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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 RIA Novosti: PUTIN CALLS NOT TO DEPRIVE IRAN OF POSSIBILITY TO USE N
2 Reuters: Iran warns its nuclear threats not empty
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Plainly Tell North Korea that Nuclear Tes
4 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: U.S. reportedly asked China to cut oil to Nor
5 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: EDITORIALS Time to show some concern
6 RIA Novosti: NORTH KOREA SLAMS US INTENTIONS
7 Xinhua: DPRK: No talks with US out of six-party framework
8 Korea Times: Roh, Hu Urge NK to Return to Dialogue
9 AFP: Talk of six North Korea nuclear bombs worries US, UN
10 Guardian Unlimited: Ministers Urge N. Korea on Nuclear Talks
11 US: NY Times Says Cold War Arsenals "Almost Quaintly Irrelevant"
12 US: [NukeNet] Bad Nukes Editorial in NY Times
13 US: Deseret News: Reid says Demos are set to gain
14 US: Salt Lake Tribune: BUNKER-BUSTER REPORT: Earth-penetrating nuke
15 US: projo.com: The future of energy
16 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Phish drummer joins New England Coalition
17 [NYTr] Egypt "Bogs Down" UN Nuclear Conference
18 [progchat_action] Fw: REPORT ON GLOBAL NETWORK CONFERENCE
19 The Observer: A question we can duck no longer
20 Guardian Unlimited: One last chance to ensure world safety
21 AxisofLogic: US-UK-Italian Uranium Science Fraudulent
22 Xinhua: IAEA to bring nuke technology under stricter control
23 Xinhua: NPT conference fails to adopt agenda
24 Japan Times: ASEM talks kicks off amid strained ties with neighbors
25 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Nuclear Chief Pushes 'Sea Change'
NUCLEAR REACTORS
26 Chernobyl: Victim's First Hand Reportage- Voices from Chernobyl, Swe
27 US: [du-list] radioactive dust concerns at Maine Yankee cleanup
28 [NukeNet] IAEA Head Pushes Sea Changes Re Nuke Power,
29 UK: Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant
30 [NukeNet] Chernobyl: Victim's First Hand Reportage- Voices
31 Guardian Unlimited: Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant
32 The Observer: Secret papers reveal new nuclear building plan
33 The Observer: Labour's nuclear option
34 UK The Times: Cabinet clash over nuclear power
35 US: Portland Press Herald: Maine Yankee says long goodbye
36 Daily Yomiuri: Local govts imperil N-policy
37 The Herald: Pressure rises on nuclear power
38 US: palm beach post: FPL joins in design for nuclear reactorse
39 Mail & Guardian: Don't shoot the messenger (South Africa PBMR React
40 Scotsman.com News: Ukraine Plans to Build 11 Nuclear Reactors
41 Scotsman.com News: Nuclear Power Option 'Blocked by Beckett'
42 US: monticello times: NRC meeting draws light crowd
43 Orlando Sentinel: Powerful, brave voices tell story of Chernobyl
44 US: PRN: Perry Nuclear Power Plant Returns to Service
45 Independent: Plans for nuclear energy set to spark cabinet row
46 Independent: Blair demands nuclear power to protect high 'living sta
47 Scotsman.com: Government urged to set up nuclear build plan
48 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria Launches New N-Plant Contractor Tender
NUCLEAR SECURITY
49 US: KUAM: Repairs made to USS San Francisco's bow
50 RIA Novosti: RUSSIA'S UPDATED NUCLEAR SUBMARINE TO BE BACK IN SERVIC
51 BBC: Concern mounts over North Korea
52 BBC: Crew blamed for grounding US sub
53 BBC: North Korea 'may have six bombs'
54 WorldNetDaily: Nuclear violations
55 UCS: Japanese Plutonium Program Threatens Nonproliferation Regime,
NUCLEAR SAFETY
56 The unsecured and unsafe storage of nuclear hazards capable of
57 US: Jeff St. Clair: Bush Administration Kills Nuclear Fallout Study
58 Independent: Navajos take part in global forum
59 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Facing the consequences
60 US: Swans Commentary: IS DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) DANGEROUSLY RADIOACTI
61 Japan Times: Nagasaki A-bomb survivors express anger at Bockscar exh
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
62 US: Portland Press Herald: Tainted soil near homes to be moved
63 Sunday Times: Radioactive leak closes £2bn nuclear reprocessing plan
64 Las Vegas RJ: Lawmakers cut funding for Yucca Mountain fight
65 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Don't move it, solve it
66 US: MaineToday: Tainted soil near homes to be moved -
67 Japan Times: NPT group urges halt to Rokkasho plant
68 Las Vegas SUN: State lawmakers cut funding for Yucca Mountain fight
69 Deseret news: Yucca might not accept waste from Goshute site
70 US: Herald and News: Old uranium mines to be cleaned up
71 US: PNS: Residents Worry About Rocket Fuel in the Inland Empire's Dr
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
72 ABQjournal: Nanos: LANL on 'Stronger Footing'; Lab Chief Takes
73 SF Chronicle: Nuclear physicist takes over helm of Los Alamos lab
74 i-Newswire.com: Energy Secretary's Statement on Los Alamos Lab Leade
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 RIA Novosti: PUTIN CALLS NOT TO DEPRIVE IRAN OF POSSIBILITY TO USE NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGIES
9/05/2005
MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) - President of Russia Vladimir Putin
has urged the international community not to deprive Iran of the
possibility to use nuclear technologies.
"We cannot and must not deprive the Iranian people of the
possibility to use modern technologies and the achievements of
science and technology," the Russian President said in an
interview with France 3 TV channel.
At the same time, he believes that it is also necessary to take
into account the geopolitical position of Iran and its relations
with other countries.
"That is why, we are urging Iran to place all its programs under
full control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
We consider as right the decision to freeze any work over the
creation of the nuclear cycle technology, i.e. the technology
for uranium enrichment, which could lead to the creation of
weapons-grade nuclear fuel," Vladimir Putin said.
According to him, in this sense, Russia is cooperating very
actively with its European partners and the USA.
Putin confirmed that the Russian-Iranian cooperation was "under
the tough international control and the control of the IAEA,"
and involved exclusively a nuclear program for peaceful
purposes.
Putin's interview with France 3 was timed to coincide with the
60th anniversary of the Victory in World War II. On the eve of
that date, the President of Russia gave an unprecedented series
of numerous interviews to foreign mass media and answered a
total of 120 questions.
© 2005 "RIAN Novosti"
*****************************************************************
2 Reuters: Iran warns its nuclear threats not empty
Sat May 7, 2005 01:13 PM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran warned on Saturday it could pull out of
nuclear negotiations with the European Union if progress is not
made soon and said its threat to resume some enrichment-related
work was not an empty one.
"The Iranian nation will never give up its rights ... we cannot
accept any more time killing," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi
told state television from New York.
"Based on the (November) Paris agreement, we agreed if
negotiations do not reach a result after three months, the talks
will end. We are now at this stage and will make decisions soon,"
he added.
Iran insists its nuclear programme will only be used to generate
electricity and has rejected EU and U.S. calls for it to abandon
for ever plans to produce its own nuclear fuel by enriching
uranium.
Iran's nuclear fuel activities, including enrichment, are
currently suspended while talks with the EU continue.
But Tehran has said it is planning to start up some
enrichment-related fuel work soon to show its displeasure at the
slow pace of negotiations.
EU officials have warned they would back U.S. calls for Iran's
case to be sent to the United Nations Security Council if Tehran
resumes any nuclear fuel work.
Kharrazi said Iran would not be intimidated.
"The Islamic Republic has the capability to cope with crises and
threatening Iran with political and economic crises will not stop
us from seeking our rights," he said.
"Our threats are not empty ones, but decisions which will be made
(in due time)... We are now at this stage, we are waiting to see
what the policy-makers decide, and will act accordingly."
*****************************************************************
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Plainly Tell North Korea that Nuclear Test Will Result in
> Updated May.8,2005 23:40 KST
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei said, "I hope every leader is on the phone with North
Korean authorities to dissuade them from a nuclear test.
If Pyongyang detonates a nuclear device, it would have disastrous
political consequences for Asia and the whole world, not to
mention environmental implications in terms of radiological
fallout."
The White House warned, "North Korea's nuclear test will be
regarded as a provocative act," while a senior U.S.
administration official said, "If North Korea tests a nuclear
device, South Korea would sustain a serious blow, including an
over 50 percent plunge in share prices."
*****************************************************************
4 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: U.S. reportedly asked China to cut oil to North
May 9, 2005 KST 14:14 (GMT+9)
May 09, 2005 ¤Ñ BEIJING ¡ª The United States has asked China
to cut off fuel supplies to North Korea to pressure Pyongyang to
return to the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, but the
Washington Post reported officials in Beijing rejected the
request.
Quoting U.S. officials who were briefed on the talks, the Post
reported Beijing was considering other measures to squeeze North
Korea. Christopher Hill, U.S. chief negotiator for the
six-nation talks, proposed the idea of interrupting oil supplies
at a meeting in Beijing on April 26, the report said. China
turned down the idea, saying that a fuel shutdown might clog the
oil pipeline to the North.
The Chinese said cutting off food deliveries would have the
greatest effect, the report said. Beijing was considering
expanding a ban on certain exports to the North, but did not
elaborate, the Post said.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner. The North
mainly exports minerals and fisheries products to China and
imports energy, food and other light industry products. Between
January and November last year, North Korea imported $70 million
in fuel oil from China.
Although the Post report quoted U.S. officials saying that China
was considering what to do to motivate North Korea to return to
the stalled nuclear disbarment talks, diplomats and officials in
Beijing were skeptical about what options they are.
"China is currently using the card that it would provide more
economic assistance to North Korea in return for resolving this
nuclear crisis," a diplomatic source in Beijing said. "Even if
the U.S. position is to lean toward greater pressure, China's
key position will not change."
Other sources discounted the idea that Beijing might shut down
the pipeline. In 2003, international media reported that China
had cut off its oil supply to the North for three days to
pressure it to sit down and negotiate with Beijing and
Washington. Another diplomat in Beijing said the shutdown was
caused by "technical problems," adding that linking the
interruption with sanctions and pressures was not feasible.
"Pressuring North Korea with a pipeline shutdown is not a
Chinese Foreign Ministry principle," a ministry official said.
Sources in Beijing said China would rather choose carrots than
sticks to induce North Korea to the stalled talks. North Korea
and Chinas investment agreement signed during the North Korean
Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju's visit to Beijing in March this year
can be considered a carrot, they said.
by Yoo Kwang-jong, Choi Won-ki myoja@joongang.co.kr>
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
5 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: EDITORIALS Time to show some concern
May 9, 2005 KST 14:14 (GMT+9)
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has said that the situation
regarding North Korea's nuclear program cannot be considered
hopeful at the moment, and the patience of the international
community has reached its limit. His words indicate that there
seems to be little chance for the "major turning point for a
peaceful solution" that he mentioned only a few days ago.
As Mr. Ban has said, the North Korean nuclear crisis is reaching
a serious point. The leaders of the United States and China,
after recent urgent talks over the telephone, have expressed
their concerns over Pyongyang's nuclear program. The tension
between North Korea and the United States is running especially
high over the possibility of a North Korean nuclear test.
But our government's reaction seems puzzlingly inadequate. A Uri
Party lawmaker even suggested that a North Korean nuclear test
could be a call for negotiations. Another legislator blamed "the
irresponsible reporting of foreign media and the neoconservative
forces behind it."
Of course, we do not know how the situation will end. There is
no need to cause panic among the public with doomsday talk. But
the governing party, with its responsibility for national
security, should also keep the worst-case scenario in mind and
set all countermeasures accordingly. What if North Korea does
indeed conduct a nuclear test?
The government's reaction is just as frustrating. It seems that
only the foreign minister is mentioning that there is a crisis.
All the other ministers are keeping silent about this urgent
issue.
The government needs to review whether its reaction so far had
been appropriate. It had predicted that North Korea would return
to the six-party talks, but it does not even have any reliable
communication channel with Pyongyang at the moment. Albeit
belatedly, the government should come up with a blueprint to
deal with the North Korean nuclear issue and explain it to the
public. If it continues to act as unworried and equivocal as it
is doing now, we could indeed face grave danger.
2005.05.08
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc.
*****************************************************************
6 RIA Novosti: NORTH KOREA SLAMS US INTENTIONS
9/05/2005
MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - Pyongyang is very irritated in
connection with the latest tough-worded statements by the
President of the United States and the US State Secretary that
refer to North Korea as an outpost of tyranny. This was
disclosed to RIA Novosti May 7 over the phone by Konstantin
Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma's foreign-affairs
committee. Kosachev now heads a Russian delegation during talks
in Pyongyang.
"Pyongyang emphatically rejects such rhetoric, insisting that
the US side publicly disavow its statements," Kosachev noted.
In his words, North Korean leaders believe that these US
statements highlight Washington's intention to forcibly
"democratize" North Korea by means of a revolution similar to
those in the post-Soviet neighborhood.
North Korea "plans to insist that the United States remove its
nuclear weapons from South Korea where they are reportedly
deployed and from nearby regions," Kosachev noted.
"The North Korean leadership said that the country possessed
nuclear weapons, referring to this as a fait accompli," Kosachev
added.
At the same time, he stressed that North Korean representatives
had confirmed their commitment to "imparting a nuclear-free
status to the Korean Peninsula."
Pyongyang believes that this goal can only be attained through
talks," Kosachev went on to say. Among other things, North Korea
is studying the possibility of resuming six-sided talks, if the
United States renounces its statements.
© 2005 "RIAN Novosti"
*****************************************************************
7 Xinhua: DPRK: No talks with US out of six-party framework
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-08 02:06:29
PYONGYANG, May 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Foreign Ministry of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Sunday that
Pyongyang has no intention to hold bilateral talks with the
United States separate from the framework of the six-party talks
on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula.
"We have never requested the DPRK-US talks independent of
the six-way talks," said a spokesman for the foreign ministry.
"We had already clarified our stand that we cannot have any form
of talks with the US nor can we deal with it as long as the DPRK
is branded as 'an outpost of tyranny'."
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), citing the
spokesman, said that the government needed to clarify its
standpoint over the recent US reports that Pyongyang will not
continue taking part in the six-party talks but proposed DPRK-US
talks.
"Because there were press reports that the US is ready to
recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state and hold bilateral talks
within the framework of the six-party talks," he said, "we only
expressed our intention to directly meet the US side to confirm
whether those reports are true before making a final
determination."
"If the US truly wishes to settle the nuclear issue through
thesix-party talks, it should stop ignoring and insulting its
dialogue partner and try to create an atmosphere favorable for
theresumption of the six-way talks," the spokesman said.
He also reiterated DPRK's stand on establishing a
non-nuclear Korean Peninsula through negotiation. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
8 Korea Times: Roh, Hu Urge NK to Return to Dialogue
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
By Shim Jae-yun
Korea Times Correspondent
MOSCOW - President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese President Hu Jintao
on Sunday called on North Korea to return to the six-party talks
to discuss ways of resolving the escalating crisis over its
nuclear weapons programs.
During a summit meeting here on Sunday night, the two heads of
state agreed that the nuclear issue must be addressed through
dialogue without resorting to military options, according to
Chong Wa Dae officials.
``They expressed deep concern over the lingering uncertain
situation involving the North Korean nuclear problem,''
presidential secretary on foreign policy Chung Woo-sung said
during a media briefing.
Chung went on to say that the two leaders agreed on the need for
the two nations to engage in more proactive efforts to find a
peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff.
Roh and Hu are here to attend the 60th anniversary of the end of
World War II together with some 50 leaders from around the
world.
``Presidents Roh and Hu discussed other issues of mutual
concern, including the lingering dispute over Japan's distortion
of modern history in its school textbooks and its claim of
sovereignty over the Dokdo islets in the East Sea,'' Chung said.
The South Korean head of state is also expected to have a brief
meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday,
officials said.
The nuclear crisis is likely to dominate the informal, 15-minute
discussion, which will be held at the end of the War Victory
ceremony, they said.
International concerns have deepened over Pyongyang's nuclear
ambitions in recent weeks. Intelligence reports confirmed last
month the North has shut down its Yongbyon plutonium reactor,
possibly to extract spent fuel that could be used to bolster its
nuclear arsenal.
The United States on Saturday warned it has a ``robust deterrent
capability'' to deal with North Korea amid signs it may be
preparing for a nuclear test.
Roh and Hu discussed ways to mediate an end to the dispute.
South Korea and China have been opposing moves by hardliners in
the U.S. administration to bring the North Korean nuclear issue
to the United Nations Security Council, which they believe would
exacerbate tensions.
During their summit, the two leaders also urged Japan to address
its historical wrongdoings in a more sincere and apologetic
manner. However, they did not release a joint statement on the
outcome of the talks.
The summit has been drawing attention as it comes following a
strong outcry in both South Korea and China regarding Japan's
attempts to glorify its actions during World War II.
Roh is scheduled to have a summit meeting with Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi in late June to discuss the textbook
and Dokdo issues.
He called on Japan to act first in a bid to resolve the
lingering historical misgivings during a meeting with a group of
Japanese politicians in Seoul last Friday.
The president will attend the main ceremony of the war
anniversary in Red Square on Monday.
North Korea was also invited to the event but notified Russia it
would not attend. Two ranking military officers will take part
in the ceremony in the role of war veterans, not official
representatives.
``On the occasion of the ceremony, President Roh will attempt to
highlight the nation's image as an initiator of peace and
prosperity in Northeast Asia, despite being the last divided
nation in the world,'' presidential secretary Chung said.
He will place a wreath on a grave for unnamed soldiers who died
during World War II and attend an official lunch hosted by
Putin.
After his three-day stay here, Roh will fly to Uzbekistan
Tuesday for summit talks with President Islam Karimov to discuss
ways of promoting bilateral economic and security cooperation.
Roh will invite ethnic Koreans residing in the Central Asian
nation to a dinner meeting Wednesday after attending a luncheon
organized by business leaders from the two nations.
Roh and first lady Kwon Yang-suk arrived in Moscow Sunday and
were received by Putin and his wife.
jayshim@koreatimes.co.kr 05-08-2005 23:06
*****************************************************************
9 AFP: Talk of six North Korea nuclear bombs worries US, UN
Monday May 9, 08:45 AM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A UN atomic agency estimate that North Korea
could have six nuclear weapons ratcheted up official
Washington's worries that the Stalinist state may test a bomb as
early as next month.
CNN television Sunday asked International Atomic Energy Agency
chief Mohamed ElBaradei if North Korea had as many as six
nuclear weapons.
"I think that would be close to our estimation," he said.
"We knew they had the plutonium that could be converted into
five or six North Korea weapons.
"We know that they had the industrial infrastructure to
weaponize this plutonium. We have read also that they have the
delivery system."
ElBaradei's comments came two days after the New York Times
reported that US officials familiar with satellite and
intelligence data believed the Stalinist state was building a
reviewing stand and filling in a tunnel, signs of a potential
underground nuclear test.
US officials have been urging North Korea to rejoin China,
Japan, Russia and South Korea to join the United States in
so-called six-party talks, which have been stalled since June,
when the North quit the talks, citing "hostile" US policy.
North Korea declared on February 10 that it had developed
nuclear weapons to defend itself from the United States.
However, the pace of events picked up this week, with press and
IAEA reports on North Korea's nuclear weapons and delivery
capabilities.
As recently as April 29, the Pentagon referred to North Korea's
ability to arm a long-range missile with a nuclear warhead as
"theoretical."
Since then, ElBaradei urged the international community to
persuade North Korea to back off what could be an attempt to use
the weapons as blackmail.
"I'm not sure they will gain anything by testing other than
provoking every member of the international community and bring
-- and play a brinkmanship policy, which nobody will benefit,"
ElBaradei told CNN.
US Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks.
The threat of a nuclear test "is the only card they have to
play," the Kansas senator told CNN. "I think basically that
(North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Il believes this is his card to
play to stay on the world stage to make demands."
However, Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein said it
was not too late for US officials to meet North Korean demands
for bilateral meetings instead of the six-way talks and said
that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should be involved.
"I think Kim Jong-Il wants this dialogue. I see no reason, I see
no harm in sitting down (at) the table with him and seeing if we
can't change his direction," she told CNN.
President Bill Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright,
said the United States had missed opportunities to defuse the
showdown earlier, "I'm very concerned about the box that we are
now in with North Korea."
The stakes are high and the threat is real, former acting CIA
director John McLaughlin said.
"This is one of the few countries in the world that is hostile
to the United States and developing and has in its possession
missiles that have an intercontinental capability," he said.
A North Korean test would cause "a lot of insecurity fallout,"
ElBaradei said. "The impact on the whole East Asian and Japan,
South Korea is tremendous."
Copyright © 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
10 Guardian Unlimited: Ministers Urge N. Korea on Nuclear Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday May 7, 2005 5:01 PM
AP Photo XKAN118
By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON
Associated Press Writer
KYOTO, Japan (AP) - Asian and European nations urged North Korea
on Saturday to return immediately to nuclear disarmament talks
as concerns grew that the communist state was preparing to test
an atomic bomb.
Pyongyang could expect the security assurance and financial
assistance it seeks in return for a decision to abandon nuclear
weapons development and return to six-nation negotiations, South
Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said at a news conference.
The ministers, wrapping up a two-day Asia-Europe Meeting in
Japan, called on North Korea ``to return to the negotiating
table of the six-party talks without any further delay ... to
achieve the denuclearization of the peninsula in a peaceful
manner through dialogue.''
Those talks include the two Koreas, the United States, China,
Japan and Russia.
A U.S. defense official, who spoke only on condition of
anonymity, said Friday that photos by U.S. spy satellites show
North Korea making moves that could be construed as preparations
for an underground nuclear test.
Japan's Defense Agency also said it had information that the
communist nation might be preparing for a nuclear test.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura stressed that Tokyo
had not confirmed whether the preparations were real but
acknowledged that the communist country posed an increasing
threat.
``It is very difficult to ascertain any of this,'' he said.
``In the meantime, nuclear and missile development has likely
been proceeding steadily,'' since North Korea broke off the
talks last June, Machimura said.
Although North Korea has claimed it has nuclear weapons, an
actual test would be a first. U.S. intelligence and other
estimates put the number of their weapons between one and six.
Machimura told Ban on Friday that Japan might bring North
Korea's nuclear ambitions before the U.N. Security Council if
the North continued to boycott talks. That would be a first step
toward possible sanctions against the reclusive communist
regime.
North Korea's leaders have said they would consider sanctions a
``declaration of war.''
Jitters over North Korea's nuclear activities, as well as the
test-firing earlier this week of a short-range missile toward
Japan, set off a flurry of meetings at the Japan conference.
Japanese, South Korean and Chinese officials met later Saturday
and agreed to strengthen their efforts to bring North Korea back
to the six-party negotiations.
The ASEM forum includes the 25 EU states, the European
Commission, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, Japan, China and South Korea.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
11 NY Times Says Cold War Arsenals "Almost Quaintly Irrelevant"
Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 11:55:15 -0400
This extraordinary line by the NYTimes and
David Sanger needs letters/rebuttal. Not a word
about international law and the obligation of the
US, Russia and others to live up to the law and
abolish their nuclear arsenals more than 35 years
after the treaty went into effect and 16 years
after the fall of the Berlin wall. Nor a peep
about Russia's inability to monitor incoming
objects and the very serious potential for
accidental nuclear war. Not a word about nuclear
winter. Amazing propaganda from the Times and Mr.
Sanger. Orwellian, really.
> the immensity of the cold war arsenals seems
almost quaintly irrelevant today.
Also, < Still, the nightmare that most worries
experts these days is of nukes in the hands of
those who did not learn nuclear discipline in the
cold war days.
This[just above] is an elitist position, be it
accurate or not in referring to "experts." Nothing
about the public and collective sentiment
regarding nuclear weapons from around the world
when polls have shown that many people want all
nuke weapons abolished.
>That is why, although the United States and
Russia still have roughly 95 percent of the
world's nuclear weapons, Washington and the world
seem consumed these days by the remaining 5
percent.
Again, Sanger refers to "Washington" [elitist
and undemocratic] and grossly distorts reality
with his line about the world being consumed by
the remaining 5 per cent as much of the world is
first and foremost concerned with the 5 NWS
abolishing their nuclear arsenals in their
entirety as they are mandated to under
international law:
http://www.cornnet.nl/~akmalten/docs.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/weekinreview/08marsh.html?
Who Scares the Rest? (See Bottom Left)
a..
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: May 8, 2005
MAYBE North Korea really is preparing to make the
ground shake, to prove that its 50-year quest to
acquire a nuclear arsenal has succeeded.
Or maybe Kim Jong Il, son of the country's
founder, is just playing with the rest of the
world's heads.
Interactive Graphic
Truths of the Second Nuclear Age
Either way, North Korea demonstrates a truth of
the second nuclear age: The political power of
atomic weapons no longer rests on the size of your
stockpile, which was the measure during the cold
war. Instead, it is linked to your ability to
convince the world that you might just be crazy
enough to use, or sell, whatever you've got.
For those purposes, a half-dozen weapons are as
good as 5,200, the current (if shrinking) size of
America's operational arsenal.
That is why, although the United States and Russia
still have roughly 95 percent of the world's
nuclear weapons, Washington and the world seem
consumed these days by the remaining 5 percent.
Though there is plenty of reason to worry that
loose nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union
could end up with Al Qaeda or Chechen separatists,
the immensity of the cold war arsenals seems
almost quaintly irrelevant today.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general,
alluded to that paradox in a suggestion he made in
New York Monday at the opening of a review of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. If Washington and
Moscow wanted to encourage the rest of the world
to disarm, he said, they should meet their own
obligations under the treaty and commit "to
further cuts in their arsenals, so that warheads
number in the hundreds, not the thousands."
The Bush administration, which is contemplating
new bunker-busting nuclear weapons, did not
embrace the invitation. Nor did Vladimir Putin,
Russia's president, who recently described the
collapse of the Soviet Union as a geopolitical
disaster.
Still, the nightmare that most worries experts
these days is of nukes in the hands of those who
did not learn nuclear discipline in the cold war
days. Three years ago, the fear was that Pakistan
and India might let their rivalry in Kashmir
ignite a nuclear exchange. They have since backed
down, and kept their most recent face-off to the
cricket fields.
But North Korea doesn't play cricket. It
negotiates by threats and escalation. So while
heightened activities detected last week at a test
site in the mountainous northeast may be a ruse,
they may also be signs of North Korea's effort to
gain more bargaining power by demonstrating that
it really can set off a nuclear bomb.
A test would instantly vaporize 15 percent or so
of North Korea's suspected arsenal, of course. But
it might still make sense to Mr. Kim, for the
increase in the political value of the weapons
left in storage.
"I think it is easy to underestimate what the
political effect of one weapon going off in
Northeast Asia might be," said former Senator Sam
Nunn, who spends much of his time trying to stem
proliferation. "It would set in motion long-term
concerns about other countries that want to
develop nuclear weapons. It would create the
impression - right or wrong - that the Koreans
might be willing to use one or sell one."
These days, he said, "there is no shortage of
willing buyers."
*****************************************************************
12 [NukeNet] Bad Nukes Editorial in NY Times
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 19:14:56 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
I have not seen any any letters printed responding to this. Has anyone
seen any letters printed in reponse to this? We submitted an Op-Ed that we
already had in the works on the same day and they passed on it
immediately. I assume a bunch of folks sent letters&
May 4, 2005
EDITORIAL
The Nuclear Power Option
image00118.jpg
n his sketchy speech on energy policy last week, President Bush placed a
high priority on nuclear energy, which he described as "one of the safest,
cleanest sources of power in the world." The president had good reason to
suggest an important role for this much-feared energy source.
The price of natural gas, the current fuel of choice for power plants, has
risen sharply. And there is mounting evidence that damage from global
warming may dwarf any environmental risk posed by nuclear power. It is
therefore critical to keep nuclear power as part of the nation's energy
mix. But Mr. Bush will have to address some crucial concerns before the
public will follow him down the nuclear path with much enthusiasm.
For starters, there is the awkward fact that nuclear power plants pose a
risk of proliferating the materials and skills to make nuclear weapons.
That is not an issue in the United States, which already has a mammoth
nuclear arsenal. But if the United States resurrects its stagnant nuclear
industry, other nations may also turn to nuclear power, with the risk that
rogue nations may someday use the fuel to make bombs. The Bush
administration will need to find ways, perhaps through the nuclear
nonproliferation review that started yesterday, to ensure that power plants
do not become an easy route to nuclear weapons.
Beyond that, Mr. Bush will need to ensure that the pools holding spent fuel
at domestic nuclear plants can be made safe from terrorists. He will have
to devise a backup plan for storing nuclear waste, should the proposed
burial site at Yucca Mountain prove untenable after legal and regulatory
setbacks. He will need to invest in new, potentially safer reactor designs
to allay longstanding concerns about accidents.
Finally, one familiar impediment to nuclear power - the high capital costs
required up front - could remain troublesome, unless the cost of competing
fuels soars higher.
None of these concerns need rule out this promising source of power. But
they will need to be addressed forthrightly.
Copyright
2005 The New York Times Company |
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13 Deseret News: Reid says Demos are set to gain
[deseretnews.com]
Saturday, May 7, 2005
He tells S.L. audience that Bush's actions help their cause
By Doug Smeath Deseret Morning News
Democrats can gain significant ground in conservative Western
states, and if they do, it will largely be thanks to President
Bush, the Senate minority leader told Utah Democrats on Friday, a
few hours after apologizing for calling the president a "loser"
during a lecture in a high school civics class.
Sen Harry Reid, D-Nev., apologized Friday for calling Bush a
"loser" during a lecture at a high school.
J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told a crowd of about 900
gathered for the party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, a
run-up to the party's state convention today, that the
groundwork has already been laid in states like Utah.
"The chief cornerstone of any political party is
political activists, and we have 900 here tonight," he said.
"The foundation is in place here in Utah, but the structure
above the foundation is not. . . . Most of the assistance (in
building the structure) is going to come from one person:
President Bush."
Reid outlined several steps Bush has taken that he
believes will weaken the president's popularity and will be felt
throughout the GOP. Among those was the president's push to
privatize Social Security.
"Social Security is not in crisis," he said. "If we as
Congress do nothing with Social Security, President Bush will
still draw his benefits until he's 106."
He said the Republicans' support for the so-called
"nuclear option," a proposed rules change to do away with the
filibuster in Senate debates over judicial nominees, is widely
unpopular and represents "an absolute abuse of power" among
Republicans who already control the White House and both houses
of Congress.
Earlier Friday, Reid told a high school civics class in
Las Vegas that Bush is "a loser."
"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid told
students at Del Sol High School when asked about the president's
policies. "I think this guy is a loser."
Shortly after the event Reid called the White House to
apologize, his spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid spoke with
Bush adviser Karl Rove, asking him to convey the apology to
Bush, who was traveling in Europe.
At the Utah event, Reid emphasized that the Democrats did
not do as poorly in the 2004 election as is widely believed.
While Bush was re-elected and seats were lost in Congress, Reid
said Democrats gained at the grass-roots level, going from a
12-seat deficit in state legislatures to a 64-seat lead.
But, he said, Democrats could have done better nationally.
"We as Democrats ignored rural America," he said.
He said Democrat John Kerry had wide support among voters
in the Reno and Las Vegas areas, which represent 91 percent of
Nevada's voters. He said the state should have gone to Kerry,
but because rural voters were so strongly supportive of Bush,
their large turnout left Bush the state's winner by 2 percentage
points.
"We have a message for rural America. While the banks are
being supported by the Republicans, we're supporting the
farmers," he said. "We're supporting better health care."
He said a myth that needs to be countered is that
Democrats lack values and religion. Reid, a member of the LDS
Church, said his Democratic colleagues in the Senate "are every
bit as religious" as the Republicans. In a briefing with
reporters before the dinner, Reid said that Utah's LDS voters
should listen to the church's general authorities, who regularly
remind members to vote not based on party but based on who is
the better candidate.
"Morality is in the eye of the beholder," he told
reporters. At the dinner, he told of receiving a joint letter
from several mainstream Christian churches across the country
condemning Bush's budget as "immoral" because of its effects on
the poor and its cuts in education funding.
"What they've done to teachers is immoral," Reid said.
"What they've done to firefighters is wrong. What they've done
to police officers is wrong. What they've done to nurses is
wrong. What they've done to science is wrong."
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
14 Salt Lake Tribune: BUNKER-BUSTER REPORT: Earth-penetrating nuke
would not spare civilians No such thing
Opinion
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2005 01:25:35 AM
There can be no such thing as a clean, tidy little nuclear
bomb that would destroy a deeply buried target without killing a
lot of people. Wishing otherwise, as the Bush administration
does, cannot change the laws of physics.
That's the conclusion of a science panel that studied the
government's proposal to build an earth-penetrating nuclear
bomb, a so-called bunker-buster. The panel's report punches a
hole in the government's argument for designing, and
subsequently testing, such a bomb.
The study found that a bunker-buster could destroy the
target, but it would not be much better at sparing people nearby
than an above-ground nuclear warhead of the same yield. For one
thing, it would create a huge amount of radioactive debris.
Casualties would range from hundreds to millions of people,
depending upon the explosive force of the weapon, whether the
target was in an urban or a rural area and how fallout was
distributed by the winds.
Despite the report, Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of
defense, still wants to build a bunker-buster. He argues that
70 countries are building facilities underground, sometimes in
solid rock, that can resist attack by nonpenetrating nuclear
weapons.
"We don't have the capability of dealing with that," he told
a Senate hearing. "The only thing we have is very large, very
dirty, big nuclear weapons. So . . . do we want to have nothing
and only a large, dirty nuclear weapon, or would we rather have
something in between?"
What seems to elude the secretary, in this talk worthy of Dr.
Strangelove, is that any attack by nuclear weapons would be
catastrophic. All nukes are big and dirty. That's what the
science panel is trying to tell him.
While Rumsfeld is talking like this, the United States is
trying to hector other nations, including Iran and North Korea,
into giving up their efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. Yet by
refusing to drastically reduce and eventually eliminate its own
nuclear arsenal, as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
requires, the United States is, in effect, arguing for the
military utility of nuclear weapons.
If the United States, the most powerful conventional and
nuclear military power in the world, believes it must modernize
its nuclear force by building a bunker-buster, why would Iran
and North Korea, which are threatened by the United States,
conclude they should not do everything in their power to join
the nuclear club?
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
15 projo.com: The future of energy
Providence, R.I. | Opinion: Editorials
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 6, 2005
Visionaries tell us that sometime in the next quarter-century we
might not need polluting coal, oil and (less polluting) natural
gas to supply our energy needs. We'll have environmentally
benign hydrogen fuel cells to run our vehicles and keep our
electrical grid humming with electrons stripped off hydrogen
atoms. And we'll also have more solar and wind energy.
It's a beguiling image -- our cities as clean and fresh-smelling
as the Cascades and the country finally rid of the "foreign
entanglements" (Goodbye, Saudi Arabia; goodbye, Venezuela) that
George Washington warned of. Finally! After all, America's
production peaked 30 years ago. World oil production may be
peaking now.
Theorists such as Amory Lovins concede that we will still need
some fossil fuel to electrolytically extract hydrogen from
water. Facilities for that purpose could be in remote locations,
where the hydrogen would be pressurized and then piped to
buildings where fuel cells would provide heating, ventilation,
air conditioning and lights, and to "hydrogen stations" for
fuel-cell-powered cars.
Still, some maintain that the hydrogen economy would require a
lot more energy than that. What about the fact that energy is
never transferred with perfect efficiency -- that some is
dissipated as heat?
Then there's nuclear energy, which is getting a new look as our
energy challenge steepens -- environmentally, economically and
geo-politically.
A kilogram of uranium undergoing fission produces 400,000
kilowatt hours of electricity. If it's recycled through various
stages, it can produce 7 million kwh. Burning a kilogram of oil,
by contrast, produces four kwh.
There are 104 nuclear-power plants in America, most constructed
between 1970 and 1990, generating about 20 percent of our
electricity. We'd need about a thousand plants to produce the
BTUs that our economy consumes.
This is possible. While permitting of new plants has stagnated
for the last 20 years, the technology of nuclear power has not.
One thing that new plants won't have is fuel rods. The safer,
cheaper "pebble bed" reactors use graphite-coated spheres of
uranium the size of tennis balls.
Then there is the long-frustrated hope that energy from nuclear
fusion, which doesn't present the radioactive-waste perils that
fission does, might become a reality sometime in the next
decade.
For now, there are many questions to be resolved: What do we do
with nuclear waste? What are safe levels of radiation exposure?
What about the dangers of terrorism? We must answer these
difficult questions, yet nuclear energy -- we would hope via
fusion -- would seem at this point to be one of the keys to a
great dream: a non-polluting energy future.
© 2005, Published by The Providence Journal Co., 75 Fountain
*****************************************************************
16 Brattleboro Reformer: Phish drummer joins New England Coalition
May 08, 2005 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Now that Phish has disbanded, drummer Jon Fishman
is channeling his frenetic rock and roll energy into a new
career -- environmental activist.
To that end, the Essex resident will be voted in as the newest
board member of the nuclear watchdog, the New England Coalition.
The vote will take place today at the group's annual meeting in
Walpole, N.H.
According to Fishman, during Phish's 20-year tenure as
Vermont's favorite homegrown rock band, he wanted to use the
band's fame to promote causes he believed in.
His band mates, though equally passionate about many of the
same issues, felt their focus should stay on the music. So the
drummer put his activist urges on hold and stuck to the business
of being a rock star.
But now that he's lived out every musician's dream, he said he
is eager to leave the insular world of celebrity and fulfill his
civic obligations.
"When you become a rock star, it's easy to adopt a
the-world-doesn't-matter attitude," said Fishman. "[But] I want
the world to be a better place. I have to, I've got children."
As soon as the band made the decision to call it quits, Fishman
sought out environmental projects to get involved with.
Inspired by Robert Kennedy Jr.'s "Crimes Against Nature," the
musician got involved with the Conservation Law Foundation, an
environmental advocacy group based in New England.
It didn't take long for Fishman to get inundated with requests
for support from various nonprofits. One of those requests came
from Peter Alexander, executive director of the
Brattleboro-based New England Coalition.
After talking to Alexander, Fishman says he came to the
conclusion that all other efforts to protect the environment
were moot as long as nuclear power plants are in operation.
"The nuke-thing is at the root of the tree," he says. "What
good is a clean lake if you've got a radioactive cloud over it?"
The coalition was founded in 1971 and for the past two years
has devoted most of its effort to battling the request made by
officials at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station in Vernon
to increase power by 20 percent.
Fishman says he hopes his fame will help the coalition grab the
attention of other Vermonters who have concerns about nuclear
power. But, he adds, he isn't interested in just being a
celebrity spokesman: He wants to be an informed participant and
advocate.
To reach his goal, the drummer has embarked on an education
process that includes reading up on current issues and meeting
key players in the state's environmental movement. "I've got to
practice what I preach," he says.
In addition to joining the board and addressing today's annual
meeting, Fishman will join Alexander's Goodtime Band as part of
a fund-raiser for the coalition.
"To have him join the board is a huge honor and privilege,"
said Peter Alexander, who heads the band. "And to have him play
with us is a musician's dream come true."
Today's annual meeting of the New England Coalition will be
held at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole.
It is open to the public and will start at 5 p.m. There will be
a picnic dinner at 6 p.m. and a dance event at 7:30 p.m. The
suggested donation is $10. Seating is limited. For more
information call the coalition office at (802) 257-0336.
Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
*****************************************************************
17 [NYTr] Egypt "Bogs Down" UN Nuclear Conference
Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 10:26:00 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Egypt is trying to bring attention to the "comprehensive" part of the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The big nuke states will avoid, at
any cost, talking about their own nuclear weapons programs and
proliferation, and of course the US wants to use the conference to spread
hysteria about Iran and North Korea -- and god forbid anyone should mention
the outlaw states like Israel that have refused to even sign on. So Egypt,
and any other country like Cuba which seeks to use the treaty conference for
real progress on nuclear non-proliferation, will be accused of "scuttling"
agreements and impeding the conference.-NY Transfer]
AP via Yahoo - May 6, 2005
http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050506/ap_on_re_us/un_nuclear_treaty
Egypt Bogs Down UN Nuclear Conference
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS - Egypt's last-minute objection Friday scuttled a seeming
agreement on how to move ahead with a monthlong review of the world's key
nuclear treaty, leaving the conference still without an agenda in its fifth
day.
A deadlocked, unproductive conference could weaken the 35-year-old Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, perhaps opening the way over time to more nuclear
weapons states in the world, arms control experts say.
"We have to start work, and we have to start substantive work," said the
frustrated conference president, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte of Brazil.
The Egyptians wanted agenda language that focused more on assessing how well
the nuclear weapons powers have done in taking specific steps toward nuclear
disarmament, under commitments they made in 2000 at the last of these
twice-a-decade conferences.
Nuclear "have-nots" complain that the Bush administration, in particular,
has taken steps contrary to those commitments, such as rejecting the nuclear
test-ban treaty.
Washington, for its part, wants the conference to focus on what it alleges
are Iran's plans to build nuclear arms in violation of the treaty, and on
North Korea's withdrawal from the treaty and claim to have nuclear bombs.
Under the 1970 pact, nations without nuclear weapons pledge not to pursue
them, in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear-weapons states the
United States, Russia, Britain, France and China to negotiate toward
nuclear disarmament.
A third "pillar" of the treaty guarantees access to peaceful nuclear
technology for nonweapons states. Citing that article, Iran has developed
uranium-enrichment facilities, which can produce fuel for nuclear power
plants and, if the process is extended, material for nuclear bombs.
On this nuclear-fuel issue, proposals have been made for the treaty
conference to consider international controls over fuel production and
guarantees of fuel supplies, in order to keep sensitive enrichment
technology out of more hands.
Other proposals focus on the treaty's disarmament "pillar," such as again
pushing for activation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and for
negotiation of a treaty ending production of bomb material everywhere.
Those were two among "13 practical steps" toward disarmament the weapons
states committed to at the 2000 conference.
In the months leading up to this conference, where decisions generally must
come by consensus among the more than 180 delegations, the United States
resisted agenda language referring to those commitments too specifically. In
the end, sometime this week, an explicit reference to the 2000 conference
was dropped from the proposed agenda, delegates reported.
Duarte, the conference president, apparently thought he had agreement on the
document Friday morning and announced it would be adopted. Then the Egyptian
delegation objected, asking for insertion of words, such as "outcomes," to
signify the 2000 commitments.
"We will continue to search for consensus," an unhappy Duarte said, and
private consultations followed.
Although only Egypt objected on the open floor, a well-placed diplomat,
speaking privately, said Cairo had considerable support from other members
of the 116-nation Nonaligned Movement.
A prolonged delay might keep the global gathering from dealing with the most
contentious issues surrounding the nonproliferation treaty. Although not
legally binding, like a treaty, consensus positions taken at these reviews
are considered political commitments.
*
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18 [progchat_action] Fw: REPORT ON GLOBAL NETWORK CONFERENCE
Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 01:50:08 -0500 (CDT)
----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network To: Global Network
Against Weapons Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 7:53 AM Subject: REPORT
ON GLOBAL NETWORK CONFERENCE
REPORT ON GLOBAL NETWORK CONFERENCE
The 13th annual Global Network (GN) space organizing conference was
held in New York City on April 29-30. Over 200 people attended the
weekend GN event that concluded with participation in the No Nukes!
No War! march by the United Nations and rally in Central Park.
Crowd estimates for the demonstration ranged from 30,000-40,000 and
was organized by Abolition Now and United for Peace & Justice.
The GN business meeting was held on April 29. Following a series
of reports, Dave Knight, the GN United Nations Representative, led
a strategy discussion.
Here are some of the ideas people came up with:
a.. Hold public debates with those who say they oppose space
weaponization but who support the use of space technology to direct
warfare on earth. (The GN is opposed to this "militarization" of
space that uses space satellites to implement "shock and awe" war
like the invasion of Iraq).
b.. Keep making the moral and ethical arguments against the
nuclearization and weaponization of space.
c.. Expand outreach to student groups.
d.. Make more effort to reach teacher organizations.
e.. Continue making the connections between budget cuts for human
needs programs and an expanding Star Wars program.
f.. Keep publicly identifying the aerospace corporations involved
in Star Wars.
g.. Talk more about how the U.S. is addicted to war and how military
spending creates fewer jobs than if our tax dollars were invested
in alternative job creation.
h.. Find ways to reach out to popular culture.
i.. Produce a guide for home study groups on this issue.
j.. Expand outreach to churches.
k.. Utilize art more often to express our concerns. (Peace Action
Maine recently held an art opening called "War Flowers: Swords into
Plowshares" to introduce the economic conversion issue in the state.
The art show will travel around the state throughout 2005-2006).
l.. Learn more about framing of issues.
m.. Send word about the GN's speakers bureau out more often.
n.. Make connections with those who talk to people in their jobs
(bartenders, taxi drivers, hair dressers...) o.. Connect with the
movement called "De-cap," the global call against poverty.
During this meeting the GN also committed to hosting a program at
the World Peace Forum 2006 in Vancouver, Canada. (The director of
the forum attended our April 30 conference as well).
The meeting concluded with discussion about where the GN's 2006
annual space organizing conference would be held. No decisions
were made and it was agreed that we would put out a call to our
affiliates for proposals. Some locations were suggested such as
Vancouver, Japan, Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom. It was
agreed that our next meeting should be held outside of the United
States.
On April 30 a standing room only crowd of 200 packed into the
Musicians Union hall for the day long GN space organizing conference
called Full Spectrum Resistance. GN board convener Dave Webb, from
Yorkshire CND in England, welcomed people who had come from all
over the U.S. and from around the world.
Mixing music by Holly Gwinn Graham and Tom Neilson throughout the
day, the conference heard local reports from key activists around
the world and then listened to a panel discuss strategy.
Karl Grossman reported that Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
had called the GN office to say she intends to lead a fight to
defund Project Prometheus, the nuclear rocket that is being funded
at over $400 million in 2005. Rep.
McKinney is sending a "Dear Colleague" letter to Congress inviting
them to join her in the effort. (We urge all of our supporters to
contact their congressperson urging them to join her.)
The Sisters of Loretto brought a group of high school students from
a rural Missouri community and one of them read a beautiful essay
he had written about the impact of nuclear war on nature. A second
group of students, organized by GN board member Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck
in Germany, made a fine presentation outlining a more positive
vision for 2020 than the current Space Command vision of control
and domination of the heavens.
During one session it was reported that 12 of our friends in Australia
had organized a solidarity action at an Australian space facility
on April 29. A second announcement was given about students at the
University of Hawaii occupying the office of the university president
in protest of the military industrial complex takeover of the
institution.
A wonderful buffet dinner was catered and a fine group of kitchen
volunteers, led by Carole Abrahams from New York City, kept the
crowd eating and drinking all day long.
Dr. Michio Kaku, a GN founding member, was the first of two keynote
speakers.
As usual, Michio received a rousing reception. He was followed by
Jenny Jones, the former deputy mayor of London who had come to New
York as part of the Mayors for Peace delegation.
Each year the GN gives out a "Peace in Space" award to a person who
has made extraordinary effort on behalf of the movement. This year
we gave two awards, both to Canadian activists, for their tireless
and successful efforts to keep Canada from joining the U.S. Star
Wars program. The award went to Tamara Lorincz (Halifax Peace
Coalition) and Steven Staples (Polaris Institute in Ottawa). They
each also made outstanding presentations during the conference.
Dave Webb presented a moving photo memorial of GN board member
Satomi Oba who recently unexpectedly died. Satomi, a past recipient
of our Peace in Space award, lived in Hiroshima, Japan and we have
created our 2005 Keep Space for Peace Week poster in her honor.
On Sunday, May 1 many of us from the conference gathered to march
from the United Nations to Central Park. We carried several GN
space banners and were quite moved at the beautiful and creative
line of march. When we arrived at Central Park for the rally a
huge peace sign was being created with the bodies of the marchers.
I had the honor of being invited to speak to the crowd and made
good use of my time explaining how space satellites were used to
coordinate the invasion of Iraq. I also mentioned Bush's plans for
deployment of anti-satellite weapons and the nuclear rocket.
The GN conference was truly a wonderful gathering of our global
family of space for peace activists. Once again we heard many
people remarking about the loving and generous spirit that filled
the conference. We are grateful for all the work each of you do
and look forward to many more gatherings in the years ahead.
Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear
Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 729-0517 (207)
319-2017 (Cell phone) globalnet@mindspring.com http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Our blog)
*****************************************************************
19 The Observer: A question we can duck no longer
[UP]
We can't rely on renewable energy to cut emissions, says Brian
Wilson
Sunday May 8, 2005
The Observer
The reason energy policy was the dog that didn't bark during the
election campaign is that each party has a problem in making its
public position sound credible. They all pay homage to the need
to address climate change. It is more difficult to put forward
solutions that are both convincing and cost-free to the
electorate.
But there is going to have to be a major review of how the UK
plans to meet its domestic targets and international obligations
on emissions. The pretence that this can be achieved through
renewables and energy efficiency will have to be abandoned.
Two pennies are dropping. The first is that there is a dichotomy
between aiming for massive reduction in demand while making
political virtue out of cheap energy. It just isn't happening,
particularly in the domestic sector. Second, the pursuit of
renewables is self-defeating if their benefit in carbon
reduction terms is cancelled out for 20 years by the decline of
nuclear power.
More than anything else, it is this latter consideration that
has put nuclear back on the agenda. Contrary to Greenpeace
conspiracy theories, there is no done deal about nuclear plants.
Labour governments are no longer in the business of building
power stations, nuclear or otherwise. So it is still far from
clear whether there will be sufficient impetus from the private
sector to make new-build a reality.
The least the industry will look for is a government-backed
hedge against the kind of short-term price slump that brought
British Energy to the verge of bankruptcy. The lesson of that
episode was that nuclear cannot survive in a wholly market-based
system because there are irreducible regulatory costs attached
to it.
Progress has been made over the past couple of years in
encouraging interest groups to recognise common cause rather
than look for enemies. There should be major places in Britain's
energy mix for nuclear, renewables and clean coal technology and
the overall effect will only be to limit the disproportionate
reliance being planned for imported gas.
According to the government's own projections, 70 per cent of
Britain's electricity will come from gas by 2020 and 90 per cent
of that gas will be imported. For a country whose entire
industrial history has been based on energy self-sufficiency,
that is a massive step. There are implications for foreign
policy as well as economic and energy strategies. I detect a
growing recognition that assumptions about gas being both cheap
and available for decades to come have been a little too glib.
And how environmentally responsible is it to scour the world for
gas in order to turn it into electricity?
The other critical policy area is transport - but the
sensibilities here are, if anything, greater. We didn't hear
much from the Liberal Democrats during the election about
raising fuel duty by more than inflation, while their opposition
to congestion charging in Edinburgh confirms that, for the time
being, they, too, are more concerned about votes than floods.
No party can evade these issues for much longer. Warning signs
are flashing from the US where - thanks to SUVs - the average
fuel efficiency of vehicles has actually declined since the
early 1980s. If there is a way of controlling such trends that
does not involve taxation, no party has yet unveiled it.
The three imperatives of energy policy must be security of
supply, affordability and carbon reduction. Within these
parameters, there is huge potential for creative policy making.
· Brian Wilson was Energy Minister from 2001-2003
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
20 Guardian Unlimited: One last chance to ensure world safety
How Tony Blair deals with Britain's nuclear future will indicate
if he really is serious about listening more and being less
aggressive
Mary Riddell
Sunday May 8, 2005
A few weeks from now, the world will mark the anniversary of
Hiroshima. Sixty years have passed since a US President announced
the dropping of an atomic bomb and warned the enemy to capitulate
or face 'a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never
been seen on this earth'.
Memories of black drizzle and melting bodies have faded, but old
threats have a longer half-life. As Tony Blair takes office for
the third time, the nuclear folder is open on his desk. Decisions
must be taken in this parliament on both energy and weaponry.
Opponents of the former worry about preserving the planet.
Opponents of the latter worry about whether there will be a
planet to preserve.
Back in the 1980s, I campaigned, like many people I knew then, to
warn of the folly of Britain's stance. Though everyone in my
rural backwater in north-east Scotland was courteous, it was
clear that nuclear Armageddon struck them as less likely than
being savaged by a stray hippopotamus on Inverurie high street.
They were right.
The Cold War ended, the mood changed and CND became dissociated
from mild peaceniks and linked, often unfairly, with
better-red-than-dead extremism. The nuclear issue was also a
requiem to old Labour. Michael Foot's 1983 manifesto pledge of
unilateral disarmament was more than the longest suicide note in
history. It was also a memorandum to all future leaders: love
the bomb or face political death.
By the time Neil Kinnock gave up his subscription, being in CND
was as advisable for the ambitious politician as admitting to
membership of the Spearmint Rhino gentlemen's topless club. A
generation on, Mr Blair is back in the nuclear arena with two
decisions to take. Should Britain replace its fleet of Trident
submarines, at a minimum cost of £10 billion? And should he
authorise a new wave of nuclear power stations?
The backdrop to both questions is the month-long meeting in New
York of the 188 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. This five-yearly review has finished its first week and
the auguries are not brilliant. Kofi Annan has warned that
nuclear catastrophe would have global consequences. North Korea,
which pulled out of the treaty, has just tested an unarmed
short-range missile. Iran has threatened to break a deal with
Europe and resume its nuclear fuel programme. Delegates have
barely been able to agree an agenda, let alone a way ahead.
Back in the days of mutually assured destruction, the world
seemed poised to implode at a button's push. How strange to
think that we ought be more frightened now. Rogue states can
build weapons, calculating the threat will keep America at bay.
The stateless can pick up ingredients for a dirty bomb almost at
will, when 600 tonnes of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium is
littered around Russia alone.
Once, it was all about deterrence. But in an age of pre-emption,
planned US mini-nukes are not for show, while the outgoing
Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, warned of deploying British
nuclear weapons almost as casually as if he was talking about
pea-shooters. The unthinkable has become the usable and Britain
and America are knotted in contradictions.
Demonising Iran and North Korea alone sits oddly with the tacit
approval of India, Pakistan and Israel, which are known (or
assumed in Israel's case) to have the bomb. Demanding that
others disarm while Washington and London build new weapons is
optimistic, to say the least. Nor is there much logic in Article
IV of the treaty, which enshrines 'the inalienable right... to
develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes'.
Unless, of course, you are talking about Iran again, in which
case it is assumed, probably correctly, that a civil programme
may become the smokescreen for producing weapons-grade uranium.
Since you cannot have one treaty for those who consider
themselves the good guys and another one for the rogues, it is
incumbent on Britain to adopt the standards it demands of
others.
On arms, the case barely needs making. Britain does not need
nuclear weapons and, on the evidence of Hoon's swagger, it is
not to be trusted with them either. On power, there are many
arguments against rushing down the nuclear route. The postwar
myths of 'atoms for peace' and 'electricity too cheap to meter'
sound hollow now, against the reality of toxic waste and a £650
million government bail-out for the nuclear firm, British
Energy, in 2002.
Mr Blair and his blue-skies thinker, Lord Birt, are said to be
evangelists for nuclear power. They should think of other ways
to meet the 20 per cent reduction target in carbon dioxide
emissions by 2010. Even doubling the UK's nuclear capacity would
only account for an 8 per cent drop. The first step is simply to
use less fuel, rather than committing to an option which is
neither clean nor cutprice. And, even if it were, there is a
wider risk.
The military and civil programmes cannot be wholly separated.
London may not blur the two in the same way as Tehran, but we
are supposed to set a good example. A defining feature of this
Labour term is its promised safety kitemark. More listening,
less aggression is the mantra of a humbler Prime Minister who
may owe his re-election to voters' faith that he means it.
But aggression has its own momentum, even when those who
espoused war are suing for peace. Some terrorists attached to
dubious states, or none, may have no compunction in seeking
nuclear solutions.
If Mr Blair is really to step away from US unilateralism and
align himself with Europe and with all those who renounce brutal
weapons, then his last best chance is now. The Hiroshima
anniversary rolls round. Iraqi children still lie shrouded in
the streets, as Japanese ones once did. Mr Blair is not the only
one who is sick of war.
Contrary to newspaper reports, experts such as Nigel
Chamberlain, of the nuclear think-tank BASIC, are almost certain
that the Prime Minister has not yet made his decision on nuclear
arms. Indisputably, though, he is on the brink of doing so. If
Britain cannot lead the club of armed nations towards a
nuclear-free world by 2020, then no one will.
This time around, a Labour leader's decision to give up a
nuclear fleet would not strike the electorate as folly. It would
look like careful stewardship of a planet at unprecedented risk
from casual crooks and states engaged in a game of daredevil
deterrence with a US whose preference is to strike first and
think later.
Forget the ID cards, the oppressive anti-terror legislation and
the rash of super-casinos that Mr Blair cannot now drive through
parliament. Many of us never wanted them and few will mourn
their absence. But he should also forget a post-Trident
deterrent, for the safety of this country and all others.
The global nuclear stockpile, though reduced, could still
destroy the planet many times over and the non-proliferation
pact creaks at its ancient seams.
The world has had its second chance of survival. Unlike Mr
Blair, it may not get a third.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
21 AxisofLogic: US-UK-Italian Uranium Science Fraudulent
: Patients Betrayed by Italian Scientist
U.S. Military
By Bob Nichols
May 8, 2005, 10:27
May 8, 2005 – (Oklahoma City) Nuclear Weapons Lab scientist
Leuren Moret today accused three Western governments of
condoning and promoting science fraud relating to Radiation
Poisoning from the use of Uranium Weapons in Iraq and Central
Asia by Italian scientist Antonietta Morena Gatti.
Moret has spoken in forty-two countries and numerous
international court cases about the hazard uranium represents to
the human race. Moret consulted famed former Manhattan Project
scientist and consultant to the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear
Weapons Lab, Marion Fulk, before making the announcement. The
Manhattan Project constructed the first atomic bombs used
against humans in war time in August 1945.
Moret stated "Gatti posted mass spec profiles on her website
which showed what common metals were detected but the profiles
were cut off (edited) where uranium shows up on the profile.
The presentation of her information was done in a way that hides
or omits the uranium spike which is the likely culprit."
Moret stated about Gatti "It was obvious that Gatti is very
competent, and would know that uranium might be a factor to take
into consideration in her research, and would certainly know how
to identify and measure it. It is very unlikely that this is
simple gross negligence, sloppy science, or incompetence."
Moret continued "This dreadful woman [Gatti] has violated the
trust of Susan
Riordan, dishonored the memory of Terry Riordan, and scammed all
to further her own ambitions. It is vital at this time for the
Italian government to cover up the harm of DU because there are
sick Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans and Iraq, and
Italian soldiers are shooting DU into the fisheries in coastal
Sardinia where fisherman are making a huge political stink.
Moret concluded "I think Gatti's 'science spin' is
reprehensible... and I am sorry for Susan and Terry that they
have been used in such a political way."
The Terry Riordan Memorial fund at the includes this information
about Captain Terry Riordan:
"Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving
in the Gulf War. He passed away in April 1999 at the age of 45.
The official cause of death was Gulf War Syndrome."
Terry went to the Persian Gulf in December 26, 1990 with honor,
dignity and pride - serving his country as Captain J. Terry
Riordon of the Canadian Armed Forces. Terry left Canada a very
fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On
his return only two months later he could barely walk."
"He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of
motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest
pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory
loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and
depression. After his death depleted uranium (DU) contamination
was discovered in his lungs and bones."
"For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and
struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get
proper diagnosis and treatment. His wife, Susan Riordon, speaks
most eloquently of the nightmare of physical, mental and
emotional hardship endured not just by Terry but his entire
family."
"He was ultimately unsuccessful in getting the answers or help
he needed in his lifetime. His final wish was to donate his body
to independent research on DU. That was Terry's gift to all who
served in the Persian Gulf. He wanted his body to supply the
answers to years of suffering and frustration. Through his gift
UMRC was able to have obtain conclusive evidence of internal DU
contamination in his lungs and bones. Even after death Terry
continues to contribute to his country and his fellow veterans."
"You can honour Terry Riordon's memory and other veterans who
gave their lives and health for their country. UMRC has
established the "Terry Riordon Memorial Fund" to help make
possible scientific research on uranium and informed medical
diagnosis of exposed persons. By making a financial donation,
you are supporting essential work that has as yet to be
undertaken seriously by public agencies in Canada."
"All contributions are tax deductible in the United States and
Canada. Donations are made payable to Uranium Medical Research
Centre (UMRC). Please indicate that the donation is directed to
the 'Terry Riordon Memorial Fund'."
"UMRC is pleased to be supported by Susan Riordon, Captain
Riordon's widow. She is also the Chair, Canadian Peacekeeping
Veteran Association (CPVA) - Atlantic Regional."
© Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com
Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner and lives in
Oklahoma. He is a frequent contributor to AxisofLogic.com, other
online publications and the "San Francisco Bay View" newspaper.
Nichols is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition
Plant. Nichols can be reached by email at this GoogleMail
address:
*****************************************************************
22 Xinhua: IAEA to bring nuke technology under stricter control
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-07 12:27:30
Beijing May 7 -- The United Nation's nuclear watchdog says
global support should be in place to bring uranium and plutonium
technology under stricter control.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency made such comment at a month-long
conference to review the workings of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty. He added that more work need to be
mobilized to keepnuclear bomb-making gear out of more hands.
"Everybody understands that if we continue in that fashion,
pretty soon, in the next 10, 20 years, we'll have 20, 30
countries whom I would call virtual nuclear-weapons states,
meaning countries that could move within months into converting
their civilian capacity or capability into a weapons programme."
Against the backdrop that Iran's intention to resume its
uranium-enrichment program, and fears of North Korea's new-round
of nuclear test, ElBaradei warned that the UN body should not
just sit still
(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
23 Xinhua: NPT conference fails to adopt agenda
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-07 21:33:48
Beijing May 7 -- Scores of countries have agreed on an
overdue agenda for the conference reviewing the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, but a last-minute objection by Egypt
stalled progress once again.
Egypt is seeking a greater agenda focus on assessing how
well the nuclear powers have done in meeting commitments on
specific steps toward nuclear disarmament.
Many non-weapon states complain that the United States has
taken steps contrary to the commitment, such as rejecting the
nuclear test-ban treaty.
The conference president, Brazilian diplomat Sergio de
Queiroz Duarte, announced he will gather delegates to continue
discussions.
Iranian-U.S. disagreements during the first four days of the
month-long conference previously stalled the adoption of the
agenda.
The international meeting on halting the proliferation of
nuclear weapons kicked off on Monday at the United Nations
headquarters in New York.
(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
24 Japan Times: ASEM talks kicks off amid strained ties with neighbors
Saturday, May 7, 2005
By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer
KYOTO -- The two-day foreign ministerial conference of the
Asia-Europe Meeting began in Kyoto on Friday evening as tensions
lingered over Japan's rocky relations with its Asian neighbors
and its differences with the European Union over the lifting of
an arms embargo on China.
Prior to the opening of the ASEM conference, Foreign Minister
Nobutaka Machimura held a series of informal meetings with his
counterparts from the European Union, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations and South Korea.
Current tension between Japan and neighboring South Korea and
China over historical viewpoints and territorial issues as well
as Japan's disagreement with the European Union over its plans
to lift its arms embargo on China, dominated the discussions.
During Machimura's talks with South Korean Foreign Affairs and
Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon, the two sides repeated their
positions on the territorial row over disputed islets in the Sea
of Japan controlled by South Korea and also claimed by Japan.
Machimura told reporters that the issue was brought up during
the talks, but that no progress had been made.
On Monday, Chin Dae Je, the South Korean information and
communication minister, paid a surprise visit to the islets --
called Takeshima in Japan and Tok-do in South Korea -- to
inspect communications antennas.
Machimura said progress had been made on issues pertaining to
history and expressed Japan's desire for a new joint
Japanese-South Korean panel of scholars to study various
historical issues concerning the two countries.
Machimura said he agreed with Ban that Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi should visit Seoul in late June for talks with President
Roh Moo Hyun.
Machimura told reporters that he and Ban shared the view that,
despite recent tensions, bilateral relations were headed in a
positive direction.
Differences appear to remain between the two on how to pressure
North Korea to return to the stalled six-party talks on its
nuclear program.
"In June, it will have been nearly a year since the last
six-nations conference was held," Machimura told reporters.
"Japan seeks a diplomatic solution with China taking a major
role. But if the talks cannot be restarted, other options will
have to be considered."
Hatsuhisa Takashima, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said
Machimura and Ban did not specifically discuss taking the North
Korean nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council, but
acknowledged it was still possible.
"That is one option. But another option is holding five-nation
talks without North Korea," Takashima said. South Korea prefers
diplomacy without taking the issue to the United Nations, which
would normally involve discussing sanctions.
During his talks with EU officials earlier in the day,
Machimura repeated Japan's opposition to the EU's plans.
But Jean Asselborn, minister of foreign affairs for Luxembourg,
which currently holds the EU presidency, said the issue should
be discussed on a rational basis.
"Lifting the embargo does not mean replace with nothing, but
means replace with it with a code of conduct," he told a Friday
news conference.
The Japan Times: May 7, 2005
*****************************************************************
25 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Nuclear Chief Pushes 'Sea Change'
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday May 7, 2005 1:01 PM
AP Photo NYR119
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Sixty years after Hiroshima, Mohamed
ElBaradei has big ideas for changing the way the world handles
the atom. The sweeping overhaul he envisions - bringing uranium
and plutonium technology under tougher, possibly international
control - would mean a ``sea change'' in the nuclear realm. But
it's necessary, the U.N. nuclear chief says, ``because we are
facing a threat.''
ElBaradei spoke with The Associated Press on Friday at the end
of a week in which he canvassed support for his ideas at a
conference here of more than 180 nations reviewing the status of
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
He said he expects to win global support to begin planning such
changes, in part because of the current alarm over Iran's
ability to establish a uranium-enrichment capability.
``Everybody understands that if we continue in that fashion, in
the next 10, 20 years we'll have 20, 30 countries that I would
call virtual nuclear-weapons states, meaning countries that
could move within months into converting their civilian capacity
or capability into a weapons program,'' said ElBaradei,
director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Iran's enrichment program, using centrifuges that can produce
uranium fuel for either nuclear power plants or nuclear bombs,
is a major issue at the treaty review. Tehran says the program
is meant only for peaceful purposes of civilian energy;
Washington contends it is a cover for eventual bomb-building.
Under the 1970 nonproliferation treaty, states like Iran without
nuclear weapons renounce them forever in exchange for a
commitment by nuclear-weapons states to move toward disarmament.
Access to peaceful technology is guaranteed under the treaty,
but ElBaradei said the spread of such capabilities has become a
``serious problem.''
The tighter controls he envisions ``would be a real sea change
in the way we have been managing nuclear energy,'' the IAEA
chief said.
He has asked the current treaty conference to consider several
possible approaches suggested by an IAEA expert group in
February. They range from simply tightening controls on current
commercial sales of dual-use equipment, to turning all
enrichment and plutonium reprocessing operations - another
potential bomb-making system - over to multilateral control, by
region or continent.
ElBaradei himself has proposed a five-year moratorium on new
nuclear fuel facilities anywhere while the world's nations
negotiate over new controls. Addressing the U.N. conference
Monday, he offered to investigate ways to guarantee
international supplies of fuel for those who need them.
In consultations since then with treaty nations, he has found a
``mixed reaction'' to the moratorium idea, ElBaradei said, since
Iran is not the only country with plans for new
uranium-enrichment or plutonium-reprocessing facilities.
But he said he hopes the IAEA will get formal approval from the
treaty conference or his agency's member nations to explore
legal, institutional, financial and other aspects of possible
new controls.
``I'm pretty confident that I will be asked by either the
nonproliferation treaty parties or our IAEA member states to
continue that work,'' he said.
The Americans demand that Iran dismantle its enrichment
equipment. President Bush has proposed simply banning sales of
enrichment and reprocessing technology to nations other than the
dozen or so who already have it, and ensuring that any who want
fuel can buy it ``at reasonable cost.''
ElBaradei said that idea ``has merit'' but also has two
problems.
He said one is that many countries already can develop the
sensitive technology on their own, and the other is that it
raises questions of ``different standards'' - that is, double
standards for those allowed to have fuel technology and those
denied it.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
26 Chernobyl: Victim's First Hand Reportage- Voices from Chernobyl, Swetlana Alexeyewich
Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 10:48:08 -0400
------------------------------------------------
----------------------
Svetlana Alexievich
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Voices from Chernobyl
Translated by Keith Gessen
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On April 26' 1986' the worst nuclear reactor
accident in history occurred in Chernobyl. Until
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Chernobyl presents first-hand accounts of what
happened to the people of Belarus and the fear'
anger' and uncertainty that they lived through. In
order to give voice to their experiences, Svetlana
Alexievich
"Nuclear critic Ray Shadis said some underground "hot spots" are 50 to 100
times the level of naturally occurring radioactivity, yet the plan is for
the land to eventually be released without restrictions on its future use.
"If you have kids playing in the dirt in that intensely radioactive area,
and they can inhale it or eat it, I say that´s not good enough," he said."
--------------------
I ask - not good enough for Maine, but OK for Iraq?
---------------------
From the AP WIRE Today's stories
Sunday, May 8, 2005 2:30 pm
Rain causes headaches for workers cleaning up Maine Yankee site
By DAVID SHARP
WISCASSET, Maine - Last month´s deluge of rain that soaked communities and
caused rivers to spill their banks transformed the former Maine Yankee
nuclear power plant site into a muddy mess, pushing back the decommissioning
timetable.
Physical work, already delayed, was supposed to be completed in April. Now
workers are looking to complete the task by late May or early June.
"It has been a real quagmire," said Eric Howes, Maine Yankee spokesman.
Every time it rained, water filled massive holes that once comprised the
foundation of the containment building and other structures.
The water had to be pumped out, and all of that moisture added to the
weight, and therefore the cost, of shipping contaminated soil to a low-level
radioactive waste repository in Utah. Progress on the final surveys for
radiation slowed, as well.
The rain cost the project $3 million to $4 million, said Bill Henries,
project manager. "We had so much blinking rain," he said. "It was amazing."
Across Maine, many communities recorded double the average rainfall last
month. Portland recorded 8.3 inches, the third wettest in 135 years, and
Bangor received 6.19 inches. Caribou set a record for the month with 6.9
inches.
All of that rain followed a winter in which more than 100 inches of snow
fell. The snow, bitter cold and wet spring all contributed to troubles for
workers in charge of removing contaminated rubble and cleaning up the
179-acre site of the pressurized reactor that went into operation in 1972.
Maine Yankee´s board voted to close the plant permanently in August 1997, 11
years before the expiration of its license.
All of that snow and rain created a mud season to remember. Workers have
trucked in tons of sand and dirt to make up for the contaminated soil that
was removed. Then came the rain that transformed holes where buildings once
stood into ponds.
Once, workers pumped 160,000 gallons of water in a 24-hour period, Henries
said. The water went into holding tanks for testing; it was dumped back into
the Sheepscot River once it was determined that it met federal regulations,
he said.
Because of the high moisture content, 48 rail cars containing soil had to be
returned to Wiscasset because Envirocare, the landfill operator in Clive,
Utah, voiced concerns about previous shipments that leaked water.
Overly saturated soil can leach low-level radioactive contamination into
groundwater, so workers in Wiscasset will make sure the soil from the rail
cars is dry before it´s repacked and reshipped to the landfill in Utah.
A tour of the Wiscasset site late last week gives an inkling of things to
come. A visitor can now walk across the land where once stood the 150-foot
containment dome, which was brought down by explosives last September.
Nine to 10 acres of land will be seeded next week, and the remaining 9 or 10
acres will be seeded around the end of May, Henries said.
All that remains are two power substations and a 60-foot transmission tower
left because it´s home to an osprey nest, as well as a security building and
a nine-acre storage facility for the highly radioactive spent fuel.
The spent fuel is stored in 60 large containers made of steel and concrete
that are protected by two fences topped with barbed wire, electronic
monitoring and an earthen berm, in addition to armed guards.
The cost of storing the fuel in Wiscasset indefinitely until the federal
government follows through with its promise to build a repository for the
highly radioactive waste is expected to be $7 million a year, Howes said.
Meanwhile, final site surveys to ensure compliance with radioactive waste
standards are nearly completed: only 2.5 acres remain.
Maine Yankee is being held to a higher standard for the cleanup than what´s
required by Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards.
But not everyone is satisfied.
Nuclear critic Ray Shadis said some underground "hot spots" are 50 to 100
times the level of naturally occurring radioactivity, yet the plan is for
the land to eventually be released without restrictions on its future use.
"If you have kids playing in the dirt in that intensely radioactive area,
and they can inhale it or eat it, I say that´s not good enough," he said.
©Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. E-mail this story
___
On the Net:
Maine Yankee www.maineyankee.com
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28 [NukeNet] IAEA Head Pushes Sea Changes Re Nuke Power,
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 19:12:25 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
IAEA's head ElBaradei's proposals need real
support. Please call, fax, meet with your
Senators, Reps, MPs and other representatives
wherever in the world you are to support him and
pushing for the abolition of nuclear weapons and
nuclear power reactors[N-bomb factories]. This
very well may be make or break time for the
proliferation or lack thereof throughout the world
of the desire to acquire nuclear weapons be that
through the acquisition of commercial nuclear
power technology or otherwise. The congressional
switchboard in the USA is: 202-224-3121 and
202-225-3121. House: http://www.house.gov
Senate: http://www.senate.gov
>The tighter controls he envisions ''would be a
real sea change in the way we have been managing
>nuclear energy,'' the IAEA chief said.
>He has asked the current treaty conference to
consider several possible approaches suggested by
an >IAEA expert group in February. They range from
simply tightening controls on current commercial
sales >of dual-use equipment, to turning all
enrichment and plutonium reprocessing
operations -- another >potential bomb-making
system -- over to multilateral control, by region
or continent.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-UN-ElBaradei.html?
U.N. Nuclear Chief Pushes 'Sea Change'
a.. E-Mail This
b.. Printer-Friendly
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 7, 2005
Filed at 9:09 a.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Sixty years after
Hiroshima, Mohamed ElBaradei has big ideas for
changing the way the world handles the atom. The
sweeping overhaul he envisions -- bringing uranium
and plutonium technology under tougher, possibly
international control -- would mean a ''sea
change'' in the nuclear realm. But it's necessary,
the U.N. nuclear chief says, ''because we are
facing a threat.''
ElBaradei spoke with The Associated Press on
Friday at the end of a week in which he canvassed
support for his ideas at a conference here of more
than 180 nations reviewing the status of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
He said he expects to win global support to begin
planning such changes, in part because of the
current alarm over Iran's ability to establish a
uranium-enrichment capability.
''Everybody understands that if we continue in
that fashion, in the next 10, 20 years we'll have
20, 30 countries that I would call virtual
nuclear-weapons states, meaning countries that
could move within months into converting their
civilian capacity or capability into a weapons
program,'' said ElBaradei, director-general of the
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran's enrichment program, using centrifuges that
can produce uranium fuel for either nuclear power
plants or nuclear bombs, is a major issue at the
treaty review. Tehran says the program is meant
only for peaceful purposes of civilian energy;
Washington contends it is a cover for eventual
bomb-building.
Under the 1970 nonproliferation treaty, states
like Iran without nuclear weapons renounce them
forever in exchange for a commitment by
nuclear-weapons states to move toward disarmament.
Access to peaceful technology is guaranteed under
the treaty, but ElBaradei said the spread of such
capabilities has become a ''serious problem.''
The tighter controls he envisions ''would be a
real sea change in the way we have been managing
nuclear energy,'' the IAEA chief said.
He has asked the current treaty conference to
consider several possible approaches suggested by
an IAEA expert group in February. They range from
simply tightening controls on current commercial
sales of dual-use equipment, to turning all
enrichment and plutonium reprocessing
operations -- another potential bomb-making
system -- over to multilateral control, by region
or continent.
ElBaradei himself has proposed a five-year
moratorium on new nuclear fuel facilities anywhere
while the world's nations negotiate over new
controls. Addressing the U.N. conference Monday,
he offered to investigate ways to guarantee
international supplies of fuel for those who need
them.
In consultations since then with treaty nations,
he has found a ''mixed reaction'' to the
moratorium idea, ElBaradei said, since Iran is not
the only country with plans for new
uranium-enrichment or plutonium-reprocessing
facilities.
But he said he hopes the IAEA will get formal
approval from the treaty conference or his
agency's member nations to explore legal,
institutional, financial and other aspects of
possible new controls.
''I'm pretty confident that I will be asked by
either the nonproliferation treaty parties or our
IAEA member states to continue that work,'' he
said.
The Americans demand that Iran dismantle its
enrichment equipment. President Bush has proposed
simply banning sales of enrichment and
reprocessing technology to nations other than the
dozen or so who already have it, and ensuring that
any who want fuel can buy it ''at reasonable
cost.''
ElBaradei said that idea ''has merit'' but also
has two problems.
He said one is that many countries already can
develop the sensitive technology on their own, and
the other is that it raises questions of
''different standards'' -- that is, double
standards for those allowed to have fuel
technology and those denied it.
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29 UK: Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant
Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 18:23:19 -0500 (CDT)
Monday May 9, 2005
The Guardian (UK)
www.guardian.co.uk
Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant
by
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric
acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the
closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant.
The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and
plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless
steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter.
Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and may require
special robots to be built and sophisticated engineering techniques devised
to repair the #2.1bn plant.
The leak is not a danger to the public but is likely to be a financial
disaster for the taxpayer since income from the Thorp plant, calculated to
be more than #1m a day, is supposed to pay for the cleanup of redundant
nuclear facilities.
The closure could hardly have come at a worse time for the nuclear industry.
Britain is struggling to meet its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions
by 20% of 1990 levels by 2010, despite a substantial programme of wind farm
construction, while generating capacity will also be hit by the rundown of
some of Britain's coal-fired power stations.
The decision on whether to build a new generation of nuclear power stations
is among the most sensitive Tony Blair faces at the start of his third term.
A leak of a briefing paper to ministers on the nuclear option yesterday
revealed that the contribution new nuclear capacity could make to cutting
greenhouse gases had not yet been considered because of opposition from
Margaret Beckett, secretary of state for environment, food and rural
affairs.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a quango which took over ownership of
the plant from British Nuclear Fuels on April 1, has a #2.2bn cleanup budget
for this year, its first year of operation, of which #560m was to come from
the Thorp plant.
Richard Flynn, spokesman for the NDA, said: "If the income from the plant is
not forthcoming then obviously it will put back plans for cleaning up."
On Friday the British Nuclear Group, a management company formed to run the
Sellafield site on behalf of the NDA, held a meeting with the government
safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), to discuss
how to mop up the leak and repair the pipe. The company has to get the
inspectors' approval before proceeding.
A problem at the plant was first noticed on April 19 when operators could
not account for all the spent fuel that had been dissolved in nitric acid.
It was supposed to be travelling through the plant to be measured and
separated into uranium, plutonium and waste products in a series of
centrifuges. Remote cameras scanning the interior of the plant found the
leak.
Although most of the material is uranium, the fuel contains about 200kg
(440lb) of plutonium, enough to make 20 nuclear weapons, and must be
recovered and accounted for to conform to international safeguards aimed at
preventing nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands. The liquid will
have to be siphoned off and stored until the works can be repaired, but a
method of doing this has yet to be devised.
The company has set up a board of inquiry to find out how the leak occurred.
The NII will set up a separate investigation and has the power to prosecute
if correct procedures have not been followed.
The Thorp plant produces uranium and plutonium from spent fuel in such large
quantities that only a tiny proportion of it can ever be reused for reactor
fuel. Its critics also claim it is uneconomic because it has never operated
to design capacity since it opened 12 years ago, and is years behind
schedule in fulfilling orders.
This has angered some customers and the British Nuclear Group is embroiled
in a court case with one of its customers, the German owners of the Brokdorf
power station, which is withholding fees of #2,772 a day for storage of
spent fuel, claiming it should have been reprocessed years ago.
In 12 years Thorp has reprocessed 5,644 tonnes of fuel from its first
10-year target of 7,000 tonnes. Last year it failed to reach its target of
725 tonnes, achieving 590.
Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to Radioactive Environment, said the
NDA had been "naive" in placing trust on income from Thorp, given its track
record. "Reprocessing is blatantly incompatible with the official cleanup
remit of the NDA, which will now find itself out of pocket as a result of
the latest Thorp accident. The new owners would do the taxpayer the greatest
service by putting Thorp out of its misery and closing it once and for all."
The managing director of British Nuclear Group, Sellafield, Barry Snelson,
who ordered the plant to be closed down, said: "Let me reassure people that
the plant is in a safe and stable state."
----------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,2763,1479527,00.html
----------
*****************************************************************
30 [NukeNet] Chernobyl: Victim's First Hand Reportage- Voices
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 19:14:45 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Svetlana Alexievich
Voices from Chernobyl
Translated by Keith Gessen
Recently Released
A Reading the World Title
A Lannan Selection
Russian Literature Series
Current Affairs
April 2005
253 pages, 5.5 x 8.5
$22.95, cloth, 1-56478-401-0
* SPECIAL SALE--any 100 Dalkey titles for $500
On April 26' 1986' the worst nuclear reactor
accident in history occurred in Chernobyl. Until
now' all of the books published in English focused
on the facts' names' and data. Voices from
Chernobyl presents first-hand accounts of what
happened to the people of Belarus and the fear'
anger' and uncertainty that they lived through. In
order to give voice to their experiences, Svetlana
Alexievich
*****************************************************************
31 Guardian Unlimited: Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Monday May 9, 2005
A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in
concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size
swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp
reprocessing plant.
The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of
uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe
into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that
it is impossible to enter.
Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and
may require special robots to be built and sophisticated
engineering techniques devised to repair the £2.1bn plant.
The leak is not a danger to the public but is likely to be a
financial disaster for the taxpayer since income from the Thorp
plant, calculated to be more than £1m a day, is supposed to pay
for the cleanup of redundant nuclear facilities.
The closure could hardly have come at a worse time for the
nuclear industry. Britain is struggling to meet its target of
cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% of 1990 levels by 2010,
despite a substantial programme of wind farm construction, while
generating capacity will also be hit by the rundown of some of
Britain's coal-fired power stations.
The decision on whether to build a new generation of nuclear
power stations is among the most sensitive Tony Blair faces at
the start of his third term.
A leak of a briefing paper to ministers on the nuclear option
yesterday revealed that the contribution new nuclear capacity
could make to cutting greenhouse gases had not yet been
considered because of opposition from Margaret Beckett, secretary
of state for environment, food and rural affairs.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a quango which took over
ownership of the plant from British Nuclear Fuels on April 1, has
a £2.2bn cleanup budget for this year, its first year of
operation, of which £560m was to come from the Thorp plant.
Richard Flynn, spokesman for the NDA, said: "If the income from
the plant is not forthcoming then obviously it will put back
plans for cleaning up."
On Friday the British Nuclear Group, a management company formed
to run the Sellafield site on behalf of the NDA, held a meeting
with the government safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate (NII), to discuss how to mop up the leak and repair
the pipe. The company has to get the inspectors' approval before
proceeding.
A problem at the plant was first noticed on April 19 when
operators could not account for all the spent fuel that had been
dissolved in nitric acid. It was supposed to be travelling
through the plant to be measured and separated into uranium,
plutonium and waste products in a series of centrifuges. Remote
cameras scanning the interior of the plant found the leak.
Although most of the material is uranium, the fuel contains about
200kg (440lb) of plutonium, enough to make 20 nuclear weapons,
and must be recovered and accounted for to conform to
international safeguards aimed at preventing nuclear materials
falling into the wrong hands. The liquid will have to be siphoned
off and stored until the works can be repaired, but a method of
doing this has yet to be devised.
The company has set up a board of inquiry to find out how the
leak occurred. The NII will set up a separate investigation and
has the power to prosecute if correct procedures have not been
followed.
The Thorp plant produces uranium and plutonium from spent fuel in
such large quantities that only a tiny proportion of it can ever
be reused for reactor fuel. Its critics also claim it is
uneconomic because it has never operated to design capacity since
it opened 12 years ago, and is years behind schedule in
fulfilling orders.
This has angered some customers and the British Nuclear Group is
embroiled in a court case with one of its customers, the German
owners of the Brokdorf power station, which is withholding fees
of £2,772 a day for storage of spent fuel, claiming it should
have been reprocessed years ago.
In 12 years Thorp has reprocessed 5,644 tonnes of fuel from its
first 10-year target of 7,000 tonnes. Last year it failed to
reach its target of 725 tonnes, achieving 590.
Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to Radioactive Environment,
said the NDA had been "naive" in placing trust on income from
Thorp, given its track record. "Reprocessing is blatantly
incompatible with the official cleanup remit of the NDA, which
will now find itself out of pocket as a result of the latest
Thorp accident. The new owners would do the taxpayer the greatest
service by putting Thorp out of its misery and closing it once
and for all."
The managing director of British Nuclear Group, Sellafield, Barry
Snelson, who ordered the plant to be closed down, said: "Let me
reassure people that the plant is in a safe and stable state."
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
32 The Observer: Secret papers reveal new nuclear building plan
[UP]
Oliver Morgan, industrial editor
Sunday May 8, 2005
The government's strategy to kick-start a huge nuclear power
station building programme is revealed today in confidential
Whitehall documents seen by The Observer.
In a 46-paragraph briefing note for incoming ministers, Joan
MacNaughton, the director-general of energy policy at the new
Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry, warns that key
policy targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and boost green
energy are likely to fail, and that decisions on new nuclear
power stations must be taken urgently. It advises that 'it is
generally easier to push ahead on controversial issues early in a
new parliament'.
The document points to the key role new nuclear power stations,
which do not emit carbon dioxide, would play in tackling carbon
emissions. It states: 'We now have 12 nuclear stations providing
20 per cent of our electricity carbon-free. By 2020 this will
fall to three stations and 7 per cent as stations are retired.'
It also points to the increased risk of an electricity supply
shortage after 2008, when a number of nuclear plants are due to
close, and warns of a growing reliance on imported gas supplies.
It continues: 'Extending the lives of nuclear stations and/or new
build could strengthen the generating sector's contribution to
CO2 reductions, by 2020 and beyond.'
But it adds that to avoid a very steep drop in nuclear output a
decision is needed quickly, because it takes a decade to get
stations operational. There are also obstacles that would need to
be overcome in building a new generation of plants, including
gaining public acceptance and dealing with nuclear waste.
The department paper is revealed as the nuclear industry gears up
for a major lobbying push for new stations. The Nuclear Industry
Association has been pressing on the government the need for 10
new stations to combat climate change, arguing that a large-scale
building programme is the only economic way of financing them.
UK companies such as Amec and Westinghouse, the power station
construction arm of state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL)
- along with foreign companies such as Aveva and Bechtel of the
US, have also urged the case in Whitehall.
The Whitehall briefing, a 'first day' options paper prepared for
the new Secretary of State, Alan Johnson, states that the
government is widely expected to 'come off the fence' on nuclear
energy and advises that it should work with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Treasury and Number 10
to 'be on the front foot', making a statement on energy policy
and its impact on climate change before the summer recess.
MacNaughton warns that '(carbon dioxide) emissions have been
rising in recent years. We look to be falling well short of the
goal to cut them by 20 per cent by 2010, absent (of) new
measures'. Two of the reasons are 'falling nuclear generation'
and 'weaker than predicted impact of some policy measures'.
Key among these is the attempt to boost renewable forms of energy
- such as wind farms, solar power and crop-burning stations - by
forcing electricity suppliers to source 10 per cent of their
supplies from these sources by 2010. The paper admits 7 to 8 per
cent is more likely.
MacNaughton also admits that the government's stance on the
nuclear issue in the last parliament 'to keep the option open'
without encouraging it 'was a compromise, endorsed by the PM,
between ministers for and against'.
Now she says: 'The case for looking at the nuclear question again
quickly is that, if we want to avoid a very sharp fall in
nuclear's contribution to energy supplies (some fall is already
certain and has begun), we should need to act soon given the long
lead times (10 years) in getting a new nuclear station up and
running.'
However, she lists a series of issues that need to be addressed:
· 'How might new stations be financed?
· What kind of government support might be necessary for new
build to take place?
· How far would new build be consistent with our market framework
for energy?
· How best to secure public acceptance?
· How far would we need to resolve the long outstanding issue of
finding a final depository for high level nuclear waste, as a
pre-condition for progressing new build?'
The previous compromise was hammered out in a 2003 white paper,
Our Energy Future - creating a low-carbon economy. This was the
result of a bitter Whitehall battle between pro-nuclear elements
in the then Department of Trade and Industry headed by the Energy
Minister Brian Wilson and in Downing Street, and a determinedly
anti-nuclear group headed by Environment Secretary Margaret
Beckett.
The new Energy Minister is advised to take a robust line with
Defra, not only over nuclear power, but on the amount of carbon
dioxide industry is allowed to emit under European regulations.
DPEI's wants a higher cap than Defra, arguing that too stringent
restrictions will harm productivity.
Defra is heading the government's Climate Change Programme
Review, which has a crucial role in placing the issue at the top
of the agenda for the UK's presidency of the G8 this year. But
MacNaughton notes: 'Because Mrs Beckett opposes nuclear new
build, the review has not so far considered whether nuclear
should contribute to cutting emissions.'
Resistance from Defra, where Beckett remains Secretary of State,
is likely to remain strong, as she is known to be particularly
concerned that no decision has yet been reached on how to store
Britain's stockpile of radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
33 The Observer: Labour's nuclear option
[UP]
If Britain needs more Sizewell B-style power stations, the key
will be winning over investors, writes Oliver Morgan
Sunday May 8, 2005
What's in a name? Quite a lot if it is the title of a government
department. Labour may not have scrapped the Department of Trade
and Industry as the Lib Dems promised. But its new name,
Productivity, Energy and Industry, is as clear a sign that one of
the ugliest items in the government's not-to-be-opened-before-6
May in-tray is now at the top of the pile: the Nuclear Question.
Or rather questions. The first that new DPEI secretary Alan
Johnson will have to consider is: 'Do we need to build more
nuclear power stations?' The arguments are well-rehearsed: if we
are to fulfil our Kyoto commitments, can renewable energy fill
the void left by 'carbon-free' nuclear stations as the 20 per
cent of UK power they produce dwindles to zero by 2020? Or do we
need new nukes?
Less well aired is the second question: who will pay for them? It
will not be the government, not directly at least. They must be
built 'privately'. Technically, there is no change: companies
have not been prevented from building stations; they have not
done so because the government gave them no encouragement.
From this starting point there are difficulties ahead, even if
the answer to question one is "yes". One City banker who has
advised the government on nuclear financing says: 'If the
government decides it wants to do it, it will have to persuade
investors. That is bad news. It means the government thinks there
is a need for something, while the private sector does not.
Investors may take a lot of persuading.'
In fact, a sounding-out process had been going on for some time,
with officials in 10 Downing Street, the Department of Trade and
Industry, the Treasury and the Department for Environ- ment, Food
and Rural Affairs listening to arguments from the industry and
environmentalists.
The industry is putting on a confident show. In an unpublished
'position paper', the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), which
represents about 200 companies, says: 'Nuclear can clearly be an
economic and attractive private sector investment proposition,
provided that risk can be appropriately managed.
'Key risks arise due to the relatively long time scale of the
licensing, approval and construction phases ... [and] the current
lack of clarity on waste management policy and the uncertainty
over future power prices. These risks are all manageable provided
they are appropriately allocated.'
The last statement may be true. But, as City experts emphasise,
the liberalised electricity market will need to be radically
rearranged - and it will cost.
Tom Burke, visiting fellow at Imperial College and a former
adviser to the environment department, says: 'Essentially,
nuclear is very expensive and you have to make a special case to
get it to work. That will make a mockery of our "liberalised"
market and should concern the companies that operate within it.'
The most immediate problem is planning. As Simon Skillings,
strategy director for Powergen, whose parent, E.On, operates
nuclear stations in Germany and Scandinavia, says: 'New nuclear
is not even on the investment radar because the whole regulatory
and planning environment is not in place.'
The NIA concedes that the planning system is too opaque, saying:
'Delays for any reason bring substantial associated cost due to
the substantial capital tied up in the project.' High start-up
costs are a key feature of nuclear stations. Bankers estimate the
construction of nuclear stations to cost between £1.3 million and
£1.7m per megawatt capacity, compared with £340,000 for gas.
'It is a classic trade-off - the initial cost for nuclear is very
high, but for gas it is very low, while the price of uranium is
low, whereas gas is higher and volatile,' says one banking
adviser. 'But the problem for nuclear is you can have gas through
planning quickly and built in nine months with a quarter of the
investment. If planning and licensing are not sorted out at this
early stage, nuclear looks like a non-starter.'
Burke says the time scales are so long as to render nuclear's
contribution to climate change by 2020 nugatory. 'If you started
today, you would not have a reactor going for 10 years. You would
not build more until you knew it worked. At that rate you would
be very lucky to have three up and running in 20 years.'
He adds that at least 10 need to be built as a 'batch' for
economies of scale. The NIA concedes that a large number of
reactors is needed. It points to evidence from South Korea, where
the average construction cost spread across 10 plants was 35 per
cent per plant of the cost of building the first one.
But the NIA contends that technologies - as shown in
Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor and the European Pressurised Water
reactor, at the centre of plans for a privately financed station
in Finland - are understood well enough to allow confidencefrom
the outset.
However, investors are even more sceptical about the power
market, pointing back three years to the effective insolvency of
British Energy, driven by the plunge in prices to an average of
some £17/mwh (compared with £30 today).
'The problem for nuclear stations is that a very high proportion
of the costs are fixed [thanks, partly to high capital costs],'
Skillings says. 'So, while fossil fuel stations can shut down [as
several, including Powergen, did in the 2002/03 price slump]
without it costing too much, nuclear cannot.'
The NIA points to Finland, where contracts spanning decades have
been signed, guaranteeing a market and a price range. The UK
consensus seems to be that such contracts must form part of the
solution here, although the Finnish model cannot be imported off
the shelf.
One banking adviser says: 'You need some kind of government or
regulatory commitment to force people to contract to buy nuclear
power. You would have to be careful to make it apply to all
suppliers so none are disadvantaged and all share the same risk.'
Meanwhile, government will need to convince big industrial
players to come on board. 'These capital-intensive projects with
the risks involved do not lend themselves to debt-funded project
fin ance. You need big industrial players with strong balance
sheets and access to equity at the centre of any corporate
structure,' the banker says.
The difficulty is that several of them remember how painful their
long-term contracts were last time. In 2003 Powergen chief
executive Paul Golby warned of a bust in the market that could
see the lights go out. As consultant Graham Shuttleworth of
National Economic Research Associates says: 'Remember TXU. It had
a lot of contracts it had to walk away from because they were out
of money. It went into administration to liquidate assets to pay
them.' TXU's parent was one of the largest utilities in the
United States.
'If you believe that power prices will drop to a low level, then
you would think nuclear was problematic,' Skillings says. But, he
points out, now that carbon is traded via the European emissions
trading scheme, its environmental cost becomes a financial one.
'If you believe the cost of carbon is going to be high, that
would be an argument in favour of new nuclear stations.'
Investors are not convinced by the Finnish example. One adviser
says: 'In Finland there are many highly intensive energy users -
paper and forestry products industries, for example. And there is
a sense of co-operation in the business community. Neither of
these translates directly to the UK.' Another difference is 'that
in Finland disposal is not a controversial issue'. There is a
consensus that it's acceptable to bury waste.
However, in the UK disposal is controversial. This year a
government committee is expected to come to a decision on what to
do - bury waste, keep it on the surface or seek another option.
One adviser says: 'My assumption is that if there were to be new
nuclear build you would have to have a system like in the US,
where the generator pays a certain amount per megawatt produced,
reflective of costs, into a government agency, andin return the
risk would be underwritten by the public. But unless there is a
decision on what to do with the waste, it is difficult to see the
government making a commitment to the industry without knowing
what kind of commitment it is making.'
The NIA again points to Finland, Sweden and the US as evidence
for believing the problem can be solved here as well.
But Burke says: 'The argument that the government makes people
sign a 40-year contract to take nuclear power then agrees to take
back the liabilities and uses public money to do it is ludicrous.
The truth is that nuclear is not economic and cannot be financed
without the market being fixed.'
He believes the future lies in clean hydrocarbon technology -
burying carbon in reservoirs, under the North Sea in the UK's
case. And Skillings also believes this will be a vital part of
the solution to non-environmentally harmful energy in the century
to come. That is another story. But by itself it does not solve
the government's nuclear conundrum. The time bomb continues to
tick.
Green goals
The government is committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
under the Kyoto protocol. It wants to cut them by 12.5 per cent
below 1990 levels by 2008-12 and to see carbon dioxide, the main
greenhouse gas, cut by 20 per cent by 2010. In addition, it has a
long-term target of reducing carbon carbon emissions by 2050.
To help, it has set targets for renewable generation: 10 per cent
of the UK's electricity generation coming from renewable sources
by 2010, with an aim of 20 per cent by 2020. In 2003, 2.9 per
cent came from renewables. The government has admitted hitting
the targets will be challenging.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
34 UK The Times: Cabinet clash over nuclear power
May 08, 2005
Andrew Porter, Deputy Political Editor
A CABINET row over whether to build a new generation of nuclear
power stations in Britain is set to be one of the first clashes
of Tony Blair’s new government.
Leaked Whitehall papers reveal that Margaret Beckett, the
environment secretary, is resisting the construction of new
plants even though officials say they are needed to help cut
greenhouse gas emissions.
A 46-page briefing by civil servants to Alan Johnson, the
incoming secretary for productivity, energy and industry, warns
that Beckett will oppose any attempt to bring the nuclear option
back on the agenda. However, her views are likely to clash with
those of No 10, which is keen to begin a debate knowing that the
government must decide by the end of the decade whether new
plants need to be built to shore up the country’s energy
supplies.
A Downing Street adviser said: “You will see over the next few
weeks how we are going to push ahead with the solution to
Britain’s energy problems and ensure security of supply in the
future.
“The prime minister will foster a major public debate around the
nuclear issue and this is the right thing to do.”
The price of oil is making the problem more pressing. But the
appointment of Johnson is seen as a significant step by industry
insiders. He is regarded as a practical politician who will be
alive to the nuclear issue.
Other issues that Blair is determined to pursue include the
identity cards bill, even though it is likely to be the first
casualty of the government’s reduced majority.
It will be in the Queen’s speech this month in line with the
party’s manifesto pledge. The attempt to push the bill through
will be a first test of how rebellious the party’s “awkward
squad” will be.
Should the bill be defeated, ministers are ready to blame the
Tories for blocking a “vital anti-terrorist measure”.
The speech, expected towards the end of the month, will also see
the return of the child contact bill, which gives parents the
right to see children after a break-up and puts in place
penalties for those mothers and fathers who refuse to comply
with its measures.
There will also be a bill to combat the MRSA bug by bringing in
a legal duty of care on hospital managers to keep hospitals
clean.
The prime minister will attempt to sort out asylum abuse by
introducing an asylum and immigration bill. This is intended to
speed up applications and will introduce a points system for
work permit applicants from overseas.
David Blunkett, now the work and pensions secretary, met a
delegation of people protesting about pensions yesterday.
Hundreds marched in London to object to the way workers can
often lose their pension entitlement when firms go bust.
The event, organised by the Amicus union, was addressed by
Melvyn Bragg, a Labour life peer who turned 65 last October.
Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk
*****************************************************************
35 Portland Press Herald: Maine Yankee says long goodbye
The nuclear power plant's radioactive legacy will last for
decades after decommissioning is complete. Today's Question: ARE
YOU CONCERNED about potential public safety issues at the
dismantled Maine Yankee plant? -->
MaineToday.com
Sunday, May 8, 2005
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Staff photo by Doug Jones
Hinkley, a 31-year employee of Maine Yankee, measures
radiation in a final check for acceptable levels before the area
is planted with grass.
Staff photo by Doug Jones
The last vestige of the plant's foundation, an area between
the "hot" part of the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant and the
"cold" part, as the engineers refer to them, is excavated and
pulverized for shipment to a Utah disposal site.
Staff photo by Doug Jones
Bill Henries, left, who is in charge of the decommissioning,
talks last week with Ted Feigenbaum, president of Maine Yankee,
at a groundwater recovery area. The recovery process involves
pumping water to a transport vehicle, then storing it in one of
two tanks in the building in the background for treatment.
MAINE YANKEE TIMELINE
1966: Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. formed.
1968: Construction begins after the Atomic Energy Commission
issues a permit.
1972: The Maine Yankee nuclear plant begins commercial
operation following a four-year construction period. Original
cost: $231 million.
1997: Maine Yankee closes after officials determine it is no
longer economical to operate the plant. Planning for the
decommissioning process begins.
2001: Maine Yankee starts to demolish buildings.
2004: Maine Yankee's nuclear reactor dome is toppled with about
1,100 pounds of explosives. The reinforced concrete dome
structure, which was designed to withstand earthquakes,
tornadoes and hurricane-force winds, collapses in less than two
seconds.
2005: Decommissioning process will be completed, but Maine
Yankee will remain responsible for storing spent nuclear fuel
assemblies until a federal storage site at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada starts accepting waste.
Source: Maine Yankee; News Archives- Research contributed by
staff researcher Beth Murphy
Each day, we ask MaineToday.com readers for their reactions to
events in the news:
WISCASSET — The peninsula where Maine Yankee's concrete dome
once stood is now an open expanse of sand. Red ribbon circles a
few holes where crews dig for the last loads of contaminated
soil left by the state's only nuclear power plant. Within weeks,
company officials plan to fill the holes, plant grass and
declare an end to the seven-year, $500 million cleanup.
Maine Yankee's radioactive legacy won't go away that fast,
however.
Some remnants of the plant will remain buried here, and
groundwater will be tested for years to come. And, most
troubling to neighbors, state officials and Maine Yankee itself,
more than 1,400 used fuel rods - the most highly radioactive
waste from the old reactor - will remain stored inside a metal
building at the site, likely for another 20 years or more.
Maine Yankee is one of the nation's first large nuclear plants
to be completely removed to below ground level, and the project
is yielding lessons about the challenges that one 25-year-old
plant can leave behind. As always, opinions vary about whether
the nuclear power's benefits outweigh its costs.
"We're getting close," said Bill Henries, the Maine Yankee
engineer leading the decommissioning project.
Last week, as a red fox trotted across the edge of the
sand-covered work site and ospreys flew overhead, front-end
loaders scooped soil out of a hole that was once the site of the
plant's spent-fuel storage pool. A sensor lowered over the area
by a crane tells workers whether what's in the hole exceeds a
radioactivity level set by the state, and when the crew can stop
digging.
Nearby, workers pumped rainwater from another hole and sent it
into a treatment building on its way into the Back River.
Another pair of workers in hard hats moved slowly across the
sand, measuring surface radiation in small grids and recording
results that will later be reviewed by state and federal
officials.
Company officials say the job will be done within budget and
only slightly later than planned. A snowy winter, a rainy spring
and a problem with shipments of contaminated soil delayed the
project's completion a few months.
Forty-eight rail cars loaded with soil and bound for a Utah
landfill had to be called back to Maine Yankee last month to
make sure they didn't contain more water than the landfill
operator allows. Some previous shipments were so wet that at
least one car dripped water as it traveled across country.
Workers now are inspecting the returning rail cars, and in some
cases emptying and reloading them.
The soil is among the least contaminated waste to leave the
site, the last of 400 million pounds of waste that will have
been shipped to various landfills around the country when the
project ends. But it has been tricky. When the crews move soil
or rainwater around the site so they can finish one area and
stay on the company's cleanup schedule, they sometimes create
new areas of contamination that have to be excavated later.
Henries calls this phase, "painting ourselves out of the room."
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Beneath the sand lies parts of the concrete foundation, as well
as old pipes. Company officials say those parts of the plant and
remaining soils are not contaminated enough to exceed the
state's strict radiation dosage standard - 10 millirems of
radiation per year.
And, despite the push to finish the job, Maine Yankee officials
say nothing is being left behind that shouldn't be.
"There has been absolutely no reduction in standards. We have
the same standards on the last day that we had the first day,"
Maine Yankee President Ted Feigenbaum said.
Feigenbaum said the project has demonstrated that a plant can
safely and efficiently be removed to below ground level. The
$500 million cost of decommissioning is a small price compared
to the value of power generated by the plant over 25 years, he
said.
An inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who
visited the site for a periodic inspection this month agreed
that the cleanup is nearly done. Once cleared by the NRC, the
site will be considered clean enough for someone to build a
house there, grow food in the soil and drink water from a well,
said Mark Roberts, a nuclear health physicist and inspector for
the agency.
KEEPING A CLOSE EYE
Maine's state nuclear inspector, Pat Dostie, has kept an even
closer eye on the project, working at the plant since 1989. At
times, he said, that has meant telling Maine Yankee to slow down
despite the pressure to stay on an aggressive schedule. "It's
like (the schedule) is the force behind everything," he said.
Several months ago, for example, Dostie told Maine Yankee
officials they had to dig deeper than they planned around the
former fuel-storage pool because he found a seam where
contamination had concentrated underground. Dostie also said the
tight schedule and size of the project meant not every section
had a full confirmatory survey to doublecheck Maine Yankee's
measurements and make sure the cleanup met state standards.
"In some places it would have been nice, but we're
resource-limited," Dostie said. "The whole point here was not to
really duplicate their work but to feel comfortable with what
they've done."
And overall, Dostie said, he is. "I feel fairly comfortable
about what's being left, only because I've been in there and
done a lot of work."
Dostie will spend at least another year monitoring the site and
going over Maine Yankee's cleanup data. In addition, Maine's
Department of Environmental Protection will monitor groundwater
for radiation here for the next five years.
That makes Maria Holt feel better - to a degree.
The Bath woman, one of a network of people who have monitored
Maine's nuclear plant, sees the removal of so much contaminated
soil as further evidence that Maine Yankee did more damage to
the environment and public health than officials admitted.
"Every single day Maine Yankee has released man-made
radioactivity into the air and water," Holt said. "It's just
that you can't see it and you can't smell it. The government
says it's OK and it isn't. We should not put our hope for clean
energy in nuclear power. It would be a tragic mistake."
Marge Kilkelly, a former state legislator from Dresden and the
chairwoman of Maine Yankee's Community Advisory Panel, sees it
differently. The exhaustive cleanup, she said, has helped
reassure her about the attention to safety.
"The decommissioning process was a real-eye opener for me in
terms of the redundancy of the safety features. I think right
now, given the energy crisis that we're obviously looking at,
its not surprising that there is discussion of where nuclear
fits into the mix," Kilkelly said. "I think everything should be
on the table."
CHALLENGE OF DISPOSAL
Kilkelly and Holt may disagree about nuclear power, but most
everyone watching the project agrees about the biggest challenge
for Maine Yankee and other nuclear plants: the disposal of used
nuclear fuel.
The spent fuel rods now stored in casks at the Maine Yankee site
were supposed to get shipped away years ago to a central
repository that the federal government would operate and
protect. But that repository has never been created because of
political opposition around the proposed site in Yucca Mountain,
Nev. As a result, Maine Yankee and other plants around the
country have become nuclear waste dumps.
Maine Yankee now expects to have the waste for 20 more years,
despite efforts in court to force the Department of Energy to
take it, or at least pay for its storage. The former customers
of Maine Yankee, including electricity ratepayers in Maine, are
paying to store the waste now.
"That's really the big problem that's left," said Charlie Pray,
whose role as Maine's State Nuclear Safety Adviser has shifted
from monitoring Maine Yankee to pushing the federal government
to create a national repository.
As long as the Wiscasset site remains a high-level nuclear waste
storage site, Maine Yankee will maintain a security staff and
maintenance staff here. The long-term future of the 200-acre
site where the dome once stood remains uncertain.
The peninsula will be suitable for redevelopment, Feigenbaum
said. There will likely be some restrictions on groundwater use,
however, not to mention the challenge of marketing the site.
In the long run, it'll likely return to the foxes and ospreys.
"This will probably end up being conservation property,"
Feigenbaum said.
Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791 - 6324 or
at:
jrichardson@pressherald.com
Copyright© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
36 Daily Yomiuri: Local govts imperil N-policy
PLANNING NATIONAL STRATEGIES--Resources and energy /
The Yomiuri Shimbun
This is the 15th installment in a series of articles in the
"Planning National Strategies" series that considers the
situation and problems concerning natural resources and energy.
On Feb. 17, Hokushinmaru, a transport ship operated by an Osaka
shipping company, pulled alongside a pier at Mutsuogawara Port
in Rokkashomura, Aomori Prefecture.
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. will conduct four experiments at a
nuclear reprocessing plant, currently under construction in the
village, by 2006, when the plant is scheduled to start
operations. Hokushinmaru was carrying depleted uranium to be
used in the third experiment, completing the total shipment of
52 tons of depleted uranium needed for the experiments.
However, preparations for the experiments did not always go
smoothly.
The depleted uranium had been collected in Tokyo from a plant in
Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, and three other processing
plants. JNFL needed permission from the Tokyo metropolitan
government, which manages Tokyo Port, to use the port before it
was shipped to Rokkashomura.
But to the shock of JNFL executives, the metropolitan government
was reluctant to approve the company's request for permission in
early December.
Nuclear fuel recycling is Japan's national policy. The Aomori
prefectural government and the Rokkashomura municipal government
have reached a safety agreement covering the uranium
experiments. In this respect, there were no shortcomings in
preparations for the experiments, so JNFL executives naturally
were stunned at the metropolitan government's reaction.
JNFL unofficially asked the Aomori prefectural government if it
could transport the uranium by road or rail, but the prefectural
government rejected this for security reasons.
The metropolitan government eventually accepted JNFL's request
after the company's executives held talks with Tokyo government
officials.
Nuclear power plant safety is enforced at three levels. The
Nuclear Safety Commission supervises the Economy, Trade and
Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which
supervises electric power companies. In addition, power
companies make safety agreements with the governments of
municipalities hosting nuclear plants.
However, while power companies' relationships with the
commission and the agency are stipulated by law, local
governments are not legally bound to cooperate with the power
companies.
"If power companies operate nuclear plants without paying
attention to local governments, the governments might retaliate
by saying, 'You can't use our ports and roads' or 'We won't
agree when you introduce pluthermal generation,'" a safety
agency executive said. "There's nothing we can do if mayors
rebel against national nuclear policy."
Concerned about this situation, some lawmakers have started to
insist that the law stipulate the local governments' duties in
national nuclear projects.
Yosuke Kondo, a Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) member of
the House of Representatives, pointed out that the No. 1 reactor
of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant had not been restarted even after the safety committee
finished inspections in June 2004 because the Fukushima
prefectural government would not approve it. The reactor's
operation was suspended in October 2002 after TEPCO was found to
have falsified safety reports.
"The law doesn't stipulate whether local governments have the
authority to decide to operate the nuclear power plants, but in
reality, they virtually have a power of veto [on the plant's
operation]," Kondo said at a meeting of the lower house's
Economy, Trade and Industry Committee on April 22. "We can't
maintain our nuclear policy unless the law stipulates the local
governments' duties."
The Local Autonomy Law clearly differentiates the roles of the
national and local governments: The central government should be
in charge of duties that are "concerned with the nation's
existence."
All economic activities are founded on the availability of
energy. It is time to think how the central and local
governments can share duties to provide a stable supply of safe
energy.
Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun
*****************************************************************
37 The Herald: Pressure rises on nuclear power
Web Issue 2262 May 09 2005
DEBORAH SUMMERS, UK Political Correspondent May 09 2005
The government is under pressure to make an urgent decision on
whether it should endorse a new generation of nuclear power
stations.
Whitehall advisers claim the highly controversial move may be
necessary to ensure the UK meets its Kyoto obligations on the
reduction of global warming gas emissions.
A secret briefing note, drawn up as a "first day" option paper
for Alan Johnson, the new energy secretary, warns that key
policy targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and boost
green energy are likely to fail, and that decisions on a new
nuclear power stations must be taken urgently.
The document, written by Joan McNaughton, director general of
energy policy at the new Department of Productivity, Energy and
Industry, advises that "it is generally easier to push ahead on
controversial issues early in a new parliament".
It points to the key role new nuclear power stations, which do
not emit carbon dioxide, would play in tackling carbon
emissions. According to several Sunday newspapers, the document
states: "We now have 12 nuclear stations providing 20% of our
electricity carbon-free. By 2020 this will fall to three
stations and 7% as stations are retired."
It also points to the increased risk of an electricity shortage
after 2008, when a number of nuclear plants are due to close,
and warns of a growing reliance on imported gas supplies.
A DPEI spokesman said: "The new secretary of state Alan Johnson
will need to look at the issues."
Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
38 palm beach post: FPL joins in design for nuclear reactorse
www.palmbeachpost.com
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Florida Power &Light Co. has joined with eight other utilities to
hire two companies that will design two new nuclear-power
reactors.
The reactors would be the first such facilities in 30 years.
But NuStart Energy Development LLC, which includes the two
nuclear suppliers as well as the nine power companies, is not
considering any sites in Florida, an FPL spokeswoman said
Friday.
"Florida Power &Light does not have any plans to be the first in
the industry to build a new nuclear power plant," Rachel Scott
said. "We want to support the industry initiative to pursue
construction of the next generation of nuclear plants."
FPL, a division of Juno Beach-based FPL Group (NYSE: FPL,
$40.38), has operated a nuclear power plant on Hutchinson Island
in St. Lucie County since 1976. It also operates the Turkey
Point nuclear plant in Miami-Dade County.
General Electric Co. and Westinghouse, a subsidiary of British
Nuclear Fuels Plc, have signed agreements with NuStart to design
advanced reactors to be built at existing U.S. plant sites.
NuStart spokesman Carl Crawford, who also is manager of nuclear
communications for Entergy Nuclear in Jackson, Miss., said the
coalition has not announced any sites it is considering. Members
can propose their existing sites, and NuStart expects to select
the locations by October.
The Bush administration set up a program called Nuclear Power
2010 with the goal of getting a nuclear plant under construction
by that year, Crawford said. The plant would not begin operating
before 2014.
"Nuclear energy is the only way we have to create energy without
polluting air or contributing to greenhouse gases," Crawford
said.
NuStart and the Department of Energy are splitting the $520
million needed to prepare the licensing applications expected to
be submitted by 2007, Crawford said. The reactors could cost as
much as $2 billion apiece to build.
"The construction cost of nuclear is the highest method of
generating electricity," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear-safety
engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a
Washington-based watchdog group. "No responsible owner would
take such a risk alone."
NuStart was formed to apply for 50-50 cost sharing from the DOE
and to get the design cost funded so that all the companies can
use the engineering work, reducing the financial risk for any
one company, Crawford said.
Copyright © 2005, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
39 Mail & Guardian: Don't shoot the messenger (South Africa PBMR Reactor)
Monday, May 09, 2005 7:21 AM
Jacklyn Cock and Richard Worthington: COMMENT
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg feels compelled to respond to
the recent presidential rebuke and in particular the suggestion
of a self- serving agenda. The official response to our
disclosure to the media of an unprotected radioactive site
posing a threat to public health, in contravention of existing
regulations, has brought welcome attention to the ongoing
effects and activities of the nuclear industry, but it sought to
undermine our integrity and question our commitment to the
common good.
Earthlife Africa is proud of its work since its formation in
1988. We can claim a number of successes, including the
establishment of the Greenhouse People’s Environmental Centre
in Joubert Park, Johannesburg; the prevention of the siting of a
toxic waste dump in Chloorkop, Kempton Park; exposure of lethal
pollution by Thor Chemicals in KwaZulu-Natal; and adding rigour
to numerous environmental impact assessment processes.
We can also claim a contribution to the broadening of the
general understanding of the environment. Our Nuclear Energy
Costs The Earth campaign demonstrates our capacity to reach into
grassroots communities, while contributing to policy processes
in constructive engagement with the post-apartheid state.
The founding principles, policies and objectives of Earthlife
Africa are a matter of public record. We work with a range of
stakeholders and our advocacy on energy policy is guided by the
founding principles of the civil society Energy Caucus, which
includes organised labour, the Congress of South African Trade
Unions, faith and indigenous people’s groups and
community-based organisations. The core of this common platform
is a call for a just transition to sustainable energy.
The latest Pelindaba incident is an example of the failure of
the nuclear industry to fulfil its many assurances to the public
and to abide by existing regulations. Another failure is the
National Nuclear Regulator’s inability to enforce existing
regulation.
This is despite ongoing subsidisation of the nuclear industry,
which includes a Treasury allocation of R500-million for the
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme last year.
Our opposition to the “nuclear option†for South Africa is
not simply a rejection of the secrecy of the industry and its
unsubstantiated claims to deliver cheap electricity. It is also
a call to redirect finances to human-scale energy development,
drawing on our abundant renewable-energy resources through
development of local industries that can demonstrably deliver on
our national priorities of job creation and poverty alleviation.
Earthlife Africa continues to question the opinion of the
nuclear industry and International Atomic Energy Agency that
there is a human-induced dose of radiation that can be declared
“safeâ€. Elevated levels of radioactivity from commercial
activities that regulatory authorities choose to classify as
“safe†(which have been repeatedly reduced as knowledge
develops) are essentially the levels of exposure not proven to
cause human harm. That is, levels of exposure below which a
company cannot be held legally liable.
The efforts of Earthlife Africa are directed to promoting social
and environmental justice for the people of Africa. We do not
believe that new legislation is required to curtail such
activities.
Jacklyn Cock and Richard Worthington write on behalf of the
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg steering committee of the Nuclear
Energy Costs The Earth campaign
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
*****************************************************************
40 Scotsman.com News: Ukraine Plans to Build 11 Nuclear Reactors
Sat 7 May 2005
Ukraine wants to build 11 new nuclear reactors by 2030 in a
strategic move aimed at boosting its energy independence, the
state-run Energoatom company, which operates all nuclear plants
in the former Soviet republic, said today.
The statement was issued after a meeting yesterday between
Energoatom management and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko. The prime minister’s office could not be reached
for comment.
In 1986, Ukraine was the site of the world’s worst nuclear
accident, when a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded
and caught fire, spewing radiation over much of northern Europe.
Ukraine has registered 4,400 deaths. In all, seven million
people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and
Ukraine are believed to have suffered health problems as a
result of the accident.
Chernobyl’s remaining reactors were finally shut down in 2000
and the country is still asking Western donors for some £530
million to replace a hastily built shelter that secured the
destroyed reactor’s core.
The country needs new nuclear facilities “because the
exploitation term of Ukraine’s oldest reactors expires in
2011â€, the nuclear operator said.
The first two reactors should be built at the Khmelnitsky
nuclear plant in western Ukraine, Energoatom said. Ukraine also
intends to modernise its existing reactors, develop a
centralised repository for nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel,
and boost domestic uranium production, the statement said.
Ukraine currently operates 15 nuclear reactors, but it is still
dependent on Russia, its huge neighbour, for much of its energy
supplies. All existing Ukrainian reactors were built by Russian
contractors.
The European Union pledged last year to finance safety upgrades
at the two newest reactors through a multi-million pound
programme also assisted by the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development.
*****************************************************************
41 Scotsman.com News: Nuclear Power Option 'Blocked by Beckett'
Sun 8 May 2005
By James Lyons, PA Political Correspondent
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has prevented the case
for new nuclear power stations being considered, leaked
documents revealed today.
Mrs Beckett will resist any attempt to put the option back on
the agenda, says a briefing prepared for Alan Johnson, the new
Productivity, Energy and Industry Secretary.
The UK faces electricity and gas shortages, leading to steep
increases in fuel prices, unless swift action is taken to
replace nuclear plants coming to the end of their lives, warns
Joan MacNaughton, top civil servant at the DPEI.
However, a review ordered to examine how to cut carbon emissions
by the Department of Environment last autumn is not considering
new reactors, the leak to the Sunday Telegraph shows.
Instead, Mrs Beckett favours forcing heavy industry to reduce
its emissions which could “damage business competitiveness and
security of (energy) supplyâ€, the briefing warns.
“Because Beckett opposes nuclear new build, the review has not
so far considered whether nuclear should contribute to cutting
emissions.â€
The decision on whether to build a new generation of nuclear
power stations is among the most sensitive Tony Blair faces at
the start of his third term.
The Prime Minister is said to be keen to approve the programme
but faces opposition from left wing MPs.
Mr Johnson, who was responsible for energy during his stint at
the old Department of trade, is thought to be a cautious
supporter.
Ms MacNaughton urges him to reclaim leadership of the issue
before the summer.
“The case for looking at the nuclear question is that if we
want to avoid a very sharp fall in nuclear’s contribution to
energy supplies (some fall is certain and has already begun), we
should need to act soon given the long lead times (10 years?) in
getting a new nuclear station up and running.â€
Environmentalists said the leaked briefing appeared to be
misleading.
Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth, said: “Nuclear power is
unsafe, uneconomic, unpopular and largely irrelevant as a
practical answer to tackling climate change.
“Even doubling nuclear capacity would only reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by at most 8%, while adding to a toxic legacy of
nuclear waste which the taxpayer will most likely have to pay
for and which will remain dangerously radioactive for tens of
thousands of years.â€
A DPEI spokesman said: “We do not comment on leaks. Government
policy is as set out in the White Paper. The new Secretary of
State Alan Johnson will been to look at the issues.â€
*****************************************************************
42 monticello times: NRC meeting draws light crowd
www.monticellotimes.com
Monday, May 09, 2005
Eric O'Link News Editor
Turnout was relatively light at the first federal public meeting
in Monticello regarding extension of the operating license at
Monticello’s nuclear power plant.
About 25 people showed up for the Wednesday, April 20, evening
meeting. The majority of those were from either the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), a state agency, Xcel Energy, which
owns the plant, or Nuclear Management Company, which operates it.
Less than a dozen were members of the public, and though the
discussion did have a few livelier moments, it remained civil.
The NRC’s Daniel Merzke, project manager with the Office of
Nuclear Reactor Regulation in Washington, D.C., gave a thorough
presentation on the NRC’s role in the Monticello plant’s license
renewal process.
“We find it very important to keep the public informed about
what we’re doing,” he said.
In March, Xcel Energy filed an application with the NRC to
extend Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant’s operating license
by 20 years. The current license expires in 2010, and if the
license renewal request is not granted, the plant would have to
shut down at that time.
Merzke explained that the NRC would perform a series of
extensive inspections and evaluations of the plant and its
systems, including on-site audits. The NRC will verify, during
its safety and technical reviews, that the plant and its reactor
can continue to operate safely during the license extension
period, 20 years in this case.
Periods of public comment
He also outlined some of the opportunities the public will have
to comment on the process. Several public meetings or comment
periods will occur between now and the NRC’s decision, expected
sometime in 2007.
The most imminent public comment opportunity will begin next
month, when the NRC dockets Xcel’s application and issues a
notice of opportunity for a public hearing. Merzke said that
would probably happen during the first two weeks of May.
Once the opportunity for public hearing notice is issued, the
public has 60 days to file a request for a hearing. A group of
administrative law judges reviews hearing requests and grants
them provided the person or organization that filed the request
could be adversely affected by the plant’s adversely affected by
the plant’s continuing to operate until 2030.
A schedule of future public meetings is also expected in early
May, with the docketing of Xcel’s application.
Merzke took questions throughout Wednesday’s meeting, but his
presentation turned into more of an open discussion near its
end. A few people who attended voiced concerns about access to
information throughout the process. But while the discussion was
frank, it remained courteous.
The subject of spent fuel rod waste in dry cask storage also
came up, though Xcel’s request for outdoor waste storage at the
Monticello plant is being handled by the state, not the NRC.
A unique situation
Chief among those who commented was George Crocker, executive
director of the North American Water Office, based in Lake Elmo.
His organization fought similar waste storage at Xcel’s Prairie
Island nuclear plant near Red Wing more than 10 years ago.
Crocker said it seemed like there was some confusion over
environmental impact statements (EIS) and where the information
for each EIS would be available. While the NRC is handling the
EIS for license renewal, the Minnesota Environmental Quality
Board is overseeing the EIS related to waste storage.
Merzke admitted that the process was confusing, at least
initially.
“I believe there was some confusion over jurisdiction, who has
responsibility for what, environmental impact statements, who’s
issuing what,” he said.
After the meeting, Merzke told the Times that Monticello’s
situation is unique because the NRC has never handled a license
renewal request at the same time a plant is working on a dry
storage facility, known in the industry as an ISFISI. That is
further complicated by Minnesota’s requirements for the process,
he continued, including the opportunity for the legislature to
consider and act on the storage facility during its session.
“We’ve haven’t had an application where we’ve had to deal with
an applicant submitting a request to build an ISFISI at the same
time (as license renewal), plus the fact that Minnesota has some
unique state regulations regarding that that we have to deal
with at the same time,” Merzke said. “It’s a very unique
situation.”
Pointed discussion
During the meeting, Crocker said he wanted to be pointed.
“Here we have these two proceedings coming at us at the same
time, and we don’t have anywhere near the resources that the
industry has...and we don’t even know where to go to figure out
what’s supposed to be in the EIS to deal with the state issue or
federal issue,” Crocker said. “Where’s your efficiency in terms
the review?”
NRC officials at the meeting responded that they were just
starting the process.
“We’re kind of catching up because the certificate of need was
applied for a few weeks back,” Merzke said, “well before the
application was submitted.”
“If you’re playing catch-up, where does that leave us?” Crocker
asked.
Merzke said the NRC “bends over backwards” to be open to the
public.
“And we appreciate that,” Crocker said. “We’re glad you’re here,
don’t get us wrong.”
The discussion wandered from waste storage to where public
information was available about gasses released from the plant.
Small amounts of radioactive gasses that have been allowed to
decay are sometimes released from the plant’s tower.
Kevin Krone, a resident of Monticello Township, is the plant’s
closest neighbor. He lives about a half-mile from the reactor
building and, with his wife Jonay, was at Wednesday’s meeting.
“This whole business about them releasing gasses into the air, I
don’t care if it’s in a different form or not, now, to say it’s
all right, they don’t live next to the plant,” he said. “I’m
just really concerned. I try to ask a simple question about
where I can review this information, it took half an hour to get
a simple answer. I’m not real comfortable with the storage
facility.”
After the meeting, Merzke reiterated that the federal license
renewal process and the state waste storage approval were
separate things.
“The ISFISI is actually outside the scope of what license
renewal is all about,” he said. “People are trying to tie the
two together, but they’re not, they’re separate issues. We can
go ahead and issue a renewed license if it comes to that, and
they might not get approval to build the ISFISI.”
If that’s the case, he added, Xcel and Nuclear Management Co.
would have to come up with a new solution for dealing with the
spent fuel rods–or shut down the plant.
Merzke also said the NRC’s Web site, www.nrc.gov, was a good
source of information about the process. Public documents are
available for review on the Web site and meeting dates will be
posted there.
He said the government’s computerized filing system for public
documents is “good if you know exactly what you’re looking for.”
But if a user does not have that exact information, “it can be a
little frustrating.”
“The information is out there,” he said. “If they search hard
enough, they’ll find it. We’re not trying to hide it, it just
sometimes presents a challenge, even for me, to find a document.”
He emphasized that the NRC is trying to be as open about the
license renewal process.
“License renewal is one of the most open topics out there,” he
said. “We don’t want any surprises; we want everybody to know
what’s going on.”
Copyright 2005, Monticello Times Software © 1998-2005
*****************************************************************
43 Orlando Sentinel: Powerful, brave voices tell story of Chernobyl
OrlandoSentinel.com:
BOOK REVIEW
By John Freeman |
Special to the Sentinel Posted May 8, 2005
Chernobyl caused the worst nuclear accident in history. The
immediate death toll was 31 people, but thanks to the Soviet
Union's policy of secrecy we will never know the true cost.
Unknown thousands later died or were gravely sickened by
radiation-related illnesses, and many from the tiny country of
Belarus remain haunted by memories of that day. Svetlana
Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a
Nuclear Disaster is the first book to chronicle their stories.
As Haruki Murakami did in Underground, his oral history of the
gas attack on Tokyo's subway, Alexievich puts full faith in the
power of people's testimony, constructing a narrative from them
alone. "I don't know what I should talk about," says the first
voice, belonging to Lyudmilla Ignatenko. Her husband was a
first-responder, as they are called today. He rushed to the
scene with other firefighters and died 14 days later, choking on
his internal organs.
The title of this book suggests a mosaic of gruesome
description. It's not. With the exception of those who received
the heaviest exposure, radiation is an invisible killer. "People
have covered up," remembers one woman, "they're hiding.
Livestock is moaning, the kids are crying. It's war! And the sun
is out."
All of this made the rush to leave surreal. A soldier recalls
seeing an old man crying. "I'll just get up, and walk to the
cemetery," the man said, resigned to his fate. "I'll do it
myself."
Authorities hit the airwaves ordering people to evacuate, to
leave their cats. Belongings were forbidden. One man recalls
stealing the door from his own home -- it was how he carried his
father to his coffin years before. A few years later, he used
the same door to carry his poisoned daughter to her grave.
The trauma of the experience gouges out memories from other
traumas. Men and women remember brutalities they witnessed
fleeing civil war in Tajikistan. They come to Chernobyl even
though it is contaminated because no one will bother them there.
The land and its poisoned fruit are theirs. "Don't worry," says
one woman about her apples. "They buy them anyway. Some need
them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss."
One of the fascinating things about Voices From Chernobyl is the
awful beauty one encounters in testimonies of pain and
suffering. It's worth recalling that these are not writers or
singers, but ordinary people who have forged language into a
crutch, a sword, a shield, a shelter. There is nothing
extraneous in their stories, as in this devastating passage:
"I go to the cemetery. My mom's there. My little daughter. She
burned up with typhus during the war. Right after we took her to
the cemetery, buried her, the sun came out of the clouds. And
shone and shone. Like: you should go and dig her up. My husband
is there. Fedya. I sit with them all. I sigh a little. You can
talk to the dead just like you can talk to the living. Makes no
difference to me. I can hear the one and the other. When you're
alone. And when you're sad. When you're very sad."
With comments such as these, one would be a fool to ask why
Alexievich chose to present this book as an oral history, rather
than a conventional narrative. These voices are essential,
powerful and brave.
John Freeman is a writer in New York.
Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel|
*****************************************************************
44 PRN: Perry Nuclear Power Plant Returns to Service
[PR Newswire - A United Business Media Company]
AKRON, Ohio, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Nuclear
Operating Company (FENOC) announced today that the Perry Nuclear
Power Plant returned to service on May 6 following a scheduled
refueling.
At 9:43 p.m. today, the unit was operating at approximately 18
percent power. Power levels will vary over the next several days
as part of routine testing until full operating power of 1,260
megawatts is achieved.
Significant accomplishments during the outage include replacing
288 of the 748 fuel assemblies in the reactor core and improving
several plant operating systems, including new, digital controls
for the reactor feedwater system; rebuilt pumps with upgraded
parts and materials and design modifications to enhance fuel
reliability.
In addition, total work scope for the outage was increased nearly
30 percent to enhance plant reliability. Added projects included
repairs to the plant's main generator, refurbishing dozens of
high-voltage breakers throughout the plant and modifying the
emergency diesel generators' exhaust system.
Perry is owned by the Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:
), and is operated by FirstEnergy's FENOC subsidiary.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company
Web Site:
Copyright © 1996- PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights
*****************************************************************
45 Independent: Plans for nuclear energy set to spark cabinet row
www.independent.co.uk
Nuclear advisers under pressure to quit after conflicts
revealed
By Tim Webb
08 May 2005
A third of the members of an important government nuclear
committee have serious conflicts of interests, an Independent on
Sunday investigation reveals today.
Four of the committee's 12 members work for its largest
suppliers, The IoS has learnt. One former government minister
said this breached the code of conduct on public committees and
urged them to resign.
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) has a
£4.9m budget and a brief to advise the Government on the best
way to store Britain's 470,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste; it
is due to report by summer 2006.
The publicly funded committee will play a central role in the
debate over whether to build new nuclear reactors. Ministers
recognise that to gain public support for a pro-nuclear policy,
they first have to resolve the problem of what to do with
existing nuclear waste. This is currently stored in 30 temporary
locations around the country.
But the revelations about its members' conflicts of interest
will dent public trust.
Committee member Mark Dutton is a paid consultant for NNC, which
won the £1m contract to project-manage CoRWM's work. The
committee disclosed the NNC contract, and Mr Dutton's links to
the consultancy, but some members say he should have cut all
ties to it.
Fred Barker, another member, is an associate consultant for
Enviros Consulting, which has a contract worth £50,000 to
£100,000 from the committee. He has also been employed by The
Environment Council, to which the committee has given over
£100,000 of work.
Professor Lynda Warren is an associate of the IDM consultancy,
as is another member, Pete Wilkinson, a former chairman of
Greenpeace UK. IDM has carried out £10,000 to £50,000 of work
for CoRWM.
Organisations employing Mr Barker, Professor Warren and Mr
Wilkinson are understood to have bid for the £1m project won by
NNC. None of their links to the committee's suppliers have been
publicly declared.
Michael Meacher MP, the former environment minister, said: "They
should either step down or be asked to leave. I find it
disturbing that people who have employment relationships with
the industry should sit on an industry committee and then award
large contracts to companies they are connected to."
But Gordon MacKerron, the committee's chairman, said there would
be no resignations. Potential conflicts of interest were
"inevitable" on a technical committee, he said, and he denied
that they affected decisions.
NNC was appointed by the Department for the Environment, he
said, and the other three cases were oversights, "but not an
attempt to conceal".
©2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
46 Independent: Blair demands nuclear power to protect high 'living standards'
www.independent.co.uk
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent
09 May 2005
Tony Blair has ruled out making changes to "living standards" to
tackle global warming, and is drawing up plans to build a new
generation of nuclear power stations to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions instead.
The Prime Minister has personally endorsed "keeping the nuclear
option open" and is planning a government statement on a change
of policy before the summer, in the face of opposition from
cabinet ministers, including Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of
State for the Environment. Mr Blair's decision to revive the
nuclear agenda was revealed two weeks ago by The Independent
which reported that Mr Blair's own strategy unit was working on
it.
Yesterday, a leaked government briefing document disclosed that
the nuclear option would be looked at soon after Parliament
returns. A paper by departmental civil servants for Alan
Johnson, the new Secretary of State for Productivity Energy and
Industry, proposes that building more nuclear power plants or
extending the lives of present ones should be a top priority for
the first months of Labour's third term. It stresses the "need
to act soon" and says there is a "case for looking at the
nuclear question quickly".
The paper says: "This formula to 'keep the nuclear option open'
was a compromise endorsed by the PM, between ministers for and
against. The question is whether we need to decide now (bearing
in mind that it is generally easier to push ahead on
controversial issues early in a new Parliament).
It says nuclear should be looked at as an option for tackling
climate change and protecting the energy supply. But it adds:
"CO2 emissions have been rising in recent years. We look to be
falling well short of the goal to cut them by 20 per cent by
2010."
The revival of nuclear power is bolstered by the Prime
Minister's admission that he is opposed to asking people to make
changes to their lifestyle - such as buying energy-efficient
refrigerators or taking the Eurostar instead of flights to
Europe - to reduce global warming. Mr Blair has said publicly
there is no political will to force people to make lifestyle
changes to less fuel-hungry cars or energy-efficient lightbulbs.
His remarks infuriated the Green movement: Stephen Tindale,
director of Greenpeace, said: "He is implying that anyone who is
against nuclear is in favour of making people go back and live
in caves. It's absolutely ridiculous. He is saying he is not
asking anyone to make any choices to protect the living
standards of children in the future."
The move to build more nuclear power stations while discounting
lifestyle changes is also opposed by Labour MPs and Whitehall
officials. Civil servants say it could weaken the Government's
case against nuclear proliferation involving states such as Iran
and North Korea. They criticised Mr Blair for ruling out
"lifestyle changes".
One said: "Getting an energy-efficient fridge is not going to
change lifestyle. The push for nuclear is coming from the
nuclear companies and their fellow-travellers in Government.
There is no real urgency to take this particular decision,
especially if it spreads yet more confusion. It could destroy UK
credibility on climate change during the G8 and EU presidency."
©2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
47 Scotsman.com: Government urged to set up nuclear build plan
Monday, 9th May 2005
ARTHUR MACMILLAN
THE government is planning to trigger a huge new building
programme for nuclear power, it emerged last night.
Joan MacNaughton, the director general of energy policy at the
government’s new Department of Productivity, has warned that
policy targets to reduce climate changing greenhouse gases by
boosting renewable energies are set to fail.
She says in a memorandum that ministers must take swift
decisions on building nuclear power stations.
A briefing note for incoming ministers, written by MacNaughton,
advises that "it is generally easier to push ahead on
controversial issues early in a new parliament".
The document warns that while the UK now has 12 nuclear power
stations providing 20% of electricity needs, without emitting
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, this number will fall
in the next 15 years to just three.
It also warns that power cuts may disrupt supplies after 2008,
when many of the current nuclear plants will close.
In addition, the report says Britain is to become increasingly
reliant on imported gas to fulfil the nation’s energy needs.
The briefing note adds: "Extending the lives of nuclear stations
and/or new build could strengthen the generating sector’s
contribution to CO2 reductions by 2020 and beyond."
Ministers need to decide quickly to build new stations because
it takes 10 years to get them on line, the note says, adding
that unless decisions are taken now there will be a steep drop
in nuclear output.
The paper has come to light as the nuclear industry is gearing
up for a major lobbying campaign for new stations.
The Nuclear Industry Association believes the UK needs 10 new
nuclear stations to fulfil obligations on cutting greenhouse
gases.
In Scotland, the most likely sites for new build are at
Chapelcross, the site of a recently-closed nuclear power station
on the Solway Firth and at Hunterston in Ayrshire, where the
ageing nuclear plant is due to be phased out.
In her briefing note MacNaughton has warned that carbon dioxide
emissions have been rising in recent years.
©2005 Scotsman.com
*****************************************************************
48 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria Launches New N-Plant Contractor Tender
[Sofia News Agency]
Business: 7 May 2005, Saturday.
Bulgaria will launch next week an international tender for
equipment supplier and construction contractor of a nuclear
power plant at the Danube river town of Belene.
The conditions and procedures of the tender will be fully in
line with Bulgaria's legislation, Energy Minister Miroslav
Sevlievski assured Saturday.
The price and economic sustainability of the offer will be the
main criteria in selecting a preferred bidder.
Bulgaria has decided against a CANDU heavy water reactor,
proposed by the Atomic Energy of Canada. The other two
contenders are a group between France's Framatome, Russia's
Atomexportstroy and, in a separate group, Czech Skoda, Citibank,
Italy's Unicredito and Czech Komercni Banka.
The government gave the final go-ahead for Belene construction
at the beginning of April, reviving the controversial plan after
it was shelved amid environmentalists' protests.
In the late 1980s Bulgaria spent USD 1.3 B on infrastructure and
foundations at the Danube-located Belene for a 1,000- MW
reactor, supplied by then Czechoslovakia. It would cost another
USD 3 B to complete the project a capacity of 2,000 megawatts.
Sevlievski, who took over the ministry in February after a
government reshuffle, favours the establishment of a new company
to own and run the plant.[ width=]
novinite.com Forum Google Tourism Business MobileBulgaria
All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2005 - Copyright
*****************************************************************
49 KUAM: Repairs made to USS San Francisco's bow
KUAM.COM
by Mindy Fothergill, KUAM News
Saturday, May 07, 2005
$11 million in repairs and costs are still adding up. Repairs
have been made to the USS San Francisco's bow. Navy spokesperson
Lieutenant Arwen Consaul says a new large steel dome about 20
feet high was put in place of the damaged one. The submarine
remains at the dry dock for more repairs.
The nuclear-powered fast attack submarine ran aground 350 miles
south of Guam back in January, killing one crewmember and
injuring 23. Lt. Consaul says the repair and damage assessment
has been completed and temporary repairs to the bow provide
adequate structural integrity and proper buoyancy for transit
under her own power to a shipyard. That location has yet to be
determined.
The Navy has yet to make any decisions about when the submarine
will depart, where it will go, or what the final disposition
will be. Lt. Consaul says the Navy is still trying to determine
the next course of action for the Los Angeles-class submarine
and her crew. Total costs so far are about $11 million, with
more work estimated at $7.5 million.
While officials haven't determined where repairs to the rest of
the submarine will be made, officials confirm the work will not
happen at the Guam Shipyard because the repairs needed for the
ship are more extensive than the shipyard's capabilities.
Copyright © 2000-2005 by Pacific Telestations, Inc.
*****************************************************************
50 RIA Novosti: RUSSIA'S UPDATED NUCLEAR SUBMARINE TO BE BACK IN SERVICE SOON
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - An updated nuclear submarine, the
Dmitri Donskoi, will very soon enter the Russian fleet
inventories, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said to journalists
in Moscow.
To quote: "Very soon a new nuclear submarine, the Dmitri
Donskoi, will come into service. Choice of the name is
symbolical", Sergei Ivanov said.
The heavy nuclear missile cruiser of Project 941 Taifun is being
updated in Severodvinsk for the new missile systems. Since last
year it has been testing the new intercontinental missile
systems Bulava.
Dmitri Donskoi (1350-1389) was the first of the Moscow princes
to lead the popular armed struggle against Mongol-Tatars. In
1380 Dmitri Donskoi, leading the united Russian forces, defeated
the invading forces of Khan Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo. He
passed for the first time the throne to his senior son Vasili
without the Golden Horde consent.
*****************************************************************
51 BBC: Concern mounts over North Korea
Last Updated: Saturday, 7 May, 2005
[TV footage of a previous N Korean missile test] There are
reports that N Korea may be about to test a nuclear warhead
Asian and European foreign ministers have urged North Korea to
rejoin talks on its nuclear programme amid fears it is about to
test a nuclear bomb.
The ministers expressed "deep concern" about Pyongyang's claim to
have developed nuclear weapons.
Their statement, from a summit in Japan, came a day after US
intelligence reports that a test was being prepared.
The UN's atomic watchdog has appealed to world leaders to do
their utmost to prevent such a test from happening.
'Denuclearisation'
A joint statement issued at the 38-nation Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM), called on Pyongyang to rejoin talks on its nuclear
programme.
"The ministers strongly urged the DPRK [North Korea] to return to
the negotiating table of the six-party talks without any further
delay and to make a strategic decision so as to achieve the
denuclearisation of the peninsula in a peaceful manner through
dialogue," it said.
Pyongyang has shunned the multilateral discussion of its nuclear
activities for almost a year.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN's atomic watchdog, has
warned a test would have "disastrous political and environmental
consequences".
Satellite images inconclusive
Recent images taken by US spy satellites reportedly show activity
at a suspected North Korean test site at Gilju, in the north-east
of the country.
The images show excavation and some construction which, a US
defence official told the BBC, could be preparations for an
underground nuclear test.
But the official also warned that the US intelligence community
had not concluded that a nuclear test was imminent.
Instead, the official said, it could simply be a ruse by North
Korea to strengthen its bargaining power with Washington.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Kyoto says China's Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing is likely to come under pressure to show more
willingness to try to bring North Korea back to the talks.
But he says there is disagreement on how to persuade Pyongyang to
return to the six-party negotiations, involving the two Koreas,
Russia, China, the US and Japan.
Japan, he says, supports the threat of UN Security Council
sanctions whereas China and South Korea believe this approach to
be too provocative.
Complicating these differences, our correspondent adds, is the
mistrust and rivalry which surfaced recently between Japan and
China which is preventing Asia's most powerful countries from
presenting a united front against North Korea.
*****************************************************************
52 BBC: Crew blamed for grounding US sub
Last Updated: Sunday, 8 May, 2005
[Damage to the submarine]
The submarine hit an underwater mountain
The crew of a US submarine that ran aground in the Pacific Ocean
in January did not adequately review navigation charts, a Navy
report says.
The grounding could have been avoided if the crew had observed
"prudent navigation practices", it says.
A sailor died and several were injured in the accident 600km (350
miles) south of the island of Guam, one of the most important US
Pacific bases.
The nuclear reactor on the USS San Francisco was not damaged.
Data not transferred
The vessel was on its way to Australia, when it ran aground and
suffered severe external damage.
The submarine hit a mountain while submerged 157m (525 feet)
below the ocean's surface.
The mountain did not appear on the chart being used for
navigation.
But other charts displayed "a navigation hazard in the vicinity
of the grounding", the US Navy's 124-page report said.
It blamed the team for not reviewing those charts adequately and
for not transferring "pertinent data" to the chart being used for
navigation.
"Even if not wholly avoided, however, the grounding would not
have been as severe and loss of life may have been prevented,"
the report said.
The Los Angeles-class submarines are 109.73m (360 ft) long and
are classed as attack vessels, designed to counter enemy
submarines or surface vessels. They are equipped with a single
nuclear reactor.
*****************************************************************
53 BBC: North Korea 'may have six bombs'
Last Updated: Monday, 9 May, 2005
[IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei]
ElBaradei wants Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table
UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei has said North Korea
could possess several nuclear bombs.
Speaking on US television, he said Pyongyang had enough plutonium
to make five or six nuclear weapons.
The country also has the necessary infrastructure to convert the
plutonium into weapons, Mr ElBaradei added.
North Korea announced in February that it had nuclear arms - but
that claim has not been verified by Mr ElBaradei's International
Atomic Energy Agency.
When asked by CNN if it was the IAEA's assessment that North
Korea already had as many as six bombs, Mr ElBaradei replied: "I
think that would be close to our estimation."
"We knew they had the plutonium that could be converted into five
or six North Korea weapons," he went on to say.
"We know that they had the industrial infrastructure to weaponise
this plutonium. We have read also that they have the delivery
system."
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told the BBC there was no way
the agency could know for sure whether North Korea had six bombs.
But she said it would not be surprising if it did.
'Cry for help'
The agency's inspectors were kicked out of North Korea at the end
of 2002.
Pyongyang has shunned multilateral talks on its nuclear programme
for almost a year.
Recently, reports have suggested it is preparing to test a
nuclear bomb. Mr ElBaradei warned that a nuclear test would have
disastrous political and environmental consequences.
"I do hope that the North Koreans would absolutely reconsider
such a reckless, reckless step," he told CNN.
He said that whether the activity observed by satellites was real
or simply a bluff, "it involves crying for help, frankly."
"North Korea, I think, has been seeking a dialogue with the
United States, with the rest of the international community...
through their usual policy of nuclear blackmail, nuclear
brinkmanship, to force the other parties to engage them," he
said.
Mr ElBaradei has already urged the international community to put
pressure on North Korea not to go ahead with the test, and
appealed to Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table.
*****************************************************************
54 WorldNetDaily: Nuclear violations
SATURDAY MAY 7 2005
Posted: May 7, 2005
In her opening statement to the Sixth Review Conference of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held at U.N.
headquarters five years ago, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright encouraged conferees to focus on three key issues: how
the Treaty is working to (a) prevent nuclear proliferation, (b)
advance nuclear disarmament, and (c) enhance cooperation in the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Secretary of State Condilezza Rice didn't bother to address or
even attend the Seventh RevCon being held this month. Instead,
she sent some mid-level State Department weenie you probably
never heard of named Stephen Rademaker to instruct the
conferees.
Before revealing what Rademaker directed the conferees to focus
on, it might be useful to provide some excerpts from the Sixth
RevCon Final Report.
The Conference recalls that the overwhelming majority of States
entered into legally binding commitments not to receive,
manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other
nuclear explosive devices in the context – inter alia – of the
corresponding legally binding commitments by the nuclear-weapon
States to nuclear disarmament in accordance with the Treaty.
In other words, the overwhelming majority of NPT signatories
thought they had obtained – among other things – a legally
binding commitment by the United States, Russia, China, France
and the United Kingdom to get rid of their nuke stockpiles.
The Conference emphasizes that measures should be taken to
ensure that the rights of all States Parties under the
provisions of the preamble and the articles of the Treaty are
fully protected and that no State Party is limited in the
exercise of these rights in accordance with the Treaty.
In other words, President Clinton violated Iran's NPT rights
when he – among other things – strong-armed President Yeltsin
into canceling the sale of a Russian gas-centrifuge
uranium-enrichment plant to Iran.
The Conference reaffirms that the IAEA is the competent
authority responsible to verify and assure, in accordance with
the Statute of the IAEA and the IAEA's safeguards system,
compliance with its safeguards agreements with States Parties,
undertaken in fulfillment of their obligations under Article
III, paragraph 1 of the Treaty, with a view to preventing
diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear
weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
It is the conviction of the Conference that nothing should be
done to undermine the authority of the IAEA in this regard.
States Parties that have concerns regarding non-compliance with
the safeguards agreements of the Treaty by the States Parties
should direct such concerns, along with supporting evidence and
information, to the IAEA to consider, investigate, draw
conclusions and decide on necessary actions in accordance with
its mandate.
In other words, the IAEA is solely responsible for deciding
whether "source and special fissionable materials" are being
used by Iran "in furtherance of any military purpose."
So, as Rademaker addresses the 2005 RevCon, keep in mind that
the United States has unquestionably violated the NPT by denying
Iran's "inalienable" rights under the Treaty – but as best IAEA
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei can determine, Iran has not.
Quoth Rademaker:
Today, the Treaty is facing the most serious challenge in its
history due to instances of noncompliance. Although the vast
majority of member states have lived up to their NPT
nonproliferation obligations that constitute the Treaty's most
important contribution to international peace and security, some
have not.
Indeed, Mr. President, some continue to use the pretext of a
peaceful nuclear program to pursue the goal of developing
nuclear weapons. We must confront this challenge in order to
ensure that the Treaty remains relevant. This Review Conference
provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate our resolve by
reaffirming our collective determination that noncompliance with
the Treaty's core nonproliferation norms is a clear threat to
international peace and security.
For almost two decades, Iran has conducted a clandestine nuclear
weapons program, aided by the illicit network of A.Q. Khan.
Britain, France and Germany, with our support, are seeking to
reach a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem, a
solution that given the history of clandestine nuclear weapons
work in that country, must include permanent cessation of Iran's
enrichment and reprocessing efforts, as well as dismantlement of
equipment and facilities related to such activity.
So what is ElBaradei going to do about Iran's "nuclear weapons"
program? Quoth the director general:
I have seen no nuclear weapons program in Iran. What I have seen
is that Iran is trying to gain access to nuclear enrichment
technology, and so far there is no danger from Iran.
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico.
[WorldNetDaily.com]
*****************************************************************
55 UCS: Japanese Plutonium Program Threatens Nonproliferation Regime,
Warn Nobel Laureates and Other Experts
[Union of Concerned Scientists]
May 5, 2005
UN Delegates Told Reprocessing Plant Could Produce Plutonium
for 1,000 Nuclear Bombs a Year
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORKThe Union of Concerned Scientists
released a statement today signed by 27 eminent scientists,
former policy makers and analysts calling on the Japanese
government to indefinitely postpone operating a controversial
plutonium reprocessing plant at Rokkasho-mura. The declaration
warns that Japan's plan to separate and stockpile up to 8 metric
tons of plutonium annuallythe equivalent of 1,000 nuclear bombs
each yearcalls into question Japan's commitment to
strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Furthermore, the signatories state the facility would undermine
international efforts to discourage other countrieslike Iran
and North Koreafrom pursuing nuclear fuel cycle facilities that
could be used for nuclear weapons programs. The statement was
released today in a briefing to delegates attending the NPT
Review Conference at the United Nations.
The pronouncement, "A Call on Japan to Strengthen the NPT by
Indefinitely Postponing Operation of the Rokkasho Spent Fuel
Reprocessing Plant," is signed by several Nobel prize-winning
physicists, a National Medal of Science recipient, and other
eminent scientists from major academic institutions. Also
signing are former Defense Secretary William Perry, former
Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford, and several
former government officials who served in the Departments of
Energy, Defense, and State under both Republican and Democratic
administrations. Former directors of both Sandia and Lawrence
Livermore labswhere US nuclear weapons research is
conductedalso signed the appeal.
"We are calling on the Japanese government to breathe new life
into the NPT by suspending its provocative plan to open the
Rokkasho reprocessing plant," said signatory Dr. Kurt Gottfried,
Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists and physics
professor at Cornell University. "If Japan forges ahead with
separating and stockpiling weapons-usable plutonium, it will
only encourage countries like North Korea and Iran to do
likewise."
The $20 billion Rokkasho facility is the first industrial-scale
reprocessing plant in a country not possessing nuclear weapons.
Initial tests using irradiated nuclear fuel are scheduled for
December 2005, with full-scale operations slated for 2007.
Despite the fact that Japan has a stated policy of having "no
surplus plutonium," at the end of 2003 its plutonium stockpile
stood at 40.6 metric tonsenough to construct some 5,000 nuclear
weapons.
"With Rokkasho operational, by 2020 Japan's domestic stock of
plutonium could equal the U.S. stockpile of plutonium for
weapons," said Frank von Hippel, physicist and professor at the
Science and Global Security Program at Princeton. "Separated
plutonium poses a risk of theft, and such large stocks would be
destabilizing."
DAMON MOGLEN
Outreach Coordinator, Global Security
202-331-5420
rhayes@ucsusa.org
LUKE WARREN
Press Secretary
202-331-5420
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 05.05.2005
*****************************************************************
56 The unsecured and unsafe storage of nuclear hazards capable of
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 19:26:08 -0700
=====================================
Subject: The unsecured and unsafe storage of nuclear hazards capable of
mass destruction that already exist
TO: THOSE LISTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS and UNDISCLOSED RECIPIENTS
============================================================
Dear Those Listed:
What about the "here and now" that discloses real nuclear exposure threats
to humanity! I'm a mom/grandmother/great grandmother who cares. Surely,
the US Department of Energy's fiscal year 2006 - 2007 budget should include
the necessary security funds that would at least represent an attempt to
protect whole families from being annihilated.
A program was aired May 5, 2005, on the Sci-Fi channel at 9:00 pm. The
scenario: What could happen while earthquake events were ongoing near a
nuclear power plant that was not capable of sustaining earthquake
damage. The potential should have caused Americans to at least think about
the deadly consequences.
Only one nuclear site, Hanford, reports the development of the
vitrification project is "slowed" because the earthquake construction plan
was determined to be inadequate. Many layoffs have been implemented until
further earthquake protection plans are reviewed and in-place.
Neither did the USDOE meet their milestone to clean up the contaminated
Hanford K-basins that are leaking and near the Columbia River. The agency
was fined.
Hanford is just one nuclear site among 14 others across the Nation in the
same condition.
Many of the old nuclear power plants only provide about 20 percent of our
Nation's power.
The problem I encounter on my journey as a National Independent Advocate
and wounded worker-downwinder is the fact that too many Americans are
simply unaware. All these unaware Americans that includes members of
Congress, seem to expect is to be able to hold a job that provides enough
money to meet most of their daily needs. Yet, many of them know that their
neighbors or family members died from the causal connection to a single
and/or multiple related nuclear disease. I suppose that "ignorance of the
facts before them" happens because Americans cannot smell the lethal
toxins; taste the lethal toxins; or hear the lethal toxins. Oh, but WE can
taste the lethal toxins and feel the lethal toxins as body burdens.
But, millions of Americans did observe the consequences of the lethal
health effects caused by a toxin -- the highly explosive airplane fuel
bombs that blew up the World Trade Centers on "September 11, 2001" aka 9/11
that killed only about 3,000 Americans. By comparison, nuclear incidents
have killed or maimed thousands of victims including our children.
The President and the members of Congress admitted liability for their
negligent and abusive nuclear facility "caretakers" who caused death,
disease, and suffering of untold numbers of victims and their families by
July 1999, mid-April 2000, by October 30, 2000, and by October 2004; and to
present day.
At Hanford 1,920 cesium and strontium capsules contain deadly dose budget
inventory that are stored in decaying pool cells. Hydrogen buildup is an
explosive factor that must be reported to the USDOE oversight. The
question ?What if the pool cells were drained". . .has now been addressed
by the National Academy of Science in a most graphic manner that is
chilling to state the very least of it. Hanford guards are not trained to
protect the old, deteriorated Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility that
houses the cesium and strontium capsules that are stored in pool
cells. One capsule would light all of New York. One damaged capsule could
kill hundreds of nearby victims.
The Hanford Tank Farms, also, stores a large quantity of potentially
explosive and lethal dose budget inventory in above and underground storage
tanks -- a mix of about 1,600 to 1,800 chemicals that are laced with
radiation. Only
about 52 chemicals are monitored. The "caretakers" have not found a ways
or means to protect the workers or the public from the release of the
tanks' toxic vapors that migrate to unknown regions to contaminate other
victims. Consequently, the workers are sickened and debilitated. There
have been no health studies conducted to investigate causal connection to
the workers' family members. Tank farm workers have died waiting for any
kind of aid from their government officials. The workers' protests; their
State workers' compensation claims; and their qualified "Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Program Act of 2000" (EEOICPA) claims have been denied
recognition by the government "caretakers." For instance, the 200E area
272AW building breathing air ventilation system is posted as a hazardous
waste threat to the workers who are likely transporting the toxins off-site
to contaminate the citizens. The workers are expected to ignore the
posting. The Tank Farms' dose bud!
get inventory includes beryllium, strontium, asbestos, et.al. Strontium
is a lethal element that only evolves from radiation in containments. All
a domestic or foreign terrorist would have to do is to release this type of
dose budget inventory to the atmosphere.
By 1944, the willful Hanford nuclear facility "caretakers" admittedly and
deliberately released significant amounts of Iodine 131 to the atmosphere
that migrated upwind and downwind of Hanford that came to be known as the
"Sea of Green" aka the "Green Runs." After over 14 years in litigation
since 1991, the Federal Court trial has just begun; and only 6 Bellwether
litigants out of about 2,300 Hanford downwinder litigants are allowed to
appear before a Federal Judge Fremming Nielson who has admitted his serious
conflicts of interest -- a very long story by now. Hanford workers are
included among the Plaintiffs. Many of these litigants have already died.
Tons of nuclear dose budget inventory cause Hanford to be cited as the most
dangerous nuclear site in America according to the Defense Nuclear
Facility Safety Board -- a direct report to the members of Congress.
In five years since October 30, 2000, only 233 survivor and beryllium
exposed Hanford workers have received the EEOICPA compensation award. Only
two qualified cancer victims have been awarded the EEOICPA
compensation. Over a thousand claims were denied out of over 2,900 claims
filed. Reportedly, at the time of his compensation award, one of the
cancer claimants admitted he was a heavy smoker and indicated he was
"cancer free." While other cancer claimants had already died whose
entitlement claims were/are still denied by the USDOL.
Still another contractor has been awarded a contract by the USDOL to
quesstimate the damage caused by chemical exposures -- an EEOICPA Subtitle
E mandate that was approved by the members of Congress and signed by
President George W. Bush in October 2004 before the Presidential
elections. Yet, the USDOE admits they have no authority or ways and means
to fine the contractor for violations of the "worker safety standards" that
involves chemicals. After six decades of the agency "caretakers" redundant
denials of any harm done, all of a sudden the government scientists /
regular employees claim they are capable of estimating the dose of nuclear
workers. Yet, the "caretakers" admit on record the historical dose records
are destroyed, missing, or altered. Whereas, for decades, to date the
negligent and abusive government agency "caretakers" proclaim "no harm done
to the environment, the on-site personnel, or the off-site populous." This
advertisement is reflected in thousands o!
f investigative reports such as: public record occurrence reports; public
record radiation problem reports; tiger team reports; agency health survey
reports structured by government scientists; anomaly incident reports;
status of any nuclear site report entered on record by the government
officials (US Federal Registry); et.al.
Discrimination is only one tort among many other torts that are affirmed
using he USDOL's own public record exhibits.
Gai Oglesbee, National Independent Advocate
Retired Injured Hanford worker
National Nuclear Victims for Justice Manager
============================================================
EXCERPTS:
"Prompted by nongovernmental scientists' claims that
terrorist ground or air assaults could drain the pools
and ignite the highly radioactive spent fuel
assemblies resulting in consequences exceeding
Chernobyl, Congress asked the academy for an
evaluation. The NAS conclusion: 'A terrorist attack
that partially or completed drained a spent fuel pool
could lead to ... the release large quantities of
radioactive material to the environment.' The academy
added that NRC's efforts to belittle the risk are 'not
prudent. . .'
Guards repeatedly have complained they neither have
the training, armament or sufficient personnel to foil
a sophisticated ground assault. . .
The FBI's conclusion begs the question: Has the United
States done all it can to prevent or reduce the
consequences of nuclear sabotage since Sept. 11,
2001. . .?"
============================================================
EXHIBIT 2:
Coming to a Reactor Near You - The Future of Nuclear Terror
CounterPunch
May 5, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/ramberg05052005.html
By BENNETT RAMBERG
This month marks Chernobyl's 19th anniversary. It comes at a time of
continuing concern about the motivation and ability of terrorists to
inflict an intentional Chernobyl upon the United States. Despite
Washington's recognition of the risk, 31/2 years after the attack on the
World Trade Center, it is still attempting to sort out what to do. The
dithering ill serves national security.
Testifying before the Senate Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence on
Feb. 16, FBI Director Robert Mueller succinctly laid out problem.
Commenting that 9/11 "al-Qaida planner Khalid Sheik Mohamed had nuclear
power plants as part of his target set," Mueller ominously warned, "...
(W)e have no reason to believe that al-Qaida has reconsidered." Indeed, the
director placed nuclear power plants at the top of the hit list of
infrastructure targets that terrorists would be tempted to attack.
The FBI's conclusion begs the question: Has the United States done all it
can to prevent or reduce the consequences of nuclear sabotage since Sept.
11, 2001?
The answer: Not really. In fairness, the country's nuclear infrastructure
is more secure today. Utilities have bolstered defenses against ground
assaults. Intelligence is more focused.
Airport security better protects against airplane hijacking. Yet, the
National Academy of Science's April 6 report on the vulnerability of
nuclear spent fuel pools belies the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
persistent mantra that our nuclear plants are effectively immune.
Prompted by nongovernmental scientists' claims that terrorist ground or air
assaults could drain the pools and ignite the highly radioactive spent fuel
assemblies resulting in consequences exceeding Chernobyl, Congress asked
the academy for an evaluation. The NAS conclusion: "A terrorist attack that
partially or completed drained a spent fuel pool could lead to ... the
release large quantities of radioactive material to the environment." The
academy added that NRC's efforts to belittle the risk are "not prudent."
As an immediate remedy, the NAS called upon utilities to modify the spent
fuel configuration and density to allow better cooling and water-spray
systems to douse any terrorist ignition. It further recommended a
plant-by-plant survey of unique vulnerabilities.
The NRC will require further political prodding to implement
recommendations since the academy is only an advisory group.
Unfortunately, the terrorists' calendar to do us harm may not comply with
the commission's labored pace.
The commission must also do a better job in protecting power reactors, a
matter the academy addressed marginally. It remains unclear whether the
NCR's post-9/11 "Orders" requiring beefed up plant security meets the
challenge.
Guards repeatedly have complained they neither have the training, armament
or sufficient personnel to foil a sophisticated ground assault. The
commission has not provided the public with ample information to judge the
results of mock attack exercises intended to test defenses. Furthermore,
the NRC still clings to the mistaken belief that intelligence will provide
timely warning of an increasing attack risk environment to bolster security.
However, one fact remains clear: nuclear power plants are naked against a
Sept. 11, 2001-like air attack.
Plaintively, the commission argues that the "defense in depth" engineering
built into reactors to prevent serious accidents should suffice although it
continues to "study" the matter. It contends that the first line of defense
ought to be airport security; if that fails, military aircraft could
intercept suspicious airplanes.
Unfortunately, this "action plan" is flawed. Engineers did not design
reactor containments to withstand an intentional, high-speed impact by a
large commercial airliner. Then there is the risk that such an attack could
disrupt "soft" vital lifelines outside the containment that could prompt a
meltdown.
Airport security already has failed to prevent general aviation "buzzing"
of reactors. Other defensive measures could be deployed. However, the
commission opposes antiaircraft guns or missiles at reactor sites fearing
that they could shoot down innocent planes. The fact that other countries
pursued this path without mishap has not made an impression.
There yet remains passive defenses. Utilities could put in place large
World War II-like barrage balloons to entwine light aircraft in their tether.
Another option, heavy steel I-beams can be placed over reactor sites to
fragment incoming aircraft dramatically reducing their ability to penetrate
sensitive structures. The beams also could anchor defensive steel cabling
and netting to further deflect impact. The NRC has before it a formal
petition for rulemaking to accomplish this option.
Unfortunately, the commission is not likely to implement such insurance as
long as it clings to the view that attacks are improbable and plants are
well protected. This year's Chernobyl commemoration should serve as a
useful reminder of what can happen if the presumptions prove wrong.
Bennett Ramberg is the author of Destruction of nuclear energy facilities
in war: The problem and the implications and Global Nuclear Energy Risks.
He served in the Department of State's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs
in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
*****************************************************************
57 Jeff St. Clair: Bush Administration Kills Nuclear Fallout Study
Downwinders Be Damned:
Frank Godino 2 1 2005-05-07T19:46:00Z 2005-05-07T19:46:00Z 3
1093 6235 Godino Engineering 51 12 7657 9.4402
By Jeffrey St. Clair
Just as the Bush administration contemplates ordering up a
new generation of nuclear weapons, which may in turn spark a new
round of nuclear testing in the high deserts of Nevada, the
Center for Disease Control, a federal outpost in Atlanta charged
with supervising the nation's physical well-being, pulled the
plug on a long-term study into the dire health consequences from
nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s on people living in the
American southwest.
The study, which has been underway for seven years, has been
tracking the thyroid conditions of 4,000 former students who
lived in southwestern Utah and eastern Nevada in 1965, at the
height of testing of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site.
The lead researcher, Dr. Joseph L. Lyons, a professor at the
University of Utah, was informed via a curtly worded letter on
March 21 that funding for the study had been inexplicably yanked.
The letter terminating the research in midstream was written
by Michael A. McGeehin, director of the CDC's Division of
Environmental Hazards and Health Effects. McGeehin claimed the
study was killed because of financial considerations. "The CDC
does not have the resources to extend funding for this study
beyond the current budget period," McGeehin wrote. "We recommend
that you take measures to close out this study by the end of the
current budget period, which will occur on August 31, 2005."
The Utah Thyroid Disease Study hardly seems like a financial
burden on the federal purse. In seven years, the investigation
into thyroid cancers linked to radioactive fallout has cost the
federal treasury only $8,049,988, roughly the amount the
Pentagon spends every two hours in Iraq. Or consider this: from
1990 to 1995, the federal government spent more than $90 million
in legal fees to fight off claims from downwinders and workers
at nuclear weapons plants over the health consequences of
bomb-making and testing.
Lyons believes, with good reason, that the study was axed
for political reasons. "The only interpretation I can put on it
is that the Bush administration doesn't want to know the health
effects of fallout on American citizens," Lyons told the Desert
News.
The scientist also said it was an extremely rare occurrence
for the CDC to pull funding in the middle of a major study.
"I've never know it to happen before," says Lyons, who has been
researching the links between cancer and fallout since 1977.
Located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Nevada Test
Site, established in 1951, sprawls over 1,500 square miles of
desert basin and range country. Between 1951 and 1992, the
Pentagon and Department of Energy conducted at least 925 nuclear
blasts at the site, more than 100 of the explosions were above
ground, open-air tests, which cast a radioactive pall over much
of the American West. Even the underground tests vented plumes
of radiation.
A 1997 study by the National Cancer Institute reported that
the fallout from the blasts deposited large amounts of
radioactive iodine across the lower-48 states. The report
concluded that the contamination was so severe that it may cause
as many as 70,000 cases of thyroid cancer alone. By way of
comparison, that's 65,000 more casualties than Saddam Hussein is
alleged to have caused in his poison gas attack on the Kurdish
village of Halabja in 1988.
It was Lyons' groundbreaking study in 1979 for the New
England Journal of Medicine which proved that radioactive
fallout from the open-air nuclear tests in Nevada had lead to
increased incidents of cancer in communities downwind of the
blasts. A subsequent study demonstrated that those same downwind
communities faced an increased likelihood of leukemia deaths.
These two reports prompted Congress to finally enact a fallout
compensation measure for downwinders.
In 1993, Lyons and his colleagues began studying the thyroid
conditions of former school children who lived downwind of the
blasts. That research, published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, found that the schoolchildren exposed to
the highest levels of radiation were 3.4 times more likely to
suffer from thyroid tumors than would be expected.
These same students had been monitored by federal
researchers until 1970, who, unsurprisingly, claimed not to have
found any link between exposure to fallout and thyroid tumors.
But Lyons and his colleagues began examining those students as
adults and found that 58 of the former downwinders had nodules
on their thyroids. Of those, 8 were malignant tumors and 11 were
benign tumors.
This initial study buttressed the theory held by Lyons and
many other scientists that there is a lifetime risk to fallout
exposure and that thyroid problems in particular develop very
slowly across a span of decades. These results prompted Lyons to
apply for funding from the CDC for a larger study that would
examine the thyroid conditions of all 4,000 former
schoolchildren in southwestern Utah and eastern Nevada, who were
originally identified in 1965 as being exposed to the most
extreme levels of fallout from the blasts. The incidence of
thyroid problems in those students was to be compared to a
control group in Safford, Arizona.
One of the initial problems Lyons ran into was the
realization that the radioactive fallout extended farther than
he anticipated, meaning that most of the population of Safford
had also been exposed to radiation, though in much smaller
doses. Fallout has gone global. When it comes to thermonuclear
weapons, we all live downwind.
By the end of last year, the researchers had tracked down
more than 90 percent of the former students, most of whom agreed
to be examined for the study. "We've already reported that
there's an excess of tumors of the thyroid gland," Lyons said.
"And we've got pretty strong indications that there are other
disease problems that ought to be looked at."
Originally, Lyons planned to have the study completed within
five years. But he encountered continual meddling and roadblocks
from the CDC that consumed both time and much of the grant
money. "The federal government put all kinds of bureaucratic
hurdles in our path that were not part of the original
agreement," Lyons contends.
The agreement called for Lyons' research to be overseen by
the University of Utah. Then the CDC said that the study needed
to be scrutinized by an institutional review board at the CDC, a
requirement that delayed the research by two years. Next the CDC
informed Lyons that he had to submit the plans for his study to
a panel at the National Academy of Sciences, an inquisition that
lasted another two years. Then the CDC called for a yet another
review of Lyons' methodology by a three-person panel at the
Department of Energy.
When Lyons and his colleagues finally got out into the field
and began to get results, the CDC pulled the plug. "Essentially,
they said, 'Tough luck, we don't want your study'," said Lyons.
"I've been working on this now since 1977. I'm about to retire
and I'd really like to finish up this thyroid study and get some
definitive answers."
Those answers might prove to be unsettling for the Bush
administration as it pursues a new generation of nuclear weapons
and grooms the killing grounds of the Nevada Test Site for
another go-round of nuclear blasts.
People are getting sick and dying in the American Southwest
and the Bush administration doesn't want them to learn why.
Downwinders be damned.
*****************************************************************
58 Independent: Navajos take part in global forum
May 6, 2005
Navajos take part in global forum
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
FORT DEFIANCE — The Navajo Nation was among desert cultures from
throughout the world represented at the week-long Second
Festival of Cultures and Civilizations of World Deserts in Dubai
-United Arab Emirates, north of Saudi Arabia near the Persian
Gulf.
From distant sand dunes shimmering in the sun to veiled women
noticeably absent in university classrooms, the trip was an
educational experience for Cora Maxx-Phillips of the Office of
the President and Vice President, and Lillie Lane, public
information officer with Navajo Environmental Protection Agency.
Likewise, those in Dubai International Endurance City were
fascinated with the "famous Navajo Indians."
It was Navajos' first participation in the Middle East. The
tribal delegation was joined by the Inuits of Alaska and
representatives from Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, and
Mongolia. The event was organized by the Zayed International
Prize for the Environment, World Deserts Foundation and the
Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
The World Deserts Foundation works with desert communities to
develop their lands.
"The Navajo Nation continues to forge ahead in its goal to
attain economic self-sufficiency, and our DIné still adhere to
the cultural, social and traditional values that have made the
Navajo Nation unique and fascinating throughout its history,"
said Maxx-Phillips, speaking at an Endurance City seminar.
She also gave a presentation on the U.S. Forest Service's recent
decision to proceed with the Arizona Snowbowl expansion and how
that decision impacts the DIné and their culture. She further
told the group of the plight of Navajos suffering from the
"American government's nuclear exploitation."
Maxx-Phillips also told conference participants that Navajos
have been "stereotyped by Hollywood filmmakers for decades and
treated disrespectfully for so many centuries that it is
sometimes hard to recognize when our people are being demeaned.
Until lately, even educational books portrayed our people in a
bad light, often promoting stereotypes without realizing it."
Not only are stereotypes harmful, she told the group, they also
foster prejudice and discrimination, resulting in disorder and
illness. Those types of ailments generally are characterized by
a diagnostician such as a crystal gazer, and treated
traditionally by medicine people through prayers, songs and
ceremonies focused on healing.
Sacrifice zone
Phillips said it is well documented that indigenous people were
among the first to be targeted for secret government projects
and experiments in the 1940s and '50s, and were sent underground
to mine the uranium that fueled the first atomic bombs used on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
"Though the toxic effects of radiation were known to government
officials, no one did anything to protect the Navajo miners,"
she said. "Our people toiled day and night in the mines without
face masks, ventilation or clean drinking water. They breathed
the radioactive dust and drank contaminated water, and later
paid with their lives and their land."
Recent studies on environmental racism show that Native people
are disproportionately impacted by the toxic effects of the
nuclear fuels cycle. Thousands of Native people have died or
suffered health problems from the mining, milling, enrichment,
testing and disposal of nuclear fuels and weapons, Phillips
said.
Representatives of the various countries were housed in their
new home of makeshift trailers arranged in a small area.
Many countries sent delegations which performed tribal dances
and music. Navajo participants including Jimmie Harrison, Jerry
Blacksheep, Lorenza Garcia and Curtis Ray shared songs, dances,
crafts, knowledge of healing practices and medicinal plants.
The biggest challenges of the event were overcoming last-minute
schedule changes and having to be in two places at once,
according to the delegation.
Navajo EPA's Lane said the theme of the festival was the need to
recognize, share and celebrate the many significant
contributions that desert cultures have contributed toward the
world's civilizations. She said discussions centered around
global warming and how desert cultures could best preserve and
perpetuate themselves without having a negative impact on the
world.
The 2005 festival opened with an elaborate ceremony, followed by
a conference in Dubai focused on discussions of desertification,
economic development, and preservation of desert resources,
including water and plants.
Maxx-Phillips said information was exchanged regarding the
Navajo Nation becoming a charter member of World Desert
Foundation so it could reap the benefits of research in science
and technology as well as being part of the strategic alliance
of world desert cultures.
Some countries showcased their efforts toward economic
development, focusing on desert tourist ventures and the need to
market tribal arts and crafts a viable means of support, Lane
said.
Friday
May 6, 2005
Selected Stories:
Murder suspect hangs himself; Jail guards unable to revive man
accused of killing brother-in-law
Navajos take part in global forum
Police to saturate streets
Store opening, Cinco de Mayo, Arts Crawl highlight weekend
the Gallup Independent.
*****************************************************************
59 Salt Lake Tribune: Facing the consequences
Opinion
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2005 01:25:42 AM
Utah proved itself the reddest of red states in the 2004
election. Now we face a few of the consequences. The resumption
of nuclear testing in Nevada is virtually a done deal, and the
construction of more nuclear power plants looms on the horizon.
Thanks to President Bush, we are at risk of becoming
downwinders again as well as watching our state turn into a
perpetual nuclear waste dump site. We ought to be raising an
uproar.
Underground nuclear tests are not safe. The Baneberry
underground test of Dec. 18, 1970, produced a huge plume of
radioactive material that blew our way. It could happen again,
renewing Utah's downwinder harvest of cancer deaths and birth
defects.
Nuclear power plants do not reduce our dependence on oil, but
they do produce radioactive waste. Utah and other Western states
could be forced into storing that waste. Furthermore, the plants
are dangerous. Remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Think of
terrorists targeting unsecured plants and shipments of
radioactive waste.
Utah is a beautiful state with good people. Why should we be
treated as glow-in-the-dark sacrifices to bad ideas? If we want a
future, we'd better raise our voices now against nuclear
testing and nuclear power plants.
Patricia Samul
Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
60 Swans Commentary: IS DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) DANGEROUSLY RADIOACTIVE?
Blips #18, by Gilles d'Aymery - desk018
Swans Commentary » swans.com May 9, 2005
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It's a good question; one that "open intelligence"
has answered by the affirmative for over a decade. US
"authorities" and Pentagon geeks and gooks, have, however,
continually denied the lethality of DU. Nope, they say, DU is
safe for Suburbia. Enjoy your DU, Viagra-cum-Prozac-loaded, in
your backyards. It will keep you and your family safe and warm,
as the almighty, thanks to the diamond US army, whose business
it is to defeat the terroooorists and all the enemies out there
(definition of enemy? Anyone who's not us and white, and doesn't
own an SUV or love NASCAR, and dresses in red, white and blue.),
goes on securing our non-negotiable American way of life so that
it may continue in perpetuity, as the cemeteries of Empire fill
to the hilt.
BUT, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, here is what one of our proud men who's
gone to Iraq, and Kuwait, and Afghanistan, and Egypt, and
Israel, and Jordan, and beyond, to keep us free and safe, a
middle officer in the American Armed Forces, a Captain of the US
Army, praise his soul and stamina, had to say in an e-mail on
the subject: Please read through page 6, an article on uranium.
Note the date at the top. In the Army, since 2000, we have
received yearly training and refreshers on the dangers of
depleted uranium and other sources of radioactive contamination.
If you saw how much the Army spends and how much it pushes for
safety in relation to radioactive dangers, you would be
surprised. This article by Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto
is a farce [ed. "Depleted Uranium: The Pentagon Betrayal Of GIs
And Iraqis," By Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto, in Swans
Special issue on Iraq, "RESISTANCE: In The Eye Of The American
Hegemon," February 2, 2004.]. The military is very focused on
this issue. As a matter of fact, all tank hulks from Desert
Storm are in specially marked fields and marked off limits to
everyone (signs in English and Arabic). Having been to Kuwait
and Iraq, I know this to be true.
EXCUSE ME, "the dangers of depleted uranium and other sources of
radioactive contamination . . . . all tank hulks from Desert
Storm are in specially marked fields and marked off limits to
everyone..."? Oh Captain, my Captain, it cannot be true, it
cannot... I, and all my low-life fellows, have been told that,
no, certainly not, DU was not radioactive -- with a shelf life
(no refrigeration necessary) of a few tens of thousand of years
to a few billion years (it varies depending on the expert, of
which this land is blessed with many) -- and that all those
alarming reports were just hogwash...invented by no-good
American haters. So what gives, Sir? Where's the beef?
THE CAPTAIN, a serious man -- not a distiller of unpatriotic,
un-American, un-SUV, un-McMall, un-be-all-you-can-be, un-Abu
Ghraib, un-shoot-first-and-then-ask, babbling perfidies -- knows
what he is talking about, and is ready to show us the beef.
THE BEEF, freely delivered by our U(P)S hero, one of the
gazillion brown shirts navigating daily the enchanted "free"ways
of our blessed land, came in the form of an Adobe Acrobat PDF
file attached to his e-mail: Countermeasure, the US "Army Ground
Risk-Management Publication," Vol 21 No 1, January 2000,
http://safety.army.mil/.
YES, ON PAGE 6, one can read, in "Radioactive Material...
Common, but DEADLY!": The Army uses many items that contain
radioactive material. Examples include the M43 chemical agent
detector (americium-241); lensatic compasses, gunner's
quadrants, aiming post lights, and collimators (tritium); Abrams
armor packages (uranium-238, also called "depleted uranium"),
lens coatings in thermaloptics (thorium-232), and radiation,
detection, indication, and computation (RADIAC) check sources
(krypton-85 among others). It is a long list.
The Army designs these items so that they do not expose soldiers
to significant amounts of radiation even under tough conditions.
The Army and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have many
regulations that keep them under tight control from the time
they enter our inventory until they leave it.
The article then moves on to "foreign military equipment [which]
also contains radioactive material, and explains what military
personnel should do in presence of such material, concluding, If
you want to keep the radioactive material, you will probably
have to have a NRC license or an Army radiation authorization to
assure that everything is legal and that the radioactive
material is under proper control. See AR 11-9 for application
instructions.
In summary, you have a problem once you discover that the
foreign equipment you possess contains radioactive material.
What you must do next is keep it from becoming a major problem
for you and for the Army. Your installation and MACOM radiation
safety officers are there to help you. Be sure to contact them.
BUT NO PROBLEM with our radioactive materials... They are
designed "so that they do not expose soldiers to significant
amounts of radiation even under tough conditions. . . . from the
time they enter our inventory until they leave it."
NOW, I DON'T KNOW about you, but I am slightly confused. Have
not the US military and government consistently denied the
dangers of DU? Befuddling, no?
BUT I WILL TAKE the Captain at his word. Depleted Uranium is
radioactive; the army spends mucho buckados and "pushes for
safety in relation to radioactive dangers"; ordnances are
designed accordingly; and once they leave the inventory the
resultant is kept in "specially marked fields and marked off
limits to everyone..." My thanks to the Captain for telling us
as it is. Perhaps the New York Times will pick it up from
here...and run a story... (want to bet?)
MEANWHILE, dear readers -- and Captain -- and The Times editors
-- you may wish to look again at the special report by scientist
Leuren Moret, which shows that Gulf War Syndrome is
overwhelmingly caused by depleted uranium (see my Blips #14 for
more details). As to the off-limits-marked fields, I highly
recommend Stephen Marshall's acclaimed documentary,
Battleground: 21 days on the Empire's Edge,produced by
the Guerrilla News Network,and winner of the 2004 Silver Hugo
Award for documentaries at the Chicago International Film
Festival. An unorthodox and evenhanded documentary, profoundly
humanistic, Battleground depicts the various sides of the
conflict through American soldiers and Iraqis of all walks of
life. Of particular interest in regards to the fields marked off
limits, in which destroyed tanks and military hardware are
stored, are images of Iraqis strolling through these fields with
cutting saws to salvage steel that can be resold, while a
radiation detector records the fast ricocheting of the
tic-tic-tic-tic pitching sounds indicating the high level of
radioactivity... I really wish the good Captain would get hold
of that DVD (I'm sure the US Army can afford a copy). It's not
an "anti-American, anti-military" documentary, but it does
provide a sincere reflection on the senselessness of the
conflict and the dire conditions it has bred.
OTHERWISE, on Swans, besides the "farcical" piece by Sara
Flounders and John Catalinotto, please have a look at
"Apocalypse Now," by Aleksandra Priestfield (January 22, 2001),
"Depleted Uranium: The Balkans Syndrome" (by this author,
January 8, 2001 -- lots of news excerpts). You can also visit
the International Depleted Uranium Study Team(IDUST) and the
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons(ICBUW), to learn
more about the "safety" of DU. Finally, you all, including the
Captain, may enjoy finding out how this horror is being covered
up and spun out, not only by the US military and government, but
also by the US media. For the latter, please see "Depleted
Uranium and Depleted Public Opinion" (January 22, 2001).
PEOPLE, THE USE OF DU IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: We are grieving for Mary, the virgin one,
who has been defaced (see my Blips #17). According to Yahoo
News,"A man was arrested for allegedly scrawling 'Big Lie' over
a stain on an expressway underpass that some believed was an
image of the Virgin Mary. Authorities then painted over the
stain because it had been defaced." Mary, we understand, has
moved to greener pastures (Jan tells me she believes she saw her
on our dog Priam's tender parts...)
POPE RAT'S CAR joins the grilled cheese Virgin Mary: You surely
recall Golden Palace Casino's successful $28,000 bid for Mary in
a sandwich... This time, in an item related to the immaculate
pucelle and her successors (through sonny boy), Golden Palace
paid $244,000 for a 1999 metallic gray hatchback Volkswagen Golf
that once belonged to the new pope, BXVI (though he never drove
it -- poppystar does not have a driver's license). The e-bay
auction attracted 8.4 million visits in 10 days. Golden Palace,
of Austin, Texas, USA, had the highest bid...
Golden Palace is now the happy owner of a sandwich and a car --
it also has acquired a roast chicken that looks like old
poppystar, PPII. (ref: BBC News). Time to go to church...after a
detour to the bank and a quick game of craps.
ENLIGHTENMENT REDUX: 70% of Americans believe in Satan, and 12%
in evolution. This must explain, besides Golden Palace Casino,
why Kansas is trashing Darwinism and adamantly promoting
creationism and intelligent design for its public school
curriculum... Some 40 US states are moving in that direction...
QUOTATION FOR THE AGES: "We pray for help in defending the gift
of freedom from those who seek to destroy it," "We pray to
acknowledge our dependence on the Almighty."
--Mr. Bush during the East Room ceremony marking the 54th annual
National Day of Prayer.
PHILIP GREENSPAN writes: May 3, 2005. My submission for the
next issue follows. Once again Fran and I are doing well -- with
a full calendar of events to keep us busy.
Our weekly Saturday afternoon anti-war protests bring out a core
group of twenty-five to thirty each week rain or shine. Our
pro-war opposition across the street numbers two or three. The
increasing number of passing cars that honk their horns in
support of us is very encouraging.
Tuesday night at Manhattanville College we attended a lecture by
Howard Zinn.
Wednesday night we had dinner at a restaurant where our jazz
musicians play.
On Friday it was a fund-raising event for friends -- the West
Point Eight -- who are suing the government. They attended the
Army-Navy basketball game and at an appropriate moment they
stood up, opened their jackets to display T-shirts whose letters
spelled "U.S. Out of Iraq." The background noise in the stadium
immediately stopped as eyes turned towards the eight. They were
promptly arrested and charged with "Trespassing" and "Disorderly
Conduct." The charges were later dropped, and they are now suing
the government.
Saturday night, we saw Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land,
a film about the biased media towards Israel. I had shown the
film at a local library several weeks ago. It generated such
heated comments that I attended again waiting for the discussion
afterwards. Since all the viewers were generally in agreement
with the film, the afterward discussion was tame.
Sunday was a local Tikkun meeting, and Sunday night was another
meeting where Mexico was the topic.
This is typical of a usual week... Tonight we will attend a
meeting where three Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
are the speakers.
Kindest regards to you and Jan from Fran and
Phil
And people tell me that there's no activist on Swans!
ON THE "OWNERSHIP SOCIETY" and the best health care in the
world, Richard Macintosh had this to say: My wife and I go to
Canada frequently and watch the value of goods we bring back --
if any. I save about 50% on my heart medications that way. As it
is, I spend about $500 (US) per month. If I had to buy them in
the U.S., we would have to get a new mortgage, sell our home, or
perhaps just go broke. That's what the elderly face in America
these days.
Mr. Bush also said during the East Room Ceremony (cf. supra),
"Every day, millions of us turn to the Almighty in reverence and
humility." "And almost every day, I am given a special reminder
of this great generosity of spirit when someone comes up and
says: 'Mr. President, I'm praying for you.'" I suppose that soon
enough Mr. Bush will assert that praying to the almighty will
advantageously replace heart medications...
(From, "The Onion Eater," by Joe Bageant, here and there on the
Web,circa April 28, 2005
(Note: not much is said in this litany about the "other"; those
in the netherworld, the world that does not belong to us -- us
meaning white, middle (you are middle, aren't you, Joe?) -- the
world where kids don't have a life, but resources are pilfered
out of their dead bodies courtesy of "liberals, [and] men and
women of good will" as well as the usual faith-based crowds.)
I'm sure the Captain will enjoy the veterans' benefits and keep
praying to the almighty in the name of "truth"... Richard will
know better and keep visiting his Northern neighbors...
CONTROVERSY GALORE: The British Association of University
Teachers has voted to boycott the Israeli universities of Haifa
and Bar-Ilan. Only academics who declare their clear opposition
to the policies of the state of Israel in the Occupied
Territories will be excluded from the boycott. A similar
resolution was defeated about two years ago. The pro-Israel camp
is up in arms. As usual, the sponsors and organizers of the
boycott are accused of anti-Semitism (Judeophobia). Professor
Sue Blackwellof Birmingham University, one of the main sponsors,
is under persistent attacks for her actions and writings on
Palestine and Israelon her Web site. Abraham H. Foxman, the
national director of the Anti-Defamation League, has called for
a counterboycott of British Universities. A Special Council has
been formed to reverse the decision. It will meet in London on
May 26. Expect all hell to break loose between now and then,
with analogies to Nazi Germany and headlines like "Jews are
Targetted Again" and the more subtle "Defend Academic Freedom"
in the Op-Ed sections of your favorite newspapers. Funny, I
don't recall boycotters of anything French, two years ago, being
accused of anti-Catholicism...
BOONVILLE NEWS: I had a telling conversation with a local
utility person who came to perform some maintenance work where
we live; you know the small social and customary chitchat of the
kind "how are things?" "Things are not so good," he answered.
"And why is that?" I inquired. "Well," he said, "prices don't
stop going up...everything goes up but our wages." "Did you see
the price of gas at the pumps, lately?" he asked, adding, "why
did we go to Iraq if we can't even have the oil?" "Hmm," I
suggested carefully, "didn't we go to Iraq to spread democracy
and take care of a threat to our security?" His eyes lightened
up; he looked at me with a bemused smile, and said, "you want to
be kidding, no one gives a shit about Iraq and all the bullshit
why we went there. We need oil. They have oil. We went there to
get what we need." "You know thaaat..." he added with a trailing
sound in his voice, as though he meant, "come on, man, get
serious..." "So you believe that's why Bush got us in there," I
asked. "Hell, yes," he answered, "that's why...but he fucked
up...we're there but we don't have the oil...look at the gas
prices...what a mess!" "But, but," I ventured, "you believe it
was right to invade Iraq to get their oil? It's not ours, after
all..." He interrupted me, this time with a look of impatience
on his face. "What do you mean, 'it's not ours?' And do you
think the land where you are was ours? Look, where you are used
to belong to the Indians. We wanted the land. We took it. That's
how it works. That's how it's always worked..." "Bush better
gets his act straight...we need the oil," he added. There's
nothing more refreshing than a little candid expression of
reality... "Yeah," I said, "he'd better."
Incidentally, Caltrans,the California transportation department
in charge of state and county highways, is performing some road
repairs a few miles east of Boonville. Since one lane of the
two-lane road is closed, Caltrans uses a pilot vehicle to drive
back and forth along that portion of the road with its
contingent of motorists in tail. Once it has reached the end of
the repair section -- about half a mile -- it turns around and
journeys to the other end with another set of motorists. Back
and forth, all working day long, Monday through Friday... And
what vehicle is being used for this simple endeavor? You'd think
they'd operate a small 4-cylinder truck, a hybrid or even an
EV... Nope, they use what looks like a Navistar International
truck model 4200,which everybody knows epitomizes environmental
concerns and fuel economy! No wonder we need Iraq oil...
Coincidentally, being the last vehicle in the caravan lead by
the Caltrans' truck, once passed the repair zone, we followed
the cars in front of us which were driving at a snail's pace of
about 35 mph, when suddenly the sound of a shooting firearm drew
out attention. Right there, on the left side of the road going
west toward Boonville, at just about 100 feet from the road was
a man shooting his pistol on whatever target placed on the
hillside. Pah, pah, pah, pah, pah, pah... Always a pleasant
feeling...
Remember, Boonville is located in Northern California, a bastion
of American Liberal vanguardism... One of these days, I should
tell old Joe Bageant about the huge "god bless America," jesus
saves," "support our troops," and "get-rich casinos" signs that
line our blue state's roadways...and inform him on our own
"chosen ones" advocating "Triple Bottom Line" and "sustainable
development"...
Right down the road, a fine representative of the sustainability
crowd is applying for a Alcoholic Beverage Control permit.
Another vineyard in our bucolic valley is on its way. Right
across the road, an old apple orchard has been completely
uprooted.
*****************************************************************
61 Japan Times: Nagasaki A-bomb survivors express anger at Bockscar exhibition
in U.S.
Saturday, May 7, 2005
DAYTON, Ohio (Kyodo) Atomic-bomb survivors from Nagasaki
expressed anger Thursday after viewing the Bockscar, the B-29
bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on them in August 1945, at
the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force here.
[News photo]
A survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki points up at
the U.S. bomber Bockscar, which dropped the bomb on the city, at
the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, on
Thursday.
"I quiver with anger thinking how many lives were lost," said
Mitsugi Moriguchi, 68, one of the 10 members of a Nagasaki-based
nongovernmental organization calling for the elimination of
nuclear weapons.
Moriguchi, who was 8 when the bomb was dropped and later lost
his sister to radiation disease, made the comments as he looked
up through the plane's open bomb bay doors.
The group is visiting the United States on the sidelines of a
review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that
opened Monday in New York.
Isao Yoshida, 64, who actually glimpsed the plane just before
it dropped "Fat Man," as the bomb was named, said, "That was the
first time I had seen the bomber in 60 years, and it was huge. I
have mixed emotions when thinking that this bomber dropped (the
atomic bomb)."
The members asked the museum's director, Charles Metcalf, to
display documents explaining how the atomic bomb damaged the
city and its people, because the photos are exhibited together
with the bomber without explaining about how many people died.
The director said that while he understood their feelings, there
is no doubt the bomber contributed to ending World War II and
saving several millions of lives, and that he could not grant
their request.
The atomic bombing of the city had killed an estimated 74,000
people and injured 75,000 more as of the end of 1945.
Bush visit sought WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba visited the U.S. State Department on Thursday and
presented a letter requesting President George W. Bush visit his
city this year.
After handing over the letter during a meeting with David
Straub, director of the Japanese affairs office, Akiba told
reporters he called on the United States to make efforts to
eliminate nuclear weapons.
"Nuclear abolishment, which is the wish of Hiroshima, is also
(the wish) of the majority of voices in the world," Akiba said
in repeating what he told Straub. "The United States is the
champion of democracy so we hope that it would respect the
majority of voices and work toward nuclear abolishment."
Akiba said Straub promised to swiftly pass on his letter and
comments to the president in which he expressed his wish for
Bush to visit Hiroshima in this "significant" year, the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War II. The United States
dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima just before the end
of the war.
The Japan Times: May 7, 2005
*****************************************************************
62 Portland Press Herald: Tainted soil near homes to be moved
Maine Yankee says there's no danger, but it will find a new
place for low-level radioactive soil in rail cars. -->
/Maine Sunday Telegram] Home " News "
Saturday, May 7, 2005
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Staff photo by John Ewing
Rusty Robertson, left, Sagadahoc County's director of
emergency management, and Mike Labbe walk along the line of rail
cars that Maine Yankee is keeping behind some Topsham homes.
Mike Labbe, Topsham's emergency management coordinator, checks
the rail cars with a radioactivity measuring device Friday
afternoon. He found no radiation.
MAINE YANKEE SOIL REMOVAL
MAINE YANKEE has removed 380 million pounds of waste from the
site of the former nuclear power plant in Wiscasset during the
past seven years. The $500 million cleanup is now focusing on
soils buried on the site that contain low levels of
radioactivity.
SOIL AND OTHER low-level waste must go to a secure landfill,
one of which is in Utah. It is not considered dangerous enough,
however, to be regulated by the Department of Transportation as
hazardous cargo.
MAINE YANKEE officials, as well as state and federal nuclear
inspectors, say the rail cars used to transport the soil do not
have to be marked as hazardous and that water leaking from the
rail cars contains far less radioactivity than regulations allow.
Maine Yankee said Friday that it plans to move 26 rail cars
loaded with low-level radioactive soil after residents of a
Topsham neighborhood said they didn't want them parked behind
their homes.
The rail cars arrived a couple of days ago on their way back to
the former nuclear power plant in Wiscasset.
"When it pulled up, the kids were excited and said, 'Oh, look, a
train,' "said Dorothy Simpson, who lives on Madelyn Avenue.
Simpson had heard about rail cars returning to Maine Yankee with
contaminated soil, but said she didn't think these could be the
same ones - until she and neighbors took a closer look.
"I just figured they would ship it out in the middle of nowhere
until they figured out what to do with it, and here it is
sitting in my backyard," she said.
Neighborhood concern led Topsham's emergency management
coordinator to take a radioactivity measuring device to the
tracks Friday afternoon. Mike Labbe said his measurements
confirmed what Maine Yankee and state officials had said: The
rail cars do not contain enough radiation to pose a public
hazard.
"There was no increase" in radiation measured around the cars,
Labbe said. "I wanted to be 100 percent sure."
Maine Yankee, meanwhile, told Labbe and neighborhood residents
Friday that the 26 cars would be removed sooner than planned -
within days instead of weeks. Another 32 empty cars will
probably take longer to remove.
"We're going to work with the rail company to try to get at
least the 26 loaded cars to Maine Yankee by early next week,"
said company spokesman Eric Howes, who inspected the stretch of
rail Friday with Labbe.
While still confident there is no danger, Howes acknowledged the
rail line is "pretty close" to the homes. "In retrospect, if we
were going to park cars out there, we should have provided
information to the neighbors," he said.
The 26 rail cars are among 48 that Maine Yankee has called back
from various parts of the country. The loads of soil were
removed from the Maine Yankee site and bound for a secure
landfill in Utah.
They were turned around last month, however, after the landfill
operator said previous shipments from Maine Yankee were too wet
to bury. At least a couple of the rail cars also leaked water
along rail beds.
Officials said the soil was frozen when it left Maine and thawed
during the journey across country.
Maine Yankee has since resumed shipments of contaminated soil to
Utah. And it is bringing the 48 cars back to the plant site in
Wiscasset, a small number at a time, to inspect them and, if
necessary, empty and reload them with dry soil.
The 26 cars were being stored on a side rail in Topsham until
Maine Yankee had room to bring them to Wiscasset.
The health officer in Woolwich, John Albis, also did some
checking around a rail siding in his town after residents raised
concerns about empty rail cars from Maine Yankee sitting behind
the Taste of Maine Restaurant on Route 1. Albis said he found no
evidence of elevated radiation and was reassured after talking
to Maine Yankee officials. "Even if one of those cars were to
dump over, and it probably would never happen, you could be
standing right next to it and it wouldn't affect you," Albis
said. "But when they start to park the cars out there and people
start to get concerns, you got to check 'em."
Town officials in Topsham are planning a meeting at 7 p.m.
Monday in the Topsham Public Library to answer questions and
ease any fears about the rail cars, Labbe said.
Simpson said officials immediately tried to reassure her and her
neighbors that there was no reason to worry.
The cars, however, are too close, she said. They sit on rarely
used side tracks about 50 yards behind her home, on the other
side of a narrow wooded area where her 7-year-old son plays, she
said.
"To me, anything, whether it's low radioactivity or high, it's
radioactivity, and it's a danger to the community," she said.
"Town officials and Maine Yankee are saying it's completely safe
and it's nothing to worry about. Of course they're saying that -
it's not in their backyard."
Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:
© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
63 Sunday Times: Radioactive leak closes £2bn nuclear reprocessing plant
May 09, 2005
By Ben Hoyle
PART of the huge Sellafield nuclear site has been closed after a
leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel.
About 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium dissolved in
concentrated nitric acid escaped through a cracked pipe into a
huge stainless steel chamber which is too dangerous for humans
to enter.
The leak, at the Thorp reprocessing plant, was discovered last
month during an automated inspection. Repairing the pipes and
recovering the spilled liquids is expected to take months and
may need special robots, which will have to be built.
The British Nuclear Group, which runs the site, said last night
that the leak posed no danger to the public, the environment or
to Sellafield’s employees.
The closure of the £2.1 billion plan will have serious financial
implications for the taxpayer. The Thorp plant generates about
£1 million a day which is used to finance the cleanup of
redundant nuclear facilities.
Most of the leaked material is uranium but it also contains
about 440lb (200kg) of plutonium, enough to make 20 nuclear
weapons. That must be recovered and accounted for to conform to
international safeguards aimed at preventing nuclear materials
falling into the wrong hands. Once the liquid has been siphoned
off it will have to be stored until the plant can be repaired,
but a method of doing this has yet to be devised.
The future of the nuclear industry is a sensitive issue, with
Tony Blair having to decide whether to build a new generation of
nuclear power stations.
Despite a programme of wind farm construction, Britain is
struggling to meet its target of cutting greenhouse gas
emissions by 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2010, while
generating capacity will also be hit by the rundown of some of
Britain’s coal-fired power stations.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) took over ownership
of Sellafield from British Nuclear Fuels on April 1 and has a
£2.2 billon cleanup budget for its first year.
In 12 years Thorp has reprocessed 5,644 tonnes of fuel, missing
its first ten-year target, of 7,000 tonnes. Last year it managed
590 tonnes, again missing a target, of 725 tonnes.
But Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to Radioactive
Environment, said that the NDA had been “naive” in placing trust
on income from Thorp, given its track record. “Reprocessing is
blatantly incompatible with the official cleanup remit of the
NDA, which will now find itself out of pocket as a result of the
latest Thorp accident. The new owners would do the taxpayer the
greatest service by putting Thorp out of its misery and closing
it once and for all.”
Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
64 Las Vegas RJ: Lawmakers cut funding for Yucca Mountain fight
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Committees say repository project appears on verge of collapse
By SEAN WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- Members of the Legislature's two money committees
agreed Friday to cut funding for the fight against Yucca
Mountain by half to $1 million for the coming two years.
Lawmakers cut funding not because they fear the nuclear
repository project is inevitable, but because it appears to be
on the verge of collapse.
The head of the state agency directing the fight against Yucca
Mountain said the reduced funding will do no serious harm to the
effort to keep the dump out of Nevada.
"I don't think it's critical," said Bob Loux, executive
director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "If we get
into a pinch, we can always go to the (Interim Finance
Committee). They have been sympathetic to our needs in the past."
The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee, comprised of the
same two money committees, handles funding requests in-between
legislative sessions.
Loux said the funding is needed primarily to prepare an
opposition response if the U.S. Energy Department goes forward
with an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
license Yucca Mountain to house nuclear waste.
But that can't happen until the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency establishes a new radiation standard for the site, he
said. The new standard was made necessary when a federal court
in July voided the previous standard.
A draft proposal for a new standard could come out this summer,
but there is no time line for when it would be made final, Loux
said.
Gov. Kenny Guinn recommended $2 million for the fight in his
2005-07 budget. But the Senate Finance Committee voted to reduce
that amount to $1 million.
In a meeting with the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on
Friday to resolve budget differences, the Assembly panel agreed
with the Senate to lower the funding to $1 million.
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she
opposed the reduction in funding. The view in committee was that
since the state won the lawsuit on the radiation standard, that
the project is on the verge of collapse, she said.
"But you don't want to send any kind of message that you are
wavering on Yucca Mountain," Titus said.
If the money wasn't needed by the agency in the coming two
years, it would just roll over to the next budget, she said.
But Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said the recent allegations
about falsified data for the project seem to have sent Yucca
Mountain into a tailspin.
"They've shot themselves in the foot," he said.
Members of Nevada's congressional delegation contend the Yucca
project is staggering after the disclosure of e-mails from 1998
to 2000 in which geologists wrote of "fudging" documentation of
water flow research to satisfy quality assurance requirements.
The Energy Department and inspectors general from DOE and the
Interior Department are investigating.
While Loux agreed that it might take awhile before the
licensing process gets under way, the state must be ready to
respond whenever that happens.
Fighting the licensing request "will require a lot of upfront
work," he said. "We have to be prepared."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
65 Salt Lake Tribune: Don't move it, solve it
Opinion
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2005 02:54:34 PM
Inside every household of our nation are cleaners and
chemicals that make our lives easier. While potentially
hazardous to our health, we accept the risk because of the added
benefits we receive.
In the long run, we do not store these items forever under
our kitchen sinks. Eventually we recycle or properly dispose of
these agents to protect ourselves and our families. If we are
unwilling to risk our lives over household chemicals, why should
our attitude be any different toward nuclear fuel?
Why are we willing to risk storing thousands of pounds of
depleted nuclear fuel rods in our back yard when they can be
recycled and reused, removing the threat from our neighborhoods.
The benefits of having adequate electrical power for our economy
is critical, but the hazards of storing exhausted fuel rods
on-site is unacceptable.
Our nation seems to be focused on the solution of shipping the
material to Utah or Yucca Mountain and letting someone else worry
about it. Both options only move the problem, not solve it.
The technology for breeder reactors has existed since the 1960s.
Why don't we use technology and recycle these depleted fuel
rods, eliminating the hazard altogether, while producing more
electrical power?
Mark C. Foote
Sandy
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
66 MaineToday: Tainted soil near homes to be moved -
John Richardson
PORTLAND, Maine Maine Yankee has vowed to act swiftly to move
26 rail cars carrying low-level radioactive waste after Topsham
residents said they didn´t want them parked near their homes.
The rail cars arrived recently, en route to the former nuclear
power plant in Wiscasset.
"When it pulled up, the kids were excited and said, ´oh, look a
train,´" said Dorothy Simpson.
Simpson had heard about rail cars returning to Maine Yankee with
contaminated soil but said she didn´t think these could be the
same ones at first.
"I just figured they would ship it out in the middle of nowhere
until they figured out what to do with it, and here it is
sitting in my backyard," she said.
Topsham´s emergency management coordinator, Mike Labbe, took a
radioactivity measuring device to the tracks and said his
measurements confirmed what Maine Yankee and state officials had
said _ the rail cars did not contain enough radiation to pose a
public hazard.
"There was no increase" in radiation around the cars, Labbe
said. "I wanted to be 100 percent sure."
Maine Yankee told Labbe and residents of the neighborhood on
Friday that the 26 cars loaded with soil would be removed within
days.
The 26 rail cars are among 48 that Maine Yankee has called back
from various parts of the country. The loads of soil were
removed from the former reactor site and bound for a secure
landfill in Utah. They were turned around last month after the
landfill operator said previous shipments from Maine Yankee were
too wet to bury.
The 26 cars were being stored on a side rail in Topsham until
Maine Yankee had room to bring them to Wiscasset.
Town officials in Topsham are planning to hold a meeting at 7
p.m. Monday in the Topsham Public Library to answer questions
and ease any fears about the rail cars, Labbe said.
___
Information from: Portland Press Herald,
To top of page
Last updated 1:15 am
+
+
[ width=]
Copyright © Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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67 Japan Times: NPT group urges halt to Rokkasho plant
Saturday, May 7, 2005
NEW YORK (Kyodo) Twenty-seven U.S. scientists and former
policymakers on atomic energy on Thursday called on Japan to
indefinitely postpone the start of operations at the
plutonium-reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture.
"At a time when the nonproliferation regime is facing its
greatest challenge, Japan should not proceed with its current
plans," says a joint statement issued during the Review
Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which opened
Monday in New York.
The Union of Concerned Scientists issued the statement and sent
it to the Japanese government.
Among those who signed the statement were four Nobel physics
prize winners, Jerome Friedman, Sheldon Glashow, Leon Lederman
and Steven Weinberg, as well as William Perry, a former U.S.
secretary of defense.
The plant can separate about 8 tons of plutonium a year or
enough to make 1,000 atomic bombs, the statement says, and its
operation "would raise serious concerns about Japan's commitment
to strengthening the NPT"
The statement says the plant's operation might also have
ramifications for North Korea and Iran, suspected of nuclear
development under the right of peaceful use of atomic energy.
The Rokkasho plant, which is the first industrial-scale
reprocessing plant in a country not possessing nuclear weapons,
is to begin operations in 2007 after a test run begins in
December.
Tokyo considers the Rokkasho plant, as well as the Monju
prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, as key
components of its nuclear fuel-cycle policy. Monju has remained
shut since coverup of a sodium leak accident was discovered in
1995.
Construction of the Rokkasho plant began in 1993, nine years
after a federation of power companies asked Aomori Prefecture to
host the facility.
The Japan Times: May 7, 2005
*****************************************************************
68 Las Vegas SUN: State lawmakers cut funding for Yucca Mountain fight
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Members of two legislative committees
have agreed to cut in half funding for the state's fight against
Yucca Mountain, saying the federal plan to bring a nuclear waste
dump to Nevada appears on the verge of collapse.
The head of the state agency directing the fight against Yucca
Mountain said Friday the reduced funding will not harm their
efforts.
"I don't think it's critical," said Bob Loux, executive director
of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "If we get into a
pinch, we can always go to the (Interim Finance Committee). They
have been sympathetic to our needs in the past."
That committee handles funding requests between legislative
sessions.
Loux said the funding is needed primarily to prepare a response
if the Energy Department moves forward with a license
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open Yucca
Mountain.
But that can't happen until the Environmental Protection Agency
establishes a new radiation standard for the site. A federal
court in July tossed out the previous standard.
Gov. Kenny Guinn recommended $2 million for the state's Yucca
effort in his 2005-07 budget. But the Senate Finance Committee
voted to reduce that amount to $1 million.
In a meeting Friday to resolve budget differences, the Assembly
Ways and Means Committee agreed with the Senate panel to lower
the funding to $1 million.
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, had opposed the
reduction, saying "you don't want to send any kind of message
that you are wavering on Yucca Mountain."
But Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said the recent allegations
that workers may have falsified data regarding Yucca Mountain
seem to have sent the project into a tailspin.
"They've shot themselves in the foot," he said.
---
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
--
*****************************************************************
69 Deseret news: Yucca might not accept waste from Goshute site
[deseretnews.com]
Sunday, May 8, 2005
Associated Press
A U.S. Department of Energy official said the federal waste
repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nev., would not accept
waste from the temporary storage facility proposed in western
Utah — not as long as the waste was in welded containers.
David Zabransky of the Energy Department's Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, speaking in Salt Lake
City to representatives of the Western Interstate Energy Board,
said federal contract requirements forbid acceptance of spent
nuclear fuel welded into any type of canister.
That would include the 44,000 tons of waste that Private
Fuel Storage proposes to transport to Utah and store on the
Goshutes' Skull Valley reservation until it can be moved to
Yucca.
Zabransky said it might be possible to set up a facility
at Yucca where the PFS canisters — or canisters from any nuclear
utility that stores spent fuel rods in casks — could be cut open
and repackaged.
But that would be a "burden to the system," he said.
It also would be possible to renegotiate the contract, he
said.
Dianne Nielson, executive director of the Utah Department
of Environmental Quality, said after Zabransky's presentation
that the Energy Department and the NRC, by not dealing with the
contract issue, have abdicated responsibility for PFS and
whether it would indeed be a temporary facility.
"This is not just a PFS issue," said company spokeswoman
Sue Martin. She said there is "an awful lot of fuel" stored in
containers nationwide because the DOE defaulted on the contract
by not building the depository.
"The utilities had no choice" but to store the waste, she
said. "The DOE has a legal obligation to take spent fuel."
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
70 Herald and News: Old uranium mines to be cleaned up
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Sunday, May 08, 2005
A pair of 50-year-old uranium mines in Lake County will finally
be cleaned up.
A group of observers checks out the White King uranium mine in
Lake County. Not much is known about the photo, from reporter
Lee Juillerat's files. It is dated in 1957, and the group may be
students.
The White King and Lucky Lass mines are contaminated by heavy
metals and radioactive components. Both have been closed more
than 40 years.
Negotiations with three corporations took 15 years.
"It's been a long time coming. We're really anxious to get under
way," said Bill Adams, project manager for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
Work begins this summer and is expected to take two summer
seasons. The mines are 17 miles northwest of Lakeview on the
Fremont-Winema National Forest.
Adams said Kerr-McGee Chemical Worldwide, Fremont Lumber Co. and
Western Nuclear will pay the $8 million cleanup cost.
Mining at White King and Lucky Lass began in 1955 to build the
U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S.
Department of Energy's predecessor, was responsible for
production, ownership and use of uranium on federal and private
lands.
Kerr-McGee is the successor to the Lakeview Mining Co., which
was formed by Lakeview-area people whom the energy commission
recruited to conduct mining activities from 1955 to 1959.
Adams said the mining contaminated the soil and ground water,
and left waste rock.
At White King excavation pond, both the surface water and the
ground water are contaminated, as are sediments. The pond covers
about three acres and is 70 feet deep.
The most contaminated soil from both mines is to be combined and
covered. The acidic water in the White King pond is to be
neutralized.
About 430,000 cubic yards, from the White King overburden
stockpile, 35,000 cubic yards of off-pile material and 15,000
cubic yards of haul road material will be excavated,
consolidated and relocated atop a 138,000-cubic-yard stockpile.
The materials will be covered with "clay-like" material. A
2-foot soil cover will be placed over the 25-acre repository.
Vegetation will be re-established atop the cover. The pond will
be fenced to discourage use.
After excavation, the disturbed areas, which are expected to
cover about 36 acres, will be reclaimed and revegetated.
"The cleanup will enhance existing Augur Creek habitat and the
White King pond area," according to an EPA fact sheet. "Water
from Augur Creek will be rerouted to develop about five acres of
wetlands."
Although studies on the sites was active in the 1980s, it wasn't
until 1995 that the EPA listed the sites on the National
Priorities List for long-term cleanup. After a lengthy study,
the cleanup decision was issued in late 2001.
Copyright © 2005 Herald and News. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
71 PNS: Residents Worry About Rocket Fuel in the Inland Empire's Drinking Supply
Pacific News Service
News Report, Cheryl Brown,
The Black Voice News, May 08, 2005 FONTANA, Calif.-- Residents
are suffering from high incidences of thyroid disease, cancer
and low learning levels, attention deficit disorders, and
learning disabilities because of rocket fuel in the water,
charged Penny Newman, Executive Director of the Center for
Community Action and Environmental Justice.
"Polluters need to provide replacement water and clean up the
water," said Newman.
Forum host and guest speaker State Senator Nell Soto was strong
in her response as she urged the audience of 100 in February to
get involved, saying, "They won't pay attention until we start
working together. Public pressure is going to be the only thing
that will work. Start a revolution!"
At the highest risk are pregnant women, infants, children and
those whose immune systems have been compromised. "In Norco,
there have been clusters of thyroid problems, and other
illnesses," said one participant who was asking for help for her
community.
"The area with the highest number of incidents is the Wiley Labs
located just 1500 feet from two schools. The people affected are
unrelated to each other and as new people move in they are
becoming ill. We have been documenting the cases. In one case
the family had a case of thyroid cancer and the next person who
moved in the same house also had thyroid problems," said the
woman.
The community forum, held at the Fontana City Hall, focused on
the high incidence of rocket fuel in the entire Inland Empire's
drinking water. State Senators Nell Soto and Gloria Negrete
McCloud were there to support the grassroots movement to clean
up the drinking water.
Perchlorate is the primary ingredient in rocket fuel and is
emerging as the major contaminate in California and in the
nation. Because of the high number of military and aerospace
contractors and manufacturers of explosive chemicals in the
Inland Empire there is widespread contamination in the water,
milk and lettuce of about 16 million Californians. West Valley
Water District director Alan Dryer said, "the water companies
want to sell clean water but we have no money to clean it up and
we are not working together to go after money from the EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency)."
He said that they don't even have the tools to measure the
amount of pollution in the water. Supervisor Josie Gonzales took
issue with presenters and said her approach is to clean up the
problem. "We need to focus on the clean-up, not the money it
costs to do it," she said. However she was met with opposition.
"It is the responsibility of the polluters not the taxpayers to
clean up the water," said Newman. Gonzales said that time was of
the essence.
Sujatha Jahagirdar
Environment California Research &Policy Center representative
Sujatha Jahagirdar summed up the problem and said that the Santa
Ana Water Quality Board has not issued a fine. "The government
agency that is charged with clean water hasn't issued a fine to
any of the companies who are the polluters. If the polluters are
put into the Superfund the water will be cleaned up," she said.
Jahagirdar said that the company Kerr-McGee Industries has
almost single handedly polluted the entire Southern California
region. "It is paramount no matter where we live," she said.
Senator McCloud said her research found that a plume of
perchlorate is in her district near Pomona, (where the GE Iron
Company used to be) over to the Big Chino Aquifer and is meeting
the San Bernardino/Riverside plume at about a rate of 3 feet a
day.
The issue of the standard of what is the safe level of water was
discussed. Jahagirdar said that California doesn't have a safe
standard and that setting the standard is political. "The
companies that pollute are trying to convince the government to
agree on a standard that is dangerously high.
Massachusetts, she said, "has the nation's best standard. It is
one part per billion." The California Department of Health
Services is unofficially moving toward recommending the very
high rate at six parts per billion" she said.
"In setting the final perchlorate standard, the state should use
the weight of scientific evidence, including experiments showing
the damage to infant rats when exposed to small amounts of
perchlorate in the womb," said Jahagirdar. According to
Jahagirdar, the study that was done used grown men and not
pregnant women or children. "They gave some grown, healthy men
perchlorate laced water for two weeks and another group clean
water, they (perchlorate) were not affected," she said.
The study done by Environment California Research and Policy
Center recommends, in addition, the State of California, local
governments and water suppliers should hold responsible parties
fully liable for cleanup and for supplying replacement drinking
water to affected communities.
Congress should not exempt the Department of Defense. Secondly,
Congress should reinstate Superfund fees for polluting
industries to ensure that contamination caused by now-bankrupt
companies will be cleaned up. Federal and State Agencies should
require American Pacific, Kerr-McGee Chemical and other
responsible parties to accelerate clean-up of perchlorate
contamination currently leaking into the Colorado River and
local aquifers.
Our choice in setting a health standard for perchlorate is a
choice between protecting the financial interests of a handful
of companies and government agencies, or protecting California
children, recommended the report. According to the presenters
the water is contaminated and hurting us and the ones who are
hurt the most are people who cannot afford bottled water.
”What can the community do? Sign the petitions, get involved,
and help save the children. We need to protect all people. Those
who can afford bottled water and those who can't," said Penny
Newman. For information call (951) 360-8451.
This author developed this piece as part of an environmental
fellowship program run by NCM with funding from the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation's New Constituencies for the Environment
initiative.
Copyright © 2004
Pacific News Service
*****************************************************************
72 ABQjournal: Nanos: LANL on 'Stronger Footing'; Lab Chief Takes
Pentagon Job
Albuquerque Journal newspaper.
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
George "Pete" Nanos set out two years ago to "drain the
swamp" at Los Alamos National Laboratory amid congressional and
media scrutiny over financial management and security problems.
In the process, he rubbed many scientists the wrong way,
once labeling some as "cowboys" and "buttheads" for refusing to
follow security protocols.
But in an e-mail announcing his departure as lab director
to 12,000 LANL employees Friday, Nanos praised lab workers for
their efforts to fix financial and property management problems
and for improving safety and security procedures.
"I believe our science and our national security programs
are now on a stronger footing," he wrote.
Nanos' tenure as the seventh director of Los Alamos will
come to an end effective May 15.
Reaction to his long-rumored departure was mixed.
Doug Roberts, a lab computer scientist who created a blog
highly critical of Nanos, said "beer was flowing freely" at
lunch Friday in celebration— but added that the mood "was
tempered by the realization that we are still left with a lot of
problems."
Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation,
University of California officials and Department of Energy
brass generally praised Nanos.
Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who represents Los Alamos, said he
saw Nanos as a transitional figure in LANL's history whose
actions upset people but were necessary.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., thanked Nanos for "taking on an
extremely difficult task during an especially tumultuous time."
Robert W. Kuckuck, 66, will serve as interim laboratory
director through the end of the University of California's
current contract to manage LANL, which expires at the end of
September.
Kuckuck is a longtime scientist and manager at LANL's
sister nuclear research laboratory in California, Lawrence
Livermore.
Nanos, lab 'diverge'
Rumors predicting Nanos' departure have circulated for
months. They finally proved true Friday when the retired Navy
vice admiral announced he had accepted a job at the Pentagon
after more than two years as chief of the nation's first weapons
lab.
"I believe it is now time for my path and the Laboratory's
path to diverge," Nanos wrote in his e-mail.
Named interim laboratory director on Jan. 2, 2003, Nanos
was tapped to be permanent director in May of that year by
then-University of California president Richard C. Atkinson.
From the beginning of his tenure, which began just weeks
before UC and LANL officials were to appear before Congress
because of financial management problems, Nanos promised he
would be aggressive in working to improve administrative
controls and public confidence in the nuclear research facility.
"Pete has been an agent of change at LANL, and the
laboratory is a stronger and safer place as a result of his
leadership," UC president Bob Dynes wrote to lab employees in an
e-mail Friday.
In 2003, then-DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the
LANL contract would be put up for competition, after a series of
embarrassing financial and security flaps.
So far, major defense contractors Lockheed Martin and
Northrop Grumman are the only companies that have announced
their intention to bid. UC and the University of Texas system
are considering bids.
University of California spokesman Chris Harrington said
the University of California will likely make a decision after
the Department of Energy releases its competition criteria in
about a week.
Kuckuck is expected to address LANL employees in a meeting
on his first day on the job, May 16.
"I think the laboratory has been through a lot in the last
couple of years," he said in a phone interview Friday. He said
he plans to have an open door policy for scientists and workers
and hopes to ameliorate the stress of the coming months and
contract competition by being approachable and by listening to
concerns.
"I want to try to connect with the folks and really get out
and talk," he said. "It is all about people."
From 2001 to 2002, Kuckuck was deputy administrator for
DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration and was
responsible for internal operations and restructuring the
organization. Since December 2002, he has served as a senior
adviser for UC's Office of Laboratory Management, working on
laboratory oversight issues.
Harrington said the school is continuing a nationwide
search for potential senior managers in preparation for a
possible bid to win the lab's next contract.
Tough manager
LANL's employees, especially its scientists, often bristled
at Nanos' brusque management style. Many felt attacked by some
of Nanos' remarks, such as the "cowboy" comment.
Shortly after bringing all work at LANL to a halt in July
over safety and security concerns— a pair of classified computer
disks couldn't be found (DOE and FBI later announced the disks
never existed) and a college intern injured her eye in a laser
accident— retired scientists and anonymous employees, via the
news media and an Internet blog, began calling for Nanos to
resign.
Estimated costs of the nearly seven-month shutdown range
from about $120 million to nearly $370 million.
In the last month, anonymous posters on the Internet blog
run by a 20-year LANL computer scientist predicted with
near-perfect detail the circumstances and timing of Nanos'
resignation.
"Spot on, actually," said blog creator Roberts.
Other reaction to the management change— from Gov. Bill
Richardson, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. and others— contained
praise for Nanos and his efforts to improve lab operations in
difficult circumstances, while welcoming Kuckuck and his
expertise in nuclear research.
"Dr. Pete Nanos has led Los Alamos National Lab during a
challenging time," DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a
statement, adding that changes Nanos instituted have helped keep
LANL a premier laboratory.
"Robert Kuckuck clearly has the experience and expertise
needed to maintain the level of scientific excellence for which
LANL is known," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in a statement.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
Steve@abqjournal.com
*****************************************************************
73 SF Chronicle: Nuclear physicist takes over helm of Los Alamos lab
/ UC braces for competition to run facility
[San Francisco Chronicle]
Zachary Coile and Keay Davidson, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, May 7, 2005
The tough-talking director of the University of California-run
Los Alamos National Laboratory is being replaced with a veteran
of the nuclear weapons establishment, the university announced
Friday.
The move to replace George "Pete" Nanos, a former Navy admiral
who has run the scandal-haunted lab since January 2003, with
nuclear physicist Robert W. Kuckuck comes at a tense time for
UC, which faces a national competition to hang onto its
six-decade-old contract to run the New Mexico laboratory where
the atomic bomb was born.
Nanos is moving effective May 16 to a new position at the U.S.
Defense Department's Defense Threat Reduction Agency in
Washington. Kuckuck's title for now at the 13,500-employee Los
Alamos lab is interim director, and his salary will be $356,000
a year.
Kuckuck's appointment was made by UC President Robert C. Dynes,
with the approval of U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman. UC
has run the lab since its founding under contract to the federal
government.
The university chose Kuckuck, educated at Ohio State University
and UC Davis, because of a combination of factors: He knows the
university from serving in UC's Office of Laboratory Management,
but he also has connections to top officials at the National
Nuclear Security Administration.
UC officials also believe that Kuckuck's 35-year career as a top
weapons scientist and senior manager at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory makes him the best person to present what
the university thinks is its strongest argument for winning the
contract to continue to manage Los Alamos: UC's academic
pedigree and long history of producing top-notch science.
"Without a doubt, he understands the importance of science and
that science is the underpinning of the work at Los Alamos,"
said UC spokesman Chris Harrington.
Even so, Kuckuck may be a short-timer, as he indicated to
reporters Friday that he plans to retire later this year.
Nanos' departure caps more than two years of tumult inside the
lab, where he vowed to "drain the swamp" upon taking power in
early 2003. In recent years, the lab has been racked by
financial, management, safety and security scandals, including
the repeated loss of computer disks containing classified
information.
The first month on the job, when Nanos was still interim
director, he told the UC regents that he would undertake reform
measures that would be as painful as "ripping off someone's
skin."
He kept his promise: Among other acts, he publicly chewed out
staffers at meetings; called certain employees "butt-heads'' and
"cowboys''; and ordered a shutdown of regular lab operations in
order to give staff time to rethink their behavior.
In September 2004, he fired four employees and forced another to
resign.
In the process, Nanos infuriated some Los Alamos staffers. For
months, via blogs and e-mails to reporters, Nanos' critics
inside the lab have circulated rumors that his days as director
were short.
The blogs made no difference to Nanos, though: "Anyone who
thinks that a decision as important as who is director of Los
Alamos National Laboratory is influenced or directed by people
anonymously complaining about their boss on the Internet is
deluding themselves. It absolutely does not have that kind of
clout, nor should it," said Kevin Roark, a Los Alamos spokesman.
Dynes, in a statement Friday, said: "Pete (Nanos) has done a
remarkable job under extraordinary pressures and circumstances
these past two years. He has been a stalwart agent of change."
In an e-mail to Los Alamos staffers Friday, Nanos wrote, "Dear
colleagues ... I am very proud of how the laboratory has
responded" to his direction. "... We have emerged from the
suspension as a stronger laboratory -- with our core weapons
program deliverables now back on track and on schedule, and a
viable business plan for science in place for the future."
On Friday, Kuckuck (pronounced "cook-cook") told reporters he
plans to serve only until the Energy Department decides who will
get the $2.2 billion contract to run the lab in the future. That
decision should come toward the end of this year, he said.
The Energy Department is preparing to release its request for
proposals -- the guidelines for the anticipated intense
competition -- within the next two weeks. Already two major
defense contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, are
lining up academic and other private sector partners to try to
break UC's lock on the contract.
On Friday, Kuckuck made the simple sales pitch he'll use to urge
that UC continue to manage the lab. "I think, No. 1, an academic
and scientific basis for these laboratories is critical," he
said. "Second, I think UC is the greatest research and
scientific university in the world.
"The difference between having a for-profit company, a defense
contractor run this science lab versus a university will be a
clear choice," Kuckuck said. "I hope it escalates into a very
intellectual national debate."
On Friday, many scientists expressed glee about Nanos' departure
and the appointment of a veteran nuclear weapons scientist to
head the lab.
"Based on some of the calls I've been getting from scientists
and researchers, people were really happy about it," said Manuel
Trujillo, an electrical engineer and president of the local
University Professional and Technical Employees Union.
"Basically, Nanos' management style just didn't fit in with
research and development aspects of this laboratory," Trujillo
said. "... For a person in a management capacity dealing with
the situation here, I think he could have been more respectful
of these people."
If the UC regents formally vote, as expected, to join the
competition for the next contract, they face some powerful foes
inside the Washington Beltway.
UC's adversaries in Congress are holding regular hearings to
bash its management of Los Alamos. Members of a House Energy
subcommittee on Thursday criticized the lab's long shutdown of
normal operations under Nanos, which they claim may have cost
taxpayers $120 million to $370 million.
Energy Department officials defended the lab, saying the
shutdown was needed to improve security and safety. But Rep.
Bart Stupak, D-Mich., suggested the possibility of closing the
lab and moving its work to other facilities. "We have a lab that
is a constant problem. Why do we need this one?"
Change at the top
Coming: Robert W. Kuckuck, a nuclear physicist, has a 35-year
career as a top weapons scientist and senior manager at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. UC officials hope his background
will help the university in its quest to keep running the Los
Alamos National Lab. His tenure, however, may be short: He said
he plans to retire later this year.
Going: George "Pete" Nanos took over Los Alamos in January 2003,
a time when the lab was beset by problems. Nanos' hard-line
approach infuriated some Los Alamos staffers. He will take a new
job with the Department of Defense.
Page A - 1
San Francisco Chronicle]
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74 i-Newswire.com: Energy Secretary's Statement on Los Alamos Lab Leadership Changes
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The following is a statement from Secretary
of Energy Samuel Bodman on leadership changes at the
department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The
University of California today announced that LANL director Dr.
Pete Nanos will be stepping down and that Dr. Robert Kuckuck
will serve as interim director.
i-Newswire, 2005-05-07 - "Dr. Pete Nanos has led Los Alamos
National Lab during a challenging time. He instituted a number
of sound business practices that have helped Los Alamos remain
one of the premier labs in the world. While serving as
director, Dr. Nanos demonstrated vigor and resourcefulness
learned during his many years in the U.S. Navy. I thank him for
his service to our department and our Nation, and I wish him the
best of luck in his new responsibilities at the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency.
Bob Kuckuck brings an enormous wealth of experience to this
task, having served at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and in Washington at the National Nuclear Security
Administration. I look forward to working with him in his role
as interim director.”
Media contact:
Anne Womack Kolton, 202/586-4940
Number: R-05-111
2005-05-07
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