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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Daily Star: Iraq's liberation comes with a ballooning price tag
2 [NYTr] Iran terms US attack threat absurd
3 FT.com: Letters - Why Iran's nuclear ambitions provoke global suspic
4 Guardian Unlimited: Bush and Schröder unite on Iran
5 Korea Herald: [ANN]Japan seeks to read Kim's mind on 6-way talks   
6 YWS: N. Korea Unlikely to Accept 'Libyan Model' in Defusing Nuclear 
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Pyongyang Did Not Shut the Door on Talks:
8 Japan Times: China can't use its leverage
9 Korea Times: KEDO and NK Hold Talks on Nuclear Reactors 
10 US: IRC News | Chomsky on Nuclear Terror at Home
11 Canada rejects partnership in U.S. missile defence scheme
12 US: Deseret news: Leavitt urged to release nuclear test data 
13 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Low regard for science
14 US: Vail Trail: Bush’s second-term shake-ups 
15 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Putin Agree on Nukes, Not Democracy
16 Xinhua: Nuclear arms race in South Asia not in interest of any party
17 IAEA: Expert Group Releases Findings on Multilateral Nuclear Approac
18 IAEA: IAEA Board Meetings Open 28 February in Vienna
19 Guardian Unlimited: Bush and Putin to agree nuclear safeguards
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
20 US: Op-Ed on PSE&G/Exelon Merger
21 US: NRC: Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion); Notice of 
22 US: NRC: Seeks Qualified Candidates for the Advisory Committee on Re
23 US: NRC: Final Security rules
24 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting
25 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Plans 3 Nuclear Reactors by 2010
26 US: Occupational Hazards: Davis-Besse: A Plan for Change or a Worst-
27 US: Times Argus: Vermont Yankee warned on dry cask waste storage
28 US: Guardian Unlimited: Quake Had More Impact on Wash. Nuke Plant
29 US: SF Chronicle: EUREKA: PG&E suspects 'missing' nuclear fuel rods 
30 CNW Group: AECL President and CEO addresses nuclear safety
31 CNN.com: Strong cash inflow boosts BAE - 
32 US: Times-Standard: Missing nuke rods found?
33 Dazhong Net: Shandong opting for nuclear power plants
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
34 US: [du-list] Outside Testing Urged For Ailing Veterans
35 [du-list] Iraqi boy who received leukemia treatment in Japan
36 US: [du-list] The Greatest Crime of Historic Time
37 US: [du-list] EPA places Vieques on track for cleanup
38 US: [du-list] Tungsten bullets cause cancer in wounds
39 US: [du-list] Study of Depleted Uranium Effects Called For
40 US: [du-list] The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying
41 [du-list] ANOTHER WAR CRIME? IRAQI CITIES "HOT" WITH DU
42 [du-list] 'It is the Same Here as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki'
43 US: Bradenton Herald: Rep. Katherine Harris applauds expanded beryll
44 US: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Energy Department expands beryllium dis
45 US: Safety.BLR.com: Chao Asked About OSHA Employee Beryllium Exposur
46 CP: Noranda blamed for endangering health of smelter workers; firm
47 Economist.com | Finding nukes
48 US: Wired News: Rocket Fuel Fed to Newborns
49 US: Tampa Bay 10: While beryllium workers get free testing, Tallevas
50 US: Newsday.com: Nuclear workers face long wait for benefits
51 US: Montreal Gazette: Crown studies Murdochville beryllium poisoning
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
52 [du-list] New Mexico Uranium Plant Could Mean Public Liability
53 US: [du-list] Army considers changing JPG plans
54 US: [du-list] Accidents involving depleted UF6 storage cylinders
55 US: [CMEP] Action Alert! Nuke Waste Dump Approval a Poor Decision
56 US: Alert! Sign on letter to Oppose PFS high-level waste dump.
57 US: [NukeNet] Skull Valley Nuke Dump Passes Critical Licensing
58 US: [du-list] Waste from new Enrichment facility will cost 3-4
59 US: Las Vegas SUN: Board backs proposed nuclear waste dump at Utah
60 US: Bradenton Herald: Nelson vows help for Tallevast
61 US: Bradenton Herald: Lockheed Martin wants wells covered in Talleva
62 US: Popular Mechanics: Putting Nuclear Waste To Work
63 Popular Mechanics: Yucca Mountain Will Be The Most Radioactive Place
64 US: Ithaca Journal: Cleanup resumes at nuclear site - 
65 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca meetings held secretly, Nevadans allege 
66 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Update: Skull Valley nuclear plan clears two
67 US: Wall Street Journal: EPA's Ruling On Perchlorate Draws Criticism
68 US: PRN: Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Site Recommended for Licensing 
69 US: Westford Eagle Editorial: A plume of questions
70 US: Westford Eagle:  EPA issues perchlorate standard
71 The Whitehaven News: GOVERNMENT ‘DITHERING’ OVER FUTURE POWER SAYS U
72 Whitehaven News: CALLS FOR WIND POWER 
73 Whitehaven News: FACELIFT FOR STATION 
74 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada wants in on meetings on Yucca Mountain radiati
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
75 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho 
76 DOE: Office of Science; Notice of Renewal of the High Energy Physics
77 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Hanford
78 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Nevada
79 DOE: Office of Nonproliferation Policy; Proposed Subsequent 
80 ABQjournal: Doubts Raised on Bids for LANL
81 Tri-City Herald: DOE cuts fee to Bechtel 
82 csmonitor.com: Nevada tips a hat to its atomic history | 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
83 [du-list] DU in the news - 25th  Feb. '05
84 Popular Mechanics: First Use Of Direct-Drive Nuclear Fusion
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
                         FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
 1 Daily Star: Iraq's liberation comes with a ballooning price tag
 
By Charles V. Pena 		 
		 Commentary by 

In February 2003 - a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq -
President George W. Bush declared that "[r]ebuilding Iraq will
require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our
own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day
more. America has made and kept this kind of commitment before -
in the peace that followed a world war." 

However, Bush never addressed the question of cost. From the
start, the administration has been, and continues to be, evasive
about the costs of war in Iraq. But these costs cannot be
ignored and must be weighed by the American public, particularly
taxpayers, to determine whether they are willing to pay the
price and make the necessary sacrifices to create a stable and
peaceful democracy in Iraq - if that goal can be achieved at
all. 

When former White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey
suggested before the war that the conflict might cost $100
billion-$200 billion, he was rebuked and chose to resign three
months later. Citing estimates from the Office of Management and
Budget, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once thought the Iraq
mission might cost $50 billion or less. Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz opined that Iraqi oil revenues of $50
billion-$100 billion (instead of U.S. taxpayer dollars) would
pay for the occupation and reconstruction. Wolfowitz also
characterized Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki's
estimate that it would take hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops
to occupy and subdue Iraq as "wildly off the mark." But it's
been the administration that has been wildly off the mark when
it comes to Iraq. 

The White House will ask Congress for an $80 billion
supplemental to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
this year. That's on top of the $25 billion for Iraq and
Afghanistan that was part of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2005
budget signed by the president last August. Added to previous
supplemental requests - $75 billion in 2003 and $88 billion in
2004 - the cost of the Iraq war now exceeds Lindsey's prediction
of $200 billion. Despite Wolfowitz's belief that U.S. forces
could be reduced by 15,000 troops within a month, Bush refuses
to posit an exit strategy at all: "They ask me, 'Is there a
timetable for withdrawal from Iraq?' Here's the answer to that:
You don't set timetables."  

With the U.S. Army announcing it plans to keep 120,000 troops in
Iraq for at least two more years, Lindsey's estimate will likely
turn out overly optimistic. 

The dollar cost of the Iraq war and subsequent occupation and
reconstruction cannot be viewed in isolation. The fiscal year
2005 Defense Department budget that Bush signed last August was
$417.5 billion, and the $80 billion supplemental brings military
spending to nearly $500 billion. In real terms, that means that
U.S. military spending is near an all-time high - exceeded only
by spending in 1945-46 at the end of World War II and in 1952 at
the height of the Korean War. It is more than peak spending
during the war in Vietnam and the Reagan military buildup during
one of the most intense periods of the Cold War. 

The costs of the Iraq mission, though, are more than just
dollars and cents. The prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq
has put a tremendous strain on the U.S. Army. Even if troop
levels can be drawn down to 120,000 soldiers as is being
currently planned (with another 30,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait to
support the Iraqi military operation), the army will continue to
be pushed to its limits. In order to maintain unit cohesiveness
and meet rotation requirements, the Iraq mission has forced the
military to resort to stop-loss orders to prevent soldiers from
leaving service when their terms of enlistment expire. And to
fill the need for critical skills, nearly 50 percent of the
soldiers in Iraq are National Guardsmen and reservists, which
threatens the viability of those force components. Indeed, in
the past three years more National Guardsmen and reservists have
been called to active duty than were cumulatively mobilized
since the Cuban missile crisis - and that includes the Vietnam
War, the Cuban refugee crisis, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and the
1991 Gulf War. 

The Iraq mission has caused Wolfowitz to announce that what was
supposed to be a temporary increase of 30,000 soldiers will now
be a permanent increase in army troop strength in 2007. A recent
letter from the Project for a New American Century to
congressional leaders - signed by strange bedfellows including
neoconservatives and liberal internationalists - called for
increasing the size of the active duty army and Marine Corps by
"at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years."  

These military manpower pressures raise the specter of another
potential cost: the return of the military draft. During the
2004 presidential campaign, Bush insisted, "We will not have a
draft so long as I am president of the United States." The
president is a man who means what he says and says what he
means, so we should take him at his word. But avoiding a draft
does not preclude the possibility of mandatory national service
with a voluntary military component, as is done in some European
countries. 

Yet another hidden cost of the Iraq mission is the fact that
many members of U.S. Special Forces units are resigning and
taking more lucrative private security jobs in Iraq and
Afghanistan. This has forced the U.S. military to offer bonuses
of up to $150,000 to retain these highly trained soldiers. The
true price tag, however, is that the depletion of Special Forces
means reducing the ranks of the military units that are the most
critical in fighting the war on terrorism against Al-Qaeda. 
Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has
surmised that "we will never achieve democracy and stability [in
Iraq] without being willing to commit 500,000 troops, spend $200
billion a year, probably have a draft, and have some form of war
compensation." Brzezinski conceded that Americans "are not
prepared to do that." Clearly, the U.S. cannot afford to sustain
the Iraq mission at the current level of commitment for an
indefinite period. The Pentagon's budget is not a bottomless
pit: With the cost of the Iraq war driving the budget deficit to
a record $427 billion, even the Defense Department has been
asked to trim its sails a bit. 

What the Bush administration is banking on is the Iraqis
themselves. According to the president, a U.S. troop withdrawal
from Iraq is "going to be based on the willingness and the
capacity of the Iraqi troops to fight the enemy." The Pentagon
says there are now over 135,000 trained and equipped Iraqi
security forces and, to their credit, those forces acquitted
themselves well on election day in Iraq. But with 150,000 U.S.
troops still unable to put down a persistent insurgency, what
are the realistic prospects that the Iraqis will do better in
the foreseeable future? And how much will it cost to find out?

Charles V. Pena is the director of defense policy studies at the
Cato Institute (<EM>www.cato.org</EM> [http://www.cato.org] )
and an analyst for MSNBC television (<EM>www.msnbc.com</EM>
[http://www.msnbc.com] ). He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY
STAR 

  Copyright © 2004, The Daily Star. All rights reserved. Click
        editor [onlineeditor@dailystar.com.lb]
*****************************************************************
 2 [NYTr] Iran terms US attack threat absurd
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:05:21 -0600 (CST)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
al Jazeera - Feb 24, 2005
http://www.newsisfree.com/iclick/i,73575870,6618,f/

The threat of a US military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is 
absurd because Washington is far too stretched in the region to even 
consider taking on a new enemy, a senior Iranian diplomat has said.

"Any notion of threat of attack, or attack, by the Americans is 
purely absurd," said Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's 
delegation to the UN nuclear watchdog.

"The US is simply too vulnerable with its overstretched presence in 
the region to engage in such silly threats or attacks," he said on 
Wednesday, referring to Washington's military presence in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.

Asked if he thought the United States might be bluffing by refusing 
to rule out the military option, Naseri said Washington should be 
open about any possible plans to destroy Iran's atomic sites with 
military force.

"If there is any truth in this (that attacking Iran is a real 
option) I think what the Iranians would say is put it on the table," 
Naseri said in an interview.

Warning

Earlier, US President George Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard 
Schroeder put aside their dispute over Iraq and united in warning 
Iran against developing a nuclear weapon.
Bush, who is on the second leg of a visit aimed at repairing 
transatlantic ties hurt by the Iraqi war, said in the German city of 
Maines: "It's vital that the Iranians hear the world speak with one 
voice that they shouldn't have a nuclear weapon.

"We absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of nuclear 
weapons, full stop," Schroeder said through an interpreter at a 
joint press conference following closed-door meetings with his guest.

At the same time, Bush also sought to soothe European worries that 
he plans to use military force against Iran, saying that "all 
options are on the table", but stressing that "diplomacy is just 
beginning" and that "Iran is not Iraq".

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said on Wednesday 
that Tehran was determined to press ahead with uranium enrichment.

"We are determined to continue enrichment and others cannot stop 
us," he said.

Energy needs

Iran has vehemently denied it is pursuing a nuclear weapons 
programme and has said its uranium enrichment programme is to meet 
growing energy needs.
Kharazi also said: "They cannot do anything with bullying, threats 
and pressure."

Ismail Baha al-Din, a journalist speaking to Aljazeera from New 
York, said: "The Americans seem to have given the Europeans some 
breathing space regarding Iran.

"The US seems to be giving them time to deal with Iran without 
increasing political or military pressure at this stage."

While Bush backs British, French and German diplomatic overtures to 
Iran, he is increasingly impatient with Tehran's response, and he 
has repeatedly refused to rule out the use of force.

With the US and Europe eager to move beyond Iraq, Schroeder said in 
a German newspaper: "There are occasional differences over issues 
which are completely normal in a close partnership.

Allies and partners

"We are allies and partners in the fight against terrorism, against 
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, against poverty 
and epidemics such as Aids," Schroeder wrote in his article for the 
Bild newspaper.

Baha al-Din also said the US sought a significant European presence 
in Iraq to ease its burden. It sought a contribution of troops from 
Nato and the EU to be deployed in Iraq for training security forces.
Bush, however, noted that Germany had signed on to help Iraq through 
debt relief and other measures and took pains to downplay Berlin's 
refusal to send troops or train Iraqi security forces inside Iraq.

"I fully understand the limitations" Germany faces, he said, adding 
that Berlin's contributions were "not limited, they're important".

New York-based journalist Baha al-Din told Aljazeera that during 
Bush's second-term, "the US is more aware of Europe's political 
clout especially in being its only possible rival".

"Bush also sees a united Europe as a good ally due to its economic 
and regional influence," he added.

Demonstrations

Bush and Schroeder, who were barely on speaking terms after the 
chancellor opposed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, met on Wednesday 
together with US and German troops that have served in Afghanistan.

Germany provides the bulk of troops within the Nato-run, 8300-strong 
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was deployed 
to provide security after the US invaded Afghanistan.

But Bush's visit was not all pleasant.

Aljazeera's correspondent in Germany, Aktham Sulaiman, said 
demonstrators on Tuesday had taken to the streets in Mainz.

Banners stating "Not Welcome, Mr Bush" await the US president.

He added that protesters in Berlin and Frankfurt were prevented from 
demonstrating by strict security measures.

Bush was to address US soldiers at an army base in Mainz.

Aljazeera + Agencies
       
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 3 FT.com: Letters - Why Iran's nuclear ambitions provoke global suspicion
 
By John Goodall 

Published: February 24 2005 02:00 | Last updated: February 24
2005 02:00

From Mr John Goodall.

Sir, Mohammed Hossein Adeli, UK ambassador to Iran, has done
well to explain the reasons for his country's desire to develop
a civilian nuclear power programme ("Iran has the right to
develop nuclear power", February 18).

Unfortunately, however, his explanation leaves several critical
questions unanswered.

He suggests that the inexorable rise of domestic oil
consumption, if unchecked, will eventually leave no spare
capacity for oil exports. That may well be true, even if the
real reasons are due to a lack of adequate investment in Iran's
oil industry. But why should a country blessed with the largest
reserves of natural gas in the entire world (apart from Russia)
burn oil or develop a prohibitively expensive nuclear power
programme as a substitute for economical gas combustion in order
to generate electricity?

Furthermore, what is the sense of going nuclear to meet the
Kyoto targets, when on environmental and cost grounds most
developed countries are looking to import natural gas in
preference to further investments in nuclear power plants?

As long as the apparently obvious answers to these questions are
not addressed, the Iranians should not be surprised if the rest
of the world is genuinely suspicious of their real intentions.

John Goodall, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium  
  
Â© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005. "FT"
and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.
*****************************************************************
 4 Guardian Unlimited: Bush and Schröder unite on Iran
 
German chancellor says rift over Iraq is in the past as 'two old 
guys' go out of their way to make peace             
 		
Luke Harding in Mainz
Thursday February 24, 2005
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]  		
 		
The US president, George Bush, and Germany's chancellor Gerhard 
Schröder yesterday put an end to an era of bitterness over Iraq 
when they pledged to work together on a range of international 
issues including climate change and Iran. 

During his first visit to Germany since the Iraq war, President 
Bush yesterday held talks with Mr Schröder in the picturesque 
Roman garrison town of Mainz on the banks of the Rhine. 

Speaking after the meeting Mr Bush praised Germany's "vital" 
contribution to training Iraqi policeman. He said he "fully 
understood" Mr Schröder's "limitations" - his refusal to send 
troops to Iraq. 

Mr Schröder said Germany and the US had finally buried their 
differences. "Nobody wants to conceal that we had different 
opinions ... but that is the past," he said. 

Speaking in Mainz's baroque electoral palace, as snow fell 
outside, President Bush appeared to rule out the possibility of 
an immediate pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. He 
stressed instead that "diplomacy was just beginning" with steps 
being taken by Britain, France and Germany. 

"Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts and I 
want to thank our friends for taking the lead. We will work with 
them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their 
nuclear ambitions," he said. 

The Americans and Europeans were now discussing "tactics" over 
Tehran, he added, with "all options on the table". He went on: 
"The reason we are having these discussions is because they [the 
Iranians] were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a 
treaty saying they wouldn't enrich uranium." 

Mr Schröder said Germany and the US were "fully congruous" on 
Iran. "We absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of 
nuclear weapon, full stop," he said. 

Mr Schröder's personal relationship with Mr Bush never really 
recovered after the chancellor criticised in late 2002 the US's 
decision to invade Iraq. Yesterday, however, both men went out of 
their way to sound conciliatory. A relaxed Mr Bush repeatedly 
referred to "my friend, Gerhard", later describing them both as 
"two old guys". 

The chancellor, meanwhile, pledged that the US and Germany would 
now work together closely on climate change, despite the fact the 
Bush administration had failed to sign up to the Kyoto treaty. 
They would "deepen cooperation" on energy-saving technologies, he 
said. 

Mr Bush also warned Syria to remove its troops and "secret 
services" from Lebanon. There was no mention yesterday of 
trickier themes such as the EU's proposal to lift the arms 
embargo to China, which Washington strongly rejects. 

President Bush and Mr Schröder also glossed over the chancellor's 
recent remarks that Nato needed reform. "We are not going to 
emphasise where we don't agree," Mr Schröder declared bluntly. 

Mr Bush's eight-hour visit to Germany prompted 5,000 
demonstrators to converge in swirling snow close to the palace, 
which had been sealed off by police. 

Protesters from an alliance called "Not welcome Mr Bush" had 
built a model tank from wood and mounted it on a truck, and a 
float showing an Iraqi prisoner being beaten up in Abu Ghraib 
prison. Others hung banners from windows declaring: "Go home Mr 
Bush" and "Peace". 

"I cannot understand how someone can say they are acting in God's 
will and then wage war. It's perverse," said Margret 
Koehler-Gutch, a protester. 

Mr Bush remains deeply unpopular in Germany, not just among young 
people or those on the left, but across all social classes. After 
a lunch with Mr Schröder and prominent Germans, including the 
country's most famous talkshow host, President Bush yesterday 
visited a museum dedicated to Mainz's best-known son, the 
inventor of printing Johannes Gutenberg, and inspected one of 
Gutenberg's original 15th-century bibles. 

He then visited several thousand American troops in nearby 
Wiesbaden before flying to Bratislava last night for talks with 
Russia's president Vladimir Putin. 

Although there were no substantive new announcements, observers 
said there was little doubt that German-American relations had 
entered a new, if tentative, era. 

"Bush and Schröder are both politicians who place great emphasis 
on personal relationships. They are now setting about trying to 
create one," said Gary Smith, the director of the Berlin-based 
American Academy. 

The two leaders are likely to meet at least three times over the 
next few months, with sources suggesting that a second visit to 
Germany by President Bush is also on the cards. 

"Most locals are totally pissed off with his visit. If it were 
anyone else it would have been OK," said Marcelo Crescenti from 
Mainz. 

But he admitted: "Germans haven't really liked any American 
president since JFK." 
	
 	
        Special report Germany 
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany] 

Useful links German government 
[http://eng.bundesregierung.de/frameset/index.jsp] German embassy 
in London [http://www.german-embassy.org.uk/] German embassy in 
Washington DC [http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/index.html] 
Frankfurter Allgemeine (English version) [http://www.faz.com/] 
Deutsche Welle (in English) [http://kleist.dwelle.de/english/] 
Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German) [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/] 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 5 Korea Herald: [ANN]Japan seeks to read Kim's mind on 6-way talks   
 
2005.02.25
 
[http://www.voiceware.co.kr]                       

In the wake of reports Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong
Il has been hinting at returning to the stalled six-nation
talks, the government is keen to gauge Kim's real intentions,
sources said Wednesday. 

In a meeting in Pyongyang with a visiting senior Chinese
official, Kim reportedly said North Korea might rejoin the
negotiations on its nuclear weapons program "if certain
conditions are met," without elaborating further. 

Japan's basic position remains unchanged, according to the
sources, and is based on continuing to work with the United
States, South Korea and other concerned parties to persuade
North Korea to return to the table unconditionally. 

The government is especially interested in whether Kim's remarks
can be interpreted as indicating a change of mind from the Feb.
10 Pyongyang declaration to "boycott the six-way nuclear
negotiations indefinitely." 

His latest remarks concerning the stalled talks among China,
Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States have
encouraged those in the government and ruling coalition parties
who favor imposing pressure on Pyongyang in preference to
dialogue. 

A senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party said, "The
latest development means that emphasizing Japan's position of
sharing the international community's decision to call
Pyongyang's bluff is an effective way to deal with North Korea." 

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday evening, "There
can be no doubt that participating in the talks would be best
for North Korea." 

Koizumi also said he thought it was natural for Kim to make such
a judgment, adding, "The best condition (for rejoining the
six-way negotiations) would be no conditions." 

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo "would welcome
Pyongyang if it wants to return to the talks...We want to see
the North Korean government come up with specific moves to
return to the table as early as possible." 

Kim's indication of Pyongyang's conditional return to the table
came little more than 10 days after the statement "indefinitely
boycotting" the six-way talks. 

Explaining Kim's apparent change of heart, one government source
said, "The Feb. 10 statement has served only to strengthen the
relations among Japan, South Korea and the United States." 

The source went on to say, "Given the situation, North Korea is
beginning to worry that the nuclear problem could be referred to
the U.S. Security Council, eventually leading to economic
sanctions by the international community." 

But as a senior Foreign Ministry official put it, "Considering
Kim's latest statement that North Korea's decision on the talks
would depend on 'the trustworthiness and sincerity of the United
States,' it's wrong to think any fundamental change has
occurred" in the standoff over the North's nuclear program. 

A meeting in Seoul among the chief delegates to the talks from
Japan, South Korea and the United States will take place this
weekend to discuss the latest developments. The three countries
are expected to reconfirm their close cooperation in calling for
North Korea to take part in the six-way talks without
conditions. 

The LDP and Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) have been busy
drafting bills to be presented to the current Diet session for a
law aimed at improving the human rights situation in North
Korea. 

The bills being prepared by the LDP and Minshuto are designed to
increase pressure on North Korea over such issues as the
abduction of Japanese by Pyongyang and assistance to North
Koreans fleeing the country, sources said. 

The LDP and Minshuto also are considering cosponsoring a bill
with New Komeito, the LDP's ruling coalition partner, with
sources from the parties saying a unified three-party bill would
make pressure on the North more effective. 

There even is a possibility that the members of the multiparty
group from both houses of the Diet for solving the abduction
problem could cosponsor such a bill, the sources said. 


2005.02.25
 
   [http://www.heraldcampus.co.kr/Premium/]           
*****************************************************************
 6 YWS: N. Korea Unlikely to Accept 'Libyan Model' in Defusing Nuclear Row

YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS
 
[http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/] ..   

2005/02/24 16:51 KST   

 By Kim Kwang-tae

 SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is unlikely to accept
U.S. calls to follow Libya's example in abandoning its nuclear
weapons program, South Korea's point man on North Korea said
Thursday.

 In a parliamentary report, Unification Minister Chung
Dong-young cited North Korea's negative views on the Libyan
model and reluctance to disarm amid what it calls an
increasingly "hostile" U.S. policy toward its regime.

            

	   
*****************************************************************
 7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Pyongyang Did Not Shut the Door on Talks: Beijing
 
   Updated Feb.24,2005 19:57 KST   
 
Thursday that North Korea is not opposed to six-party talks on
its nuclear weapons program and did not kick the door shut on
regional arms talks. 

The spokesman made the remarks in a regular briefing when
fielding questions about the prospect for the resumption of the
multilateral talks after Chinese Communist Party international
liaison department head Wang Jiarui's meeting with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il. 

He said denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula should be
achieved by peaceful and diplomatic means even though
negotiating countries - the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Russia
besides China - had to overcome many obstacles right from the
start. 

(Cho Jung-sik, jscho@chosun.com ) 




*****************************************************************
 8 Japan Times: China can't use its leverage

Thursday, February 24, 2005   


 By JOHN PARK
 Special to The Japan Times

 CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- In the North Korean nuclear crisis, 
there is a major difference between having leverage and the 
ability to use it. China has the former, but not the latter. 
North Korea has both.

 On paper, China has the political, military and economic 
leverage to effect significant change in the North Korean 
regime's behavior and the regime itself. The international 
community saw glimpses of this leverage when Beijing temporarily 
shut off an oil pipeline to North Korea in early 2003. At 
present, however, China is significantly constrained by three 
factors that North Korea is aware of and uses to its advantage:

 China's concern about a North Korean refugee crisis. North Korea 
is keenly aware of China's extreme sensitivity to the refugee 
issue. For Beijing, the prospect of growing numbers of North 
Koreans roaming around China's northeastern provinces is a major 
concern. As these refugees settle in China, the message to those 
remaining in impoverished North Korea would be one of exodus. 
Should that message spread throughout the country, a collapse of 
the Kim Jong Il regime could occur resulting in a massive influx 
of refugees into China.

 Beijing's desire to avoid the prospect of a full-blown refugee 
crisis was a major impetus for providing significant aid to North 
Korea when it almost became a failed state following the Great 
Famine in the late 1990s. Current estimates indicate that China 
has been supplying more than 70 percent of North Korea's fuel and 
over 40 percent of its food needs.

 China's focus on achieving its internal economic development 
goals. As tensions were escalating between Washington and 
Pyongyang following the October 2002 revelation of North Korea's 
uranium-weapons program, the Chinese leadership asked its policy 
analysts how China would be impacted by a sudden collapse of the 
North Korean regime.

 Among the policy papers that came back to the leadership, the 
ones focusing on the impact on China's internal economic 
development received closest attention. Currently, South Korea is 
China's largest foreign direct investor in many key industries. 
Should there be a sudden North Korean state collapse, the South 
would be forced to redirect significant portions of its 
investments to the reconstruction of the North.

 With the internal Chinese objective of reaching $3,000 per 
capita GDP by 2020, any disruption to the foreign direct 
investment inflow critical to job and wealth creation in China 
would make the attainment of this goal much more difficult. North 
Korea is keenly aware that this internal Chinese economic 
development goal is another critical reason for Beijing to 
preserve North Korean regime stability by providing 
subsistence-level aid.

 The most important factor is China's desire to uphold its newly 
earned reputation as an international statesman with the 
six-party talks process. Originally an effort to bring stability 
to the Korean Peninsula following the uranium-weapons program 
dispute in 2002, it is a multilateral creation that China is now 
trying to resuscitate and manage. While China's international 
prestige has grown because of the six-party talks, so too has its 
exposure to North Korea's distinct negotiating style. As North 
Korea is the centerpiece of the talks, Pyongyang knows that its 
participation is an invaluable instrument with which it can 
extract further economic and political concessions from China.

 For Pyongyang, each of these core Chinese concerns has been a 
North Korean opportunity to secure more aid. In this sense, North 
Korea possesses substantial leverage and the ability to use it. 
North Korea's two-part statement on Feb. 10 that it has nuclear 
weapons and will not attend the six-party talks for an indefinite 
period was effectively its version of applying leverage over 
China.

 Given what is at stake, the Chinese leadership can now neither 
ignore nor pressure North Korea. Instead it can only bargain down 
and eventually agree to North Korea's terms for returning to the 
six-sided negotiating table in Beijing.

 Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International 
Department, will be briefing the Chinese leadership shortly on 
North Korea's shopping list following his recent visit to 
Pyongyang. That list signifies how China is stuck squarely in the 
middle of the U.S.-North Korean nuclear feud.

 American pressure for a stern Chinese approach to dealing with 
Pyongyang will be met with the application of North Korean 
leverage on an increasingly beleaguered Chinese leadership intent 
on keeping the six-party talks process alive. Cognizant that it 
will be treated as an outpost by Washington for the next four 
years, North Korea will be using more of its leverage over the 
Chinese to weather the neocon storm.

 If China is to stay above the deepening diplomatic quagmire, it 
will have to abandon its ad hoc approach to dealing with the 
nuclear crisis. This approach currently involves six countries 
with vastly differing priorities and policies -- a combination of 
divergent interests that will continue to impede the development 
of a clear path to resolution.

 What is urgently needed now is a Chinese-sponsored multilateral 
road map for negotiating North Korea's nuclear disarmament. 
Within this framework, each party's core priorities can be 
contextualized and discussed with references to actions and 
timetables. A multiparty blueprint needs to eventually emerge 
from the broader road map in order to build nascent trust and 
confidence where currently none exist.

 China possesses the diplomatic tools with which to initiate this 
process. The question remains whether Beijing will squander its 
dwindling diplomatic capital on further ad hoc efforts to bring 
North Korea back to an agenda-deficient table or start a new 
phase of road map-focused meetings. Without such a road map, the 
six-party Talks will continue to be a shiny car without an 
engine. In the end, the talks will go nowhere and North Korea's 
leverage over China will grow.

 John Park is a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and 
International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy 
School of Government. 

The Japan Times: Feb. 24, 2005 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 9 Korea Times: KEDO and NK Hold Talks on Nuclear Reactors 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times 

Representatives of North Korea and a U.S.-led international
consortium met earlier this week to discuss follow-up measures
after the consortium suspended the building of two nuclear
reactors in the communist country for another year, South Korean
officials said Thursday. 

Last November, the consortium halted construction on the project
for another year pending the resolution of tension over the
North's nuclear weapons program. 

During the talks in North Korea on Feb. 19-22, representatives
of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO)
explained the suspension of the project and asked the North's
permission to take construction equipment and technical
documents out of the country.

 But the North said it will continue to oppose it until the
compensation issue for the delayed project is resolved, said Ku
Hyun-mo, a South Korean official who traveled to Hyangsan, North
Pyongan Province, for the talks.

 Completion of the two reactors were due for 2003, but work was
delayed because of the nuclear tension and other problems. As of
November, it is 34 percent complete. 

02-24-2005 19:01         

*****************************************************************
 10 IRC News | Chomsky on Nuclear Terror at Home
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:07:31 -0600 (CST)

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whats New at the IRC
Forging local-global links for policy alternatives, strategic dialogue, and
citizen action since 1979.
www.irc-online.org         

February 24, 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introducing a new paper from International Relations Center (IRC)

Nuclear Terror at Home 
By Noam Chomsky

If you can imagine some rational observers from Mars looking at this curious
species down here, I dont think theyd put very high odds on
survival--another
generation or two. In fact, its kind of miraculous that weve come along this
far.

The world has come extremely close to total destruction just in recent years
from nuclear war. New Mexicoplays an important role in this. Theres case
after
case where a nuclear war was prevented almost by a miracle. And the threat
is increasing as a consequence of policies that the administration is very
consciously pursuing. 

Noam Chomsky is the author of Hegemony or Survival. (Purchase online at:
http://www.irc-online.org/content/books/chomsky.hegemony.php).
He has been an IRC board member for 15 years and a steadfast supporter of IRC
s mission and programs.

See complete new IRC paper online at:
http://www.irc-online.org/content/chomsky/0502nuclear.php

With printer-friendly PDF version at:
http://www.irc-online.org/content/pdf/0502nuclear.pdf

Read what Chomsky wrote about IRC in support of our 25th anniversary and why
you should generously support IRC, as he does.
http://www.irc-online.org/content/25th/chomsky.04.php

Also see what he had to say about Iraq Elections at our 25th Anniversary
Celebration:
http://www.irc-online.org/content/chomsky/2005chomsky-iraq.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In conjunction with the IRCs 25th anniversary, we have a new name:
International
Relations Center (formerly InterhemisphericResourceCenter). We remain
committed
to our mission of Working to make the United States a more responsible member
of the global community by promoting strategic dialogues that lead to new
citizen-based
agendas.

The IRC has been promoting people-centered policy alternatives since 1979.
Please consider becoming an IRC member or donor. You can join the IRC and make
a secure donation by visiting https://secure.iexposure.com/irc/donate.cfm.
Thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Produced and distributed by the International Relations Center (IRC)
www.irc-online.org

To subscribe to the IRC News, please go to::  irc-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

To unsubscribe: irc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

International Relations Center(IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications@irc-online.org
P.O. Box 2178
Silver City, NM88062
 

Siri D. Khalsa
Communications Coordinator
International Relations Center (IRC)
siri@irc-online.org

IRC Projects Online:
IRC (www.irc-online.org)
FPIF (www.fpif.org)
Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org)
Self-Determination In Focus (www.selfdetermine.org)
Project Against the Present Danger (www.presentdanger.org)
*****************************************************************
 11 Canada rejects partnership in U.S. missile defence scheme
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 07:25:19 -0600 (CST)

 
TheStar.com - Martin's move irritates U.S.
Feb. 24, 2005. 01:00 AM

Martin's move irritates U.S.
PM to announce rejection of controversial plan

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1109199011395&call_pageid=970599119419

`We don't get it' Cellucci says of Ottawa's rebuff

SEAN GORDON AND BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
IN OTTAWA

Prime Minister Paul Martin will formally announce today what Ottawa has 
already told the White House - Canada won't be a partner in the U.S. missile 
defence scheme.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew told U.S. Secretary of State 
Condeleezza Rice of Canada's decision during a meeting in Brussels earlier 
this week. And senior staff in the Prime Minister's Office relayed the 
decision to Andrew Card, chief of staff to U.S. President George W. Bush.
This morning, Martin will say that Canada has decided not to participate in 
the operation of the controversial program, ending almost two years of 
debate by the Liberal government.
The Bush administration has made a public show of understanding Martin's 
decision - masking signs of irritation behind the scenes. The irritation 
stems not so much from the decision itself, Washington insiders say, but 
from the time it took Martin to make up his mind.
Canadians with business interests in the U.S. were predicting any momentum 
toward a new relationship between Martin and Bush would stall because of the 
symbolism of Ottawa's decision, coming after the 2003 decision to stay out 
of Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Several Ottawa sources confirmed Martin will announce that Canada's 
involvement in the missile shield will not extend beyond the recent 
amendment of the North American Aerospace Defence Command agreement. Last 
August, the two countries revised the NORAD treaty to include sharing data 
on missiles flying over the continent - which the U.S. could use to target 
incoming missiles. However, Canada won't take part in any decision to shoot 
down a perceived threat.
In Toronto, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci was blunt: "We don't get 
it," he said of the "rebuff" expected today.
"We will deploy. We will protect North America," Cellucci said. "And if 
there's a missile incoming and it's heading towards Canada, you're going to 
leave it up to the United States to determine what to do about that missile.
"We don't think that's in Canada's sovereign interest."
Although Cellucci stressed that Canadian-American relations will remain 
strong, the Toronto Star's Christian Cotroneo reports, he made it abundantly 
clear that Washington is "perplexed" by Ottawa's opting out of the 
operational side of the missile defence umbrella.
David Biette, director of the Canadian Institute at the Woodrow Wilson 
Center in Washington, said he didn't think Martin's decision would damage 
Canada-U.S. relations.
"The bigger risk is that it makes Canada more irrelevant," he said. "If it 
took Canada this long to decide on what is essentially a no-brainer, it will 
have an effect on requests of the country in the future.

`The U.S. government won't cry itself to sleep if you don't (join.)'
David Jones, ex-U.S. state department

"Defence officials in both countries will still work together, but the next 
time a request is needed of Canada, the thought will be, `Oh, God, how long 
will it take for Canada to make up its mind on this thing?' "It wasn't so 
much the decision, it was the way it was handled," Biette said. "A year ago, 
Martin could have forcefully said `No,' but said `We are prepared to do 
this, that and the other thing,' and moved on. But he let it get out of 
control.
"It is particularly noticed by a Bush administration that makes up its mind 
quickly and sticks with the decision, rightly or wrongly."
Secretary of State spokesperson Richard Boucher would not predict any "ill 
feelings" because of Martin's decision, saying essentially that the NORAD 
amendment provided what the Pentagon needed to proceed with the 
multi-billion dollar ballistic missile shield. That was the same argument 
made by Frank McKenna, Canada's ambassador-designate to Washington, outside 
a House of Commons committee Tuesday.
One administration official, who asked that his name not be used, had a 
blunter assessment.
"We would have been much more pleased had there been a political 
endorsement," he said.
When he visited Ottawa and Halifax late last year, Bush made three 
unsolicited pitches for Canadian endorsement of his continental defence 
scheme, and behind closed doors challenged Martin to explain the Canadian 
"allergy" to a plan Bush sincerely believes in, according to outgoing 
Canadian ambassador Michael Kergin.
Martin's decision is sure to be popular among the missile program's 
detractors in Canada, whose numbers are growing according to a recent Star 
poll. The survey, conducted by Ekos Research Associates, showed 54 per cent 
of Canadians want nothing to do with the plan.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East), the parliamentary 
secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, blamed Canada's decision to 
forgo the shield on the minority parliament.
"It's pretty clear the decision to not participate more or less was the 
result of not having enough support in the House of Commons, and certainly 
we couldn't trust the Conservatives on this one," said McTeague, a strong 
proponent of Canada's participation in missile defence.
For the second consecutive day, the opposition battered the Liberals over 
the program, demanding to know whether the government effectively by-passed 
Parliament by amending NORAD. "There is a point at which dithering morphs 
into deception and duplicity," said NDP MP Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona).
Washington has long maintained that it would proceed with its missile 
defence plan with or without full participation by Ottawa, even as the 
Liberals continued to grapple with a political grenade north of the border.
While Ottawa has maintained that last summer's NORAD amendment did not 
constitute participation, the view south of the border is markedly different 
and essentially parrots McKenna's comments in Ottawa.
None of the Americans who spoke of the decision yesterday believed the 
former New Brunswick premier had misspoken himself or fallen off-message on 
Tuesday, and the state department's view has been that the amendment allows 
it to logistically continue with the mission.
"The U.S. government would not have leapt for joy if Canada had joined and 
it won't cry itself to sleep if you don't," said David Jones, a former state 
department official who spent years in Canada.
*****************************************************************
 12 Deseret news: Leavitt urged to release nuclear test data 

[deseretnews.com] 

Thursday, February 24, 2005 

By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News 

WASHINGTON — Two Western environmental 
groups have petitioned Secretary of Health and Human Services 
Mike Leavitt to release the final version of a national study on 
the health consequences from nuclear weapons testing — a study 
the government has kept under wraps for years. 

The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) and 
Idaho's Snake River Alliance wrote to Leavitt on Tuesday asking 
his assistance in releasing "A Feasibility Study of the Health 
Consequences to the American Population from Nuclear Weapons 
Tests Conducted by the United States and Other Nations." 

"As the former governor, you are painfully aware of the 
health effects wrought by decades of nuclear testing at the 
Nevada Test Site," wrote Vanessa Pierce, HEAL's program 
director, and Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Snake 
River Alliance. 

"While the federal government has started to develop an 
understanding of how radioactive iodine fallout from U.S. 
nuclear tests affected the American population, we have yet to 
fully understand the impacts that other radionuclides and other 
countries' global nuclear testing had on the health of the 
American public," the letter continued. 

Congress directed the National Cancer Institute in 1983 to 
study the health impacts of nuclear testing fallout. The study 
was finally released in 1997. 

In 1998, the Senate Appropriations Committee asked the 
Department of Health and Human Services to look into the 
feasibility of a study concerning the health consequences to the 
American population due to radioactive fallout from nuclear 
weapons testing by the United States, France, Great Britain, 
India, China, the Soviet Union and other foreign nations. 

According to the activists' letter, the scope of the 
study called for consideration of the health consequences to 
both high-risk populations and the general public from exposure 
to plutonium, strontium-90, iodine-131, radioactive cesium and 
other radioactive elements produced by nuclear weapon tests. 

The request resulted in a collaborative effort by staff 
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the 
National Cancer Institute (NCI). 

"In 2002, nearly four years later, HHS transmitted to the 
Senate Appropriations Committee an August 2001 progress report 
and an extensive two-volume draft feasibility study providing 
details on the study's scientific methods and conclusion," the 
activists wrote. 

But the report has yet to be released. 

"It is late in the day to withhold reports such as this, 
particularly information that could have an impact on the health 
and well being of Americans," they wrote. "We ask for your 
immediate assistance to release and publicize the feasibility 
report." 

E-mail: spang@desnews.com [spang@desnews.com] 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 13 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Low regard for science

Editorial: Low regard for science
 LAS VEGAS SUN

 Last weekend some of the nation's top scientists gathered in
Washington for the annual meeting of the American Association
for Advancement of Science. The Associated Press reported that
those attending the conference were concerned that scientists in
federal agencies were being ignored or even pressured to change
their conclusions about issues to conform to administration
policy.

 The White House's response? "The president makes policy
decisions based on what the best policies for the country are,
not politics. People who suggest otherwise are ill-informed,"
Bush aide Ken Lisaius said. But the reality clearly is
otherwise. On a host of issues, including the Bush
administration's plans to bury nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca
Mountain, the Bush White House and Cabinet officials have
disregarded science in setting policy that often benefits
industry. A federal appeals court provided further confirmation
of this last year on Yucca Mountain when it ruled that the
Environmental Protection Agency's current radiation standard for
a nuclear waste dump wasn't strict enough to meet the standards
set by the National Academy of Sciences. Although the nuclear
power industry ardently wants a dump built, the court's decision
has effectively stalled work at Yucca Mountain.

 But don't think for a moment that the Bush administration will
sit back and let a court ruling get in its way of Yucca
Mountain. The Sun reported Wednesday that the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission have been meeting quietly to talk about
ways that the EPA could comply with the court ruling. But the
talks pointedly have not included any representatives from
Nevada -- despite the fact that 77,000 tons of high-level
nuclear waste would be buried in our state forever. It would
appear that the EPA is being pressured by two federal agencies
that have cozy relationships with the nuclear power industry --
the Energy Department, which will seek a license to build the
dump, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has the final
say on the application -- to do their bidding and that of the
industry in ge tting a dump built.

 The first four years of Bush's term were disastrous for science
and the environment -- and we haven't seen any indication yet
that will change in the next four years. 

*****************************************************************
 14 Vail Trail: Bush’s second-term shake-ups 

Vail Trail Issue Thursday, February 24, 2005   

            
The political appointments you don’t hear about — and how
they affect the West - 2/24/05

As President George W. Bush begins his second term of office, 
subtle personnel shifts are already occurring within the federal 
government — and they may have some serious implications for the 
West. 

The Environmental Protection Agency’s 18,000 employees protect
the environment and public health by enforcing laws such as the
Clean Air and Clean Water acts and overseeing cleanup of the
nation’s Superfund sites, including more than 2,200 mines,
refineries and landfills in the West. 

Under Bush, the 35-year-old agency has seen unprecedented
administrative changes: For the second time since 2001, the EPA
was without an administrator when former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt,
R, left after only 13 months to head the U.S. Health and Human
Services Department. 

The agency can function without an administrator, says EPA
spokesman Dave Ryan, because its agenda “is guided a lot by
congressional statute. We don’t act unilaterally; we’re
implementers.” 

But Eric Schaeffer, former director of the agency’s Office of
Regulatory Enforcement, says the EPA is becoming an “orphan”
under Bush. “Under Clinton and (George H.W.) Bush, it had a fair
amount of independence,” says Schaeffer, who now directs the
nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. Now, he says, “the
White House basically runs the EPA.” 

Even before Bush named Leavitt’s temporary successor — Stephen
Johnson, EPA’s deputy administrator — the agency had begun
rewriting rules regarding pesticides and air pollution from
factory farms. It is also changing reporting requirements for
the Toxics Release Inventory, a public database that tracks
chemicals released from facilities such as landfills, mines and
chemical factories. 

The agency’s mission is to set environmental standards and
regulate polluters, but that appears to be changing, says Kei
Koizumi, director of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science’s research and development program. Both
the Superfund program and the research and development budget
saw cuts this year. Meanwhile, the agency received $97 million
for homeland security responsibilities such as protecting the
nation’s drinking water supply from terrorist attacks. “In the
next few years,” says Koizumi, “it’s pretty clear that the
administration and Congress are going to tighten domestic
spending to give EPA less regulatory control.” 

The U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees energy development
and the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, has a new secretary.
Bush’s first appointee, Spencer Abraham — a lifelong politician
and former head of the National Republican Congressional
Committee — resigned in mid-November. 

His replacement is Samuel Bodman, who was a deputy secretary of
the Commerce Department and then of the U.S. Treasury during
Bush’s first term. He is also the former chairman and CEO of
Cabot Corporation, a Boston-based chemical company. 

Bodman is clearly aligned with the Bush administration: He
supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
boosting nuclear energy research, upgrading the nation’s nuclear
weapons and storing commercial nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca
Mountain. 

The White House and the Senate compromised on appointments to
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees commercial
nuclear reactors and waste facilities. Pete Lyons landed one
seat. He’s a 28-year veteran of Los Alamos National Laboratory
and an advisor to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a staunch
supporter of Yucca Mountain. Greg Jaczko, a nuclear physicist
and aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., gained
the other seat. Because Reid opposes Yucca Mountain, however,
the nuclear industry fought Jaczko’s appointment; Congress only
approved him with the stipulation that he recuse himself for one
year from any issues pertaining to Yucca Mountain. 

Ann Veneman has resigned from her post as secretary of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, which guides farm policy and oversees
the U.S. Forest Service. Veneman served in President George H.W.
Bush’s administration and was on the board of directors of
Calgene Corporation, a subsidiary of the bio-tech giant
Monsanto. 

Veneman’s successor is former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, R.
After being confirmed by the Senate, Johanns outlined his
priorities for the department, which are mainly
agriculture-related. His introductory remarks to the nation’s
USDA employees made no mention of the U.S. Forest Service, which
manages 191 million acres and employs more than 37,000 people. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of the Interior will continue
under the direction of Secretary Gale Norton, the former general
counsel for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a private
property rights group. When asked about the department’s
priorities in Bush’s second term, Interior spokesman Hugh
Vickery said there is “not a lot new” (HCN, 5/24/04). 

Sharon Buccino, senior attorney with the Natural Resources
Defense Council, agrees that Interior’s agenda will involve
“more of the same … Energy development will be the dominant use
of our public lands, and there will be continued efforts to cut
back on environmental regulation and public review,” she says.
“Bush’s agenda is the industry’s agenda.” 

– By Laura Paskus 

The author is HCN assistant editor. High Country News
(www.hcn.org) covers the West's communities and natural-resource
issues from Paonia, Colorado. 

Vail Trail • 40780 US Hwy 6 & 24 • Avon, CO 81620 • Drawer 6200
•  Vail, CO 81658
 Tel: (970) 748-0049 • Fax: (970) 748-6427 • email: 
[tboyd@vailtrail.com] 
Website Design and Hosting by  [http://www.ewtechnology.com] 
*****************************************************************
 15 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Putin Agree on Nukes, Not Democracy
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Thursday February 24, 2005 7:31 PM

AP Photo NY111 

By TOM RAUM 

Associated Press Writer 

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - President Bush and Russian President
Vladimir Putin agreed Thursday on new efforts to keep nuclear
arms out of dangerous hands, but their sharp differences over
Russian backsliding on democracy spilled into an open and
sometimes-prickly exchange. 

Seeking common ground with a former Cold War rival that is now a
key anti-terror partner, Bush said the two leaders stressed
agreements over differences. 

But U.S. concerns about a series of actions by Putin that are
seen as solidifying central power and quashing dissent dominated
the leaders' side-by-side appearance. 

Bush said he talked with Putin at length of his ``concerns about
Russia's commitment in fulfilling these universal principles''
common to all democracies - such as the rule of law, protection
of minorities and viable political debate. 

``All I can tell you is he said, `Yes meant yes,' when we talked
about values that we share,'' Bush said. 

Putin said, ``Russia has made its choice in favor of
democracy.'' 

``This is our final choice and we have no way back. There can be
no return to what we used to have,'' Putin said. He added: ``We
are not going to make up, to invent any kind of special Russian
democracy.'' 

Despite those assurances, Putin compared his move to end direct
popular election of regional governors to the American Electoral
College process of electing presidents. ``It's not considered
undemocratic, is it?'' Putin said. 

And he suggested that Russians who oppose his actions, such as a
campaign against the Yukos oil company and shut down of
independent media outlets, can sway public opinion because they
``are richer than those who are in favor.'' ``We often do not
pay the attention to that,'' he said. 

Bush was challenged as well, fielding questions from Russian
journalists doubting American democracy. 

``I'm perfectly comfortable in telling you, our country is one
that safeguards human rights and human dignity, and we resolve
our disputes in a peaceful way,'' Bush said sharply. 

Russian officials dislike what they see as U.S. meddling in
their internal affairs and in former Soviet republics where
Moscow's influence is waning as some new leaders look westward. 

But just as Bush wants to protect a vital partnership on
security issues, Putin walks a careful line because of his
desire not to harm Russia's chances of membership in the World
Trade Organization. 

Turning to global concerns, Bush and Putin said they were in
unison on the importance of stopping suspected nuclear weapons
programs in North Korea and Iran. They remained in disagreement
over Russian arms sales to Syria, which the United States wants
halted, said a senior administration official. 

``We agreed that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. I
appreciate Vladimir's understanding on that,'' Bush said. ``We
agreed that North Korea should not have a nuclear weapon.'' 

Said Putin, ``We share a common opinion in this regard and we
are taking a similar approach: We should put an end to the
proliferation of missile and missile technology. The
proliferation of such weapons is not in the interest specific of
countries or in the international community in general.'' 

The leaders met for nearly three hours - over an hour alone with
only translators - at a medieval castle overlooking the
snow-covered capital and the Danube River. ``The discussions
never got heated,'' the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity. 

A key product of the talks were agreements designed to counter
the spread of both conventional and nuclear weapons. 

Bush and Putin agreed to upgrade security at Russia's nuclear
plants and weapons stockpiles; provide new procedures for
responding to possible terrorist attacks; and set up a program
to keep nuclear fuel from being diverted to use in nuclear
weapons. 

``We agreed to accelerate our work to protect nuclear weapons
and materials both in our two nations and around the world,''
Bush said. 

Another agreement, signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, calls for
controlling shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that, in the
hands of criminals or terrorists, pose a threat to both
passenger and military aviation. 

The Soviet Union and now Russia have widely sold shoulder-fired
missiles to customers around the world, including a more potent
version that can't be diverted by decoys. Approximately 1
million of these weapons have been produced worldwide, a White
House statement said. 

Bush prefaced his meeting with the Russian leader - their first
since Bush's new term began in January - with a speech in a
crowded town square hailing the spread of democracy to a former
Soviet satellite like Slovakia. Bush thanked Slovaks for their
deployment of non-combat troops to Iraq and celebrated the
example their 1989 triumph over communism provides there. 

``For the Iraqi people, this is their 1989 and they will always
remember who stood with them in their quest for freedom,'' the
president said. 

The two leaders arrived to a red carpet ceremony in the
courtyard of the red-roofed Bratislava Castle, exchanging
handshakes and smiles. About a dozen troops, clad in fur-trimmed
red and blue uniforms, stood at attention and elsewhere in the
capital security was tight. 

During their news conference, Bush appeared relaxed and smiled
frequently, but Putin mostly remained expressionless with an
occasional slight nod or grin. 

Bush's brief Slovakia visit was the final leg of a five-day tour
to heal the trans-Atlantic rift caused by his March 2003
decision to invade Iraq without broad international support. He
visited Belgium and Germany before coming here, and met with
European leaders at NATO and European Union meetings in
Brussels. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 16 Xinhua: Nuclear arms race in South Asia not in interest of any party, spokesman   

  www.xinhuanet.com
  
  www.chinaview.cn 2005-02-24 19:49:49   

    BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The nuclear arms race in
South Asia is not in line with the interest of any country, said
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan Thursday at a
regular press conference. 

    Commenting on an Indian report that says the United States
will sell anti-ballistic missile system to India, Kong said "We
hope the relevant countries in South Asia properly handle the
difference and are committed to safeguarding stability, peace
and development." 

    "We have noticed the report," he said, adding that "we hope
the relevant country would act to benefit peace and stability of
Asia, especially South Asia." 

    Kong said China welcomes the recent negotiations between
India and Pakistan and hopes to work with the countries to
safeguard stability in South Asia. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 17 IAEA: Expert Group Releases Findings on Multilateral Nuclear Approaches
 
 [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] 
 
Staff Report
 22 February 2005 [Press Briefing after the Expert Group
Meeting] 
Dr. Bruno Pellaud (centre) talking to the press after the
presentation of the expert group's findings. (Photo credit: D.
Calma/IAEA) 
  + Story Resources 
  + Report of the Expert Group: Multilateral Approaches to the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle [pdf] 
  + B. Pellaud's Bulletin Article [pdf] 
  + Focus: Nuclear Fuel Cycle 
  + Towards A Safer World, Dr. ElBaradei's essay in the
Economist, October 2003 
  + IAEA &NPT 

An international Expert Group has released the findings of its
extensive look at the world's civil nuclear fuel cycle, citing
five approaches to strengthen controls over sensitive nuclear
materials and technologies of proliferation concern. At a press
briefing in Vienna today, Mr. Bruno Pellaud, the Group's
Chairman and former Head of IAEA Safeguards, said multilateral
approaches are "setting the nuclear agenda" and urged concerted
action among governments. 

"Such approaches are needed and worth pursuing, on both security
and economic grounds," he said, in summing up the Group's
consensus. “A joint nuclear facility with multinational staff
puts all participants under a greater scrutiny from peers and
partners, a fact that strengthens non-proliferation and
security…Moreover, they have the potential to facilitate the
continued use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." He noted
that multilateral approaches already are followed in Europe, for
example, and said they merit close consideration in South Asia
and other regions. 

The Group's report -- Multilateral Approaches to the Nuclear
Fuel Cycle -- was commissioned by IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei in June 2004, following his suggestion that wide
dissemination of the most proliferation sensitive parts of the
nuclear fuel cycle could be the "Achilles’ heel" of the nuclear
non-proliferation regime. 

The report outlines five approaches to strengthen controls over
fuel enrichment, reprocessing, spent fuel repositories and spent
fuel storage. They are: 


  1. Reinforcing existing commercial market mechanisms on a
case-by-case basis through long-term contracts and transparent
suppliers’ arrangements with government backing. Examples would
be: fuel leasing and fuel take-back offers, commercial offers to
store and dispose of spent fuel, as well as commercial fuel
banks; 
  2. Developing and implementing international supply guarantees
with IAEA participation. Different models should be
investigated, notably with the IAEA as guarantor of service
supplies, e.g. as administrator of a fuel bank; 
  3. Promoting voluntary conversion of existing facilities to
multilateral nuclear approaches MNA), and pursuing them as
confidence-building measures, with the participation of NPT
non-nuclear- weapon States and nuclear-weapon States, and
non-NPT States; 
  4. Creating, through voluntary agreements and contracts,
multinational, and in particular regional, MNAs for new
facilities based on joint ownership, drawing rights or
co-management for front-end and back-end nuclear facilities,
such as uranium enrichment; fuel reprocessing; disposal and
storage of spent fuel (and combinations thereof). Integrated
nuclear power parks would also serve this objective; and 
  5. The scenario of a further expansion of nuclear energy
around the world might call for the development of a nuclear
fuel cycle with stronger multilateral arrangements - by region
or by continent - and for broader cooperation, involving the
IAEA and the international community. 

The Expert Group included representatives from 26 countries who
examined the nuclear fuel cycle and multinational approaches at
meetings convened during a seven month period. The Group's
report has been sent to the IAEA's 138 Member States and will be
more widely circulated for discussion, including to the May 2005
Review Conference of 189 States party to the global Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). See Story Resources for more
information and background. Copyright 2003-2004, International
Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400
Vienna, Austria 
Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail:
Official.Mail@iaea.org [Official.Mail@iaea.org] 

*****************************************************************
 18 IAEA: IAEA Board Meetings Open 28 February in Vienna
 
+ [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] 
 
Staff Report
 16 February 2005 [IAEA Board] 
IAEA Board Chair Ingrid Hall of Canada, flanked by Director
General ElBaradei and Mr. Kwaku Aning, Secretary of
Policy-making Organs. (Credit: Calma/IAEA) 
  + Story Resources 
  + Egypt Press Statement 
[http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2005/05-0416
1.pdf] 
  + Press Reports, Egypt Safeguards
[http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=498991] 
  + Director General Interview, Washington Post
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27319-2005Feb15?langua
ge=printer] 
  + Director General Interview, World Economic Forum 
  + IAEA Board
[http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/Board/index.html] 
  + Director General Appointment 
  + IAEA & Iran
[http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaIran/index.shtml] 
  + IAEA & DPRK
[http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaDprk/index.shtml] 

The 35-member IAEA Board of Governors opens its next meetings in
Vienna 28 February. Items on the agenda principally are related
to the IAEA's work in areas of nuclear safeguards and safety.
The Board also is considering the appointment of the Director
General for a four-year term beginning 1 December 2005. (See
Related Resources.) 

In his introductory statement, IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed
ElBaradei is expected to brief the Board on the Agency's
implementation of safeguards agreements with Iran, the
Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Egypt.
In an interview with the Washington Post published 16 February,
Dr. ElBaradei addressed aspects of the IAEA's verification in
Iran and North Korea. 

Regarding safeguards in Egypt, the Director General has
circulated his report to the IAEA's Member States. Unless the
IAEA Board decides otherwise, the documents circulation is
restricted and it cannot be released to the public. The report
addresses recent IAEA inspections and verification work in Egypt
under the country's comprehensive safeguards agreement.
Copyright 2003-2004, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O.
Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria 
Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail:
Official.Mail@iaea.org [Official.Mail@iaea.org] 


*****************************************************************
 19 Guardian Unlimited: Bush and Putin to agree nuclear safeguards
 
Agencies
Thursday February 24, 2005 		
 		
White House officials today said that the US president, George 
Bush, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would use 
their summit meeting to agree joint measures on preventing 
nuclear terrorism.

Experts also predicted a carefully-negotiated discussion of 
Russian democracy when the two leaders held talks in the 
Slovakian capital, Bratislava, later today.

Washington officials said Mr Bush and Mr Putin would announce new 
steps to combat terrorism and safeguard nuclear materials. 

They said the agreement would include a promise to upgrade 
security at Russia's nuclear plants and weapons stockpiles, new 
procedures for responding to possible terrorist attacks, and a 
programme to prevent nuclear fuel from being diverted for use in 
nuclear weapons.

The US and Russian presidents were also expected to announce a 
new agreement designed to restrict commerce in shoulder-fired 
missiles. Washington has been critical of Russian sales of 
shoulder-to-air missiles to Syria. 

Mr Bush and Mr Putin are expected to cover several contentious 
subjects, including their disagreement over Iran's nuclear 
ambitions. The US has accused Iran of working to build nuclear 
weapons, but Russia - which has close ties to Tehran - has denied 
the claim. 

Mr Bush will also be seeking to address Washington's concerns 
that Mr Putin had taken steps to consolidate his power, cracked 
down on press freedom, and attempted to influence last year's 
elections in Ukraine. 

The Russian leader has already made it clear that he will not be 
lectured on the subject, and the discussions risk causing a 
deterioration in relations between the two men. 

"Making Russia more democratic is a wish, but Bush is probably 
aware that Russians will do only as much on that as they want," 
Janusz Reiter, the head of the Warsaw-based Centre for 
International Relations, told Reuters. "There is not a lever they 
[the US] can pull on that one." 

Bratislava is the final stop on Mr Bush's goodwill tour of 
Europe, which has been designed to mend fences following the war 
in Iraq. 

It will be the first meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Putin since 
the US president began his second term in January. Both face the 
difficulty of wanting to air grievances without undermining 
relations between the former cold war nuclear rivals. 

"It's a complex relationship," Mr Bush's national security 
adviser, Stephen Hadley, said. He told reporters that democracy 
in Russia remained "a work in progress", saying: "A free and 
democratic Russia is better for Russia. It's better for us."

The summit comes almost a year after Mr Putin's convincing 
re-election victory. However, he is in a weakened position 
following a series of setbacks at home and abroad, including the 
Beslan school siege, in which more than 330 people were killed.
 	
 	
        Special report United States of America Russia

World news guide North American media

Media [http://nytimes.com] [http://washingtonpost.com] 
[http://cnn.com] 

Government [http://www.firstgov.gov/] 
[http://www.whitehouse.gov/] [http://www.senate.gov/] 
[http://www.house.gov] 

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 20 Op-Ed on PSE&G/Exelon Merger
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:47 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
                           February 24, 2005


Dear Editor:


      Newark, we have a problem!

      The new system projected to increase output for PSE&G¹s nuclear
generating stations, and account for 15% of the proposed merger¹s cost
savings is called the ³Exelon Way². This wonder cure contains information in
small print, and only works if a nuclear plant is bought on the cheap and
operates ³just outside the top-performing quadrant² (Gerald R. Rainey, April
9, 2000).

     Exelon¹s Pennsylvania nuclear fleet is sinking under the weight of
staffing reductions, poor performance, and faulty procedures. Exelon¹s
dismal record at Three Mile Island (TMI) and Peach Bottom over the last 60
days demonstrates the ³Wrong Way² to operate nuclear power plants:

      € Two days after the merger was announced, Peach Bottom-2 scrammed as a
result of a control system failure. Less than a week later, the plant
reduced power to 72% due to a condensate pump trip;

      €  In early January, 2005, Exelon muscled Lower Dauphin School District
and Londonderry Township to accept a drastic reduction in tax revenues at
TMI. According to Exelon, the assessment of Three Mile Island-1 will drop
from $64.9 million to $20 million in 2005, then $18.3 million through 2008;

     € On January 14, a Supplemental Inspection Report for Peach Bottom,
³...identified an overall weakness in the area of  problem resolution.
Specifically, Exelon¹s cause evaluations for the scrams were not thorough in
that some conclusions were not supported by available information and root
cause evaluations did not always identify the underlying causes² (Mohammed
Shabansky, Chief, NRC, Division of Reactor Projects);

        € On January 24, the NRC finally reported a security ³lapse² at TMI
that resulted in an breach of the the reactor¹s ³protected area². Exelon had
terminated access for a badged employee, yet the individual was able to use
their badge to enter the plant. The mistake was not discovered until the
individual¹s deactivated badge would not open the departing turnstile at the
security fence;

       € On January 28, the Exelon Nuclear operator training program at TMI
was placed on probation. Ironically, the National Nuclear Accrediting Board
was established as a result of the accident at Three Mile Island. No nuclear
station has lost its accreditation since the program started 20 years ago;

     €  From February 2-7, Peach Bottom-2 was shut down again to replace a
safety relief valve;

      € On February 8, major problems in the TMI training program were
reported to the public. The NRC found that 25% of the control room crews at
Three Mile Island failed a quarterly test of their ability to safely shut
down the nuclear reactor under adverse conditions. The NRC tested eight
crews; two failed. The teams were tested as a group and individually. Five
members of one six-member crew failed the test individually. The NRC noted
that the training materials used by Exelon were outdated, and were not
changed enough between testing. The NRC found no evidence of cheating;

     € And, on February 14, the NRC reported six additional violations at
TMI. All of the transgressions were identified as ³cross cutting² and linked
to ³problem identification and resolution.² Although a design modification
deficiency warranted NRC ³enforcement action², the Commission exercised
restraint because the ³licensee implemented timely and effective corrective
action...²  However, the same NRC executive noted that the problem ³occurred
more than 14 years ago...² (A. Randolph  Blough, Director, Division of
Reactor Projects).

                 Sincerely,


                 Eric Epstein, Chairman, TMI-Alert
                 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
                 ericepstein@comcast.net
                 # 717-541-1101

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 21 NRC: Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion); Notice of 
 
                         FR Doc 05-3487 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9114-9115] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-127] [[Page 
9114]]
 
Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 
Significant Impact for License Renewal of the Surry Independent 
Spent Fuel Storage Installation AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission.
 
ACTION: Environmental Assessment.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Jane Ross-Lee, Senior 
Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear 
Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-3781; fax 
number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail mjr2@nrc.gov [ mjr2@nrc.gov] .
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC or the Commission) is considering renewing Virginia Electric 
and Power Company's (Dominion's) (the applicant's) License No. 
SNM-2501 under the requirements of Title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations, Part 72 (10 CFR Part 72) authorizing the 
continued operation of the Surry Independent Spent Fuel Storage 
Installation (ISFSI) located at the Surry Power Station in Surry 
County, Virginia. The Commission's Office of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards has completed its review of the 
environmental report submitted by the applicant on April 29, 
2002, in support of its application for a renewed materials 
license.
 
The staff's ``Environmental Assessment related to the renewal of 
the Surry Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation'' has been 
issued in accordance with 10 CFR Part 51.
 
I. Summary of Environmental Assessment (EA) Description of the 
Proposed Action: The proposed licensing action would authorize 
the applicant to continue operating a dry storage ISFSI at the 
Surry site. The purpose of the ISFSI is to allow for interim 
spent fuel storage and, indirectly, power generation capability, 
beyond the term of the current ISFSI license to meet future power 
generation needs. The current license will expire July 31, 2006. 
The renewed ISFSI license would permit 40 additional years of 
storage beyond the current license period. The current ISFSI 
employs five different cask systems licensed for the Surry ISFSI. 
These cask systems include the General Nuclear Systems, Inc., 
(GNSI) CASTOR V/21 and CASTOR X/33, the Westinghouse MC-10, the 
NAC INTACT 28 S/T, and the Transnuclear, Inc., TN-32. Currently, 
the facility is licensed to store spent fuel storage casks on 
three reinforced concrete pads that are 230 feet long, 32 feet 
wide, and 3 feet thick. Two of the three storage pads have been 
built. Each pad is designed to accommodate 28 casks.
 
Need for the Proposed Action: The Surry ISFSI is needed to 
provide continued spent fuel storage capacity so that the Surry 
Power Station can continue to generate electricity. This renewal 
is needed to provide an option that allows for interim spent fuel 
storage and, indirectly, power generation capability, beyond the 
term of the current ISFSI license to meet future system 
generating needs. The renewed ISFSI license would permit 20 
additional years of storage beyond the current license period. An 
exemption would allow 20 years of storage beyond the renewal 
period.
 
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action: The NRC staff has 
concluded that the license renewal of the Surry ISFSI will not 
result in a significant impact to the environment. The Surry 
ISFSI will require one additional storage pad during the license 
renewal term. The pad would be built on previously disturbed 
ground adjacent to the existing pads. Construction impacts of the 
third storage pad of the ISFSI will be minor, and limited to the 
approximately 800 feet by 800 feet ISFSI site. No areas 
designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as ``critical 
habitat'' for endangered species exist at the site. The only 
terrestrial community at the site consist of remnants of mixed 
pine-hardwood forest that were used for timber production prior 
to the site's acquisition by Dominion. Thus, the staff does not 
expect the ISFSI to impact any threatened or endangered species. 
The Environmental Assessment for the ISFSI construction 
acknowledged that although the station was located in a historic 
region, no historical resources were identified within the 
boundaries of the site.
 
During the Surry Power Station license renewal process, Dominion 
commissioned a cultural resource survey of the property. The 
survey identified one previously recorded archaeological site on 
the west side of the property and classified the remainder of the 
property into one of three categories, based on the potential for 
archaeological resources.
 
The ISFSI, because it rests on previously disturbed land, was 
classified as having no potential for cultural resources.
 
There will be no significant radiological or non-radiological 
environmental impacts from routine operation of the ISFSI. The 
staff evaluated radiological impacts from operations to ensure 
that the radiation dose to both workers and the public is as low 
as reasonably achievable (ALARA). The Surry Power Station ALARA 
program, including ISFSI operations, complies with 10 CFR Part 
20, Radiation Protection Programs, and is consistent with 
Regulatory Guide 8.8, ``Information Relevant to Ensuring That 
Occupational Radiation Exposures at Nuclear Power Stations Will 
Be As Low As Reasonably Achievable.'' There are several parks and 
preserves in Surry County, primarily along the south bank of the 
James River. Immediately adjacent to the Surry Power Station is 
the Hog Island tract of Hog Island Wildlife Management Area 
(HIWMA) (zoned A-R), at the north end of the peninsula on which 
the Surry Power Station is located. In addition, south of the 
Surry Power Station are the Carlisle and Stewart tracts of HIWMA. 
West of the Surry Power Station, bordering the James River, is 
Chippokes Plantation State Park, and further west are Swanns 
Point and Pipsico Reservations.
 
The ISFSI licensing basis for the annual dose to the nearest 
permanent resident, located 1.53 miles from the ISFSI, was based 
on 84 GNSI CASTOR V/21 casks. The annual dose calculated for that 
case was 6.0x10-5 mrem, which is well below the 10 CFR 72.104 and 
10 CFR 20.1101 limits. The revised calculations based on 84 TN-32 
casks results in a dose of 5.6x10-5 mrem per year, which is less 
than the original licensing basis. The staff reviewed the 
calculations and assumptions provided by Dominion. Based on these 
results, normal ISFSI operations will not have a significant 
offsite radiological impact and will remain well within the 10 
CFR 20.1101 and 72.104 limits. The staff also evaluated 
radiological consequences of a release of the entire gaseous 
inventory of a cask and found that Dominion's calculated dose to 
an individual at the nearest site boundary is 84 mrem, which is 
well within the 5 rem criteria of 10 CFR 72.106. The annual 
collective dose from 84 TN-32 casks to 48 residents within a 
two-mile radius of the ISFSI is calculated to be 2.7x10-6 
person-rem, which is several orders of magnitude less than the 
collective dose from natural background radiation.
 
Radiological decommissioning of the ISFSI would be complete when 
the last cask is removed from the site. Small occupational 
exposures to workers
 
[[Page 9115]] could occur during decontamination activities, but 
these exposures would be much less than those associated with 
cask loading and transfer operations. Due to the design of the 
sealed surface storage casks, no residual contamination is 
expected to be left behind on the concrete base pad. The base 
pad, fence, and peripheral utility structures are defacto 
decommissioned when the last cask is removed.
 
Alternatives to the Proposed Action: The applicant's 
Environmental Report and the staff's EA discuss several 
alternatives to the proposed ISFSI license renewal. These 
alternatives include shipment of spent fuel off-site, and other 
methods to increase on-site spent fuel storage capacity, as well 
as the no action alternative. In the first category, the 
alternatives of shipping spent fuel from Surry to a permanent 
Federal Repository, to a reprocessing facility, or to a privately 
owned spent fuel storage facility were determined to be 
non-viable alternatives, as no such facilities are currently 
available in the United States, and shipping the spent fuel to 
other power stations is impractical because the receiving utility 
would have to be licensed to store the Surry spent fuel, and it 
is unlikely that another utility would be willing to accept it, 
in light of their own limitations on spent fuel storage capacity. 
Another off-site alternative is to construct an ISFSI at a site 
away from the Surry Power Station. However, it was concluded that 
this alternative does not offer net environmental benefits Other 
on-site storage alternatives considered by the applicant included 
increasing the capacity of the existing spent fuel pools by 
re-racking or spent fuel rod consolidation, or construction of a 
new spent fuel storage pool. Dominion has already increased the 
original capacity of the existing pool and cannot increase it 
further.
 
Although the applicant could construct an additional spent fuel 
pool, the high cost associated with constructing and maintaining 
such a facility and all of the necessary support equipment, 
coupled with the significant occupational exposures resulting 
from the extensive fuel handling operations, make this 
alternative impractical. Modifying operations of the plants was 
also considered such as extending fuel burnup or operating at 
reduced power. However, such operational changes may alter the 
amount of fuel to be stored, but they do not eliminate the need 
for storage. Also, consideration of researching other 
technologies for interim disposal was determined non-viable 
because of additional doses associated with repackaging.
 
The no action alternative could result in the extended or 
permanent shutdown of the Surry Power Station. The fuel currently 
stored would have to be removed. The electrical generation 
capacity lost would likely negatively impact the local economy 
and infrastructure of the area. For these reasons, the ``no 
action'' alternative is not considered a practical alternative.
 
As discussed in the EA, the Commission has concluded that there 
are no significant environmental impacts associated with renewing 
the license of the Surry ISFSI, and other alternatives were not 
pursued because of significantly higher costs, additional 
occupational exposures, and the unavailability of offsite storage 
options.
 
Agencies and Persons Contacted: Officials from the Virginia 
Department of Emergency Services, the Virginia Department of 
Historic Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the 
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, were contacted in 
preparing the staff's environmental assessment. The conclusions 
by all agencies consulted were consistent with the staff's 
conclusions.
 
II. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has reviewed the 
environmental impacts of renewing the Surry ISFSI license 
relative to the requirements set forth in 10 CFR Part 51, and has 
prepared an EA. Based on the EA, the staff concludes that there 
are no significant radiological or non-radiological impacts 
associated with the proposed action and that issuance of renewal 
of the license for the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at 
the Surry ISFSI will have no significant impact on the quality of 
the human environment. Therefore, pursuant to 10 CFR 51.31 and 
51.32, a finding of no significant impact is appropriate and an 
environmental impact statement need not be prepared for the 
renewal of the materials license for the Surry ISFSI.
 
Supporting documentation is available for inspection at NRC's 
Public Electronic Reading Room at: 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ADAMS.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ADAMS.html] 
.
 
A copy of the license application, dated April 29, 2002 as 
supplemented October 6, 2003, and the staff's EA, dated February 
2005, can be found at this site using the ADAMS accession numbers 
ML021290068, ML032900118, and ML040560156. Any questions should 
be referred to Mary Jane Ross-Lee, Spent Fuel Project Office, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, 
Mailstop O13D13, telephone (301) 415-3781; fax number (301) 
415-8555.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day of February 2005.
 
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Mary Jane Ross-Lee, 
Senior Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3487 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-U

 
*****************************************************************
 22 NRC: Seeks Qualified Candidates for the Advisory Committee on Reactor 
 
                         FR Doc 05-3488 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9113] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-126]                         
 
Safeguards AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Request for r[eacute]sum[eacute]s.
 
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking 
qualified candidates for appointment to its Advisory Committee on 
Reactor Safeguards (ACRS).
 
 
ADDRESSES: Submit resum[eacute]s to: Ms. Sherry Meador, 
Administrative Assistant, ACRS/ACNW, Mail Stop T2E-26, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or 
e-mail SAM@NRC.gov [SAM@NRC.gov] .
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Congress established the ACRS to 
provide the NRC with independent expert advice on matters related 
to the safety of existing and proposed nuclear power plants and 
on the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards. The 
Committee work currently emphasizes safety issues associated with 
the operation of 103 commercial nuclear units in the United 
States; the pursuit of a risk- informed and performance-based 
regulatory approach; license renewal applications; risk-informed 
revisions to 10 CFR Part 50; power uprates; transient and 
accident analysis codes; materials degradation issues; use of 
mixed oxide and high burnup fuels; and advanced reactor designs. 
The ACRS also has some involvement in security matters related to 
the integration of safety and security of commercial reactors. 
This work involves technical issues associated with consequence 
analysis and the assessment of effective mitigation strategies.
 
The ACRS membership includes individuals from national 
laboratories, academia, and industry who possess specific 
technical expertise along with a broad perspective in addressing 
safety concerns. Committee members are selected from a variety of 
engineering and scientific disciplines, such as nuclear power 
plant operations, nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, 
electrical engineering, chemical engineering, metallurgical 
engineering, risk assessment, structural engineering, materials 
science, and instrumentation and process control systems. 
Committee members serve a 4-year term with the possibility of 
reappointment up to a maximum of two terms, for a potential total 
service of 12 years. At this time, candidates are specifically 
being sought who have 10 or more years of experience in the areas 
of thermal hydraulics, materials and metallurgy and/or plant 
operations. Candidates with pertinent graduate level experience 
will be given additional consideration. Individuals should have a 
demonstrated record of accomplishments in the area of nuclear 
reactor safety. It is the NRC's policy to select the best 
qualified applicant for the job, regardless of race, gender, age, 
religion, or any other non-merit factor.
 
Criteria used to evaluate candidates include education and 
experience, demonstrated skills in nuclear safety matters, and 
the ability to solve problems. Additionally, the Commission 
considers the need for specific expertise in relationship to 
current and future tasks. Consistent with the requirements of the 
Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Commission seeks candidates 
with varying views and of diverse backgrounds so that the 
membership on the Committee will be fairly balanced in terms of 
the points of view represented and functions to be performed by 
the Committee.
 
Because conflict-of-interest regulations restrict the 
participation of members actively involved in the regulated 
aspects of the nuclear industry, the degree and nature of any 
such involvement will be weighed. Each qualified candidate's 
financial interests must be reconciled with applicable Federal 
and NRC rules and regulations prior to final appointment. This 
might require divestiture of securities issued by nuclear 
industry entities, or discontinuance of industry- funded research 
contracts or grants. A security background investigation for a Q 
clearance (or the transfer of an up-to-date Q clearance) will 
also be required.
 
Candidates must be citizens of the United States and be able to 
devote approximately 80-100 days per year to Committee business.
 
A r[eacute]sum[eacute] describing the educational and 
professional background of the candidate, including any special 
accomplishments, professional references, current address, and 
telephone number should be provided. All qualified candidates 
will receive careful consideration. Applications will be accepted 
until June 6, 2005. Dated: February 17, 2005.
 
Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3488 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-U

 
*****************************************************************
 23 NRC: Final Security rules

                         FR Doc 05-3489 

[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)]
[Rules and Regulations]               
[Page 8921]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24fe05-1]                         

Rules and Regulations
                                                Federal Register

This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory 
documents having general applicability and legal effect, most of 
which are keyed to and codified in the Code of Federal 
Regulations, which is published under 50 titles pursuant to 44 
U.S.C. 1510. The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by the 
Superintendent of Documents. Prices of new books are listed in 
the first FEDERAL REGISTER issue of each week.

[[Page 8921]]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Parts 25 and 95 RIN 
3150-AH52
 
Broadening Scope of Access Authorization and Facility Security 
Clearance Regulations: Withdrawal of Direct Final Rule AGENCY: 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Direct final rule; 
withdrawal.

SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is withdrawing a 
direct final rule that would have broadened the scope of the 
regulations to include persons who may need access to classified 
information in connection with licensing and regulatory 
activities under the regulations that govern the disposal of 
high-level radioactive waste in geologic repositories, and 
persons who may need access to classified information in 
connection with other activities as the Commission may determine, 
such as vendors of advanced reactor designs. In addition, this 
direct final rule would have broadened the scope of the 
regulations applicable to procedures for obtaining facility 
security clearances. The NRC is withdrawing this direct final 
rule because it has received significant adverse comments in 
response to an identical proposed rule which was published 
concurrently with the direct final rule.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Anthony N. Tse, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555, telephone (301) 415-6233 
(e-mail [ant@nrc.gov] ).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On December 15, 2004 (69 FR 74949), 
the NRC published in the Federal Register a direct final rule 
that would have amended NRC's regulations to broaden the scope of 
the regulations (10 CFR Part 25) applicable to persons who may 
require access to classified information, to include persons who 
may need access in connection with licensing and regulatory 
activities under the regulations that govern the disposal of 
high-level radioactive waste in geologic repositories, and 
persons who may need access in connection with other activities 
as the Commission may determine, such as vendors of advanced 
reactor designs. This direct final rule would also have broadened 
the scope of the regulations applicable to procedures for 
obtaining facility security clearances (10 CFR Part 95). The 
direct final rule was to become effective on February 28, 2005. 
The NRC concurrently published an identical proposed rule on 
December 15, 2004 (69 FR 75007).

    In the direct final rule, NRC stated that if any significant 
adverse comments were received, a notice of timely withdrawal of 
the direct final rule would be published in the Federal Register. 
As a result, the direct final rule would not take effect.

    The NRC received significant adverse comments on the direct 
final rule; therefore, the NRC is withdrawing the direct final 
rule. As stated in the December 15, 2004, direct final rule, NRC 
will address the comments received on the companion proposed rule 
in a subsequent final rule. The NRC will not initiate a second 
comment period on this action.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of February, 
2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Luis A. Reyes, 
Executive Director for Operations. [FR Doc. 05-3489 Filed 
2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
 
*****************************************************************
 24 NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting
 
                         FR Doc 05-3625 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9115-9116] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-128]                         
 
AGENCY HOLDING THE MEETING: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
DATE: Week of February 21, 2005.
 
PLACE: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
 
STATUS: Public and Closed.
 
MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: Week of February 21, 2005 Tuesday, 
February 22, 2005 1:25 p.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) 
(Tentative) a: Safety Light Corporation (Materials Licensing 
Suspension) (Tentative) The schedule for Commission meetings is 
subject to change on short notice. To verify the status of 
meetings call (recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for 
more information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415- 1651.
 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: By a vote of 5-0 on February 18, the 
Commission determined pursuant to U.S.C. 552b(e) and Sec.  
9.107(a) of the Commission's rule that ``Affirmation of Safety 
Light Corporation (Materials Licensing Suspension)'' be held 
February 22, and on less than one week's notice to the public.
 
The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the internet 
at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-makin 
g/schedule.html] . The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to 
individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a 
reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings, 
or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other 
information from the public meetings in another format (e.g., 
braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program 
Coordinator, August Spector, at (301) 415-7080, TDD: (301) 415- 
2100, or by e-mail at aks@nrc.gov [aks@nrc.gov] . Determinations 
on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a 
case-by-case basis.
 
This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred 
subscribers; if you no
 
[[Page 9116]] longer wish to receive it, or would like to be 
added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the 
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 ((301) 415-1969). In addition, 
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is 
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission 
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic 
message to dkw@nrc.gov [dkw@nrc.gov] . Dated: February 18, 2005.
 
Sandy Joosten, Office of the Secretary.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3625 Filed 2-22-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M

 
*****************************************************************
 25 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Plans 3 Nuclear Reactors by 2010
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday February 24, 2005 9:46 PM

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV 

Associated Press Writer 

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia plans to launch three new commercial
nuclear reactors over the next five years and upgrade existing
ones to higher standards, including stronger protection from
possible terror attacks, top nuclear officials said Thursday. 

U.S. officials have warned repeatedly about the dangers of poor
security at Russia's nuclear plants and other facilities - and
the possibility of international terrorists either getting their
hands on weapons material or staging an attack at a poorly
guarded facility. 

In December, Russia started up its 31st nuclear reactor, at the
Kalinin nuclear power plant in western Russia. By 2010, the
nation will have 34 reactors, said Oleg Sarayev, the head of the
state-controlled Rosenergoatom consortium in charge of Russia's
nuclear power plants. 

``We aren't going to take any of the currently operating
reactors off duty during that period, and work has already
started to modernize the reactors approaching the end of their
designated lifetime,'' Sarayev said at a news conference. 

During recent years, Russia has overcome a public backlash
against nuclear power that followed the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster and supported an ambitious program to develop its
nuclear industry. 

Sarayev said the two latest nuclear reactors put on line since
2001 have upgraded security systems for stronger protection
against possible terror attacks and other risks. He said
security at other reactors would also be tightened. 

``We are paying increased attention to strengthening the
physical protection of our plants,'' Sarayev said. ``New threats
have emerged, which made that necessary.'' 

Sarayev said Russia's security services have conducted regular
exercises imitating terror attacks on nuclear power plants that
helped enhance their security. 

``That doesn't mean that we have such a level of protection that
completely satisfies us. We will continue to make
improvements,'' Sarayev said. 

He said living conditions have been improved for the Interior
Ministry troops guarding the Rostov nuclear power plant in
southern Russia, about 300 miles north of Chechnya. 

The U.S. Nunn-Lugar program has spent billions of dollars to
improve security at weapons storage sites in Russia and other
former Soviet republics, but U.S. officials say many of Russia's
nuclear sites still don't have sufficient safeguards in place. 	 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 26 Occupational Hazards: Davis-Besse: A Plan for Change or a Worst-Case Scenario?
 
THE AUTHORITY ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, HEALTH AND LOSS PREVENTION                                                         

02/18/2005 				

A nuclear reactor with a hole in its head should have triggered
a widespread examination and overhaul of the safety program at
the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. Management says it has
learned valuable lessons; critics charge that it's business as
usual. 				

by Sandy Smith 

On Feb. 16, 2002, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. shut down
the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station (DBNPS) in Oak Harbor,
Ohio, for a fairly routine refueling and inspection operation
that included checking for cracks in the reactor head nozzles.
What workers found was anything but routine. 

Cracks were found in several reactor head nozzles, but the worst
was yet to come. On March 6, 2002, workers discovered a cavity
with a surface area of 20 to 30 square inches in the reactor
pressure vessel head. The cavity extended down through the
6.63-inch thick carbon steel reactor pressure vessel head to a
thin, internal liner of stainless steel cladding. That cladding
was the only thing standing between the Davis-Besse Nuclear
Power Station and catastrophe. 

"The fact that the reactor head did not rupture...all I can say
is that it was divine intervention," says Toledo, Ohio, attorney
Howard Whitcomb, a former NRC inspector who worked at the
Davis-Besse facility from 1985-88. "The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and the folks at Davis-Besse are trying to minimize
the incident, but the truth is, it was probably the worst
accident to occur since Chernobyl and at least as bad as what
happened at Three Mile Island. If the head had ruptured at
Davis-Besse, the collapse of the containment structure and
widespread radioactive contamination could have created a health
hazard for thousands of people and been a real threat to Lake
Erie, which provides drinking water for 20 percent of the
country." 

The official cause of the hole was an undiscovered boric acid
leak – stemming from those cracked vessel head penetration
nozzles – that was allowed to go unchecked for more than 4
years. A Lessons-Learned Task Force was created to investigate,
and its report, published on Sept. 30, 2002, indicated a more
insidious cause: the lack of a safety culture that would have
allowed the problem to be found and stopped before disaster
occurred. 

The task force concluded that the nozzle leakage and the vessel
head degradation were preventable. According to the task force,
the event at Davis-Besse was not prevented because: 
  + The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), DBNPS and the
nuclear industry failed to adequately review, assess and
follow-up on relevant operating experience; 
  + DBNPS failed to assure that plant safety issues would
receive appropriate attention; and 
  + The NRC failed to integrate known or available information
into its assessments of Davis-Besse's safety performance. 

Jan Strasma, senior public affairs officer for the NRC, admits
his agency "had to do some strong soul-searching of our own
regulatory programs, our inspection procedures" in light of what
happened at Davis-Besse, where the NRC had two inspectors in
residence at the time the cavity was discovered. "We have placed
more focus on reactor vessel head issues," he says, "and our
training now includes a more heightened focus on the reactor
head." (A scathing report released by the United States General
Accounting Office [GAO] in May 2004 indicates the NRC still has
three systematic weaknesses to address – weaknesses that could
contribute to the safety of nuclear energy across the country.
According to the GAO, the NRC needs to: identify early
indications of deteriorating safety conditions at plants;
develop a better system to determine if a plant should be shut
down for safety concerns; and provide more monitoring of actions
taken in response to incidents at plants.) 

'A Disregard for Safety' 

Roger Whitcomb was brought into Davis-Besse in 1985 as part of a
team investigating an incident involving loss of feedwater
through the steam generators. At the time, it was rated the
second-worst nuclear incident after Three Mile Island. Whitcomb
was the preventative maintenance program manager, and his job
was to improve and create a viable preventative maintenance
program at the facility. 

"For 2 and a half years, I worked at improving maintenance at
Davis-Besse. In June 1988, I submitted a 75-page report that
identified improvements and provided critical assessment of
where we needed to go with preventative maintenance. Management
was not happy with the report. Management ordered me to change
the report and rather than change it, I left," says Whitcomb. 

When he heard about the hole in the reactor head, he was
"absolutely infuriated," he says. "It is symptomatic of the same
pattern of behavior – a disregard for safety – that occurred in
the 1980s," he contends. 

At Davis-Besse, the discovery of the hole was met with the kind
of shock generally reserved for those late-night phone calls
involving loved ones and car crashes, says FirstEnergy spokesman
Richard Wilkins. "Employees and management were shocked and
really incredulous at how this could have happened," remembers
Wilkins. "At a nuclear power plant, safety is roughly defined as
all physical and programmatic barriers that are in place to
protect the reactor core. In our industry, the protection of the
core has to be the focus of attention. Every maintenance
activity, every training session, even routine work in the plant
has to be concerned with that." 

What happened at Davis-Besse, he acknowledges, was created by a
"lack of robust questioning, of not challenging things that
don't appear correct or that pose a risk to the safety margin."
In other words, he adds, "We found the safety culture was not
where it needed to be." 

Creating a Culture 

Work stopped at Davis-Besse while management determined what
changes needed to occur in the work culture if the reactor was
going to operate safely. The decision was made to benchmark
other nuclear power stations, hire a consultant to help build a
safety culture, and conduct training activities to boost
awareness of safety in the workplace. (Editor's Note: A request
for the name of the consultant was ignored and a promised call
to Occupational Hazards from a safety professional at
Davis-Besse never materialized. ) 

Initial training for employees, says Wilkins, involved
conducting an in-depth assessment of how the reactor head had
ended up in the degraded condition in which it was found. 

"We conducted a case study that went back to the late 1980s that
examined the maintenance history and programs for that equipment
that showed employees how, over time, there were missed
opportunities to stop the problem," he says. 

One of the major problems, management realized, was that the
boric acid program, which should have caught and stopped the
leak that caused the cavity, was ineffective and inadequately
implemented. As a result, every employee received a half-day of
training on boric acid and other maintenance and safety issues.
"It was painful to sit through," Wilkins admits. "Some of the
opportunities that were missed were not subtle." 

Training sessions included instilling into employees the
importance of being vigilant and reporting safety issues at the
plant. "Every employee, before the training, would have told you
he had the legal right to report a safety issue. Now, they know
they have a legal obligation to report safety issues," says
Wilkins. 

Employees were told to report issues to their supervisors and
shown how to write up a report about a safety issue. They were
reintroduced to the ombudsman program, which allows them to
report safety issues without identifying themselves directly to
supervisors. They were also reminded they could report issues
directly to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or report concerns
to one of three on-site NRC inspectors. (The NRC increased the
number of on-site inspectors at Davis-Besse to three following
the discovery of the reactor head problems.) 

A new corrective action program – the Employee Concerns Program
– allows employees who have identified a problem or a potential
problem to enter a condition report into a computer database.
The report is reviewed by management, prioritized and addressed.
A similar program in place before 2002 "wasn't strong enough,"
Wilkins admits. At Davis-Besse, he says, employees weren't
intimidated into remaining silent about problems. Rather, "They
didn't report problems because they felt the issues they raised
were never addressed," he notes. 

The new computerized reporting system generates automated
feedback that lets the employee know how the report was
addressed and what action was or will be taken and why.
Employees now feel like their concerns are being heard, says
Wilkins. 

One of the things that became clear as the company investigated
the problems with the safety culture was that employees knew a
lot more about safety issues than they shared with management.
So, in addition to training sessions and suggestion programs,
the company created additional opportunities to "listen" to
employees. 

Meetings and Surveys 

Initially, what Wilkins calls "alignment sessions" allowed
employees and management to discuss issues, because, as the
events leading up to the discovery of the cavity in the reactor
vessel head showed, there was a disconnect between what
employees saw and knew and what management was told. These
sessions were held frequently soon after the events of 2002, but
do not occur as frequently now. There are, however, a number of
opportunities for employees to discuss safety or work-related
concerns with upper management. 

All Hands monthly meetings include, at the very least, the site
vice president and directors, and have been known to include the
president of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. and the CEO of
the operating company, FirstEnergy Corp. These meetings usually
attract 300 to 400 employees, who receive an update on various
programs and the company in general. Town Hall meetings include
directors or the plant manager and allow 15 to 25 people to
discuss specific issues. With such a small group, the meeting
generally focuses on certain points that have been raised
through employee suggestions or at the larger All Hands
meetings. 

Once a month, a dozen to 15 employees are selected to attend a
Tuesday meeting that focuses on what Wilkins calls the four
"C's": compliments, changes, concerns and communications.
Positives are noted, concerns are voiced, changes are discussed
and communication – whether or not information is getting out to
rank-and-file employees – is evaluated. 

"All of their comments are written down and put into a report
for the site vice president," says Wilkins. "He reviews the
report and meets with them on the following Friday to address
any concerns or complaints. It has been an effective tool. The
site vice president can say, 'Here's the situation' and put it
in context. In some cases, the situation can and should be
resolved and the vice president will make a commitment right
there to do it. Other times, he will give a reason why the
situation cannot be resolved as requested." 

Employees also take surveys at their weekly meetings. The
surveys: 
  + Ask if employees are receiving the information they need to
do their jobs effectively and safety. 
  + Ask if safety issues are being addressed when raised. 
  + Allow employees to write in any concerns they have. 

Independent Assessments 

As a condition of restarting Davis-Besse in March 2004,
FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to submit the facility to independent
assessments of four areas of operation: engineering program
effectiveness, operations performance, the corrective action
program and the safety culture. Three of the four reports have
been completed and published; only the safety culture report
remains a mystery. FirstEnergy's Wilkins points to the results
of the safety surveys and the independent assessments as an
indication that "over the past 3 years, we've certainly seen
considerable improvement in the safety culture." But, he adds,
"there's room for improvement." 

He points to the facility's industrial safety record of 9
million hours worked without a lost-time accident as an
indication that while some questions might remain about the
strength of the safety culture at Davis-Besse, employees at the
facility work in a safe manner. 

Outsiders say the probability that the outside assessment of the
safety culture at Davis-Besse will be glowing is unlikely, based
on the previous three assessments of the engineering program,
the operations performance and corrective action program. While
all the reports indicated some improvement had occurred, they
also indicated there are lingering problems at the facility. 

The panel examining the corrective action program rated it
"marginal" in six out of seven categories, while the seventh –
effectiveness of program trending – was given an
"unsatisfactory." Operations performance has improved, according
to that panel's report; however, performance was not
consistently good enough and the panel indicates that training
and communication are still issues. 

The safety culture assessment is expected this month. Critics
believe it will reveal that much of the talk of a growing safety
culture at the facility is a sham. "I know people who still work
there," says Whitcomb, "and they say nothing has changed." 

He points to a backlog of nearly 200 preventative maintenance
items that existed when the utility requested permission to
restart Davis-Besse last spring. "The plant was shut down for 2
years. There shouldn't be a backlog of preventative maintenance
items, especially if the culture has been realigned to reflect a
focus on safety," Whitcomb insists. 

The Future 

Sandy Buchanan, the executive director of Ohio Citizen Action,
Ohio's largest environmental organization, isn't optimistic
about the findings of the safety culture assessment. She says
intimidation of employees about safety issues at the Davis-Besse
Nuclear Power Station is ongoing. "We have talked to some people
who work at the plant – about completely unrelated issues – who
don't want their names used, which is further evidence that
there is some intimidation occurring," she says. She believes
also that employees are not reporting work-related injuries
because of fear of reprisals. 

According to NRC's Strasma, a report by an NRC oversight panel
examining management and human performance issues at Davis-Besse
(which examines some of the same ground the safety culture
assessment is expected to cover) found that, "while workers by a
large percentage indicated they would report safety issues
without fear of reprisal, there was a decline in that number
from previous surveys." In other words, a growing number of
employees indicated they felt intimidated when attempting to
report safety issues. 

Buchanan doesn't just reserve her criticism for FirstEnergy
management. She blasts the NRC, claiming that the report to
which Strasma refers, "Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, NRC
Special Inspection, Management and Human Performance, Corrective
Action Effectiveness," shows the regulatory agency failed to
determine if what it calls HIRD – harassment, intimidation,
retaliation and discrimination – was actually continuing at
Davis-Besse. 

Buchanan complains that the NRC examined paperwork, minutes of
meetings, written procedures and e-mails to determine the
effectiveness of the safety culture at the facility, when it
should have conducted its own confidential employee surveys that
mimicked the questions asked by those conducted by Davis-Besse
management. She also says that when employees reported
management misconduct, the NRC should have investigated, and, if
appropriate, taken action against those responsible while
providing whistleblower protection for the employees. 

"Instead of investigating the alleged illegal management
activity, the commission examined what was wrong with employees
that might have caused them to answer surveys in such a negative
way. They concluded, at great length, that the employees were
tired and frustrated," says Buchanan, who adds, "Another
explanation is possible: The employees were telling the truth
about the misconduct." 

The NRC Inspection Team did interview 120 people during its
visit to the facility early in 2004. It found: 
  + More negative comments about management than had been seen
before. "Throughout the interview process, the inspection team,
in general, noted a more negative tone in responses to questions
dealing with management behavior and effectiveness than during
similar interviews in May 2003. When concerns were raised, the
responses were often considered to be presented in an
intimidating manner or the individuals did not believe the
issues had been satisfactorily addressed," said the NRC report. 
  + A continued management emphasis on schedule over safety. 

An exhausted and frustrated staff. Over 80 percent of
respondents indicated that they had been affected by the
scheduling of six, 12-hour shifts or more per week. Some
admitted to making errors, while others took "self-styled
mitigation measures of which their management was unaware," the
report noted. 
  + Continued references to management intimidation and
retaliation against employees. "In the area of management
comments, the inspection team received information regarding
manager comments that the staff considered to be inappropriate
or degrading," said the report. The respondents also included a
few examples "about what some individuals perceived to be
punishment," while "some examples of what could be viewed as
retaliation were also provided." 

Perhaps the most telling response of the NRC survey is that 10
percent of the people interviewed believe there is potential for
"an event of the same magnitude as the vessel head corrosion" to
happen again. The most common explanation offered for that view
"was the potential for management to lose focus in the future or
having inadequate management returning to positions in charge." 

While both Wilkins and Strasma insist that widespread changes
have occurred in both the safety culture and the management
hierarchy at Davis-Besse, Whitcomb points to several FirstEnergy
managers who were in charge at Davis-Besse when the problems
were revealed who were promoted, saying that's an indication
that the company "just doesn't get it." Buchanan agrees. 

"A lot of the people scapegoated [at the time the rust on the
reactor head was found] were new hires," she says. "Some of the
same people responsible for what happened at Davis-Besse are
still with FirstEnergy." 

"The idea of production ahead of safety still permeates the
place," says Buchanan. "There are astounding, ingrained problems
with the safety culture. That's not going to change if the old
guard is still there, waiting in the wings." 

Sidebar: Criminal Case Likely in Davis-Besse Shutdown 

On Dec. 10, 2004, FirstEnergy Corp., the parent company of
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC), announced it had
received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland
indicating that it is "a target of the federal grand jury
investigation into alleged false statements made to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the fall of 2001." 

U.S. Attorney Greg White confirmed that an investigation is
ongoing, adding, "We hope to complete that investigation soon." 

The charges, if brought, will likely accuse FENOC officials and
managers of lying to the NRC about the condition of the
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station's reactor vessel pressure head
before the facility was shut down in February 2002. Those false
statements were allegedly made following an order issued the
previous spring by the NRC, which required all 103 nuclear power
plants in the country to provide information about reactor head
nozzles. 

FirstEnergy allegedly balked at providing that information, and
the NRC threatened to inspect Davis-Besse, the first such
inspection in 14 years. However, Davis-Besse had a history as a
good performer, so the NRC allowed FENOC to operate the facility
until Feb. 16, 2002, when the facility shut down for refueling.
At that time, corrosion was discovered on the reactor head that
posed a serious threat to the safety of the facility. 

In a statement, FirstEnergy admits, "It is likely that federal
charges will be returned against FENOC by the grand jury." 

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, tried to get
FirstEnergy's operating license yanked in February 2003. He says
the operators at Davis-Besse "haven't been telling the truth,"
adding: "It's all about money in the end. It's not about public
safety." 

Kucinich also blasts the NRC, noting that a report issued by the
Government Accounting Office last May "shows that the NRC was
ill-equipped, ill-informed and far too slow to react. The NRC's
reaction to Davis-Besse was inadequate, irresponsible and left
the public at grave risk." 

Howard Whitcomb is a Toledo, Ohio, attorney who has worked at
Davis-Besse and as an on-site NRC inspector at a South Carolina
nuclear power station. Indictments against FENOC and its
managers, he says, are not an indictment of the nuclear power
industry, but should serve as a wake-up call. 

"I think the hole was an intentional and deliberate refusal to
do maintenance, and the management at FirstEnergy made a
conscious decision to tell the NRC that the maintenance was
done," says Whitcomb. "The NRC at best is a spot-checker. The
industry needs to regulate itself. The NRC can't catch every
problem. They're not staffed for that. The NRC fell down on this
one." 

"Both the NRC and FirstEnergy need to be recalibrated," he adds,
"but I'm not certain that will happen."				

- Sandy Smith 				
 			 						 		   	 	   			 Quick Links
Occupational Hazards [http://www.occupationalhazards.com]  
 |   © 2004   		     	 	
*****************************************************************
 27 Times Argus: Vermont Yankee warned on dry cask waste storage
 
February 24, 2005 

By David Gram Associated Press   

MONTPELIER — Lawmakers on Wednesday warned the owners of the
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that their push to store highly
radioactive waste in dry casks on the plant grounds in Vernon
won't come quickly or easily.

And in a harbinger of what could become a major test of wills if
not a protracted legal battle, Entergy Nuclear's top official in
Vermont would not rule out trying to use federal law to pre-empt
state law on the plant's storage of spent nuclear fuel at its
site in Vernon.

"I have given no consideration to that," said Vermont Yankee
site Vice President Jay Thayer. "Our focus is going through the
legislative process."

Vermont has a law dating from the late 1970s that exempts the
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., from a requirement that
anyone seeking new radioactive waste storage in the state must
formally petition the Legislature first.

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. no longer owns the plant,
though. Last year, Vermont Yankee's Statehouse lobbyist asked
late in the session to have inserted into the state's general
fund budget bill a provision adding the words "its successors
and assigns" to the VYNPC exemption.

Some lawmakers cried foul, saying the legislative committees
that normally oversee Vermont Yankee never were given an
opportunity to review the provision, and it died.

Vermont Yankee is back this year, asking for a one-word change
saying that would have the exemption apply to the Vermont Yankee
site, rather than the corporation.

Thayer told a joint meeting of the House and Senate Natural
Resources committees that the plant still wants to "seek
clarification of the exemption."

Rep. Steve Darrow, D-Dummerston, then asked what the plant might
do "when it becomes clear to you that's not what you're going to
get from the Legislature."

Thayer's response: "I can't answer that this morning."

Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, followed that with a
question about the formal petition process under which the plant
would ask the Legislature for permission to build more storage
capacity for highly radioactive waste. "Do you foresee
initiating that process?" Klein asked.

Thayer replied, "With all due respect I do not." Thayer insisted
that the only plan the company has is to try to persuade
lawmakers to include it in the exemption that applied to
previous owners.

The exchanges came during a hearing that was mainly devoted to a
briefing for committee members on the plant's plan to store
high-level radioactive waste in 36 casks on its grounds.

Plant officials sought to emphasize the safety of the casks and
the fact that they can be used both for storage and
transportation of waste that will remain radioactive for
thousands of years.

The committee also was treated to two videos played by a witness
for the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition that showed
explosives like those contained in widely distributed
shoulder-launched missiles penetrating casks similar to those
Entergy wants to use at Vermont Yankee.

As part of their briefing, plant officials distributed to
committee members and the media a packet that included a
multi-color aerial photo of Vermont Yankee.

That distribution came a little more than three years after a
Brattleboro Reformer photographer was detained by police for
taking pictures at Vermont Yankee under a 1917 treason law.
   
© 2005 Times Argus [http://www.timesargus.com/] 
*****************************************************************
 28 Guardian Unlimited: Quake Had More Impact on Wash. Nuke Plant
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday February 25, 2005 12:46 AM

By SHANNON DININNY 

Associated Press Writer 

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The impact of a severe earthquake on a
radioactive waste treatment plant under construction at the
Hanford nuclear reservation is almost 40 percent greater than
previously estimated, according to a new study. 

The nearly $6 billion plant - the federal government's largest
construction project - is being built to treat millions of
gallons of highly radioactive waste left from Cold War-era
nuclear weapons production. 

Construction is already about 35 percent complete at the
south-central Washington site. Work has been slowed or shifted
to other parts of the plant while engineers re-evaluate its
design. 

The U.S. Department of Energy, which manages the site cleanup,
and the contractor hired to build the plant stressed the chances
of a severe earthquake at the site are slim. 

In addition, some construction work that already has been
re-evaluated - the concrete walls at the plant, for instance -
meet the new seismic requirements and will not have to be
changed. 

``Earthquakes, No. 1, don't happen a lot in this area, and if
they do happen, we are building a very robust plant to handle
it,'' Roy Schepens, manager of the Energy Department's Office of
River Protection, said Thursday. 

In 2002, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board raised
concerns that the Energy Department had failed to adequately
investigate the impact a severe earthquake might have on the
plant. 

The agency had gathered seismic data from the entire
586-square-mile Hanford reservation to determine the impact, but
did not conduct a seismic investigation of the plant site
itself. 

The agency conducted a more thorough evaluation in 2004; the
data were sent to a federal science laboratory for review. 

The results of that review - released first to The Associated
Press this week - found the force of the ground movements at the
plant site during a worst-case-scenario earthquake would be 38
percent greater than previously estimated. 

Engineers now are working to apply that new number to the
plant's design; the process could take four to six months,
Schepens said. 

``In the near term, we will develop very conservative design
criteria that will allow us to advance the design and
construction activities,'' he said. 

Whether the new data will affect the cost and schedule of the
work has not yet been determined, Schepens said. 

For 40 years, the Hanford reservation made plutonium for the
nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. Today, work there centers on a
$50 billion to $60 billion cleanup, to be finished by 2035. 

About 1,700 people have been working to build the plant, which
will stand 12 stories tall and be about the size of four
football fields. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 29 SF Chronicle: EUREKA: PG&E suspects 'missing' nuclear fuel rods never left
 
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer
[carlhall@sfchronicle.com] 
Thursday, February 24, 2005                                              

After a seven-month search, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said
Wednesday that no one is completely sure what happened to three
missing fuel rods at the old Humboldt Bay Power Plant near
Eureka -- but that there is every reason to believe they were
right where they were supposed to be all along. 

An interim report to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission
detailed "reasonable, but not conclusive, evidence" that
deteriorated fragments recovered from the bottom of a used-fuel
storage pool at the defunct plant in fact were the remains of
the missing fuel rods. 

The search began in June when PG found a discrepancy in records
used to keep track of radioactive material. 

One record indicated the three 18-inch rods were dumped into the
storage pool in 1968. Another record showed they were shipped to
an outside waste site a year later. 

Nuclear power watchdog groups said this revealed dangerous holes
in the system -- and raised the possibility that neither of the
recorded scenarios was correct. In fact, officials couldn't rule
out such remote possibilities as theft and coverup. 

That prompted a full-scale search and analysis, including
interviews with former employees and meticulous inspections of
the entire plant site. An independent contractor, ATI
Consulting, was hired to study the 40-year-old fuel rod
fragments that were located. 

A final report is expected by May. The total cost of the effort,
PG spokesman Jeff Lewis said Wednesday, is likely to be about $1
million, which he said will be borne by shareholders, rather
than by the utility's ratepayers. 

In a summary of the interim report issued Wednesday, PG said
officials are confident the effort was worthwhile, because it
"established an accurate inventory for all special nuclear
material onsite, and developed solid controls for storing and
accounting for these materials." 

The analysis also effectively ruled out any terrorist plot,
Lewis said, other than a plot that would have had no point: Not
only was there no evidence of theft or attempted theft found,
but the missing rods were "of insufficient quality and quantity"
to make a weapon of mass destruction or even a low-grade "dirty
bomb" capable of spreading radioactive material through a
populated area. 

E-mail Carl T. Hall at chall@sfchronicle.com
[chall@sfchronicle.com] . 				
Page B - 3 			


The San Francisco Chronicle] 
*****************************************************************
 30 CNW Group: AECL President and CEO addresses nuclear safety
regulator on performance at Chalk River site 

Canada NewsWire Group 

February 24, 2005 

QUICK 

OTTAWA, Feb. 24 /CNW/ - The President and CEO of Atomic Energy of 
Canada Limited (AECL) appeared this afternoon before a meeting of 
the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The purpose of 
Robert Van Adel's visit was to address the CNSC Commissioners on 
recent events and media reports concerning operational and 
procedural compliance matters at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories. 

"I want to assure the CNSC that AECL's top priority -- my top 
priority -- remains the continued protection and safety of our 
employees, the public and the environment," said Robert Van Adel, 
President and CEO of AECL. "At no time, with respect to any of 
the matters that have recently been before the CNSC, has the 
safety or health of the public or our employees been affected. 
Chalk River has maintained a stellar health and safety track 
record over the last several decades." 

Mr. Van Adel reported to the CNSC that over the past four years 
he has implemented measures to continuously improve operational 
processes in compliance with the current regulatory regime. 

In addition, Mr. Van Adel announced earlier this week, further 
measures with the creation of a new executive level position of 
Chief Regulatory Officer and the addition of several key 
specialist positions to support this role. The Chief Regulatory 
Officer will be responsible for AECL's overall compliance with 
the current regulatory framework. 

He also announced two additional key appointments. Dr. Ken Hedges 
has been appointed Vice-President - Dedicated Isotope Facility 
(DIF), and Mr. Paul Lafrenière has been appointed General Manager 
of DIF operations reporting to Dr. Hedges. These appointments 
will have full accountability for all aspects of the new medical 
isotope production facilities. 

"I am confident that these measures that I have announced, as 
well as the additional measures outlined during the CNSC meeting 
will further enhance our Chalk River operations and I am sure 
this will address any recent concerns raised by the CNSC," said 
Mr. Van Adel. 

About AECL 

---------- 

AECL is an integrated nuclear technology company providing 
services to nuclear utilities worldwide. Our 3,500 employees are 
focused on delivering R support, nuclear services, design and 
engineering, construction management, specialist technology, and 
waste management and decommissioning in support of CANDU reactor 
products. 

For further information: CONTACT: Dale Coffin, Director, 
Corporate Communications, Tel: (905) 403-7457 (office), (905) 
302-9762 

© 2005 CNW Group Ltd. PRIVACY &TERMS 
*****************************************************************
 31 CNN.com: Strong cash inflow boosts BAE - 

Feb 24, 2005

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Britain's BAE Systems met
expectations with a 3 percent rise in 2004 underlying operating
profit Thursday but surprised with strong cash inflow that swung
Europe's biggest defense firm to a net cash position.

Earnings before interest, taxes, goodwill amortization and
exceptional items rose to £1.013 billion ($1.93 billion) from
£980 million a year earlier.

That was within a range of analyst forecasts in a Reuters poll
with a median forecast of £1.037 billion.

"We've moved the company from a position of recovery to one of
profitable growth," Chief Executive Mike Turner said in a
conference call following the results.

Operating cash inflow jumped to £2.07 billion from £836 million
a year earlier, allowing BAE to end the year with net cash of £5
million pounds versus a debt of £870 million at end-2003. 

The cash also allowed BAE to raise its dividend to 9.5 pence per
share from 9.2p and to spend £630 million.

"The cash generation is phenomenal," said one London-based
analyst, noting consensus was debt of £750 million to 1.3
billion. He said Saudi payments in oil given high crude prices,
and advances on programs such as Hawk trainer jets for India had
likely helped.

BAE shares were up 2.8 percent at 257 pence following the
results, outpacing London's FTSE which was up just 0.1 percent
as of 0826 GMT.

BAE shares have climbed more than 30 percent in the past year,
outperforming their closest European peer, EADS.
Airbus


Partnerships such as its stake in missile maker MBDA contributed
109 million pounds in profit versus 65 million a year earlier.

While primarily a defense firm, BAE also owns 20 percent of
civil planemaker Airbus.

"Airbus continues to build upon the strong performance of 2003
despite a number of challenges in the current commercial
aircraft market and against a backdrop of rising fuel prices and
adverse U.S. dollar exchange rates," Turner said in the
company's earnings statement.

Its stake in Airbus contributed 176 million pounds to underlying
earnings versus 204 million a year earlier.

"At the moment I can't see a better use for our funds," Turner
said when asked about media reports suggesting BAE might sell
its Airbus stake.

BAE's overall underlying earnings per share rose to 18.0 pence
from 16.6p.

Sales rose 7 percent to 13.48 billion pounds in line with
analyst forecasts.
Eurofighter


BAE as part of the Eurofighter consortium secured long-awaited
firm commitments for a second tranche of 236 planes from
founding nations Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain in December.

That business is expected to start generating profits in 2005,
BAE Financial Director George Rose said on the conference call.

Analysts are keen for an update on negotiations over a
2.9-billion-pound plan to build a pair of aircraft carriers for
Britain's Royal Navy.

They are also looking for signs of progress in securing a
contract for upgrades on Tornado fighter jets for Saudi Arabia
which is expected in 2005.

Chairman Dick Olver, who took up his post last July, has also
said that BAE needs more U.S. representation on its board.

BAE is Europe's biggest defense player in the United States,
where defense spending dwarfs that of western Europe.

Its U.S. dollar exposure, including through dollar-denominated
Airbus aircraft sales, meant a negative exchange impact of 424
million pounds for BAE in 2004.

In Britain, key programs include nuclear-powered Astute
submarines and upgrades of Nimrod surveillance aircraft.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may
*****************************************************************
 32 Times-Standard: Missing nuke rods found?

[http://www.times-standard.com]
          
Article Last Updated: Thursday, February 24, 2005 -
 		   	 	
By Kimberly Wear The Times-Standard


 KING SALMON -- Three missing fuel rod segments may have been
sitting in a previously searched spent fuel pool at the Humboldt
Bay Power Plant since 1968 but went undetected due to
fragmentation, according to an interim report Pacific Gas and
Electric filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

 "It's inconclusive at this point, but we feel they've been in
the spent fuel pool all along, just in disguise if you will," PG
spokesman Lloyd Coker said Wednesday.

 The preliminary findings by ATI Consulting, a metallurgical
forensic analysis firm hired by PG to examine fragments found in
storage containers in the used fuel pool, were provided to the
NRC on Tuesday. A final report on PG's investigation is expected
in the next few months. 			

 The utility has been trying to find the segments since June
when discrepancies about their location arose during an
inventory of the pool, part of the process of permanently
decommissioning the plant shut down in 1976 after a fault line
was found running underneath its location south of Eureka.

 Records indicate parts of a spent fuel assembly labeled A-49
were cut into three, 18-inch segments nearly 40 years ago. What
happened afterward gets a bit murkier. There were indications
the materials were shipped to a waste facility or the parts were
put in the pool. 

But there are no record of them in the pool's inventory. And,
searches of the pool for three, intact 18-inch segments came up
short dozens of years later.

 ATI's theory is the missing segments are in the pool but broke
into smaller pieces -- some the size of a thumbnail, others up
to 14 inches long -- when fuel and other equipment was moved
around after the late 1960s.

 An analysis of some fragment ends show what appear to be
machine cuts, a company synopsis of the report states. The
missing A-49 segments are from the only spent fuel rod
mechanically cut at the plant.

 "Based on an independent expert analysis of the fuel fragments
we have recovered from the used fuel pool, it is most likely
that we have the cut fuel rod segments in our possession," said
Greg Rueger, senior vice president and chief nuclear office, in
a company release.

 "Unfortunately, their condition after 40 years of being stored
under other components in the pool make positive identification
extremely difficult," he said. 

Scott Burnell, a NRC spokesman, confirmed the commission had
received the report. He said the information will be reviewed.

 "We're going to make sure one way or another we are satisfied,"
Burnell said by telephone from his Maryland office outside
Washington, D.C. "There is no indication whatsoever that any of
uncountable material ever posed any threat to public health at
all."

 The utility and the NRC agree theft of the segments was an
unlikely option.

 Two other nuclear plants have also come up short on fuel rods.
One later found the material in the plant's storage pool while
the others remain missing.

 "It will remain to be seen if any enforcement action would need
to be taken," Burnell said. "We are reviewing the course of
events." 

He said that to his knowledge there are no active enforcement
proceedings in this case.

                
© 2005 Times - Standard 
*****************************************************************
 33 Dazhong Net: Shandong opting for nuclear power plants
 
[http://www.dzwww.com/english/]          
  
East China's Shandong Province is moving ahead with three
nuclear power projects, which are expected to produce
electricity by 2010. 

The three projects are the Haiyang Nuclear Power Station in
Yantai, Rushan Nuclear Power Station and Rongcheng Power Station
in Weihai, sources with the Shandong Provincial Development and
Reform Commission said yesterday. 

Statistics show that Shandong has a total generating capacity of
30 million kilowatts a year. The province can currently provide
only half of the 70 million tons of coal burnt to produce this
electricity, with the rest being brought in from other
provinces. 

It is estimated that the province's annual need for
electricity-generation capacity will reach 50 million kilowatts
in 2010. Hence, the province urgently needs to increase the
proportion of nuclear power it produces. 

The layouts for the three plants are quite similar, with an
annual capacity of 4 to 6 million kilowatts. An investment of 40
billion yuan (US$4.8 billion) to 80 billion yuan (US$9.6
billion) will be needed for each of the three plants. 

To date, the National Development and Reform Commission and the
Ministry of Science and Technology have approved the preliminary
feasibility reports for the Haiyang and Rushan plants. But all
three projects are still waiting for the final approval from the
central government.   
  
    
[http://www.dzwww.com/english/aboutus.htm]   |  DZWWW.COM
[http://www.dzwww.com] 
Copyright (C) 2000-2003    DZWWW.COM   All  Rights Reserved.    
y
*****************************************************************
 34 [du-list] Outside Testing Urged For Ailing Veterans
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:54 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
1- Outside Testing Urged For Ailing Veterans
2- VETERANS FOR PEACE CALLS FOR BAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM
MUNITIONS
--

Outside Testing Urged For Ailing Veterans

February 12, 2005
By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, Hartford Courant Staff Writer

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-uranium0212.artfeb12,0,5572960.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

A state legislator and the attorney general have advised a
legislative panel that Connecticut National Guard troops and
Reservists returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
need independent testing to determine whether illnesses
afflicting many of them could be caused by uranium dust from
U.S. munitions.

But what riveted the General Assembly veterans committee was
testimony by 42-year-old Army veteran Melissa Sterry of New
Haven. Thursday, she lined up her 30 medications and two
boxes of medical records in the Legislative Office Building
hearing room in Hartford to bolster her words.

"These are my medical records and these are my Army meds,"
said Sterry, an Army specialist in the first gulf war.

"On the outside I look perfectly healthy," said Sterry. "And
I'm dying on the inside."

Sterry said that for six months in 1991 and 1992 and without
protective gear, she helped clean tanks and equipment
contaminated by uranium dust. Her left leg was crushed in
1992 in a service-related accident.

Today, Sterry said, she suffers from chronic fatigue,
chronic diarrhea, joint aches, blood in both her urine and
stool, vomiting, nausea, chronic muscle spasms, headaches
and upper respiratory infections.

She receives veterans' benefits for her leg injury, muscle
spasms, post traumatic stress and diarrhea, the cause of
which the military lists as unknown.

Sterry, who is unemployed, said she is still seeking needed
medical benefits.

"I don't want to be disabled. I want to work," she said.
"I'm saying, `Fix me!'"

The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some
soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them
seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more
sensitive, more expensive testing.

Sterry said in a telephone interview that after researching
depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test
because she could not trust the results.

Earlier in the hearing, state Rep. Patricia Dillon, D-New
Haven, who is proposing the measure, said a better test is
needed. She said the U.S. Department of Defense should pay
for the independent test and if it refuses, service members
should have the right to sue.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told the committee
he supports the bill.

"This kind of material has been used in unprecedented
amounts in these two [war] theaters," Blumenthal said.

The U.S. military used depleted uranium munitions in
Afghanistan and Iraq extensively to destroy tanks and bunkers.

Depleted uranium is a toxic, heavy metal byproduct of
uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons and reactor fuel. It
is used in munitions, ballast for airplanes, tank armor and
other products. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
When a depleted uranium-tipped projectile hits a metal
target, it ignites and burns its way through. A single shot
can destroy or disable a tank.

But the fine depleted uranium dust created by the blast can
blow in the wind for many miles and if inhaled, ingested or
absorbed through the skin in sufficient quantities can cause
lung cancer or kidney ailments.

James Benson, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs, defends the present test.

"The VA is convinced that the [depleted uranium] screening
provided by the VA is not surpassed by anything available
from any other source," he said. "The VA will pay for any of
the tests done by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology."

----

VETERANS FOR PEACE CALLS FOR BAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM MUNITIONS

International Labor Communications Association
Feb 12, 2005 Uruknet

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m9648&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Veterans For Peace, an UN-recognized non-governmental
organization and veterans' advocacy group, calls for Dr.
Howard Dean to use his professional responsibility as a
physician, and his influence in the Democratic National
Committee to end the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions.

It is urgent that people of conscience in this country act
now. An increasing number of studies has linked DU with Gulf
War syndrome, and DU is strongly implicated in birth defects
among veterans' children. Disturbing reports of suspected
radiation-related problems among Iraq war veterans are
surfacing.

Children in Afghanistan and Iraq are exposed to radiation
from DU munitions in walls, in soil, and, in one study in
which Dr. Rokke participated, from spent projectiles
scattered in city streets. Babies have been born in these
countries having no eyes and lacking crowns on their skulls.
Anemia, cancers, liver and kidney dysfunctions, and
infections due to immune system deficiences occur more
frequently than before the wars.

Depleted uranium, a by-product of uranium enrichment, is
used in the manufacture of weapons having kinetic penetrator
properties. Such munitions were developed for heavy armor
scenarios. It is has been very widely used, even when no
armor is used by opponents. It ranges in caliber from 7.62mm
(M-60 machine gun round) to 120mm, so is delivered by
artillery, tanks, small arms, and aircraft. Fragments, fine
oxide dust, and the remains of the rounds themselves pose
considerable health hazards to indigenous populations, and
to our own military people. The armor on vehicles has DU
components.

DU has a half-life of 450 billion years, meaning it will
remain toxic and dangerous. The military has known about the
toxicity of depleted uranium since before the First Gulf
War, but has failed to act, even to protect its own
personnel. Dr. (and Army Reserve Lt. Colonel) Douglas Rokke
has participated in Army studies, and has written and spoken
extensively on the Army's denial of DU's effects.

The McDermott Bill, HR 1483, calls for testing of veterans
exposed to DU, their children, and environments exposed. The
bill has languished in the House, and still does not have
the sponsorship to bring it to a vote in 2005. The
Republican majority cannot be trusted to act responsibly in
this matter of urgency.

The Veterans Adminstration must be tasked with testing of
veterans and their children. Dr. Douglas Rokke's work should
form the basis of a military response to this threat to
human life. We must budget cleanup of DU residue into
planning for civic action is countries where we have used
these munitions.

DU munitions are weapons of mass destruction. Veterans For
Peace calls for an immediate end to the use of DU in weapons
and in the manufacture of any military equipment used by our
soldiers and Marines.
	

:: Article nr. 9648 sent on 13-feb-2005 03:48 ECT

:: The address of this page is : www.uruknet.info?p=9648

:: The incoming address of this article is :

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1806 



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 35 [du-list] Iraqi boy who received leukemia treatment in Japan
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:58 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Iraqi boy who received leukemia treatment in Japan dies

Sunday, February 13, 2005 Japan Today

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=327579

NAGOYA — A 6-year-old Iraqi boy who returned to Iraq last
October after undergoing treatment for leukemia for nearly
10 months in Japan, died last Sunday after his condition
suddenly deteriorated, a Japanese civic group that sponsored
his stay in Japan said Saturday.

Abbas A-Ali Al-Malky, who is believed to have contracted
leukemia from depleted uranium used in the Iraq war, died
shortly after being taken to the hospital, said Mariko Ono,
representative of the Nagoya group Save the Iraqi Children.
The boy developed a fever the night before his death. (Kyodo
News)

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 36 [du-list] The Greatest Crime of Historic Time
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:56 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
The Greatest Crime of Historic Time

Friday, December 03, 2004 4:12:18 PM
by Victor Connor
V.Connor@insightbb.com

http://www.warfolly.vzz.net/thegreatestcrime.html

The greatest crime against humanity in all historic time has
now been committed by the United States government. It
dwarfs Joseph Stalin's killing of 7,000,000 Ukrainians in
the 1930s and Adolph Hitler's killing of 6,000,000 Jewish
people in the 1940s. This crime will cause the premature
deaths of TENS of MILLIONS of people and will give a
horribly debilitating disease to TENS of MILLIONS more. It
is indiscriminate mass murder - genocide. My statements may
be dramatic, but they are absolutely true.

Since October of 2001, the United States military has used
approximately 3,000 tons of depleted uranium munitions
against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will soon cause
the serious health problems to include respiratory disease,
kidney problems, rashes, birth defects, and the number of
cancers of those people to jump to over 500,000 people each
year. How do I know this? Because the United States military
used 375 tons of depleted uranium munitions against Iraq in
1991 and the cancer rate in children measured in Iraqi
hospitals rose from 32,000 per year in 1990 to 130,000 in
1997. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
official reports, U.S. casualties from Gulf War 1 now exceed
180,000 and already over 30,000 are now disabled from Gulf
War 2. We've now used eight times what we did in 1991 and
radiation has long been known to cause cancer. This is well
known by our federal government.

In a document dated October 30, 1943 and declassified June
5, 1974, three major scientists (Drs. James Conant, A. H.
Compton, and H. C. Urey) wrote to Brigadier General Leslie
R. Groves, who was the head of the atom bomb project,
concerning "Radioactive materials as a military weapon." In
that document they stated:

"As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground
into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke
and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles,
or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by
personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person
inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been
estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a
person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of
treatment for such a casualty"

Proponents of depleted uranium weaponry will state that
depleted uranium is only half as radioactive as normal
uranium, which is true. This would mean that it would take
TWO millionths of a gram accumulating in a person's body to
be fatal according to Conant, Compton and Urey.
Unfortunately, it isn't known exactly how much uranium ore
would be sufficient to cause death over a short period of
time, but we do know it caused the cancer deaths of workers
during the two years the Manhattan Project existed in making
our first three atomic bombs. Since then, scientists have
learned a lot more about the debilitating effects to animals
exposed to higher than normal radiation levels.

In fact, increased cancer rates downwind of American nuclear
power plants are well documented, even though not well
reported. Nuclear power plants in the United States release
small amounts of radioactive gases on a daily or weekly
basis. Compared to the depleted uranium usage in Iraq and
Afghanistan, these are extremely small amounts, but the
communities that live within fifty miles of the normal
downwind area from these nuclear power plants have higher
rates of cancer. One particularly telling fact is where
nuclear reactors have been shut down for a few years and
then restarted. The cancer rate among infants and young
children who were born after the shutdown quickly fell to
national averages, before rising again after the reactors
were restarted.

It takes about eight tons of regular uranium ore to make one
ton of enriched uranium to be used in nuclear power plants.
This leaves seven tons of depleted uranium. Depleted uranium
is composed primarily of three isotopes of uranium; it is
99.8% of U-238, 0.2% of U-235 and 0.0008% of U-234;
collectively one microgram of it will constantly emit about
120 alpha particles every day for millions of years. One
alpha particle has enough energy to disrupt the genetic
information in the nucleus of a cell, but when this happens
hundreds of local cells are affected by the instability of
the zapped cell.

To get a better understanding how radiation affects a human
body, think of it this way. We live in a dynamic universe.
We are constantly bombarded with radiation from outer space,
even though we are far from the sun and other stars. There
are trace amounts of uranium and radon among other naturally
decaying elements throughout the surface of the Earth.
Collectively, these sources affect all of the cells in our
body, but it is a question of the rate of impact on our
cells. On average each cell in a body is hit about one to
two times a year from a natural source of radiation. Compare
that with one millionth of a gram of depleted uranium
ingested into a body - this will hit thousands of cells
every day. In terms of the rate of increase, this means that
many of the cells that are nearby depleted uranium particles
are being zapped at a rate that is 100,000 times more than
normal. This will either kill the cells or cause massive
genetic defects.

The mechanism for this crime against humanity is as follows.
A depleted uranium projectile smashes into a vehicle or
building.

For example, each Abrams tank round contains about 10 pounds
of solid depleted uranium while each 30 mm round fired by
the A10 Warthog has about 3/4 pound of solid depleted
uranium. After the collision, about half of the projectile
is turned into powder 10 microns (ten one millionths of a
meter) or smaller. A human hair is normally between 60 and
100 microns thick and that proverbial millionth of a gram of
depleted uranium would fill a cube 37 microns on each side.
This dust now blows wherever the wind takes it. We have
already found depleted uranium in Iraq twenty five miles
from an impact site. This radioactive dust blows in cities,
in parks, on crops, in the rivers, and everywhere. They can
be breathed in or ingested from food and drink. Particles on
the order of 2.5 microns are perfect for implanting
themselves in our lungs. A small number of these would be
like smoking over ten packs of cigarettes every day forever
and children one, two and five years old are getting this
into their lungs.

If we used 375 tons of depleted uranium in the first Gulf
War, think how the people of Iraq and Afghanistan will feel
and be affected now that we used 3,000 tons of depleted
uranium against them. And its terrible effects will be there
forever.

Although many Americans believe that we are making life
better for Iraqis because we removed a brutal dictator and
are giving them democracy, Hussein averaged a few thousand
tortures and murders per year (and they were highly directed
at his political dissidents), whereas we will soon be
causing the deaths and terribly debilitating diseases of
hundreds of thousands of people per year and these deaths
will include babies and infants (Hussein seldom purposefully
ever hurt the very young).

What we are doing is indiscriminate genocide of the Muslim
people in the Middle East. The wind blows in all directions
and Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria and
Turkmenistan are all Muslim countries and are on Iraq's and
Afghanistan's borders.

Does it make sense to destroy Iraq in order to save it?

Is this the will of the compassionate Christian or the
politically responsible Republican or Democrat? Is our
federal government doing a good thing? Not being a Christian
or a Republican or a Democrat, I don't understand it. Even
though I'm not a Christian, Muslim or Jew, I still believe
that you are good people, but as terribly uninformed as I
was a few months ago.

You may ask: why are we doing this. The answer seems clear
to me. Corporations are the driving force behind our federal
government. They have taken control of the executive branch
of the federal government which has eclipsed the legislative
and judicial branches. The executive branch is no longer
responsive or accountable to the will of the people, and is
out of control. They are highly affected by corporate
lobbyists and take their direction from corporations because
money talks.

The defense industry lobbyists want the federal government's
supply of depleted uranium. Since the nuclear power industry
has found no acceptable way to safely dispose of the
leftover radioactive materials they produce, there are over
900,000 tons of depleted uranium still lying around waiting
to be made into military weapons because it has no other
commercial use and it makes big profits for the defense
industries in not having to produce it themselves. These big
profits can then be used to make large donations to federal
politicians who follow corporate directives. It's a vicious
and deadly cycle.

Now I know many people are caught up in the eternal debate
of who's better, Democrat or Republican, when in fact they
are just two sides of the same coin. The reality is that
both parties are controlled at higher levels and many things
that are problems to society are huge money-makers to the
above partisan forces. Depleted uranium is one such problem.
While many Americans are misdirected, people in the Middle
East are dying and will soon start to die unnecessarily by
the hundreds of thousands each year and for as long as they
live in those regions. And what's even worse is that as long
as we keep using depleted uranium weapons, we will be
permanently polluting more and more of the Earth.

Don't think that this depleted uranium won't affect us here
in the United States. 30,000 returning soldiers have
depleted uranium in their urine. This means that many of
them will have it in their semen and genetic damage and
birth defects will start to skyrocket here at home. This is
a Pandora's Box that is still open. Do you have the personal
integrity and humanity to shut it?

It is still not too late. U.S. Army and the Department of
Defense have regulations and orders in place that mandate
medical care for all DU casualties and require thorough
environmental clean up of all DU contamination
(http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html ), but
our nation's military leaders and President Bush simply
refuse to comply with these legal requirements. This makes
sense from a business point of view, because ultimately
corporations would lose too many profits.

Christians, would Jesus want us to keep polluting the Middle
East with deadly radioactive waste?

Abraham Lincoln said, "To sin by silence when they should
protest makes cowards of men." In the case of being silent
about depleted uranium, we would also be accomplices to murder.

Criticism of the government is not incompatible with good
citizenship; it is a prerequisite. For some reason, many
people believe that criticism of the government is
unpatriotic, when in fact it is the most important
responsibility of a patriotic citizen and is the very first
change that our founding fathers made when amending our
Constitution.

Note: This article has been reviewed and approved by Dr.
Doug Rokke. Doug is the former head of the Pentagon's
Depleted Uranium Project, who replied the following: Vic:
This is excellent~! I did some minor editing.
thank you doug rokke


Vic Connor has a B.S. in Physics, M.S. in Electrical and
Computer Engineering, and was accepted to do doctoral work
in three different subjects: physics, computer science and
mathematics. Professionally, he worked at the Endicott, NY
IBM engineering lab as a design engineer and software
programmer and later as a systems engineer at a sales
branch. He also worked as an assistant professor of Applied
Computer Science at Illinois State University.

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 37 [du-list] EPA places Vieques on track for cleanup
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:00 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
EPA places Vieques on track for cleanup

By Ray Quintanilla
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 15 2005

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/orl-asecvieques15021505feb15,0,4606066.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean

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.

A section of the island, which lies seven miles east of the
island of Puerto Rico, has been contaminated by more than 50
years of bombings and other training operations carried out
by the U.S. military, said Kathleen C. Callahan, the EPA's
acting regional administrator.

The EPA lists a variety of dangerous chemicals as possible
contaminants on Vieques and in waters surrounding the former
training ground. Included are napalm, TNT, depleted uranium,
PCBs, solvents, mercury and other dangerous compounds. Some
of the same chemicals were discovered on the island of
Culebra, which is about 10 miles north of Vieques. The EPA
continues to assess whether Culebra might be slated for a
cleanup.

"The listing is a critical step in the cleanup of this
magnificent island, so important to Vieques residents and
its visitors alike," Callahan said in a prepared statement.

The announcement culminates years of work by former Gov.
Sila Calderón, who championed the cleanup of the two
islands. Before leaving office in January, she described her
work on the issue as "critical and effective" and suggested
the sites be put on the government's Superfund priority list
of toxic sites in need of a cleanup.

The U.S. military has used the two islands for exercises for
some 100 years. In Vieques, the east portion was home to
training exercises dating back to the 1940s.

A swarm of public protests, including acts of civil
disobedience by activists -- including celebrities and some
members of the U.S. House of Representatives -- in the late
1990s, resulted in the Navy halting its operations in the
region on May 1, 2003.

Ray Quintanilla can be reached at 787-729-9071 or
rquintanilla@orlandosentinel.com.

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 38 [du-list] Tungsten bullets cause cancer in wounds
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:06 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Tungsten bullets cause cancer in wounds

Big News Network.com, Thursday 17th February, 2005  (UPI)

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=beedf8d4791256dc

Tungsten alloys, being used in battlefield munitions to make
them less toxic may cause cancer in soldiers wounded by
them, U.S. Army researchers said.

Researchers at the Forces Radiobiology Research Institute
implanted pellets of the tungsten alloys in rats to simulate
shrapnel wounds from the weapons. Some rats received
high-dose pellets, some low-dose and some pellets of other
material for controlled comparison.

All of the rats implanted with tungsten developed extremely
aggressive tumors surrounding the pellets. Though the tumors
in the low-dose individuals grew more slowly, all of the
tumors spread rapidly to the lungs of the rats, requiring
researchers to euthanize 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, the researchers said.

If the findings ... 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 the
journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which published
the research.

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 39 [du-list] Study of Depleted Uranium Effects Called For
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:05 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Study of Depleted Uranium Effects Called For

By Joel Wendland
2-16-05, 1:08 pm

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/678/1/77/

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. Rokke’s 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 Rokke’s
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 aren’t 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 DU’s 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.

-- 

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 40 [du-list] The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:01 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children

By Judy Adamson
February 15, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Review/The-Doctor-the-Depleted-Uranium-and-the-Dying-Children/2005/02/14/1108229917886.html?oneclick=true

The Cutting Edge: The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the
Dying Children, SBS, 8.30pm

This documentary follows the efforts of a German professor
and Canadian medical researcher to prove that depleted
uranium shells and bullets, used in two Gulf wars, have
contributed to a range of appalling health problems in Iraqi
locals as well as veterans.

The pregnancy stories of veterans is heartbreaking, but
worse still are the pictures of countless deformed and
cancer-stricken Iraqi children. These experiences have also
been mirrored in Kosovo.

Remarkably, while the US and British governments persist in
saying there is no proof that depleted uranium is to blame
for what is known as "Gulf War Syndrome", doctors in Iraq
say that malignant cancers have increased eightfold since
the first Gulf War in 1991.

Geiger counters used by the researchers still go into the
red when brought close to abandoned tanks - tanks that
children now play in. Men who fought in areas that were
heavily bombarded have 400 times more depleted uranium in
their urine than control subjects. And the 79-year-old
German professor was arrested and fined for bringing just
one "safe" bullet home for radioactivity testing.

It's not pretty viewing, but it's very informative.


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 41 [du-list] ANOTHER WAR CRIME? IRAQI CITIES "HOT" WITH DU
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:10 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
ANOTHER WAR CRIME?
IRAQI CITIES "HOT" WITH DEPLETED URANIUM

August 18, 2003 -- By Sara Flounders

http://www.join-snafu.org/du.htm

Has U.S. use of depleted-uranium weapons turned Iraq into a
radioactive danger area for both Iraqis and occupation troops?

This question has already had serious consequences. In hot
spots in downtown Baghdad, reporters have measured radiation
levels that are 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal
background radiation levels.

It has also opened a debate in the Netherlands parliament
and media as 1,100 Dutch troops in Kuwait prepare to enter
Iraq as part of the U.S./British-led occupation forces. The
Dutch are concerned about the danger of radioactive
poisoning and radiation sickness in Iraq.

Washington has assured the Dutch government that it used no
DU weapons near Al-Samawah, the town where Dutch troops will
be stationed. But Dutch journalists and anti-war forces have
already found holes in the U.S. stories according to an
article on the Radio Free Europe website. The original
expose came from M.H.J. van den Berg of RISQ "the Review of
International Social Questions" and was picked up by the
Dutch media.

DU-caused radiation had already raised alarms in Europe
after studies showed increased rates of cancers, respiratory
ailments and other disabilities of occupation troops from
NATO countries stationed in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

In general, the health and environmental dangers of weapons
made with DU radioactive waste have received far more
attention in Europe than in the U.S.

In this year's war on Iraq, the Pentagon used its
radioactive arsenal mainly in the urban centers, rather than
in desert battlefields as in 1991. Many hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers, along with
British, Polish, Japanese and Dutch soldiers sent to join
the occupation, will suffer the consequences. The real
extent of injuries, chronic illness, long-term disabilities
and genetic birth defects won't be apparent for five to 10
years.

By now, half of all the 697,000 U.S. soldiers involved in
the 1991 war have reported serious illnesses. According to
the American Gulf War Veterans Association, more than 30
percent of these soldiers are chronically ill and are
receiving disability benefits from the Veterans
Administration. Such a high occurrence of various symptoms
has led to the illnesses being named Gulf War Syndrome.

This number of disabled veterans is shockingly high. Most
are in their mid-thirties and should be in the prime of
health. Before sending troops to the Gulf region, the
military had already sifted out those with disabilities or
chronic health problems from asthma, diabetes, heart
conditions, cancers and birth defects.

A LONG-TERM PROBLEM

The impact of tons of radioactive waste polluting major
urban centers may seem a distant problem to Iraqis now
trying to survive in the chaos of military occupation. They
must cope with power outages during the intense heat of
summer, door-to-door searches, arbitrary arrests, civilians
routinely shot at roadblocks, outbreaks of cholera and
dysentery from untreated water, untreated sewage and
uncollected garbage, more than half the work force
unemployed, and a lack of food-- which before the war was
distributed by the Baathist regime.

But along with these current threats are long-range
problems. Around the world a growing number of scientific
organizations and studies have linked Gulf War Syndrome and
the high rate of assorted and mysterious sicknesses to
radiation poisoning from weapons made with depleted uranium.

Scott Peterson, a staff writer for the Christian Science
Moni tor, reported on May 15 about taking Geiger counter
readings at several sites in Baghdad. Near the Republican
Palace where U.S. troops stood guard and over 1,000
employees walked in and out of the building, his radiation
readings were the "hottest" in Iraq, at nearly 1,900 times
background radiation levels. Spent shell casings still
littered the ground.

At a roadside vegetable stand selling fresh bunches of
parsley, mint and onions outside Baghdad, children played on
a burnt-out Iraqi tank. The reporter's Geiger counter
registered nearly 1,000 times normal background radiation.
The U.S. uses armor-piercing shells coated with DU to
destroy tanks.

The Aug. 4 Seattle Post Intelligencer reported elevated
radiation levels at six sites from Basra to Baghdad. One
destroyed tank near Baghdad had 1,500 times the normal
background radiation. "The Pentagon and the United Nations
estimate that the U.S. and Britain used 1,100 to 2,200 tons
of armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium during
attacks on Iraq in March and April--far more than the 375
tons used in the 1991 Gulf War," wrote the Post Intelligencer.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle
analyzed swabs from bullet holes in Iraqi tanks and
confirmed elevated radiation levels.

RADIOACTIVE AND TOXIC

The extremely dense DU shells easily penetrate steel armor
and burn on impact. The fire releases microscopic,
radioactive and toxic dust particles of uranium oxide that
travel with the wind and can be inhaled or ingested. They
also spread contamination by seeping into the land and water.

In the human body, DU may cause harm to the internal organs
due both to its chemical toxicity as a heavy metal and its
release of radiation.

An otherwise useless by-product of the uranium-enrichment
process, DU is attractive to military contractors because it
is so cheap, often offered for free by the government.

According to the Uranium Medical Research Center, the toxic
and radiological effects of uranium contamination may weaken
the immune system. They may cause acute respiratory
conditions like pneumonia, flu- like symptoms and severe
coughs, renal or gastrointestinal illnesses.

Dr. Asaf Durakovic of UMRC explains that the initial
symptoms will be mostly neurological, showing up as
headaches, weakness, dizziness and muscle fatigue. The
long-term effects are cancers and other radiation- related
illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, joint and
muscle pain, rashes, neurological and/or nerve damage, mood
disturbances, infections, lung and kidney damage, vision
problems, auto-immune deficiencies and severe skin
conditions. It also causes increases in miscarriages,
maternal mortality and genetic birth defects.

For years the government described Gulf War Syndrome as a
post-traumatic stress disorder. It was labeled a
psychological problem or simply dismissed as mysterious
unrelated ailments. In this same way the Pentagon and the
Veterans Administration treated the health problems of
Vietnam vets suffering from Agent Orange poisoning.

THE COVERUP

The U.S. government denies that DU weapons can cause
sickness. But before the first Gulf War, where DU weapons
were used extensively, the Pentagon's own internal reports
warned that the radiation and heavy metal of DU weapons
could cause kidney, lung and liver damage and increased
rates of cancer.

Ignoring these dangers, the Pentagon went on to use these
weapons, which gave it a big advantage in tank battles. But
it denied publicly that DU use was related to the enormously
high rate of sicknesses among GIs following the war.

Today the Pentagon plays an even more duplicitous role. It
continues to assert that there are no "known" health
problems associated with DU. But Army training manuals
require anyone who comes within 75 feet of any DU-
contaminated equipment or terrain to wear respiratory and
skin protection.

The manuals say that "contamination will make food and water
unsafe for consumption." According to the Army Environmental
Policy Institute, holding a spent DU round exposes a person
to about 200 rems per hour, or twice the annual radiation
exposure limit.

This March and April U.S. and British forces fired hundreds
of thousands of DU rounds in dense urban areas. Superfine
uranium oxide particles were blown about in dust storms. Yet
the Pentagon refuses to track, report or mark off where DU
was fired. There is no way Iraqis or the occupying soldiers
can keep 75 feet away or use respiratory and skin protection
in 120-degree heat.

The American Gulf War Veterans Association (AGWVA) reports
that suffering veterans are receiving little, if any,
medical treatment for their illnesses. "Whenever veterans
become ill, the term 'mystery illness' seems to be the first
and often the only diagnosis that is ever made. Veterans are
then left to fend for themselves, sick and unable to work,
with little hope of a normal life again."

Iraq's National Ministry of Health organized two
international conferences to present data on the
relationship between the high incidence of cancer and the
use of DU weapons. It produced detailed epidemiological
reports and statistical studies. This data showed a six-
fold increase in breast cancer, a five-fold increase in lung
cancer and a 16-fold increase in ovarian cancer.

Because of the U.S.-imposed sanctions, Iraqi doctors and
scientists were barred from presenting their research papers
in most of the world.

Doug Rokke of AGWVA, former head of the U.S. Army DU
Project, who is seriously ill with respiratory problems, has
been campaigning against the use of DU. Rokke reports that
U.S. troops presently in Iraq are already falling sick with
a series of Gulf War Syndrome symptoms.

The AGWVA says the Department of Defense has information
regarding "mystery" deaths of soldiers in this latest war
and the emergence of a mysterious pneumonia that has
sickened at least 100 men and women.

U.S. POSITION: NO CLEAN-UP

While the U.K. has admitted that British Challenger tanks
expended some 1.9 tons of DU ammunition during major combat
operations in Iraq this year, the U.S. has refused to
disclose specific information about whether and where it
used DU during this yearcampaign. It also is refusing to let
a team from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)
study the environmental impact of DU contamination in Iraq.

Despite this refusal, it is public knowledge that the U.S.
made extensive use of weapons that can fire DU shells. These
include the A-10 Warthog tank-buster aircraft with 30-mm
cannons that can fire up to 4,200 DU rounds per minute; the
AC-130 gunship; the "Apache" helicopter, and Bradley
fighting vehicles that fire anti-armor 105-mm to 120-mm tank
rounds containing DU.

The U.S. followed the same tactics in the wars in the
Balkans. While claiming full cooperation with UNEP's Balkans
studies, the Pentagon delayed releasing target locations for
16 months. It gave misleading map information. Then bomb,
missile and cluster-bomb targets were excluded. NATO allowed
10 other teams to visit or clean up sites before UNEP
inspections started.

Washington refuses to acknowledge DU use anywhere or that it
poses any danger. To acknowledge radiation poisoning would
immediately raise demands for a cleanup.

According to Alex Kirby, BBC News Online environment
correspondent: "The U.S. says it has no plans to remove the
debris left over from depleted uranium weapons it is using
in Iraq. It says no cleanup is needed, because research
shows DU has no long-term effects."

EVIDENCE OF DU USE

But in the information age, the Pentagon can't suppress all
the evidence. The Dutch example shows this. Though the U.S.
government specifically denied any firing of DU weapons near
the city of Al- Samawah, where Dutch troops were to be
stationed, a simple Internet search by journalists undid
this lie.

The Dutch government, to get a resolution through the
parliament to authorize sending troops to Iraq, depicted the
Al-Samawah region as a remote, barely inhabited desert where
no noteworthy events had occurred.

In actual fact, Al-Samawah is strategically located on the
road from Basra to Baghdad, providing access to a bridge
over the Euphrates River. On its march to Baghdad, the U.S.
Army encountered fierce resistance from Iraqi forces there,
according to American officers. This was well covered by
their embedded media.

It was more than a week before the town and the road were
cleared of all pockets of resistance. Some 112 civilians,
most of them inhabitants of Al-Samawah, were killed in battle.

DU ammunition was widely used during this operation. In a
widely distributed field message, Sergeant First Class
Cooper reported that the weapons systems used by the 3rd
Infantry, 7th Cavalry, en route to Al- Samawah and on to
Najaf, were performing well, especially the 25-mm DU and 7.62.

Of greater interest to Internet researchers was a letter a
young soldier sent home to his parents, which they posted in
their church bulletin on the Internet. In the letter E.
Pennell, a crew member on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle of the
1st Infantry Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, described
how his crew fired a 25-mm DU round as they encountered
seven Iraqi troops in the town of Al-Samawah.

Pennell's letter has raised concern among groups like the
United Federation of Military Personnel, a kind of labor
union for Dutch troops. It fears that its members might be
at risk of contracting cancer or other diseases because of
exposure to DU ammunition.

RESISTANCE: THE ONLY SOLUTION

Officers and politicians in imperialist countries have
always treated rank-and-file soldiers as cannon fodder.
These young lives are totally expendable. The occupied or
colonized people are not counted at all.

As a global movement against imperialist wars grew over the
past century, military planners made great efforts to hide
the true costs of war, especially the human cost. The nearly
60,000 U.S. casualties in the Vietnam War provoked a mighty
mass anti-war movement. This time, long before U.S.
casualties reached 100 soldiers, the movement to "Bring the
Troops Home" had gained momentum.

This new movement must demand a true accounting of the
enormous human costs of the war. The impact on the health
and future of not only U.S. troops but the millions of
people in Iraq must be part of the demand.

A growing international movement must demand full
reparations for the Iraqi people. A cleanup of the toxic,
radioactive waste is in the interests of all the people of
the region. The cost of the war must be calculated in terms
of bankrupt social programs here in the U.S. and the health
of all the people who were in the region during the war and
will be in the years to come.

Sara Flounders is co-director of the International Action
Center and coordinator of the DU Education Project. She is
an editor and a contributing author of the book "Metal of
Dishonor: Depleted Uranium," and helped produce a video by
the same name. The IAC helped organize an international
effort to bring the issue of DU to the UN Human Rights
Commission in Geneva and helped measure radiation levels in
Iraq before the 2003 war.


Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, How the Pentagon
Radiates Soldiers & Civilians with DU Weapons
by Various Authors

Available from Leftbooks.com

A devastating exposé of the Pentagon's new weapons comprised
of Depleted Uranium. This is the book you've heard about,
but won't see in most bookstores. Now in it's second
printing you can read scientists; Gulf War veterans; leaders
of environmental, anti-nuclear, anti-military and community
movements discuss: the connection of Depleted Uranium to
Gulf War Syndrome and a new generation of radioactive
conventional weapons.

Understand how the bizarre Pentagon recycling plans of
nuclear waste creates a new global threat.

Authors include former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark,
Dr. Michio Kaku, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Dr. Rosalie Bertell,
Dr. Jay M. Gould, Dan Fahey, Sara Flounders, Manuel Pino and
many others.

List price is $12.95 but at leftbooks.com it's 15% off, only
$11.00

International Action Center, Published 1997, Second edition
1999, ISBN: 0-9656916-0-8, Soft Cover, 272 p.p., Index,
Photos, Tables.

Price: $ 11.00

-- 

Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~

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 42 [du-list] 'It is the Same Here as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki'
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:08 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
'It is the Same Here as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki'

Serbians Suffer Long-term Effects of NATO Depleted Uranium
Bombs   	

by Suemori Akira, ZNet Friday, Feb 18, 2005

http://www.disabilities.afreepress.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=280930&cp=309460

[Translator's Introduction: The manufacture of depleted
uranium (DU) ammunition is a prototypical Cold War arms race
story. The Pentagon reported in the 1970s that the Soviet
military had developed armor plating for Warsaw Pact tanks
that NATO ammunition couldn't penetrate, and began searching
for material to make harder bullets, bombs, and shells.
After testing various metals, ordnance researchers settled
on depleted uranium, a low-level radioactive waste left over
from making nuclear fuel and bombs. DU ammunition, which
scorches through metal targets, is now supplied to arsenals
in the U.S. and abroad which also continue to store
"conventional" ammunition. DU shells, when fired, leave a
radioactive trail of toxic dust that still lies in parts of
Kuwait and Iraq where they were first fired in combat during
the 1991 Gulf War. Prohibited from use in training anywhere
overseas, it is restricted certain installations in the
United States. Citing serious health risks, the Pentagon
requires moon-suit type protective gear when approaching
anything hit with DU ordnance.

Nevertheless, the American press revealed in 1996 that
Marine Corps aircraft had been firing depleted uranium
shells on their bombing range at Torishima Island, just off
Okinawa in an important fishing ground. When Okinawans,
particularly local fishermen, angrily protested over yet
another act of negligence by the U.S. military that
threatened their safety, welfare, and livelihood, a Marine
Corps spokesman claimed that the radiation "amounts to only
about what a color television set emits." By that time,
however, Congressional hearings had reported that both
veterans of the Gulf War and Iraqi civilians were suffering
serious, long-term disabilities with depleted uranium as the
suspected cause. They continue to suffer debilitating
effects from radiation to this day. But that is hardly the
end of the story.]

Used not only in Iraq, NATO dropped approximately 30,000
depleted uranium bombs in air raids on Kosovo and elsewhere
in Yugoslavia. Soldiers and civilians now suffer from cancer
and other diseases.

Five years have now passed since NATO air attacks on Serbia
and Montenegro in Yugoslavia. A confrontation in Kosovo
between ethnic Albanians, who make up a majority, and a
Serbian minority escalated into armed conflict between the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Serbian Security Forces. A
"humanitarian intervention" relying on air power lasted 78
days. It was supposed to lead to stabilization, but riots
erupted last March in Kosovo, now administered by the United
Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The chances for
resolution of this conflict remain remote.

The anguish of battlefield photographers

Nedejko Deretic (54) was a press photographer for the former
state-operated Tanjug News Agency and recipient of a
photography prize awarded by the United Nations. He had
always enjoyed good health until he suddenly suffered a
cerebral infarction five years ago. He has undergone
continued rehabilitation since then, but suffered another in
2000. He can no longer run or move quickly, has trouble
remembering things, and is increasingly irritable. Unable to
continue the job he loved, he retired at age fifty from the
company where he'd worked for eighteen years. A disability
pension is his only income.His senior colleague, press
photographer Milorad Dobricic, died last winter from cancer
of the lymph glands. He was fifty-five. Another press
photographer for Tanjug is undergoing chemotherapy for
cancer of the lymph glands.

"All three were in the best of health and among our best
news photographers, so they photographed the war the
longest. Working for the state agency, they often
accompanied the military for official coverage, and,
whenever a bombing was reported, would hurry to the site
within an hour," explained Dragan Milenkovic (57), former
chief of Tanjug's photography section. During the 78 days of
bombing, Deretic was in Kosovo a total of one month
photographing the damage. "Weapons didn't kill me during the
war," he says. "But I believe depleted uranium is what made
me sick."

Decontamination has been slow and difficult.

NATO forces dropped about 30,000 depleted uranium bombs in
1999, leaving approximately ten tons of DU in Serbia and
Montenegro. DU ammunition was first used in the 1991 Gulf
War by U.S. and British forces. Ingestion by soldiers and
local residents has been cited as the suspected cause of
serious health problems. Yet it was more than one year
before NATO officials revealed the locations where they said
DU had been used. And, according to Colonel Predrag
Minjlovic, there are obvious errors. "NATO indicated where
pilots interviewed said they had dropped bombs, but these
places were quite far from where the bombs landed." Large
numbers of depleted uranium bombs remain in the soil where
many penetrated some 1.5 meters underground in the mud.
According to Colonel Minjlovic, this happened because,
although DU bombs were used for their power to penetrate
tank armor, they only hit a total of four or five tanks. All
the others buried in the ground could easily have drifted in
the rainwater. Efforts continue to remove them and the soil
they've contaminated, but the job has been completed at only
two of the 90 locations identified in a survey by Serbian
and Montenegro authorities as the sites of 99 bombings. Now
funds are running out, but Western countries have not
responded positively to appeals for assistance. All that can
be done is to cordon off the other 88 sites.

Depleted uranium ammunition was used mostly where the
conflict was centered in Kosovo and in southern Serbia. I
visited Bujanovas in southern Serbia where approximately
58,000 people live in the town and nearby villages. With
antenna for telephone and television communications located
there, the surrounding hills were targeted for bombing.

Radiation phobia

Dr. Milan Jocic has worked for more than fifteen years at a
hospital in the center of town. "Since the bombings, cancers
of the lungs, bones, and tongue have all increased with many
children falling ill. The number of cases has risen at least
30 percent. Many more people are dying young. It is the same
here as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Zorisa Markovic (58), a
reporter, formerly with the Tanjug News Agency now with
Balkan newspaper, has long covered health care issues. He
estimates that "it will take more than ten years to
determine accurately the effects of depleted uranium
ammunition. When symptoms began appearing among Italian
soldiers, there was an uproar in the Western European media,
but in Serbia under economic sanctions there was no money to
survey the health of residents. What is known is how much
depleted uranium was dropped, and that cancer has increased
since the bombings which are also thought to have caused
weakened resistance to stress. Another problem is that many
young physicians, who see no future here, have left for
other countries."

The bombings targeted not only military installations, but
also the economic infrastructure. They hit the oil refinery
at Pancevo, 20 kilometers north of Belgrade, causing the
release of dioxin poison. Deretic, the Tanjug
photojournalist, rushed there after the bombing to film the
damage. Zora Zunic (57), a researcher at the National
Institute for the Study of Atomic Energy, emphasized the
need to monitor the bombings' contamination of underground
water. "At this point," he added, "their psychological
effects in the form of radiation phobia are even more
widespread than the physiological illnesses."

"Accident" sparks rioting.

"No one can cross the bridge to bring people over here, or
take them across to the other side," an officer of the
United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) stated
emphatically. The river running through the town of
Mitrovica in northern Kosovo forms the border dividing the
Albanian and Serbian ethnic districts. In March, 2004, the
death of three Albanian boys in the village of Chabra, about
eight kilometers west of Mitrovica, ignited protests among
local residents. The worst two days of rioting since 1999
spread to other areas of Kosovo, taking the lives of
nineteen people and causing some 4,000 to flee their homes.
According to Georgi Kakuk, UNMIK press officer at Mitrovica
district headquarters, "We have found no attacker, either a
dog or a human suspect. This was most likely an accident."
The boys' bereaved families don't buy his explanation. In
Chabra I visited Cerkin Vesely (37), whose younger son had
been nine when he died. "The investigation of their deaths
as politically motivated has ended," he said with chagrin,
dismissing the possibility that they were accidental. "The
river's waters were high and cold at the time. No one was
going there." His eldest son, who had managed to swim to
safety, said that the boys had been chased by a Serbian with
a dog. "Someone has to take the responsibility for finding
them." The family is still in shock. They have not placed
their son's photograph in the house, keeping it in a drawer
at Mr. Vesely's workplace.

Guiding me around the village, he explained that "all the
houses are the same style because they were rebuilt after
the Serbians demolished them five years ago. Twenty-two
villagers were killed, and five are still missing." He
stared at the Serbian village a few hundred meters from the
river where his son had died. Asked about the future of
Kosovo, he replied, "Things in Kosovo will get better, if it
becomes independent." As for the Serbians, they grow ever
more apprehensive living under the present circumstances in
Kosovo cut off from Serbia.

Families commute by train to the ruins of homes they were
forced to flee.

I visited the village of Zvecan, about three kilometers from
Mitrovica, where Serbian civilians must now live as refugees
from the March, 2004 rioting. After entering a building with
brick siding, I met a family staying in a drab concrete
room. The building had been under construction when it was
hastily prepared to house refugees. There was no toilet or
running water. Bozidar Antic (67) and his wife Gordana (67)
came from the village of Svinjare, about three kilometers
from Mitrovica. Approximately 180 Serbian and twenty
Albanian families had lived there. But with the three
children's deaths last March, Albanian protests spread
throughout Kosovo and the NATO-led international Kosovo
Force (KFOR) lost control of public safety.

"Albanians carrying weapons ran into the village from all
sides. They started breaking the windows of our homes and
throwing gasoline-soaked rags inside. The KFOR troops were
there, but did nothing. Some wanted to mount an armed
defense, but the U.N. had taken away all their weapons after
the bombings. So we Serbians gathered in the center of the
village after their attack, and escaped in a U.N. truck." As
Mr. Antic told what had happened, his wife's eyes filled
with tears. The family had been forced to flee, literally,
with only the clothes on their backs. Three coffee cups and
one saucer were among the only things left in the burnt
ruins of their home. Still, they wanted to keep some
remembrance of it, and had retrieved a pot with scorch holes
from the ashes.

Though only a few kilometers away, going back to their
village is far from easy. The only way is to take a train
through Albanian territory, leaving and returning the same
day. Mitrovica station is in an Albanian district, and
Albanians board the train one stop before it at Zvecan. The
glass in the train windows was replaced after the riots, but
we can see new cracks made by stones thrown at the train as
it passes through Albanian territory. Fearing the Albanians,
Serbians try to travel to and from the village in groups. On
board I met Lelja Radivojevic (86) who, nevertheless, rode
the train alone. He had already gone back and forth about
ten times. After arriving at the station where KFOR troops
were standing, we climbed a narrow road between the
unscathed houses of ethnic Albanians to reach the burnt
remains of his home.

"I've lived almost ninety years, but what took so much work
to build was reduced to ashes in a day. Some people coming
to see the burnt ruins of their home might get upset, but I
was born in this house so it calms me to come here." That's
why he returns over and over again to the home that will
never be like it was before, no matter how many times he
comes to see it. He hadn't wanted to leave the day it burned
down, but his eldest son came and took him away. "I want to
stay to die here," he told me. His second son who had lived
here with him died six years ago. "He was shot by an
Albanian. The attack on our village had nothing to do with
the death of those children. It was planned and organized by
Albanian extremists." All the Serbians in the village whose
houses were burned agree with him, and they deeply resent
the blatant ineffectuality of the United Nations. With Serb
and Albanian opinion clashing over the issue of
independence, nothing bright can be seen in Kosovo's future.
All that can be seen is the devastation inflicted on its
residents from "humanitarian" bombings by countries who
won't put their soldiers at risk on the ground.

This article appeared in Shukan Kinyobi, October 1, 2004,
pp. 35-37. Suemori Akira is a photojournalist.

If you have a news story that you would like to publish, or
you wish to comment on this story, please contact the
Editor, John Perry, at perryjohn1962@yahoo.co.uk or visit
http://www.jkpenterprises.co.uk


-- 

Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~

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*****************************************************************
 43 Bradenton Herald: Rep. Katherine Harris applauds expanded beryllium disease 
screening program 

| 02/24/2005 | 

PRESS RELEASE

Former American Beryllium Company employees eligible for free
screening through Department of Energy

Representative Katherine Harris today applauded the efforts of
the Department of Energy and their Secretary Samuel W. Bodman
for expanding the beryllium screening program to include former
employees of Bradenton's now-defunct American Beryllium Company
(ABC), a DOE beryllium vendor.  

"I applaud the Department of Energy's leadership in recognizing
the sacrifices of the Cold War's unsung heroes," Rep. Harris
said. "ABC Beryllium's hard working men and women placed
themselves at risk to protect America. Thus, we have a moral
obligation to spare no effort in safeguarding their health and
safety." 

The announcement by DOE today expands the beryllium screening
program to include former DOE beryllium vendor employees, to
ensure that the workers who no longer have an employer to turn
to for beryllium disease testing can now receive this important
screening. 

This expansion will benefit up to an estimated 500 former ABC
workers who are now eligible for testing under the new DOE
program. The Department of Energy said that it will offer the
former ABC vendors a blood test at no cost to check for
beryllium sensitivity at a local clinic beginning at some point
in the near future.  Former ABC employees who no longer reside
in the Bradenton area will be sent a test kit in the mail to
take to their local physician or lab of choice.  DOE has said
that this new program will pay for both the costs of drawing the
blood and the analysis of the blood as well as related travel
expenses and further testing and treatment. 

According to the DOE, if former ABC employees receive a positive
diagnosis for beryllium disease, they can receive medical
monitoring and/or compensation through the Department of Labor
under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
program. 

The cost of this expanded program according to the DOE is
expected to be approximately $3 million over the next several
years, and it is expected to begin in early March, 2005, 

Former ABC workers interested in medical screening can contact
the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE) at
1-866-219-3442. 

The DOE has given our office a comprehensive list of former DOE
beryllium vendor companies that are no longer in business which
are attached on the next page. 


Former Department of Energy Beryllium Vendors 
    + Atomics International (all locations); 
    + Nuclear Metals, Inc. (all locations); 
    + Beryllium Corporation of America (all locations); 
    + Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) (all
locations); 
    + Speedring, Inc (Culman, AL); 
    + Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine Laboratory
(Middletown, CT); 
    + Machlett Laboratories (Springdale, CT); 
    + Gerity-Michigan Corporation (Adrian, MI); 
    + Revere Copper and Brass (Detroit, MI); 
    + Speedring Systems, Inc. (Detroit, MI); 
    + Wolverine Tube Division (Detroit, MI); 
    + National Beryllia (Haskell, NJ); 
    + U.S. Pipe and Foundry (Burlington, NJ); 
    + United Lead Co. (Middlesex, NJ); 
    + General Astrometals (Yonkers, NY); 
    + Radium Chemical Company (New York, NY); 
    + Sylvania Corning Nuclear Corporation - Bayside Lab
(Bayside, NY); 
    + Beryllium Metals and Chemical Corporation (BERMET)
(Bessemer City, NC); 
    + Clifton Products Company (Painesville, OH); 
    + Aeroprojects, Inc. (Westchester, PA); 
    + Foote Mineral Company (East Whiteland Twp, PA); 
    + McDanel Refractory Company (Beaver Falls, PA); 
    + Vitro Manufacturing (Canonsburg, PA); 
    + Vitro Corporation of America (Oak Ridge, TN);   

*****************************************************************
 44 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Energy Department expands beryllium disease screening program
 
post-gazette.com/travel/] 

Thursday, February 24, 2005 By Don Hopey, 

The U.S. Department of Energy is expanding its beryllium disease
screening program to include employees of now-defunct companies
-- including two near Pittsburgh -- that handled the space-age
material used in nuclear weapons.

 Inhalation of beryllium dust can cause an incurable lung
disease.

 Up to 50 workers at McDanel Refractory Co. in Beaver Falls and
125 at Vitro Manufacturing in Canonsburg are among an estimated
30,000 former employees of 24 companies that had contracts with
the government. 

Yesterday's policy change announcement by John Shaw, assistant
secretary of Energy for Environment, Health and Safety, expands
the medical screening program DOE has offered to its own
contract employees since 1991.

 The department will transfer $3.5 million from other programs
to cover the cost of the expanded testing over the next several
years, Shaw said. The program will last as long as the workers
are still alive and workers are entitled to as many follow-up
tests as they feel necessary. 

"I encourage all workers to go and get the test done," Shaw
said. "DOE is committed to finding these workers, who were
heroes of the Cold War. We feel we're doing what is right and
we're so glad to be able to do it."

 Mike Waldron, a DOE spokesman, said the department has no way
of knowing how many of the 30,000 people who worked with
beryllium at its vendor companies are still alive. The estimate
of those affected by the program expansion is based on raw
employee records from those companies during the years they had
government contracts.

 The McDanel Refractory operated through the 1940s, fabricating
oddly shaped beryllium crucibles and beryllium stopper rods for
the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb.

 Vitro's Canonsburg plant was a major uranium milling operation,
which operated from 1942 to 1957. From 1957 to 1967 it was used
as a storage site, and workers may have been exposed to
beryllium-contaminated dust left behind by the earlier operation.

 Beryllium is safe in solid form, but machining the light,
steel-gray metal produces a toxic dust that can cause an
incurable, often fatal lung disease. Nationwide, an estimated
1,200 people exposed to the dust have been diagnosed with the
disease since the 1940s. 

Former employees of Vitro Manufacturing and McDanel Refractory
who want to participate in the voluntary Beryllium Surveillance
Screening Program should contact the Oak Ridge Institute for
Science and Education at 1-866-219-3442 for directions on how to
make arrangements. The screening consists of a simple blood test.

 If a screened individual receives a positive diagnosis for
beryllium disease, he or she can get additional medical
monitoring and compensation through the Department of Labor
under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness compensation
program.

 Health problems attributed to working with beryllium gained
public attention six years ago. News reports showed that the
federal government and the beryllium industry risked the lives
of thousands of workers by knowingly allowing them to be exposed
to levels of beryllium many times higher than the federal health
standards allowed. As a result, many contracted chronic
beryllium disease and some died.

 News reports also have documented how the federal government
helped kill a 1975 health rule that would have imposed tighter
limits on the amount of beryllium dust allowed in manufacturing
plants. 

Since 1991, more than 43,000 people who worked with beryllium
have been screened for chronic beryllium disease, and 962 have
been identified to have beryllium sensitization. Of those, 248,
or a little more than half a percent of all those screened, have
been diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease.

(Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com
[dhopey@post-gazette.com] or at 412-263-1983.) 	 
	 	 	 		 	 	 	 			
[http://www.post-gazette.com/corrections.asp] 
*****************************************************************
 45 Safety.BLR.com: Chao Asked About OSHA Employee Beryllium Exposure
 					   					 Safety Home | BLR Home [http://www.blr.com] |
Enviro.BLR.com [http://enviro.blr.com] | HR.BLR.com

[http://www.blr.com]                      [

-- Making Safety Training and Compliance Easier]                           

02/24/2005
 					 				 				 				 				 				 				 				
Two members of Congress have written Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
to request a response on the issue of exposure of OSHA workers
to beryllium. 

The letter, by Democrats George Miller of California and Major
Owens of New York, cites recent media reports that about
three-fourths of OSHA's inspection staff, or about 1,000
individuals, were exposed to the toxic metal while conducting
inspections. 

"While OSHA has a database of workplaces with high levels of
beryllium, including the names of which inspectors conducted the
inspections, to date OSHA has tested only 265 employees," Miller
and Owens wrote. 

The representatives requested that Chao provide a formal written
summary of all complaints received by the Department of Labor
(DOL) relative to the issue. And they asked that the secretary
forward additional information, including how DOL is responding
to OSHA employees who have tested positive for blood
abnormalities and beryllium sensitivity. 	 				 				 				 				
					 					[ width=]  					

BLR's OSHA Compliance Advisor Newsletter

Safety.BLR.com
	 	
Safety Home [http://safety.blr.com]  | Site Map | About

*****************************************************************
 46 CP: Noranda blamed for endangering health of smelter workers; firm
denies charge

Noranda-Health
 
 [http://www.cbc.ca/

  10:22 PM EST Feb 24       
    
MONTREAL (CP) - The Quebec agency responsible for workers'
health says Noranda Inc. has failed to meet its obligations
towards workers exposed to dust from the metal beryllium in the
1980s in a Quebec smelter. 

The company strongly denies it knowingly put workers at the
Gaspe Smelter in Murdochville at risk, and said it took all
measures available at the time to detect health problems
attributed to the metallic dust. 

The Quebec health and safety board made public on Wednesday a
report that had been completed a year ago and turned over to
Quebec Provincial Police. 

At a news conference Wednesday, the board said Noranda did not
furnish all the required information to the board and played
down the risks of beryllium. 

Noranda spokesman Denis Couture responded that as soon as
Noranda became aware that materials the smelter was recycling
contained beryllium, it stopped treating them in 1990. 

Couture said Noranda hired international experts to examine the
workers and helped set up a diagnostic clinic in Montreal. 

"It's easy to jump to conclusions and say that Noranda should
have done things with today's state of scientific and medical
knowledge concerning beryllium," Couture said. 

"In 1990 regulatory authorities knew almost nothing about
beryllium." 

The Gaspe Smelter was closed in 2002; the nearby copper mine had
been shut in 1997. 

The beryllium came from materials the smelter treated for
recycling, not from product from the mine. 

Thirteen Gaspe Smelter workers were affected by the metal, and
receive compensation from the health board, out of 70 Quebec
workers who suffer respiratory problems attributed to beryllium. 

Besides Toronto-based Noranda (TSX:NRD), the board blamed a
local doctor assigned to the smelter for neglecting his duties,
and cited the union for not following up on worker complaints. 

                   © The Canadian Press, 2005

     [http://www.cp.org/] 
  


*****************************************************************
 47 Economist.com | Finding nukes
 
Thursday February 24th 2005

Muon-assured defence

 Feb 24th 2005 | WASHINGTON, DC 
From The Economist print edition

Using cosmic rays to spot nuclear weapons

Get article background

A CERTAIN sort of madness once seemed enough to defend the
United States from nuclear attack. MADMutually Assured
Destructionoperated on the premise that the best defence is a
good offence. But the American government worries that MAD-style
deterrence will no longer work. Terrorists, for example, might
not care about the threat of destruction. And to make matters
worse, any nuclear weapons used by terrorists or rogue states
may not arrive by ballistic missile. Instead, they are likely to
come in a cargo containereither by ship or on the back of a
lorry driven across one of the country's long land borders. So
the best defence might rely on intercepting a nuclear weapon at
the border, rather than in space. 

But to intercept something, one must first find it. A nuclear
weapon can be a tiny thing, and searching all incoming freight
on the off chance of finding one is out of the question.
Christopher Morris and Rick Chartrand, of America's Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico, think they have found a way
round the problem. As they explained to the AAAS, it would
enable a lorry to be screened for the presence of fissile
material (the uranium or plutonium that provides an atomic
bomb's explosive power) in about a minute. And it is within the
laboratory's traditional remit of doing clever things with
radioactivity, for it relies on naturally occurring elementary
particles called muons. 


A muon is similar to an electron, but heavier and unstable.
Muons are created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays (high-energy
particles from outer space) colliding with air molecules. They
arrive at the Earth's surface at a rate of one per square
centimetre per minute. Crucially for Dr Morris's and Dr
Chartrand's idea, they are good at penetrating metallic objects
such as lorries, and yet also tend to be deflected from their
paths by heavy atomic nuclei such as those of uranium and
plutonium. 

Fast-moving muons wreak havoc on air molecules as they pass
bystripping away electrons to create positively charged ions.
That makes their passage easy to detect using banks of so-called
drift tubes, which pick up the electrical signal generated by
the ions. Dr Morris and Dr Chartrand's idea is to build boxes
big enough for lorries to be driven into. Each box would have
two layers of drift tubes above the lorry, and two below. This
arrangement would allow muons to be tracked as they went into
the lorry and as they came out. Any deviation from a straight
line would mean that a muon had run into one or more atomic
nuclei on its way through. By tracking enough muons and applying
enough computing power, the two researchers think that they
would be able to spot large concentrations of heavy nucleiin
other words, nuclear explosives. 

So far, they have the computing power, but not the boxes.
Simulations, though, suggest that the idea would work. A sphere
of uranium weighing 20kg (about what is needed to make a bomb)
shows up clearly. And even if the material were broken down into
smaller batches alarm bells would go off in the detection
softwarealthough in this case it would not be able to locate
the uranium precisely. 

The next step is to build a real detector and then, if that
works, to convince the authorities to support widespread
deployment. A system that scanned every lorry coming into the
United States would, the researchers estimate, cost about $1
billion. That is a lot of money in most contexts, but not all
that much in the context of nuclear defence. The existing
missile-defence programme has already cost over $130 billion,
and is scheduled to spend at least another $50 billion in the
next five years. And unlike missile interceptors, which on
February 13th spectacularly failed their second test in two
months, detectors at America's borders should actually work.
Madness, it seems, may give way to science. 
	
*****************************************************************
 48 Wired News: Rocket Fuel Fed to Newborns

By Amit Asaravala

02:00 AM Feb. 24, 2005 PT 

Nursing mothers could inadvertently be feeding their newborns 
nearly twice the recommended safe amount of perchlorate, a key 
ingredient of rocket fuel, according to a new study from Texas 
Tech University. 

Both a man-made and naturally occurring chemical, perchlorate in
high doses blocks the uptake of beneficial iodine in humans.
Iodine deficiency has been linked to thyroid disorders in
developing children, which can slow brain development and lead
to mental retardation. 

The Texas Tech study is the first to show that perchlorate is
being transmitted directly from nursing mothers to their
infants. If the findings can be verified in a wider study, they
could become the most powerful weapon yet in a fight led by
environmental groups to clean up perchlorate-contaminated sites
around the United States. 

The contamination is mostly caused by leaks and dumps at
factories owned by the aerospace and defense industry, according
to the National Academy of Sciences. The perchlorate is then
thought to seep into sources of public drinking water and
irrigation channels. It has been found to contaminate water
supplies, lettuce and dairy milk. 

"A national drinking water standard must be set promptly and all
known sources of contamination cleaned up," said the Washington,
D.C.-based Environmental Working Group in a statement issued
Tuesday. "After years of delay in setting of safety standards
and cleaning up contaminated sites, the high levels of
perchlorate found in breast milk should be a wake-up call to
state regulators, U.S. EPA, the Department of Defense and the
Bush administration that no more delays can be tolerated." 

In an analysis of breast milk samples from 36 women in 18
states, researchers at Texas Tech found that all the samples had
some level of perchlorate contamination, with an average of 10.5
parts per billion. Under new guidelines from the Environmental
Protection Agency, newborn infants should ingest no more than
half that amount. 

One of the samples in the study, from a mother in New Jersey,
was found to have levels of perchlorate nearly 20 times the
recommended limit for newborns. 

The researchers found that higher levels of perchlorate in the
breast milk were linked to lower levels of iodide, the form of
iodine found in the human body. Lower levels of iodide are
thought to be linked to thyroid disorders in children. 

Though the team acknowledged that the study was too small for
the results to be applied to all nursing women in all states,
they said the findings strongly suggest a need for pregnant and
nursing women to increase their iodine intake. 

"It's not a unique occurrence," said lead researcher Purnendu
Dasgupta, who teaches analytical chemistry at the university. "I
tell all my friends who are pregnant to go to a health food
store and get capsules of iodine. I tell them to improve their
iodine nutrition first and then worry about perchlorate." 

For its part, the EPA is being careful not to set a water
quality standard that is too low or high. The former could
jeopardize the nation's health, while the latter could lead to
billions of dollars in additional cleanup costs. 

The agency's reference dose guideline, issued Friday, is the
first step in setting a national water quality standard. A
spokeswoman said it is unclear how long the other steps will
take. 

EPA Sets Perchlorate Guideline Feb. 19, 2005Rocket Fuel in Milk,
Lettuce Nov. 30, 2004Pharms Take Root in South Africa Oct. 20,
2004Research Sheds Light on Mad Cow Jul. 29, 2004Better Science
Through Gaming Jun. 28, 2004USDA Rejects Drug-Laced Rice Apr.
09, 2004Wired News RSS headline feeds 

*****************************************************************
 49 Tampa Bay 10: While beryllium workers get free testing, Tallevast residents 
feel left out                         

Tim Brady / ex-American Beryllium Company Worker

 				 				
By:<b><u>Ned Roberts</u>
[http://www.tampabays10.com/inside10/talent/roberts.asp] 

The federal government announced Wednesday that former employees
of a plant in Manatee County's contaminated Tallevast community
will get free access to medical tests.

There was more good news for one ex-American Beryllium Company
worker. Tim Brady was a machinist at the now closed plant. He
contracted the potentially fatal Chronic Beryllium Disease while
working there. Late last week he learned the Labor Department
has reversed its decision and will now cover him under an
ex-beryllium workers compensation program.

Tim Brady / ex-American Beryllium Company Worker: 
"For somebody who's been sick for 15 years, it's like hitting
the medical lottery."

The positive developments for workers have residents in the
community wondering what's in it for them.

Laura Ward / Tallevast Activist: 
"Am I gonna get the additional testing that I need? Am I gonna
have my medical bills paid. Is all of that gonna happen for me?
I'm not an employee."

About 50 acres of ground water in Tallevast is unsafe, according
to a county health official. At least eight water wells are
polluted with a cleaning solvent once used at the plant. 				
				
 				 				 				Tampa Bay's 10 News
*****************************************************************
 50 Newsday.com: Nuclear workers face long wait for benefits

AP Connecticut
 
 [http://www.newsday.com]

[February 24, 2005] 
             
 HARTFORD, Conn. --              Alfred Lavoie's said his doctor 
has told him that his rare Hodgkin's disease is likely from 
exposure to radioactive substances. 

Lavoie knows that as a worker at the Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear 
Engine Laboratory in Middletown between 1958 and 1966, he came in 
contact with radioactive material while washing, plating and 
heat-treating parts. 

Four years ago, he found out about a federal program that would
compensate people who were sick from exposure to toxic
materials. He has not received them. 

"I think this should have been settled a long time ago," said
Lavoie, 71, of Manchester. 

Lavoie is among the estimated 650,000 former and present nuclear
weapons workers and their families across the country eligible
for compensation through the Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program. 

Four reports released since last spring have been critical of
the labor and energy departments, as well as the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, for processing
claims slowly. 

Thousands in Connecticut were exposed to ionizing radiation,
beryllium and other toxic substances while working on nuclear
weapons projects during the Cold War. Figures show only 263 have
applied for benefits, and just three received them. 

The Labor Department has started to plan town meetings in
Middletown and Seymour to find sick workers or their relatives.
Federal energy and labor officials have listed 12 manufacturing
location where state workers may have been exposed. 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is
examining one site, the Havens Laboratory of Bridgeport Brass
Co., said Fred Blosser, an agency spokesman. The agency profiles
only sites with at least 40 worker complaints in an effort to
save money, Blosser said. 

The state Department of Environmental Protection conducted tests
at some of the sites four years ago. Dr. Edward Wilds, director
of radiation, said he did not find residual contamination at 11
of the 12. 

Federal officials have said they need more information on
hazards that existed at Dorr Corp. and Machlett Laboratories in
Stamford, Combustion Engineering in Windsor, CANEL in Middletown
and Seymour Specialty Wire Co. in Seymour. 

The former CANEL plant, where Lavoie worked, stopped its nuclear
operations in 1965 and the facility was destroyed. It is one of
four Pratt & Whitney sites cited by Connecticut families in a
lawsuit that claims exposure to hazardous material resulted in
an increase of brain cancer among workers. 

Lavoie said while working at the plant, he wore a badge that
measured radiation but company officials didn't tell him what
the exposure levels were. The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health has spent more than two years to
determine that. 

A Pratt & Whitney spokesman said he had no knowledge of the
badge, and didn't know if it was the company's responsibility to
issue the badges because CANEL was operating under a federal
government contract. 

So far, Lavoie's hips have been replaced and his left shoulder
has been replaced three times because of the disease. His health
insurance has paid much of it, but he estimates that he and his
wife have paid between $60,000 and $70,000 in medical costs. 

"I asked one woman (in federal benefits) when are they going to
give it to me?" he said. "When I am dead? When I don't need it?" 

Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com/ 

Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press     
*****************************************************************
 51 Montreal Gazette: Crown studies Murdochville beryllium poisoning case - 
Kevin Dougherty

canada.com network
 		 		
montrealgazette.com 

Wednesday, February 23, 2005
 
Crown prosecutors are examining a report filed by the SÃ»retÃ©
du QuÃ©bec to decide whether criminal charges will be laid
against Noranda Inc. related to the beryllium poisoning of 13
workers at Noranda's Murdochville foundry. 

The provincial police force investigated the poisoning, acting
on information provided by the Commission de la santÃ© et la
sÃ©curitÃ© du travail - Quebec workplace health and safety
commission. 

The CSST released a report yesterday which said Noranda knew its
Murdochville foundry workers were exposed to quantities of
beryllium exceeding the acceptable level by between four and
1,000 times and took no steps to protect them. 

Beryllium is a light precious metal than can cause berylliosis,
a progressive breathing difficulty similar to asbestosis or
silicosis, or cancer. 

After commercially exploitable deposits of copper at Noranda's
Murdochville mine were exhausted, the company processed copper
waste, contaminated by beryllium, at the smelter in the 1990s. 

Marie Larue of the CSST explained that commission filed a
complaint with the police, because the statute of limitation on
prosecutions by the CSST is one year and it was too late for
charges. 

The Gazette is following this story. Please read Wednesday's

paper for all the details. © Montreal Gazette 2005 

*****************************************************************
 52 [du-list] New Mexico Uranium Plant Could Mean Public Liability
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:52 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
New Mexico Uranium Plant Could Mean Public Liability

TAKOMA PARK, Maryland, February 23, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2005/2005-02-23-09.asp#anchor2

A new report about a uranium enrichment plant proposed for
Lea County, New Mexico concludes that it would cost between
$3 billion and $4 billion to properly manage and dispose of
the depleted uranium (DU) waste that the plant would generate.

Such high costs could not be recovered from the customers
for enrichment services and might become a taxpayer
liability, according to the report released today by the
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), a
science education organization, and the Nuclear Information
and Resource Service (NIRS), and anti-nuclear advocacy group.

The report also discusses recent research on the health
effects of DU, much of it performed at the Armed Forces
Radiobiology Institute in Bethesda, Maryland after the 1991
Gulf War, that the report says has implications far wider
than the New Mexico plant.

The research indicates that depleted uranium may cause or
contribute to genetic mutations, tumors, birth defects,
neurological damage, and cellular level toxicity.

DU may emit radiation that can cross the placenta and harm
the fetus, the report warns. There is also research that
indicates that the chemical and radiological toxicities of
uranium may, in some cases, be acting in a synergistic
manner. Federal regulations limit uranium inhalation based
on cancer risk and drinking water intake based mainly on
kidney toxicity.

There are currently some 740,000 tons of depleted uranium in
unstable hexafluoride form stockpiled at Department of
Energy sites at Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak
Ridge, Tennessee.

LES, a corporate consortium led by the European company
Urenco, wants to build the plant in New Mexico. Another
company, USEC, seeks to build a similar plant in Ohio.

The report concludes that unless LES provides at least $2.5
billion in financial guarantees, it is possible that the
people of New Mexico, U.S. taxpayers, and future generations
would be stuck with a multi-billion dollar radioactive waste
liability.

The report was filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) in late November 2004 by NIRS and the
public interest group Public Citizen as part of their legal
intervention in the licensing proceeding of LES. A redacted
version excluding proprietary LES corporate financial data
is being released to the public today.

"The labeling of depleted uranium as 'low-level' waste by
the NRC is not going to diminish its dangers," said Dr.
Arjun Makhijani, principal author of the report and
president of IEER. "To paraphrase Shakespeare, dangerous
radioactive waste by any other name would still pose
significant public health risks."

"The people of New Mexico and the taxpayers of the United
States may find themselves saddled with enormous
liabilities," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of
NIRS, which sponsored the IEER report.

"Corporations can easily wiggle out of their obligations. It
happened, for example, when Getty Oil dumped the wastes from
its plutonium reprocessing plant into the laps of the
federal government and the state of New York over three
decades ago. That multi-billion dollar mess still hasn't
been fully cleaned up, and the waste has nowhere to go,"
Mariotte said.

"The health risks of depleted uranium may be far more varied
than is recognized in federal regulations today," said Dr.
Brice Smith, senior scientist at IEER and co-author of the
report. "Children in the future may be saddled with a legacy
similar to that of the sorry history of lead poisoning over
the past three generations, but this time we are dealing
with a heavy metal that is also radioactive."

The report can be found at:
http://www.ieer.org/reports/du/LESrptfeb05.pdf

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 53 [du-list] Army considers changing JPG plans
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:03 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Army considers changing JPG plans

By: Peggy Vlerebome
Madison WI Courier Staff Writer
2/16/2005 12:26:00 PM

http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleID=22440&TM=41201.59

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 won't 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,
didn't 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 Valley's technical experts are looking into
the Army's 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 didn't 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.


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 54 [du-list] Accidents involving depleted UF6 storage cylinders
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:12 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Accidents involving depleted UF6 storage cylinders

February 21, 2005 Environmental Assessment Division of
Argonne National Laboratory

http://web.ead.anl.gov/uranium/guide/health/accident/index.cfm

A discussion of accidents involving depleted UF6 storage
cylinders, including possible health effects, accident risk,
and accident history.
Potential Health Effects from Cylinder Accidents

Accidents involving depleted UF6 storage cylinders are a
concern because they could result in an uncontrolled release
of UF6 to the environment, which could potentially affect
the health of workers and members of the public living
downwind of the accident site. Accidental release of UF6
from storage cylinders or during processing activities could
result in injuries or fatalities. The most immediate hazard
after a release would be from inhalation of hydrogen
fluoride (HF), a highly corrosive gas formed when UF6 reacts
with moisture in air. Exposure to HF could result in a range
of health effects, from eye and respiratory irritation to
death, depending on the exposure level.

Solid uranyl fluoride (UO2F2) is also formed when depleted
UF6 reacts with moisture in the air after an accidental
release. Uranyl fluoride is a particulate which can be
dispersed in air and inhaled. Once inhaled, uranyl fluoride
is easily absorbed into the bloodstream because it is
soluble. If large quantities are inhaled, kidney toxicity
can result.

Accident Risk

The risks from an accident depend on the severity and
characteristics of the accident. The consequences would
depend on how much UF6 was released and how many people were
near or downwind of the site when the accident occurred. In
addition, the presence of water or a fire affects accident
consequences because either can lead to more rapid release
and dispersal of the UF6. All cylinder handling and storage
operations are conducted in a manner that minimizes the
chances of an accident occurring.

The PEIS evaluated a range of hypothetical accidents
involving depleted UF6 in storage, including cylinder drops,
valve sheers, earthquakes, and vehicle and airplane crashes
into the cylinder yards. In the PEIS, the hypothetical
storage accident estimated to have the largest potential
consequences was a fire involving the rupture of three full
cylinders. Such a fire could be caused by a vehicle accident
in the storage yards, where the impact and fuel from the
vehicle caused the large fire. In the PEIS, the frequency of
this type of accident was estimated to be about once in
100,000 years. If such an extremely unlikely accident did
occur, it was estimated that up to 1,900 members of the
general public around the conversion facility might
experience adverse effects from chemical exposures (mostly
mild and temporary effects, such as respiratory irritation
or temporary decrease in kidney function). However, of these
only about 1 individual might experience irreversible
adverse effects (such as lung damage or kidney damage), with
no fatalities expected. In addition, irreversible or fatal
effects among workers very near the accident scene would be
possible. For more details on the risks from accidents, see
Appendix D of the PEIS.

Uranium Hexafluoride Accident History

There have been several accidents involving uranium
hexafluoride in the United States. In 1944, a research and
development pilot plant for thermal diffusion was
temporarily shut down for piping modifications. During
reactivation of the plant, a weld ruptured on an 8-ft long
cylinder containing gaseous natural UF6 that was being
heated by steam. An estimated 400 lb of UF6 was released,
which reacted with steam from the process and created HF and
uranyl fluoride. This accident resulted in two deaths from
HF inhalation and three individuals seriously injured from
both HF inhalation and uranium toxicity. The injured
individuals eventually recovered, and a follow-up many years
later showed no evidence of lasting kidney damage from the
uranium exposure.

In 1978 a cylinder containing liquid depleted UF6 was
accidentally dropped and ruptured in a storage yard at the
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Cold weather limited the
dispersion of the UF6. Cleanup efforts were conducted to
collect as much of the released material as possible. No one
was injured in this accident. (Note: Storage cylinders
contain liquid UF6 only for a few days immediately after
filling. Once the cylinder cools the UF6 is a solid and
would be released much more slowly if an accident resulted
in cylinder rupture).

Another UF6 accident involving a cylinder rupture occurred
at a commercial uranium conversion facility (Sequoyah Fuels
Corp., Gore OK) in 1986. The accident occurred when an
over-loaded shipping cylinder was reheated to remove an
excess of UF6. The cylinder ruptured, releasing a dense
cloud of UF6 and its reaction products. This accident
resulted in the death of one individual from HF inhalation.
An additional 31 workers were exposed to the released cloud.
Although some of the more highly exposed workers showed
evidence of short-term kidney damage (e.g., protein in the
urine), none of these workers had lasting kidney toxicity
from the uranium exposure.

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 55 [CMEP] Action Alert! Nuke Waste Dump Approval a Poor Decision
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:31:52 -0600 (CST)

 
***please forward widely***

This email contains three items: a press release and two action
alerts.

=====================================

* * * P R E S S   R E L E A S E * * *

PUBLIC CITIZEN
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE (NIRS)

For Immediate Release:
Feb. 24, 2005

Contact: Michele Boyd, PC (202) 454-5134
Kevin Kamps, NIRS (202) 328-0002

Despite Unanswered Questions, Nuclear Agencys Licensing Board
Approves Nuclear Waste Dump in Utah

WASHINGTON, D.C.   A ruling today by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commissions (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) in favor
of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Utah is a poor decision, said Public
Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS).

The board issued a split decision to reject an appeal by the state of
Utah, meaning that the commercial, above-ground, temporary
repository is closer to gaining final approval. The NRC usually follows
the boards advice.

If the NRC gives final approval, it will come despite opposition from
some members of the Skull Valley band of Goshutes and a lack of a
long-term nuclear waste management strategy for the United States. The
waste will have to be shipped mainly from the eastern United States in
nuclear waste casks that have not been subjected to adequate physical
testing and have been the subject of allegations of a slew of quality
assurance violations that threaten their integrity. Further, there has
been inadequate preparation and training of first responders for a
large-scale movement of dangerous high-level waste from around the
country.

The licensing board handed down a scrubbed version of the decision with
a general summary for public consumption  30 pages shorter than
the full version  due to ongoing concerns about terrorism.

This sanitized version shows that NRCs addiction to secrecy
continues to stymie appropriate public involvement, said Wenonah
Hauter, director of Public Citizens energy program.  The final
insult from the licensing board comes in its unwillingness to release
even its rationale for deciding in favor of Private Fuel Storage (PFS),
due to the fact that some of the information therein is categorized as
safeguards.

The idea that shipping tens of thousands of tons of high-level
nuclear waste to Utah for a pit stop before transporting it further to a
hypothetical permanent repository will improve the safety and security
of the waste is ludicrous, said Hauter.  Its ironic that the
ASLB rejected Utahs appeal by saying there wasnt any chance of an
accidental plane crash into this proposed facility, yet the board then
cloaked its decision in secrecy for fear of an intentional attack.

Theres no guarantee that this dump will be as temporary as PFS
maintains.  The proposed permanent home for the waste, the Yucca
Mountain site in Nevada, is mired in lawsuits, and the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) has yet to even submit a license application for the
Yucca dump to be constructed and put into operation.

If Yucca never actually opensa distinct possibilityPFS will
either become a de facto permanent repository or the waste will have to
be shipped back to its place of origin, only to be shipped yet again
once a final solution is implemented, said Kevin Kamps, a nuclear
waste specialist with NIRS.  Nearly 20 years of pushing for this site
have focused on Native American lands and there remain numerous
unresolved environmental justice concerns involving the Goshute
community.

The multiple shipments may be made even if Yucca does open, because
current contracts between the utilities and the DOE stipulate that waste
sent to Yucca must be newly packed  a condition that wont be met
if the waste is stored for decades at PFS first.  Before approval of a
license for PFS is granted, the DOE needs to resolve the conflict over
whether it can take the waste directly.

###

=====================================

!!! A C T I O N    A L E R T !!!

Contact NRC Right Away: Stop PFS! No Unnecessary, Unsafe Transport and
Storage of Nuclear Waste!

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensing Board has now recommended
approval of Private Fuel Storage (PFS). PFS, a limited liability company
(LLC) formed from eight commercial nuclear utilities, is seeking to
establish an "interim" storage site for high-level radioactive waste on
the tiny Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah.

The issue will likely be appealed to the NRC Commissioners. Contact
them today and urge them to reject this unnecessary dump that would
endanger public health and safety! Call them at the following numbers
and urge them to reject PFS's license application, or send them an email
(the sample letter is below).

Background information on PFS is available at:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/pfs/
and
http://www.nirs.org/ejustice/nativelands/pfsbg.htm

Thanks for your help!

==========================================

NRC Chairman Nils J. Diaz, 301.415.1759
NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan, Jr., 301.415.1800
NRC Commissioner Jeffrey S. Merrified, 301.415.1855
NRC Commissioner Gregory B. Jaczko, 301.415.1820
NRC Commissioner Peter B. Lyons, 301.415.8421

==========================================

SAMPLE LETTER TO NRC COMMISSIONERS

Click here to email the sample letter.  You can also mail (address
below), fax (to 301.415.1101), email (SECY@nrc.gov) your own letter.

February 24, 2005

Nils Diaz, Chairman
Edward McGaffigan, Jeffrey Merrifield, Gregory Jaczko, Peter Lyons,
Commissioners
c/o Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

Dear Commissioners Diaz, McGaffigan, Merrifield, Jaczko, and Lyons,

I urge you not to approve the license application by Private Fuel
Storage, LLC (PFS) to open an "interim storage site" for irradiated
nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah.
The proposal is neither safe nor necessary.

First off, the PFS facility is not an appropriate site for storing
high-level nuclear waste. The storage casks will be aboveground, exposed
to the elements, and in an area adjacent to Hill Airforce Base and the
Utah Test and Training Range, which has an increased risk of plane
crashes. There will also not be a waste repacking facility on-site. If
storage casks fail for any reason  human error during shipping or
handling, natural disaster, accident, act of sabotage, or gradual
corrosion  it will be difficult to address the problem and keep
radioactive waste from leaking into the soil, water, and air.

There are also the allegations raised by ComEd/Exelon whistleblower
Oscar Shirani. Citing numerous major quality assurance violations in the
manufacture of the storage/transport containers proposed for use at PFS,
he questions their structural integrity. Such problems would not only
raise the risk of irradiated fuel degradation and increased container
vulnerability during storage at Skull Valley, but also of potentially
catastrophic radioactivity release during transport due to a severe
accident or terrorist attack.

As it is, PFS would mean the increased transportation and handling of
high-level waste. As the frequency and distance of nuclear waste
transport increases, so does the risk of accidents. For this reason, the
transportation of nuclear waste should be absolutely minimized, and
extensive cask testing and planning should be done before the transport
of waste begins. PFS, however, will increase transportation, not
minimize it, and will rush the process, using casks with only minimal
testing and planning.

The "interim" nature of the project is also questionable. Assurances
have been given by PFS (and NRC staff in the proposal's Environmental
Impact Statement) that irradiated fuel would remain at Skull Valley for
no more than 40 years before transfer to Nevada for permanent burial.
Last October, however, U.S. Energy Dept. Yucca Mountain Project
transport director Gary Lanthrum was quoted in the Salt Lake press as
saying that the Yucca Mountain Project would simply not accept
irradiated nuclear fuel from PFS, as that would violate the terms of
DOE's Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, which
requires DOE to accept only uncanistered fuel directly from nuclear
utilities at reactor sites. Since PFS would not meet these requirements,
if the site opens, it could very well lead to de facto permanent
"disposal" of 4,000 casks of high-level radioactive waste in Skull
Valley. Adding to this concern, while Yucca Mountain plays a key role in
the acceptability of PFS, the approval and opening of Yucca is not
certain. The proposed geologic repository in Nevada has many issues, and
there are serious unresolved questions about its ability to contain
waste.

Moreover, in addition to all these concerns, PFS is simply not
necessary. While supporters of PFS have argued that irradiated fuel must
be moved away from reactors as soon as possible and consolidated in one
place, these assertions are misleading. The fuel does not have to be
moved immediately, and as long as we continue to produce it, the waste
will continue to be kept at every operating reactor around the country.
Irradiated fuel just removed from a reactor, for instance, is required
to cool and decay on-site for five to ten years before it can be
transported. Concern about on-site storage at reactors is justified, but
moving some waste to a private "temporary" storage facility like PFS
will not make us safer. In fact, it will just increase the risk the
waste poses to the public.

Finally, on its face, the storage or disposal of highly radioactive
waste on a tiny, poverty-stricken Native American community that did not
even benefit from the nuclear generated electricity also raises
significant environmental justice concerns. The crisis at Skull Valley
only exacerbates such concerns. There is a long-running dispute over the
legitimacy of the tribal leadership that supports PFS. In fact, disputed
Tribal Chairman Leon Bear, the primary proponent for PFS, has been
indicted on federal charges of embezzlement of tribal funds as well as
tax evasion. Tribal members who oppose PFS claim they have been severely
intimidated and harassed, and allege irregularities such as bribery and
extortion have been used to secure support within the tribe for PFS.
These are very shaky foundations upon which to build dry cask storage
for 44,000 tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, nearly 80% of
what currently exists in the U.S.

Please deny PFS's license request. The Skull Valley Goshute Reservation
is neither a safe nor just solution!

Sincerely,

[Name, Address]

=====================================

!!! A C T I O N   A L E R T !!!

Oppose New Reactors in Virginia!

The deadline to submit comments on the environmental review of Dominion
Resources' application to site two new reactors at the North Anna power
station site in central Virginia expires Tuesday, March 1.  Help us
maintain the momentum from a fantastic public meeting held last week in
Louisa by sending in your comments today!  We can provide you with
sample comments (below), but the best comments are those written in your
own voice.  For ideas on some of the problems with Dominion's
application and the idea of building new nuclear plants in general,
check out our fact sheet:

http://tinyurl.com/6uybl

You can send your comments via email to NorthAnna_ESP@nrc.gov or write
them out by hand and mail a hard copy to:

Chief, Rules and Directives Branch
Division of Administrative Services
Office of Administration
Mailstop T-6D59
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Either way, get them in by Tuesday, March 1!  Sample comments:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to OPPOSE granting an Early Site Permit (ESP) to Dominion
Resources to build two new reactors at the North Anna nuclear plant in
Mineral, VA. The draft Environmental Impact Statement states that
construction activities permissible under the ESP may stir up heavy
metals and other contaminants in the lake sediment, while details about
mitigation measures are murky. Further, other effects on the lake, such
as temperature increases and reduced water levels, are not fully
analyzed. Finally, questions about the adequacy of current security
regulations and performance are ignored, as are issues of waste
generation and its safe, permanent isolation.

Too many questions remain unanswered and too many problems remain
unsolved for the NRC to grant an ESP.

Sincerely,

[Name and Address]

For more information on the prospect of new reactors in Virginia, visit
www.citizen.org/cmep/northanna.

**********
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To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/

-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
*****************************************************************
 56 Alert! Sign on letter to Oppose PFS high-level waste dump.
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:34 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

ALERT! NRC LICENSING BOARD TODAY RULED IN FAVOR OF GRANTING A LICENSE TO 
THE PRIVATE FUEL STORAGE DUMP ON NATIVE LAND IN UTAH.

  SIGN ON TO OPPOSE THIS PROJECT!



Culminating a seven-year process, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 
today (February 24, 2005) ruled in favor of granting a license to the 
proposed Private Fuel Storage (PFS) high-level radioactive waste dump in 
Utah. Opening of this dump would initiate the transportation of thousands 
of casks of high-level radioactive waste across the nation, putting 
millions of people in jeopardy of a Mobile Chernobyl from an accident or 
terrorist attack.



The letter below, urging the NRC Commissioners to reject the PFS license 
application, will be sent to the NRC Commissioners in early March. Please 
sign on to this letter, by sending your name, organization, city and state 
to <mailto:kevin@nirs.org>kevin@nirs.org by 5 pm, Thursday, March 3. Thanks 
for your help!







Nuclear Information and Resource Service * Public Citizen * Shundahai Network



March, 2005



Re: Private Fuel Storage, LLC application for commercial irradiated nuclear 
fuel "interim" storage site at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation 
in Utah



Dear Commissioners Diaz, Jaczko, Lyons, McGaffigan and Merrifield,



As national, regional, and local environmental and public interest 
organizations, we urge you not to approve the license application by 
Private Fuel Storage, LLC (PFS) to open an "interim storage site" for 
commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian 
Reservation in Utah.



The need for PFS is far from clear, given approvals for on-site dry cask 
storage at a growing number of reactors, and the fact that true 
consolidation of waste is not possible as long as nuclear utilities 
continue to produce it. The proposal is also plagued by many problems, and 
its location poses unacceptable risks. The facility has no contingency plan 
for faulty containers, the storage/transport containers are of questionable 
structural integrity, and there is an increasing risk that PFS could well 
become de facto permanent storage. The plan also raises serious 
transportation safety concerns, and is beset with environmental justice 
violations.



In short, the proposal is neither safe, sound, nor just.



Skull Valley is not an appropriate site for storing irradiated nuclear 
fuel. The adjacent complex of Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and 
Training Range (UTTR) represents one of the biggest and busiest bombing 
ranges in the country, with thousands of over-flights annually posing the 
risk of accidental crashes into PFS. The stray missile which struck the 
scientific research station on the reservation in the 1990's, and the 
Genesis satellite crash into the UTTR last September, for instance, show 
the potential dangers of storing 44,000 tons of highly radioactive waste 
next to such active military facilities.



PFS also plans no pool or hot cell on-site, and thus would lack any waste 
repacking capability in the event of an emergency. If storage casks fail 
for any reason - human error during shipping or handling, natural disaster, 
accident, act of sabotage, faulty casks, or gradual corrosion - it would be 
difficult to adequately address the problem and prevent radioactivity from 
leaking into the soil, water, and air.



Oscar Shirani, former Commonwealth Edison/Exelon lead quality assurance 
inspector and nuclear safety whistleblower, has questioned the structural 
integrity of the Holtec casks proposed for PFS. He cites numerous major 
quality assurance violations in the manufacture of the storage/transport 
containers. Cask defects would not only raise the risk of irradiated fuel 
degradation and increased container vulnerability during storage at

Skull Valley, but also of a potentially catastrophic radioactivity release 
during transport due to a severe accident or terrorist attack.



As it is, PFS's transportation plan, or lack thereof, is very 
disconcerting. PFS would dramatically increase unnecessary transportation 
and handling of high-level waste. Despite PFS's assurances that it is only 
"interim" storage, its lack of waste repackaging contingencies and DOE's 
reluctance to accept PFS wastes at Yucca Mountain, as discussed below, all 
combine to raise the specter of irradiated nuclear fuel eventually being 
sent back thousands of miles to the reactors from which it originated. This 
would multiply the distances high-level waste is shipped, and escalate the 
risks of public and worker exposure, severe accidents, and terrorist 
attacks. It would also increase further stress and damage to the irradiated 
nuclear fuel, making future handling, transport, and long term isolation 
from the environment much more troublesome.



It is ironic that NRC would consider granting PFS an operating license, and 
thus permission to begin shipments, even before its Package Performance 
Study (PPS) is completed, a point raised by a number of our organizations 
during the public comment period on the PPS. Rushing the process, and using 
casks with only minimal testing and planning, is of concern to many 
communities along the transportation routes.



John Parkyn, PFS chairman and CEO, has publicly stated that PFS would train 
emergency responders along the routes to Skull Valley, however, PFS has not 
yet demonstrated the financial or technical capability to deliver on that 
promise. On February 7, at the U.S. Department of Energys Fiscal Year 2006 
budget unveiling, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management director 
Margaret Chu stated that Nuclear Waste Policy Act section 180(c) funding to 
states for emergency response preparation would not even begin until five 
years before high-level radioactive waste shipments to Yucca Mountain. If 
the U.S. federal government requires such a long advance time, how could 
PFS privately provide such training before shipments would begin as early 
as 2007? Given the withdrawal from the PFS consortium by member companies 
such as American Electric Power/Indiana-Michigan Power, and the reduced 
investment by Southern California Edison, it is unlikely PFS could meet its 
basic commitments, let alone pay for emergency responder training and 
equipment all across the U.S.



The "interim" nature of the project is also questionable. Assurances have 
been given by PFS (and NRC staff in the proposal's Environmental Impact 
Statement) that irradiated fuel would remain at Skull Valley for no more 
than 40 years before transfer to Nevada for permanent burial. Last October, 
however, U.S. Energy Department Yucca Mountain Project transport director 
Gary Lanthrum told the Salt Lake Tribune that the Yucca Mountain Project 
would simply not accept irradiated nuclear fuel from PFS, as that would 
violate the terms of DOE's Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear 
Fuel, which requires DOE to only accept uncanistered fuel directly from 
nuclear utilities at reactor sites. Since PFS would not meet these 
requirements, it could very well lead to de facto permanent "disposal" of 
4,000 casks of high-level radioactive waste above ground in Skull Valley.



For NRC to approve PFS at this time by assuming that Yucca Mountain would 
take the wastes after 40 years contradicts Gary Lanthum's statement, and 
also suggests that NRC is predisposed to approve DOE's Yucca Mountain 
license application even before the proceedings have begun.



This is very troubling and ignores ongoing, serious uncertainties 
surrounding the Yucca Mountain Project's future. In addition, even if the 
Yucca Mountain repository does open, it is technically and legally limited 
to 63,000 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel. DOE projects 
that the total amount of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel generated in 
the U.S. will double to over 105,000 metric tons in the decades to come. 
This means that even if Yucca Mountain opens, PFS could very well turn into 
the de facto permanent overflow zone for excess waste.



Finally, on its face, the storage or disposal of highly radioactive waste 
on a tiny, poverty-stricken Native American community that did not even 
benefit from the nuclear generated electricity also raises significant 
environmental justice concerns. The existing leadership crisis at Skull 
Valley only exacerbates such concerns. There is a long-running dispute over 
the legitimacy of the tribal leadership that supports PFS. The disputed 
Tribal Chairman, Leon Bear -- the primary proponent for PFS -- has been 
indicted on federal charges of embezzlement of tribal funds as well as tax 
evasion. Tribal members who oppose PFS claim they have been severely 
intimidated and harassed, and allege that irregularities such as bribery 
and extortion have been used to secure support for PFS within the tribe.



These are very shaky foundations upon which to build dry cask storage for 
44,000 tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, nearly 80% of what 
currently exists in the U.S. The Skull Valley Goshute Indian community 
seems to have suffered significantly from the PFS proposal long before the 
first shipment of irradiated nuclear fuel has even arrived.



We urge you to deny the PFS license request. Storing irradiated nuclear 
fuel at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation is not a safe, sound, nor just 
solution to our country's high-level radioactive waste problem.



Sincerely,



Michael Mariotte, Executive Director, Nuclear Information and Resource 
Service, Washington, D.C.



Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Public Citizens Critical Mass Energy 
and Environment Program, Washington, D.C.



Pete Litster, Executive Director, The Shundahai Network, Salt Lake City, Utah





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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*****************************************************************
 57 [NukeNet] Skull Valley Nuke Dump Passes Critical Licensing
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:20:36 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)


Skull Valley Nuke Dump Passes Critical Licensing Hurdle

NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs         Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001        E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
www.nrc.gov
No. 05-034      February 24, 2005


NRC LICENSING BOARD FINDS IN FAVOR OF COMPANY IN PFS CASE;
DECISION NOW GOES TO COMMISSION

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an independent judicial arm of the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, issued a decision today on the last issue 
before it on the spent nuclear fuel storage facility proposed for Skull 
Valley, Utah, by the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) consortium. By a 2-1 vote, 
the Board ruled in favor of PFS, rejecting the State of Utah's assertions 
that there is too high a probability that a radiation release could be 
caused by the accidental crash of one of the 7,000 flights made down Skull 
Valley every year by F-16 single-engine jets from Hill Air Force Base.

With the Licensing Board's role now completed, the determination whether to 
issue the requested license now goes to the five Commissioners who head the 
NRC, who will also hear any appeals.

The PFS facility would be located on the Reservation of the Skull Valley 
Band of Goshute Indians, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The 
proposed above-ground facility, whose principal opponent is the State of 
Utah, is intended for temporary storage of the waste fuel from U.S. nuclear 
power plants.

During a formal 16-day trial which ended in mid-September 2004, the 
Licensing Board had heard expert witnesses and received documentary 
evidence from the Applicant PFS, the NRC Staff, and the State of Utah on 
(1) the strength of the steel and concrete outer casks and the stainless 
steel inner canisters holding the spent fuel and (2) the speeds and angles 
at which F-16s have previously crashed around the world. The Board majority 
concluded that the probability of a crash at a speed and angle sufficient 
to breach one of the stainless steel canisters holding spent nuclear fuel 
was less than one-in-a-million per year. Under the NRC's standards, a 
facility like PFS does not have to be designed against such an unlikely 
accident.

Nearly two years ago, the Licensing Board had upheld the State's initial 
argument, blocking issuance of the PFS license, by finding that the 
probability of an accidental F-16 crash onto the proposed site was too high 
unless it could be shown that such a crash would have no adverse 
radiological consequences. The Applicant's appeal of that decision to the 
Commission was held in abeyance pending the second phase of the F-16 crash 
inquiry.

Earlier today, the Licensing Board also issued in the PFS matter an 
unrelated decision declining to consider a new contention the State had 
recently filed, after the aircraft hearing had been closed, based on 
remarks assertedly made by an official of the U.S. Department of Energy 
concerning the ultimate fate of spent fuel stored at the proposed PFS 
facility. The Board determined that at this late stage, and in light of DOE 
documents that contradicted the remarks, it would not reopen the hearing 
record to adjudicate the matter, which it indicated was instead worthy of 
attention by the Commission.

The full reasoning justifying the Licensing Board's F-16 accident decision 
cannot be released because it contains non-publicly-available (Safeguards 
Information) facts and analyses concerning the impact of plane crashes on 
concrete and steel objects. For that same reason, the evidentiary hearing 
had been closed to the public.

The Board did prepare a version of its opinion that sets forth only a 
general summary of those aspects of its reasoning, and that version is 
being made publicly available. A copy of that 68-page version may be 
obtained from the NRC's web site at 
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/adjudicatory/pfs-aircraft05.pdf .


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Fax: 801.533.0129


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*****************************************************************
 58 [du-list] Waste from new Enrichment facility will cost 3-4
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:50 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0223-07.htm

Comment:  Is this the same kind of enrichment facility that Bush is currently
objecting to in Iran?  Could the issue be Depleted Uranium weapons in Iran
rather than conventional nuclear weaposn?

TAKOMA PARK, MD -- Fenruary 23 -- A new report about a uranium
enrichment plant proposed to be built in New Mexico concludes that it
would cost between $3 billionand $4 billion to properly manage and
dispose of the depleted uranium (DU) waste that the plant would
generate. Such high costs could not be recovered from the customers
for enrichment services.

... snip ....

There are currently some 740,000 tons of depleted uranium in unstable
hexafluoride form stockpiled at Department of Energy sites at Paducah,
Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. LES, a corporate
consortium led by the European company Urenco, wants to build the
plant in New Mexico. Another company, USEC, seeks to build a similar
plant in Ohio.

... snip ...

"The health risks of depleted uranium may be far more varied than is
recognized in federal regulations today," said Dr. Brice Smith, Senior
Scientist at IEER and co-author of the report. "Children in the future
may be saddled with a legacy similar to that of the sorry history of
lead poisoning over the past three generations, but this time we are
dealing with a heavy metal that is also radioactive."





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 59 Las Vegas SUN: Board backs proposed nuclear waste dump at Utah
      reservation, reversing objection on plane crash risk
 
Today: February 24, 2005 at 19:13:37 PST 

 By TRAVIS REED ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal licensing board approved a
proposed nuclear waste dump Thursday, reversing an earlier
ruling that there was too much risk of a plane crash from a
nearby air base. 

The 2-1 vote by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board sent the
proposal to the full Nuclear Regulatory Commission for final
approval. 

The approval was a blow to state officials, who have long fought
the plans to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel rods at the
facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation, about
50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and near the sprawling Utah
Test and Training Range. 

The Air Force flies thousands of training missions each year
from Hill Air Force Base, and in stalling dump construction in
March 2003, the board had cited the possibility that a fighter
jet could crash into the facility. 

Regulatory standards forbid the project if the probability of a
radiation breech from a crash is more than one in a million per
year. 

The board had initially accepted an analysis that the
probability was four times that. But the board said Thursday
that further analysis showed that even if an F-16 did crash into
the site, it would be unlikely to cause "cask and canister
damage resulting in radiological release" unless the plane were
traveling at a particular speed and angle. 

The waste is expected to end up at a proposed Yucca Mountain
facility in Nevada. The state contended that rods could end up
permanently in Utah because the Energy Department isn't
obligated to transport them to Nevada, but the licensing board
rejected the argument Thursday, saying the state didn't have
enough facts to support its stance. 

Assistant Utah Attorney General Denise Chancellor said her
office will continue to fight the facility, either through
another appeal to the board, in court or before the regulatory
commission. 

The issue has wound its way through the courts since Skull
Valley Band Tribal Chairman Leon Bear signed a lease in 1997
allowing Private Fuel Storage to store the fuel on Goshute land.
The site is barren desert, and the storage plan would bring the
small impoverished tribe a fortune - possibly as much as $3
billion. 

PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin said the consortium was pleased with
the ruling, and remained undeterred by the state's opposition. 

"I can't think of any nuclear facility that has been welcomed
with open arms. ... But once the facility is there and operating
safely, it becomes part of the community, and the opinions and
attitudes change," she said. 

As planned, the storage pad would hold up to 4,000 casks filled
with depleted nuclear fuel - about 10 million rods - across 100
acres of the Skull Valley. The waste would be shipped over rail
lines, mostly from reactors east of the Mississippi. Utah has no
nuclear power plants. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Licensing board:
http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/organization/aslbpfuncdesc.html
[http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/organization/aslbpfuncdesc.html] 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 60 Bradenton Herald: Nelson vows help for Tallevast

| 02/24/2005 | 

Senator delivers plan to expand testing for former beryllium
workers

 DONNA WRIGHT

 Herald Staff Writer

Click here for a comprehensive overview of the Tallevast
pollution case. 

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson got a primer on beryllium in a visit
Wednesday to Bradenton. 

Terry Owen and Ray Stephens, former Loral American Beryllium
workers, gave Florida's senior senator an inside look at the
health hazards they say they faced on a daily basis machining
parts for atomic weapons and missile guidance systems during the
Cold War. 

In turn, Nelson assured Owens and Stephens that their government
has not forgotten them. 

On Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced an existing
beryllium screening program would be expanded to include former
employees of the now defunct Tallevast plant. Workers who test
positive will be referred to the Department of Labor for
consideration for a benefits program that pays lifetime medical
care and $150,000 in a lump-sum compensation. 

"Hallelujah, it has finally come through," said a jubilant
Nelson, who met with workers, Tallevast residents and local
public officials to discuss details of the testing program. 

Nelson, D-Fla., credited U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota,
for helping with lobbying efforts. 

"This was truly a nonpartisan effort," Nelson said. "Rep. Harris
and I have both been working very hard on this." 

The expansion is good news not only for American Beryllium
workers but for other employees of 24 other beryllium vendor
companies nationwide who handled subcontract work for the
Department of Energy. 

Nearly a decade after the Tallevast plant closed its doors, the
federal government is arranging for workers at vendor companies
to have free blood tests to determine if their work has made
them sick, Nelson said. 

Exposure to toxic beryllium dust created when the exotic metal
is machined can lead to beryllium sensitivity, a forerunner of
chronic beryllium disease, a severe lung condition that is often
fatal if not treated. 

U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman paid tribute to former
American Beryllium workers in a news release announcing the
expansion. 

"Through no fault of their own, these Cold War warriors were
left out in the cold when their former employers went out of
business," Bodman said. "By expanding this screening program,
President Bush and the Department of Energy honor these men and
women and the important role they played in strengthening our
national security." 

In a follow-up conference call, Assistant Secretary of Energy
John Shaw, the architect of the policy change, noted that the
expansion will be paid for with existing funds from the
department's budget. 

The expansion program will provide tests for an estimated 25,000
workers and cost $3.5 million during the next several years. 

"We are very proud that we could do this with existing funds,"
Shaw said. "We are doing more because we are managing the
people's money properly." 

Tests are expected to begin in March. 

The free testing is available to any former worker of any
beryllium vendor company who was under contract with the
Department of Energy, Shaw said. 

Shaw's staff estimates that there are approximately 900 former
American Beryllium employees still living who may be interested
in the free tests, but they emphasized that number is just an
estimate that is under constant revision. 

Richard Miller, senior policy analyst with the Government
Accountability Project and an ardent lobbyist for beryllium
workers, credited Shaw for making the expansion a reality. 

"His heart is in the right place," Miller said. "His policy is a
very gracious policy. He wants to identify disease at an early
enough stage so you can do something about it and make a
difference." 

Because it can take up to 30 years to develop a sensitivity to
beryllium after the first exposure, repeat testing will be
offered free of charge on an annual basis, Shaw said. 

The medical-screening program will be performed by the Oak Ridge
Institute for Science and Education, which also conducts
beryllium screening for DOE former workers. 

Nelson called the expansion program a giant step forward, but he
acknowledged that there are many challenges ahead. 

The senator's list of challenges grew after talking with former
workers, Tallevast residents and public officials who attended
Wednesday's informal meeting. Among the issues raised: 

• Who is going to pay for treatment of residents and family
members of former workers made ill living close to the plant or
dust tracked home on workers' shoes? 

• Who will compensate former workers employed by the plant
during the years American Beryllium did work for the Department
of Defense and other government agencies? 

Currently, only those employees who worked at the plant during
1968 and from 1980 through 1989 - the years American Beryllium
had contracts with the Department of Energy - are eligible for
the free testing and compensation program through the Department
of Labor. 

Stephens, former union officer at American Beryllium, told
Nelson that almost all of the work done at the Tallevast plant
was U.S. government work - same beryllium, same dust, same
workers, same exposure risk, just different government agencies. 

"We did not stop machining beryllium on Dec. 31 in 1989,"
Stephens said. "What happens to the rest of the workers after
that? Who pays for their tests and treatment?" 

Nelson reaffirmed his commitment to work until he finds a way to
get those workers, their family members and residents who lived
nearby the plant covered. 

\ • See a slideshow of Wednesday's news conference. 

• Read Rep. Katherine Harris' news release 

• See an archive of recent coverage in the Tallevast testing. 

Beryllium disease screening program 

• The Department of Energy will offer former Loral American
Beryllium Co. employees who worked at the plant during 1967
and/or between 1980 and 1989 a free blood test to check for
beryllium sensitivity, a forerunner of chronic beryllium
disease. 

• Blood samples will be drawn at a local clinic to be announced
and shipped to a speciality lab for analysis. 

• Former American Beryllium employees who no longer live in the
Bradenton area will be sent a test kit to take to their local
physician. 

• DOE will pay for the costs of drawing the blood and the
analysis of the sample. 

• Individuals who receive a positive diagnosis for beryllium
sensitivity can receive medical monitoring and/or compensation
through the Department of Labor under the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation program. 

• To arrange testing, former workers interested in medical
screening should contact the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and
Education at 866-219-3442.   

*****************************************************************
 61 Bradenton Herald: Lockheed Martin wants wells covered in Tallevast

| 02/24/2005 | 

SCOTT RADWAY

 Herald Staff Writer

TALLEVAST - Lockheed Martin is moving to seal water wells to
prevent more than 50 acres of groundwater contamination from
being spread and to remove the risk of someone unknowingly
drinking from a polluted well. 

But community leaders say sealing the wells is destroying the
evidence; "That's like putting a person in a sealed crypt before
you do the autopsy," said Dr. Billy Ward, a member of the
Tallevast community group FOCUS. 

Filling the wells with concrete could hamper an investigation
into how much contamination the Tallevast community was exposed
to over the years by the old American Beryllium Co. plant, they
say. 

Laura Ward, Billy Ward's wife and the president of FOCUS, added
that Lockheed has not completed its investigation into the
extent of the contamination plume, so the work would be
premature. 

Lockheed does not expect to file its final assessment of the
plume until mid-March. 

"What's the rush?" Laura Ward asked. "They are still in the
discovery stage. What if we need to get back to those sources?" 

Lockheed is mapping the plume as part of a consent order with
the state Department of Environmental Protection. That order
spells out how many monitoring wells are needed as the
contamination is cleaned up. No resident well is part of that
program. 

"We want to eliminate people accessing the contaminated water
beneath," said Meredith Rouse Davis, Lockheed spokeswoman. 

All residents with drinking-water wells in Tallevast were
connected to county water last year, when the contamination was
discovered to have spread far off the old American Beryllium Co.
plant. Those connections met state health requirements to
protect people from exposure. Drinking the water and showering
in it are the greatest exposure concerns. 

No resident has used the water wells or irrigation wells since
then, according to FOCUS leaders and Lockheed officials. 

Lockheed originally wanted to close the wells, but it lacked the
regulatory authority, Rouse Davis said. This month, Manatee
County requested Lockheed begin the process of closing the wells
as county staff began drafting an ordinance to ban wells in
Tallevast. 

The county wants to shut down the wells for the same reasons
Lockheed does. 

State health officials also support sealing the wells for the
same reasons. 

Rouse Davis said Lockheed has targeted 34 homes that have wells,
some for drinking, others only for irrigation. Rouse Davis said
sealing the wells would prevent anyone from mistakenly drinking
from one of them. 

The wells also can act as a pathway for contaminants to sink
from the upper level of the aquifer - where most of it is
contained - into the intermediate aquifer. Rouse Davis said if a
well has a compromised casing, contaminants could breach it and
move down. 

County water experts said if water is drawn up, it could also
cause the contamination to shift below to fill the void. 

Rouse Davis and Lockheed scientists are scheduled to meet with
FOCUS leaders today in Tallevast. Rouse Davis said she hopes
residents' concerns about the project can be addressed. She also
plans to discuss a report from Laura Ward that a Tallevast
farmer is using an irrigation well in the plume area. But
without the county ban - which is at least two months away -
Lockheed has no power to shut the wells down. 

Laura Ward said the group plans to attend the meeting, but is
ready to make a stand, not debate the issue. Lockheed also
mailed letters this week asking individual residents to meet
with them to discuss sealing the wells, but Ward said FOCUS
advises residents not to meet with Lockheed officials. 

Residents learned about the contamination three years after
Lockheed found it at the plant site. Trust has been nonexistent
between residents and Lockheed. 

"This is as dead as it can be," Laura Ward said. "It is not
necessary for them to come, because we don't need to hear it as
far as we concerned. But it is nicer when we look them in the
faces when they give us that bull." 

Scott Radway, environmental reporter, can be reached at 708-7919
or at sradway@HeraldToday.com [sradway@HeraldToday.com] . Herald
staff writer Donna Wright contributed to this report.   

*****************************************************************
 62 Popular Mechanics: Putting Nuclear Waste To Work
 				 
  A humble lawnmower engineand a junked one at thathas pointed
the way toward a novel solution for disposing of nuclear waste.
If it works as well as its developer expects, it might even turn
nuclear power into an energy source an environmentalist could
love. Okay, maybe not love, but at least learn to live with. 

The idea revolvesliterallyaround a new type of reactor. Called a
Nuclear Powered Turbo-Reciprocating Engine (NPTRE), it runs on a
mix of "fresh" and "spent" nuclear fuel. The NPTRE is the
brainchild of Claudio Filippone, an electrical engineer who,
after working with leading automakers, started on a new tack by
enrolling in the University of Maryland's graduate program in
nuclear engineering. Before long, he decided that the familiar
piston engine just might hold the key to safely disposing of the
world's growing stockpiles of radioactive waste. 

There are several types of radioactive waste, ranging from
gloves worn by nuclear medicine technicians to underground tanks
bubbling with millions of gallons of lethal leftovers from the
Manhattan Project and Cold War bomb-building. But the big
problem, both in terms of waste volume and radioactive content,
is created by the fuel removed from commercial power plants when
they are shut down for refueling once every 18 to 24 months (the
refueling cycle for nuclear submarines is more frequent). Each
time this is done, a portion of the nuclear fuel in the core of
the reactor is removed and placed in a "spent fuel pool" near
the reactor. 

Fresh reactor fuel contains mostly natural uranium (U-238),
enriched with between 2% and 4% neutron-emitting U-235 uranium
isotope. "The splitting of the U-235 and U-238 produces fission
fragments which will transform their kinetic energy into heat
and continue decaying through radioactive processes," explains
Filippone. 

Depending upon the power-plant design, the heat created in the
fissioning chain reaction produces steam or boiling water, which
in turn drives a turbine connected to electric generators. The
fission fragments, although radioactive, produce too few
fast-moving neutrons to continue to support fission. When this
happens, the fuel is considered spenteven though it still
contains a large amount of U-238. 

Because some of the material in spent fuel remains radioactive
for thousands of years and can also be used in making nuclear
weapons, the law requires that spent fuel be stored in a
permanent repository. By 2020, the Department of Energy
estimates, 85,000 tons of spent fuel will have accumulated. A
repository to hold it still hasn't opened, so it is backing up
in the local pools. 

This is where the NPTRE comes in. It would allow fuel to remain
in nuclear plants, where the radiation it releases can be put to
work. The NPTRE's basic mechanical operation would be familiar
to anyone who has changed a lawnmower spark plug. In the NPTRE,
the piston is pushed by a small volume of liquid water that is
quickly convertedflashedinto a large amount of superheated
steam. This phase change occurs when the piston is at top dead
center (TDC) and immediately after liquid water has been
squirted into a specially shaped heat cavity. The steam, which
now occupies more volume due to its expansion, drives the piston
down. 

Heat to flash the water into steam is produced by a nuclear
reaction that begins when a small amount of U-235 embedded in
the piston enters a section of the reactor surrounding the
cylinder head. 

The NPTRE actually is made of two reactors placed one on top of
the other. The one that influences the piston when it is at TDC
creates a chain reaction that takes place in
"new"U-235-enrichedfuel surrounded by a water-moderated reactor,
the top reactor. The moderator slows the neutrons coming off the
piston and the surrounding cylinder, so they can be captured,
and absorbed, by uranium atoms, which then split apart to
sustain the chain reaction. 

As the piston travels down the cylinder, it exits the
water-moderated reactor and enters a second reactor. This one is
filled with spentU-235-depletedfuel moderated by graphite.
Graphite has special neutron-scattering characteristics that
make a sustained nuclear chain reaction almost possible in the
spent fuel. "However, by itself, the spent fuel and graphite
combination cannot sustain a usable fission reaction," explains
Filippone. "They need a little something extra." 

That something extra comes in the form of neutrons emitted from
the radioactive piston. As it approaches bottom dead center
(BDC), it adds enough neutrons to support a pulsed chain
reaction in the lower reactor. It produces a small amount of
additional heat, which can be circulated through a heat
exchanger or directly into the top reactor, and later used to
spin a turbine. 

Nothing lasts forever. Eventually, the amount of U-235 in the
piston decreases to the point where it produces an insufficient
number of neutrons to continue the chain reaction. "However,
we're talking about extending the lifetime of the fuel and its
permanence in the reactor-shielded environment, perhaps as many
as four to seven times longer than the current utilization,"
says Filippone. 

And that's not all. When all of the heat and motion is accounted
for, the NPTRE will achieve a thermal efficiency of 56%. By
comparison, a conventional reactor operates with a thermal
efficiency of 30% to 33%. 

Filippone is confident about the system's high efficiency
because in order to convince his Ph.D. committee that his idea
would work he built a prototype. The piston and cylinder were
scavenged from a junked lawnmower engine, and the high-pressure
water injector is a modified 8-cylinder Oldsmobile diesel pump. 

To simulate the heat released when the piston reached TDC, he
used a heating element and a fast-switching electric power
supply. The prototype worked and he received his doctorate.
Looking at Filippone's handiwork, a member of his dissertation
committee remarked that the NPTRE looked like something out of
the pages of Popular Mechanicswhich of course it now is. 

Although the Department of Energy has expressed interest in
funding more research, Filippone is realistic about NPTRE's
prospects. However, he believes that even if no NPTRE is ever
built, the research that went into the project will produce
dividends. The heart of the systemthe intricate heat cavity that
flashes water into steamcan coax higher efficiency from any type
of heat engine. Including those that just putter along, cutting
grass.   

*****************************************************************
 63 Popular Mechanics: Yucca Mountain Will Be The Most Radioactive Place On Earth

A mine not far from Las Vegas is about to become
the most radioactive place on Earth.

      BY JIM WILSON       
            
  Nuclear waste is hot, physically and politically. And there is
no place where you can feel the heat more than at Yucca Mountain, 
Nev. The federal government is preparing to make this hauntingly 
beautiful patch of desert 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas the 
most radioactive place on Earth. Beginning as early as 2010 a 
network of tunnels will be dug and simultaneously loaded with the 
most radioactive waste from the 100 or so nuclear reactors that 
supply about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. 

Building a massive mine to store nuclear waste wasn't in anyone's 
original game plan. At the dawn of the nuclear age engineers saw 
the "spent fuel" that came out of reactors as potentially more 
valuable than the slightly enriched uranium dioxide "fresh fuel" 
that went in. Nuclear fission does more than make the steam that 
spins electric generators. A portion of the uranium fuel 
undergoes a transformation, yielding a cornucopia of radioactive 
elements. The most troubling of these is plutonium-239, which can 
be chemically separated and then used to make fuel for other 
types of power reactors and nuclear bombs. 

As the concentration of these newly created elements increases in 
the fuel, the thermal efficiency of the reactor decreases. Every 
two to three years a typical 1000-megawatt reactor must be shut 
down and a third of its 100-metric-ton fuel load replaced. Fresh 
out of the reactor, "spent fuel" is so dangerous it must be 
stored underwater. According to the original plan, Uncle Sam was 
then supposed to back a radiation-shielded truck up to the plant 
and cart away the waste to a reprocessing site, where the useful 
elements would be removed and recycled. 

Although technically achievable, reprocessing plants became 
intolerably expensive to operate. A new federal strategy evolved. 
Uncle Sam would still take the spent fuel, but now it would be 
put in a deep hole in the middle of nowhere, watched for a 
century or so and, if no one wanted it back, abandoned. The 
Department of Energy (DOE), which is responsible for nuclear 
waste, likes to call these steps "emplacement," "monitoring" and 
"closure." By the time the job is done in 2071, these tasks could 
have cost as much as $50 billion. 

Obviously, no one wants this sort of hole in their backyard. 
After considerable political wrangling, choices for a "permanent 
high-level civilian waste repository" narrowed to what seemed to 
be the perfect location, beneath Yucca Mountain, next door to the 
country's above-ground nuclear weapons testing site. 

If constructed, the repository (see accompanying illustrations) 
will hold nearly 3 billion curies of radiation. By comparison, 
the accident at Three Mile Island released 15 curies, mostly as 
short-lived radioactive iodine. A substantial portion of the 
radiation contained inside Yucca Mountain will be emitted from 
plutonium, which has a half-life of more than 20,000 years. 

Bottling The Genie How do you contain so deadly a genie for so 
long a time? As POPULAR MECHANICS saw during a recent trip to 
Yucca Mountain, DOE's strategy can be summed up in one 
word--carefully. 

"Our estimate is that the first packages will fail in 10,000 
years," Daniel R. Wilkins, assistant general manager of the 
repository, tells PM. "After that we're relying on the mountain 
to contain the waste." The "packages" are casks made of steel and 
a highly corrosion-resistant inner lining. Each will hold 21 or 
44 "reactor fuel assemblies." Some assemblies contain enough 
plutonium to build a bomb. However, because the plutonium is 
diffused inside the fuel pellets within the assemblies, no one 
believes there is any credible risk of an explosion. Concerns 
center on more subtle dangers, principally the presence of water. 

Water is one thing that there doesn't appear to be much of atop 
Yucca Mountain. The rugged, 1000-ft.-tall flat-top mountain 
overlooks the Amargosa Desert. Running north to south for about 
six miles, it is made of layers of volcanic tuff--broken or 
fragmented rock created when a volcano explodes--that was laid 
down between 11.5 million and 15 million years ago. After being 
packed in casks at a yet-to-be-constructed processing area on the 
surface, the wastes will be deposited into tunnels or "drifts" 
dug into a formation of welded tuff between about 600 ft. and 900 
ft. thick. The drifts will be cut with a boring machine the size 
of several train engines. 

Thus far, construction crews have cut a 5-mile, 25-ft.-dia. 
exploration tunnel, a pair of ramps to the surface and several 
side alcoves. DOE scientists are hopeful that experiments now 
being conducted in these alcoves will generate sufficient 
scientific data about the geologic, mechanical and chemical 
conditions inside the rock to convince the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) to issue a construction permit to dig the actual 
burial tunnels and an operating license that will allow them to 
accept nuclear wastes, which are now stored at power plants. 

Yucca Mountain's principal opponent, the state of Nevada, says 
the data produced thus far is quite sufficient to show just the 
opposite. It claims the mountain leaks.                                                                                  

*****************************************************************
 64 Ithaca Journal: Cleanup resumes at nuclear site - 

ithacajournal.com

- Thursday, February 24, 2005   

CAROLYN THOMPSON The Associated Press 

BUFFALO -- Cleanup operations resumed Wednesday at a former 
nuclear site in western New York, more than a month after two 
workers were exposed to higher doses of radiation than allowed 
under the site's guidelines. 

West Valley Nuclear Services Co. voluntarily halted work at the 
Cattaraugus County site following the Jan. 19 exposure, the third 
safety lapse in less than a month. 

Cleanup was being resumed in phases. 

The overexposed workers required no medical treatment and no 
radiation was released into the environment, authorities said. 
The other lapses involved the ignition of small fires. 

"Our approach to safety is to plan for all contingencies and stop 
work if something unexpected occurs," said Russ Mellor, president 
of West Valley Nuclear Services Co., which operates the West 
Valley Demonstration Project about 35 miles south of Buffalo. 

West Valley was the site of the country's first commercial 
nuclear fuel reprocessing plant from 1966 to 1972. The New York 
State Energy Research and Development Authority and U.S. 
Department of Energy are partners in the ongoing decontamination 
and decommissioning of the site. 

An independent report sought by West Valley Nuclear Services 
following the worker exposure indicated the employees received 
doses of 315 and 169 millirems of radiation. That compares to the 
360 millirems that the average American absorbs in a year from 
things like X-rays and the sun. 

The exposure exceeded West Valley's self-imposed limit of 100 
millirems per day but did not exceed federal Energy Department 
standards, West Valley spokesman Terry Dunford said. 

The incident occurred inside a maintenance room while the 
workers, who were wearing protective clothing, emptied waste into 
metal containers. 

The report faulted managers for failing to adequately evaluate 
radiological hazards and implement safety controls. 

Mellor said training and other recommendations included in the 
findings were being implemented. 

Originally published Thursday, February 24, 2005
 
*****************************************************************
 65 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca meetings held secretly, Nevadans allege 
 
Thursday, February 24, 2005
 

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 

WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials charged Wednesday that government
managers have met behind closed doors to discuss a court ruling
ordering a new radiation safety standard for Yucca Mountain.
 
 Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency who are
rewriting the standard attended meetings and had phone
conversations with counterparts from the Energy Department and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nevada attorneys said, based
on documents they obtained.
 
 Martin Malsch, one of Nevada's nuclear waste lawyers, said the
contacts do not appear to break any laws. A federal spokeswoman
and two people outside the government said the sessions they
were familiar with were proper and not out of the ordinary.
 
 But Nevada officials said private talks at least raise
questions about government openness and at worst hint that
federal officials might be collaborating to make it easier to
build a nuclear waste repository in the state.
 
 Malsch raised the issue during a presentation Wednesday before
the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, a branch of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. 
"It appears that NRC, DOE and EPA have been discussing with each
other how to respond" to the court's ruling, Malsch told the
committee.
 
 "However, rather than being open with it, the agencies have
drawn an iron curtain of secrecy around their deliberations," he
said.
 
 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in July
voided an EPA 10,000-year radiation standard for the repository.
The EPA has said it might propose a new standard this summer,
but the project has been delayed in the meantime.
 
 Malsch said Nevada has asked the EPA to issue an "advance
notice of rule-making" that would require the agency to conduct
public meetings, but has received no answer.
 
 Malsch later said the state, through the federal Freedom of
Information Act, obtained date books for EPA officials, meeting
notes and e-mails indicating that meetings and telephone
conversations involving the three agencies took place shortly
after the court's ruling in July.
 
 Sue Gagner, an NRC spokeswoman, said the agency's discussions
with EPA are appropriate because NRC's licensing regulations for
Yucca Mountain must be harmonized with the safety rules that EPA
is writing.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 66 Salt Lake Tribune: Update: Skull Valley nuclear plan clears two
hurdles 

Article Last Updated: 02/24/2005 03:51:50 PM 

By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune 

A utility consortium planning to store 44,000 tons of 
high-level radioactive waste on the Skull Valley reservation 
achieved a major victory Thursday when a panel of Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission judges swept aside the last of the state's 
two objections to the facility. 

In an unusual split decision, the Atomic Safety Licensing 
Board voted 2-1 to set aside its own earlier ruling that the 
possibility of an F-16 fighter jet crash into the Private Fuel 
Storage spent nuclear fuel facility would pose an unacceptable 
risk. 

PFS appealed, arguing that even if a jet did crash into the 
open-air array of 4,00 172-ton waste storage casks, the casks' 
durability meant the chance of radioactive release would not 
exceed federal risk standards. Two of the three panel judges 
agreed. The dissenting judge argued that the number of F-16 
crashes analyzed was insufficient to reach that conclusion. 

The licensing board also dismissed a state argument that the 
waste stored temporarily in Utah in welded casks at the $3.1 
billion PFS facility would not be acceptable at a federal 
nuclear repository unless it was repackaged, as an Energy 
Department official had stated in October. 

The two rulings cleared the way for the NRC to approve a 
license to build and operate the facility 45 miles southwest of 
Salt Lake City. 

John Parkyn, who heads the consortium of eight utilities 
backing PFS, hailed the rulings as ''a great advancement for the 
nuclear industry in America.'' 

But Utah Assistant Attorney General Denise Chancellor vowed 
the state would not give up its fight to block the facility. 
''We will certainly exercise all our available legal remedies,'' 
she said. 

''We've got some very, very good lawyers on this,'' added 
Mike Lee, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s general counsel. 

The state can appeal the licensing board's rulings to the 
NRC, or can take an appeal either to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals or the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court. 

The state has an appeal currently before the U.S. Supreme 
Court that seeks to overturn an appeals court ruling that Utah 
had no right to pass laws aimed at stopping PFS. 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 67 Wall Street Journal: EPA's Ruling On Perchlorate Draws Criticism - 

Peter Waldman
 
February Thursday, 2005 

The Environmental Protection Agency, in a policy decision that
may save the Pentagon and defense industry billions of dollars
in cleanup costs, adopted a weakened version of the National 
Academy of Sciences' recommended "safe dose" for perchlorate 
exposure. 

In response, some scientists, environmentalists and members of 
Congress who are worried that the water contaminant poses a risk 
to infant-brain development, accused the Bush administration of 
meddling with the science to help the suspected polluters. 

Perchlorate, a main ingredient in solid-rocket fuel and other 
weapons systems, was discharged into soil and streams by the 
military and its suppliers throughout the Cold War, and has 
turned up in water supplies in 35 states. 

The current controversy concerns the EPA's adoption of a 
so-called reference dose for perchlorate, or the daily exposure 
level for the chemical deemed safe for the most sensitive 
subpopulations over a lifetime. This is the first step toward the 
possible setting of a legal water standard for perchlorate. 

On Friday, the EPA announced it is officially adopting the 
reference dose recommended last month by a panel of the National 
Academy of Sciences' National Research Council, which said adults 
can safely consume an equivalent of 24 parts per billion of 
perchlorate in drinking water. In 2002 the EPA proposed its own 
reference dose for perchlorate of one part per billion, which the 
agency says it is now discarding. 

But in an unusual ripple, the EPA, in translating the NRC's 
reference dose into a drinking-water limit, said it wasn't 
following the guidance for how to apply the panel's reference 
dose that was issued by the NRC panel's chairman, Richard 
Johnston of the University of Colorado. Dr. Johnston, in public 
comments last month and again in an interview Friday, stated that 
in order to translate the NRC reference dose into a 
drinking-water limit, it is necessary to adjust the NRC dose for 
an individual's body weight and water-consumption level—in the 
same way dosages of medicines are routinely adjusted for 
particular patients' weights. 

"So if it's a three-kilogram baby, you adjust [the 
perchlorate-water limit] down. If it's an 80-kilogram adult, you 
' adjust it up," Dr. Johnston explained during a public briefing 
on Jan. 11. On Friday, he. elaborated on that in an interview: 
"When you consider the weight and fluid needs of an infant, the 
perchlorate drinking-water equivalent level is going to be 
different than for an adult," Dr. Johnston said. 

According to an EPA scientist, if the EPA were to follow, Dr. 
Johnston's advice to translate the NRC's reference dose to 
protect newborn babies, the agency would have to set a 
drinking-water limit for perchlorate of roughly four parts per 
billion. 

For its part, the EPA said it interprets the NRC's perchlorate 
analysis differently than the report's chairman does. William 
Farland, the EPA's acting chief science officer, said in an 
interview Friday that "some data" suggest infants are no more 
sensitive to perchlorate's effects than adults are, and thus 
babies need no more protection than adults do from the chemical. 
The NRC's reference dose, Dr. Farland said, is meant to protect 
the most-sensitive subgroups, in this case pregnant mothers and 
their fetuses. 

Those groups are shielded by an extra safety margin built into 
the NRC's reference dose, Dr. Farland said. That dose was derived 
by dividing the perchlorate level that caused ill effects in 
adult humans by a safety factor of 10. 

The EPA's decision not to adjust the drinking-water level for 
infants makes it less likely the agency will ever set a federal 
drinking-water standard for the chemical, said some EPA staffers 
and outside scientists. Very few public water supplies in the 
U.S. are contaminated with more than 20 parts per billion of 
perchlorate, and federal law requires the EPA to set 
drinking-water limits only when the standards will provide 
significant publichealth benefits. On Friday, both U.S. senators 
from California, the state most contaminated by perchlorate, 
urged the EPA to reconsider its reference dose and quickly set a 
water standard to protect infants. 

Thomas Zoeller, a University of Massachusetts neurobiologist who 
participated in two outside peer reviews of the EPA's perchlorate 
work sponsored by the agency, said a 24-parts-per-billion 
drinking-water limit will subject infants to six-times as much 
perchlorate as deemed safe by the NRC panel. This level could 
limit the babies' ability to produce thyroid hormone, a crucial 
biochemical in controlling brain development, Dr. Zoeller said in 
an interview. 

"There is no evidence to support a claim that infants are more or 
less sensitive to the effect of perchlorate on their thyroid 
glands than adults," Dr. Zoeller said. "What we do know is that 
infants drink six times the amount of fluid, per body weight, 
than adults do, and therefore the 10-fold [safety] factor 
incorporated by the NRC is 60% accounted for by this difference 
alone." 
*****************************************************************
 68 PRN: Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Site Recommended for Licensing 

[http://www.prnewswire.com/] 

[http://www.dairynet.com] 

LA CROSSE, Wis., Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Atomic Safety & 
Licensing Board (ASLB) of the United States Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) today recommended that an operating license be 
granted to Private Fuel Storage LLC (PFS). The license would 
allow the construction and operation of a temporary spent nuclear 
fuel storage site on the Skull Valley reservation of the Goshute 
Indians in central Utah. Dairyland Power Cooperative, La Crosse, 
Wis., is one of eight utilities comprising PFS. 

PFS Chairman of the Board and CEO John Parkyn said, "This action, 
the first in nearly a decade, is a great advancement for the 
nuclear industry in America. More than two-thirds of the 
emission-free electrical generation in this country comes from 
nuclear power plants. American energy independence is critical in 
this time of national challenge, and maintaining the nuclear 
option is enhanced by this decision. This facility, which 
complements the proposed permanent facility at Yucca Mountain, 
Nev., will allow the industry to move forward with a centralized, 
safe, secure facility and will provide an important alternative 
to spent fuel storage at 72 separate locations across the United 
States." 

Today's decision comes nearly eight years after the licensing 
process began. PFS had reviewed the feasibility of such a 
facility and prospective locations for several years before 
submitting its license application in 1997. The licensing process 
included NRC staff evaluation of the license application and 
extensive public input. 

Public hearings on the application were held in 2000 and 2002. 
They provided opportunities for public comment on the Final 
Environmental Impact Statement, which was issued in 2001 and the 
Final Safety Evaluation Report, issued in 2002. The ASLB 
recommendation will be reviewed by the NRC Commissioners. If the 
Commissioners concur with the recommendation, they will direct 
the NRC staff to issue a license. 

Private Fuel Storage is owned by a group of eight utilities, one 
of which is Dairyland Power, that applied for a license from the 
NRC in 1997. The utilities seek a safe, temporary site for spent 
fuel storage until the federal facility is available. The 
Department of Energy is developing a license application for a 
federal repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. 

With headquarters in La Crosse, Wis., Dairyland provides 
wholesale electricity to 25 member distribution cooperatives and 
20 municipal utilities. Dairyland's service area encompasses 62 
counties in four states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and 
Illinois). Dairyland has provided low-cost, reliable electrical 
energy and related services to its customers in the upper Midwest 
for over 63 years. 

SOURCE Dairyland Power Cooperative 

Web Site: http://www.dairynet.com [http://www.dairynet.com] 

Copyright © 1996-2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights 
*****************************************************************
 69 Westford Eagle Editorial: A plume of questions
 
TownOnline.com - 

Thursday, February 24, 2005Even though we have been hearing about 
problems with perchlorate-contaminated ground and well water in 
Westford for months, we still have many unanswered questions.

     Where exactly is this plume of perchlorate and how 
threatening is it? How much perchlorate does it take in a water 
supply for the water to be unsafe to drink? Why is there no 
agreement on this number? What are the effects of perchlorate on 
the environment and on animals who may drink the ground and 
surface water? What is the half-life of perchlorate? Does it 
weaken over time or is it an omnipresent danger?

     If the perchlorate source in Westford is confirmed to be
from blasting and the aftereffects of industrial processes,
whose responsibility is it to pay for the eventual water and
well cleanup? What is the state doing to help the town of
Westford? How bad is it and when will we know how bad it is?

     We appreciate the subtleties of the science of hydrology
and water safety and know that it takes time to evaluate a water
problem and even more time to alleviate that problem. The Cote
Well was taken offline in July after the perchlorate level was
detected as too high. Westford water officials are concerned
that the town will be down one well this summer and that a
particularly dry season could affect the town's now-limited well
water supply.

     We hope officials can quickly determine the nature and
course of the perchlorate threat so that remedies can be
undertaken. The state Department of Environmental Protection
needs to be more responsive to Westford's water problems and
help with a solution.

     Waiting for a plume to seep into Westford's water supply is
not a prudent option.

*****************************************************************
 70 Westford Eagle:  EPA issues perchlorate standard
 
TownOnline.com - 

By Carrie Simmons/ Staff Writer

Thursday, February 24, 2005The Environmental Protection Agency 
last Friday issued its first safety standard for perchlorate, the 
chemical found in rocket fuel, explosives and fireworks that has 
contaminated drinking water supplies in nine Massachusetts 
communities.

     People, including infants, children and pregnant women, can
safety ingest 0.7 micrograms of perchlorate per day for each
kilogram of body weight without adverse health effects,
according to the new guideline known as a "reference dose."

     Perchlorate can inhibit the thyroid gland's iodine uptake,
thereby reducing its production of hormones that regulate
metabolism and growth in adults and children.

     The standard means that 24.5 parts per billion would be a
safe limit assuming a 154-pound adult drinks two liters of water
each day.

     Although the guideline is consistent with a recent report
by the National Academy of Sciences, an independent group
commissioned by the Bush administration to evaluate research on
perchlorate and recommend safety standards, the limit is nearly
25 times higher than the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection's interim guideline of 1 part per
billion.

     The DEP and its Science Advisory Committee, which helped
set the agency's preliminary guideline, has been doing an
internal review of the NAS report to determine what its
recommended reference dose means for the agency's development of
cleanup and drinking water standards, according to Ed Coletta, a
DEP spokesman.

     The DEP has proposed a strict draft cleanup standard for
perchlorate of 1 part per billion and was in the process of
reviewing public comment.

     "In light of NAS report, we're continuing to review
comments, but we will also take a look and see if [the draft
cleanup standard] should stay or if it is something that needs
to be reviewed," said Coletta. "We expect to have some sort of
number out there by the end of March."

     Environmental groups and officials alike have raised
questions about the research on which NAS scientists based their
recommendation.

     "Certainly part of what we've been looking at is that a
great weight was put on the Greer study, which was seven healthy
adults who took perchlorate for 14 days," said Coletta.

     Coletta said that the EPA's new safety standard may not
necessarily lead to a loose drinking water standard.

     The drinking water equivalent of the EPA's reference dose -
24.5 parts per billion - assumes 100 percent of perchlorate
exposure is from drinking water. However, drinking water
standards, including the DEP's interim guidance for perchlorate,
often assume only 20 percent of exposure will come from drinking
water and 80 percent will come from other sources such as food.

     And while the EPA has not yet determined if it will set a
national drinking water standard, the guideline will be used to
determine the EPA's Superfund cleanup standard.

     Unlike Westford, where contamination has been linked to
blasting activities, much of the perchlorate contamination
across the country has been linked to military bases and other
defense sites. A lower cleanup standard means higher cleanup
costs.

     Some environmental groups are concerned that future safety
standards could end up protecting polluters instead of sensitive
populations.

     "If I had a partner that was pregnant I would much rather
err on the side of caution," said Mike Davis, an advocate with
Clean Water Action, a national citizens' organization working
for clean, safe and affordable water.

     Davis commended the DEP for setting a strict interim
guidance and hopes the agency will set strict standards that
protect pregnant women, infants and young children and those
with thyroid conditions, not those responsible for pollution.

     "Just like lead, from our point of view there really isn't
a safe level of perchlorate to have in drinking water when
you're talking about vulnerable populations," he said.

*****************************************************************
 71 The Whitehaven News: GOVERNMENT ‘DITHERING’ OVER FUTURE POWER SAYS UNION BOSS 

  Peter Clements: Challenge to the government  

THE leader of the biggest Sellafield union has criticised the 
Government for dithering over the nation’s future power.

Peter Clements knows the industry from the inside, having worked 
for BNFL at Sellafield for 30 years. He has been Prospect union 
Sellafield section chairman for four years, representing 
professional, managerial, technical, specialist and 
administration grades within BNFL. 

Prospect is the largest union on the Sellafield site.

Now he has issued a challenge to Whitehall: “I would like to 
express my concerns at the current Government’s inability to make 
a firm decision on what is increasingly becoming the only viable 
solution to our country's energy crisis.

“Prospect have always supported a balanced energy policy, 
proposing and supporting motions on the subject at past TUC 
conferences. In addition to this Prospect have recently held a 
seminar in London which brought together interested parties to 
establish a model for a new nuclear build program within the UK, 
a model that endeavours to secure support from all stakeholders.

“It is my opinion that the UK energy policy is facing increasing
difficulties, we find ourselves at a point where a number of
largely independent factors are coming together to require a
complex balancing act if all or any of the government policy
objectives are to be achieved. 

Some of the factors include: 

Inexorable growth in electricity demand of around 1 to 2% each
year; 

A country moving from 65% coal and no gas generation in 1990 to
a target of 75% gas generation by 2020; 

Depletion of UK oil and gas reserves which means we will be
importing up to 80% of our gas by 2020, and this from countries
with potential cultural and political instabilities; 

The Government focusing on support for renewables and energy
efficiency and also the deregulation of the electricity market.

“Remember as all this goes on so we have to satisfy our energy
policies and to the vast majority of consumers the priority is
economic and security of supply. Yet the increased reliance on
imported gas brings the prospect of long interruptions of
supply, whether through technical problems or political
instability with being at the end of a long pipe line from
Russia to Western Europe.

“While we support the further investment in a balanced energy
policy, it should be recognised that renewables such as wind
power also brings with it concerns of intermittency and
inefficiency. Even Professor James Lovelock, ‘guru’ of the
environmental movements speaking at the recent Prospect seminar
on keeping the nuclear option open, said: ‘Clean renewable
energy sounds appealing but in practice is ruinously expensive
and little more use than trying to survive on aperitifs alone’.

“A further part of the Government’s policy relates to protecting
the environment, specifically to CO2 emissions. The move from
coal to gas generation has given the UK an artificial impressive
start in this area and it cannot be underestimated the role
nuclear power could play to redress the balance. 

“Lovelock also warned us that burning gas instead of coal also
sounds good and green since it cuts CO2 emissions in half. In
practice it may be the most dangerous energy source of all,
because natural gas is 23 times more potent a greenhouse gas as
CO2. 

“During the next critical 20 to 50 years even a 2% leak from
natural gas from production sites to power stations makes it as
bad as burning coal. 

“There is still a long way to go to meet our stretching targets,
indeed Government statistics show that UK C02 emissions went up
not down last year.

“The aim must be a balanced mix of energy generation with
inherent security, which accompanies diversity; there are roles
to be played by carbon free renewables, by "clean coal"
technology that offers significant UK reserves. But any policy,
which omits nuclear generation and therefore new build, would be
both economically and environmentally flawed.

“As a final warning in Professor Lovelock's speech he stated
‘but sadly in the present world the green concepts of
sustainable development and renewable energy are false and
beguiling dreams that can only lead to failure’. 

“In short, this monumental challenge is not just for our
generation but for generations to come and remember, decisions
made today may take a generation to realise. 

“We can not let the Government wait for the lights to go out to
act, we must press for action now.”
*****************************************************************
 72 Whitehaven News: CALLS FOR WIND POWER 

IN CONTRAST to calls for the government to start investing in
nuclear power, environmental group Greenpeace is adamant Britain
can meet its Kyoto objectives using green power. 

Greenpeace stated this week: “Wind power is the only clean
energy source that can deliver large amounts of power right now.
The UK is the windiest country in Europe. Offshore wind alone,
could meet our electricity needs three times over.

“Wind power can now produce electricity at a cheaper price than
nuclear power in the UK. What’s more, the UK government predicts
that onshore wind will be the cheapest form of electricity
generation by 2020.

“The UK government has set a modest target of getting 10 percent
of our electricity from renewable sources by 2010. Only through
a massive uptake in wind energy can this target be met. 

“For now the government favours clean energy such as wind as the
route to halting climate change, but refuses to rule out dirty
nuclear power as an option. If wind power is allowed to fail,
new nuclear power stations would be built in the UK.”

Greenpeace also sees vast potential in development of solar
power, stating: “Despite our rainy climate, the UK has the
potential to supply 2/3 of our electricity needs through solar
electric panels alone.”


*****************************************************************
 73 Whitehaven News: FACELIFT FOR STATION 

SELLAFIELD’S rail company is going to renovate the derelict
buildings at the nuclear plant’s station.

Carlisle-based rail freight company Direct Rail Services (DRS)
plans to create a base for its operations at the station.

DRS is responsible for transporting spent nuclear fuel from
power stations in the UK to Sellafield for reprocessing. 

The company has had a base at Sellafield since 1995, however,
the expansion of the business has led to the acquisition of the
station as a facility for train crew and support staff. 

Sellafield station is still used as a stop for the Cumbrian
coastal service. 

Network Rail (the owner of the building) has allowed DRS to
carry out the work.

DRS managing director Neil McNicholas said: “The building is an
extremely interesting piece of railway architecture. With a bit
of TLC we hope to return it to its former glory.”


*****************************************************************
 74 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada wants in on meetings on Yucca Mountain radiation standard

February 23, 2005 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada wants to be part of federal meetings
about the Environmental Protection Agency's effort to comply
with a court ruling that stalled a nuclear waste repository at
Yucca Mountain, lawyer for Nevada said Wednesday. 

The state should be included in EPA meetings with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department, lawyer Martin
Malsch told the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, a
Washington, D.C., panel that advises the commission on waste
issues. 

"Nevada's requests to EPA to establish a public docket and to
meet in public with interested stakeholders have gone
unanswered," Malsch said. He accused the government agencies of
imposing "an iron curtain of secrecy around their
deliberations." 

Malsch said the state filed Freedom of Information requests and
obtained documents from the meetings, which took place in recent
months. But he said many documents had been redacted. 

Ultimately, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would license and
regulate Yucca, the proposed repository for high-level nuclear
waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

The Energy Department plans to apply for an operating license
from the commission by the end of the year. The state opposes
the project. 

The question before the EPA is a 10,000-year radiation safety
standard the agency set for Yucca Mountain. The Energy
Department has said it can meet that standard. But a federal
court last year directed the EPA to draft a new standard or
better explain how its 10,000-year standard complies with a
stricter standard recommended by the National Academies of
Science. 

The academies recommend the repository radiation standard cover
the period in which the "peak dose" of radiation is emitted from
waste entombed 1,000 feet under the mountain. Nevada officials
maintain that would be far longer than 10,000 years. 

The EPA is expected to release a draft of its new rule-making
decision in late spring or early summer, but has not indicated
to Nevada what the rule will look like, Malsch said. 

The waste panel today discussed its options for advising the
five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the EPA rule when
it is released. 

Panel member William Hinze said it will be important to build
public confidence in the new standard. 

"If we start changing these things, it's very important to bring
the community, the world, the country into an understanding that
we are still protecting the safety of the public and the
environment," Hinze said. 

Information from: Las Vegas Sun 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 75 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho 
 
                         FR Doc 05-3509 

[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9059-9060] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-51]                         
 
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory AGENCY: 
Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Idaho National 
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The Federal Advisory 
Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that 
public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal 
Register.
 
 
DATES: Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Wednesday, March 
16, 2005, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Opportunities for public participation 
will be held Tuesday, March 15, from 12:15 to 12:30 p.m. and 5:45 
to 6 p.m.; and on Wednesday, March 16, from 11:45 a.m. to 12 noon 
and 4 to 4:15 p.m. Additional time may be made available for 
public comment during the presentations.
 
These times are subject to change as the meeting progresses, 
depending on the extent of comment offered. Please check with the 
meeting facilitator to confirm these times.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Willard Arts Center, 498 ``A'' Street, Idaho Falls, ID 
83402.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL Board 
Administrator, North Wind, Inc., PO Box 51174, Idaho Falls, ID 
83405, Phone (208) 557-7885, or visit the Board's Internet Home 
page at http://www.ida.net/users/cab 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ida.net/users/cab] .
 
 
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: (Agenda topics may change up to the day of the 
meeting; please contact Peggy Hinman for the most current agenda 
or visit the Board's Internet site at 
http://www.ida.net/users/cab/ 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ida.net/users/cab/] ): Cleanup 
and closure of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering 
Center (including the high-level waste program, the spent nuclear 
fuel program, the Foster-Wheeler facility, and the Idaho 
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability 
Act Disposal Facility) Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis 
for the Accelerated Retrieval Project Independent Risk Assessment 
prepared by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder 
Participation in support of DOE's end state vision for the Idaho 
National Laboratory Public Participation: The meeting is open to 
the public.
 
Written statements
 
[[Page 9060]] may be filed with the Board administrator either 
before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral 
presentations pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board 
Chair at the address or telephone number listed above. The 
request must be received five days prior to the meeting and 
reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in 
the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Richard 
Provencher, Assistant Manager for Environmental Management, Idaho 
Operations Office, U.S. Department of Energy, 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 equal time to present their comments.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Freedom of 
Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 
4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Minutes 
will also be available by writing to Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL 
Board Administrator, at the address and phone number listed 
above.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on February 16, 2005.
 
Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3509 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 76 DOE: Office of Science; Notice of Renewal of the High Energy Physics 
 
                         FR Doc 05-3510 

[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9059] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-50]                         
 
Advisory Panel Pursuant to section 14(a)(2)(A) of the Federal 
Advisory Committee Act, App.2, and section 102-3.65, title 41, 
Code of Federal Regulations and following consultation with the 
Committee Management Secretariat, General Services 
Administration, notice is hereby given that the High Energy 
Physics Advisory Panel has been renewed for a six-month period, 
beginning in February 2005.
 
The Panel will provide advice to the Associate Director for High 
Energy Physics, Office of Science (DOE), and the Assistant 
Director, Mathematical & Physical Sciences Directorate (NSF), on 
long-range planning and priorities in the national high-energy 
physics program. The Secretary of Energy had determined that 
renewal of the Panel is essential to conduct business of the 
Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation and is 
in the public interest in connection with the performance of 
duties imposed by law upon the Department of Energy. The Panel 
will continue to operate in accordance with the provisions of the 
Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the General 
Services Administration Final Rule on Federal Advisory Committee 
Management, and other directives and instructions issued in 
implementation of those acts.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Rachel Samuel at (202) 
586-3279.
 
Issued in Washington, DC on February 11, 2005.
 
James N. Solit, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3510 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 77 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Hanford
 
                         FR Doc 05-3585 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9060] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-52]                         
 
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Hanford. 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 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday, March 4, 
2005, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: Clover Island Inn, 435 Clover Island Drive, Kennewick, 
WA 99336, Phone Number: (509) 586-0541, Fax Number: (509) 
586-6956.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yvonne Sherman, Public 
Involvement Program Manager, Department of Energy Richland 
Operations Office, 825 Jadwin, MSIN A7-75, Richland, WA, 99352; 
Phone: (509) 376-6216; Fax: (509) 376-1563.
 
 
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 Topics for Board Meeting 1. Budget Discussion 
for 2006/2007 2. Central Plateau Values Development, Next Phase 
3. Hanford Advisory Board Self-Evaluation Results and Next Steps 
4. Groundwater National Picture and the Hanford Advisory Board's 
Involvement (ITRC) 5. Tank Waste Fact Sheet from the Public 
Involvement Committee 6. Discussion of Outreach for Yakima HAB 
Meeting in April 7. End States Vision Update 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 Yvonne Sherman's office 
at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be 
received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision 
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. 
This Federal Register notice is being published less than 15 days 
prior the meeting date due to programmatic issues that had to be 
resolved prior to the meeting date.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by 
writing to Erik Olds, Department of Energy Richland Operation 
Office, 825 Jadwin, MSIN A7-75, Richland, WA 99352, or by calling 
her at (509) 376-1563.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on February 18, 2005.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3585 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 78 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Nevada
 
                         FR Doc 05-3586 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9060-9061] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-53]                         
 
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Nevada Test 
Site. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 
Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be 
announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 East 
Washington Avenue, Room 4412, Las Vegas, NV.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kay Planamento, Navarro Research 
and Engineering, Inc., 2721 Losee Road, North Las Vegas, Nevada 
89130, phone: (702) 657-9088, fax: (702) 295-5300, e-mail: 
NTSCAB@aol.com [NTSCAB@aol.com] .
 
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: Briefing describing the Board's budget 
prioritization recommendations for the Department of Energy's 
Nevada Site Office Environmental Management FY 2007 budget 
submittal.
 
Copies of the final agenda will be available at the meeting.
 
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 Kelly Kozeliski, at the 
telephone number listed above. Requests must be received five 
days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision 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.
 
This notice is being
 
[[Page 9061]] published less than 15 days before the date of the 
meeting due to programmatic issues that had to be resolved.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by 
writing to Kay Planamento at the address listed above.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on February 18, 2005.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3586 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 79 DOE: Office of Nonproliferation Policy; Proposed Subsequent 
 
                         FR Doc 05-3649 
[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)] 
[Notices] [Page 9059] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24fe05-49]                         
 
Arrangement AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of subsequent arrangement.
 
SUMMARY: This notice has been issued under the authority of 
section 131 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 
U.S.C. 2160). The Department is providing notice of a proposed 
``subsequent arrangement'' under the Agreement for Cooperation 
Concerning Civil Uses of Atomic Energy between the United States 
and Canada and Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of 
Nuclear Energy between the United States and the European Atomic 
Energy Community (EURATOM).
 
This subsequent arrangement concerns the retransfer of 59,172 kg 
of U.S.-origin natural uranium hexafluoride, 40,000 kg of which 
is uranium, from Cameco Corp., Port Hope, Ontario, Canada to 
Urenco Capenhurst, United Kingdom. The material, which is now 
located at Cameco Corp., Port Hope, Ontario, will be transferred 
to Urenco Capenhurst for toll enrichment. Upon completion of the 
enrichment, Urenco Capenhurst will transfer the material for 
final use by the Florida Power & Light Company. Cameco Corp. 
originally obtained the uranium hexafluoride under NRC Export 
License XSOU8798.
 
In accordance with section 131 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 
as amended, we have determined that this subsequent arrangement 
is not inimical to the common defense and security.
 
This subsequent arrangement will take effect no sooner than 
fifteen days after the date of publication of this notice.
 
For the Department of Energy.
 
Michele R. Smith, Acting Director, Office of Nonproliferation 
Policy.
 
[FR Doc. 05-3649 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 80 ABQjournal: Doubts Raised on Bids for LANL
 
the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. 

Thursday, February 24, 2005 

Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
 Journal Staff Writer

     Will the Department of Energy, now holding a competition
for the contract to run Los Alamos National Laboratory, receive
any bids from worthwhile potential managers capable of operating
the nation's largest and oldest nuclear weapons research
facility?
     Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., acknowledged on Wednesday that
since DOE announced in April 2003 that it would put the LANL
contract out for bids, he has developed some doubts.
     "With the passage of time, I began to wonder and I wonder
if the DOE has been wondering, too," he said.
     Even before the draft criteria that DOE will use to
evaluate potential managers was announced, two of the front
runners in the putative field of competitors dropped out of the
running— the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin, which
operates Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.
     Other potential bidders have discussed the scarcity of
competitors and how slow partnerships to seek the contract have
been to form. Thus far, not a single company, university or
consortium has announced firm plans to bid on the laboratory's
$2 billion-a-year contract.
     Once close to announcing a partnership with a business to
manage LANL, University of California officials now say only
that negotiations with potential partners are ongoing.
     UC has held the contract since the lab was created to
develop the atomic bomb during World War II, but DOE decided to
put the management contract out for bids after a series of
security and management problems at LANL in recent years.
     Domenici talked about the LANL contract competition
following a talk at Los Alamos on nuclear non-proliferation
issues hosted by LANL and the Los Alamos Committee on Arms
Control and International Security.
     Federal officials announced on Tuesday major changes in the
criteria for managing LANL, many of which were designed to make
the contract more attractive to bidders.
     A draft request for proposals was published in December and
the changes this week announced amend that document. Federal
officials said they received numerous comments from potential
bidders and hundreds of comments and questions from current LANL
employees about the terms of the document.
     They are now seeking additional input through March 4 on
the changes.
     Aside from doubling the proposed fee for the next manager
of the Los Alamos lab— to a level about seven times what the
University of California now earns for running LANL— federal
officials have also decided to extend the university's current
contract by about six months. The contract previously was set to
expire in September.
     Federal officials originally proposed a 1.5 percent
management fee for the next manager based on LANL's $2 billion
budget, but the changes boost that offer to 3 percent, or about
$60 million. That dwarfs the $8 million that the University of
California is now eligible to earn and doubles the $30 million
fee originally proposed in the bidding criteria.
     "I think the raising of the fee is a good thing," Domenici
said, adding that it now "seems to be sufficient."
     The contract extension for the University of California, if
approved by the secretary of energy, will allow federal
officials reviewing the contract competition for LANL to
evaluate pension benefit packages offered by companies seeking
to operate LANL.
     The extra time also will allow companies to develop
"substantially equivalent" benefits to those provided now by the
University of California and for LANL employees to review the
proposed benefits to decide whether they want to stick with the
new operator or retire under the UC pension plan, according to
the amended criteria released Tuesday.
     Domenici said he and his staff are still reviewing the
criteria changes but that he has some concerns over a proposed
requirement to create a free-standing pension plan and a limited
liability corporation to manage LANL.
     "Seems to me they (federal officials) are looking for
something," he said. "What is it they have in mind?"
     Despite all the uncertainty and "commotion" about the
contract competition, which Domenici said is natural in the
midst of unknown territory, he predicted that LANL employees and
the laboratory will come out well in terms of the contract.
     "It is too important an institution to risk any changes
that will elicit a major change in the caliber and quality of
the workforce," he said.
 

Copyright Albuquerque Journal
 
Steve@abqjournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 81 Tri-City Herald: DOE cuts fee to Bechtel 

This story was published Thursday, February 24th, 2005 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The Department of Energy will withhold $300,000 from the
quarterly fee paid to the contractor building the $5.8 billion
vitrification plant because of safety problems at the Hanford
construction site. 

The deduction amounts to 10 percent of the $3 million profit
Bechtel National could have earned in a payment due March 31. 

"The number of serious safety events that have occurred on the
construction site has increased," wrote Roy Schepens, manager of
DOE's Office of River Protection in a letter sent to Bechtel
National on Wednesday. 

The plant is being built to turn some of the 53 million gallons
of radioactive waste now held in underground tanks at Hanford
into more stable glass logs for permanent disposal. 

After near-miss accidents in the first half of 2004, Bechtel
National stopped construction for a day at a cost of $500,000 to
discuss safety concerns with workers. 

But problems have continued. 

"Following a series of events involving dropped items, Bechtel
had its closest call this week," wrote the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board in a Dec. 10 staff report. The board
provides independent oversight of DOE defense sites such as
Hanford, where plutonium was made for the nation's nuclear
weapons program. 

In the December incident, tie wires holding a 13-foot piece of
rebar weighing 59 pounds were cut. A spotter was present, but
work was not stopped as two workers were cleaning below in a
narrow space between two concrete wall forms. 

The rebar fell 15 feet in a vertical position, landing within a
foot of one of the workers below. The work violated rules on
doing work above people, and the foreman in charge was fired,
said Bechtel National spokesman John Britton. 

The DOE letter included examples of steel plates to be embedded
in concrete walls, rebar and tools being dropped. Bechtel
National did not start an effective plan of corrections until
after about nine incidents of dropped items, according to the
DOE letter. 

The letter also mentioned an incident in which a carpenter with
a circular saw cut through a pipe carrying a live 110-volt wire.
Power should have been turned off before work was done in the
area. The carpenter was not hurt. 

"The root cause of safety violations related to dropped items
and electrical work has been traced to poor work processes and
procedures for controlling work activities," said Schepens'
letter. 

Bechtel has made several changes in work procedures to better
protect workers, Britton said. 

DOE specifically called for better safety performance at the
Pretreatment Facility, the tallest building at the plant and the
one on which construction is furthest along. The walls of the
building are now about 60 feet high, half their planned height. 

That means that much work is now being done far above the ground
at a busy construction site that employs about 1,500 craft
workers. 

Bechtel has started requiring workers to use lanyards to tie
their tools to themselves and has put nets below some work areas
to catch dropped items before they fall farther. 

The contractor also has set up exclusion zones that prohibit
people from working in areas where work is going on above. 

"We don't disagree with the letter," Britton said. "We have to
do better. We have a zero accident philosophy, and we're not
achieving it." 

DOE is requiring Bechtel National to submit a plan within three
weeks to improve its safety performance. In addition to focusing
on electrical safety and preventing dropped items, the plan is
to include ways to reduce strains and hand injuries. 

The largest number of accidents at the site have been strains
and sprains, Britton said. That's partly the result of having a
work force with an average age in the late 40s. 

Nevertheless, Bechtel believes that all accidents are
preventable, Britton said. 

© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
 
*****************************************************************
 82 csmonitor.com: Nevada tips a hat to its atomic history | 

 		for 02/25/2005
[(Photograph)]

BLAST FROM THE PAST:                    This display at the 
Atomic Testing Museum features a 1950s-style nuclear bomb shelter 
and steps for taking cover. Nuclear weapons testing took place in 
Nevada from 1951 to 1992. STEVE FRIESS
 		   	 	

 At a time of new focus on nuclear risks, a museum reveals - at 
least partly - a desert state's role as test site. By Steve 
Friess | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor LAS VEGAS  
Ernie Williams isn't your typical museum docent. And this isn't 
your typical museum. 

Until the mid-1980s, Mr. Williams worked at the US government's 
Nevada Test Site, ending up as its controller.                  


Now retired, he's a living legacy of one of the cold war's most
secretive and central efforts - and he's sharing that knowledge
at a newly opened museum designed to keep its memory alive. 

On one level, the Atomic Testing Museum here in Las Vegas echoes
a past that now seems strangely distant: the duck-and-cover era
of the US-Soviet arms race. Yet its centerpiece exhibit Ground
Zero Theater - complete with a flash of light, trembling
benches, and a rush of air sweeping through the room - is also a
visceral reminder of very present realities and risks. 

The cold war, perhaps, is only technically over in an era of
tensions over Iran, North Korea, and nuclear trafficking. And in
this state, its past of unsung effort and controversial
sacrifices lingers long after the mushroom clouds have gone. 

"It's only now, after the cold war is over, that we realize that
even though it was a 'cold' war, it did [occur] in places," says
museum director Bill Johnson. "This museum's position is that
the Nevada Test Site was a battleground of the cold war and it
helped to end it, and that's a significant position to take." 

Nevada's radioactive heritage 

Many states played a role in America's nuclear-weapons program,
but the museum's location in Nevada is fitting. Nevadans have
long had a conflicted relationship with radioactivity, from the
state's pride as the home of the 1,375 square-mile nuclear test
site to its more recent battles of trying to keep Yucca Mountain
exempt from becoming the nation's dumping ground for nuclear
reactor waste. 

"Our museum is here to show what we did in defense of our
country," says Mr. Williams, the docent. "Most people only see
the detrimental part of what went on there, but we did many,
many things to benefit mankind." 

But in paying tribute to the US weapons effort and those who
labored on it, the museum comes with a payload of controversy
about its human toll. 

Not that guests find much discussion of such matters at this
$3.5 million museum, devoted to the assertion that the Nevada
Test Site was essential in the triumph over Eastern Bloc
communist aggression. At the test site, just 65 miles northwest
of Las Vegas, 100 above-ground nuclear bombs were set off from
1951 to 1963. Another 828 underground tests took place there
through 1992 when a worldwide moratorium on nuclear weapons
testing began. 

Some say the museum - founded and largely funded by former test
site workers and housed in a space leased by the Department of
Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration - pushes an
agenda that largely ignores the damaging and lasting effects of
nuclear fallout. While others contend that the museum plays an
important role in educating the public by assembling remnants of
an era long shrouded in mystery. 

An exhibit placard reads: "After buying U.S. secrets from
traitors, the Soviets quickly developed the atom bomb in 1949
and the hydrogen bomb in 1953, and their confidence of eventual
victory over the West soared. The goal was to impose
totalitarian communism worldwide. Maintaining a nuclear
deterrent was crucial to preventing the Cold War from becoming a
hot war." 

Continued cold-war fallout 

Such commentaries leave some experts a bit chilled. 

"I guess Vietnam and Korea weren't hot enough for them," says
historian Christopher Preble, director of Foreign Policy Studies
at the Cato Institute in Washington. "I actually believe the
Test Site was a deterrent to World War III. I would have not
been one of the nuclear protesters, but I concede there were
costs. I would hope a museum would have a more balanced approach
and be honest about the long-term effects, while at the same
time giving credit to the people who were there." 

Others are less charitable. Lymphoma survivor Preston Truman's
earliest memory was of sitting on his father's knee watching a
nuclear test in the 1950s from more than 100 miles away in
southern Utah. Now he's the director of a nonprofit group called
Downwinders made up of hundreds of people who lived in the
region at the time of the tests who say their cancers were
caused by radioactive residue. 

"The number of civilians who were [affected] in all testing
nations and the fact that we still have it hanging over our
heads should be taken into account," says Mr. Truman, who now
lives in Malad, Idaho. 

Johnson and curator Loretta Helling insist the museum, with its
Smithsonian affiliation, is a serious effort to portray that
history. A rotating exhibit space and lecture series will
provide opportunities for those who feel left out to be
represented, Ms. Helling said. 

Atomic displays 

As it stands now, the displays feature a wide range of artifacts
of the era including models of bombs, a case full of various
Geiger counters, and films that discuss the science behind
nuclear fission and radiation. 

The simulation in the Ground Zero Theater is an
attention-grabber that "doesn't even do justice to what it was
really like, but it gives a little bit of a feel and it's in the
concept of 'You're in Las Vegas,' " says Johnson, who aims for
100,000 visitors a year in a city that greeted 38 million
tourists in 2004. "It's like one of those motion rides they have
at the hotels." 

Other displays include a litany of knickknacks from
atomic-themed candy and 1950s comic books to postcards with
photos of Las Vegas resorts that have mushroom clouds billowing
in the distance. The gift shop sells collectibles such as Albert
Einstein action figures. 

Some find the lighthearted approach offensive. "Can you imagine
them making a joy ride out of the collapse of the Twin Towers?"
asks Truman. 

State Senate minority leader Dina Titus shrugged off that
aspect, noting that her own opposition to nuclear testing
"doesn't mean the museum needs to be boring." Ms. Titus is on
the museum's board and says she'll ensure that the institution
represents more facets of the history as time goes on. 

"I think the museum is very important because the story needs to
be told so we don't make the mistake again," Titus says. "I
wanted the museum to be more than a glorification of the bomb.
It needs to tell all aspects of the story." 	 
		
  www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.
y
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 83 [du-list] DU in the news - 25th  Feb. '05
 
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:19:43 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance, Wed, 23 Feb 2005 6:01 AM PST
Energy Metals Corporation Adds 5 Uranium Deposits And 39.5 Million Pounds 
In The Great Divide Basin, Wyoming http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050223/235364_1.html
Energy Metals Corporation is pleased to announce the staking of twelve 
Uranium properties containing more than 30.5 million pounds of U3O8 in the 
Great Divide Basin in Wyoming. The Company has also obtained data which 
increases the historical resources of three previously acquired properties 
in the Great Divide Basin by 9 million pounds of U3O8.

Mineweb, Wed, 23 Feb 2005 8:22 AM PST
Energy Metals http://www.mineweb.net/co_releases/416901.htm
Vancouver, BC, February 23, 2005 -- Energy Metals Corporation (the 
"Company") is pleased to announce the staking of twelve Uranium properties 
containing more than 30.5 million pounds of U3O8 in the Great Divide Basin 
in Wyoming.

Cape Cod Times, Wed, 23 Feb 2005 4:30 AM PST
'Green' munitions linked to cancer 
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/reenzxmunitions23.htm
A tungsten alloy used in "environmentally friendly" munitions caused 
rapidly growing tumors in laboratory rats, according to a recently 
published study.

Sydney Morning Herald, Wed, 23 Feb 2005 5:13 AM PST
Troops in Iraqi rebels' sights 
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Troops-in-Iraqi-rebels-sights/2005/02/23/1109046993477.html
Senior military figures say Australian troops are likely to be the target 
of insurgents in southern Iraq due to the high-profile nature of the new 
deployment - the first expansion of foreign forces since the Iraqi election 
last month.

Foreign Affairs Magazine, Tue, 22 Feb 2005 12:10 PM PST
Red-Handed 
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050301faresponse84214/mitchell-b-reiss-robert-gallucci/red-handed.html
As individuals who have negotiated with North Korea and are well versed in 
the development of Pyongyang's nuclear programs through our service in the 
Clinton and Bush administrations, we feel compelled to comment on Selig 
Harrison's "Did North Korea Cheat?"

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 84 Popular Mechanics: First Use Of Direct-Drive Nuclear Fusion

We live in a special part of the cosmos--one dominated by the
solid earth, the liquid sea, and the gas of neutral molecules
and atoms that we breathe. But most of the rest of the
universe--more than 99 percent of all visible matter--is made of
plasmas, that is, gases of charged particles such as electrons
and protons.

 This week, scientists will announce some of the most exciting
new findings in plasmas physics when they report on their work
at the largest physics conferences this year: the 42nd annual
meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma
Physics and the International Congress on Plasma Physics now
being held in Quebec.

 Plasmas make up astrophysical objects such as stars and
supernovas--dying stars that have collapsed under their own
weight and then exploded. On Earth, they exist naturally as
lightning bolts and the bath of charged particles in our upper
atmosphere. In high-tech electronics factories, beams of
artificially created plasmas engrave the sophisticated patterns
in computer chips. And in attempts to provide the world with an
abundant source of energy, physicists are striving to make
artificial suns--plasmas so hot and dense that their particles
fuse to release energy. This pursuit of nuclear fusion is a
major branch of plasma physics research.

 Direct-Drive Fusion

One of the most exciting announcements will involve the first
use of a technique for improving a major form of laser-induced
nuclear fusion known as "direct drive." In direct-drive fusion,
lasers fired from many directions deposit energy directly on a
shell made of fusion fuel. This causes the shell to implode and
trigger fusion reactions. Traditionally, direct drive has
suffered from serious limitations, mainly due to
non-uniformities in the laser light's intensity that cause the
shells to implode in a less-than-optimal fashion. At the
University of Rochester in New York, researchers have utilized a
method, known as "polarization smoothing" for significantly
improving laser beam uniformity. In large lasers such as the
ones in the university's 60-beam Omega laser system, each beam
typically has unavoidable spatial fluctuations in intensity. To
reduce these intensity fluctuations, researchers split each beam
into two parts, each containing complementary or orthogonal
components of the beam's electric field. Each of the split, or
polarized, beams fluctuates independently of the other, so
overlapping them averages or smooths out such intensity
modulations. 

When such beams were used to induce fusion reactions (with the
fuel shell imploding to about 7 percent of its original radius
or one three-thousands of its original volume) the primary
neutron yield from deuterium- or deuterium-tritium-filled
plastic shells increased by about 70 percent over similar
implosions created without the use of polarization smoothing.
The emission of neutrons is generally proportional to the number
of atoms that fuse. At the same time, the smoother beams
increased the compressed shells' areal density (density times
radius) by 40 to 70 percent. Maximizing the areal density is a
major factor for eventually achieving self-sustaining fusion
reactions with laser fusion because it increases the opportunity
for alpha particles, created as a result of fusion reactions
inside the shell, to release their energy and heat the plasma
further. 

Theoretical models predict additional improvements. These
results bode well for future experiments at both Omega and
Livermore's planned National Ignition Facility.   

    
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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: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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