fact, just the opposite: both the US and UK are
developing a new range of weapons using nuclear technology, in
complete defiance of their obligations under the NPT, and in the
run-up to the Iraq war Defence secretary Geoff Hoon pointedly refused
to rule out a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Saddam."
She added: "I have signed this declaration as, in this 60th anniversary
year of the devastating nuclear strikes on Nagasaki and Hiroshima,
we have an opportunity to use the five-yearly NPT Review conference
as a catalyst for real progress on nuclear disarmament.
"The challenge we all face is to harness the outpouring of public
and private grief and sympathy over the Boxing Day tsunamis to rid
the earth of potential causes of the next disaster once and for
all."
All five official nuclear states are among the 188 to have committed
themselves to disarmament since the NPT was opened for signature
in 1968. In 1996 the International Court of Justice in The Hague
ruled that this commitment was a legal obligation, and in 2000 all
five pledged, again, to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
The New York conference is the seventh five-yearly review of the
states parties progress towards meeting their commitments to
non-proliferation and disarmament under the NPT.
The European Parliament - the EU's only directly-elected institution
- voted last year to call on all EU member states to make a positive
contribution to the New York conference - and its nuclear states,
France and the UK, to begin the process of nuclear disarmament.
Dr Lucas, a veteran peace campaigner who addressed the million-plus
crowd at the anti-Iraq war demonstration on London in 2003 and was
arrested for obstruction during a peaceful blockade of the Faslane
Trident nuclear submarine base in 2001, said:
"A majority of MEPs from all parties and EU member countries adopted
Green Party calls to fully implement the NPT and restated their
expectation that France and the UK would 'engage actively with the
issue to make further progress towards reducing and eliminating
nuclear weapons'.
"The Declaration for a Nuclear-Free World is an opportunity for
voters and citizens around the world to add their voices to the
growing calls for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons and I
urge everyone concerned about the threat posed nuclear weapons to
sign it at www.abolition2000europe.org
."
ENDS
For more information please contact Ben on 01273 671946, 07973
823358 or ben@greenmeps.org.uk
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
Ben Duncan Media Officer to Caroline Lucas MEP benduncan@greenmeps.org.uk
01273 671946 (office) 07973 823358 (mobile)
_______________________________________________ GreenMail mailing
list subscribe: greenmail-subscribe@lists.greenparty.org.uk
https://lists.greenparty.org.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/greenmail
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*****************************************************************
45 FPI BREAKING NEWS: 2,051 'Known' Nuclear Tests!
BRAVE NEW WORLD NEWS
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Free Press International 1.8.2005
From 1945 to 1998, there were 2,051 'known' nuclear tests
conducted worldwide by seven nations, with the United States and
Soviet Union accounting for 85 percent. Almost 26 percent of the
tests (528) were conducted in the atmosphere.
Some tests reached magnitudes between 4.7 and 5.76 on the Richter
scale.
Between September 1961 and December 1962, 244 megatons were
detonated. This amount represents 57 percent of the atmospheric
total, or the equivalent of 16,250 Hiroshima-size bombs.
The majority of nuclear tests took place in Nevada (935),
Kazakhstan (496), Russia (214) and the Mururoa Atoll (175).
Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
posted by GREG ERICSON at
*****************************************************************
46 Rocky Flats: Govt Lied About Contamination
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 12:47:20 -0600 (CST)
"[McKinley] said the federal government has lied about the extent
of contamination at the site and that schoolchildren especially
should not visit the facility."
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E61%7E2636327,00.html
Bill would warn Rocky Flats visitors of dangers Steven K. Paulson
The Associated Press Wednesday, January 05, 2005 -
A newly elected Colorado state legislator who led a grand jury
investigation of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory
said today he will introduce a bill requiring managers of the site
to warn visitors of potential dangers once it is converted to a
wildlife refuge.
Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, was the foreman of a federal grand jury
that tried to indict private and federal officials over contamination
at the site in 1992, but prosecutors settled the case with plea
bargains.
"People do have a right to make a choice. There are a lot of dangerous
activities like horseback riding and rafting and people do it, but
they know it's dangerous before they do it. I don't think anyone
should go out there,"
McKinley said.
McKinley, who was elected in November, said his bill would require
visitors to the wildlife refuge to sign a statement acknowledging
they had been warned about the potential dangers.
He said the federal government has lied about the extent of
contamination at the site and that schoolchildren especially should
not visit the facility.
Spokesmen for Kaiser-Hill Corp., which is handling the cleanup, and
the Department of Energy, which oversees the site, did not immediately
return phone calls.
Federal officials have proposed allowing hiking, cycling, horseback
riding and other activities on 16 miles of trails at Rocky Flats
once it is converted to a refuge by 2008.
A $7 billion cleanup of the 6,420-acre site west of Denver is
scheduled to be complete in 2006. Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers
for nuclear warheads until 1992, when it was shut down because of
safety concerns and because of the end of the Cold War.
*****************************************************************
47 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada security panel wants no-bid contract with Bechtel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada's homeland security leadership wants to
award a $500,000 contract to a University of Nevada, Las Vegas
research institute, which officials said could then contract
with the firm that operates the Nevada Test Site.
Bechtel Nevada Corp. would get the no-bid contract to gauge
potential terrorist targets including resort hotels and
government facilities.
"Get us a quick and dirty ... vulnerability assessment for the
state of Nevada," former Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller
instructed Bechtel officials as the Nevada Commission on
Homeland Security tentatively agreed the deal Thursday.
Commissioners said they wanted more information before making a
final decision. But panel Chairman Dale Carrison, a physician
and trauma unit chief at the University Medical Center in Las
Vegas, made it clear the matter was on a fast track.
"I don't have anything against public bidding," Carrison said,
"but we need something done. We need it right now."
Keller, now a Las Vegas casino security executive, urged that
the assessment start within 60 days.
Lee Van Arsdale, director of the UNLV Institute of Security
Studies, characterized his institute's role as "choreographer to
bring all this data and expertise together to get this done."
Bechtel officials declined to say whether they had an agreement
with the institute. James Sudderth, a Bechtel program manager,
said an overall assessment could be completed in a couple of
months.
Bechtel is the primary contractor at the Nevada Test Site, which
houses the National Nuclear Security Administration's
counterterrorism training program for emergency responders.
Nevada commission members said they want a study to provide a
basis for Nevada's application for more federal homeland
security funding next year.
Officials complained the state was shortchanged last year, when
the federal government cut the state's $37.8 million allocation
to about $26 million.
Institute of Security Studies students include police officers,
firefighters and eight Bechtel Nevada employees working on an
advanced degree in crisis and emergency management.
Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, a commission member and a
student in the program, voted Thursday on the tentative
agreement. He said he didn't consider his vote a conflict of
interest, but said he would abstain from voting on a final
contract.
--
*****************************************************************
48 thedailytimes.com: DOE appointee has history of violations
2005-01-09
by Thomas Fraser
of The Daily Times Staff
Recycling and hazardous waste disposal companies owned by a
Louisville man recently appointed to a U.S. Department of Energy
environmental advisory panel have received repeated Notices of
Violation from the Tennessee Department of Environment and
Conservation.
Steve Dixon, president of the now-defunct Spectra Services and
current president of Maryville-based Spectra Environmental Group,
was served with five notices between 1998 and 2004 for a variety
of violations of hazardous waste statutes, including failure to
maintain proper manifests and improper storage of hazardous waste
containers.
One of those Notices of Violation was rescinded by the state, and
in the other cases, Dixon's company came into compliance with
statute before additional action was taken by the state.
In 2000, Spectra Services pleaded guilty in federal court to
violating the federal law regulating the transport and storage of
toxic waste -- the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act -- and
being an accessory after the fact to violation of the law, which
regulates storage and transport of toxic waste.
Dixon was also cited to municipal court in 1998 by a Maryville
Fire Department inspector, who alleged the company was handling
flammable materials without a proper permit and inadequate
security. That case was cleared when Dixon agreed to remove the
chemicals in question from the facility.
Dixon was also the subject of anonymous complaints that alleged
his company was improperly disposing of hazardous materials, and
in July 2003, a federal environmental crimes unit inspected his
facility at Brookdale Industrial Park in Maryville.
No charges were ever publicly announced in that case, and the
federal agent in charge of the Knoxville office of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation was not available for comment Friday.
Dixon said that search was based on a groundless complaint filed
by a disgruntled former employee.
The allegations are contained in documents in a substantial file
on Spectra Services and Spectra Environmental Group at the
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
Environmental Assistance Center on Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville.
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman
Tisha Calabrese-Benton said Friday she had no immediate knowledge
of the Notices of Violation, but said the reasons for their
issuance vary.
Some may be issued for violations of a relatively unimportant
technical nature, but ``violations that threaten the environment
and human health are taken very seriously.'' She added that
failure to properly manifest hazardous materials is considered a
serious offense.
The Department of Energy announced Dixon's appointment to the Oak
Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board last week. According to a
press release, the ORSSAB ``is a federally chartered citizens
panel that provides recommendations to DOE's Oak Ridge
Environmental Management Program.'' Among the duties of the board
is to make recommendations on the storage and disposal of nuclear
and other hazardous waste generated at DOE's Oak Ridge
operations.
No one was available for comment at the DOE press office Friday.
Dixon said he was ``not sure'' who nominated him for the board
seat, but the board ``advises DOE on environment and land
use-related issues for all the Oak Ridge facilities, the use of
any land and any environmental issues that might come up over
there.'' He said he offered to serve in the unpaid position
because he is ``interested in the environment and interested in
things that affect the environment in East Tennessee.''
As for the Notices of Violation, he said: ``Any issues we have
ever had have been rectified.
``We have one of the best records of anyone in the country,'' and
chalked the violations up to employee error and accident.
``No matter how much you train your employees, there are going to
be accidents,'' he said. ``How you deal with the issue measures
your ability and your character.''
He said the media coverage and federal press releases related to
the 2000 trial were ``grossly distorted,'' and the guilty plea
entered in federal court when he was president of Spectra
Services was solely ``to close the issue because it had been
dragging on for three years.''
Probation and fines
That case involved the transport and disposal of carburetor
cleaner to the Tennessee Air National Guard Base in Alcoa. The
federal government alleged Dixon's company failed to provide a
proper federal manifest when it collected the cleaner for
disposal, and then improperly stored the cleaner in old paint
drums.
Following the guilty plea, Dixon was sentenced to three years
probation and fined $3,600 for the count of improper treatment,
and sentenced to one year probation, a fine of $2,400 and 150
hours of community service for one count of ``knowingly
transporting hazardous waste illegally.''
After he entered the guilty plea in January 2000, Dixon told a
Daily Times reporter: ``This is a three-year-old investigation
about a five-gallon bucket and related paperwork. It was sent to
the proper facility but the right government form was not used.''
Also according to the 2000 news report, the U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of Tennessee commended the Department of Energy
Office of the Inspector General for its assistance in prosecuting
the case against Dixon.
All materials Copyright © 2004 Horvitz Newspapers.
The Daily Times 307 East Harper Ave. Maryville, TN 37804
Mailing Address: PO Box 9740 Maryville, TN 37802-9740
*****************************************************************
49 ABQjournal: LANL Impact Under DOE Review
the Albuquerque Journal
Saturday, January 8, 2005
Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
The Department of Energy is reviewing the impact of
operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory to update a
site-wide environmental document from 1999.
But laboratory watchdog groups want to see an entirely new
analysis done because they say recent information and
environmental changes that have developed over the intervening
years make an update insufficient.
The review is a necessary five-year analysis required by
DOE to ensure that laboratory operations and environmental
impacts are within the scope of what was envisioned when the
original analysis was drafted.
If operations or conditions have changed significantly, the
National Nuclear Security Administration is supposed to update
the site-wide environmental analysis with a supplemental
analysis amending the disclosures, which is what the agency
plans to do. Environmental groups say that doesn't go far enough.
"There are a lot of reasons why NNSA should just be working
on a new site-wide Environmental Impact Statement and not waste
time doing a supplement, because there have been so many
changes," said Joni Arends, director of Santa Fe-based Concerned
Citizens for Nuclear Safety.
For example, she said, since the 1999 analysis, laboratory
and oversight officials have learned about ground water
contamination that may be reaching the Rio Grande, and the state
Environment Department will soon enforce a consent order on a
"fence-to-fence cleanup" that wasn't considered at the time.
But DOE's environmental compliance officer at LANL,
Elizabeth Withers, said the new information and changes at LANL
just aren't enough to warrant doing an entirely new site-wide
Environmental Impact Statement.
"You would only do a brand-new (Environmental Impact
Statement) for a site if you have a completely new set of
decisions to make," she said.
"In this case, we have only been implementing these
decisions for about four years; it is really not long enough for
us to consider having a new direction."
She said the changes— including the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire,
the transfer of some lab property to neighboring pueblos and Los
Alamos County, and some facility operation changes— are
significant, which is why NNSA decided to forego an evaluation
of whether a supplemental analysis was even necessary.
But, said Withers, "people are going to see that these
kinds of changes didn't really result in much of a difference in
LANL's projects," so an entirely new analysis isn't necessary.
Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, said
DOE and NNSA should do an entirely new analysis because of
changes to LANL facilities and operations, but also because the
one done in 1999 was deficient.
"They should have done the job right the first time," he
said.
Coghlan said he is not surprised about DOE's reluctance to
tackle a new site-wide analysis, but said groups do have a
backup option.
"They could, in effect, have a new (site-wide analysis)
through the supplemental, all depending on how broad the scope
is," he said, adding that he expects DOE to keep the scope as
narrow as possible.
Coghlan said his group plans to pressure DOE to keep the
scope of the supplemental analysis as broad as possible.
The public will have a chance to contribute to the review
process.
DOE is seeking comment on the scope of the supplemental
analysis. A meeting is scheduled for Jan. 19 at the Pablo Roybal
Elementary School in Pojoaque from 6-8 p.m. Comments on the
scope of the supplemental analysis are due to DOE by Feb. 27.
DOE expects a draft version of the supplemental analysis to
be released sometime early this fall, followed by a 45-day
public comment period. A final supplemental analysis is expected
to be released in early 2006.
Copyright 2005 Albuquerque
*****************************************************************
50 ABQjournal: LANL May Lose Task to Sandia
the Albuquerque Journal.
Saturday, January 8, 2005
Albuquerque Journal--> John Fleck--> By
Journal Staff Writer
The federal government may abandon a plan to make hundreds
of tiny nuclear weapon parts at Los Alamos, moving the work to
Sandia National Laboratories instead.
After spending years preparing for the work at Los Alamos,
the National Nuclear Security Administration is considering
combining the job with similar work already being done at
Sandia, said NNSA spokesman Bryan Wilkes.
"It makes sense to consolidate wherever possible," Wilkes
said.
Spokesmen for both labs declined comment, referring all
questions to Wilkes.
The work involves loading radioactive tritium into neutron
targets, tiny devices used to help jump-start a nuclear weapon's
blast.
Once loaded with tritium, the target is put in a larger
device called a neutron generator before the whole thing is
installed in a nuclear weapon.
The neutron generators are built at Sandia, and NNSA
officials think it might make more sense for Sandia to do the
target loading, too.
NNSA staff is beginning a formal environmental study of the
move, a legal requirement before any final decision can be made.
"NNSA is studying the possibility of transferring the
neutron tube target loading mission to Sandia from Los Alamos,
but only studying the possibility," Wilkes said.
The target tube loading is one of the orphan nuclear
weapons production jobs set adrift when a number of U.S. nuclear
weapons factories were closed after the Cold War.
Los Alamos began doing the work in temporary quarters in an
old tritium laboratory built in the 1960s.
Since at least 1995, Los Alamos has planned to move the
work to the more modern Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility,
built in the 1980s.
Wilkes would not say how much has been spent at Los Alamos
preparing the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility.
The possible move of the tritium work to Sandia comes as
the Department of Energy is in the midst of a bidding
competition to see who will run Los Alamos in the future.
As such, the move is a blow to the University of
California, the lab's current manager, said Jay Coghlan, head of
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, an activist group.
"I think it's a slap in the face of both UC and Los
Alamos," Coghlan said.
While a decision is being made, the work will temporarily
remain in the 40-year-old Tritium Science and Fabrication
Facility at Los Alamos.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
51 Tri-City Herald: Company chosen to create drawings
This story was published Friday, January 7th, 2005
By John Trumbo Herald staff writer
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has selected an
architectural and engineering firm from New Jersey to make the
first conceptual drawings for a $250 million campus in north
Richland that will replace aging facilities in the 300 Area of
Hanford.
"We look at this as very significant. It is starting the
momentum of getting the project going," said Dwayne Coburn,
project director for the replacement project.
CUH2A of Princeton is teaming with JUB Engineers of Kennewick
and Integris of Spokane to produce the design for approximately
500,000 square feet of facilities on federal land a few miles
south of Hanford.
The design process will begin in February with preliminary
sketches and conceptual designs taking shape by the end of May.
Construction could begin this summer on facilities that would
involve private financing.
Coburn said Congress provided $1.6 million in 2004 and is
committing for the project in 2005.
The campus will rely on funding from state and private sources,
too.
"The first step is to bring on a firm to conceptualize what we
need, from a master planning perspective and what we want the
buildings potentially to look like," Coburn said.
The replacement campus will house capabilities, equipment and
staff that do critical science and technology research and
development now done in 20 buildings dating back to the 1950s.
Those facilities are scheduled to be removed as part of cleanup
from the Hanford nuclear production years following the
Manhattan Project. The cleanup deadline is 2009.
A prepared statement issued by the lab noted that facilities
needing to be replaced have most recently been used by
researchers to develop methods for detecting smuggling of
nuclear materials, researching effects of hydroelectric dams on
migrating salmon and improving techniques for cleaning up the
environment.
CUH2A was selected after the lab did a national search and
reviewed responses from 23 companies. CUH2A advertises itself as
specializing in planning and design of technologically complex
facilities for science and technology.
Coburn said getting the concepts onto paper will be important as
representatives of the lab shop around for funding sources.
"This is the first time we'll have concept on paper to go out
and work the funding clients," he said.
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
52 Tri-City Herald: DOE audit finds delay in closing risky wells
This story was published Friday, January 7th, 2005
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
Hundreds of unused wells at Hanford that can spread radioactive
contamination to ground water are not being decommissioned
promptly, according to a report released Thursday by the
Inspector General's Office of the Department of Energy.
The report blames lack of a comprehensive decommissioning plan
for delays.
DOE management agreed Hanford has room for improvement, but said
it met targets for decommissioning wells last year and is
committed to decommissioning 520 wells by the end of fiscal year
2006.
Thousands of wells were drilled at Hanford to monitor ground
water for contaminants left from 50 years of production of
plutonium at the site for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
The majority were drilled before requirements to limit the
possible migration of water down the well casing to the ground
water. As old wells have been abandoned, they've become
potential pathways for contaminants to be carried to the ground
water and then to eventually reach the Columbia River.
In one case, DOE discovered in 1985 that one high-risk well, and
possibly multiple wells, had allowed uranium to migrate to the
ground water.
"Despite the passage of almost two decades, action was not taken
to decommission these dangerous wells," according to the report.
It estimated that as many as 3,500 of Hanford's approximately
7,000 wells are unused and need to be decommissioned as promptly
as possible to prevent additional ground water contamination.
DOE comments submitted to the Inspector General's Office
disputed that number, putting the number of wells needing to be
decommissioned at about 2,000. The actual number of wells that
need to be left operable to monitor the nuclear reservation
after cleanup is completed has yet to be determined.
Hanford workers decommissioned 146 wells from fiscal year 2002
through fiscal year 2004, according to the report. However, the
site has the capability to decommission 104 to 150 wells a year,
the report said.
More than half of the decommissioning work completed was in the
last fiscal year. But of the 133 wells that had been identified
for decommissioning in fiscal year 2004, about 33 percent were
not completed, according to the report. DOE reported slightly
more wells completed.
DOE said in documents provided to the Inspector General's Office
it exceeded its baseline goal of decommissioning 90 wells. But
when the budget was finalized, Hanford did not have the money to
go much beyond the baseline, it said.
The report disagreed, saying DOE had committed to go beyond the
baseline and adopted an accelerated schedule of decommissioning
133 wells last year.
Well decommissioning is being funded as a priority action
through 2006, wrote Paul Golan, DOE's acting assistant secretary
for environmental management, in a letter to the Inspector
General's Office. He anticipates meeting commitments to
decommission high-risk wells on schedule through 2006, he said.
That will require better information, the report concluded.
"Without accurate and up-to-date information regarding the
condition of site wells, it is likely that the department will
continue to experience delays and may be unable to improve its
performance," according to the report.
DOE's decommissioning plan does not outline the total inventory
of unused wells, does not prioritize them by risk of
contaminating ground water and does not include a cost estimate,
according to the report.
It found that data that had been passed down from contractor to
contractor had not been verified and there was uncertainty about
whether some wells listed in the database as "abandoned" had
been decommissioned, according to the report.
Work started during the audit to improve the database.
The report recommends verifying the status of all wells and
performing a risk assessment to make sure those most likely to
contaminate ground water are given top priority.
DOE will create a new well decommissioning plan, Golan wrote.
Decommissioning activities through 2006 have already been
planned and approved by regulators, but the new document will be
used for the remaining wells, he said.
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
53 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Savannah
FR Doc 05-334
[Federal Register: January 7, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 5)]
[Notices] [Page 1426] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr07ja05-51]
River AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Savannah
River. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Public Law 92-463, 86
Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be
announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Monday, January 24, 2005, 1 p.m.-5:15 p.m., Tuesday,
January 25,2005, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
ADDRESSES: Hilton-Palmetto Dunes, 23 Ocean Lane, Hilton Head, SC
29928.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gerri Flemming, Closure Project
Office, Department of Energy Savannah River Operations Office,
P.O. Box A, Aiken, SC 29802; Phone: (803) 952-7886.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of
environmental restoration, waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Agenda Monday, January 24, 2005 1 p.m.--2005 Workplan
Session. 3 p.m.--Combined Committee Session. 5.15 p.m.--Adjourn.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 8:30 a.m.--Recognition of Outgoing
Board Members & Remarks. 9 a.m.--Approval of Minutes, Agency
Updates. 9:45 a.m.--Public Comment Session. 10 a.m.--Chair and
Facilitator Update. 10:15 a.m.--Waste Management Committee
Report. 11:15 a.m.--Facilities Disposition & Site Remediation
Committee Report.
11:50 a.m.--Public Comments. 12 p.m.--Lunch Break. 1
p.m.--Nuclear Materials Committee Report. 2 p.m.--Strategic &
Legacy Management Committee Report. 3 p.m.--Administrative
Committee Report, 2005 Candidate Review and Elections, 2005
Committee Chair Elections.
3:45 p.m.--Public Comments. 4 p.m.--Adjourn. Public
Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or
after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements
pertaining to agenda items should contact Gerri Flemming's office
at the address or telephone listed above. Requests must be
received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision
will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The
Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in
a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct business. Each
individual wishing to make public comment will be provided a
maximum of five minutes to present their comments.
This notice is being published less that 15 days before the date
of the meeting due to programmatic issues.
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Freedom of
Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and
4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Minutes
will also be available by writing to Gerri Flemming, Department
of Energy Savannah River Operations Office, P.O. Box A, Aiken, SC
29802, or by calling her at (803) 952-7886.
Issued at Washington, DC on January 4, 2004.
Carol Anne Matthews, Acting Advisory Committee Management
Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-334 Filed 1-4-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
54 LA monitor: Pajarito Corridor restricted further
lareporter@lamonitor.com DARRYL NEWMAN
Monitor Staff Writer
Due to what Los Alamos National
Laboratory officials are citing as security issues, bicyclists
and pedestrians without proper government identification are no
longer allowed on the Pajarito Corridor Road. The corridor - the
road between the White Rock access control station and the upper
Pajarito Road access control station adjacent to TA-59 - is off
limits as of Monday to those people without identification
issued by LANL or the Department of Energy.
"There are lab assets within the corridor that we felt were
better protected by restricted access," said Mike Grimler, team
leader for Force Protective Oversig ht and Special Projects at
LANL. "We had a har d time coming up with something that was fair
and equitable. This is a way to have only badged people in the
area." Grimler said that his office has received complaints in
regard to the restricted access to Pajarito Road.
"A lot of cyclists were not happy with the new policy, but we
wanted to be very considerate of the biking community and find a
balance," he said. "We made every effort during the policy
assessment to include the local bicycling groups." But Rick
Kelley, an avid bicyclist and member of the Tuff Riders Mountain
Bike Club, said that was not the case.
"They did not notify us," Kelley said, who is a lab employee.
"We're most concerned with the limited access to the Mortendad
Trail area on LANL property, as it impacts access to trails we've
had for years." Kelly said that while the restricted area does
not affect his personal bicycling, it does prevent others from
enjoying the area for recreational use, including his son.
LANL Spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas said the security measure was
implemented in response to recent reports of terrorists in
Baghdad detonating bombs while on bicycles.
"This caused us to take another look at our security plan," she
said. "While we understand that som e people may be unhappy, they
have to understand that we are a national facility that has to be
aware of security concerns."
DeLucas said that bicyclists and pedestrians stopped on the road
without the proper identification will be escorted from the area.
She further advised that those users without identification find
an alternate biking route.
The Transportation Board addressed the issue at its meeting
Thursday night and decided to consult the Bicycle Subcommittee
before submittin g a recommendation to the county council.
hal Spencer, board liaison to the committee, said he e-mailed
more than 50 websites concerning bicycle bombings to the lab
security division for their information.
"The S-Division decided that they didn't have the man power to
search people," Spencer said at the meeting.
Transportation Board Chair Larry Warner asked the board how much
of an issue the restricted corridor access is to the public.
"It's within our so-called power," he said. "My sense though is
that if we're not getting an outcry from the public, it may not
be necessary to make a recommendation to the county council."
Protection Technology Los Alamos personnel will require all
bicyclists to stop at the access control points on both ends of
Pajarito Road and present the proper identification. Walkers,
joggers and others on foot on Pajarito Road will not be required
to stop at the access control points, but must present lab
identif ication. For more inf ormation, call DeLucas at 667-5225.
copyright">© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights
*****************************************************************
55 lamonitor.com: DOE seeks input on environmental review
Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
Enough has changed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the last
five years to warrant an additional environmental impact
evaluation, but not so much as to require a whole new Site-Wide
Environmental Impact Statement. In the midst of preparing a
site-wide analysis on which direction to take, said Elizabeth
Withers, local officials of the National Nuclear Security
Administration decided to move directly to a Supplemental
Site-wide Environmental Impact Statement (S-SWEIS).
Withers is the National Environmental Policy Act compliance
officer at the LANL Area Site Office. Earlier this week, the
office announced the beginning of a formal NEPA process to
produce a draft S-SWEIS by early fall.
As a first step in the public participation, interested members
of the community are invited to attend a scooping session on
Jan. 19, 6-8 p.m., at the Pablo Roybal Elementary School in
Pojoaque.
The meeting will be conducted in a round-table style in small
groups with flip charts at each table and various other
opportunities to record public input.
Public comments on the question of the scope of the impact
analysis will be received through Feb. 28.
The analysis will rely on the 1996 Site-wide Environmental
Impact Statement as a starting point, taking up changes that
have occurred at the laboratory since then that have not been
the subject of their own individual environmental analyses or
impact statements, although the separate studies will be taken
into account in terms of the cumulative impacts of LANL
operations.
The S-SWEIS will look at the impact of the Cerro Grade Fire,
which occurred shortly after a formal Record of Decision had
been issued on the original study in late 1999, Withers said.
The fire brought changes to the watershed and vegetation and
contaminant migration. Tree thinning activities and defensible
space measures have occurred more rapidly than expected.
The drought and the consequences of the bark-beetle infestation
in the remaining trees, all need to be taken into account in the
new environmental update.
An environmental compliance agreement with the state is expected
to be signed soon with both investigatory and remediational
aspects. Withers noted that most of the actual cleanup will take
place six to ten years in the future, outside the scope of the
current document.
A list of 15 "key facilities" were identified in the last SWEIS
capable of causing significant environmental impacts or
considered of most concern to the public. These will be reviewed
and an overview of the LANL site and its work will be prepared.
Changes in at least two key facilities will be analyzed.
The supercomputer at Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling
and Simulation is now scheduled to double in capacity before
2009, implying an increased consumption of water and power.
The Nonproliferation and International Security Center may store
an additional amount of low-hazard nuclear material, as a result
of the ongoing transfer of Technical Area 18 to the Nevada Test
Site.
Technical Area 18 was itself a "key facility," so activities
related to its relocation, expected to continue over the next
five years, must also be considered.
Another facility of concern is the newly constructed, but never
commissioned Biosafety Level 3 laboratory, which has been on
hold for more than a year.
Winters said the initial environmental assessment had been
completed in February 2002, shortly after the attacks of 9/11.
"As time has gone on since then, new needs and new projects have
evolved from that event so that we have slightly different needs
for the BSL-3," she said.
The BSL-3 is the subject of a separate environmental assessment.
If it is determined that the facility will have no significant
environmental impact, that finding would be included in the
supplemental study. If not, an environmental impact statement
would be developed as a part of the S-SWEIS.
Withers said that an environmental impact statement under
preparation for the Modern Pit Facility was currently on hold.
It had been proposed for one of five sites that included Los
Alamos, but failed to obtain funding or support from Congress.
Another project she said that might be included in the study is
a replacement for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment center,
now barely in the conceptual stage.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
56 PhysOrg: GM, Sandia to advance hydrogen storage
January 08, 2005
General Motors Corp. and Sandia National Laboratories have
launched a partnership to design and test an advanced method for
storing hydrogen based on metal hydrides.
Metal hydrides - formed when metal alloys are combined with
hydrogen - can absorb and store hydrogen within their structures.
When subjected to heat, the hydrides release their hydrogen. In a
fuel cell system, the hydrogen can then be combined with oxygen
to produce electricity.
GM and Sandia, a National Nuclear Security Administration lab,
have embarked on a 4-year, $10 million program to develop and
test tanks that store hydrogen in a complex hydride, sodium
aluminum hydride - or sodium alanate for short. The goal is to
develop a pre-prototype solid-state hydrogen storage tank that
would store more hydrogen onboard a fuel cell vehicle than
current conventional hydrogen storage methods. Researchers also
hope to create a tank design that could be adaptable to any type
of solid-state hydrogen storage.
"Hydrides have shown significant early promise to one day
increase the range of fuel cell vehicles," says Jim Spearot,
director, GM Advanced Hydrogen Storage Program. "We know a lot
of research still needs to be done, both on the types of
hydrides we use, as well as the tanks we store them in. We think
our work on projects like this with Sandia will get us another
step closer to our goal."
GM and Sandia say the program is part of a concerted effort to
find a way to store enough hydrogen onboard a fuel cell vehicle
to equal the driving range obtained from a tank of gas, which
will be key to customer acceptance of fuel cell vehicles.
The current leading methods of storage are liquid and compressed
gas. However, to date, neither of these technologies has been
able to provide the needed range and running time for fuel cell
vehicles.
"We are designing a hydrogen storage system with challenging
thermal management requirements and limits on volume and
weight," says Chris Moen, manager of science and engineering
technologies at Sandia. "Our staff researchers are excited to
apply their unique, science-based design and analysis
capabilities to engineer a viable solution."
"This is the kind of public private research partnership that
will help us realize the President's vision, communicated in his
2003 State of the Union Address, that 'the first car driven by a
child born today can be powered by hydrogen, and
pollution-free,'" said DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham. "Over the
long term, because of the President's visionary leadership,
clean, efficient hydrogen fuel technologies like this will help
make our nation far less reliant on foreign sources of energy."
In 2003, President Bush announced the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
with $1.2 billion over five years (FY 2004-FY 2008) to
accelerate hydrogen research. Sandia's research activities in
hydrogen storage support the President's long term vision for
commercially viable hydrogen-powered vehicles to reverse
America's growing dependence on foreign oil.
The GM-Sandia project, privately funded and separate from the
President's initiative, will be conducted in two phases. In
Phase One, the program will study engineering designs for a
sodium alanate storage tank. Researchers will analyze these
designs using thermal and mechanical modeling, develop controls
systems for hydrogen transfer and storage, and develop designs
for external heat management. GM and Sandia scientists will also
be testing various shapes - from cylindrical to semi-conformable
- to see which are the most promising.
In Phase Two, researchers will subject promising tank designs to
rigorous safety testing and ultimately fabricate pre-prototype
sodium alanate hydrogen storage tanks based on knowledge gained
from the program(c)€s first phase.
A possible scenario for filling up with a solid-state storage
solution such as sodium alanate could look like this: The
alanate would come preloaded in the tank, where it would remain,
giving up its hydrogen, and becoming a mixture of sodium hydride
and aluminum. The customer would fill up using gaseous hydrogen.
During filling, the mixture of aluminum and sodium hydride would
absorb the hydrogen and turn it back into alanate, which would
be ready to yield hydrogen when needed by the fuel cell. Once
the tank is filled, the hydrogen would be stored at low
pressure.
While it has shown good potential, hydride-based hydrogen
storage also has some hurdles to clear. One current drawback is
that most complex metal hydrides, such as sodium alanate, still
operate at too high a temperature, which causes an inefficiency
that forces some of the hydrogen to be used up in order to
release the remaining hydrogen. Another challenge is reducing
the time it takes to reabsorb hydrogen. It currently takes at
least 30 minutes to recharge.
In separate, independent projects outside of this collaboration,
both GM and Sandia are working to identify alloys that will
store greater amounts of hydrogen that can be released at lower
temperatures. Reducing filling and recharging times is another
key area of research.
The research conducted through the GM-Sandia partnership is
independent from that of Sandia's participation in the Metal
Hydride Center of Excellence. The Center of Excellence, to be
funded in Fiscal Year 2005 through a U.S. Department of Energy
"Grand Challenge," aims to develop a new class of materials
capable of storing hydrogen safely and economically.
Source: DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
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57 Albuquerque Journal: LANL Impact Under DOE Review -
By Adam Rankin
Saturday, January 8, 2005
By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer
The Department of Energy is reviewing the impact of operations at
Los Alamos National Laboratory to update a site-wide
environmental document from 1999.
But laboratory watchdog groups want to see an entirely new
analysis done because they say recent information and
environmental changes that have developed over the intervening
years make an update insufficient.
The review is a necessary five-year analysis required by DOE to
ensure that laboratory operations and environmental impacts are
within the scope of what was envisioned when the original
analysis was drafted.
If operations or conditions have changed significantly, the
National Nuclear Security Administration is supposed to update
the site-wide environmental analysis with a supplemental analysis
amending the disclosures, which is what the agency plans to do.
Environmental groups say that doesn't go far enough.
"There are a lot of reasons why NNSA should just be working on a
new site-wide Environmental Impact Statement and not waste time
doing a supplement, because there have been so many changes,"
said Joni Arends, director of Santa Fe-based Concerned Citizens
for Nuclear Safety.
For example, she said, since the 1999 analysis, laboratory and
oversight officials have learned about ground water contamination
that may be reaching the Rio Grande, and the state Environment
Department will soon enforce a consent order on a "fence-to-fence
cleanup" that wasn't considered at the time.
But DOE's environmental compliance officer at LANL, Elizabeth
Withers, said the new information and changes at LANL just aren't
enough to warrant doing an entirely new site-wide Environmental
Impact Statement.
"You would only do a brand-new (Environmental Impact Statement)
for a site if you have a completely new set of decisions to
make," she said.
"In this case, we have only been implementing these decisions for
about four years; it is really not long enough for us to consider
having a new direction."
She said the changes— including the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, the
transfer of some lab property to neighboring pueblos and Los
Alamos County, and some facility operation changes— are
significant, which is why NNSA decided to forego an evaluation of
whether a supplemental analysis was even necessary.
But, said Withers, "people are going to see that these kinds of
changes didn't really result in much of a difference in LANL's
projects," so an entirely new analysis isn't necessary.
Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, said DOE
and NNSA should do an entirely new analysis because of changes to
LANL facilities and operations, but also because the one done in
1999 was deficient.
"They should have done the job right the first time," he said.
Coghlan said he is not surprised about DOE's reluctance to tackle
a new site-wide analysis, but said groups do have a backup
option.
"They could, in effect, have a new (site-wide analysis) through
the supplemental, all depending on how broad the scope is," he
said, adding that he expects DOE to keep the scope as narrow as
possible.
Coghlan said his group plans to pressure DOE to keep the scope of
the supplemental analysis as broad as possible.
The public will have a chance to contribute to the review
process.
DOE is seeking comment on the scope of the supplemental analysis.
A meeting is scheduled for Jan. 19 at the Pablo Roybal Elementary
School in Pojoaque from 6-8 p.m. Comments on the scope of the
supplemental analysis are due to DOE by Feb. 27.
DOE expects a draft version of the supplemental analysis to be
released sometime early this fall, followed by a 45-day public
comment period. A final supplemental analysis is expected to be
released in early 2006.
Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
58 Albuquerque Journal: LANL May Lose Task to Sandia -
By John Fleck
Saturday, January 8, 2005
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer
The federal government may abandon a plan to make hundreds of
tiny nuclear weapon parts at Los Alamos, moving the work to
Sandia National Laboratories instead.
After spending years preparing for the work at Los Alamos, the
National Nuclear Security Administration is considering combining
the job with similar work already being done at Sandia, said NNSA
spokesman Bryan Wilkes.
"It makes sense to consolidate wherever possible," Wilkes said.
Spokesmen for both labs declined comment, referring all questions
to Wilkes.
The work involves loading radioactive tritium into neutron
targets, tiny devices used to help jump-start a nuclear weapon's
blast.
Once loaded with tritium, the target is put in a larger device
called a neutron generator before the whole thing is installed in
a nuclear weapon.
The neutron generators are built at Sandia, and NNSA officials
think it might make more sense for Sandia to do the target
loading, too.
NNSA staff is beginning a formal environmental study of the move,
a legal requirement before any final decision can be made.
"NNSA is studying the possibility of transferring the neutron
tube target loading mission to Sandia from Los Alamos, but only
studying the possibility," Wilkes said.
The target tube loading is one of the orphan nuclear weapons
production jobs set adrift when a number of U.S. nuclear weapons
factories were closed after the Cold War.
Los Alamos began doing the work in temporary quarters in an old
tritium laboratory built in the 1960s.
Since at least 1995, Los Alamos has planned to move the work to
the more modern Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility, built in
the 1980s.
Wilkes would not say how much has been spent at Los Alamos
preparing the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility.
z The possible move of the tritium work to Sandia comes as the
Department of Energy is in the midst of a bidding competition to
see who will run Los Alamos in the future.
As such, the move is a blow to the University of California, the
lab's current manager, said Jay Coghlan, head of Nuclear Watch of
New Mexico, an activist group.
"I think it's a slap in the face of both UC and Los Alamos,"
Coghlan said.
While a decision is being made, the work will temporarily remain
in the 40-year-old Tritium Science and Fabrication Facility at
Los Alamos.
Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more
information go to:
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