***************************************************************** 02/16/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.37 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 [NYTr] WMD expert reopens row about 'sexed-up' dossier 2 Independent: WMD expert reopens row about 'sexed-up' dossier 3 [NYTr] Iran Downplays Explosion, Denies Nuke Facilities 4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: U.S. Spy Drones Fly Over Nuke Sites 5 Guardian Unlimited: Official Predicts Quick Iran Bomb Progress 6 AFP: Iran warns against "erroneous" information on nuclear 7 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: [EDITORIALS]Remember who's on our side 8 CNN: Timeline: N. Korea nuclear dispute 9 CIA: Goss: North Korea's nuclear capability grown 10 US: Guardian Unlimited: CIA, FBI Warn Panel of Top Threats to U.S. 11 US: Las Vegas SUN: Renewable energy report encouraging for Nevada 12 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Energy secretary pushes to ramp up U.S. abili 13 New U.S. Campaign Newsletter & Update from Mordechai 14 The Japan Times: Rapid missile defense response wins OK NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 BY 2/17: Organizations: Sign on to oppose new reactor at North 16 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's Bushehr Nuke Plant Nearly Completed 17 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY fray rests on cool million 18 US: SignOnSanDiego.com: Faulty valve causes reactor shutdown at San 19 US: NRC: NRC Davis-Besse Oversight Panel to Meet Feb. 22 in Ohio 20 US: NRC: NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application f 21 US: NRC: Draft Regulatory Guide; Extension of Comment Period 22 US: Nucleonics: Nuclear renaissance faces realities 23 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collecti NUCLEAR SAFETY 24 US: Marin Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up 25 US: America's use of DU is stirring up hatred by Carol Wolman, MD 26 US: Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Desert Town Stakes Future on Uranium 27 US: Las Vegas SUN: EPA readies orders for toxic mine cleanup at Yeri 28 US: Seattle Times: Editorials & Opinion: Follow the isotopes 29 Bellona: Court Denies Declassification of Information on Accidents A 30 US: Newswise: Tungsten-Alloy Shrapnel Causes Tumors, Cancer in Rats 31 US: Political Affairs Magazine: Study of Depleted Uranium Effects Ca 32 US: madison courier: Army considers changing JPG plans NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 33 EcoDefense: $600 million nuclear waste deal between Russia and Hunga 34 UK The Times: Nuclear audit says Sellafield has 'lost' 30kg of pluto 35 US: SignOnSanDiego.com: Utah tribe may store spent nuclear rods 36 US: Las Vegas RJ: New member of NRC backs physical test of casks 37 BBC: Watchdog lodges Dounreay report 38 Las Vegas SUN: Titus rips Bush plan to take land sales funds 39 Las Vegas SUN: Nuke official: Take Yucca benefits 40 US: Platts: State regulators consider escrow accounts for nuclear wa 41 US: Cape Cod Times: Air Force postpones plume cleanup 42 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Huntsman urges quick move of Moab tailings 43 US: lamonitor.com: Waste removal comes a cropper 44 US: PR Newswire: LES Announces Contract With South Texas Project NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 45 Rocky Mountain News: Union cites damage from heated plutonium 46 DenverPost.com: Union seeks Flats dispensation 47 Albuquerque Tribune: Commentary: Bidding for change 48 chillicothe gazette: USEC changes personnel to prepare for test 49 Tri-City Herald: Report urges more vigilance at plant 50 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky OTHER NUCLEAR 51 [du-list] DU & Tungsten in the news - 16th Feb. 05 52 BBC: Nuclear fusion 'put to the test' ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [NYTr] WMD expert reopens row about 'sexed-up' dossier Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:29:19 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Simon McGuinness - Feb 16, 2005 The Independent - 16 February 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=611494 WMD expert reopens row about 'sexed-up' dossier By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor A letter by the head of MI6 allegedly seeking to "sex up" a dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction should be released under the Freedom Of Information Act, the former head of the MoD intelligence branch said last night. Brian Jones, ex-head of the Defence Intelligence Staff, spoke out after Rod Barton, an Australian member of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), reopened the dispute over the "sexing up" of the government dossier on WMD that led to the suicide of David Kelly, another weapons specialist. Dr Barton, a microbiologist who worked for Australian intelligence for more than 20 years, said John Scarlett, then head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, asked for "new elements" to be included in a draft report he was producing on the WMD in Iraq. The head of the ISG, Charles Duelfer, refused. Dr Barton told Australia's ABC TV: "Both Washington and London wanted other things put in to make it - I can only use these words - to make it sexier. "We left the impression that, yes, maybe there were ... WMD out there. So I thought it was dishonest. Dr Barton, who joined the United Nations' search for Saddam's illicit arsenal in 1991, said the censorship in the US investigation began after Charles Duelfer became the head of the ISG last February. He claimed Mr Duelfer wanted "a different style of report altogether", which he had discussed with President George Bush and the CIA. "I said to him, 'I believe it's dishonest,'" Dr Barton told the programme. "If we know certain things and we're asked to provide a report, we should say what we found and what we haven't found and put that in the report." Dr Barton said the report was not allowed to mention two trailers held at the ISG camp which the CIA had previously labelled mobile biological weapon laboratories. "They were nothing to do with biology," he said. "We believed that they were hydrogen generators." The Foreign Office denied Dr Barton's claims and said that they had been investigated by two public inquiries and had been found to be untrue. Dr Jones said: "I know Rod Barton well and he is a very sound guy and a very honourable man." He said Dr Barton resigned from the ISG after the letter from Mr Scarlett. "What he says is worth listening to and worth thinking about. It does raise the question of what was in the letter that Scarlett wrote." Dr Jones added that the letter went beyond the realms of intelligence into diplomacy and could be opened to public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act. The Government is likely to reject a request for disclosure on grounds of national security. But anti-war Labour MPs are certain to take up the calls for disclosure. Dr Barton also claimed he reported prisoner abuse at a second Iraqi prison in addition to Abu Ghraib where well-documented abuse by US troops took place. He said on ABC TV in Australia that he reported prisoner abuse at Camp Cropper at Baghdad airport. "My prisoner abuse wasn't at Abu Ghraib. It was at Camp Cropper,'' he said. Dr Barton said he had reported it to the Australian authorities, and was angry when the Australian parliament was told that no Australians had been involved. Meanwhile, the Government was accused of "deplorable" behaviour for refusing to reveal when ministers sought advice on the legality of the Iraq war. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, said ministers were wrong to withhold the information. But the Foreign Office rejected her findings, saying it could prevent frank discussion of such matters in the future. Lord Lester of Herne Hill, the Liberal Democrat peer, who complained to Ms Abraham, said: "It is deplorable that the Government refuses to comply with the Parliamentary Ombuds man's recommendation. It is Kafkaesque." * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 2 Independent: WMD expert reopens row about 'sexed-up' dossier independent.co.uk By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor 16 February 2005 A letter by the head of MI6 allegedly seeking to "sex up" a dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction should be released under the Freedom Of Information Act, the former head of the MoD intelligence branch said last night. Brian Jones, ex-head of the Defence Intelligence Staff, spoke out after Rod Barton, an Australian member of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), reopened the dispute over the "sexing up" of the government dossier on WMD that led to the suicide of David Kelly, another weapons specialist. Dr Barton, a microbiologist who worked for Australian intelligence for more than 20 years, said John Scarlett, then head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, asked for "new elements" to be included in a draft report he was producing on the WMD in Iraq. The head of the ISG, Charles Duelfer, refused. Dr Barton told Australia's ABC TV: "Both Washington and London wanted other things put in to make it - I can only use these words - to make it sexier. "We left the impression that, yes, maybe there were ... WMD out there. So I thought it was dishonest. Dr Barton, who joined the United Nations' search for Saddam's illicit arsenal in 1991, said the censorship in the US investigation began after Charles Duelfer became the head of the ISG last February. He claimed Mr Duelfer wanted "a different style of report altogether", which he had discussed with President George Bush and the CIA. "I said to him, 'I believe it's dishonest,'" Dr Barton told the programme. "If we know certain things and we're asked to provide a report, we should say what we found and what we haven't found and put that in the report." Dr Barton said the report was not allowed to mention two trailers held at the ISG camp which the CIA had previously labelled mobile biological weapon laboratories. "They were nothing to do with biology," he said. "We believed that they were hydrogen generators." The Foreign Office denied Dr Barton's claims and said that they had been investigated by two public inquiries and had been found to be untrue. Dr Jones said: "I know Rod Barton well and he is a very sound guy and a very honourable man." He said Dr Barton resigned from the ISG after the letter from Mr Scarlett. "What he says is worth listening to and worth thinking about. It does raise the question of what was in the letter that Scarlett wrote." Dr Jones added that the letter went beyond the realms of intelligence into diplomacy and could be opened to public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act. The Government is likely to reject a request for disclosure on grounds of national security. But anti-war Labour MPs are certain to take up the calls for disclosure. Dr Barton also claimed he reported prisoner abuse at a second Iraqi prison in addition to Abu Ghraib where well-documented abuse by US troops took place. He said on ABC TV in Australia that he reported prisoner abuse at Camp Cropper at Baghdad airport. "My prisoner abuse wasn't at Abu Ghraib. It was at Camp Cropper,'' he said. Dr Barton said he had reported it to the Australian authorities, and was angry when the Australian parliament was told that no Australians had been involved. Meanwhile, the Government was accused of "deplorable" behaviour for refusing to reveal when ministers sought advice on the legality of the Iraq war. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, said ministers were wrong to withhold the information. But the Foreign Office rejected her findings, saying it could prevent frank discussion of such matters in the future. Lord Lester of Herne Hill, the Liberal Democrat peer, who complained to Ms Abraham, said: "It is deplorable that the Government refuses to comply with the Parliamentary Ombuds man's recommendation. It is Kafkaesque." 2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd. ***************************************************************** 3 [NYTr] Iran Downplays Explosion, Denies Nuke Facilities Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:33:29 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Iran Downplays Explosion, Denies Nuclear Facilities Hit Teheran, Feb 16 (Prensa Latina) Iranian authorities have categorically denied any attack has been launched against the southern province of Busheher and rumors about it have been purportedly spread by foreign media. Esmaeel Tabadar, Busherh Governor General, insisted there was no attack on Iran's nuclear and oil facilities in that region. Tabadar was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency that foreign media had in a targeted move falsely mentioned the sound of a blast heard from a mountainous region 220 kilometers north of Bushehr nuclear power plant before noon Wednesday as an attack on the atomic facility. Despite the morning blast in an uninhabited mountainous region east of Daylan port was an insignificant issue, military experts immediately were flown into the site in helicopters to check on the cause of the explosion. According to IRNA, the explosion, which it described as minor, was set up by Oil Ministry contractors while attempting to clear the ground for implementing oil projects. Tabadar asserted that dynamite is seldom used to clear the rough mountainous terrain for roads to implement oil projects. It is a usual procedure, the Governor General insisted. mh *** Fall of Fuel Tank from Plane Might Have Caused Explosion: Iran Teheran, Feb 16 (Prensa Latina) The possible fall of a fuel tank from a plane caused a strong explosion Wednesday in the zone of Dailam, 62 miles away from a nuke plant in the province of Bushehr, Iran, as reported by the Iranian state TV network, which did not give details, but mentioned public officials who supported such a version. Internet site Al Bawaba, which gives information on the countries of North Africa, Middle East and the Persian Gulf, said that a non-identified plane had shot a missile in the area before. Another version told about an artillery exchange between an airplane and anti-air defense pieces, and a spokesman of the Iranian Interior Minister said that these two statements could not be confirmed. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi stated he had no information on an explosion in the zone of Dailam, in a press conference in Berlin, Germany, where he participated in the inauguration of the building of the Iranian Embassy in Germany. For their part, Israeli authorities rejected every link with any kind of incident against Iran. Analysts consulted by the press pointed out that the fuel tank had fallen from a plane outside the town of Talam, but the other versions talked about an electric-nuclear central plant located at 62 miles from there. According to US newspaper The Washington Post, planes without a pilot sent by the Pentagon spied Iranian national territory since April 2004, to look for evidence on a possible military content in the Iranian nuclear activity. The operations started on that date, and planes came from US military bases in the occupied parts of Iraq. sus/tac/mt * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: U.S. Spy Drones Fly Over Nuke Sites From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday February 16, 2005 9:16 AM TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's intelligence minister said Wednesday that the United States has been flying spy drones over Iran's nuclear sites, remarks that follow a U.S. newspaper's report that such flights have been taking place for nearly a year. ``Most of the shining objects that our people see over Iran's airspace are American spying equipment used to spy on Iran's nuclear and military facilities,'' Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said. His comments to reporters come after The Washington Post, in its Sunday edition, quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying the drones have been flying over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs. ``U.S. spying activities over Iranian airspace have been going since a long time ago,'' Yunesi said. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: Official Predicts Quick Iran Bomb Progress From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday February 16, 2005 1:01 PM LONDON (AP) - Iran will have the knowledge to build nuclear weapons within six months, Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday. ``In six months they will finish the tests to have the knowledge to produce weapons of mass destruction,'' Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said during a visit to London, repeating long-standing Israeli government warnings about Iran's nuclear capabilities. ``This is not only Israel's problem, but an international problem, as the long-range missiles can reach Europe.'' Israel has repeatedly said a nuclear Iran would be the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East, and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz recently said Iran could have nuclear weapons within two years. The United States accuses Iran of having a secret program to manufacture nuclear weapons, and the European Union is working to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program. Iran denies its nuclear program is for military purposes, insisting it is for generating electricity. Iran's foreign minister said Monday his country had no intention of developing nuclear weapons. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: Iran warns against "erroneous" information on nuclear programme Wednesday February 16, 07:23 PM BERLIN (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi warned against "erroneous" information about his country's controversial nuclear programme but said Tehran intended to continue talks with three European countries. France, Britain and Germany are currently trying to persuade Iran to permanently abandon its nuclear enrichment program to produce weapons-grade uranium in return for a package of political and economic benefits. The United States suspects Iran is secretly developing an atomic bomb and refuses to negotiate with Tehran. Kharazi admitted that there were "differences of opinion" between Iran and the Europeans on the issue of human rights, but said that would not be an obstacle in the discussions. "The talks must continue regardless and no erroneous information must be propagated," Kharazi said after meeting with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer. "The talks must continue so that any remaining concerns can be cleared up. "But Iranian interests must also be taken into consideration." Fischer said Germany saw "regression rather than progress" on the issue of Iran's human rights record. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Europe on Wednesday that he will urge US President George W. Bush to work more closely with the European nations who are trying to persuade Iran to abandon efforts to develop nuclear fuel. Schroeder said he would use his meeting with Bush in Germany next Wednesday to ask him to narrow the gap between the Europeans' approach to the Iranian issue and the hardline position of the United States. "We share the same goals here and in the United States," Schroeder told the paper. "The discussion is only about the means we are using to achieve the goal." Copyright 2005 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: [EDITORIALS]Remember who's on our side February 17, 2005 KST 15:24 (GMT+9) It seems that the efforts between South Korea and the United States to find a solution to North Korea's "declaration of nuclear weapons" are beginning to take shape. Earlier in the week, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon agreed with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to use diplomatic means to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem and get help from related countries, such as China, to bring the North back to the negotiating table. As they made it clear they didn't talk about imposing sanctions, so we can predict that diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea will be intensified. Now, the question is: How great are the chances for success? Optimists believe that although it may take some time, the North will have no choice but to return to the six-party talks. Pessimists, however, have been saying that it will be difficult to find a solution this time because the nature of North Korea's recent announcements differs from that of the nuclear crisis in the early 1990s. Back then, talks resumed only after the United States agreed to "respect North Korea as an independent country and to not intervene in its domestic affairs." This enabled a "give and take" approach between the two. But the situation is different this time as the Bush administration is endlessly talking about the "transformation" of the North's regime under its "expansion of freedom" doctrine. Since the focus of the problem has shifted, pessimists say a solution will be harder to reach. We should have alternative plans if diplomatic efforts fail to find a solution, and South Korea-U.S. ties must be the basis for all decisions. Our government shouldn't one-sidedly continue to make friendly overtures to the North. This is why the foreign minister's recent comments, that large-scale economic cooperation between the two Koreas will not occur unless the nuclear stand-off is resolved, are important because it provides us with some leverage against the North. North Korea will continuously try to stir up conflict between Seoul and Washington. What must be ensured is that miscommunication doesn't occur with our allies or within ourselves on issues such as economic cooperation and fertilizer aid to the North. It is important that we keep an eye on future developments while sticking to the principles agreed on with Washington. 2005.02.16 Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 8 CNN: Timeline: N. Korea nuclear dispute Aerial photo of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant. CORRECTION An earlier version of this article included an image that was incorrectly identified as an aerial photograph of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant. The photo was actually a commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near Natanz, Iran. SPECIAL REPORT [ border=] Shockwaves after nuclear claim Timeline: Nuclear development Facts about North Korea Gallery: Key players Special Report (CNN) -- Chronology of the dispute over nuclear weapons development in North Korea: 2005 February: North Korea said it would "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal," in response to what it said were U.S. efforts to topple its government. It was Pyongyang's first public admission that it had nuclear weapons. North Korea also said it would drop out of talks with the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan. 2004 September: Proposed six-nation talks are postponed indefinitely as the United States and North Korea blame each other for the impasse. August: North Korea said it would not attend working meetings to prepare for the six-nation summit scheduled in September. North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for aid, easing of sanctions and being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The United States wants North Korea to disclose all nuclear activities and allow inspections. June: The U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia take part in talks about the crisis in North Korea. February: The six nations hold talks but report little progress, other than agreement to meet again. 2003 August: The U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia take part in talks about the crisis in North Korea. July: A senior U.S. official says North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, suggesting the communist country intends to produce nuclear weapons. March: North Korea test fires a land-to-sea anti-ship missile into the Sea of Japan. February 26: The United States says North Korea has reactivated its five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. February 24: North Korea test fires a land-to-ship missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. February 12: The 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors declares North Korea in breach of atomic safeguards and refers the case to the U.N. Security Council. February 5: North Korea's official news agency says the nation has reactivated its nuclear power facilities. January 10: North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 2002 December: North Korea removes IAEA monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities and expels the watchdog agency's inspectors. November: The United States, Japan and South Korea halt oil supplies to North Korea promised under a 1994 deal. October: The Bush administration reveals that Pyongyang had admitted operating a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 agreement. North Korean officials acknowledged the program after U.S. officials confronted them with evidence. January 29: President Bush labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address. "By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger," he says. 2001 December: President Bush warns Iraq and North Korea that they would be "held accountable" if they developed weapons of mass destruction "that will be used to terrorize nations." July: State Department reports North Korea is going ahead with development of its long-range missile. A Bush administration official says North Korea conducts an engine test of the Taepodong-1 missile. June: North Korea warns it will reconsider its moratorium on missile tests if the Bush administration doesn't resume contacts aimed at normalizing relations. 2000 July: North Korea threatens to restart its nuclear program if Washington doesn't compensate for the loss of electricity caused by delays in building nuclear power plants. 1999 December: A U.S.-led consortium signs a $4.6 billion contract for two safer, Western-developed light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea. September 17: President Bill Clinton eases economic sanctions against North Korea. September 13: North Korea pledges to freeze long-range missile tests. May: Former Defense Secretary William Perry visits North Korea and delivers a U.S. disarmament proposal. 1998 November: The United States and North Korea hold the first round of high-level talks in Pyongyang over North Korea's suspected construction of an underground nuclear facility. The United States demands inspections. August: North Korea fires a multistage missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, proving it can strike any part of Japan's territory. 1994 North Korea and U.S. sign an agreement. North Korea pledges to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international aid to build two power-producing nuclear reactors. 1993 North Korea says it has quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty amid suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons. It later reverses that decision. 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 9 CIA: Goss: North Korea's nuclear capability grown CIA director also cites chemical, biological weapons programs WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea's nuclear weapons arsenal has grown since the country was labeled part of an "axis of evil" by President Bush three years ago, CIA Director Porter Goss testified Wednesday before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. "Our assessment is they have a greater capability than that assessment," Goss said, referring to a January 2002 CIA assessment of North Korea's nuclear program, which stated the communist state had produced enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons. "In other words, it has increased since then." In his first public appearance as CIA director, Goss said he could not be more specific because the information was classified. In his opening statement to the committee, Goss outlined various international threats to the United States, including al Qaeda, whose leaders -- Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri -- remain at large. (Full story) In addition to pursuing nuclear weapons, Goss said North Korea "continues to develop, produce, deploy and sell ballistic missiles of increasing range, augmenting Pyongyang's large operational force of Scud and No Dong class missiles." North Korea is looking for new customers for its ballistic-missile technology, Goss said, now that "traditional customers" such as Libya have stopped trading with North Korea. The CIA also believes North Korea has "active chemical weapons and biological weapons programs," and may even have chemical and biological weapons at their disposal, Goss said. U.S.: No concessions Bush labeled North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" in his January 2002 State of the Union address. "By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger," the president said then. By the end of 2002, North Korea had expelled inspectors from the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and removed the IAEA's monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities. Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program have been stalled since September 2004, and North Korea last Thursday said it had no intention of returning to the negotiating table. Pyongyang also declared for the first time publicly that the country has nuclear weapons and threatened to bolster its weapons arsenal, in response to what it deemed U.S. threats to its political system. The United States has refused to offer concessions to entice North Korea back to the multilateral talks, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. Three of the other parties -- China, South Korea and Japan -- have advocated a more conciliatory approach to solving the North Korean nuclear issues and have urged the United States to be more flexible. The CIA director told the committee he believes the main reason for nuclear proliferation in countries such as North Korea and Iran is not so much to stage an attack as to keep up with their nuclear neighbors. "Having watched the pride of some countries in acquiring the world-stage status of having nuclear weapons -- and what that has meant for nationalism and leadership ... it becomes almost a piece of the holy grail for a small country that otherwise might be victimized living in a dangerous neighborhood," Goss said. 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: CIA, FBI Warn Panel of Top Threats to U.S. From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday February 16, 2005 6:16 PM AP Photo DCMC101 By KATHERINE SHRADER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Al-Qaida and associated groups top the list of threats to the United States, leading government intelligence officials told Congress on Wednesday in a grim assessment that also highlighted Iran's emergence as a major threat to American interests in the Middle East. Despite gains made against al-Qaida and other affiliates, CIA Director Porter Goss, in an unusually blunt statement before the mostly secretive Senate Intelligence Committee, said the terror group is intent on finding ways to circumvent U.S. security enhancements to attack the homeland. ``It may be only a matter of time before al-Qaida or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. We must focus on that,'' Goss said. FBI Director Robert Mueller cautioned of the risk posed by radicalized Muslim converts inside the United States and said he worries about a sleeper operative who may have been in place for years, awaiting orders launch an attack. ``I remain very concerned about what we are not seeing,'' he said in his prepared remarks. More than three years since the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Goss, Mueller and other intelligence leaders provided these and other bleak assessments at the annual briefing on threats from around the globe. Also at the hearing, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, painted Iran as a leading threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East. In his prepared testimony, Jacoby said he believes that Iran will continue its support for terrorism and aid for insurgents in Iraq. He said the country's long-term goal is to expel the United States from the region, and noted that political reform movements there have lost momentum. Goss said that Islamic extremists are exploiting the conflict in Iraq and fighters there represent a ``potential pool of contacts'' to build transnational terror groups. He said the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, hopes to establish Iraq as a safe-haven to bring about a final victory over the West. Goss also said that the intelligence community has yet to get to the ``end of the trail'' of the nuclear black market run by disgraced Pakistani scientist, A.Q. Khan. Goss wouldn't rule out the possibility that organizations, rather than states, could obtain nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. He also couldn't assure senators that the United States doesn't face a threat from nuclear weapons that may be missing from Russia. In the past year, the intelligence community has been faced with a series of negative reports, including the work of the Sept. 11 commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry on the flawed Iraq intelligence. And next month, President Bush's commission to investigate the intelligence community's capabilities on weapons of mass destruction is also expected to submit its findings. Given the after-the-fact investigations into the Iraq intelligence, Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said his panel will become more proactive in how it reviews the intelligence community's strengths and weaknesses, already focusing on nuclear terrorism and Iran. In related developments: -Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also sent out a warning, telling the House Armed Services Committee he believes terrorists are regrouping for another strike. But he also said the United States is preparing to deal with any threat. ``The extremists continue to plot to attack again. They are at this moment recalibrating and reorganizing. And so are we,'' the Pentagon chief said. -Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plugged the administration's request for $5.8 billion to fight terrorism and also made a pitch on Capitol Hill for an additional $750 million this year for other countries that assisted in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Senate hearing came as the White House continues its eight-week-long search for a new national intelligence director, a position created in last year's intelligence reorganization bill. Democrats were critical Wednesday of the pace of the search, saying the administration has not shown the same urgency that Congress showed in creating the position. --- On the Net: CIA: http://www.cia.gov Defense Department: http://www.defense.gov State Department: http://www.state.gov Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: http://intelligence.senate.gov Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 11 Las Vegas SUN: Renewable energy report encouraging for Nevada Today: February 16, 2005 at 9:45:36 PST By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- With the support of Congress, the United States could realistically rely on renewable energy sources for 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs by 2020, a new report says. Nevada could reap a windfall of benefits from new renewable energy plants, according to U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which today released a new report, "Redirecting America's Energy." The nation should move away from traditional coal, gas and nuclear plants that pollute and, in the case of nuclear, produce a deadly waste that the federal government aims to bury in Nevada, the report said. "Nevada is really positioned to be a winner with this policy," said Brad Johnson, U.S. PIRG spokesman. "This helps remove nuclear power and really could jump-start a whole new industry in Nevada." Nevada has long been considered a perfect state for developing wind, solar and geothermal -- electricity generated from heat mined deep underground -- power. But critics of renewable energy and even some of its supporters in Congress have said renewable energy will never be a significant part of the nation's energy production. They say renewable energy sources are impractical and inefficient. Critics say renewable energy sources cannot be a significant factor in U.S. electricity production in part because only certain areas of the country can produce near-constant sun or wind. Renewable sources now generate about 2.3 percent of U.S. electricity. Coal plants produce about 50 percent; nuclear 20 percent; gas 18 percent and hydropower 7 percent. The 20 percent goal for renewables is "almost certainly out of reach," said Jerry Taylor, director of Natural Resource Studies at the CATO Institute, a libertarian Washington think tank that promotes limited government. "It's hard to see how we could increase it in such a short period of time." Taylor said energy analysts predict a slight rise in renewable energy generation, but only with significant government subsidies and mandates, such as states requiring that certain percentages of electricity be generated by renewable energy. As U.S. PIRG was releasing its report in Washington today, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., was speaking at a gathering across town of 200 nuclear industry insiders. Domenici, the Senate's leading advocate of Yucca Mountain, repeated a call that he has made for years: America needs to build new nuclear plants. Domenici has called for more renewable energy, too, but he has said nuclear holds the most promise for meeting massive energy demands. Revitalizing nuclear power and producing more Nevada-bound radioactive waste in an effort to decrease greenhouse gases produced by coal plants is "trading one problem off for another," said Navin Nayak, environmental advocate for U.S. PIRG. The U.S. PIRG report goads Congress to make a monumental shift in its priorities. It recommends that lawmakers use the subsidy and benefit money intended for fossil fuels and nuclear power for renewable energy development. The shift would ultimately create more jobs than investment in fossil fuel and nuclear plants and save consumers money on electric bills, the group's report argues. Renewable energy supporters acknowledge they will have a tough time arguing their case in a Republican Congress that has offered mixed support for renewable energy. "It's a long-term strategy," Johnson said. "In some years we are more likely to find support than others. That doesn't change the fact that it's the right thing to do." Bush's budget request to Congress last week proposed a 4 percent cut in energy efficiency and renewable energy spending. That included an 8 percent cut in geothermal energy programs. Of significant concern to some Nevada officials is that Bush seems to be backing off support for offering a 1.8-cent per kilowatt-hour production tax credit for geothermal plants, said Dick Burdette, energy adviser to Gov. Kenny Guinn. That's a significant break for investors, given that it costs roughly 5 to 6 cents to produce the kilowatt-hour of electricity, Burdette said. Nevada has 15 geothermal plants, mostly in the western half of the state, with four more under development, Burdette said. The plants mostly serve rural Nevada and California. Bush proposes tax production credits for wind energy, which isn't fair, Nevada officials said. "That hurts Nevada," Burdette said. "Skewing your investment toward wind doesn't make any sense." Renewable energy lobbyists aim to convince Congress, which is reconsidering a comprehensive energy strategy bill for the fifth straight year, not to pick favorites, said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 Salt Lake Tribune: Energy secretary pushes to ramp up U.S. ability to test nuke bombs Article Last Updated: 02/16/2005 01:11:29 AM By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune WASHINGTON - Although scientists continue work on simulating nuclear bomb tests by computer, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday that the Nevada Test Site's ability to resume actual underground warhead detonations must be enhanced. The Bush administration's commitment to step up preparations for a potential resumption of nuclear bomb testing in southern Nevada comes less than a week after the Utah Senate unanimously approved a House-passed resolution that urged the federal government not to "return to the mistakes and miscalculations of the past which have marred many Utahns" and that would create "a new generation of downwinders." Thousands of Utah residents downwind of the Nevada proving ground blame atomic-bomb testing - which began in the 1950s and ended with a 1992 moratorium - for an airborne scourge of disease and death due to radioactive fallout. Appearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Bodman said the administration wants $2 billion in the next fiscal year for the nuclear weapon stockpile stewardship program, which verifies that America's aging atomic arsenal remains operational. Last year, a bipartisan congressional effort killed increased funding requests to allow an underground nuclear test to be carried out within 18 months if needed, rather than the current estimated preparation time of 24 to 36 months. Although no such tests are planned, Bodman said the administration remains convinced the "readiness posture" of the nuclear proving ground must be enhanced. "We will continue our efforts to maintain the ability to conduct underground nuclear testing and complete the transition to the 18-month test readiness posture that is mandated by Congress," he told the panel. Bodman also said a $660 million funding request will keep on schedule a computer simulation project that will use data collected from more than 1,000 previous nuclear bomb tests to help certify stockpile readiness "without resorting to nuclear testing." But he stressed the need to leave the door open to a resumption of testing in the event that future enemy threats or failures in the stockpile require actual detonation. "Unanticipated events could include complete failure of a deployed warhead type or the need to respond to new and emerging threats," Bodman said. The Department of Energy's 2006 budget request includes $4 million this year and $14 million next year to resurrect research on a potential "bunker buster" variation of an existing warhead to destroy buried enemy targets. Congress killed the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. But some members of the Armed Services panel said Tuesday that they wanted to question Department of Defense leaders on whether there is truly a need for such technology. Similar arguments have been raised in the House debate on the bombs by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "No one is going to argue about pursuing new technologies to address the threats posed by terrorists hiding in hardened or deeply buried sites," said Matheson. "But we should ask and answer this question about whether nuclear weapons, regardless of yield, can even get the job done." © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 13 New U.S. Campaign Newsletter & Update from Mordechai Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:45:28 -0800 Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #47 - February 16, 2005 From the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu http://www.vanunu.com and http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/ ============= New U.S. Campaign Newsletter & Update from Mordechai ============= 1) New U.S. Campaign Newsetter available A new issue of I Am Your Spy, newsletter of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, will be mailed out at the end of the week. If you would like to be sent a copy, please send your postal address to or to the Campaign at PO Box 43383, Tucson, AZ 85733. ============= 2) Update from Mordechai, and a message from Ernest Rodker, from the U.K. Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East: To friends and supporters of Mordechai, I thought you might be interested to see this latest e-mail from Mordechai. Let's hope the prosecutor agrees with Mordechai that apart from talking to foreigners there is nothing there to pursue. Certainly Mordechai has no secrets to reveal. Also, if you have a moment could you write to Mordechai as he is still keen to get letters, and to the new Interior Minister in the Sharon Government to ask him to withdraw all the restrictions, to give Mordechai his passport and allow him to leave Israel. Best wishes, Ernest Ophir Paz-Pines Minister of the Interior 2 Kaplan Street P.O.B. 6158 Kiryat Ben-Gurion Jerusalem 91061 Tel: 972-2-6701411 Fax: 972-2-6701628 ----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:vanunumvjc@hotmail.com>Mordechai Vanunu To: <mailto:undisclosed-recipients:>undisclosed-recipients: Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 5:22 PM Subject: friday police questions. HI , Today i was in the police station for questions, 2 hours questions,they came with the interviews i gave, the police want to finish the invastigation,to pass the case to the prosecuter hands,that what they are going to do next monday. so,we will see what the lawyer will decid, My feeling,they didn't find any new secrets revealed all what they found is I am not respecting the restractions " not to speak to foriegners". they will decid also about the computers, so all this case will be decided very soon, see you soon very free, vmjc Vanunu Mordechai, John Crossman, VMJC. Kidnapped from Rome by Israeli secret agents Sept. 30, 1986. Served 18 years in prison for revealing Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons secrets. Elected Rector of Glasgow University Dec' 2004. In sanctuary at St. George Cathedral, My adress. st George cathedral. 20 Nablus Rd. East Jerusalem,P,O,Box19122. fax 972-2-6282253.mobil 052 22 60908. -end- Felice Cohen-Joppa Coordinator U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu POB 43384 Tucson, AZ 85733 Phone/Fax 520-323-8697 freevanunu@mindspring.com www.nonviolence.org/vanunu ***************************************************************** 14 The Japan Times: Rapid missile defense response wins OK Wednesday, February 16, 2005 By NAO SHIMOYACHI Staff writer The Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday allowing the government to sidestep the conventional decision-making process in order to promptly shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. Four days earlier, North Korea announced that it possesses nuclear weapons. Japan decided in December 2003 to adopt a U.S.-developed missile defense system in the face of the North Korean missile threat. Cabinet approval of the bill had been planned for Thursday but was delayed due to ruling party politicians' concerns over the plan. Under the bill, the government would not need to hold a Security Council meeting or gain Cabinet approval before taking action. The Liberal Democratic Party's governing coalition partner, New Komeito, wanted to ensure proper civilian control was maintained over the armed forces in the missile defense process, so the government added to the bill last week a clause obliging the prime minister to inform the Diet as soon as emergency steps are taken against an incoming missile. "Due to recent technological advances, (security) threats have diversified," Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Tuesday. "It's the responsibility of politicians to prepare a system to intercept a ballistic missile, a new threat." The Cabinet-approved measure for activating the missile defense system was considered the ultimate compromise between the time constraints of having to react quickly to a missile launch and the strictly defensive security policy spelled out under the Constitution. Perceiving North Korea as the main threat, the government has noted that a missile fired from that country would take only about 10 minutes to reach targets in Japan. The bill to amend the 1954 Self-Defense Force Law would allow the Defense Agency director general to activate the missile defense system after gaining only the prime minister's approval. But the director general could in fact order Self-Defense Forces missile defense units to take necessary steps without the prime minister's approval, according to the bill, in the event that missiles are detected heading toward Japan. The current SDF Law stipulates units can be mobilized only after the prime minister consults with the Security Council and gains Diet approval. But while drastically simplifying the process of SDF mobilization, the bill strictly stipulates that Japan can only shoot down an incoming missile over its own territory. The Japan Times: Feb. 16, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 15 BY 2/17: Organizations: Sign on to oppose new reactor at North Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:18:19 -0600 (CST) Subject: sign on to oppose new reactor at North Anna Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 17:58:37 -0500 From: "Michael Mariotte" Dear Friend: Would you please sign on to a letter opposing the first proposed nuclear reactors in America in over 25 years? The letter below will be submitted at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing this week to protest Dominion's plan to build two new nuclear reactors at its North Anna site in Virginia. * Please email annerabe@msn.com to sign on in solidarity with the local groups fighting these reactors and send a national message to the NRC (please do not reply to nirsnet@nirs.org). To sign on, send your Name, Group, City and State by 10 am, Thursday, February 17th to annerabe@msn.com CHEJ's BE SAFE campaign is coordinating this solidarity protest letter with Public Citizen, NIRS and other groups. Constructing new reactors would be bad for the environment and public health, bad for the safety and security of our country, and bad for ratepayers as well as taxpayers. The letter urges the NRC to deny the application for an Early Site Permit and for Dominion to instead focus on finding alternative methods of addressing expected increases in energy demands over the coming years. Thanks. Anne Rabe, BE SAFE, CHEJ ------------- Coalition Letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: We, the undersigned organizations and businesses, OPPOSE any plans by Dominion to build any new nuclear reactors at its North Anna nuclear power station in Virginia. The site is unsuitable, and many important factors are not being considered in the decision of whether to approve Dominion s application for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the site. Constructing new reactors would be bad for the environment, bad for the safety and security of our country, bad for principles of open and accountable government, and bad for ratepayers as well as taxpayers. For example: 1. The Early Site Permit is part of a new streamlined licensing process meant to reassure investors that past regulatory delays will not occur again. However, this will prevent citizens from raising crucial safety problems that have been at the root of past delays. The process has gone forward rapidly with little effort on behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or Dominion to involve members of the public, either locally or nationally, despite its profound implications. 2. Safer, cheaper alternatives to new nuclear generating capacity are not being explored as part of the ESP process. The ESP application also doesn t consider what the effect might be on the cost of power in Virginia or nationally, or whether there is a need for new generating capacity. Virginia currently has a surplus of electrical generating capacity, so excess power will likely be sold outside the state rather than being used in-state to lower prices. Local residents will be forced to live with the risks of the nuclear plant without getting the benefits. 3. Nearly 3= years after September 11th, 2001, legislation to improve security at nuclear plants has not been enacted, and security improvements by the nuclear industry have been shown to have significant gaps and flaws. Security guards are often ill-trained and ill-equipped. Mock assaults designed to test guards and keep them on their toes are often done in an unrealistic manner, with weeks of advanced warning and limited attack scenarios. Further, the company testing security also guards nearly half the plants in the country, creating a conflict of interest that prevents meaningful security analysis. Eight state attorneys general submitted comments to the NRC in January 2005 calling for vastly improved security standards. 4. A major nuclear accident could leave an area the size of Pennsylvania uninhabitable for decades. The area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, site of a major accident in 1986, is still closed to public access and radiation levels are still high. Cleanup costs for a major nuclear accident are estimated to be around $500 billion, not including broader economic shockwaves. The nuclear industry s liability for such an accident is capped at around $10 billion, leaving taxpayers with an estimated $490 billion bill, ratepayers with a bankrupt utility, and surviving residents without a home. 5 Emergency plans for dealing with an accident or terrorist attack are inadequate, and rely on uninformed teachers, bus drivers, doctors, and other civilians to facilitate an evacuation, without taking into account the possibility of role abandonment. Studies of the Three Mile Island accident, which took place in 1979 in Pennsylvania, found that doctors and other key workers abandoned their posts up to 25 miles from the site to tend to their families or save themselves. In the case of a more severe accident, heroic actions would be required to successfully carry out an evacuation. 6. There is at this time NO solution to the problem of nuclear waste, and constructing new reactors will only worsen that problem. The proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada continues to face strong opposition and many scientific questions about the suitability of the site. The State of Nevada and local and national environmental groups were successful in a Federal District Court setting aside of a 10,000 year radiation dose standard, deemed unsafe for future generations and there are still lawsuits currently pending. These court cases have sent the U.S. Department of Energy back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, all of the highly-radioactive irradiated fuel from the plants will continue to be stored on-site and needs to be protected and monitored. In addition, there is no place to send the so-called low-level radioactive waste from routine operation and dismantlement and decommissioning of this proposed new nuclear reactor in Virginia. 7. The history of nuclear power demonstrates that constructing nuclear reactors is expensive, with final costs often running billions of dollars over budget costs that are often passed on to ratepayers. The first 75 reactors constructed in the U.S. had a combined cost overrun of over $100 billion. The average reactor ran 400% over budget and was over 4 years late in start up. The last reactor in the U.S. to be completed, the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee, was finally opened in 1996, 23 years after it was first proposed. It cost $8 billion. Nuclear power continues to be uneconomical. The cost for the ESP process, as well as the later permitting stages, is being split between the industry and the U.S. Department of Energy. The federal energy bill would provide each of the first six plants built with a $1 billion subsidy, costing taxpayers as much as $6 billion. After a half-century and $74 billion in subsidies, nuclear power should be forced to survive or fail on its own. 8. Nuclear power, due to the large generating capacity of one reactor, is an inherently centralized form of electricity production. As a consequence, we have to generate more power overall because there has to be so much extra capacity to continue meeting demand when just one reactor goes down. Also, taking that much power off the grid at once, as can happen in the case of an emergency or during events like the August 2003 blackout, is very destabilizing and can make the situation worse. Third, it takes a huge amount of money to build a nuclear plant, meaning that it's difficult if not impossible for smaller energy companies to enter that market, meaning there s less competition. Plus, the large utilities that can afford to build or own nuclear plants are growing ever larger, as evidenced by Dominion s quest to purchase the Kewaunee reactor and Exelon s proposed merger with PSEG. Centralized control means loss of local control. We should be moving toward decentralized, rather than centralized, energy systems. 9. Renewable energy sources such as wind power create more jobs per investment dollar than does nuclear power. Those jobs also require less specialized education, increasing the chances that local workers will be able to secure the jobs rather than requiring outside experts. In light of these concerns, we urge the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to DENY Dominion s application for an Early Site Permit, and for Dominion to instead focus on finding alternative methods of addressing expected increases in energy demands over the coming years. Sincerely, Your Name, Group, City, State -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 2/14/05 ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's Bushehr Nuke Plant Nearly Completed From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday February 16, 2005 10:01 PM By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Menacing anti-aircraft batteries and off-limit signs attest to Bushehr's importance as a pillar of Iran's ambitious nuclear plans. But while nearly completed, it's still unclear when the power plant will go on line, and how much of a potential threat it will be when it does. Iran denies it is interested in making nuclear weapons. Still, experts say the $800-million plant could produce enough plutonium to make 30 rudimentary atomic bombs a year. Located near a seaside town of the same name on the Persian Gulf, the Bushehr facility and the surrounding plants, laboratories and living quarters of the Russians who helped build it are restricted to outsiders. Visitors given rare government permission to visit describe it as a mini-city, with tree-lined street separating blocks of buildings. Mindful of the Israeli attack that destroyed Iraq's Osirak plant 24 years ago, members of the Iranian armed forces man anti-aircraft guns set up around the Bushehr plant, which will produce 1,000 megawatts of power once it goes on line. But when that will happen remains unclear because of a prolonged Russian-Iranian dispute. Moscow has agreed to provide the fuel but wants it back once it's used to prevent the possibility Tehran may extract plutonium from the spent fuel. Tehran has agreed to repatriate the fuel, but the two sides have disagreed on who should pay for its return. In the last year, both Moscow and Tehran have said a deal was close, and on Wednesday, Russian officials said that Moscow nuclear chief Alexander Rumyantsev will visit Iran later this month to sign the fuel return agreement. First shipments of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr plant could be delivered within a month or two after the signing, Rumyantsev spokesman Nikolai Shingarov told The Associated Press. Diplomats in Vienna familiar with the Bushehr developments were skeptical, however, that the deal would be signed any time soon, suggesting the Russians were reluctant to do so unless concerns about Iran's nuclear plans were banished. ``They've said they were close to a deal many times before, and nothing's happened,'' said one of the diplomats, who is close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. agency monitoring Iran's nuclear activities. The main concern about Iran remains uranium enrichment - Tehran developed an enrichment program over nearly two decades of clandestine activity revealed only in 2002. It has suspended the program - which can produce nuclear weapons grade uranium - pending talks with European powers but is refusing pressure to agree to a long-term freeze or to scrap its enrichment plans. Russia's insistence on having the spent fuel from Bushehr repatriated is meant to banish concerns that it could serve as the origin of plutonium, the other fissile material that can be the core of nuclear arms. But - although the IAEA is policing Bushehr with remote cameras and other controls, even before it goes on line - the agreement to return all used fuel to Russia is no guarantee that nothing can go wrong. Before repatriation, the fuel has to be stored in Iran anywhere from six months to a year, to allow it to cool. ``That's plenty of time to extract plutonium if they choose to ignore the IAEA,'' said another Vienna-based diplomat familiar with Bushehr. --- Associated Press Writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 17 Brattleboro Reformer: VY fray rests on cool million February 16, 2005 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORI Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- Was last summer's fire at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant connected to the proposed "uprate" or was it caused by poor maintenance of the cooling ducts? Over one million dollars is riding on the answer. A dispute between one of the state's utilities -- Central Vermont Public Service -- and plant owner Entergy Nuclear about the cause of the fire has been brought before the Vermont Public Service Board. In March 2004, the board gave Entergy approval to modify the facility in order to increase power by 20 percent, which is known in the industry as an uprate. The approval, however, came with conditions. One of those conditions was that if the plant was forced to shut down because of uprate-related modifications, the company would have to reimburse the state's utilities for power purchased on the market during the outage. In other words, any risks associated with the uprate would not be paid for by the ratepayers. The utilities have a power purchase agreement with Vermont Yankee that was brokered during the sale of the plant in 2002. It guaranteed a set price for electricity, which is below market rate, through 2012. On June 18, 2004, a transformer fire shut the plant down until July 5, 2004. During that time, Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service had to buy energy on the open market. The 17-day outage cost CVPS $860,000 and GMP $525,000. GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure said utility officials are still evaluating the situation. CVPS officials, on the other hand, have concluded that the fire was related to uprate modifications and that Vermont Yankee should bear the costs as agreed to in the ratepayer protection plan. Vermont Yankee management thinks otherwise. Officials at CVPS and the plant agree that the fire was caused by a piece of metal breaking off in the cooling ducts. They also agree that it broke off because air flow in the ducts was increased for the uprate. Entergy, however, is claiming that the piece of metal was worn out and would have broken off eventually whether or not the air flow was increased. In August 2004, the company submitted a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission blaming the fire on its own negligence. "The root causes of the event were determined to be inadequate preventative maintenance for cleaning and inspections during outages and failure to monitor age-related degradation," read the report. The NRC has not yet stated what, if any, consequences Entergy will face. In the meantime, company officials maintain that changes made to the plant in anticipation of the uprate may have hastened the break of the metal piece, but that the modifications did not cause the fire. "We do not believe this fire was uprate-related," said Rob Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee. And because they do not believe it was, they also don't believe that the subsequent outage should be covered under the ratepayer protection plan. If the Public Service Board agrees with Vermont Yankee that the fire was not uprate-related, and CVPS and GMP are not reimbursed, the utilities could request a rate increase to cover the costs. A pre-hearing conference before the board will take place this Friday in Montpelier. Copyright 1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc., ***************************************************************** 18 SignOnSanDiego.com: Faulty valve causes reactor shutdown at San Onofre By Adam Klawonn UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 16, 2005 Associated Press file photo Surf rolls along the beach in front of San Onofre nuclear plant, at San Onofre State Beach. SAN ONOFRE  For the third time in three months, a reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has shut down. Unit 2, one of two reactors at the station, shut itself down in late November and again this month because of electrical problems. This time a faulty water valve at Unit 2 was involved, plant officials said, and crews shut down the reactor around 10 p.m. Monday for repairs. A spokesman for the station, Ray Golden, said the outages were unfortunate and plant officials "would prefer that none of the three ever happened." "I don't think it's an indicator of a larger performance problem at the plant," he said. The plant is co-owned by Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and the cities of Riverside and Anaheim. Its twin reactors generate a combined 2,200 megawatts of electricity for 2.2 million customers in Southern California. Half of that power will be brought in from undisclosed third-party providers while crews fix the 18-inch butterfly valve. The repairs might take up to two weeks, according to a memo issued yesterday to employees of Southern California Edison. The valve is common in plumbing and other industries and was installed when Unit 2 went online in 1982. It is part of the reactor's elaborate cooling system and directs non-radiated water to various pumps to keep them from overheating. About three days ago, crews noticed the valve was only partially open. Normally, it is supposed to stay wide open. "That (the valve) didn't open fully, in nuclear safety culture, is something we didn't want to live with," Golden said. Crews shut Unit 2 down. The two other recent shutdowns were automatically initiated by the reactor's safety system itself. A regulatory shutdown would have required repairs within 72 hours to prevent scrutiny by federal regulators and possible fines. The voluntary shutdown will allow crews to work on other maintenance projects and on a longer time frame. "They decided the conservative thing to do was to shut it down and cool it down," said Clyde Osterholtz, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's senior inspector at the plant. "I was encouraged by that decision." The first of the recent outages at Unit 2 occurred Nov. 19 when ground wires in its electrical generators shorted out. Crews found that vibrations from the reactor's spinning turbine shook an aluminum plate into an electrical conduit. The part was replaced and Unit 2 was restarted Nov. 22. Unit 2 shut itself off Feb. 3 for another electrical problem. Crews found that a digital fault recorder, which monitors current flowing across the circuits, sent an electronic signal to the reactor to shut down. The recorder was replaced and Unit 2 was up and running Feb. 8. A spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric, Peter Hidalgo, said the utility will not be issuing an emergency conservation notice to its customers for the latest outage because the current load is manageable. "That outage does not create any immediate concerns for our customers," Hidalgo said. Adam Klawonn: (760) 476-8245; adam.klawonn@uniontrib.com Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 19 NRC: NRC Davis-Besse Oversight Panel to Meet Feb. 22 in Ohio News Release - Region III - 2005-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 No. III-05-005 February 15 , 2005 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Davis-Besse Oversight Panel will meet with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company officials on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in Oak Harbor, Ohio, to review recent operating performance and NRC inspection activities at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant. The plant resumed operation in March 2004 after a two-year shutdown to replace the reactor vessel head and make other safety system and staff performance improvements. The NRC Oversight Panel was formed in 2002 to coordinate the agencys regulatory activities in response to the problems at Davis-Besse; during the shutdown and startup process it held monthly public meetings with the utility and continues to meet approximately bimonthly. The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at the Davis-Besse Administration Building, 5501 N. State Route 2. The public is invited to observe the business portion of the meeting and will have an opportunity to make comments and ask questions of the NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned. The staff will also be available after the meeting for informal discussions with the public. We expect to hear from utility officials how they assess the results of the recent mid-cycle outage, said Steve Reynolds, Chairman of the NRC Oversight Panel. In addition, we will discuss the independent performance assessments being performed at the plant as well as findings of recent NRC inspections. A transcript of the oversight panel meeting will be posted in several weeks on the NRC's web site - http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head- degradation.html. The NRC oversight panel includes NRC managers and staff from offices in Lisle, Illinois; Rockville, Maryland; and the Davis-Besse site. Documents on the Davis-Besse corrosion issue, including further details on NRC's oversight panel activities, are posted on the NRC's web site. Last revised Tuesday, February 15, 2005 ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application for Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2 News Release - 2005-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 05-030 February 15, 2005 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating licenses for Units 1 and 2 of the Beaver Valley Power Station is available for public review. The Beaver Valley plant is located about 17 miles west of McCandless, Pa. The current operating licenses expire on Jan. 29, 2016, for Unit 1 and May 27, 2027, for Unit 2. The licensee, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC), submitted the renewal application Feb. 15. It is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati ons.html. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the application to determine whether it contains enough information for the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally docket, or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a public hearing. The NRC staff is currently reviewing several significant license amendment requests for both units at Beaver Valley, including a request to increase maximum power output by up to 8 percent. Because of these concurrent reviews, FENOC has requested that the license renewal review schedule be extended six months beyond the usual 22 months (30 months if there is a hearing). The NRC staff will decide on this schedule request during its acceptance review of the license renewal application. For further information, contact Kimberley Corp, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop O11-F1, Washington, D.C. 20555; telephone (301) 415-1091. Last revised Tuesday, February 15, 2005 ***************************************************************** 21 NRC: Draft Regulatory Guide; Extension of Comment Period FR Doc 05-2950 [Federal Register: February 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 31)] [Notices] [Page 7973-7974] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16fe05-89] On December 16, 2004 (69 FR 75359-75360), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued for public comment a draft revision to an existing guide in the agency's Regulatory Guide Series. Draft Regulatory Guide DG-1130, entitled ``Criteria for Use of Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants,'' is the proposed Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.152. As such, DG-1130 describes a method that is acceptable to the NRC staff for complying with the NRC's regulations for promoting high functional reliability and design quality for the use of computers in safety systems of nuclear plants. In addition, DG- 1130 contains the staff's regulatory position on the ``Standard Criteria for Digital Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Generating Stations,'' * which the Nuclear Power Engineering Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has promulgated as IEEE Std 7-4.3.2-2003. It is the staff's intent to endorse IEEE Std 7-4.3.2-2003, with certain exceptions, as an acceptable method for satisfying the NRC's regulations with respect to (1) high functional reliability and design requirements for computers used in safety systems of nuclear power plants, and (2) independence between safety software and nonsafety software residing on the same computer. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- * IEEE publications may be purchased from the IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- To date, the NRC has received only one comment letter concerning draft regulatory guide DG-1130; however, several stakeholders have asked the NRC to extend the comment period, which is currently scheduled to expire on February 11, 2005. Given that the draft regulatory guide addresses a relatively new area of technology (i.e., cyber-security), stakeholders may need additional time to assess the proposed regulatory guidance. Consequently, the NRC has decided to extend the comment period until March 14, 2005. Comments received after March 14, 2005, will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before that date. Although a time limit is given, the NRC welcomes comments and suggestions at any time in connection with items for inclusion in guides that are currently being developed, as well as improvements to previously published guides. Comments on draft regulatory guide DG-1130 may be accompanied by relevant information or supporting data. Please mention DG-1130 in the subject line of your comments. Comments on this draft regulatory guide submitted in writing or in electronic form will be made available to the public in their entirety in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access andManagement System (ADAMS). Personal information will not be removed from your comments. You may submit comments by any of the following methods. Mail comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. E-mail comments to: NRCREP@nrc.gov. You may also submit comments via the NRC's rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. Address questions about our rulemaking Web site to Carol A. Gallagher (301) 415-5905; e-mail CAG@nrc.gov. Hand-deliver comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Fax comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301) 415-5144. Requests for technical information about draft regulatory guide DG- 1130 may be directed to Satish K. Aggarwal, Senior Program Manager, at (301) 415-6005 or via e-mail to SKA@nrc.gov. Electronic copies of the draft regulatory guide are available through the NRC's public Web site under Draft Regulatory Guides in the Regulatory Guides document collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/. Electronic copies are also available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession No. ML043170314. Note, however, that the NRC has temporarily suspended public access to ADAMS so that the agency can complete security reviews of publicly available documents and remove potentially sensitive information. Please check the NRC's Web site for updates concerning the resumption of public access to ADAMS. In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached by telephone at (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4205, by fax at (301) 415-3548; and by e- mail to PDR@nrc.gov. Requests for single copies of draft or final guides (which may be reproduced) or for placement on an automatic [[Page 7974]] distribution list for single copies of future draft guides in specific divisions should be made in writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Reproduction and Distribution Services Section; by e-mail to distribution@nrc.gov; or by fax to (301) 415-2289. Telephone requests cannot be accommodated. Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is not required to reproduce them. (5 U.S.C. 552(a)) Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day of February, 2005. For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Michael E. Mayfield, Director, Division of Engineering Technology, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. 05-2950 Filed 2-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 22 Nucleonics: Nuclear renaissance faces realities It was December 2003. Finnish utilities, with major industries as their committed investors, ordered a new nuclear power plant, Arevas 1,600-MW advanced European pressurized- water reactor (EPR). It was, the utilities said, their most economic option. But it also was the first new reactor order in western Europe in more than a decade, and Frances EdF in fall 2004 ordered its first EPR as well. In succeeding months in the US, utilities operating substantial chunks of American nuclear power finally came out publicly to say: Yes, if the economics work, well order a new nuclear plant. The target date for concrete pouring is 2010, set in a US Department of Energy program based on estimates of when substantial new baseload generating capacity will be needed. It seems appropriate that government statistics predict that 2004 will be a record year for US nuclear generation, with the average plant working at more than 90% capacity. Nuclear hide-and-seek Nuclear power is suddenly out of the shadows in the US and western Europe. For years, it has been little noticed outside the electricity industry, with many people unaware how dependent their grids are on nuclear generation. Led by France and Belgium, which rely on nuclear power to satisfy 75-80% of their demand, many European nations run between one-fourth and one-half nuclear. They include Germany and Sweden, which have much-politicized phaseout plans but no firm power replacement plans. Some eastern European countries get half or more of their power from a single nuclear station. The US takes 20-22% of its power from nuclear, but the distribution is skewed regionally, with large metropolitan areas most dependent on electricity produced by fission. Demand met by nuclear power - Belgium: 80% - France: 75% - United States: 20-24% Money matters In the US, deregulation has rescued nuclear from what experts said only 10 years ago was certain doom. Regulated utilities make money from their rate base, but deregulated ones have to make money by selling electricity. That financial fact of life made any generating capacity already built worth more than any that was not. Many nuclear plants were old enough to be highly amortized, despite their hefty initial costs. Utility management cracked down on plant spending and demanded returns, and in the mid-1990s financial performance turned around. Events quickly proved that management, not technology, was the key to nuclear success. Operators brought down costs from an average of 2.7 cts/kWh in 1993 to about 1.6 cts by 2000. For an average station, that's a difference of nearly $130-mil annually. Troubled nuclear plants that were sold proved to be incredible bargains in the hands of a competent operator, changing from poor performers into solid profit centers. Per-kilowatt prices of units sold have risen to match prices of fossil-fueled units. In the late 1990s, nuclear operators began convincing the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that their stations, with regular maintenance and prudent capital reinvestment, could safely run for 20 years beyond their original licensed lives of 40 years. Now, one-fourth of the 104 licensed reactors in the US have gained license extensions, another 45% have applied or indicated their intent to do so, and virtually all the rest are expected to apply. And there's a market for the product. Electricity demand continues to regularly exceed expectations, the transmission grid is maxed out in many locations, the cost of generating with natural gas has soared, and utilities see nuclear as a practical alternative. Although the nuclear industry's performance is winning converts on Wall Street and Main Street, even industry enthusiasts say there's still a distance to go. With the upheaval of deregulation, investors are wary of capital investments exceeding three years. The best construction times for new nuclear plants being built in Asia are four to five years. Industry executives say they may believe personally that nuclear is the best source of new capacity, but any CEO who announced an order now would watch his company's stock tank. So nuclear advocates are working together to deflect those reactions. Eight generators - Constellation, Duke, EdF International, Entergy, Exelon, FPL, Progress Energy, Southern Company, and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - joined Westinghouse and General Electric in the NuStart consortium this year, while Dominion paired with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Bechtel, and Hitachi for its study of the feasibility of building a new nuclear unit. At the NRC, site permits that would pave the way for reactor construction are in the works for Exelon's Clinton station in Illinois, Entergy's Grand Gulf in Mississippi, and Dominion's North Anna in Virginia - all sites that were originally planned to have more reactors than are now operating there. TVA is also interested in completing a unit at Bellefonte in Alabama, where it has partially built reactors. Cost, safety, waste disposal are concerns In Europe, attention until recently was focused on politically inspired nuclear phaseouts, but the realities of rising demand and constricting supply options are shifting the debate. Liberalizing markets, transmission woes, and desire to meet Kyoto carbon limitations have put nuclear in a new light. Nuclear phaseout plans in Sweden, Germany, and Belgium are all in question as the reality of simultaneously finding replacement power and reducing carbon - at costs that won't destroy national economies hits home. As in the US, the European market opening means nuclear plants are worth more as efficient generators. French analysts put nuclear giant EdF's production cost at 1.4 cts/kWh, and operators in other countries say nuclear is similarly efficient. UK nuclear generation is more expensive, in large part because the government subjected it to a carbon tax and would not let British Energy break fuel back-end contracts with government- owned British Nuclear Fuels plc. The cost of nuclear power - 1990s: Around $10/lb - 2004: Around $20/lb In addition, security of supply has become an issue. With North Sea gas being depleted at amazing speed, there's new awareness that the places that have gas - Russia, North Africa, the Middle East - may not always be reliable suppliers. Even Italy, which phased out its small nuclear program after Chernobyl, is considering the nuclear option again. France's rationale from the 1970s for turning to nuclear - "We have no oil, we have no coal, we have no gas, we have no choice" - now seems prescient. East European countries that promised to close old nuclear units as the price of joining the European Union - Lithuania and Bulgaria - are balking at the steep cost to their economics. Ukraine closed the Chernobyl plant's remaining reactor in 1995 and Bulgaria closed its two oldest units last year, but the latter move was highly divisive politically. Many Bulgarians oppose the promised closure of two more units, considering it an attempt to force Bulgaria to buy electricity from the west. Lithuania is to shut Ignalina-1 at the end of this year, but there's strong political protest against that, too. Ignalina's two reactors produce 80% of the Baltic country's power, plus export earnings. Rather than phase out nuclear, eastern European countries continue to embrace it. Lithuanian politicians have discussed replacing Ignalina with new nuclear. The Czech Republic's Temelin plant, bane of Austrian nuclear opponents, has been generating efficiently. Bulgaria is resurrecting the Belene project and inviting international tenders. Slovakia is proceeding with two more units at Mochovce. Ukraine is commissioning two Russian-design pressurized-water reactors, completed with Russian assistance, to replace lost Chernobyl capacity. Russia commissioned a new unit at Kursk. Everywhere, public acceptance is still a case-by-case issue, and nuclear has vocal and committed opponents. The nuclear industry is still fighting a legacy of fear about accidents and radiation, complicated recently by post-9/11 concerns about plant security. Years of safe, routine operation after the near-disaster of Three Mile Island-2 and the very real disaster of Chernobyl-4, plus the dangers of fossil-burning emissions, seem to have produced a reassessment of nuclear power's true risks. In addition, the industry has been gaining ground as the only baseload power source besides hydro that does not produce greenhouse gases. The 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington brought a new flurry of concern that nuclear stations might be terrorist targets. Regulators have ordered expensive upgrades of physical plant security, bringing complaints from industry about the cost. Much about nuclear plant operations that used to be public is now classified, but security experts say nuclear stations are among the best-protected hazardous materials facilities in the US and that they are far better equipped to withstand assaults - including aircraft crashes - than infrastructure in many other industries. Though US and European studies have underlined the difficulties of producing more damage than public panic with an aircraft crash into a nuclear station, nuclear opponents continue to try to use the terrorist hreat to have nuclear stations shut. The most nagging issue - almost everywhere - is disposal of nuclear wastes. Nuclear advocates argue over how much spent nuclear material is really waste and how much represents resources that can be reused. Nonetheless, there is some irreducible minimum of dangerously radioactive material that must be managed while its radioactivity decays. Multinational storage has been discussed for years, with Russia as one probable location. But nothing has been worked out, in part because Russia wants to reprocess used fuel and extract usable uranium and plutonium from it for more fuel, while the US opposes reprocessing. In the US, attention has centered on DOE's proposed Yucca Mountain repository, which would handle military as well as civilian waste. It is funded by a lucrative surtax on nuclear-generated electricity. Observers say that the assured income stream may explain why the issue has continued to drag on in the DOE for decades when the engineering issues are fairly straightforward. Faced with that quagmire, nuclear operators have created their own spent-fuel storage facilities, usually onsite, using dry casks. The pad and casks, plus security buffer zones, take up just a few acres and can be used for decades. The near-term outlook For 2005 the biggest question marks over nuclear performance are complacency and uranium prices. World nuclear operators have been performing well enough for long enough that heads of major industry safety organizations - the World Association of Nuclear Operators, and the US Institute of Nuclear Power Operations - have been publicly warning against becoming complacent about safety. European operators are now cutting staff to reduce costs as their US counterparts did in the 1990s, and some have been challenged by regulators over whether safety is being compromised. Compromises can be costly. One object lesson was FirstEnergy, which had to absorb the costs of a two-year shutdown after Davis-Besse operators failed to heed warning signs until a hole nearly penetrated the reactor head. For 2003 alone, the outage lowered the company's earnings 56 cts/share. Another example was in Japan, where all 17 Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) reactors were shut at one point in 2003 because of past regulatory irregularities, forcing Tepco into the spot markets for fossil fuels as prices soared. The second factor threatening nuclear efficiency is rising world uranium prices. Uranium, which has been around $10/lb for a decade, began moving upward in May 2003 when flooding shut a major Canadian mine. Other events tightened supply, and the price of uranium has continued upward. World uranium prices - Average in 1993: 2.7 cts/kWh - Average in 2000: 1.6 cts/kWh Fuel has represented about 25% of nuclear generating costs - less than 0.5 cts/kWh in recent years. Persistently high uranium costs could negate costcutting elsewhere. Because fuel costs are amortized when fuel is in a reactor, the effects of today's higher prices won't begin to be felt for several years - by which time the high prices of competing fuels like natural gas may moderate, giving nuclear operators another competitive challenge. This article originally appeared in Platts , a companion publication to Platts . To view the entire issue or to learn about advertising opportunities, . Copyright 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 23 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: FR Doc 05-2951 [Federal Register: February 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 31)] [Notices] [Page 7972-7973] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16fe05-88] Comment Request AGENCY: U.S. 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 36-- Licenses and Radiation Safety Requirements for Irradiators. 2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0158. 3. How often the collection is required: On occasion. It is estimated that there are approximately 3 NRC and 10 Agreement State reports submitted annually. 4. Who is required or asked to report: Irradiator licensees licensed by NRC or an Agreement State. 5. The estimated number of annual respondents: 95 (19 NRC licensees and 76 Agreement State licensees). 6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 44,356 (8,872 hours for NRC licensees [8,712 recordkeeping + 160 reporting] and 35,484 hours for Agreement State licensees [34,846 recordkeeping + 638 reporting]), or 467 hours per licensee. 7. Abstract: 10 CFR part 36 contains requirements for the issuance of a license authorizing the use of sealed sources containing radioactive materials in irradiators used to irradiate objects or materials for a variety of purposes in research, industry, and other fields. The subparts cover specific requirements for obtaining a license or license exemption, design and performance criteria for irradiators; and radiation [[Page 7973]] safety requirements for operating irradiators, including requirements for operator training, written operating and emergency procedures, personnel monitoring, radiation surveys, inspection, and maintenance. Part 36 also contains the recordkeeping and reporting requirements that are necessary to ensure that the irradiator is being safely operated so that it poses no danger to the health and safety of the general public and the irradiator employees. Submit, by April 18, 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. 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, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, T-5 F53, Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by Internet electronic mail to INFOCOLLECTS@NRC.GOV. Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of February, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information Services. [FR Doc. 05-2951 Filed 2-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 24 Marin Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 23:29:47 -0600 (CST) MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS (415)868-1600 - (415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924 August, 2004 Marin Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up: GI's Will Come Home To A Slow Death By Carol Sterritt "There are only two things worth knowing in life, but I forget what they are." John Hiatt, American songwriter Now I remember what the two important things are. One is that the situation is dire. (And thus we need the artist and musician, the soul healer and the clown, more than ever.) The other is that despite the horror of the day, there are people who are so brave and beautiful in both thought and action that one is moved to tears. Look at the mindfulness of actions here in this county. For years, certain people in Marin have devoted a large portion of their lives to an outfit called the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition. Inside that group, some members are beginning a major work that could affect military service today and in the future when a draft might be instituted. One such Peace and Justice member is Yvette Wakefield. For over eighteen months, she has examined the Depleted Uranium issue. A county employee, she has often read the inscription on the 20 North San Pedro Building. This inscription reads: "The mission of health and human services is to promote and protect the health, well-being, self-sufficiency and safety of all people in Marin." Yvette could not reconcile what she learned about depleted uranium (DU) with the idea of health and human safety. For one thing, she had befriended Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who is now a world renowned authority on DU. Moret, who comes from a Quaker background, once worked at Livermore Labs. She now travels the world speaking out against the "omnicide" destructiveness of this material. The Creation of A World Class Activist How could someone like Moret, who once worked for the war industry, become a friend of a "peacenik," like Wakefield. Or for that matter, how could she herself become a peace activist? Well, back in 1991, Moret had a major realization. According to Moret, "In 1991 I became a whistleblower at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory near San Francisco, CA. Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector for the Department of Energy, told me, "The Pentagon exists for the oil companies and the nuclear weapons labs exist for the Pentagon." The more Moret learned, the more she became convinced that research and work involving depleted uranium was immoral. Beginning in 1991, depleted uranium was used to support three policies: One, to test the radiobiological effects of 4th generation nuclear weapons (still under development); Two, to blur and break down the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons; Three, to make it easier to reintroduce nuclear weapons into the US military arsenal. While at her job at Livermore, Moret watched America wage a short and apparently victorious Gulf War. In just a few short weeks, and after only 110 American casualties, we routed Iraq from Kuwait. But the true toll of this war upon our young servicemen and women occurred over the next decade. Of the 700,000 troops who served in the region, 267,000 suffered from some form of disability. Not only that, but some soldiers "infected" their spouses with disabilities similar to their own. Or they suffered the tragedy of having a child born with birth defects. Some victory, huh? At first, in its usual fashion, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Pentagon simply denied that this was happening. Those men and women, who had been hale and hearty before their military service, were now branded "malingerers." But internationally, other researchers spoke on record that these illnesses had nothing to do with malingering. Testimony from Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, Former Chief of the Naval Staff, India reads, "DU weapons emit Alpha particle dose impacting a single cell from U-238 some 50 times the annual dose level. Cancer is initiated with one alpha particle, its daughter isotopes effect generations as the isotopes bio-concentrate in plants and animals. They then travel up the food chain. It is a nuclear weapon because the energy is derived from the nucleus of the atom. The particles enter the body through the lungs, the digestive system or breaks in the skin. "One gram of DU releases more than 12,000 particles per second. The radiation slowly kills the cells that make life possible. The Gulf War syndrome of 1991 did just that (reported by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, Prof. of Medicine, Georgetown University, and discoverer of the Gulf War Syndrome.)" Our military has lobbed more than 500 tons of DU munitions on Afghanistan. Professor Yagasaki has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the "atomicity equivalent to 83,000 Nagasaki bombs." This fact he presented to the World Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg in October 2003. The amount of DU used in Iraq in 2003 equals nearly 250,000 Nagasaki bombs. Just as the Gulf War vets and their families have been imperiled by their service in Gulf War I, those veterans about to return from the Iraq war will undoubtedly face similar consequences. The Local FallOut This is why Yvette Wakefield is concerned. Should Marin County expend the energy and funding to nurture its children with healthy baby clinics, education Kindergarten to twelfth grade, sports programs and parks and recreation, only to then hand our kids at age eighteen over to the military? And not just any military, but one that plans on dispatching its personnel to a killing field where they will, even if surviving the "normal" activities of the battlefield, come home to a life of infirmity, sickness and hospitalization? Wakefield has problems with this idea. A trained paralegal, she began work on a County wide resolution that would proclaim the unacceptability of any Marin citizen serving in any area of the world where their health might forever be destroyed by DU. Her working draft of this resolution reads: Therefore in view of those dangers posed by exposure to depleted uranium, Marin County requires that all Marin residents serving in the United States Armed Forces and its Reserves be prohibited from serving in those areas where depleted uranium weaponry is used. This is because we acknowledge that our residents should not be required to face the life-threatening and lifelong health problems of radiation poisoning. Their having faced the normal dangers of combat should be enough. Soldiers who survive their military service are entitled to return home to a normal life of working, having families and friends and engaging in normal activities. She is now building a case for her resolution. She has set up a public forum on August 12, at 7:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church 9 Ross Valley Drive, San Rafael. Both Leuren Moret and Dennis Kyne will be speaking at the event. Their talk is titled "Depleted Uranium - The Trojan Horse of A Nuclear War." Once people in Marin hear the truth of the DU deployment, and they realize the horrific consequences born by the populations in the Middle East and our soldiers, they can be counted on to be supporters of this County wide resolution. Where DU Policies Came from, And Why They Continue The use of depleted uranium can be traced back to certain Nixon-Kissinger era decisions. When our country was stymied by the 1973 oil embargo, Nixon remarked that we have to make sure that an oil embargo will never happen again. Perhaps he would have been stopped by the test ban treaty of 1963, signed by Russia and the United States, both super powers at that time. According to the treaty, nuclear war was outlawed. But one way for a nation to achieve sovereignty over another nation was and is to utilize depleted uranium weaponry. Although such weaponry will not necessarily offer up a mushroom cloud, the wake of its devastation can be as deadly. Thus a policy of using depleted uranium in weapons began. It first surfaced in the Arab-Israeli war, Fall 1973, when Israel received and used such weapons from the United States. It used these weapons under our country's supervision. (Never think for a moment that the Muslim nations hate us for our shopping centers and our democracy, our backyard swimming pools and our skyscrapers. They hate us for what we have done, and are doing, to them.) The population-devastation politics of DU continues to this day. It is an effective policy. Witness what is occurring to the civilian population in Iraq. Following the Gulf War, birth defects and cancer cases rose exponentially. In one Baghdad hospital, which in pre-war days saw a single birth defect a week, there soon occurred three and four birth defective babies in a single day. (According to Moret, these defects are a deliberate contamination of the population.) For the past thirteen years, rare leukemias and bone cancers have been on the rise there. And of course, in the days of sanctions, the hospital supplies and equipment to help those affected were unavailable. Now, after the devastation of the "shock and awe" campaign of Spring, 2003, supplies are equally non-existent. Also, hospitals are now faced with the consequences of having only sporadic electricity and a lack of clean water. (The Bagdad population has survived the past winter by utilizing rainwater, collected in pots and pans put out on their roofs.) The stories related to birth defects are heart-breaking. Some Iraqi babies are born with eyeballs the size of lemons protruding from their eye sockets. Some babies have no brains. Some babies are born without any skin. Some pregnancies, although carried close to full term, result in a birth of only a lump of flesh, with no discernable torso, limbs or head or facial features. Our soldiers are coming home from our Middle East "adventures" with bodies pushed to the breaking point. On KPFA radio in June, it was revealed that of nine returning servicemen to New York City, six tested positive for unusually high levels of radioactivity in their bodies. Those with the highest levels already feel its effects. They are mind-numbingly tired; they have rashes, muscle aches and pains, and their nervous systems are impaired. The Horrific Working of Pernicious Materials These men were average soldiers in terms of their war experiences. But for certain soldiers, especially those who have survived the destruction of their tanks, the radiation diseases hit hard and heavy. By its nature, DU is aerosolized when impacted by explosion. Also the metal components of DU-hardened tanks become a deadly, inhale-able radiation upon explosion. The men and women experiencing this first hand are unaware that every breath they take during these events is impacting their lungs and blood streams with nano-sized charged particles that begin the ruin of their health immediately. Unlike the Japanese survivors of atomic blasts, who first felt radiation sickness within three days to a week, our soldiers can experience symptoms almost immediately. This is the result of the aerosol effects of the materials. The radioactive dust can be pulverized to the point that it is one hundred times smaller than bacteria. The particles go from the air to the lungs to the blood stream. They then end up attacking the body's mitochondria. The results range from multiple sclerosis type illnesses, to Parkinson's, to chemical sensitivities, and of course, at a somewhat later date, various cancers. Our nation's youth will sacrifice their prime years to this devastation, wearing adult diapers, shuffling along with walkers, using oxygen tanks, and trying to live with blindness and hearing loss. Meanwhile, our nation's policy shapers have big plans inside our country as well. In both Ohio and Kentucky, DU processing plants are underway. Both these areas have high unemployment rates. The local populace, desperate for work and a steady income, will have few qualms about what they are doing or why they are doing it. They will be told that the work is safe, and indeed it will seem so. There is no stench to uranium processing; the tiles and linoleum in the plants will no doubt be spotless. Those who recruit them will seem friendly and kind. The fact that the DU workers may have health problems five or ten years down the road is not a big matter for concern. After all, if you don't consider reality, how can it bother you? I ask that if you are moved by this account of Depleted Uranium devastation, you make a commitment. Red circle the date of the public forum, August 12th, on your calendars. For further information, call 415 721 2844. The lives you save are your own. After all, the air a Baghdad housewife breathed in this morning can be in your lungs by tomorrow afternoon. Public Forum "Depleted Uranium - The Trojan Horse of A Nuclear War." 7:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church 9 Ross Valley Drive, San Rafael CA ***************************************************************** 25 America's use of DU is stirring up hatred by Carol Wolman, MD Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:45:21 -0800 Afghan DU Recovery Fund http://www.afghandufund.org/android2_001.htm "When I saw my little boy with those monstrous red tumors, I thought to myself, why is it difficult for Americans to understand that they are hated in our country. If I do this to the child of an American family, that family has the right to pull my eyes out of my eye sockets. I like to tell the Americans that they love to live their lives of luxury at the expense of our extermination" [earthrainbownetwork] The Empire of Darkness Series #22 (PART 1): Megatons of Manure In the last 4 years, the United States under Bush has committed terrible war crimes and atrocities. The depleted uranium story has not gotten much attention, since the Pentagon denies its harmfulness. Even the respected organization Physicians for Social Responsibility will not campaign actively against its use. But the heartrending abortions, stillbirths and childhood cancers in Iraq and Afghanistan caused by this radioactive agent is hardening the hearts of the world against Americans, even more than the leveling of Fallujah or the Abu Ghraib tortures. We are inviting terrible retribution. Might we yet repent? Now that the Democratic Party is headed by a physician, might we not yet change our ways and stop using this horrible slow nuclear weapon, do what we can to clean up the mess, and make some sort of reparation to the Afghanis, the Iraqis, and our own veterans? Jonah 3 8 yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman ***************************************************************** 26 Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Desert Town Stakes Future on Uranium From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday February 16, 2005 7:31 PM By PETER BARNES Associated Press Writer EUNICE, N.M. (AP) - Like many others in this former boomtown, Mayor James Brown knows more about isotopes, centrifuges and uranium-235 than your average college student. Brown's recent crash course in nuclear physics was a prerequisite: Many of his constituents are counting on the jobs and economic trickle-down that are being promised if a $1.3 billion uranium enrichment plant that would make fuel for nuclear power plants comes to town. Critics say the proposed National Enrichment Facility could pollute the environment, guzzle scarce water and leave this oil-producing town with tons of radioactive waste and nowhere to put it. But the mayor warns that without the plant, Eunice faces extinction. ``We have to have something else in place or communities like Eunice and Jal will just disappear,'' he said. ``The oil industry won't be able to support our economy 20 or 30 years from now.'' The project would be the first privately operated uranium enrichment plant in the United States and the first U.S. installation to use centrifuge technology, rather than a process known as gaseous diffusion that has been around since the Manhattan Project. Louisiana Energy Services, the international consortium behind the plant, wanted to build the project in rural Louisiana, but backed out in 1998 after opponents accused it of targeting a predominantly poor and black parish. Then it pulled out of Hartsville, Tenn., in 2003 after running into opposition from former Vice President Al Gore and others. The new proposed site is in the flat, scrub-covered desert 340 miles from Albuquerque in the southeastern corner of the state, close to the Texas line. LES has promised that the plant would employ 400 workers during the construction phase and, once it is up and running, 210 people, with a payroll of more than $10 million and an average salary of $50,000. Last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board held public meetings on the LES plan. At one, Lea County Commissioner Darrold Stephenson made his point by flipping the lights off. If the project is turned down, ``this is what we're passing on to our future generations: nothing,'' the 70-year-old commissioner said later. Oil and natural gas have been the region's lifeblood for decades. Today, bobbing oil pumps and high-pressure gas lines are woven into Eunice's modest street grid. But many oil-related jobs are disappearing because of new labor-saving technology, and companies have discovered more lucrative oil fields elsewhere. Since 1985, Eunice's population has fallen by a third, to 2,500. The uranium enrichment plant would be the biggest commercial nuclear project in the United States in years. The nuclear industry is watching the project's fate closely, said Marshall Cohen, an LES spokesman. ``If it's a good, steady, on-track process, that's encouraging to others who might want to look at nuclear-related construction. Because it's very expensive - the amount of money spent on obtaining the license is serious money,'' he said. Townspeople in Eunice overwhelmingly support the project. Some have grown tired of environmentalists and other out-of-towners preaching doom, and many note that they have lived with industrial hazards all their lives. ``Don't tell me how dangerous this is when I grew up in this oil field,'' said Fay Thompson, owner of The Bakery and More restaurant on Main Street. Compared to working with oil, the plant is a ``walk in the park,'' Thompson said. Her husband, she said, died 40 years ago of cancer related to benzene, a petroleum byproduct. Still, a few in town are skeptical. ``We're such a gullible lot here, what can I say?'' said Rose Gardner, owner of Desert Rose Flowers and Gifts. ``The whole world knows the negative side, but Lea County doesn't seem to know it.'' Environmentalists worry that radioactive material could seep into the groundwater and the air. Moreover, they say, uranium processing generates a type of waste that currently cannot be dumped anywhere in the United States. With processing, it could be sent to a low-level nuclear waste dump. Currently, no U.S. processing facility can do that. A French company has offered to build such a plant in this country, but it will be years before it even applies for a license. Gov. Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary in the Clinton administration, has indicated his support for the project is contingent on an assurance the waste will be sent out of the state. Mike Sheehan, an economist hired by Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear group, also said the new plant would undercut financially an anti-proliferation program in Russia that takes weapons-grade uranium and turns it into power plant fuel. Other critics point out that the United States discourages the same kind of plants in places like Iran, which might use them to produce uranium for nuclear weapons. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 27 Las Vegas SUN: EPA readies orders for toxic mine cleanup at Yerington By SCOTT SONNER ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO, Nev. (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted its first formal orders for Atlantic Richfield Co. to clean up a toxic mine in Nevada since state regulators asked the U.S. agency to assume control of the site in the face of growing health and safety concerns. An arm of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta also has initiated efforts to determine whether radioactive and other contaminants at the former Anaconda copper mine on the edge of Yerington pose any danger to the townspeople or neighboring tribes. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management are reviewing the draft order EPA intends to deliver to Atlantic Richfield in the coming weeks detailing steps necessary to assess and respond to potential threats at and around the 3,600-acre site, EPA officials said Tuesday. Atlantic Richfield and its subcontractors already have started much of the work under the previous agreement that made EPA, BLM and the state equal partners in the oversight of the cleanup, said Jim Sickles, EPA's site manager based in San Francisco. Opposed to the idea for years, the state agency asked EPA in December to assume the lead in the cleanup of the site the bankrupt Arimetco abandoned in 1999. EPA's new "unilateral administrative order" will address a wide range of areas, from site security and worker safety, to air and groundwater monitoring, uranium samples and the continued availability of bottled water for residents with polluted wells, Sickles said. Atlantic Richfield currently is providing free bottled water to about 140 households that had been getting their water from domestic wells near the mine, although the BP subsidiary maintains elevated uranium levels likely are due to natural conditions unrelated to the abandoned mine. One area of contention in EPA's pending order could be the security of the mine site covering nearly six square miles bordering Yerington and the Walker River 55 miles southeast of Reno. Sickles said it's important to secure the property "so we don't have people wandering around the site where their might be radiological contamination." Atlantic Richfield spokesman Dan Cummings said most of the operation was on federal land managed by BLM and mined mostly by Anaconda dating to the 1940s. "We've always been concerned about providing site security for land we don't own. BLM owns the land," Cummings said Tuesday. Tests this summer found unusually high levels of radiation in soil samples at the mine. Earlier groundwater tests showed high concentrations of uranium, apparently the result of the chemical processing of the copper. Documents discovered over the past 18 months showed that in 1984 the radioactivity was so great in one waste pond that Anaconda had entered a joint venture in the 1970s to extract and process uranium from the wastes as a byproduct for commercial profit. Libby Vianu, regional representative for the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said her agency recently became involved at the request of the Yerington Paiute Tribe. The ATSDR was created in 1980 to investigate health threats at all EPA Superfund sites, but also considers petitions for reviews at non-Superfund sites, like this one, she said. Often, the ATSDR refuses such petitions, she said. But "in this case, it met all the criteria." ATSDR's review has just begun, but she said she agreed with Atlantic Richfield's decision to provide bottled water to those who want it as "a good public health action." All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Seattle Times: Editorials & Opinion: Follow the isotopes Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m. Editorial Isoray Medical, the little Richland company poised to save the lives of thousands, looks like a fraying rope in the tug of war surrounding the legal future of Initiative 297. IsoRay refined a prostate-cancer treatment that uses an isotope which loses its radioactivity much more quickly than other isotopes. The first patient was treated at the University of Washington Medical Center around the same time voters overwhelmingly approved I-297. The initiative bans the shipment of radioactive waste to the Hanford nuclear reservation until the Department of Energy cleans up what is already there. Within weeks, the Department of Energy sued to overturn I-297 and took the hard-nosed position that the initiative applied to other radioactive materials as well. Energy officials ordered Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to suspend such work, including IsoRay's access to the federal facility. A federal judge has ruled I-297 can't be enforced until some legal questions are answered. Hate to say we told you so. This page opposed the initiative partly because of concerns Energy would pull stunts like this and that anticipated litigation would actually delay cleanup. Regardless, I-297 is now the law of the state. It needs fixing before other high-technology endeavors at the national lab and elsewhere are hurt. Heart of America, the organization that pushed the ill-advised initiative, has stepped forward with a reasonable solution that clarifies that cancer research is not the target of I-297. The amendment to the new initiative needs two-thirds approval of the Legislature. Disappointingly, Republican Reps. Larry Haler and Shirley Hankins, who represent the 8th Legislative District that includes Hanford, are opposing the measure. Their comments at a House hearing Friday suggest they would rather have the issue than the solution, that they want I-297 as flawed as possible to increase the chances a federal judge will throw it out. Haler, who works for a Hanford contractor, suggested the choice was between saving IsoRay and saving the national laboratory. That's nonsense. Sen. Jerome Delvin, a fellow Republican from the same district, supports the clarification  even though he opposed the initiative. Delvin's approach is more pragmatic than his district-mates' heel digging  and more credible. The Legislature should follow his lead. Copyright 2005 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 29 Bellona: Court Denies Declassification of Information on Accidents Aboard Soviet Nuclear Submarines Today the Presnya District Court in Moscow denied the approval of a complaint by Bellona. The complaint was submitted after the refusal by the Russian Ministry of Defense to declassify information about accidents that had taken place on Soviet nuclear submarines. 2005-02-16 16:07 Bellona has not yet received the full decision of the court establishing the courts position. As soon as the full document is obtained, Bellona will seek an appeal to the decision in a higher court. So far we see no legal basis for todays court decision, stated Bellonas defense lawyer, Ivan Pavlov. In accordance to Article 7 of the law On state secrets, information is not to be made classified regarding emergencies and catastrophes threatening the security and health of citizens or their consequences, regarding natural disasters, their official prognosis and effects, or regarding the condition of the environment. 2005-01-21 Access to enviroinformation Presnya Court postpones considering Bellona's complaint against Russian Ministry of Defence 2004-11-19 Access to enviroinformation Court may consider Bellona vs. Russian Ministry of Defense in absence of the defendant 2004-10-12 Access to enviroinformation Bellona v. Russian Ministry of Defence 2004-01-07 Access to enviroinformation Russian Supreme Court: Bellona suit to declassify information on Soviet-era nuclear sub accidents 2003-09-19 Access to enviroinformation Moscow Courts Play Ping-Pong With Bellona Complaint Against the Defence Ministry 2003-08-25 Access to enviroinformation Bellona Demands Declassification of Accidents Aboard Soviet Submarines Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 30 Newswise: Tungsten-Alloy Shrapnel Causes Tumors, Cancer in Rats Source: Environmental Health Perspectives (NIEHS) Released: Mon 14-Feb-2005, 16:40 ET Description Environmental Health Perspectives today published online a paper reporting that weapons-grade tungsten alloys, newly incorporated into battlefield munitions, rapidly cause tumors, then lung cancer, when embedded in rats to emulate shrapnel wounds. Newswise  The peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) today published online a paper reporting that weapons-grade tungsten alloys, newly incorporated into the battlefield munitions of several countries, rapidly cause tumors, then lung cancer, when embedded in rats to emulate shrapnel wounds. Concern over the human and environmental health effects of other metals long used in weapons has led many countries to replace depleted uranium (in some armor-penetrating munitions) and lead (In small-caliber ammunition) with various alloys of tungsten. One motivation for such a replacement is widespread public concern about the health and environmental impact of continued use of metals such as uranium and lead, along with the belief that tungsten has only limited toxicity. “However, to our knowledge, none of these militarily relevant tungsten alloys have been tested for potential health effects, particularly as embedded shrapnel,” the study authors write. Rats were implanted with a low dose (4 pellets) or a high dose (20 pellets) of tungsten alloy. Other rats received 20 pellets of nickel, a known carcinogen, or tantalum, an inert control metal. In findings that surprised the researchers, 100% of the rats implanted with tungsten-alloy pellets developed extremely aggressive tumors surrounding the pellets, although tumor growth was slower in rats implanted with lower doses. The tumors then rapidly metastasized to the lungs of the rats, necessitating euthanasia of the animals well before the anticipated end of the study. “[The findings raise] extremely serious concerns over the potential health effects of tungsten alloy-based munitions currently being used as non-toxic alternatives to lead and depleted uranium,” write the authors. Tumors grew in the high-dose tungsten alloy implanted rats within 4 to 5 months of implantation. Changes in these rats’ blood, including significant increases in red and white blood cells, were apparent as early as one month after implantation. “While switching to tungsten was an effort to create a ‘greener bullet,’ these surprising findings demonstrate the complexity of understanding how metals combined into alloys might affect human health. If the findings of this paper are validated by further research, it appears that soldiers could be at risk of surviving battlefield wounds only to develop an aggressive form of cancer,” said Dr. Jim Burkhart, science editor for EHP. The lead author of the study was John F. Kalinich of the Heavy Metals Research Team of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute. Other authors include Christy A. Emond, Thomas K. Dalton, Steven R. Mog, Gary D. Coleman, Jessica E. Kordell, Alexandra C. Miller, and David E. McClain. Funding sources for the research as reported by the authors include the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The paper will be published in the print edition of EHP this spring. This article is available online at . EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. EHP is an Open Access journal. More information is available online at . 2005 Newswise. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Political Affairs Magazine: Study of Depleted Uranium Effects Called For By: Joel Wendland Published: 02/16/2005 14:07 Munitions used by US troops on a massive scale in the Iraq war may be injuring US soldiers. According to Veterans for Peace, a national organization of veterans who oppose the Iraq war, depleted uranium (DU), a substance used in bullets and artillery shells to increase penetrating ability, may be harmful to anyone exposed to spent DU munitions or areas in which DU materials have been heavily used. DU is a by-product of uranium enrichment and is used in the manufacture of weapons. Weapon such as tanks, machine guns, artillery, armored vehicles, and aircraft use DU munitions. DU munitions have some radioactivity, but their main strength, from the view of weapons manufacturers, is their density. DU is nearly 2 and 1/2 times denser than steel. Some DU-tipped projectiles are powerful enough to penetrate tank armor. Others are used to penetrate body armor, trucks, and other defensive materials. While DU munitions are slightly radioactive, the main cause of concern is the metal fragments that enter the environment after explosion. Soldiers and civilians who breath in the dust created by a burning DU weapon may intake radioactive deposits in their lungs. Lung cancer can result. The potential dangers of DU munitions were revealed to the world during the first Gulf War. The Pentagon sent Major Doug Rokke to the Persian Gulf region to lead its depleted uranium assessment team. Rokkes team spent several months there on DU-related projects: cleanup, research, and follow-up medical care for US personnel exposed to DU. Rokke has since become seriously ill, and many on his team have already died. Rokke concluded that anyone who comes in contact with DU must get medical attention. The Pentagon ignored Rokkes advice and refused to distribute the information to military personnel. DU weapons have been used in every major armed conflict since the first Gulf War: Somalia, Yugoslavia, and Iraq again. "An increasing number of studies, says Veterans for Peace, "have linked DU with Gulf War syndrome, and DU is strongly implicated in birth defects among veterans children." Disabled American Veterans, an 85-year old national organization that advocates for service members disabled during war or armed conflict, concurs. "There is an ongoing debate as to whether a well-defined Gulf War Syndrome actually exists, but most experts agree that the health of as many as 80,000 of the 700,000 U.S. military personnel who began deploying to Saudi Arabia in late 1990 have been harmed. A variety of illnesses may have been caused by exposure to chemical and biological weapons, depleted uranium, experimental drugs and vaccines, environmental toxins, and infectious diseases." A study done in Germany in 2002 indicated that DU molecules can travel to different parts of the body, including to sperm and eggs damaging genes and increasing the risk of cancer. In the study, birth defects were also been blamed on the exposure of US soldiers to DU munitions during the first Gulf War. Critics of this particular study argue that exposure to other chemical dangers in Kuwait and Iraq in that war may be the cause of health problems in returning soldiers, though no serious or sustained study of this question has been undertaken. Soldiers arent the only people who are exposed to the risks, however. DU dust also can enter the environment, especially the ground, possibly contaminating anyone who may ingest through eating or breathing the material even decades later. Again, the possible health risks have not been fully studied. Inconclusiveness about the full dangers and long-term impact of DU weapons has not stopped much of the world from trying to ban the substance. In 1999, the US blocked a United Nations subcommittee initiative calling for a ban on the use of DU worldwide. In 2003 the European Parliament called for a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium. The Bush Pentagon continues to deny that DU is dangerous. Some members of Congress have introduced bills calling for study of DUs long-term impact and medical treatment for those who have been exposed. The Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act (H.R. 1483), proposed by Jim McDermott (D-WA) in 2003, which has yet to be reintroduced in the current Congress, would require a study of the effects of DU and report its findings. H.R. 202, a bill introduced recently by Jose Serrano (D-NY) on this matter, calls for identifying current and former service members exposed to DU and provision of medical testing and treatment. Republican congressional leaders have safely tucked such proposals away in subcommittees to limit public discussion and debate. Supporters of more detailed studies of the dangers of DU munitions say broader public support is needed to pressure Congress to take up this matter seriously. --Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net. ***************************************************************** 32 madison courier: Army considers changing JPG plans www.madisoncourier.com 2/16/2005 12:26:00 PM Peggy Vlerebome Courier Staff Writer The U.S. Army might go back to pursuing decommissioning of Jefferson Proving Ground rather than obtaining a special license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. As part of the possible new approach to its role at JPG, the Army is considering doing limited testing to collect four types of data: How much depleted uranium is there and its concentration; the thickness of the contaminated area; whether and at what rate the armor penetrators made from depleted uranium are dissolving; and the travel routes contaminants could take through groundwater. For years the Army has said it is too dangerous to enter the depleted-uranium area to remove the DU or to collect data because there are tons of unexploded ordnance there that could blow up at any time. Now, however, the Army said in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it could go in for limited gathering of data. It wont be the first time the area has been entered. The Save the Valley environmental organization pointed out in November 2003 that Army documents made several references to the Army going into the DU area for various purposes. The Army in 2002 was working on a plan to decommission JPG to terminate its license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the Army, by not collecting data on-site, didnt have the kind of information the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Save the Valley said was needed. Two years ago, the Army proposed that instead of decommissioning it would pursue a type of NRC license that does not now exist. Under it, the Army would maintain the status quo until technology or scientific knowledge about the contaminants changed. Every five years, there would be a review of the license. Whether the Army decides to proceed to change its plan for JPG depends partly on the availability of money, the Army letter said. Richard Hill, president of Save the Valley, said Save the Valleys technical experts are looking into the Armys data-gathering idea and its attorney is looking at whether the availability funding can legally be a factor. Depleted uranium was used to strengthen armor penetrators that were tested at the proving ground from 1983 until JPG closed in 1994. The Army has estimated that 77 tons of depleted uranium remain at JPG within a 2,500-acre area that also contains unexploded ordnance. The area is fenced. Two experts hired by Save the Valley concluded last year that the DU could be on as few as seven to seven and a half acres within the fenced area, not the 125 acres that the Army has used as the size of the DU-contaminated area. Depleted uranium, which is both radioactive and toxic, is used as an alloy both on penetrators to help them destroy enemy tanks and on our tanks to make them stronger against attack. Unexploded ordnance is munitions that didnt explode when they were fired for testing. The data collection the Army is now talking about doing would include tissue from deer, the Army letter said. Deer tissue has not been among the things the Army has been testing twice a year, looking for signs of depleted uranium in surface water, groundwater and soil. Hill said he expects the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to respond to the Army letter within a few weeks. Copyright 2005, The Madison Courier 310 Courier Square, Madison, IN 47250 (812) 265-3641 (800) 333-2885 Software 1998-2005 ***************************************************************** 33 EcoDefense: $600 million nuclear waste deal between Russia and Hungary is on the table - press-release Moscow, February 16, 2005 ECODEFENSE DEMANDS TO CANCEL $600 MILLION NUCLEAR WASTE DEAL AS HUNGARY' PRIME-MINISTER VISITING RUSSIA Environmentalists revealed inter-governmental protocol on exporting Hungarian high-level radioactive waste to Russia for reprocessing and dumping. They held meeting with Hungarian ambassador to Russia to deliver mass petition against waste export. Today, Hungarian prime-minister Ferenc Gyurcsany is visiting Russia for the first time as a head of European Union' member-state. On that occasion, Russian environmental group Ecodefense held a meeting in Moscow with Ferenc Kontra, Hungarian ambassador, and his secretary for foreign politics Gyorgy Galicza. Activists delivered to Hungarian authorities a mass petition addressed to prime-minister Gyurcsany, demanding to cancel high-level radioactive waste exports to Russia. Petition is signed by 5,000 Russian citizens living in places affected by nuclear waste reprocessing. F.Kontra promised to deliver petition to prime-minister and brief him on the problem. Ecodefense obtained previously unpublished 2004 protocol on high-level radioactive waste (or spent nuclear fuel) exports that is part of inter-governmental agreement between USSR and Hungary of 1966. This document is regulating the procedure of Hungarian spent fuel export to Russia for storage and reprocessing; chapter 4 of the protocol offers an opportunity to leave all kinds of radioactive waste resulting from reprocessing to be dumped in Russia. That is absolutely unique because Russian government never officially offered a dumping of radioactive waste on constant basis to any other country. In 2003, Russian and Hungarian nuclear industries started discussion over new contract to transport 1500 ton of spent nuclear fuel to "Mayak" ($400 per kilo, whole deal costs $600 million). Presently, this deal is delayed under public pressure. In 2002, Russian Supreme Court ruled that last shipment of spent nuclear fuel from Hungary occurred in 1998 was illegal under current legislation. In 1996, Finland stopped shipments of spent nuclear fuel to "Mayak" on environmental ground. In 2001, after Russian authorities approved new legislation allowing nuclear industry to import spent nuclear fuel, Germany and USA also rejected Russian proposal on importing foreign high-level radioactive waste. According to the public poll conducted by ROMIR (Gallup group), nearly 92% of Russians opposed to spent fuel import. In 20th century, spent nuclear fuel from Hungarian nuclear plant Paks was repeatedly transported to Soviet Union, and later Russia, for reprocessing and extraction of plutonium. Radioactive waste of reprocessing was partly dumped into open lakes and rivers near "Mayak" through the last 25 years - that caused wide-spread environmental catastrophe. Reprocessing' waste which still stored at this facility have total radioactivity over 1 billion Ci - an equivalent to 20 Chernobyl radioactive releases. So far, nuclear industry was not able to develop safe technology for utilization of that waste. "Sending nuclear waste to Russia would effectively mean that opinion of 92% of Russians ignored. Ecodefense urges Hungarian prime-minister, as a head of European Union' member-state, to respect basic democracy principles, human rights and public opinion of Russians", said Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense, Russian environmental group that campaigning against nuclear waste import to Russia for the last 8 years. "Solving problem of own waste at the cost of lives of Russian people is cynical policy which, we hope, will be avoided by new Hungarian government as it was avoided by other EU states earlier. Russian-Hungarian protocol on nuclear waste must be cancelled", he added. For more information in Moscow, please contact: +7(095)7766281, 2544836 - Vladimir Slivyak, e-mail: ecodefense@online.ru http://www.antiatom.ru ***************************************************************** 34 UK The Times: Nuclear audit says Sellafield has 'lost' 30kg of plutonium February 17, 2005 By Angela Jameson, Industrial Correspondent SELLAFIELD, Britains major nuclear site, has lost 30 kilograms of plutonium, according to figures due to be published today. The annual audit of nuclear material at all of Britains civil nuclear installations is expected to reveal that the plutonium  enough for seven or eight nuclear bombs  was classified as material unaccounted for last year. The revelation that such a large amount of plutonium has apparently disappeared is likely to cause deep embarrassment at British Nuclear Group and the Department of Trade and Industry, which are weeks away from completing a huge shake-up in the nuclear industry, with the creation of an independent Nuclear Decomissioning Authority. The discrepancy compares with a 19kg loss at Sellafield in 2003 and a cumulative loss of about 50kg at the Cumbrian plant over the past ten years. British Nuclear Fuels, which operates the plant, is expected to dismiss the figures as a paper loss and an accounting issue. But independent experts described the disclosure as deeply worrying. They make this claim of an auditing problem but I would expect them to be overzealous in the current climate of fears about terrorism, John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, said. Dr Frank Barnaby, a specialist in nuclear weapons, said: There will always be some material unaccounted for but this is a dramatic development. This is a major reason for not reprocessing spent nuclear fuel because you cant tell what the material unaccounted for is. All nuclear material at Sellafield, including the content of contaminated ponds and any emissions, are measured every year, according to guidelines endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Its just like a balance sheet, we count what comes in and what goes out, one insider said. The fact that the figures do not balance is embarrassing rather than sinister. They do not imply that any material has been improperly diverted, or that there has been a breach of security at the site. Keeping track of just how much material is present at the plant at any one time is tricky, and subject to errors. Spent nuclear fuel rods, which have been inside nuclear reactors for about five years, are taken to Sellafield for reprocessing. They are allowed to cool in ponds for up to four years before they are treated. The process then involves cutting up the fuel rods, dissolving them in acid and then separating the solution into three streams  uranium, plutonium, and high-level waste. At each stage of the process the material is weighed and calculations made of the amounts of plutonium it contains. All this has to be done remotely behind shielding because of the radioactivity involved. At the end of the process the weight of the plutonium recovered ought to balance with the estimates of the amount put in. They seldom do, but the discrepancy is rarely as large as it is this year. Small measuring errors can accumulate to produce large discrepancies, as they have done this year. Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk ***************************************************************** 35 SignOnSanDiego.com: Utah tribe may store spent nuclear rods Indians' sovereignty could play major role By Dana Wilkie COPLEY NEWS SERVICE February 16, 2005 WASHINGTON  An hour's drive from Salt Lake City, between Utah's Cedar and Stansbury mountain ranges, there lies a lonely, arid valley marked by perhaps three paved roads and the homes of a few American Indian families. Skull Valley  a longtime dumping ground for hazardous waste, low-level radioactive debris and the byproducts of biological and chemical weapons testing  is a literal and figurative wasteland. But in a matter of weeks, it could be on its way to becoming a gold mine for some, or further cursed for others. This month, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission may decide whether a private company can move forward with its plan to put high-level nuclear waste in that part of the valley home to the Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians. The decision comes when a congressionally approved dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain is moving slowly and officials running the nation's nuclear reactors are clamoring for a place to put their spent fuel rods. If the NRC gives its approval and if the opening of the federal dump in Nevada continues to stall, then the Skull Valley reservation could become the first place in the nation  aside from nuclear reactors  to store some of the most toxic waste known to man. Associated Press An anti-nuclear waste sign is posted along the road leading to the Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians' reservation, which could become the first place in the nation  aside from nuclear reactors  to store high-level nuclear waste. It would be a marriage of convenience between the nuclear industry and an Indian tribe. Because tribes have the right of sovereignty, the consortium of eight utilities wanting to build the dump can bypass state and local regulations, as well as the politics that typically accompany them. For the Goshutes, the dump would mean an economic windfall  much as gaming has enriched tribes in California and elsewhere. "It was kind of a natural match between people looking for a place to store nuclear waste and people looking for economic development," said Rod McCullum, a senior project manager with the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents the nuclear power industry. But as with gaming, the venture comes with concerns  among them, whether it amounts to an abuse of Indian land and people. About one-third of the tribal members want the dump, about one-third don't, and a third aren't sure, according to observers. "Private companies saw that many of our tribes were vulnerable ... socially and economically," said Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, which objects to the dump. "They took advantage with promises that you can get rich. I think these companies are looking for environmental loopholes as well, (because) Indian lands are subject to federal regulations, but not to state ones." No government entity has been successful in opening a depository for the depleted fuel rods from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants  rods that stay lethal for as long as 10,000 years. Associated Press The reservation is in a valley that has long been a dumping ground for hazardous waste, low-level radioactive debris and byproducts of biological and chemical weapons testing. Congress was supposed to have found a resting place for the debris by 1998. But although Congress in 2002 approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain for such a depository, lawsuits, Nevada's opposition and Congress' unwillingness to fund the dump mean it probably won't open in 2010 as scheduled. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been renewing licenses for nuclear power plants at a record rate. In the past four years, the NRC has granted 20-year extensions to 26 nuclear reactors, while extensions are pending for 18 more. "The relicensing ... drives more interest in disposal (sites), because anyone who wants to move forward with nuclear energy realizes we have to take care of the waste," said McCullum, who adds that power plants are running out of space to store their spent fuel rods. Private Fuel Storage  the consortium of utilities  would lease 500 acres in the northwest corner of the Goshutes' 18,000-acre reservation. As early as 2007, the utilities would start storing up to 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in concrete and steel silos that would sit on concrete pads. After 40 years, the lease requires that the waste be moved to a permanent resting place, presumably Yucca Mountain. While Private Fuel Storage and the Goshutes won't disclose the terms of the lease, some estimate that the band would earn tens of millions of dollars a year. This month, the NRC's Atomic Safety Licensing Board is expected to make a recommendation on the plan to NRC commissioners, who would then decide whether to grant a license for the dump. "In the case of the Skull Valley Band, the United States is dealing with a true direct democracy," said Scott York, general counsel for the Goshute members who support the dump. "No entity under state control could create such a facility." Attorneys for the Goshutes who oppose the dump could not be reached. On the reservation sits a store, a gas station, a tribal meeting center and a few homes  some in good repair, others uninhabitable. The band claims about 125 members, but perhaps only 25 people remain on the reservation, others having scattered to neighboring towns to take jobs or educate their children. It's been hard for the tribe to create economic ventures largely because of the surroundings: Ten miles away sits an old Army testing zone for chemical and biological weapons; to the east is one of the world's largest nerve gas incinerators; and to the west are a hazardous waste landfill and a depository for low-level radioactive waste. "They're in danger of losing their heritage, losing their native language, and losing any memory of their culture," said Sue Martin, a spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage. "One of the things they've dreamed of (was to) create something that will not only produce income, but help them build housing and offer health care." Richard Wiles, senior vice president with the Environmental Working Group, which opposes the dump, said that if the Goshutes accept nuclear waste for as long as four decades, they may find it difficult to relocate it. "What's the incentive for anyone to want to move it?" Wiles asked. "To all the cities in the East and West that have nuclear waste, Goshute sounds as good as Yucca. It could be stuck there for a long time." Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 36 Las Vegas RJ: New member of NRC backs physical test of casks Wednesday, February 16, 2005 By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Plans for physical testing of an oversized cask designed to carry nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain won support Tuesday from a new member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Peter B. Lyons said he backed the idea, which supporters say could build public confidence in the government's ability to safely manage shipments of highly radioactive spent fuel to the proposed Nevada waste repository. The physical tests on a full-sized container also could enable the NRC to benchmark computer codes in programs that evaluate new cask designs for licensing, proponents say. "It is important that we do have such a full-scale test and not rely entirely on scale model testing," Lyons said at his first NRC meeting since joining the five-member commission last month. "I think it's a very sound idea from a public policy standpoint," Lyons said. A second new NRC commissioner, Gregory B. Jaczko, said he could not discuss the matter. Jaczko has been required to recuse himself from Yucca Mountain issues for a year because he was formerly an adviser to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. NRC scientists are developing a proposal that would attempt to demonstrate the durability of a 150-ton nuclear waste container by ramming one with a speeding train and then engulfing it in fire for a half-hour. The cost of the testing and when it would be conducted have not yet been determined. Officials from the NRC and the Energy Department have discussed sharing costs. The state of Nevada has registered a complaint about the test. State officials charge it will not be tough enough, and will serve more as a public relations exercise than a rigorous measure of cask safety. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 37 BBC: Watchdog lodges Dounreay report Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 February, 2005 [Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant] Radioactive particles were released from Dounreay in the 1960s The operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant face prosecution for releasing radioactive particles into the open. The procurator fiscal is currently examining a report prepared by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) into the issue. The pollution watchdog began its study to chart the spread of the metallic fragments of reactor fuel in 2003. The fiscal confirmed he had received the SEPA document but had still to decide whether or not to act upon it. The potentially dangerous particles were inadvertently released from the nuclear reprocessing plant into the Pentland Firth in the 1960s. Divers have discovered hundreds of the so-called hotspots on the seabed near the Caithness facility and more than 50 have been found on the public beach at Sandside to the west of the site. A group of independent experts is currently reviewing what risks the particles pose to public health. ***************************************************************** 38 Las Vegas SUN: Titus rips Bush plan to take land sales funds Today: February 16, 2005 at 9:21:33 PST By Cy Ryan <> SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Improvements to Lake Mead and Red Rock Canyon would be threatened under a money recapture plan by President Bush that would siphon an annual $700 million out of Nevada. Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, accused the Bush administration Tuesday of a "money grab" with its plan to take 70 percent of the funds generated from the sale of federal lands in Clark County to help pay down the national debt. "If the Bush budget proposal is adopted, it will be devastating for Nevada," she told the Senate. After her remarks, the Senate, in an emergency action, unanimously approved Senate Joint Resolution 2, calling on the president to reverse his stance or for Congress to reject the plan. The resolution goes to the Assembly that may schedule a vote on it today. Under the federal law, 5 percent of the profit from the land sales goes into education in Nevada, 10 percent goes for water and airport projects and the remaining 85 percent is used to acquire environmentally sensitive land and to develop parks and trails. If the Bush proposal is successful, Titus said, projects such as the Clark County Shooting Range, the Spring Mountains Information Center and purchase of 770 acres at Lake Tahoe will be jeopardized. Nevada now receives 70 cents for every $1 it sends back to the federal government, ranking 46th in the nation for the return of tax dollars. In addition, Titus noted, the federal government owns 86 percent of the land and that remains off the property tax rolls. She said Nevada has done its share for the nation, but this Bush plan "is just too much." "The money from the sale of land in Nevada should stay in Nevada, preserving Nevada's natural treasures, building Nevada's infrastructure, educating Nevada's children," Titus said. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 Las Vegas SUN: Nuke official: Take Yucca benefits Today: February 16, 2005 at 9:21:36 PST By Cy Ryan SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- A nuclear power industry official told lawmakers Tuesday the state should start pursuing benefits still available from the federal government for accepting the proposed Yucca Mountain waste repository. Michael A. Bauser, associate general counsel for the Nuclear Energy Institute, told the Senate Judiciary Committee the state should get more involved in seeking benefits. Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said nobody is happy about Yucca Mountain, but he wondered if there is an "upside." He said he has been told that the proposed federal restitution to the state is long gone. But Bauser said federal benefits "are still on the table." He gave an update on the status of legal actions by the state challenging Yucca Mountain and said the project is progressing, although on a late schedule. Bob Loux, director of the state Nuclear Projects Office, said Bauser's view that Yucca Mountain is a "done deal," is wrong. He called Bauser's testimony " extremely optimistic," and the state still has the option of mounting a number of challenges to stop the project. Nolan also questioned Bauser about the "negative reactions" in other states in having the high-level nuclear waste trucked through their areas. Bauser said the federal law preempts the state regulation of transportation of hazardous materials. But the Department of Energy is working with this state, setting up safety and quick response programs, he said. By Bauser's count, there have been 25 suits challenging the project. "No decisions have been issued invalidating the basic tenets of the program," he said. "In fact, the vast majority of this litigation has actually resulted in judicial affirmance of the propriety of DOE's execution of the project and it remains on track for the submittal of a license application later this year for independent review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." Bauser said the Environmental Protection Agency is developing new regulations after the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that EPA's radiation regulations for Yucca Mountain were flawed. Loux said the new regulations also could be challenged by the state. The energy institute is composed of companies operating nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel suppliers and other firms in the same business line. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Platts: State regulators consider escrow accounts for nuclear waste fees + The National Assn of Regulatory Utility Commissioners is considering establishing escrow accounts to hold money that utilities with nuclear power plants now pay into the US government's Nuclear Waste Fund, a NARUC official said Monday. NARUC Nuclear Programs Director Brian O'Connell said states have grown weary of waiting for DOE to take spent nuclear fuel from storage facilities at nuclear power plants around the US. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, utilities are contractually obligated to send one-tenth of 1 cts/kWh of nuclear power generation to NWF to pay for the cost of developing a a high-level waste repository. The law also obligated the US Dept of Energy to begin taking the waste in 1998, a deadline the agency has still not met. The fund now has a balance of $14-bil and the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada will not open until at least 2012, according to DOE. This story was originally published in Platts Natural Gas Alert http://www.naturalgasalert.platts.com Washington (Platts)--15Feb2005 Copyright 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 41 Cape Cod Times: Air Force postpones plume cleanup (February 16, 2005) Times By AMANDA LEHMERT STAFF WRITER CAMP EDWARDS - The Air Force will hold off cleaning up a toxic plume of explosives flowing through the aquifer under Camp Edwards until the Army finishes mapping several nearby plumes. The Air Force plume, dubbed Chemical Spill 19, contains Royal Demolition Explosives, or RDX, in concentrations as high as 13 parts per billion, more than six times the safe drinking water standard. The plume and its source, discovered in 1990, was one of the first contamination sites to be identified in the 2,200-acre former artillery impact area on the Upper Cape base. The discovery of Chemical Spill 19, or CS-19, prompted the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997 to force the Army to investigate other contamination caused from decades of National Guard firing on the training lands, said Jim Murphy, spokesman for EPA Region One. The study was the first in the nation of the interior of a military artillery impact area. But as the investigation of the northern reaches of the base has progressed, plumes discovered near the base boundaries, which would be more likely to threaten local drinking water supplies with contamination, have taken priority over toxic plumes farther away from base borders, Army and EPA officials said. The Army plumes contain up to 29 parts per billion of RDX, and 5 ppb of perchlorate. RDX is used in artillery and mortar rounds, but also contains chemicals used in rat poison, and is listed as a possible carcinogen by the EPA. There is currently no federal or state safe drinking water standard for perchlorate, which can disrupt thyroid function and cause birth defects. The Air Force has been involved in cleanup of the military reservation since 1995 when it took over the project from the National Guard. The Upper Cape base became an EPA Superfund site in 1989. Treating groundwater The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence is treating billions of gallons of groundwater in the aquifer emanating from the southern portion of the 22,000-acre military reservation where the Otis Air National Guard Base is located. The dozen plumes contain aviation fuel, explosives, solvents and other chemicals that were dumped or disposed of from World War II until the 1970s. The Army's Groundwater Study Program began in the late 1990s to investigate the Camp Edwards artillery impact and explosive disposal areas and small-arms firing ranges, which the Guard and police departments still use for live-fire training. Although the Army is investigating the large plumes that emanate from the impact area, Chemical Spill 19 has remained under the Air Force jurisdiction, since it was part of the cleanup program that first identified the plume. Both Army and Air Force cleanup programs at the base have ongoing projects to remove the tainted soil and other materials, such as unexploded ordnance, that has contributed to the plumes. The Air Force has removed 9,740 pounds of scrap metal and 2,000 cubic yards of soil containing explosives that fed the Chemical Spill 19 plume. The soil was heated and stripped of RDX in a machine brought to the base by the Army. But for the time being, the Air Force has no plan to clean the Chemical Spill 19 groundwater plume. Mike Minior, of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, said computer models suggest that the plume, if left alone, will dissipate to below the 2 ppb lifetime health advisory level for RDX in drinking water before it reaches the base boundary in about 13 years. Monitoring to continue The Air Force plans to continue to sample monitoring wells and watch the plume while the Army fully maps the impact area plumes, Minor said. "There was no benefit to putting in an interim action system not knowing what the final action in the impact area will be," Minior said. Jim Murphy, spokesman for EPA Region One, agreed. He said it would be a waste of money to put in a treatment system to clean the groundwater in the smaller Chemical Spill 19 plume without considering the other plumes. He said the final responsibility will likely lie with the Army, though the Air Force may have to pay for part of the cleanup. "What we want to see is one plan and have the Army in charge," Murphy said. Bourne Water District Superintendent Ralph Marks, who had to close three of six water district wells in 2002 because of perchlorate contamination suspected of coming from the impact area, has watched closely as the Army found chemicals seeping off the base threatening water district and private drinking water wells. "I would be hopeful that the Army would do something with (Chemical Spill 19) before it reaches the base boundary." Army officials said they are only providing the Air Force with information, not coming up with a solution. But if there is a way for the two groups to cooperate, they will, said Kris Curley, spokeswoman for the groundwater program. Groundwater program officials are scheduled to complete their plans for groundwater cleanup in the impact area by the end of this year. The Air Force is accepting comments on the plan to monitor the Chemical Spill 19 plume until the end of the day today. Comments may be e-mailed to Doug Karson at doug.karson@brooks.af.mil, faxed to 508-968-4673, or delivered to HQ AFCEE/MMR, 322 E. Inner Road, Otis Air National Guard Base, MA 02542-5028. (Published: February 16, 2005) Copyright 2005 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 Salt Lake Tribune: Huntsman urges quick move of Moab tailings Article Last Updated: 02/16/2005 01:26:48 AM By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune The federal government should waste no time in moving nearly 12 million tons of uranium mining waste from the banks of the Colorado River near Moab to a repository built elsewhere in Grand County, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Tuesday. In a letter to Don Metzler, the Grand Junction, Colo.-based project director over the Moab mill tailings site, Huntsman said it is clear the tailings can't be left in the river's floodplain. "This work should be commenced immediately, and federal funding should be sought to complete the work as promptly as possible," he wrote. Multiple studies - conducted by the state, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Utah; an assessment by the National Academy of Sciences, and the devastation wreaked by recent flooding on the normally placid Virgin and Santa Clara rivers - prove the need to move the tailings off the much larger river, the governor said. "We cannot afford to assume the risks associated with having uranium tailings strewn along river banks and bars of the Colorado River below Moab," the governor wrote. "Good science and good sense tell us the tailings must be moved." The letter was submitted as part of the Energy Department's comment period on the draft environmental impact statement concerning what to do with 11.9 million tons of radioactive tailings left after Cold War-era uranium mining. Toxins from the tailings are leaching into the river and contaminating drinking and irrigation water that serves 20 million people downstream. Huntsman said he preferred the tailings be moved to an area known as Klondike Flats, 18 miles northwest of Moab, which has broad support from federal, state and local agencies and residents. Four public hearings have been held on the 1,000-page draft environmental impact statement released in November. The study outlined five possibilities, including capping the debris where it sits, moving it to one of three locations or doing nothing. In an unusual move, the DOE did not identify a preferred alternative. The public comment period on the report ends this week. A final environmental impact statement is expected in summer and the decision on what to do with the tailings by autumn. The cleanup, which will include groundwater remediation no matter which alternative wins out, is estimated to cost $10.75 million for design and construction plus an annual cost of $906,000. Capping the tailings in place would cost $166 million and take seven to 10 years to complete. Moving the tailings would cost between $329 million and $464 million. High revenue helps peace While funds for transportation have been a point of contention between GOP lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., new revenue numbers may make the point moot. With the state expecting about $122 million more than previously estimated, Huntsman may agree to pump $85 million into roads and still get some of his other priorities funded. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 43 lamonitor.com: Waste removal comes a cropper The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS, , Monitor Assistant Editor Delays related to the laboratory shutdown that began in July contributed one obstacle to removing legacy transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory, but other factors have intervened as well. A report by the Inspector General's Office in the Department of Energy found that the removal of high-risk transuranic waste is now facing a 10-month delay. Meanwhile, a plan to transfer all transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad has been set back four years, from 2010 to 2014. To be on schedule, LANL needed to have removed 6,500 55-gallon drums of legacy waste during the period 2003-04, according to the audit, but the inspectors found that only 1,360 drums had been removed during that time. Los Alamos had halted all transuranic waste characterization in October 2003, well before the shutdown of operations the following year. The halt came after a quality assurance review performed by the Carlsbad Field Office concluded that LANL had not properly calibrated its equipment to characterize the waste. Transuranic waste includes protective clothing, tools, equipment and other materials contaminated by man-made radioactive elements such as plutonium. Some of this is considered legacy waste, stored from historic nuclear operations. The waste is stored in 55-gallon drums. The review found that 98 drums of waste had been sent to WIPP without proper certification. Further, the Carlsbad review found half of the waste shipments made by Los Alamos since 1999 had issues related to work quality or procedural compliance. The full removal schedule was part of an expedited cleanup plan signed in 2002 by DOE, the State of New Mexico and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "The Department will not meet the accelerated waste disposal goals because Los Alamos had not consistently followed approved waste processing procedures," the audit disclosed. "We concluded that unless the Department accelerates processing rates, the total cost of completing the waste disposition project could increase by over $70 million," said the authors of the report. About $350 million has been spent since 1997 on transuranic waste disposal, with the final tab expected to rise by $370 million. Los Alamos had finished revising its procedures and retraining its waste shipment team in time to resume full characterization in July, just in time to have its operations suspended by the site-wide stand down at the lab. Part of the problem at LANL was that their program depended on DOE's plan to deploy two mobile waste characterization lines, which was supposed to speed up work on some 19,000 drums. But the report said DOE did not supply the equipment because of a concern that LANL would not make use of it in a timely way. The report calls on the assistant secretary for environmental management to get a new grip on the plan, make a new schedule and let the stakeholders know what their intentions are. The Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board has been planning a forum on Area G, which will look into transuranic waste building up at the lab's waste disposal sites. Tim DeLong said the forum is planned for the first week in May, with the exact date and place yet to be specified. The institutional players have agreed to participate, that is, DOE, LANL, New Mexico Environment Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. The forum is meant to be an opportunity for people in the surrounding communities and the pueblos to ask NMED some questions on what Area G is being used for and how it might affect their environment. 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 PR Newswire: LES Announces Contract With South Texas Project ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- South Texas Project (STP) will have an economic and local supply of enriched uranium from the National Enrichment Facility (NEF) that will support its operation through its current licensed life according to an announcement made by Louisiana Energy Services (LES) today. "This contract continues to demonstrate the need for a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility within the United States," said Jim Ferland, President of LES. "The NEF will decrease the United States' dependence on enriched uranium from overseas by providing a domestic commercial source of nuclear fuel for our electric generators." Under terms of the agreement, STP will procure enrichment services through at least 2026 to support operation until its current Nuclear Regulatory Commission license expires in 2028, while LES will enjoy a long-term commitment to supply fuel to one of the United States' newest nuclear plants. The nuclear power industry has long supported increased competition in the United States' uranium enrichment marketplace. The NEF will, for the first time, provide an alternative domestic source and competitive fuel supply -- a key component in national energy security. The NEF will provide 210 permanent jobs and more than 400 multi-year construction jobs in southeast New Mexico. It will use a proven technology that has operated safely in Europe for 30 years. When the license application is approved, the NEF will introduce the world's most advanced uranium enrichment technology into the United States and provide an alternative, domestic enrichment supply source to United States' nuclear energy companies. LES is a partnership of major nuclear energy companies. Partners include Urenco, Westinghouse and U.S. energy companies Duke Power, Entergy and Exelon. SOURCE LES alt="PR Newswire for Journalists" border="0"> ***************************************************************** 45 Rocky Mountain News: Union cites damage from heated plutonium By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News February 16, 2005 Union leaders at Rocky Flats say that some workers unknowingly breathed a recently discovered form of plutonium that can damage their lungs for 20 years before the body expels it. Called high-fired plutonium oxide, it was formed by extreme heat during bomb-making, or by one of the plant's many accidental fires. Larger blazes spread this contamination throughout the buildings that caught fire, a petition to the federal government released on Tuesday says. Because the heat forms a ceramic-like coating on the particles, the union says it is "self-shielding," and exposures were missed or undercounted during routine worker testing. In the petition, the union says that even workers who have been demolishing the former nuclear weapons plant since 1995 have been exposed to this form of plutonium in fire-contaminated buildings. The petition asks the government to recognize that calculating the contamination of Rocky Flats workers is impossible. It says workers with cancer should not have to prove their radiation exposure to qualify for federal aid. Hundreds of sick Rocky Flats workers have seen their claims for $150,000 in federal compensation denied because the radiation records are wrong, the union says. "We contend that exposures to high-fired oxides cannot and have never been accurately recorded," the petition says. "But the plutonium is still doing damage" inside the body, said Tony DeMaiori, president of the Steelworkers Union, which filed the petition. The union announced the petition on Monday, but did not release it until Tuesday. Today, Rocky Flats officials say, they can detect this form of plutonium in the environment and they have better air monitors to track it. They use that information to estimate how much a worker inhaled in an accident. But it's impossible to precisely measure small amounts of plutonium in the lung. The union petition says that even as recently as 2001, 11 workers unexpectedly were found to have urine samples showing radiation contamination. The investigation found they were likely exposed by airborne radioactivity "below the threshold of workplace indicators" that was released into the air inside the building during demolition. The document also argues that workers are being unfairly denied compensation because the government has done no studies on the combined effect of plutonium and other poisonous chemicals used at Rocky Flats. Such effects are likely to be serious, the petition says, because studies have shown that a smoker exposed to plutonium is 10 times more likely to come down with lung cancer than a smoker who was not. The petition also says a federal document used to calculate general exposures to workers at the plant is inaccurate because it counted no radiological incidents after 1976. In fact, there have been 200 in the past five years alone, the union says. SITE MAP PHOTO REPRINTS CORRECTIONS 2005 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 46 DenverPost.com: Union seeks Flats dispensation Article Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 By Kim McGuire Denver Post Staff Writer A local chapter of the United Steelworkers of America on Tuesday asked federal health officials to consider relaxing requirements for some sick Rocky Flats workers seeking medical compensation. United Steelworkers Local 8031 filed a petition with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health saying that inadequate record-keeping and inconsistent monitoring practices make it almost impossible for workers to prove they were exposed to radiation while on the job, as federal law requires. "We're saying that there is no way that NIOSH can reconstruct (radiation) doses for many of the people who worked at Rocky Flats," said Anthony W. DeMaiori, the union's local president. "Many of them have been denied compensation because of that." Terrie Barrie of Craig, who has led national efforts to get compensation for sick nuclear workers, said she wasn't sure how many Rocky Flats workers could be helped by the designation but guessed that move could help untangle the red tape preventing hundreds from getting aid. "I think this is a great thing, the union is getting behind this," said Barrie, whose husband became ill after working at Rocky Flats. "I'm really hopeful that their involvement in this fight will mean that workers get the benefits they deserve." Of the 2,108 claims from Rocky Flats workers that have been filed with the Department of Labor, compensation has been paid to only 219, according to department records. In 2000, Congress agreed to pay nuclear plant workers $150,000 if they could prove they contracted cancer or other illnesses on the job. Because of shoddy record-keeping, four sites were granted a special designation that exempts their workers from having to prove exposure. In an effort to speed the process, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., recently reintroduced legislation seeking the same designation for Rocky Flats workers. A spokesman for the congressman said the bill has been referred to two committees for further consideration. Local 8031 has about 650 active members and represents about 2,000 retirees in the Golden area. If the national institute deems its petition complete, it will be forwarded to Mike Leavitt, the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Congress will have final consideration of the request. Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com. All contents Copyright 2005 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 47 Albuquerque Tribune: Commentary: Bidding for change Watchdogs would move emphasis beyond nukes in running Los Alamos Lab By Tara Dorabji and Scott Kovac February 16, 2005 Last month, our nuclear watchdog organizations formed a partnership to bid on the management contract for the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Our groups - the Santa Fe-based Nuclear Watch of New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs, based in Livermore, Calif. - are the first to announce they will compete for the contract, although other bidders are expected. Los Alamos has been managed for more than 60 years by the University of California through a series of contracts that were not open to competition. This year marks the first time the contract will be awarded through a competitive bidding process. Nuclear Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs are among the organizations that advocated for a competitive process, and the two groups think their continuing participation can help ensure the decision-making remains open and transparent. The groups are preparing a serious bid. Their proposal would change LANL management to improve health and safety provisions for workers and communities, strengthen whistle-blower protections, prioritize cleanup and environmental compliance, expand civilian science, increase openness and provide real leadership by example as well as technical means in the field of global nonproliferation. In contrast, UC has a long and scandalous record of mismanagement at LANL. Its prime features include repeated security problems, nuclear safety violations, noncompliance with federal environmental laws, work-force discrimination, whistle-blower retaliation and employee fraud. Under present management, decades of airborne, waterborne and soil contamination have been the norm. Mesas and canyons have been polluted. Workers have been exposed to radioactive and toxic materials on the job. Safety has taken the back seat while weapons programs have driven the bus. UC uses its nonprofit status to shield itself from paying fines for nuclear safety violations at LANL in addition to not paying taxes to New Mexico. Although Nuclear Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs are likewise nonprofits, their management bid will lay out a system of financial accountability for nuclear safety, and the groups will propose to pay taxes to the state, nearly half of which will go to sorely needed public education. Moreover, the two groups are challenging all other bidders to follow suit. Under UC, nuclear weapons activities remain the overwhelming focus of Los Alamos, with 79 percent of its current DOE funding going for core nuclear weapons research, testing and production programs. There is no line item funding for renewable energy research and development. Nuclear Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs propose to dramatically increase civilian science initiatives at LANL, including but not limited to projects to better understand and reduce damage from climate change, develop sustainable alternative energy sources and protect the public and New Mexico's precious surface and ground waters from contamination. In addition, the watchdogs' bid will show how LANL can and should be managed in compliance with the letter and intent of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Article VI of the NPT calls for signatories, including the United States, to undertake negotiations in good faith on effective measures leading to nuclear disarmament. The groups' bid will move to limit LANL's nuclear weapons activities to an appropriate "curatorship" role, ensuring the safety and reliability of the existing arsenal as it awaits dismantlement. While curatorship is not in and of itself disarmament, as called for by the NPT, it is a step in the right direction and will demonstrate a commitment to halting the global proliferation of nuclear and other unconventional weapons. Further, the groups' bid will feature an annual audit to certify LANL's compliance with the NPT and, where needed, to propose program changes. In so doing, the groups' bid will provide a marked contrast to the current "Stockpile Stewardship" program, which runs counter to the NPT by aggressively seeking to redesign every nuclear weapon type in the U.S. arsenal. We believe making nuclear weapons "more usable" is the wrong direction for LANL and will lead to a more dangerous world. Our two organizations are busy forming their expert team to fill top management positions. Their comments on the DOE's draft request for proposals and other information on the bid are posted at www.nukewatch.organd www.trivalleycares.org. Kovac is operations director for Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a Santa Fe environmental advocacy group. ***************************************************************** 48 chillicothe gazette: USEC changes personnel to prepare for test www.chillicothegazette.com Wednesday, February 16, 2005 PIKETON -- United States Enrichment Corp. has made a few personnel changes as it prepares to install a scaled-down test model of its centrifuge enrichment at its Piketon plant. Dan Rogers, a 21-year veteran at the plant, was named director of Lead Cascade Construction and Operations, said Piketon-based USEC spokeswoman Angie Duduit. The lead cascade is designed to demonstrate the centrifuge system's effectiveness for investors. "It has no impact on the timeline, and really what Dan is going to have is the overall responsibility for the deployment and operation of the lead cascade," she said. Duduit herself has been reassigned to the lead cascade project, and a new public affairs officer will be assigned to the former gaseous diffusion site. "We will actually be employees of USEC Inc. now," she said. Kiwanis Club seeks Ohio nominations The Chillicothe Kiwanis Club is seeking nominations for its annual Statehood Day Achievement Award, which will be presented Saturday, March 5. Nominees should be someone who best represents the "spirit of Ohio" and has made a difference in the lives of Ross County residents. Forms can be obtained from Carolyn Ault, 1200 N. Malone Road, Chillicothe, or e-mail them to cdault@adelphia.net.Nominations should be made no later than Saturday. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, who recently threw his hat into the ring to become Ohio's next governor, will be the featured speaker at the Ohio Statehood Day Breakfast, which will be conducted at Trinity United Methodist Church. For more information, call 773-3461. Pumpkin growers plan seed seminar The Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin Growers will play host to an informational seminar and seed bazaar at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Christopher Conference Center. A $5 donation will help pay for refreshments and the provided lunch. Please RSVP for the seminar as soon as possible by contacting Tony Vanderpool at (740) 998-2355 or tonyvanderpool@adelphia.net. Piketon retirees invited to lunch Retirees of the Piketon uranium enrichment plant, both hourly and salary, are invited to meet for their monthly luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Ponderosa Steak House, located on U.S. 23 North in Rosemount. The cost of the luncheon is $6 per person. Spouses also are encouraged to attend. This group meets on the third Thursday of each month, excluding December. For more information, call United States Enrichment Corp. public affairs at (740) 897-2457. Taft signs bill for anti-abortion plates COLUMBUS -- Gov. Bob Taft Tuesday signed a bill authorizing the sale of license plates that contain the message "Choose Life," with part of the proceeds to go toward nonprofit groups that counsel pregnant women intending to place their children for adoption. Under the bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Jordan, an Urbana Republican, motorists who want the plates would have to pay an extra $30, with $20 going to such organizations. The groups could not be involved with any abortion activities, including referrals to clinics that perform abortions. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that said similar plates in South Carolina violated the First Amendment because abortion rights supporters weren't given a similar forum to express their beliefs. The American Civil Liberties Union said it would consider a court challenge should Taft sign the bill, which becomes law in 90 days. Originally published Wednesday, February 16, 2005 ***************************************************************** 49 Tri-City Herald: Report urges more vigilance at plant This story was published Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer More vigilance is required at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant to protect against radiation-emitting criticalities, according to a new report from an independent federal safety board. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board pointed out two 2004 analyses in which operators failed to understand how much plutonium was left in a glove box. The lead-and-glass box was used to shield workers from radiation emitted by nuclear materials they handled with gloves extending inside the box. Enough plutonium was present to result in a criticality accident, an unplanned and runaway nuclear reaction, under some abnormal conditions, according to the report. "The root causes of these errors appear to be a lack of trained personnel and inadequate criticality safety procedures," board Chairman John Conway wrote in a letter to the Department of Energy. Beginning in 1949, the Plutonium Finishing Plant turned plutonium produced by Hanford's nuclear reactors into metal buttons the size of hockey pucks for shipment to the nation's weapons production facilities. When work stopped at the Hanford plant in 1989, about 19.8 tons of material containing plutonium was left in various forms and stages of production. A year ago, Fluor Hanford workers finished stabilizing the plutonium, dramatically reducing the risk of an accident. But as work turns to cleaning up and tearing down the plant's buildings, small amounts of plutonium remain in 232 glove boxes, hoods and other areas. In late 2003, before decommissioning started, a DOE review found that the Fluor Hanford Senior Nuclear Criticality Safety Committee had been disbanded, according to the safety board. A corporate strategy was not evident for maintaining criticality safety during the transition from stabilizing plutonium to cleaning out and demolishing buildings, DOE found. That and another DOE review in 2003 concluded that operators needed more training to understand factors that affect measurements of plutonium. As the decommissioning started, one analysis of plutonium remaining in a glove box failed to account for lead in equipment that shielded plutonium. That resulted in calculations for fissile mass that were too low by a factor of three, according to the safety board. Several months later, an estimate of plutonium within equipment in the glove box was not provided for an inventory, causing the plutonium mass in the glove box to be under-recorded. Fluor said part of the problem was pressure to complete a large workload quickly, according to the safety board. Fluor did prepare a plan for corrections. DOE managers said many experienced workers are no longer at the plant. More experienced workers likely would have caught the errors, according to the safety board. The board believes that in addition to changes planned by Fluor, which include more formal procedures for developing plutonium inventories, additional training still may be needed. It also recommended historical records be compared with current measurements of plutonium as an accuracy check. A senior nuclear criticality safety committee is vital, the board said. A second report on response to fires at the plant also was released. It was prompted by a May 2003 fire in a glove box at DOE's Rocky Flats nuclear site. A hole was being cut in a glove box that was being decommissioned when a fire broke out with flames up to 15 feet tall. Rather than evacuate the area as required, workers emptied seven fire extinguishers before firefighters arrived. Fire response procedures and planning at the Plutonium Finishing Plant should be revised to include lessons learned from the Rocky Flats fire, the safety board said. Workers in certain protective clothing should be told to evacuate immediately and only use fire extinguishers in unusual circumstances, such as when someone's clothing is on fire. Looking at how information such as the potential for a criticality is communicated to the fire commander also would be useful, and knowing ahead of time whether enough plutonium exists to cause a criticality could allow firefighters to more quickly decide whether water can be used to fight a fire, according to the report. The safety board is recommending an independent study of fires involving radioactive materials. It should focus on whether planning, fire response procedures and training have been updated to reflect the change from production to deactivating and dismantling facilities. The safety board has asked DOE to submit responses to both reports in 60 days. 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 50 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky FR Doc 05-2966 [Federal Register: February 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 31)] [Notices] [Page 7927] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16fe05-33] Flats AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Rocky Flats. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Thursday, March 3, 2005, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ADDRESSES: Broomfield Community Center, Lakeshore Room, 280 Lamar Street, Broomfield, CO. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken Korkia, Executive Director, Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, Golden, CO, 80403; telephone (303) 966-7855; fax (303) 966- 7856. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities. Tentative Agenda: 1. Discussion and Approval of Comments on the Draft Rocky Flats Site Wide Integrated Public Involvement Plan. 2. Presentation Development of the Rocky Flats RCRA Facility Investigation-Remedial Investigation/Corrective Measures Study- Feasibility Study. 3. Update on the Independent Validation and Verification of Rocky Flats Cleanup. 4. Other Board business may be conducted as necessary. Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Ken Korkia at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be received at least five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provisions will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments. Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public review and copying at the office of the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, Golden, CO 80403; telephone (303) 966-7855. Hours of operations are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Minutes will also be made available by writing or calling Ken Korkia at the address or telephone number listed above. Board meeting minutes are posted on RFCAB's Web site within one month following each meeting at: http://www.rfcab.org/Minutes.HTML. Issued at Washington, DC on February 11, 2004. Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 05-2966 Filed 2-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 51 [du-list] DU & Tungsten in the news - 16th Feb. 05 Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:45:14 -0800 Tungsten-Alloy Shrapnel Causes Tumors, Cancer in Rats http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/509847/ Newswise Tue, 15 Feb 2005 9:22 PM PST Newswise â” The peer-reviewed journal Envvironmental Health Perspectives (EHP) today published online a paper reporting that weapons-grade tungsten alloys, newly incorporated into the battlefield munitions of several countries, rapidly cause tumors, then lung cancer, when embedded in rats to emulate shrapnel wounds. EPA places Vieques on track for cleanup Sun-Sentinel Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:27 AM PST SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has placed the island of Vieques -- once a warfare-training ground for the U.S. Navy -- on its National Priorities List of toxic sites slated for cleanup. Uranium cause for worldwide pollution http://www.marquettetribune.org/282624712835047.bsp Marquette Tribune Tue, 15 Feb 2005 6:22 AM PST In a speech on campus, the co-director of a peace and environmental action group accused the United States of polluting areas around the globe with more than 700,000 tons of radioactive uranium since 1991. ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.7 - Release Date: 2/10/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 52 BBC: Nuclear fusion 'put to the test' Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 February, 2005 [Impression of nuclear fusion] Nuclear fusion is nature's atomic power It is three years since Professor Rusi Taleyarkhan made the controversial claim that he had achieved one of the holy grails of science - nuclear fusion. Since then, he has grown tired of the scepticism of his fellow scientists. "My lab has been audited, my instruments have been audited, my books have been audited, the data speaks for itself. "The data has to speak for itself - I mean how can I answer that I know absolutely 100% sure that it is what I think it is? I just have to look at the data and the data have been looked at very carefully. "In the history of publication I probably will not be able to find one that has gone through this level of scrutiny - if you do, let me know," he said. Sonoluminescence Nuclear fusion is nature's atomic power - it is what powers the sun and, if it can be made to happen here on earth on a large enough scale, it promises to solve all of mankind's energy problems in one go. It would be clean, last for ever and create no long term nuclear waste. And Rusi Taleyarkhan claims to have achieved it using simple sound waves. His breakthrough is based on something called sonoluminescence. It is a process that transforms sound waves into flashes of light, focusing the sound energy into a tiny flickering hot spot inside a bubble. It has been nicknamed the star in a jar by researchers in the field. The star in a jar effortlessly reaches temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees, which is hotter than the surface of the Sun. It was able to do all this by simply focussing the energy of the sound wave into a tiny hot spot. The data speaks for itself src=] Professor Rusi Taleyarkhan In order to get fusion, temperatures inside the bubble had to be in the region of 10 million degrees. It seemed improbable that the tiny hot spots could be this hot. But if they were - or if a way could be found to make them so - then a new route to nuclear fusion would be opened up. In 1999, the US Government made some research funds available and across the USA a few laboratories started to explore ways to try to turn their star in a jar into fusion. And Rusi Taleyarkhan got there first. But there was one major criticism of Rusi Taleyarkhan's work. When fusion takes place, particles called neutrons are given off. These are considered by scientists to be the key signature of nuclear fusion - but measuring neutrons on a small, laboratory scale had proven notoriously difficult in the past because neutrons also occur naturally in the Earth's environment. Professor Taleyarkhan was also using them in part of his experiment. Many scientists were unconvinced that Rusi Taleyarkhan's neutron detection was as accurate as it needed to be to prove such a big claim. To try to get to the bottom of the issue, the experiment was re-run by Mike Saltmarsh and Dan Shapiro, colleagues of Taleyarkhan's at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. But, when they repeated the experiment, they couldn't find any evidence of fusion. "If there had been fusion going on at the sort of rate that Taleyarkhan's paper was claiming we should have seen an enormous increase in the neutron detection and we didn't," said Mike Saltmarsh. Scientific stalemate Most of the key figures in the field lined up on the side of Mike Saltmarsh but they could not dispute that Rusi Taleyarkhan had found what he said he had found. It seemed to be a scientific stalemate. Then two years later, in March 2004, Rusi Taleyarkhan came out with a new paper, showing even more fusion and more neutrons. This paper was thoroughly reviewed and published in another respected journal. But some sceptics still were not satisfied. Nuclear fusion from sound waves would be a huge scientific breakthrough. But to be convinced of it, many scientists wanted to see better evidence; evidence that was absolutely incontrovertible. They wanted to look very carefully at the timing of the neutrons to see just how closely they were related to the flashes of light. If they occurred at the exact same time, they would finally be convinced that fusion was taking place. The question was - just how exact did the measurements need to be? Unique experiment The sceptics wanted to time it with incredible accuracy - that of a nanosecond, or a billionth of a second. This was one measurement that, though possible to do, still had not been carried out by Rusi Taleyarkhan and his team. The BBC Horizon programme decided to try to sort out the issue once and for all. It commissioned an independent team led by Seth Putterman to conduct a unique experiment. Working from the instructions set out in Rusi Taleyarkhan's paper, it assembled the same key scientific conditions necessary to create nuclear fusion from sonoluminescence. But to see if it could find fusion, we measured the neutrons and the flashes of light simultaneously with nanosecond accuracy, something that had never been done before. Recording data nanosecond by nanosecond, Seth Putterman did not find a single neutron close enough to a flash of light for it to be considered the result of nuclear fusion. So the conclusion was negative. Horizon put this conclusion to Rusi Taleyarkhan who said that several differences in the equipment could have made affected the results. It is very possible that other laboratories around the world will reproduce Rusi Taleyarkhan's fusion results but until then, the claim will attract great scepticism from the wider scientific community. Horizon on Thursday at 9pm, on BBC Two ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************