***************************************************************** 01/16/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.11 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iraq Weapons Claim Shows Flaws in Politics 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush: U.S. Not Rushing to Leave Iraq 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Samples Will Prove Nukes Peaceful 4 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea: U.S. a 'Nuclear Criminal' 5 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Russia sees no collapse in North 6 YWS: U.S. Makes Careful Response to N.K. Bid to Resume Six-Way Talks 7 BBC: US cool on North Korea overtures 8 Xinhua: IAEA chief to visit Nigeria 9 Japan Times: Notion of an 'independent' missile defense is snake oil 10 BNN: Nuclear threat in South Asia to persist NUCLEAR REACTORS 11 US: CENSORED(#10) New Nuke Plants: People Pay, Industry Profits 12 US: thenews-messenger.com: Davis-Besse to shut down Monday for inspe 13 Taipei Times: China's push for nuclear reactors sparks concern 14 UK Sunday Herald: Armed guard at nuclear stations - 15 US: toledoblade.com: Davis-Besse to begin 21-day shutdown 16 US: toledoblade.com: Electricity deregulation falls short on benefit 17 Xinhua: China forms a rational structure of nuclear industry 18 Xinhua: Nuclear power construction enters crucial stage 19 US: Grist: Anti-nuke opposition muted even as U.S. nuclear industry 20 US: Hudson Valley News: Diana: "... I need some answers ..." Indian 21 US: Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: More wind farms coming to count 22 US: News-Press: Cooper Nuclear to start refueling, repair outage 23 US: NJPIRG: PSEG's History at Salem and Hope Creek Puts Public Safet 24 US: Cape Cod Online: Nuclear revival 25 US: APP.COM: Oyster Creek fortified against possible attack 26 US: APP.COM: State official: Feds go easy on nuclear plants NUCLEAR SAFETY 27 US: PCNH: Checks on way for nuke workers' kin - 28 Bellona: Details of US sub accident become clearer as name of deceas 29 US: American Online: Atomic Safety board sets hearings NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 30 UPI: Yemen takes nuclear waste precautions - 31 Las Vegas RJ: Outgoing energy secretary proud of Yucca Mountain 32 US: Los Angeles Business Journal: Controversy Brews Over Utility’s S 33 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Flood prompts N-waste alert 34 Xinhua: Date for resumption of uranium enrichment undetermined: Iran 35 US: Boston Globe: Towns react to national report on perchlorate 36 US: Pasadena Star-News: Area water is safe to drink, study says 37 US: American Online: Waste Control decision coming soon 38 US: AU ABC: First trainload of uranium arrives in NT. 39 Ottawa Citizen: Stop 'outrageous' nuclear waste dump Come clean on C 40 US: AP Wire: Relicensing of nuclear plants raises waste storage conc NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 41 ABQjournal: LANL Having Waste Problem; Flows Restricted Through 42 Portsmouth Herald: ‘Die-hard’ activists 43 Tri-City Herald: PNNL looking ahead 44 Tri-City Herald: From WWII-era to nation's 'most modern lab' 45 Albuquerque Journal: LANL Having Waste Problem; 46 Newsday: 70 years to clean water? BROOKHAVEN LAB POLLUTION 47 chillicothe gazette: Toxic beryllium likely present at Piketon plant OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iraq Weapons Claim Shows Flaws in Politics From the Associated Press [UP] Saturday January 15, 2005 5:46 PM By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - If an exterminator came to your home, fumigated the place and then concluded there no were varmints to begin with, he might land himself in trouble with the Better Business Bureau. It's supposed to be a golden rule from the schoolyard to the corporate suite and beyond: truth or consequences. When it comes to the politics of oops, though, things are different. Whether it's the faulty prewar intelligence that President Bush relied on or Bill Clinton's tangle with kissing-and-telling, getting caught on the wrong side of reality need not be fatal for a career. Bush is scarcely troubled despite acknowledging that the charge that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the main rationale for the war, was not borne out by the facts. His administration's acknowledgment last week that the fruitless search had ended came as no surprise; inspectors reported they were coming up empty before voters re-elected Bush in November. Politicians, by definition, are accountable. But they are not always held to account when their certitude proved wrong. Bush sounded a little like President Reagan during the Iran-Contra jam when he addressed the weapons search in an ABC interview broadcast Friday night. It turns out that his conviction was based on a feeling, not really fact, just as Reagan's was when he asserted he had never traded arms for hostages. ``I felt like we'd find weapons of mass destruction,'' Bush said. Said Reagan in 1987: ``A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.'' Reagan sailed into the history books as one of the legends, the Teflon president whose sticky situations never stuck. Bush is hardly the first to take a magic eraser to assertions that prove flat out wrong. One phrase stood out as President Nixon's eraser during Watergate, although it didn't do the job. When press secretary Ron Ziegler announced that Nixon was taking Watergate seriously and opening an investigation - after 10 months of minimizing the exploding scandal - Ziegler was asked about all those earlier statements pooh-poohing the matter as a ``third-rate burglary'' and the like. ``This is the operative statement,'' Ziegler said. ``The others are inoperative.'' Several assertions about Iraq have proved inoperative. Along with the faulty weapons claim, the administration made allegations linking al-Qaida to now-ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that withered under scrutiny. Investigators also concluded that aluminum tubes suspected of being used for nuclear bomb development in Iraq were probably meant for conventional rockets, and that there was no evidence Iraq sought uranium abroad after 1991. Both points contradicted Bush's claims before the war. Bush has not wavered from the belief that he made the right decision to go to war and would do so again, arguing that Saddam was a danger and that the world, the United States and Iraq are now safer. Clinton's deceptions during the Monica Lewinsky affair (``I did not have sexual relations with that woman'') brought him extraordinary trouble, including an impeachment trial. Still he survived to complete his term and bring his reputation back into balance. For him, the oops was in getting caught doing something he knew he shouldn't at the time. The catalog of presidential deceptions over the years is familiar; bad judgment calls made in good faith are murkier. One chart-topper in the former category: President Lyndon Johnson's winning congressional approval for prosecution of the Vietnam War with a false claim that U.S. warships had come under an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. The deception came out after the war. But it remains a mystery, despite decades of examination, whether President Franklin Roosevelt had the pre-Pearl Harbor intelligence to foresee a strike by Japan. Also, Johnson had no idea how deep the United States would sink in Vietnam - that half a million soldiers would not prevail. Anything to do with the economy is ripe for oops, and Bush has had some of those, too. His administration predicted the nation would create 3.6 million jobs in 2004 - the election year - but job growth was half that. Bush was saddled in the campaign with comparisons to Herbert Hoover, the last president before him to lose jobs over a four-year term. Hoover committed an oops for the ages when he declared in his 1929 inauguration speech that ``we have reached a higher degree of comfort and security than ever existed before in the history of the world. ... In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure.'' The Great Depression followed. Voters exacted consequences, electing FDR. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush: U.S. Not Rushing to Leave Iraq From the Associated Press [UP] Monday January 17, 2005 12:01 AM AP Photo MAC104 By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush says the U.S. military will pull out of Iraq ``as quickly as possible,'' but he is not endorsing Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement that troops could begin returning home this year. ``The way I would put it is, American troops will be leaving as quickly as possible, but they won't be leaving until we have completed our mission,'' Bush said in a Washington Post interview published Sunday. ``And part of the mission is to train Iraqis so they can fight the terrorists. And the sooner the Iraqis are prepared - better prepared, better equipped to fight - the sooner our troops will start coming home,'' Bush said. Powell told National Public Radio last week that he believes Americans could begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqis take on a larger security role. Powell, in his final days as the government's chief diplomat, said he could not give a timeline when all the troops will be home. Bush said the U.S. military is ``constantly assessing'' if Iraqi security forces are up to the job, allowing the United States to begin pulling out. The president would not commit to significantly reduce troops by the end of his second term in 2009. Bush said his priorities over the next four years are winning the fight against terrorism, spreading freedom and democracy, reducing the deficit and overhauling Social Security and the tax system. White House counselor Dan Bartlett, who appeared on three talks shows on Sunday, said Bush's inaugural address on Thursday will stress those goals. ``It really is a liberty speech - how we promote liberty overseas, which is in our direct interest for security here at home, as well as liberty here at home,'' Bartlett told ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``That means giving people more control over their lives, giving them a stake in the future of America by giving them more control and more power to make decisions on their own behalf,'' Bartlett said. In the interview, Bush said the public ratified his approach toward Iraq when they re-elected him rather than Democrat John Kerry. Bush also said there is no reason to hold any administration official accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in the planning or conduction of the war. ``We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections,'' Bush said. ``The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.'' The Senate's second-ranking Democrat took issue with Bush's claim that the country has given him a mandate. ``To suggest there is this broad mandate and the Democrats should slink away and reconsider all their values is just plain wrong,'' Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``I think we have to carefully try to find common ground with this president. Where we can't find it, we're going to stand our ground,'' Durbin said. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said about a dozen of the 44 Senate Democrats are willing to work with the GOP leadership. ``There are a lot of Democrats who look at this last election, last several elections, and they see that this obstructionist agenda that was led by (defeated Senate Democratic leader) Tom Daschle has not been beneficial to them politically and it certainly hasn't been beneficial to the country,'' Santorum said. The new Democratic leader, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, said Democrats can work with Bush if the president shows some ``humility.'' ``I think we don't need arrogance here,'' Reid told ABC's ``This Week'' ``We need the ability to work together.'' Among the other issues discussed were: -gay marriage. Bush said in the interview that he will not lobby the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The president said there are not enough senators to support the proposal. Bartlett tried to stem any fallout from social conservatives, saying Bush was talking about the ``legislative reality.'' Bartlett said the president will continue to push for the ban. Santorum, a leading opponent of gay marriage, said he is confident the president won't ``break faith with social conservatives. ... He's going to fight for this.'' -Iran. Bartlett said the president is committed to working with allies in Europe to persuade Iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran has denied allegations of a secret nuclear weapons program, saying the country's nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes. ``It's critical that the entire world focus on this issue. It is a threat that we have to take seriously and we'll continue to work through the diplomatic initiatives that he set forth,'' Bartlett said. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Samples Will Prove Nukes Peaceful From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday January 16, 2005 11:16 PM By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Sunday that environmental samples taken from a military complex this weekend by U.N. nuclear inspectors will prove that the country's atomic program is for peaceful purposes and not making weapons, as the United States alleges. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency took samples from landscaped areas of the huge Parchin complex, which Washington believes may be involved in nuclear weapons research. ``We know what the result will be. Since we have never done any illegal activity, definitely the result will prove our declarations,'' Asefi told reporters. The U.N. nuclear watchdog had been pressing Tehran for months to be allowed to inspect the Tehran-area complex, long used to research ammunition, missiles and high explosives. The United States has alleged that the Iranians may be testing high-explosive components for a nuclear weapon, using an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin as a dry run for how a bomb with fissile material would work. President Bush's communications director, Dan Bartlett, told CNN's ``Late Edition'' that the White House wanted to resolve Iran's nuclear file through negotiation, primarily by relying on European allies and the IAEA. But he added that Bush has not ruled out resolving the issue militarily. ``No president at any juncture in history has ever taken military options off the table. That is known. But what President Bush has shown (is) that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are under way right now,'' Bartlett said Sunday. Bush has accused Iran of being part of an ``axis of evil'' with North Korea and prewar Iraq. In Monday's edition of The New Yorker magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh said Bush and his national security advisers had been ``conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer'' for the purpose of gathering intelligence and targeting information. Hersh, who broke the story about the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal, wrote that he had repeatedly been told by intelligence and military officials, on condition of anonymity that, ``the next strategic target was Iran.'' Bartlett, when questioned about the Hersh article, said he had read excerpts. ``I think it's riddled with inaccuracies. And I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact,'' the White House spokesman said.. Iran had said it would allow U.N. nuclear experts to take environmental samples from green spaces outside the complex's ammunition production workshops, but it would not allow them to inspect military equipment. Iranian officials also said they would closely watch the inspectors to prevent any possible theft or spying. Iran repeatedly has denied any work on secret nuclear weapons programs, saying its nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes only. Asefi said Iran and the Europeans will begin a new round of talks in Geneva later this week focusing on nuclear issues as well as political and security cooperation. Under international pressure, Iran agreed in November to suspended uranium enrichment and all related activities for at least three months while negotiating with the European Union about economic and technological aid, avoiding U.N. Security Council sanctions. The IAEA agreed to police the suspension. Asefi said Iran will resume uranium enrichment one day. ``We said from the very beginning that the suspension is a voluntary and temporary measure,'' he said without elaborating. Also Sunday, Asefi said Iran was investigating reports that Germany had seized an Iranian-bound shipment of four special high-voltage motors that could be used for a nuclear facility. ``We are investigating the reports. If true, it will be the same restrictions Europeans have imposed against Iran and we protest such measures,'' he said. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea: U.S. a 'Nuclear Criminal' From the Associated Press [UP] Saturday January 15, 2005 8:46 PM By SANG-HUN CHOE Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A day after indicating a willingness to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks, North Korea returned to its usual anti-American rhetoric Saturday, accusing the United States of being a ``nuclear criminal'' with double standards. North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun accused Washington of ``conniving at, patronizing and cooperating with the pro-American forces'' in Israel, Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear arms while pressuring North Korea to abandon its program. ``The U.S. policy of double standards assumes extremely partial and aggressive nature,'' the newspaper said. The report also denied that the North is running a clandestine uranium enrichment program, as the United States claims, in addition to its plutonium-based weapons program. The United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have struggled for months to convene a fourth round of talks to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs. Previous rounds, held in Beijing, ended without breakthroughs. President Bush labeled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil'' with Iran and prewar Iraq. Experts say the isolated North may already possess two or three nuclear bombs, in addition to fuel that could produce several more. In an unusual overture Friday, however, the reclusive North offered to become a ``friend'' of the United States if Washington did not make inflammatory remarks about leader Kim Jong Il's regime. The softened rhetoric was highly unusual, as North Korean officials typically load their speech with harsh anti-American criticism, and followed a visit this week to Pyongyang by a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation described by the Americans as a success. ``They are ready to get back to substantive discussions,'' Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who led the delegation, said Saturday at a news conference in Beijing. ``Nothing is off the table.'' Weldon said they met with North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam; Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun; and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan during their three-day visit, and the meetings were more positive than expected. ``Without any hesitation, they have agreed that there will be a way in which the end result would result in them giving up their nuclear capability,'' Weldon said. ``That's exactly what it was, overwhelmingly positive beyond our expectations.'' Weldon said earlier his delegation gave North Korea reassurances that Washington did not want a regime change in Pyongyang and was not planning to launch pre-emptive attacks. North Korea has said it needs a nuclear deterrent against U.S. invasion after the Iraq war. The nuclear dispute erupted in late 2002 when Washington accused North Korea of running a uranium enrichment program in violation of international nonproliferation accords and cut off free oil shipments. North Korea denied the claim, quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarted its mothballed plutonium weapons program. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 5 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Russia sees no collapse in North January 17, 2005 KST 14:14 (GMT+9 January 17, 2005 ¤Ñ The Russian ambassador to Seoul said in an interview with the Joong-Ang Ilbo, that even if the six-party talks fail, Russia would be against the North Korea nuclear issue being referred to the UN Security Council. Teymuraz Ramishvili, 49, Russia's top envoy to South Korea, said, "Putting pressure [on the North] does not solve the nuclear problem but only aggravates it," adding, "Russia is against the idea of presenting the nuclear issue to the Security Council as a sanction against North Korea." Mr. Ramishvili said, "We need to clearly draw a picture for North Korea that shows there will be economic gains from international society if it gives up its nuclear programs, and to elucidate that the United States is not seeking regime change. If we do this, then we can find a solution to the nuclear problem." He warned that if any hasty measures were taken on the North Korean nuclear issue, it could make the Non Proliferation Treaty unstable. As for the possibility that North Korea might collapse and thousands of refugees would flee the country, Mr. Ramishvili said that this was "almost impossible." He noted, "Unless there is consent and support from the North Korean people, there can be no change in the regime by outside powers." Mr. Ramishvili expressed interest in a Northeast Asian-style multinational security system such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "If the six-party talks bear fruit, then this can become the basis for discussion on a security cooperative council in the Northeast Asian region," he said Mr. Ramishvili has been ambassador to Seoul since May 2001. After joining Russia's Foreign Ministry in 1981, he served in diplomatic posts at the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva, and considers "multinational negotiations" to be his expertise. by Bae Myung-bok jieho@joongang.co.kr> Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 6 YWS: U.S. Makes Careful Response to N.K. Bid to Resume Six-Way Talks YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr 2005/01/15 11:10 KST WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government on Friday reacted cautiously to North Korea's reported proposal to conditionally return to talks on its nuclear weapons program. Officials at the U.S. State Department said they had not been formally notified of North Korea's willingness to resume the long-stalled talks, reportedly expressed to a visiting U.S. congressional delegation earlier this week. ***************************************************************** 7 BBC: US cool on North Korea overtures Last Updated: Saturday, 15 January, 2005 [Yongbyon nuclear plant] The US and allies wants the North's nuclear programme dismantled US officials have given a cautious welcome to indications by North Korea that it may rejoin six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea's official news agency on Friday backed reports by US Congressmen suggesting that talks could resume "within weeks". "We'll see by their actions how serious they are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in response to reports. North Korea has not attended the talks since June last year. "We look forward to the next round of talks. We hope that those can occur soon and that we can talk about how to move forward," Mr McClellan added. "We have not set any preconditions for the next round of talks." Hopes for progress North Korea's KCNA news agency said on Friday it would work to resolve outstanding issues with Washington. Analysts had suggested that North Korea's reclusive leaders had stalled on talks in the hope that a Democratic president would be elected in the US. But KCNA reported that North Korea would treat the US as a friend "unless the latter slanders the former's system and interferes in its internal affairs". Communist leaders in North Korea had studied the direction of US foreign policy since George W Bush's re-election last November and had decided to re-enter negotiations, the agency said. SIX PARTIES TO KOREA TALKS China Japa North Korea Russia South Korea US US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he hoped talks could begin "perhaps soon". But he stressed that any discussions must address the "full range" of North Korea's nuclear programs, including uranium enrichment programs. "The goal is to make real progress, and so we would hope that the North Koreans would deal seriously with these issues and come prepared to discuss how to make real progress in resolving these difficulties," he said. The North Korean statement came following a four-day visit to Pyongyang by US Congressmen, led by Curt Weldon. Mr Weldon called his delegation's visit to North Korea an overwhelming success. Nuclear stockpile The Congressman held lengthy meetings with top officials, including the number two in the hierarchy, Kim Yong-nam, and the North's top negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. Mr Weldon said Kim Kye-gwan was now much more positive. [North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan] Top negotiator Kim Kye Gwan is reportedly "positive" about talks "He expressed optimism that as long as the US did not appear or act in a belligerent manner, they would in fact be prepared to move through serious negotiations." The "ultimate objective" is the "total and complete elimination of the nuclear capability of [North Korea]," Mr Weldon said. Mr Weldon said the North Koreans were especially alert to the makeup of the new foreign policy team in the Bush administration and to any hostile comments from Washington. The US last year offered economic help and security guarantees as an incentive to the North to give up its nuclear programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently warned North Korea is amassing a stockpile of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Analysts say diplomacy has achieved little in the 27 months since the Bush administration first challenged North Korea over its nuclear programme. ***************************************************************** 8 Xinhua: IAEA chief to visit Nigeria www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-17 02:02:16 LAGOS, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by the agency's chief Mohamed El Baradei, is expected to pay a four-day visit to Nigeria next week to inspect the west African country's radioactive sites. El Baradei and his delegation would hold talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo and some ministers, and then inspect some radioactive sites as well as nuclear facilities in Nigeria during the tour, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported Sunday. "El Baradei will arrive 7:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) (Monday) and will Tuesday visit the president and hold discussions with some ministers," Shamsudeen Elegba, head of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency, was quoted as saying. He said that the IAEA chief and his delegation would inspect the Gamma Irradiation Plant at Sheda, near the capital Abuja. Elegba said they would also visit the Nuclear Research Reactor at Ahmadu Bello University in the central-north city of Zaria, after an earlier inspection by IAEA officials under the agency's International Nuclear Security Advisory Services in May 2004. The delegation would determine the safety and security of the locations and offer advice after the visit, the report said. Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Japan Times: Notion of an 'independent' missile defense is snake oil Saturday, January 15, 2005 By ROBYN LIM Special to The Japan Times According to press reports, Japan intends to mount an "independent" missile defense so as not to violate a constitutional interpretation that prohibits Japan from engaging in collective self-defense. Thus Japan would refrain from shooting down missiles that pass over Japan but are targeted at "other countries," meaning the United States. Japan's political and bureaucratic leaders seem to think that such posturing is necessary to contain political controversy over missile defense. But the notion of "independent" missile defense is pure snake oil. For Japan, it's either cooperation with the U.S. in missile defense or nothing. America is light years ahead in missile defense technology. And Japan's economy hit a brick wall more than a decade ago. Moreover, Japan is entirely dependent on U.S. sensors and infrared satellites (which detect heat plumes when missiles are launched.) Japan's own optical satellites merely replicate capabilities that can now be purchased commercially at much lower cost. Another boondoggle on the taxpayer. North Korea, China's quasi ally, awoke Japan from its long slumber on security issues by launching a Taepodong long-range missile over Japan in 1998. That meant that all of Japan is now subject to attack from North Korea, potentially with nuclear weapons. North Korea's ruthless behavior in kidnapping and murdering Japanese citizens is also now well known to the Japanese public. That kind of regime in control of weapons of mass destruction is a threat that no government in Tokyo can afford to ignore. And Japan cannot possibly build missile defenses on its own. Yet according to the recent press reports obviously inspired by Japanese government officials, we are told that a missile fired by North Korea at the U.S. mainland would not pass over Japan, although one fired at Hawaii and Guam would do so. So Japan does not need to engage in collective self defense. Do these officials think the Japanese public cannot read a map? The long curve of the Japanese archipelago means that any North Korean missile fired at the U.S. mainland must pass over Japan. Moreover, the inhibition on collective self defense is ridiculous. Collective self defense is the right of every member of the United Nations under section 51 of the Charter. Japanese who think strategically know that during the height of the Cold War, the huge Soviet Pacific Fleet submarine force was successfully deterred by approximately 100 Japanese advanced antisubmarine aircraft. These aircraft flew patrols, alternating on a daily basis, with their U.S. Seventh Fleet counterparts (the U.S. contribution being only one fourth of the Japanese totals.) Soviet commanders certainly did not believe that Japan would refrain from exercising collective self defense. To the contrary, they believed that if the balloon went up, Japan would fight. Thus deterrence worked. But had Japan not been willing to fight alongside the U.S., the Seventh Fleet's burden would have been far greater, and stability in the entire northwest Pacific would have been much less certain. Times change, but the principles of security are remarkable enduring. Currently, Japan -- in its attempts at political management of the missile defense issue -- has apparently decided against buying U.S. radars before its own radars become operational in 2007. If those reports are true, Japan will be leaving a window of vulnerability at the very time that the North Korean regime might be beginning to crack. That could be dangerous. Currently, if a missile is launched, the U.S. and Japan can track it, but they can't predict accurately where it will land. "Point defense" by PAC-3s won't be of much use without radars. Moreover, that vulnerability will be understood in Pyongyang. Deterrence depends on the assumption of rational behavior on the part of others -- that they will desist from aggression because they know their own destruction would follow. Thus the Soviet Union was deterred during the Cold War because Soviet leaders knew that nuclear war would destroy their political system. But the logic of deterrence doesn't work if others are willing to commit suicide, as we saw with the 9/11 hijackers. We know that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is acutely aware of the fate of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, executed when his military turned against him. Thus if Kim knew he was finished anyway, he might decide to launch a missile in vengeance against the U.S., or at U.S. bases in Japan, in order to take large numbers of his enemies with him. (Hitler developed the original cruise and ballistic missiles at the end of World War II, and called them "vengeance" weapons.) And we can't be certain that North Korea is incapable of sticking a nuclear warhead on a missile. That scenario is not terribly likely, but it is not impossible either. Thus the topic of "forward based radars" is likely to generate some pointed U.S.-Japan dialogue in the coming months. More broadly, most Japanese involved in missile defense know that that the idea of "independent" missile defense is snake oil. It's time they said so, publicly. Robyn Lim is professor of international relations at Nanzan University, Nagoya. The Japan Times: Jan. 15, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 10 BNN: Nuclear threat in South Asia to persist Big News Network.com Sunday 16th January, 2005 India and Pakistan will continue to enhance their nuclear programs in the foreseeable future, says a report by an in-house CIA agency. The report by the National Intelligence Council, a CIA think tank, says: Despite the lack of a clear military doctrine in either India or Pakistan, the nuclear rivalry between the two countries has settled into an uneasy deterrence. Both India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices in 1998 and have since continued developing nuclear-capable missiles. In 2002, they came close to fighting the first full-fledged war between two nuclear-armed nations, but direct U.S. intervention prevented the conflict. The 120-page report, titled Mapping the Global Future, aims at preparing the U.S. administration for future challenges by tracing key trends that may influence world events. Because of the nuclear arsenal of China and the nuclear potential of Pakistan, the report says, India will continue its commitment to its nuclear program. The prohibitive cost of building strong, modern conventional capabilities is also forcing India to continue to enhance its nuclear capabilities. Monday 17th January, 2005 Copyright © 1998-2003 Big News Network.com. All rights ***************************************************************** 11 CENSORED(#10) New Nuke Plants: People Pay, Industry Profits Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:00:08 -0600 (CST) http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html (#10) New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE, November 17, 2003 Title: Nuclear Energy Would Get $7.5 Billion in Tax Subsides, US Taxpayers Would Fund Nuclear Relapse If Energy Bill Passes Authors: Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte WISE/NIRS NUCLEAR MONITOR, August 2003 Title: US Senate Passes Pro-Nuclear Energy Bill Authors: Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte Faculty Evaluators: Lynn Cominsky, Ph.D., Tamara Falicov, Ph. D. Student Researchers: Andrea Martini and John Hernandez Senator Peter Domenici (R-NM), along with the Bush Administration, is looking to give the nuclear power industry a huge boost through the new Energy Policy Act. The Domenici-sponsored bill will give nuclear power plants a production credit for each unit of energy produced. This provision, costing taxpayers an estimated 7.5 billion dollars, will be used to build six new privately owned, for-profit, reactors across the country. This is in addition to the $4 billion already provided for other nuclear energy programs. Through the Energy Policy Act, Senator Domenici intends to create more incentives for nuclear power. It gives 1.1 billion dollars for the production of hydrogen fuel and 2.7 billion for research and development of new reactors under the Nuclear Power 2010 program. The Nuclear Power 2010 program is a joint government/industry effort to identify sites for new nuclear power plants and develop advanced nuclear technologies. In 2003 Congress approved an amendment to the Senate energy legislation, giving approximately $35 million to the Nuclear Power 2010 program. The program's aim is to advance and expand the nuclear industrys Vision 2020 policy, which has, as its goal, the addition of 50,000 megawatts of atomic power generation (i.e. 50 new reactors) by the year 2020. Toward this effort, the bill provides new regulations and subsidies to promote private sector investment by 2005 in order to get new power plants deployed in the U.S. by 2010. Total capital investment for a new nuclear reactor could be in excess of $1.6 bilion dollars. The bill up for vote in Congress, will establish a "preferred equity investment" provision requiring taxpayers to back private investment in new facilities up to $200 million. The Nuclear Power bill provides a set volume at which the government will buy power from nuclear companies. Nuclear companies would charge the government 50 percent above the market price and the government would in turn resell the power to taxpayers at higher than normal rates to make up for the difference. Domenicis will allow leach mining of uranium and push for more uranium enrichment facilities, maintaining that they are necessary for energy production. Although a new revision of the bill addresses some of the environmental concerns of a number of Senators, the charge is that this has been done simply to push the Nuclear Program forward. The new bill still allows depleted uranium to be treated as low level waste and requires the Department of Energy to take possession and dispose of waste generated at privately owned facilities (at no cost to the owner). The bill makes it easy to construct enrichment facilities by speeding up the process and easing EPA regulations. The Energy Policy Acts promotion of enrichment facilities is likely to benefit Louisiana Energy Services, which is run by a European corporation, Erenco. This corporation has made unsuccessful attempts to build private uranium enrichment plants in Louisiana and Tennessee and is looking to get a license to build an enrichment plant in New Mexico, Domenici's home state. Finally, the bill will repeal a ban on exporting highly enriched uranium to other countries, ignoring provisions made in the House that protect against terrorist attacks. The chance that nuclear bomb material could fall into terrorist hands would be much increased with an open market for highly enriched uranium. Also, more reactors in the United States provide terrorists with more targets. The current Administration supports the expansion of nuclear energy, yet has made no attempt to provide for its safety or oversight under Homeland Security legislation. UPDATE BY: MICHAEL MARIOTTE AND CINDY FOLKERS: The 2003/2004 Bush Energy Bill has continued to stall in the Senate despite use of several convoluted legislative procedures to pass it. This legislation was born from the secretive Cheney Energy task force meetings, which have been the focus of much legal action. The secrecy of this task force is renowned and is yet another attempt by the Bush Administration to cut off the public from government access. The energy industry trade organization, Nuclear Energy Institute, met with the task force more times than any other single energy interest. It is no surprise that the bill is loaded with tax breaks, subsidies and policy initiatives for old energy sources, giving very little to energy efficiency or renewable energy efforts. This is an energy policy more suitable for 1960 and lacks vision and any foundation for our energy independence. Through the relentless efforts of NIRS and many other national and local activists and environmental groups, the Energy Bill (HR-6) was defeated on November 21, 2003 by a cloture vote of 57-40. Bill proponents could not overcome a filibuster supported by both Republicans and Democrats. The many controversial provisions contained in HR 6, including the $6-15 billion tax production credit for new nuclear reactors, made it unpopular among both parties. In total, there was more to hate about this bill than to like and it couldnt even be brought to the floor for a final vote. In 2004 Senator Domenici introduced the energy bill again as S 2095. This bill changed very little from the original legislation. The notable exception is that the nuclear tax production credits (PTC) were excluded. But the bill still did not have the support to pass the Senate so Domenici decided to split the bill in two, attempting to pass the policy and tax sections separately. NIRS is now in the process of opposing these two bills. The policy portion of the bill has failed at this point, but the tax portion of S 2095 could still pass as an amendment to another bill. Again, the nuclear PTC is not part of this energy tax package, but Domenici has threatened to add it separately. This tax credit will amount to at least $6 billion and could reach as much as $15 or even $19 billion, according to estimates by EarthTrack. Throughout this entire process, the press has covered the overall bill, especially controversial MTBE-related provisions, and numerous newspapers have taken strong editorial stands against it. However, virtually without exception these stories are/were woefully silent on the bills nuclear provisions. Since the PTC could be upwards of $15 billion in total cost, it deserves the spotlight as yet another amazing giveaway to the nuclear industry, this time to initiate a nuclear resurgence with taxpayer-supported construction of new reactors. For more information, contact NIRS, 1424 16th Street, NW, Suite 404, Washington, DC 20036. www.nirs.org; 202-328-0002, nirsnet@nirs.org Or contact Public Citizens Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, 215 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003, 202-546-4996, www.citizen.org/cmep ***************************************************************** 12 thenews-messenger.com: Davis-Besse to shut down Monday for inspections - Saturday, January 15, 2005 Associated Press OAK HARBOR -- The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant will shut down Monday for scheduled inspections of some of its major parts. The plant is expected to return to service in early February. The plant was closed in February 2002 for routine maintenance. A month later, inspectors found corrosion on the reactor vessel, where leaking boric acid had eaten almost through a 6-inch-thick steel cap. The damage led to a review of 68 similar plants nationwide. The plant was closed for two years, but returned to full power last year in April. Davis-Besse has an unexpected shutdown for a few days in August due to a problem with a fuse. The shutdown next week involves inspection of the plant's two steam generators, the reactor vessel head and bottom, two of the four reactor coolant pumps and the refueling canal liner. Woman killed by tow truck part that flew into her car COLUMBUS -- A pulley broke free of a tow truck and crashed through the windshield of a passing car, striking and killing the driver, authorities said. The tow truck operator was attempting to pull a semitrailer out of mud Thursday in the median of Interstate 270 on the city's east side when the pulley broke loose, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Danielle N. Knapp, 22, of Columbus, was struck in the chest and chin and died later of her injuries at a hospital, the sheriff's office said. Her car went off the right side of the freeway and hit a guardrail before it went back on the road and stopped in the median. Originally published Saturday, January 15, 2005 Copyright ©2004 The News-Messenger. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Taipei Times: China's push for nuclear reactors sparks concern taipeitimes.com Sun, Jan 16, 2005 ENERGY: Beijing plans to build at least one reactor a year between now and 2020, but critics question whether the small payoff warrants exposure to the risks NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , DAYA BAY, CHINA Sunday, Jan 16, 2005,Page 11 Advertising [Advertising] In its anxiety to satisfy its seemingly bottomless demand for electricity, China plans to build nuclear reactors on a scale and pace comparable to the most ambitious nuclear energy programs the world has ever seen. Current plans -- conservative ones, in the estimation of some people involved in China's nuclear energy program -- call for new reactors to be commissioned at a rate of nearly two a year between now and 2020, a pace that experts say is comparable to the peak of the US' nuclear energy push in the 1970s. "We will certainly build more than one reactor per year," said Zhou Dadi, director of the central government's Energy Research Institute, which has strongly supported the country's nuclear program. "The challenge is not the technology. The barriers for China are mostly institutional arrangements, because reactors are big projects. What we need most is better operation, financing and management," Zhou said. By 2010, planners predict a quadrupling of nuclear output to 16 billion kilowatt-hours and a doubling of that figure by 2015. And with commercial nuclear energy programs dead or stagnant in the US and most of Europe, Western and other developers of nuclear plant technology are lining up to sell reactors and other equipment to China, whose purchasing decisions alone will determine in many instances who survives in the business. In this Aug. 21, 2004, file photo, power plant employees cycle past a power station in Guangan in China's Sichuan Province. China currently has only eight nuclear reactors that supply less than 2 percent of the country's energy needs, but Beijing policy makers have vowed to increase that to 4 percent by 2020. PHOTO: AFP The problem with nuclear power, some experts say, is that China's energy needs are so immense that even the enormous expansion program will do little to offset the skyrocketing power demand. China's eight nuclear reactors in operation today supply less than 2 percent of current demand. By 2020, assuming the national plan is fulfilled, nuclear energy would still constitute under 4 percent of demand. There has been almost no public discussion of the merits and risks of nuclear energy here, as the government strictly censors news coverage of such issues. But critics of the program question whether such a small payoff warrants exposure to the risks. "We don't have a very good plan for dealing with spent fuel, and we don't have very good emergency plans for dealing with catastrophe," said Wang Yi, a nuclear energy expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Chinese nuclear operators, like the people who run the plans at Daya Bay, scoff at such concerns. "In China we have state-owned power companies, whereas abroad they have private companies," said Yu Jiechun, a senior engineer at the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. "It's not a matter of someone's profit here, whether we do something one way or another. The government decides, and they have spent huge amounts of money on safety," Yu said. This story has been viewed 306 times. Copyright © 1999-2005 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 UK Sunday Herald: Armed guard at nuclear stations - By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor armed police are being permanently deployed for the first time at all of Britains operating nuclear power stations to protect them from possible terrorist attack. Officers from the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary are being stationed at Hunterston in North Ayrshire, Torness in East Lothian, and at nuclear reactors in England and Wales. The officers routinely carry guns and are authorised to engage in hot pursuit of suspects. The government and the nuclear companies stress that the deployment is not in response to a specific terrorist threat, but the move is seen by experts as a recognition that nuclear stations are now a potential target for terrorist groups. This shows that they believe that there is a real threat, said Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear consultant who used to work at the governments Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire. There is a probability that an attack will take place. Armed police units began to arrive at power stations in December, though no official announcement was made. The deployment was ordered by Roger Brunt, the director of the Office for Civil Nuclear Security, which is part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). This is a prudent enhancement of existing security arrangements at civil nuclear sites, said a DTI spokesman. Security is continually reviewed and has been significantly enhanced since 9/11. The spokesman declined to give any details of the deployment, including the numbers of police involved, but it is known that there are a total of around 600 members of the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary, all of whom are trained in the use of firearms. In the past they have been based at only a few particularly sensitive nuclear sites, where plutonium or other material that could be made into atomic bombs were kept. In Scotland they have been based at the former fast-reactor research facility at Dounreay in Caithness and at the semi-military reactors at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, but they have never been stationed at ordinary nuclear power plants generating commercial electricity. The armed officers deployment at Scotlands two commercial stations, Torness and Hunterston, represents a major escalation in security precautions. Conscious that the arrival of armed officers might create a stir among local residents, the directors of Torness and Hunterston have written to their local liaison committees. The provision of the first on-site armed response capability should be seen as reassuring, they said. There is absolutely no suggestion that any of our sites are a specific terrorist target. This latest move is purely the result of a considered review of security arrangements and contingency plans by one of our regulators. Anti-nuclear groups regard the police deployment as understandable given the problems that private security guards have protecting nuclear stations. But they are disturbed about the dangers posed to civil liberties. Armed police will be used, not only to guard nuclear sites, but also to protect materials being transported in and out of the power stations, said Pete Roche, a consultant to Greenpeace. This has worrying implications for human rights. Do we really want to live with an energy system which is so risky that it requires armed police to guard it? This is one of the fundamental dilemmas posed by nuclear power. 16 January 2005 © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 15 toledoblade.com: Davis-Besse to begin 21-day shutdown Article published Saturday, January 15, 2005 By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Davis-Besse will slowly be taken down from full power starting tonight so it can be shut down for 21 days of inspections and maintenance beginning Monday, the longest outage since the nuclear plant was authorized for restart in March. FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to perform the midcycle outage as a restart condition. Refueling, which occurs once every two years at the power plant, is to be done in 2006. The plant had been idle more than two years after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission learned about unprecedented rust on Davis-Besse's old reactor head - by far the deepest corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear plant and one of the industry's most dangerous scenarios since the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, a Pennsylvania facility, in 1979. The NRC accused FirstEnergy of trying to cut corners in order to save money by failing to do necessary maintenance. It cited safety-system design flaws and accused management of fostering a workplace atmosphere in which employees feared retaliation if they reported problems. Those obstacles were addressed to the NRC's satisfaction prior to restart. This follow-up outage has two goals: Making sure a 30-year-old replacement head from an unfinished plant in Midland, Mich., hasn't developed any leaks, and replacing any steam generator tubes that might be getting thinned out by normal wear, NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said. An ultrasensitive moisture detector that FirstEnergy put inside the reactor containment shell has not detected any signs of post-restart leakage, Mr. Strasma said. Davis-Besse was the first U.S. nuclear plant to have the French-designed moisture detector installed. In addition to inspecting the reactor head, officials will inspect flanges on top of it that have leaked in the past. Officials also will inspect the bottom of the reactor, which was once suspected of leaking. No conclusive evidence of leakage ever was detected, but FirstEnergy officials have been unable to explain all of the rust stains on the bottom of the reactor. The NRC will have its three resident inspectors, plus three additional inspectors, shadowing workers during the outage and performing their own inspections. The primary duties of the latter three will be to audit FirstEnergy's own inspection skills. A separate review of Davis-Besse's radiation protection program will be made to evaluate compliance with worker-safety requirements, Mr. Strasma said. Steam generator tubes are normally inspected at least once every two years. Davis-Besse's steam generator was last inspected in 2002. The utility was allowed to put off that inspection until this year because the nuclear plant didn't operate for most of 2002 and all of 2003. Richard Wilkins, a FirstEnergy spokesman, said no major issues are expected to turn up during the process. A pair of reactor coolant pumps that had been the focus of a whistleblower complaint will be inspected. There are no plans to refurbish that pair of pumps until 2006 unless problems are found, he said. The plant has two pairs of those pumps. One pair was refurbished during the two-year outage. Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com or 419-724-6079. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 16 toledoblade.com: Electricity deregulation falls short on benefits Article published Sunday, January 16, 2005 [Photo] One analyst says he thinks electricity is among the few things not open to free-market competition. ( THE BLADE/DIANE HIRES ) By JON CHAVEZ BLADE BUSINESS WRITER With just 11 months left before a five-year move to electric deregulation in Ohio is complete, competition hasn't materialized and it seems unlikely that state regulators can ever make it happen. Deregulation was instituted in 2000 under a mandate by the Legislature. The initial promise was to lure outside suppliers to Ohio that would offer competing rates on electricity - and savings to northwest Ohio consumers who historically have paid some of the highest rates in the state. But so far, the only benefits most customers have realized are a rate freeze since 2000 and a state-mandated 5 percent reduction of their bills. About 50,000 customers got in on limited deals in the first few months of 2000, and large groups of customers have achieved some savings - up to $70 a year this year - by forming large buying coalitions known as aggregations. Unless competition suddenly materializes, there isn't likely to be much more than that in the future, experts said. Jim Halloran, an electric power analyst for NatCity Investments in Cleveland, said, "I've come to the conclusion that there are few things that are not open to free-market competition. One is electricity." To consumers and consumer groups who have voiced displeasure at public hearings, deregulation may seem to have worked too much to the advantage of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., the parent of Toledo Edison. Critics also may think that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has coddled the utility over the last four years. "The decisions they have made seem to favor FirstEnergy over the rate payers. I'm not seeing enough balance," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. But FirstEnergy spokesman Ralph DiNicola responded: "We think that's ridiculous." However, in 2004 and 2003 studies, Lehman Brothers Global Equity Research ranked Ohio's first among all state utility commissions in the country as the "most shareholder-oriented." Among other factors, the studies looked at rates cases and a subjective "friendliness" measure. With FirstEnergy's rate plan expiring at the end of this year, state regulators had a decision to make last spring about whether to subject northern Ohio customers to electricity prices on an open market or lock in rates for three more years. The PUCO, fearing a sharp rise in power costs, chose the latter, agreeing with a FirstEnergy plan to freeze rates in 2006 through 2008, with some increases possible, such as for higher taxes. But the trade-off was permitting the company to charge a fee equal to one approved for the past four years that is aimed at paying off the firm's debts from building nuclear power plants. The past fee was to generate $8.6 billion, the new fee about $2 billion. The decision drew criticism from consumer groups who contended that the fee was excessive, unnecessary, and possibly illegal. But Alan Schriber, chairman of the PUCO, said the rate freeze was necessary to keep customer bills from skyrocketing. "The law said we go to market at the end of '05 but we didn't feel the state was prepared to go to market for electric power," he explained. "We asked FirstEnergy to give us stable rates, and they asked us to give the company financial wherewithal to keep rates stable. "There will be those who will say we're too soft. But if we can't get lower prices on the open market, then we have to look at alternatives." As for the fee to help stabilize rates, the FirstEnergy spokesman said it was justified."If the commission had chosen the auction alternative, our customers' generation price would have increased by more than 20 percent," Mr. DiNicola said. Mr. Halloran, the analyst, said the fee is likely to be used to pay for future investments. "If they didn't get that money now, when they go to replace plants they wouldn't have enough equity to borrow against. That's basically what that money is for," he said. The state regulatory panel's decision also called for an auction to determine whether competitors could provide cheaper electricity. The auction, held in December, had firms bidding on power for 2006, a year ahead. The lowest bid was to provide power for 5.5 cents a kilowatt hour, much higher than FirstEnergy's 4.6 cents. After four years of deregulation and attempts to jump-start competition, Toledo area residents pay $82.98 a month for using 750 kilowatts of power, compared with $87.69 four years ago. Those in the bulk-buying groups paid $78.81 last month. By contrast, residents in Marietta, Ohio, pay the lowest rate in the state: $49.83 monthly. Robert Chilton, executive vice president of Gabel Associates, an energy consulting firm in Highland Park, N.J., and former public utility commissioner in New Jersey, said lack of competition and savings doesn't necessarily mean regulators are too cozy with utilities. "The thing is, you have competing concerns," he said. Regulators must balance the needs of the utility, customers eager to switch and save, and those customers who prefer the status quo, said Mr. Chilton, who has been monitoring Ohio's deregulation efforts. The competition in New Jersey "didn't take off" until the transition period was over, he said, Mr. Schriber said the electricity market is too volatile to gamble on not having locked-in rates, as evidenced by no suppliers beating FirstEnergy's price in the auction last month. He said he is hopeful another auction to be held late this year will be more productive. Critics of the 12-month advance bidding in December's auction said better prices would be likely if the auction were held after March. By then, the organization that oversees the grid carrying electricity in the Midwest will have a system in place to track up-to-the-minute prices of power throughout the territory. Even Mr. Schriber conceded, "Perhaps more competitors would have been better able to assess their risks and what it would take to come into the market" if the auction had been held this spring. However, he added, FirstEnergy insisted the auction be held last year so it could prepare for 2006. The advance time was needed, said FirstEnergy's Mr. DiNicola, to give the company time to arrange to sell its power elsewhere and a competitor to set up use of the transmission lines. Critics say New Jersey, which is deregulated, holds its power auction in February and implements results in June. Mr. DiNicola said New Jersey has conducted four auctions and is prepared for them. Mr. Chilton, the energy consultant, said New Jersey uses standard contracts from its first auction, but a year's lag time seems excessive. "Our experience is that it shouldn't take that long," he said. Deregulation in New Jersey has mainly benefitted commercial and industrial users, he said, and homeowners and renters have few choices. Judy Jones, a PUCO member from Toledo, said deregulation in Ohio isn't a failure, noting customers saved money from the 5 percent rate cut and from the bulk-buying groups. But those measures were supposed to help spur competition, and that hasn't happened, she said. Even key state lawmakers have expressed some concerns over how well electricity deregulation is working. Ohio Senate President Bill Harris said he may want to re-examine deregulation as part of an overall state energy policy. Mr. Schriber, who still thinks deregulation can work, said Ohio needs to revisit it in 2009, when rates will be unfrozen and a second state-mandated fee will have expired. "I don't think it can be reversed totally; the genie is too far out of the bottle," said the state's top electricity regulator. But some people think some regulation may be needed, he added. Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128. © 2004 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 17 Xinhua: China forms a rational structure of nuclear industry www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-16 10:29:19 BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- China has shaped a rational structure of nuclear industry by streamlining operation in the sector and balancing use of the technology in military and civilian fields. Kang Rixin, director with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), said this here Saturday while addressing a meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China's nuclear industry. China has adjusted its nuclear industry to the economic development of the country and shifted the emphasis to the civilian use of nuclear technology, Kang said. Statistics from CNNC show that in 2004 combined profits of the corporation reached 800 million yuan (96.7 million US dollars), up 226 percent over that in 2003. Kang said in the past decade the development of three aspects such as nuclear power, nuclear fuel and applied nuclear technology,contributed greatly to China's nuclear industry. The construction of China's nuclear power has made remarkable achievements in the past years, he said, citing that till the end of 2004 a total of 11 nuclear generators including those under construction have a generating capacity of 8700,000 kilowatts, 1.6percent of the country's whole generating capacity. According to the plan of China's energy structure adjustment, the generating capacity of China's nuclear generators will reach 40 million kilowatts in 2020, four percent of the whole in the country. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Xinhua: Nuclear power construction enters crucial stage Bizchina Updated: 2005-01-15 10:53 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that China's nuclear power construction has entered a crucial stage, when he inspected Dayawan Nuclear Power Plant in South China's Guangdong Province recently. Wen said relevant government departments should establish an overall plan for their construction, nailing down the scale and layout of nuclear power projects. "China should build up a self-reliant nuclear power industry system," Wen said. He said that it is necessary to introduce advanced technology from overseas to improve China's own atomic energy research and development capacity. He said all nuclear power projects should be constructed in the principle of putting security and quality first. Relevant regulations and system should be improved and nuclear accident emergency system should be built as soon as possible. The year 2005 was the 50th anniversary of China's foundation of nuclear power industry. Wen said that he sincerely appreciated those working at the front-line of the country's nuclear power industry. With Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) starting operation in 1991, there have been 9 nuclear power plants in operation in China by July 2004, whose total capacity reached 7.01 million kilowatts. As an important shift in the country's energy development strategy, China is taking steps to increase the proportion of nuclear power in its overall energy supply and make it an important element of energy development in future. China will generate 36 million kw of nuclear electricity in 2020, accounting for more than 4 percent of its total installed power generating capacity, a Chinese top official in atomic energy said a few months ago. ***************************************************************** 19 Grist: Anti-nuke opposition muted even as U.S. nuclear industry expands Grist Magazine | Daily Grist | 14 Jan 2005 Uncritical Mass Opponents of nuclear power in the U.S. have been having a rough time of late attracting attention to their cause, even as the nuclear-power industry gears up to build five new reactors by 2015 and as many as 50 by 2050, with enthusiastic backing from the Bush administration. Concerns over high oil prices, enthusiasm over the prospect of nuke-plant jobs, and smart, targeted lobbying by nuke execs have combined to put the industry on its strongest footing in years. Generous new federal subsidies and the prospect of more in the near future haven't hurt. Even environmentalists' concerns over carbon-dioxide emissions are contributing to the nuclear comeback, as the industry can now tout itself as a solution to global warming. A stumbling block remains that pesky problem of what to do with spent nuclear fuel. While it seems that fewer communities are fighting the construction of reactors in their midst, nobody wants the waste. straight to the source: Forbes, Christopher Helman, Chana R. Schoenberger, and Rob Wherry, 31 Jan 2005 Wednesday, 12 Jan 2005 Tuesday, 11 Jan 2005 Daily Grist Archives Grist Magazine: Environmental News and Commentary [a beacon in the smog (sm)] ©2005. Grist Magazine, Inc. All ***************************************************************** 20 Hudson Valley News: Diana: "... I need some answers ..." Indian Point Weekend, January 15-16, 2005 Copyright © 2004 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc. Orange exec refused to sign IP letter For the second year in a row, Orange County Executive Edward Diana yesterday refused to sign a letter approving a checklist of safety concerns regarding the Indian Point nuclear power plants and the evacuation plans in the region should a crisis arise at the facilities. Diana said there are many safety issues that must be addressed. I still have always maintained that Orange Countys plan , in my opinion is by far the plan that will work most effectively for Orange County and Orange Countys people, to keep the m safe, he said. We do have a great plan but I need some answers to the Witt Report that are still forthcoming. For the second year, Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi had signed his countys letter of approval. Rockland county lawmakers are lobbying their county executive not to sign the letter and Westchesters executive has yet to take action as well. Last year, Putnam was the only one of the four counties involved to sign the approval letter. HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's ***************************************************************** 21 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: More wind farms coming to county? www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/ Posted Jan. 15, 2005 By Neil Rhines Herald Times Reporter MANITOWOC — Three wind energy farms in Manitowoc County could soon be spinning out electricity. Mike Demske, director of the Manitowoc County Planning and Park Department, said he has been contacted by three companies, including Navitas Energy Inc., interested in erecting wind turbines in the county. One farm could include eight to 10 towers in the town of Cato, near Grimms. Another would involve another eight to 10 towers west of the land on which Navitas plans to erect 49 towers in the towns of Two Rivers, Two Creeks and Mishicot. Airtricity Mid-America LLC, based on Minnesota, and Emerging Energies LLP, based in Hubertus, have expressed interest in wind energy in Manitowoc County, but neither company yet has made a formal application, Demske said. Navitas received a conditional use permit from the Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment on Dec. 20 for its project, which they plan to have in service by 2007. Wind energy seems to be on the verge of blooming not only in Manitowoc County but also across the United States and Canada. According to Emerging Energy Research, the annual investment in wind power in the U.S. and Canada is expected to top $2 billion in 2005. Megawatts derived from wind energy, under this model, would be about 26,000 by 2010. The Navitas project, called the Twin Creeks Wind Farm, would have a capacity of 98 megawatts, or two megawatts per $1 million tower. Why all the attention in Manitowoc County? According to Bill Rakocy, a partner with Emerging Energies, several factors contribute to the focus on the area (including parts of Kewaunee and Manitowoc counties) as a potential powerhouse of wind produced power. —The area is graced with what Rakocy called a “wind rich resource,” especially considering the predominance of high open ground. “The first thing … you need to look where the wind is,” Rakocy said. “This is one of the better areas.” —A number of existing transmission lines. Transmission lines laid in connection with Point Beach Nuclear Plant make the area a prime location. —Governor Doyle’s interest in renewable resources, and the goal of 10 percent of the states energy comes from renewable resources by 2010. Also, the federal production tax credit is in effect through the end of 2005, and turbines placed in service during this period would receive the PTC, said Jerrid Anderson, senior project developer with Navitas Energy. “Historically, the PTC has been extended several times,” Anderson said. “We believe the PTC will again be extended. Even without the PTC there is demand for renewable energy and the Twin Creeks Wind Park would still be a viable project.” According to Rakocy, the initial costs associated with installing renewable resources will add to energy costs, but as the price of fossil fuels continues to rise and the infrastructure needed to support renewable energy is installed, the price of renewables will be cheaper in the long run. Rakocy said his company is “anxious to put a project together, (but we’re) still in the early stages of development.” The project would most likely produce about 20 megawatts, he said. Neil Rhines: (920) 686-2105 or Nrhines@htrnews.com ***************************************************************** 22 News-Press: Cooper Nuclear to start refueling, repair outage 2 low-pressure turbines 1/16/2005 Email this article • Print this article St. Joseph News-Press BROWNVILLE, Neb. — Officials at the Cooper Nuclear Station start a prolonged refueling and maintenance outage this weekend that aims to improve the plant’s efficiency. New fuel will be installed and two low-pressure turbines and associated equipment will be replaced in a month’s time. Officials said such an investment in equipment will help the utility to continue serving customers beyond its 2014 license expiration date. In November, the district’s board decided to begin the process of pursuing a 20-year license renewal from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Cooper performs a refueling outage approximately every 18 months,” said Randy Edington, chief nuclear officer for the Nebraska Public Power District. “What is significant about this outage is the additional work of installing two new turbine rotors while refueling the plant and carrying out many other maintenance activities.” The process to refuel the reactor involves replacing 164 of the plant’s 548 fuel assemblies. The plant’s turbine bay crane will be used to lift the massive pieces of equipment into place. The new rotors are almost 16 feet in diameter and together will weigh nearly 300 tons when installed. The turbines were built in Germany, shipped to Texas and transported to the station via heavy-haul trucks. They arrived in December at Cooper. Crews also will inspect and clean the plant’s main condenser, assess the electrical systems, and test and maintain a variety of valves throughout the station. About 1,000 contractor personnel will assist with the work. “It’s an aggressive schedule,” Mr. Edington said. --> Content © 2005, The News-Press, St. Joseph, Missouri Software © 1998-2005 , All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 23 NJPIRG: PSEG's History at Salem and Hope Creek Puts Public Safety at the Bottom of the Totem Pole New Energy Future Testimony Before Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee My name is Suzanne Leta and I am the energy associate for New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. NJPIRG is a statewide citizen-based public interest advocacy organization with over 25,000 members across the state. For the past several years, NJPIRG has worked to reduce our dependence on dirty, dangerous sources of energy by increasing energy efficiency and the generation of clean, renewable, safe sources of energy like wind and solar power. NJPIRG has several concerns about safety at the Salem and Hope Creek reactors and have been working with Unplug Salem, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Dr. Kymn Harvin, a former Organizational Manager at Salem turned whistleblower. I would like to highlight our two primary concerns—a problematic safety culture at the Salem and Hope Creek reactors and the NRC’s recent decision to allow PSEG to restart the Hope Creek reactor without replacing a faulty recirculation pump. The first concern is the problematic safety culture at the Salem and Hope Creek reactors. On May 21, 2004, PSEG provided the NRC the results from three independent assessments conducted at the Salem and Hope Creek in 2003 and 2004. In their assessment, the Utility Services Alliance (USA) applied a rating system of 90 characteristics combined in 12 attributes. PSEG scored “less than competent” in all 12 attributes and “less than competent” in 73 of the 90 characteristics. They further determined that “plant physical condition reflects tolerance for mediocrity,” meaning that PSEG didn’t want to pay the necessary costs to keep the site in good condition. In the second assessment, the Independent Assessment Team identified the “perception that nuclear is not fixing long standing equipment issues because corporate is not providing the funds.” Lastly, the Synergy assessment concluded that the “organization fails to establish trusting relationships.” One of the lowest ratings the Synergy assessment reported was the work force’s “confidence in management.” In addition, over a period of several years the NRC reported PSEG’s numerous failures to identify and correct problems at Salem and Hope Creek and has concluded that PSEG’s corrective action program is ineffective, in clear violation of federal regulations requiring plant owners to perform adequate corrective actions. Nonetheless, the NRC has allowed the plants to continue operating. Inherently connected to the safety culture problems at the Salem and Hope Creek plants lies our second primary concern—the NRC’s recent decision to allow the Hope Creek plant to re-start without requiring PSEG to replace the recirculation pump. On October 10, 2004, the plant was manually shut down due to the failure of the plant’s 18-year old recirculation pump, which has been vibrating and damaging other vital equipment. The recirculation pump provides and adjustable flow of water that flows into the reactor core which is then used to increase or decrease the power level. If the pump bursts, it could cause an accident by spilling cooling water from the reactor vessel. On Tuesday, the NRC ignored public safety concerns and allowing PSEG to continue operating the plant without replacing the pump until the next refueling cycle, 17 months from now. The NRC required PSEG to install additional vibration sensors that may help to detect a problem, but they also stated that the remaining pump shaft life couldn’t be reasonably predicted or calculated. At last night’s public meeting, the NRC confirmed that a new recirculation pump has already been designed; the parts have been manufactured, and the specialists required to install it in will be available in March. But rather than losing a mere two months of revenue, PSEG lobbied to keep the plant running with the faulty pump until a planned shut down for a refueling cycle next spring. Even the New Jersey DEP, an agency that originally took the right position and opposed a re-start without replacing the plant, gave into pressure from PSEG by stating last night that they agreed with the NRC’s final decision. We cannot depend on Exelon, PSEG or the NRC to make the right decisions about the safety of the Salem reactors. We need state officials to step up to the plate; unfortunately, the DEP couldn’t follow through. As it is your responsibility to protect public safety, I urge you to do everything you can to prevent Hope Creek from re-starting unless PSEG replaces the recirculation pump. Lastly, Exelon Corporation is formally taking over the management of PSEG’s three reactors at the Salem site this coming Monday, January 17, 2005. The management contract between the two companies was signed December 20, 2004, the same day that Exelon announced their plans to acquire PSEG for more than $12 billion in stock. Exelon would like the public to believe that their nuclear management model is just the opposite of PSEG and promote the company as having an “outstanding record.” But when we dig beneath the surface, Exelon has its own skeletons in the closet. Time after time, Exelon has put profits over public safety, and has fired concerned employees in the process. New management does not imply improvement. THE NEW JERSEY PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP Citizen Lobby and Law & Policy Center 11 North Willow Street • Trenton, NJ 08608 • 609-394-8155 ***************************************************************** 24 Cape Cod Online: Nuclear revival (January 16, 2005) Spurred by friendly regulatory climate, Pilgrim sets sights on new 20-year license By KEVIN DENNEHY STAFF WRITER PLYMOUTH - When it emerged as an energy option in the 1950s, one industry pioneer boasted that, one day, nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter." Pilgrim Nuclear power plant in Plymouth. (File photo by RON SCHLOERB) It hasn't turned out that way, of course, for an industry dogged in recent decades by high operation costs, plant closings and public fears of disaster. But now there is evidence that, buoyed by the Bush administration, a nuclear revival could be coming. Americans perhaps could even see new U.S. nuclear plants - the first to be built in three decades. At the very least, a friendly regulatory climate forebodes a longer life for many of the nation's 103 existing reactors, including the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth. Last month, the National Commission on Energy Policy encouraged government support of the nuclear industry as a step toward reducing fossil fuel emissions. During an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, President Bush suggested a new energy policy that includes incentives for the nuclear industry, saying that nuclear power "answers a lot of our issues. "It certainly answers the environmental question." The idea of a nuclear renaissance is not popular with many, especially in a post-9/11 world. But for Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc., the owner of the Pilgrim plant, the timing couldn't be better. The company will apply to extend its license to operate the plant by 20 years to 2032. The 34-year-old reactor, which produces 670-megawatts of power at any one time, provides electricity for about 670,000 homes in the region, about 20 percent of which are on Cape Cod. Rising costs, demand "The industry is in a very good position right now," said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade organization for the nuclear industry. Fast facts Nuclear power contributes 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Only coal, which produces about 50 percent, provides a greater share. The Department of Energy has adopted new policies to encourage energy companies to go through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process, including a streamlined process and matching federal funds to find new sites. Three different power companies are seeking "early site permits," which essentially allow them 20 years to develop construction plans for a new nuclear plant. Among those is Entergy, with its application to explore the possibility of building a new plant in Mississippi. Why? Just as crucial as the government's desire to find an alternative to fossil fuels, some say, is the soaring costs of oil and natural gas that have made nuclear generation of electricity more attractive. And, while most concede renewable energy won't provide the silver bullet any time soon, the nation's demand for electricity only surges. Within 20 years the country will consume about 43 percent more electricity, according to a report released by the National Commission on Energy Policy, a 16-member bipartisan coalition formed to analyze the nation's future energy needs. "In that space nuclear is one of the most attractive options, because in terms of environmental conservation it has the least negative impact," said Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. "And depending on oil prices, it can almost be price competitive." But there are concerns, as has always been the case with nuclear power. From a financial standpoint, generating nuclear energy is unpredictable, largely because of the high costs associated with building and running plants, and because of safety issues. Costs only got steeper after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, when the industry spent $1 billion to bolster plant security. The federal government still hasn't come up with a permanent home for decades worth of spent radioactive fuel, now sitting in plants across the country - including Plymouth - at great cost. And looming over any discussions is the specter of a nuclear core meltdown, fears that were stoked after Three Mile Island and, even worse, Chernobyl. Extended life? It makes sense that the nuclear industry keeps open the option of an extended future, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Entergy is preparing its application to extend Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station's operating license for 20 years, until 2032. The Plymouth plant has been in operation for 34 years. (File photo/Associated Press) But he said he worries that aging plants are vulnerable. Trying to squeeze too many years out of these plants, he suggests, is dangerous. Like any piece of machinery, he said, nuclear plants will eventually break down. And the owners of America's aging plants simply don't know how the equipment will hold up, he said. If there ever is an accident at a U.S. plant, he said, it will drive safety and security costs so high at every plant that it could make the industry economically inefficient. "There aren't many industries that can be killed by one bad day at one plant," Lochbaum said. Meltdown fears may have diminished in the minds of many Americans, said David Agnew of Chatham, a longtime critic of the nuclear industry and the Pilgrim plant. But he remembers predictions in the early 1980s that another major incident could be expected within 25 years. "Well, time's up about now," he said. "It's like we're living on borrowed time." And if it's Pilgrim, there's no planned evacuation route for people who live on Cape Cod. Pilgrim's hope A few years ago it seemed that deregulation of the electric utility industry would be enough to price America's nuclear plants out of existence. Nuclear Power Pros : Alternative to burning vast amounts of fossil fuels (easier on environment) Produces much of the electricity that fuels U.S. economic growth. Cut America's demand for imported oil by nearly 100 million barrels a year. Cons : The problem of storing nuclear waste and long-term plans for older power plants Not considered a safe source of energy by many consumers; there's always the risk of catastrophe (i.e., a scenario like Three Mile Island or Chernobyl) High costs of construction, decommissioning and insurance premiums Some fast facts: Nuclear power supplies 20% of the nation's electricity. Delivery has become 25% more efficient in recent years with fewer shutdowns for accidents and repairs. No new plants have been built in the U.S. in 20 years. # of U.S. nuclear power plants = 103 Commercial nuclear reactors with operating licenses at 64 sites in 31 states. # of nuclear power plants worldwide = approximately 400 Dec. 2, 1942: the first atomic reactor brought to criticality by EnricoFermi at the University of Chicago (the first major investigation into a controlled nuclear fission chain reaction). The first nuclear power plant in the world was Obninsk APS-1, Soviet Union, 1954. In 1956, the first commercial nuclear power plant was started in Shippingport, PA. The second one, Yankee-Rowe, was built in 1960 in Massachusetts. They both used pressurized water reactors. Accidents/meltdowns: The only general emergency at a U.S. nuclear power plant was the March 28, 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. One of two reactors lost its coolant, which caused overheating and partial meltdown of its uranium core. Some radioactive water and gases were released. Other major nuclear power plant accidents: April 26, 1986: Chernobyl in Kiev, Ukraine. Explosion and fire in the graphite core of one of the four reactors released radioactive material that spread over part of the Soviet Union, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and later western Europe. 31 claimed dead; total casualties unknown. Worst such accident to date. Sept. 30, 1999: A nuclear plant leaked in Tokaimura, Japan. The chain reaction at a uranium processing plant was contained; three workers were seriously injured. Officials described the accident as the most serious ever at a nuclear facility in Japan. Atomic energy provides 1/3 of Japan's electricity. Aug. 9, 2004: Non-radioactive steam leaked from a nuclear power plant in Mihama, Japan, killing four workers and severely burning seven others. Earlier accidents: Dec. 12, 1952: There was a partial meltdown of the reactor's uranium fuel core in a power plant in Chalk River, near Ottawa, Canada. This resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods. Although millions of gallons of radioactive water accumulated inside the reactor, there were no injuries. (This was an experimental reactor). Oct. 7, 1957: In Windscale Pile No. 1, north of Liverpool, England, a fire in agraphite-cooled reactor spewed radiation over the countryside and contaminated a 200-square-mile area. Also in 1957: An explosion of radioactive wastes at a Soviet nuclear weapons factory 12 miles from the city of Kyshtym (South Ural Mountains) forced the evacuation of over 10,000 people from a contaminated area. No casualties were reported by Soviet officials. In 1976, a radioactive core of a reactor in the Lubmin nuclear power plant near Greifswald, E. Germany, nearly melted down due to the failure of safety systems during a fire. (Source: Cape Cod Times archives, www.infoplease.com, www.epa.com, www.nei.org) Success depends on competition, and with the price of natural gas dropping a few years ago nuclear didn't stand much chance. Especially given costs associated with keeping plants up to standards. That was particularly true at Pilgrim. Back when it was owned and operated by Boston Edison, the Pilgrim plant's record was sketchy, its fiscal health unsteady. In 1986, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission named it one of the nation's most poorly run plants. For nearly three years it was shut down to repair safety valves. Just before Entergy bought the plant in 1999, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined the plant owners for security and design flaws. Even after Entergy bought the plant, the dropping price of natural gas seemed to portend a permanent closure. "In the late 1990s, we were wondering if we would be able to run the plant from an economic standpoint," said David Tarantino, the Energy plant spokesman. Just a few years ago, Lochbaum recalls, it seemed the most popular workshops at nuclear trade conventions were those that explained how to shut plants down. As for workshops that explained how to renew plant licenses? "Those ones were basically attended by the panelists and their wives," Lochbaum said. "Now it's quite the opposite." Nearly one-third of America's nuclear power reactors have already been re-licensed. Through last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses and regulates the industry, had extended licenses of 30 nuclear plants across the nation. Another 16 are now under review. So far none has been rejected. It's not a great surprise, then, that Entergy, which owns nine other plants, decided late last year to push to renew Pilgrim's license, which expires in 2012. The company expects to submit an application by December. Among other things, the review will consider effects on the environment and the condition of existing plant equipment. It helps, Tarantino said, that the Plymouth plant is doing better financially these days. Entergy can buy materials in bulk, from office supplies to fuel, since it owns several plants. And the Plymouth station has streamlined operations, including a voluntary severance program that shaved 80 employees last year. Plymouth improvements Mary Lampert, a citizen activist from Duxbury and nuclear critic, says the economics of nuclear aren't that great for the public - federal subsidies have helped the industry survive. From 1943 to 1999, nuclear received about $145 billion in subsidies, according to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Besides, Lampert said, the greater concern remains safety. She insists Pilgrim would not be built today, considering the population growth across Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod. And it wasn't built to withstand a terrorist attack, such as a plummeting jetliner. "That wasn't a variable in the 1960s," Lampert said. "So this building wasn't designed for that." Another issue is where to store spent fuel, including 25 years worth of waste sitting at the bottom of Pilgrim's cooling pools. For more than a decade federal officials have eyed Yucca Mountain, a volcanic rock ridge about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the eventual site of a national repository. The original target date to open that facility in 1998 has long passed. Tarantino said Entergy would love the government to follow through on its promise to move the spent fuel. But until it does, he said, the plant will be safe. In fact, he said, since the 2001 terror attacks, more than $4 million has been spent bolstering security at the Plymouth plant, including security towers and more walls. "It's got to be by far the safest industry in the world," Tarantino said. "In the U.S. the safety record is very, very good." Many Americans, however, remain wary. A Gallup poll released last year indicated that 56 percent of Americans support nuclear energy, up from 46 percent in 2001. But only 37 percent favored building plants in their communities. "Polls show the public would prefer any alternative besides nuclear power plants to be built and operated near them," said Alan Nogee, a clean energy expert for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "At the same time, without any new nuclear plants proposed for more than 25 years, there's some level of resignation in communities with existing nuclear power plants." (Published: January 16, 2005) Contacts: news@capecodonline.com| retailsales@capecodonline.com Copyright © 2005 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 APP.COM: Oyster Creek fortified against possible attack ASBURY PARK PRESS Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/15/05 By NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU PETER ACKERMAN photo Signs warn anyone approaching the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey that guards carry rifles. Visitors pass through two security gates to enter the property. LACEY -- A security officer with an assault rifle slung across his back examined the identification of a man driving a flatbed truck, while another officer monitored the checkpoint from behind bullet-resistant glass in a lookout tower. Such scenes are played out daily at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant since workers finished a security upgrade. Township Committeeman John C. Parker likens the guard towers and razor-wire fences to precautions at a federal prison. Plant owner AmerGen finished the project in October, and gave members of the media their first look at the upgrades during a bus tour Friday. The rare inside look covered much of the plant's sprawling campus. The security lesson started early for Sean Graham of Freehold Township, the 34-year-old bus driver. He's used to driving charters to Florida and Washington, D.C. On Friday, Graham's Trolley Tours bus was intercepted by a state trooper moments after he entered the plant through its delivery entrance, he said. "It's tight," Graham said about the security. "He wanted to know what my business was on the property." The increased security, however, has failed to impress plant critics, most of whom oppose a plan that would allow the facility to operate for another 20 years beyond 2009 under a renewed license. AmerGen plans to apply for the renewal in July. Oyster Creek remains susceptible to an air attack, said renewal opponent Stephen Lazorchak of Toms River. Lazorchak, a structural engineer with GPU when the company owned the plant in the 1990s, sees a pool used to cool super-hot spent fuel rods atop the reactor building as vulnerable. "It's an opportunity for terrorists," he said. Reactor operators should empty the pool of spent rods as soon as they have cooled for the required five-year period, to minimize the consequences of an air attack, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Instead, nuclear plant operators keep these pools full of cooling rods beyond the required time, and only remove them when necessary to make room for other rods newly removed from the reactor. "Studies have shown that a radioactive cloud from a fuel pool can be as bad as a reactor meltdown," said Lochbaum, who promotes the safe operation of nuclear plants. More precautions Bud Swenson, the vice president at Oyster Creek, said people should feel safe living near the facility. During the tour, he pointed out a tract of land across Route 9 from the plant that had been cleared for new homes. The Coast Guard, he said, patrols the skies over the plant several times daily. PETER ACKERMAN photos Lookout towers (above) and razor-fortified fences (below) are among new precautions taken to thwart a possible terrorist attack at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey. Nuclear plants are among "the most robust facilities" ever built, Swenson said. Eight bullet-resistant lookout towers, one as tall as 50 feet and visible from Route 9, now surround Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial reactor. Security officers armed with AR-15 assault rifles staff the posts around the clock. "There are multiple eyes on any one area of the plant," Swenson said. Near a cement and metal structure holding spent fuel awaiting transportation to a national depository, a sign hanging on a fence read: "This facility is protected by an armed security force. Trespassers risk serious injury or death." New gates will only give about two feet before stopping a 65,000-pound truck traveling at 50 mph, Swenson said. Thousands of feet of fencing and razor coil surround it all. Razor mesh, sharp edges on the chain-link fences, will injure anyone who tries to climb up into the plant's vital areas. Security forces at nuclear plants nationwide have increased by about one-third since the federal government mandated that reactor operators meet new security guidelines created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Oyster Creek and other plants owned by AmerGen's parent company, Exelon, met the government's October deadline to improve security, Swenson said. Among the few outsiders allowed to see the new safeguards at Oyster Creek has been Mayor Gary Quinn. He and other township officials toured the plant a few weeks ago. "There's security everywhere," he said. "The community is certainly safe." Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com ***************************************************************** 26 APP.COM: State official: Feds go easy on nuclear plants ASBURY PARK PRESS Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/16/05 By NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU TRENTON -- Federal regulators have been too easy on New Jersey's four nuclear reactors since changing their inspection process four years ago, according to a top state radiation protection official. Jill Lipoti, assistant director of the state's radiation protection program, identified the process' failure to detect the mishandling of safety concerns by PSEG Nuclear managers at a Salem County plant as the most troubling problem. The process, she wrote to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has also given the public sugarcoated assessments of poor performance, including grades given to mishaps at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey. Regulators welcomed Lipoti's comments, but disagreed with her assessment. The existing process, they said, gives regulators more opportunities to revisit problems. It also targets risk areas better than the old rules. James McGovern, a 70-year-old Ocean Grove resident who made radioactive pharmaceuticals before retiring, said he trusts the NRC. Misinformation damaging atomic energy's reputation also has hurt the agency's standing, he said. "There is false information that is being released, primarily by anti-nuclear groups, and a lot of it is not based on scientific information," he said. "It's mostly based on suspicions and innuendo." But Jean Timmerman, a 77-year-old Long Island native, pointed to a fact many plant critics have cited when explaining their skepticism of the NRC: The agency has granted 20-year license renewals to every plant owner that has applied for one. This trend means that regulators approved the renewals without much scrutiny, she said. "I don't trust the federal government to make a decision that will have our best interest at heart," said Timmerman of Lacey, whose elected officials support a license renewal for Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial reactor. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who favors nuclear energy and works to improve reactor safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he criticized regulators for considering a proposal that would cancel thinly attended public meetings required annually under the existing oversight process. "For people who live near a plant, it's really their only opportunity to meet face to face with the NRC," he said. Agency officials instead should develop new ways to publicize the meetings and attract larger turn outs, said Lochbaum. Lipoti's chief concern at the Salem plant stems from a rare NRC order demanding managers reform its "safety culture" -- an action that came about last year, four months after a whistle-blower approached regulators about managers ignoring worker concerns about unsafe conditions. The new process "has significant flaws since it allowed this poor safety culture," Lipoti wrote to Michael T. Lesar, chief of rules and directives at the NRC. Also under the existing process, the NRC has issued fewer "significant enforcement findings" -- citations that usually come with increased oversight, wrote Lipoti. This trend stems from a new rule allowing reactor owners to explain violations before they're classified according to risk. The NRC uses a four-color system to grade risk. The scale ranges from green to white, yellow and red, the most serious. Since white, yellow and red grades could carry increased oversight, plant owners often testify before regulators and try for green. Lipoti took issue with how the NRC classified a mistake made by workers rebuilding a backup generator at Oyster Creek. Regulators had considered grading the oversight as white, but then characterized it as green after considering testimony provided by experts and officials from plant owner AmerGen. The green grade, said Lipoti, concealed poor performance. Regulators should make judgments based on fact and then allow reactor owners a chance to appeal, she said. Regulators began using the new Reactor Oversight Process, or ROP, April 2000, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. The process focuses inspectors on safety areas that would pose the most risk if degraded. The ROP also prescribes more opportunities for inspectors to follow-up on trouble spots. "We're not going to back off until we're satisfied that a problem has been fully addressed," he said. Although Lipoti has provided regulators with insight into the process, Sheehan characterized Lipoti's comparison of the old and new rules as comparing "apples to oranges." Lipoti wrote Lesar after the agency solicited comments from her, officials from other states and industry observers. Regulators are more organized under the new rules, although they require more information and more paperwork, said Oyster Creek Vice President Bud Swenson. Plant workers have had healthy working relationship with the two NRC resident inspectors at the plant, said Edward Stroup, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1289. "They feel comfortable with them because everybody is looking to do the right thing and is looking to keep the plant running well," he said. Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com ***************************************************************** 27 PCNH: Checks on way for nuke workers' kin - portclintonnewsherald.com Saturday, January 15, 2005 Labor Department awards 161 Brush Wellman claims, reviews 57 Local, wire reports WASHINGTON -- The claims of 57 workers from the Brush Wellman plant are being reviewed to determine whether the workers are eligible to receive federal compensation for illness acquired on the job from exposure to industrial toxins, according to a U.S. Department of Labor spokeswoman. Labor Department officials recently awarded compensation on 161 of the 218 claims filed by workers at Brush Wellman. The compensation is part of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, a policy designed to compensate those who were exposed. Compensation details for the workers at Brush Wellman were unavailable. Workers who are still alive will have to wait to receive checks until the agency publishes regulations, probably in May, detailing how it will compensate them, according to Shelby Hallmark, who heads the Labor Department's worker compensation programs. Hallmark said compensating the workers for their disabilities and lost wages will rely on a more complicated formula than the lump-sum payments for at least $125,000 made to spouses or dependent children of workers who died from job-related illnesses. Congress gave the Labor Department authority over the compensation program in October after lawmakers complained the Energy Department was running the program inefficiently. In Ohio, the program was designed to help workers from 35 sites, including the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon and the Mound site in Miamisburg. "Their sacrifice helped keep America free, and they, or their surviving loved ones, deserve quick and compassionate compensation," Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said of the Cold War-era workers who are seeking compensation for disabling illnesses and time off the job. Hallmark said the agency will review all the claims that the Energy Department previously examined, including those deemed ineligible for compensation. However, he cautioned that could take time. "We want to work on the ones that we can actually pay quickly first," he said. House and Senate lawmakers criticized the Energy Department for squandering nearly $100 million it received since Congress created the program a little more than four years ago. The Energy Department said it paid out benefits to just over 100 claimants out of about 25,000 who filed for help before the agency ceded control of the program to the Labor Department. Chao said the Labor Department has paid three claims to survivors -- in Tennessee and Kentucky -- since becoming involved in the program, but she said payments for about 100 more have been approved and will be paid in the next month. Additional claims from survivors will be settled before May, Hallmark said. The Labor Department faces serious challenges in assuming control over the program. One government official said the Energy Department had left behind boxes of unopened mail, which must be sorted and placed in the appropriate case files. Richard Miller, a policy analyst with the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, said that's all the more reason to re-evaluate cases turned down by DOE. "You need to take the mail that wasn't opened and make sure that new information might not have had an impact on the final decision," Miller said. In addition to moving the program to the Labor Department, Congress required the federal government -- not contractors who ran the nuclear sites -- to pay the bills. Worker advocates favored the move because some people deemed eligible for compensation were not getting paid. Contractors were gone, they contended, and in some cases the government could not compel contractors to pay because they were privately insured. Most of those who filed claims worked for contractors at Energy Department facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington. Hallmark estimated the program would cost more than $2 billion over 10 years, but other estimates by congressional budgeters have been significantly lower. Originally published Saturday, January 15, 2005 Copyright ©2004 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Bellona: Details of US sub accident become clearer as name of deceased sailor’s name released The causes behind the accident which resulted a US nuclear submarine running aground in the western pacific 420 kilometres south of the US territorial island holding of Guam over the weekend—killing one sailor and injuring 23—are becoming clearer, Naval officials said Tuesday. The USS San Francisco enters her home port of Apra Harbor, following an incident in which it ran aground approximately 420 kilometres south of its home port on Guam. AP/U.S. Navy Charles Digges, 2005-01-12 11:40 The USS San Francisco (SSNN 711), a Los Angeles Class “fast attack” submarine, was en route to Brisbane, Australia for a routine port call and was cruising at high speed at a depth of about 120 metres when it struck an uncharted underwater sea mountain on Friday, US Defence officials said in a statement released late Tuesday Oslo time. One US Naval official later late Tuesday by Bellona Web would not comment on whether the vessel was travelling at an excessive speed for what were apparently uncharted waters, saying only that “this will be revealed in the investigation.” Machinist Mate 2nd Class Joseph Ashley, 24, of Akron, Ohio, who died as a result of head injuries sustained during the submarine's underwater collision. US Navy Machinist Mate 2nd Class Joseph Ashley, 24, of Akron in the US state of Ohio, died Sunday from injuries suffered during the accident. Ashley had hit his head on a pump mechanism during the collision and never regained consciousness, even though medical teams worked to save him for three days as the sub limped back to its home port of Apra Harbour Guam, his father told the Akron Beacon newspaper. Ashely’s father, Dan, also of Akron and himself a naval veteran, told the newspaper that his son had served over four years of his five year commission with the navy, and had planned to re-enlist for another four-year stint aboard the USS San Francisco. Dan Ashley said his son's body is expected to be returned to Ohio by military escort on Wednesday. US Navy Pacific Fleet spokesmen said that 23 others were being treated for broken bones, lacerations and bruises. US attack sub runs aground in the Pacific, killing one A US nuclear attack submarine ran aground in the Pacific Ocean Friday for reasons as yet unclear about 420 kilometers south of Guam,injuring 23 sailors of the submarine’s 137-member crew—one of them fatally—as the vessel was engaged in a five-month patrol, US naval officials said Saturday. ‘No environmental effects whatsoever’ Most of the medical work was still being carried out aboard the USS San Francisco in port—an indication that the sub has not been extensively damages—and US Pacific Fleet command spokesman Jon Yoshishige said from Pearl Harbour, Hawaii that the submarines single reactor had suffered no damage during collision. Lt. Arwen Consaul, a U.S. Navy public affairs officer on Guam also confirmed that there is no leak of radioactivity and there will be “no environmental effects whatsoever” as a result of the incident. The sonar dome and the bow of the 109-metre-long USS San Francisco, however, where partially flooded, and the vessel arrived Sunday, Guam time, partially afloat, though under heavy naval, US coast and air escort. Despite the flooding, US Naval statements indicate the hull of the vessel is still intact, and that it was not in danger of taking on more water during its slow progress back to port. The US navy also indicated there had been no damage to the submarine’s weapons systems, which include four torpedo tubes that can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The US navy however, has been reluctant to say whether the submarine was carrying such weapons and, if so, whether they were so armed. The USS San Francisco, which was commissioned in 1981, has a submerged water displacement of 6,900 tonnes and carries a crew off 137—12 officers and 115 enlisted sailors. Another Ohio crew member lives survives with injuries Another man from Ohio suffered injuries when he was violently tossed during the underwater collision, he told Toledo, Ohio’s WTOL Channel 11 news. Master Chief Bill Cramer, 38, of Findlay, Ohio, suffered cuts and bruises to his head, the channel reported and US Naval officials confirmed. The submarine will remain in Guam while further investigations into the mishap continue. It is one of three US nuclear subs based at Apra Harbour. 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 ***************************************************************** 29 American Online: Atomic Safety board sets hearings Sunday, 16 January 2005 c /o Odessa American 222 E. 4th Street P.O. Box 2952 Odessa, TX 79760 Odessa American The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will begin an evidentiary hearing on building a uranium enrichment plant at 9:30 a.m. (Mountain Time) Feb. 7 at the Lea County Event Center, 5101 Lovington Highway, Hobbs, N.M. Louisiana Energy Services wants to build the National Enrichment Facility near Eunice, N.M. The hearing will continue daily until concluded. The public will be able to make brief statements from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 12 at the Eunice Community Center, 1115 Avenue I in Eunice. If there is enough interest, a second session is set for 2 to 4 p.m. at the same location. The Atomic Safety Licensing Board will hear evidence on four environmental contentions on the proposed plant. Concerns center on impacts on ground and surface water; water supplies, waste storage and the need for the facility, a news release said. Licensing board members are Chairman G. Paul Bollwerk III, Paul B. Abramson and Charles N. Kelber. While the hearings are open to the public, parts of the sessions regarding each of the contentions may be closed due to discussions that may involve sensitive information, the release said. Those wishing to speak at the Feb. 12 sessions should register in advance with the NRC Secretary and the board. Based on registrations received by noon EST on Feb. 3, the board may decide whether Saturday sessions will be held. Written requests to make oral statements at the Feb. 12 sessions should be submitted to Office of the Secretary, Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, by fax to (301) 415-1101, or e-mailed to hearingdocket@nrc.gov. Requests should also be sent to the Board by fax to (301) 415-5599, or e-mail to ksv@nrc.gov and gpb@nrc.gov. Members of the public attending any of the ASLB sessions are strongly advised to arrive early to allow time to pass through any security measures that may be employed. Attendees are also requested not to bring any unnecessary hand-carried items, such as packages, briefcases, backpacks or other items that may need to be examined individually. During the sessions, signs no larger than 18 inches by 18 inches will be permitted, but the signs may not be attached to sticks, held up or moved about in the rooms. ***************************************************************** 30 UPI: Yemen takes nuclear waste precautions - (United Press International) January 16, 2005 Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Yemen said Sunday it has implemented precautionary measures following the discovery of nuclear waste off the shores of nearby Somalia. While the government sources did not specify what actions were taken, they said a team of U.N. experts arrived on to test the waste, believed to be highly toxic. Sources told the daily September 26, which has close ties to the presidential palace, the waste was found in the past two days. The unidentified sources said authorities had information that some ships had dumped the waste into regional waters after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Dec. 26. They said tidal waves might have carried the waste to Somalia's shores, prompting the Yemeni authorities "to take the necessary measures to prevent the waste from coming" to its own shores. Opposition newspapers last week claimed foreign vessels had emptied nuclear waste off Yemen's shores in the Red Sea. [UPI Perspectives] ***************************************************************** 31 Las Vegas RJ: Outgoing energy secretary proud of Yucca Mountain Saturday, January 15, 2005 By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU Spencer Abraham Energy secretary says nuclear waste repository on track WASHINGTON -- Departing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Friday expressed pride in his progress toward developing a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Abraham hedged when asked if the department would meet its goal of storing radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain by 2010. But, he said, establishing a nuclear waste repository will pave the way for construction of the first new nuclear power plants in the United States in 30 years. "Already, we have three sites in the U.S. now undergoing review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to confirm that they are qualified places to build the next plants," Abraham said. He did not say where the three new sites are located, nor did he specifically mention Yucca Mountain during his speech to a group of international nuclear power officials at the National Press Club. On Jan. 10, 2002, Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for nuclear waste storage. President Bush approved the recommendation the following month. Abraham predicted the department would meet federal regulatory challenges in completing Yucca Mountain. There is a "compelling and overwhelming need" for the repository, which is based on "sound science," he said. "While some critics have said that disposal of this waste is too hard or too controversial to be accomplished, we are well on our way, I think, toward fulfilling the government's obligation to the commercial nuclear power industry, and more importantly to the ratepayers who have been financing this disposition program," Abraham said. After his speech, the he acknowledged to reporters that Nevada's lawsuits could stall plans to begin transporting 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain by 2010. "Obviously, because of some of the litigation, it puts doubt into the timetable," Abraham said. On July 9, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the Environmental Protection Agency must set new health standards for Yucca Mountain. "We don't think EPA can write standards that are consistent with the court's opinion," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the only senator to vote against confirming Abraham as energy secretary in January 2001, said Abraham's support of Yucca Mountain is "more shortsighted than ever." "It is impossible to transport tens of thousands of tons of deadly nuclear waste," Reid said in a statement. Abraham will remain secretary until his successor, Deputy Treasury Secretary Samuel Bodman, is confirmed by the Senate. Abraham, 52, said he plans to take a couple of months off before deciding what he will do next. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 32 Los Angeles Business Journal: Controversy Brews Over Utility’s Sale In Valencia Posted date: 1/17/2005 By KATE BERRY Los Angeles Business Journal Staff A water war is brewing in the sprawling northern L.A. communities of Valencia, Stevenson Ranch and Saugus as leveraged buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management LP tries to seal from the public details of its proposed purchase of a local water utility. New York-based Cerberus is on the cusp of becoming the biggest landowner in the Santa Clarita Valley through its proposed $4.2 billion leveraged buyout of LNR Property Corp. LNR is half-owner of Newhall Land and Farming Co., the developer that created Valencia from desert and farmlands. As part of the deal, Cerberus also inherits a 50 percent interest in Valencia Water Co., a 40-year-old local utility that provides water to the 20,855-home Newhall Ranch project and serves 89,000 water customers. (The other half-owner is Newhall Land’s former parent, Miami-based Lennar Corp.) Environmentalists and local water officials who have butted heads with Valencia Water and Newhall Land in the past are concerned that the involvement of Cerberus will make the water company even less responsive to their views – especially since, as a private equity firm, Cerberus’ financial makeup is blocked from public view. A key source of friction is dealing with the presence of the toxin perchlorate in local groundwater. “The concern is that there will be pressure to not properly disclose the perchlorate problem and that’s what everyone’s worried about,” said Lynne Plambeck, president of the Newhall County Water District. “Is it going to be about the public’s health concerns coming first, or about new development and the bottom line?” Mark Neporent, chief operating officer and senior managing director at Cerberus, declined to comment in an e-mail. A lawyer for LNR Property did not return calls. In a 170-page Public Utilities Commission application seeking permission to take control of the water company, Cerberus and a unit it has formed stated that they “will have little or no involvement in the day-to-day operations of Valencia, (and) there will be no impact on Valencia’s ratepayers.” Marlee Lauffee, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land, said she expected no changes at the water company with the Cerberus acquisition because Lennar retains 50 percent control of Valencia Water and is its managing general partner. “None of the service areas, the mission or the rates will change,” she said. “The end result to the consumer is really a non-issue. But because somebody else is buying us, they had to file (the PUC application.)” Keeping financials secret The application, which was filed in late December, asks the commission to approve the transfer of LNR’s 50 percent stake in Valencia Water on the grounds that it is “in the public interest.” All contents of this site © 2005 Los Angeles Business Journal Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA. ***************************************************************** 33 Salt Lake Tribune: Flood prompts N-waste alert Article Last Updated: 01/15/2005 03:25:59 AM Panel weighs scenarios if river swells near tailings By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune MOAB - The destruction along the Virgin River this week has shown that even the most placid waterways can turn fierce, a lesson not lost on those gathered Friday to preview two presentations on what a catastrophic flood might do to the radioactive Atlas tailings pile beside the Colorado River. "You can blow a channel bank out in a heartbeat. We need to know what conditions it takes to make that occur," University of Arizona geosciences professor John Dohrenwend told about 40 Atlas tailings "stakeholders," representatives of federal and state agencies, environmental and tribal advocates and Moab residents. The Moab meeting was in anticipation of public hearings this month and a final decision by the federal government later in the year on what to do with the huge pile. The Energy Department's ultimate decision will affect 25 million people in four states who rely on the Colorado River for drinking water. Dohrenwend, an adjunct professor who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey for 25 years, used satellite imagery and historical data to compare the river in 1944 to how it looked in 1962 and 1983, a flood year that sent the river 4 feet up the banks of the tailings pile. He concluded that a so-called probable maximum flood, when the river would flow at 300,000 cubic feet per second, could surround the tailings and inundate much of Moab. Dohrenwend's research, funded by a DOE grant, determined that despite a study cited in DOE's preliminary environmental impact study released in November, the river is not moving steadily away from the tailings pile, which holds 12 million tons of Cold War-era uranium mining leftovers. The U.S. Geological Survey also weighed in with an early look at a yet-to-be published study that found that a 100-year flood of 97,600 cubic feet per second would cover 4 feet of tailings. At 300,000 cfs, the river would climb 25 feet up the tailings pile. Both studies found it feasible that the flood waters would deepen and narrow the channel, making the water move more swiftly. That finding undermines the data the DOE relied on for its draft environmental study, Moab resident Sarah Fields said after the meeting. "It calls into question the assumption that if there's a big flood, [the river] will just turn into a big lake, that there wouldn't be any damage or erosion," she said. "The water would be moving at such a rate, there not only would be erosion but the pile would be undercut." The very uncertainty of determining what the river might do was enough for Grand County Commissioner Rex Tanner. "If we can't speculate with some kind of certainty what happens to the pile in the next 1,000 years," he said, "that's the reason to move it." Loren Morton, who is overseeing the Atlas tailings project for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, said the new data from the U.S. Geological Survey are "more robust" than the 1994 study the DOE relied on. But Don Metzler, the Grand Junction, Colo.-based DOE project manager, defended the data used in the draft EIS. "We built on what we inherited," he said. "We had conclusions we could stand behind." The Energy Department released its 1,000-page draft environmental impact statement in November, but in an unusual decision didn't include a preferred solution for the tailings. The study outlined five possibilities, including capping the debris from where it sits, moving it to one of three locations or doing nothing, which is unlikely. The 90-day comment period ends Feb. 18. The DOE will hold four public hearings Jan. 25-27 in Green River, Moab, White Mesa and Blanding. The Friday meeting was billed as a chance for those with an interest in the decision to have a briefing session before the public hearings. A final EIS is expected in summer, with a decision by autumn. The cleanup is estimated to cost $10.75 million for design and construction plus an annual cost of $906,000. Capping the tailings in place would cost $166 million and take seven to 10 years to complete. Moving the tailings would cost between $329 million and $464 million. Moving the tailings, either by slurry pipeline, truck or train, would take about eight years, the DOE says. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 34 Xinhua: Date for resumption of uranium enrichment undetermined: Iran www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-16 21:56:26 TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran said Sunday that it has not determined the date to carry out its declared resumption of uranium enrichment, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Iran would indeed resume its uranium enrichment activities, if the European Union failed to fulfill its commitments," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying. Asefi stressed that the exact date for resumption would still have to be fixed. Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said on Wednesday that Tehran would resume the enrichment in the near future. Iran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment on Nov. 22, 2004, in a bid to gain international recognition of its right to peaceful nuclear technology and the EU's pledged aid in nuclear and trade fields. However, Iran insisted it would never give up its legal rights and the suspension was only a voluntary and temporary measure to build confidence that its nuclear research was fully peaceful. Meanwhile, Iran warned the EU should be committed to its promises to encourage Tehran to implement the suspension. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of Iran's powerful Expediency Council, said last month that the maximum duration of Iran's suspension was six months. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Boston Globe: Towns react to national report on perchlorate Awaiting state rule on chemical Boston Globe The state's review of a national report could have a significant effect on the way local communities deal with perchlorate, a contaminant found in the drinking-water supplies of some communities. Awaiting state rule on chemical By Joyce Pellino Crane, Globe Correspondent | January 16, 2005 The state's review of a national report could have a significant effect on the way local communities deal with perchlorate, a contaminant found in the drinking-water supplies of some communities. The report, issued Monday by the National Academy of Sciences, differs with the stringent guidelines established early last year by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. At that time, the department began requiring testing for perchlorate and recommended a limit of one part per billion in drinking water. But Monday's report said the limit could be more than 20 times higher, without harm to people's health. Edmund Coletta, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said his agency will comment on the 200-page report in a few weeks, after a peer review group issues its report. Until then, the state limits remain in effect, but he did not rule out a shift. "We've made no changes," he said. "It remains to be seen whether there will be a change to that level. It depends on our review of the NAS report and the input from the advisory committee." Town Manager David Cressman of Tewksbury, who estimated that his town spent $50,000 this summer after finding perchlorate above the state's limit, said he hoped the report would result in a higher state limit. "That's what we've all been waiting for," Cressman said. "Let's use this to establish guidelines nationwide, instead of setting guidelines state by state. "I'm glad that some scientific and professional people of this type of stature are weighing in on that, and I'm hoping that the EPA can settle in on a ruling for the entire nation and that the [Department of Environmental Protection] follows that," he said. The stringent state limit created a storm in Westford and Tewksbury over the summer, when each discovered perchlorate levels in their drinking water at between two and four parts per billion. They issued public health advisories. Although the federal Environmental Protection Agency also has proposed a 1-part-per-billion limit, no national standard exists, and guidelines vary from state to state. California, for example, has a limit of six parts per billion. Perchlorate is a highly soluble salt derivative that is used in explosives, vehicle air bags, and leather tanning products. When it seeps into groundwater, it can flow to rivers, streams, and aquifers. In certain quantities it can inhibit the intake of iodide, necessary for thyroid hormones. In July, the Cote well, one of eight that supply Westford's drinking water, tested for perchlorate levels at 3.5 parts per billion, causing officials to shut it down. Town officials await recommendations from DEP officials on what to do next. The town's environmental analyst, Elaine Major, said she had been awaiting the National Academy of Sciences report for several months and will watch for the state's reaction. Major and Cressman said that easing the state's guidelines would greatly affect how communities like theirs handle the contaminant in the future. "If they raise the level above one part per billion, it's possible the Cote well could go back on line and we would meet state drinking water standards for perchlorate," Major said. "If they keep the level at one part per billion, it's very likely that the Cote well will continue to be offline until we can get some sort of treatment to take the perchlorate out of the water." She estimated the cost of remediation for the well to be about $1 million at the outset, with additional ongoing annual costs of about $300,000. Since July, the town has spent about $18,000 for private laboratory testing and public health notices, she added. Town Manager Steve Ledoux of Westford was more pointed in his comments. The EPA and the Department of Environmental Protection "are seemingly adopting and enforcing regulations on a subject that is still not fully understood and therefore costing the town and others time and money, as well as having to deal with the public outcry on a matter that may potentially not be as serious as first presented," he said. The panel of 15 physicians and scientists assembled by the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences concluded that it takes 0.0007 milligrams of perchlorate per kilogram of body weight to cause adverse health effects. The Department of Environmental Protection uses a standard of 0.00003 milligrams per kilogram. The panelists reviewed five studies, focusing primarily on one that tested 37 healthy adults, and noted that all the studies shared similar conclusions. [ /] © Copyright 2005 Globe ***************************************************************** 36 Pasadena Star-News: Area water is safe to drink, study says Article Published: Saturday, January 15, 2005 - By Kimm Groshong , Staff Writer PASADENA -- A report that the National Academies released this past week on perchlorate in drinking water offered some soothing words for many Pasadenans and Altadenans whose water for decades came at least partially contaminated by a chemical plume beneath the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The report identified a safe level for total daily intake of the chemical that is 23 times higher than that proposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 2002. But while agencies begin reviewing the recommendation and how it might be used to come up with the nation's first federal drinking water standard, some epidemiologists and toxicologists say crucial studies that would improve any recommendation have not been completed. The health concerns surrounding perchlorate relate to potential disruption of normal thyroid function, especially the effects such a disruption might have on pregnant women and their unborn children. The committee that produced the Academies' report concluded that "the evidence is insufficient to determine whether or not there is an association between perchlorate and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children.' Finding a lack of strong studies in the field, the committee recommended the use of what has come to be known as the benchmark study in perchlorate toxicity, the 2002 "Greer study,' which looked at the effects of perchlorate on 37 healthy adults. Jerome Hershman, an epidemiologist from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine said, "I think (the Academies' recommendation) is a reasonable compromise between safety, with a great emphasis on safety, and any potential effect on industry.' But he added, "the effect of greatest concern is reducing the iodine availability for pregnant women and thus for the unborn fetus. There is not really good data on that.' And Ashok Jain, an associate professor of emergency medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine who researches toxicology, said, "From what I've seen, there's nothing substantial to indicate that they are in a better position to make a recommendation than the EPA was two years ago.' Jain said the committee had placed too much emphasis on the Greer study, which he said focused on the wrong population. "The issue at this point is not the adults. We are more concerned about the exposure to the unborn,' he said. The Academies' committee did not provide a recommendation for a drinking water concentration. It stopped at a recommendation of a "reference dose,' the total amount of perchlorate they determined a person could safely consume on a daily basis from all sources, including water and food. The committee recommended a dose of 0.0007 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The EPA's corresponding dose from 2002 was 0.00003 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The agency recommended a drinking water concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb). One ppb translates roughly to a half a teaspoon of a chemical dispersed in a volume of water equal to that in an Olympic swimming pool. When the Academies' committee released its report, several members of the media and other organizations mistakenly multiplied the EPA's drinking water concentration of 1 ppb by 23. But the conversion is not that simple. Several assumptions have to be made in order to convert a reference dose into a drinking water concentration. For example, body weight and percentage of daily chemical consumption from water versus other sources have to be factored in. That means the Academies' dose doesn't translate to a concentration of 23 ppb. And that ambiguity leaves room for interpretation. With the Natural Resources Defense Council accusing the Bush administration of being too involved in the committee's study, other environmental groups see the Academies' recommendation as a victory for their cause. Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group, said her group has translated the academies' reference dose to a concentration of 2.5 ppb. "You can argue about what exact number you might use, but it's very clear that we're not talking about 20 ppb, that's for certain,' she said. On the other hand, James Strock, a spokesman for the Council on Water Quality, said in an e-mail that although the council has not advocated a drinking water standard, a rough calculation of the dosages mentioned in the Greer study yields a value of approximately 240 ppb. The Council on Water Quality is a subset of companies of the Perchlorate Study Group, which includes Aerojet, American Pacific Corporation, Kerr-McGee Chemical and Lockheed Martin. Currently, California's public health goal for perchlorate in drinking water is 6 ppb. Pasadena Water &Power currently has 10 of its 16 wells closed due to perchlorate levels above that goal. Shan Kwan, business director for PWP, said the highest concentration of perchlorate ever detected in one of the wells was 160 ppb, but that was a measurement taken while the well was not on. He said the cost associated with pumping extra water from Pasadena's other wells to make up for the closed wells is about $44,000 per year. PWP officials say the new study will have no direct impact locally since they will continue to follow state guidelines. The state EPA's Office of Health Hazard Assessment is responsible for setting the public health goal. Allan Hirsch, a spokesman for that office, said, "In general, we feel very encouraged by the (Academies') report because the general findings of the report appear to support the approach we took in developing our public health goal.' The state office also based its goal on the Greer study, he said. It is the California Department of Health Services' job to take the public health goal and use it to "develop a drinking water standard that's as close to the public health goal as is technically and economically feasible,' said Robert Miller, a spokesman for the department. He said the department has been going through the yearlong process of setting a water standard for perchlorate since the state EPA announced its 6 ppb goal in March 2004. If the California EPA changes its recommendation, "we will respond accordingly,' Miller said. A NASA-funded treatment facility directly above the perchlorate plume beneath JPL is nearly complete, said Steve Slaten, remedial project manager for NASA. A facility to clean up the Lincoln Avenue Water Company's wells near JPL has been operating since July and was also funded by NASA. Kwan said PWP is close to an agreement with NASA for another treatment facility for four wells closest to JPL. Slaten said the facility would cost NASA $4 million to build and about $500,000 per year to operate. -- Kimm Groshong can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4451, or by e-mail at kimm.groshong@sgvn.com. Copyright © 2005 Los Angeles Newspaper Group Feedback ***************************************************************** 37 American Online: Waste Control decision coming soon OA Online News Sunday, 16 January 2005 c /o Odessa American 222 E. 4th Street P.O. Box 2952 Odessa, TX 79760 BY Ruth Campbell Odessa American ANDREWS By next week, Waste Control Specialists should find out if it will get some — or all — of the waste from the former U.S. Department of Energy uranium processing plant in Fernald, Ohio. The Department of State Health Services is conducting an engineering review on the license amendment, so a decision could come as early as Jan. 24, Richard Ratliff, radiation program officer for the Division of Regulatory Services at the Department of State Health Services in Austin, said. If approved, the amendment would allow Waste Control to increase the amount of waste it can store from 250,000 cubic feet to 1.5 million cubic feet, Ratliff said. Waste Control General Manager Tom W. Jones III said the amendment from the State Department of Health Services could allow his company to dispose of byproduct material ranging from uranium mine tailings from East Texas to waste from the Fernald, Ohio, site. “There are a number of sources with byproduct material that could be disposed of with this authorization,” Jones said. Waste Control sits on a little more than 14,000 acres, Jones said. The company uses 1,340 of those acres, he said. Gary Stegner, public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of Energy Ohio field office, said the agency would announce the company selected to get Fernald waste on Jan. 20. The waste would come from Fernald’s three silos. Silos 1 and 2 contain about 8,000 cubic yards of silty clay-like material from processing ore from the Belgian Congo in the early 1950s. Silo 3 contains 5,100 cubic yards of powder-like residues from the processing of Canadian and U.S. ores from the ’50s. The material has been burned to reduce its volume, according to information from Fernald. Margot Clarke, outreach coordinator for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club in Austin, said Belgian Congo Pitch Blend is 65 percent uranium. The material was processed at Fernald and at a facility in St. Louis. The residues were stored because the African Metals Corp., which owned the material, wanted to save it for additional processing that never occurred, Fernald’s information said. Shipments from Silo 3 would start sometime in March, Stegner said. Silo 3 waste would come in 20-foot long shipping containers with plastic liners. During a two-year period, that would include 273 containers, Ratliff said. Material from Silos 1 and 2 would be transported in containers 6 feet in diameter by 6 feet in height. Silo 1 and 2 would come out to 7,000 containers during a two-year period, he said. The material cannot stay in one place for more than two years, unless Waste Control gets a low-level radioactive waste disposal license from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. After two years, the waste would have to be taken to a private commercial disposal facility or the Nevada Test Site, Ratliff said. Community support Andrews has supported the idea of Waste Control from the beginning, which is something Jones said the company really appreciates. A recent public meeting on Waste Control’s license amendment application to take uranium tailings attracted 75 people, the majority of which backed the idea. “It shows we do have strong support, and it’s important to the people in this area,” Jones said. The company currently employs 110 people, and it’s looking to grow. “It’s strictly going to depend on what business we get. We see steady growth over the next five years. We’ll add people as we can justify them,” Jones said. “I think the thing is these are all good-paying jobs. Our starting salary is very competitive with anything in this region. Our upper salaries are probably better than other jobs in this area,” he said. ***************************************************************** 38 AU ABC: First trainload of uranium arrives in NT. 17/01/2005. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> A trial of transporting yellowcake uranium on the Adelaide to Darwin railway has begun, with the first load arriving in the Northern Territory from South Australia last night. Mining company WMC Resources was last month granted approval for the three-month trial. Freightlink and Swire Shipping have confirmed the first load of four containers arrived in Darwin last night without any problems. Swire Shipping says the containers will be kept in a secure yard at the port until later in the week when they will begin their sea journey overseas. WMC says the shipment is headed for North American markets. Products will be transported by rail from the company's Olympic Dam and Beverly mines in South Australia to Darwin's East Arm Port. Environmental groups have raised concerns about a lack of public consultation over the trial. The controversial load arrived as the trans-continental rail line celebrated its first anniversary. © 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 39 Ottawa Citizen: Stop 'outrageous' nuclear waste dump Come clean on Chalk River, firm told canada.com network Neco Cockburn The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, January 16, 2005 Environmentalists yesterday called on Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to come clean about its waste management practices after it was revealed the company broke a promise to stop dumping radioactive and chemical waste at Chalk River. "Unfortunately, it isn't a surprise. These types of infractions on the public trust seem to be standard practice for AECL," said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, director of atmosphere and energy for the Sierra Club of Canada. Regulators from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission were outraged at a meeting last week after they discovered that AECL continued to dump tainted sludge -- containing what are believed to be small amounts of radioactive and chemical material -- into sandy trenches at Chalk River, in Renfrew County. The company had promised in 1997 to stop dumping the untreated sludge. AECL has since denied its dumping had continued in secret, saying it believed the practice was out in the open. But Mr. Stensil and others called for an independent public audit into waste materials found at Chalk River, and the cost of cleaning up the site, which is about two hours west of Ottawa. "There's far too much secrecy about waste management practices in general at Chalk River. This is certainly not going to enhance AECL's public image," said Ole Hendrickson, a researcher with the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County. The practice of dumping the hazardous waste -- which contains small amounts of radioactive materials, including cobalt and cesium 137, and hazardous chemicals such as mercury -- started in the early 1960s, during a period of looser standards. In 1995, AECL was told to stop. Two years later, the company promised to start shipping waste to an off-site treatment facility. Dumping in the sand would occur only in "very rare" emergencies, it said. But last fall, a nuclear commission inspector noticed that sludge was being dumped. AECL admitted it had continued the practice, dumping the sewage every four to six weeks. The company has said it never believed the sewage sludge was particularly hazardous, an argument disputed by Mr. Hendrickson. "There are mechanisms by which low levels of radionuclides can magnify through the food chain and end up in much more concentrated forms, in fish and freshwater mussels, and in -people that eat those or drink the water. We need to take all forms of radioactive waste quite seriously," he said. Meredith Brown, of the Ottawa Riverkeeper organization, called the continued dumping "outrageous." "There should be a transparent plan that says, 'This is how we're going to make sure that the river is protected and our public is protected.' " The company has said it welcomes a chance to work things out with regulators. The safety commission's staff is expected to make a longer report on its findings by late February. The latest revelations aren't the first to spark the anger of environmentalists. In 1997, the Chalk River complex was found to have leaked large amounts of radioactive water through soil and into the Ottawa River for almost 20 years without warning residents. Mr. Stensil said he was happy nuclear commission chairwoman Linda Keen, a former deputy minister of Natural Resources Canada, also called for AECL's president to provide an explanation of the company's overall practices. Ms. Keen said the submission could then be put before Parliament. "We've never had a debate on nuclear energy in this country," Mr. Stensil said. "After 50 years, we should be evaluating why we're giving money to AECL and creating all this waste that we're going to have to pay to clean up." c The Ottawa Citizen 2005 ***************************************************************** 40 AP Wire: Relicensing of nuclear plants raises waste storage concerns | 01/16/2005 | JACOB JORDAN Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina's nuclear power plants have been given the go-ahead to operate many years into the future, raising some concerns about how radioactive waste produced at these aging reactors will be stored. Operating licenses for the state's seven nuclear reactors have been renewed into the 2030s and beyond for some facilities, but some watchdog groups are troubled the waste those reactors produce will be left behind. They say the relicensing process, which involves environmental and safety approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was streamlined and boosted the industry for years to come. Nuclear industry officials disagree, citing an outstanding safety record and efficient energy. Oconee Nuclear Station, one of the nation's oldest nuclear power plants, was just the second facility in the country to have its license renewed for an additional 20 years into the 2030s. The plant began operating in the early 1970s and says it has generated more electricity than any other nuclear station in the United States. But it's also generated tons of waste, or spent nuclear fuel. A recent report by the Environmental Working Group found that because of the extended operating licenses and delays with a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the waste generated could be left at the sites indefinitely. "What we basically found was the Bush administration told us a whopper two years ago when it said Yucca Mountain would solve our nuclear waste problems," said Dusty Horitt, one of the report's authors. "We found that even if Yucca Mountain opens up on time, we will be storing nuclear waste in our local communities for years to come." Leaving the material on site is a concern for many, since some waste is stored above ground in sealed containers near schools, rivers and lakes. Linda Conley, a spokeswoman for Oconee Nuclear Station, which is owned and operated by Duke Energy Corp., said safety and security are top concerns. Conley said some the waste at the site is stored in water, which shields workers from radiation, and some of it is kept in aboveground containers, or dry cask storage. Most of the facilities in South Carolina use both methods to store waste. The Oconee facility is expanding its dry cask storage, like other plants in the state, since the waste currently has no where to go. Oconee was expecting to ship the waste to Yucca Mountain, but underfunding and legal delays have prevented the repository from opening. A planned opening in 2010 likely will be delayed. Oconee is ready for the site to open, Conley said, noting that Duke has contributed millions of dollars each year to a "nuclear waste fund" to support a repository. "We want something back for that money," she said. "We want to have a place to store our spent fuel. But then we obviously have a commitment to our customers to continue to safely operate." The dry cask storage expansion will serve the facility through 2009. "We certainly don't want to build more than we need to," Conley said. "But we would have plans ... to continue those expansions all the way through the end of our license." If even Yucca opens, the Environmental Working Group report said the repository can't hold all the nation's nuclear waste. At Oconee, more than 1,000 metric tons of waste will be left on site after the license extensions expire, the report said. That's slightly less than the amount of waste currently stored at the site, the report said. South Carolina Electric & Gas' V.C. Summer plant stores its waste in pools. Spokesman Eric Boomhower said there's enough capacity to safely store spent fuel there through 2018. The Jenkinsville plant then would move to dry storage, he said. David McNeil, a spokesman for Progress Energy's H.B. Robinson plant near Florence, said the industry has an outstanding record of wet and dry storage, and the relicensing process was rigorous. It involved environmental and safety reviews by the company and commission, which lasted several years. However, Kevin Camps of the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service says the NRC has made relicensing easy. "Unfortunately, a lot of utilities are deferring maintenance or trying to get around having to even to do the maintenance so that kind of exacerbates that problem," he said. "So we're very concerned." McNeil said South Carolina has benefited from getting its energy from a variety of sources, which can control costs and avoid shortages. "Nuclear power is one of the most efficient sources of electric generation," he said. ***************************************************************** 41 ABQjournal: LANL Having Waste Problem; Flows Restricted Through Liquid Treatment Area the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. Saturday, January 15, 2005 Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer Los Alamos National Laboratory is having a waste-storage problem at a few of its top nuclear facilities. Last summer's operations shutdown and delayed restart at LANL due to safety and security concerns has caused a waste backup at its plutonium processing plant, Technical Area-55. At the same time, the lengthy and ongoing process of safety review helped managers there discover problems with its radioactive liquid waste treatment facility. Because of those concerns, managers have restricted waste flows through the facility, known as TA-50. "It is an old facility; it came on line in 1963," said LANL spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas about the lab's Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility in TA-50. "(Managers) decided to restrict flows in some lines, so it is not handling as much waste as it used to," and is only being used on a restricted basis, she said. One issue the facility faces, aside from aging lines, is a leak in one of its storage tanks, discovered over the last year. A federal safety board noted in mid-December that LANL plans to keep waste levels in the tank below the leak to reduce the risk of radioactive liquid leaks. "It is a concern, and we are paying attention to it at the highest levels," DeLucas said. Managers took a hard look at the facility as part of the work suspension and restart process, evaluating the facility's safety. As a result, DeLucas said managers developed concerns over the age of the waste lines running into the facility. She said LANL has instituted compensatory measures and is developing plans to replace the entire facility. She estimated the cost to replace it at about $60 million to $85 million. An independent federal nuclear safety board first noted its concern over the status of the TA-50 waste treatment facility and the buildup of wastes at the key nuclear processing facility, TA-55, around mid-December. DeLucas said the waste treatment facility has not been affected by the shutdown, but waste processing at TA-55 has been slowed as a result. TA-55, LANL's plutonium research facility and the nation's only production source for nuclear triggers, or pits, is approaching control limits for waste storage, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The board noted in a Dec. 10 memo that "caustic waste tanks are full, and the TA-55 PF-4 basement waste inventory is approaching control limits (e.g. in some areas, drums are double stacked)." It notes that, without action, TA-55 could become "waste-logged," which has both "safety and national security mission implications." DeLucas said the shutdown has meant technicians there have not been able to process nuclear waste as quickly as normal, though officials expect the facility to be back up to full speed sometime this week. "They expect that to help relieve some of the waste pressure," she said. Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 42 Portsmouth Herald: ‘Die-hard’ activists Sat. January 15, 2005 [PHOTO] Jim Horrigan, left, and Guy Chichester are known in the Seacoast area for their activism against the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and their efforts to educate the public. The siren in the background was cut down by Chichester when it first went up. Photo by Deb Cram Photographer's Name NO EMAIL HERE--> By Beth LaMontagne blamontagne@seacoastonline.com RYE - The very future of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League will be the topic of a public discussion next week on Thursday at the First Unitarian Society in Exeter. A core group of "die-hards" is all that’s left of the 36-year-old environment-watchdog group. Now, with just a handful of members, no field manager and no prospect of finding new recruits, the board is considering folding the group into another local environmental organization or disbanding all together. In a letter to all members, the board asks, "Is there enough non-nuclear energy out there to make it possible?" "We’re trying to save it, but we haven’t come up with any solutions," said Jim Horrigan, a Seacoast Anti-Pollution League member. "We’re at the point where someone takes it over or it dies." Because most of the active members are past retirement age, the board is hoping for a group of young people to come forward to keep the organization going. The group still has a small amount of working capital, Horrigan added. Founded in 1969, the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League took an active part in protesting the construction of the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. Although it lost the battle to keep nuclear power off the Seacoast, the group has continued to push for stricter regulations and continual monitoring of toxic waste levels at Seabrook and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Guy Chichester, a former board member of the organization, said his interest as a member was in reminding people of the implications a nuclear power plant in their back yard could have. "People should understand what [Seabrook Station’s owners are] asking of us, that we should run for our lives if anything goes awry," said Chichester. After Sept. 11, 2001, the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League put together what it called "SAPL’s Seven-Point Safety and Security Program for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant," asking for tighter security around the Seabrook plant, including more-extensive background checks on prospective employees and a security review of all radioactive storage facilites. SAPL board member Charles Pratt hopes next week’s meeting will rejuvenate the group and attract new members. "There are things we are doing that are important and need to continue," said Pratt. Copyright © 2005 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please ***************************************************************** 43 Tri-City Herald: PNNL looking ahead This story was published Sunday, January 16th, 2005 By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Imagine a world where refrigerators and home heating systems adjust themselves. Where the flip of a switch is noted by a power source hundreds of miles away. And where the Northwest's electrical power grid is managed by computer to switch any optional energy use to times when prices are lowest. Or a world where a single blood test can identify a potential disease or cancer long before symptoms arise, allowing for simpler, more effective treatment than radical surgeries or radiation. And imagine a government, scientists, educators and private industry joining in partnerships to benefit humans worldwide. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's record over 40 years suggests such technology is coming soon. Since Battelle took over the Hanford labs in 1965, the post-nuclear age has produced the compact disc, radio frequency identification tags, holographic imaging, solid oxide fuel cells, ultrasonic imaging for medical use, faster and faster supercomputers and biological answers for environmental cleanup. "People have no idea what our fingerprints are on," said Mike Schwenk, director of intellectual asset management for PNNL in Richland. In just four decades, lab researchers have earned more than 1,200 patents, many of which already have changed life in the 21st century. Smart home appliances and an energy grid that can respond intelligently and instantaneously to shifting demands for electricity will be commonplace within 10 years, said Rob Pratt, a staff scientist working in energy. So will predictive medicine based on simple blood tests, said Dick Smith, a Battelle Fellow and team leader on mass spectrometry of proteins. The next decade also is expected to bring major physical and economic change to the Tri-Cities as Battelle develops an expanded $250 million PNNL campus in north Richland to replace 1950s-era facilities in Hanford's 300 Area. Schwenk sees the new campus as an unprecedented opportunity to take the relationship between the lab and the community to a deeper level. Battelle employees won't be the only occupants of the PNNL campus. The goal is to build it to accommodate as many non-Battelle researchers as possible. "Who we partner with and the way we go about partnering is critical. It will take more than Battelle," Schwenk said. "This is about partnering with companies and on specific projects. That's a little different than sitting down with the government and talking about what might happen. The lab has never done it that way before. "In 2009 or 2010 when the work is finished, if all that is out here is just Battelle, we will have failed," he concluded. The future also will see greater emphasis on national and homeland security, said Mike Kluse, associate director for PNNL's national security directorate. The lab's proposed budget for fiscal 2005 has $400 million in contract research designated for national and homeland security, which is more than half of the $700 million budget for all the lab's government-related work. Kluse expects that to grow by 50 percent in four years to $600 million because of federal budget priorities. The primary challenges are preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and dealing with the threat of terrorism, but Kluse's team also is involved in making the world a safer place through securing nuclear materials all over the globe. "There is a lot of work going on country-to-country," he said, noting one of the lab's growing functions is to train people from throughout the world how to secure their own borders and how to be effective in responding to crises because of accidents or terrorism. "Fifteen years ago, the lab's focus was on the environment. "Today, it is national security. Down the road, it may be energy," Kluse said. © 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 44 Tri-City Herald: From WWII-era to nation's 'most modern lab' This story was published Sunday, January 16th, 2005 By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Mike Lawrence is a man with a singular mission. Figure out how to get $250 million, use it to replace 700,000 square feet of research laboratory space that houses about 1,000 workers and have it all ready by 2009. Along the way, he'll face the red tape endemic to the federal bureaucracy and a Congress that's struggling to manage a 2005 deficit expected to reach the $330 billion range. As director of campus development at the 3,900-employee Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, he is the point man to bring together all the people and resources needed to build new research labs to replace Cold War-era labs in Hanford's 300 Area. "This is the lab's No. 1 priority this year, and next year," Lawrence said. "And it has to be the community's No. 1 priority. If we lose this and don't replace it, it will have a huge impact on this community." The race is on because the Department of Energy wants the Columbia River corridor at Hanford, which includes 300 Area, cleaned up by 2012. That, in turn, means PNNL has to get out of the aging 300 Area within five years. It's a big deal, says Lawrence, because the 300 Area includes 45 percent of PNNL's experimental lab space, 75 percent of PNNL's federally owned facilities and all of the lab's nuclear and radiological facilities. The work done there also generates about $200 million worth of the lab's annual research contracts. Lawrence and a project team believe only 500,000 square feet of replacement space is needed, but they also realize that another 300,000 square feet of lab facilities should be built to allow for expansion in such critical research missions as national defense, homeland security and human cell analysis called proteomics. The plan calls for $175 million in federal money, which will cover the 500,000-square-foot portion, and another $75 million from private and state sources to buy the remaining 300,000 square feet. "We aren't replacing for replacement's sake. This is just to maintain our current research capabilities," Lawrence said. A big help came recently when the federal government agreed to dedicate 110 acres of the Hanford site north of the existing PNNL property for lab use. Lawrence said another important step came in late September when Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow formally approved replacement of the 300 Area labs with new facilities. It was "critical decision zero," Lawrence said. Congress is starting to move, too, with startup funding. The first $1.6 million came in 2004 at the behest of U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Congress has agreed to put in another $10 million during 2005. "It shows the will of Congress that replacement facilities should be built," Lawrence said. The next critical decision will be in June when a design team can predict the construction cost estimate, he said, adding that it is vital Congress set aside construction money in 2006. Lawrence said the extra 300,000 square feet is important for the lab's future missions. "The goal is to grow in certain areas. We expect to go from $640 million (2004's federal contract) to $1 billion, and have 4,600 employees," Lawrence said. Although it will be difficult to lock in construction money by 2006 to allow for construction to be completed in time by the 2009 deadline, Lawrence said officials in Washington, D.C., say it can be done. "They've told us to stick with the '09 date," he said. "This will enable us to have the most modern lab in the country" as Hanford's old research sites are cleaned up. © 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 45 Albuquerque Journal: LANL Having Waste Problem; Saturday, January 15, 2005 Flows Restricted Through Liquid Treatment Area By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer Los Alamos National Laboratory is having a waste-storage problem at a few of its top nuclear facilities. Last summer's operations shutdown and delayed restart at LANL due to safety and security concerns has caused a waste backup at its plutonium processing plant, Technical Area-55. At the same time, the lengthy and ongoing process of safety review helped managers there discover problems with its radioactive liquid waste treatment facility. Because of those concerns, managers have restricted waste flows through the facility, known as TA-50. "It is an old facility; it came on line in 1963," said LANL spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas about the lab's Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility in TA-50. "(Managers) decided to restrict flows in some lines, so it is not handling as much waste as it used to," and is only being used on a restricted basis, she said. One issue the facility faces, aside from aging lines, is a leak in one of its storage tanks, discovered over the last year. A federal safety board noted in mid-December that LANL plans to keep waste levels in the tank below the leak to reduce the risk of radioactive liquid leaks. "It is a concern, and we are paying attention to it at the highest levels," DeLucas said. Managers took a hard look at the facility as part of the work suspension and restart process, evaluating the facility's safety. As a result, DeLucas said managers developed concerns over the age of the waste lines running into the facility. She said LANL has instituted compensatory measures and is developing plans to replace the entire facility. She estimated the cost to replace it at about $60 million to $85 million. An independent federal nuclear safety board first noted its concern over the status of the TA-50 waste treatment facility and the buildup of wastes at the key nuclear processing facility, TA-55, around mid-December. DeLucas said the waste treatment facility has not been affected by the shutdown, but waste processing at TA-55 has been slowed as a result. TA-55, LANL's plutonium research facility and the nation's only production source for nuclear triggers, or pits, is approaching control limits for waste storage, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The board noted in a Dec. 10 memo that "caustic waste tanks are full, and the TA-55 PF-4 basement waste inventory is approaching control limits (e.g. in some areas, drums are double stacked)." It notes that, without action, TA-55 could become "waste- logged," which has both "safety and national security mission implications." DeLucas said the shutdown has meant technicians there have not been able to process nuclear waste as quickly as normal, though officials expect the facility to be back up to full speed sometime this week. "They expect that to help relieve some of the waste pressure," she said. Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal http://www.abqjournal.com/north/289657north_news01-15-05.htm?teas e ***************************************************************** 46 Newsday: 70 years to clean water? BROOKHAVEN LAB POLLUTION Long Island Life NY Newsday.com Officials say faster job that some seek would be too costly BY ANN GIVENS STAFF WRITER January 16, 2005 To some environmentalists, 70 years is too long to spend cleaning up contamination in the groundwater at Brookhaven National Laboratory. That's how long laboratory officials propose taking to get rid of the radiation there, using the most efficient method. Lab officials say that the radioactive isotope that is polluting the water, strontium-90, isn't spreading, and that there is no danger in taking longer than they had planned to clean it up. The lab's original estimate for the cleanup, which began in 2000, was 30 years, although it anticipated re-evaluating the time frame. But some lab watchdogs say such delay would set a bad precedent. "We'll all be dead in 70 years, so we should take responsibility and clean it up sooner," said Adrianne Esposito, associate executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization, and a member of the lab's Community Advisory Council. "It sends the wrong message to say that it's OK to leave this area contaminated for the next two generations." 50-year target sought Esposito is pushing to complete the strontium-90 cleanup within 50 years, and says lab officials don't know yet how much that would cost. A final decision has not been made on which method to use and how long the cleanup will take. Lab officials are gathering comments on the matter through Friday and say they'll take public opinion into account when they decide. The conflict between lab officials and some environmentalists comes on the heels of a honeymoon period between the two groups following an April 2004 lab decision to clean up 99 percent of the contamination at its graphite research reactor, a plan that environmentalists had been doggedly pushing for years. In the past, "the lab has met or exceeded the cleanup goals," said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society and a member of the lab's Community Advisory Council. "We wouldn't want to see that trend reversed." But Don Garber, who represents the Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Organizations on the lab's Community Advisory Council, said he is not troubled by the lab's proposal. "There's no great public health gain by pumping like crazy," he said. "Even with the longer cleanup ... [the contamination] is still right in the core of the lab area. You'll get the stuff before it moves 15 feet." Two-part effort Michael Bebon, the lab's deputy director of operations, said two parts of the cleanup are under discussion. The first is cleanup of the Magothy Aquifer, water-saturated sand about 200 feet below the lab. The aquifer is contaminated with volatile organic chemicals, probably dating to when an Army base sat on the Upton property, he said. The lab proposes pumping the contaminated water into "extraction wells" to capture the volatile chemicals, a process expected to take about 55 years. Esposito, of the citizens campaign group, said she would prefer to see this cleanup done in 30 years. The second part of the plan that's being discussed is the removal of the strontium-90, much of which leaked into the groundwater years ago from the graphite research reactor. Bebon said that when the filters that trap the radiation are used quickly, they tend to pull minerals out of the water along with the radiation, rapidly using up the filters and making the process more expensive. Bebon said it is more sensible to filter the water slowly, so that only the strontium- 90 will be extracted. He said if the lab takes about 70 years to clean up the strontium-90, the option it is endorsing, it will cost about $9.7 million, while doing it over 30 years would cost federal taxpayers $50 million. Bebon said the radiation won't migrate within the next 70 years and will pose no danger to public health. "We've tried to strike a balance, without posing a risk to human health," Bebon said. To submit comments on the plan, residents may send an e-mail to tellDOE@bnl.gov, fax to 631-344-3444, or write to: Michael Holland, attn: ESD, Site Manager, Brookhaven Site Office, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973. Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc. | Article licensing and reprint ***************************************************************** 47 chillicothe gazette: Toxic beryllium likely present at Piketon plant - www.chillicothegazette.com Saturday, January 15, 2005 Report says workers taking precautions By Daniel Prazer, dprazer@nncogannett.com Gazette Staff Writer What is beryllium? Beryllium is a naturally occurring metal that used to be found in everything from bicycle frames to dental bridges, grinding wheels to fluorescent light bulbs. In its pure form, it's used in nuclear weapons and reactors, X-ray machines and space vehicles. If breathed as a dust, some people develop beryllium sensitivity over a period of exposure. Along with an increased risk of lung cancer, those exposed may develop chronic beryllium disease, a scarring, inflammatory reaction in the respiratory system that can cause a myriad of health problems. Some of the symptoms are: + weakness + fatigue and breathing difficulties + anorexia + weight loss + heart disease and enlargement Source: Centers for Disease Control, www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts4.html. PIKETON -- The toxic metal beryllium is most likely present in many facilities at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant, according to a Nov. 19 report recently obtained by the Chillicothe Gazette. The study, undertaken by a group comprised of representatives from on-site contractors, unions and the Department of Energy, looked at 12 buildings on the site to test for the presence of beryllium. After taking more than 1,200 samples, all 12 buildings tested positive for its presence in the form of dust that had settled onto surfaces. "Based on these results, removable beryllium surface contamination levels at or above the (levels of concern) have been/are probably present in many other PORTS (plant) facilities that have not yet been characterized," the report reads. The metal, if breathed as a dust, can cause a myriad of health problems, including an increased risk of cancer and chronic beryllium disease, a scarring respiratory disorder. It's present in everything from grinding wheels to fluorescent light bulbs and is not related to any nuclear activities or radioactive material at the plant. About 20 current and former employees at the site have chronic beryllium disease or sensitivity to the metal, said Dan Minter, president of the PACE local 5-689 that represents workers at the site. "There are people who are more sensitive to it, meaning there are people who are more prone to being affected by beryllium than others," Minter said. "And because of that, the human factor, the genetic factor of being predispositioned, the level of protection has to be avoidance, and that's first and foremost." Both the report and a DOE official said the dust isn't going airborne unless disturbed by workers, so those handling tasks where the air may be vigorously disturbed -- janitors, mechanics and boiler operators among others -- must wear appropriate protective gear. "What we have been able to conclude is the beryllium is not going into an airborne state, and really beryllium poses a risk, a health hazard, primarily from inhalation, and that's good," said Dave Kozlowski, senior technical adviser for the DOE's Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. He manages environmental cleanup work at the Piketon plant. The report states all protective equipment issued to workers has the ability to prevent inhalation of beryllium, and employees were issued devices to monitor the metal's presence in the air. The only time a worker's breathing zone monitor showed a positive was while the person was blowing out a boiler tube with high-pressure air at the plant's coal-fired power plant, said Andrew Petty, environment, safety &health manager for Bechtel Jacobs Company, the contractor doing cleanup work at the Piketon site. "They were in the highest level of respiratory protection here at the plant," Petty said. Minter said the presence of the metal was initially discovered when workers began testing positive for its effects. Since then, workers have been protected because beryllium is assumed to be in certain areas. Now that workers aren't being exposed to more beryllium, Minter said the time to look for funding to expand testing and to examine cleanup options is nearing. "Now that we're sure that no one's being exposed, how do we limit that and reduce those areas of contamination and risk?" he said. "From that, we'll discuss what our future risk activity is." Bechtel Jacobs' cleanup contract expires March 31, and the Department of Energy recently named its successor. LATA-Parallax Portsmouth is a combination of two small businesses with experience at other nuclear facilities in Colorado and Ohio. Energy Department spokeswoman Laura Schachter said LATA-Parallax has some experience in beryllium cleanup. Kozlowski said the new contractor will be required to put in place a program to prevent beryllium exposure and further cases of chronic beryllium disease. "I would, at the time that they assume responsibility, full responsibility, for performance of work at the site, DOE expects them to have that capability, or the capability of implementing such a program," Kozlowski said. Originally published Saturday, January 15, 2005 ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************