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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited Official: Iran to Resume Nuke Enrichment
2 Ria Novosti: IAEA acknowledges high safety level at the Bushehr nucl
3 US: Deseret News: Call senator or we're done for
4 US: The Nation: Bush's War on the Press 
5 US: Boston.com: Markey criticizes energy legislation
6 [NYTr] For Whom the Bells Toll (Avnery on Vanunu)
7 UK: Sunday Herald: how we lied our way into the nuclear club - 
8 Guardian Unlimited: Ocean Off Hawaii Filled With Wreckage
9 Xinhua: China to rely on domestic energy resources   
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
10 UK The Times: Labour ‘to boost nuclear power’
11 US: Santa Fe New Mexican: Let's go to hydrogen; nuclear power a key 
12 US: Columbia Missourian: Regulators say nuclear site safe - 
13 US: Salt Lake Tribune: House energy bill has $1.3B for nuclear react
14 Fort St. John: Chernobyl survivors rally in Kyiv
15 News & Star: NUKE LEAK AT THORP PLANT
16 [Sofia Morning News: Over Half Million Bulgarians "Pro" Kozloduy Ref
17 Guardian Unlimited: Don't forget us, say Chernobyl victims
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
18 Deseret News: N-tensions rising as meetings on treaty near 
19 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Restart Talks
20 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Inter-Korean dialogue   
21 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. Intelligence Fears N. Korea Nuke Tes
22 BBC: North and South Korea agree talks
23 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. believes N. Korea Will Conduct Nucle
24 AFP: North and South Korea hold breakthrough talks on Pyongyang's
25 AFP: North Korea vows to bolster nuclear deterrent 
26 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Resume Talks
27 AFP: US warns China that NKorea could conduct nuclear test at any ti
28 The Standard: N Korea in nuclear arsenal pledge - 
29 Korea Times: Nuclear Weapons Test 
30 Korea Times: Hill Hints at Tougher Tactics on N. Korea 
31 ITAR-TASS: UN chief calls on NKorea to return to six-party talks on 
32 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Restart Talks
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
33 [NYTr] A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
34 Deseret News: 530 N-cancers on isles? 
35 US: Deseret News: Activist questions U.S. cancer-risk figures 
36 US: Des Moines Register: Do right by workers
37 US: Hawk Eye: IAAP, NIOSH meet Sunday 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
38 US: Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining
39 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast letter makes residents feel resentfu
40 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca: Death by e-mails 
41 US: York Daily Record: We need more secure nuke waste storage - 
42 Guardian Unlimited: Ministers denounced for nuclear waste 'spin'
43 US: Guardian Unlimited: 36 States Face Perchlorate Contamination
 
                           PEACE
 
44 US: Japan Times: Hiroshima A-bomb movie premieres at U.S. festival
45 Guardian Unlimited: Nations to Address Nuclear Treaty Issues
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
46 Modesto Bee: Changes ahead for nuclear arms site DOE unveils plans f
47 Lodinews.com: Problems mount for Livermore plutonium handling facili
48 Tri-Valley Herald: Labs future set in plutonium?
49 Salt Lake Tribune: Hanford downwinders seek justice at trial
50 Tri-Valley Herald: UC, lab want whistle-blower retrial
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited Official: Iran to Resume Nuke Enrichment
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday April 24, 2005 4:01 PM

AP Photo NY119 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran will resume uranium enrichment
regardless of the outcome of its negotiations with three
European powers over its nuclear program, a Foreign Ministry
spokesman said Sunday. 

Speaking to reporters five days before Iran is to resume nuclear
talks with France, Britain and Germany, Hamid Reza Asefi said
the Europeans appeared to be serious in seeking an agreement
with Iran. But he added that any settlement had to respect
Iran's right, as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty, to enrich uranium. 

The Europeans have been offering economic incentives in the hope
that Iran will turn its temporary suspension of uranium
enrichment activities into a permanent freeze. 

Asefi said Iran would not continue its suspension of enrichment
for long. 

``It is not a matter of a year, but months,'' he said of the
suspension, which was imposed last year to boost confidence
ahead of negotiations. 

``If Iran feels that the Europeans intend to waste time by
prolonging the talks, Iran won't insist on continuing the
talks.'' 

The United States, backed by Israel, believes Iran is using a
civilian nuclear development program as a cover to make atomic
weapons. It has threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security
Council, which can impose sanctions, but has held off pending
the negotiations with the Europeans. 

The Europeans also have called on Iran to abandon enrichment, a
process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors and, taken to
a higher level, material for bombs. 

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely for the generation
of electricity and has offered to provide safeguards of its good
intentions. 

``We will put the issue of uranium enrichment on our agenda and,
after some time, we will resume doing it. We will do it whether
the talks with the Europeans lead to failure or agreement,''
Asefi said. 

Asefi said that while the talks had moved slowly and had failed
to meet Iranian expectations, they had not been a total failure. 

Earlier this month, President Mohammad Khatami said the
negotiations with Europe had been difficult, but they were
making progress. They are due to resume April 29.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 2 Ria Novosti: IAEA acknowledges high safety level at the Bushehr nuclear plant - 

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
			 			 			 			 ['SpyLOG' border='0' width=1 height=1 ] 
TEHRAN, April 24 (

RIA Novosti's Nikolai Terekhov) Iranian Foreign Ministry 
spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi announced on Sunday that IAEA had 
acknowledged the high safety and quality level of the Bushehr 
nuclear power plant being constructed in Iran.

 "According to the report published by IAEA several days ago,
the safety and quality level of the first power plant at the
Bushehr nuclear power station meets the world standards," Asefi
told the journalists.

 He said that Iran "pays great attention to the issues of
environmental safety of the station because it does not want to
create problems for neighboring countries."

 "Russian experts are building the station according to all
international standards," Asefi added.

 Russia is nearing the conclusion of the construction of the
first power plant at the Bushehr station with the capacity of
1,000 megawatt. It will become operational in 2006. At present,
all necessary equipment is being installed. Six months before
the launch of the station, nuclear fuel will be delivered to the
facility.

*****************************************************************
 3 Deseret News: Call senator or we're done for
 
[deseretnews.com] 
 	
Saturday, April 23, 2005
 	   	 
Once again the citizens of Utah are considered expendable as the 
federal government prepares to resume its nuclear testing in 
Nevada. Utah will be the recipient again of the lion's share of 
radioactive fallout. Lip service will be paid to us as the 
federal government assures us that our safety is of the utmost 
importance.

       We know better.

       We need not be sacrificed, however, because we have a 
senator on the powerful appropriations committee who can stop 
this process from happening again. Sen. Bennett has the power to 
block the funds necessary for this testing to proceed. It is 
important for all of us to call his office and inform him we do 
not appreciate this experiment with our health.

 Jeri Roos
 Centerville

 © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 4 The Nation: Bush's War on the Press 

| Eric Alterman
 
| Posted April 21, 2005

Research support for this article was provided by the
Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute. 	   

[J] ournalists, George Bernard Shaw once said, "are unable,
seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the
collapse of civilization." How odd, given the profession's
un-equaled reputation for narcissism, that Shaw's observation
holds true even when the collapsing "civilization" is their own. 

Make no mistake: The Bush Administration and its ideological
allies are employing every means available to undermine
journalists' ability to exercise their First Amendment function
to hold power accountable. In fact, the Administration
recognizes no such constitutional role for the press. White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has insisted that the media
"don't represent the public any more than other people do.... I
don't believe you have a check-and-balance function." 

ADVERTISEMENT Bush himself, on more than one occasion, has told
reporters he does not read their work and prefers to live inside
the information bubble blown by his loyal minions. Vice
President Cheney feels free to kick the New York Times off his
press plane, and John Ashcroft can refuse to speak with any
print reporters during his Patriot-Act-a-palooza publicity tour,
just to compliant local TV. As an unnamed Bush official told
reporter Ron Suskind, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we
create our own reality. And while you're studying that
reality--judiciously, as you will--we'll act again, creating
other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how
things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of
you, will be left to just study what we do." For those who
didn't like it, another Bush adviser explained, "Let me clue you
in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered two to one by
folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people
who don't read the New York Times or Washington Post or the LA
Times."	 

But the White House and its supporters are doing more than just
talking trash--when they talk at all. They are taking aggressive
action: preventing journalists from doing their job by
withholding routine information; deliberately releasing
deceptive information on a regular basis; bribing friendly
journalists to report the news in a favorable context; producing
their own "news reports" and distributing these free of charge
to resource-starved broadcasters; creating and crediting their
own political activists as "journalists" working for partisan
operations masquerading as news organizations. In addition, an
Administration-appointed special prosecutor, US Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald, is now threatening two journalists with jail for
refusing to disclose the nature of conversations they had
regarding stories they never wrote, opening up a new frontier of
potential prosecution. All this has come in the wake of a
decades-long effort by the right and its corporate allies to
subvert journalists' ability to report fairly on power and its
abuse by attaching the label "liberal bias" to even the most
routine forms of information gathering and reportage (for a
transparent example in today's papers, see under "DeLay, Tom").
Some of these tactics have been used by previous administrations
too, but the Bush team and its supporters have invested in and
deployed them to a degree that marks a categorical shift from
the past. 

Many of these lines of attack on the press might at first appear
to have little in common. What does an increase in official
secrecy have to do with payments to pundits, or the broadcast of
official video news releases, or the presence of a right-wing
charlatan in the White House press room pretending to be a
reporter and serving up softball questions to the President in
prime time? And how is any of this connected to the
Administration's willingness to mislead the nation on everything
from stem cells to Social Security? 

The right wing's media "decertification" effort, as the
journalism scholar and blogger Jay Rosen calls it, has its roots
in forty years of conservative fury at the consistent
condescension it experienced from the once-liberal elite media
and the cosmopolitan establishment for whom its members have
spoken. Fueled by this sense of outrage, the right launched a
multifaceted effort to fight back with institutions of its own,
including think tanks, advocacy organizations, media pressure
groups, church groups, big-business lobbies and, eventually, its
own television, talk-radio, cable and radio networks (to be
augmented, later, by a vast array of Internet sites). Today this
triumphant movement has captured not only much of the media and
the public discourse on ideas but both the presidency and
Congress (and soon, undoubtedly, the Supreme Court as well); it
can wage its war on so many fronts simultaneously that it
becomes nearly impossible to see that almost all these efforts
are aimed at a single goal: the destruction of democratic
accountability and the media's role in insuring it. 

The Bush attack on the press has three primary
components--Secrecy, Lies and Fake News. Consider these
examples: 


Secrecy

All Presidents try to keep secrets; it comes with the job 
description. Following 9/11, the need for secrecy increased 
significantly. Bush, however, has taken advantage of this new 
environment to shut down the natural flow of information between 
the governing and the governed in ways that have little or 
nothing to do with the terrorist threat. As Charles Lewis of the 
Center for Public Integrity points out, "The country has seen a 
historic, regressive shift in public accountability. Open-records 
laws nationwide have been rolled back more than 300 times--all in 
the name of national security." Federation of American Scientists 
secrecy specialist Steven Aftergood adds, "Since President George 
W. Bush entered office, the pace of classification activity has 
increased by 75 percent.... His Information Security Oversight 
Office oversees the classification system and recorded a rise 
from 9 million classification actions in fiscal year 2001 to 16 
million in fiscal year 2004."

Some of these efforts may be justified as prudent preparation in 
the face of genuine threats, but this is hard to credit, given 
the contempt the Administration has demonstrated for the public's 
right to information in non-security-related matters. Upon 
entering office, Bush attempted to shield his Texas gubernatorial 
records by shuttling them into his father's presidential library. 
That was followed by an executive fiat designed to hide his 
father's presidential records, as well as those of the 
Reagan/Bush Administration, by blocking the scheduled release of 
documents under the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and issuing 
a replacement presidential order that allowed not only Presidents 
but also their wives and children to keep their records secret. 
(The records had already been scrubbed for national security 
implications.)

In the aftermath of 9/11, Administration efforts to prevent 
accountability accelerated to warp speed. Attorney General 
Ashcroft reversed a Clinton Administration-issued policy 
governing FOIA requests that allowed documents to be withheld 
only when "foreseeable harm" would likely result, to one in which 
merely a "sound legal basis" could be found. And that was just 
the beginning. Even when documents were not withheld de jure, 
Administration officials often withheld them de facto. When 
People for the American Way sought documents on prisoners' cases 
being litigated in secret, the Justice Department required it to 
pay $373,000 in search fees before officials would even look. 
"It's become much, much harder to get responses to FOIA requests, 
and it's taking much, much longer," David Schulz, the attorney 
who helps the Associated Press with FOIA requests, explained to a 
reporter. "Agencies seem to view their role as coming up with 
techniques to keep information secret rather than the other way 
around. That's completely contrary to the goal of the act."

In addition, as Aftergood notes, "an even more aggressive form of 
government information control has gone unenumerated and often 
unrecognized in the Bush era, as government agencies have 
restricted access to unclassified information in libraries, 
archives, websites and official databases." These sources were 
once freely available but are now being withdrawn from view under 
the classification "sensitive but unclassified" or "for official 
use only." They include: the Pentagon telephone directory, the 
Los Alamos technical report library, historical records at the 
National Archives and the Energy Department intelligence budget, 
among many others. Even more alarming is the web of secrecy 
surrounding the operations of what has become the equivalent of a 
police state at Guant namo Bay and other military prisons around 
the world, where the accused are routinely denied due process and 
traditional rules of evidence are deemed irrelevant. Exactly two 
members of Congress, both sworn to secrecy, are being briefed by 
the CIA on these programs. The rest of Congress, the media and 
the public are given no information to judge the legality, 
morality or effectiveness of these extralegal machinations, some 
of which have already resulted in officially sanctioned torture 
and possibly even murder. 

Lies

The issue of "lies" has been the most consistently clouded by the 
Administration's supporters in the conservative media, who refuse 
to report facts when they conflict with White House spin. It's 
true, as I show in my book When Presidents Lie: A History of 
Official Deception and Its Consequences, that many presidents 
have demonstrated an almost allergic reaction to accuracy. Still, 
the Bush Administration manages to set a new standard here as 
well, reducing reality to a series of inconvenient obstacles to 
be ignored in favor of ideological prejudices and political 
imperatives--and it has done so virtually across the entire 
executive branch. As Michael Kinsley noted way back in April 
2002, "What's going on here is something like lying by reflex.... 
Bush II administration lies are often so laughably obvious that 
you wonder why they bother. Until you realize: They haven't 
bothered. If telling the truth was less bother, they'd try that 
too."

Rather than regurgitate that fruitless debate over the war--the 
deliberate untruths told by the Administration have been 
delineated ad nauseam--consider just two recent examples of its 
deception on matters relating to scientific and medical evidence:

?Mercury emissions: When the EPA unveiled a rule to limit 
mercury emissions from power plants, Bush officials argued that 
anything more stringent than the EPA's proposed regulations would 
cost the industry far in excess of any conceivable benefit to 
public health. They hid the fact, however, that a Harvard study 
paid for by the EPA, co-written by an EPA scientist and 
peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists, found exactly the 
opposite, estimating health benefits 100 times as great as the 
EPA did. Even more shocking, according to a GAO investigation, 
the EPA had failed to "quantify the human health benefits of 
decreased exposure to mercury, such as reduced incidence of 
developmental delays, learning disabilities, and neurological 
disorders."

?Nuclear materials: The Los Angeles Times recently reported that 
government scientists apparently submitted phony data to 
demonstrate that a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada's Yucca 
Mountain would be safe. As with the EPA and mercury emissions, 
the Interior Department found unsatisfactory the results of a 
study from the Los Alamos National Laboratory concluding that 
rainwater moved through the mountain sufficiently quickly for 
radioactive isotopes to penetrate the ground in a few decades, so 
it just pretended it hadn't happened.

In these two emblematic cases, as it has done so many times 
before, the Administration simply issued its own pronouncements, 
ignored reality and went its merry way, damn the consequences 
both for the reality of its policies and for its own credibility. 
Those found guilty of deception did not mind the one-day story 
that would result demonstrating them to be liars any more than 
Vice President Cheney minded the fact that a videotape existed of 
him claiming on Meet the Press that the alleged Prague meeting 
between Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence official had been 
"pretty well confirmed" when he twice insisted, also on 
videotape, that he "never said that." And the political 
calculation turned out to be a good one. It was left to The Daily 
Show to run the two tapes of Cheney together. Reporters may have 
been angry at being lied to, but they returned the next day to 
swallow some more.


Fake News

The Bush Administration has invested untold millions in video 
"news releases" that disguise themselves as genuine news reports 
and are frequently broadcast by irresponsible local news 
programs. In three separate opinions in the past year, the 
Congressional Government Accountability Office held that 
government-made news segments may constitute improper "covert 
propaganda" even if their origin is made clear to television 
stations. Yet the Administration has rejected these rulings, 
fortified by a Justice Department opinion that insists that the 
reports are purely informational. Of course, the Administration's 
idea of "purely informational" is sufficiently elastic to stretch 
all the way from the White House to Ahmad Chalabi's house. As the 
New York Times reported, a "jubilant" Iraqi-American chanting 
"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, USA" is deemed to fall into this 
category, as is a report of "another success" in the 
Administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security" in which 
the "reporter" called the effort "one of the most remarkable 
campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in 
January, described the Administration's commitment to opening 
markets for American farmers. The reports are clearly designed to 
simulate legitimate news programming. A now-infamous report 
narrated by PR flack Karen Ryan for the Department of Health and 
Human Services praising the benefits of the new Medicare bill 
imitated a real news report by having her sign off as "Karen 
Ryan, reporting" and by not identifying the story's source. The 
Clinton Administration made use of video "news releases" as well, 
but now the government's investment in them appears to have 
nearly doubled, as has its brazenness.

These phony news reports have much in common with stage-managed 
"public" presidential events that bar all potential dissenters 
and script virtually every utterance. In March, for instance, 
three people found themselves kicked out of a Bush Social 
Security event because of a bumper sticker on their car in the 
parking lot that read No More Blood for Oil. White House press 
secretary Scott McClellan said a volunteer asked the three to 
leave "out of concern they might try to disrupt the event," but, 
of course, no evidence of any potential disruption could be found 
save the "thought crime" of coming to the event with an antiwar 
bumper sticker on a car. This was not, recall, a Bush/Cheney '04 
campaign event but a presidential forum to discuss the future of 
Social Security. (Previously citizens had been kept out of Bush 
events because of clothing deemed inappropriate or for reasons 
unexplained, as when most of a group of forty-two, barred from an 
event in Fargo, North Dakota, later discovered that what they had 
in common was membership on a Howard Dean meetup.com list.)

In addition to creating its own mediated version of reality, the 
Administration has also invested considerable resources in 
corrupting members of the media with cash payments, in what 
George Miller, ranking Democrat on the Committee on Education and 
the Workforce, has termed a "potentially criminal mismanagement 
of expensive contracts." These include hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in payments to right-wing pundits Armstrong Williams 
($240,000), Maggie Gallagher ($21,000) and Michael McManus 
($10,000), the conservative author of the syndicated column 
"Ethics & Religion," who, like Williams, was paid to help promote 
a marriage initiative. And yet the resulting scandal has 
benefited the Administration's war on the press by damaging 
journalism's public image and reinforcing the false belief that 
everyone in the media is somehow "on the take."

Undoubtedly the Administration's most bizarre effort to 
manipulate the media was its embrace of former gay prostitute 
James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, who showed up at the White House 
under a phony name and worked for a right-wing shell operation 
that acted less like a news organization than an arm of the 
Republican National Committee, publishing articles like "Kerry 
Could Become First Gay President." Gannon's ostensible employer, 
Talon News Service, employed an editor in chief, Bobby Eberle, 
who served as a delegate to the 1996, 1998 and 2000 Texas 
Republican Conventions and to the 2000 Republican National 
Convention and enjoyed many direct connections to Republican and 
right-wing organizations. Press secretary McClellan would often 
call on Gannon when he wanted to extricate himself from a 
particularly effective line of questioning. The words "Go ahead, 
Jeff," signaled that the press corps could be getting into an 
area that might embarrass the White House--or could be 
discovering a nugget of genuine news. Gannon's ploy might have 
continued indefinitely had the President not helped make him 
famous by calling on him at a January 26 news conference in order 
to be served up a softball that mocked Democrats for being 
"divorced from reality." Once exposed, Gannon resigned and Talon 
folded up shop like a rolled-up CIA cover-op. As James Pinkerton, 
an official in both the Reagan and Bush I White House, admitted 
on Fox News, getting the kind of clearance Gannon did in this 
security atmosphere must have required "an incredible amount of 
intervention from somebody high up in the White House," that it 
had to be "conscious" and that "some investigation should 
proceed, and they should find that out." As Frank Rich observed, 
"Given an all-Republican government, the only investigation 
possible will have to come from the press." 

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this war against the media 
has been the fact that members of the media have largely behaved 
as if it is just business as usual. In fact, much of the success 
of the effort derives from the cooperation, both implicit and 
explicit, of the press. No one, after all, forces local TV 
stations to run official propaganda videos in lieu of their own 
programming, or without identifying them as such, and no one 
forces CNN Newsource, among others, to distribute them. And why 
did the curious mystery of "Gannon," despite its obvious 
newsworthiness--and sex appeal--receive so little critical 
coverage and virtually no outrage in the mainstream press? 
(Washington Post media critic and CNN talking head Howard Kurtz 
even went so far as to blame the scandal on "these liberal 
bloggers, [who] have started investigating his personal life in 
an effort to discredit him," and the National Press Club invited 
Gannon to be an honored guest on a panel on blogging and 
journalistic credibility.) Mike McCurry, White House press 
secretary under Bill Clinton, says he marvels at the willingness 
of the press corps to swallow the various humiliations offered 
them by Bush & Co. He told a recent gathering of Washington 
reporters and editors, "I used to think that if I ever tried to 
control the message as effectively as the current White House 
did, that I would have been run out of the White House press 
briefing room. But clearly I misjudged the temperament that 
exists."

The media's failure to resist this assault is perhaps 
understandable. Members of the profession are under siege from so 
many directions simultaneously they may feel they can hardly keep 
up with each incoming salvo. Not only is much of the traditional 
media controlled by multinational corporations that view their 
operations not as a public trust but as profit centers to be 
squeezed, but newspapers are facing an alarming decline in 
readership (and more than a few are admitting to having padded 
those numbers all along). Broadcast news has been steadily losing 
audience share for decades. In a vicious cycle, the results of 
such declines are more declines, as resources are cut to match 
reduced profits and pressure escalates from above to do more with 
less. Meanwhile, more and more "news" programs are succumbing to 
the tabloid temptation, and the lowering of quality has been 
ac-companied by a proliferation of factual errors, plagiarism and 
outright fiction proffered as reportage, further undermining 
public respect for the field. As Philip Meyer recently wrote in 
The Columbia Journalism Review, there is a sense that journalism 
itself "is being phased out. Our once noble calling is 
increasingly difficult to distinguish from things that look like 
journalism but are primarily advertising, press agentry, or 
entertainment." Throw in the nonstop ideological assault from the 
self-intoxicated section of the (mostly conservative) 
blogosphere, from (even more conservative) talk-radio and cable 
loudmouths like Limbaugh and O'Reilly, plus the fact that members 
of generations X and Y seem more likely to commit acts of 
terrorism than pick up a newspaper or watch a news broadcast, and 
it seems almost a luxury to worry about the Bush Administration's 
attack as well.

Another reason for the press's complacency is that many of these 
tactics are nothing new. Reporters have always engaged in a 
complex push-me/pull-you relationship with the President, 
alternately sucking up and pulling down as the political tides 
rose and fell. More than thirty years ago, Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan observed in Commentary that "in most essential 
encounters between the Presidency and the press, the advantage is 
with the former. The President has a near limitless capacity to 
'make' news which must be reported.... The President also has 
considerable capacity to reward friends and punish enemies in the 
press corps.... Finally, a President who wishes can carry off 
formidable deceptions." What's unprecedented is the degree to 
which this Administration has employed these efforts to undermine 
the journalist's democratic function.

His formidable deceptions notwithstanding, George W. Bush has 
charmed many in the press personally, and his Administration, in 
the person of Karl Rove, has impressed them with its political 
perspicacity. Media insiders believe Bush/Rove to be a tougher 
political combination than most but have trouble believing they 
are seeking to effect a fundamental transformation in 
press-presidential relations. Media insiders appear to like Bush 
a great deal more than the public does and frequently 
overestimate his popularity (in fact, in early April, Bush's 
approval rating had fallen to the lowest level of any President 
since World War II at this point in his second term, according to 
the Gallup organization). 

What's more, for journalists to admit they are being deceived, or 
even manipulated, contradicts their sense of self-importance as 
"players" in a perpetual game of good governance. To read ABC 
News's "The Note"--which has developed into a kind of Pravda for 
the "Gang of 500" who cover national politics every day--is to 
enter a world in which the President and his advisers are treated 
in a manner not unlike the way US Weekly treats "Brad and Jen." 
Its affectionate tone speaks, too, to Washington reporters' 
coziness with the subjects they're ostensibly covering, their 
sources. McCurry notes that unnamed sources are such a problem 
today in part because reporters are frequently more eager to 
grant anonymity than officials are to demand it. "I have had 
probably thousands of conversations with reporters in twenty-five 
years as a press secretary, and I'd say 80 percent of the time I 
am offered anonymity and background rather than asking for it. I 
rarely have to ask for it and don't ask for it because I prefer 
to keep on the record as often as I can."

While individual reporters and even news organizations are 
undoubtedly vulnerable to White House retaliation if they refuse 
to play ball--former White House officials spoke openly of their 
desire to punish CBS and Dan Rather--if these organizations were 
to unite on behalf of their constitutional charge and collective 
dignity, they would likely find a White House that knows when 
it's beaten. Alas, reporters, like Democrats and cats, are 
maddeningly hard to organize. When some recently tried to map out 
a collective response to the White House's secrecy obsession, it 
got few takers. Knight-Ridder reporter Ron Hutcheson, president 
of the White House Correspondents' Association, walked out of an 
anonymous briefing last term to be followed by exactly no one. 
Len Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post, has ruled 
out the possibility of participation in any such action. "We just 
don't believe in unified action," he explained in a note to 
former Post ombudsman Geneva Overholser, "and would find a 
discussion aimed at reaching agreement with others on 
'practicable steps' or even agreement on when not to agree to 
various ground rules uncomfortable and unworkable."

The net result of this one-sided battle is the de jure 
destruction of the balance that has characterized the American 
political system since the modern, nonpartisan media began to 
emerge a century ago. And unless journalists find a way to fight 
back for the honor, dignity and, ultimately, effectiveness of 
their profession, the press's role in American democracy and 
society will continue to diminish accordingly, to the 
disadvantage of all our citizens. Bush adviser Karen Hughes has 
explained, "We don't see there being any penalty from the voters 
for ignoring the mainstream press." And there's been none to 
date. Speaking to Salon's Eric Boehlert, Ron Suskind outlined 
what he sees as the ultimate aim of the Administration upon which 
he has reported so effectively. "Republicans have a clear, 
agreed-upon plan how to diminish the mainstream press," he warns. 
"For them, essentially the way to handle the press is the same as 
how to handle the federal government; you starve the beast. When 
it's in a weakened and undernourished condition, then you're able 
to effect a variety of subtle partisan and political attacks."

"Two cheers for democracy," wrote E.M. Forster, "one because it 
admits variety and two because it permits criticism." But the aim 
of the Bush offensive against the press is to do just the 
opposite; to insure, as far as possible, that only one voice is 
heard and that no criticism is sanctioned. The press may be the 
battleground, but the target is democracy itself. 

about Eric AltermanColumnist     
	
 Termed "the most honest and incisive media critic writing
today" in the National Catholic Reporter, and author of "the
smartest and funniest political journal out there," according to
the San Francisco Chronicle, Eric Alterman is Professor of
English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York,
media columnist for The Nation, the "" weblogger for MSNBC.com,
and a senor fellow at the Center for , for whose journal he
writes and edits the "Think Again" column. more... 	   	      	
 	     	 	
*****************************************************************
 5 Boston.com: Markey criticizes energy legislation
 
Boston Globe WASHINGTON

-- The energy bill that passed the House on Thursday will raise
gasoline prices and subsidize oil companies but fail to reduce
the country's dependence on foreign oil, US Representative
Edward Markey said yesterday. Lolita C. Baldor April 24, 2005


By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press  |  April 24, 2005
 
WASHINGTON -- The energy bill that passed the House on Thursday 
will raise gasoline prices and subsidize oil companies but fail 
to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, US 
Representative Edward Markey said yesterday.

Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who tried unsuccessfully to
force changes in the bill during House debate, said the
legislation will make the United States more dependent on
foreign oil because it would not require cars and sport utility
vehicles to be more fuel-efficient.
 
''We cannot afford to continue to pursue such a failed energy
policy," Markey said in his party's weekly radio address. ''If
we fail to reduce our dependence on OPEC oil, we remain beholden
to events in dangerous, unstable parts of the world. . . . If we
fail to reduce the cost of energy, businesses will suffer, farms
will fail and families find it more difficult to make ends meet."
 
The bill, which passed the House by a 249-to-183 vote, reflects
many of President Bush's energy priorities. It would open an
Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling and provide $12 billion
in tax breaks and subsidies to traditional energy industries,
including oil, natural gas, nuclear and coal producers.
 
But opponents said it does little to foster less energy use and
will damage the environment.
 
While this is the fifth time in four years the House has passed
an energy bill, the measure has stalled in the Senate, and its
future there is still uncertain.
 
The bill, said Markey, gives billions of dollars in tax breaks
to profitable oil companies such as ExxonMobil and immunizes
those companies from any legal liability connected with water
supplies contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE.
 
Markey, a member of the House Energy Committee, said Democrats
''offered a more hopeful vision of our energy future." That
plan, he said, would move away from an oil-dependent past and
into a ''technologically advanced and renewable energy future."

*****************************************************************
 6 [NYTr] For Whom the Bells Toll (Avnery on Vanunu)
 
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 10:41:04 -0500 (CDT)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
GUSH SHALOM - Apr 23, 2005
http://www.gush-shalom.org

[As former Knesset Member Uri Avnery took part in this week's Knesset 
Committee discussion of the Vanunu restrictions, and in this article 
reveals some absurd details. He also explains the significance of the 
sacrifice of Vanunu, forcing through the nuclear discussion in Israel.]

For Whom the Bells Toll

by Uri Avnery

An Iranian technician called Jalal-a-Din Taheri, who had been working at 
the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, managed to defect Europe, where he 
disclosed the Ayatollahs' plans for producing nuclear bombs.

Taheri was acclaimed a hero throughout the world. A number of 
organizations nominated him for the Nobel Peace Price. President Bush 
praised his courage. Ariel Sharon invited him to come and live in 
Israel, even calling him one of the Righteous of the Nations. The 
Ayatollahs denounced him as a traitor, infidel, Crusader and Zionist.

This is, of course, an entirely fictitious story. But it corresponds 
exactly to the story of Mordechai Vanunu, who is considered by almost 
all Israelis as a despicable traitor - proving once again that treason, 
like pornography, is a matter of geography.

This week I used my privilege as a former Member of the Knesset to 
attend a session of the Knesset Committee for "the Constitution, Law and 
Justice", in which the Vanunu affair was discussed. In the course of the 
session, Knesset members cursed each other in the language of 
fishmongers (by which I mean no offence to fishmongers). Two Likud 
members, Ronie Bar-On (who once served for several hours as Attorney 
General before being ignominiously removed) and Yehiel Hazan shouted 
that Vanunu had no human rights, since he was not a human being. It 
should be mentioned in all fairness that the chairman of the committee, 
Michael Eytan, also a Likud member, strongly condemned these utterances.

Vanunu, who in 1986 disclosed to a British newspaper some of Israel's 
nuclear secrets, was kidnapped soon after by the Mossad, smuggled back 
to Israel and put on trial. He served his sentence: 18 years in prison. 
For most of the time he was held in total isolation. (He told me that, 
in order to keep his sanity, he would read the New Testament in English 
out loud, over and over again, and in this way improved his command of 
this language, which he now insists on using instead of Hebrew.)

On his release, he was placed under severe restrictions: he is forbidden 
to go abroad, forbidden to move inside the country without prior 
notification of the authorities, forbidden to speak with foreigners, 
forbidden to give interviews. The Supreme Court has upheld these 
constraints. Vanunu has violated most of them, and some weeks ago he was 
indicted for these violations.

The restrictions were initially imposed for one year, which came to an 
end this week. The Knesset committee was about to discuss the 
possibility of their being extended, but a few hours before the session, 
the Minister of the Interior, Ophir Pines (Labor Party) signed an order 
extending for another year the prohibition of leaving the country, and 
the Army Commander of the Home Front signed an order to extend the other 
constraints (under Emergency Regulations).

At the committee meeting, the representative of the Attorney General set 
out the government arguments for this extension: (a) Vanunu still "holds 
in his head" dangerous secrets, (b) He has a "phenomenal" memory, (c) If 
given the opportunity, he will disclose these secrets abroad.

What is the evidence to support this?

(a) In one of the letters he wrote in prison, Vanunu told his 
correspondent abroad that he was in possession of many more secrets, 
which he had not yet disclosed. He announced his intention of revealing 
these secrets at the first opportunity.

(b) Two years before his release - that is to say, 16 years after his 
work in the nuclear installation - he drew in his cell, purely from 
memory, detailed and amazingly exact blueprints of the production 
process. These drawings were found among the more than a thousand 
documents seized in his cell.

These facts are more than strange. An inmate who sends letters from 
prison knows, of course, that they are censored. Vanunu was bound to 
know that not only the prison authorities, but the intelligence 
services, too, would read them. When he made the blueprints, he 
certainly knew they would be seized.

All this indicates that he intended to provoke his tormentors and show 
them that he was not broken. It is difficult to take the documents 
seriously, as the Supreme Court did, eight months ago, when it confirmed 
the restrictions. A person who intends to disclose dreadful secrets does 
not announce this in advance to the authorities, and does not prepare 
blueprints for his persecutors.

Concerning the matter itself:

(a) Does he "hold in his head" secrets that he has not disclosed in the 
past?

Unlikely.

First of all, Vanunu's knowledge concerns processes as they were 18 
years ago. Can such knowledge be useful today? Hard to believe. As 
Knesset Member Zehava Galon (Yahad) remarked at the session: "It is 
terrifying to imagine that nothing has changed in Israel's nuclear 
techniques for 19 years!"

Secondly, before the British paper published his disclosures, Vanunu was 
cross-questioned for two whole days by one of the world's leading 
nuclear scientists. It is hard to believe that after that he still had 
any undisclosed secrets left.

Thirdly, it borders on paranoia to think that he was so sophisticated as 
to decide, 18 years ago, to "hold in his head" secrets in order to 
publish them 20 years later.

Fourthly, Vanunu is no scientist. He worked at the reactor as a 
technician. Even if he has a "phenomenal" memory, and even if his 
blueprints are uncannily exact, it is hard to believe that they have any 
remaining significance today.

If this is the case, how to explain the renewal of the restrictions?

The Attorney General's representative insisted that their purpose is not 
to punish him for things he has done in the past, which would be illegal 
(since he has already been tried and served his full sentence), but to 
prevent new crimes (the disclosure of further secrets).

I doubt this. One cannot silence Vanunu. The whole world is interested 
in him, and the more he is persecuted, the more this interest will grow. 
Vanunu cannot be deterred - he is simple undeterrible (to coin a word). 
Quite the contrary. Also, it is impossible to prevent him from coming 
into contact with foreigners.

(Some months ago, I was sitting in the evening in the garden of the 
fabulous American Colony hotel in East Jerusalem, chatting with the 
British actress Vanessa Redgrave, a tireless campaigner for 
Israeli-Palestinian peace. Suddenly I noticed Vanunu strolling by. I 
called him over. Vanessa Redgrave was very interested in his experiences 
in prison. How can one prevent this sort of things happening?)

There remains only one explanation: Revenge. Yehiel Horev, the chief of 
the Internal Security Division of the Ministry of Defense, cannot 
forgive Vanunu for making a mockery of his security arrangements by 
wandering around the parts of the installation in which he had no 
business to be, freely taking photos in Israel's most secret 
installation and smuggling them abroad. That is indeed infuriating. But 
vengeance, too, must have its limits.

The more so as the Attorney General's man, answering a query from 
Knesset Member Etti Livni, admitted that the same arguments voiced now 
will also be valid in another year's time, as well as in five and ten 
years. In other words, the constraints may be lifelong.

As for my personal opinion about the substance of the matter:

Nuclear weapons are a threat to all of us. It is impossible to prevent 
indefinitely the acquisition of nuclear weapons by more countries in the 
Middle East - with Iran in the lead. Other categories of Weapons of Mass 
Destruction (chemical and biological) do already exist in neighboring 
countries.

For years, Israel has enjoyed a nuclear monopoly in the region. My 
friends and I have warned that this monopoly is temporary, and that we 
must use the time to achieve peace. The hubris of our leaders has 
prevented this.

Now, the aim must be to free the whole region from weapons of mass 
destruction, under strict international and mutual inspection, as part 
of a comprehensive peace settlement. That is both possible and 
practical. When Vanunu rings the bells, he contributes to the public 
awakening.

His action is also important for another reason: for the first time, he 
has drawn the attention of the Israeli public to the real danger 
inherent in the old reactor, which is now more than 40 years old. 
Several former employees have now sued the government, claiming that 
they have contracted cancer (and some have died) because of safety 
failures. What will happen in the case of a Chernobyl-like disaster? Or 
an earthquake, or a missile strike? Who is thinking about this? Whose 
responsibility is it? Who oversees those responsible?

Vanunu rings the bells to call attention to a real danger. The question 
is not whether he is a pleasant person, whether his views are popular or 
what he thinks about the State of Israel, after 12 years of solitary 
confinement. The question is whether he is doing a good job.

I, for one, believe he is.

Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel
       
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 7 UK: Sunday Herald: how we lied our way into the nuclear club - 

By Trevor Royle
  
 By Trevor Royle 
 
 EVERY military commander wants a bigger bang for the available
bucks. Not only do the resulting pyrotechnics raise the spirits
of those pulling the trigger, but they do an awful lot of damage
to those on the receiving end. Most big bangs come as a result
of massively expensive scientific development, and the ability
of the military to convince politicians that they really do need
their shiny new toys, but there are times when subterfuge can do
the business. 

In 1957, Britain exploded its first set of hydrogen bombs
(H-bombs) near Christmas Island, a hitherto blameless atoll in
the Pacific which was the site of Operation Grapple, a
top-secret exercise to keep Britain in the nuclear club. A good
result was desperately needed as it would show the world that
Britain still had the cojones to remain a world power. It would
also mend fences with the US in the year after the disastrous
Suez campaign which saw transatlantic relations fall to an
all-time low.

The first bomb exploded spectacularly but the yield was
desperately disappointing as its potency was not much greater
than the bombs dropped on Japan 12 years earlier. Such an
outcome was completely unacceptable. It represented a colossal
waste of development money and could have been a massive blow to
the countrys international prestige at a time when national
morale was rock-bottom. Fortunately, the scientists had a trick
up their sleeves. Before testing the second hydrogen bomb they
dropped a so-called stop-gap device code-named Orange Herald 
which was basically a monster atomic bomb cobbled together from
existing stocks in much the same way that a child might put
elastic bands round a bunch of bangers to get a more satisfying
thud on Guy Fawkes night.

To everyones delight, the stop-gap device did its stuff and a
great British triumph was trumpeted to the world. The massive
mushroom cloud over the Pacific demonstrated that Britain was
still a great power but, as nuclear historian Dr Eric Grove
discovered, recent confidential documents show that it was all a
massive deception.

Orange Herald was probably the biggest fission explosion ever;
it went off with a yield of 700 kilotons, almost three-quarters
of a megaton, he says. This was a very big bomb indeed. In a
sense it might as well have been an H-bomb. Its a much bigger
explosion than any H-bomb we have today, in British service at
least. So this was a spectacular thing and observers went away
confident that Britain now had the H-bomb.

Not even the crew of the Valiant bomber, which dropped the
device, knew the truth. From the intensity of the explosion it
looked like a new weapon  that was the way the government wanted
to play it  and Orange Herald went into RAF service the
following year as Britains first front-line H-bomb. The ruse was
kept top secret. When a Daily Mail journalist uncovered the
truth the government ordered the news papers publishers to drop
the story as the exposure would not be in the national
-interest. The story has emerged only now, with the publication
of these documents. 

And at the time there was a lot at stake. As the 1950s drew to a
close Britain was coming to the unwelcome conclusion that it had
to tailor its defence policy to the available cash. Cutbacks
were the order of the day and, in the same year that Orange
Herald persuaded the world that Britain was a super-power, the
Conservative governments defence review announced radical
changes to the armed forces including the end of National
Service, heavier reliance on missiles and a sharp reduction in
overseas garrisons.

In this brave new world there would be a greater need for
up-to-the-minute technology: which meant getting back into bed
with the Yanks. Some heavy seduction would be needed, too,
because in 1957 relations between London and Washington were not
even at the holding hands stage. The year before , President
Dwight D Eisenhower had accused the British of breaking
international law by trying to effect a regime change in Egypt 
together with France and Israel, British forces had attacked the
Suez Canal in a doomed attempt to unseat President Nasser. Ever
since that falling-out it had been more freeze than squeeze and
Prime Minister Harold Macmillans government was determined to
get things going again.

Hence the importance of the Christmas Island deception. In
charge of all things nuclear in Washington was Admiral Hyman
Rickover, described by British intelligence as an introvert
iconoclast from the Ukraine who hated all things British. As
head of the US Navys nuclear sub marine programme he had been
determined to block the export of nuclear technology to Britain.

Two things changed all that. Rickover might have been
contemptuous of his allies, but he was a sucker for royalty: a
handy failing as Britains First Sea Lord was Earl Mountbatten, a
grandson of Queen Victoria. Backed by the impressively powerful
tests in the Pacific, Mountbatten managed to persuade Rickover
that we would all be much better off in the same bed; the US
nodded in agreement and approved the transfer of technology for
the propulsion unit of the Royal Navys first nuclear submarine,
the Dreadnought. 

Having developed a pretend H-bomb Britain went on to develop the
real thing in great haste as an international ban on testing was
only months away. Next time round, US observers were present at
Christmas Island and the new weapons proved to be a thumping
success. The tests also contained the seeds of controversy. To
save money and time the bomb was dropped just off the atoll and
the ground crews were forced to watch as it exploded at 8000
feet. Although they were ordered to take the dubious precaution
of rolling down their shirt sleeves and covering their eyes with
their hands, the explosion left a lasting effect. One RAF man
remembered that the experience was like someone passing a
five-bar electric fire close to your back then moving it away.

Another thought the fireball almost beautiful, while everyone
was shocked by the unexpected after-blast which tore down trees
and sent people spinning in its wake.

Later, service personnel wondered if their attendance at the
bomb site had been as safe as the authorities promised and,
latterly , a number of ex-services personnel alleged that they
had been exposed to undue amounts of radioactivity which led to
cancers and other illnesses. Still, as nuclear expert Professor
John Bayliss of Swansea University argues, after the Orange
Herald ruse Britain finally had its weapon of mass destruction,
the test demonstrating to the US that we were capable of
developing weapons of that magnitude.

However, as in every deal, nothing is for nothing. In return for
sharing nuclear secrets with their allies, the US insisted that
the new British bomb be discarded in favour of their own
version. To the shock of the scientists who had spent millions
of pounds developing a real thermo-nuclear device, all the hard
work on Christmas Island counted for nothing. When the new
weapon went into RAF service, the government maintained the
fiction that Britain had an independent nuclear deterrent but,
as Dr Grove explains, it was all a hoax: It was a key point that
had to be kept secret  the fact that we were using an American
design. People might have said, had they known, How independent
is this? Its only a copy of an American bomb. Where is the
independence? Where is the prestige?

The new relationship also spelled doom for Britains nuclear
V-bombers, another expensive and highly controversial
initiative. The force was created in the early 1950s to provide
the RAF with big four-engined jet bombers capable of hitting
targets in the Soviet Union with freefall nuclear bombs. Warning
of an impending enemy attack came from the Fylingdales radar
station in Yorkshire and it gave the bombers exactly four
minutes to get airborne, which meant that the quick reaction
alert squadrons had to be on high alert 24 hours a day, 365 days
a year: a procedure they maintained for more than 15 years. But
when the countrys nuclear deterrent was switched to
submarine-launched Polaris missiles, a further result of the US
deal, there was no place for the V-bombers. The workhorse
Valiant, which dropped the Christmas Island bombs, was scrapped,
the beautiful delta-winged Vulcan was given a conventional role
while the futuristic Victor became an airborne fuel tanker.

With the V-bombers went the last of the dirty little secrets
surrounding the post-war development of Britains super-weapons.

Although it was never revealed at the time for fear of damaging
morale, the bombers did not carry enough fuel to hit their
target and then return to base, which meant that pilots were on
a one-way ticket to eternity. Not that such a detail is likely
to have worried the crews, since theyd have expected to be
returning to a country destroyed by Soviet nukes .

One pilot was simply advised to keep going east and settle down
with a large Mongolian woman. The crews on-board safety was also
an afterthought. While the pilot and co-pilot had ejector seats,
the three electronic warfare crew had to take their chances with
their parachutes. Not that the pilots got off easily. Following
the attack run they had to face the inevitable blinding nuclear
blast. Their protection? Each pilot wore a single eye-patch
which meant that he could use his good remaining eye for flying
the bomber out of the area. It was a fitting metaphor for the
secretive and duplicitous development of Britains nuclear
weapons  in the country of the blind the one-eyed man really was
king.

Britains Cold War Super Weapons is on Channel 4 today at 5.25pm 
24 April 2005 
 
  © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: Ocean Off Hawaii Filled With Wreckage
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday April 23, 2005 8:01 AM

AP Photo NY120 

By JEANNETTE J. LEE 

Associated Press Writer 

HONOLULU (AP) - From junked trucks to World War II submarines,
vast fields of far-flung wreckage exist beneath the blue-green
ocean off Hawaii. 

``It's like an obstacle course under water, especially at Pearl
Harbor,'' said John Smith, science program director at the
Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. ``Finding the more
interesting artifacts is a real challenge.'' 

A World War II-era Japanese submarine scuttled by the U.S. Navy
is the laboratory's latest significant find among thousands of
wrecks, most from the past two centuries. 

The ship is one of two I-400 Sensuikan Toku class subs captured
in the Pacific a week after Japan surrendered in 1945. Both subs
were deliberately sunk by the U.S. when Russian scientists
demanded access to them. The 400-foot-long hulks were the
largest built before the nuclear ballistic missile subs of the
1960s. 

In 2002, the waters off Oahu also yielded a Japanese midget
submarine that was hit an hour before Japan's aerial attack on
Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

``These are incredibly valuable archaeological sites,'' said
John Wiltshire, acting director of the Hawaii Undersea Research
Laboratory. ``Sometimes in the marine environment, you can
preserve things you can't preserve on land.'' 

The value of Hawaii's undersea wreckage is historical rather
than monetary. Hawaii's shipping boom began in the 1800s, well
after piracy's heyday in the late 1600s to mid 1700s. 

Most cargo ships navigating the island chain in the 19th century
carried goods that would have disintegrated by now, such as
sugar, lumber, phosphates, sandalwood and furs, said Rick
Rogers, who has written several books on Hawaii's shipwrecks. 

Treasure hunters scouring the Hawaiian ocean bottom for
doubloons or pieces of eight are more likely to find submarines,
old whaling and merchant ships, fishing boats or 20th-century
recreational craft and land vehicles. 

Rogers, a former Army salvage diver, believes just one of the
few tales of undersea treasure in Hawaii is worth seeking. He
has spent 25 years and thousands of dollars searching for two
galleons carrying Spain's entire annual cargo of Oriental trade
goods, including porcelain, silk and spices. 

References to castaways and shipwrecks in Hawaiian legends
stoked Rogers' interest in the ships. He believes one went down
off Maui in the late 16th century, the other in 1693 off the Big
Island's Kona coast. 

Finding information on wreck locations takes some work. There
are no comprehensive databases or maps of sunken objects, just
partial lists, and the Navy limits the release of some locations
to prevent looting. 

Certain sunken vessels, such as the battleship USS Arizona at
Pearl Harbor, are federally protected gravesites and cannot be
used for recreational diving. 

Diving companies, however, have marked the 10 most well-known
wrecks on Oahu with small buoys. 

Having so many military vessels underwater could raise concerns
about unexploded munitions, but experts say the material is far
from the shoreline and popular beaches. 

``I've never heard of an instance when anyone has been injured
by these old munitions,'' said Suzette Farnum, who owns Captain
Bruce's diving company on Oahu's Waianae coast with her husband.
``I'd assume the salt water has kind of trashed them anyway, but
you don't want to take that chance by picking them up.'' 

Undersea artifacts in shallower waters can actually benefit the
environment, serving as sturdy skeletons for thriving undersea
habitats. 

The Mahi, a scuttled Navy minesweeper off the Waianae Coast, has
grown into a 190-foot artificial reef that is home to corals,
leaf scorpion fish, pufferfish, triggerfish, eels and
magnificent eagle rays. 

The nearby LCU, a 100-foot landing craft utility ship, houses
two timid white-tipped reef sharks that flee when divers
approach. 

``Marine life tends to like these wrecks because there are nooks
and crannies to hide in,'' Wiltshire said. 

On the Net: 

Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory:
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HURL/ 

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration:
http://www.noaa.gov/ 

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 9 Xinhua: China to rely on domestic energy resources   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-23 17:19:33   

    BOAO, Hainan, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- China would mainly
rely on domestic resources to satisfy its energy demand, said
Jia Qinglin, chairman of the national advisory body, at the 2005
annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, which opened here
Saturday. 

    China also needs to import a proper amount to meet its
energy demand, said Jia, chairman of the National Committee of
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in
response to a question from the participants. 

    The energy issue is a common concern for Asian countries and
also a challenge to China, and the Chinese government attaches
great importance to the issue, he said. 

    China's demand for energy rises steadily with its fast
economic growth. However, China is not only a big energy
consumer but also a big energy producer, and imports only
account for a small part of China's energy supply, Jia said. 

    Last year China produced 170 million tons of petroleum and
morethan 1.9 billion tons of coal. By 2020, import would also be
a small part of China's energy consumption, he predicted. 

    Jia said China would give priority to energy conservation
and construction of an energy-saving society, while accelerating
the adjustment of its energy structure through readjusting the
industrial structure and product mix to cut energy demand by a
bigmargin. 

    China would tap more non-coal energy resources including
water resources, oil and gas resources, solar and wind energy
while making proper use of nuclear energy. Productivity of coal
mines would be improved on the basis of ensuring coal mine
safety and reducing environmental pollution, he said. 

    Clean coal technology and the coal chemical industry would
alsobe developed, especially the industrialization of coal
liquefaction. 

    Jia said China would expand cooperation with other major
energyproducing and consuming countries and continue to follow
the way for sustainable common development. 

    As for the economic integration of Asia, Jia said China
would continue to follow its foreign policy of treating
neighbors in a friendly manner and taking them as partners to
strengthen communication and cooperation with other Asian
nations. 

    China has been consistent in the view that all kinds of
regional cooperation in Asia should follow the principle of
openness, tolerance and gradual improvement, he said. 

    China would give special light to the establishment of a new
mechanism of cooperation among Asian nations to promote regional
cooperation continuously, Jia said. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 UK The Times: Labour ‘to boost nuclear power’
 
April 24, 2005                         
 
Maurice Chittenden
		   		 		
THE chairman of British Nuclear Fuels has said a future Labour 
government would build a new generation of nuclear power 
stations. 

Gordon Campbell told an audience at the Sellafield plant in 
Cumbria that he anticipated an announcement “within weeks” of the 
May 5 polling day. 

His remarks coincided with the opening of a planning inquiry
into a proposed wind farm on the edge of the Lake District. This
has focused attention on a wider debate about whether Britain
should replace nuclear power stations, rely on imported gas or
exploit sources such as wind. 

Labour has set a target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by
20% by the year 2020. About a third of all emissions come from
power stations burning fossil fuels. 

Britain’s 12 emissions-free nuclear power stations provide 23%
of the nation’s electricity, but their radioactive waste is
expensive to store and process. Unless they are replaced as they
reach retirement only three will still be running by 2020,
producing 7% of Britain’s power. 

Tony Blair has deferred any announcement on the sensitive issue
of nuclear power until after the election, but officials have
been examining whether it can help tackle climate change caused
by the greenhouse effect. 

Campbell said he had spoken to sources close to Downing Street
and would be “amazed” if there were not a review of atomic
energy. “Nuclear power has to form part of energy policy and I
believe it will be grasped after the election,” he said at the
Technology 2005 exhibition. 

The Tories last week gave support in principle for new nuclear
power stations. Tim Yeo, the party’s environment spokesman, said
Labour was “ducking the challenge”. oResearch this week will
claim nuclear power would cost the taxpayer only a third as much
as wind-generated electricity for the government to meet its 20%
target for renewable energy, it was reported last night. 

The study by Oxford Economic Research Associates (Oxera) is
expected to conclude that achieving the goal would cost the
taxpayer £4.4 billion using nuclear power.The cost using wind
farms would be £12 billion.   	 		

							   	 	
Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk
*****************************************************************
 11 Santa Fe New Mexican: Let's go to hydrogen; nuclear power a key   
 	
Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:08 pm                                                                                                       

Sen. Pete Dominci | Commentary          

The rising global demand for oil continues to drive gasoline
and oil prices to troubling heights, while climate change
continues to raise questions about the role carbon emissions
play in our weather. Partly due to these pressures, I believe we
are poised to move toward a hydrogen-based economy.

Right now, our society is at transportation crossroads similar
to where we were a century ago. In the early 1900s, people still
relied on the horse and buggy. The new-fangled automobile was
too expensive, unreliable and hard to maintain. Gasoline was
impossible to get in most places, and paved roads didn't exist
in most areas.

We are there today with hydrogen. Hydrogen cars are too costly,
their performance is unreliable (particularly in humid climates)
and hydrogen is virtually impossible to get. We still don't know
how to store it or transport it effectively. 

We face precisely the same hurdles our great grandparents faced
more than a hundred years ago with the automobile. The choices
we make today will determine how swiftly and successfully we
overcome these hurdles and move toward the freedom and
opportunity a hydrogen society offers us. 

Right now, we are researching several possible sources for 
hydrogen. Today, natural gas is the most popular choice, but we 
are funding research into sources from nuclear reactors to 
windmills.

Personally, I believe high-temperature nuclear reactors offer
the ideal source for hydrogen for four reasons.

First, nuclear reactors don't emit carbons in the atmosphere.
Natural gas, the other popular feedstock, is a fossil fuel that
emits carbons when it's burned.

Second, we can provide our own nuclear power, controlling supply
and, hence, price. We don't have to rely on foreign nations for
nuclear power like we do for oil and, increasingly, natural gas. 

The Energy Information Administration says we will rely on
foreign countries for 20 percent of our natural gas by 2025. If
we rely on natural gas for our hydrogen, I fear our hydrogen
society may one day be as dependent on foreign countries as our
oil economy is.

Third, nuclear reactors have the capacity to produce hydrogen in
the volumes we will need if we power our cars with hydrogen. I
don't believe windmills or similar non-carbon sources have the
potential to produce the hydrogen we will need.

We are still 20 years away from the kind of high-temperature
reactors that easily produce hydrogen, but Department of Energy
research at Idaho National Laboratory is promising.

I share President Bush's commitment to a substantial, ongoing
investment in hydrogen research. My energy bill last Congress
included a $2.1 billion authorization for hydrogen research over
the next five years. I plan to include a similar authorization
in this year's bill.

Last year, I funded $134 million in hydrogen research through
the Energy & Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee,
which I chair. This money goes to several programs that study
better ways to produce, store and transport hydrogen.

This year, Bush is requesting $260 million for hydrogen research
-- most of which falls under the jurisdiction of my
appropriations subcommittee. I plan to appropriate sums in line
with his request.

Meanwhile, auto manufacturers are working to develop better
hydrogen cars. I, like most members of Congress, have had the
opportunity to drive hybrid cars that are partially fueled by
hydrogen.

Additionally, I am working with Senator Bingaman and the Energy
Committee to craft a bipartisan energy bill I hope to get
through the Senate this year. This bill, like last year's bill,
will include incentives to encourage the public to buy and use
energy-efficient hybrid cars. 

It is interesting to note that in some regions of the country,
rising gasoline prices have driven up demand for these cars by
nearly 50 percent since last fall. 

I believe the hydrogen economy will offer as much freedom and
opportunity to our children as the automobile age offered our
grandparents. I remain committed to contributing to our hydrogen
advance through my work in the U.S. Senate. 

New Mexico's Republican Sen. Pete Domenici is chairman of the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.		 	   	 	 	 			
 		   			 		   	 		 							
Privacy Policy | ©2005, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights 
reserved.
*****************************************************************
 12 Columbia Missourian: Regulators say nuclear site safe - 

Callaway plant said to need personnel improvements. 

By GRAHAM JOHNSTON 	 
April 24, 2005 	 	 

Callaway Nuclear Power Plant got its annual report card from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The verdict: It’s doing well. 

Officials from the plant and commission held a public meeting
Thursday to discuss the findings for 2004’s inspections. A
summary of the full assessment said the plant “operated in a
manner that preserved public health and safety.” 

This assessment is the culmination of 1,794 hours of inspections
at the plant in 2004. Regulatory officials from the local,
regional and national level conducted the inspections. 

Michael Peck, senior resident inspector for the commission,
presented the specific findings of the report. Peck is one of
two inspectors who lives near the plant and visits almost every
day. Having at least two resident inspectors is standard at all
commercial nuclear power plants. 

Though the plant performed well overall, several problems were
identified. The commission reported 16 violations of “very low
safety significance.” Nine of those 16 violations were related
to problems in worker performance, such as employees not
following plant procedures. 

“This is certainly a disappointment to the Callaway staff,” said
Chuck Naslund, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer
at the plant. 

The overall assessment results were placed in the commission’s
Licensee Response category. Tony Vegel, deputy division
director, said this category means the commission would not have
to take specific action to ensure the plant worked to improve
its safety problems. 

“For us, it’s never safe enough,” Vegel said. 

Officials from AmerenUE, the company which operates the plant,
were offered a chance to respond to the assessment. 

“The bottom line is, we’re in full agreement (with the
commission),” Naslund said. 

The plant has already formed a team to address problems with
workers, he said. He pointed to the retirement of more
experienced workers as one cause of the human performance
problems. 

“We have a whole new generation of people coming into the
plant,” he said. 	 	
 	 
Comments? Contact us or sound off on our message boards
 	
. Copyright © 2005 Columbia Missourian 
*****************************************************************
 13 Salt Lake Tribune: House energy bill has $1.3B for nuclear reactor in Idaho

Article Last Updated: 04/23/2005 01:33:19 AM                              
			 		
  The Associated Press 
  
  BOISE - The energy-policy bill just approved by the U.S. House
includes $1.3 billion to develop a new generation of nuclear
reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, resurrecting a project
that advocates say will define the future of nuclear power. 

   The proposal faces an uncertain future in the Senate, and has
come under fire from environmental groups. 

   Plans to construct an advanced nuclear reactor   - one that 
would generate hydrogen as well as electricity - at the DOE site 
in eastern Idaho were part of a Senate energy bill that died in 
2003. Many of the provisions that doomed that bill are in the 
version passed Thursday by the House on a 249-183 vote. 

   ''Now we need the political will to follow through,'' said 
Idaho Republican Rep. C.L. ''Butch'' Otter, a member of the House   
Energy and Commerce Committee, who helped get the INL language 
into the House bill. 
  
Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 14 Fort St. John: Chernobyl survivors rally in Kyiv

canada.com network
 		 		
Saturday, April 23, 2005
 
KYIV, Ukraine -- Hundreds of Chernobyl survivors marched in
downtown Kyiv Saturday to demand more compensation for victims
of the world's worst nuclear accident 19 years ago. 

The Ukrainian Chernobyl Union, a group representing victims of
the disaster, organized the march to press for an increase in
social benefits, payment of overdue compensation and better
medical treatment for thousands of people directly affected by
the accident. 

Many protesters carried photographs of loved ones killed in the
1986 accident and banners with slogans reading "Chernobyl is
closed, are the problems of Chernobyl forgotten?" Police
estimated the crowd at around 700. 

The explosion of Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4 on April 26, 1986
sent radioactive fallout over then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and
much of northern Europe. Some 3.3 million Ukrainians, including
1.5 million children, were affected by the accident at the
plant, located about 100 kilometres north of Kyiv, and receive
financial or other forms of compensation such as subsidized
vacations and medical treatment. 

The victims' group said it will soon submit request to
parliament for a tenfold increase in social benefits by 2006.
Many, however, said they suspect the government will not agree
to pay them more. 

"We are already tired of hoping for better. The draft envisions
a big increase, but ... it seems the government does not have
such money," said Chernobyl victim Tamara Tikhonova, 68. 

The value of the average monthly compensation for those directly
affected by the accident depends on what effects each person
suffered, but it rarely exceeds 250 hryvnas ($61 Cdn). These
victims include some of the 25,000 families who lived near to
the doomed plant and thousands of cleanup workers sent to help
cope with the immediate aftermath of the nuclear tragedy. 

Some seven million people across the former Soviet Union are
estimated to suffer from radiation-related effects, and Ukraine
has registered some 4,400 deaths blamed on the accident.
Chernobyl's last functioning reactor was shut down in December
2000, but decommissioning works have continued. 
© The Canadian Press 2005 


	     	     

				   				     				   					

 
      
  
						 						 						 						 						 						 					   

				   			 		

 		

 
    
    
    
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*****************************************************************
 15 News & Star: NUKE LEAK AT THORP PLANT
       
Published on                                                    
23/04/2005 By Andrea Thompson
 
PART of the Sellafield Thorp plant has been closed down following 
a radioactive leak.
 
The incident happened in the plantâ€™s feed clarification cell, 
which holds dissolver fluids while tests are carried out on 
nuclear material undergoing reprocessing.
 
Some 750 people are employed on the Thorp plant but Sellafield 
bosses, who have set up an incident control centre, stressed 
there is no risk to employees, the local community or the 
environment as a result of the leak.
 
But they now have the major headache of how to repair the broken 
pipe in the highly radioactive containment area.
 
It happened inside a sealed, secure container and was understood 
to have been discovered on Wednesday.
 
The Health and Safety Executiveâ€™s nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear 
Installatations Inspectorate, has also confirmed it is not a 
major incident in terms of worker or public safety.
 
The leak was discovered by automated monitoring equipment in the 
highly radioactive feed clarification cell, which is a totally 
sealed unit with no man access.
 
Pipework has either fractured or failed, resulting in the leak of 
radioactive liquid into the specially designed stainless steel 
cell.
 
Barry Nelson, managing director of the British Nuclear Group, 
said in a statement: â€œLet me reassure people that plant is in a 
safe and stable state.
 
â€œSafety monitoring has confirmed no abnormal activity in air 
and there has been no impact on our workforce or the environment. 

â€œI have asked for the front end of the plantâ€™s reprocessing 
operations, including shearing, to be closed down. The plant is 
in a safe, quiescent state.â€
 
Investigations are being carried out into how and when the 
failure occurred but Sellafield said all indications are that 
there has been no release of any material from the cell, which is 
specifically designed for such eventualities.
 
Inspectors from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, which has 
been fully informed of the leak, will also be carrying out their 
own investigation as to how and why the leak happened. 

But a spokesman said that it was not a major incident in terms of 
worker and public safety.
 
â€œAutomatic monitoring shows no abnormal radioactive in the area 
and there has been no indication whatsoever that there has been 
any radioactivity released either within the plant or the 
atmosphere. No workers have been affected.â€
 
It is not yet known when the plant can start operating again.
*****************************************************************
 16 [Sofia Morning News: Over Half Million Bulgarians "Pro" Kozloduy Referendum
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Sofia News Agency
 		   		 	 	
www.novinite.com/
                          
Politics: 24 April 2005, Sunday.

A total of 566,435 people have given their vote in support of a
referendum on the future of country's nuclear plant Kozloduy.
 
The results of the week-long civic referendum were announced on
Sunday by Krassimir Karakachanov, leader of the nationalistic
VMRO movement.
 
The initiative was organized by the second pre-election
right-wing coalition, which emerged at the end of February on
the jagged spectrum, bringing together the Union of Free
Democrats of Sofia Mayor Stefan Sofianski, the Agriculture Party
(BZNS) of Anastasia Mozer and the nationalistic VMRO of
Krassimir Karakachanov. 

They demand that the decision for Kozloduy units decommissioning
be reconsidered to prevent electricity price hikes. 

The referendum gave citizens the opportunity to offer their
opinions by casting ballots, telephone calls, post or online
vote.[ width=] 

  novinite.com  Forum  Google  Tourism  Business  MobileBulgaria
               
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency -
www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news
provider in English that informs its readers about the latest
Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily
*****************************************************************
 17 Guardian Unlimited: Don't forget us, say Chernobyl victims
 
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Monday April 25, 2005
The Guardian 		
 		
Hundreds of survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster marched 
in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, at the weekend demanding greater 
compensation from the government. 

Nineteen years ago tomorrow, reactor No 4 at the power station 
exploded sending radioactive fallout across Ukraine, Belarus, 
Russia and northern Europe. At least 3.3 million Ukrainians were 
affected by the blast, 60 miles north of Kiev, and are entitled 
to subsidised medical treatment or holidays. 

The average monthly compensation for those directly affected by 
the accident depends on individual cases, but it rarely exceeds 
the equivalent of £26. About 700 people joined Saturday's march, 
organised by the Ukrainian Chernobyl Union, a pressure group for 
survivors. Some bore placards with the slogan "Chernobyl is 
closed, are the problems of Chernobyl forgotten?", while others 
carried pictures of the victims of the world's worst nuclear 
disaster. 

The group is to ask parliament for a tenfold increase in 
payments, yet doubts that its request will be heeded. "We are 
already tired of hoping for better. The draft envisions a big 
increase, but it seems the government does not have such money," 
one victim, Tamara Tikhonova, 68, told Associated Press. 

The move is the first serious effort to force Ukraine's recently 
elected president, Viktor Yushchenko, to tackle the disaster's 
legacy. It comes amid growing financial problems at the plant, 
which owes £3m in unpaid wage and electricity bills. 

Semyon Shtein, a spokesman for the state-run operator, said last 
week that the plant might face being cut off, which could be 
"rather dangerous and it can result in breaches of nuclear 
safety". 

He said he had told the Yushchenko administration of the 
problems. 

Seven million people are thought to have suffered from the 
effects of radiation after the 1986 disaster, while 4,400 deaths 
are attributed to it. 

The plant's last reactor was shut down in 2000, yet the 
decommissioning process continues. 
	
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 18 Deseret News: N-tensions rising as meetings on treaty near 

[deseretnews.com] 

Sunday, April 24, 2005 

By Charles J. Hanley Associated Press 

UNITED NATIONS — nuclear "haves" and "have-nots," at odds over 
the lingering hold of atomic weapons on the world, risk reaching 
little more than noisy deadlock at an upcoming conference 
reviewing the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

Iran's Uranium Conversion Facility is located near Isfahan. The 
White House wants to keep the focus of the upcoming Nuclear 
Nonproliferation Treaty conference on Iran, which it says is 
cheating on the treaty. 

Vahid Salemi, Associated Press 

North Korea, Iran, a fear of nuclear terrorism, U.S. talk 
of new weapons — all give delegates from more than 180 treaty 
nations a host of issues to confront at a tense, troubled time 
internationally. A panel of U.N. experts warns of a "cascade" of 
nuclear proliferation if NPT controls erode further. 

But diplomats haven't even settled on an agenda yet, a 
week before the May 2 meeting in New York, chiefly because of 
differences between Washington and non-nuclear states. 

The Bush administration wants to keep the focus on Iran, 
which it contends is cheating on the treaty and secretly 
planning to build nuclear arms. 

"We think the main issue to be discussed at the Review 
Conference is the problem of noncompliance with the NPT," 
Stephen G. Rademaker, a top U.S. arms control official, said in 
an interview. 

But many other governments want equal emphasis on 
speeding up what they see as the weapons states' slow pace 
toward nuclear disarmament, to which they are committed under 
the 1970 treaty. 

"It is bitterly disappointing," Tim Caughley, New 
Zealand's ambassador on arms control, said of the continuing 
failure to open broad disarmament talks. 

The conference's Brazilian president is working hard to 
find middle ground. "Before the conference starts, I hope I will 
find agreement among the members," said Sergio de Queiroz Duarte.

Whether it starts with a fully agreed agenda or not, 
observers see potential stalemate at the review, convened every 
five years to assess how well treaty obligations are being met. 

"It's going to be very difficult for states to come 
together on a forward-looking program on all these issues," said 
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control 
Association in Washington. 

The NPT, flawed but vital centerpiece of arms control, is 
essentially a global bargain: States without nuclear weapons 
pledge not to pursue them, and five with the weapons — the 
United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — pledge to 
move toward eliminating them. 

Although India, Pakistan and Israel, treaty nonmembers, 
have also developed atomic weapons, the NPT is credited with 
having prevented a wider nuclear free-for-all in the world. But 
the treaty has its loopholes. 

North Korea utilized one when it declared in 2003 it was 
withdrawing from the NPT and was building a nuclear arsenal — 
all with no repercussions under international law. Some at the 
upcoming conference are expected to propose tightening NPT rules 
to make it harder to withdraw, and to threaten sanctions against 
those who do and who make weapons. 

Many see a third "pillar" of the NPT bargain as another 
flaw: the guarantee that non-weapons states have access to 
technology for peaceful nuclear energy, the same fuel technology 
— uranium-enrichment gear, for example — that can build atom 
bombs. 

Washington claims, and Tehran denies, that Iran used this 
NPT cover to assemble equipment for planned nuclear arms. 
President Bush now proposes banning future sales of nuclear-fuel 
technology to any nation other than the dozen or so that have 
it. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the U.N. nuclear agency, 
proposes a less discriminatory approach: putting fuel production 
under multilateral control, by regional or international bodies. 

It's a sensitive issue involving treaty guarantees, 
national pride and commercial interests. 

"Inevitably, there will be discussion of this at the 
Review Conference," said Rademaker, an assistant U.S. secretary 
of state. "Whether we can get agreement at a conference like 
this remains to be seen." 

"The NPT parties do have to start having this debate," 
said Rebecca Johnson, British editor of the periodical 
Disarmament Diplomacy. But she and other arms-control advocates 
also side with governments that say the Americans, Russians and 
other nuclear powers must answer at the conference for still 
holding an estimated 27,000 nuclear warheads, down barely 25 
percent since the NPT took effect 35 years ago. 

In the conference lead-up, the Bush administration sought 
to play down the "13 Steps" toward disarmament agreed to at the 
2000 review, steps that include activating the treaty to ban 
nuclear tests and downgrading nuclear weapons in military 
doctrine. 

Since then, the Bush administration has rejected the 
test-ban treaty, withdrawn from the anti-ballistic missile 
treaty, pushed research on new nuclear weapons and talked of 
potential use of nuclear arms against non-nuclear countries — 
all steps viewed by critics as contrary to the NPT's commitment 
to disarmament. 

John R. Bolton, controversial U.S. undersecretary of 
state, dismissed such criticism at last year's preparatory 
meeting for the 2005 conference, calling them "issues that do 
not exist." 

Conference president Duarte disagrees, saying the nuclear 
powers have done "poorly" in meeting their NPT obligations. A 
"bare minimum" next month, he said, "would be a rededication of 
the parties to the objectives of the treaty." 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 19 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Restart Talks
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday April 23, 2005 9:16 AM

AP Photo XJAK109 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - South Korea and North Korea agreed
Saturday to resume talks that broke down last summer and to
discuss the standoff over the North's suspected development of
nuclear weapons, an Indonesian official said. 

The decision came during a meeting between South Korean Prime
Minister Lee Hae-chan and North Korea's No. 2 man, Kim Yong Nam,
on the sidelines of an Asian-African summit in Jakarta, said
Jacob Tobing, Indonesia's ambassador to South Korea. 

The meeting was the second at the summit between the two leaders
and addressed key issues including attempts to persuade
Pyongyang to return to six-party talks aimed at getting North
Korea to suspend its nuclear program. 

``They agreed to resume the inter-Korean dialogue ... and they
agreed to exchange views over the six-party talks,'' said
Tobing, who was at the conference with the South Korean
delegation. 

``We know they both need this kind of meeting so we (Indonesia)
offered to facilitate it. I'm very satisfied. At least one step
has been taken but there is a lot work ahead,'' he said. 

The first meeting Friday was the highest-level contact between
the two Koreas since a summit in 2000 between then South Korean
President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Officially the inter-Korean talks have been on hold since July
after mass defections to South Korea from the North that
Pyongyang labeled the ``kidnapping'' of its citizens. 

Earlier Kim Sang Soo, the information attache at the South
Korean embassy in Jakarta, confirmed a meeting took place but
refused to provide details. 

Neither leader spoke to reporters as they left the talks, which
lasted about half an hour. 

The leaders agreed Friday on the need for the two countries to
work together on territorial claims on a set of islets at the
center of a dispute between South Korea and Japan, South Korea's
Yonhap news agency said. The rocky islets are called Dokdo in
Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. 

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is also attending the
Asian-African summit, told reporters he hoped diplomatic
attempts to induce North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks
would soon succeed. 

Asked how the U.N. Security Council would react if the North
tested a nuclear device, Annan said: ``I hope we will dissuade
North Korea (and) that North Korea will not take this action.'' 

The Koreas were divided in 1945. Their border remains sealed and
heavily guarded by nearly 2 million troops on both sides
following the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a
peace treaty. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 20 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Inter-Korean dialogue   

2005.04.25

The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
 
Over the weekend, South Korea was jolted by a news report that
Washington believes Pyongyang is preparing to test a nuclear
weapon, and has asked China to help prevent the test. It
followed an earlier report that Washington is considering
bringing North Korea to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions
if it continues to boycott the six-way talks on its nuclear
weapons program. 

The tense situation was defused when both Seoul and Washington
denied the report on an impending nuclear bomb test and
Washington toned down its earlier remarks on U.N. sanctions.

Still, there is no ruling out the possibility that Pyongyang,
which declared on Feb. 10 that it has nuclear weapons in its
possession, may choose to go ahead with a test and that an
angered Washington may take drastic action to force Pyongyang to
give up its nuclear ambitions. 

Against this backdrop, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan
met North Korea's nominal head of state, Kim Yong-nam, on the
sidelines of the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta on Saturday.

Details were not made available, though Kim reaffirmed its
post-Feb. 10 stance on six-way talks: that Pyongyang would
return to the talks if the conditions matured. 

The Lee-Kim talks, however, signaled the reopening of
inter-Korean contact at the official level, which has been
suspended since South Korea airlifted more than 450 North Korean
defectors from Vietnam in July last year. In fact, North Korea
has a pressing need to resume official talks with the South - to
obtain fertilizer aid before it is too late for farming. 

Seoul has taken the position that the request for 500,000 tons
of fertilizer in aid, which the North Korean Red Cross made to
its South Korean counterpart earlier this year, can be discussed
only at official talks. That should be the standard procedure,
as in 2004 when South Korea agreed to an aid request at
ministerial talks in February and delivered 200,000 tons of
fertilizer during the April-June period, as requested. The South
Korean stance is justified by the fact that the aid will have to
be financed, not with private funds, but with money from the
government's fund for inter-Korean cooperation. 

The Lee-Kim talks should lead to the next round of ministerial
talks, which could deal with issues concerning the nuclear
standoff and inter-Korean economic cooperation, as well as
fertilizer aid. But ultimately, it is President Roh Moo-hyun and
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that will have to meet, put all
the pressing issues of critical importance on the table, and
start to negotiate them. 

A second round of summit talks is long overdue, given that five
years have passed since former President Kim Dae-jung visited
Pyongyang for talks with Kim Jong-il. The North Korean leader is
advised to accept Roh's standing proposal for summit talks as
soon as possible because he has far more to gain than to lose. 

*****************************************************************
 21 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. Intelligence Fears N. Korea Nuke Test
: Reports
 
Updated Apr.24,2005 21:54 KST   
 
  Christopher Hill, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for 
East Asian and Pacific Affairs, answers reporters¡¯ questions on 
his arrival at Incheon International Airport on Saturday. Hill is 
at the start of a trip that will take in Korea, China, and Japan 
for talks on the North Korean nuclear dispute.   
    
  
N. Korea Could Boost Nuclear Capability: U.S. Expert
   
U.S. intelligence officials believe North Korea may be preparing
for its first nuclear test and has asked China to get Pyongyang
to abandon it, the U.S. press reported. The reports also said
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, currently on
a visit to South Korea, China and Japan, would tell his hosts
about signs that North Korea is preparing for a test. 

The online edition of the Wall Street Journal on Saturday said
the U.S. government told China signs were that North Koreas was
preparing for a nuclear test. The paper added Washington asked
Beijing to persuade North Korea to abandon the plan. The
official said U.S. spy satellites detected increased activities
at North Korean sites where officers suspect underground nuclear
tests could be carried out. 

The daily added the U.S. conveyed its concerns to South Korea
and Japan as well. 

¡°U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that North Korea may
be preparing its first test of a nuclear weapon,¡± the
Washington Post also said Saturday. ¡°A top U.S. diplomat,
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, flew to the
region yesterday to consult over the weekend with officials in
Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul about the signs that a test may be in
the works.¡± 

But both papers said U.S. officials were unsure about the
intelligence, adding there was debate within the U.S. government
over whether the North Koreans would actually conduct a test. 

A U.S. State Department official said there was nothing new to
evaluate in long-standing U.S. concerns about North Korea¡¯s
nuclear weapons program. Asked if this was a denial or
confirmation of rumors that North Korea was preparing for a
nuclear test, he said it was the State Department¡¯s policy not
to issue statements on intelligence matters. Hill, who arrived
in Korea on Saturday, also refused to confirm the information in
the Wall Street Journal and made no further comment on the
issue. 

South Korean government official meanwhile said reports that
Hill came to discuss the signs of an imminent nuclear test were
inaccurate. 

(Gang In-sun, insun@chosun.com ) 

*****************************************************************
 22 BBC: North and South Korea agree talks
 
Last Updated: Saturday, 23 April, 2005
 
[North Korean number two leader Kim Yong Nam (left) and South 
Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan in Jakarta] 
                                
The meeting between the two sides was described as "good"
			 			   		
North and South Korea have agreed to resume their bilateral 
dialogue, which was suspended last year following a row over 
defectors. 

The decision came after a second meeting between South Korean 
Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and North Korea's parliamentary chief 
Kim Yong-nam. 

Their talks at the Asia-Africa summit were the highest between 
officials from the two Koreas since June 2000. 

Stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear plans were also 
discussed. 

"We had a great deal of frank discussions on important issues... 
going beyond scheduled time. It was a good meeting," Mr Lee said. 

"We had frank discussions about dialogue between the authorities 
[of the South and North] and the six-party talks," he said. 

He was speaking after their second meeting in two days on the 
sidelines of the summit in Jakarta. 

Bilateral discussions have been on hold since July after 
Pyongyang accused Seoul of "kidnapping" its citizens after mass 
defections across the border from North to South. 

Jitters in region 

The meeting was an opportunity for the South to express its 
concerns about the stalled six-nation talks over the North's 
development of nuclear weapons, says the BBC's Charles Scanlon in 
Seoul. 

But there was little sign of progress on that, he adds. 

A fourth round of the international talks - which include the US, 
Japan, Russia and China - was due to be held last year but did 
not take place because of Pyongyang's demand for concessions from 
the US and an end to what it called Washington's hostile policy. 

Mr Kim - officially number two in the North Korean hierarchy - 
was quoted as saying Pyongyang would return to the table "if the 
climate is mature". 

North Korea has raised the stakes in the nuclear confrontation in 
recent days, our correspondent says. 

It stopped operations at its nuclear reactor and threatened to 
extract more weapons-grade plutonium, enough for about six atomic 
bombs. 

Pyongyang says it wants to be treated as a nuclear power and that 
has led to jitters in the region about a possible nuclear weapons 
test, our correspondent adds. 

The US is looking to China and South Korea to bring the North 
back to the table and has hinted at tougher action - including 
going to the UN Security Council to ask for sanctions - if that 
fails. 

The chief US negotiator on the issue, Christopher Hill, has 
arrived in South Korea to talk to officials about reviving the 
talks, and is due to travel on to China and Japan, says an 
official. 

*****************************************************************
 23 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. believes N. Korea Will Conduct Nuclear Bomb Tests
 
  Home> National/Politics    Updated Apr.23,2005 21:26 KST   
 
suspects that North Korea is going to test nuclear bombs and has
warned its allies. This comes after Washington detected
heightened activity at Pyongyang's nuclear facilities following
a recent halt of operations at a nuclear reactor. 

The United States believes North Korea is planning to test its
nuclear weapons and has asked China to intervene to stop any
bomb tests. Citing an unnamed U.S. official, the Wall Street
Journal said the U.S. has also warned South Korea and Japan
about the possibility of nuclear experimentation and is treating
the matter very seriously. The newspaper also reported that U.S.
spy satellites have detected increased activity at North Korea's
underground nuclear sites. But Washington said, as yet, it is
difficult to gauge Pyongyang's true intentions. 

This comes amid North Korea's recent shut down of its only
functioning nuclear reactor which many experts are saying could
indicate the first step in a process to extract more plutonium
for weapons use. 

Meanwhile at the Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia, North Korea's
de facto head of state Kim Yong-nam said that Pyongyang legally
has the right to develop its own nuclear weapons to build an
armament of self-defense against the U.S. Also in a speech at
the international conference, North Korea's number-two official
said the nuclear issue can still be resolved if Washington
respects North Korea's regime and changes its hostile policy
towards Pyongyang. 

Arirang TV 

*****************************************************************
 24 AFP: North and South Korea hold breakthrough talks on Pyongyang's
nuclear Messenger 

Sunday April 24, 10:23 AM 

JAKARTA (AFX) - North and South Korean leaders yesterday 
continued their highest-level talks for five years, exploring 
ways of reopening dialogue to resolve Pyongyang's nuclear crisis 
on the sidelines of a summit here. 

In a second day of discussions South Korean Prime Minister Lee 
Hae-Chan tried to persuade Kim Yong-nam, Pyongyang's number two 
leader, that North Korea should reopen six-nation dialogue over 
its atomic ambitions. 

The talks on the margins of an Asia-Africa summit are the most 
senior-level exchanges between the two countries since 2000 when 
then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung visited North Korea's 
Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang. 

'We are trying to persuade North Korea to come back to the 
six-party talks, that's what we are doing at the moment,' South 
Korean deputy foreign minister Lee Tae-Shik told reporters after 
the 40-minute discussion. 

Talks between Pyongyang and the US, South Korea, China, Russia, 
and Japan aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions 
stalled last year after three inconclusive rounds. 

Efforts to revive the dialogue have taken on a new urgency 
after the North shut down its only working nuclear reactor and 
told a visiting US specialist that it planned to use spent 
nuclear fuel to make weapons-grade plutonium. 

Two years ago, North Korea said it unloaded and reprocessed 
spent fuel from the reactor, producing enough plutonium for six 
to eight atom bombs. 

Concerns have been further heightened by claims that the 
Stalinist country is planning to test a nuclear weapon. 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the US believes 
Pyongyang is possibly planning a test nuclear explosion that 
will confirm earlier claims that it had nuclear weapons for 
self-defense. 

Kim said yesterday that North Korea may be willing to resume 
dialogue, but not unconditionally. 

'It is necessary (for other participants) to give us some 
reasons to take part in the six-party talks. If conditions are 
ripe, we will return,' he said, according to South Korea's 
Yonhap news agency. 

In his address to the summit on Friday, Kim said Pyongyang is 
committed to resolving the nuclear crisis, but warned that any 
resolution will require Washington to remove its 'military 
threat' from the Korean peninsula. 

'Denuclearizing the Korean peninsula is the strategic goal of 
the DPRK (North Korean) government, and the DPRK remains 
unchanged in its principle position to resolve the nuclear issue 
peacefully,' Kim said. 

According to foreign ministry spokesman Lee, efforts to reopen 
a bilateral dialogue at a ministerial level between North and 
South were also addressed by the two leaders, a move Kim 
received positively. 

Talks between the governments of the two Koreas were suspended 
by North Korea 10 months ago after Pyongyang blasted Seoul for 
airlifting more that 400 North Korean defectors to South Korea 
from Vietnam. 

'Both the North and the South should make joint efforts to open 
a new phase in the inter-Korean relations as this year will mark 
the fifth anniversary of the historic June 15 declaration,' Kim 
said, according to Yonhap. 

At the end of the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in June 
2000, Kim Jong-Il said he would come to Seoul for a second 
summit but this pledge never became reality because of mounting 
tensions over the nuclear issue. 

bur-tn-bjn/sdm/ds 

Copyright © 2005 AFP AFX. All rights reserved. Republication or 
*****************************************************************
 25 AFP: North Korea vows to bolster nuclear deterrent 

Messenger 

Sunday April 24, 11:02 AM 
      
 SEOUL (XF-ASIA) - North Korean military chief Kim Yong-Chun
vowed today to 'steadily bolster' the Stalinist nation's nuclear
deterrent due to the United States' hostile moves.
 Kim Yong-Chun, chief of the general staff of the North Korean
People's Army, warned the United States that it will face any
aggression head on.
 'The army and the people of the DPRK (North Korea) will never
remain a passive onlooker to the US moves to isolate and stifle
the DPRK, but steadily bolster its nuclear deterrent for
self-defence to cope with the enemies' reckless moves for
military aggression,' he said in a speech that the official
Korean Central News Agency carried.
 'Should the US start a war ... the revolutionary armed forces
of the DPRK will mobilize the military deterrent force built up
for years and ... win a final victory in the stand-off with the
US.'
 The remarks, made in a speech marking the 73rd anniversary of
the North's military, come as Washington is hardening its
position towards Pyongyang for boycotting six-way nuclear
disarmament negotiations.
 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Thursday of
referring the issue to the UN Security Council for possible
sanctions on North Korea in case the talks failed to deliver.
 The talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, Russia, the
United States and Japan, have stalled since three rounds ended
inconclusively in June, 2004.
 The North failed to show up for a fourth round scheduled for
last September.
 The Stalinist state declared in February that it had built
nuclear weapons to use in self-defence against the US.
 North Korea shut down its only functioning nuclear reactor
earlier this month and told a visiting US specialist that it
planned to unload spent nuclear fuel from the plant and
reprocess it into weapons-grade plutonium.
 Nuclear fuel can be unloaded only after a reactor is shut down.
 Two years ago, North Korea said it unloaded and reprocessed
spent fuel from the reactor, producing enough plutonium for six
to eight nuclear bombs.
 US intelligence officials say they believe Pyongyang possesses
one or two crude nuclear bombs made from plutonium diverted from
the reactor in previous decades.
 Top US nuclear negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, is in Seoul today on the first leg of a trip
to South Korea, Japan and China aimed at reviving the six-party
talks, officials said.
 Hill, who arrived in Seoul late yesterday, is to meet with
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and other officials tomorrow before
heading for China Tuesday and Japan on Wednesday.
 'So, we have a situation, where the five countries are willing
to attend and one continues not to, and we have to solve this
problem -- one way or the other,' Hill said after arriving at
Incheon airport, west of Seoul.
 With patience running out, the US is suggesting UN involvement
in the nuclear standoff.
 South Korea has opposed referring the issue to the Security
Council, insisting that the six-way negotiations are the only
viable option.
   
 Copyright © 2005 AFP AFX. All rights reserved. Republication or
*****************************************************************
 26 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Resume Talks
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday April 23, 2005 3:31 PM

AP Photo XJAK107 

By MICHAEL CASEY 

Associated Press Writer 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Leaders of the two Koreas agreed
Saturday to resume talks between their nations that broke down
last summer and to discuss the international standoff over the
North's nuclear weapons ambitions, an Indonesian official said. 

The agreements on reviving the stalled talks came as
Washington's top envoy on the nuclear dispute, the chief U.S.
negotiator in the multinational talks, Christopher Hill, arrived
in Seoul for meetings with South Korean officials. 

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and North Korea's No. 2
man, Kim Yong Nam, met on the sidelines of an Asian-African
summit in Jakarta, said Jacob Tobing, Indonesia's ambassador to
South Korea. It was the second meeting at the summit between the
two leaders, who addressed such key issues as attempts to
persuade the North to return to six-party talks aimed at getting
Pyongyang to suspend its nuclear program. 

Three rounds of nuclear disarmament talks - which involve the
Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States - have been
held since 2003 with no breakthrough. A September session was
never held because the North refused to attend, citing
Washington's alleged hostile policy toward Pyongyang. 

In February, the North claimed it already possessed nuclear
weapons and would indefinitely boycott the talks. That claim has
not been independently verified. 

``They agreed to resume the inter-Korean dialogue ... and they
agreed to exchange views over the six-party talks,'' said
Tobing, who was at the conference with the South Korean
delegation. 

``We know they both need this kind of meeting so we (Indonesia)
offered to facilitate it. I'm very satisfied. At least one step
has been taken but there is a lot of work ahead.'' 

Kim Sang Soo, the information attache at the South Korean
embassy in Jakarta, confirmed a meeting took place but refused
to provide details. 

The first meeting Friday was the highest-level contact between
the two Koreas since a 2000 summit between then-South Korean
President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The
inter-Korean talks have been on hold since July after mass
defections to South Korea from the North that Pyongyang labeled
the ``kidnapping'' of its citizens. 

The Koreas were divided in 1945. Although separated by the
world's last Cold War frontier lined by nearly 2 million troops,
the two Koreas have dramatically boosted ties in recent years -
mostly through economic projects that provide the impoverished
North with desperately needed cash. 

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. 

Neither leader spoke to reporters as they left the talks, which
lasted about 30 minutes. 

The leaders agreed Friday on the need for the two countries to
work together on territorial claims on a set of islets at the
center of a dispute between South Korea and Japan, South Korea's
Yonhap news agency said. The rocky outcroppings are called Dokdo
in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. 

During his visit to Seoul, Hill plans to meet Monday with
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Monday, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman
Maureen Cornack said. 

The U.S. envoy also will visit China and Japan before returning
to the United States on April 30, a U.S. official in Seoul said. 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who also is attending the
Asian-African summit, told reporters he hoped diplomatic
attempts to induce North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks
would soon succeed. 

Asked how the U.N. Security Council would react if the North
tested a nuclear device, Annan said: ``I hope we will dissuade
North Korea (and) that North Korea will not take this action.''	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 27 AFP: US warns China that NKorea could conduct nuclear test at any time - 
report 

  Monday April 25, 12:57 AM 
      
 SEOUL (AFX) - The United States has warned China in an
'emergency' diplomatic communication that North Korea could be
preparing for a nuclear weapons test, the Wall Street Journal
reported on its website, citing a US official.

 The report said Washington sent its warning late last week,
informing Beijing of its concern that recent North Korean
developments could point to a test at any time.

 It said the message requested that China restrain North Korea.

 The report said the US has conveyed its fears to regional
allies South Korea and Japan.

 The report said satellite intelligence indicates increased
heightened activity at missile bases and 'various suspect sites'
that may be used to stage an underground nuclear tests.

 /tr
   
 Copyright © 2005 AFP AFX. All rights reserved. Republication or
*****************************************************************
 28 The Standard: N Korea in nuclear arsenal pledge - 

April 25, 2005                                                                                                                                          
 																	   																 																
North Korea's military chief vowed to "steadily bolster'' the 
Stalinist nation's nuclear deterrent as a result of hostile moves 
by the United States.                                                                                                                                                 
 																		
In a deepening nuclear crisis, Kim Yong Chun, chief of the 
general staff of the North Korean People's Army, warned the 
United States Sunday that it would face any aggression head on.
 																		
His comments, as a top US official visited South Korea in an 
effort to revive regional talks on the nuclear issue, followed a 
US newspaper report that Pyongyang may be planning a nuclear 
test. At the same time, North Korea's state news agency has 
reported stepped-up visits to military units by the country's 
leader Kim Jong Il.
 																		
``The army and the people of the DPRK [North Korea] will never 
remain a passive onlooker to the US moves to isolate and stifle 
the DPRK, but steadily bolster its nuclear deterrent for 
self-defence to cope with the enemies' reckless moves for 
military aggression,'' said Kim Yong Chun in a speech carried by 
the official Korean Central News Agency.
 																		
``Should the US start a war ... the revolutionary armed forces of 
the DPRK will mobilize the military deterrent force built up for 
years and ... win a final victory in the stand-off with the US.''
 																		
The remarks, made to mark the 73rd anniversary of the North's 
military, came as Washington hardened its position towards 
Pyongyang for boycotting six-way nuclear disarmament 
negotiations.
 																		
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Thursday of 
referring the issue to the UN Security Council for possible 
sanctions on North Korea if the talks failed to deliver.
 																		
Pyongyang has warned any referral to the Security Council would 
be tantamount to a declaration of war.
 																		
The talks involving the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United 
States and Japan have stalled since three rounds ended 
inconclusively in June 2004.
 																		
The North failed to show up for a fourth round set for last 
September.
 																		
The Stalinist state declared in February that it had built 
nuclear weapons to use in self-defense against the United States.
 																		
North Korea shut down its only functioning nuclear reactor 
earlier this month and told a visiting US specialist that it 
planned to unload spent nuclear fuel from the plant and reprocess 
it into weapons-grade plutonium.
 																		
Nuclear fuel can be unloaded only after a reactor is shut down.
 																		
US intelligence officials say they believe Pyongyang possesses 
one or two crude nuclear bombs made from plutonium diverted from 
the reactor in previous decades.
 																		
Top US nuclear negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State 
Christopher Hill, was in Seoul Sunday on the first leg of a trip 
to South Korea, Japan and China aimed at reviving the six-party 
talks.
 																		
``So we have a situation, where the five countries are willing to 
attend and one continues not to, and we have to solve this 
problem - one way or the other,'' Hill said after arriving at 
Incheon airport, west of Seoul.
 																		
With patience running out, the United States is suggesting UN 
involvement in the nuclear standoff.
 																		
South Korea sees six-way negotiations as the only viable option 
and opposes a UN referral.
                                                                                                                                                        
Kim Jong Il has dramatically increased military inspections 
recently with the latest reported Saturday, according to the 
official Korea Central News Agency.
 																		
KCNA reported April 6, 8, 19, 22 and 23 about Kim's visits to the 
military units. There were no such reports in February and March.
 																		
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
 																		
Standard, Sing Tao Newspaper 																						Group and
Global China Group. All rights reserved. No content may be
																						redistributed or republished, either
*****************************************************************
 29 Korea Times: Nuclear Weapons Test 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion   

 Six-Party Negotiations Must Be Preserved   
      
North Korea¡¯s nuclear ambitions seem to be running to a climax
as the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition Friday
that the North is preparing for an underground nuclear weapons
test. The paper also said that Washington called upon Beijing to
dissuade Pyongyang from undertaking the test. Even though the
credibility of the report is hard to trust, it is quite enough
to shock the international community, which has stood behind the
six-party dialogue aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the
nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington. 

The report came in the midst of top U.S. officials¡¯ warnings
that the nuclear dispute would be referred to the U.N. Security
Council if the North refuses to return to the negotiating table.
The United States has been concerned with the North¡¯s recent
suspension of operations of the 5-megawatt reactor in the
Yongbyon nuclear complex with the purpose of extracting
plutonium from spent fuel rods. It is reported that plutonium
extracted from some 8,000 spent fuel rods would enable the
communist regime to secure up to six nuclear warheads.

 The North is sharply reacting to rising voices in the Bush
administration calling for taking the nuclear issue to the
Security Council of the United Nations, saying that when it
happens, it means Washington¡¯s declaration of war on it. Seoul
and Beijing, the organizer of the multilateral negotiations, are
also opposing the transfer of the nuclear dispute to the U.N.
governing body. However, it is generally expected that the U.S.
position will prevail in the end if there is no way to break off
the stalemate in the six-party dialogue since the third round
held in Beijing last June. It is also speculated that Washington
would declare its stance no later than June, timed with the
first year in the suspension of the multilateral forum.

 In this critical juncture, China needs to step up its efforts
in persuading the North to the negotiating table as Pyongyang
only trusts Beijing among the other participants in the
six-party dialogue. Washington and other Western countries are
suspicious that Beijing is not fully committed to an early
peaceful settlement of the nuclear crisis on the Korean
Peninsula in consideration of its power game with the U.S. In
this regard, President Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s meeting with his Chinese
counterpart, Hu Jintao, in Moscow early next month is drawing
concern. It is also hoped that U.S. President George W. Bush
will meet with Roh in June, as Seoul wants, to discuss ways of
solving the nuclear issue in the six-party negotiations.

 No matter what the participants do to try to revive the talks,
the North has the key. It ought to drop nuclear brinkmanship and
come to the negotiating table to peacefully resolve the nuclear
confrontation. 

04-24-2005 16:02         
  
*****************************************************************
 30 Korea Times: Hill Hints at Tougher Tactics on N. Korea 

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr 04-24-2005 17:28         

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation   

By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter

 In a sign of U.S. impatience, Washington¡¯s top negotiator on
the North Korean nuclear standoff hinted over the weekend at
employing get-tough measures to bring Pyongyang back to the
stalled six-party talks.

 ``We have a situation where the five countries are willing to
attend and one continues not to,¡¯¡¯ Christopher Hill, assistant
secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told
reporters after arriving at Incheon International Airport for
consultations with South Korean officials. ``We have to solve
this problem _ one way or the other.¡¯¡¯

 The comment follows a warning to the North by U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice Thursday that she would refer its nuclear
weapons programs to the U.N. Security Council if it continues to
stall.

 Adding greater urgency to the standoff, a report in the Wall
Street Journal on Saturday said the U.S. has intelligence
indicating North Korea is preparing to conduct a nuclear test. 

The report quoted an unidentified U.S. official as saying that
Washington has passed the intelligence on to Seoul, Tokyo and
Beijing.

 Earlier this month, North Korea shut down its Yongbyon nuclear
reactor and told a visiting U.S. expert that it planned to
unload spent fuel for reprocessing into weapons-grade plutonium.

 The South Korean government, however, has declined to confirm
if it has received intelligence indicating preparations for a
nuclear test.

 ``We have been watching very closely the developments
surrounding North Korea¡¯s nuclear facilities in conjunction
with the U.S., but at this time we don¡¯t have anything
specifically new for public comment,¡¯¡¯ an official at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told The Korea Times on
condition of anonymity.

 The official also dismissed suggestions that it is time to
discuss taking alternative, tougher measures outside of the
six-nation talks, which North Korea has boycotted since the
third round ended without progress in June.

 ``We believe it is time for us to energize efforts to resume
the talks,¡¯¡¯ he said. ``A couple of U.S. officials have talked
about considering other options when the time comes¡¦ but they
didn¡¯t say when that time might be.¡¯¡¯

 Hill, who arrived in Seoul late Saturday on the first leg of a
Northeast Asian tour, is expected to discuss the nuclear crisis
today in a meeting with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, National
Security Council head Lee Jong-seok and Deputy Foreign Minister
Song Min-soon, officials said. 

South Korean officials said his visit will likely focus on the
recent provocative moves by North Korea at the Yongbyon reactor.

 Hill is scheduled to fly to China tomorrow and then move on to
Japan for similar consultations.

 It is the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea¡¯s first visit
to Seoul since he assumed the post of top nuclear negotiator in
early April. 

  
*****************************************************************
 31 ITAR-TASS: UN chief calls on NKorea to return to six-party talks on N-problem

24.04.2005, 09.17

JAKARTA, April 24 (Itar-Tass) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
called on Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks on the
North Korean nuclear problem. Speaking at a news conference on
the sidelines of the Jakarta Summit of the Continents, he did
not preclude a chance that otherwise this question can be
submitted to the UN Security Council. 

North Korea should, without waiting for this move, join common
efforts and settle the crisis diplomatically, Annan said,
commenting on the second meeting, held here between two ranking
representatives of Pyongyang and Seoul. According to reports
from the South Korean side, they touched on the problem of
nuclear weapons for the first time after a many-year interval. 

However, South Korea Prime Minister Lee Hae-Chan and speaker of
the North Korean parliament Kim Yong Nam did not succeed to
achieve “a breakthrough” in this question. On the other hand,
they agreed on ”deblocking” the inter-Korean dialogue: talks on
security, humanitarian questions and joint economic projects,
which were suspended in April 2000 after 486 North Korean
deserters were evacuated from Hanoi to Seoul. 

Representatives of the leadership of the two countries had met
the last time in 2000. Then, Pyongyang was visited by the then
South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and held talks with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il. 

In the meantime, Seoul said on Saturday that, according to its
information, “there are no signs that North Korea will test a
nuclear weapon in the near future'. A statement of a ranking
South Korean representative refuted, thereby, a claim by Wall
Street Journal, publish on Friday. “To all appearances, this
article is groundless,” he emphasized. 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
 32 Guardian Unlimited: Korean Leaders Agree to Restart Talks
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday April 24, 2005 7:01 AM

AP Photo XJAK109 

By CHRIS BRUMMITT 

Associated Press Writer 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - South Korea and North Korea agreed
Saturday to resume talks that broke down last summer and to
discuss the standoff over the North's suspected development of
nuclear weapons, an Indonesian official said. 

But there was no word of progress on stalled six-party talks
involving the Koreas, neighboring countries and America, aimed
at ending the North's nuclear ambitions. 

The decision to revive the inter-Korean dialogue came as
Washington's top envoy on the nuclear dispute, the chief U.S.
negotiator in the nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, arrived in
Seoul for meetings with South Korean officials. 

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and North Korea's No. 2
man, Kim Yong Nam, met on the sidelines of an Asian-African
summit in Jakarta. It was the second meeting at the summit
between the two leaders. 

``They agreed to resume the inter-Korean dialogue ... and they
agreed to exchange views over the six-party talks,'' said Jacob
Tobing, Indonesia's ambassador to South Korea. Tobing was at the
conference with the South Korean delegation. 

``We know they both need this kind of meeting so we (Indonesia)
offered to facilitate it. At least one step has been taken but
there is a lot of work ahead.'' 

The dialogue between the two Koreas was suspended last July
after mass defections to South Korea from the North that
Pyongyang labeled ``kidnappings.'' Although it is seen as less
crucial than the nuclear disarmament talks, the agreement
Saturday to resume the dialogue appeared to signal a warming of
ties on the peninsula. 

Three rounds of nuclear talks - which involve the Koreas, China,
Japan, Russia and the United States - have been held since 2003
with no breakthrough. A September session was canceled after the
North refused to attend, citing Washington's alleged hostile
policy toward Pyongyang. 

Chinese President Hu Jintao and North Korea's ceremonial head of
state, Kim Yong Nam, also met on the sidelines of the summit
Friday, but North Korean Central Broadcasting Station didn't say
in a report Sunday whether the two leaders discussed the stalled
nuclear talks. 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who also attended the
Asian-African summit, told reporters he hoped diplomatic
attempts to draw Korea back to the six-party talks would soon
succeed. 

Asked how the U.N. Security Council would react if the North
tested a nuclear device, Annan said: ``I hope we will dissuade
North Korea (and) that North Korea will not take this action.'' 

The first meeting Friday was the highest-level contact between
the two Koreas since a 2000 summit between then-South Korean
President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. 

The Koreas were divided in 1945. Although separated by the
world's last Cold War frontier lined by nearly 2 million troops,
the two Koreas have dramatically boosted ties in recent years -
mostly through economic projects that provide the impoverished
North with desperately needed cash. 

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 33 [NYTr] A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
 
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 07:54:18 -0500 (CDT)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Francis A. Boyle - Apr 23, 2005

A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
 
During September of 2004 I launched an international campaign to conclude a
global pact against depleted uranium (DU) munitions by having every state in
the world officially and publicly take the position that the Geneva Protocol
of 1925 already includes within itself a flat-out prohibition on the use of
DU in wartime, which they have no yet done.  So far the United States is the
only government in the world that uses DU munitions during wartime.  In
addition to prohibiting "the use of bacteriological methods of warfare," the
1925 Geneva Protocol also prohibits "the use in war of asphyxiating,
poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials, or
devices." Clearly DU is "analogous" to poison gas. [i] But we need every
government in the world to legally and openly take that position.  Then the
entire world can pressure the United States to remove DU munitions from its
arsenal.

Politically, the easiest way to accomplish that objective is not the
conclusion of a new international treaty prohibiting the use of DU, but
rather simply having every state in the world submit an interpretative
Letter to that effect to the Government of France, which is the official
depositary for the 1925 Geneva Protocol.  This latter approach would also
avoid the need to have the respective national legislatures of every state
in the world to approve a new anti-DU treaty and thus complicate and prolong
the process.  All that needs to be done is for anti-DU citizens, activists
and NGOs in each country of the world to pressure and convince their
respective Foreign Ministers to sign, date, and then file this model Letter
with the French Foreign Minister as indicated below.  That task is eminently
feasible.

As the Land Mines Treaty has already demonstrated, it is possible for a
coalition of determined activists and NGOs, acting in concert with at least
one sympathetic state, such as Canada, to actually bring into being an
international treaty to address humanitarian concerns.  This template Letter
is for the use of concerned citizens, activists and NGOs worldwide, to
pursue through universal governmental participation the complete and final
elimination of DU munitions from the face of the earth:

His Excellency Michel Barnier
Foreign Minister
French Republic 
37, Quai d'Orsay
75351 Paris
FRANCE
FAX:  33-1-43-17-4275

Dear Excellency:

The Republic of X presents its compliments to the French Republic.  I have
the honor to draw to your attention the Protocol for the Prohibition of the
Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological
Methods of Warfare of 17 June 1925, for which the Government of the French
Republic serves as the depositary.  The Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibits
the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all
analogous liquids, materials or devices, as well as the use of
bacteriological methods of warfare.  The government of X believes that the
Geneva Protocol of 1925 already prohibits the use in war of depleted
uranium, uranium ammunition, uranium armor-plate and all other uranium
weapons.  We respectfully request your Excellency to circulate this
communication to the other High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Protocol
of 1925.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurance of our highest consideration.

Foreign Minister
Republic of X 
Day, Month, Year

[i] International Action Center, Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium 
(2d ed. 1999).

       
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 34 Deseret News: 530 N-cancers on isles? 

[deseretnews.com] 

Sunday, April 24, 2005 

Study says half of ills from years-ago blasts have yet to develop

By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News 

Among the 14,000 inhabitants who lived in the Marshall Islands in
the mid-Pacific Ocean during U.S. atomic tests there, an 
estimated 530 cancers were caused by bombs detonated in the 1940s
and '50s, according to a new study by the National Cancer 
Institute. 

Deseret Morning News graphic 

The report indicates a plague of radiation-induced 
illness and death is far from over. More than half of the 530 
cases have yet to develop, nearly 50 years after the blasts 
stopped. 

The study has relevance to Utahns because this state also 
was heavily exposed to fallout, drifting in from open-air 
nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and 
early '60s. If similar latency periods extend between exposure 
and cancer in downwind areas of the United States, Utahns could 
suffer future illness and deaths from fallout. 

Another connection is that standards used by Congress to 
pay compensation to Utahns from particular areas who suffer 
certain kinds of cancer were used as a model for compensation 
awarded to Marshall Islanders. 

Although scientists have known for decades that 
Marshallese were displaced from their homes and harmed by the 
fallout, until now nobody knew how many would develop cancer 
because of the tests. 

The report, "Estimation of the Baseline Number of Cancers 
Among Marshallese and the Number of Cancers Attributable to 
Exposure to Fallout From Nuclear Weapons Testing Conducted in 
the Marshall Islands," was carried out by the NCI at the request 
of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. 

It was completed in September 2004. But according to a 
report by Agence France-Presse, cited by Yahoo News, it was only 
released last week after officials of the Republic of the 
Marshall Islands saw a reference to it in a report to Congress. 

The Deseret Morning News obtained a copy of the study. 

The Marshalls were occupied by Japan before World War II 
and the islands were seized by the United States during that 
conflict. From 1946 through 1958, the country detonated 66 
nuclear bombs, in seven series of tests, at Bikini and Enewetak 
atolls in the Marshalls, the report notes. 

Total explosive yield was about 100 million tons of TNT. 
Possibly the most dangerous to the population of the Marshalls 
was the Castle Bravo test of 1954, equivalent to 15 million tons.

Shortly after the explosion, "fallout was unexpectedly 
deposited on Rongelap, Utrik, and other inhabited atolls to the 
east and southeast of Bikini Atoll . . . resulting in by far the 
greatest exposure from any of the tests conducted in the 
Marshall Islands," the report says. 

"Within the first three days after the detonation, the 
resident populations of Rongelap (including some present on 
Ailinginae) and Utrik, as well as American weather servicemen on 
Rongerik, were evacuated to avert continued exposure and to 
provide immediate medical care." 

Some of those exposed had skin burns due to fallout. 

Radioactive Iodine-131 was measured in the urine of 
adults from Rongelap and Ailinginae about two weeks later. That 
data was valuable to present researchers seeking to calculate 
dosage to the groups. 

"In contrast, similar data do not exist for populations 
who were living on other atolls of the Marshall Islands and 
radiation doses to Marshallese living there have, consequently, 
been difficult to assess." 

The federal government has provided medical care and 
documented health effects among what the report calls "the 
highly exposed Marshallese." But only two epidemiologic studies 
have been carried out, one of benign thyroid disease and thyroid 
cancer. 

"To date, there has not been an epidemiologic study of 
the Marshallese to estimate the total numbers of cancers and 
other serious illnesses resulting from exposure to radioactive 
fallout." But it was possible to estimate how many cancers would 
develop among the population, including those caused by fallout. 

An inhabitant of Ebeye, Marshall Islands, photographed circa 
1964. Ebeye received "lesser" doses of fallout. 

Joe Bauman, Deseret Morning News 

Among the ways people were exposed were externally, 
through fallout on the ground or air outside of the body; and 
internally, through such routes as inhalation, drinking 
fallout-laced water, using eating utensils with fallout on them, 
or consuming food contaminated by fallout. 

Because radioactive material went into the soil, 
contaminated food may have been eaten "months and years after 
the deposition of fallout." Some amount of radioactive Cesium is 
still present in the soil of certain islands. 

"Estimated doses at Rongelap and Ailinginae, as expected, 
were very high, particularly to children — in the range of tens 
to more than one hundred Gray (a measurement of radiation) 
depending on the age at exposure and the particular organ" of 
the body. 

"Doses of that magnitude from accident situations have 
rarely, if ever, been documented." 

Estimates of the amount of fallout varied according to 
where the person lived. "For example, at the more distant 
locations, e.g., Kwajalein, Majuro, etc., ingestion of fallout 
would probably play a much less important role than we assumed 
and inhalation of fallout would be more important." 

Another complicating factor, although the report refers 
to it as a relatively minor consideration, is that the 
calculations for numbers of cancers that could develop over a 
lifetime were based on American life-expectancy tables. But 
Marshallese life expectancy is about eight years shorter than 
the U.S. population (69.7 years for both sexes combined for the 
Marshalls, 77.4 years for the United States.) 

A 1958 census helped researchers estimate the Marshall 
Islands population at the time of the Bravo test as around 
13,940. If the tests had never occurred, the report says, about 
5,600 cancers would have developed among them during their 
lifetimes. 

"Within the lifetime of the cohort, we estimate an 
additional 530 cancers that might be attributable to fallout 
radiation. Similar to the case for the baseline cancers (not 
caused by fallout), about one-half of the radiation-induced 
fallout are yet to develop or be diagnosed. 

"These findings indicate that we expect the exposure to 
fallout to result in about a 9 percent increase in the total 
number of cancers," it says. Altogether, including cancer that 
would have happened without the tests and counting both fatal 
and nonfatal cancers, the 14,000 people can expect 6,130 cases 
of cancer. 

The report makes these estimates for cancers caused by 
fallout among Marshallese, over their lifetimes: leukemia, five 
cases; thyroid cancer, 262 cases; stomach cancer, 15 cases; 
colon cancer, 157 cases; other cancers, 93 cases. The total is 
532 among the nearly 14,000 inhabitants. 

The thyroid and colon cancers among Rongelap and 
Ailinginae islanders are only "crude upper limit" estimates, the 
study concedes. 

Of these 532, cancers that are expected to develop but 
which had not shown up as of 2004 are: leukemia, fewer than one; 
thyroid cancer, 99 cases; stomach cancer, 13; colon cancer, up 
to 116; other cancers, 61. Total not yet developed, according to 
the report: 289. 

The 289 yet to show up represent close to 55 percent of 
the cancers caused among Marshall Islanders by the U.S. atomic 
tests in the Pacific. 

E-mail: bau@desnews.com 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 35 Deseret News: Activist questions U.S. cancer-risk figures 

[deseretnews.com] 

Sunday, April 24, 2005 

By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News 

Marshall Islands residents exposed to fallout from U.S. nuclear 
testing in the Pacific face a 9 percent increase in total number 
of cancers, according to a recent federal study. 

But when the National Academy of Sciences reviewed a 
different federal draft report, the NAS said Americans have only 
a 0.03 percent chance of increased cancer deaths attributable to 
fallout, including that from the Nevada Test Site. 

That difference — between 9 percent and 0.03 percent — 
seems strange to Vanessa Pierce, program director for the 
activist group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. 

"I think that they've averaged the risk, which really 
seems like a meaningless scientific exercise," she said. 

The comparisons aren't exact because the Marshall Islands 
study cites total number of cancers, both fatal and not, while 
the academy is talking about only cancer deaths in the United 
States. Still, an increase in cancer rates might be expected to 
result in a somewhat similar increase in cancer death rates. 

The original draft report by CCD and NCI says Marshall 
Islanders were exposed to "substantially higher levels" of 
radioactive fallout. It does not say how much higher. 

But the cancer increase cited for the Marshallese in the 
most recent report is 300 times that claimed for the U.S. 
population. 

The Pacific Islanders' health injuries and deaths from 
fallout are detailed in a new National Cancer Institute study. 
(see accompanying story) 

Pierce ran across the National Academy study when she 
followed up on an April 8 letter sent to HEAL-Utah by Dr. Julie 
Louise Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control, 
Atlanta. 

HEAL had inquired about a draft report by the CDC and the 
National Cancer Institute on the feasibility of further studies 
of fallout consequences in the United States. The group is 
concerned that nearly four years after the study was finished, a 
final version has not been released. 

Gerberding's reply mentioned the National Academy of 
Sciences review of the draft study, which the NAS carried out in 
2003. 

Pierce pointed out that the NAS review panel wrote "that 
the lifetime risk of death due to cancer is about 20 percent 
absent fallout radiation exposure. Then they say that fallout 
raises that risk of getting cancer to 20.03 percent." 

That means the increased risk due to fallout is only 0.03 
percent, which the NAS panel commented is "of little health 
consequence," she said. 

The figure shows up in the NAS review. It says the 
lifetime risk of cancer death is about 20 percent without 
fallout exposure. It adds that "the risk posed by fallout is 
about 0.03 percent . . . so the lifetime cancer risk would be 
raised from 20 percent to 20.03 percent." 

An executive summary by the NAS group adds that the 
increased risk "is of little health consequence." 

According to the summary, NAS reviewers believe "that 
there is insufficient justification for a more detailed study of 
the amounts and effects of fallout radionuclides other than 
131-I." 

Pierce is concerned that the increased risk cited is only 
an average for Americans as a whole, not taking into account 
factors such as where they lived. Scientific studies — including 
some cited by the draft report itself — show that certain 
regions, such as southwestern Utah, were hit much harder by 
Nevada Test Site fallout than other parts of the country. 

She made this analogy: suppose 10 people are in a room, 
one of whom has had far too much to drink while the remaining 
nine have consumed no alcohol. "Maybe if you averaged their 
blood alcohol content you could say it's safe for all 10 of them 
to drive, when really that one highly intoxicated person has no 
place behind the wheel," she said. 

The academy criticized the draft study as long on 
population exposure estimates and short on calculating 
individual risk. "It is . . . more useful to put the primary 
emphasis on individual risk than on population risk, when this 
is possible," the NAS reviewers wrote. 

Pierce said she finds it ominous that the federal 
government seems to be discounting the danger of fallout "at a 
time when the administration is requesting $25 million" to 
upgrade the Nevada Test Site. 

Meanwhile, she said, studies of health effects from 
atomic testing are "either hung up or having the funding yanked."

It's hard not to be suspicious, Pierce said. "In this 
state, when your health is on the line, skepticism is a virtue." 

E-mail: bau@desnews.com 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 36 Des Moines Register: Do right by workers
 
Editorials                      

To the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health:

By 

April 24, 2005                         

Welcome to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Over the next few days, you'll
hear again from experts, consultants, elected officials and
former workers about the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in
Middletown.

You'll hear that workers served their country by assembling
nuclear weapons at the plant. You'll hear that their jobs
exposed them to radiation and toxic materials. You'll hear that
they have suffered - and that some have died.

You have the power to help deliver compensation, medical care
and justice.

Please do that. Please recommend that the government that put
workers at risk in this nuclear facility finally do right by
them.

From 1947 to the mid-1970s, thousands of Iowans assembled
high-explosive components for nuclear weapons in the plant. Many
workers eventually developed cancer and other health problems.
Many who sought help from their government have been met with
denials, excuses and foot-dragging.

For years, the Department of Energy and its predecessor, the
Atomic Energy Commission, wouldn't even come clean that nuclear
work went on at the plant. Finally in 2000, the department
acknowledged that workers had made explosives there. The
secretary of energy at the time called the former workers "Cold
War heroes." Congress decided they should be compensated. And in
February, your members recommended that qualified workers
receive $150,000 and medical care.

But the process stalled when what was described as new
information surfaced about the plant's operation and workers'
possible exposure.

Now there's another meeting, another review.

You have the power to move this process a step toward closure
with a recommendation to Health and Human Services Secretary
Michael Leavitt that the workers be compensated and cared for.
He can approve that recommendation and send it to Congress,
which would have 30 days to act.

Meanwhile, the workers wait - and remember.

Carl Jackson remembers the radiation-triggered heat and "prickly
sensation" he felt from his knees to his chest while working in
the plant. Opal Henry remembers wearing her shoes home from the
plant and her young son wearing those shoes around the house. He
died at age 41 from lymphoma. Bob Anderson remembers seeing the
radioactive symbols on drums and being told it was nothing to
worry about.

Anita Loving remembers her parents never talking about the work
they did at the plant. Like all the other workers, they were
sworn to secrecy. Perhaps you remember the letter Loving sent
you a few months ago about her father, Wendell Pirtle. In it,
she wrote:

"My father devoted his working career to serving his country
both as a bomber pilot during WWII and then for so many years at
the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. He deserves to be compensated
for sacrificing his health. He tells me had he known the dangers
of his work he would have never taken the job. He is a loyal
American, and I feel our country is letting him down."

Loving's father died April 3.

You have the power to end a betrayal of workers who sacrificed
their health in their country's service. Please do right by
Pirtle, his family and all the other Iowans who have waited too
long for help.

      Copyright © 2004, The Des Moines Register.
*****************************************************************
 37 Hawk Eye: IAAP, NIOSH meet Sunday 

Saturday, April 23, 2005 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST   
      


The Hawk Eye 

Former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant workers and survivors can meet
with National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
representatives beginning Sunday in Cedar Rapids. 

NIOSH staffers will be at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Center
through Wednesday to discuss individual dose reconstructions for
claims filed under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act. 

The following times are available: 
Sunday — 3 to 7 p.m. 
Monday — 8 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. 
Tuesday — 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. 
Wednesday — 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 
To reserve a meeting time, contact NIOSH at ocas@cdc.gov, or
call (515) 533–6800.   
  
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
*****************************************************************
 38 Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining
 
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 19:14:33 -0500 (CDT)

 
Navajo Nation Outlaws Uranium Mining

The Associated Press
The Guardian.co.uk
Friday 22 April 2005

  Window Rock, AZ - The Navajo Nation has outlawed uranium mining and 
processing on its reservation, which sprawls across parts of Arizona, New 
Mexico and Utah and contains one of the world's largest deposits of uranium 
ore.

Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. must give the bill final approval. His 
spokesman said Thursday that Shirley "strongly" supports it.

Mining companies began blasting holes on the reservation, which covers 
27,000 square miles, in the 1940s and continued for nearly 40 years until 
decreased demand closed the operations.

By then, the Navajos were left with radiation sickness, contaminated 
tailings and abandoned mines. To avoid repeating the past, Navajo leaders 
and grassroots organizations have been working for years to keep mining from 
starting again.

The Navajo Nation Council voted 63-19 Tuesday in favor of the mining ban. 
Several council delegates predicted the legislation will be challenged in 
court - possibly as far as the Supreme Court.

Members of Navajo grassroots organizations celebrated outside the council's 
chambers after the measure was approved.

"This legislation just chopped the legs off the uranium monster," said 
Norman Brown, a member of one of the groups, Dine Bidzii. Dine is the 
Navajos' name for themselves.

The legislation prohibits pit mining as well as "in-situ" processing, which 
involves using a solution to leach out uranium and pump it to the surface.

Hydro Resources Inc. has been working with the federal Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission for years to get approval for in-situ mining near the Navajo 
communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock. The company estimated nearly 100 
million pounds of uranium exist at the sites.

Hydro Resources has argued that in-situ mining is safer than older methods, 
but opponents note that 15,000 people rely on the area's underground aquifer 
and they fear contamination from the proposed operation.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/042205EB.shtml
*****************************************************************
 39 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast letter makes residents feel resentful

| 04/23/2005 | 

Some say DEP warning of toxic contamination is 'too little, too
late'

 SCOTT RADWAY

 Herald Staff Writer

TALLEVAST - Vincent Bland, 39, grew up in Tallevast drinking
well water. All that time, he would like to have known if the
American Beryllium plant down the road had leaked industrial
solvents into the groundwater. 

In 2002, Bland built a house for his wife and two kids in
Tallevast. Bland said he would liked to have known about any
pollution then, too. 

Lockheed Martin in 2000 began investigating the plant, which
operated from 1962 to 1996, and found contamination on site. But
residents would not find out for another three years that the
pollution had spread off-site. In 2004, the 85-home community
found out some residential drinking wells were polluted with
potentially cancer-causing chemicals. 

Bland scornfully held up a notification letter from the
Department of Environmental Protection explaining the
groundwater under his house was contaminated. The two-page
letter, his official notification dated April 21, 2005, arrived
Friday by certified mail. 

"This is an insult. Too little, too late," Bland said. "I would
have liked to have known four years ago when they found out. I
would liked to know when I built this house." 

Two neighbors standing in his driveway just shook their heads in
disbelief. 

DEP is implementing new rules governing contamination sites,
agency officials, say will lead to a comprehensive program where
the agency must inform the public if contamination has spread
from a nearby site to their property. A policy that the plight
of Tallevast helped foster. 

The rule is aimed primarily at new sites, but DEP officials
decided to also send out notification to all existing sites to
ensure everyone knows about the issue and no potential exposures
routes exist, such as from an undisclosed well. 

DEP spokeswoman Cragin Mosteller said the agency worked with the
Department of Health in the past to identify any potential
health and environmental risks to the public and notified them
where necessary. But DEP has never had such a comprehensive
program to notify the public. 

Now, Tallevast is among a list of nearly 200 sites across the
state that are receiving notification this week and the next,
the agency reported. In all, 2000 sites have been identified
where contamination has spread off-site and the public will
receive letters by the end of this year. 

Tallevast and two other sites in the country were part of the
first wave of letters sent. 

The second Manatee is site is called the Tortuga property at
4515 15th St. E. There, it is believed solvents stored along the
property fence line were spilled. The Tortuga letters, not
available for the media Friday, will detail the contaminants and
give numbers to call for more information, Mosteller said. The
third site is called the Cain property, at 12209 81st St. E, in
Parrish. There, two petroleum tanks leaked into at least two
on-site wells. 

Charles Henry, Manatee supervisor of environmental health, said
investigations have been made into both the Tortuga and Cain
sites to ensure no one was exposed to contaminated well water.
In Sarasota, the health department reported similar findings to
the three petroleum sites that spawned DEP letters this week. 

Mosteller expressed disappointment that Tallevast residents were
displeased with the letters arrival. She said with the news last
week that the plume of groundwater contamination reaching 131
acres, up from 50 acres, the department wanted to ensure
everyone was informed. 

"Our goal was to provide this letter in an abundance of
caution," Mosteller said. 

Laura Ward, president of the Tallevast community group Family
Oriented Community United & Strong, said she was glad DEP has
begun notifying other communities where they might be unaware of
contamination issues. But for Tallevast that day is long gone.
Ward said after all the outrage the community has voiced and
scores of banner headlines, she felt the letter was an affront
to the community's intelligence. 

"It is almost like they think they are dealing with a bunch of
idiots," Ward said. "Telling us now not to drink the water. This
was a waste of paper. No one is reading it." 

James Presha, 33, who lives a stone's throw from the old plant
site, had not yet received his letter. But he didn't see any
reason to run to the post office. "It's like sending me a letter
to tell me the sun is shining," Presha said. "Why so late? That
is my only question." 

Bland held up the letter he received, pointing to the postage:
$4.42. 

"That is a waste of money," Presha said. "You could use the
money for schools." 

Scott Radway, environmental reporter, can be reached at 708-7919
or at sradway@HeraldToday.com. 

Herald Watchdog 

Today's report is part of The Herald's continuing coverage of
the effect of contamination on the Tallevast community. 

HeraldToday.com 

Explore our extensive archive coverage of the Tallevast
contamination and cleanup.   

*****************************************************************
 40 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca: Death by e-mails 

April 22, 2005 

WEEKEND EDITION 

April 23 - 24, 2005 

Last month the Energy Department, in charge of the project to 
bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 
disclosed the existence of damning internal e-mails written 
between 1998 and 2000. They contain admissions from several 
scientists associated with the project that some of the work to 
verify the mountain's safety was falsified. The disclosure 
launched multiple investigations that remain ongoing. 

On Friday the Las Vegas Sun disclosed the contents of other 
incriminating e-mails, which were culled from millions of Energy 
Department documents contained on a public database. They were 
discovered by a law firm hired by the state of Nevada to fight 
the opening of Yucca Mountain. The e-mails prove that scientists 
working on the project determined by 1997 that the mountain 
could never meet a critical specification set forth by Congress. 

In 1982 Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which 
placed the Energy Department in charge of disposing of the waste 
from nuclear power plants, and also established the criteria 
that a disposal site must meet. Congress was clear -- the site's 
own geology must be capable of preventing any escape of 
radiation into the environment. 

The latest e-mails uncovered, though, prove that scientists 
recognized that Yucca's geology could never meet that standard. 
One scientist wrote in a 1997 e-mail: "The answer is clearer 
than ever. Engineering has to do the job." Another e-mail that 
year from one scientist to another said, "I know you are trying 
to dodge the geologic disposal problem ... but the simple fact 
is that the only purpose of the natural system now is to provide 
a benign environment for the engineering." These, and other 
e-mails, show that it was clearly understood that Yucca's own 
geology cannot protect against radiation leaks. Man-made 
protections were going to have to be engineered. 

About the time these e-mails were written, the Energy 
Department departed from the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and 
declared that its nuclear dump at Yucca -- just 90 miles from 
Las Vegas -- would be a combination of natural and man-made 
barriers. The whole reason Yucca Mountain was selected in 1987 
as the sole site to be studied for a disposal site was because 
it was thought to be geologically safe. Now we're learning 
conclusively that it isn't. 

The disclosure of these e-mails over the past two months is 
another compelling reason for permanently dropping the notion 
that high-level nuclear waste can ever be safely buried at Yucca 
Mountain. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. 
*****************************************************************
 41 York Daily Record: We need more secure nuke waste storage - 

[ydr.com] 

ERIC EPSTEIN Sunday, April 24, 2005 

Thanks for publishing news relating to the National Academy of 
Sciences (NAS) declassified study on security and spent fuel 
pools at nuclear power plants. The NAS Study found that highly 
radioactive waste stored at the nation’s nuclear power plants is 
vulnerable to terrorist attack. Congress commissioned the study 
over a year ago, but its release has been held up since last 
summer by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

	The Nuclear Security Coalition (NSC), a national group of 47 
public interest organizations advocating for improved security 
at nuclear power plants, had pressed for the release of the 
report. Three Mile Island Alert, Inc., a safe-energy group based 
in Harrisburg and founded in 1977, is a member of the coalition. 

	The release of the study puts to rest any doubts about the 
danger we all face: Nuclear waste at our nation’s nuclear power 
plants is vulnerable to attack. We applaud the NAS for its 
scientific integrity and its perseverance in seeing to it that 
these important findings are made public. 

	However, on March 31, Exelon’s Chief Executive John Rowe said 
his company, the largest operator of nuclear plants in North 
America, does not intend to empty its numerous spent-fuel pools 
and transfer the radioactive waste to dry casks. “There is not 
such a plan at the moment,” Rowe said. 

	We hope Exelon will reconsider its position. 

	In the interim, it is imperative that Pennsylvania’s 
congressional delegation compel Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL to 
move thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste to secure and 
hardened facilities. 

	To view the report: www4.nationalacademies.org/news 

Eric Epstein is chairman of Three Mile Island Alert Inc., a 
nonprofit citizens’ organization dedicated to the promotion of 
safe-energy alternatives to nuclear power. 

Copyright © York Daily Record 2005 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 
*****************************************************************
 42 Guardian Unlimited: Ministers denounced for nuclear waste 'spin'
 
Robin McKie and Mark Townsend
Sunday April 24, 2005
The Observer 		

Two of Britain's most senior scientific experts yesterday 
denounced government ministers for favouring PR spin over serious 
scientific advice when dealing with nuclear waste disposal. 

The attack - which comes amid reports that the government is 
considering re-igniting the country's nuclear plant construction 
programme - was made by Professor David Ball of Middlesex 
University and international radiation expert Keith Baverstock. 

The two scientists were appointed members of the government's 
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management two years ago, but have 
now accused it of using public relations manoeuvrings at the 
expense of proper scientific consultations. 

In a letter to Elliott Morley, the minister responsible for 
nuclear waste, Ball said: '[The committee is] deciding the fate 
of hazardous material, thought by some to be the most dangerous 
in the world, in the way that one might decide on the location of 
next year's village fete. 

'This dangerous and surreal fantasy, which I consider substitutes 
expertise with insubstantial PR gloss, is ... out of kilter with 
all known government and regulatory advice on decision making.' 

The scientists say the committee held long consultation meetings 
at which members of the public were asked if British nuclear 
waste should be buried in ice fields or fired into space in 
rockets. 'Britain has no ice fields and no one in their right 
minds would put tonnes of the mostly deadly wastes known to 
humanity in a rocket,' Baverstock said. 

'Yet we wasted 17 months pretending to consult the public about 
the idea before dismissing it. If this is the new way that the 
government is making policy then it should be stopped now. It is 
misguided and harmful.' 

On Wednesday, Morley dismissed Baverstock from the committee 
after the latter passed his criticisms to a senior civil servant. 
Baverstock had said the group was 'managerially dysfunctional' 
and 'amateurish'. Morley wrote a letter to Baverstock, saying 
'your appointment to the committee is terminated with immediate 
effect'. 

Last night, Baverstock said he was deeply disappointed by the 
decision and said he planned to pursue the issue. 'The minister 
has simply ignored my criticisms.' 

Senior politicians seized on the row last night. 'It's all too 
believable,' said Tory environment spokesman Tim Yeo. 'This 
government has dealt in spin rather than substance for eight 
years. Scientific advice should be transparent and when advice is 
rejected or questioned scientists should be free to talk about 
it.' 

Both Ball and Baverstock have considerable expertise in giving 
scientific advice. Ball has served on several government bodies, 
most recently the committee that investigated Britain's flood 
defences, while Baverstock has served on international agencies 
including the World Health Organisation. 

The work of the committee was defended by its chairman, Gordon 
McKerron. 'We were asked to look at all credible options and to 
show why had made our decisions,' he said. 'We wanted to be able 
to explain precisely why we had come to particular decisions.' 

Last month, the committee published an interim report in which it 
revealed it had narrowed its options down to the deep burial of 
waste with the option of storing some on the surface for a few 
decades. 'We should have come to that conclusion in the first few 
weeks of our deliberations,' said Ball. 

Ball and Baverstock are not the first to attack the committee. 
Last year the House of Lords science and technology committee 
accused the committee of lacking the 'relevant scientific and 
technical expertise' to assess options for managing radioactive 
waste. 

The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf)
Nuclear map of Britain
US nuclear map

   Useful links  

British Energy
Department of Trade and Industry
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Greenpeace
HSE nuclear glossary
UK atomic energy authority
National Radiological Protection Board
Friends of the Earth
World Nuclear Association
World Nuclear Transport Institute

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 43 Guardian Unlimited: 36 States Face Perchlorate Contamination
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday April 23, 2005 11:01 PM

By ERICA WERNER 

Associated Press Writer 

RIALTO, Calif. (AP) - Like dozens of other towns nationwide,
this working-class suburb is facing an emerging threat of
uncertain dimensions - a chemical used in rocket fuel and
defense manufacturing that has befouled nearly half its drinking
water supply. Concern spread along with the underground plume of
water that carries the chemical from barren land that once
housed World War II munitions, Cold War weapons-makers and, now,
fireworks warehouses and a dump. 

As one city well after another tested positive for perchlorate -
six of the city's 13 wells in all - projected cleanup costs
ballooned to more than double Rialto's $40 million annual
budget. The town sued the Defense Department and dozens of other
suspected polluters, pleaded with residents to conserve water
and hiked water rates 65 percent. 

Officials and townspeople, meanwhile, want to know just how
hazardous perchlorate is. High amounts can be dangerous - the
chemical can interrupt the production of thyroid hormones, which
are needed for pre- and postnatal development. But how much
exposure should be permissible sparks debate in governmental and
scientific circles. 

The conclusion of city leaders: Piping any amount of perchlorate
into homes posed an unacceptable gamble. 

Rialto is a case study of what can happen when a community
refuses to take that risk. The choices faced here - when to
close wells, whom to sue and how not to get sued - confront
officials in 36 states where the Environmental Protection Agency
says perchlorate has been detected. 

A majority black and Latino town of 98,000, Rialto has
palm-dotted streets with small single-family homes, its downtown
a mix of old-time churches, homes, businesses and strip malls.
Residents work in manufacturing or retail jobs, some slogging
through a 50-mile commute west into Los Angeles. 

The source of Rialto's perchlorate problem is a 2,800-acre plot
north of downtown, once isolated but now surrounded by new
homes, notes Bill Hunt, a geologist consulting for the city. 

The military used the site as a pit stop for weapons bound for
the Port of Los Angeles and then the Pacific theater in World
War II. Later, Cold War defense contractors built, tested and
stored rockets and munitions. Then came the fireworks industry
and the county dump. 

With each successive tenant, city officials believe, came
growing deposits of perchlorate, an oxidant used in fireworks
and road flares and as an accelerant in rocket fuel. 

``We'll probably never know definitively who did what and how
much,'' says Hunt. 

What the city does know is that 400 feet below ground begins a
7-mile plume of perchlorate that's polluting Rialto's aquifer,
as well as groundwater drawn by residents of other nearby
communities. 

Standard filtering doesn't work on perchlorate, so the town has
invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment that uses
a resin to rid water of perchlorate molecules. The water rate
increases paid for those systems on two of the six contaminated
wells - the others remain shut - and for the town's legal fight
against the Pentagon, San Bernardino County and a host of
corporations large and small, from General Dynamics to Pyro
Spectaculars Inc. 

``The city is trying to do their best, but by going after the
polluters they've raised the water bills,'' said former Rialto
resident Jan Misquez, who now lives in neighboring San
Bernardino. ``Us taxpayers are having to foot the bill.'' 

None of the 42 defendants has admitted liability and some of the
companies no longer exist, leaving the city to battle insurance
companies with only paper connections to the events of decades
ago. 

Perchlorate was little-known before 1997, when tests were
developed that could detect it at lower levels than before. Soon
afterward, the chemical was discovered in Rialto and found to be
widespread around military bases and defense manufacturing
sites. 

In February, the EPA issued a safety standard that any amount of
perchlorate less than 24.5 parts per billion in drinking water
was safe. That was much higher than the 6 parts per billion
California set as a public health goal, and higher still than
EPA's original draft standard of 1 part per billion, a proposal
environmentalists embraced. 

Pentagon officials, who could face billions in cleanup costs,
criticized the 1-part-per-billion standard, instead favoring 200
parts per billion. A Pentagon spokesman declined comment for
this story. 

Thus far no state has issued a final drinking water regulation,
and the EPA, under pressure from both sides, hasn't decided
whether it will take such a step. A regulation would force
cleanup, while the agency's safety standard offers only its
guidance on exposure levels. 

With Rialto's detections ranging as high as 88 parts per
billion, city officials decided to shut down any well where
perchlorate was found. 

``Until there's more clarity on what is the safe amount of
perchlorate for the human body to ingest, our council has chosen
not to serve any amount,'' said City Attorney Bob Owen. ``We can
go online right now and find a Web site saying, 'Do you live in
Rialto? Have you drunk water in Rialto? And if you have, join
our group, we're going to all sue them.''' 

No lawsuit has been filed, said Owen, who credits in part the
town's decision to adhere to a zero-tolerance standard, unlike
some other municipalities. 

So far, Rialto has also managed to avoid any water shutoffs,
thanks to a combination of conservation, recycling wastewater
for non-drinking uses and tapping supplies from neighboring
water districts on high-demand days. 

Town officials believe the only long-term solution is forcing
polluters to fund a cleanup. 

``For us it's critical,'' said Rialto's water superintendent,
Peter Fox. ``We just don't have other water available to us.'' 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 44 Japan Times: Hiroshima A-bomb movie premieres at U.S. festival

Saturday, April 23, 2005   

BOSTON (Kyodo) A Japanese film depicting the struggles of a
Japanese woman who survives the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of
Hiroshima premiered in the United States on Thursday.

 The movie, known as "Chichi To Kuraseba" in Japan and "The Face
of Jizo" in the United States, was shown at a theater at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Global
Hibakusha Film Festival being held in Boston between April 14
and April 24. The festival is organized by students and teachers
at Tufts University and MIT in Boston.

 "The Face of Jizo" is based on a play of the same name written
by Japanese playwright Hisashi Inoue, who says he hopes as many
people as possible in the United States and other countries
possessing nuclear weapons can see the film.

 The film, directed by Kazuo Kuroki, was shown in Japan last
summer.

 Organizers said the festival, along with similar events, is
being held due to the "need to revive," amid the growing danger
surrounding nuclear weapons, "the experiences of A-bomb
survivors, known as hibakusha in Japanese, as this year marks
the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic
bombings.

 About 150 students and faculty members viewed the film. Four
A-bomb survivors, who are in the United States to call for the
abolition of nuclear weapons at the Review Conference of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in New York in May, were also
present.

 Daniel Levin, a former MIT professor, said he was happy about
the U.S. victory in World War II but after watching the film, he
felt a sense of guilt.

 Hosea Hirata, who is one of the organizers and also associate
chair of Tufts University's Department of German, Russian, and
Asian Languages and Literatures, said: "Young Americans are not
well informed about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, especially in
comparison to their knowledge of the Holocaust.

 "To learn about the history of the Pacific War and the
development of the atomic bomb is a first step . . . What we
want our students to think, instead, is to find a way to connect
to the horror personally."

 "The Face of Jizo" is the story of Mitsue, who lost her father,
Takezo, in the A-bomb blast and is struggling three years later
to come to terms with her guilt as a survivor and attempting to
find happiness. Her father reappears as a ghost and encourages
her to give in to her heart's desire and fall in love.

 The father is played by veteran actor Yoshio Harada, and the
daughter by award-winning actress Rie Miyazawa.

 In Tokyo, Kuroki, who was not able to attend the film festival,
said he was happy that the film was showing in the U.S. 

"I hope the audience in the United States will watch it with the
same feelings as the Japanese and realize the horrors of the
atomic bomb, which to this day has people suffering from
aftereffects," he said earlier.

 Max Felker-Kantor, a junior student at Tufts who is part of the
organizing committee, said he hopes that his fellow students
would "learn that the issues and legacy of the atomic bomb
resonate with us today."

 The Japan Times: April 23, 2005
*****************************************************************
 45 Guardian Unlimited: Nations to Address Nuclear Treaty Issues
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday April 23, 2005 6:46 PM

AP Photo GFX450 

By CHARLES J. HANLEY 

AP Special Correspondent 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Nuclear ``haves'' and ``have-nots,'' at
odds over the lingering hold of atomic weapons on the world,
risk reaching little more than noisy deadlock at an upcoming
conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

North Korea, Iran, a fear of nuclear terrorism, U.S. talk of new
weapons - all give delegates from more than 180 treaty nations a
host of issues to confront at a tense, troubled time
internationally. A panel of U.N. experts warns of a ``cascade''
of nuclear proliferation if NPT controls erode further. 

But diplomats haven't even settled on an agenda yet, a week
before the May 2-27 meeting in New York, chiefly because of
differences between Washington and non-nuclear states. 

The Bush administration wants to keep the focus on Iran, which
it contends is cheating on the treaty and secretly planning to
build nuclear arms. 

``We think the main issue to be discussed at the Review
Conference is the problem of noncompliance with the NPT,''
Stephen G. Rademaker, a top U.S. arms control official, said in
an interview. 

But many other governments want equal emphasis on speeding up
what they see as the weapons states' slow pace toward nuclear
disarmament, to which they are committed under the 1970 treaty. 

``It is bitterly disappointing,'' Tim Caughley, New Zealand's
ambassador on arms control, said of the continuing failure to
open broad disarmament talks. 

The conference's Brazilian president is working hard to find
middle ground. ``Before the conference starts, I hope I will
find agreement among the members,'' said Sergio de Queiroz
Duarte. 

Whether it starts with a fully agreed agenda or not, observers
see potential stalemate at the review, convened every five years
to assess how well treaty obligations are being met. 

``It's going to be very difficult for states to come together on
a forward-looking program on all these issues,'' said Daryl G.
Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control
Association in Washington. 

The NPT, flawed but vital centerpiece of arms control, is
essentially a global bargain: States without nuclear weapons
pledge not to pursue them, and five with the weapons - the
United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - pledge to
move toward eliminating them. 

Although India, Pakistan and Israel, treaty nonmembers, have
also developed atomic weapons, the NPT is credited with having
prevented a wider nuclear free-for-all in the world. But the
treaty has its loopholes. 

North Korea utilized one when it declared in 2003 it was
withdrawing from the NPT and was building a nuclear arsenal -
all with no repercussions under international law. Some at the
upcoming conference are expected to propose tightening NPT rules
to make it harder to withdraw, and to threaten sanctions against
those who do and who make weapons. 

Many see a third ``pillar'' of the NPT bargain as another flaw:
the guarantee that non-weapons states have access to technology
for peaceful nuclear energy, the same fuel technology -
uranium-enrichment gear, for example - that can build atom
bombs. 

Washington claims, and Tehran denies, that Iran used this NPT
cover to assemble equipment for planned nuclear arms. President
Bush now proposes banning future sales of nuclear-fuel
technology to any nation other than the dozen or so that have
it. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the U.N. nuclear agency,
proposes a less discriminatory approach: putting fuel production
under multilateral control, by regional or international bodies. 

It's a sensitive issue involving treaty guarantees, national
pride and commercial interests. 

``Inevitably, there will be discussion of this at the Review
Conference,'' said Rademaker, an assistant U.S. secretary of
state. ``Whether we can get agreement at a conference like this
remains to be seen.'' 

``The NPT parties do have to start having this debate,'' said
Rebecca Johnson, British editor of the periodical Disarmament
Diplomacy. But she and other arms-control advocates also side
with governments that say the Americans, Russians and other
nuclear powers must answer at the conference for still holding
an estimated 27,000 nuclear warheads, down barely 25 percent
since the NPT took effect 35 years ago. 

In the conference lead-up, the Bush administration sought to
play down the ``13 Steps'' toward disarmament agreed to at the
2000 review, steps that include activating the treaty to ban
nuclear tests and downgrading nuclear weapons in military
doctrine. 

Since then, the Bush administration has rejected the test-ban
treaty, withdrawn from the anti-ballistic missile treaty, pushed
research on new nuclear weapons and talked of potential use of
nuclear arms against non-nuclear countries - all steps viewed by
critics as contrary to the NPT's commitment to disarmament. 

John R. Bolton, controversial U.S. undersecretary of state,
dismissed such criticism at last year's preparatory meeting for
the 2005 conference, calling them ``issues that do not exist.'' 

Conference president Duarte disagrees, saying the nuclear powers
have done ``poorly'' in meeting their NPT obligations. A ``bare
minimum'' next month, he said, ``would be a rededication of the
parties to the objectives of the treaty.''	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 46 Modesto Bee: Changes ahead for nuclear arms site DOE unveils plans for Livermore lab  
 
Modbee.com | 

By MICHAEL DOYLE<br/>BEE WASHINGTON BUREAU</b>

Last Updated: April 23, 2005, 05:25:29 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — Nightmare scenarios unfold in the rolling hills
west of Tracy. 

Bombs tick away behind the fences of the area known as Site 300. 

Time can be short, the price of failure high. And with Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory scientists watching closely,
Defense Department bomb squad members simulate what a new report
calls "field-implemented weapon disarmament."

 These are training drills, run with the help of the nation's
nuclear weapons experts. 

The ongoing and future "emergency response exercises" aren't the
only developments in store for Site 300. The 7,000-acre
high-explosives test site off Corral Hollow Road, south of the
Altamont Pass, is bound for a face-lift even as proposed housing
developments press closer. 

Usually, secrecy and discretion cloak Site 300 and Lawrence
Livermore, home to some of the nation's most renowned nuclear
weapons designers. Approximately 2,100 Northern San Joaquin
Valley residents draw their paychecks at the lab, managed by the
University of California. 

But in a massive, five-volume environmental study being formally
released next week, the Energy Department spells out some of the
nuts and bolts of Site 300 and the larger Lawrence Livermore
facility. 

For instance, plans call for doubling to 1,400 kilograms the
amount of plutonium that can be stored at Lawrence Livermore.
Though this is 100 kilograms less than originally proposed,
environmentalists say it's still too much. 

"There are very severe, systemic safety problems in the
plutonium facility," said Marylia Kelley, executive director of
Tri-Valley CARES. "The Department of Energy is going in
absolutely the wrong direction."

 Some buildings modernized

 At Site 300, a new High Explosives Development Center will add
23,000 square feet of buildings to modernize chemistry and
materials science facilities constructed decades ago, the study
notes. A 40,000-square-foot Energetic Materials Processing
Center also will be built, to include magazines for the storage
of explosives with names like HMX, PETN, RDX and, of course,
TNT. 

"Facilities must be rehabilitated or replaced to keep pace with
the future work envisioned for mission-critical activities," the
final Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory states. 

Lawrence Livermore's mission, like that of its sister lab at Los
Alamos in New Mexico, includes researching new weapons and
ensuring the reliability of the existing U.S. nuclear stockpile.
The Site 300 complex has been part of this work since 1955. 

It can be messy. Past contamination led to Site 300 being named
to the Superfund list of seriously polluted locations. Though
environmental controls are considerably stricter now, the new
report shows the range of chemicals still in use. 

Site 300 stores an average of 10,000 pounds of high explosives,
with the stockpile sometimes rising as high as 100,000 pounds,
according to the new report. The site's other chemicals range
from the banal, like the 110 gallons of floor wax, to the
combustible, like the 1,500 cubic feet of methane, to the dicey,
like the radioactive tritium measured in milligrams. 

"We should be spending all the money we can (to) clean up, then
we can talk about bringing in new shipments of nuclear material
and new testing," Tracy businessman Bob Sarvey testified last
year, according to a transcript included as part of the
five-volume report. 

While constructing new Site 300 buildings over the course of
about two years, Lawrence Livermore officials also plan to shut
down, clean up and, in some cases, demolish facilities spanning
129,535 square feet. 

"The existing character of the site would remain unaltered," the
report promises. 

Still, the lab's work will bring other changes to the region;
including, the study estimates, an additional 292 residents of
San Joaquin County. 

Once published next week, the lab plans spelled out in the new
study will become locked in place with a "record of decision" to
made final within a month. 

Bee Washington Bureau reporter Michael Doyle can be reached at
202-383-0006 or mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com. 

  Copyright © 2005 The Modesto Bee.
*****************************************************************
 47 Lodinews.com: Problems mount for Livermore plutonium handling facility 

Lodi, California, News Archives 

By Bob Brownne

San Joaquin News Service Last updated: Saturday, Apr 23, 2005 -

The list of problems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's
plutonium handling facility is getting longer, with the latest
report by a federal oversight agency noting that the radioactive
material is often stored in thin steel containers similar to
paint or food cans.

The report last month by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety
Board comes at a time when the lab is awaiting release of a
final environmental review that could authorize the lab to
double the amount of plutonium stored at the site and triple the
amount that is handled on a regular basis. 

The report also follows the January shutdown of the plutonium
handling facility. Lab officials stopped work at the facility
after the DNFSB noted a variety of contamination problems.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory doesn't manufacture the
plutonium-239 pits used in nuclear weapons, but it does research
and develops manufacturing methods for the pits.

The lab is authorized to store up to 700 kilograms of plutonium
in secure vaults at its "Superblock" complex, which includes the
plutonium facility. The plutonium facility is also authorized to
have as much as 20 kilograms in short-term storage. This
material is classified as "at risk" because it is handled on a
regular basis.

Plutonium is a known carcinogen, though the Department of
Energy's research shows that properly sealed steel containers
will contain most radiation from the substance. But DOE research
also shows that small amounts, especially if contaminated dust
is inhaled, still pose a cancer risk.

A local watchdog group, Tri-Valley Communities Against a
Radioactive Environment, is trying to draw attention to problems
at the plutonium facility. ADVERTISEMENT --> --> 

"This creates a situation that's very serious for the workers
and potentially for the community if contamination escapes the
building," said Marylia Kelley, executive director for Tri
Valley CAREs.

"You have a situation where the equipment problems that have
been identified could very well be the tip of the iceberg
because the management processes are so lax that many problems
could be unknown," she said, adding that many problems were
cited previously by the DNFSB in the mid-1990s.

In November, Michael Merritt, DNFSB site representative at the
Livermore lab, reported that a lab worker had been exposed to
plutonium contamination while working in a "glove box," a
container with built-in protective gloves reaching inside the
box for handling radioactive material.

In addition to the worker being exposed, the lab recorded
plutonium contamination on the floor of the facility, though no
contamination outside of the facility was reported.

Merritt also raised concerns in December that nuclear material
that is handled regularly is packaged in a way that could be
unsafe if containers are dropped or punctured, and noted again
in March that some glove box exhaust systems contained damaged
valves.

DNFSB's latest report, published in the Federal Register on
March 21, notes that the Department of Energy has set standards
for long-term storage containers but no such standards for
short-term storage of materials that are handled regularly.

Board Chairman John Conway noted in the report that the
containers used for short-term storage "are not designed to
protect against the hazards of the nuclear materials they
contain for the duration of storage."

The containers are described as "paint cans" made of thin steel
with press-fit lids sealed using a mallet, and "food-pack cans"
also made of thin steel with the lids crimped shut. The lab also
reportedly was using "slip-lid" cans, with loose-fitting lids
sealed with tape.

Lab officials say that none of the containers used for
short-term plutonium storage are substandard. David Schwoegler,
responding to questions in an e-mail message, noted that this
type of packaging is commonly used by the Department of Energy,
though the DOE does want to develop improved packaging in the
future.

He added that "This issue does not need to be corrected since no
current hazard exists regarding this issue."

The DNFSB report affirms that no contamination leaks were
detected from these containers, but inspectors did note that
oxidation on some cans indicated that the seals were not
airtight.

The board's report recommends that the DOE's Interim Safe
Storage Criteria be updated with new standards for packaging
nuclear materials in short-term storage. Criteria would include
airtight seals and the ability to protect materials inside
should a container be dropped. 

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 48 Tri-Valley Herald: Labs future set in plutonium?
 
Article Last Updated: 04/23/2005 04:31:27 AM                              
                   
Federal officials propose expansion of nuclear weapons program at 
Lawrence Livermore
 			 			 			 			 			 			 
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER   

While eliminating a controversial plutonium separation project, 
federal officials are proposing an expansion of nuclear weapons 
work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including 
experiments on casting the cores of H-bombs. 

If approved by the nations chief weapons executive, over the next 
decade the lab could as much as double its plutonium inventory to 
1.5 tons, enough in theory to make hundreds of nuclear weapons. 

The lab also plans to double the plutonium that workers in a
single room may handle to more than 80 pounds, so scientists can
proceed with multiple projects simultaneously. 

According to a new study of Livermores environmental impacts for 
the next decade, to be officially released next week, a major 
reason for enlarging plutonium storage at Livermore is building 
an experimental production line for casting plutonium pits.

These hollow, usually oblong shells about the size of a softball, 
when wrapped in high explosive and plugged with detonators, serve 
as the miniature A-bombs that touch off modern thermonuclear 
weapons. 

The United States lost its sole pit factory in 1989 with the 
forced closure of the Rocky Flats plant outside Boulder, Colo., 
and only recently has been making single warhead pits, one by 
one, at Los Alamos lab. Many weapons scientists say not having a 
pit factory is taking too much risk with the U.S. arsenal. 
Arms-control and environmental activists portrayed the added 
plutonium work as risky for the health and security of the San 
Francisco Bay Area. 

In a worst-case accident of a fire sweeping through an entire 
room fully stocked with plutonium at LivermoresSuperblock, the 
governments calculations predict one chance in 10 that a single 
person out of the Bays 7 million population would get cancer 
attributable to the fire. 

Marylia Kelley, head of the Livermore-based watchdog group
Tri-Valley CAREs, suspects thats an understatement of the risk
from more plutonium, including that posed by terrorists and
nearby earthquake faults. 

Where theyve chosen to work the bugs out of the technology for a
bomb factory is a highly populated area riddled with earthquake
faults. Its crazy. If you tried, you could not find a more
inappropriate location. 

Arms-control groups and good-government watchdogs have pressed
two U.S. energy secretaries to empty Livermore of its plutonium,
arguing among other things that the close proximity of homes
makes it impossible for security forces to use heavy weapons in
defending the lab. 

We believe plutonium cannot be made safe at Livermore, Kelley 
said. But she praised the National Nuclear Security 
Administration for scrapping plans to use exotic lasers to 
separate plutonium. 

NNSA officials studied the proposal more closely and found it was 
unnecessary in light of a glut of plutonium in the U.S. nuclear 
weapons complex. 

By eliminating laser isotopic separation, the NNSA cut by a third 
the amount of plutonium that workers might handle at any given 
time and cut the cancer risk from an accident at the plutonium 
Superblock facility almost in half. 

We have a lower waste projection and a lower radiological risk to 
workers, said Tom Grim, NNSAs leader for the study. In a new 
twist, his agency also is proposing to use small amounts of 
plutonium, uranium and lithium hydride — the essential 
ingredients to all modern H-bombs — in experiments at the 
National Ignition Facility, a Rose Bowl-size laser that focuses 
192 beams on a space smaller than a thimble. 

In December 1995, federal weapons officials said they had no
plans to ever use those materials inside the giant laser.
Nonproliferation experts worried their use could lead to new
classes of extremely low-yield weapons and almost pure-fusion
weapons. 

But weapons scientists say the laser experiments on plutonium are 
strictly for generating neutrons to test their effects on weapons 
components or to improve understanding of basic plutonium 
physics, such as how the quirky metal behaves at high 
temperatures and pressures. 

More than 9,000 people commented on the governments proposals,
most of them highly critical of the plans in its 18-pound,
four-volume study. Grim dismissed the majority as staged. 
I think the general public understands that the NNSA is after 
homeland security and is improving security not only for them and 
their families but also the world, he said. 

The study will be available by the end of next week at the 
Livermore and Tracy public libraries, in the lab reading room off 
Greenville Road and on the Web at www-envirinfo.llnl.gov 

Tri-Valley Herald All Rights Reserved
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 49 Salt Lake Tribune: Hanford downwinders seek justice at trial

Article Last Updated: 04/24/2005 01:22:58 AM                              
                   
Washington state: 2,300 people have sued, saying radiation from 
the nuclear facility ruined their health
 			 			 			 			 			 			 
  By John K. Wiley The Associated Press 
  
      Harriet Fugitt walks with husband, Warren, on Wednesday in
Spokane, Wash. Fugitt and 2,300 others say they were exposed to
radiation from factories on the Hanford nuclear reservation in
Richland, Wash.. (Jeff T. Green/The Associated Press)       
    

SPOKANE, Wash. - Harriet Fugitt spent an idyllic childhood at
her family's dairy farm in the Benton City area south of the
Hanford nuclear reservation, where her father worked helping to
make plutonium for the nation's Cold War weapons. 
   ''We swam in the river. We played outdoors. But what worries
me most is we lived on a dairy and drank the milk,'' she said.
''We just had what we thought was a terrific life. We never knew
it was killing us.'' 
   At a trial that starts Monday, a U.S. District Court jury
will be asked to decide whether those everyday activities
exposed Fugitt and her neighbors to radioactive contamination
that spewed from Hanford plutonium factories, adversely
affecting their health. 
   Fugitt, 66, who now lives north of Spokane with her husband,
Warren, takes medication for a thyroid that does not function. 
   She blames Hanford environmental releases for ''a whole salad
bowl'' of ailments, including fibromyalgia, fatigue, headaches,
joint and muscle pain, and sensitivity to chemicals and some
foods. 
   She is one of nearly 2,300 people, called the Hanford
downwinders, who have sued major contractors who ran the federal
nuclear reservation for the government after it started making
plutonium in 1944. 
   Starting Monday, the first six ''bellwether'' cases will be
tried together to determine whether the contractors' operations
caused the health problems. 
   The five-week trial is the culmination of more than 14 years
of legal wrangling between attorneys for the downwinders and
some of the country's largest corporations. 
   Barring a last-minute settlement, a jury will decide whether
the government - which indemnified the contractors under the
Price-Anderson Act - must pay damages. Any awards would be
determined by jurors, but could amount to tens of millions of
dollars. 
   Earlier efforts to mediate a settlement were unsuccessful.
Lawyers declined to say whether settlement talks are continuing. 
   U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen has ruled that jurors will
not   be allowed to hear that it is the government, not the
contractors, who would pay if the plaintiffs prevail. The
government also is paying for their defense - $60 million by one
estimate. 
   The contractors operated reactors, chemical separation
plants, waste storage tanks and other activities that historical
documents say resulted in intentional and accidental releases of
toxic chemicals and radiation into the environment. 
   The downwinder cases are largely based on the release of
iodine-131, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear weapons
production. 
   Iodine-131 concentrates in the thyroid gland, which regulates
the body's metabolism. 
   The bellwether plaintiffs have thyroid conditions - such as
cancer, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism - that represent
ailments of the other plaintiffs in the larger case. 
   To succeed, the plaintiffs must prove that they were ''more
likely than not'' harmed by radioactive iodine gases released
from Hanford operations. 
   Both sides have said they will call scientific and medical 
experts with differing opinions of those studies. 

   Attorneys for the contractors contend it is not possible to
link their clients' activities to the downwinders' health. 
   ''The bottom line is, the best scientific studies available
have shown that Hanford did not cause any health effects,'' said
Kevin Van Wart, whose Chicago law firm is representing General
Electric Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours Co. and UNC Nuclear Inc. 
   ''Those studies vindicate what the contractors believed; that
the plants did not pose a hazard.'' 
   Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argue that the studies
are flawed. 
   ''What we intend to prove is, Hanford operations in the '40s
and '50s released radioactive iodine up the stacks and out over
Eastern Washington, essentially contaminating vegetation, the
water and air,'' Spokane lawyer Dick Eymann said. ''That wound
up getting into the food chain, especially the milk pathway, and
concentrating in the thyroid glands of young children. 
   ''From that point forward, it set up a time bomb in some
people that   would later turn into thyroid disease or thyroid
cancer.'' 
   Despite spending more than $46 million on studies of
radiation doses and possible links to thyroid diseases, a
dispute still rages on the effects of Hanford releases. 
   After documents were declassified in 1986, the government
spent $27 million to reconstruct the radiation dose people
downwind from Hanford would have received, based on their
lifestyles and proximity to the plants. The study concluded the
exposures were substantial and chronic. 
   But a later 13-year, $19.5 million study by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center in Seattle found no conclusive link between
Hanford releases and thyroid diseases. 
   Each side plans to use or refute the study findings to
buttress their cases, court documents say. 
   Nielsen took over the case in 2003 after the original trial
judge, Alan McDonald, stepped down because of his purchase of an
orchard   near Hanford in 1999. 
   Fugitt said she plans to attend the bellwether trial every
day her health allows, and is glad the litigation finally is
going to court more than 14 years after the first case was
filed. 
   ''You waited all these years and now here it is,'' she said.
''It seems like a dream.'' 
    
Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
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 50 Tri-Valley Herald: UC, lab want whistle-blower retrial

Article Last Updated: 04/24/2005 03:36:38 AM                              
                   
Officials say $2.13 million awarded to Kotla was too much
 			 			 			 			 			 			 
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER   

After twice losing in court, the University of California and 
Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab are asking a judge to 
throw out a $2.13 million verdict against them and hold a third 
trial on a former employees claims of retaliatory firing. Lab 
officials said they felt jurors awarded too much to former 
Livermore lab computer technician Dee Kotla for emotional 
damages. 

The jury foreman doesnt see any reason to give the lab a third 
chance to make its case. 

Unless theres some specific, new evidence thats come to light or
some blatant legal issue, you could keep asking for new trials
over and over again without there being any basis for it, just
because you lost. said foreman Read Bell, a software-development
engineer for Cisco. I just dont see how there could be any valid
basis for another trial. 

Testimony in the case showed that a lab attorney reported Kotla
as a hostile witness in a sexual harassment case against the lab
and one of its senior scientists. 

When Kotla showed up to testify for a co-worker, the lab attorney 
phoned lab internal police and launched an investigation that 
turned up $4.30 in personal phone calls and many computer files 
of work for a friends business.                                                             
					 					 					 						 					 	 	 	 	 	 		 		 		 		 		 		 			
During a break in the deposition, Kotla went to the restroom
and, according to her testimony, was still in a stall when two
attorneys entered. She said she overheard the lab attorney say,
If Kotla knows whats good for her, shell keep her mouth shut. 
Lab police unsuccessfully tried twice to get the Alameda County
District Attorneys office to prosecute her, and she was fired
soon afterward. 

A jury in 2002 found that the lab fired Kotla in retaliation and 
awarded her $1 million. The university and the lab asked for a 
reduction in the award and a new trial. The judge declined a new 
trial but reduced the award to $745,000. The lab and university 
appealed the verdict on the grounds that Kotlas expert witness 
had testified that the evidence in her case suggested 
retaliation. A state appeals court agreed that opinion could have 
swayed the jury and granted a new trial. 

A new jury spent five weeks this                                                                                                                                                                        
 			    				 					 					 					 				 			   			    				 					
© 2005 ANG Newspapers 
							 							 							 							 						 					 					 				 				 		
    
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