***************************************************************** 03/16/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.60 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Zwire: Weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq 2 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Blames U.S. for Nuke Talks Holdup 3 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Refuses to Deal With Rice 4 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Park Geun-hye Asks Washington to Make N.K 5 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Restore FOIA 6 US: AP Wire: Terror report release called a mistake 7 US: Tucson Citizen: Secret report on terror attack scenarios shows u 8 US: Deseret News: Freedom of Information laws may be our main ally 9 US: Deseret News: Prepare for bad nuke news 10 Nazis Allegedly Tested Small Atomic Bomb 11 [du-list] www.denniskyne.com update 12 Nuclear Terrorism Is Still Urgent Risk, Says UN Atomic Watchdog Chie 13 Administration Agenda on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 14 [du-list] IPA - Administration Agenda on Nuclear 15 NEWS.com.au: Inquiry to focus on uranium 16 Xinhua: China committed to building lower carbon economy 17 AFP: Only joint global strategy can stem nuclear terror attacks 18 US: Nuclear Test Watch: Nuclear Test Watch - Issue No. 6 NUCLEAR REACTORS 19 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY, state disagree on levels 20 US: Brattleboro Reformer: State challenge in VY uprate case dismisse 21 Taipei Times: Old reactor unit sparks concern 22 US: ENS: Arizona Nuclear Power spill 23 Manila Times: Bataan nuke plant among ‘monuments to corruption’ 24 US: Journal News: Replacing Indian Point could take 8 years 25 US: NRC: NRC Finds No Significant Environmental Impacts from Extende 26 AFP: Privatization of French nuclear group Areva in 2006 at earliest 27 US: NRC: NRC Seeks Public Comment on Design Certification Regulation 28 Japan Times: Advocates only at nuke power seminar 29 US: NRC: NRC Enforcement Policy 30 US: Newsday.com: Entergy retaliates against worker 31 Sofia Morning News: Bulgarian Nuke Gets EU Greenlight - Report 32 US: NRC: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Unit Nos. 1 and 2; Noti 33 US: NRC: Duke Energy Corporation; Notice of Consideration of Issuanc NUCLEAR SAFETY 34 US: [du-list] uranyl nitrate allegation facts 35 US: [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Protect Consumers from Mad Cow Disease -- 36 US: Las Vegas SUN: Benefit changes for nuke workers explained 37 Xinhua: IAEA chief: Stop terrorists getting nuclear material 38 US: Star-Bulletin: State pulls terror report from Web 39 US: BoiseWeekly: From Potatoes to Plutonium 40 US: Tucson Weekly: A local lawmaker shows she's not afraid of a litt 41 US: New Scientist: French nuclear material may be easy target NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 42 [NukeNet] Falsified Yucca Mountain documents 43 [NukeNet] Over 200 groups petitioned DOE to disqualify Yucca 44 [NukeNet] Reid Wants To Make Yucca Mt. Obsolete 45 US: [PUBCIT_PRESS] nuclear waste; energy companies; House ethics 46 [CMEP] In light of falsified info, Yucca should be scrapped 47 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers urge Washington to reject waste plan 48 US: deseret news: Single Utah reactor generates just a bit of 49 US: deseret news: Tailings must be moved, 2 states tell congressmen 50 US: deseretnews: NRC chief's comments anger foes of nuclear waste 51 US: AP Wire: MOX commercial fuel to be returned to U.S. within weeks 52 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain documents may have been falsified, gov 53 RGJ: Panel urges feds to reject Yucca plan 54 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear Waste Storage: Huntsman and Reid make 55 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Wait on N-waste plan, panel is asked 56 US: PE.com: Uranium cleanup called vital 57 USGS News Release: Yucca review process questioned 58 US: Business Centre: Cameco signs deal with British Nuclear Fuels 59 US: North County Times: Water officials say nuclear pile threatens w NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 60 ABQjournal: Change at LANL Could Be Costly 61 lamonitor.com: National Academies advise on nuclear waste OTHER NUCLEAR 62 The Sunflower - March 2005 - Issue 94 63 [du-list] DU in the news - 16th March 05 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Zwire: Weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. Thursday 17 March, 2005 By BRUCE WEST, Special to the Examiner March 16, 2005 "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." - Dr. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health physicist Radioactive weapons have finally been discovered in Iraq. Unfortunately, they are being employed by the U.S. military. Depleted uranium (DU) is a byproduct of the nuclear industry. It is an extremely dense metal that is 40 times less radioactive than the deadly uranium from which it is derived. It is also a very good material for armor plate and armor-piercing warheads, and it is widely used by U.S. forces. Many consider long-term exposure to DU to be deadly. According to Vladimir S. Zajic, nuclear physicist, the "surface of a DU penetrator ignites on impact (especially with steel), partially liquefies due to the high temperature generated by the impact and relatively low melting point of uranium (1132ºC), and the projectile sharpens as it melts and pierces the heavy armor." As much as 70 percent of the projectile is vaporized, resulting in a radioactive dust that is breathed in, dispersed and settles on the ground, buildings, vehicles and water in the area. The DU-tipped shells are encased in non-radioactive material and stored in shielded areas. Most of the radioactive rays from these munitions are blocked from entering the human body by this shielding and by clothing. DU used as armor plating is more problematic and DU held in contact with the skin will increase the potential for radiation poisoning. So is it dangerous to our soldiers? Zajic says, "The accumulated [yearly] dose equivalent for [a tank] driver would reach the annual limit for general public [100 m/rem year] after 70 days of 8-hour shifts." In only 70 days, the average tank driver may reach the yearly limit for radiation exposure. Iraqi children have been seen playing with the uranium rods from unexploded shells. Their exposure rate would be exponentially higher. Medical personnel say cancer and birth defects are being traced to DU. In December 1998, Iraq sponsored a medical conference on health and environmental consequences of DU used in the Gulf War. It was attended by 600 Iraqi doctors and scientists. "The doctors reported increased frequency of birth defects around the southern city of Basra by a factor of three since the Gulf War. Hospital statistics indicated that the number of Iraqi children with cancer rose by a factor of four, from 32,000 in 1990 to 130,000 in 1997. Air, soil and water samples collected in southern provinces showed abnormally high levels of radiation," according to Zajic. The United States claims that the risks are exaggerated. The Department of Defense seems to contradict itself on the subject. On the one hand, they claim there is no danger to military personnel. On the other hand, they admit that there is a danger of radiation exposure if DU enters the body. Writes A. Durakovic, Croation Society of Nuclear Medicine, "Pentagon statements concerning the safety of DU are inconsistent with findings of non-governmental funded research which document that aerosolized particles are dangerous if inhaled. Once inside the lungs these particles pass through the lung-blood barrier and circulate freely throughout the body... the potential for radioactive damage leading to carcinogenic disease is ever present." The United Nations has called for a moratorium on DU weaponry and British forces have stopped using them, but already thousands of tons of the weapons have been expended in Iraq. Only the Americans continue to use them. One problem is that once the radioactive weapon or armor is vaporized, the dust becomes part of the environment. When people return to resume their lives, the battlefield may be contaminated. The degree of radioactivity depends on how much ordinance was expended in the area. The fact is, DU weaponry contaminates the very ground on which people will return to live and raise families. It is not unreasonable to suppose that long-term exposure to this low-level radiation will result in the birth defects and cancers to which the Iraqi doctors refer. And what of the soldiers who are exposed to DU radioactivity? Surely, some of those in armor and artillery units are exceeding the 70-day-per-year exposure rate of the tank driver. The Hague Conventions of 1889 and 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the Nuremberg Conventions adopted by the United Nations in 1945 were all intended to limit the most horrible weapons of war. Radioactivity that has a lifespan of 4.5 billion years is usually thought to be one of them. It is ironic that a country that started a war to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist is now seen to be using them. ©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2005 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Blames U.S. for Nuke Talks Holdup From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday March 16, 2005 9:31 AM By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Wednesday blamed Washington for the deadlock in international talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and called for the immediate withdrawal of a U.S. aircraft carrier docked in the South for joint military exercises. ``The U.S. is entirely to blame for the failure to resume the six-party talks and the grave obstacle laid in the way of the solution of the nuclear issue,'' an unnamed spokesman from the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to South Korea this weekend for consultations with President Roh Moo-hyun and other top officials on the two-year-old nuclear crisis. North Korea claimed last month that it has nuclear weapons and that it would indefinitely boycott the talks because of Washington's alleged hostile policies against the regime. As part of the U.S. military presence in South Korea dating to the 1950-53 Korean War, American and South Korean troops are conducting joint exercises this week with air, sea and land forces. The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier arrived Monday in the southern port city of Busan to take part in the drills, which U.S. officials have said are to practice defending against ``external aggression.'' On Wednesday, the North Korean spokesman called for the aircraft carrier to be immediately withdrawn. ``Leveling a gun at its dialogue partner in the wake of anchoring the aircraft flotilla at South Korean ports, the U.S. is crying for the six-party talks and trying to force (North Korea) to 'abandon its nuclear program,''' the spokesman said. ``Such (a) high-handed and arrogant act fully reveals the aggressive colors of the Bush administration seeking to disarm the (North) and vanquish it.'' American officials have insisted that they don't intend to attack North Korea, though Rice has refused to apologize for labeling the North one of the world's ``outposts of tyranny,'' a comment that angered the North. On Wednesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry suggested it wouldn't return to the disarmament talks until Rice takes back her statement. ``It is illogical to define a dialogue partner as a tyrannical regime and demand talks without withdrawing the remark. This is like saying they don't want the six-party talks,'' an unnamed ministry spokesman told KCNA, as monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. ``It is very natural for us to continue increasing our nuclear arsenal for self-defense when Rice has made clear the hostile U.S. policy that it will not coexist with us and continue isolating and pressuring us.'' Rice told reporters Tuesday that the United States maintains its policy of finding a solution to the nuclear crisis in the six-nation disarmament talks - also including China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - and will refuse direct talks with the North as it has repeatedly demanded. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Refuses to Deal With Rice From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday March 16, 2005 11:46 AM AP Photo SEL104 By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea bitterly refused Wednesday any dealings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as the top U.S. diplomat began a six-day visit to Asia seeking a breakthrough in the two-year standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program. The nuclear crisis deepened last month when North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons and said it would boycott international disarmament talks because of U.S. hostility toward its government. Rice is to visit South Korea on Saturday after a stop in Japan, and will meet with President Roh Moo-hyun and other top officials before heading to China for more consultations on the crisis. North Korea was angered in January when Rice labeled it one of the world's ``outposts of tyranny.'' She has refused to withdraw the remark, and said it reflects the truth about the communist country. ``It is quite illogical for the U.S. to intend to negotiate with (North Korea) without retracting its remarks listing its dialogue partner as 'an outpost of tyranny,''' an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Rice ``can make nothing but such outcries as she is no more than an official of the most tyrannical dictatorial state in the world,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying. ``Such (a) woman bereft of any political logic is not the one to be dealt with by us. Her reckless remarks showed to the world what type of a woman she is.'' The North also repeated that it would ``bolster its nuclear arsenal for self-defense.'' U.S. officials have repeatedly said they don't intend to attack North Korea. Rice told reporters Tuesday while en route to India, the first stop of her Asia tour, that the United States continues to believe the nuclear standoff should be solved through six-nation disarmament talks and will refuse the North's repeated demands for direct talks with Washington. However, the chief U.S. negotiator in the six-way talks, Christopher Hill, said Tuesday the United States might seek other means if no progress is made. Three rounds of talks among China, Japan, Russia, the two Koreas and the United States have been held in Beijing since 2002, with no breakthrough. A fourth round scheduled for last September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend. ``Clearly this can't go on forever,'' Hill told a Senate committee considering his nomination as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. ``We need to see some progress here and if we don't, we need to look at other ways to deal with this because there is one option that is not available to us - and that is to walk away from this problem.'' Also Wednesday, an official North Korean group blamed the United States for the deadlock in the six-way talks, and called for the immediate withdrawal of a U.S. aircraft carrier docked in South Korea for joint military exercises. The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier arrived Monday in the southern port city of Busan to take part in joint U.S.-South Korean exercises this week which U.S. officials say are aimed at defending against ``external aggression.'' The group, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, said Washington was ``leveling a gun at its dialogue partner'' by introducing the aircraft carrier. ``The U.S. is entirely to blame for the failure to resume the six-party talks,'' KCNA quoted the group as saying. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 4 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Park Geun-hye Asks Washington to Make N.Korea an Offer Home> National/Politics Updated Mar.16,2005 23:05 KST chairwoman of South Korea's opposition Grand National Party (GNP) Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called on the United States to make North Korea "a practical and bold" offer if it wants to resolve the nuclear standoff in the peninsula. Meeting with former U.S. undersecretary of state Arnold Lee Kantor and White House deputy national security advisor Jack D. Crouch II, Park said, "To have North Korea return to the six-party talks and resolve the nuclear issue, the United States should first present a specific, practical and bold proposal." It was the first day of her U.S. visit. Proposals could include establishing diplomatic relations between Washington and Pyongyang and security guarantees for the regime, she said. The suggestion flies in the face of U.S. demands that North Korea must come back to negotiations unconditionally and first dismantle its nuclear program before it can expect concessions. The North meanwhile is demanding "simultaneous action." Park's remark is also at odds with the GNP stance that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue with Seoul and Washington presenting a united front. The conservative faction in her party in particular insists that the onus is entirely on North Korea. It is closest in spirit to the Roh Moo-hyun government, which wants to see more flexibility from Washington. But GNP sources denied the comment was out of line. "The remark represents a will to deal with the North's nuclear issue on a bipartisan basis," said GNP lawmaker Park Jin. Observers say Park's comment could have been a bid to woo a younger generation, who regard the GNP as being lopsidedly hard-line when it comes to North Korea. In her talks with influential Americans, Park also said the U.S. should be more positive in assessing the positions of the two Koreas. She also stressed the more conventional view that North Korea should be made to realize that its abandonment of the nuclear program is the best way for it to secure the survival of the regime and an economic future. ***************************************************************** 5 Brattleboro Reformer: Restore FOIA Article Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - A pair of stories on Tuesday's front page -- Sen. Patrick Leahy's effort to repeal the cloak of information on private industry, such as power plants, and the revelation of a discrepency in a radiation reading at Vermont Yankee -- prove Americans still need access to information on the nation's infrastructure. The nuclear power industry, while it has undergone a massive overhaul to keep sensitive information secret since Sept. 11, 2001, still has to report in the public eye. But a provision in the Homeland Security Act could be used to block the public from information at power plants and chemical manufacturing facilities, among others. It's exactly this kind of information -- a possible radiation leak at a nuclear power plant or a chemical spill at a production plant -- the public needs to know. There's always the risk of terrorists using publicly available information on facilities such as these. But to shut out the public, too, appears to compromise our ability to ensure and monitor our domestic security. When the public wishes to summon information on its government and the agencies that control private sector companies, the fear grows that private corporations and the Department of Homeland Security can use the cloak of "homeland security" to avoid potentially embarassing, incriminating or litigious information from going public. Presumably, even our members of Congress would have difficulty using the Freedom of Information Act to make informed decisions in the name of "homeland security." It doesn't seek to open the door to expose "critical infrastructure" or information that should remain classified for good reason, but it does correct what Leahy and many others believe are true flaws in the Homeland Security Act. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Leahy said the United States needs more, not less, cooperation between government and the private sector in the face of heightened security concerns. That's why Sen. Leahy's bill, the Restoration of Freedom of Information Act, which has received the support of several co-sponsors, deserves the support of the 108th Congress. For Hristianna and others The overwhelming response to a bone marrow donor drive Saturday in Keene, N.H. -- through driving snow and wind -- speaks volumes about the caring and compassionate community in which we live. Despite the inclement weather that even cancelled a local Town Meeting, hundreds of people turned out for the drive, dubbed "Hristianna's Gift" for Hristianna Lanoue of Chesterfield, N.H., who has been diagnosed with chronic myelogenus leukemia. The drive hopefully will benefit 3-year-old Hristianna, but the donors also logged themselves into a national database that could help others with the same rare illness that affects one in 40,000 people. "So even if my daughter doesn't get a match, then maybe someone else" will, said Hristianna's mother, Litsa Lanoue. The drive Saturday was a heartening display of spirit and courage on all fronts. Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc., ***************************************************************** 6 AP Wire: Terror report release called a mistake 03/16/2005 | LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press WASHINGTON - It was a mistake for Hawaii to post a confidential report on terror attack scenarios on its Web site, but it won't keep the Homeland Security Department from alerting state and local authorities about potential threats, the agency's chief said Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, however, that he plans to be less forthcoming with the public about possible terror threats as they unfold until he has definitive information to give. The report, which catalogued ways terrorists might strike in the United States, was posted for more than three months on the Hawaii state Web site before officials took it down Tuesday night at Homeland Security's request. "My understanding is that this was an error," Chertoff said in an interview with reporters. Noting the report was still in draft stages, Chertoff said Homeland Security wanted "a finished product out there. So that's unfortunate. But it's not going to deter us from working closely with our state and local partners in fashioning these plans." The incident illustrates the careful balance Homeland Security is struggling to find in sharing sensitive or even incomplete information to keep its state and local counterparts in the loop - particularly as terror threats unfold. Hawaii officials noted the report, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, was not labeled as confidential or classified. Moreover, the Hawaii officials said, Homeland Security never mentioned its sensitive nature in discussing the report during weekly conference calls. "There was nothing on this document that was marked official use only," said Maj. Charles Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Defense. "There was nothing marked confidential." The report, requested by a presidential directive in December 2003, marks Homeland Security efforts to spur state and local authorities into thinking about preventing attacks. It detailed 15 specific but hypothetical examples of attacks that could bring mass casualties - including by nerve gas, anthrax, pneumonic plague and truck bomb. The report does not hypothesize where such attacks would take place in order to increase preparedness for states and cities throughout the country. A nuclear bomb, an exploding liquid chlorine tank or a widespread and prolonged aerosol anthrax spray ranked among the most devastating attacks outlined in the report. Chertoff said Homeland Security will continue to share a wide array of information - including hunches, suspicions and tips - with local and state authorities. But he said he will "mightily resist the temptation" to give that same information to the public during potential attacks for fear of spreading inaccurate data. His comments followed a Washington-area anthrax scare this week that appears to have been a false alarm. The two-day scare was marked by conflicting information from local, state and federal officials that led to some broadcast media to report inaccurately anthrax contamination. "What I want to resist is what I sometimes have observed over the years: a temptation to feed the desire for information by putting something out that we are not in a position to speak about definitively," Chertoff said. "Our credibility must rest in a sense that when we say something is a fact, we've done everything humanly possible to, in fact, ensure that we are giving the accurate facts out." ON THE NET Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov ***************************************************************** 7 Tucson Citizen: Secret report on terror attack scenarios shows up on Web sites www.tucsoncitizen.com/ March 16, 2005 Secret report on The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The agency charged with protecting homeland security developed an elaborate, confidential report to alert states to a host of terror-strike scenarios, but the document was inadvertently posted on several states' public Web sites before being removed. The department has been working for a year on a National Planning Scenarios plan that outlines a number of plausible attacks - including by nerve gas, anthrax, pneumonic plague and truck bomb. The report, still confidential, was requested by a presidential directive in December 2003 and will be made public in upcoming months, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Tuesday. It was inadvertently posted on Internet sites of several states, including Hawaii, before it was taken down, Roehrkasse said. The other states were not immediately identified. Homeland Security "has developed a number of scenarios that will aid federal, state and local homeland security officials in developing plans to become more prepared to prevent and respond to an act of terrorism, should it occur," Roehrkasse said. The plan also "will help us better target our efforts and resources in improving the nation's preparedness," he said. Officials said there was no credible indication that such specific attacks were being planned. The draft plan was first reported Tuesday night on the Internet site of The New York Times. The report does not hypothesize where such attacks would take place, Roehrkasse said. "The overall goal is to increase the overall baseline preparedness of all states and cities throughout the country," he said. Besides identifying possible types of attacks, Roehrkasse said the report also estimates how many deaths and amount of economic damage the attacks would cause. According to the Times, they include: —Blowing up a chlorine tank, killing 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000. —Spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an airport, sports arena and train station, killing 2,500 and sickening 8,000 worldwide. —Infecting cattle with foot and mouth disease in several places, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. But a nuclear bomb, an exploding liquid chlorine tank or a widespread and prolonged aerosol anthrax spray ranked among the most devastating attacks outlined in the report, Roehrkasse said. An estimated 350,000 people could be exposed to an anthrax attack by terrorists spraying the biological weapon from a truck driving through five cities over two weeks, according to the report. An estimated 13,200 people could die. The report also includes scenarios of natural disasters to hit major cities, including a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and a Category 5 hurricane. On the Net: Homeland Security Department: www.dhs.gov ***************************************************************** 8 Deseret News: Freedom of Information laws may be our main ally [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, March 16, 2005 By Lee Davidson Deseret Morning News Editor's note: The following column was originally written for and distributed by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, headquartered in Reston, Va. It is reprinted here with permission. WASHINGTON — Rosalie Jones had never heard of the Freedom of Information Act. But it helped expose government secrets with possible clues about why she and some close friends had babies that were horribly deformed and died quickly. They were spouses of men who had been inmates at the Utah State Prison. As prisoners, the men volunteered for medical tests in the early 1960s. They were offered $10 — then good money for an inmate — and some good-behavior credit. But they say they were not told exactly what was in injections they received — only that their blood was being "radiated"; but that it was safe. As Jones and other prisoners' wives talked through the years, they suspected the tests were tied to their babies' deformities — and other strange blood and bone diseases some test participants suffered. But when they tried to find out what was used in the tests, government officials initially insisted that no such tests had ever occurred — even though Jones knew better. So she contacted me at the Deseret Morning News for help. I explained we could use the Freedom of Information Act and similar state laws to compel release of records they sought. State officials soon reversed initial denials and said some tests had occurred, but they couldn't find the records among a maze of warehoused boxes. We used an end run around that problem. Another former prisoner — without identifying himself as a test participant — went by himself to the University of Utah (whose doctors had conducted the tests). He requested his records using Freedom of Information laws, and received them in two days. His records finally gave Jones and the others written proof that the tests occurred; that they were injected with a radioactive substance (never specifically identified in records); and the names of the doctors involved. Doctors later told more about what they said happened in the tests, but still insisted they were safe. While Jones and friends still were left with many questions, Freedom of Information laws did help them reveal many secrets. Without them, she would have known nothing — except that the government was lying, which a bunch of ex-cons' wives could not prove. That is why journalists fight passionately to defend such laws. It is not just to help us dig out stories, it is to help people find answers — and to keep the government honest. So, the American Society of Newspaper Editors has asked some reporters, including me, to tell Americans why they should care about preventing erosion of such laws. Rosalie Jones is one example. Ray Peck is another. Peck remembers that the new-fallen snow of May 14, 1968, was so pretty at his Skull Valley, Utah, ranch that he couldn't resist eating a handful. Then he saw the dead birds. In the distance, he saw a dying rabbit struggling. He shrugged it off and went to work. The night before, an Army jet accidentally spread nerve gas across that valley (which the Army would not admit for years). It killed 6,000 sheep immediately. That day, the Army sent a helicopter that landed in Peck's yard, collected the dead wildlife and performed blood tests on Peck's frightened family. Since they had not died like the sheep, the Army proclaimed them as safe and in no medical danger. But some of the Pecks have forever since suffered violent headaches, numbness, "bouts of paranoia"; and other nervous system problems. Peck eventually asked me to help find what government records say might have happened to his family. Through FOIA, we found blood test records indicating they and neighbors likely were exposed to low levels of nerve gas, but the Army never conducted follow-up tests it knew were needed to confirm it. We found the ailments they reported were also symptoms of low-level exposure to nerve agent. I also have used FOIA through the years to reveal such things as the military conducted what were essentially eight intentional nuclear meltdowns in Utah; the Army spread toxic cadmium sulfide nationwide in germ warfare tests; and the government conducted thousands of secretive open-air chemical, germ and radiological tests in Utah. There's much more. But if you ever need to find out what pollutants are coming from the local factory, how safe that planned transport of toxins through your town is, which local restaurants have good sanitation records, or even merely what school records say about you, strong Freedom of Information laws will be your main ally. A sign of how important it is to protect them is federal agencies reported about a year ago that 14 million documents had been declared secret, a 25 percent increase. That is a lot of secrets, and a big increase in one year. But if you just can't imagine Freedom of Information laws ever being important to you, remember that Ray Peck and Rosalie Jones didn't either. Lee Davidson is a longtime Deseret Morning News reporter and former Washington, D.C., correspondent. He has uncovered many award-winning stories by digging through government records with the help of existing laws. E-mail: leed@desnews.com © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 9 Deseret News: Prepare for bad nuke news [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Deseret Morning News editorial Utahns are naturally skeptical whenever they hear a federal official telling them they have nothing to fear from radiation in their midst. For decades during the last century, the government made similar assurances to people here, all the while exposing them to radiation that resulted in cancers and other diseases. So when the nation's top nuclear regulator told reporters in Washington on Monday that people here have nothing to fear from a "temporary" repository for spent nuclear fuel rods 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City . . . well, it all sounds like another slick sales pitch. And when he says the storage facility on the Goshute reservation in Skull Valley will not become a de facto permanent waste site, that sounds as if he thinks people here are pretty naive. Given the political realities that have dogged the nuclear waste issue for decades now, and that have successfully put the Yucca Mountain solution on ice despite years of planning and preliminary construction, it seems ridiculous to suppose that a more permanent solution could be agreed to within 40 years. It also seems ridiculous to believe that the nation's political leaders won't be eager to take advantage of a site that already is accepting spent fuel rods. We're pleased by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s efforts in Washington to lobby against allowing the fuel to come here. Honestly, however, we are not encouraged. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems certain now to approve the Goshute site for storage of waste sent here from a consortium of nuclear plants in points east. That leaves the Department of Interior as the last hope. If the governor and others can convince Interior Secretary Gale Norton to reject the license, the rods won't come. But while Utahns hold out hope, it may be time for them to begin steeling themselves for the inevitable. Perhaps NRC Chairman Nils A. Diaz is right when he says the danger from even a catastrophic terrorist strike on the waste would not pose much of a health risk for Utah's population centers. No one really knows because such a thing has never happened. But in any event, storing the stuff in above-ground casks in the Utah desert is not the best solution. Ultimately, the best solution would be to reprocess the spent fuel rods the way Britain and France currently do, turning them into a mixed oxide fuel that could be used again by reactors. That type of recycling has become difficult to do in this country ever since President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order against it during his administration. The second best solution, then, is to keep storing the rods on site at the 70 or so nuclear facilities nationwide. The worst of all solutions is to transport the fuel rods to a temporary waste site. That means the nation will have a constant stream of highly radioactive materials on its highways and railways, at its nuclear power plants and in the desert in Utah. That doesn't make sense, no matter who in Washington tries to tell us differently. © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 10 Nazis Allegedly Tested Small Atomic Bomb Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:02:43 -0500 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4348497.stm Hitler 'tested small atom bomb' By Ray Furlong BBC News, Berlin Sceptics agree the book sheds new light on Nazi nuclear experiments A German historian has claimed in a new book presented on Monday that Nazi scientists successfully tested a tactical nuclear weapon in the last months of World War II. Rainer Karlsch said that new research in Soviet and also Western archives, along with measurements carried out at one of the test sites, provided evidence for the existence of the weapon. "The important thing in my book is the finding that the Germans had an atomic reactor near Berlin which was running for a short while, perhaps some days or weeks," he told the BBC. "The second important finding was the atomic tests carried out in Thuringia and on the Baltic Sea." Mr Karlsch describes what the Germans had as a "hybrid tactical nuclear weapon" much smaller than those dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. 'Bright light' He said the last test, carried out in Thuringia on 3 March 1945, destroyed an area of about 500 sq m - killing several hundred prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates. The weapons were never used because they were not yet ready for mass production. There were also problems with delivery and detonation systems. Karlsch has done us a service in showing that German research into uranium went further than we'd thought... but there was not a German atom bomb Michael Schaaf, German physicist "We haven't heard about this before because only small groups of scientists were involved, and a lot of the documents were classified after they were captured by the Allies," said Karlsch. "I found documents in Russian and Western archives, as well as in private German ones." One of these is a memo from a Russian spy, brought to the attention of Stalin just days after the last test. It cites "reliable sources" as reporting "two huge explosions" on the night of 3 March. Karlsch also cites German eyewitnesses as reporting light so bright that for a second it was possible to read a newspaper, accompanied by a sudden blast of wind. The eyewitnesses, who were interviewed on the subject by the East German authorities in the early 1960s, also said they suffered nose-bleeds, headaches, and nausea for days afterwards. Karlsch also pointed to measurements carried out recently at the test site that found radioactive isotopes. Scepticism His book has provoked huge interest in Germany, but also scepticism. The bomb was much smaller than the weapon dropped on Hiroshima It has been common knowledge for decades that the Nazis carried out atomic experiments, but it has been widely believed they were far from developing an atomic bomb. "The eyewitnesses he puts forward are either unreliable or they are not reporting first-hand information; allegedly key documents can be interpreted in various ways," said the influential news weekly Der Spiegel. "Karlsch displays a catastrophic lack of understanding of physics," wrote physicist Michael Schaaf, author of a previous book about Nazi atomic experiments, in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. "Karlsch has done us a service in showing that German research into uranium went further than we'd thought up till now. But there was not a German atom bomb," he added. It has also been pointed out that the United States employed thousands of scientists and invested billions of dollars in the Manhattan Project, while Germany's "dirty bomb" was allegedly the work of a few dozen top scientists who wanted to change the course of the war. Karlsch himself acknowledged that he lacked absolute proof for his claims, and said he hoped his book would provoke further research. But in a press statement for the book launch, he is defiant. "It's clear there was no master plan for developing atom bombs. But it's also clear the Germans were the first to make atomic energy useable, and that at the end of this development was a successful test of a tactical nuclear weapon." ***************************************************************** 11 [du-list] www.denniskyne.com update Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:23 -0800 As the anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom or enduring Freedom or whatever Lie they call it comes closer I wanted to remind everyone two things. 1. VA and congress state. Gulf War began on August 2, 1990 and will be continued until a date to be determined by congress same war, same place, same lie 2. www.denniskyne.com my website is full of news. it was recently given a face lift, if you can visit and let me know what you think will help to get the message regarding depleted uranium to the center stage please do there is also a donation button you can refer folks to, as most of you know I do not ask for honorariums to speak, I cover all of my own travel expenses and I am in Raleigh North Carolina speaking at UNC tonight and will be in Fayeteville this Saturday for the FT BRagg event. look it up at google, the speaker list is unbelievable, Jimmey Massey, Stann Goff, on and on and on hope you all will be in the streets too peace Dennis www.denniskyne.com Support the Truth . ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 3/15/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear Terrorism Is Still Urgent Risk, Says UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 16:00:52 -0500 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.1 (2004-10-22) on pascal.ctyme.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-13.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_ORG, SPF_HELO_PASS,SP_HAM_SUPER,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS,SUBJ_URGENT,WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.1 X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com NUCLEAR TERRORISM IS STILL URGENT RISK, SAYS UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG CHIEF New York, Mar 16 2005 4:00PM While much progress has been made through international cooperation over the past three years to combat the risks of nuclear terrorism, vulnerabilities still exist and the issue has lost neither its relevance nor urgency, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency said today. "For those of us in the nuclear field, it has become obvious that our work to strengthen nuclear security is both vital and urgent – and that we must not wait for a 'watershed' nuclear security event to provide the needed security upgrades," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2005/ebsp2005n003.html">told the opening session of a three-day conference in London. "Ultimately, our success will only be as strong as our weakest link," he said, stressing the need for cooperation, assistance, regional and international networks, and the importance of learning from each other. Noting that the terrorist attack against the United States in September 2001 had propelled the rapid and dramatic re-evaluation of the risks of terrorism in all its forms, he categorized four potential nuclear risks: theft of a nuclear weapon; acquisition of nuclear materials to build a device; malicious use of radioactive sources such as a "dirty bomb;" and radiological hazards from attacking or sabotaging a facility or transport vehicle. "These risks are real and current, but they are not all the same," he told the IAEA's "<"http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Meetings/Announcements.asp?ConfID=136">International Conference on Nuclear Security: Global Directions for the Future," underscoring the importance of international cooperation. "While the probability of a nuclear explosive device being acquired and used by terrorists is relatively small, it cannot be dismissed, and the consequences would be devastating," he said. "On the other hand, a dirty bomb would likely have far less impact in terms of human life, but the relative accessibility of radiological sources makes it more likely that such an event could occur." The IAEA's security plan to guard against thefts of nuclear and other radioactive material and protect related facilities against malicious acts rests on the three pillars of prevention, detection and response. The first requires effective physical protection of materials and of related nuclear facilities including strong state accounting systems. The IAEA has provided a range of advisory missions, training workshops and technical guidance documents. The second seeks to ensure that systems are in place to help countries to identify, at an early stage, illicit activity and here, too, the IAEA has been assisting countries from many regions in training customs officials, installing better equipment at border crossings, and ensuring that information on trafficking incidents is shared effectively. The third aims to strengthen programmes to ensure that the response to any illicit activity, including nuclear or radioactive terrorism, is prompt and well coordinated. To date, most such responses have involved helping governments with the recovery of radioactive sources that have been stolen or lost. Since September 2001, working in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, the IAEA has conducted more than 125 security advisory and evaluation missions, and convened over 100 training courses, workshops and seminars. The agency's illicit trafficking database shows over 650 confirmed incidents of trafficking in nuclear or other radioactive material since 1993. Last year, nearly 100 such incidents occurred, 11 of which involved nuclear material. 2005-03-16 00:00:00.000 ________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml ***************************************************************** 13 Administration Agenda on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:41:39 -0600 (CST) Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org ___________________________________________________ Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Administration Agenda on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty The New York Times published a front-page story yesterday related to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference coming in May. The piece, entitled "Bush Seeks to Ban Some Nations From All Nuclear Technology," stated that "Behind President Bush's recent shift in dealing with Iran's nuclear program lies a less visible goal: to rewrite, in effect, the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear technology, without actually renegotiating it." The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN BURROUGHS, johnburroughs@lcnp.org, http://www.lcnp.org Executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, Burroughs said today: "The administration says that it opposes the negotiation of a verifiable treaty to ban production of nuclear materials for weapons by the United States and other nuclear powers -- the same materials Bush does not want other countries to have the ability to produce. It also is seeking funding for research on nuclear earth penetrators, opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and negotiated an arms reduction treaty with Moscow that contains no verification provisions." Burroughs is the author of "Building a Nuclear Weapons-Free Future," a briefing paper for a meeting on the future of the NPT held at the Carter Center, sponsored by the Middle Powers Initiative, January, 2005 . JACQUELINE CABASSO, wslf@earthlink.net, http://www.wslfweb.org Executive director of the California-based Western States Legal Foundation, Cabasso has written many articles assessing nuclear policy. She said today: "As the nations of the world prepare for this May's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, let us remember the central bargain between the original nuclear weapon states and those at risk of proliferation when the treaty was negotiated in the late 1960s. The U.S., Britain, Soviet Union, France and China pledged to negotiate 'in good faith' the end of the nuclear arms race and the elimination of their nuclear arsenals in return for other nations not seeking nuclear weapons. As an incentive, states that agreed to forswear nuclear weapons were guaranteed 'the inalienable right' to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, 'without discrimination.' "Thirty-five years later, the nuclear weapon states, led by the U.S., have failed to live up to their part of the bargain, cynically interpreting the NPT as a mechanism for the permanent maintenance of an international system of nuclear apartheid in which only they can possess nuclear weapons. They have also been responsible for spreading 'peaceful' nuclear technology around the globe, thus ensuring the possibility of nuclear proliferation. Now the Bush administration wants to add a second tier to its nuclear double standard by denying uranium enrichment technology -- needed for both nuclear power and weapons -- to countries which don't already have it. Iran, which according to the International Atomic Energy Agency is cooperating with inspections required under the NPT, will be the test case. But just beyond Iran's border, the U.S. continues to turn a blind eye towards Israel's sizeable undeclared nuclear arsenal. Cabasso is co-author of "The So-Called 'U.S. Record of Compliance': Why the U.S. Numbers Game Is Not Disarmament," Western States Legal Foundation Information Bulletin, Spring 2004 . A Western States Legal Foundation fact sheet, United States Disarmament Obligations Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is available at: . For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 _________________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: public@lists.accuracy.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: public-unsubscribe@lists.accuracy.org For all list information and functions, including changing your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page: http://lists.accuracy.org/lists/info/public ***************************************************************** 14 [du-list] IPA - Administration Agenda on Nuclear Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:27 -0800 Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org ___________________________________________________ Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Administration Agenda on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Interviews Available The New York Times published a front-page story yesterday related to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference coming in May. The piece, entitled "Bush Seeks to Ban Some Nations From All Nuclear Technology," stated that "Behind President Bush's recent shift in dealing with Iran's nuclear program lies a less visible goal: to rewrite, in effect, the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear technology, without actually renegotiating it." The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN BURROUGHS, (212) 818-1861, cell: (917) 439-4585, johnburroughs@lcnp.org, http://www.lcnp.org Executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, Burroughs said today: "The administration says that it opposes the negotiation of a verifiable treaty to ban production of nuclear materials for weapons by the United States and other nuclear powers -- the same materials Bush does not want other countries to have the ability to produce. It also is seeking funding for research on nuclear earth penetrators, opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and negotiated an arms reduction treaty with Moscow that contains no verification provisions." Burroughs is the author of "Building a Nuclear Weapons-Free Future," a briefing paper for a meeting on the future of the NPT held at the Carter Center, sponsored by the Middle Powers Initiative, January, 2005 . JACQUELINE CABASSO, (510) 839-5877, cell: (510) 306-0119, wslf@earthlink.net, http://www.wslfweb.org Executive director of the California-based Western States Legal Foundation, Cabasso has written many articles assessing nuclear policy. She said today: "As the nations of the world prepare for this May's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, let us remember the central bargain between the original nuclear weapon states and those at risk of proliferation when the treaty was negotiated in the late 1960s. The U.S., Britain, Soviet Union, France and China pledged to negotiate 'in good faith' the end of the nuclear arms race and the elimination of their nuclear arsenals in return for other nations not seeking nuclear weapons. As an incentive, states that agreed to forswear nuclear weapons were guaranteed 'the inalienable right' to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, 'without discrimination.' "Thirty-five years later, the nuclear weapon states, led by the U.S., have failed to live up to their part of the bargain, cynically interpreting the NPT as a mechanism for the permanent maintenance of an international system of nuclear apartheid in which only they can possess nuclear weapons. They have also been responsible for spreading 'peaceful' nuclear technology around the globe, thus ensuring the possibility of nuclear proliferation. Now the Bush administration wants to add a second tier to its nuclear double standard by denying uranium enrichment technology -- needed for both nuclear power and weapons -- to countries which don't already have it. Iran, which according to the International Atomic Energy Agency is cooperating with inspections required under the NPT, will be the test case. But just beyond Iran's border, the U.S. continues to turn a blind eye towards Israel's sizeable undeclared nuclear arsenal. Cabasso is co-author of "The So-Called 'U.S. Record of Compliance': Why the U.S. Numbers Game Is Not Disarmament," Western States Legal Foundation Information Bulletin, Spring 2004 . A Western States Legal Foundation fact sheet, United States Disarmament Obligations Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is available at: . For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 3/15/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 15 NEWS.com.au: Inquiry to focus on uranium (17-03-2005) From: AAP RESOURCES Minister Ian Macfarlane today gave the go ahead for a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's non-fossil fuel energy industry. The inquiry will begin with an examination of Australia's uranium resources, including global demand for the resources and the strategic importance of the commodity. Australia's uranium reserves have been in the spotlight as international mining companies vie for WMC Resources, which owns one of the biggest uranium deposits in the world. The inquiry will not examine domestic use of nuclear energy. ***************************************************************** 16 Xinhua: China committed to building lower carbon economy www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-16 09:47:23 LONDON, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- China is committed to building a lower carbon (emission) economy to combat climate change over the coming decades, a Chinese official said Tuesday at a meeting in London. Energy and environment ministers from 20 countries with the biggest domestic energy needs met in London on Tuesday at the start of a two-day roundtable to discuss climate change and ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In his key-note speech, Liu Jiang, vice-chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said that as a rapidly-developing country, China has been challenged by climate change and energy scarcity. China is among a few nations in the world that rely on coal as their major energy source. "Coal amounts to 67 percent of primary energy consumption in the country," which made it more difficult to slow down the growth momentum of carbon emission, Liu said. In addition, he added, China's energy efficiency remains low, which has posed another problem for the country. Against all the challenges, the Chinese government has formulated its energy development strategy with priorities on energy efficiency, energy diversification, renewable energy and related technology, Liu said. China promulgated its Law on Renewable Energy last month. The government has been supporting the development and utilization of new and renewable energies, such as bio-gas, solar energy, wind power and geothermal energy, he said, adding that nuclear power would be another priority as a clean energy source for the country in the next 20 years. Liu emphasized the importance of global collaboration to tackle climate change and said China is willing to work with the international community to explore solutions. Technology development and transfer is the ultimate solution tothe challenge of climate change, he said. "At present, large-scale infrastructure construction is underway in the developing countries. Should obsolete technologies instead of advanced and climate-friendly technologies be applied on these projects, we would expect high emission of greenhouse gases in the decades to come." Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 AFP: Only joint global strategy can stem nuclear terror attacks : UN nuclear chief Wednesday March 16, 05:32 PM Only joint global strategy can stem nuclear terror attacks: UN nuclear chief LONDON (AFP) - UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei warned that only coordinated international efforts could offer the world protection from the "horrifying" prospect of a nuclear terrorist attack. ElBaradei told a London conference on nuclear security organized by his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that a series of attacks since September 11, 2001 had made it an urgent task to improve international coordination on nuclear issues. "It has become obvious that our work to strengthen nuclear security is both vital and urgent -- and that we must not wait for a 'watershed' nuclear security event to provide the needed security upgrades," he said. "International cooperation has become the hallmark of these security efforts." "The prospect of one single case of nuclear terrorism is absolutely horrifying," he told journalists at a later briefing. The IAEA director general said he did not believe a nuclear attack was inevitable but warned that it was "absolutely currently possible". The world's four greatest nuclear security risks, he said, were: the theft of a nuclear weapon; the acquisition of nuclear materials for bomb-making purposes; the use of radioactive materials, like "dirty bombs"; and radioactivity hazards caused by an attack on nuclear facilities or transport. ElBaradei suggested that sometimes bilateral and multilateral talks were more efficient than the IAEA in dealing with certain nuclear crises, notably over suspected illicit programs in North Korea and Iran. He welcomed Washington's recent backing for European negotiations with Iran, saying it was a "step in the right direction". The United States announced last week it would offer some economic and technological incentives to Iran, in order to help Britain, France and Germany persuade the Islamic republic to abandon its alleged bid to build nuclear weapons. ElBaradei also said he supported six-way talks between North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Russia to overcome the "urgent, major problem" posed by the Pyongyang regime's nuclear weapons program. "We need to do everything we can, including multilateral and bilateral talks, to engage North Korea," he said, worrying that the Stalinist country had become a "black box", impenetrable to the IAEA, since it quit the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 2002. The three-day UN conference, attended by 320 participants from 76 countries, opened with ElBaradei's keynote address and speeches by leading nuclear experts including Sam Nunn, the former US senator now heading up the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Nunn bashed current collective efforts to ensure nuclear security, saying on a scale of one to 10 it would get a "three to four". He said the IAEA lacked critical funding, intelligence and the authority to carry out its twin duties of creating nuclear safeguards and ensuring nuclear security. Nunn also urged G8 countries meeting in Scotland under Britain's presidency in July to fulfill their pledge to fund the IAEA's nuclear security fund. Although the threat of a terrorist attack was heightened today, there also existed an unprecedented opportunity for global cooperation, he said. "Our security interests (are) aligned for the first time in history. We have a mutual interest in preventing catastrophic terrorism," Nunn said, referring to China, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States. Other participants at the London conference include Annalisa Gianella, the special representative on weapons of mass destruction to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and British junior foreign minister Baroness Elizabeth Symons. The European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and international police forces like Interpol were also present. No resolution or vote is expected at the conference. Copyright © 2005 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Nuclear Test Watch: Nuclear Test Watch - Issue No. 6 Nuclear Test Watch is dedicated to monitoring US Government activity relevant to the resumption of nuclear testing, and advocating a continuation of the moratorium on test explosions of American nuclear weapons Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1. Our Next Undersecretary for Withdrawing from Treaties President Bush officially notified the Senate on March 14 that he had nominated Dr. Robert Joseph to fill the post being vacated by hopefully-not-UN-bound John Bolton. While some might be happy about Bolton at last being replaced, this change is a bit like switching a Cogswell Cog for a Spacely Sprocket – you cannot possibly tell the difference. Both have silly moustaches, and both seem to favor reckless US policy. Placing Joseph in this position should clearly be identified as a move toward resuming nuclear testing. As far back as March 21, 2000, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as head of the National Defense University’s Center for Counterproliferation Research that the CTBT could “lead to uncertainties that called into question the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent…By calling into question the credibility of the extended deterrent that our nuclear weapons have provided for allies in Europe and Asia, the CTBT could also spur proliferation by those states that have long relied on the U.S. nuclear guarantee.†Dr. Joseph has clearly been involved in unusual activities in recent months. He served on the Rice National Security Council, where he helped formulate the Proliferation Security Initiative and UN Security Council Resolution 1540, criminalizing illicit proliferation. But Joseph left the NSC in December 2004 to join the National Institute for Public Policy, the outfit led by Dr. Keith “Victory is Possible†Payne. All of this information is available in his bio at NIPP. If Dr. Condoleezza Rice could go straight from the NSC to the State Department, why would Joseph take time off? One potential reason is that the White House wanted to diminish the view in Foggy Bottom that a pro-Bush Doctrine appointee was going straight from the political chop shop to State. But I have a nagging suspicion that the nuclear test ban treaty has an enormous amount to do with Joseph’s movements. If you take a closer look at Joseph’s bio at NIPP, he is credited with having had a “principal staffing role in the U.S. withdrawal from 1972 ABM Treaty.†NIPP clearly values Joseph’s knowledge of the tricky legal requirements of withdrawing from a treaty. The NIPP has been especially antagonistic toward the CTBT. Dr. Payne has long been an advocate of nuclear war, and Dr. Kathleen Bailey has written frequently and in-depth against the CTBT. Bailey’s most recent publication on the subject came in a mid-2003 edition of Comparative Strategy, NIPP’s house rag. In an article entitled “Why the United States Should Unsign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Resume Nuclear Testing,†she reiterated her long-standing arguments against the Test Ban, and her claims of the necessity of nuclear testing. The nuclear warmongers at NIPP are not content with this administration’s simple disregard for international legal process. Joseph’s sojourn at NIPP should be seen for what it most likely was: a three-month groupthink boot camp in which the strategy was laid out for the withdrawal of the US signature to the CTBT. The last Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security declared his act of withdrawing the US signature from the International Criminal Court to be the proudest moment of his career. With NIPP, Joseph likely set the stage for his own “proud†moment. 2. Bodman’s visit to House Appropriations Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman ventured over to the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, chaired by bunker buster opponent Representative David Hobson. Bodman’s prepared statement was terse on nuclear questions, with no reference to the state of play on the bunker buster and other controversies. He also didn’t have much of a response to Hobson’s joke about MIT (“Is that accredited now?â€) This hearing didn’t receive much press. In fact, as far as I can tell, it did not receive any. With cuts for science and a hike in the nuclear weapons budget, Hobson shared with Bodman his concern that the Defense Department is absorbing too much of the Energy Department’s capacity with nuclear weapons needs, putting at risk a substantial portion of DOE’s scientific activities. Bodman responded that the war on terror is the White House’s priority, added his personal commitment to science, and concluded in sphinx-like fashion “I don't know what more I can say other than I will...continue to work the issue in the same fashion that it's been done before.†Later in the hearing, Hobson turned to the question of the Modern Pit Facility. Bodman agreed that the estimate on the number of plutonium pits truly needed each year to maintain the nuclear arsenal was indeterminate. Hobson responded “We're not going to go down this road and have a trillion-dollar project thrown at us without people knowing what we're doing.†Toward the end of that discussion, Hobson pointed back to the cut in funds for DOE science activities, and made his only reference to the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator of the hearing, noting “And you know the other one I'm talking about, and I don't want to get into it here.†Perhaps Hobson did not want to excoriate the Energy Department publicly on the RNEP issue because just after the hearing, he and Bodman ventured out to Columbus, Ohio, aboard Air Force One with President Bush, where a 2 PM press conference on energy policy was conducted just in time for the evening news. It would be interesting to know what else was murmured into Hobson’s ears during that flight. March 9th was seemingly a really busy day for Dr. Bodman – somehow he also found the time to participate in an “Ask the White House†chat session – now you might see where the phenomenon of Blackberry Thumb comes from. No questions were taken from the citizenry concerning nuclear weapons. 3. Nuclear Testing Battle in Utah Representative Chris Cannon of Utah, a Republican, called in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune for the resumption of nuclear weapons testing. Cannon is in favor not only of testing the new nuclear bunker busters the Bush administration wants to build, but feels that the tests “should also include the existing nuclear stockpile to ensure the weapons have not deteriorated.†In addition to this statement, Robert Gehrke reported Cannon’s belief in a link between democracy and nuclear weapons. Cannon finds that “What we really want here is deterrence. We want people to get out of their holes and into the democratic process and we want to scare them out…We need to give them the fear of destruction and hopefully over time people will recognize that the democratic system works.†Cannon stands against just about everybody in the State of Utah. Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and the entire Utah Legislature passed a resolution opposing nuclear testing. Utahns also responded strongly to Cannon’s call for nuclear tests. The editors of the Salt Lake Tribune took the state’s Republican Senators to task for claiming to oppose nuclear testing while simultaneously backing the funding for bunker busters, requiring testing down the road. The Provo Daily Herald of Utah also published an op-ed from Healthy Environmental Alliance for Utah director Vanessa Pierce and Downwinder Mary Dickson who stated unequivocally “Given our legacy, we should not be asked to accept any risk, no matter how minimal. We find it absolutely unconscionable that we go down a path which may very well create a new generation of Downwinders.†In response to Cannon’s statement, Utah Democrat Rep. Jim Matheson reintroduced the Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act, legislation introduced originally in 2004 that would require, among other steps, a National Environmental Policy Act review to assess health, safety and environmental impacts prior to testing, and Congressional authorization before test resumption. Matheson’s legislation was co-sponsored by Reps. Shelly Berkley of Nevada and John Spratt of South Carolina. The bill is also to be re-introduced in the Senate by Bob Bennett of Utah, though the Library of Congress web page has not to date revealed any action on this front. It is difficult to understand what motivated Cannon to come out in favor of nuclear testing at this time, given that the NNSA firmly maintains that testing is not anticipated for any part of the arsenal. But clearly, one tactic that advocates hope to employ in their press for resumption of tests is the idea that even Cannon, the son of a man who died of cancer that might be linked to test-related radiation, sees that the security needs of sustaining our nuclear arsenal requires the environmental dangers of testing. posted by Michael Roston at 6:37 AM Commissioner Nils Diaz Chair Nuclear Regulatory Commission and staff Dr. Jofu Mishima and colleagues URANYL NITRATE ALLEGATION FACTS Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: This message is intended to clarify and supplement my "Allegation and Emergency Report" sent to the NRC on 12 March 2005. As yet there has been no dispute of my allegations. However, my earlier message was somewhat difficult to read because it preserves the format of several messages of included correspondence. This is the essence of my allegations: 1. The primary U.S. scientist responsible for the study of depleted uranium munitions safety from no later than 1979 through at least 1999, was Dr. Jofu Mishima, who has worked with several colleagues at Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, under contract from the Department of the Army. 2. Dr. Mishima is an author of the following and related publications: Parkhurst, M.A., J.R. Johnson, J. Mishima, and J.L. Pierce, "Evaluation of DU Aerosol Data: Its Adequacy for Inhalation Modeling," PNL-10903, Richland, WA: Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, December 1995 Gilchrist, R.L., J.A. Glissmyer, and J. Mishima, "Characterization of Airborne Uranium from Test Firings of XM774 Ammunition," PNL-2944, Richland, WA: Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, November 1979 Parkhurst, M.A., J. Mishima, and M.H. Smith, "Bradley Fighting Vehicle Burn Test," PNNL-12079, Richland, WA: Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, February 1999 3. In email correspondence this year, Dr. Mishima wrote that he was unaware of the fact that uranium reacts with nitrogen. 4. Accordingly, Dr. Mishima indicated that he was unaware of any attempt to detect uranyl nitrate in the combustion products of DU ordnance by the Army. This is consistent with all of the published literature and summaries of classified documents I have been able to find describing the combustion products of uranium munitions. However, European scientists did detect uranyl ion in an enclosed burn last year: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.04.001 5. The basic fact that uranium reacts with nitrogen gas at 700 degrees Celsius has been published in scientific literature since at least the 1950s. Many introductory chemistry texts which mention uranium point out that uranium reacts with most all of the elements except the noble gases. The fact is well known in the nuclear power industry, which has been using airborne uranyl nitrate detectors in places where uranium might react with air since at least the 1970s. I have no reason to believe that Dr. Mishima or his associates deliberately suppressed the basic fact, and his apparently forthright email responses, and his reaction to the Salbu et al. paper linked above makes me think that he was actually, somehow, simply unaware of it. However, for anyone with responsibilities he and his colleagues shouldered, there is absolutely no excuse for not knowing any fact so vital to his specific research and general field of study. As a layman, it took me less than two days of library research to learn the reaction temperature. 6. Uranyl nitrate has a very low melting point compared to any of the uranium oxides, and it has a very high vapor pressure, and precipitates as a film. I haven't been able to determine exactly how long it stays dissolved in air under different atmospheric conditions yet. (But I have reason to believe that there are molecules of uranyl nitrate from DU munitions used in Iraq currently in your lungs as you read this. Those who know the magnitude of Avogadro's Number might not be as impressed with that fact as others.) Uranyl nitrate is much more poisonous than any of the oxides. The extent of the toxicities involved need to be determined. 7. In conclusion, because of Dr. Mishima and his colleagues's omissions, everything the U.S. government has ever said about the safety of pyrophoric DU munitions is invalid. Essentially all contemporary uranium ordnance safety studies must be redone in order to determine the extent of uranyl nitrate combustion product emissions. Sincerely, James Salsman ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/RzSHvD/UOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 35 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Protect Consumers from Mad Cow Disease -- Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:12 -0800 Urge your Representative to co-sponsor H.J. Resolution 23! H.J. Res. 23 disapproves of the USDA's minimal-risk rule for mad cow disease! We are up to 28 co-sponsors already. If you haven't already, please urge your Representative to co-sponsor the resolution. Send an email at: http://capwiz.com/pc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7146556 to your House Representative now, stating your disapproval of USDA's minimal-risk rule! Congressmembers will be in their home districts for the next two weeks. Let them know that you support mandatory country-of-origin-labeling (COOL), so that consumers can make informed decisions about the food they buy and eat. If you live in Representative Solis', Tauscher's, or Costa's district, please THANK THEM for their co-sponsorship of H.R. Res 23 Mad Cow Disease and the USDA rule: S.J. Resolution 4, which rejects the USDA's new system for classifying countries as "minimal-risk" zones for mad cow disease, was passed by the Senate on March 3rd, in a vote of 52-46. This was a great victory and one of the few times the Senate has disapproved so strongly of an agency rule! However, to stop the USDA rule, the House must now pass H.J. Resolution 23. To do so, the bill needs more Representatives to co-sponsor it, so that the House must vote on the resolution. USDA's new system permits imports of beef and cattle from some countries where mad cow disease has been found. So what's wrong with the rule? First, it could introduce avoidable disease risk into this country. Second, the USDA brought pressure upon an international animal health organization to change its definition of "minimal risk" so that Canada - a major trading partner of the U.S. - would qualify. Since USDA announced the new rules for Canadian imports on December 29, 2004, two more cases of BSE have been found in the Canadian cattle herd. Recently, a Montana judge introduced a temporary injunction against re-opening the border, stating that the USDA had a "preconceived intention" and rushed to resume trade "regardless of uncertainties in the agency's knowledge of the possible impacts on human and animal health." This resolution is particularly important because it would prevent the premature re-opening of the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle. Importation from Canada should not resume until Canada has a better handle on the scope of its mad cow disease problem, has achieved and documented full compliance with its cattle feed rules, and the U.S. has better safeguards in place to protect against the disease. Congress can permanently stop the USDA rule by passing this joint resolution. Send an email at: http://capwiz.com/pc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7146556 to your House Representative now, urging them to co-sponsor H.J.Resolution 23, introduced by Rep. Herseth (SD-D) and Rep. Cubin (WY-R), which disapproves of USDA's minimal-risk rule! Additional Information 109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. J. RES. 23 Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Agriculture relating to the establishment of minimal-risk regions for the introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States. JOINT RESOLUTION Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Agriculture relating to the establishment of minimal-risk regions for the introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Department of Agriculture relating to the establishment of minimal-risk regions for introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States (published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2005, at 70 Fed. Reg. 460), and such rule shall have no force or effect. ------------ To read Public Citizen's more detailed position on mad cow disease, go to http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/madcow/articles.cfm?ID=12776 To read USDA's minimal-risk rule, go to http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/04-28593.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracy Lerman Senior Organizer Public Citizen, California Office 1615 Broadway, 9th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 ph: 510-663-0888 x 103 f: 510-663-8569 tlerman@citizen.org http://www.citizen.org/california ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ********** If you do not wish to recieve these emails in the future, please send a email to tlerman@citizen.org with "unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the subject line. ***************************************************************** 36 Las Vegas SUN: Benefit changes for nuke workers explained Today: March 16, 2005 at 9:18:16 PST By Mary Manning LAS VEGAS SUN Labor Department town hall meetings on the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act will be 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. today at Texas Station. The Resource Center is at Flamingo Executive Park, 1050 E. Flamingo Road, Suite W- 156. Call (866) 697-0841. When Nevada Test Site worker Jack Hyatt had to have a chest X-ray before knee surgery in 1991, doctors discovered he had lung cancer and cancer destroying his ribs. The doctors gave the crane operator and mechanic less than a year to live, his widow, Sally Hyatt, said Tuesday night at a town hall meeting to inform nuclear workers and their survivors, who include Hyatt, about changes in a federal compensation program. "He didn't show any signs of cancer or illness," Sally Hyatt said of her husband's health prior to his diagnosis. "He was a person who was never sick." Diagnosed in July of 1991, Jack Hyatt died at age 59 on Feb. 16, 1992, after 27 years working at the Test Site, where the federal government exploded nuclear weapons above and below ground from 1951 until 1992. Hyatt's widow began applying for compensation from the Energy Department in July 2001 and said she never received a dime. "I just keep getting the runaround," Hyatt said. "I know he worked all day under the Baneberry shot," Hyatt said, although her husband never told her what he did at the site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The fallout cloud from the Baneberry experiment in December 1970 exposed workers at the Test Site to radioactive particles. Hyatt worked with the late Glenn Taylor whose widow, Dorothy, is one of eight successful paid claims of $150,000 apiece based on radiation exposure that has been sparingly doled out by the Energy Department. However, Congress changed the program in October 2004. The federal Department of Labor has the task of providing a more streamlined benefits and compensation package, said John Vance, chief of outreach and technical assistance for the department's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation program. The Labor Department's benefits program needs rules before it can begin paying for workers' exposures to toxic chemicals or materials, Vance said. The rules should be ready by May, but that didn't stop department employees from answering questions and handing out forms to those interested. Test Site workers primarily have applied for benefits for beryllium exposure and cancers related to radiation exposure, he said. There is no state-by-state breakdown, but since the Labor Department took control, the program has paid out 188 claims for a total of $23.5 million, Vance said. "It's an acknowledgement of the sacrifices these people made during nuclear experiments," Vance said after a two-hour meeting that drew more than 50 people to its Texas Station location, where nuclear workers can learn how to apply for benefits today at 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m. Dorothy Clayton couldn't agree more with Vance's statement. Clayton's late husband worked on recovery teams in the testing tunnels after nuclear weapons experiments. Clayton received her payment in October 2002. "It's definitely limped along," she said of the Energy Department's track record for almost four years. She believes the Labor Department will speed payments to surviving workers or their families. "I think things are going to get better," Clayton said. "It's a disgrace the way the Department of Energy handled it." For Wimon Thompson, the discussion brought tears to her eyes as she remembered her late husband, Frank Thompson. Thompson worked at the Test Site for 33 years and died Nov. 26, 1995, from cancer at the age of 61. "I was 5 years old when he died," said 15-year-old Crystal Thompson, who dreams of going to the university some day. "I want her to go to college," said Wimon Thompson, dabbing at her tear-streaked cheeks. But when Crystal turns 16 next year, she is afraid of losing Social Security benefits. A Labor Department representative talked to the Thompsons and gave them forms to start the process of receiving benefits through the revamped program. Maq Bukhari said he worked for 15 years at the Test Site for major contractor Reynolds Electrical &Engineering Company. He's working in the private sector now, but has been diagnosed with sensitivity to the metal beryllium. Beryllium is a metal used in the making of nuclear weapons and its dust can cause first lung sensitivity and then a chronic lung disease, Vance said. Bukhari will also need checkups about every two years that are covered by the compensation program. Vance guided Bukhari through the confusing alphabet soup of the benefits package, suggesting he apply for $150,000 in a lump sum and then apply for extra payments for lost wages. John Taylor and Hollis Brown, both long-time former workers at the Test Site, asked about hearing loss from machinery noise in underground tunnels. "I don't expect to receive anything," said Brown, who leaned on a cane. He worked "off and on" at the Test Site from 1951 until he retired in 1986. Taylor, who stood at a roadblock on the site as the fallout cloud from Baneberry shrouded him in radiation, said he had little luck in finding his radiation exposure records. Insurance has refused to pay him, he said. Those unable to attend the town hall meetings can visit the Resource Center in Las Vegas, 1050 E. Flamingo Road, Suite W-156, or call (702) 697-0841 or toll free at 1-866-697-0841. ***************************************************************** 37 Xinhua: IAEA chief: Stop terrorists getting nuclear material www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-16 21:37:30 LONDON, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed El-Baradei said here Wednesday that the international community should exert more efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear material. Although there is a small chance that terrorists could launch anuclear attack that would cause horrific casualties, it was more likely that they could obtain radioactive material and pack it into a "dirty bomb" with conventional explosives, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog told a three-day conference on nuclear security that opened in London on Wednesday. Stressing that security of nuclear or other radioactive material must be improved, El-Baradei urged nations around the globe to work harder to track such materials and fund international efforts to boost security at nuclear facilities and of systems for detecting nuclear materials that are being transported. On the nuclear issue of Iran, El-Baradei on Wednesday urged the country to be more open to international inspections on its nuclear facilities. The call came in the wake of US concessions towards easing economic sanctions and supporting Iran's bid to join the World Trade Organization if Tehran gives up its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions. "I am not sure that the Europeans and Americans can go very farin their negotiations unless they are sure that the past chapter has been closed," El-Baradei told reporters. Claiming that Iran was doing the minimum required of it to fulfill its international obligations on nuclear inspections, El-Baradei said he would like to see "proactive transparency" from Tehran. "In light of more than 20 years of undeclared programs, I wouldlike to see more than just playing by the book," El Baradei said. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 Star-Bulletin: State pulls terror report from Web [Starbulletin.com] Posted on: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 11:35 AM HST Isle officials say it was not marked secret by the U.S. government Star-Bulletin Staff citydesk@starbulletin.com A Homeland Security document that lists ways terrorists might strike the United States was posted on Hawaii’s state Department of Civil Defense Web site for more than three months because it was not marked confidential, a department spokesman said today. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today it was a mistake for Hawaii to post the report but added that the department will continue to communicate openly with state and local authorities about potential terror threats. Hawaii officials published a draft copy of the Homeland Security report that catalogues ways terrorists might strike in the United States on the state department’s Web site in late November as a way to make it available to the state’s first responders, said Maj. Charles Anthony, a state civil defense spokesman. It included a “comment period” for firemen, police officers, emergency medical workers and hazardous material workers and others to give reaction and make suggestions, he said. Anthony said the report did not contain any specific information about actual threatened attacks or specific training plans. “If a document is for official use only, it will be marked for official use only,” Anthony said. “There was nothing on this document that was marked official use only. There was nothing marked confidential.” Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general, said the Hawaii Defense Department took the information off the Web site yesterday after talking to representatives of the Department of Homeland Security. But, Lee, said the information regarding “universal task lists and target capability lists” had been sent to the state via normal e-mail and was not labeled secret or classified. The report, requested by a presidential directive in December 2003, marks Homeland Security efforts to spur state and local authorities into thinking about preventing attacks. “My understanding is this was an error,” Chertoff said. Homeland Security initially believed other states also may have linked to the report on their Web sites, but a further review today showed that not to be the case, department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. Chertoff said he is going to resist talking publicly about possible terror threats as they unfold until he has definitive information to give. “I’m going to mightily resist the temptation to give information out prematurely,” Chertoff said. Homeland Security “has developed a number of scenarios that will aid federal, state and local homeland security officials in developing plans to become more prepared to prevent and respond to an act of terrorism, should it occur,” Roehrkasse said. The plan also “will help us better target our efforts and resources in improving the nation’s preparedness,” he said. Officials said there was no credible indication that such specific attacks were being planned. The draft plan was first reported yesterday on The New York Times’ Web site. The report does not hypothesize where such attacks would take place, Roehrkasse said. “The overall goal is to increase the overall baseline preparedness of all states and cities throughout the country,” he said. Besides identifying possible types of attacks, Roehrkasse said the report also estimates how many deaths and amount of economic damage the attacks would cause. The scenarios included: >> Blowing up a chlorine tank, killing 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000. >> Spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an airport, sports arena and train station, killing 2,500 and sickening 8,000 worldwide. >> Infecting cattle with foot and mouth disease in several places, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. But a nuclear bomb, an exploding liquid chlorine tank or a widespread and prolonged aerosol anthrax spray ranked among the most devastating attacks outlined in the report. Star-Bulletin reporter Richard Borreca and the Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2005 Honolulu Star-Bulletin -- ***************************************************************** 39 BoiseWeekly: From Potatoes to Plutonium MARCH 16, 2005 Idaho's most infamous export might be about to change BY LESLIE FUGER ALSO IN FEATURE The Case Against the Plutonium Space Race How Radiation Can Hurt You Beauty and the Beast More (12)... Tim Frazier was raised near Dayton, Ohio, and spent his childhood within sight of the Department of Energy (DOE) Mound Site in nearby Miamisburg. Unfortunately, the plant is not only known for working to advance nuclear technology. It also caused extensive uranium contamination of the groundwater aquifer, and soil contamination including radium, tritium and plutonium-238. Despite problems associated with Mound over the years, Frazier grew up to manage the facility. "I have the utmost confidence in the DOE's construction and maintenance of nuclear facilities," he said. "I even moved my wife and two little girls closer to the site when I took over." Today, Frazier is the document manager for a proposed plutonium production consolidation project for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the DOE's technical expert on plutonium-238. (On February 1, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory-West became the Idaho National Laboratory.) Frazier was part of a DOE team that recently conducted "scoping" meetings in Idaho and surrounding states to answer questions and quell fears about the plan to bring all the plutonium-238 production to Idaho. Citizens attending the meetings stated concerns that bringing plutonium-238-sometimes referred to as the most deadly substance known to man-to Idaho would jeopardize the environment and health of residents around the INL facility in Eastern Idaho. Plutonium-238 is an isotope created after irradiating neptunium-237 with a nuclear reactor. It is 275 times more radioactive than weapons grade plutonium, since it decays much faster. Engineers harness the significant heat created by this rapid decay to generate electricity for radioisotope power systems, as well as unmanned NASA spacecraft like satellites and interplanetary probes. The Viking craft that landed on Mars in 1976 and the Cassini Space Probe were two crafts that relied on long-lived plutonium-238 batteries to power their scientific instruments. But Frazier says that many obstacles keep scientists from making the compact thermoelectric generators as efficiently as they should. "Currently the department produces these systems in a very inefficient and dangerous way," he says. "First we ship neptunium-237 from Idaho to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it gets fabricated into targets. It is then shipped back to Idaho for irradiation, shipped nearly a thousand miles to Los Alamos in New Mexico for processing and finally trucked back to Idaho for construction of the radioisotope power systems. We want folks to know that we could make the process so much safer and cheaper by consolidating it in Idaho." The DOE claims that centering this entire process in Idaho will streamline nuclear production, improve safety issues dealing with transportation and potentially save millions of dollars. But according to Jeremy Maxand, the executive director of the nuclear watchdog group The Snake River Alliance, the DOE's claims are only half the story. "Idahoans are being asked to bear the burden of the cost and risk without being told the benefit," Maxand says. "It makes me highly suspicious that on one hand they sell this extremely hazardous process to Idahoans via sleek NASA space batteries, when in fact we've made them for decades using plutonium purchased from Russia's stockpile. Then in the next breath they'll say that the plutonium-238 produced in Idaho will be used for classified national security missions that are not space based at all." Frazier is guarded in his descriptions of the missions that would be supported by the $230 million proposed facility. He insists, however, "They are no non-military, non-defense related national security; the plutonium-238 will not be used in earth's orbit or for spy satellites, nor will they be in any way space based." As for the Russian plutonium, Frazier is more forthcoming. "Indeed," he says, "We have been allowed to purchase plutonium for NASA space missions from Russia, but we have made agreements with their government not to use it for our many national security purposes. Plus, just because the Russians happen to be our friends right now doesn't mean they will be in the future. The U.S. needs to decrease our reliance on their plutonium." Maxand, however, is still not convinced. "O.K., the DOE is proposing a project that could leave Idahoans breathing plutonium for the next 80 years and [they] won't tell us what its for," he says. "Lets talk about something they can't hide from the public. Plutonium-238 is lethal and difficult to contain. Is this secrecy going to benefit Idahoans given the DOE's well-documented and abysmal track record for worker, community and environmental safety?" Fears over secrecy are nothing new to the DOE. For over 40 years, the department operated the nation's defense nuclear weapons complex without any independent, external oversight. As a result, by the late 1980s, significant public health and safety issues had accumulated at many facilities. In response, Congress created an independent oversight organization, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The DNFSB is charged with providing advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy "to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety." It has also issued stern warnings to the DOE over the past decade about HEPA filtration systems, a safeguard intended to be the last line of defense for the public against toxic emissions. "The HEPA filtration and passive confinement ventilation systems widely used in nuclear facilities are not adequately capable of containing hazardous materials with confidence since they allow a quantity of unfiltered air contaminated with radioactive material to be released from an operating nuclear facility during accident scenarios," said the DNFSB. When asked about possible accidents like earthquakes, tornados and fires compromising a building that housed plutonium-238 in Idaho, Tim Frazier's only response is brief: "Those situations are highly unlikely." Unexpected events and accidents, however, have occurred. In 1957, for instance, a fire began in a glove box at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Golden, Colorado. Combustible gases passed under pressure through ventilation ductwork, ignited the HEPA filters, and caused the exhaust system to explode. Plutonium contamination, spread throughout the building and outdoors through the ventilation system. Observers outside the building saw a "very dark" smoke plume 80 to 100 feet high billowing from the building. Another fire in 1969, again at Rocky Flats, spread through several hundred interconnected glove boxes in two connected buildings. Caused by the spontaneous ignition of a plutonium briquette, the blaze contaminated the two large buildings and exposed firemen to high doses of radiation. Off-site plutonium measurements after the accident were well above normal. More recently, in the summer of 2000, wildfires in the vicinity of the Hanford Nuclear Facility hit the highly radioactive waste disposal trenches. Airborne plutonium radiation levels in the nearby cities of Pasco and Richland, Washington, were reportedly elevated to1,000 times above normal. According to a 2004 report by the National Center for Environmental Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is abundant evidence in areas surrounding the Los Alamos National Labratory-the site after which INL's complex would be modeled-that hazardous emissions are escaping the facility despite DOE's best efforts to contain it. The CDC concluded that the soil surrounding LANL contains as much as 100 times more plutonium than was previously estimated. According to the same report, Los Alamos County has an abnormally high rate of breast, melanoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, ovary, prostate, testicular and thyroid cancers, and Los Alamos residents, even those who have never worked at the lab itself, have more plutonium in their bodies than any one other county nationwide. Despite reassurances from government officials, many Idahoans remain unconvinced. And if attendance at the first round of public meetings is any indication of disapproval, the plutonium consolidation proposal could meet stiff resistance from all corners of the state. "Even under the best circumstances, plutonium is difficult to control and could have devastating health and environmental impacts on Idaho's people and environment," says Maxand. "Plutonium is a boomerang that has always come back to bite us, and this project will be no different." While the DOE is set to release the draft Environmental Impact Statement in late April, DOE officials maintain they intend on starting construction of the INL plutonium facility in October of this year. The Snake River Alliance is organizing public meetings across Idaho to inform people of the potential risks involved with such a proposal. the case against the plutonium space race Gyrobase © Copyright 2005, BoiseWeekly ***************************************************************** 40 Tucson Weekly: A local lawmaker shows she's not afraid of a little beryllium PUBLISHED ON MARCH 17, 2005: The Brush Up By CHRIS LIMBERIS Chris Limberis Welcome to Beryllium Vista! Brush Ceramic Products, where beryllium oxide has permanently injured dozens of employees, led to the deaths of others and may threaten neighborhood schools, is retooling its message in hopes of projecting an image as a cautious and caring southside partner. The spin was given full display last week at a study session of the Sunnyside Unified School District governing board, which was slapped with the cold reality that beryllium was found a half-mile from Brush Ceramic Products in the Sunnyside High School administration building. The Brush Ceramic video and its corporate boasting of new involvement in the southside community--from participating in a neighborhood association cleanup to joining an annual Christmas bicycle benefit for children in need--also came as scrapers and graders shift the earth north of the plant for 596 homes. There was no louder champion for Brush Ceramic Products than Linda Lopez, the Sunnyside School Board member and Democratic member of the state House of Representatives. "Many, many changes have been made at Brush Ceramics, and they're the first to admit that there were problems going on before at Brush Ceramics about how employees were protected or actually not protected," Lopez said to a near-capacity hearing room. "Things have changed at Brush Ceramics, and if you go there, you will see what they have put in place." Lopez gave a blow-by-blow account of her visit, a description that had some people laughing and others shaking their heads. "I went through the same procedure that the employees follow when they visit that plant. I went and I had to change my clothing from my street clothing into a uniform. At that point, I moved into another area where I put on protective gear, clothing; my shoes were covered. Then I had to wear the mask throughout my entire tour there. I put on another pair of gloves. It is very well-protected. When I came back out, after I visited and toured the plant, and believe me it is very interesting and very informative, and you only got a touch tonight of the kinds of things they do there and what they supply to the world--our community to the world--but when I came back through, I did go through the air tunnel or whatever you call it (and) stood there. It wasn't just like you walk through. You stand there, and you're moving around, you know, exposing parts of your body to make sure that the dust is blown off of it. "And then you come out, you take off all of your clothes, and I took a shower. I took a shower before I went back into the changing room, into the locker room and put my own clothes back on. So that's the procedure that's followed for the employees there." Lopez also guided consultants and Pima County officials along in their testimony in an attempt to show testing, from the four air-quality monitors the Sunnyside School District has set up in schools and the transportation facility, revealed below-standard levels. Aiding a nervous James Stephens of Applied Environmental, Lopez asked, "How much below the standard?" Stephens: "Uh, I don't know it off hand. When we graph it out, the limits are up here, but you all are down here. But it's, you know, quite a bit lower." Lopez: "O.K., several hundred percent is my understanding." And when consultants and Richard Grimaldi, a top official with the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, didn't give Lopez a clear enough answer about the wipe test that showed beryllium in December at the Sunnyside High School administration building, she led them through a path of denials. "That swipe," Lopez queried Stephens, "you can't really tell if that was the naturally occurring beryllium or the beryllium oxide that can cause medical problems? In his halting delivery, Stephens said no and then suggested that it could be the result of 20 years of dust, to which environmentalists and others in the audience scoffed. One said that Sunnyside custodians did a better job than to allow a 20-year accumulation of dust in buildings. Neither Brush's new public-relations effort nor Lopez impressed Joe Borboa, a Sunnyside schools parent. Brush will do whatever the federal, state and local governments minimally require, Borboa said. "And government is not always right," Borboa added later, citing the example of Vioxx and other arthritis medicines that were given quick approval only to be shown they cause dangerous side effects. "I find it insulting, comments about how much money they put into the community ... my child's life is a lot more valuable than any money they put into the community," Borboa said. To Lopez, Borboa said: "I find you comments biased, very biased. You should have been working for these (Brush) guys. You seem to make statements to justify and back up what they say, and I find that personally insulting." Besides the positive December wipe test, the beryllium issue at Brush Ceramic Products has been amplified by feverish earth-moving in preparation of a 596-home subdivision on 115 acres north of Brush plant. The property was rezoned from residential to light industrial by a unanimous vote of the City Council in 1995. Property owners, including Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver, delayed development and sold the property in 1998 for $3.6 million to a group that included Tucson real estate speculator Donald R. Diamond. The latter group won repeated City Council approval for delays and gained ultimate City Council approval on Sept. 7 to change the zoning back to residential. Councilman Steve Leal, a Democrat, represents the area and has spoken for tougher emissions and workforce safety conditions at Brush Ceramics. He once termed the operation a "crap shoot" in terms of safety to employees and the public. But Leal made the motion to replace the industrial zoning with the residential plan that is being implemented by D.R. Horton Homes, which paid $8.14 million for the property in November. The motion passed 6-0, with Republican Fred Ronstadt absent. Copyright © 1995-2005 | Site Design by DesertNet ***************************************************************** 41 New Scientist: French nuclear material may be easy target [NewScientist.com] WHILE some still fret about nuclear materials from the former Soviet Union falling into the wrong hands, the easiest place to get hold of plutonium might be France, suggests a study by a former US security expert. Routine consignments of plutonium oxide from the north of France to the nuclear reactors in the south are so poorly protected that they could be attacked and captured within minutes, he says. Ronald Timm, who worked as an analyst reviewing the safety and security of nuclear sites for the US Department of Energy in the 1990s, says the French consignments are at "extreme risk" of terrorist attack. Fewer than a dozen guards escort the loads, and they could be killed by just three armed terrorists, he argues. The plutonium casks could be opened in seconds with tools or explosives. "The protection afforded these everyday shipments is virtually non-existent," he claims. The study was commissioned by the anti-nuclear group Greenpeace. “The protection afforded these plutonium shipments is virtually non-existent” His allegations, however, are branded as "absolutely wrong" by Henry-Jacques Neau, head of transport with French nuclear company Cogema. The timing, routes and security measures for plutonium movements are all kept secret, he says: "They are able to withstand deliberate attack, and are extremely safe." From issue 2491 of New Scientist magazine, 19 March 2005, page 6 ***************************************************************** 42 [NukeNet] Falsified Yucca Mountain documents Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:10 -0800 NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) Content-class: urn:content-classes:message Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C52A68.2BD59E34" US Dept. of Interior press release Contact: Tina Kreisher For Immediate Release: March 16, 2005 (202) 208-6416 Statement by US Geological Survey Director Chip Groat WASHINGTON, D.C.The Department of Energy has notified the Department of the Interior that e-mails by United States Geological Survey employees have raised serious questions about the review process of scientific studies done six years ago on the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository located in Nevada. The employees studying water infiltration at the Repository, during the 1998-2000 period, are alleged to have committed improprieties after moving into the quality assurance phase imposed by the Department of Energy to begin the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions licensing process. The e-mails indicated that employees involved in studies of water infiltration and climate may have falsified documentation of their work. USGS Director Chip Groat has issued the following statement: Serious questions have been raised about quality assurance practices performed in 1998-2000 by USGS scientists on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project for the Department of Energy. Two actions are underway to investigate these issues. First, I have referred the matter to the Inspector General for action. Second, I have initiated an internal review of the allegations. Once the facts are known, appropriate actions will be taken. USGS remains committed to maintaining scientific excellence. -DOI- _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 43 [NukeNet] Over 200 groups petitioned DOE to disqualify Yucca Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:25 -0800 NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) Content-class: urn:content-classes:message Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C52A6F.B864DBE2" In 1996 and 1997, the U.S. Department of Energy discovered the radioactive isotope chlorine-36 at unnaturally high concentrations deep in the heart of Yucca Mountain. The only explanation for this was that sea water, radioactively activated by nuclear bomb blasts in the South Pacific starting the 1940s and 1950s, had traveled with the weather, fallen as rain on Yucca, and percolated down to the proposed repository depth in less than 50 years. This was a clear violation of DOEs own Site Suitability Guidelines. In November and December of 1998, over 200 environmental and public interest organizations petitioned the U.S. Dept. of Energy to disqualify the Yucca Mountain site from any further consideration for a high-level radioactive waste repository because the site violated the DOEs own Site Suitability Guidelineswhich stated that if rainwater flows through a potential repository site and back out into the living environment in less than 1,000 years, the site must be disqualified from any further consideration. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act ordered the Secretary of Energy to simply report to the President and Congress on such a disqualification so that further actions could then be considered. However, instead of disqualifying the Yucca site, DOE responded to the petition that they needed more time to study the Yucca site. But in late 2001, less than a month before Energy Secretary Abraham notified Nevada Governor Guinn that he intended to recommend Yucca as suitable for a repository to George W. Bush, DOE simply removed that 17 year old (1984 to 2001) Site Suitability Guideline from its books. If you cant meet the standard, just eliminate the standard. Now it appears that at the very same time that the national environmental and public interest movement was petitioning DOE to disqualify the Yucca site due to the fast flow rate of water infiltration, U.S. Geological Survey scientists were falsifying documents about water infiltration into the Yucca site, as well as climate change documents (as Yucca could become much more wet due to climate change, the issue of water infiltration could become much more serious over time). Please see the following links to the 1998 petition and group letter to DOE: http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/yucca/disqualifyyuccafinalletterwithsignatures.htm http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/yucca/disqualifyyuccapetitionfinal.htm Kevin Kamps, NIRS, 202.328.0002 ext. 14 _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 44 [NukeNet] Reid Wants To Make Yucca Mt. Obsolete Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:16 -0800 NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2005/mar/14/518445837.html?"Yucca%20Mountain" March 14, 2005 Reid seeks big change to nation's nuke policy Bill would give DOE more power, make Yucca obsolete By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., intends to unveil legislation aimed at making Yucca Mountain obsolete by allowing the Energy Department to take ownership of waste as it sits now at nuclear power plants. The bill, similar to a bill that Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has been pushing since 2001, would represent a significant shift in nuclear waste policy and would likely face strong opposition in Congress. The bill would allow the Energy Department to take ownership and responsibility for cost and security of on-site waste storage, currently a burden of the nuclear utilities nationwide that produce the waste, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid's bill would allow the department to use the money in a national nuclear waste fund to manage the radioactive material at the plants. Currently, by law, that money must be used for the development of a national permanent geologic repository -- Yucca. Congress in 1982 pledged that the Energy Department would begin shipping waste to Yucca by Jan. 31, 1998, for permanent storage. But the planned underground repository has been delayed by budget and legal setbacks. Nuclear utilities have continued to store some of the nation's most radioactive "high-level" waste at their plants -- and in recent years filed 66 lawsuits against the government, with potential damages in the billions of dollars. Congress will break for a spring recess later this week, and Reid intends to introduce the legislation shortly after Congress returns April 4. Reid hinted at his intention in written comments submitted for a hearing of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee last week. "I believe it is time to look at other nuclear waste alternatives," Reid said in the written statement. "One option may be for the federal government to take responsibility for the nuclear waste at the reactor sites. This is the right thing to do and I look forward to discussing this option with my colleagues." Two potential allies could be Sens. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Reid aides said. Bennett and Hatch strongly support Yucca. But they are also trying to stop a proposed temporary nuclear waste site on Goshute Indian reservation land in their state, considered a stopover site for waste until Yucca is completed. Reid is hoping to pique their interest because his bill could eliminate the need for the Utah site. Bennett and Hatch have received pledges from White House officials that the administration would continue to support Yucca and not the temporary Utah site, although the White House has taken no concrete steps to block the Utah site. Reid likely would need the support of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee and of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Yucca funding. Domenici, who was unavailable for comment, is a leading Yucca proponent but has also endorsed consideration of both short- and long-term waste storage alternatives as the delayed Yucca program plods ahead. Reid likely would face a significant legislative battle. The Nevada delegation has always operated in a Congress where Yucca enjoyed majority support, especially from lawmakers who represent districts with nuclear plants. Reid's bill would represent a significant change in the nation's long-standing nuclear waste strategy. Congress approved geologic storage in 1982 and designated Yucca as the sole focus of study in 1987. President Bush and Congress officially approved Yucca in 2002 after years of Energy Department research and fierce lobbying by Nevada lawmakers against the controversial repository. "I really don't think Congress has the stomach to go through that again," said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top lobby group. Nuclear industry officials will strongly oppose the legislation because they have long argued that a permanent geologic repository was the best long-term waste solution. Plants, which store waste in cooling pools and outdoor, above-ground "dry casks," were never designed for permanent storage, they say. "It's a non-starter," NEI waste management director Steve Kraft said of Reid's bill. "Every year this point gets missed: It's not the ownership of the material, it's where the material is. The material has to leave our sites." Nevada officials and other Yucca critics have long said it was safer and more cost-effective to continue storing waste at plants, at least until a better Yucca alternative can be developed. Reid aides said a notable benefit of the Reid bill is that it would eliminate the need for shipping waste cross-country by truck and train. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., plans to co-sponsor the bill, an Ensign aide said. But Berkley hasn't won much House support in four years that she has advocated a bill similar to Reid's legislation. Her bill has only garnered a handful of co-sponsors and has never even been granted a hearing by House Republican leaders, who generally support Yucca. The House in 2002 approved Yucca on a 306-117 vote. Nils Diaz, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would license and regulate Yucca, today said there is no significant safety hazard to temporary on-site waste storage. But he said that at some point waste stored on-site should be moved to a central site and that the commission supports geologic storage. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2005/mar/14/518445013.html?"Yucca%20Mountain" March 14, 2005 Editorial: Secrecy on nuke dump LAS VEGAS SUN We were intrigued by a story in Thursday's Las Vegas Sun about the optimism expressed by the official who is in charge of trying to get a nuclear waste dump built at Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Theodore Garrish, acting director of the U.S. Energy Department's Yucca Mountain program, told a Senate committee in Washington that the nuclear waste dump project is alive and well. "I believe we are better situated today than we have ever been to move forward with this program," Garrish said. That struck us as a strange thing to say, especially since the U.S. Energy Department was dealt a serious blow last July, one that very well could doom the project. A federal court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation standard for a dump at Yucca Mountain -- that radiation from the dump would have to be contained for low levels for 10,000 years -- wasn't stringent enough under federal law. But after reading Friday's edition of the Sun, we started to get a better understanding of why Garrish is so bullish on Yucca Mountain. Washington bureau chief Benjamin Grove reported that environmental groups, which participated in a closed-door briefing with EPA officials last week, believe that the options the EPA are considering for a new radiation standard aren't that much different than the one tossed out by the court. A standard meeting the court's ruling would require preventing the release of radiation for at least 100,000 years. That benchmark likely is unachievable, which is why federal agencies may be trying to skirt having to establish a tough, meaningful standard that would protect public safety. "My impression was that they are going to do what they want to do," said Peggy Maze Johnson, director of Nevada-based Citizen Alert, who participated in the briefing via a telephone hookup. "They don't care about putting waste in a mountain that leaks." Officials from the EPA, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which ultimately would have to rule on the Energy Department's application to build a dump, have been meeting secretly regarding the Yucca Mountain project. Officials from these federal agencies have sought to downplay what's been occurring, but it's clear what is going on. These agencies are collaborating to see if there is a way to create a new radiation standard that isn't too strict and, most importantly, will allow Yucca Mountain to proceed. That Nevada officials have been excluded from these closed-door meetings, despite the fact that our state would be the nation's permanent dumping ground for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, confirms that something nefarious is happening. If ever there were an issue that demanded openness, it certainly would involve meetings involving high-level nuclear waste. Instead, we get secrecy by federal agencies hell-bent on burying man's deadliest waste near the nation's fastest-growing city. It's not just a disgrace -- it's a scandal. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Printable text version | Mail this to a friend Search terms highlighted: "Yucca Mountain" Las Vegas SUN main page Problems or questions Read our policy on privacy and cookies. Advertise on Vegas.com. All contents © 1996 - 2005 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. Nevada's Largest Website _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 45 [PUBCIT_PRESS] nuclear waste; energy companies; House ethics Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:17:40 -0600 (CST) Public Citizen Press Releases Providing the latest information about Public Citizen activities ------------------------------------------- March 16, 2005 Public Citizen to Energy Department: Push Yucca Mountain Off the Gang Plank Statement by Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen Todays announcement that falsified information may have been used to evaluate the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump sheds further light on the mismanagement of this entire bungled process. It is of grave concern that the U.S. Geologic Survey may have falsified computer modeling data about Yucca Mountain. Given the fact that this data is related to water infiltration and climate which affects the ability of the site to safely contain the waste the entire scientific basis of the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be undermined. To read the entire statement, visit http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1902. ### March 15, 2005 As Tax Day Approaches for Consumers, Energy Corporations are Already Calculating Their Savings Corporate Tax Cut Bill Signed in October 2004 Provides New Billion-Dollar Break to Energy Companies WASHINGTON, D.C. Washington states three corporate utilities will lower their collective 2005 tax bill by as much as $3.75 million the result of a $76.5 billion federal corporate tax cut bill President Bush signed in October 2004. The savings for Washington state utilities will rise exponentially in future years, as the value of the tax deduction doubles in 2007 and rises by an additional third in 2009. To read the entire press release, visit http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1901. ### March 15, 2005 Ethics Shenanigans Undermine Public Trust Statement of Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen Partisanship is appropriate in politics, not in ethics decisions. But the 109th Congress is all politics all of the time. The Republican House leadership desperate to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay from accountability for his unethical behavior has exposed the absurdity of Congress policing itself. To read the entire statement, visit http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1900. ------------------------------------------- To be removed from this list send an email to pcpress@citizen.org with "unsubscribe pubcit_press" in the message. Please visit our website at www.citizen.org ***************************************************************** 46 [CMEP] In light of falsified info, Yucca should be scrapped Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:07:23 -0600 (CST) ***please forward widely*** ***apologies for cross-posting*** March 16, 2005 This email contains two press releases. *** P R E S S R E L E A S E *** March 16, 2005 Contact: Michele Boyd (202) 454-5134 Public Citizen to Energy Department: Push Yucca Mountain Off the Gang Plank Statement by Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen Today's announcement that falsified information may have been used to evaluate the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump sheds further light on the mismanagement of this entire bungled process. It is of grave concern that the U.S. Geologic Survey may have falsified computer modeling data about Yucca Mountain. Given the fact that this data is related to water infiltration and climate - which affects the ability of the site to safely contain the waste - the entire scientific basis of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be undermined. This is further proof that the government has relied on manipulated data, not evidence-based science, in reviewing the only site being considered for a national dumping ground for the country's 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, which remains highly radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. In 1998, more than 200 public interest organizations petitioned the DOE to "immediately disqualify the Yucca Mountain, Nevada site and declare it unsuitable for further consideration as a high-level nuclear waste repository" due to the finding of chlorine-36 at elevated levels deep within the mountain. The finding indicated that water flows through Yucca Mountain quickly, contrary to the prediction of the government's water infiltration models of the site. Coupled with a string of bad news recently for the DOE, this most recent development should be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Inaccurate information about highly dangerous radioactive material continues to plague the Yucca Mountain project, confounding the public, the Congress and the government managers. It is past time for Congress to stop wasting billions of dollars on this project once and for all. ### Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org. ======================================= NUCLEAR SECURITY COALITION PRESS RELEASE March 16, 2005 Contact: Deb Katz, Citizens Awareness Network: (413) 339-5781 Brendan Hoffman, Public Citizen: (202) 454-5130 Paul Gunter, Nuclear Information and Resource Service: (202) 328-0002 Coalition Decries Withholding of Report Damaging to Nuclear Industry Groups, Security Experts Seek Meeting With Agency Heads Washington, DC The Nuclear Security Coalition (NSC), an alliance of 47 grassroots and public interest groups, charged today that federal bureaucrats are jeopardizing public safety by blocking release of a science panel's report that is damaging to the nuclear power industry. The NSC said the report confirms the urgent need to lower the density of pools packed with highly irradiated fuel rods at U.S. power plants, and that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is stalling its release to protect the nuclear industry's efforts to revive nuclear power in the U.S. The urgency of taking action was highlighted this week by the disclosure of a recent report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, which found "the largely unregulated" area of general aviation remains particularly vulnerable. An NRC report from October 2000 determined the "spent" fuel pools in certain reactor designs are especially prone to damage from a plane crash. Because spent fuel pools are considered among the highest impact targets for terrorism in the U.S., in late 2003 Congress ordered the National Academy of Sciences to study current storage methods for commercial spent nuclear fuel and options to reduce risks. A classified version of the report was completed last summer; insiders say it confirms concerns that enormous radioactive fires could result if waste pools were attacked. But NRC has repeatedly sought revisions to a still-unreleased public version of the NAS study, citing "security." In a letter sent to the Academy yesterday, the Coalition pointed to NRC's contradictions. "Clearly from NRC's response, we conclude that spent fuel pools are not the 'well-engineered' and 'robust' structures as advertised otherwise NRC would not be worried about NAS' report becoming public," said Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch in Massachusetts today. "The Academy must have gotten the 'wrong answer.' " Due to long-running exasperation toward the agency, the Coalition sent a letter to NRC today asking for a meeting directly with the five NRC Commissioners. In part, the citizens want action on a petition filed with the NRC in August 2004 urging priority measures at 32 plants where spent fuel pools are located high inside buildings and surrounded only by thin roofs and walls. Federal and state legislators as well as Attorneys General have sent letters of support for the petition to the Commission. There is growing national pressure on the NRC to lower the risk of attack on "spent" fuel pools, which contain far more radioactivity than do reactors, and are vulnerable to a variety of attacks by air or ground intruders. In January, attorneys general from New York, California, Massachusetts and five other states pressed the NRC to increase plant protections, warning of "possibly unimaginable nuclear catastrophes" and emphasizing the need "to reflect the realities of 2005terrorists may attack by air or water and in numbers greater than four." That reference stems from NRC's continued reliance on plant defenses designed against only small, land-based teams of attackers. Dr. Gordon Thompson, a specialist on nuclear safety, said today, "Added to our concern about the vulnerability of civilian nuclear facilities to attack is a growing concern that the NRC cannot be relied upon to protect the citizens of the United States from this grave threat." The coalition, comprised of citizen groups from coast to coast, charged that withholding the science panel's report is designed to protect the nuclear industry at a most sensitive time. The long-declining industry is pouring huge sums into a publicity offensive touting new, experimental reactors as the solution to global warming, and seeking taxpayer funding for new nuclear plants as part of the Bush administration's energy bill. The industry's revival hinges on its ability to maintain a public misperception that the high-level waste issue is solved. However, last month, plans for a national waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain were set back five more years, to 2015. Many observers including industry officials believe the long-delayed and multi-billion dollar project is doomed. Regardless of whether a dump at Yucca Mountain ever opens, spent fuel will be stored at U.S. plants for decades. Hence, hardening spent fuel against attack instead of keeping it in high-density pools is key to alleviating the security crisis at reactors; it is also a quasi-permanent storage location for mounting quantities of high level waste. Increasing evidence that nuclear plants are terrorist targets, and warnings by non-governmental counter-terrorism experts that the U.S. will again be attacked, make increased plant security a priority. In a December 3 letter, the NRC requested that the National Academy spend "more time" on the study in other words, delay issuing any report and subsequent required remedial action. "NRC gives protecting fuel pools low priority, but for reactor communities living with a terrorist target in their midst, its actions are irresponsible. This argument between NAS and NRC is putting our communities in harm's way unnecessarily," said Deb Katz, executive director of Citizens Awareness Network. "NRC must do more to protect our communities since it is our communities that will suffer the consequences of agency inaction if a reactor fuel pool is attacked." Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, said, "The NRC has shown itself time and time again to be a lapdog of the industry and that is precisely why Congress directed NAS, and not the NRC, to perform the analysis. We ask that NAS ignore the NRC and issue the report as required by Congress." ### See letter to NAS at: http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAS3-15-05.pdf See letter to NRC at: http://www.citizen.org/documents/NRC3-16-05.pdf See the original Nuclear Security Coalition petition at: http://www.citizen.org/documents/BWRpetition.pdf and http://www.citizen.org/documents/BWRpetitionannex.pdf. ********** If you would like to be removed from the CMEP ListServ, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe CMEP" in the message. Questions about the CMEP ListServ can be directed to CMEP-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG. 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 ***************************************************************** 47 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers urge Washington to reject waste plan By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A Nevada legislative panel passed a resolution Tuesday urging federal lawmakers to oppose a plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. After three hours of testimony, the Assembly Elections Committee voted unanimously to send AJR4 on to the full Assembly. The resolution asks federal decision-makers to give up on a plan to store spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain because it is "an ill-advised project based on bad science, bad law and bad public policy, a choice that ignores better, less expensive and safer alternatives, a choice which hinders, not helps, national security." Assemblywoman Genie Orenschall, D-Las Vegas, introduced the resolution. While the resolution has two dozen co-sponsors, Orenschall said she's surprised she hasn't gotten more support in the 63-member Legislature. "I thought I would have no problem and everyone would sign on," she said. "I had several legislators tell me they did not want to be on the wrong side of whichever way the issue comes down." Opponents of the plan have been bolstered by a recent developments, she said. Funding from Congress and the Bush administration for development has been cut, and Nevada won a key legal battle over required radiation standards. As a battleground in the presidential election and home to the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, Nevada is also enjoying a higher place on the political pecking order. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said recently that he plans to introduce legislation that would authorize the Energy Department to assume ownership of the spent nuclear waste stored at reactors and store it at those facilities, making the Yucca Mountain site obsolete. "We should not make any mistake about the significance of the developments of the past year," said Orenschall. "It is critical that we continue our fight against Yucca Mountain in every way possible, including sending a message from this Legislature to Washington that we continue to strongly oppose the dump." The resolution reminds Washington lawmakers of Nevada's new political stature. It quotes President Bush's campaign promise to "stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," and notes that the state supported the president in the 2004 presidential election. Orenschall said the political language may have turned some Republican lawmakers off. Despite delays and spending cut, Energy Department officials have said recently that the Yucca Mountain plan is alive and well, and that the Bush administration support remains strong. At a public hearing on AJR4, lawmakers got an earful from both sides of the issue. The Nevada State Education Association, Clark County and several environmental groups testified in support of the resolution, calling the Yucca Mountain proposal a potential ecological disaster and a violation of state's rights. O.Q. Chris Johnson, an Elko resident and supporter of the Yucca Mountain plan, dismissed the arguments as "purely emotional." "The project is based on sound science," he said. "And cleaning the (waste) caskets alone could bring $1 million a year to the state." The project would be a particular boost to economically depressed rural Nevada, he added. -- ***************************************************************** 48 deseret news: Single Utah reactor generates just a bit of radioactive waste [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, March 16, 2005 The single nuclear reactor running in Utah generates only a minuscule amount of radioactive waste, according to officials. "There are no nuclear power reactors in Utah," said Laura Vernon, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. "The University of Utah has a research reactor, and it is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." It is "just a little research reactor," said Karen Langley, director of radiological health at the U. It is used for training and research. Its fuel belongs to the U.S. Department of Energy, which is involved because of the DOE's educational process. Melinda Krahenbuhl, director of the university's engineering program, said only a "very, very small amount of waste" is generated by the reactor. The last time there was any was 2001, she said. "It was less than 3 microcuries." The material's volume was probably less than a milligram, she said. The material is low-level waste, and "we average every five years shipping out that kind of waste." Professional handlers pick up the waste and send it to a low-level radioactive waste disposal site run by U.S. Ecology near Hanford, Wash. Asked if there was any problem with the U.'s reactor, Dane Finerfrock, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, replied, "None that I'm aware of." © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 49 deseret news: Tailings must be moved, 2 states tell congressmen [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Officials say flooding could trigger massive Colorado River contamination By Erica Werner Associated Press WASHINGTON — A giant pile of radioactive waste sitting near the banks of the Colorado River poses unacceptable risks and needs to be moved, California and Utah officials told a congressional briefing Tuesday. Undated photo shows tailings, lower right, next to the Colorado River near Moab, that officials want moved instead of capped. Tom Till, Associated Press The 12 million tons of tailings sit several miles northwest of Moab and 750 feet from the river that provides drinking water to 25 million people, most of them in California. The tailings are residue from a uranium mill that stopped operating in 1984 and was taken over by the Department of Energy in 2000. "You can't consider our water supply safe if those are in our headwaters," said Dennis Underwood, vice president for Colorado River resources at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "It's public health that's endangered here." The Energy Department recently finished collecting comments on a draft environmental impact statement and will issue a recommendation this summer on whether to move the pile or try to contain it on-site. Uranium, ammonia, sulfate and other contaminants have been found in groundwater around the site and are leaching gradually into the river. So far, drinking water from the river remains safe, but Western state officials fear that would change if a big flood washed huge quantities of the waste into the Colorado. They are convinced that the only acceptable solution is to move the pile. "It's not a question of if there's going to be a catastrophic flood, it's a question of when it's going to happen," said Joette Langianese, a council member from Grand County, where the tailings site is located. Underwood, Langianese and other officials spoke at a briefing convened by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. Deseret Morning News graphic They expressed concern that because the government estimates it would be cheaper to leave the pile in place — $160 million compared to $400 million to move it — the Department of Energy will recommend treating it on-site. On-site treatment would be ineffective if there were a big flood, they said. "Cost may be trumping what's the right thing to do," Matheson said. Western state officials were concerned when the Energy Department didn't select a preferred solution in its draft environmental impact statement. Instead, the department outlined several options, including capping the pile on-site or moving it to one of two sites to the north, Klondike Flats or Crescent Junction, both of which are on Bureau of Land Management land. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the department received thousands of comments on the draft environmental impact statement and would review those before issuing the final statement. © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 50 deseretnews: NRC chief's comments anger foes of nuclear waste [deseretnews.com] Wednesday, March 16, 2005 By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News State officials and activists opposed to the proposed storage of high-level nuclear waste in Utah are dismayed by the attitude of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission toward safety risks of the project. But a spokeswoman for the company proposing to build the facility, Private Fuel Storage, said the nuclear industry has shown it is safe to transport and store such wastes. Nils A. Diaz, chairman of the NRC, does not believe undue risks would be posed by 40,000 casks of spent nuclear fuel if they are sent to a temporary storage plant in Utah. PFS proposes to build the facility in Tooele County on land owned by the Skull Valley band of the Goshute Indians. Located about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, it would store highly radioactive spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants across the country. Diaz said residents of the Wasatch Front would not suffer health or environmental damage because of the storage, even if a terrorist attack breached some of the containers. They "pose no radiological hazard with the present weaponry" available to terrorists, he said. The concentration of canisters could make it so an attack by aircraft could damage a few that were knocked together, he said. But even if some were breached, Diaz added, radiation leakage would be confined to the immediate area, not reaching more than two miles beyond the site. But suppose a train transporting spent fuel rods was attacked in a more populated setting, said Jason Groenewold, director of the Health Environment Alliance of Utah. "If that happens in the heart of the Wasatch Front on our rail lines, that would be devastating to our economy and to our community," Groenewold said. Estimates are that shipments of nuclear power plant radioactive wastes "would travel past the homes of approximately 50 million Americans as nuclear waste is transported to the West," he said. Groenewold said Utah's congressional delegation should stand firmly with Nevada and insist that waste must be stored in the areas where it was generated. Nevada officials have long fought the establishment of a permanent high-level waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain. Sue Martin, spokeswoman for PFS, said a facility like the one the company proposes building "clearly involves potentially hazardous materials." But the nuclear power industry has developed "the experience and the expertise to know that these materials can be transported and stored safely," she said. "This is not a new technology that we are proposing," she said, noting it has been in operation for more than 20 years in some locations. "In fact, in the whole history of the commercial nuclear power industry in this country, there has never been a radiation related injury or fatality." According to Diane Nielson, executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the NRC's own licensing board found a year ago that the risk of an Air Force F-16 crashing into a storage site in Utah would be greater than one in a million — the cutoff point for risk, beyond which a license could not be issued. But the board reanalyzed the situation and asked what would happen in the case of such an accident, and concluded that the risk of radiation was not high enough to stop the plant. The board made a 2-1 decision, she said. The nuclear engineer on the board, who understood the technical problems, said this is a significant risk, she said. "We think the nuclear engineer got it right," Nielson added. "Regarding the other safeguard-homeland security issues, the response of the NRC really hasn't been sufficient at this point," she said. Chip Ward, a Utah author and longtime activist concerned about PFS, denounced Diaz' position. "The notion that if terrorists hit that storage facility or if a plane crashes into it, there's no hazard for us downwind, is self-evidently silly," he said. He called the NRC an enabler for the nuclear industry. "If you ever wondered if the NRC has a shred of credibility left, you should no longer have doubts," he said. Steve Erickson, director of the activist group Citizens Education Project, said a catastrophic breach of a cask is of low probability. "It's still a risk that is not worth taking at this time," he said. Erickson has a video produced by contractors who wanted to sell a sheath around a containment cask to prevent penetration by a shoulder-fired missile, he said. "Before the sheath was put around the cask, it (the missile) blew an 8-inch-diameter hole into it. So I'm skeptical about that assertion." Studies show that if a cask were breached, in the worse-case scenario, "that would result in massive evacuations, latent cancer deaths and billions of dollars in cleanup." Just cleaning up could take years, Erickson said. Utah "should not be a dumping ground for waste, including high-level nuclear waste," said Lawson Legate, the Sierra Club senior southwest regional representative, whose office is in Salt Lake City. "If it's safe to transport and it's safe to store above ground in Utah, it should be safe to store in the various locations across the country where it was generated." "Almost sends me back to childhood," commented Jay Truman, founder and director of the advocacy group Downwinders. Living 100 miles downwind from the Nevada Test Site, he would hear pronouncements from the Atomic Energy Commission on the radio: "There is no danger, we repeat, there is no danger." That happened, Truman said, "as that morning's fallout clouds blew by overhead." E-mail: bau@desnews.com © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 51 AP Wire: MOX commercial fuel to be returned to U.S. within weeks | 03/16/2005 | Associated Press LA HAGUE, France - U.S. weapons-grade plutonium has been transformed into a special commercial nuclear fuel at a factory in southeast France and is being readied for return to South Carolina, the company in charge of the operation said Wednesday. Four rods of MOX, as the commercial fuel is known, reached the Cogema factory in northwest France on Tuesday night after being transported in a heavily guarded truck from the Cadarache plant in the south, some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away, Areva said. The fuel is to be shipped back to the United States in the coming weeks from the nearby port of Cherbourg, the Areva statement said. It was the first time that France has transformed weapons-grade plutonium into MOX, a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide that can be used in commercial nuclear reactors. Greenpeace, the environmental group, had protested the arrival here in October of the U.S. plutonium. The U.S. Energy Department had to ship the plutonium - 125 kilograms (275.5 pounds) - overseas for conversion because no plant in the United States can do it. The plutonium was taken from nuclear warheads to be transformed into a commercial fuel to help fulfill the terms of a September 2000 U.S.-Russia disarmament accord in which both countries promised to destroy 34 tons of military plutonium. The environmental organization Greenpeace criticized the operation for what it said were safety risks, including ground transport of the nuclear material through France "without adequate protection or packaging" and at sea. "This whole plutonium program is about the survival of the nuclear industry in France, the U.S. and Russia," Yannick Rousselet of Greenpeace France said in a statement. The plutonium was delivered to southern France in armed convoys and is specially packaged for the sea voyage, officials have said. The MOX is to be used at Duke Power's Catawba Nuclear Station in South Carolina_ a test run to confirm that the fuel works there. A MOX factory would then be built with French help at the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C., to dispose of the rest of the plutonium that the United States agreed to destroy. Another MOX factory would be built, likely with Areva help, in Russia. ***************************************************************** 52 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain documents may have been falsified, government says By H. JOSEF HEBERT ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Government employees may have falsified documents related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada, the Energy Department revealed Wednesday in a development that could jeopardize the project's ability to obtain a federal permit. The department said that during preparation for a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a number of e-mails were discovered, dating back to 1998 and 2000, in which an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey "indicated that he had fabricated documentation of his work." Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the department had begun an investigation into what kind of information was falsified and whether it would affect the scientific underpinnings of the project. "If in the course of that review any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documents that meet appropriate quality assurance standards," said Bodman. He said he was "greatly disturbed" that work involving the project may have been falsified. The department said the questionable data involved computer modeling for water infiltration and climate at the Yucca site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. USGS Director Chip Groat said that the discovered e-mails "have raised serious questions about the review process of scientific studies done six years ago." The disclosure follows a string of other setbacks for the proposed waste dump. The Energy Department has delayed filing its license application to the NRC and now acknowledges that the planned completion of the facility by 2010 no longer is possible. Congress last year refused to provide all the money sought by the Bush administration for the project, and a federal appeals court rejected the radiation protection standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA is now developing new standards. Last month, the official in charge of the Yucca project resigned, citing personal reasons. Bodman said the questionable documents were part of the papers required by the NRC verifying the accuracy of earlier work in the project. He said Nevada officials had been advised. The Energy Department's inspector general also has been asked to investigate. "The fact remains that this country needs a permanent geological nuclear waste repository, and the administration will continue to aggressively pursue that goal," Bodman said. He said that "all related decisions have been, and will continue to be, based on sound science." ***************************************************************** 53 RGJ: Panel urges feds to reject Yucca plan + [Reno Gazette-Journal] [Reno Gazette-Journal] Reno, Nevada, USA 775-788-6200 ASSOCIATED PRESS 3/15/2005 11:05 pm A Nevada legislative panel adopted a resolution Tuesday urging federal lawmakers to oppose a plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. After three hours of testimony, the Assembly Elections Committee voted unanimously to send AJR4 on to the full Assembly. The resolution asks federal decision-makers to give up on a plan to store spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain because it is “an ill-advised project based on bad science, bad law and bad public policy, a choice that ignores better, less expensive and safer alternatives, a choice which hinders, not helps, national security.” Assemblywoman Genie Orenschall, D-Las Vegas, introduced the resolution. While the resolution has two dozen co-sponsors, Orenschall said she’s surprised she hasn’t gotten more support in the 63-member Legislature. “I thought I would have no problem and everyone would sign on,” she said. “I had several legislators tell me they did not want to be on the wrong side of whichever way the issue comes down.” Opponents of the plan have been bolstered by a recent developments, she said. Funding from Congress and the Bush administration for development has been cut, and Nevada won a key legal battle over required radiation standards. align="right">© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. ***************************************************************** 54 Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear Waste Storage: Huntsman and Reid make proposals that should be heard Article Last Updated: 03/15/2005 11:13:38 PM Sen. Harry Reid's proposal to give up on a national repository for nuclear waste - and leave the stuff where it is for a half-century or so - seems less a radical idea than an attempt to legalize the inevitable. And to pay for it. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, was leading the fight against federal plans to store the nation's high-level nuclear waste in his state's Yucca Mountain long before he became Senate minority leader. But now that he has that elevated platform, and now that Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has seconded his notion, Reid's proposal deserves to be taken seriously. Reid would keep the federal promise of taking spent fuel off the hands of the nuclear industry by having the Energy Department take possession of the stuff where it lies, and devote $16.3 billion in Yucca Mountain money to encase it in dry casks, as some plants are already doing, on site. That wouldn't be a permanent solution. But, as Huntsman says, it might buy time to invent ways to neutralize the waste through a theoretically possible method of transmutation that not only removes the weapons-grade plutonium but also generates usable energy in the process. Opposition to a plan to store some nuclear waste at Utah's Skull Valley Goshute Reservation while everyone waits for Yucca Mountain has moved some Utahns, notably Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, to push for Yucca ASAP, removing the need for the Skull Valley option. But such haste is not in the cards. A long list of concerns and challenges have already delayed Yucca's opening to somewhere between 2012 and 2020. And Huntsman, who was in the nation's capital this week making Reid-like suggestions, happily seems less interested in stoking the border war. Instead of each state wishing the other the title of National Dump, Utah and Nevada should jointly argue the advantages of keeping the waste in place, at least for a while, rather than risk transporting it here, there, or through here to there. The nuclear industry and the Bush administration still want Yucca. They reasonably worry about keeping nuclear waste at more than 130 sites nationwide, most of them small acreages in large population centers adjacent to vulnerable bodies of water. But even if Skull Valley opened tomorrow, or Yucca Mountain next year, all those power plants would still be nuclear waste sites, still threats to local environs and still tempting targets for terrorists. That's why Reid's - and Huntsman's - ideas belong on the table. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 55 Salt Lake Tribune: Wait on N-waste plan, panel is asked Article Last Updated: 03/16/2005 01:39:25 AM Utah officials say the Skull Valley repository plan needs to be reviewed, due to years of changes By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shouldn't immediately license a facility to store highly radioactive waste on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation because years of piecemeal decisions have changed the proposal and left too many significant issues unresolved. So says the state of Utah in its appeal of a February ruling by the Atomic Safety Licencing Board, a panel of NRC judges who gave preliminary approval for a utility consortium's license to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. But the consortium, Private Fuel Storage, says the commission shouldn't delay licensing the PFS facility because it routinely approves similar dry-cask storage proposals for nuclear reactors. The state's arguments, filed Monday with the NRC, were the latest salvos in its nearly eight-year battle with PFS. The state contends that because the PFS license application hasn't been updated since November 2001, it doesn't include consideration of such issues as seismic safety, transportation difficulties or security. "The state of the record is so outdated it's like we've got a different facility from what was [originally] proposed," said Utah Assistant Attorney General Denise Chancellor. PFS, however, said delaying the license "would cause unwarranted harm to PFS, owners of nuclear power plants who need to store spent fuel, the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes and Tooele County." PFS also argued that receiving its license immediately would not pose risk to public health and safety of the environment, nor would it affect any future appeals of the license. NRC Chairman Nils A. Diaz seemingly bolstered that argument Monday when he told the National Press Club that the casks in which the spent fuel would be stored were well-protected and even if they were breached in some type of an attack, radiation leakage would be confined to a two-mile radius. For the PFS proposal, that radius would include the tiny Goshute village, the home of about 25 tribal members, some of them children. The $3.1 billion interim facility in Skull Valley was designed to complement the permanent spent nuclear fuel repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Utah facility could begin accepting shipments as early as 2007. Goshute representatives, through their attorney, expressed support for the PFS license. On the other side, the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service on Monday presented to the NRC anti-PFS petitions signed by about 6,600 individuals representing nearly 250 local, state, national and international organizations, including 19 American Indian groups. --- The Associated Press contributed to this story. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 56 PE.com: Uranium cleanup called vital | Inland Southern California | Inland News WATER SUPPLY: Officials want tons of mining waste moved from banks of the Colorado River. 10:57 PM PST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 By CLAIRE VITUCCI / Washington Bureau Uranium waste 12 million tons of radioactive waste are stored on the banks of the Colorado River, a major source of drinking water. WASHINGTON - The federal government needs to move 12 million tons of uranium mining waste from the banks of the Colorado River, a major drinking-water source for 18 million Southern Californians, California and Utah officials said at a congressional briefing Tuesday. Water officials, including those with Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, worry that if the radioactive pile is not moved, uranium could leak into the river or be washed into it through flooding. They say the only solution is to move the waste. "Our mission statement is to provide a safe and reliable water supply," MWD vice president Dennis Underwood said at the briefing, attended by congressional staff and reporters. "Here at the headwaters of your water supply, you have ammonium, uranium and 10 other contaminants. You can't consider our water supply safe if those are in our headwaters." The Department of Energy will announce this summer how it will clean up the 130-acre tailings pile on the west bank of the river near Moab, Utah, Joe Davis, an Energy Department spokesman, said by phone. An Energy Department representative was not at the briefing. The agency is considering an option that would leave the pile in place and cap it. Cost estimates have put the capping and keeping the waste on-site at $160 million versus $400 million to $500 million to move it. AP photo Shown at lower right are ponds that contain nuclear waste near the Colorado River in Utah. California and Utah officials want it removed. Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, who led Tuesday's briefing, said he's worried that the cost of dealing with the waste may trump "the right thing to do." Davis said the Energy Department must follow the law in dealing with the waste. "We are aware of all the concerns people have raised with the issue of cleaning up and remediating the tailings pile and all of those comments are being taken into consideration," Davis said. Western governors, including Gov. Schwarzenegger, water officials, environmentalists and even the Environmental Protection Agency are against leaving the radioactive material at the Moab site. In a letter sent to the Energy Department last month, the EPA said leaving the waste near the Colorado River was an "environmentally unsatisfactory" alternative because of the long-term potential health risk that could result from contaminants leaking into the river and its groundwater. The agency suggested moving the material to one of two remote sites about 20 to 30 miles north. If the Energy Department says the waste should be capped and left near Moab, it will be up to the White House to make a final decision. The Colorado River is a major drinking-water source for the Inland region, particularly parts of western Riverside County. River water is also used to irrigate crops in the Coachella Valley. Inland water agencies have said they support Metropolitan's stance. The former uranium ore-processing facility at Moab was licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission until it ceased operation in 1984. The mill tailings are residue left over from the processing of uranium ore, which recovers about 95 percent of the uranium, according to the Energy Department. The residue contains uranium, thorium, radium, polonium and radon. More headlines... Belo Interactive Inc. ***************************************************************** 57 USGS News Release: Yucca review process questioned U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Address Office of Communication 119 National Center Reston, VA 20192 Release March 16, 2005 Contact A.B. Wade Phone 703-648-4483 Fax Statement by US Geological Survey Director Chip Groat WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Department of Energy has notified the Department of the Interior that e-mails by United States Geological Survey employees have raised serious questions about the review process of scientific studies done six years ago on the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository located in Nevada. The employees studying water infiltration at the Repository, during the 1998-2000 period, are alleged to have committed improprieties after moving into the quality assurance phase imposed by the Department of Energy to begin the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process. The e-mails indicated that employees involved in studies of water infiltration and climate may have falsified documentation of their work. USGS Director Chip Groat has issued the following statement: "Serious questions have been raised about quality assurance practices performed in 1998-2000 by USGS scientists on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project for the Department of Energy. Two actions are underway to investigate these issues. First, I have referred the matter to the Inspector General for action. Second, I have initiated an internal review of the allegations. Once the facts are known, appropriate actions will be taken. USGS remains committed to maintaining scientific excellence." To receive USGS news releases go to http://www.usgs.gov/public/list_server.html to subscribe. **** www.usgs.gov **** ***************************************************************** 58 Business Centre: Cameco signs deal with British Nuclear Fuels canada.com network Canadian Press Wednesday, March 16, 2005 SASKATOON (CP) - Cameco Corp. has signed a deal to acquire uranium conversion services from a plant owned by British Nuclear Fuels PLC. Under a 10-year deal announced late Wednesday, British Nuclear will covert five million pounds a year of uranium for Cameco into enriched fuel for nuclear power reactors. The deal will cost the Saskatoon company, the world's biggest uranium producer, about $10 million to expand capacity. The uranium will be converted at British Nuclear's Springfields plant in Lancashire. The plant had been scheduled to close next year, but it will stay open for another 10 years. Cameco currently refines uranium at a refinery in Blind River, Ont., and ships the mineral to a plant in Port Hope, Ont., for conversion into fuel that can be used by nuclear power plants around the world. Under the agreement with British Nuclear Fuels, Cameco will also ship uranium from the Blind River refinery to the British conversion plant for processing. Cameco said it will spend about $6 million to boost production and shipping infrastructure at its Blind River refinery and $4 million to expand the Springfields plant. Enriched uranium shipments from Blind River are expected to begin later this year. Cameco said it expects the agreement to increase operating cash flow and profits beginning in 2006. "This agreement allows us to effectively achieve a significant increase in (uranium fuel) production capacity, sales and market share by investing a small amount of capital," said Jerry Grandey, Cameco's president and CEO. "At the same time, it preserves Springfields' production capacity at a critical time in the industry and enables us to lower our unit costs by utilizing Blind River's unused capacity." © The Canadian Press 2005 ***************************************************************** 59 North County Times: Water officials say nuclear pile threatens water supply North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County columnists modified Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:16 AM PST By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer If water officials have their way, this will finally be the year that federal officials decide to move a 12 million-ton pile of radioactive goo, a nuclear pile they say threatens Southern California's water supply, away from the banks of the Colorado River. But with a summertime deadline for a decision drawing near, federal officials who will decide the pile's fate have refused to endorse the idea of moving it. Federal and state groups, politicians, environmental groups and water agencies from several states have been saying for years that the pile ---- located near Moab, Utah ---- must be moved to protect the Colorado River's water supply. During a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, officials from Southern California's main water supplier, the Metropolitan Water District, said the pile is hazardous and needs to be moved. "You can't consider our water supply safe if those are in our headwaters," said Dennis Underwood, Metropolitan's vice president for Colorado River resources. "It's public health that's endangered here." During the briefing convened by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a council member from the county where the pile is located said the need to act is urgent. "It's not a question of if there's going to be a catastrophic flood, it's a question of when it's going to happen," said Joette Langianese of Grand County, Utah. The radioactive pile is left over from a uranium and heavy-metal mine that operated at the site for 28 years, closing in 1984. Filled with highly radioactive heavy metals such as uranium, radium and radon, and poisonous chemicals such as ammonia and sulfuric acid salts, the 130-acre, 94-foot-tall heap sits just 750 feet from the Colorado River. Water officials said the pile isn't an immediate threat to local drinking water, even though it's been leaking millions of gallons of poisons into the river annually for years, because the river's massive volume dilutes the contaminants down to harmless levels. But officials said the pile is a looming disaster because a storm, flood or earthquake could dump it into the river. "A huge storm or flood on the river ... could lead to a disaster where you wash (the pile) into the river," said Jeff Kightlinger, an attorney for Metropolitan, San Diego County's main water agency. "That could make it unusable." Despite the potential for problems, U.S. Department of Energy officials have so far refused to commit to removing the pile. Instead, department officials say they're also studying the idea of covering the pile with a liner or burying it. "Moving it, burying it, covering it up ---- all kinds of options are on the table," Energy Department spokesman Joseph Davis said last week. "But we haven't chosen a preferred option." The Energy Department, which has been studying the Moab pile for five years, is expected to recommend how to deal with its cleanup this summer, when it completes an environmental review. Water officials, meanwhile, say the only safe plan is to remove the pile. Any action short of removing the monstrous mound of contaminants, they say, threatens the river, which is a principal water source for millions of people downstream in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. San Diego County residents get 36 percent of all their water from the Colorado. Poisoning that supply with substances that could remain dangerously radioactive for hundreds of years could create havoc with the county's supply. "You could have catastrophic consequences; we don't even know (how bad) the consequences would be," said Gordon Hess, the Water Authority's director of imported water. "We've been on record for six years wanting that pile moved." Water experts: Move it Because of the importance of the Colorado River's water supply, Metropolitan and Water Authority officials say the only safe thing to do is to move the Moab pile away from the river. Scads of other agencies and individuals ---- including the Environmental Protection Agency, state and federal politicians, and environmental groups in several states ---- have said they agree. But the Department of Energy has refused to endorse the idea as it moves closer to its decision deadline this summer. Instead, the department is studying the idea of burying the pile where it sits, or "capping" it with a protective layer. The Energy Department inherited responsibility for cleaning up the Moab pile in 2000, after federal legislation aimed at jump-starting a cleanup process took it away from the Nuclear Regulating Commission. The same legislation ordered the Energy Department to come up with a plan to remediate the site. The department finished a draft environmental study to clean up the Moab site in November 2004. But the department disappointed all those who want the pile moved by refusing to identify removing the pile ---- either by truck, train or pipeline ---- as its "preferred solution." The department is required to choose a preferred solution as part of its final study, and many onlookers hoped it would announce removal as that preferred option when it begins its new deliberations this week. But Davis said the department won't make any decision until the final report is finished this summer ---- once again leaving open the question of whether the department will choose another plan such as burying or "capping" the pile. Potential for floods Critics, however, say all other options to moving the Moab pile are bad ones. The Moab site sits in a flood plain. Federal officials say current flooding already "washes over the toe of the pile." And recent studies said flooding would continue in the future. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency ---- joining the state of Utah, Metropolitan and others ---- told the Energy Department any action short of removing the Moab pile was "environmentally unsatisfactory." A potential hurdle could be the cost. The Energy Department's draft environmental study estimates that it would take up to eight years and cost between $329 million and $418 million to remove the Moab pile, and an additional 80 years to clean up the groundwater contamination it has caused. Davis, however, said those were rough numbers and suggested the costs could be higher. Water officials, however, said the cost of cleaning up the pile now is nothing compared to what it would cost if a flood, storm or earthquake pushed the pile into the river. "Source protection is a lot cheaper and better than trying to clean up after the accident happens," Kightlinger said. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com. webmaster@nctimes.com © 1997-2005 North County Times - Lee Enterprises editor@nctimes.com ***************************************************************** 60 ABQjournal: Change at LANL Could Be Costly www.abqjournal.com/ the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Change at LANL Could Be Costly Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer A change in management at Los Alamos National Laboratory will likely mean the new lab operator will have to pay some state gross receipts taxes, resulting in a significant increase to state revenue. Billed by federal lawmakers as a means to reduce taxpayer costs and increase efficiencies, the competition for the LANL management contract so far looks like it will cost taxpayers more than if the University of California had continued to run the lab, as it has done for 60-plus years. Federal officials have already upped the fee for running the nuclear weapons research facility from $8 million a year to a maximum potential of about $60 million a year, still short of what many industrial bidders deem optimal. With the additional burden of a gross receipts tax, the increased taxpayer costs for LANL management could reach $100 million a year. The management fee increase was proposed by federal officials as a way to bring in bidders for the LANL contract. Several top competitors, including Lockheed Martin, Batelle and the University of Texas System, among others, have dropped out because the financial risks were deemed too great. Now, Jan Goodwin, Secretary of the state's Taxation and Revenue Department, is reminding federal officials that any new LANL management arrangement that includes a for-profit company means at least some state gross receipts taxes will have to be paid. "Non-profit organizations that intend to partner with a for-profit entity for any part of the lab's operations should expect to pay New Mexico gross receipts tax, relative to the portion of the contract performed by the for-profit entity," she wrote federal officials in January. She advised that "potential applicants, regardless of their corporate structure, should expect to have their tax status carefully monitored by the state of New Mexico." Under state law, non-profit organizations such as the University of California, LANL's current manager, are exempt from paying gross receipts taxes, though LANL officials have said the laboratory indirectly pays about $30 million in gross receipts taxes through reimbursements to its for-profit contractors subject to the tax. For years, state lawmakers have discussed the possibility of changing the tax-exempt status of non-profits as a way to increase state revenue. In LANL's case, gross receipts taxes on its $2 billion budget have been estimated at about $80 million a year or more. Los Alamos County's gross receipts tax rate is 6.5625 percent. How the additional costs of state gross receipts taxes will be factored into LANL's future budgets— whether into the lab's overall federal budget appropriation or by making the management team itself responsible for the costs— has not been announced. How the tax would be levied against a limited liability corporation, which federal officials have proposed should be the legal structure of the next LANL manager, has not been determined either. That a for-profit industrial partner will be part of LANL's next management mix is nearly a certainty, given Energy Department preference for privatization as a means to save money. In years past, LANL officials have fought to prevent a change in the lab's tax status, asserting such a move would have a devastating ripple effect on the economy of northern New Mexico. When state legislation was proposed in 2003 to make LANL liable for gross receipts taxes, LANL officials said such a move would result in at least 370 lost LANL jobs and the loss of another 750 jobs tied to LANL contractors. Copyright Albuquerque Journal Steve@abqjournal.com ***************************************************************** 61 lamonitor.com: National Academies advise on nuclear waste The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS, , Monitor Assistant Editor Panels of scientists have suggested greater flexibility in addressing the Department of Energy's radioactive waste problems over the next 20 years. Two new reports commissioned by the DOE's Office of Environmental Management were published earlier this month by the National Academies with findings and recommendations. "Given the controversy surrounding this issue and the reality that not all of the waste will, or can, be recovered and disposed of off-site, the country needs a structured, well-thought-out way to determine which wastes can stay," said David E. Daniel in a prepared statement. Daniel is chair of the committee that wrote one of the reports and dean, College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Among the issues raised by the reports and examined from several sides, if not always answered, were: How to resolve exceptional bottlenecks. How clean is clean. What to do with one-of-a-kind situations. And how to make best use of available resources and facilities. Realism and proportionate measures were the basic tools recommended to tackle what may be the nation's toughest restoration project, legacy wastes from the Cold War nuclear buildup. "These are technically difficult cleanup problems being addressed in a complex political and social environment," wrote the authors of the study on using risk to inform decisions. They suggested an exemption process involving a new and credible national board that could review particular situations and allow exemptions in what the researchers assume would be relatively few cases. Many recommendations in the study parallel an ill-fated attempt by DOE to promote a new waste management philosophy early last year, known as "risk-based end states" (RBES). The latest study on risk was dismissed by Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a public interest group, for many of the same reasons that RBES was rejected. "We believe no laws, regulations or agreements should be broken to make cleanup faster," said Scott Kovac, the group's operations and research director. The report by the National Academies alluded to the failure of RBES, owing in part to DOE itself. "It appears that institutional factors both inside and outside DOE have impeded attempts to implement risk-informed approaches," the study observed. "These factors include a tradition of internal rather than open decision making, incentive structures that favor distorting or ignoring risk, and a public wariness or mistrust of DOE's use of risk assessment to justify proposed actions." Released at the same time was a report on "improving the characterization and treatment of radioactive wastes for DOE's accelerated site clean-up program." The study focuses on waste and storage at DOE sites in Idaho, South Carolina, Washington and Tennessee, and does not mention Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 1995, according to an Inspector General Report, DOE committed to stabilizing all of LANL's "fissionable materials" by 2002. In 2002, with little visible progress having been achieved, LANL signed an agreement with the State of New Mexico that called for an accelerated disposal of over 40,0000 drums of waste. A new date of 2012 was set. In February, the Inspector General reported that the program was well behind schedule, in part because DOE had not provided promised characterization equipment. "(DOE)...is unlikely to complete removal of the legacy transuranic waste before 2014," wrote the Inspector General in the report on Feb. 10. Transuranic waste is generally described as contaminated tools, clothing, and other debris related to nuclear weapons production, with long-lasting but lower levels of radioactivity than High Level Waste, which are largely nuclear fuel rods. The second Research Council report advises DOE to consider extending the life of facilities used to treat and process radioactive waste. The study recommended declassifying contaminated equipment from the earliest days of the atomic era and prioritizing decontaminating targets according to risk. The characterization committee recognized that some wastes would be left in place and recommended a "cocooning" approach involving stabilizing and monitoring wastes, while awaiting new knowledge. Too many activities related to shipping transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad, the report concluded, are conducted for regulatory compliance, without reducing risk. Such delays could be reduced by simplifying and standardizing the requirements for characterizing the waste. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 62 The Sunflower - March 2005 - Issue 94 Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 16:06:54 -0600 (CST) The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security. Help us spread the word and forward this to a friend. Click here to help sustain this valuable resource by making a donation. To receive our free monthly e-newsletter subscribe at http://www.wagingpeace.org/subscribe/ Download the complete PDF Version * Perspectives * Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement by David Krieger * Missile Counter-Attack: Open Letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Lloyd Axworthy, 4 March 2005 * Take Action * Dear World * Write a Letter to the Editor on Nuclear Priorities in the 2006 Budget! * Disarmament and Non Proliferation * Nobel Laureates Appeal for Nuclear Disarmament * Proliferation * North Korea Announces Nuclear Weapons, Threatens to Resume Missile Tests * Pakistan Had Nuclear Weapons Capability in 1988, But No Weapon * Ukrainian Authorities Arrest Man Found With Uranium * Missiles, Defense and Missile Defense * Canada Formally Rejects Missile Defense Cooperation * National Missile Defense Intercept Test Fails * Mid-Course Missile Defense Test Near Hawaii * Bush Administration Reduces Missile Defense Funding in Budget Request * Russia Proposes, Then Retracts, Treaty Withdrawal * Nuclear Energy and Waste * Illegal Nuclear Waste Dumped on Somali Shores Endangers Thousands * Iran and Russia Reach Nuclear Energy Agreement * Global Push for Nuclear Energy * Unaccounted Plutonium in the UK * Skull Valley Nuclear Dump Moving Ahead * US, Russian Mixed Oxide Fuel Project Delayed * Yucca Mountain Project Chief Resigns * Accidents Plague US Nuclear Industry * Nuclear Insanity * Congressman Advocates for Nuclear Weapons Use * Halliburton's Lost Radioactive Material Found * German Historian Claims Nazi Scientists Successfully Tested Nuclear Weapon * Nuclear Legacy * US, Japan Hid Health Findings on Bikini Atoll Nuclear Victims * Nuclear Plant Dumps Waste on UK Beaches * Nuclear Laboratories * UT Withdraws from Los Alamos Bid, Pursues Collaborative Work with Sandia Lab * LANL Waste Shipments Behind Schedule * Two LANL Whistle-Blowers Sue UC * Foundation Activities * A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste * Resources * Understanding the "War on Terrorism": Conscription or Conscience - You Have a Choice * Soldiers in the Laboratory * Managing the Dirty Bomb Threat * Dollar Shift: The Iraq War and the Changing Face of Pentagon Contracting * US Army War College Primer on Deception * Summary of Government Data on Testing of Veterans for Depleted Uranium Exposure During Service in Iraq * Nuclear Priorities in the Department of Energy 2006 Budget Request * Quotable * Ambassador Leonid Skotnikov of the Russian Federation * US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman * US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld * Security, Reform, and Peace: The Three Pillars of U.S. Strategy in the Middle East * Henry Precht, retired Department of State Foreign Service Officer * Republican Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas * Editorial Team * Luke Brothers * David Krieger * Carah Ong * Jon Solorzano Perspectives Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement | Top by David Krieger North Korea 's recent announcement that it has manufactured nuclear weapons highlights the precarious nature of the global nonproliferation regime and particularly the failure of the Bush administration's approach to the problem. In an official statement, North Korea indicated that the impetus for its actions was "the Bush administration's increasingly hostile policy." In fact, the Bush administration has dragged its feet for more than four years and made inadequate efforts to provide either security assurances or development aid to North Korea in exchange for halting its nuclear program. Yet it is widely agreed on all sides of the political spectrum that preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the most important item on the U.S. national security agenda. This was the one point that President Bush and Sen. John Kerry could agree upon in their presidential debate on foreign policy. At the center of the nonproliferation regime is the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). What most Americans don't know is that this treaty is based upon an important tradeoff. The non-nuclear weapons states agree not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons, and the nuclear weapons states agree to engage in good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament. To read the full article, please visit: http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/03/00_krieger_saving-nuclear-agreement.htm Missile Counter-Attack Open Letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice | Top by Lloyd Axworthy, March 4, 2005 Dear Condi, I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more. I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results. But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game. As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence. Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs for poor children. Just chalk that up to a different sense of priorities about what a national government's role should be when there isn't a prevailing mood of manifest destiny. To read the full article, please visit: http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/03/05_axworthy_missile-counter-attack.htm To view the entire Sunflower, visit: http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resrources/sunflower Download the complete PDF Version To receive our free monthly e-newsletter subscribe at http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/resources/subscribe/ ***************************************************************** 63 [du-list] DU in the news - 16th March 05 Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:44:20 -0800 Chatham This Week, Tue, 15 Mar 2005 1:20 PM PST Activists plan antiwar protest plan antiwar protest http://www.chathamthisweek.com/story.php?id=149026 The deadly effects of depleted uranium will be part of an antiwar demonstration planned in Chatham Saturday, March 19. Metro Santa Cruz, Tue, 15 Mar 2005 2:37 PM PST Happy Anniversary http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/03.16.05/antiwar-0511.html As the two-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the antiwar movement strategizes for a post-election comeback. Does it have a prayer? ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 3/15/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! 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