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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 [du-list] Who Used WMD in Iraq?
2 US conducting military operations inside Iran 
3 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Has Iran Site It'd Like to Check
4 Interfax: Moscow confident of peaceful nature of Iran nuclear progra
5 Guardian Unlimited:  Official: Iran Isn't Afraid of U.S.
6 Xinhua: Schroeder urges Iran not to block nuclear talks   
7 Xinhua: Russia confident of peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear progra
8 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Seeks Fresh Look at Iran Complex
9 US: New Yorker: THE COMING WARS by SEYMOUR M. HERSH 
10 Interfax: Russian, S. Korean diplomats discuss nuclear settlement
11 YWS: N. Korea Says IAEA Chief Overstepped His Authority
12 Xinhua:  DPRK criticizes Japan's plan to bring abduction issue to
13 US: [du-list] Cyclotron smashed atoms where Lennar wants to build
14 US: [du-list] US targeting  possible "Uranium  enrichment"
15 US: Hearing January 18, 2005 NRC
16 US: Prez: WMD paranoia commission
17 US: Deseret News: Costs will determine where chem weapons go
18 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Sets Penalties Against Chinese Firms
19 US: WorldNetDaily: Doing what FEMA 'ought to be doing'
20 US: The Nation:  Holding WMD Liars Accountable 
21 US: Guardian Unlimited: A televisual fairyland
22 UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Visits West Africa To Boost Nuclear Science
23 [NukeNet] China Making Big Nuke Power Push
24 Bellona: Norway to scrap another Russian sub, but two previous effor
25 Aftenposten Norway: Aker Kværner keen on nuclear niche
26 Ghana News: UN Atomic Watchdog Chief In Ghana
27 Xinhua: Nigeria has no ambition to become nuclear power: president  
28 ITAR-TASS: Norway FM to discuss cross-border cooperation possibiliti
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
29 US: [NukeNet] NJPIRG Press Release: Exelon's Shoddy Safety Record
30 US: [NukeNet] Statement by Dr. Kymn Harvin, NJPIRG Press Conference
31 US: [NukeNet] Press Coverage on Exelon's Shoddy Safety Record 
32 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee Meeti
33 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Meeting of the 
34 Daily Yomiuri: Time right to reopen Monju reactor 
35 Bellona: Russia might build more reactors in China, Iran, India and
36 Bellona: Russia takes part in tender for four reactors construction 
37 Bellona: UK nuclear industry is allegedly “cheating the market”
38 BBC: Gazprom 'in $36m back-tax claim'
39 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Nuke power 'makeover'
40 Slovak Spectator: Slovak Nuclear shift pushed
41 Xinhua: China to build PFR nuclear power stations by 2020   
42 TheStar.com: U.S. rebuff a setback, AECL says
43 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Coalition raps VY inspection
44 US: NJPIRG: NJPIRG, Whistleblowers Unearth Exelon’s Shoddy Safety Re
45 US: NJPIRG: Remarks by Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin (PSEG)
46 ThisisLondon: Relisted British Energy warns on battle ahead 
47 US: APP.COM: Exelon-PSEG merger opposed by NJPIRG; it cites safety c
48 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy shares start trading - and fallin
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
49 US: NRC: Notice and Solicitation of Comments Pursuant to 10 CFR 20.1
50 US: chillicothe gazette: Toxic beryllium likely present at Piketon p
51 Bellona: Russia gives priority to construction of two new generation
52 US: AZOM.com New Radiation Protection Material
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
53 UK The Times: Terrorism warning over nuclear waste
54 Las Vegas SUN: Leading Democrat questions Bush administration on Yuc
55 US: sacbee.com: California - S.F. project raises hopes of neighbors 
56 US: Observer-Reporter: Meeting planned about former site of Molycorp
57 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A warning from nature
58 US: Salt Lake Tribune: OP: Where it came from 
59 Daily Press: Other Voices: A used nuclear fuel solution 
60 American Online: Firm tapped as architect for uranium enrichment pla
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
61 Japan Times: Hiroshima mayor on anti-nuke trip
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
62 Hearing Jan 18, 2005 in Piketon
63 ABQjournal: LANL Workers Threaten Exodus
64 Tri-City Herald: Hanford radiation study completed 
65 Tennessean: Y-12 workers begin dismantling project - 
66 TheNewMexicoChannel.com: Debate Continues Over LANL Management
67 PRN: Lab Workers Call for Regents to Make Changes, Contending Unfair
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
68 [du-list] Dr. John Gofman, A Nuclear Researcher Who Refuses To
69 [DU Information List] be aware of uranium
70 [du-list] DU in the news 18th Jan. 05
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
                         FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
 1 [du-list] Who Used WMD in Iraq?
 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:27:18 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Who Used WMD in Iraq?

Dr. Elias Akleh*, Arabic Media Internet Network
17/01/2005

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m8925&l=i&size=1&hd=0

January 17, 2005 - Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) was used by the American
administration as the major justification for invading Iraq.
In August 2002 Vice President Dick Cheney stated “There is
no doubt he (Saddam) is amassing them to use against our
friends, against our allies and against us.” Secretary of
State Colin Powell testified before the U.N. Security
Council on February 5th 2003 that Iraq has WMD, and could
launch them within 45 minutes. His testimony included
satellite pictures and illustration of mobile chemical
weapon manufacturing trucks. President Bush had chiseled the
allegation of Iraq’s possession of WMD into the psyche of
the American people throughout all his speeches.

After two years searching every inch of Iraq and
interrogating Iraqi scientist with the cost of millions of
dollars, the administration had quietly ended its search
during the first week of January 2005 stating that no WMD
had been found; no nuclear program and no stockpile of
biological and chemical weapons. Yet the administration was
deceitful again. Iraq is littered with WMD. These are
American WMD (nuclear, chemical and biological) used by
American troops against Iraqis. These weapons did not affect
only hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as well as American
troops, but had also condemned the future generations of
Iraqis as well as the offspring of the American troops. This
is genocide. The administration dares not bring this fact to
the spot light.

Americans had used, and are still using, nuclear weapons in
the form of depleted uranium (DU). DU is a byproduct from
nuclear weapons, nuclear fuel, and nuclear power industries
through the process of uranium enrichment process. Due to
its high density, higher than lead, DU is used to coat
ammunitions such as tank shells and missiles to give them
extra piercing characteristic to penetrate any armor.
Thousands of DU shells and bombs had been used in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and both in 1990/91 Gulf War and the
ongoing conflict in Iraq. The term “depleted” is used to
deceit people and to give the impression that DU is uranium
that does not contain radioactivity any more, which is not
the case. DU plated ammunition, when fired, will produce
radioactive contamination, and is harmful the same way
nuclear weapons are. On January 16th 2002 the American
Secretary for Defense, Mr. Rumsfield in a briefing confirmed
that “high levels of radioactive counts” had been confirmed
due to the result of DU shells. DU has a half-life of 4.5
billion years; that means DU stays radioactive that long for
just half of its atoms to decay. This makes the DU a long
lasting weapon that keeps destroying life and contaminating
natural resources ­ water, food, and vegetation. DU is a
weapon that could not be turned off when war ends. It does
not affect only legal military targets, but include also all
civilian lives.

The UN had studied the DU weapon issue and its lasting
effect on population and land in 1995, and in 1996 the UN
Human Rights Commission described DU ammunition as weapons
of mass destruction that should be banned. Despite this ban
the American forces used DU bombs and missiles against
Yugoslavia in 1999. Although scientists in Yugoslavia,
Greece and Bulgaria measured elevated levels of gamma
radiation after the American carpet bombing of the region,
the American administration had denied the use of DU. Yet
when scientists had identified a DU warhead on an American
missile that landed on Bulgaria but did not explode, Lord
George Roberton, the head of NATO at the time, could not but
admit to the public that DU had been used.

DU has devastating effects on both parties of a conflict,
those who use it, and those targeted by it. When fired a DU
round turns into a fire ball that explodes on impact, and
turns into infinitesimally fine dust contaminating the
targeted as well as the adjacent areas since it could be
easily carried by the wind. DU individual particles are
estimated to be smaller than a virus or bacteria and it was
found that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a
person’s body would be fatal. DU particles accumulate in the
bone, kidney, reproductive systems, brain and lungs with
verified gene-toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties,
as well as reproductive mutations even 10 years after
exposure. DU destroys the body’s immune system and leaves it
vulnerable to all types of diseases, even those that could
be easily cured. Yet the attempt to treat these diseases is
futile. There are no known methods of treatment till now.

The mass destructive characteristic of DU comes from its
effect on the genetic code of persons who are exposed to it.
It scrambles the genes producing horrible birth defects. New
born babies of infected persons exhibited severe deformation
and mutation such as missing organs or limbs, deformed
genitalia, and large tumors on body among many others. Many
are born in a non-human form or as a mass of unidentifiable
meat. The majority of these babies live only for few days
only. Those who are “unlucky” to survive are condemned to
life of misery and suffering, and will be a huge burden on
their families and their society.

DU had inflicted Afghans, Iraqis, as well as American
troops. Birth defects are now way up in Afghanistan since
the American invasion. Iraqi children, too, had suffered
birth defects since the first Gulf War in 1990/91, and are
still suffering now. Thousands of American troops, who
participated in the first Gulf War, had suffered what was
then termed “Gulf War Syndrome”. The American administration
had denied that such syndrome was the effect of exposure to
DU. The US Department of Veteran Affairs had issued a report
in September 2002 confirming that over than 221 thousands of
those troops are now suffering serious adverse health
effects, to the point where they are on permanent
disability, and so far well over than 10 thousands had
already died. It was also concluded that the wives of these
veterans had also been affected by DU, and that many of them
had either aborted or given birth to sick or deformed babies.

American Major Doug Rokke, professor of physics and
geosciences of Jacksonville State University and former
director of DU weapons project of US army from 1994/95 in
charge of the cleaning up of DU in Iraq, had produced a
document that proves conclusively that the US government and
military were aware of the genocidal nature of DU weapons
since 1943. The document states “…inhaled by personnel … it
is estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a
persons body would be fatal. There are no known methods of
treatment for such casualty…. water reservoirs and wells
would be contaminated….food poisoned…”

Professor Katsuma Yagasaki of the Faculty of Science of the
Ryukyus University in Okinawa had calculated that 800 tons
of DU to be the atomicity equivalent to 83 thousands
Nagasaki bombs. With each round fired by an Abrams tank
containing over 4,500 grams of solid uranium it was
estimated the amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250
thousands Nagasaki bombs. Geologist Leuren Moret from
Livermore Labs stated that “DU dust is now everywhere. A
minimum of 500 ­ 600 tons now litter Afghanistan, and
several times that amount are spread across Iraq. In terms
of global atmospheric pollution the US had already released
the equivalent of 400 thousands Nagasaki bombs.”

Due to its long lasting deadly effects on humans, animals,
vegetations, and water resources Professor Albrecht Schott,
scientist member of World Depleted Uranium Center in Berlin,
described DU as “A Weapon Against This Planet.”

An International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan, a
Japanese citizens’ initiative, was set up by prominent
lawyers and judges to look into war crimes in Afghanistan
after the American invasion. This tribunal, on March of
2004, had found the American president George Bush, his
administration, and manufacturers of DU weapons guilty of
war crimes in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq due
to the manufacture and use of illegal weapons.

American troops had also used chemical weapons in Iraq in
the form of Napalm bombs. Napalm is a deadly mixture of
polystyrene and jet fuel. Napalm gel bonds to the skin of
humans while burning making it very difficult to put out. It
turns victims into human fireball. The famous pictures of a
naked Vietnamese girl victim shocked the world, and lead a
1980 UN convention to ban the use of napalm. The US did not
ratify the Napalm ban and is the only country in the world
still using the weapon. It even upgraded the Napalm bomb to
what they call Mark 77 firebomb that weigh 510 lbs,
consisting of 44 lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons
of jet fuel.

Americans used Napalm originally in Vietnam causing the
worst and most disfiguring injuries to victims. Napalm was
also used by Israeli forces against Palestinians during the
1967 war. The US used their new upgraded Mark 77 firebomb in
an attack on Iraqi troops at Safwan Hill near the Kuwait
border where Iraqi “…observation post was obliterated” as
reported by Sydney Morning Herald correspondent on March
22nd 2003. Last December American marines used Napalm in
their invasion of the city of Fallujah. American Colonel
James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, stated that
in March and April of 2003 Napalm bombs were also dropped
near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River,
south of Baghdad, as reported by Independent reporter in
August of same year. The Bush administration, then, admitted
the use of napalm in Iraq. American forces used napalm as
well as white phosphorous bombs, another incendiary weapon,
against civilians during their assault on Fallujah last
December. Melted corpses of civilians were discovered in
Fallujah.

American forces had also used chemical weapons in the form
of gases during their assault on Fallujah especially in the
Julan district. Three types of these chemical gases were
used. The first was a sleeping gas that caused people to
lose consciousness, allowing American forces to run over
them with their tanks, and to gather them in houses and blow
up the houses over them. The other two gases were poisonous;
one turned the color of the victims to yellow, while the
other turned their colors into black.

The American use of these weapons, especially DU, in
Afghanistan and Iraq did not affect only these two
countries, but also all the countries within a radius of
approximately 1000 miles. Due to the fact that DU
radioactive particles travel with wind, it had already
affected countries like Pakistan, Iran, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, China, India, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait,
Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

With the use of these WMD the US had turned into the
terrorist monster it claims to fight.


* Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer from a Palestinian
descent, born in the town of Beit-Jala and lives in the US.


:: Article nr. 8925 sent on 17-jan-2005 15:29 ECT

:: The address of this page is : www.uruknet.info?p=8925

:: The original address of this article is :
     www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2005/jan/jan17.html

-- 

Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~

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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 2 US conducting military operations inside Iran 
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:16:39 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
US conducting military operations inside Iran (since mid-2004)

WASHINGTON (AFP - 17 January) - Teams of US commandos have entered Iran 
searching for hidden sites that could be working on developing nuclear weapons.

The government of President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has 
authorized secret military missions inside Iran at least since mid-2004, 
the The New Yorker magazine reports in its Monday edition.

  Their goal is to identify target information for up to 26 suspected 
nuclear, chemical and missile sites, according to the magazine.

  "This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq, is just one campaign," a 
former high-level government intelligence official told the magazine.

  "The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, 
we're going to have the Iranian campaign. We've declared war and the bad 
guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah -- we've 
got our years, and we want to come out of this saying we won the war on 
terrorism," the official said.

A top government consultant with close ties with the Pentagon told the 
magazine that the Pentagon civilians -- especially Secretary of Defense 
Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz and their fellow 
neo-conservatives -- "want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the 
military infrastructure as possible." Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz believe that 
Iran's clerical regime could not withstand a military blow and would 
collapse, the magazine reports.

SEE MORE HERE:  http://www.mereport.com/


</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Has Iran Site It'd Like to Check
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday January 18, 2005 8:01 PM

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is
pushing for a fresh look at an Iranian military complex linked
by the United States to possible atomic arms research just days
after being granted limited access, diplomats said Tuesday. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency is interested in testing
another part of the sprawling Parchin complex just outside
Tehran in its search for radiation that could point to such
research, the diplomats said. 

The Bush administration has accused Iran of being part of an
``axis of evil'' with North Korea and prewar Iraq. The United
States alleges Iran may be testing high-explosive components for
nuclear weapons, using an inert core of depleted uranium at
Parchin as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material. 

The request by the Vienna-based IAEA comes just days after its
inspectors were given partial access to the site and were
allowed to take environmental samples for analysis in the
agency's European laboratories. 

The diplomats, who are familiar with the agency's investigation
of Iran's nuclear programs, said that as far as they knew the
IAEA experts were not impeded beyond the limitations placed on
where they could take their samples. 

But one of the diplomats said the fact that the agency had
requested fresh access to another part of the site suggested
there are continued open questions about the nature of the work
conducted at Parchin. 

``The inspectors want to go back to another explosives bunker''
that they apparently were not granted access to last week, the
diplomat said on condition of anonymity. 

In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said a
specially secured site at Parchin may be used in research for
high-explosive components of nuclear weapons. 

Iran asserts its military is not involved in nuclear activities,
and the IAEA has found no firm evidence to the contrary. The
agency also has not been able to support U.S. assertions that
nearly two decades of covert nuclear programs discovered 2 years
ago were aimed at making nuclear weapons and not at generating
electricity, as Tehran claims. 

But an IAEA report in October expressed concern about published
intelligence and media reports relating to equipment and
materials that could serve military purposes. 

At the time, diplomats said the phrasing alluded to Parchin. 

As part of his investigation into Iran's nuclear activities,
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has produced a series of reports for
guidance by the IAEA board on what to do about Iran's nuclear
activities. 

His refusal to declare Iran in breach of the Nonproliferation
Treaty has angered U.S. officials by derailing their drive to
have the U.N. Security Council examine Iran's nuclear dossier. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday he has no
reason to suspect that Tehran is seeking the capacity to develop
nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. 

European Union officials also said they hope to convince
President Bush during his Feb. 22 visit to EU headquarters that
only diplomacy can solve the standoff. 

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds
the EU presidency, said the ``military option'' was something
the EU ``would not endorse.'' 

His comments came after Bush said he would not rule out military
action, despite backing European talks to persuade Iran to drop
its nuclear weapons program. 

``I hope we can solve it diplomatically but I will never take
any option off the table,'' Bush said Tuesday in an interview
with NBC News. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 4 Interfax: Moscow confident of peaceful nature of Iran nuclear program

Jan 18 2005 5:09PM
 
PETROZAVODSK. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov has said he does not see any reason to question
the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. 

"I don't see any reason why the situation might come off a
normal track and why the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear
program might be revised," Lavrov said at a press conference in
Petrozavodsk on Tuesday in reply to a question from Interfax.   
 

        
© 1991-2004 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution
of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Interfax.   


*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited:  Official: Iran Isn't Afraid of U.S.
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday January 18, 2005 11:46 PM

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has acquired a strong military
capability and will deter any attacks against it, Defense
Minister Ali Shamkhani said. 

Shamkhani, speaking Monday at a technology conference, said Iran
did not fear the United States, which has already toppled the
fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan and dictator Saddam
Hussein in Iraq. 

``We can say we have developed a might that no country can
attack us because they do not have accurate information about
our military capabilities,'' said Shamkhani, whose comments were
released Tuesday. 

``We have produced equipment at a rapid pace with the minimum
investment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent force,''
the ministry quoted Shamkhani as saying. 

Shamkhani's defiant stance came the same day President Bush said
on NBC's ``Today'' show that he wants to resolve a potential
nuclear threat from Iran through diplomacy. 

``I hope we can solve it diplomatically but I will never take
any option off the table,'' the president said without
elaborating. 

Also Monday, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Seymour Hersh
reported in The New Yorker magazine that the Bush administration
had been ``conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran
at least since last summer'' for the purpose of gathering
intelligence and targeting information. 

White House officials rejected the report in Monday editions of
the magazine, saying it was inaccurate. 

Shamkhani did not say what sort of military hardware Iran has
produced. In November, he announced that Iran was able to mass
produce its Shahab-3 missile, capable of carrying a nuclear
warhead and reaching Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East. 

Iran last successfully tested the medium-range missile in 2002
before equipping its elite Revolutionary Guards with it in July
2003. Shamkhani has repeatedly said Iran is constantly improving
the range and accuracy of its missiles in response to efforts by
Israel to upgrade its missile systems. 

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said in October that the
missiles now have a range of more than 1,200 miles. 

The toppling of Saddam and the Taliban have worried many
Iranians about the possibility that Iran would be next on
America's list. Bush has accused Iran of being part of an ``axis
of evil'' with North Korea and prewar Iraq. 

The United States has accused Iran of seeking a covert nuclear
weapons program. Iran has denied the charge, saying its nuclear
program is geared only toward generating electricity, not
producing a bomb. 

Hersh, who broke the story about the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture
scandal in Iraq, wrote that he had repeatedly been told by
intelligence and military officials, on condition of anonymity,
that ``the next strategic target was Iran.'' 

European Union officials said Tuesday they would oppose a
military strike against Iran. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean
Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, said they
hoped to persuade Bush during a summit later this month that the
only solution a standoff over Iran's nuclear program was through
diplomacy. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 6 Xinhua: Schroeder urges Iran not to block nuclear talks   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-18 13:10:28   

    BERLIN, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroederhas urged Iranian leaders not to block the talks
mediated by European countries in a bid to curb Teheran's
nuclear program. 

    "It is the hope of the world this year... that a
comprehensive and lasting accord can be reached," said
Schroeder, noting that progress had been made at talks led by
Britain, France and Germany,the so-called "Big Three" in the
European Union (EU), since last year. 

    "These hopes must not be disappointed -- I also say this to
those who are responsible in Iran," said Schroeder. 

    Germany and its European neighbors are trying to get
assurance from Iran of not producing nuclear weapons in exchange
for trade and a legitimate right for peaceful nuclear projects. 

    While respecting US decision on not taking part in the
European-brokered talks, the Germany leader reiterates his
country's position of not sending troops to Iraq ahead of his
upcoming meeting with President George W. Bush on Feb. 23 in
Mainz, westernGermany. 

    But he did not rule out the possibility of enhancing the
policetraining program for Iraq. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 7 Xinhua: Russia confident of peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program 

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-19 02:24:25   

    MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov stated Tuesday that he does not see any reason to
suspect the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, according
to the Interfax news agency. 

    "I don't see any reason why the situation might come off the
normal track or why the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear
program might be revised," Lavrov said at a press conference in
Petrozavodsk, a northwest city of Russia. 

    Lavrov voiced this because US President George W. Bush said
on Monday Washington wants to hold a dialogue with the Russian
leadership concerning Russian-Iranian nuclear interaction, but
at the same time he did not rule out that Iran's nuclear problem
may be resolved by the use of force. 

    "We noticed that the US president clearly spoke in favor of
thepreferably peaceful treatment of the Iranian nuclear program,
andI don't see any grounds for doubts," Lavrov said. 

    He noted "Russia and Iran are maintaining a substantial
dialogue to ensure that Iran's nuclear program be exclusively
peaceful in its nature and not raise doubts in anyone." 

    The Iranian leadership has assured Russia that it is the
peaceful nature of the nuclear program that is Tehran's goal,
the Russian foreign minister said. 

    Lavrov also said he does not see any facts indicating that
Iranmight revise the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
Enditem 

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Seeks Fresh Look at Iran Complex
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Tuesday January 18, 2005 11:31 PM

By GEORGE JAHN 

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is
pushing for a fresh look at an Iranian military complex linked
by the United States to possible atomic arms research just days
after being granted limited access, diplomats said Tuesday. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency is interested in testing
another part of the sprawling Parchin complex just outside
Tehran in its search for radiation that could point to such
research, the diplomats said. 

The Bush administration has accused Iran of being part of an
``axis of evil'' with North Korea and prewar Iraq. The United
States alleges Iran may be testing high-explosive components for
nuclear weapons, using an inert core of depleted uranium at
Parchin as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material. 

The request by the Vienna-based IAEA comes just days after its
inspectors were given partial access to the site and were
allowed to take environmental samples for analysis in the
agency's European laboratories. 

The diplomats, who are familiar with the agency's investigation
of Iran's nuclear programs, said that as far as they knew the
IAEA experts were not impeded beyond the limitations placed on
where they could take their samples. 

But one of the diplomats said the fact that the agency had
requested fresh access to another part of the site suggested
there are continued open questions about the nature of the work
conducted at Parchin. 

``The inspectors want to go back to another explosives bunker''
that they apparently were not granted access to last week, the
diplomat said on condition of anonymity. 

In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said a
specially secured site at Parchin may be used in research for
high-explosive components of nuclear weapons. 

Iran asserts its military is not involved in nuclear activities,
and the IAEA has found no firm evidence to the contrary. The
agency also has not been able to support U.S. assertions that
nearly two decades of covert nuclear programs discovered 2 years
ago were aimed at making nuclear weapons and not at generating
electricity, as Tehran claims. 

But an IAEA report in October expressed concern about published
intelligence and media reports relating to equipment and
materials that could serve military purposes. 

At the time, diplomats said the phrasing alluded to Parchin. 

As part of his investigation into Iran's nuclear activities,
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has produced a series of reports for
guidance by the IAEA board on what to do about Iran's nuclear
activities. 

His refusal to declare Iran in breach of the Nonproliferation
Treaty has angered U.S. officials by derailing their drive to
have the U.N. Security Council examine Iran's nuclear dossier. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday he has no
reason to suspect that Tehran is seeking the capacity to develop
nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. 

European Union officials also said they hope to convince
President Bush during his Feb. 22 visit to EU headquarters that
only diplomacy can solve the standoff. 

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds
the EU presidency, said the ``military option'' was something
the EU ``would not endorse.'' 

His comments came after Bush said he had not ruled out any
option for confronting Iran, despite backing European talks to
persuade the country to drop its nuclear weapons program. 

``I hope we can solve it diplomatically but I will never take
any option off the table,'' Bush said in an interview on NBC's
``Today'' show.	 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 9 New Yorker: THE COMING WARS by SEYMOUR M. HERSH 
 
  [ border=] January 18, 2005 | home   
      
What the Pentagon can now do
in secret. Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17 

George W. Bushs reëlection was not his only victory last fall.
The President and his national-security advisers have
consolidated control over the military and intelligence
communities strategic analyses and covert operations to a
degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War
national-security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious
agenda for using that controlagainst the mullahs in Iran and
against targets in the ongoing war on terrorismduring his
second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the
agency will increasingly serve, as one government consultant
with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as facilitators of
policy emanating from President Bush and Vice-President Dick
Cheney. This process is well under way. 

Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush
Administration has not reconsidered its basic long-range policy
goal in the Middle East: the establishment of democracy
throughout the region. Bushs reëlection is regarded within the
Administration as evidence of Americas support for his decision
to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the
neoconservatives in the Pentagons civilian leadership who
advocated the invasion, including Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy
Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, the Under-secretary for
Policy. According to a former high-level intelligence official,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with the Joint Chiefs
of Staff shortly after the election and told them, in essence,
that the naysayers had been heard and the American people did
not accept their message. Rumsfeld added that America was
committed to staying in Iraq and that there would be no
second-guessing. 

This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign.
The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,
the former high-level intelligence official told me. Next,
were going to have the Iranian campaign. Weve declared war and
the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last
hurrahweve got four years, and want to come out of this saying
we won the war on terrorism. 

Bush and Cheney may have set the policy, but it is Rumsfeld who
has directed its implementation and has absorbed much of the
public criticism when things went wrongwhether it was prisoner
abuse in Abu Ghraib or lack of sufficient armor plating for
G.I.s vehicles in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican
lawmakers have called for Rumsfelds dismissal, and he is not
widely admired inside the military. Nonetheless, his
reappointment as Defense Secretary was never in doubt. 

Rumsfeld will become even more important during the second term.
In interviews with past and present intelligence and military
officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before
the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfelds
responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and
effectively placed under the Pentagons control. The President
has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing
secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct
covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many
as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia. 

The Presidents decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations
off the booksfree from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A.
Under current law, all C.I.A. covert activities overseas must be
authorized by a Presidential finding and reported to the Senate
and House intelligence committees. (The laws were enacted after
a series of scandals in the nineteen-seventies involving C.I.A.
domestic spying and attempted assassinations of foreign
leaders.) The Pentagon doesnt feel obligated to report any of
this to Congress, the former high-level intelligence official
said. They dont even call it covert opsits too close to
the C.I.A. phrase. In their view, its black reconnaissance.
Theyre not even going to tell the cincsthe regional American
military commanders-in-chief. (The Defense Department and the
White House did not respond to requests for comment on this
story.) 

In my interviews, I was repeatedly told that the next strategic
target was Iran. Everyone is saying, You cant be serious
about targeting Iran. Look at Iraq, the former intelligence
official told me. But they say, Weve got some lessons
learnednot militarily, but how we did it politically. Were not
going to rely on agency pissants. No loose ends, and thats why
the C.I.A. is out of there. 

For more than a year, France, Germany, Britain, and other
countries in the European Union have seen preventing Iran from
getting a nuclear weapon as a race against timeand against the
Bush Administration. They have been negotiating with the Iranian
leadership to give up its nuclear-weapons ambitions in exchange
for economic aid and trade benefits. Iran has agreed to
temporarily halt its enrichment programs, which generate fuel
for nuclear power plants but also could produce weapons-grade
fissile material. (Iran claims that such facilities are legal
under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or N.P.T., to which
it is a signator, and that it has no intention of building a
bomb.) But the goal of the current round of talks, which began
in December in Brussels, is to persuade Tehran to go further,
and dismantle its machinery. Iran insists, in return, that it
needs to see some concrete benefits from the
Europeansoil-production technology, heavy-industrial equipment,
and perhaps even permission to purchase a fleet of Airbuses.
(Iran has been denied access to technology and many goods owing
to sanctions.) 

The Europeans have been urging the Bush Administration to join
in these negotiations. The Administration has refused to do so.
The civilian leadership in the Pentagon has argued that no
diplomatic progress on the Iranian nuclear threat will take
place unless there is a credible threat of military action. The
neocons say negotiations are a bad deal, a senior official of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) told me. And
the only thing the Iranians understand is pressure. And that
they also need to be whacked. 

The core problem is that Iran has successfully hidden the extent
of its nuclear program, and its progress. Many Western
intelligence agencies, including those of the United States,
believe that Iran is at least three to five years away from a
capability to independently produce nuclear warheadsalthough
its work on a missile-delivery system is far more advanced. Iran
is also widely believed by Western intelligence agencies and the
I.A.E.A. to have serious technical problems with its weapons
system, most notably in the production of the hexafluoride gas
needed to fabricate nuclear warheads. 

A retired senior C.I.A. official, one of many who left the
agency recently, told me that he was familiar with the
assessments, and confirmed that Iran is known to be having major
difficulties in its weapons work. He also acknowledged that the
agencys timetable for a nuclear Iran matches the European
estimatesassuming that Iran gets no outside help. The big wild
card for us is that you dont know who is capable of filling in
the missing parts for them, the recently retired official said.
North Korea? Pakistan? We dont know what parts are missing. 

One Western diplomat told me that the Europeans believed they
were in what he called a lose-lose position as long as the
United States refuses to get involved. France, Germany, and the
U.K. cannot succeed alone, and everybody knows it, the diplomat
said. If the U.S. stays outside, we dont have enough leverage,
and our effort will collapse. The alternative would be to go to
the Security Council, but any resolution imposing sanctions
would likely be vetoed by China or Russia, and then the United
Nations will be blamed and the Americans will say, The only
solution is to bomb. 

A European Ambassador noted that President Bush is scheduled to
visit Europe in February, and that there has been public talk
from the White House about improving the Presidents
relationship with Americas E.U. allies. In that context, the
Ambassador told me, Im puzzled by the fact that the United
States is not helping us in our program. How can Washington
maintain its stance without seriously taking into account the
weapons issue? 

The Israeli government is, not surprisingly, skeptical of the
European approach. Silvan Shalom, the Foreign Minister, said in
an interview last week in Jerusalem,with another New Yorker
journalist, I dont like whats happening. We were encouraged
at first when the Europeans got involved. For a long time, they
thought it was just Israels problem. But then they saw that the
[Iranian] missiles themselves were longer range and could reach
all of Europe, and they became very concerned. Their attitude
has been to use the carrot and the stickbut all we see so far
is the carrot. He added, If they cant comply, Israel cannot
live with Iran having a nuclear bomb. 

In a recent essay, Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert who is the
deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
(and a supporter of the Administration), articulated the view
that force, or the threat of it, was a vital bargaining tool
with Iran. Clawson wrote that if Europe wanted coöperation with
the Bush Administration it would do well to remind Iran that
the military option remains on the table. He added that the
argument that the European negotiations hinged on Washington
looked like a preëmptive excuse for the likely breakdown of the
E.U.-Iranian talks. In a subsequent conversation with me,
Clawson suggested that, if some kind of military action was
inevitable, it would be much more in Israels interestand
Washingtonsto take covert action. The style of this
Administration is to use overwhelming forceshock and awe. But
we get only one bite of the apple. 

There are many military and diplomatic experts who dispute the
notion that military action, on whatever scale, is the right
approach. Shahram Chubin, an Iranian scholar who is the director
of research at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, told me,
Its a fantasy to think that theres a good American or Israeli
military option in Iran. He went on, The Israeli view is that
this is an international problem. You do it, they say to the
West. Otherwise, our Air Force will take care of it. In 1981,
the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraqs Osirak reactor, setting
its nuclear program back several years. But the situation now is
both more complex and more dangerous, Chubin said. The Osirak
bombing drove the Iranian nuclear-weapons program underground,
to hardened, dispersed sites, he said. You cant be sure after
an attack that youll get away with it. The U.S. and Israel
would not be certain whether all the sites had been hit, or how
quickly theyd be rebuilt. Meanwhile, theyd be waiting for an
Iranian counter-attack that could be military or terrorist or
diplomatic. Iran has long-range missiles and ties to Hezbollah,
which has dronesyou cant begin to think of what theyd do in
response. 

Chubin added that Iran could also renounce the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its better to have them cheating
within the system, he said. Otherwise, as victims, Iran will
walk away from the treaty and inspections while the rest of the
world watches the N.P.T. unravel before their eyes. 

The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance
missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the
focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting
information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites,
both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate
three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be
destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids.
The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy
as much of the military infrastructure as possible, the
government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon told me. 

Some of the missions involve extraordinary coöperation. For
example, the former high-level intelligence official told me
that an American commando task force has been set up in South
Asia and is now working closely with a group of Pakistani
scientists and technicians who had dealt with Iranian
counterparts. (In 2003, the I.A.E.A. disclosed that Iran had
been secretly receiving nuclear technology from Pakistan for
more than a decade, and had withheld that information from
inspectors.) The American task force, aided by the information
from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from
Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations. The
task-force members, or their locally recruited agents, secreted
remote detection devicesknown as snifferscapable of sampling
the atmosphere for radioactive emissions and other evidence of
nuclear-enrichment programs. 

Getting such evidence is a pressing concern for the Bush
Administration. The former high-level intelligence official told
me, They dont want to make any W.M.D. intelligence mistakes,
as in Iraq. The Republicans cant have two of those. Theres no
education in the second kick of a mule. The official added that
the government of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani President, has
won a high price for its coöperationAmerican assurance that
Pakistan will not have to hand over A. Q. Khan, known as the
father of Pakistans nuclear bomb, to the I.A.E.A. or to any
other international authorities for questioning. For two
decades, Khan has been linked to a vast consortium of
nuclear-black-market activities. Last year, Musharraf professed
to be shocked when Khan, in the face of overwhelming evidence,
confessed to his activities. A few days later, Musharraf
pardoned him, and so far he has refused to allow the I.A.E.A. or
American intelligence to interview him. Khan is now said to be
living under house arrest in a villa in Islamabad. Its a
deala trade-off, the former high-level intelligence official
explained. Tell us what you know about Iran and we will let
your A. Q. Khan guys go. Its the neoconservatives version of
short-term gain at long-term cost. They want to prove that Bush
is the anti-terrorism guy who can handle Iran and the nuclear
threat, against the long-term goal of eliminating the black
market for nuclear proliferation. 

The agreement comes at a time when Musharraf, according to a
former high-level Pakistani diplomat, has authorized the
expansion of Pakistans nuclear-weapons arsenal. Pakistan still
needs parts and supplies, and needs to buy them in the
clandestine market, the former diplomat said. The U.S. has
done nothing to stop it. 

There has also been close, and largely unacknowledged,
coöperation with Israel. The government consultant with ties to
the Pentagon said that the Defense Department civilians, under
the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli
planners and consultants to develop and refine potential
nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran.
(After Osirak, Iran situated many of its nuclear sites in remote
areas of the east, in an attempt to keep them out of striking
range of other countries, especially Israel. Distance no longer
lends such protection, however: Israel has acquired three
submarines capable of launching cruise missiles and has equipped
some of its aircraft with additional fuel tanks, putting Israeli
F-16I fighters within the range of most Iranian targets.) 

They believe that about three-quarters of the potential targets
can be destroyed from the air, and a quarter are too close to
population centers, or buried too deep, to be targeted, the
consultant said. Inevitably, he added, some suspicious sites
need to be checked out by American or Israeli commando teamsin
on-the-ground surveillancebefore being targeted. 

The Pentagons contingency plans for a broader invasion of Iran
are also being updated. Strategists at the headquarters of the
U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to
revise the militarys war plan, providing for a maximum ground
and air invasion of Iran. Updating the plan makes sense, whether
or not the Administration intends to act, because the
geopolitics of the region have changed dramatically in the last
three years. Previously, an American invasion force would have
had to enter Iran by sea, by way of the Persian Gulf or the Gulf
of Oman; now troops could move in on the ground, from
Afghanistan or Iraq. Commando units and other assets could be
introduced through new bases in the Central Asian republics. 

It is possible that some of the American officials who talk
about the need to eliminate Irans nuclear infrastructure are
doing so as part of a propaganda campaign aimed at pressuring
Iran to give up its weapons planning. If so, the signals are not
always clear. President Bush, who after 9/11 famously depicted
Iran as a member of the axis of evil, is now publicly
emphasizing the need for diplomacy to run its course. We dont
have much leverage with the Iranians right now, the President
said at a news conference late last year. Diplomacy must be the
first choice, and always the first choice of an administration
trying to solve an issue of . . . nuclear armament. And well
continue to press on diplomacy. 

In my interviews over the past two months, I was given a much
harsher view. The hawks in the Administration believe that it
will soon become clear that the Europeans negotiated approach
cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will
act. Were not dealing with a set of National Security Council
option papers here, the former high-level intelligence official
told me. Theyve already passed that wicket. Its not if were
going to do anything against Iran. Theyre doing it. 

The immediate goals of the attacks would be to destroy, or at
least temporarily derail, Irans ability to go nuclear. But
there are other, equally purposeful, motives at work. The
government consultant told me that the hawks in the Pentagon, in
private discussions, have been urging a limited attack on Iran
because they believe it could lead to a toppling of the
religious leadership. Within the soul of Iran there is a
struggle between secular nationalists and reformers, on the one
hand, and, on the other hand, the fundamentalist Islamic
movement, the consultant told me. The minute the aura of
invincibility which the mullahs enjoy is shattered, and with it
the ability to hoodwink the West, the Iranian regime will
collapselike the former Communist regimes in Romania, East
Germany, and the Soviet Union. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz share that
belief, he said. 

The idea that an American attack on Irans nuclear facilities
would produce a popular uprising is extremely illinformed, said
Flynt Leverett, a Middle East scholar who worked on the National
Security Council in the Bush Administration. You have to
understand that the nuclear ambition in Iran is supported across
the political spectrum, and Iranians will perceive attacks on
these sites as attacks on their ambitions to be a major regional
player and a modern nation thats technologically
sophisticated. Leverett, who is now a senior fellow at the
Saban Center for Middle East Policy, at the Brookings
Institution, warned that an American attack, if it takes place,
will produce an Iranian backlash against the United States and
a rallying around the regime. 

Rumsfeld planned and lobbied for more than two years before
getting Presidential authority, in a series of findings and
executive orders, to use military commandos for covert
operations. One of his first steps was bureaucratic: to shift
control of an undercover unit, known then as the Gray Fox (it
has recently been given a new code name), from the Army to the
Special Operations Command (socom), in Tampa. Gray Fox was
formally assigned to socom in July, 2002, at the instigation of
Rumsfelds office, which meant that the undercover unit would
have a single commander for administration and operational
deployment. Then, last fall, Rumsfelds ability to deploy the
commandos expanded. According to a Pentagon consultant, an
Execute Order on the Global War on Terrorism (referred to
throughout the government as gwot) was issued at Rumsfelds
direction. The order specifically authorized the military to
find and finish terrorist targets, the consultant said. It
included a target list that cited Al Qaeda network members, Al
Qaeda senior leadership, and other high-value targets. The
consultant said that the order had been cleared throughout the
national-security bureaucracy in Washington. 

In late November, 2004, the Times reported that Bush had set up
an interagency group to study whether it would best serve the
nation to give the Pentagon complete control over the C.I.A.s
own élite paramilitary unit, which has operated covertly in
trouble spots around the world for decades. The panels
conclusions, due in February, are foregone, in the view of many
former C.I.A. officers. It seems like its going to happen,
Howard Hart, who was chief of the C.I.A.s Paramilitary
Operations Division before retiring in 1991, told me. 

There was other evidence of Pentagon encroachment. Two former
C.I.A. clandestine officers, Vince Cannistraro and Philip
Giraldi, who publish Intelligence Brief, a newsletter for their
business clients, reported last month on the existence of a
broad counter-terrorism Presidential finding that permitted the
Pentagon to operate unilaterally in a number of countries where
there is a perception of a clear and evident terrorist threat. .
. . A number of the countries are friendly to the U.S. and are
major trading partners. Most have been cooperating in the war on
terrorism. The two former officers listed some of the
countriesAlgeria, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Malaysia. (I was
subsequently told by the former high-level intelligence official
that Tunisia is also on the list.) 

Giraldi, who served three years in military intelligence before
joining the C.I.A., said that he was troubled by the militarys
expanded covert assignment. I dont think they can handle the
cover, he told me. Theyve got to have a different mind-set.
Theyve got to handle new roles and get into foreign cultures
and learn how other people think. If youre going into a village
and shooting people, it doesnt matter, Giraldi added. But if
youre running operations that involve finesse and sensitivity,
the military cant do it. Which is why these kind of operations
were always run out of the agency. I was told that many Special
Operations officers also have serious misgivings. 

Rumsfeld and two of his key deputies, Stephen Cambone, the
Under-secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and Army Lieutenant
General William G. (Jerry) Boykin, will be part of the chain of
command for the new commando operations. Relevant members of the
House and Senate intelligence committees have been briefed on
the Defense Departments expanded role in covert affairs, a
Pentagon adviser assured me, but he did not know how extensive
the briefings had been. 

Im conflicted about the idea of operating without
congressional oversight, the Pentagon adviser said. But Ive
been told that there will be oversight down to the specific
operation. A second Pentagon adviser agreed, with a significant
caveat. There are reporting requirements, he said. But to
execute the finding we dont have to go back and say, Were
going here and there. No nitty-gritty detail and no
micromanagement. 

The legal questions about the Pentagons right to conduct covert
operations without informing Congress have not been resolved.
Its a very, very gray area, said Jeffrey H. Smith, a West
Point graduate who served as the C.I.A.s general counsel in the
mid-nineteen-nineties. Congress believes it voted to include
all such covert activities carried out by the armed forces. The
military says, No, the things were doing are not intelligence
actions under the statute but necessary military steps
authorized by the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to prepare
the battlefield. Referring to his days at the C.I.A., Smith
added, We were always careful not to use the armed forces in a
covert action without a Presidential finding. The Bush
Administration has taken a much more aggressive stance. 

In his conversation with me, Smith emphasized that he was
unaware of the militarys current plans for expanding covert
action. But he said, Congress has always worried that the
Pentagon is going to get us involved in some military
misadventure that nobody knows about. 

Under Rumsfelds new approach, I was told, U.S. military
operatives would be permitted to pose abroad as corrupt foreign
businessmen seeking to buy contraband items that could be used
in nuclear-weapons systems. In some cases, according to the
Pentagon advisers, local citizens could be recruited and asked
to join up with guerrillas or terrorists. This could potentially
involve organizing and carrying out combat operations, or even
terrorist activities. Some operations will likely take place in
nations in which there is an American diplomatic mission, with
an Ambassador and a C.I.A. station chief, the Pentagon
consultant said. The Ambassador and the station chief would not
necessarily have a need to know, under the Pentagons current
interpretation of its reporting requirement. 

The new rules will enable the Special Forces community to set up
what it calls action teams in the target countries overseas
which can be used to find and eliminate terrorist organizations.
Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El
Salvador? the former high-level intelligence official asked me,
referring to the military-led gangs that committed atrocities in
the early nineteen-eighties. We founded them and we financed
them, he said. The objective now is to recruit locals in any
area we want. And we arent going to tell Congress about it. A
former military officer, who has knowledge of the Pentagons
commando capabilities, said, Were going to be riding with the
bad boys. 

One of the rationales for such tactics was spelled out in a
series of articles by John Arquilla, a professor of defense
analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey,
California, and a consultant on terrorism for the rand
corporation. It takes a network to fight a network, Arquilla
wrote in a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle: 
When conventional military operations and bombing failed to
defeat the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya in the 1950s, the British
formed teams of friendly Kikuyu tribesmen who went about
pretending to be terrorists. These pseudo gangs, as they were
called, swiftly threw the Mau Mau on the defensive, either by
befriending and then ambushing bands of fighters or by guiding
bombers to the terrorists camps. What worked in Kenya a
half-century ago has a wonderful chance of undermining trust and
recruitment among todays terror networks. Forming new pseudo
gangs should not be difficult. 


If a confused young man from Marin County can join up with Al
Qaeda, Arquilla wrote, referring to John Walker Lindh, the
twenty-year-old Californian who was seized in Afghanistan,
think what professional operatives might do. 

A few pilot covert operations were conducted last year, one
Pentagon adviser told me, and a terrorist cell in Algeria was
rolled up with American help. The adviser was referring,
apparently, to the capture of Ammari Saifi, known as Abderrezak
le Para, the head of a North African terrorist network
affiliated with Al Qaeda. But at the end of the year there was
no agreement within the Defense Department about the rules of
engagement. The issue is approval for the final authority, the
former high-level intelligence official said. Who gets to say
Get this or Do this? 

A retired four-star general said, The basic concept has always
been solid, but how do you insure that the people doing it
operate within the concept of the law? This is pushing the edge
of the envelope. The general added, Its the oversight. And
youre not going to get WarnerJohn Warner, of Virginia, the
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committeeand those guys
to exercise oversight. This whole thing goes to the Fourth
Deck. He was referring to the floor in the Pentagon where
Rumsfeld and Cambone have their offices. 

Its a finesse to give power to Rumsfeldgiving him the right
to act swiftly, decisively, and lethally, the first Pentagon
adviser told me. Its a global free-fire zone. 

The Pentagon has tried to work around the limits on covert
activities before. In the early nineteen-eighties, a covert Army
unit was set up and authorized to operate overseas with minimal
oversight. The results were disastrous. The Special Operations
program was initially known as Intelligence Support Activity, or
I.S.A., and was administered from a base near Washington (as
was, later, Gray Fox). It was established soon after the failed
rescue, in April, 1980, of the American hostages in Iran, who
were being held by revolutionary students after the Islamic
overthrow of the Shahs regime. At first, the unit was kept
secret from many of the senior generals and civilian leaders in
the Pentagon, as well as from many members of Congress. It was
eventually deployed in the Reagan Administrations war against
the Sandinista government, in Nicaragua. It was heavily
committed to supporting the Contras. By the mid-eighties,
however, the I.S.A.s operations had been curtailed, and several
of its senior officers were courtmartialled following a series
of financial scandals, some involving arms deals. The affair was
known as the Yellow Fruit scandal, after the code name given
to one of the I.S.A.s cover organizationsand in many ways the
groups procedures laid the groundwork for the Iran-Contra
scandal. 

Despite the controversy surrounding Yellow Fruit, the I.S.A. was
kept intact as an undercover unit by the Army. But we put so
many restrictions on it, the second Pentagon adviser said. In
I.S.A., if you wanted to travel fifty miles you had to get a
special order. And there were certain areas, such as Lebanon,
where they could not go. The adviser acknowledged that the
current operations are similar to those two decades earlier,
with similar risksand, as he saw it, similar reasons for taking
the risks. What drove them then, in terms of Yellow Fruit, was
that they had no intelligence on Iran, the adviser told me.
They had no knowledge of Tehran and no people on the ground who
could prepare the battle space. 

Rumsfelds decision to revive this approach stemmed, once again,
from a failure of intelligence in the Middle East, the adviser
said. The Administration believed that the C.I.A. was unable, or
unwilling, to provide the military with the information it
needed to effectively challenge stateless terrorism. One of the
big challenges was that we didnt have Huminthuman
intelligencecollection capabilities in areas where terrorists
existed, the adviser told me. Because the C.I.A. claimed to
have such a hold on Humint, the way to get around them, rather
than take them on, was to claim that the agency didnt do Humint
to support Special Forces operations overseas. The C.I.A. fought
it. Referring to Rumsfelds new authority for covert
operations, the first Pentagon adviser told me, Its not
empowering military intelligence. Its emasculating the C.I.A. 

A former senior C.I.A. officer depicted the agencys eclipse as
predictable. For years, the agency bent over backward to
integrate and coördinate with the Pentagon, the former officer
said. We just caved and caved and got what we deserved. It is a
fact of life today that the Pentagon is a five-hundred-pound
gorilla and the C.I.A. director is a chimpanzee. 

There was pressure from the White House, too. A former C.I.A.
clandestine-services officer told me that, in the months after
the resignation of the agencys director George Tenet, in June,
2004, the White House began coming down critically on analysts
in the C.I.A.s Directorate of Intelligence (D.I.) and demanded
to see more support for the Administrations political
position. Porter Goss, Tenets successor, engaged in what the
recently retired C.I.A. official described as a political
purge in the D.I. Among the targets were a few senior analysts
who were known to write dissenting papers that had been
forwarded to the White House. The recently retired C.I.A.
official said, The White House carefully reviewed the political
analyses of the D.I. so they could sort out the apostates from
the true believers. Some senior analysts in the D.I. have
turned in their resignationsquietly, and without revealing the
extent of the disarray. 

The White House solidified its control over intelligence last
month, when it forced last-minute changes in the
intelligence-reform bill. The legislation, based substantially
on recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, originally gave broad
powers, including authority over intelligence spending, to a new
national-intelligence director. (The Pentagon controls roughly
eighty per cent of the intelligence budget.) A reform bill
passed in the Senate by a vote of 96-2. Before the House voted,
however, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld balked. The White House
publicly supported the legislation, but House Speaker Dennis
Hastert refused to bring a House version of the bill to the
floor for a voteostensibly in defiance of the President, though
it was widely understood in Congress that Hastert had been
delegated to stall the bill. After intense White House and
Pentagon lobbying, the legislation was rewritten. The bill that
Congress approved sharply reduced the new directors power, in
the name of permitting the Secretary of Defense to maintain his
statutory responsibilities. Fred Kaplan, in the online
magazine Slate, described the real issues behind Hasterts
action, quoting a congressional aide who expressed amazement as
White House lobbyists bashed the Senate bill and came up with
all sorts of ludicrous reasons why it was unacceptable. 

Rummys plan was to get a compromise in the bill in which the
Pentagon keeps its marbles and the C.I.A. loses theirs, the
former high-level intelligence official told me. Then all the
pieces of the puzzle fall in place. He gets authority for covert
action that is not attributable, the ability to directly task
national-intelligence assetsincluding the many intelligence
satellites that constantly orbit the world. 

Rumsfeld will no longer have to refer anything through the
governments intelligence wringer, the former official went on.
The intelligence system was designed to put competing agencies
in competition. Whats missing will be the dynamic tension that
insures everyones prioritiesin the C.I.A., the D.O.D., the
F.B.I., and even the Department of Homeland Securityare
discussed. The most insidious implication of the new system is
that Rumsfeld no longer has to tell people what hes doing so
they can ask, Why are you doing this? or What are your
priorities? Now he can keep all of the mattress mice out of
it. 


  
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From 2002, Joe Klein on Iran's struggle for political reform 

      
    

      
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 10 Interfax: Russian, S. Korean diplomats discuss nuclear settlement

Jan 18 2005 1:32PM
 
MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Alexeyev and South Korean ambassador to Moscow Kim
Dze-sob discussed prospects for settling the Korean nuclear
problem in Moscow on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry reported. 

"The meeting focused on matters related to the advancement of
Russian-Korean cooperation in 2005, and also certain aspects of
settling the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula," the
ministry said.     

© 1991-2004 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution
of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Interfax.   

*****************************************************************
 11 YWS: N. Korea Says IAEA Chief Overstepped His Authority

YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS

[http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr
							   
  2005/01/18 16:07 KST   

 SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday that the 
head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency violated his 
authority over its nuclear weapons program and denounced him for 
pandering to U.S. interests.

 In a dispatch from Pyongyang, the North's Korean Central News 
Agency said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic 
Energy Agency (IAEA), conformed to Washington's "hostile" policy 
when he described the hermit state as the primary threat to the 
anti-nuclear coalition.

 
		 		   
            

	   


*****************************************************************
 12 Xinhua:  DPRK criticizes Japan's plan to bring abduction issue to
six-party talks   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-17 14:36:49   

    PYONGYANG, Jan. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's
Republicof Korea (DPRK) on Monday criticized Japan's plan to
bring abduction and missile issues to the six-party talks and
warned to reconsider attendance of the talks together with
Japan. 

    The issue of abduction, as a DPRK-Japan bilateral problem,
has nothing to do with the settlement of the nuclear issue, said
the official Korean Central News Agency in a commentary. 

    Moreover, it added, the abduction issue has already been
solved.      

    By bringing up the issues to the six-party talks, Tokyo is
designing to spoil the climate and deliberately set impediments
tothe talks, it said. 

    What it truly wants is to "fish in the troubled water", it
noted. 

    It said "We can't help feeling disgusted at sitting face to
face with Japan at the multi-party conference table" and "we
will thoroughly reconsider the matter of taking part in the
six-party talks with Japan." Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 13 [du-list] Cyclotron smashed atoms where Lennar wants to build
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:16:32 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
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http://www.sfbayview.com/011205/shipyard011205.shtml

At Hunters Point Shipyard, cyclotron smashed atoms where Lennar wants
to
build homes


by Dennis Kyne

Plutonium, a radioactive metal named after the planet Pluto, was
discovered
in 1940 after uranium was bombarded with neutrons in a cyclotron.
Plutonium
239, the end product of this cycle, as well as uranium, are among the
few
materials whose atoms can split (or "fission") to create a nuclear
explosion, releasing massive amounts of energy instantly.

The cyclotron, often called an atom smasher or plutonium breeder,
appeared
on the Hunters Point Shipyard after the arrival of the Naval
Radiological
Defense Laboratory (NRDL). NRDL was operational from 1946 until 1969
and
used several buildings for radioactive laboratory and cyclotron
operations.

Three decades after Hunters Point was vacated by NRDL, the Navy has
transferred Parcel A to the city, and San Francisco is giving it away
to
Lennar to build 1,600 homes. This shouldn't happen. Cyclotron activity
was
near Parcel A, and, although named after the planet Pluto, plutonium
behaves
like the god of hell.

Plutonium, only in the environment since 1945, remains radioactive for
an
extremely long time, and health results from contaminated plutonium
sites
have not been shared with local leaders. Manhattan Project participants
have
been observed for decades, and the population of Rocky Flats, Colorado,
is a
group that is being monitored as well. Veterans of Desert Storm have
been
asked to participate in study groups because of exposure to the
300-plus
tons of uranium that were dumped on Kuwait and Iraq in 1991.

Low level radiation has been found to damage human organs. Ingestion of
particulate matter causes incredible contamination to the organ donor
system
as well as the blood donor system.

Plutonium, with a half life of 24,000 years, and uranium, with a half
life
of 4.5 billion years, are causing cancer and birth defects in the
surrounding Hunters Point community at an alarming rate. Lennar's
liberation
of radioactive particles from contaminated acres will put the Hunters
Point
community under radiological attack.

Ernest Lawrence, the famed physicist that the Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory
is named for, won the Nobel Prize for developing a cyclotron in 1939.
Housed
in Building 820 at the Shipyard, just west of Parcel A, cyclotron use
left
cesium 137 and strontium 90 in the area. These highly radioactive
metals
cannot be found on the element chart as they are byproducts of the
fissionable (atom splitting) process.

Leuren Moret, famed Lawrence Livermore Lab whistle blower, in her
seminal
work for the Hamburg Uranium Conference in 2003, writes that after the
shutdown of the Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant near Sacramento in
1989,
infant mortality rates improved for nearly all races in San Francisco
County, but did not improve for Blacks.

Moret's work, "The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War," explains the role
strontium
90 plays in this statistic: "The Radiation and Public Health Project
began
to collect baby teeth from children with and without cancer living near
nuclear reactors for comparison of the Strontium-90 levels."

The results clearly show that children living around the Turkey Point
and
St. Lucie nuclear reactors in Florida were affected. After collecting
the
teeth, it was found that in children under 10 years of age, cancer rose
325.3 percent.

Strontium-90 levels in children with cancer were an average of 85
percent
higher than in children without cancer. Causal relationship? I think
so.

It appears that because there was a cyclotron, and because uranium
atoms
were smashed, we are seeing an incredibly high number of infant deaths
in
the Hunters Point community.

Breast cancer is no stranger to Hunters Point women either. Samuel
Epstein
states in his book "The Politics of Cancer," "There is suggestive
evidence
that radiation-contaminated water supplies are in part responsible for
escalating breast cancer mortality in some areas of the country.

"Recent evidence suggests that increased breast cancer incidence in the
Long
Island counties of Suffolk and Nassau, as well as Westchester County
north
of New York City, is related to radiation-contaminated drinking water.
This
is due to radioactive contamination of the Croton River watershed
reservoirs; the watershed is located only about five miles downwind to
the
northeast from the Indian Point nuclear plant that has released
radioactive
fission products since the early 1960s."

Cross-applying this conclusion from Indian Point to the Hunters Point
watershed, we will see the same result in the surrounding communities.
Decades of radioactive waste, washed into the Bay daily through broken
tidal
gates and leaking storm drains at the Shipyard, created a watertable
that is
surely carrying radiation. As with the Croton River in New York, some
of
this waste was carried away and became the bottom of the Bay.

Decades of nuclear research has been dumped into the watershed of San
Francisco, and, like our friends in New York, we have been victims of a
faceless enemy. Science has told us not to worry, and civics has told
us to
keep building. History has taught us to clean up our messes, and that
is
where civics and science abandon us.

Did San Francisco and the Navy forget about the radiation? After
ceasing
active operations in 1974, the Navy leased most of the yard to Triple A
ship
repair company. Improper waste disposal was reported in 1986, leading
to an
investigation by the San Francisco District Attorney. While this
company did
dump a lot of garbage, they didn't use the cyclotron.

Decades after the Navy abandoned the Shipyard, officials have not
addressed
the effects of low level radiation on humans. Some news agencies have
ignored the fact that radiation ever existed on this Shipyard.

There is a sense of urgency to halt the upheaval of this toxic soil so
it
can be cleaned appropriately. I have visited Hunters Point, stood as
close
as possible to the Rocky Flats facility and once slept on the
radioactive
battlefield of Desert Storm.

My tour of Parcel A gave me a buzz, the same buzz I felt on the front
line
of Iraq and the same buzz I would later feel upon my visit to Colorado.
I no
longer need a dosimeter to tell if I am in a radioactive area. Moret
and
Epstein clearly support my conclusion with statistically significant
evidence.

There is a sense of complacency in the world. Indigenous people have
been
slaughtered and left to die around the uranium mining areas. Pygmy
cultures
in Africa have been exploited, while Hopi and Navajo reservations have
been
exposed to the uranium tailings. After mining it, communities were
established to process and research this uranium.

Hunters Point was a community that housed NRDL. Communities that have
been
violently attacked with this element, such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki,
Basra,
Vieques, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Baghdad, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan can
attest
to the incredibly horrific birth defects that have occurred from the
use of
radioactive munitions.

Hunters Point has been attacked. Until the complacency to address the
implications of low level radiation is reversed, cancer rates will
continue
to soar. Should San Francisco's leaders choose to ignore the effects of
low
level radiation coming from Hunters Point, they will be guilty of
sentencing
thousands of people to an early death.

Dennis Kyne is a combat veteran with 15 years in the U.S. Army. He
holds a
degree in political science cum laude from San Jose State University
with an
emphasis on nuclear proliferation. Email him at d_kyne@hotmail.com and
visit
his website, www.denniskyne.com.



		
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 14 [du-list] US targeting  possible "Uranium  enrichment"
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:22:33 -0800

 
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	autolearn=ham version=3.0.2


http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1392078,00.html
Special forces 'on the ground' in Iran

Ian Traynor
Monday January 17, 2005
The Guardian

American special forces have been on the ground inside Iran scouting for US 
air strike targets for suspected nuclear weapons sites, according to the 
renowned US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
In an article in the latest edition of the New Yorker, Hersh, who was the 
first to uncover US human rights abuses against Iraqi detainees at Abu 
Ghraib prison last year, reports that Pakistan, under a deal with 
Washington, has been supplying information on Iranian military sites and on 
its nuclear programme, enabling the US to conduct covert ground and air 
reconnaissance of Iranian targets, should the escalating row over Iran's 
nuclear ambitions come to a head.

Acting on information from Pakistani scientists knowledgeable about Iran's 
nuclear programme, Hersh reported, US commandos have penetrated territory 
in eastern Iran seeking to pinpoint underground installations suspected of 
being nuclear weapons sites.

Hersh told CNN yesterday: "I think they really think there's a chance to do 
something in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites.

"The last thing this government wants to do is to bomb or strafe, or 
missile attack, the wrong targets again. We don't want another WMD flap. We 
want to be sure we have the right information."

The New Yorker report said the Americans have been conducting secret 
reconnaissance missions over and inside Iran since last summer with a view 
to identifying up to 40 possible targets for strikes should the dispute 
over Iran turn violent.


"This is a war against terrorism and Iraq is just one campaign," Hersh 
quotes one former US intelligence official as saying. "The Bush 
administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next we're going to 
have the Iranian campaign."

Another unnamed source described as a consultant close to the Pentagon 
said: "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as 
much of the military infrastructure as possible."

That appeared to be a reference to noted "neocons" in Washington, such as 
the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, and 
others.

Arguments about Iran's suspected nuclear programme have raged for 20 months 
since it was revealed that Tehran had been conducting secret nuclear 
activities for 18 years in violation of treaty obligations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna has had inspectors in the 
country throughout the period. While finding much that is suspect, the 
inspectors have not found any proof of a clandestine nuclear bomb programme.

The IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, has infuriated the Bush administration 
over his even-handed dealings with Iran, while the Europeans have been 
pursuing a parallel diplomatic track that has won grudging agreement from 
Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment activities.

Hersh reported that the US campaign against Iran is being assisted by 
Pakistan under a deal that sees Islamabad provide information in return for 
reducing the pressure on Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced metallurgist who 
is the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb and who was revealed last year to 
be the head of the biggest international nuclear smuggling racket uncovered.

Since confessing his activities and being placed under house arrest almost 
a year ago, Mr Khan has been incommunicado.

After months of failure to get permission, IAEA inspectors last week gained 
access to the Parchin military facilities outside Tehran, which the 
Americans contend has been a centre for Iranian attempts to refine missile 
technology for nuclear purposes, although experts agree that Iran does not 
yet have a nuclear capability.

A White House aide, Dan Bartlett, sought to weaken Hersh's New Yorker 
claims. The report, he told CNN, was "riddled with inaccuracies."


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*****************************************************************
 15 Hearing January 18, 2005 NRC
 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:26:55 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Release January 18, 2005

Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security (PRESS) 
was formed to educate, organize and empower residents and workers affected 
by the Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment site, locate in Piketon, Ohio and to 
represent their interest in economic vitality, environmental quality, 
health, and justice. PRESS is a nonprofit organization 5013c.  Members are 
from the community and workers that have been affected by the Portsmouth 
Gaseous Diffusion plant.

      We watchdog the activities of the Piketon Plant. Members of PRESS 
participation in local meetings, which have help, get the plant to admit to 
environmental and worker exposure.       We watchdog the activities of the 
Piketon Plant. Members of PRESS participation in local meetings, which have 
help, get the plant to admit to environmental and worker exposure.  Press's 
documents help exposed the deadly Plutonium on site that put the worker in 
harms way in which started the compensation bill EEOICPA act of 2000

PRESS was formed in the late 80's to represent the interest in economic 
vitality, environmental quality, health, and justice. PRESS is a nonprofit 
organization 5013c.  Members are from the community and workers that have 
been affected by the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant. Portsmouth Gaseous 
Diffusion plant has been operating under a policy of production priority, 
the safety of workers, and near by resident, and the environment have been 
relegated as secondary, leaving a legacy of uncertainty for working and 
living conditions.   I am Vina K. Colley president of PRESS and Co-Chair of 
NATIONAL NUCLEAR WORKERS FOR JUSTICE (NNWJ) and a victim of past practices 
and I know first hand about the poor safety practices from the contractors 
working for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

January 18, 2005

NRC

EIS scope

USEC's request for ACP plant license

  Pursuant to the Federal register notice by NRC

      The purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act (42usc4321etseq) 
is to promote efforts to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and 
biosphere and stimulate public health, as well as enrich the understanding 
of the workings of ecological systems and natural resources.  NEPA requires 
the preparation of and EIS for all major federal actions having a 
significant effect on the quality of the human environment.

     The President's Council on Environmental Quality describes an EIS as 
an "action forcing device," whose purposes are to provide "full and fair 
discussion of significant environmental impacts" and to "inform decision 
makers and the public of the reasonable alternatives which would avoid or 
minimize adverse impacts or enhance the quality of the environment." 
(40cfr1502.1) These impacts and alternatives must be addressed before 
action is taken, "rather than justifying decisions already 
made."  (40CFR1502.2g)

  The scope of NRC'S Environmental Impact Statement should be expanded to 
include the following issues not adequately covered in USEC'S Environmental 
Report1) DOE wants to relax its site-wide cleanup standards on the 
presumption that the site will be dedicated to new nuclear production under 
the USEC agreement.  Therefore the USEC project must be considered as 
having the impact of the relaxation of these standards, since with no ACP, 
the old standards would have to be honored for the sake of community 
reuse.  NRC should examine the impact of ACP on site-wide cleanup standards.



2) If ACP proceeds, it will close the whole site off to alternate use 
because of required security restrictions.  This will change or eliminate 
possibilities for cleanup and reuse of certain facilities outside of USEC's 
lease agreement, for example the old shops and warehouse facilities at the 
GDP site, public use of the perimeter road, or opening undeveloped parts of 
the site to public use.



3) In the section that describes the "no action alternative," USEC states 
that if the ACP is not built at Piketon, the site will be unaffected this 
is simply a lie and it undercuts USEC's credibility on every other 
issue.  The whole projected DOE end-state for the site is based on new 
nuclear production--just look at the highway signs for ACP. By telling this 
lie, USEC avoids discussion of the benefits to the site and community from 
early project cancellation.



4) Whether ACP succeeds or fails, it will turn the rest of the site into a 
dumpsite by encouraging DOE to invite in waste from other sites.  This has 
already started. In the last two years, DOE has transferred uranium waste 
in large quantities to Piketon from three other sites--Fernald, Oak Ridge 
and Paducah.  These transfers would not happen without ACP, and that is the 
real impact of ACP because the project will likely fail, and all that 
transferred waste would be its legacy.



5) NRC must examine the relationship between DOE (a government agency) and 
USEC (a supposedly private company), a relationship that is unclear, 
unexamined, and untested. USEC makes constant reference to the 
privatization legislation and to "Congressional intent" as if it had 
nothing to do with creating that legislation--a circular argument.  In its 
licensing process, NRC should therefore examine the entire DOE-USEC 
relationship and the full range of impacts that the relationship entails.



6. PRESS supports the need for a separate cultural resource assessment by 
NRC, with its own scoping process.  That is required because DOE has never 
complied with the National Historic Preservation Act at the Piketon site, 
and the site has tremendous historic and prehistoric value that has never 
been studied.



7. Because USEC's future and ACP's future are both extremely uncertain, NRC 
must examine the impact of the project's failure at various future 
dates.  For example, if the project proceeds through the next four years, 
with contamination of the existing building from the Lead Cascade, and the 
construction of two new buildings for ACP, and then USEC collapses after 
the next presidential election, where does that leave the community?  DOE 
already allowed the contamination of those centrifuge buildings in 1985 by 
a "test run" of uranium, even after Congressional funding for the GCEP 
project was cut.  NRC cannot allow the same thing to happen again.



We would like to thank you for this opportunity to comment and look forward 
to reviewing the report that will come next. Please send us what is 
published next so we have time to review for input.



Sincerely





Vina K Colley

3706 McDermott Pond Creek

McDermott, Ohio 45652

740-259-4688 740-353-2275 cell 740-357-8916

President of PRESS

Co Chair of NNWJ



</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 16 Prez: WMD paranoia commission

                         FR Doc 05-864 

[Federal Register: January 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 11)] 
[Notices] [Page 2862] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18ja05-42] [[Page 2862]]

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
Office of Administration
 
Notice of Meeting of the Commission on the Intelligence 
Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass 
Destruction ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the 
United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction 
(``Commission'') will meet in closed session twice in February. 
The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 
and Thursday, February 3, 2005, in its offices in Arlington, 
Virginia. The second meeting will be held in the same location on 
Wednesday, February 16, 2005, and Thursday, February 17, 2005.

    Executive Order 13328 established the Commission for the 
purpose of assessing whether the Intelligence Community is 
sufficiently authorized, organized, equipped, trained, and 
resourced to identify and warn in a timely manner of, and to 
support the United States Government's efforts to respond to, the 
development of Weapons of Mass Destruction, related means of 
delivery, and other related threats of the 21st Century. This 
meeting will consist of briefings and discussions involving 
classified matters of national security, including classified 
briefings from representatives of agencies within the 
Intelligence Community; Commission discussions based upon the 
content of classified intelligence documents the Commission has 
received from agencies within the Intelligence Community; and 
presentations concerning the United States' intelligence 
capabilities that are based upon classified information. While 
the Commission does not concede that it is subject to the 
requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 
United States Code Appendix 2, it has been determined that both 
February meetings would fall within the scope of exceptions 
(c)(1) and (c)(9)(B) of the Sunshine Act, 5 United States Code, 
Sections 552b(c)(1) & (c)(9)(B), and thus could be closed to the 
public if FACA did apply to the Commission. DATES: First meeting: 
Wednesday, February 2, 2005 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Thursday, 
February 3, 2005. (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Second meeting: Wednesday, 
February 16, 2005 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Thursday, February 17, 
2005 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). ADDRESSES: Members of the public who 
wish to submit a written statement to the Commission are invited 
to do so by facsimile at (703) 414-1203, or by mail at the 
following address: Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of 
the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, 
Washington, DC, 20503. Comments also may be sent to the 
Commission by e-mail at  [comments@wmd.gov] . FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact Brett C. Gerry, Associate General 
Counsel, Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the 
United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, by 
facsimile, or by telephone at (703) 414-1200. Victor E. Bernson, 
Jr., Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration, 
General Counsel. [FR Doc. 05-864 Filed 1-14-05; 8:45 am]

*****************************************************************
 17 Deseret News: Costs will determine where chem weapons go
 
[deseretnews.com] 

Tuesday, January 18, 2005
 	   	 
By Marjorie Cortez Deseret Morning News

It always comes down to the money. In
Pueblo, Colo., the city fathers are wringing their hands over a
Department of Defense decision to delay the destruction of
mustard agent weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot. Some Defense
Department officials are instead floating the idea of shipping
the weapons elsewhere for destruction. Elsewhere would most
likely be the Tooele County chemical weapons incinerator.

       Colorado's congressional delegation has committed to
seeking funding that would keep the weapons and the jobs the
water-based chemical arms destruction plant would create. But
it's a long shot considering some $30 billion in proposed cuts
for the Defense Department. According to the Wall Street
Journal, spending on weapons, and research and development would
be cut by $38 billion over six years. That's money for new
technology and weapons.

       Cheryl Irwin, a public affairs spokeswoman for the
Department of Defense, told the Deseret Morning News that the
Defense Department has directed the Army "to develop
alternatives that achieve the extended CWC (the Chemical Weapons
Convention) 100 percent destruction deadline of April 2012, and
to also develop options for relocation along with other
alternatives." Roughly translated, that means the concept of
relocating chemical weapons from Colorado and Kentucky is back
on the table after being banned by federal law for several years.

       This is strange political territory. On the one hand, the
federal government has a 2012 deadline to destroy these weapons
under international treaty. But transporting chemical weapons by
road or rail poses certain risks. In the post-Sept. 11 world,
transporting chemical weapons would be a security nightmare. The
last thing we need is for chemical weapons to fall in the hands
of terrorists.

       This is not to suggest that these weapons could not be
adequately secured, but large-scale transport of these weapons
seems to conflict with our homeland security objectives.
Wouldn't it be safer, all the way around, to destroy these
weapons where they are?

       Understanding the Pentagon only has so much money to
spend and the United States is at war, destroying the aging
stockpile of chemical weapons where they are currently stored
probably isn't a high priority. The budget cut recommendations
suggest as much.

       As Colorado leaders attempt to pull the stops to keep the
weapons and the jobs, Utah activists are clamoring to keep the
stuff out. "Utah has already had nearly half the stockpile of
chemical weapons," Jason Groenewold, director of the Salt Lake
City-based Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, told the
Deseret Morning News. "The last thing we need to do is open the
doors to even more dangerous weapons and waste."

       He's right. Between whatever they're doing at Dugway
Proving Ground these days, the ongoing work at the Tooele County
chemical weapons incinerator and the prospect of storing spent
nuclear rods from power plants on the Goshute Reservation in
Tooele County, Utah's done its share of the heavy lifting on the
weapons research, hazardous waste storage and chemical weapons
destruction front.

       And unlike many communities that want to rid themselves
of hazardous materials, Pueblo is willing to step up and take
responsibility for a stockpile of chemical weapons in its back
yard. As the Chemical Weapons Convention suggests, it's too
dangerous to have this type of weapons around in 2005. They have
to go.

       The sad reality is, the decision will ultimately be
driven by cuts in the Defense Department budget. The cost of
transporting the waste won't come close to the cost of building
a new destruction facility — even with the inevitable lawsuits
and costs of developing a transportation plan. Never mind that
Pueblo, Colo., wants it and Utah doesn't need any more. Utah has
the "advantage" of a destruction incinerator that's up and
running. That's quite the advantage, isn't it?


Marjorie Cortez is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer.
E-mail:  [marjorie@desnews.com.] 

 © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 18 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Sets Penalties Against Chinese Firms
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday January 18, 2005 8:01 PM

By TERENCE HUNT 

AP White House Correspondent 

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Tuesday that the Chinese
government heard the United States ``loud and clear'' after
sanctions were imposed against eight Chinese companies for
helping Iran with its missile programs. 

``To the extent that other nations are proliferating into this
closed country, that represents a significant problem as well,''
Bush told Fox News Channel. ``That's why we're dealing with the
Chinese firms and that's why we're mindful of making sure the
proliferation efforts are stopped at their source.'' 

The New York Times first reported the sanctions, in which the
State Department served notice to the Chinese firms early this
month. A North Korean company was also penalized. The sanctions
prohibit the companies from doing business in the United States
and ban them from obtaining licenses that allow them to export
or obtain a patent for American technologies. 

``They've heard us loud and clear,'' Bush said. ``We will make
sure to the best extent possible they do cooperate. ... We'll
make it clear not only to China but elsewhere that we'll hold
you to account - we want to have friendly relations but do not
proliferate.'' 

Earlier, White House spokesman Scott McClellan did not explain
why the Chinese firms had drawn U.S. ire, focusing instead on
the administration's concerns about Iran's longer-range
ballistic missiles and its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The matter is a sensitive diplomatic issue because China is a
key partner of the United States in the Bush administration's
efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. 

One of the companies receiving sanctions was Norinco, China's
biggest state-owned weapons maker. In May 2003, Washington
sanctioned Norinco after accusing it of aiding Iran's long-range
missile program. The company denied the accusation. 

Other firms identified by the newspaper as among the eight were
the China Great Wall Industry Corp. and the China
Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. 

Norinco also manufactures military-style semiautomatic assault
weapons. 

The State Department placed a notice in the Federal Register
early this month listing the Chinese companies affected. 

China isn't a member of the U.S.-led Missile Technology Control
Regime - a 34-nation coalition to limit the spread of long-range
missiles - but has promised to abide by its restrictions. 

``Proliferation is an issue we take very seriously, and stopping
it has been a top priority for the president,'' McClellan said. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 19 WorldNetDaily: Doing what FEMA 'ought to be doing'
 
  TUESDAY JANUARY 18 2005           
                            
 Nuclear-preparedness company picks up where feds dropped ball
 
Posted: January 18, 2005

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com 

A Texas company is picking up where the federal government left
off years ago, providing information and products to help
families and communities develop their own nuclear-preparedness
programs. 

In this day of nuclear-terror vulnerability, KI4U Inc., markets
several products to help families survive any type of nuke
incident, including a personal radiation detector that could be
the most important "key ring" you'll carry. 

Developed and produced by the company, the matchbox-sized device
doubles as a radiation monitor and alarm, operating 24/7 on a
10-year battery. 

While the device detects harmful fallout from a nuclear-plant
accident, it also will detect dangerous radiation levels that
could be the result of nuclear terrorism or a "dirty bomb"
attack. When radiation is detected, the device chirps a certain
number of times. Referring to the back of the monitor lets the
owner know how severe the radiation is based on the number of
chirps. 

"Carried everywhere your keys go, with NukAlert's 24/7 constant
monitoring, you'll always be promptly alerted to the unseen, but
acutely dangerous, levels of radiation if and when present,"
says the product&#39;s website. [http://www.nukalert.com/] 

The device also confirms when and where those higher levels of
radiation are not present. 

"This is the most remarkable advance in civil-defense equipment
in many, many years," commented Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, director
of Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. 

The unique alarm was developed after 9-11 and first went into
mass production in 2003. 

Shane Connor, president of KI4U, points out the federal
government no longer has a coordinated civil-defense program,
which in decades past included radiation meters in local
communities. 

"The major component of our abandoned national civil-defense
program was the pre-positioning of literally millions of basic
radiation meters in communities all across America," he states
on the website. "The mandate was clear then – every community
needed to be able to determine the level of radiation present at
their own specific location before they could hope to know the
proper response. Without that essential information, they
understood well that many thousands, perhaps millions, of
Americans would needlessly perish due to ignorance of the local
radiation intensity. In the absence of government support for
neighborhood and family level civil defense, individuals and
citizen groups must take this responsibility upon themselves, or
remain needlessly vulnerable." 

KI4U offers a community program so local groups can obtain the
detectors in multiple quantities at a reduced price. 

Besides offering the radiation monitor, KI4U includes on its
site several emergency-preparedness documents and guides to help
its customers learn what to do if a nuclear event occurs. 

So, what kind of dangers does the NukAlert protect against?
According to the site, they include: nuclear power-plant
accidents, nuclear materials processing-plant accidents, nuclear
waste (radioactive waste from hospitals, spent fuel and
radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, radioactive
contaminated materials, etc.), nuclear waste transport truck or
train accidents, improper storage of radioactive materials, lost
or stolen radioactive sources and, of course, nuclear terrorism. 

Nuclear terrorism could include an attack on a nuke plant, the
detonation of an atomic bomb or the use of a "dirty bomb."
Terrorists also could contaminate food or water supplies with
radioactive materials. 

"Everybody will have different opinions about which of the
nuclear threats is most likely to occur or impact their own
family sometime in the future," says Connor. "Regardless,
though, in all cases, knowing exactly what the radioactivity is,
where you are standing, will always make for better informed
decisions in then taking the correct protective action to
minimize any future radiation exposure for your family." 

Another product Connor features is potassium iodide, or KI.
[http://www.ki4u.com/who.htm] When ingested, the tablets protect
the thyroid gland from cancer-causing radioactive iodine. Connor
says his company has 15 million doses of KI available – likely
the largest privately held inventory in the U.S. 

It's important, Connor explains, that every family have KI
available to take when radiation becomes a danger. The federal
government has just 1.6 million doses on hand, and those are not
distributed so they can be used at a moment's notice. 

"You've got to have it in your own home," he told WND. "It's not
going to do a lot of good if the government has it and they
can't get it to people in time. … You've got to take this stuff
a half hour before you start inhaling the radioactive iodine." 

Explained Connor: "If you can get potassium iodide into your
system, your thyroid will get filled up with good, safe, stable
iodide so you won't be taking up any of the radioactive iodide." 

Connor said the NukAlert pairs well with KI since it alerts
people to when they should take the iodide pills. 

"They go hand in hand," he said. 

KI4U has been in business since 1999, first marketing potassium
iodide and then adding other products. 

"We're really doing what FEMA ought to be doing," Connor said.
"Nobody else is doing it. … This is nutty for the richest
country in world not to have a civil-defense program." 

Connor emphasized the importance of the NukAlert, saying since
the federal government took out the community detectors there is
no way to know, without such a device, whether or not you're in
danger. 

Said Conner: "We look at all of this like you would medical
insurance, where you never acquire it eagerly looking forward to
getting to use it anytime soon, but will be very glad to have it
if it is ever needed. We tell all our customers that we hope and
pray it all gets a chance to gather much dust upon their shelves
for many years!" 

Connor said a great free report on his site should be printed by
all. It's a guide called "What to do if a nuclear disaster is
imminent," [http://www.ki4u.com/guide.htm] and identifies
specific steps families can take in the event of an incident to
help save lives. 

Go to NukAlert.com to learn more about the 24/7 radiation
monitor and alarm, inexpensive potassium iodide and ways to
protect your family from nuclear disaster.
[http://www.nukalert.com/] 

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. 
webmaster@worldnetdaily.com
*****************************************************************
 20 The Nation:  Holding WMD Liars Accountable 

01/17/2005 @ 11:19am   
 
[http://www.thenation.com/

Now that the Bush administration has finally stopped wasting
millions of tax dollars each month on the futile search for the
weapons of mass destruction it promised would be found in Iraq,
it is time for an accounting. 

First off, let's be clear about the fact that there was never
any credible evidence to suggest that Iraq had a serious WMD
program -- let alone the "stockpiles" of already-produced
weaponry that the president and his aides suggested.
Twenty-three members of the Senate and 133 members of the House
rejected the intensive lobbying by the administration and the
pliable press for the use-of-force resolution that Bush would
use as his authorization to launch a preemptive war. Among those
who voted "no" were the chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
and key members of the Senate and House committees responsible
for intelligence, armed services and foreign relations -- all of
whom had followed the issue for years and saw no evidence of a
threat sufficient to justify an invasion of Iraq. Former
President Jimmy Carter and others with long-term knowledge of
the issues involved were critical of the rush to war, as were
dozens of prominent players in the nation's political, foreign
service, intelligence and military elites. 

So the suggestion that there was broad acceptance of the premise
that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs, or was deep into the process
of developing them, is absurd. President Bush, Vice President
Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had access
to the same information as those who recognized that there was
not a sufficient threat to merit military action by the United
States. They chose to dismiss that information, and instead to
peddle as genuine a fabricated threat. 

When we look at what they said, however, it is clear that some
pushed the lies more aggressively than others. 

To be sure, Bush said outrageous things. For instance, in
February 2002, he told the admittedly gullible folks at the
American Enterprise Institute, "In Iraq, a dictator is building
and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle
East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow
it." 

Unless he was referring to someone other than Saddam Hussein,
Bush was wrong. Dramatically wrong. But not, arguably, as wrong
as Vice President Dick Cheney when he told the Veterans of
Foreign Wars convention on August 26, 2002, that, "Simply
stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of
mass destruction." 

Ouch, that's really wrong. Why, that's almost as wrong as when
Cheney told an Air National Guard event in Denver on December 1,
2002, that, "Iraq could decide on any given day to provide
biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist group or a
terrorist individual." Or when Cheney appeared on NBC-TV's Meet
the Press on March 16, 2003, to say of Saddam Hussein: "we
believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." 

Long after it had become clear that the invading forces of the
United States were not going to turn up any of the promised
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Cheney continued to promote
the lie. Even after the arms inspector David Kay's report raised
damning doubts about Iraq's ability to produce WMDs, Cheney told
a crowd in Denver on November 7, 2003, that Saddam Hussein had
"cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver
them." 

Cheney's refusal to back off the WMD claim actually became an
embarrassment to the Bush reelection campaign when the president
was forced to say publicly in 2004 that he could not confirm the
statements his own vice president was making. 

So if even Bush backed away from Cheney, where was the vice
president getting these crazy ideas? 

Gee, could have been the national security advisor? Condoleezza
Rice, the Dr. Strangelove of the Bush administration, spent much
of 2002 promoting the fantasy that Iraq posed a nuclear threat.
Famously, she declared on CNN on September 8, 2002, that, "We
don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." 

Don't expect Bush or Cheney appear before a Congressional
committee to explain themselves anytime soon. But, conveniently,
Rice will have to do so this week, as part of the process of
reviewing her nomination to serve as Secretary of State. It
seems as if this might be an appropriate point for Congress to
begin holding the administration accountable. 

*

John Nichols' book on Cheney, Dick: The Man Who Is President,
has just been released by The New Press. Former White House
counsel John Dean, the author of Worse Than Watergate, says,
"This page-turner closes the case: Cheney is our de facto
president." Arianna Huffington, the author of Fanatics and
Fools, calls Dick, "The first full portrait of The Most Powerful
Number Two in History, a scary and appalling picture. Cheney is
revealed as the poster child for crony capitalism (think
Halliburton's no bid, cost-plus Iraq contracts) and crony
democracy (think Scalia and duck-hunting)." 

Dick: The Man Who Is President is available from independent
bookstores nationwide and by clicking here . 

*
   
OLDER MLK's moral values     
  
Every day in every city and town across America, progressives
get up in the morning and go about the work of fighting racism
and homophobia, defending the environment, organizing trade
unions and tackling corporate hegemony. Sometimes they win--on
the picket line, at the ballot box, in the streets and outside
the WTO meetings in Seattle. 
The purpose of The Online Beat is to report regularly and with
immediacy on the political, social, economic and cultural
activism that too often goes unremarked in so much of the
mainstream media. The ultimate goal? To reveal the hidden
reality that there is a left in America, and that it's active,
growing and winning more consistently than the pundits or the
politicians want you to know.   
  
© 2005 The Nation   	     
*****************************************************************
 21 Guardian Unlimited: A televisual fairyland
 
The US media is disciplined by corporate America into promoting 
the Republican cause          
 		
George Monbiot
Tuesday January 18, 2005 		
 		
On Thursday, the fairy king of fairyland will be
recrowned. He was elected on a platform suspended in midair by
the power of imagination. He is the leader of a band of men who
walk through ghostly realms unvisited by reality. And he remains
the most powerful person on earth. 

How did this happen? How did a fantasy president from a world of
make believe come to govern a country whose power was built on
hard-headed materialism? To find out, take a look at two squalid
little stories which have been concluded over the past 10 days. 

The first involves the broadcaster CBS. In September, its 60
Minutes programme ran an investigation into how George Bush
avoided the Vietnam draft. It produced memos which appeared to
show that his squadron commander in the Texas National Guard had
been persuaded to "sugarcoat" his service record. The
programme's allegations were immediately and convincingly
refuted: Republicans were able to point to evidence suggesting
the memos had been faked. Last week, following an inquiry into
the programme, the producer was sacked, and three CBS executives
were forced to resign. 

The incident couldn't have been more helpful to Bush. Though
there is no question that he managed to avoid serving in
Vietnam, the collapse of CBS's story suggested that all the
allegations made about his war record were false, and the issue
dropped out of the news. CBS was furiously denounced by the
rightwing pundits, with the result that between then and the
election, hardly any broadcaster dared to criticise George Bush.
Mary Mapes, the producer whom CBS fired, was the network's most
effective investigative journalist: she was the person who
helped bring the Abu Ghraib photos to public attention. If the
memos were faked, the forger was either a moron or a very smart
operator. 

It's true, of course, that CBS should have taken more care. But
I think it is safe to assume that if the network had instead
broadcast unsustainable allegations about John Kerry, none of
its executives would now be looking for work. How many people
have lost their jobs, at CBS or anywhere else, for repeating
bogus stories released by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
about Kerry's record in Vietnam? How many were sacked for
misreporting the Jessica Lynch affair? Or for claiming that
Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons programme in 2003?
Or that he was buying uranium from Niger, or using mobile
biological weapons labs, or had a hand in 9/11? How many people
were sacked, during Clinton's presidency, for broadcasting
outright lies about the Whitewater affair? The answer, in all
cases, is none. 

You can say what you like in the US media, as long as it helps a
Republican president. But slip up once while questioning him,
and you will be torn to shreds. Even the most grovelling
affirmations of loyalty won't help. The presenter of 60 Minutes,
Dan Rather, is the man who once told his audience" "George Bush
is the president, he makes the decisions and, you know, as just
one American, he wants me to line up, just tell me where." CBS
is owned by the conglomerate Viacom, whose chairman told
reporters: "We believe the election of a Republican
administration is better for our company." But for Fox News and
the shockjocks syndicated by Clear Channel, Rather's faltering
attempt at investigative journalism is further evidence of "a
liberal media conspiracy". 

This is not the first time something like this has happened. In
1998, CNN made a programme which claimed that, during the
Vietnam war, US special forces dropped sarin gas on defectors
who had fled to Laos. In this case, there was plenty of evidence
to support the story. But after four weeks of furious
denunciations, the network's owner, Ted Turner, publicly
apologised in terms you would expect to hear during a show trial
in North Korea: "I'll take my shirt off and beat myself bloody
on the back." CNN had erred, he said, by broadcasting the
allegations when "we didn't have evidence beyond a reasonable
doubt". As the website wsws.org has pointed out, it's hard to
think of a single investigative story - Watergate, the My Lai
massacre, Britain's arms to Iraq scandal - which could have been
proved at the time by journalists "beyond a reasonable doubt".
But Turner did what was demanded of him, with the result that,
in media fairyland, the atrocity is now deemed not to have
happened. 

The other squalid little story broke three days before the CBS
people were sacked. A US newspaper discovered that Armstrong
Williams, a television presenter who (among other jobs) had a
weekly slot on a syndicated TV show called America's Black
Forum, had secretly signed a $240,000 contract with the US
Department of Education. The contract required him "to regularly
comment" on George Bush's education bill "during the course of
his broadcasts" and to ensure that "Secretary Paige [the
education secretary] and other department officials shall have
the option of appearing from time to time as studio guests". 

It's hard to see why the administration bothered to pay him.
Williams has described as his "mentors" Lee Atwater - the man
who, under Reagan's presidency, brought a new viciousness to
Republican campaigning - and the segregationist senator Strom
Thurmond. His broadcasting career has been dedicated to
promoting extreme Republican causes and attacking civil rights
campaigns. 

What makes this story interesting is that the show he worked on
was founded, in 1977, by the radical black activists Glen Ford
and Peter Gamble, to "allow black reporters to hold politicians
and activists of all persuasions accountable to black people".
They sold their shares in 1980, and the programme was later
bought by the Uniworld Group. With Williams's help, the new
owners have reversed its politics, and turned it into a
recruitment vehicle for the Republican party. Williams appears
to have been taking money for doing what he was doing anyway. 

These stories, in other words, are illustrations of the ways in
which the US media is disciplined by corporate America. In the
first case the other corporate broadcasters joined forces to
punish a dissenter in their ranks. In the second case a
corporation captured what was once a dissenting programme and
turned it into another means of engineering conformity.

The role of the media corporations in the US is similar to that
of repressive state regimes elsewhere: they decide what the
public will and won't be allowed to hear, and either punish or
recruit the social deviants who insist on telling a different
story. The journalists they employ do what almost all
journalists working under repressive regimes do: they
internalise the demands of the censor, and understand, before
anyone has told them, what is permissible and what is not. 

So, when they are faced with a choice between a fable which
helps the Republicans, and a reality which hurts them, they
choose the fable. As their fantasies accumulate, the story they
tell about the world veers further and further from reality.
Anyone who tries to bring the people back down to earth is
denounced as a traitor and a fantasist. And anyone who seeks to
become president must first learn to live in fairyland. 

www.monbiot.com [http://www.monbiot.com] 
	
Media
New York Times [http://nytimes.com] 
Washington Post [http://washingtonpost.com] 
CNN [http://cnn.com] 

Government
US government portal [http://www.firstgov.gov/] 
White House [http://www.whitehouse.gov/] 
Senate [http://www.senate.gov/] 
House of Representatives [http://www.house.gov] 


[UP] 

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 22 UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Visits West Africa To Boost Nuclear Science For Health
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:00:21 -0500

 
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UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG CHIEF VISITS WEST AFRICA TO BOOST NUCLEAR SCIENCE 
FOR HEALTH
New York, Jan 17 2005 11:00AM
Addressing a part of his mission that is perhaps as important as 
even if less headline-grabbing than the fight to prevent the spread 
of nuclear weapons, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog 
agency is visiting West Africa see to how nuclear science can 
help in battling cancer, increasing crop yields and treating malaria.

International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2005/dg_ghana_nigeria.html">IAEA) 
Director-General Mohamed 
ElBaradei is now in Ghana where he will inaugurate a radiotherapy 
cancer treatment centre at Komfu Anokye Hospital in Kumasi. Prior 
to 1997 cancer patients in Ghana had few options for treatment.

With IAEA assistance, comprehensive radiotherapy services were established 
in the capital, Accra, providing treatment to thousands. 
The new facility at Kumasi is already helping more Ghanaians, especially 
women, in their fight against diseases like cervical cancer.

The Agency is working with Ghana on numerous other projects, including 
ways to use isotopes to bolster crop yields, improve human 
nutrition and detect drug resistance in malaria. During his two-day 
visit, Mr. ElBaradei will meet with President John Agyekum Kufuor, 
numerous Government ministers and officials of the Ghana Atomic 
Energy Commission.

He then leaves for Nigeria, which intends to set up, with IAEA assistance, 
an accelerator facility that will help to expand its technical 
capabilities in areas such as health and the environment, 
minerals development and oil research activities.

Over the past four years the IAEA has provided the equivalent of 
more than $4.9 million in technical assistance to Nigeria. Projects 
primarily target human and animal health, agriculture, food quality 
and safety, ground water, research and education, nuclear industrial 
applications, radiation protection and regulatory control.

A referral facility for radiotherapy, for example, was set up in 
the northern region of Nigeria to improve cancer care for patients. 
It is hoped to expand radiotherapy services in the southern part 
of the country.

Mr. ElBaradei will meet with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, 
Government ministers, and officials of the Energy Commission of 
Nigeria and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority.
 2005-01-17 00:00:00.000 

________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

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*****************************************************************
 23 [NukeNet] China Making Big Nuke Power Push
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:15:40 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)


    http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html

     http://www.mothersalert.org/probability.html



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/international/asia/15china.html?oref=login

China Promotes Another Boom: Nuclear Power
By HOWARD W. FRENCH

Published: January 15, 2005


AYA BAY, China - The view from this remote point
by the sea, with lines of misty mountains
stretching into the distance, is worthy of a
classical Chinese painting. In the foreground,
though, sits a less obvious attraction: one of
China's first nuclear power reactors, and just
behind it, another being rushed toward completion.

      Advertisement


There are countless ways to show how China is
climbing the world's economic ladder, hurdling
developed countries in its path, but few are more
pronounced than the country's rush into nuclear
energy - a technology that for environmental,
safety and economic reasons most of the world has
put on hold.

In its anxiety to satisfy its seemingly bottomless
demand for electricity, China plans to build
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 United States'
nuclear energy push in the 1970's.

"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."

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
United States and most of Europe, Western and
other developers of nuclear plant technology are
lining up to sell reactors and other equipment to
the Chinese, whose purchasing decisions alone will
determine in many instances who survives in the
business.

France, which derives about a third of its energy
from nuclear power, is the only Western country
committed to a large-scale nuclear energy program.
It is in a building lull now, but will need to
begin replacing aging reactors within a decade or
so.

Japan derives about 10 percent of its energy from
nuclear sources and was once among the most
favorably disposed toward nuclear energy. But a
string of scandals involving comically shoddy
practices, like mixing radioactive materials in a
bucket, and near accidents have turned public
opinion in many areas strongly antinuclear.

That leaves China as the only potential growth
area for nuclear energy. And for China, which
still derives as much as 80 percent of its
electricity from burning coal, the lure of nuclear
energy is as obvious as the thick, acrid, choking
haze that hangs over virtually all the country's
cities.

The problem with nuclear power, some experts say,
is that China's energy needs are so immense - each
year, by some estimates, the country plans to add
generating capacity from all sources equivalent to
the entire current energy consumption of Britain -
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 question whether such a small
payoff warrants exposure to the risk of
catastrophic failures, nuclear proliferation,
terrorism and the still unresolved problems of
radioactive waste disposal.

"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. "The nuclear interest group
wants to push this technology, but they don't
understand the risks for the future. They want to
make money. But we scientists, we want to take a
very comprehensive approach, including safety,
environment, dealing with waste and other factors,
and not rush into anything."

Chinese nuclear operators, like the people who run
the Daya Bay plants here, 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 Company. "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."

The government is also looking into a new
generation of "pebble bed" reactors that some
scientists say are far safer than traditional
designs, though these are not a part of its
immediate plans.

      Advertisement


One sure sign of the Chinese industry's
self-assuredness is the promotion of the Daya Bay
plants as a tourist attraction. For now - in a
country where surging power demand has led major
cities like Shanghai to force companies to stagger
working hours, shut down during the week and
operate on weekends - the public is likely to
support anything that promises more electricity.

American experts, mindful of the destructive
consequences of the near catastrophic accident at
the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 1979, warn
against overconfidence.

"In 1970 we had a net capability of 7 million
kilowatt hours, and by 1981 we had reached 56
million kilowatt hours," said John Moens, a
nuclear analyst at the United States Department of
Energy. "So the rate of growth they propose is not
only conceivable, it has been done before. The
problem is, can you regulate it? Can you deal with
the environmental problems? Can you deal with the
hundred different things that creep up, as the
Japanese found when they expanded their industry,
just as we found when we expanded ours?"

Reinforcing this point, David Lochbaum, a nuclear
energy expert at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, a private, nonprofit group based in
Cambridge, Mass., said that of the 103 reactors in
operation in the United States, 27 have been shut
down for at least a year since September 1984.

Daya Bay's location less than 50 miles from Hong
Kong, where the proximity has become a political
issue, only reinforces the environmental and
safety concerns. That may sound like ample space,
but it is not much different from the distance
from New York City to the Indian Point nuclear
plant in Buchanan, N.Y., which has become an issue
since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Of the technologies that exist today, you have to
look at what can happen on the worst day," Mr.
Lochbaum said. "With wind power, you can go
bankrupt. With a dam burst, lives can and have
been lost, but it's fairly localized. The cost of
cleaning up after Chernobyl, though, is greater
than all of the benefits of the entire Soviet
nuclear power industry combined, and it could have
been worse."






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*****************************************************************
 24 Bellona: Norway to scrap another Russian sub, but two previous efforts
ignored spent nuclear fuel safety
 
As Norway’s Foreign Ministry undertakes the $6.3 million 
dismantlement of a third nuclear submarine in Russia’s Northern 
Fleet, an independent report on two past projects completed by 
Oslo reveal that many safety practices were overlooked during the 
earlier efforts, and that authorities hindered access to 
observers to determine whether several other environmental 
safeguards were adhered to.

  A Victor class submarine undergoing dismantlement at the Nerpa
Shipyard on the Kola Peninsula.   

Charles Digges, 2005-01-18 14:35

Chief among these concerns voiced in the report—performed at
Norway’s behest by the UK’s Enviros Consulting group to review
the previous two dismantlement projects, which began in June of
2003—is the storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) extracted from
the decommissioned vessel at Zvyozdochka shipyard, and that the
current outdoor storage methods for intermediate level
radioactive waste are “unsatisfactory.” 

At issue in the Enviros report are the environmental impact
assessments (EIAs) that had been performed by the Nerpa and
Zvyozdochka shipyards on the dismantlement work and their
neglect of how to handle the spent fuel that would be unloaded
from the submarines.

  Norway pushes CEG to help restructure future nuclear aid
programs to Russia   
  
  Several European government officials told Bellona Web during
a meeting of the of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) associate group, the Contact Expert Committee (CEG) in
Murmansk that officials from the Norwegian government had
promoted safety regulations for nuclear dismantlement projects
sponsored by western donors at this international gathering.
&nbsp;Read on &raquo;
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-o
peration/31884.html]    

This should be especially poignant for Norwegian authorities,
who have championed rigorous EIAs for nuclear dismantlement
projects in numerous international forums—particularly through
the Contact Expert Group (CEG) of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA). 

“The risk analyses performed by the shipyards were too limited
because they did not include what would become of the fuel,”
said Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s Russian Programme Director. 

“The technical aspects of dismantlement, such cutting up the
vessel, are easy to deal with—the focus of such studies should
be on finding safe storage for the spent nuclear fuel, which is
the most environmentally dangerous aspect of submarine
dismantlement and that was not done in this case.” 

Foreign Ministry reportedly had doubts 
Sources close to the submarine dismantlement project within the
Norwegian Foreign Ministry expressed doubts about the results of
the project, NRK television reported on its website. But
according to the same report by NRK, both independent experts
and the Foreign Ministry officially stated that the
dismantlement projects had been carried out in a satisfactory
manner by both Russian shipyards. 

Responsible parties at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
were unavailable to comment to Bellona Web either by telephone
or via emailed requests for reaction to the Enviros report, and
whether its findings would influence how it handles its third
submarine dismantlement project in Russia’s Northern Fleet. 

Lessons learned 

Ingar Amundsen, a senior advisor at the Norwegian Radiation
Protection Authority (NRPA)—which co-commissioned the Enviros
report along with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry—said that the
Enviros report, which included site visits by Enviros staff,
“did not find any insurmountable obstacles” to obtaining
information, but that some elements of the project “required
more information.” 

“We are dealing with those lacks of information now and they
will be taken into consideration” in future projects, he said in
a telephone interview with Bellona Web. 

He said that the NRPA was engaged in intensive dialogue with the
Nerpa shipyard—where the next Norwegian sponsored submarine will
be dismantled—in order that NRPA officials have greater access
to where the submarines spent fuel will be unloaded. 

“This is a requirement, in fact,” said Amundsen. He said that a
thorough environmental impact study analyzing the environmental
risks posed by the fuel and its subsequent planned
transportation to Russia’s Mayak spent fuel reprocessing
facility in the Southern Urals will be conducted before
dismantlement of the submarine begins. 

‘Nothing will happen before these questions are answered,” he
said.

  The Kola Peninsula's Nerpa Shipyard.   
  Vincent Basler   

The Enviros report’s findings 

A proper EIA, as envisioned by Norway’s delegation during a CEG
meeting held early in 2003 in Murmansk, would have detailed each
element of dismantlement, from moving decommissioned vessels to
dismantlement ports to the storage disposition of SNF. 

But neither of the two Victor I class submarines’ EIAs took
further storage of intermediate waste beyond leaving it
essentially in the open. Higher level wastes, according to
information furnished to Enviros, is stored in dedicated
buildings. But, notes Enviros, “there are questions about the
robustness of and security of these buildings and about their
capacity to continue to accommodate future arisings” of the
unloading of future high level waste, the report read. 

Conditions are even more precarious for intermediate level
waste, especially at the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk in
the Arkangelsk region. 

“Exposed to the elements, it is likely some drums [of
intermediate activity nuclear waste] will begin to leak (if they
have not done so already) and some activity will be released
into the environment via drains, soil or by direct washing into
the sea,” the Enviros report read. 

“Apart from the current practice being ‘poor housekeeping,’
minor incidents of this nature could easily be blown out of
proportion so as to reflect very poorly on the overall running
of the shipyard.” 

The other Norwegian sponsored dismantlement effort was carried
out at the Nerpa shipyard on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk
Region. Nerpa, according to Enviros, is to ship its SNF in
3-compartment hulls to Sayda Bay. Though Enviros acknowledged
that the management of Sayda Bay was beyond the scope of its
report, it nonetheless said this method was “also likely to be
unsatisfactory as anything other than a short term arrangement.” 

Though the report concluded that, from information available,
Norway’s dismantlement projects “had been undertaken in
compliance with applicable regulations,” it noted that full
documentation had been—even a year after the dismantlement
procedures had been completed—hard to access.” 

Lacking information 

In fact, he Enviros report indicates that its auditors received
“no information at all” or information that was sketchy at best
on 11 of the 12 key points governing the dismantlement of the
submarines. What little information was furnished came from the
Norwegian Ministry of foreign affairs. 

The twelve key points for which Enviros requested information
regarded: 

*Transport of the submarines to the shipyards for docking, for
which Enviros received no information 

*Preparatory work before de-fuelling for which Enviros received
incomplete information from Nerpa. 

*Removal of SNF, radioactive waste and other waste materials,
including an assessment of possible accidents, for which Enviros
received no documentation from Zvyozdochka 

*Loading of SNF into transport cask, information about which was
furnished by neither shipyard 

*Removal of bow and stern sections, on which Enviros received
data from Zvyozdochka only after the operations has occurred.
Nerpa send information both before and after. But both shipyards
have yet to furnish any information on the environmental impact
of these operations. 

*Enviros received information on preparations of 3-compartment
hulls from Nerpa, including an assessment of materials released
into the air during welding and painting operations. Zvyozdochka
has supplied no such information. 

*Information on transport of SNF for long term storage/disposal
from Nerpa has indicated that SNF flasks have left the shipyard,
but nothing more. 

*Zvyozdochka supplied detailed information about on sight
storage and packing of low and intermediate waste was supplied
by Zvyozdochka. Nerpa also supplied some information in this
regard, but neither yard supplied risk assessments of the
storage. No information at all was supplied about the planned
storage of Nerpa’s waste at Sayda Bay. 

*Neither shipyard supplied any detailed information about the
recycling of salvageable materials. 

*Nerpa has given no information, namely risk assessments,
associated with towing the 3-comparments to Sayda Bay. 

*Both Nerpa and Zvyozdochka gave complete information regarding
the packaging and storing of chemically hazardous substances.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 25 Aftenposten Norway: Aker Kværner keen on nuclear niche

First published: 17 Jan 2005, 15:14  

Oslo-based industrial concern Aker Kværner is among those bidding 
to clean up nuclear waste and dismantle nuclear power plants. The 
sensitive work can be highly profitable in a market valued at NOK 
24 billion.
  
Aker Kværner's Alan Cumming (left) and David Ley are optimistic 
about the chances of breaking into the lucrative nuclear market 
in Great Britain.PHOTO: TRYGVE SØRVAAG
  
  Related stories:  
  In Norwegian: "Røkke satser på atomrydding"
[http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/okonomi/article949599.ece]   

Aker Kværner predecessor firm, Kværner, acquired competence in
handling nuclear waste as part of its controversial takeover of
Trafalgar House in 1996. The takeover itself was troublesome,
and Kværner ran into serious financial problems, leading to its
own takeover by Norwegian industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke's Aker
concern.

Now one of the Trafalgar operations still in the Aker Kværner
sphere is expanding in the UK, banking on business from nuclear
waste jobs, reports newspaper Aftenposten.

"No one wants to make any mistakes in this branch," Alan Cumming
of Aker Kværner told Aftenposten. "But we're good at this, and
know our customers."

Aker Kværner's office at Stockton-on-Tees in England currently
generates about NOK 2 billion in revenues a year and has around
2,000 employees. The nuclear energy division is one of four at
Stockton, generating around 10 percent of those revenues with
150 employees.

"This is a very good niche for us," Cumming said. A new law set
to take effect April 1 will change nuclear waste procedures and
requirements in the UK, and mean new business for firms capable
of working in the nuclear branch.

Among potential jobs are waste disposal and dismantling of
nuclear power plants that long have been a concern to Norway,
because of possible radioactive emissions, like that from the
controversial Sellafield facility.	
Aftenposten's reporter
Steinar Dyrnes [steinar.dyrnes@aftenposten.no] 

Aftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund [nina.berglund@aftenposten.no]   
  
  Publisher: Aftenposten Multimedia A/S, Oslo, Norway.
Telephone: +47 - 22 86 30 00. 
*****************************************************************
 26 Ghana News: UN Atomic Watchdog Chief In Ghana

of Tuesday, 18 January 2005

  [Daily News from Ghana]     
        
[http://www.ghanaweb.com

 [Elbaradei] Boost In Nuclear Health Science For West Africa
 UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Visits West Africa To Boost Nuclear
Science For Health; Addressing a part of his mission that is
perhaps as important as even if less headline-grabbing than the
fight to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the head of the
United Nations atomic watchdog agency is visiting West Africa
see to how nuclear science can help in battling cancer,
increasing crop yields and treating malaria.

 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General
Mohamed ElBaradei is now in Ghana where he will inaugurate a
radiotherapy cancer treatment centre at Komfu Anokye Hospital in
Kumasi.

 Prior to 1997 cancer patients in Ghana had few options for
treatment.

 With IAEA assistance, comprehensive radiotherapy services were
established in the capital, Accra, providing treatment to
thousands. The new facility at Kumasi is already helping more
Ghanaians, especially women, in their fight against diseases
like cervical cancer.

 The Agency is working with Ghana on numerous other projects,
including ways to use isotopes to bolster crop yields, improve
human nutrition and detect drug resistance in malaria. During
his two-day visit, Mr. ElBaradei will meet with President John
Agyekum Kufuor, numerous Government ministers and officials of
the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission..

 He then leaves for Nigeria, which intends to set up, with IAEA
assistance, an accelerator facility that will help to expand its
technical capabilities in areas such as health and the
environment, minerals development and oil research activities.

 Over the past four years the IAEA has provided the equivalent
of more than $4.9 million in technical assistance to Nigeria.
Projects primarily target human and animal health, agriculture,
food quality and safety, ground water, research and education,
nuclear industrial applications, radiation protection and
regulatory control.

 A referral facility for radiotherapy, for example, was set up
in the northern region of Nigeria to improve cancer care for
patients. It is hoped to expand radiotherapy services in the
southern part of the country.

 Mr. ElBaradei will meet with Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo, Government ministers, and officials of the Energy
Commission of Nigeria and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory
Authority.

All Rights Reserved, 1994-2005, © Copyright GhanaHomePage 
*****************************************************************
 27 Xinhua: Nigeria has no ambition to become nuclear power: president   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-19 04:03:28   

    ABUJA, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjoon Tuesday welcomed the chief of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in his office, saying that the west
African country is interested in atomic energy for peaceful
uses, but she has no ambition to become a nuclear power. 

    "Our desire is to use all available sources of power for the
improvement of the lives of Nigerians through the development of
health facilities, effective and efficient water management,
agriculture and other peaceful purposes," Obasanjo told Mohamed
El-Baradei, who is in Nigeria on a two-day working visit. 

    The Nigerian government inaugurated its first nuclear
research reactor located at the north-central city of Zaira in
September last year and says that the facility, which is donated
to Nigeria by the IAEA, is strictly for research in nuclear
technology and "analytical services" to various sectors of the
economy. 

    Obasanjo solicited for the assistance of the IAEA in
identifying, locating, testing and checking radioactive
materials,especially in view of the danger it posed when it
found its way into wrong hands. 

    He also appealed to the UN agency to help the west African
country to train its personnel in the use of atomic energy for
peaceful purposes. 

    Earlier, El-Baradei briefed Obasanjo on the role of the
agency in world affairs, stating that 250 Nigerian scientists
have so farbeen trained by the IAEA in the last five years and
that the IAEA had three projects in the areas of health,
agriculture and water management in Nigeria. 

    In February last year, there was nuclear mix-up as a
statement from the Nigerian Defense Ministry said the country
had discussed acquiring nuclear power from Pakistan. Nigeria
later clarified thestatement issued after the visit of
Pakistan's chairman of the Joint Services Committee, General
Muhammad Aziz Khan, was a "typographical error" and should be
ignored. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 28 ITAR-TASS: Norway FM to discuss cross-border cooperation possibilities
 	 	 	 
[ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia]     

18.01.2005, 02.45

MURMANSK, January 18 (Itar-Tass) - Norwegian Foreign Minister
Jan Petersen, who arrives here on Tuesday, is to discuss
possibilities for Russo-Norwegian cross-border cooperation. 

A Murmansk Region administration official has told Itar-Tass,
"The main purpose of the Norwegian Minister's two-day tour of
Russia's Polar area is to review the implementation of the
intergovernmental accord to ensure nuclear and radiological
security on the Kola Peninsula". 

The Norwegian Minister is to visit the Snezhnogorsk-based
ship-repairing yards Nerpa, where the nuclear-powered
decommissioned submarines of the Northern Fleet are scrapped. 

Petersen is to meet with Murmansk Governor Yuri Yevdokimov to
discuss possibilities for further Russo-Norwegian cross-border
cooperation. The Minister is also scheduled to meet with the
students of Murmansk State Technical University and members of
the ethnic minorities of the Kola Peninsula. He is to present a
report on the theme of "Norway and Russia. Cooperation in the
Arctic". 

On Monday, the Norwegian Minister visited Arkhangelsk and
Severodvinsk. When delivering a lecture at the Arkhangelsk-based
Pomorsky State University, Petersen said Norway would continue
to finance the scrapping of Russian nuclear-powered submarines
in Northwest Russia. 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
 29 [NukeNet] NJPIRG Press Release: Exelon's Shoddy Safety Record
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:17:06 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                           For More 
Information, Contact:

January 17, 
2005 
Suzanne Leta, Energy Associate

                                                                                             267 
879 4285 (cell)



NJPIRG, Whistleblowers Unearth

Exelon’s Shoddy Safety Record

  Call on Acting Governor Codey and BPU to Put Safety First



Trenton, NJ—As Exelon takes over the management of PSEG’s Salem and Hope 
Creek reactors.  NJPIRG joined Dr. Kymn Harvin, former PSEG organizational 
manager-turned whistleblower and Reverend Chris Miller of the Council of 
Churches to turn the spotlight on Exelon’s own history of safety and 
maintenance problems in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois.



“We are here today to set record straight about Exelon's safety record. 
Exelon has put profits over safety time and time again,” said Suzanne Leta, 
NJPIRG energy associate.



Last month Exelon and PSEG, the state’s largest utility, announced plans to 
merge.  This past weekend, Exelon took over three nuclear reactors formerly 
managed by PSEG.



“Whether it is staffing reductions, poor maintenance oversight or the 
silencing of employees with safety concerns, Exelon has enough poor safety 
skeletons in its closet to make state regulators think twice about the 
merger.  Exelon is not the model company they claim to be,” said Suzanne 
Leta, NJPIRG energy associate.



In New Jersey, Exelon and PSEG have consistently put profits over public 
safety at Hope Creek and Oyster Creek.  Three independent assessments of 
PSEG’s management at the Salem and Hope Creek site concluded that PSEG 
didn’t want to pay the necessary costs to keep the site in good 
condition.  Most recently, the NRC allowed PSEG to continue operating Salem 
without replacing a faulty recirculation pump until their next refueling 
outage in the spring 2006, even though a new pump will be ready to install 
this March.



“What makes the NRC’s decision absolutely disgraceful is that public safety 
takes a back seat to utility profits,” said Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin, the 
senior manager from PSEG fired in 2003 after insisting corporate offices 
address employees safety concerns.  “The NRC has proven by this decision it 
is an impediment to public safety, not its guardian.”

Exelon’s management at Oyster Creek also has its share of problems.   Since 
Exelon bought Oyster Creek, the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the 
country for a mere $10 million, they have reduced staffing levels in 
half.  During the summer of 2003, the 217 IBEW employees at the plant went 
on strike in part because of safety concerns.  And in January 2004, the NRC 
issued a white finding at Oyster Creek, because the plant failed to prevent 
a 2003 cable failure providing power to multiple pieces of safety-related 
equipment. The same failures happened twice before in 1996 and 2001.

  "We believe this God created us and turned over to us the stewardship of 
God’s good earth.  That fact alone makes this issue a theological issue, 
but what makes this a moral issue is whether or not we can put the lives of 
humanity at grave risk so that a corporation can multiply its economic 
wealth," Reverend Chris Miller, Chairperson of the Public Policy Working 
Group for the Council of Churches and Coordinator of Outreach Ministry for 
the Greater New Jersey United Methodist Church.



In Pennsylvania, Exelon’s management at Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom 
has resulted in layoffs of nearly a third of plant employees, deficient 
safety culture and inadequate plant maintenance.  Eric Epstein, Director of 
Three Mile Island Alert, was available by phone today to provide a detailed 
overview of Exelon’s track record.



  “Expecting Exelon to improve PSEG’s nuclear operations is like sending 
the Hindenberg on a rescue mission for the Titanic,” said Eric Epstein, 
Director of Three Mile Island Alert.



In Illinois, Exelon has serious safety culture and maintenance 
problems.  At the Quad Cities in Cordova and Dresden in Gundy County, 
Exelon repeatedly attempted to increase power production by a full twenty 
percent—with dangerous consequences. The plants vibrated so much that parts 
broke off and developed large cracks.



Although he could not attend the press conference, Leta told the story of 
Oscar Shirani, a former Exelon quality assurance manager who blew the 
whistle about the safety of Holtec-produced dry casks and was ultimately 
fired for raising safety concerns.



Holtec International, based in Marlton, New Jersey makes dry casks are to 
be used for storing high-level waste at thirty-three of the nation's 
nuclear power plants, including Indian Point in New York and Quad Cities 
and Dresden in Illinois. According to the company’s website, they plan to 
begin loading spent fuel into Holtec dry casks at PSEG’s Hope Creek reactor 
at the Salem site starting in 2006.



“Considering both companies’ safety records, a merger between Exelon and 
PSEG is a dangerous combination.  Codey and the BPU have a responsibility 
to protect the public, and in the case of a potential Exelon/PSEG merger, 
the lives of New Jerseyans may depend on it,” said Leta.



NJPIRG called on Governor Codey and the BPU to require independent reviews 
of the safety culture at all Exelon-owned plants, to review the legality of 
Exelon’s potentially criminal censorship of Shirani’s dry cask audit and to 
conduct an independent audit of the casks currently in use at Exelon and 
PSEG-owned plants.



“If these investigations reveal that Exelon is not a company that puts 
public safety first and acts on the safety concerns of its employees and 
contractors, Governor Codey and the BPU should do everything they can to 
oppose this merger,” Leta concluded.



#





Posted on Sun, Jan. 16, 2005



Philadelphia Inquirer



f8992.jpg


Editorial | Hope Creek Reactor

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No good vibrations as plant reopens
f89a5.jpg

Despite claims that "safety is our top priority," PSEG Nuclear is 
restarting a South Jersey reactor with a major faulty part - and the 
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's blessing.

The part - a 20-foot-high pump, which workers describe as rattling like a 
freight train - will be monitored with more than 100 vibration sensors to 
detect cracking and damage to surrounding equipment in the Hope Creek unit 
in Salem County. But that's not going to erase everyone's fears.

The NRC concluded in a report last week that the monitoring "provided a 
reasonable assurance" of safety. A nuclear-safety engineer at a nonprofit 
advocacy group called it "the best Plan B that's out there." Those words 
hardly inspire confidence.

At a public hearing Wednesday in Swedesboro, PSEG and NRC officials 
admitted that the safest course for the public and workers would have been 
to replace the pump now, rather than wait up to 18 months as planned. 
That's what should have happened.

Nuclear engineers like to say their business has low probability but high 
consequences. In other words, it's unlikely something will go wrong, but if 
it does...

A nuclear power plant is no place to gamble on Plan B.

The old pump, whose replacement is sitting onsite at Artificial Island on 
the Delaware River, may, indeed, work without incident for 18 months. Or 
the vibration detectors may alert operators, who, as the NRC report says, 
would "take action to remove the pump from service prior to shaft failure."

Or, worst case, the pump may cause an accident by spilling cooling water 
from the reactor vessel. In that event, safety equipment should kick in, 
preventing danger to workers or the public, say PSEG spokesmen.

Unless the pump's vibrations have damaged the safety equipment, which has 
happened in the past, warned David Lochbaum, the nuclear safety engineer 
with Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.

Regardless of the scenario, the window between rapid rise in vibrations and 
pump failure "is expected to be small," says the NRC report. This situation 
will need intense scrutiny by the owners and the NRC.

Tomorrow, Exelon Corp., a co-owner of the plant, will take over its 
management from PSEG, as the two utilities continue merger talks. Exelon 
signed a two-year contract with PSEG to manage its three Salem County 
reactors, regardless of the outcome of the merger. Exelon has a solid 
record operating 17 nuclear plants and is lobbying to build two more. They 
would be the first new reactors licensed since the Three Mile Island 
accident in 1979.

Exelon is risking its reputation by taking on the Salem County plant, a 
poor performer, which is under investigation for a lack of a 
"safety-conscious work environment." The Salem I, II and Hope Creek 
reactors have been plagued by maintenance and worker-management 
communication problems.

One item on the "fix-it" list since at least 2003 has been the Hope Creek 
pump. An internal report recommended replacement during October's refueling 
shutdown. Hope Creek closed early for that refueling when a broken steam 
pipe Oct. 10 forced an emergency shutdown. Despite being closed for more 
than 90 days, PSEG did not replace the pump, which would take about three 
weeks.

Operating with faulty equipment throws enormous responsibility on the NRC 
to ensure safety, at a time when the NRC's record is only beginning to improve.

Although the NRC intervened earlier in Salem's workplace culture problems 
than it has at other plants, it's culpable in letting maintenance 
deteriorate to deplorable levels in the first place.

In 1998, Congress threatened to cut the NRC's funding by 40 percent. In 
response, critics contend, the agency shifted too many resources away from 
inspecting plants toward moving paperwork and other tasks that made the 
nuclear industry happy.

In 2002, engineers' happenstance discovery of a football-sized hole in the 
Davis-Besse reactor vessel in Ohio demonstrated the extent - and potential 
danger - to which the NRC was overlooking serious problems at the nation's 
aging plants.

But it's unclear that the NRC has learned its lesson. A General Accounting 
Office report just last May urged the NRC to "take more aggressive actions 
to mitigate the risk of serious safety problems occurring at Davis-Besse 
and other nuclear power plants."

And a 2002 inspector's general report from within the NRC said the agency 
itself was suffering from "safety culture and climate" issues, including 
workers who didn't believe the NRC's commitment to safety was apparent in 
their day-to-day work.

With questionable equipment online, Hope Creek needs to be the place where 
the NRC rededicates itself to its safety mission, and Exelon continues its 
industry leadership.


Suzanne Leta
Energy Associate
NJPIRG
11 N. Willow St
Trenton, NJ 08608
609 394 8155 x310
<mailto:sleta@njpirg.org>sleta@njpirg.org
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 30 [NukeNet] Statement by Dr. Kymn Harvin, NJPIRG Press Conference
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:17:10 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

Remarks by Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

NJPIRG Press Conference


Trenton, New Jersey

January 17, 2005





Good Morning.



As Suzanne said, I’m Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin.  I’m the senior manager from 
PSEG Nuclear who was fired in 2003 after I reported safety and work 
environment issues to the President and Chairman of the Board.  I have 
chosen to speak out, to become a “whistleblower,” only because PSEG 
officers refused to admit these issues, much less resolve them.    So, I 
turned to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the fall of 2003.



Initially the NRC was very interested in what I had to say.  I was told the 
agency had long-standing concerns about Salem and Hope Creek and an 
“insider” coming forward was just what the regulators needed.  I was told I 
had done the right thing by speaking out, though I lost nearly every friend 
I had in the nuclear industry.  When I was told my allegations would be 
Region I’s top priority, I was relieved.  I thought the safety equipment 
and culture issues would finally get resolved.  I thought retaliatory 
firings like mine and the chilled work environment would end.  I believed 
that the good people at Salem and Hope Creek would now have government 
support for the safe and healthy workplace they deserve.



That was 16 months ago.  I regret to report to you that my faith in the NRC 
and its inspectors and investigators has diminished over time.  All too 
often, especially when it has come to equipment issues and safety systems, 
the NRC in Region 1 has turned a blind eye.  The regulators have ignored or 
rationalized away nuclear safety concerns voiced by Salem and Hope Creek 
employees, have minimized assessments that rated 72 of 90 critical areas 
“less than competent,” and refused to take action against the utility 
without external pressure.



In fact, the NRC’s first letter to PSEG occurred on January 28, 2004, only 
after word reached top Commissioners that current workers were prepared to 
go on “60 Minutes” to bring attention to their nuclear safety 
concerns.  These workers had lost faith in both the company and the 
regulators.

The NRC’s credibility hit an all-time low last week when it authorized the 
restart of the Hope Creek reactor, despite problems with the “B” 
recirculation pump.   Instead of putting Safety First, PSEG and Exelon told 
the NRC that “for business reasons” they would replace the bent pump shaft 
in the spring of 2006.



Unbelievably, the NRC endorsed their plan that puts profits before public 
safety.



And the NRC did so against the objections of the NJ Dept. of Environmental 
Protection, Senators Biden and Carper and Representative Castle from DE, 
numerous editorials and front page reports in the New York Times, 
Wilmington News Journal, Press of Atlantic City, Philadelphia Inquirer and 
elsewhere, and over objections by 111 public interest and watchdog groups.



What makes this “chilling,” as I said last week when I called for the 
resignations of numerous regulators, is the messages the NRC’s decision 
sends.  It says:



Ø      Utilities do not have to put public safety first.

Ø      Utilities do not have to fix long-standing equipment problems.

Ø      Utilities do not have to make “conservative” decisions favoring 
safety over

production.

Ø      Utilities can burden operators with equipment that could knowingly 
blow up unexpectedly and cause a meltdown if everything doesn’t go right.

Ø      Utilities don’t have to prudently respond to safety concerns…because 
the NRC does not.



What makes this decision outrageous, disgraceful, and a travesty is that 
the NRC has put total responsibility for public safety on the shoulders of 
the Hope Creek licensed operators.  The NRC, supposedly their champion, has 
made their jobs harder and more dangerous.



In addition, the public’s best efforts to intervene and convince the NRC 
otherwise, were ignored, placated, and minimized.



Simply put, what PSEG and Exelon wanted mattered more to the regulators 
than the public’s safety concerns.    The NRC, once again, turned a blind eye.



The utilities won.  Public safety lost.  The NRC showed its true colors.



The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial yesterday said it best:



Hope Creek needs to be the place where the NRC rededicates itself to its 
safety mission.



But unless the NRC intervenes in the next 24 or so hours, it will be too 
late to prevent Hope Creek from restarting.  And the NRC does not have the 
backbone to reverse its decision, even though it clearly should.



Exelon could save the day, however.   It takes over operation at Salem and 
Hope Creek today under a management contract.  Exelon could prove safety is 
top priority by choosing to not restart Hope Creek and choosing to replace 
the B recirculation pump shaft instead.



But that isn’t likely either.  Without having all the facts, Exelon 
publicly supported deferring the pump replacement until 2006.  But maybe, 
just maybe, like any good leader who changes course when he or she receives 
new and definitive information, PSEG’s Chief Nuclear Officer from Exelon, 
Bill Levis, could be a hero on his first day in office.  He could prove 
Safety is First.  He could prove he listens to employee and public 
concerns.  He could prove this is a “new and improved” Exelon that has 
learned from past mistakes and wants a clean start at Salem and Hope Creek.



Bill Levis has the power to prove he is a Leader Worth Following.



Mr. Levis, I urge you to take bold, courageous action.  Break new ground 
for the industry and the public.  Surprise everyone.  Do what no one thinks 
you will do:  Postpone Hope Creek’s restart until the B recirculation pump 
shaft is replaced.    Let everyone know—by your actions, not your 
words—that Safety truly is top priority.


Suzanne Leta
Energy Associate
NJPIRG
11 N. Willow St
Trenton, NJ 08608
609 394 8155 x310
<mailto:sleta@njpirg.org>sleta@njpirg.org
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 31 [NukeNet] Press Coverage on Exelon's Shoddy Safety Record 
 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:27:14 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

Yesterday's press conference was also covered by 101.5, WHYY/NJN and WCBS

Our press release and press statement can be accessed in the Newsroom page 
of our website <http://www.njpirg.org>www.njpirg.org in the News Releases, 
Environmental section. The complete version of Oscar Shirani's story and 
Dr. Kymn Harvin's statement can be accessed in the Newsroom page of our 
website <http://www.njpirg.org>www.njpirg.org in the Testimony section.

Exelon-PSEG merger opposed by NJPIRG; it cites safety concerns

Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/18/05

By NICHOLAS CLUNN
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU

TRENTON -- Mishaps and poor decisions at nuclear reactors owned by the same 
company that runs the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey reflect a 
management attitude that puts profit before safety, a public advocacy group 
said Monday.

Exelon, which owns Oyster Creek through its AmerGen subsidiary, fired an 
employee for challenging how the company stored its nuclear waste, 
according to one case highlighted by Suzanne Leta, a New Jersey Public 
Interest Group expert on energy issues.

Company officials stand by the firing, said Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit. 
Overall, Exelon has a strong safety record in an industry regulated more 
than most others, Nesbit said.

"NJPIRG is real good about making hay out of all this because people don't 
understand it," he said.

But Kymn Harvin, a former supervisor and whistle-blower at the three Public 
Service Electric and Gas Co. nuclear plants in Salem County, said residents 
around Oyster Creek should consider Leta's message.

"Nuclear safety issues do not know county or state boundaries," Harvin said 
after the news conference at the Statehouse Annex. "My message is for 
people to fight for their safety. Don't rely on the utilities."

NJPIRG's argument supported its opposition to a plan that would allow 
Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial reactor, to stay open for 
another 20 years under a renewed license. Oyster Creek would close in 2009 
without the extension.

Leta called the news conference to encourage acting Gov. Codey and the 
state Board of Public Utilities to block a proposed merger between Exelon 
and Public Service Enterprise Group, PSE&G's parent.

The new company would become the nation's largest utility if government 
regulators approve the deal. Exelon Electric & Gas, the proposed new 
company, would have 9 million customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and 
Illinois.



Company rebuts claims

Leta told reporters that Exelon managers in 2001 fired Oscar Shirani, one 
of its safety inspectors at an Illinois office, for telling managers about 
design flaws in vessels used to store nuclear waste.

At the Quad Cities Unit 1 nuclear plant in Illinois, she said, managers 
continued to generate electricity at a rate greater than previously 
produced even though the process caused vibrations that damaged steam pipes 
and other equipment.



Nesbit downplayed Leta's examples. Regulators and labor boards, he said, 
have proved Shirani's worries about the storage containers were unwarranted.

"He (Shirani) looks for new audiences, and he found a new audience in New 
Jersey," Nesbit said from his office in Illinois. "That's why he's making 
those claims there."

Nesbit said the vibrations occurred away from the reactor and posed an 
insignificant safety risk. Problems associated with running a plant at a 
higher rate for the first time are common, he said.

Leta also pointed to a 2003 strike over job cuts at Oyster Creek as 
evidence of Exelon putting profit before safety.

Oyster Creek officials said they cut 20 jobs to keep the company 
competitive and efficient.

State officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

BPU President Jeanne M. Fox said last month that regulators will consider 
how the Exelon-PSEG merger will affect customers, rates, employees and 
system reliability.

Churches also opposed

The Rev. Christopher L. Miller, representing about 600 United Methodist 
churches in New Jersey and 15 other denominations in the New Jersey Council 
of Churches, cited the Bible in explaining why those groups oppose a 
license renewal for Oyster Creek.

An extension for Oyster Creek would defy a Christian tenet requiring 
believers to care for "God's earth," Miller said.

"We cannot put the lives of humanity at grave risk so that a corporation 
can multiply its economic wealth," he said.

Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or <mailto:nclunn@app.com>nclunn@app.com

January 18, 2005


Watchdog groups say Exelon/PSEG merger bad idea


By JEROME MONTES Staff Writer, (856) 794-5115

Critics of the proposed merger between Newark-based Public Service 
Enterprise Group and Chicago-based Exelon Corp. said the poor nuclear 
facility safety records of both companies should give state regulators 
pause before approving the deal.

The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group on Monday said both companies 
have consistently made profits a priority over safety through maintenance 
oversights and retaliatory actions against employees who sought to draw 
attention to safety problems.

The merger, announced last month, would create the nation's largest power 
company and place all four of New Jersey's nuclear reactors in the new 
entity's hands. By contractual agreement, Exelon took over management of 
PSEG's three reactors in Salem County on Monday, but final state and 
regulatory approval for the merger could take at least 12 months. Exelon 
already operates Ocean County's Oyster Creek reactor through a subsidiary.

NJPIRG energy associate Suzanne Leta urged acting Gov. Richard J. Codey and 
state's Board of Public Utilities to carefully review safety problems and 
work-force culture at Exelon-owned plants before making a decision about 
the merger.

"We believe that unless Exelon fixes its safety problems, state regulators 
should do everything they can to oppose this merger," Leta said.

Leta added that Exelon has cut Oyster Creek's staff in half since acquiring 
it and has failed to prevent power failures to safety-related equipment.

PSEG has drawn criticism from nuclear watchdog groups and the state's 
Department of Environmental Protection for restarting its once idle Hope 
Creek reactor without replacing a water recirculation pump shaft prone to 
massive vibrations. PSEG's Salem facility has also been subject to 
increased federal oversight following allegations by a whistle-blower that 
management had been ignoring employee safety concerns.

That whistle-blower, former PSEG organizational manager Kymn Harvin, 
claimed she was fired for standing up for employees and has filed a civil 
lawsuit against the company.

Harvin was critical of Exelon for supporting PSEG's restart of the Hope 
Creek reactor. She said Exelon's record, which some industry experts say 
sets the standard for nuclear facilities, was tarnished by that decision.

"They should practice what they preach," Harvin said. "That they would 
support that decision is not a good first step."

Critics of Exelon say the Chicago-based company has also sought to silence 
employees who raise safety concerns.

Nuclear engineer Oscar Shirani said Monday that he was fired by Exelon in 
2001 for drawing attention to faulty casks containing spent nuclear fuel at 
the company's Dresden facility in Illinois.

Shirani said the casks manufactured by a Marlton, N.J., company violated 
safety codes set down by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Shirani claimed Exelon officials censored a 2000 report he prepared on the 
violations, transferred him out of the company's nuclear division and 
eventually fired him-all to protect the usage of the nuclear fuel storage 
casks.

"These casks could put millions of people in danger," Shirani said. "The 
people who tampered with my report - they are the real terrorists in this 
country."

Shirani said the federal Department of Labor is reviewing his allegations.

Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit said that Shirani's charges were "a bunch of 
lies" and that the nuclear engineer was transferred "at his own request."

"He's been making those allegations for years," Nesbit said. "None of this 
is true."

Federal and state officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

To e-mail Jerome Montes at The Press:

JMontes@pressofac.com

Exelon running Salem plants
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005

By BOB IVRY
STAFF WRITER
The Bergen Record

TRENTON - Chicago-based Exelon Corp., the nation's largest nuclear power 
company, took over Salem County's beleaguered trio of nuclear plants on 
Monday, the first step in its proposed $12 billion acquisition of PSEG.

While Exelon will oversee day-to-day operations at Hope Creek and Salem 
Units I and II, Newark-based PSEG remains responsible for keeping the 
reactors within licensing regulations. The acquisition process is expected 
to take more than a year.

Wall Street applauded Exelon's plan to expand its nuclear fleet, citing 
economies of scale, its track record in improving production capacities and 
the company's problem-solving ability.

"The changeover is a smart idea," said Edward J. Tirello Jr., senior power 
strategist for the investment firm Berenson & Co. "Exelon has some really 
good expertise. They've seen the problems and are well-equipped to handle 
them. I don't want to malign anyone who's there, but sometimes you need a 
change to get things working again."

The controversial Hope Creek plant will now be Exelon's headache. The 
1,049-megawatt reactor has been off-line since |Oct. 10 after a pipe burst 
and released radioactive steam into a turbine room. It remains off-line. In 
that time, PSEG has wrestled with critics and the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission over another problem - replacing a wobbly shaft in a 
80,000-pound recirculation pump.

PSEG opted to wait until its scheduled spring 2006 refueling outage to 
replace the shaft. The move was endorsed by the NRC but opposed by 
community groups, some local members of Congress and New Jersey Department 
of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell.

Critics expressed disappointment Monday over Exelon's decision to go ahead 
with Hope Creek's restart, slated for sometime later this week.

"Exelon has put profits over safety," said Suzanne Leta of the New Jersey 
Public Interest Research Group, an environmental organization.

Leta spoke at a Trenton press conference where Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin, a 
former high-level executive for PSEG Nuclear who said she was fired for 
bringing nuclear safety concerns to plant managers, called on Exelon to 
"take bold, courageous action" by replacing Hope Creek's pump shaft now.

"Exelon could save the day," Harvin said. "But that isn't likely."

Harvin, who is suing PSEG under the state's whistle-blower protection laws, 
predicted that Exelon would be forced to take Hope Creek off-line again 
before the spring of 2006.

"I think the shaft will cause problems and will have to be replaced before 
then," she said.

Another problem at the Salem County reactors, cited by the NRC and numerous 
watchdog groups, is the lack of a "safety-conscious work environment." In 
part to allay workers' fears about retaliation for exposing safety 
problems, Exelon Chief Nuclear Officer Bill Levis met with some of the 
three plants' 1,800 employees on Monday, his first day at Salem and Hope 
Creek, and will meet with more on Tuesday, said Skip Sindoni, a PSEG spokesman.

"The idea is to let employees meet him and introduce them to Exelon's 
management model, which is a proven model with demonstrated results," 
Sindoni said.

But one critic, structural engineer Oscar Shirani, said Monday that Exelon 
"gets rid of anybody who stands in the way of its profits."

Shirani worked as an Exelon structural engineer for 12 years before he was 
"reassigned" to an unrelated job in 2000 for pointing out flaws in the 
company's storage of radioactive nuclear waste, he said.

"Exelon destroys anybody who talks about safety issues," he said in a phone 
interview.

Shirani said Exelon executives falsified his August 2000 evaluation of the 
casks in which Exelon's Dresden, Ill nuclear plants were planning to store 
their spent nuclear fuel and eventually transport it to the national 
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Because of problems in cask design, Shirani said, he was about to issue a 
"stop-work order" that would have cost Exelon millions. His findings were 
changed, he said, and the Dresden plants went ahead with moving the spent 
fuel into the casks in 2002.

"They could leak any moment or burst any moment," Shirani said.

Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit called Shirani's charges "absolutely untrue."

"Flaws in the casks were investigated and his specific complaints were not 
valid," Nesbit said. "He's been making this claim to any audience he can 
find for quite a while. It's quite old. He's got a new audience in New 
Jersey now."

E-mail: <mailto:ivry@northjersey.com>ivry@northjersey.com


Whistleblower protests restart of reactor

Tuesday, January 18, 2005
By TERRENCE DOPP
Trenton Bureau
Bridgeton News

TRENTON -- A whistleblower at the Artificial Island nuclear generating 
complex made a last-ditch call here Monday for federal officials to delay 
the planned sale of the facility.

The plea came the same day at the operator of the three plants, PSEG 
Nuclear, entered a management contract with the Exelon Corporation, giving 
Exelon daily oversight of the three reactors at the site in Lower Alloways 
Creek Township.

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The two companies announced in late December that PSEG Nuclear and its 
parent company, Public Service Enterprise Group, would merge with Exelon 
Corporation in a $12 billion deal. That merger is expected to be complete 
in 12 to 15 months, pending approvals from regulators.

Critics oppose the two companies' intent to operate the Hope Creek reactor 
for 18 months without fixing a key reactor water recirculation pump.

The reactor has been off line since Oct. 10 when a pipe ruptured releasing 
a small amount of radioactive steam. After the pipe broke PSEG decided to 
begin a scheduled refueling outage early to repair the pipe and address 
other equipment issues.

During the down time, concern from critics grew over whether the B 
recirculation pump at Hope Creek was safe to operate because of vibrations 
caused when it operates.

Hope Creek is currently in the process of being restarted.

PSEG Nuclear said a study it commissioned deemed the pump safe to operate 
until the next refueling outage at the plant in about 18 months. Last week 
the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission backed that decision with the 
stipulation that PSEG Nuclear closely monitor the pump.

The utility said it would comply and Exelon has backed that commitment to 
the NRC.

"Unless the NRC intervenes in the next 24 hours or so, it will be too late 
to prevent Hope Creek from restarting. And the NRC does not have the 
backbone to reverse its decision, even though it clearly should,&quot; said 
Nancy Kymn Harvin, a PSEG Nuclear employee fired by the company and who has 
since filed suit against the utility.

Harvin said she believes the NRC's latest action jeopardizes safety and 
sets a dangerous precedent.

"What makes this decision outrageous, disgraceful, and a travesty is that 
the NRC has put total responsibility for public safety on the shoulders of 
the Hope Creek licensed operators," she said.

Harvin was among a group of PSEG employees who alleged that plant managers 
fostered a work environment where employees feared to come forward with 
safety complaints. She has said the NRC did not take strong enough action 
in that case.

At a meeting last week between the NRC and PSEG Harvin chastised the 
federal agency and called for top NRC officials at the hearing to resign. 
She said she was sure the pump will fail.

At the center of the debate are the opponents' claims that the 
recirculation pump has a bowed drive shaft that causes it to vibrate at 
high speeds. They contend such speeds will cause the pump to fail and 
possibly leak radioactive water or worse.

But PSEG and Exelon have said the pump is safe to run if speeds stay below 
a set level. In addition, they have agreed to install monitoring sensors to 
take detailed readings of any shaking and shut the reactor down if unsafe 
conditions occur.

"We have always operated on the fundamental belief that safety is the top 
priority. And that will not change" with the change in management, said 
Skip Sindoni, a PSEG Nuclear spokesman.

Sindoni said the recirculation pump has been running for a week during 
tests and has shown no sign of a problem.

"Collectively, we all believe that pump is safe to operate for another 
cycle," he said, referring to PSEG, Exelon and the NRC.

An NRC spokesman could not be reached Monday because officers were closed 
due to the federal holiday.

Also Monday, activists called for acting Gov. Richard Codey to direct the 
state Board of Public Utilities to halt the merger until the corporations 
fix the pump.

Members of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group said both 
companies have checkered pasts when it comes to nuclear safety. Because the 
state has no regulatory power over the nuclear operation, it should use its 
economic might to hold up the merger, officials with the group added.

"If Exelon is allowed to acquire PSEG, it will create the largest 
consolidated utility in the country. A utility of this size will be far 
less accountable to the state of New Jersey to provide the cleanest, 
safest, most reliable electricity," said Suzanne Leta, NJPIRG energy 
associate.

"Codey and the BPU should do everything they can to stop this merger."

A spokeswoman for Codey said he is still reviewing the matter and has not 
decided whether to become involved.

The merger between Exelon and PSEG would result in the nation's largest 
utility provider and would give the company ownership of the Salem 1, Salem 
2 and Hope Creek reactors in addition to the Oyster Creek reactor in Lacey 
Township in New Jersey.

If the merger is approved, Exelon would own a total of 20 nuclear power 
plants across the U.S.


Halt nuclear merger, whistleblower asserts

Gloucester County Times
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
By Terrence Dopp
gcnews@sjnewsco.com

TRENTON -- A whistleblower at the Salem nuclear power complex made a 
last-ditch call Monday for federal officials to delay the planned sale of 
the facility.

The plea came Monday as owner PSEG Nuclear entered a management contract 
with Exelon Energy of Illinois, giving Exelon daily oversight of the three 
reactors at the Artificial Island complex in Lower Alloways Creek. A 
planned merger of the two companies is pending before state regulators.

Environmentalists oppose the two companies' intent to operate the Hope 
Creek reactor for 18 months without fixing a damaged pump. Critics say the 
pump poses a danger.

Also on Monday, activists called for Acting Gov. Richard Codey to direct 
the state Board of Public Utilities to halt the merger -- at least until 
the corporations fix the pump.

The proposed merger between Exelon and PSEG would result in the nation's 
largest utility provider and would give the company ownership of the Salem 
I, Salem II and Hope Creek reactors in addition to the Oyster Creek reactor 
in Lacey Township.

The state Board of Public Utilities is expected to take up to 15 months to 
review the $15 billion deal. Hope Creek has been shuttered since an Oct. 10 
release of radioactive steam within a containment building.

&quot;Unless the NRC intervenes in the next 24 hours or so, it will be too 
late to prevent Hope Creek from restarting. And the NRC does not have the 
backbone to reverse its decision, even though it clearly should,&quot; said 
Nancy Kymn Harvin, who said she was fired after the senior PSEG Nuclear 
manager reported security concerns.

According to Harvin, the NRC's latest action jeopardizes safety and sets a 
dangerous precedent.

&quot;What makes this decision outrageous, disgraceful, and a travesty is 
that the NRC has put total responsibility for public safety on the 
shoulders of the Hope Creek licensed operators,&quot; she said.

Harvin was among a group of PSEG employees who alleged that plant managers 
fostered a work environment where employees feared to come forward with 
safety complaints. Calls for the NRC to jump into the fray have ratcheted 
up the pressure in a stand off between those who contend the plant is 
unsafe and the corporate operators.

At the center of the debate are claims of some employees that the 
recirculation pump has a bowed drive shaft that causes it to vibrate wildly 
at speeds above 1,529 revolutions-per-minute.

Those seeking to force replacement contend that this vibration could rip 
the pump apart or cause it to fail -- with results ranging from a spill of 
radioactive cooling water to a full-scale nuclear accident.

But PSEG and Exelon have said the pump is safe to run if speeds stay below 
1,510 rpm. In addition, they agreed to install sensors to take detailed 
readings of vibrations and to shut down the reactor if unsafe conditions 
occur.

&quot;We have always operated on the fundamental belief that safety is the 
top priority," said Skip Sindoni, a PSEG Nuclear spokesman. "And that will 
not change with the change in management."

Sindoni said Pump B has been running for a week during tests with no problems.

&quot;Collectively," he said, referring to PSEG, Exelon and the NRC, "we 
all believe that pump is safe to operate for another cycle."

Members of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group said that both 
companies have checkered pasts when it comes to nuclear safety. Although 
the state has no regulatory power over the nuclear operation, officials 
with the group suggested that economic concerns should halt the merger.

&quot;If Exelon is allowed to acquire PSEG, it will create the largest 
consolidated utility in the country. A utility of this size will be far 
less accountable to the State of New Jersey to provide the cleanest, 
safest, most reliable electricity,&quot; said Suzanne Leta, NJPIRG energy 
associate.

Suzanne Leta
Energy Associate
NJPIRG
11 N. Willow St
Trenton, NJ 08608
609 394 8155 x310
<mailto:sleta@njpirg.org>sleta@njpirg.org


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 32 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee Meeting on 
 
                         FR Doc 05-889 
[Federal Register: January 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 11)] 
[Notices] [Page 2885] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18ja05-80]                         
 
Planning and Procedures; Notice of Meeting The ACRS Subcommittee 
on Planning and Procedures will hold a meeting on January 27-28, 
2005, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the 
exception of a portion that may be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 
552b(c)(2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel 
matters that relate solely to internal personnel rules and 
practices of ACRS, and information the release of which would 
constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Thursday, 
January 27, 2005--8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of business.
 
The Subcommittee will discuss ACRS business processes, 
anticipated workload, potential areas for improved effectiveness, 
ACRS subcommittee structure, and other activities related to the 
conduct of ACRS business. It will also discuss issues related to 
power uprates. Friday, January 28, 2005--8:30 a.m. until the 
conclusion of business.
 
The Subcommittee will continue to discuss ACRS business 
processes, anticipated workload, and other activities related to 
the conduct of ACRS business. It will also discuss certain 
proactive committee initiatives.
 
The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues 
and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as 
appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Dr. John T. Larkins (telephone: (301) 415-7360) between 7:30 a.m. 
and 4:15 p.m. (ET) five days prior to the meeting, if possible, 
so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic 
recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the 
meeting that are open to the public.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and 
4:15 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged 
to contact the above named individual at least two working days 
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes in 
the agenda.
 
Dated: January 11, 2005.
 
John H. Flack, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. 05-889 Filed 1-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 33 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Meeting of the 
 
                         FR Doc 05-891 
[Federal Register: January 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 11)] 
[Notices] [Page 2885-2886] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18ja05-81]                         
 
Subcommittee on Plant License Renewal; Notice of Meeting The ACRS 
Subcommittee on Plant License Renewal will hold a meeting on 
February 9, 2005, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: 
Wednesday, February 9, 2005--1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. The purpose 
of this meeting is to discuss the License Renewal Application and 
associated Safety Evaluation Report (SER) with Open Items related 
to the License Renewal of the Donald C. Cook Plant, Units 1 and 
2. The Subcommittee will hear presentations by and hold 
discussions with representatives of the NRC staff, Indiana 
Michigan Power Company, and other interested persons regarding 
this matter. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze 
relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and 
actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Cayetano Santos (telephone 301/415-7270) five days prior to 
the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made. Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and 
4:15 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are
 
[[Page 2886]] urged to contact the above named individual at 
least two working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any 
potential changes to the agenda.
 
Dated: January 10, 2005.
 
John H. Flack, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. 05-891 Filed 1-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 34 Daily Yomiuri: Time right to reopen Monju reactor 

Isamu Mishima 

This year marks the 10th year since a serious accident befell the 
Monju prototype fast breeder nuclear reactor, effectively ending 
research and development in fast breeder technology in Japan. 

In December 1995, a massive leak of sodium coolant occurred at 
the plant in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, and the Monju reactor has 
remained shut down since then. Monju, built at massive public 
expense, should not be left dormant and operations should be 
resumed as soon as possible. 

As much as 10 billion yen is annually spent on maintenance of the 
completed yet idle experimental nuclear reactor. Taxpayers 
groaning under increasing tax burdens would be furious if they 
knew such an abnormal situation had been left unattended. 

The Monju affair sounds like fiction, but it is real. Monju has 
remained idle for more than nine years and it is not certain when 
operations will resume. 

The central government has approved details of the Monju 
renovation project aimed at preventing an accident, but the Fukui 
prefectural government has yet to give approval for the start of 
renovation, so when it will start is still up in the air. 

The fast breeder reactor is a next-generation nuclear reactor 
that will replace light-water reactors now in use at all nuclear 
power stations in Japan. 

Fast breeder reactors can produce more nuclear fuel than they 
consume. The fast breeder reactor has been dubbed a "dream 
nuclear reactor" for Japan, which lacks fossil fuel and uranium 
resources. 

Fast breeder reactors transform uranium-238, which cannot be used 
as nuclear fuel, into plutonium-239, which can. In addition, it 
produces plutonium at a higher rate than it consumes uranium. The 
fuel for the fast breeder nuclear reactor is extracted from spent 
nuclear fuel from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. The 
reprocessing of nuclear fuels, called the nuclear fuel cycle, is 
one of the key components of Japan's nuclear energy policy. 

Development of the fast breeder reactor was assigned to the Power 
Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (Donen), which was 
later reorganized into the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development 
Institute, bringing together talented scientists and engineers 
from Tokyo University and other academic and research 
institutions. 

Research and development of the fast breeder reactor started 
around 1970, with Donen building an experimental fast reactor, 
nicknamed Zoyo, at a cost of about 30 billion yen. Zoyo reached 
criticality in 1977, and Donen continued basic experiments on the 
nuclear fuel cycle. 

Constructed based on these experiments, Monju was completed in 
1992 at a cost of 600 billion yen as a prototype reactor to 
demonstrate the practicality of fast breeder nuclear reactors. 

The experimental operation of Monju continued successfully after 
reaching criticality and starting power generation, but an 
accident occurred on Dec. 8, 1995, when liquid sodium coolant 
leaked from a ruptured pipe in the secondary cooling system and 
triggered a localized fire when it reacted with oxygen in the 
air. (Monju was structured to cool the heat generated in the 
reactor in two stages--through primary and secondary systems 
using liquid metal sodium.) 

Similar sodium leakages from pipes have occurred in fast breeder 
reactors in France and other countries. Investigations 
immediately pinpointed the cause of the accident: a small error 
in the design of the shape of a thermometer that measures the 
temperature of the sodium. 

Specialists did not consider the leak a serious technical 
accident because it occurred at a point far from the reactor, 
which is considered the most dangerous part of the system. 

But the public saw the accident as more serious than it actually 
was, and both Donen and the central government came under fire 
due to insufficient information disclosure by Donen about the 
accident, including the concealment of videotape footage showing 
the accident. 

As a result, the safety of Monju was questioned and its 
reactivation appeared a long way off. 

Even so, there were several occasions when the resumption of 
Monju's operation seemed possible. 

But nuclear accidents that occurred in the ensuing years, such as 
a 1997 fire and explosion at a Donen supplementary reprocessing 
facility in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a critical accident at 
the uranium fuel processing company JCO in the same village, 
discredited nuclear energy and wiped out any opportunity to 
reopen Monju. And so Monju has remained shut down for more than 
nine years. 

Though Monju is out of service, a vast sum of money has been 
required to maintain it so it can be reactivated at any time. 

The annual maintenance cost is 10 billion yen or so, which means 
that nearly 100 billion yen has been poured into the unused 
nuclear reactor over the past nine years. 

Monju, built with the best of Japanese technology and with an 
infusion of enormous amounts of public funds, should not be 
wasted. 

The United States, France and other advanced countries have 
established fast breeder reactor technologies. For resource-poor 
Japan, the reactivation of the Monju fast breeder reactor is an 
urgent matter. 

Mishima is a deputy editor of the science news department of The 
Yomiuri Shimbun.   

Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun 
*****************************************************************
 35 Bellona: Russia might build more reactors in China, Iran, India and
Bulgaria
 
The Russian nuclear power minister Alexander Rumyantsev expects 
to get orders for nuclear plants construction in other countries 
in the nearest years. 

2005-01-17 12:27

Alexander Rumyantsev stated this at his internet press-conference 
in the end of last year, ITAR-TASS reported. He believes Russia 
will get the opportunity after China, Iran, India and Bulgaria 
announce the international tenders for nuclear plants 
construction. ”In China – several nuclear power units on the 
south of the country. Iran – the second power unit at the Busher. 
India – 40 power units. Bulgaria – a unit at the Belina NPP” 
Rumyantsev said. He said two Russian reactors would be put in 
operation in China this year and two more reactors are currently 
under construction in India. The co-operation with Iran depends 
on the settlement of its nuclear program with the world 
community, the head of Rosatom said. 

He also added that the further co-operation with India depends 
whether this country puts the nuclear plants construction 
activities under the IAEA control. Russia had begun construction 
of the two nuclear power units before it was banned to cooperate 
with India, ITAR-TASS reported. 
  
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: 
Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no 
[info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no 
[webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 
38 38 62  * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 36 Bellona: Russia takes part in tender for four reactors construction in
China
 
The Russian Atomstroyexport competes with French AREVA and US 
Westinghouse companies, the winner will be announced in February. 

2005-01-17 14:54

As China Daily reported last year, Atomstroyexport’s confidence 
is based on the close relations between China and Russia, while 
the USA promised to weaken limitations for nuclear technologies 
transfer to China. In particular, the USA intends to allow 
AP-1000 reactors export to China. These reactors are the main 
competitors of the Russian VVER-1000. 

All the nuclear plants in China were constructed with the help of 
France, Canada, Russia and Japan. France helped to build the 
first plant. At the moment China operates nine nuclear reactors 
with 6450 MW total capacity, what is 1.4% of all electricity 
generated in the country. The experts believe this number can 
reach 4% by 2020, RIA-Novosti reported.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 37 Bellona: UK nuclear industry is allegedly “cheating the market”
 
The European Commission has launched an investigation into the 
British government’s allegedly illegal aid to the British nuclear 
industry, which has been beset in recent years by downwardly 
spiralling losses. 

Vladislav Nikiforov, 2005-01-18 13:07

The European Union’s executive body is concerned that plans to
move decommissioning liabilities from BNFL to a Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will violate EU state aid rules,
Nuclear Engineering magazine reported. 

The British government plans that on April 1st 2005 the NDA will
assume responsibility for managing public sector decommissioning
liabilities across the country. Some of these are currently the
responsibility of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), some of United
Kingdom Atomic Energy authority (UKAEA). At the same time, BNFL
will be restructured into a group of independent businesses
called the British Nuclear Group, Nuclear Sciences and
Technology Services, Spent Fuel Services, and Westinghouse. 

An EC statement said that the asset transfer to the NDA will be
done at no cost to BNFL but will relieve it from nuclear
liabilities that it should normally have met under the ”polluter
pays” principle. The EC considers at this stage of its analyses
that this advantage provided by the British government is likely
to be considered state aid under the EC Treaty. 

State aid, under this treaty, is acceptable only if its negative
effect on trading conditions is outweighed by a positive
contribution to other objectives under the Euratom Treaty. The
EC asserted that an in-depth inquiry would be necessary to
analyse both the positive and negative effects of the move. 

Mark Johnson of Friends of the Earth Europe commented on the EC
announcement saying, ”This type of ad-hoc investigation by the
commission is not enough. It allows the European nuclear
industry to continue cheating the market, selling power below
cost and then blackmailing the taxpayer when old reactors are
shut down. It points to a systematic failure to govern energy
markets in line with Europe’s overall political goals.” 

Huge losses
 British Energy (BE) has recorded a half-year loss of £234
million, almost four times the £60 million lost in the same
period last year. The company said in a statement that its
outlook is ”challenging”. 

BE has suffered from continued delays in repairs at its Heysham
1 and Hartlepool plants – two 620Mwe AGR units at each remain
offline. The outages have contributed to a 14 percent (4.6TWh)
drop in nuclear generation compared to last year. 

The company’s problems have been worsened by the fact that it
presold its power at low prices last year. It is now unable to
meet its generation commitments and is being forced to buy
replacement power on the wholesale market at higher prices. 

The BE statement said in full that the Heysham and Hartlepool
units were not expected to return to service until very late in
2004 while ”the outlook for the company’s financial and trading
prospects for the remainder of the financial year will be
challenging.” 

Hiding vulnerable information

 Beside economical losses, the British nuclear industry would
like to keep a lid on its nuclear waste issues. The European
Court of Justice (ECJ ) is expected to rule that EU governments
must divulge information to the EC about decommissioning
military reactors, where such data does not compromise ”the
essential interests of national security”. This follows a case
against the British government, which refused to release
information about its shut down of the Jason training reactor at
the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. 

Having alerted the Commission about the decision, the UK
received demands for information about the decommissioning
process, which it rebuffed, alleging that military reactors fall
outside the Euratom treaty regarding such data transfers. 

Brussels challenged this and ECJ Advocate General Leendert
Geelhoed has now advised judges to find against Britain, saying
non-essential military reactors (such as that in Greenwich) are
covered by these Euratom rules, and that the UK ”is in breach of
its obligations” by both restricting information and refusing to
negotiate with the commission. 

ECJ decisions typically take effect three to six months after
the opinion is given, and usually adhere to the advocate
general’s advice. 

In October, the UK was threatened with a case at the ECJ over
its failure to consult the EC before issuing a radioactive waste
disposal licences for the country’s atomic weapons facilities in
Aldermaston and Burghfield.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 38 BBC: Gazprom 'in $36m back-tax claim'
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 17 January, 2005
 
[Gazprom HQ]                            
Gazprom is set to merge with oil firm Rosneft                                                            

The nuclear unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom is reportedly 
facing a 1bn rouble ($35.7m; £19.1m) back-tax claim for the 
2001-2003 period. 

Vedomosti newspaper reported that Russian authorities made the 
demand at the end of last year. 

The paper added that most of the taxes claimed are linked to the 
company's export activity. 

Gazprom, the biggest gas company in the world, took over nuclear 
fuel giant Atomstroieksport in October 2004. 

The main project of Atomstroieksport is the building of a nuclear 
plant in Iran, which has been a source of tension between Russia 
and the US. 

State influence 

Gazprom is one of the key players in the complex Russian energy 
market, where the government of Vladimir Putin has made moves to 
regain state influence over the sector. 

Gazprom is set to merge with state oil firm Rosneft, the company 
that eventually acquired Yuganskneftegas, the main unit of 
embattled oil giant Yukos. 

Claims for back-taxes was a tool used against Yukos, and led to 
the enforced sale Yuganskneftegas. 

Some analysts fear the Kremlin will continue to use these sort of 
moves to boost the efforts of the state to regain control over 
strategically important sectors such as oil.                                                



*****************************************************************
 39 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Nuke power 'makeover'

LAS VEGAS SUN

 WEEKEND EDITION

 January 15 - 16, 2005

 Late-night comedians needle President Bush for his occasional
malapropisms, but such jesting, as Bush might say,
"misunderestimates" him. Specifically, the Bush White House
excels at coining clever phrases for policies that hide their
true intent. For instance, Bush called his policy to relax air
pollution rules the "Clear Skies Initiative" and dubbed his
regulation to cut more trees in U.S. forests the "Healthy
Forests Initiative."

 The president doesn't get sworn in again for a second term
until Thursday, but apparently he couldn't wait to try out his
latest doublespeak. In an interview with The Wall Street
Journal, Bush said the nation needs advanced nuclear power
plants, which he called a source of clean, "renewable" energy.
"It (nuclear power) certainly answers a lot of our issues," he
said. "It certainly answers the environmental issue."

 That's right, the president says nuclear power is a renewable
energy source, just like wind and solar. The president neglects
to mention, in this warm-and-fuzzy makeover, nuclear power's
deadly byproduct: high-level radioactive waste, which is
dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. Not a single state
in the nation wants radioactive waste, which is why President
Bush is trying to force the burial of 77,000 tons of this deadly
substance at Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.

 John Rowe, the chief executive officer of Exelon Corp., which
operates the most nuclear power plants in the United States,
couldn't be happier with Bush's comments. "It's always
gratifying to have the president on your side," Rowe said.
Indeed, Rowe told The Wall Street Journal that the nuclear power
industry needs Congress and the White House to help get rid of
the legal and regulatory obstacles that so far are delaying the
opening of Yucca Mountain.

 We hope that Bush doesn't side with Rowe on relaxing safety
standards now in place, but the president hasn't exactly been a
friend to Nevadans on Yucca Mountain. During the 2000
presidential campaign, Bush promised Nevadans that he would use
"sound science" to determine Yucca Mountain's fate, but then
turned right around and persuaded Congress to approve the
project -- despite mounting scientific evidence that shipping
the waste and burying it here would be dangerous. That's why we
aren't "misunderestimating" the president, who very well might
try to stick it to the state one more time by making it even
easier to get a nuclear waste dump opened in Nevada. 

*****************************************************************
 40 Slovak Spectator: Slovak Nuclear shift pushed

 The Economy Ministry intends to revise Slovakia's future energy
strategy Nuclear shift causes alarm

Slovakia's English Language Newspaper
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
  Volume 11, Number 2
     
January 17 - January 23, 2005   

   [http://www.relo.sk]     

By Beata Balogová Spectator staff 

NUCLEAR power is at the centre of the new energy draft 
proposal.photo: Courtesy of Slovenské elektrárne
  

 SLOVAKIA might change its energy policies if the Economy 
Ministry succeeds in revising a 1999 document outlining the 
country's energy strategy. 

Though the previous document is not old, the ministry claims that 
new developments on world markets require the preparation of an 
update. Behind the drive for a new 10-year strategy is the desire 
to prevent Slovakia's dependence on imported energy. The 
solution, according to the Economy Ministry, is to invest Sk70 to 
75 billion (€1.7 to 1.8 billion) in the Slovak energy sector. 

Economy Minister Pavol Rusko said in December that a revised 
strategy would, in fact, fix mistakes that previous ministry 
employees had made. He says that the aim of the new energy policy 
is to ensure maximum economic growth under conditions of 
sustainable development. 

Experts see in the document a considerable shift towards the use 
of nuclear energy sources - an attitude reflected in the Economy 
Ministry's desire to complete the nuclear power plant in 
Mochovce. 

The spokesperson for the Economy Ministry, Maroš Havran, 
strenuously disagrees. "We are certain that the document is not 
pro-nuclear. The goal was to keep it balanced," he said. 

According to the Economy Ministry, however, the requested 
investment [€1.7 to 1.8 billion] is needed primarily for nuclear 
energy projects: to increase the output of the nuclear power 
plant V2 at Jaslovské Bohunice, the first and second units of the 
nuclear power plant in Mochovce; to overhaul the thermal power 
plant in Nováky; and to finish units three and four of Mochovce. 

NEW power towers requested.photo: TASR

 Funds are also earmarked for investments into renewable energy
resources. 

"[The financial request] is an optimum level of investment to
ensure and potentially widen the production capacity of the
power utility Slovenske elektrárne," Rusko told the news wire
agency SITA. 

The new energy strategy has already been criticized by
businesses active in the energy sector as well as
environmentalists who consider the move non-transparent. 

Experts speculate that Slovenské elektrárne's fingerprints are
far too visible on the strategy document. 

Another objection is that the revised energy concept comes after
important energy legislation has been passed. The recently
passed energy law, the regulatory bill and the law on thermal
energy should have been based on this new concept, critics
argue. 

Environmental activists at Greenpeace complain that the Economy
Ministry overlooked them during the preparation of the revised
strategy, despite promises that their opinion would be heard. 

The Economy Ministry rejects the accusations, saying that the
preparation of the document involved experts from different
spheres. 

Certain businesses, however, favour a move towards the use of
nuclear energy. 

In July of 2004, the Association of Slovak Employers called on
the government to revise its energy strategy by mandating the
completion of Mochovce. Their request was driven by fears that
decommissioning certain Slovak power plant capacities by 2008
would pump up electricity prices. 

Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) Deputy Tibor Mikuš,
who is the former boss of Slovenské elektrárne, says that the
new energy document could be considered a discussion starter but
could in no way be considered an energy strategy. 

"This document does not yet reflect the whole spectrum of energy
experts in Slovakia. Despite promises by some ministers that the
concept would be discussed with all experts regardless of their
political orientation, it has not happened this way. Certain
groups of experts have not been involved in the debate," Mikuš
told The Slovak Spectator. 

According to Mikuš, a new energy policy must include fuel source
alternatives that are sustainable [nuclear fuel sources are
limited, and therefore, unsustainable]. 

He also called for continuity with the previous strategy,
suggesting that the new document is too far removed from the
previous energy concepts. And Mikuš said that the new strategy
should be easily updatable. 

Ján Rusnák of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)
told The Slovak Spectator that he views the document as a draft
intended for a wider debate. 

"I expect that the [energy strategy] proposal will undergo a
wide public debate and will be discussed by experts. We have
created a special commission that will be summoned in early
February to review the document. Following debate, this
committee will try to take a professional stand," Rusnák told
The Slovak Spectator. He added that it is "too early to talk
about the Economy Ministry's draft as the energy policy of the
cabinet". 

At this point Rusko cannot predict to what extent the new
strategic investor in Slovenské elektrárne, the Italian company
Enel, will support or share in the planned investment in the
energy sector. 

"This is still the subject of negotiations. We should agree by
June 30, when the investor will present his investment plans,"
Rusko told the news wire SITA. 

Currently, annual consumption of natural gas in Slovakia is
seven billion cubic metres. The ministry assumes that in 2013,
consumption will rise to eight billion, and in 2030, to nine
billion cubic metres of natural gas. 

Officials admitted that in this area, Slovakia will continue
being dependent on imports from other countries. 

Slovakia imports 90 percent of its primary energy sources. 

The Economy Ministry also wants to support the construction of
new electricity transmission capacity, especially into Poland,
Hungary, and Austria. 

"We need new high voltage electric transmission lines to these
countries, especially to the Hungarian border, as our position
now significantly limits Slovenské elektrárne's energy trade,"
said Rusko. 

Minister Rusko has been acting in line with his new energy
strategy despite it being a draft subject to debate. 

For example, he proposed that two blocks of a nuclear power
plant in Jaslovské Bohunice should be shut down simultaneously
in 2008, instead of decommissioning one reactor in 2006 and the
other in 2008. 

Rusko claims that shutting the blocks down at the same time is a
safer option than decommissioning them in subsequent years. The
V1 reactors are located 65 kilometres northeast of Bratislava. 

As part of its accession agreements, Slovakia promised the
European Union to close down one of the two blocks of the
Jaslovské Bohunice V1 plant in 2006, and the second V1 block in
2008. 

The V2 plant will continue operating, while the A1 block broke
in 1977 and has not functioned since. 

Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan said that reaching consensus with
the European Union about simultaneous decommissioning in 2008
would be a complicated and laborious process. 

(Magdalena MacLeod contributed to the report) 
[1/17/2005] 


   [http://www.slovakia-online.sk]   
   Copyright © 1998-2003 The Rock spol. s r.o. All rights
reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 41 Xinhua: China to build PFR nuclear power stations by 2020   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-18 15:29:49   

    BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- China will complete the
construction of prototype fast reactor (PFR) nuclear stations by
about 2020, the director with China National Nuclear Corporation
(CNNC) announced here Sunday. 

    The reactor can lift the utility rate of natural uranium
from one percent to 60 to 70 percent with a pressurized water
reactor (PWR), said Kang Rixin. 

    Currently, most of China's nuclear stations, both in
operation or under construction, use a PWR and heavy water
reactor (HWR), sources with CNNC said. 

    The development of the new kind of reactor is expected to be
finished and put into operation at the beginning of the next
"five-year plan" period (2006-2010), CNNC sources said. 

    China is now speeding up the PFR experiment, which is
supportedby the 863 Plan, the nation's hi-tech research and
development program, sources said. The development research,
with a total investment of 1.38 billion yuan (167 million US
dollar), is the largest project in the 863 Plan. 

    Nuclear power should make up four percent of the nation's
total generating capacity by 2020, according to plans made by
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). 

    "This requires CNNC, in collaboration with other
corporations, to make pragmatic plans and schedules to address
bottle-neck problems the nuclear industry facing, such as
self-researching capability and resources provision," CNNC
sources said. 

    The CNNC sources said working on and implementing these
reactors will still be, for a long time, the major product for
China's nuclear industry. Enditem   


  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 42 TheStar.com: U.S. rebuff a setback, AECL says
 
  Tue. Jan. 18, 2005. | Updated at 06:24 PM  

Energy firm denied licence for Virginia nuclear plant
Stays focused on building a larger, next-generation reactor

JOHN SPEARS BUSINESS REPORTER

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. says it will concentrate on
developing a larger version of its next-generation nuclear
reactor after being knocked out of a crucial race to have its
technology licensed in the U.S. 

AECL was dealt a heavy blow Friday by Dominion Resources Inc.,
which decided not to use AECL technology in its pursuit of a
licence for a new Virginia nuclear power station.

Dominion had assembled a group including AECL, Bechtel Power
Corp. and Hitachi America Inc. for the project, and had been
selected by U.S. regulators to move through the complex five- or
six-year process of obtaining an operating licence.

Getting the technology licensed in the U.S. would have opened
the U.S market to AECL for the first time. And it would have
given AECL a boost in marketing the reactors in Ontario, where
the current fleet of reactors is rapidly aging.

AECL is "clearly disappointed with Dominion's decision," chief
executive Robert Van Adel said in a statement.

It was a sharp contrast to his mood two months ago, when the
Dominion-AECL group had been selected to start the licensing
process.

"It's in our view a huge win for us, in the sense that we've
established ourselves as the leading next-generation technology
in North America," Van Adel had told the Toronto Star at that
time. He had predicted the decision would have a "huge impact"
on AECL's prospects for marketing the technology elsewhere
around the globe.

The Dominion-AECL group was in line to receive up to $250
million (U.S.) in funding to assist it through the complex
technology licensing process in the U.S.

The drawback to the plan was that AECL's nuclear technology has
never been licensed in the U.S.

Company spokesperson Dale Coffin said Dominion discovered that
using AECL's technology would likely lengthen the licensing
process. 

"They won't use our technology because of the timeframe," he
said in an interview. 

Dominion is now looking for a new technology partner for its
consortium, he said.

AECL has just completed a major project in China, but has been
actively looking for new opportunities including the U.S.
partnership.

"I think it's fairly big for AECL," Tom Adams, executive
director of Energy Probe, said of the new setback. 

"They've always wanted a presence in the U.S. market. It's been
on their to-do list for 20 years."

The new reactor comes in two sizes, one of 750 megawatts and one
of 1,200 megawatts; the smaller sized reactor had been picked as
the candidate for the licensing process.

With the U.S. licensing opportunity off the table, AECL will
turn more attention to developing the 1,200-megawatt reactor,
Coffin said.

In Ontario, reactors range in size from the just over 500
megawatts at the Pickering nuclear station, to nearly 900
megawatts at the Bruce B and Darlington nuclear stations.

Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Bruce Power, had questioned
AECL's decision to pursue the smaller reactor. 

In an interview last fall, he noted that Bruce Power's current
units will reach the end of their operating lives in the coming
years, but "It's hard for me to make the economics work by
replacing 900-megawatt units with 700-megawatt units."

AECL has applied to have its new technology licensed in Canada
as well. Coffin said the company is about half way through the
process, but expects it will take another two years or more to
complete.

Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
 43 Brattleboro Reformer: Coalition raps VY inspection

   [http://www.reformer.com/]   

January 18, 2005 Brattleboro, VT                                                                                 
 			 								 					
By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- The New England Coalition claims that the recent 
inspection done at Vermont Yankee wasn't enough and the group is 
hoping the Vermont Public Service Board agrees.

 Last week, the Brattleboro-based anti-nuclear group filed a 
motion with the board calling on it to take three actions:

 -- Reject the inspection of the plant done by the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission;

 -- Require the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, to pay for 
another inspection;

 -- Encourage the Legislature and governor to advocate for an 
independent safety assessment on behalf of Vermont residents.

 The inspection was done in August as part of an NRC pilot 
program to improve reactor oversight. While the inspectors found 
eight violations, they were said to be of low safety concern. 
Overall, the plant was found to be in accordance with NRC 
regulations and the components examined were said to be able to 
operate at 120 percent capacity. 

But the inspection must also meet criteria set by the Public 
Service Board when it granted Entergy conditional approval of its 
request to increase power production by 20 percent.

 The board did not have the authority to demand an inspection 
regarding the safety of the plant -- radiological safety can only 
be regulated by the NRC -- but it could, and did, require 
assurance that the power boost would not affect reliability.

 Under Vermont law, any electricity-producing facility must get 
board approval before making structural changes, which Vermont 
Yankee required to increase power production.

 The company applied to the board in February 2003. On March 15, 
2004, the board approved the changes, only if the plant passed an 
NRC inspection showing that it would still run reliably after the 
power increase.

 In the board's March 2004 order was a letter to Nils Diaz, 
commissioner of the NRC, outlining the criteria for the proposed 
inspection.

 The letter requested, among other things, that the "assessment 
would be a vertical slice review of two safety systems" and two 
non-safety systems.

 According to Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and an expert 
witness for the New England Coalition, a vertical slice is a 
comprehensive look at one system.

 For example, if an inspection team were to look at the residual 
heat removal system for the reactor, it would examine how the 
system was designed, built, modified and maintained from the time 
the plant was built in 1972 until the present.

 Such an inspection, said Gundersen, would make it easier for 
inspectors to determine the overall functioning of the plant and 
detect any systemic problems.

 In the motion filed by the coalition, which was written by 
technical advisor Raymond Shadis, the group argued that the NRC 
inspection did not include any vertical slices. The NRC, wrote 
Shadis, instead "selected for inspection 45 individual components 
(not systems which are comprised of multiple components) from a 
wide range of systems."

 In other words, a lot of systems were looked at but none of them 
very deeply, therefore the inspection failed to meet the board's 
criteria.

 Attorneys for Entergy filed comments with the board stating the 
exact opposite.

 In terms of the vertical slice requirement, Entergy's counsel 
did not use the exact term but did state that the inspection team 
accomplished the following: "examined the adequacy of selected 
components and operator actions over multiple systems ... and 
reviewed design calculations, maintenance and modification 
histories and associated operating procedures."

 Entergy officials declined further comment.

 The board must now respond to the coalition's motion and decide 
whether the inspection satisfies its order. The board maintained 
jurisdiction over the case, until all the criteria of its March 
15 decision are met.

Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc., a 
*****************************************************************
 44 NJPIRG: NJPIRG, Whistleblowers Unearth Exelon’s Shoddy Safety Record:
 		 		 	 	 
[http://www.njpirg.org]      [http://www.njpirgstudents.org] 

  For Immediate Release: January 17, 2005 For More Information: 
Suzanne Leta (609) 394-8155   

Call on Acting Governor Codey and BPU to Put Safety First 

TRENTON—As Exelon takes over the management of PSEG’s Salem and
Hope Creek reactors. NJPIRG joined Dr. Kymn Harvin, former PSEG
organizational manager-turned whistleblower and Reverend Chris
Miller of the Council of Churches to turn the spotlight on
Exelon’s own history of safety and maintenance problems in New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois. 

“We are here today to set record straight about Exelon's safety
record. Exelon has put profits over safety time and time again,”
said Suzanne Leta, NJPIRG energy associate. 

Last month Exelon and PSEG, the state’s largest utility,
announced plans to merge. This past weekend, Exelon took over
three nuclear reactors formerly managed by PSEG. 

“Whether it is staffing reductions, poor maintenance oversight
or the silencing of employees with safety concerns, Exelon has
enough poor safety skeletons in its closet to make state
regulators think twice about the merger. Exelon is not the model
company they claim to be,” said Suzanne Leta, NJPIRG energy
associate. 

In New Jersey, Exelon and PSEG have consistently put profits
over public safety at Hope Creek and Oyster Creek. Three
independent assessments of PSEG’s management at the Salem and
Hope Creek site concluded that PSEG didn’t want to pay the
necessary costs to keep the site in good condition. Most
recently, the NRC allowed PSEG to continue operating Salem
without replacing a faulty recirculation pump until their next
refueling outage in the spring 2006, even though a new pump will
be ready to install this March. 

“What makes the NRC’s decision absolutely disgraceful is that
public safety takes a back seat to utility profits,” said Dr.
Nancy Kymn Harvin, the senior manager from PSEG fired in 2003
after insisting corporate offices address employees safety
concerns. “The NRC has proven by this decision it is an
impediment to public safety, not its guardian.” 

Exelon’s management at Oyster Creek also has its share of
problems. Since Exelon bought Oyster Creek, the oldest operating
nuclear power plant in the country for a mere $10 million, they
have reduced staffing levels in half. During the summer of 2003,
the 217 IBEW employees at the plant went on strike in part
because of safety concerns. And in January 2004, the NRC issued
a white finding at Oyster Creek, because the plant failed to
prevent a 2003 cable failure providing power to multiple pieces
of safety-related equipment. The same failures happened twice
before in 1996 and 2001. 

"We believe this God created us and turned over to us the
stewardship of God’s good earth. That fact alone makes this
issue a theological issue, but what makes this a moral issue is
whether or not we can put the lives of humanity at grave risk so
that a corporation can multiply its economic wealth," Reverend
Chris Miller, Chairperson of the Public Policy Working Group for
the Council of Churches and Coordinator of Outreach Ministry for
the Greater New Jersey United Methodist Church. 

In Pennsylvania, Exelon’s management at Three Mile Island and
Peach Bottom has resulted in layoffs of nearly a third of plant
employees, deficient safety culture and inadequate plant
maintenance. Eric Epstein, Director of Three Mile Island Alert,
was available by phone today to provide a detailed overview of
Exelon’s track record. 

“Expecting Exelon to improve PSEG’s nuclear operations is like
sending the Hindenberg on a rescue mission for the Titanic,”
said Eric Epstein, Director of Three Mile Island Alert. 

In Illinois, Exelon has serious safety culture and maintenance
problems. At the Quad Cities in Cordova and Dresden in Gundy
County, Exelon repeatedly attempted to increase power production
by a full twenty percent—with dangerous consequences. The plants
vibrated so much that parts broke off and developed large
cracks. 

Although he could not attend the press conference, Leta told the
story of Oscar Shirani, a former Exelon quality assurance
manager who blew the whistle about the safety of Holtec-produced
dry casks and was ultimately fired for raising safety concerns. 

Holtec International, based in Marlton, New Jersey makes dry
casks are to be used for storing high-level waste at
thirty-three of the nation's nuclear power plants, including
Indian Point in New York and Quad Cities and Dresden in
Illinois. According to the company’s website, they plan to begin
loading spent fuel into Holtec dry casks at PSEG’s Hope Creek
reactor at the Salem site starting in 2006. 

“Considering both companies’ safety records, a merger between
Exelon and PSEG is a dangerous combination. Codey and the BPU
have a responsibility to protect the public, and in the case of
a potential Exelon/PSEG merger, the lives of New Jerseyans may
depend on it,” said Leta. 

NJPIRG called on Governor Codey and the BPU to require
independent reviews of the safety culture at all Exelon-owned
plants, to review the legality of Exelon’s potentially criminal
censorship of Shirani’s dry cask audit and to conduct an
independent audit of the casks currently in use at Exelon and
PSEG-owned plants. 

“If these investigations reveal that Exelon is not a company
that puts public safety first and acts on the safety concerns of
its employees and contractors, Governor Codey and the BPU should
do everything they can to oppose this merger,” Leta concluded. 
  
  THE NEW JERSEY PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP   
  Citizen Lobby and Law & Policy Center
 11 North Willow Street • Trenton, NJ 08608 • 609-394-8155   
   [http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=12182]     
[http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=1906&amp;id3=NJ]     
[http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=13311]     
*****************************************************************
 45 NJPIRG: Remarks by Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin (PSEG)

NJPIRG Press Conference 

Trenton, New Jersey
 
January 17, 2005 
  
Good Morning. 
  
As Suzanne said, I’m Dr. Nancy Kymn Harvin.  I’m the senior
manager from PSEG Nuclear who was fired in 2003 after I reported
safety and work environment issues to the President and Chairman
of the Board.  I have chosen to speak out, to become a
“whistleblower,” only because PSEG officers refused to admit
these issues, much less resolve them.    So, I turned to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the fall of 2003. 
  
Initially the NRC was very interested in what I had to say.  I
was told the agency had long-standing concerns about Salem and
Hope Creek and an “insider” coming forward was just what the
regulators needed.  I was told I had done the right thing by
speaking out, though I lost nearly every friend I had in the
nuclear industry.  When I was told my allegations would be
Region I’s top priority, I was relieved.  I thought the safety
equipment and culture issues would finally get resolved.  I
thought retaliatory firings like mine and the chilled work
environment would end.  I believed that the good people at Salem
and Hope Creek would now have government support for the safe
and healthy workplace they deserve.   
  
That was 16 months ago.  I regret to report to you that my faith
in the NRC and its inspectors and investigators has diminished
over time.  All too often, especially when it has come to
equipment issues and safety systems, the NRC in Region 1 has
turned a blind eye.  The regulators have ignored or rationalized
away nuclear safety concerns voiced by Salem and Hope Creek
employees, have minimized assessments that rated 72 of 90
critical areas “less than competent,” and refused to take action
against the utility without external pressure.  
  
In fact, the NRC’s first letter to PSEG occurred on January 28,
2004, only after word reached top Commissioners that current
workers were prepared to go on “60 Minutes” to bring attention
to their nuclear safety concerns.  These workers had lost faith
in both the company and the regulators.  

The NRC’s credibility hit an all-time low last week when it
authorized the restart of the Hope Creek reactor, despite
problems with the “B” recirculation pump.   Instead of putting
Safety First, PSEG and Exelon told the NRC that “for business
reasons” they would replace the bent pump shaft in the spring of
2006. 
  
Unbelievably, the NRC endorsed their plan that puts profits
before public safety.   
  
And the NRC did so against the objections of the NJ Dept. of
Environmental Protection, Senators Biden and Carper and
Representative Castle from DE, numerous editorials and front
page reports in the New York Times, Wilmington News Journal,
Press of Atlantic City, Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere, and
over objections by 111 public interest and watchdog groups. 
  
What makes this “chilling,” as I said last week when I called
for the resignations of numerous regulators, is the messages the
NRC’s decision sends.  It says: 
                   
Ø      Utilities do not have to put public safety first. 
Ø      Utilities do not have to fix long-standing equipment
problems. 
Ø      Utilities do not have to make “conservative” decisions
favoring safety over 
production. 
Ø      Utilities can burden operators with equipment that could
knowingly blow up unexpectedly and cause a meltdown if
everything doesn’t go right. 
Ø      Utilities don’t have to prudently respond to safety
concerns…because the NRC does not. 
  
What makes this decision outrageous, disgraceful, and a travesty
is that the NRC has put total responsibility for public safety
on the shoulders of the Hope Creek licensed operators.  The NRC,
supposedly their champion, has made their jobs harder and more
dangerous.  
  
In addition, the public’s best efforts to intervene and convince
the NRC otherwise, were ignored, placated, and minimized. 
  
Simply put, what PSEG and Exelon wanted mattered more to the
regulators than the public’s safety concerns.    The NRC, once
again, turned a blind eye. 
  
The utilities won.  Public safety lost.  The NRC showed its true
colors. 
  
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial yesterday said it best: 
  
Hope Creek needs to be the place where the NRC rededicates
itself to its safety mission. 
  
But unless the NRC intervenes in the next 24 or so hours, it
will be too late to prevent Hope Creek from restarting.  And the
NRC does not have the backbone to reverse its decision, even
though it clearly should. 
  
Exelon could save the day, however.   It takes over operation at
Salem and Hope Creek today under a management contract.  Exelon
could prove safety is top priority by choosing to not restart
Hope Creek and choosing to replace the B recirculation pump
shaft instead. 
  
But that isn’t likely either.  Without having all the facts,
Exelon publicly supported deferring the pump replacement until
2006.  But maybe, just maybe, like any good leader who changes
course when he or she receives new and definitive information,
PSEG’s Chief Nuclear Officer from Exelon, Bill Levis, could be a
hero on his first day in office.  He could prove Safety is
First.  He could prove he listens to employee and public
concerns.  He could prove this is a “new and improved” Exelon
that has learned from past mistakes and wants a clean start at
Salem and Hope Creek. 
  
Bill Levis has the power to prove he is a Leader Worth
Following. 
  
Mr. Levis, I urge you to take bold, courageous action.  Break
new ground for the industry and the public.  Surprise everyone. 
Do what no one thinks you will do:  Postpone Hope Creek’s
restart until the B recirculation pump shaft is replaced.    Let
everyone know—by your actions, not your words—that Safety truly
is top priority.     
  Suzanne Leta
Energy Associate
NJPIRG
11 N. Willow St
Trenton, NJ 08608
609 394 8155 x310
sleta@njpirg.org 
*****************************************************************
 46 ThisisLondon: Relisted British Energy warns on battle ahead 
 
thisislondon.co.uk

Robert Lea, Evening Standard, 
18 January 2005 

BRITISH Energy returned to the stock market today with its old 
shareholders all but wiped out and warnings from its chief 
executive that it will face a struggle. 

After a controversial debt-forequity swap and multi-billion-pound 
restructuring, reconstituted shares in the nuclear generator 
started ticked up 1p to 286p, valuing the company at more than 
£1.6bn. 

Trading in shares in British Energy, many of them held by 
socalled Sid small investors from the last the Tory Government's 
major privatisation, was halted in October priced at just 13½p 
after two years of tortuous negotiation that had seen the 
country's largest generator of electricity kept afloat by 
Government handouts and lines of credit of up to £650m. 

Since the delisting, lenders and bondholders have swapped their
mountain of debt for equity while shareholders have been given
just one new share in the company for every 50 previously owned.
Old shareholders have also been granted 2.1 warrants for every
50 shares held, and these can be converted to shares at a later
date. 

The City, and indeed British Energy's management, are uncertain
about the company's future. 

Chief executive Mike Alexander said: 'The restructuring has been
successfully implemented but our job is far from over.' In a
swingeing attack on BE's previous management led by ousted
executive Robin Jeffrey, Alexander added: 'The new management
team has started to address the past underinvestment and
unacceptable output. We must put it right but it will not be
easy and it will take time.' 

Analysts at UBS say British Energy could be worth anything
between 100p and 300p. Morgan Stanley has been advising
investors to be cautious, putting a 210p a share tag on the
company. 

Its problems are legion. Because of the high fixed costs of
producing nuclear power, it has become chronically loss-making.
It is also tied into supply contracts at way below the
prevailing price on the market. Production last year dived by
10% as the company struggled to deal with continuing maintenance
problems. 

There are grave doubts over the future of nuclear generation in
the UK. All eight of its nuclear stations - it also owns the
Eggborough coal-fired station in Yorkshire - are due to be
decommissioned by 2020. 

There is a moratorium on building new nuclear power stations
although the Prime Minister has indicated the UK may have to
build more if it is to get a balanced energy portfolio and reach
an internationally agreed target of generating up to a fifth of
the country's electricity from non-fossil fuels. 

*****************************************************************
 47 APP.COM: Exelon-PSEG merger opposed by NJPIRG; it cites safety concerns 
         
  ASBURY PARK PRESS

Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/18/05 
Nuclear operations: 17 reactors at 10 sites.

 Revenue: $15 billion in 2003.

 Employees: 18,000. Source: Exelon --> By NICHOLAS CLUNN
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU

 TRENTON -- Mishaps and poor decisions at nuclear reactors owned
by the same company that runs the Oyster Creek nuclear power
plant in Lacey reflect a management attitude that puts profit
before safety, a public advocacy group said Monday.

 Exelon, which owns Oyster Creek through its AmerGen subsidiary,
fired an employee for challenging how the company stored its
nuclear waste, according to one case highlighted by Suzanne
Leta, a New Jersey Public Interest Group expert on energy issues.

 Company officials stand by the firing, said Exelon spokesman
Craig Nesbit. Overall, Exelon has a strong safety record in an
industry regulated more than most others, Nesbit said.

 "NJPIRG is real good about making hay out of all this because
people don't understand it," he said.

 But Kymn Harvin, a former supervisor and whistle-blower at the
three Public Service Electric and Gas Co. nuclear plants in
Salem County, said residents around Oyster Creek should consider
Leta's message.

 "Nuclear safety issues do not know county or state boundaries,"
Harvin said after the news conference at the Statehouse Annex.
"My message is for people to fight for their safety. Don't rely
on the utilities."

 NJPIRG's argument supported its opposition to a plan that would
allow Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial reactor, to
stay open for another 20 years under a renewed license. Oyster
Creek would close in 2009 without the extension.

 Leta called the news conference to encourage acting Gov. Codey
and the state Board of Public Utilities to block a proposed
merger between Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group, PSE's
parent.

 The new company would become the nation's largest utility if
government regulators approve the deal. Exelon Electric &Gas,
the proposed new company, would have 9 million customers in New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Company rebuts claims

Leta told reporters that Exelon managers in 2001 fired Oscar
Shirani, one of its safety inspectors at an Illinois office, for
telling managers about design flaws in vessels used to store
nuclear waste.

 At the Quad Cities Unit 1 nuclear plant in Illinois, she said,
managers continued to generate electricity at a rate greater
than previously produced even though the process caused
vibrations that damaged steam pipes and other equipment.

Nesbit downplayed Leta's examples. Regulators and labor boards,
he said, have proved Shirani's worries about the storage
containers were unwarranted.

 "He (Shirani) looks for new audiences, and he found a new
audience in New Jersey," Nesbit said from his office in
Illinois. "That's why he's making those claims there."

 Nesbit said the vibrations occurred away from the reactor and
posed an insignificant safety risk. Problems associated with
running a plant at a higher rate for the first time are common,
he said.

 Leta also pointed to a 2003 strike over job cuts at Oyster
Creek as evidence of Exelon putting profit before safety.

 Oyster Creek officials said they cut 20 jobs to keep the
company competitive and efficient.

 State officials could not be reached for comment Monday. 

BPU President Jeanne M. Fox said last month that regulators will
consider how the Exelon-PSEG merger will affect customers,
rates, employees and system reliability.

 Churches also opposed

 The Rev. Christopher L. Miller, representing about 600 United
Methodist churches in New Jersey and 15 other denominations in
the New Jersey Council of Churches, cited the Bible in
explaining why those groups oppose a license renewal for Oyster
Creek.

 An extension for Oyster Creek would defy a Christian tenet
requiring believers to care for "God's earth," Miller said.

 "We cannot put the lives of humanity at grave risk so that a
corporation can multiply its economic wealth," he said.

Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com
[nclunn@app.com] 


the Asbury Park Press
*****************************************************************
 48 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy shares start trading - and falling - again
 
Terry Macalister
Tuesday January 18, 2005
 [http://www.guardian.co.uk]  		
 		
British Energy, Britain's largest electricity producer, yesterday 
made a downbeat return to the London stock market after an 
absence of three months and having tied up a £1bn rescue deal. 

Shares in the nuclear power generator started trading at 286p but 
soon fell, and ended the day at 263p amid concerns about 
wholesale electricity prices and the condition of the company's 
power plants. 

One broker, Cazenove, argued that a fair value would be closer to 
200p, saying in a research note it was "yet to be convinced that 
BE's UK nuclear fleet can be run at high load factors". 

BE, valued at less than £1.5bn at yesterday's stock price, has 
suffered problems at its Hartlepool and Heysham 1 power stations 
in recent months but all its plants were running normally last 
night. Management admits it is struggling to provide enough 
maintenance to prevent breakdowns at its eight ageing facilities 
which provide a fifth of the UK's electricity. 

Credit agencies Moody's and Fitch assigned non-investment grade 
ratings to £550m of new bonds which have also been issued 
following the shake-up that passed its last legal hurdle on 
Friday. 

Moody's gave a Ba3 rating and Fitch BB- to the bonds, due in 
March 2022, and which pay a coupon of 7%. 

BE was driven to the brink of insolvency in 2002 after a huge 
decline in the price of wholesale electricity prices. 

The government stepped in with a life-saving loan but the 
Scottish firm had trouble convincing investors about supporting 
the debt-for-equity scheme that left them with only 2.5% of the 
company. 

On Friday, chief executive Mike Alexander welcomed the go-ahead 
for the restructuring from an Edinburgh court but added, "our job 
is far from over". He took a swipe at his predecessors, saying it 
would take time to correct "past underinvestment and unacceptable 
[power] output". 

The plants risk being phased out by 2020 unless life extension 
agreements are given. There is a ban on building new atomic power 
stations, but some within the government are keen to see approval 
for a new generation. 

The problems of BE have further damaged public confidence in 
nuclear power, but the fact that such plants emit no greenhouse 
gases has meant some critics have changed their minds. Global 
warming is a bigger problem, according to some experts.
 	
 	
Graphics

[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09 
/17/nuclear_ship.pdf] Nuclear map of Britain US nuclear map

Useful links
 [http://www.british-energy.com/] 
 [http://www.dti.gov.uk/] 
 [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] 
 [http://www.cnduk.org/] 
 [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/] 
 [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] 
 [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] 
 [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] 

[http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc
lear/index.html] 
 [http://www.uilondon.org/] 
 [http://www.wnti.co.uk] 

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 49 NRC: Notice and Solicitation of Comments Pursuant to 10 CFR 20.1405 
 
                         FR Doc 05-888 
[Federal Register: January 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 11)] 
[Notices] [Page 2885] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18ja05-79] [[Page 2885]]
 
and 10 CFR 50.82(b)(5) Concerning Proposed Action to Decommission 
Department of Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care 
System Alan J. Blotcky Reactor Facility Notice is hereby given 
that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) has 
received an application from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 
Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System dated September 21, 
2004, for a license amendment approving its proposed 
decommissioning plan for the Alan J. Blotcky Reactor Facility 
(Facility License No. R-57) located in Omaha, Nebraska. In 
accordance with 10 CFR 20.1405, the Commission is providing 
notice and soliciting comments from local and State governments 
in the vicinity of the site and any Indian Nation or other 
indigenous people that have treaty or statutory rights that could 
be affected by the decommissioning. This notice and solicitation 
of comments is published pursuant to 10 CFR 20.1405, which 
provides for publication in the Federal Register and in a forum, 
such as local newspapers, letters to State or local 
organizations, or other appropriate forum, that is readily 
accessible to individuals in the vicinity of the site.
 
Comments should be provided within 30 days of the date of this 
notice to Patrick M. Madden, Chief, Research and Test Reactors 
Section, New, Research and Test Reactors Program, Division of 
Regulatory Improvement Programs, Mail Stop O12-G13, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555.
 
Further, in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(b)(5), notice is also 
provided to interested persons of the Commission's intent to 
approve the plan by amendment, subject to such conditions and 
limitations as it deems appropriate and necessary, if the plan 
demonstrates that decommissioning will be performed in accordance 
with the regulations in this chapter and will not be inimical to 
the common defense and security or to the health and safety of 
the public.
 
A copy of the application (Accession Number ML042740512) is 
available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public 
Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records component of 
the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS).
 
ADAMS is accessible from the NRC web site at (the Public 
Electronic Reading Room) http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
.
 
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of January, 2005.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Patrick M. Madden, Section Chief, Research and Test Reactors 
Section, New, Research and Test Reactors Program, Division of 
Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. 05-888 Filed 1-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 50 chillicothe gazette: Toxic beryllium likely present at Piketon plant -
                     
http://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.
[http://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
 
*****************************************************************
 51 Bellona: Russia gives priority to construction of two new generation
nuclear subs
 
The priority of the Russian state defence order for the navy in 
2005 is completion of the hulls of the new generation nuclear 
submarines, deputy chairman of the defence and security committee 
of the Federation Council Vyacheslav Popov said, Gzt.ru reported. 

2005-01-18 15:15

Admiral Vyacheslav Popov used to be a Northern Fleet commander 
until 2002, but was fired after the Kursk tragedy and got the job 
in the Federation Council, upper chamber of the Russian 
parliament. He said in the end of last year that completion of 
strategic Yury Dolgoruky and multipurpose Severodvinsk submarines 
is the priority. The former commander also underlined that the 
main budget resources of the navy in 2005 would be spent on 
research and development.   

  Publisher:  [bellona@bellona.no] , President: 
[frederic@bellona.no] 
Information:  [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: 
[webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 52 AZOM.com New Radiation Protection Material

  [AZoM Home - Metals Ceramics, Polymers, Composites]     

 [http://www.radshield.com/]  announced today the acquisition of
two additional United States Patents, #6,841,791 and #6,828,578. 

In September 2002, RST introduced Demron. Since that time,
Demron has been incorporated into a number of garments such as
full-body nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) suits,
tactical anti-nuclear vests, high-energy nuclear suppression
blankets, and most recently, medical x-ray vests and aprons. 

Demron is revolutionary material because it is lead-free,
toxin-free, and PVC-free nuclear blocking material. It also has
the unique ability to allow for heat dissipation and resist
chemical permeation. Additionally, Demron is crack resistant.
Its ability to block radiation has been confirmed by a number of
prominent universities and government labs. Demron is an
advanced radiopaque nano-polymeric compound that is fused
between layers of fabric and manufactured into a number of
lightweight nuclear blocking garments. RST's ISO 9000 partners,
Kappler and Point Blank, manufacture these garments. 

Demron was originally developed over 10 years ago, by surgeon
Ronald F. DeMeo, M.D., M.B.A. Demron received its first patent
(#6,281,515) in 2001 and its second (#6,459,091) in 2002. 

According to Dr. DeMeo, "These two additional patents are
significant because the additional 193 patent claims allow RST
to fully capture all of Demron's market potential." 

 [http://www.radshield.com/] 

Posted 18th January 2005           
  

Resource...AZoM.com Pty.Ltd Copyright © 2000-2004   
*****************************************************************
 53 UK The Times: Terrorism warning over nuclear waste
 
January 18, 2005                       
 
By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent
		   		 		
GOVERNMENT dithering over a long-term strategy for disposing of 
nuclear waste is increasing the risk of an accident or terrorist 
attack and undermining efforts to combat climate change, 
independent scientists said yesterday. 

Experts accused ministers of ducking their responsibility to 
tackle the issue by needlessly commissioning an inquiry into 
possible options, even though there is an international consensus 
that burying radio active waste is the only viable solution. 

This inertia means that hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste 
will languish unnecessa rily in surface tanks for decades, when a 
much safer way of dealing with it already exists. 

The danger of an accident is significantly higher when waste is 
stored in this way, and canisters kept at nuclear power stations 
or the Sellafield reprocessing plant are more vulnerable to a 
9/11-type terrorist attack. 

The lack of a disposal plan also makes it harder for ministers to 
approve a new generation of nuclear power stations, which many 
energy experts believe is essential to reducing Britain’s 
emissions of greenhouse gases. 

Nuclear plants, which do not emit carbon dioxide, supply 23 per 
cent of Britain’s electricity, but all but one will be 
decommissioned over the next two decades. This means that even if 
the Government achieves its target of generating 20 per cent of 
electricity from renewable sources by 2020, there will be no net 
reduction in Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels unless new 
nuclear reactors are built. 

Influential figures such as Sir David King, the Government’s 
Chief Scientific Adviser, Lord May of Oxford, the president of 
the Royal Society, and Lord Broers, the president of the Royal 
Academy of Engineering, have urged ministers to invest in nuclear 
power. 

The issue of how to get rid of the waste, however, remains the 
chief obstacle to that course. Professor Mike Thorne, an 
independent nuclear waste consultant and visiting Fellow at the 
University of East Anglia, said the attractions of deep burial 
were clear a decade ago: Finland has started to build an 
underground facility, and Sweden has identified two sites. 
Britain, however, has done nothing to take the issue forward: 
ministers have instead asked the new Committee on Radioactive 
Waste Management (CoRWM) to consider options from a “blank sheet 
of paper”. Some of these possibilities have been dismissed by 
experts as impractical or dangerous. 

Professor Thorne, Neil Chapman, of the University of Sheffield, 
and Charles Curtis, of the University of Manchester, said they 
were dismayed at this approach, which seemed to be intended to 
postpone a decision that ministers had a responsibility to make 
urgently. Their criticisms echo those of the Royal Society and 
the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, which have 
criticised the Government. 

Professor Chapman said: “It’s astonishing that the committee is 
looking at things that have been ruled out internationally by 
technical experts. We have hopped about from one policy to 
another until we have got to the point where we haven’t got a 
policy at all.” 

Professor Curtis said: “I think the Government has a 
responsibility to do its best to reduce the hazardous potential 
by delivering a waste management solution. If it is doing this, 
it is happening very slowly.” 

While waste was at present kept reasonably safely in canisters at 
plants where it was produced, this was not a long-term solution 
and was much less secure than underground burial, the experts 
agreed. 

+ Britain has 1,000m³ of high-level nuclear waste and 300,000m³ 
of intermediate. Some will be dangerously radioactive for 225,000 
years + Britain’s waste is in more than 20 sites, stored in tanks 
+ Mooted but controversial forms of disposal include firing it 
into space or sinking it beneath Earth’s crust                          

							   	 	
Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk
*****************************************************************
 54 Las Vegas SUN: Leading Democrat questions Bush administration on Yucca funding

Today: January 18, 2005 at 17:46:31 PST 

 By ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The top Democrat on the House Energy Committee
pressed the Bush administration Tuesday on its plans to fund the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in the 2006 budget. 

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a supporter of the Yucca Mountain
project, released a letter to the director of the Office of
Management and Budget asking whether the administration planned
to pursue the same funding scheme for next year as did for 2005.
The 2005 plan linked most of the funding request for Yucca
Mountain to congressional passage of legislation assuring that
money collected through a special nuclear waste fund was spent
for the project. 

The legislation never passed, and Congress approved only $577
million of the $880 million Bush requested for Yucca Mountain. 

"During the last Congress, the administration undertook
unsuccessfully to achieve adequate funding for Yucca Mountain by
linking a relatively low budget request and the legislative
proposal," Dingell wrote. 

"I would observe that such a strategy is unlikely to be any more
successful this year than last." 

Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and
Budget, declined to give details on how the administration plans
to treat the nuclear waste dump in the 2006 budget, to be
released Feb. 7. 

"The administration's support for moving forward with Yucca
Mountain is well known, and we're pleased U.S. Rep. Dingell
supports moving forward with Yucca Mountain, as well," Kolton
said. He said Dingell's letter was under review. 

The federal government plans to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive
waste beneath Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

But its goal to open the dump in 2010 appears uncertain. In
addition to lower-than-requested funding, an unfavorable appeals
court ruling last summer said the government's plans did not go
far enough to protect people from potential radiation hazards. 

Dingell's letter also: 

-Asks whether OMB can accomplish the reclassification of nuclear
waste fund money administratively, instead of through
legislative action. 

-Expresses concern that the money in the nuclear waste fund -
about $14 billion, paid by companies that use nuclear power - is
being used for other purposes. Lawmakers traditionally have used
the nuclear waste fund to offset other spending and to help
narrow the federal deficit. 

-Suggests that until the administration develops a plan to
safeguard the nuclear waste fund for Department of Energy
license application and other use, payments into the fund should
be stopped. 

*****************************************************************
 55 sacbee.com: California - S.F. project raises hopes of neighbors - 
            
The Hunters Point Shipyard area, shown in 2001, created jobs for 
many local residents but left a legacy of toxic waste. 

 Sacramento Bee 2001 / Dick Schmidt 				 			   		 	

Jobs from new housing could aid troubled area, as shipyard once 
did.
 
By Herbert A. Sample -- Bee San Francisco Bureau Published 2:15 
am PST Monday, January 17, 2005
 
  Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking
news. Sign up here.  


 SAN FRANCISCO - Leroy King sat among a bevy of government
officials last week celebrating the transfer of several dozen
acres of the defunct Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to the city.

 The longtime city redevelopment commissioner was as elated as
everyone else about the first concrete sign of progress at a
facility that once was a bustling economic engine for the
surrounding Bayview neighborhood but had become a dilapidated
and polluted shell of its former self.

 King was hardly alone in his concerns that the long-neglected
Bayview community will benefit least from the 1,700 new homes
that will soon sprout from this pocket of the shipyard.

 In fact, there are many lingering doubts among Bayview
community activists about whether the shipyard redevelopment
project will supply the much-needed jobs to area residents that
have been promised.

 And there are fears that the longtime African American enclave
is gentrifying into an expensive and largely non-African
American neighborhood.

 "We need to make sure that our people in this community get
first shot at the housing and the jobs," King said after
Wednesday's ceremony. "I'm not unsure that it's going to happen.
But you never know. You've got to watch it and make sure."

 If the jobs and economic growth are realized, "people will come
and African Americans will come and Latinos will come and it
will continue to be a vibrant community," said Supervisor Sophie
Maxwell, who represents the city's southeastern corner.

 "And if we grow a middle class and not import it," she added,
"then the people who are here will be able to afford to live
here."

 The 500-acre Hunters Point base, a ship repair yard during
World War II, provided so many well-paying jobs to thousands of
African Americans and others that the Bayview community boasted
the highest percentage of home ownership in the city.

 But as the facility declined in the 1960s, economic and social
consequences hit Bayview. For years, the community has suffered
some of the highest crime rates in San Francisco, including most
of the city's homicides. The base was shuttered in 1974.

 The shipyard's environmental legacy from radiological work and
from cleaning of vessels used in nuclear weapons tests took a
toll on the community as well.

 Parts of the base are heavily soiled with toxic material,
including a dump containing radium-coated instrument dials and
other hazardous materials that burned for a month in 2000 and
sent smoke over nearby residents. Radium can decompose into
dangerous radon gas.

 Work by city, state and federal officials to clean up, convey
and redevelop the base resulted in Wednesday's transfer of the
72 acre Parcel A, the least-polluted of five parcels where
deserted military housing still stands.

 "It is my honor to present to you the grand sum of one dollar,"
Mayor Gavin Newsom said during Wednesday's ceremony as he handed
a dollar bill to Wayne Arny, acting assistant secretary of the
Navy. "Let's make this official."

 Sixteen hundred townhomes are planned for the property, a third
of which will be reserved for low-and middle-income purchasers.
Groundbreaking is to begin in March with completion slated for
2008.

 "We've spent over $300 million of the taxpayers' money on
environmental restoration (of the base) and there's more to
come," Arny said. "You just have to sit here on a day like this
to realize what great potential there is in this area."

 Community activists know the potential, too, but many contend
that previous promises that residents would win jobs from
construction projects - such as the extension of a Muni
light-rail line down Third Street - have evaporated.

 "The good side of (the shipyard housing project) are the jobs
that may come - and I'm saying may come," said Na'im Harrison, a
case manager at Hope House, a supportive housing program for the
homeless.

 "The people who usually do this type of work have a tendency of
contracting the work outside of the city so the people who live
here never get an opportunity to participate in it," he said.

 Officials with the city and the developer, Lennar Corp., are
well aware of the concerns.

 "In the past, projects and ... developers that have come into
the community have made all those promises and they did not come
to pass," said Willie Kennedy, Hunters Point site manager and a
former county supervisor.

 "Therefore, the people out in the community don't believe that
this is going to happen," she added. "But I firmly believe that
it is because there are so many things in place at this point
that if they don't, Lennar will be sued and lose an awful lot of
money. ... It is all down in writing."

 Nonetheless, Maxwell, whose home is in the Bayview, said she
plans hearings on the project.

 "You have to keep people honest," she explained.

 More broadly, she and others acknowledged a long-standing
concern about gentrification of the area, which started several
years ago during the dot-com boom when housing prices shot up
all over San Francisco. Despite the dot-com bust, prices have
continued rising.

 So the two-thirds of the new Parcel A homes that will command
market rates could each sell for as much as a half-million
dollars. Median prices in San Francisco hit $725,000 in November
and $520,000 in the Bayview area.

 Further, some fear the light-rail project will drive up
property values even more, driving out low-income residents and
small, minority-owned businesses.

 Kennedy said she knows how difficult it is for longtime
residents who spent $12,000 or $14,000 to buy a home there four
decades ago to refuse lucrative offers.

 Still, she urges residents to stay put.

 "When you put a place like what's going to happen out here in
the shipyard ... it's got to change the community. It's got to
change it for the better," she said. "You've been out here all
these years and you might as well stay and reap the benefits."
 
About the writer:
 
  + The Bee's Herbert A. Sample can be reached at (510) 382-1978
or hsample@sacbee.com [hsample@sacbee.com] . 

[The Sacramento Bee] - Get the whole story every day -
*****************************************************************
 56 Observer-Reporter: Meeting planned about former site of Molycorp plant 
 
Tuesday, January 18, 2005           
                  
The cleanup of the site of the former Molycorp plant in Canton
Township will be the focus of the winter quarterly meeting of
Chartiers Creek Watershed Association, scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan.
26 in Room 103 of Courthouse Square, 100 W. Beau St., Washington.

Molycorp technical staff members will present information about
the site, describe the decommissioning process and answer
questions about the work that still is required.

Molycorp operated its ferrous and nonferrous alloy processing
plant in Canton from 1920 through 2002. The operation produced
some low-level radioactive byproducts, some of which remain on
the site. Molycorp has been developing a plan to clean up the
site, a necessary step under federal regulations.

Preliminary ideas for remediation were presented to state
officials and to federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials
last fall. Work on the remedial design plan for the site is
expected to take several months. Molycorp expects to begin the
remediation work this summer, probably to be completed in 2007. 
       

  

*****************************************************************
 57 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A warning from nature

LAS VEGAS SUN

 WEEKEND EDITION

 January 15 - 16, 2005

 A quote last week from a Union Pacific railroad spokesman is
worthy of entry into the Congressional Record, so that Energy
Department officials could never say they weren't warned. "Flash
floods in the West are famous for catching us by surprise," John
Bromley told the Sun. He spoke in reference to this month's
rainstorms, which left numerous sections of railroad tracks in
Lincoln County washed away.

 The storms came less than a year after the Energy Department
announced that if Yucca Mountain opens as a repository for
high-level nuclear waste, the deadly material would be shipped
mostly by rail. It would come from around the country over a
24-year period. The final leg of the route is proposed to be 319
miles of new rail line that would be built in Lincoln and Nye
counties. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is in
Nye County.

 The storms last week were so intense that they washed out a
railroad bridge, forcing a Los Angeles to Utah train to be
sidelined at Meadow Valley Wash, near Caliente in Lincoln
County. As the 54-car train sat there, with nowhere to go, it
was overwhelmed by a flood. Twenty-one cars derailed, and
rushing waters prevented railroad crews from even approaching
them. Caliente, by the way, will become a major switching
station for Yucca-bound trains under the Energy Department's
plan.

 Something to remember if nuclear waste is being transported by
rail -- the trains will not always be moving. There will be
times when they will be shunted to spurs, waiting for tracks to
be cleared. They will be as vulnerable as the train at Meadow
Valley Wash -- to acts of both nature and man.

 The Energy Department is unconcerned, however. A spokesman,
Allen Benson, told the Sun, "I don't think we're going to be too
surprised by anything." Perhaps the Energy Department has found
a way to control the weather. If not, it should have a chat with
John Bromley. 

*****************************************************************
 58 Salt Lake Tribune: OP: Where it came from 

Article Last Updated: 01/16/2005 11:04:28 PM                              
			 		
                       
  My, what short memories some people have. 

   The 21st century environmentalists fail to remember that at
least part of present radioactive wastes actually originated
with Utah uranium ore starting in the 1950s. Most people were
happy to see the results of the mining efforts of those days.

   Now some politicians play for votes by saying they will get
rid of low-level mine waste near the mines in Moab, for example.
Others say they would stop importation of out-of-state   higher
level waste, originating in New York, etc. When will we learn
that we can't have it both ways? And when will we learn to tell
the whole truth?

   No one wants to have uncontrolled radioactivity in their own 
backyards. Can't we look at the big picture and make everyone 
happy?

For example, has anyone thought of putting at least some of these 
wastes back into the mines from which the ore came? Besides this, 
there are probably other options, too.
   
   E.P.   Hyatt Orem
   
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 59 Daily Press: Other Voices: A used nuclear fuel solution 

[http://dailypress.com/]   	     	 

HAMPTON ROADS, VA.

By J. Winston Porter
 	 	
 	January 17, 2005

Here in Virginia, 1,875 metric tons of used nuclear fuel has 
accumulated at the North Anna and Surry nuclear power plant 
sites. Wouldn't everyone be better off if we could store all that 
nuclear waste a half-mile deep, in a solid geologic formation 
that hasn't shifted for 50,000 years? It exists - beneath Yucca 
Mountain in the Nevada desert.
 
Yucca Mountain was a significant issue in the presidential 
campaign. President Bush was in favor of it. Sen. John Kerry 
spoke against using Yucca Mountain.
 
Yucca Mountain is so remote that a nearby area was used as a test 
site for nuclear weapons. It is arid and desolate, no sign of 
civilization for miles away. Within a decade, 77,000 metric tons 
of nuclear waste from 131 sites around the nation -both nuclear 
power plants and defense nuclear installations - are slated to be 
shipped to Yucca Mountain, sealed in reinforced steel containers 
and stored in tunnels deep inside the mountain.
 
Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the site for a national 
waste repository in 1987. Since then, teams of geologists, 
hydrologists and other scientists have descended on Yucca 
Mountain to study the rocky peak, making it the most researched 
piece of land anywhere on the planet. In 2002, President Bush 
approved an Energy Department recommendation to proceed with 
waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and Congress concurred. If all 
goes according to plan, the first shipments of used nuclear fuel 
would begin by rail, but not until at least 2010.
 
Those opposed to the Yucca Mountain repository prefer the status 
quo. That means leaving all the used fuel rods where they are, 
indefinitely. Critics maintain that it would be safer to continue 
storing the nuclear waste at sites in 39 states, many near cities 
and lakes and rivers. But these facilities - principally 
engineered water pools - were not designed for permanent storage, 
and thus require significant outlays for maintenance and 
security.
 
A panel of the National Academy of Sciences determined that 
placing the waste in a deep-underground repository would be much 
safer than storing it indefinitely at scores of sites around the 
country.
 
We are, it should be noted, experienced in transporting used 
nuclear fuel. Over the past 40 years, about 3,000 shipments of 
used nuclear fuel have been completed in this country without a 
major accident that resulted in any release of radiation. Other 
countries have also been shipping nuclear waste safely.
 
By opposing Yucca Mountain, anti-nuclear groups have been trying 
to prevent the operation of nuclear power plants that provide 20 
percent of the nation's electricity without depending on foreign 
nations for fuel or polluting the atmosphere. To those groups, 
stopping Yucca Mountain is more important than protecting our 
energy security. This would leave us with very few options. We 
can continue to store the used nuclear fuel at nuclear power 
plant sites, and build steel casks to hold additional used fuel 
rods once the water pools reach capacity. In fact, so-called dry 
casks already are being used at many nuclear plant sites. A more 
responsible approach is to complete the job at Yucca Mountain.
 
Congress must make clear that we will not abandon Yucca Mountain 
to the tender mercies of anti-nuclear groups, and provide the 
funds needed to complete the project without further delay.
 
Porter is president of the Waste Policy Center in Leesburg, Va. 

Copyright ©2005 Daily Press 
*****************************************************************
 60 American Online: Firm tapped as architect for uranium enrichment plant
                         
[http://www.oaoa.com] 
   
Tuesday, 18 January 2005   

c /o Odessa American 222 E. 4th Street P.O. Box 2952 Odessa, TX 
79760
 
 Odessa American                        

 A Baton Rouge, La., company has been selected as architect for 
the National Enrichment Facility, a uranium enrichment plant 
Louisiana Energy Services wants to build near Eunice, N.M.
                        
Nuclear Tech Solutions, a subsidiary of The Shaw Group, will 
serve as the architect and engineering firm responsible for 
design and engineering support for the facility, a news release 
said. 
                        
If all approvals are obtained from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory                      
Commission and Atomic Safety Licensing Board, construction on the                     
Nuclear Enrichment Facility would start in fall 2006. The 
facility would be ready for initial production in the winter of 
2008, reaching full production capacity by 2013, the release 
said. 
                        
National Enrichment Facility would offer more than 200 permanent                       
jobs and more than 400 multiyear construction jobs in 
southeastern New Mexico. 
                        
LES is a partnership of Urenco, Westinghouse and U.S. energy 
companies Duke Power, Entergy and Exelon. Meanwhile, the 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.
                        
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 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the same location.
                        
The Atomic Safety Licensing Board will hear evidence on four 
environmental concerns about the proposed plant centering on: 
impacts on ground and surface water, water supplies, waste 
storage and the need for the facility, according to a news 
release.   

*****************************************************************
 61 Japan Times: Hiroshima mayor on anti-nuke trip

  Sunday, January 16, 2005   


 HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba left Saturday
on a nine-day trip to the United States and Europe to promote
his city's campaign for a nuclear-free world.

 Akiba will speak at the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the
European Parliament to call on officials to join lobbying
activities at an international conference in New York in May to
review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

 The Mayors for Peace organization, which Akiba heads, is
conducting an emergency campaign aiming to abolish nuclear
weapons by 2020.

 The Japan Times: Jan. 16, 2005
(C) All rights reserved 





*****************************************************************
 62 Hearing Jan 18, 2005 in Piketon
 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:27:10 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Release January 18, 2005

Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security (PRESS) 
was formed to educate, organize and empower residents and workers affected 
by the Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment site, locate in Piketon, Ohio and to 
represent their interest in economic vitality, environmental quality, 
health, and justice. PRESS is a nonprofit organization 5013c.  Members are 
from the community and workers that have been affected by the Portsmouth 
Gaseous Diffusion plant.

      We watchdog the activities of the Piketon Plant. Members of PRESS 
participation in local meetings, which have help, get the plant to admit to 
environmental and worker exposure.       We watchdog the activities of the 
Piketon Plant. Members of PRESS participation in local meetings, which have 
help, get the plant to admit to environmental and worker exposure.  Press's 
documents help exposed the deadly Plutonium on site that put the worker in 
harms way in which help started the compensation bill EEOICPA act of 2000.

PRESS was formed in the late 80's to represent the interest in economic 
vitality, environmental quality, health, and justice. PRESS is a nonprofit 
organization 5013c.  Members are from the community and workers that have 
been affected by the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant. Portsmouth Gaseous 
Diffusion plant has been operating under a policy of production priority, 
the safety of workers, and near by resident, and the environment have been 
relegated as secondary, leaving a legacy of uncertainty for working and 
living conditions.   I am Vina K. Colley president of PRESS and Co-Chair of 
NATIONAL NUCLEAR WORKERS FOR JUSTICE (NNWJ) and a victim of past practices 
and I know first hand about the poor safety practices from the contractors 
working for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

January 18, 2005

NRC

EIS scope

USEC's request for ACP plant license

  Pursuant to the Federal register notice by NRC

      The purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act (42usc4321etseq) 
is to promote efforts to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and 
biosphere and stimulate public health, as well as enrich the understanding 
of the workings of ecological systems and natural resources.  NEPA requires 
the preparation of and EIS for all major federal actions having a 
significant effect on the quality of the human environment.

     The President's Council on Environmental Quality describes an EIS as 
an "action forcing device," whose purposes are to provide "full and fair 
discussion of significant environmental impacts" and to "inform decision 
makers and the public of the reasonable alternatives which would avoid or 
minimize adverse impacts or enhance the quality of the environment." 
(40cfr1502.1) These impacts and alternatives must be addressed before 
action is taken, "rather than justifying decisions already 
made."  (40CFR1502.2g)

  The scope of NRC'S Environmental Impact Statement should be expanded to 
include the following issues not adequately covered in USEC'S Environmental 
Report1) DOE wants to relax its site-wide cleanup standards on the 
presumption that the site will be dedicated to new nuclear production under 
the USEC agreement.  Therefore the USEC project must be considered as 
having the impact of the relaxation of these standards, since with no ACP, 
the old standards would have to be honored for the sake of community 
reuse.  NRC should examine the impact of ACP on site-wide cleanup standards.



2) If ACP proceeds, it will close the whole site off to alternate use 
because of required security restrictions.  This will change or eliminate 
possibilities for cleanup and reuse of certain facilities outside of USEC's 
lease agreement, for example the old shops and warehouse facilities at the 
GDP site, public use of the perimeter road, or opening undeveloped parts of 
the site to public use.



3) In the section that describes the "no action alternative," USEC states 
that if the ACP is not built at Piketon, the site will be unaffected this 
is simply a lie and it undercuts USEC's credibility on every other 
issue.  The whole projected DOE end-state for the site is based on new 
nuclear production--just look at the highway signs for ACP. By telling this 
lie, USEC avoids discussion of the benefits to the site and community from 
early project cancellation.



4) Whether ACP succeeds or fails, it will turn the rest of the site into a 
dumpsite by encouraging DOE to invite in waste from other sites.  This has 
already started. In the last two years, DOE has transferred uranium waste 
in large quantities to Piketon from three other sites--Fernald, Oak Ridge 
and Paducah.  These transfers would not happen without ACP, and that is the 
real impact of ACP because the project will likely fail, and all that 
transferred waste would be its legacy.



5) NRC must examine the relationship between DOE (a government agency) and 
USEC (a supposedly private company), a relationship that is unclear, 
unexamined, and untested. USEC makes constant reference to the 
privatization legislation and to "Congressional intent" as if it had 
nothing to do with creating that legislation--a circular argument.  In its 
licensing process, NRC should therefore examine the entire DOE-USEC 
relationship and the full range of impacts that the relationship entails.



6. PRESS supports the need for a separate cultural resource assessment by 
NRC, with its own scoping process.  That is required because DOE has never 
complied with the National Historic Preservation Act at the Piketon site, 
and the site has tremendous historic and prehistoric value that has never 
been studied.



7. Because USEC's future and ACP's future are both extremely uncertain, NRC 
must examine the impact of the project's failure at various future 
dates.  For example, if the project proceeds through the next four years, 
with contamination of the existing building from the Lead Cascade, and the 
construction of two new buildings for ACP, and then USEC collapses after 
the next presidential election, where does that leave the community?  DOE 
already allowed the contamination of those centrifuge buildings in 1985 by 
a "test run" of uranium, even after Congressional funding for the GCEP 
project was cut.  NRC cannot allow the same thing to happen again.



We would like to thank you for this opportunity to comment and look forward 
to reviewing the report that will come next. Please send us what is 
published next so we have time to review for input.



Sincerely





Vina K Colley

3706 McDermott Pond Creek

McDermott, Ohio 45652

740-259-4688 740-353-2275 cell 740-357-8916

President of PRESS

Co Chair of NNWJ



</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 63 ABQjournal: LANL Workers Threaten Exodus
 
Albuquerque Journal newspaper. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 

Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin

 Journal Staff Writer

     LOS ALAMOS— In a meeting here Monday, Rep. Tom Udall,
D-N.M., got a clear message from Los Alamos National Laboratory
employees: Unless retirement benefits are maintained when a new
manager is chosen to run the lab, there will be a mass exodus of
the most experienced scientists from Los Alamos.

     Udall came to Los Alamos High School during the lunch hour
to gather employee and community comments on the draft criteria
the Department of Energy has proposed for deciding who should be
the next LANL operator.

     "If you don't do this right, you could jeopardize all of
the good things at LANL," Udall said after the meeting about the
process for selecting a lab manager.

     Udall was told by several senior LANL scientists and
technical staffers that unless proposed criteria for the LANL
management contract are changed to secure retirement benefits
equivalent to those offered now by the University of California,
as many as one in five to one in four of the 8,000 UC employees
at LANL may retire.

     Udall said the possibility of a mass exodus of scientists
is the primary message he will be delivering to the DOE and the
National Nuclear Security Administration, which is overseeing
the competition for the LANL contract.

     "We've got to fix it," he told the about 300 people present
for Monday's meeting.

     The University of California's current contract to run LANL
expires in September, and for the first time ever, DOE has put
the lab's management contract out for bid following years of
security and management problems at the lab. UC has run the lab
since it was created during World War II to develop the atomic
bomb.

     DOE will decide on a new operator by this summer. Comments
on the draft criteria for awarding the contract are due Friday,
after the deadline was extended from Jan. 7. Udall and Sen. Jeff
Bingaman, D-N.M., had urged DOE's National Nuclear Security
Administration to extend the comment period.

     Of those who spoke Monday, nearly everyone had something to
say about retirement benefits and how the draft request for
proposals fails to address them. Udall and employees speaking
about their concerns often were supported by rounds of applause.

     The primary concern is that the University of California's
desirable retirement benefits will disappear for longtime lab
employees unless they retire before the university potentially
loses the contract to another manager.

     That puts employees in their mid-50s, such as David
Carroll, in the position of having to retire early for financial
reasons. Carroll said he would lose out on tens of thousands of
dollars in long-term benefits if he has to retire early to avoid
ending up with a lesser pension plan under the next manager.

     LANL employee Robert Kares told Udall that the way the
draft criteria are written now creates a huge disincentive for
employees to stay with the laboratory. He said employees will
likely be financially better off to retire early, rather than
risk having benefits transferred into a lesser program with a
new manager.

     Kares, and several others, suggested one solution would be
to allow current UC and LANL employees to keep their UC
retirement benefits and start a new retirement account under the
next manager. Udall said the idea seemed reasonable and that he
would propose it to NNSA.

     Longtime LANL employee Ron Moses said he knows many people
in his lab group who are actively making alternative working
arrangements and are developing contingencies "to get as far
removed from the DOE as possible" should the University of
California not win the LANL contract.

     "They simply must opt for their personal interest," he
said. "Most of us have our life savings in this."

     Moses said the loss of institutional knowledge from
scientists retiring early could be substantial, could deeply
impact the next LANL operator and would likely have "huge
national security implications" due to the loss of talent.

     Many in the audience cited instances in which the draft
criteria for awarding the contract and uncertainty about LANL's
management future are affecting recruitment and retention of top
scientists.

     "Without those benefits, you are going to be getting second
stringers, third stringers," said LANL employee Michael Sorem.

     Matthew Murray said he knows of 20-, 30-, and 40-year-olds
who have signed job offers from universities and will likely
leave LANL.

     "If you want the best, it is going to cost some money," he
said.
 
Copyright 2005 Albuquerque
*****************************************************************
 64 Tri-City Herald: Hanford radiation study completed 

This story was published Monday, January 17th, 2005 

By Annette Cary Herald staff writer 

A federal agency has completed data collection and analysis in a
study of the rates of heart and autoimmune disease in children
who were exposed to radiation that drifted off the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation. 

The study is being reviewed and still must be approved for
public release. No release date has yet been set. 

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR,
started the study in early 2003 in response to a request by a
citizens advisory group to the federal government. 

In 1986, the federal government released thousands of documents
that showed Hanford had emitted radioactive particles during
World War II and the Cold War. The nuclear reservation made
plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. 

Since 1986, public meetings about possible health effects of the
radiation releases have drawn large crowds of people asking if
all sorts of health conditions might be linked to radiation
exposure from living near or downwind of Hanford. 

The health problem that doctors thought most likely to be linked
to Hanford -- thyroid disease -- was the subject of a study by
the Centers for Disease Control that cost more than $20 million.
However, it did not find evidence that greater doses of
radioactive iodine was linked to increased incidence of thyroid
disease. 

But the Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee, which is no longer
funded by the federal government, said those who lived downwind
of the nuclear reservation feared they were experiencing other
health problems because of exposure to radiation. 

ATSDR, which is an agency of CDC, picked heart disease to study
because it frequently came up as a concern of those who lived
downwind of Hanford during its production years. Little, if any,
scientific evidence exists to show heart disease may be linked
to radiation exposure. 

Autoimmune disease also was picked from a long list of concerns
raised by residents. Limited studies may show a link between
autoimmune disease and radiation, Caroline Cusack, the ATSDR
epidemiologist leading the study, said when it was launched in
2003. 

Autoimmune illnesses occur when body tissues are attacked by the
body's own immune system. They include lupus, fibromyalgia,
chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. 

Researchers randomly selected 4,500 people born between 1945 and
1951 for the study. Some were from Benton, Franklin and Adams
counties, all near Hanford. Others were selected from Mason, San
Juan and Whatcom counties to serve as a control group. 

Researchers were not able to locate as many people as they had
hoped, Cusack said last week. But enough were found to complete
the study. 

Researchers interviewed 1,280 people. They could not find 2,500
of the people selected. Others had died or refused to
participate. Only people who had lived for at least a year in
the selected counties were included in the study. 

Participants were interviewed by phone about their health and
general background. Those who had been diagnosed with an
autoimmune disorder or indications of cardiovascular disease,
such as a stroke or high blood pressure, were sent a form so
researchers could confirm the information with the participant's
doctor. 

© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 65 Tennessean: Y-12 workers begin dismantling project - 

Tuesday, 01/18/05
 
[http://tennessean.com/

Workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex, which assembles
parts for warheads, have embarked on a years-long project to
take old weapons apart to save uranium storage space.

Officials won't discuss numbers or production details, but Y-12
general manager Dennis Ruddy told The Knoxville News Sentinel
there's a ''tremendous amount'' of dismantlement planned for the
next few years.

The strategy is to get most of that work done before occupying a
new $300 million storage complex, which will house the plant's
entire stockpile of bomb-grade uranium. Completion of the
high-security facility is scheduled for 2007.

The weapons complex has been storing old warhead assemblies
intact because it was safe and there was no immediate need for
the nuclear ingredients. Storage space for the uranium from
disassembled weapons is about a hundredth of what is needed for
intact warheads, some of which have been in storage for 10 or
more years.

When the storage facility for highly enriched uranium is
completed, it will take another year and a half to move all the
bomb-grade uranium into it. It will be the first time in the
plant's 60-year history that the entire uranium stockpile has
been moved en masse.

Y-12 is the nation's principal repository for highly enriched
uranium, and the bomb-making materials are stored in multiple
buildings around the site. The amount of uranium stored at Y-12
is classified, but officials acknowledge the stockpile has grown
in the post-Cold War period.

— Associated Press

WARTBURG

— Associated Press

MEMPHIS

Coal cars' derailment forces traffic detour

A Norfolk Southern train derailment dumped tons of coal into an
adjacent street and made a mess of train and vehicle traffic but
caused no injuries, officials said.

Eleven cars of a 113-car Norfolk Southern train heading from
Memphis to Georgia derailed at the intersection of Highland
Street and Southern Avenue Sunday morning. Six of the cars
overturned, spilling tons of coal into the street and rerouting
auto traffic. The cause was under investigation, Norfolk
Southern spokesman Susan Terpay said.

Bo Turner said he was sleeping on a futon inside his brakes
business when he was jolted from his bed by the accident.

''It was a tremendous sound. I thought it was an earthquake.''

Railroad traffic was delayed on the Memphis track, which Terpay
said serves about 20 Norfolk Southern trains a day.

— Associated Press 

© Copyright 2005 The Tennessean
*****************************************************************
 66 TheNewMexicoChannel.com: Debate Continues Over LANL Management
 
  [TheNewMexicoChannel.com]     [News]   

Los Alamo High School Hosts Discussion

POSTED: 7:21 pm MST January 17, 					 					2005UPDATED: 7:33 pm

final week for public comment on who should manage the nuclear 
weapons laboratory in Los Alamos.

Rep. Tom Udall held Monday's gathering, at Los Alamos High 
School.

Most people who spoke commented about poor morale at the lab.

There were also worries about pay and benefits for lab employees
if the contract to run the lab goes to someone other than the
University of California.

"We need to make sure that we pay people what they're worth,"
said Udall. "We're not going to have world-class science without
having compensation and benefits that are comparable."

The University of California has run the lab since its creation
as a top-secret World War II project, to develop the atomic bomb.

In April 2003, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the
contract was being put up for bid.

The decision came after a series of management failures, and
security problems. 


© 2005, [http://www.ibsys.com/] . 
*****************************************************************
 67 PRN: Lab Workers Call for Regents to Make Changes, Contending Unfair
and Illegal Treatment 

[http://www.prnewswire.com/]

News Conference Thursday, January 20, 2005, 9:15 A.M.

 UC San Francisco - Laurel Heights Campus, 333 California St.,
San Francisco

    OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Regents of the 
University of California are meeting on January 20, 2005, to 
discuss issues relating to bidding on new contracts for the 
nuclear weapons labs at Los Alamos and possibly the Livermore 
Lab.  They are also considering various issues including claims 
by workers at the Lab who have cases for unfair treatment and 
wrongful termination.

    Attorney J. Gary Gwilliam has issued a media statement with 
regard to numerous court cases showing an ongoing pattern of 
unfair and illegal treatment of employees, particularly at the 
Lawrence Livermore Lab, as well as the Los Alamos Lab.  (See the 
media statement below.)  The University of California (UC), which 
manages the Labs, needs to look at these issues and institute 
management reforms, particularly with regard to the human 
resources practices at Livermore and the way the in-house Lab 
counsel handles these matters.

    Dee Kotla and Tristan Pico will be present at the news 
conference to discuss their experiences.  Both these women have 
won wrongful termination cases after long jury trials.  The Lab 
has appealed both of their cases.  Dee Kotla was fired after she 
testified against them in a sexual harassment case. Tristan Pico 
was fired while on disability and won a disability discrimination 
lawsuit for wrongful termination.

    In short, we are calling for the Livermore Lab to institute 
and implement new policies with regard to fair, decent and legal 
treatment of their employees.  This would include:

    -- Implementing current laws for whistleblowers
    -- Strictly enforcing all discrimination laws
    -- A complete change in the Human Resources Department,
which for years
       has done nothing to protect the workers
    -- Make changes in the legal counsel's office for the
Lawrence Livermore
       Laboratory
       - The Laboratory counsel's office has consistently
supported Human
         Resources and management in all their terminations and
denials of
         retaliation claims and not performed their independent
duty to make
         sure the workers are treated fairly
       - Lab counsel was found liable for retaliation against
Dee Kotla in a
         jury trial in 2002 and was never disciplined
       - Janet Tulk, Associate Director, Administration & Human
Resources, and
         senior legal counsel, has done nothing to change these
practices.
    -- The Lab needs to stop wasting money on litigation
       - Congress, U.S. Department of Energy Inspector General's
Office, The
         General Accounting Office, as well as some members of 
Congress, have continually questioned the policy of the 
Department of Energy reimbursing UC and the Lab for all 
litigation expenses. This policy encourages the Lab and UC to 
spend an endless amount of money on attorneys and costs in 
litigation that is unnecessary

    The press conference will take place in conjunction with the 
Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a 
Radioactive Environment) and other member organizations of the 
Coalition to Demilitarize the University of California.  These UC 
and Department of Energy "watchdog" organizations will announce 
their partnership with Nuclear Watch of New Mexico to bid for the 
management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.  The 
non-profit consortium's goals include influencing the LANL 
management contract in four ways:  increasing openness, improving 
health and safety provisions for workers and communities, 
strengthening whistleblower protections, and providing incentive 
points for bringing more civilian science to the lab.

                        ******************************
                               MEDIA STATEMENT
  U.C. Has Failed to Reform Livermore Lab Management; New
Contractor May Be
                        Needed, Leading Attorney Says
    University of California (UC) mismanagement of Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has created "an intolerably 
hostile and discriminatory workplace" for its employees, says 
Atty. J. Gary Gwilliam, who stated that UC must remedy the 
problem if they are to have any chance at being successful in 
competing for the new contract at the Lawrence Livermore Lab.

    The University of California  has had a no-bid contract with 
the Department of Energy to run the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory 
for 53 years. However, it is likely that will change and the Lab 
will be up for bid with other contractors in the year 2006.

    LLNL supervisors and the Human Resources Department routinely 
"retaliate against employees who report security violations, 
health and safety hazards, financial irregularities, sexual 
discrimination and harassment as well as routinely engage in 
racial, sexual, age, and disability discrimination," Atty. 
Gwilliam said.

    "Instead of fixing problems, management goes into denial, 
wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on legal battles seeking 
immunity instead of attempting to resolve the problem"

    "The outrageous and unfair treatment of these employees 
continues to this date as shown by the evidence from numerous 
cases," he said. "The evidence makes plain that the mismanagement 
continues unabated."

    Atty. Gwilliam is senior partner in the Oakland-based law 
firm of Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli and Brewer.  He is past 
president of Consumer Attorneys of California (formerly the 
California Trial Lawyers Association), and immediate past 
national president of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

    He cited examples from some cases he has worked on to prove 
his point regarding UC mismanagement of LLNL:

    -- "Livermore lab management tolerates sexual harassment and 
punishes those who speak up against it."

    See the case of Dee Kotla v. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, 
Alameda County Case No.: CV014799, set for trial on February 10, 
2005.  "Ms. Kotla was fired after she testified as a witness for 
a fellow employee who had been subjected to sexual harassment by 
a manager," Atty. Gwilliam said. Management claimed it was 
justified in discharging Ms. Kotla because she incurred $4.30 of 
personal phone charges.  A jury found UC liable for retaliation 
and rejected management's claims of computer misuse.  UC spent 
more than $1 million on outside counsel opposing Ms. Kotla, who 
won a jury verdict including damages, costs and attorney's fees, 
which added up to more than $2.1 million.  An appeals court 
overturned the verdict on a technicality not affecting the merits 
of the case.  It is clear from the evidence that another jury 
will probably reach the same result in the second trial and the 
taxpayers will have to pay millions of more dollars for 
litigation expenses including attorney's fees and costs for both 
sides."

    -- "The lab covers up potentially dangerous defects, muzzling 
honest employees, even in its biggest boondoggle, the 
multi-billion-dollar Nuclear Ignition Facility (NIF)."

    See Miklosy and Messina v. Lawrence Livermore Lab, Alameda 
County Case No. RG 04140484 is a good example.  "Les Miklosy was 
fired and Luciana Messina was forced out of her job after they 
reported costly and potentially hazardous flaws in the giant NIF 
project.  The head of the Human Resources Department and LLNL 
counsel conspired with top executives to silence my clients and 
sweep their scandal under the rug.  California has the nation's 
strongest whistleblower protection law, which UC emasculates by 
saying lab employees may not sue without lab management's 
permission. "The University of California and the DOE should 
support the Whistleblowing Law instead of trying to find legal 
loopholes to avoid it" Atty. Gwilliam said.

    "In this case, UC filed a demurrer to the complaint. 
According to the demurrer, just because management had made a 
finding against the employees internally (with no hearing, nor 
participation by Miklosy and Messina's attorney), UC alleged 
that, under the technical language of the law, they could 
automatically have the case dismissed.  Unfortunately, a lower in 
Alameda County bought into this technicality and the matter is on 
appeal. This is simply bad policy and the Legislature should take 
immediate action to resolve the matter."

    -- "The Lab retaliates against employees who report financial 
mismanagement."

    An example is the case of Michele Doggett - Doggett v. 
Regents of the University of California, Alameda County Case No. 
829359-4. "Management misuses millions of dollars of taxpayer 
funds, and gets rid of anyone who dares to tell the truth about 
it," Atty. Gwilliam said. "Michelle Doggett, a resource manager, 
was fired after she complained of financial irregularities at 
Livermore.  UC paid $815,900 for outside counsel to fight her 
claim, but later settled and paid $990,000 for her damages and 
costs.  The lab said the misappropriated funds she disclosed 
amounted to 'only $32,000' but, soon after settling her case, 
they admitted it was in the millions."

    -- "The lab disdains nuclear safety and retaliates against 
those who speak up about serious violations."

    For example, nuclear engineer David Lappa (David Lappa v. 
LLNL, Alameda County Case No. V-015785-4), an expert on human 
factor analysis in plutonium operations, was demoted after he 
refused to cover up evidence of willful violation of plutonium 
safety regulations.  The U.S. Department of Labor ordered the lab 
to reinstate Mr. Lappa to his former position and awarded back 
pay and other monetary damages.  Management then stepped up its 
retaliation, forcing Mr. Lappa out of his job.  UC spent about $1 
million opposing his lawsuit in court, but later agreed to a 
substantial monetary settlement.

    -- "The lab discriminates against the disabled, firing good 
employees instead of providing the reasonable accommodation that 
the law mandates."

    For example, see Tristan Pico v. Regents of the University of 
California, Alameda County Case No. 2002-060035).  "Tristan Pico, 
an environmental engineer, was denied reasonable accommodation 
and was fired without cause.  UC could have settled the case for 
a reasonable sum, but instead went to a six- week trial -- 
resulting in a jury verdict for the plaintiff, who won damages of 
$200,000 and attorneys' fees and costs of almost $800,000. This 
verdict was rendered on June 29, 2004.  Adding costs and fees for 
the UC attorneys, it appears that UC spent almost $2 million 
spent on this case."

    -- "The lab has discriminated against women employees and 
underpaid them for many years."

    In the case of Singleton, et al. v. U.C. Regents, a class 
action representing almost 3,000 women, "it was clearly proved 
that the lab had paid men more than women for at least 25 years.  
This significant pay-equity, gender discrimination case 
eventually settled for approximately $17 million.

The settlement terms included injunctive relief to ensure that 
there would be no further pay inequity or discrimination.  As a 
result of this case, the way women employees are evaluated for 
pay raises was significantly changed.  UC spent $13,732,507 for 
outside counsel to oppose unequal-wage claims by Mary Singleton 
and other female employees in this major class action. And yet 
there are indications that mistreatment of women in the Lab 
persists to this day."

    Other LLNL mismanagement cases have include these:

    -- "The lab has retaliated against and fired police officers 
who pointed security problems at the lab."

    SWAT team members Mathew Zipoli and Charles Quinones, 
officers of the LLNL Protective Service Officers Association, 
were fired after they complained about safety and security 
deficiencies.  An arbitrator ordered LLNL to reinstate Mr. Zipoli 
in his job.  He later left the lab when he and Mr. Quinones 
received a monetary settlement from UC.

     -- "The lab has discriminated against racial minorities for 
decades."

    Asian Pacific employees filed a class action charging wage 
discrimination. They have been engaged in settlement talks after 
going to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the 
Department of Fair Employment and Housing to complain about this 
longstanding pattern of discrimination.

    -- "Livermore Lab management continues to disregard the 
health and safety of employees and the community."

    New cases reportedly are being brought by a 911 dispatcher 
discharged for complaining about workplace health and safety 
violations, and a technology group leader demoted for reporting 
mismanagement in the lab's plutonium building.

    UC also mismanages its other nuclear weapons lab:

    Similar management problems have been highly publicized at 
LLNL's sister lab in New Mexico, the Los Alamos National 
Laboratory LANL), also operated by UC.  Atty. Gwilliam was 
co-counsel in the case of Glenn Walp, who won a settlement of 
almost $1 million.  Mr. Walp, head of the LANL Office of Security 
Inquiries, and investigator Steve Doran, had been wrongfully 
discharged after they reported security breaches and financial 
irregularities.

    In an infamous case at Los Alamos, officials trumped up spy 
allegations against an Asian American scientist, Wen Ho Lee.

    CONCLUSION:

    "I have been a plaintiff's lawyer for more than 35 years and 
have handled many employment cases," Atty. Gwilliam says.  "The 
conduct by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory management, in 
my opinion, is the most outrageous example of ongoing 
retaliation, discrimination and harassment of employees that I 
have ever seen.

    "They abuse their employees, they waste public funds fighting 
legitimate claims and, even when they lose, they refuse to admit 
wrongdoing or take proper corrective actions.

    "In dozens of cases, UC has argued that it is immune from 
being sued for wrongdoing.  This claim of immunity is terrible 
policy for a public university managing our nation's nuclear 
facilities.  These labs should be managed by people who will meet 
a higher standard of public trust.

    "Unfortunately, UC has no accountability for the attorney's 
fees and costs in these cases, since they are routinely paid by 
the U.S. Department of Energy.  Therefore, there is no incentive 
for UC to enter into reasonable settlement negotiations, nor to 
correct the problems addressed by the claims.

    "The cases and examples I have cited are only the tip of the 
iceberg," Atty. Gwilliam said.  "They involve cases that our firm 
has dealt with or had knowledge of.  I'm certain that there are 
many other cases of which I am unaware.  It's obvious that there 
are many other employees who have been treated just as badly as 
the ones in these cases, but who have never come forward for fear 
of retaliation.  The publicly known cases are a small fraction of 
the iceberg of a monumental employee relations problem at the 
Lawrence Livermore Lab.

    "I have taken the depositions of all the human resources 
people in the Lab and many of the management people.  I have also 
had extensive dealings with the in-house counsel for the Lab.  
There has to be some significant reform of these departments in 
order for the Lab and UC to begin to make needed major changes in 
the way they deal with their employees.  It has to start with a 
new Human Resources Director and a commitment to dealing fairly 
with the employees.  If that cannot be accomplished then new 
contractor to manage the Lab may be the only answer."

 SOURCE Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli &Brewer
 
[http://www.prnewswire.com/media/]           
*****************************************************************
 68 [du-list] Dr. John Gofman, A Nuclear Researcher Who Refuses To
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:16:25 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
lie
X-Spamprobe: ham-extreme 0.0000066
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.2 (2004-11-16) on darwin.ctyme.com
X-Spam-Level: 
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	FROM_ORG,SP_HAM_EXTREME,SUBJ_GROUP,SUBJ_WHITELIST,WHITE_PHRASE 
	autolearn=ham version=3.0.2

From: du-watch@yahoogroups.com
Date: 01/16/05 13:46:38
To: du-watch@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DU-WATCH] Dr. John Gofman, A Nuclear Researcher Who Refuses To Lie


Dr. John Gofman, A Nuclear Researcher Who Refuses To Lie About
Radiation
Dangers
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/NGP/DrJohnGofman.html

extract:
"Gofman describes the Department of Energy's wish list which is to
sell
to the public the following beliefs:

"Hormesis: that a little radiation is good for you.

"If hormesis cannot be sold to the public, the next best outcome
would be
evidence supporting a threshold dose of radiation below which no harm
at
all occurs. (This has become exceedingly common since Chernobyl.)

"If neither of these can be sold to the public, the next
best "product"
is the claim that a dose of radiation is far less harmful if it is
received slowly over time, than if the same dose is received all at
once.
(Since 1980, the false claim that radiation received over time is two
to
ten times less harmful than in a single dose is invoked to reduce the
cancers to the atomic bomb by a factor of up to ten and is applied to
predictions about the slow doses from Chernobyl.)

"Gofman researched a specific example from medical history. In Nova
Scotia and Massachusetts fluoroscopy was used to monitor pneumo-thorax
treatment of women with tuberculosis in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. In
1965
Dr. Ian McKenzie of Nova Scotia discovered that breast cancer was
caused
by these hundreds of treatments. Yet the low dose of each individual
exposure was deemed safe at the time. Fifteen to 20 years later breast
cancer became epidemic among these women."

***

NUKES . . .
aren't just for breakfast anymore!
http://www.nukes.org/nukefood.html

"I have come up with a logical, practical, and ethical solution for
one
of the most pressing unsolved long-term problems facing the modern
scientific and political establishment: what to do with NUCLEAR WASTE!

THE FACTS:
In the United States of America today, despite our technological
prowess,
we have no method for the disposal of our ever-accumulating nuclear
waste. {The common industry practice is to store waste on-site, that
is,
all the waste being generated in nuclear reactors is being thrown into
temporary holding areas on the grounds of the power plants, awaiting
some
future disposal solution.} This is a national embarassment, not just a
health hazard, and a catastrophe waiting to happen.

It is unethical to expose anyone to nuclear radiations without their
consent.

HORMESIS: a theory, popular among the proponents of nuclear energy,
that
exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation is good for you. While
this
is just a theory, with no conclusive evidence to support it, it is a
valid belief, or faith. (note: this theory nicely obviates the ethical
dilemma noted above, by claiming benefits, rather than deaths for
exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation.)

THE SOLUTION:

A voluntary program of nuclear waste ingestion. Those people who
believe
that radiation can be good for you should be given the opportunity to
be
exposed. Anyone who does not consent to exposure will not be forced to
participate.

COROLLARIES:

It should be noted that a similar volunteer program should be
implemented
in the siting of nuclear reactors in the future (that is, if the
public
resistance that has stopped all production of planned reactors is ever
overcome through media/propaganda campaigns, such as the lovely lie
that
nuclear power is environmentally friendly just because it's poisons
are
invisible!).


You might object that after a hormesis believer ingests his/her dose
of
radioactive material they must necessarily expel it, thus providing a
pathway of entry into the environment. The obvious answer to this is
that
the believers in hormesis should eat **it."





[Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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 69 [DU Information List] be aware of uranium
 
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:16:35 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
typo re 4.5 billion years

<http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0112/011205forum.shtml>http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0112/011205forum.shtml

January 12, 2005

Be aware of uranium


The "Top 10 Censored Stories of 2004" published in Utne Reader's 
January-February 2005 issue includes one about the Defense Department's 
on-going use of so-called "depleted" uranium to harden bullets and bombs in 
Iraq.

Peace House in Ashland ran a full page ad in the Medford Mail-Tribune on 
Sunday, May 4, 2004 about Depleted Uranium. Rogue Valley readers had the 
opportunity to read how hazardous to our military and to Iraqi children and 
adults this radioactive material is. It stays in soil or sand for 45 
billion years and can lead to cancer, sexual dysfunction, severe birth 
defects in offsprings, and many other serious health problems

Quoting Utne: "Radiation in Iraq equals 250,000 Nagasaki bombs reports Bob 
Nichols of Dissident Voice. The U. S. military uses depleted and 
nondepleted uranium in ammunition that, when it is detonated, creates a 
radioactive dust that easily enters the body and damages DNA. As a result, 
both American troops and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan have been 
testing high for radiation that causes cancer and birth defects."

It's understandable the Defense Department would want to prevent media from 
reporting this information. If it were widely known recruitment of future 
military would be even more difficult. And our government could be liable 
for medical care of persons suffering from depleted uranium induced illness.

Major Doug Rokke, former director of the Army's Depleted Uranium Project, 
says at least 320 tons of DU munitions used during the Gulf War in 1991 
contaminated the region and there are now 221,000 Gulf War Vets on 
disability plus 10,000+ Gulf vets dead. Gas masks don't work because the 
particles are too fine and cannot be cleaned up or disposed of. Iraqi 
children play in the tanks left in the desert after the Gulf War and now 
have cancer.

Canadian researchers have documented that tungsten can harden ammunition 
nearly as well as depleted uranium and is not radioactive. The Defense 
Department continues to use DU because they have to dispose of it some way, 
it is free, and they would have to pay for tungsten. Better to let people 
die, it would seem, and save some money.

In any event, readers are urged to write and call the TV and radio news 
programs and urge them to publicize this seemingly censored information. As 
citizens of a free country, don't we still have a right to know what is 
being done to the world in our name? Crucial information and links can be 
found at www.traprockpeace.org

Marguerite Craig
Ashland


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 70 [du-list] DU in the news 18th Jan. 05
 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:27:22 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 11:08 AM PST
Your Keyword News Alert for [depleted uranium]
matched the following stories:

AFP via Yahoo! News, Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:26 AM PST
UN nuclear inspectors want second crack at Parchin military site in Iran 
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050118/wl_afp/iaeairannuclear_050118182613
UN nuclear inspectors want to return to the Parchin military site in Iran, 
after a first inspection last week of the facility where Washington charges 
Tehran is simulating testing of atomic weapons, a diplomat said.

AP via Yahoo! News, Tue, 18 Jan 2005 8:22 AM PST
IAEA Has Iran Site It'd Like to Check 
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/nuclear_agency_iran_1
The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is pushing for a fresh look at an Iranian 
military complex linked by the United States to possible atomic arms 
research just days after being granted limited access, diplomats said Tuesday.

ABC News, Tue, 18 Jan 2005 8:43 AM PST
IAEA Has Iran Site It'd Like to Check 
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=421464&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
IAEA Pushing for Look at Iran Military Complex Linked by U.S. to Possible 
Atomic Arms Research

TurkishPress.com, Tue, 18 Jan 2005 9:31 AM PST
UN nuclear inspectors want second crack at Parchin military site in Iran 
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=36190
VIENNA, Jan 18 (AFP) - UN nuclear inspectors want to return to the Parchin 
military site in Iran, after a first inspection last week of the facility 
where Washington charges Tehran is simulating testing of atomic weapons, a 
diplomat said Tuesday.

CBS News, Mon, 17 Jan 2005 5:30 PM PST
Hersh: Iran In U.S. Crosshairs 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/world/main646227.shtml
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh says the United States has 
been gathering information within Iran to prepare for a series of quick 
military strikes to destroy its nuclear weapons capability and overthrow 
its religious government.

Independent Media TV, Tue, 18 Jan 2005 7:42 AM PST
Welcome to www.independent-media.tv 
http://www.independent-media.tv/category.cfm?fcategory_id=1&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported&fdate_posted=%7bts%20'2004-12-27%2000:00:00'%7d
IMTV - More on the documents released by the ACLU.

Green Left Weekly, Mon, 17 Jan 2005 10:24 PM PST
We will reclaim our armed forces! 
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/611/611p12.htm
We will reclaim our armed forces! The following is an abridged version of a 
speech given on December 11 at a public meeting in New York City sponsored 
by Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). It first 
appeared in the GI Special email bulletin.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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