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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 BBC: Iranians back drive for nuclear power
2 BBC: Iran warns EU over nuclear talks
3 Xinhua: Rice firm on Iranian nuclear arms
4 Xinhua: Iran calls for EU positive move in nuclear negotiations
5 Online NewsHour: A Frontline Report on Iran's Nuclear Weapons Progra
6 Deutsche Welle: EU Seeks to Prevent Iran's Nuclear Program
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Korean Lawmakers Get Earful from Allied H
8 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: [EDITORIALS]Redraw the transfer plan
9 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Hu doubts early 6-party revival
10 Xinhua: DPRK, US work to resume 6-party talks
11 Xinhua: S.Korean, US presidents to meet on nuclear issue in June
12 Korea Times: NK Nuke Talks at Crucial Juncture - China
13 US: IPS-English U.S.: New Environmentalism, Or Backdoor to Nuclear
14 US: Guardian Unlimited: Senators Avoid Battle Over Filibusters
15 UN Nuclear Energy Agency Helps UN Safeguard Shared Water Sources
16 RIA Novosti: EXPERT: RUSSIA NOT PONDERING JOINT NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL
17 RIA Novosti: Opinion & analysis - WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
18 RIA Novosti: ALMOST 250T OF URANIUM RECYCLED UNDER MEGATONS TO MEGAW
19 MercoPress: Nuclear cooperation: Brazil denies Venezuelan approach
20 Guardian Unlimited: `Nuclear Five' Yet to Find Common Ground
21 csmonitor.com: Drawing a nuclear red line |
22 Guardian Unlimited: Capitulation to the nuclear lobby is a politics
NUCLEAR REACTORS
23 US: Hampton Union: Nuke plant fence failed test
24 US: Platts: Trojan's license terminated, site released for unrestric
25 US: Courier Journal: Evidence of meth is found at plant
26 US: JOURNAL NEWS: NRC decision causes Indian Point opponents to reth
27 US: NRC: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant; Issuance of Environment
28 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for th
29 US: IPS: U.S.: New Environmentalism, Or Backdoor to Nuclear Power?
30 Mos News: Russia Plans to Open First Block of Indian Atomic Power St
31 US: NRC: Live NRC Meeting Webcast
NUCLEAR SECURITY
NUCLEAR SAFETY
32 US: Secrecy News -- 05/24/05
33 US: NRC: In The Matter Of Andrew Siemaszko; Establishment Of Atomic
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
34 US: [NukeNet] Action Alerts! Stop Reprocessing, New Illinois
35 US: [NukeNet] Private Fuel Storage (PFS) license preliminarily
36 US: NRC: NRC Licensing Board Denies the State of Utahs Motion for Re
37 Deseret News: Yucca for temporary storage?
38 US: Las Vegas SUN: Board Rejects Utah's Nuclear Dump Appeal
39 US: Tri-City Herald: Hanford may temporarily store spent nuclear fue
40 US: Salt Lake Tribune: N-waste fought from fresh angle
41 US: Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive Waste From Ohio Going to Texas
42 US: Bismarck Tribune: Clean up uranium mines now
43 US: The Signal: Whittaker-Bermite to treat a portion of Santa Clara
44 PR Direct: ENVIRONMENTALISTS CHALLENGE RADIOACTIVE WASTE PLAN
45 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Debate over dry cask fee heats up in House
46 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast-inspired contamination notification
47 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium mining has potential to harm miners
PEACE
48 US: Statement at Conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
49 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hanford: Acknowledging damage
50 Tri-City Herald: Opinions Tri-Cities, IsoRay a natural pairing
51 California Aggie: Regents to discuss bid for labs
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 BBC: Iranians back drive for nuclear power
Last Updated: Tuesday, 24 May, 2005
By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran
[Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (C) visits an uranium
conversion facility outside the city of Isfahan] Securing nuclear
power has become a question of national pride
As nuclear talks between Iran and Europe are approaching crisis
point, Iranian television has started showing a series of long
advertisements telling people why they need nuclear power.
The appeal is highly nationalistic. "The achievements of our
young scientists are another step forward in our struggle for
independence," the presenter says.
There are pictures of men in white coats with test tubes and
scenes of great engineering feats mining uranium ore blended
with the Iranian flag and national anthem.
But what do ordinary Iranians make of this relentless drive to
master nuclear technology?
The backbone of the country's economy is Tehran's bazaar - a
vast covered wholesale market.
Our leaders are for peac Today if they are trying to get atomic
energy for us, it is for the advancement of the country
Mohammed Sadegh Khamechchi Carpet trader
For several years traders have enjoyed unprecedented peace and
prosperity.
In the carpet section, men are busy everywhere moving piles of
rugs on trolleys - counting money and sipping little glasses of
tea, while hawkers peddle hot Iranian bread just out of the
oven.
"Our leaders are for peace," says carpet trader Mohammed Sadegh
Khamechchi.
"Today if they are trying to get atomic energy for us, it is for
the advancement of the country," he says. "If one day the oil
runs out or it's no longer profitable to refine it, then we will
have something to replace it without being dependent on other
countries."
But Mr Khamechchi says if a compromise cannot be reached, then
Iran will have to stand up to the superpowers alone and if it
comes to that, the whole nation will back its leadership.
Not all the carpet merchants want to air their views in public
for fear that their outspokenness might affect business.
All say they back Iran's right to nuclear technology, but
privately some say not at any cost.
National pride
On the other side of town is a market of a different sort
selling hi-tech computers, the latest iPods for storing music,
software and electronics imported from the West.
Consumerism is flourishing in Tehran after the difficult years
of the revolution and the war with Iraq.
It is hard to find anyone Iran who will question the need for
nuclear power in a country with huge oil and gas reserves and
potential for generating hydropower
Iraj Azari, sales manager in a Panasonic shop, knows how
politics can affect his life - he lost his job in America after
11 September and had to return home to Iran.
If nuclear talks between Europe and Iran break down, Mr Azari
says he will be worried: "If a resolution is not reached,
obviously it will have a direct effect on the economy."
He also says that after the war and sanctions Iranians "have had
enough; it's time for the authorities to negotiate a peaceful
solution - that would be best for everyone".
Despite Mr Azari's reservations, it is hard to find anyone in
Iran who will question the need for nuclear power in a country
with huge oil and gas reserves and potential for generating
hydropower.
It has become a question of national pride and a red line that
no politician will cross.
Little room for compromise
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani has repeatedly said
the resumption of enrichment-related work will go ahead - even
if it has been put on hold for one last round of talks with
Europe.
"We have to resume some of our nuclear activities; we are
discussing the timing and details, but the message for the
international community is that it is definite that we will do
this in the future," Mr Rohani told state-run television
recently.
But there are hardliners in Iran who criticise Mr Rohani for not
having been tougher with Europe before.
A recent editorial in the hardline newspaper Jomhuri Islami
said: "After two years of negotiations regarding the nuclear
issue, even the most naive figures of the country have
understood that the Europeans don't want anything else except
our defeat."
The hardline-dominated Iranian parliament recently passed a bill
obliging the country to develop nuclear fuel.
There was no time limit in the law, but the Iranian government
is now legally obliged to pursue enrichment.
And that means the room for compromise with Europe is shrinking.
*****************************************************************
2 BBC: Iran warns EU over nuclear talks
Last Updated: Tuesday, 24 May, 2005
[Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (right) at Isfahan Uranium
Conversion Facility, 30 March 2005]
The next round of talks could be the last chance to find a
solution
Talks on Wednesday with the European Union about Iran's nuclear
programme have only a 50-50 chance of success, a leading Iranian
negotiator has warned.
Speaking after preparatory talks in Brussels, Hossein Mousavian
said there were no guarantees of avoiding a breakdown in
negotiations.
"These talks were more difficult and complicated than ever," he
said.
The EU has threatened to back a US call for United Nations
sanctions if Iran resumes the enrichment of uranium.
The US accuses Tehran of developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists
its nuclear programme is for civilian use only.
The consequences beyond breakdown in talks) could only be
negative for Iran EU foreign ministers
So far, the EU approach has contrasted with the US hard line by
offering economic and political incentives to keep enrichment
activities frozen, in line with a deal struck in November.
The meeting in Paris on Wednesday is set to include the foreign
ministers of the UK, France and Germany, along with the EU
foreign policy head Javier Solana.
Mr Mousavian, a member of Iran's Supreme National Security
Council, is one of the leading negotiators on the Iranian side,
which is led by Hassan Rowhani.
The talks were called following threats by Iran to resume
enriching uranium. It says it is entitled to do so, but is ready
to offer guarantees that its nuclear programme will be
exclusively for civilian purposes.
'Consequences'
Despite attempts at rapprochement, EU leaders have warned Tehran
that a breakdown in talks could lead to a referral to the UN
Security Council.
That, foreign ministers said in a letter to Mr Rowhani, "would
bring the negotiating process to an end", according to AFP news
agency.
"The consequences beyond could only be negative for Iran," the
letter said.
Iran went further in ratcheting up the temperature ahead of
Wednesday's meeting.
"Tomorrow's session could bring an end to the extensive talks...
if (the Europeans) don't have a clear proposal," said foreign
ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
"Or they can be a turning point in relations and co-operation
between Iran and Europe. There's no possibility between these two
options."
*****************************************************************
3 Xinhua: Rice firm on Iranian nuclear arms
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-24 10:37:38
BEIJING, May 24 -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has said that the world must not tolerate any move by Iran to
develop atomic weapons.
Rice made the remarks at the convention of the
American-Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday.
She said that thanks to the US and its European allies'
joint efforts, the world has attached much importance to Iran's
attempt to develop mass destruction weapons. They are working
together to obtain full disclosure on Iran's nuclear activities.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan suggested setting up a
mechanism to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons under the
veil of civil program.
Washington backs European efforts to solve this problem
through negotiations.
(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 Xinhua: Iran calls for EU positive move in nuclear negotiations
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-24 18:36:41
TEHRAN, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharazi said Tuesday that Iran still insisted on its previous
stance and called on the European Union (EU) to take positive
steps on the Iranian nuclear issue, the official IRNA news
agency reported.
"The European side was not successful in taking determining
and constructive steps to settle problems but Iran is still
ready to remove the current stalemate," Kharazi was quoted as
saying in the central city of Isfahan.
Kharazi conditioned any agreement with the EU on the
acknowledgement and assurance of Iran's rights on nuclear
technology.
"Iran's stance is transparent. We call for removal of
ongoing problems with regard to meeting our national interest,"
he said.
Kharazi's remarks came on the threshold of the new round of
negotiations between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan
Rowhani and foreign ministers of the European trio of Britain,
France and Germany on Wednesday in Geneva.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has predicted that the
upcoming talks will be very tough, but expressed hope that they
will be successful.
The nuclear negotiations between Iran and the EU has been
paralyzed since Tehran in late April threatened to resume its
uranium enrichment activities, which it suspended in last
November in exchange for the economic and technological
incentives promised by the EU.
The European trio has warned that it will back a US proposal
to refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council if Iran carries
out the resumption.
The EU has been trying to persuade Iran to permanently halt
its enrichment program, but Tehran insists that it cannot make
compromise on its legitimate rights.
The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear
weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Iran as "politically
motivated". Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 Online NewsHour: A Frontline Report on Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program
May 23, 2005
GOING NUCLEAR
The NewsHour presents an excerpt of reporter Paul Kenyon's
Frontline report on the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
PAUL KENYON: None at the U.N.'s team in Iran has ever before
spoken publicly, but Chris Charlier she tells me about the
difficulties of inspecting here.
CHRIS CHARLIER: Whatever we say, whatever we do, they are always
behind us with a video camera, with a microphone trying to
record things that we saying. And it's a little disturbing
because some people don't like it. You know, usually when we
work, we don't like to have always somebody behind us, behind
our shoulders and looking what we're doing or recording what
we're saying. But, you know, it's part of the game.
PAUL KENYON: Charlier and his colleagues have been traveling the
country checking out nuclear sites that until recently the world
didn't know existed. The inspectors take samples and test
particles, and report back their findings to the headquarters in
Vienna. As a site called Lavizan, on the outskirts of Tehran,
the U.N. suspected a nuclear facility. But the Iranians wouldn't
let them in.
CHRIS CHARLIER: When we asked them to get access there, they
started, you know, "Well, there's nothing there," you know. "We
just dismantled building, and there was nothing related to
agency activities." And finally, after months of discussion, we
went there.
PAUL KENYON: When they finally got access, Lavizan had changed
from this to this. It had been dismantled, bulldozed over,
leaving nothing behind. Until recently, Iran's most closely
guarded secret was the uranium enrichment facility six hours
south of Tehran, called Natanz. We decide to head there
ourselves, across a desolate plain protected by mountains.
Natanz has never been filmed before.
This uranium enrichment facility is the size of six football
fields, and it's almost entirely underground. As you get closer,
you see anti-aircraft positions. The Iranians have covered
Natanz with thick layers of concrete and steel to keep it safe
from the bunker-busting bombs that Iran fears the United States
or Israel will use against it. Iran's pattern of behavior around
Natanz and the other sites is deeply concerning to the UN
inspectors.
CHRIS CHARLIER: They tried, really, I believe, to conceal their
program and the activities. And, yeah, well, maybe there is
things -- still others things that they are doing and we
couldn't find, and that's why we are getting suspicious.
PAUL KENYON: We catch up with the inspection team at a hotel
near Natanz. They've just come from a nuclear facility there.
Part of the inspector's job is to install surveillance cameras
to make sure the Iranians aren't doing anything undeclared.
I want to know the latest data from the camera at Natanz, but
inspector Daniel Baudinet is wary about talking. He says the
security services have just been called about us, and he isn't
comfortable being filmed.
DANIEL BAUDINET: This is the guy from the facility.
PAUL KENYON: Oh, is he?
DANIEL BAUDINET: Yes.
PAUL KENYON: Yeah. Did he look angry? Is he going to stay? Is he
coming in now?
DANIEL BAUDINET: No, no, no, no, no. But he was phoning now. As
soon as he saw you, he phoned.
PAUL KENYON: We know we're being followed, as we head south
toward the ancient city of Esfahan. On the banks of the Zayandeh
River, Isfahan is a popular holiday destination for Iranians.
The inspectors have come here to monitor another major nuclear
facility. The next morning, we head out with the inspectors to a
nuclear facility near Isfahan. Anti-aircraft positions tell us
we're close.
Here, uranium arrives as yellowcake, and leaves in tanker trucks
ready for enrichment 100 mile as way at Natanz. The Iranians say
this is all for their nuclear energy program. But the problem
is, once they have the complete nuclear fuel cycle, they're not
far from the material to make weapons. The next morning, the UN
team sets off for another inspection. The security services tell
us we'll be arrested if we follow them. Then we're told to leave
the area. They send us the long way back to Tehran, to keep us
from taking more pictures of nuclear sites.
But once back in the capital, we go looking for another. The
Iranians have hidden it among the warehouses of East Tehran.
It's called the Kalaye Electric Company. It used to be a clock
factory, but now the UN believes it's where Iran has been
conducting nuclear experiments. The inspectors wanted to test
for nuclear particles, but the Iranians seem to have attempted a
cover-up.
CHRIS CHARLIER: You know, the building was a little bit
suspicious. Everything was just brand new. It was even still
smelling the painting, you know, because it was just freshly
painted. So, you know, I think the activities which was going
there, they had something to hide, and they renovated the
building before we arrived.
PAUL KENYON: We wanted to talk to the Iranians about the nuclear
sites we've seen. But at Tehran University, we find this man,
Ali Akbar al-Salehi. He's a professor now. But, until recently,
he was Iran's top nuclear negotiator. When the UN first learned
about Iran's secret nuclear program, Salehi defended to it the
world. He's still defending it now.
ALI AKBARA AL-SALEHI: We are really not after nuclear weapons.
We are not ashamed of saying it. I mean, we are not timid to say
-- we are not a country to be timid of saying things that we
wish to say or we wish to have. And we would have said it loudly
if we wanted to go after nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons.
PAUL KENYON: Salehi insists Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.
I ask: Why then was the site like the Kalaye Electric Company
scrubbed and renovated before the U.N. inspectors arrived?
ALI AKBARA AL-SALEHI: Well, this is again a technical issue. I
mean, people who are in this area, I mean, you cannot wash a
room that you have done experiments, nuclear experiments,
within. It's very easy to trace even the least amount of
material in a room.
PAUL KENYON: Salehi's arguments are often technical and legal.
But I press him on why they hid key parts of their energy
program for nearly 20 years, and why the deception.
ALI AKBARA AL-SALEHI: You keep on saying "deceiving." I keep on
saying that we were -- I mean, had we deceived the world, we
wouldn't have been in this position.
PAUL KENYON: Why were you less than honest or less than
forthright?
ALI AKBARA AL-SAEHI: Because of the sanction, international
sanctions.
PAUL KENYON: When Salehi says "sanctions," he's referring to the
U.S.-led trade embargo imposed after the hostage standoff at the
U.S. Embassy here in 1979. Iran says those trade restrictions
meant they couldn't buy a nuclear energy program openly, so they
turned to the black market.
Iran is rich in oil, but they say they still need nuclear power
to meet the energy demands of a population now grown to almost
70 million.
Copyright ©2005 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
6 Deutsche Welle: EU Seeks to Prevent Iran's Nuclear Program
25.05.05 | 04:16 UTC
[Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant]
Senior officials from Britain, France and Germany will meet with
Iranian counterparts on Tuesday for talks aimed at averting an
escalation of a standoff with Tehran over its nuclear programs.
The Brussels talks, which aim to prepare the way for negotiations
in Geneva on Wednesday, are led on the European Union-side by the
trio's foreign ministers and EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana.
"Nobody wants a crisis on our side," said one EU diplomat ahead
of the closed-door meetings. "We want the talks to continue."
The so-called EU-3 who represent the full 25-member EU, called
the talks after a series of recent threats from Tehran to resume
key nuclear activities, in breach of an accord to suspend them
last November.
Gentle persuasion
The EU, in contrast to the United States which suspects Tehran
of wanting to build nuclear bombs, is seeking to engage the
Islamic state, using the carrot of possible trade and other
benefits to persuade it to curb its nuclear plans.
[Isfahan uranium conversion facility in central Iran]
But at the same time it has warned Tehran that it could be
referred to the UN Security Council -- and into Washington's
diplomatic line of fire -- if the talks with the Europeans break
down.
"Iran should be in no doubt that any such change to the
suspension would be a clear breach of the Paris agreement" of
last November, the EU-3 said in a letter to Iran's top
negotiator, Hassan Rowhani.
"It would bring the negotiating process to an end," added the
letter. "The consequences beyond could only be negative for
Iran."
Iran has warned bluntly that the talks are the "last chance" for
the Europeans to offer it enough of an incentive to prevent the
threatened resumption of uranium enrichment activities.
All eyes on Europe
Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National
Security Council said on Monday that the Iranians may not even
travel to Geneva if no satisfactory offer is made during talks
between experts in Brussels.
"We would reach the conclusion that we haven't got along with
them," if they fail, he said.
[Jack Straw and Joschka Fischer will both attend the talks
Speaking on the eve of the talks, British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw acknowledged that the meetings in Brussels and Geneva will
be difficult -- but he said was nonetheless optimistic.
"The issue before us will be to ensure that both sides stick by
the agreements which we have already entered into," Straw said.
"I think (the talks) will be tough, but I think very much they
will be successful."
Electoral watchdog discounts reformists
Tension with the EU was further fueled on the eve of the talks
by the disqualification by Iran's Guardian Council of most
pro-reform candidates for June presidential polls.
[Luxembourg Foreign Minister and President Jean Asselborn ]
The Council, an unelected watchdog body that vets all candidates
for public office, announced on Sunday that just six men out of
1,014 would-be candidates can stand to succeed incumbent
reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
"We were very disappointed by the decision of the Guardians
Council," said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose
country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
DW staff / AFP (tkw) [de:mehr]
[Info]
Parties Not Sanguine About EU-Iran Talks
The possibility of Iran being brought before the UN Security
Council is increasing as Germany, France and Britain lose their
patience in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. (May 18,
2005)
EU Ministers Face Showdown With Iran
Iran said Sunday it was postponing its threatened resumption of
sensitive nuclear activities, but insisted the climbdown was
merely a temporary gesture ahead of "last chance" emergency
talks with European officials. (May 15, 2005)
EU Mulls Compromise with Iran
Are France, Britain and Germany considering a compromise that
would allow Iran to continue some of its nuclear activities
while angering the US? EU diplomats say they have not ruled it
out. (March 31, 2005)
*****************************************************************
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Korean Lawmakers Get Earful from Allied Hardliners
> Updated May.24,2005 18:45 KST
harsh words for Korea during a recent visit of Korean lawmakers.
He said Seoul had been neglecting its alliance with Washington
although unity between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan was key
to solving the North Korean nuclear dispute. He told the members
of the National Assembly's Defense Committee that Tokyo ¡°would
not accept¡± a new role Korea sees for itself as a power
balancer in Northeast Asia. Seoul was reportedly told of Yachi's
statements by its embassy in Tokyo.
The lawmakers quoted Yachi as saying, "The U.S. and Japan are
sharing intelligence about the North Korean nuclear issue, but
because the U.S. does not trust South Korea, it's hard for Tokyo
to share the intelligence it has gathered about [the matter]
with Seoul." The vice minister reportedly used frank language to
criticize South Korea.
It was Yachi¡¯s interpretation that in the nuclear dispute,
¡°the U.S. and Japan are on the right side, and China and North
Korea are on the left side, while it seems South Korea is closer
to the Chinese and North Korean side." He said Japan's position
on the dispute was ¡°that it can't wait forever.¡± He warned if
North Korea conducts a nuclear test, Tokyo would cut food aid
and raise ¡°in earnest¡± the issue of Japanese citizens abducted
by Pyongyang.
The committee members also met with Vice Admiral Gary Roughead
of U.S. Pacific Command, who equally had reservations about a
balancing role for Korea, asking where Seoul¡¯s alliance with
Washington came into the equation. Roughead was also reportedly
miffed that the Cheong Wa Dae National Security Council pulped a
joint military plan for contingencies including natural
disasters and mass defections in North Korea dubbed OPLAN 5029.
The committee delegation visited Tokyo, Washington and U.S.
Pacific Command in Hawaii from May 6. It consisted of Yoo
Jay-kun (Uri Party and committee head), Cho Sung-tae (Uri), Kim
Myung-ja (Uri), Park Jin (Grand National Party) and Song
Young-sun (GNP).
(englishnews@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
8 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: [EDITORIALS]Redraw the transfer plan
May 25, 2005 KST 13:14 (GMT+9)
The plan to transfer government-affiliated institutes to the
provinces is drifting at the mercy of political calculation and
overheated competition to induce them to their area. The
leadership of the governing Uri Party suggested suspending the
move of Korea Electric Power Corp., or KEPCO, the most popular
among the public enterprises on the transfer list.
As a precondition, there was a proposal to construct a nuclear
waste disposal facility in the area where KEPCO was to be
located. Under such difficult circumstances, the schedule to
decide the plan for the move of 180 public organizations within
the month has been postponed until next month. And the governing
party is reluctant to get a report scheduled for today from the
government. This is out of political calculation: If the place
where KEPCO will move to is decided, the other cities and
provinces will react against the decision. And it will cause a
loss of votes for the governing party in upcoming local elections
and next presidential race. The opposition party is also busy
counting votes. It is watching with folded arms because its
intervention will not be helpful in attracting voters. Instead of
joining in a controversial debate, the party prefers to stay out
of it.
Moving public institutions to provinces, the pivot of government
plans to promote balanced national development, is now treated
like a pariah. The governing party hesitates to support, and the
opposition turns its face away. There is no way to move back.
All other local autonomous bodies, except those in the Seoul
area, are competing to attract influential organizations to
their own areas. They are determined not to lose the benefit of
enticing them to their region. The debate on the desirability of
moving certain organizations to a certain locality is lost in
thin air. Out of desperation, the government proposed to group
them into 10, with each group having an influential member body.
Then the groups would be allocated to different cities and
provinces.
In whatever form the decision is made, it will never satisfy
everybody. This is the result of promoting an immature plan for
balanced national development. It is surprising that they
promoted the plan without detailed analysis of the need to move
and plans to cope with side effects of the moves. The plan to
shift public institutions should be reconsidered from square
one.
2005.05.24
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
9 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Hu doubts early 6-party revival
May 25, 2005 KST 13:14 (GMT+9)
May 25, 2005 ¤Ñ BEIJING ¡ª In a meeting with South Korea's
opposition party leader, President Hu Jintao of China expressed
pessimism yesterday about an early resumption of the six-nation
talks on North Korea's nuclear arms programs, but he pointed to
some positive steps taken by Pyongyang and Washington that could
break the nuclear stalemate.
On the second day of a visit to China, Park Geun-hye, chairwoman
of the opposition Grand National Party, met with Mr. Hu, to
discuss the efforts to end North Korea's nuclear arms program.
According to Chun Yu-ok, Grand National spokeswoman, Mr. Hu said
restarting the six-party talks might be difficult in the
foreseeable future because of the longtime distrust between
North Korea and the United States. However, Mr Hu was quoted as
saying that China was paying attention to recent developments.
"North Korea and the United States have exchanged messages
actively in the last few days," Mr. Hu reportedly said. "That is
evidence that the two sides have not completely shut the door to
dialogue and negotiation."
Mr. Hu was quoted as saying China will not give up its efforts
to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear arms and to seek a
peaceful resolution of the crisis.
At the meeting, Ms. Park appealed to Mr. Hu for China to play an
active role as a mediator in persuading North Korea to give up
its nuclear programs and return to the six-party talks.
On her first day of the visit, Ms. Park also met with Wang
Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist
Party of China, and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. Mr.
Tang reportedly said Monday that China's patience over the
nuclear issue has reached a red line, but he did not elaborate
what Beijing would do if North Korea tested a nuclear weapon.
by Lee Ka-young myoja@jongang.co.kr>
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
10 Xinhua: DPRK, US work to resume 6-party talks
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-24 13:36:37
BEIJING, May 24 -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
has expressed willingness to revive six-party talks aimed at
persuading Pyongyang to scrap its declared nuclear arsenal.
DPRK state television reported the country would respond to
an overture by the United States. Washington said last week
State Department officials met DPRK diplomats at the United
Nations in New York on May 13. The US side urged Pyongyang to
return to the negotiating table. In return, Washington would
recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state and not attack it. This
signals a shift in policy emphasis. Washington had previously
rejected separate dealings with Pyongyang.
(Source: cctv.com)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is
prohibited.
*****************************************************************
11 Xinhua: S.Korean, US presidents to meet on nuclear issue in June
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-24 16:44:00
SEOUL, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun will meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on
June 10 to discuss ways to coax the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (DPRK) back to the six-party talks on solving the
nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean Yonhap News
Agency quoted informed source as reporting on Tuesday.
"President Roh's Washington visit will be a working visit
which will not involve any other functions than the proposed
summit meeting between the two leaders," the source said, adding
Roh will leave Seoul on June 9 and return home on June 11.
The six-party nuclear talks have been suspended since
September last year as Pyongyang refused to be present at the
planned fourth round of the talks citing Washington's "hostile"
attitude.
Pyongyang declared in February that it suspended
participation in the six-party nuclear talks indefinitely.
"We hope the summit meeting will produce a good result if we
stress the need to resolve the ... nuclear issue peacefully,"
the source said.
The Roh-Bush summit, to be the second in seven months, will
also address consolidating the Seoul-Washington alliance.
Roh last met Bush in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 20 last year
on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
forum, where they reconfirmed their pledge to resolve the
nuclear issue peacefully through the six-party talks. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 Korea Times: NK Nuke Talks at Crucial Juncture - China
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
China Pessimistic on Resuming Nuke Talks
By Jung Sung-ki, Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday said a deep distrust
between North Korea and the United States is making it difficult
to resume multilateral talks over the reclusive communist
nation's nuclear weapons programs, according to South Korean
party officials visiting Beijing.
During a meeting with Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the
opposition Grand National Party (GNP), Hu said China will keep
pushing for North Korea to return to the six-party nuclear
negotiations but appeared pessimistic about achieving a
breakthrough in the near future, officials said.
``Park asked China, which has the closest ties with Pyongyang,
to make persistent efforts to resolve the worsening nuclear
crisis as an effective mediator,'' GNP spokeswoman Chun Yu-ok
said following the meeting. Hu promised to give Park's request
full consideration, she added.
The Chinese leader's gloomy forecast comes amid renewed hopes
that North Korea will return to the nuclear bargaining table
following a rare face-to-face meeting between North Korean and
U.S. officials in New York on May 13.
The New York contact, initiated by the U.S., followed a request
by the North for a direct meeting to clarify Washington's stance
on the nuclear issue before deciding whether to reopen
negotiations.
The GNP leader, who arrived in Beijing Monday on a six-day visit
at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party, also stressed
the need for ``realistic proposals'' to convince the North to
dismantle its nuclear weapons programs, the spokeswoman said.
During a visit to the U.S. in March, Park proposed that
Washington offer Pyongyang ``bold incentives,'' including
economic aid and the establishment of diplomatic relations, in a
bid to end the crisis.
Party officials said Park touched on the issue of North Korean
refugees who are hiding in China after fleeing their homeland in
the meeting with Hu.
Washington, which has also been urging China to use its
influence over North Korea to pressure it back to the talks, has
expressed frustration with the continued delay.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a briefing in
Washington on Monday that North Korea should stop setting
preconditions and return to talks.
`` It's not a matter of asking for more answers or more
assistance,'' he said. ``It's a matter of deciding to show up,
and show up seriously, to negotiate on the matter at hand.''
International concerns over the communist nation's nuclear
weapons programs deepened after it announced earlier this month
that it has completed unloading 8,000 spent fuel rods from its
Yongbyon reactor. Experts estimate that the move will allow it
to produce two to three more bombs once the fuel is reprocessed
into weapons-grade plutonium.
The most recent round of six-party talks ended in June without
significant progress.
Meanwhile, ambassadors from five of the six nations
participating in the talks met at a conference in Tokyo to
discuss developments in the nuclear crisis, local broadcaster
KBS reported.
South Korean Ambassador to Japan Ra Jong-il met with U.S.
counterpart Thomas Schieffer, Russia's Alexander Losyukov,
China's Wang Yi and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Hitoshi
Tanaka at the Tokyo University seminar on the Korean Peninsula
and regional security.
They agreed to continue urging Pyongyang to resume the
six-nation negotiations, the report said.
On Sunday, North Korea confirmed its meeting with U.S. officials
in New York and said it will respond at an ``appropriate time.''
rjs@koreatimes.co.kr
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr05-24-2005 20:05
*****************************************************************
13 IPS-English U.S.: New Environmentalism, Or Backdoor to Nuclear
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 14:22:50 -0700
ROMAIPS NA EN CS NC
U.S.: New Environmentalism, Or Backdoor to Nuclear Power?
By Bill Berkowitz
OAKLAND, USA, May 24 (IPS) - Mainstream U.S. environmental groups, injured
by political defeats, public indifference and budget cuts, are weighing
alliances with neo-conservatives -- improbable rightwing bedfellows in the
struggle to rein in global warming who want to reduce U.S. dependence on
Middle East oil. In the process, some greens are reconsidering their
longstanding opposition to nuclear power.
This realignment comes at a time when environmental-friendly initiatives of
the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton have been
reversed, enforcement of environmental regulations has been stymied, and
privatisation of U.S. public lands is proceeding apace.
Further, the administration of President George W. Bush appears to have
seized the initiative in the environmental debate with such slogans as
''common sense environmentalism'', ''Healthy Forests'', and ''Clear Skies''
to describe its key positions and programmes.
''The Death of Environmentalism,'' written by political pollster Ted
Nordhaus and public relations consultant Michael Shellenberger and
originally released at an October 2004 meeting of the Environmental
Grantmakers Association of U.S. philanthropies that support green causes,
credited the movement with a number of successes. These included enactment
of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Clean Waters Act, and the
National Environmental Policy Act.
But the assessment said there was ''strikingly little to show'' for the
''hundreds of millions of dollars poured into combating global warming,''
charged the movement with being out of touch with the public, and
challenged it to ''rethink everything'' -- alliances, strategies,
positions, messages -- and come up with new, imaginative and
public-friendly ways to solve the global warming crisis.
And for all their earlier successes, recent times have brought budget cuts,
public indifference, and a string of political defeats. These include
legislation opening up parts of the Alaska wilderness to oil exploration
and rollbacks on environmental regulations.
All of which has caused consternation.
Several leading environmentalists, including Fred Krupp, executive director
of Environmental Defence, Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources
Institute, and James Gustave Speth, dean of Yale University's school of
forestry and environmental studies, are encouraging research into the
economic, safety and security, waste storage, and proliferation issues
surrounding nuclear power.
In a piece published this month's issue of the journal Technology Review,
entitled ''Environmental Heresies,'' Stewart Brand, the longtime
environmentalist who founded the ''Whole Earth Catalogue -- a telephone
directory-type consumer guide to the goods and services needed to forge an
alternative lifestyle -- argued that perhaps the only solution to global
warming, a reality the Bush administration has not openly embraced, is
nuclear power.
Earlier in the year, Robert Bryce, the author of ''Cronies: Oil, the
Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate'', reported in the
online publication Slate on a developing alliance between greens and
neo-conservatives. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief James
Woolsey and Frank Gaffney, president of the ultra-right Centre for Security
Policy, two big-time advocates for President Bush's war with Iraq,
enthusiastically advocate fuel-efficient vehicles as a way of reducing
dependence on Middle East oil.
The coupling of such top ''neo-cons'' -- the architects of the Iraq war --
with environmentalists -- many of whom have voiced concern about the
devastating effects the war has had on the Iraqi environment --
materialised sometime late last year when they backed a proposal from the
Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington-based think
tank tracking energy and security issues. The neo-cons are ''going green
for geopolitical reasons, not environmental ones,'' Bryce concluded.
A bill that would give ''significant financial incentives for the
development of three new nuclear technologies,'' sponsored by Arizona
Republican Senator John McCain and Connecticut Democratic Senator Joseph
Lieberman is being circulated in draft form.
''As the world approaches peak oil and a future of rapidly escalating
energy costs, increasing support for nuclear power amongst some
environmentalists was predictable,'' Scott Silver, executive director of
the Oregon-based grassroots environmental group Wild Wilderness, said in an
interview.
''The unwritten mission of many organisations is 'sustainable growth' which
translates into supporting economic growth while minimising associated
ecological damage,'' Silver told IPS. ''In keeping with this mission, the
fight against global warming will not be waged by attempting to decrease
the ecological footprint of man or by reducing the demands we put upon this
planet, but by growth.
''By tightly framing the issue in terms of 'too much carbon dioxide',
nuclear power becomes an obvious solution,'' Silver added. ''For industry
and the neo-cons, the problem has nothing to do with climate. For the
neo-cons, the problem is one of sustaining economic growth during a period
of energy scarcity.''
In a May 16 Pacific News Service commentary entitled ''Why I Am Not an
Environmentalist,'' Orson Aguilar brought the contentious issue of
''economic development'' to the table.
Aguilar, associate executive director of The Greenlining Institute, which
works to persuade banks and other financial institutions to invest in
low-income and minority communities, especially in inner cities, said that
for far too long, top-tier environmental groups neglected urban concerns.
Aguilar, who grew up in East Los Angeles, said that his community worried
more about ''the lack of good housing and jobs, scraping together money for
groceries, failing schools and all-too-common police brutality,'' than
about ''air pollution'' or ''the smells coming from the incinerator
directly south of our housing complex.''
Environmentalists, Aguilar charged, were preoccupied with ''preserving
places most of us will never see.'' When the movement finally became
conscious of the toxic nightmare plaguing the inner cities in America, he
added, it ''avoided addressing my community's desperate need for economic
development.''
In the late 1990s, Aguilar's organisation was deeply involved in trying
secure legislation aimed at making it easier to revitalise inner city
''brownfields,'' or polluted plots of land. They met opposition from major
environmental groups including the Sierra Club, he recalled.
By contrast, the idea of making it easier to revitalise brownfields had
been kicking around at right-wing think tanks for several years, and it
became a central theme of Bush's environmental agenda --albeit primarily
because it meant enabling corporations to sidestep environmental regulations.
So, Aguilar said, he is not dismayed by the ''death of environmentalism'';
he sees it as an opportunity: ''While there are many who feel sadness and
anger that environmentalism is dead, I am optimistic that in dying,
environmentalism might give birth to a new politics that offers a better
future to both my community and the planet. Those environmentalists who are
ready to evolve will find many new allies like me ready to join them in
building a new and more expansive movement on the other side.''
Silver was not so quick to rhapsodise. This campaign ''appears to have been
invented for the purpose of killing off traditional, naturally-evolved,
grassroots-based environmentalism and replacing it with a synthetic,
pro-development, focus-group tested collaborative partnership between 'new
environmentalists,' industry, and those who hope to collect crumbs thrown
off from unfettered growth,'' he said.
*****
+ ''The Death of Environmentalism''
(http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-reprint/)
(END/IPS/NA/EN/CS/NC/BB/AA/05)
= 05241304 ORP008
NNNN
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14 Guardian Unlimited: Senators Avoid Battle Over Filibusters
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday May 24, 2005 1:16 PM
AP Photo NY108
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Judicial nominee Priscilla Owen gets the vote
she's been awaiting for more than four years, the most immediate
beneficiary of a deal worked out by Senate moderates to avoid a
debilitating fight over filibusters.
The Senate was voting to end debate on Owen, currently a Texas
Supreme Court justice, clearing the way for her to gain a seat
on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans.
With the threat of a filibuster by Democrats removed, she was
nearly certain then to get the simple majority vote needed to
give her the seat that long has eluded her, perhaps as early as
Tuesday.
The agreement, crafted over the past several weeks by seven
Republicans and seven Democrats, also opened the way for
yes-or-no votes on two other of President Bush's judicial picks
who have been in nomination limbo for more than two years -
William H. Pryor Jr. for the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals and Janice Rogers Brown for the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The agreement, which applies to Supreme Court nominees, said
future judicial nominations should ``only be filibustered under
extraordinary circumstances,'' with each Democratic senator
holding the discretion to decide when those conditions had been
met.
But of greater import, the deal on the rights of the minority
party to filibuster judicial nominees avoids a showdown that
could have shaken the traditions of the Senate, weakened the
powers of the minority and threatened the comity the Senate
needs to function.
And there were other political implications, as well, including
the shape of the Supreme Court, the midterm election in 2006,
Bush's legislative agenda and the next presidential race,
especially the prospects for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
of Tennessee and potential GOP rival Sen. John McCain of
Arizona.
Asked Tuesday how senators would determine what ``extraordinary
circumstances'' might warrant a filibuster threat in the future,
McCain indicated on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' that the
bipartisan group of senators who worked out the compromise would
retain sufficient leverage to make such a determination.
``We're not asking all 100 senators to make that
determination,'' he said. ``We have 14 of us who are together
and I am confident we will act in a way that if the
circumstances are extraordinary, everyone will agree to that.''
Earlier, McCain, who led the compromise effort with Sen. Ben
Nelson, D-Neb., said, ``We tried to avert a crisis in the United
States Senate and pull the institution back from a precipice.''
Frist, who had joined with party conservatives in pressing for
an end to judicial filibusters, stressed that he was not a party
to the agreement. He said he hoped it would end a ``miserable
chapter in the history of the Senate,'' but said that what he
called the ``constitutional option'' was still on the table. He
said he ``will monitor this agreement closely.''
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had threatened to bog
down Senate business if Republicans took away the filibuster
authority, was more receptive, saying the Senate could now get
back to work on the needs of the nation. He said he was willing
to work with Bush on his agenda, ``but he should have a little
more humility.''
``In light of the spirit and continuing commitments made in this
agreement,'' Republicans said they would oppose any attempt to
make changes in the application of filibuster rules. But Sen.
Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said the agreement was conditional on
Democrats upholding their end of the deal.
The White House said the agreement was a positive development.
``Many of these nominees have waited for quite some time to have
an up or down vote and now they are going to get one. That's
progress,'' press secretary Scott McClellan said.
A battle over judicial nominations that began in Bush's first
term had been headed toward a climactic conclusion Tuesday with
Frist planning to employ what both sides came to call the
``nuclear option'' because of its potentially disruptive
effects.
Had the Democrats used their filibuster powers again to stop
Owen, Frist would have sought a ruling from the chair,
approvable by a simple majority, that filibusters should not be
allowed to obstruct judicial nominations. Vice President Dick
Cheney, as president of the Senate, was prepared to take the
chair Tuesday to break a tie vote.
Unlike the House, where the majority rules, the majority in the
100-seat Senate must at times gain 60 votes to proceed on
legislation over the objection of the minority. Republicans,
with 55 seats have had difficulty reaching that threshold
against united Democratic opposition.
Frist and most other Republicans said judicial nominees deserved
a straight up-or-down vote, and accused the Democrats of
unprecedented abuse of their filibuster power in blocking 10
circuit court judge nominees in Bush's first term.
Democrats countered that Frist's action would fundamentally
undermine minority rights. Equally important, they worried that
it would give Bush and his Republican allies free rein to place
anyone of their choosing on the Supreme Court if, as expected,
there are vacancies in the near future.
Under the terms of the agreement, Democrats said they would
allow final confirmation votes for Owen, Brown and Pryor, three
nominees all assailed by Democrats for what they say has been
their conservative activism. There is ``no commitment to vote
for or against'' the filibuster against two other conservatives
named to the appeals court, Henry Saad and William Myers.
Apart from the judicial nominees named in the agreement, Reid
said Democrats would clear the way for votes on David McKeague,
Richard Griffin and Susan Neilson, all named to the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals.
The 14 signers, while a small minority of the Senate, hold
enough leverage to stop future filibusters or block any attempt
to impose new procedures for judicial filibusters.
Dr. James C. Dobson, head of the Focus on the Family, one of the
conservative groups that had made an end to judicial filibusters
a top priority, said the agreement ``represents a complete
bailout and a betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great
victory for united Democrats.''
---
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
15 UN Nuclear Energy Agency Helps UN Safeguard Shared Water Sources
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 09:00:58 -0400
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UN NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY HELPS COUNTRIES SAFEGUARD SHARED WATER SOURCES
New York, May 24 2005 9:00AM
The United Nations nuclear energy agency is working closely with
several other UN agencies, especially the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), to help countries assess and manage limited water resources,
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been supporting
UNEP’s Global Environmental Monitoring System/Water (GEMS/Water)
programme on water quality assessment, including laboratory comparison
testing to ensure accurate and precise measurement of water
quality and expanding laboratory networks in developing Member
The Agency noted that an aquifer in the north-western Sahara is an
important freshwater source for the people of Tunisia, Algeria
and Libya now and in the foreseeable future. With increasing scarcity
of clean surface waters, IAEA and UNEP, the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization and the Sahara and Sahelian Observatory (OSS)
countries is helping the three countries to use isotopic and
“It gives the countries scientifically sound information on which
they can base management decisions about the aquifer,” the IAEA
A lack of drinking water or adequate sanitation kills 1.7 million
people a year, 90 per cent of them children, IAEA said. It added
that it is helping countries gain know-how and key data to better
2005-05-24 00:00:00.000
________________
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml
*****************************************************************
16 RIA Novosti: EXPERT: RUSSIA NOT PONDERING JOINT NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL WITH U.S.
MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's nuclear storage
facilities are not equipped with all forms of modern protection,
but the joint control of nuclear weapons that the United States
is demanding contradicts Russian legislation, Colonel General
Igor Valynkin, head of the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian
Defense Ministry, told Izvestia.
Protection systems are being modernized, including with the
money provided by the United States and Germany, which
contribute about $50 million a year. U.S. experts are permitted
to visit U.S. funded facilities three times: before the
beginning of the project, in the middle of it and upon its
completion. They are then only allowed near the surrounding
fence and the technical protection equipment, but not near the
actual nuclear storage site.
The human factor is the weakest link in the nuclear protection
system. Russian scientists have created a system that can
protect the facility without human assistance. During a recent
exercise, a group of special operations forces failed to enter
such a facility. The Russian defense department is working to
equip all nuclear facilities with the systems.
Graduates of military schools and academies who will be working
at the facilities pass careful selection and inspection,
including lie detector tests. They are also checked during their
tenure.
Special exercises are also held regularly. Nuclear accidents
were simulated during the Avariya-2004 exercise held under the
NATO-Russia Council, attacking an automobile convoy and a train
carrying nuclear weapons.
In April, a group of Russian officers participated in an
exercise organized by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the
Department of Energy. The Americans demonstrated how to train
protection units and guard convoys.
The sides agreed that they share the common goal of ensuring
nuclear safety and could learn from each other's experience.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
17 RIA Novosti: Opinion & analysis - WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti)
Izvestia
Defense Ministry: Russia Not Pondering Joint Nuclear Arms
Control With U.S.
Russia's nuclear storage facilities are not equipped with all
forms of modern protection, but the joint control of nuclear
weapons that the United States is demanding contradicts Russian
legislation, Colonel General Igor Valynkin, head of the 12th
Main Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, told Izvestia.
Protection systems are being modernized, including with the
money provided by the United States and Germany, which
contribute about $50 million a year. U.S. experts are permitted
to visit U.S. funded facilities three times: before the
beginning of the project, in the middle of it and upon its
completion. They are then only allowed near the surrounding
fence and the technical protection equipment, but not near the
actual nuclear storage site.
The human factor is the weakest link in the nuclear protection
system. Russian scientists have created a system that can
protect the facility without human assistance. During a recent
exercise, a group of special operations forces failed to enter
such a facility. The Russian defense department is working to
equip all nuclear facilities with the systems.
Graduates of military schools and academies who will be working
at the facilities pass careful selection and inspection,
including lie detector tests. They are also checked during their
tenure.
Special exercises are also held regularly. Nuclear accidents
were simulated during the Avariya-2004 exercise held under the
NATO-Russia Council, attacking an automobile convoy and a train
carrying nuclear weapons.
In April, a group of Russian officers participated in an
exercise organized by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the
Department of Energy. The Americans demonstrated how to train
protection units and guard convoys.
The sides agreed that they share the common goal of ensuring
nuclear safety and could learn from each other's experience.
Vremya Novostei
Kyrgyzstan May Suggest Russia's Creation Of New Base
Another Russian military base may be created in Kyrgyzstan,
after Kyrgyz First Prime Minister Feliks Kulov made the offer
during last week's visit of a Russian delegation led by Andrei
Kokoshin, chairman of the State Duma committee on the CIS,
Vremya Novostei reported.
However, Bishkek refuted the news yesterday. "The issue of
creating a military base in the city of Osh was not discussed
during the meeting of the Russian delegation with acting
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on May 19," said Avazbek Atakhanov,
Bakiyev's press secretary. "The security of Kyrgyzstan can be
safely ensured by such well-oiled mechanisms of regional
cooperation such as the CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan)."
There are two foreign air forces bases in Kyrgyzstan, a Russian
base in Kant and a U.S. base, Ganci, in Manas airport. A source
in the Russian General Staff suggested that information about
plans for expanding Russian military presence in Kyrgyzstan came
from a branch of the new Kyrgyz authorities that wants to
outline its foreign policy cooperation and identify allies.
Russia does not intend to make an official statement on the
matter.
If a new base is created in Osh, Russian troops will be deployed
to the site of a possible Central Asian geopolitical split. The
Osh region is predominantly populated by ethnic Uzbeks, who
welcomed the recent public protests against the Karimov regime
in Uzbekistan's adjacent Andizhan region. This means that the
threat of a Central Asian territorial redivision is very high if
new political shockwaves are felt in the region.
Biznes
Russia To Get New Battleships
Russia's Navy is set to acquire 10 to 20 new battleships by 2015
that will set it back 5 to 10 billion rubles per frigate,
Biznes, a business daily, reported.
The keels of a new frigate and a new large amphibious landing
ship will be laid July 31 on Navy Day, said Admiral Vladimir
Kuroyedov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy.
The new Mk 22350 multi-role and long-range frigate will conduct
anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, hitting other naval
targets. It will take three or four years to complete one
frigate, if this project gets regular appropriations.
"Most likely, this project will feature engineering solutions
that were used to build Mk 11356 frigates for the Indian Navy,"
Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director of the Center for
Analyzing Strategies and Technologies, said.
"This is, in fact, a large destroyer that is called a 'frigate'
for political reasons," Mikhail Barabanov, scientific editor of
Arms Exports magazine, said.
Experts have some misgivings about the July 31 deadline because
a contract is usually awarded after a tender, but as of yet, no
tender has been laid out.
According to the navy's Kuroyedov, the keel of a new large
amphibious-landing ship will be finished before the year is out.
That ship will displace 8,000 to 9,000 tons.
"The Russian Navy still has two amphibious landing ships that
are unfit for action," Barabanov said. "It will take at least
five billion rubles to build this ship."
If the tender is completed and the contract signed, these will
be the first new ships for the navy since the year the Soviet
Union collapsed, a navy source said.
"Not a single warship has been designed and built for the
Russian Navy since 1991," he said, adding that the state has now
started setting aside money.
The Russian military ship building industry's recovery has
positively influenced armed exports.
"Naval hardware sales will account for 50% of Russian
arms-export volumes, or more than $2.5 billion this year,"
Rosoboronexport head Sergei Chemezov said.
Izvestia
India To Assemble Russian Fighter Jets
Indian President Abdul Kalam has arrived in Russia and visited
the Sukhoi aircraft corporation in the forerun to India's
assembly of 140 Su-30-MKI fighters under a Russian license,
Izvestia, a daily, reported.
Kalam and Sukhoi CEO Mikhail Pogosyan discussed New Delhi's
participation in developing the fifth generation fighter and the
Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) medium-range airliner. India is ready
to channel $100 million into the RRJ program.
In 2004, Sukhoi won a state tender for developing the fighter,
which is to phase out current Sukhoi and Mikoyan-Gurevich
warplanes. Flight tests are set to begin in 2007.
Sukhoi has been cooperating with France since 2002. New Delhi
previously received Su-30-MKI fighters with French-Israeli
avionics. Russia invited India and France to participate, but
Paris said it has no intention of financing the Russian project,
and that it will develop the Raphael fighter instead. Russia
faces similar problems with India. New Delhi has refused to sign
an intellectual-property agreement with Moscow. This document
entitles Russia to its share of proceeds during the sale of
Russian-Indian hardware on third markets.
According to Kalam, an agreement could be drafted in a few
weeks. A Russian-Indian expert group is now working on the
document. But New Delhi still does not know which plane it
really needs.
It is unclear whether Kalam, who helped develop Indian nuclear
weapons and ballistic missiles, has solved this problem.
According to official reports, the concerned parties do not
solve various problems at this level.
Sukhoi and the Irkut corporation delivered 32 Su-30-MKI fighters
to India this year, helping New Delhi master their license
production. This is the largest contract in the history of
Russian-Indian cooperation at more than $3 billion.
Vedomosti
Lukoil Might Buy Turkmen Company
An Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) spokesman has announced
that it has closed a deal on selling its 52% controlling stake
in Dragon Oil to LUKOIL for an unspecified amount, Vedomosti
reported.
LUKOIL's top manager also confirmed the deal, saying it was a
time-consuming process, but is close to completion.
Analysts say LUKOIL has made a wise purchase. In its Dragon Oil
report, the Aton Capital investment company said the company's
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and
Amortization) has reached 74 percent, a profitability that is
likely to increase.
Steven Dashevsky, head of research at Aton Capital, believes
that the 52% Dragon Oil stake has a market value of $450
million. However, any controlling interest stipulates a premium.
Consequently, this share package costs $550-600 million. LUKOIL
perceives this as a good buy because one barrel of the Turkmen
company's oil resources costs $3-3.5. At the same time, one
barrel of Caspian oil costs $7.
This attractive-looking company fits perfectly well into the
LUKOIL strategy. "In short, LUKOIL aims to expand its presence
in the post-Soviet neighborhood," Lev Snykov, a Sovlink
Securities analyst, said. According to Snykov, the Dragon Oil
controlling stake costs much less, that is, about $350 million,
premiums included.
Dragon Oil develops the Chelekensky deposit on the Caspian
shelf's Turkmen sector. This deposit contains an estimated 661
million barrels of oil. Dragon Oil is entitled to 315 million
barrels. The company produced 3.1 million barrels of oil last
year. According to Aton Capital, this deposit is developed in
line with a 25-year product sharing agreement between Dragon Oil
and Turkmenistan that stipulates various tax breaks for the
company. Dragon Oil has the exclusive right to negotiate the
agreement's prolongation for another ten years.
Lukoil produced 81.5 million tons of oil and 5.5 billion cubic
meters of gas in 2003.
According to the rating by agency Energy Intelligence Group,
Lukoil is in 20th place among the biggest oil and gas companies
of the world as of 2003.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
18 RIA Novosti: ALMOST 250T OF URANIUM RECYCLED UNDER MEGATONS TO MEGAWATTS PROGRAM
NEW YORK, May 24 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Loshchilin) - By this
fall, the Russian Nuclear Energy Agency will have recycled half
of the 500 tons of highly enriched uranium, envisaged by the
Russian-US inter-government program, Megatons to Megawatts.
The news was announced on Monday by representatives of the
Russian and US delegations at the 7th Review Conference of the
parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty held in the UN
headquarters.
The agreement signed on February 18, 1993, and also known as
the HEU-LEU agreement (for abbreviated "highly enriched uranium"
and "lowly enriched uranium") envisages that American HEU will
be recycled at the Russian Agency's enterprises into LEU, to be
used as fuel in American nuclear power plants.
The program is designed till 2013, and within a few months the
volume of recycled HEU will reach 250 tons, Anatoly Antonov,
head of the Russian delegation and director of the Foreign
Ministry's security and disarmament department, said at a joint
briefing. This is equal to destruction of 10,000 nuclear heads,
he added.
"Today Russia supplies 50% of LEU consumed by US nuclear power
plants that produce 10% of US electricity," he said.
Vladimir Kuchinov, head of the Agency's department for
international economic relations, said, "The energy output of
the fuel received from dismantling 10,000 warheads equals 4,000
super-tankers with oil or 12 mln carriages of coal." The program
worth $12 bln is "fully financed by the private Enrichment
Corporation which sells the reprocessed fuel to companies that
own nuclear plants, under the US government's control," he
explained.
The program's implementation brings Russia $700 mln annually,
Kuchinov said. The money is used to increase the safety of
Russian nuclear plants, to convert defense enterprises and to
purify territories polluted by the Agency's enterprises, he
added.
Paul Longsworth, deputy administrator for nuclear
non-proliferation of the US National Nuclear Security
Administration, said in his turn that the HEU-LEU program
allowed both countries to carry out Article 6 of the NPT, which
obliged every party to take measures to stop the nuclear arms
race and to promote nuclear disarmament. The USA and Russia also
cooperate in a program of utilizing 34 tons of weapons-grade
plutonium each, he said.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
19 MercoPress: Nuclear cooperation: Brazil denies Venezuelan approach
Falklands-Malvinas & South Atlantic News
[MercoPress - www.mercopress.com]
- Monday, 23 May
Minister E. Campos
“We have no record of any requests for cooperation in that area.
We are already developing links with Venezuela in other fields
and we will look over that one, if they send (it) to us" said
Monday Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Eduardo Campos
in an interview with daily O Globo.
Last Sunday President Chavez in his weekly radio and television
show announced Venezuela was looking into developing nuclear
energy and could work with other countries, “including Brazil”,
on such projects.
President Chavez said developing nuclear energy was not to make
bombs but rather to diversify Venezuela’s energy sources and
carry out projects in the medical area.
"We can perfectly advance research together with Brazil,
Argentina and other countries from Latin America, and we can ask
support from countries such as Iran and in Europe ..., but not
to make bombs and launch them on cities, like the Americans did"
he said, in direct reference to the U.S. atomic bombs dropped in
Japan, 60 years ago that helped bring the end of World War II.
Brazilian minister Campos however refused to answer whether
President Lula da Silva’s administration would be willing to
work with Venezuela on nuclear matters, but recalled that Brazil
already has such agreements with Argentina, France and USA.
However other unidentified official sources consulted by
O’Globo, said that it would be difficult for Brazil to accept
participation in an agreement involving nuclear cooperation with
Iran. According to those sources, Brazil prefers to abstain from
associating on nuclear matters with a country whose activities
in that area “are raising international suspicions and doubts”.
Fin del Texto - Mercosur - Monday, 23 May
Volver a la página principal...
MERCOPRESS is a news agency concentrating in Mercosur
countries which operates from Montevideo, Uruguay, and includes
in its area of influence the South Atlantic and insular
territories. © 1997-2001 Mercopress - E-mail:
admin@mercopress.com- Web technical help:
webmaster@mercopress.com
MERCOPRESS is a news agency concentrating in Mercosur countries
which operates from Montevideo, Uruguay,
and includes in its area of influence the South Atlantic and
insular territories.
E-mail: merco@mercopress.com- Web technical help:
webmaster@mercopress.com
*****************************************************************
20 Guardian Unlimited: `Nuclear Five' Yet to Find Common Ground
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday May 24, 2005 8:01 AM
By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Five years ago, it worked: The major
nuclear powers produced a joint statement on ways to reduce the
nuclear threat, helping bring a successful end to the 2000
conference to strengthen the nonproliferation treaty.
This time around, at the latest of the twice-a-decade treaty
reviews, the going looks tougher in closed-door talks on a joint
declaration.
``The situation has changed drastically in those five years,''
top Russian delegate Anatoly Antonov said Monday, as the
monthlong global conference entered its final week with
prospects dimming for significant arms-control initiatives.
At the 2000 conference, the five powers' endorsement of the 1996
nuclear test-ban treaty, for example, signaled to states without
nuclear weapons that those with them were serious about eventual
disarmament. That joint position contributed to a spirit of
compromise that led to a consensus final document among the more
than 180 treaty members, Antonov said.
But the gulf has widened since between Washington and other
atomic-weapons states on such issues as the test ban, which
Russia, Britain and France have ratified but the Bush
administration rejects.
Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, 183 nations renounce
nuclear arms forever, in exchange for a pledge by five states -
the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - to move
toward nuclear disarmament. Nonweapon states, meanwhile, are
guaranteed access to peaceful nuclear technology.
The review conferences are intended to identify weaknesses in
the 1970 pact and to win political commitments from member
states to take steps to remedy them.
Far from the U.N. basement meeting rooms, the need for such
steps is increasingly apparent.
European and Iranian negotiators meet Wednesday in Geneva to try
to salvage talks in which the Europeans are asking Iran to back
down from its uranium-enrichment program, which can produce both
fuel for nuclear power plants and material for nuclear bombs.
In Asia, meanwhile, North Korea, which announced its withdrawal
from the nonproliferation treaty in 2003, is pondering its next
move in a slow-motion international showdown over its weapons
plans.
The U.N. conference had bogged down for almost three weeks in
bickering over the agenda. The United States insisted it focus
on proliferation issues, meaning Iran and North Korea. But many
non-weapons states want equal emphasis on the nuclear powers'
obligations to eventually eliminate their arsenals.
At the 2000 conference, a consensus finally emerged accepting,
among other things, ``13 practical steps'' toward disarmament,
including activating the test-ban treaty and strengthening the
treaty banning anti-ballistic missile systems.
Those steps were endorsed by the Clinton administration, but the
incoming Bush administration rejected the test-ban pact and
withdrew from the ABM treaty. Nonweapons states now want some
reaffirmation of disarmament goals at the current conference,
but the gap looks too wide, at a gathering where agreement must
be unanimous, to produce significant consensus.
Antonov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's disarmament director,
said a 2005 declaration by the five nuclear powers would be
``necessary, first of all, to add momentum to the conference.''
But he then took note of the ``drastic changes'' since 2000 -
differences over key elements in the arms-control picture.
``We're missing key disarmament agreements,'' he said, referring
to rejected treaties, and ``we're facing new nuclear defense
systems that might undermine Russian defenses,'' a reference to
the Bush administration's planned deployment of an
anti-ballistic missile system.
When asked, U.S. delegation spokesman Richard Grenell declined
to discuss details of the five-power talks. ``We're hard at work
and we're hopeful we'll be able to have a statement,'' he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
21 csmonitor.com: Drawing a nuclear red line |
Commentary > John Hughes
from the May 25, 2005 edition
By John Hughes
SALT LAKE CITY It seems to me the odds are about 50-50 that
North Korea or Iran - two of the nations most hostile to the
United States - will acquire nuclear weapons, if they haven't
already.
North Korea, whose official statements are not always notable
for their veracity, may be bluffing when it suggests it already
has them. Iran, which also takes considerable license with the
facts, may be bluffing when it says it doesn't have them.
But whatever the actual state of nuclear weapons development in
each country, the fact is that both have aspired to possess such
weapons, both have been working on their development, both have
hidden such development, and both are stubbornly rejecting
deterrence by a string of nations who think it would be
dangerous to let either one of them get a nuclear arsenal.
Military action is not presently an option for the Bush
administration.
Diplomacy is in play, but it is not going well. In the case of
North Korea, the US is pinning its hopes on six-party talks
between the US, North and South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
Recently there were some direct, lower-level discussions between
North Korean and US officials, but the US believes it's critical
for China to use its leverage on North Korea, because China
plays a significant role in meeting Pyongyang's urgent need for
food, fuel, and money.
The happy scenario is that North Korea might respond to a
carrot-and-stick approach. If it suspends its development of
nuclear weapons, its interlocutors will do significant things to
improve its wretched economy. If it doesn't, it will face
sanctions and other punitive measures.
The problem is that while there is unity among the interlocutors
with North Korea that the Korean peninsula should be a
nuclear-free zone, there is not unity about punitive measures.
China does not want a destabilized North Korea and a flood of
refugees. South Korea is acutely aware of the unpredictability
of an armed, dangerous northern neighbor just up the road from
Seoul.
Meanwhile North Korea goes its way, playing a stalling,
cat-and-mouse game with the diplomats, and pressing ahead with
its nuclear program.
There has long been evidence of North Korea's interest in
uranium enrichment for nuclear purposes. But by 2002, State
Department, Pentagon, and CIA analysts were at one in
determining that a laboratory program using tens of centrifuges
for enrichment had escalated to an ominous one using thousands
of centrifuges, according to my informed sources.
With Iran, the US has been relying on the European Union to take
the lead in a similar diplomatic carrot-and-stick approach:
economic goodies if Iran suspends the program, but the threat of
UN action and sanctions if the nuclear development program
continues.
Iran has suspended enrichment during negotiations, but has
emphasized that this is only temporary to see what the talks
yield. It refuses to permanently abandon uranium enrichment,
arguing that its interest is only in the peaceful use of nuclear
energy.
Such protestations ring hollow to the Americans and Europeans
because Iran has concealed key parts of its nuclear development
for some 20 years and dissembled about their existence.
Just in the past few days, Iran was accused of circumventing
international export bans by smuggling in a graphite compound
that can be used in nuclear weapons production.
If diplomacy is unsuccessful in halting the development of
nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran, what would this
portend? Nothing comforting for Japan, South Korea, and other
Asian countries neighboring North Korea, nor for the Israelis
and some neighboring Islamic countries that might be at odds
with Iran.
Should either of them use a nuclear weapon against the US -
either directly, or by terrorist surrogate - they must surely be
aware of the probability of terrible retaliation bordering on
extinction.
But the experts point out that while intelligence can generally
chart the movement of missiles, the traffic in fissile material
and nuclear devices is much more difficult to detect, or
interdict.
In discussions in 2003, the North Koreans did offer an assurance
that there would be no "transfer" of nuclear material to any
foreign government or entity.
Such assurances by a duplicitous regime that acquires nuclear
weapons are hardly much consolation. But it does suggest they
are aware of a red line, which, overstepped, would have awesome
consequences.
Should the present regimes in North Korea and Iran, despite
diplomatic efforts, acquire such weapons, the existence of that
red line should be made strikingly clear to them.
" John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, is editor and
chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News.
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
22 Guardian Unlimited: Capitulation to the nuclear lobby is a politics of despair
Comment
Fear of the people, their cars and flights is blocking creative
energy policy
Polly Toynbee
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian
Despair is the great peril in climate change policy.
Nothing can be done, we're all doomed! Democratic politics
reaches its nemesis here: who dares to stand for election on a
consumption-cutting agenda? No one. What opposition will hold
its tongue as a government takes tough measures? None. So who
dare put unpalatable truths to voters?
Certainly not Tony Blair, who barely mentioned global warming in
the election, but is now whistle-stopping around the world to
shore up his G8 agenda on climate change and Africa, facing
truculence even from the public-spirited but hard-pressed
Germans. When some in the EU suggested a levy on currently
untaxed aviation fuel with the money given to Africa, Blair
refused, fearful of Britain's frequent flying population.
Meanwhile Labour constructs yet more gigantic runways to
perdition.
Article continues
What would it take to cut carbon emissions enough to save the
planet? This is where despair gets a real grip. The rich world,
already anxious about the rise of India and China, will not hold
back its own growth, so why should the developing world? Extreme
inequality within countries such as the US and UK also makes the
obvious solutions difficult: how do you tax energy heavily when
the burden falls so unfairly?
In this convenient climate of political despair, one easy
solution steps in smartly. Let's all go nuclear, it's the only
way. By pre-arranged plan as soon as the election was over, the
nuclear lobby accelerated its campaign. Already nuclear is
becoming the grown-up, bien pensant solution. With a sigh, the
world-weary declare that renewables are trivial beside the
nuclear option. So far it has been the cabinet's most powerful
women - Margaret Beckett and Patricia Hewitt - who have held out
against it, with support from three out of four in opinion
polls. But climate change is the nuclear lobby's best weapon:
only global warming is more dangerous than massive proliferation
of nuclear power across the world.
Today, in his first speech, the new energy minister announces
money for tidal power. Malcolm Wicks, long-time social policy
thinker, a little perplexed at his sudden transformation from
pensions to energy, is, he says, still "open-minded" on the
nuclear question. The nuclear lobby has, of course, already been
on to him but it is hard to imagine him becoming a great nuclear
enthusiast.
He is reassuringly scathing about the nimbys fighting against
wind farms. Wind, he says, is the only way that the Kyoto target
of 10% renewable energy by 2010 can ever be reached. (Even if
the new US AP100 nuclear stations promoted by George Bush were
commissioned, they could never be built in time.) Instead, he
rebuts the myths and factoids now so successfully spread by the
anti-wind-power lobby and their pro-nuclear supporters.
No, turbines are not taking over the country: only some 800
hectares are needed to reach the 10% target. No, they are not
unpopular: 80% support them and 66% would like some in their
area. No, the intermittent wind dropping is no problem, since
the farms are spread far across the county and existing back-up
is quite sufficient. (Eyesores? Britain had 90,000 windmills in
the 17th century.)
But these myths are gaining ground, alongside the bigger myth
that nothing but nuclear will do. However, the nuclear lobby has
to contend with overwhelming public opposition. New stations
would take a decade to build at £2bn each. Shortly, Nirex, the
nuclear waste disposal company, will publish its 12 proposed
sites for a huge new depot: just watch 12 protest groups spring
up overnight and they will be a lot louder than the wind nimbys.
So it's hard to see this parliament commissioning more nuclear
power.
But don't underestimate the immense power of the
pro-nuclearists. They will begin with the reasonable claim that
nuclear is just "part of the mix", but the monumental cost of a
new nuclear programme would devour all the cash - and far more -
needed to develop better alternatives. Meanwhile, wind power
prices are already falling to almost the same price as other
energy. A British company is building a huge tidal generator
plant off the coast of Portugal: today's cash announcement
brings a British programme nearer, potentially cheapest of all.
While international carbon trading between companies has only
just begun, domestic carbon trading is one of the most
enterprising ideas being examined by Stephen Byers and others.
Imagine if each adult were given a carbon quota. Those who want
to fly a lot or overheat a big house would have to buy extra
quotas from low energy users. It would have the interesting side
effect of redistributing funds towards those too poor to use
their energy ration.
This is blue skies thinking - but it needs something of the kind
to make individuals change their habits. Everywhere there are
green shoots of what might be done, if serious money and
political attention were devoted to it now. Take
micro-generation. You can buy a small windmill to stick in the
garden or on the side of your house for just £900: it plugs into
an ordinary 13 amp domestic plug, cuts electricity bills by a
third and can feed into the grid. The former energy minister has
one.
Friends of the Earth today launches a high profile campaign -
The Big Ask - to persuade the government to pass a climate
change law committing to a 3% annual carbon reduction, necessary
to reach the 60% reduction target by 2050. That is a very big
ask indeed, since UK emissions have risen not fallen since 1997.
Consider how hard it would be to overcome the hideous might of
the motoring and aviation lobbies when just a handful of fuel
protesters can hold the country to ransom. It needs, says
Friends of the Earth, the people to be mobilised to demand
change from the politicians. Yet it is the people that the
politicians fear.
What will it take? Only a wipe-out of London and New York? Sadly
millions dead from drought in the Sahel or flood in Bangladesh
probably will do little. Blair's dash to try to rescue something
for the G8 may yield at least the first sign that the US will
talk, so long as India, China and Brazil join in. Meanwhile,
insurance claims for storm and flood doubling in the UK between
1998 and 2003 are dwarfed by the four exceptional hurricanes in
2004 that cost £20bn in Florida alone. China is now alarmed at
how climate change is damaging its rice harvest.
It is curious that Tony Blair whirls around the world stirring
up alarm about climate change yet throughout the election never
had a word to say about it at home. While the Energy Savings
Trust despairs of getting people to fill their cavity walls or
turn off their lights, Blair prefers to talk about the vandalism
done by boys in hoodies than about the lethal damage done by
irresponsible home owners, big car drivers and frequent fliers.
Meanwhile, it is the nuclear lobby that hopes to benefit from a
very conservative despairing sense that nothing can ever change.
· polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk
Email your comments for publication to
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited ¿ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
23 Hampton Union: Nuke plant fence failed test
Tue. May 24, 2005
By Shir Haberman
shaberman@seacoastonline.com
SEABROOK - A security fence intended to prevent outside threats
to Seabrook Station failed a recent Nuclear Regulatory
Commission inspection and was declared inoperable, according to
an internal plant document obtained by Seacoast Newspapers.
"Security initiated (a) report that on May 5, several Perimeter
Intrusion Detection System (PIDS) zones failed challenge testing
during a regional NRC inspection and were declared inoperable,"
the internal document indicated. "Compensatory measures were
implemented immediately following the determination that the
zones were inoperable."
Alan Griffith, spokesperson for the power plant, said Monday
that federal law prevented him from commenting on specific
security issues, but said plant security was never threatened.
"At no time have we lost our ability to protect public health
and safety," he said.
Griffith would only say a component of the security system "was
not operating the way we wanted it to" during a routine test. He
would not say what that component was or when it was tested.
"The bottom line is Seabrook Station is safe; it is secure," he
said.
The fence was installed by a subcontracted engineering firm on
Oct. 29, 2004. The requirement to upgrade Seabrook Station’s
fence came from NRC mandates stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
In response to the failure of the security component, Seabrook
Station launched an investigation. Officials identified two
basic causes of the failure, according to the internal
documents.
The first was the "the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System
design was inadequate," and the second was that "the system
testing performed to commission the system, and subsequent tests
to ensure operability, were deficient, which resulted in failure
to identify the inadequate design," the documents indicated.
The report found two other factors that contributed to the
system’s failure. The first was that Seabrook Station’s primary
owner, Florida Power, Light and Energy’s, review and approval of
the system vendor, Proto-Power, "lacked vigor." The other
contributing factor was that the nuclear plant suffered from
"inadequate security organizational effectiveness," the report
indicated.
There was "inadequate monitoring of system performance," "no
evidence of management oversight of system testing," and
"security human performance observations are performed almost
exclusively by Wackenhut personnel and are not self-critical."
Wackenhut is the security company hired by Seabrook Station to
protect the plant.
Griffin never disputed that the report obtained by Seacoast
Newspapers was accurate.
"Clearly this looks like an internal document," the plant
spokesman said.
However, he made it a point to say he could not confirm that the
component that failed was the Perimeter Intrusion Detection
System, because that could be a considered a violation of the
NRC’s "Requirements for the protection of safeguards
information" protocol.
"We did have a segment of our security system that was not
operating the way we wanted it to," was all Griffin would say.
"We’ve addressed that and we continue to address it."
The Seabrook Station spokesman also wanted to make the public
aware the issue "is something we’re addressing and, in the
meantime, full compensatory measures are in place.
"This has no impact at all on our ability to operate the plant,"
he said.
Emily Aronson contributed to this report.
Seacoast Online is owned and operated by Seacoast Newspapers.
Copyright © 2005 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please
*****************************************************************
24 Platts: Trojan's license terminated, site released for unrestricted use
+ NRC has terminated Trojan's license, releasing the plant site
for unrestricted use, the agency said today.
The Portland General Electric (PGE) reactor outside Portland,
Ore. was closed in November 1992 after operating roughly 16
years.
NRC said it has conducted several on-site inspections of PGE's
decommissioning activities to verify that plant decommissioning
and cleanup work met conditions of Trojan's license termination
plan
Washington (Platts)--23May2005
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
25 Courier Journal: Evidence of meth is found at plant
www.courier-journal.com
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Paducah workers being investigated
By James Malone
jmalone@courier-journal.comThe Courier-Journal
PADUCAH, Ky. -- A small bag containing methamphetamine residue
and pipes was found within the high-security Paducah Gaseous
Diffusion Plant compound, and 26 employees were ordered to take
a drug test.
The United States Enrichment Corp., which leases the plant from
the Energy Department to process uranium for use as nuclear
power plant fuel, said it notified the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission after the discovery outside a building early Saturday.
United States Enrichment is conducting an internal
investigation to determine how the bag was brought into the
complex, and the McCracken County sheriff's office is leading
the criminal investigation, officials said.
"We will do whatever we have to do to preclude a drug problem
at the plant," said Elizabeth Stuckle, a company spokeswoman.
"But we don't think there is one now."
The results of the drug tests on managers, guards and some
hourly workers who were in the area where the bag was found will
be available tomorrow, Stuckle said.
She said the presence of illegal drugs has been rare at the
plant, noting that this was only the second such incident in 10
years.
But Stuckle added that the company does not perform random drug
tests on employees. Testing is done only when there is some
underlying reason for it, she said.
Workers entering through the plant's security fence are
screened for weapons and explosives with a metal detector and a
sniffing device, but are not routinely searched for drugs, she
said.
Authorities say the presence of meth is increasing in the
workplace, and the number of meth arrests and discoveries of
meth labs have soared.
The number of meth labs in Kentucky increased from 104 in 2000
to 579 last year, according to Gov. Ernie Fletcher's office.
Indictments for manufacturing and trafficking in meth climbed to
1,854 this fiscal year, from 336 cases in 1998-99 -- a 452
percent increase, according to the state court system.
Anyone testing positive for drug use at the plant faces a
variety of disciplinary actions up to and including firing,
Stuckle said.
Police may be asked to identify any fingerprints found on the
vinyl bag, about the size of a shaving kit, she said.
Chief Sheriff's Deputy Terry Long said the material in the bag
also would be tested at a Kentucky State Police laboratory.
Some Paducah workers said the discovery was troubling.
"I was quite shocked and concerned," said Bill Cossler, vice
president of Local 5-550 of the PACE/United Steelworkers Union,
which represents hundreds of hourly workers at the site.
In such a heavy industrial setting, Cossler said, any worker
who is impaired could place others at risk.
Mistakes, as well as equipment malfunctions, can result in the
release of uranium hexafluoride, a mildly radioactive but toxic
gas that is compressed and filtered to trap and separate uranium
for reactor fuel.
Laura Schachter, an Energy Department spokeswoman, declined to
comment because of the ongoing investigations.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for
protecting public safety and health at nuclear facilities, will
monitor the company's investigation, spokesman Ken Clark said.
The commission does not require workers at fuel plants to
undergo the same fitness screenings as workers at commercial
nuclear reactors because there is less inherent danger of an
uncontrolled reaction, Clark said.
But Dr. Richard Stripp, an assistant professor of pharmacology
and toxicology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
New York City, said the discovery still raises concerns.
"You would want to know where it came from -- how it got onto
the facility's grounds," Stripp said.
"It also raises questions about whether a person performing
their duties is of sound mind."
Cossler said the level of supervision and monitoring throughout
the plant would make it almost impossible for a worker's
mistakes to go unnoticed.
"It would be very hard because any swing in readings or power
levels would be noticed by somebody," he said.
Cossler said the area where the bag was discovered is near an
opening within the plant that is regularly walked by security
guards, making it unlikely the bag had been there for longer
than a day.
Security at the plant is adequate, he said.
"I know I pass through a metal detector and a sniffer, and any
bags or packages I have are searched," Cossler said.
"It is easier to catch an international flight than it is to
get into this plant."
Copyright 2004 The Courier-Journal.
*****************************************************************
26 JOURNAL NEWS: NRC decision causes Indian Point opponents to rethink options
www.thejournalnews.com
By GREG CLARY
gclary@thejournalnews.com
(Original publication: May 24, 2005)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's recent rejection of a
petition to require backup generators for siren alert systems at
commercial nuclear power plants, including Indian Point, has
left environmentalists and elected officials seeking relief
elsewhere.
"We are looking at any kind of legislative process we can use,
whether we can bypass the NRC," said Susan Tolchin, chief
adviser for Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano. "We want
those backup generators now."
Westchester and Rockland lawmakers joined Riverkeeper and
national nuclear watchdog groups in February, asking for quick
action. The federal agency said in its ruling that the situation
doesn't constitute a current emergency, so the petitioners
should ask for the change through the NRC's normal rule-making
process, which routinely takes years instead of months.
The NRC, in its decision, acknowledged that the federal
government needs to better organize existing information about
emergency alert systems and gather additional information for
possible changes to the current federal standards. Of the 62
commercial nuclear power plants nationwide that use sirens as
warning systems, 27 percent have backup power for all sirens, 33
percent for some of the sirens and 40 percent have no backup at
all, including Indian Point in Buchanan.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said
Clinton planned to ask questions about the decision at a Senate
hearing with the NRC on Thursday. Riverkeeper officials said
they planned to meet as soon as possible with the other
petitioners to work out an effective plan to push the issue,
since there was no mechanism to appeal the NRC's decision.
"In dismissing the urgent nature of our request ... the NRC has
effectively put off taking obvious and inexpensive cautionary
measures that would protect the public," said Alex Matthiessen,
executive director of Riverkeeper.
Larry Gottlieb, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which
owns Indian Point, said the future of notification technology
would likely move away from sirens to reverse-911 calling or
other more targeted efforts.
Copyright 2005 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper
serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York.
*****************************************************************
27 NRC: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant; Issuance of Environmental
FR Doc E5-2586
[Federal Register: May 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 99)] [Notices]
[Page 29784-29785] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24my05-94]
Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact Regarding an
Amendment AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Environmental assessment.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph M. Sebrosky, Senior
Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-1132; fax
number:(301) 425-8555; e-mail: jms3@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC or the Commission) is considering issuance of an amendment
to Special Materials License No. 2505 that would add the
NUHOMS-32P as an optional design to the existing NUHOMS-24P
design for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel. Calvert Cliffs
Nuclear Power Plant, Inc. (CCNPP) is currently storing spent
nuclear fuel at the Calvert Cliffs independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI) located in Calvert County, Maryland.
Environmental Assessment (EA) Identification of Proposed Action:
By letter dated December 12, 2003, as supplemented, CCNPP
submitted a request to the NRC to amend the license (SNM-2505) to
add the NUHOMS-32P as an optional design to the existing
NUHOMS-24P design for dry storage of spent fuel.
The NUHOMS-32P design stores eight more spent fuel assemblies
than the NUHOMS-24P design.
The proposed action before the NRC is whether to approve the
amendment.
Need for the Proposed Action: The proposed action would allow
CCNPP to optimize its dry spent fuel storage capacity by
upgrading portions of its ISFSI to use the NUHOMS-32P dry
shielded canister. The proposed action would allow CCNPP to
reduce the minimum number of canister loadings each year from
four (using the NUHOMS-24P design) to three (with the NUHOMS-32P
design).
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action: The staff has
determined that the proposed action would not endanger life or
property. No effluents are released from the ISFSI during
operation and the proposed changes have no impact to dry shielded
canister loading activities. Therefore, there is no significant
change in the type or significant increase in the amounts of any
effluents that may be released offsite. There is also no
significant increase with regard to individual or cumulative
occupational radiation exposures because of the proposed action.
The proposed amendment includes a technical specification change
that would specify that the current neutron source term technical
specification limit of http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Copies of the referenced documents will also be available for
review at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), located at 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, 20852. PDR reference staff can be
contacted at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to
pdr@nrc.gov. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents
for a fee.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 11th of May, 2005.
[[Page 29785]] For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Joseph M.
Sebrosky, Senior Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project Office,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E5-2586 Filed 5-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
28 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for the
FR Doc E5-2587
[Federal Register: May 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 99)] [Notices]
[Page 29783] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24my05-92]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice
of the OMB review of information collection and solicitation of
public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the
following proposal for the collection of information under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension: Extension.
2. The title of the information collection: NRC Form 64, ``Travel
Voucher'' (Part 1); NRC Form 64A, ``Travel Voucher'' (Part 2);
and NRC Form 64B, ``Optional Travel Voucher'' (Part 2).
3. The form number if applicable: NRC Form 64; NRC Form 64A and
NRC Form 64B.
4. How often the collection is required: On occasion. 5. Who will
be required or asked to report: Contractors, consultants and
invited NRC travelers who travel in the course of conducting
business for the NRC.
6. An estimate of the number of responses: 100. 7. The estimated
number of annual respondents: 100. 8. An estimate of the total
number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or
request: 100 hours (1 hour for each form).
9. An indication of whether Section 3507(d), Pub. L. 104-13
applies: Not applicable.
10. Abstract: As a part of completing the travel process, the
traveler must file travel reimbursement vouchers and trip
reports. The respondent universe for the above forms include
consultants and contractors and those who are invited by the NRC
to travel, e.g., prospective employees. Travel expenses that are
reimbursed are confined to those expenses essential to the
transaction of official business for an approved trip.
A copy of the final supporting statement may be viewed free of
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F23, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB
clearance requests are available at the NRC Worldwide Web site:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The
document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days
after the signature date of this notice.
Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer
listed below by June 23, 2005. Comments received after this date
will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of
consideration cannot be given to comments received after this
date.
John A. Asalone, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(3150-0192), NEOB-10202, Office of Management and Budget,
Washington, DC 20503.
Comments may also be emailed to John_A._Asalone@omb.eop.gov or
submitted by telephone at (202) 395-4650.
The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo. Shelton, 301-415-7233.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of May 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information
Services.
[FR Doc. E5-2587 Filed 5-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
29 IPS: U.S.: New Environmentalism, Or Backdoor to Nuclear Power?
Inter Press Service News Agency Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Bill Berkowitz
OAKLAND, USA, May 24 (IPS) - Mainstream U.S. environmental
groups, injured by political defeats, public indifference and
budget cuts, are weighing alliances with neo-conservatives --
improbable rightwing bedfellows in the struggle to rein in
global warming who want to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East
oil. In the process, some greens are reconsidering their
longstanding opposition to nuclear power.
This realignment comes at a time when environmental-friendly
initiatives of the administration of former U.S. President Bill
Clinton have been reversed, enforcement of environmental
regulations has been stymied, and privatisation of U.S. public
lands is proceeding apace.
Further, the administration of President George W. Bush appears
to have seized the initiative in the environmental debate with
such slogans as ''common sense environmentalism'', ''Healthy
Forests'', and ''Clear Skies'' to describe its key positions and
programmes.
''The Death of Environmentalism,'' written by political
pollster Ted Nordhaus and public relations consultant Michael
Shellenberger and originally released at an October 2004 meeting
of the Environmental Grantmakers Association of U.S.
philanthropies that support green causes, credited the movement
with a number of successes. These included enactment of the
Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Clean Waters Act, and
the National Environmental Policy Act.
But the assessment said there was ''strikingly little to show''
for the ''hundreds of millions of dollars poured into combating
global warming,'' charged the movement with being out of touch
with the public, and challenged it to ''rethink everything'' --
alliances, strategies, positions, messages -- and come up with
new, imaginative and public-friendly ways to solve the global
warming crisis.
And for all their earlier successes, recent times have brought
budget cuts, public indifference, and a string of political
defeats. These include legislation opening up parts of the
Alaska wilderness to oil exploration and rollbacks on
environmental regulations.
All of which has caused consternation.
Several leading environmentalists, including Fred Krupp,
executive director of Environmental Defence, Jonathan Lash,
president of the World Resources Institute, and James Gustave
Speth, dean of Yale University's school of forestry and
environmental studies, are encouraging research into the
economic, safety and security, waste storage, and proliferation
issues surrounding nuclear power.
In a piece published this month's issue of the journal
Technology Review, entitled ''Environmental Heresies,'' Stewart
Brand, the longtime environmentalist who founded the ''Whole
Earth Catalogue -- a telephone directory-type consumer guide to
the goods and services needed to forge an alternative lifestyle
-- argued that perhaps the only solution to global warming, a
reality the Bush administration has not openly embraced, is
nuclear power.
Earlier in the year, Robert Bryce, the author of ''Cronies:
Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate'',
reported in the online publication Slate on a developing
alliance between greens and neo-conservatives. Former Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief James Woolsey and Frank Gaffney,
president of the ultra-right Centre for Security Policy, two
big-time advocates for President Bush's war with Iraq,
enthusiastically advocate fuel-efficient vehicles as a way of
reducing dependence on Middle East oil.
The coupling of such top ''neo-cons'' -- the architects of the
Iraq war -- with environmentalists -- many of whom have voiced
concern about the devastating effects the war has had on the
Iraqi environment -- materialised sometime late last year when
they backed a proposal from the Institute for the Analysis of
Global Security, a Washington-based think tank tracking energy
and security issues. The neo-cons are ''going green for
geopolitical reasons, not environmental ones,'' Bryce concluded.
A bill that would give ''significant financial incentives for
the development of three new nuclear technologies,'' sponsored
by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain and Connecticut
Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman is being circulated in draft
form.
''As the world approaches peak oil and a future of rapidly
escalating energy costs, increasing support for nuclear power
amongst some environmentalists was predictable,'' Scott Silver,
executive director of the Oregon-based grassroots environmental
group Wild Wilderness, said in an interview.
''The unwritten mission of many organisations is 'sustainable
growth' which translates into supporting economic growth while
minimising associated ecological damage,'' Silver told IPS. ''In
keeping with this mission, the fight against global warming will
not be waged by attempting to decrease the ecological footprint
of man or by reducing the demands we put upon this planet, but
by growth.
''By tightly framing the issue in terms of 'too much carbon
dioxide', nuclear power becomes an obvious solution,'' Silver
added. ''For industry and the neo-cons, the problem has nothing
to do with climate. For the neo-cons, the problem is one of
sustaining economic growth during a period of energy scarcity.''
In a May 16 Pacific News Service commentary entitled ''Why I Am
Not an Environmentalist,'' Orson Aguilar brought the contentious
issue of ''economic development'' to the table.
Aguilar, associate executive director of The Greenlining
Institute, which works to persuade banks and other financial
institutions to invest in low-income and minority communities,
especially in inner cities, said that for far too long, top-tier
environmental groups neglected urban concerns.
Aguilar, who grew up in East Los Angeles, said that his
community worried more about ''the lack of good housing and
jobs, scraping together money for groceries, failing schools and
all-too-common police brutality,'' than about ''air pollution''
or ''the smells coming from the incinerator directly south of
our housing complex.''
Environmentalists, Aguilar charged, were preoccupied with
''preserving places most of us will never see.'' When the
movement finally became conscious of the toxic nightmare
plaguing the inner cities in America, he added, it ''avoided
addressing my community's desperate need for economic
development.''
In the late 1990s, Aguilar's organisation was deeply involved
in trying secure legislation aimed at making it easier to
revitalise inner city ''brownfields,'' or polluted plots of
land. They met opposition from major environmental groups
including the Sierra Club, he recalled.
By contrast, the idea of making it easier to revitalise
brownfields had been kicking around at right-wing think tanks
for several years, and it became a central theme of Bush's
environmental agenda --albeit primarily because it meant
enabling corporations to sidestep environmental regulations.
So, Aguilar said, he is not dismayed by the ''death of
environmentalism''; he sees it as an opportunity: ''While there
are many who feel sadness and anger that environmentalism is
dead, I am optimistic that in dying, environmentalism might give
birth to a new politics that offers a better future to both my
community and the planet. Those environmentalists who are ready
to evolve will find many new allies like me ready to join them
in building a new and more expansive movement on the other
side.''
Silver was not so quick to rhapsodise. This campaign ''appears
to have been invented for the purpose of killing off
traditional, naturally-evolved, grassroots-based
environmentalism and replacing it with a synthetic,
pro-development, focus-group tested collaborative partnership
between 'new environmentalists,' industry, and those who hope to
collect crumbs thrown off from unfettered growth,'' he said.
(END/2005)
Copyright © 2004 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
30 Mos News: Russia Plans to Open First Block of Indian Atomic Power Station in 2007 -
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and his Indian
counterpart Abdul Kalam speak during their meeting in the Moscow
Kremlin / Photo: AP
MosNews
The first block of the Kudankulam atomic power station that is
being built in India with Russian cooperation is scheduled to
open in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Speaking after negotiations with Indian President Abdul Kalam in
Moscow, Putin was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying the
first nuclear reactor made in a St. Petersburg plant was passed
to India on Jan. 15. The construction is going ahead “according
to schedule,” the Russian president said.
He added the Indian state oil and gas corporation plans to make
big investments into Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil production project.
Putin described India as “one of the key Russian partners in the
Pacific Asian region.”
“We are interested in raising the level of our cooperation in
various spheres. We consider we have all the necessary
conditions for this today,” he said. Putin said Russian-Indian
ties were “becoming more and more substantial and dynamic.”
Putin and Kalam have discussed economic cooperation in energy,
space exploration, metallurgy, rail and water transport, and
information technology.
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
31 NRC: Live NRC Meeting Webcast
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission broadcasts some Commission
meetings over the Internet as a means of improving communications
with the public. Upcoming webcasts are:
Date Subject
5/25/05 Briefing on Results of the Agency Action Review
Meeting
9:30 A.M.
+ Slides
6/02/05 Briefing on Office of International Programs (OIP)
Programs, Performance and Plans
9:30 A.M.
6/28/05 Briefing on Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
Program
9:30 A.M.
The following resources will assist you in participating:
+ Public Meeting Schedule - provides a complete listing of
agency meetings. Live meetings shown as [webcast]
+ Commission Meeting Schedule - lists all Commission meetings
for a six week period. Live meetings shown as [webcast]
+ Slides - available in advance of the meeting
+ Transcripts - available within 48 hours of the conclusion of
the live meeting
+ Meeting SRM - documentation of any Commission's decisions
from the meeting
To view a webcast you will need to download the RealOne plugin
[RealNetworks Media Streaming Player icon] .
You may also view previous webcasts at our .
Comments and Feedback
To help us determine the value of continuing to provide this
service, the NRC would appreciate your assistance by providing
comments and feedback on the usefulness, performance, and
frequency with which you might use this service or any other
items related to this service.
+ Contact Us About Webcasts
+ Webcast Interest Survey
Notes on Accessibility
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires equal access to
the Federal government's electronic and information technology.
In compliance with this Act, NRC is including text equivalents
(captioning) as part of the video image being shown over the
Internet during the Commission meeting. Although every effort is
made to assure the accuracy and completeness of this text, users
should be aware that errors may nonetheless occur. Expressions
of opinion in this text do not necessarily reflect final
determination or beliefs. No pleadings or other paper may be
filed with the Commission in any proceeding as a result of any
statement or argument contained in the text-equivalent
(captioned) material.
Last revised Monday, May 23, 2005
*****************************************************************
32 Secrecy News -- 05/24/05
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 12:43:14 -0400
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 49
May 24, 2005
** THE RISE OF THE QUASI GOVERNMENT (CRS)
** RELIABLE REPLACEMENT WARHEAD PROGRAM (CRS)
** CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY OVER FEDERAL COURTS (CRS)
** A CIA INVENTORY OF PRIVACY ACT RECORDS
** NUCLEAR WEAPONS EFFECTS CALCULATOR
THE RISE OF THE QUASI GOVERNMENT (CRS)
Abetted by official secrecy and one-party dominance, the character
of American government is undergoing a series of fundamental
transformations. While the concentration of power in the
executive branch continues apace, traditional mechanisms of
government accountability are being diminished or dismantled, and
agency actions are increasingly insulated from citizen oversight
or awareness.
As the role of citizens in the democratic process has declined,
the importance of new constellations of power and influence has
risen.
One such newly prominent construct is the "quasi government,"
described by the Congressional Research Service as "federally
related entities that possess legal characteristics of both the
governmental and private sectors."
"These hybrid organizations (e.g., Fannie Mae, National Park
Foundation, In-Q-Tel)... have grown in number, size, and
importance in recent decades," the CRS stated in a new report.
"The quasi government, not surprisingly, is a controversial
subject. To supporters of this trend toward greater reliance upon
hybrid organizations, the proper objective of governmental
management is to maximize performance and results, however
defined... They tend to welcome this trend toward greater use of
quasi governmental entities."
"Critics of the quasi government, on the other hand, tend to view
hybrid organizations as contributing to a weakened capacity of
government to perform its fundamental constitutional duties, and
to an erosion in political accountability, a crucial element in
democratic governance...."
"Time will tell whether the emergence of the quasi government is
to be viewed as a symptom of decline in our democratic
government, or a harbinger of a new, creative management era
where the purported artificial barriers between the governmental
and private sectors are breached as a matter of principle."
A copy of the CRS report was obtained by Secrecy News.
See "The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both
Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics," updated May
18, 2005:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30533.pdf
RELIABLE REPLACEMENT WARHEAD PROGRAM (CRS)
The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, a
congressionally-mandated initiative intended to support a
permanent nuclear weapons arsenal based on newly designed
replaceable parts, is the subject of a major new report from the
Congressional Research Service issued today.
The CRS report, the most extensive treatment of the topic
published to date, describes the origins of the controversial new
nuclear weapons program, its likely impacts, and the views of
supporters and opponents.
The report has not been publicly released, but a copy was obtained
by Secrecy News.
See "Nuclear Weapons: The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program,"
May 24, 2005:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL32929.pdf
CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY OVER FEDERAL COURTS (CRS)
A new report from the Congressional Research Service examines
congressional authority over the judicial branch.
"Usually congressional oversight of the judicial branch is
noncontroversial, but when Congress proposes to use its oversight
and regulatory powers in a manner designed to affect the outcome
of pending or previously decided cases, constitutional issues can
be raised."
"While Congress has broad power to regulate the structure,
administration and jurisdiction of the courts, its powers are
limited by precepts of due process, equal protection and
separation of powers."
See "Congressional Authority Over the Federal Courts," May 16,
2005:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32926.pdf
A CIA INVENTORY OF PRIVACY ACT RECORDS
The Central Intelligence Agency provided a descriptive inventory
of dozens of records systems maintained by the Agency that are
subject to the Privacy Act in a 35 page notice published in the
Federal Register today.
"The Central Intelligence Agency has undertaken and completed a
zero-based, Agency-wide review of its Privacy Act systems of
records.... Rather than making numerous, piecemeal revisions,
the Agency decided to draft and republish updated notices for all
of its Privacy Act systems of records. By doing so, the Agency
hopes to make these notices as clear and accessible to the public
as possible."
See the CIA Federal Register notice here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/05/fr052405.html
NUCLEAR WEAPONS EFFECTS CALCULATOR
The heat and blast effects of a nuclear explosive detonated in a
major American city can be readily estimated using a new online
tool from the Federation of American Scientists.
The Nuclear Weapons Effects Calculator, devised by FAS staff
member Blake Purnell, is based on data from Glasstone's canonical
Effects of Nuclear Weapons. The Java-based calculator allows the
user to vary the size of the modeled blast (in kilotons) as well
as the height of detonation over one of 25 American cities.
"This is just a very graphic way to let anyone see what the effect
of a bomb on his city would be," said Ivan Oelrich, FAS strategic
security project director, as quoted in Science magazine (May 13,
2005, p. 933).
See the FAS Nuclear Weapons Effects Calculator here:
http://tinyurl.com/5r5z6
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, send email to
secrecy_news-request@lists.fas.org
with "subscribe" in the body of the message.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a blank email message to
secrecy_news-remove@lists.fas.org
OR email your request to saftergood@fas.org
Secrecy News is archived at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html
Secrecy News has an RSS feed at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.rss
_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
*****************************************************************
33 NRC: In The Matter Of Andrew Siemaszko; Establishment Of Atomic
FR Doc E5-2588
[Federal Register: May 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 99)] [Notices]
[Page 29783-29784] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24my05-93]
Safety And Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the
Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal
Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations,
see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.202, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and
2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board is being established to preside over the following
proceeding: Andrew Siemaszko (Enforcement Action) This proceeding
concerns a request for hearing submitted on May 11, 2005, by
Andrew Siemaszko in response to an April 25, 2005 NRC staff
``Order Prohibiting Involvement In NRC-License Activities,'' 70
FR 22720 (May 2, 2005). Under the terms of that staff order,
because of his alleged failure to report the presence of boric
acid near the reactor pressure vessel head on a condition report
and a work order prepared in connection with a refueling outage
at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station that ended in May 2000,
that resulted, in part, in a significant adverse condition going
uncorrected, Mr.
Siemaszko (1) as of the effective date of the order, is
prohibited for five years from engaging in NRC-licensed
activities; (2) if currently involved with another licensee in
NRC-licensed activities, must immediately cease those activities,
inform the NRC of the employer, and provide a copy of the order
to the employer; and (3) for a period of five years after the
five-year prohibition period has expired, must, within twenty
days of accepting his first employment offer involving
NRC-licensed activities or his becoming involved in NRC-licensed
activities, provide notice to the agency of the employer or the
entity where he is, or will be, involved in NRC-licensed
activities.
The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges:
Lawrence G. McDade, Chair, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; E. Roy Hawkens, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Peter S.
Lam, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001.
All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed
with the
[[Page 29784]] administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR
2.302. Issued in Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of May 2005.
G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board Panel.
[FR Doc. E5-2588 Filed 5-23-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
34 [NukeNet] Action Alerts! Stop Reprocessing, New Illinois
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 14:25:07 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
***please forward widely***
May 24, 2005
This email contains two action alerts:
(1) Oppose temporary storage of nuclear waste and reprocessing at DOE
sites
(2) Comment deadline for new Illinois reactor approaching
=======================================
!!! A C T I O N A L E R T !!!
Tell Your Representative to Oppose Interim Storage of Nuclear Waste
and
Reprocessing!
The U.S. House of Representatives is voting on the Fiscal Year 2006
Energy & Water Appropriations Bill today, May 24. In the report
language of the bill, Chairman of the Energy & Water Development
Subcommittee, David Hobson (R-OH), inserted instructions for the U.S.
Department of Energy to "establish one or more interim storage sites
for
commercial spent nuclear fuel" at DOE sites, other federally-owned
sites, closed military bases, or non-federal fuel storage facilities
and
to begin transporting waste to these sites in fiscal year 2006. The
report, which appropriates $20 million to this program, specifically
suggests Hanford in Washington, Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho,
and
the Savannah River Site in South Carolina as candidate sites. The
report
also strongly encourages DOE to consider reprocessing the waste and
appropriates an additional $5.5 million for this program. In addition,
it requires the agency to choose a reprocessing technology to pursue
by
fiscal year 2007. Reprocessing spent fuel will not solve the nuclear
waste problem, because it creates more waste that must be managed and
separates out plutonium, raising serious proliferation concerns.
TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO OPPOSE INTERIM STORAGE AND REPROCESSING!
Urge your representative to support the Markey-Holt amendment to
eliminate the additional funding added to the President's FY 2006
budget
request for interim storage and reprocessing!
CONNECT to your representative via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at
202-224-3121.
LEARN MORE about nuclear waste at:
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/
=======================================
!!! A C T I O N A L E R T !!!
Submit Comments to NRC by Midnight, May 25, on New Nuclear Reactor in
Illinois!
On March 2, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a draft
version of the required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for
siting
a new reactor at Clinton. As a draft document purportedly analyzing
the
full range of environmental effects a new reactor would have, it is
open
to revision based on comments received from members of the public.
The document ignores many critical issues that should be reviewed at
the early stages of project development, including nuclear waste,
security, and the need for power.
To make your voice heard and for more information, visit:
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/clinton
Public Citizen has created sample comment that you can use or edit.
The number of comments received are a strong indication to NRC of how
interested citizens are in the issue; demonstrating stronger public
interest increases the likelihood that important issues will be fully
and fairly examined. NRC is required by law to address all comments
received by the deadline, so make sure to get them in by midnight
tomorrow, May 25!
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35 [NukeNet] Private Fuel Storage (PFS) license preliminarily
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 18:41:10 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C560B7.EB126E64"
*If your group is not yet signed onto the letter opposing PFS, see the link
below to review the letter and groups already signed on, then email your
personal name, group name, city and state to
kevin@nirs.org to be added to the letter*
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), the adjudicatory arm of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), approved the licensing of Private Fuel
Storage (PFS) this morning, rejecting Utah's motion for reconsideration and
paving the way for the NRC Commissioners to consider the matter. The
Commissioners are expected to approve the project quickly.
PFS is the proposal made by eight commercial nuclear utilities to build and
operate a "temporary" commercial high-level radioactive waste dump on the
Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. On April 4, Public Citizen
and Nuclear Information and Resource Service hosted a briefing at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C. regarding Private Fuel Storage -
laying out the reasons why the project is unnecessary, irresponsible, and
unethical. The State of Utah made oral arguments to the ASLB the very next
day, April 5th, urging the Board to reconsider its Feb. 24th preliminary
license approval.
PFS will not reduce the risks posed by high-level radioactive waste even
temporarily. Waste will always remain on-site at operating reactors, and by
transporting it and storing it aboveground in yet another part of the
country, PFS will just make the existing problem worse. The "temporary"
nature of PFS is also questionable, as this aspect of the project is
completely dependent on the opening of Yucca Mountain, which has been beset
with problems, and may very well never open.
Public Citizen and Nuclear Information and Resource Service recently
published a number of fact sheets and timelines on the problems with PFS.
Please go to
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/hi-level/fuel/
for a backgrounder on PFS, explanation of why it is neither necessary or
responsible, and presentation of the reasons as to why this dump is all of
a sudden on the fast track towards approval (namely, the nuclear power
industry's need for the "illusion of a solution" to the nuclear waste
problem in order to justify the building of new reactors).
There are also two timelines related to the unethical nature of the
project, the first showing how scores of Native American tribes have been
targeted for high-level radioactive waste dumps since 1987, and the second
how the Skull Valley Goshutes in particular have come so close now to
actually being the first tribe to be dumped on. This PFS/Skull Valley
Goshutes timeline also raises significant questions about the legitimacy of
the lease agreement between the tribe and the nuclear utility consortium
comprising PFS, the supposed legal basis for the entire proposal.
Please see the NIRS website for a current group letter signed, as of May
5th, by well over 420 organizations opposing PFS:
http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/scullvalley/svgoshutesgrltr3142005.htm
Further background and history can be found at the NIRS website section
http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/scullvalley/skullvalley.htm
, and a summary fact sheet entitled "Environmental Racism, Tribal
Sovereignty, and Nuclear Waste" is at
http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/pfsejfactsheet.htm
.
The ASLB decision should soon be available on the NRC website, and in the
meantime, we have a copy we can email upon request. If we can answer any
questions, please just let us know.
Sincerely,
Melissa Kemp Kevin Kamps
Public Citizen Nuclear Information and Resource Service
202.454.5176 202.328.0002 ext. 14
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36 NRC: NRC Licensing Board Denies the State of Utahs Motion for Reconsideration of the Boards Final
Partial Initial Decision Approving the Private Fuel Storage
News Release - 2005-08
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 05-083 May 24, 2005
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an independent
adjudicatory arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, issued a
decision today essentially denying the State of Utahs Motion for
Reconsideration of the Boards Feb. 24, 2005 Final Partial
Initial Decision on the spent nuclear fuel storage facility
proposed for Skull Valley, Utah, by the Private Fuel Storage
(PFS) consortium.
In February, after a formal 16-day hearing which was closed for
security purposes, the Board rejected the States assertion that
there is too high a probability that the accidental crash of an
F-16 traveling through Skull Valley from Hill Air Force Base
could puncture the internal canister of a storage cask, causing
a radiological release, and today adhered to that determination.
The States motion raised several challenges to the Boards
February decision. The Board rejected several State claims
regarding technical issues. Additionally, the Board rejected the
States argument that it was being improperly deprived of the
opportunity to show that some accidents, while not breaching the
canister holding the spent fuel, might cause enough damage to
the shielding of the outer cask to result in an excessive
radiation dose. The Board concluded that the State had not
raised that issue at the hearing. The Board did, however,
suggest to the Commission that, in its supervisory role over the
NRC staff, it consider directing the staff to fully examine this
matter and report back to it.
In the course of its ruling, the Board noted that the State had
properly brought its attention to points not explicitly
addressed in the Feb. 24 decision. After examining those
matters, however, the Board held that none of the procedural or
substantive deficiencies claimed by the State were of sufficient
merit and/or moment to alter the result. The Board thus remained
convinced that the likelihood of a consequential accidental F-16
crash is less than the one-in-a-million per year standard set by
the Commission.
The Commission had previously held in abeyance the time within
which the parties may appeal the Boards decision. With todays
ruling, the matter is no longer in abeyance and the appeal
period outlined in the Feb. 24 decision is once again in effect.
The question of whether to issue the requested PFS license
remains in the Commissions hands.
Last revised Tuesday, May 24, 2005
*****************************************************************
37 Deseret News: Yucca for temporary storage?
[deseretnews.com]
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Temporary spent nuclear fuel waste is getting a new twist these
days, but I will add another. Sen. Reid has vowed most assuredly
that he will kill Yucca, so we may need to return to plan "A"
that was started when the local recycling plant was completed.
Maybe we ought to give Yucca the new role of "temporary storage"
and get to rebuilding the recycling plant to handle spent fuel
waste. This nuclear recycling system has worked well for Japan,
Germany and France. Why not us? The last plant we built was put
together in five years, and I would imagine the old site here is
still available, and the plans workable.
This way Yucca will see a happy exit in a few years, and
Sen. Reid can rest easier in his role as champion of the state
of Nevada.
J. Dean Hill
Bountiful
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
38 Las Vegas SUN: Board Rejects Utah's Nuclear Dump Appeal
Today: May 24, 2005 at 16:02:02 PDT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal licensing board on Tuesday
rejected Utah's appeal to thwart the stockpiling of spent
nuclear fuel rods at an American Indian reservation.
The state had argued in April that radiation could escape from
waste casks if an outer protective shield was breached, even if
the interior canister holding the fuel rods remained fully
intact.
But lawyers for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Utah's
argument was too late and lacked scientific merit, advising the
three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to reject it.
The ruling clears the way for the NRC to approve the project,
which would create a temporary waste dump for spent rods pending
the opening of a national repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
It was not immediately clear when the commission would issue its
final decision.
The Goshute Indian tribe has sought the waste station at its
reservation in Skull Valley, about 45 miles southwest of Salt
Lake City, to make money for the impoverished tribe.
The state had previously argued that the proposed waste
station's close proximity to an Air Force base increased the
risk of a fighter jet crashing into the spent fuel rods. The
licensing board dismissed that scenario as unlikely.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
39 Tri-City Herald: Hanford may temporarily store spent nuclear fuel
This story was published Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
A committee report on an appropriations bill to be considered by
the U.S. House today suggests Hanford be considered as one site
where spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants might be
stored temporarily.
Additional legislation likely would be required to allow the
Department of Energy to establish a temporary storage site for
commercial spent nuclear fuel.
Plans call for sending fuel from commercial nuclear reactors to
Yucca Mountain in Nevada for permanent disposal deep
underground. But the House Appropriations Committee report on
the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill questions whether that
repository will be approved and opened even by the projected
delayed opening date of 2012.
The report urges that DOE "move aggressively" to take title to
commercial spent fuel and consolidate it for interim storage at
existing DOE facilities. Now the fuel is being stored at 129
private and government sites across the country.
Yucca Mountain is the logical place for an interim repository,
the report said. But the Nuclear Waste Policy Act prohibits
placing both an interim and permanent repository at the same
site.
"Other possible alternative DOE sites include Hanford, Idaho and
Savannah River, all of which presently store government-owned
spent fuel and high-level waste," the report said. It pointed
out that extensive site security measures already are in place.
Should Hanford and the other sites prove impractical, DOE should
investigate other alternatives for interim storage, such as
closed military bases and nonfederal fuel storage facilities,
the report said.
Hanford has spent defense reactor fuel removed from the K Basins
now stored in one of three vaults at the Canister Storage
Facility. The remaining two vaults were planned to hold
high-level waste from Hanford's underground tanks once it is
vitrified, or turned into a more stable glass form for permanent
disposal at Yucca Mountain.
The remaining vaults can hold glassified waste from just two
years of production at the $5.8 billion vitrification plant
until Yucca Mountain can accept that waste. The plant is
supposed to begin vitrifying waste in 2011, although that start
may be delayed because construction work on the project was
recently slowed in part because of new earthquake data.
Hanford also has an outdoor interim storage area in the center
of the site for some Hanford and other spent fuel.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., opposes using Hanford for interim
storage.
"It doesn't make any sense to send more nuclear material to a
place where we've had problems with leaks in the past, and
that's why I'll continue to work with my colleagues on the
Energy Committee to fight this risky proposal," Wyden said in a
prepared statement.
Heart of America Northwest, a watchdog group, also is concerned
about the risk of trucking the spent fuel on Oregon and
Washington roads to reach Hanford.
"It is in the public interest to guard this commercially
produced spent nuclear fuel where it is currently housed instead
of putting it on the roads en route to Hanford," said Rebecca
Sayre, field director for Heart of America, in a prepared
statement.
Yucca Mountain was supposed to open in 2010 to accept commercial
spent nuclear fuel and some weapons waste, including vitrified
high-level waste from Hanford. But problems, including years of
underfunding and falsified documents on quality assurance of
ground water modeling, mean the repository may not be able to
open by 2012, according to the report.
Every year of delay in opening Yucca Mountain costs the federal
government an additional $1 billion, based on a conservative
estimate of $500 million in legal liability for failure to take
title to commercial spent fuel and another $500 million to
monitor and guard waste and fuel at DOE sites, according to the
report.
The committee recommends a concerted initiative to recycle spent
nuclear fuel but said until then that it should consolidate fuel
from around the country at interim storage sites.
DOE already stores spent fuel from various foreign research
reactors at DOE sites at taxpayer expense in the interest of
nonproliferation, the report said. A similar interim storage
program for commercial spent fuel makes sense, the report said.
The report recommends $10 million be spent to support early
acceptance of spent nuclear fuel in addition to $10 million for
transportation casks.
If the process for licensing Yucca Mountain is delayed beyond
2006, the committee would support spending more money on the
program. An application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
license the repository is due in December.
Four months after the bill becomes law, the committee wants DOE
to submit a plan on early acceptance of commercial spent fuel,
transportation to a DOE site and centralized interim storage at
one or more DOE sites.
In addition to money for Yucca Mountain and related projects,
the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill to be voted
on today also includes money to bring the Hanford budget back to
about $2 billion in 2006.
After DOE proposed cutting spending for Hanford by about $267
million, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., succeeded in getting about
$200 million of the cut restored in the House bill.
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
40 Salt Lake Tribune: N-waste fought from fresh angle
Article Last Updated: 05/24/2005 12:38:45 AM
Tucked in defense bill: Lawmaker seeks to block creation of rail
line that would transport waste
By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Rep. Rob Bishop has inserted language into a
must-pass defense bill that seeks to block plans to store
nuclear waste in Utah.
The measure is expected to clear the House this week. But its
fate will once again be decided in the Senate, where it has
failed twice before.
Bishop seeks to prevent a group of nuclear power companies,
Private Fuel Storage, from storing 44,000 tons of spent nuclear
fuel on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indian reservation,
arguing it would limit the use of the Air Force's vast Utah Test
and Training Range.
To stop the nuclear waste site, Bishop's proposal creates the
100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area near the Skull
Valley reservation. The wilderness designation would block
construction of a rail line intended to deliver the nuclear
waste to the reservation.
The wilderness area is habitat for mule deer, antelope,
coyote and other wildlife.
Bishop late last week quietly had the measure tacked on to
legislation that authorizes spending levels for the Pentagon.
The bill is scheduled for a vote in the House on Wednesday.
"It's something that Rob has worked on since his first day
here and he's not going to stop until it gets done," said
Bishop's chief of staff, Scott Parker. "We've tried to send it
over in the best-possible format, and we think that's included
in a major authorization bill that is a must-pass this year."
But Private Fuel Storage spokeswoman Sue Martin said Bishop's
bill misses its mark.
"It doesn't prevent the project," she said. "Our alternative
is to truck the transportation casks down Skull Valley road from
a rail junction at approximately I-80. But building the rail
line is a whole lot better for the people of Utah. It's less
interference with road traffic."
Former Rep. James Hansen slipped the testing range provision
into the Defense Authorization bill in 2001, but
environmentalists said the wilderness provisions were flawed and
helped defeat the measure.
Bishop worked with environmentalists to resolve concerns and
passed the bill through the House last year, although it was
again blocked in the Senate.
"I think it's a good wilderness bill for essentially everyone
in Utah," said Peter Downing, the Washington representative for
the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. " It preserves land that
deserves to be protected. It's good for Hill Air Force Base and
I think protects people from the storage of nuclear waste."
The state has argued that the jet traffic and munitions
testing on the range poses an excessive risk that a jet might
slam into the casks and release radiation or nuclear waste. The
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected the state's initial
objection. An appeal is pending.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was a key opponent
of the Cedar Mountain bill in the past, but his spokeswoman said
the senator would have to review the bill before deciding if he
would oppose it again.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said last month that he supports
the Cedar Mountain bill, but he doubts it will pass the Senate.
"There are a variety of senators who opposed it for a variety of
reasons," he said.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
41 Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive Waste From Ohio Going to Texas
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday May 24, 2005 7:31 AM
AP Photo DN501
By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press Writer
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - Trucks toting tons of Cold War-era uranium
byproduct waste from a shuttered plant in Ohio will begin their
1,300-mile journey to Texas this month, taking a route chosen to
minimize risk in case of an accident.
The Ohio plant processed and purified uranium metal for use in
reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons from the 1950s
until 1989. The waste will be transported to a site near the
Texas-New Mexico line in about 5,000 large, sealed containers
filled with a concrete mixture.
The material does not pose a great risk to humans, said Jeff
Wagner, a spokesman for Fluor Fernald, the U.S. Department of
Energy contractor cleaning up the former Fernald plant just
outside Cincinnati.
Should an accident occur, first responders would deal with it
like a hazardous materials spill, he said. ``From a radiation
standpoint, it's not going to kill people,'' Wagner said, adding
that there are greater risks from chemicals, gasoline and acids
being carried on the nation's roadways.
That argument hasn't mollified environmentalists.
``The evidence out there is that just like any shipments,
there's potential for accidents,'' Sierra Club spokesman Cyrus
Reed said. ``This material is so long lasting, and the results
aren't necessarily imminent but they're more chronic in
nature.''
Visionary Solutions, LLC, an Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based company,
will transport the radioactive waste, but Fernald is responsible
for preparing the material before it's loaded onto flatbed
trucks.
In 1998, DOE inspectors reported that Fernald failed to provide
strong, tight containers and proper supervision to the waste
transport program when moving radioactive waste to the DOE's
Nevada Test Site just outside Las Vegas. The report came after
leaks developed in the containers in 1997. No contamination
occurred, but shipments stopped for 18 months.
Since then, shipping containers have been redesigned, quality
control is more rigorous and there is increased focus on
transportation issues, Wagner said.
But in March 2002, 70 mph winds just outside Laramie, Wyo., blew
over a Fernald truck that carried two one-liter padded
containers of a liquid solution of plutonium and neptunium
inside the cab.
The material, which is used for calibrating instruments and
analyzing samples that might contain radioactive materials, was
going to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory near Idaho Falls. No radioactivity was released and
no one was injured.
In the latest shipments, at least two Texas-bound trucks will
leave Ohio during the week of May 30, Wagner said. The trip will
take between two and four days. Each truck is designed to carry
two containers, each weighing an average of 20,000 pounds, and
will be tracked by global positioning satellites. Trucks will
make trips to Texas through the end of the year.
The route was chosen for travel time, distance and population
along the way to minimize the risk, Wagner said. The trucks will
primarily use interstates and they will travel around
Indianapolis, St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill., and Oklahoma
City on highway bypasses. The trucks will enter Texas on
Interstate 40 and travel through Amarillo and Lubbock to get to
the site in Andrews, just north of Odessa.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists won a $7.5 million
contract from Fernald in late April to store the waste - two
months after state officials granted the company a license
amendment that expanded the site's storage capacity to 1.5
million cubic feet - nearly five times its current size - making
it eligible to accept the Ohio waste.
The Sierra Club has requested a hearing to contest the license
change. A hearing before an administrative judge in Austin is
set for July 11.
Waste Control also seeks a license to dispose of the Ohio waste.
Without the license, the waste can remain at the Texas site for
only two years.
---
On the Net:
Fluor Fernald: http://www.fernald.gov
Visionary Solutions LLC: http://vs-llc.com/
Waste Control Specialists: http://www.wcstexas.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
42 Bismarck Tribune: Clean up uranium mines now
Online - Bismarck, ND
bismarcktribune.com
By Ken Rogers for the Tribune
People living and working in the North Cave Hills area deserve
more from the Forest Service and Kerr-McGee than they are
getting.
The uranium mines that were worked in early 1960s left behind an
increased risk of cancer for the people who live in that area
today. So much so, signs were posted in 2002 that say: "Caution
Radiation Area: Radiation levels in this area are elevated due
to uranium mining. No more than one day within one year time
period should be spent in the area. No camping."
The Forest Service has already ordered Kerr-McGee to clean up
the mining sites, which are on federal land. The energy company
continues to negotiate with the Forest Service, and the next
step, unless Kerr-McGee cooperates, contemplates possible court
actions, fines and imprisonment.
Unfortunately, the negotiations appear to be no more than legal
cat and mouse. In a similar case involving the company in
Oregon, it took 15 years to reach an agreement.
The Forest Service should step up the pressure now -- people
facing known and unknown cancer risks regard time as highly
valuable, and delaying tactics, if that's what they are, are
unacceptable.
Winning the Cold War was important. Part of the successful
equation in resolving the Cold War was the nuclear standoff
based on mutually assured destruction. The North Cave Hills
contribution to the Cold War effort was, in part, 157,000 pounds
of uranium oxide.
The people who live around those uranium mines are paying, with
their health, some of the price of that Cold War victory.
The Forest Service has an obligation to aggressively protect
these families and to have Kerr-McGee clean up the site.
Bismarck Tribune
*****************************************************************
43 The Signal: Whittaker-Bermite to treat a portion of Santa Clara River
poisoned by rocket fuel.
Tuesday, May 24 2005
Firm to Clean Polluted Well
Judy O'Rourke [Signal Staff Writer]
Whittaker-Bermite and its insurers will pay more than
$500,000 to clean up a well in the Santa Clara River that was
found last month to be contaminated with perchlorate. It will be
the first well in the Santa Clarita Valley to be treated.
Financing for the operation of a treatment system for the
Valencia Water Co. well will be supplied by the firm until
perchlorate contamination is neutralized on the property that
once served as a Whittaker-Bermite munitions site.
“Based upon water quality data collected in our groundwater
system, we had been planning to install treatment if perchlorate
were to show up in one of our operating wells,” said Robert
DiPrimio, president of Valencia Water Co. “The treatment
technology is readily available, and we believe we can restore
the operations at (the well) by the fall of 2005.”
Perchlorate contamination has forced the closure of five
other wells near the Whittaker-Bermite site. The chemical, a
component of rocket fuel, has been linked with thyroid problems
in humans.
The clean-up agreement was reached last week, DiPrimio said.
An ion exchange treatment system that will be used to treat
the water has been approved by the state Department of Health
Services. The method is successfully in use at locations in the
San Gabriel Valley, San Bernardino and Riverside.
Water from the well, located in the river near Bouquet
Canyon Road and Newhall Ranch Road, was found to be tainted with
the chemical in early April.
The Newhall Land and Farming Co., whose 1,089-unit Riverpark
project was due for its final approval, pulled the item from the
council agenda when the contamination was found just west of the
proposed Riverpark project. The find was made on the eve of the
scheduled April 12 council meeting.
The active shallow-water well was turned off as soon as the
results came in, DiPrimio said earlier. The well is not on
Riverpark property and its water was not scheduled to serve the
master-planned community.
“We all know there is perchlorate in that general area
coming from Whittaker-Bermite,” said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman
for Newhall Land. “We chose to postpone the hearing so
additional analysis could be done.” The study was performed by
an outside consulting group.
Lauffer said the consultant concluded the contamination will
have no effect on the conclusions reached in the project’s final
environmental impact report.
DiPrimio said a perception that treatment has been
accelerated because of the development is wrong.
“This has nothing to do with the development,” he said. “We
know the risk; we’ve been planning for it. The plan is to
address it and continue to serve safe quality water.”
Valencia Water Co. is owned by Newhall Land.
The water company has many supply wells, and the loss of one
does not have an impact on the company’s ability to provide
water for its customers, he said.
Perchlorate was discovered in 1997 in four deep-water wells
near the Whittaker-Bermite site, made up of nearly 1,000 acres
of empty land south of the Saugus Speedway and east of San
Fernando Road. Another, shallow well was shut down in 2000 when
perchlorate was discovered there.
DiPrimio noted the Department of Toxic Substances Control is
overseeing the ongoing cleanup of the Whittaker site.
Santa Clarita water purveyors filed a suit against Whittaker
in 2001, and settlement talks are under way. The move to clean
up the single Valencia Water Co. well forms a separate
agreement. Cleanup will begin by the fall, DiPrimio said.
The public hearing on the project’s environmental impact
report had been closed, but will reopen tonight. Developer
Newhall Land and Farming Co. will update the council on the
clean-up plan.
The council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at City Hall,
located at 23920 Valencia Boulevard.
©2005 The-Signal.com - Site powered with DynamicBase by
ActiveQuest, Inc.
*****************************************************************
44 PR Direct: ENVIRONMENTALISTS CHALLENGE RADIOACTIVE WASTE PLAN
Contact: Andrew Male, Communications Coordinator
Primary Phone: 416-880-2757
Secondary Phone: 416-597-8408
E-mail: andrew.male@yto.greenpeace.org
Date issued: May 24, 2005
Attention: Agriculture Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor,
Government/Political Affairs Editor
Toronto/Ontario, May 24 /PR Direct/ - Canadian environmental
groups say that a draft recommendation released today by the
Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has ignored a
primary concern of Canadians -- as a first priority, no more
high level radioactive waste should be produced..
"They refuse to consider waste reduction by shifting electricity
production from nuclear power to cleaner, safer options. Nobody
wants a radioactive waste dump in their backyard" said Dave
Martin, Energy Coordinator for Greenpeace Canada.
In 2002 the federal government gave NWMO a three-year mandate to
choose between three radioactive waste management alternatives:
"deep geological disposal in the Canadian Shield"; "storage at
nuclear sites"; or "centralized storage". However, as NWMO
admits, all of these options have serious problems.
NWMO has released a draft recommendation combining all three
flawed options in a 300-year, $24 billion "phased" approach
moving from storage at nuclear plants, to centralized storage,
and finally to deep rock disposal. It says the high-level
radioactive waste dump should be located in either Quebec,
Ontario, or Saskatchewan, and will make a final recommendation
to the federal government by November 15, 2005.
"The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is leading the public
down a radioactive garden path. This is just a re-packaged
version of the standard nuclear industry options" said Brennain
Lloyd, Coordinator for Northwatch, a coalition of groups in
north-eastern Ontario. "The phased approach is the worst of all
worlds - it combines all the problems of site-storage,
centralized storage and deep-rock disposal."
"There's no way to contain poisons that last a million years.
The first priority should be the phase-out of nuclear power not
the phase-in of a radioactive waste dump" said. Dr. Gordon
Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
Agreement on a nuclear waste strategy, environmentalists say,
depends on waste reduction through the phase-out of Canada's 22
nuclear reactors by 2020, at the end of their operational lives.
NWMO says it has "not examined nor [made] a judgment about the
appropriate role of nuclear power". However, NWMO's board
members - Ontario Power Generation, New Brunswick Power and
Hydro-Quebec - are all rebuilding or planning to rebuild their
aging reactors, potentially doubling the amount of Canada's
radioactive waste.
- 30 -
For more information, contact: Dave Martin, Greenpeace Canada,
office 416-597-8408 X 3050 cell 416-627-5004 Brennain Lloyd,
Northwatch, 705-497-0373 Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for
Nuclear Responsibility, cell 514-839-7214
- END PRESS RELEASE - 5/24/2005
CO: Greenpeace Canada
ST:
IN: AGRICULTURE ENVIRONMENT POLITICS
PRD: 200505240007
Press release distributed by PR Direct 866-736-3779
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45 Brattleboro Reformer: Debate over dry cask fee heats up in House
May 24, 2005 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- The debate over whether Entergy Nuclear Vermont
Yankee should pay the state an annual fee for dry casks storage
continues, as a bill on the issue is making its way through the
Vermont House of Representatives.
David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public
Service, said the Douglas administration does not support the
legislation, as the $4 million yearly charge could prompt plant
owners to shut the facility down early.
"We don't see the bill, as it's drafted now, as a reasonable
solution to the problem," said O'Brien.
Entergy officials threatened to close the plant before its
license expires in 2012, if the annual charge makes its
continued operation uneconomical. For proprietary reasons,
company officials will not release financial data related to the
plant.
Using data from the sale of the plant in 2002, however,
legislative consultant Richard Cowart estimated the plant will
most likely earn a profit of $29 million a year until the end of
its license. The company stands to make an additional $40 to $50
million a year if the bid to increase power by 20 percent is
approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Because the exact financial state of the plant is not known,
however, legislators included a provision in the bill that
allows the company to appeal to the Vermont Public Service Board
if the annual fee proves to be a financial burden.
The House Ways and Means Committee is considering the bill
today.
Rep. Michael Obuchowski, D-Rockingham, chairman of the
committee, said he hoped the bill would be voted on by the end
the day. It would then be considered by the Appropriations
Committee, before going to the House floor for a full vote.
Last Thursday, the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee
approved the bill allowing construction of concrete containers,
or dry casks, for the storage of spent nuclear fuel at the
Vernon plant.
Spent fuel is currently stored in a 40-foot deep pool in the
reactor building. It will be filled to capacity by 2008 or 2007,
if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves Entergy's bid to
increase power by 20 percent.
The casks will be used to store the older -- less "hot" -- fuel
assemblies stored in the pool, making way for newer ones that
will be taken from the reactor's core during the next refueling
outage.
The bill calls for a minimal annual payment of $4 million from
Entergy to the state. The money would go into a renewable energy
fund, which will be administered by the Vermont Department of
Public Service. It would be adjusted every year according to the
consumer price index, which is used to gauge inflation.
According to members of the Natural Resources and Energy
Committee, who crafted the bill, the charge is a means of
offsetting the burden future Vermonters may bear because of the
presence of the high-level nuclear waste site.
This burden will be alleviated, reasoned legislators, by
redirecting some of the profits made by Entergy -- which stands
to benefit from the continued generation of spent nuclear fuel
-- into a fund that will move the state towards "varied,
reliable, economic and sustainable sources of electricity."
The bill allows for the number of casks needed for the plant to
run through the end of its license, which is in 2012. If plant
officials want to extend the license of the plant, the bill
mandates that they get approval from the Legislature.
Obuchowski said the committee had some concerns about the bill,
but didn't think they were major stumbling blocks to getting it
passed.
Among them is the method used to come up with the $4 million a
year figure.
It was reached by charging Entergy one mill -- one-tenth of one
cent -- per kilowatt hour generated at the plant.
According Robert Dostis, D-Waterbury, chairman of the Committee
on Natural Resources and Energy, the formula was borrowed by the
federal government, which used it to calculate how much nuclear
plants had to contribute to a national repository fund for
nuclear waste. Each plant made a contribution based on how much
power -- and waste -- it generated.
Members of the Ways and Means Committee, said Obuchowski, were
concerned that when the federal government was collecting funds
based on this formula, it was not only for the storage of waste,
but also for the construction of a facility. Vermont will not be
contributing to the cost of the dry cask storage facility at
Vermont Yankee.
Other areas the committee wants to hear testimony on are the
generation charge called for in the bill, and how the renewable
energy fund would be accountable.
Obuchowski said he agreed that Entergy should be charged for
the installation of dry cask storage but hoped the matter could
be settled through an agreement between the state and company,
instead of being mandated through legislation.
Negotiations continue between Entergy officials and members of
the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. Neither side will
disclose what exactly is being discussed or whether an agreement
is close at hand.
O'Brien, with the Department of Public Service, said he was
hopeful that an agreement could be reached, as the shut-down of
Vermont Yankee would have significant economic consequences for
the state.
The plant supplies Vermont with one-third of its electricity
and does so at rates that are much lower than the going
market-rate. According to O'Brien, if the plant were to shut
down today, purchasing power on the open market until 2012 would
cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars -- far more than
$4 million a year.
Rep. Steve Darrow, D-Putney, however, accused Entergy of using
the threat of closing the plant as leverage to get a better deal.
In a letter to the Reformer, Darrow wrote: "Entergy just wants
to get permission from the legislature to store nuclear waste in
Vermont without any conditions and without paying anything."
Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
*****************************************************************
46 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast-inspired contamination notification bill signed
| 05/24/2005 |
HERALD STAFF REPORT
Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law today a measure that will require
the state Department of Environmental Protection to notify
property owners within 30 days if contamination has spread onto
their property.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bill Galvano of Bradenton,
was inspired by complaints from the Tallevast community.
Residents there did not find out about contaminants in their
groundwater until four years after the DEP first received the
information. The contamination came from the former Loral
American Beryllium Co., whose property was subsequently
purchased by Lockheed Martin.
Galvano was present at the bill signing in Tallahassee this
morning.
Wanda Washington and Laura Ward, Tallevast community leaders,
along with seven other residents, also attended the signing.
Bush handed pens used to sign the bill to the Tallevast
residents and shook their hands.
*****************************************************************
47 Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium mining has potential to harm miners
Opinion
Last Updated: 05/21/2005 04:01:34 PM
Michael Hochman
In the years following World War II, as the United States raced
the Soviets to develop a nuclear arsenal, thousands of workers,
most poorly educated and desperate for work, procured uranium
for nuclear weapons in underground mines throughout the
Southwest.
Years later, many of these workers developed devastating
lung diseases from radiation and silica dust exposure - diseases
that were a predictable consequence of their work, even at the
time.
For the first time in years, some of the Cold War-era
underground uranium mines are reopening throughout the Colorado
Plateau - an area which sprawls across southeastern Utah,
northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and western Colorado.
This time, the mines are opening in response to demands for
uranium from the growing nuclear power industry - which accounts
for approximately 20 percent of the power supply throughout the
country.
We have learned a great deal about the health consequences
of mining since the post-war "mining boom," and certainly mining
will be much safer for workers this time around. Still, the
risks to miners are considerable, and mistrust from past
injustices lingers. It will be important to tread carefully.
Following World War II, the United States desperately needed
uranium for its weapons program. By the 1950s, 750 mines were
opened throughout the Colorado Plateau, employing more than
10,000 workers. A third of the workers were Navajo Indians.
Despite several previous studies suggesting a link between
underground mining and lung disease, the mining companies did
not inform their employees of the risks. Neither did the
Atomic Energy Commission, which was, at the time, in charge of
the atomic energy program, including uranium procurement. Many
within the medical community were disturbed that workers were
not being informed of the risks.
"The Public Health Service tried to stand up for the
workers, and they were ignored," says Dr. Bruce Struminger, a
physician who works for the Indian Health Service in Shiprock,
N.M., and directs the Navajo Service Area Radiation Exposure
Screening and Education Program.
Furthermore, according to Struminger, relatively simple
measures, such as ventilating the mines and giving respiratory
masks to the workers, could have greatly reduced the radiation
and silica exposures.
The government did not take action until 1967 when the
Washington Post ran an article critical of the AEC. It was only
then that the Department of Labor set an upper limit for radon
exposure. And not until 1969 did the DOL require companies to
install ventilation systems in all mines and provide workers with
masks. Over the past decades, thousands of miners from the
Colorado Plateau have developed pulmonary fibrosis and lung
cancer as a consequence of their work in the mines. Clinics and
hospitals throughout the Southwest continue to see high volumes
of former miners with lung disease.
Now, underground mines are reopening. Four mines were
reopened in southwestern Colorado last year by the Cotter
Corporation, and at least two more are scheduled to open by the
end of 2005. More workers will potentially be at risk.
The same simple measures that could have protected miners
in the 1950s and 1960s are still the most effective ways we know
of to protect workers, namely proper ventilation and the use of
respiratory masks.
Though Cotter officials say masks will be required and mines
will be ventilated, Struminger rightly worries that safety
measures won't be enforced. Furthermore, ventilation systems and
respiratory masks do not protect workers against traumatic
injuries, which occur frequently in underground mines.
So despite the lingering mistrust, underground mining will
again be taking place on the Colorado Plateau. We can hope our
improved understanding of the dangers will ensure that the
tragic mistakes of a generation ago will not be repeated this
time around.
One thing is certain: There needs to be more honesty about
the risks.
---
Michael Hochman is a fourth-year medical student at Harvard
Medical School. He recently spent six months doing epidemiologic
research on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, N.M., where he
encountered patients who had suffered lung disease from mining
uranium during the Cold War.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
48 Statement at Conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 12:36:03 -0500 (CDT)
For Publication:
Statement at Conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation
By Congressman Dennis Kucinich
May 23, 2005 11:24 am ET
Today I participated in a parliamentary conference on nuclear
non-proliferation at the United Nations attended by representatives from
France, Turkey, Germany, Norway, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, the United
Kingdom and the United States. I made the following statement:
I want to thank the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament for
making possible this gathering at the United Nations.
Here, at the United Nations, where this structure was built to give
expression to achieving human unity through enhanced cooperation, we are
called upon to confirm that the world community is taking positive steps
toward expressing principles of interconnection and interdependence.
Nation states achieve their legitimacy not simply through ballot
exercises, but through addressing the practical aspirations of their
respective constituents for life's basic necessities: food, water,
shelter, and clothing. I would add peace to that list.
Peace is not just the absence of war, it is the active presence of a
capacity for love and compassion, and reciprocity. It is an awareness
that our lives are not to be lived simply for ourselves through
expressing our individuality, but we confirm the purpose of our lives
through the work of expressing our shared sense of community in a
purposeful and practical way; to sustain our own lives we sustain the
lives of others - in family, in a community of neighborhoods called a
city, and in a community of nations called the world.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty recognizes the essentiality, the
practicality of nuclear disarmament and nuclear abolition. The principle
of human unity seeks expression in such agreements. It does so out of
healthy awareness that if we protect another person's life, we protect
our own.
The 2005 NPT Review may not produce a final, agreed-upon document, but
the very process of reviewing the status of our worldwide nuclear
dilemma brings, from around the world, people of good will in an
exemplification of human unity.
Our presence here today, as representatives of our governments and as
citizens of the world, speaks for itself, is authentic in and of itself
and is an expression of a physical and spiritual force at work in the
world which sustains the world.
Official resistance to nuclear disarmament is consequential in terms of
this conference. It is regrettable that representatives of my own
government deny commitments the US made to facilitate disarmament, and,
even worse, nullify this forum through noncooperation.
As the nation which possesses the largest nuclear arsenal, the United
States has a clear responsibility to lead the way toward nuclear
disarmament. The unwillingness of our Administration to do so cannot be
pinned on Iran and North Korea. We must take responsibility for the
effects of our own actions in canceling the ABM treaty, in setting aside
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, in failing to negotiate a verifiable
fissile material cutoff, in enunciating a nuclear first strike doctrine,
in trying to build a missile shield, in building new nuclear weapons, in
announcing the intention to dominate the world through offensive and
defensive weapons in outer space.
Non-nuclear states are good students. They look to the nuclear states
for example. Our government has given an example - of proliferation -
and other states will learn well from such conduct. In the wake of the
war against Iraq, which, we in the US were told, was about destroying
nuclear weapon-making capability, Iran and North Korea may logically
decide they are next and take steps to acquire retaliatory capacity.
Nuclear weapons have become a means for the projection of military power
and for imposing the force of will upon others. I would suggest that we
have reached a place in human history where such thinking is archaic and
not expressive of the spiritual and material development which has taken
place in the world.
A new model is evolving from the NPT. And we see the exemplification of
it in the organization Mayors for Peace. Whereas the NPT depends upon
the agreement of member states, we come forward with a model for nuclear
disarmament and abolition which depends on the agreement of members of
those states. As congressional representatives and mayors we declare our
intention, our work is to create and confirm between ourselves the fact
of human unity, representative of a global group consciousness for
peace, an articulation of new structures for peace and an organized
global activity for peace which includes a new structure to rid the
world of weapons which would destroy the very physical basis for human
unity.
As we work to create new models for enhancing cooperation between
participants of nation states, a new model is evolving in the world of
diplomacy. Wherever and whenever nation states fail to reconcile their
differences, a new citizen diplomacy arises: Citizen diplomats summon
the power of their own hearts and confirm their own humanity through
reaching out and discovering their brothers and sisters speak other
languages, have other colors and other religions and share a common
desire to live out their lives in peace and tranquility. The work of
nongovernmental organizations is equally urgent in saving this planet.
Permalink:
http://www.kucinich.us/archive/report/display.php?r=35&d=2005-05-23+11%3
A24%3A47
Submitted by:
Claudia Slate
Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee
http://www.kucinich.us
*****************************************************************
49 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hanford: Acknowledging damage
[seattlepi.com]
[OPINION]
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Like bomb victims in Japan and people living near atomic testing
sites, many people in the Northwest suffered long-term damage
early in the nuclear era. They deserve help.
A jury in Spokane last week recognized the health effects of
radiation on two thyroid cancer victims, both of whom lived near
the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The federal jury awarded more
than $500,000 in total compensation for the two, finding that
radiation likely caused the illnesses of Gloria Wise and Steven
Stanton.
Like thousands of others living downwind from Hanford, Wise and
Stanton were exposed to radiation deliberately released into the
air during World War II and the Cold War. The jury's findings
represent a proper acknowledgement that, however one views the
development and use of atomic weapons, the bomb also brought
about unnecessary and often tragic troubles.
At the same time, the jury rejected claims by three other
plaintiffs, who suffered other thyroid-related problems, and
deadlocked on whether Hanford radiation releases caused another
plaintiff's thyroid cancer. The plaintiffs and three
corporations that ran operations at Hanford could appeal parts
of the rulings.
Attorneys for the companies suggested that the relatively modest
compensation and the rejection of some claims mean that most of
the 2,300 plaintiffs in the "downwinder" cases have little
reason to continue litigation. The jury awards were less than
the cost of bringing the cases, according to an attorney
representing the contractors. As in many legal matters, the best
outcome could be a settlement, preferably a generous and fair
one. After the verdict, U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen
reportedly said, "I hope at this stage the parties give a good
faith effort to mediation."
Especially with the government legally required to pay the
contractors' legal costs and any compensation losses, it would
be unfortunate if attorneys' costs made it impossible for other
victims to continue seeking compensation. The jury recognized
the suffering caused by radiation. That should be a victory for
truth and the people living downwind from Hanford, even if it
takes specific federal or congressional intervention to help the
victims as well as the contractors.
[SEATTLEPI.COM POLL]
Should people living downwind from the Hanford nuclear
reservation receive compensation?
Yes. Through a settlement that reduces time and legal
expenses. Yes. If they can win in court.
No. This all happened a long time ago. Uncertain or don't
care.
[Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA
98119 (206) 448-8000
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
©1996-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
*****************************************************************
50 Tri-City Herald: Opinions Tri-Cities, IsoRay a natural pairing
This story was published Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
The Tri-Cities and IsoRay Medical LLC have been good for each
other.
It will take extra effort, but that good relationship needs to
be continued.
The company, at least partly because of passage of Initiative
297 last year, is entertaining inducements from Idaho to move
its operations there.
"The bottom line is, it's a business," said IsoRay's chief
executive, Roger Girard.
He's right, that is the bottom line. But there has been an awful
lot above the line that has helped IsoRay and the Tri-Cities
succeed together.
There's the community, to which the executives say their
employees are very attached. There's the connection with the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which has been a reliable
partner in scientific inquiry.
There's a lifestyle, if not to die for, then to live for.
IsoRay's concerns about I-297 were understandable. It was one of
those feels-good-on-the-left-side issues that suffered from a
lack of consideration of consequences. (Or, if the consequences
were anticipated, it was a cynical duping of the voters.)
The company's worries have been eased by assurances from the
state and Department of Energy, but not before the uncertainty
surrounding I-297 opened a door for Idaho.
I-297 was intended to bar the importation of more radioactive
waste to Hanford until the waste already there is cleaned up.
Enforcement of the initiative is on hold awaiting a federal
judge's decision on its legality.
IsoRay says any part of the initiative that would hinder the
company's ability to process the cesium 131 it uses to treat
cancer would certainly force it to move from Washington.
Such an unintended side effect is looking increasingly unlikely.
But even without I-297 hanging over its head, IsoRay has an
obligation to its investors to make certain that it finds the
best and most economical arrangements.
The company says it will decide within the next three to six
months what it will do.
It's a business worth keeping here. IsoRay says its new facility
will cost about $10 million and employ up to 250, an economic
plum for any community and especially one as linked to nuclear
technology as the Tri-Cities.
Fortunately, DOE and the state are trying to make things work
for IsoRay, including some state inducements for it to remain
here. That's great, but the bottom line is affected by more than
tax breaks. Intangibles need to be factored, too, even when
they're hard to quantify.
IsoRay's boss, for example, says a move would "weigh heavily" on
its employees. That would seem to put an additional, perhaps
even unbearable, load on Idaho to make a move work.
Idaho's developers "have tremendous resources available that
would make a move attractive to us," Girard told the Herald.
Idaho officials have offered incentives to IsoRay to relocate
operations to a site near the Idaho State University campus in
Pocatello.
Washington's counteroffer of regulatory assistance and economic
incentives to stay in Richland is important, but may not be
enough.
The situation also puts a burden on local economic development
forces to redouble their efforts to make what is already a
success story remain a Tri-City story.
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
51 California Aggie: Regents to discuss bid for labs
May 24, 2005
Board will also name student regent-designate for '05-'06
By MELISSA B. TADDEI / Aggie Senior Staff Writer
Posted 05/24/2005
The UC Board of Regents will congregate for a two-day meeting
this Wednesday and Thursday at UC San Francisco. The
controversial and much-anticipated decision whether to
participate in the competition for the U.S. Department of Energy
laboratories will be made Wednesday morning.
The committee on oversight of the DOE labs will hold an open
session with allotted time for public comment on the approval to
participate in a response to the DOE/National Nuclear Security
Administration’s Request for Proposals to manage and operate
the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Following public comment,
the regents will vote on whether to bid for the lab.
The status of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and
Livermore National Laboratory contracts will also be addressed.
Time has been allotted to specifically address the competition
teaming arrangement with Bechtel National, Inc.; BWX
Technologies, Inc.; and Washington Group International, New
Mexico consortium of research universities, and other
educational institutions.
The UC managed the Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and
Los Alamos labs for the DOE for nearly six decades. After a
management and purchasing scandal at Los Alamos in 2003, then
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham decided that the UC would
engage in its first-ever contract competition for management of
all three labs.
Three UC-wide surveys were conducted in order to gauge
student, staff and faculty interest in the continued management
of the labs. While many students reported not having enough
information, the majority of staff and faculty supported
continued management.
The first session of the afternoon will be held by the
Committee on Educational Policy. A discussion will be continued
from the January Educational Policy meeting about the importance
of graduate education to California and the UC and the related
discussion at the March Educational Policy meeting.
Topics will include the multiple ways in which the UC meets
California’s needs for advanced professional education through
extended education programs in a variety of settings.
The regents are also expected to discuss undergraduate
eligibility and admissions. In October 2003, UC President Robert
Dynes established the Eligibility and Admissions Study Group to
examine undergraduate eligibility and admissions issues facing
the UC. UC Provost and Senior Vice President M.R.C. Greenwood,
who co-chaired a 2004-2005 study group, will update the board on
the group’s work.
Additional topics to be discussed at the meeting include
incentive payment for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Director Michael Anastasio, compensation for the treasurer of
the regents and vice president for investments, a proposed
settlement of the city of Berkeley’s lawsuit against the
campus’ long-range development plan and environmental impact
report for the Berkeley campus, and the adoption of a code of
ethics.
A special meeting is being held Tuesday by the committee on
selection of a student regent beginning at 2 p.m., also in San
Francisco.
A live audio broadcast of the open sessions is available at
universityofcalifornia.edu/regents.
MELISSA B. TADDEI can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.
© 1995 - 2005 by The California Aggie. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for
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information go to:
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