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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 [NYTr] How the war in Iraq spurred a new nuclear arms race
2 [NYTr] B-52 Crewman Disputes Iran "Broken Arrow" Story
3 [NYTr] Crisis still brews as Iran rejects EU proposal
4 Guardian Unlimited: Europe offers Iran deal to end nuclear showdown
5 Guardian Unlimited: Europe offers Iran nuclear incentives
6 BBC: US supports EU Iran nuclear plan
7 Reuters: EU insists Iran give up nuclear fuel work                  
8 Reuters: US backs Iran civilian nuke program for first time         
9 Reuters: EU3 submit nuclear proposals to Iran                    
10 Reuters: EU insists Iran give up nuclear fuel work                  
11 Reuters: EU3 set no deadline over Iran nuclear offer-France         
12 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N.Korea Differ on Nuclear Activities
13 AFP: North Korea, US fail to make headway in nuclear talks - 
14 Reuters: FACTBOX-A look at North Korea's nuclear capability         
15 Reuters: Stalled N.Korea talks limp into 12th day of deadlock       
16 Reuters: hopes dim on day 11 of North Korea talks                   
17 US: [NukeNet] Washington Times Editorial: The Advantages of
18 US: Hiroshima Documents Posted by National Security Archive
19 US: [NYTr] The Subconscious Burden of Atomic Weapons
20 US: The Union: Nevada County perspectives on Hiroshima
21 US: ICT: Federal energy bill, economic opportunity or Bush's fire sa
22 NPR : Doubts, Costs Dog Hanford Nuclear Cleanup Plan
23 UN Renews Call For Total Nuclear Ban On 60th Anniversary Of Bombing 
24 IPS-English MEDIA: Hiroshima, the Top News Story That Wasn't
25 [southnews] Japan remembers Hiroshima
26 DN!: 60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasak
27 Guardian Unlimited: Campaign Against Navy Vessel Gains Ground
28 Guardian Unlimited: A-Bomb Deaths of 20,000 Koreans Remembered
29 Deseret News: Thriving Hiroshima to ponder Day of Death 
30 RIA Novosti: Russians say any country has the right to nuclear weapo
31 BBC: Nuclear neighbours hold key talks
32 HindustanTimes.com: Pak to test-fire new N-capable missile
33 GREENPEACE UK: 60 years later the threat of nuclear weapons still ex
34 Japan Times: An excuse for nuclear weapons
35 Reuters: Thousands mark Hiroshima A-bomb 60th anniversary 
36 Las Vegas SUN: Hiroshima Marks Atomic Bomb Anniversary 
37 AU ABC: Hiroshima bomb remembered 60 years on
38 AU ABC: WA seeks assurances on underwater bomb tests. 
39 AU ABC: Underwater bomb tests all for show: Greenpeace. 
40 asahi.com: EDITORIAL/ 60 years after A-bomb
41 NEWS.com.au: Japan remembers Hiroshima 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
42 Washington Times: Tokyo urged to give up nuclear power generation
43 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl given to Ukrainian Emergency Situations Minis
44 US: Platts: Planned generic letter on hold while NRC reviews EPRI 
45 Hindustan Times.com: Pak to step up nuclear power generation
46 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear power picks up backers 
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
47 US: NRC: NRC Bans Former Technician at Pennsylvania Company from NRC
48 US: Rocky Mountain News: Worker spreads radioactive matter
49 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for N.J. Firm for Nuclear Gauge Vi
50 BBC: Radioactive traces found on beach
51 TheNewsTribune.com: A story from the grave | 
52 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Rolly: Hatch helps family cut the red tape 
53 US: Newstimeslive.com: Danbury doctor studied effects of radiation
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
54 US: [epa-impact] Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final
55 US: AU ABC: Qld stands by uranium mining opposition
56 US: AU ABC: NT Govt to keep mine royalties
57 Las Vegas RJ: Memo faults Yucca planning
58 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN OVERSIGHT: Audit finds state, county mi
59 Bellona: Nuclear waste from Urenco and Eurodif remain in Russia —
60 US: DOE: Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final
61 Platts: IG audit questions use of DOE oversight funds at Yucca Mount
62 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: Project representatives predict more bus
63 US: The Dispatch: Defense begins in perchlorate trial
64 US: AU ABC: Maralinga survivor speaks against uranium mining
65 US: AU ABC: Land Council welcomes uranium mine decision
66 Las Vegas SUN: Audit: Nevada, counties misspent nuclear dump oversig
67 US: PE.com: Stricter perchlorate limits proposed 
68 US: AU ABC: Govt approves NT uranium mine expansion
69 US: AU ABC: New NT uranium mine operation a step closer - 
70 US: AU ABC: Indigenous groups vow to fight uranium mine expansion
71 US: AU ABC: Land Council welcomes uranium mine decision. 
72 US: NEWS.com.au: New uranium mine 'in five years' | NT 
73 US: Media General: Radioactive material storage vault slated for dem
74 News & Star: Suspended Sellafield boss back at work
75 US: NEWS.com.au: Minerals Council applauds uranium move 
 
                           PEACE
 
76 Annan Urges City Leaders To Work With Global Partners To Help Deter 
77 [NYTr] Thousands call for nuclear arms ban in Hiroshima protest
78 Reuters: Scrapping nukes vital for human survival -ElBaradei        
79 The Rising Nepal: The Tin Can Of Hiroshima Museum
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
80 WBIR-TV: Y-12 works on new image but protesters don't buy it   
81 National Academies news: DOE should consider enhancing cleanup 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 [NYTr] How the war in Iraq spurred a new nuclear arms race
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 08:13:22 -0500 (CDT)

 
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Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Simon McGuinness

The Independent - 05 August 2005 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article303776.ece

Never again? How the war in Iraq spurred a new nuclear arms race 

As the world prepares to mark the anniversary of Hiroshima, Iran is
poised to go nuclear amid a new global arms race 

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
 
Tomorrow at 8.15am, a minute's silence will reverberate around the
world. The people of Japan will commemorate the victims of the first
atomic bomb, which was dropped by an American B-29 on Hiroshima on 6
August 1945. 

Half a world away, in Tehran, the new hard man of Iranian politics,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will take the oath of office before the
country's parliament. His presidency heralds a new era of uncertainty in
Iran's fraught relations with the West over its nuclear ambitions. 

In Beijing, urgent talks on curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons
programme are close to collapse. And in Pakistan, efforts are still
being made to roll up the world's biggest nuclear proliferation scandal.
Sixty years after Hiroshima, whose single bomb killed 237,062 people, a
new nuclear arms race has begun. 

A crisis is deepening with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons
activities. Tehran is threatening to resume uranium conversion next
week, prompting an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency which could result in Iran being referred to the UN Security
Council for possible sanctions. 

At the six-party talks in Beijing, North Korea is refusing to abandon a
nuclear weapons programme that could lead to another mushroom cloud over
Asia. 

International investigators are struggling to wrap up the lucrative
black market that spread a web of proliferation across at least two
continents thanks to the greed of one man: the father of Pakistan's
nuclear bomb. 

The scientist A Q Khan, who sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya, and
possibly others, is now under house arrest. 

Al-Qa'ida has still not been vanquished in its hideouts, while there are
still fears that the terrorists could be working on the production of a
" dirty" bomb that would spread radiation and panic in major cities. 

In the light of the war on Iraq, which did not have nuclear weapons,
second-tier nations have judged that North Korea was spared invasion
because of its nuclear deterrent, and drawn their own strategic
conclusions. 

International attempts to renew a global pact banning the proliferation
of nuclear weapons have foundered. In short, the system of safeguards
aimed at preventing a repeat of the horrors of Hiroshima is in disarray.

The review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by 189 states
collapsed two months ago amid recriminations and accusations that the
nuclear five had no intention of living up to their treaty commitments
to pursue nuclear disarmament. 

All signs are that the treaty intended to protect the world from nuclear
peril is dead. Pyongyang has pulled out, boasting that it now has
nuclear weapons, and other members such as Iran, Egypt and South Korea
have been caught cheating. 

But the regime had already been seriously undermined by states that
remained outside the NPT and became nuclear powers: Israel, India and
Pakistan. The NPT review at the UN in the spring provided a timely
opportunity to tighten nuclear safeguards. Instead, the month-long
conference turned into a bitter slanging match in which the US
administration ignored its own record and turned up the heat on Iran and
North Korea. 

At the heart of the four-decades-old NPT is a "grand bargain". The five
nuclear powers - US, Britain, France, Russia and China - agreed to work
towards nuclear disarmament. In return, the non-nuclear states gave up
any ambition to develop nuclear weapons; they agreed to open up all
their facilities to inspection; and in return they were guaranteed the
benefits of peaceful nuclear technology. 

The big five have always been open to the charge of hypocrisy. Behind
the rhetoric of disarmament, they have tried everything in their power
to prevent second-tier powers from obtaining nuclear arms, while
clinging on to their own nuclear arsenals despite strategic cuts. Both
the US and Britain are upgrading: the Bush administration is developing
nuclear "bunker busters" that can strike deep underground, while Britain
has ordered a new generation of Trident missiles. 

With the NPT seriously weakened, the challenge now is to keep the genie
in the bottle, as regional rivalries in the Middle East and Asia risk
going nuclear. 

For the Bush administration, openly hostile to a UN solution, the answer
has been talk or bomb: negotiate with states that already have a weapon
(such as North Korea), or to take preemptive strikes against those that
do not (such as Iraq). US officials say acting outside the treaty has
produced results: it brought Libya back into the fold in 2003, when
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi decided to scrap his weapons of mass
destruction. 
Yet this approach contains the risk of opening the path to nuclear
blackmail, which is how North Korea has coaxed the West into
compensating the hermit state in return for concessions on its nuclear
programme. 

As with Iran, negotiations have stalled on the North Korean insistence
that it has the right to a civilian programme, if it renounces nuclear
weapons. 

Iran, an NPT member which insists on its treaty right to pursue nuclear
power, has been infuriated by US co-operation with India, a non-member
of the NPT, which blasted its way into the nuclear "club" in tit-for-tat
tests with Pakistan in 1998. 

In a world no longer guided by a universally accepted regime, countries
are weighing the nuclear option. Arab states consider nuclear-armed
Israel, and are drawing their own conclusions. Iran is hemmed in by
hostile neighbours such as Israel and Pakistan. A nuclear test by North
Korea could prompt Taiwan and Japan to follow down that road. 

Preoccupied with Iraq, the US has decided to follow a diplomatic route
in dealing with Iran. But if the Security Council fails to reach
agreement on punishment for Tehran's infringement, the military option
would loom again. 

Israel has made no secret of its intention to halt militarily the
Iranian nuclear weapons programme, as it did when it struck Iraq's
Osiraq reactor in 1981, delaying but not ending Saddam Hussein's nuclear
quest. But if Israel did strike, the Iranians could hit back anywhere in
the region. Its nuclear programme would go underground, and the hand of
the hardliners in Tehran would be reinforced. As one expert put it, an
Israeli attack would be " a free pass for the mullahs". 

The question now is whether nuclear deterrence works. The threat of
American nuclear attack, albeit veiled, did not deter Saddam Hussein
from invading Kuwait. On the other hand, North Korea's boasting of a
nuclear arsenal saved it from invasion. And nuclear weapons have not -
yet - been used on the battlefield. 

Today, the "official" nuclear powers could annihilate the world many
times over. And 40 other countries have the know-how to join their club.
Sixty years after Hiroshima, who can say with confidence: "Never again"?

                              ***

The Independent - Aug 5, 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article303776.ece

Never again?  Some Salient Facts

60 years since the first use of a nuclear weapon in war [by the USA]. 

160,000 people died when the bomb was dropped at 8.15am on Hiroshima,
with another 77,062 dying later. 

$27bn is spent each year by the US on nuclear weapons and related
programmes 

11,000 active, deliverable nuclear weapons in the world. The US has
6,390, Russia 3,242 and Britain 200 

15,654 sq miles, total land area used by US nuclear weapons bases and
facilities 

4 other states known or thought to have nuclear weapons: India, Israel,
Pakistan, North Korea 

5 acknowledged nuclear states: China, France, Russia, United Kingdom,
United States 

1 number of islands vaporised by nuclear testing: Elugelab, Micronesia,
1952 

16in length of 'Davy Crockett', the smallest nuclear weapon ever
produced 

40 states with technical ability to make nuclear weapons, including
Egypt and South Korea 

30,000 Kazakh conscripts served at Semipalatinsk, the Soviet test site.
There were 456 tests conducted between 1945 and 1991 at the site 

100 maximum number of those Kazakh conscripts still alive today 

200 estimated number of nuclear weapons possessed by Israel 

0 estimated number of nuclear weapons possessed by all the Arab states 

150 estimated number of nuclear weapons possessed by India 

75 estimated number of nuclear weapons possessed by Pakistan 

100,000 people were members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in
1984 

40,000 people are currently members of CND 

900 years is the time it will take for radioactive elements in Pripyat,
near Chernobyl, to decay to safe levels following the disaster 19 years
ago 
       
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 2 [NYTr] B-52 Crewman Disputes Iran "Broken Arrow" Story
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 08:13:13 -0500 (CDT)

 
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CounterPunch - August 3, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08032005.html

Former B-52 Crewman Disputes Dumped Nuke Story

Broken Arrows and Iran

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Concerning my weekend diary item about the possibility of nuclear 
warheads from a B-52 that crashed on February 3, 1991,ending up in Iran, 
John Vickers, a former B-52 flier and CounterPunch reader, offers some 
pretty persuasive criticisms on at least one part of the story.

My weekend diary item, based on a conversation with someone in the arms 
business who doesn't want his name used, was that a B-52G flying over 
Baghdad on February 3 was carrying three SRAMS, missiles with nuclear 
warheads.

The plane developed serious problems, including black-out of 
navigational systems, and as the plane limped down the African coast, 
fire prompted the crew to dump the SRAMS. They landed in shallow water 
off the Somali coast, were retrieved and may ultimately have ended up in 
Iran.

Even at first hearing the story had some obvious problems, most notably 
the B-52's flight path, As one comment on my item ran: "In the 
exceedingly unlikely case of a total electric failure and lack of 
handheld emergency radios (commonly carried in survival vest of Military 
aircrew to communicate with SAR if aircraft downed) they would take a 
compass course towards the Maldives and then follow the island chain 
down to DG -- that's the off the Indian coast, definitely not Somalia."

There were other notes about our story on the PPRuNe forum to the effect 
that "Posted comments confirm that a B-52 and 3 crew were lost near 
Diego Garcia on that date; so that part jibes with reality. But another 
commentator reports: 'the Boeing AGM-69 SRAM was retired from the US 
inventory in June 1990'."

Bill Yerkes wrote, commenting that "the SRAM missile that you write 
about is supposed to carry a W 69 bomb. This is a 200-KT thermo-nuclear 
gadget and, obviously, as lightweight and small as old Ted Taylor could 
design - it is therefore, also obviously, not powered by uranium. It is 
powered by plutonium and Li 6.This fact would seem to undermine your 
thesis.[The "thesis" was the view of our initial informant that the 
warhead might have yielded enriched uranium for subsequent use in a 
"dirty" bomb.] The idea that the USAF would jettison the weapons makes 
sense - they'd had serious troubles with the solid rocket motor fuel 
becoming unstable and catching fire. The SRAM was taken out of service 
about the time of the event you cite."

Now to John Vickers, former B-52 crewman, now a physical therapist in Miami.

In February, 1991, Vickers was a captain in USAF, working as a 
radar-navigator in a B-52G, flying missions during first Gulf War out 
of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Vickers confirms that a B-52G did crash on flight approach into Diego 
Garcia on February 3, with three out of the six crew killed because they 
bailed out below safe ejection minimum altitude. One of those killed was 
Vickers' roommate from B-52G Force Academy. qualification training and 
classmate ('86) at the Air.

Vickers' crew was out of Barksdale, Louisiana, and that of the downed 
B-52 out of Blytheville AFB, Arkansas. He says that at that time B-52s 
weren't carrying SRAMs but primarily air-launched cruise missiles, 
ALCMS. In the war theater in 1991 the B-52s were armed with conventional 
air-launched cruise missiles, CALCMs, which are non-nuclear.

"When those guys crashed on February 3," Vickers goes on, "the Air Force 
had air superiority. The war was going our way. There was no need to 
need to circle Baghdad with nukes. And if they had used a nuke, the 
electro-magnetic pulse would have destroyed the electro-magnetic 
spectrum for miles around, which could have made all US electronic 
equipment (GPS, radios, radar, etc.,)unusable. Not to mention killing 
all the Special Forces units that may have been on the ground.

"If they were arming the B-52 with nukes they would have sent a more 
experienced pilot and crew. On the B-52G that went down the copilot and 
navigator were not well seasoned, as was the navigator. In fact the 
inexperience was one of the reasons the B-52 got into such trouble. It 
started out with fuel problems that developed into electrical problems, 
and then everything snowballed. The pilot didn't manage it well and 
wound up not giving the bail-out command until the aircraft's altitude 
was too low for safe ejection for several crew members. They crashed 
about ten miles short of Diego Garcia.

Vickers also reckons that any suggested course down the Somali coast is 
not credible.

Yesterday, August 2, I told my original informant about these onslaughts 
on the plausibility of his story about the nuclear munitions and 
trajectory of the B-52G, and asked how he could be so confident that 
three nuclear warheads had been found in shallow water off the coast of 
Somalia.

On this part of the sequence his responses were detailed and can be 
summarized as follows. In the relevant time frame of early 1991 a deep 
sea diving/ treasure salvage operation was being run out of the 
Seychelles (some 700 miles or so east of the Somali coastline) in part 
at least as cover for a South African arms smuggling operation into 
Somalia. The apartheid-era South African military was sending packages 
of conventional arms destined for groups in Somalia, and dropping them 
in shallow water. The diver could not find these packages and had to 
broaden his search, then came across the SRAMs. He relayed their serial 
numbers via the UK to a retired senior officer in the USAF to find out 
what they were. The news from the senior officer was that these were 
nuclear munitions from a B-52.

Subsequently, so this informant reports, the group that recovered the 
three nuclear warheads found a customer in the form of South Africa's 
defense minister, Magnus Malan. Malan was certainly a seasoned operator 
in smuggling and covert ops, having run multifarious conspiracies for 
the apartheid regime in its final period. He was deeply involved with 
supplying Savimbi in Angola and in other covert interventions and terror 
missions in southern Africa.

Negotiations proceeded, but - so our source says - when the vendors of 
the SRAMS went to South Africa to finalize the deal and transfer, Malan 
met them at Jan Smuts airport and told them he'd just been fired by De 
Klerk and the deal was off.

As a matter of record, Malan was indeed fired from his post as Defense 
Chief in 1991, was later arrested, in 1995, with 10 other former senior 
military officers and charged with murdering 13 black people in 1987 as 
part of a conspiracy to create war between the African National Congress 
(ANC) and the Zulu Inkhata Freedom Party. He was acquitted the following 
year.

The subsequent supposed trail of the three SRAMs gets even fainter, with 
suggestions that they did ultimately pass into the hands of the South 
Africans, with their ultimate whereabouts a topic of speculation.

So, we are left with what looks like the dove-tailing of two separate 
sequences, with those knowledgeable about the discovery of nuclear 
warheads off the Somali coast in mid-May , 1991, finding a possible 
retrospective explanation for the arrival of these warheads in these 
shallow waters in the known loss of a B-52G on February 3, 1991 on its 
way from the Iraq war theater to Diego Garcia. The notion that any 
nuclear materials from this saga might have ended up in Iran was purely 
speculative, dovetailed into much later radiation readings by UN nuclear 
inspectors. And of course the mention of Iran might have been 
mischief-making, on the Niger yellowcake model.

However, our source on the Somali sequence does insist that he has heard 
from two separate informants working in Saudi Arabia during the first 
Iraq war that at least one B-52 was armed with missiles with nuclear 
warheads. One, in the Fleet Air Arm reported that a B-52 with nuclear 
munitions on board had got into trouble. The other, working on a US 
base, said that when a B-52 carrying nuclear munitions landed, they had 
to take extra security precautions.

Footnote: the USAF plane that crashed into the swamps near Savannah, 
Georgia, carrying a nuclear weapon, was a B-47, not B-52.
       
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 3 [NYTr] Crisis still brews as Iran rejects EU proposal
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 16:43:48 -0500 (CDT)

 
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AFP - August 5, 2005
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/050805183958.4qtd1d2u.html

Crisis brews as Iran rejects EU proposal; UN watchdog to meet Tuesday

VIENNA (AFP) - The watchdog UN atomic agency meets next Tuesday with a 
crisis brewing after Iran rejected an EU demand for it to abandon making 
nuclear fuel with possible weapons use, in return for trade, technology 
and security incentives.

Iran Friday rejected proposals from the European Union, led by the trio 
of Britain, France and Germany, to allow the Islamic Republic to pursue 
peaceful nuclear energy work as long it refrains from fuel cycle work 
that could help it make atomic weapons.

But foreign minister spokesman Hamid Reza Asefia said Iran would make a 
final decision in one or two days.

The European trio said there was still time for Iran to reconsider its 
threat to resume nuclear fuel activities, which it suspended in November 
to begin negotiations with the EU, and that maintaining the suspension 
would lead to the UN watchdog meeting being cancelled.

A summary of the 34-page package made available to reporters indicated 
that the British, French and German foreign ministers told the Iranians 
that they had no choice but to call for a meeting of the International 
Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors.

This could send Iran before the UN Security Council for possible 
sweeping international economic sanctions.

If Iran makes "clear that it will not proceed as it has indicated (to 
restart work nuclear fuel cycle work) and will enter into discussions on 
the ... proposal (presented Friday), we are ready not to continue with 
this process," the ministers said.

In that case, there would be a meeting of senior officials from the two 
sides on August 31 in Paris and a ministerial meeting in New York in 
September, British, French, and German ministers Jack Straw, Philippe 
Douste-Blazy and Joschka Fischer said.

Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian said Friday in Tehran 
however that "the proposals are unacceptable" as they are a "clear 
violation" of agreements between Iran and the European Union.

"They negate Iran's inalienable right (under the nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty, the NPT)," to making nuclear fuel, he said.

Moussavian had said Thursday that Iran would resume preliminary fuel 
cycle work within one or two days and threatened to go beyond this to 
produce enriched uranium, which can either fuel civilian power plants or 
make nuclear bombs.

The Vienna-based IAEA could refer Iran to the Security Council but 
diplomats from the European trio said the purpose of the meeting was to 
warn off the Iranians from resuming fuel cycle work.

One diplomat added, however, that "this might be a meeting where 
something else happens," a reference to Iran presenting the IAEA with a 
fait accompli of having already started uranium conversion, a first step 
in enriching uranium.

The United States charges that Iran is using its civilian nuclear 
program to hide cover weapons development and would like to see Iran 
brought before the Security Council if Tehran begins fuel cycle work.

"I hope Iran will heed the voice of reason," Douste-Blazy said in Paris 
Friday.

But if Iran resumes conversion, "then it is certain that the 
international community will ask the Security Council to intervene," he 
said.

The proposals recognize Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear 
energy, including guaranteeing it a supply of nuclear fuel, but call on 
it not to make atomic fuel as this could have possible weapons use.

"As Iran will have an assured supply of fuel over the coming years, it 
will be able to provide the confidence needed by making a binding 
commitment not to pursue fuel cycle activities other than the 
construction and operation of light-water power and research reactors," 
according to a summary of the letter.

The summary notes that the European trio are asking "Iran to stop 
construction of its heavy-water reactor at Arak, which gives rise to 
proliferation concerns" since it would make large amounts of plutonium, 
which along with uranium is a prime atom bomb material.

In return for cooperating, Iran would get trade, security and technology 
benefits.
       
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 4 Guardian Unlimited: Europe offers Iran deal to end nuclear showdown
 
Ian Traynor
Saturday August 6, 2005
The Guardian 		
 		
The main European powers yesterday called an emergency meeting of 
the UN's nuclear authority to try to chart a way out of an 
escalating crisis with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. The 
35-strong board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to 
meet on Tuesday in Vienna after Britain, France and Germany took 
the unusual step of calling an extraordinary session. That came 
after the EU troika yesterday made an unprecedented and detailed 
offer to Tehran of trade, political, security and nuclear 
benefits if Iran renounces enrichment of uranium - the main path 
to a nuclear weapons capability. Article continues 
 			 			 						 						 						
The EU countries pledged long-term supplies of
nuclear technology, reactors and fuel for a civil nuclear
programme in Iran on condition that Iran effectively abandons
its largely secret 20-year-old project to manufacture nuclear
fuel, the process that can also produce weapons-grade uranium.
The offer also vows no military strikes against Iranian targets
- a pledge that Washington is also expected to observe tacitly -
if the Iranians climb down from a dangerous showdown with the
west by scrapping uranium enrichment.

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, being sworn in
today, however, is widely expected to reject the EU proposals -
two years in the making - and to call the EU's bluff on how to
react.

The EU three reiterated this week that they would drop two years
of resisting US calls to take Iran to the UN security council in
New York for possible sanctions if their offer is rejected or if
Iran ends its freeze on uranium enrichment.

Next week's meeting in Vienna and the formula that emerges could 
bring that decision to move the Iranian dispute from the 
conference rooms of the UN tower in Vienna to the security 
council in New York.

The trigger for such a decision is likely to be pulled in the
southern town of Isfahan where the Iranians are threatening to
break the UN seals on equipment for processing uranium and
resume a conversion programme frozen last November under a deal
with the EU troika.

UN nuclear inspectors are in Isfahan to monitor the situation,
but the Vienna agency is also playing for time in an attempt to
defuse the crisis.

The Iranians have agreed not to break the seals until the
inspectors have surveillance equipment in place. That equipment
has not even left Vienna yet and it will be several days before
it is set up.

Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, has also been
unsuccessfully trying to persuade the Europeans not to call the
emergency meeting since he fears resort to the security council
will be "a cul de sac" and could ignite a much bigger crisis
with a breakdown in negotiations.

That could result in a scenario similar to North Korea which
unilaterally and summarily withdrew from the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty (NPT), kicked out the UN nuclear
inspectors, and pursued the bomb.

Precisely to forestall such a scenario, yesterday's EU offer
demands that Iran give a binding commitment not to pull out of
the NPT. The detailed 34-page proposal entitled Framework for a
Long-term Agreement also says Iran has no need to enrich uranium
to produce fuel for a civil nuclear programme since the
Europeans would supply the equipment and fuel needed.

The Iranians have consistently stated they will not renounce
uranium enrichment, permitted under their NPT commitments, and
also that they would swiftly reject the EU proposals unless the
Europeans acknowledged the Iranian right to enrich uranium.
The Iranians suspended uranium enrichment in November pending
the outcome of the talks with the EU now coming to a head.

Yesterday European officials described their offer as "ambitious
and generous", possibly opening "a new chapter" in the west's
relations with Iran.

"I hope that Iran will hear the voice of reason and that it will
take the path of negotiation and dialogue, and that it will not
move toward a resumption of nuclear activities," said the French
foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy.

The escalation of the nuclear dispute presents a formidable
challenge for the new president. President Ahmadinejad is
expected to replace several of his key nuclear negotiators when
he announces his cabinet today.
 	

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited ¿ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited: Europe offers Iran nuclear incentives
 
Mark Oliver and agencies
Friday August 5, 2005 		
 		
A package of European proposals reportedly offering
incentives in return for Iran's commitment not to develop
nuclear bombs was handed over to Tehran today.

But there were fears the negotiations were on the point of
collapse after Iranian officials indicated that their initial
assessment was that the proposals did not meet their
requirements, Reuters reported.

There has been no official confirmation of what the proposals,
by the so-called EU3 of Britain, Germany and France, contain,
but analysts said there did not appear to be any movement on the
most contentious issue of whether Iran can enrich its own
uranium.
 			 		 			 			 			Article continues 			
An Iranian source cited by Reuters said the EU3, which has been 
negotiating on behalf of the EU with the tacit backing of 
Washington, had offered to allow Western companies to build 
nuclear power stations in Iran and supply them with fuel, an idea 
that has been touted before.

Washington has claimed that Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb
but Tehran has consistently insisted that it wants nuclear power
stations to meet its booming electricity demand. The logic of an
EU3 offer of Western-built nuclear power stations is that Iran
could meet electricity demands without having access to its own
nuclear fuel, which could be used to make a bomb.

But all the indications today were that Iran would push on with
its own nuclear plans, which could deepen the crisis and lead to
the EU3 referring the matter to the UN security council for
possible sanctions.

Reuters reported that one senior Iranian negotiator, Hossein
Mousavian, said today that Iran would restart work at the hugely
controversial uranium conversion plant near the city of Isfahan
regardless of the proposals.

"Even if their proposals do not allow the resumption of work at
Isfahan, we will resume activities," he said.

On Tuesday, the EU said that if Iran resumed uranium processing
at Isfahan this would bring to an end two years of talks.

A day later, the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), urged Iran not to resume uranium
conversion until the agency could set up a system to monitor the
activity.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, responded to the
UN request by saying Tehran would push back the reopening of the
plant until early next week to give the IAEA time to install
surveillance equipment inside the facility.

Today, France's foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said
the IAEA will now convene in the middle of next week to talk
about Iran and the EU3 proposals.

Mr Douste-Blazy said that he believed the EU3 proposals opened
up "new perspectives" and were "ambitious and generous".

He told Europe-1 radio: "I hope that Iran will hear the voice of
reason and that it will take the path of negotiation and
dialogue, and that it will not move toward a resumption of
nuclear activities.

"We are even ready to support a civilian, but of course,
non-proliferating, nuclear programme." The EU3 proposals are
understood to have been delivered to Tehran's foreign ministry
by French, British and German ambassadors this morning.

They also include a number of trade incentives. An Iranian
source told the Associated Press that the EU had offered to
support Iran as the main transit route for oil and gas from
Central Asia.

But French analyst Bruno Tetrais said the offer was not likely
to make concessions on the crucial issue of Iran's demand that
it be able to enrich uranium for nuclear power.

"Even though we don't know all the details, nothing indicates
that this offer will be fundamentally different from the various
proposals that have been floated around in the past six months,"
said Mr Tetrais of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic
Research think-tank.

"This means that it would be very surprising if Iran suddenly
accepted the whole proposal and therefore renounced its
enrichment capabilities," he said.

Uranium conversion, which Iran agreed to suspend along with
other sensitive nuclear activities under a November deal with
the three EU countries, is the step before enrichment, which can
purify uranium to the levels needed to fuel nuclear reactors or
bombs.

Today's New York Times reported that diplomats familiar with the
European offer said that it presented a "full spectrum" of
relationships for Iran with the West. The diplomats said that
that spectrum ranged from technology sharing to trade
preferences, to security guarantees as a reward for pledges from
Tehran on nuclear weapons, human rights and terrorism.

The newspaper said that Bush administration officials could not
comment on the contents of the proposal, except to say that they
approved of it.
 	
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 6 BBC: US supports EU Iran nuclear plan
 
Last Updated: Saturday, 6 August, 2005
 
[Nuclear plant at Isfahan]                              

Iran has threatened to resume work at its Isfahan nuclear plant                                                             

The US says it backs a European proposal to allow Iran to develop 
a civilian nuclear programme if it stops its uranium enrichment 
activities. 

Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said the US hoped Iran 
would take the proposal seriously. 

He also said he hoped Iran would not carry out its threat to 
resume nuclear activities next week, which have been suspended 
since last November. 

Iran is due to respond to the offer on Sunday, but is expected to 
reject it. 

A BBC correspondent in Washington says the US government's move 
on the Iranian nuclear issue is highly significant. 

Until recently, the US opposed Iran having its own civilian 
nuclear programme - suspecting Tehran of wanting to develop 
nuclear weapons. 

	

	
                                                        We think 
this proposal is good one for the Iranians to consider and we 
would urge that they do so Nicholas Burns US Under-Secretary of 
State Tension as Iran mulls plan              

	 

Nicholas Burns said on Friday Washington was "very much in 
support" of efforts by the three European nations - the UK, 
France and Germany - who have been negotiating with Tehran. 

The EU plan - which has not been made public - is said to offer 
recognition of Iran's right to produce nuclear power for civilian 
purposes, as well improved trade relations with the EU, and 
guarantee of alternative nuclear fuel sources from Europe and 
Russia. 

In return, the Europeans reportedly insist that Tehran should 
permanently give up nuclear enrichment and construction of a 
heavy-water reactor, which could be used to make a bomb. 

Emergency meeting 

"We think this proposal is a good one for the Iranians to 
consider and we would urge that they do so," said Nicholas Burns. 

Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told Reuters news 
agency Tehran would review the proposal and "definitely give our 
answer by Sunday". 

But he was then quoted by the AFP news agency as saying the "the 
proposals are unacceptable" and a "clear violation" of agreements 
between Iran and the EU. 

"They negate Iran's inalienable right (under the nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty)," to making nuclear fuel, he was quoted 
as saying. 

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says there is no new 
incentive on the table for Iran, and it is highly unlikely the 
proposals will be accepted. 

Mr Mousavian also confirmed Iran intended to resume its uranium 
enrichment activities, which were suspended last November 
following international pressure. 

Last week, Tehran said work at the uranium conversion plant near 
Isfahan would start again on Wednesday, and cited lack of 
progress in talks with the UK, France and Germany. 

The three EU countries have called an emergency meeting of the 
UN's nuclear agency, the IAEA, on Tuesday. 

The agency could refer the matter to the UN Security Council. 
Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, but Western 
countries suspect its programme is a front hiding efforts to 
build atomic bombs. 


*****************************************************************
 7 Reuters: EU insists Iran give up nuclear fuel work                    

Fri Aug 5, 2005 6:01 PM ET

 (Adds U.S. comment)

 By Parisa Hafezi

 TEHRAN/BRUSSELS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The European Union on Friday 
insisted Iran give up nuclear fuel work and called an urgent 
meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog that could refer Tehran to 
the U.N. Security Council for sanctions.

 But a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator said the Islamic 
Republic would resume work at a nuclear fuel plant regardless of 
EU proposals for political and economic incentives that included 
support for building nuclear power stations.

 "As Iran will have an assured supply of fuel over the coming 
years, it will be able to provide the confidence needed by making 
a binding commitment not to pursue fuel cycle activities other 
than the construction and operation of light water power and 
research reactors," said a copy of a summary of the EU proposals 
obtained by Reuters.

 The EU -- represented by Britain, France and Germany -- has been 
trying to find a compromise for two years between arch foes Iran 
and the United States.

 Washington accuses Iran of trying to covertly build a nuclear 
bomb, but Tehran denies the charge and says it has the right to 
convert and enrich uranium for power generation.

 "This proposal shows the world we have presented Iran with two 
stark choices. The first is the right choice, the second is the 
wrong choice," one EU diplomat said.

 "If Iran chooses the second choice it can mean only one thing -- 
that it desires nuclear weapons. By contrast the first choice 
offers a series of incentives."

 Backing the EU proposals, the United States accepted for the 
first time on Friday that Iran could develop civilian nuclear 
programmes.

 In a compromise that completed a gradual shift in U.S. policy, 
it acquiesced because, it said, it believed the EU offer has 
enough safeguards to prevent Iran diverting its civilian work 
into making nuclear bombs.

 "We support the (Europeans') effort and the proposal they have 
put forward to find a diplomatic solution to this problem and to 
seek an end to Iran's nuclear weapons programme," a State 
Department spokesman said.
 

"LISTEN TO REASON"

 French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called on Iran to 
"listen to reason". If Iran resumed its nuclear activities, "the 
international community will surely bring the issue to the 
Security Council", he told Europe 1 radio.

 The trio of European Union countries called a meeting of the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- the U.N. nuclear 
watchdog -- on Tuesday to warn Tehran against restarting the 
sensitive nuclear work, diplomats said.

 The IAEA can refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

 Iran said it would respond to the proposals by Sunday.

 "We will review this proposal today and tomorrow, and will 
definitely give our answer by Sunday," said senior nuclear 
negotiator, Hossein Mousavian.

 Asked if Iran would resume work at a uranium conversion plant 
near the city of Isfahan, he said: "Yes, definitely."

 He said any delay by the IAEA in sending inspectors to the plant 
to supervise resumption was "unacceptable". The IAEA said it 
would take until the middle of next week to have inspectors and 
equipment in the facility that converts uranium ore to gas.

 Initial reactions in Iran to the proposals were negative.

 "My personal view as one of the negotiating team, is that this 
proposal cannot be accepted by Iran," Mousavian said.

 But Iranian state media emphasised the positive, saying the EU 
had recognised Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology.

 The three EU countries said in a letter accompanying the 
proposals that they hope to discuss with Iran its response at a 
meeting at the end of this month.

 The EU offered to declare its "willingness to support Iran to 
develop a safe, economically viable and proliferation-proof civil 
nuclear power generation and research programme that conforms 
with its energy needs".

 The bloc offered to guarantee supplies of fuel for light-water 
nuclear power reactors, but insisted Iran "commit to returning 
all spent fuel elements" to the supplier. Spent fuel can also be 
used in atomic weaponry.

 Iran also had to agree to stop building a heavy water reactor 
near the town of Arak that "gives rise to proliferation 
concerns", the proposal summary said.

 The trio said in return they would work to speed up the signing 
of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement with Iran, back Iran's entry 
into the World Trade Organisation, promote energy cooperation, 
and work together on regional security.

 Iranian officials said the EU offer included backing for Iran to 
be the main route for oil and gas exports from Central Asia. But 
the summary made no specific mention of that offer.                                                 

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 8 Reuters: US backs Iran civilian nuke program for first time                      

Fri Aug 5, 2005 6:20 PM ET

 (Adds compromise details, quote, paragraphs 9-13 and 19)

 By Saul Hudson

 WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday 
explicitly accepted for the first time that Iran can develop 
civilian nuclear programs, backing an EU proposal to allow Tehran 
to pursue atomic power in exchange for giving up fuel work.

 In a compromise that completed a gradual shift in U.S. policy, 
Washington acquiesced because it believes the EU offer has enough 
safeguards to prevent Iran from diverting its civilian work into 
making nuclear bombs.

 "We support the (Europeans') effort and the proposal they have 
put forward to find a diplomatic solution to this problem and to 
seek an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program," State Department 
spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

 The U.S. acquiescence is in contrast with its stance in talks 
with North Korea, which it insists cannot have any nuclear 
development for fear Pyongyang would build atomic bombs under the 
guise of a civilian power program.

 The shift also comes despite long-held U.S. worries that 
allowing a civilian program could help Iran develop its nuclear 
technology and know-how so that, if it ever breaks any EU 
agreement, it would be closer to acquiring a bomb.

 A U.S. official said the EU offer helped allay American fears.

 "There's a certainty and an ability to ensure that none of the 
nuclear fuel that would be involved is diverted to an illicit 
nuclear weapons program," said the official, who asked not to be 
named because he was not authorized to discuss details of the 
proposal.

 The EU -- represented by Britain, France and Germany -- has held 
talks for two years to find a compromise between arch foes Iran 
and the United States.

 Washington accuses Iran of trying to covertly build a nuclear 
bomb. Tehran says its programs are peaceful and that it has the 
right to convert and enrich uranium, which can be used for power 
generation or to build bombs.

 OPPOSITION ERODES

 The U.S. opposition to nuclear power plants in Iran has eroded 
this year.

 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has increasingly pointed to 
a power plant deal between Russia and Iran as an example of how 
to limit the risk from a civilian program because Moscow controls 
the fuel.

 But while the United States had accepted such an arrangement 
under that one deal, until Friday it had not explicitly agreed to 
the principle that Iran could have a civilian program.

 Friday's compromise was in line with Washington's new approach 
this year on Iran.

 Rice has dropped the U.S. skepticism toward the Europeans' 
negotiations and repeatedly said the United States wants to avoid 
being blamed for any failure of the talks.

 To boost the Europeans' leverage, in March, Rice offered Iran 
economic incentives -- a start to World Trade Organization 
membership and access to civilian aircraft parts -- to abandon 
any nuclear weapons programs.

 A senior State Department official said the Europeans could seek 
more incentives from the United States.

 "If it looks as if this initial plan might have a chance of 
actually becoming part of an agreement, then there might be an 
opportunity for the EU to come back to the U.S. to ask for 
further engagement," the official, who could not be named under 
the department's ground rules, told reporters in a 
teleconference.

 The EU offered to declare its "willingness to support Iran to 
develop a safe, economically viable and proliferation-proof civil 
nuclear power generation and research program."

 The bloc offered to guarantee supplies of fuel for light-water 
nuclear power reactors but insisted Iran return to the supplier 
all spent fuel, which can also be used in atomic weaponry.

 The State Department's No. 3 official, Nicholas Burns, told 
reporters, "We hope that Iran will look at this proposal 
seriously."                                             

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 9 Reuters: EU3 submit nuclear proposals to Iran                    

Fri Aug 5, 2005 5:57 AM ET

 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Britain, France and Germany submitted 
proposals to Iran on Friday for economic and political 
cooperation meant to persuade Tehran to abandon all activities 
that might be used to make a nuclear bomb.

 "The three ambassadors handed over the proposals this morning," 
a source close to the negotiations told Reuters.

 But Iranian officials said their initial assessment of the 
proposals was that they did not meet their requirements. One 
negotiator said Iran would restart work at a uranium conversion 
plant near the city of Isfahan regardless of the incentives.

 Iran says it aims only to generate electricity and has a right 
to a peaceful nuclear programme that includes processing its own 
nuclear fuel.

 "Even if their proposals do not allow the resumption of work at 
Isfahan, we will resume activities," Hossein Mousavian, a senior 
nuclear negotiator, told Reuters.

 Another Iranian source close to the talks said the trio had 
offered to allow Western companies to build nuclear power 
stations in Iran and supply fuel for them.

 Iran says it needs nuclear power stations to meet booming 
electricity demand. The EU3 offer of power stations could help it 
to meet that demand without having to process its own nuclear 
fuel -- which could be used to make a bomb.

 The EU said this week that if Iran resumed uranium processing at 
Isfahan this would bring to an end two years of talks and could 
lead to referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible 
sanctions.

 Uranium conversion, which Iran agreed to suspend along with 
other sensitive nuclear activities under a November deal with the 
three European Union countries, is the step before enrichment, 
which can purify uranium to the levels needed to fuel nuclear 
reactors or bombs.

 The EU3 are also planning to call a meeting of the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- the United Nations' nuclear 
watchdog -- early next week to warn Tehran against restarting the 
sensitive nuclear work, diplomats said.                                          

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 10 Reuters: EU insists Iran give up nuclear fuel work                       

Fri Aug 5, 2005 7:58 AM ET                                                                                          

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Friday insisted 
Iran give up nuclear fuel work and called an urgent meeting of 
the U.N. nuclear watchdog that could refer Tehran to the U.N. 
Security Council for sanctions.

But a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator said the Islamic Republic 
would resume work at a nuclear fuel plant regardless of EU 
proposals for political and economic incentives that offered 
support for the building of nuclear power stations.

"As Iran will have an assured supply of fuel over the coming 
years, it will be able to provide the confidence needed by making 
a binding commitment not to pursue fuel cycle activities other 
than the construction and operation of light water power and 
research reactors," said a copy of a summary of the proposals 
obtained by Reuters.

The EU -- represented by Britain, France and Germany -- has been 
trying to find a compromise for two years between the United 
States and Iran.

Washington says Iran is trying to build covertly a nuclear bomb, 
but Tehran denies the charge and says it has the right to convert 
and enrich uranium for power generation.

The ambassadors of the Britain, France and Germany presented the 
EU's proposals to 15 top Iranian officials on Friday.

"This proposal is not definite. It is negotiable and expandable," 
two sources present at the meeting quoted one of the ambassadors 
as saying. "The only item which is definite, is the one which 
asserts that the EU3 considers no difference between enrichment 
and uranium conversion activities."

"LISTEN TO REASON"

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called on Iran to 
"listen to reason". If Iran resumed its nuclear activities, "the 
international community will surely bring the issue to the 
Security Council", he told Europe 1 radio.

The trio of European Union countries are also planning to call a 
meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- the 
U.N. nuclear watchdog -- early next week to warn Tehran against 
restarting the sensitive nuclear work, diplomats said.

The IAEA can refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council where the 
United States says Tehran should face sanctions.

"The Europeans, the Americans and the whole world should know 
that however many bribes they give, on no condition will Iran 
abandon its rights, we have definitely made our decisions and 
whatever they do it will be harmful for them," Ayatollah Ahmad 
Jannati told Tehran Friday prayers.

Iranian officials said the EU offer included backing for Iran to 
be the main route for oil and gas exports from Central Asia, 
allowing Western companies to build nuclear power plants in Iran 
and closer political and security ties.

Iran says it needs nuclear power stations to meet booming 
electricity demand. The EU3 offer of power stations could help 
Iran to meet that demand without having to process its own 
nuclear fuel -- which could be used to make a bomb.

"In the proposal, they have supported the idea of Iran being the 
main energy transit route to Europe from Central Asia," a senior 
Iranian close to the EU negotiations told Reuters.

But Washington has long opposed letting Iran carrying fuel from 
Central Asia and can impose unilateral sanctions on any company 
that invests more $20 million in Iran's energy sector.                                          

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 11 Reuters: EU3 set no deadline over Iran nuclear offer-France                    

Fri Aug 5, 2005 8:40 AM ET

 (Updates with minister's quotes)

 PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - France said on Friday the EU3 had set 
no deadline for Tehran to respond to proposals on its nuclear 
programme, a package France's foreign minister said offered Iran 
a new chapter in relations with the European Union.

 "It is up to the Iranians to make their response known, but we 
have not set a precise deadline," French Foreign Ministry 
spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo told a regular news briefing.

 Britain, France and Germany on Friday submitted proposals to 
Iran for economic and political cooperation meant to persuade it 
to abandon activities that might be used to make a nuclear bomb.

 French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France 2 
television the package was generous and included guaranteed 
access to nuclear fuel. In exchange, Europe wanted to be sure 
Iran could not use civilian projects to mask an arms programme.

 "We don't want there to be, beyond civilian nuclear activities, 
the possibility of military nuclear activities," Douste-Blazy 
said. "We cannot allow ourselves to think today that any country 
in the world could equip itself with a nuclear bomb," he said.

 The European package included a raft of commercial proposals as 
well as offering Iran security guarantees, Douste-Blazy said: 
"All that opens a new page in relations between Iran and the 
European Union."

 Iran, which denies any nuclear bomb ambitions, threatened this 
week to resume uranium processing at its Isfahan site, a move the 
EU says would end two years of talks and could lead to referral 
to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

 Among the incentives the Europeans offered Tehran was support 
for the idea of Iran being the main transit route for oil and gas 
to Europe from Central Asia, a senior Iranian close to the talks 
told Reuters.

 France's Pozzo di Borgo said the EU was ready to recognise Iran 
as "a long-term supplier of energy".

 Douste-Blazy said if Iran agreed to negotiate over the coming 
days it would indicate a willingness to retain the so-called 
Paris accord signed last November, under which Iran froze certain 
sensitive nuclear-related activities.                                           

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 12 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N.Korea Differ on Nuclear Activities
 
From the Associated Press        
	 
[UP] 

	Friday August 5, 2005 6:01 AM
 	
AP Photo XIN101 
By BURT HERMAN 
Associated Press Writer 

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea insisted Thursday during six-nation
disarmament talks that it retain the right to ``peaceful nuclear
activities'' - a demand the United States opposes because of
suspicions the North could use those programs to make weapons. 
Delegates vowed to press ahead with the talks, but the Chinese
hosts for the first time raised the prospect they could end
without an agreement. The talks continue Friday. 

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said after 10
days of talks that delegates were ``at a stalemate'' in work on
a statement of principles to guide negotiations aimed at
persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs. 

``We are for denuclearizing, but we also want to possess the
right to peaceful nuclear activities,'' Kim said in a rare
public comment outside the North's embassy. ``As you know, only
one country is opposing that,'' he said, referring to the United
States. 

Earlier Thursday, the top U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of
State Christopher Hill, said North Korea must specify exactly
what it would dismantle under the nuclear agreement. He has said
an accord must include the elimination of any nuclear programs
that could be diverted for weapons use. 

``We cannot have a situation where (North Korea) pretends to
abandon their nuclear program and we pretend to believe them,''
Hill said. ``We need to have a situation where we know precisely
what they have agreed to do, exactly what they have agreed to
abandon.'' 

Hill on Friday said he was still holding out for an agreement as
negotiations entered an 11th day. 

``I didn't come here for 12 days to walk away from this thing
lightly. We would really like to see if we can have an
agreement,'' Hill said Friday morning. ``But it's got to be an
agreement that's consistent with our interests.'' 

South Korea's top negotiator said the delegates at the
six-nation talks might consider a new draft agreement on
principles to guide future talks on dismantling the North's
nuclear programs, which so far Pyongyang has refused to endorse. 

Three previous rounds of six-nation talks in Beijing since 2003
have failed to bridge differences, but they lasted only three
days each. 

``A joint declaration is not a measure for whether or not the
six-party talks are a success,'' said Qin Gang, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman. 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey did not rule
out chances of achieving an agreement on a statement that could
lay the foundation for an overall accord. ``We hope we can agree
on this,'' Casey said. 

The six chief delegates held a rare nighttime meeting Thursday
during which Chinese officials asked if negotiations should
continue, and all agreed to keep talking, Hill said. The talks
involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and
Russia. 

``We all felt duty-bound to continue, because I think there is a
feeling that we have taken this further than we ever have in the
past,'' Hill said. ``We'd like to see if we can get to an
agreement, and we're not there yet. No one is quite ready to say
we can't get there.'' 

Standing alongside the main Japanese envoy to the talks in the
lobby of their hotel, Hill said he did not know when the
negotiations would end but said they could last a couple more
days. 

``We are in the final stretch,'' said Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's
chief negotiator. 

Earlier Thursday, delegates from the two Koreas and the United
States met to seek consensus on the joint statement. Hill said
it was the first such three-way meeting. 

Seoul's top envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, said
North Korea ``clarified its position'' on the latest draft
proposed by China, but he would not elaborate. 

The North Korean envoy repeated his country's insistence it will
not give up nuclear weapons until the United States discards its
``hostile policies'' toward Pyongyang, removes any nuclear
threat from the Korean Peninsula and normalizes relations with
his government. 

Some 32,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea, but Washington
says no nuclear weapons are deployed there and denies it has any
intention to invade the North. 

Kim said the two sides also remain divided over ``corresponding
measures'' - the question of what the North would receive for
renouncing nuclear development. 

The North wants aid in exchange for freezing nuclear
development, then more for dismantling the program. Washington
wants to see the program verifiably dismantled before it
provides any rewards. 

``On this issue, we are still far away from getting the results
we want,'' Kim said. 

The nuclear crisis erupted in late 2002 after U.S. officials
said the North admitted violating a 1994 deal by embarking on a
secret uranium enrichment program. 

Pyongyang later pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty and restarted its main nuclear reactor, spawning the
current nuclear crisis. The North also claimed in February that
it had nuclear weapons. 

That claim has not been verified, but U.S. intelligence and
other estimates say the North has as many as six atomic bombs. 
--- 
Associated Press reporter Bo-mi Lim contributed to this report. 
		 	 	   

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 13 AFP: North Korea, US fail to make headway in nuclear talks - 

Friday August 5, 01:14 PM
       
BEIJING (AFP) - North Korea and the United States failed to make
headway in marathon disarmament talks after the Stalinist state
insisted it must retain the right to operate nuclear programs
for peaceful purposes.

 The contentious issue has deadlocked six-nation negotiations
that also involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the
United States, forcing them into an 11th day.
 
The United States and North Korea met again Friday morning after
the North's chief delegate Kim Kye-gwan told reporters that "all
nations in the world should have the right to undertake peaceful
nuclear activities."

 But they got nowhere, said South Korea's top envoy Soon
Min-soon.
 
The two sides "failed to narrow their differences," Song was
quoted by the Xinhua news agency saying. The marathon talks, the
longest ever in the six-nation process that started in 2003,
were expected to continue Saturday.

 The US State Department has previously voiced concern that any
atomic program could be turned into a nuclear weapons project
and Washington wants to see a complete dismantling of all North
Korea's nuclear facilities.

 US envoy Christopher Hill indicated that he was not ready to
compromise, pointing to previous reported moves by the North to
accumulate plutonium that could be used to make a bomb from its
Yongbyon research complex.

 "We have concerns as we look back to the recent past, and how a
research reactor over the course of several weeks returned to a
weapons-producing facility," he told reporters.

 "We have got to have an agreement to protect our interests."
 Despite the impasse, a ray of light emerged with an apparent
new proposal put forward by South Korea, which brokered a
meeting with North Korea and the United States Thursday.

 It was not clear what was suggested but Seoul has already
offered to supply its isolated neighbour with some 2,000
megawatts of electricity if it abandons its nuclear ambitions.

 A South Korean official characterised the meeting as "planting
a seed".

 "It remains to be seen if the seed fell on fertile land or
barren and dry land," he said.

 South Korea's Song said work was under way on further refining
the text of a joint document setting out how North Korea might
abandon its atomic arsenal and what it would get in return.

 "Drafting work will continue because we felt a possible need
for a new draft after South Korea, North Korea and the US held a
trilateral meeting yesterday," said Song, a deputy foreign
minister.

 "All countries must make efforts to reach a compromise because
they cannot deny the possbility that a gap can be narrowed."

 But Xinhua quoted him suggesting the final joint statement
might be vague.

 "We want a clear, not an ambiguous, result of the talks. ...
But given the fact that no concessions have been made, clearly
ambiguity is inevitable," Song said.

 He added: "I'm not saying ambiguity is indispensable at the
current stage as all the parties concerned need to continue
consultations."

 In an effort to bridge the gap, South Korea met seperately with
both the United States and North Korea Friday.

 The talks are also struggling to overcome another hurdle -- in
exchange for dismantlement the North has also demanded
normalization of ties with the United States, as well as
economic assistance and security guarantees.

 The United States has persistently said that the North needs to
give up its weapons programs before it gets aid and energy.

 Despite the lack of an agreement, all sides in the talks want
to keep the negotiations going, said Hill and others.

 The fourth round of talks, which come after a 13-month
stalemate, resumed after the reclusive North Korean regime
raised the stakes in February by declaring it already has
nuclear bombs.

 All previous rounds ended inconclusively and a collapse of the
latest round could tempt Washington to take the issue to the UN
Security Council for possible sanctions.

 The crisis erupted in October 2002 when the United States
accused the North of running a secretive uranium enrichment
program.
     
Copyright © 2005 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 14 Reuters: FACTBOX-A look at North Korea's nuclear capability                      

Fri Aug 5, 2005 3:58 AM ET

 SEOUL, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Regional powers have been trying to 
reach a negotiated settlement that would end North Korea's 
nuclear weapons programmes at six-party talks in Beijing.

 There are many questions about how far the secretive North has 
progressed in its pursuit of atomic weapons. The following are a 
few facts about North Korea's nuclear programmes:

 THE START:

 North Korea's nuclear infrastructure began with the building of 
a nuclear energy research complex in 1964 in Yongbyon, about 100 
km (60 miles) north of Pyongyang. The Soviet Union provided a 
small research reactor for the lab in 1965.

 EXTRACTING FISSILE MATERIAL

 Proliferation experts and intelligence reports indicate that 
North Korea had extracted enough fissile material from a 
five-megawatt nuclear reactor it established at Yongbyon to 
produce one or two nuclear weapons by the early 1990s.

 In October 1994, the United States and North Korea struck a deal 
to freeze and eliminate its nuclear activities in exchange for 
more proliferation-resistant light water reactors to be built by 
an international consortium and heavy fuel oil shipments. That 
deal has been suspended.

 ESCALATION

 In October 2003, Pyongyang said it had enhanced its nuclear 
deterrent by reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon 
plant. U.S. intelligence experts say the North could extract 
enough fissile material from the rods for another four to six 
atomic weapons.

 In February 2005, North Korea declared for the first time it had 
nuclear weapons.

 In May 2005, North Korea said it had extracted more fuel rods 
from the Yongbyon plant. Proliferation experts said this could 
provide enough material for another two to three atomic bombs, 
but the North would have to wait six months to a year after 
extracting the rods before safely reprocessing them.

 THE TALLY

 The final tally for how many nuclear weapons the North is 
capable of making varies depending on the North's technical 
abilities in reprocessing and the amount of material they would 
need for their bomb designs.

 DELIVERING A WEAPON

 It is impossible to say whether North Korea has built a workable 
nuclear weapon, proliferation experts have said, adding the 
secretive state has been working to build one for decades while 
conducting many tests on nuclear bomb-related technologies.

 The wild card is how much technology the North has received from 
overseas and how far along they are in their technology to 
miniaturise nuclear weapons.

 North Korea has an extensive missile programme but no one is 
sure if the North can make a weapon small enough to mount on a 
warhead, or if the North can make a missile that can deliver an 
accurate strike.

 URANIUM

 The United States says it has intelligence indicating that North 
Korea is trying to develop a separate nuclear weapons programme 
that uses highly enriched uranium. The North has denied having 
such a programme. (Sources: Center for Nonproliferation Studies, 
intelligence reports, Reuters news)
			 			

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 15 Reuters: Stalled N.Korea talks limp into 12th day of deadlock                        

Fri Aug 5, 2005 6:01 PM ET

 By Brian Rhoads

 BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Talks to defuse the crisis over North 
Korea's nuclear ambitions drag into their 12th day on Saturday, 
with negotiators trying to break the deadlock as Pyongyang clings 
to the right to peaceful nuclear capability.

 The talks between the Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia 
and host China have got bogged down, with parties unable to agree 
on a joint statement that would provide for the dismantling of 
North Korea's programmes in return for energy aid and security 
guarantees.

 North Korea is insisting it be allowed to keep nuclear 
programmes to generate electricity. The United States is 
demanding a complete, verifiable dismantling of all of 
Pyongyang's weapons programmes.

 The stalemate will continue into a 12th day on Saturday, with 
the chief U.S. delegate planning for talks with the reclusive 
North's delegation as well as China's.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the 
parties needed to accelerate their efforts to end the crisis, 
which erupted in October 2002 but remains unresolved despite four 
rounds of talks.

 "We are going to have to pick up the pace if we are going to get 
there," Hill told reporters late on Friday.

 Still, he appeared ready to go the distance. South Korean media 
have reported that Hill reminded participants in the talks 1995 
Bosnian peace talks lasted 21 days.

 
ESCALATION

 A failure in Beijing to reach some form of acceptable resolution 
could prompt the United States to bring the issue to the United 
Nations, a move opposed by host China for fear the crisis might 
escalate and lead to instability in the region.

 The North Koreans say any attempt to bring U.N. sanctions 
against it would amount to a declaration of war.

 At the marathon talks, North Korea has declared itself committed 
to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but has refused to 
budge on U.S. demands that it scrap all its nuclear programmes, 
including those aimed at generating power.

 Diplomats said North Korea was refusing so far to sign on to a 
joint communique. Host China on Thursday began playing down the 
need for such a statement, saying the depth and breadth of 
discussions after dozens of bilaterals was a sign of progress.

 With a 12th day of talks looming, Japanese chief delegate 
Kenichiro Sasae likened the process to "birth pains". There was 
little movement on Friday.

 Late on Friday night, he added: "The situation is rather 
severe."

 Still, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said 
the parties were 95 percent agreed on the final statement, the 
Interfax news agency reported.

 "There is the possibility of achieving a great success ... There 
is hope for this: the process goes on permanently in different 
formats," Tass quoted him as saying.

 A fourth round without agreement also could call the entire 
talks process into question, and the thorny prospect of a 
confrontation in the U.N. Security Council.

 North Korea is demanding energy aid, security guarantees and 
diplomatic recognition in return for scrapping its nuclear 
programmes. Washington has insisted the programmes are jettisoned 
before concessions flow.

 Intelligence experts estimate the North Koreans have stockpiled 
enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.

 After Washington confronted North Korea in 2002 with evidence it 
was violating international protocol by pursuing a clandestine 
uranium enrichment weapons programme, Pyongyang responded by 
throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors, abandoning the nuclear 
non-proliferation treaty and restarting their mothballed Yongbyon 
reactor.

 North Korea raised the stakes in February, announcing it now had 
nuclear weapons and demanding aid, assurances and diplomatic 
recognition from Washington in return for scrapping them.                                               

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 16 Reuters: hopes dim on day 11 of North Korea talks                     

Fri Aug 5, 2005 7:15 AM ET

 By Teruaki Ueno and Jack Kim

 BEIJING, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Gruelling talks aimed at defusing a 
crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions were deadlocked after 
their 11th day on Friday with Pyongyang still demanding the right 
to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme.

 Three previous rounds of talks have failed to end the nearly 
three-year-old crisis, and negotiators from the two Koreas, the 
United States, Japan, Russia and host nation China were facing 
the prospect of another abortive outcome in round four.

 China's official Xinhua news agency on Friday quoted a South 
Korean delegate as saying a bilateral meeting between the United 
States and North Korea failed to bridge their differences over 
the issue of the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

 North Korea's negotiator Kim Kye-gwan has said his country was 
committed to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but refuses 
to budge on U.S. demands that it scrap all its nuclear 
programmes, including those aimed at generating power.

 "All countries in the world have the right to peaceful nuclear 
activities," Kim told reporters late on Thursday.

 "We are not a defeated nation in war and we have committed no 
crime so why should we not be able to conduct peaceful nuclear 
activities?"

 With expectations of more talks at the weekend, it was unclear 
what agreement, if any, the parties would reach.

 Diplomats said North Korea was refusing so far to sign on to a 
joint communique. Host China on Thursday began playing down the 
need for such a statement, saying the depth and breadth of 
discussions after dozens of bilaterals was a sign of progress.

 State radio reported that the delegations had extended their 
hotel bookings, but did not say for how long.

 With a 12th day of talks looming, Japanese chief delegate 
Kenichiro Sasae likened the process to "birth pains".

 "All the countries concerned have the will to reach an agreement 
and we are passing through the final process of difficulties," he 
said.

 U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL

 A fourth round without agreement would call the entire talks 
process into question -- an outcome which could prompt Washington 
to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

 That option has been opposed by Pyongyang's closest ally, China, 
which fought alongside the North against the United States and 
the South during the 1950-53 Korean War and is now concerned 
about the prospect of instability on its northeastern border.

 Pyongyang has denounced the possibility of U.N. sanctions as 
tantamount to war.

 U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill had said earlier on Friday the 
end of the talks was nearing.

 "I would say this game really kind of got into extra innings. We 
are getting very much to the end of the process," he told 
reporters before heading to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

 "I tell you the good news is we know what the substantive 
differences are," Hill said.

 Hill nonetheless appears ready to go the distance, and has been 
reported to have reminded participants in the talks that the the 
1995 Bosnian peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, lasted 21 days.

 North Korea is demanding energy aid, security guarantees and 
diplomatic recognition in return for scrapping its nuclear 
programmes. Washington has insisted the programmes are jettisoned 
before concessions flow.

 Intelligence experts estimate the North Koreans have stockpiled 
enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.

 The crisis erupted in October 2002 when Washington confronted 
the state with evidence it was violating international protocol 
by pursuing a clandestine uranium enrichment weapons programme.

 The North Koreans responded by throwing out U.N. weapons 
inspectors, abandoning the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and 
restarting their mothballed Yongbyon reactor.

 Pyongyang raised the stakes in February, announcing it now had 
nuclear weapons and demanding aid, assurances and diplomatic 
recognition from Washington in return for scrapping them. 
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim)                                             

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 17 [NukeNet] Washington Times Editorial: The Advantages of
 
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 14:45:10 -0700

 
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NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

The Advantages of Nuclear Energy
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050804-083244-9552r.htm
Published August 5, 2005

To enhance America's national security and energy security over the
long term, it is imperative that the United States expand its use of
nuclear power. To this end, it is encouraging that the nuclear power
industry has enthusiastically welcomed the incentives contained in the
energy bill that Congress has just approved.

The need for more nuclear power plants is straightforward. Annual
electricity demand in the United States is expected to increase by 50
percent by 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration. The
forecast assumes that huge increases in the use of
greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels will be necessary to meet this
demand. Electricity generated by coal-fired power plants, for example,
is expected to increase by more than 45 percent, rising from less than
2,000 billion kilowatt-hours in 2003 to nearly 2,900 in 2025.
Electricity generated by natural gas, another fossil fuel, is expected
to soar by nearly 125 percent, rising from less than 650 billion kwh in
2003 to more than 1,400 in 2025.

The United States has adequate supplies of coal. Over the long run,
however, much of the natural gas needed to meet its projected
electric-power role will have to be imported from overseas. In fact, in
order to prepare for America's increased dependency upon foreign natural
gas, a major provision in the energy bill gives the exclusive authority
to approve import terminals for liquefied natural gas to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, rather than state governments.

As it happens, Russia and the Middle East (particularly Iran and Qatar)
control nearly 70 percent of the world's proven reserves of natural gas,
whose electric-power-generating price has increased from $2 per thousand
cubic feet in 1995 to nearly $7 this year. Meanwhile, Russian President
Vladimir Putin has signaled his intention to cartelize the natural-gas
market in the same way OPEC has established a cartel for oil. In an era
when national security is inextricably linked to energy security, it
would be counterproductive for the United States to become overly
dependent on overseas natural gas, whose supply is controlled by nations
that do not have America's best interests at heart. Worldwide uranium
supplies, on the other hand, may not present comparable problems.

Given the fact that no nuclear power plants have been ordered since
1973, the Energy Department's electricity forecast understandably
assumes that "no new nuclear units are expected to become operable
between [now] and 2025." However, it would be a travesty if the trends
in America's electricity output followed the forecast's fossil-fuel
path. The emission-free benefits of nuclear power, which generates no
greenhouse gases and has markedly improved its safety record and
efficiency, are too substantial to forego. On the efficiency front, the
industry has raised its capacity-utilization rate from 70 percent in the
early 1990s to 90 percent in recent years. That improvement alone has
had the equivalent impact of adding 18 1,000-megawatt nuclear power
plants. This dramatically improved efficiency has been responsible for
nuclear power's ability to retain its 20-percent share of the nation's
growing electricity output without building new plants. However,
efficiency improvements are approaching their natural limits, and new
nuclear power plants will be necessary in order for the nuclear industry
to retain its vital share of output.

Environmentalists should applaud the fact that emission-free,
nuclear-generated electricity annually avoids the release of nearly 700
million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in the United States.
In 2003, according to the EIA, "83 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions consisted of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil
fuels, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas." Carbon-dioxide
em
issions from the U.S. electric power sector, which have increased 27.5
percent since 1990, today comprise nearly 40 percent of total U.S.
energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions. Emission-free nuclear power
each year also avoids releasing into America's air more than 1 million
tons of nitrogen oxide (a pollutant that contributes to ozone and smog)
and nearly 3.5 million tons of sulfur dioxide (a major pollutant that
damages plants, reduces crop productivity and causes irritation of the
eyes, nose and throat). Thus, any increase in the use of nuclear power
would ipso facto reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, including
pollutants, from levels they would otherwise reach.

The nuclear-power industry believes that several important incentives
included in the recent energy bill could increase nuclear's role in
future electricity output. In an effort to jump-start the industry, one
provision would offset the financial impact resulting from construction
and other delays for which the industry is not responsible. This offset
would be worth up to $500 million for each of the first two reactors and
up to $250 million apiece for the next four. Ideally, this provision
would precipitate a race to qualify for the incentives. Other incentives
include production tax credits and loan guarantees for advanced-design
nuclear plants, as well as $1.25 billion in funding for a prototype Next
Generation Nuclear Plant project.

Considering the national-security implications related to our
dependence on imported oil today and imported natural gas in the future,
these incentives are well worth their nominal cost. Other industrialized
nations prudently use nuclear-power to generate much higher percentages
of electricity: France, 78 percent; Sweden, 50 percent; South Korea, 40
percent; Germany, 28 percent; and Japan, 25 percent. The nuclear power
industry should take advantage of the incentives so that the United
States can join those nations.

Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

_______________________________________________________________________
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 18 Hiroshima Documents Posted by National Security Archive
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 15:33:44 -0500 (CDT)

 
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Hiroshima Documents Posted by National Security Archive
Comprehensive Collection Includes "Ultra Secret" Comint, Truman Meetings,
First-ever English Language Publication of Japanese Sources on End of War

5 August 2005 - On the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the
National Security Archive publishes on the World Wide Web the most comprehensive
on-line collection to date of declassified U.S. government documents on the
first use of the atomic bomb and the end of the war in the Pacific.  Besides
material from the files of the Manhattan Project and senior officials, this
posting includes formerly top secret "Magic" summaries and translations of
intercepted Japanese diplomatic cable traffic.  It also publishes for the first
time anywhere complete translations from the Japanese of accounts of key high
level meetings and discussions in Tokyo leading to the end of the war.

The documents should help readers to make up their own minds over the
long-standing controversies over such questions as whether the first use of
atomic weapons was justified, whether it was crucial to obtain Japans
surrender, and whether President Truman had alternatives to atomic attacks to
ending the war.  Since the 1960s, when the declassification of important sources
began, historians have engaged in vigorous debate over the bomb and the end of
World War II.  Drawing on sources at the National Archives and the Library of
Congress as well as Japanese materials, this briefing book presents key
documents that historians of the events have used to make their arguments.  The
documents in this compilation cover a variety of issues, including:

-- why and how cities such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki became nuclear targets
-- the debate in Washington over unconditional surrender
-- alternatives to using the bomb
-- debates between Japanese diplomats over surrender, as gleaned from
intercepted secret cable traffic
-- the first atomic test on July 17, 1945
-- petitions by scientists questioning the military use of atomic weapons
--the directive that authorized the atomic bombing of Japan
-- reports from the bombing missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
-- the conferences where Emperor Hirohito settled cabinet disagreements over
whether to accept unconditional surrender
-- official damage reports on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the early encounter
with radiation poisoning
-- photographs of atomic bombing preparations at Tinian Island and the
destruction caused by the bombings

The editor of this briefing book, Archive senior analyst Dr. William Burr
commented that "To the greatest extent possible, I have selected key documents
on the central military and diplomatic issues used by scholars on all sides of
the historical controversy so that readers can see for themselves the primary
sources that continue to influence contradictory arguments on the first use of
nuclear weapons."

For more information, please visit our website at www.nsarchive.org.
*****************************************************************
 19 [NYTr] The Subconscious Burden of Atomic Weapons
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 11:55:17 -0500 (CDT)

 
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Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
excerpted from MetaMagic Media Bulletin - Aug 4, 2005
http://metamagic.org

The Subconscious Burden of Atomic Weapons

by B.Z. Bywydd (GNN) August 3, 2005

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people 
what they do not want to hear." George Orwell

As an American child growing up in Japan during the height of the 
Vietnam War, I became painfully aware of the legacy of the Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki bombings, a horrifying spectre which continues to haunt my 
every waking thought.

Who are those who are haunted by nuclear weapons? Besides the now rare 
victims, the Hibakusha, and the few veterans who contributed to the 
dropping of those first bombs on Japan, very few human beings are 
genuinely familiar with the waging of nuclear war. Think about it. The 
largest arsenal of nuclear weapons are now at the directive of the 
Pentagon and the Bush administration. Those at the very top of this 
military heirarchy and their advisors are aware of the power at their 
disposal, although they cannot possibly anticipate the consequences of 
their use. Then you've got Greenpeace and countless other activists 
working to keep the nuclear issue on the table, and scientists like 
Helen Caldicott who are tragically aware of the probable consequences, 
who attempt to give voice to the future. By and large, however, the 
human race is blissfully ignorant of the demonic dragons lurking in 
atomic egg cases right beneath the surface of history.

If one probes the public consciousness, in Jungian fashion a candle in 
the dark, one quickly realizes nuclear weapons are always there, 
subconsciously shadowing us both individually and collectively. It's 
like a psychic disease, especially among Americans, a kind of trauma 
hidden beneath layers of denial and dissociation, glossed over with 
delusion and distraction. It's like a crazy werewolf uncle who lives in 
our attic who nobody dares mention at dinner. Because we live under a 
constant threat of annihilation at the hands of madmen, we are all going 
slowly but surely insane, and therefore insanity is becoming our social 
milieu. Frankenstein fables have become our everyday entertainment and 
experience.

In the old days of "Cold War" atomic awareness, it was termed "psychic 
numbing"-- the result of overloading people with so much horror that 
they completely tune it out. Today we like to use the term "PTSD" to 
describe a similar state of mind. On a global level, humanity is still 
very much experiencing PTSD as a result of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki 
bombings, and perhaps Americans most of all. Deep inside we're all 
possessed by a little old man looking to the heavens and crying "My God, 
what have we done?" If we look deep enough in the mirror (or therapy) we 
wiil find the voice which asks "what have we become?" The answer is: the 
most deadly, monstrous killers to ever exist on planet Earth.

Atomic weapons are an abomination of apocalyptic proportions. It is an 
issue more appropriately addressed by religious ethics than political. 
It is the blowing apart of the very fabric of creation, causing an 
actual blazing rip in space and time to release immense amounts of 
energy. Any God worth a pinch of salt would associate this activity with 
demonic possession. In fact, any civilization visiting ours from another 
time or another planet would diagnose the users of nuclear weapons as 
nearly completely insane-- collective hysteria gone psychotic.

I ask myself every day now, is this the way humanity ends? With a 
cynical sneer and a brutal bang? Or is our humanity a more delicate and 
resilient thread, like a willow branch, to regrow from a bloody stump 
after the brutality subsides?

What kind of people launch poisonous atomic fire on an entire city? What 
kind of dreams do we share with our children? Will anyone remain to care 
when the ashes cool?

[B.Z. Bywydd is a Communications scholar, graphic artist and writer 
living on a remote island in the Pacific. Several projects to be 
released in the next year: "Forest Power," "Mutation Salvation," & 
"OmegaLand."

This Bulletin with Full Graphic Enhancement is posted
at BZB's Briarpatch http://briarholler.blogspot.com ]

       
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.          Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us         .
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 20 The Union: Nevada County perspectives on Hiroshima

theunion.com

August 5, 2005     				 				
           
Email
 						
 A recent question posed to The Union’s Reader Circle sparked
unprecedented response from the e-mail based group. We asked
whether, knowing what we know now, it was right to drop the
atomic bomb on Japan in 1945. Following are the responses:

 As one of five daughters of Japanese parents that came to the
states AFTER the war, I find that my thoughts and awareness of
the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Japan is often
quite different than that of my peers. Typically, someone of my
age in the U.S. would be a third or fourth generation (sansei or
yonsei) and thus have experienced the war from the perspective
of families in internment camps. My understanding of the war
comes from the very divergent views of my parents and that of
the history books. My father was a young man eligible to be in
the military, but was apparently exempt due to his status as a
scientist and a student. He was very much against the
militaristic attitudes of Japan in those times. My mother was
much younger and was a child whose day to day activities were
surrounded by the Japanese propaganda and the physical affects
of the war.

I give you this background so that my reflections on the tragic
events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are in context. It seems that
the timing of the bombs was belated in order to be the “ender to
the war” as Japan was well towards surrender politically and
that realistically the people were in a desperate state with
little food or supplies. The dropping then of a second bomb
within a few days of the first seems even more senseless. The
obvious power held by the Allied Forces was clearly demonstrated
with the first bomb. The war was and is still extremely painful
to all veterans and their families. Knowing that my parent’s
memory of the war times is painful in an additional way -- in
their day to day losses of friends and family due to disease and
malnutrition as well as sufferings with experiencing bombings
and death at such an early age — makes the war much more
personal. From these memories, it seems that Japan was clearly
not in a position of winning the war. However, the strategies
and complexities of war are not my expertise. And Japan had
certainly committed many wartime atrocities. I hope that there
were clear and overwhelming reasons in the dropping of such a
devastating weapon upon civilians that were powerless to play
any role in the war other than victims. And I hope that this
tragic event, right or wrong, weighs heavily on the minds of our
current and future leaders as they make decisions regarding
warfare.

Nita Mizushima
Nevada City

In the war in the Pacific, a quick end was critical to save
lives. 

Historian Robert Newman estimates that between 250,000 and
400,000 civilians were dying each month from brutality and
disease under Japanese occupation. Thousands of Japanese-held
allied POWs were also dying. On the way to Japan, it took Allied
forces 82 days to liberate Okinawa and more then 200,000 humans
died. Invading the Japanese home islands was expected to kill
3,000,000 Japanese and cost 250,000 to 1,000,000 Allied
casualties (dead and wounded). If a blockade was used in place
of invasion, it was expected to kill as many as 10,000,000
Japanese. The Soviet Union, freed from war in Europe was moving
to use the war in the Pacific as cover to expand its influence
in the region and take territory from China and Japan.

After the first nuclear test, the U.S. had only two nuclear
bombs. It did not have a bomb to use as a “warning shot.” The
bomb’s trigger was untested and the U.S. feared that a failed
demonstration would stiffen Japanese resolve and cost lives.
Even after two nuclear detonations, the Japanese government was
split on the question of surrender and factions attempted to
fight on.

The use of the two available bombs shortened the war and saved
hundreds of thousands of lives.

Doug Donesky
Nevada City

Japan launched an unprovoked attack upon the U.S., bringing
America into World War Two. As a boy of 13 at the time the bombs
were dropped I remember hearing that if the US would have
invaded Japan, casualty estimates could have been as high as
250,000 for US troops, not counting Japanese military and
civilians casualties. What the Japanese had no way of knowing is
that at the time we had only two working atomic bombs in our
arsenal. We dropped LITTLE BOY on Hiroshima, which should have
been a “warning shot,” but wasn’t. After the Japanese rejected
our demand for an unconditional surrender, we dropped FAT MAN on
Nagasaki. The second bomb forced the Japanese High Command to
think that perhaps there were more where those came from, and so
they did indeed surrender unconditionally. While the bombs were
destructive for their day, in the long run they saved lives and
brought World War Two to an end. Years of death and destruction
were finally over, thanks to the courageous decision made by
President Truman. If the misguided among you still think America
was wrong using atomic weapons ask yourself this: If the
Japanese had had an Atomic Bomb project and if they had
succeeded in perfecting their own atomic bombs is there any
doubt they would have used them against America?

Tony Rohl
Grass Valley

The use of the bomb on Hiroshima was definitely an evil
necessity. Did it bring a quick end to the war? It did. Was the
bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki necessary? In all honesty, I
don’t know. However, the fact remains that even Japan was trying
to develop the bomb in the 1940s and there can be little doubt
that the military and non-military leaders in Japan at that time
would not have hesitated to use it on the U.S. if it had been
one of their options. As the Japanese were unable to get the
necessary uranium from Germany they attempted to balloon over
plague infected rats to the West Coast. Can there be any doubt
any anyone’s mind, then, that the Japanese wouldn’t have used an
atomic weapon on the U.S.

Paul Robinson
Osaka, Japan

The decision to use the A-bomb and the manner in which they were
used was indisputably correct because of the indisputably
laudable result. If just one American life was saved by what
actually happened, then all arguments about other possible
scenarios are senseless.

Kenneth W. Taylor
Nevada City

 I’ve read several books about the Manhattan Project for the
development of the atomic bomb, becoming fascinated with the
many scientists working there.

Robert Oppenheimer’s statement following the first bomb
detonation at the Trinity Site, July 16, 1945 has always
crystallized this event for me. Quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita
he said, “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at
once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty
One...(Now) I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”

My thoughts then on our dropping the bomb on Japan: If seeing
the first explosion affected one of our dedicated scientists so
deeply, I can only believe that if we had demonstrated that
atomic power to the world without dropping it on millions of
people, we could have achieved the same purpose — an end to the
war.

Linda Post
Alta Sierra

Of course we made the right decision. Against the same kind of
enemy we should make it again but now a day we are too PC.
Gil Dominguez
Grass Valley

I am a WW2 vet and had my two very close (my fathers sister
married mothers brother) cousins killed in the Bataan Death
March so was very bitter about what the “Japs” did. I joined the
military at age 18 wanting to kill them and after 3-1/2 years
did not get to. Time, and Japanese friends after the war
softened my viewpoint and, in retrospect, we should have dropped
the first bomb in the ocean off Tokyo (10 miles out) with an
ultimatum for surrender within 5 days and then drop the second
to do all the damage we could if they did not surrender
unconditionally. 

Don Jones
Penn Valley 

Anyone even remotely acquainted with the battles of WWII in the
Pacific must recognize the incredible difficulty that invading
Japan represented. The loss of life on both sides would have
been almost unimaginable. The financial cost to the U.S. and the
additional level of destruction of Japan might well have
extended the task of rebuilding for decades longer. It could be
said that Hiroshima was the warning and the Japanese still
debated surrender after Nagasaki. Using the atom bomb on these
two cities represents the most difficult yet greatest act of
Truman’s presidency.

Wayne Reddekopp
Alta Sierra

Dropping the atom bomb on Japan was the right decision at that
particular point in time. Yes, it killed thousands of innocent
people and perhaps a demonstration of the bombs’ power should
have been given ahead of time but we were in a war we did not
start and Japan gave us no warning when they bombed Pearl Harbor
on December 7th. Innocent people were killed there.

It’s hard to justify the killing of innocents; however, in the
long haul, many many more lives were saved by dropping the bomb
and it ended the war right then and there.

I sincerely believe one had to have lived during that period in
history to understand why it happened. You can’t go back and
second guess what might have been. Japan was a determined nation
and at the time they had the upper hand.

Betty Lupton
Grass Valley

All contents © Copyright 2005 theunion.com
The Union - 464 Sutton Way - Grass Valley, CA 95945                     
*****************************************************************
 21 ICT: Federal energy bill, economic opportunity or Bush's fire sale?

[2005/08/05]  

  Posted: August 05, 2005   								 								 	 									
									 										 										 											
  by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today   												
									 								 								 								 								 	 									
  Part one

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Energy Bill approved by Congress is lauded
by some American Indian tribal leaders, while Indian activists
striving to protect Indian lands say the bill is nothing more
than ''Bush's fire sale on Indian energy.''

	National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall
praised passage by the Senate of the $12.3 billion bill, after
the bill's passage by the House.

	Hall said, ''This bill is a long-overdue restructuring of our
nation's energy policy which has left Indian people and Indian
nations out in the cold.''

	However, the Indigenous Environmental Network and many tribal
members say it is the tribal leaders, tribal councils and the
Interior Department who have left Indians out in the cold,
leaving many without running water, electricity and reliable
heat while energy flows to non-Indians.

	Clayton Thomas-Muller, IEN's Native Energy organizer, said the
United States and Canada are working together to tap oil and gas
reserves on indigenous lands. Currently, 35 percent of the
fossil fuel resources in the United States are within Indian
country. Fossil fuel production is causing climate changes
affecting the lives on Indian people, he said.

	''Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region are watching their
world literally melt before their eyes,'' Thomas-Muller said.

	Calling it a ''short-sighted and dirty bill,'' Thomas-Muller
said the energy bill supports expanding nuclear power, sending
nuclear waste to Indian lands and renewing uranium mining on and
near Indian lands. Currently, 85 percent of uranium resources
are on Native-owned lands.

	The bill will lead to more nuclear waste; and the Western
Shoshone's sacred Yucca Mountain and the Skull Valley Goshute's
tribal land are targeted for nuclear waste dumps, he said.

	Hall, however, praised the arrival of outside energy firms on
tribal lands.

	''For the first time, the bill creates a permanent Indian
energy office in Washington, D.C., provides real incentives for
energy companies to come on to Indian lands and partner with
Indian tribes in developing tribal resources,'' said Hall,
chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations in North
Dakota.

	''Today, there are still many reservations where there is
little or unreliable electricity. This bill is aimed at fixing
that. This bill is also a major centerpiece of tribal economic
development,'' Hall said in a statement.

	''It means jobs on the reservations as tribes can undertake
large-scale energy projects.''

	Indians opposing more power plants, water slurry, coal mining
and oil drilling in their backyards said tribes do not have to
be held hostage by energy companies that have convinced them
that the only jobs available to them are ones that will make
them sick from pollution.

	Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain, Ariz., who is among
those who have been living with the pollution from coal mining,
said, ''When they are making all these ways for more energy
development, they need to look at all the side effects of the
operations too, such as permanent health problems and the
environmental pollution that are forever damaging water and air
quality.''

	Hall praised the energy bill's incentives for outside
corporations to increase energy development on tribal lands.

	''This is one of most important national tribal pieces of
legislation to hit Indian country in the past 20 years.''

	However, other tribal leaders strongly disagreed.

	''As usual, energy companies will kill our pig, skin it, take
the meat - mostly at government expense - and leave us with
bones and hooves,'' said a former tribal chairman who asked that
his name not be used for fear of retribution from the federal
government.

	''No, there is nothing in the bill that should make us
thankful. Our leaders need to think outside the oil barrels and
demand legislation to include a framework that would help break
the shackles of dependence and address poverty in Indian
country.''

	Thomas-Muller at IEN agreed.

	''Although gas prices are at record highs, the energy bill will
do nothing to help lower them. Unfortunately, the bill will put
our national security at risk by increasing our dependence on
foreign oil, and it will open the door for oil and gas drilling
in our most treasured wild places.''

	Calling energy development incentives ''dangerous loopholes for
Indian country,'' he said the bill showers tax dollars on energy
corporations.

	''Big oil companies like ExxonMobil that are already raking in
record profits are determined to open up even more of our wild
public lands and treasured coasts to oil drilling. The
House-Senate conference bill showers rich energy companies like
ExxonMobil with tax breaks.''

(Continued in part two)  
	 								 		 								 						 	 		 						 
 		© 1998 - 2005 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved 
*****************************************************************
 22 NPR : Doubts, Costs Dog Hanford Nuclear Cleanup Plan

[Listen to this story...] by Martin Kaste  	 	 					 						
						 	  	
Part 1 of This Report
 	 			 
  + Aug. 4, 2005U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho 			
                                                                                        
[A view of the aging reactors and processing plants at Hanford]              
Martin Kaste, NPR Visible in the distance are the aging reactors 
and processing plants in which the U.S. manufactured the guts for 
thousands of nuclear weapons. Production stopped in the 1980s. 
Now the Hanford reservation's 10,000 workers are focused on 
cleaning it up.                                                                                     

[Steel canisters like this one will hold the vitrified nuclear 
waste at Hanford]                 

Martin Kaste, NPR The plan at Hanford is to mix radioactive waste 
sludge with glass to stabilize it, then use steel canisters like 
this one for long-term storage.                                                                                                                                                                          

All Things Considered, August 5, 2005 · The U.S. government has 
spent billions of dollars cleaning up highly toxic plutonium 
waste in Hanford, Wash., where much of the fuel for the nation's 
nuclear weapons was produced throughout the Cold War. 

Production stopped in the 1980s, but millions of gallons of 
radioactive waste remain in underground tanks -- though some of 
it has already leaked into the soil.

The centerpiece of the $5.7-billion cleanup project relies on 
vitrification -- binding the radioactive waste with glass to 
create solid waste that won't leach into the ground.

But the project -- massively over budget and behind schedule -- 
has ground to a halt. Some worry that the Department of Energy 
will give up on cleaning up the site completely.                                                                                                
					 	 					 	  	
Related NPR Stories
 	 			 
  + Aug. 4, 2005U.S. Plans to Produce Plutonium-238 in Idaho + 
June 23, 2005Environmental Groups Reconsider Nuclear Power + 
April 14, 2005Spent Nuclear Fuel to be Burned in Disarmament Plan 

*****************************************************************
 23 UN Renews Call For Total Nuclear Ban On 60th Anniversary Of Bombing Of Japan
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 14:06:04 -0400

 

 
UN RENEWS CALL FOR TOTAL NUCLEAR BAN ON 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF BOMBING 
OF JAPAN
New York, Aug  5 2005  2:00PM
The United Nations is marking the sombre 60th anniversary of the 
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with renewed calls for a 
nuclear-weapons-free world, and for all States to prevent the spread 
of such weapons by reaffirming their commitment to international 
nuclear non-proliferation treaties and accords.

 “No one who has seen the victims, the film footage or photographs 
of the aftermath of the destruction…at the end of World War II 
can fail to be horrified by the devastation that was wrought by the 
use of nuclear weapons,” said Mohamed ElBaradei Director General 
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2005/prn200508.html">IAEA) 
at a commemorative 
event today in Vienna.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency, born out of [then United 
States President Dwight] Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” vision, 
came at a time when the horrifying consequences and images of Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki were still fresh,” he said, adding that he hoped 
the tragedy stood as a constant reminder of the need to prevent 
the further use and spread of such weapons and to pursue the vision 
of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Over the weekend in Hiroshima, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will 
send a message to a Peace Memorial Ceremony marking the anniversary. 
In the message, to be delivered by Nobuyasu Abe, UN Under-Secretary-general 
for Disarmament Affairs, he is expected to note that, 
without concerted action, the world may face a cascade of nuclear 
proliferation.

Mr. ElBaradei said that through its safeguards and verification system 
supporting the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
Weapons (NPT) and other similar non-proliferation accords, the 
IAEA had done a great deal of work to help stem the tide of nuclear 
proliferation, while ensuring that the benefits of the peaceful 
uses of nuclear energy are made available to all those who want 
them.

But he stressed that the Agency’s efforts could be better realized 
if they were reinforced by all other components of the nuclear 
non-proliferation and arms control regime, and accompanied by the 
political will and dialogue among concerned States to address other 
issues such as security and confidence-building, towards achieving 
a system of collective security that no longer relies on nuclear 
weapons.

“A world without nuclear weapons remains a far-off goal and the world 
continues to be burdened with nearly thirty thousand nuclear 
warheads,” he said noting that the NPT had not entered into force 
and the negotiation of a global treaty on the verified production 
ban on fissile material for nuclear weapons had not started.

“We cannot allow sixty years to soften our memories of how devastating 
such weapons are. The best protection against nuclear weapons, 
and the only way to prevent future Hiroshima’s and Nagasaki’s, 
is to bring about an end to all nuclear weapons,” he said.
 2005-08-05 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
*****************************************************************
 24 IPS-English MEDIA: Hiroshima, the Top News Story That Wasn't
 
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 14:41:27 -0700

 
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ROMAIPS LA IC IP HD PF
MEDIA: Hiroshima, the Top News Story That Wasn't
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Aug 5 (IPS) - The atomic bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city
of Hiroshima 60 years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, may have been the most crucial
event of the 20th century. But it was not the top news story.

That was because censorship and the manipulative media treatment of the
tragic event, managed by Washington and Tokyo, greatly muffled the impact of
the catastrophe and made the press an accomplice in the war.

These conclusions are reached by a book written by Venezuelan journalist
Silvia González, a researcher at the College of Mexico. ”Hiroshima, la
noticia que nunca fue” (roughly ”Hiroshima, the News Report That Never Was”)
focuses on the bombing and its aftermath to demonstrate how news is censored
and manipulated in times of conflict.

Six decades later, ”manipulative practices are still repeated, at the
direction of those in power, and the media disseminates inaccurate, hasty,
exaggerated or biased reports, or just plain rumours, that can affect public
perception even in the long term,” said González in an interview with IPS.

At 8:12 AM on Aug. 6, 1945, as World War II was coming to an end, the U.S.
B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb nicknamed Little Boy, which
detonated around 300 metres over Hiroshima - in order to make it even more
lethal - producing an explosion that was the equivalent of 12,000 tons of
dynamite.

More than 80,000 of Hiroshima's 250,000 people are estimated to have been
killed that day, and at least 60,000 died in the following weeks, as they
fell victim to burns from the radiation and the fires caused by the bomb.

Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear explosive - a
plutonium bomb nicknamed ”Fat Man” - on the southern Japanese port city of
Nagasaki, claiming another 80,000 lives and forcing Japan to an
unconditional surrender.

On Aug. 7, 1945, newspapers in Japan merely printed short articles reporting
that B-29 planes had dropped incendiary bombs on Hiroshima, causing some
damage.

In the United States, by contrast, there was intense coverage. ”The New York
Times alone, the day after the bomb was dropped, used the words atom and
atomic 209 times,” according to González's study.

The United States had already lived through an initial phase of officially
imposed silence, since the Manhattan Project - which developed the atomic
bomb - got underway in 1942.

On Jun. 28, 1943, the U.S. government's Office of Censorship distributed a
document to 2,000 daily newspapers, 1,000 weeklies and most of the country's
radio stations expressly prohibiting any reports on the government project.

But after Aug. 6, 1945 there was a shift in policy, in order for the media
to back up the effort to secure a Japanese surrender.

According to González, restrictions on the dissemination of information
prior to the atomic bomb attacks and U.S. laws that provided for the
strictest penalties for anyone who published reports, photos or other
information that could harm U.S. interests allowed Washington to keep a
tight lid on certain developments, like a Jun. 11, 1945 proposal addressed
by a group of scientists to President Harry S. Truman.

The ”Franck Report”, produced by a panel of seven scientists chaired by
James Franck (1925 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics), recommended that
the bomb's overwhelming destructive power be demonstrated ”before the eyes
of representatives of all United Nations, on the desert or a barren island,”
in order to scare Japan into surrendering.

”The success which we have achieved in the development of nuclear power is
fraught with infinitely greater dangers than were all the inventions of the
past,” the report warned.

But González pointed out that ”neither Congress nor the media, society, or
even political circles close to those in power had access to the report,”
and Truman gave the order for the Enola Gay to drop the bomb, ”reaching his
decision without taking into account the principle of participation, which
is supposed to be a fundamental value in any democracy.”

In Japan, meanwhile, the country's leading nuclear physicist Yoshio Nishina
quickly reported that the explosion in Hiroshima was a nuclear attack. The
Japanese military command, however, ordered the media not to use that term,
but to simply state that the destruction was caused by ”a new kind of bomb.”

In the wake of Tokyo's Aug. 15 surrender, when Japan was occupied by U.S.
troops, all press reports referring to atomic energy, nuclear bombs or their
effects on the civilian population were strictly censored.

By the summer of 1946, the censorship office in Japan had grown to the
extent that it employed 6,000 people, who pored over and listened in on all
kinds of communication, from letters and telephone conversations to movies
and billboards. The press was censored both prior to and after publication.

Not only were journalists unable to exercise their right to obtain
information - in this specific case, on the atomic bombs and their effects -
but freedom of speech was also curtailed as they were not allowed to print
what information they did come across.

”Reporters were unable to live up to the public's right to be informed; they
were both victims and accomplices,” said González.

For her book, González sent a survey to 400 journalists, including 180 from
the United States, 180 from Japan, and 40 from other countries. From a list
of 15 key 20th century developments, 78 percent of the reporters selected
the bombing of Hiroshima as the most crucial event.

Similar results were found in earlier surveys by Newseum, an interactive
news museum in Washington, D.C., and the AP news agency, which reported that
the tragedy in Hiroshima may have been the top news story of the 20th
century.

But the problem, González noted, is that it wasn't. ”There are so many
stories that were never told, personal accounts that were never written, and
which even today remain buried with the victims. The news of what had
happened was covered up for days, months, and finally years, until it was
completely silenced.”

In her view, journalists must ”investigate in order to know, know in order
to report, and report in order to create awareness,” especially in the
current International Decade for a Culture of Peace (2001-2010), declared by
the United Nations.
*****
+ Newseum (http://www.newseum.org/ )

(END/IPS/LA/IC IP HD PF/TRASP-SW/HM/DCL/05)


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 25 [southnews] Japan remembers Hiroshima
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 22:27:16 -0500 (CDT)

 
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--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

With prayers and flowers, residents of Hiroshima have begun marking the 
60th anniversary of the world's first nuclear bombing, which claimed 
more than 140,000 lives.

A bell was tolled at 8:15am local time - the exact moment that a US bomb 
obliterated the Japanese city in 1945 - and the city observed a minute 
of silence.
_________________________
Japan remembers Hiroshima

AFP 06aug05

THE Japanese Prime Minister said his country remained committed to peace 
and opposed to nuclear weapons 60 years after the world's first nuclear 
bombing in Hiroshima.

"With strong determination not to repeat the tragedy of Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki principles," Koizumi said at the ceremony.

He was referring to Japan's statement in December 1967 that it would not 
produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory of nuclear weapons.

"We are the only nation in human history that suffered from atomic 
bombing," Koizumi said.

Koizumi has backed revisions to the US-imposed 1947 constitution that 
says Japan will forever renounce force, although most Japanese want the 
document to maintain its overall pacifist spirit.

Neighbouring countries have accused Koizumi of failing to atone for 
World War II wrongdoing due to his visits to a shrine that honours war 
dead including war criminals.

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the ceremony that six decades into 
the atomic age, "selfish" states including nuclear aspirant North Korea 
were threatening human survival.

He urged the United Nations to adopt specific steps to abolish nuclear 
weapons by 2020.

But the mayor acknowledged the task would be a difficult one, noting the 
lack of progress at a UN meeting in May meant to review the main treaty 
on ending the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

"The review conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty this past 
May left no doubt that the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, 
Pakistan, North Korea and a few other nations wishing to become 
nuclear-weapon states are ignoring the majority voices of the people and 
governments of the world, thereby jeopardising human survival," Akiba said.

"Based on the dogma, 'Might is right', these countries have formed their 
own 'nuclear club', the admission requirement being the possession of 
nuclear weapons," the mayor said.

"Within the United Nations, nuclear club members use their veto power to 
override the global majority and pursue their selfish objectives."

Nichie Kakimoto, a slender 79-year-old woman who came to the ceremony 
with a walking stick, said she still "cannot explain" how she felt about 
experiencing the nuclear bombing.

"For more than 50 years after the war, I couldn't come here. And I can't 
visit the museum," she said.

Shin Hikibe, a retiree who came to the monument in a wheelchair, said: 
"Even if everyone thinks they will rest in peace in the grave, these 
people sacrificed their eternal rest for peace."

___________________________

Shadow of the bomb

SMH August 4, 2005

Sixty years ago the atom bomb forced Japan's surrender. Memories fade
but we should heed its power then and the potential now, writes John
Huxley.

FOR the crew of the Australian destroyer HMAS Quiberon, stationed
about 100 kilometres off the Japanese coast, August 6, 1945, began
much like most other war-duty days: looking and listening for the
tell-tale whine of fighter planes.

British planes, whose pilots would need rescuing if forced to ditch
before they could land safely on their aircraft carrier. And Japanese
planes, whose Kamikaze pilots - like modern suicide bombers - would
crash into Australian and British ships attached to the United States
Third Fleet.

But some time after breakfast that morning, a different sound was
heard: a distant rumble, that turned into a deep drone, recalls
Sydney man Morris Willcoxson, who was working below deck as a
communications coder. "Then, a few minutes later they flew over us.
One after another. These big bombers. It was really odd." It was
history in the making.

Not until a few days later did Willcoxson, now 80, learn that among
the big Boeing B-29s was a plane called Enola Gay and that it was
carrying a 12.5 kiloton atom bomb.
AdvertisementAdvertisement

Shortly after 8.15am the bomb, ironically dubbed "Little Boy", would
be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. By nightfall, about
50,000 would be dead. Within days, Japan would have surrendered.

Like most people in the allied countries, Willcoxson was initially
elated the war was over. "At the time we didn't realise the intensity
and brutality of the bomb," he says from his Eastwood home.

His crewmate, Jack Salvado, did. In 1946, he visited the ruins of
Hiroshima. "It was devastating, disastrous," says Salvado, 82, who
lives in Anglesea, Victoria. "Something you never forget."

Sadly, those who were there at the dawn of the atomic age, like
Willcoxson and Salvado, and thousands of other Australians who served
in the Pacific campaign, are disappearing fast. Of the NSW members of
the Quiberon Ex-Servicemen's Association who served in World War II,
only a handful remain.

And those "pre-boomers" who grew up in the shadow of the bomb, who
squirmed at apocalyptic movies such as Dr Strangelove, marched in
Sydney's huge Palm Sunday peace protests and still recall Cold War
crises with a shiver, are ageing. Or at least, losing their public
voices.

As Dr David Walker, professor of Australian studies at Victoria's
Deakin University, suggests, the momentous events of the 1940s and
'50s must sometimes seem like "something from a neolithic age" to
today's children.

So, as Australia commemorates their 60th anniversary, what do the
dropping of the first atom bomb and Victory over Japan (or Victory in
the Pacific, as many now prefer to call it) mean to today's
generation of young men and women? And to children in schools?

Has the memory of the bomb, to adapt the words of the poet T.S.
Eliot, become more of a whimper than a bang? Does Hiroshima still
resonate? Or does it seem, like VP Day, remote, almost unrecognisable?

Though linked, the two events are, of course, separate issues. As a
former NSW RSL president, Rusty Priest, says: "Hiroshima was a means
to an end, the defeat of Japan, costing lives on one hand and saving
lives on the other hand. The celebration is really for victory in the
Pacific, the end of a dreadful war and the return of loved ones,
while remembering those who did not return and those left behind.
They'll carry the scars of war forever."

Regrettably, the commemoration of these events now barely within
living memory has never been as widespread, as wholehearted, as that
reserved for the far more distant, globally less significant,
Gallipoli campaign of 90 years ago.

"More people now embrace the story of Kokoda Track," says David Low,
who has been working with Walker on a project called Memories of War.
"But, sadly, so much of the Pacific campaign was a messy, unholy slog.

"As well, Australia was marginalised [by the Americans]. It's somehow
difficult to make a good nation-building story out of it all. Even
the treatment of Australian prisoners of war doesn't sit easily with
the notions of bravery and mateship in action that you got with
Gallipoli. It's almost like a competing notion of what constitutes
bravery."

Similarly, Low says, Australia's perception of Hiroshima has been
ambivalent, and its willingness to embrace the message in its
mushroom cloud has been intermittent and, as far as the abandonment
of nuclear weapons is concerned, ineffectual.

As self-styled "old lefties" such as Bronwyn Marks and young
activists such as Kieran Longridge acknowledge, in crude marketing
terms, "the bomb" - as symbol of mass, potentially total, destruction
- remains a difficult concept to sell. "It's a potent image, but one
that for many people engenders a feeling of helplessness - especially
when there are so many other issues to worry about," says Marks,
president of the local Hiroshima Day Committee.

Longridge, a peace and nuclear disarmament campaigner for Greenpeace,
agrees. "The problem is: how do you take a place of fear and make it
empowering?"

Australians have been asking themselves the same question since
August 1945 as they ran through what the historian Tim Sherratt, from
Canberra, has called the "the good atom, bad atom routine".

Utopia or apocalypse? Relaying the news from the ruins of Hiroshima,
the Herald posed the appalling dilemma in two subheadings:
"Terrifying new weapon" and "Big possibilities in peace." Humour was
used to soften the horror. A cartoon showed a typical Aussie bloke
reading the newspaper while his wife, bent on hands and knees,
cleaned the kitchen floor.

"The release of atomic energy is the most stupendous event in the
history of mankind," the husband remarks. "That's all right," replies

his long-suffering wife. "But will it scrub floors or stand in the
butcher's queue for me?"

In fact, over subsequent years, Australia embraced the atom - the
good atom, that is - more enthusiastically, perhaps, than any other
Western nation. At times the mood was positively gung-ho. As Sherratt
recalls, when Sydneysiders turned on their radios at 8am, on July 1,
1946, for live coverage from Bikini Atoll of the testing of the
world's fourth atomic device, they were greeted with excited cries of
"Bombs away! Bombs away!"

Two years later, Sydneysiders flocked to the Royal Easter Show to see
an Atomic Age exhibition, starring an "atomic genie", who emerged
from nuclear clouds with electrons "whizzing around his head like
bush flies", and featuring a three-minute re-enactment of Hiroshima.

"There was genuine fascination with nuclear power, not just among the
scientific community but the public generally," says Low, recalling
how a racehorse was named Hydrogen (favourite for the 1953 Melbourne
Cup, it came sixth). The following year, the Duke of Edinburgh, on a
visit to Australia, was presented with a lump of uranium in a metal
casket. "It was a symbol of Australia's modernity, and of its power,"
Low says. A power not just to generate electricity, but to "turn
deserts into green, lush fields", to conquer the tyranny of distance.

There were, too, serious defence and economic considerations.
Suddenly, Australia was sitting on a uranium mine. Nuclear testing on
Australian soil - on the little-remembered Monte Bello Islands, off
the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, and at Emu Plains and
Maralinga in South Australia - encountered little or no opposition.
Rather it was a source of national pride.

Even movies, such as On the Beach - shot in the late 1950s in "end of
the world" Melbourne, failed to spook Australians. "It almost
reinforced the feeling that we were bystanders of events happening a
long way away," Walker says.

Little wonder that movements such as the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament, so popular in Britain and, on a smaller scale, in New
Zealand, made little impression in Australia.

"It wasn't really until the Vietnam War that the bomb, the peace
issue, were subsumed into mass protest marches," says Marks, who
recalls the impact of being taken by her mother to the Art Gallery of
NSW as a child to see the Hiroshima Panels. These were stark,
charcoal drawings far removed from more recent "nuclear porn"
representations that seem almost to celebrate the grandeur of giant
mushroom clouds.

Since the 1960s, Marks suggests, the nation's engagement with the
nuclear issue has oscillated, peaking during times of emergency -
notably the Cold War and Star Wars stand-offs between the US and the
Soviet Union - levelling off as perceived threats recede.

When the Cold War ended, when symbolically the Berlin Wall was pulled
down in 1989, when the superpowers started talking disarmament, the
world again breathed a sigh of relief. But subsequent crises - such
as the French resumption of testing in the Pacific, border conflict
between the neo-nuclear powers India and Pakistan, and even recent
stockpiling by North Korea and Iran - have shown that "Hiroshima" is
not dead. More like dormant: waiting to be reignited by new
international flashpoints, or domestic issues, such as uranium mining
or nuclear power.

"One thing is clear," Marks says, hopefully. "The lack of mass
protests should never be mistaken for apathy. People do care." It's a
view confirmed by a recent Lowy Institute report which revealed
community-wide insecurity about nuclear weapons. Even young
Australians - so often stereotyped by baby boomers, especially, as
being more conservative than previous generations, more focused on
homework than on world politics - care.

Morris Willcoxson's three grandchildren, aged 18 to eight, know all
about the bomb. And so, it can be assumed, do most Sydney
schoolchildren. At the request of the Herald, Andy Graham, a member
of the Hiroshima Day Committee and a teacher at Sydney's Chester Hill
High School, conducted a straw poll of students. Of a roll call of
year 7-12 pupils, only about a fifth knew of Hiroshima and its
significance. In a year 11 class of average ability the split was
almost 50-50. But significantly, in a year 10 class studying modern
history everyone knew about the first bomb.

So they should, Graham believes. "It's a fundamental thing in
history. It's a hoax that the bomb ended World War II," he says,
referring to the continuing mathematical debate over lives lost,
lives saved by the bomb.

"The basic fact is that it was the moment when people went to a new
level of bastardry 
 where man distanced himself nicely from the
killings."

For those like Stuart Rees, director of the Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies at Sydney University, who believes that "the
terrible lessons of Hiroshima are still waiting to be learnt", the
continuing challenge is to transform youthful awareness into activism.

Translating passive community fear into a proactive push to disarm
will not be easy. But Longridge believes the 60th anniversary
commemorations offer an opportunity to highlight the brutal fact
that, far from being defused, the bomb continues to represent a
"clear and present danger" to Australia.

"There are still an estimated 30,000 nuclear weapons worldwide, 96
per cent of them controlled by the US and Russia," says Longridge.
"Sixty years after Hiroshima, our sense of security is illusory."

The archives of South News can be found at
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ 

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 26 DN!: 60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 15:00:01 -0400

 
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August 5, 2005

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On Saturday, August 6th, join Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman for a live
broadcast celebrating local community media.

During this public event—part of Prometheus Radio’s Grassroots Radio
Conference and Radio Barnraising—Amy Goodman will interview:
* Martin Espada, the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts
* Former SNCC field secretary, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell
* Sut Jhally, founder of the Media Education Foundation
* Long-time war tax resister and civil rights activist, Juanita Nelson
* John Nichols, co-founder of the media reform group, Free Press
and other local writers and activists.

Democracy Now! Live, at John M. Greene Hall, Smith College, begins at 8 pm
on Saturday, August 6th. Doors open at 7 pm. Tickets available at the
door.

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Read "The Hiroshima Cover-Up" By Amy Goodman and David Goodman in today's
Baltimore Sun:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-20.htm

To thank the Baltimore Sun for running this piece, please e-mail
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Read Friday, August 5, 2005:
http://www.democracynow.org/

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TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Hiroshima Cover-up: Stripping the War Department's Timesman of His
Pulitzer *

This weekend marks the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. William Laurence, the New York Times reporter who
covered the bombings was also on the US government payroll. Journalists
Amy Goodman and David Goodman call for the Pulitzer Board to strip
Laurence and his paper, The New York Times, of the undeserved prize.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548241


* The Atomic Bombers Speak *

Colonel Paul Tibbets named his plane the Enola Gay after his mother. He
bombed Hiroshima. Captain Kermit Beahan describes the bombing of Nagasaki.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548248


* Long-Suppressed Nagasaki Article Discovered *

Defying US occupation forces, George Weller was the first reporter into
Nagasaki after the US dropped the atomic bomb. His 25,000 word report did
not get past the US military censors. Now dead, we speak with Weller's son
who has just discovered the carbon copy of the long-suppressed article.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548255


* Film Suppressed: The US Government Hides Hiroshima Nagasaki Footage For
Decades *

Footage of the devastation after the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that was commissioned by the US occupying forces was suppressed
for decades. Erik Barnouw reads the words of the Japanese filmmaker Akira
Iwasaki.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549202


* From Oak Ridge to Lawrence Livermore to Los Alamos: Hiroshima and
Nagasaki Remembered *

Activists around the nation are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the
U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Grass-roots organizers speak
about the ongoing nuclear weapons activity and community resistance.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549211


* Hiroshima Survivor: No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, No More War *

Sunao Tsuboi survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Speaking at an anti-
nuclear weapons rally in New York, he said, "Even if you luckily survive
you...suffer from psychological and physical disruption...until your life
ends."

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549218


* Headlines for August 5, 2005 *

- Al Qaeda's No. 2 Warns of Future Attacks
- London Mayor On Iraq Withdrawal, Galloway Praises Resistance
- Iran's New President Assumes Power
- Two AIPAC Employees Charged in Intel Scandal
- UN Team: New Israel Barrier Violates Int'l Law
- Chevron Pays Nigerian Soldiers Alleged to Have Killed Villagers
- Bob Novak Swears on CNN, Storms Off Set On Live TV
- Hiroshima Anniversary
- 10th Anniversary: 'Single Greatest' Ethnic Cleansing of Yugoslav War

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548226

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Mon, August 8:

* Democracy Now! Special: On the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights
Act,
we'll look at who could vote then and what happens today.
For suggested questions/guests, e-mail us at mail@democracynow.org

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* Amy Goodman in Northampton, MA: Sat, August 6 *

TIME: 8 PM
10th Annual Grassroots Radio Conference, and Prometheus' Eighth Radio
Barnraising
John M Greene Hall
Smith College

For more information, visit http://www.prometheusradio.org/grc.shtml

On Saturday, August 6th, join Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman for a live
broadcast celebrating local community media.

During this public event—part of Prometheus Radio’s Grassroots Radio
Conference and Radio Barnraising—Amy Goodman will interview:
* Martin Espada, the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts
* Former SNCC field secretary, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell
* Sut Jhally, founder of the Media Education Foundation
* Long-time war tax resister and civil rights activist, Juanita Nelson
* John Nichols, co-founder of the media reform group, Free Press
and other local writers and activists.

Democracy Now! Live, at John M. Greene Hall, Smith College, begins at 8 pm
on Saturday, August 6th. Doors open at 7 pm. Tickets available at the
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* Amy Goodman in Hopland, CA: Sat, August 20 *

TIME: 4 PM
10th Annual Sol Fest Benefit
Solar Living Center
Hopland, California

Tickets: $20/day or $30/weekend
For more information, visit http://www.solarliving.org/solfest2005.cfm
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*****************************************************************
 27 Guardian Unlimited: Campaign Against Navy Vessel Gains Ground
 		 		 		 		 			[ src=]  		 		 	
From the Associated Press        
	 
[UP] 

	Friday August 5, 2005 7:31 AM
 	
By ERIC TALMADGE 
Associated Press Writer 

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) - Masahiko Goto simply does not want a
nuclear power plant in his backyard. He says it is dangerous and
unnecessary, and over the past year he's collected 324,000
signatures of others who feel the same way. He's also pushed the
U.S. Navy into a corner. 

Goto is spearheading a high-profile movement to squelch the
planned replacement of the USS Kitty Hawk with a more up-to-date
nuclear-powered vessel. The Kitty Hawk is the oldest active duty
ship in the Navy and the only U.S. aircraft carrier permanently
deployed abroad. 

For the moment, Goto's campaign appears to be winning. 

The campaign has hit a sympathetic note with the Japanese
public, which is often wary of changes in the U.S. military
footprint. The country has also been rocked by a string of
scandals and accidents that has undermined confidence in the
safety of Japan's own nuclear power program. 

The nuclear issue is getting added attention now, as Japan over
the next two weeks marks the 60th anniversaries of the 1945
atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more
than 200,000 and hastened the collapse of military rulers. 

``People are more concerned than ever before with the safety of
nuclear power plants in general,'' said Goto, who is a lawyer.
``So it doesn't take much for them to realize that the idea of
having one floating on a military ship in Tokyo Bay, near a huge
population center, is really frightening.'' 

The swell of grass-roots opposition, which has won support from
the local mayor and governor, has created a serious quandary for
the Navy. 

Struggling to respond to the growing threat of multiple crises
around the world, the Navy has been working hard in recent years
to get the most out of its carriers. The ships act as mobile
airfields that are not subject to host country constraints when
at sea and have proved indispensable in the Iraq and Afghanistan
conflicts. 

Though the aging Kitty Hawk is battle ready, it's something of
an anachronism. 

The Kitty Hawk and the Florida-based USS John F. Kennedy,
commissioned respectively in 1961 and 1964, are the only
carriers run by steam turbines left in service. Because the
diesel-powered carriers are expensive to operate, the Kitty Hawk
is due to be decommissioned in 2008. 

The Bush administration had proposed decommissioning the Kennedy
this year. Doing so, it argued, would save $1.2 billion over the
next six years. But the anti-nuclear movement here - and
opposition at home - has forced officials to rethink that plan. 

Congress reached a deal in May delaying the Bush plan at least
until after a review of U.S. forces is completed. Using Japan's
opposition as leverage, Florida and Virginia lawmakers
introduced the legislation to require the Navy to keep its
carrier count at the current level of 12, with one based in
Florida. 

Navy officials here refuse to comment. 

``We are not going to engage on issues related to Kitty Hawk
replacement while the issue is still pre-decisional,'' said
Cmdr. John Wallach, a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Forces,
Japan. 

The Kitty Hawk and its battle group are the centerpiece of the
7th Fleet, the largest in the Navy, with 40 to 50 ships, 120
aircraft and about 20,000 sailors and Marines within its
command. Roughly 21 of the ships are deployed to Japan and the
Pacific island of Guam, while the others rotate out of ports in
Hawaii and the U.S. west coast. 

Along with the other 7th fleet ships, the battle group in this
port just south of Tokyo, once a major Imperial Japanese Navy
hub, has a huge area of responsibility - covering 52 million
square miles of the Pacific and Indian oceans, from the
international dateline to the east coast of Africa. 

Japan's leadership strongly backs the U.S. military presence in
this country, and says the more than 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan
are a stabilizing force for all of Asia. 

But activist Goto said the Navy has done little to assuage local
safety fears. 

``They are very secretive,'' Goto said. 
Goto said the nuclear reactors on a Nimitz-class carrier are not
much smaller in terms of power output than some reactors on
land. 

``Safety is a serious matter,'' he said. ``You have the added
stress of being at sea, and, while land-based plants are fairly
static, the output of the carrier's reactors is adjusted to meet
the ship's needs, creating more wear and tear.'' 

Deploying a nuclear-powered carrier to Yokosuka would likely
entail the construction of repair and nuclear waste facilities,
he added, further increasing the possibility of an accident that
could spread radiation beyond the base fences. 

With nuclear-powered U.S. submarines frequently moving in and
out of the port here, Yokosuka three years ago began holding
annual disaster drills to prepare for a radiation exposure
accident. The Navy did not participate in the first drill and
has played only a minor role in the drills since. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 28 Guardian Unlimited: A-Bomb Deaths of 20,000 Koreans Remembered
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday August 5, 2005 8:46 AM
 	
AP Photo XITS101 
By ERIC TALMADGE 
Associated Press Writer 

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - When Korea was still a colony, Park
Boo's parents were forced to leave their homes and families
behind and come to Japan to work in Hiroshima. Soon after, they
endured an unimaginable trial - the world's first atomic bomb
attack. 

``They were here when the city was bombed,'' Park said.

``Miraculously, they both survived.'' 

But more than 20,000 other Koreans were not so lucky. 
On the eve of Hiroshima's main commemoration, expected to draw
more than 50,000 people on Saturday, a small crowd of Koreans
gathered in Peace Memorial Park Friday to offer prayers and
flowers to compatriots killed when the United States dropped the
atomic bomb here on Aug. 6, 1945. 

Roughly 140,000 people died within a few months of the blast.

Another 80,000 were killed when a second bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing
World War II to an end. 

The tragedy of the Koreans was long ignored, and no one knows
for sure how many died here. 

``Many Koreans were sent back to Korea soon after the war ended
and Japan was no longer the colonial ruler,'' said Park, who
helped organize the gathering on Friday. ``Nobody here cared
about the Koreans who were killed. They were just forgotten and
ignored.'' 

Estimates of the death toll are based on the overall number of
Koreans known to have been in Hiroshima at the time. They made
up about 10 percent of the total population, then about 350,000.
Because the city recognizes 260,000 bomb-related deaths over the
years, Koreans believe their toll was more than 20,000. 

Though the Korean victims are now eligible for medical benefits
and have their own monument in peace park, many of their
compatriots say they have not yet received proper recognition
for the suffering they were forced to endure. 

``I don't think the Japanese have ever sincerely apologized for
the war and the suffering it caused, including in Hiroshima,''
said Yi Jae-yong, a 29-year-old peace activist from Taegu, South
Korea. 

``What happened was terrible,'' said Kim Bong-seon, another
organizer. 

The Korean gathering was one of many memorials, most of them
small and quiet, in Peace Memorial Park on Friday. 

Takaomi Tahara, who helped organize a memorial for construction
workers who were killed, said he just hopes Hiroshima's message
gets out. 

``I have mixed feelings about why Hiroshima was bombed, and
about what Japan did during the war,'' he said. ``But once every
year, I think it is good for our city to be the world's Mecca of
peace.''	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 29 Deseret News: Thriving Hiroshima to ponder Day of Death 

[deseretnews.com] 

Friday, August 5, 2005 

	A-bomb devastated city 60 years ago, killing 140,000 

By Eric Talmadge Associated Press 

HIROSHIMA, Japan — On Saturday morning, 60 years to the minute 
after the apocalypse, tens of thousands of people will be packed 
into Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Wreaths will be laid and 
1,000 doves set free. Temple bells will ring. 

['Image'] 
A worker uses a water gun Tuesday to clean a cenotaph at the 
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The A-bomb fell on Aug. 6, 1945. 

Junji Kurokawa, Associated Press 

For Yoriko Takeuchi, 87, this is always a hard time of 
year. On Aug. 6, 1945, she lost just about everything. 

As laughing children hang strings of paper cranes, and TV 
crews stake out their positions for the main event, Takeuchi 
sits on a shady curb, her rake at her side. She and her 
volunteer cleaning crew have almost finished their six-hour 
shift sweeping up the park, and now she is taking a moment to 
reflect. 

A Hiroshima native, she had been evacuated with many 
other women and children before the atomic bomb fell on her 
city. When she returned in December 1945, she found that she had 
lost her home, many of her relatives, just about everything. 

"All I could see was just a flat, smoldering field," she 
recalled. 

Hiroshima today is a thriving city of nearly 3 million, 
probably best known in Japan for the Carp, its baseball team. 

"It's a miracle how the city has recovered," said 
Takeuchi. 

She believes Hiroshima's message is a simple one. 

"We went through hell because of atomic weapons," she 
said. "No one else should ever have to. They should all be 
banned." 

The theme of peace permeates Hiroshima. 

The broad, tree-lined thoroughfare leading to the park is 
called the "Promenade of Peace." Hundreds of thousands visit 
Hiroshima's Peace Museum every year, and they are greeted at the 
entrance by a Peace Clock, which counts the days since the bomb 
was dropped. On Saturday it will reach 21,915. (The bomb struck 
at 8:15 a.m., which is 7:15 p.m. Friday EDT.) 

Every Aug. 6, Hiroshima becomes the epicenter of the 
global peace movement, but the tone can turn surprisingly 
combative. 

Emotions are high ahead of the anniversary, as evidenced 
by the damage inflicted on a cenotaph whose inscription says: 
"Let all the souls here rest in peace, as we will never repeat 
this mistake." The vandal is a suspected ultranationalist who 
apparently read the inscription to mean Japan might have been 
partially to blame for the bombing. 

The first speaker at Saturday's observances will be 
Hiroshima's mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, who last year called for a 
total ban on nuclear weapons and accused the United States of 
"ignoring the United Nations and international law" by 
researching a next-generation mini-nuclear weapon. 

Akiba need not seek targets overseas. 

Hiroshima has made it an article of faith for Japan that 
it will never possess, develop or allow onto its territory any 
nuclear weapons. Yet the past few years, however, some members 
of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's conservative party have 
begun to question that stance. 

They say that because neighboring North Korea is believed 
to have both the bomb and missiles able to reach virtually any 
part of Japan, it's time for this country to at least debate 
whether to go nuclear. 

"It's just too much," said Shogo Kadoya, a 70-year-old 
retiree who grew up in Hiroshima but escaped the bombing. "They 
aren't hearing us." 

Koizumi is expected to attend Saturday's ceremony. 

Estimates vary, but about 140,000 people are believed to 
have died when the B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped its 
deadly payload, turning Hiroshima from a typical provincial city 
to a flaming inferno like none ever seen before. 

Another plane, Bock's Car, bombed Nagasaki, on the 
southern Japan island of Kyushu, killing at least 80,000 three 
days later. On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan surrendered. 

Including those initially listed as missing or who died 
later from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, 
including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number 
of the dead in this city alone at 237,062. 

This year, 5,000 more names are to be added to the list. 

The feeling that their message is being lost is growing 
deeper here. 

A global conference ended in May with no consensus on how 
to strengthen the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — the biggest 
failure at a nonproliferation conference in 35 years. 

The United States, meanwhile, has plans to keep 5,000 
warheads — each far more efficient than the one that devastated 
this city. Russia, China, Britain, France, India and Pakistan, 
the confirmed nuclear powers, have no plans to give up their 
arsenals, either, and more countries are looking to join the 
club. 

"I think everybody agrees that the world would be a 
better place without nuclear weapons," said Helen Barlin, a 
19-year-old tourist from Sachsenheim, Germany. "But with the 
politicians it's all just words, words, words." 

Was a Hiroshima — and by extension today's nuclear-armed 
world — a necessary evil? 

Dr. Charles Waldren, a native of Colorado, is an expert 
on the medical legacy of the atomic bomb. 

He is 71 and has spent his adult life studying the 
effects of radiation on humans and animals. For the past four 
years he has served as vice chairman and chief of research for 
the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, headquartered on a 
quiet hill within walking distance of Hiroshima's ground zero. 

Since 1948, the foundation has tracked the lives of 
100,000 people who survived the bombing. Roughly 40,000 are 
still alive, and their average age is 71. 

"It was a horrible, horrible event," Waldren said. "But 
it could have been worse." 

He said research indicates those exposed to the bomb's 
radiation have only a 5 percent higher likelihood of developing 
cancer than the general population. "It's smaller than people 
expected, which I think is an extraordinarily good thing." 

He added that there is also no clear link to hereditary 
mutations. 

"Only one in 20 who develops cancer does so because of 
irradiation," he said. "The risk from radiation is quite small 
compared with smoking." 

Waldren said he believes bombing Hiroshima was justified. 

"My brother was in the Battle of the Bulge," he said. "He 
was badly wounded, but they planned to ship him off to the 
Pacific. There was no doubt in my family that (dropping the 
bomb) was the right thing to do. 

"I think it ended the war," he said. "And I think it was 
a good thing." 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 30 RIA Novosti: Russians say any country has the right to nuclear weapons
 
05/ 08/ 2005                                  

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Any country has the right to
own nuclear weapons, said 51% of Russians in a new poll by the
All-Russian Public Opinion Center. 

Only 29% of respondents said new nuclear nations should be
isolated and subject to sanctions to prevent a new arms race. 

Most of the supporters of a country's right to nuclear weapons,
67%, live in Moscow and St. Petersburg. 

Most Russians are in favor of preserving Russia's status as a
nuclear power and only 3% said Russia should abandon nuclear
weapons completely. 

Thirty-nine percent said Russia should develop new nuclear
weapons and it's nuclear potential should be increased, but 25%
were against it and 23% are for the status quo. 

A world power should have nuclear weapons, according to 22% of
Russians, but the majority, however, said a country is great
when it has high living standards and a well-developed industry
(68% and 59% respectively). 

The poll was conducted on July 30-31, 2005. It polled 1,600
people in 153 towns and villages in 46 regions and republics of
Russia with a statistical error of 3.4%.


© 2005 "RIA Novosti"   
*****************************************************************
 31 BBC: Nuclear neighbours hold key talks
 
Last Updated: Friday, 5 August 2005
 
[Manmohan Singh (left) and Pervez Musharraf] 
                                
India and Pakistan have pledged closer dialogue                                                                 

Officials from India and Pakistan have begun two days of talks 
aimed at reducing the risk of a nuclear conflict between the two 
neighbours. 

Proposals under discussion include an emergency hotline and 
information sharing before missile tests. 

The discussions, in the Indian capital Delhi, are the third of 
their kind since a peace process began last year. 

During nearly six decades of tensions, the two nuclear rivals 
have fought three major wars. 

'New maturity' 

The nuclear-related meeting is scheduled to be followed on Monday 
by discussions on other confidence-building measures and the 
long-running dispute over Kashmir. 

The BBC's David Chazan says the two days of talks are being seen 
as an indication of what has been called the "new maturity" in 
relations between India and Pakistan. 

Last year, the two countries agreed to try to sort out their 
problems through a closer and more sustained dialogue. 

But analysts say Pakistan is unhappy about the deal India reached 
with the US last month on civilian nuclear cooperation. 

Meanwhile, India still wants Pakistan to take action to prevent 
attacks by militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir. 

India says many of the militants have been armed and trained by 
Pakistan - an allegation which Pakistan denies.                                                          



*****************************************************************
 32 HindustanTimes.com: Pak to test-fire new N-capable missile

Associated Press

Islamabad, August 5, 2005|19:51 IST

Pakistani scientists are fine-tuning a new version of
nuclear-capable missile and will test-fire it soon, an official
at one of Pakistan's main nuclear facilities said Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is
not authorized to speak to the media, refused to say whether it
was a long-range missile, or provide any other details.

"Our scientists have started putting the final touches on a
missile and Pakistan may test it soon," the official said. The
local Nawa-i-Waqt newspaper had reported Friday that Pakistan
was likely to test fire a ballistic missile before August 14.
But army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan refused to confirm the
report, saying he had no such information.

Pakistan test-fired its first missile and carried out nuclear
tests in 1998.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf last week said Pakistan's missile
programme is progressing well and that there will be more
missile tests in the coming months.

The official's comments come as Pakistan and India hold talks in
New Delhi on sharing information ahead of missile tests and
other CBMs aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear conflict
between the long time rival nations.

Pakistan last tested its short-range nuclear capable missile in
March while India test-fired its short-range surface-to-air
Trishul missile from a mobile launcher off its eastern coast on
July 26.       
    
Tension persists with India over Kashmir and a nuclear arms race
began after 'Pokhran nuclear explosions', though CBMs are in
full swing.       
    
      Country profile      
     
© HT Media Ltd. 2005. 
*****************************************************************
 33 GREENPEACE UK: 60 years later the threat of nuclear weapons still exists                                                                                                 

60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]   

Last edited: 05-08-2005
 
On the 60th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, which remind us about war and the horror war brings,
Greenpeace - once again - commits itself to creating peace. 

We envision a world where the kind of death and destruction
caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki can never happen again. We
envision a future where there is no fear of nuclear weapons and
their destructive power. We envision a future where terrible
conflict provoked by the very existence of nuclear weapons has
been totally eliminated. To honour those who died as a result of
nuclear weapons unleashed in Japan, we must all work together to
create this world.

 From every corner of the planet, across 40 countries and
representing 2.8 million supporters, Greenpeace sends its solemn
promise that it will continue fighting for peace. We are joined
by 10,000 people from 155 countries who sent messages of peace
which were attached to large dove-shaped balloons and flown in
front of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial to commemorate the
more than 300,000 people who died in the atomic bombings. The
message is clear: to create lasting peace all nations must
eliminate all their nuclear weapons - as well as the dangerous
materials and technologies used to create them.

 Greenpeace staff member Malcolm Carroll is in Japan for the
anniversary and gives us his impression of the day. 

At Hiroshima. Doves fly above the dome, carrying nearly 10,000
messages of peace. A blinding flash. This time a Reuters
photographer among the media melee. It contrasts with the quiet
dignity of this commemoration organized by Greenpeace in Japan.
We stand at the point above which the bomb was detonated.

 Their hands fused to their faces, there's a collection of
watches, they all say 8.15. It is 08.15 now so we keep a
minute's silence. Blue sky, 35 degrees, just as it was then,
says Mr Tanaka. He was 13. He survived the bomb, one of the
hibakashu.

 A crowd has joined the media but Mr Tanaka has his back to
them. He tells his story to us. I am humbled, deeply moved. He
tells Greenpeace never to forget, to go on striving for peace,
to strive against all nuclear weapons, against all nuclear
tests, against the other face of the devil - civil nuclear
power. Too bloody right we will. Already the messages are being
removed from the doves, to be sent to the Prime Minister of
Japan and to the governor of the district where a nuclear
processing plant is opening. The Rokkasho plant is running tests
on plutonium production even as the Japanese people remember the
60th anniversary of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 Too many words already. We need action. Now the documents have
been declassified, it is clear that there was no military
necessity. Hiroshima August 6th 1945. Nagasaki August 9th 1945.
They were instruments of foreign policy not armaments of war to
push forward global economics favourable to the US and to
pressure Russia. The bombs failed. Soviet Russia responded by
developing weapons which led to the largest test ever, a bomb
over 3000 time more powerful than Hiroshima. George W Bush and
Tony Blair are embracing this same failed approach again. Like
before, there is no military necessity.

 We all stood beneath the bomb. We have a second chance. Now we
must act. Generate awareness, political debate, action. We will
begin a new wave of disarmament work in the UK. It must not fail
the likes of Mr Tanaka. It's when ordinary people start to act
that the great powers can be humbled.

*****************************************************************
 34 Japan Times: An excuse for nuclear weapons

  Saturday, August 6, 2005   

EDITORIAL

Sixty years ago, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima,
followed by one on Nagasaki three days later. The killing and
injuring of hundreds of thousands of people ushered in an age
that threatened nuclear annihilation. Since the East-West
confrontation ended 15 years ago, the world has tended to move
away from the risk of a major nuclear conflagration, yet it
remains far from eliminating nuclear weapons. Rather, in the
past couple of years, the world has suffered setbacks even in
its endeavors to curtail their spread.

 A series of events have hampered antinuclear moves. For
example, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference
failed, and North Korea and Iran have been pushing their own
nuclear programs. Their development efforts may not yet be at
the stage of producing large bombs, but it has reached the
extent where they worry their neighbors and destabilize regional
peace.

 The NPT review conference held in New York in May did not
produce any agreement to further strengthen the NPT regime
because of a rift between nuclear and nonnuclear-weapons states.
While nonnuclear-weapons states insisted that nuclear-weapons
states cut their nuclear arsenals and refrain from developing
new nuclear weapons, the latter, in particular the United
States, demanded that the NPT member countries focus on the
nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. The failure of the
review does not necessarily mean the collapse of the NPT regime,
but it is certain that it has weakened the momentum of efforts
to rid the world of nuclear threats.

 In 2002, in the first reduction agreement of its kind in nearly
a decade, the U.S. and Russia signed a treaty to cut their
deployed strategic nuclear forces by approximately two-thirds to
1,700-2,200 warheads each by 2012. But even with this treaty,
the weapons will only be mothballed -- not destroyed -- and no
verification procedures are provided. It is estimated that over
30,000 nuclear warheads are scattered throughout the world at
present.

 The nuclear-weapons states must bear responsibility for taking
a lead role in working to realize the NPT's ultimate ambition of
creating a nuclear weapons-free world. They can do this by
carrying out substantially deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals.
Only when they move in this direction will they have a credible
ability to persuade other nations, including nuclear gray states
like India, Pakistan and Israel, to abandon their nuclear
weapons and forgo programs that may lead to the production of
nuclear weapons.

 As America's responsibility for nuclear disarmament as the only
superpower in the world is especially heavy, it is regrettable
that the U.S. refuses to join the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
On the contrary, it is moving to turn nuclear weapons -- whose
use has been unimaginable since the devastation of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki -- into more "practical" weapons such as small-yield
mini-nukes and earth penetrators.

 We would like to point out that the lack of enthusiasm on the
part of the nuclear-weapons states for nuclear disarmament
provides countries like North Korea and Iran with an excuse for
pursuing a nuclear-development program.

 North Korea apparently has been using its nuclear-weapons
program as a means of securing political and economic gains. To
many people, this seems deplorable. If North Korea becomes a
full-fledged nuclear-weapons state, it not only poses a serious
threat to other nations in the region but may also encourage an
extreme reaction on the part of some elements in Japan,
including demands that Japan also arm itself with nuclear
weapons.

 The confession by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's
nuclear-weapons program, sounded an alarm because it showed that
one individual could play a significant role in proliferating
nuclear-arms technology. Although he dealt with states, his case
points to the danger of terrorists acquiring nuclear-weapons
technology from scientists who do not guard themselves against
the risks of contributing to proliferation. It shows that the
fear felt since the collapse of the Soviet Union that
nuclear-weapons technology might find its way into the hands of
terrorists is not far-fetched.

 With the number of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
atomic bombings dwindling, it becomes all the more important
that the experiences of the two cities, as well as accurate
knowledge about the dreadfulness of nuclear arms, be handed down
to future generations worldwide.

 An encouraging sign was the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial
Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims' sponsorship of an atomic bomb
exhibition in Chicago that coincided with the NPT review
conference -- the first such event by the body. As the only
nation on Earth to suffer from atomic bombings, Japan should
step up such efforts in earnest.

 The Japan Times: Aug. 6, 2005
(C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 35 Reuters: Thousands mark Hiroshima A-bomb 60th anniversary 

Fri Aug 5, 2005 7:17 PM ET

 By George Nishiyama

 HIROSHIMA, Japan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people 
from around the world gathered in Hiroshima on Saturday to mark 
the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city and to 
renew calls for the abolition of nuclear arms.

 The anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing comes as 
regional powers continue talks in Beijing to urge North Korea to 
give up its nuclear programme, seen by Tokyo as a potential 
threat and one of the reasons behind rising calls in Japan to 
strengthen its defence and seek closer military cooperation with 
the United States.

 Under a blazing summer sun, survivors and families of victims 
assembled at the Peace Memorial Park near "ground zero", the spot 
where the bomb detonated on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, killing 
thousands and levelling the city.

 Dignitaries including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi attended 
the ceremony in Hiroshima, some 690 km (430 miles) southwest of 
Tokyo.

 At 8:15 a.m., the time when the U.S. B-29 warplane Enola Gay 
dropped the bomb, people at the park and throughout the city 
observed a minute's silence in memory of those who perished.

 Bells at temples and churches rang and passengers on the 
streetcars that run throughout the city bowed their heads in 
remembrance of the dead, including those incinerated by the bomb 
60 years ago while riding the streetcars.

 "This Aug. 6 ... is a time of inheritance, of awakening, and of 
commitment, in which we inherit the commitment of the bomb 
victims to the abolition of nuclear weapons and realisation of 
genuine world peace," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the 
gathering.

 Akiba said in his Peace Declaration that the five established 
nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and 
China -- as well as India, Pakistan and North Korea were 
"jeopardising human survival".

 The Hiroshima bomb unleashed a mix of shockwaves, heat rays and 
radiation that killed thousands instantly. By the end of 1945 the 
toll rose to some 140,000 out of an estimated population of 
350,000. Thousands more succumbed to illness and injuries later.

 On Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima attack, another 
atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

 Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing to an end the military 
aggression that had culminated in its entry into World War Two.

 PACIFIST CONSTITUTION

 At Saturday's ceremony another 5,375 names were added to the 
list of Hiroshima's dead, bringing the total to 242,437.

 Referring to moves to revise the pacifist constitution that 
Japan adopted after the war, Akiba said it was an obligation of 
the present generation to uphold the principle "thou shalt not 
kill".

 "The Japanese constitution, which embodies this axiom forever as 
the sovereign will of a nation, should be a guiding light for the 
world in the 21st century," he said.

 Earlier this week, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party 
released a draft containing a drastic change to the constitution, 
proposing that the military be allowed to act not only in 
self-defence but also to take part in global security efforts.

 Although support for revising the core pacifist clause remains 
short of a majority, public opinion is no longer overwhelmingly 
opposed to it and some politicians even talk of Japan having 
nuclear weapons, long a taboo.

 Even some of those in Hiroshima for the anniversary said Japan 
may have to go nuclear to counter the North Korean threat.

 "The best is if talks with the United States go well and North 
Korea gives up its weapons," said Yoshiaki Onoue, 45, referring 
to the six-party talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North 
to abandon its nuclear programme.

 "But Japan may need to have nuclear weapons as insurance," said 
Onoue, visiting the Peace Memorial Park with his family from 
Osaka, some 300 km (186 miles) east of Hiroshima.

 Survivors, whose average age is now over 73, worry that as many 
of them pass away, so will memories of the bombing.

 "Passing on the experience is our greatest concern," said Sunao 
Tsuboi, an 80-year-old survivor of the bombing who heads a group 
of victims.

 "As we get old, even among victims the anger, that raging 
feeling towards the A-bomb, has waned ... Aug. 6 is being played 
up this year as it's the 60th anniversary, but I wonder about 
next year."                                             

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 36 Las Vegas SUN: Hiroshima Marks Atomic Bomb Anniversary 

Today: August 05, 2005 at 13:37:49 PDT 

By ERIC TALMADGE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - With water and flowers for the dead,
Hiroshima is remembering how a flash in the early morning sky 60
years ago turned life to death for more than 140,000 people and
forever changed the face of war. 

To mark the 60th anniversary Saturday of the world's first
atomic bomb attack, tens of thousands were expected at Peace
Memorial Park, the spiritual epicenter of the global
anti-nuclear movement for one day each year. 

After a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the instant of the
blast, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba was to appeal for all
nuclear powers to give up their arsenals. And at a simple,
arch-shaped stone monument in the park, wreaths and ladles of
water were to be offered. 

"It's best to keep a ceremony like this simple," said Yuki
Okada, a 27-year-old office worker who added she normally
doesn't come to the memorials, but felt this one was "special." 
"I don't think our message is getting out," she said. "Even

Japanese people outside of Hiroshima are forgetting the past." 
Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving
city of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war, the
anniversary underscores its ongoing tragedy. 

Officials estimate about 140,000 people were killed instantly or
died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its payload
over the city, which then had a population of about 350,000. 
Three days later, another U.S. bomber, Bock's Car, dropped a
plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000
people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War
II to a close. 

The true toll on Hiroshima is hard to gauge, however. 
Including those initially listed as missing or who died
afterward from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments,
including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number
of the dead in this city alone at 237,062. 

This year, about 5,000 names are being added to the list. 
"For the people of Hiroshima, this is a day of prayer," said
Takaomi Tahara, who lost several relatives, including his
grandfather, in the bombing. To this day, he said, the remains
of his dead relatives have not been found. "For us, there isn't
any closure." 

Along with being a time to remember those who died, Hiroshima's
anniversary has become the focus of the international peace
movement. 

In the biggest pre-anniversary event, about 8,000 people
attended the annual World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen
Bombs. The conference organizers, mainly leftist and labor
groups, have collected more than 8.5 million signatures calling
for a global nuclear ban. 

On the eve of the anniversary, fundamentalist Christians held a
prayer circle in Hiroshima, while members of the International
Communist League handed out leaflets nearby. 

Some people came on their own, offering a purely personal
message. 

"Our goal is to apologize to those who suffered and are still
suffering the horrible, unspeakable atrocity of the atomic
bomb," said John Schuchardt of Ipswich, Mass., who came to
Hiroshima with his wife. He said he was on a nine-day fast. 
-- 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 37 AU ABC: Hiroshima bomb remembered 60 years on
 
The World Today - Friday, 5 August , 2005  12:54:00
 
Reporter: Shane McLeod

 ELEANOR HALL: In Japan the people of Hiroshima are marking that
critical historical moment 60 years ago, when the world's first
atomic weapon was dropped and the nuclear age was born. 

The bomb at Hiroshima, and a second three days later at
Nagasaki, brought an end to World War II. But they killed more
than 200,000 people in the process and left a legacy of injured
and scarred survivors, as North Asia Correspondent Shane McLeod
tells us in this letter from Hiroshima. 

SHANE MCLEOD: First-time visitors to Hiroshima are often struck
by the fact that there's so little obvious evidence of the
destruction wrought here sixty years ago. The city centre looks
like any modern Japanese metropolis - there are bustling
department stores, arcades filled with all the usual shops, and
tall office towers and hotels. 

Hiroshima has the added quirk of still having trams plying its
main avenues. Quirky too are the tour guides, which give
visitors a few important local phrases, like the local way of
saying, "it's hot, isn't it?" and, "first, a beer please". 

It's only after walking around for a few days you start to
notice the plaques nestled outside some of the buildings,
discreetly outlining some of the city's history. There's one
just around the corner from where we're staying. 

The plaques often have an etching of how the building looked in
the aftermath of August the 6th, sixty years ago. And the
plaques tell the story of what happened. Most of the buildings
where these plaques are on display give no outward sign of
having any connection to the atomic blast. 

There is of course one building that testifies to the bomb's
impact, and that's the one known now as the a-bomb dome. Before
1945 it was the city's industrial promotion hall. 

It was almost directly below the hypocentre, when the bomb
exploded at 8:15 that morning. The dome survived, despite a
post-war push by some city residents to have it demolished. It
was kept and incorporated into the city's peace memorial park. 

Its' in the park this week that you're able to see the survivors
of Hiroshima passing on their stories to the next generation. In
the shade, with noisy cicadas as background, small groups of
schoolchildren sit and listen as representatives explain where
they were, and what they did, on august the 6th. 

But this week, talking to survivors and their children, you get
the feeling they worry that Hiroshima's story isn't having the
impact it once had. They say fewer Japanese schoolchildren come
to visit, and they watch the machinations of Japan's political
leaders. Some are talking about changing the country's pacifist
constitution, some even raise the idea of Japan getting the bomb
for itself. 

For Hiroshima's residents, many are happy to have the world's
attention once again, as they mark 60 years since their city
changed forever, but they also don't want their city to be
defined only by its past.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's the ABC's North Asia Correspondent
Shane McLeod in Hiroshima.   
*****************************************************************
 38 AU ABC: WA seeks assurances on underwater bomb tests. 

06/08/2005. ABC News Online
 	
Western Australia's Environment Minister, Judy Edwards, says she
is not convinced by assurances that a series of test explosions
off the state's coast will be conducted in line with
environmental guidelines.

 Geoscience Australia wants to detonate 20 underwater bombs in
deep water off Exmouth to assess the agency's ability to detect
secret nuclear testing overseas. 
Dr Edwards says she first heard about the experiment in a
newspaper article.

 She is concerned the blasts may endanger migrating humpback
whales and the sensitive Ningaloo reef area. 

"The proposal is in Commonwealth waters so technically they
don't have to tell us but given the closeness of this proposal
to the Ningaloo reef and the high values we put both on the
Ningaloo reef and on whales who migrate through the area we as a
community really need to know about potential environmental
impacts," Dr Edwards said.

 "At the sites shown to us the coastal shelf is quite narrow and
it's quite near the reef."

 Geoscience Australia says the blasts will not proceed unless
they meet environmental standards. 

But Dr Edwards says the Commonwealth does not have a good record
on such issues and wants the experiment to comply with WA's own
conservation standards. 

*****************************************************************
 39 AU ABC: Underwater bomb tests all for show: Greenpeace. 

06/08/2005. ABC News Online
 	
Greenpeace has weighed into the debate about a proposal to test
explosives in the waters off the Western Australian coastline.

 Geoscience Australia says it wants to detonate 20 underwater
bombs off Exmouth, on the north-west coast, to assess the
agency's ability to detect secret nuclear testing overseas. 
Greenpeace has joined the Western Australian Government in
expressing concerns about the effect on migrating humpback
whales and the sensitive Ningaloo reef area. 

A spokesman for Greenpeace, Danny Kennedy, says the Federal
Government wants to look good in terms of acting on the
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons but its efforts come at the
expense of the environment.

 "We're not supportive of them unless there's a more cogent
overall approach," he said.

 "We're concerned that they're trying to circumvent the
environmental approval process and basically just run a sort of
a high-profile rhetorical effort on non-proliferation at the
risk of the local environment."

 Geoscience Australia says the blasts will not proceed unless
they meet environmental standards. 
In other developments:
 
  + Western Australia's Environment Minister, Judy Edwards, says
she is not convinced by assurances that a series of test
explosions off the state's coast will be conducted in line with
environmental guidelines. (Full Story) 

*****************************************************************
 40 asahi.com: EDITORIAL/ 60 years after A-bomb

08/05/2005
  
Survivors must talk about their experiences. 

It was only three years ago that Junichiro Nagai, who lives in
Musashino in western Tokyo, found himself able to publicly talk
about his experiences of 60 years ago. 

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was hit by an
atomic bomb, Nagai, then a third-year student at the private
Sotoku Middle School in Hiroshima, was in a suburban factory
where he served as a student worker. He thought he saw a flash
of lightning and then felt a blast of wind. 

That night, when he went home, his younger sister, a first-year
student at Hiroshima Municipal No. 1 Girls' High School, had not
returned. Two days later, his parents found their missing
daughter lying on the ground in downtown Hiroshima. They could
identify the body from a name tag with "Mieko Nagai" written in
India ink and sewn on to her shirt. 

She had died together with more than 540 first- and second-year
students who were clearing the rubble of buildings that were
being torn down to prepare for air raids. Survivor's guilt 
Nagai is now 74 years old. After the war, he worked at a tax
office and started his own tax-accounting business in Tokyo's
Kanda district 40 years ago. He had never talked about the
atomic bomb, even to his wife and two sons. He couldn't bring
himself to discuss the issue because he felt indebted and
repentant for having survived. 

On his way home from the factory, he could not do anything for
the injured people who begged him for water. Many of his
classmates died, and he felt responsible for his sister's death
because he had encouraged her to go on to high school. 

He was also worried that one day, he and his children would
become ill from his exposure to radiation. Such an ailment could
affect his sons' opportunities for jobs or even marriage. He
feared that talking about it would give shape to his worries. 

But such feelings changed four years ago when he found a booklet
among the personal effects left behind by his father. It was
titled "Genbaku to Chojo" (The atomic bomb and my first
daughter). His father, who was also reluctant to talk about his
experiences, had written down an account of how he found the
body of Nagai's little sister. 

His father wanted to remember his daughter who died when she was
13 and leave a record. Reading the account written 44 years
after the bombing, Nagai felt the chagrin and the love his
father must have felt when he wrote down his memories while
fighting the pain of reliving the horrible event that took place
on that "fateful day." 

Nagai also learned that his father, who lived in Hyogo
Prefecture after his retirement, served as the president of a
local association of atomic bomb survivors. 

Nagai felt as if his dead father was pushing him to move
forward. There was a move to revive an organization of atomic
bomb survivors in Musashino, and Nagai was asked to head it. He
accepted. 

For the first time, he spoke about his experiences to students
at a nearby junior high school. He was worried that the students
of his grandchildren's generation would not understand what he
went through. But his concerns were dispelled after the school
sent him the students' impressions of his talk. 

One student wrote: "I am the same age as Mr. Nagai when he
waited for his little sister to return. It must have been a
terrible shock." 

It will be 60 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and one on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. 

Nagai has a grandchild who entered elementary school this year.

With the passage of three generations, memories fade. 

But efforts to pass them down are continuing. A large number of
books and manuscripts have been published. There are also
animation films, such as "Barefoot Gen," which recounts the
bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. 

Still, when Hiroshima conducted a survey five years ago, more
than half of the elementary school students did not know the
year when the atomic bomb hit their city. Nearly 30 percent of
junior high school students also failed to give the correct
answer. 

Peace memorials are held every summer. But even in the stricken
area where the A-bomb Dome stands today, memories are quickly
fading. 

Some students say "peace learning" on the atomic bombing is
"dull and boring." Two years ago, a university student from
Kansai who visited the Hiroshima Peace Park set fire to folded
paper cranes that were placed as an offering. 

When we hear the words atomic bomb, many people conjure the
image of a mushroom cloud. But it is difficult to imagine what
was happening under it. 

Passing down the memories 

Last year, Meiji Gakuin University's faculty of international
studies in Yokohama started a "Hiroshima-Nagasaki course," which
looks into various problems concerning nuclear weapons. This
spring, the school invited an atomic bomb survivor to give a
lecture. Even after the class ended, students gathered around
and shot questions at the lecturer. 

"Nothing ever tugged at my heart stronger," one student said. 

"From now on, it is our turn to pass on the memories," said
another. 

Professor Takao Takahara, who organized the program, said:

"Hearing first-hand accounts from survivors of the atomic
bombing allows students to vicariously share their experiences.

Since young people today are sensitive, it's not difficult to
make them understand." 

In other words, if people talk about their experiences, they can
get across their message to younger people. That is all the more
reason why it is important for people who survived the horror of
the bombing to overcome their pain and speak about what they
experienced. 

Slightly more than 266,000 atomic bomb survivors live in Japan.
Their average age is 73. 

Eventually, when there are no survivors left, it will mark the
beginning of an even more difficult fight against fading
memories. The survivors must relay their experiences to their
grandchildren's generation to keep the memories alive. 

This desire to hand down experiences from generation to
generation moved Nagai. 

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 4(IHT/Asahi: August 5,2005) 
  
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction
*****************************************************************
 41 NEWS.com.au: Japan remembers Hiroshima 

(06-08-2005)
 
From: Agence France-Presse                                              

THE Japanese Prime Minister today said his country remained
committed to peace and opposed to nuclear weapons 60 years after
the world's first nuclear bombing in Hiroshima.

 "With strong determination not to repeat the tragedy of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki principles," Koizumi said at the ceremony.

 He was referring to Japan's statement in December 1967 that it
would not produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory
of nuclear weapons.

 "We are the only nation in human history that suffered from
atomic bombing," Koizumi said.

 Koizumi has backed revisions to the US-imposed 1947
constitution that says Japan will forever renounce force,
although most Japanese want the document to maintain its overall
pacifist spirit.

 Neighbouring countries have accused Koizumi of failing to atone
for World War II wrongdoing due to his visits to a shrine that
honours war dead including war criminals.

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the ceremony that
six decades into the atomic age, "selfish" states including
nuclear aspirant North Korea were threatening human survival.

 He urged the United Nations to adopt specific steps to abolish
nuclear weapons by 2020.

 But the mayor acknowledged the task would be a difficult one,
noting the lack of progress at a UN meeting in May meant to
review the main treaty on ending the proliferation of nuclear
weapons.

 "The review conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
this past May left no doubt that the US, Russia, the UK, France,
China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and a few other nations
wishing to become nuclear-weapon states are ignoring the
majority voices of the people and governments of the world,
thereby jeopardising human survival," Akiba said.

 "Based on the dogma, 'Might is right', these countries have
formed their own 'nuclear club', the admission requirement being
the possession of nuclear weapons," the mayor said.

 "Within the United Nations, nuclear club members use their veto
power to override the global majority and pursue their selfish
objectives."

 Nichie Kakimoto, a slender 79-year-old woman who came to the
ceremony with a walking stick, said she still "cannot explain"
how she felt about experiencing the nuclear bombing.

 "For more than 50 years after the war, I couldn't come here.
And I can't visit the museum," she said.

 Shin Hikibe, a retiree who came to the monument in a
wheelchair, said: "Even if everyone thinks they will rest in
peace in the grave, these people sacrificed their eternal rest
for peace."

*****************************************************************
 42 Washington Times: Tokyo urged to give up nuclear power generation

Akira Tashiro, senior staff writer and special project editor at 
the Chugoku Shimbun in Hiroshima, the region's major daily, 
spoke to Washington Times reporter Takehiko Kambayashi about the 
significance of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of 
the Japanese city. 

Question: August 6 marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic 
bombing of Hiroshima. According to the Japan Confederation of A- 
and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, the number of atomic-bomb 
living victims is less than 270,000, down from 323,420 10 years 
ago. As the number of survivors is declining, more people may 
see it as a thing of the past. 

Answer: When schoolchildren in Hiroshima receive peace 
education, it seems some of them want to say, "Again?" However, 
we know that victims of atomic bombing have continued to suffer 
even after the war ended. 

I also talked to orphans whose parents perished in the 
bombing. They evacuated to the countryside when the bomb was 
dropped on the city. After the war, they had to move from one 
relative's place to another. 

Survivors describe their experience as "living hell." Had 
nuclear development stopped after the "living hell," we could 
have regarded the atomic bombing as one page of history. 
However, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ushered in the 
nuclear age. During the Cold War era, the U.S. and the Soviet 
Union had been competing fiercely with each other on nuclear 
weapons development. They developed not only atomic bombs, but 
hydrogen bombs. Such bombs have been very advanced, and nuclear 
submarines developed. In addition, more nuclear testing was 
conducted, and more countries want to possess nuclear weapons. 

The average age of victims of the atomic bombing is 73, and 
nuclear deterrent is taken for granted. ... Our job is to tell 
the world that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not 
things of the past. Journalists in Hiroshima like us, who have 
learned about the experience of the victims, also look at such 
international issues as nuclear arms, radioactive contamination 
and the use of depleted uranium weapons, and tell the world how 
we view them. 

Q: What do you make of the fact that Japan is really 
committed to nuclear power, actually depending on it for about 
30 percent of its energy? 

A: Nuclear energy is highly touted as cheap, clean and good 
for the prevention of global warming. However, based on our 
report on the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor 
accident and others, we have clearly indicated that's not the 
case. 

I believe Japan needs to head in the direction of breaking 
with nuclear power generation, and that is one way to take in 
the 21st century. Even if we can operate nuclear energy plants 
safely, we still have issues of spent nuclear fuel. We have to 
consider how we can manage fissionable materials for tens of 
thousands of years. How can we take our responsibility for 
future generations? 

Q: What should Japan do? 

A: At least from now on, we should spend much more money on 
the research and development of alternative energy resources. I 
believe that is one of the concrete ways for Japan, the only 
country to be bombed with atomic weapons, to contribute to the 
world community. 

The Washington Times - 
*****************************************************************
 43 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl given to Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry
 
05/ 08/ 2005                                  

KIEV, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy
Ministry passed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to
the Emergency Situations Ministry, following orders from the
executive and legislative branches, the government said.

 A source in the Ukrainian cabinet said a special commission
comprising representatives of the Fuel and Energy Ministry and
the Chernobyl plant was formed to transfer the plant.

 The Chernobyl plant ceased operation in December 2000.

 In April of 1986, the plant's fourth reactor overheated and
exploded after a failed test, spewing nuclear particles into the
atmosphere. 

The accident at Chernobyl is considered the world's worst
nuclear disaster.

© 2005 "RIA Novosti"   
*****************************************************************
 44 Platts: Planned generic letter on hold while NRC reviews EPRI 
document
 
+ A planned generic letter on butt weld inspections has been "put 
on hold" while an industry guidance document for such inspections 
is under agency review, NRC staff said today. At a meeting in 
March, William Bateman, the chief of NRC's materials and chemical 
engineering branch, had announced plans to issue the letter. 

It would have requested information from NRC licensees on their 
plans for inspecting and managing potential degradation of alloy 
82/182 welds between dissimilar metals, such as ferritic steel 
and stainless steel. 

But at a meeting today at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., 
Bateman cited a new document--which was the main subject of the 
meeting--by the Electric Power Research Institute's Materials 
Reliability Program on "inspection and evaluation" guidelines for 
butt welds in primary system piping. 

Although NRC staff raised a number of questions during the 
meeting, and Bateman indicated there were likely to be additional 
ones after they had reviewed the document more thoroughly, he 
said he was "pleased" with the industry effort. 

Washington (Platts)--4Aug2005
 
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies]   

*****************************************************************
 45 Hindustan Times.com: Pak to step up nuclear power generation

  HindustanTimes.com » 

Press Trust of India

Islamabad, August 5, 2005|17:24 IST
       
In the light of recent Indo-US deal on civilian atomic energy
development, Pakistan has approved plans to increase its nuclear
power generation from the present 430 MW to 8,800 MW by 2030. 

The National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved a 2.5 billion
project to improve the design, fuel and fabrication facilities
of the laboratories of Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Sciences
and Technology (PINSTECH).

The project aims to increase the plant manufacturing capacity to
1,000 MW, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Akram
Sheikh told reporters on Thursday.

Under the new energy security plan, Pakistan will enhance its
nuclear generation from 437 MW at present to 8800 MW in 2030, he
said adding nuclear energy from plants at Karachi and Chashma
contributes one per cent of the total power consumption and the
new plans would increase it by eight per cent by 2030.

The Karachi plant set up with Canadian help produces 137 MW
while the Chasma plant built with Chinese help produces 300 MW.
China is also setting up a second plant at Chasma.

Sheikh said Pakistan would initially install nuclear power plant
with 600 MW capacity and would set up 1000 mw generation plants
to achieve the target of 8800 MW.

The plans to increase nuclear generation followed assertions by
Pakistan that it too would press for a deal with US similar to
the one reached between Washington and New Delhi. But Bush
administration did not react favourably.

Reports said US has not responded to Pakistan's request for
setting up two nuclear power plants.       
    
© HT Media Ltd. 2005. 
*****************************************************************
 46 Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear power picks up backers 

Article Last Updated: 08/05/2005 12:13:35 AM 
			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 					A new
generation: The idea of a cheaper source of energy appeals to some

By Stan Choe Knight Ridder News Service 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Ray Ganthner sells new nuclear power plants. 

His industry has had a rough couple of decades, he admits. 
One recent development is making his job easier. His company, 
Maryland-based Framatome ANP, designed the $3 billion-plus 
nuclear plant going up in Finland, the first built in Western 
Europe in more than a decade. 

''I point out we're the only company building one,'' said 
Ganthner, a senior vice president for the firm. 

Ganthner and his team of engineers are hoping the European 
plant helps to spur a renaissance of nuclear-plant construction 
across the United States. 

The team for Framatome is working to translate the Finland 
design into U.S. specifications, to get it approved by U.S. 
regulators. They're trying to convince U.S. utilities to become 
the first to order a new reactor since the '70s. 

The question is: Are Americans ready for it? 

Ganthner and the nuclear industry say yes. 

People will recognize, they say, that a new generation of 
U.S. nuclear plants will mean enough available electricity to 
avoid a forecast deficit in the next decade. The sky will be 
less congested with greenhouse gases, they say. Americans are 
more willing to accept new nuclear construction, according to a 
survey by the nuclear industry's trade group. 

But those fighting against nuclear plants say a resurgence 
would instead mean a more dangerous world: Nuclear waste will be 
looking for a home, terrorists will have more tempting targets 
to attack, and temperatures in the rivers flowing past plants 
will rise enough to kill wildlife, they argue. 

The country has 103 operational nuclear reactors. The 1979 
partial meltdown of Three Mile Island and the 1986 explosion at 
Chernobyl, Ukraine, effectively halted interest in new nuclear 
plants. 

But interest among U.S. utilities has recently heated up, 
though there are no hard plans for a new reactor. 

For nuclear plants to maintain their piece of the overall 
energy pie - generating 20 percent of America's total 
electricity - the industry would have to build 30 to 40 new 
plants over the next 30 years, said Ganthner, whose firm is a 
joint subsidiary of France-based AREVA and Siemens of Germany. 

President Bush has been a champion for the nuclear industry, 
becoming the first president to visit a nuclear plant in 26 
years when he recently stopped by a Maryland plant. 

''There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will 
lead to a cleaner, safer nation,'' Bush said at the Calvert 
Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. 

The battle is most pitched on Capitol Hill, where Congress 
is hashing out an energy bill that could help a nascent nuclear 
resurgence explode or fade. 

The Senate's version, passed in June, is packed with 
incentives to get the nuclear industry rolling, such as a 
subsidy for new reactors and loan guarantees for their 
construction. The House's version doesn't include those 
packages. 

A 2003 study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
combines the ideas of nuclear plants' proponents and opponents. 
The country, it said, needs more nuclear energy, but it also 
needs more renewables, such as wind, and conservation. 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 47 NRC: NRC Bans Former Technician at Pennsylvania Company from NRC-Licensed Activities
 
News Release - Region I - 2005-04
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, 
Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. 
I-05-041                          August 5, 2005 CONTACT:     
Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331                     
E-mail:   
  

  
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued an order to Stanley
Pitts banning him from involvement in NRC-licensed activities
for five years. Pitts had been employed by Professional
Inspection and Testing Services, Inc., of Chambersburg, Pa. 

The company is licensed to possess and use radioactive materials
in portable nuclear gauges used to measure the moisture/density
of soil or other materials.
 
In April 2004, Professional Inspection and Testing Services
officials informed the NRC that they could not locate a gauge
and considered it stolen by an employee, Pitts, because he was
the last to have used it. Police recovered the gauge about a
week later in an apartment formerly occupied by Pitts.
 
The NRC Office of Investigations conducted an investigation into
the reported loss of the gauge. Investigators found that Pitts
was in possession of the nuclear gauge for about 13 days when he
was no longer employed by Professional Inspection and Testing
and was not authorized by the company or the NRC to possess
licensed material. In addition, investigators found that Pitts
deliberately violated NRC requirements when he apparently stole
and illegally possessed the gauge. 

In the order to Pitts banning him from licensed activities, NRC
Deputy Executive Director for Materials, Research, State and
Compliance Programs, Martin J. Virgilio, said the deliberate
violation of NRC requirements has raised serious doubt as to
whether he can be relied upon to comply with NRC requirements in
the future.
 
The order is effective immediately. Pitts and any other person
adversely affected by the order may request a hearing within 20
days.
   



  


 	Last revised Friday, August 05, 2005 	
*****************************************************************
 48 Rocky Mountain News: Worker spreads radioactive matter

'Very low' levels of contamination found in Colo., Kan. homes

By Associated Press

August 5, 2005

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - Investigators have determined that a Los
Alamos National Laboratory worker exposed to radioactive
material spread the contamination to homes in Colorado and
Kansas while visiting family, according to a lab spokeswoman. 
The employee was exposed to americium 241 while working at the
northern New Mexico lab, and the contamination was detected on
his skin and personal clothing July 25. 
			
 The employee's home in Los Alamos was decontaminated, and items
were removed from the homes in Colorado and Kansas and cleaned
by U.S. Energy Department's Radiological Assistance Program. 
The levels of americium 241 found at the homes pose no health
hazard, lab spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas said Wednesday. 

"The levels, of course, are very, very low," DeLucas said. 

"They are easily detected by our instruments, but they present
no health hazard. We now believe that we have captured all
material that has traveled off site." 

It's unclear how and when the worker was exposed to americium,
which is produced when plutonium atoms absorb neutrons in a
nuclear reactor or during a nuclear explosion. The resulting
metal is used mostly in household and industrial smoke
detectors. 

DeLucas said the employee was working with uranium pellets, not
americium, when he was exposed. The employee's skin and personal
clothing were contaminated. 

The health of the exposed worker and five others working in the
same room are being monitored, DeLucas said. One other lab
worker's home was also decontaminated, she said.  

2005 © Rocky Mountain News
*****************************************************************
 49 NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for N.J. Firm for Nuclear Gauge Violations
 
News Release - Region I - 2005-04
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 
Office of Public Affairs, Region I
 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406
  No. I-05-042   		        August 5, 2005   
  CONTACT:     Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330
 		Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331   		   E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov  
  

  
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $3,250
civil penalty for a Mays Landing, N.J.-based company for three
violations of agency regulations involving the control, security
and transportation of a nuclear gauge. The device, which
contains radioactive material, is used for industrial purposes
such as measuring the density of soil at construction sites.
 
The violations were identified as the result of an NRC special
inspection conducted in response to an April 25th incident. On
that date, a nuclear gauge owned by Craig Testing Laboratories,
Inc., fell out of a truck driven by one of its employees and
could not be located. The gauge, equipped with americium-241 and
cesium-137 sources, was lost in Pocopson (Chester County), Pa.
The employee had been performing work at a temporary job site in
that town. Although the transport case holding the gauge had
been chained to the truck, the chain had several feet of slack,
the case was not locked and the vehicles tailgate was not closed
to a locked position.
 
Approximately five days later, the gauge was recovered. A local
citizen who read about the loss in an area newspaper found it,
contacted the company and arranged for its return. The firm
reported to the NRC that the gauge was recovered in good
condition, with no visible damage. Subsequent testing indicated
there was no leakage and therefore no workers or members of the
public were exposed to any radiation due to the event.
 
Craig Testing discussed the violations with NRC staff during a
predecisional enforcement conference on June 23.
 
Based on information gathered during the inspection and provided
by the company at the June 23rd meeting, the NRC has identified
three violations of agency requirements. They are: a failure to
control or maintain constant surveillance of licensed nuclear
material that is in an unrestricted area and is not in storage;
a failure to ensure that a portable nuclear density gauge or its
outer container is locked; and a failure to comply with the
applicable requirements of U.S. Department of Transportation
regulations when transporting a nuclear gauge.
 
Although the source was in the shielded condition at the time
the gauge was found by the member of the public, these
violations are of concern to the NRC because (1) the failure to
control radioactive material resulted in the gauge being in the
public domain for approximately five days; and (2) such sources
can result in unintended radiation exposure to an individual if
the source is not in the shielded position, NRC Region I
Administrator Samuel J. Collins wrote in a letter to the company
regarding the enforcement action.
 
Craig Testing has taken steps to prevent a recurrence, including
reinstructing all of its nuclear gauge operators in proper
security and handling procedures, as well as increasing required
radiation safety officer visits to job sites to ensure
compliance with regulatory requirements.
 
The company is required to provide the NRC with a written reply
within 30 days.
   



  


 	Last revised Friday, August 05, 2005 	
*****************************************************************
 50 BBC: Radioactive traces found on beach
 
Last Updated: Friday, 5 August 2005
 
[Beach testing]                                 

The radioactive material was found during routine monitoring                                                                 

A stretch of Aberdeen beach has been closed to the public after 
traces of radioactive material were found in the sand. 

The particles were found below the tide level during routine 
monitoring of the beach in late July. 

A 100-yard stretch of the beach has been cordoned off while the 
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) carries out an 
investigation. 

NHS Grampian said the amount found poses a negligible risk to the 
public. 

Sepa said it had found higher than normal levels of radioactivity 
in a small area of sand at the southern end of the beach, near 
the harbour wall. 

Naturally occurring 

It is understood the radioactive substance is naturally 
occurring, but not normally found in that type of location in 
such a concentration. 

It is also found on offshore oil drilling equipment used in North 
Sea operations. 

A wider area of the beach will be monitored over the next few 
days to confirm the extent of the contamination. 

Production at environmental services company, Scotoil Services, 
has been halted as a precaution. 

As a precaution we ha suspended operations Scotoil Services 
spokesman      

A spokesman said: "We are obviously very concerned about this, 
but it is important to state that at this stage no link has been 
established between the finding of this material and the Scotoil 
Services operation. 

"However, as a precaution we have suspended operations. We shall, 
of course, be co-operating fully with Sepa and other authorities 
in their investigations. 

"We continue to have confidence in our procedures, which have 
been continuously reviewed and closely monitored now for more 
than 20 years. 

"During this time there have been no issues reported." 

Scotoil Services has provided descaling, decontamination and 
disposal services for the oil and gas industry since 1983 and is 
based near Aberdeen harbour. 

*****************************************************************
 51 TheNewsTribune.com: A story from the grave | 


| Tacoma, WA
 
A girl who died of leukemia remains a powerful symbol of Japans
nuclear aftermath. Her brother keeps her tale alive. 

EIJIRO KAWADA; The News Tribune

 Published: August 5th, 2005 12:01 AM 

      [Photo1] Enlarge imageDEAN J. KOEPFLER/THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Masahiro Sasaki reflects on an oragami crane and the memory of
his sister at a Green Lake ceremony in Seattle on Aug. 6, 2004.
[Photo2] Enlarge imageSTANLEY TROUTMAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An
Allied correspondent on Sept. 8, 1945, gazes upon whats left of
a theater amid the rubble of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped a
month earlier on Hiroshima, Japan. [Photo3] Enlarge imageJUNJI
KUROKAWA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A worker washes off part of the
Hiroshima Peace Memorial earlier this week in preparation for
ceremonies this weekend.   

  
On a tiny lot in Seattles University District stands a
life-size bronze statue of a Japanese girl, her right hand
holding an origami crane and stretching as if to touch the sky. 
Children and peace activists often drape her with hundreds of
paper cranes, especially this time of year. The girl for whom
the statue is modeled, Sadako Sasaki, survived the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima, which claimed 140,000 lives 60 years ago
this weekend. But she eventually fell victim to leukemia thought
to be caused by radiation.
 
Sadako believed she would recover if she folded 1,000 paper
cranes.
 
She reached that goal, but her prayer wasnt answered. She died
when she was 12.
 
Two generations later, her older brother, Masahiro Sasaki,
walked down a boat dock at Green Lake in Seattle with a paper
lantern  and his own prayer  in his hands.
 
A prayer for life. A prayer for peace.
 
The candle inside the lantern flickered as Sasaki, 64, handed it
to a person waiting in a canoe.
 
The surface of the lake was lit with hundreds of floating
lanterns at last years annual event commemorating the nuclear
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
This is impressive, Sasaki said as he chased the lanterns with
his eyes. I didnt know people here cared about us.
 
By us, he was referring to those who died in the bombings, to
survivors like himself and to people like Sadako who suffered 
as many still do  from radiation-related illnesses.
 
Sasaki flew from Japan to attend the Seattle event after his
sisters statue at Peace Park was restored last year; it had
been vandalized in December 2003. The late Quaker activist Floyd
Schmoe put the statue there in 1990.
 
Sadako  featured in numerous books, movies and public art
displays  is Japans most famous victim of the bombs
aftermath. In death, she helped raise awareness of the
far-reaching damage caused by atomic weapons.
 
Late in life, Sasaki has done the same. But it was only several
years ago that he began talking publicly about his sister and
his own experiences.
 
Sadakos illness and death drew much media attention, forcing
the Sasakis to move out of Hiroshima to avoid the public eye.
For years, the family was not up to talking.
 
These days, Sasaki often closes his barbershop in Fukuoka  the
city about 120 miles west of Hiroshima where his father moved
the family  to visit schools and other places to talk about his
sister and himself.
 
Now, I feel like, if I dont talk about Sadako, who will?
 
Big blast, then black rain
 
Sasaki remembers Aug. 6, 1945, as clear as the sky of that hot
summer day, not long after he turned 4 years old.
 
During breakfast, a neighbor spotted two airplanes coming from
the east, and the Sasaki family was admiring how shiny they were.
 
Radio stations had warned Hiroshima residents of two B-29
bombers approaching, but most had ignored the alert to take
shelter. Another Allied bomber had circulated above the city a
half-hour earlier without incident.
 
As soon as the Sasakis went back to the breakfast table, a blast
shook the city. The bomb instantly incinerated people outside
and destroyed houses. Soon, a wave of heat and a massive fire
covered Hiroshima.
 
We began running to the Misasa River looking for water because
it was just too hot, Sasaki recalled. At the river, there were
blackened corpses piled up on the banks and in the water.
 
On the way to the river, Sasakis grandmother turned around and
went home to get something. She never came back.
 
A boat on the water picked up the Sasakis, then black rain
began falling. The oily and sticky debris contained soot from
the sea of fire below, and packed radioactive elements produced
by the fission of uranium.
 
Sadako, 2 years old at the time, was covered by the particles.
Other family members were, too.
 
After the fire subsided, the family was lucky enough to catch a
ride to Sasakis grandparents house in rural Hiroshima. They
stayed for two years.

A legacy of paper cranes

Sadako, although thin, was an athletic girl known as a fast
runner at school. But in the fall of 1954, nine years after the
war ended, her throat began swelling, and she was diagnosed with
leukemia the following January. 

Her eight-month treatment at a local Red Cross hospital began in
February 1955.
 
A few years later, scientists began talking about an unusual
number of leukemia cases among people who were exposed to
radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese government
started taking care of the medical expenses of the ill.
 
But at the time of Sadakos diagnosis, all the family knew was
that she had less than a year to live, and her care was going to
be expensive.
 
The family was already in debt because Sasakis grandfather had
co-signed a loan for a friend who defaulted. Sasakis father had
to sell the familys house to pay off the loan, and little money
was left for Sadakos care. 

To this day, guilt still haunts her older brother.
 
I was worthless, Sasaki said while sitting on a stool at his
barbershop in Fukuoka. Back then, to be honest, I was looking
forward to going to the hospital because I liked noodles in the
cafeteria, not because I would see my sister.
 
Behind Sasaki, his wife cut an elderly womans hair. In the tiny
barbershop, the customer could hear Sasakis story but kept
staring straight ahead into a large mirror and never
interrupted, showing respect to his painful memories by
pretending not to listen.
 
Sasaki recalled how his sister never complained about her pain
and never took morphine because she heard it would shorten her
life. She brought textbooks to the hospital, worried shed be
left behind when she was well enough to return to school.
 
One day when Sadako was allowed to go home, she had gifts of
sandals for her family. She bought them with money people gave
her to pay for medical expenses.
 
And here I was, thinking about noodles, Sasaki said.
 
His sister died on Oct. 25, 1955, leaving the legacy of paper
cranes as a symbol of peace.
 
Afterward, nurses found a notebook Sadako kept to record her
daily health. Nobody had told her she was dying, but her
writings revealed that she knew.
 
At age 12, she wanted to leave evidence that she lived, Sasaki
said. 

For years he was stalked by a fear of following in her
footsteps. There was a rumor at the time that a bomb survivor
would be fine if no symptoms appeared within 15 years. Sasaki
dreaded his annual physical exam for several years after
Sadakos death.
 
After that arbitrary deadline passed, Sasaki became somewhat
relieved, but the fear returned after his mother died of parotid
gland cancer in 1985 at the age of 80. His father died of brain
cancer in 2002 when he was 87.
 
Although no definitive connection has been established between
their deaths and radiation, Sasaki wonders if hes the next in
line to get cancer.
 
That fear is always on your mind, he said.

The shame of survival

Hiroshima today is a bustling city of more than 1.1 million
residents, defying a reported prediction by Manhattan Project
scientists that it would be unlivable for 75 years after the
bombing.
 
Where the Sasaki residence once stood about a mile from ground
zero is somebodys garage now.
 
Inside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum are displays of U.S.
documents showing how the city was picked as a target.
 
The museum also has a display chronicling Sadakos life, next to
pictures of bomb victims with their skin burned and hair fallen
off. There are lists and descriptions of injuries and illnesses
common to survivors: cancer, leukemia, liver failure and
cataracts, to name a few. Health issues often have been passed
to the children of survivors.
 
Standing in front of the exhibit, museum director Minoru
Hataguchi said there are still 270,000 people believed to suffer
from the after-effects of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
The survivors are given identification cards and are eligible
for federal help in paying their medical expenses. The support
varies depending on each victims illnesses and severity.
Someone with ongoing health issues is eligible for up to about
$1,200 a month.
 
But not all survivors take advantage of the help in part because
of the shame of being a survivor, as well as an unwillingness to
admit they have radiation-related issues.
 
Many keep it to themselves, Hataguchi said.
 
Im a survivor, too, said Hataguchi, who has had polyps
removed from his intestines and stomach. I got my survivors
identification when I was 23, but I never used it until I turned
about 40.
 
A message not of hate
 
Several years ago, Hataguchi started making phone calls to
Sasaki, asking for family photos and other materials to be
included in the museum archives.
 
Sasaki came to realize that his sisters story had been told at
many places across the globe without the family knowing. City
leaders in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had become peace advocates,
protesting every nuclear test in the world, and Sadakos memory
had become a vehicle to carry the message.
 
Sasaki decided it was time to tell the story from his familys
perspective. Sometimes, he accepts invitations to travel abroad
and spread his message, as he did in Seattle last year.
 
He said his message is not of anger, shame or hardship. He wants
to tell the story of his dying sisters compassion, expressed in
gestures such as the gift of sandals to her family.
 
Sasaki hopes all people would learn those qualities and use them
to bring about world peace.
 
I dont hate Americans for the bombing, Sasaki said. Blaming
others only means that you are not compassionate enough. This is
the message I would like to convey as long as I live.
 
A LEGACY EXAMINED
 
The nuclear bombs that dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and
on Nagasaki three days later are said to have sped up the
Japanese surrender and saved tens of thousands of lives that
might have been lost during an Allied invasion of mainland Japan.
 
But the bombings also caused collateral damage to thousands of
Americans and Japanese for years to come, in body and in spirit.
 
The News Tribune is looking at the legacy of the Manhattan
Project nuclear age in the form of two people on two continents.
Staff writer Eijiro Kawada visited Japan earlier this year to
report most of todays story.
 
Today: A barber from Hiroshima spreads a message his 12-year-old
cancer-stricken sister would have loved.
 
Saturday: A woman from Olympia tries to keep hope alive, years
after growing up in the toxic shadow of the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.

Eijiro Kawada: 253-597-8633
eijiro.kawada@thenewstribune.com
   
 1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742 
© Copyright 2005 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy
Company   
*****************************************************************
 52 Salt Lake Tribune: Rolly: Hatch helps family cut the red tape 

Article Last Updated: 08/05/2005 08:23:38 AM 

By Paul Rolly Tribune Columnist 

When Clifford Mangum died in 2004 of cancer, his children were 
urged to apply for compensation funds from the federal 
government, because his wife also had died of a cancer-related 
illness and they both had lived in the southern Utah area 
exposed to fallout from atomic bomb testing in the 1950s. 

Their daughter, Claudia Perry, was told by the Radiation 
Exposure Compensation Program that she needed to provide birth 
and wedding certificates of all the family members eligible for 
compensation, as well as death certificates of the parents. 

She sent the original copies, as instructed, to the federal 
office and the Mangums' children were compensated for their 
parents' medical and funeral expenses. 

But when Perry attempted to get the important documents 
back, she ran into a bureaucratic brick wall. Her husband, 
Newell Perry, called the office several times and was told, 
basically, the documents were in the mail. But they never came. 

It went on for more than a year and the Perrys became 
frustrated since their children planned a big party to celebrate 
their 50th anniversary and wanted to display the wedding 
certificate that remained stuck in federal bureaucratic limbo. 

So two weeks before the anniversary party, the Perrys called 
the office of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who was instrumental 
earlier in setting up the downwinders' compensation program. 

That was the key. All the documents arrived in the mail July 
22, one day before the big anniversary party. 

Corrections: Wednesday's column told the story of the 
12-year-old All-Star baseball players from Rose Park whose van 
broke down Sunday near Mesquite, Nev., on the way home from a 
regional tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. They were rescued by a 
Mesquite police dispatcher and her son who gave them a ball and 
sleeve to hook the trailer carrying their luggage and equipment 
to a rented truck so they could get home in time to prepare for 
another tournament in Price this week. 

The mistake was that I called it a Little League tournament. 
It was the Cal Ripkin tournament, a division of the Babe Ruth 
League. 

Also on Wednesday, I described linguist John Henry 
Jorgensen, who is acting as a consultant to Hasbro to translate 
its FURBY doll's Furbish language into English and other 
languages, as director of BYU's Institute for the Study and 
Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts. He was a research 
assistant there, never the director. 

Rest of the story: At the Champions Golf Challenge earlier 
this week, comedian Bill Murray chucked a half-full plastic 
bottle of Coke to a fan, missing him and hitting another 
spectator in the mouth. It cut the guy's lip open. 

Murray saw what happened and immediately crossed the 
spectator ropes and went to the guy's aid. After seeing the 
damage (which was minor) he went back to his cart and got some 
ice and "Arnold Palmer's signature" - which turned out to be a 
can of Arnold Palmer Iced Tea that has Palmer's signature as its 
label. But Murray did sign the Coke bottle. 

Murray then invited the guy up to the tee box to hit a shot. 
When a paramedic named Jerry arrived, Murray ordered him to take 
the fan to the nearest hospital to see a plastic surgeon. He 
told the fan, "You don't want to see some guy just out of 
college, or you'll end up looking like Jerry." 

prolly@sltrib.com 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 53 Newstimeslive.com: Danbury doctor studied effects of radiation
 
  2005-08-05

By Robert Miller

THE NEWS-TIMES 


  The News-Times/Wendy Carlson Dr. Joseph Belsky, the former
chief of medicine at Danbury Hospital, studied the health of the
people who lived though the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.   

The first victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were those who died
when they were burned alive, or blown away by the atomic winds. 

The next group died of injuries or acute radiation poisoning.
Then came people succumbing to leukemia. And even 20 years
afterward, the people who lived through the first and only
atomic bombings in human history were dying of all kinds of
cancer, at higher rates than those never exposed to heavy doses
of radiation. 

"Breast cancer, skin cancer  just name the cancer," said Dr.
Joseph Belsky of Danbury, the former chief of medicine at
Danbury Hospital. "The rates were exaggerated in the Japanese
people who survived the bombings." 


  Dr. Joseph Belsky of Danbury, center, was in Japan from 1969
to 1972, as part of a team studying the health of the people who
lived though the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. 	   

From 1969 to 1972, Belsky, 78, took a three-year hiatus from his
duties in Danbury to work in Hiroshima, studying the health of
the people who lived though the attacks, which occurred 60 years
ago this week  Hiroshima on Aug., 6, 1945, and Nagasaki, on Aug.
9. On Aug. 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. 

As medical director of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission,
Belsky helped run the effort to study the long-term effects of
radiation on humans. The effort began in 1946 and continues
today as the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. 

Through it, doctors, nurses and public health directors chart
the continuing history of an event that, in many ways, stands
alone in time. No one dropped an atomic bomb before 1945. No one
has since. 

"There have been 100 wars in the world since 1946," said Dr.
Wolfgang Panofsky, retired director of the Linear Accelerator
Center at Stanford University in California, and a participant
in the Manhattan Project, which helped design the first atomic
bombs. "There has been a taboo. The real danger now is that this
taboo may be broken." 

The Hiroshima bomb which the United States detonated in the air
above the city at 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, had the force of
15,000 tons of TNT. Below it, on the ground, the temperature
flashed to 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to burn the clothes
off the backs of people a mile and a quarter away. 

By the end of 1946, about 140,000 people were dead in Hiroshima 
about a third of that city's population. In Nagasaki, the number
was about 78,000. 

Philip Morrison, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who helped
design and assemble the Hiroshima bomb, toured the city a month
later. From the air, he said, all one could see was "one
enormous flat, rusted scar and no green or gray, because there
were no roofs or vegetation left." 

"There were a lot of fires," said Danbury's Belsky. "If you
didn't get irradiated, or hit by a flying car in the winds, you
might die by burning." 

"Unless you have seen this, you can't understand it," said
Raymond Jeanloz, chairman of the Committee on International
Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences,
who interviewed many of the witnesses of the atomic blasts. "No
picture does it justice." 

A year later, the United States agreed to cooperate with Japan
on a long-term study of the effects of the bombs on the Japanese
population. Under the aegis of the National Academy of Sciences
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Atomic Bomb Casualty
Commission began its work. 

"There were already studies under way of the health effects of
radiation on the people who had worked on the Manhattan
Project," which developed the atomic bomb, said Dr. William
Schull, a geneticist who went to work on the casualty commission
in 1947 and remains a respected expert on the biological effects
of radiation. "And we had 50 years of previous experience
working on things like X-rays. But there had never been any
studies of this amount of radiation and its outcomes. There
couldn't have been." 

"What we found was that if a person was within a half-mile of
the blast, they weren't going to make it," Belsky said. "From
within a half-mile to two miles, they had a chance of survival."
Within that range, he said, the farther away, the greater the
chance of escaping without any long-term effects. 

Belsky worked with a team of English-speaking Japanese doctors
and nurses in a complex of Quonset huts in Hiroshima. They were
able to compare the health of their patients to the Japanese
population at large to draw conclusions, as well as the death
records of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

The first disease that cropped up among survivors in the early
1960s was leukemia. By the time Belsky arrived, other cancers
had appeared. His work uncovered increased cases of cancer of
the salivary glands. 

"There were also increased rates of thyroid cancer  there's an
analogy between what happened in Japan and at Chernobyl," he
said, referring to people who absorbed radiation after the
catastrophic failure of the Soviet-built nuclear power plant in
1986. 

Belsky said his research also showed children under 5 years old
exposed to the radiation grew up to be much shorter than their
counterparts in other parts of Japan. 

But, Belsky said, there was no evidence those who survived the
bombs were more susceptible to other diseases, like heart
disease. A study of 77,000 infants of bomb survivors has yet to
show these children suffered any genetic damage from the
attacks. 

Schull said the most poignant victims of the attacks were the
unborn infants whose mothers survived the attacks. Once born,
these children had a very high rate of mental retardation. 

"If you were an adult, you had a higher rate of getting cancer,
but that might not happen until you were in your 40s," Schull
said. "These children had a lifetime of handicaps. Most had an
IQ lower than 70  they couldn't put together a simple sentence
or do simple arithmetic." 

And yet, Schull said he knew one such victim who knew all the
players on the local baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp, and the
numbers on all their uniforms. 

"He lived on a farm that was run by a government agency," Schull
said. "He knew the names of more plants that I ever will, and
knew all the parts of the combines and farm equipment. Part of
his brain was working." 

Belsky and his family left Japan in 1972. He and his wife
decided their three children were reaching high school age and
should attend school back in America. He served as chief of
medicine and director of internal medicine at Danbury Hosptial
until 1980, then as chief of endocrinology until his retirement
in 1996. 

Although officially retired, he still sees patients as an
endocrinologist and is active in the diabetes clinic at the
AmeriCares Free Clinic in Danbury. 

Belsky said, at the vantage point of 60 years, it is important
to remember American bombing raids, using conventional weapons,
killed more people in Tokyo than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
combined. 

"They made this decision, without thinking about right or wrong,
to finish this horrible (war)," he said. "Whether we needed to
drop a second bomb is something I can argue with." 

Wolfgang Panofsky  who devised ways of measuring the energy
released by the first atomic bombs, and who witnessed the first
test exploded at Alamogordo  said what he fears today is that
people have forgotten how devastating an atomic bomb can be.
It's been 60 years, he said, and there are fewer and fewer
people alive who can testify to their horrors. 

"We are disarming," he said. "But the speed at which we are
stepping back is disastrously inefficient." 

Contact Robert Miller 
at bmiller@newstimes.com 
or at (203) 731-3345. 

this story has been read 527 times   

 Division of Ottaway Newspapers,Inc.
 The News-Times
 333 Main Street Danbury CT 06810
 All items copyright © 2005 by The News-Times unless otherwise
noted.   
*****************************************************************
 54 [epa-impact] Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 11:12:15 -0400 (EDT)

 
	WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com

http://epa.gov/EPA-IMPACT/2005/August/Day-05/  
=======================================================================


[Federal Register: August 5, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 150)]
[Notices]
[Page 45380-45381]
>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05au05-34]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
 
Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final Environmental 
Impact Statement, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah, Final 
Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Department of Energy (DOE).
ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of 
Environmental Management (EM) announces the availability of the 
Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final Environmental 
Impact Statement, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah (DOE/EIS-
0355)(FEIS). The FEIS has been prepared in accordance with the 
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality (Title 40 Code of 
Federal Regulations [CFR] Parts 1500-1508) for implementing the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and DOE's NEPA Implementing 
Procedures (10 CFR Part 1021). The FEIS analyzes the potential 
environmental impacts associated with remediating contaminated soils, 
tailings, and ground water at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Site (Moab 
site), Grand County, Utah, and contaminated soils in adjacent public 
and private properties (vicinity properties) near the Moab site.
    The FEIS analyzes one on-site and three off-site alternative 
disposal locations for remediation of surface contamination; one 
alternative for remediation of contaminated ground water; and the No 
Action Alternative. Remediation alternatives for the disposal of 
surface contamination include on-site disposal of the mill tailings at 
their current location in Moab, Utah; and three off-site disposal 
alternatives in Utah: Klondike Flats, Crescent Junction, and the White 
Mesa Mill. For transportation of the mill tailings to the off-site 
alternatives, three modes have been considered: Truck, rail, and slurry 
pipeline.
    The FEIS identifies Crescent Junction as DOE's preferred 
alternative for disposal of the Moab mill tailings and other 
contaminated materials using predominantly rail transportation. Under 
the preferred alternative, DOE would remove the contaminated mill 
tailings from adjacent to the Colorado River and relocate them at the 
Crescent Junction site. The FEIS also identifies active ground water 
remediation as DOE's preferred alternative for contaminated ground 
water to eliminate the potential ongoing impacts to aquatic species in 
the Colorado River resulting from contaminated ground water discharges.

DATES: Copies of the FEIS were distributed to Members of Congress, 
American Indian Tribal governments, state and local governments, other 
Federal agencies, and organizations and individuals who are known to 
have an interest in the FEIS on July 25-26, 2005. DOE plans to issue a 
Record of Decision for the Moab FEIS no sooner than September 6, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Send requests for copies of the FEIS to: Mr. Donald Metzler, 
Moab Federal Project Director, U.S. Department of Energy, 2597 B \3/4\ 
Road, Grand Junction, Colorado, 81503; by facsimile: (970) 248-6023; by 
phone: (970) 248-7612 or toll free at (800) 637-4575; or by e-mail at

[[Page 45381]]
<A HREF="mailto:moabcomments@gjo.doe.gov">moabcomments@gjo.doe.gov</A>. The FEIS is available on the DOE NEPA Web 
site at <A HREF="http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/documents.html">http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/documents.html</A>, on the 
project Web site at <A HREF="http://gj.em.doe.gov/moab/">http://gj.em.doe.gov/moab/</A>, and at the 
following reading room locations:

Grand County Library 25 South 100 East, Moab, Utah, (435) 259-5421.

Library hours:
    9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
    9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
    9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
    Closed Sunday.

Blanding Branch Library, 25 West 300 South, Blanding, Utah, (435) 678-2335.

Library hours:
    Noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
    2 to 6 p.m. Friday.
    10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
    Closed Sunday.

White Mesa Ute Administrative Building, (off U.S. Highway 191), White 
Mesa, Utah, (435) 678-3397.
Reading Room hours:
    8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
    Closed Saturday and Sunday.
The DOE Freedom of Information Act Office and Reading Room, Room 1E-
190, 1000 Independence Ave, SW., Washington, DC 20585, (202) 586-3142.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information on the 
Office of Environmental Management's (EM's) Moab FEIS, please contact 
Mr. Donald Metzler at the address or phone numbers listed in the 
ADDRESSES section above, or Steve Frank, EM NEPA Compliance Officer, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, 
DC 20585; (202) 586-7478.
    For general information regarding the DOE NEPA process, please 
contact: Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and 
Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585; (202) 586-4600 or leave a message at 
(800) 472-2756.

Steven Frank,
Office of Environmental Management, NEPA Compliance Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-15503 Filed 8-4-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

------------------------------------------

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*****************************************************************
 55 AU ABC: Qld stands by uranium mining opposition
 
(ACST)Friday, 5 August 2005. 16:00 (AEDT)Friday, 5 August 2005.
13:00 (AWST)

 The Queensland Government says there will be no change to its
long-standing opposition to uranium mining and processing in
Queensland. 

The Commonwealth yesterday announced it is taking control of
uranium mining in the Northern Territory. 

The Federal Government has the power to approve mines under the
self-government rules for the Territory. 

A spokesman for Queensland's Natural Resources Minister Henry
Palaszczuk says it does not have the same authority over
Queensland. 

He says Queensland's emphasis remains on its abundance of cheap
coal and new, cleaner coal burning technologies. 

"There is over 45,000 tonnes of known uranium deposits in
Queensland, most of which is in the hands of two Canadian
resource companies, Laramide Resources and Maple Minerals, while
the rest is controlled by Australian companies, Georgetown
Mining and Summit Resources," he said.

*****************************************************************
 56 AU ABC: NT Govt to keep mine royalties
(ACST)Friday, 5 August 2005. 19:38 (AEDT)Friday, 5 August 2005.
16:38 (AWST)

 The Federal Government says the Northern Territory will pocket
the royalties from any new uranium mines that open in the Top
End. 

The Commonwealth is to take control over the Territory's uranium
deposits under an agreement reached yesterday. 

The Territory Government currently receives royalties from the
Ranger uranium mine. 

The Territory Mines Minister, Kon Vatskalis, says he suspects
the Commonwealth will take the royalties from any new uranium
mines it approves. 

"The Commonwealth at any time can decide it will not distribute
the royalties, can keep it or they decide to distribute the
royalties to the traditional owners and the Land Council only
and keep the rest of it," he said. 

But federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says that is not
on the cards. 

"There is nothing in this for the Commonwealth," he said. 

Mr Macfarlane says the Territory Government will continue to
take the royalties and Mr Vatskalis is fully aware of that. 

Meanwhile, Mr Macfarlane has reiterated an offer for the
Territory to take a role in deciding which uranium mines are
approved. 

Chief Minister Clare Martin yesterday dismissed the idea, saying
there is no way for the Territory to play a part in the
licensing process. 

But, speaking in Brisbane today, Mr Macfarlane says the door is
still open. 

"I just want to assure Northern Territorians that the
Commonwealth is ready at any time to work with Clare Martin and
her Government in the licensing process," he said. 

"But as they, the Northern Territory Government, have abdicated
their responsibilities there the Commonwealth will assume that
role until the Territory Government changes its mind."

*****************************************************************
 57 Las Vegas RJ: Memo faults Yucca planning
 
Friday, August 05, 2005
 
 
Nuclear regulatory staff says risk factors of air crash omitted
 By ERICA WERNER 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department left out risk factors
related to potential airplane crashes and hazards at the Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository in planning for the project,
nuclear regulatory staff told the agency in a memo released
Thursday. 

The department undercounted the number of Air Force plane
crashes at the site in Nevada during the 1990s and discounted
the possibility of impacts from jettisoned ordnance, birds
hitting planes and cruise missile testing at the Nevada Test
Site, said the memo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff. 

The Energy Department also made an unsupported assumption that
airplanes malfunctioning outside the no-fly zone never would
enter the no-fly zone and crash into the repository, the memo
said. 

The memo relates to aircraft failures and problems, as opposed
to potential terrorist attacks, at the proposed repository site
100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was written as part of the
consultation between the Energy Department and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission as the department prepares to submit a
license application to the NRC to operate the facility. 

An accompanying cover letter says that the NRC has concluded its
review of aircraft hazard issues at Yucca Mountain, but that the
issues outlined in the memo remain unresolved. 

"DOE should note that it may need to address some or all of
these items in a potential (license application), depending on
the final aircraft hazard analysis approach used," says the
letter signed by Lawrence Kokajko, deputy director of the
division of high-level waste repository safety at the NRC's
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. 

An Energy Department spokesman, Craig Stevens, emphasized that
the NRC had closed its review of the issue. 

"This letter shows that we are one step closer to meeting the
needs and concerns of the NRC," Stevens said. "After fully
reviewing this letter, the department will work with the NRC and
provide them with enough information to fully allay their
concerns." 

Yucca Mountain is planned as an underground repository for
77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste. Delays have pushed
back the planned license application date to next spring at the
earliest.
 
 

Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 58 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN OVERSIGHT: Audit finds state, county misspending
 
Friday, August 05, 2005
 
 
$1.2 million in expenses at issue
 By STEVE TETREAULT 
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- Government auditors Thursday challenged $1.2
million that the state of Nevada and three counties spent from
federal funds to oversee Department of Energy activities at
Yucca Mountain. 

An inspector general's investigation concluded that Clark,
Lincoln and Nye County officials misspent almost $1.1 million
among them on unpermitted consultant tasks, salaries, travel and
office expenses. 

In their report Thursday, auditors also said the Nevada Agency
for Nuclear Projects misapplied $81,000 in payments to its
nuclear waste law firm. The audit report said more than $74,000
was paid back during the investigation. 

Officials in Clark County and Nye County disputed the audit and
said they planned to appeal. The nuclear waste coordinator for
Lincoln County was not available for comment. 

Local officials said they were frustrated. Many of the expenses
flagged by auditors had been approved by Yucca Mountain
managers, they maintained. 

"Basically, with no disrespect to the auditors, but they know
nothing of what DOE has asked the counties to do or what we are
allowed to do," Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell said. 

"Some of the responsibility ought to be on DOE for having
approved our work plans." 

If the audit findings are upheld, counties could lose Yucca
Mountain grants to make up the shortcomings. 

An inspector general's audit two years ago challenged $3.3
million in county spending, although some of that was allowed
after appeals. Nye County still is challenging more than $1
million in questioned spending from that audit, Trummell said. 

The audit released Thursday challenged more than $163,000 in
Clark County spending, about $720,000 spent by Nye County and
more than $200,000 for Lincoln County. 

"We don't believe any of our costs were questionable," said
Irene Navis, Clark County director of nuclear waste planning. 

"We believe we are completely within the law and the intent of
Congress. We welcome the scrutiny, but it should be fair." 

The Energy Department will ask the counties to submit monthly
expense reports to avoid problems in the future, DOE spokesman
Allen Benson said. 

"It's in nobody's interest for the counties to have to get these
constant audit findings," Benson said. 

"We want to work with them." 

Navis said the counties probably would reject that idea. With
the DOE and Nevada heading toward conflicts over repository
licensing, county officials are looking to loosen ties with the
department instead of strengthening them, she said. 

Auditors reviewed invoices and work plans from May 2002 to July
2004, a period during which the state and three counties spent
$11.7 million appropriated by Congress to monitor the Yucca
project. 

DOE inspector general Gregory Friedman said the audit "suggests
that this program is still not fully achieving its intended
results" to help counties weigh the potential local impacts of
the proposed nuclear waste repository. 

Federal law allows the county governments to use federal grants
to hire consultants to judge the repository's local impacts, to
review Yucca science and to communicate with residents and with
the DOE. 

Counties cannot spend federal money on lobbying or lawsuits. 

Auditors said Nye County improperly allocated $224,000 in
oversight funds for salaries that should have been charged to a
separate Yucca Mountain grant. 

Trummell said the DOE had approved the accounting. 

Auditors also questioned $12,000 in travel costs for Nye County
officials, including a trip to a National Association of
Counties meeting in New Orleans and reimbursements for trips to
the Nevada Test Site. 

A $70,000 payment for an Indian Springs report commissioned by
Clark County was challenged, as well as $87,000 given to a
consultant to analyze federal legislation. Navis responded that
the audit figures were inflated and that the costs were
allowable in both cases. 

In Lincoln County, auditors questioned $86,000 in consultant
fees to track legislation and review lawsuits related to the
project.
 
 

Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 59 Bellona: Nuclear waste from Urenco and Eurodif remain in Russia —
                          
"Ecodefence!"
 
On August 2, the "Ecodefence!" group presented its research
about one of the most unknown of nuclear businesses — import of
radioactive waste from EU to Russia for enrichment.

  www.urenco.com   

Vera Ponomareva, 2005-08-04 15:01

"Although this business is flourishing in Russia, there is no
access to information about it. According to the ecologists,
since 1996 European companies Urenco and Eurodif have been
sending radioactive waste (so-called uranium tailings) for
reprocessing. The result of the process is uranium, similar to
the natural one, which is sent back to the Western Europe.
Radioactive waste generated during the reprocessing remain in
Russia," the ecologists state in their news-release. 

According to the research data, the decisive reason for sending
nuclear waste for re-enrichment to Russia is that Rosatom and
its plants are ready to leave uranium tailings in the country.
If Urenco and Eurodif were decommissioning nuclear waste
themselves — the cost of their product would become
approximately 5 times higher.

Such costs are unacceptable for the German branch of "Urenco",
as they would make up nearly one half of their profit from
reprocessing business. That is the reason why "Urenco" so
readily gets rid of its uranium tailings sending them to Russia,

otherwise the company wouldn't survive in the market. 
According to "Ecodefence!", this business involves three Russian
plants: the Urals Electrochemical integrated plant near
Ekaterinburg, the Siberian Chemical Combine (Tomsk-7) and
Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Combine in the Irkutsk district.
 

  Siberian Chemical combine keeps on contaminating underground
waters   
  

  2003-03-25

 April 6th is the tenth anniversary of the accident at the
Siberian Chemical combine in Tomsk County. Today people from
Tomsk continue bringing actions against the Combine. They demand
the Combine should stop dumping liquid radioactive waste into
underground waters.

The "Ecodefence" news-release gives the following facts about
the outcome of Rosatom's activities: 

From 1996 to 2001 9740 tonnes of nuclear waste arrived in Russia
only from Germany. In the period from 2001 to 2005 radioactive
waste import continued approximately at the same level, but the
precise information remain unpublished. 

So, the volume of nuclear waste accumulated during enrichment
from 1996 to 2005 makes up approximately from 14 to 15 thousand
tonnes. Western European countries pay only for the enrichment
service at the prices, which are much lower than the world ones.
 
  The Russian Nuclear Industry—The Need for Reform   
  
  Released November 2004, the forth Bellona report on the
Russian nuclear industry sugests solutions as well as giving
further details on the current situation.

"We have been dealing with enrichment of imported uranium for a
long time, there is no secret about it," commented to Bellona
Web Nikolay Shingarev, the director of the Rosatom information
center. "There is nothing illegal in this business." 

According to Shingarev, the imported uranium tailings are not
classified as nuclear waste, as they are subject to further
reprocessing and do not need to be stored. The outcome of this
technological process is triuranium octaoxide (U3O8), which is
safe for storage and can be used in fast neutron reactors. So,
what Russia receives is not waste but precious reprocessing
material.

The "Ecodefence!" group expressed another opinion: "Nuclear
waste enrichment is another dirty secret of Rosatom, which
finally became known to public. Nuclear industry keeps using
Russia for the storage of radioactive garbage. The profit from
the enrichment goes to the foreign companies and high-ranking
officials of Rosatom, while nuclear waste becomes a burden for
the taxpayers," says the "Ecodefense!" news-release. 

"Ecodefence!" will fight to put an end to the foreign nuclear
waste enrichment in Russia by all possible means," claimed the
co-chairmen of the "Ecodefence!" group Vladimir Slivjak.
On August 6, "Ecodefence!" opens the 6th Antinuclear Camp near
the Urals Electrochemical integrated plant. The camp will be
open for one week. 

Also "Ecodefence!" is planning to address the Prosecution Office
hoping that it will interfere to stop the illegal activity of
Rosatom. At the moment we are gathering the necessary papers,"
said Vladimir Slivyak to Bellona Web.

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 60 DOE: Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final
 
                        FR Doc 05-15503 
[Federal Register: August 5, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 150)] 
[Notices] [Page 45380-45381] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05au05-34]                         
 
Environmental Impact Statement, Grand and San Juan Counties, 
Utah, Final Environmental Impact Statement AGENCY: Department of 
Energy (DOE).
 
ACTION: Notice of availability.
 
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of 
Environmental Management (EM) announces the availability of the 
Remediation of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Final Environmental 
Impact Statement, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah (DOE/EIS- 
0355)(FEIS). The FEIS has been prepared in accordance with the 
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality (Title 40 
Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Parts 1500-1508) for 
implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and 
DOE's NEPA Implementing Procedures (10 CFR Part 1021). The FEIS 
analyzes the potential environmental impacts associated with 
remediating contaminated soils, tailings, and ground water at the 
Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Site (Moab site), Grand County, Utah, 
and contaminated soils in adjacent public and private properties 
(vicinity properties) near the Moab site.
 
The FEIS analyzes one on-site and three off-site alternative 
disposal locations for remediation of surface contamination; one 
alternative for remediation of contaminated ground water; and the 
No Action Alternative. Remediation alternatives for the disposal 
of surface contamination include on-site disposal of the mill 
tailings at their current location in Moab, Utah; and three 
off-site disposal alternatives in Utah: Klondike Flats, Crescent 
Junction, and the White Mesa Mill. For transportation of the mill 
tailings to the off-site alternatives, three modes have been 
considered: Truck, rail, and slurry pipeline.
 
The FEIS identifies Crescent Junction as DOE's preferred 
alternative for disposal of the Moab mill tailings and other 
contaminated materials using predominantly rail transportation.
 
Under the preferred alternative, DOE would remove the 
contaminated mill tailings from adjacent to the Colorado River 
and relocate them at the Crescent Junction site. The FEIS also 
identifies active ground water remediation as DOE's preferred 
alternative for contaminated ground water to eliminate the 
potential ongoing impacts to aquatic species in the Colorado 
River resulting from contaminated ground water discharges.
 
 
DATES: Copies of the FEIS were distributed to Members of 
Congress, American Indian Tribal governments, state and local 
governments, other Federal agencies, and organizations and 
individuals who are known to have an interest in the FEIS on July 
25-26, 2005. DOE plans to issue a Record of Decision for the Moab 
FEIS no sooner than September 6, 2005.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Send requests for copies of the FEIS to: Mr. Donald 
Metzler, Moab Federal Project Director, U.S. Department of 
Energy, 2597 B \3/4\ Road, Grand Junction, Colorado, 81503; by 
facsimile: (970) 248-6023; by phone: (970) 248-7612 or toll free 
at (800) 637-4575; or by e-mail at
 
[[Page 45381]]

 
moabcomments@gjo.doe.gov. The FEIS is available on the DOE NEPA 
Web site at http://www eh.doe. gov/nepa/ documents.html, on the 
project Web site at http://gj.em.doe.gov/moab/., and at the 
following reading room locations: Grand County Library 25 South 
100 East, Moab, Utah, (435) 259-5421.
 
Library hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. 9 a.m. 
to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Closed 
Sunday.
 
Blanding Branch Library, 25 West 300 South, Blanding, Utah, (435) 
678- 2335.
 
Library hours: Noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. 2 to 6 
p.m. Friday. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.
 
White Mesa Ute Administrative Building, (off U.S. Highway 191), 
White Mesa, Utah, (435) 678-3397.
 
Reading Room hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. 
Closed Saturday and Sunday.
 
The DOE Freedom of Information Act Office and Reading Room, Room 
1E- 190, 1000 Independence Ave, SW., Washington, DC 20585, (202) 
586-3142.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information on 
the Office of Environmental Management's (EM's) Moab FEIS, please 
contact Mr. Donald Metzler at the address or phone numbers listed 
in the ADDRESSES section above, or Steve Frank, EM NEPA 
Compliance Officer, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585; (202) 586-7478.
 
For general information regarding the DOE NEPA process, please 
contact: Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and 
Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585; (202) 586-4600 or leave a 
message at (800) 472-2756.
 
Steven Frank, Office of Environmental Management, NEPA Compliance 
Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 05-15503 Filed 8-4-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 61 Platts: IG audit questions use of DOE oversight funds at Yucca Mountain
 
+ Nuclear utility customers helped pay for work ranging from
development of a planned community in Nevada to legal fees after
three Nevada counties and the state itself incorrectly used DOE
oversight funds for work unrelated to the repository project at
Yucca Mountain, Nev., said a DOE Inspector General (IG) report
released today. 

An IG audit questioned the appropriateness of $1.2-mil of the 
$11.7-mil spent by the state and three counties during fiscal 
2003 and 2004, the report said. 

Oversight funds are to be used for monitoring, testing, or 
evaluation of activities associated with work at Yucca Mountain. 

Congress has said the funds cannot be used for lobbying, 
litigation expenses, or coalition-building activities. But the IG 
said it found some of the money was used for such things as 
economic development expenses, official travel unrelated to 
nuclear waste, and monitoring of the Nevada Test Site, a former 
nuclear weapons test site that borders Yucca Mountain. 

The report is at http://www.ig.doe.gov. For more similar news, 
take a trial to Nuclear News Flashes at 
http://www.nuclearnews.platts.com. 

  
New York (Platts)--4Aug2005
 
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies]   
*****************************************************************
 62 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Project representatives predict more business for contractors

August 5, 2005 - 02:34:22  
 
 By Karen Polly/Current-Argus Staff Writer

CARLSBAD — A uranium enrichment facility planned near Eunice
will mean business opportunities for Carlsbad-area constructors
and supply companies, according to project representatives who
were in town Thursday.
 
Thirty-three people attended a contractor opportunity forum at
the Stevens Inn co-sponsored by National Enrichment Facility
representatives and the Carlsbad Department of Development,
according to CDOD Executive Director Robert Detweiler.
 
John Lowther, NEF contracts manager, said the meeting was held
to provide local businesses with an overview of the project and
information about the opportunities that may be available.
 
“There’s such a wide range of things they could do,” Lowther
said of Carlsbad companies, including general construction,
concrete work, electrical work and steel fabrication.
 
The facility is on a pace to start excavation in August 2006 and
construction in October 2006, but the dates are dependent on the
issuance of a federal license, Lowther said.
 
The facility would enrich uranium to make fuel for nuclear power
plants.
 
Lowther said because Carlsbad companies helped with construction
of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, local businesses have an
understanding of the rigorous standards and paperwork required
for construction of a nuclear facility.
 
“Our core processing facility has to be designed to the highest
(quality assurance) standards,” Lowther said.
 
“(NEF) did a very good job of laying out the project and also
the opportunities available for local businesses,” Detweiler
said.
 
Dave Sepich, owner of Springtime Cleaning, described the
presentation by Mike Lynch as very interesting.
 
Lynch is the vice president and project manager of Louisiana
Energy Services, the company designing and building the NEF.
 
“I was just amazed at what this facility is going to be,” Sepich
said. “Of course, spending $1.4 billion is not bad for the
economy of southeastern New Mexico. I think there’s a huge
opportunity for companies from southeastern New Mexico.”
 
Sepich said Carlsbad has technology that will fit “hand in
glove” with what the NEF needs, especially for companies in
construction.
 
“We (Springtime Cleaning) are probably not going to be involved
in the construction part, other than working for some of the
contractors doing construction cleanup or providing supplies,”
Sepich said.
 
But Sepich said after the facility is built, perhaps his
business could be involved in maintenance. 

Copyright © 2004 Carlsbad Current-Argus, a Gannett Co., Inc.
newspaper.
*****************************************************************
 63 The Dispatch: Defense begins in perchlorate trial
 	 	 	 	 	 	
  Friday, August 05, 2005   

Email The Editor
 Friday, August 05, 2005
 By Matt King 

San Jose - The Olin Corp. began its defense of lawsuits claiming
it destroyed property values in San Martin with a witness who
said the company used “state-of-the-art” disposal methods to
protect South County groundwater.

Neil Shifrin, president of a Massachusetts environmental
consulting firm, told a federal jury Thursday that Olin’s
practices of burying hazardous materials and pouring wastewater
into evaporation ponds were consistent with contemporary
industry standards and available technology.

“Today, we have a system of environmental regulation that simply
didn’t exist in the 1950s, ’60’s, ’70s,” Shifrin said. “It might
seem unfortunate today, but it’s what was done then.”

The jury earlier heard from four San Martin homeowners who say
that the discovery of perchlorate in their well water has ruined
their property values and caused untold psychological harm. A
9.5-mile perchlorate plume flowing south and east of Olin’s
former road flare factory in southern Morgan Hill was discovered
in 2003.

Also testifying were real estate experts who backed those
claims, and a state official who detailed the history of Olin’s
perchlorate contamination. Plaintiffs’ attorneys wrapped up two
weeks of testimony Wednesday with their own expert who claimed
Olin failed to act reasonably to prevent environmental
degradation.

The defense is expected to call to the stand current and former
Olin employees and a geologist. Closing arguments are
tentatively scheduled for Aug. 15.

The four plaintiffs are part of a group of about 120 pressing
their claims against Olin. Another group of about 160 plaintiffs
making similar charges are settling their claims.

Matt King covers Santa Clara County for The Dispatch. He can be
reached at 847-7240 or mking@gilroydispatch.com.   

[(408)842-9070]                               
[Gilroy Dispatch
*****************************************************************
 64 AU ABC: Maralinga survivor speaks against uranium mining
 
        Friday, 5 August 2005, 12:28:16  AEST 

A survivor of fallout from the Maralinga nuclear tests of the
1950s will speak tomorrow at a public meeting against uranium
mining in South Australia.

The meeting is scheduled to coincide with the 60th anniversary
of the Hiroshima bombing, and will take place at the Tandanya
centre in Adelaide.

Yami Lester says his eyesight has been affected by the nuclear
tests. 

He was unable to prove this in the 1984 Maralinga Royal
Commission but Mr Lester says he was able to prove there had
been radiation fallout in his community.

"We were 200 kilometres away, round about that, and we seen
radiation fallout over [Walladinya] with people, population -
about 45 I think and a lot of kids," he said.

"At the time I was 10-years-old, round about that, and I
remember the black mist coming over to our camp." 

*****************************************************************
 65 AU ABC: Land Council welcomes uranium mine decision
 
        Friday, 5 August 2005, 18:06:22  AEST 

The Northern Land Council (NLC) has welcomed the Federal
Government's announcement any approval of new uranium mines will
depend on the support of traditional owners.

Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane made the promise
yesterday when he announced the Commonwealth would take control
of regulating the Northern Territory's uranium deposits.

NLC chief executive Norman Fry says the Federal Government is
following the Land Rights Act which states that mining can only
occur on Aboriginal land with the consent of traditional owners.

But the spokesman for the Mirrar people, whose lands include the
site of the Ranger uranium mine, says it has been terrible for
his people.

The Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation's executive officer, Andy

Ralph, says the mine has had a terrible safety record.

"There's been that many incidents over the years," he said.

"We are concerned about rehab coming up in five or six years
time, the footprint is ever increasing at the uranium site.
"The Mirrar people will not be able to use the company for
10,000 years." 

*****************************************************************
 66 Las Vegas SUN: Audit: Nevada, counties misspent nuclear dump oversight funds 

August 04, 2005 

By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - About one of every 10 dollars in federal funds
sent to Nevada to oversee plans for a national nuclear waste
repository was misspent, according to an Energy Department
inspector general office report released Thursday. 

The audit challenges almost $1.2 million of the $11.7 million
spent by the state and Clark, Nye and Lincoln counties during
fiscal 2003 and 2004. It cites expenditures "unrelated to the
Yucca Mountain project or specifically prohibited" by federal
law. 

Officials with the state and counties said they intend to
appeal. 

"We're going to put our heads together and see how we can
respond to this," said David Swanson, chief of the Nye County
Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office in Pahrump. 

The Energy Department allocated $14.5 million in fiscal 2003 and
2004 for the state and 10 local governments under a provision of
the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act allowing local governments
to monitor plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository. 

Auditors focused on records for the four entities that get and
spend the bulk of that money. The report said Nye County
misspent $720,000; Lincoln County, $200,000; Clark County,
$163,000; and the state misdirected $81,000 of oversight funds
to pay attorney costs. The state already has paid back $74,000,
the report said. 

Swanson noted the audit made no allegations of fraud or abuse.

He said auditors raised questions in Nye County mostly about
economic development spending, and he expressed frustration that
auditors challenged expenses for which the county changed
reporting practices to suit auditors after previous audits. 

Joe Strolin, planning administrator for the state Nuclear
Projects Office in Carson City, said counties get mixed signals
about allowable uses for oversight funds from auditors and from
the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management. 

The office oversees government plans to entomb 77,000 tons of
the nation's most radioactive waste beneath Yucca Mountain, 90
miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

"On the one hand, they're getting approval from the Yucca
Mountain program to do things, and on the other hand they are
being penalized for it," he said. 

Harry Kelman, an analyst with the Clark County nuclear waste
division, said the county can justify its expenditures,
including $87,000 paid to an Albuquerque, N.M.-based contractor
to monitor legislation affecting the project. 

Kelman also defended a program to chart the economic and
environmental effects the project might have in Indian Springs,
about 45 miles from Yucca Mountain. The audit said the county
spent $70,000 on the program. Kelman said it was $15,000. 

"We're extremely disappointed in the report," he said. "There
will be an appeal." 

Lea Alfano, Lincoln County nuclear waste program coordinator,
did not immediately respond to two requests for comment. 

The Yucca Mountain project has faced several setbacks, including
an appeals court rejection of a proposed radiation safety
standard and revelations that government workers on the project
might have falsified data. 

On the Net: 
Energy Department Office of Inspector General:
http://www.ig.doe.gov 
Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste 
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov 

         All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 67 PE.com: Stricter perchlorate limits proposed 

Inland Southern California
   
DRINKING WATER: Laws proposed by health officials would ban
higher levels of the rocket-fuel chemical. 

12:21 AM PDT on Friday, August 5, 2005 

By DAVID DANELSKI / The Press-Enterprise 

SAN FRANCISCO - California and Massachusetts environmental
health officials vowed Wednesday to establish the nation's first
laws limiting the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate in drinking
water. 

The laws would make it illegal to serve water containing more
perchlorate. Supplies with higher concentrations would have to
be shut down or cleaned up, a process that can cost $1 million
per well or more. 

The state officials appeared more aggressive than their federal
counterparts in efforts to restrict the chemical that has
polluted hundreds of drinking-water supplies across nation,
including many in the Inland area. 

Most of the perchlorate made in the United States has been used
by NASA and the Department of Defense for rockets, missiles and
munitions. Perchlorate contains oxygen necessary for explosive
combustion. 

The chemical has leached from factories, military bases and
explosives bunkers into groundwater basins and the Colorado
River, a major source of drinking and irrigation water.
Researchers have detected perchlorate in cow milk, human breast
milk and vegetables irrigated with tainted water. 

In sufficient amounts, perchlorate blocks the thyroid gland's
ability to absorb iodide, an essential nutrient the gland needs
to make hormones that guide the development of brains and nerves
in fetuses, babies and children. 

The federal government hasn't yet decided whether a national law
is needed to limit perchlorate in drinking water, an official
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told state and
federal toxic-waste cleanup specialists and managers who met
here Wednesday. 

If the EPA does decide a law is needed, developing it probably
would take longer than three years, said Kevin Mayer, the EPA's
perchlorate coordinator for the Pacific Southwest region. 

State laws limiting perchlorate in California and Massachusetts
tap water are expected to be the subject of public hearings this
fall and to be made final by next year. 

In California, health officials have discovered the chemical in
529 drinking-water sources, making the contamination a top
priority, said Rick Brausch, an assistant secretary for the
California Environmental Protection Agency. 

Water is a scarce commodity in California, he said. "Anything
that threatens our water threatens our livelihood." 

California set a perchlorate "health goal" -- a guideline for
deciding whether drinking water is safe for all consumers, even
the most vulnerable -- of 6 parts per billion last year. State
health officials are about to push an enforceable limit that
Brausch said must be as close to the health goal as economically
and technically possible. 

Contaminated water supplies in the Inland area have levels
ranging from 1 to hundreds of parts per billion, although the
highly contaminated water is not served to consumers. Cleanups
already are under way at some polluted sites, such as an
underground plume spreading toward Riverside from a defunct
rocket plant in Mentone. 

The EPA earlier this year set a health guideline for perchlorate
that is much higher than California's. The guideline, about 24.5
parts per billion in drinking water, will be used as a basis for
any future cleanup or health standards, Mayer said. 

Federal rules require that national drinking-water standards
have a "meaningful opportunity for health-risk reduction in
public water systems," Mayer said. 

Since few public water systems have perchlorate levels of 24.5
parts per billion or more, a federal perchlorate standard might
not be deemed necessary, Mayer said. 

Before that decision is made, however, federal officials have to
determine how much perchlorate people are consuming in milk,
lettuce and other food. The federal Food and Drug Administration
is expected to determine the extent of contamination in food. 

Massachusetts officials have concluded that only 1 part per
billion in water is safe for pregnant women, babies and adults
with certain thyroid disorders, said Paul Locke of the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. 

While drinking-water standards are debated and developed, the
Department of Defense is experimenting with new chemicals that
might someday replace perchlorate, said Shannon E. Cunniff, a
pollution specialist for the department. 

The Defense Department has spent some $60 million on perchlorate
issues, about two-thirds of it on water-treatment technology and
cleanup, she said. Some new treatment methods will be unveiled
in the Inland area later this month, Cunniff said. 

Defense officials also are recycling old missiles in order to
recover some 80 million pounds of perchlorate for new weapons or
industrial use, she said. 

As for finding a substitute for perchlorate, the trick is to
find a chemical that has the same stability but doesn't put
people's health at risk, Cunniff said. 

"This is pretty far off," she said. 

The department has learned a great deal from the perchlorate
experience, she told the audience. "The DoD needs more coherent
ways to evaluate and manage risks from chemicals it used, uses
or may use." 

Reach David Danelski at (951) 368-9471 or 
ddanelski@pe.com

2005, The Press-Enterprise Company
*****************************************************************
 68 AU ABC: Govt approves NT uranium mine expansion
 
AM - Friday, 5 August , 2005  08:20:00
 
Reporter: Brendan Trembath

 TONY EASTLEY: Some big Australian companies are eyeing the
potential for further uranium mining in the Northern Territory
after the Federal Government said it would approve more
development. 

The Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says the
Government will allow new mines to start up in the Top End, so
long as environmental standards are met and Indigenous owners
approve.

The Territory's Government opposes more mines but concedes the
Commonwealth has the power to do what it wants. 

Australia provides about 20 per cent of the world's uranium. The
Minerals Council of Australia, which represents Australia's
biggest mining companies, says the nation should take advantage
of record prices for uranium.

The Chief Executive Mitch Hooke is speaking to Brendan Trembath.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Mitch Hooke, how significant is this
development with the Northern Territory's Government conceding
that the Commonwealth has the ultimate power to grant approval
to new mines?

MITCH HOOKE: Essentially it will give a clear message that
Australia is in the business of mining and that it's a nonsense
to have artificial limits on the number of uranium mines.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: With the territory, how many companies are
interested in taking advantage of this change in attitude?

MITCH HOOKE: Don't know the answer to that. We know that there
are some offshore companies at the moment currently looking to
explore and to open up uranium mines. 

We know that because some of them are working with local
communities, traditional land owners. It's bit hard to say how
many, Brendan, but there's no question that there will be a lot
of interest in moving forward. 

The market for uranium is very buoyant, Australia has vast
reserves and a lot of those to the best of our knowledge are in
the Northern Territory.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: You say some overseas companies have been
working with Indigenous communities already on the assumption
that they might get approval to start new mines. What sort of
work have they been doing with communities?

MITCH HOOKE: They've just been talking to traditional owners.
It's one thing to have a permit from Government, it's another to
have an unwritten social contract with the communities in which
they're operating, so what you'll see and what you'll find is
that companies will be essentially preparing the ground, if
you'll excuse the pun, on both counts.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: How long would it take to start new mines in
the Territory?

MITCH HOOKE: Oh, it takes a few years. First of all you've got
to find, you've got to explore, then you've got to go through
the rather exhaustive processes of tenement applications, which
is essentially once you've found something.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory has
had a history of leaks and spills. How difficult will it be to
convince the wider public that it's appropriate to have more
mines in the Northern Territory or elsewhere?

MITCH HOOKE: I think that's a tough call on Ranger. I think
Ranger's performance historically has been very good. There have
been the odd incidences here and there. 

They tend to be reported and almost, I don't want to minimise
the impact of any of those leaks or spills, but I think they
need to be put in perspective of the operations of the mine over
many, many years.

TONY EASTLEY: Mitch Hooke from the Minerals Council of Australia
speaking with Brendan Trembath.   
*****************************************************************
 69 AU ABC: New NT uranium mine operation a step closer - 

05/08/2005

The minerals sector is predicting a new uranium mine in the
Northern Territory could begin operating within five years after
the Federal Government's decision to take great control over
approving uranium licences.

 There are at least 13 companies from as far afield as Canada
and France currently exploring for uranium deposits across the
Northern Territory. 

Canadian resources giant CAMECO is by far the largest player in
terms of investment, having spent in the order of $55 million
across the last decade. 

However, it is the Australian firm Compass Resources which
intends to begin mining for cobalt and copper near the town of
Batchelor south of Darwin next year, with potential for a
uranium component within the next five years. 

It can take between five to 10 years to bring an exploration
success to production. 

A market analyst says Australia has moved to become the world's
supplier-of-choice in the uranium market.

 Glyn Lawcock, an energy metals and mining analyst with UBS,
says the decision provides greater certainty for the industry.

 "It's a positive step that the government now seems quiet happy
to move ahead from what was perceived to be a two, maybe three
mine policy on uranium," he said. 

"I think that they clearly acknowledge that the opportunities
from an Australian business perspective to make sure we are able
to supply what could be a booming demand market, driven by
China, and the eventual decline of third party resources
somewhere between 2010 and 2015." 
 
*****************************************************************
 70 AU ABC: Indigenous groups vow to fight uranium mine expansion

The World Today - Friday, 5 August , 2005  12:14:00
 
Reporter: Anne Barker

 ELEANOR HALL: The Federal Government's decision could spark a
whole new era of anti-uranium demonstrations in the Northern
Territory.

Environmentalists have vowed to fight any move to open the
floodgates to new uranium mines in the Top End and Australia's
Indigenous land owners have long been opposed to mining,
particularly in and around Kakadu National Park.

As the ABC's North Australia Correspondent Anne Barker reports.

(Sound of protestors)

ANNE BARKER: There's been a long history of opposition to
uranium mining in the Northern Territory. Protests like this one
were common in the late 1990s when mining company ERA was
granted Commonwealth approval with the support of the
Territory's then CLP Government to mine uranium at Jabiluka
inside Kakadu National Park.

Eventually, traditional owners won their fight and ERA's parent
company Rio Tinto agreed to shelve Jabiluka unless and until
they changed their minds.

But yesterday's decision by the Commonwealth to seize control of
the entire approvals process and cut the Territory's now Labor
Government out of the picture has unnerved members of the
Gagadju people, whose land contains another uranium deposit,
Koongarra.

CHERYL HILL: We're all against mining, hey?

ANNE BARKER: Cheryl Hill from the Gagadju Association says her
people are unanimously opposed to uranium mining on their land.

CHERYL HILL: No. Well, we've had meetings upon meetings and all
the outcomes have always been no. You know what the Mirrar
people had gone through and we all… you know, land is very
important to us so we're still saying no, no.

ANNE BARKER: The Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane
yesterday made clear the Commonwealth would not approve any new
mine without the support of traditional owners or a proper
environmental feasibility study, but environmentalists in Darwin
aren't convinced.

Peter Robertson, Coordinator of the Northern Territory
Environment Centre, says he for one doesn't trust the
Government's word.

PETER ROBERTSON: Well, it's a bit like putting the fox in charge
of the hen coop. I mean, the Federal Government is rampantly
pro-nuclear and pro-uraniam mining. You know, you almost think
that if Osama Bin Laden put in an application for a uranium mine
in the Northern Territory at the moment the Commonwealth would
approve it. So, it's a very great concern.

The Commonwealth has already got a very chequered career, or
chequered record in relation to its involvement with uranium
mines in the Northern Territory. The Rum Jungle uranium mine,
which was a Commonwealth project was a disaster for the
environment and the local community. 

The Commonwealth has had major responsibility for the Ranger
uranium mine, which has had 25 years of leaks and accidents and
we're very concerned that they won't do the right thing by the
environment or local communities.

ANNE BARKER: The Federal Government though has made it clear
they won't approve a mine without the proper environmental
feasibility study, so why is that a problem?

PETER ROBERTSON: Well, their version of environmental studies is
probably very different from what the community would accept as
being proper.

We know from past experience that there's a very big gulf
between the powers that they have under the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, example. 

They have powers, but they very rarely use them, to do proper
assessments and to properly regulate developments, so the public
can have no confidence in the Commonwealth in relation to
protecting the environment.

ANNE BARKER: Have Australian attitudes moved on, do you think,
from the days of the big protests at Jabiluka or against ERA, or
do you think the Commonwealth decision will spark a whole new
era of demonstrations?

PETER ROBERTSON: Well, I would suggest that if the Commonwealth
did try to approve the Jabiluka uranium mine, for example, then
the protest would be just as great or greater than they were
five or so years ago and so any assumption that the public is
somehow more relaxed about approving uranium mines I think would
be very mistaken on the part of the Commonwealth.

ELEANOR HALL: Peter Robertson is the Coordinator of the Northern
Territory Environment Centre and he was speaking to Anne Barker.
  
*****************************************************************
 71 AU ABC: Land Council welcomes uranium mine decision. 

05/08/2005. ABC News Online
 	
The Northern Land Council (NLC) has welcomed the Federal
Government's announcement any approval of new uranium mines will
depend on the support of traditional owners.

 Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane made the promise
yesterday when he announced the Commonwealth would take control
of regulating the Northern Territory's uranium deposits.

 NLC chief executive Norman Fry says the Federal Government is
following the Land Rights Act which states that mining can only
occur on Aboriginal land with the consent of traditional owners.

 But the spokesman for the Mirrar people, whose lands include
the site of the Ranger uranium mine, says it has been terrible
for his people.

 The Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation's executive officer, Andy
Ralph, says the mine has had a terrible safety record.


 "There's been that many incidents over the years," he said.
 
"We are concerned about rehab coming up in five or six years
time, the footprint is ever increasing at the uranium site.

 "The Mirrar people will not be able to use the company for
10,000 years." 

*****************************************************************
 72 NEWS.com.au: New uranium mine 'in five years' | NT 

| Breaking News 24/7 - 


(05-08-2005)
 
By Karen Michelmore August 05, 2005                     From: AAP                                               
THE Northern Territory could have its first new uranium mine
within five years.

 Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane predicted there would
be "ample" interest in the NT's rich uranium resources after the
Federal Government intervened yesterday to declare the Territory
"open for business" on uranium, despite the NT Government's
fierce opposition.

 Uranium explorers welcomed the Federal Government's move to
take control over the future of NT resources, after the
Territory Government vowed to ban uranium mining.

 But some confusion remains about who will regulate future
mining activity in the NT, which is estimated to have between 20
and 25 per cent of the world's known uranium resources.

 Fourteen mining companies were exploring for uranium in the NT,
amid skyrocketing uranium prices and surging global demand, NT
Minerals Council chief executive Kezia Purich said.

 Until yesterday, there had been confusion over whether the
companies would be allowed to mine any deposits they discovered,
Ms Purich said.

"This gives the industry a bit of clarity and certainty,"
she said.

 Compass Resources' deposit at Mt Fitch, near Batchelor, south
of Darwin, could become one of the first new uranium mining
operations.

 Compass executive director Malcolm Humphreys hosed down
speculation the company could be "first cab off the rank", as it
was yet to define a uranium resource, but he said a uranium
operation was possible within four or five years.

 The company had been drilling for uranium near its proposed
base metal operation, with more results expected within a week
to confirm the resources' grade and quantity.

 "There's a chance if we can find a commercial development, we
hope to bring it into production in a relatively short period of
time, possibly within four to five years," Mr Humphreys said.

 The controversial Jabiluka lease in Kakadu National Park is
another new mine possibility, but development needs the written
consent of the traditional owners, the Mirrar people, who have
been staunchly opposed to the mine.

 The multi-million-dollar Koongarra deposit, also in Kakadu, is
another contender, although the Federal Government has expressed
concern at the proposal.

 Mr Macfarlane expected applications for new mines within three
years.

 "Some of those mines will come into operation before the end of
the decade," he said.

 However, Mr Macfarlane admitted the Federal Government could do
little to intervene in Western Australia, which has a ban on
uranium mining despite $6-$7 billion worth of known resources in
the state.

 Mr Humphreys said he was surprised by the opposition to uranium
mining.

 "I would have thought the general tide had turned of Australian
public opinion because of the recognition that nuclear power is
probably essential in order to meet energy demand worldwide," he
said.

 "I think in general if you strip away a lot of the rhetoric ...
and just get down to the facts, the uranium industry is a very
safe and clean industry."

 The Northern Land Council (NLC) meanwhile welcomed the Federal
Government's statement that new NT mines had to have the support
of traditional owners, and had to satisfy environmental
standards.

 Traditional owners could earn millions of dollars in royalties
from any new mining.

 "The NLC is committed to ensuring that traditional owners are
fully informed regarding uranium mining, and to represent their
views," council chief executive Norman Fry said.

 Mr Fry also called for full debate over the proposed low- and
intermediate-level nuclear waste in the NT. 		  		 		 		Search
*****************************************************************
 73 Media General: Radioactive material storage vault slated for demolition

August 4, 2005   
  
By Kafia Hosh
 Staff writer 

A vault on post that was once used to store radioactive
materials is slated for demolition next month.
 
An environmental assessment found that the demolition of the
vault will have no major human health or environmental effects.
 
The vault is assigned building No. 7304 and is located inside
the gated Research and Development Engineering Compound on south
post.
 
In 2003, the Army requested that the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission terminate its license to use the building as a
radioactive materials storage vault.
 
As a result, the Army prepared a decommissioning plan to meet
the NRC closure standards and emptied the vault, which contained
several bottles filled with chemical agents.
 
“The actual radioactive material is long gone,” said Marc
Russell, a SpecPro Inc., environmental specialist working for
the Directorate of Public Works’ Environmental and Natural
Resource Division. “This project is just the demolition of the
structure.”
 
A survey of the vault showed trace levels of radioactive
contamination in the building’s construction materials and the
soil underneath it.
 
“We’re talking very low levels, just barely above the regulatory
limits,” said Russell.
 
Environmental contractors will begin the month-long demolition
of the vault before the end of September.
 
The 12-by-16 foot structure is located on a 192 square- foot
site, but contractors will section off 500 square feet of land
to ensure no contaminated materials escape. 

“They are going to take proper controls to stabilize the area
and prevent any soil or water from leaving the site and going
downstream,” said Russell.
 
The contractors will also take air readings of the site and
monitor their own health and safety as they demolish the vault.
 
The contaminated soil and concrete materials that formed the
vault will be properly stored in radioactive waste containers
and sent to a disposal facility in Utah, according to Russell.
 
“It’s a very precise demolition job,” he said.
 
Contractors will continue to monitor the site and will produce a
final report to the NRC.
 
Community members can view the 32-page environmental assessment
on the Fort Belvoir website and provide feedback to the DPW
Environmental and Natural Resource Division. The document can be
viewed at 
www.belvoir.army.mil/bea/7304VaultClosure.pdf.
 
For questions or comments about the radioactive materials
storage vault demolition contact the DPW Environmental and
Natural Resource Division at (703) 806-4007 or via e-mail at
environmental@bel voir.army.mil. 

2005 Media General
*****************************************************************
 74 News & Star: Suspended Sellafield boss back at work
      
Published on 05/08/2005                                                                                                                                              

By Andrea Thompson
 
ONE of the two top Sellafield bosses suspended over the massive
radioactive leak which closed Thorp has returned to work, the
News & Star can reveal.
 
The two senior managers, in charge of operations at the
reprocessing plant, were the subject of separate disciplinary
hearings.
 
British Nuclear Group said yesterday that one of the men had
been through that process and has returned to work. 

He will not be the subject of any further proceedings, but the
company refused to say what the outcome of his hearing was, or
whether he had been found to be at fault over the leak, which
started three months before it was detected on April 19, and put
the future of the reprocessing plant in jeopardy.
 
A spokeswoman said: â€œTwo senior managers in Thorp were
suspended in relation to the discovery of dissolver liquor in
the plant's feed clarification cell. 

â€œOne has been through disciplinary process and has now
returned to work. 

â€œThe outcome of the process is between the company and the
individual and it is not considered appropriate to comment
further.â€ 

The second manager, also male, remains suspended pending his
disciplinary hearing.
 
The managers are employed by British Nuclear Group as personal
contract holders because of their high-ranking status, and are
in line for bonuses for good production and safely meeting
operational targets. 

Thorp, Sellafieldâ€™s flagship £1.8 billion reprocessing plant,
which employs 700 people and supports thousands more jobs, was
closed four months ago following a massive radioactive leak of
83 cubic metres of radioactive liquid. 

It leaked into a steel-lined concrete cell specially designed to
stop liquid being released or harming anybody but the event was
classed at level three on the nuclear event scale. 

Thorp remains closed as the massive clean-up operation continues.
 
But Sellafieldâ€™s new owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA) has confirmed that it would like to see the
plant reopen.
 
| whitehaven news                                                                                        
*****************************************************************
 75 NEWS.com.au: Minerals Council applauds uranium move 

(05-08-2005)
 	
From: AAP                                               

There is significant interest in uranium mining in the Northern
Territory but the starting date of any new operation is still a
few years away, according to a peak industry body.

 The federal government yesterday declared the Northern
Territory open to uranium mining, provided indigenous landowners
approve and environmental standards are met. 

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke said
today companies could now begin to position themselves to take
advantage of record prices in the global uranium market, of
which Australia has about 20 per cent market share. 

The NT Labor government is vehemently opposed to uranium mining
but conceded the federal government has the power to allow new
mines. 

Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said there was
worldwide demand for uranium and it was not feasible to refuse
the opportunity to develop a resource based on a political whim. 

About a dozen companies are exploring for uranium in the
resource-rich territory, which is home to some $12 billion worth
of known uranium deposits. Mr Hooke welcomed the policy shift as
an appropriate signal to big business. 

"Essentially it will give a clear message that Australia is in 
the business of mining and it's a nonsense to have artificial 
limits on the number of uranium mines," Mr Hooke told ABC radio. 

Mr Hooke said it was difficult to say how many companies were
looking to mine uranium in the NT but that there would be
significant interest from local and offshore operations. 

Some of these companies had already begun working with local
indigenous communities on the assumption that approval might
come to start new mines, he said. 

"There's no question that there will be a lot of interest," he
said. 

"The market in uranium is very buoyant. Australia has vast
reserves and a lot of those, to the best of our knowledge, are
in the Northern Territory." 

But Mr Hooke said it would take a few years before any new mines
became operational. "First of all, you've got to find, you've
got to explore, then you've got to go through the rather
exhaustive processes of tenement applications," he said. 

Mr Hooke agreed companies may face an uphill battle to win
public opinion given the controversial Ranger Mine's history of
leaks and spills in a sector prone to a high degree of media
scrutiny. 

"I think that's a tough call on Ranger," he said. 

"I think Ranger's performance historically has been very good -
there've been the odd incidences here and there and they tend to
be reported. 

"I don't want to minimise the impact of any of those leaks or
spills but I think they need to be put in perspective of the
operations of the mine over many, many years." 		  		 	 [bigger

*****************************************************************
 76 Annan Urges City Leaders To Work With Global Partners To Help Deter Nuclear Threats
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 10:44:56 -0400

 

 
ANNAN URGES CITY LEADERS TO WORK WITH GLOBAL PARTNERS TO HELP DETER 
NUCLEAR THREATS
New York, Aug  4 2005  2:00PM
Recalling the unimaginable horror unleashed with the bombing of Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged a 
gathering of mayors in Japan to use their unique community-level 
perspectives to turn back new threats and help revitalize the United 
Nations’ long-term vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.

“When the atom was split over Hiroshima and Nagasaki…we entered a 
new, terrifying era in which the annihilation of humankind suddenly 
loomed as a real possibility,” Mr. Annan said in a <"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=1609">message 
to the General conference 
of the Mayors for Peace, meeting in Hiroshima to mark the 
60th Anniversary of the bombings that killed more than 100,000 
men, women and children instantly, and condemned over 200,000 more 
to horrific and lethal sickness.

“And yet, from that shadow, a new hope emerged. Recognition of our 
interdependence ushered in the United Nations and the concept of 
our collective security,” he said. But sixty years on, nuclear 
proliferation remains a pressing global challenge.

“Tens of thousands of nuclear weapons remain; many of them on ‘hair-trigger’ 
alert…and the emergence of a nuclear black market and 
attempts by terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons and materials 
have compounded the nuclear threat,” he said.

Urging the mayors to press ahead with their valuable work – building 
bridges of global cooperation at the community level, Mr. Annan 
said:  “All States must do everything in their power to ensure 
that the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not visited on any 
peoples, anywhere, ever again.”

“I am heartened, therefore, that you are promoting your vision of 
a global ban on nuclear weapons by 2020. As representatives of the 
aspirations of peoples and communities around the world, as a 
link between the local and the global, you have a crucial role to 
play, he added.

The Mayors for Peace is composed of cities from around the world 
that formally support the 1982 call of then Hiroshima Mayor Takeshi 
Araki for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons. As of 
May 26, 2005, membership stood at 1,036 cities in 112 countries and 
regions.
 2005-08-04 00:00:00.000 


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 77 [NYTr] Thousands call for nuclear arms ban in Hiroshima protest
 
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 08:13:31 -0500 (CDT)

 
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Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
The Irish Times, Fri, Aug 05, 05
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2005/0805/647206543FR05HIROSH.html

Thousands call for nuclear arms ban in Hiroshima protest

JAPAN: To mark the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb
attack in Japan, thousands of peace activists marched through Hiroshima
yesterday, calling for a global ban on nuclear weapons.

The march to the World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was
one of dozens of events being held there ahead of tomorrow's
anniversary, when more than 50,000 people are expected to gather in
Peace Memorial Park for a moment of silence at 8.15am.

At that time on August 6th, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb
that exploded over Hiroshima, obliterating the centre of the city and
killing at least 140,000 people. Three days later, Bock's Car dropped a
bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 80,000.

Japan surrendered to the US, bringing the second World War to a close,
on August 15th.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to attend tomorrow's
memorial.

Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, an outspoken opponent of President
George Bush, is the main speaker, and was expected to make a plea for
the US and other nuclear powers to abolish their arsenals.

Today about 8,000 people, including several hundred activists from 29
countries, attended a conference, the biggest pre-anniversary event.
Roughly 2,000 activists joined in the march beforehand.

"For us it is special to see this city with our own eyes," said Anatoli
Ionesov, head of the four-person delegation from Uzbekistan.

"Our idea is to create a nuclear-free zone in central Asia." Though the
world conference, which is held each year, is sponsored primarily by
leftist or labour groups, it has a broad appeal within the Japanese
population. The organisers have collected 8.5 million signatures for a
nuclear ban.

"We want this conference to be a strong impetus for the creation of a
fair and nuclear-free world," the organisers said in a statement opening
the conference.

With emotions running high ahead of the anniversary, a suspected
rightist was arrested last week after defacing a cenotaph in the park.
He was reportedly angry at the inscription's suggestion that Japan was
partially to blame for bringing the devastation of Hiroshima because of
its military campaigns in Asia.

Meanwhile, Japan's ruling party, in its latest call for a more assertive
security stance, this week proposed that the military should not be
limited to a self-defence role but should take part in international
efforts to secure peace overseas.

Mr Koizumi has made annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine for war
dead, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, and a
school textbook written by nationalist historians has stirred criticism
of a whitewash.

Proposals laid out in a draft for a new constitution by Mr Koizumi's
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) mark a drastic departure from the
principles of the pacifist constitution, unchanged since it was drafted
by the postwar occupation authorities.

A key section of the constitution, Article 9, renounces the right to
maintain a military or wage war, though Japanese governments have
interpreted it as allowing forces for defence, the now 240,000-member
Self-Defence Forces. - (AP, Reuters)

) The Irish Times ) Reuters  
       
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 78 Reuters: Scrapping nukes vital for human survival -ElBaradei                      

Fri Aug 5, 2005 2:19 PM ET

 VIENNA, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The carnage wrought by the nuclear 
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago demonstrates the 
need to eliminate nuclear weapons for the sake of human survival, 
the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday.

 Speaking at an event in Vienna to mark the anniversaries of the 
bombings, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed 
ElBaradei said the passage of time should not let the world 
forget how devastating nuclear weapons are.

 "It has always been hoped that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki stand as constant reminders of why preventing the 
further use and proliferation of such weapons -- and why nuclear 
disarmament leading to a nuclear weapon-free world -- is of 
utmost importance for the survival of humankind and planet 
Earth," he said.

 The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese port of 
Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. It was the world's first atomic 
bombing and killed about 78,000 people instantly.

 By the end of 1945, the number of dead had reached about 140,000 
out of the city's estimated population of 350,000.

 Three days later, a second bomb hit Nagasaki. Japan surrendered 
on Aug. 15, ending World War Two.

 "We should remain humbled by what we have learned from the 
destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said ElBaradei, whose 
agency polices the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the 
global pact against the spread of nuclear weapons.

 The NPT came into force in 1970 and requires the world's then 
five overt nuclear powers to take steps to disarm. Today, nine 
countries possess roughly 30,000 nuclear weapons -- enough to 
destroy the planet many times over.

 "A world without nuclear weapons remains a far-off goal," 
ElBaradei said. "Let us renew today ... the promise to the 
peoples of the world to spare no effort to work collectively to 
reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons."                                          

© Reuters 2005. 
All Rights Reserved.                    
*****************************************************************
 79 The Rising Nepal: The Tin Can Of Hiroshima Museum

  Last Updated: 06:00 AM NST Kathmandu - August 06, 2005 -
Sharwna 22, 2062 
•Nepal Sambat 1125 Gunlathwo Paru - Saturday 

 Reminder Of Dark Day

 By Yek Raj Pathak 

If one visits the second floor of the   ‘Hiroshima Museum’
located at the heart of historical Japanese city Hiroshima, there 
she/he will see an ordinary but intensely cared small can made of 
tin. In the first glance, looked as though usual, the can is a 
witness of wholesale destruction, which raised a big question 
mark over the human civilization.

 The can contains luncheon, which a schoolboy were prevented
from eating. The lunch prepared by a mother to her unfortunate
son, studying in Hiroshima Junior Secondary School, to eat
during school-break has been painstakingly kept in display. The
charcoal-like launch is one of the remains of the holocaust.
Mass destructive nuclear bomb attacks in Hiroshima in August 6
1947 blew off 13 years old Shigeru Orimen on the way to school.
The lunch blackened by nuclear radiation, water bottle and
textbooks with schoolbag are still kept in the museum.

 The scene makes every single human being stunned. The museum
records the heart-wrenching stories of Orimen and many other
children like him who were killed young. A memoir placed in the
entrance of the museum has made the way to the visitors to
inscribe a few lines on the fate of the unfortunate children.
Majority of the visitors cannot prevent themselves from crying
when they see the dark lunch. Some of the visitors have poured
their feelings into words. 

‘If the launch grabbing day is again repeated, souls of thousand
of children massacred in Hiroshima will curse the bomb making
hands and the children of destructive hands will die of hunger’,
in the diary written by a Briton in August 30 last year reads.
Orimen’s charcoal body smoked by nuclear radiation was retrieved
in the street just the following day of the bombing and his
schoolbag, water bottle and launch box were found scattered.
Besides Orimen’s there are many more solid materials belonging
to other children of his immediate circle. These scenes make all
softhearted people shed tears. Collection of these tangible
remains displayed that show up war-triggered agony and post-war
effect is mutely appealing the people world wide not to raise
arms ever in life. The fractionated cycle of 11 years old Tesuo
Kitabayashi, a colleague of Orimen, also shock the visitors. A
huge bombing killed him while he was cycling to school. The
watch that came to a halt at 8:15 am then still speaks the
accurate time of bombing 60 years ago. The cracked watch seems
to be praying, ‘This quarter past eight will never stroke
again’. 

The children were victimised eight hundred meters away from the
spot where the bomb exactly dropped. It was school time when the
hair-raising attack occurred all at once. Consequently, most of
the children were killed either while going to school or
assembling in their schools. 

The ever most atrocious incident of human civilisation is
marking its 60th anniversary tomorrow. During the World War II,
US-led coalition force dropped a nuclear bomb in Hiroshima in
August 6, 1945 and six days after in the city of Nagasaki. These
attacks claimed at least 1,40,000 lives and maimed and displaced
thousands of people. Bombings levelled the cities and destroyed
properties worth billions of dollars. 

Often dubbed as a piece of gold, the industrial hub of Nagasaki
had a huge population then. The museum located nearby the
incident site also possesses noteworthy materials that speak of
the aftermath life. People do come here to learn the reality of
the attacks upon humanity. The remains of the attack encourage
every one to vindicate the peace, not war. One who visits the
museum will hate the dirty war. 

A seventy-four year old woman who is one of the witnesses of the
attacks is still haunted by the incidents. She thinks it as
fresh now as it was sixty years ago. The woman belonging to
Hiroshima wishes the war would never repeat. Nakajono Yoshiko is
still living with the wounds of attack. She was 13 and a third
grade student then. The bomb dropped without warning broke the
golden dreams of thousands of young children apart like
Yoshiko’s. She suffered both physical and mental wounds.

 “That day we were assembling on the school ground. Initially we
heard frightening noise and saw huge fumes from burning as we
were trying to apprehend the incident site. It made all of us
panic and run away indiscriminately. But many children collapsed
on the ground by the effect of heat emanated from the nuclear
radiation while running. Police rescued me along with some other
schoolmates in their vehicles,” Yoshiko recalls the day.
According to her, the poisonous radiation and smoke triggered
heat. The ignited heat wave crumpled the face enclosed in one
place. They did not know what it happened and were asking one
another what the cause really was. To escape the unbearable heat
many people plunged into a river flowing through the centre of
Hiroshima though the water of the river was also boiling. As a
witness, Yoshiko narrates the horror like a fairy tale of once
upon a time. At that time she was one kilometer away from the
incident site. 

“The bomb dropped nearby hospital and the security forces
evacuated the patients, meanwhile the panicked people crowded in
the same hospital and the doctors were unable to give time to
the hundreds of wounded people,” she recalls. Yoshiko further
adds that hundreds of people approached hospitals themselves
seeking the treatments died in the hospital or elsewhere.

 Health experts issued an immediate warning not to drink
poison-mixed water and to run into jungle, highland and safe
destination, but the city people were crying for water. Children
were crying for help, they could not be rescued, as their
parents were helpless. According to Yoshiko, her mother died on
the way to marketplace and her body was not found. There were
many people who died unidentified. 

Yoshiko has wounds in her right shoulder and is still suffering
from the disease of lungs and kidneys. Japanese government has
been providing free treatment service to the wounded people like
Yoshiko. 

	Now the highly advanced and green Hiroshima has applied the
ointment in the wounds of the survivors. Rumors that the city
would remain like a desert for seventy years had also panicked
the survivors. Now the survivors are happy to see several green
gardens in the city. 

That day even the wounded citizens moved ahead for rescue work,
witnesses say. There were queues of humane people in hospitals
to donate blood for the treatment of the wounded people the
following day of the attack. People were distributing the
relief, including food even without a request from the
government. The teachers and students throughout the country
closed their schools and involved in rescue and relief works.

Self-propelled Ambulance, health workers and volunteers were
tackling the problem boldly In museum we can see the then
Hiroshima turned into ashes. One can hardly believe that once
nuclear bomb hit Hiroshima can be rebuilt so soon. An attractive
park where different kinds of fruits swing has been developed in
the site where the bomb dropped. The museum built in the premise
of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was inaugurated by Pope
John Paul II in 1981. 

Every year millions of Japanese citizens and people from a number 
of countries gather here to mark the August 6 as Peace Day and 
pray for eternal peace of those killed in bombings and wish the 
black day would not come again. The Mayor of Hiroshima does send 
letters to the world governments and mayors of main cities 
elsewhere to call them upon to condemn the war and advocate 
peace. Meanwhile the people, including those sustained wounds 
gather in the park to sound the giant peace gong and release 
doves to mark Peace Festival. Exactly in 8:15 am of August 6. A 
few beautiful lines that engraved in a stone in the park 
encourages the people to decry the war:       

 War is the work of man.
 War is destruction of human life.
 War is death.
 To remember the past is to commit oneself to the future.
 To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war.
 To commit Hiroshima is to commit oneself to peace.   [  /]  

  Gorkhapatra Sansthan - Dharmapath, Kathmandu, Nepal - Tel:
0977-1-4244437
 Fax: 0977-1-4224381 - Email:
gopa@gorkhapatra.org.np</small>    [ /]      

© Copyright 2005. Gorkhapatra Sansthan. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 80 WBIR-TV: Y-12 works on new image but protesters don't buy it   

Knoxville, TN
 
On the Y-12 National Security Complex Thursday morning, it only
took minutes for history become a heap of metal.

"We've only been standing here maybe 15 minutes and a quarter of
this side of the building is already gone," says Melissa
Portwood, describing the scene behind her.

The demolition was swift and symbolic. A 122 thousand square
foot warehouse was torn down by a track hoe. The equipment ate
away at the facility and an old image.

"These are older buildings," says Scott Hood, Y-12's
Infrastructure Reduction Manager. "We're trying to attract
younger and newer talent, and in order to attract younger and
newer talent we need better places."

Workers at Y-12 helped build the atomic bomb. It's been little
more than a bomb factory to many people since then. Now it's
trying to shed it's past and become a high tech, cutting edge
research facility. It's tearing down hundreds of old buildings
as part of a twenty year infrastructure reduction plan. 230
buildings, and more than 800 thousand square feet of space has
already been demolished.

But some people aren't buying what Y-12 is selling.

"I don't care what they're image is. I care what they're doing
there and so does the rest of the world," says Ralph Hutchison,
a peace activist who coordinates the Oak Ridge Environmental
Peace Alliance. "People around here may not be fully aware they
continue to produce weapons of mass destruction at Y-12 but
people around the world are aware."
	
In Hutchison's backyard Thursday, people painted posters and
built puppets for a weekend peace demonstration. At Y-12 on
Saturday, the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, Hutchison says the
protest will be the biggest peace demonstration East Tennessee
has ever seen. He predicts people will cross onto plant
property, and he believes there will be arrests.
	
Y-12 still houses the nation's stockpile of uranium, and
Hutchison's group says that is proof it is still a
weapons-producing plant.
	
But plant managers say it's the part of its mission to protect
Americans and American security.

 Teresa Woodard, Reporter   Last updated: 8/4/2005 7:19:29 PM   
    
Copyright ©2005 WBIR-TV Knoxville         
*****************************************************************
 81 National Academies news: DOE should consider enhancing cleanup 
and stabilization
 
EurekAlert! 

Public release date: 5-Aug-2005

 Contact: William Kearney or Megan Petty
 news@nas.edu

202-334-2138

 The National Academies
National Academies news: DOE should consider enhancing cleanup
and stabilization
 
WASHINGTON -- Tanks containing radioactive waste at the U.S.
Department of Energy Savannah River Site, a nuclear weapons
facility in South Carolina, should not necessarily be sealed as
soon as the bulk of the waste has been removed, says a new
congressionally mandated report from the National Academies'
National Research Council. Postponing closure of tanks with
difficult-to-remove residual wastes for five to 10 years would
give DOE time to overcome obstacles to using emerging
technologies that could remove more of the residual waste and
better immobilize what is left in the tanks. This could be done
without delaying final closure of the "tank farm," added the
committee that wrote the report. 

Once the bulk of the radioactive waste is removed from tanks at
the Savannah River Site, DOE plans to fill the tanks with grout
to close most of them permanently. But given that the small
amount of residual waste left in the tanks has a much lower
likelihood of causing significant radioactive contamination of
the environment, the department need not rush to grout all the
tanks -- a step that is practically irreversible. Instead, the
committee urged DOE and South Carolina to decouple the schedules
for cleaning the tanks and sealing them, timelines that appear
to be linked under a Federal Facility Agreement. Doing so will
allow DOE to use emerging technologies to enhance tank cleanup,
improve how the residual waste is immobilized, and better
prevent water from seeping into closed tanks. 

On the other hand, tank closure does not have to be delayed if
there is very little residual waste or if special circumstances
warrant closure, the committee said. It added that revising the
closure schedule for tanks with insoluble wastes does not need
to affect previously agreed-upon milestones for final closing of
the tanks. In fact, if new technologies become available, they
may speed up tank cleanup and closure, possibly leaving less
waste behind. 

The Savannah River Site also faces what DOE calls a crisis in
the amount of compliant tank space available to store waste from
ongoing operations at the site, including tank cleanup itself.
Tanks are considered compliant if they have a secondary
containment system, so that they are essentially tanks within
tanks; noncompliant tanks have no second wall or only a partial
one. A certain amount of compliant space also must be reserved
for an emergency, such as a tank leak. 

The committee agreed that the lack of compliant space is a major
problem, but questioned DOE's plans for freeing up space in
existing tanks. DOE plans to use a physical separation process
to remove radioactivity from some salt wastes, and then grout
and permanently store those wastes in on-site vaults. But the
committee noted that while waste from this process represents
only 8 percent of the volume of radioactive waste to be
generated during salt-waste processing, the waste contains 80
percent to 90 percent of the radioactivity projected to be in
the vaults. Chemical processes that can remove more
radioactivity from salt wastes are scheduled to begin in 2007
and 2009. Until then, DOE should consider other options for
preserving or better utilizing its limited compliant tank space,
such as setting aside carefully selected nonleaking,
noncompliant tanks for emergency storage, or reducing waste
streams to compliant tanks. 

In a follow-up report expected early next year, the committee
will further evaluate environmental risks at the Savannah River
Site and examine DOE's plans for managing radioactive tank
wastes at sites in Idaho and Washington state. 

The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The
National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of
Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that
provides science and technology advice under a congressional
charter. A committee roster follows. 

###

 Copies of TANK WASTES PLANNED FOR ONSITE DISPOSAL AT THREE
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SITES: THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE will be
available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313
or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at HTTP://WWW.NAP.EDU.
Reporters may obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of
News and Public Information (contacts listed above). 

[ This news release and report are available at
HTTP://NATIONAL-ACADEMIES.ORG] 

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
 Division on Earth and Life Studies
 Board on Radioactive Waste Management 

COMMITTEE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF CERTAIN RADIOACTIVE WASTE STREAMS 
STORED IN TANKS AT THREE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SITE 

FRANK L. PARKER* (CHAIR)
 Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
 Vanderbilt University
 Nashville 

HADI A. ABU-AKEEL*
 President
 AMTENG Corp.
 Sterling, Va. 

JOHN S. APPLEGATE
 Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Walter W. Foskett
Professor of Law
 Indiana University School of Law
 Bloomington 

HOWIE CHOSET
 Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics
 Department of Mechanical Engineering
 Carnegie Mellon University
 Pittsburgh 

PAUL P. CRAIG
 Emeritus Professor of Engineering
 University of California
 Davis 

ALLEN G. CROFF
 Senior Technical Staff Member
 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired)
 Oak Ridge, Tenn. 

PATRICIA J. CULLIGAN
 Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering
Mechanics
 Columbia University
 New York City 

KEN CZERWINSKI
 Director
 Radiochemistry Ph.D. Program, and 
Associate Professor
 Department of Chemistry
 University of Nevada
 Las Vegas 

RACHAEL J. DETWILER
 Senior Engineer
 Braun Intertec Corp.
 Minneapolis 

EDWIN E. HERRICKS
 Professor of Environmental Biology
 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
 University of Illinois
 Urbana-Champaign 

TISSA H. ILLANGASEKARE
 AMAX Distinguished Chair of Environmental Sciences and
Engineering; 
Professor of Civil Engineering; and
 Director
 Center for the Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental
Processes
 Colorado School of Mines
 Golden 

MILTON LEVENSON*
 Independent Consultant
 Menlo Park, Calif. 

PAUL A. LOCKE
 Senior Associate
 Environmental Health Sciences
 Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, and Risk Sciences
and Public Policy Institute
 Bloomberg School of Public Health
 Johns Hopkins University
 Baltimore 

MICHAEL MOBLEY
 Independent Consultant
 Clarksville, Tenn. 

DIANNE R. NIELSON
 Executive Director
 Utah Department of Environmental Quality
 Salt Lake City 

KALATHIL E. PHILIPOSE
 Project Manager
 Decommissioning and Waste Management Business Unit
 Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories
 Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. 
Deep River, Ontario 

ALFRED P. SATTELBERGER
 Research Fellow and Former Director
 Chemistry Division
 Office of Science Programs, and
 Science and Technology Base Program Office
 Los Alamos National Laboratory
 Los Alamos, N.M. 

ANNE E. SMITH
 Vice President
 Charles River Associates
 Washington, D.C. 

J. LESLIE SMITH
 Cominco Chair in Minerals and the Environment
 University of British Columbia
 Vancouver
 Canada 

DONALD W. STEEPLES
 Dean A. McGee Distinguished Professor of Applied Geophysics
 Department of Geology 
University of Kansas
 Lawrence 

RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF 

MICAH LOWENTHAL
 Study Director 

BARBARA PASTINA
 Study Director 

EurekAlert! 
    
*****************************************************************

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 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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