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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 SF Chronicle: Tough U.S. stance on Iran brings echoes of Iraq debate
2 [southnews] Rice warns Iran over nuclear weapons
3 WP: Rice Rebukes European Leaders on Iran - Robin Wright
4 FT.com: Iran in new round of nuclear talks
5 Scotsman.com: Diplomacy Can Halt Iran Nuclear Moves, Says Blair
6 Las Vegas SUN: Rice: No Deadline on Iran Nuke Program
7 US: [DU-WATCH] NYT science item on redesigning nuclear warheads
8 US: [DU-WATCH] Reengineering nukes, eh?
9 Guardian Unlimited: AP: U.S. Aims to Oust U.N. Nuke Official
10 US: Guardian Unlimited: Facts on U.S. Aircraft Carriers
11 US: Rep. Reid: Reid Calls Bushā€™s Budget Irresponsible and Misleadi
12 [southnews] US nukes up in Europe
13 Indo-Asian News Service: India, US, IAEA discuss security of radioac
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
14 US: Peach Bottom-2 replaces saftey valve
15 US: Fredericksburg.com: Environmentalists should agree: Nuclear powe
16 Platts: MEP lobbies at EP to extend life span of Hungarian nuke
17 Platts: EU govts extend nuke safety standards debate to end-2006
18 US: toledoblade.com: Despite radiation glitch, Fermi II at full powe
19 NEI: China in bid to develop pebble bed reactor
20 US: Las Vegas SUN: Bush Would Double Ex-Nuke Worker Screening
21 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's 2nd Nuke Among Romania's Major Proble
22 US: Arizona Republic: Column skipped over nuclear issues
23 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collecti
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
24 [du-list] Vieques Navy Bombing Area Added to Superfund List
25 US: [du-list] New report on DU testing
26 US: [RADFOOD] It's that Time of Year Again!
27 US: [DU-WATCH] American College of Emergency Physicians item on DU
28 US: Des Moines Register: Middletown workers yet again hold hope for 
29 The Australian: Beryllium info service established 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
30 [NukeNet] Tokyo Meeting Opposes Nuclear Waste Deregulation
31 North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: Opinion The environment an issue for us al
32 Las Vegas RJ: Reid gets dinner, no reassurance from Bush
33 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Sleazy Republican tactic
34 Las Vegas SUN: Construction plans for Yucca rail line could begin
35 Las Vegas SUN: Chu says DOE to improve plans to ship waste
36 Nuclear agency requesting $10.2 million to fight Yucca
37 US: G2R: Russia to increase uranium extraction to avoid future short
38 US: LA Times: Bush Plan Could Drain Effort to Clean Up Waters 
39 OA Online News: Expert: Enrichment plant won’t harm water
40 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet Feb. 23-25 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
41 Interfax: Central Asian states set up nuclear weapons-free zone
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
42 ABQjournal: LANL Boss, Security Under Attack 
43 Tri-City Herald: Judge says Hanford cleanup initiative will not be e
44 CBS News: Los Alamos Ignores Warning Signs 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
45 [du-list] DU in the news Feb 10th  05
46 The Sunflower - February 2005 - Issue 93
47 [NukeNet] Nuclear News from Japan
48 Junk science
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 SF Chronicle: Tough U.S. stance on Iran brings echoes of Iraq debate 
Emerging strategy against Tehran focuses on strengthening exile groups
 
 [http://www.sfgate.com/]    

Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
[rcollier@sfchronicle.com] 

Wednesday, February 9, 2005
 				
In recent weeks, the Bush administration has toughened its stand
against the fundamentalist Shiite Muslim government of Iran,
calling it one of America's key enemies. 

But the administration has not yet presented a clear-cut
strategy for dealing with Iran, instead hinting alternately that
the solution may be European-led negotiations with Tehran, an
Israeli military attack or a rebellion led by the Iranian
opposition. 

The debate has echoes of the fight two years ago over Iraq, and
some critics are saying the administration is making the same
mistake -- relying on dubious intelligence sources to justify
the case for overthrowing a hostile foreign government. 

The U.S. threats have come back to back. Vice President Dick
Cheney warned that Israel might attack Iran's alleged nuclear
weapons sites. President Bush called Iran "the world's primary
state sponsor of terror." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
called the Iranian regime "something to be loathed." And the
White House left unchallenged media reports that U.S. commandos
had been conducting spy missions inside Iran since last summer
to prepare for a possible attack. 

The tough U.S. stance has differed markedly from the attempt by
Britain, France and Germany to negotiate an agreement with Iran
over its nuclear facilities. The 2-year-old talks have produced
preliminary accords but no final deal. Iran has been unwilling
to give up the capacity to enrich nuclear fuel that it says it
needs for its civilian nuclear power industry, while the
Europeans are unable to meet Iran's key demand -- the guarantee
that it will not be attacked by the United States or Israel. 

In Europe last week, Rice expressed general support for the Iran
negotiations. However, she declined her hosts' request to join
the talks or to indicate willingness to offer Iran a security
guarantee. 

"The strategy of the United States is (to hope) that the
Europeans can't deliver on some things Iran wants," said Shireen
Hunter, an Iran analyst at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington. "The administration is
expecting that, by late spring or summer, the European track
will fail." 

'America stands with you' 

In place of negotiations, the administration and many members of
Congress seem to be suggesting that the Iranian people should
revolt. In his State of the Union speech, Bush seemed to signal
such an approach, saying, "To the Iranian people, I say tonight:

As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." 
Last month, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., introduced the
Iran Freedom Support Act, which would authorize direct aid to
opposition radio and television stations. The bill was
co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and 49 other House
members. A likely recipient of this aid would be NITV, a Los
Angeles satellite station that beams its programs into Iran 24
hours a day. 

"We think what is needed in Iran is not bullets but information
about democracy," said Zia Atabay, a former Iranian pop star who
is president of NITV and leads one of its news programs. "The
United States has to provoke a democratic discussion in Iran." 

Atabay's station is the most prominent foreign-based media
outlet to Iran, and its views generally represent the 1 million
Iranians in the United States, many of whom live in Southern
California and went into exile when the monarchy was overthrown
in the 1979 revolution. 

Many proponents of this approach call it the "Solidarity
strategy," likening it to the U.S. aid to the union-led
opposition in Poland in the 1980s that eventually succeeded in
overthrowing that country's communist regime. 

But Iran's opposition has no equivalent to Solidarity, and its
political parties, student groups and nongovernmental
organizations are divided and in retreat as the government
continues a gradual crackdown on dissent. 

A more muscular strategy with support in Washington is modeled
after Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, the loose coalition of
militias that did most of the fighting for the United States in
defeating the Taliban in 2001. 

The key tool in this strategy is the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an
Iranian guerrilla force that has 4,000 fighters housed in a
U.S.-guarded military base north of Baghdad. This group, known
as MEK, is supported by some Washington neoconservatives and
liberals, as well as by many European lawmakers, but nonetheless
has been designated since 1997 as a terrorist organization by
the U.S. State Department. 

The group has suspended its guerrilla activities within Iran
since 2001, apparently hoping to improve its international
reputation. Its backers hope the administration soon will take
the MEK off the terrorist list and give it a green light to
resume guerrilla activities in Iran. 

"The MEK is very much hoping for a combination of Chalabi and
Northern Alliance," said Abbas Milani, a fellow at the Hoover
Institution, referring to Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi leader who
used his influence with Bush administration conservatives to
help build support for invading Iraq. "They want to be picked as
foot soldiers and intelligence (operatives) for the United
States," Milani said. 

Guerrilla group wants action 

The MEK's Paris-based civilian leadership avoids openly
appealing for U.S. aid but makes clear that it sees itself as a
U.S. ally. 

Shahin Gobadi, a member of the foreign relations committee for
the MEK's political wing, the National Council for Resistance in
Iran, praised Bush's State of the Union speech. "The remarks by
Bush were a very necessary and important step for distancing the
West from its appeasement of the fascist dictatorship in Iran,"
he said. "But we hope for further, more practical steps in
confronting this regime. We should be freed to help lead the
opposition to the mullahs." 

Most analysts say the MEK has little support within Iran, mostly
limited to professionals and students, and outside Iran it is
seen as a cult run by its husband-and-wife leadership, Massoud
and Maryam Rajavi. 

The MEK has been a major source of U.S. intelligence on Iran's
alleged nuclear program, producing evidence of clandestine
centrifuge production that has proved accurate when checked by
U.N. inspectors. Other allegations by the MEK have been proved
wrong, however, and experts warn that the Bush administration is
making the same mistakes on Iran as it did before leading the
2003 invasion of Iraq. 

"There is an eerie similarity to the events preceding the Iraq
war," David Kay, who directed the CIA's search for weapons of
mass destruction in postwar Iraq, wrote in an op-ed article in
Monday's Washington Post. "Now is the time to pause and recall
what went wrong with the assessment of Iraq's WMD program and
try to avoid repeating those mistakes in Iran." 

Kay warned that information from the MEK and other exile sources
is untrustworthy, just as Chalabi's Iraq intelligence proved to
be. 

"Having gone to the Security Council on the basis of flawed
evidence to 'prove' Iraq's WMD activities, (the United States)
only invites derision to cite unsubstantiated exile reports to
'prove' that Iran is developing nuclear weapons," Kay wrote. 

Although pro-American sentiment is relatively widespread among
the Iranian people, some analysts and exiles say military
attacks by the United States or Israel would provoke a surge of
nationalism among Iranians and would allow the clerical regime
to gain support. 

Atabay said most Iranians in exile want change in Iran, but
without bloodshed. 

"Most Iranians within the United States are with U.S. policy,"
he said. "They are against the mullahs, but they don't want war.

No Iranians want an invasion, because Iranian young people love
America, but if America attacks them, they will turn into the
enemy. Why should we have to change our close friends into the
enemy?" 

E-mail Robert Collier at rcollier@sfchronicle.com
[rcollier@sfchronicle.com] . 				
Page A - 16
 			
The San Francisco Chronicle] 
 
*****************************************************************
 2 [southnews] Rice warns Iran over nuclear weapons
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 21:28:50 -0600 (CST)

 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran it cannot use a
European diplomatic initiative to delay indefinitely accountability
for a suspected nuclear weapons program.

Rice warns Iran over nuclear weapons

AP February 9, 2005

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran it cannot use a
European diplomatic initiative to delay indefinitely accountability
for a suspected nuclear weapons program.

"The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the
deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security
Council referral looms," she said in an interview with the US
television network Fox News.

"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should
to the Iranians," she said in a strong reiteration of US policy.

Washington has maintained that the issue of Iran's nuclear program
should be taken before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

"We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to the
Security Council and then a variety of steps are available to the
international community," she said in the interview taped in Paris
and released after her arrival in Brussels on Wednesday morning.

"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the
Europeans are not going to be a kind of way station where they are
allowed to continue their activities - that there's going to be an
end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security
Council," Rice said.

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime,
but the United States has kept its distance from that effort and
the Europeans have been reluctant to take the matter to the United
Nations before making further efforts at a deal.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference with
Rice on Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the other
European participants are committed to letting the diplomacy run
its course.

He said he asked Rice for American "support and confidence."

Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must not
use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons project.

_______________________________________

U.S. official threatens China with sanctions for arms deals with
Iran

Canadian Press

February 8, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. administration lashed out at China before
an international audience Monday for not stopping its munitions
companies from selling missile technology to Iran and other countries.

Speaking to a conference in Tokyo sponsored by Japan, U.S.

undersecretary of state John Bolton said President George W. Bush's
administration would move aggressively to suspend business with
companies that provide sensitive weapons technology to Iran and
other countries seeking to build weapons of mass destruction.

The speech by the U.S. administration's top arms-control official
appeared to mark a shift in tactics. Sanctions have usually been
applied quietly against offending firms. But Bolton spoke forcefully
and publicly about meting out punishment and held the Chinese
government directly accountable.

In the speech, Bolton also renewed the administration's opposition
to plans by European countries to resume arms sales to China by
ending an Embargo imposed after China's crackdown on ant-government
demonstrators in 1989.

"The Embargo on arms sales to China is not outmoded," Bolton said.

"It is just as important to champion human rights today as it was
in 1989."

A second reason to maintain the Embargo, Bolton said, is to protect
Japan and other East Asian countries, while also not permitting
China to "significantly improve its coercive capability" against
Taiwan.

In some ways, Bolton praised China, such as for its joint effort
with the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia to negotiate
an end North Korea's development of nuclear weapons.

"Our co-operation on mutually shared interests, however, does not
mean that the United States will shy away from highlighting areas
of disagreement and concern," Bolton said.

Last year, he said, Chinese companies were cited for having provided
ballistic-missile technology to Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and
Libya.

"On numerous occasions, we have expressed our concern about these
entities to the Chinese government and have asked Beijing to subject
exports by these serial proliferators to persistent and close
scrutiny,"

Bolton said.

"Unfortunately," he said, "we continue to see transfers by these
serious proliferators of missile-related items to rogue states and
outposts of tyranny such as Iran."

For example, Bolton said, the Bush administration has alerted the
Chinese government for some time to concerns about the activities
of the China North Industries Corp. And yet, he said, "we are not
aware that the Chinese government has taken any action to halt
NORINCO's proliferant behaviour."

The Canadian Press 2005

___________________________________________ Strike Iran and Risk
Huge Backlash, Blix Warns US

by Sonny Inbaraj

BANGKOK - As Iran and the European Union go into talks in Geneva
Tuesday on Tehran's nuclear program, former UN chief weapons inspector
Hans Blix said the possibility of the United States attacking the
Middle Eastern country, at this juncture, seemed remote.

But he warned that if a U.S. military strike against Iran's nuclear
facilities were to take place, Washington could face a huge Iranian
nationalist backlash.

"I think the restraining element in this must be that the United
States must know if they launch an attack, there could be [a nuclear]
retaliation," said Blix.

"There is uncertainty. They [the U.S.] may not know that the Iranians
might be hiding some [nuclear weapons] prototype somewhere. They
[the Iranians] have the designs and they have the technology," he
told journalists late Monday at the Foreign Correspondents Club,
here, in a program organized by the Vienna-based International Peace
Foundation.

"The public of Iran is divided with regard to the theocracy  a great
many people in Iran are sick and tired of it and would like to see
a liberalization of the regime," said Blix. "But the moment the
U.S. goes strong on them, there would be a patriotic attitude  there
will be a nationalist backlash."

Added Blix: "There is already a considerable negative attitude
toward the U.S. in the Middle East. This could make things worse."

New U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday said that a
military strike against Iran was "simply not on the agenda at this
point," but her boss President George W. Bush has not ruled out
military strike as an option.

The EU, led in the talks by Britain, France, and Germany, is calling
on Iran to totally dismantle its nuclear fuel program, but Iran
insists that it has the right, in accordance with international
treaties, to work on the nuclear fuel cycle.

Iran is currently suspending all uranium enrichment-related activities
to fulfill its part of a deal clinched in November with the European
trio, the so-called EU3, for talks aimed at giving the Islamic
Republic trade, security, and technology bonuses.

The meeting in Geneva will be the third round of talks since they
began in December in Brussels.

Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), a country is
allowed, under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), to enrich uranium to a level needed for nuclear power. Most,
however, do not. They get fuel from others.

The key problem is that the same technology can also be used to
enrich uranium further in order to make nuclear weapons.

Iran says that it needs to develop nuclear power despite its oil
because it wants diversity. It also wants to enrich its own fuel
because it says it cannot trust others.

"It's conceivable that the United States is sitting on the sidelines
and leaving it to the Europeans to negotiate," said Blix.

"I think the Europeans have been on the right track, and as I said,
I cannot guarantee that the Iranians are not just temporizing  there
could be something building up. You have to be skeptical in this
business," revealed the former weapons inspector.

According to Blix, there will be pressure from the Arab nations on
Iran not to take the path of developing nuclear weapons.

"The Arab world does not want Iran to move on [in the nuclear weapons
direction] because they know if Tehran does, the chances of Israel
moving away from nuclear weapons will be much less. If the Iranians
are moving on, for sure the Israelis will continue on their path,"
he stressed.

According to the Arab TV news network al-Jazeera, Blix is "the man
the United States loves to hate."

Even before he was appointed in 2000 to the task of verifying Iraq's
compliance with disarmament promises made after the 1991 Gulf War,
Washington was already plunging the knife into his candidacy.

U.S. hawks opposed his appointment, saying his failure to turn up
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in his previous stint as head of
the IAEA between 1981-1997 proved he had been outwitted by the
Iraqis.

From then on, the relationship has been frosty.

Blix stayed on as head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification,
and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) till the end of June 2003.

"We have to keep our feet on the ground. Are WMDs the greatest
threat to the world?" asked Blix.

"We have nuclear threats which are less at this point in time than
it used be to when the world had the doctrine of 'Mutually Assured
Destruction' or MAD  where the United States and the former Soviet
Union could have erased each other during the Cold War," he pointed
out.

"If you ask someone in Africa, they would say the greatest threat
to them is HIV/AIDS," he continued. "If you ask me, I'd say the
threat to the global environment is more dangerous than the threat
posed by WMDs."

(Inter Press Service)

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 3 WP: Rice Rebukes European Leaders on Iran - Robin Wright
(washingtonpost.com)
                    
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page A17 

BRUSSELS, Feb. 9 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
Wednesday that Iran must live up to international obligations
aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons "or next steps
are in the offing." 

In a press conference at NATO headquarters, Rice appeared to
back away from earlier remarks that were seen as a slight rebuke
to the three European powers -- France, Germany and Britain --
that are now negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. 
  
[U.S. Secretary of State Rice holds a news conference at the end
of a meeting at NATO in Brussels] Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice holds a news conference at the end of a meeting with NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the Alliance's
foreign ministers in Brussels Wednesday. (Yves Herman - Reuters)
	   
"I believe that everyone is telling the Iranians that they're
going to have to live up to their international obligations, or
next steps are in the offing," Rice said in response to a
question on whether the Europeans have delivered the
nonproliferation message strongly enough. "And I think everyone
understands what next steps mean." She added that under
International Atomic Energy Agency statutes, Iran "has to be
referred to the U.N. Security Council" if it does not meet its
obligations. 

"The Iranians should take the opportunity that the Europeans are
giving them," Rice said. "I think the message is there. The
Iranians need to get that message. And we can certainly always
remind them that there are other steps that the international
community has at its disposal should they not be prepared to
live up to these obligations." 

Asked how long diplomacy should continue before stronger
measures are taken, Rice said the Bush administration has "set
no deadline, no timeline," adding, "The Iranians know what they
need to do." She said they should not be permitted to build a
nuclear weapon "under cover of civilian nuclear power" and that
the United States is in "very close consultation" with the
Europeans on the issue. 

Earlier Wednesday, Rice indicated that European leaders may not
be tough enough in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions and
said they need to reiterate that Iran faces punitive action at
the United Nations if it rejects a deal to abandon any nuclear
weapons plans. 

Winding down her week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East,
Rice said in an interview with Fox News that the Iranians "need
to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really,
that the Europeans are giving . . . then the Security Council
looms." 

"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they
should to the Iranians," she said. 

She said that the United States has believed throughout the
European negotiations that Iran should be referred to the U.N.
Security Council because it was long ago in violation of the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Rice said Tehran needs to hear that the current deliberations
are not simply "a kind of way station" where Iran continues its
activities. Although there is still time for diplomacy, she
said, the Iranians need to hear that "there's going to be an end
to this and that they're going to end up in the Security
Council." 

The current talks, an extension of a temporary arrangement
reached in November, are aimed at winning a permanent agreement
ensuring that Iran cannot convert a peaceful nuclear energy
program into a weapons program. 

Rice said Iran, which already faces tough U.S. economic
sanctions and diplomatic isolation, could not tolerate any
further cutoffs. "The Iranian regime is not like some other
regimes in the world. I don't think it can afford to be
completely isolated from the international community, because
the Iranian people who go back and forth in the world, who are
very much a part of the international community," Rice said. 

Rice had signaled from the start of her first trip as top
diplomat that she would use the occasion to stress the Bush
administration's tougher stand on Iran. 

So far, the United States has been playing the menacing bad cop
in the background as the Europeans play good cop in negotiating
directly with Tehran. But now the Europeans are pressing
Washington to take part in the talks, on the grounds that the
essential issue is security in a region where the United States
is a major military power. 

European officials say that without U.S. participation they
doubt they will be able to get a permanent pact to replace the
temporary deal reached in November curtailing Iran's uranium
enrichment program. 


The Washington Post Company: Information [http://washpost.com/]
*****************************************************************
 4 FT.com: Iran in new round of nuclear talks
 
By Frances Williams 
Published: February 9 2005 02:00 | Last updated: February 9 2005

Iran began a new round of closed-door talks with France, Germany 
and the UK yesterday on demands that it abandon a uranium 
enrichment programme that could provide fuel for nuclear weapons.

The Geneva talks, scheduled to last three days, are the second
in a series of official-level contacts since Iran agreed in
November to a temporary suspension of its nuclear fuel
production activities.

The three EU countries are spearheading the drive for a
negotiated solution in the face of scepticism from the US.
Tehran says it will review progress in the talks in mid-March,
failing which it may restart the programme. Iran claims its
nuclear activities are wholly peaceful but has failed to
convince the international community that it has no ambitions to
become a nuclear power.
  
Ā© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005. "FT"
and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.
*****************************************************************
 5 Scotsman.com: Diplomacy Can Halt Iran Nuclear Moves, Says Blair
 
[http://www.scotsman.com/]                                             
 		   		   			
Wed 9 Feb 2005                                                  
 		     	 
By Vivienne Morgan, PA Political Staff 

Ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapons programme
can be achieved through diplomacy, the Prime Minister said today.
 
Mr Blair said the UK, France and Germany ā€“ with ā€full
supportā€¯ from the United States ā€“ had been pursuing such a
policy.
 
But he warned: ā€It is important also to make it clear to
Iran...that they cannot breach the rules of the Atomic Energy
Authority and they cannot develop nuclear weapons capability.
 
ā€That is the very clear wish of the entire international
community.
 
ā€I happen to believe, however, that this can be pursued by
diplomatic means of engagement.ā€¯
 
He was replying to Labourā€™s Jeremy Corbyn (Islington N) who
urged the Premier to refuse to back any American threat or
attack on Iran.                   

[http://www.scotsman.com/]  
*****************************************************************
 6 Las Vegas SUN: Rice: No Deadline on Iran Nuke Program

 By ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - 0209rice Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely 
accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, but said 
the United States has set "no deadline, no timeline" for Tehran 
to act. 

Nearing the end of a European tour that included visits to both 
old and new members of the expanding NATO, Rice said the United 
States remains in "close consultations" with its European allies 
on the issue. 

But she warned Tehran that the United States would not accept 
foot-dragging by the government there as officials weigh various 
diplomatic overtures that European nations have made to resolve 
the nuclear question. 

In Washington, President Bush said he was pleased with the 
response Rice had received from Europeans on efforts to restrain 
Iran's nuclear ambitions. "The Iranians just need to know that 
the free world is working together to send a very clear message: 
don't develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said. "And the reason we're 
sending that message is because Iran with a nuclear weapon would 
be a very destablizing force in the world. " 

At a news conference with NATO officials, Rice told reporters 
that Iran must live up to its obligations. 

"I'm quite clear and I believe everybody is telling the Iranians 
that they are going to have to live up to their international 
obligations," she said. "It is obvious that if Iran cannot be 
brought to live up to its international obligations, in fact, the 
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) statute would indicate 
that Iran would have to be referred to the U.N. Security Council" 
for possible sanctions. 

"I think the message is there," Rice said. "The Iranians need to 
get that message," she said, adding that Tehran should know that 
"there are other steps" the international community can take. 

In remarks earlier in an interview with Fox News, released 
Wednesday, the secretary had said "Iranians need to hear that if 
they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans 
are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms." 

Asked at Wednesday's news conference how long the diplomatic 
efforts should continue, Rice replied, "We've set no deadline, no 
timeline. The Iranians know what they need to do." 

Rice said the United States continues to be in close 
consultations with the Europeans "about how it's going, about 
whether progress is being made ... and we'll just monitor and 
continue those discussions. ... We are in very close 
consultation." 

In the Fox interview, Rice said, "We have believed all along that 
Iran ought to be referred to the Security Council and then a 
variety of steps are available to the international community." 
The interview was taped in Paris and released after her arrival 
here. 

"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the 
Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation where they are 
allowed to continue their activities; that there's going to be an 
end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security 
Council," she said. 

Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime, 
but the United States kept its distance from that effort and the 
Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United 
Nations before making further efforts at a deal. 

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference 
with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the 
other European participants are committed to letting the 
diplomacy run its course. 

He said he had asked Rice for American "support and confidence." 
Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must 
not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons 
project. 

Earlier Tuesday, Rice said in a speech that NATO can be a bulwark 
for freedom without playing world enforcer. 

"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, 
but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," she 
said. 

Alliance officials said in advance of her trip to Belgium that 
Rice's NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by Bush 
on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 
25 allied nations. 

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wants the meetings 
to seal a new unity in the trans-Atlantic alliance following 
bitter divisions over the Iraq war. 

The talks are also expected to review NATO's peacekeeping 
missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo and its efforts to train 
Iraq's military. De Hoop Scheffer said last month's elections in 
Iraq - which were widely applauded in Europe - should boost 
allied efforts to expand its training mission. 

Alliance defense ministers were set to discuss expanding both the 
Afghan and Iraq missions at a long-scheduled meeting Wednesday 
and Thursday. 

NATO has been struggling to persuade governments to commit extra 
troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the problem has 
been compounded by the refusal of France, Germany and other 
nations that opposed the U.S.-led war to send instructors. 

NATO currently has about 100 troops in Iraq on the training 
mission. 

Rice's first trip abroad as secretary of state concludes Thursday 
in Luxembourg. She has said that either she or her 
second-in-command will visit each of the NATO capitals early this 
year. 
*****************************************************************
 7 [DU-WATCH] NYT science item on redesigning nuclear warheads
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 01:00:23 -0600 (CST)

 
"Robert S. Norris, nuclear expert at the NRDC, ... said  ... it raised more 
questions than it answered."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/science/07bomb.html

 U.S. Redesigning Atomic Weapons
By WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: February 7, 2005

Worried that the nation's aging nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, 
American scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms 
meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives, federal 
officials and private experts say.

The officials say the program could help shrink the arsenal and the high 
cost of its maintenance. But critics say it could needlessly resuscitate the 
complex of factories and laboratories that make nuclear weapons and could 
possibly ignite a new arms race.

So far, the quiet effort involves only $9 million for warhead designers at 
the nation's three nuclear weapon laboratories, Los Alamos, Livermore and 
Sandia. Federal bomb experts at these heavily guarded facilities are now 
scrutinizing secret arms data gathered over a half century for clues about 
how to achieve the new reliability goals.

The relatively small initial program, involving fewer than 100 people, is 
expected to grow and produce finished designs in the next 5 to 10 years, 
culminating, if approval is sought and won, in prototype warheads. Most 
important, officials say, the effort marks a fundamental shift in design 
philosophy.

For decades, the bomb makers sought to use the latest technologies and most 
innovative methods. The resulting warheads were lightweight, very powerful 
and in some cases so small that a dozen could fit atop a slender missile. 
The American style was distinctive. Most other nuclear powers, years behind 
the atomic curve and often lacking top skills and materials, settled for 
less. Their nuclear arms tended to be ponderous if dependable, more like 
Chevys than racecars.

[Graphic: Miniaturizing Mass Destruction]

Now, American designers are studying how to reverse course and make arms 
that are more robust, in some ways emulating their rivals in an effort to 
avoid the uncertainties and deteriorations of nuclear old age. Federal 
experts worry that critical parts of the arsenal, if ever needed, may fail.

Originally, the roughly 10,000 warheads in the American arsenal had an 
expected lifetime of about 15 years, officials say. The average age is now 
about 20 years, and some are much older. Experts say a costly federal 
program to assess and maintain their health cannot ultimately confirm their 
reliability because a global test ban forbids underground test detonations.

In late November, Congress approved a small, largely unnoticed budget item 
that started the new design effort, known as the Reliable Replacement 
Warhead program. Federal officials say the designs could eventually help 
recast the nuclear arsenal with warheads that are more rugged and have much 
longer lifetimes.

"It's important," said John R. Harvey, director of policy planning at the 
National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the arsenal. In an 
interview, he said the goal of the new program was to create arms that are 
not only "inherently reliable" but also easier to make and certify as 
potent.

"Our labs have been thinking about this problem off and on for 20 years," 
Dr. Harvey said. "The goal is to see if we can make smarter, cheaper and 
more easily manufactured designs that we can readily certify as safe and 
reliable for the indefinite future - and do so without nuclear testing."

Representative David L. Hobson, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House 
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, praised the 
program in a speech on Thursday and said it could lead to an opportunity for 
drastic cuts in the nation's nuclear arsenal.

"A more robust replacement warhead, from a reliability standpoint," Mr. 
Hobson said, "will provide a hedge that is currently provided by retaining 
thousands of unnecessary warheads."

But arms control advocates said the program was probably unneeded and 
dangerous. They said that it could start a new arms race if it revived 
underground testing and that its invigoration of the nuclear complex might 
aid the design of warheads with new military capabilities, possibly making 
them more tempting to use in a war.

"The existing stockpile is safe and reliable by all standards," Daryl G. 
Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, 
said in an interview. "So to design a new warhead that is even more robust 
is a redundant activity that could be a pretext for designing a weapon that 
has a new military mission."
The reliability issue goes back to the earliest days of the nuclear era. At 
first, the bombs were huge and trustworthy. The first one, dropped in 1945, 
weighed five tons. The first deliverable hydrogen bomb, which made its debut 
in 1954, weighed four times as much and had hundreds of times the 
destructive power. It measured nearly 25 feet long from nose to tailfins.

Over the decades, American designers worked hard to trim the dimensions.

Small size was prized for many reasons. It meant that warheads could fit 
into cramped, narrow missile nose cones, which streaked to earth faster than 
blunter shapes and were less buffeted by winds during the fiery plunge, 
making them more accurate. It also meant that ships, bombers and submarines 
could carry more nuclear arms.

By the 1970's, warheads for missiles weighed a few hundred pounds and packed 
the power of dozens of Hiroshima-sized bombs. The arms continued to shrink 
and grow more powerful. The last one for the nation's arsenal was built 
around 1990.

Designers had few doubts about reliability because they frequently exploded 
arms in Nevada at an underground test site. But in 1992, after the cold war, 
the United States joined a global moratorium on nuclear tests, ending such 
reassurances.

In response, the federal government switched from developing nuclear arms to 
maintaining them. It had its designers work on computer simulations and 
other advanced techniques to check potency and understand flaws that might 
arise.

The cost of the nuclear program began at $4 billion a year. It is now more 
than $6 billion and includes a growing number of efforts to refurbish and 
extend the life of aging warheads.

By the late 1990's, top officials and experts began to openly question 
whether such maintenance could continue to stave off deterioration and 
ensure the arsenal's reliability. As a solution, some called for a new 
generation of sturdier designs.

The new program involves fewer than 100 full- and part-time designers and 
other experts and support staff, said Dr. Harvey, of the National Nuclear 
Security Administration.

"There's not a lot of hardware," he added. "It's mostly concept and 
feasibility studies that don't require much fieldwork."

Dr. Harvey emphasized that the effort centered on research and not arms 
production. But he said the culminating stages of the program would include 
"the full-scale engineering development" of new prototype warheads. Both 
Congress and a future administration would have to approve the costly, 
advanced work, and an official said no decision had been made to seek such 
approval.

The current goal of the program, Dr. Harvey said, is to "relax some of the 
design constraints imposed on the cold war systems." He added that a 
possible area of investigation was using more uranium than plutonium, a 
finicky metal that is chemically reactive.

He said the new designs would also stress easier manufacturing techniques 
and avoid hazardous and hard-to-find materials.

"Our goal is to carry out this program without the need for nuclear 
testing," Dr. Harvey said. "But there's no guarantees in this business, and 
I can't prove to you that I can do that right now." Another official, 
speaking on the condition of anonymity because the topic is politically 
delicate, said that such testing would come only as a last resort and that 
the Bush administration's policy was to maintain the moratorium.

The program, Dr. Harvey said, should produce a wide variety of designs. The 
Defense Department, which is participating in the effort, will help decide 
which weapons will be replaced, he said.

"What we're looking at now is a long-term vision," Dr. Harvey said. "We're 
tying to flesh this out and understand the path we need to be on, and to 
work with Congress to get a consensus."

Some critics say checking the reliability of the new designs is likely to 
require underground testing, violating the ban and inviting other nations to 
do the same, thereby endangering American security.

Dr. P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a former Los Alamos scientist who is critical of 
the new program, said that it would require not only testing but also 
changes in delivery systems costing "trillions of dollars" because of its 
large, heavy warheads. Federal officials deny both assertions, saying the 
goal is to have new designs fit existing bombers and missiles.

Dr. Mascheroni has proposed that federal designers make lighter, robust 
warheads and confirm their reliability with an innovative system of tiny 
nuclear blasts. That would still require a revision of the test ban treaty, 
he said in an interview, but it would save a great deal of money and avoid 
the political firestorm that would probably accompany any effort to resume 
full-scale testing.

Robert S. Norris, a senior nuclear expert at the Natural Resources Defense 
Council, a private group in Washington that advocates arms control and 
monitors nuclear trends, said too little was known publicly about the 
initiative to adequately weigh its risks and benefits, and that for now it 
raised more questions than it answered.

"These are big decisions," Mr. Norris said. "They could backfire and come 
back to haunt us."

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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 8 [DU-WATCH] Reengineering nukes, eh?
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 01:03:37 -0600 (CST)

 
So this is how the Pentagon gets around Congress's prohibition on 
testing and deploying micro-nukes.

US citizens should be concerned about the aging stockpile of fissile 
weapons. What people don't know is that nukes deteriorate with age; a 
combination of radioactive decay and spontaneous fission changing the 
isotopes and radiochemical ingredients, and neutron activation and  
irradiation causing component embrittlement. They combine to make 
detonation and yield features of old nukes a shot in the dark. Old 
warheads are more likely to fizzle, than fissile.

I give the US public three months and it will be primed enough to 
accept deploying mini-nukes/fissile bunker-busters to Iraq. Watch 
Congress change its tune. 

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 9 Guardian Unlimited: AP: U.S. Aims to Oust U.N. Nuke Official
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday February 9, 2005 1:46 PM
 	
By GEORGE JAHN 
Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United States is seeking backing from
allies in a possible bid to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency at a meeting later this month, diplomats and
Western government officials said Wednesday. 

During the same Feb. 28 meeting of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, Washington also will increase the pressure on
Iran for allegedly trying to make nuclear weapons, the officials
told The Associated Press. 

Washington considers IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei too soft on
Iran and its alleged plans to make nuclear arms and the
international community ineffective in dealing with the same
perceived threat. 

No U.S. comment was available for Washington's strategies for
the upcoming IAEA board of governors meeting. 

But several diplomats and government officials from IAEA member
countries dismissed recent reports that the United States had
given up attempts to unseat ElBaradei because of lack of support
from other countries. 

``They've been lobbying, and close friends have given them a
good reception,'' said one of those familiar with the issue, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Another said U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and other
senior State Department officials ``were still lobbying the
capitals.'' 

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Iran on
notice that it cannot use a European diplomatic initiative to
delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear
weapons program. 

``The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take
the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the
Security Council referral looms,'' she said in an interview
Wednesday with Fox News that was taped before she arrived in
Belgium. 

``I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they
should to the Iranians,'' she said in a strong reiteration U.S.
policy that the issue of Iran's nuclear program should be taken
before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. 

``We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to
the Security Council and then a variety of steps are available
to the international community,'' she said in the interview. 

``They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with
the Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation where
they are allowed to continue their activities; that there's
going to be an end to this and that they are going to end up in
the Security Council.'' 

Britain, France and Germany are in talks with Tehran, but the
United States kept its distance from that effort and the
Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United
Nations before making further efforts at a deal. 

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference
with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the
other European participants are committed to letting the
diplomacy run its course. He said he had asked Rice for American
``support and confidence.'' 

Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must
not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons
project. 
  
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: Facts on U.S. Aircraft Carriers
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
	Wednesday February 9, 2005 12:46 AM
 	
By The Associated Press 
The Navy is fond of noting that each of its 12 aircraft carriers
is a floating air base - four acres of U.S. territory from which
warplanes can operate free of foreign constraints. 

Here are some features of the carrier fleet: 

- Ten of the 12 are powered by nuclear reactors. The USS
Enterprise has eight reactors aboard; the other nine have two
each. The non-nuclear carriers - the USS John F. Kennedy and the
USS Kitty Hawk, are powered by oil. 

- The Kitty Hawk is the only carrier based permanently abroad,
at Yokosuka, Japan. The Kennedy is based at Mayport, Fla.; five
are based at Norfolk, Va.; two in San Diego; one at Everett,
Wash.; and two at Bremerton, Wash. 

- Each carrier can accommodate about 80 aircraft, including
fighter jets, reconnaissance planes and electronic warfare
planes. 

- Length: about 1,100 feet. Width: about 250 feet. 
- About 5,500 sailors and naval aviators are aboard. 
- Because of the great distances from the continental United 
States to potential hot spots in Asia, the Navy is considering 
moving one carrier to a base at either Hawaii or Guam. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 11 Rep. Reid: Reid Calls Bushā€™s Budget Irresponsible and Misleading
                                 
Tuesday, February 8, 2005 

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid released the following
statement today: 

ā€The President said today that his job is to confront problems
and not to pass them on to future Congresses and future
generations. But once again, he is saying one thing and doing
another. His budget is fiscally irresponsible, misleading, and
based on the wrong priorities. He clearly intends to pass along
trillions of dollars in new debt to the next generation with the
$4.5 trillion in debt that his Social Security privatization
plan would create, the future costs of the Iraq war, and the
true cost of his tax proposals.ā€¯ 

Bushā€™s Budget Leaves Out the Future Cost of the War in Iraq,
Social Security Privatization and the Extension of Tax Cuts. The
budget submitted by the president leaves out a number of the
presidentā€™s key priorities. ā€The proposed 2006 budget
doesn't include any of the potentially huge costs for moving
some Social Security taxes into the individual investment
accounts that the president has proposedā€¦ the budget proposes
no money to resolve the alternative-minimum-tax problemā€¦Other
omissions include spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, which could
total more than $400 billion in the next 10 years, according to
Congressional Budget Office estimates.ā€¯ [Wall Street Journal,
2/8/05] 

### 
  
*****************************************************************
 12 [southnews] US nukes up in Europe
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 21:28:38 -0600 (CST)

 
The United States is keeping some 480 nuclear weapons at air bases
in Europe -- twice as many as analysts had previously estimated --
to deter attacks from terrorists or rogue nations, The New York
Times said Wednesday, quoting a new study by a private group.

_________________________

US has more nuclear weapons in Europe than thought

Wed Feb 9, 8:39 AM ET

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - The United States is keeping some 480 nuclear
weapons at air bases in Europe -- twice as many as analysts had
previously estimated -- to deter attacks from terrorists or rogue
nations, The New York Times said Wednesday, quoting a new study by
a private group.

The short-range nuclear bombs are stored under US control, under
tight security and regulated by secret military agreements at eight
bases in Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey,
said the daily which obtained the report from the Natural Resources
Defense Council.

An unnamed senior US military official in Europe told the daily
that the number of nuclear weapons in Europe had been "significantly
reduced" in recent years and currently stood at "around 200."

However, Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms specialist and the author
of the council's 102-page report titled "US Nuclear Weapons in
Europe,"

said recent declassified documents, commercial satellite imagery
and other documents he analyzed pointed to the higher number.

Other US officials said there were no plans to reduce the US nuclear
arsenal in Europe and that the issue had caused strain among North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO (news - web sites)) political
and military leaders.

"Some allies and US military see a lot of value in going to zero,"
the senior military official in Europe said. "That said, some allies
and US military see value in at least keeping some capability."

The newspaper's account of the council's report and findings conincide
with a NATO meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Nice, France.

US Secretaries of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and of State, Condoleezza
Rice (news - web sites) are attending the meeting which France is
hosting for the first time.

_____________________________________________

US upgrade could breach nuclear test ban treaty

INDEPENDENT 08.02.05 By Andrew Buncombe

WASHINGTON - As it accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons,
the US is preparing to upgrade and renew parts of its own ageing
nuclear arsenal.

Critics believe the upgrades could lead the US to breach the treaty
banning the testing of nuclear weapons.

Since the project will likely involve replacing technology developed
in the 1960s with the latest available, watchdogs are concerned the
US might be inclined to test such weapons and breach the 1996
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

"It is being done to revitalise the existing stockpile," said Matt
Martin, deputy director of the British and American Security
Information Council (BASIC).

Of more concern to watchdogs is the Bush administration's dedication
to developing a new breed of bunker buster nuclear weapons, designed
to to penetrate the most toughened underground defences.

Critics say the plan reveals the administration's hypocrisy and
undermines international efforts to persuade other countries not
to develop weapons.

Last week it was revealed that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
had sent the Department of Energy a memo requesting that it set
aside funds to resume a study to examine the development of a bunker
buster. The study was halted last year after Congress removed its
funding.

A Pentagon spokesman, Major Paul Swiergosz, said: "The Defence
Department does support completion of the penetrator study. We can't
necessarily match Cold War weapons to the new threats. We have to
adapt capabilities that we have to meet the threats."

The Independent - 08 February 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=608874

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 13 Indo-Asian News Service: India, US, IAEA discuss security of radioactive sources 

[http://www.eians.com/]      

  Indo-Asian News Service   
  
New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) India, the US and the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Wednesday discussed the security of 
radioactive sources in the region in what is seen as an 
acknowledgement of New Delhi's reputation as a non-proliferator.
 
The talks, under the Regional Radiological Security Partnership 
(RRSP) programme, was the first trilateral dialogue on the 
sensitive issue and was held amid growing worries about 
radioactive materials falling into the hands of non-state actors. 

"The US and the IAEA representatives welcomed India's 
participation in the RRSP programme as a regional partner and 
discussions were held to work out the modalities of this 
cooperation," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna 
said. 

"The three sides acknowledged their shared objective of enhancing 
globally the security of dangerous radioactive sources," he said.
 
The US and the IAEA delegates appreciated India's offer to 
provide infrastructure and expertise on a regular basis for 
conducting international training courses in the country under 
the aegis of the IAEA.
 
The training will be "on issues related to the security of 
radiological sources and materials as also for locating orphan 
radioactive sources in countries which are unable to effectively 
deal with them and which seek assistance form the IAEA," he 
added. 

The three sides agreed to continue the discussions, he said.
 
Indo-Asian News Service

For clarifications/queries, please contact IANS NEWS DESK at 
2616-5778/8546, 2617-3369 or mail us at support@eians.com
  
[http://www.eians.com/copyright.shtml ]   
*****************************************************************
 14 Peach Bottom-2 replaces saftey valve
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:00:58 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Exelon Pa. Peach Bottom 2 nuke exits outage, up to full power
                     Mon Feb 7, 2005 07:22 AM ET

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Chicago-based energy company Exelon Corp.'s
(EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 1,110-megawatt unit 2 at the Peach Bottom
nuclear station in Pennsylvania exited a work outage and ramped up to full
power by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its
power reactor status report.

The company shut the unit on Feb. 2 to replace a safety relief valve.

The 2,220 MW Peach Bottom station is located in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania,
about 75 miles southwest of Philadelphia. There are two 1,110 MW units 2 and
3 at Peach Bottom.

Unit 3, meanwhile, continued to operate at full power.

One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes, according to the North American
average.

Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Exelon's Exelon Generation subsidiary, operates
the station for its owners: Exelon (50 percent) and New Jersey-based energy
company Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG.N: Quote, Profile,
Research) (PSEG) (50 percent).

In December 2004, Exelon agreed to acquire PSEG. Pending regulatory and
shareholder approvals, the companies expect to complete the deal in 2006.

          Exelon Pa. Peach Bottom 2 nuke up to 94 pct power
                  Wed Feb 9, 2005 07:18 AM ET

NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Chicago-based energy company Exelon Corp.'s
(EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 1,110-megawatt unit 2 at the Peach Bottom
nuclear station in Pennsylvania ramped up to 94 percent of capacity by early
Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor
status report.

On Tuesday, the unit was operating at 64 percent of capacity as it increased
power following a planned control rod pattern adjustment.

The company performed the rod pattern adjustment to optimize the efficiency
of the fuel in the reactor after the reactor exited an outage started on
Feb. 2 to replace a safety relief valve.



The 2,220 MW Peach Bottom station is located in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania,
about 75 miles southwest of Philadelphia. There are two 1,110 MW units 2 and
3 at Peach Bottom.

Unit 3, meanwhile, continued to operate at full power.
  One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes, according to the North American
average.

Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Exelon's Exelon Generation subsidiary, operates
the station for its owners: Exelon (50 percent) and New Jersey-based energy
company Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG.N: Quote, Profile,
Research) (PSEG) (50 percent).

In December 2004, Exelon agreed to acquire PSEG. Pending regulatory and
shareholder approvals, the companies expect to complete the deal in 2006.


</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 15 Fredericksburg.com: Environmentalists should agree: Nuclear power is safe
 
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005   

The Fredericksburg Green Party recently stated its opposition to
the application for expansion of power capacity at the North
Anna Power Station on Lake Anna ["New North Anna reactors could
endanger our area," Jan. 29]. 

While I am sympathetic to their cause, the arguments used to
state their opposition are flawed. Nuclear power is capable of
meeting Virginia's growing need for electric power in an
environmentally mindful manner. 

According to the Energy Information Administration (a
policy-independent statistical agency of the U.S. Department of
Energy), Virginia's electric power capacity has been growing at
an average annual rate of 1.9 percent over the past decade,
while our electric power consumption has grown at 2.3 percent
over the same period. 

While this may seem to be a minor difference in these terms, the
magnitudes involved make these small percentage differences
enormous. For example, this consumption growth is equivalent to
more than 13.7 million megawatthours of electricity, enough to
power nearly 130,000 additional homes.
 
I consider myself an environmentalist, but I am concerned with
the Green Party's consistent opposition to any and all
development to meet the growing needs of the region. 

We all would like perfectly clean, environmentally neutral
power. However, economically affordable renewable energy is not,
and will not be, available in Virginia for the foreseeable
future, given the current growth rates of relevant technologies. 

We sometimes forget that while there is a problem with the
storage of nuclear waste that decays over a period of thousands
of years, the waste from fossil-fuel power plants in the form of
ash, solids, and gases--which is potentially just as harmful
once placed in a landfill--never decays.
 
In my back yard, given a choice between a smog-emitting coal
power plant and a clean and safe (as determined by numerous
federal and state agencies) nuclear plant, I choose nuclear.
 
Russell M. Meyer
 
Spotsylvania
 
Date published: 2/9/2005 

Fredericksburg.com, 605 William Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 
Comments? Send us Feedback, Phone: 540-368-5055 To contact all 
other newspaper departments, please call 540-374-5000. Copyright 
2004, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Va. 
*****************************************************************
 16 Platts: MEP lobbies at EP to extend life span of Hungarian nuke
 
  [The McGraw-Hill Companies]   
    
+ Hungarian member of the European parliament Edit Herczog said 
Tuesday that she will lobby hard at the European Parliament's 
Energy Committee to get it to agree to the extension of the 
lifespan of Hungary's sole 1,880MW nuclear power generating 
facility Paksi, located near the town of Paks in central Hungary. 

"The management of the Paks plant have taken responsibility to 
run the plant safely," she said, after meeting with Jozsef 
Kovacs, CEO of Paksi on Monday. 

"I am convinced that the atomic power plant is running safely and 
that there is a need for it in the future," she added. 

Herczog explained, "I will continue to represent these views at 
the Energy Committee of the EP." 

According to Herczog MEPs at the EP raised their eyebrows when 
she said that the Hungarian Parliament's economic committee 
supported extending the life span of Paksi. 

This story was originally published in Platts European Power 
Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com 

Budapest (Platts)--8Feb2005
 
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies] 
*****************************************************************
 17 Platts: EU govts extend nuke safety standards debate to end-2006
 
  [The McGraw-Hill Companies]   
    
 
+ The European Union council of member state governments has set 
up a working party to look at nuclear safety and waste management 
in the EU with the aim of reporting conclusions by end-2006, a 
council official said Tuesday. 

The European Commission has been negotiating with the council 
since 2002 to get two EU harmonized nuclear directives--one on 
safety and one on waste management--adopted under the Euratom 
treaty. 

But the talks reached a stalemate last June in the council, where 
there was not enough of a consensus either to adopt or reject the 
directives. 

The council called for "extensive" stakeholder consultation 
before adopting any new laws. 

The working party on nuclear safety (WPNS) is an offshoot of the 
council's working party on atomic questions (WPAQ) which looks at 
the technical detail of EU nuclear issues. 

The WPAQ wants the WPNS to produce two reports--one on the 
results of industry work to harmonize safety rules and one on the 
availability of adequate funds for decommissioning and for 
managing spent fuel and radioactive waste safely. 

This story was originally published in Platts European Power 
Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com 

Brussels (Platts)--8Feb2005
 
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies] 
*****************************************************************
 18 toledoblade.com: Despite radiation glitch, Fermi II at full power
 
Wednesday, February 09, 2005 

Article published Wednesday, February 9, 2005
 
NEWPORT, Mich. - Fermi II is finally back at full power, but not
without another glitch along the way.

Detroit Edison at 5:34 p.m. Monday detected a radiation release
inside its containment building. The cause: A stuck steam drain
isolation valve near the plant's hydrogen water chemistry
system, the latter of which is used to help prevent corrosion.

When steam mixed with hydrogen, a radioactive by-product called
Nitrogen 16 was formed.

The radiation dissipated in 11 minutes and was kept within the
building. No workers were exposed, Victoria Mitlyng, a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission spokesman, said.

The problem occurred while the reactor was at 90 percent power,
on its second attempt to achieve full power since it was shut
down manually Jan. 24 because of a leaky gasket on one of 14
containment air coolers. The first attempt at restart was called
off to fix a faulty recirculation valve that had been overlooked.

Scott Simons, a Detroit Edison spokesman, said the reactor
achieved full power at 9 a.m. yesterday.
 
© 2005 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., 
Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 
*****************************************************************
 19 NEI: China in bid to develop pebble bed reactor


Nuclear Engineering International
 
09 February 2005


Reports that China has selected a site for a 195 MW pebble bed 
reactor have supported claims that the country plans to develop 
the world's first commercially operated reactor using this 
technology. 

A consortium led by Huaneng Power International has reportedly 
chosen the city of Weihai on Shandong Province's northeastern 
coast to build the gas-cooled plant. 

The proposed reactor could begin operations within five years. 

The consortium, which is preparing to apply for government 
approval, also
  



*****************************************************************
 20 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Would Double Ex-Nuke Worker Screening

 By MALIA RULON
 ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration wants to expand a
medical screening program to former nuclear weapons workers at
12 additional sites nationwide, nearly doubling the number of
workers who would be screened. 

The plan, unveiled this week as part of President Bush's
proposed budget, would allow an estimated 25,000 more workers to
get the free, one-time tests that could help them seek early
treatment for work-related illnesses such as respiratory
diseases, hearing loss, bladder cancer and damage to the liver
and kidneys. 

"We're losing people daily and we need to get these tests
going," said Eric Parker, president of the union that represents
workers at the former Mound weapons plant in Miamisburg, Ohio. 

The Energy Department launched the program in 1999 for current
and former workers at 13 of the nation's most contaminated
sites, including the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in
southern Ohio, Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, Hanford
plant in Washington state and Rocky Flats in Colorado. 

So far, tests have been done on about 28,000 workers who may
have been exposed to asbestos, beryllium, plutonium, nickel,
solvents, acids and high levels of noise through their work at
the plants or laboratories. 

The proposed expansion comes as testing for workers at those
sites is nearing completion. 

It's an about-face for the Energy Department, which said last
year that it would close regional testing clinics and replace
them with a national screening program available to workers
through a toll-free number. 

"We thought it was more important for people to have the
opportunity to walk into an actual clinic and have one-on-one
face time with a doctor," said John Shaw, director of the
department's Office of Environment, Safety and Health. 

Under the Bush plan, funding would remain at $12.5 million next
year but would be reallocated to open eight new testing centers
and create four supplemental care programs. The plan also would
allow former department workers from any site to see their own
doctor. 

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, applauded the plan, saying it
will help detect cancer and other diseases that otherwise could
have gone untreated. 

"The Cold War was won by the men and women who made the weapons
that enforced the peace," he said. 

--- 
On the Net: 
Office of Environment, Safety and Health: http://www.eh.doe.gov/
[http://www.eh.doe.gov/] 
*****************************************************************
 21 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's 2nd Nuke Among Romania's Major Problems
 	 	 	 	 	 	
www.novinite.com Sofia News Agency
                 
Politics: 9 February 2005, Wednesday.

Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant that is to be constructed
in Belene was pointed out as one of Romania's major
environmental problems.
 
Romanian state secretary Constantine Popesku told in an
interview that the Belene nuke was one of the four major threats
for Romania's environment. The other three problems are the
construction of the Ukrainian sailing channel Bistroe and the
gold digging project Roshia Montana. 

In the end of 2004 it was reported that Bucharest will table its
analysis and opinion report on the impact of the Belene
construction project, once Bulgaria picks up the final
contractor.
 
Romanian Environment Ministry has reportedly sent its
recommendations to Bulgaria over the nuclear power plant project
to be build at the Belene site, about 13 km away from Romania's
town of Zimnic and less than 100 km from capital Bucharest.
 
Bucharest has asked Sofia for additional information on
Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant environmental parameters
after several protests by Romanian residents alongside the
Danube River and official statements that the Belene project is
"a sensitive topic".[ width=] 

  novinite.com  Forum  Google  Tourism  Business  MobileBulgaria
               
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency -
www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news
provider in English that informs its readers about the latest
Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily
*****************************************************************
 22 Arizona Republic: Column skipped over nuclear issues
 
  [Arizona Republic Online Print Edition]     February 9, 2005   

azcentral.com           
     
Regarding "Nuclear power can lift cloud over U.S. energy"
(Opinions, Monday):

 The author of the "My Turn" column, Professor Barry Ganapol,
makes several excellent points regarding the role of electrical
power in the escalation of natural gas prices. Not addressed,
however, is the problem of nuclear waste. 

Pollution resulting from the use of fossil fuels of all kinds
and the financial burdens caused by high natural gas prices are
trivial by comparison. The problems arising from radioactive
waste byproducts have never been dealt with satisfactorily. 

What do we do with all the currently accumulated radioactive
waste? And what will we do about the waste generated in the
future? Not only does no state (read Nevada) want to be the site
of a repository that will remain lethal for decades, if not
centuries, but how will we safely and securely ship the waste
from the source plants to any storage facility?

 Until these questions have been resolved, I submit nuclear
power should not be continued, much less expanded. - Jim Givens,
Glendale
 
Copyright © 2005, azcentral.com. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 23 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
 
                         FR Doc 05-2482 
[Federal Register: February 9, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 26)] 
[Notices] [Page 6912-6913] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr09fe05-87]                         
 
Comment Request AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
 
ACTION: Notice of pending NRC action to submit an information 
collection request to OMB and solicitation of public comment.
 
SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of 
continued approval of information collections under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
Chapter 35). Information pertaining to the requirement to be 
submitted: 1. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR 
Part 52, ``Early Site Permits (ESP); Standard Design 
Certifications; and Combined Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants''.
 
2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0151.
 
[[Page 6913]] 3. How often the collection is required: On 
occasion and every 10 to 20 years for applications for renewal.
 
4. Who is required or asked to report: Designers of commercial 
nuclear power plants, electric power companies, and any person 
eligible under the Atomic Energy Act to apply for a construction 
permit for a nuclear power plant.
 
5. The number of annual respondents: 2.666 (2 early site permit 
applicants, 2 combined license applicants, and 4 design 
certification applicants are expected over a 3 year period.). 6. 
The number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement 
or request: 205,161 hours.
 
7. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 52 establishes requirements for the 
granting of early site permits, certifications of standard 
nuclear power plant designs, and licenses which combine in a 
single license a construction permit, and an operating license 
with conditions (combined licenses), manufacturing licenses, 
standard design approvals, and pre- application reviews of site 
suitability issues. Part 52 also establishes requirements for 
renewal of those approvals, permits, certifications, and 
licenses; amendments to them; exemptions from certifications; and 
variances from early site permits.
 
NRC uses the information collected to assess the adequacy and 
suitability of an applicant's site, plant design, construction, 
training and experience, and plans and procedures for the 
protection of public health and safety. The NRC review of such 
information and the findings derived from that information from 
the basis of NRC decisions and actions concerning the issuance, 
modification, or revocation of site permits, design 
certifications, combined licenses, and manufacturing licenses for 
nuclear power plants.
 
Submit, by April 11, 2005, comments that address the following 
questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary 
for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the 
information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate 
accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden 
of the information collection be minimized, including the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology? A copy of the draft supporting statement may be 
viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 
20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC worldwide 
Web site: 
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comm 
ent/omb/index.html] . The document will be available on the NRC 
home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this 
notice.
 
Comments and questions about the information collection 
requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda 
Jo. Shelton (T-5 F53), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by 
Internet electronic mail to INFOCOLLECTS@NRC.GOV 
[INFOCOLLECTS@NRC.GOV] . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd 
day of February, 2005.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief 
Information Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-2482 Filed 2-8-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 24 [du-list] Vieques Navy Bombing Area Added to Superfund List
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:00:32 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

Vieques Navy Bombing Area Added to Superfund List

NEW YORK, New York, February 9, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2005/2005-02-09-09.asp#anchor1

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced
the formal listing of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training
Area (AFWTA) - Vieques on the Superfund list of the nation's
most hazardous waste sites.

Due to 100 years of U.S. Navy operations including target
practic bombing runs, land and water are contaminated with
mercury, lead, copper, magnesium, lithium, perchlorate, TNT,
napalm, depleted uranium, PCBs, solvents and pesticides.

The listing is the next step in a process that began in June
2003 with a request from former Puerto Rico Governor Sila
Calderon to list this site as the Commonwealth's highest
priority facility on the Superfund list.

"The listing is a critical step in the cleanup of this
magnificent island, so important to Vieques residents and
visitors alike," said EPA Acting Regional Administrator
Kathleen Callahan. "EPA will work with Puerto Rico and the
Navy to ensure that the cleanup is performed properly and
conducted with full public input."

The AFWTA facility includes land areas, waters and cays in
and around the islands of Vieques and Culebra impacted by
100 years of military operations by the U.S. Navy.

The Navy used the eastern portion of Vieques for training
from the 1940s until it ceased operations there on May 1,
2003 after more than a year of civilian protest encampment.
Areas of Culebra were used for military exercises between
1902 and July 1975.

Today's listing includes areas of Vieques, but postpones a
final determination on areas of the AFWTA on Culebra pending
the development of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between
the Commonwealth and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps),
which is currently responsible for the areas on Culebra.

The MOA will govern the actions necessary to protect human
health and the environment on Culebra. Puerto Rico and the
Army have agreed to pursue this alternate arrangement. If an
agreement can be reached, it will not be necessary to list
Culebra on the NPL.

The government of Puerto Rico and the Army have begun
discussions with the goal of reaching an agreement on the
timely investigation and cleanup of Culebra through the
Army's Formerly Utilized Defense Sites program. The Army,
through the Corps, executes this program in accordance with
the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and
Liability Act, known as CERCLA, and its National Contingency
Plan.

If an agreement cannot be reached, the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico may request that Culebra be listed on the
Superfund list. Notice of the listing will appear shortly in
the Federal Register.


-- 

Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~

NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net

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 25 [du-list] New report on DU testing
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:01:22 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
If you don't mind, please publicize my new DU report to your "lists".

It's at http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/dissgw.html#DUVTIQ05, and it's
titled "Summary of Government Data on Testing of Veterans for Depleted
Uranium Exposure During Service in Iraq."
Thanks,
Dan





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 26 [RADFOOD] It's that Time of Year Again!
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 01:01:27 -0600 (CST)

 
Let's repeat last year's success!

This spring, food service directors will once again choose whether or
not to purchase irradiated ground beef for the upcoming school year.
Last year, only Texas, Minnesota, and Nebraska had enough requests to
place an order for the product with USDA. However, as the price was too
high for the beef, they never actually received it. Also, some school
districts in California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Washington, and Tennessee
requested irradiated ground beef, although there were not enough
requests for the state to even place an order, so again, it was not
actually purchased. (See
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/food_irrad/schoollunch/articles.cfm?ID=10469
to find out which school districts made requests.) In our research, a
number of local and state officials remarked that local residents have
contacted them on this issue and stated their opposition to irradiated
food in schools; this has made a huge impact and is a major reason it
was not purchased for schools last year!

To maintain last year's success, please let your local school
district's food service director know that you oppose irradiated food in
schools. (A sample letter is attached.) You can find contact information
for the food service director via your school district's website or by
calling a local school. Find out more about our campaign, including the
eleven school districts have banned irradiated food, at
www.safelunch.org

In addition to last year's failure of irradiated food, a number of
exciting developments are occurring in school nutrition. An estimated
400 school districts in 22 states have farm-to-school programs, and a
number of school districts (and even states) have passed soda bans and
other nutritional guidelines to improve student health. Find out more
about farm-to-school at http://www.farmtoschool.org/ or
www.foodsecurity.org.

Thank you!

***
Audrey Hill
Organizer
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
www.safelunch.org
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 454-5185

********************
If you would like to be removed from the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe radfood" in the message.

If you would like to be added to the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "subscribe radfood" in the message.

To learn more about food irradiation, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/

Questions about the radfood list can be directed to RADFOOD-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG
-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program

[demime 0.98e removed an attachment of type application/msword which had a name of Dear School District Food Service Director.doc]
*****************************************************************
 27 [DU-WATCH] American College of Emergency Physicians item on DU
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 01:16:56 -0600 (CST)

 
"The military ... disagrees with arguments that using weapons with low-level 
radioactivity constitutes using chemical/radioactive weapons. I wonder what 
they'd call it if it were someone else's strategy?"

http://www.acep.org/1,33861,0.html

Depleted Uranium: Facts and Debate
Carrie Barton, MD

Depleted uranium (DU) is the result of taking natural uranium, a mildly 
radioactive very dense metal, and separating it into enriched uranium and 
DU. The enriched uranium can be used for nuclear reactors, and the DU can be 
treated as a hazard or as a useful substance, depending on who you talk to.

Natural uranium is the primary source of radiation from the earth's crust 
and a big part of the baseline radiation we deal with every day. Depleted 
uranium is about 60% less radioactive than natural uranium. It is used for 
radiation shielding because it is denser and much more effective than lead 
at blocking gamma and x-ray radiation. It is used in tanks as armor because 
its density makes it resistant to conventional munitions.

DU has also been used in weapons because it penetrates most conventional 
armor and is pyrophoric at extreme temperatures, meaning it ignites on 
impact with hard objects such as an enemy tank. When it ignites, it forms 
uranium oxide particles as it burns, and these can be inhaled, which brings 
up the legitimate concerns.

How can that affect us stateside? DU has also been used extensively in the 
past as counterweights on aircrafts, and aircraft crashes also produce 
enough heat to ignite the DU weights. Counterweights on aircraft are now 
made of tungsten, and older planes get tungsten replacements with routine 
maintenance. While the number of airplanes with DU still on them is unknown, 
the best estimate that I could find is that about 50% of commercial planes 
still had them in 1999, with the number decreasing since. Estimates are that 
a typical Boeing 747 contained about 850 kg of DU divided into weights 
weighing up to 77 kg each.

Because uranium is primarily an alpha emitter, natural exposure is mostly 
through ingestion and to a much lesser extent, through inhalation. There is 
no significant penetration through intact skin. If DU is the byproduct of 
spent fuel being recycled rather than natural uranium, then trace amounts of 
other radioactive substances will be present, which may produce beta or 
gamma radiation and therefore be able to penetrate through human tissue the 
way x-rays do. Even if strictly from natural uranium, decay products include 
gamma emitters, so that exposure to very large quantities of DU could lead 
to low dose exposure to gamma radiation.

Wound contamination and DU shrapnel are two potential coetaneous routes of 
systemic exposure. Gastrointestinal (GI) exposure is poorly absorbed (less 
than 2%), and therefore, very little becomes systemic. Respiratory exposure 
allows direct alpha radiation damage to the lungs, as well as systemic 
absorption. Systemic DU is largely cleared by the kidneys within days, but 
some is stored in the liver and bones and once there, has a slow clearance 
rate. Systemic DU is more concerning for heavy metal toxicity than for 
radiation and has effects comparable to lead poisoning. There is no evidence 
of permanent kidney or lung damage to individuals exposed to aerosolized DU, 
including those with retained shrapnel.

There is much speculation, but no clear evidence associating uranium 
exposure with increased cancer rates. While uranium mineworkers do have 
increased rates, they are routinely exposed to other things like radon, and 
there is no evidence of increased cancer rates among industrial workers 
accidentally exposed to uranium.

There is also concern that chronic exposure may be harmful in places like 
Kosovo where DU munitions have been heavily used and where there may be 
increased air, soil, and groundwater uranium levels. Due to migration and 
divisions of the Kosovo population, there is no way to collect statistics of 
the entire population there. The World Health Organization (WHO) interviewed 
several individual hospitals, all of which deny any increases in cancer 
rates.

Although I found many media and personal reports of effects from DU 
exposure, I found no sound evidence that acute exposure or retained shrapnel 
has been associated with any significant morbidity or mortality, including 
renal failure, pulmonary dysfunction, or cancer. The United Nations, the 
WHO, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental 
Protection Agency , the Department of Defense, and the United Kingdom's 
National Radiological Protection Board all agree that there is no hard 
evidence of morbidity or mortality cases associated with known exposures to 
DU, but that the theoretical possibility does exist. The UN recommends using 
Personal Protective Equipment in the presence of aerosolized DU.

The military argues that although a minor risk may exist from using DU, it 
is insignificant compared to the other risks taken by soldiers in combat. It 
also disagrees with arguments that using weapons with low-level 
radioactivity constitutes using chemical/radioactive weapons. I wonder what 
they'd call it if it were someone else's strategy? 

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 28 Des Moines Register: Middletown workers yet again hold hope for closure - 

Laurie Mansfield 

 [http://www.desmoinesregister.com]     
   			   			   		 		

ZOOM

Bobby Richardson       

MIDDLETOWN CONNECTION: Caretaker of his mother, Bernice Findley,
who worked at the plant and later died of cancer.

 UPDATE: Richardson has tried to prove that his mother got
cancer from working at the plant. A few months ago, he received
a letter from the Department of Labor, denying the claim he
filed for his mother. Estimates of her radiation exposures at
the plant placed her below the threshold needed to be approved
for the $150,000 payment. "I can't see how they would deny it,"
he said. "There ain't no way that she could've had the multiple
myeloma and not been exposed to massive amounts of radiation."

Fred and Lela Miller

MIDDLETOWN CONNECTION: They met and married while employees at
the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant.

 UPDATE: Fred Miller began working at the plant in 1941 as it
was being constructed. He was a quality-control inspector and
retired in the early 1970s. Lela Miller worked for the Army on
several of its weapons lines. She also worked in Line 1
buildings after the nuclear lines were dismantled. She retired
in 1982. Both have had colon cancer, and both of their claims
are pending. Lela has also tested positive for beryllium
sensitization, which can lead to chronic beryllium disease, an
incurable and potentially fatal lung ailment. The Millers'
daughter, Susan Kenney of Burlington, said her mother elected
not to do expensive annual tests - up to $10,000 a test - that
would monitor her for the beryllium disease.
 	 	 	 					 				 	 	 		 	 	 		 		 		 		 		 			 		 			

Middletown workers yet again hold hope for closure

A petition to be unveiled today seeks automatic $150,000
compensation for many former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant workers
who became ill.

 	 	By 
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
 	 February 9, 2005 	 	 	
Every time a strange new growth appears, Robert Anderson wonders
how much longer it will take the government to investigate the
claim that his cancer was caused by exposure to deadly
substances at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown.

He has already waited four years.

Meanwhile, the health problems keep coming. Last year, it was
his thyroid. The gland in his neck became swollen, cutting off
his breathing, and was eventually removed.

In 2001, Anderson applied to the Department of Labor for the
$150,000 in compensation and medical care offered to thousands
of sick former Iowa Army plant workers like himself.

His application went nowhere.

Today, Anderson is in St. Louis to pursue his claim and those of
the co-workers he managed as a security guard shift commander at
the ammunition plant, where 4,000 workers assembled and tested
nuclear weapons components from 1947 to the mid-1970s.

Many of his co-workers are dead or dying, friends he still feels
responsible for, even though they were told there was no danger.

Last week, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health revealed that it is still sitting on nearly 500 cancer
claims filed by former workers at the southeast Iowa Army plant.
The institute is charged with using old plant records to help
estimate the amount of radiation exposure for each worker.

Spokesman Larry Elliott said the institute refuses to process
the claims, saying it would require using documents classified
for national security reasons.

Although the institute has access to the classified papers, it
questions the ethics of using the records if the public can't
examine them to verify the findings.

Elliott will also be in St. Louis today to ask the institute's
advisory board whether the Iowa plant claims should be processed
anyway.

Anderson - along with U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles
Grassley, University of Iowa doctors and other plant workers -
have their own point of view: Do away with the controversial
radiation investigations that depend on classified records and
automatically compensate workers suffering from cancer.

"I especially want the people I personally directed to work in
and around the dangers to be taken care of," Anderson said.

The petition he presents today asks that workers from 1947 to
1974 who have one of 22 cancers covered under the compensation
program automatically be given $150,000.

He hopes the institute's board recommends approval of the
petition, which then goes to Health and Human Services Secretary
Michael Leavitt. Its fate ultimately lies with Congress. If the
petition isn't blocked, it will take effect by early April,
according to Harkin.

Workers with cancer deserve special consideration because of two
factors, said Maureen Knightly, a Harkin spokeswoman: the
lengthy process time and insufficient data.

Cancer claims take longer to process and require examining old
plant records that Knightly said are inadequate and sketchy.

The claims are also more difficult to prove, requiring radiation
exposure estimates, known as "dose reconstructions." In
contrast, the 48 workers who filed claims for chronic beryllium
disease have been compensated. Tests can easily detect the
potentially fatal lung ailment.

Even the institute admits the dose reconstructions aren't moving
fast enough. On average, a claim moves through the institute in
67 days, missing a 60-day turnaround goal, Elliott said.

"That's good, but not good enough," he said.

Each dose reconstruction must be done on a case-by-case basis.
Claims have been processed in anywhere from four days to 1,100
days, Elliott said.

Robert Anderson's paperwork has been at the institute since
March 15, 2002.

"These people have been waiting for years," Knightly said. "It's
just long overdue."

Nationally, the institute has finished about 35 percent of the
18,775 cancer claims forwarded by the Department of Labor,
Elliott said.

So far, one of 116 cancer claims from the Iowa plant that the
institute has completed has been recommended for compensation,
according to the Labor Department.

The remaining claims have not met the radiation exposure
threshold necessary to qualify for the compensation, Elliott
said. They were filed by a range of workers, including
secretaries, who would not have been in areas of radiation
exposure, he said.

If the institute is advised to use the classified material to
process the claims, Elliott said, officials there are confident
they have sufficient information and data to perform dose
reconstructions accurately.

"There is a lot of information on exposure monitoring available
for the Iowa plant," he said.

Harkin's experts disagree, citing missing information in plant
records. A report released from the institute last week listed
"data gaps" for the Iowa plant.

Among them was an absence of personal radiation monitoring data
prior to 1955, area monitoring prior to 1962 and depleted
uranium air sampling prior to 1971.

If there are gaps in the records, as with the Iowa plant, the
institute uses data from similar facilities as estimates.

"They're using data from a different time from an entirely
different facility," Knightly said.

If Anderson's petition is approved, cancer claims that were
denied could be revived. That would be good news to Bobby
Richardson. He recently received a letter from the Department of
Labor denying a claim he filed on behalf of his mother, Bernice
Findley, who died in 2001.

Findley's type of cancer, multiple myeloma, is one of the 22
that would qualify for the automatic compensation.

Of the 605 cancer cases the institute received for review, 384
were filed on behalf of plant workers who have died, Knightly
said.

The number of dead or dying workers is what makes Anderson
determined to get the claims processed quickly. He doesn't want
to think about how much longer people would have to wait if the
petition fails.

"It seems like a do-or-die situation for us," he said.

Vera Anderson and Karen Harshbarger
 
MIDDLETOWN CONNECTION: Their father, James Wahl, worked at the
plant.
 UPDATE: Wahl was an electrician and master mechanic who worked
on Line 1 at the Iowa Army Ammunition plant from 1941 until he
retired in 1973. He died in 1980 after being diagnosed with lung
and bladder cancer. Anderson and Harshbarger believe their
father's cancer was caused by his work at the plant. Harshbarger
says the sisters are waiting for a ruling on the $150,000 claim
they filed in their father's name. Occasionally, they receive a
letter tracking the progress of the paperwork, but Harshbarger
said she is skeptical she will ever get an answer.

Read more about Middletown

For more information about Middletown, and excerpts from the
2002 series, go to DesMoinesRegister.com/middletown

      Copyright © 2004, The Des Moines Register.
*****************************************************************
 29 The Australian: Beryllium info service established 

[February 09, 2005]
 	 	
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
 			
THE defence department has set up an advisory service to
handle concerns about exposure to the toxic metal beryllium.

Veterans groups have raised concerns that former
Australian navy, air force and army personnel may have inhaled
beryllium dust while maintaining ships, aircraft and other
equipment.

 Lawyers have also received calls from serving personnel who
believe they may have also been in contact with beryllium, which
has been linked to breathing illnesses and cancer.

 Anyone with concerns could register with an information service
set up through the Defence Service Call Centre, Veterans Affairs
Minister De-Anne Kelly said today.

 "Individuals who register will be contacted in writing
regarding the appropriate course of action for their
circumstances," she said. 

"The departments of defence and veterans affairs will liaise to
ensure that all persons who so register receive co-ordinated
advice."

 Ms Kelly said her department had a long-standing compensation
system in place for determining claims such as those arising
from beryllium exposure.

 The service had already dealt with a small number of cases, she
said.

 The adverse effects of beryllium were uncommon and were
generally associated with either short-term high-level exposure
or with long-term low-level exposure.

 "Regulations and safety standards are in place regarding the
use of beryllium in today's (Australian Defence Force)," Ms
Kellysaid.

 The advisory service can be contacted on 133 254 or 1800 555
254. 

© The Australian   

*****************************************************************
 30 [NukeNet] Tokyo Meeting Opposes Nuclear Waste Deregulation
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:00:26 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

On Sunday 6 February around 100 people attended a meeting in Tokyo to 
oppose nuclear related bills to be introduced into the current session of 
the Diet. The bills cover, among other things, the introduction of a 
'clearance' system for low level radioactive waste.  These bills were 
discussed in a previous message circulated on this list, now posted on the 
following page:

<http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit104/nit104articles/clearance21Dec04.html>http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit104/nit104articles/clearance21Dec04.html 


People attending the meeting were amazed to learn that their meeting had 
already attracted world-wide attention. Thanks to a sign-on letter 
circulated by Nuclear Information and Resource Service the organizers were 
able to announce that around 200 people from 14 countries had expressed 
their support for the meeting and their opposition to Japan's plans to 
deregulate radioactive waste. Letters received from overseas were 
distributed with the conference materials. They were also used in meetings 
with politicians on the following day. Thanks to everyone who signed this 
letter, and to those who sent their own messages of support.

People who attended the meeting resolved to continue the campaign through 
such activities as letters to newspapers and lobbying of their local 
politicians. They also recognized the problem of translating the 
'clearance' concept into language that is accessible to ordinary people. As 
it now stands the jargon used in Japanese, both by industry and by NGOs who 
oppose 'clearance', is not easily understandable to the man and woman in 
the street. Ideas along this line were discussed in order to facilitate 
spreading the message more widely.

Although there is a strong likelihood that the bills will be passed, that 
isn't the end of the battle. If there is strong opposition it will be 
impossible to implement the bills in practice.

Philip White
International Liaison Officer, CNIC

The meeting passed the following resolution:

There are major problems with two nuclear related bills which are expected 
to be submitted to the current session of the Diet.

The main issues covered by a bill to amend the Law for the Regulation of 
Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors (Reactor 
Regulation Law) are the introduction of a 'clearance' system and 
strengthening of measures for protecting nuclear materials.

The 'clearance' system will remove material with a low level of 
radioactivity from regulatory control. If this occurs, consumers will be 
exposed to radiation, without their knowledge, via consumer goods which 
have been made from materials recycled from the waste of dismantled nuclear 
power plants. It is said that the level of radioactivity will be low, but 
since it won't be mentioned on labels, consumers this exposure will have 
been forced upon people. We totally reject this system.

In regard to the protection of nuclear materials, the new measures presume 
that dissatisfied workers are hypothetical enemies. They make it a duty to 
take protective measures on the basis of threats such as these. They 
propose to establish an inspection system for nuclear materials. There is a 
danger that the  proposed duty of secrecy that will be imposed on workers 
who are in a position to know the protective measures system will have the 
effect of deterring whistle blowers. The duty of secrecy will extend to 
information about the schedule and route of nuclear fuel transports and 
will suppress the calls from citizens and local government for publication 
of information for the purpose of improving the disaster response system. 
Strengthening of regulatory controls in this way is incompatible with a 
democratic society. Rather, it gives form to the  nuclear police state 
which we have warned of for so long.

The other bill is for a new law providing for a system to cover 'back end' 
activities (clean-up and disposal). It is based on the interim report 
published at the end of August last year by the Electricity Industry 
Committee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy. It 
deals with back end costs which have not, until now, been covered. These 
include the cost of dismantling and disposing of the reprocessing plant and 
the cost of disposing of transuranic waste. These costs will be recovered 
through a new levy on top of the regular electricity rate. Until now 
backend funds have been held within the power company, but the new system 
will require that the funds be held in a designated body separate from the 
power company. The average family will pay around 1,000 yen (about $10 US) 
extra each year. This new burden is being introduced in preparation for 
embarking on the dangerous full-scale operation of the Rokkasho 
Reprocessing Plant and, as such, we refuse to accept it.

We called this meeting today under the banner of  'No to radiation 
releases! No to reprocessing cost burden! No to a nuclear police state! - 
National Conference to Stop Two Nuclear Bills'. We reconfirm our opposition 
to both these bills and make the following demands:

1. That the government reverse its plan to introduce these two bills in 
their current form;
2. In the case where the bills are introduced, that the Diet consider them 
thoroughly and reject them.

6 February 2005

(This resolution was handed to the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry 
the following day. It was also handed to Diet members who are on the 
committee that is tasked with considering the bills.)

Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
3F Kotobuki Bdg, 1-58-15, Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003
Phone: 81-3-5330-9520
Fax: 81-3-5330-9530
<http://cnic.jp/english/>http://cnic.jp/english/
cnic@nifty.com


_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 31 North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: Opinion The environment an issue for us all

Ed Gurowitz

February 9, 2005
 						
 It's never a pretty sight when chickens come home to roost. In
the presidential election, Nevadans had an opportunity to send a
message to President Bush regarding his reneging on his promise
not to support storing nucelar waste at Yucca Mountain. 

However they may have felt about other issues in the campaign,
you would think that the president's callous disregard for the
wishes of almost everyone in the state on this issue would have
been enough to keep Nevada residents from voting for him. But no
- Nevada went for Bush - and now that we have let the president
know he can do as he wishes with Nevada, he has decided to
divert millions of dollars from federal land sales in the state
to offset the federal deficit that he created when he spent the
surplus he inherited in 2000.

I've said before that this president is the worst thing to
happen to the environment since Chernobyl, but lest you think
this is purely a tree-hugger's issue, these funds were earmarked
for schools and water infrastructure as well as for important
environmental uses, including environmental improvement projects
here at the lake. 

And lest you think this is purely an agenda of those crunchy
granola democrats, the bill that set up the land sales was
written by Sen. Ensign, and the provision that allotted $300
million of the funds generated by the land sales to
environmental improvements in Lake Tahoe was co-generated by
Sen. Ensign and Sen. Reid.

Nevada republicans and right-wingers need to wake up to what
they are bringing on themselves when they support this
president, the author of such statements as, "Nuclear power
certainly answers a lot of our issues. It certainly answers the
environmental issue." Jan. 12, 2005. "We need an energy bill
that encourages consumption." Sept. 23, 2002.

The environment is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue.
When the lake loses clarity, it loses it for all of us, and when
nuclear waste is stored in our state it does not affect one side
and not the other. 

I'm not talking here about things like global warming which, even 
as an environmentalist, I find to be arguable at best, or about 
saving the spotted owl, or any of the other issues that 
anti-environmentalists like to use to ridicule environmentalists' 
concerns. I'm talking about nuclear waste, water conservation, 
air pollution, urban sprawl, and the preservation of our exurban 
way of life in the state and here at Tahoe. I guess there are 
people who are for nuclear contamination and air pollution - 
after all, if people can rationalize smoking they can probably 
rationalize anything - but I don't think the majority of us here 
are for these things. Yet this president has shown a cavalier 
disregard for environmental concerns.

George Bush took office when this country had one of the biggest 
budget surpluses we had ever seen, and in short order he put us 
into one of the biggest deficits ever. Now he proposes to take 
money that was generated by selling federal lands for the purpose 
of making up for some of the negative effects of this deficit so 
that he can fulfill the promise he made in the State of the Union 
address to cut in half the deficit that he created in the first 
place.

Both Nevada senators have promised to block this attempt. Let 
them know you support them in this and in their commitment to 
Nevada's environment.

All contents © Copyright 2005 tahoebonanza.com
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza - 925 Tahoe Blvd., Suite 206 -
Incline Village, NV 89452 			
*****************************************************************
 32 Las Vegas RJ: Reid gets dinner, no reassurance from Bush
 
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
 
 

By TONY BATT 
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday said
President Bush mentioned a Republican attack against him during
dinner Monday evening at the White House. 

But the Nevada Democrat said the conversation did little to
reassure him that he and Bush will have a productive working
relationship. 

"We'll see what the future holds," Reid said. "We'll see if the
president wants to unite, starting with the Democratic leader." 

Reid wouldn't elaborate on his conversation with Bush, but a
Capitol Hill source said Bush approached Reid privately during
the dinner and told him he knew nothing about the Republican
National Committee campaign. 

The RNC on Monday mailed to about 1 million journalists, GOP
donors and activists a 13-page document that labels Reid an
obstructionist and says members of Reid's family have benefited
from lobbying Congress. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee joined the fray
Tuesday with a list of complaints entitled, "Harry Reid's Forty
Days and Forty Nights of Partisanship." The list cites Reid's
creation of a "war room" to organize Democratic attacks, his
claim that Bush "has destroyed the economy of this country" and
his calling Bush a "liar." 

White House officials on Tuesday continued to reject Reid's call
for the president to ask the RNC to halt its campaign. 

Reid said he would not allow personal attacks to undermine his
effectiveness. 

"I want the boys at the White House, the girls at the White
House, the men and women at the White House, everyone to
understand, I haven't lost one wink of sleep over the attack
yesterday," he said Tuesday. 

The White House dinner occurred just hours after Reid urged Bush
to halt the RNC attack during a speech on the Senate floor. 

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who also attended the White House
dinner, said Reid and Bush got along very well. "They patched
over things," Smith said. 

Two other senators who attended, Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and
Richard Shelby, R-Ala., were tight-lipped. 

"They seemed to be (getting along), but I wouldn't comment on
details of a private dinner," Dodd said. 

"You'll have to talk to them," Shelby said. 

Although he sought to distance himself from the dispute, Sen.
John Ensign, R-Nev., signaled the RNC campaign may have gone too
far. 

"I never like bringing any family members into anything," Ensign
said. 

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Rick
Santorum, R-Pa., who chairs the Republican Conference Committee,
declined to criticize the RNC attacks against Reid. 

Reid said Tuesday that during last week's State of the Union
address the president said he wanted to reach out to Democrats
and be a uniter, not a divider. 

"I'm beginning to think that those statements are just
absolutely false," Reid said.
 
 

Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 33 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Sleazy Republican tactic

 LAS VEGAS SUN

 Now that he is the leader of the Senate Democrats, Nevada's
Sen. Harry Reid is bearing the brunt of the Republicans' boorish
but sadly effective behavior. Reid had responded with respect to
President Bush's pledge to "reach out to my friends in the
Democratic Party." Reid told the president that he had a duty to
represent Democratic values, but otherwise would work toward
compromises that benefited the country. His frank but
noncombative tone was rewarded Monday with the same type of
attack that President Clinton weathered for eight years and
which undid the former Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle of
South Dakota.

 The Republican National Committee, controlled by President Bush
and chaired by his former campaign manager, attacked Reid in a
lengthy e-mail sent to about a million subscribers. The RNC
savaged Reid's record in the Senate, essentially saying that
anyone who dares to challenge GOP dogma should be banished from
Congress.

 We were glad to see a strong response from Reid in the national
media. The Republicans, however, have learned that one vicious
hit piece is worth a thousand honest rebuttals. In our view,
it's time for voters to stand up to this type of sleazy tactic. 
 
*****************************************************************
 34 Las Vegas SUN: Construction plans for Yucca rail line could begin
next year 

Today: February 09, 2005 at 9:57:29 PST 

By Suzanne Struglinski 
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com [suzanne@lasvegassun.com] > 

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- Construction planning could begin as soon as next 
year for the rail line that is to carry nuclear waste across 
Nevada to Yucca Mountain, according to Energy Department budget 
documents. 

That's one of the revelations in the approximately 100 pages of 
the department's budget submitted Monday to Congress that break 
down the plans to spend the $651 million requested for Yucca 
Mountain. It is up to Congress to determine how much money the 
department will actually get and the department will have to 
adjust its plans accordingly. 

Energy Secretary Sam Bodman will testify before the House 
Energy and Commerce Committee today regarding the department's 
overall budget request of $23.4 billion. Several other hearings 
will take place in the House and Senate during the next few 
months as lawmakers begin to put together the energy spending 
bill. 

Margaret Chu, the department's assistant secretary who oversees 
the Yucca Mountain effort, emphasized Monday that the 
department's success with the nuclear dump plan depends largely 
on its ability to get full funding. 

Of the coming year's $85 million budget request for Yucca 
Mountain-related transportation, $41 million is allocated for 
transportation in Nevada. Of that, $33 million is earmarked for 
a contract for the design and construction of a 319-mile rail 
line in the Caliente area. 

Before the rail line can be built, the department will have to 
identify its exact route and will need to issue a final analysis 
of the environmental impact of the rail line. It plans to issue 
a draft analysis sometime this year and collect public comment, 
according to the budget. 

In the mean time, the department is asking for $44 million for 
the national transportation plan, which covers how the 
department will ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste from numerous 
sites across the nation to the proposed storage site at Yucca, 
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

This includes plans to award a contract and pick a location for 
a transportation operations center and develop a transportation 
security plan, according to the budget, although it does not 
provide many details. 

The department also plans to work with local governments and 
other organizations on selecting transportation routes. 

The department selected the Caliente corridor in Nevada but has 
not designated any other routes in the country to ship the 
waste. Some commercial nuclear power plants are not near rail 
lines so the nuclear waste will have to be trucked to the trains.

The $44 million for national transportation includes $10 
million for the casks, or the containers used to store the waste 
in transit. The department is working on developing a new cask. 

Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist with the Nuclear 
Information and Resource Service, said the relatively low amount 
of money set aside for the casks concerns him. 

"It is astounding. This is the primary protection for public 
health and safety," Kamps said. "That is the main barrier 
between a catastrophic radiation release and the public." 
*****************************************************************
 35 Las Vegas SUN: Chu says DOE to improve plans to ship waste

By Suzanne Struglinski 
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com [suzanne@lasvegassun.com] >

 SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is working on improving its
transportation planning for the Yucca Mountain project,
department official Margaret Chu told the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board.

 The board sent Chu a letter Dec. 1, saying the department had
no "overarching implementation organization" to develop a safe
and efficient waste-shipping program along with other problems.

 But Chu, the department's assistant secretary in charge of the
nuclear dump effort, pointed out in a seven-page response sent
to the board Feb. 1. that the Office of National Transportation
oversees the shipping plans.

 The department needs to plan how to ship 77,000 tons of nuclear
waste to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.

 Chu said the office manages plans to move waste across the
country as well as ship waste within Nevada. It works to "ensure
the transportation system is safe, secure, and efficient," Chu
wrote.

 She agreed with the board's concern that the department needs
to develop specific logistical plans to show who is responsible
to different elements of the overall plan. She told the board
the department is working on developing such plans and more can
be done after specific decisions on casks, rail cars and trains
are made. 

 
*****************************************************************
 36 Nuclear agency requesting $10.2 million to fight Yucca
 
+ [Reno Gazette-Journal]  [Reno Gazette-Journal]  
Reno, Nevada, USA  775-788-6200   

Anjeanette Damon [adamon@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

2/8/2005 11:02 pm 
 
Nevada needs $10.2 million over the next two years to continue
its fight against the nuclear waste repository at Yucca
Mountain, which state officials described as “limping along.”

In the past year, the project to store 77,000 tons of the
nation’s radioactive waste 90 miles north of Las Vegas has been
dealt legal, fiscal and regulatory blows that have halted its
momentum, said Bob Loux, director of the state’s Nuclear
Projects Agency.

“What I think the conclusion is, from everybody but the (Bush)
administration and the Department of Energy, is that the project
may never rekindle and get started again,” Loux told the Senate
Finance Committee on Tuesday.

But his agency needs continued funding to oppose the Department
of Energy’s efforts to license the project.

The $10.2 million will fund the agency’s budget for the next two
years and pay for a variety of independent safety studies,
including transportation issues, whether the casks will corrode
and whether military jets from the nearby Nellis Air Force Base
could pose a danger to the site.

Nevada won a legal decision in July that struck down the
radiation safety standards used by the Environmental Protection
Agency. The EPA must rewrite those standards and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission must rewrite its standards. That process
could take as many as eight years, Loux estimated.

Bush also cut next year’s funding for the project in half, and
the DOE ran into problems submitting millions of required
documents to the commission.

The DOE said this week, it plans to open the repository in 2012,
two years behind schedule.

The Senate Finance Committee also heard a request by Nevada
Secretary of State Dean Heller for $15 million in general fund
money to buy new electronic voting machines for Clark County and
additional machines for Washoe and Douglas counties.

Heller had hoped to use federal money to retrofit Clark County’s
older machines with printers for voters to verify their ballots.
But a new report showed that would be too expensive.

Washoe County and Douglas County need additional machines to cut
down wait times, which reached more than three hours at some
polls.

“In some of our low socioeconomic areas, the problem is that we
only had one machine, so the lines were out the door,” said
state Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno. 

[http://www.gannettfoundation.org/] © Copyright Reno
Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. [http://www.gannett.com]
*****************************************************************
 37 G2R: Russia to increase uranium extraction to avoid future shortages

Gateway To Russia - News From Russia
[http://www.gateway2russia.com]    		   		 		

Experts estimate that world prices for uranium could increase by
20 per cent. This was the forecast published in January by the
International Nuclear Inc. consultancy. Extraction companies are
not coping with the increased demand for fuel from the nuclear
stations that generate approximately one-sixth of all the
electricity consumed in the world. Experts in Russia are also
forecasting in increase in uranium prices.  

In order not to lose its niche in the market (experts estimate
that Russia has up to 40 per cent of the world's uranium market
if contract high- and low-enriched uranium [HEU-LEU] delivery
contracts are taken into account and around 30 per cent if not),
Russia needs to develop new uranium deposits. 

"The Federal Atomic Energy Agency [Rosatom] is currently engaged
in a very major analysis of our uranium stocks and potential
reserves, paying particular attention to speeding up the
expansion of output from proven deposits and geological
prospecting. The agency budget incorporates several tens of
millions of roubles for the purpose," Rosatom head Aleksandr
Rumyantsev told Kommersant in a comment on the plans to develop
prospecting work. "Russia really could encounter a uranium
deficit problem in 20-30 years - if we do nothing about
prospecting today. To prevent this, we are engaging fully with
the problem right now," Mr Rumyantsev stressed, adding that
Rosatom is finding complete mutual understanding with Natural
Resources Ministry and Minister Yuriy Trutnev on the issue. 

Source: Kommersant, Moscow 
BBC Monitoring 

[http://www.gateway2russia.com/

© Copyright Gateway to Russia 2003
*****************************************************************
 38 LA Times: Bush Plan Could Drain Effort to Clean Up Waters 

  [Los Angeles Times - latimes.com]

  February 9, 2005

THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET PLAN Bush Plan Could Drain Effort to
Clean Up Waters 

+ Under his budget, funds for an antipollution program would be
about half the 2004 level. Other environmental projects also
face cuts.
 
By Miguel Bustillo and Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writers

 For the second straight year, President Bush is proposing to
slash federal assistance to modernize aging sewer plants and
prevent polluted runoff from tainting rivers and beaches,
despite the Environmental Protection Agency's own estimate that
billions of dollars are needed to clean up the nation's waters.
 
If approved by Congress, 2006 funding for the popular program to
finance clean water improvements with low-interest loans will be
cut nearly in half, from $1.35 billion in 2004 to $730 million.
California estimates it would receive $50 million, compared with
$95 million in 2004.
 
The clean water cuts are by no means the only environmental
funding reductions in the Bush spending plan.
 
The EPA budget would be reduced by roughly 5.6% overall. Energy
Department funding for efficiency and renewable energy sources
such as wind and solar power would be cut by about 4%.
 
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget would
be trimmed by 8.3% despite the White House's recently announced
action plan to better safeguard and rehabilitate the oceans. The
cuts include a 38% reduction to the National Ocean Service,
which works on ocean preservation and exploration, and a near
12% drop in funding to the National Marine Fisheries Service,
which works to curb overfishing.
 
"We have a limited amount of money to spend," said Vice Adm.
Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., undersecretary of Commerce for
oceans and atmosphere. "There is no way to see programs that are
not cut."
 
The winners and losers of the spending plan reflect many of the
Bush administration's environmental priorities.
 
The Department of Interior, which manages about 20% of the
nation's land including national parks, would see its funding
cut by about 1%. Its budget includes a boost to a project under
its Healthy Forests initiative, which would allow more trees
around communities to be cut down to prevent wildfires.
 
The Interior budget counts on higher offshore leasing fees from
expanding oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which
would, in turn, expand the budget for its Minerals Management
Service. The budget is similarly optimistic on future revenue
from opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and
gas leasing. It assumes Congress will approve the bitterly
contested drilling plan, and that it will yield $2.4 billion in
oil leasing fees by 2007, which would be split between the
federal government and Alaska.
 
James T. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, said some of the perceived cuts were for
local projects that had been added to the budget in past years
by individual members of Congress.
 
Some of the environmental cuts reflect real progress,
Connaughton said. For example, he said, the Energy Department
was able to reduce environmental cleanup spending because it had
made great gains at sites such as Rocky Flats, a former military
base in Colorado that was contaminated with radioactive material.
 
Bush administration officials noted that the clean water loan
program, which had doled out nearly $48 billion in loans since
it began in 1987, was never intended to be funded forever by the
federal government. Bush officials proposed that it be funded
until 2011, when there would be a base of $3.4 billion to fund
continued loans.
 
"We are committed to providing additional funding," said Ben
Grumbles, the EPA's top water official. "But we are holding true
to the original vision of the revolving loan fund that after
some time, it would become self-sustaining."
 
Grumbles stressed that the Bush administration was exploring
other ways to help local agencies clean waterways. Options
include management plans in which sewer plants, farmers and
others discharging polluted wastewater could work together, and
perhaps trade "pollution credits" with one another in a
market-based system to clean entire watersheds.
 
Environmental groups blasted the proposed cuts to the loan fund,
arguing that the federal government had a duty to help protect
the public from waterways polluted with raw sewage, which can
contain E. coli, salmonella and other disease-causing bacteria.
Millions of Americans develop illnesses every year due to
drinking or swimming in contaminated waters, according to the
EPA.
 
"On the East Coast, we still have some cities with sewer pipes
made of wood," said Eric Eckl, spokesman for the American Rivers
environmental group. "And here we have the federal government
abandoning its responsibility to help local agencies address
this problem."
 
Water agencies said they would fight the cuts, which they
characterized as a shift in philosophy by the Bush
administration to have municipalities assume more responsibility
for their water problems.
 
The EPA, the agencies noted, estimated in 2002 that there was a
growing gap between spending on clean water improvements and the
money needed, which could exceed $200 billion over the next two
decades.
 
"As a nation, we are going backward," said Ken Kirk, executive
director of the Assn. of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, which
represents more than 300 wastewater utilities around the
country. The Bush administration, he said, is "basically telling
the states and local communities to do it on their own, even
though they can't. We need a larger investment from the federal
government if we have any chance of making progress."
 
Times staff writer Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
 
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
*****************************************************************
 39 OA Online News: Expert: Enrichment plant won’t harm water
 
 [http://www.oaoa.com] 
   
Tuesday, 08 February 2005   

American Online c /o Odessa American 222 E. 4th Street P.O. Box 
2952 Odessa, TX 79760
    
 			
Louisiana Energy Services eyes uranium enrichment facility near
Eunice, N.M.
 			
By Ruth Campbell Odessa American

HOBBS, N.M. An expert testifying at an Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board hearing here Monday said there is no cause 
for concern about underground or surface water safety if a 
proposed uranium enrichment facility is built near Eunice, N.M.
                        
Roger Peery, the CEO and senior hydrogeologist with John Shomaker
and Associates in Albuquerque, made the assertion as one of the                      
witnesses in the hearing at the Lea County Event Center in Hobbs.
The hearing is part of the licensing process Louisiana Energy                        
Services must go through to build the $1.2 billion National
Enrichment Facility. 
                        
Representatives from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, 
the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen 
and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are represented. 
                        
Peery said the National Enrichment Facility would also sit on a                       
layer of impermeable red clay, the same type under Waste Control                         
Specialists low-level radioactive storage site in Andrews County, 
so it’s unlikely any runoff would make it into the water supply.
                        
Concerns about water safety were set to take up testimony most of                         
Monday. The hearing, expected to last through the week, will also                         
cover implications of waste storage, how much water the plant 
would use and the need for the facility, Dave McIntyre, Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission spokesman, said. 
                        
Meanwhile, LES has signed a memorandum of understanding with 
AREVA Inc. to construct a deconversion facility near the proposed 
uranium enrichment plant. 
                        
The plant would convert NEF byproduct to uranium oxide that can 
be disposed of safely, according to an LES news release. The 
oxide would be sent to a low-level radioactive waste facility, 
possibly Waste Control Specialists, LES spokeswoman April Wade 
said. 
                        
The state of New Mexico has long wanted LES to have a place to 
store its byproduct outside the state. Getting licensed for the 
deconversion facility could take five years, Wade said. 
                        
The NRC is expected to make a decision on the National
Enrichment Facility by June 2006, officials have said.
  
*****************************************************************
 40 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet Feb. 23-25 in Rockville, Maryland
 
News Release - 2005-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
  No. 05-025     February 8, 2005   
  

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on
Nuclear Waste will hold a public meeting Feb. 23-25, in
Rockville, Md., where, among other items, members will meet with
Commissioner Jeffrey S. Merrifield to discuss items of mutual
interest in the waste management arena. The committee will also
be briefed on the status of agreements between the NRC and the
Department of Energy related to the proposed Yucca Mountain
high-level waste repository. 

The meeting on Wednesday will run from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and the meeting on Thursday will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The Friday session will run from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The meeting
will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North
Building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. 

A complete agenda will be available on the NRCs Web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acnw/agenda/2005/.
For additional information, contact Michael P. Lee at
301-415-6887.
   



  


 	Last revised Wednesday, February 09, 2005 	
*****************************************************************
 41 Interfax: Central Asian states set up nuclear weapons-free zone

[http://www.interfax.com/

Feb 9 2005 4:48PM
 
TASHKENT. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Experts from a number of Central
Asian states have completed drafting a treaty on setting up a
nuclear weapons- free zone in the Central Asian region at a
conference in Tashkent. 

"The participants in the conference welcome the outcomes of the
Tashkent meeting, which ended with the drawing up of an agreed
draft treaty, taking into account IAEA and UN Office of Legal
Affairs recommendations and remarks by five states possessing
nuclear weapons," reads a statement adopted by the conference
participants. 

"The establishment of zones free from nuclear weapons
significantly facilitates the maintenance and improvement of
peace and security at the global and regional levels," the
statement reads. 

The parties confirmed their commitment to setting up a nuclear
weapons-free zone in Central Asia. 
    
© 1991-2004 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
*****************************************************************
 42 ABQjournal: LANL Boss, Security Under Attack 

Albuquerque Journal newspaper. 

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 

+ Text of Thomas Meyer letter PDF download 124k 

Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin 
Journal Staff Writer 

A Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor and a former 
high-ranking LANL scientist have independently come forward with 
a range of concerns relating to last summer's work shutdown and 
nuclear safety at one of the weapons lab's highest-risk 
facilities. 

Thomas J. Meyer— the former associate director for LANL's 
strategic research and a former member of the senior executive 
team that reports to director Pete Nanos— is critical of the way 
Nanos halted the work of 12,000 lab employees July 12 over 
safety and security weaknesses and wants to air his views so 
other employees and the community can gain some perspective on 
what has transpired since then. 

Echoing the sentiments of some anonymous employee e-mail 
and Internet messages, Meyer said he feels Nanos transferred 
blame for procedural failures away from himself and senior 
managers while creating "an environment of fear and 
intimidation," and that Nanos went too far by publicly referring 
to LANL scientists as "cowboys" for not following safety and 
security procedures. 

"They (scientists) have been inappropriately pilloried and 
impugned publicly by their own director," Meyer wrote in a 
seven-page missive distributed to local media Tuesday evening. 

LANL spokesman James Fallin said he couldn't comment 
directly on Meyer's letter because he had not read it and could 
not comment on his resignation because that was a personnel 
action. But he did take issue with Meyer's depiction that Nanos 
is attacking scientists. 

"What (Nanos) is attacking is complacency and the attitude 
that things are well enough if left alone and the idea that 
accountability isn't something used at this institution," he 
said. 

In using the term "cowboy," Nanos was referring to just a 
few scientists who didn't follow the rules and did not apply the 
term to all LANL scientists, Fallin said. 

Fallin also said that as employees learn the circumstances 
and factors involved in Nanos' decisions, most scientists and 
employees understand their propriety. 

As a result of a laser accident and a 2003 clerical error 
that made it appear as though two classified computer disks were 
missing, four LANL employees were fired and a fifth, Meyer, 
resigned. 

After reviewing the shutdown and the circumstances leading 
up to it, DOE investigators reported in a Jan. 21 memo to former 
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that "we have been consistently 
impressed by the attitude and actions of the Los Alamos 
Director." 

In his letter, Meyer writes that many of the problems 
leading to the shutdown had previously been identified, but not 
fixed, and that the shutdown itself was excessive. Similar 
corrective measures could have been achieved through a rolling 
shutdown, avoiding the chaos and cost of a complete work 
stoppage while more effectively targeting problem areas, he said.

A chemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, 
Meyer resigned his position at LANL, effective Oct. 12, in lieu 
of termination following a summer laser accident that seriously 
injured the eye of a student intern. 

Meyer said he was tied to the accident because he oversaw 
the scientist responsible but that his was just an "inferential 
connection" without a direct link and that he couldn't have been 
fired for it. 

He argued that the problems that provoked Nanos to take the 
unprecedented move of shutting down the laboratory lie in the 
support and management structures "that have not kept pace as 
the laboratory has grown." 

Meyer also holds accountable DOE and the University of 
California, which manages LANL. 

At the same time Meyer has come forward, Don Brown, a LANL 
contractor responsible for evaluating quality control over DOE 
nuclear facilities, is publicly disclosing his concerns. 

On Tuesday night's "CBS Evening News," he recounted 
problems he said he uncovered at LANL's Technical Area-18, where 
the lab performs subcritical nuclear experiments. 

Hired in 2003, Brown told CBS he "started finding problems 
that would stop any other nuclear facility in their tracks," 
including more than 1,000 faulty welds, which he suggested made 
the facility susceptible to a nuclear accident. 

Brown said TA-18 is also susceptible to a nuclear accident, 
such as the one that occurred in Chernobyl, because it does not 
have a "containment structure." 

He also said security was lax enough that a scientist was 
able to walk away with radioactive material that was not 
discovered missing until a burglar broke into his home and 
police investigated. 

LANL spokesman Kevin Roark strongly contested each of those 
points. He said LANL officials have known about the welding 
issues, which were solved years ago. LANL's Fallin said the 
welds pose no risks to workers or the public and that "there is 
a very aggressive program in place to rectify the very issues" 
Brown raised. 

Roark said TA-18 is not required to have a containment 
structure because there is no nuclear reactor to contain and 
that the radioactive material found in the scientist's home is a 
type that can be bought commercially and is used for calibrating 
safety equipment. 

"To assert that someone walked away with materials is 
completely disingenuous," he said. 

Copyright Albuquerque Journal 

Steve@abqjournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 43 Tri-City Herald: Judge says Hanford cleanup initiative will not be enforced 

This story was published Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
 
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The Hanford cleanup initiative will not be enforced until legal
decisions are made, U.S. Judge Alan McDonald ordered Tuesday as
he turned key questions over to the Washington Supreme Court. 

Federal and state courts must rule before Initiative 297 may be
enforced at Hanford or Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
McDonald wrote in court documents. 

McDonald's decision to move key questions to the state Supreme
Court was a victory for the state. Last week it told the judge
it would agree to take no action to enforce the initiative until
decisions were made, if key elements were moved to the state
court. 

"It confirms our position that it's appropriate for a state
court to decide what a state law means," said Sheryl Hutchison,
spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology.
 
Voters passed the initiative in November to stop the Department
of Energy from bringing more radioactive waste to Hanford until
waste already there is cleaned up. The site is massively
contaminated from 50 years of producing plutonium for the
nation's nuclear weapons program. 

The federal government sued the state, saying the initiative,
now called the Cleanup Priority Act, was unconstitutional. 

Whether the initiative violates the U.S. Constitution is a
matter for the federal court rather than a state court, federal
attorneys argued. No state interpretation is needed for the
federal court to decide that question, they said. 

"This court believes the CPA is susceptible of an interpretation
that would avoid or substantially modify the federal
constitutional challenge," McDonald wrote in an order to send
key questions to the state court. 

Among questions he asked the state Supreme Court to answer is
whether a finding that part of the initiative is
unconstitutional would void the entire initiative. 

Other questions ask for interpretations of what waste is covered
by the initiative, including whether it expands the definition
of mixed waste. 

The Department of Justice has argued that the initiative covers
radioactive materials used in homeland defense and other
research at the national laboratory. 

The state also would clarify whether the initiative prevents
waste from being moved from one facility to another at Hanford,
which would halt cleanup work. 

Under a temporary restraining order issued by McDonald and then
an agreement between the state and federal government, no action
has been taken on the initiative since it became law in early
December. 

However, that agreement is extended until May 13. McDonald's
order Tuesday extends the temporary restraining order, likely
for much longer. 

The Department of Justice had argued against turning key
questions over to the state Supreme Court, saying the state
court had taken seven months to three years to reach similar
decisions. McDonald agreed Tuesday that moving part of the suit
could considerably delay resolution of constitutionality
questions. 

The Justice Department is reviewing the decision to turn key
questions in the lawsuit it filed over to the state and has not
decided what its next step will be, said Jackie Lesch,
spokeswoman for the Justice Department. 

The state does have its own lawsuit in McDonald's court that
could bar waste shipments to Hanford without need of the
initiative. It was filed in 2003, long before the initiative
went to voters. 

On April 28, McDonald is scheduled to consider lengthening or
dissolving injunctions now in place barring DOE from shipping
different types of waste to Hanford under the 2003 suit.
 
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 44 CBS News: Los Alamos Ignores Warning Signs 

[http://www.cbsnews.com/

Feb. 8, 2005

Donald Brown (Photo: CBS)

"If you're going to build a Wal-Mart in Santa Fe, you'd have
more requirements at that Wal-Mart in Santa Fe than you did for
the laboratory."

Don Brown, Los Alamos employee

Los Alamos National Laboratory  (Photo: CBS)

+ Nuke Lab Bombarded By Controversy                     

(CBS) In the mountains of New Mexico, at 7,000 feet above sea
level, is the government's top nuclear weapons facility. It is
staffed by some of the world's best scientists — and least one
tenacious whistleblower. 

Don Brown gets paid to dig up problems at nuclear facilities so
they can be quickly fixed. When he landed a job at Los Alamos in
2003, he figured, "I should be like the Maytag," Brown said.
"I'd be thinking, well, gee, what can I do today?" 

CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who began investigating
lax security at Los Alamos more than five years ago, talked with
Brown about the trouble he began seeing around every corner. 

"I started finding problems that would stop any other nuclear
facility in their tracks," he said. 

Problems like 1,000 faulty welds in one nuclear building alone. 

"It looks like it was welded with a Hershey Bar," Brown said. 

Attkisson asked Brown how many suspect welds would be considered
acceptable? 

"At a nuclear facility? None," he said. "Zero. You don't want
any. If you have a leak in a pipe that has nuclear materials or
coolant, then that release could cause an accident — a nuclear
accident." 

Then there's lax security, like the lab worker who walked out
with radioactive material that was never missed — until a thief
recently broke into his garage and tried to steal it. 

Should the public be concerned that an employee at Los Alamos
can just walk out with radioactive material? 

"I'm a citizen and I live in Los Alamos and I was concerned,"
Brown said. 

That employee got reduced access and "counseling." And Brown
said there are many more hidden dangers. 

White Rock, a suburb of Los Alamos, is about three miles from a
lab building containing radioactive material. You might think
that building has all the protections a commercial nuclear
facility would have to protect the public from a radioactive
release, but you'd be wrong. 

That area of the lab, known as TA-18, doesn't even have a basic
"containment structure" to hold in radiation in case of a
nuclear accident. Yet according to the government's own
analysis, it could release fatal doses twice as high as
Chernobyl: the worst nuclear accident in history. Other nuclear
buildings at the Lab are vulnerable to earthquakes, airplane
crashes and fire. 

"If you're going to build a Wal-Mart in Santa Fe, you'd have
more requirements at that Wal-Mart in Santa Fe than you did for
the laboratory," Brown said. 

Brown was so shaken by what he found at Los Alamos — and the
apparent lack of concern by management — he sounded an
unmistakable alarm in October. 

He wrote what might be the most comprehensive critique ever put
down on paper about Los Alamos, which left little doubt about
his feelings. The report even asked: "Has the laboratory just
been lucky that we have not experienced a nuclear catastrophe?" 

He fired off copies to lab managers, the Energy Department and
the University of California which operates the Lab for the
government. 

"The only response I got was the areas I had been given
responsibilities to audit have been taken away from me," Brown
said. 

But the U.S. Department of Energy says it is investigating such
concerns as those Brown raised. 

Nobody from Lab management would be interviewed, but the
National Nuclear Security Administration issued this statement:
"The safety and security of our employees and their communities
is the top priority of the National Nuclear Security
Administration. Los Alamos National Laboratory has just
undergone a thorough examination of its safety and security
practices, including many of the issues raised by this
particular employee." 

Brown has now filed a lawsuit against the lab, and he joins a
long list of whistleblowers at Los Alamos who say they, too,
were retaliated against when they exposed dangers at the Lab.
After 30 years in nuclear safety, he knows that going public
about Los Alamos could be a career-ender. But he feels
passionate about his plight. 

"We're talking about people's lives," Brown said. 

But he says the stakes are too high to keep silent. 

Attkisson reports tomorrow on more concerns about Los Alamos,
including the weapons manufactured there and their relationship
to U.S. national security. 

©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  [http://www.cbsnews.com] 
    
*****************************************************************
 45 [du-list] DU in the news Feb 10th  05
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:01:02 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NRDC Worldview, Wed, 09 Feb 2005 4:39 AM PST
NRDC: Nuclear Weapons & Waste: In Depth Index 
http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/depth.asp
Get technical: Reports, unpublished research, policy and technical 
analyses, Congressional testimony, and other materials by NRDC's lawyers, 
scientists and analysts.

The Des Moines Register, Wed, 09 Feb 2005 8:57 AM PST
Middletown workers yet again hold hope for closure 
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050209/NEWS08/502090334/1001/NEWS
There's still hope: Pictures from Bernice Findley's funeral cover a table 
as Bobby Richardson, her son, reads a letter Friday recommending denial of 
government compensation following her 2001 death from cancer. Findley had 
worked at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown for about 15 years.

Financial Times, Tue, 08 Feb 2005 6:25 PM PST
Fears of global warming boost comeback hopes for reactors 
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c68c4466-7a3e-11d9-ba2a-00000e2511c8.html
China's announcement this week that it will construct what is likely to be 
the world's first operational pebble-bed nuclear reactor, ahead of the US 
and Europe, marks a resurgence for the nuclear industry.

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*****************************************************************
 46 The Sunflower - February 2005 - Issue 93
 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 01:36:20 -0600 (CST)

 
The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational
information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to
global security. Help us spread the word and forward this to a friend.

Click here <https://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/donate/index_secure.htm>
to help sustain this valuable resource by making a donation. 

To receive our free monthly e-newsletter subscribe at
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 Download the complete PDF Version
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.pdf> 

*	Perspectives 

	*	Erosion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime by David
Krieger
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#2a>  
	*	Seven Steps to Raise World Security by Mohamed ElBaradei
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#2b> 

*	Take Action 

	*	Abolition Now! Call to Action: Enroll Your Mayor in the
Mayor's Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#3a> 

*	Non Proliferation 

	*	Italy to Help Russia Scrap Nuclear Sub, Russia to Add
Two New Nuclear Subs
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4a> 
	*	IAEA Inspectors Visit Nigerian Nuclear Reactor
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4b> 
	*	Niger Ratifies IAEA Additional Protocol
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4c> 
	*	House Panel Recommends Nonproliferation Measures
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4d> 
	*	Mexico to Host Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Conference
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4e> 
	*	The Bahamas Signs Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#4f> 

*	Proliferation 

	*	US Seeking to Restart Study on "Bunker Buster"
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#5a> 
	*	North Korea Tells Lawmakers Nuclear Program Is Complete
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#5b> 
	*	Ukraine Cracks Illicit Weapons Case
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#5c>  
	*	Egypt Inspected for Nuclear Experiments
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#5d> 
	*	Will the US Get Involved in Iran?
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#5e>  

*	Missiles, Defense and Missile Defense 

	*	Taiwan Deploys Missiles on Mobile Launchers
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#6a> 
	*	Report: Missile Defense Has Limited Capability
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#6b> 
	*	US StratCom Given New WMD Mission
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#6c>  

*	Nuclear Energy and Waste 

	*	Australia Exports Nuclear Waste to US, Making Room for
More
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7a> 
	*	Officials - Russian Murmansk Nuclear Legacy Contained by
2010
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7b> 
	*	Federal Battle in Hanford Waste Cleanup, the Saga
Continues
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7c> 
	*	Industry Outsider Is New Department of Energy Secretary
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7d> 
	*	Deals Cut on Yucca Mountain, Part Deux
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7e> 
	*	Coolant Spill Shuts Down Michigan Reactor
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7f> 
	*	New Jersey Nuclear Reactor Resumes Operation Following
Radioactive Leak
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7g> 
	*	South African Environmentalists Successfully Lobby
Against Nuclear Power
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7h> 
	*	Challenging Outlook for UK Nuclear Industry
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#7i> 

*	Nuclear Insanity 

	*	Senator Asks Navy for Nuclear Carrier at Mayport
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#8a> 
	*	US Aware of Pakistan's Nuclear Dangers
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#8b> 
	*	Ashcroft: Nuclear Terrorism Greatest Threat
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#8c> 

*	Nuclear Laboratories 

	*	"Missing Disks" That Shut Down LANL Never Existed
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#9a> 
	*	Plutonium Work at LLNL Stops Amid Safety Concerns
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#9b> 
	*	"Watchdog Partnership" To Submit Bid for Los Alamos
Nuclear Laboratory
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#9c>  

*	Foundation Activities 

	*	Robert Jay Lifton to Present Fourth Annual Frank K.
Kelly Lecture on Humanity's Future
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#10a> 

*	Resources 

	*	Nonviolence and Social Change for Educators
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#11a> 
	*	Breakthrough or Bust in 2005
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#11b> 
	*	100 Companies Receiving the Largest Dollar Volume of
Defense Awards
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#11c> 
	*	Proliferation Security Initiative Frequently Asked
Questions
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#11d> 

*	Quotable 

	*	US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#12a> 
	*	President George W. Bush
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#12b> 
	*	George Manbiot
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#12c> 
	*	Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#12d> 
	*	Outgoing US Secretary of Homeland Defense Tom Ridge
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm#12e> 

*	Editorial Team 

	*	Luke Brothers 
	*	David Krieger 
	*	Carah Ong 
	*	Jon Solorzano 

Perspectives

Erosion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime | Top
by David Krieger 

I recently participated in a meeting on the Future of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, sponsored by the Middle Powers Initiative at
The Carter Center in Atlanta. The Middle Powers Initiative is a
coalition of eight international civil society organizations, two of
which have received the Nobel Peace Prize. I represented the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation at the meeting, one of the founding organizations. In
addition to civil society representatives such as myself, the meeting
hosted diplomats from many countries. Among the participants were Marian
Hobbs, New Zealand's Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control; Senator
Douglas Roche of Canada, chair of the Middle Powers Initiative; Nobuyasu
Abe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs;
Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, Brazilian Ambassador and
President-Designate of the 2005 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
Conference; former US Ambassador Robert Grey Jr.; and Ambassador Rajab
M. Sukayri of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

The participants in the consultation were mindful of the recent United
Nations Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and
Change. The Report, issued in December 2004, indicated that "the nuclear
non-proliferation regime is now at risk because of lack of compliance
with existing commitments, withdrawal or threats of withdrawal from the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to escape those
commitments, a changing international security environment and the
diffusion of technology." The Report found, "We are approaching a point
at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become
irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation." 

To read the full article, visit:
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/02/00_krieger_erosion-npt.htm

Seven Steps to Raise World Security | Top
by Mohamed ElBaradei, February 2, 2005 

Four months from now, in New York, the world will have a rare
opportunity to make significant improvements in international security.
The question is whether we will be smart enough to use it.

In recent years, three phenomena have radically altered the security
landscape. They are the emergence of a nuclear black market, the
determined efforts by more countries to acquire technology to produce
the fissile material useable in nuclear weapons and the clear desire of
terrorists to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

We have been trying to solve these new problems with existing tools. But
for every step forward, we have exposed vulnerabilities in the system.
The system itself - the regime that implements the treaty on the
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) - needs reinforcement. Some
of the necessary remedies can be taken in May, but only if governments
are ready to act.

To read the full article, visit:
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/02/02_elbaradei_seven-steps-sec
urity.htm

To view the entire Sunflower, visit:
http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resrources/sunflower
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.htm>
or  Download the complete PDF Version
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/sunflower/2005/02_sunflower.pdf> 

To receive our free monthly e-newsletter subscribe at
http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/subscribe/
*****************************************************************
 47 [NukeNet] Nuclear News from Japan
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:00:28 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

There have been a few significant nuclear stories in Japan recently, which 
we haven't reported to this list.

1. There have been some developments regarding the Monju FBR, including a 
decision to proceed with some remodeling of the reactor.
2. Another problem at TEPCO brings to 11 out of a total of 17 of its 
reactors which are closed for inspections.
3. Tokai Village has finally decided to dismantle equipment that was 
involved in the 1999 criticality accident at the JCO uranium processing 
plant. The accident killed two workers and led to the evacuation of 
hundreds others.

The first two of these issues is covered in media stories, so we will 
simply send relevant links (see below).

CNIC reported on the JCO situation in two recent editions of Nuke Info Tokyo:

http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit103/nit103articles/nit103tokai.html

http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit102/nit102articles/jco5years.html

Residents of Tokai were split as to whether the equipment should be 
preserved, or whether it should be dismantled. In the end it was decided 
that a plastic replica would be made. CNIC's position has always been that 
preserving the site is the only way to convey a powerful message about the 
JCO accident to future generations.

People on this mailing list have all sorts of nuclear news sources, but 
just in case you weren't aware, CNIC has a page with links to stories in 
the commercial media. The focus is on nuclear and energy issues in Japan, 
but we try to include news from the wider Asian region as well.:

http://cnic.jp/english/news/mediaetc/index.html

Philip White

7 February 2004
Fukui governor gives approval to retool controversial Monju
The Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050207a2.htm

7 February 2004
Governor set to OK fast-breeder project
The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200502070147.html

3 February 2004
UPDATE 1-TEPCO shuts nuke power generator due to steam leak
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7534879

Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
3F Kotobuki Bdg, 1-58-15, Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003
Phone: 81-3-5330-9520
Fax: 81-3-5330-9530
http://cnic.jp/english/
cnic@nifty.com


_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 48 Junk science
 
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 15:00:30 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
  Several studies found elevated cancer             rates near Three Mile 
Island

        Published in the Asbury Park Press 02/4/05


       The Jan. 12 letter "Anti-nuclear argument flawed" from Dr. Letty 
Goodman Lutzker provided your readership with a textbook example of "junk 
science." Lutzker produced an unscientific and emotional argument in 
support of nuclear power: "These studies include those by the National 
Cancer Institute examining 90,000 deaths both near to and distant from 
nuclear plants, and by a Three Mile Island citizens' group after the 
accident 25 years ago that found no health effects from the small amount of 
radioactivity released."

    The facts relating to Three Mile Island and health effects are well 
documented. There were door-to-door surveys conducted by citizens living 
close to TMI. Field research documented increased cancer incidences and 
mortalities in population pockets saturated by radioactive plumes.

    € In 1984, the first Voluntary Community Health Study was undertaken by 
a group of local residents trained by Marjorie Aamodt. That study found a 
600 percent cancer death rate increase for three locations on the west 
shore of TMI directly in the plumes' pathway. The data were independently 
verified by experts from the TMI Public Health Fund.

    € The following year, Jane Lee surveyed 409 families living in a 
housing development five miles from TMI. Lee documented 23 cancer deaths, 
45 cancer incidences, 53 benign tumors, 31 miscarriages, stillbirths and 
deformities, and 204 cases of respiratory problems.

    These local efforts were matched and documented by area researchers:

    € Richard E. Webb moved to Harrisburg to conduct a health assessment. 
His Report on Infant Deaths found a "clear statistically significant 
increase of infant deaths in Dauphin County" in 1979 following the TMI 
accident. Webb used the Pennsylvania Health Department's vital statistics.



    € A Penn State professor, Winston Richards, reported, "Infant mortality 
for Dauphin County, while average in 1978, becomes significantly above 
average in 1980. Death from leukemia, while average in 1979, is very close 
to above average in 1980, and deaths from cancer for ages 45-64, while 
average for 1978, become decidedly significantly above average for 1980."

    € James Fenwick, a researcher at Millersville University, found 
statistically significant increases of prostate, bladder and urinary 
cancers in men; increased kidney, renal, pelvis and ovarian cancer in 
women; and small increases in thyroid cancers among men and women. (April 1998)

    Since Lutzker presented no documentation, I must presume the citizens' 
study she alluded to is the much-maligned Pennsylvania Department of 
Health's report released in September 1985. That study's protocol was 
ridiculed and criticized by epidemiologists at Harvard and Penn State for 
diluting increases in cancer by expanding the population base to include 
people living outside the 10-mile study zone. More specifically, the health 
department placed 28,610 people who lived five miles outside of TMI as 
actually living within five miles of the plant. And another 122,000 people 
who lived farther than 10 miles from the plant were included in the 
population of those living within 10 miles.

    Unfortunately, none of these studies evaluated the health impact to 
members of our community who worked on the cleanup of Three Mile Island-2. 
GPU Nuclear did not maintain a health or cancer registry from 1979-1989, 
even though 5,000 cleanup workers received "measurable doses" of radiation 
exposure during the TMI-2 defueling.

Eric J. Epstein

CHAIRMAN
THREE MILE ISLAND ALERT INC.
HARRISBURG, PA.  

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*****************************************************************

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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
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information go to: 
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