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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 FAZ Weekly: Iran report fuels worries - 
2 Interfax: N. Korea nuclear talks must continue - Russian ambassador
3 Asia Times: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang   
4 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers on record against new Nevada nuke
5 Nobel Peace Prize nominee: Bush re-election may end the human
6 Bellona: Highly enriched uranium returned from Czech Republic to Rus
7 BBC: MSP jailed after nuclear protest
8 Xinhua: Russia not to use nuclear weapons   
9 Xinhua: Russia warns to carry out preemptive strikes on terrorists  
10 Guardian Unlimited: The twin pillars
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
11 US: [NukeNet] Alert: Comments needed by 1/24 to improve reactor
12 US: Sun News: Nuclear Doomsday Scenario?
13 US: AP Wire: NRC refuses to hear discrimination claims in Grand Gulf
14 US: Las Vegas RJ: PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT: Bush names Reid aide to 
15 US: Las Vegas SUN: Reid aide appointed to NRC
16 US: Times Argus: NRC to wait on Yankee power increase decision
17 CNW Telbec: AECL signs strategic alliance 
18 Japan Times: Chubu fires up newest, biggest reactor
19 US: The Dolphin: Underway on nuclear power
20 Press Release: UK Atomic Energy Authority gives evidence to Scottish
21 Australian: Our new 'neutron factory' 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
22 US: Times Argus: Nuclear evacuation strategy criticized
23 Guardian Unlimited: Navy Reassigns Submarine Commander
24 ISN: Russia scraps two Soviet-era subs                              
25 ISN: Study says Baikonur launches toxic                             
26 Mos News: Relatives of Kursk Submarine Crew Appeal to European Court
27 US: Hawk Eye: Cancer claims make gain 
28 US: Navy Times: Skipper of submarine San Francisco relieved of comma
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
29 Las Vegas RJ: NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY: Bodman vows to press Yucca d
30 US: Las Vegas SUN: Derailed train contained contaminated soils
31 US: EHC Blog: Thank Goodness the Media is Looking Out for Us! (Perch
32 Whitehaven News: SELLAFIELD UNIONS SEEKS MEPS’ HELP 
33 Whitehaven News: LESSONS FROM THE SELLAFIELD SHUTDOWN 
34 Whitehaven News: UNION FEARS SELLAFIELD SELL OFF TO USA 
35 Whitehaven News: BNFL SLATED FOR ROAD CHAOS 
36 Australian: US to be Aussie nuclear dump 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
37 [NukeNet] Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
38 [NukeNet] Non-Profits Will Enter a Bid for Los Alamos
39 AP Wire: Regents approve bidding for Lawrence Berkeley national lab
40 ABQjournal: Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
41 Cincinnati Business Courier: Fernald sheds more jobs - 
42 Rocky Mountain News: Salazar calls for alternative energy
43 lamonitor.com: Bodman pledges to protect LANL benefits 
44 Albuquerque Journal: Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
45 The State: What the Bush presidency has meant to South Carolina
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
46 CBS News: Einstein's Legacy 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 FAZ Weekly: Iran report fuels worries - 

FAZ.NET - 

  Issue: January 21, 2005  
     
Leaders across political spectrum urge talks, not confrontation

21. Januar 2005 F.A.Z. Weekly. The week of President George W.
Bush's second inauguration began with a report that disturbed
German politicians inside and outside the national government.

The story, written by the prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh
for the New Yorker magazine, said on Monday that the Bush
administration had been conducting secret spying missions inside
Iran since mid-2004. The story said the missions were designed
to gather intelligence on declared and suspected nuclear,
chemical and missile sites. These targets could be destroyed by
precision strikes and short-term commando raids, Hersh wrote. 

In Germany, the report triggered criticism from politicians
across the spectrum, including those who opposed the Bush
administration's war in Iraq and have watched it turn into a
bloody, drawn-out conflict.

Claudia Roth, co-leader of the Greens, was one of the first to
speak out. We need diplomatic solutions and not threats of
military strikes, said Roth, whose party is the junior coalition
partner in Berlin.

A member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, a
traditionally pro-American party, expressed similar views.
Perhaps, the smart thing to do would be for the Americans not to
consider possible military attacks. Rather, they should more
actively and constructively take part in the European Union's
diplomatic efforts, said Friedbert Pflüger, the party's chief
foreign-policy spokesman.

The tone was more diplomatic from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's
chief spokesman. The American government is keeping all of its
options open concerning the nuclear program, Béla Anda said on
Wednesday. That is nothing new.

The United States and Europe have worked together on the issue
in the past. The United States alleges Iran may be testing
high-explosive components for nuclear weapons, using an inert
core of depleted uranium at the Parchin weapons complex as a dry
run for a bomb that would use fissile material, according to the
Associated Press.

Such work would be part of a general military buildup by Iran, a
country that Bush has said is part of an axis of evil. Former
Iranian president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, announced in
October that Iran had successfully increased the range of its
missile, Shahab-3, to 1,200 miles. That would enable it to
strike Israel, U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf and even parts of
Europe.

But Iran insists that its military is not involved in nuclear
activities and agreed this month to give U.N. inspectors access
to the Parchin facility. 

Germany, France and Britain opened negotiations with Iran on the
nuclear issue in the autumn of 2003. Those talks are being held
regularly in Geneva.

[Mehr über die F.A.Z.]  Mehr über die F.A.Z. 
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 2 Interfax: N. Korea nuclear talks must continue - Russian ambassador

Interfax.com

Jan 20 2005 12:48PM
 
BEIJING. Jan 20 (Interfax-China) - Russia and China believe the
six-nation negotiations are the best mechanism for settling the
North Korean nuclear problem, and the talks should be resumed as
soon as possible, Russian Ambassador to China Igor Rogachev told
Interfax. 

"Obviously, a peaceful settlement of the nuclear problem on the
Korean Peninsula will be of paramount important for security and
stability inside and outside Asia. The ideas of our countries
are identical - the six-nation negotiations are the best
instrument for the accomplishment of this task, and they should
be resumed as soon as possible," he said.     

        
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Interfax.   


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 3 Asia Times: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang                       

Kim Jong-il and the 'A' word

By David Scofield 

There is no shortage of stories these days suggesting that the
North Korean regime is coming apart at the seams. There's even
talk of the "A" word - not "assassination", but rather "asylum"
or "amnesty". It would free the oppressed Korean people, but it
it also would free Dear Leader Kim-Jong-il from the justice he
has denied to his subjects. 

First there were the stories of Kim Jong-il's portraits being
removed from public places in Pyongyang. Then an increase in
anecdotal testimony by recently escaped North Koreans suggesting
a growing underground movement of dissent. Last Monday, a South
Korean website operated by North Korean refugees living in
Seoul, posted a link to a video purportedly smuggled out of
North Korea. The video, the first half disjointed shots of a
cold, desolate-looking city in what certainly looks like North
Korea, seems designed to confirm to the viewer that this has not
been staged in a Chinese border town, where life is more
prosperous and livelier. 

The videographer entered a warehouse and filmed a sign taped to
the wall that said "Overthrow (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il.
Comrades, let's fight ..." Later the camera moved to a picture
of the Dear Leader himself, with the words "Kim Jong-il, we
demand freedom and democracy ..." written in red script across
his beaming face. 

The South Korean authorities were quick to cast aspersions upon
the film's authenticity. After all, the video seemed to be
depicting some sort of organized opposition to the Dear Leader's
rule, assertions his supporters in South Korea's Blue House
refuse to acknowledge because they are seeking entente and
eventual reunification with their misunderstood and
much-maligned brethren to the North. 

The risks taken by those who smuggled the video out are not hard
to fathom. In the best-case scenario, to be caught filming such
a defacement would mean certain death, and if the criminal were
lucky, a quick death. However, defiling the image of the Dear
Leader in such a way as depicted in the video, would very likely
mean a slow and painful exit from this world, as a lesson to
other dissidents, lest they underestimate the cost of discord. 

On Tuesday, the Monthly Chosun related a story of how Kim
Jong-il, his fund manager and his girlfriend managed to be
granted US visitors visas, by submitting forged passports to the
US Embassy in Brazil in 1997. He apparently didn't travel, but
Cho Gab-je, the author of this and other articles questioning
the stability of the Northern system, postulated that Kim has
been feeling out possible escape routes in case his rule
continues to unravel, drastically so. As his children have been
educated in Switzerland, and bank accounts in the same country
are thought to hold a least a few hundred million of the
billions of dollars the Kims have squirreled away over the
years, Switzerland, the article suggested, may be a likely first
stop for Kim and Co. Of course, given that Kim was born outside
of North Korea in a small village in the Russian far east, it
would seem he would have a legitimate claim to Russian
citizenship as well. 

Recent stories concerning possible chaos in North Korea's senior
leadership are, by definition, difficult to gauge. High-ranking
defectors, such as Hwang Jang-yop, the father of North Korea's
juche ideology and the most senior government official to defect
to South Korea, has at times stated Kim's regime is strong,
while at others times he has asserted that it hangs together by
a thread; personal ambitions sometimes muddy the elder
official's perceptions. 

But while the validity of recent reports concerning
undercurrents of dissent in the North are virtually impossible
to definitively judge, it is obvious that there are far more
stories, pictures, videos and testimony in the public domain
originating from the North than ever before. The implication
being, if nothing else, the regime's ability to thwart the
smuggling of people, video and photographic material out of the
North has diminished. Indeed, the recently passed US North
Korean Human Rights Act provides a budget of US$2 million to
those who aid and abet refugees while exposing the system they
flee - a paltry sum easily lost in the US budget, but perhaps an
incentive for those committed to exposing the atrocities of the
North to take greater risks in securing evidence of dissent. 

Whatever the case, the untenable nature of the Kim regime is
becoming clearer, at least to those outside South Korea's
Unification Ministry. That Kim Jong-il is not capable of making
the sorts of changes necessary for his regime to comply with
previous promises concerning his ending his nuclear program,
much less any consideration of sundries such as human rights,
should be obvious by now. Given this, the question of what to do
with the Kims is beginning to gain currency, with some floating
the "A" word, meaning amnesty and asylum. 

Supporters of amnesty and asylum for the Kims argue that it
would remove the leadership and emancipate the people of North
Korea with a minimum of bloodshed and instability. On the other
hand, it would not hold Kim and Co accountable for their crimes,
though dictators from Idi Amin of Uganda to Jean Bertrand
Aristide of Haiti, among others, have been granted residence in
other countries. 

Images of Kim lapping Hennessy Paradis from the belly of one of
the thousands of young girls who comprise his pleasure team,
hardly approach the justice those most familiar with his reign
know must be applied. Indeed, with others in the leadership
structure likely no less ambivalent to the suffering and despair
than Kim, the option of an escape to a walled villa in an
undisclosed nation, while expedient, hardly ensures justice. 

There are other ways of course. He and his immediate family's
deaths could be staged, their DNA scattered around the scene of
a massive explosion, such as the one at Ryongchon, where a blast
occurred at a train station last April, hours after Kim Jong-il
had passed through on his way back from China. His "death" and
then absolute seclusion might be possible. Of course, this is
Kim Jong-il, and it is unlikely that he and even a minimum
complement of lackeys would be able to live out their days in
seclusion, and not demand the attention of the world, or work to
influence the newly managed North in some self-serving way. 

Consider Charles Taylor, the former dictator of Liberia. At
least 250,000 died when Taylor seized the nation's capital in
coup in 1990. After 10 years of bloody rule, the solution, with
a minimum of additional bloodshed, was for Charles, his wife,
bodyguards and other essential lackeys to be moved to another
locale. This it turns out was the easy part. Far from living out
their days comfortably expelled to a palatial villa in an
exclusive suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, Taylor is still reportedly
using his remaining influence in the country to affect decisions
made by the new government in Liberia. Is it any less likely the
"Sun King" wouldn't do the same? 

As for justice, last year the US Congress added a line item to a
large bill which provides a reward, $2 million, a bounty some
might call it, to whomever produces Charles Taylor to a United
Nations-backed war-crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, where he is
wanted for war-crimes violations stemming from his backing of
rebel groups. So with Taylor as an example, it is unlikely Kim
would be interested in a deal that could see him outside the
comparatively safe confines of North Korea, exposed, with a
price on his head. 

That Kim Jong-il is the fundamental impediment to regional peace
and national development in North Korea should be obvious. But
bundling his bouffant and even a fraction of his pleasure team
off to an undisclosed location in order for him to live out his
days is reprehensible at the most basic human level. That he
must go is without question. That his exit should be painless
and impermanent would be a grave injustice to all who suffered
and died under his rule. 

David Scofield, former lecturer at the Graduate Institute of
Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, is currently conducting
post-graduate research at the School of East Asian Studies,
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. 

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
 													   													     													   														
Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 											  
*****************************************************************
 4 Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers on record against new Nevada nuke
tests 

Article Last Updated: 01/20/2005 12:40:53 AM 

"This is not the place": The sponsor says Utah ought to resist 
despite the government's need to develop weaponry 

By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune 

A resolution strongly urging the federal government not to 
resume nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site received 
unanimous backing during a House committee meeting Wednesday 
amid committee members' stories of relatives who died or suffer 
from cancer believed to be connected to Cold War-era nuclear 
testing. 

"We see in what happened during the 1950s something that 
could happen again," said Mike Lee, general counsel to Gov. Jon 
Huntsman Jr., who supports the bill. Lee's father, Rex Lee, a 
former U.S. solicitor general, died in 1996 of non-Hodgkins 
lymphoma. 

Rep. Michael Noel, R-Kanab, is sponsoring House Concurrent 
Resolution 7, which "recalls the devastation caused to the 
health of thousands of citizens" during the 1950s. 

Noel said he decided to sponsor the bill after hearing the 
federal government wanted to test "bunker-buster" nuclear 
weapons at the Nevada Test Site. The news caused "kind of a 
buzz" in southern Utah, he said. 

While he didn't want to be seen as resisting the 
government's need to develop defense weaponry, Noel said Utah 
needed to resist the testing. 

"There's certainly a place for this, but this is not the 
place," he said. 

According to information included in the federal Radiation 
Exposure Compensation Act, the worst of the testing-related 
fallout occurred in Washington County, downwind from the test 
site. 

Kane County was No. 7 on the list. But northern Utah counties 
also were affected by fallout, something Rep. 

Craig Buttars, R-Lewiston, said he realized only last year. 

Tearing up as he recalled his father's death from 
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer attributed to fallout, Buttars 
said the bill would emphasize the need "to make sure this never 
happens again." 

Rep. John Mathis, R-Naples, said he also had family members 
who died as a result of downwind exposure. "I don't know that 
this [bill] is strong enough," he said. 

The resolution says a resumption of nuclear testing in 
Nevada "would mean a return to the mistakes and miscalculations 
of the past, which have marred many Utahns" and would create a 
new generation of downwinders and "signify a dramatic step 
backward in the United States of America's resolve to learn from 
its tragic nuclear testing legacy." 

Noel said a "Wind Wall" commemorative monument paid for 
through private donations would be placed in or near Washington 
County. 

© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 5 Nobel Peace Prize nominee: Bush re-election may end the human
 
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:50:58 -0600 (CST)

 
01/17/05 "ANI" -- The world-renowned anti-nuclear and environmental activist
and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Helen Caldicott, has warned that US President
George Bush's re-election does not bode well for mankind, and she fears that
the human race may not survive his second term (2005-2009).

"This is the most serious election that has ever occurred in the history of
the human race, without a scrag of doubt. I don't know if we'll survive the
next four years ... I don't think the Americans have, on the whole, the
faintest idea - and I have to say also I don't think most Australians do
either. But it's not just the threat from nuclear war. It's the threat of
what's happening to the environment, the global warming which is occurring
rapidly now, to ozone depletion, to species extinction, to deforestation -
it's the whole thing," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Caldicott as saying.

Speaking from her son Will's Boston home, the Australian paediatrician, who
runs the Nuclear Policy Research Institute in Washington, has just spent a
frantic two-and-a-half months criss-crossing America to deliver her
anti-nuclear and anti-Bush message. She discovered the country was more
divided than at any time since she first stepped onto American soil in 1966.

"I don't think I've ever felt so personally, politically devastated in my
life and that includes when [former president Ronald] Reagan won a second
term of office - which was pretty devastating for me as I was so heavily
involved in the anti-nuclear movement in those days.But this is worse, these
people are much worse than the Reagan people," Caldicott adds.

Dr Caldicott rose to fame in the American peace movement during the '70s and
'80s, her vehement anti-nuclear stance earning her many enemies, some of
whom saw her as an apologist for the Soviet Union. She has long warned of
the dangers of nuclear weapons, America's "first strike" policy and missile
defence.

"The Bush administration have been able to con the American people with
their extremely brilliant propaganda and brainwashing, with the help of the
media ... they consistently lie. On the whole the American people don't
really understand the dynamics of the right at all. They don't know that
Bush et al want to go into Iran next and that they want to dominate the
world militarily and that they want to put weapons in space. I don't think
they [the American public] understand. It is a mandate for Bush to do
absolutely anything he wants. I know people don't like me using this word
but they're fascists," she concludes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7759.htm
*****************************************************************
 6 Bellona: Highly enriched uranium returned from Czech Republic to Russia
 
Six kilograms of highly enriched uranium that could be used for
nuclear weapons have been safely returned to the Russian
Federation from the Czech Republic in December last year.

2005-01-20 15:59

The nuclear fuel was originally supplied to the Czech Republic
by the Soviet Union for use in the Soviet-designed 10 megawatt
LVR-15 multi-purpose research reactor, located in Rez near the
Czech capital, Prague. In 2000, NNSA and the Czech Nuclear
Research Institute completed a joint project to upgrade security
of the nuclear material at Rez until it could be returned to
Russia. In February 2004, Secretary Abraham and Russian Federal
Atomic Energy Agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev signed a
bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russian Federation
governments to facilitate the repatriation of Russian-origin HEU
research reactor fuel to Russia, reported the US Government
Bureau of International Information Programs. 

During the one-day mission, approximately six kilograms of HEU
were loaded into four specialised transportation containers.
IAEA safeguards inspectors and NNSA technical experts were
present in Rez to monitor the process of loading the fuel into
canisters. The facility in Russia that received the material has
worked closely with the NNSA to implement security upgrades. 

The mission of the GTRI is to identify, secure, recover and/or
facilitate the final disposition of high-risk vulnerable nuclear
and radiological materials around the world that pose a threat
to the United States and the international community. The
initiative will comprehensively address vulnerable material and
radiological materials throughout the world and secure and/or
remove these materials of concern as expeditiously as possible. 

This is the sixth successful shipment of HEU being returned to
Russia. In the past two years, NNSA has repatriated a total of
51 kg of HEU to Russia from Romania, Bulgaria, Libya, and
Uzbekistan. And in August 2002, 48 kg of Russian-origin HEU were
repatriated from a research reactor near Belgrade, Serbia.
   
  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 7 BBC: MSP jailed after nuclear protest
 
  Last Updated: Thursday, 20 January, 2005
 
		 		 		 
	 		 	 		 	 		

			
			 				[Carolyn Leckie]  				The controversial MSP has been
jailed for non-payment of a fine 			 			   		

		 	 	 	 Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie has been jailed
for refusing to pay a fine following an anti-nuclear protest. 

Ms Leckie appeared at East Kilbride District Court on Thursday
for non-payment of a £100 fine. 

She was arrested during a demonstration at Faslane naval base in
August 2004 and unsuccessfully appealed a breach of the peace
conviction. 

The MSP was jailed for seven days but it emerged that she would
spend one night in prison. 

The controversial MSP could also be struck off as a registered
midwife following her conviction. 

The Nursing and Midwifery Council said it has received
allegations of "misconduct" against her as a result. 

Political 'gag' 

It now has to decide if her conviction amounts to "conduct
unworthy of a registered midwife". 

The MSP was given a week-long jail term for non-payment when she
appeared in court on Thursday. 

However, later in the day the SSP said it had been informed that
Ms Leckie would be released from Cornton Vale Women's Prison on
Friday morning. 

Ms Leckie, who worked as a midwife before becoming an MSP, said
it would be an "affront to democracy" for political activity to
undermine her professional standing. 

She said: "If the worst happened and I was struck off as a
midwife, the message that sends to health professionals and
public sector workers across the country is that they are not
expected to express a view, protest or dissent. 

"That effectively is a gag on public servants and an affront to
democracy." 

	

	
		 	 		  		 	Carolyn has been criminalis
for dissent and that is an outrage 		
	 	 	Frances Curran MSP   	

	 	 

A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said Ms
Leckie's court conviction would not automatically result in her
being struck off. 

"People get struck off the register for abusing patients or poor
record keeping," he said. 

"A lot of people get reported to us for speeding, traffic
offences and minor things and they rarely ever come to a
hearing." 

The Scottish Socialists said they were proud that their members
were prepared to stand up for their principles. 

Frances Curran MSP said: "Carolyn is a woman in public life with
principles who is prepared to risk her livelihood in order to
take a stand in the best democratic traditions. 

"She has been criminalised for dissent and that is an outrage." 





		 	 		 	 



*****************************************************************
 8 Xinhua: Russia not to use nuclear weapons   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-21 08:43:36   

    BEIJING, Jan. 21 -- Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov
says Russia won't use nuclear weapons in pre-emptive attack on
terrorists. 

    After talks with his visiting French counterpart Michele
Alliot-Marie in St. Petersburg, Ivanov told a press conference
that Russia won't resort to nuclear weapons in combating
terrorism. 

    Meanwhile, Ivanov confirmed that Moscow is still expecting a
visit from Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yushchenko. 



(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)   


  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 9 Xinhua: Russia warns to carry out preemptive strikes on terrorists   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-20 19:23:28   

    MOSCOW, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- In coping with the terrorist
threat, Russia reserves the right to make preemptive strikes
against terrorists, but rules out using nuclear weapons, Defense
Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday at a press conference in
St. Petersburg, according to Russian news media. 

    "We reserve this right to make preemptive strikes against
terrorists, who have declared a war on us. In this situation, it
would be naive and culpable not to think about how to prevent a
terrorist threat in case it is aimed against Russia from the
outside," Ivanov said after talks with his French counterpart
Michele Alliot-Marie. 

    He noted, "The notion of preemptive strike is not Russia's
invention," adding that so far as the methods are concerned
"they can be different, with the exception of one -- nuclear
weapons." 

    Ivanov told the press conference that Russia and France are
cooperating in the fight against terrorism in the normal regime. 

    "This work is done constantly and realized via exercises,
information exchange and warnings about possible terrorist
acts," the Russian minister pointed out. 

    Ivanov meanwhile lauded the bilateral military cooperation,
noting, "Today we have a good chance to speak about stronger
relations between the defense ministries in European security." 

    He said the Russian-French Security Cooperation Council is
expected to convene in Moscow on Friday, and the foreign and
defense ministers of the two countries will attend the session,
which is to focus on the European security architecture. 

    Russia and France are going to promote a jointly
manufactured MiG-AT training plane on markets of third counties,
said Ivanov. 

    Alliot-Marie said that she and Ivanov had sketched out a
list of possible accords on the joint development of the
military hardware. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: The twin pillars
 
Comment 
		
As Bush begins his second term, Tony Blair sees a hopeful 
'evolution' in US policy                
 		
Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday January 20, 2005
 		
[Tony Blair and George Bush enter the White House] 

Sitting in his white and blue study at the back of 10 Downing
Street, a tired-looking Tony Blair still manages to radiate
optimism about the second term of George Bush. There has, he
says, been a clear "evolution" of American policy. The prime
minister has witnessed this in successive conversations with the
president. 

"Evolution comes from experience." In a learning process that
started with Afghanistan, the administration has come to
understand that "in the end, we can take security and military
measures against terrorism but ... the best prospect of peaceful
coexistence lies in the spread of democracy and human rights". 

So has Bush become a multilateralist? 

Well, Blair can't speak for the president, but "it is
significant, in my view, that he is coming to Europe as his
first foreign visit..." And it's obvious that "if you are in the
position of trying to spread values - to give people greater
freedom and democratic rights - it is better to try and do that
with other countries". 

But obvious to whom? Does Blair really think that he can get a
Bush administration to take seriously his own priorities for
Britain's 2005 presidency of the G8 - action on Africa and
climate change? Yes. The United States won't sign the Kyoto
protocol, but Washington may be persuaded to take some of the
steps proposed in the McCain-Lieberman bill, which is currently
before the US Congress. On these issues, and on Blair's other
top priority - a peace settlement between the Israelis and
Palestinians - "it is possible to construct an international
agenda that is more consensual, more multilateral than what has
gone before". 

Let's hope he's right. Yet we must surely also look at possible
triggers of another major transatlantic crisis, such as exploded
over Iraq. Couldn't Iran be the next Iraq? The prime minister is
impressed by the way that Britain, France and Germany have
forged a common strategy towards Tehran. While America has "what
appears to be a harder position", it has so far been content to
let Europe take the lead. 

This seems to ignore Seymour Hersh's recent report in the New
Yorker magazine that the United States already has special
forces inside Iran, identifying nuclear weapons development
targets for pre-emptive military strikes. So, is the SAS in Iran
too? "We never answer questions about special forces, but do not
take that as an answer indicating an affirmative." 

Meanwhile, of course, there's still Iraq. If Blair had known in
March 2003 everything that we know now - about the absence of
weapons of mass destruction and the dreadful mess of the
occupation - would he still have taken the decision to go to
war? "I would take the same decision." But certainly, the
post-invasion period "has proved to be very tough ... tougher
than we anticipated". Wasn't it a mistake to disband the Iraqi
army? "Well, I've said before that I think, in retrospect ...
the speed of de-Ba'athification and disbanding of forces was too
great." 

How much of a problem Iraq will be for him in our own general
election will at least partly depend on how well or badly the
Iraqi elections go at the end of this month. And now it will
also depend on the lasting impact of those sickening photographs
of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers. 

Assuming that Iraq doesn't lose him the British election,
Blair's third term will largely overlap with Bush's second. When
he steps down at the end of that term, as he has already said he
will, what will he want historians to record as his legacy in
foreign policy? Contrary to popular belief, he insists, he
doesn't spend much time worrying about that - "They'll write
whatever they write, and probably different from how it's viewed
at the time." 

However, he's clear about his strategic aims. First and foremost
"to make sure that the two pillars of this country's foreign
policy alliances are strong". Europe and America, that is. Where
Churchill had a vision of Britain at the intersection of three
circles - the US, Europe, and the British Commonwealth - Blair
sees us on two pillars. Then there's the development agenda, the
Palestinian issue, climate change ...

Now plainly the key to balancing on those two pillars is for the
country to make up its mind that it belongs in Europe. "The
constitutional debate [ie the British referendum on the EU's
constitutional treaty] will give us a chance to do so, when it
comes." And that will be when? "Some time in 2006." 

All fine and dandy, except that Rupert Murdoch recently told a
friend of mine in Washington that he feels confident he has the
British referendum wrapped up - in other words, a no vote is
assured. Is the prime minister at last prepared to take on the
Australian- American media mogul upon whose newspapers he
depends for his re-election? "I'm not going to start
personalising it," he replies, "because I don't think that's
very sensible." However, "I will be arguing against anyone who's
arguing for a no vote". 

Then he gives a taste of the arguments he could use when he
finally throws himself fully into the battle to win British
public opinion for Europe. "I have a very great deal of
confidence in the British people [being] sensible enough to
realise that in this day and age, in the early 21st century, to
give up a strong position in the world's largest economic market
and strongest political union would be extremely foolish." He's
just off to Toulouse, to celebrate the launch of the super jumbo
Airbus A380, which helped to secure the jobs of 20,000 British
workers: "You tell me if we'd be part of this if we were outside
Europe - you know we wouldn't." 

We do need "new rules for the way Europe works", with 25 and
more member states. In his view, the nub of the referendum
debate will be: "Do we want to be key decision-makers and
players in Europe, or do we want to be in a sort of second-class
status?" If the Conservatives were to try to do in government
what they advocate in opposition, "it would either lead to
complete humiliation for the country, because you'd just have to
back off it, or it would lead to exit". 

Stepping out of the famous front door of No 10, on to a red
carpet that has appeared for the president of Serbia, I reckon
that the chances of Blair realising his strategic vision of a
Britain standing firmly on those twin pillars are now about 4:1
against. Too many cards are now stacked against him, starting
with the glowering resentment of his chancellor of the exchequer
just a few yards away at No 11. Then there are the massed armies
of the Eurosceptic press, the damage Iraq has done to his
credibility in much of continental Europe, and the stubborn
militarism of the vice-president's office in Washington DC. If
he fails, as most politicians ultimately do, then we will find
engraved on his heart the word "Iraq". 

Yet listening to the new - and sometimes rather Blairite -
rhetoric of President Bush and his nominee for secretary of
state, Condoleezza Rice, and listening to the strength of the
pro-European arguments that Blair could deploy directly to the
British people (especially if the rest of the EU votes yes to
the constitutional treaty), I sense there is still just a chance
that he can pull it off. Who will seriously argue that it would
be a bad thing for Britain, Europe or America if he did? 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 11 [NukeNet] Alert: Comments needed by 1/24 to improve reactor
 
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:17:02 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

ALERT
URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO PROTECT REACTORS FROM TERRORIST ATTACK
NRC COMMENT PERIOD ENDS MONDAY, JANUARY 24

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published in the Federal Register a 
REQUEST FOR comments on a Petition for Rulemaking by the Committee to 
Bridge the Gap (CBG) to upgrade protections against terrorist attacks on 
nuclear facilities. Current security regulations are woefully 
inadequate.   The comment period expires January 24. Please take a moment 
now and submit a comment in support of the DBG rulemaking 
petition.  Comments can be sent via email to SECY@nrc.gov.

The CBG proposal would do two things.  First, it would require protection 
of nuclear facilities against air attack.  Astonishingly, three years after 
9/11, there still is no such protection.  The proposal recommends 
construction of "Beamhenge" shields, constructed of steel I-beams, with 
cabling between them, at stand-off distances from sensitive reactor 
structures, so that an incoming plane crashes into the shield rather than 
the reactor, spent fuel pool, or critical support facilities, preventing 
massive radioactive release.

The second component of the Rulemaking Petition is to upgrade the Design 
Basis Threat (DBT) regulations to require protection against at least the 
number and capabilities of the attackers on 9/11.  Current DBT regulations 
-- unchanged for a quarter of a century -- require protection against only 
three attackers on foot, acting as a single team, with weapons no greater 
than hand-carried automatic weapons, plus the possible assistance of one 
insider.  NRC in 2003 did issue secret "Orders" that marginally increased 
the DBT, but the legality of doing so in negotiation with the industry 
while the public was frozen out of the process completely has been 
challenged in court, and the Commission has conceded that the DBT in the 
Orders still does not approach 9/11 levels.  The Rulemaking Petition would 
rectify this deficiency by requiring protection against attackers in at 
least the numbers and with at least the capabilities seen on 9/11.  It 
seems a no-brainer.

The full Petition for Rulemaking and the associated NRC Federal Register 
notice can be found at 
http://ruleforum.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/library?source=*&library=ctbg_prm_lib&file=*&st=petitions-a. 


Background information can be found in recent Bulletin of the Atomic 
Scientists articles on the subject at 
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2002/jf02/jf02hirsch.html
and http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=mj03hirsch.

Comments can be submitted to NRC via email at SECY@nrc.gov, or through 
their website at 
http://ruleforum.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/library?source=*&library=ctbg_prm_public&file=*&st=petitions-a, 
or via fax at (310) 415-1011.  Put in the subject heading:  PRM-73-12.

SEND IN YOUR COMMENT TODAY! Thank you!

Dan Hirsch, Committee to Bridge the Gap

Paul Gunter, NIRS (<mailto:pgunter@nirs.org>pgunter@nirs.org)






Unplug Salem Campaign; Coalition for Peace and Justice;
321 Barr Ave; Linwood NJ 08221
609-601-8583/8537



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*****************************************************************
 12 Sun News: Nuclear Doomsday Scenario?

| 01/20/2005 | 

EDITORIALS

The toxic nuclear waste created in S.C. will stay in S.C. for
many more years

South Carolinians rely heavily on nuclear power and rarely have
reason to think about what that means. Nuclear plants don't get
blamed for mercury pollution in wetland and waterways, as
coal-fired plants do. And they don't get reviled for driving up
retail power rates, as natural-gas-fired plants do when
wholesale gas prices are high. 

But as residents were reminded recently when the federal Nuclear
Regulatory Commission renewed their operating licenses for at
least 30 years, the state's seven nuclear power plants are far
from the perfect electricity source their proponents make them
out to be. The cost of the power they produce may not fluctuate
because the cost of the uranium-based fuel rods they rely on to
convert water to steam is constant and relatively cheap. But
those fuel rods, once spent, devolve into highly toxic nuclear
waste. And nuclear power facilities such as Santee Cooper's V.C.
Summer plant near Columbia must store spent rods on site because
there's no place else to put them. 

Across the state, then, the plants are home to tons and tons of
highly radioactive spent fuel rods, some stored above ground in
high-tech canisters, others stored in cooling ponds. During the
next three decades, the newly relicensed plants will create
many, many tons more toxic nuclear waste. 

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The utility companies that
own the plants have contributed millions toward the federal
long-term, high-level nuclear waste storage facility supposedly
under preparation in the Nevada hills near Las Vegas. But the
so-called Yucca Flats repository is years away from opening -
mainly because of understandable continued political resistance
from Nevadans. It's hard to blame Nevadans for resisting the
repository, even though the facility supposedly is geologically
safe enough for storage of high-level radioactive waste for eons
to come. 

The waste that S.C. plants generate, therefore, is likely to
remain in South Carolina for most, if not all, of their
license-renewal periods. There's no other place to send it. 

The good news is that, statewide and nationally, on-site nuclear
storage has worked relatively well. But canister-clad stored
fuel rods will remain a tempting target for terrorists until the
federal or state governments find the political will - and the
money - to secure them. And there's always the possibility that
an accident can render the terrain around the plants a no man's
land for eons. 

So how could federal nuclear regulatory commissioners and staff
even think about allowing our plants here another three decades
of life, let alone approve it? Like the rest of us, they prefer
to think that past safety in handling one of the most dangerous
substances on the planet is a predictor of future safety
success. And like the rest of us, they prefer not to think about
the astronomical power rates that would ensue if they ordered
the nuclear plants offline. They know we'll pretend it's OK -
and maybe it really will be OK.   

*****************************************************************
 13 AP Wire: NRC refuses to hear discrimination claims in Grand Gulf filing

| 01/20/2005 | 

Associated Press

PORT GIBSON, Miss. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not
hear arguments that a possible new reactor at Entergy's Grand
Gulf Power Plant near Port Gibson would discriminate against
minorities. 

The NRC this week denied an appeal from the Claiborne County
chapter of the NAACP, the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club
and two Washington, D.C., organizations. 

The groups wanted to argue before the NRC that a second reactor
at Grand Gulf would double risks and would be of no benefit to
the majority black population of Claiborne County. They contend
the local governments are not equipped to cope with the
environmental and health consequences of a nuclear accident,
sabotage or routine radioactive releases. 

The parent company of Entergy Nuclear is in a process called
early site approval that could lead to a permit to build a
second reactor in Claiborne County. If the permit is issued,
Entergy would have 20 years to make a decision whether to build
a second reactor. 

The current Grand Gulf reactor began operation in 1985 and its
operating permit expires in 2024. 

"NRC once again has bowed to its master - the nuclear industry -
to pave the way for construction in an area where they expect
the least resistance," A.C. Garner, spokesman for the NAACP in
Claiborne County, said Wednesday in a statement. 

The NRC recently changed its policy on environmental justice to
make it unlikely that issues of racial discrimination, fairness
and economic equity would be considered in licensing
proceedings. 

Governing boards in Claiborne County and the city of Port Gibson
have endorsed a permit for a second reactor. 

The county's population is 84 percent black and 32.4 percent of
its citizens have income levels below the federal poverty line,
according to Census figures. 

Opponents also have sited the Legislature's reallocation of tax
revenue from Grand Gulf to the 45 counties served by Entergy. 

Claiborne County supervisors have hired Jackson attorney Mike
Espy, a former congressman, to lobby the Legislature for a
change in the law, first passed in 1986. The county wants a
larger financial share of taxes on any future construction. 

Initially, Claiborne County received $16 million per year in
taxes from on the plant. After the Legislature ordered the
split, that was halved. 

The NRC expects to hold a public meeting in Port Gibson this
spring or summer to discuss a draft environmental statement that
is being prepared. 

Entergy spokesman Carl Crawford said the NRC decision allows the
company to keep open the option to build a second reactor. 

Information from: The Vicksburg Post,
http://www.vicksburgpost.com  


*****************************************************************
 14 Las Vegas RJ: PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT: Bush names Reid aide to fill NRC spot 
 
Thursday, January 20, 2005
 

Senator's adviser on Yucca Mountain, nuclear proponent's pick
both tapped By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
WASHINGTON -- President Bush followed through on a deal
Wednesday, appointing an aide to Sen. Harry Reid to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the agency that sets rules for nuclear
waste disposal.
 
 Bush filled a vacancy on the commission with Gregory B. Jaczko,
34, Reid's chief adviser on the Yucca Mountain Project, a
program the Nevada Democrat opposes and has tried to kill.
 
 At the same time, Bush filled a second vacancy on the
five-member NRC with an associate of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.,
a leading nuclear energy proponent in Congress.
 
 The appointee, Peter B. Lyons, is a professional staff member
on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a
senior adviser to Domenici, the panel chairman, on nuclear
energy, research and development and hydrogen.
 
 Lyons, 61, joined Domenici's staff in 1997 after a 27-year
career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, including stints
managing the lab's partnerships with industrial societies and
its work supporting the Strategic Defense Initiative.
 
 Bush named Jaczko and Lyons to the NRC using his executive
powers to make direct appointments during official Senate
recesses, enabling the appointees to bypass formal confirmation
that had caused a stalemate over the politically charged posts.
The appointments are effective until Congress ends its session
late in 2006. 
Reid forced the White House into a deal late last year to place
Jaczko on the NRC after Reid held up about 175 other appointees
to Bush administration jobs.
 
 Reid on Wednesday praised the White House for following
through. 
Domenici said the joint appointments served to satisfy the White
House agreement with Reid while maintaining "balance" at the
NRC. The nuclear power industry had fought against Jaczko,
claiming he would be biased against the Yucca Mountain Project.
 
 "When (the White House) agreed to put Reid's man on, we were
clearly thinking about how do we make sure we still have
balance, or we wouldn't have agreed," Domenici said. "A
legislative appointment was obviously the way to keep the
balance."
 
 Under the terms of the deal, Jaczko would recuse himself for a
year from any Yucca Mountain matters. The agency is preparing to
review a license application for the repository but Yucca
Mountain was not expected to reach the commissioners' agenda in
that period.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 15 Las Vegas SUN: Reid aide appointed to NRC

Today: January 20, 2005 at 9:53:52 PST 

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- The White House on Wednesday officially appointed
Gregory Jaczko, the top science and Yucca Mountain adviser to
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to fill one of two vacant spots on the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The five-member commission is
responsible for licensing and regulating the proposed Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

 In another development, the White House tapped Republican Peter
Lyons to fill the other spot. Lyons, a Boulder City native, is a
nuclear physicist and nuclear policy adviser to Sen. Pete
Domenici, R-N.M., a leading Yucca advocate in the Senate. Reid
supports his appointment.

 President Bush had appointed former nuclear submariner Navy
Adm. Albert Konetzni Jr., to fill the second spot but Konetzni
withdrew his nomination. A Domenici aide declined to say why he
withdrew.

 Lyons' past jobs include 28 years at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, where he served in several director positions,
including program director for nuclear defense research.

 On Wednesday Lyons told reporters he was excited about a job
that is fraught with "challenges."

 Domenici, Reid and the White House worked out an unusual
agreement in appointing the two veteran Senate staffers.
Domenici opposed Jaczko's nomination fearing that Reid's former
aide might hurt the Yucca repository program. But Domenici
agreed to support Jaczko with certain conditions. The two
nominees would be appointed to two-year terms instead of the
usual five years. And Jaczko would have to recuse himself from
Yucca matters for one year.

 
 
*****************************************************************
 16 Times Argus: NRC to wait on Yankee power increase decision
 	 	 	 	 
 January 20, 2005
 
Associated Press   

BRATTLEBORO — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that
any decision on Entergy Nuclear's proposed 20 percent power
boost at Vermont Yankee is months away.

While Entergy had originally hoped to have a decision late this
month, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said federal regulators were
still waiting for additional information from Entergy on
proposed changes that would allow the 33-year-old reactor to
produce 110 more megawatts of power.

Sheehan said the NRC wouldn't even be able to establish a
timetable for a decision until March.

He said the NRC was still waiting for information on what
Entergy will do to address potential cracks in a key plant
component that developed at other, similar nuclear reactors that
have undergone power boosts.

In addition, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, another arm
of the NRC, still must hold hearings on safety issues raised by
the Department of Public Service and the New England Coalition
about the power uprate.

Sheehan noted that the DPS had recently filed yet another safety
concern about the uprate. That is being considered by the
quasi-judicial board, which is made up of nuclear experts from
business and academia.

And Sheehan said that Entergy still had to address issues raised
by the special engineering inspection conducted last year by an
NRC engineering group.

That inspection, required by the state Public Service Board as a
condition of its approving the power increase, was the focus of
filings earlier this week by the state, Entergy and the New
England Coalition.

Whether the inspection met the state goals of the Public Service
Board still hasn't been decided. The board had given interested
parties until last week to file comments about the special
inspection before it ruled on whether the inspection answered
its concerns.

But according to this week's filings, the New England Coalition,
an anti-nuclear group, said the inspection was so superficial
that it didn't do what it was supposed to do. The inspection
found eight safety-related defects in 45 components it looked
at, but said they were all of low safety significance.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said both plant
officials and the state Department of Public Service considered
the NRC review adequate.
   
© 2004 Times Argus
*****************************************************************
 17 CNW Telbec: AECL signs strategic alliance 
 	
Attention Business Editors: 

    SHANGHAI, PRC, Jan. 19 /CNW/ - Atomic Energy of Canada 
Limited (AECL) and the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and 
Design Institute (SNERDI) have agreed to undertake joint programs 
in the development of advanced CANDU technology and products.

    "This strategic partnership agreement provides a platform to 
promote the localization and further development of CANDU 
technology in China ", said Dr. Ken Petrunik, Senior Vice 
President and Chief Operating Officer of Atomic Energy of Canada 
Limited. "AECL and SNERDI had worked very closely together during 
construction of the very successful Third Qinshan Nuclear Power 
Plant (TQNPP) and our relationship has flourished since then."

    AECL and SNERDI will undertake the following:

        -  joint engineering work on CANDU operational support 
areas including plant life management, maintenance, and 
inspection;

        -  cooperate on joint development projects on operation 
of CANDU reactors, including fuel management and fuel cycle 
studies for existing and future CANDU fuel designs;

        -  jointly refine and apply the advanced engineering 
tools used by AECL to engineering tasks in CANDU design, 
construction, and operation.

    "SNERDI has gained considerable experience with the CANDU 
design through the Qinshan CANDU project", says Xia Zhiding, Vice 
President and Chief Engineer of SNERDI. "The newly signed 
cooperation agreement is an important step for SNERDI to 
consolidate and further develop CANDU expertise." In 2003, SNERDI 
has established a CANDU Engineering Center (CEC) in cooperation 
with AECL to provide technical service to TQNPP and to 
participate in design of AECL's new generation advanced design 
ACR.

    The ACR is a pressurized light water reactor that retains the 
unique CANDU advantages and incorporates proven design 
innovations and optimization.

    AECL has a proven track record in China having recently 
completed two CANDU 6 units on budget and ahead of time at the 
Qinshan Phase III site in Zhejiang Province.

    The CANDU 6 is one of the world's most successful power 
reactor designs providing emissions-free electricity to countries 
on four continents. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is the design 
authority for CANDU nuclear reactors and is completing the 
development of an innovative next generation system - the 
Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR(TM)).
 
For further information: Ian Dovey, AECL Media Relations, (905) 
823-9040 ext. 4641, (905) 302-6535, doveyi@aecl.ca
 	
ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LIMITED - Renseignements sur © 2003 CNW 
Telbec Ltée                                            
*****************************************************************
 18 Japan Times: Chubu fires up newest, biggest reactor

  Wednesday, January 19, 2005   

 SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) Chubu Electric Power Co. started commercial
operation Tuesday of the nation's biggest nuclear reactor,
company officials said.

 The No. 5 reactor of the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Omaezaki,
Shizuoka Prefecture, generates 1.38 million kw.

 It is the first new reactor in Japan since the No. 3 reactor of
the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture went online in
January 2002.

 The new Hamaoka reactor is the nation's 53rd in commercial
operation.

 The launch of the reactor represents the completion of Chubu
Electric's nuclear reactor construction program. The company has
canceled plans to build nuclear plants in Ashihama, Mie
Prefecture, and Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, due to a slump in
electricity demand.

 The new unit in Hamaoka is a so-called advanced boiling water
reactor, the first of a next generation of advanced light-water
reactors.

 Construction began in March 1999, and tests started last March.
Chubu Electric put the construction cost at about 360 billion
yen.

 With the No. 5 reactor onstream, the Hamaoka plant generates a
total of about 5,000 mw of electricity. Nuclear power accounts
for 15 percent of Chubu's total electricity output, up from 12
percent before the launch of the new reactor.

 Nuclear power accounts for about 30 percent of Japan's total
electricity output.

 The Japan Times: Jan. 19, 2005
(C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 19 The Dolphin: Underway on nuclear power

News - 01/20/2005 - 

Photo by JO3 Steven Feller, Vice Adm. Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN 
(Ret.), first commanding officer of USS Nautilus (SSN 571) speaks 
during the 50th anniversary of Nautilus' first underway.                                     

Nautilus celebrates first underway's 50th anniversary
				 			
1955 was a busy year for America. Dr. Jonas Salk's polio
vaccine was declared safe for distribution, Scrabble made its
debut in the board game industry, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the
New York Yankees, four games to three, to claim their first
World Series Victory, and Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King
led the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama. So it's no
small wonder that USS Nautilus' (SSN 571) first underway went
virtually unnoticed. 

A half-century to the day later, shipmates young and old came
together to honor Nautilus at the 50th anniversary of her first
underway Monday at the Submarine Force Library and Museum. 
Lt. Cmdr. Chris Slawson, officer-in-charge of Historic Ship
Nautilus, noted that even though there was little fanfare
associated with Nautilus' first underway 50 years ago, in the
following years people would come to appreciate what it meant.

 "I'm sure few that day in 1955, could appreciate the enormous
impact that Nautilus' successful application of nuclear power
would have, not only on the submarine force, but also the rest
of the Navy, and the civilian power industry," he said.
"Reverberations of that event are still echoing and the
transformation of the submarine force, which began with the
nuclear-powered Nautilus 50 years ago, continues today."

 One of the speakers for the event, Capt. Frank Caldwell,
Commander, Submarine Development Squadron TWELVE, examined in
detailed the changes Nautilus brought to the submarine force,
and how that desire to improve and innovate can still be seen on
the waterfront today, most notably, aboard USS Virginia (SSN
774). 

"Nautilus is a total warship. With the inherent stealth of a
submerged platform, an impressive speed advantage over earlier
submarines, and an unlimited endurance, Nautilus had the ability
to hit targets, evade at sustained speeds and reengage targets,"
he said. "Nautilus changed the way we conduct attacks against
surface and submerged targets. Not only did she set records for
submerged endurance, speed and global reach, but she transformed
our force in the way we conduct all of our submarine missions
today.

 "Like those who have gone before in taking Nautilus to sea, the
submarine force continues to respond to the nation's needs,
transforming the force to meet our peacetime and combatant
challenges," continued Caldwell.

 In telling of the story leading to the first underway, Vice
Adm. Eugene Wilkinson, USN (Ret.), Nautilus' first commanding
officer, was invited as the event's featured speaker. 
Wilkinson explained how he developed the schedule for the
construction for the project that would become Nautilus, when
then-Capt. Hyman G. Rickover hired him as the Navy
representative at the Atomic Energy Commission in Pittsburgh,
Pa. 

"I advised Capt. Rickover that we needed a schedule (for the
development of what would become Nautilus). He said 'you're
young and immature,' he said. 'You can't schedule that.' 'Why
not?' I replied. 'We'll schedule all the development items. If
we fall behind on one, we'll double the effort. If we stay
behind, we'll develop an alternate approach.' 'All right,' he
said. 'make me a schedule.'" 

After acquiring help from the Bureau of Ships, the Atomic Energy
Commission, the Westinghouse Company and the Electric Boat
Company, Wilkinson developed a schedule, which he presented to
Rickover in the fall of 1949.

 "That schedule called for this as-yet-unnamed ship to go to sea
on 1 January 1955," said Wilkinson. Because of a steam pipe
incident, we didn't make it. We went later on the 17th; but
that's fairly close for government work."

 As Nautilus got closer to the historic date of her first
underway, the crew welcomed the 1955 New Year by blowing the
whistle with nuclear energy-produced steam. 

"Our detailed schedule called for us to get underway at 11 a.m.,
January 17, 1955," said Wilkinson. "To prepare to do that
safely, we insisted on having the ship to ourselves for four
days. We called it a 'fast cruise.' "During that 'fast cruise'
period...two Navy captains from the Chief of Information in
Washington, D.C. arrived and wanted to come aboard to talk to
me. They said, 'you're about to get underway. This is an
historic event; you should send an historic message.' 'Listen,'
I said. "...You gentlemen are public relations experts. Write an
historic message and I'll send it.' They gave me a message that
was one and a half pages long with some eloquent-sounding words.

I wrote a briefer message: Underway on nuclear power." 

Wilkinson noted that it's been said that it took the Navy 50
years to shift from sail to steam. However, the shift to nuclear
power was instantaneous. 

"Nautilus' very successful operation caused an immediate shift
to nuclear for all attack submarines, for soon-to-follow nuclear
plants for the most important surface ships, and for an
as-fast-as-they-could-be-built survivable, strategic deterrent
force of ballistic missile submarines. That immediate shift was
caused by the very extensive evaluation exercises that were held
and documented by the many members of Congress, senior Navy
officials, scientists, key government officials who rode the
ship and saw how well she performed," said Wilkinson. "The
famous WWII admiral, Arleigh Burke, who became the Chief of
Naval Operations, rode her twice and was instrumental in the
decision for the early construction of key nuclear surface
ships. Successful Navy nuclear propulsion led to the use of
nuclear energy in plants ashore to produce electricity, which is
so important to many countries in the world today." 

©The Dolphin 2005                                       

*****************************************************************
 20 Press Release: UK Atomic Energy Authority gives evidence to Scottish Affairs Committee
 
 [politics.co.uk]   	 	 
 	 
Updated, Friday, 21 Jan 2005 05:00 GMT+0 Debate - Press Releases
 
 Thu, 20 Jan 2005

UKAEA SUBMITS EVIDENCE TO SCOTTISH AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY

 The UK Atomic Energy Authority has given evidence to the
Scottish Affairs Committee of MPs to assist its inquiry into
aspects of decommissioning the former experimental fast reactor
establishment at Dounreay.

 The committee is exploring the long-term employment prospects
for staff involved in decommissioning the site and the long-term
strategy for managing the radioactive wastes that arise from
decommissioning. It is also examining future energy sources in
Scotland.

 In its written submission, UKAEA underlines its commitment to
continued close working with organisations such as Caithness and
Sutherland Enterprise, North Highland College UHI and Highland
Council to identify opportunities for sustainable economic
development.

 In the short-term, this involves working together to maximise
the economic benefits to the area from a decommissioning
programme which accounts for one in five jobs locally and
contributes an estimated £80 million to the local economy
annually.

 Establishing the reputation of Caithness and north Sutherland
as an international centre for decommissioning skills and
expertise can aid firms to identify new business opportunities
at home and abroad as more of the early generation of nuclear
technology reaches the end of its life and requires
decommissioning.

 The submission outlines the main radioactive waste streams at
Dounreay and the current practices of storage or disposal.
Nationally, an independent committee has been appointed by
Government to review the options for the long-term management of
those wastes for which no disposal route currently exists.

 While's UKAEA's primary role today is to clean up and restore
sites formerly used to research and develop nuclear fission, the
submission to the committee highlights UKAEA's continuing role
in the international research and development of nuclear fusion.
This work is carried out at Culham in England.

 UKAEA Dounreay director Norman Harrison headed a UKAEA
delegation that gave oral evidence to the committee.

 He said: "I welcome the interest being shown by the committee
in our work to decommission and clean-up the site at Dounreay.
UKAEA has more experience of nuclear decommissioning than any
other organisation in western Europe, and we believe our safety
record today is second to none.

 "Decommissioning is about safely characterising and segregating
the different radioactive wastes, and getting them into a form
that makes them safe for long-term storage or disposal. That
creates significant employment and business opportunities in the
short-term, and we are committed to working with the economic
development agencies to take maximum advantage of these."

 Ends

 Notes to Editors:

 1. Dounreay was Britain's centre of fast reactor research and
development from 1955 until 1994. Three nuclear reactors, fuel
reprocessing and other associated nuclear facilities were built
and operated on a 140-acre site. The site is now being
decommissioned at an estimated total cost in the region of £2.7
billion. The decommissioning programme is prioritised towards
reducing and eliminating the greatest hazards first.

2. Decommissioning Dounreay is worth approximately £80 million
a year to the economy of the Highlands in general and Caithness
and north Sutherland in particular through nett salaries,
pensions, contracts and sub-contracts. One in five jobs in
Caithness and north Sutherland depend on decommissioning. Across
Scotland, it accounts for 2,930 jobs. [End of item]  

To read more about the views of UKAEA - United Kingdom Atomic
Energy Authority click here. 

© 2005 www.politics.co.uk. About Us | Editorial Policy |
*****************************************************************
 21 Australian: Our new 'neutron factory' 

[January 21, 2005]
 	 	
By Leigh Dayton

FOR now, its name is a mystery - but when Australia's replacement 
reactor is up and running next year it will crank out subatomic 
particles for science, industry and medicine.

"It's a neutron factory," said Ross Miller, an engineer with the 
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation at 
Sydney's Lucas Heights, where the reactor is being built. 

Mr Miller is also assistant project manager for the reactor,
slated to take over from ANSTO's 44-year-old High Flux reactor. 

That machine produces most of Australia's radioactive elements,
or radioisotopes, for medical and industrial applications, as
well as neutron beams for studying the structure of materials. 

Like any reactor, the new machine will generate neutrons through
controlled fission of nuclear fuel, in this case Uranium 235. 

But unlike a conventional power reactor, which needs at least
100 tonnes of uranium fuel, the so-called research reactor will
use just 7.7kg of U235, packed into 16 fuel assemblies, or rods. 

According to Mr Miller, the start-up fuel will be made by
Argentina's atomic energy agency, CNEA, from uranium enriched by
the US Department of Energy. Enrichment boosts the generation of
neutrons during fission. 

Since a power reactor is designed to produce heat - with
neutrons as "waste" - it operates at greater temperatures and
pressure than a research machine, and generates far more power
as heat. 

Comparative figures tell all: temperature 380C and 48C; pressure
160 atmospheric pressures and one atmospheric pressure; power
4000 megawatts and 20 megawatts. 

Even the fuel-laden core differs dramatically, 4m by 5m compared
with a mere 35cm square by 60cm high. 

As Mr Miller said, "The fundamental difference is in the intent
of the two reactors, heat versus neutrons". 
		 			 			
terms      © The Australian   
*****************************************************************
 22 Times Argus: Nuclear evacuation strategy criticized
 	 	 	 	 
 January 20, 2005

Associated Press   

BRATTLEBORO — An anti-nuclear group is urging Gov. James Douglas
not to sign off on an emergency evacuation plan for the
communities surrounding the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Nuclear-Free Vermont has started a letter writing campaign to
dissuade Douglas from sending a letter to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency describing the plan.

FEMA is responsible for certifying that states have evacuation
plans in place. Every year, the state sends FEMA a letter about
the evacuation plan.

Nuclear-Free presented local selectboards with 10
recommendations for how the plan could be improved. The
Dummerston, Halifax and Guilford boards agreed with the
recommendations.

"We are asking the governor to join with the selectboards in the
emergency planning zone that decided to not sign the evacuation
plans," said Ed Anthes of Nuclear-Free Vermont.

Douglas is working with the commissioner of the Department of
Public Safety to ensure the evacuation plan meets all FEMA
requirements, said press secretary Jason Gibbs.

If it does, the letter will be sent, Gibbs said.

According to Vermont Emergency Management Director Albie Lewis,
the annual letter is merely a description of what was done in
the previous year related to the plan, such as training,
exercises, improvements and what will be done in the upcoming
year.

The evacuation plan has been under intense scrutiny since an
unsuccessful school evacuation drill last month. School
officials are planning to hold another drill on Feb. 15.

Nuclear-Free Vermont recommended that all bus drivers and others
involved in transportation wear pagers; the addition of sirens
in Guilford, Halifax and Dummerston, as well as areas of
Brattleboro where the already existing sirens cannot be heard;
that a radioactive plume monitoring team and van be stationed in
Brattleboro; and emergency alert radios be upgraded so they are
preprogrammed for the correct station.
   
    
© 2004 Times Argus
*****************************************************************
 23 Guardian Unlimited: Navy Reassigns Submarine Commander
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday January 20, 2005 5:01 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy has reassigned the commander of an
attack submarine that ran aground Jan. 8 in the western Pacific
Ocean, officials said Thursday. 

Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, who commanded the USS San Francisco, was
reassigned to a unit in Guam pending the completion of the
investigation into the crash, a statement from the U.S. 7th
Fleet said. Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the fleet's
commander, ordered Mooney's removal from command. 

The nuclear-powered San Francisco was on its way to Australia
when it struck an undersea mass of rock that was not on the
ship's charts. Machinist Mate 2nd Class Joseph Allen Ashley, 24,
of Akron, Ohio, died of injuries suffered during the crash, and
23 other members of the crew were injured. The submarine was
conducting underwater operations about 350 miles south of Guam. 

The submarine has a crew of 137. The vessel sustained severe
damage, but the vessel's nuclear reactor was unaffected. 

The San Francisco made its way back to its home port in Guam
under its own power. Its outer hull was damaged, but its inner
hull remained intact. 

Cmdr. Andrew Hale, deputy commander of the Guam-based Submarine
Squadron 15, will assume the duties as commanding officer of San
Francisco. 

The 7th Fleet's statement did not assign blame for the crash. 

^--- 

On the Net: 

7th Fleet: http://www.c7f.navy.mil/ 
  
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 24 ISN: Russia scraps two Soviet-era subs                                                                                                                                 

[International Relations and Security Network]                                
				 					 				
Akula (Typhoon-class) submarine. (ISN)]  											ISN
										 									 									
ISN SECURITY WATCH (20/01/05) - Russia will demolish two
Akula-class nuclear submarines, known in the West under the NATO
designation “Typhoon”, the world’s largest, Russian daily
Izvestia reported on Wednesday. 

Funding for scrapping the vessels will come from the US 
Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, established by US 
Congress in 1991 to enable Russia to retain state control over 
and ensure the security of Soviet nuclear weapons and materials. 
Two of six Typhoon-class submarines produced in the 1980s are 
slated for scrapping. A delegation of US members of Congress and 
Russian Defense Ministry officials visited the demolition site 
earlier this week in the northwestern Russian town of 
Severodvinsk, Izvestia reported on Wednesday. The 172-meter-long 
submarine had the capacity to carry 20 of Russia’s largest naval 
intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as the RSM-52 under 
Russian nomenclature (and as the SS-N-20 Sturgeon under NATO 
nomenclature). Each missile carries up to 10 warheads, and a 
Typhoon-class submarine can launch them from under the polar ice 
sheet without breaking it in advance. 

That feature prevented the early detection of a launch by 
satellites and early interception, while the submarine's coating 
was able to deflect sonar signals, making the submarine even more 
difficult to locate. Russia's remaining four Typhoon-class 
submarines will be modernized, though only one will retain its 
intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

The submarines will be equipped with the newest Bulava-M naval 
missile systems, Izvestia reported. Since 1992, the Pentagon has 
given billions of dollars to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and 
Kazakhstan to finance the quick and secure destruction of nuclear 
and chemical arsenals and to strengthen control over the movement 
of sensitive materials in the non-proliferation effort. 

In 2004, the CTR program – also named the Nunn-Lugar program 
after two US Congressmen who advanced the initiative in the wake 
of the collapse of the Soviet Union - allocated US$690 million 
for such projects in former Soviet Union countries. Radioactive 
waste from decrepit Soviet-era nuclear submarines has become a 
major concern of Russian ecologists in recent years, while 
concerned individuals have paid a high price for sounding the 
ecological alarm bells. 

In recent “spy” scandals, two Russian naval officers - Alexander 
Nikitin and Grigory Pasko - were charged with espionage for 
divulging information about nuclear and chemical dumps in the 
Northern Sea to Norwegian officials, and for making revelations 
about similar activities in the Far East to the Japanese. In 
2000, a plant to reprocess nuclear waste from Russian submarines 
was opened in Severodvinsk, to which the US contributed US$17 
million. (By Nabi Abdullaev in Moscow) » Reference links    » 
Current issues links                                                                                                                                                                              
» Earlier news [Submit a letter]                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
														 						 				 						 					   					 					 					  
						

 							
 								   								 									
*****************************************************************
 25 ISN: Study says Baikonur launches toxic                                                                                                                                
	 		 				 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 				 		
[International Relations and Security Network]                                
     
Russian researches say they have evidence that rocket launches
from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome are poisoning children and
the environment.									 								 									 									
										 														 										 									 										
By Don Hill for RFE/RL (18/01/05)

Russian researchers say rocket launches from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan are causing serious illnesses among
people who live nearby. Russia's Rosaviakosmos space agency, the
US space agency NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) all
launch rockets from the base. 

The unpublished study contends that unburned remnants of toxic 
fuels regularly spray over inhabited parts of Kazakhstan's Altai 
area. It says this is resulting in increased levels and severity 
of sickness among the area's children. The Nature science journal 
reported earlier this month that its writer has seen the Baikonur 
study, whose findings have not been made public previously. 

The weekly magazine says the most detailed part of the study was 
led by epidemiologist Sergei Zykov of Vector, the State Research 
Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk. Zykov 
concentrated on the children of Altai. His team examined the 1998 
to 2000 health records of about 1’000 children. It concluded that 
- compared to the regional average - children in the worst 
affected area were twice as likely to contract endocrine and 
blood disorders. Their levels of other diseases also were 
markedly higher. 

Officials deny poisoning 

As the British-based Nature reports, officials at Baikonur 
categorically deny any such problems. RFE/RL's Kazakh Service 
spoke with Erkin Shaymaghambetov, chief of the Department of 
Objects Control and Exploitation at the Kazakh State Aviation and 
Space Committee, which is based at Baikonur. "Representatives of 
the Environment Protection Ministry work here at the Cosmodrome. 
They provide control of the [environmental] situation. Here, we 
live ourselves in this city, and we do not feel any impact of the 
launches. Scientists have proven that the influence of the space 
activities on ecology is minimal," Shaymaghambetov said. 

A spokesman for the Baikonur complex told Nature that the health 
of the local population is continually monitored and that no 
problems have been identified. The Baikonur space complex in 
central Kazakhstan has been a public policy issue since the 
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Technically, it reverted to 
Kazakh ownership. But Russia, which built the complex, has been 
reluctant to pay the agreed annual rent of US$55 million. The 
amount is being paid in different ways, such as infrastructure 
repair in the Baikonur region and free studies for Kazakh 
officers in Russian military schools.

Environmental groups have raised questions about the impact of
Baikonur's operations. But these groups have not looked at the
issue with the same focus as the Vector studies. Mels Eleusizov
is chief of the Almaty-based Tabighat, a Kazakh environmental
group. "Do you know the volume of oxygen destroyed by every
launched rocket? Proton rockets are still being launched. They
use hepthil, which is a very toxic fuel. One gram of hepthil
contaminates 2 cubic kilometers of air. That is why we can say
that the ecological situation in the Baikonur area is drastic,"
Eleusizov said. Nature notes that other major launch sites, such
as NASA's Cape Canaveral in Florida, send rockets out over the
sea. 

Interest in disguising the truth 

In 1999, Kazakhstan temporarily banned operations in Baikonur
after two of Russia's Proton space rockets exploded over central
Kazakhstan, showering the local environment with toxic fuel.
Almost the entire population of Baikonur City works at the space
complex. Russia gave all of the workers the opportunity to
become Russian citizens. The effect was that Baikonur City
became a sort of Russian enclave in the center of Kazakhstan.

Nature is a peer-reviewed journal. That means that scientists in
the same fields as the authors examine all of the magazine's
articles. The Vector study and Zykov's finding have not been
reviewed by any other researchers, so the magazine published the
findings in what its editors termed a "news feature". An
accompanying editorial explains. It says: "The first detailed
epidemiological study of people living under the flight path
suggests that the rocket fuel is indeed causing health problems.

The study has not been peer reviewed, but it is funded by a
respected organization. At the very least, it should serve as a
warning flag to any agency that uses the base." NASA and ESA
rockets often launch from Baikonur. But both the European and US
space agencies disclaim any responsibility for possible human or
environmental problems. An ESA spokesman told Nature that the
agency buys a service from Baikonur and is not responsible for
what occurs as a result. The Nature editorial argues otherwise.

It says the two agencies should fund a broad study and publish
the results as soon as possible. The magazine warns that various
interests have potential motivations for disguising the truth.
Launches from Baikonur generate important income for the Russian
space program. And researchers sometimes are tempted to
exaggerate data in their efforts to win grants for additional
research. 

Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission
of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW,
Washington DC 20036. Funded by the US Congress. 									
*****************************************************************
 26 Mos News: Relatives of Kursk Submarine Crew Appeal to European Court -
                       
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
 
    [Divers inspect the wreck of the Kursk submarine / Photo:
Mammoet ] 

Divers inspect the wreck of the Kursk submarine / Photo: Mammoet 
 
Created: 20.01.2005 12:43 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:02 MSK 

MosNews

The families of the crewmembers of the Kursk submarine which
sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000 have filed an appeal to
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the
RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Thursday. 

The agency cited Boris Kuznetsov, a lawyer representing the
relatives of the dead sailors, as saying that the appeal had
been filed in connection with the Russian courts’ refusal to
launch an additional investigation into the tragedy.

Kuznetsov noted that new details were mentioned in the fresh
appeal, but did not elaborate. 

In June 2004 the Moscow District Military Court refused to
fulfill a request to start a new investigation into the Kursk
submarine’s sinking. The court turned down Kuznetsov’s protests
over the results of the expertise concerning the time of death
of the crewmembers in the acoustic compartment and also the
examination of the SOS signals. 

The criminal case into the Kursk tragedy was stopped in July
2003 after a special commission ruled that the explosion on
board the submarine was caused by a torpedo accident in the
course of a training launch. 

The Kursk nuclear submarine sank on Aug. 12, 2000 in the course
of large-scale naval exercises. All 118 crewmembers were killed
in the disaster. 
SEE ALSO
 	
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
 27 Hawk Eye: Cancer claims make gain 

Thursday, January 20, 2005, 

Sen. Tom Harkin says move by federal agency opens way for denied
payments. 

By KILEY MILLER
 

MIDDLETOWN — Former nuclear weapons workers at the Iowa Army
Ammunition plant who developed one of 22 specific cancers from
radiation exposure came one step closer to receiving
compensation from the federal government Wednesday. 

Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Ia., said the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health has recommended that IAAP workers
be added to a Special Exposure Cohort, which would qualify them
for payment of $150,000 even if documentation of their exposure
levels is insufficient. 

The IAAP workers are among workers from weapons plants in
several states who are seeking special consideration under the
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program,
which reimburses former Department of Energy and Atomic Energy
Commission personnel suffering from cancer caused by radiation
exposure on the job. 

Both agencies built and tested nuclear weapons components at the
Middletown ammunition plant from 1947 to 1974. 

To date, all claims from IAAP workers or their families for
cancer compensation have been denied due to insufficient
evidence of radiation exposure. 

Harkin said in a press release that a recent NIOSH study
revealed little or no radiation screening was conducted at IAAP
prior to 1975. 

"As a result of the inadequate documentation, many workers made
sick by exposure at the plant will have difficulty receiving
compensation unless they are added to the (special exposure
cohort)," Harkin said. 

"This is great news for those IAAP workers who have suffered
from cancer due to exposure ... I am pleased that the workers
and their families will finally receive this long–overdue
compensation." 

An advisory board of NIOSH will review a petition for inclusion
in the special cohort from former IAAP nuclear weapons workers
beginning at 1 p.m., Feb. 9, at the Adam's Mark St. Louis. The
petition asks the Department of Labor, which administers the
compensation program, to waive the proof requirement. 

Instead, all employees on Line 1, where the nuclear weapons work
took place, would be placed in the special exposure cohort and
be eligible for a government payout of up to $150,000 if they
develop specific cancers. 

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, affiliated
with the Office of Compensation and Analysis within NIOSH, is
made up of professors, medical researchers and nuclear energy
professionals. 

After reviewing the IAAP petition, the board will pass its
recommendation on to the Secretary of Health and Human Services
who, in turn, could elevate the issue to Congress. 

The advisory board meeting is a three–day affair, beginning at
8:30 a.m. Feb. 7 and running until 5:15 p.m. Feb. 9. 

The board members never have addressed a special exposure cohort
request before, but they face two in February. Along with IAAP,
an application from workers at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in
St. Louis also will be considered. 

Nuclear weapons workers from Kentucky, Ohio, Alaska and
Tennessee already are included in the special exposure cohort. 

The IAAP review will last just over two hours. 

The Adam's Mark is located at Fourth and Chestnut streets in
downtown St. Louis. For reservations, call (314) 241–7400, or on
the World Wide Web at www.adamsmark.com.   
  
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · 
*****************************************************************
 28 Navy Times: Skipper of submarine San Francisco relieved of command

January 20, 2005

 By William H. McMichael Times Staff Writer

 The skipper of the sub that struck an underwater mountain south
of Guam 12 days ago has been relieved of his command, the Navy’s
7th Fleet said. 

Cmdr. Kevin Mooney was reassigned today to unspecified duties at
Guam’s Submarine Squadron 15 by 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm.
Jonathan W. Greenert. 

Cmdr. Ike Skelton, a spokesman, said Mooney was effectively
relieved but that the permanence of the move or any punitive
action would depend on how the investigation into the mishap’s
cause turns out.

San Francisco’s new commanding officer is Cmdr. Andrew Hale,
deputy commander of Submarine Squadron 15.

The Jan. 8 grounding killed one sailor, injured almost half of
the 137-man crew and left the attack sub with “extensive” damage
to its bow, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, Pacific Fleet Submarine
Force spokesman. The forward ballast tanks, the sonar dome and
sonar sphere all are damaged, he said, while the inner pressure
hull “does not appear” to be so. Also undamaged were the sub’s
engineering, propulsion and electrical systems, he said.

Davis also said the Navy is planning to put the San Francisco
into a floating drydock in Guam to enable technicians to make
the most accurate assessment of damages. Still to be determined:
if the drydock is nuclear-capable, something the Navy continues
to check out. Davis said that’s expected to happen. If it does,
the sub could be in drydock in about a week, he said.

No estimate of cost for repairs has been announced.

William H. McMichael is the Hampton Roads bureau chief for Navy
Times. Reach him at (757) 223-0096. 
*****************************************************************
 29 Las Vegas RJ: NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY: Bodman vows to press Yucca dump 
 
Thursday, January 20, 2005
 
Energy secretary nominee supports initiatives to expand nuclear
programs By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
Samuel Bodman appears before the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
WASHINGTON -- Energy secretary nominee Samuel Bodman said
Wednesday he will "enthusiastically follow through" to continue
developing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
 
 Speaking at a confirmation hearing before the Senate energy
committee, Bodman said he supported Bush administration
initiatives to expand nuclear energy, like the Nuclear Power
2010 program to begin building new reactors by the end of the
decade.
 
 "But before that can happen, we have to make real progress at
Yucca," where spent fuel from existing plants would be buried,
Bodman said. "We have to overcome the legal and regulatory
issues. I am committed to that."
 
 "I view one of my responsibilities is to execute the will of
Congress and the president to see to it we follow through with
Yucca Mountain," Bodman said.
 
 President Bush signed legislation in July 2002 designating the
Nevada site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas for a repository to
hold 77,000 tons of spent fuel and government nuclear waste.
 
 Bodman received a warm reception from members of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a two-hour
confirmation hearing where he was questioned generally on issues
including electricity regulation, nuclear nonproliferation and
oil drilling in the Arctic. 
Bodman has been confirmed by the Senate to two other
high-ranking posts in the Bush administration. Energy committee
leaders said they expected he will win confirmation to the DOE
position as well. He is deputy secretary at the Treasury
Department, the No. 2 agency job.
 
 Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he did not know Bodman
well and did not know yet how he will vote. Sen. John Ensign,
R-Nev., plans to vote for the nominee, spokesman Jack Finn said.
 
 Bodman said he had not yet reviewed the Energy Department's
upcoming 2006 budget or even entered the DOE office building,
but he pledged to work with senators on their matters of concern.
 
 On renewable energy, he told Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., he was
"quite enthused" about prospects for wind energy production,
particularly if generators could be built near population areas
to keep transmission costs low.
 
 Bodman also promised Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to hear
out her opposition to development of low-yield nuclear weapons
and "bunker buster" nuclear bombs.
 
 Bodman, 66, is a former professor at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and a corporate leader who built
Boston-based Fidelity Investments into a major financial
services firm. Before entering the government in 2001, he was
chief executive of Cabot Corp., a specialty chemical firm with
manufacturing plants in 25 countries. 

Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 30 Las Vegas SUN: Derailed train contained contaminated soils

Today: January 20, 2005 at 11:12:22 PST 

By Mary Manning <manning@lasvegassun.com> LAS VEGAS SUN

 In addition to six rail cars with hazardous materials residue
in them, the train that that derailed after flooding washed out
the tracks last week included eight cars containing contaminated
soils on the way to a Utah landfill.

 The damaged tracks of the siding, about 70 miles northeast of
Las Vegas where the 55-car derailed train is located, won't stop
the Union Pacific railroad from resuming some freight shipments
between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City next week.

 A coal train heading for a Nevada Power Company plant could
leave Utah as soon as Monday, although the siding (a short
section of railroad track connected by switches with a main
track) has not been repaired yet, Union Pacific spokesman John
Bromley said Wednesday.

 The coal train was loaded near Provo, Utah, and is expected to
deliver its load at the Reid Gardner Station, owned by Nevada
Power, 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas in Moapa Valley, sometime
next week, Bromley said.

 "We're shooting for an opening Monday, a partial opening,"
Bromley said.

 The rugged desert canyon northeast of Las Vegas was one of five
Union Pacific routes severely damaged by a record winter storm
earlier this month.

 The narrow canyon churned floodwaters that washed the roadbed
out from under the tracks in numerous places and damaged bridges
and signals, Bromley said.

 The six cars that derailed were empty, except for one carrying
microwave ovens, Bromley said.

 Six other cars remaining on the tracks contained residues of
chlorine, sulfuric acid and liquified petroleum gas in them,
Bromley said.

 Another eight cars also remaining upright contained
contaminated soil removed from an industrial site in California.
Bromley said he did not know what chemicals or hazardous
materials the soil contained. The hazardous- soil cars were
heading to one of six licensed hazardous-materials landfills in
Utah.

 No chemicals or contaminated soil leaked from any of the cars.
Freight trains routinely carry contaminated cargo and chemicals
nationwide.

 "It's not of any risk to anybody," Bromley said of the
sidelined train. "Those cars did not derail."

 The only cars that did derail in the flood were empty, except
for one filled with microwave ovens, Bromley said.

 Rail crews had parked the derailed train on a siding two weeks
ago after track was damaged near Caliente, 130 miles northeast
of Las Vegas. With more recent floods, tracks were washed out
from under the train.

 The Nevada Public Utilities Commission's safety division was
overseeing track repairs at the remote canyon, spokeswoman
Rebecca Wagner said Wednesday. The state PUC inspects trains
passing through Nevada.

 The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection sent a
preliminary assessment team to investigate the derailed train
last week, Las Vegas NDEP manager Tim Murphy said.

 There were no leaks and nothing that posed an immediate public
or environmental threat, Murphy said.

 "The only time we would get involved is if there was a spill,"
Murphy said.

 The state had been informed by the railroad that the sidelined
freight train contained asphalt, wheat, a carload of microwave
ovens and the rest of the cars were empty, Murphy said. Nothing
spilled into the Muddy River, which flooded.

 "I think, luckily, this was not of significance," Murphy said.
"Rails are far safer than me driving from my office to my home."

 All the repair work on tracks in the West could take weeks or
months to complete, Bromley said.

 Round-the-clock work on the line between Salt Lake City, Las
Vegas and Los Angeles will result in partial service next week,
a Union Pacific statement said. The line averages 25 trains per
day and is one of two primary routes linking Los Angeles and Las
Vegas to the Midwest, Bromley said.

 Seven work trains are hauling rock to fill the washouts at both
ends of the canyon.

 Flooding last week damaged an 80-mile stretch of track near the
Utah border. The heaviest damage occurred in a narrow canyon
south of Caliente. Complicating repair work, floodwaters also
washed away access roads in the steep canyon, road that have to
be repaired in order to reach the tracks that collapsed when the
roadbed was swept out from under the rails.

 As part of the repairs, rail workers will build a new bridge to
replace the Cottonwood Wash Bridge, which was buried under as
much as six feet of mud and rock during the flooding. The track
will be raised by 10 feet in that area.

 Trains carrying vital materials, such as liquid chlorine to
disinfect drinking water, have been routed from Salt Lake City
to Reno and through California on alternate tracks, Bromley
said. Salt from Utah was shipped the long way to a Henderson
industrial complex for making chlorine disinfectant.

 "Chlorine is very important in treating municipal drinking
water," Bromley said. The salt had priority for delivery on
alternative tracks, he added.

 
 
*****************************************************************
 31 EHC Blog: Thank Goodness the Media is Looking Out for Us! (Perchlorate)
 	 	 
Environment and Health Coverage Blog
          
January 20, 2005                                                                                                                
POSTED BY: BLOGGING:                                                                                       

When we edited and posted Jeff Shaw's recent story on the
dangerous chemical perchlorate, I didn't actually have a good
idea of how poorly other media outlets had covered the recent
findings of the National Academies of Science, allegedly
providing more lenient findings after a heavy lobbying campaign
by the Defense Department on behalf of its beloved contractors.
But now that I have taken a look on Google News, I am all the
more proud of the story Jeff put together for us. The way others
handled the subject is simply astounding. Here's a brief
review... 

WARNING: Severe sarcasm ahead! 							

A Business Week article adorably asks, "Perchlorate: Out of the
Hot Water?": 

The NAS committee recommended a safe dosage level 23 times
higher than what the EPA had come up with in its initial risk
assessment in 2002 -- even though the NAS committee's broader
findings matched many of the conclusions of the EPA and health
departments in California and seven other states that have
completed their own assessments on perchlorate. 
The BW article was at least responsible enough to note there was
a controversy over the science, but it buried this important
part: 
The EPA still has to translate the reference dose to an
appropriate level in drinking water -- the so-called water
level. 
We found that important enough to elaborate in the entire last
portion of our article. 
But what is most egregious is that the BW story, like most
others, ignored the fact that the NAS was pressured by the
Pentagon, which held secret meetings with corporations. I know
this is a big shocker, since Business Week responsibly includes
links to corporations' stock quotes every time it mentions a
publicly traded company by name. 
A lot of papers did address the controversy raised by the
Natural Resources Defense Counsel, but they treated the NRDC's
amazing, publicly available research as a matter of opinion.
Here's a typical example from the Baltimore Sun: 
Officials at the NRDC said that public records recently obtained
through a lawsuit showed that the Department of Defense and
White House discussed how the scope of the study should be
limited and which scientists should sit on the panel. 

Some of the studies used by the NAS to reach its conclusions
were funded by the defense industry or Pentagon, said the NRDC.
And in the end, the 15-member panel had two scientists who had
at one time performed work for the defense or perchlorate
industries. A third scientist stepped down after being accused
of a conflict. 
Must be too costly to pay a reporter and his or her editor to
actually look at those documents. If only they had a budget like
TNS's, they could do a better job! 
The Sun thought it perfectly appropriate to counter-balance that
"opinion" with one from the NAS: 

William Colglazier, executive officer of the National Academies
of Science, denied that the private, nonprofit organization,
whose members are selected by independent academics around the
world, was biased or influenced by lobbying.

"We were completely independent," Colglazier said. "The academy
has total control over who was appointed, and there were no
conflicts of interest." 
Totally independent? From the National Academies' own Frequently
Asked Questions document: 
About 85 percent of funding comes from the federal government
through contracts and grants from agencies and 15 percent from
state governments, private foundations, industrial
organizations, and funds provided by the Academies member
organizations. 
It appears perhaps the National Academies has a different of the
term "independent" than we do here at TNS. 
But anyway, back to the perchlorate dispute... It appears both
sides are right, if we are to believe the Sun. Isn't it great to
live in a democracy? 
Speaking of FAQs, the Sun was kind enough to include a little
perchlorate Q & A at the end of its online article. It cited the
EPA as the source, but lo and behold, it included information
not actually provided by the EPA in its own FAQ (from which the
rest of the questions and answers appear to be drawn): 
What does the report mean? If the EPA accepts the scientific
panel's recommendations, higher amounts of perchlorate, up to 20
times greater than the current levels, will be allowed in
drinking water. 
Actually, they meant up to 23 times as high, but who's counting?
And who cares if that statement is neither true nor actually
made by the EPA? They're in the NEWS business, not the TRUTH
business. 
At least the Associated Press can always be counted on to
address all sides of an issue, right? In a story that first went
over the wire as "More perchlorate can be safely consumed, panel
says," the AP waited until paragraph ten to mention: 
The Natural Resources Defense Council contended that documents
obtained under Freedom of Information Act requests showed the
Pentagon and the White House had sought to influence the scope
of the academy's study in order to get a weaker standard. 
Again, it must have been the AP's limited budget that prevented
them from actually looking at the documents. Or maybe it is
their high standards for objectivity, relegating them to a cable
news-esque he said/she said approach to journalism, only
slightly weighted in favor of the administration's view: 
Bob Hopkins, spokesman for the White House's Office of Science
and Technology Policy, said accusations of improper influence by
administration officials "couldn't be further from the truth." 

The academy defended its work. "The government had no influence
over the conduct or outcome of this study," said E. William
Colglazier, the academy's executive officer. "The committee
members were highly competent, there were no conflicts of
interest, and we have full confidence in the report." 
Well, okay then! 
Good ol' Reuters managed to take the controversy head-on in one
of its two articles on the subject. Well, tail-on, actually.
Even in its first piece, headlined "U.S. Tried to Suppress
Pollutant Study, Group Says," Reuters led with: 
A new report from the National Academy of Sciences raises by 20
times the amount of rocket fuel pollution in drinking water
considered "safe," but environmentalists on Monday accused the
government of influencing the report's findings. 
Hook, line and sinker! 
That piece was one of the most thorough in addressing the NRDC's
"claims," but even they don't appear to have actually read the
documents, and prefer the he said/she said method of getting to
the truth. 
Reuters helped clear matters up that very same day, however,
with a better explanation, in a piece they responsibly called
"Some Levels of Rocket Fuel Pollution Safe -Report": 
At least two environmental groups accused the government of
trying to influence the report's findings, but disagreed on
whether the attempts had succeeded. 
The first group is the NRDC, and the second group is of course
the Environmental Working Group. The very same sources Jeff used
in our story. Reuters concluded that EWG determined that the NAS
panel was not influenced by government or corporate pressures. 
That's funny, because they told us there was pretty good
evidence that the NAS had indeed been influenced, and that they
suspected it had. They even said the NAS spun relatively
unremarkable findings, as Reuters ineptly proved by parroting
the 20 times safer claim. In fact, they probably even told
Reuters, which glossed over the matter, so we'll never know what
they actually heard: 
Another organization, the Environmental Working Group, said it
was "no secret" that government agencies tried to manipulate the
report but that it would accept the panel's findings. 
No matter. It isn't what Reuters learns that is important to us
lowly readers -- it is what they think we need to know that is
the real story... Down the hatch! 
Some of my favorites include the way local and regional papers
handled the new findings. Take this headline from the Pasadena
Star News, for example: "Area water is safe to drink, study
says." Case closed! Get a load of their lead: 
A report that the National Academies released this past week on
perchlorate in drinking water offered some soothing words for
many Pasadenans and Altadenans whose water for decades came at
least partially contaminated by a chemical plume beneath the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. 
So drink up, Pasadena! 
At least they offer this dire warning at the end of the third
paragraph: 
...some epidemiologists and toxicologists say crucial studies
that would improve any recommendation have not been completed. 
Deciding that could have been clearer, but not less painful to
read, a few paragraphs later the Star News noted: 
Jerome Hershman, an epidemiologist from UCLA's David Geffen
School of Medicine said, "I think (the Academies'
recommendation) is a reasonable compromise between safety, with
a great emphasis on safety, and any potential effect on
industry." 
Ah yes, the "effect on industry" factor of scientific inquiry.
Thank goodness we consulted a scientist who has an "emphasis on
safety"! Our friend the economist -- er, epidemiologist -- had
more to say: 
But he added, "the effect of greatest concern is reducing the
iodine availability for pregnant women and thus for the unborn
fetus. There is not really good data on that." 
Wow, them's fightin' words! Nothing like consulting a scientist
who modifies the word "fetus" with the word "unborn." He must
really care about kids and women's health! 
But what of the influence controversy? 
With the Natural Resources Defense Council accusing the Bush
administration of being too involved in the committee's study,
other environmental groups see the Academies' recommendation as
a victory for their cause. 
Care to elaborate? No? Okay... In its rigorous search for the
truth, the Star News decided not to explain or describe or even
mention again the NRDC's concerns or accusations. Truth can be
confusing, you know... 
Glad that messy business is taken care of. I guess we can drink
from the tap again, plume or no plume. 
Sleep well, America: the news media is looking out for us! 					
					 						 						|  					 				 				 					 						Comments...
					 					 							 								
deadline107: Thank Goodness the Media is Looking Out for Us!
 								

For Environmental Working Group's own analysis of the news
media's coverage, go to www.ewg.org. Included are an e-mail in
which the NAS chair acknowledges that a drinking water standard
will be based on other factors, and other material. 

Bill Walker, EWG 

*****************************************************************
 32 Whitehaven News: SELLAFIELD UNIONS SEEKS MEPS’ HELP 

SELLAFIELD’S union leaders have urged Members of the European 
Parliament to support their demand for the creation of a new, 
world class European Nuclear Research Establishment in West 
Cumbria.

The call was made by Sellafield joint shop stewards’ committee 
secretary and GMB union convener, Peter Kane at a meeting, in 
Strasbourg, on Tuesday last week, of the European Parliament’s 
Forum for the Future of Nuclear Energy.

Mr Kane was accompanied by Sellafield UCATT union convener and 
Nuklear21 nuclear workers’ campaign national secretary, Howard 
Rooms.

The unions’ demand received a positive response from the chairman 
of the Euro nuclear forum, Mr Terry Wynn, the Labour MEP for 
north west England.

Mr Wynn said: “This is a very interesting idea which we will look 
into seriously to see how we can develop it and make it a 
reality.”

Outlining the reasons for issuing their call, Peter Kane said: 
“On our previous visits to Europe we were encouraged by the 
former Energy Commissioner, Ms Loyola de Palacio of Spain who 
said that the EU was keen to support positive initiatives that 
would tackle the long-term treatment, storage and disposal of 
nuclear waste.

“Over 80 per cent of the UK’s nuclear waste is safely treated and 
stored at Sellafield. But as nuclear workers we are saying that 
we should go further by seriously investigating how best to treat 
that waste and most importantly to search for a process that 
could one day render high-level nuclear waste inert and harmless. 

“We believe that this is something we, this current generation, 
must work towards today and not leave it to future generations to 
sort. We created it, we should deal with it.

“At Sellafield and West Cumbria we have the knowledge, the skill 
and the expertise that such a European Union nuclear 
establishment could draw on in the search for the Holy Grail, as 
it were, of the nuclear power industry. In our opinion there is 
no better location for such an agency.

“We presented our idea to the Nuclear Energy Forum in Strasbourg 
and we have been encouraged by the positive response we received, 
even from anti-nuclear MEPs. Over the coming period we will be 
seeking to convince those who can make this happen to support us 
in our efforts to find a lasting solution to the issue of nuclear 
waste”.

*****************************************************************
 33 Whitehaven News: LESSONS FROM THE SELLAFIELD SHUTDOWN 

THE decision to let thousands of “non-essential” workers have 
paid leave because of health and safety fears at Sellafield has 
come back to haunt management. 

Perhaps because safety is – quite rightly – so ingrained in the 
nuclear industry, it was decided that the risk of bits of sheet 
metal being blown about in the storms meant workers should 
evacuate.

It must have been one of those lose-lose decisions for the 
unfortunate manager who had to make the call. Had work carried on 
and staff been injured or killed by wind-blown sheet metal, his 
career would have been on the line. Equally he now finds himself 
under public criticism by the emergency services for creating a 
traffic gridlock as the 6,000 workers cheerfully all rushed to 
their cars for the ultimate Le Mans start and resulting total 
traffic gridlock.

Perhaps the advice given during nuclear alerts at the vast 
complex would have adequately covered events: that advice is to 
stay indoors. Such a “lock-down” is frequently used in emergency 
training exercises at Sellafield, so must be well- rehearsed. 

The other less-costly solution would have been to require staff 
working out of doors or moving between buildings to wear hard 
hats.

Oh... and in these days of public image and “spin”, another 
priority for the management must be to find a better description 
than “non-essential” for its loyal workforce!

*****************************************************************
 34 Whitehaven News: UNION FEARS SELLAFIELD SELL OFF TO USA 

THE largest union at British Nuclear Fuels has warned of a 
potential piecemeal sell-off of Sellafield to US multinationals.

The Prospect union last week demanded the Government come clean 
about its intentions for the future owner ship of parts of the 
British Nuclear Group, formerly BNFL.

Prospect, representing 6,000 scientists and engineers in BNFL, 
called for an early statement after press reports that the 
Government plans to break up and sell off Sellafield to the 
Bechtel Corporation and Lockheed Martin. Although they now say 
they have had “assurances” that the overall tier one contract for 
all of Sellafield will initially stay with BN Group and UKAEA, 
contracts to run the THORP or MOX plants could be bid for by US 
firms.

Dai Hudd, Prospect National Secretary, has written to Patricia 
Hewitt, Trade and Industry Secretary, calling for an urgent 
meeting to clarify the Government's policy.

"British Nuclear Group has just been through the biggest 
restructuring in its history. Speculation of this kind and on 
this scale is not only unhelpful, it is highly irresponsible. If 
the press stories are untrue, ministers should issue an 
unequivocal statement and say so. Our members are wondering 
whether this whole issue has got lost in the bickering between 
the Prime Minister and the Chancellor."

The union is especially concerned at the potential involvement of 
Bechtel, the Government's advisor on setting up the Nuclear 
Decommissioning Authority, which is currently prohibited for two 
years from bidding for decommissioning work because it is privy 
to sensitive commercial-in-confidence information.

On Monday Mr Hudd told the News: “I have had an assurance from 
David Hayes at the DTi that Bechtel cannot bid for tier one 
contracts until 2008. However there appears nothing to stop 
bidders for tier two contracts. These could include contracts to 
run such facilties as Thorp or MOX.”

Such tier two contracts could be up for grabs on April 1 of this 
year.

*****************************************************************
 35 Whitehaven News: BNFL SLATED FOR ROAD CHAOS 

THE evacuation of 6,000 Sellafield workers during last week’s
storms has been branded an act of folly by the man heading up
the site’s health and safety watchdog.

David Moore, chairman of the independent Sellafield Local
Liaison Committee, is demanding a full and urgent review of the
way the unique nuclear site is evacuated.

Roads were snarled up for hours and at least one emergency
services vehicle suffered a serious delay in not being able to
reach the site. 

BNFL let 6,000 people off the site at the same time due to the
potential danger from storm damage but Coun Moore says the
company made a serious error of judgement. 

Mr Moore – leader of the Conservative group on Copeland Council,
as well as a milkman and fireman, was on a fire engine which was
called to the site while Seascale’s own firefighters were
dealing with a gas leak.

“Our appliance couldn’t get through,” he said. “It took us half
an hour to get the short distance from Seascale. It is just not
good enough. 

“It was very frustrating for us and everybody else. We must have
a system where emergency vehicles are not delayed access to
Sellafield and does not allow the A595 to be totally gridlocked,
as it was that Tuesday afternoon.

“As far as I am concerned it was a disaster and a total error of
judgement. It was the sensible thing to do because debris was
flying around, buildings were being damaged and there was the
threat of more danger, but it was just handled very badly.” 

Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment spokesman Martin
Forwood said: “The road system just can’t tolerate it and it has
always been a worry and a problem. It just fuels concerns about
the chances of the emergency system working properly – they can
test things to the hilt but unless it’s done under the
circumstances we had last week you have no idea whether it is
going to work or not. 

“What would have happened if there had been a radiation escape
on the site while all these workers were being allowed to leave
at the same time? You shudder to think.”

County emergency planning officer David Humphreys admitted that
if there had been a radioactive leak the laid-down emergency
planning procedures could not have worked. 

“In the event of a radiological emergency the gates will close
on the site, nobody will be allowed off, the workforce will go
to reception centres on the site and only be allowed to leave
when it is safe to do so and would not cause gridlock.”

Company spokesman, Jamie Reed, said: “Last week’s decision was
taken in the best interests of the Sellafield workforce,
enabling both the site and all personnel to remain safe and
secure during two periods of extreme weather. 

“Gale force winds had caused superficial damage to a number of
buildings on the site, resulting in wind-blown debris posing a
safety risk to the site workforce – the timing of the evacuation
was subject to an accurate weather forecast being received.

“The Sellafied Management Team accepts that lessons need to be
learned from the evacuation process and recognises the
difficulties which this caused to the areas surrounding the
site. These arrangements are now being revised by our Emergency
Response Team.

“In the hypothetical event of a serious accident during the
evacuation, steps would have been taken to circumvent the
gridlocked roads by the Sellafield Emergency Response Team with
the close involvement of Cumbria Constabulary and other
emergency services”.

*****************************************************************
 36 Australian: US to be Aussie nuclear dump 

[January 21, 2005]

By Amanda Hodge

THE US will become Australia's nuclear dumping ground in a 
remarkable 10-year agreement that takes the pressure off the 
Howard Government to find a domestic waste site.

The agreement to take spent fuel rods from the proposed new Lucas 
Heights reactor in Sydney was sealed at ministerial level late 
last year following talks between the US Department of Energy and 
the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. 

The deal was revealed yesterday in a letter from ANSTO released 
by the country's nuclear watchdog, the Australian Radiation 
Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. 

This removes the last major obstacle to the approval of a 
replacement nuclear reactor at the Lucas Heights facility and 
eases the pressure on Canberra to resolve the dump issue. 

The question of where to store the nation's nuclear waste became 
a federal election issue last October after John Howard backed 
away from a plan to force a repository on South Australia. 

The two added fuel to environmental arguments that the federal 
government had failed to make progress in finding a dump location 
- a condition for the granting of an operating licence for the 
new reactor. 

The commonwealth generates more than 90 per cent of the nation's 
nuclear waste, and more than 80 per cent of this is now stored at 
Lucas Heights. 

ANSTO spokesman Steve McIntosh yesterday hailed the US agreement 
as a coup for Australia. 

"We have always viewed the spent fuel question as the biggest 
hurdle we had to jump and that seems to be out of the way," Mr 
McIntosh said. 

ARPANSA chief John Loy is expected to decide within 12 months 
whether to approve the new reactor's operating licence. Yesterday 
he said the agreement was an "important new development which I 
will take into account in my considerations on the licence".

A spokesman for federal Science Minister Brendan Nelson refused 
to comment on the dump issue, saying only that the Government was 
"committed to ensuring the Australian research community had 
access to world-class facilities". 

The agreement has not impressed the NSW Government, which 
yesterday reiterated its opposition to the storage and transport 
of nuclear waste through the state. 

The US decision represents a special exemption for Australia, in 
part to reward ANSTO for helping develop a low-enriched uranium 
fuel capable of producing radio-pharmaceuticals but not open to 
potential abuse. 

The US already accepts spent fuel containing uranium previously 
enriched in the US from 41 countries, including Australia, to 
reduce the risk that residual uranium will be used for nuclear 
weapons. 

But the proposed Lucas Heights replacement research reactor will 
use low-enriched uranium fuel which does not come under this 
agreement and is not easily reprocessed.

© The Australian   
*****************************************************************
 37 [NukeNet] Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
 
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:17:03 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

Dear colleagues:
The press conference is about to begin at the UC Regents meeting in San
Francisco. However, here is a "pre-story" from New Mexico that I thought
you might like. --Marylia

Thursday, January 20, 2005
Albuquerque Journal

Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL

By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer

      The first group to announce its intention to bid for the Los Alamos
National Laboratory contract will probably raise some eyebrows and elicit a
few chuckles.
      Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a nonprofit laboratory watchdog
organization that promotes nuclear disarmament, has joined forces with
California-based Tri-Valley CAREs, another U.S. Energy Department watchdog
group, to prepare a bid to manage LANL.
      Also in the group's mix is the Coalition to Demilitarize the
University of California, an organization consisting of a few university
student leaders and some faculty members supporting the group's vision for
managing the birthplace of the atomic bomb primarily as a center for
non-nuclear research.
      "The idea of converting the weapons lab to a center for constructive
civilian research makes great sense, and it should appeal to many of those
who now work at the Los Alamos bomb factory," said UC Berkeley physicist
and professor emeritus Charlie Schwartz in a statement announcing the bid.
      The University of California has managed LANL since 1943. But after a
series of financial and security management failures, outgoing Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham announced in 2003 that the contract to run the
lab would be put out for competitive bidding. The university's contract to
run LANL expires at the end of September, and DOE is expected to select a
new manager sometime this summer.
      Now, government contractor powerhouses such as Northrop Grumman and
Washington Group BWXT, among others, have something in common with Nuclear
Watch of New Mexico. They are all interested in managing the first
top-secret nuclear weapons lab, responsible for ensuring the viability of
the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.
      Nuke Watch executive director Jay Coghlan said the group is serious
about winning the bid to run the laboratory and its $2 billion budget.
      "Clearly, (the bid) could be used to make a point, but we are
serious," he said. "We are trying to get a serious message across."
      The message?
      "We think that (LANL's) overwhelming emphasis on nuclear weapons is
outdated," especially with the country's obligations to the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty, Coghlan said. "The public is not fully aware of
the scope of the U.S. nuclear weapons program."
      Tri-Valley CAREs executive director Marylia Kelley said preparing a
bid will help the groups influence the competition process.
      "We seek to ensure that the new management contract will increase
openness, improve health and safety provisions for workers and communities,
strengthen whistle blower protections and provide incentive points for
bringing more civilian science to LANL," she said.
      The group plans to bring a "higher vision" to LANL's management.
      "The NNSA explicitly said that it was looking for a, quote, higher
vision for the management of the laboratory, and we do think that we have
some elements of a higher vision," he [Coghlan] said. "We think it is a
mistaken
priority for the nuclear weapons budget to double over the last decade and
for renewables to diminish."
      Coghlan said that the nation's nuclear stockpile needs to be reduced
and irreversibly dismantled and that the push to build new weapons designs
"is the wrong example to set for the world."
      Earlier this month, Nuke Watch had a one-on-one meeting with the
National Nuclear Security Administration board known as the Source
Evaluation Board, the body that is responsible for reviewing proposals to
run LANL about its bid.
      "They were very up front and answered every question that they could,"
said Scott Kovac, Nuke Watch's research director, who said the board gave
the impression that the watchdog's bid was being taken seriously. "They
didn't accuse us of wasting their time or anything."
      Sitting recently at Nuke Watch's headquarters off Upper Canyon Road in
Santa Fe, Kovac said that under the organization's management, LANL would
resist the current administration's efforts to design new nuclear weapons
and to build nuclear triggers, or pits.
      "We wouldn't want to create any more waste until we've taken care of
all the old waste first," he said, sharing a chuckle with Coghlan.
      "Right," Coghlan said. "And it is going to take a long, long time."

ends

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit us
there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax



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*****************************************************************
 38 [NukeNet] Non-Profits Will Enter a Bid for Los Alamos
 
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:17:19 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

Dear colleagues --
Here is another "pre-story" to our news conference at the UC Regents
meeting today. The last paragraph of this article is the most important one
in my view. By the way, at this moment, our staff attorney, Loulena Miles
and our outreach director, Tara Dorabji, along with a number of colleagues
from the Coalition to Demilitarize the University of California, are likely
addressing the UC Regents directly. I'll send more when I get it.
--Marylia

THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN
News
Nonprofits Will Enter a Bid for Los Alamos Lab
Groups Seek Greater Transparency, More Civilian Science

BY Adeel Iqbal
/Contribution Writer/
Thursday, January 20, 2005

A non-profit nuclear watchdog group based in Livermore, Calif. announced
yesterday that it will sponsor a bid for the UC-managed Los Alamos
National Laboratory.

Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment said it will
join Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, which monitors federal nuclear issues,
in preparing a bid for the nuclear weapons facility.

"Our goal in entering into the bidding process is ultimately to
influence the bidding process itself and also to influence the
management contracts irrespective of who is ultimately chosen to manage
Los Alamos National Laboratory," said Marylia Kelley, executive director
of Tri-Valley CAREs, the local non-profit agency.

Kelley emphasized changing the bidding process, claiming there is a need
for more transparency in the way bids are conducted and what constitutes
the management contracts.

But she said the ultimate purpose of entering a bid was not to actually
garner the management rights, but instead to reform the process.

"We're not defining success by whether or not we get the contract,"
Kelley said. "We're defining success by whether or not we can influence
the process in a positive way."

UC did not return calls for comment on reaction to the news of another
potential bid, but Tri-Valley CAREs plans to announce their intention
and details of its bid proposal to the UC Board of Regents today before
the board meets to discuss one of UC's other labs, the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.

Since its creation in 1943, the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos
lab has been managed by UC. Los Alamos is one of three national
laboratories under the DOEís supervision.

The DOE, which opened bidding for the Los Alamos lab contract in April
2003 after reports of financial mismanagement and lax security at the
lab, has yet to release its final request for proposals to the public.

UC's current management contract expires this September.

The regents have not yet decided if they will enter a bid for continued
management of the lab, although it is likely that they will once the
final proposal request is released.

At November's board meeting, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson urged the
university to team up with a commercial partner to bid for the lab.

A draft request for proposals is being reviewed and has been opened for
comment, to which the New Mexico non-profit group partnering with
Tri-Valley CAREs is responding.

Kelley could not provide a cost estimate of entering a bid, but said
internal staff time used in preparation efforts would constitute the
majority of the necessary funds.

Kelley said the main focus of the two organizations will be providing
protection for employees who criticize faulty management at the lab as
well as bringing more civilian science to the historically nuclear
weapons-based facility.

Adeel Iqbal is the City Editor. Contact him at aiqbal@dailycal.org.

(c) 2003 The Daily Californian
Berkeley, CA
dailycal@dailycal.org

Printable URL: http://www.dailycal.org/particle.asp?id=17314
Original URL: http://www.daiylcal.org/article.asp?=17314

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit us
there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax



_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 39 AP Wire: Regents approve bidding for Lawrence Berkeley national lab

| 01/20/2005 | 

MICHELLE LOCKE

 Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The University of California became competitors
Thursday, voting to submit a bid to hang on to the job of
manager of the Lawrence Berkeley national lab they have run for
decades. 

Still to come are decisions on whether UC will go after the
management contracts of the two nuclear weapons labs it manages,
the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore lab
in Northern California. 

Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky said the vote Thursday was "an
important first step" in the process but doesn't necessarily
indicate how the other decisions will fall. 

"We do view this process as one contract at a time," Parsky
said. 

The vote to bid on the Lawrence Berkeley management contract was
expected. The facility, which conducts unclassified research, is
on the UC Berkeley campus and has been a part of the university
since it was founded by pioneering physicist Ernest O. Lawrence. 

UC has also run the Livermore and Los Alamos weapons labs for
the government since they were formed decades ago. But UC's role
as national nuclear steward came under attack after a series of
management and security lapses at Los Alamos, leading the
Department of Energy to announce it would call for bids when the
management contract expired this year. 

Congress subsequently ordered that all contracts more than 50
years old be put up for bid, which includes the Livermore and
Lawrence Berkeley facilities. 

The Livermore contract also expires this year, but the DOE has
indicated it will extend the deadline for two years. The
Lawrence Berkeley contract expires at the end of this month, but
it, too, is expected to be extended. Deadline for bids on the
Lawrence Berkeley facility is Feb. 9. 

However, the Los Alamos contract is expected to be awarded this
year. So far, UC regents have instructed staff to proceed as
though they will bid for the weapons labs, but they have yet to
make a decision on whether to pursue the contracts. 

Regents have been given a draft of the contract specifications
for Los Alamos and they are looking for a private partner to go
in with them on a potential bid. 

UC had been expected to face competition for the Los Alamos
contract from the University of Texas but UT officials recently
announced they are not going to try for the contract. 

In August, defense giant Lockheed Martin, which already manages
Sandia National Laboratories, said it had decided not to bid on
Los Alamos because it would cost too much. 

Before the contract vote Thursday, some speakers urged regents
not to bid for the weapons labs, saying the competition would be
expensive and the weapons labs are out of step with UC's mission
as an educational institution. 

Meanwhile, members of the watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), which is based
near the Livermore lab, said they were putting in their own bid
to manage Los Alamos. Tri-Valley said it was working with
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico and is entering the competition in
hopes of increasing openness and accountability. 

--- 

On the Net:   
*****************************************************************
 40 ABQjournal: Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
 
the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. 

Thursday, January 20, 2005 

Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
 Journal Staff Writer

     The first group to announce its intention to bid for the
Los Alamos National Laboratory contract will probably raise some
eyebrows and elicit a few chuckles.

     Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a nonprofit laboratory
watchdog organization that promotes nuclear disarmament, has
joined forces with California-based Tri-Valley CARES, another
U.S. Energy Department watchdog group, to prepare a bid to
manage LANL.

     Also in the group's mix is the Coalition to Demilitarize
the University of California, an organization consisting of a
few university student leaders and some faculty members
supporting the group's vision for managing the birthplace of the
atomic bomb primarily as a center for non-nuclear research.

     "The idea of converting the weapons lab to a center for
constructive civilian research makes great sense, and it should
appeal to many of those who now work at the Los Alamos bomb
factory," said UC Berkeley physicist and professor emeritus
Charlie Schwartz in a statement announcing the bid.

     The University of California has managed LANL since 1943.
But after a series of financial and security management
failures, outgoing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced in
2003 that the contract to run the lab would be put out for
competitive bidding. The university's contract to run LANL
expires at the end of September, and DOE is expected to select a
new manager sometime this summer.

     Now, government contractor powerhouses such as Northrop
Grumman and Washington Group BWXT, among others, have something
in common with Nuclear Watch of New Mexico— they are all
interested in managing the first top-secret nuclear weapons lab,
responsible for ensuring the viability of the nation's nuclear
weapons stockpile.

     Nuke Watch executive director Jay Coghlan said the group is
serious about winning the bid to run the laboratory and its $2
billion budget.

     "Clearly, (the bid) could be used to make a point, but we
are serious," he said. "We are trying to get a serious message
across."

     The message?

     "We think that (LANL's) overwhelming emphasis on nuclear
weapons is outdated," especially with the country's obligations
to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Coghlan said. "The
public is not fully aware of the scope of the U.S. nuclear
weapons program."

     TRI-Valley CARES executive director Marylia Kelley said
preparing a bid will help the groups influence the competition
process.

     "We seek to ensure that the new management contract will
increase openness, improve health and safety provisions for
workers and communities, strengthen whistle blower protections
and provide incentive points for bringing more civilian science
to LANL," she said.

     The group plans to bring a "higher vision" to LANL's
management.

     "The NNSA explicitly said that it was looking for a, quote,
higher vision for the management of the laboratory, and we do
think that we have some elements of a higher vision," he said.
"We think it is a mistaken priority for the nuclear weapons
budget to double over the last decade and for renewables to
diminish."

     Coghlan said that the nation's nuclear stockpile needs to
be reduced and irreversibly dismantled and that the push to
build new weapons designs "is the wrong example to set for the
world."

     Earlier this month, Nuke Watch had a one-on-one meeting
with the National Nuclear Security Administration board— known
as the Source Evaluation Board, the body that is responsible for
reviewing proposals to run LANL— about its bid.

     "They were very up front and answered every question that
they could," said Scott Kovac, Nuke Watch's research director,
who said the board gave the impression that the watchdog's bid
was being taken seriously. "They didn't accuse us of wasting
their time or anything."

     Sitting recently at Nuke Watch's headquarters off Upper
Canyon Road in Santa Fe, Kovac said that under the
organization's management, LANL would resist the current
administration's efforts to design new nuclear weapons and to
build nuclear triggers, or pits.

     "We wouldn't want to create any more waste until we've
taken care of all the old waste first," he said, sharing a
chuckle with Coghlan.

     "Right," Coghlan said. "And it is going to take a long,
long time."
 

Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
 41 Cincinnati Business Courier: Fernald sheds more jobs - 

2005-01-20 - 

Fluor Fernald Inc. said it has laid off 20 more salaried workers 
as it nears the 2006 end date for cleanup operations at the 
former uranium processing plant in Crosby Township. 

Fluor Fernald also plans to cut 70 more jobs over the next two
months as individual projects on the site end and fewer support
personnel are needed. Jobs affected by these layoffs include
maintenance, engineering, human resources and administration
positions, according to a news release. 

Since 2001, Flour Fernald has cut 725 jobs at the site, though
voluntary and involuntary programs. About 760 workers will
remain employed there once this latest rounds of cuts is made. 

Flour Fernald also said it is on schedule to complete the
cleanup project at the 1,050-acre plant by early 2006. This
year, the company will complete the removal of 1 million tons of
radioactive waste found in six on-site pits. The company will
empty and dismantle three 50-year-old concrete silos that held
contaminated residue from the uranium extraction process and
place more than million cubic yards of contaminated material
into an on-site disposal facility. Also, engineers and
construction workers will complete an overhaul of a water
treatment system that will diminish the size of the facility but
leave enough capacity to decontaminate the site's aquifer. 

Plans call for the site to eventually be returned to undeveloped
park land. 

© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.
 
*****************************************************************
 42 Rocky Mountain News: Salazar calls for alternative energy

Senator says state's law is good model

By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News

January 20, 2005

Sen. Ken Salazar suggested Wednesday to the incoming secretary
of energy that the rest of the nation would benefit from a law
like the one in Colorado that requires utilities to use
renewable energy. 

As a newly elected Democrat from Colorado, Salazar doesn't have
much chance of passing his own bill in a city where the
Republicans hold the White House and both houses of Congress. 

 Nevertheless, he said, "I wanted to place it on their radar
screen." So he made the comment directly to the nominee for
secretary of energy, Samuel Bodman, during Bodman's confirmation
hearing. 

Colorado's law, passed by voters in November, requires utilities
to get 3 percent of their electricity from the sun, wind or
plant and animal waste by 2007. The percentage rises to 10
percent by 2015. Four percent of the renewables should be solar
sources. 

The law was sponsored by state Rep. Lola Spradley, R-Beulah.
Sixteen other states have similar laws, Spradley said during the
campaign. 

Salazar's proposal for expanded use of alternative energy
sources would be good for a growing industry in his home state,
centered on the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in
Golden. 

Salazar also asked Bodman to look into expanding use of NREL's
National Wind Technology Center, because companies are standing
in line to test new wind power components there. 

The wait is one to two years for some test facilities at the
wind center, which is near Rocky Flats, said NREL spokeswoman
Kerry Masson. 

Salazar suggested adding staff to run the center 24 hours a day.
But Masson said the facility also could use more space.  

© The E.W. Scripps
*****************************************************************
 43 lamonitor.com: Bodman pledges to protect LANL benefits 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 

ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor

The first questions by the first two senators at the energy
committee's confirmation hearings for Samuel Bodman Wednesday
were about Los Alamos National Laboratory. 
Chairing the meeting in Washington, D.C., Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-NM, raised the topic right away with the Energy Secretary
nominee.

"Do you share the commitment made to me by Secretary Abraham
that the Department fully intends to maintain and even enhance
the scientific capabilities of Los Alamos, and that no
laboratory employee or retiree will lose an existing pension or
health benefit as a result of this competition?" Domenici asked. 

"I am happy to make that commitment, sir," Bodman answered,
adding that he considered Los Alamos to be among "the crown
jewels of this nation's technological effort," and that he was
"enthused and humbled at the opportunity."

Ranking committee member, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, reminded
Bodman, "It has been almost two years since the Bush
administration announced it would bid the LANL contract." He
said the delay has created a great deal of uncertainty and
anxiety at the lab. 
"I hope that you will take a personal interest in seeing to it
that the contract award is made by mid-summer," he said.

Bingaman has pressed to have DOE assurances reflected in
specific changes in the Request for Proposal for the
laboratory's management contract. 
In an announcement after the hearing, Bingaman said Bodman had
agreed to give benefits a high priority.

"I believe part of the uncertainty that we've experienced is a
result of the process the Department of Energy has used,"
Bingaman said in a telephone conversation this morning. "The
contract competition has taken too long."

Bingaman said Bodman's strengths for the job include his
background in science and management in the private sector.

Bodman completed a ScD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1965 and was chief executive of the Cabot Corporation of
Boston, a specialty manufacturer, for 15 years until 2002, when
he was picked by President George W. Bush to be Deputy Secretary
of Commerce.

Domenici ran a tight meeting, chiding senators who were late and
encouraging them to include their opening statements and the
nominee's written responses to questions in the record.

Domenici complimented Bodman on his opening remarks.

"You have properly captured the essence of the department,"
Domenici said.

Several senators frankly admitted their "parochial" concerns.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., asked Bodman to visit the new coal
gasification project that was given a $235 million DOE grant in
October 2004.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Col., tried to gain Bodman's promise to
attend the opening of a new DOE laboratory in Golden.

Bodman said he couldn't yet commit on his schedule.

On one controversial issue, concerning the opening of the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge to oil production, Bodman said, "I
think it can be done."

He said he favored a balanced approach that would preserve the
largest possible areas for environmental purposes, while also
trying to seek out additional supplies of energy.

Bodman declined to answer a number of specific questions, having
to do with budget and policy issues.

Bingaman pressed Bodman on the Department of Energy's revised
rules for polygraph testing, which he said, contemplates more
liberal use of the lie-detector than is justified by the science.

A National Academy of Science report largely debunked the
polygraph for security screening.

DOE has acknowledged the NAS study, after rejecting it outright,
but has made few changes in its plans to use the polygraph tests.

Bodman said he wasn't aware of the matter in detail, that he
understood the department had tried to be responsive and he
would continue to try.

Bingaman said a vote on Bodman was scheduled for next Wednesday.

The hearing was carried by webcast on the Internet.

In other matters Wednesday related to the Energy Department and
the nuclear complex:


+  Peter Lyons, a long-time employee at LANL, and senior staff
member at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was
appointed by President Bush to a vacancy on the Nuclear
Regulatory Committee.


+  Kyle McSlarrow, Deputy Secretary of Energy, announced his
resignation, effective in early February.

In April 2003, McSlarrow, along with National Nuclear
Administrator Linton Brooks, recommended that the University of
California's contract to manage LANL be opened for competition. 
 
  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 44 Albuquerque Journal: Anti-Nuke Groups May Bid on LANL
 
 Thursday, January 20, 2005
 http://www.abqjournal.com/north/293610north_news01-20-05.htm 

By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer 

The first group to announce its intention to bid for the Los
Alamos National Laboratory contract will probably raise some
eyebrows and elicit a few chuckles. 

Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a nonprofit laboratory watchdog
organization that promotes nuclear disarmament, has joined
forces with California-based Tri-Valley CARES, another U.S.
Energy Department watchdog group, to prepare a bid to manage
LANL. 

Also in the group's mix is the Coalition to Demilitarize the
University of California, an organization consisting of a few
university student leaders and some faculty members supporting
the group's vision for managing the birthplace of the atomic
bomb primarily as a center for non-nuclear research. 

"The idea of converting the weapons lab to a center for
constructive civilian research makes great sense, and it should
appeal to many of those who now work at the Los Alamos bomb
factory," said UC Berkeley physicist and professor emeritus
Charlie Schwartz in a statement announcing the bid. 

The University of California has managed LANL since 1943. But
after a series of financial and security management failures,
outgoing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced in 2003 that
the contract to run the lab would be put out for competitive
bidding. The university's contract to run LANL expires at the
end of September, and DOE is expected to select a new manager
sometime this summer. 

Now, government contractor powerhouses such as Northrop Grumman
and Washington Group BWXT, among others, have something in
common with Nuclear Watch of New Mexico— they are all interested
in managing the first top-secret nuclear weapons lab,
responsible for ensuring the viability of the nation's nuclear
weapons stockpile. 

Nuke Watch executive director Jay Coghlan said the group is
serious about winning the bid to run the laboratory and its $2
billion budget. 

"Clearly, (the bid) could be used to make a point, but we are
serious," he said. "We are trying to get a serious message
across." 

The message? 

"We think that (LANL's) overwhelming emphasis on nuclear weapons
is outdated," especially with the country's obligations to the
nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Coghlan said. "The public is
not fully aware of the scope of the U.S. nuclear weapons
program." 

TRI-Valley CARES executive director Marylia Kelley said
preparing a bid will help the groups influence the competition
process. 

"We seek to ensure that the new management contract will
increase openness, improve health and safety provisions for
workers and communities, strengthen whistle blower protections
and provide incentive points for bringing more civilian science
to LANL," she said. 

The group plans to bring a "higher vision" to LANL's management. 

"The NNSA explicitly said that it was looking for a, quote,
higher vision for the management of the laboratory, and we do
think that we have some elements of a higher vision," he said.
"We think it is a mistaken priority for the nuclear weapons
budget to double over the last decade and for renewables to
diminish." 

Coghlan said that the nation's nuclear stockpile needs to be
reduced and irreversibly dismantled and that the push to build
new weapons designs "is the wrong example to set for the world." 

Earlier this month, Nuke Watch had a one-on-one meeting with the
National Nuclear Security Administration board— known as the
Source Evaluation Board, the body that is responsible for
reviewing proposals to run LANL— about its bid. 

"They were very up front and answered every question that they
could," said Scott Kovac, Nuke Watch's research director, who
said the board gave the impression that the watchdog's bid was
being taken seriously. "They didn't accuse us of wasting their
time or anything." 

Sitting recently at Nuke Watch's headquarters off Upper Canyon
Road in Santa Fe, Kovac said that under the organization's
management, LANL would resist the current administration's
efforts to design new nuclear weapons and to build nuclear
triggers, or pits. 

"We wouldn't want to create any more waste until we've taken
care of all the old waste first," he said, sharing a chuckle
with Coghlan. 

"Right," Coghlan said. "And it is going to take a long, long
time." 

Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal 
*****************************************************************
 45 The State: What the Bush presidency has meant to South Carolina

   •  How the Bush dynasty emerged   
 
 01/20/2
 
   •  WERE NO UTAH, BUT ...   

Five key areas in which President Bushs policies have greatly
affected South Carolinians: 

SRS lab 

President Bushs Department of Energy chose Aikens Savannah
River Site for its newest national laboratory in 2004, a status
that typically translates into millions of investment dollars
and hundreds of jobs. 

The Energy Department also changed the rules on the storage of
high-level nuclear waste there, allowing it to remain in 51
tanks at the former nuclear plant. At the same time, however,
Bushs support for Nevadas Yucca Mountain as a high-level
nuclear dump means less waste could be left in South Carolina in
the future. 

The presidents bullish stance on nuclear power bodes well for
SRS, which hopes for new missions reprocessing weapons-grade
nuclear fuel. 

Environmentalists say Bush pays scant attention to the risks
posed by nuclear power and waste. 

War 

In response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York
and Washington, President Bush launched his War on Terror,
mobilizing thousands of troops. 

Twenty-eight members of the military with ties to South Carolina
have died in the war. All branches of the military in South
Carolina have sent troops  including 5,800 from the Army
National Guard; 1,900 from the Army Reserve; 1,000 from the Air
Force Reserve; 470 from the Air National Guard; 300 from the
Marine Corps Reserve; and 140 from the Navy Reserve. 

These troops serve alongside thousands more South Carolinians on
active duty. For each South Carolinian called up  and tours of
duty often last more than a year  a S.C. family has had to
adjust to life without a father, mother, brother, sister, son or
daughter; and an S.C. employer has had to make do without an
employee. 

Tax cuts 

The cuts President Bush pushed through Congress lowered tax
bills for 1.4 million South Carolinians, with the typical family
of four enjoying a $1,600 reduction. 

Income tax rates, estate taxes and taxes on dividends and
capital gains all fell. Among middle-income South Carolinians,
those making less money received a relatively higher cut. 

But the wealthiest South Carolinians received the largest share
of the tax cuts. The richest 1 percent enjoyed 19 percent of the
states reduced tax bill. The poorest 60 percent of South
Carolinians received 21 percent, according to Citizens for Tax
Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group focusing on tax issues. 

No Child Left Behind 

The centerpiece of President Bushs education policy requires
public schools, including the 1,100 in South Carolina, to make
adequate yearly progress. 

Fifty-six percent of S.C. schools met that goal in 2004. 

Three percent of S.C. students eligible to transfer to
better-performing schools under the new rules did so. 

S.C. educators say that while they welcomed the tough federal
standards, they affected other states more than South Carolina,
where the Legislature in 1998 mandated one of the most rigorous
testing programs in the nation. 

The federal standards will rise in coming years, however, and
state educators say South Carolina isnt getting enough federal
money to meet these higher goals. 


Medicare 

In South Carolina, 600,000 people receive Medicare. They got
good news and bad news during President Bushs first four years. 

The president  with the support of the AARP  pushed through
Congress a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare. 

Starting in 2006, the benefit will give an estimated 150,000
South Carolinians access to drug coverage they do not now enjoy. 

The bad news is next years 17.4 percent increase in Medicare
premiums. The increase, which the Bush administration announced
in September, will raise rates from $66.60 to $78.20 per month. 

The president says a federal formula determined that hike. But
Democrats blame him for that and for Medicares bleak financial
picture. 

Without reform, the system wont be able to cover its expenses
starting in 2019. 

 Lauren Markoe   


TheStateOnline
*****************************************************************
 46 CBS News: Einstein's Legacy 

| January 20, 2005 09:30:00

In 1905, Einstein's five papers changed forever our perspective
on time and space. Not bad for an unknown 26-year-old with a
newly minted PhD working in the Swiss patent office.

(Christian Science Monitor) This story was written by Robert C.
Cowen 

Orbiting 400 miles above Earth, a satellite called Gravity Probe
B is looking for subtle effects predicted by Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity. Finding them requires unparalleled
precision. The rotors in the satellite's gyroscopic instruments
are the closest humans have ever come to making perfect spheres.
The mission is the latest confirmation that the quest to follow
Einstein's lead never ends. 

It has been 100 years since Einstein published five papers that
led directly to two Nobel Prizes, unveiled the world's most
famous scientific equation, and set physics on the course it
still follows today. 

Now, a century later, physicists are throwing a year-long,
worldwide party to commemorate the results of that trajectory.
Einstein's work — along with subsequent advances in quantum
mechanics — have blossomed into scientific discoveries that
touch ordinary lives in many surprising ways. 

"If ever physics had a golden age, a case could be made that it
is now," says Stephen Benka, editor of the magazine Physics
Today. Physics not only informs our view of the natural world,
it affects human life in many practical ways, he adds. For
example, "we are rapidly gaining new knowledge of Earth and its
physical systems." Think tsunami warning networks. 

Biology, he says, "is increasingly enlightened by physics." Even
esoteric aspects of quantum physics find practical use in the
form of hard-to-break codes that protect the privacy of online
bank records. 

Other areas of physics remain more speculative: the possibility
of many extra dimensions, for example, or the prospects of
decoding the physical dynamics of complex and highly
unpredictable systems, like Earth's climate. The Monitor will
examine these and other research frontiers in coming months. 


A Worldwide Party 

This year's celebrations will honor Einstein's achievements as
part of human experience, Mr. Benka says. They will deal with
the nexus where physics meets other aspects of that experience,
including art and religion. 

Of course, when cutting-edge physicists decide to celebrate, the
results can be a little wild. Fire walkers in the Philippines
will illustrate heat-transfer physics. German physicists in
Tübingen offer a simulation of what the landscape would look
like if you zoom down the street at the speed of light. Indian
physicists plan street theater demonstrations. Musicals with an
Einstein theme will bring song and dance to the party in the
United States and Portugal. 

In the spirit of whatever it takes to catch the public's
attention, Einstein impersonators will be clowning around at
various events. In Ireland, one such actor has already posed
with a light bulb held over his head. No telling what will
happen next month when an "Einstein" stalks the halls of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science during its
annual meeting in Washington. 

Physicists have several names for their celebration. Some call
it the World Year of Physics. The US Congress endorsed that
name. The United Nations General Assembly calls it the
International Year of Physics. Britain and Ireland simply say
"Einstein Year" (see these websites: 
+ www.physics2005.org, 
+ www.wyp2005.org, and 
+ www.einsteinyear.org). That last title may be the most
appropriate name, given what Einstein produced during what
historians call his "miraculous year." 

In 1905, Einstein's five papers showed how to prove definitively
that atoms exist — a controversial subject at the time. They
showed that light comes in discrete packets called photons. And
they changed forever our perspective on time and space. Not bad
for an unknown 26-year-old with a newly minted PhD working in
the Swiss patent office. 

The least famous of these "miraculous" papers dealt with a
question that had puzzled observers for millenniums: Why did
dust motes in the air and pollen grains in water jiggle about
randomly? 

Physicists call it "Brownian motion" after botanist Robert
Brown, who studied the phenomenon in 1827. Einstein attributed
the jiggling to molecules bumping into the particles. He showed
how to calculate how many molecules hit a grain of pollen and
how fast they moved. French physicist Jean Perrin used
Einstein's insight to set up experiments that proved once and
for all that atoms and molecules exist. For that, Perrin won a
Nobel Prize. 

Einstein believed the most original idea in his 1905 published
work was that light can be a particle as well as a wave. The
idea addresses the photoelectric effect by which light shining
on certain materials causes an electric current to flow. A
photocell used to open a supermarket door illustrates the
effect. Einstein explained the phenomenon by treating light as a
collection of particles called photons whose energy depends only
on the color of the light. He received the Nobel Prize for this
insight. The discovery also opened the way for the science of
quantum physics that was yet to come. 


A New Relationship 

Think Einstein and you think relativity. Many physicists
consider his 1905 relativity insights and their subsequent
follow-up to be his greatest achievement. "We have a conception
of space and time built into us," which Einstein showed to be an
illusion, said physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg at
the University of Texas in Austin. "He for the first time made
space and time a part of physics and not of metaphysics." 

Newton and physicists after him considered space and time to be
primordial absolutes. They were the same for all observers — no
questions asked. Einstein, however, said the laws of nature and
the speed of light are the absolutes, which must be the same for
all observers moving uniformly relative to each other. Observers
moving at different speeds would perceive spatial dimensions and
clock rates differently. 

Those abstract principles have serious consequences. What
Einstein called their "most important upshot" became the most
famous equation in all of physics: E=mc2. It says that material
mass and energy are the same thing. Eventually, that theory set
the stage for the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear
power plants. 

Einstein later added a third relativity principle that extended
his theory to include gravity. He assumed that when applying a
given force to an object, the kind of mass that determines its
acceleration and the mass that produces gravity are the same. In
this perspective, gravity is no longer a force between objects.
It's the way a mass like Earth actually warps space and affects
clock rates. 

Today, Gravity Probe B is following a curved path through space
produced by Earth's mass. No gravitational "force" holds it in
orbit. It just follows the obvious path through space. The
satellite is carefully tracing that path to see if it is in
accord with Einstein's predictions. Einstein also predicted
Earth's rotation would drag space around with it. This has been
seen only once before. The Gravity Probe B team hopes to improve
the accuracy of that observation 10-fold.
  + 1687: Isaac Newton publishes "The Principia," putting
forward his famous three laws of motion and theory of universal
gravitation. By mathematically stating the motion of visible
bodies, Newton establishes a basis for much of modern
theoretical physics. 


  + 1859: Charles Darwin writes "On the Origin of Species." His
theory of evolution through natural selection becomes the
overarching paradigm for modern biology. 


  + 1873: James Maxwell publishes his best work on his theories
of electricity and magnetism. His set of laws unifies
fundamental forces for the first time — and provides the first
break with Newton. 


  + 1885: Louis Pasteur applies his germ theory of disease in
successfully inoculating a boy bitten by a rabid dog. The
procedure marks the beginning of modern preventative medicine. 


  + 1905: Albert Einstein publishes five papers on three
subjects that prove definitively that atoms exist, show that
light comes in discrete packets, and change forever humanity's
conception of time and space.

© 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.

    
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