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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US: CEO: Westinghouse could be sold
2 [NYTr] Vanunu Goes on Trial for Talking to Press
3 Ynetnews: No go for Vanunu
4 Interfax: Atomic Energy Agency head approves environmental policy
NUCLEAR REACTORS
5 IPS-English ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear
6 [NukeNet] H Caldicott On Nuke Power As Problem, Not Solution
7 US: NRC: NRC Staff Schedules Public Meeting for April 20 to Discuss
8 US: Platts: House approves NRC's fee recovery requirement amendment
9 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2004 Performance at McGuire Nuclear Power Pl
10 US: Daily Northwestern: Evanston group keeps tabs on nuclear energy
11 US: SignOnSanDiego.com: Disaster drill tests readiness of San Onofre
12 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2004 Performance at Harris Nuclear Power Pla
13 ISN: Russia’s oldest nuclear plant under investigation
14 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for th
15 US: York Daily Record: TMI surpasses national average -
16 US: York Daily RecordL: ENERGY: Reactor restarted -
17 IPS: ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear
18 CBC: Premier hints at Lepreau deadline
NUCLEAR SECURITY
19 [sm] US/UK axis used 'terror plot' to push Iraq war
20 US: [smygo] Half of Americans say Bush deliberately misled about
21 [EMMAS] Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Photos of Iran's
22 Sharon Asks U.S. to Pressure Iran to Give Up Its Nuclear
23 [NYTr] Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Iran "Nuke" Photos
24 Ynetnews: Opinion - Nuclear ayatollahs
25 washingtonpost.com: U.N. Votes To Outlaw Nuclear Terrorism
26 US: Honolulu Advertiser: Key ingredient in 'dirty bombs' removed fro
27 i-Newswire.com: GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS CONVENTION ON NUCLEAR TERROR
28 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Hews to Diplomatic Approach on Iran
NUCLEAR SAFETY
29 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Residency rules limit payments for fallout
30 ITAR-TASS: Mayak plant operates without deviations from process regs
31 US: Deseret news: U. team perplexed: Why drop nuclear study?
32 US: PittsburghLIVE: Officials unsure how many nuke workers eligible
33 US: PittsburghLIVE.com: Few new details available to nuke workers -
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
34 Fwd: [shundahaialerts] Is the Yucca Mountain nuke dump ready
35 Fwd: [shundahaialerts] Skull Valley Nuclear Waste Dump Update
36 Herald Sun: Rio Tinto to flex muscles
37 US: Bradenton Herald: Galvano bill speeds through
38 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion - LETTERS: LAS VEGAS Quality assurance
39 US: Las Vegas RJ: Study of nuclear shipments possible
40 US: Las Vegas SUN: Feds to study risks of shipping waste to Utah
41 Las Vegas SUN: Report urges feds to keep 10,000-year radiation
42 US: Rutland Herald: Yankee dry cask hearing tonight
43 Mos News: Nuclear Waste Site Threatened by Huge Mudslide in Kyrgysta
44 US: Salt Lake Tribune - Opinion: Profiting from waste
45 US: KITV 4 News: UH Gets Rid Of Radioactive Material
46 US: PE.com: Legislation would help purify groundwater
47 AU ABC: French ruling leaves Australian nuclear waste in limbo.
48 RTE News: RPII warns on monitoring of Sellafield
49 Whitehaven News: OUTRAGE AT WASTE PLAN
50 Whitehaven News: MORE WORK FOR SELLAFIELD
51 The Whitehaven News: NEW SELLAFIELD GROUP SET UP
52 The Whitehaven News: MINISTER TOURS SITE
53 US: The Signal: Test, follow-up show Saugus water well with high lev
54 US: The Signal: A Tainted Wrench Thrown Into the Works of Subdivisio
55 US: Pasadena Star-News - Opinion: DOE wisely reversing radioactive-w
56 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY waste storage worries Mass. lawmakers
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
57 ABQjournal: Event Spotlights LANL Area G
58 lamonitor.com: Richardson calls Lockheed-UC partnership ideal
59 lamonitor.com: NMED keeps eye on LANL shipments
60 Albuquerque Tribune: Editorial: N.M. leaders must push for new energ
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 CEO: Westinghouse could be sold
www.post-gazette.com
Unlike 1999 split, employees shouldn't fear possible sale, Tritch
says
Thursday, April 14, 2005 By Jim McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Westinghouse Electric Co., the profitable Monroeville-based
subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, could be sold by the
British government, the company's chief executive said yesterday.
But Steve Tritch, who also is president of the nuclear power
company, said if a sale were to happen, it would not be as
traumatic as its 1999 divestiture from the former Westinghouse
Electric Corp. The former Pittsburgh conglomerate shed its
industrial remnants after changing its name to CBS -- it later
merged with Viacom -- and moving to New York.
"There are people in the (British) government considering
whether Westinghouse ought to continue to be part of BNFL or
whether Westinghouse ought to have a new home," Tritch told a
breakfast meeting of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. "From my
customers' point of view and from my employees' point of view,
we're not nearly as worried about that as we were in 1999, when
we were no longer going to be part of the big Westinghouse
conglomerate."
Since its acquisition by BNFL, Westinghouse has grown, aided by
the absorption of BNFL's fuel manufacturing facility in the
United Kingdom and the nuclear business of Swedish-Swiss
engineering and technology giant ABB.
Annual revenue stands at about $2.1 billion, up from less than
$1 billion when Westinghouse was acquired, and it employs about
8,500 worldwide, including about 3,000 locally. Its principal
businesses are servicing, building and providing fuel for
nuclear plants.
"We'll hire about 250 people this year, and for the foreseeable
future, I think we'll be hiring fairly aggressively," Tritch
told the breakfast attendees.
Tritch said the experience of the last several years made it
clear to him that ownership matters. Once freed from management
that was more interested in faster-growing broadcast properties
than the sluggish industrial arena, Westinghouse grew.
"You're always better off to be owned by somebody who wants to
own you than to be owned by somebody who doesn't want to own
you," Tritch said, adding: "If BNFL decides they don't want to
own us for whatever reason, I probably want to be sold."
If Westinghouse were sold, Tritch said he didn't believe it
would disappear as a company.
For one, the name still holds an honored place in the nuclear
arena -- about half of the world's 434 operating commercial
nuclear plants use Westinghouse technology. Moreover, it is a
vibrant business with only two major competitors in the world,
General Electric and the French nuclear group Areva.
"There aren't enough competitors in this business that I think
we would get absorbed and go away," he said. "I think our people
are a lot less worried about what this means to them than they
were six years ago. It might happen. Things might change, and
we'll see. I think we'll know in the next year or so."
Growth has occurred mostly outside the United States. Perhaps
the company's best hope of getting contracts to build new power
plants lies in China, which hopes to build 30 nuclear reactors
between now and 2020. Westinghouse has a bid in to build the
first four and should know the results of the contest by year's
end.
Asked to rate Westinghouse's chance of winning the Chinese
contracts, Tritch said his company was evenly matched with
France's Areva Group in the bidding contest. He gave a Russian
competitor only a 10 percent chance of success.
Westinghouse is offering to sell China its most advanced
pressurized water reactor, the AP-1000, which received approval
last fall from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The
AP-1000 was designed in Monroeville.
If Westinghouse wins the contracts, Tritch estimated that they
could generate up to 5,000 jobs in the United States to his
company and its business partners and suppliers. Pittsburgh
could get a significant chunk of that.
And if China goes forward with its plan to accept a standardized
design and build more plants beyond the first four, the deal
could mean many years of business for the company.
He said the Bush administration and elected officials of both
parties had been supportive of Westinghouse's bid to sell to the
Chinese. The Export-Import Bank has given preliminary approval
for a nearly $5 billion loan.
China uses nuclear power to generate about 2 percent of its
electricity needs. Adding 30 nuclear power plants will only
change that to 4 percent because of the rapid growth of demand
and construction of other power plants run on coal and other
fuels.
Tritch said India would be the second-largest growth market
behind China, but Westinghouse is not permitted as a U.S.
company to bid for those projects because India has not signed
worldwide nuclear protocols.
He said he thought attitudes toward nuclear power were changing
for the positive in the United States and predicted that new
nuclear plants eventually would be constructed in this country.
He said he also favored growth of alternative energy sources
such as wind and hydro power and the continued use of fossil
fuels.
"The need is going to grow around the world and we don't have
enough of any single fuel to leave it out of the equation,"
Tritch said. "We think you have to use fossil fuels to generate
electricity, you have to use renewables, you have to use
everything. We're not proponents of saying the world should just
be nuclear."
(Jim McKay can be reached at jmckay@post-gazette.comor
412-263-1322.)
Copyright ©1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights
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2 [NYTr] Vanunu Goes on Trial for Talking to Press
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 02:50:01 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Simon McGuinness
Reuters via The Irish Times, Wed, Apr 13, 05
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2005/0413/2797999502FR13VANUNU.html
Nuclear whistleblower on trial for talking to press
MIDDLE EAST: Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu went on
trial yesterday accused of violating terms of his release from prison by
talking to foreign reporters and trying to visit the West Bank.
Mr Vanunu (50) was released last April after serving an 18-year term for
spilling secrets about the Dimona nuclear reactor to a British
newspaper.
The revelations of the former technician led experts to conclude that
Israel had nuclear weapons.
"It is shameful to Israeli democracy to bring me back to court after all
those years in prison," Mr Vanunu said outside the Jerusalem court.
"This case is proving to the world that Israel is not a real democracy.
"As a human being, I have the right to express my political views and my
ideas. I have no more secrets."
Under the terms of Mr Vanunu's release, he was forbidden from speaking
to foreign media and had to remain inside Israel. If convicted of
violating the bans, he could be jailed for up to two years.
Mr Vanunu did not enter any plea in court as his lawyer challenged the
validity of the case. The next hearing is due on May 19th.
The bans are due to be reviewed this month. The justice ministry said in
a statement that an extension was being considered but that Mr Vanunu
would be allowed to plead his case and a final decision had yet to be
made.
"Let me leave, let me go. Enough," Mr Vanunu told reporters.
An indictment filed in a Jerusalem court last month charged him with 21
counts of violating the restrictions.
Listing interviews in the US, British, Australian and French media, the
indictment quoted Mr Vanunu as saying Israel had assembled hydrogen and
neutron bombs at Dimona and was annually producing 4kg of plutonium,
enough to make 10 atomic bombs, at the facility.
Last November, police arrested Mr Vanunu, a convert to Christianity, at
the Jerusalem church where he has lived since he left jail, and brought
him to court on suspicion of having spilled more state secrets to the
foreign press. He was later released to house arrest and has remained
under constant surveillance by Israeli security services.
The indictment also charged him with violating a ban on travel. He was
briefly detained by Israeli police after he tried to visit the West Bank
town of Bethlehem last Christmas. - (Reuters)
) The Irish Times ) Reuters
*
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3 Ynetnews: No go for Vanunu
Vanunu not leaving anytime soon Photo: Raanan Ben-Zur
The Interior Ministy intends to extend a travel ban on convicted
nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu following his indictment last
month for violating terms of his parole.
Nuke whistleblower faces indictment / By Doron Sheffer
Mordechai Vanunu charged with violating release terms;
indictment cites 21 violations
Vanunu is forbidden from leaving Israel out of fears he could
pass more information about Israel's atomic reactor. He was
caught trying to enter the West Bank.
Security officials have demanded his travel restriction be
extended for years to keep him in the country, where it would be
easier to monitor him and make sure he didn't delve any further
atomic secrets.
Vanunu, a Christian convert who has made no bones about his
hatred of Israel, applied for a passport in recent days and has
said that if given the opportunity to leave, he would do so
"immediately and eternally."
Third indictment this year
The indictment, filed after police arrested Vanunu for the third
time in less than a year, accused him of disclosing additional
secret information about Israel's largest atomic reactor to
foreign journalists.
Vanunu completed an 18-year prison sentence last April for
leaking photos and information from his job at Israel’s nuclear
reactor in Dimona - the country's biggest - to Britain’s Sunday
Times newspaper, leading experts to believe Israel had more than
100 nuclear weapons.
Security officials maintain Vanunu has more secrets to tell, but
he denies the charge.
Vanunu violations
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said that since his release,
Vanunu violated a series of bans imposed on him by the Shin Bet
security service. He said Vanunu gave interviews and maintained
contact with foreign journalists, where he revealed extensive
information about his former job at the Dimona nuclear plant.
The indictment said Vanunu named atomic materials he said were
found in the reactor and explained how they were delivered
there. He allegedly explained to reporters precisely how he
gathered his material and photographs about the structure, which
he gave to the Sunday Times.
The indictment also cited an additional 21 occurrences that
violated terms the Shin Bet security service set for Vanunu as
conditions for his release in April 2004, namely his numerous
attempts to leave the country.
Vanunu was detained by police for several hours on Dec. 25, 2004
for trying to enter the Palestinian town of Bethlehem for
Christmas. He was released hours later.
(04.14.05, 11:28)
Copyright © Yedioth Internet. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 Interfax: Atomic Energy Agency head approves environmental policy
Updated: Apr 14 2005 10:19PM (MSK)
Apr 14 2005 4:23PM
MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - Federal Atomic Energy Agency head
Alexander Rumyantsev has approved a new set of amendments to the
agency's environmental policy and regulations for the Agency's
Environmental Protection Council, the agency's public relations
center reported.
Research must be broadened to resolve environmental problems in
the atomic energy industry, the report says.
The agency will upgrade the environmental safety of its
enterprises and solve problems stemming from the handling of
radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
© 1991-2005 Interfax
All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
5 IPS-English ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 20:40:34 -0700
ROMAIPS EU EN HE HD
ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear
By Zoltán Dujisin
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, Apr 14 (IPS) - Almost 20 years have passed since the
world's worst nuclear accident, but Chernobyl continues to bring back
traumatizing memories for many Ukrainians.
The disaster continues to account for deaths and illnesses, but this has
not stopped a few determined residents from coming back to contaminated
areas to reclaim their old everyday life.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in reactor 4 of the Chernobyl
Nuclear Plant in northern Ukraine. A fire broke out and huge quantities of
radioactive debris were released. The authorities were first preoccupied
with controlling the fire, and neglected the surrounding population that
was left for four days without any information on the catastrophe.
After the government admitted the disaster, close to 150,000 inhabitants
from nearby cities and villages were evacuated. People in Pripiat, the
largest city in the region, left under the impression that they would
return shortly.
They never did. Today the town that once hosted 47,000 citizens is a
ghostly space of empty buildings and roads invaded by advancing flora.
The houses, libraries, schools, and sports and recreational centres in what
was a model of socialist urbanisation built in the seventies, have since
the disaster seen only looters, scientists, and a few adventurous tourists.
Entering the local school presents the visitor with a spine-chilling
scenery of desks, open books, rotten pianos and gas masks scattered over a
floor that looks ready to give in. This school, like the buildings
surrounding it, has remained untouched for almost two decades.
Most of Pripiat's residents were involved with the nuclear plant one way or
another. Their misfortune was to live only a kilometre away from it.
While Pripiat will never see life again, further away from the plant, still
within the radius of a 30km government-restricted zone, villagers have been
reoccupying their abandoned homes in an illegal move to which the state
turns a blind eye.
The villages are not a rousing tale either. Seemingly abandoned, the sudden
sight of a pensioner eventually says otherwise. The average age of its
inhabitants is 68, they live mostly in solitude, surrounded by stranded
households, and under harsh material conditions. They are relatively
indifferent to radiation-related risks.
”Some specialists feel mass resettlement was a mistake,” Evhen Golovakha,
deputy director of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine told IPS. ”People who live in their own villages and towns feel
better than those resettled.”
Yuri Privalov, director of the Centre of Social Expertise said it was not
easy to settle in new conditions. ”Adaptation to a community with
differences in culture and language is not easy,” he told IPS.
But Privalov does not dismiss the economic aspect. ”They lost everything,
the government couldn't find everyone a new job, and was unable to cover
all their expenses.”
If Pripiat and surroundings present a post-apocalyptic scenario, the
Chernobyl power plant is its complete opposite.
The plant is abuzz with activity. Scientists, engineers and workmen wander
the installation wearing simple uniforms, apparently indifferent to
possible radioactive threats. One concern they have is that the complete
closure of the plant, which they opposed, will be at the expense of their
above-average salaries.
Following acute international pressure, the Ukrainian government closed the
last working reactor in 2000. The plant's activities revolve these days
around maintenance of the concrete 'sarcophagus' that covers the ruins of
the explosion.
While radiation levels are not excessive at present, the precariousness of
the structure has compelled the government to approve construction of a new
safe confinement surmounting the old concrete block.
The project has already kicked off, but ”the overall cost of the task is 1
billion, 91 million dollars,” Igor Vasilevich from the Ministry of Fuel and
Energy told IPS. ”We had donations from several developed countries, but
it's far from enough.”
In line with dominant international interests, most current government
efforts are directed at increasing nuclear safety levels. But there is also
a costly social dimension to Chernobyl.
Ukraine had to outgrow two separate Chernobyl traumas: the first following
the explosion, the second when mass media gave a true account of its
consequences. It is estimated that around six million people have been
affected in some manner. Even a close estimate of the number of deaths will
probably never be reached.
Up to 50 were reported dead as a result of immediate exposure. Other
estimates range from 250 to a few thousand.
But many continue to face grave health problems. The most dramatic is the
situation of the so-called ”children of Chernobyl” who grew up in
contaminated areas and now suffer from thyroid cancer.
Mnay more people have had to deal with psychological problems. A report by
the Democratic Initiatives Centre that assessed the situation 10 years
after the disaster says that among those affected, 60 percent ”associated
food products with fear, and experience helplessness, insomnia and
irritability”, while 30 percent ”lost their interest in life.”
For these victims, the disaster meant the ”ruin of their world views,
lifestyles and plans,” the report says. Most resettlers overcame a general
disenchantment and helplessness with time, but many others have been left
behind.
Yuri Privalov concedes that victims need further assistance, but also that
not much more could be done. ”It's hard to say what's sufficient, since we
have no similar situation to compare with. There are many demands on the
state, with ill people, the plant's deactivation, and the earth's
pollution. The country is quite poor, of course problems will remain.”
(END/IPS/EU/EN/HE/HD/ZD/SS/05)
= 04141117 ORP005
NNNN
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6 [NukeNet] H Caldicott On Nuke Power As Problem, Not Solution
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:09:07 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Nuclear power is the problem, not a solution
Helen Caldicott
13apr05
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12835747%5E12332,00.html
THERE is a huge propaganda push by the nuclear
industry to justify nuclear power as a panacea for
the reduction of global-warming gases.
In fact Leslie Kemeny on these pages two weeks ago
(HES, March 30) suggested that courses on nuclear
science and engineering be included in tertiary
level institutions in Australia.
I agree. But I would suggest that all the relevant
facts be taught to students. Mandatory courses in
medical schools should embrace the short and
long-term biological, genetic and medical dangers
associated with the nuclear fuel cycle. Business
students should examine the true costs associated
with the production of nuclear power. Engineering
students should become familiar with the profound
problems associated with the storage of long-lived
radioactive waste, the human fallibilities that
have created the most serious nuclear accidents in
history and the ongoing history of near-misses and
near-meltdowns in the industry.
At present there are 442 nuclear reactors in
operation around the world. If, as the nuclear
industry suggests, nuclear power were to replace
fossil fuels on a large scale, it would be
necessary to build 2000 large, 1000-megawatt
reactors. Considering that no new nuclear plant
has been ordered in the US since 1978, this
proposal is less than practical. Furthermore, even
if we decided today to replace all
fossil-fuel-generated electricity with nuclear
power, there would only be enough economically
viable uranium to fuel the reactors for three to
four years.
The true economies of the nuclear industry are
never fully accounted for. The cost of uranium
enrichment is subsidised by the US government. The
true cost of the industry's liability in the case
of an accident in the US is estimated to be
$US560billion ($726billion), but the industry pays
only $US9.1billion - 98per cent of the insurance
liability is covered by the US federal government.
The cost of decommissioning all the existing US
nuclear reactors is estimated to be $US33billion.
These costs - plus the enormous expense involved
in the storage of radioactive waste for a quarter
of a million years - are not now included in the
economic assessments of nuclear electricity.
It is said that nuclear power is emission-free.
The truth is very different.
In the US, where much of the world's uranium is
enriched, including Australia's, the enrichment
facility at Paducah, Kentucky, requires the
electrical output of two 1000-megawatt coal-fired
plants, which emit large quantities of carbon
dioxide, the gas responsible for 50per cent of
global warming.
Also, this enrichment facility and another at
Portsmouth, Ohio, release from leaky pipes 93per
cent of the chlorofluorocarbon gas emitted yearly
in the US. The production and release of CFC gas
is now banned internationally by the Montreal
Protocol because it is the main culprit
responsible for stratospheric ozone depletion. But
CFC is also a global warmer, 10,000 to 20,000
times more potent than carbon dioxide.
In fact, the nuclear fuel cycle utilises large
quantities of fossil fuel at all of its stages -
the mining and milling of uranium, the
construction of the nuclear reactor and cooling
towers, robotic decommissioning of the intensely
radioactive reactor at the end of its 20 to
40-year operating lifetime, and transportation and
long-term storage of massive quantities of
radioactive waste.
In summary, nuclear power produces, according to a
2004 study by Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen and
Philip Smith, only three times fewer greenhouse
gases than modern natural-gas power stations.
Contrary to the nuclear industry's propaganda,
nuclear power is therefore not green and it is
certainly not clean. Nuclear reactors consistently
release millions of curies of radioactive isotopes
into the air and water each year. These releases
are unregulated because the nuclear industry
considers these particular radioactive elements to
be biologically inconsequential. This is not so.
These unregulated isotopes include the noble gases
krypton, xenon and argon, which are fat-soluble
and if inhaled by persons living near a nuclear
reactor, are absorbed through the lungs, migrating
to the fatty tissues of the body, including the
abdominal fat pad and upper thighs, near the
reproductive organs. These radioactive elements,
which emit high-energy gamma radiation, can mutate
the genes in the eggs and sperm and cause genetic
disease.
Tritium, another biologically significant gas, is
also routinely emitted from nuclear reactors.
Tritium is composed of three atoms of hydrogen,
which combine with oxygen, forming radioactive
water, which is absorbed through the skin, lungs
and digestive system. It is incorporated into the
DNA molecule, where it is mutagenic.
The dire subject of massive quantities of
radioactive waste accruing at the 442 nuclear
reactors across the world is also rarely, if ever,
addressed by the nuclear industry. Each typical
1000-megawatt nuclear reactor manufactures
33tonnes of thermally hot, intensely radioactive
waste per year.
Already more than 80,000 tonnes of highly
radioactive waste sits in cooling pools next to
the 103 US nuclear power plants, awaiting
transportation to a storage facility yet to be
found. This dangerous material will be an
attractive target for terrorist sabotage as it
travels through 39 states on roads and railway
lines for the next 25 years.
But the long-term storage of radioactive waste
continues to pose a problem. The US Congress in
1987 chose Yucca Mountain in Nevada, 150km
northwest of Las Vegas, as a repository for
America's high-level waste. But Yucca Mountain has
subsequently been found to be unsuitable for the
long-term storage of high-level waste because it
is a volcanic mountain made of permeable pumice
stone and it is transected by 32 earthquake
faults. Last week a congressional committee
discovered fabricated data about water
infiltration and cask corrosion in Yucca Mountain
that had been produced by personnel in the US
Geological Survey. These startling revelations,
according to most experts, have almost
disqualified Yucca Mountain as a waste repository,
meaning that the US now has nowhere to deposit its
expanding nuclear waste inventory.
To make matters worse, a study released last week
by the National Academy of Sciences shows that the
cooling pools at nuclear reactors, which store 10
to 30 times more radioactive material than that
contained in the reactor core, are subject to
catastrophic attacks by terrorists, which could
unleash an inferno and release massive quantities
of deadly radiation -- significantly worse than
the radiation released by Chernobyl, according to
some scientists.
This vulnerable high-level nuclear waste contained
in the cooling pools at 103 nuclear power plants
in the US includes hundreds of radioactive
elements that have different biological impacts in
the human body, the most important being cancer
and genetic diseases.
The incubation time for cancer is five to 50 years
following exposure to radiation. It is important
to note that children, old people and
immuno-compromised individuals are many times more
sensitive to the malignant effects of radiation
than other people.
I will describe four of the most dangerous
elements made in nuclear power plants.
Iodine 131, which was released at the nuclear
accidents at Sellafield in Britain, Chernobyl in
Ukraine and Three Mile Island in the US, is
radioactive for only six weeks and it
bio-concentrates in leafy vegetables and milk.
When it enters the human body via the gut and the
lung, it migrates to the thyroid gland in the
neck, where it can later induce thyroid cancer. In
Belarus more than 2000 children have had their
thyroids removed for thyroid cancer, a situation
never before recorded in pediatric literature.
Strontium 90 lasts for 600 years. As a calcium
analogue, it concentrates in cow and goat milk. It
accumulates in the human breast during lactation,
and in bone, where it can later induce breast
cancer, bone cancer and leukemia.
Cesium 137, which also lasts for 600 years,
concentrates in the food chain, particularly meat.
On entering the human body, it locates in muscle,
where it can induce a malignant muscle cancer
called a sarcoma.
Plutonium 239, one of the most dangerous elements
known to humans, is so toxic that one-millionth of
a gram is carcinogenic. More than 200kg is made
annually in each 1000-megawatt nuclear power
plant. Plutonium is handled like iron in the body,
and is therefore stored in the liver, where it
causes liver cancer, and in the bone, where it can
induce bone cancer and blood malignancies. On
inhalation it causes lung cancer. It also crosses
the placenta, where, like the drug thalidomide, it
can cause severe congenital deformities. Plutonium
has a predisposition for the testicle, where it
can cause testicular cancer and induce genetic
diseases in future generations. Plutonium lasts
for 500,000 years, living on to induce cancer and
genetic diseases in future generations of plants,
animals and humans.
Plutonium is also the fuel for nuclear weapons --
only 5kg is necessary to make a bomb and each
reactor makes more than 200kg per year. Therefore
any country with a nuclear power plant can
theoretically manufacture 40 bombs a year.
Because nuclear power leaves a toxic legacy to all
future generations, because it produces global
warming gases, because it is far more expensive
than any other form of electricity generation, and
because it can trigger proliferation of nuclear
weapons, these topics need urgently to be
introduced into the tertiary educational system of
Australia, which is host to 30 per cent to 40 per
cent of the world's richest uranium.
Helen Caldicott is an anti-nuclear campaigner and
founder and president of the Nuclear Policy
Research Institute, which warns of the danger of
nuclear energy.
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
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*****************************************************************
7 NRC: NRC Staff Schedules Public Meeting for April 20 to Discuss License Renewal Process
for Monticello Nuclear Plant
News Release - Region III - 2005-01
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region III
No. III-05-016 April 14, 2005
CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663
Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public
meeting on Wednesday, April 20, in Monticello, Minn., to discuss
how the agency will review the application from Nuclear
Management Company to renew the operating license for the
Monticello Nuclear Power Plant.
The public information session will describe the NRCs license
renewal process and how the public can participate.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Monticello Community
Center, Mississippi Room, 505 Walnut Street, Monticello.
Nuclear Management Company submitted its application for license
renewal on March 24. The current license for the Monticello
plant expires on Sept. 8, 2010. If approved, the plants NRC
license would be extended for 20 years.
A copy of the licensee renewal application is available for
review at the Monticello Public Library, 200 W. Sixth St.,
Monticello. The application is also available on the NRCs web
site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/monticello.html.
Last revised Thursday, April 14, 2005
*****************************************************************
8 Platts: House approves NRC's fee recovery requirement amendment
+ NRC's 90% fee recovery requirement would remain in effect
beyond fiscal 2005 under an amendment approved today by the
House Energy & Commerce Committee.
The amendment, submitted by Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), was one of
several proposals offered to the nuclear section of a
comprehensive energy bill the committee is preparing.
Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) expects the bill to be
sent to the House floor for a vote as soon as next week.
Several nuclear-related amendments offered by Rep. Edward Markey
(D-Mass.) were voted down, including one that would have required
NRC to act on recommendations by a National Academy of Sciences
panel for measures to further secure spent fuel, and another
mandating a study on potential health risks of living near
nuclear plants.
Washington (Platts)--13Apr2005
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
9 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2004 Performance at McGuire Nuclear Power Plant
News Release - Region II - 2005-01
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region II
No. II-05-018 April 14, 2005
CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov
with Duke Energy officials April 19 to discuss the NRCs annual
assessment of safety performance at the McGuire nuclear power
plant, located near Huntersville, N. C. The period covered is
the calendar year 2004.
The 1:00 p.m. meeting at the McGuire Office Complex on the plant
site is open to public observation. Before the meeting ends, NRC
staff will be available to answer public questions on the plants
safety performance, as well as the agencys role in ensuring safe
operation of the facility.
Each year the NRC staff rates the performance of the McGuire
plant and all of the nations other commercial nuclear power
plants, NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said. This
meeting gives us a chance to discuss our assessment with the
company, with local officials and with residents near the plant.
Our aim is to make this information available to the public and
answer any questions people may have about our oversight.
Overall, the McGuire plant operated safely during 2004. The NRC
uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators
to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start with green
and increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the
safety significance of the issues involved. The McGuire plant
had nothing classified beyond green during 2004. Based on these
results and overall performance, McGuire will receive the
baseline, or normal, level of inspections during 2005. The NRC
also plans several additional inspections including routine
inspections of the plants independent spent fuel storage
installation, inspections of pressurizer penetration nozzles and
steam space piping connections, and operator licensing
examinations.
A letter sent from the NRC Region II Office to plant officials
addresses the performance of the plant during the period and
will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is
available on the NRC web site at
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/mcg_2004q4.pdf [PDF
Icon] .
Routine inspections are performed by NRC Resident Inspectors
assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the
Region II Office in Atlanta, and the agencys headquarters in
Rockville, Md.
Current information for the McGuire plant is available on the
NRC web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/MCG1/mcg1_chart.html and
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/MCG2/mcg2_chart.html.
Last revised Thursday, April 14, 2005
*****************************************************************
10 Daily Northwestern: Evanston group keeps tabs on nuclear energy
lee ettleman/the daily northwestern
A map in the Nuclear Energy Information Service's office shows
detailed description of what local areas might be in serious
danger caused by the nearby nuclear power plants.The organization
hopes to educate the public about the possible dangers, such as
increased health risks, they claim are caused by nuclear power.
by Lee S. Ettleman April 14, 2005
In an office in a nondescript building on Chicago Avenue, a map
on the wall marks the locations of Illinois' 14 nuclear power
plants. Each mark is surrounded by ominous green and red circles
-- the area around the reactors that could become contaminated
if there is an accident.
With a few old-looking chairs and a Berber carpet bordering a
plain wooden table, the office of the Nuclear Energy Information
Service, 845 Chicago Ave., looks like a fallout shelter.
"Actually, the distances are really much farther than that,"
said Michael Duerr, a member of NEIS's board of directors,
pointing to the reactors in northern Illinois. "There is a
circle (where) half the people would die. But you would get
radiation sickness in Chicago."
The nonprofit organization was founded in 1981 by another
anti-nuclear group about three years after an accident at Three
Mile Island, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
"The first year or two after that, there was a huge public
outcry," said Dave Kraft, the executive director of the
organization, in a telephone interview from Germany. "We decided
to form a group that was a little less rabid or controversial
... just bland education."
NEIS holds meetings to educate the public about the dangers of
nuclear power and campaigns against expanded nuclear facilities.
Although the group has only about a dozen volunteers, they
co-sponsored a 2003 conference in Germany, will organize against
a new nuclear reactor scheduled for pre-approval in Clinton,
Ill., and will hold a meeting at Northwestern in May.
The meeting will teach citizens how to collect data about
diseases that could be linked to nuclear energy, Duerr said.
Nuclear plants can cause cancer by venting radioactive gasses,
Duerr said, and cities near nuclear power stations show more
health problems. He said when the reactor in Clinton, Ill., went
offline for maintenance, infant mortality rates dropped, then
climbed again when the plant turned back on. In Morris, Ill.,
near another reactor, members of five families who lived on the
same cul-de-sac had cancer, and a Morris special education
teacher stunned her college professors by showing them children
with birth defects they had never before seen.
But Elmer Lewis, a professor at NU's McCormick School of
Engineering and the author of "Nuclear Power Reactor Safety,"
said not enough gases are produced to pose a threat.
"Amounts released are insignificant in terms of health," he
said. "It's not even worth trying to compare to the amount of
radiation you get from an X-ray."
NEIS also opposes nuclear power because nuclear waste is
difficult to store. Spent nuclear fuel doesn't decompose and
stays dangerously radioactive for about 100,000 years. The waste
is stored at the bottom of large, above-ground pools at nuclear
reactors -- a potential target for terrorists, Duerr said.
"If you flew a jet into a fuel pool at one of these reactors, it
would impact Chicago," Duerr said. "You won't get a boom ... but
what you will get is uncontrollable fuel burning like in
Chernobyl. When you get uncontrollable fuel burning, you get a
plume of radioactive smoke full of a witch's brew of isotopes."
In Illinois, the nation's most nuclear state, NEIS advocates
renewable power such as that from wind turbines. Duerr said wind
is more efficient and safer.
But since windmills produce less energy than nuclear reactors,
more land area would be needed to meet current energy needs.
"Even the most modern, biggest windmills produce maybe 20
megawatts," Lewis said. "A typical nuclear plant is about 1000
megawatts."
Coupling wind turbines with energy conservation could make
renewable power work. But Duerr said it's an unpopular idea.
"To some extent there's expense to (conservation), but fighting
wars for oil or dealing with nuclear waste or the health and
cancer deaths -- those aren't free, either," he said. "The
difference is that with nuclear power ... the costs are hidden,
to the extent that their medical consequences are hidden."
Reach Lee S. Ettleman at l-ettleman@northwestern.edu.
© 2003 The Daily Northwestern
*****************************************************************
11 SignOnSanDiego.com: Disaster drill tests readiness of San Onofre
Simulations include helicopter, car crashes
By Adam Klawonn
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 14, 2005
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Wearing protective gloves and
shoe covers, technician Paul Smith prepared to check an
air-sampling device during yesterday's drill at San Onofre.
Emergency planning officials staged a disaster drill with a mock
helicopter crash and more at the San Onofre nuclear power plant
yesterday.
The effort did not feature mock attacks on spent-fuel pools,
which a recent report says are vulnerable to terrorists.
Emergency personnel from various city, county, state and federal
agencies responded to simulated incidents at and around the
plant that gradually worsened over a five-hour period.
The drill began at 8 a.m., with participants pretending that
displays in the plant's control room had gone out.
Crews next pretended that a Coast Guard helicopter had crashed
into a plant switchyard.
Then came mock reports of a landslide, a structure fire and a
fatal traffic accident near Interstate 5.
There were even mock news conferences 20 miles north in Irvine,
where employees of Southern California Edison, the plant's
majority owner, posed as reporters asking questions of 15
emergency officials.
When the drill ended around 1 p.m., coordinators called it an
effective tool to get ready for any nuclear emergency at the San
Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
"It's a good training mechanism," said Richard Echavarria, a
Federal Emergency Management Agency specialist and operations
chief for the exercises.
Last week, teams armed with simulated guns and explosives tried
to infiltrate plant grounds on three nights to create
"radiological sabotage," said Ray Golden, a plant spokesman.
Their efforts were not successful, said Golden, who hinted that
their target could have been the fuel pools, among other areas.
However, yesterday's drill did not include a mock terrorist
attack on the 2,200-megawatt plant's pools, which hold hundreds
of spent fuel rods.
The pools, where the used radioactive fuel rods cool off before
entering dry storage, are part of the industry's controversial,
temporary solution for long-term fuel storage.
The pools also were the focus of a recent National Academy of
Sciences study, which found that the pools could be tempting
terrorist targets with potentially disastrous results.
The study found that if terrorists were successful in draining
some of the water from the pools, a fire could start that would
release large amounts of radiation into the environment,
according to a declassified version of the study released April
6.
The response from the nuclear industry and U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission officials was that the plants and the
pools are secure.
"Today, spent fuel is better protected than ever," commission
Chairman Nils J. Diaz wrote in a March 15 letter to the U.S.
Senate subcommittee on energy.
San Francisco structural engineer Loring Wyllie, one of 15
people who wrote the study, said fuel pools that are sunken like
San Onofre's are harder for terrorists to drain than those that
are above ground.
But he said plant officials should not shrug off the possibility
that they are vulnerable.
"We're not trying to alarm anyone, because (draining the pools)
is not an easy thing to do," Wyllie said. "But you just can't
dismiss it arbitrarily."
Officials of FEMA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and San
Onofre declined to fully explain why a mock attack on spent fuel
pools was not included in the drill.
Ryan Lantz, the commission's lead inspector for the drill, said
only that plant officials did not include such a mock attack
because there were no federal regulations that required them to
do so.
But that could change soon. Lantz said San Onofre is one of the
first of the nation's 103 plants to be part of a pilot study
that could require all plants to include some kind of security
threat such as a coordinated attack, explosions or others
involving aircraft in future drills.
A fuel-pool scenario "is definitely in the realm of
possibility," he said.
Inspectors are grading San Onofre's performance today. The
results will be discussed during an open house tomorrow at noon
at Doubletree Guest Suites, at 34402 Pacific Coast Highway in
Dana Point.
Adam Klawonn: (760) 476-8245; adam.klawonn@uniontrib.com
| Contact the Union-Tribune
© Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
12 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2004 Performance at Harris Nuclear Power Plant
News Release - Region II - 2005-01
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region II
No. II-05-019 April 14, 2005
CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov
with Progress Energy officials April 21 to discuss the NRCs
annual assessment of safety performance at the Harris nuclear
power plant, located southwest of Raleigh. The period covered is
the calendar year 2004.
The 1:00 p.m. meeting at the Holiday Inn Express in Apex is open
to public observation. Before the meeting ends, NRC staff will
be available to answer public questions on the plants safety
performance, as well as the agencys role in ensuring safe
operation of the facility.
Each year the NRC staff rates the performance of the Harris
plant and all of the nations other commercial nuclear power
plants, NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said. This
meeting gives us a chance to discuss our assessment with the
company, with local officials and with residents near the plant.
Our aim is to make this information available to the public and
answer any questions people may have about our oversight.
Overall, the Harris plant operated safely during 2004. The NRC
uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators
to assess performance. The colors start with green and increase
to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety
significance of the issues involved.
For the final three quarters in 2004, the Harris plant had
nothing classified beyond green. However, during the first
quarter of the period, a white performance indicator for
unplanned shutdowns was in effect from the previous period..
Based on an NRC inspection finding corrective actions for that
issue were adequate and performance since then, Harris will
receive the baseline, or normal, level of inspections during
2005. The NRC also continues to review a previously unresolved
item involving cable wrap fire barrier qualification tests and
the way the material is installed.
A letter sent from the NRC Region II Office to plant officials
addresses the performance of the plant during the period and
will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is
available on the NRC web site at
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/har_2004q4.pdf [PDF
Icon] .
Routine inspections are performed by NRC Resident Inspectors
assigned to the plant and by specialists from the Region II
Office in Atlanta, and the agencys headquarters in Rockville,
Md.
Current information for the Harris plant is available on the NRC
web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/HAR1/har1_chart.html.
Last revised Thursday, April 14, 2005
*****************************************************************
13 ISN: Russia’s oldest nuclear plant under investigation
International Relations and Security Network ISN - Security Watch
ISN SECURITY WATCH (14/04/05) - After decades of warnings from
ecologists and denials from authorities, a criminal
investigation has been launched into the extent of ecological
damage caused by Russia’s oldest nuclear fuel reprocessing
plant, Mayak.
Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov ordered the
investigation earlier this week, and a team of experts from his
office and the Federal Security Services (FSB) arrived on the
site on Thursday.
The Mayak facility stores and reprocesses spent nuclear fuel
from Russian atomic power stations and nuclear submarines. It is
also planned that Mayak will reprocess fuel returned from Iran’s
Russian-built Bushehr atomic power station.
The criminal case against Mayak was launched after prosecutors
checked radiation levels and concentrations of toxic agents in
the rivers around the plant, which is located in the Ural
mountains. Inspectors found that the radiation level in the
river Techa exceeds the allowed level by an order of several
hundredfold. In 2004 alone, Mayak was found to have dumped more
than 60 million cubic meters of toxic waste into the Techa.
Mayak officials deny any wrongdoing, saying that the plant
operated in line with all safety requirements. If convicted, the
plant’s managers face up to five years in prison.
In 1957, Mayak was the site of major ecological disaster that
many ecologists said was second only to the Chernobyl
catastrophe.
A highly radioactive liquid waste spilled over from Mayak’s
storage pools, contaminating thousands of square kilometers.
Hundreds of thousands of local citizens have been affected by
the disaster, which the Soviet government attempted to cover up.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mayak became a major
target for Russian ecologists who have persistently demanded
that the plant be shut down and the people living in the
contaminated zone be resettled.
Russian ecologists have also frequently reported new leaks at
the plant, with authorities consistently denying those reports.
On Thursday, Russia’s chief ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, sent a
letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov outlining a program to
solve the problems arising from radioactive leaks at Mayak.
Greenpeace will also launch an international campaign to bring
global attention to the situation, the coordinator of the
Russian branch of the ecological watchdog, Vladimir Chuprov,
said on Thursday. (By Nabi Abdullaev in Moscow)
*****************************************************************
14 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for the
FR Doc E5-1752
[Federal Register: April 14, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 71)]
[Notices] [Page 19791-19792] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14ap05-75]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice
of pending NRC action to submit an information collection request
to OMB and solicitation of public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of
continued approval of information collections under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35). Information pertaining to the requirement to be
submitted: 1. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR
part 32-- Specific Domestic Licenses to Manufacture or Transfer
Certain Items Containing Byproduct Material.
2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0001. 3. How often the
collection is required: There is a one-time submittal of
information to receive a license. Renewal applications are
submitted every 10 years. In addition, recordkeeping must be
performed on an on-going basis, and reports of transfer of
byproduct material must be reported every 5 years, and in a few
cases, every year.
4. Who is required or asked to report: All specific licensees who
manufacture or initially transfer items containing byproduct
material for sale or distribution to general licensees or persons
exempt from licensing.
5. The estimated number of annual respondents: 972 (275 NRC
licensees and 700 Agreement State licensees).
6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the
requirement or request: 135,741 (36,623 hours for NRC licensees
[5,225 hours reporting, or an
[[Page 19792]] average of 8 hours per response + 31,398 hours
recordkeeping, or 114 hours per recordkeeper] and 99,118 hours
for Agreement State licensees [20,863 hours reporting, or an
average of 8.3 hours per response + 78,255 hours recordkeeping,
or an average of 112 hours per recordkeeper]).
7. Abstract: 10 CFR part 32 establishes requirements for specific
licenses for the introduction of byproduct material into products
or materials and transfer of the products or materials to general
licensees or persons exempt from licensing. It also prescribes
requirements governing holders of the specific licenses. Some of
the requirements are for information which must be submitted in
an application for a specific license, records which must be
kept, reports which must be submitted, and information which must
be forwarded to general licensees and persons exempt from
licensing. In addition, 10 CFR part 32 prescribes requirements
for the issuance of certificates of registration (concerning
radiation safety information about a product) to manufacturers or
initial transferors of sealed sources and devices. Submission or
retention of the information is mandatory for persons subject to
the 10 CFR part 32 requirements. The information is used by NRC
to make licensing and other regulatory determinations concerning
the use of radioactive byproduct material in products and
devices.
Submit, by June 13, 2005, comments that address the following
questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary
for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the
information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate
accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden
of the information collection be minimized, including the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology? A copy of the draft supporting statement may be
viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD
20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC World Wide
Web site:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The
document will be available on the NRC Home page site for 60 days
after the signature date of this notice.
Comments and questions about the information collection
requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda
Jo. Shelton, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, T-5 F53,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by
Internet electronic mail to INFOCOLLECTS@NRC.GOV. Dated at
Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of April, 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. E5-1752 Filed 4-13-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
15 York Daily Record: TMI surpasses national average -
[ydr.com] [York Daily Record/Sunday News]
The NRC will run regular inspections at the plant throughout the
next year.
By SEAN ADKINS Daily Record/Sunday News Thursday, April 14, 2005
Last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified 12
findings of very low safety significance at Three Mile Island
Unit 1 in Dauphin County.
On Wednesday evening, more than 30 people crowded into the
small Council Chambers at Middletown Borough Hall to listen to
representatives from the NRC and AmerGen Energy officials
discuss Unit 1's annual performance.
"Overall," said Art Burritt, an acting NRC branch chief, "
(AmerGen) performed very well. The bottom line is that (the
plant) operated safely."
Despite TMI's high incidence last year of "green" violations —
infractions of very low in safety significance — the NRC will
run regularly scheduled inspections through Sept. 30, 2006.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, TMI's number of minor infractions
beat the 2004 national average of green violations detected at
all commercial reactors.
In 2004, the commission found a total of 778 green violations
at all 103 operating nuclear reactors, or an average of 7.6 per
reactor.
NRC officials review multiple violations that may signal
emerging trends such as repeat ineffective corrective actions,
said Diane Screnci, commission spokeswoman.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, the federal agency found several
violations at TMI that stood as examples of a substantive issue
in the area of problem identification and resolution.
"They did have a substantial problem in finding their own
problems and correcting them," said David Kern, senior NRC
resident inspector at TMI.
Two of these violations involved a malfunctioning river pump
and vibrating control-building fan. On March 9, AmerGen
officials did not recognize that the vibration levels on a
nuclear river pump had exceeded predictive maintenance alert
levels.
Plant officials failed to detect the elevated vibrations that
eventually led to the inoperability of the pump.
"Corrective action to address the slowly degrading motor
bearings could have been commenced prior to the vibration levels
exceeding the fault level," according an NRC inspection report.
TMI workers eventually did replace the equipment's pump shaft
and bearings.
Last year, TMI earned a green violation for not investigating
and repairing a degraded control-building air-return ventilation
fan in a timely manner, according to an NRC inspection report.
In December 2001, plant officials did detect elevated fan
vibrations but did not efficiently review the problem until last
September when NRC inspectors raised some concerns over the
issue.
By the time workers did respond, the vibrations had resulted
in a cracked hub where the bolt holes penetrate the hub and
attach to the fan's motor.
Corrective actions such as the plant's repair of the
ventilation fan demonstrated to the NRC that AmerGen has a good
handle on its problem identification and resolution program,
Kern said.
Based on that trend and other ongoing corrective actions
initiated last year, the commission has closed its review on
TMI's cross-cutting issue in the area of problem identification
and resolution.
"(AmerGen) is now identifying more of (their) problems
sooner," Kern said. "It's important that it continues."
Rusty West, TMI Unit 1's site vice president, said the plant
has taken strides to improve its corrective-action process.
The plant has started to bring in experts from other nuclear
sites in Exelon's fleet to help determine specific corrective
actions, he said.
TMI has also worked with officials from other utilities to
help further its own self-assessment program, West said.
During the meeting, AmerGen officials said that one of the
plant's corrective actions in 2004 involved the further training
of its instructional staff. The crew instructs operators on how
to pass the simulator portions of the required Operator
Requalification Exam.
That test evaluates how licensed workers would respond to
multiple plant emergencies.
Last February, TMI's annual simulator exercise found that two
out of eight control-room crews did not demonstrate the skills
to correctly respond to abnormal plant conditions. The
commission requires all licensed operators to pass annual
operating tests.
"This past March," West said, "we passed (the exam) with a 100
percent. We have spent a lot of our efforts upgrading our
training material."
In December, the National Nuclear Accrediting Board voiced its
concerns about how plant workers would respond to abnormal
conditions when it put TMI's control room operator training
program on probation.
West said he was sure the plant's corrective actions will
address the board's concerns.
"We will go before the accrediting board this June to renew
our accreditation," he said.
Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2047 or sadkins@ydr.com.
Copyright © York Daily Record 2005 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
16 York Daily RecordL: ENERGY: Reactor restarted -
[ydr.com] [York Daily Record/Sunday News]
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Operators safely restarted the Unit 2 reactor at the Susquehanna
nuclear power plant in Berwick Wednesday after completing
electrical repairs to the unit's battery chargers. The battery
chargers are part of the plant's electrical system and are
located in a non-nuclear area of the plant.
On Sunday, plant workers had discovered one of the unit's
four chargers was not working properly. Because crews could not
repair the electrical problem and conduct a thorough
investigation of the Unit 2 direct current electrical system
within a specified time period, they manually shut down the unit
as called for in plant procedures.
Copyright © York Daily Record 2005 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
17 IPS: ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear
Zoltán Dujisin
Almost 20 years have passed since the world's worst nuclear
accident, but Chernobyl continues to bring back traumatizing
memories for many Ukrainians.
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, Apr 14 (IPS) -
Almost 20 years have passed since the world's worst nuclear
accident, but Chernobyl continues to bring back traumatizing
memories for many Ukrainians.
The disaster continues to account for deaths and illnesses, but
this has not stopped a few determined residents from coming back
to contaminated areas to reclaim their old everyday life.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in reactor 4 of the
Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in northern Ukraine. A fire broke out
and huge quantities of radioactive debris were released. The
authorities were first preoccupied with controlling the fire,
and neglected the surrounding population that was left for four
days without any information on the catastrophe.
After the government admitted the disaster, close to 150,000
inhabitants from nearby cities and villages were evacuated.
People in Pripiat, the largest city in the region, left under
the impression that they would return shortly.
They never did. Today the town that once hosted 47,000 citizens
is a ghostly space of empty buildings and roads invaded by
advancing flora.
The houses, libraries, schools, and sports and recreational
centres in what was a model of socialist urbanisation built in
the seventies, have since the disaster seen only looters,
scientists, and a few adventurous tourists.
Entering the local school presents the visitor with a
spine-chilling scenery of desks, open books, rotten pianos and
gas masks scattered over a floor that looks ready to give in.
This school, like the buildings surrounding it, has remained
untouched for almost two decades.
Most of Pripiat's residents were involved with the nuclear plant
one way or another. Their misfortune was to live only a
kilometre away from it.
While Pripiat will never see life again, further away from the
plant, still within the radius of a 30km government-restricted
zone, villagers have been reoccupying their abandoned homes in
an illegal move to which the state turns a blind eye.
The villages are not a rousing tale either. Seemingly abandoned,
the sudden sight of a pensioner eventually says otherwise. The
average age of its inhabitants is 68, they live mostly in
solitude, surrounded by stranded households, and under harsh
material conditions. They are relatively indifferent to
radiation-related risks.
”Some specialists feel mass resettlement was a mistake,” Evhen
Golovakha, deputy director of the Institute of Sociology of the
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine told IPS. ”People who live in
their own villages and towns feel better than those resettled.”
Yuri Privalov, director of the Centre of Social Expertise said
it was not easy to settle in new conditions. ”Adaptation to a
community with differences in culture and language is not easy,”
he told IPS.
But Privalov does not dismiss the economic aspect. ”They lost
everything, the government couldn't find everyone a new job, and
was unable to cover all their expenses.”
If Pripiat and surroundings present a post-apocalyptic scenario,
the Chernobyl power plant is its complete opposite.
The plant is abuzz with activity. Scientists, engineers and
workmen wander the installation wearing simple uniforms,
apparently indifferent to possible radioactive threats. One
concern they have is that the complete closure of the plant,
which they opposed, will be at the expense of their
above-average salaries.
Following acute international pressure, the Ukrainian government
closed the last working reactor in 2000. The plant's activities
revolve these days around maintenance of the concrete
'sarcophagus' that covers the ruins of the explosion.
While radiation levels are not excessive at present, the
precariousness of the structure has compelled the government to
approve construction of a new safe confinement surmounting the
old concrete block.
The project has already kicked off, but ”the overall cost of the
task is 1 billion, 91 million dollars,” Igor Vasilevich from the
Ministry of Fuel and Energy told IPS. ”We had donations from
several developed countries, but it's far from enough.”
In line with dominant international interests, most current
government efforts are directed at increasing nuclear safety
levels. But there is also a costly social dimension to
Chernobyl.
Ukraine had to outgrow two separate Chernobyl traumas: the first
following the explosion, the second when mass media gave a true
account of its consequences. It is estimated that around six
million people have been affected in some manner. Even a close
estimate of the number of deaths will probably never be reached.
Up to 50 were reported dead as a result of immediate exposure.
Other estimates range from 250 to a few thousand.
But many continue to face grave health problems. The most
dramatic is the situation of the so-called ”children of
Chernobyl” who grew up in contaminated areas and now suffer from
thyroid cancer.
Mnay more people have had to deal with psychological problems. A
report by the Democratic Initiatives Centre that assessed the
situation 10 years after the disaster says that among those
affected, 60 percent ”associated food products with fear, and
experience helplessness, insomnia and irritability”, while 30
percent ”lost their interest in life.”
For these victims, the disaster meant the ”ruin of their world
views, lifestyles and plans,” the report says. Most resettlers
overcame a general disenchantment and helplessness with time,
but many others have been left behind.
Yuri Privalov concedes that victims need further assistance, but
also that not much more could be done. ”It's hard to say what's
sufficient, since we have no similar situation to compare with.
There are many demands on the state, with ill people, the
plant's deactivation, and the earth's pollution. The country is
quite poor, of course problems will remain.” (END)
Copyright © 2005 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
18 CBC: Premier hints at Lepreau deadline
New Brunswick
WebPosted Apr 14 2005 05:02 PM ADT
FREDERICTON — Premier Bernard Lord suggested Thursday that
he'll only wait two more weeks for the federal government to
make a decision on the Point Lepreau nuclear reactor.
Lord was in Ottawa Wednesday lobbying Prime Minister Paul
Martin for money to help refurbish the plant, which is nearing
the end of its operational life.
However, an investment of $1.4 billion dollars would give it
another 20 to 30 years of energy production.
The premier said Martin was interested in helping, but didn't
promise any money.
With or without Ottawa's help, Lord said NB Power would have to
make a recommendation to the government on whether to proceed
with the project.
"If in a week, two weeks from now, we're at the same point we
are today, then to me it'll be very clear that nothing's
happening, that there's interest and support but no solution. We
need a solution, and NB Power needs a solution as well."
Lord says without federal help, it's unlikely the province
would proceed with the project.
The other option NB Power is studying is a new addition to the
coal-fired generating station at Belledune.
That would create more pollution, but Lord says it would be
less expensive to build and would provide cheaper power to
ratepayers.
*****************************************************************
19 [sm] US/UK axis used 'terror plot' to push Iraq war
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 01:02:47 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1459001,00.html
London and Washington used plot to strengthen Iraq war push
Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday April 14, 2005
Guardian (London)
Claims that a terrorist cell was planning a lethal ricin attack in
Britain were used by the British and American governments in the
run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Tony Blair, David Blunkett, then home secretary, and Britain's most
senior police officers, all seized on the arrests to emphasise the
threat from what they called a new and highly dangerous kind of
terrorist. To further press the case for war, politicians implied
there was a clear link between Saddam Hussein, al-Qaida, and
terrorists planning chemical or biological attacks on targets in the
west, including London.
The ricin claims were seized on most strikingly by Colin Powell, the
US secretary of state, in his dramatic but now discredited speech on
Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programme to the UN
security council on February 5 2003, five weeks before the invasion.
Insisting "every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid
sources", Mr Powell spoke of a "sinister nexus between Iraq and the
al-Qaida terrorist network".
He said that according to a detainee named Abuwatia, Musab al-Zarqawi,
the Islamist linked to al-Qaida and recently self-proclaimed
perpetrator of atrocities in Iraq, ordered "North African extremists"
to travel to Europe to conduct "poison and explosive attacks". Mr
Powell referred to arrests in France.
Mr Powell then stated: "The detainee who helped piece this together
says the plot also targeted Britain. Later evidence, again, proved him
right. When the British unearthed a cell there just last month, one
British police officer was murdered during the disruption of the
cell." It was a reference to Stephen Oake.
It seems clear Mr Blair personally alerted the Bush administration to
the British arrests. Two days before Mr Powell delivered his UN
statement, Mr Blair reported to the Commons on his return from talks
with President George Bush: "Iraq is not the only country posing a
risk in respect of WMD. Over the past few weeks, we have seen powerful
evidence of the continuing terrorist threat: the suspected ricin plot
in London and Manchester ..."
On February 6 2003, the day after Mr Powell's UN speech, Mr Blair kept
up the momentum using the alleged threat from ricin in a televised
appeal for public backing on Iraq.
Press reports rammed home the point. "In a powerful speech to the UN
security council," said the Sun newspaper, Mr Powell "told how an
Osama bin Laden lieutenant sheltered by Iraq was linked to the ricin
poison factory found in north London and the murder of DC Stephen Oake
in Manchester."
After the suspects were arrested in January 2003, David Veness,
Britain's top anti-terrorist policeman, and Dr Pat Troop, the
government's deputy chief medical officer, warned in a joint
statement: "A small amount of the material recovered from the Wood
Green premises has been tested positive for the presence of ricin
poison."
Two days later, on January 7 2003, Mr Blair referred to the arrests at
a gathering of British ambassadors in London. They were a stark
illustration, he said, of the dangers of "weapons of mass
destruction". He warned: "The danger is present and real and with us
now and its potential is huge."
The following weekend, the Sunday Times published a long article under
the headline: "Terror On The Doorstep."
References to ricin continued to be made by senior Scotland Yard
officers and ministers, though the media could not report on them
because of judicial reporting restrictions.
Peter Hain, leader of the Commons, claimed last year that MI5 warned
him of a possible al-Qaida attack on the Commons chamber, using ricin
or anthrax.
Guardian Unlimited ) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
20 [smygo] Half of Americans say Bush deliberately misled about
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:36:59 -0500 (CDT)
Half of Americans say Bush deliberately misled about Iraq US-BUSH-RATINGS
Half of Americans say Bush deliberately misled about Iraq
WASHINGTON, April 6 (KUNA) -- For the first time since the war in
Iraq was launched in spring of 2003, more people than not, or half
of all Americans, said the Bush administration deliberately misled
the American public about alleged weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll released on Wednesday.
Prior to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration charged that Iraq
had weapons of mass destruction and made it a case for a preemptive
strike on the country.
On the issue of the higher gas prices, 58 percent of Americans said
the cost of gas has caused financial hardship, making it the first
time that a majority of people feel this way during Bush's presidency.
The average cost of a gallon of unleaded gas in America has reached
2.15 dollars, which translates into costing over 40 dollars to fill
up the most popular SUV in America, the Ford Explorer. Despite the
figures, the poll said that US President George Bush's overall
approval rating rose three percentage points over the past two weeks
to 48 percent.
The survey questioned 1,040 adults and has a margin of error of
plus or minus three percentage points. (end) ayt.
ad
KUNA 061848 Apr 05NNNN
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1181994.htm
MARC PARENT
Political tagssuch as royalist, communist, democrat, populist,
fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forthare never basic criteria.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to
be controlled and those who have no such desire.
- Robert A Heinlein
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the
urge to rule.
- H.L. Mencken
CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/
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21 [EMMAS] Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Photos of Iran's
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:51:19 -0500 (CDT)
----- Forwarded message from Viviane Lerner -----
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:35:14 -1000
From: Viviane Lerner
Reply-To: Viviane Lerner
To: NUCNEWS
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8535.htm
Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Photos of Iran's "Nuclear Installations"
By KURT NIMMO
04/13/05 "CounterPunch.org" - - It's really sad when you have to
read newspapers and web sites in the Middle East to find out what is
happening in the United States. For instance, al-Jazeera was about the
only site outside of Israel to report that General Yoav Gallan, war
criminal Ariel Sharon's "military advisor" (that is, he tells Arik the
Butcher the best way to kill Palestinians and other Arabs), "has
reportedly handed Bush documents and aerial photos of Iranian nuclear
installations during the Israeli prime minister's Monday meeting with
the U.S. President George W. Bush, Israeli public radio reported on
Tuesday."
In short, the Israelis have devised a few fake photos to lay on Bush
since Iran does not actually have "nuclear installations," as the
International Atomic Energy Agency reported late last year. Israel
wants the United States to bomb the daylights out of Iran, a
possibility that will grow more and more remote as time passes, a fact
that really freaks out Sharon and his Jabotinskyite partners in
international crime who want every Arab or Muslim nation in the Middle
East bombed or at least cowed by the same sort of shock and awe Bush
used against Iraq.
Gallan, who accompanied Sharon in his summit with Bush at his Texas
ranch, presented the photos together with information the Israeli
intelligence services gathered on the Islamic Republic's nuclear
programme, the Israeli radio added, without mentioning how the photos
were taken. It just said that the images showed that the Iranian
nuclear programme was at a "very advanced" stage.
It is amazing what you can do with computers these days -- entire
alternate universes can be ray traced into existence. No doubt Iranian
nuclear programs can be likewise devised with a relatively inexpensive
computer and a little bit of software. Scott McClellan, who usually
does Bush's talking for him, more or less admitted the above, although
he did not give any details and the slavish corporate media did not
ask for any.
Israeli defense officials asked Sharon to raise the option of military
attack against Iran's nuclear facilities during talks with President
Bush. On the other hand, U.S. defense officials had so far refused
Israeli entreaties to discuss the military option against Iran as a
last resort if diplomatic pressure fail.
Here's a novel idea... if the flipping Israelis are so hot to invade
(or at minimum bomb) Iran, let them do it themselves. Of course they
will not do this since there are around 66 million Iranians and about
6 million Israelis, including a couple hundred thousand rabid settlers
in the West Bank, Gaza, and the land Israel filched from Syria. Better
to get the stupid Americans to do it, although it appears the Pentagon
is not exactly chomping at the bit to invade Iran considering the
mess in Iraq. So here we have Sharon and his mass murder advisor
presenting Bush the Dumber with photos, obviously contrived since
nobody can find nukes in Iran except the Israelis and their Neocon
buddies, who are, just like the Likudites, demonstrated and practiced
liars and deceivers, well tutored in making up fake "intelligence," as
the Neocon lie factory, the Office of Special Plans, did in the lead
up to mass murdering around 100,000 innocent Iraqis.
Israel has previously made clear it considers all options legitimate
for preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Analysts say that
the Jewish state wouldn't resort to force unless being supported by
its chief ally the United States. Of course not -- the Iranians would
wipe them off the map. "We are not managing to get the Americans to
talk about what will happen if the diplomatic efforts fail and Iran
resumes enriching uranium, putting it on track to an atomic bomb."
Seriously, this is a no-brainer -- stop messing around with folks and
maybe they will live and let live. Of course, Israel and the United
States are unable to stop messing around with people, and such behavior
is apparently pathologically ingrained -- Iran remembers well the CIA
overthrowing its democratically elected government and installing a
brutal shah and his personal Gestapo, Savak -- and this sort of nasty
behavior is more than often not the reason small countries in the
third world have a hankering to go nuclear, to ward off the neocon and
neolib wolves, as the example of North Korea illustrates (notice how
Bush and the Neocons are not saber-rattling much in North Korea's
general direction as of late). Naturally, according to the Likudites
and their Neocon buddies, Muslims and Arabs have a genetic
predisposition to kill Jews and if they are allowed to have even one
measly Hiroshima-grade atom bomb they will immediately nuke Tel Aviv.
It is a bullshit story, entirely racist and irrational, the sort of
nonsense the Zionists have pedaled for decades in an effort to get
their way, that is to say de-Palestinianize Palestine and demonstrate
their mercilessness to the Arabs and Iranians. Moreover, when history
is examined, the indisputable fact emerges that it is Israel, under
the leadership of a number of rabid Zionist serial offenders such as
Sharon and Begin, that is responsible for much of the trouble in the
region, from starting a couple major wars to killing scads of
otherwise peace-loving people and blaming it on the Arabs (viz., the
Lavon affair and Mossad's planting of a radio device in Libya,
resulting in the U.S. bombing Libya, to name but two of a number of
murderously deceptive events engineered by rabid and remarkably
sociopathic Zionists). Hell, if I was Iranian with a neighbor like
Israel I'd want a couple nukes of my own too, especially considering
the Israelis have about 200 of them.
Although Israel has never publicly acknowledged that it maintains a
nuclear arsenal, foreign experts assert it has between 100 and 200
nuclear warheads.
Big time double standards -- but then most Israelis are white people
and white people wouldn't think about nuking other people... that is
unless they are non-white, for instance, Japanese civilians.
Obviously, Sharon visited Bush at his fake cowboy ranch in Texas for
one reason and one reason only -- to convince him to bomb the heck out
of Iran, something Bush now seems reluctant to do considering the
intractable situation in Iraq. Sharon is likely to have a tizzy and no
doubt his options are slim to none in regard to Iran, a nation
admittedly run by a clique of medieval mullahs not particularly liked
by most Iranians. Of course, the average Iranian distrusts Israel and
the United States even more and will support the mullahs if push comes
to shove and the United States invades or does a number on their
country with cruise missiles and other mass murder hardware, about the
only industrial product America still manufactures. Is it possible
somebody, somewhere, possibly a bit saner and not connected at the hip
to the Neocons and their Israeli taskmasters, is whispering in Bush's
ear? If sanity -- or a modicum of sanity -- is to rule, we will find
out by June, supposedly when the Iranian window closes, according to
the Israelis. If Bush does not attack Iran by June, the odds the U.S.
will attack at all will probably end up about as promising as a
Saturday night spent at a blackjack table in Las Vegas.
----------
Kurt Nimmo is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces,
New Mexico. Visit his excellent no holds barred blog at
http://www.kurtnimmo.com/ . Nimmo is a contributor to Cockburn and St.
Clair's, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. A collection of his essays for
CounterPunch, Another Day in the Empire, is now available from
Dandelion Books. He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
==============
***NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.***
==============
#################################################################
" Social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the
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minorities, and not through the mass." Emma Goldman
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22 Sharon Asks U.S. to Pressure Iran to Give Up Its Nuclear
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 09:07:49 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/international/middleeast/13nuke.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1113487499-Szw7Ar+7SgvOIodWkFgtVA&pagewanted=print&position=
April 13, 2005
Sharon Asks U.S. to Pressure Iran to Give Up Its
Nuclear Program
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, April 12 - Spreading photographs of Iranian nuclear sites
over a lunch table at the Bush ranch in Texas on Monday, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel urged President Bush to step up
pressure on Iran to give up all elements of its nuclear program,
according to senior American and Israeli officials.
Mr. Sharon said Israeli intelligence showed Iran was near "a point of
no return" in learning how to develop a weapon, the officials said.
However, Mr. Sharon gave no indication that Israel was preparing to
act alone to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, a prospect that Vice
President Dick Cheney, who was at the lunch, raised publicly three
months ago.
In a conversation lasting more than an hour, Mr. Sharon argued that
European nations negotiating with Iran were softening their position
and may be willing to allow it to hold on to technology to enrich
uranium.
American officials said the evidence Mr. Sharon presented, including
aerial photographs of sites in Iran, was neither startling nor new to
Mr. Bush. But they said the prime minister was clearly pressuring Mr.
Bush not to allow the European negotiations with Iran to drag on.
"The Israelis consider the Iranians a big threat and they saw this as
another opportunity to convey that to the president," an American
official said. But among American experts familiar with the latest
Israeli imagery, the official added, "no one thinks this was
earth-shattering stuff."
Israeli officials declined to describe the evidence they presented, or
say whether the photographs were from Israeli or American sources,
commercial satellites, or from agents on the ground in Iran.
Nonetheless, Mr. Sharon's extended conversation - bolstered by the
Israeli photographs and intelligence presented by his chief military
aide, Brig. Gen. Yaakov Galant - showed tension between Israel and its
biggest ally over how much time is available to deal with the issue.
While American and Israeli officials insisted Tuesday that they were
in total agreement about the nature of the Iranian threat, Israel has
interpreted the evidence that the two countries share in what one
official called "the worst-case scenario." In describing the Iranians
as on the cusp of a "point of no return," officials said, Mr. Sharon
was arguing to Mr. Bush that once Iran solves some remaining technical
hurdles, there will be no effective way of stopping it from ultimately
building a weapon - even if that day is years away.
"This can't be delayed much longer," a senior Israeli official
traveling in Mr. Sharon's party said Tuesday. "There is very little
time until the point of no return is reached."
American officials have interpreted the evidence differently. While
they have accused Iran of running a secret weapons program - under the
cover of plans to build nuclear power plants for electricity - they
have told Congress that any weapon is likely to be several years away.
In the most recent public testimony on the subject, on Feb. 16, Vice
Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, the director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, told Congress that "unless constrained by a nuclear
nonproliferation agreement, Tehran probably will have the ability to
produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade."
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, said in February in the German magazine Der Spiegel
that if Iran had "decided to operate a secret nuclear weapons program
- for which we, as I mentioned, have not found any evidence to date -
they are likely to have a bomb in two to three years. They certainly
have the know-how and the industrial infrastructure."
The White House said Monday that the subject of Iran came up over
lunch, but it made no mention of the intelligence that was presented,
and gave no details of the conversation. Israeli radio and other news
reports in Israel gave more details earlier Tuesday, prompting
American and Israeli officials to speak about the interchanges more
openly.
The subtext of the conversation is an increasing concern within the
administration that Israel might act pre-emptively, as it did in 1981
when it attacked Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak.
While American officials have rarely discussed that possibility
openly, Mr. Cheney talked about it in an interview on MSNBC on
Inauguration Day. "If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the
Iranians had a significant nuclear capability," he said, "given the
fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the
destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first,
and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic
mess afterwards."
Mr. Sharon made no such threat at the lunch, officials said, and a
senior Israeli official said Tuesday in Washington that "it is not
Israel's job to lead this effort." The official warned that "what is
worrisome is that there are several European countries that are
beginning to think that Iran will be a member of the club, and that is
a grave danger."
Mr. Sharon, officials said, made it clear to administration officials
during his visit that he has little confidence in the outcome of the
negotiations under way by Iran and three European nations - Britain,
France and Germany. Iran has insisted that it has the right to enrich
uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and will not give
up that right. While there is disagreement among the Europeans
themselves, they seem more willing to allow some uranium enrichment,
under strict monitoring.
The United States has argued that because Iran hid so many elements of
its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency for 17
years, it cannot be trusted.
"If you think that they've been running a secret weapons program,
which is what we believe and the Israelis believe, than what kind of
inspection system could work?" a senior American diplomat said
Tuesday.
The session at the ranch also included some references to Iran's
growing missile program, which gives it the ability to reach Israel.
Admiral Jacoby, in his February testimony, noted that Iran already has
medium-range missiles "capable of reaching Tel Aviv," and he said that
by 2015, it may have "the technical capability" to develop an
intercontinental ballistic missile. But he noted that "it is not clear
whether Iran has decided to field such a missile."
Recently the new president of the Ukraine, Viktor A. Yushchenko, said
his government had discovered evidence that the country's previous
leadership secretly sold to Iran and China cruise missiles that can
carry a nuclear warhead. Iran has denied it made any such purchases.
David S. Cloud contributed reporting from Washington for this article
and Steven Erlanger from Israel.
*****************************************************************
23 [NYTr] Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Iran "Nuke" Photos
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 17:18:03 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Dave Muller (southnews)
"Here's a novel idea... if the flipping Israelis are so hot to invade
(or at minimum bomb) Iran, let them do it themselves. Of course they
will not do this since there are around 66 million Iranians and about 6
million Israelis, including a couple hundred thousand rabid settlers in
the West Bank, Gaza, and the land Israel filched from Syria. Better to
get the stupid Americans to do it, although it appears the Pentagon is
not exactly chomping at the bit to invade Iran considering the mess in
Iraq. So here we have Sharon and his mass murder advisor presenting Bush
the Dumber with photos, obviously contrived since nobody can find nukes
in Iran except the Israelis and their Neocon buddies, who are, just like
the Likudites, demonstrated and practiced liars and deceivers, well
tutored in making up fake "intelligence," as the Neocon lie factory, the
Office of Special Plans, did in the lead up to mass murdering around
100,000 innocent Iraqis...."
CounterPunch - Apr 13, 2005
www.counterpunch.org/nimmo04132005.html
Israeli Blackjack with Iran
Sharon Tries to Pawn Off Fake Photos of Iran's "Nuclear Installations"
by KURT NIMMO
Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 13, 2005--It's really sad when you have to
read newspapers and web sites in the Middle East to find out what is
happening in the United States. For instance, al-Jazeera.com at
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7919 was about the only site
outside of Israel to report that General Yoav Gallan, war criminal Ariel
Sharon's "military advisor" (that is, he tells Arik the Butcher the best way
to kill Palestinians and other Arabs), "has reportedly handed Bush documents
and aerial photos of Iranian nuclear installations during the Israeli prime
minister's Monday meeting with the U.S. President George W. Bush, Israeli
public radio reported on Tuesday."
In short, the Israelis have devised a few fake photos to lay on Bush
since Iran does not actually have "nuclear installations," as the
International Atomic Energy Agency at
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/01/iran.nuclear/ reported late
last year. Israel wants the United States to bomb the daylights out of
Iran, a possibility that will grow more and more remote as time passes,
a fact that really freaks out Sharon and his Jabotinskyite partners in
international crime who want every Arab or Muslim nation in the Middle
East bombed or at least cowed by the same sort of shock and awe Bush
used against Iraq.
Gallan, who accompanied Sharon in his summit with Bush at his Texas
ranch, presented the photos together with information the Israeli
intelligence services gathered on the Islamic Republic's nuclear
programme, the Israeli radio added, without mentioning how the photos
were taken. It just said that the images showed that the Iranian nuclear
programme was at a "very advanced" stage.
It is amazing what you can do with computers these days -- entire
alternate universes can be ray traced into existence. No doubt Iranian
nuclear programs can be likewise devised with a relatively inexpensive
computer and a little bit of software. Scott McClellan, who usually does
Bush's talking for him, more or less admitted the above, although he did
not give any details and the slavish corporate media did not ask for any.
Israeli defense officials asked Sharon to raise the option of military
attack against Iran's nuclear facilities during talks with President
Bush. On the other hand, U.S. defense officials had so far refused
Israeli entreaties to discuss the military option against Iran as a last
resort if diplomatic pressure fail.
Here's a novel idea... if the flipping Israelis are so hot to invade (or
at minimum bomb) Iran, let them do it themselves. Of course they will
not do this since there are around 66 million Iranians and about 6
million Israelis, including a couple hundred thousand rabid settlers in
the West Bank, Gaza, and the land Israel filched from Syria. Better to
get the stupid Americans to do it, although it appears the Pentagon is
not exactly chomping at the bit to invade Iran considering the mess in
Iraq. So here we have Sharon and his mass murder advisor presenting Bush
the Dumber with photos, obviously contrived since nobody can find nukes
in Iran except the Israelis and their Neocon buddies, who are, just like
the Likudites, demonstrated and practiced liars and deceivers, well
tutored in making up fake "intelligence," as the Neocon lie factory, the
Office of Special Plans, did in the lead up to mass murdering around
100,000 innocent Iraqis.
Israel has previously made clear it considers all options legitimate for
preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Analysts say that the
Jewish state wouldn't resort to force unless being supported by its
chief ally the United States. Of course not -- the Iranians would wipe
them off the map. "We are not managing to get the Americans to talk
about what will happen if the diplomatic efforts fail and Iran resumes
enriching uranium, putting it on track to an atomic bomb."
Seriously, this is a no-brainer -- stop messing around with folks and
maybe they will live and let live. Of course, Israel and the United
States are unable to stop messing around with people, and such behavior
is apparently pathologically ingrained -- Iran remembers well the CIA
overthrowing its democratically elected government and installing a
brutal shah and his personal Gestapo, Savak -- and this sort of nasty
behavior is more than often not the reason small countries in the third
world have a hankering to go nuclear, to ward off the neocon and neolib
wolves, as the example of North Korea illustrates (notice how Bush and
the Neocons are not saber-rattling much in North Korea's general
direction as of late). Naturally, according to the Likudites and their
Neocon buddies, Muslims and Arabs have a genetic predisposition to kill
Jews and if they are allowed to have even one measly Hiroshima-grade
atom bomb they will immediately nuke Tel Aviv. It is a bullshit story,
entirely racist and irrational, the sort of nonsense the Zionists have
pedaled for decades in an effort to get their way, that is to say
de-Palestinianize Palestine and demonstrate their mercilessness to the
Arabs and Iranians. Moreover, when history is examined, the indisputable
fact emerges that it is Israel, under the leadership of a number of
rabid Zionist serial offenders such as Sharon and Begin, that is
responsible for much of the trouble in the region, from starting a
couple major wars to killing scads of otherwise peace-loving people and
blaming it on the Arabs (viz., the Lavon affair and Mossad's planting of
a radio device in Libya, resulting in the U.S. bombing Libya, to name
but two of a number of murderously deceptive events engineered by rabid
and remarkably sociopathic Zionists). Hell, if I was Iranian with a
neighbor like Israel I'd want a couple nukes of my own too, especially
considering the Israelis have about 200 of them.
Although Israel has never publicly acknowledged that it maintains a
nuclear arsenal, foreign experts assert it has between 100 and 200
nuclear warheads.
Big time double standards -- but then most Israelis are white people and
white people wouldn't think about nuking other people... that is unless
they are non-white, for instance, Japanese civilians. Obviously, Sharon
visited Bush at his fake cowboy ranch in Texas for one reason and one
reason only -- to convince him to bomb the heck out of Iran, something
Bush now seems reluctant to do considering the intractable situation in
Iraq. Sharon is likely to have a tizzy and no doubt his options are slim
to none in regard to Iran, a nation admittedly run by a clique of
medieval mullahs not particularly liked by most Iranians. Of course, the
average Iranian distrusts Israel and the United States even more and
will support the mullahs if push comes to shove and the United States
invades or does a number on their country with cruise missiles and other
mass murder hardware, about the only industrial product America still
manufactures. Is it possible somebody, somewhere, possibly a bit saner
and not connected at the hip to the Neocons and their Israeli
taskmasters, is whispering in Bush's ear? If sanity -- or a modicum of
sanity -- is to rule, we will find out by June, supposedly when the
Iranian window closes, according to the Israelis. If Bush does not
attack Iran by June, the odds the U.S. will attack at all will probably
end up about as promising as a Saturday night spent at a blackjack table
in Las Vegas.
[Kurt Nimmo is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. Visit his excellent no holds barred blog at
http://www.kurtnimmo.com/ . Nimmo is a contributor to Cockburn and St.
Clair's "The Politics of Anti-Semitism." A collection of his essays for
CounterPunch, "Another Day in the Empire," is now available from Dandelion
Books.
The archives of South News can be found at
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/
*
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24 Ynetnews: Opinion - Nuclear ayatollahs
Iranian reactor worrying Israel Photo: Reuters
"The State of Israel's establishment is the most terrible event
in history…one nuclear bomb is enough to destroy it." (Former
Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, 2001.) "The cancerous
growth called Israel must be uprooted from the area," (Iranian
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a recent speech.)
For 18 years now, Iran has been surreptitiously striving to
acquire nuclear weapons.
Initially, experts thought Iran's objective was to
counterbalance the Iraqi nuclear threat. However, now that
Saddam's Iraq has been obliterated, there can be no doubt the
Iranians aspire to wrest away Israel's Mid-Eastern nuclear
hegemony.
Sharon Speaks
'No plans for attack on Iran' / By Yitzhak Benhorin and Attila
Somfalvi
Sharon in U.S. interview: Israel not considering attack on
Iran, tells CNN, 'It's not that Israel should give the answer to
the international problem'
If Teheran succeeds, our region will change immensely.
Israel does not need nuclear power to prevent its destruction,
but several times in the past our neighbors were tempted by the
thought that their large armies would be able to defeat us.
'Hizbullah is Iran's fist in the Middle East'
The Israeli nuclear deterrence allowed the Arabs to reconcile
themselves to the futility inherent in those attempts and
convinced former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to strike a
peace deal with us.
The situation will change, however, once Iran possesses a
nuclear bomb. Under the nuclear umbrella, terror agents and even
regular armies would be able to attack Israel with no "Doomsday"
fears hanging over them.
The entire neighborhood, which includes Iraq, Gulf countries,
Turkey, and central Asian republics, would respond in a manner
that is hard to predict.
Our fears of the Iranian regional superpower stem not only from
its intentions, but also from its deeds.
The Hizbullah is Teheran's fist in the Middle East. The Hamas
and Islamic Jihad take orders from Iran and are funded by
Iranian money.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not need to explain all this to
his American hosts, but he did encounter differences of opinion
regarding Iran's distance from a bomb and the manner it should
be address, should the worst-case scenario prevail.
Does Sharon have an answer?
As opposed to our assessment, American intelligence experts
believe Iran will not be acquiring an atomic bomb before the
next decade rolls around. The views expressed by International
Atomic Energy Agency Head Mohammed ElBaradei lie somewhere in
the middle.
Two months ago, he said his organization has no proof that Iran
is scheming to produce nuclear weapons, but he also noted
Teheran has the necessary know-how, and could acquire nuclear
arms in two or three years.
Moreover, Iran also has missiles that could reach Israel.
Ukraine's new leader Victor Yushchenko recently testified that
former officials in his country sold missile components to the
Iranians.
According to testimony by top American military intelligence
officials, Iran may possess ocean-crossing ballistic missiles in
10 years.
Some experts argue the ideological tension in Iran has greatly
loosened, the younger generation is rejecting theocracy, and the
religious clerics' rule is doomed to end soon.
The problem is those predictions have been heard for several
years, yet every sign of liberal reform is pushed back by
Iranian leaders.
Iranian Threat
Copyright © Yedioth Internet. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
25 washingtonpost.com: U.N. Votes To Outlaw Nuclear Terrorism
No New Restrictions Put on Atomic Arms
By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page A23
UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- The 191-member U.N. General Assembly
on Wednesday unanimously approved a treaty outlawing the use of
nuclear weapons by terrorists and their supporters.
The Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
is the first anti-terrorism treaty to be adopted since the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It is the 13th
anti-terrorism treaty and builds on recent efforts by the U.N.
Security Council to compel states to strengthen their laws and
policies to combat terrorist groups.
The treaty, which governments will begin signing at the General
Assembly session in September, criminalizes the possession or
use of radioactive material or a nuclear device "to cause death
or serious bodily injury." It also makes it a crime to use a
nuclear device to damage property or the environment or to
attack a nuclear facility.
It requires governments that ratify the treaty to amend national
laws to prevent terrorists and their supporters from financing,
planning or participating in nuclear terrorism. It also calls on
governments to share information, ease extradition proceedings
and pursue criminal prosecutions of suspects linked to such
terrorist acts.
The nuclear treaty, which places no new restrictions on the use
of nuclear weapons by states, will become law after it is
ratified by 22 states.
"The convention will provide a legal basis for international
cooperation in the investigation, prosecution and extradition of
those who commit terrorist acts involving radioactive material
or a nuclear devices," said Stuart W. Holliday, the U.S.
representative to the United Nations for special political
affairs.
Wednesday's vote ended seven years of negotiations that began
when former Russian president Boris Yeltsin proposed a treaty to
prevent rogue terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear
material from insecure facilities spread across the former
Soviet Union.
An agreement on language was struck after members of the
57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference were assured
that the treaty would not be used to impose a generic definition
of terrorism. Defining terrorism has been an intensely
controversial issue at the United Nations, where Islamic
governments have argued that anti-Israel national liberation
movements that have targeted civilians should not be considered
terrorists.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has pressed the U.N.
membership to adopt another convention by the end of next year
that would provide a simple, universal definition of terrorism
and outlaw all forms of terrorism against civilians.
Nuclear arms proliferation experts generally welcomed the
General Assembly's actions as an indication of its recognition
of the threat but voiced skepticism over the treaty's capacity
to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
"It's a good thing" that they are making a concerted effort to
grapple with the threat of nuclear terrorism, said Charles D.
Ferguson II, an expert on terrorism at the Council on Foreign
Relations. "But the bottom line is, it's not going to stop it."
Permission to Republish © 2005 The Washington Post Company
© 1996- The Washington Post Company | | | Contact Us
*****************************************************************
26 Honolulu Advertiser: Key ingredient in 'dirty bombs' removed from UH
Posted on: Thursday, April 14, 2005
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Education Writer
Radioactive material that had been used for decades at the
University of Hawai'i in agricultural research — but that now
carries national-security implications — has been removed and
disposed of, according to the National Nuclear Security
Administration.
About cobalt-60
" What it is: Cobalt (chemical symbol Co) is a metal that may be
stable (nonradioactive, as found in nature), or unstable
(radioactive, manmade). The most common radioactive isotope of
cobalt is cobalt-60.
" What is cobalt-60 used for? Cobalt-60 is used in many common
industrial applications, such as in leveling devices and
thickness gauges, and in radiotherapy in hospitals. Large
sources of cobalt-60 are increasingly used for sterilization of
spices and certain foods. The powerful gamma rays kill bacteria
and other pathogens without damaging the product. The product is
not left radioactive. This process is sometimes called "cold
pasteurization."
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The substance, called cobalt-60, was loaned to the university in
the 1960s by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and was kept at
a lab on the Manoa campus near the Agricultural Engineering
Building on Maile Way, UH radiation safety officer Irene
Sakimoto said.
The 100 sources, or individual pieces, of cobalt-60 were removed
at the university's request, because they had greatly weakened
over time and were no longer being used in research, she said.
UH spokesman Jim Manke said the material had not posed any
danger to the public, and that the university did not possess
any more of it.
Federal authorities are concerned that cobalt-60 could be used
to manufacture a crude radioactive weapon, or "dirty bomb," if
obtained by terrorists. Such devices combine a conventional
explosive, such as dynamite, with radioactive material. The NNSA
has launched a national Radiological Threat Reduction Program to
recover and secure materials that could be used to make such
weapons.
"The removal of these radiological sources has greatly reduced
the chance that radiological materials could get into the wrong
hands," said Paul Longsworth, NNSA deputy director for
nonproliferation. "The University of Hawai'i, its surrounding
neighbors and the international community are safer today as a
result of this effort."
A private contractor with expertise in removing, packaging and
transporting cobalt-60 completed the removal on March 28, and it
was permanently disposed of at a secure facility on Tuesday, the
NNSA said.
The material was used in an irradiation process to treat
tropical fruit, such as papayas and rambutan, Sakimoto said. The
research was discontinued last year after a professor who
oversaw the effort retired, she said.
"They were testing different kind of fruits to see how much
radiation they would have to give it to kill insects, but keep
the fruit in a marketable condition," Sakimoto said.
Irradiation is used by some food processors to kill bacteria and
other pathogens that could otherwise result in spoilage or food
poisoning. Cobalt-60 is the most commonly used radionuclide for
food irradiation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
There is one commercial food irradiation facility in Hawai'i, on
the Big Island, but it does not use cobalt-60, according to the
state Department of Agriculture.
Scientists measure radiological activity, or strength, by a unit
called the curie, which is defined as 37 billion disintegrations
per second. Sakimoto said the cobalt-60 at UH measured at 1,000
curies.
"For research, it's a small amount," she said.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.comor
525-8084.
© COPYRIGHT 2004 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division
*****************************************************************
27 i-Newswire.com: GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS CONVENTION ON NUCLEAR TERRORISM
; WILL OPEN FOR SIGNATURE AT HEADQUARTERS 14 SEPTEMBER
The General Assembly today adopted, by consensus, the
International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear
Terrorism, and requested the Secretary-General to open it for
signature at Headquarters from 14 September 2005 to 31 December
2006. It also adopted 16 texts recommended by the Fifth Committee
(Administrative and Budgetary) during the first part of its
resumed fifty-ninth session.
i-Newswire, 2005-04-15 - Based on an instrument originally
proposed by the Russian Federation in 1998, the Convention will
provide for a definition of acts of nuclear terrorism and covers
a broad range of possible targets, including those against
nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors. Under its
provisions, the alleged offenders must be either extradited or
prosecuted. It also encourages States to cooperate in
preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and
assisting each other in connection with criminal investigations
and extradition proceedings.
The Convention will play a crucial role in preventing terrorists
from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction, the use of
which could lead to catastrophic consequences. It will
contribute to strengthening the international legal framework
for the suppression and combating of terrorism, as well as
promoting the rule of law in general, and become a valuable
addition to the existing 12 universal anti-terrorism conventions.
By its action today, stated several speakers, the Assembly had
shown that it could, when it had the political will, play an
important role in the global fight against terrorism, as well as
in the setting of legal norms. Member States were called on to
build on the success of that effort and to conclude the still
outstanding comprehensive convention on international terrorism,
hopefully before September’s high-level summit at the opening of
the Assembly’s sixtieth session.
At the same time, a number of delegations expressed concern
about the exclusion of armed forces from the scope of the
Convention. That exclusion, stated Iran’s representative, would
make the bulk of military activities by armed forces immune from
the application of the Convention, even if such activities
amounted to nuclear terrorism. Terrorist acts, added Egypt’s
representative, were considered criminal acts, whether committed
by States or non-States.
Acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee, the
Assembly increased this year’s budget of the United Nations
Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (
MONUC ) to almost $1 billion. The amount of $991.7 million
would provide for the deployment of an additional 5,900
personnel and implementation of the Mission’s expanded capacity
following the expansion of its mandate by the Security Council
last October.
To be appropriated by one of the 16 drafts approved without a
vote today, an additional $245.64 million for the maintenance of
the mission in the 12 months ending on 30 June includes $49.95
million previously authorized by the Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Questions ( ACABQ ), in addition to
$746.07 million appropriated by the terms of resolution 58/259 B.
Regretting that the administration of justice in the Secretariat
continues to be slow, cumbersome and costly, the Assembly -- by
a four-part resolution -– decided to form a panel to consider
redesigning the United Nations justice system. Composed of
external and independent experts, that body will be tasked with
proposing a model for resolving staff grievances that is
“independent, transparent, effective, efficient, adequately
resourced and ensuring managerial accountability”. The panel is
to start its work no later than 1 February 2006 and present its
findings and recommendations by the end of July the same year.
By two other drafts, the Assembly acted on requests for
additional financing for peacekeeping missions in Cyprus and
Kosovo, whose budgets for the period from 1 July 2004 to 30 June
2005 had been initially approved last June. Additional
appropriations were required due, in part, to changes in
subsistence allowance rates, revised salary scales and currency
fluctuations between the euro and United States dollar.
The Assembly also took a decision on the means of enhancing the
capacity of the Office of Internal Oversight Services to conduct
its mandated functions efficiently. Among the issues addressed
by the resolution on this matter is the need to ensure
protection against retaliation for staff who report misconduct,
and implement appropriate managerial, disciplinary or legal
action in response to misconduct and criminal behaviour.
Another three-part resolution addressed the procurement reform
recently initiated within the United Nations system, as well as
the Office’s recommendations related to the audit of air safety
standards in peacekeeping missions and the functioning of the
Headquarters Committee on Contracts.
Other Budget Committee texts concerned: outsourcing practices;
an information and communication technology strategy;
appropriations for $81.17 million for special political missions
in Iraq and Bougainville; increased annual salary for the
members of the International Court of Justice and the judges of
the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals; offices in New York
representing United Nations system organizations headquartered
elsewhere; standards of accommodation for air travel;
construction of additional office facilities in Addis Ababa (
Ethiopia ); and the Secretary-General’s report on the review of
the regular programme of technical cooperation and the
Development Account.
Also, in view of the fact that printed copies of vacancy
announcements for the newly-established Department of Safety and
Security had not been distributed to delegations as required by
its resolution 59/266 of 23 December 2004, the Assembly adopted
a draft decision, by the terms of which three D-2 posts and one
D-1 post would, on an exceptional basis, be re-advertised for 30
days. The Assembly also decided that the deadline for receipt
of applications for the 14 P-3 to P-5 posts, for which vacancy
announcements had been issued between 3 and 31 March in the
Galaxy system, but not distributed in printed copy, would be
extended by 15 days, also on an exceptional basis.
Finally, the Assembly deferred for future consideration a number
of reports on the Fifth Committee’s agenda, including the
implementation of the capital master plan and measures to
strengthen the international civil service. Consideration of
the Office of Internal Oversight Services report on the review
of the operations and management of United Nations libraries was
deferred to the Assembly’s sixtieth session.
Addressing the Assembly today were the representatives of Cuba,
United States, Trinidad and Tobago ( on behalf of the Group of
Latin America and CaribbeanStates ), Luxembourg ( on behalf of
the European Union ), Russian Federation, Indonesia, Malawi ( on
behalf of the African Group ), India, Pakistan, Syria, Sri
Lanka, Norway and Mexico.
The Assembly will meet again at 3 p.m. tomorrow, 14 April, to
consider follow-up to the Millennium Summit.
Background
The General Assembly met this morning to consider the report of
the Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution
51/210/of 17 December 1996 ( document A/59/766 ) and a number of
reports submitted by the Fifth Committee ( Administrative and
Budgetary ) on the first part of its resumed fifty-ninth session.
Report of Ad Hoc Committee
A resolution contained in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee
established by General Assembly resolution 51/210 of 17 December
1996, also known as the Ad Hoc Committee on International
Terrorism recommended that the Assembly adopt the International
Convention for the suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism,
which was annexed to it. ( For more information on the
Convention, see Press Release L/3085 of 1 April. )
Fifth Committee Reports
The Assembly had before it a report on the Programme budget for
the biennium 2004-2005 ( document A/59/448/Add.3 ), which
contains a three-part draft resolution on “special subjects
relating to the programme budget for the biennium 2004-2005” and
four draft decisions.
By part I of the draft, on “estimates in respect of special
political missions, good offices and other political initiatives
authorized by the General Assembly and/or the Security Council”,
the Assembly would appropriate an amount of some $81.17 million
for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq ( UNAMI ) and
the United Nations Observer Mission in Bougainville.
By part II, on “information and communication technology
strategy”, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to
develop and implement cost-neutral measures to provide, in the
working languages ( English and French ) of the Organization,
Member States with secure access to information currently
accessible only on the Intranet of the United Nations
Secretariat. It would also request a more detailed analysis of
the return on investment in information technology and the
impact of such investment on the quality and timelines of
service delivery and of the resource requirements resulting from
information and communication technology projects.
Taking note of ongoing efforts in the field of disaster recovery
and security threats in the new Department of Safety and
Security, as well as in the Information Technology Services
Division of the Office of Central Support Services, the Assembly
would encourage all decision-makers involved to elaborate a
comprehensive approach in this matter. It would also reiterate
the need for further integration and compatibility of
administrative platforms of the inter-agency network and request
the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to ensure that
technological infrastructures fully supported Latin, non-Latin
and bidirectional applications so as to enhance the equality of
the official languages ( Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
Russian and Spanish ).
Part III, on “conditions of service and compensation for
officials other than Secretariat officials: members of the
International Court of Justice, judges of the International
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and ad litem judges for the
Tribunals”, would have the Assembly decide, among other things,
to increase the annual salary and pensions of the members of the
Court and the judges of the Tribunals by 6.3 per cent, effective
1 January as an interim measure, pending issuance of a
comprehensive report that would address such issues as proposals
for a mechanism of remuneration, based on market exchange rates
and local price fluctuations, that would limit such remuneration
divergence from that of comparable senior-level United Nations
officials; and protection of judges’ pensions.
The Assembly would also decide that the conditions of service
and compensation of the members of the ICJ and judges of the two
Tribunals would next be reviewed at its sixty-first session.
By draft decision I, the Assembly would take note of the
Secretary-General’s report on the United Nations Fund for
International Partnership ( document A/59/170 ).
By draft decision II, the Assembly would take note of the report
of the Secretary-General on the construction of additional
office facilities at the Economic Commission for Africa ( ECA )
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( document A/59/444 ) and endorse the
recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions ( ACABQ ) (
document A/59/572 ).
Draft decision III would have the Assembly take note of the
Secretary-General’s report on the review of the structure and
functions of all liaison offices or representation in New York
of organizations headquartered elsewhere funded from the regular
budget ( document A/59/395 ) and the ACABQ’s related report (
document A/59/552 ).
By draft decision IV, the Assembly would decide to defer to its
sixtieth session consideration of the report of the Office of
Internal Oversight Services on the review of the operations and
management of United Nations libraries ( document A/59/373 ).
By the text of draft decision V, the Assembly would consider, as
a matter of priority, the Secretary-General’s report on the
review of the regular programme of technical cooperation and the
Development Account ( document A/59/397 ). For summary of the
report, see Press Release GA/AB/3663 of 17 March.
Draft decision VI, on standards of accommodation for air travel,
would have the Assembly take note of the Secretary-General’s and
ACABQ’s reports on the matter ( documents A/59/523 and A/59/573,
respectively ). For summary of the report, see Press Release
GA/AB/3659 of 7 March.
The fifth committee’s report on Programme budget for the
biennium 2004-2005: Human resources management ( document
A/59/774 ) contained one draft decision by which the Assembly,
in view of the fact that printed copies of vacancy announcements
had not been distributed to delegations with respect to the
establishment of the Department of Safety and Security, as
required by Assembly resolution 59/266 of 23 December 2004,
would decide that three D-2 posts and one D-1 post should, on an
exceptional basis, be re-advertised for 30 days, while the
process of recruitment actions already under way would be
continued. The Assembly would also decide that the deadline for
receipt of applications for the 14 P-3 to P-5 posts, for which
vacancy announcements had been issued between 3 and 31 March in
the Galaxy system, but not been distributed in printed copy,
would be extended by 15 days, also on an exceptional basis.
A report on programme budget for the biennium 2004-2005:
Administration of justice at the United Nations ( document
A/59/773 ) contains a four-part draft resolution. By the terms
of the text, the Assembly would emphasize the importance of an
efficient and effective system of internal justice, which would
ensure that individuals and the Organization are held
accountable for their actions. Recognizing that a transparent,
impartial and effective system of administration of justice is a
necessary condition for ensuring fair and just treatment of
staff, important for the success of human resources reform in
the Organization, it would regret that the present system of the
administration of justice in the Secretariat continues to be
slow, cumbersome and costly.
The Assembly would decide to form a panel of external and
independent experts to consider redesigning the administration
of justice system within the United Nations. That body would be
tasked with proposing a model for a new system for resolving
staff grievances that is “independent, transparent, effective,
efficient and adequately resourced and ensuring managerial
accountability”. The model should involve guiding principles
and procedures that clearly articulate the participation of
staff and management within reasonable time frames and limits.
The panel would start its function no later than 1 February 2006
and present its findings and recommendations by the end of July
that year.
Among measures put forward by the text are the training of
managers and implementation of a sound performance appraisal
system as potential means of avoiding conflict. The Assembly
would also stress the link between managers’ ability to respond
in the course of a proceeding with their own performance
appraisal and affirm the need to ensure proper training for the
participants of the administration of justice system. It would
note that Staff Rule 112.3 relating to the financial liability
of managers has yet to be implemented and decide that the
reduced time limits recommended by the Office of Internal
Oversight Services for the appeals process will be mandatory no
later than January 2006.
The text addresses both measures to strengthen informal
mechanisms of conflict resolution, such as the Office of the
Ombudsman, and formal bodies, including the Panel of Counsel,
the Administrative Law Unit, Joint Appeals Board and the United
Nations Administrative Tribunal. By its terms, the Assembly
would recognize the need to strengthen the capacities of the
Panel of Counsel, which would be encouraged to increase outreach
activities, and invite the staff representatives to explore the
possibility of establishing a staff-funded scheme that would
provide legal advice and support to the staff. The
Secretary-General would be invited to consider appropriate
incentives to be built into the system to encourage staff
members to serve on the panels.
Taking note that the Administrative Law Unit has multiple
functions of administrative review, appeals, disciplinary
matters and advisory services, the Assembly would request the
Secretary-General to present proposals to separate those
functions to avoid conflict of interest, through redeployment of
resources.
Stressing that increased accountability of managers would
contribute to the elimination of the backlog of appeals cases,
the Assembly would decide that, as a means to facilitate early
consideration of cases, staff members wishing to appeal an
administrative decision should send a copy of their request to
the executive head of their department. The Administrative Law
Unit should clarify with managers the requirements for the
respondents’ reply, including time limits expected from
managers. The Secretary-General would be requested to ensure
that written explanations by managers are submitted to the Unit
within eight weeks with no possibility of extension. Compliance
with this responsibility would constitute part of the managers’
Performance Appraisal System ( PAS ).
On the Tribunal, the Assembly would regret that steps were not
taken to separate its secretariat from the Office of the Legal
Affairs and endorse the Secretary-General’s proposal to transfer
the resources of the Administrative Tribunal to a separate
section of the budget, effective with the beginning of the
2006-2007 biennium. It would also acknowledge the need for
further strengthening of professionalism of the Administrative
Tribunal by increasing membership by professional judges and
amend the statute of the Tribunal to say, in part, that its
Members “shall possess judicial experience in the field of
administrative law or its equivalent within their national
jurisdiction”. The Tribunal would be requested to review the
rules, practices and procedures of similar tribunals towards
“enhanced effective management of caseloads”.
The report on the United Nations common system ( document
A/59/647/Add.1 ) contained a draft decision by the terms of
which the Assembly would decide to consider, as a matter of
priority, the questions of the strengthening of the
international civil service during its sixtieth session.
The report on the Financing of the United Nations Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus ( UNFICYP ) ( document A/59/770 ) addressed the
Secretary-General’s request for some $1.9 million in additional
financing ( see Press Release GA/AB/3662 of 16 March ). By the
terms of the draft, the Assembly would decide to keep the matter
under review during its current session and urge Member States
in arrears to pay their contributions to the Force, taking note
of the fact that, by 28 February, only 41 Member States had paid
their assessments in full. As of that date, outstanding dues
for the mission amounted to $24.1 million. Also by the text,
the Assembly would invite voluntary contributions to the Force
in cash and in the form of services and supplies, as appropriate.
[The budget of UNFICYP for 2004-2005 was approved in June 2004,
but additional appropriations were requested, mostly due to an
unexpected relocation of military personnel from their current
accommodations. Other reasons for a revised request included
substantial changes in the cost parameters, including
subsistence allowance rates, revised salary scales for staff and
currency fluctuations between the euro and United States dollar.
Additional requirements would be needed despite anticipated
savings from the downsizing of the Force from 1,230 to 860
military contingent personnel, subsequent to Security Council
resolution 1568 ( 2004 ).]
Emphasizing that all peacekeeping missions should be given equal
and non-discriminatory treatment and provided with adequate
resources to effectively discharge their mandates, the Assembly
would further request the Secretary-General to ensure that the
Force is administered with maximum efficiency and economy. In
particular, it would reiterate its request that fullest possible
use be made of facilities and equipment at the United Nations
Logistics base at Brindisi, Italy, in order to minimize the
costs of procurement for the Force; and that efforts continue to
recruit local General Service staff.
Endorsing the observations and recommendations of the Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions ( ACABQ ),
the Assembly would also request the Secretary-General to ensure
their full implementation.
[In its report, the Advisory Committee recommended that any
additional requirement be reported in the performance report of
the mission. However, it stated that it only made such a
recommendation in view of the relatively minor amount being
requested, as requests for revised appropriations should be made
exclusively in exceptional circumstances.
While recognizing the obligation of the United Nations to
provide safe and sanitary accommodation for troops, and the
necessity of transferring them from their current dilapidated
premises, the ACABQ pointed out, however, that the military
contingent of the mission would move from accommodations
provided by the Government of Cyprus to facilities to be
financed by the mission. Intensive contacts and discussions on
the question of accommodation for troops had been maintained
with the host country, and the mission had yet to receive a
formal reply from the Government of Cyprus.]
In that connection, the Assembly would request the
Secretary-General to expedite negotiations with the host
Government on issues surrounding the relocation of the mission’s
personnel, in accordance with the provisions of the March 1964
agreement between the United Nations and the Government of
Cyprus.
The report on the financing of the United Nations Organization
Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( MONUC ) (
document A/59/771 ) contained a draft resolution by which the
Assembly would appropriate an additional amount of some $245.64
million for the maintenance of the Mission for the period from 1
October 2004 to 30 June 2005, inclusive of the amount of some
$49.95 million previously authorized by the ACABQ and taking
into account the total amount of $746.07 million already
appropriated and apportioned for the 2004-2005 period by the
terms of resolution 58/259 B.
Also by the text, the Assembly would take note of the status of
contributions to MONUC as at 15 March 2005, including the
contributions outstanding in the amount of $309.4 million, and
note with concern that only 45 Member States have paid their
assessed contributions in full. The Assembly would urge all
other Member States, in particular those in arrears, to ensure
payment of their outstanding assessments. The Assembly would
also emphasize that every effort should be made to introduce
strict budgetary discipline.
The report on the Financing of the United Nations Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo ( UNMIK ) ( document A/59/772 )
contained one draft resolution by which the Assembly would
decide to appropriate an additional amount of $30 million for
the maintenance of that Mission from the period 1 July 2004 to
30 June 2005. A total amount of $278.41 million had already
been appropriated for the Mission for the same period under
resolution 58/305.
In his report, the Secretary-General had asked an additional
appropriation for the Mission of $37.4 million, some $3.6
million of which could be met through reprioritization of funds.
Those appropriations were necessary because of the increase in
subsistence allowance rates effective 1 May 2004, revised salary
scales for national staff effective 1 March 2004, currency
fluctuations and a new air-operations contract effective 15
September 2004 ( for more background information, see Press
Release GA/AB/3662 of 16 March ).
Finally, the Fifth Committee’s report on Review of the
efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of
the United Nations ( document A/59/652/Add.1 ), contained three
draft resolutions. By the terms of a draft on the “Report of
the Office of Internal Oversight Services on strengthening the
investigation functions in the United Nations” ( document
A/58/708 ), the Assembly would re-emphasize the principle of
separation, impartiality and fairness of those with
responsibility for the investigation function and note the need
to enhance the capacity of the Office to conduct its mandated
investigation functions efficiently. It would also recognize
that the Office has established an efficient mechanism to enable
staff and other persons engaged in activities under the
authority of the Organization to convey their allegations
directly to the Office.
Further by the text, the Assembly would decide that, while the
Office may entrust trained programme managers to conduct
investigations on its behalf, in cases of serious misconduct
and/or criminal behaviour, investigations should be conducted by
professional investigators. As serious misconduct falling under
category I, the Assembly would single out sexual exploitation
and abuse. It would also note that sexual harassment
constitutes a serious concern to Member States.
For the handling of minor forms of misconduct, the
Secretary-General would be requested to implement the Office’s
proposals to increase basic investigation training, develop
written procedures for the proper conduct of investigations and
promote the concept of an independent investigation function
within the United Nations. Deciding that the results of
investigation conducted by programme managers should be reported
to the Office, the Assembly would also request the
Secretary-General to establish an administrative mechanism for
mandatory reporting by programme managers of allegations of
misconduct to the Office. By the terms of the draft, such a
mechanism should not adversely affect the right of individual
staff members to report misconduct directly to the Office.
Where poor management is a contributory factor in cases of
misconduct, the Assembly would address the need to ensure
appropriate managerial action by the Office of Human Resources
Management and request the Secretary-General to ensure
protection of staff who report misconduct within the Secretariat
against retaliation. In cases of proven misconduct and/or
criminal behaviour, the Secretary-General would be requested to
ensure expeditious disciplinary or legal actionin accordance
with established procedures.
Also by the text, Member States would be informed on an annual
basis about all actions taken, and all staff of the Organization
would be told of the most common examples of misconduct and
criminal behaviour and their disciplinary consequences,
including any legal action, with due regard to the protection of
the privacy of the staff members concerned. When conclusions of
the Office of Internal Oversight Services are disputed by a
programme manager, appropriate action would be taken to resolve
the dispute. Information thereon would be included in the
annual report of the Office.
The report contained a three-part draft resolution on
“procurement reform”. By the terms of part A, the Assembly
would welcome the progress achieved in addressing recent
concerns and significant improvements made by the
Secretary-General in procurement reform at Headquarters and in
the field missions. It would call on the executive heads of the
funds and programmes of the United Nations to continue their
efforts to improve the efficiency of procurement by reducing
duplication and harmonizing procurement procedures throughout
the system, in close cooperation with the Procurement Service of
the Office of Central Support Services.
Further by the text, the Secretary-General would be requested to
encourage all the organizations of the United Nations system to
further improve their procurement practices, among other things
by participating in the United Nations Global Marketplace.
Noting efforts made by the Secretary-General to increase
procurement opportunities for developing countries and countries
with economies in transition, the Assembly would request the
Secretary-General to continue to simplify the vendor
registration process, taking into account access to the
Internet, and take further steps to sensitize the business
community to procurement opportunities within the United Nations
system. The Assembly would also request the Secretary-General,
when applying the principle of “best value for the money”, to
continue safeguarding the financial interests of the
Organization, consider best practices and ensure that adequate
records are kept.
The Secretary-General would also be requested to implement
measures to reduce the timeline associated with invoice payment.
The Secretary-General should further issue ethical guidelines
for those involved in the procurement process and adopt a code
of conduct for vendors. He should also continue to ensure that
consistent non-compliance and poor performance by vendors was
recorded and that appropriate action was taken with respect to
their inclusion on the list of vendors. Noting the plan to
provide purchasing cards to departments and offices for
low-value items, the Assembly would request the Secretariat to
develop strong internal control mechanisms.
Addressing the increase in the number of ex post facto cases,
the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to continue to
take appropriate actions in order to minimize that practice to
those cases which fully complied with the criteria of exigency.
By the terms of the same draft, the Assembly would encourage the
Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group to continue its efforts
to produce comprehensive and generally applicable statistics on
procurement activities of all United Nations entities.
By part B, the Assembly would, as recommended in the report of
the Office of Internal Oversight Services on the audit of
safeguarding air safety standards while procuring air services
for peacekeeping missions, request the Secretary-General to
fully document the reasons for not following up on the recovery
of liquidated damages for contracts and apply consistent methods
to the collection of liquidated damages from vendors. To ensure
the highest level of air safety, he would also be requested to
ensure compliance within the Department of Peacekeeping
Operations with the standards and recommended practices of the
International Civil Aviation Organization regarding the
chartering of civilian registered aircraft.
Further by the text, the Assembly would note with concern the
delay and difficulties in recruiting aviation safety officers in
some missions and request the Secretary-General to fill all
vacancies expeditiously. In view of the limited number of site
visits by aviation experts to operational bases of air carriers,
he would be requested to ensure that experts are able to conduct
the necessary technical assessment of vendors. Also, noting
with concern that occurrences attributed to specific vendors
were not included in the vendor performance reports, the
Assembly would ask the Secretary-General to ensure that such
occurrences are reflected in appropriate documents. The
Department of Peacekeeping Operations would be requested to
communicate the information on vendor performance to all
aviation offices involved, including the Procurement Service.
Part C addresses the Office of Internal Oversight Services
report on the audit of the functioning of the Headquarters
Committee on Contracts. By its terms, the Assembly would
request the Secretary-General to review without delay options to
better safeguard the independence of that Committee and examine
the appropriateness of the current threshold for its review of
procurement cases, taking into account the development of
delegation of authority to the field offices as described in an
ACABQ report on the matter.
By a draft resolution on outsourcing practices, the Assembly
would request the Secretary-General to continue to consider
outsourcing actively in accordance with the guidance and goals
mentioned in Assembly resolution 55/232 and to ensure that
programme managers satisfy, in their assessment of whether or
not an activity of the Organization could be fully, or even
partially, outsourced, criteria of: cost-effectiveness and
efficiency; safety and security; maintaining the international
character of the Organization; and maintaining the integrity of
procedures and processes.
The Assembly would, as recommended in the report, defer for
future consideration a number of agenda items and related
documents, including reports on the capital master plan.
Action on Fifth Committee’s Drafts
The Fifth Committee Rapporteur, DENISA HUTANOVA ( Slovakia ),
introduced the Committee’s reports.
The Assembly first took up the report on the programme budget
for the 2004-2005 biennium ( document A/59/448/Add.3 ).
Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a three-part draft
resolution entitled, “Special subjects relating to the 2004-2005
programme budget”.
It then adopted, all without a vote, a series of draft
decisions, including: draft decision I on the United Nations
Fund for International Partnerships; draft decision II on
construction of additional office facilities at the Economic
Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa; and draft decision III on
the review of the structure and functions of all liaison offices
or representation in New York of organizations headquartered
elsewhere funded from the regular budget.
It also adopted draft decision IV on the report of the Office of
Internal Oversight Services on the review of the operations and
management of United Nations libraries; draft decision V on
review of the regular programme of technical cooperation and the
Development Account; and draft decision VI on standards of
accommodation for air travel.
Speaking in explanation of position, the representative of Cuba
said, referring to decision V, that he regretted the fact that
there had been no opportunity to discuss the subject during the
first part of the resumed session, and hoped it would be
examined as soon as possible. If it could not be considered
during the renewed resumed session of the Committee, the matter
should be considered outside the budget framework. Until a
decision on the Secretary-General’s proposals was taken,
including on consolidation of two budget items, his delegation
understood that the two parts should be considered separately
during the budget exercise. On decision VI, he reiterated that
there was a need for corresponding and detailed information to
take decisions and pointed out that the Secretariat, in
preparing a new report, should take into account the
recommendations in the report of the ACABQ and recommendations
made during informal consultations. New developments in air
travel conditions should also be taken into account.
Turning to the report on human resources management ( document
A/59/774 ), the Assembly adopted, without a vote, a draft
decision on recruitment.
It then adopted, without a vote, a four-part draft text on the
administration of justice contained in document A/59/773.
Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a draft
decision contained in document A/59/647/Add.1 on the United
Nations common system.
Taking up several drafts on the financing of United Nations
peacekeeping operations, the Assembly adopted, without a vote, a
draft on the financing of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force
in Cyprus ( UNFICYP ) ( document A/59/770 ).
It adopted, without a vote, a text on the financing of the
United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo ( MONUC ) ( document A/59/771 ).
The Assembly, without a vote, also adopted the draft on the
financing of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission
in Kosovo ( UNMIK ) ( document A/59/772 ).
Turning to the review of the efficiency of the administration
and financial functioning of the United Nations ( document
A/59/652/Add.1 ), the Assembly adopted, without a vote, draft
resolution I on the report of the Office of Internal Oversight
Services on strengthening the investigation functions in the
United Nations.
Draft resolution II on procurement reform was also adopted
without a vote, as was draft resolution III on outsourcing
practices.
A draft decision on questions deferred for future consideration
was also adopted without a vote.
Action on Nuclear Terrorism Convention
The Assembly adopted the International Convention for the
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism by acclamation.
Speaking after the adoption, STUART HOLLIDAY ( United States )
said that, by its action today, the Assembly had shown that it
could, when it had the political will, play an important role in
the global fight against terrorism. The Convention, when it
entered into force, would strengthen the international legal
framework to combat terrorism. It would provide a legal basis
for international cooperation in the investigation, prosecution
and extradition of those who commit terrorist acts involving
radioactive material or a nuclear device.
The Convention, he said, recognized the right of all States to
develop and apply nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. That
right, of course, was predicated on ensuring that development of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was not used as a cover for
nuclear proliferation. The Convention was the first
counter-terrorism convention adopted by the Assembly since the
terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. He called on Member
States to build on the success of that effort and to work
cooperatively to conclude the still outstanding comprehensive
convention on international terrorism. He also urged them to
sign the Convention when it opened for signature in September
and to ratify and implement it as soon as possible.
GAILE A. RAMOUTAR ( Trinidad and Tobago ), on behalf of the
Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, said the
Convention adopted today filled an important lacuna in the body
of international conventions that sought to establish a criminal
law regime to deal adequately with acts of terrorism. She urged
Member States to undertake the necessary measures to ensure the
early entry into force of the Convention.
While celebrating today’s achievement, she said it must be borne
in mind that the Assembly must still conclude the negotiation of
the draft comprehensive convention on terrorism. In that
regard, she noted that the last meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee
examined exhaustively the elements for a definition of terrorism
proposed in the Report of the High-Level Panel and in the
Secretary-General’s Report “In Larger Freedom”, and that it
found that those suggestions were already properly reflected in
the draft convention being considered by the Ad Hoc Committee.
Such a definition must be a technical legal concept, suitable
for a criminal law instrument, and not a broad political
statement. In that context, she was convinced that the Ad Hoc
Committee and its sister working group of the Sixth Committee
were the appropriate expert bodies to negotiate a broadly
acceptable definition of the crime of terrorism.
JEAN-MARC HOSCHEIT ( Luxembourg ), speaking on behalf of the
European Union and associated countries, said that in his
report, the Secretary-General had identified several priorities
in the fight against international terrorism, including the
earliest conclusion of the convention on the suppression of
nuclear terrorism. Member States had heeded his call. The
European Union thanked the Russian Federation for submitting the
draft convention to the Ad Hoc Committee established pursuant to
General Assembly resolution 210/51.
Expressing the hope that work on the comprehensive convention
against international terrorism would proceed in the same spirit
of constructive cooperation, he said that preventing terrorists
from obtaining nuclear material, and creating such a complete
legal system to that end, were elements of inestimable value in
the common struggle against international terrorism.
ALEXANDER KONUZIN ( Russian Federation ) said that the
Assembly’s adoption of the convention had particularly important
political and legal consequences. In an environment of
unrelenting escalation, and the use by terrorists of violent and
sophisticated methods, it was important not to leave the
slightest loophole for immunity for terrorist acts.
Noting that the convention provided a mechanism for the return
of seized nuclear material to the States parties to whom they
belonged, he expressed the hope that the instrument would be
implemented with strict respect for human rights and
international humanitarian law. The success of the convention
depended on the willingness of States parties to implement it.
AMR ABOUL ATTA ( Egypt ), referring to the interpretation of
paragraph 1 of the Convention’s article 4, affirmed that States
should abide by international law applicable in armed conflict,
particularly the principles and rules of international
humanitarian law. Egypt’s interest in emphasizing that had led
it to present a preambular proposal to affirm those elements
but, despite the support of various delegations, Egypt had
realized that it could lead to prolonging the negotiations. His
delegation had, therefore, withdrawn the proposal in order to
ensure the adoption of the Convention in the current Assembly
session, bearing in mind the content of paragraph 1, article 4.
He emphasized that terrorist acts were considered criminal acts,
whether committed by States or non-States. The exclusion of
armed forces from the scope of the Convention should not be
interpreted to mean the acts of States could not be considered
terrorist acts, even where such acts were criminalized under
different legal regimes, whether related to international law or
international humanitarian law. From legal perspectives,
terrorism was not limited to non-States; States could also
commit terrorist acts.
PRAYONO ATIYANTO ( Indonesia ) said that a significant
contribution of the Convention adopted today lay in the fact
that it would prevent individuals or groups from gaining access
to nuclear materials that could be used for terrorist attacks.
Along with the existing 12 conventions, the Nuclear Terrorism
Convention would strengthen and make more comprehensive the
international legal framework for combating terrorism. He
thanked the Russian Federation for its initiative to bring the
issue to the attention of Member States in 1998. That
initiative paved the way for the Convention before the Assembly
today.
The conclusion of the Convention, he said, would improve the
means available to the international community to combat
international terrorism. Because terrorism was a danger to all
nations, they must act in concert to deal with the challenge.
Evidence of that solidarity must be evidenced in their
willingness to strengthen the international community’s capacity
to deal with such scourges. As a nation that had been a victim
of terrorism, Indonesia had always been consistent in its
condemnation of terrorism and its cooperation to combat
terrorism. Given the borderless nature of terrorism,
international cooperation should be a salient feature of the
international strategy to tackle it.
Turning to the negotiations, he said that the decision by the
Assembly to establish the Ad Hoc Committee had proven effective.
The existence and operation of that Committee had served to
keep the Assembly in the forefront of the multilateral process
of concluding such an instrument. The current negotiating forum
should continue to be used to complete the comprehensive
terrorism convention.
BROWN BESWICK CHIMPHAMBA ( Malawi ), on behalf of the African
Group, said that after seven years, Member States had been able
to mobilize their collective will to adopt the Nuclear Terrorism
Convention. The adoption of the Convention reaffirmed the
pivotal role of the Assembly in combating terrorism and in
establishing legislative norms. He appreciated the foresight
and commitment that informed the initiation of the Convention by
the Russian Federation. The Convention strengthened the
existing legal arsenal for fighting terrorism. The African
Group hoped the draft comprehensive convention would also soon
attain a positive outcome.
NIRUPAM SEN ( India ) said his country attached high priority to
the formulation of international legal standards to combat
terrorism. The General Assembly, by adopting the convention
today, had demonstrated its resolve to deny terrorists access to
nuclear materials and enhance international cooperation between
States in devising and adopting effective practical measures for
the prevention of acts of nuclear terrorism, and for the
prosecution and punishment of perpetrators. India was happy to
note that the convention was the first international legal
instrument adopted by the General Assembly since 11 September
2001. That was the optimal approach to international law-making.
Emphasizing that the international community would have to
remain united in persevering with its collective campaign to
root out terrorism, he said terrorists tried to usurp the role
played by secular and democratic nationalist forces. Their
reactionary vision could only strengthen reaction while their
brutal anti-humanism doomed them to certain failure. The
importance of the Secretary-General’s recent calls upon Member
States to expeditiously conclude both the convention on the
suppression of nuclear terrorism and the comprehensive
convention on international terrorism could not be
overestimated. He had also called upon Member States to
conclude negotiations on the comprehensive convention on
international terrorism by the sixtieth Assembly session and it
was to be hoped that Member States would demonstrate the same
resolve and flexibility in concluding that instrument.
MUNIR AKRAM ( Pakistan ) expressed his country’s full support
for the strengthening of the international legal regime for
countering all forms of terrorism and described the use by
terrorists of nuclear weapons or materials as unacceptable and
“the ultimate nightmare scenario”.
Pakistan shared a number of concerns raised, particularly
regarding paragraph 2 of article 4, which could be interpreted
to imply that it was permissible for States in certain cases to
attack or subvert the nuclear facilities or installations of
another State. Pakistan had suggested the addition of a new
paragraph to clarify that nothing in the convention would
justify undertaking, encouraging or participating in, directly
or indirectly, any action aimed at causing the destruction of,
or damage to, any nuclear installation or facility. However, in
response to assurances from the convention’s principal sponsors,
and in order to facilitate its adoption by consensus and advance
the campaign against terrorism, Pakistan had decided not to
press its proposals.
He underlined the importance of interpreting and applying the
convention in a manner that was fully compatible with the
requirements of international law applicable in armed conflict,
particularly those of the principles and rules of international
humanitarian law. Second, a distinction must be maintained
between counter-terrorism and non-proliferation.
Expressing concern that terrorists were more likely to acquire
biological and chemical weapons rather than nuclear weapons,
which were difficult even for States to develop, he said there
was a need to address that concern also, especially through the
adoption and implementation of effective verification schemes to
ensure compliance with the comprehensive ban against chemical
and biological weapons. Finally, for sustained success against
terrorism, there was a need to adopt a comprehensive strategy
that effectively addressed the root causes of terrorism, such as
foreign occupation, denial of self-determination, as well as
political and socio-economic injustices.
FAYSSAL MEKDAD ( Syria ) said that the deliberations on the
Convention had lasted seven years. That signified the great
importance of the issue at hand, and provided sufficient time to
consider the valuable proposals presented over the years. While
he was glad that many of the views expressed were included in
the Convention, he had hoped to see a clear reference in the
Convention banning the military forces of States using nuclear
weapons while carrying out their duties. At the same time, he
was satisfied that the Convention stipulated that it did not
deal with the use of nuclear weapons by States. That meant that
the door was still open for Member States to deliberate on that
important aspect in the future.
He reiterated his appreciation to all delegations that
participated in the deliberations and spared no effort in
concluding the Convention, as well as for the role played by the
Russian Federation in submitting the idea for the Convention.
Syria had been the target of terrorism, and he reaffirmed his
country’s willingness to cooperate with countries to eliminate
that scourge, as well as share its experiences with others.
VIJAYASIRI PADUKKAGE ( Sri Lanka ) said that the adoption of the
Convention today by consensus constituted an unequivocal
commitment by the Assembly to address the scourge of terrorism
through collective action. It was also a clear manifestation of
the pivotal role of the Assembly in the international
law-creating process. The Convention supported the broad
rationale that terrorist offenders who resorted to nuclear
terrorism should not find safe haven within the territory of
Member States.
“Our work is not yet complete”, he stated. Although Member
States had achieved significant progress in the draft
comprehensive convention, there were still differences among the
delegations on certain key provisions. Undoubtedly, the
positions of different delegations needed to be taken into
account in negotiating a legal instrument, which involved issues
of political and legal complexity. Nevertheless, it was
necessary to find a way to surmount the differences through
collective efforts, in a spirit of cooperation and compromise.
The coming months leading to the high-level summit in September
would provide a unique opportunity to engage in consultations on
the outstanding issues. Once finalized, the draft comprehensive
convention would fill the legal vacuum that still existed in the
anti-terrorism regime.
HANS JACOB FRYDENLUND ( Norway ) said that today marked an
important step towards a more complete international regime for
fighting international terrorism. Today’s adoption was of vital
importance as it would contribute to the denial of nuclear
material to terrorists. The need to ensure the protection of
radioactive materials and to combat the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction was an objective Norway fully shared. It
was one of the primary reasons for its long-standing cooperation
with Russia, the United States and the European Union in
ensuring that radioactive material in north-western Russia was
disposed of in a safe and controlled manner. He hoped that the
future debates on the draft comprehensive convention on
terrorism would be carried forward in a spirit of cooperation
and compromise.
JUANA ELENA RAMOS RODRIGUEZ ( Cuba ) said her delegation had
gone along with the consensus to ensure the convention’s
adoption. However, none of its provisions should be interpreted
as encouraging or condoning the threat or use of force in
international relations, which, in all cases, should be done in
accordance with international law and the principles of the
United Nations Charter. The unjustified use of State forces
against another State could not be condoned in the light of the
convention, the very purpose of which was to fight nuclear
terrorism.
Noting that nothing in the convention should be interpreted as
authorizing the use of nuclear weapons against another State,
she said it provided guarantees for those States that possessed
nuclear weapons. Cuba considered that the best guarantee to
ensure that nuclear weapons did not fall into terrorist hands
was the total and complete elimination of all nuclear weapons,
the very existence of which constituted a threat to
international peace and security.
MOSTAFA DOLATYAR ( Iran ) said his country had suffered from the
scourge of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, and had
taken decisive measures towards the elimination of all forms and
manifestations of international terrorism. Iran was concerned
that paragraph 2, article 4 stipulated that the activities of a
State’s military forces in the exercise of their official
duties, inasmuch as they were governed by other rules of
international law, were not governed by the convention. The
phrase “in exercise of their official duties: was vague and
left room for a broader interpretation of the immunities of
military forces than was provided for in general international
law. That would make the bulk of armed forces activities immune
from the application of the convention, even if such activities
may amount to nuclear terrorism.
Echoing the position of the Non-Aligned Movement, he said that
any attack or threat of attack against peaceful nuclear
facilities –- operational or under construction –- posed a great
danger to human beings and the environment, and constituted a
grave violation of international law, as well as of the
principles and purposes of the Charter and regulations of the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Any such attempt would, as
such, be a clear manifestation of nuclear terrorism.
Referring to the lacuna created by paragraph 4 of article 4, he
recalled that non-use of force or threat of force in
international relations was a Charter obligation of all Member
States and that labelling the activities of the military forces
of States as “official duties” could and should not be justified
in any circumstances if such activities ran counter to the
Charter or established norms and principles of international
law. With respect to the twelfth preambular paragraph, Iran
underlined that the phrase “adoption of effective and practical
measures for the prevention of acts of nuclear terrorism” should
be read in line with article 4 of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons ( NPT ). It should not be
used as a pretext to restrict the inalienable right of all
parties to the treaty to develop, research, produce and use
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
ALFONSO ASCENCIO ( Mexico ) welcomed the adoption of the
Convention. Throughout the negotiations, his delegation had
underscored the importance of the Assembly being able to arrive
at concrete results. The successful outcome of the Convention
was a sign of the clear will of Member States to overcome
differences in order to bring about a safer world. The
Convention would serve as a necessary catalyst to bring to
conclusion the negotiations on the draft comprehensive
convention on terrorism. He reiterated Mexico’s commitment to
fighting terrorism in all its manifestations, whatever its
causes. Regarding the consolidation of the legal framework to
fight terrorism, he stressed the need to tackle the negotiations
of each instrument on its own merits. Today’s Convention would
have to substantively strengthen the legal strategy to fight
terrorism, particularly the framework constituted by the
existing 12 anti-terrorism instruments.
If you have questions regarding information in these press
release contact the company listed below. Please do not contact
us as we are unable to assist you with your inquiry. We disclaim
any content contained in this press release.
Press Release Date
2005-04-15
*****************************************************************
28 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Hews to Diplomatic Approach on Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday April 14, 2005 9:31 PM
AP Photo WX106
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
Thursday that going to the United Nations to try to stop an
Iranian nuclear weapons program ``remains an option'' but the
administration is not giving up on European allies seeking a
negotiated solution.
``If this does not work then, of course, the Security Council
remains an option,'' Rice said at a news conference. ``And we
have made it clear with our European friends that that is, in
fact, the case.''
Rice's statement extended the Bush administration's patient
approach to trying to steer Iran away from a military nuclear
program. Unlike North Korea, which is believed to have at least
one atom bomb, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
Wednesday that Iran is not likely to produce a nuclear weapon
before the next decade.
European diplomacy, spearheaded by Britain, France and Germany,
is based on offering economic incentives to Iran as a trade-off
for stopping work on nuclear weapons.
Reaffirming U.S. backing, for now at least, Rice said, ``We
believe that the diplomatic path that we are on is the
appropriate path and we are determined to have a united front
with the international community to convince the Iranians ...
not to seek nuclear weapons under the cover of civilian nuclear
power development.''
The Iranian government denies it is doing so.
Taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council could mean
imposing economic penalties on Iran, but the United States could
be blocked by a veto.
Israeli leaders visiting the United States this week told U.S.
officials that their intelligence showed Iran is nearing a
``point of no return'' in developing a weapon. But Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said his country would not attack Iranian
nuclear facilities.
^---
On the Net:
State Department: http://www.state.gov
United Nations: http://www.un.org
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
29 Salt Lake Tribune: Residency rules limit payments for fallout
The Associated Press
Many Utah residents whose cancers may have been caused by
exposure to fallout from the Nevada Test Site live outside the
10 southern Utah counties eligible for federal compensation, a
study released Tuesday says.
The study looked at data for the years 1973-2001 from the
National Cancer Institute (NCI) and shows people living in
Utah's 19 other counties with high per-capita rates of
radiation-related cancers are outside the eligible compensation
areas.
''There's no question that fallout fell in different areas in
greater concentration than in some others,'' Rep. Jim Matheson,
D-Utah, said in a prepared statement.
The study was conducted at Matheson's request by Special
Investigations Division of the House Committee on Government
Reform.
Matheson said the data suggests that federal compensation
programs might need to be expanded, although he wants to examine
other reports before acting.
Federal fallout compensation law only gives funds to
residents in Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San
Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne counties. Under the 1990
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) qualified recipients
must have contracted one of 18 different types of cancer tied to
radiation exposure.
RECA has already paid more than $700 million to more than
11,000 victims and their families.
Matheson has long said that there was insufficient data about
which areas had the heaviest fallout exposure. Between and 1951
and 1962 the Test Site conducted more than 100 open-air tests.
Some underground tests also vented radiation.
There could be multiple reasons for the high rates in other
counties. For example, some victims could have moved after being
exposed to fallout, or could be suffering from an illness
actually caused by other carcinogens, he said.
Exposure to fallout varied based on factors like wind
direction, precipitation and topography. And a 1997 study by
the National Institutes of Health showed that much of the
country was exposed to radioactive iodine fallout from Test Site
tests.
Over the years of tracking, cancer rates have shown an 8
percent increase in areas where Utah residents are not eligible,
the report says.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
30 ITAR-TASS: Mayak plant operates without deviations from process regs
14.04.2005, 08.38
CHELYABINSK, April 14 (Itar-Tass) - The Mayak chemical plant,
the firstling of the domestic nuclear industry, operates in full
conformity with the established process regulations, without any
deviations or breaches, a plant press service official told
Itar-Tass on Thursday.
This has been stated in view of the arrival of a special
operational investigative group of the prosecutor's office and
the Federal Security Service at the plant to inquire into the
fact of impact of the hydraulic facilities of the Mayak
production association, including those of the Techa river
series of water reservoirs, on the environment.
The plant's press service maintains, "The current operation of
the enterprise does not affect the radiological situation that
developed in the catchment area of theTecha river as a result of
the Mayak's original activities".
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
31 Deseret news: U. team perplexed: Why drop nuclear study?
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Copyright 2005 Deseret Morning News
By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News
The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has spelled out reasons her agency refuses to continue
funding a Utah fallout-cancer study. Scientists conducting the
research are spelling out why they think she is wrong.
In fact, the surprising end to the study has led its
principal investigator, the University of Utah's Dr. Joseph L.
Lyon, to speculate about a cover-up.
He wonders if someone decided to kill the project "right
now, before we have evidence of additional thyroid problems or
other health problems that are related to the above-ground
nuclear testing."
On April 5, Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, director of the
Atlanta-based federal organization, wrote to Sen. Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah, responding to a query about the CDC's refusal to further
fund a study of thyroid abnormalities among former students who
were exposed to fallout. Hatch had inquired about the CDC's
decision to stop funding the study.
The former students attended Washington County schools in
1965, not long after the end of open-air atomic testing at the
Nevada Test Site. An earlier study by Lyon discovered that the
group had thyroid tumors at 3.4 times the expected rate. The
present research is a follow-up, since thyroid abnormalities
caused by radiation can show up years later.
After paying about $8 million, the CDC pulled the plug,
saying the study was supposed to be for five years and had been
extended twice. Lyon responded that bureaucratic barriers by the
CDC had slowed the project. By now, about 1,300 of 4,000
subjects (including a control group) had been examined.
In the letter to Hatch, Gerberding wrote, "The scientific
quality of the study was questioned by external scientific
reviews conducted by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and
a special emphasis panel (SEP), a board of scientific experts
external to CDC.
"Both reviews focused on the lack of scientifically
defensible dosimetry, power and treatment of uncertainty. Those
issues form the foundation upon which the study is based."
In 2001, the NAS reviewed the study protocol and
determined it was not sufficiently developed or rigorous enough
to permit a judgment of whether all its objectives were
attainable, she wrote.
"NAS also could not evaluate the scientific merit of the
study due to lack of detail regarding the dosimetry methods to
be used. The University of Utah responded to NAS' comments but
has been unable to reproduce the dosimetry from earlier work,"
Gerberding wrote.
Her comments dismay U. scientists.
"We were reviewed in 2001 by the NAS," Lyon said. "We
responded to that review, even though it doesn't reflect that in
this letter."
The Utah group submitted a response of around 50 pages
and revised the study protocol to incorporate all of the
academy's criticisms, he said.
"CDC at that time had no problem with the scientific
validity of the study," Lyon said. "In fact, they permitted us
to start examining people."
CDC provided its funding, and "there was no indication of
problems," he said.
Points addressed
Mary Bishop Stone, project manager of the study, told the
Deseret Morning News that by the end of this grant year it will
be 3 1/2 years since that response came from the NAS. "If the
study was completely inadequate, why did they fund it for 3 1/2
years?" she asked.
Stephen C. Alder, who handles statistics for the study,
said he reviewed the NAS comments. The academy "came up with
some very good points. I don't think we took issue with any of
the points."
In the group's detailed response, it addressed each of
the points.
"There were some interesting aspects," Alder said. One
point of criticism involved scientific methods and "our
statistical power for the study," he said.
"The interesting point was that (section) was heavily
influenced by the CDC."
Lyon said a person from the CDC wrote the section that
was most heavily criticized.
"And we finally brought in a world expert as a consultant
who basically went through all these statistical power and
certainty issues, and we incorporated everything he suggested in
our response to the CDC. And they were apparently happy."
Lyon had no indication that the CDC would not accept the
procedure until he read Gerberding's letter, he said.
The statistics involved, especially concerning the
project's uncertainty aspects, "are very challenging," said
Alder. The nature of the uncertainty is that there are aspects
relating to radiation exposure that are estimated, but within a
range rather than a single value.
Because of that, the study enlisted the help of a world
leader in the field, who developed methods and demonstrated that
the statistical power in the study was adequate and the
statistical methods were sound, Alder said.
Researcher responds
Lyon took sharp exception to Gerberding's comment that
the university was "unable to reproduce the dosimetry from
earlier work."
Researchers corrected errors that were inherent in the
programming of a huge, complex calculation needed to figure
dosimetry, he said. "But we are able to reproduce the dosimetry
and have actually improved it substantially."
Hatch's staff had provided this newspaper with a copy of
Gerberding's letter, which the paper forwarded to Lyon for
comment. That was the first he had seen it, and on Wednesday
Lyon wrote a letter to Hatch replying to Gerberding's points.
Lyon wrote to Hatch that from 1986 to 1999, his group
developed a dosimetry model to estimate a person's exposure to
radiation from the Nevada Test Site.
The group used the model, and the details of the model
were published in peer-reviewed journals, he wrote.
"Since the original development, variations of this very
model have been used widely in radiation research, including by
the CDC-funded Hanford (Wash.) Thyroid Disease Study and the
National Cancer Institute study of the nationwide exposure to
Iodine-131," radioactive material released by atomic explosions
at the test site.
"It comes as a shock to us, as it will to radiation
researchers worldwide who have been using our model for years .
. . that the CDC is claiming that in the current study, there is
'a lack of scientifically defensible dosimetry,' " Lyon wrote.
Gerberding said the university was unable to reproduce
the dosimetry from earlier work.
"This is not true," Lyon wrote to Hatch. "We did have
difficulty getting our original dosimetry mode, written in 1989,
to run again because of changes in the software and computer
platforms, but we have always been able to reproduce the
dosimetry.
"As mentioned, we also found some errors in the original
model and corrected any problems we identified." The changes
were summarized in a scientific paper submitted to a
peer-reviewed scientific journal in February, he added.
Lyon told Hatch that a sub-study that was approved and
originally funded would look at the effects of Nevada Test Site
radiation on all other causes of death besides thyroid disease.
No study has ever addressed the question, "and we will be unable
to complete it because of the loss of funding," he wrote.
The Utah study is the only one in the United States
attempting to actually examine individuals who were exposed to
radiation to determine if they evidence of health effects, the
letter says.
"We're trying to do it with the highest level of
scientific credibility," Lyon told the Deseret Morning News.
So why has CDC pulled the plug on the study?
"If we knew, we would tell you," Lyon said.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
32 PittsburghLIVE: Officials unsure how many nuke workers eligible for compensation
By Tribune-Review News Service
Thursday, April 14, 2005
NEW KENSINGTON — Nuclear workers who were exposed to radiation
at the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC)
plants and other weapons facilities hoped to hear yesterday
about expanded benefits for them, but government officials had
few details to offer.
The Department of Energy and National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health held meetings yesterday to explain how more
people may now qualify for a lump-sum payment of $150,000 and
medical benefits if they developed cancer caused by exposure to
radiation and other dangerous materials while they worked at
nuclear weapons plants.
Previously, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program only covered employees who worked at the
sites while those places produced material for atomic weapons.
October's defense appropriations bill, however, directed the
government to study those sites to determine if workers who were
there after those time periods might also have been exposed to
radiation.
However, a government official at the Clarion Hotel and
Conference Center yesterday afternoon couldn't answer several
key questions involving local people who may be affected.
Peter Turcic, director of the compensation program, wasn't able
to say how many more people would be covered by the expanded
benefits, and whether they would apply to all NUMEC sites.
NUMEC's site in Apollo, demolished and cleaned up in the 1990s,
specifically is covered for workers employed there anytime
between the 1950s through 1983. After NUMEC went out of
business, the site was operated by Atlantic-Richfield and
Babcock &Wilcox.
But was unclear Wednesday whether employees who worked there
after 1983 would be included.
Also unclear was whether workers at the nuclear waste dump in
Parks associated with NUMEC and its successors could get
compensation.
"If they hauled materials from these facilities in this time
period, I believe they're covered," Turcic said.
Of the 219 sites across the country covered by the energy
workers program, the National Institute of Occupational Health
and Safety has found 96 that have the potential for significant
residual radiation contamination after the time period when
those sites were actively producing material for atomic weapons.
NIOSH has had difficulty getting data from the long-defunct
NUMEC to determine whether dangers remained at their plants
after the company no longer produced materials for the
government, institute health physicist Grady Calhoun told
workers Wednesday.
If the institute can't prove the site was decontaminated and
posed no danger to workers, the government will assume it is
contaminated and expand the benefits to more workers, he said.
"We will do everything we can to give the benefit of the doubt
to the workers," he said.
About 20 former workers gathered at the first of two meetings at
the Clarion on Wednesday. Some expressed gratitude for the
expanded benefits, but many still are bitter and frustrated with
the decades-long struggle to get help.
Former NUMEC worker Gary Walker told officials he already
received a $150,000 benefit for health problems related to
beryllium exposure he suffered at the plant.
Recently, he's been diagnosed with cancer, which he also blames
on exposure he suffered during 28 years on the job.
"I could tell you things about that place," Walker said. "The
first five years I was there, they didn't test us for nothing.
There was no monitoring of any kind. They threw that dust around
down there like it was nothing. The last 20 years of my life has
been just terrible."
Long-time activist Patty Ameno of Leechburg, who also blames her
multiple bouts with cancer on exposure to radiation from the
NUMEC sites, cried when she talked about the expansion of
benefits for former workers.
"I didn't know if I'd be alive to see any of this come to
fruition," Ameno said. "It's sad to think of all the workers who
aren't alive to see it."
The expanded benefits provide vindication for affected nuclear
workers who felt the government turned its back on their plight,
Ameno said.
Workers criticized the government agencies for not doing more to
track down former NUMEC workers who might qualify for the
benefits. Many said they found out about Wednesday's meeting and
the compensation program through news reports.
"The government has no right to go and find out all the people
who worked at a place and then go contact them," Turcic said.
"It's a privacy issue."
Others were angry that their former work sites weren't included
in the program.
Glen Wilson blames his thyroid cancer on years of exposure to
low-level radiation at the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power
Laboratory in West Mifflin, but he doesn't qualify for benefits
because the site isn't included in the program.
"They have something for some and nothing for others, and it's
wrong," Wilson said.
Turcic said his agency was powerless to expand the list of
workers who qualify.
"It's an exclusion in the law, sir," he said. "There's nothing I
can do about it."
Rich Parler worked in the NUMEC accounting office for two years
in the early 1960s, beginning when he was 17.
He developed cancer and had to have a kidney removed 11 years
ago. After reading about the compensation program in a newspaper
story, Parler applied for benefits almost 18 months ago.
He still is waiting for the government to award him the lump-sum
benefit.
Although it won't be enough to compensate for his suffering,
Parler said he's practical about the situation.
"It'll put my kid through college, I figure," he said. "That
will have to be enough."
Wynne Everett can be reached at weverett@tribweb.com.
Copyright 2005 Leader Times
Images and text copyright © 2005 by The Tribune-Review
Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
33 PittsburghLIVE.com: Few new details available to nuke workers -
By Wynne Everett
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Thursday, April 14, 2005
NEW KENSINGTON -- Nuclear workers who were exposed to radiation
at the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC)
plants and other weapons facilities hoped to hear Wednesday
about expanded benefits for them, but government officials had
few details to offer.
The Department of Energy and National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health held meetings Wednesday to explain how more
people may now qualify for a lump-sum payment of $150,000 and
medical benefits if they developed cancer caused by exposure to
radiation and other dangerous materials while they worked at
nuclear weapons plants.
Previously, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program only covered employees who worked at the
sites while those places produced material for atomic weapons.
October's defense appropriations bill, however, directed the
government to study those sites to determine if workers who were
there after those time periods might also have been exposed to
radiation.
However, a government official at the Clarion Hotel and
Conference Center on Wednesday afternoon couldn't answer several
key questions involving local people who may be affected.
Peter Turcic, director of the compensation program, wasn't able
to say how many more people would be covered by the expanded
benefits, and whether they would apply to all NUMEC sites.
NUMEC's site in Apollo, demolished and cleaned up in the 1990s,
specifically is covered for workers employed there anytime
between the 1950s through 1983. After NUMEC went out of
business, the site was operated by Atlantic-Richfield and
Babcock &Wilcox.
But was unclear Wednesday whether employees who worked there
after 1983 would be included.
Also unclear was whether workers at the nuclear waste dump in
Parks associated with NUMEC and its successors could get
compensation.
"If they hauled materials from these facilities in this time
period, I believe they're covered," Turcic said.
Of the 219 sites across the country covered by the energy
workers program, the National Institute of Occupational Health
and Safety has found 96 that have the potential for significant
residual radiation contamination after the time period when
those sites were actively producing material for atomic weapons.
NIOSH has had difficulty getting data from the long-defunct
NUMEC to determine whether dangers remained at their plants
after the company no longer produced materials for the
government, institute health physicist Grady Calhoun told
workers Wednesday.
If the institute can't prove the site was decontaminated and
posed no danger to workers, the government will assume it is
contaminated and expand the benefits to more workers, he said.
"We will do everything we can to give the benefit of the doubt
to the workers," he said.
About 20 former workers gathered at the first of two meetings at
the Clarion on Wednesday. Some expressed gratitude for the
expanded benefits, but many still are bitter and frustrated with
the decades-long struggle to get help.
Former NUMEC worker Gary Walker told officials he already
received a $150,000 benefit for health problems related to
beryllium exposure he suffered at the plant.
Recently, he's been diagnosed with cancer, which he also blames
on exposure he suffered during 28 years on the job.
"I could tell you things about that place," Walker said. "The
first five years I was there, they didn't test us for nothing.
There was no monitoring of any kind. They threw that dust around
down there like it was nothing. The last 20 years of my life has
been just terrible."
Long-time activist Patty Ameno of Leechburg, who also blames her
multiple bouts with cancer on exposure to radiation from the
NUMEC sites, cried when she talked about the expansion of
benefits for former workers.
"I didn't know if I'd be alive to see any of this come to
fruition," Ameno said. "It's sad to think of all the workers who
aren't alive to see it."
The expanded benefits provide vindication for affected nuclear
workers who felt the government turned its back on their plight,
Ameno said.
Workers criticized the government agencies for not doing more to
track down former NUMEC workers who might qualify for the
benefits. Many said they found out about Wednesday's meeting and
the compensation program through news reports.
"The government has no right to go and find out all the people
who worked at a place and then go contact them," Turcic said.
"It's a privacy issue."
Others were angry that their former work sites weren't included
in the program.
Glen Wilson blames his thyroid cancer on years of exposure to
low-level radiation at the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power
Laboratory in West Mifflin, but he doesn't qualify for benefits
because the site isn't included in the program.
"They have something for some and nothing for others, and it's
wrong," Wilson said.
Turcic said his agency was powerless to expand the list of
workers who qualify.
"It's an exclusion in the law, sir," he said. "There's nothing I
can do about it."
Rich Parler worked in the NUMEC accounting office for two years
in the early 1960s, beginning when he was 17.
He developed cancer and had to have a kidney removed 11 years
ago. After reading about the compensation program in a newspaper
story, Parler applied for benefits almost 18 months ago.
He still is waiting for the government to award him the lump-sum
benefit.
Although it won't be enough to compensate for his suffering,
Parler said he's practical about the situation.
"It'll put my kid through college, I figure," he said. "That
will have to be enough."
Wynne Everett can be reached at weverett@tribweb.comor (724)
226-4703.
Copyright 2005 Valley News Dispatch
*****************************************************************
34 Fwd: [shundahaialerts] Is the Yucca Mountain nuke dump ready
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:08:21 -0500 (CDT)
From: shundahai@shundahai.org Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 18:20:08 -0700
(PDT) List-Id: List-Subscribe:
List-Archive:
Subject: [shundahaialerts] Is the Yucca Mountain nuke dump ready
for last rites?
Requiem for Yucca Mountain Barring a major change, the government's
plans to store nuclear waste at the Nevada site appear over by BOB
LOUX | posted 03.24.05 Bob Loux is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News
(hcn.org). He is the executive director of Nevada's Office for
Nuclear Projects, based in Carson City.
----------------------------------------------------
Without a miracle of some sort, it is all over. Yucca Mountain, the
federal government's choice for storing nuclear waste from Cold
War-bomb production and power plants, will never open.
The project that began with a congressional mandate 22 years ago
seems perennially stalled, even though $8 billion has already been
spent on everything from scientific studies and modeling to the
building of a railroad deep within Yucca Mountain.
Back in the early 1980s, when Congress selected Nevada as the final
resting place for high-level radioactive debris, most Nevadans
vehemently opposed the plan. Our resistance, summed up in the
frequently seen bumper sticker: "Nevada is not a wasteland," seemed
futile to some people. Not any more. What's changed, is first of
all, the science. What began two decades ago as a trickle of evidence
suggesting that Yucca Mountain was incapable of isolating deadly
radioactive waste has become a deluge.
But instead of acknowledging what its own scientists and research
were showing -- that the geology of Yucca Mountain was so seriously
flawed that the site should be disqualified -- the Department of
Energy turned the concept of geologic isolation on its head. The
agency set about changing rules, regulations and guidelines so as
to cover up site deficiencies and permit the program to go forward
in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
That was borne out last July, when the U. S. court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia upheld the state of Nevada's legal challenge
to the radiation health-protection standards for the Yucca site.
The ruling meant that guaranteeing public safety for 10,000 years
wasn't enough; instead, radiation coming from the dump must be safe
for as long as 1 million years, the expected lifetime of the dump.
This will be a difficult feat for both the Environmental Protection
Agency and Energy Department, and a license to open Yucca Mountain
depends on it.
But there have been other signs that Yucca Mountain may be one of
the nation's costliest boondoggles:
The Energy Department has pushed back Yucca Mountain's opening from
2010 to 2012 to 2015 to 2017, all within a few months.The Bush
administration cut Yucca Mountain's 2006 budget in half, to $651
million.
Ted Garrish, Yucca Mountain's acting director, has said that the
program will need more than $1.5 billion a year for the next decade
in order to open.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility commissioners recently
resurrected a proposal to take the nuclear-waste management program
away from the Energy Department and turn it over to a quasi-governmental
corporation.
Some industry representatives now delink the repository at Yucca
Mountain from the notion that new power plants can't go forward
unless Yucca Mountain goes forward. Previously, the industry insisted
that getting Yucca Mountain open was essential for building new
reactors.
And, a report by the National Commission on Energy Policy calls for
interim, aboveground spent-fuel storage as a backup to Yucca Mountain.
This is a startling turn of events. As the Los Angeles Times put
it recently in a news story: "The state has stunned federal officials
with its tenacity, legal skill and evolving political acumen, scoring
key victories in federal court and in Congress that have repeatedly
stalled the project."
The U.S. Congress probably chose Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest
of Las Vegas, as the nation's nuclear dumping ground because it
thought Nevada had neither the will nor the clout to fight back.
These days we are surprising everyone -- and maybe even ourselves.
From Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Gov. Kenny Guinn,
Attorney General Brian Sandoval, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman,
who even promised to lay his body down in front of any truck carrying
nuclear waste headed for Yucca Mountain, we've shown our smarts and
our power.
Now, it is no longer a question of whether Yucca Mountain will
crumble, but when. The project is on track to meet the same fate
as other major Energy Department projects of the last few decades,
such as the super-colliding superconductor and the Clinch River
breeder reactor. Despite billions invested, those projects became
so weighted down with mismanagement, cost overruns and political
opposition that they simply became impossible. So it is with Yucca
Mountain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and
Harmony with all Creation"
Shundahai Network PO Box 1115 Salt Lake City, UT 84110 Office:
801.533.0128 Fax: 801.533.0129
mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.Shundahai.org
======================================================== It's in
our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination
is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people
and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our
thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water...One
Air...One Mother Earth."
Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder &
Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network
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35 Fwd: [shundahaialerts] Skull Valley Nuclear Waste Dump Update
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:08:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: shundahai@shundahai.org
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 15:46:34 -0700 (PDT)
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Foes of Goshute nuclear waste plan take case to D.C.
By Jerry Spangler
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON s Having thus far failed to make their case in the
courts, opponents of storing 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste
on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County took their cause to the
nation's capital Monday, calling the proposal "environmental racism"
and "nuclear colonialism."
Environmental organizations and Native American environmental
justice organizations called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
reject a license application by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of
nuclear power utilities, to store the waste in canisters above ground
on lands owned by the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes.
"Locating high-level radioactive waste facilities on Indian
lands violates the trust responsibility of the U.S. government,
federal laws and treaties, and is an extreme example of the
continuing environmental racist policies against Indian people," said
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of Indigenous Environmental
Network. "PFS must be stopped."
Click to learn more...
Environmental justice issues, such as the impacts of the waste
facility on traditional tribal values, were not considered by the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board when it voted 2-1 to recommend the
NRC grant PFS a license. But those issues will certainly be the focus
of litigation should the NRC grant the license, participants said.
Margene Bullcreek, who has spearheaded Goshute opposition in
Utah through her group Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness, said the issue
for Goshutes is not about how much money the 130 band members would
get from the deal, but "who we are" as Native Americans. "This waste
will destroy who we are," she said.
Anne Sward Hansen, a Utahn with the Environmental Justice
Foundation, called for congressional oversight of Goshute tribal
officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who all approved the PFS
lease in a deal that Hansen and others now say was fraught with
corruption and illegalities.
"The merits of this case need to be heard in some judicial or
oversight venue before the NRC commissioners grant approval for a PFS
license," Hansen said.
If the issues are not addressed, she added, "the NRC decision
could become historically the greatest act of environmental racism
and injustice in America."
According to opponents, tribal members have never voted on the
proposal, and tribal chairman Leon Bear, who negotiated the PFS deal,
has thwarted such attempts and changed tribal election rules to
remain in power after his term expired last November, Bullcreek said.
Goshutes opposed to PFS, led by Bullcreek, have been fighting
for years to have Bear removed from office, but their case has been
rejected by the courts, which ordered the matter resolved by the BIA
and the tribe.
Even if Bear were to be removed from office, the band would
probably be legally bound to the PFS deal under terms of the
contract, and it could take years and years of litigation to resolve
any attempt to pull out, Goldtooth said.
PFS opponents are trying to raise public awareness of the PFS
proposal in light of a hearing scheduled Wednesday on an appeal by
the state of Utah of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's
decision. The full NRC will then make a decision on whether to accept
or reject the recommendations of the board.
Utah officials have been fighting the PFS proposal for years,
but so far all attempts to challenge the project in court have failed
and the state's contentions before nuclear waste regulators that the
project posed insurmountable risks were rejected by the licensing
board, a quasi-judicial body within the NRC that advises the
commissioners.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is continuing the opposition efforts, and
last week he sent a letter to the organizers of Monday's event,
saying "your unified message on behalf of the millions of people your
collective organizations represent is both heartwarming and
overwhelming."
Some 350 different organizations have now signed on to a letter
to the NRC opposing the PFS license.
"Shipping nuclear waste to Utah does not eliminate terrorism or
radiological risks at operating nuclear power plants, but
extrapolates those serious risks to the Skull Valley band of Goshute
Indians, residents of Utah and communities along the transportation
route," Huntsman wrote.
If that fails and PFS is licensed, Kevin Kamps with the Nuclear
Information and Resource Service predicted an outpouring of
nonviolent civil disobedience as tens of thousands of Americans seek
to stop the shipments of waste through thousands of communities s
just as 20,000 Germans turned out to block waste shipments there.
Kamps predicted people "will be doing everything in their
power" to stop the waste shipments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and
Harmony with all Creation"
Shundahai Network
PO Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Office: 801.533.0128
Fax: 801.533.0129
mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org
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========================================================
It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear
contamination is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite
as a people and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put
our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One
Water...One Air...One Mother Earth."
Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder &
Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network
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*****************************************************************
36 Herald Sun: Rio Tinto to flex muscles
[15apr05]
This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AAP
By Greg Tubb.
THE commodities market is the best miners have seen for 20 years,
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto told shareholders in
London overnight.
Chairman Paul Skinner told the group's annual general meeting
demand was expected to continue to grow in 2005 and prices for
most metals and minerals to remain above the long term trend.
But he warned there would be some short-term volatility,
particularly given the uncertain future direction of the US
dollar, which would inevitably impact on earnings.
Rio Tinto is flush with cash after posting record adjusted
earnings of $US2.2 billion ($A2.83 billion) for 2004, a 60 per
cent improvement over the previous year.
It has already announced plans to return up to $US1.5 billion to
shareholders during the course of this year and next through a
share buyback program.
Details of an off-market buyback of Rio Tinto shares in Australia
will be mailed to Rio Tinto shareholders this week, Mr Skinner
said.
An interim dividend of 38.5 cents per share is also expected to
be paid in September, after a dividend of 77 cents a share for
all of 2004.
"We intend to maintain our progressive dividend policy from this
higher base," Mr Skinner said.
Rio Tinto is investing heavily on its existing assets, and will
continue to do so through at least to the end of next year.
But Mr Skinner said the group also had the financial muscle to
take advantage of "other value-creating opportunities that may
arise".
Rio Tinto has been the subject of continued speculation that it
may launch a counter bid to BHP Billiton Ltd's $9.2 billion bid
for Melbourne-based mining house WMC Resources Ltd.
Some analysts have said WMC's copper, uranium and nickel assets
appeared to be a more natural fit with Rio Tinto's operations
than with BHP Billiton.
But the booming market has also stretched several of Rio
Tinto's businesses to their production limits to meet demand,
chief executive Leigh Clifford said.
"This puts significant pressure on our people, plant and
equipment," Mr Clifford said.
It has also translated into high demand for the services and
consumables used by Rio Tinto, building cost pressures as the
prices of these inputs rise.
But he said that was usual at this stage of the economic cycle.
"To meet the demands of customers, we are pushing our assets
harder than is optimal for cost management," Mr Clifford said.
"However, it makes sense from a value perspective, as the cost
effects are more than offset by higher revenues."
privacy terms © Herald and Weekly Times
*****************************************************************
37 Bradenton Herald: Galvano bill speeds through
| 04/14/2005 |
TALLAHASSEE - Rep. Bill Galvano's contamination notification
bill has been withdrawn from a scheduled committee and given a
faster track to the House floor.
Its last stop will now be the State Resources Council, which
will most likely review the bill next week.
The bill would require the state Department of Environmental
Protection to notify residents within 30 days if off-site
contamination has spread to their property. The bill
materialized out of the situation in the Tallevast community,
where residents did not find out about pollution from the former
American Beryllium Co. until three years after the DEP had the
information.
Galvano said he has tried to keep the bill focused on giving the
DEP a legal dutyit does not currently have. The faster track to
the House floor will help achieve that focus.
The environmental group Wildlaw has supported the legislation
but hopes to see notification also applied to users of the
contaminating site, such as children and teachers on a school
property.
Galvano is discussing with Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, to see
if language achieving this goal can fit into the bill.
Clinics to be regulated
The state House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to tighten
regulation on clinics that perform second trimester abortions,
with supporters saying the bill would enhance safety.
But opponents argued the intent was to erode the constitutional
right to abortion and warned it could drive women into illegal
and unsafe abortions.
The 82-27 vote, largely along party lines, sent the legislation
(HB 1041) to the Senate, where a similar bill (SB 1862) has
cleared one committee and is pending in a second. Gov. Jeb Bush
supports the measures, according to spokesman Russell Schweiss.
The bills spell out an array of regulations for abortion
clinics, including rules about sterilizing equipment and
employee training on post-abortion care requirements. The actual
regulations would be written by the state Agency for Health Care
Administration.
Dems OK special election
Senate Minority Leader Les Miller couldn't believe his eyes
Wednesday. He looked around a conference in the Democratic
caucus offices and counted 13 other Democratic senators in the
room.
"I had to count twice," said Miller, who said it was the first
time he could remember all 14 Democratic members attending the
caucus breakfast.
While they were at it, they voted 13-1 to oppose a proposed
special election in September giving voters a chance to repeal
the state's class size amendment. Only Sen. Gary Siplin,
D-Orlando, voted no.
Because the measure requires a three-fourths vote in the Senate
for passage, Democrats alone can derail it. There are also some
Republicans, including Senate President Tom Lee, reluctant to
support the proposal for an off-year special election.
Senate considers schools
Two school bills are being considered.
The first, pushed by Sen. Carey Baker, could ground high school
twirlers, debaters and actors if they don't get a minimum 2.0
grade point average in their classes.
His proposal (HB 149) was grounded in debate after some senators
questioned whether it's a good idea to ban students from all
extracurricular activities if they slip below Baker's proposed
2.0 mark.
The debate is likely to resume today on the Senate floor, where
Sen. Frederica Wilson promised another amendment on behalf of
students who struggle to make a 2.0.
A bill requiring school districts to observe the Nov. 11
Veterans Day as a holiday heads for a final vote today.
If the holiday falls on a weekend, it would be observed either
on the Friday preceding a Saturday holiday or on the Monday
following a Sunday holiday.
"We need to salute the veterans who go to other countries and
fight for us," Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, said in support
of the proposal by Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville.
"Some of them never made it back," Bullard added.
One Democrat, Sen. Al Lawson of Tallahassee, had concerns on
behalf of some Pandhandle districts that use the holiday for
military presentations at their schools, but added that "I don't
want to take the veterans on on this."
Subehad
A trio of bills pushed by the business community to help reduce
lawsuits were approved easily Wednesday in the Senate Commerce
and Consumer Services Committee.
The first measure (SB 2564) would preclude most out-of state
residents from joining class-action lawsuits filed here. The
bill has some exceptions for people who wouldn't be able to sue
anywhere else, for example.
The measure is opposed by consumer groups and some lawyers who
say it could eliminate the opportunity for many people to get
justice when they're injured or cheated because they wouldn't be
able to sue on their own. It was, however, approved unanimously
by the committee.
The second (SB 2566), also approved unanimously, would immunize
businesses from liability in some cases when a person is injured
on their property, either by someone else's criminal behavior or
some dangerous object. It aims to eliminate liability in some
cases, known as "slip and fall cases," where someone sues a
store, for example, because they slipped on an item on the
floor.
Under the bill, a plaintiff would have to prove the store
workers knew about the item on the floor, or other dangerous
situation, to win a lawsuit.
The third measure (SB 2568) would immunize stores from liability
for simply selling defective products in many cases. It was
approved 7-1.
All three bills are sponsored by Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter
Garden.
Subehad
Sen. Carey Baker is pushing a bill that could ground high school
twirlers, debaters and actors if they don't get a minimum 2.0
grade point average in their classes.
But his proposal (HB 149) was grounded in debate after some
senators questioned whether it's a good idea to ban students
from all extracurricular activities if they slip below Baker's
proposed 2.0 mark.
Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, withdrew an amendment designed to
satisfy critics with a nine-week grace period, giving students a
chance to improve their grades without being immediately
ineligible for an extracurricular activity.
Villalobos withdrew it after Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville,
pointed out that high school athletes are not allowed to compete
without a 2.0 and that the nine-week period might give football
coaches an opportunity to use an athlete for an entire season
while their grades are below the requirement.
The debate is likely to resume Thursday on the Senate floor,
where Sen. Frederica Wilson promised another amendment on behalf
of students who struggle to make a 2.0.
Legislative Briefs
Herald staff and wire reports
*****************************************************************
38 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion - LETTERS: LAS VEGAS Quality assurance
Apr. 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
To the editor:
I am amused at all the fuss raised over the Yucca Mountain
Project e-mails indicating that quality assurance data has been
fabricated. The sad truth is that the Department of Energy's
quality assurance program is a joke and is held in low regard by
its technical personnel.
Department of Energy quality assurance is a bureaucratic hoop to
jump through rather than a helpful process in assuring quality.
To a scientist or engineer, it does not matter if the data is
real or fabricated because the overall process is flawed.
I understand the Department of Energy is creating a group to
study the quality assurance problem. I hope the group comprises
experienced project managers and not quality assurance "experts."
The experts are part of the problem, not the solution.
Larry Blackwelder
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005
Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement
lasvegas.com
*****************************************************************
39 Las Vegas RJ: Study of nuclear shipments possible
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Nevadans want terror threat weighed
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Sought study of terrorism threat for Utah nuclear waste project
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley on Wednesday rushed to cement
a reported commitment by the new leader of the Department of
Homeland Security to study possible terrorism threats to nuclear
waste shipments.
Berkley urged Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to
make Yucca Mountain a focus of the study.
"I would like your firm commitment that the scope of the
investigation will include nuclear waste shipments to Nevada, as
well as a thorough assessment of the facility's vulnerability to
a coordinated terrorist attack," Berkley said in a letter.
Berkley introduced a House bill in February that would direct
the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a threat
assessment on Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste shipments. The
bill has received little attention.
Berkley and other Nevada lawmakers were seeking to confirm a
report that Chertoff promised Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. a
homeland security study of nuclear waste transportation.
Few details were available Wednesday to add to comments Huntsman
made to the Salt Lake Tribune after meeting Tuesday with
Chertoff and separately with Vice President Cheney.
Huntsman has been seeking support to head off final approval of
an above-ground nuclear waste complex the Private Fuels Storage
utility consortium plans to build on the Goshute Indian
reservation.
According to the Utah governor, Chertoff committed to study the
potential dangers of transporting radioactive spent fuel to the
Utah facility. Utah officials said the topic had been neglected
when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission weighed the license
application.
Huntsman said the scope of the study was unclear but might
encompass the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca
Mountain.
Huntsman "raised the issue of, 'Please study this for possible
terrorism reasons,' and he seemed to get a welcome reception,"
Kikuchi said.
Like counterparts in Utah, Nevada officials say they expect to
raise the issue of potential terrorism risks when the NRC
considers licensing the Yucca site.
"I would imagine one of our contentions will be based on
security-related shipments to the site," said Bob Loux,
executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
If Chertoff's reported promise is true, it could reflect a
change for the Department of Homeland Security, according to Amy
Spanbauer, chief of staff to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.
Under former secretary Tom Ridge, federal homeland security
officials referred issues of nuclear waste transportation safety
to the departments of Transportation and Energy.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., assigned a staff member to contact the
Department of Homeland Security about the matter, spokesman Jack
Finn said.
"We want to open a dialogue to see if there is anything there,"
Finn said.
Ensign and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are preparing to introduce
legislation that would require the Department of Energy to
assume ownership of nuclear waste at reactor sites and to store
it in above-ground casks at those sites.
Reid "has long pointed out the difficulties and concerns of
transporting nuclear waste," his spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
The new legislation "would eliminate the need to transport tens
of thousands of shipments of nuclear waste," she said.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
40 Las Vegas SUN: Feds to study risks of shipping waste to Utah
April 13, 2005
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department will study risks
associated with shipping nuclear waste to Utah, Gov. Jon
Huntsman Jr. told the Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday.
The Utah newspaper is reporting that Huntsman Jr. said that
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has agreed to study
the security risks of moving the waste to the proposed temporary
nuclear fuel storage site in Skull Valley, Utah.
A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department would not
comment this morning on the meeting or the study Huntsman said
was promised.
Huntsman said the full scope of the Homeland Security
assessment is unclear, but it probably would weigh the dangers
of transportation and the risks of storing the fuel at the
reactors, temporarily on the Skull Valley reservation and at the
proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.
Critics of the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump have used the
transportation argument for year as a key drawback to storing
the waste in Nevada. Moving the waste can lead to train or truck
accidents and, after Sept. 11, 2001, of terrorist attack or
sabotage that could lead to radiation exposure and
contamination, they say.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., reintroduced the "Nuclear Waste
Terrorist Threat Assessment and Protection Act," earlier this
year. She has tried to get the bill through Congress several
times, which would require a federal analysis of safety and
security at Yucca itself as well as shipments to the site.
Berkley said in a statement that Department of Homeland
Security should also looking at the threats to Yucca Mountain
shipments.
"I welcome a commitment from the Department to protect the
American public by moving forward on a review without waiting
for Congress to act," she said.
Her bill has seven co-sponsors, including Rep. Jon Porter,
R-Nev.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to decide soon
whether to issue a license to Private Fuel Storage, a consortium
of nuclear power companies that aim to store waste in Utah.
However, the state has appeals pending and also could take its
case to court, which Huntsman said could drag the issue out for
years.
Federal regulators "have looked at the safety issues, but they
haven't looked at security, which, post-9/11, should be
considered," Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune. "In the day of
the dirty bomb and car bombs this needs to be elevated to that
level."
Huntsman said he also discussed the project with Vice President
Dick Cheney, who asked questions about its status and the
logistics of the proposed storage.
Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, the coalition
of utility companies that has a deal with the Goshutes to store
depleted nuclear fuel rods on the Skull Valley Band's
reservation 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, said PFS has
committed to meeting any Homeland Security requirements to
guarantee the facility is safe.
She said if studies find further safeguards are warranted, they
will be put in place.
PFS contends consolidating the spent fuel at one site would
make it easier to protect and that there are advantages to
moving the waste away from the reactors, many of which are in
populous urban areas or on waterways.
Huntsman has said that a terrorist attack on the PFS facility
could spread radiation across the Wasatch Front and points
further east.
A spokesman for Sen. Orrin Hatch said the Utah senator asked
Chertoff during the secretary's confirmation hearing to study
the security aspects of the PFS plan.
"It's a very good sign and a hopeful step that he has chosen to
do so," said Hatch aide Adam Elggren.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
41 Las Vegas SUN: Report urges feds to keep 10,000-year radiation
standard
By Suzanne Struglinski
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Federal officials should keep the original
10,000-year radiation standard in place for the Yucca Mountain
nuclear dump and should consider allowing a higher dose limit
for the time frame beyond the 10,000 years, according to a
report released Monday.
Factors such as climate change and human behavior become harder
to predict over longer time frames, according to the report, so
analysis for the new standard should change to reflect those
uncertainties instead of just extending the compliance period,
according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
Nevada objects to the institute's suggestions, and Bob Loux,
head of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, will be sending
the state's comments to the group outlining the state's concerns.
The Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on
rewriting the radiation standard for the proposed nuclear waste
storage site at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Last year, a federal appeals court threw out the 10,000-year
standard set by the agency in 2001 because it was not consistent
with a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences, as
required by law. The court ruling also threw out the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's licensing requirement that followed the
radiation standard.
The Electric Power Research Institute, an energy and
environmental research group that promotes the benefits of
nuclear power, does not take issue with the court's ruling, but
in its 132-page report released on Monday it outlines what it
believes are the EPA's options for setting a standard for "very
long time frames."
John Kessler, the Electric Power Research Institute's manager
of its High Level Waste and Spent Fuel Management program said
the report assumes Congress will not take action to change the
court ruling, so the agency will have to follow the National
Academy of Sciences' recommendation to set a standard up to
"peak dose" or the time the most radiation would be released
from the mountain or 1 million years, which ever comes first.
It is unclear exactly when the peak dose may occur, but there
is general agreement that it would be hundreds of thousands of
years in the future, Kessler said. The Electric Power Research
Institute. advocates that the federal government keep the
10,000-year standard as it stands now and consider the
uncertainties that exist when trying to measure things out
beyond that time frame.
The institute recommended only using a "interglacial" and
"glacial" climate change models to avoid speculating on climate
change and human behaviors.
It also recommends a "two-tiered dose limit:" one level for the
first 10,000 years and a higher one for after that time
consistent with "the increased uncertainty." The Electric Power
Research Institute. is not advocating a specific dose beyond the
15-millirem per year limit now, a little more than a chest
X-ray, but the report says a 100-millirem per year dose would be
"considered protective under all potential exposure situations."
"A good site should not be penalized for doing a good job,"
Kessler said.
The report says radiation doses occurring in the far distant
future show the repository's geological and man-made design
elements are working. Kessler said that measuring or predicting
the peak dose it harder though, so the EPA needs to consider
that while writing the standard.
Nevada's contingent opposing Yucca also questions whether
consultants who worked on the report were predisposed toward
their eventual conclusion because of a possible conflict of
interest.
Kessler worked with contractors from Monitor Scientific, a
technical consulting firm based in Denver on the report.
According to the company's Website, the firm did analyses and
design review for the Electric Power Research Institute report,
and the company's researchers have also supported the
Environmental Protection Agency in "developing the technical
basis for the radiation protection regulation for Yucca
Mountain."
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
42 Rutland Herald: Yankee dry cask hearing tonight
April 14, 2005
Southern Vermont Bureau
BRATTLEBORO — A public legislative hearing on dry-cask storage
at Vermont Yankee will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. today at
Brattleboro Union High School.
The state Senate and House Natural Resource and Energy
Committees are in charge of the hearing, which will include
other state energy planning issues.
Testimony at the hearing should be limited to the high-level
nuclear waste facility proposed by Vermont Yankee, and its
location, environmental effects and aesthetics, as well as
future energy planning in Vermont.
Participants will be allotted up to three minutes to speak.
Written testimony will be accepted.
Rules for the hearing process will be announced and adhered to
at the time of the hearing. Sign-up sheets will be available at
the hearing, and people will be allowed to speak in the order
they sign up.
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43 Mos News: Nuclear Waste Site Threatened by Huge Mudslide in Kyrgystan -
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
Created: 14.04.2005 15:49 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:49 MSK
A huge mudslide has hit an area near nuclear waste sites in the
vicinity of Mailu-Suu, a town in the former Soviet republic of
Kyrgyzstan, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The mudslide has blocked a mountainous river causing water to
pour into the territory of a nuclear waste processing plant, a
spokesperson for Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry for Environmental and
Emergency Situations Emil Akmatov said.
Experts said the mudslide had moved about 300,000 cubic meters
of rock and rubble, Interfax reported. Rescue teams from the
emergencies ministry could not approach the site due to the
threat of a further mudslide.
The nuclear waste processing plant has been closed for years but
there are more than 20 nuclear waste storage facilities in the
area.
Due to a lack of financing the stores have seen no repairs since
the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Environmentalists fear
that the damage done to the area could trigger a disaster that
would affect not only Kyrgyzstan but the entire region.
Write us: info@mosnews.com
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
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44 Salt Lake Tribune - Opinion: Profiting from waste
Article Last Updated: 04/13/2005 11:29:56 PM
Even with new owners, Envirocare is proving itself to be the
underhanded company we have come to know and recognize. It is
trying to double the size of its landfill so it can take even
more waste.
If the governor approves this expansion, Utah will be a
radioactive dumping ground for the foreseeable future. Expanding
Envirocare's dumping site will ensure the nation's nuclear and
toxic waste gets dumped in Utah for up to a century or more and
could lead to much more waste being produced.
There are 30 years of existing capacity left at Envirocare's
current facility. Let's take the time to consider the potential
ramifications of allowing this greedy company to double the size
of its landfill, and keep it from becoming even more wealthy at
the potential expense of our good health and future liveability
of our state.
Jackie Miner
Murray
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
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45 KITV 4 News: UH Gets Rid Of Radioactive Material
TheHawaiiChannel -
Officials Say Material Could Be Used In 'Dirty Bomb'
UPDATED: 10:47 am HST April 14, 2005
HONOLULU -- Since 9/11, the government has been keeping track of
radioactive materials that, when combined with explosives, could
make what authorities call a "dirty bomb." That's why about two
weeks ago, the University of Hawaii quietly shipped a substantial
amount of Cobalt-60 from its Manoa campus.
The material was in an irradiator housed deep in the
university's food and technology building. The structure itself
is in poor shape. To get to the equipment, you had to go through
about six different rooms and several locked doors.
"The irradiator was used for experiments on everything from fruit
flies to papaya," UH spokesman Jim Manke said.
In the 60s, the federal government lent the material to UH for
agricultural research under the direction of professor James Moi.
"Professor Moi was working on irradiation of plant materials and
food products and when he retired no one picked up the project.
So, it came time to return it to the feds," Manke said.
The 100 radioactive rods were kept in water in a metal chamber.
UH officials said during the devastating October flash flood,
Manoa chancellor Peter Englert was initially concerned about the
state of the radioactive material.
"He is a nuclear chemist by vocation and by training and he
thought of that right away so that was one of the first things
that was checked," Manke said.
Manke told KITV 4 News that the rods remained secure and did not
make the floodwaters radioactive.
The university's environmental safety office said it initiated
the return of the cobalt to the federal government four years
ago and is now glad to be rid of it.
"There are some new restrictions that go into effect later this
year and we worked it out with the feds to transport it and
dispose of it," Manke said.
The U.S. Department of Energy said a contractor packed up and
shipped the cobalt on March 28. The material arrived on the
mainland and was disposed of Tuesday.
Copyright 2005 by All rights reserved. This material may not be
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46 PE.com: Legislation would help purify groundwater
Inland Southern California
07:19 AM PDT on Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By CLAIRE VITUCCI / Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - A bill that would help Inland cities pay to clean
up perchlorate-contaminated groundwater passed the House on
Tuesday.
The Southern California Groundwater Remediation Act, sponsored
by Inland Rep. Joe Baca, would authorize $50 million to pay for
groundwater cleanup in the Santa Ana River Watershed. The
watershed includes San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange
counties.
"Perchlorate contamination is more than just a health concern,"
Baca, D-Rialto, said in a statement. "The economic costs of
providing safe drinking water are becoming more of a burden on
our communities."
The bill passed the House by voice vote. It now must pass the
Senate.
Baca introduced similar legislation last fall. That legislation
also passed the House, but Congress adjourned before the Senate
could take it up for a vote.
Perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel and other
explosives, has been found in drinking-water wells throughout
much of the Inland area. Inland water providers have shut down
wells, installed costly treatment systems and blended water
supplies to dilute the perchlorate.
Cleanup is expensive. Water agency officials have said that they
have already spent much of the money made available to them.
Legislation such as Baca's prevents further costs going to
ratepayers, they said.
The federal fund would be administered through the federal
Bureau of Reclamation. The bill would also require an inspector
general to audit how the money is being spent.
Reach Claire Vitucci at (202) 661-8422 or More headlines...
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47 AU ABC: French ruling leaves Australian nuclear waste in limbo.
14/04/2005. ABC News Online
Greenpeace says the future of about 1,600 Australian spent
nuclear fuel rods, now in France awaiting reprocessing, is very
uncertain because of a French court judgement.
The court has found the French nuclear company, Cogema, has
been storing the rods from Sydney's Lucas Heights Research
reactor without proper authorisation.
Greenpeace's nuclear campaigner James Courtney says the ruling
could mean the waste has to return to Australia.
"The court has given Cogema three months to come up with the
paperwork," he said.
"If they can't do that they've been given two months to get the
waste out of France."
But the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
says it is not worried about the ruling.
The chief of operations at Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor, Ron
Cameron, says it is an internal French legal matter.
"Our understanding is that Cogema have applied for an
authorisation to reprocess the rods and therefore the court
ruling shouldn't have any impact," he said.
"We have a valid contract with Cogema for reprocessing and they
will have to honour that contract."
(AFP), APTN, Reuters, CNN and
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48 RTE News: RPII warns on monitoring of Sellafield
14 April 2005 22:18
Ireland's nuclear watchdog has warned that the Sellafield
Nuclear Plant will need to be monitored for the next 150 years
and will remain a significant risk for three to four decades.
The Radiological Protection Institute believes that a nuclear
accident could lead to contamination of the food-chain.
It also concluded that the impact of a terrorist attack on the
plant is 'unquantifiable'.
The finding by the RPII follows a visit to the Cumbria facility
last year.
Officials secured permission to revisit the plant following
legal action by Ireland against Britain under the UN Convention
on the Law of the Sea.
The RPII tour last September is believed to have been the most
detailed ever and the findings were published this afternoon.
The institute says its state of knowledge about Sellafield is
greater than ever and describes the challenges there as
something which cannot be underestimated.
The institute says that while the conventional threat posed by
Sellafield has diminished, the impact of a terrorist attack is
unquantifiable and Ireland needs to continue its vigilance.
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49 Whitehaven News: OUTRAGE AT WASTE PLAN
SCOTTISH nuclear waste will come to West Cumbria if the Scottish
Executive decides it should.
The body is expected to rubber stamp a recommendation from the
Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) that Cumbria
receives lorry loads of nuclear waste from Scotland.
There was angry reaction to the news at the Sellafield Liaison
meeting last week. Chairman Dave Moore said: “Our views here in
England have been ignored. I have no doubt the Scottish
Executive will back Sepa.”
Coun Ron Hargreaves, from St John’s, Beckermet, said: “It will
be absurd if a body in a different administration (Scotland)
decides what happens at Drigg.”
But Coun Tony Johnston appeared to welcome the opportunity. He
said: “If there is a clear planning gain from bringing it here
then I am in favour.”
Drigg village has tried to distance itself from the low-level
nuclear dump on its doorstep and, as a consequence, the BNFL
dump is now officially no longer the Drigg Low-Level Waste store.
*****************************************************************
50 Whitehaven News: MORE WORK FOR SELLAFIELD
SELLAFIELD seems set to increase vitrification work, dealing
with highly radioactive waste, thanks to extra help from the
French.
BNFL and French firm AREVA-COGEMA have signed a four-year
contract related to vitrification equipment and technology.
Vitrification is the high-temperature mixing of glass and
radioactive waste, to make it more stable.
The technique is used by both firms to convert current and
future stocks of highly radioactive liquid waste.
BNFL says the process is a vital part of both commercial
operations and site clean-up at Sellafield. BNFL has, over the
last three years, been successfully implementing a strategic
improvement programme which has more than tripled the output of
its vitrification plant and a full-scale inactive vitrification
test rig has been successfully introduced.
COGEMA originally provided the process used by BNFL. The new
contract will cover a set of services, equipment and technology
transfers to be provided by AREVA-COGEMA to help increase output.
*****************************************************************
51 The Whitehaven News: NEW SELLAFIELD GROUP SET UP
THE watchdog body set up by BNFL to allow the local public to
scrutinise its works, is handing over to a new organisation.
The Sellafield Local Liaison Committee (SLLC) held its final
meeting last week. it was formed as a result of a suggestion
from the Parker Inquiry which approved the controversial start
to the THORP plant.
The new body, the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholders Group (WCSSG),
is, according to Shirley Williams, SLLC secretary based with
Sellafield public affairs department, “to ensure openness and
transparency” as stakeholders can comment “and influence” the
way Sellafield is run by its new masters, the government’s NDA.
Welcoming the new “son of the liaison committee”, Seascale
Conservative councillor Dave Moore promised the new body would
meet in public and take questions from the public and bodies
such as Core.
He said the body would have to be listened to by the NDA
whenever it “questioned what goes on at the site”.
Among those welcomed to the meeting was the area’s new NDA
supremo, Mark Dixon, in charge of region three for the
authority.
The meeting saw union leader Paul Shawcross for Prospect say he
wanted to ensure fair representation on the new stakeholder
body. He said his union represented 5,000 staff and he called
into question anti-nuclear group Core. He said: “Core’s actions
will result in job losses, this group is one that will damage
the nuclear industry.”
*****************************************************************
52 The Whitehaven News: MINISTER TOURS SITE
[TUNNEL talk: Derek Twigg (left) with GMB convenor Peter Kane
(centre) and Jamie Reed on a tour of Sellafield ]
TUNNEL talk: Derek Twigg (left) with GMB convenor Peter Kane
(centre) and Jamie Reed on a tour of Sellafield
GOVERNMENT minister Derek Twigg visited Sellafield on a
pre-election visit to discuss challenges facing the workforce in
the next decade.
The MP, who is a minister at the Department for Education and
Skills, was invited to the nuclear plant to meet union
representatives and staff by Jamie Reed, Labour’s prospective
parliamentary candidate for Copeland.
The idea was to discuss the forthcoming challenges and
opportunities for the workforce and site, which was taken over
by the new Nuclear Decommissioning Authority last week.
The minister said: “I have been struck by the valuable and high
level of skills here at Sellafield and the commitment of the
workforce in marketing these skills, not only to the rest of the
UK but also to the rest of the world.
“This skills base and the siting of the NDA headquarters at
Westlakes represents a massive opportunity for West Cumbria as
well as a challenge.”
*****************************************************************
53 The Signal: Test, follow-up show Saugus water well with high levels
of the rocket-fuel component.
4/14/2005
Lila Campuzano City Editor
A rocket-fuel component found in a Saugus water well means
contamination from the Whittaker-Bermite site has spread farther
than earlier thought, a water official said Wednesday during a
community meeting.
But the finding isn’t surprising, since test wells sunk in
the same general area have also come up positive for
perchlorate, officials said.
“Obviously, it’s a little wider than we thought,” Santa
Clarita Water Division General Manager Bill Manetta said of the
contamination, which has spread in groundwater from the former
munitions-manufacturing site near Saugus Speedway into the Santa
Clara River and downstream.
Perchlorate is linked to thyroid damage, especially in
children and pregnant women.
The well, which was shut down after last week’s discovery,
is actually near a planned site for a groundwater cleanup plant
that could serve it and other wells, Manetta said.
The Valencia Water Co. well, located in the river near
Newhall Ranch and Bouquet Canyon roads, tested at some 10 parts
per billion of perchlorate, and a follow-up test showed the
finding was not an error, officials said Wednesday.
Army Corps of Engineers test wells in the same general area
have revealed concentrations of perchlorate as high as 41 ppb,
said Larry Sievers, Whittaker-Bermite project manager for the
federal agency.
No drinking-water standard has been set for perchlorate, but
the state Department of Toxic Substances Control demands that
agencies report concentrations of 6 ppb or more.
Like other water retailers in the Santa Clarita Valley,
Valencia Water Co. mixes groundwater with State Water Project
water.
Since 1997 six wells near Whittaker-Bermite have been closed
because of contamination. Efforts are ongoing to clean up the
former munitions plant, which takes in nearly 1,000 acres south
of Soledad Canyon Road and east of San Fernando Road.
“We’re a premier city, and it’s a thousand acres in the dead
center,” said activist Connie Worden-Roberts.
Worden-Roberts chairs a community advisory group that met
Wednesday for an update on the Whittaker-Bermite cleanup.
The DTSC coordinates a multi-agency effort to deal with
contaminants on the site, including perchlorate in the
groundwater, and both perchlorate and volatile organic compounds
in the soil.
Water experts have determined that a “throw-away ion
exchange” system is the best way to remove perchlorate from the
water, Manetta said.
The system calls for perchlorate-contaminated water to be
infused with resin, to which the salt sticks. The resin is then
removed from the water and must be disposed of.
Pilot studies have been done, but a lengthy process dictated
by the Department of Health Services must be followed before
cleanup can begin, Manetta said. A public hearing on the process
may be held in August.
Progress is also being made on soil cleanup at the site,
said DTSC engineering geologist John Naginis.
For convenience, DTSC officials have divided the
Whittaker-Bermite site into seven sections, or “operable units.”
A cleanup plan for the first section, near Golden Valley Road,
has been approved, and testing is under way to determine the
most effective methods of removing volatile gasses from the
ground, Naginis said.
After the gasses are removed, the perchlorate can be dealt
with, he said.
The old Bermite site, once far removed from the small
communities of Newhall and Saugus, was home to munitions
manufacturing for decades. The Whittaker Corp., which bought
Bermite, bears the brunt of the cleanup responsibilities. Some
estimates put the cost at $100 million.
The location was touted for a large housing development to
be called Porta Bella before widespread contamination was found.
In 1994-95, the DTSC, a division of the state Environmental
Protection Agency, took over its supervisory role.
The firm that bought the property from Whittaker has filed
for bankruptcy in Arizona.
©2005 The-Signal.com - Site powered with DynamicBase by
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54 The Signal: A Tainted Wrench Thrown Into the Works of Subdivision,
Road?
4/13/2005
Editorial from The Signal: The Newspaper's Opinion
So much for Riverpark.
At least for a couple of weeks.
Maybe longer.
Tuesday night was to be a formality. The City Council gave
its initial OK to the 1,100-home development March 22; the
council was all set to give it a second and (almost) final
thumbs-up Tuesday.
Moments before the council meeting was to begin, came the
word.
The word was perchlorate.
Eleven little letters that strike fear in the public’s heart
and losses in a developer’s pocketbook.
It’s far too early to know exactly what the detection of
perchlorate in a shallow water well near the intersection of
Bouquet Canyon and Newhall Ranch roads will mean to The Newhall
Land and Farming Co.’s Riverpark development.
It might mean nothing more than a two-week delay in the
approval process. It might mean months of study and years of
remediation to ensure there’s no pollution in the Riverpark
project area. It might mean something in between.
Again, it’s too early to know.
The water well at Bouquet and Newhall Ranch is the sixth
well in the valley where perchlorate was detected. Like one
other contaminated well, this one is owned by Newhall Land’s
Valencia Water Co. subsidiary. And like all five of the other
wells, it was taken off-line last week when perchlorate was
detected in it, a Newhall Land official said.
Ownership of the well isn’t an issue where Riverpark is
concerned. Riverpark was going to get its water not from
Valencia Water Co., but from the Castaic Lake Water Agency’s
Santa Clarita Water Division — which has some polluted wells of
its own.
What the new discovery of perchlorate means immediately is
that to serve existing Valencia residents and businesses at
current levels, Valencia Water Co. will have to pump groundwater
from some other part of the underground supply, or purchase more
state water from northern California to make up for the loss of
volume.
What the discovery means to the city of Santa Clarita is
that it’s got some work and some thinking to do.
For the past few years, the city has proceeded with the
general unwritten understanding that it will allow no homes to
be built on the Whittaker-Bermite property — the source of the
contamination — until all of the contamination is cleaned up.
Cleanup hasn’t actually started, but several treatment
methods are being tried out. It’s presumed that eventually, a
water treatment facility of some sort will be built on the
Bermite property to clean the polluted water beneath the Bermite
property.
Much of the perchlorate — a component of rocket fuel — is
deep down in what’s known as the Saugus Formation, a water body
thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface. Experts say the
water in the Saugus Formation doesn’t move. The pollution is
staying relatively still. As long as we’re not drinking it — and
we aren’t — it doesn’t pose an imminent threat.
But some of the perchlorate contamination is shallower, and
that’s a different story. It was detected a few years ago in
what’s known as the alluvial aquifer, only about 100 feet below
the Saugus Speedway, next door to the Bermite property.
Last week’s discovery is only the second time perchlorate
has been found in a shallow alluvial well in our valley. At
Bouquet and Newhall Ranch, it’s appreciably farther away from
Bermite than the Saugus Speedway — which would seem to indicate
that the perchlorate contamination is moving and spreading.
If it has spread beneath the Riverpark property — much more
testing must be done to determine if that’s the case — then the
city will need to determine how to proceed. If one property
owner with perchlorate contamination can’t build homes before a
treatment method is in place, it would stand to follow that
another property owner can’t, either.
Another consideration: If Riverpark is delayed, whether for
only a few weeks or as long as a few years, what would it mean
to the cross-valley connector? Newhall Land was all set to give
$25 million toward the completion of the road, upon the City
Council’s approval of Riverpark.
Again, it’s anyone’s guess. Some years ago, the city used
eminent domain to obtain a small sliver of the Bermite property
for the connector — an unpolluted part of the Bermite property.
If the city can determine that the road alignment through
the Riverpark property isn’t contaminated, and the state
Department of Toxic Substances Control agrees, and if Newhall
Land will front the road money in advance of the approval of
Riverpark, great.
But if the alluvial aquifer — basically, the layer of wet
sand — beneath the roadbed is contaminated, the city may have a
problem.
This is the first Newhall Land project to be directly
affected, in one way or another, by perchlorate. If nothing
else, we’re likely to see a renewed commitment to getting a
treatment method in place as quickly as possible.
©2005 The-Signal.com - Site powered with DynamicBase by
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55 Pasadena Star-News - Opinion: DOE wisely reversing radioactive-waste plan
Article Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 -
FOR those of us who prefer to keep radioactive waste far removed
from our water supplies and we'll assume that's a large
majority, a decision last week by the U.S. Department of Energy
comes as welcome news.
The DOE gave preliminary approval to a plan to move a 12-
million-ton pile of radioactive waste away from the Colorado
River in Utah, where it threatens the drinking-water supply for
millions of people in four states.
The DOE, as we wrote in a March 28 editorial, had been
considering capping the waste pile and leaving it in its current
location, a few hundred feet from the Colorado River near Moab,
Utah. That proposal was the cheapest of several under
consideration, but it was by far the most foolish and
environmentally irresponsible.
The waste pile, which at 130 acres and nine stories deep is
about the size of a sports stadium, is made up of uranium
tailings from an abandoned mine that harvested yellowcake
uranium for nearly three decades. In addition to uranium, a
known carcinogen, the waste pile contains radium ammonia,
arsenic, mercury and other hazardous substances.
A study commissioned by the state of Utah showed that a major,
catastrophic flood could push the entire waste pile into the
Colorado River, creating an immense environmental and
public-heath disaster. Even without a flood, the pile leaches
about 15,000 gallons of toxic waste into the river every day. It
needs to go.
Five years ago the DOE promised to transport the waste to a
disposal site, where it would be contained and capped far from
any water supplies. Then it backtracked and considered capping
the pile at its current location.
Fortunately the department appears to have come to its senses.
It gave preliminary approval last week to moving the waste pile
to a containment site, pending another environmental review and
final approval.
Now that it's made the right decision, the DOE needs to finish
its reviews and move the radioactive waste away from the
Colorado as soon as possible.
Copyright © 2005 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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56 Brattleboro Reformer: VY waste storage worries Mass. lawmakers
April 15, 2005 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- In a letter to Gov. Jim Douglas, five
Massachusetts legislators voiced their concerns about dry cask
storage at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The April 5 letter asked the Vermont Legislature to "effect
safe, secure, limited and temporary storage of nuclear waste" at
the plant. It was signed by Massachusetts Reps. Christopher
Donelan, Stephen Kulik, Denis Guyer, Stephen Brewer and Mass.
Sen. Stanley Rosenberg.
Brattleboro's nuclear watchdog group the New England Coalition
released the letter in a press release on Wednesday.
Vermont's Legislature has been weighing whether or not to allow
the plant to store some of its spent fuel in dry casks at the
Vernon site. There will be a hearing on the matter at
Brattleboro Union High School tonight at 6.
The plant currently stores all of its spent fuel in a pool in
the reactor building, but will need additional space by 2008 or
2007, if power production is increased.
While the plant is in Vermont, Massachusetts residents are
affected by what happens at the site, especially those living
within the 10-mile emergency planning zone.
Seven Massachusetts towns -- Leyden, Bernardston, Northfield,
Colrain, Warwick, Greenfield and Gill -- are either entirely or
partially within a 10-mile radius of the plant. All residents
within the EPZ would be part of an evacuation and/or
shelter-in-place plan if there were an accident at Vermont
Yankee.
The representatives and senators who signed the letter made
five specific requests:
* that cask radiation emanations are minimized;
* that the casks are protected from line-of-sight targeting
from missiles, ballistics or aircraft;
* that the casks are protected from assaults from explosives;
* that sufficient fuel is moved to dry cask to ensure density
of fuel storage in the spent fuel pool is substantially reduced;
* that dry cask storage is not used to enable license renewal.
According to Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-2nd Franklin, Massachusetts
legislators and residents are frustrated by their inability to
take part in the decision-making process regarding Vermont
Yankee matters.
"A significant amount -- if not the majority -- of the impact
of an accident falls on those in the communities downwind or
down river, most of which are in Massachusetts," said Kulik.
Though elected officials to the south cannot play a formal role
in legislating policy around Vermont Yankee, they have
consistently lobbied Vermont and federal officials to listen to
the concerns of their constituents.
At a public meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in
March 2004, several letters from Massachusetts selectboards and
state representatives were presented to the federal regulator.
When fuel was reported missing from the plant in April of last
year, U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., joined Vermont's
congressional delegation in urging the U.S. Government
Accounting Office to investigate the matter.
Kulik said that there is a "significant level of concern" among
Massachusetts residents in Northern Franklin and Worcester
counties, not only about dry cask storage but about the
possibility of increased power production at the plant.
"We can beat the drum, try to raise awareness and get our
feelings on the record and hope that officials in other states
and in Washington D.C. do the right thing," said Kulik.
*****************************************************************
57 ABQjournal: Event Spotlights LANL Area G
the Albuquerque Journal newspaper.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Event Spotlights LANL Area G
Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
The Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board wants
people to know about Los Alamos laboratory's nuclear waste dump
and temporary storage facility— and the fact that it is slated
to expand by about 30 acres, an increase of nearly 50 percent,
beginning as early as this fall.
The federally funded board, which advises the Energy
Department on environmental issues at Los Alamos, is hosting a
public forum on the nuclear dump and storage site on May 3 from
4 to 9 p.m. at the Jemez Complex of the Santa Fe Community
College.
Known as Area G, in LANL's Technical Area-54, the dump and
storage facility has been in continuous operation since 1957 and
sits atop an otherwise picturesque mesa-top jutting in the
direction of the Rio Grande and Santa Fe beyond.
"It is the lab's largest low-level radioactive waste
disposal area," explained Lorelei Novak, the Citizens Advisory
Board's outreach director. "There are a lot of questions that
surround it and there are a lot of issues that we would like to
get different opinions on."
Aside from low-level radioactive waste buried in nearly 40
permanent waste pits, the site also serves as temporary storage
for thousands of 55-gallon drums holding transuranic waste
destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. Also
stored on the site in vertical shafts are radioactive tritium,
beryllium and infectious waste.
Only about 20 miles from the Santa Fe Plaza, Area G tops
the list of environmental concerns for laboratory watchdogs
because of the large volume of waste at the site and the fact
that much of the oldest waste, which likely includes some
plutonium and hazardous chemicals, was undocumented and buried
in unlined pits and shafts.
Transuranic waste is the site's most prominent waste,
stored in a dozen giant white tents atop permanently buried
low-level radioactive waste and scheduled to be shipped for
permanent storage to WIPP.
But those shipments are more than two years behind
schedule, according to a government audit, and the tents are
running out of space.
"It is going to be good to start shipping again, so we can
get rid of this stuff," said Jack Ellvinger, LANL's deputy group
leader for solid waste regulatory compliance. He said recent
efforts to relocate to Area G and prepare for shipment stored
transuranic waste held at other LANL sites has been "eating up
our capacity" at Area G.
Area G's expansion to about 93 acres is expected to
increase the dump's life span by another 75 years, said Gilbert
Montoya, LANL's acting group leader for solid waste operations
at TA-54.
LANL's first shipment of transuranic waste to WIPP since
October 2003 was shipped Wednesday. Shipments from LANL stopped
when WIPP technicians discovered that 98 waste drums were not
properly certified for disposal.
Novak said the board wants the coming public forum to focus
on the history of Area G, what is known about the material
buried and stored there, the risks posed by the site, the
expansion, and what LANL's plans are for the site's future.
The first half of the forum will be devoted to a poster
session and will end with a panel discussion among
representatives of various groups.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
Steve@abqjournal.com
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58 lamonitor.com: Richardson calls Lockheed-UC partnership ideal
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
CAROL A. CLARK
lanews@lamonitor.com Monitor Staff Writer
State officials have greeted the news that outgoing Sandia
National Laboratories Director C. Paul Robinson will be heading
up Lockheed Martin Corp.'s pursuit of the management contract for
Los Alamos National Laboratory warmly.
And while Gov. Richardson is pleased with the move, he maintains
his unwavering support for the University of California.
"I'm very encouraged because Paul Robinson did a superb job at
running Sandia and I'm sure he would do a superb job for Los
Alamos," Richardson said. "My hope is that somebody like the
University of California teams up with Lockheed Martin - that
would be ideal for me."
Richardson praised Robinson's capabilities saying his vast
experience makes him knowledgeable in the stewardship of the
nuclear weapons complex, national security and defense and lab
management, adding that Robinson is also highly respected in
Congress.
"If the Los Alamos contract involves Paul Robinson - it will be
a huge plus for Los Alamos," Richardson said.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., acknowledged the outstanding work
that Robinson has done at Sandia, and expressed his confidence
in Robinson's successor, Tom Hunter.
"Paul Robinson has been a dynamic and highly effective director
of Sandia National Laboratories," Bingaman said. "Given his
depth of experience at Sandia and Los Alamos, it comes as no
surprise that Lockheed Martin would tap him to prepare its
proposal for the management of the LANL contract."
Bingaman added, "We are fortunate that a strong and capable
team, led by Tom Hunter, will be in place to manage Sandia as
Paul takes on his new assignment."
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., also spoke highly of Robinson.
"I believe Paul Robinson's decision is significant because of
the expertise he will bring to the Lockheed Martin bid,"
Domenici said earlier in the week.
Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., spoke of Robinson, adding his esteem to
the group of leaders weighing in on the news.
"Without question, Paul Robinson's addition to the bid team will
benefit Lockheed Martin," Udall said. "As a former LANL
employee, I know that Paul has a deep understanding of the lab's
mission."
Udall said that while the congressional delegation has no
authority to determine who will receive the contract, they will
ensure that the process is followed to the letter of the law.
DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman pointed out Robinson's strong
science and management background and national service.
"While director of Sandia, Paul has overseen important
contributions to our national security and defense," Bodman
said. "He has provided strong stewardship of the nuclear weapons
complex and has helped Sandia build its technology base to
respond to emerging threats. Paul has a strong science and
management background that has served this country well and I
thank him for his service."
Ambassador Linton F. Brooks, the administrator of the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the undersecretary of
energy for nuclear security, added his praise of Robinson.
"Paul has helped Sandia become one of America's premiere
laboratories as the lab has been instrumental in NNSA's efforts
to maintain a nuclear weapons stockpile that is safe, secure and
reliable," Brooks said. "His leadership and vision will be
missed."
Brooks did not comment on the LANL contract or Lockheed Martin's
potential edge by having Robinson on board.
Robinson has been serving as president of Sandia Corp. and
laboratory, as well as director of Sandia National Laboratories
with principal sites at Albuquerque and Livermore, according to
the Florida State University Alumni Association web site.
Sandia Corp., a Lockheed Martin company, operates science and
engineering laboratories for the DOE.
He joined Sandia in October 1990.
Robinson served as a director and as a vice president prior to
becoming president in August 1995.
From February 1988 to October 1990, Robinson served as the chief
negotiator and head of the U.S. delegation to the nuclear
testing talks between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in Geneva.
Robinson was appointed by President Reagan, confirmed by the
Senate, and subsequently reappointed.
Robinson spent most of his early career from 1967-1985 as a
physicist at LANL.
He initiated the lab's efforts in laser-induced chemistry and
isotope separation.
Robinson led LANL's defense programs, having responsibility for
nuclear weapons research and development, strategic defense
initiatives, inertial fusion, nuclear materials and safeguards,
advanced conventional weapons, as well as arms control and
verification activities.
Robinson earned a BS degree in Physics from Christian Brothers
College in 1963 and his doctorate in 1989.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
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59 lamonitor.com: NMED keeps eye on LANL shipments
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
CAROL A. CLARK
lanews@lamonitor.com Monitor Staff Writer
The New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED) is tasked with
assuring that activities at DOE facilities are protective of the
public health and safety and the environment.
To that end, the NMED is keeping a watchful eye on the
radioactive waste shipments that began trucking down the hill
from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant (WIPP) Wednesday.
NMED Cabinet Secretary Ron Curry heads the agency since his
appointment by Gov. Richardson in January 2003.
"We are aware that Los Alamos will resume shipments to WIPP and
we will be monitoring to make sure everything is done as it
should be," Curry said Wednesday.
The plan is to start out shipping about one truckload per week
and ramp it up to about four per week by the end of the summer,
said Lloyd Piper, deputy manager of the DOE's Carlsbad office.
DOE's underground dump can ultimately handle 30 shipments a week.
Piper said that while WIPP has the capacity to receive 30
shipments a week, difficulties with testing required at sites
that send waste to WIPP have kept the shipments at roughly 20
per week.
The facility buries such things as gloves, rags, tools, dried
sludge and other debris contaminated by plutonium during weapons
work.
Although WIPP set a record in 2004 for the highest number of
shipments it received in a calendar year, officials also noticed
a rising number of mistakes in the process of certifying waste
before it's sent to WIPP.
Staff at the sites where drums of waste are stored must perform
a series of tests, such as X-rays and chemical samples, to
ensure the waste meets WIPP regulations.
Those sites include Los Alamos, the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory, the Hanford site in Washington and
the plutonium factory in South Carolina.
Shipments from the nuclear weapons lab were stopped in October
2003 because of problems with testing equipment, and a lab
shutdown last summer further delayed the process.
The WIPP facility, 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, is the
world's first underground repository licensed to permanently
dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research
and production of nuclear weapons.
After more than 20 years of scientific study, public input, and
regulatory struggles, WIPP began operations on March 26, 1999.
The WIPP has disposal rooms mined 2,150 feet underground in a
2,000-foot thick salt formation that has been stable for more
than 200 million years. Transuranic waste is currently stored at
sites nationwide.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
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60 Albuquerque Tribune: Editorial: N.M. leaders must push for new energy policy
April 14, 2005
As American soldiers continue to die and shed blood in the
oil-rich Middle East, the United States and its citizens must
face the brutal facts.
With the recent press by influential conservatives for energy
policy reforms, this country has another golden opportunity to
adopt a national energy policy that aggressively moves it away
from its long-suffering, costly and inexcusable dependence on
fossil fuels, including foreign oil.
First and foremost, if the Iraq war was not about weapons of
mass destruction or terrorist links to the 9/11 attack, what do
we really think it is about? Why has the president failed to
address global warming in spite of campaign promises that he
would? And why are we about to trash the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge while ignoring fuel-efficiency standards?
With gasoline prices soaring and threatening an already shaky
economy, adopting a sane energy policy is easily the most
important charge this year for the White House, Congress and
energy-rich states such as New Mexico.
A coalition of conservative energy and national security
experts, the Energy Future Coalition, last week sent a letter to
President Bush saying it's time for an energy game plan that has
a chance of winning - including conservation and alternative
energy sources. They warn that U.S. reliance on foreign oil for
60 percent of its consumption is dangerous.
Certainly this is a worthy mission for Bush and his shrinking
political capital. He should redirect it to this vital issue, on
which he could have a lasting impact and an impressive legacy.
Likewise for New Mexico - a state rich in fossil fuels and the
potential for alternatives energy sources such as solar and
wind.
New Mexico's political leaders can play a pivotal role in
reordering the nation's energy practices and priorities. But
that will require bipartisan, unified agreement on what the
energy problem really is and how the nation can fix it.
The United States should be moving rapidly away from virtually
total dependence on oil, coal and natural gas and toward serious
conservation, greater fuel-efficiency, broader use of nuclear
energy, hybrid vehicles, renewable fuels and other alternative
energy. All of these can be fostered by government policy that
rewards energy resource diversity.
New Mexico's two federal senators, Republican Pete Domenici and
Democrat Jeff Bingaman, are in key energy leadership roles in
the Senate. Instead of taking cheap shots at each other or at
Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, they should be key voices in
fashioning a bipartisan policy that recognizes the nation's
future, its security, economy and environment are directly
linked to a failing energy policy.
The focus of that policy has been on rampant consumption of oil,
coal and natural gas and, more recently, on drilling for more
sources of these fuels regardless of the impact on air, water
and land resources. This nation cannot drill itself out of its
energy nightmare. Rather, it must be creative to wean itself
from foreign oil.
In this regard, Domenici's insistence on pursuing drilling in
the priceless Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - even by
circumventing Senate rules - is mistaken. Likewise his criticism
of Richardson for fighting the Bush administration's continuing
push to drill at all costs in the West, including in New
Mexico's ecologically sensitive Otero Mesa.
Richardson, on the other hand, is no energy angel. He has taken
admirable stands as governor to protect New Mexico's resources
and push alternative energy sources. But how did he reshape
America's energy policy while he was the nation's secretary of
energy during the Clinton administration? Not much. But he does
have the knowledge, the sensitivity and the political savvy to
make a huge difference now. So does Bingaman.
Richardson, Domenici and Bingaman are political heavy hitters.
They should use their political might to force Congress and the
Bush administration to adopt an energy policy worthy of a great
nation.
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