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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 UN Nuclear Watchdog's Board Of Governors To Meet On Iran On Tuesday
2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rejects EU's Civil Nuclear Proposal
3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rejects European Nuclear Proposal
4 RIA Novosti: Tehran turns down EU's nuclear incentives package
5 IRNA: Asefi recommends US not to make "big mistake"
6 WorldNetDaily: More empty threats against Iran
7 Reuters: Iran rejects EU nuclear compromise
8 Reutes: Iran not worried about Security Council referral
9 Reuters: France urges Iran to study EU proposals carefully
10 Reuters: US split on nuclear energy for Iran, North Korea
11 Reuters: EU trio push for quick U.N. nuke rebuke of Iran
12 [NYTr] What the North Koreans are up against
13 [NYTr] Negotiators in 6-Party Korea Talks Take 3-Week Break
14 Guardian Unlimited: Deadlocked Korea Talks May Take Recess
15 AFP: US warns "not enough progress" in North Korea nuclear talks
16 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Whither the Six-Party Talks?
17 AFP: Deadlock forces North Korean nuclear talks into recess
18 Las Vegas SUN: U.S., N. Korea Seek Nuclear Concessions
19 Reuters: N.Korea talks to extend into Sunday, recess considered
20 Reuters: China proposes recess for six party talks-state radio
21 Reuters: FACTBOX-Issues at six-country talks on nuclear-free N.Korea
22 Reuters: Envoys to N.Korea nuclear talks take 3-week recess
23 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Six-country talks on N.Korea nuclear programmes
24 Las Vegas SUN: Stances of Six Nations in Nuclear Talks
25 Reuters: N.Korea talks open for 13th day, headed for recess
26 US: **Hiroshima cover-up exposed**
27 US: [NYTr] New Research on Hirsohima, Nagasaki & War Crimes
28 [NYTr] Hiroshima: Cover-Up and Myths
29 US: Albuquerque Tribune: Energy bill good only for Texas contingent
30 Las Vegas RJ: HIROSHIMA: 60 YEARS LATER: WENDOVER'S SECRET
31 The Hiroshima Cover-Up
32 [progchat_action] Dorothy Day on Hiroshima
33 In Hiroshima, Annan's Envoy Calls For Urgent Steps To Prevent Flood
34 Op-Ed Intl. Herald Tribune: Hiroshima & Nuclear History
35 Guardian Unlimited: Hiroshima marks 60th anniversary of atomic bomb
36 Taiwan News Online: It's not how to make a bomb, but why
37 MSN-Mainichi Daily News: Hiroshima declaration of inheritance
38 Daily Yomiuri: A 60-year quest / Historian searches for A-bomb victi
39 Las Vegas RJ: HIROSHIMA: 60 YEARS LATER: THEY SHOCKED THE WORLD
40 reviewjournal.com EDITORIAL: Hiroshima bombing anniversary
41 BBC: London ceremony marks
42 US: Portsmouth Herald: Suppressed Hiroshima footage will air today
43 Weekly Standard: Bombs Away
44 SF Chronicle: Hiroshima troubling even 60 years later
45 SF Chronicle: HIROSHIMA AND THE BIRTH OF ATOMIC WARFARE: 60 Years La
46 Oakland Tribune: Hundreds turn out to protest nuclear weapons in Liv
47 Xinhua: Key facts about atomic bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki
48 The Telegraph: Nuclear trust passes a test
NUCLEAR REACTORS
49 London Sunday Times: Voters prefer wind farms to new nuclear reactor
50 HindustanTimes.com: Nuke investments on govt’s priority list
51 US: SF Chronicle: Nuclear energy can't solve global warming / Other
52 US: Telegraph Online: Its about time N.H. pays attention to Vt. nucl
53 US: WVEC.com: NRC seek more on new reactors' environmental impact
54 US: The Advocate: NRC cites Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant for 3 v
55 US: TheDay.com: NRC Cites Yankee Plant For 3 Violations
56 US: azcentral.com: Palo Verde to step up power
NUCLEAR SECURITY
NUCLEAR SAFETY
57 The Observer: Sixty years and 242,437 lives later, Hiroshima remembe
58 MSN-Mainichi Daily News: A-bomb survivor tells of life's trials
59 US: Las Vegas RJ: COLD WAR COMPENSATION: Analysis finds disparity
60 Salt Lake Tribune: Unintended consequences
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
61 The Observer: BNG faces meltdown over plant closures
62 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast study lists plume limit
63 US: AU ABC: Howard spells out end of three uranium mine policy
64 Las Vegas RJ: Energy bill ignored repository
65 US: Brampton Guardian: Opposition mounting to nuclear incinerator
66 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca plan slowed by recent departure of key managers
67 US: Green Left: NT: Howard seizes control of uranium mining
68 US: Green Left: WA grants uranium exploration leases
69 Independent: Nuclear clean-up costs pushing £60bn
70 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Rail cars: Rolling targets
71 Independent: BNFL boss faces being dumped by rump company after rest
72 US: AU ABC: Howard spells out end of three uranium mine policy.
PEACE
73 US: Santa Cruz Sentinel: Santa Cruz protesters gather, condem atomic
74 Guardian Unlimited: India-Pakistan Peace Plan Inches Forward
75 Daily Yomiuri: Peace declaration by Hiroshima mayor
76 Daily Yomiuri: Hiroshima marks A-bombing / 55,000 attend service
77 US: Las Vegas SUN: Hiroshima Survivors Call for Ban on Nukes
78 Japan Times: Thousands mark Hiroshima A-bomb
79 US: canada.com: Martin Sheen released after protest
80 asahi.com: 32 nations to attend A-bomb ceremony
81 US: Las Vegas SUN: Prayer service near Nevada Test Site ends anti-nu
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
82 TheNewsTribune.com: Poisoned childhood still hurts |
83 DenverPost.com: Workers' comp after Rocky Flats a painful process
84 PBP: Officials urge delaying radioactive sludge, concrete, Savannah
85 CBS News: Los Alamos' Future Up In The Air
86 lamonitor.com: GAO: Cleanup savings dwindles
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 UN Nuclear Watchdog's Board Of Governors To Meet On Iran On Tuesday
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 12:01:17 -0400
UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG'S BOARD OF GOVERNORS TO MEET ON IRAN ON TUESDAY
New York, Aug 5 2005 12:00PM
The Board of Governors of the United Nations agency entrusted with
curbing the spread of nuclear weapons will meet on Tuesday at the
request of European countries to discuss latest developments following
Iran's announcement that it will resume activities at a
uranium conversion plant, it was announced today.
Enriched uranium can be used for peaceful purposes such as generating
energy or for making nuclear weapons.
The meeting of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) was requested by France, Germany and the United Kingdom
to discuss implementation of <"http://www.iaea.org/index.html">IAEA
Safeguards in Iran and related Board resolutions, the agency said
in a news release.
The so-called European Three have been seeking a diplomatic solution
to issues arising from the disclosure two years ago that Iran
had for almost two decades concealed its nuclear activities in breach
of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT).
Several countries, including the United States, insist that Iran
is seeking nuclear weapons but Iran denies this, insisting its programme
is purely for energy production, and last year it suspended
all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities as a good-will
gesture while the European Three negotiated a solution.
Earlier this week, the three said a resumption of activities would
breach agreements Iran had reached with them as well as the IAEA
Board's resolution last November calling for a continued moratorium
and would end their negotiations.
The Board, as part of its mandate to prevent the proliferation nuclear
weapons, can refer the matter to the UN Security Council, which
in turn could impose political and economic sanctions.
On Monday the IAEA said that in order to implement effective NPT
safeguards it would need to install additional surveillance equipment
at the plant in Isfahan where the resumption is planned, and
would not be able to do so until some time next week.
It called on Iran to refrain from taking any action at the plant,
such as removing Agency's seals and from moving any nuclear material,
until such time as the equipment is installed.
2005-08-05 00:00:00.000
________________
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2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rejects EU's Civil Nuclear Proposal
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday August 6, 2005 11:31 AM
AP Photo NY192
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Saturday rejected Europe's proposal
for ending the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, calling
the package ``unacceptable'' and not up to Tehran's ``minimum
expectations.''
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the government
would send its official rejection to the Europeans later
Saturday or Sunday.
``The European proposals are unacceptable ... the package is
against the spirit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and
against the provisions of the Paris agreement,'' he said on
state radio. ``The proposals do not meet Iran's minimum
expectations.''
The Paris Agreement was reached between Iran and the three
European countries negotiating on behalf of the 25-member
European Union. Under the deal, signed in November in Paris,
Iran agreed to continue suspension of uranium enrichment and all
related activities including uranium conversion until
negotiations proceed for a political settlement.
Iran has accused Europeans of wasting time, saying continued
suspension depended on progress in the talks. Tehran says
failure to make progress in talks doesn't prevent Iran from
reopening the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.
Asefi said the primary reason for Iran's rejection was the
European failure to include Tehran's right to enrich uranium.
``We had already announced that any plan has to recognize Iran's
right to enrich uranium,'' he said.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran's president Saturday,
declaring his foreign policy would focus on good relations with
the rest of the world but rejecting outside pressure on his
government to change course - an apparent reference to the
growing international confrontation over Iran's nuclear program.
Without directly mentioning the controversy, Ahmadinejad said
his government respected international norms but said ``it would
not follow illegal decisions that violate rights of Iranian
nation,''
``I don't know why some countries do not want to understand the
fact that the Iranian people do not tolerate force,''
Ahmadinejad said.
On Friday, France, Germany and Britain sought to entice Iran
into a binding commitment not to build atomic arms by offering
to provide fuel and other long-term support to help Iranians
generate electricity with nuclear energy.
The proposal did not mention the previous agreement that allowed
Iran to enrich uranium. Iran also insists it has a right to
enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The Bush administration backed the offer, which came as a
diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea into giving up its
atomic weapons program stalled.
The proposal also offered greater economic, political and
security cooperation if the Tehran government agreed to the
plan.
Iran has long claimed its nuclear program was solely for the
peaceful production of electricity, while Washington charged the
real aim was to produce arms. The discovery of clandestine
aspects of Iran's program raised worries among other nations and
pressure had mounted on Iran.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, announced it would hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to
formally warn Iran not to resume uranium enrichment at its
facility at Isfahan. The facility converts raw uranium, known as
yellow cake, into UF-6, a gas that's the feedstock for
enrichment. The IAEA board could refer Iran to the U.N. Security
Council for consideration of sanctions.
Asefi said the meeting will have no legal justification. ``It's
to bring political pressure on Iran. It's a psychological war,''
he said.
A summary of the EU proposal said the Europeans acknowledged
Iran's right to nuclear energy and promise to help it develop
``a safe, economically viable and proliferation-proof civil
nuclear power generation and research program.''
The 34-page proposal promised Iran a long-term supply of
enriched uranium from other countries, on condition spent fuel
is returned. Iran also would be able to buy peaceful nuclear
technology, opening the door to such deals as Russia's $800
million contract to build a reactor in the southern Iranian port
city of Bushehr and supply fuel.
In return, the Europeans called on Iran to make a ``legally
binding commitment not to withdraw'' from the nuclear treaty, as
North Korea did, and to agree to permit surprise inspections by
the IAEA and abandon all uranium activities, including
conversion, enrichment and reprocessing.
The EU nations also say Iran must ``stop construction of its
heavy water research reactor at Arak.'' Nuclear experts consider
heavy water reactors a danger because they use higher-grade
plutonium suitable for weapons use. They say the reactor at the
Iranian city of Arak can yield enough plutonium from spent fuel
to make one atomic bomb a year.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rejects European Nuclear Proposal
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday August 6, 2005 10:01 PM
AP Photo XHS109
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian leaders rejected a European proposal
designed to calm Western fears their nuclear program could be
used to develop weapons, saying Saturday the offer failed to
recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful uses.
Germany accused Iran of being ``confrontational.'' It and France
predicted that unless Iran backed down, the matter would go to
the U.N. Security Council for consideration of sanctions. The
U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is meeting Tuesday to discuss that
possibility.
``The European proposals are unacceptable,'' Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Iranian state radio.
He said the primary reason was the failure to allow Iran to
produce enriched uranium, which is a fuel for atomic reactors
that generate electricity but also can be used to make nuclear
bombs.
``We had already announced that any plan has to recognize Iran's
right to enrich uranium,'' Asefi said.
Iran repeatedly has said its nuclear program is strictly for
peaceful purposes, and it denies U.S. allegations the operation
is a cover for making atomic bombs in violation of Iran's
commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
However, the discovery that Iran had kept aspects of its atomic
program secret for many years raised concerns in Washington,
Israel and Europe, and pressures have mounted for Iran to make
concessions.
During his inauguration speech Saturday, Iran's new hard-line
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, did not mention the nuclear
dispute directly but said his government would not bow to
foreign pressure.
``I don't know why some countries do not want to understand the
fact that the Iranian people do not tolerate force,''
Ahmadinejad said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Iran was taking a
``confrontational course'' and warned that the rejection would
put Iran's nuclear program before the Security Council.
In remarks released by broadcaster ARD, Schroeder said it was up
to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, to decide the next step.
``One has to expect that it (the IAEA) will put it before the
Security Council, if Iran doesn't come round,'' Schroeder said
in an interview broadcast Sunday.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged the Iranian
government to reconsider.
``I plead for the leaders to take the time to examine the
proposals with care,'' he said.
In comments to Journal du Dimanche, released ahead of
publication Sunday, Douste-Blazy said that if Iran maintained
its rejection, the case would certainly go to the Security
Council.
The United States has long lobbied for the IAEA to refer Iran to
the council. U.N. sanctions would be a blow to Iran's struggling
economy, and it was the possibility of sanctions that led Iran
to suspend its work with uranium last fall.
The IAEA board scheduled a Tuesday meeting to discuss nuclear
safeguards in Iran following recent statements from Iranian
officials that they could soon resume converting raw uranium
into a gas that is the feedstock for the enrichment process.
Asefi said the IAEA meeting ``lacks any legal justification''
and is a case of ``psychological war.''
Acting on behalf of the 25-nation European Union, Britain,
France and Germany delivered the nuclear proposal Friday. The
aim was to get Iran to commit not to build atomic arms by
offering to provide fuel and other long-term support to help it
generate electricity from nuclear reactors.
The Europeans also offered economic, political and security
cooperation if Iran accepted the plan.
In return, the Europeans said, Iran would have to make a
``legally binding commitment not to withdraw'' from the nuclear
treaty, as North Korea did before it resumed nuclear weapons
work. Iran also would have to agree to permit surprise
inspections by the IAEA and abandon all uranium activities,
including conversion, enrichment and reprocessing.
Iran insists it has a right to enrich uranium as a signatory to
the nuclear treaty.
``The package is against the spirit of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and against the provisions of the Paris
agreement,'' Asefi said, referring to a deal signed with the EU
in November under which Iran agreed to maintain its suspension
of uranium enrichment and related activities until negotiations
finished.
Iran has accused the Europeans of wasting time and has
repeatedly threatened to resume enrichment activities.
An Iranian political analyst, Ali Ansari, said Saturday the
chances of settling the dispute seemed remote.
``At this moment in time, the chances of any agreement are
extremely small,'' said Ansari, a lecturer on Iranian history at
St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
4 RIA Novosti: Tehran turns down EU's nuclear incentives package
07/ 08/ 2005
TEHRAN, August 7 (RIA Novosti, Nikolai Terekhov) - Iranian
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has dismissed as unacceptable
the package of incentives proposed by the European Union's Big
Three (Britain, France and Germany) to encourage Iran to abandon
its nuclear program.
Kharrazi pointed out in a statement Sunday that the EU's
proposals ignore the Islamic Republic's "sovereign right" to
engage in uranium enrichment activities and to master the full
nuclear fuel cycle. He also criticized the European negotiators
for their failure to mention Tehran's willingness to provide
evidence that its nuclear program is absolutely peaceful.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters
Sunday that Iran would submit a detailed response to the EU Big
Three's proposals "before tomorrow."
Kharrazi insisted that Iran's legitimate right to develop
"peaceful nuclear technologies" should be respected. He
announced the resumption of uranium conversion at the nuclear
plant in Isfahan, while at the same time expressing willingness
to continue negotiations with the EU.
Local experts say the EU Big Three's next step will be to
convene an emergency session of the International Atomic Energy
Agency's Board of Governors and use it to pressurize Iran out of
resuming uranium-enrichment activities at Isfahan. The session,
tentatively set for August 10, may go as far as penalizing Iran
with sanctions.
Officials in Tehran maintain that the restart of the Isfahan
plant does not mean Iran is withdrawing from the self-imposed
moratorium on uranium enrichment as the facility covers only the
initial stage of this process-the conversion of uranium ore into
gas. But they say that if the IAEA governing board decides to
impose anti-Iranian sanctions, they may respond by resuming the
full uranium-enrichment cycle at another nuclear facility,
Natanz.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
5 IRNA: Asefi recommends US not to make "big mistake"
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA
Iran-Asefi-Remark
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi here Sunday
recommended the United States not to make a "big mistake" by
may-be denial of visa to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian president is scheduled to deliver a speech at the
upcoming UN General Assembly in September.
"There is no reason for the US refusal to issue visa for
Ahmadinejad. We hope the Americans will not make such a big
mistake," Asefi said during his weekly press briefing in
presence of domestic and foreign reporters.
"If the Americans cannot host the UN guests, then they do not
deserve to have the UN Headquarters at their country and that
they cannot prepare suitable ground for holding important
sessions of the international body in presence of all its
members," he said.
Asked about Iran's Foreign Ministry stance on a request made by
British Ambassador to Tehran Richard Dalton to have a meeting
with jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, he said, "The Islamic
Republic and Foreign Ministry will not allow foreigners and
particularly foreign ambassadors residing in the country to
intervene in domestic affairs." Asefi said Dalton made an
interfering and illegal request to meet Akbar Ganji, adding
"Ganji's case is an internal issue. The independent judiciary
will make decision on it and no one has the right to interfere
in it."
In response to a question on the stance of Arab states on
Iran's nuclear program, the spokesman said, "Arab and Muslim
countries have different stance.
Several of these states enjoy similar stance with us and others
play a passive role.
"Iran's facilities of advanced technology are not limited just
to the country. Such facilities will be at the service of the
region and the Islamic states."
Asked about the IAEA Board of Governors' extraordinary meeting,
scheduled to be held on Tuesday to discuss Iran's nuclear case,
as well as the Europeans' threats on sending the dossier to the
UN Security Council, Asefi said, "We are in contact with
different states and express our viewpoint.
"Our work is based on legal principles," said the spokesman
adding, "We will never fall short of legal justifications for
our actions though some countries influenced by the Zionist
lobby and the US act contrary to international norms.
"Referral of Iran's nuclear case is not on the agenda of Board
of Governors' next meeting. But have no concerns if the case is
sent to the UNSC.
"In that case, the Europeans will see whether the outcome would
be in their interest or not."
On export of outputs of Isfahan's Uranium Conversion Facility
(UCF), Asefi said, "We will sell the products to whatever
country demands. There are several demands for such products."
REPORTERS ARE MIRRORS OF SOCIETIES
Asefi recalled the martyrdom anniversary of IRNA Correspondent
Mahmoud Saremi in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan, August 8, as
the Reporter Day.
He said reporters are mirrors of the society.
He added that fortunately there are many young reporters on the
scene of the media, being interested in their work.
*****************************************************************
6 WorldNetDaily: More empty threats against Iran
SATURDAY AUGUST 6 2005
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
While making courtesy calls, John Bolton, our newly appointed
ambassador to the United Nations, reportedly "raised possible
Security Council action on Iran's announcement that it plans to
resume enriching uranium, said one diplomat, speaking on
condition of anonymity."
Wow!
Here we go again.
President Bush accuses an Islamic state of pursuing an illicit
nuclear weapons program.
Bush then refers the issue to the U.N. Security Council and
demands "action."
The International Atomic Energy Agency conducts an exhaustive
search and finds no "indication" of a nuclear weapons program.
The Security Council refuses to authorize a pre-emptive attack
against the nuclear weapons program the IAEA says doesn't exist.
Bush launches a pre-emptive attack anyway, claiming that
reliance by the United States "on further diplomatic and other
peaceful means alone" will not "adequately protect the national
security of the United States against the continuing threat
posed by Iraq."
Or Iran.
But, wait a minute.
Iran hasn't announced any plans to "resume enriching uranium."
Iran hasn't even finished manufacturing the several thousand
gas-centrifuges it hopes to eventually employ in a
uranium-enrichment pilot plant.
What Iran did was to inform the IAEA that it had "decided to
resume the uranium conversion activities" at the Uranium
Conversion Facility in Esfahan and requested that the IAEA "be
prepared for the implementation of the safeguards-related
activities in a timely manner prior to the resumption of the UCF
activities."
Here is what State Department acting spokesman Tom Casey told
reporters the same day.
It is critical to us that Iran maintain its suspension [on all
enrichment-related activities, including uranium conversion],
that it maintain its adherence to the Paris Agreement [pdf
document]and that it not take any steps that would be in
violation of that. Obviously, as we said yesterday, if they were
to break that agreement, then the next steps would, to our way
of thinking, be a referral from the IAEA Board to the Security
Council.
If Iran "breaks that agreement" – to which neither the U.S. nor
the IAEA is a party – we intend to get the Board of Governors of
the IAEA to refer the "breaking" to the Security Council for
"possible action"?
Now, the IAEA Statute does provide for the Board to refer an
egregious breach of an IAEA Safeguards Agreement to the Security
Council for possible action. But Iran is in full compliance with
its full-scope Safeguards Agreement.
And the EU-Iran Paris Agreement was merely to begin negotiations
on a mutually acceptable agreement that "will provide objective
guarantees" to the EU, above and beyond the existing full-scope
IAEA Safeguards Agreement, that "Iran's nuclear program is
exclusively for peaceful purposes" and that "will equally
provide firm guarantees" to Iran "on nuclear, technological and
economic cooperation and firm commitments on security issues."
On March 23, Iran offered a package of "objective guarantees"
that included a voluntary "confinement" of Iran's nuclear
programs, to include:
a. forgoing the reprocessing of spent fuel and the production of
plutonium;
b. a "ceiling" on enrichment at reactor fuel level;
c. limiting the extent of the enrichment program to that
required for Iran's power reactors;
d. the immediate conversion of all enriched uranium to fuel rods
to preclude even the technical possibility of further
enrichment; and
e. an incremental and phased approach to implementation of the
uranium-enrichment program, beginning with the least sensitive
aspects – such as uranium conversion.
The Iranians also proposed that there be an unprecedented
"continuous on-site presence of IAEA inspectors at the
conversion and enrichment facilities."
Now, as a consequence of the EU failure to respond in a timely
manner to the Iranian offer, the Iranians have announced they
will resume uranium conversion.
Well, that announcement did finally elicit an EU response, which
included an offer of an "assured supply of fuel over the coming
years." But in return, the EU would require Iran to make "a
binding commitment not to pursue fuel cycle activities other
than the construction and operation of light water power and
research reactors."
"The [EU] proposals are unacceptable," Iranian negotiator
Hossein Moussavian said, describing them as a "clear violation"
of the Paris Agreement.
Will the IAEA Board refer the resumption of uranium conversion
to the Security Council for "possible action"?
Not likely. You see, the Board, itself, has already explicitly
recognized that the Iranian suspension was "not a
legally-binding obligation." Furthermore the Iranians are right.
"The Board of Governors has no factual or legal ground, nor any
statutory power, to make or enforce such a demand, or impose
ramifications as a consequence of it."
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico.
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
*****************************************************************
7 Reuters: Iran rejects EU nuclear compromise
Sat Aug 6, 2005 5:43 AM ET
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday rejected the European
Union's offer of incentives in return for a suspension of its
nuclear fuel work, paving the way for a confrontation that could
lead to U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The EU said its proposals aimed to allow Iran access to nuclear
technology, but block work that could help make an atomic bomb.
If Tehran resumed nuclear work, the EU said it would back U.S.
calls to refer Iran to the U.N. for sanctions.
"The proposals are unacceptable and we reject them," senior
Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told Reuters.
Washington accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop a nuclear
arsenal, but Tehran denies the charge and says its right to
convert and enrich uranium for nuclear power stations is
recognised by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
New Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not specifically
mention the nuclear issue as he was sworn in on Saturday, but
said: "We are logical and respect international rules, but will
not give in to those who want to violate our rights ... The
Iranian nation cannot be intimidated."
The EU -- represented by Britain, France and Germany -- has been
working to find a compromise between arch foes Iran and the
United States since Tehran's nuclear programme was exposed in
late 2002 after 18 years of work carried out in secrecy.
Mousavian accused the EU of breaking an agreement it made with
Iran in Paris, last year. "The proposals do not contain Iran's
right to master the fuel cycle," he said. "This is against the
NPT and the Paris Agreement."
EU3 ambasadors told top Iranian officials the only part of the
bloc's proposals not up for negotiation was the union's demand
that Iran should not restart uranium conversion and enrichment
work, sources present at their meeting said.
The EU3 called a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday to warn Iran
against restarting the sensitive nuclear work. The IAEA can refer
Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran would give
a full answer to the EU proposals on Saturday or Sunday.
The three EU countries said they hoped to discuss with Iran its
response at a meeting at the end of this month.
Either way, Iran would restart work at a uranium conversion
plant near the city of Isfahan by Friday next week, Mousavian
said. But work would only begin there under IAEA supervision.
The agency said it could take until the middle of next week for
inspectors and surveillance equipment to be in place.
Mousavian said there was no reason for the delay.
"The delay of the IAEA's arrival is illogical," he said.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Friday called
on Iran to "listen to reason" and said if Iran resumed its
nuclear activities, "the international community will surely
bring the issue to the Security Council".
U.S. POLICY SHIFT
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".
Iran also had to agree to stop building a heavy water reactor
near the town of Arak that "gives rise to proliferation
concerns," said a summary of the EU proposals.
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.
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.
An EU diplomat said on Friday Iran faced "two stark choices".
"The first is the right choice, the second is the wrong choice,"
the 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."
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
8 Reutes: Iran not worried about Security Council referral
Sun Aug 7, 2005 6:52 AM ET
(Adds newspapers comments)
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Iran insisted on Sunday it would
resume uranium conversion this week after rejecting EU incentives
to end its nuclear fuel work, and said it was not worried about
being referred to the U.N. for possible sanctions.
"Although we think referral of Iran's case to the Security
Council would be unlawful and politically motivated, if one day
they refer Iran's case...we won't be worried in the least," said
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with
Iran for the European Union, have called an emergency meeting of
the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of
governors on Tuesday to discuss Iran's case.
The EU trio say they will recommend referring Iran to the
Security Council if it goes ahead with plans to break U.N. seals
and resume work at the Isfahan uranium conversion plant.
Iran, which on Saturday rejected an EU package of economic and
political incentives designed to persuade it to halt nuclear fuel
work for good, says it will restart the Isfahan plant as soon as
IAEA surveillance equipment is in place.
"The European proposal has no value," state television quoted
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying.
"We will insist on our rights and have decided to resume Isfahan
activities as the first step of our measures. This does not mean
we will stop negotiations with Europe," he added.
ADDITIONAL CAMERAS
Asefi, speaking at a weekly news conference, said IAEA
technicians would be at the Isfahan plant on Monday to install
additional cameras.
He said the 35-page EU proposal, which contained an offer of
help with developing a civilian nuclear programme, was rejected
because it did not recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium.
Iran's official reply will be delivered to the EU on Monday.
"I suggest that the Europeans avoid the language of threat,"
Asefi said. "The only way is to encourage Iran and respect its
rights."
Hardline newspapers declared the EU proposal worthless.
"Their proposal is an empty box in beautiful wrapping,"
Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily said. "If Iran agrees to it, it will be
deprived of the nuclear fuel cycle forever and it would be an
everlasting scandal for Iran."
Iran says its nuclear programme is solely designed to produce
much-needed electricity and is not, as Washington insists, a
cover for making atomic bombs.
It says that as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) it has the right to produce its own fuel for nuclear
reactors, a process that can also be used to make bomb-grade
material.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper, which has long called for Iran to
kick out U.N. inspectors and withdraw from the NPT, on Sunday
argued that Iran was in fact not a member of the treaty since
parliament had not ratified it.
Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at his swearing-in
ceremony on Saturday, said Iran would not be intimidated by
threats from the West.
A religious conservative fiercely loyal to the ideals of the 1979
Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad is expected to adopt a tougher
position on the two-year-old nuclear negotiations with the EU,
analysts and diplomats say. (Additional reporting by Amir Paivar)
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
9 Reuters: France urges Iran to study EU proposals carefully
Sat Aug 6, 2005 12:27 PM ET
PARIS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy urged Iran on Saturday to study carefully the
European Union's offer of incentives in return for a suspension
of its nuclear fuel work, after Tehran rejected the offer.
"Faced with the first, negative reactions from Iran, I urge its
leaders to give themselves the time to examine these proposals
with care," Douste-Blazy told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in
an early release of an interview to run on Sunday. Asked if
France's position would be shared by other nations if the issue
was taken to the U.N. Security Council, Douste-Blazy said such a
situation had not yet arisen: "We are not there."
"We hope the Iranians will study our proposals very closely," he
said. "We are ready to talk to them when they want to. But if
they want to resume their sensitive nuclear activities in a
unilateral manner, we cannot remain immobile."
He pointed out that the EU -- represented by Britain, France and
Germany -- has called a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday to warn Iran
against restarting sensitive nuclear work. The IAEA can refer
Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
"If Iran was to still not listen to our call for reason, we
would be led to take the issue before the Security Council,"
Douste-Blazy said.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 Reuters: US split on nuclear energy for Iran, North Korea
Sat Aug 6, 2005 3:55 PM ET
(Updates with report of U.S. offer to North Korea in paragraphs
4, 16-17)
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Confronting brewing nuclear crises
with Iran and North Korea, the United States has taken opposite
positions in each case over the question of peaceful atomic
energy.
The Bush administration has endorsed a European Union proposal
-- rejected on Saturday by Tehran -- that includes a guarantee of
civilian nuclear power for Iran in return for scuttling any
weapons program.
Meanwhile, Washington would deny North Korea the same
capability, contributing to an impasse at six-party negotiations
in Beijing.
A diplomatic source close to the talks said on Saturday that
Washington had offered to let North Korea have civilian nuclear
programs, but Pyongyang rejected U.S. conditions. U.S. officials
have not confirmed the offer, which would represent a softening
in position.
The seemingly contradictory U.S. stances derive from
considerations including distrust of North Korea's promises and
Iran's growing regional power, but they could make it harder to
strike a deal with either side.
"If the approach we took with the North Koreans gave the
impression to the Iranians that the European proposal is
unworkable because of a lack of American support, that could be a
problem," Robert Einhorn, a senior nonproliferation official in
the Clinton administration, said before Iran rejected the
proposal.
Washington's support for the EU proposal lacked a specific
commitment to change U.S. laws or give other help, crucial to
making the European offer credible to Iran, Einhorn said.
Both Iran and North Korea assert a right to peaceful nuclear
power under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The pact
promised signers that if they forswore nuclear weapons, the five
nuclear-weapons states -- the United States, Britain, France,
Russia and China -- would make sure they receive technology to
produce nuclear energy.
While North Korea has endorsed the concept of a denuclearized
Korean peninsula, Iran -- though denying a weapons program --
insists on being able to enrich uranium, a key component in
nuclear weapons.
Both states joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty but have been
accused by the United States and others of violating their
obligations. Iran remains a treaty member; North Korea withdrew
in 2003.
RENEGING ON A DEAL
U.S. officials defend their refusal to let Pyongyang have a
civilian nuclear program even if it dismantles weapons-related
activities, which may have produced nine or more bombs.
"The explanation is that we tried this once with North Korea and
they reneged," said a senior U.S. official familiar with the
issue. The official requested anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak on the record.
He referred to a 1994 agreement under which the North vowed to
freeze its nuclear program and Washington promised to build two
nuclear-power reactors.
The Bush team hated the deal and hard-liners worked to undermine
it. Pyongyang pursued a covert weapons program, which U.S.
officials said the North admitted in October 2002 but has since
denied.
Later, the North expelled international monitors and withdrew
from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Washington and its
partners suspended the reactor project.
The diplomatic source said the United States had proposed this
week letting North Korea have a civilian nuclear program if it
rejoined the treaty, met international obligations and accepted
International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.
North Korea refused, saying inspections would infringe on its
sovereignty, the source said.
REGIONAL POWER
U.S. and European officials cite other reasons for treating Iran
and North Korea differently. North Korea boasts a weapons
capability, but a new U.S. intelligence estimate says Iran could
be a decade from producing a bomb. Iran is a rising regional
power; weak North Korea is expected eventually to collapse and
reunify with South Korea.
Also, South Korea has offered to link its electric system to the
North's, while no one has made a similar offer to Iran, Einhorn
noted.
Furthermore, Iran is a potentially lucrative market for
international nuclear-energy companies and Russia. U.S. officials
say they have greater confidence cheating could be detected in
Iran, as opposed to North Korea.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
11 Reuters: EU trio push for quick U.N. nuke rebuke of Iran
Sun Aug 7, 2005 6:54 PM ET
By Francois Murphy
VIENNA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany will lobby
countries on the U.N. nuclear watchdog's governing board this
week to get them to throw their weight behind a warning to Iran
not to restart sensitive nuclear fuel work, diplomats said.
The three countries called a special session of the
International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors
for Tuesday after Iran said last week it would resume work at a
uranium conversion plant near the central city of Isfahan, ending
a suspension of nuclear work agreed with the Europeans.
The "EU3", who are heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for
the European Union, have said that if Iran broke the suspension
they would end talks and seek to have Tehran referred to the U.N.
Security Council, which can impose sanctions.
Iran has said it will break U.N. seals on equipment at Isfahan
once IAEA surveillance equipment is in place, which the IAEA says
should happen by mid-week. The EU wanted the IAEA board to make a
statement on Iran before then, diplomats said.
"It's a case of asking them not to do it because of the
consequences that might flow from them doing it," one diplomat
close to the EU-Iran talks said on condition of anonymity.
Iran says it only wants nuclear technology to generate
electricity. Western countries, however, suspect it is secretly
trying to develop atomic weapons.
The EU hopes to convince Iran to abandon nuclear technology that
could be used to make bombs in exchange for political and
economic incentives.
The EU trio circulated an initial draft of an IAEA board
resolution this weekend urging Iran not to resume conversion, the
step before enrichment, a process that can purify uranium to the
levels needed to fuel reactors or bombs.
The Europeans will hold talks with other board members on Monday
in the hope that all will agree on a text in time for Tuesday's
meeting, diplomats said.
The Islamic republic has rejected a package of incentives that
the EU presented on Friday, potentially setting it on a collision
course with the West. Tehran is due to give its official response
on Monday.
MILD TEXT
Diplomats in Vienna said the EU's proposed text was not strongly
worded, increasing the chances of all 35 countries on the IAEA's
board of governors agreeing on its wording quickly.
"It's pretty mild," said one Western diplomat, who declined to
be named.
Another Western diplomat said: "They're urging Iran to comply
with previous board resolutions by maintaining its suspension of
enrichment-related activities and expressing concern at the
decision to resume (conversion) activities."
It was unclear how other countries on the board would react.
In particular, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which holds a
third of the IAEA board's seats and has objected to previous
Western proposals on Iran, has not expressed its position,
diplomats said.
"We will need to handle NAM very carefully," a diplomat close to
the talks said.
For two years, Washington has tried to have Iran referred to the
Security Council for violating its obligations under the global
pact against the spread of nuclear weapons.
Its efforts were, however, blocked by other countries including
the European trio, which wanted to persuade Iran to voluntarily
give up all potentially weapons-related technology.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 [NYTr] What the North Koreans are up against
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 11:50:09 -0500 (CDT)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Workers World - Aug 11, 2005 issue (posted 8/6/2005)
http://www.workers.org/2005/world/korea-0811/
What the North Koreans are up against
By Deirdre Griswold
This is what the North Koreans are up against at the six-power talks
that have been taking place in Beijing:
First, there is the belligerent Bush administration, which has made it
very clear that if it got the chance it would crush the independent
socialist state in Korea, which has resisted colonial and imperialist
rule for over a century now, and reduce the country to a vassal in the
name of "regime change."
Bush made a big deal of adding the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea to his short "axis of evil" list, in effect saying to the
Koreans, "You're next." This was back in the days when he thought he
was going to vaporize any resistance in Iraq and then move on to other
conquests.
The latest tactic of the Bush administration is to bolster its
relations with Japan, the colonial power that earned the undying
hatred of the Korean people for over three decades of cruel oppression
and exploitation.
What do the Koreans see when they sit down with the U.S. delegates and
try to have a discussion about ending the Penta gon's occupation of
the Korean peninsula, removing the nuclear threat from the whole area,
and signing a peace treaty to end the Korean War, which still has not
been resolved more than 50 years after the 1953 cease-fire?
They see a country that is involved in two totally unjust wars right
now, and is willing to sacrifice the lives of young soldiers--not to
speak of the Iraqi and Afghan people--to achieve its economic and
geopolitical goals of world domination.
They see a country that has most of the world's nuclear weapons, and
even dropped two on hundreds of thousands of civilians at the end of
World War II, that is now drafting plans for modernizing and upgrading
its nuclear arsenal, that refuses to rule out the first use of nuclear
weapons--yet is telling the Koreans they had better not have any of
their own weapons in self-defense.
They see right-wing ideologues who, like John Bolton, the newly
appointed U.S. ambassador to the UN, don't conceal their hatred and
contempt for the rest of the world. In fact, Bolton even revels in it,
as his now-dissected record makes clear. As for Korea, he personally
insulted the leader of the country when he was there supposedly as a
"diplomat."
Under these conditions, one must admire the sagacity, self-restraint
and patience of the North Koreans in even sitting down with
representatives of the imperialist power that has tried for so long to
either belittle or crush them.
Let us hope that their efforts are not wasted on political neocons who
only know how to insult and threaten. All the Korean people--north and
south--want the U.S. troops out and real peace in the area so their
long-separated families can be reunited and cooperation can grow
between the two halves of the country.
If maneuvering, threats and arrogance frustrate a positive outcome of
these talks, the onus will be completely on the imperialist U.S.-Japan
alliance.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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13 [NYTr] Negotiators in 6-Party Korea Talks Take 3-Week Break
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 14:00:06 -0500 (CDT)
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http://www.plenglish.com
Negotiators at 6-Party Korea Talks Take 3-Week Break
Beijing, Aug 7 (PL)--Negotiators at the six-party talks on
the Korean nuclear issue decided Sunday to take a break and resume the
fourth round of talks in the week beginning on August 29, with China
calling the fourth round of negotiations positive.
All the six delegations decided to have a brief recess so that they
can go back to report to their respective governments, study further
each other4s positions and resolve differences which still exist,
China4s chief negotiator Wu Dawei told a press conference on Sunday.
The specific date for resuming the talks is yet to be set, Wu said,
adding that during the break, all the parties will keep in touch and
continue consultations.
Wu, who is China4s Deputy Foreign Minister, said that the general goal
of the six-nation talks is to achieve the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.
"This is the consensus reached by the six delegations," the Chinese
official stressed.
Since the fourth round of the talks began 13 days ago, the six parties
have been working on a roadmap for the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.
China, acting as the facilitator for the talks, proposed a joint
statement, on which the negotiators have been working for the past
seven days in order to frame a final joint document.
Wu said he did not think a three-week break would dampen the momentum
of the current round of talks. "This is a positive outcome of the
first phase of the current round of talks," he insisted.
He stressed the six nations have reached consensus on a lot of issues
during the first-phase of the current round of talks on the basis of
the previous three rounds.
"There are still differences," he said, adding that "the fact they
agreed to resume the talks three weeks from now demonstrates they do
not fear those differences."
nytr/mh
***
North Korea Defends Right to Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy
Beijing, Aug 7 (PL)--The chief negotiator of the Democratic
People4s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Kye-gwan, said here Sunday that
the United States must change its position on requiring his country to
abandon its nuclear energy programs.
"A change in the US position is key to the success of the next stage of
the six-party talks," Kim told reporters at the DPRK embassy in Beijing
after the six parties agreed to take a three-week recess on the 13th
day of negotiations.
The six parties, which also include China, the Republic of Korea
(ROK), Russia and Japan, exchanged views on some "questions of
principle" in a "sincere, frank and friendly" atmosphere, though they
failed to yield an agreement, Kim highlighted.
The first stage of this fourth round of talks, the official said, laid
the groundwork for progress in the next stage, and delegates reached
a consensus on the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and
reaffirmed the principle of "word for word, action for action," Kim
said.
He attributed the six parties' failure to forumulate a final
joint statement mainly to the "major differences" between the DPRK and
the United States on the definition of denuclearization.
"The DPRK does not want to give up its right to peaceful use of nuclear
energy, while the United States is attempting to keep the DPRK from having
that right," he said.
Kim emphasized that his country is ready for more bilateral contacts and
hoped the United States could change its position on requiring the
DPRK to abandon all its nuclear programs, including peaceful use of
nuclear energy.
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14 Guardian Unlimited: Deadlocked Korea Talks May Take Recess
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday August 6, 2005 9:46 PM
AP Photo BEJ105
By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press Writer
BEIJING (AP) - Envoys to deadlocked North Korean nuclear talks
said Saturday they might take a recess, but they planned to
gather for one more day to discuss the effort to persuade the
North to disarm.
Negotiators from the United States, North Korea and four other
nations held a 12th straight day of talks on Saturday but
reported no progress on a planned statement of principles to
guide future negotiations.
``We are talking about the possibility of a recess,'' Japan's
chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters. He did not say how
long a recess might last.
China said the delegation leaders would meet again Sunday
morning.
Russia's delegate, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev,
was quoted by China's official Xinhua News Agency as saying they
would take a two-week break if Sunday's meeting is unsuccessful.
The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill,
would not say whether there would be a recess. But he said there
was little progress at a meeting Saturday with the North Korean
delegation.
Diplomats say the talks are stalemated over the North's
insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear program, and over
what Pyongyang would get if it renounces atomic weapons.
The North ``still has the view that the other five countries,
frankly speaking, do not share,'' Hill said.
Hill had said Friday that a recess might be an option to let
diplomats return to their home countries and review their work.
But he warned that they needed to make preparations to ensure
that any diplomatic gains this week were ``locked in,'' so that
talks would not need to start from scratch when they met again.
Hill had said he hoped to use Saturday's meeting with his North
Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, to
discuss how to speed up negotiations.
``We have options for dealing with this but there is one option
we do not have and that is the option of simply walking away,''
Hill said.
The dispute 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 withdrew from the
international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The North claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang says it will not give up such weapons until Washington
discards its ``hostile policies'' toward the North, removes any
nuclear threat from the Korean Peninsula and normalizes
relations with the country's Stalinist government.
The North also wants aid in exchange for freezing nuclear
development, and then more for dismantling the program.
Washington wants to see it verifiably dismantled before
providing any rewards.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
15 AFP: US warns "not enough progress" in North Korea nuclear talks
06/08/2005 11h34
Christopher Hill (C)
©AFP/File
BEIJING (AFP) - US and North Korean negotiators have met as the
top US envoy warned "not enough progress" has been made in
marathon six-nation talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to
abandon its nuclear programs.
As the talks entered a 12th day, the process appeared deadlocked
over North Koreas insistence that it retain the right to operate
nuclear programs for peaceful purposes.
Washington is demanding that North Korea give up all its nuclear
programs, not just its weapons capability, to defuse a crisis
that has rumbled on for nearly three years.
The two-sides' top delegates met in another one-on-one meeting
Saturday, one of several in the past few days, sources said.
They also met separately with host nation China, Chinese
state-run television said.
Chief US delegate Christopher Hill indicated Saturday his
patience was running out and that the talks could end soon.
"If we're not going to make progress, we're not going to be
here," Hill told reporters as he left his hotel for a meeting
with the Chinese delegation which was to be followed by the
talks with the North Koreans.
"If we're not going to be here ... we'll have to talk about what
possible way we might wind this up," Hill said.
But Hill and South Korea's chief delegate Song Min-soon rejected
the idea of suspending the talks for a recess, with Hill saying
he still hoped to gain ground Saturday.
"A recess is one of the sort of termination scenarios. It's
definitely an idea which we don't want to do," Hill said.
"There has been progress in this (so far) and we don't want to
have that progress slip away. ... We've been rolling this rock
up the hillside and we don't want it to roll all the way back
down."
Song said while progress was made on some issues, the "tense"
talks were not making headway because of hurdles over several
important issues. He said late Friday both the United States and
North Korea were "evenly stubborn."
However he said it was important the six participating nations
-- the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia --
seize the opportunity to reach agreement.
"There is a saying: make hay while the sun shines. It is good to
resolve it when there is a current of making progress," Song
said.
The US State Department has previously voiced concern that any
North Korean atomic program could be turned into a nuclear
weapons project, and has insisted on a complete dismantling of
all North Korea's nuclear facilities. Chinese paramilitary
police march during a change of guards at the gate to the
Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where the six-party talks are held
in Beijing
©AFP/File
Hill indicated Friday 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.
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 repeatedly said that the North needs to
give up its weapons programs before it gets any aid and energy.
The latest 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 had
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 Disclaimer ©AFP 2005
*****************************************************************
16 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Whither the Six-Party Talks?
> Updated Aug.7,2005 21:27 KST
North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan holds a press
conference Sunday at the North Korean embassy in Beijing
following news that the six-party talks would be adjourned. In
back of him can be seen a portrait of North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il./AP
Six-Party Talks Iced for Three Weeks
Six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program have gone into
recess after 13 days of negotiations that saw the Chinese hosts
provide 5,000 bottles of drinking water, 2,000 cups of coffee
and meals to the delegation at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse,
to no great effect.
"We couldn't reach agreement on the scope of North Korea's
nuclear dismantlement and reciprocal measures, especially
concerning the peaceful use of nuclear energy,¡± South Korean
delegation chief Song Min-soon said.
North Korea early in the talks appeared to have given up on the
construction of light-water reactors but at the last minute
revived the demand, on top of a general insistence on the right
to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends. The U.S. offered to
start normalizing relations with Pyongyang but North Korea
demanded multi-layered security guarantees right away. At a
press conference after talks were adjourned, North Korea¡¯s
chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan also raised the issue once of a
nuclear umbrella he says the U.S. provides to South Korea.
Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said when the sides meet
again, he did not want to spend even 13 minutes discussing the
topic. Prof. Kim Tae-hyo of Sungkyunkwan University commented,
"The talks indirectly confirm that North Korea has no intention
of abandoning its nuclear program." South Korean government
officials also say Pyongyang is trying to avoid a situation
where it agrees to verifiably dismantle its nuclear program and
is thus left without a negotiating card.
Kim said he hoped the U.S. would use the recess ¡°to change its
policy of not allowing us any nuclear program." But Hill¡¯s
remarks to the press during the talks make that seem unlikely.
South Korean officials who reviewed the draft statement all
agree that it is not a bad deal for North Korea, and one it
would have to accept if it has nothing else up its sleeve. That
is why many believe the decision is now with North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il, and he is tipped to take his time.
"The U.S. can¡¯t retreat any further. I think it's also possible
North Korea will make a decision,¡± says Kyungnam University¡¯s
Prof. Kim Geun-shik. ¡°The important thing is that the voices of
U.S. and North Korean hardliners grow no louder over the next
three weeks."
Either the U.S. or North Korea will have to make a concession
before things can go further. While the talks are officially to
resume on Aug. 29, North Korea¡¯s delegation chief said the date
would be decided ¡°through future contacts." That could in the
worst case mean that talks may not reopen if the North decides
otherwise. Last year, too, North Korea broke an agreement made
after the third round of talks to restart negotiations within
three months.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
17 AFP: Deadlock forces North Korean nuclear talks into recess
06/08/2005 19h28
Christopher Hill
©AFP/File
BEIJING (AFP) - Marathon talks aimed at persuading North Korea
to abandon its nuclear ambitions will head into recess after
failing to break a deadlock over Pyongyang's demand for peaceful
nuclear capabilities, delegates said.
Russian chief delegate Alexander Alexeyev said the fourth round
of the six-party talks would take a recess after a plenary
meeting on Sunday morning, reported Xinhua, the state-run news
agency of host nation China.
The recess would last about two weeks, Alexeyev was quoted as
saying.
Japan's chief delegate Kenchiro Sasae told reporters the
delegates were moving towards a recess but refused to elaborate.
A meeting of all chief delegates from the six nations -- North
Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia
-- was scheduled for Sunday morning, to be followed by a press
conference by China. Alexander Alexeyev(C)
©AFP/File - Guang Niu
US chief envoy Christopher Hill refused to confirm that a recess
was planned, saying it would be impolite to speak ahead of the
host nation's announcement Sunday.
"All I can tell you is that we have worked very, very hard,"
Hill said. "I can assure you that we are very interested in
reaching an agreement."
The fourth round of talks has lasted longer than any of the
previous efforts, which all ended after about three days. Still,
it appeared headed to suffer the same fate -- to end without any
concrete results.
Despite 12 days of intense, sometimes late-night negotiations,
the six nations could not reach agreement on a key sticking
point: whether the North should be allowed to run nuclear
programs for peaceful, energy use.
Washington has demanded that North Korea give up all its nuclear
programs, not just its weapons capability, to defuse a crisis
that has rumbled on for nearly three years.
The US State Department has previously voiced concern that any
North Korean atomic program could be turned into a nuclear
weapons project.
Hill had as late as Friday rejected the idea of a recess to
allow delegations to return to their countries and consult with
their governments and plan fresh strategies.
"A recess is one of the sort of termination scenarios. It's
definitely an idea which we don't want to do," Hill had said.
"There has been progress in this (so far) and we don't want to
have that progress slip away ... We've been rolling this rock up
the hillside, and we don't want it to roll all the way back
down." Kenichiro Sasae
©AFP/File - Frederic Brown
Prior to Saturday's meetings, however, Hill had indicated his
patience was running out and that the talks could end soon.
"If we're not going to make progress, we're not going to be
here," Hill told reporters as he left his hotel. "If we're not
going to be here ... we'll have to talk about what possible way
we might wind this up."
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 repeatedly said that the North needs to
give up its weapons programs before it gets any aid and energy.
The latest 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 had
nuclear bombs. Kim Kye-Gwan (L) shakes hands with Dai Bingguo
©AFP/POOL/File - Elizabeth Dalziel
A collapse of the latest round could tempt Washington to take
the issue to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Pyongyang has warned that sanctions would be viewed as a
declaration of war.
Neither side, however, walked out or made accusatory remarks at
each other during this round, and even an exasperated Hill
indicated some progress had been made, with China insisting this
week that the fact all sides had deepened their mutual
understanding was progress in itself.
"We really had understanding and dialogue that we did not have
(previously)," Hill said.
Alexeyev said the talks were "fruitful" since all sides reached
"unprecedented understanding and consensus on many issues" and a
recess should not mean that the current round of talks had
achieved no progress, Xinhua said.
He indicated Russia sided with Pyongyang in the key sticking
point.
"Every country is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy,
but efforts should be made to ensure the nuclear energy will be
used absolutely for peaceful purpose," Alexeyev said.
The crisis erupted in October 2002 when the United States
accused the North of running a secretive uranium enrichment
program.
ðàáñêèé Copyright Disclaimer ©AFP 2005
*****************************************************************
18 Las Vegas SUN: U.S., N. Korea Seek Nuclear Concessions
Today: August 07, 2005 at 13:2:4 PDT
By JOE McDONALD ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING (AP) -
The United States and North Korea urged each other Sunday to
make concessions as envoys to disarmament talks called a
three-week recess, deadlocked over what the American envoy said
was the North's demand for a nuclear power plant.
The adjournment came after 13 days of talks failed to produce a
statement of principles to guide renewed negotiations aimed at
persuading North Korea to renounce nuclear weapons. The
delegations said the six-nation talks would resume the week of
Aug. 29.
The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill,
said talks stalled over the North's demand for the statement to
include a promise that it be given a nuclear reactor. He said
all five other delegations rejected that.
"We decided it was time to end it and go to recess, with the
idea that they can go back and think about what they've been
told, which is, they're not going to get a light-water reactor,"
Hill told reporters.
He expressed hope North Korea's communist regime would drop the
demand once its envoys explained the rejection, saying, "Perhaps
people back in Pyongyang need to hear it directly."
But the North's chief envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan,
said that during the recess Washington should "change its policy
on not letting us have any kind of nuclear activities."
The dispute is "one of the very important elements that led us
to fail to come up with an agreement," Kim said at a news
conference in the North Korean Embassy. He did not mention the
reactor cited by Hill.
North Korea has been under international pressure since late
2002 when Washington said the North admitted running a
clandestine program that violated a 1994 agreement to give up
development of atomic weapons.
The North later withdrew from the international Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, which barred it from obtaining nuclear
arms, and claimed in February that it now possesses atomic
warheads. That claim has not been verified, but U.S.
intelligence and other estimates say the North has as many as
six atomic bombs.
The latest round of talks is the fourth in a series arranged by
China, which diplomats say lobbied North Korea aggressively to
make a deal. The talks also involve South Korea, Japan and
Russia.
China is North Korea's biggest ally and aid donor. But experts
say Chinese leaders worry that letting the North acquire nuclear
weapons could destabilize the region by encouraging South Korea
and Japan to do the same.
During the recess, the six governments "are supposed to maintain
contact and consultations," said China's chief delegate, Vice
Foreign Minister Wu Dawei. But he warned that even after they
return from the recess, "I can't say for sure that we will reach
agreement."
North Korea says that in exchange for renouncing nuclear
weapons, it wants economic and energy aid, a peace treaty and
normalized relations with Washington. It also wants the United
States to remove any "nuclear threat" of its own from the Korean
Peninsula.
The United States has some 32,500 military personnel in South
Korea, but Washington says no nuclear weapons are deployed there
and it has no intention of invading the North.
Hill said North Korea also wants its negotiating partners to
provide a nuclear reactor to "demonstrate our commitment to
their right to eventual civilian use" of nuclear technology.
A light-water reactor was promised to the North in the 1994 deal
as part of a U.S. aid package, but Hill said that reactor "is
simply not on the table" anymore. He has cited the North's
conversion of a reactor at Yongbyon that supposedly was built
for research into one that Washington says can make material for
atomic bombs.
Diplomats said earlier that the talks also snagged on the
question of aid for North Korea, which already depends on
foreign contributions to feed its 23 million people because its
government-run farm system has collapsed. Pyongyang wants
concessions for freezing nuclear work and more later for
dismantling its program, while Washington says it will give
nothing until the program is verifiably dismantled. But Hill
played down the disagreements on such issues as aid and
normalization of relations.
"All of those the North Korean delegate and I agreed could be
resolved," Hill said. "The deal-breaker was the question of
denuclearization and their desire to put the focus back on
`re-nuclearization' via a light-water reactor."
Taking up another issue, a Japanese official said Japan's chief
envoy demanded Sunday that North Korea return abducted Japanese
nationals and hand over their kidnappers.
Kenichiro Sasae made the demand during a 20-minute meeting with
the North's vice foreign minister, said the official, who spoke
with reporters on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the talks.
North Korea has admitted its agents abducted 13 Japanese in the
1970s and 1980s, saying the five it allowed to leave in recent
years were the only survivors. But a former North Korean agent
who defected in 1993 said last month in Tokyo that he knew of 15
abductees.
The issue is sensitive for the Japanese, and suspicions of North
Korea have kept relations strained.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
19 Reuters: N.Korea talks to extend into Sunday, recess considered
Sat Aug 6, 2005 8:20 AM ET
BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Negotiators to the six-party talks on
North Korea's nuclear crisis were considering a recess but would
continue discussions at least one more day, Japan's chief
negotiator said on Saturday.
"We are having discussions in the direction of recessing,"
Japan's chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae told reporters on
Saturday, adding that the talks would continue for another day.
He did not say how long any recess would last.
The talks between the two Koreas, the United States, Russia,
Japan and host China appeared deadlocked after 12 days of
negotiations, with Pyongyang's demand to the right to peaceful
nuclear capability turning into a crucial sticking point.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
20 Reuters: China proposes recess for six party talks-state radio
Sat Aug 6, 2005 6:56 AM ET
BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) - China has proposed a recess for
six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis that are now
in their 12th day, Chinese state radio said on Saturday.
"It has been reported that the Chinese side has suggested that
the delegates return to their countries to report to their
governments and then continue the discussions," state radio said.
It added that U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill did not
immediately support a recess, saying that compared to the
13-month gap between the third round and the current fourth
round, 12 days was not a long time.
The talks between the Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia
and host China appear deadlocked, with North Korea demanding that
it retain the right to maintain nuclear programmes for civilian
use like generating power.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
21 Reuters: FACTBOX-Issues at six-country talks on nuclear-free N.Korea
Sat Aug 6, 2005 6:58 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's
nuclear weapons programmes entered their 10th day in Beijing with
Pyongyang taking a tough line on U.S. demands for its
disarmament.
The previous three rounds of six-way discussions going back to
2003 saw little substantive progress, while disagreements, fresh
demands and pitfalls bred complications.
Following are key points about the Beijing talks.
GIVE AND TAKE
The basic premise is for North Korea to dismantle all nuclear
weapons programmes in a verifiable and irreversible manner in
exchange for much-needed aid for its moribund economy and
security guarantees.
THE ROUNDS
China hosted three rounds of talks beginning in August 2003 with
North and South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia. It
was not until the third round in June 2004 that substantive
proposals were made.
WHAT NORTH KOREA WANTS
The North has sought energy aid, its removal from the U.S. list
of state sponsors of terrorism and the lifting of all sanctions
against it.
It has said it wants to see those moves in return for a freeze of
its nuclear programmes, before it begins dismantling them.
Since March this year, the North has demanded the six-party
process be turned into disarmament talks that would also discuss
U.S. nuclear weapons it says are deployed in South Korea.
Washington denies the existence of such weapons. Pyongyang has
also repeated calls for a peace treaty with the United States.
U.S. DEMANDS
Washington wants to see the North begin dismantling all nuclear
programmes, including one based on uranium enrichment technology,
within three months of freezing them. It has not offered to be
directly part of an energy aid package.
SWEETENER
Seoul said in July it would supply the North with 2,000 megawatts
of electricity, roughly equivalent to present total power output
in the impoverished communist state, if Pyongyang dismantled its
nuclear programmes.
STUMBLING BLOCKS
Tokyo says the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North
Koreans decades ago should be raised at the Beijing talks.
Washington sees the need to include North Korea's record of human
rights abuse on the table. Seoul has tried to keep this fourth
talks session focused on the North's nuclear arms.
ANOTHER BREAKDOWN?
All the parties, including North Korea, say they are prepared to
work for substantive progress.
Another breakdown could mean the end of the six-party process and
renewed U.S. calls to take the issue to the U.N. Security
Council, which could impose sanctions.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
22 Reuters: Envoys to N.Korea nuclear talks take 3-week recess
Sun Aug 7, 2005 2:39 AM ET
(Adds Hill quotes, paragraphs 10, 11)
By Teruaki Ueno and Jack Kim
BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Weary envoys battling at six-party
talks to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons
programmes decided on Sunday to take a three-week break to
consult their governments.
North Korea, demanding aid and security guarantees in return for
ending the programmes, refused to agree to a joint statement
despite multiple drafts put forward during 13 days of talks with
South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei said the Beijing talks would
reconvene in the week of August 29 and expressed confidence that
an agreement could eventually be reached to end a crisis which
has dragged on for nearly three years.
"I cannot say for sure when we can reach agreement on a joint
statement and I cannot say for sure that we will reach agreement
after the recess," Wu told a news conference.
"But I believe we will reach agreement one day," he said.
"We have already won a very big victory on our Long March," he
said. "If we can compare our work to climbing a hill, the top of
the hill has already been in sight. The purpose of us having this
break is to get to the top more smoothly."
After the adjournment, North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan put
the onus for the stalemate on the United States. He said he hoped
Washington would use the recess to alter its demand that the
North give up all its nuclear programmes, insisting again that
Pyongyang should be allowed the right to peaceful use.
"We couldn't meet in the middle because we were too far apart,"
Kim said. "What we are making is a just demand," he said.
WHOSE FAULT?
Both the United States and Japan said it was North Korea which
was holding up an agreement.
"I think we were able to achieve a lot of consensus on some
issues, but ultimately we were not able to finish the job and not
able to bridge the remaining gap," said Kim's U.S. counterpart,
Christopher Hill.
"...in the last few days, it began to emerge, that the problem
with reaching an agreement was not just the issue of their desire
to retain the right to develop a commercial or so-called peaceful
energy, but also they began to insist on a light-water reactor,"
Hill added.
North Korea announced in February it had built nuclear weapons,
saying it had taken the step to provide a deterrent to what it
called U.S. hostility. Intelligence experts estimate it has
stockpiled enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.
Washington has demanded Pyongyang completely, verifiably and
irreversibly dismantle all its nuclear programmes before it will
make concessions such as security guarantees or energy aid.
In Beijing this time the North declared itself committed to
denuclearising the Korean peninsula, apart from peaceful
power-generation programmes.
HOSTS SEE PROGRESS
Despite the gulf, host nation China insisted there was progress.
Wu dismissed suggestions that the recess would sap the momentum
of the talks. He said negotiators had reached more consensus
during this fourth round than during the previous three rounds
stretching back to 2003.
During the recess, the delegates would report to their
governments about the progress. Wu said this was necessary to
resolve such a major issue as denuclearisation.
"I want to emphasise that whether or not we are able to sign a
joint document should not become a barometer for the success or
failure of the talks," Wu said.
To bridge the gap, a diplomatic source said, the United States
had offered North Korea the right to pursue peaceful nuclear
activities if it agreed to the strict terms of the
non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Pyongyang rejected the proposal because of the strings attached,
including a requirement for inspections by the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. officials have not confirmed such an offer, which would
mark a softening in Washington's position.
Collapse of the six-way process could prompt Washington to take
the issue to the United Nations, a move China opposes for fear
the crisis might escalate and lead to instability in the region.
North Korea says any attempt to slap it with U.N. sanctions
would amount to a declaration of war.
Washington confronted Pyongyang in late 2002 with evidence it
was violating international accords by pursuing a covert uranium
enrichment weapons programme in addition to its mothballed
plutonium reprocessing endeavours at Yongbyon, near the capital.
The North responded by throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors,
abandoning the NPT, breaking the seals at Yongbyon and restarting
the reactor there. (Additional reporting by Brian Rhoads, Guo
Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim in BEIJING and Kim Kyoung-wha in
SEOUL)
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
23 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Six-country talks on N.Korea nuclear programmes
Sat Aug 6, 2005 6:58 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - East Asian powers seeking a solution to the
crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are holding a
marathon fourth round of talks in Beijing after 13 months of
stalemate.
Following is a chronology of the talks involving North and South
Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States:
- - - -
October 2002 - Top State Department envoy James Kelly confronts
Pyongyang with evidence Washington says points to covert uranium
enrichment programme. Pyongyang says "it is entitled to possess
not only nuclear weapons but other types of weapons more powerful
than them in defence of its sovereignty in face of the U.S.
threat".
December 2002 - North Korea says it plans to restart Yongbyon
reactor, disables International Atomic Enegery Agency
surveillance devices at Yongbyon and expels IAEA inspectors.
January 2003 - North Korea says it is quitting the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, with immediate effect.
At talks between U.S. team led by Kelly and North Koreans and
China in Beijing, American officials say North Korea told the
United States that it has nuclear weapons and might test them or
transfer them to other countries.
August 2003 - First round of six-way talks on the nuclear issue
take place in Beijing. North Korea threatens to test nuclear bomb
and test-fire new missile.
October 2003 - North Korea says it has enhanced its "nuclear
deterrent" with plutonium reprocessed from thousands of nuclear
fuel rods. Pyongyang says it is willing to display the deterrent.
January 2004 - Pyongyang permits unofficial U.S. delegation,
including nuclear expert, to tour Yongbyon. U.S. nuclear expert
Sigfried Hecker says he is not convinced North Korea could turn
its nuclear technology into a weapon or mount it on a missile.
February 2004 - The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, scientist
Abdul Qadeer Khan, admits to passing on uranium-linked technology
to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Pyongyang calls Khan's confession
a lie.
Second round of six-party talks held in Beijing.
June 2004 - Third round of talks held in Beijing. U.S. proposes
fuel aid and security guarantees to North Korea if it scraps
nuclear programmes.
February 10, 2005 - North Korea's Foreign Ministry issues
statement saying it has manufactured nuclear weapons for
self-defence and is pulling out of six-way talks indefinitely.
June 17 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il tells senior South
Korean envoy in Pyongyang that North Korea can return to talks as
early as July, if United States meets certain conditions, such as
treating North Korea with "respect".
July 9 - North Korea announces it has agreed to return to the
stalled talks in last week of July.
July 22 - North Korea calls for a peace treaty to replace the
armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, saying it would
resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
July 26 - Six-party envoys begin fourth round of talks.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
24 Las Vegas SUN: Stances of Six Nations in Nuclear Talks
Today: August 07, 2005 at 13:2:5 PDT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The stances of the six nations involved in North Korean
disarmament talks that recessed Sunday in Beijing:
-UNITED STATES: Wants the "complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantlement" of North Korea's nuclear programs, both
plutonium- and uranium-based. Has offered aid and other
concessions in exchange, but says they will be given only after
the programs are dismantled.
-NORTH KOREA: Wants economic and energy aid, a peace treaty and
normalized political relations with Washington, as well as an
end to economic sanctions and removal from a U.S. list of
countries that sponsor terrorism. Wants aid in exchange for
first freezing its nuclear programs and then more for
dismantling them.
-SOUTH KOREA: Wants nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Wants to
build better ties with North while maintaining strong relations
with United States, its biggest ally. Has offered energy aid if
North freezes nuclear programs and begins dismantling them.
-CHINA: Wants nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Worries that a
nuclear North Korea might prompt South Korea or Japan to acquire
weapons in response, upsetting regional military balance.
Worries that social unrest in neighboring North could send
thousands of migrants across border. Already provides food and
energy aid.
-JAPAN: Site of only atomic bomb attacks wants nuclear-free
Korean Peninsula but also wants Pyongyang to release relatives
of five Japanese nationals abducted decades ago. Says Pyongyang
must "fully and unconditionally" account for all citizens it
believes were abducted by North in 1970s and 1980s.
-RUSSIA: Says it would join China and South Korea to compensate
North Korea if it agrees to disarm. Says a final settlement
should include normalized political relations between Pyongyang
and Washington.
--
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25 Reuters: N.Korea talks open for 13th day, headed for recess
Sat Aug 6, 2005 8:58 PM ET
(Updates with start of plenary session)
By Teruaki Ueno and Brian Rhoads BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) -
Six-party talks to settle the crisis over North Korea's nuclear
ambitions were heading for recess on Sunday after failing to
reach accord, with Pyongyang clinging fast to its demand to keep
programmes for peaceful use.
Chief negotiators met at a Beijing state guesthouse with the
main order of business to agree details on a recess to allow them
to return to their capitals for consultations, diplomats said. A
news conference by Chinese top negotiator Wu Dawei would follow.
A joint statement that would have marked clear progress at the
talks was out of their immediate grasp. North Korea failed to
sign on despite multiple drafts and nearly two weeks of talks
with South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
Russian chief delegate Alexander Alexeyev said the break could
last about two weeks before they reconvene, China's Xinhua news
agency reported.
"We will hold a session today so that we can resume the talks at
an early time," South Korean chief delegate Song Min-soon told
reporters before heading to the plenary session.
"We have secured the basis to narrow differences," Song said.
"What we are trying to do is to lock in a political declaration
to accomplish the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and
resolve the North Korean nuclear issue."
"We have done sufficient work to establish a basis for that," he
added.
"I think the assurance is that this is a very, very good deal
for them, North Korea," said top U.S. envoy Christopher Hill.
"The deal on the table is something the DPRK needs to think
about because it is something that can lead to a much better
future," he told reporters, using the North's official name, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
NEXT STAGE
"Efforts made by each country should not be wasted and it is
important to bring such efforts to the next stage," Japanese
chief delegate Kenichiro Sasae said.
The six parties have struggled to agree on a joint statement
that would provide for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear
programmes in return for energy aid and security guarantees,
bogging down over Pyoyang's insistence that it be allowed to keep
programmes to generate electricity.
Washington has demanded a complete, verifiable dismantling of
all of its nuclear programmes.
To bridge the gap, the United States had offered North Korea the
right to pursue peaceful nuclear activities if it agreed to the
strict terms of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), a diplomatic
source said.
Pyongyang rejected the proposal because of the strings attached,
including a requirement for inspections by the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. officials have not confirmed the report of the offer, which
would mark a softening in Washington's position.
Hill had appeared willing to stay as long as it took, noting on
Saturday that 12 days was little compared to the 13 months during
which there were no talks after the third round. South Korean
media said he had reminded others in Beijing that the 1995
Bosnian peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, lasted 21 days.
"We have a great political will to solve this problem," Hill
said late on Saturday, though he added there was "not a whole lot
of progress" on the 12th day of talks.
This is the fourth round to defuse a crisis that has lasted
nearly three years, during which North Korea and the United
States have traded barbs and had little direct contact. The talks
stretched on longer than ever before and there was more bilateral
contact between the main protagonists this round.
U.N. OPTION
Failure to reach a final resolution in Beijing could prompt the
United States to take the issue to the United Nations, a move
opposed by China for fear the crisis might escalate and lead to
instability in the region.
Pyongyang says any attempt to slap it with U.N. sanctions would
amount to a declaration of war.
North Korea announced in February it had built nuclear weapons,
saying it had taken the step to provide a deterrent to what it
called U.S. hostility. Intelligence experts estimate it has
stockpiled enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.
In Beijing, the North declared itself committed to
denuclearising the Korean peninsula, apart from peaceful means.
It also demands energy aid and U.S. security guarantees and
diplomatic recognition in return for scrapping weapons
development. Washington insists all programmes are jettisoned
before concessions flow.
Washington confronted Pyongyang in late 2002 with evidence it
was violating international protocol by pursuing a covert uranium
enrichment weapons programme in addition to its mothballed
plutonium reprocessing endeavours at Yongbyon, near the capital.
The North responded by throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors,
abandoning the NPT, breaking the seals at Yongbyon and restarting
the reactor there.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 **Hiroshima cover-up exposed**
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 16:10:59 -0500 (CDT)
UNDISC_RECIPS,WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
Daniel A. McGovern.. directed the U.S. military filmmakers in
1945-1946, "I always had the sense," McGovern told me, "that people in
the Atomic Energy Commission were sorry we had dropped the bomb. The
Air Force -- it was also sorry. I was told by people in the Pentagon
that they didn't want those [film] images out because they showed
effects on man, woman and child. ... They didn't want the general
public to know what their weapons had done -- at a time they were
planning on more bomb tests. We didn't want the material out because
.. we were sorry for our sins."
"I feel that classifying all of this filmed material was a misuse of the
secrecy system since none of it had any military or national security
aspect at all," Barnouw told me. "The reason must have been--that if the
public had seen it and Congressmen had seen it--it would have been much
harder to appropriate money for more bombs."
More recently, McGovern declared that Americans should have seen the
damage wrought by the bomb. "The main reason it was classified was ...
because of the horror, the devastation," he said. Because the footage
shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was hidden for so long, the atomic
bombings quickly sank, unconfronted and unresolved, into the deeper
recesses of American awareness, as a costly nuclear arms race, and
nuclear proliferation, accelerated.
The atomic cover-up also reveals what can happen in any country that
carries out deadly attacks on civilians in any war and then keeps images
of what occurred from its own people.
**************************************************
*From:
*Subject:* Hiroshima cover-up exposed
Hiroshima Cover-up Exposed
By Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher
Posted on August 4, 2005, Printed on August 5, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/23914/
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan almost 60 years ago,
and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight
suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the
bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese
newsreel teams. In addition, for many years all but a handful of
newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited.
The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for 25 years, and the
U.S. military film remained hidden for nearly four decades.
The full story of this atomic cover-up is told fully for the first time
at Editor & Publisher, as the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings
approaches later this week. Some of the long-suppressed footage will be
aired on television this Saturday.
Six weeks ago, E&P broke the story that articles written by famed
Chicago Daily News war correspondent George Weller about the effects of
the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki were finally published, in Japan,
almost six decades after they had been spiked by U.S. officials. This
drew national attention, but suppressing film footage shot in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki was even more significant, as this country rushed into the
nuclear age with its citizens having neither a true understanding of the
effects of the bomb on human beings, nor why the atomic attacks drew
condemnation around the world.
As editor of Nuclear Times magazine in the 1980s, I met Herbert Sussan,
one of the members of the U.S. military film crew, and Erik Barnouw, the
famed documentarian who first showed some of the Japanese footage on
American TV in 1970. In fact, that newsreel footage might have
disappeared forever if the Japanese filmmakers had not hidden one print
from the Americans in a ceiling.
The color U.S. military footage would remain hidden until the early
1980s, and has never been fully aired. It rests today at the National
Archives in College Park, Md., in the form of 90,000 feet of raw footage
labeled #342 USAF.
When that footage finally emerged, I corresponded and spoke with the man
at the center of this drama: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Daniel A. McGovern, who
directed the U.S. military filmmakers in 1945-1946, managed the Japanese
footage, and then kept watch on all of the top-secret material for decades.
"I always had the sense," McGovern told me, "that people in the Atomic
Energy Commission were sorry we had dropped the bomb. The Air Force --
it was also sorry. I was told by people in the Pentagon that they didn't
want those [film] images out because they showed effects on man, woman
and child. ... They didn't want the general public to know what their
weapons had done -- at a time they were planning on more bomb tests. We
didn't want the material out because ... we were sorry for our sins."
Sussan, meanwhile, struggled for years to get some of the American
footage aired on national TV, taking his request as high as President
Truman, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward R. Murrow, to no avail.
More recently, McGovern declared that Americans should have seen the
damage wrought by the bomb. "The main reason it was classified was ...
because of the horror, the devastation," he said. Because the footage
shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was hidden for so long, the atomic
bombings quickly sank, unconfronted and unresolved, into the deeper
recesses of American awareness, as a costly nuclear arms race, and
nuclear proliferation, accelerated.
The atomic cover-up also reveals what can happen in any country that
carries out deadly attacks on civilians in any war and then keeps images
of what occurred from its own people.
Ten years ago, I co-authored (with Robert Jay Lifton) the book
"Hiroshima in America," and new material has emerged since. On Aug. 6,
and on following days, the Sundance cable channel will air "Original
Child Bomb," a prize-winning documentary on which I worked. The film
includes some of the once-censored footage -- along with home movies
filmed by McGovern in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
*The Japanese newsreel footage*
On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb over
Hiroshima, killing at least 70,000 instantly and perhaps 50,000 more in
the days and months to follow. Three days later, it exploded another
atomic bomb over Nagasaki, slightly off target, killing 40,000
immediately and dooming tens of thousands of others. Within days, Japan
had surrendered, and the U.S. readied plans for occupying the defeated
country -- and documenting the first atomic catastrophe.
But the Japanese also wanted to study it. Within days of the second
atomic attack, officials at the Tokyo-based newsreel company Nippon
Eigasha discussed shooting film in the two stricken cities. In early
September, just after the Japanese surrender, and as the American
occupation began, director Sueo Ito set off for Nagasaki. There his crew
filmed the utter destruction near ground zero and scenes in hospitals of
the badly burned and those suffering from the lingering effects of
radiation.
On Sept. 15, another crew headed for Hiroshima. When the first rushes
came back to Toyko, Akira Iwasaki, the chief producer, felt "every frame
burned into my brain," he later said.
At this point, the American public knew little about conditions in the
atomic cities beyond Japanese assertions that a mysterious affliction
was attacking many of those who survived the initial blasts (claims that
were largely taken to be propaganda). Newspaper photographs of victims
were non-existent, or censored. Life magazine would later observe that
for years "the world ... knew only the physical facts of atomic
destruction."
Tens of thousands of American GIs occupied the two cities. Because of
the alleged absence of residual radiation, no one was urged to take
precautions.
Then, on Oct. 24, 1945, a Japanese cameraman in Nagasaki was ordered to
stop shooting by an American military policeman. His film, and then the
rest of the 26,000 feet of Nippon Eisasha footage, was confiscated by
the U.S. General Headquarters (GHQ). An order soon arrived banning all
further filming. It was at this point that Lt. Daniel McGovern took charge.
*Shooting the U.S. Military footage *
In early September, 1945, less than a month after the two bombs fell,
Lt. McGovern -- who as a member of Hollywood's famed First Motion
Picture Unit shot some of the footage for William Wyler's "Memphis
Belle" -- had become one of the first Americans to arrive in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. He was a director with the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey,
organized by the Army the previous November to study the effects of the
air campaign against Germany, and now Japan.
As he made plans to shoot the official American record, McGovern learned
about the seizure of the Japanese footage. He felt it would be a waste
to not take advantage of the newsreel footage, noting in a letter to his
superiors that "the conditions under which it was taken will not be
duplicated, until another atomic bomb is released under combat conditions."
McGovern proposed hiring some of the Japanese crew to edit and "caption"
the material, so it would have "scientific value." He took charge of
this effort in early January 1946, even as the Japanese feared that,
when they were done, they would never see even a scrap of their film again.
At the same time, McGovern was ordered by General Douglas MacArthur on
January 1, 1946 to document the results of the U.S. air campaign in more
than 20 Japanese cities. His crew would shoot exclusively on color film,
Kodachrome and Technicolor, rarely used at the time even in Hollywood.
McGovern assembled a crew of eleven, including two civilians. Third in
command was a young lieutenant from New York named Herbert Sussan.
The unit left Tokyo in a specially outfitted train, and made it to
Nagasaki. "Nothing and no one had prepared me for the devastation I met
there," Sussan later told me. "We were the only people with adequate
ability and equipment to make a record of this holocaust. ... I felt
that if we did not capture this horror on film, no one would ever really
understand the dimensions of what had happened. At that time people back
home had not seen anything but black and white pictures of blasted
buildings or a mushroom cloud."
Along with the rest of McGovern's crew, Sussan documented the physical
effects of the bomb, including the ghostly shadows of vaporized
civilians burned into walls; and, most chillingly, dozens of people in
hospitals who had survived (at least momentarily) and were asked to
display their burns, scars, and other lingering effects for the camera
as a warning to the world.
At the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima, a Japanese physician traced the
hideous, bright red scars that covered several of the patients -- and
then took off his white doctor's shirt and displayed his own burns and cuts.
After sticking a camera on a rail car and building their own tracks
through the ruins, the Americans filmed hair-raising tracking shots that
could have been lifted right from a Hollywood movie. Their chief
cameramen was a Japanese man, Harry Mimura, who in 1943 had shot
"Sanshiro Sugata," the first feature film by a then-unknown Japanese
director named Akira Kurosawa.
*The suppression begins*
While all this was going on, the Japanese newsreel team was completing
its work of editing and labeling all their black & white footage into a
rough cut of just under three hours. At this point, several members of
Japanese team took the courageous step of ordering from the lab a
duplicate of the footage they had shot before the Americans took over
the project.
Director Ito later said: "The four of us agreed to be ready for 10 years
of hard labor in the case of being discovered." One incomplete, silent
print would reside in a ceiling until the Occupation ended.
The negative of the finished Japanese film, nearly 15,000 feet of
footage on 19 reels, was sent off to the U.S. in early May 1946. The
Japanese were also ordered to include in this shipment all photographs
and related material. The footage would be labeled SECRET and not emerge
from the shadows for more than 20 years.
The following month, McGovern was abruptly ordered to return to the U.S.
He hauled the 90,000 feet of color footage, on dozens of reels in huge
footlockers, to the Pentagon and turned it over to General Orvil
Anderson. Locked up and declared top secret, it did not see the light of
day for more than 30 years.
McGovern would be charged with watching over it. Sussan would become
obsessed with finding it and getting it aired.
Fearful that his film might get "buried," McGovern stayed on at the
Pentagon as an aide to Gen. Anderson, who was fascinated by the footage
and had no qualms about showing it to the American people. "He was that
kind of man, he didn't give a damn what people thought," McGovern told
me. "He just wanted the story told."
In an article in his hometown Buffalo Evening News, McGovern said that
he hoped that "this epic will be made available to the American public."
He planned to call the edited movie "Japan in Defeat."
Once they eyeballed the footage, however, most of the top brass didn't
want it widely shown and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was also
opposed, according to McGovern. It nixed a Warner Brothers feature film
project based on the footage that Anderson had negotiated, while paying
another studio about $80,000 to help make four training films.
In a March 3, 1947 memo, Francis E. Rundell, a major in the Air Corps,
explained that the film would be classified "secret." This was
determined "after study of subject material, especially concerning
footage taken at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is believed that the
information contained in the films should be safeguarded until cleared
by the Atomic Energy Commission." After the training films were
completed, the status would be raised to "Top Secret" pending final
classification by the AEC.
The color footage was shipped to the Wright-Patterson base in Ohio.
McGovern went along after being told to put an I.D. number on the film
"and not let anyone touch it -- and that's the way it stayed," as he put
it. After cataloging it, he placed it in a vault in the top-secret area.
"Dan McGovern stayed with the film all the time," Sussan later said. "He
told me they could not release the film [because] what it showed was too
horrible."
Sussan wrote a letter to President Truman, suggesting that a film based
on the footage "would vividly and clearly reveal the implications and
effects of the weapons that confront us at this serious moment in our
history." A reply from a Truman aide threw cold water on that idea,
saying such a film would lack "wide public appeal."
McGovern, meanwhile, continued to "babysit" the film, now at Norton Air
Force base in California. "It was never out of my control," he said
later, but he couldn't make a film out of it any more than Sussan could
(but unlike Herb, he at least knew where it was).
*The Japanese footage emerges*
At the same time, McGovern was looking after the Japanese footage.
Fearful that it might get lost forever in the military/government
bureaucracy, he secretly made a 16 mm print and deposited it in the U.S.
Air Force Central Film Depository at Wright-Patterson. There it remained
out of sight, and generally out of mind. (The original negative and
production materials remain missing, according to Abe Mark Nornes, who
teaches at the University of Michigan and has researched the Japanese
footage more than anyone.)
The Japanese government repeatedly asked the U.S. for the full footage
of what was known in that country as "the film of illusion," to no
avail. A rare article about what it called this "sensitive" dispute
appeared in The New York Times on May 18, 1967, declaring right in its
headline that the film had been "Suppressed by U.S. for 22 Years."
Surprisingly, it revealed that while some of the footage was already in
Japan (likely a reference to the film hidden in the ceiling), the U.S.
had put a "hold" on the Japanese using it -- even though the American
control of that country had ceased many years earlier.
Despite rising nuclear fears in the 1960s, before and after the Cuban
Missile Crisis, few in the U.S. challenged the consensus view that
dropping the bomb on two Japanese cities was necessary. The United
States maintained its "first-use" nuclear policy: Under certain
circumstances it would strike first with the bomb and ask questions
later. In other words, there was no real taboo against using the bomb.
This notion of acceptability had started with Hiroshima. A firm line
against using nuclear weapons had been drawn--in the sand. The U.S., in
fact, had threatened to use nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile
Crisis and on other occasions.
On Sept. 12, 1967, the Air Force transferred the Japanese footage to the
National Archives Audio Visual Branch in Washington, with the film "not
to be released without approval of DOD (Department of Defense)."
Then, one morning in the summer of 1968, Erik Barnouw, author of
landmark histories of film and broadcasting, opened his mail to discover
a clipping from a Tokyo newspaper sent by a friend. It indicated that
the United States had finally shipped to Japan a copy of black & white
newsreel footage shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese had
negotiated with the State Department for its return.
From the Pentagon, Barnouw learned in 1968 that the original nitrate
film had been quietly turned over to the National Archives, so he went
to take a look. Soon Barnouw realized that, despite its marginal film
quality, "enough of the footage was unforgettable in its implications,
and historic in its importance, to warrant duplicating all of it," he
later wrote.
Attempting to create a subtle, quiet, even poetic, black and white film,
he and his associates cut it from 160 to 16 minutes, with a montage of
human effects clustered near the end for impact. Barnouw arranged a
screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and invited the
press. A throng turned out and sat in respectful silence at its finish.
(One can only imagine what impact the color footage with many more human
effects would have had.) "Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945" proved to be a
sketchy but quite moving document of the aftermath of the bombing,
captured in grainy but often startling black and white images: shadows
of objects or people burned into walls, ruins of schools, miles of razed
landscape viewed from the roof of a building.
In the weeks ahead, however, none of the (then) three TV networks
expressed interest in airing it. "Only NBC thought it might use the
film," Barnouw later wrote, "if it could find a 'news hook.' We dared
not speculate what kind of event this might call for." But then an
article appeared in Parade magazine, and an editorial in the Boston
Globe blasted the networks, saying that everyone in the country should
see this film: "Television has brought the sight of war into America's
sitting rooms from Vietnam. Surely it can find 16 minutes of prime time
to show Americans what the first A-bombs, puny by today's weapons, did
to people and property 25 years ago."
This at last pushed public television into the void. What was then
called National Educational Television (NET) agreed to show the
documentary on August 3, 1970, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of
dropping the bomb.
"I feel that classifying all of this filmed material was a misuse of the
secrecy system since none of it had any military or national security
aspect at all," Barnouw told me. "The reason must have been--that if the
public had seen it and Congressmen had seen it--it would have been much
harder to appropriate money for more bombs."
*The American footage comes out*
About a decade later, by pure chance, Herb Sussan would spark the
emergence of the American footage, ending its decades in the dark.
In the mid-1970s, Japanese antinuclear activists, led by a Tokyo teacher
named Tsutomu Iwakura, discovered that few pictures of the aftermath of
the atomic bombings existed in their country. Many had been seized by
the U.S. military after the war, they learned, and taken out of Japan.
The Japanese had as little visual exposure to the true effects of the
bomb as most Americans. Activists managed to track down hundreds of
pictures in archives and private collections and published them in a
popular book. In 1979 they mounted an exhibit at the United Nations in
New York.
There, by chance, Iwakura met Sussan, who told him about the U.S.
military footage.
Iwakura made a few calls and found that the color footage, recently
declassified, might be at the National Archives. A trip to Washington,
D.C. verified this. He found eighty reels of film, labeled #342 USAF,
with the reels numbered 11000 to 11079. About one-fifth of the footage
covered the atomic cities. According to a shot list, reel #11010
included, for example: "School, deaf and dumb, blast effect, damaged ...
Commercial school demolished ... School, engineering, demolished. ...
School, Shirayama elementary, demolished, blast effect ... Tenements,
demolished."
The film had been quietly declassified a few years earlier, but no one
in the outside world knew it. An archivist there told me at the time,
"If no one knows about the film to ask forit, it's as closed as when it
was classified."
Eventually 200,000 Japanese citizens contributed half a million dollars
and Iwakura was able to buy the film. He then traveled around Japan
filming survivors who had posed for Sussan and McGovern in 1946. Iwakura
quickly completed a documentary called "Prophecy" and in late spring
1982 arranged for a New York premiere.
That fall a small part of the McGovern/Sussan footage turned up for the
first time in an American film, one of the sensations of the New York
Film Festival, called "Dark Circle." It's co-director, Chris Beaver,
told me, "No wonder the government didn't want us to see it. I think
they didn't want Americans to see themselves in that picture. It's one
thing to know about that and another thing to see it."
Despite this exposure, not a single story had yet appeared in an
American newspaper about the shooting of the footage, its suppression or
release. And Sussan was now ill with a form of lymphoma doctors had
found in soldiers exposed to radiation in atomic tests during the 1950s
-- or in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In late 1982, editing Nuclear Times, I met Sussan and Erik Barnouw --
and talked on several occasions with Daniel McGovern, out in Northridge,
California. "It would make a fine documentary even today," McGovern said
of the color footage. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a movie of the
burning of Atlanta?"
After he hauled the footage back to the Pentagon, McGovern said, he was
told that under no circumstances would the footage be released for
outside use. "They were fearful of it being circulated," McGovern said.
He confirmed that the color footage, like the black and white, had been
declassified over time, taking it from top secret to "for public
release" (but only if the public knew about it and asked for it).
Still, the question of precisely why the footage remained secret for so
long lingered. Here McGovern added his considerable voice. "The main
reason it was classified was...because of the horror, the devastation,"
he said. "The medical effects were pretty gory. ... The attitude was: do
not show any medical effects. Don't make people sick."
But who was behind this? "I always had the sense," McGovern answered,
"that people in the AEC were sorry they had dropped the bomb. The Air
Force--it was also sorry. I was told by people in the Pentagon that they
didn't want those images out because they showed effects on man, woman
and child. But the AEC, they were the ones that stopped it from coming
out. They had power of God over everybody," he declared. "If it had
anything to do with nukes, they had to see it. They were the ones who
destroyed a lot of film and pictures of the first U.S. nuclear tests
after the war."
Even so, McGovern believed, his footage might have surfaced "if someone
had grabbed the ball and run with it but the AEC did not want it released."
As "Dark Circle" director Chris Beaver had said, "With the government
trying to sell the public on a new civil defense program and Reagan
arguing that a nuclear war is survivable, this footage could be awfully
bad publicity."
*Today*
In the summer of 1984, I made my own pilgrimage to the atomic cities, to
walk in the footsteps of Dan McGovern and Herb Sussan, and meet some of
the people they filmed in 1946. By then, the McGovern/ Sussan footage
had turned up in several new documentaries. On Sept. 2, 1985, however,
Herb Sussan passed away. His final request to his children: Would they
scatter his ashes at ground zero in Hiroshima?
In the mid-1990s, researching "Hiroshima in America," a book I would
write with Robert Jay Lifton, I discovered the deeper context for
suppression of the U.S. Army film: it was part of a broad effort to
suppress a wide range of material related to the atomic bombings,
including photographs, newspaper reports on radiation effects,
information about the decision to drop the bomb, even a Hollywood movie.
The 50th anniversary of the bombing drew extensive print and television
coverage -- and wide use of excerpts from the McGovern/Sussan
footage--but no strong shift in American attitudes on the use of the bomb.
Then, in 2003, as adviser to a documentary film, "Original Child Bomb,"
I urged director Carey Schonegevel to draw on the atomic footage as much
as possible. She not only did so but also obtained from McGovern's son
copies of home movies he had shot in Japan while shooting the official film.
"Original Child Bomb" went on to debut at the 2004 Tribeca Film
Festival, win a major documentary award, and this week, on Aug. 6 and 7,
it will debut on the Sundance cable channel. After 60 years at least a
small portion of that footage will finally reach part of the American
public in the unflinching and powerful form its creators intended. Only
then will the Americans who see it be able to fully judge for themselves
what McGovern and Sussan were trying to accomplish in shooting the film,
why the authorities felt they had to suppress it, and what impact their
footage, if widely aired, might have had on the nuclear arms race -- and
the nuclear proliferation that plagues, and endangers, us today.
//
/ /
) 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/23914/
= = = =
STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?
= = = =
Daily online radio show, news reporting: www.DemocracyNow.org
More news: UseNet's misc.activism.progressive (moderated)
= = = =
Sorry, we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace)
http://economicdemocracy.org/eco/climate-summary.html (Climate)
And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general)
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27 [NYTr] New Research on Hirsohima, Nagasaki & War Crimes
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 09:16:23 -0500 (CDT)
autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Workers World - Aug 11, 2005 issue (posted 8/5/2005)
http://www.workers.org/2005/world/hiroshima-0811/
New research on Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Truman was a war criminal
By John Catalinotto
Why was Harry Truman's decision to use atomic weapons against
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 60 years ago, like George Bush's
decision to invade Iraq in 2003? They were both war crimes, of course.
And they were both based on a Big Lie.
In Bush's case the lie was the now-discredited claim that the U.S. had
to invade Iraq to stop the use of "weapons of mass destruction." In
Truman's case, it was that the U.S. had to drop A-bombs to force the
Japanese to surrender--or this would require a land invasion that
would cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties.
With the 60th anniversary of the bombings coming up, it is more than
likely that the big lie of 1945 will be repeated ad nauseam by
politicians, corporate media and bought-off historians of U.S.
academia. There are, however, two historians who are marshaling old
and new arguments and facts to expose this lie.
They are Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at
American University in Washington, D.C., and Mark Selden, from Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y. Kuznick and Selden presented their latest
findings at a press conference July 21 organized by Greenpeace in
London. The Greenpeace site has a video presentation by the two
historians.
Their findings support an argument made earlier: that the main reason
the U.S. used nuclear weapons on Japan was to get a jump start on the
war against the Soviet Union. Truman used the bomb in 1945 so the U.S.
could threaten to use it against Korea, Vietnam and in many other
battles. These new findings reveal that the U.S. officials making the
decisions themselves knew and admitted their Big Lie was a lie.
The two historians studied the diplomatic archives of the U.S., Japan
and the USSR. They found that on Aug. 3, 1945, three days before
Hiroshima, Truman agreed at a meeting that Japan was "looking for
peace." All the U.S. senior generals and admirals, including Gen.
Dwight Eisenhower, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Admiral William Leahy,
told him it was unnecessary to use the A-bomb to defeat Japan.
"Impressing Russia was more important than ending the war," Selden
says.
Kuznick and Selden also show that the Japanese authorities were
anxious to avoid a Soviet invasion of the Japanese main islands. The
USSR officially entered the Pacific war on Aug. 9, 1945, sweeping
through Japanese-occupied China and half of Korea.
At the press conference, Kuznick and Selden didn't discuss in detail
why the Japanese imperialists feared a Soviet occupation more than one
by the U.S., when the U.S. posture was so hostile to Japan. The
Japanese imperialists' fear can only be explained by the socialist
underpinnings of the USSR, which threatened a change in property
relations wherever the Red Army liberated territory. This happened,
for example, in Eastern Europe and East Germany.
On Aug. 15, 1945, Truman ordered a survey of the war events. Published
over a year later, it stated: "Based on a detailed investigation of
all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving
Japanese leaders involved, it is the Sur vey's opinion that certainly
prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November
1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not
been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no
invasion had been planned or contemplated." Nov. 1 was the date the
U.S. had planned the invasion.
'A crime against humanity'
In Hiroshima, an estimated 80,000 people were killed in a split second
on Aug. 6. Some 13 square kilometers of the city were obliterated. By
December, at least another 70,000 people had died from radiation and
injuries. Three days later, on Aug. 9, the U.S. dropped an A-bomb on
Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of at least 70,000 people before the
year was out. About 10 percent of the casualties were Koreans forced
to work in Japan at the time.
Kuznick and Selden put most of the blame on Truman. "He knew he was
begin ning the process of annihilation of the species," says Kuznick,
"It was not just a war crime; it was a crime against humanity."
A revealing comment regarding U.S. war crimes came from John Bolton,
recently appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton was
arguing in 1998 against the International Criminal Court. "Much of the
media attention to the American negotiating position on the ICC
concentrated on the risks perceived by the Pentagon to American
peacekeepers stationed around the world," wrote Bolton. ... "[O]ur
real concern should be for the president and his top advisers."
Bolton continued: "The definition of 'war crimes' includes, for
example: 'intentionally directing attacks against the civilian
population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct
part in hostilities.'"
Bolton wrote that under the ICC rules, U.S. leaders could have been
found guilty of a war crime for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and for all the aerial bombardments of German and Japanese
civilian areas.
The A-bombs were not the only crimes. U.S. nighttime raids using
conventional bombs against residential areas of Tokyo, Osaka and other
industrial cities caused hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilian
deaths, and Dresden, Germany, was obliterated in early 1945, killing
mainly refugees. But Truman's decision opened the door to massive use
of these new terror bombs.
Now the Bush administration, fresh from being caught in a series of
lies justifying aggression against Iraq, plans to increase the
Pentagon's reliance on a new generation of nuclear weapons. On the
60th anniversary of Hiroshima, it is past time to organize to prevent
the new crimes U.S. imperialism has in its plans.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
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28 [NYTr] Hiroshima: Cover-Up and Myths
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 11:48:12 -0500 (CDT)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Ed Pearl - Aug 6, 2005
Thanks to Karen Pomer for the top story. -Ed
Baltimore Sun - Aug 5, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/7onby
The Hiroshima cover-up
By Amy Goodman and David Goodman
A STORY THAT the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day
finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military
censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller's firsthand account of
conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great
journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of
the atomic bombing on Japan.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days
later, Nagasaki was hit. Gen. Douglas MacArthur promptly declared southern
Japan off-limits, barring the news media. More than 200,000 people died in
the atomic bombings of the cities, but no Western journalist witnessed the
aftermath and told the story. Instead, the world's media obediently crowded
onto the battleship USS Missouri off the coast of Japan to cover the
Japanese surrender.
A month after the bombings, two reporters defied General MacArthur and
struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row
boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist
Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred
remains of Hiroshima.
Both men encountered nightmare worlds. Mr. Burchett sat down on a chunk of
rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter. His dispatch began: "In Hiroshima,
30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world,
people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly - people who were
uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only
describe as the atomic plague."
He continued, tapping out the words that still haunt to this day: "Hiroshima
does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller has
passed over it and squashed it out of existence. I write these facts as
dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the
world."
Mr. Burchett's article, headlined "The Atomic Plague," was published Sept.
5, 1945, in the London Daily Express. The story caused a worldwide sensation
and was a public relations fiasco for the U.S. military. The official U.S.
narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and
categorically dismissed as "Japanese propaganda" reports of the deadly
lingering effects of radiation.
So when Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter George Weller's 25,000-word story on
the horror that he encountered in Nagasaki was submitted to military
censors, General MacArthur ordered the story killed, and the manuscript was
never returned. As Mr. Weller later summarized his experience with General
MacArthur's censors, "They won."
Recently, Mr. Weller's son, Anthony, discovered a carbon copy of the
suppressed dispatches among his father's papers (George Weller died in
2002). Unable to find an interested American publisher, Anthony Weller sold
the account to Mainichi Shimbun, a big Japanese newspaper. Now, on the 60th
anniversary of the atomic bombings, Mr. Weller's account can finally be
read.
"In swaybacked or flattened skeletons of the Mitsubishi arms plants is
revealed what the atomic bomb can do to steel and stone, but what the riven
atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of
downtown Nagasaki," wrote Mr. Weller. A month after the bombs fell, he
observed, "The atomic bomb's peculiar 'disease,' uncured because it is
untreated and untreated because it is not diagnosed, is still snatching away
lives here."
After killing Mr. Weller's reports, U.S. authorities tried to counter Mr.
Burchett's articles by attacking the messenger. General MacArthur ordered
Mr. Burchett expelled from Japan (the order was later rescinded), his camera
mysteriously vanished while he was in a Tokyo hospital and U.S. officials
accused him of being influenced by Japanese propaganda.
Then the U.S. military unleashed a secret propaganda weapon: It deployed its
own Times man. It turns out that William L. Laurence, the science reporter
for The New York Times, was also on the payroll of the War Department.
For four months, while still reporting for the Times, Mr. Laurence had been
writing press releases for the military explaining the atomic weapons
program; he also wrote statements for President Harry Truman and Secretary
of War Henry L. Stimson. He was rewarded by being given a seat on the plane
that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, an experience that he described in the
Times with religious awe.
Three days after publication of Mr. Burchett's shocking dispatch, Mr.
Laurence had a front-page story in the Times disputing the notion that
radiation sickness was killing people. His news story included this
remarkable commentary: "The Japanese are still continuing their propaganda
aimed at creating the impression that we won the war unfairly, and thus
attempting to create sympathy for themselves and milder terms. ... Thus, at
the beginning, the Japanese described 'symptoms' that did not ring true."
Mr. Laurence won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and
his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a
half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It
is time for the Pulitzer board to strip Hiroshima's apologist and his
newspaper of this undeserved prize.
Sixty years late, Mr. Weller's censored account stands as a searing
indictment not only of the inhumanity of the atomic bomb but also of the
danger of journalists embedding with the government to deceive the world.
Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and David Goodman, a contributing
writer for Mother Jones, are co-authors of The Exception to the Rulers:
Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.
Related Links:
http://www.democracynow.org/
Friday's Show Dedicated to Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings 8/5
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000963439
SPECIAL REPORT: A Great Nuclear-Age Mystery Solved
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001001583
SPECIAL REPORT: Hiroshima Film Cover-up Exposed
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000980524
SPECIAL REPORT: The Embedded 'New York Times' Reporter Who Brought Us the
'Atomic Age'
***
Los Angeles Times - August 5, 2005
Op-Ed:
The Myths of Hiroshima
By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
SIXTY YEARS ago tomorrow, an atomic bomb was dropped without warning on the
center of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. One hundred and forty thousand
people were killed, more than 95% of them women and children and other
noncombatants. At least half of the victims died of radiation poisoning over
the next few months. Three days after Hiroshima was obliterated, the city of
Nagasaki suffered a similar fate.
The magnitude of death was enormous, but on Aug. 14, 1945 - just five days
after the Nagasaki bombing - Radio Tokyo announced that the Japanese emperor
had accepted the U.S. terms for surrender. To many Americans at the time,
and still for many today, it seemed clear that the bomb had ended the war,
even "saving" a million lives that might have been lost if the U.S. had been
required to invade mainland Japan.
This powerful narrative took root quickly and is now deeply embedded in our
historical sense of who we are as a nation. A decade ago, on the 50th
anniversary, this narrative was reinforced in an exhibit at the Smithsonian
Institution on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first bomb. The
exhibit, which had been the subject of a bruising political battle,
presented nearly 4 million Americans with an officially sanctioned view of
the atomic bombings that again portrayed them as a necessary act in a just
war.
But although patriotically correct, the exhibit and the narrative on which
it was based were historically inaccurate. For one thing, the Smithsonian
downplayed the casualties, saying only that the bombs "caused many tens of
thousands of deaths" and that Hiroshima was "a definite military target."
Americans were also told that use of the bombs "led to the immediate
surrender of Japan and made unnecessary the planned invasion of the Japanese
home islands." But it's not that straightforward. As Tsuyoshi Hasegawa has
shown definitively in his new book, "Racing the Enemy" - and many other
historians have long argued - it was the Soviet Union's entry into the
Pacific war on Aug. 8, two days after the Hiroshima bombing, that provided
the final "shock" that led to Japan's capitulation.
The Enola Gay exhibit also repeated such outright lies as the assertion that
"special leaflets were dropped on Japanese cities" warning civilians to
evacuate. The fact is that atomic bomb warning leaflets were dropped on
Japanese cities, but only after Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been destroyed.
The hard truth is that the atomic bombings were unnecessary. A million lives
were not saved. Indeed, McGeorge Bundy, the man who first popularized this
figure, later confessed that he had pulled it out of thin air in order to
justify the bombings in a 1947 Harper's magazine essay he had ghostwritten
for Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.
The bomb was dropped, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the
Manhattan Project, said in November 1945, on "an essentially defeated
enemy." President Truman and his closest advisor, Secretary of State James
Byrnes, quite plainly used it primarily to prevent the Soviets from sharing
in the occupation of Japan. And they used it on Aug. 6 even though they had
agreed among themselves as they returned home from the Potsdam Conference on
Aug. 3 that the Japanese were looking for peace.
These unpleasant historical facts were censored from the 1995 Smithsonian
exhibit, an action that should trouble every American. When a government
substitutes an officially sanctioned view for publicly debated history,
democracy is diminished.
Today, in the post-9/11 era, it is critically important that the U.S. face
the truth about the atomic bomb. For one thing, the myths surrounding
Hiroshima have made it possible for our defense establishment to argue that
atomic bombs are legitimate weapons that belong in a democracy's arsenal.
But if, as Oppenheimer said, "they are weapons of aggression, of surprise
and of terror," how can a democracy rely on such weapons?
Oppenheimer understood very soon after Hiroshima that these weapons would
ultimately threaten our very survival.
Presciently, he even warned us against what is now our worst national
nightmare - and Osama bin Laden's frequently voiced dream - an atomic
suitcase bomb smuggled into an American city: "Of course it could be done,"
Oppenheimer told a Senate committee, "and people could destroy New York."
Ironically, Hiroshima's myths are now motivating our enemies to attack us
with the very weapon we invented. Bin Laden repeatedly refers to Hiroshima
in his rambling speeches. It was, he believes, the atomic bombings that
shocked the Japanese imperial government into an early surrender - and, he
says, he is planning an atomic attack on the U.S. that will similarly shock
us into retreating from the Mideast.
Finally, Hiroshima's myths have gradually given rise to an American
unilateralism born of atomic arrogance.
Oppenheimer warned against this "sleazy sense of omnipotence." He observed
that "if you approach the problem and say, 'We know what is right and we
would like to use the atomic bomb to persuade you to agree with us,' then
you are in a very weak position and you will not succeed.. You will find
yourselves attempting by force of arms to prevent a disaster."
[KAI BIRD and MARTIN J. SHERWIN are coauthors of "American Prometheus: The
Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," published earlier this year
by Knopf.]
*
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29 Albuquerque Tribune: Energy bill good only for Texas contingent
Editorials
August 6, 2005
All the hoopla aside, the energy bill that President Bush will
sign Monday in Albuquerque is another sucker punch to American
consumers and taxpayers.
It will do little to strengthen the nation's long-term security
or energy independence, future economic vitality or sputtering
commitment to a clean environment.
Though the bill never included the one major step that would
make the most difference - mandating improvements in vehicle
fuel mileage - the Senate version looked fairly good coming down
the stretch. That was until the congressional conference
committee trashed most of the progressive elements that New
Mexico Sens. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican and
chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, and Jeff Bingaman, a
Silver City Democrat and the committee's ranking member, had put
into the bill, in a laudable bipartisan compromise.
Domenici in particular deserves enormous credit for finally
seeing the energy light this year and involving Bingaman
directly in the bill process upfront. Together they favored a
substantial national effort to pursue and promote alternative
energy sources, such as wind and solar, as well as energy
conservation. Combined with a return to nuclear power, these
paths offer the most credible potential for U.S. energy
independence and long-term weaning of the American economy from
the oil well.
But in the end, Texas greed trumped New Mexico foresight. The
senators caved and allowed the House and the White House to
rule. The bill reflects the fossil-fuel interests of Bush, a
Texan, and other Texans, including Vice President Dick Cheney -
who primed the pump with his secret energy policy meetings four
years ago - and House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, whose
hometown energy companies stand to benefit enormously from the
bill. They also include Republican Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who was instrumental in
sustaining elements that subsidize drilling for hard-to-reach
oil, write-offs for refineries and more-aggressive offshore and
public-land oil or gas drilling.
All of which prompted Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Edward
Markey to tell the Boston Globe that under this bill, "No one is
lonesome in the Lone Star State when it comes to energy policy."
Sure, New Mexico energy interests also will benefit in the short
term. But at what cost to the American people?
Let's be brutally honest: Compared with the rest of the world,
Americans are energy hogs. Unfortunately, once again it was
demonstrated that American politicians can't seem to bite the
energy diversification, conservation and renewable bullet -
never mind record prices for gasoline, skyrocketing oil company
profits or another devastating war in the Middle East.
Eventually, that bullet is going to wound us all.
Early estimates of the complex and convoluted bill by watchdog
groups - such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group or
Friends of the Earth - suggest that more than $20 billion in
public subsidies or tax incentives will go to conventional
energy sources, while renewable and alternative sources will get
just $5.3 billion.
Even the comparatively conservative National Center of Policy
Analysis' energy-team scholars found "special interests" drove
the legislation. One member said that rather than being signed
Monday in an unusual ceremony at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, Bush should have vetoed it. Center senior fellow
Rob Bradley concluded that the bill "represents a transfer of
wealth from taxpayers to energy producers."
Is Bush coming to New Mexico to reward the perseverance of the
state's two senators - or to draw the fire from his parochial
energy interests back home in Texas?
Together our two senators made energy policy inroads, and their
constituents and all Americans owe them some thanks. But there
the plaudits must end, for Domenici and Bingaman allowed their
willingness to compromise give in to a largely ineffective
energy policy.
Despite what you will hear Monday, America's energy future still
is anything but bright.
*****************************************************************
30 Las Vegas RJ: HIROSHIMA: 60 YEARS LATER: WENDOVER'S SECRET
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Remote base was perfect siteto maintain cloak over trainingfor
Hiroshima, Nagasaki missions
By PAUL HARASIM REVIEW-JOURNAL
A replica of the Enola Gay, the plane that flew the A-bomb
mission over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, stands at the Wendover
Airport. The 509th Composite Group trained in Wendover in the
1940s for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
The flight operations and control tower still stands at Wendover
Field.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
Concrete pits were designed to help load bombs onto planes at
Wendover Army Air Base. Practice runs with bombs known as
"pumpkins" were carried out at the base.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
The Enola Gay is located at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near
Washington Dulles International Airport. Paul Tibbets, who led
the Hiroshima bombing mission, named the plane after his mother.
The plane was serviced at Wendover Army Air Base.
*Credit*
The operations tower is seen from a window of the officer's
service club at Wendover Field. The officer's club had a gym,
bar and dining room.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
Retired Gen. Paul Tibbets recalls the days at Wendover Army Air
Base from his home in Columbus, Ohio. Tibbets, 90, is one of
only three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay, the plane
that flew the mission over Hiroshima.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
The officers service club was built in 1943. The lights of West
Wendover's casinos can be seen in the background.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
These were the airman barracks at the air base. Nearly 20,000
people lived on the base in 1944.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
The B-29 maintenance hangar at Wendover Field shows signs of
disrepair in this photo from June 1. The steel-vaulted hangar
was constructed in early 1945.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
WENDOVER, Utah
On the way into this small border town from the west, Interstate
80 curves downward out of Nevada and toward what has been called
the most important airfield of World War II.
As far as the eye can see, the desert's bleached skin stretches
tight, a flat, salt-covered lake bed formed thousands of years
ago during the final evaporative stages of Lake Bonneville.
Wendover sits where this white, crusty sea of alkali -- the
Bonneville Salt Flats -- meets hills the color of strong bourbon.
Once, it boasted a single paved road and a gas station with a
solitary light that beckoned to night travelers -- an unlikely
place, it would seem, for history in the making.
But the seclusion was its draw.
"This was a far more remote area in the 1930s, with such a vast
amount of open and flat territory that the Army Air Corps
decided it would be a great place for a base and bombing range,"
said Jim Petersen, director of Wendover Airport and head of the
Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation. "Later, during World War
II, it afforded the kind of seclusion the government wanted for
its secret project that has had a profound effect on the way
people think about what can happen in a war."
No history of the dawn of a frightening new age -- the creation
and subsequent first use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 60
years ago today -- can be told without focusing on Wendover.
Five years after physicist Albert Einstein, worried that Germany
might be working on an atomic bomb, urged President Franklin
Roosevelt in 1939 to build such a weapon, Wendover Army Air Base
became the place where the assembly and delivery of the world's
most violent engine of war was perfected.
The 1,800 fliers, scientists, welders, electricians and
machinists sent here were part of a program given a deliberately
nondescript name: the 509th Composite Group. The group was a
direct descendant of the Manhattan Project, the name Roosevelt
gave to the development of the atom bomb.
The 509th began operations in September 1944. For 10 months,
working in concert with Manhattan Project scientists at Los
Alamos, N.M., where the atomic weapons were created, it trained
to deliver the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" bombs that would
shorten the war and take more than 250,000 lives in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan.
But only one man stationed at Wendover actually knew the 509th
was training to drop nuclear weapons: Col. Paul Tibbets, the
unit's commander. Tibbets piloted the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber
he named after his mother that dropped the "Little Boy" A-bomb
on Hiroshima.
"For success, for surprise, secrecy was necessary for this
mission," the 90-year-old Tibbets said in a recent interview at
his Columbus, Ohio, home. "I knew I was to wage atomic warfare
to quickly end the war, but it wasn't necessary for anybody else
at Wendover to know."
To help ensure that what happened in Wendover stayed in
Wendover, 400 undercover federal agents, at the direction of
Manhattan Project officials, descended on the area. Mail was
monitored. So were phone calls.
"Even though the members of the 509th had only a vague idea of
what the mission was, there was always the chance that they
could give away information that could be valuable to an
espionage agent," Tibbets said.
Tibbets tires easily these days and has refused to do
interviews in recent months. The 30-year military man, who
retired as a general, agreed to talk with the Review-Journal
because he thinks it's important to acknowledge Wendover's role
in the war.
Eighty-two-year-old Las Vegan Morris Jeppson, a weapons officer
aboard the Enola Gay, knows it must seem inconceivable that the
509th's mission could be kept secret.
"In today's media-saturated world, where secrets leak as easily
as water through a paper bag, I suppose it is hard to believe,"
Jeppson said as he sat with his wife, Molly, at their kitchen
table. "But the words 'atomic' or 'nuclear' were never even
heard at Wendover. As incredible as it may seem, the actual
mission of the 509th was a secret that held until we were in the
air and on the way to Hiroshima. We knew we had a special
mission but never knew it involved atomic weapons. The country
never even knew of the 509th's existence until after the war."
Jeppson, Tibbets and Ted "Dutch" Van Kirk, the navigator on the
Hiroshima mission, are the only men still alive from the 12-man
Enola Gay crew.
"Wendover has been largely overlooked by people," the
82-year-old Van Kirk said in a telephone interview from his home
in Stone Mountain, Ga. "It's a place that should be remembered
for having helped save many lives. Thousands more people would
have been killed, both Japanese and American, if we had not
dropped those bombs. And we learned to do it right at Wendover."
-- -- --
It was Tibbets who made the decision to use the airfield at
Wendover as a training base.
When Gen. Uzal G. Ent, the commander of the Second Air Force,
named him in the fall of 1944 to lead the nuclear strike force,
Tibbets was only a 29-year-old lieutenant colonel.
Up until then, he had been more a man of action than a military
planner.
He led the first American daylight raid on Hitler's occupied
Europe, as well as numerous bombing strikes in North Africa.
Perhaps just as important was this fact: He had led the testing
of the B-29 bomber, the plane that military planners designated
to drop nuclear payloads.
Tibbets was told by Ent that he could choose between one of
three sites for training: Wendover; Great Bend, Kan.; and
Mountain Home near Boise, Idaho.
"As I flew down to Utah from Colorado, I was at 5,000 feet,
smoking my pipe, and then I saw Wendover," Tibbets said.
"I knew I didn't have to visit the other two bases," he said.
"It was desolate, so I figured we'd have few security problems.
I knew the men wouldn't like it, but we needed as few
distractions as possible. We had a lot of work to do in very
little time. When I got on the ground, I saw the runways could
handle B-29s and the maintenance facilities were in good shape.
As far as I was concerned, there could be no place better."
The air base itself had been built four years earlier. The
townspeople, about 100 at the time, were largely rail workers.
They had no facilities or commercial skills to support the
installation, and they could do little but watch the base grow.
It would cover more than 3.5 million acres, the largest military
reserve in the world, and become a self-supporting community.
Hundreds of buildings hurriedly were constructed, including
hangars, barracks, theaters, schools, a gymnasium and chapel,
and a 300-bed hospital.
Bomber groups of B-17 and B-24 aircraft trained here. So did
fighter plane crews. These crews participated in the strategic
bombing of Germany, flew in support of D-Day and conducted
combat operations from the Mediterranean to China.
By the time Germany surrendered in May 1945, nearly 20,000 Army
Air Corps personnel had trained at Wendover.
Whatever Tibbets wanted in terms of personnel and equipment, he
got. Major Gen. Leslie R. Groves, in command of the Manhattan
Project, saw to that.
If anybody had qualms about any of his requests, Groves told
Tibbets to utter the word "Silverplate," the code name for the
nation's most secret mission.
Though only a select few U.S. leaders knew that "Silverplate"
referred to a nuclear mission, all military commanders knew that
any debate must stop when the word was used.
Tibbets called on old friends, including Van Kirk, his
navigator in the European theater, to join him at Wendover.
"You couldn't say `no' to him," Van Kirk said. "You'd never
want to. He was a great leader who really knew what he was
doing. He made the Hiroshima mission simple."
Tibbets was right about how the 509th personnel would react to
the place. They hated it. Comedian Bob Hope, when entertaining
the troops during the winter, had called it "Leftover Field."
Crooner Bing Crosby referred to it as "the end of Tobacco Road."
Primitive, ill-heated quarters dampened spirits. Soldiers who
received passes did manage to drown some of their sorrows at the
Stateline Hotel. The Utah-Nevada state line cut through the
lobby. It wasn't unusual for airmen to eat burgers in Utah and
gamble and booze it up in Nevada.
The late Jake Beser, a radar countermeasures officer who flew
on both A-bomb missions to Japan, didn't mince words in a
written evaluation of the base: "If the North American Continent
ever needed an enema, the tube would be inserted here at
Wendover."
But not knowing why they were brought to Wendover is what
bothered the troops most. Many simply had looked forward to
going overseas immediately to help end the war. But now they
felt that they were miles from civilization with no clear
purpose.
To make matters worse, security measures seemed to put a
stranglehold on any semblance of normalcy. A wire fence was
erected to keep in the personnel. Armed sentries seemed to be
everywhere. Without several different passes, it was impossible
for a soldier to make his way across the highly
compartmentalized base.
Barbed wire barred the entrance to hangars and shops. Warning
signs went up all along the perimeter. The largest one, near the
exit, read: "WHAT YOU HEAR HERE, WHAT YOU SEE HERE, WHEN YOU
LEAVE HERE, LET IT STAY HERE."
And Tibbets repeatedly told the men, both in meetings and
printed material, not to say a word to anyone about what they
were doing.
Today, Tibbets chuckles at the tactics imposed by the base's
security chief, William "Bud" Uanna. He used measures that never
could be used in peacetime. He brought in the small army of
federal agents, whose job it was to infiltrate the operation and
spy on people to make sure there were no leaks.
The agents might be dressed as clergy, janitors, bartenders,
truck drivers or simply other military men.
Tibbets wanted personnel to know they were under surveillance.
If a wife phoned her husband to say she was pregnant, Tibbets
would have an officer go over to congratulate the airman. The
soldier, at first astonished, got the message: Uncle Sam was
listening and watching everything he did.
To test security, Tibbets also gave the troops Christmas
leaves, or vacations. Soldiers who might be catching a bus often
found themselves being questioned by personable strangers,
really FBI operatives, about what they did in the military.
After reading the reports of agents, if Tibbets thought a
soldier revealed too much, he sent off telegrams ordering the
unsuspecting soldier back to Wendover.
When the airman got to the commander's office, Tibbets would
read off contents of a conversation that the stunned airman
thought he had with a priest in a bus station. Why, Tibbets
would growl, would the airman tell a stranger he was on "some
kind of special mission" when he was told not to say anything?
Most of the wayward soldiers simply received a chewing out and
were confined to quarters for a couple days. Tibbets said,
however, that he did send some airmen with "big mouths" to
Alaska for the duration of the war where "they could talk with
polar bears to their heart's content."
Tibbets found he often had to lie to his family about what was
going on at the base, something he believes ruined his marriage
to his first wife, Lucy. But one lie still makes him laugh today.
"These scientists were out here in white coats, and when Lucy
asked me who they were, I told her they were sanitary
engineers," he recalled. "So one day when she had a stopped-up
sink, she called for one of them to come in and help her.
Fortunately, the nuclear physicist knew how to do it."
Shortly after the 1944 Christmas leaves were up, Tibbets
decided that the 509th needed a little information to boost
morale. He gathered the entire unit together and told them they
were part of a special mission that could be going overseas to
end the war.
"Everyone was really serious then," Jeppson recalled. "We had
great camaraderie."
Problems with lifting large bombs into an aircraft were
overcome at Wendover. Pits were constructed with hydraulic lifts
to move the huge bombs into the plane. Challenges with
electrical fusing, ballistics and bomb assembly procedures were
surmounted. It was painstaking work, done day after day by teams
around the clock.
Practice bombs weighing 5 tons, which were called "pumpkins,"
were dropped daily by B-29 crews from six miles up. The bombs
were the same size, shape and weight of the expected atom bombs
under development.
Tibbets pushed the crews until they consistently could hit
targets within 25 feet of the bull's-eye, an astonishing feat
given the technology of the day.
Tibbets also made the B-29 pilots constantly practice
155-degree diving turns after dropping a bomb. He dared not tell
the pilots why. During his first visit to Los Alamos, the
director of the Manhattan Project lab there, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, warned Tibbets that the bomb's shock wave might
crush the plane, even when it was flying at 30,000 feet.
In "How to Drop an Atom Bomb," an article Tibbets wrote after
the war, he revealed that he designed the steep turns to get out
of the lethal zone ahead of the explosion, trying to outrun the
supersonic shock wave before it ripped apart the bomber.
The B-29s flying over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
battered, but not broken, by shock waves.
"To be honest, I didn't know whether the strategy would work or
not," Tibbets said. "Neither did Oppenheimer."
By late spring of 1945, Tibbets was convinced the 509th was
ready for its mission. When Germany surrendered in May, he knew
Japan would be the target for the atomic bombs. In June the
entire 509th was on the Pacific island of Tinian, training for
the nuclear strikes.
When Tibbets and his crew took off at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 6,
1945, from Tinian to drop the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima 6
1/2 hours later, the B-29 bomber they were flying had been used
on training missions at Wendover.
So precise was Van Kirk's navigation that the Enola Gay, after
a 2,000-mile, 6 1/2-hour flight, arrived only 15 seconds late
over its target.
"During the initial time of our 10 months of training at
Wendover, I thought our first two targets would be Berlin and
Tokyo," Tibbets said. "Even I didn't know where we would go.
When I was first given command of the 509th, I had a mission
where the targets had yet to be named and the bombs had yet to
be built. There was even talk that we may need 50 atomic bombs
to end the war. That's why we had so many crews training to drop
the bombs."
A crew trained by Tibbets at Wendover bombed Nagasaki on Aug. 9
when Japan refused to surrender unconditionally after the
Hiroshima bombing.
Even after Nagasaki, the Japanese didn't surrender immediately,
so a third atomic bomb was sent for by Tibbets.
Surrender, however, came on Aug. 14, 1945.
It was only afterward that the full history of Wendover was
revealed.
-- -- --
On a June day this year, sun streamed in the windows of the
rusted Wendover hangar where the Enola Gay once was serviced.
Jim Petersen, who wants to turn the air base "into the best
military museum in the country," said he often stands right
where mechanics worked on the huge B-29.
"I know it sounds strange," he said. "But this place talks to
me. I can hear Tibbets talking to his men, getting them ready. I
can see the looks on the faces of the men, wondering what
they're going to do. It must have been something, preparing for
a mission that you really didn't have a clue about."
As head of the Historical Wendover Airfield Foundation,
Petersen finds it incredible that the buildings that were at the
Wendover base when the 509th was there are being allowed to fall
into further disrepair.
"This is such an important part of history," he said, showing a
visitor around a small museum at the base. "I can't believe
we're just going to let it all fall apart and forget what was
done here. Surely there is some money to save an important part
of history."
Petersen often attends reunions of the 509th. This weekend, one
is being held in Washington, D.C., where the Enola Gay is
permanently on exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum's
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International
Airport.
At Wendover Airport, Petersen envisions a restoration that
would allow people "to see what preparation for end of the war"
was like. Vintage airplanes would be on site. Tourists could see
how the primitive bomb pits were used to load dummy atom bombs
onto planes. Tours would be conducted by individuals in World
War II uniforms.
Used sparingly by the military after the war, the base
officially was given up by the Air Force in the 1970s. Fewer
than 10 of the original 668 buildings at the base remain. The
stark scene appeals to some filmmakers. Portions of "Con Air,"
with Nicholas Cage, were filmed here.
Chartered jets now land daily at this airport, bringing people
from throughout the United States for gambling at West
Wendover's six casinos.
Though attempts to make Wendover and West Wendover one community
in Nevada have failed, the area is flourishing. In 1991 West
Wendover was incorporated; 18,000 gaming visitors arrive each
weekend.
More than 6,000 people now live in the Wendover-West Wendover
area. There are new schools, new neighborhoods, a golf course
and a recreation center, a far cry from the grim Wendover of 60
years ago.
On the Nevada side, a rock pedestal topped with a small replica
of the Enola Gay sits in front of the Wendover USA Visitors
Center. It's one-10th of the size of a mechanical cowboy down
the road that welcomes people to gamble.
"I'd have to say that the Wendover air base was a lot more
important than people think, if they even know about it,"
Tibbets said. "It got us ready to go to the Pacific, to Tinian
island in the summer of '45 so we could fly off to Japan and win
the war. We shook the world. I think that defines important,
don't you?"
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
31 The Hiroshima Cover-Up
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 14:23:26 -0500 (CDT)
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Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun
The Hiroshima Cover-Up
by Amy Goodman and David Goodman
A story that the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day
finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military
censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller's firsthand account of
conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great
journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of
the atomic bombing on Japan.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days
later, Nagasaki was hit. Gen. Douglas MacArthur promptly declared southern
Japan off-limits, barring the news media. More than 200,000 people died in
the atomic bombings of the cities, but no Western journalist witnessed the
aftermath and told the story. Instead, the world's media obediently crowded
onto the battleship USS Missouri off the coast of Japan to cover the
Japanese surrender.
A month after the bombings, two reporters defied General MacArthur and
struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row
boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist
Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred
remains of Hiroshima.
Both men encountered nightmare worlds. Mr. Burchett sat down on a chunk of
rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter. His dispatch began: "In Hiroshima,
30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world,
people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly - people who were
uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only
describe as the atomic plague."
He continued, tapping out the words that still haunt to this day: "Hiroshima
does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller has
passed over it and squashed it out of existence. I write these facts as
dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the
world."
Mr. Burchett's article, headlined "The Atomic Plague," was published Sept.
5, 1945, in the London Daily Express. The story caused a worldwide sensation
and was a public relations fiasco for the U.S. military. The official U.S.
narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and
categorically dismissed as "Japanese propaganda" reports of the deadly
lingering effects of radiation.
So when Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter George Weller's 25,000-word story on
the horror that he encountered in Nagasaki was submitted to military
censors, General MacArthur ordered the story killed, and the manuscript was
never returned. As Mr. Weller later summarized his experience with General
MacArthur's censors, "They won."
Recently, Mr. Weller's son, Anthony, discovered a carbon copy of the
suppressed dispatches among his father's papers (George Weller died in
2002). Unable to find an interested American publisher, Anthony Weller sold
the account to Mainichi Shimbun, a big Japanese newspaper. Now, on the 60th
anniversary of the atomic bombings, Mr. Weller's account can finally be
read.
"In swaybacked or flattened skeletons of the Mitsubishi arms plants is
revealed what the atomic bomb can do to steel and stone, but what the riven
atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of
downtown Nagasaki," wrote Mr. Weller. A month after the bombs fell, he
observed, "The atomic bomb's peculiar 'disease,' uncured because it is
untreated and untreated because it is not diagnosed, is still snatching away
lives here."
After killing Mr. Weller's reports, U.S. authorities tried to counter Mr.
Burchett's articles by attacking the messenger. General MacArthur ordered
Mr. Burchett expelled from Japan (the order was later rescinded), his camera
mysteriously vanished while he was in a Tokyo hospital and U.S. officials
accused him of being influenced by Japanese propaganda.
Then the U.S. military unleashed a secret propaganda weapon: It deployed its
own Times man. It turns out that William L. Laurence, the science reporter
for The New York Times, was also on the payroll of the War Department.
For four months, while still reporting for the Times, Mr. Laurence had been
writing press releases for the military explaining the atomic weapons
program; he also wrote statements for President Harry Truman and Secretary
of War Henry L. Stimson. He was rewarded by being given a seat on the plane
that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, an experience that he described in the
Times with religious awe.
Three days after publication of Mr. Burchett's shocking dispatch, Mr.
Laurence had a front-page story in the Times disputing the notion that
radiation sickness was killing people. His news story included this
remarkable commentary: "The Japanese are still continuing their propaganda
aimed at creating the impression that we won the war unfairly, and thus
attempting to create sympathy for themselves and milder terms. ... Thus, at
the beginning, the Japanese described 'symptoms' that did not ring true."
Mr. Laurence won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and
his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a
half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It
is time for the Pulitzer board to strip Hiroshima's apologist and his
newspaper of this undeserved prize.
Sixty years late, Mr. Weller's censored account stands as a searing
indictment not only of the inhumanity of the atomic bomb but also of the
danger of journalists embedding with the government to deceive the world.
Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and David Goodman, a contributing
writer for Mother Jones, are co-authors of The Exception to the Rulers:
Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.
*****************************************************************
32 [progchat_action] Dorothy Day on Hiroshima
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 02:38:44 -0500 (CDT)
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This is a special mailing for Hiroshima Day. There are two articles,
courtesy of the Houston Catholic Worker. This is an excellent newspaper,
with fine, scholarly articles and first-person accounts of the
experiences of the migrants who come to Casa Juan Diego, the house of
hospitality of the Houston Catholic Worker community. For a
subscription, send a few bucks to
Houston Catholic Worker
Casa Juan Diego
P. O Box 70113
Houston, Texas 77270
(713) 869-7376.
Gods peace to you!
Stephen J Spiro
There is a short list of announcements at the end of this e-mail.
Dorothy Day on the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima
by Dorothy Day
Mr. Truman was jubilant. President Truman. True man; what a strange name,
come to think of it. We refer to Jesus Christ as true God and true Man.
Truman is a true man of his time in that he was jubilant. He was not a
son of God, brother of Christ, brother of the Japanese, jubilating as he
did. He went from table to table on the cruiser which was bringing him
home from the Big Three conference, telling the great news; "jubilant"
the newspapers said. Jubilate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese.
That is, we hope we have killed them, the Associated Press, on page one,
column one of the Herald Tribune says. The effect is hoped for, not
known. It is to be hoped they are vaporized, our Japanese brothers,
scattered, men, women and babies, to the four winds, over the seven seas.
Perhaps we will breathe their dust into our nostrils, feel them in the
fog of New York on our faces, feel them in the rain on the hills of
Eaton.
Jubilate Deo. President Truman was jubilant. We have created. We have
created destruction. We have created a new element, called Pluto. Nature
had nothing to do with it.
The papers list the scientists (the murderers) who are credited with
perfecting this new weapon. Scientists, army officers, great
universities, and captains of industry-all are given credit lines in the
press for their work of preparing the bomb-and other bombs, the President
assures us, are in production now.
Everyone says, "I wonder what the Pope thinks of it?" How everyone turns
to the Vatican for judgment, even though they do not seem to listen to
the voice there! But our Lord Himself has already pronounced judgment on
the atomic bomb. When James and John (John the beloved) wished to call
down fire from heaven on their enemies, Jesus said:
"You know not of what spirit you are. The Son of Man came not to destroy
souls but to save." He said also, "What you do unto the least of these my
brethren, you do unto me.
Reprinted from The Catholic Worker, September 1945
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
'Saint Dorothy'?
by Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York
On June 7th, at the Catholic Center on First Avenue in Manhattan, a
meeting was held unlike any in which I have ever been involved.
Approximately 35 Catholic lay men and women were gathered with one of our
vicars general, Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan; my priest-secretary, Msgr.
Gregory A. Mustaciuolo; and me to discuss how we might work together to
have a New Yorker whose name is Dorothy Day made a saint of the Church.
Bishop Sullivan was there, he explained, because he came to admire
Dorothy Day many years ago when he read her autobiography, "The Long
Loneliness," as a student at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie and later
became closely connected with her work as a priest serving in a needy
neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. "My friends and I would go to the local
public school each Saturday morning to obtain from the janitor the milk
that was left over from the children's lunches" he reported. "We would
bring it to one of Dorothy Day's two Houses of Hospitality for the poor,
and they were always very grateful."
Msgr. Mustaciuolo, together with Mr. George Horton of our Catholic
Charities Office who has been for years instrumental in the move to have
Dorothy Day declared a saint of the Church, had organized the meeting for
a core-group of supporters of various charitable agencies established by
Dorothy Day. Shortly before his death, John Cardinal O'Connor had named
monsignor the "postulator" of the "cause" of Dorothy Day, that is to say,
the one in charge of advancing her case in favor of canonization, first,
on the local scene, and later, before the Congregation for the Causes of
Saints in the Vatican. Monsignor, who served also as Cardinal O'Connor's
priest secretary, was the ideal choice, inasmuch as he had been for many
years a devoted student of the life and spirituality of Dorothy Day and
had put together a significant collection of books and articles about her
and by her.
The meeting was a great success. Dorothy Day's granddaughter spoke
movingly of her grandmother's struggles and achievements for the neediest
in the various cities in which she lived and worked. One of Dorothy Day's
biographers, Robert Ellsberg, sketched her life story briefly and
lovingly. Paul Elie, author of "The Life You Save May Be Yours," gave a
meditation; and the editors of the Houston Catholic Worker, founded by
Dorothy Day, joined in the discussions that followed. Finally, Patricia
Handal, who is heading a "Guild" to work toward the canonization of
Terence Cardinal Cooke, described her work in detail and offered her
expertise.
When I was invited to speak, I told a story whose beginning was not
unlike that of Bishop Sullivan's. When I was in a high school seminary in
the 1950s, I observed, the parish priest who had encouraged me to enter
the seminary gave me a copy of "The Long Loneliness" and told me to read
it and tell him what I thought of it. I do not recall exactly what I told
him, but I know what was in my head: "This is a saint if ever there was
one."
Frankly, for some that opinion might not be altogether appealing. For in
the life of Dorothy Day there was much that could occasion considerable
concern. Before she made her way to the Lord and His Church, she pursued
a, let us say, "Bohemian" lifestyle, full of excesses of all kinds. She
lived with men in common law arrangements. She had a child in her womb
killed by an abortionist. She consorted with communists and anarchists.
She was jailed for controversial demonstrations on behalf of workers,
women's suffrage, and the rights of the imprisoned. She preached a
pacifism that knew no limit, and she wrote at least one book which in her
later years she regretted so much that she declared she would do anything
if she could have every copy of it destroyed.
In brief, she was anything but saintly in her early years: a statement
that could be made with equal validity, for example, about St. Augustine
of Hippo, St. Camillus de Lellis, and the saint who anointed the feet of
the Savior with perfume and wiped them with her hair.
However, once she discovered the Lord and His Church in 1918 through
hours of prayer in St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village and Our Lady
Help of Christians Church on Staten Island, Dorothy Day was "re-born" in
the way that the aforementioned Savior told the proud and powerful
Nicodemus he needed to be "re-born." (Cf. Gospel according to St. John 3:
3-8) She went to Mass and Communion every day. She confessed her sins to
a priest every week. She meditated on the Scriptures whenever she had a
free moment. She prayed the Rosary with never-failing delight. And all
the while, she handed herself over totally to the humble and courageous
service of the poorest of the poor by fighting for their causes in her
newspaper, The Catholic Worker, which published as many as 180,000 copies
a month; by providing them food, clothing and shelter in her "Houses of
Hospitality," which today number over 130 in urban centers across the
nation; by demonstrating for them; by showering uncompromising love over
even the most ungrateful of them; and especially by praying and denying
herself even the most ordinary of pleasures and conveniences for them.
Dorothy Day sought no accolades. She dismissed any suggestion that she
was a saint, though she took extraordinary delight in studying the lives
of the saints. She accepted the rejection of certain women's groups who
could not forgive her condemnation of abortion, just as she accepted the
rejection of a great number of her followers who could not understand her
uncompromising commitment to peace. She told Church leaders in no
uncertain terms when she thought they were mistaken in matters of social
policy, but stood foursquare with them in matters of faith and morals.
When she passed away in 1980 at the age of 83, in the little "House of
Hospitality" she shared with the poor and abandoned on Staten Island, she
was among the most respected women in the Church and, indeed, in the
world, honored by editorial writers, civil rights leaders, labor unions,
universities, and in a way that meant the world to her, by Pope Paul VI,
who had her come to Communion at one of his Masses after the conclusion
of the Second Vatican Council.
Will Dorothy Day ever be declared a saint by the Church of her beloved
Savior? I, of course, do not know. Still, in my own mind she is
marvelously saintly, for whatever that might be worth. For those who
share this conviction, there is something they might wish to do, namely,
join the "Guild of Dorothy Day," which was founded on June 7, 2005, in
the meeting described above, and secondly, ask the Lord to help the
process along by speaking to Him of her in prayer. To join the "Guild,"
one can contact:
Reverend Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Avenue
New York, New York 10022
Telephone: (212) 371-1000
Monsignor will send all who write or telephone his office printed
materials about Dorothy Day, and the Lord and His Church will take it
from there.
One final note:On Monday, June 20th, I received a letter from the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints informing me that a preliminary
examination of a miraculous cure obtained through the intercession of the
Venerable Pierre Toussaint, indicated that the "cause" of this other New
Yorker who lived his life for the poor was moving forward very well
indeed. I opened the letter just after I had finished putting together
the outline for this article. While I dare not jump to any conclusions, I
cannot help but feel that someone in the "great beyond" may have been
trying to tell me to be more hopeful about seeing Dorothy Day brought to
the altar. From what I know of Dorothy Day, I am quite sure it was not
she. Rather, I suspect it was one of those tens of thousands of poorly
paid workers, derelicts, prisoners and homeless whom she fed, clothed,
housed, championed, loved and led to the God who was born in a stable,
earned His bread as a carpenter and had "nowhere to lay His head."
Edward Cardinal Egan.
Archbishop of New York June 2005
ANNOUNCEMENTS
=============
DRAFT INFORMATION WORKSHOPS
Primarily designed for high school students and young men and women of
draft age (and their parents), The Catholic Peace Fellowship offers a
short program on the new draft law and Catholic teachings on Peace, War
and Conscientious Objection, as well as how to prepare a conscientious
objector file in anticipation of the draft.
We can also provide a program for public schools or other non-Catholic
audiences, with a broader approach. Contact us at
Catholic Peace Fellowship
Stephen J Spiro, New Jersey Organizer
Box 4451 - Brainy Boro Station
Metuchen, NJ 08840-4451
Voice: (732) 549-8965 Fax: (509) 693-1815
Spiro_CatholicPeaceFellowship_NJ@Hotmail.Com
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR COUNSELLOR (DRAFT COUNSELLOR) TRAINING
With the possibility of a new military draft, the Catholic Peace
Fellowship is providing training for men and women who work with youth,
to enable them to give advice and support to young men and women about
both the new draft law and the Churchs teachings on War and Peace. Also
includes material for counseling current members of the military who are
seeking discharge for reasons of conscience. (Programs for mixed or
non-Catholic audiences are also available.) Good program for pastors,
high school and college teachers, guidance counselors, chaplains, church
staff. Contact us at
Catholic Peace Fellowship
Stephen J Spiro, New Jersey Organizer
Box 4451 - Brainy Boro Station
Metuchen, NJ 08840-4451
Voice: (732) 549-8965 Fax: (509) 693-1815
Spiro_CatholicPeaceFellowship_NJ@Hotmail.Com
PROGRAMS FOR YOUR SCHOOL, CHURCH OR ORGANIZATION
The Catholic Peace Fellowship can provide interesting, exciting and/or
provocative J speakers, panels, or dramatic presentations for you, on a
variety of topics. You can use them as educational activities or
fundraisers. We can also arrange bible studies (one evening/day or a
series) with qualified scripture scholars. Call to get more information.
Catholic Peace Fellowship
Stephen J Spiro, New Jersey Organizer
Box 4451 - Brainy Boro Station
Metuchen, NJ 08840-4451
Voice: (732) 549-8965 Fax: (509) 693-1815
Spiro_CatholicPeaceFellowship_NJ@Hotmail.Com
Every Saturday: Weekly Iraq Memorial Wall Vigil, 11:15 AM until 12:30 PM
in Highland Park, NJ at the intersection of Rte 27 and River Rd. RAIN or
SHINE, SNOW or WIND until the US withdraws its troops from Iraq.
There is a peace vigil every Friday night in Morristown, NJ. It lasts
from 6 PM to 7 PM. The location is in front of the monument at the South
Street side of the Green. On your map, this is the intersection of Rt 24
and Rt 202. Held regardless of weather.
There is a peace vigil every Saturday in Plainfield, NJ. It lasts from
noon until 1 PM. The location is on Watchung Avenue at the corner of
Third Street. This is in front of the historic Friends' Meeting House.
Free parking at the Meeting House. Cancelled if pouring rain.
Counter Military Recruitment. The Central Jersey Coalition Against
Endless War hosted a very successful statewide meeting in June with
people representing organizations from around the state participating in
a lively discussion and strategy session planning for activities in the
fall. We will meet again on Saturday, August 13, 1pm to 5pm, in Highland
Park, NJ. For more information, contact notowar@optonline.net
Also, between paying for the church and food we did not break even last
month. Therefore, we will have a simpler lunch including vegetarian food
and ask that you donate $2.00 for meeting costs and $4.00 for lunch.
Please RSVP about attendance and lunch. You can give Ellen Whitt a call
at (732)846-3544.
We are actively engaged in the process of getting more user-friendly
Opt Out policies passed for parents and students in nearby school
districts and challenging the easy access that the military has in our
high schools . If you want to work on improving your school
district's policies on military access to students, please contact us.
We have a parent leaflet and student leaflet (available in English and
Spanish) explaining the rights of parents and students to "Opt Out" of
military recruitment lists sent by the high schools as dictated by No
Child Left Behind.
THE CATHOLIC PEACE FELLOWSHIP WILL HAVE AN INFORMATION TABLE AT the
Dunellen Street Fair on North Avenue in downtown Dunellen, NJ Saturday,
September 11, 10 am to 5pm.
Setup is at 7:30am. The Catholic Peace Fellowship could use some help
manning the table, setting up and taking down. Come help for a little
while or all day! Thank you! For more info, call Stephen Spiro at
732-661-1962.
THE CATHOLIC PEACE FELLOWSHIP WILL HAVE AN INFORMATION TABLE AT the
Volunteer Fair at St Peters College, Jersey City, NJ. Dineen Hall Roy
Irving, Thursday, September 15.
The Catholic Peace Fellowship could use some help manning the table,
setting up and taking down. Come help for a little while or all day!
Thank you! For more info, call Stephen Spiro at 732-661-1962.
THE CATHOLIC PEACE FELLOWSHIP WILL HAVE AN INFORMATION TABLE AT the
Martin Luther King Commemoration at St Peters College, Jersey City, NJ.
Thursday, September 22.
The Catholic Peace Fellowship could use some help manning the table,
setting up and taking down. Come help for a little while or all day!
Thank you! For more info, call Stephen Spiro at 732-661-1962.
THE CATHOLIC PEACE FELLOWSHIP WILL HAVE AN INFORMATION TABLE AT the Peace
Fair at Buckingham Friends Meeting in Lahaska, Penna. Saturday, September
24, 11am to 4 pm.
Setup is at 9am - the Catholic Peace Fellowship could use some help
manning the table, setting up and taking down. Come help for a little
while or all day! Thank you! For more info, call Stephen Spiro at
732-661-1962.
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33 In Hiroshima, Annan's Envoy Calls For Urgent Steps To Prevent Flood Of Nuclear Weapons
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 15:00:27 -0400
IN HIROSHIMA, ANNAN'S ENVOY CALLS FOR URGENT STEPS TO PREVENT FLOOD
New York, Aug 6 2005 3:00PM
The world could face "a cascade of nuclear proliferation" unless
it takes concerted action to prevent nuclear weapons from spreading
to other States or falling into the hands of terrorist networks,
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned today in a
message marking the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Although no nuclear weapon had been used again, "We are witnessing
continued efforts to strengthen and modernize nuclear arsenals?and
[face] the risk that such weapons will fall into the hands of
terrorists and other non-State actors," Mr. Annan said in a message
to a Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, delivered by
Nobuyasu Abe, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs.
"Without concentrated action, we may face a cascade of nuclear proliferation,"
Mr. Annan said, stressing that revelations of clandestine
networks trafficking in nuclear materials and technology have
exposed a major loophole in the international non-proliferation
Expressing his disappointment that the 2005 Review Conference of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, held at UN Headquarters this
past May, ended with no substantive agreement, Mr. Annan urged
all States to redouble their efforts in working toward a world free
of nuclear dangers, and ultimately, of nuclear weapons.
He also challenged world leaders, due to gather at next month's 2005
World Summit in New York, to use the occasion to break the deadlock
on the most pressing challenges in nuclear non-proliferation
and disarmament.
"Today, we recall the tragedies that occurred here and in Nagasaki:
we resolve to act on the lessons of those terrible events; we
reiterate our determination to spare no effort to build a world free
of nuclear weapons," the message said.
2005-08-06 00:00:00.000
________________
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34 Op-Ed Intl. Herald Tribune: Hiroshima & Nuclear History
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 04:04:35 EDT
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International Herald Tribune
Atomic weapons: To what end?
By Bennett Ramberg International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2005
LOS ANGELES What are nuclear weapons good for?
Reflecting on the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II, Harry Truman gave
this answer: "I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt
that it should be used," adding, "When I talked to Churchill he
unhesitatingly told me that he favored the use of the atomic bomb if it might aid to end
the war."
Nonetheless, since the bombing of Hiroshima 60 years ago on Saturday, the
United States and other nuclear-armed nations have demonstrated considerable
resistance to repeating Truman's decision, despite the many crises and conflicts
of the Cold War and beyond. Each president, however, continued to build,
modernize or otherwise maintain weapons that would dwarf the explosive power of the
devices that obliterated Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki.
But to what end? This anniversary should be a time of public reflection.
In its Nuclear-Posture Review of December 2001, the administration of George
W. Bush provided its answer. Calling nuclear weapons an adjunct to
conventional forces, the Pentagon said that the arsenal functioned to assure allies,
while it dissuades, deters and, if necessary, defeats adversaries. With the
hindsight of decades, we now are able to test whether the Pentagon's first three
objectives make sense.
Fortunately, since the Japanese bombings, there has been no additional test
of the fourth.
"Assurance" seeks to prevent America's allies from going nuclear. The
strategy: Military alliances backed by a U.S. atomic commitment. The premise: Any
proliferation - even among allies - increases the risk of nuclear war.
Despite two notable failures (Britain and France), Washington's nuclear
assurance claimed important achievements: Through the Cold War, Germany, Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan - all nuclear candidates - abstained from developing
weapons in no small measure because the American bomb underpinned the alliance.
Though threats by North Korea and China recently tempted the latter three to
reconsider their nonproliferation commitment, American pledges continue to provide
them with reassurance.
"Dissuasion" strives to intimidate adversaries from "pursuing threatening
capabilities," the review said. Here, too, the historic record is mixed.
The strategy failed to prevent North Korea from going nuclear, and even after
Iraq's Osirak reactor was attacked by Israel in 1981, it did not stop Saddam
Hussein from seeking to develop nuclear weapons through the 1980s.
On the other hand, there has been a recent success, the agreement by Libya to
abandon its own nuclear program. It recalls the decision Egypt made years ago
to avoid Israeli pre-emptive nuclear action.
Nuclear "deterrence," which, the review says, involves reinforcing the United
States' ability to keep adversaries' high-value targets in its sights, has
had the greatest impact in preventing crises or tamping down conflicts between
nuclear-armed states.
Mutual nuclear fright tempered Soviet-American actions during the crises in
Berlin, in Cuba and in the Middle East in 1973; the same holds true for the
1969 Chinese-Soviet border skirmishes and the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan
confrontation after the Kashmir separatist attack on India's Parliament.
Today, North Korea believes that its own nuclear capacity deters the United
States.
The bomb, however, did not prevent non-nuclear-weapons states from taking on
or resisting nuclear adversaries. North Korea invaded the South even though
the United States used nuclear threats to prompt China to halt hostilities.
North Vietnam and the Afghan mujahedeen not only stood up to their superpower
foes, but beat them. Likewise, Hezbollah chased nuclear-armed Israel out of
Lebanon. Elsewhere in the region, Egypt was unbowed in the lead-up to the 1967
war with Israel and, with Syria, remained so in the 1973 war. Then there was
Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which irreverently stood up to Washington in 1991 and
2002. Finally, Moscow discovered how hollow nuclear weapons could be in keeping
its empire and ultimately the Soviet Union itself intact.
This history of the atomic age suggests that nuclear weapons never became a
foolproof way to scare adversaries toward a permanent peace - as some had hoped
- nor did they become the inevitable destroyer of nations that others feared.
In the absence of disaster, nuclear nations have grown increasingly
comfortable in the belief that they can "game" the bomb to enhance security. But this
notion should be cold comfort in light of nuclear crises that came within a
hairsbreadth of ending in nuclear catastrophe.
Then there remains the ever-present possibility of accidental nuclear war
because of failures of command and control or intelligence. Still, with the
exception of nations that do not anchor their security in nuclear defense - for
example, Ukraine, Belarus and South Africa, which gave up their bombs after
changes in government - the weapons will probably populate arsenals around the
world for another 60 years and beyond.
That said, there remains at least one significant caveat: nuclear terrorism.
Should terrorists have their nuclear day, people around the globe will
declare "enough" and demand an end to the bombs that history bequeathed.
(Bennett Ramberg was a policy analyst at the State Department from 1989 to
1990.)
Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
*****************************************************************
35 Guardian Unlimited: Hiroshima marks 60th anniversary of atomic bomb
Associated Press
Saturday August 6, 2005
[Elderly women burn incense sticks while a man offers
prayers before the cenotaph for the victims of Hiroshima's
nuclear attack in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. Yoshikazu
Tsuno/AFP/Getty ]
Women burn incense sticks while a man offers prayers before the
cenotaph for the victims of Hiroshima's nuclear attack in Peace
Memorial Park in Hiroshima. Photograph: Yoshikazu
Tsuno/AFP/Getty
Hiroshima today marked the 60th anniversary of the world's
first atomic bomb attack.
Vowing to never allow a repeat of his city's tragedy,
Hiroshima's mayor called on the nuclear powers to abandon their
arsenals and stop "jeopardising human survival."
At exactly 8.15am local time, the moment of the blast, the
city's trolleys stopped and more than 55,000 people assembled at
Peace Memorial Park observed a moment of silence that was broken
only by the ringing of a bronze bell.
Then, with offerings of water and flowers for the dead, Hiroshima
remembered how the blast turned life to death for more than
140,000 and forever changed the face of war.
Outside the nearby A-Bomb Dome, one of the few buildings left
standing after the blast, peace activists held a die-in.
Hiroshima's outspoken mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, gave an
impassioned plea for the abolition of all nuclear weapons, and
said the United States, Russia and other members of the nuclear
club are "jeopardising human survival".
"Many people around the world have succumbed to the feeling that
there is nothing we can do," he said. "Within the UN, nuclear
club members use their veto power to override the global
majority and pursue their selfish objectives."
In a more subdued speech, the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro
Koizumi, offered his condolences to the dead.
"I offer deep prayers from my heart to those who were killed,"
he said, vowing that Japan would be a leader in the
international movement against nuclear proliferation.
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 that about 140,000 people were killed
instantly or died within a few months after the Enola Gay
dropped its deadly payload over the city, which then had a
population of about 350,000.
Three days later, another US bomber, Bock's Car, dropped a
plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000
people. Japan surrendered on August 15 1945, bringing the second
world war to a close.
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 242,437.
This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list.
Fumie Yoshida, who survived the blast but lost her father,
brother and sister, said she chose not to attend the formal
memorial, but joined a small group of friends to pay her
respects privately in the peace park. Yoshida was 16 when
Hiroshima was bombed.
"My father's remains have never been found," she said. "Those of
us who went through this all know that we must never repeat this
tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting."
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
36 Taiwan News Online: It's not how to make a bomb, but why
2005-08-06 / Knight Ridder / By Ann Larabee
After the recent bombings in London, Britain's home secretary,
Charles Clarke, rushed to announce plans for sweeping new
terrorist legislation that would criminalize downloading
bomb-making instructions from the Internet. Once again, the
Internet has become the target of lawmakers who seek a simple
remedy for making a complex world safe again.
If only it were so easy. A major flaw in blaming the Internet
for terrorist bomb making is that no one has ever sufficiently
demonstrated that the Web is any more dangerous than the
library, private circulation of printed texts or word of mouth.
As long as 125 years ago, when neither desktop computers nor
the Internet existed, men were carrying out simultaneous
bombings on London's public transport. In 1883, Irish-American
nationalists made two attempts to set off clockwork dynamite
bombs on trains and in rail stations. Although several failed to
detonate, the bombs injured more than seventy people. The
bombers' technology was not so different from today's. A timed
detonator, made from an alarm clock, set off a small Remington
pistol that fired a charge into a cake of dynamite.
At the time, dynamite was considered a frightening, brand-new,
state-of-the-art explosive, and the thought that radicals could
effectively make and deploy it was deeply alarming. The public
fear made dynamite even sexier to violently inclined radicals,
who acquired ordinary chemistry books from libraries, translated
their complex instructions into the language of the kitchen and
the home workshop and printed these recipes in their newspapers.
The fuel oil and fertilizer explosive of Timothy McVeigh's
Oklahoma City truck bomb was already known, as were most
explosives still accessible to amateurs today.
McVeigh could have built his bomb from 19th-century know-how.
No Internet was needed for the United Irishmen and the
Clan-na-Gael, two Irish nationalist groups operating in the
United States in the 1880s, to set up bomb-making schools from
New York to St. Louis. One of their members, a liquor salesman
who went by the handle Professor Gaspodin Mezzeroff, traveled
from city to city offering bomb-making workshops to anyone
interested, including anarchists, Irish immigrants and Cuban
exiles. Globetrotting terrorists took the information with them
as far as India.
In that same period, anarchist Johann Most compiled information
from Austrian military manuals into a book, "The Science of
Revolutionary Warfare," which was sold at anarchist picnics,
much as Ragnar Benson's "Homemade C-4," allegedly used by
McVeigh, can be found at gun shows today. Most's handbook
contained dozens of pages on how to make high explosives and a
simple but effective prescription for a letter bomb.
Attempts to stifle the dissemination of bomb-making
instructions were worse than the disease. In 1886, after a bomb
went off at an anarchist rally in Chicago and killed several
police officers, eight men were tried and convicted, largely on
evidence that they owned and republished Most's book. In the
public hysteria, four innocent men were hanged.
We face a similar moment, when texts themselves have become, as
Most once said, "literary Satans." The attempt to suppress
speech is now given the misleading gloss of appearing to be
directed at the Internet.
A long history
But the Internet is not to blame. Bomb-making instructions of
all sorts freely circulate in libraries, from hand to hand, and
by word of mouth. A basic 19th-century chemistry book in my
university library has anarchy symbols scrawled on the pages for
making silver fulminate and guncotton. Even plans for advanced
weapons such as nuclear devices can be readily found in the
public domain.
If a society is really to take on the problem, it must look at
the full complexity of how and why people learn to make bombs.
Given that directions for all sorts of destructive devices are
widely disseminated in myriad ways, the well-meaning censorship
of the Internet simply cannot work. No proof exists that the
Internet is unique in the long history of the underground trade
of information. And yet, on the shakiest of evidentiary
foundations, our politicians have passed legislation such as the
Feinstein Amendment, forbidding publication of bomb-making
instructions on the Web or anywhere else, hastily pushed through
Congress after the Columbine shootings.
It's clearly impossible to eradicate every scrap of technical
information from libraries, weapons laboratories, historical
archives, basement printing presses, not to mention people's
heads. When violent radicals have stepped down from violent
activities, it has never been from a dearth of technical
information. Rather, they have been left behind by social and
political change, or they have blown themselves up, or their
operations have disintegrated through the inevitable internal
struggles of the violent, or they have been subjected to the
intense pressure of surveillance to the point of giving up
secret operations, or they have been persuaded by members in
their own organizations to change.
That last way requires an open exchange of dialogue and a full
commitment to freedom of speech, even speech such as the
publication of information we fear. Panicky, ill-considered,
ineffective laws aimed at Internet speech, even bomb-making
instructions, only deflect attention from more intelligent
efforts toward safety and peace.
Ann Larabee is a professor of American studies at Michigan State
University and a writer for the History News Service.
2001-2005 Taiwan News. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
37 MSN-Mainichi Daily News: Hiroshima declaration of inheritance
Hiroshima declares 2005 as a 'time of inheritance, of awakening,
and of commitment'
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba
HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba described 2005 as a
"time of inheritance, of awakening, and of commitment" as the
city commemorated the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing on
Saturday.
He criticized the collapse of an international conference
re-evaluating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) while
raising concern about the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"The U.S., Russia, U.K., 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 jeopardizing human survival,"
he said.
He made the remarks in the peace declaration he read during the
peace memorial ceremony.
In particular, Akiba bitterly criticized North Korea for
declaring that it possesses nuclear arms and the United States
for developing small-scale nuclear weapons for tactical use.
On behalf of Hiroshima residents, the mayor pledged to commit
himself to atomic-bombing survivors who have been calling for
nuclear disarmament and to raise international opinion in favor
of world peace.
He said atomic-bombing survivors, whose average age are 73.1,
have a common will, "Thou shalt not kill," and described it as
the "highest priority for the human race across all nations and
religions."
The mayor also criticized the move to revise the war-renouncing
Constitution. "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."
About 55,000 people attended the peace memorial ceremony held at
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Naka-ku, the second largest
number in history.
Mayor Akiba and two representatives of bereaved families of the
atomic-bombing victims dedicated a list of 5,375 victims who
died or were confirmed dead over the past year to the cenotaph.
They have brought the number of atomic-bombing victims to
242,437.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Itcho Ito, the mayor of the
other atomic-bombed city of Nagasaki, laid a wreath at the
cenotaph. The attendees offered a one-minute silent prayer
beginning at 8:15 a.m., the time when an atomic bomb was dropped
on Hiroshima 60 years ago.
Two elementary school children read their message with an oath
to keep peace on behalf of the children in the world's first
atomic-bombed city. (Mainichi)
August 6, 2005
Copyright 2004-2005 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All
rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
38 Daily Yomiuri: A 60-year quest / Historian searches for A-bomb victims
Shinichi Yanagawa / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
With the help of Japanese historian Shigeaki Mori, a British
airman recently was added to Nagasaki's list of atomic-bomb
victims, after his death in the bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, while
being held as a prisoner of war, was confirmed.
A portrait of Royal Air Force Cpl. Ronald Shaw was offered to
the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb
Victims by his family, who recently learned of Shaw's fate
through information provided by Mori, 68, in Hiroshima.
Shaw became the 10th POW confirmed killed in Nagasaki by the
plutonium bomb called Fatman, according to the Nagasaki city
government.
He was captured by Japanese forces in Java after his plane was
shot down. Although the Japanese vessel that was transporting
him was sunk by a U.S. submarine, he was rescued and brought to
the prison camp in Nagasaki, 1.65 kilometers from the
hypocenter.
Shaw and other POWs were forced to work at a shipyard. On Aug.
9, the atomic blast ripped through the camp and Shaw was crushed
under debris.
About 200 POWs are believed to have been held at the camp at the
time of the bombing.
Although nine Dutch POWs had been listed as atomic-bomb victims
by 1997 after their deaths were confirmed through their
identification cards and other means, the number of POWs killed
in the bombing is still undetermined, a city official said.
Mori obtained information concerning Shaw from a POW research
society in January, including copies of GHQ documents.
He then contacted the British Embassy in Tokyo and Consulate
General in Osaka. A few months after this, he received
confirmation of Shaw's fate. The story was also reported in
Britain.
After contacting Shaw's family, he visited Nagasaki and
submitted an application to the city to include Shaw on the
city's list of atomic-bomb victims. He also provided a portrait
of Shaw to memorial hall.
Mori, who has researched Hiroshima's atomic-bomb victims for
almost 30 years, also helped have the names of six U.S. POWs who
died in the city recorded on its list of atomic-bomb victims
beneath the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at the Peace
Memorial Park from 1996 to 2004.
He also helped the families of eight U.S. POWs, including these
six, dedicate portraits of the servicemen to the Hiroshima
National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in
2004.
Of the eight, six belonged to the U.S. Army Air Force--four were
crew members of the B-24 Liberator Lonesome Lady and the others
were aboard the B-24 Liberator Taloa--while the remaining two
were U.S. Navy airmen.
They had been imprisoned at the Chugoku Military Police
Headquarters, just 400 meters from ground zero, and other
locations in the city.
===
After the flash
On Aug. 6, 1945, Mori was on his way to class at a shrine near
his home in the Koi district, 2-1/2 kilometers from the
hypocenter, when the bomb called Little Boy exploded about 600
meters above Hiroshima after it was dropped by the B-29 Enola
Gay. He was an 8-year-old third-grade student at Koi Kokumin
School.
He was blown off a small bridge by the shock wave onto a
riverbed three meters below. He was conscious, but stayed there
for about 30 minutes as the sky became very dark. He said he
couldn't even see his hand 10 centimeters in front of his face.
After clambering from the riverbed, he saw a bloodstained young
woman clutching her stomach and looking for help. He was
frightened and fled toward the mountains. On the way, he saw
many people lying on the ground calling for help, but he
continued to run.
Eventually, a woman forced him to stop and she took him to an
air-raid shelter.
As the night wore on, the temperature dropped. He then realized
he was naked from the waist up, so he wrapped himself in
newspapers and tied them to himself with a string.
As the entire city was ablaze, the light from the fires was so
bright people could read easily. But the shelter was hell, he
said. He had to listen to many people calling for help and
water.
After spending two or three nights in the shelter without food,
he made his way toward his family's mountain hut, located more
than 500 meters north of his home, and was reunited with his
parents, two younger sisters and grandparents. He also found his
cousins there. Their house, located about 800 meters from the
hypocenter, was destroyed and his aunt was killed.
One of the cousins tearfully told him that he could not forget
the cry of his mother trapped under a collapsed pillar as flames
engulfed the house. There was nothing he could do for her, he
said.
According to Mori, about 60,000 people fled to the Koi district
from the central part of the city so they could reach a
first-aid station at a primary school. Many people who had been
burned jumped into rivers and died.
In the aftermath, he walked around the devastated areas of the
city center searching for food.
A street in the Koi district was filled with dead bodies. A
woman who sustained burns all over her body was holding her
child in her arms.
Medical staff dispatched from Otake, Hiroshima Prefecture, to
the school could not cope as they knew nothing about radiation
sickness, and they were overwhelmed by the number of victims.
The staff had no idea why so many people were dying.
Many bodies were piled up in the schoolyard. In the night,
people searched for their loved ones while calling out their
names.
About 2,300 bodies were cremated in the schoolyard by local
volunteer guards over two days, Aug. 10-11. Cremations were
conducted sporadically at several sites in the city until the
end of the year, Mori said.
One night, Mori overheard some guards in the schoolyard say they
had cremated about 20,000 bodies. Although he thought the number
was an exaggeration, the figure made a deep impression.
Most of the students at Seibi Kokumin School, which Mori
attended up until a few months before the bombing, were killed
in the blast. The school was located next to the military
headquarters.
In wartime, upper-grade students in primary schools in the city
center were encouraged to evacuate to remote areas. However,
Mori's family declined and sent him to Koi Kokumin School.
===
Mori driven by war experience
What Mori experienced in the aftermath of the atomic bombing
inspired him to conduct extensive research on the atomic-bomb
victims and survivors as well as the fate of U.S. POWs who died
in the city.
"If I had been at Seibi school, I would have been killed," Mori
said. "I wanted to record the horrible things that happened in
my neighborhood because I remembered the guards talking about
cremating 20,000 bodies.
"I thought U.S. POWs detained at the headquarters may have been
killed in ways similar to my aunt," he said.
He began his research in the late 1970s when he was about 40. In
1945, there were about 1,870 houses in the Koi district. So he
decided to visit the houses of survivors to hear their
experiences.
Since then, he has visited more than 600 households and taken
notes on their experiences and the tragedy they saw.
In the mid-1980s, he heard from an elderly woman who several
days before the atomic bombing saw a U.S. plane fly over her
house westward, spewing out flames.
Mori traced the route the plane might have taken before crashing
and obtained more than 50 eyewitness reports. He finally found
that the plane, the B-24 Taloa, had crashed into a mountainous
area in Yawatamura, part of what is now Saeki Ward, Hiroshima.
Some witnesses told Mori that rubber rafts, chocolates and other
confectionery were scattered around the crash site. He also
found a man who had picked up a watch from the site and given it
back to the bereaved family several years later.
Later, Mori inspected the crash site of the Lonesome Lady in
Yanai, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
He also talked to eyewitnesses who saw crew members of the two
Liberators parachuting to the ground.
Mori contacted local authorities and obtained a report submitted
to GHQ by a local police station with information about a crew
member of the Lonesome Lady who had been killed. The report said
the body was found in September 1947 with his dog tags, a
parachute bag, cartridges and other items.
Mori also found microfilm containing information about U.S. POWs
in this country during the war.
According to his research, dozens of U.S. planes were shot down
around Hiroshima Bay and other locations between July 25 and
July 28, 1945.
The two Liberators took part in attacking the battleship Haruna,
which was anchored in the port of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on
July 28. They were both shot down.
Fifteen crew members of five planes, including seven from the
Lonesome Lady and three from the Taloa, were captured.
Capt. Thomas Cartwright of the Lonesome Lady and two U.S. Navy
men were sent to Tokyo for interrogation.
But the rest remained in the city until Aug. 6 and died in or
after the bombing, Mori said. Most of them are believed to have
died on the day of the bombing, but two were confirmed dead at a
first-aid station near the city's Ujina Port on Aug. 19.
In November 1990, a daughter of Hugh Atkinson, a sergeant aboard
the Lonesome Lady believed to have died in the aftermath,
visited Hiroshima with her husband to learn about the fate of
her father.
After a local newspaper carried an article requesting
information about the sergeant at the couple's request, Mori
sent a letter to her in Seattle. But at that time he did not
know anything about the Lonesome Lady, and he mistakenly sent
her the wrong information, referring to Atkinson as member of
the Taloa crew.
When another newspaper carried an article about a local man who
was in possession of the sergeant's boots and clothing, Mori
promised the woman he would retrieve the belongings for her.
However, when he found the man three years later, he had already
disposed of the items.
Around that time Mori learned that Cartwright was still alive
and tried to contact him. "It might be easy for me to find him
if I could ask Atkinson's daughter about it, but I couldn't
because I failed to meet her expectations," Mori said.
After a considerable amount of time and effort, he finally
contacted Cartwright in Texas in 1995 and began corresponding
with him.
Following the same procedures, he contacted families of POWs who
died in Hiroshima after the bombing. Obtaining consent from the
families, he put their names on the city's list of atomic-bomb
victims.
His research on surviving and deceased atomic bomb victims
continues. (Aug. 7, 2005)
THE DAILY YOMIURI
*****************************************************************
39 Las Vegas RJ: HIROSHIMA: 60 YEARS LATER: THEY SHOCKED THE WORLD
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Surviving Enola Gay crewmen stand firmon necessity of dropping
atomic bombs on Japan By PAUL HARASIM
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Only a few steel and concrete bridges and buildings remain
intact in Hiroshima after the city was leveled by an atomic bomb
60 years ago.
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired Gen. Paul Tibbets, 90, leafs through a book detailing
the activities of the 509th Composite Group, which trained in
Wendover for the dropping of the atomic bombs over Japan.
Tibbets now lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
Morris Jeppson stands in front of photographs of the Enola Gay
at his Sun City home on July 7. Jeppson was a weapons officer on
the Hiroshima bombing mission.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
The B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, lands at the Pacific island of
Tinian after its bombing mission over Hiroshima.
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio
In the past six months, retired 90-year-old Gen. Paul Tibbets
has taken a dozen falls.
He twists and grimaces in his chair on this June afternoon, his
back pain numbed somewhat by an epidural, the anesthetic that
helps women bear the pain of childbirth.
When he stands, he is stooped, unlike the images captured in
World War II photographs that show him carrying his 5-foot,
9-inch frame ramrod straight.
His vertebrae are cracked, but the white-haired, bespectacled
great-grandfather makes no mention of it during a three-hour
interview.
That's just the way he is, his wife of 48 years, Andrea, says
later while describing her husband's discomfort.
Inside their ranch-style home, with the well-manicured lawn
deep in middle America, hang photographs of family and paintings
that reflect a love of nature.
High on a shelf, well away from normal sight lines, is a tiny
plastic likeness of Tibbets as a military commander.
It's one of the few pieces of visible evidence of his military
career. And it's there only because Andrea, who met her husband
in France after World War II, thinks it's cute.
There's one topic that isn't talked about here. And there's no
need to commemorate it inside the home, even if it changed the
world.
"We know what happened," Tibbets said.
It was 60 years ago, Aug. 6, 1945, when Tibbets led the first
A-bomb mission on Hiroshima, Japan.
"We were going to shock the hell out of everyone," Tibbets said.
What was seen that day and at Nagasaki three days later so
shocked the world that a number of scientists, philosophers and
world leaders believed they had seen how the final chapter in
the story of mankind would be written.
The devastation ate at Albert Einstein, the physicist who urged
President Roosevelt to build the bomb after he learned that the
Germans were trying to perfect nuclear weaponry. Though Einstein
saw some justification for his action because of the German
effort, he went to his death wishing he had played no role in
creating nuclear weapons.
As many as 130,000 died after Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola
Gay after his mother, dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on
Hiroshima.
On Aug. 9, 1945, another B-29 crew -- one that Tibbets also
trained -- dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear weapon on Nagasaki.
More than 250,000 people died from the two missions that all but
obliterated two of Japan's major cities.
At the same time that the end of World War II was celebrated,
cries of "ban the bomb" began to reverberate among people around
the globe who were fearful of the A-bomb's awesome power. After
the Soviet Union acquired the bomb and Cold War tensions between
the communist nation and the United States worsened, thousands
of Americans built bomb shelters in their backyards.
In today's world of terrorists and rogue nations struggling to
become global power players through possession of nuclear
weapons, Tibbets sounds a warning borne from being a participant
in, and witness to, the greatest destruction ever known: "War
now holds terrors beyond belief. The world must be very
careful."
Because of his health concerns, Tibbets, who retired from the
military at the age of 51 after 30 years of service, has refused
interviews in recent months. He agreed to this interview, he
said, only so that the role of the Wendover airfield on the
Nevada-Utah border during World War II could be better
understood.
Wendover's contribution to atomic warfare was detailed in
Saturday's Review-Journal.
Until six months ago, Andrea Tibbets said, her husband remained
active and would travel to visit friends and deliver speeches.
But then one day she didn't move a bookcase as quickly as her
husband would have liked.
"I had to leave the house," she said. "When I came home I found
that he had tried to move it and fallen backward on a brick and
hurt his back. Since then he has fallen again and again. I guess
now he has a balance problem. ... If he wasn't so stubborn, this
never would have happened. But that's the way he is. He's the
most stubborn man I know. There's never a doubt in his mind that
he's right. Never."
It was that kind of certainty that was necessary to get the war
over with, say the other two men still alive who flew on the
first A-bomb mission to Hiroshima.
"You needed someone who could make decisions who knew what he
was doing," said 84-year-old Ted "Dutch" Van Kirk, the navigator
aboard the Enola Gay who spoke to the Review-Journal in a recent
telephone interview from his Stone Mountain, Ga., home.
"I guess what you could say about General Tibbets is that he
made you always feel you were going to get the job done, no
matter what," said Las Vegan Morris Jeppson, 82, the former
weapons officer on the Enola Gay. "That's what you need in a
war."
Sixty years after the bombing of Hiroshima, the mission remains
controversial.
The latest "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" carries the
headline: "Would You Have Dropped the Bomb?"
The three surviving Enola Gay crew members, who are no
strangers to hate mail, want no more of the controversy. They
prefer to talk about all the letters they have received from
veterans and their loved ones.
"They tell me thanks for getting the war over so they or their
loved ones didn't die in an invasion of Japan," Tibbets said.
"And I just tell them that I was glad to be able to do it."
Before Tibbets hurt his back, he, Van Kirk and Jeppson all
planned on attending 60th anniversary proceedings on the Pacific
island of Tinian, the base from which the Enola Gay departed to
drop the bomb.
But a Tinian government official invited officials of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki to speak.
"I can't imagine anything good would have come out of that,"
Van Kirk said, explaining why he decided not to go.
Jeppson, a retired nuclear physicist and businessman, also
thought better of the visit. He had planned on making a speech
at Tinian arguing that the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki caused far fewer Japanese to die than would have an
allied invasion backed by conventional air power.
"They were just trying to set us up for public criticism by
having the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki there," Jeppson
said. "It just made no sense."
Tibbets, who stayed in Columbus after retiring from a position
as president of an executive jet company headquartered here,
said he would have been happy remaining silent about World War
II if "revisionists" hadn't tried to rewrite history.
His irritation came to a head in the 1990s when the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum planned to display the Enola Gay
along with a script that asked pointed questions about President
Truman's decision to drop the A-bomb.
Graphic pictures of the carnage also would have been shown.
After intense lobbying by the Air Force Association and the
American Legion and criticism from every major institution of
the U.S. government, the Smithsonian tempered its script and
eliminated the graphic pictures of those killed in the bombings.
Tibbets worked closely with military planners, scientists and
officials connected with the Manhattan Project, the name given
to the research and development of the A-bomb. He said there was
no opposition to the bomb within the government prior to the
missions.
"Ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine percent of the American
people were in favor of getting the war over as fast as
possible," Tibbets said.
Some U.S. scientists, led by Leo Szilard, had tried to persuade
President Truman not to use the bombs. But it was also Szilard,
a Hungarian refugee from the Nazis, who had asked Einstein in
the late 1930s to warn Roosevelt that Hitler's scientists might
build an atomic bomb.
Adm. William Leahy, who played a critical role in the strategy,
diplomacy and execution of World War II, said in 1950 that the
bombing adopted "ethical standards common to barbarians in the
dark ages."
But as Philip Nobile reveals in his book "Judgment at the
Smithsonian," 1945 documents suggest Leahy never criticized the
program, and said only that he "was skeptical that the atomic
bomb would ever work."
Former Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said in
1948 and in later memoirs that he told Truman he opposed use of
the bomb, but Nobile acknowledges that "corroborating evidence
for these assertions is weak."
The passage of time, Tibbets said, has allowed people to come up
with options that no one thought plausible 60 years ago. He
wonders: Would a Japanese military that had its pilots flying
kamikaze missions into U.S. warships have surrendered unless it
had no choice?
"I'm telling you, we saved hundreds of thousands of American
lives and hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives by using those
bombs," he said. "An invasion of Japan would have been
incredibly costly for everybody."
Estimates of U.S. lives saved have ranged from a low of 46,000
to a high of 1 million.
Tibbets said he hasn't lost a night's sleep over dropping the
bomb. Neither have Jeppson nor Van Kirk.
"If there hadn't been a Pearl Harbor, there wouldn't have been
a Hiroshima," Jeppson said.
-- -- --
Tibbets emphasizes that he went into the military because he
loved flying, not because he wanted to fight in a war. But he
also said he understands why people feel he was destined to
become a bomber pilot.
At the age of 12, shortly after his family moved to Miami from
Iowa, he had the opportunity to fly in a biplane with a man who
wanted to introduce new Baby Ruth candy bars to the public by
dropping them from his plane.
From his back seat, Tibbets, using tiny parachutes, threw the
candy at customers seated at Hialeah racetrack.
"I hit my targets," Tibbets said. "And flying became what I
wanted to do."
He would go on to attend medical school, his father's dream for
him, but Tibbets' passion was flying. Against his father's
wishes, he left the University of Cincinnati medical school for
the Army Air Corps in the 1930s, graduating first in his flight
class.
It wasn't long before he was leading bombing missions in
Europe, including the first daylight raid on Hitler's occupied
Europe.
On one European mission, a 20 mm cannon shell slammed through
the right window of Tibbets' plane and tore off part of the hand
and wrist of his co-pilot.
Shrapnel also ripped into Tibbets' leg. Holding the co-pilot's
wrist above his head so he wouldn't bleed to death, Tibbets made
it back to base.
In North Africa, a shell smashed through his wing, but he
brought his crew back.
With Eisenhower sitting next to him in the cockpit on a piece
of wooden two-by-four, he flew the supreme allied commander from
England to Gibraltar in a fog so thick that they could see
nothing for the first part of the trip.
They often flew so low that water from the rolling ocean
sprayed the plane's cockpit window.
In 1943 he was put in charge of the testing for the B-29
program, the plane that would be used to deliver the nuclear
bombs.
"I was ready for the atomic command," Tibbets said.
He was only 29.
"You have to understand," he said, grinning. "When I was 29, I
knew I could do anything, particularly if it had anything to do
with flying."
Even so, Gen. Uzal G. Ent, commander of the second air force,
wanted to be sure about Tibbets' character before he was given
the nuclear mission.
Federal agents had learned that Tibbets once was rousted by
Miami police when making out with a girl in the back seat of a
car. When Ent asked Tibbets whether he had ever been in trouble
with the police, an embarrassed Tibbets explained what happened.
Ent decided that Tibbets was a man of integrity and could be
trusted.
Tibbets took command of history's only nuclear strike force in
September 1944. He would be stationed at the Wendover Army Air
Base.
The 10 months of training at Wendover, under extreme conditions
of secrecy, coupled with two months training at Tinian island in
the Pacific, prepared Tibbets' 509th Composite Group for its
missions.
"People think the flight to Hiroshima must have been so
dramatic, but it really wasn't," said Van Kirk, a retired
chemist who said the men of the 509th were the most competent
he'd ever worked with. "Everyone knew exactly what they were
supposed to do."
No one knew what to expect, however.
After Tibbets had eaten his last meal in the mess hall before
the mission, flight surgeon Don Young came to his table and
handed him a small cardboard pillbox.
"I hope you don't have to use these," Tibbets recalled Young
saying.
The pillbox contain 12 cyanide tablets, enough for each member
of the Enola Gay crew.
"If we were forced down, I don't think people would have been
very nice to us," Tibbets said.
Reports were then plentiful of U.S. pilots having been stoned
and beaten to death by Japanese civilians infuriated by the
firebombing of their cities.
When the crew members of the Enola Gay got to the flightline at
Tinian before the Hiroshima mission, they were stunned to see
their plane bathed in floodlights.
Tibbets had expected some pictures to be taken. But he hadn't
expected what looked like a Hollywood premiere.
Army film and still photographers kept asking the men to pose
inside and outside the plane. Tibbets cut it off after 20
minutes.
The three B-29 planes that would precede the Enola Gay to Japan
already had taken off. Their job was to fly to one of the
designated target cities -- Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki --
and to let Tibbets know by radio whether weather conditions were
suitable for a visual bomb drop. Hiroshima was the primary
target, but if the weather was bad there, Tibbets would hit one
of the other cities.
At 2:45 a.m. Tibbets, with 7,000 gallons of fuel and close to a
10,000-pound bomb, began to roll the Enola Gay down the mile and
a half of chipped coral runway.
A number of military planners, including Capt. William S.
Parsons, the chief weapons officer aboard the Enola Gay, were
concerned about a crash on takeoff. Many B-29s had crashed on
earlier practice runs. It was Parsons who decided that the
"Little Boy" atomic bomb shouldn't be fully armed until after
takeoff.
"He thought if we crashed with the bomb already armed, we'd
obliterate most of the island of Tinian," Tibbets said.
Jeppson, a weapons officer who was aboard the flight to help
Parsons arm the bomb, was stunned by the lack of tension during
his first combat mission. Tibbets was smoking a Kaywoodie briar
pipe like a college professor for most of the flight. He and
many of the crew members also took naps.
Autopilot frequently was used during the 6 1/2-hour ride.
Tibbets was used to getting shot at, but no enemy weaponry
tried to reach the Enola Gay, which was 30,000 feet in the air.
The flight "turned out to be a milk run," he said. "Much easier
than what I went through in Europe."
Before the plane was at its bombing altitude, Jeppson armed the
bomb. "Little Boy" was to detonate 1,890 feet above the ground.
He also put on a parachute, the only crew member who did so.
"Everybody could tell I was a greenhorn when I did that," he
said, emphasizing that combat veterans didn't bother to put on
their chutes until absolutely necessary.
Tibbets at one point asked crew members whether they had
guessed what they were up to. Not once during training for the
mission had the words "atomic" or "nuclear" been used.
Jeppson already had a good idea about the atomic nature of the
mission because he often had to talk with scientists at Los
Alamos, N.M., site of the Manhattan Project, about the bomb's
fusing mechanisms. Once he talked for two hours with the
director of the project's Los Alamos laboratory, J. Robert
Oppenheimer.
But Oppenheimer never told Jeppson that he was training for the
handling of an atomic bomb.
"I think he was just sizing me up to see if I would be good for
the flight," he said.
The crew found out for sure that the mission was a nuclear one
when tailgunner Bob Caron asked Tibbets whether they were "going
to split atoms today."
Tibbets replied: "That's about it."
"Nothing else was said about it, so far as I know," Jeppson
said.
At 8:30 a.m., Claude Eatherly, the pilot of a B-29 flying high
over Hiroshima, radioed Tibbets. The weather was good. Hiroshima
was definitely the target.
Tibbets told the crew to wear dark glasses around the time of
the explosion. Without them, scientists had said, the crew
members might be blinded. He didn't tell the men he had a tablet
of poison to give to each of them should they be forced down
over enemy territory.
Once the bomb left the plane, Jeppson started counting. The
plane, nearly 10,000 pounds lighter after its release, shot
upward. After a struggle, Tibbets got the aircraft under
control. Then he went into a steep dive to get away from the
expected blast.
Oppenheimer had told Tibbets that if his plane was too close to
the explosion, it probably would be ripped apart by shock waves.
Jeppson kept counting. He knew it was expected to take 43
seconds to detonate. He reached 43 and nothing happened.
"I thought, `Oh, my God, we did all this work, and it was all
for nothing,' " Jeppson recalled.
Two seconds later, the bomb went off. Caron, at the back of the
plane, was the only one to see the initial fireball.
A minute after the blast the first shock wave hit the plane.
"It really whacked us," recalled Tibbets, who had to fight to
keep the plane on a straight course. A second shock wave of
lesser intensity hit soon afterward. After it was clear that the
Enola Gay had survived, Tibbets swung the plane around to look
at the devastation before returning to Tinian.
Fires were everywhere. A giant purple mushroom was in the air.
Tibbets, Jeppson and Van Kirk, like the rest of the crew, were
awed by the devastation.
How Tibbets reacted to it, he said, is best explained by
something he wrote years ago.
"Let it be understood that I feel a sense of shame for the
whole human race, which through all history has accepted the
shedding of human blood as a means of settling disputes between
nations. And I feel a special sense of indignation at those who
condemn the use of a nuclear explosive while having no lament
for the fire-bombing attacks in the same war on the city of
Tokyo, where thousands of civilians were literally burned to
death in a single night, and on Dresden, a great German city
that was all but leveled in a dreadful attack. Only a fool
speaks of humane warfare. É It has the smell of hypocrisy when
self-proclaimed humanitarians draw a distinction between an
acceptable and an intolerable brand of human cruelty."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
40 reviewjournal.com EDITORIAL: Hiroshima bombing anniversary
Aug. 06, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Truman made a tough call -- but the right one
Once this nation had been dragged into World War II, was it
necessary to drop two atomic bombs on Japan -- the first of them
60 years ago, today -- to end that war?
No, it was not. President Harry Truman could have continued the
de facto submarine blockade of food imports into the Japanese
Islands, and the ongoing firebombing of Japanese cities with
B-29s, for months or years. Millions more Japanese would have
died.
Or, Japan could have been conquered through amphibious invasion.
Planning for such an invasion was actively underway. Given the
level of fanatical resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, planners
expected the deaths of hundreds of thousands more Americans and
Allies, and millions more Japanese. As it turned out, a typhoon
swept the Pacific that fall, just as the invasion fleet would
have been staging. Our casualties would have been higher than
estimated.
The Japanese had not surrendered despite repeated ultimatums.
They had not surrendered despite losing many more lives through
"conventional" bombing than were lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Harry Truman was given a military option to end the war. It was
not used out of racism -- the atomic bomb was originally
developed for use against Germany. Truman used what he had, and
today, because of his decision, millions more Americans and
Japanese -- including children and grandchildren of soldiers and
civilians who would have died in the autumn war of 1945 -- are
alive, and free.
It was the right call.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005
*****************************************************************
41 BBC: London ceremony marks
Last Updated: Saturday, 6 August 2005
[Aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing]
About 140,000 died in the bombing
More than 200 people gathered in London to commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
CND and other peace campaigners organised the event at Tavistock
Gardens, near where a bus was blown up in the 7 July London
bombings.
Around 140,000 people were killed by the Hiroshima bomb and its
aftermath.
In the Japanese city, nuclear survivors known as Hibakusha,
attended the annual commemoration in the Peace Park, built at the
epicentre of the blast.
Continued danger
About 55,000 people thronged into the peace park to remember the
moment the bomb exploded in the skies above the city, at 0815 on
the morning of 6 August, 1945.
Thousands were killed instantly and many others died later from
severe burns or radiation.
Many commentators believe the US attack helped bring an early end
to World War II in the Pacific.
It is also vital that challenge both the perception that it was
necessary to drop the bomb on Japan and the idea that it would
ever be necessary or justified to use it anywhere, ever again CND
chairwoman Kate Hudson
But CND chairwoman Kate Hudson said: "It is important that we
mark the 60th anniversary by helping to bring about a real
understanding of the horror of the nuclear bomb and the continued
danger to the world of the nuclear weapons held by all of the
nuclear weapon states, including the UK.
"It is also vital that we challenge both the perception that it
was necessary to drop the bomb on Japan and the idea that it
would ever be necessary or justified to use it anywhere, ever
again."
Vigils across the country
She spoke at the event in London, which began at 1200 BST. Other
speakers included Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War
Coalition and Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Corbyn asked people to dedicate themselves to building a
"world of peace, world of justice", adding: "That surely has to
be the best answer instead of going down the road to more weapons
of mass destruction, more anti-terror laws and more destruction
of our civil liberties."
The Reverend Elaine Dado, from St Pancras Church, said prayers
and Councillor Barbara Hughes, from Camden Council, expressed
sympathy to the friends and family of those who died in the July
7 bombings.
Other events were taking place around the UK.
The Hiroshima Day Remembrance Festival at Millennium Point in
Birmingham had performances artists and musicians from across the
country.
Coventry Cathedral will marked anniversary by offering people a
"service of reflection" with music, poetry and readings and
silence.
And in Scotland, vigils and other events were planned for
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Stirling and Dumfries.
*****************************************************************
42 Portsmouth Herald: Suppressed Hiroshima footage will air today
Sat. August 6, 2005
By Sadia Latifi
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Sixty years after the United States dropped two
atomic bombs on Japan, a film documenting the aftermath is
reminding Americans about the horrors of nuclear war.
Footage from a U.S. government-produced film, which was labeled
top secret and kept out of public view for decades, is included
in "Original Child Bomb," a documentary that will air on many
cable stations Saturday, the 60th anniversary of the day that
Hiroshima became the first city to suffer atomic attack.
Its release on the Sundance Channel is the culmination of years
of effort to bring the government footage before a large
American audience. It’s the most extensive exposure yet of this
long-suppressed footage in the United States. Some anti-war
activists see the film’s appearance on cable television as a
crucial step toward an open discussion about the controversial
bombings that ended World War II.
The young soldiers who shot the film in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
less than a month after the dawn of the atomic age were
unprepared for what they found.
"It was to me the most horrendous, terrifying thing I had ever
seen," camera operator Herbert Sussan, who’s now deceased, said
in a 1983 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. "I
finally convinced myself and some of these people that there was
some value for the rest of the people of the world to see what
had happened in this first bombing."
Showing their work to the rest of the world was no easy task.
The nine hours of film, shot in color, captured horrifying
scenes of destruction and human suffering, including a woman
with the pattern of her dress burned onto her back and the
shadows of vaporized civilians burned into walls.
U.S. government officials deemed it too sensitive to release.
They also confiscated black-and-white footage that a Japanese
film crew shot before the Americans arrived.
When Lt. Col. Daniel McGovern, the head of the U.S. film crew,
learned about the Japanese crew’s earlier effort to document the
carnage, he was able to obtain their film and lobby successfully
to hire some of them for his project.
"I felt there was a need to tell this story," McGovern told the
BBC for a 1983 report that used footage from the American film
project. "If it were not captured and shown to people, no one
would ever know what happened."
McGovern and Sussan were appalled when their footage was kept
from public view and used only for military-training videos.
Over the years, Sussan repeatedly asked for its public release,
appealing as high as President Truman and Robert F. Kennedy.
"Every time I sought to obtain the footage, I came up against a
brick wall," he told the BBC.
Sussan, who was 24 when he went to Japan, paid a personal price
for his involvement in the project. Like many of the people he
filmed, he developed lymphoma, a form of cancer, and died in
1985. He wanted his ashes to be spread at ground zero in
Hiroshima, but when his daughter traveled there a year later to
fulfill his wish, she was told that it would be illegal.
(The Japanese government continually asked the United States for
its footage, which had been transferred to the National Archives
in Washington by September 1967. After negotiations with the
State Department, a copy of the black-and-white newsreel was
shipped to Japan in the summer of 1968.
Erik Barnouw, a film historian, created a moving 16-minute
montage from the Japanese footage that screened in New York for
the news media; all three major TV networks rejected it.
Editorials criticized the move, and on Aug. 3, 1970, a public
broadcast station aired the short to mark the 25th anniversary
of the bomb. It would be nearly 10 more years before the
American footage would emerge.
Greg Mitchell, who detailed the story behind the Hiroshima
footage in a recent issue of Editor &Publisher magazine, said
the postwar movie should be part of any debate about nuclear
war.
"These guys weren’t anti-nuclear, they were for frank showing of
what the truth was," he said of Sussan and McGovern. "It’s the
right of people to see what’s done in their name."
SEE IT ON TV
"Original Child Bomb" will premiere on the Sundance Channel this
weekend, along with two other movies related to nuclear power,
to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing in Japan.
Sundance Channel is part of the digital cable package Comcast
overs locally.
Airtimes according to the channel’s Web site:
Saturday at 8 p.m.
Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 14 at 3:30 p.m.
Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.
Aug. 24 at noon.
Check your local listings for more up-to-date information.
the Portsmouth Herald
Copyright © 2005 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please
*****************************************************************
43 Weekly Standard: Bombs Away
From the August 15 / August 22, 2005 issue:
Reagan "felt that Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was just
that."
by Ilya Shapiro 08/15/2005, Volume 010, Issue 45
Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
by Paul Lettow
Random House, 327 pp., $25.95
A CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT USES STARK language to describe
America's foes, and goes against the wishes of our allies and
the counsel of moderate advisers to confront this "evil"
directly. He does this all in the hope that our children can
live in a safer world, and that the children of our erstwhile
enemy can--one day, sooner rather than later--enjoy the fruits
of liberty that he feels compelled, destined, to sow in
seemingly inhospitable lands.
The mainstream media criticize him for being naive and
simple-minded, while Democratic leaders scoff at the appalling
lack of nuance in his policies. The president perseveres, and
today there are elections where once there were slave labor
camps, as other countries in the region rush to democratize
their suppressed polities.
Though it is still a tad early to pronounce definitively on
George W. Bush's decision to embark on an ambitious plan to
reorder the Middle East, Ronald Reagan's place in history as the
man who won the Cold War, despite opposition and underestimation
from every corner, is secure. And Ronald Reagan and His Quest to
Abolish Nuclear Weapons adds an important chapter to our
understanding of the 40th president's great contribution to
international affairs and, yes, world peace. (Full disclosure:
Paul Lettow was a college classmate of mine, although he was a
history major and I studied international relations.)
We would not have seen this 15 or even 5 years ago, when "the
end of history"
brought on a sort of foreign policy fatigue that awarded gold
watches to the cold warriors while retiring them to their
memoirs and think tanks. But now, with history having once again
reared its nondialectical head, and with President Reagan's
poignant decline and demise, we increasingly recognize his
wisdom and foresight. Not only did he firmly believe that
America had to remove the scourge of Soviet oppression at a time
when détente was the order of the day and communism at its
zenith, Lettow argues, but he wanted to get rid of nuclear
weapons because he felt that mutual assured destruction (MAD)
was just that. In other words, this remarkably counterintuitive
book shows that, even as Reagan championed historic increases in
defense spending and weaponry, he was hoping to make all his
weapons programs redundant.
And the centerpiece of Reagan's antinuclear policy, and of his
success in dealing with the Soviets, was the Strategic Defense
Initiative. It is quite striking, actually, how important a role
SDI played in the American diplomatic and political
considerations depicted here. Moreover, Lettow marshals
considerable evidence to show that Reagan was the driving force
behind every major angle of superpower politics, from the
decision to resist Soviet expansion in Central America and the
Middle East to the stubborn insistence on developing SDI as a
way both to protect America and force internal Soviet reform.
Reagan was committed to accelerating the arms race because he
was convinced that the Soviet command economy could not sustain
such production or keep pace with American technological
innovation. Yet from his earliest entry into politics as an FDR
Democrat, Reagan dreamed of eliminating nuclear weapons. And
from his first exposure to missile defense, at a meeting with
Edward Teller in 1967 (shortly after assuming the California
governorship), Reagan saw the potential for such technology to
contribute to grander arms control initiatives.
Lettow does not stop his provocative argument at the ostensible
subject of his book, President Reagan's nuclear weapons policy.
Instead, he probes further, using newly declassified documents
and interviews with high-ranking officials to develop a full
picture of Reagan's coherent and compelling vision for his
presidency, and his strategy for dealing with the Soviet threat.
If there is one general criticism to make, it is that so few
Soviet/Russian sources were consulted. The resulting tale is not
so much one-sided as incomplete; it would be fascinating to learn
the Politburo's precise reaction to Reagan's "Evil Empire"
speech, for example, or to his unflinching stance on SDI. But
this is a complaint about the book that should have been written
rather than about the one that was.
Lettow makes clear that successful leadership often involves
defying conventional wisdom, and having the courage to follow
one's instincts in the face of uncertain policy analysis and
advice. It is a lesson that George W. Bush no doubt took to
heart, even as critics are being proven wrong on an issue of
historical importance for the second time in two decades. We
should not draw the parallel too closely--much can go wrong on
the way to Damascus, as it were--but it bears contemplation that
a Soviet collapse was just as unthinkable in 1980 as a Middle
Eastern liberalization was in 2000. (Or on September 10, 2001.)
As it happens, this book is a timely outgrowth of Lettow's Oxford
dissertation, which caused me to recall a general placement exam
I
took when starting graduate school, also in England. One of the
questions asked for nothing less than an explanation for the fall
of communism, and I wrote a cheeky answer focusing on Ronald
Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II, expecting to
draw a rebuke from my tutor for being excessively reactionary. My
adviser did fault my analysis in several places--for not giving
Reagan enough credit. It is to the reader's great benefit that
Lettow's advisers were similarly open-minded, and that Paul
Lettow makes no such mistake.
Ilya Shapiro, a Washington lawyer, writes the "Dispatches from
Purple America" column for TechCentralStation.com.
© Copyright 2005, , Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
44 SF Chronicle: Hiroshima troubling even 60 years later
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Editor -- Sixty years ago, our country dropped atomic bombs on
two Japanese cities, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians. We remain the only country that has ever used such
weapons on humans.
Now we have the world's largest stockpile of nuclear bombs. We
are building more, weaponizing space, spending more on our
military than the rest of the world combined and using
"depleted" uranium munitions that poison the environment -- and
humans -- for millennia.
We invaded Iraq based on fixed intelligence (confirmed by the
Downing Street memo of 2002). This illegal war has already
killed more than 1,800 Americans and wounded tens of thousands,
not to mention Iraqi casualties. It has increased terrorism and
disgraced our country.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but we have
thousands of such weapons. Let us stop this carnage now. Bring
our troops home. Impeach the liars who brought on this
nightmare. Observe international treaties. Dismantle our nukes.
MADGE STRONG
Willits (Mendocino County)
-- -- --
Editor -- Charles Burress understands that it is time to let the
people of Japan speak for themselves ("Wrestling with ghosts of
war," Aug. 3). Rather than interpret today's Japan through
"conservatives tired of apologies" or by opinion polls
indicating mutual Chinese-Japanese disdain, Japan should be
judged by the actions of its people.
Japan expert John Nathan in his 2004 book, "Japan Unbound: A
Nation's Volatile Quest for Pride and Purpose," cites a
newspaper poll indicating that amending Article 9 was not the
most pressing concern among Japanese for possible revisions to
the 1947 "Peace Constitution." (The article renounces war and
prohibits a rebuilt military force.) Rather, the majority wanted
an amendment to allow citizens to vote directly for prime
minister in a national election.
A political head voted into office by the direct will of the
people would have the potential to buck the power of the
engrained bureaucracy and allow Japan to exhibit a new
patriotism, proud of its accomplishments, aware of past
mistakes, finding strength within Asia's oldest democracy.
Any revisions to Article 9 would be seen as the right of a
sovereign nation to take steps considered necessary for
self-protection. Japan run by the will of the people: This idea
has come of age and must be one China truly fears.
RICHARD LAMBERT
Sonoma
-- -- --
Editor -- Sixty years ago, America dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. This is a time for reflection.
You recently ran commentary about whether it was right to drop
the bomb. Those who believe it was right have various reasons,
but it comes down to one thing: The ends justify the means. This
did lead to the Japanese surrender.
It is not morally right to bomb cities made up of mostly women
and children. Would we do the same under similar conditions?
Would it be right for other nations to use nuclear weapons if
threatened?
The ends justify the means: This is a morality used by nations
and empires throughout history. If we go further down this path,
we will truly be lost.
RON WOLTER
Berkeley
-- -- --
Editor -- Your commentary on the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (Insight section, July 31) made the point that Japan, a
resource-poor, largely defeated island nation, was on the verge
of surrender prior to our dropping atom bombs on two of its
cities.
Once again, however, a key question was not addressed: If it
actually was necessary to quickly demonstrate our new powerful
weapon (as a message to the Soviet Union as well as to Japan),
why did we not drop the bomb on the most sparsely populated
outer island of Japan? No one would have missed the huge
mushroom cloud and subsequent devastation.
CHARLENE SPRETNAK
Half Moon Bay
Page B - 6
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
45 SF Chronicle: HIROSHIMA AND THE BIRTH OF ATOMIC WARFARE: 60 Years Later
Remembering the bomb, pleading for peace / 55,000 gather in
Hiroshima for somber ceremony
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Hiroshima, Japan -- First came the blinding flash, followed by
the terrifying explosion that flattened the city. Then there was
the brutal, devastating thirst, the thirst of thousands of dying
burn victims crying out for water.
It's that unquenchable thirst of the dying that many survivors
of the world's first atomic bomb remember most. Ogura Keiko was
only 8 years old when she brought water from her father's
treasured well to victims lying in the park near her home. The
wounded drank her water and died.
"That was like a nightmare," she recalled. "That became my
trauma. I felt so guilty for years."
About 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few
months after the Enola Gay dropped its payload over the city,
all but assuring the end of World War II. Tens of thousands more
died over the years due to cancer and other illnesses believed
related to the bombing.
This morning, 60 years to the day since mankind was thrust into
the nuclear age, Hiroshima again remembered the thirst of the
dying.
The annual ceremony began with 16 city residents pouring pure
water onto the memorial at the center of the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Park, a lush garden of fountains and ponds. An
estimated 55,000 people, including bomb survivors, family
members and peace pilgrims from around the world, gathered to
pay tribute to the dead and living witnesses to what one city
official called "the detestable ravages" of the nuclear bomb.
The city stopped moving at 8:15 a.m. in a moment of silent
prayer, marking the exact moment in 1945 when watches and clocks
halted, and tens of thousands instantly died, with the nuclear
flash. Children singing, a wind ensemble playing songs written
to A-bomb victims and the release of hundreds of doves above the
park later highlighted the hour-long memorial vigil. On the
periphery, communists, Buddhists and Christians staged their
own, separate commemorations, offering alternative literature
and speeches and some attempting to drown out the official
event.
In his annual peace declaration, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba spoke of
the hibakusha, the A-bomb survivors, as the living evidence of
the evils of war. Their legacy, he said, is to remind the world
to redouble efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and end war. The
mayor also spoke critically of the United States and other
nuclear countries, saying they follow the dogma that "might is
right."
"Through the media, they have long repeated the incantation,
'nuclear weapons protect you,' '' he said. "With no means of
rebuttal, many people worldwide have succumbed to the feeling
that there is nothing we can do."
Though he did not attend the ceremony, U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan sent a statement challenging the world to return to a
mission of nuclear nonproliferation. His speech recalled that
the United Nations was founded on principles of preventing
nuclear war.
"Sadly, the world has made little progress in addressing these
challenges, " Annan said.
The ceremony was filled with calls for peace and an end to
nuclear proliferation, even as protesters called from bullhorns
for an end to war in the Middle East and an end to Japan's
relationship with nuclear states. The shouts quieted only
briefly when police moved protesters farther away as Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi delivered a brief and subdued speech.
Koizumi, who was booed at last year's memorial ceremony, offered
condolences for those killed by the bombs and pledged that Japan
is committed to peace and preventing another nuclear incident.
While his critics say Koizumi is less than aggressive about
pushing peace, it is certain that even with the passing of six
decades, the peace legacy of Hiroshima lives on.
Memories and evidence of the bombing are all around. On one side
of the Peace Park, a 15-foot-tall grassy mound, fronted by an
incense burner and prayer stand, holds the urns containing ashes
of 70,000 bomb victims. In the museum on the other side of the
grounds, the charred and mangled tricycle of 3- year-old
Shinichi Tetsutani serves as a grim reminder of the children who
perished. He was riding his beloved trike when the bomb hit and
died that night.
Still, it is a place that calls to mind peace, said Lorenzo
Lewis, a Californian who made the trek to Hiroshima from Tokyo,
where he lives.
"I've realized this place is much more about peace than it is
about war," said Lewis, of Canoga Park (Los Angeles County).
Yet there are many and deep divisions over Japan's wartime
history and its present national defense policy. Some peace
activists, even in Japan, accuse the country's leaders of
calling for peace while hiding under the nuclear umbrella of the
United States. Others see a government attempting to rebuild its
military.
Koizumi's annual attendance at the Hiroshima ceremony is "really
the only thing they do to discourage war," said Motofumi Asai,
president of the Hiroshima Peace Institute.
"Outright abolition (of nuclear weapons) should be the goal," he
said.
And, he added, "Japan has a very wrong tendency to forget the
past."
Lester Tenney, a World War II veteran who lives in La Jolla (San
Diego County), couldn't agree more. He was a prisoner of war in
Fukuoka, about 100 miles from Hiroshima, when the atomic bomb
was dropped. He's convinced the Allied decision to drop the bomb
on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki three days later saved his life.
"The atomic bombs saved my life and the lives of at least
140,000 POWs who were in Japan at the time," said Tenney.
For many others, it is time for forgiveness from all sides. John
and Carrie Schuchardt of Ipswich, Mass., traveled to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, walking through major parts of the cities bearing
a large white banner reading, "We Americans apologize with
deepest sorrow and regret for the suffering caused by the
nuclear holocaust."
They're overwhelmed and humbled by the reaction from Japanese
people. Asked why they have come here and believe so strongly in
a peace movement, John Schuchardt gave a simple answer.
"This is the only issue," he said. "Human survival is the only
issue."
Page A - 1
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
46 Oakland Tribune: Hundreds turn out to protest nuclear weapons in Livermore
Article Last Updated: 08/07/2005 10:30:45 AM
Anniversary of
Hiroshima bombing prompts activist rallies at sites across nation
By Paul Burgarino, STAFF WRITER
Protesters gathered in Livermore yesterday, the
anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for a
rally and march to Lawrence Livermore Lab. Here, 6 year-old Kai
Drayton-Yee of Oakland helps to paint a "Kids Want To Grow Up,
Not Blow Up" banner, watching are mom Shirley, left, and family
friend Sandina Robbins, also of Oakland. (Gina Halferty - Staff)
LIVERMORE — Hundreds of protesters took part in a rally and
processions outside of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Saturday to protest the use of nuclear weapons.
The Livermore event was one of four nationally coordinated major
rallies at active nuclear weapon sites on the 60th anniversary
of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Other protest sites were in Las Vegas, near the Nevada Test
Site; Y-12 Production Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Los Alamos
Lab in New Mexico.
At the site many consider the brain of the nuclear weapons
complex in the United States, the Seeds of Change: No Nukes! No
Wars! rally began with a pot-luck family picnic, where
organizers used sharing and coming together to show their
aspirations for a nuclear-free world.
It is important for us to be here to keep the memories of the
horror of Hiroshima alive, said
Jeffrey Schurtleff of the Sam Mateo
County Green Party. There is a need for activism. If everyone
just says no and does not act, then nothing happens.
The theme of the event called for protesters to celebrate
resistance to nuclear weapons and solidarity.
It is wonderful to get everyone together on such a solemn
anniversary, said Marylia Kelly of Tri-Valley CARES. We have to
promise the victims that this will never happen again and that
it is time for government to stop the further development.
The event culminated with a half-mile peaceful walk to the lab
from William Payne Park.
At the gates of the weapons site, members of the Buddhist Peace
Fellowship conducted a peace meditation.
The ceremony concluded with members being able to symbolically
plant the seeds of change, by putting sunflower seeds in the
earth along the fenceline of the lab.
Sunflowers are the international symbol for nuclear disarmament.
Protesters gathered in Livermore yesterday, the
anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for a
rally and march to Lawrence Livermore Lab. Here, protesters
march down Patterson Pass Road toward the lab, carrying a giant
balloon shaped like a nuclear missile. (Gina Halferty - Staff)
The goal of the event was to demand an end to nuclear arms
development in Livermore and plant the seeds of a more peaceful
future for the next generation.
It is our hope that our voice helps stop the dangerous design of
nuclear weapons, said Tara Dorabjl of Tri-Valley CARES. We are
trying to send a clear message that having nuclear weapons
anywhere makes us less secure.
The Livermore Lab is one of the primary nuclear weapons design
labs in the world, and has been named as the sole site to
develop the Robust Nuclear Earth Penerator, or RNEP, a new
high-yield bomb.
Lawrence Livermore was founded in September 1952 as a second
nuclear weapons design laboratory to promote innovation in the
design of the nations nuclear stockpile through creative science
and engineering.
The protest was about something that happened seven years before
the lab even opened, said David Schwoegler, spokesman for
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. What they are protesting
now is a question of national security policy and something we
cant control here in Livermore.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only uses of nuclear weapons in
the history of warfare. The two bombs caused approximately
210,000 deaths by the end of 1945.
We are gathered in part to honor the victims that suffered from
the horror of 60 years ago, and to show that we are a growing
non-violent community and celebrate our resistance, said
Dorabjl.
In Japan, Hiroshima marked the anniversary with prayers and
water for the dead, and a call by the mayor for nuclear powers
to abandon their arsenals and stop jeopardizing human survival.
At 8:15 a.m., the time of the blast, the citys trolleys stopped
and more than 55,000 people at Peace Memorial Park observed a
moment of silence that was broken by the ringing of a bronze
bell.
Protesters gathered in Livermore yesterday, the
anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for a
rally and march to Lawrence Livermore Lab. Here, Sister Beverly
Dove of Berkeley cheers on one of the speakers. (Gina Halferty -
Staff)
More than 500 people gathered at a Los Alamos park where
research laboratories stood during the Manhattan Project, which
developed the worlds first atomic bomb,
Near Oak Ridge, some 1,100 demonstrators carrying signs and
beating drums marched to the gates of the Y-12 nuclear weapons
plant, where the uranium for the original bomb was supplied and
warhead parts are still manufactured.
Fifteen people were arrested at Oak Ridge for blocking a road
outside the heavily guarded weapons factory that helped fuel the
bomb during World War II.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students and peace activists in
Las Vegas gathered for seminars and speeches on eliminating
nuclear weapons.
The stance of protest organizers in Livermore is that the U.S.
continues to ramp up its nuclear arsenal as the death toll in
Iraq mounts.
The government chose Lawrence Livermore to develop the RNEP and
plans to double the plutonium supply at the lab, Kelly said. We
feel that that a total security of peace comes from getting rid
of nuclear weapons, not the creation of more of them.
Kelly mentioned that another demonstration outside the lab is
being planned for Aug. 9 to commemorate the Nagasaki bombing.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
© 2005 ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
47 Xinhua: Key facts about atomic bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-06 14:46:19
BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The western Japanese city of
Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of its 1945 atomic bombing
Saturday, with the mayor urging the United Nations to establish
a committee to try to realize and maintain a nuclear weapon-free
world.
Dignitaries including Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi attended the ceremony.
The following are some key facts about the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world's first and only nuclear
attack so far.
Hiroshima, some 690 km southwest of Tokyo, is the capital
city of Hiroshima prefecture. It lies in the southwestern coast
of Japan's biggest island. After the middle of the 19th century,
it gradually became an army base.
Nagasaki is the capital city of Nagasaki prefecture. It lies
on the western tip of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
The Japanese government opened a seaport there in the 16th
century at the request of the Portuguese. From the early 17th
century to the middle of the 19th century, Nagasaki was the only
seaport for foreign trade in Japan.
After Italy and Germany surrendered to the anti-fascist
allied powers during World War II, Japan chose to continue its
desperate struggle.
On July 26, 1945, the United States, Britain and China
reached the Potsdam Declaration, demanding that Japan surrender
immediately and unconditionally. But Japan turned a deaf ear to
it.
At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, a US B-29 bomber called "Enola
Gay" dropped a 4,000-kg uranium-235 bomb on Hiroshima, killing
78,150 people instantly and leveling all buildings in the city.
The bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," exploded about 580 meters
above the center of the city, setting off a surge of heat
reaching4,000 Celsius degrees across a radius of about 4.5 km.
At 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, the United States dropped a
4,900-kg plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," on Nagasaki.
It exploded about 503 meters above the ground, instantly
killing about 100,000 of the city's estimated population of
around230,000. A total of 60-70 percent constructions in the
city were destroyed.
Emperor Hirohito surrendered on Aug. 15, marking the end of
the second World War.
So far, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its afte
reffects have killed an estimated 240,000 people. Over 135,000
people were killed in Nagasaki. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
48 The Telegraph: Nuclear trust passes a test
Calcutta : Frontpage
Sunday, August 07, 2005
PRANAY SHARMA
New Delhi, Aug. 6: India and Pakistan will formalise an
agreement to inform each other before testing ballistic
missiles, putting in place a nuclear confidence-building measure
that seeks to breathe fresh life into the peace process.
The two sides will also reactivate a hotline between foreign
secretaries to “prevent misunderstandings”. The line, snapped
around 10 years ago, is expected to kick back to life by
September.
The prior notification of missile tests in itself is a modest
accomplishment — an informal and non-binding arrangement already
exists.
But the fact that today’s round of nuclear confidence-building
talks here did not end without result as two earlier ones shows
that there is some forward movement in the complex bilateral
peace process.
The deal between teams led by officials also complements India’s
effort to tell the world that it is a responsible nuclear power,
close on the heels of such a certificate from the US.
The draft agreement on missile information will be put before
the foreign secretaries for final approval.
Once the agreement is formalised, alerts have to be issued three
to five days in advance, not at the eleventh hour as is often
done now.
The minimum distance of the test sites from the borders – the
thorny issue that stalled a deal earlier -- will be specified in
the agreement.
India has submitted a draft on the need for national measures
for unauthorised or accidental use of nuclear weapons. The
visitors said they would study the proposal and respond later.
Copyright © 2005 The Telegraph. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
49 London Sunday Times: Voters prefer wind farms to new nuclear reactors
thetimes.co.uk
August 08, 2005
By Angela Jameson, Industrial Correspondent
THE public is sceptical about the case for building new nuclear
power stations, despite concerns that Britain may have to rely on
imported gas for future energy needs.
Hostility to nuclear power is matched by a belief that renewable
sources of energy such as wind farms could fill the gap in energy
needs in the next 20 years, the Populus survey finds.
It also indicates that politicians are not trusted to tell the
truth about nuclear safety.
The poll found that 59 per cent of those questioned believe that
it would be irresponsible to build more nuclear power stations
while problems remain in disposing of nuclear waste.
Half of respondents go so far as to say that they believe
nuclear power to be unsafe.
Rick Nye, director of Populus, said: “This research shows that,
while the public understands the problems of a domestic energy
shortfall, they appear reluctant to face up to some of its
potential consequences.”
The findings will be a blow to the Government, which has to find
reliable new sources of energy urgently, as many of Britain’s
older nuclear and coal-fired power stations are due to be
decommissioned.
Soaring oil prices and fears about the developed world’s
dependence on Middle Eastern oil have produced a renewed
interest in nuclear energy. Some nuclear experts believe that
about 80 nuclear reactors will have to be built around the world
in the next 10 years.
However, the Government is divided over whether a new generation
of nuclear power stations should be built. Ministers have left
open the question of whether new power stations should be built;
an energy White Paper in 2003 neither backed the building of
nuclear power stations to generate cleaner electricity nor
closed the door on the option.
No decision is expected to be taken, or even discussed, until a
report on how to handle existing nuclear waste has been
completed.
The poll also reveals that the public does not trust politicians
or energy companies to tell the truth about nuclear power. Only
1 per cent of those polled believed that ministers or MPs would
be truthful about safety.
A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said that
there were no current plans to build new nuclear power stations.
“No decision will be taken without the fullest consultation,”
the department said. “We realise the importance of having public
opinion on our side.”
People are also overly optimistic about the extent to which
renewable energy can replace nuclear power. Some 79 per cent of
those polled back renewables as a replacement for imported
energy. Just 18 per cent believe that nuclear power should
replace imports.
Brian Wilson, a former Labour Energy Minister, said: “It is
completely mistaken to put forward nuclear and renewables as
alternatives. If we are serious about a carbon reduction, then
we need both of them.
“The clear message is that the environmental case for nuclear
power has to be spelt out much more clearly and campaigned for.
If we don’t have nuclear power, then our carbon reduction
targets are fantasies.”
*****************************************************************
50 HindustanTimes.com: Nuke investments on govt’s priority list
HT Correspondent
New Delhi, August 6, 2005
In a bid to ensure long-term energy security, the UPA government
is set to give top priority to investments in nuclear energy.
Stressing the importance of expanding India's energy base by
taking advantage of the recent Indo-US agreement on
nuke-material supplies for civilian purposes, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the accord may lead to an end of
the nation's global isolation in this regard.
The Prime Minister who chaired the first meeting of the newly
constituted Energy Coordination Committee (ECC) said the Indo-US
agreement will help the country increase its share of nuclear
energy.
Department of atomic energy secretary Dr Anil Kakodkar said
domestically mined uranium was four to five times more expensive
than the imported nuclear material.
Stressing the need for India to import uranium and also invest
in its mining to meet the rising requirements of nuclear power,
Kakodkar made a special reference to the recent US deal that
would enable the country to import the necessary uranium for
nuclear power projects.
In a direct reference to the rising in global oil prices, the PM
said, "We must ensure the country is able to build up adequate
energy security to insulate the economy from any kind of a
future shock." He pitched for tapping all sources of energy
including petroleum, solar, hydro and nuclear energy. We must
ensure adequate investments keeping in mind the expected rise in
demand arising out of higher rate of economic growth," he
emphasised.
In a strategy paper presentation prepared by the Planning
Commission and another projection put together by the cabinet
secretariat, the ECC was informed that acquisition of equity oil
and gas was needed to meet the energy shortfall. The
presentations highlighted India's growing energy needs in the
next 25 years.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.
*****************************************************************
51 SF Chronicle: Nuclear energy can't solve global warming / Other remedies 7
times more beneficial
Mark Hertsgaard
Sunday, August 7, 2005
During a public lecture in San Francisco last month, Jared
Diamond, the mega-selling author of "Guns, Germs and Steel,''
became the latest and most prominent environmental intellectual
to endorse nuclear power as a necessary response to global
warming.
Addressing an overflow crowd at the Cowell Theater about why
some societies fail and others don't (the theme of his most
recent book, "Collapse''), Diamond three times cited global
warming as a threat that could ruin modern civilization. During
the question period, he was asked if he agreed with Stewart
Brand, whose Long Now Foundation was sponsoring the lecture,
that global warming posed such a grave threat that humanity had
to embrace nuclear power.
It was a delicate moment, because Brand, the former editor of
the Whole Earth Catalogue, was on stage with Diamond.
"I did not know that Stewart Brand said that," Diamond replied.
"But yes, to deal with our energy problems we need everything
available to us, including nuclear power." Nuclear, he added,
should simply be "done carefully, like they do in France, where
there have been no accidents."
"I did not expect that answer," Brand said.
Neither, it seemed, did much of the audience. Overwhelmingly
white and affluent, they had nodded reverentially at everything
Diamond said -- about the self-destructiveness of ancient
civilizations that leveled forests (Easter Island) or eroded
soils (the Mayans) in pursuit of short-term gain, about the need
for America to rethink its "core value" of consumerism if it
hopes to survive. They had applauded when Diamond mocked
President Bush's see-no-evil approach to environmental
protection. Yet here was Diamond urging an expansion of nuclear
power, a technology most environmentalists regard as
irredeemably evil.
"Deal with it," crowed Brand as the crowd sat in stunned
silence. It was smug but useful advice, for this debate is bound
to intensify. The Bush administration and much of Congress are
pushing hard to revive the nuclear industry, which provides 20
percent of America's electricity but has not had a new reactor
order since 1974.
In June, Bush became the first president in 26 years to visit a
nuclear power plant, the Calvert Cliffs facility near
Washington, D.C., where he endorsed nuclear as an
"environmentally friendly" energy source. His administration's
2006 budget increased nuclear power funding by 5 percent, even
as it cut overall energy funding.
Congress followed suit in its recent energy bill. Besides giving
the nuclear industry $7 billion in research-and-development
subsidies and $7.3 billion in tax breaks, the bill contains
unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and insurance
protection for new reactors.
Diamond may not agree with Bush about much, but their shared
support for nuclear power hints at the other factor that will
drive the future debate. As the United States experiences more
killer heat waves and out-of season hurricanes like this
summer's, more Americans will recognize what the rest of the
world has long accepted: Global warming is here, it will get
worse, and the costs will be enormous. As we cast about for
alternatives to the carbon- based fuels that are cooking our
planet, nuclear power seems to be an obvious answer.
As Vice President Dick Cheney observed in 2001 when defending
the administration's energy plan, which urged constructing
hundreds of new nuclear plants, fission produces no greenhouse
gases.
But the truth is that nuclear power is a weakling in combatting
global warming. Investing in a nuclear revival would make our
global warming predicament worse, not better. The reasons have
little to do with nuclear safety, which may be why
environmentalists tend to overlook them.
Environmentalists center their critique on safety concerns:
Nuclear reactors can suffer meltdowns from malfunctions or
terrorist attacks; radioactivity is released in all phases of
the nuclear production cycle from uranium mining through
fission; the problem of waste disposal still hasn't been solved;
civilian nuclear programs can spur weapons proliferation. But
absent a Chernobyl-scale disaster, such arguments may not prove
to be decisive.
In an atmosphere of desperation over how to keep our TVs,
computers and refrigerators humming in a globally warmed world,
economic considerations will dominate. This is especially so
when dissident greens like Diamond and Brand say nuclear safety
is a solvable problem. Diamond is correct that France has
generated most of its electricity from nuclear power for decades
without a major mishap.
Dissident greens concede there are risks to nuclear power. But
those risks, they say, are less than the alternatives. Coal, the
world's major electricity source, kills thousands of people a
year right now through air pollution and mining accidents. Coal
is also the main driver of climate change, which is on track to
kill millions of people in the 21st century -- not in the sudden
bang of radioactive explosions but the gradual whimper of
environmental collapse as soaring temperatures and rising seas
submerge cities, parch farmlands, crash ecosystems and spread
disease and chaos worldwide.
Fear of such an apocalypse led the British scientist James
Loveluck to become the first prominent environmentalist to
endorse nuclear power as a global warming remedy, in 2003.
Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace (who left the group a
decade ago), soon echoed Loveluck's apostasy, as did Hugh
Montefiore, a board member of Friends of the Earth, UK. All
three were criticized by fellow greens. Likewise in the United
States, the movement's major organizations remain adamantly
anti-nuclear. But environmentalists on both sides of this
argument are overlooking the strongest objection to nuclear
power, even as the nuclear industry hopes no one notices it. The
objection is rooted in energy economics, hence the oversight.
As energy economist Joseph Romm argued in a blog exchange with
Brand, "It is too often the case that experts on the environment
think they know a lot about energy, but they don't."
The case against nuclear power as a global warming remedy begins
with the fact that nuclear-generated electricity is very
expensive. Despite more than $150 billion in federal subsides
over the past 60 years (roughly 30 times more than solar, wind
and other renewable energy sources have received), nuclear power
costs substantially more than electricity made from wind, coal,
oil or natural gas. This is mainly due to the cost of borrowing
money for the decade or more it usually takes to get a nuclear
plant up and running.
Remarkably, this inconvenient fact does not deter industry
officials from boasting that nuclear is the cheapest power
available. Their trick is to count only the cost of operating
the plants, not of constructing them. By that logic, a
Rolls-Royce is cheap to drive because the gasoline but not the
sticker price matters. The marketplace, however, sees through
such blarney. As Amory Lovins, the soft energy guru who directs
the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado think tank that advises
corporations and governments on energy use, points out, "Nowhere
(in the world) do market-driven utilities buy, or private
investors finance, new nuclear plants." Only large government
intervention keeps the nuclear option alive.
A second strike against nuclear is that it produces only
electricity, but electricity amounts to only one third of
America's total energy use (and less of the world's). Nuclear
power thus addresses only a small fraction of the global warming
problem, and has no effect whatsoever on two of the largest
sources of carbon emissions: driving vehicles and heating
buildings.
The upshot is that nuclear power is seven times less
cost-effective at displacing carbon than the cheapest, fastest
alternative -- energy efficiency, according to studies by the
Rocky Mountain Institute. For example, a nuclear power plant
typically costs at least $2 billion. If that $2 billion were
instead spent to insulate drafty buildings, purchase hybrid cars
or install super-efficient lightbulbs and clothes dryers, it
would make unnecessary seven times more carbon consumption than
the nuclear power plant would. In short, energy efficiency
offers a much bigger bang for the buck. In a world of limited
capital, investing in nuclear power would divert money away from
better responses to global warming, thus slowing the world's
withdrawal from carbon fuels at a time when speed is essential.
Mainstream environmentalists do argue that energy efficiency,
solar, wind and other renewable fuels are better weapons against
global warming than nuclear is. But they will fare better if
they go a step further and point out that embracing nuclear is
not just unnecessary but a step backward.
Even so, a tough fight lies ahead. As the energy bill
illustrates, the nuclear industry has many friends in high
places. And the case for nuclear power will strengthen if its
economics improve. The key to lower nuclear costs is to reduce
construction times, which could happen if the industry at last
adopts standardized reactors and the Bush or a future
administration streamlines the plant approval process.
On a more fundamental level, any defeat of nuclear power is
likely to be short-lived if America does not confront what
Diamond calls its core value of consumerism. After all, there is
only so much waste to wring out of any given economy.
Eventually, if human population and appetites keep growing --
and some growth is inevitable, given the ambitions of China and
other newly industrializing nations -- new sources of energy
must be exploited. At that point, nuclear power and other
undesirable alternatives such as shale oil will be waiting. (For
the record, that is Brand's rejoinder: future demand growth
makes nuclear, as well as efficiency and renewables, necessary.
Diamond did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.)
Environmentalists have been afraid to talk honestly about
consumerism ever since a cardigan-clad Jimmy Carter was
ridiculed for urging people to turn down their thermostats in
the 1979 oil crisis. But now that our species, through our
carbon-fueled pursuit of the good life, has turned up the
planet's thermostat to ominous levels, it's time to break the
silence. We don't have to freeze in the dark, but neither can we
keep consuming as if there's no tomorrow.
Mark Hertsgaard's books include "Nuclear Inc." and "Earth
Odyssey." Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.
Page B - 1
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
52 Telegraph Online: Its about time N.H. pays attention to Vt. nuclear plant
Published: Saturday, Aug. 6, 2005
BACKGROUND: Though only the Connecticut River separates the
Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from New Hampshire, the
Granite State over the years has done little when things go wrong
at the plant.
CONCLUSION: A July 25 malfunction, however, received a different
response when Gov. John Lynch said he was concerned no one had
advised New Hampshire about what was going on and he asked plant
officials for a full accounting of the incident.
We are assured that the malfunction that knocked the Vermont
Yankee nuclear plant off line on July 25, was no big deal. But,
for reasons that have nothing to do with the plant itself, it
actually was.
The plants owners described the problem to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission as a “catastrophic failure” in its
electrical switchyard. An electrical insulator failed on a
high-voltage transformer. And, although the water level fell
sharply inside the reactor core, it rose again just as quickly.
The fuel was not exposed. No radiation was released.
The most troubling aspect of the incident seems to have been
that a quick switchover to get electrical power from outside
sources didnt work as it was supposed to. But emergency power
did kick in.
A Vermont Yankee spokesman indicated that press reports quoting
the adjective “catastrophic” were misleading. Thats just a term
engineers use, he explained.
One wonders what term engineers use when things really go wrong.
Of course, “catastrophic” is a term other people use as well. In
this case, according to an expert with the Union of Concerned
Scientists in Washington, it meant that “an aging piece of
equipment blew up.” That was catastrophic for the aging piece of
equipment, but fortunately not for the rest of us.
These things happen. Vermont Yankee has been on line for more
than 30 years. During that time it has survived deliberate
construction flaws, a pretty serious worker error, a transformer
fire that sent flames shooting into the air, lost-and-found fuel
rods, various cracks due to aging, the failure of part of the
emergency-notification system, and a chockablock spent-fuel
storage pool.
Its operating license is scheduled to expire in 2012, and it
hopes to increase its power and extend that license.
What made the July 25 incident unusual was the spirited reaction
of Gov. Lynch.
Yes, the New Hampshire governor.
We recall only two previous times when a New Hampshire governor
took note of Vermont Yankee.
In the mid-1970s, Gov. Meldrim Thomson took a broken radiation
monitor out of Hinsdale because he said the state couldnt afford
to have it fixed.
During the 1979 incident at Three Mile Island, Gov. Hugh Gallen
told the director of the emergency management office that he
would like to see a copy of the Vermont Yankee evacuation plan
for New Hampshire. She reported back that she couldnt find one.
The Vernon, Vt., plant is just a few hundred yards from
Hinsdale. Five New Hampshire towns are in its
emergency-evacuation zone. Yet this states elected officials
have often ignored the plant, perhaps assuming the state border
would protect serve as some sort of radiation shield.
New Hampshires Washington delegation has been particularly
disgraceful in this regard, taking no interest in the
power-increase debate.
To his credit, Lynch is signaling a different approach. On July
27, he asked plant officials for a full accounting of what went
wrong.
“Its a big concern for me,” he said, “that Vermont Yankee
officials failed to notify New Hampshire of all the facts
surrounding the incident as it was unfolding. We need a full
accounting from Vermont Yankee of exactly what happened, why New
Hampshire wasnt notified and how we can be assured this type of
communication oversight by Vermont Yankee does not happen again.
We also need assurances that the plant is indeed safe to operate
in light of Mondays event.”
Vermont Yankee contends that the governor is mistaken and that
it followed proper notification procedures. That argument will
continue. But the people of southwestern New Hampshire can take
some satisfaction from Lynchs intervention.
Plant officials are now on notice that the government of New
Hampshire is interested in whats going on there
The Telegraph PO Box 1008, Nashua, NH 03061 (603) 594-6440
Privacy Policy and User Agreement
The Telegraph Online Ver. 2.0 © 2005, Telegraph Publishing
Company All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
53 WVEC.com: NRC seek more on new reactors' environmental impact
| News for Hampton Roads, Virginia | Virginia News
08/06/2005
Associated Press
Regulators are seeking more information about the environmental
impact of new reactors proposed at North Anna Power Station.
In a letter to Dominion Power dated July 20, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission wrote that staff "has identified the need
for additional information regarding the status of compliance
with other requirements associated with the proposed action."
The letter specifically cites state and federal certifications
required to protect coastal zones and water quality.
Dominion has taken the position that those approvals are not
needed to support its early site-permit application pending
before the NRC.
The utility wants the option to build up to two more nuclear
reactors at the Louisa County plant on Lake Anna. The permit
would allow Dominion to resolve site and environmental issues
prior to submitting a construction plan, and to "bank" a site
for 20 years.
"Our view is that the NRC is not dependent on other agencies to
take the licensing action," Richard Zuercher, spokesman for the
company's nuclear operations, told The Free Lance-Star of
Fredericksburg.
He added, however, that because Spotsylvania County borders Lake
Anna and is governed by the coastal zone act, "We agree that we
should obtain certification for that."
The company is evaluating the federal certification, Zeurcher
said.
Opponents have challenged environmental and safety aspects of
the plan.
This month, the NRC is expected to issue a final environmental
impact statement, along with a final safety evaluation report.
Dominion is among a handful of utilities in the United States
seeking early-site permits to locate new, advanced reactors. It
is furthest along in the regulatory process.
North Anna has two reactors in operation, though the plant was
designed for four.
Information from: The Free Lance-Star
© 2005 WVEC Television, Inc.
*****************************************************************
54 The Advocate: NRC cites Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant for 3 violations
Associated Press
Published August 6 2005
HADDAM, Conn. -- Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission found three violations at the Connecticut Yankee
nuclear power plant earlier this year, including a breach of a
high-radiation barrier.
The NRC cited the plant on Friday for the violations,
discovered during an inspection from Jan. 1 to March 15. But the
agency did not fine Connecticut Yankee, which is being
decommissioned.
Kelley Smith, a spokeswoman for the power plant, said actions
have been taken to make sure the problems are not repeated.
The NRC said a contractor foreman with "careless disregard"
told workers last summer to remove a stop valve from the
containment building foyer and place it into a container for
shipment off-site without health physics personnel present.
Investigators said a miscommunication led the foreman to believe
he had the authority to remove the valve.
The incident, which occurred on July 8, 2004, was classified as
a lower-level violation because the safety significance was low.
The NRC said workers were not exposed to increased radiation.
The agency added that Connecticut Yankee identified the
violation itself and took corrective actions.
The NRC also said the plant failed to install and secure
closure devices on a transfer cask for radioactive materials in
February, violating U.S. Department of Transportation rules.
Connecticut Yankee shipped the cask to a Tennessee burial site
"without properly installing and securing the primary and
secondary lids and ensuring the gaskets were free of defects on
the cask," the NRC concluded.
The NRC cited a third violation for the plant's failure to stop
work and make required notifications when an abnormal condition
occurred during movement of plant waste, the NRC said.
----------------
Information: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com.
Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press
*****************************************************************
55 TheDay.com: NRC Cites Yankee Plant For 3 Violations
No fines levied against nuclear facility for missteps
New London, CT
Sunday, Aug 7, 2005
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published on 8/7/2005
Haddam(AP) Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
found three violations at the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power
plant earlier this year, including a breach of a high-radiation
barrier.
The NRC cited the plant on Friday for the violations,
discovered during an inspection from Jan. 1 to March 15. But the
agency did not fine Connecticut Yankee, which is being
decommissioned.
Kelley Smith, a spokeswoman for the power plant, said actions
have been taken to make sure the problems are not repeated.
The NRC said a contractor foreman with careless disregard
told workers last summer to remove a stop valve from the
containment building foyer and place it into a container for
shipment off-site without health physics personnel present.
Investigators said a miscommunication led the foreman to believe
he had the authority to remove the valve.
The incident, which occurred on July 8, 2004, was classified as
a lower-level violation because the safety significance was low.
The NRC said workers were not exposed to increased radiation.
The agency added that Connecticut Yankee identified the
violation itself and took corrective actions.
The NRC also said the plant failed to install and secure
closure devices on a transfer cask for radioactive materials in
February, violating U.S. Department of Transportation rules.
Connecticut Yankee shipped the cask to a Tennessee burial site
without properly installing and securing the primary and
secondary lids and ensuring the gaskets were free of defects on
the cask, the NRC concluded.
The NRC cited a third violation for the plant's failure to stop
work and make required notifications when an abnormal condition
occurred during movement of plant waste, the NRC said.
[The Day Publishing Co.]
*****************************************************************
56 azcentral.com: Palo Verde to step up power
Palo Verde to step up power Other nuclear plants nationwide
following suit
Ken Alltucker
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 7, 2005 12:00 AM
The country's most powerful nuclear plant, Palo Verde west of
Phoenix, will soon grow more powerful, joining dozens of other
nuclear plants whose upgrades are adding the equivalent of up to
five new reactors across the nation.
The $700 million project at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating
Station - its most expensive investment since it opened in the
mid-1980s - would boost available power for customers in Arizona
and other fast-growing Western states.
"It's a proven way to help maximize the value of these
facilities," said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear
Energy Institute.
The power "uprate," as it is called, is becoming an increasingly
popular and at times controversial option for nuclear plant
operators from New England to California. The goal: wring out
more power from aging reactors as safely and as cheaply as
possible.
Industry watchdogs have been critical of the process, saying it
has led to emergency repairs at some plants and can compromise
safety.
"My view is that these plants are shaking themselves apart,"
said Ray Shadis, technical adviser for the New England
Coalition, an anti-nuclear group. "They are pushing them beyond
their limits."
Several experts and watchdogs said that Palo Verde's expansion
is relatively safe. It involves replacing steam generators and
improving turbines for each of its three reactors, which would
add nearly 3 percent in total energy output.
"They are not pushing safety at all," said David Lochbaum, a
nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"That is actually a prudent business decision."
At several other plants with expansion applications before the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, power output would expand by as
much as 20 percent. Those moves would add the equivalent of one
large nuclear plant to a nation struggling with issues of power
supply and reliability. Already, more than 100 small expansions
since the late 1970s have provided about four new power plants'
worth of electricity.
Most have been given the green light over the past five years
as many of the nation's reactors seek new operating licenses. In
2001 alone, nearly one out of every five reactors went through
some type of power uprate, generating enough extra juice to keep
the lights on for a city the size of San Francisco.
The expansions have quietly occurred while memories of Three
Mile Island and Cherynobl faded, and now the federal
government's energy policy is focused on subsidies to encourage
construction of new reactors.
New generators
At Palo Verde, located 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, crews
will shut down Unit 1 this fall and drop in two 806-ton
generators through a narrow hatch that will allow the reactor to
churn out more power.
The repair job is needed because the reactor's steam generators
have worn at a faster pace than expected, and the new equipment,
built with more resilient material, will allow operator Arizona
Public Service Co. to crank up the reactor's output by a small
margin. APS owns the plant along with four other owners.
Steam generators convert superheated water from the reactor's
core into steam, which is sent through turbines to produce
electricity.
Like other plants that use steam generators, though, APS
discovered in the early 1990s that its original equipment
wouldn't survive the plant's 40-year license. Heat and corrosion
badly damaged hundreds of tubes in the generators. The most
serious damage was found in Unit 2, where a tube ruptured in 1993
The damaged tubes proved to be a steep cost to APS both in down
time and lost efficiency. APS was forced to turn down the
reactor's heat and plug damaged tubes, costing valuable energy.
"When it was first being used, it was thought to be a hearty,
resistant material," said Jim Levine, APS' executive vice
president overseeing generation. "We learned temperature had an
effect on how fast the tubes degraded. So we ran at reduced
temperatures, which cost us a few megawatts."
The new Westinghouse-designed generators, already installed at
Unit 2, include more tubes and a larger surface area. That
allows Palo Verde to run at higher temperatures, producing more
energy.
The plan calls for cranking up total electrical output at all
three reactors by nearly 120 megawatts, or 3 percent. A single
megawatt is enough to provide heat for about 250 Valley homes
during summer.
The process of inserting steam generators into the plant is a
challenge in and of itself. APS will shut off Unit 1 in early
October and use a giant crane to delicately insert the huge
generators through the containment hatch on the western edge of
the reactor's containment zone. At 73 feet long and 21 feet
around, the generators will have a clearance of about a
half-inch. Plans call for swapping Unit 3's generators in 2007.
The NRC is scrutinizing Palo Verde's request to increase the
power.
"(APS) has to demonstrate they can operate under a variety of
risks and temperatures," said Victor Dricks, spokesman for NRC's
Region IV in Arlington, Texas. "They have to demonstrate they
meet all of our requirements."
State's role
State regulators also must be informed about the massive repair
job. But so far, the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency, which
is responsible for measuring radiation levels outside the plant,
has expressed little concern.
"We don't see anything strange about it," said Aubrey Goodwin,
director of the Arizona agency. "We don't look at in detail. We
don't have a bunch of nuclear engineers standing by to do that.
They are paying NRC several million dollars to do that."
Nuclear industry advocates say these mini-expansions are a
smart way for operators to get the most bang for the buck on
big-ticket investments made decades ago.
Some criticism
Yet, as in nearly all aspects of nuclear power, the process has
been the target of criticism from industry watchdogs. Saying
federal regulators have been lax in oversight, critics cite
instances where plants have significantly added power output
only to be forced weeks later to shut down for emergency
repairs. They also claim that in some cases the aggressive
expansions compromise safety.
The anti-expansion fervor has gained some traction in New
England, where watchdog groups and the state of Vermont have
objected to a proposed 20 percent expansion of Entergy's Vermont
Yankee plant.
"There are a lot of uncertainties," said Paul Gunter, director
of reactor watchdog for Nuclear Information and Resource
Service. "They are really increasing the bombardment of the
equipment. Production agendas are driving up the uncertainty in
terms of safety."
Age makes a difference
Shadis, of the New England Coalition, contends some of the
plants - particularly ones that, unlike Palo Verde, generate
electricity from boiling water reactors - are too old to handle
a significant expansion.
Problems surfaced at the Quad Cities nuclear plant on the banks
of the Mississippi River soon after operator Exelon Corp. fired
up the expanded reactors in 2002. Federal regulators had
approved license changes that allowed the power plant, which
opened in 1972, to operate its reactors at an expanded rate of
nearly 18 percent.
Soon after it began to operate, plant crews detected problems.
An investigation showed that a hole had formed in the plant's
steam dryer, which is used to remove excess moisture from
turbine blades but is not considered safety-related equipment.
A company-initiated investigation concluded that the failure
was caused by a degraded steam dryer, exacerbated partly by the
higher level of vibrations resulting from the power update.
Exelon has since replaced steam dryers at its two Quad Cities
reactors.
Exelon Nuclear spokesman Craig Nesbit said the plant's safety
was never compromised. Exelon has been one of the most
aggressive companies, completing nuclear expansions at 12 of 17
reactors at seven nuclear power plants. Those expansions
generated an additional 1,000 megawatts.
"You're talking about additional megawatts you are generating
that nobody thought you would get," Nesbit said. "It is
essentially free product."
Vermont plant criticized
Nowhere have the anti-nuclear forces marshaled their efforts so
aggressively as in the Vermont Yankee plant. Plant owner Entergy
Nuclear wants to hike the plant's output by 20 percent, but
federal regulators, and state officials who opposed the plan,
have raised questions.
Among the ones probed by the NRC include the condition of the
plant's steam dryer and whether it can handle pressure. Federal
regulators also have requested more details on how the expansion
will affect the plant's emergency cooling system.
The Vermont Department of Public Service has taken an active
role in the request, hiring extra witnesses and firing off
question to the feds.
Lochbaum said the Vermont Yankee proposal is the only one in
which a state has intervened.
"Most uprates have not been contested by anybody," he said.
Entergy spokesman Mike Mulling said the company will answer all
questions to show the plant will maintain its safety. He added
that customers benefit from the added levels.
"These small gains can add up to a lot more power for customers
on the grid," Mulling said.
Reach the reporter at (602) 444-8285 or
ken.alltucker@arizonarepublic.com.
Copyright © 2005, azcentral.com. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
57 The Observer: Sixty years and 242,437 lives later, Hiroshima remembers
[UP]
Justin McCurry in Hiroshima
Sunday August 7, 2005
The Observer
As they lay dying amid the ruins of their city, the victims of
the Hiroshima bomb craved one thing above all - water. Yesterday
morning cups of water were brought as symbolic offerings as, 60
years to the day after the city was vapourised, Hiroshima
remembered its dead.
At 8.15 am, the exact moment the bomb exploded 600 metres above
the city in 1945, the 55,000 packed into the peace memorial park
bowed their heads in honour of the 240,000 who died. Passengers
on streetcars fell silent, a temple bell tolled and a thousand
doves were released into the skies from which the horror had
fallen. Peace activists held a 'die-in' at the A-bomb dome, the
remains of a local government trade promotion office near the
centre of the blast.
The ceremony began with the addition to the cenotaph of the
names of the 5,375 people who died in the past year. The total
now stands at 242,437.
Hiroshima's mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, said the day was a 'time of
inheritance, of awakening and of commitment, in which we inherit
the commitment of the hibakusha [A-bomb survivors] to the
abolition of nuclear weapons and recommit ourselves to take
action.'
But that commitment has produced few results. In the days
leading up to the anniversary, negotiators from the US, Japan,
China, Russia and South Korea were fighting a losing battle to
persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme,
and yesterday Iran rejected the EU's proposal for ending the
stand-off over its own nuclear programme.
Even in Japan, the message from Hiroshima is becoming
marginalised as the events of 60 years ago lose their resonance
- the number of visitors to the peace park has dropped
significantly in the past 15 years.
In a low-key address, Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's most hawkish
Prime Minister for years, paid tribute to the victims. But his
LDP colleague Yohei Kono, a former Foreign Minister, said the
anniversary was a reminder that Japan should never revisit its
militarist past. 'We made a mistake in choosing our path in Asia
and followed a road to war,' Kono said. 'We took away the
independence of Korea and we intervened in China using the
military. One of the results of fighting against the
international community was the dropping of the atomic bomb.'
About 40,000 people in Hiroshima died instantly when the B-29
Enola Gay dropped 'Little Boy' (by the end of 1945, another
100,000 had died). Three days later, a plutonium bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki, killing 80,000.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
58 MSN-Mainichi Daily News: A-bomb survivor tells of life's trials
August 8, 2005
National
Kimie Kishi lies on her bed at her home in Miyoshi, Hiroshima
Prefecture.
MIYOSHI, Hiroshima -- A woman who was born with a physical
handicap because she was exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima
atomic bomb while she was in her mother's womb said she has not
been happy once in her life.
"I've never felt happy," Kimie Kishi has told a Mainichi Shimbun
reporter.
On Aug. 6, 1945, Kishi was in the womb of her mother who was in
the third month of her pregnancy when the atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima. Kishi's mother escaped unhurt while her
father died after being exposed to radiation.
After her mother returned to Miyoshi, Kishi was born in March
1946 with a small head and bent second toes on both her feet.
Moreover, it was learned that her hip joint was dislocated.
She subsequently suffered problems with her joints. Because of
her handicap, she was branded as "the wholesaler of diseases."
At the age of 22, doctors determined that her head was small
because of the effect of radiation.
Kishi went to the city of Hiroshima to get a job, and returned
to her hometown a year later. Because of her illnesses, she
became mentally unstable and was hospitalized.
At the introduction of the chief nurse, she married a chef, who
was also hospitalized at the same institution, at the age of 25.
He was 7 years older than her.
Kishi gave birth to her son and daughter even though her
relatives and others opposed it for fear of radiation-related
illnesses.
Her husband worked at a restaurant in a department store in
Hiroshima, but he often drank heavily and became violent toward
her because of his work-related stress. He died in 1992 after
going back and forth between the mental hospital and home.
Her son and daughter grew up without suffering any serious
disease, but became delinquent after her husband died. She does
not know where her children are.
"I don't think anybody knows what it's like to be exposed to
radiation while still in the womb. You can identify me by name
and carry a photo of me, but please correctly report the
problem," Kishi told the reporter.
"We must not forget Aug. 6. I still have bad feelings about the
bombing," she said at the end of the interview.
Official Hiroshima Peace Declarations 1945-2004
August 6, 2005
Copyright 2004-2005 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All
rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
59 Las Vegas RJ: COLD WAR COMPENSATION: Analysis finds disparity
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Only 6 percent of former test site workers have had illness
claims approved
By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Former Nevada Test Site worker John Funk talks about his health
problems Thursday at his Las Vegas apartment. He blames his bone
marrow disorder on workplace conditions and believes he should
be compensated under a Labor Department program.
Photo by Samantha Clemens
The check is in the mail for some sick workers and survivors of
others who worked in the nation's nuclear weapons complex.
But for many it is not, especially those who worked at the
Nevada Test Site, where 1,021 nuclear devices were detonated
during the Cold War, above ground, down holes and in tunnels.
Statistics kept by the Department of Labor, the agency charged
with doling out Cold War compensation checks to sick energy
employees, show that those who worked at the test site have the
lowest approval rate per number of cases filed.
An analysis by the Review-Journal of six sites where radioactive
and toxic materials were used to make or test nuclear warheads
shows only 6 percent of test site workers have been approved for
claims that typically pay $150,000 in tax-free compensation.
That's compared to 26 percent for workers at the Oak Ridge,
Tenn., gaseous diffusion plant; 25 percent at the Portsmouth,
Ohio, plant; 18 percent at the Paducah, Ky., plant; 8 percent at
the Savannah River, S.C., site; and 7 percent at the
government's Hanford, Wash., facility.
Of those six locations, the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las
Vegas, was the only one where energy employees worked in areas
where nuclear devices had been detonated.
John Funk of Las Vegas is a former contract worker who has been
treated for skin cancer and two types of colon cancer. He still
suffers from a type of bone cancer called "myeloproliferative,"
a chronic disorder in which the bone marrow produces too many
red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets.
He said he believes his illnesses are linked to exposure to
radioactive materials, benzene or both.
"We knew there was a certain amount of risk, but we didn't know
how much risk," said Funk, 64, a carpenter who installed
bulkheads in tunnels where nuclear weapons effects tests were
conducted.
"If they had been truthful, I wouldn't have gone out there," he
said.
He has been battling the Energy and Labor departments for
compensation for nearly six years. At first, his claim was
denied, but a review of his records by the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health revealed that his bout with
the bone marrow disorder had been overlooked in his initial
screening.
Funk was one of a throng of former test site workers who
attended a recent meeting hosted by the Labor Department's
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. They
complained that they were being lied to and forced to follow a
complicated claims process filled with "trip wires" and
"loopholes."
One local Labor Department representative, Joe Krachenfels,
explained that workers at out-of-state uranium enrichment and
processing plants generally qualified for a "compensable-type
illness and didn't have to go through dose reconstruction" as is
the case for many test site workers.
One Labor Department official said workers at three uranium
enrichment plants -- Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge -- had
only to show that they worked there for 250 days and that they
had contracted one of 22 specified cancers, chronic beryllium
disease or silicosis. Then they could each receive a $150,000
compensation payment.
"If you didn't work at one of those plants, you would go through
dose reconstruction, where NIOSH would look at your work history
and cancer and make a determination that your job caused your
illness," said the official, referring to the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health. He spoke on background with
the condition his name not be used.
In an interview Friday, the program's director, Peter Turcic,
offered an explanation for the low approval rate for former test
site workers.
He said one reason is that there is overlap between test site
workers and those from the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory
who spent time at the test site to conduct full-scale nuclear
tests between 1951 and 1992.
Evaluators have not completed a profile of the Los Alamos lab
conditions, which could have caused a number of ailments.
Another factor is that the vast majority of the test site's
denied claims were attributable to health conditions not covered
by the part of the regulations that deals with exposure to
radioactive materials.
Turcic said the frequency of occurrences of noncovered claims
was "dramatically different" for the test site, the Hanford
facility and the Savannah River site.
Many of the cases that were denied will be covered under a new
part of the program that was added by Congress last year. That
part deals with illnesses stemming from exposure to chemicals.
As of Thursday, Turcic said, 15,026 individuals have been paid a
total of $1.16 billion under the part that covers illnesses
related to radiation.
So far, under the other part that pertains to chemical
exposures, final approval has been given for 1,136 individuals
for a total of $86 million. In the 10 months since taking over
the program, the Labor Department has been churning out about
250 decisions per week concerning chemical exposure.
The program was administered by the Department of Energy until
Congress last year amended the compensation act and gave the
Labor Department responsibility for catching up on the backlog
of cases.
Turcic said it costs about a combined total of $99 million to
administer both components of the program, with duties spread
among 464 employees.
But Funk and others are not convinced that the way the act is
set up is as fair to former test site employees as it is to
former workers in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
That's because, in order to receive compensation, claimants must
show the likelihood that a radioactive or toxic material caused
or aggravated an illness is at least 50 percent.
In Funk's case, he had a 46 percent rating with just skin and
colon cancers. He's hoping that consideration of his bone marrow
disorder will push him to or above the 50 percent mark and give
him a $150,000 pay out.
He is not alone. He estimates another 500 of his former
co-workers face similar circumstances.
One of them, Robert Salas, 76, of Las Vegas was denied
compensation this year after evaluators rated the likelihood
that workplace conditions caused his prostate cancer and hearing
loss at about 43 percent. He worked as a technician at the test
site for contractors from 1977 to 1985.
"We set up the experiments in the tunnels. During four-month
periods, we were down there every day. We did work above and
below ground," he said.
Instead of being denied based on a threshold assessment, Salas
said the fair thing to do would be to base compensation on a
linear method. In other words, he should be entitled to roughly
43 percent of $150,000 in compensation instead of zero.
On July 28, he stated his case in a letter to Shelby Hallmark,
director of the Labor Department's Office of Workers'
Compensation Programs.
"Humans are not digital by nature, whereby they have two states:
tall or short, white or black, fat or thin," he wrote. "They
don't all have the same tolerance for developing cancer from a
fixed radiation dose.
"If the objective of the threshold method is to eliminate as
many claims as possible, it may be regarded as successful based
on the high rate of rejection," Salas said in his letter.
His wife, Genevieve, said there should be a more equitable
compensation process.
"It seems unfair that all these hard working men were denied,"
she said.
COMPENSATION COMPARISON
Energy employees who became sick from exposure to radioactive
and toxic materials while working in the nation's nuclear
weapons complex can receive compensation under a program run by
the Department of Labor.
Below is a list of six selected sites detailing cases and total
amounts paid to workers, former workers and their survivors.
The figures are current to July 28. They combine illnesses such
as radiogenic cancers, silicosis and berylliosis with ailments
linked to toxic chemicals and compounds in the workplace.
Figures for approvals, denials and cases under review don't
equal the total number of cases because many claimants report
employment at more than one worksheet and each case may have
multiple claims filed by survivors of an employee.
Site Cases Amount* Approved Denied Under
review**
Nevada Test Site 3,329 $21.26 193 (6%) 895
1,167
Hanford, Wash. 5,730 $36.85 401 (7%) 1,322
2,249
Savannah River, S.C. 7,554 $69.44 582 (8%)
2,186 2,376
Paducah, Ky. 8,416 $211.60 1,501 (18%) 2,221
1,122
Portsmouth, Ohio 4,204 $146.21 1,046 (25%)
876 672
Oak Ridge, Tenn.*** 7,429 $262.98 1,965 (26%)
1,283 1,274
*In millions of dollars rounded
**Cases referred for dose reconstruction and review by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
*** Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant only
---REVIEW-JOURNAL
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
60 Salt Lake Tribune: Unintended consequences
Opinion
Article Last Updated: 08/05/2005 11:36:01 PM
Government secrecy and disinformation continue to result in
unintended consequences on civilians as well as the military,
both here in the United States as well as in many areas of the
world.
Downwinders survive but in falling numbers, as do those
exposed to Agent Orange. Empathy does not relieve the burden for
them or survivors of enemy or friendly fire. Call it chronic
terrorism? The war against terrorism would be more effective as
a worldwide policing action, as the insurgents are disaffected
people from many nations. Example: U.S. citizen and veteran
Timothy McVeigh's actions.
Terrorism existed before 9/11 and has no known expiration
date. The unintended consequences of subverting civil liberties
under the Patriot Act could further erode the United States as a
beacon of democracy.
The Patriot Act, which passed with little scrutiny very
shortly after the horrendous 9/11 events, is now undergoing
modest review by Congress. The present administration, which
covets secrecy and disinformation, ironically wishes to have full
access to our private lives through the Patriot Act. The Patriot
Act should be adjusted to minimize subverting civil liberties,
rather than to abet the presumed goals of Osama bin Laden and his
cohorts.
Milton Hollander
Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
61 The Observer: BNG faces meltdown over plant closures
guardian.co.uk
[UP]
Oliver Morgan, industrial editor
Sunday August 7, 2005
The Observer
British Nuclear Group, the operating arm of
Sellafield-based BNFL, has admitted that it will not survive
unless it halves spending on decommissioning old atomic power
stations.
In a confidential internal document leaked to The Observer, the
company states that it must cut the time it takes to complete
initial shutdown of first-generation Magnox reactors by half if
it is to win decommissioning work when competition is introduced
into the sector in 2008.
Cuts of this size will raise alarm among unions, which have
traditionally been supportive of BNFL as a major employer in
areas where there is often little other work.
The paper, by Bill Root, head of BNG's reactor sites group,
states: 'The decommissioning of Magnox reactors is taking too
long and costing too much.' Root says that BNFL's plans indicate
it would take 15 years and cost up to £500 million to complete
the initial stage of decommissioning Magnox stations.
He adds: 'When BNG looked at this in the cold light of day, it
knew that a competitive bid on such a basis simply would not win
the work.'
The problem for BNG is that BNFL sites, including Sellafield,
are now owned by a separate state agency, the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, which from 2008 will invite competing
engineering groups to bid for contracts to operate them. BNFL is
already under a cloud after a leak at its Thorp reprocessing
plant led to the closure of the facility in the spring.
Companies such as Amec, the UK engineer, along with Fluor and
Bechtel of the US, have already expressed interest.
A union source said there was already deep concern about the
impact of competition, and that plans to cut costs could
jeopardise relations with the company.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
62 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast study lists plume limit
Posted on Sat, Aug. 06, 2005
Lockheed Martin estimates 131 acres of contamination
DANA SANCHEZ and SYLVIA LIM Herald Staff Writers
Lockheed Martin Corp. delivered a 15-pound stack of papers to
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Friday
documenting all the testing done to date in the polluted
Tallevast neighborhood.
Based on testing, Lockheed believes a plume of contamination -
extending over an estimated 131 acres, with the former American
Beryllium Co. at its epicenter - represents the extent of
contamination.
"The investigation has fully delineated the extent of the
plume," said Gail Rymer, director of corporate and community
affairs for Lockheed. "We have continued to put in monitoring
wells to the point where we have found no more contamination."
The company has agreed to clean up the contamination and has
collected new data, most recently from 137 monitoring wells and
468 soil samples.
"We'll continue to do sampling rounds of existing wells, but no
new wells will be sunk unless sampling determines we have to
step out more," Rymer said.
Lockheed recommends preparing a remedial action plan by year's
end. The company wants to perform additional soil sampling and a
human health risk assessment of soil in areas off-site of the
plant.
Testing will continue if the state and an independent third
party hired by Tallevast residents deem it necessary, Rymer
said.
Generations of Tallevast residents who worked and lived near the
plant say they have been plagued by ailments ranging from
beryllium poisoning and miscarriages to cancers.
Soil and groundwater testing by Lockheed began after a sump leak
was discovered at the plant in 2000.
Lockheed acquired the property, formerly used to make beryllium
parts, in 1996. It sold it in 2000.
Lockheed's test results found the upper three levels of the
aquifer had been contaminated, but not the Floridan, or deepest
level of the aquifer.
Lockheed has agreed to pay for independent water and soil
sampling that a Tallevast advocate group has requested.
The seven- to10-day test is slated to begin Monday.
Members of the Family Oriented Community United & Strong said
they don't trust the results of an earlier round of Lockheed
tests that came out in February, and they want an independent
agency to verify the levels of contaminant found in the soil and
water near the former American Beryllium plant.
"In order to assure us and make us feel comfortable, we want to
know if the level of wells have changed since the testing was
done last," said Laura Ward, president of the group.
Among some of the areas that will be sampled include the water
in 17 domestic wells in the neighborhood that are still being
used, five to six ponds that have not been tested and the areas
surrounding all the day-care centers in Tallevast, Ward said.
"There were some inconsistencies with one of their reports. The
numbers dropped drastically without any remediation," said Wanda
Washington, the group's vice president of the February report.
She said the contamination would not go away overnight.
Evaluation and verification of the independent test results
should be completed by late September, Rymer said.
Though both Ward and Washington have received copies of
Lockheed's report that is roughly the size of two phone books,
they said Friday they have not had a chance to read it yet.
Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said he also hasn't had a chance
to read the report.
"I'm going to just have to pour through it and get a real
understanding of what they are trying to tell us," Galvano said.
"We'll probably have a pizza party for this thing," Washington
said jokingly about the report.
Herald staff writer Stephen Majors contributed to this report.
*****************************************************************
63 AU ABC: Howard spells out end of three uranium mine policy
(ACST)Sunday, 7 August 2005. 15:47 (AEDT)Sunday, 7 August 2005.
Prime Minister John Howard says the days of Labor Party's three
uranium mine policy are over.
The Commonwealth is taking over approval of new uranium mines in
the Northern Territory.
Mr Howard says each individual application to mine uranium in
the Northern Territory will be assessed on its merits.
He told the ABC's Insiders program his government's policy is
only logical.
"It makes no sense to have good uranium and bad uranium," he
said.
"If it's alright to have three mines, which the Labor Party says
is okay, then it ought to be alright to have four or five or
six."
*****************************************************************
64 Las Vegas RJ: Energy bill ignored repository
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Reid deterred inclusion of Yucca Mountain
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and allies in Congress
took pains to avoid mentioning Yucca Mountain as they pursued
passage of a major energy policy bill, an Energy Department
leader said Friday.
The strategy was to avoid stirring Senate Minority Leader Harry
Reid of Nevada, a leading critic of the proposed nuclear waste
repository who could have caused problems for the bill, one of
President Bush's top priorities, DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell
said.
"Energy politics are tough. Yucca Mountain politics are really
tough," said Sell, the department's second-in-command after
Secretary Samuel Bodman.
Reid "is a tough character to deal with," Sell said. "There was
a conscious decision not to roll (Yucca Mountain) into the
energy bill, and I can't disagree."
The strategy worked for Bush. The House and Senate last week
passed energy legislation that Bush had sought since 2001. He is
scheduled to sign the bill Monday in New Mexico.
The broad new law will emphasize increased production of energy
from oil and gas, coal and nuclear sources, while overhauling
electricity marketing and encouraging the use of alternative
fuels and energy-efficient appliances.
But the law is silent on one of the major concerns of the
nuclear power industry and states' energy regulators promoting
completion of the Yucca repository, about 100 miles northwest of
Las Vegas.
Yucca Mountain supporters have pushed Congress to reclassify the
fund that pays for the repository so the Department of Energy
can gain access to billions of dollars that would be required
for construction. Lawmakers have refused to go along.
Sell said the Bush administration continued to support
reclassification of the nuclear waste fund, just not as part of
the energy bill.
"We have to deal with spent fuel in order to have a future for
nuclear power," he said.
Energy bill proponents made the right decision in keeping Yucca
Mountain out of the legislation, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen
said.
"President Bush now knows a little bit more about Senator Reid
and how and what he will fight for, especially something like
Yucca Mountain," Hafen said. "Plus, he has the added leverage of
being a (Senate) leader."
With the energy legislation completed, Rep. Joe Barton,
chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said he
plans to introduce a bill this fall to address the Yucca
Mountain budget matter.
Barton, R-Texas, said he is weighing other elements that could
speed the repository that has fallen years behind schedule.
Speaking earlier this summer, Barton also indicated that energy
bill sponsors sought to steer clear of Reid. Barton said he did
not want to "play games" with Yucca Mountain because Reid to
that point had been cooperative in allowing the bill to proceed.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
65 Brampton Guardian: Opposition mounting to nuclear incinerator
Sunday, August 7th, 2005
PAM DOUGLAS, Staff Writer
There is mounting opposition to a Brampton company's application
to build a nuclear waste incinerator in the city's east end.
A group of residents has formed The Coalition for a Nuclear
Waste Free Peel to fight the proposal. They will hold a meeting
Thursday and everyone in Brampton opposed to the plan is
invited.
A core group of 17 concerned residents are looking for support,
preparing a petition, planning ways to alert the community, and
working on formal responses to the application. A deadline for
written comment to the Ontario Environmental Bill of Rights is
Aug. 18.
"We don't want to get hysterical. We want to look at the facts
and the location," said coalition organizer Dora Jeffries,
pointing out radioactive waste would be trucked along congested
roads to a built-up area close to homes and five-km from the new
hospital.
The bottom line: "We don't want it here. Obviously, something
has to be done with this waste, but that's not our problem."
Mississauga Metals &Alloys has applied for a licence to build
and operate a natural gas-powered incinerator at 75 Sun Pac
Boulevard, in the area of Williams Parkway and Goreway Drive.
The incinerator would burn waste such as paper, gloves, rugs,
wood, and construction materials contaminated with low levels of
radiation, according to President David Sharpe.
Although it must go through an environmental assessment and
approval from federal regulators, city councillors will weigh in
on the issue first. The metal recycling company must apply for a
rezoning in order to expand. It is currently operating as a
legal, non-conforming use, according to Planning Commissioner
John Corbett.
The company opened in 1993, three years before a bylaw was
passed restricting "waste processing" from any site within 120 m
of non-industrial uses. Homes located on nearby Goreway Drive
are within 120 m of the facility, according to Corbett. There
are also senior's condominiums and housing east of the site.
The company has been recycling metal on Sun Pac for the past 12
years. For the past seven years it has been recycling metal
contaminated with low levels of radiation, under licence from
the federal government.
The Ministry of the Environment will not issue a certificate of
approval to operate an incinerator unless the plan is approved
under the city's zoning bylaws, according to Corbett.
To get that rezoning, the company will have to show the
incinerator will not have a negative impact on the surrounding
homes and businesses, whether that's noise, dust, odour,
vibration or other emissions, according to Corbett.
There have been some informal discussions with the city, but the
company has not yet applied for rezoning, Corbett said.
The company held a public information session last month as part
of the environmental assessment application made by the company.
There will be another session next month, according to Sharpe.
The radioactive material for the incinerator would come from
manufacturers that supply nuclear power plants with pellets and
tubing, he said.
"These are materials that were located in the areas where they
would be processing the fuel (pellets)," Sharpe said.
The material would be trucked in to the local facility, then
screened. Anything exceeding the government-regulated guidelines
for low-level radioactivity would not be incinerated and would
be returned to the source, he said.
The proposal is for a natural gas incinerator that would burn a
maximum of 250 pounds per hour. The ash would then be shipped
back to the source of the original garbage, where the
radioactive material would be separated and re-used, he said.
The Coalition for a Nuclear Waste Free Peel meeting will be held
at 5 Dayspring Circle at 7 p.m. For more information, call
416-779-6359 or 905-451-9077.
For information on the Mississauga Metals &Alloys proposal, call
Sharpe at 905-790-0796, or email davidsharpe@mm-a.com./a> To
comment in writing on the proposal under the Ontario
Environmental Bill of Rights before Aug. 18, call the
application processor at 416-212-3679.
Our Newspapers: Brampton Guardian | Orangeville Banner |
Georgetown Independent &Free Press
© Copyright 1996-2005
Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing, North Peel
Media Group
*****************************************************************
66 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca plan slowed by recent departure of key managers
August 05, 2005
By Suzanne Struglinski and Benjamin
Grove
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WEEKEND EDITION
August 6-7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain program has lost five key
managers in the last six months, raising speculation that recent
controversy and frustration have led to a damaging exodus of
leadership talent.
The Energy Department says the departures will not cause
additional grief to a project already plagued by delays.
But management experts are not so sure.
UNLV construction management professor Neil Opfer said that if
management departures have not hurt the day-to-day operations of
Yucca Mountain, "it would be the first time in history that has
ever happened."
"You lose something," Opfer said. "This affects
decision-making."
The Yucca Mountain Project is as a massive government program
as there is, with a long history, a big budget and an ambitious
goal of constructing a national repository for high-level
nuclear waste.
While there is always some churn of leadership on the project,
since the top managers are political appointees, the recent
turnover has been noteworthy for the number and the timing of
the resignations.
Key leaders listed on the organizational flow chart began
leaving after the Feb. 25 resignation of Yucca's top manager,
Margaret Chu.
Chu announced her exit four days after the Bush administration
released a scaled-back Yucca budget request. Minutes after the
budget was unveiled, Chu admitted to reporters that the
department's long-held goal of opening Yucca by 2010 had slipped
at least two years.
Chu lasted three years in the job. She said she had always
planned to leave after Bush's first term ended. Department
officials said there was no connection between Chu's exit and
her candor with reporters.
That left deputy director Theodore Garrish as the top-ranking
Yucca official. He retired two months later, about a month after
the department stumbled into more controversy -- a document
review had uncovered Yucca worker e-mails that suggested quality
assurance documents may have been falsified. The discovery
launched several investigations, including one led by Rep. Jon
Porter, R-Nev., chairman of a subcommittee of the House
Government Reform Committee.
Garrish testified before Porter's panel on April 5. The
department announced his "long-planned retirement" on April 25,
and his last day was May 13.
The suggestion that quality assurance documents might have been
falsified is potentially damaging because the quality assurance
program is designed to assure that scientific work was done
properly and to assure the accuracy of Yucca research. The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission will rely on quality assurance
documents to verify the completeness of the scientific work, and
ultimately to determine whether Yucca can safely store 77,000
tons of highly radioactive waste.
The QA program has been criticized by the commission, the GAO
and the department's Inspector General in the past.
That makes the departure last month of Yucca quality assurance
manager R. Dennis Brown significant. After the e-mails were
disclosed, Brown was tasked with reviewing more recent quality
assurance procedures, as the GAO is updating an investigation it
completed on the quality assurance program last year.
Brown will not renew his contract, according to the department.
The department did not formally announce that, but Brown in late
July sent employees an e-mail signaling his exit.
News of Brown's resignation came one day after news surfaced
that Yucca licensing manager Joseph Ziegler was leaving, citing
personal reasons. He leaves at a time when obtaining a license
application is the most pressing goal of the program. The
department is struggling to complete the application. It missed
a deadline last year, and its revised December goal likely will
slip at least three months.
Yucca will undergo another loss when John Mitchell, president
and general manager of top Yucca contractor Bechtel SAIC, leaves
Aug. 12. Bechtel handles the day-to-day activities of the
project, and worked on the project's draft license application.
Mitchell will be replaced by Ted Feigenbaum, president of Maine
Yankee Atomic Power Co. Bechtel spokesman Jason Bohne said
Feigenbaum has a lot of experience with nuclear energy and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Bohne said a transition plan is
in place and Feigenbaum will spend time with Mitchell before his
departure.
Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said department
employees continue to work on Yucca while the White House
searches for a replacement for a permanent Yucca chief and other
managers.
For now, President Bush has named Paul Golan acting director.
He took over when Garrish left in May.
The departures of Chu, Garrish, Brown and Ziegler have had no
practical affect at all on the $58 billion project, Benson said.
But experts are skeptical.
It's just "common sense" that complex projects suffer with
managerial departures, said Thomas Allen, a professor of
management at the Sloan School of Management at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Who knows what was in those brains that walked out the door?"
Allen asked. "Any time you lose people who have gained all that
experience, it sets you back. You have to re-create that
knowledge."
It is not uncommon for political appointees to leave after a
certain amount of time, or for subordinates to leave after a
director resigns, said Constance Horner, a guest scholar at the
Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
"The new Dr. Chu may bring a new set of subordinates to replace
those that have left," she said.
Horner said there are two possible outcomes once top officials
leave: the civil service staff steps up and manages the program
until the new political appointee comes along, or work slows
down because politically driven decisions can get kicked up the
ladder to higher and higher offices until they reach someone who
can make the decision.
The career staff -- non-political appointees -- can sometimes
do their jobs better without an added layer of scrutiny over
them, she said.
"It can be stressful if there is uncertainty about the course
of action," Horner said. "It can also be a period of
considerable professional satisfaction."
Former Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Richard Meserve said the
Bush administration will need to fill all the positions with
people who have both nuclear and management experience.
"You have a challenge at DOE in that the whole bunch of people
that were at the center of this are not there," said Meserve,
now president of the Carnegie Institution. "I have no idea what
(Energy) Secretary (Samuel) Bodman is thinking, but he does have
some very important positions to fill."
Meserve said there are technical as well legal issues that have
to be addressed.
"It's not going to be an easy job," Meserve said.
Replacing leaders is a time-consuming and costly endeavor, and
once new managers are hired, companies and government agencies,
like the department, have to bring them up to speed, UNLV's
Opfer said.
"When someone walks out mid-project, you lose your investment
in the on-the-job education you put into that person," Opfer
said.
Another problem that frequently occurs is that once the
department hires a new manager, the manager may not mesh with
the leadership team in place, creating more delays, Opfer said.
Then sometimes those team members leave, he said.
Management turnover also makes it more difficult to assign
accountability because new managers can blame problems on old
regimes, Opfer said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the number of departures raises
questions.
"I think it probably reflects the frustration and futility of
constantly trying to fit a square peg in a round hole," Gibbons
said.
"Continuity of leadership is always important in any government
agency. When you start losing leaders, that continuity and
efficiency is affected, I don't care what they say."
Nevada officials note that the departures come as Yucca
continues to face a slew of budgetary, technical and legal
obstacles. A federal court last year dealt Yucca a setback when
it threw out a radiation release standard. The Energy Department
has sought to prove Yucca can meet that scrapped standard.
The Environmental Protection Agency could issue a new radiation
standard this year, which would force the Energy Department to
make license application revisions.
Porter said the employees still working at the department may
suffer through the changes.
"They deserve consistent management," Porter said. "I can only
imagine what they are thinking."
Porter noted that Energy Secretary Bodman and other top
department officials are just a few months on the job, too.
"Who's in charge?" Porter said. "No one is minding the ship."
Nevada lawmakers also have been frustrated by Energy Department
officials who have dismissed the e-mail controversy as not
likely to affect the repository's progress.
"Forget a moment that it is a federal agency," Porter said. "If
this was the private sector ... it would be national headlines
if all the corporation's officials resigned in the midst of an
investigation."
The Yucca project is so big that the departure of several key
managers may slow the project further, but it probably won't be
"catastrophic," said John Garrick, chairman of the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board. The board was created by Congress to act
as an independent watchdog of Yucca science.
Garrick said that even though Yucca program employees are
missing some bosses, they have a clear goal to keep them
motivated: to submit the license application.
But there is no question the Yucca program has been reeling,
especially since the court threw out the radiation release
standard, Garrick said. The program lost steam when it missed
its goal last year of submitting the license, he said.
Program officials are under a lot of pressure to move the
program forward, so it's not surprising to see some departures,
Garrick said. And those departures can naturally lead to
day-to-day delays, said Garrick, whose long career included
running an international engineering and management consultant
firm.
Sometimes a fresh infusion of new leaders can spark new
enthusiasm and energy on a project, Garrick said, adding that
that may be just what Yucca needs.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
67 Green Left: NT: Howard seizes control of uranium mining
Kathy Newnam and Jon Lamb, Darwin
Federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane announced on August 4
that the federal Coalition government will seize control of the
approval process for new uranium mines in the Northern
Territory.
After meeting with NT mines mininster Kon Vatskalis, Macfarlane
claimed that the NT government had “abdicated its
responsibilities” and the federal government had to step in to
establish “certainty” for the mining industry. Macfarlane said
the government aimed to have a new mine up and running within
five years.
The NT Environment Centre’s Peter Robertson told ABC Radio on
August 5 that the takeover is “a bit like putting the fox in
charge of the hen coop” given the government’s record of being
“rampantly pro-nuclear and pro-uranium mining”.
Arid Lands Environment Centre co-ordinator John Brisbin told the
media, “We are looking at the new terra nullius being foisted
upon us by a tragically misguided administration caught up in a
dead-end dance with a miserable industry”.
Brisbin rejected Macfarlane’s declaration that the decision
would free up the $12 billion worth of known uranium deposits in
the NT, saying: “This is the market price for our pristine
environment, for our peace of mind, for our children’s right to
a liveable world. Mr Howard, you’ll need to do your sums again:
our Territory is not for sale at that price … in fact, it’s not
for sale at any price.”
The NT government, while upholding the ALP’s “no new mines”
policy, had been under fire for its approval of uranium
exploration licences. Vatskalis had told the Association of
Mining and Exploration Companies’ national congress in late July
that it would be “really stupid not to conduct exploration for
any mineral in any jurisdiction because of particular government
policy”. NT Chief Minister Clare Martin backed Vatskalis’s
comments, telling the ABC on July 29, “Like any policy, all
policies are under review”.
There are already 12 companies exploring for uranium in the NT
and with world uranium prices doubling in the last year, the
mining companies have a keen eye on industry expansion
opportunities.
Robertson pointed to the successful protest movement against the
Jabiluka mine when he told the ABC, “Any assumption the public
is any more relaxed about approving uranium mines would be a
very big mistake on the part of the Commonwealth”.
Meanwhile, the federal government faces growing opposition to
its plans for a nuclear waste dump in the NT.
Two-hundred-and-fifty people attending an August 3 public
meeting in Alice Springs heard Jayne Weepers from the Alice
Community Alliance asking, “If this material is so safe then why
is the federal government determined to dump it in remote
Australia?”
In Katherine on August 3, Senator Nigel Scullion’s “information
session” about the nuclear waste dump attracted more than 150
residents, almost all opposed to the plan. Scullion’s
“information session” in Darwin on August 12 is expected to
receive a similar response.
The newly formed Darwin No Waste Committee is holding a public
meeting on August 31, at 7pm, at the Crowne Plaza. For more
information, phone Justin on (08) 8945 4116.
From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Authorised by K. Miller, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, NSW
*****************************************************************
68 Green Left: WA grants uranium exploration leases
Farida Iqbal, Perth
The Western Australian Labor government is granting exploration
leases for mining tenements holding uranium.
The government claims that the leases include a condition to
prevent uranium mining from occurring, however the Anti-Nuclear
Alliance of WA’s Robin Chapple says that some of the mining
tenements are “clearly identified as being uranium holdings by
the corporations on their web sites and mines department
records. There is no ambiguity about their intentions.” ANAWA
led the 1999-2000 campaign that stopped an international nuclear
waste dump and several uranium mines from being established in
WA.
There is no WA legislation to prevent uranium mining. Despite
Labor’s public commitment to oppose uranium mining, the Greens’
2000 Nuclear Activities (Prohibition) Bill was rejected by state
parliament.
The granting of the new exploration leases is only one facet of
the current pro-nuclear push in WA. At a public forum in July
organised by the Conservation Council of WA, Liberal politician
Colin Barnett argued in favour of uranium mining and nuclear
power. On June 28, the public communications director of the
World Nuclear Forum, Ian Hoare Lacy, addressed an Australian
Institute of Energy luncheon in Perth on “The Case for Nuclear
Energy”. A lively protest was held outside the luncheon.
To get involved in the anti-nuclear campaign, contact the ANAWA
at (08) 9271 4488 or email .
From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Authorised by K. Miller, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, NSW
*****************************************************************
69 Independent: Nuclear clean-up costs pushing £60bn
www.independent.co.uk
By Tim Webb and Clayton Hirst
Published: 07 August 2005
The cost of clearing up the UK's nuclear waste and dismantling
its reactors has soared to between £50bn and £60bn, the
state-owned body responsible will warn.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which will publish
its draft strategy this week, had estimated the cost at £48bn as
recently as the start of the year.
The NDA was formally set up on 1 April but has been carrying out
preparatory work since last autumn. It increased its estimate
following initial investigation of the UK's nuclear facilities.
Nuclear experts said that it was likely that the costs would
keep rising as safety standards were tightened. The work will
take more than 50 years.
John Large, a nuclear consultant, said: "I have never come
across a case where the costs of nuclear projects came down. The
problem is we have never done this before. No one knows how much
it will cost."
Referring to the leak at the Thorp reprocessing plant, he added:
"The NDA could find more skeletons in the cupboard, which would
drive up costs."
The NDA was set up to take on the liabilities and clean up
Britain's 20 civil nuclear sites, including Sellafield. It will
issue contracts to companies for specific clean-up operations.
A question mark hangs over the future of the NDA, as the
European Commission is now investigating whether the billions of
pounds of public money it will use to clean up the sites
constitutes illegal state aid. The Commission refuses to say
when its probe will be complete, but a ruling could be made by
the end of the year.
The Department of Trade and Industry hired Bechtel, the US
project management group, to advise on the creation of the NDA.
But to prevent a potential conflict of interest, Bechtel will be
barred from bidding for contracts until next year.
© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
70 Salt Lake Tribune: Rail cars: Rolling targets
Article Last Updated: 08/07/2005 01:22:53 AM
Though hazardous spills declining, some fear shipments'
vulnerability
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Each year, about 1.7 million rail cars loaded
with hazardous materials roll past small neighborhoods and major
metropolitan areas.
A major spill in South Salt Lake earlier this year and other
recent accidents highlight the risk posed by the chemical
shipments, particularly in an age of heightened awareness of
terrorist attacks - and have prompted mayors and some senators
to demand action.
But an analysis of federal records by The Salt Lake Tribune
shows the safety record for hazardous materials shipped by rail
has improved in recent years. In Utah, the number of spills and
mishaps has fallen steadily over the past decade, from 55 in
1995 to just nine last year.
There were three incidents in the first half of 2005 -
including one the most serious hazardous material spills in the
state in at least 12 years.
On March 6, emergency crews were called to South Salt Lake to
respond to a tank car belching black smoke. The car had sprung
several leaks, dumping caustic chemicals.
The tanker was supposed to be carrying sulfuric acid. But
officials determined it had at least six other chemicals,
including hydrofluoric acid, which may have eaten through the
inside of the tanker.
More than 6,600 people were evacuated while emergency crews
wrestled with how to handle the chemical brew. Federal officials
are in the process of deciding what, if any, charges to file
over the spill.
That incident was the exception. Just three spills in Utah
since 1993 have required residents to evacuate.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said chemical-laden
trains rolling past homes and neighborhoods are no more
dangerous now than they have been for years, but there is still
cause for concern.
He is particularly troubled by the traffic along the 900
South line, which had been abandoned for years until Union
Pacific reactivated it in 2001.
In December 2002, seven cars derailed on the line, spilling
small amounts of lime. Other cars, carrying sodium cyanide and
anhydrous ammonia, remained intact. Had they exposed their
toxic, flammable cargo, it would have forced an evacuation of
residents in a one-mile radius.
The city is working on eliminating traffic on the line by
straightening out a tight curve that forces trains to slow down
as they enter the city, leaving rail cars, some with toxic
cargo, stuck in a bottleneck. Federal funds have been promised
for the project and once it is complete, Anderson said, Union
Pacific has agreed to stop traffic along 900 South.
Nationally, the number of rail incidents involving hazardous
materials fell from 1,155 in 1995 to 753 last year, which
includes anything from derailments to leaking containers found
during inspections.
"Generally speaking, if you're looking at the safest way to
ship hazardous materials, it would be by rail," said Tom White,
spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, an industry
group. "You do, unfortunately, still have accidents. You try
like hell to avoid them, but occasionally they still happen."
White said there are several reasons for the reduction in
incidents, including better-designed rail cars and better
training for rail workers.
Despite the improved safety record, there is concern in
Congress, among mayors and some other experts that the
preparation to prevent a terrorist attack has been inadequate.
In 2002, warnings were reportedly issued to law enforcement
agencies that terrorists may be targeting rail lines, based on
information gleaned from interrogations and photographs of rail
crossings and train cars found in an al-Qaida raid.
Richard Falkenrath, who was deputy homeland security adviser
to President Bush until last year, said shipments of dangerous
chemicals pose a uniquely deadly and vulnerable terrorist target
and casualties from an attack on toxic chemical shipments could
dwarf those from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"Thousands is conservative," said Falkenrath, now with the
Brookings Institution.
Given the dire consequences, protecting the shipments should
be of paramount importance, but the government has failed to
take the aggressive action that is needed, Falkenrath said.
Carrie Harmon, regional spokeswoman for the Transportation
Security Administration, said TSA, Homeland Security and others
are working to increase safety, adding funds for tank car
inspectors, providing additional money for grant programs and
expanding a program that uses bomb-sniffing dogs at transit hubs.
"We're all constantly assessing and evaluating threats or
potential threats to the transportation system in general and
making an attempt to allocate the resources we have in the best
and most efficient way possible," Harmon said.
The industry has done its own studies of security risks after
Sept. 11, and made a series of security improvements, White
said.
"Are there additional things that could be done? I suppose
there always are. But we have taken an awful lot of measures to
improve safety and security," he said.
Some are demanding more action.
The City Council for Washington, D.C., where trains run just
a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, passed an ordinance in
February banning hazardous material shipments inside city
limits, though the appeals court has blocked it pending a
challenge by rail carrier CSX Corp.
The industry and Bush administration have sided with CSX in
the case, arguing that rerouting shipments could force trains to
travel greater distances. White said that would increase their
exposure for attack or an accident.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors has asked Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff to require mayors to be notified when
hazardous materials are moving through their towns.
They cited the January derailment of a train carrying
chlorine in Graniteville, S.C. that killed nine, injured
hundreds and forced the evacuation of thousands. The mayors
compared it to the effects of a weapon of mass destruction.
"These types of trains run on tracks through the hearts of
our cities," wrote Akron, Ohio, Mayor Donald Plusquellic,
president of the conference. "Our citizens should have a
reasonable expectation that hazardous materials are being
shipped in the safest manner possible and that local first
responders are aware of such shipments in advance."
White said granting advance notice would inundate mayors with
so much information it would be meaningless.
In past incidents in Salt Lake, Anderson said, emergency
crews have had access to shipping manifests, although he
expressed concern at the recent spill where the manifest was
incorrect.
The stakes may become even higher for Utah. In addition to
the thousands of shipments of hazardous chemicals, the state
faces the prospect of between 10,000 and 20,000 casks of
high-level nuclear waste rolling through the state on rail cars
bound either for Yucca Mountain, Nev., or the Skull Valley
Goshute Indian reservation, where a private storage site is
proposed.
Anderson says the number of shipments makes an accident
almost inevitable.
With that risk, the waste should stay where it is, an option
supported by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Jon Corzine, D-N.J., have each
introduced legislation that would demand additional measures
from the Department of Homeland Security.
Biden's bill would require re-routing the most dangerous
shipments around "high-threat corridors;" developing a
notification system for local officials; encouraging research to
improve chemical tankers; and providing funds to train emergency
personnel.
"The current state of our rail security system is worse than
an accident waiting to happen, it is an open invitation to
terrorists," Biden said.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
71 Independent: BNFL boss faces being dumped by rump company after restructuring
www.independent.co.uk
Westinghouse sale signals the end of era as NDA warns of soaring
decommissioning bill
By Tim Webb and Katherine Griffiths
Published: 07 August 2005
Doubts over the future of BNFL's chief executive, Mike Parker,
have intensified with the planned appointment of a rival
executive to the board of the nuclear group.
Fellow directors have recommended in the last fortnight that
Lawrie Haynes, the chief executive of BNFL's main subsidiary,
clean-up arm BNG, be promoted to the main board.
His appointment will be officially announced once ministers have
given their approval. It will fuel rumours of growing rivalry
between Mr Haynes and Mr Parker at the state-owned nuclear
group.
Industry sources have tipped Mr Haynes as the successor to Mr
Parker, who joined the group two-and-a-half years ago from US
firm Dow Chemicals.
BNFL announced last month that it was selling its US nuclear
services group, Westinghouse. Once this sale is completed over
the next year, BNG, run by Mr Haynes, will be the group's only
significant operation and Mr Parker's role will become virtually
redundant.
He was brought in to oversee the restructuring of the group, and
industry observers believe his job is almost complete. No date
has been set for Mr Parker's departure, but he could step down
next year.
Mr Haynes was appointed last year. Both men are respected within
the group, but Mr Haynes, who is five years younger than
57-year-old Mr Parker, is seen as best suited to run the group
in the long term.
Four executive directors sit on the board of BNFL. As well as Mr
Parker, the executive board includes the finance director, John
Edwards, David Bonser and the chairman, Gordon Campbell, who
joined last year.
The last three years have been a period of upheaval for the
operator of the Sellafield site in Cumbria. In 2003, the
Government scrapped long-term plans to partially privatise the
group after the collapse of nuclear generator British Energy
scared off private investment.
Instead, the Government decided to restructure loss-making BNFL,
placing its ageing Magnox reactors and its uneconomic Thorp
reprocessing plant into a new government nuclear body, the
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), set up on 1 April.
Also in April, BNFL admitted that tens of thousands of litres of
radioactive fuel had leaked from a ruptured pipe at the Thorp
plant. Although the leak was contained on the site, it has
emerged that staff had ignored safety warnings and accounting
discrepancies for over seven months before it was discovered.
© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
72 AU ABC: Howard spells out end of three uranium mine policy.
07/08/2005. ABC News Online
Update: Sunday, August 7, 2005. 2:47pm (AEST)
Prime Minister John Howard says the days of Labor Party's three
uranium mine policy are over.
The Commonwealth is taking over approval of new uranium mines
in the Northern Territory.
Mr Howard says each individual application to mine uranium in
the Northern Territory will be assessed on its merits.
He told the ABC's Insiders program his government's policy is
only logical.
"It makes no sense to have good uranium and bad uranium," he
said.
"If it's alright to have three mines, which the Labor Party
says is okay, then it ought to be alright to have four or five
or six."
*****************************************************************
73 Santa Cruz Sentinel: Santa Cruz protesters gather, condem atomic weapons
By BRIAN SEALS SENTINEL STAFF WRITER August 6, 2005
August 6, 2005
Activists remember the bombing victims at Friday’s gathering
at the county center. (Shmuel Thaler / Sentinel)
SANTA CRUZ — From the time the United States dropped atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II, a debate
on the use of those weapons has raged.
For about 170 people gathered at the Santa Cruz County
Government Center on Friday, there is no need for debate.
"We set the stage for our own demise," Grant Wilson, of the
group Art and Revolution Convergence, said shortly before the
noon commemoration.
Friday’s event was organized by a group calling itself the
Santa Cruz Weapons Inspection Team; it formed during the run-up
to the war in Iraq, said member Lynda Marin.
"We’re opposed to the nuclear weapons industry," Marin said.
The rally was part condemnation of atomic weapons coinciding
with the 60th anniversary of the bombs falling in Japan and of
the Iraq war, and a dig at Lockheed Martin, the weapons maker
with an operation in Bonny Doon.
In quintessential Santa Cruz style, there were protest banners,
a couple of effigies of fearful looking white men and even some
protest songs courtesy of the "Raging Grannies."
"Our message is clear: Nuclear weapons are completely
unacceptable," said Louis LaFortune.
LaFortune likened the current use of depleted uranium munitions
in the Iraq war to using nuclear bombs.
"It’s not as if Hiroshima is over, it’s happening today," he
said.
Participants ranged in age from the grannies to
elementary-school-aged children in the area for an annual
meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers.
"When we do abolish nuclear weapons, ... we will take a giant
step closer to the peace we all wish for," said Niko East, 15,
of Visalia.
Some participants said they had faith that day would come.
"I believe we will live to see the destruction of nuclear
weapons," said Arthur Finmann of Santa Cruz. "When it happens,
I’ll tell you all I told you so."
People old enough to remember the Cold War recalled how the
atomic age affected their childhood.
Franz Schneider remembered growing up in Seattle, where
students were told the city could be targeted in a nuclear
attack and were issued dog tags at school.
"They told us (the dog tag) was for the purpose of identifying
our bodies," Schneider said.
While the Friday event was centered around the anniversary of
using the A-bomb, a more immediate target of some of the
participants was Lockheed Martin.
Marin said the group Members of the Community Concerned About
Lockheed Martin had been offered a meeting with company
officials the second weekend in September. That was confirmed in
an e-mail from company spokesman Charles Manor.
The company is accustomed to being the target of protests, he
said.
"We respect their rights and we ask them to respect ours," Manor
said. "We’re very proud of the work we do. The work we do allows
them to exercise their rights."
Marin said the group wants to know what the company is up to at
its Bonny Doon facility.
"We have environmental concerns and safety concerns with
regards to what they actually make there," Marin said.
The Bonny Doon site has been used for a range of projects from
testing rocket fuels to experiments with high-speed photography.
Small dove figurines made of paper were passed out at the rally,
and participants were asked to write down action they could take
to oppose nuclear weapons, such as contacting a lawmaker.
The doves were to be left at the fence at Lockheed Martin as the
group departed the noon gathering for a caravan to Bonny Doon
for a "march of re-remembering."
207 Church Street, Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA (831) 423-4242
Copyright © 1999-2005 Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Ottaway Newspaper, Inc.
*****************************************************************
74 Guardian Unlimited: India-Pakistan Peace Plan Inches Forward
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Sunday August 7, 2005 9:01 PM
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI (AP) - The India-Pakistan peace process inched forward
over the weekend as the rival nations formalized an agreement to
ward off the risk of accidentally stumbling into war, a deal
diplomats and analysts said should boost peace efforts between
the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Under the agreement, announced Saturday after two-day talks, the
two will set up a hot line between foreign ministries next month
and formally agreed to tell each other about upcoming missile
tests, a practice that has been going on for some time.
The agreement is the latest peak in a year marked by up-and-down
relations.
After a thaw early in the year - a Pakistani starlet got a lead
role in a Bollywood movie, families and old friends crossed
Kashmir's disputed border for the first time in half a century,
and India and Pakistan's leaders declared the peace process
irreversible - relations cooled as summer got underway.
The starlet's movie, ``Nazar'' (Sight), ended up being banned in
Pakistan; the Indian media speculated that more militants were
infiltrating the Indian side of Kashmir; and Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh said a planned natural gas pipeline from
Iran to Pakistan to India had ``many risks.''
Singh's trip to Washington in July and his signing of an
Indian-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement also raised eyebrows
in Pakistan.
But diplomats and analysts said the weekend agreement should
allay fears about stalled peace efforts, showing that the
process is continuing, albeit slowly and a bit unsteadily.
Saturday's agreement will ``persuade people that there is merit
in dialogue and that not very much can be resolved by the gun,''
said G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian High Commissioner to
Pakistan who is now a strategic analyst at the Center for Policy
Research in New Delhi.
Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general, said the deal
``is a very good nuclear confidence building measure,'' calling
it ``a small but a significant step in the overall peace
process.''
But Parthasarathy cautioned that peace process was ``very
accident-prone.''
``If, say, tomorrow a top politician in Jammu and Kashmir was to
be killed, or if there was to be some outrage like the attack on
parliament, then there is trouble,'' Parthasarathy said. ``This
process could unravel very fast.''
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in
1947, and a fourth conflict nearly erupted in 2002 after New
Delhi accused Pakistan-based militants of attacking India's
Parliament. Islamabad denied involvement.
Despite progress in the last two years on other fronts, the two
sides have made few moves toward resolving their competing
claims to the Himalayan territory of Kashmir - the dispute at
the heart of their rivalry.
A joint statement released after talks ended Saturday said the
new hot line, the first between government officials, was
intended ``to prevent misunderstandings and reduce risks
relevant to nuclear issues,'' and would be established in
September. A hot line between military commanders has existed
for several years, and top generals on either side speak every
week.
India and Pakistan conducted back-to-back nuclear tests in 1998,
provoking economic sanctions from the United States and other
countries. The sanctions have been progressively lifted over the
years.
---
Associated Press reporter Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, Pakistan,
contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
75 Daily Yomiuri: Peace declaration by Hiroshima mayor
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Following is the peace declaration by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba issued Saturday.
This August 6, the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing, is a
moment of shared lamentation in which more than 300 thousand
souls of A-bomb victims and those who remain behind transcend
the boundary between life and death to remember that day. It is
also time of inheritance, of awakening, and of commitment, in
which we inherit the commitment of the hibakusha to the
abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of genuine world
peace, awaken to our individual responsibilities, and recommit
ourselves to take action. This new commitment, building on the
desires of all war victims and the millions around the world who
are sharing this moment, is creating a harmony that is
enveloping our planet.
The keynote of this harmony is the hibakusha warning, "No one
else should ever suffer as we did," along with the cornerstone
of all religions and bodies of law, "Thou shalt not kill." Our
sacred obligation to future generations is to establish this
axiom, especially its corollary, "Thou shalt not kill children,"
as the highest priority for the human race across all nations
and religions. The International Court of Justice advisory
opinion issued nine years ago was a vital step toward fulfilling
this obligation, and 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.
Unfortunately, the review Conference of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty this past May left no doubt that the
U.S., Russia, U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea
and a few other nations wishing to become nuclear-weapon states
are ignoring the majority voice of the people and governments of
the world, thereby jeopardizing human survival.
Based on the dogma "Might is right," these countries have formed
their own "nuclear club," the admission requirement being
possession of nuclear weapons. Through the media, they have long
repeated the incantation, "Nuclear weapons protect you." With no
means of rebuttal, many people worldwide have succumbed to the
feeling that "There is nothing we can do." Within the United
Nations, nuclear club members use their veto power to override
the global majority and pursue their selfish objectives.
To break out of this situation, Mayors for Peace, with more than
1,080 member cities, is currently holding its sixth General
Conference in Hiroshima, where we are revising the Emergency
Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons launched two years ago. The
primary objective is to produce an action plan that will further
expand the circle of cooperation formed by the U.S. Conference
of Mayors, the European Parliament, International Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear War and other international NGOs,
organizations and individuals worldwide, and will encourage all
world citizens to awaken to their own responsibilities with a
sense of urgency, "as if the entire world rests on their
shoulders alone," and work with new commitment to abolish
nuclear weapons.
To these ends and to ensure that the will of the majority is
reflected at the U.N., we propose that the First Committee of
the U.N. General Assembly, which will meet in October, establish
a special committee to deliberate and plan for the achievement
and maintenance of a nuclear-weapon-free world. Such a committee
is needed because the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and
the NPT Review Conference in New York have failed due to a
"consensus rule" that gives a veto to every country.
We expect that the General Assembly will then act on the
recommendations from this special committee, adopting by the
year 2010 specific steps leading toward the elimination of
nuclear weapons by 2020.
Meanwhile, we hereby declare the 369 days from today until
August 9, 2006, a "Year of Inheritance, Awakening and
Commitment." During this Year, the Mayors for Peace, working
with nations, NGOs and the vast majority of the world's people,
will launch a great diversity of campaigns for nuclear weapons
abolition in numerous cities throughout the world.
We expect the Japanese government to respect the voice of the
world's cities and work energetically in the First Committee and
the General Assembly to ensure that the abolition of nuclear
weapons is achieved by the will of the majority. Furthermore, we
request that the Japanese government provide the warm,
humanitarian support appropriate to the needs of all the aging
hibakusha, including those living abroad and those exposed in
areas affected by the black rain.
On this, the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing, we seek to
comfort the souls of all its victims by declaring that we humbly
reaffirm our responsibility never to repeat the evil.
Please rest peacefully; for we will not repeat the evil. (Aug.
7, 2005)
DAILY YOMIURI
*****************************************************************
76 Daily Yomiuri: Hiroshima marks A-bombing / 55,000 attend service
on 60th anniversary
The Yomiuri Shimbun [ class=]
Hiroshima residents attend a ceremony at Peace Memorial Park in
the city Saturday to lay flowers at the memorial monument for
victims of the 1945 atomic bombing.
About 55,000 people attended a memorial service in Hiroshima on
Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of
the city.
The service at Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, Hiroshima,
began at 8 a.m.
The ceremony was attended by survivors of the bombing, including
those who live overseas, and representatives of victims'
families as well as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and
Hiroshima residents.
Participants prayed for the spirits of the victims and expressed
a wish for the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Six decades after the 1945 bombing, many are concerned that time
is running out for survivors to tell younger generations of
their experiences.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in a peace declaration at
the ceremony, "We inherit the commitment of the hibakusha
[victims] to the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of
genuine world peace." He declared "the 369 days from today until
Aug. 9, 2006, a 'Year of Inheritance, Awakening and
Commitment.'"
A list in 85 volumes of the 242,437 people to date who have died
as a result of the atomic bombing was placed in the memorial
monument as music to console the victims' souls was played. The
list included 5,375 people who died or whose deaths were
confirmed over the past year.
The chiefs of the administrative, legislature and judicial
branches of the government were all present at the ceremony for
the first time in 10 years. They offered flowers together with
victims living in other countries, including Brazil, South Korea
and the United States, as well as representatives of victims'
families.
In the peace declaration, Akiba condemned the five declared
nuclear powers--Britain, China, France, Russia and the United
States--and three other nations with nuclear capability--India,
Pakistan and North Korea. Referring to them as the "nuclear
club," the mayor said nuclear nations had "ignored the majority
voice of the people and governments of the world, thereby
jeopardizing human survival."
Given that a conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty held in New York in May failed, the mayor said that the
Mayors for Peace, currently meeting in Hiroshima, hope to work
with governments, nongovernment organizations and citizens to
"encourage all world citizens to awaken to their own
responsibilities with a sense of urgency, 'as if the entire
world rests on their shoulders alone,' and work with new
commitment to abolish nuclear weapons."
Making a pledge for peace afresh for the 60th anniversary of the
bombing, he cited the inscription on the monument, saying, "We
will never repeat the evil."
Koizumi said in a speech, "We'll make efforts to promote aid
measures, including those for victims residing abroad, taking
into account that victims are growing old."
"We'll also push forward international efforts for nuclear
disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation and make all-out
efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons," he added.
At 8:15 a.m., the time when the atomic bomb was dropped on the
city exactly 60 years ago, representatives of victims'
families--Aya Sakamoto, 40, a city employee of Nishi Ward, and
Ken Fujita, 11, a sixth-grade primary school student of Higashi
Ward--sounded the peace bell, followed by a one-minute silent
tribute by all participants.
Representing the children of Hiroshima, Masayuki Iwata, 11, a
sixth-grade primary school student of Naka Ward, and Shiori
Kurotani, 12, a sixth-grade student of Asakita Ward, read out a
pledge for peace, in which they said they would hand down the
stories of victims and convey their messages to future
generations. (Aug. 7, 2005)
THE DAILY YOMIURI
*****************************************************************
77 Las Vegas SUN: Hiroshima Survivors Call for Ban on Nukes
Today: August 07, 2005 at 4:11:32 PDT
By BARRY MASSEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -
Survivors of the deadly blasts that devastated Hiroshima and
Nagasaki 60 years ago joined hundreds of activists in support of
a global ban on nuclear weapons.
They rallied Saturday at the birthplace of the atomic bomb,
outside the national labs that feed today's nuclear arsenal, on
the tiny island where the Enola Gay took off for Hiroshima with
its deadly payload, and in the nation's capital.
Bombing survivor Koji Ueda attended a rally in the Los Alamos
park where there were research laboratories when the Manhattan
Project developed the world's first atomic bomb.
"No more Hiroshimas. No more Nagasakis," Ueda said. "We send
this message to our friends all over the world, along with a
fresh determination of the 'hibakusha' (atomic bomb survivors)
to continue to tell about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, aiming at a
planet set free of wars of nuclear weapons."
In Oak Ridge, Tenn., 15 protesters from a group of more than
1,000 were arrested for blocking a road outside the heavily
guarded weapons factory that helped fuel the bomb during World
War II.
At the Nevada Test Site, about 200 peace activists, including
actor Martin Sheen, gathered for a nonviolent demonstration
outside the gates. Dozens were given citations and released
after crossing police lines. There was no immediate count of
exactly how many were detained.
In California, hundreds of activists marched to the gates of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, some holding sunflowers
and others hoisting a 40-foot inflatable "missile."
The city of Hiroshima, meanwhile, marked the anniversary with
prayers and water for the dead.
At 8:15 a.m., the instant of the blast, Hiroshima's trolleys
stopped and more than 55,000 people at Peace Memorial Park
observed a moment of silence that was broken only by the ringing
of a bronze bell.
Ueda, who was 3 when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, was
joined at Los Alamos by Masako Hashida, who was 15 and working
in a factory a mile from where the second bomb fell three days
later on Nagasaki.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Hashida recalled
hearing a loud metallic noise and then seeing waves of red,
blue, purple and yellow light. She said she lost consciousness
and awoke outside the twisted metal ruins of the factory, which
had made torpedoes used in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She saw a person trying to stand, with burns and swelling so
severe it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman.
In the Los Alamos park where research laboratories stood during
the Manhattan Project, placards carried anti-war slogans
including "No More War for Oil and Empire."
A group of veterans offered an opposing message across the park
from the more than 500 activists. One sign read: "If there
hadn't been a Pearl Harbor, there wouldn't have been a
Hiroshima."
In Washington, G.R. Quinn, 54, of Bethesda, Md., held a sign
across from the White House reading: "God Bless the Enola Gay,"
referring to the B-29 that dropped the first bomb. Nearby, about
three dozen peace activists declared President Bush was not
doing enough for nuclear disarmament.
More than 300 activists marched to the gates of Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, about 50 miles east of San
Francisco, some planning to plant the sunflowers they outside
its fence.
The facility was created years after the bombs were dropped, but
it has helped develop nuclear weapons in the nation's current
arsenal.
A group of U.S. veterans met with atomic bomb survivors on the
tiny island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands to
commemorate the anniversary. The island was the launching off
point for the plane Enola Gay, which dropped its deadly payload
over Hiroshima in 1945.
About 70 veterans and several survivors agreed to use their
final years to advocate world peace and call for an end to
nuclear proliferation.
The uranium for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was supplied by
the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, which continues to
make parts for every warhead in the country's nuclear arsenal.
More than 1,000 demonstrators carrying signs and beating drums
marched outside the Y-12 gates in the largest peace protest ever
in the city, which was built in secrecy during World War II.
Fifteen protesters were arrested for blocking the road about 100
yards from the entrance, a misdemeanor.
"Those of us who live here have a special, maybe accidental,
responsibility to think about the hard sides of these
questions," said Fran Ansley, a University of Tennessee law
professor.
---
Associated Press writers Christina Almeida in Las Vegas, Duncan
Mansfield in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Pete Yost in Washington
contributed to this report.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
78 Japan Times: Thousands mark Hiroshima A-bomb
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Survivors, families fear interest is dwindling
By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer
HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of the 1945
atomic bombing Saturday with calls for more international
grassroots activism to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons
and harsh criticism of the nuclear powers for blocking such
efforts.
[News photo]
Three generations of the same family pray Saturday morning at
Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park for the souls of their relatives
killed in the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing.
But many of the ever-dwindling number of atomic bomb victims and
their families worry that with each passing year, domestic and
international interest in the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing by the
United States and its effects on Hiroshima is decreasing.
Interest certainly appeared high Saturday. Despite blistering
heat topping 30 degrees and high humidity, city officials
estimated that nearly 55,000 people, including a large
contingent of peace activists from around the world, gathered in
Peace Memorial Park by 7:45 a.m.
As he has done in the past, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba
used the occasion to touch on recent international trends
related to the abolition of nuclear weapons. This year's news,
the mayor said, was particularly bad.
"Unfortunately, the Review Conference of Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty this past May left no doubt that the
U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and 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," Akiba said in the annual peace
declaration.
"Within the United Nations, nuclear club members use their veto
power to override the global majority and pursue their selfish
objectives."
Akiba also declared the period from Saturday until Aug. 9,
2006, as the "Year of Inheritance, Awakening and Commitment."
"Over the next year, Mayors for Peace, which consists of mayors
from over 1,000 cities worldwide, will work with nations, NGOs
and others to launch a great diversity of campaigns for the
abolition of nuclear weapons," Akiba said.
"Japan will take the lead in the international community to push
for the global disarmament of nuclear weapons," Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi said in a separate speech. "We will also do
all we can to push for the abolition of nuclear weapons."
Prior to Koizumi's remarks and Akiba's recital of the Hiroshima
Peace Declaration, a total of 5,375 names were added to the
register of atomic bomb victims.
This brought the total number of those who have died due to the
bomb or bomb-related illnesses that developed months and years
later to 242,437, according to the city.
However, six decades after the bombing, the true death toll
remains difficult to ascertain.
Hiroshima's population was about 310,000 at the time of the
blast. The joint Japan-U.S. Radiation Effects Research
Foundation, which studies the health effects of radiation in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing victims, has officially
concluded that between 90,000 and 140,000 perished in Hiroshima
due to the blast and radiation fallout.
The 140,000 figure has been cited by the Japanese government,
and is commonly used by scholars and media in the United States
as well.
But the foundation notes that no records exist for the number
of military personnel in Hiroshima at the time, or for the exact
number of forced laborers, making a thorough accounting
impossible.
More worrisome than the number of those who have passed away to
many who were at Saturday's commemoration ceremonies was the
present and future of those still alive.
The number of hibakusha continues to decline. As of last April,
there were 81,649 officially recognized hibakusha victims of the
Hiroshima bomb, and their average age was 72.
"It's not going to be that much longer before the last of the
hibakusha passes away. What's going to happen to attitudes
toward nuclear weapons in both Japan and the world when the last
of those with direct experience of the horrors of the Hiroshima
bombing pass away? Will future generations still understand the
necessity of 'no more Hiroshimas?' " asked Hanako Furukawa, a
76-year-old hibakusha.
"Each year, it seems fewer people are really listening to the
voices of Hiroshima. Some days, I really feel as if time is
running out, both for myself and for the world," said Kunihiko
Terada, a 73-year-old hibakusha.
Outside of Peace Memorial Park, in Hiroshima's busy, modern
streets, residents born long after the war spent the day
shopping or dining al fresco under the shade of the city's many
European-style cafes.
"My friends and I feel bad for the hibakusha and we all want
Hiroshima to be seen around the world as a city of peace. But
the peace movement and the atomic bomb is something I don't
really feel a personal connection toward," said Aya Okazaki, a
25-year-old Hiroshima office worker.
Other young Hiroshima residents said that while they agree with
the sentiments expressed at Peace Memorial Park every Aug. 6,
and understand the concern of the hibakusha for what will happen
after the last of them passes away, some of their older
relatives feel the way the ceremony is carried out leaves them
cold.
"I have friends whose grandparents are hibakusha," said Masahiro
Iwata, a 33-year-old man who works at an Internet cafe. "But
they say their grandparents don't like to go to the ceremony
because it's too much of a media circus and the emotions are too
contrived. Maybe that's part of the reason why a lot of younger
Hiroshima people aren't as interested in the bombing."
The Japan Times: Aug. 7, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
79 canada.com: Martin Sheen released after protest
Associated Press
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Actor Martin Sheen talks to the media across from the Nevada
Test Site in Mercury, Nev., on Saturday. (AP Photo/Joe
Cavaretta)
LAS VEGAS -- Nearly 200 peace activists, including actor Martin
Sheen, are being released after they were detained and cited
during a nonviolent demonstration protesting nuclear weapons
outside the Nevada Test Site to mark the 60th anniversary of the
bombing of Hiroshima.
Nye County sheriff's deputies used plastic restraints to detain
the activists late Saturday as they crossed a white line on
Highway 95 marking the site, said test site spokesman Darwin
Morgan.
About 180 activists, including Sheen, were issued citations for
trespassing and were being released early Sunday. The county
will not pursue the citations in court, Morgan said.
One protester was Louie Vitale, a Franciscan friar who
co-founded the Nevada Desert Experience, a group that
demonstrates against the test site.
"It's tragic to think back 60 years," Vitale said. "I personally
have friends in Las Vegas from Hiroshima and Nagaski, survivors
who were children at the time, and know that they are still
suffering. To still be contemplating the possibility of doing it
again is shocking."
Some 70,000 people died instantly and an estimated 70,000 more
died later from the radioactive fallout from the nuclear attack
on Hiroshima. Three days later, a plutonium bomb dropped on the
city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered
Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War II to a close.
Corbin Harney, spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone tribe,
used the demonstration to speak out against plans for a nuclear
waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
"This is our land," he said.
Activists included members of Nevada Desert Experience and Pax
Christi USA, organizations promoting peace and the end of
nuclear testing.
Similar demonstrations were held at the nuclear weapons labs at
Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California
and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In Reno,
about 40 people gathered outside the federal building for a
vigil that consisted of speeches and prayers for Japanese
victims.
Patrick Mahon, 63, a retired school administrator, traveled with
his wife from their home in Young Harris, Ga., to participate in
the demonstration and an anti-nuclear weapons conference at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"We've got to find a way to end man's inhumanity to man," Mahon
said, fighting back tears. "Enough is enough."
Mahon, a member of Pax Christi, said the test site perpetuates
the cycle of violence.
"Our national laboratories, including the Test Site, are what's
keeping the proliferation going," Mahon said. "I don't think we
can tell other countries to give up their nuclear weapons as we
continue to develop and improve our own."
But the bombing of Hiroshima, and that of Nagasaki three days
later, has been credited with helping end World War II and
saving the lives of U.S. troops and Japanese civilians during a
likely invasion of Japan.
Ronald Lutton, who retired from the Army in 1989, heard a speech
by Dr. James Yamazaki at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.
Yamazaki was a member of the U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty
Commission who has worked extensively with bomb survivors in
Japan.
"It was the only thing available to us to end the war without
any further loss of life," Lutton said, adding that he supports
the nation's nuclear efforts but in a scaled-down version.
"It's a deterrent," Lutton, 69, said. "But I don't think we
should stockpile weapons per se, but we have to keep a certain
number on hand as a deterrent. Hopefully, we never have to use
them again." © Associated Press 2005
canada.com
Copyright © CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive Inc. is an affiliate of
*****************************************************************
80 asahi.com: 32 nations to attend A-bomb ceremony
08/06/2005 The Asahi Shimbun
A computer-graphics image of the Hiroshima Prefectural
Industrial Promotion Hall is reflected on the Motoyasugawa river
Friday night, below the A-Bomb Dome that the building is now
known as.
HIROSHIMA--Representatives of 32 nations will attend Saturday's
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, the largest turnout for the
event, to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the
city, officials said.
But the United States, which dropped the bomb on Aug. 6, 1945,
will not be officially represented. U.S. officials said their
delegates were engaged in official duties.
Libya, which gave up its nuclear program in 2003, is set to
attend, as will Russia, the only nuclear power to attend the
ceremonies. Moscow has attended for the past five years.
Other nations planning to attend include Mexico, Egypt and New
Zealand, members of the New Agenda Coalition, which has been
lobbying for a reduction of nuclear weapons.
Around 60,000 people are expected at the ceremony, about the
same number as the record crowd in 1995.(IHT/Asahi: August
6,2005)
+ Asahi Shimbun English-language Publication Advertise
à [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights
*****************************************************************
81 Las Vegas SUN: Prayer service near Nevada Test Site ends anti-nuclear events
Today: August 07, 2005 at 16:47:21 PDT
By JOE CAVARETTA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MERCURY, Nev. (AP) - As the sun rose over the Nevada Test Site
early Sunday, the sounds of a nearby prayer service punctuated
the cool desert air.
To the rhythm of a beating drum and singing, more than two dozen
people danced in a symbolic circle, hoping one day they and
future generations would live in a nuclear-free world.
The sunrise prayer service partly concluded the anti-nuclear
events that began Thursday at the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas.
Corbin Harney, spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone tribe,
reminded those present that the test site land belonged to his
people.
Harney delivered the same message hours before to actor Martin
Sheen and about 180 other people, who were detained and cited
for trespassing on the test site.
Nye County sheriff's deputies placed plastic restraints on the
activists late Saturday as they crossed a white line on U.S.
Highway 95 marking the site.
The nonviolent protesters were there to mark the 60th
anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Some 70,000 people died instantly and an estimated 70,000 more
died later from the radioactive fallout. Three days later, a
plutonium bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing about
80,000 people.
Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War II to an
end.
Similar demonstrations were held at the nuclear weapons labs at
Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California
and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
On Saturday in Reno, about 40 people gathered outside the
federal building for a vigil that consisted of speeches and
prayers for Japanese victims.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings have been credited with
helping end World War II and saving the lives of U.S. troops and
Japanese civilians during a likely invasion of Japan.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
82 TheNewsTribune.com: Poisoned childhood still hurts |
| Tacoma, WA
Hanford nuclear exposure haunts Olympia woman
EIJIRO KAWADA; The News Tribune
Published: August 6th, 2005 12:01 AM
[Photo1] Enlarge imageDEAN J. KEOPFLER; The News
TribuneConnie Thomas of Olympia, one of 2700 plaintiffs in the
Hanford Downwinders litigation, says that various diseases from
being exposed to radiation released from Hanford Nuclear
Reservation when she was a child in the 1950's have affected her
health and limited activity.
Growing up in the Tri-Cities area in the 1950s, Connie Thomas
was a lot like other children in her neighborhood: swimming in
the Columbia River, drinking local milk and making mud pies in
the backyard.
When her family moved there from California in 1949, World War
II had ended and the Cold War was in full swing.
The massive Hanford Nuclear Reservation was no longer a
top-secret Manhattan Project facility, but it kept adding
reactors to stock the nations nuclear arsenal.
This was the reason Thomas family settled in the area, so her
father could find work in construction.
He didnt talk about his job at the dinner table, and there was
little reason for the kids to ask.
Hanford didnt come into play at all as a kid, said Thomas,
now 58, of Olympia. It was just some place that my father
worked.
The nuclear reservation later would haunt her as it still does
in the form of illnesses she believes stem from her exposure
to radiation that belched from the plant. Her sister and mother
also suffer.
Hundreds of people who lived in southeast Washington and
northeast Oregon took to calling themselves downwinders
because prevailing winds blew residues from Hanford.
Between 1944 and 1972, radioactive materials were released into
the air, water and soil mainly as the result of routine
operations to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs.
The highest releases into the Columbia River took place from
1955 to 1965, and into the air between 1944 and 1951.
As recently as a decade ago, advocacy groups aggressively fought
to win recognition of their members illnesses and get financial
help from the U.S. government to cover medical expenses not
unlike what Hiroshima atomic bombing victims got from the
Japanese government after World War II.
In the first Hanford case to play out in court, a federal jury
awarded about $500,000 in May to two of six plaintiffs who had
waited for years.
But Thomas, who is among about 2,700 plaintiffs tied to that
case, feels the momentum is gone. Many downwinder groups are now
defunct. Some members have died. Others have moved.
She said shes pessimistic about the lawsuit and can hope only
that future generations will learn from her experience: that the
government is capable of keeping many people in the dark while
they suffer.
Im hoping that we dont go down as a little blip in history,
Thomas said.
sickness hits early
Around the time Thomas turned 30 she was then married and
living in Olympia she noticed she was tired a lot and often
felt cold, even on a summer day.
Her symptoms got worse in the late 70s after her first child
was born. Her doctor diagnosed an autoimmune disease, a
condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the
bodys organs and tissues.
What followed were other diagnoses and a limited lifestyle.
She held some desk jobs over the years, but at one point was
strong enough to work only as a reading tutor at home, on the
phone. She gave up hiking and traveling because of weakness. She
still has to nap every day.
Thomas also has been diagnosed with two other illnesses:
hypothyroidism, a condition that can cause problems including
fatigue, weight gain and reduced mental function; and
fibromyalgia, which causes a chronic, widespread pain in muscles
and soft tissues around the joints.
Thomas said six of 10 family members and relatives in the
Hanford area have had health issues, which no relatives living
elsewhere have experienced.
Without a healthy thyroid, it affects you in many, many ways,
Thomas said. Its very frustrating.
hope for some help
In 1986, Thomas, like thousands of others who had similar
problems, thought they had found an answer.
Hanford was forced to reveal some of its secrets, which showed
that it had released chemicals including a radioactive substance
called iodine-131.
It was in the air, in the river and in pretty much everything
else that needed air and water to survive, including locally
grown produce and local dairy products.
Iodine tends to concentrate in the thyroid, and, at a higher
dosage, causes health issues including low energy and low
metabolism.
Thomas remembers her reaction at the time: Wow, this sounds
like what weve been experiencing.
She took an ultrasound test, which showed that her thyroid had
shrunk dramatically. Shock, anger and distrust filled her mind.
Many more people came forward, and the downwinders quickly
organized. They filed lawsuits against General Electric and
DuPont, which operated nuclear plants under contracts with the
federal government.
Thomas sister, Judith Jurji of Seattle, led the biggest group,
the Hanford Downwinders Coalition, which at its peak boasted
5,000 members from several states.
The group educated others who might have been exposed, lobbied
government agencies to win recognition and raised awareness.
It was an uphill battle.
In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center released the
results of a much-anticipated study of 3,400 downwinders. The
groups had hoped it would be the foundation upon which they
would build their cases.
Instead, the study showed no link between their illnesses and
the Hanford releases.
The biggest obstacle that the downwinders could not conquer was
time. After a decade, no decisions had come out of the courts.
I think it was just exhaustion and burnout, Jurji said of why
advocacy groups dissipated. I did it for 12 years with no pay.
We spent a lot of our own money. Sooner or later, you just cant
economically do it.
Jurji moved to California five years ago, and that was the end
of her coalition.
In May, the first downwinder case went to trial in federal court
in Spokane after 14 years, and the jury awarded more than
$500,000 to two thyroid cancer patients out of six plaintiffs in
the trial.
Its quite clear to me that the point is established that
Hanford radiation caused thyroid cancer in two of the
plaintiffs, said David Breskin, whose Seattle firm represents
about 900 downwinders.
But the defendants claimed victory, as well.
Kevin Van Wart, whose Chicago firm represents General Electric,
DuPont and others, said its instructive to trace the cases
legal history.
The case (that went to trial) originally started with 12
plaintiffs, and nine of those were decided in our favor, he
said.
Six didnt make it to the trial, and the jury deadlocked on one.
The implications of the verdicts are unclear. Breskin said
parties in cases like these tend to redouble their efforts to
reach settlements after a trial. But he also said the plaintiffs
have appealed the cases they lost, and he expects the defendants
to do the same.
Van Wart said the case is not a class-action lawsuit, and any
settlements would have to be reached individually.
They signed up too many people with low dosages, the defense
lawyer said, referring to the 2,700 plaintiffs. Nobody is going
to pay these claims.
It could be years before the final outcome, which leaves Thomas
with little hope.
Im not really anticipating that much from my case, she said.
a company town
Thomas still goes back to the Tri-Cities area to visit family,
though she doesnt like to. After everything shes been through
as an adult, it doesnt seem like the same place where she spent
her childhood.
The downwinder battles have divided communities and families,
she said. While some complained about their health, others
continued to benefit from jobs at Hanford.
The area has thrived because of the massive nuclear reservation.
Hanford now is in the big business of cleaning itself up, which
is expected to take several decades. Its a $2 billion-a-year
operation that employs about 11,000 workers.
One of Thomas three brothers still works there, and when she
visits family in the area, nobody talks about her ailments.
Its a different culture there, she said. Its a company
town.
Mum is also the word when dealing with her father-in-law, a
physicist who worked at Los Alamos, N.M., another Manhattan
Project site where nuclear weapons were built.
Thomas cant help thinking its all connected, in a way.
It feels like the sins of our fathers not in a biblical sense
have visited upon us, and we paid the price, she said. We
didnt do this. We were innocent victims. I was just a child,
making mud pies.
Eijiro Kawada: 253-597-8633
A LEGACY EXAMINED
For the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, The News
Tribune is looking at the legacy of the Manhattan Project
nuclear age in the form of two people on two continents.
friday: A barber from Hiroshima spreads a message his
12-year-old cancer-stricken sister would have loved.
toDAY: An Olympia woman tries to keep hope alive after growing
up in the toxic shadow of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742
© Copyright 2005 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy
*****************************************************************
83 DenverPost.com: Workers' comp after Rocky Flats a painful process
Article Launched: 08/07/2005 04:18:00 AM
While the feds have tried to speed up payments, more than 2,500
claims tied to exposure at the nuclear plant languish.
By Kim McGuire Denver Post Staff Writer
Kay Barker holds a photo of her and her husband, Larry,
just before he died. He believed a single radiation exposure at
Rocky Flats caused his cancer and reduced him to 85 pounds.
(Post / Will Singleton)
Granby - Hours before Larry Barker died, he shared a secret with
his wife, Kay. A secret he had guarded through their 14-year
marriage.
While working at the Rocky Flats atomic plant in the late 1950s,
Barker was once exposed to radiation, scrubbed down and sent
home early.
It was that single exposure in Building 991, he believed, that
caused his colon cancer and reduced him to an 85-pound skeleton.
The story took only minutes to tell. But Kay has spent 11 years
since Larry's death, in 1994 at age 66, trying to prove the tale
to the federal government and get compensation for the loss of
her husband.
Barker is among more than 2,500 Rocky Flats workers and
survivors still seeking federal compensation - more than a year
after Congress overhauled the program to speed payments.
Nationally, there are about 41,000 workers and survivors with
pending claims.
There is a backlog of almost 10,000 radiation claims like
Barker's awaiting evaluation by the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health, according to federal figures.
And of the almost 8,700 cases the institute has evaluated, it
has recommended denying compensation about 70 percent of the
time.
Workers say deserving claims are being turned down, and they
point to a federal audit released in December that found
instances where radiation exposures had been miscalculated.
"Whole process ... a joke"
"It's a farce," said Inga Olson, an advocate for former nuclear
workers at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in Livermore,
Calif. "This whole process ... it's a joke."
In October, the U.S. Department of Labor took over full
administration of the workers' compensation program for federal
nuclear employees, after Congress lost patience with the
Department of Energy, which had managed to pay only 31 claims in
four years.
The Labor Department inherited 32,501 cases from the DOE, and
Shelby Hallmark, Labor's director of workers' compensation
programs, said the agency first focused on claims that were
easily approved or denied.
Now, the department plans to move forward with the remaining
cases, operating under a new set of rules designed to help
workers who have been exposed to toxic chemicals, Hallmark said.
Workers and lawmakers, however, are lambasting those rules too,
saying if adopted later this year, they will further delay
payments.
"There is some concern and misunderstanding out there," Hallmark
said. "I think that some of the words in the new regulations
sound rather legalistic and restrictive."
In late July, 19 senators and representatives, including
Colorado's Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, and Sen. Wayne Allard,
a Republican, wrote Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, seeking
changes to the rules.
"We believe the Department of Labor ignored Congress' earlier
directive to expedite the process, and these new rules may
prevent many from accessing compensation," said Ken Lane,
Salazar's chief of staff.
For Kay Barker, who oversees the evidence room for the Grand
County Sheriff's Department and
supervises community-service
sentences, the claims process has been infuriating and
exhausting.
In 2001, she filed her first form with the DOE. A year earlier,
Congress had passed a bill to provide nuclear employees workers'
compensation - the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act.
Last year, her case was referred to the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health.
At the institute, scientists tried to reconstruct Larry Barker's
radiation exposure at the nuclear-bomb factory, primarily
through old dosimeter-badge readings and urine-test results.
For her claim to be approved, the agency would have to determine
there was at least a 50 percent chance Larry Barker's cancer was
caused by working at Rocky Flats.
The institute told Kay Barker they could find no records of her
husband being exposed to radiation and calculated the exposure
chance at 41 percent.
At the sheriff's office, she is expert in maintaining and
organizing evidence, but building a case for her husband was
daunting because obtaining key Rocky Flats records proved
impossible.
All she had was a former employee's version of Larry Barker's
exposure.
"The Energy Department had plenty of people to help you file
paperwork, but when you really needed something, then they just
sort of disappeared," Kay Barker said.
Labor's Hallmark said department officials are sympathetic to
the plight of workers and their survivors.
The department has paid $1.1 billion in workers' compensation
to 10,000 workers exposed to radiation and more than $67 million
in medical bills over five years.
Since inheriting the toxic-exposure portion of the program in
October, the department has paid out 685 claims - including 53
from Rocky Flats - totaling $85 million.
The department's proposed rules are supposed to lead to more
claims being paid, Hallmark said. But critics say they will
raise new hurdles instead.
One complaint is that the rules require workers to wait until
their health is as good as can be - "maximum medical recovery" -
to establish the workers' compensation level for each.
George Barrie, 49, a machinist at Rocky Flats from 1982 to 1989,
has been diagnosed with 31 ailments, including a chronic
inflammation of the stomach lining, which often leads to cancer.
"For him, there is no maximum medical recovery," said Barrie's
wife, Terrie, of Craig, one of the leaders of the Alliance of
Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups.
"It's a matter of waiting until he gets cancer and dies. I know
that sounds blunt, but it's what we've been told," she said.
Another change in the rule shifts more of the burden for proving
exposures to the workers - who say they can't find many of the
records needed to prove their cases.
Some have been lost, some have been classified, while others
have been moved off-site.
Jan Demorest, 64, contracted breast cancer in 1994, 3 1/2 years
after she went to work at Rocky Flats as a maintenance-program
manager. She had a double mastectomy but went back to her
well-paying job.
Her employer, EG Rocky Flats, did not require her to wear a
dosimeter badge, Demorest said, so there was no record of
whether Demorest went into "hot," or radioactive-contaminated,
buildings.
Claim denied
In June, the same institute evaluating Kay Barker's claim told
Demorest it could document only minimal exposures - and denied
her claim.
"Just because it was never measured didn't mean it wasn't
there," said Demorest, who has had to depend on part-time work
since she left Rocky Flats in 2000.
Hallmark said the department tries to help workers build their
case but that it can't shoulder the entire responsibility.
"If the claimant says, 'I was exposed to toxic compound X,' and
we can't find compound X in our records, then, yes, at that
point we're going to have to rely on them to provide us with
information," he said.
Any process that depends on DOE documents is going to be messy
because of how much is classified as secret, said Robert
Alvarez, a senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy
between 1993 and 1999.
"At many places, especially a place like Rocky Flats, you're
going to bump up against the issue of process knowledge,"
Alvarez said. "That's difficult."
Many former Rocky Flats workers - the plant employed 10,000 at
its peak in the 1980s - say the only way to make sure they are
compensated is for federal health officials to grant them a
special status providing automatic payment for any
radiation-linked cancer.
United Steel Workers Local 8031,
which represents some Rocky
Flats workers, has petitioned for that status, and a decision is
expected next year. Four DOE facilities already have such a
compensation standard.
Kay Barker's claim, for example, would be covered if the
petition goes through.
For now, Barker continues wrestling with the system. Just two
weeks ago, the institute assessing her husband's radiation
exposure admitted it made a calculation error. It will evaluate
his case again.
"The process is broken," Barker said. "I am dead in the water if
we can't fix this now."
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or .
All contents Copyright 2005 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
84 PBP: Officials urge delaying radioactive sludge, concrete, Savannah River plan
www.palmbeachpost.com
By Jeff Nesmith
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 06, 2005
WASHINGTON A committee of the National Academy of Sciences
urged the Energy Department on Friday to postpone its
controversial plans to mix millions of gallons of radioactive
sludge with concrete for permanent burial in South Carolina near
the Savannah River.
But the department brushed aside the recommendation, declaring
that it intends to go ahead with its plans.
At the plant, most waste is being removed from 51 huge steel
tanks where it has accumulated in decades of nuclear weapons
production. That waste is being sealed in glass "logs" for
eventual shipment to Nevada's Yucca Mountain and permanent
disposal.
But a peanut butter-thick residue of highly radioactive material
will remain in the bottom of each tank, and the department
estimates it could cost as much as $500 million to get this
material out and "glassify" it.
Therefore, it proposed in the 1990s to simply reclassify the
material as low-level radioactive waste, a move that would make
it legal to leave it where it is, covered with a layer of
concrete or "grout."
Environmentalists and Georgia officials have complained that
this plan threatens to expose the Savannah River to radioactive
contamination, should the waste escape and leach through the
soil at any time in the next several centuries.
Ruling in a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council,
a federal judge said the government did not have authority to
redefine high-level waste as low-level waste. Congress last year
passed a law giving the Energy Department the authority, in
effect overturning the judge's ruling.
It also attached a requirement that the department seek the
National Academy of Science's advice on the plan.
In an unusual "interim report" released Friday, the committee
set up by the academy to review the plan said the Energy
Department has not provided it with documents it needs to make
the evaluation.
There should be no rush to pour in the concrete, the committee
said, adding that in five or 10 years technologies might be
developed that will make it possible to remove the sludge.
By postponing this step, the government would keep its options
open, states the interim report.
But Energy Department spokesman Mike Waldron said the government
will go ahead with its plans.
"We believe that the near-term risk reduction associated with
tank closure outweighs the benefit of any incremental
improvements in waste removal technology," he said. "We will
continue to work in the most environmentally responsible manner
possible."
Geoffrey Fettus, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense
Council, noted that the interim report also "clearly states that
the committee is not getting from the Department of Energy the
information it needs" to evaluate waste disposal work at the
Savannah River Site.
Copyright © 2005, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved.
By using PalmBeachPost.com
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85 CBS News: Los Alamos' Future Up In The Air
| August 7, 2005 10:30:18
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. Aug. 7, 2005
(Photo: CBS)
"What is so special at Los Alamos that, we go through this year
after year, that what's being done at Los Alamos, why can't it
be transferred to other labs? In other words, why do we need Los
Alamos?"Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.
(CBS) It was 60 years ago that America dropped the most powerful
bomb the world had ever seen on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
and three days later a second bomb on Nagasaki ending World War
II and igniting the nuclear age.
CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen reports that this weekend, as
there have been every year since, vigils and protests marked the
Aug. 6 Hiroshima anniversary, including one at the remote New
Mexico mountain town where the bomb was born in great secrecy
all those decades ago: the town of Los Alamos.
At the town museum, tourists now pose with replicas of the
bombs: Little Boy that hit Hiroshima and Fat Man that fell on
Nagasaki. The devastation they wrought still provoking awe and
disbelief:
"All I wrote down was, 'Wow! It really went off. It really did.'
And I had no idea what the effect would be on ending the war,"
says Harold Agnew, a member of the famed Manhattan Project.
Agnew was 22-years-old when he joined the Manhattan Project, the
team of scientists recruited to build the bomb back in the
1940's. Later he volunteered to fly on the Hiroshima mission to
measure the size of the blast. Agnew and the other scientists
didn't fully comprehend what their top secret project might
mean.
"At the time, I didn't really appreciate what, what the impact
would be and what we were working on," Agnew recalls.
Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the civilian head of the
government project. "Oppy", as he was called, selected Los
Alamos, site of an exclusive boys school, as the headquarters
for the secret project. So secret that nearby Sante Fe was used
as the mailing address for the scientists and their families.
The outside world was not to know a thing.
"Oppenheimer argued that what they should do is corral all the
scientists in essentially a secret city behind barbed wire,
where they couldn't leave and nobody could come in," says author
Jenny Conant. "And then all of the information behind those
fences would be secure."
Conant, who has written a new book on the Manhattan Project,
says it was Oppenheimer's idea that Los Alamos be equal parts
university campus and bomb factory, much as it remains today.
"Behind those fences they could discuss openly their ideas,"
Conant says. "And that freedom, that kind of relaxed atmosphere,
most people think contributed to the enormous progress that Los
Alamos made in an incredibly short period of time."
In July 1945 the first atom bomb test -- the trinity explosion
-- proved to "Oppy" and his team that they had succeeded. Three
weeks later, after Hiroshima, the entire world would know.
(CBS)
Yet the work at Los Alamos didn't end there. The secret city
soldiered on, designing and maintaining America's nuclear
arsenal, far from the public eye. That is, until now.
Today, Los Alamos is at a crossroads. Just as it was at the end
of World War II, just as it was at the end of the cold war. But,
this is different. For the first time in its 60-year history,
management of the sprawling nuclear lab is up for grabs. The
company and the company town are dealing with uncertainty.
The safety and maintenance of the lab are being called into
question. A series of embarrassing and costly incidents have
undermined confidence in the University of California, which has
managed the lab for the government since World War II.
Prime example: the Wen Ho Lee case: the scientist accused in 1999
of giving warhead designs to China, dropped, with an apology, for
lack of evidence.
And last year, the estimated $360 million cost of shutting down
the lab to search for two missing classified computer disks that
never really existed. Their so-called disappearance was the
result of a sloppy inventory.
Congress was not amused and called for private industry to take
over. And indeed, defense contractor Lockheed-Martin, partnered
with the University of Texas, and construction giant Bechtel,
teamed with the University of California, are competing to run
the lab.
But it may not stop there. Just this May, Rep. Bart Stupak,
D-Mich., suggested closing the lab.
"Well, let me ask you this then. What is so special at Los Alamos
that, we go through this year after year, that what's being done
at Los Alamos, why can't it be transferred to other labs? In
other words, why do we need Los Alamos?" asks Stupak.
Greg Mello, who organized the weekend protest at Los Alamos, has
been asking that same question for the last 15 years.
He runs the Los Alamos study group.
"Los Alamos is not necessary," Mello says bluntly. "We are not
destined to live in a continuation of the cold war forever. We
are not destined to live, what is basically a continuation of the
Manhattan Project forever."
Yet lab supporters argue there is much worth preserving. The part
campus, part nuclear weapons laboratory atmosphere. The Manhattan
Project's can-do, anything is possible legacy.
Where scientists are never addressed as doctor because everyone
has a Ph.D.; instead they're affectionately known as "cones" as
in cone heads.
And these days the "cones" and their managers are working to
convince skeptics that the more than $2 billion budget and staff
of 12,000 are justified -- that the brains behind the barbed wire
can adapt to new realities.
For the budding field of homeland security, the lab has developed
these biological weapons detectors.
They've adapted high-powered weapons research computers to
analyze the human genome and have even used surveillance
satellite technology to discover evidence of water on the moon
and Mars.
But the main job remains maintaining America's aging stockpile of
nuclear weapons: the roughly 10,000 warheads in storage or
deployed for possible use.
"Yes, nuclear weapons get old," John Immele of the Los Alamos
laboratory says, "and repairing them and replacing them is not an
easy task. The United States does not have the old Chevy's of
nuclear weapons. We have the Ferraris of nuclear weapons."
Immele is in charge of the stockpile stewardship program, the
system which confirms the reliability of America's nuclear
arsenal.
Since America has sworn-off actual testing, Los Alamos has tapped
its resident brainpower to conceive of virtual alternatives, such
as detonating simulated warheads and analyzing the explosion with
this $260 million X-ray machine.
According to lab worker Mike Burns, the machine works quickly.
"We make X-rays over an extraordinarily brief amount of time:
Sixty-billionths of a second," Burns says.
The results are poured into one of the world's most powerful
super computers, which runs at 20-trillion computations per
second. The data seem solid enough to give Immele confidence.
"It's sort of deterrence by capability," Immele explains. "It
says that in the nuclear arena, in the weapons of mass
destruction arena, don't challenge the United States because
we've got the smarts, this laboratory and others, to respond to
any new challenge."
Virtual testing is one challenge, but replacing the ageing,
nearly obsolete stockpile is another.
"I am leading the efforts at Los Alamos to design the next
generation warhead for the nation's nuclear deterrent," Joe Martz
says and adds that "we haven't done the job of designing new
warheads to support deterrence or over 20 years in the United
States."
Martz represents the future of Los Alamos - and the entire U.S.
nuclear weapons program. Funding for new warheads could provide
the lab's bread and butter for decades.
But it may come at a price. Whoever takes over may not tolerate
the work of veteran scientists who think outside the box, like
Bill Feldman.
"I just hope that whatever happens, that that open atmosphere of
information exchange is maintained in the future," Feldman says.
Remember the technology used to detect signs of water on Mars and
the moon? That came out of Feldman's system to monitor nuclear
bomb tests, a pet project with stellar consequences.
"The attitude here has always been, you know, there's nothing
that really can't be done if you're just given the freedom to
think about it," Feldman says.
But congressional critics say, that attitude is more trouble than
it's worth.
"I remain skeptical as to whether the culture at Los Alamos will
really change," Stupak said recently during congressional
hearings. "Allowing the status quo culture will only prolong the
wasting of taxpayers' money, or worse, jeopardize national
security."
It's a deadly serious business at the sprawling Los Alamos lab.
Once freed from the bottle all those years ago, the nuclear genie
has required constant attention.
In December, the U.S. Energy Department will decide who next will
have that responsibility and how much of the spirit of the
Manhattan Project survives -- that symbol of cutting through
government red tape -- to get the job done.
© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
86 lamonitor.com: GAO: Cleanup savings dwindles
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the
Department of Energy is not likely to achieve a $50 billion
savings promised to Congress as a dividend in the department's
accelerated cleanup program announced in 2002.
An assistant director on the natural resources and environmental
team at GAO, who was involved in the study on nuclear waste
cleanup, said the energy department has since backed away from
the $50 billion figure.
"They still believe they will achieve some savings as a result
of accelerated cleanup, as well as getting more rapid reductions
of risk," said Bill Swick from Seattle today.
DOE is trying to reduce the duration of the clean-up project
from 70 years to 35.
While noting progress on 13 of 16 risk reduction measures, GAO's
review found the department behind schedule in the remaining
three activities, the most challenging and costly components.
The lagging tasks included disposing of transuranic waste,
disposing of radioactive tank waste and closing out
decommissioned tanks.
The Hanford Site, Wash., Savannah River Site, S.C. and Idaho
National Laboratory, which account for the bulk of cleanup
costs, also accounted for more than 90 percent of the projected
savings.
Anticipated savings at Los Alamos National Laboratory were
estimated at $726.5 million when the accelerated cleanup plan
was announced, down from $2.16 billion total cleanup costs
envisioned before the new program.
In its response, the Department of Energy criticized some
inaccuracies, but agreed with the conclusions of GAO's report
and accepted its recommendations on improving performance
measures.
The report found underlying errors in DOE's original assumptions
that are now more apparent.
In arriving at the figure of a $50 billion reduction, DOE
subtracted its projection ($142 billion) - based on top-down
target figures it had provided to several of the cleanup sites -
from a figure that was based on the sites' own aggregated
estimates ($192 billion) from two years earlier.
In a footnote, the GAO reported that the sites could have asked
for higher targets, and that some did, but headquarters had to
approve the increase.
DOE factored in expected savings based on new technologies, such
as vitrification (melting contaminated soils and entombing them
in glassy chunks).
But big-ticket cost-savings, like a $4.7 billion reduction
anticipated from a new technology for tank waste separation at
Idaho National Laboratory has yet to be tested, much less put
into savings.
Similarly, a new technology to be tried out at the Hanford site
has already projected cost increases and is six months behind
schedule.
By correcting DOE's failure to discount savings because of the
longer-term reduction in the value of money, another $8 billion
in purported savings for work on the Hanford Waste Treatment
should be removed from the plus-column, GAO said.
DOE also counted on savings from new contracting strategies and
revised cleanup agreements, but two of the largest new contracts
- at Savannah River and Hanford - have yet to be awarded and
external auditors at Savannah River have said DOE's hopes for a
windfall are "neither probable nor susceptible of reasonable
estimation."
As for savings from cleanup agreement revisions, DOE found tough
sledding.
The GAO report found that state and federal regulators are
digging in their heels - rejecting or resisting about 75 percent
of the expected savings - another $3.375 billion not saved.
New Mexico figures in the unrealized savings column, having
refused to accept the department's reclassification of some high
level waste as transuranic waste that might have been deposited
at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project.
That expected $1.5 billion savings has so far not happened,
either.
Swick said design work for the study began in June 2004 and that
the report took about a year to complete.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
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