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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Annan Says He Has Indications Iran And Europeans Ready To Continue N
2 IPS-English IRAN-UN: Room for negotiation on nuclear issue
3 IPS-English POLITICS: Swift U.N. Action Unlikely on Iran Nukes
4 Iran: UN Nuclear Watchdog Confirms Seals Broken At Uranium Conversio
5 AFP: UN watchdog holds emergency talks on Iran's nuclear programme
6 BBC: Iran removes UN's nuclear seals
7 BBC: Iran in nuclear sanctions warning
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran to Break U.N. Seals on Nuke Equipment
9 Reuters: IAEA allows Iran to remove nuclear seals-official
10 Reuters: Iran says removes seals at Isfahan nuclear plant
11 Reuters: UN leader urges Iran, Europeans to keep talking
12 RIA Novosti: Russian experts do not consider North Korean talks fail
13 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy Unsure if Nuclear Deal Likely
14 Xinhua: US hopes DPRK nuclear agreement to come out by Sept.
15 Japan Times: North Korea's choice
16 Reuters: U.S. negotiator unsure if can reach Korea nuke deal
17 US: Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover
18 US: Yahoo! News: Army Whistleblower Draws Fire -
19 US: Salt Lake Tribune: New energy law limits public's say in decisio
20 US: NRC: Notice and Solicitation of Comments; Pursuant to 10 CFR 20.
21 US: Platts: NEI says energy bill gives industry "tools" for new plan
22 [EMMAS] Noam Chomsky: We must act now to prevent another
23 MDN: 60 Years On: Measures necessary for protection against new-type
24 Ukraine starts using US nuclear fuel
NUCLEAR REACTORS
25 nature.com: Chernobyl ecosystems 'remarkably healthy' - Despite
26 AU ABC: Attitudes to nuclear power changing, says inquiry head
27 Daily Yomiuri: Blowout at N-plant 'was avoidable'
28 NewsFromRussia.Com: Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down
29 US: Burlington Free Press: Think about nuclear energy in a rational
30 US: APP.COM: Safety the key for future of Oyster Creek
31 London Times: Place of nuclear power and coal in future energy polic
32 smh.com.au: Nuclear power only natural, says Nelson
NUCLEAR SECURITY
NUCLEAR SAFETY
33 US: [toeslist] Discovery of Radioactive Scrap near Border Begs
34 US: Americas Program | Discovery of Radioactive Scraps Begs Proper
35 US: [NukeNet] EPA Proposing 1 Million Year Radiation Exposure
36 US: State Health Department Announces Potassium Iodide to be Distrib
37 US: Deseret News: EPA looks million years into future
38 SF Chronicle: Foreign A-bomb victims are all but forgotten
39 US: ABQJOURNAL: Two LANL Workers Inhale Chemical Fumes
40 Xinhua: IAEA deputy director: more attention on nuclear usage safety
41 US: Hawk Eye: Labor Dept. plans two IAAP meetings
42 US: lamonitor.com: Late reported accident hospitalized lab worker
43 US: Pahrump Valley Times: Guesswork at root of radiation standards
44 asahi.com: A-bomb survivor puts brave face on tragedy
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
45 US: American Centrifuge Plant
46 US: [du-list] Uranium producers rush to reopen mines.. SOLD !
47 US: [NYTr] Heaps of Unburied Rad Waste on US-Mexico Border
48 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca radiation limits unveiled
49 BBC: Inquiry after men
50 BBC: Early run-down for Dounreay plant
51 Platts: EPA proposes two-tiered radiation standard for Yucca Mtn.
52 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A miracle -- overnight
53 Las Vegas SUN: EPA proposal gives Yucca a boost
54 US: Salt Lake City Weekly: Let’s (Not) Make a Deal
55 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Forum opposes larger Envirocare
56 EPA Press Release: Proposed Yucca Mountain Standards to Protect
57 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons Statement on EPA's New Radiation Standard for Y
58 Press Releease: Reid, Ensign secure hearing on public safety standar
59 North-West Evening Mail: Nuke train fears over rusty viaduct
60 IEER: EPA Yucca Mtn. Standards, IEER press release
61 Pahrump Valley Times: Feds challenge Nye's oversight spending
62 US: Bradenton Herald: A tainted bargain
63 US: AU ABC: Greens to challenge NT uranium power shift
PEACE
64 Daily Yomiuri: Nagasaki remembers atomic bomb attack
65 SF Chronicle: HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI / Nagasaki mayor has stern word
66 Alamogordo News: Atomic flame extinguished at Trinity Site
67 Japan Times: Nagasaki mayor raps nuclear deterrence
68 Japan Times: No rationalization for Nagasaki attack
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
69 Santa Fe New Mexican: DOE probes another LANL mishap
70
71 Tri-City Herald: Bechtel Hanford settles in safety incidents
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Annan Says He Has Indications Iran And Europeans Ready To Continue Nuclear Talks
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 17:00:48 -0400
ANNAN SAYS HE HAS INDICATIONS IRAN AND EUROPEANS READY TO CONTINUE
NUCLEAR TALKS
New York, Aug 10 2005 5:00PM
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today he had received
indications from both Iran and European negotiators that they
would continue their search for a solution to the oil producer’s
nuclear programme, which some countries, including the United
States, see as an effort to produce nuclear weapons.
“I believe that the best way to break the impasse is to continue
the discussions – the EU-3 with the Iranians at the table,” Mr. Annan
<"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=760">told reporters
just hours after Iran broke the seals, under UN surveillance,
at a uranium conversion plant where it had suspended operations
while negotiating with the European Union’s (EU) France, Germany
and the United Kingdom.
“And I think they should continue their search for a solution that
is in conformity with international norms and the atomic agency
resolutions. I have indications from both sides that they are prepared
to continue their search for a solution,” he told reporters
after attending his monthly working lunch with the 15-member Security
Council.
Iran, which denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and insists that
its programme is solely for civilian energy production, suspended
all uranium enrichment and reprocessing in November in the so-called
Paris agreement for talks with the EU-3 to resolve issues arising
out of the disclosure two years ago that it had for almost
two decades concealed its nuclear activities in breach of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Enriched uranium can be used for peaceful purposes such as generating
energy or for making nuclear weapons and the EU-3 have said
a resumption of nuclear activities would mean the end of the negotiations.
“Obviously this was not in conformity with the Paris agreement as
endorsed by the atomic agency but I hope that all sides will desist
from any action that will lead to further escalation and continue
the process at the table,” Mr. Annan said, referring to the
UN International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2005/prn200510.html">IAEA),
which has called
on Iran to continue its voluntary moratorium as a confidence-building
measure.
“I am in touch with all parties concerned and I have spoken to the
new Iranian president on this issue, urging for restraint and continuation
of the dialogue,” he added.
The Vienna-based IAEA, whose mandate includes preventing the spread
of nuclear weapons, confirmed today that that Iran had broken
all the seals at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan after
the agency had installed its inspection system, but stressed that
its supervision did not imply an endorsement of the resumption.
The IAEA Board of Governors is currently meeting in Vienna at the
request of the EU-3 to discuss the next steps.
The installation of IAEA cameras for breaking the seals and its surveillance
of operations are part of NPT safeguards aimed at ensuring
that materials and equipment are not diverted to weapons production,
and although Iran’s resumption under these conditions does
not breach the treaty, the agency has repeatedly urged it to
continue the suspension.
“The Board has clearly stated in the past that although suspension
of enrichment-related and conversion activities in the Islamic
Republic of Iran is a voluntary decision, it is nonetheless essential
for confidence-building and for resolution of outstanding issues
relevant to Iran's past undeclared nuclear activities,” IAEA
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday before the start
of the Board’s session.
2005-08-10 00:00:00.000
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2 IPS-English IRAN-UN: Room for negotiation on nuclear issue
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:57:34 -0700
autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
AP HD IP CS
IRAN-UN: Room for negotiation on nuclear issue
Att.Editors: The following item is from the Emirates News Agency (WAM)
ABU DHABI, Aug. 10 (WAM) - A United Arab Emirates (UAE) paper said Wednesday
that there still remains enough shock-absorbing space between Iran and the
UN Security Council over the nuclear issue.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said on Tuesday that he will
announce 'initiatives and new propositions' to negotiate with the European
Union (EU) after he forms his cabinet. France has also showed willingness to
continue talks with Iran. Whether this could influence the decision of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (lAEA) remains to be seen," wrote 'The
Gulf Today'.
In its daily comment, the paper said: "There is heavy pressure on the
IAEA which has started discussing the issue. Iran's decision to go ahead
with the nuclear activities has deepened the crisis. The IAEA is in an
emergency meeting as Iranian nuclear officials said the seals placed by the
UN body on the Isfahan conversion plant may be broken today. Tehran has
warned that the uranium conversion process will start soon afterwards.
"France, Britain and Germany, which negotiated the trade package with
Iran in return to withdrawing from the nuclear programme, are of the opinion
that Tehran must be given a final warning before the IAEA takes a final
decision to pass the ball to the Security Council.
"Ahmedinejad has not made clear what the new initiatives would be. He
strongly rejected the trade package, which includes nuclear energy fuel and
other commercial and political co-operation, offered by the EU majors.
Tehran feels that the offer was an insult to its people.
"The new Iranian leadership, however hard line, should realise that there
will be more direct pressure tactics from the US once the IAEA passes the
matter over to the Security Council.
"In fact the U.S. would be happy when the issue lands in a territory
where it can dictate matters. Obviously there are vested interests not
impressed by the EU trade package. Washington has made it clear that the
offer will not dilute the crisis. While France, Britain and Germany may not
be in a hurry to give up the matter, the U.S. surely is.
"The Bush administration will not accept Iran's right to possess civilian
nuclear capability, however 'genuine' Tehran's promise of its peaceful use.
Washington will not accept any move that compromises Israel's nuclear
monopoly in the Middle East.
"Ahmedinejad has a delicate crisis to deal with. His hard-line stand goes
well with his image. However, a Security Council move against Iran would be
more pinching. Sanctions and other strong-arm tactics would lessen Tehran's
room to manoeuvre. More defiance is sure to give the US the excuse to move
in. In fact, that is what Washington is itching for.
"The Middle East has seen what UN sanctions can do to a country in the
case of Iraq. It is not only about Iran's material loss, but also in terms
of allowing more open U.S. power play in the region.
"Ahmedinejad's initiatives, if at all there are some, may be holding the
clue to the next step in this growing crisis," concluded the paper. (WAM)
*****************************************************************
3 IPS-English POLITICS: Swift U.N. Action Unlikely on Iran Nukes
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 16:36:46 -0700
version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
ROMAIPS MM NA WD IP SC
POLITICS: Swift U.N. Action Unlikely on Iran Nukes
Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 (IPS) - The George W. Bush administration may like
to see Iran face sanctions for its nuclear aspirations, but the political
mood at the United Nations suggests that such punishment is not what the
world community is ready for.
"We don't think it will be helpful to bring the issue to the Security
Council," Chinese ambassador to the U.N. Wang Guangya told reporters here a
day after Iran broke the seals on uranium enrichment equipment at its
nuclear plant in Isfahan.
Guangya, whose country holds a permanent veto-wielding seat on the
15-member Security Council, said he supported ongoing efforts by
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union (EU)
troika (Britain, France and Germany) to find a solution based on dialogue
with Iran.
Recently, the three EU nations had warned Iran that they would seek
Security Council-sponsored sanctions if Tehran did not reverse its decision
to open the uranium reprocessing facilities after an eight-month hiatus.
Despite this threat, Iran removed the U.N. seals at a time when the
Vienna-based IAEA Board of Governors was still discussing what to do next.
Enriched material can be used for peaceful purposes like generating
electricity, as well as for making nuclear bombs. Iran has consistently
denied that it wants to make nuclear weapons and insists that its nuclear
activities are in accord with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
However, the United States and some European nations continue to harbour
suspicions about Tehran's intentions.
In an attempt to resolve the issue through dialogue, Iran had suspended its
uranium enrichment programme and allowed tough IAEA inspections in November
2003. It has since been involved in negotiations with Britain, Germany and
France.
The IAEA says Iran removed all its seals at the uranium plant after the
agency installed its inspection system, which includes surveillance cameras
and other devices, but that does not imply an "endorsement of the
resumption of uranium enrichment and conversion."
Like the Chinese ambassador, both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei urged restraint and warned against attempts
to escalate tensions.
"This is a very complex issue," Annan told reporters in New York Monday.
"It is essential that we break this current impasse. I believe the best way
to break this impasse is to continue the discussions (of) the EU-3 with the
Iranians at the table."
Asked under what circumstances he saw it coming before the Security
Council, the U.N. chief said: "The issue is before the IAEA, and I suspect
they will take a decision or pronounce themselves either today or tomorrow.
I think we need to jump that bridge first."
Annan said he was in touch with all the parties concerned, including
newly-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
ElBaradei, who has been discussing the issue with the leaders of several
nations, observed that any attempt to escalate the situation would be a
"lose-lose situation."
"I understand that there is a sense of frustration in Iran," he told
reporters in Vienna. "But as I said, negotiation of long-term arrangements
is a complex long-term process. It has an implication for peace and
security. I hope that Iran will continue to negotiate rather than take
unilateral action, go back to the negotiating table with a counter-proposal
and let's try to see this way forward."
Ahmadinejad, a former Tehran University professor who holds a doctoral
degree in engineering, has said he is ready for more talks on Iran's
nuclear programme and will come up with new proposals.
"I have new initiatives and proposals which I will present after my
government takes office," he told Annan over the telephone, according to
ISNA, an Iranian media outlet.
Pres. Bush welcomed Ahmadinejad's statement, but reiterated that he was
"very deeply suspicious" of Tehran's nuclear intentions. In Texas, he told
journalists that the EU-3 were negotiating "on behalf of the free world."
However, Bush said if the situation was not resolved through negotiations,
Washington would work with the Europeans "in terms of what consequences
there may be, and certainly the U.N. is a potential consequence."
Observers say securing a majority on the 35-nation board of the IAEA to
refer Iran to the Security Council would not be easy for the U.S. and the
EU, since a majority of members on the Board belong to the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM), who appear to have no desire to endorse such a move.
"This may cause serious international problems," said retired Lt. Gen.
Gennady Yevstafyev, senior counsel at the Centre for Political Research in
Moscow, in an interview with Novsti, a Russian news agency.
"It is hard to imagine that all the members of the Security Council will
elaborate a common approach to this problem. Consequently, they will fail
to adopt any resolution on the matter," he predicted.
"No one will consent to it, given the current political conditions," he
said. "Besides, nobody wants Iran to withdraw from the NPT. If it does, it
will completely discredit the treaty."
*****
+International Atomic Energy Agency (http://www.iaea.org/)
+MIDEAST: Nuclear Heat Rises Over Iran
(http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27267)
(END/IPS/WD/MM/NA/IP/SC/HR/KS/05)
= 08110000 ORP001
NNNN
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4 Iran: UN Nuclear Watchdog Confirms Seals Broken At Uranium Conversion Plant
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:00:54 -0400
IRAN: UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG CONFIRMS SEALS BROKEN AT URANIUM CONVERSION
PLANT
New York, Aug 10 2005 2:00PM
The United Nations atomic watchdog entrusted with curbing the spread
of nuclear weapons confirmed today that Iran had broken all the
seals at a uranium plant after the agency installed its inspection
system, but stressed that its supervision did not imply an endorsement
of the resumption of uranium enrichment and conversion.
The move came as the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency
(<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2005/prn200510.html">IAEA)
Board of Governors discussed Iran’s decision to end
its voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing
activities during negotiations with European countries on its programme,
which it insists is for peaceful energy production but which
the United States and some other nations see as an effort to
produce nuclear weapons.
Iran suspended activities in November during talks with the three
European Union (EU) countries, known as the EU-3 – France, Germany
and the United Kingdom – aimed at reaching a negotiated solution
to issues arising out of the disclosure two years ago that it
had for almost two decades concealed its nuclear activities in breach
of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The installation of IAEA cameras for breaking the seals and its surveillance
of operations are part of NPT safeguards aimed at ensuring
that materials and equipment are not diverted to weapons production,
and although Iran’s resumption under these conditions does
not breach the treaty, the agency has urged it to continue the
suspension.
Enriched uranium can be used for peaceful purposes such as generating
energy or for making nuclear weapons and the EU-3 have said
a resumption of nuclear activities would mean the end of the negotiations.
“The Board has clearly stated in the past that although suspension
of enrichment related and conversion activities in the Islamic
Republic of Iran is a voluntary decision, it is nonetheless essential
for confidence-building and for resolution of outstanding issues
relevant to Iran's past undeclared nuclear activities,” IAEA
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday before the start
of the Board’s session.
“I don't believe that any of these issues can be resolved outside
the negotiating process. Confidence-building is a long-term process
and requires a dialogue,” he added of the resumption of activities
at the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan.
“I would request all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to desist
from taking any unilateral action and to try to go back to where
we were a week ago, basically, continue to work with the Agency
to clarify outstanding verification issues and continue to work
with Europe on a long-term framework agreement by which Iran's
relationship with the West will be normalized.”
2005-08-10 00:00:00.000
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5 AFP: UN watchdog holds emergency talks on Iran's nuclear programme
Wednesday August 10, 4:55 PM
Photo: AFP
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN atomic agency continued emergency talks
on Iran's nuclear ambitions, after US President George W. Bush
expressed scepticism at signs Tehran was ready to resume talks
with European powers.
On the first day of its meeting in Vienna on Tuesday, the
watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was unable to
agree on a response to the Islamic republic's resumption on
Monday of sensitive nuclear activities.
An IAEA spokeswoman said the body planned to resume full talks
on Wednesday.
"We are hoping to reconvene tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon, but
it all very much depends on how things go on the drafting of a
text," the spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.
The head of Iran's nuclear energy agency was quoted as saying on
state television that the seals that the UN nuclear watchdog had
placed on Iran's Isfahan uranium conversion plant will be
removed on Wednesday.
"The rest of seals will be removed today and the activities will
resume," said Gholamreza Aghazadeh.
Breaking the seals is the next crucial stage at the plant after
Iran resumed suspended uranium conversion activities on Monday,
sparking warnings of an international crisis.
Iran has been under investigation for more than two years by the
IAEA , which has accused it of hiding controversial nuclear work
but has yet to find any proof of a weapons programme.
Conversion turns uranium ore or yellowcake into a feed gas for
enriching uranium, which can be the fuel for reactors or the
explosive core of atom bombs.
Washington has taken the most hardline stance, accusing Tehran
of using a civilian nuclear program as cover for a quest for
atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies.
Speaking in Crawford, Texas, after the first day of the IAEA
talks, Bush warned Iran that the threat of UN sanctions over its
nuclear activities remained, and made clear he was was "deeply
suspicious" of Tehran's stated intention to resume talks with a
trio of European Union states.
"We'll have to watch very carefully," Bush told reporters.
"They have, in the past, said they would adhere to international
norms and then were caught enriching uranium. And that's
dangerous."
Bush warned of possible UN sanctions on Iran if negotiations
with Britain, France and Germany fail to ease fears Tehran is
seeking atomic weapons.
The emergency meeting of the IAEA was called after Iran on
Monday resumed uranium conversion activities it had suspended in
November at its plant in Isfahan to get talks with the EU
started.
France, Britain and Germany have headed the negotiations on
behalf of the European Union.
In Tehran on Tuesday Iran's new President Mahmood Ahmadinejad
described as "an insult" an EU offer to Iran of trade and other
incentives in return for guarantees it was not making nuclear
weapons, but said he was still ready to carry on talks.
And in Vienna, Iranian negotiator Cyrus Nasseri said Iran was
prepared to continue talks with the EU as long as there were no
preconditions and the talks were in "good faith."
Nasseri said Iran was frustrated the EU was still not
acknowledging what Iran considers its right under the Non
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to make nuclear fuel as part of a
peaceful atomic program.
According to diplomatic sources, the IAEA board is unlikely to
refer Iran to the UN Security Council because of its resumption
of uranium conversion but will instead urge Tehran to suspend
work. The meeting could last several days.
Resolutions on the 35-nation board are normally adopted
unanimously.
In France, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said: "It is
still possible to negotiate" with Iran. "We are still holding
out our hand," he told journalists.
However, diplomats noted warnings that cracking down on Iran
could isolate the country and said the IAEA board was backing
away from referring it to the UN Security Council, which could
impose sanctions.
Malaysian ambassador Rajmah Hussein, speaking for the
non-aligned movement, called on the Europeans and Iran "to
continue with their dialogue" and said verification issues
"should be resolved solely within the framework of the IAEA."
But Russia, which is building Iran's first nuclear power reactor
and is to supply it with nuclear fuel, came out against Iran,
calling on it to halt fuel production work "without delay".
Copyright © 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
6 BBC: Iran removes UN's nuclear seals
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 August 2005
[Two technicians carry a box containing yellowcake at the Iranian
nuclear facility at Isfahan]
Iran says its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes
Iran has broken all the remaining UN seals at its nuclear plant
at Isfahan, making it fully operational.
The removal was completed under the supervision of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, which has installed equipment
to monitor activity.
EU countries quickly proposed a resolution to the United Nations
nuclear watchdog in Vienna calling for Iran to stop the nuclear
fuel work.
But Iran said again it had a right to develop nuclear technology.
The EU's draft resolution is scheduled to be heard at a meeting
of the IAEA's 35-nation board on Thursday.
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
Mined urani ore is purified and reconstituted into solid form
known as yellowcake Yellowcake is converted into a gas by heating
it to about 64C (147F) Gas is fed through centrifuges, where its
isotopes separate and process is repeated until uranium is
enriched Low-level enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel
Highly enriched uranium can be used in nuclear weapons In
depth: Nuclear fuel cycle Profile: The IAEA
It is thought the resolution does not call for Iran's actions to
be referred to the UN Security Council.
However, the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Vienna says the US and
Britain are calling for tough action against Iran.
She says that although Iran has not broken international law by
resuming uranium conversion work, the West believes it has
certainly broken the spirit of the Vienna talks.
Matthew Boland, spokesman of the US Mission to the UN in Vienna,
said: "Today's breaking of seals is yet another sign of Iran's
disregard of international concerns."
But Iran's chief negotiator, Cyrus Nasseri, defended the move.
"All we want to do is to produce nuclear fuel and we are prepared
to provide credible assurances to our European partners that we
will not divert this to other purposes," he said.
Iran's new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said he is ready
for more talks and will put forward new proposals.
Sanctions
The EU and US suspect Iran's scheme is a cover for a nuclear
weapons programme.
The EU wants Iran to resume its suspension of conversion work in
return for economic and political concessions.
Iran suspended its nuclear programme in 2004 but has rejected the
latest EU offer.
We are ready for talks, a negotiations have never been
interrupted by us Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian president Timeline:
Nuclear crisis Iran's press defiant
The West could call for sanctions on the grounds that Iran hid
its uranium enrichment programme for 18 years, without telling
the IAEA.
On Tuesday, Russia joined the mounting calls for Tehran to stop
conversion work.
Russia is Iran's main partner in its effort to develop nuclear
power and is helping the state to build a nuclear reactor at
Bushehr.
Iran says it has the legal right under the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty to carry out the nuclear fuel cycle.
The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility.
Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning
raw uranium - known as yellowcake - into the feedstock for
enriched uranium.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel,
while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic
weapons.
*****************************************************************
7 BBC: Iran in nuclear sanctions warning
Last Updated: Thursday, 11 August 2005
[Two technicians carry a box containing yellowcake at the Iranian
nuclear facility at Isfahan]
Iran says its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes
Iran has warned it would be a "grave miscalculation" for the US
and EU to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council over its
nuclear programme.
The warning came after Iran broke UN seals at its nuclear plant
at Isfahan, making it fully operational.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on European Union
countries to continue dialogue with Iran.
EU countries have proposed a resolution to the UN nuclear
watchdog in Vienna calling for Iran to halt work.
But Iran's chief negotiator at the talks there said Tehran had an
absolute right to produce nuclear fuel.
Cyrus Nasseri told the BBC's Newsnight programme that talks with
the EU to continue a suspension of its uranium conversion work
had broken down.
Dismissing the EU's proposals of economic and political
concessions as a "package of lollipops", Mr Nasseri said: "We do
not for the moment have much hope in the talks whether now or in
the future."
'Disregard'
The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Vienna says the US and Britain are
now calling for tough action against Iran.
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
Mined urani ore is purified and reconstituted into solid form
known as yellowcake Yellowcake is converted into a gas by heating
it to about 64C (147F) Gas is fed through centrifuges, where its
isotopes separate and process is repeated until uranium is
enriched Low-level enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel
Highly enriched uranium can be used in nuclear weapons In
depth: Nuclear fuel cycle Profile: The IAEA
She says that although Iran has not broken international law by
resuming conversion work, the West believes it has certainly
broken the spirit of the Vienna talks.
Matthew Boland, spokesman of the US Mission to the UN in Vienna,
said: "Today's breaking of seals is yet another sign of Iran's
disregard of international concerns."
Mr Nasseri rejected the criticism. "It is absolutely wrong to
consider that only a few states in the world, the US and a few
states in Europe, plus Russia, should have the exclusivity
producing fuel."
The breaking of the seals at Isfahan took place under the
supervision of the IAEA, which has installed equipment to monitor
activity.
The resolution the EU drafted in response is scheduled to be
heard at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board in Vienna on
Thursday.
It is thought the resolution does not yet call for Iran's actions
to be referred to the UN Security Council.
Mr Nasseri said: "I think that would be a grave miscalculation by
the US and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of
confrontation.
"There is no legal base whatsoever to go to the Security Council.
If it is, it is by political choosing and it will be big, big
mistake."
Sanctions
The EU and US suspect Iran's scheme is a cover for a nuclear
weapons programme.
We are ready for talks, a negotiations have never been
interrupted by us Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian president Timeline:
Nuclear crisis Iran's press defiant
The West could call for sanctions on the grounds that Iran hid
its uranium enrichment programme for 18 years.
Mr Nasseri admitted Iran had been "a bit cautious on our
transparency... otherwise [our programme] would have been
devastated by the intrusive actions of the Americans".
The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility.
Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning
raw uranium - known as yellowcake - into the feedstock for
enriched uranium.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel,
while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic
weapons.
*****************************************************************
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran to Break U.N. Seals on Nuke Equipment
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday August 10, 2005 11:16 AM
AP Photo VIE119
By ANDREA DUDIKOVA
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog was
scrambling for solutions to the Iran crisis, as U.N. nuclear
inspectors in Tehran Wednesday installed the last surveillance
cameras before Iran can resume full uranium conversion.
International Atomic Energy Agency board members were discussing
how to persuade Iran to resume a voluntary suspension of uranium
conversion and enrichment. They have the authority to report
Iran to the U.N. Security Council, action that could trigger
punitive sanctions, but there was no talk of that at an
emergency meeting of the agency's 35-nation board.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, meanwhile,
made clear Wednesday that Iran would not be deterred.
``Today all seals will be removed by IAEA inspectors, and all
reprocessing activities can be carried out at the facility,''
Gholamreza Aghazadeh said on state television.
He said the seals would be broken only after the inspectors had
finished installing their cameras and other surveillance
equipment at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, 255
miles south of Tehran.
Iran this week restarted parts of the conversion process at its
plant in Isfahan and planned to start the remainder Wednesday,
said Sirus Nasseri, Iran's top delegate to the IAEA.
Conversion is a process that precedes enrichment. Highly
enriched uranium can be used to make weapons, while uranium
enriched to a lower degree is used to produce energy.
Iran had suspended conversion under an agreement with Britain,
France and Germany, which have been negotiating to persuade
Tehran to drop its enrichment program in return for incentives.
Iran rejected the latest EU offer on Saturday.
Nasseri dismissed that offer of economic and political
incentives as a package of ``lollipops,'' and argued that moves
to curb countries' right to produce their own nuclear power fuel
were dangerous.
Countries barred from producing fuel become ``dependent on an
exclusive cartel of nuclear fuel suppliers - a cartel that has a
manifest record of denials and restrictions for political and
commercial reasons,'' he said.
But ElBaradei warned of the ``danger of disseminating fuel cycle
activities around the world, because that brings us very close
to the capability to develop nuclear weapons.''
He said he wanted a new framework under which countries would
have the right to produce nuclear power, but not to carry out
``fuel cycle activities.''
Nasseri said Iran wants to continue the EU talks and assure the
board that Tehran ``never'' would leave the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty or abandon IAEA safeguards agreements.
Washington suspects Tehran of having a clandestine nuclear
weapons program, and President Bush said Tuesday he was ``deeply
suspicious'' about Iran's intentions.
Before Iran resumed conversion, U.S. and EU officials had urged
that Tehran be taken to the Security Council for possible
sanctions if it abandoned its voluntary suspension.
But a draft resolution crafted by Britain, France and Germany
and obtained by The Associated Press did not mention the
Security Council.
The text, which could be altered during negotiations, expressed
``serious concern'' about the resumption of conversion in
Isfahan and urged Iran to cooperate by ``re-establishing full
suspension of all enrichment-related activities.''
It also said that ``the agency is not yet in a position to
conclude that there are no undeclared materials or activities in
Iran.''
Diplomats said there was little stomach for reporting Tehran to
the Security Council, in part out of fears that such a move -
the IAEA's last resort - might inflame support within Iran for
the regime's nuclear ambitions and scuttle any chances at
winning the country over with broader economic incentives.
Envoys from nations such as Brazil and Argentina whose own
nuclear activities have come under scrutiny also appeared
reluctant to subject Iran to restrictions that could be applied
to their programs one day.
Delegates were set to meet again Wednesday afternoon, but it was
unclear when an agreement on any resolution would be reached.
As the meeting started Tuesday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei
urged Tehran to ``continue to work with Europe on a long-term
framework agreement by which Iran's relationship with the West
would be normalized.''
``I'd hope that this is simply a hiccup in the process and not a
permanent rupture,'' ElBaradei told reporters. ``The important
thing is to go back to the negotiating process and avoid any
escalation of the situation.''
---
Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini contributed to this
report from Isfahan, Iran.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
9 Reuters: IAEA allows Iran to remove nuclear seals-official
Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:00 AM ET
TEHRAN, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has given
Iran permission to remove seals at its Isfahan Uranium Conversion
facility, Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organisation, said on Wednesday.
"Some minutes ago we received a letter from the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency), authorising Iran to remove
the seals at Isfahan plant," Saeedi told Reuters by telephone.
"Two hours ago the installation of surveillance cameras
finished. The IAEA inspectors will oversee the removal of seals,"
he said.
Iran began resuming activities at Isfahan on Monday, boosting
fears that it may be pursuing atomic arms.
EU officials have warned that it could be referred to the U.N.
Security Council for punitive action which could include
sanctions and Britain, France and Germany are trying to persuade
other members of the IAEA board to warn Tehran to stop the work.
Tehran agreed to suspend all nuclear fuel work last November as
part of a deal with Britain, Germany and France to ease tensions
after the IAEA found Iran had hidden nuclear work for years.
The most sensitive part of Iran's nuclear fuel programme -- the
uranium enrichment plant at Natanz -- remains suspended and under
U.N. seals.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 Reuters: Iran says removes seals at Isfahan nuclear plant
Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:27 AM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Wednesday it had removed seals at
its Isfahan uranium conversion facility.
"The removal of seals has begun at Isfahan plant with the
presence of the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors,"
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organisation, told Reuters by telephone.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
11 Reuters: UN leader urges Iran, Europeans to keep talking
Wed Aug 10, 2005 6:18 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan urged Iran and three European Union powers on Wednesday to
show restraint and keep talking in hopes of ending their deadlock
over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"I think it is essential that we break this current impasse, and
I believe that the best way to break the impasse is to continue
the discussions," Annan said, referring to the long-standing
negotiations between Iran and EU members Britain, France and
Germany.
The U.N. leader spoke with reporters after Iran broke U.N. seals
at a plant where bomb-grade uranium could be produced, defying
Western nations, which fear Tehran wants to produce weapons
rather than nuclear energy, as Iran insists.
"I have indications from both sides that they are prepared to
continue the search for a solution," Annan said. "I hope that all
sides will desist from any action that will lead to further
escalation and continue the process at the (negotiating) table."
Annan reiterated he had recently spoken by telephone with Iran's
new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urging him to show restraint
and continue his dialogue with the European trio.
Ahmadinejad told Annan during their chat that he had new ideas
to resolve the nuclear standoff and was prepared to keep talking,
the semi-official ISNA students news agency reported.
The United States and the three European powers have threatened
to ask the board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency
in Vienna to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council in New
York for possible sanctions if Tehran does not back down.
But Annan said the matter should remain for now with the Vienna
watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 RIA Novosti: Russian experts do not consider North Korean talks failure
10/ 08/ 2005
MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian experts do not
consider the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear
problem, in recess until late August, a failure.
"The agreement to continue the talks is important," Anton
Khlopkov, deputy director of the PIR-Center for Policy Studies
in Russia, said Wednesday.
"The fixing of the date of the next round is also important," he
added.
The six negotiating parties failed to agree on the nuclear-free
status of the Korean peninsula. The United States insists that
North Korea should give up the use of nuclear technology,
whereas Pyongyang asserts its right to use nuclear power for
peaceful purposes.
Retired Lieutenant General Gennady Yevstafyev, an expert with
the PIR-Center, criticized the U.S. position. He pointed out
that some states can possess nuclear weapons, some can use
nuclear power for peaceful purposes, and others have no rights
at all.
The expert said the U.S. had revised its policy in Asia and had
come closer to an official recognition of North Korea. However,
the U.S. does not want to yield its political initiative given
Beijing's growing political activism.
Yevstafyev said he did not expect a breakthrough in the next
round of North Korean talks "because the problem was too old."
If the sides agreed to a document on principles for further
dialogue, "this achievement would lead to stabilization in
northeast Asia."
The six-nation talks involving Russia, the United States, North
Korea, South Korea, China, and Japan were launched in Beijing in
2003.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
13 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy Unsure if Nuclear Deal Likely
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday August 10, 2005 2:16 AM
AP Photo SEL104
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - International talks to end North Korea's
nuclear weapons program got down to ``a finite set of issues''
before they broke up last weekend, but the lead U.S negotiator
said Tuesday it was unclear whether North Korea was ready to
close a deal soon.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said North Korean
negotiators will use a three-week hiatus in the talks to ``get a
sense of whether they went too far or didn't go far enough.''
Asked if the next round of talks will finally resolve an issue
that has been festering off and on for more than a decade, Hill
said he wasn't sure.
``If we don't get a deal, it won't be because we haven't
tried,'' he said.
Hill said the United States or other participants in the
six-party talks may have informal meetings before the next
round, scheduled to begin the week of Aug. 29 in Beijing. He did
not rule out direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang in
that period.
North Korea pulled out of an international nuclear
nonproliferation treaty, walked away from the talks last year,
and then announced in February that it had built a bomb.
Pyongyang agreed to the latest round of talks after South Korea
offered to supply a large amount of electrical power for the
energy-starved communist North.
Despite that offer, the North Koreans told negotiators last week
they still want a civilian nuclear reactor, which Hill had
earlier called a deal breaker. On Tuesday he suggested tion that
the United States thought had been resolved a week earlier, Hill
told reporters at the State Department.
Hill said the North Koreans were polite, formal and never raised
their voices in negotiation, and they seemed to approach the
talks in good faith, but he could not tell if they are
reconciled to giving up all nuclear ambitions.
``It's hard to say,'' Hill said. ``There were moments when I
really thought they were and there were moments when I really
thought they weren't.''
It became clear partway though the talks that the North Koreans
wanted a recess so they could reassess, Hill said. That's when
the nuclear energy reactor first came up.
``Based on what the negotiators were telling us, it's a finite
number of issues that separate us,'' Hill said. ``It sounded a
little worse right as the negotiations closed because they began
to put things on the table which frankly had been resolved, and
I'm not too concerned about those things.''
---
On the Net:
State Department: http://www.state.gov
CIA factbook on North Korea:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kn.html
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
14 Xinhua: US hopes DPRK nuclear agreement to come out by Sept.
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-11 04:14:42
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Christopher Hill, top US
negotiator at the six-party talks in Beijing, said here on
Wednesday that the United States will try to reach a nuclear
agreement with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
as early as September.
During the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing,
"we tried to focus on trying to reach an agreement on
principles, so that we could use those principles to shape the
way ahead and try to reach an agreement as early as September,"
Hill said at a briefing.
"We are hoping that if we can get through these principles,
we can get going with an actual agreement in September, or the
latest in October and see if we can finally put this terrible
problem to bed," Hill said.
Hill also reiterated the US stance that the DPRK should
dismantle all its nuclear programs.
The fourth round of the six-party talks, which lasted for 13
days in Beijing, went into recess on Sunday. All parties have
agreed to resume the talks in the week of Aug. 29. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
15 Japan Times: North Korea's choice
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
EDITORIAL
Predictably, the fourth round of talks over North Korea's
nuclear-weapons programs broke off last weekend in stalemate.
Progress was evident during the marathon negotiations, however,
so the break is only a recess: Representatives from the six
parties to the talks -- China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South
Korea and the United States -- are taking three weeks to consult
with their governments and each other, and will reconvene later
this month. That session will prove whether North Korea is ready
to make a deal; if the other five parties maintain the
solidarity they have shown thus far, Pyongyang will have no real
alternative.
The previous three rounds of the six-party talks were
fruitless. Despite the severity of the core problem --
allegations that North Korea has a clandestine nuclear-weapons
program -- and the prospect of a fundamental reorganization of
relations among the states of Northeast Asia if it was solved,
the parties were unable to even agree on statements at the
conclusion of each round. China, the host and chair, merely
issued its own assessment of the discussions. Hopes for a
peaceful resolution dimmed when North Korea refused to resume
negotiations after the third round, subsequently declared itself
to be a nuclear-weapons state and upped its demands to include
the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula.
But as Pyongyang escalated its belligerence, shifts were
occurring in the policies of other key parties to the talks.
South Korea appeared more resistant to North Korea's appeals and
took a harder line, demanding that Pyongyang be prepared to
negotiate seriously about its nuclear weapons before Seoul would
extend more aid. It also unveiled an offer that would provide
substantial energy assistance to the North and made plain the
benefits of a deal. The U.S. toned down its rhetoric, giving
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il the respect he craves, and
repeating at every opportunity that Washington harbors no
hostile intent toward the North and would respect its
sovereignty. The U.S. also signaled increasing flexibility in
its position: It appeared less resistant to other parties
providing aid to the North at earlier stages of a deal.
These changes produced sufficient common ground -- or at least
sufficient diplomatic cover -- to allow the talks to resume last
month in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus. While all participants
dampened expectations of a deal, there has been a sense that the
dynamic has changed. News that the parties would actually agree
on a joint statement seemed to validate those hopes. Such a
statement is not a mere diplomatic nicety: It would provide
basic principles that would structure any eventual deal.
True to form, however, no consensus was reached on a statement,
and the parties agreed to recess for more consultations. The
stumbling block is North Korea's access to a peaceful nuclear
program. Pyongyang insists that it has the right to such a
program; the U.S., worried that any civilian program could be
used to build a bomb, disagrees and says the issue is
nonnegotiable. Moreover, South Korea's offer to provide
electricity to the North eliminates any concerns about energy
supplies.
In plain terms, the three weeks give North Korea one last
chance to make a strategic choice: abandon its nuclear ambitions
and receive recognition and aid or maintain its current path
with the prospect of facing continued international isolation
and perhaps sanction by the United Nations Security Council.
During the recess North Korea will be probing to see how united
the other five parties are; if Pyongyang is convinced that it
cannot split them over this issue, it is much more likely to
make a deal when the talks resume.
Such an agreement poses particular concerns for Japan. Of
course, a deal that ends North Korea's nuclear program is of
paramount importance to Japan's national security. But a joint
declaration is unlikely to provide much solace for those who
demand that more attention be paid to the bilateral issues
between the two countries, in particular the abduction of
Japanese citizens by the North.
After failing to hold substantive discussions during the two
weeks of negotiations, Japan and North Korea held bilateral
talks in Beijing after the six-party talks recessed. No progress
was made during the 20-minute session. Japanese representatives
repeated that a package deal that dealt with all issues was
needed to normalize relations between the two countries; the
chief North Korean negotiator merely promised to convey Japan's
requests "accurately" to the North Korean leadership. Pyongyang
is likely to maintain its hardline stand as most of the other
parties in the talks prefer to focus on the nuclear issue and
resist attempts to widen the agenda. That means Tokyo, as well
as Pyongyang, has to be prepared to make tough choices in three
weeks' time.
The Japan Times: Aug. 10, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
16 Reuters: U.S. negotiator unsure if can reach Korea nuke deal
Tue Aug 9, 2005 5:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. negotiator said on
Tuesday prospects were uncertain for reaching a deal on scrapping
North Korean nuclear programs but he expected officials from the
two nations to meet before a new session of six-party talks.
"I just don't know, I just don't know. But I tell you if we
don't get a deal it won't be because we haven't tried,"
Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to the talks, told reporters in
answer to a question about the chances of an agreement.
Talks in Beijing this month broke off after 13 days without
agreement but the United States, North and South Korea, Japan,
China and Russia are due to resume negotiations in a few weeks
aimed at agreeing the principles of a deal.
Earlier on Tuesday, North Korea put the onus on the United
States to resolve the stalemate, saying Washington should drop a
key demand and allow Pyongyang to retain nuclear programs for
peaceful purposes.
But Hill reiterated that the North's wish to have a light-water
reactor was unacceptable because of U.S. fears that the communist
nation could switch from research to weapon-making as he said
they had in the past.
The veteran negotiator from conflicts in the Balkans said
Washington could hold preparatory talks with the North Koreans to
seek to bridge the gaps before the six-party talks resume the
week of Aug. 29.
"I can't speak yet to the contacts with the North Koreans,
although I would imagine there will be some," he said. "If there
is value to direct contacts we would have them."
© Reuters 2005.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
17 Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:56:31 -0500 (CDT)
WHITE_ACRONYMS,WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
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Forwarded with Compliments of Government of the USA in Exile (GUSAE):
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http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/the_kiss_of_death_pr.htm
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THE KISS OF DEATH:
NUCLEAR WEAPONS STEALTH TAKEOVER
5 Admirals, U.C. Regents, Carlyle Group and Rand
By Leuren Moret
"I think some of these folks would put nuclear tips on ice cream
cones if they could."
U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) on efforts by Bush
Administration officials to repeal a research ban on low-yield
nuclear weapons.
Global Security Newswire 'Quote of the Day' May 19, 2003
UC AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS: THE KISS OF DEATH
The top-secret Manhattan Project was laid out by Robert Oppenheimer
the night Ernest Lawrence took him to the Bohemian Club during WW II.
It was a part of California's brutal rise to economic and political
power, described in IMPERIAL SAN FRANCISCO: Urban Power, Earthly
Ruin. In 1939, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr had argued
that building an atomic bomb "can never be done unless you turn the
United States into one huge factory." Years later, he told his
colleague Edward Teller, "I told you it couldn't be done without
turning the whole country into a factory. You have done just that."
That was after Edward Teller had stuck the knife in Oppenheimer's
back, and pulled his clearance. Teller (also known as 'Dr.
Strangelove'), went on to promote a grandiose US nuclear weapons
program for decades at the nuclear weapons labs: Berkeley, Livermore
and Los Alamos. The program remained under a no-bid University of
California management contract for 61 years. In a stealth takeover by
the Carlyle Group, facilitated by 5 Admirals, the management contract
will be transferred next year to the University of Texas where the
military and the Carlyle Group will have control. A new 'ramping up'
of the nuclear weapons program is underway, with program funding at
the highest level ever - even higher than during the Cold War -
extending nuclear weapons into outer space, into the very atmosphere
that makes life on earth possible, and with no "real" enemy in site.
ESTIMATING THE COLD WAR MORTGAGE
In 1995 dollars, according to the Department of Energy (DOE) the US
spent approximately 300 billion dollars on nuclear weapons research,
production, and testing. Today in the nuclear weapons complex there
are 10,500 contaminated sites, 2.3 million acres under DOE ownership,
and 120 million square feet of buildings. The 1995 high base cost,
estimated by the DOE Environmental Management program, to clean up
the environmental legacy is $350 billion. That excludes the Nevada
Test Site, Hanford, the Savannah and Clinch rivers, and the Columbia
river which are considered to be "national sacrifice zones" because
the technology does not exist to clean them up.
That was the cost for cleaning up the environment. The damage to the
human health not only of Americans, but also to the global
population, was predicted by the European Committee on Radiation Risk
(ECRR), in a 2003 independent report on low level radiation for the
European Parliament, to be 61,600,000 deaths by cancer, 1,600,000
infant deaths, and 1,900,000 foetal deaths. "In addition the ECRR
committee predicts a 10% loss of life quality integrated over all
diseases and conditions in those who were exposed over the period of
global weapons fallout."
The cost to the predominantly black community at Hunter's Point Naval
Shipyard in San Francisco is much greater. Navy ships brought back to
Hunter's Point shipyard for decontamination by the Navy, after the
first atmospheric tests in the Pacific, led to the establishment of
the secret Naval Radiological Defense Lab (NRDL) which operated at
the shipyard into the 1970's. Secret experiments exposing animals,
plants, soldiers, prisoners, and local residents to radiation were
conducted at the NRDL, where 550 civilian scientists worked with 65
Naval officers to study the biological effects of ionizing radiation.
The radioactive waste and dead animals from the lab were dumped at
the shipyard, filled a back bay, and sunk off the Golden Gate bridge
in a battleship and 55 gallon drums, contaminating one of the richest
fisheries in the world. The community today has the highest rates of
breast cancer in women under 40 in the US, as well as high rates of
other radiation related diseases. A former City of San Francisco
coroner found that every Hunters Point resident he had done an
autopsy on, had cancer no matter what the cause of death.
Even worse, the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), while
conducting studies on infant mortality and cancer around nuclear
power plants, discovered that milk contaminated with radiation has
been shipped into black inner city communities - a genocidal plan
which explains why blacks have the highest cancer rates, infant
mortality, and asmtha (Gotham Gaz.May 2003) in the US, which has been
blamed on poverty. The studies using US govt. data on radiation in
milk revealed that at the time of Chernobyl the Pennsylvania Milk
Board had been selectively shipping radioactive contaminated milk
from dairies around the Three Mile Island and Peachbottom reactors
into eastern black inner city communities (see Jay Gould, Deadly
Deceit: Low Level Radiation, High Level Coverup). In an RPHP study on
health improvements by race in San Francisco County, after the
shutdown of the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in 1989, health
improved for all ages, diseases and races except for blacks. Black
infant mortality also increased after startups and accidents, but
unlike improvements for whites and Asians which decreased after the
1989 shutdown, black infant mortality reflected startups and
shutdowns at other nuclear power plants in California.
UC REGENTS MEETING - MAY 15, 2003: THE POINT MAN
One year ago Admiral Linton Brooks, Administrator of the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under DOE, informed Lt.
Governor Cruz Bustamante and the UC Regents that the management
contract for the nuclear weapons labs would be put up for competitive
bid for the first time, with the award made in 2005. When a Regent
asked if it would be for all the labs or just Los Alamos, he replied
that "it would be for Los Alamos". Later another Regent questioned
him again, and this time he said "it would be inconceivable for just
one lab". He requested a competitive bid from UC, but the Regents
were now leery of the politics involved, and Brooks was challenged by
a fiery Bustamante. The Lt. Governor demanded to know why UC should
waste millions of dollars preparing a bid when the University of
Texas was the most favored institution to get the award, and had a
member of the University of Texas on the blue ribbon panel making the
award decision.
Admiral Brooks also informed the Board of Regents that "we're back in
the bomb business" because Los Alamos had just produced the first
plutonium "pit" since Rocky Flats closed down. He indicated that they
would be making "mini-nukes" only, and nuclear weapons testing would
start at the Nevada Test Site in 2005. An hour later, and 45 miles
away, he announced to Livermore employees that "we're back in the
bomb business" and they would be making big ones, little ones, and
more. By this time it seemed to me that Admiral Brooks was a slippery
character and I began to wonder why an Admiral was involved.
UC REGENTS MEETING - AUGUST 17, 2004: TWO ADMIRALS STAGE "THE SETUP"
On August 4, 2004, UC President Dynes, a physicist and consultant to
Los Alamos and former Chancellor of UC San Diego, and Gerald Parsky,
Chair of the UC Regents, visited Los Alamos and met with employees
over recent security and safety lapses repeated at the lab. Parsky
told them:
"The regents will be left with no choice about the contract
competition if we do not feel confident that you understand the
importance of security, procedures and safety at the lab. If we feel
that you understand this and that steps are being taken to address
these issues, the regents will not only endorse competing for this
contract - we will compete to win."
During three minutes of public comment before the Regents on August
17, I informed them that the lab contract was going to the University
of Texas, it was a 'done deal'. I told them that the management
contract change was a chess move the Carlyle Group was making to
privatize the nuclear weapons program, and owned 70% of Lockheed
Martin Marietta, and that Lockheed a year ago had bought Sandia Labs
(they make the trigger for nuclear weapons). When "Carlyle" was
mentioned I noticed that the Chair, Gerald Parsky and Vice Chair
Richard Blum (married to Senator Diane Feinstein) started shifting
around in their chairs. Body language can say a lot. They began a
disruptive and loud conversation carried on through the rest of my
comments. As a Livermore whistleblower, I commented that the loss of
computer discs with classified information and missing keys had
happened practically every day for 61 years under sloppy UC
management, and that science fraud as well as health and safety
violations had been just as bad. [During my week of security briefing
at Livermore in 1989 we were told that a scientist taking classified
material home in his briefcase did not notice it had fallen off the
back of his bike. A merchant found the battered briefcase in an
intersection, and several days later a horrified lab security
employee found that every page of a lengthy report with "CLASSIFIED"
stamped on each page had been taped in the window of the merchant's
shop hoping the owner would claim his lost secret documents.] What
was even more egregious I pointed out, was an article in the July 10,
2004, issue of the Daily Mirror about the murder by the Mossad of
Robert Maxwell, a British publisher. It revealed that Maxwell, who
was the former owner of the Daily Mirror, was a high level Mossad
agent, and had sold PROMIS software to Los Alamos with a back door
for the Mossad to spy on the lab. In closing, I told the Regents that
no matter who got the contract award, "the University of California
would forever be known as the University that poisoned the world
"
As Admiral George P. Nanos, Director of the Los Alamos lab (appointed
Jan. 2003), and Admiral S. Robert Foley Jr., UC vice president for
laboratory management (appointed Nov. 2003), sat down at the table
where the Regents waited, I began to wonder how many more Admirals
were involved and why. It did not take long to find out. Admiral
Foley informed the Regents about the missing CREM, computer storage
devices with classified data, and acknowledged that the security
lapse damaged the university's chances of retaining its Los Alamos
contract. "This erodes your position, without any question at all.
It's about as bad as it could be when you're trying to prepare for a
re-competition". He announced that Jack Killeen had been appointed to
the UC Presidents Office as special assistant for Los Alamos
security: "Jack's our guy, he was with Wackenhut and he's our guy
".
Among lab employees Wackenhut was better known for 'wacking' lab
whistleblowers like Karen Silkwood, attempting to run people like Dr.
Rosalie Bertell off the road, and has a well-deserved reputation for
being a nasty outfit. President Bush and his brother, Governor Jeb
Bush, are known to spend time together hanging out with cronies at
the Wackenhut "country club" in Florida. Admiral Nanos continued and
complained that employees would not follow the security and safety
rules. When Foley chimed in that there were going to be more security
incidents and lapses at the lab in the future before they got it
straightened out, it began to look like a setup. Regents Blum,
Parsky, Connerly and a few more leaned forward and demanded to know
how it was possible, and stated it was unacceptable, that there would
be more security lapses. Foley should have been fired on the spot for
falling down on the job. It was obvious that Nanos and Foley were
there to blame the employees, justify the management change, and
discourage the Regents from competing for the contract. And
justification for "cleaning house" and removing the "old guard" who
would stand in the way of a takeover and for what is planned for
ramping up the program.
An Editorial in the Oakland Tribune the day before remarked that the
NNSA was established in 1991 after the Wen Ho Lee scandal, but had
failed to address real security lapses since. NNSA is in bed with the
lab administrators which it supposedly is overseeing. This had been
exactly my experience at Livermore in 1991 when I reported graft,
fraud, corruption, contractor overcharges, and health and safety
violations on the Yucca Mountain Project and Superfund Project to
Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector in the DOE Inspector
General's office for the nuclear weapons labs, Site 51, and the
Nevada Test Site. After bringing two inspectors to my house and
taking my testimony, he reported to Duane Sewell, the "secrets
keeper" at the lab, and Bert Hefner, lab PR person. When I called a
month later to talk to Berta about the outcome, he said "we found no
basis to your allegations
and I got a new office with a view and new
oak furniture from Sewell
". My allegations had been reported many
times to the FBI by other more senior lab staff
and they were
ignored as well. The Editorial concludes:
"NNSA failed miserably in its policing responsibilities. It should be
reorganized or axed, and Brooks and other top officials should be
replaced with more independent, less-compromised leadership."
The meeting ended before Dr. Walter Kohn, a physicist representing
the UC Faculty opposed to UC management of nuclear weapons labs, was
able to speak before the Regents. Regent Sherry Lansing, CEO of
Paramount Pictures, stood up and announced in a loud voice "
oh
Walter, I want to hear your presentation [at a future meeting]
but I
have a plane to catch
", and crossed the room to give him a big kiss.
By this time I had decided to investigate the UC Regents and their
ties to the defense industry. Later that evening, a friend told me
"
they ARE the Carlyle Group
".
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STUDENTS - The FIAT PAX Website
Right after the Regents meeting I contacted a group of students and a
Texas State Representative Lon Burnam, opposed to the Univ. of Texas
bid for the nuclear weapons management contract. A student told me
about FIAT PAX, a website put together by UC Santa Cruz students
listing the top 50 University recipients of defense funding for
research (see below), and their ties to corporations (see below). The
UC Regents with ties to the defense industry were listed with
detailed bios. Parsky, the Chair, was the top fundraiser for Bush
(after Ken Lay) in both Presidential election bids, and a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations. Vice Chair Blum was tied to the
Carlyle Group, invested in URS Corporation (leading contractor with
DOD), Korea First Bank [Carlyle is moving into Korea and taking over
banks], and sits on the Board of Northwest Airlines. [A FOIA document
revealed in 2001 that Northwest was the first airline to collaborate
with NASA to install mind-reading technology in US airports to catch
"terrorists".] Regent Lansing was a trustee of the RAND Graduate
School, a branch of the RAND Corporation which had been involved in
war-gaming nuclear wars between the US and the USSR, and acts as a
bridge between US universities and the military. I also learned that
the Carlyle Group managed large amounts of endowment funds for the
University of Texas, and that CALPers, the State of California
workers pension fund which is the largest in the nation owns 5.2% of
Carlyle. FIAT PAX sums it up:
"The University of California's system wide finances are incredibly
entangled with weapons manufacturers. The UC's retirement plan
portfolio is invested in dozens of military-industrial contractors
through stock purchases. At least five corporations within the UC
retirement portfolio conduct virtually no business other than weapons
manufacturing and military subcontracting, these are: General
Dynamics with a UC investment of $21,471,120, Northrop Grumman for
$16,125,200, Raytheon for $16,818,200, TRW for $8,327,650, and
Lockheed Martin for a staggering $33,046,370."
"It is through these informal personal, formal institutional, and
financial exchanges that universities serve the warfare state and its
corporate allies. Personal relationships connect military, corporate,
and university personnel while bridging the divide between these
institutions. Formal institutional links establish cooperation and
coordination across the military-industrial-academic complex. Be they
research institutes, labs, and centers, or personal relationships
spanning industry-university-military, the web of connections far
exceeds any attempts to quantify."
And then I knew that the Admirals, and vested Regents, were the kiss
of death to the UC bid.
ADMIRAL VISHNU BAGHWAT, FORMER CHIEF OF THE INDIAN NAVY
On July 17, 2004, Admiral Vishnu Baghwat replied to my question "Why
are so many Admirals involved with the nuclear weapons contract bid?":
"The reason why the Navy and the Admirals are predominantly involved
in the weapons is that until the Space military launch posts are
ready and positioned with the minimum degree of reliability, the US
Navy has more than 70 % of the first and second strike capability on
its boats and hence an equivalent amount of the budget earmarked for
strategic systems."
His comments made the link for me between the nuclear weapons
program, the Navy, NASA, and other types of directed energy weapons
developed in nuclear weapons labs intended for space. Marion Fulk, a
former Manhattan Project scientist and retired Livermore nuclear
physical chemist told me that nuclear weapons cannot be used in space
without contaminating the atmosphere, and laser weapons will not work
because there is too much space trash already up there which will
impede the effectiveness of the lasers. Wars in space will create
more space trash until it is impossible to leave the earth, which
already according to Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, is very dangerous now
since a paint chip nearly took out the windshield of the space
shuttle. The US plans to weaponize space are a violation of the
United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles
Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of
Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The
intent was "to promote international co-operation in the peaceful
exploration and use of outer space" and specifically prohibited the
weaponization of space with ANY weapons, including nuclear weapons.
The 2001 Space Preservation Act, HR 2977 which was introduced by
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, let the cat out of the bag and revealed
under the "Definitions" in the bill, that directed energy weapons
which can target individuals and populations from space for the
purposes of psychotronics, mind control, and mood control, are
clearly the new space weapons intended to establish global dominance
by the New World Order. Directed energy weapons developed in the
nuclear weapons labs have been used on nuclear weapons lab
whistleblowers, UC students, handed over to the EPA to use on
environmentalists, and to the FBI to turn over to local law
enforcement. These weapons are now land, air, and sea based. Space is
the last frontier.
ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN - SPOOKS-R-US
Tipped off by a journalist in Washington DC, my investigation of
Admiral Bobby Ray Inman revealed that he was THE Admiral at the
center of the spider web. A look at his social network (see
Namebase.org below) helped put the 'puzzle palace' together, and I
discovered he was National Security Advisor to five Presidents,
Director of the NSA, Deputy Director of the CIA under William Casey,
Vice Director of the DIA, Director of Naval Intelligence, President
of SAIC, Chair of the 1985 Congressional 'Inman Commission' on
Terrorism, affiliated with the Carlyle Group, on the advisory boards
of Tufts and the University of Texas, represents SBC Communications
Corporation at Cal Tech, Chairman Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, and a
member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral
Commission. And, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is a member of the
University of Texas faculty. One could say he is a dangerous man.
One job he didn't get was Secretary of Defense under Clinton:
"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman, stung by press and Senate
criticisms of his record, asked President Clinton to withdraw his
nomination as secretary of Defense. A Clinton aide, George
Stephanopoulos, later wrote that Inman had held back information
during his White House background check."
A look at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
reveals just exactly what kind of activities are undertaken in a
spook shop where there is no accountability, and what business Inman
was conducting at SAIC under his leadership. SAIC is one of the
largest private employee-owned corporations, and like the Carlyle
Group, escapes scrutiny (because it is privately owned) despite
annual revenues of more than $5.9 billion. In 1990 it was indicted
and pled guilty to ten felony counts of fraud on a Superfund site,
called "one of the largest [cases] of environmental fraud
" in Los
Angeles history. DOE contracted SAIC to manage and operate the Yucca
Mountain Program, which I worked on as a scientist at the Livermore
Lab. I became a whistleblower at Livermore in 1991 because of my
knowledge of the extent of science fraud on the most important public
works project in US history. SAIC's control over internet domain
names, gained when they purchased Network Solutions Inc., caused a
furor and identified the ties in SAIC to "the shadow ruling-class
within the Pentagon". Basically SAIC is a private spook corporation,
involved in voting machines (SEQUOIA etc.), controlling the internet
(Network Solutions), training foreign militaries, and the contractor
that set up global communications for the US military. The internet
is being changed from a public resource to a lucrative operation
influenced by spooks and former Pentagon officials. The internet was
a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to begin
with.
One of SAIC's prime clients is DARPA (DOD), which recently employed
5-time convicted felon Admiral Poindexter, an associate of Inman's
going back to Iran-Contra. Poindexter was forced to resign over his
involvement with PAM, a "terrorism futures market" DARPA project
which predicted assassinations, terrorism and other events in the
Middle East. His earlier controversial program TIPS - the Total
Information Awareness Program - was set up to spy on Americans. He
was also involved in creating large information databases on
Americans which are now being used to track citizens. SAIC also had
contracts to develop information systems for the Pentagon, FBI and
IRS. Police can now legally stop a person on the street, ask their
name, type it into a palm pilot and come up with detailed personal
information in a few seconds. An Associated Press story on Sept. 9,
2004, "Conn. City Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" revealed that
police in New Haven, Connecticut, are now driving around in police
cars with infrared scanners connected to databases which they are
using on license plates to hunt for "criminals", tax delinquents, and
parking ticket violators. Some of the $25,000 scanners were paid for
in one month from collected revenues. A military project, the real
purpose of the internet is revealing itself:
"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more
controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite,
unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to
assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain
up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal
information about the citizen. These files will be subject to
instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." - Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The association of Admiral Inman, the Bush crime syndicate, Texas
oil companies, and the Carlyle Group with the University of Texas
explained why an advanced 4th generation nuclear weapons research
program is there. And it explained why the University of Texas is so
eager to take over the nuclear weapons labs. But this takeover
resembles Inmans involvement with a stealth takeover of the Mars
program transferring it from JPL management and control to NASA.
The NASA Deep Space Program was started at JPL to do space
exploration more efficiently with lower costs. Criticism of NASA/JPL
Mars mission failure problems in the Thomas Young Report released on
March 28, 2000, revealed that the supposedly public space program had
been hijacked into secrecy and that the military was calling the
shots. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin on March 29, 2000, revealed
at JPL the day after release of the report, just who was in control
and the existence of an oversight committee that nobody at JPL knew
existed:
"I'd also like to acknowledge Admiral Inman, head of the JPL
Oversight Committee at Cal Tech. He couldn't be here today, but I
talked to him by phone. His commitment to the team here is also
unwavering. And I thank him for that."
Goldin was there "to address beleaguered personnel, scientists and
engineers of the Nation's premier unmanned center for planetary
exploration, and to somehow advise them of the new political and
engineering realities, while simultaneously exhorting them to
continue to new heights but now under more stringent NASA
management". The real question is what was Admiral Inman doing as
chair of a committee in a private university overseeing all civilian
unmanned exploration of the planet Mars without the knowledge of
anyone at JPL?
In two years Admiral Bobby Ray Inman took over the space program, and
in another year from now he will have succeeded in taking over the
nuclear weapons program. When Newsweek called him "a superstar in the
intelligence community", it was for good reason.
A Naval officer I interviewed later replied when I asked him if he
knew Inman "
oh yeah
he's one of the players
".
DEPOPULATION: 4th GENERATION NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND DEPLETED URANIUM
The development of 4th generation nuclear weapons is now underway in
the US (in first place), Germany and Japan (tied for second place),
followed by Russia and other nuclear and non-nuclear States. As an
expert witness on the environmental and health effects of depleted
uranium (DU) weaponry for the International Criminal Tribunal for
Afghanistan held in Japan in 2003, I discovered that there was a
connection between the use of depleted uranium by the US since 1991-
in the Middle East, Yugoslavia, and Central Asia - and 4th generation
nuclear weapons. [Carlucci, former Chairman of the Carlyle Group
(1989-2003), sat on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics
(1991-97) which is one of the main manufacturers of DU weaponry in
the US.] International scientists, Drs. Andre Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni,
and B. Vitali, watch-dogging nuclear weapons developments globally,
pointed out that DU weaponry is being used to study the
radiobiological effects of the new nuclear weapons now under
development:
"It is shown that the radiological burden due to the battlefield use
of circa 400 tons of depleted-uranium munitions in Iraq (and of about
40 tons in Yugoslavia) is comparable to that arising from the
hypothetical use of more than 600 kt (respectively 60 kt) of
high-explosive equivalent pure-fusion fourth-generation nuclear
weapons."
The use of weapons in war are most effective when the weapons do not
kill, but create long-term health and environmental consequences such
as lingering illnesses which slowly destroy the health of the
environment and productivity of a nation and the economy. The use of
Agent Orange in Vietnam is a good example of an environmental
disaster with lingering and long-term health effects on a population,
as well as causing trans-boundary contamination. DU is a permanent
terrain contaminant with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, forms
immense volumes of nano-sized particles (smaller than bacteria or
viruses) which are lofted permanently as components of atmospheric
dust traveling around the world until they are rained or snowed out
of the air. There is no possible protective clothing, air filters, or
treatment for internal exposure to this form of a poison radioactive
gas. It was proposed as a military poison gas weapon in 1943 under
the Manhattan Project. Even worse, uranium targets the DNA, and the
Master Code (histone) which controls the expression of the DNA, and
slowly destroys the genetic future of exposed populations. The US
CODE, TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 40 > Sec. 2302, defines a Weapon of Mass
Destruction as:
The term ''weapon of mass destruction'' means any weapon or device
that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or serious
bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release,
dissemination, or impact of - (A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or
their precursors; (B) a disease organism; or (C) radiation or
radioactivity
The US has staged four nuclear wars since 1991 using illegal DU dirty
bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets as radiological weapons and
released an amount of radiation into the atmosphere which is at least
ten times more radiation than the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima
bombs, released during atmospheric testing. In June 2003, the WHO
predicted in a press release that cancer will increase 50% globally
by the year 2020, which can only be from an environmental cause.
Already medical and scientific journals are reporting mysterious
increases of infant mortality in 20 regions of Europe (Lancet Jan.
2004), the UK (Guardian Aug. 2004), and the US (New Scientist
Feb.2004). Infant mortality should be decreasing now as a continuing
trend for more than a century because of improved education and
prenatal care, instead it is increasing in the US for the first time
in 45 years with no identified cause. For radiation specialists,
infant mortality is the most sensitive indicator of radioactive
pollution, a response researchers have identified as a result of
exposure to low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear
power plant accidents, releases, and startups. The global pollution
from thousands of tons of DU in nano-size particles traveling around
the earth and being deposited in the global environment will have a
devastating long-term effect. Not only will it cause illnesses and
genetic mutations in the future generations of those internally
exposed, but it will have a depopulating effect long proposed by the
US military. DU is the perfect weapon delivering nanoparticles of
poison, radiation, and nano-pollution - the real killer - directly
into living cells where they cause the cells to go haywire and
disfunctional:
"Should humans be so stupid as to continue both technological
escalation and wars between nation-states, radiological warfare might
well be a far more safe and humane way to conduct extermination of
large numbers of people, or the emptying out of troublesome political
centres, than any of the various biological alternatives."
MORE-4-US
Research on population control is now being carried out secretly by
biotech companies. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a University of California
microbiologist discovered that wild corn in remote parts of Mexico is
contaminated with lab altered DNA. He was denied tenure at UC
Berkeley when he reported this to the scientific community, despite
the embarrassing discovery that the Chancellor denying him tenure was
getting large cash payments from a biotech company each year. Chapela
revealed that a spermicidal corn developed by a US company is now
being tested in Mexico. Males who unknowingly eat the corn produce
non-viable sperm.
Depopulation is quite another thing. It is killing off large
segments of living populations. Even Prince Philip of Britain, a
member of the Bilderberg Group, is in favor of depopulation:
"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a
killer virus to lower human population levels."
- Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund
- quoted in 'Are You Ready For Our New Age Future?', Insiders Report,
American Policy Center, December '95)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been proposing, funding, and
building BioWeapons Level 3 and Level 4 labs at many places around
the US - even on university campuses and in densely populated urban
locations. In a BioWeapons Level 4 facility a single bacteria or
virus is lethal.
For what purpose are these labs being developed, and who will make
the decisions on where BioWeapons created in these facilities will be
used and on whom? More than 20 world-class microbiologists have been
murdered since 2001, mostly in the US and the UK - nearly all were
working on developing ethnic specific BioWeapons.
Citizens around the US are frantically filing lawsuits to stop these
labs on campuses and in communities where they live. Despite the
opposition of residents living near UC Davis, where a BioWeapons
Level 4 lab was planned with the support of the town Mayor, she
suddenly reversed her position after a monkey escaped from a high
security primate facility. When residents claimed that if UC Davis
could not keep monkeys from escaping from their cages, they certainly
could not guarantee that a single virus or bacteria would not escape
from a test tube. The escaped monkey killed the project.
The extreme secrecy surrounding the takeover of nuclear weapons,
NASA and the space program, and BioWeapons labs is a threat to civil
society, especially in the hands of the military and corporations.
THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
The New World Order can be described as a network of members of the
Bilderberger Group, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the
Trilateral Commission. The membership in both the CFR and the
Trilateral Commission by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is of particular
interest in light of the developments surrounding control by the
military of the US nuclear weapons program and the NASA space program.
"The Council on Foreign Relations is the American Branch of a society
which originated in England
(and)
believes national boundaries
should be obliterated and one-world rule established
*****************************************************************
18 Yahoo! News: Army Whistleblower Draws Fire -
By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer Sun Aug 7,12:17 PM ET
WASHINGTON - In the world as Bunnatine Greenhouse sees it,
people do the right thing. They stand up for the greater good
and they speak up when things go wrong. She believes God has a
purpose for each life and she prays every day for that purpose
to be made evident. These days she is praying her heart out,
because she is in a great deal of trouble.
Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse is the Principal Assistant
Responsible for Contracting ("PARC" in the alphabet soup of
military acronyms) in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lest the
title fool, she is responsible for awarding billions upon
billions in taxpayers' money to private companies hired to
resurrect war-torn Iraq" /> Iraqand to feed, clothe, shelter and
do the laundry of American troops stationed there.
She has rained a mighty storm upon herself for standing up,
before members of Congress and live on C-SPAN to proclaim things
are just not right in this staggeringly profitable business.
She has asked many questions: Why is Halliburton — a giant Texas
firm that holds more than 50 percent of all rebuilding efforts
in Iraq — getting billions in contracts without competitive
bidding? Do the durations of those contracts make sense? Have
there been violations of federal laws regulating how the
government can spend its money?
Halliburton denies any wrongdoing. "These false allegations have
been recycled in the media ad nauseam," the company said in
response to a list of e-mailed questions from The Associated
Press.
Now Bunny Greenhouse may lose her job — and her reputation,
which she spent a lifetime building.
She is a black woman in a world of mostly white men; a
60-year-old workaholic who abides neither fools nor frauds. But
she is out of her element in this fight, her former boss said.
"What Bunny is caught up in is politics of the highest damn
order," said retired Gen. Joe Ballard, who hired Greenhouse and
headed the Corps until 2000. "This is real hardball they're
playing here. Bunny is a procurement officer, she's not a
politician. She's not trained to do this."
___
Greenhouse has known for a long time that her days may be
numbered. Her needling of contracts awarded to Halliburton
subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) predated the war in Iraq,
beginning with costs she said were spiraling "out of control"
from a 2000 Bosnia contract to service U.S. troops. From 1995 to
2000, Halliburton's CEO was Dick Cheney" /> Dick Cheney, who
left to run for vice president. He maintains his former company
has not received preferential treatment from the government.
Since then, she had questioned both the amounts and the reasons
for giving KBR tremendous contracts in the buildup to invading
Iraq. At first she was ignored, she said. Then she was cut out
of the decision-making process.
Last October 6, she was summoned to the office of her boss.
Major Gen. Robert Griffin, the Corps' deputy commander, was
demoting her, he told her, taking away her Senior Executive
Service status and sending her to midlevel management. Not
unlike being cast out of the office of bank president into the
cubicle of branch manager. Griffin declined to be interviewed by
the AP.
Her performance was poor, said a letter he presented. This was a
surprise. Her previous job evaluations had been exemplary, she
said. The basic theme was that she was "difficult," and "nobody
likes you," she said.
If she didn't want the new position, she could always retire
with full benefits, the letter noted.
Over my dead body, said Greenhouse.
"I took an oath of office. I took those words that I was going
to protect the interests of my government and my country. So
help me God," she says. "And nobody. Has the right. To take away
my privilege. To serve my government. Nobody."
She has hired lawyer Michael Kohn, who successfully represented
Linda Tripp in her claim that the Pentagon" /> Pentagonleaked
personal information after she secretly taped Monica Lewinsky's
confessions of a sexual affair with President Bill Clinton" />
Bill Clinton.
Two weeks after Greenhouse's trip to the woodshed, Kohn wrote an
11-page letter to the acting Secretary of the Army, requesting
an independent investigation of "improper action that favored
KBR's interests."
He also asked that his client be protected against retaliation
under whistleblower statutes.
Then he reminded the Army secretary of Federal Acquisition
Requirement 3.101: "Government business shall be conducted in a
manner above reproach ... with complete impartiality and with
preferential treatment for none."
The status of an independent investigation by the Defense
Department is unclear. "As a matter of policy, we do not comment
on open and ongoing investigations," said Pentagon spokeswoman
Lt. Col. Rose-Ann Lynch.
Halliburton is also under federal investigation for alleged
favoritism by the Bush administration. FBI" /> FBIagents
questioned Greenhouse for nine hours last November about that
probe. In March, a former employee was indicted for taking
bribes while working for KBR in Iraq.
Company spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said KBR has "delivered
vital services for U.S. troops and the Iraqi people at a fair
and reasonable cost, given the circumstances."
Meanwhile, Greenhouse has been placed under a 3-month
performance review ending in September.
___
When Gen. Ballard hired her in 1997 she was overqualified —
three master's degrees and more than 20 years of contracting
experience in private industry, the Army and the Pentagon.
"She is probably the most professional person I've ever met, "
Ballard said. "And she plays it straight. That created problems
for her after I left."
Ballard used her, he said, to help him revolutionize the Corps —
by ending the old-boys practice of awarding contracts to a
favored few, and by imposing private industry standards on a
mammoth, 230-year-old government agency with 35,000 workers. He
felt the Corps, which had overseen everything from building
hydroelectric dams to the Soo Locks to the Manhattan Project,
needed a hard boot into the new age of contracting.
"The Corps is a tough organization. And I'll tell you, it's not
easy to be a woman in this organization, and a black one at
that," said Ballard, who was the first black leader of the
Corps.
He is not optimistic about her future.
"I think you can put a fork in it," he said. "Her career is
done."
At Corps headquarters, few speak to her, she said, and her
bosses write down what she says at departmental meetings.
Sometimes, as she walks down a hall, someone will mutter, "Go
for it, Bunny," or "Give 'em hell," she said. "They pass by
saying this while they're looking straight ahead," she
recounted, and chuckled.
In a city where politics is everything, including blood sport,
she refuses to play. Right down to her clothes.
Bunny Greenhouse does not subscribe to the Capitol chic of a
dowdy Janet Reno" /> Janet Renojacket and skirt or a boxy
Hillary Clinton" /> Hillary Clintonsuit with buttons the size of
quarters. On a sweltering summer day, seated in her lawyer's
Georgetown office, Greenhouse wears a vibrant pink-and-black
shirt, tight-fitting trousers with creases that could cut
butter, and a blazer with a shredded-fabric flower.
Her bag — overflowing with files, papers, pens, wallet, cell
phone — rivals the weight of a bound copy of the federal budget.
Underestimate her at your peril.
"I have never gone along to get along. And I'm willing to suffer
the consequences," she said.
Her contracting staff was sharply reduced, she said, and her
superiors have gone behind her back, most notably in issuing an
emergency waiver — on a day she was out of the office — that
allowed KBR to ignore requests from Department of Defense" />
Department of Defenseauditors who issued a draft report in 2003
concluding KBR overcharged the government $61 million for fuel
in Iraq.
"They knew I would never have signed it," she said.
The Army Corps of Engineers declined to comment on Greenhouse's
complaints. "It's a personnel matter," said Corps spokeswoman
Carol Sanders. "We're not going to go point-by-point with Ms.
Greenhouse's accusations.
"They want me out," Greenhouse said.
___
In her job, Greenhouse is mandated by Congress to get the best
quality at the cheapest price from the most qualified supplier.
Over her objections, KBR was awarded three multibillion-dollar
war-related contracts, two of them without competitive bidding.
Together, they are worth as much as $20 billion — the entire
cost of the Manhattan Project, adjusted to today's dollars.
Greenhouse's most strenuous complaints were over the Restore
Iraqi Oil contract, estimated at $7 billion, originally planned
to handle oil field fires that might be started by Saddam
Hussein" /> Saddam Hussein's troops. When that failed to happen,
it morphed into an agreement to repair oil fields and import
fuel for civilians and soldiers.
The contract was given to KBR in March 2003. In Greenhouse's
view, that process violated federal regulations concerning fair
and open bidding. Halliburton denies that.
A month before KBR got the contract — and three weeks before the
U.S. invaded Iraq — she had demanded KBR officials be ejected
from a Pentagon meeting attended by high-ranking officials from
the Corps and the Defense Department. "They should not have been
there," she said. "We were discussing the terms of the
contract."
Later, she would tell Democratic members of Congress: "The abuse
related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant
and improper contract abuse I have ever witnessed during the
course of my professional career."
At the Corps, Greenhouse said she was told KBR was the only
qualified firm.
With the country on the brink of war, she reluctantly signed the
RIO contract. But next to her signature, she boldly wrote an
objection to the only thing she felt she could challenge — the
contract's length, five years. One year would have been more
than fair, she said. After that, it should have been put out for
bid among contractors with top security clearances.
"I caution that extending this sole source contract beyond a
one-year period could convey an invalid perception that there is
not strong intent for a limited competition," she penned in neat
cursive.
In June, she was asked to testify before the Democratic Policy
Committee — formed by Democrats who said their efforts to get
the Republican-controlled Congress to investigate alleged war
profiteering had been repeatedly denied.
She was joined by a former Halliburton employee who said KBR fed
spoiled food to American troops and charged the government for
thousands of meals it never served.
Halliburton would not specifically address the former employee's
claims. Norcross said taking care of troops is "our priority."
"I thought she was very courageous to come forward and blow the
whistle," Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of
California said of Greenhouse. "The administration ran around
her and ignored her. We owe her a debt of gratitude."
And if she is forced out?
"I would find that outrageous," Waxman replied. "They should be
promoting her."
Greenhouse is a registered independent. Her husband, Aloyisus
Greenhouse, is retired after a long Army career as a senior
procurement officer. They have three grown children.
Bunny grew up in the segregated South, where her parents taught
her and her siblings to be proud and hardworking. Her brother is
Elvin Hayes, the Hall of Fame basketball player. She followed
her husband's military postings, moving and moving and then
moving again. In each place she found her own way, and her own
job.
Her husband watches what is happening to her and tries to bite
his lip.
"Bunny has a lot of faith. She really believes that someone will
stand up and say, 'This is wrong.' But I don't think a person
exists like that in the Department of Defense."
But in her world, Bunny Greenhouse's faith still beams.
"I simply believe that we have callings and purposes in this
life. I walk through this life for a purpose. I wake up every
day for a purpose. And every day I say, 'Here I am. Send me.' "
Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
19 Salt Lake Tribune: New energy law limits public's say in decisions
Article Last Updated: 08/10/2005 01:40:59 AM
Activists dismayed: Cash flows from gas pumps to industry's
pockets, they say
By Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune
A day after President Bush signed into law the sweeping Energy
Policy Act, environmental and citizen activist organizations
continued their angry denouncements of the bill they say is a
multibillion-dollar giveaway to wealthy energy companies
undeserving of taxpayer subsidies.
But those who want to speak out against the new law may be in
for a shock: Its provisions include new limits on public
participation in energy-related decisions, alterations of clean
water law and pre-emption of states' rights when it comes to
building electricity transmission lines and liquefied natural
gas port facilities.
In short, the activists say, oil, coal and nuclear interests
win while American consumers and the environment pay the price.
A statement endorsed by the Alaska Wilderness League,
Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, the
League of Conservation Voters, the National Audubon Society, the
National Environmental Trust, Public Citizen, the Sierra Club,
the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society
and U.S. Public Interest Research Group declared the bill "a
miserable failure" that doesn't meet America's 21st century
needs.
Even Bush acknowledged that the bill, touted as a way to
American energy independence, would not give consumers any
relief at the gas pumps even as the bill allows some of the
biggest oil companies huge subsidies during a time they are
reporting record profits.
The bill includes $14.5 billion in incentives, but the true
cost is more than $20 billion because the law includes a tax
credit for nuclear power that is worth $6 billion, said Anna
Aurilio, Washington, D.C.-based legislative director for U.S.
PIRG.
Tax breaks for renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean
vehicles totaled $5.3 billion. But the $3.2 billion for
renewable energy, an extension of an existing production tax
credit mostly geared toward wind energy, now includes subsidies
for geothermal, biomass, hydropower and development of coal on
Indian tribal lands.
"Obviously coal is not renewable in any sense and hydropower
can have [environmental] problems," Aurilio said. And with just
26 percent of the subsidies going toward nontraditional energy,
renewables are at a disadvantage, she said.
The bill gives nuclear power $7.3 billion in tax breaks,
including a 20-year extension of limits to the nuclear
industry's liability in case of an accident.
That's an unacceptable handout for a mature industry, said
Salt Lake City activist Jason Groenewold, director of the
Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.
"By promoting a resurgence of nuclear power, we only ensure
that more dangerous waste will be produced with no place to go
except for the politically marginalized places like Utah and
Nevada," he said.
The bill alters the National Environmental Policy Act to
allow the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take shortcuts when
granting permits for oil and gas drilling and essentially cuts
the public out of the process, said Scott Groene, executive
director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
"The BLM is already handing over public lands faster than the
industry can drill," he said. "This legislation is more about
increasing oil company profits than creating energy."
Late last month Exxon Mobil announced a 32 percent
second-quarter boost in profits. Royal Dutch Shell's profits
were up 34 percent, British Petroleum's 29 percent and
ConocoPhillips, 51 percent.
The bill's subsidies include $6 billion to convert coal to
electricity and provides federal loan guarantees to build at
least 16 new coal-fired power plants.
Tim Wagner, who directs the Smart Energy Campaign for the
Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, said with coal-fired plants
contributing to global warming, those provisions "show where big
money can dictate against the interests of the rest of the
global population.
"They do not need loan guarantees to build new coal-fired
power plants," Wagner said. "The hypocrisy of this industry is
just so incredible. They have fought for less regulation yet
they want taxpayers' money to build these expensive plants.
That's just immoral."
The bill also repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act
of 1935, a New Deal reform aimed at protecting consumers from
market manipulation, fraud and abuse in the electricity sector.
"Repealing it will now leave electricity customers vulnerable
to some of the shenanigans we saw with Enron in California, and
it will allow foreign companies to own utilities," said U.S.
PIRG's Aurilio.
Ken Hurwitz, former executive director of the Maryland Public
Service Commission and an energy expert for Haynes and Boone,
LLP, one of the largest corporate law firms in the country, said
PUHCA, as the law was known, was a major impediment to
investment.
Its repeal will spawn a tidal wave of new gas and electric
utility acquisitions and mergers, such as Warren Buffett's
proposed acquisition of Utah Power's parent company PacifiCorp,
Duke Energy's proposed merger with Cinergy and American Electric
Power's acquisition of Central and Southwest - "a good thing,"
Hurwitz said during a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.
Hurwitz also extolled the bill's provisions that enable the
federal government to trump states, local governments and
communities that have objected to electric transmission lines
and liquefied natural gas terminals, which coastal cities have
resisted due to safety concerns.
"The policy perception is we need more natural gas supplies
coming into the country," he said.
Groene said he hoped that the bill, as bad as it is, is a
pendulum that has swung as far out of bounds as possible. As
people become more informed, they might be willing to fight it.
"Citizen involvement is what brings the pendulum back," he said,
"which is a little bit difficult since this legislation limits
their ability to be involved."
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
20 NRC: Notice and Solicitation of Comments; Pursuant to 10 CFR 20.1405
FR Doc E5-4325
[Federal Register: August 10, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 153)]
[Notices] [Page 46549] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr10au05-106]
and 10 CFR 50.82(b)(5) Concerning Proposed Action To Decommission
Ward Center for Nuclear Studies at Cornell University Reactor
Facility Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (the Commission) has received an application from the
Cornell University dated August 22, 2003, for a license amendment
approving its proposed decommissioning plan for the Ward Center
for Nuclear Studies (TRIGA Reactor, Docket No. 50-157, License
R-80 and Zero Power Reactor, Docket No. 50-97, License R-89)
located in Ithaca, New York. In accordance with 10 CFR 20.1405,
the Commission is providing notice and soliciting comments from
local and State governments in the vicinity of the site and any
Indian Nation or other indigenous people that have treaty or
statutory rights that could be affected by the decommissioning.
This notice and solicitation of comments is published pursuant to
10 CFR 20.1405, which provides for publication in the Federal
Register and in a forum, such as local newspapers, letters to
State or local organizations, or other appropriate forum, that is
readily accessible to individuals in the vicinity of the site.
Comments should be provided within 30 days of the date of this
notice to Patrick M. Madden, Chief, Research and Test Reactors
Section, New, Research and Test Reactors Program, Division of
Regulatory Improvement Programs, Mail Stop O12-G13, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555.
Further, in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(b)(5), notice is also
provided to interested persons of the Commission's intent to
approve the plan by amendment, subject to such conditions and
limitations as it deems appropriate and necessary, if the plan
demonstrates that decommissioning will be performed in accordance
with the regulations in this chapter and will not be inimical to
the common defense and security or to the health and safety of
the public.
Copies of the application for a license amendment approving
Cornell University's proposed decommissioning plan are available
for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room
(PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike
(first floor), Rockville, Maryland 20855-2738. The NRC maintains
an Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS),
which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents.
The initial application may be accessed through the NRC's Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html , under ADAMS accession
number ML032400421, ML032400186, ML032400205, and ML032400427.
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or if there are problems
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, may contact the NRC
PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail
to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of
August 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Alexander Adams, Jr., Acting Section Chief, Research and Test
Reactors Section, New, Research and Test Reactors Program,
Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. E5-4325 Filed 8-9-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
21 Platts: NEI says energy bill gives industry "tools" for new plants
+ The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) hailed the energy bill as
moving the U.S. toward greater energy independence.
NEI's Frank "Skip" Bowman, who witnessed the bill's signing today
in New Mexico, said the measure promised an expansion of more
"environmentally friendly" energy production. Bowman downplayed
what critics called subsidies in the bill.
He said that provisions in the legislation give the industry the
"tools" to spur new construction. "With the limited investment
incentives for new nuclear power plant construction,
authorization for nuclear energy research and development and
other provisions, the law positions the United States to continue
its global leadership role in addressing the energy needs of the
21st century," Bowman said in a statement.
Washington (Platts)--8Aug2005
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
22 [EMMAS] Noam Chomsky: We must act now to prevent another
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 12:00:08 -0500 (CDT)
WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article303965.ece
7 August 2005 15:32
Noam Chomsky: We must act now to prevent another Hiroshima - or worse
The explosions in London are a reminder of how the cycle of attack and
response could escalate
Published: 06 August 2005
This month's anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
prompts only the most sombre reflection and most fervent hope that the
horror may never be repeated.
In the subsequent 60 years, those bombings have haunted the world's
imagination but not so much as to curb the development and spread of
infinitely more lethal weapons of mass destruction.
A related concern, discussed in technical literature well before 11
September 2001, is that nuclear weapons may sooner or later fall into
the hands of terrorist groups.
The recent explosions and casualties in London are yet another reminder
of how the cycle of attack and response could escalate, unpredictably,
even to a point horrifically worse than Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
The world's reigning power accords itself the right to wage war at
will, under a doctrine of "anticipatory self-defence" that covers any
contingency it chooses. The means of destruction are to be unlimited.
US military expenditures approximate those of the rest of the world
combined, while arms sales by 38 North American companies (one in
Canada) account for more than 60 per cent of the world total (which has
risen 25 per cent since 2002).
There have been efforts to strengthen the thin thread on which survival
hangs. The most important is the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT),
which came into force in 1970. The regular five-year review conference
of the NPT took place at the United Nations in May.
The NPT has been facing collapse, primarily because of the failure of
the nuclear states to live up to their obligation under Article VI to
pursue "good faith" efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. The United
States has led the way in refusal to abide by the Article VI
obligations. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, emphasises that "reluctance by one party to fulfil its
obligations breeds reluctance in others".
President Jimmy Carter blasted the United States as "the major culprit
in this erosion of the NPT. While claiming to be protecting the world
from proliferation threats in Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea,
American leaders not only have abandoned existing treaty restraints but
also have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons, including
anti-ballistic missiles, the earth-penetrating 'bunker buster' and
perhaps some new 'small' bombs. They also have abandoned past pledges
and now threaten first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear
states".
The thread has almost snapped in the years since Hiroshima, repeatedly.
The best known case was the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, "the
most dangerous moment in human history", as Arthur Schlesinger,
historian and former adviser to President John F Kennedy, observed in
October 2002 at a retrospective conference in Havana.
The world "came within a hair's breadth of nuclear disaster", recalls
Robert McNamara, Kennedy's defence secretary, who also attended the
retrospective. In the May-June issue of the magazine Foreign Policy, he
accompanies this reminder with a renewed warning of "apocalypse soon".
McNamara regards "current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral,
illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous", creating
"unacceptable risks to other nations and to our own", both the risk of
"accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch", which is "unacceptably
high", and of nuclear attack by terrorists. McNamara endorses the
judgement of William Perry, President Bill Clinton's defence secretary,
that "there is a greater than 50 per cent probability of a nuclear
strike on US targets within a decade".
Similar judgements are commonly expressed by prominent strategic
analysts. In his book Nuclear Terrorism, the Harvard international
relations specialist Graham Allison reports the "consensus in the
national security community" (of which he has been a part) that a
"dirty bomb" attack is "inevitable", and an attack with a nuclear
weapon highly likely, if fissionable materials - the essential
ingredient - are not retrieved and secured.
Allison reviews the partial success of efforts to do so since the early
1990s, under the initiatives of Senator Sam Nunn and Senator Richard
Lugar, and the setback to these programmes from the first days of the
Bush administration, paralysed by what Senator Joseph Biden called
"ideological idiocy".
The Washington leadership has put aside non-proliferation programmes
and devoted its energies and resources to driving the country to war by
extraordinary deceit, then trying to manage the catastrophe it created
in Iraq.
The threat and use of violence is stimulating nuclear proliferation
along with jihadi terrorism.
A high-level review of the "war on terror" two years after the invasion
"focused on how to deal with the rise of a new generation of
terrorists, schooled in Iraq over the past couple of years", Susan B
Glasser reported in The Washington Post.
"Top government officials are increasingly turning their attention to
anticipate what one called 'the bleed out' of hundreds or thousands of
Iraq-trained jihadists back to their home countries throughout the
Middle East and Western Europe. 'It's a new piece of a new equation,' a
former senior Bush administration official said. 'If you don't know who
they are in Iraq, how are you going to locate them in Istanbul or
London?'"
Peter Bergen, a US terrorism specialist, says in The Boston Globe that
"the President is right that Iraq is a main front in the war on
terrorism, but this is a front we created".
Shortly after the London bombing, Chatham House, Britain's premier
foreign affairs institution, released a study drawing the obvious
conclusion - denied with outrage by the Government - that "the UK is at
particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States,
has deployed armed forces in the military campaigns to topple the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan and in Iraq ... [and is] a pillion
passenger" of American policy, sitting behind the driver of the
motorcycle.
The probability of apocalypse soon cannot be realistically estimated,
but it is surely too high for any sane person to contemplate with
equanimity. While speculation is pointless, reaction to the threat of
another Hiroshima is definitely not.
On the contrary, it is urgent, particularly in the United States,
because of Washington's primary role in accelerating the race to
destruction by extending its historically unique military dominance,
and in the UK, which goes along with it as its closest ally.
-----
The author is a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and the author, most recently, of Hegemony or Survival:
America's Quest for Global Dominance
==============
***NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.***
==============
#################################################################
" Social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the
zeal, courage, the non-compromising determination of intelligent
minorities, and not through the mass." Emma Goldman
To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE to the emmasdance list send email to
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23 MDN: 60 Years On: Measures necessary for protection against new-type
bombs explained
Mainichi Daily News: National News
Aug. 10, 1945, issue of the Mainichi Daily News. [ width=]
The new-type bombs dropped by enemy planes on Hiroshima on Aug.
6 are, after all, not so powerful as to cause great anxiety,
declared Lieut.-Colonel Akatsuka on his arrival in Osaka on Aug.
8 after inspecting the stricken area in Hiroshima.
Continuing, Lieut.-Colonel Akatsuka said; "The first thing to be
done by the dwellers is to take refuge in underground shelters."
"That the damage suffered in Hiroshima was great must be
ascribed to the fact that enemy attacks were made just after the
air raid alarm was lifted."
"The characteristic of the new type bomb is that the heat of the
thermic rays and the concussion of the blast are great."
"Bombs hitherto dropped were such that people were either killed
or wounded and structures were destroyed by bomb-blast generated
horizontally. The current bombs dropped by the enemy generated
vertical bomb-blasts from the sky to the ground."
"As regards the thermic rays, the most effective method for
protection against them is to be fully clothed in air defense
apparel.
"In this light padded hoods, "teka" and gaiters are considered
most necessary. Otherwise exposed parts of the body will be
burnt." (Reproduced from the Aug. 10, 1945, edition of the
Mainichi Daily News)
60 Years On Hiroshima Photo SpecialGeorge Weller's Nagasaki
ReportGeorge Weller's Nagasaki Report Part IIGeorge Weller's
Nagasaki Report Part IIIGeorge Weller's Nagasaki Report Part
IVHiroshima Peace Declarations 1947-2004Nagasaki Peace
Declarations 1983-2004MDN Aug. 10, 1945, Front Page
Reproduction60 Years On Nagasaki Photo Special
August 10, 2005
Copyright 2004-2005 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All
*****************************************************************
24 Ukraine starts using US nuclear fuel
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Ukraine starts using US nuclear fuel
The Yuzhna Nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine began
experimental use of six Westinghouse-supplied nuclear fuel
assemblies at reactor no. 3.
2005-08-10 17:24
The fuel was delivered for free. The agreement between the USA
and Ukraine concerning nuclear fuel was signed 5 years ago. Then
the Westinghouse representatives completed installation of the
nuclear assemblies monitoring system. This system is necessary,
as the American nuclear fuel assemblies are different from the
Russian ones. Currently, the Russian Corporation TVEL supplies
all the fuel used by all the 15 Ukrainian reactors. Ukraine is
considering the USA as alternative nuclear fuel supplier. It was
planned to test US fuel in 2003, but the project was dragged
out.
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25 nature.com: Chernobyl ecosystems 'remarkably healthy' - Despite
high radioactivity, plants and animals seem to be thriving.
Published online: 9 August 2005; | doi:10.1038/news050808-4
Michael Hopkin
Chernobyl's ecosystems are bouncing back 19 years after the
region was blasted with radiation© Punchstock
Chernobyl's ecosystems seem to be bouncing back, 19 years after
the region was blasted with radiation from the ill-fated
reactor. Researchers who have surveyed the land around the old
nuclear power plant in present-day Ukraine say that biodiversity
is actually higher than before the disaster.
Some 100 species on the IUCN Red List of threatened species are
now found in the evacuated zone, which covers more than 4,000
square kilometres in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, says Viktor
Dolin, who studies the environmental effects of radioactivity at
the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in Kiev. Around 40 of
these, including some species of bear and wolf, were not seen
there before the accident.
If animals at the top of the food chain are present, then the
plants and animals they eat must also be thriving, says
ecologist James Morris of the University of South Carolina in
Columbia, who chaired a panel of scientists presenting the
results at a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in
Montreal, Canada, this week.
"By any measure of ecological function these ecosystems seem to
be operating normally," Morris told news@nature.com. "The
biodiversity is higher there than before the accident."
Mutant die-off
How has this happened, given that radiation levels are still too
high for humans to return safely? Morris thinks that many of the
organisms mutated by the fallout have died, leaving behind those
that have not suffered problems with growth and reproduction.
James Morris
University of South Carolina
"It's evolution on steroids. There are a lot of deleterious
mutations in species but these seem to be very quickly weeded
out," Morris explains. Many young fish living in the reactor's
cooling ponds are deformed, but adults tend to be healthy,
implying that those harmed by radiation die young.
Another factor in the ecosystem's apparent good health could be
that the major radioactive elements in the region, such as
caesium-137, tend to stay in the soil rather than accumulating
in plants and animals, suggests Dolin. This means that
contamination of the human food chain by radioactivity from
Chernobyl might not be as severe as was feared.
All this has led some people to propose that tourism to
Chernobyl would help develop the area. In 2002, a United Nations
report suggested that ecotourism could help plug the gap left by
dwindling funds for regeneration.
A nice place to visit
It is now possible to visit the area on holiday. But this
doesn't mean that people can live there. Some 40 different
radioactive elements, including strontium-90 and decay products
of uranium and plutonium, were released into the exclusion zone,
and it will be many hundreds of millennia before humans could
move safely back, Dolin says.
Humans spending long periods of time there would suffer a
build-up of radiation that would shorten lives and raise newborn
mortality. "It would be a disaster for humans," Morris says.
Many birds are also showing the harmful effects of the fallout.
Morris's colleague Timothy Mousseau found that barn swallows
nesting around Chernobyl have lower survival rates, fewer eggs
and are in generally worse condition than those living southeast
of Kiev, away from the exclusion zone.
It is difficult to say what will become of the region's plants
and animals, admits Morris. One way to find out is to sample the
genetics of populations to see whether diversity is likely to
continue to increase. "What will happen here? That's the
question," he says. "In a way it's a fantastic experiment."
©2005 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
*****************************************************************
26 AU ABC: Attitudes to nuclear power changing, says inquiry head
08:01 (ACST)Thursday, 11 August 2005. 09:01 (AEDT)Thursday, 11
The head of an inquiry into Australia's uranium resources says
community attitudes are changing towards the use of
nuclear-powered energy and says there has been little objection
about the future development of the industry.
Inquiry chairman and Liberal MP Geoff Prosser says Australia has
45 per cent of the world's uranium resources, but only supplies
about 16 per cent of the market.
The Australian Conservation Foundation and the Northern
Territory Environment Centre are among the submissions
expressing concern about the development of the industry.
The inquiry is holding its first public hearing today.
But Mr Prosser says community attitudes are changing as pressure
grows to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.
"Two years ago you would have had this sort of inquiry - there
may well have had a lot of opposition," he said.
"We're getting a lot of support and positive submissions now
because, as I mentioned, I think most thinking people realise
that if we want to meet world greenhouse targets, nuclear power
generation's the way to go.
"Australia has a great opportunity to meet that uranium demand.
"This report will further change a shifting thought in the
public's mind to a positive attitude towards meeting our
greenhouse targets," he said.
The hearing in Canberra comes a week after the Federal
Government assumed control for approving new uranium mines in
the Northern Territory.
The world's largest uranium producer is the first witness.
Canadian-based Cameco has spent $55 million exploring the
Territory.
Some submissions to the inquiry are objecting to further uranium
mining, including one from the NT Environment Centre, which says
it is dirty and dangerous.
*****************************************************************
27 Daily Yomiuri: Blowout at N-plant 'was avoidable'
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Several employees at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in
Mihamacho, Fukui Prefecture, noticed a month before a fatal
steam blowout in August 2004 that a coolant pipe in the No. 3
reactor had not been inspected for 28 years, police said
Tuesday.
Kansai Electric Power Co., which operates the power plant, had
previously maintained it had only learned shortly before the
accident that the pipe had not been inspected.
The Fukui prefectural police have concluded that the accident,
which killed five people and injured six others, could have been
prevented if KEPCO had taken appropriate measures.
The police are questioning people and studying documents
confiscated from the company as part of an attempt to build a
case of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
According to the investigation, KEPCO inspected the No. 1
reactor at Oi Nuclear Power Plant in Oicho in the prefecture in
early July last year and determined that the wall thickness of
the secondary cooling pipe had been eroded in three sections to
between 12.1 millimeters and 14.5 millimeters, below the
national standard of 15.7 millimeters.
Shortly after this inspection, KEPCO inspected facilities at the
Mihama Nuclear Power Plant to look for similar signs of erosion.
By mid-July, maintenance workers noticed that a coolant pipe in
the No. 3 reactor had not been inspected since operation began
in 1976. The pipe should have been replaced in 1992.
After the accident, KEPCO said it had been planning to examine
the pipe during a periodic inspection on Aug. 14 because it
learned earlier in the month that the pipe had not been
inspected. The firm added that it could not have taken any
measures to prevent the blowout as it occurred on Aug. 9, five
days before the planned inspection. (Aug. 10, 2005)
+ THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
Copyright © The Yomiuri Shimbun.
*****************************************************************
28 NewsFromRussia.Com: Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down
13:11 2005-08-10
A nuclear reactor in western Ukrainewas shut down automatically
when sensors indicated a malfunction of its turbines.
The shutdown occurred late Tuesday. There was no increase in
radiation levels at the troublesome reactor No. 2 in the
Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, said a statement from the
state-run Energoatom nuclear operator.
The reactor has faced a series of automatic shutdowns since its
launch last August.
Ukraine was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, the
1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which
spewed radiation over much of northern Europe. Chernobyl was
finally closed down in 2000.
This ex-Soviet republic continues to operate 15 nuclear
reactors, and it has said it is committed to modernizing all of
them, the AP reports.
Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU". When reproducing our materials
*****************************************************************
29 Burlington Free Press: Think about nuclear energy in a rational manner
Opinion
Published: Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Lately we have been subjected to a number of rants against
nuclear energy, and it appears that we should now look at the
subject in a more rational and dispassionate manner.
We have been told, "In the 1970s, based on false promises,
Vermont legislators chose Vermont Yankee over a hydro project
that would have provided electricity at a fraction of the price
paid for Vermont Yankee power. ..."
When I was studying electrical engineering at the University of
Vermont in the 1950s, it was well known that almost all of the
potential hydro-electric energy sources in Vermont had already
been developed. Is it really possible that 500 megawatts of new
developable hydro power appeared in the next 20 years? Just
where and what is this "hydro project" that our legislators
rejected?
And if nuclear power is so expensive, why is it that whenever
Vermont Yankee shuts down for refueling, our electric bills
contain a surcharge because our suppliers have to buy more
expensive replacement energy?
We have also been told "the nuclear industry has saddled the
nation with radioactive waste that will have to be stored for
tens of thousands of years. ..." When we have shaken off the
institutional paranoia about things nuclear that a number or
well-organized anti-nuclear groups have so assiduously promoted,
we will realize that these "nuclear wastes" are a very valuable
resource, which can be processed into fuel for future power
reactors, as well a providing a vast array of isotopes not found
in nature which are extremely valuable in such fields as
biochemical and medical research. Until we do so we must store
them, of course. But it is important to note that that storage
is not a technical or engineering problem -- it is purely a
political problem, and had it not been for the lobbying of the
Vermont Public Interest Group and a large number of its clones,
the federal government would have long since kept its promise to
provide a storage site, if not Yucca Mountain, then an equally
acceptable one.
We have also been told that the nuclear industry has received
nearly $150 billion in taxpayer subsidies since World War II,
and that "Wind beats nuclear hands-down on cost and solar power
costs are dropping fast." Why then are there calls for massive
tax incentives for wind power? Is one man's "tax incentive"
another man's "subsidy"? And looking into various catalogs I
find solar panels priced at about ten times the cost per
installed peak kilowatt as the accepted cost per peak kilowatt
for conventional (oil, gas, coal) generating plants.
Wind and solar will be important components of Vermont's energy
supply, but until an economically feasible method of storing
large amounts of energy when the wind is blowing or the sun is
shining for use when they are not, wind and solar cannot become
part of our base-load power supply, which must be reliably
present 24 hours per day and 365 days per year. The only proven
large scale energy storage method we have today is pumped
storage, which involves building lakes at different elevations
separated by a dam with pumping and generation capacity. Except
in very scarce localities where existing landforms are favorable
it is very expensive which means that it raises the price of
energy to the consumer.
The only way that we can make Vermont energy-independent in the
near future is to establish a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant to
reuse Vermont Yankee's spent fuel and to build a pair of 1000-mw
nuclear power plants to use its product (one should be in
northwestern Vermont where the preponderance of energy demand
resides). For more details on the reprocessing of nuclear fuels,
the reader is referred to an article of that name in the
December 1976 (yes that is correct -- 1976) edition of
Scientific American, pages 30-41, a publication that is very
clear and readable.
And as for the claim that nuclear energy is not "green," which I
take to mean that it somehow degrades the environment, it is
evident that it produces no air or water pollution or greenhouse
gases. Nuclear has a forty year safety record superior to any
other form of electric generation, and does not depend on
foreign sources of oil or gas. Also it will, in the future, be
essential to the transition to a hydrogen transportation economy
(automobiles and trucks running on hydrogen rather than gasoline
or diesel fuel), since electricity is needed to break down water
into hydrogen and oxygen.
Jim Burbo lives in Grand Isle
Respond to this story in a Letter to the Editor
*****************************************************************
30 APP.COM: Safety the key for future of Oyster Creek
Asbury Park Press
the Asbury Park Press 08/10/05
BY BILL BOWMAN STAFF WRITER
NEPTUNE — If elected governor, U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine said
Tuesday that he would keep the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant
in Lacey open "if we can prove it's safe."
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee spoke about the embattled
plant during a discussion with the Asbury Park Press editorial
board.
Corzine expressed doubt that federal legislation he sponsored in
the Senate and Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J., offered in the
House of Representatives that would broaden the criteria for
nuclear plant license renewal will pass.
"If we were going to be able to get that legislation through, we
would have been able to do it on the energy bill," he said.
The plant license is set to expire in 2009.
Corzine said that before the Oyster Creek license is renewed,
"we ought to check out scientifically whether it should be
renewed for 20 years, 15. I can't say that, and I can't even say
whether we've properly evaluated all of the considerations that
need to be taken into account."
"You wouldn't site this plant here today," Corzine said. "It's a
different community today than it was 40 years ago."
Copyright © 2005 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
31 London Times: Place of nuclear power and coal in future energy policy -
Comment - Times Online
thetimes.co.uk
Letters to the Editor
August 11, 2005
From Professor Emeritus Dennis Anderson
Sir, You are supportive of nuclear power (leading article,
August 8) but do not mention a problem that has afflicted it for
50 years, namely the propensity of its advocates to
underestimate costs.
According to a study by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the
costs of new nuclear plant, including those of decommissioning
and waste disposal, would be 10 per cent less than the best
available gas and coal-fired plant.
If that is the case, it is not the Government that is dithering
but industry, for the Government is entitled to say: “Go ahead,
build the stations — why turn to us?”
The answer is that costs are likely to be appreciably higher
than such estimates, up to 100 per cent higher according to a
highly regarded study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
economists, assuming the reactors are built on time and at cost.
This difference amounts to Ł1 billion- Ł1.5 billion per 1,000MW
station, which is presumably why the Treasury is hesitant.
There is a case to be made for nuclear power; climate change
will not be costless, and energy security in all its forms is
unquestionably important. But it must be based on a frank
assessment of costs.
DENNIS ANDERSON
(Centre for Environmental Policy)
Imperial College, London
From Mr Anthony Darbyshire
Sir, Your comments regarding the need for the Government to
determine a strategy to meet the UK’s future energy needs are
well made. But you do not cover one vital potential option.
You write off coal-fired power stations as falling foul of the
EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive. However, it is currently
possible to construct “clean” coal-fired power stations that not
only remove all harmful gases but also produce hydrogen, an
important by-product that could be used to power cars in the
future.
This technology is well established in a number of countries,
and is known to the Department of Trade and Industry. There are
commercial plans to build one or more demonstration plants in
the UK in the near future, but as far as I can tell the
Government is not showing any interest in supporting this
important option.
We have enough coal in the UK to satisfy our energy needs for
over 100 years and it is the most abundant fossil fuel source in
the world by ten times. The Government should ensure that the UK
explores this technology and also ensure that clean coal-fired
power stations progressively replace those that exist.
I submit that we should continue to produce at least 30 per cent
of our energy from coal.
ANTHONY DARBYSHIRE
Retford, Nottinghamshire
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
32 smh.com.au: Nuclear power only natural, says Nelson
By Stephanie Peatling
August 11, 2005
Australia will have to start using nuclear power within the next
50 years to help reduce the growth in greenhouse gas emissions,
the Minister for Science, Brendan Nelson, says.
In the most pro-nuclear remarks made yet by a member of the
Howard Government, Dr Nelson said it was hypocritical for
Australia to look to increase its uranium exports without using
the resource itself.
"We seem to be quite keen about digging it out of the ground and
exporting it to other countries," he said yesterday.
"We might reasonably consider nuclear power as an option for our
future."
Several Government ministers, including the Foreign Minister,
Alexander Downer, and the Treasurer, Peter Costello, have said
there should be a debate about whether there is a place for
nuclear power as part of Australia's energy provision.
Uranium exports are set to rise following an announcement this
week that Australia would begin negotiating a nuclear
co-operation agreement with China.
The Federal Government moved last week to take control of the
Northern Territory's uranium resources, raising the prospect of
more mines.
Dr Nelson is the first member of the Government to link the two
issues. He is no stranger to controversy over uranium, having
recently made the decision to locate a nuclear waste dump in the
Northern Territory, after a nationwide search that took several
years to complete.
He signalled his intention to commission a scientific review of
the pros and cons of domestic nuclear power industry.
"The Government does not have a particular position on this
[but] we should," Dr Nelson said. "The reality is that our world
is warming."
While the Opposition supports increased uranium exports, it
remains opposed to a domestic nuclear energy industry, citing
concerns over the storage of waste, safety and emergency
procedures.
Add smh.com.au to your rss feeds
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
33 [toeslist] Discovery of Radioactive Scrap near Border Begs
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:32:06 -0500 (CDT)
version=3.0.4
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*Discovery of Radioactive Scrap near Border Begs Proper Burial
* By Talli Nauman
Lurking in the dunes along the highway just 50 kilometers south of the
U.S.-Mexico border city area of El Paso - Ciudad Juarez are heaps of
uncontained radioactive waste. The secret in the desert sands recently
was revealed by Mexican nuclear physicist Bernardo Salas Mar, a former
employee of the federal atomic power plant in Veracruz state who was
fired after publicly disclosing its radioactive contamination of the
Gulf of Mexico.
Salas, now a professor at the Mexican National Autonomous University
(UNAM), investigated the border public health threat in cooperation with
the rural residents of the municipality of Samalayuca, adjacent to
Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua. His field research
turned up four mounds of metal scraps, each about six cubic meters in
size, exposed to wind and water. The radiological inspection determined
that the risk of radiation contamination in the human food chain from
this abandoned site warranted protective measures.
/Talli Nauman is a program associate at the Americas Program of the
International Relations Center (online at www.irc-online.org
). She originally published this opinion in
her weekly column at The Herald Mexico, based at El Universal in Mexico
City, as part of her independent media project Journalism to Raise
Environmental Awareness, which she initiated with support from the
MacArthur Foundation. /
/See full article online at:
//http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/178/
Yahoo! Groups Links
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34 Americas Program | Discovery of Radioactive Scraps Begs Proper
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 16:00:00 -0500 (CDT)
autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New at the Americas Program
A New World of Ideas, Analysis and Policy Options
http://www.americaspolicy.org/
August 10, 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New from the IRC's Americas Program:
Discovery of Radioactive Scrap Near Border Begs Proper Burial
By Talli Nauman
Lurking in the dunes along the highway just 50 kilometers south of the
U.S.-Mexico
border city area of El Paso - Ciudad Juarez are heaps of uncontained
radioactive
waste. The secret in the desert sands recently was revealed by Mexican nuclear
physicist Bernardo Salas Mar, a former employee of the federal atomic power
plant in Veracruz state who was fired after publicly disclosing its
radioactive
contamination of the Gulf of Mexico.
Salas, now a professor at the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM),
investigated the border public health threat in cooperation with the rural
residents of the municipality of Samalayuca, adjacent to Ciudad Juarez, in
the northern state of Chihuahua. His field research turned up four mounds of
metal scraps, each about six cubic meters in size, exposed to wind and water.
The radiological inspection determined that the risk of radiation
contamination
in the human food chain from this abandoned site warranted protective
measures.
Talli Nauman is a program associate at the Americas Program of the
InternationalRelationsCenter
(online at http://www.irc-online.org). She originally published this opinion
in her weekly column at The Herald Mexico, based at El Universal in Mexico
City, as part of her independent media project Journalism to Raise
Environmental
Awareness, which she initiated with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
See full article online at:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/178
With printer-friendly PDF version at:
http://americas.irc-online.org/pdf/commentary/0508radioactive.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Produced and distributed by the IRC's Americas Program ~ A New World of Ideas,
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For more information, visit http://www.americaspolicy.org. To report problems
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Home of IRC Americas Program | Foreign Policy In Focus | Right Web
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*****************************************************************
35 [NukeNet] EPA Proposing 1 Million Year Radiation Exposure
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:00:43 -0700
WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
"the West won the world not by the superiority
of
its ideas or values or religion but rather by its
superiority in applying organized violence.
Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners
never do." - Samuel P. Huntington
http://www.nirs.org http://www.ieer.org Funny
how the media consistently sites official web
sites [see bottom] without using more accurate,
objective web sites like the two listed above.
>But opponents of the Yucca waste project,
including state officials in Nevada., saw it
differently.
''In short they've decided to kill a few people,''
said Joe Egan, an attorney who represented Nevada
in the court fight over the project. ''This is an
obvious effort to give the project a pass'' after
the 10,000 year period.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Yucca-Mountain.html
EPA Proposing Radiation Exposure Limits
a.. E-Mail This
b.. Printer-Friendly
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 9, 2005
Filed at 7:42 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conceding there's no way to
know what life will be like in a million years,
the Environmental Protection Agency nevertheless
proposed limits Tuesday on how much radiation a
person should be exposed to from a nuclear waste
dump in that distant time.
The proposal would limit exposure near the
proposed Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada to 15
millirems a year for 10,000 years into the future,
but then increase the allowable level to 350
millirems for up to 1 million years.
That higher level is more than three times what is
allowed from nuclear facilities today by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A standard chest X-ray is about 10 millirems.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch critic of the
Yucca project, called the standard the product of
''voodoo science and arbitrary numbers.'' The
state's other senator, Republican John Ensign,
said the standard had no scientific basis and was
''a blatant disregard for ... the health of
Nevadans.''
Asked if there was any way to assure such a
standard would be relevant or be met that far in
the future, the EPA's Jeffrey Holmstead replied,
''That's a pretty darn good question. ... We do
the best job given all the science we have.''
The radiation exposure issue has threatened to
cripple the government's plans to bury 77,000 tons
of highly radioactive waste -- mostly used reactor
fuel rods now at commercial power plants --
beneath a volcanic ridge at Yucca Mountain in the
Nevada desert 90 miles from Las Vegas.
A year ago a federal court said the EPA standard,
which is supposed to ensure nearby residents won't
be harmed by leaking radioactivity from the dump,
was inadequate because it didn't establish
exposure limits beyond 10,000 years.
On Tuesday, the EPA announced a revised standard
that reaches out to a million years.
''That's longer, many times longer than human
history,'' said Holmstead, adding that he's
certain the rule will be protective of the public.
Once the standard is made final after a comment
period, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will
decide whether the Yucca facility's design is
adequate to meet it.
''We're setting a standard that not only protects
our children, our grandchildren ... it will
protect the next 25,000 generations,'' said
Holmstead.
But opponents of the Yucca waste project,
including state officials in Nevada., saw it
differently.
''In short they've decided to kill a few people,''
said Joe Egan, an attorney who represented Nevada
in the court fight over the project. ''This is an
obvious effort to give the project a pass'' after
the 10,000 year period.
Egan said the standard would allow as much as 700
millirem of radiation exposure a year, when added
to the 350 millirem of natural background
radiation in the Yucca area. The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, which must still approve a
permit for the Yucca waste site, limits public
radiation exposure from nuclear facilities it
licenses to no more than 100 millirems per year.
Holmstead, who is the EPA's head of air and
radiation office, said a person living near the
Yucca site will not be subjected to radiation
''higher than people are routinely exposed to
throughout the country'' from natural background
sources.
He noted that background radiation in Denver is
700 millirems, partly because of its high
elevation. The EPA in its document cited natural
background radiation levels in Colorado, North and
South Dakota and Iowa in some cases was well over
700 millirems a year because of elevation and
geology.
But Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear physicist who has
been critical of the Yucca project and other
government nuclear programs, called the standard
''lax'' and too vague and said to link Yucca
Mountain exposure standards to background
radiation is misleading if -- as the EPA does --
you include radiation from naturally occurring
radon.
Radiation from radon, which occurs naturally in
some rocks, can be extremely high in some areas.
The NRC says 55 percent of human exposure to
ionized radiation comes from radon. The average
background radiation from natural sources
including radon is about 300 millirem nationwide,
according to the NRC.
Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Energy
Department, said the administration is firmly
committed to pushing ahead with the Yucca project.
It plans to submit a formal application for a
license to the NRC next year.
''This is a standard that we can certainly meet,''
said Stevens, when told of the EPA's two-tier
approach.
Reaction to the standard in Nevada was mixed.
''It's not a protective standard,'' said Judy
Treichel, director of the Las Vegas-based Nuclear
Waste Task Force, which opposes the Yucca project.
''It's a way, I guess, for the EPA to help the
Department of Energy build its dump.''
David Swanson, chief of the nuclear repository
oversight office in rural Nye County, called it
''probably appropriate''
''You take your best shot with what you have
predicting what will happen in the future, and
then you monitor it,'' he said, adding he feels
''comfortable'' with the requirements out to
10,000 years. ''It's just ridiculous to attempt to
project farther than that.''
------
Associated Press writer Ken Ritter contributed to
this story from Las Vegas.
------
On the Net
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov
Environmental Protection Agency www.doe.gov [DOE,
really]
_______________________________________________________________________
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36 State Health Department Announces Potassium Iodide to be Distributed
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:00:55 -0700
version=3.0.4
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
DEP D
State Health Department Announces Potassium Iodide to be Distributed on Aug.
11
HARRISBURG (Aug. 10) -- Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson today
announced that people living within a 10-mile radius of Pennsylvaniaąs five
nuclear-power plants will have an opportunity to pick up potassium iodide
(KI) tablets on Thursday, Aug. 11. This distribution is especially intended
for those residents who now want KI and didnąt get it in the past; have
recently moved into the 10-mile radius of a nuclear facility; or misplaced
their KI tablets from the first distribution.
The state Department of Health first made KI tablets available to residents
in 2002 during events that were highly publicized. Since that time,
residents have also been able to pick up tablets anytime throughout the year
at local and state health department offices. To date, almost one million KI
tablets have been pre-distributed to residents, businesses and schools
located within the 10-mile radius of a nuclear facility.
People who currently have KI tablets from previous distributions do not need
to replace them as they have a shelf life of at least five years. Each year,
the department tests tablets that have been previously distributed and will
notify the public if those tablets need to be replaced. Taking a tablet of
KI when directed will help to protect the thyroid gland, located in the
front of the neck, against the harmful effects of radioactive iodine that
may be released in a radiological emergency.
łEvacuation is still the most important action recommended in the unlikely
event of a release of radiation,˛ said Dr. Johnson. łKI tablets only provide
temporary protection for the thyroid gland against cancer and hypothyroid
conditions. They do not provide protection against other types of health
problems that may result from exposure to radiation. And they should never
be taken unless directed by the Governor or the state Health secretary.˛
Public-health professionals will issue two tablets for each person who lives
or works within the 10-mile radius of a nuclear facility. People will be
allowed to pick up tablets for their family members and those who are unable
to pick them up on their own, and will be asked to sign for them.
Instructions on how to store the tablets and when to take them will also be
provided.
Secretary Johnson recommended that residents talk to family physicians and
pediatricians if they have any questions about their health and whether KI
may not be safe for members of their family.
There are five nuclear-power plants in Pennsylvania: Beaver Valley Power
Station, Limerick Generating Station, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station,
Susquehanna Steam Electric Station and Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating
Station. More than 640,000 people live within a 10-mile radius of these
facilities.
Distribution sites and times are listed below. Residents are welcome to go
to any distribution site for the nuclear facility in their area.
AUGUST 11, 2005 KI DISTRIBUTION SITES:
BEAVER VALLEY POWER STATION, Beaver County
§ Beaver County State Health Center
300 South Walnut Lane
Beaver, PA 15009
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, Luzerne County
§ Newport Township Municipal Building
2 Center Street
Wanamie, PA 18634
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
§ Butler Township Municipal Building
415 West Butler Drive
Drums, PA 18222
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
§ Berwick Area High School
1100 Fowler Avenue
Berwick, PA 18603
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, York County
§ Citizens Volunteer Fire Company
171 South Main Street
Fawn Grove, PA 17321
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
LIMERICK GENERATING STATION, Montgomery County
§ Boyertown Junior High School West
380 S. Madison Street
Boyertown, PA 19512
2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
§ Montgomery County Health Department
Pottstown Health Center
364 King Street
Pottstown, PA 19464
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
§ Kimberton Fire Station
61 Firehouse Lane
Kimberton, PA 19442
9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, Dauphin County
§ Elizabethtown High School
600 E. High Street
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
Noon to 4 p.m.
§ New Cumberland Fire Hall
319 4th Street
New Cumberland, PA 17070
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
§ Newberry Township Administration Building
1915 Old Trail Road
Etters, PA 17319
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
§ Harrisburg Mall (former Harrisburg East Mall)
Boscovąs Department Store (outside of 2nd level mall entrance)
3201 Paxton Street
Harrisburg, PA 17111
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
§ York County State Health Center
1750 N. George Street
York, PA 17404
Noon to 6 p.m.
After the Aug. 11 distribution, KI will continue to be available to
residents anytime during regular business hours through county and municipal
health departments and State Health Centers. For additional information
about potassium iodide (KI), visit www.health.state.pa.us or call
1-877-PA-HEALTH.
*****************************************************************
37 Deseret News: EPA looks million years into future
[deseretnews.com]
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Conceding there's no way to know what life will be
like in a million years, the Environmental Protection Agency
nevertheless proposed limits Tuesday on how much radiation a
person should be exposed to from a nuclear waste dump in that
distant time.
The proposal would limit exposure near the proposed Yucca
Mountain facility in Nevada to 15 millirems a year for 10,000
years into the future, but then increase the allowable level to
350 millirems for up to 1 million years.
That higher level is more than three times what is
allowed from nuclear facilities today by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
A standard chest X-ray is about 10 millirems.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch critic of the Yucca
project, called the standard the product of "voodoo science and
arbitrary numbers." The state's other senator, Republican John
Ensign, said the standard had no scientific basis and was "a
blatant disregard for . . . the health of Nevadans."
Asked if there was any way to assure such a standard
would be relevant or be met that far in the future, the EPA's
Jeffrey Holmstead replied, "That's a pretty darn good question.
. . . We do the best job given all the science we have."
The radiation exposure issue has threatened to cripple
the government's plans to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive
waste — mostly used reactor fuel rods now at commercial power
plants — beneath a volcanic ridge at Yucca Mountain in the
Nevada desert 90 miles from Las Vegas.
A year ago a federal court said the EPA standard, which
is supposed to ensure nearby residents won't be harmed by
leaking radioactivity from the dump, was inadequate because it
didn't establish exposure limits beyond 10,000 years.
On Tuesday, the EPA announced a revised standard that
reaches out to a million years.
"That's longer, many times longer than human history,"
said Holmstead, adding that he's certain the rule will be
protective of the public. Once the standard is made final
after a comment period, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will
decide whether the Yucca facility's design is adequate to meet
it.
"We're setting a standard that not only protects our
children, our grandchildren ... it will protect the next 25,000
generations," said Holmstead.
But opponents of the Yucca waste project, including state
officials in Nevada., saw it differently.
"In short they've decided to kill a few people," said Joe
Egan, an attorney who represented Nevada in the court fight over
the project. "This is an obvious effort to give the project a
pass" after the 10,000 year period.
Egan said the standard would allow as much as 700 millirem
of radiation exposure a year, when added to the 350 millirem of
natural background radiation in the Yucca area. The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, which must still approve a permit for the
Yucca waste site, limits public radiation exposure from nuclear
facilities it licenses to no more than 100 millirems per year.
Holmstead, who is the EPA's head of air and radiation
office, said a person living near the Yucca site will not be
subjected to radiation "higher than people are routinely exposed
to throughout the country" from natural background sources.
He noted that background radiation in Denver is 700
millirems, partly because of its high elevation. The EPA in its
document cited natural background radiation levels in Colorado,
North and South Dakota and Iowa in some cases was well over 700
millirems a year because of elevation and geology.
But Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear physicist who has been
critical of the Yucca project and other government nuclear
programs, called the standard "lax" and too vague and said to
link Yucca Mountain exposure standards to background radiation
is misleading if — as the EPA does — you include radiation from
naturally occurring radon.
Radiation from radon, which occurs naturally in some
rocks, can be extremely high in some areas. The NRC says 55
percent of human exposure to ionized radiation comes from radon.
The average background radiation from natural sources including
radon is about 300 millirem nationwide, according to the NRC.
Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Energy Department,
said the administration is firmly committed to pushing ahead
with the Yucca project. It plans to submit a formal application
for a license to the NRC next year.
"This is a standard that we can certainly meet," said
Stevens, when told of the EPA's two-tier approach.
Reaction to the standard in Nevada was mixed.
"It's not a protective standard," said Judy Treichel,
director of the Las Vegas-based Nuclear Waste Task Force, which
opposes the Yucca project. "It's a way, I guess, for the EPA to
help the Department of Energy build its dump."
David Swanson, chief of the nuclear repository oversight
office in rural Nye County, called it "probably appropriate"
"You take your best shot with what you have predicting
what will happen in the future, and then you monitor it," he
said, adding he feels "comfortable" with the requirements out to
10,000 years. "It's just ridiculous to attempt to project
farther than that."
Contributing: Ken Ritter
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
38 SF Chronicle: Foreign A-bomb victims are all but forgotten
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Nagasaki, Japan -- Tucked in the far corner of Nagasaki Peace
Park sits a small monument next to a memorial featuring a
streetcar platform ruined by the atomic bomb.
The simple marker is easy to miss, a lonely tribute to the
non-Japanese survivors of atomic destruction. Their numbers are
unknown, and their struggle for recognition and financial
assistance continues six decades later.
A 1,000-man camp in Nagasaki is believed to have been destroyed
when the bomb fell 60 years ago Tuesday. A group of U.S.
prisoners of war, among tens of thousands of POWs in Japan in
1945, lost a U.S. court battle for reparations two years ago.
Lester Tenney, a former soldier who now lives in La Jolla (San
Diego County), saw the mushroom cloud rise over Nagasaki from
the prison where he was being held 32 miles away.
"We have never, never received anything from the Japanese in any
way," says Tenney, who suffered a broken back, shoulder, nose,
foot, hand and a skull fracture while in captivity. He was freed
when Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945.
Others -- Dutch, Australians, Chinese and as many as 10,000
Koreans among them -- were not that fortunate. Some were workers
the Japanese army conscripted during the war for some of its
most difficult projects, such as dangerous mining and
shipbuilding. Nagasaki city historical accounts say thousands of
non-Japanese merchants and free laborers also were in town when
the bomb fell.
"Almost all of these people would have experienced the atomic
bombing, and it is estimated that thousands of them were
killed," the Nagasaki Testimonial Society writes in its
regularly updated account, A Journey to Nagasaki, a Peace
Reader. "The facts about this area of the atomic bombing have
not been properly brought to light."
Neither the Japanese government nor diplomats have clear figures
about how many foreigners were in Japan in August 1945 or died
in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Japan Times reports 2.5 million Koreans were in Japan then.
Some were conscripted laborers, but more were here because of
Japan's earlier colonization of Korea.
In January, Korean survivors scored a victory when a Hiroshima
court sided with 40 South Korean hibakusha in ordering the
Japanese government to pay damages of nearly $11,000 per person.
A Tokyo columnist on international affairs said the Japanese
government maintains it has already done its part.
"The Japanese government's position is that when Japan and Korea
signed the peace treaty in 1965, the Japanese government paid
compensation for the damage caused during the war, and both
governments agreed that this compensation included individual
damages as well," said Megumi Nishikawa with the newspaper
Mainichi Shimbun.
The Dutch, long-standing trade partners with Japan, also
suffered a heavy toll. Some 90,000 Dutch people have filed
claims over the decades for reparations from Japan. Jan van
Wagtendonk, head of the Amsterdam-based Foundation of Japanese
Honorary Debts, said Dutch nationals who had been interned and
otherwise injured in Japan were seeking the same amount from
Japan that the U.S. government granted in 1990 to each person of
Japanese descent who was interned in the United States during
World War II -- $20,000.
"We still try very hard to convince Japan and its people that
they have a moral obligation to all individual Dutch internees
and POWs who were badly treated by the Japanese military in
Dutch Indies (Indonesia), Japan, Burma, Thailand and China,"
said van Wagtendonk.
Page A - 4
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
39 ABQJOURNAL: Two LANL Workers Inhale Chemical Fumes
Albuquerque Journal newspaper.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Albuquerque Journal-->
Associated Press
LOS ALAMOS — A Los Alamos National Laboratory worker has
been placed on leave pending an investigation into an incident
in which two other employees inhaled chemical fumes, sending one
to the hospital.
The two workers were mixing concentrated nitric and
hydrochloric acids to form a highly corrosive liquid used in
etching and other procedures. They were conducting lab work with
the mixture when they inhaled fumes.
Lab managers didn't learn of the incident, which apparently
happened in June, until Aug. 3. It is under investigation and
one employee is on leave pending the outcome, according to a
statement issued Tuesday by the lab.
In a memo to employees Tuesday, lab director Robert Kuckuck
said the importance of working safely is a priority and that
employees have the right and responsibility to stop work if they
feel working conditions are in any way unsafe.
"We recently have had a series of safety incidents, some of
which have resulted in significant injuries,'' he wrote. "These
incidents are of great concern to me because the safety of
individuals at this laboratory is paramount.''
The lab also is investigating a case in which an employee
spread contamination of americium 241, a radioactive decay
product of plutonium, to his home and places he visited in
Colorado and Kansas. The worker also sent a contaminated package
to a government lab in Pennsylvania.
Los Alamos lab officials have said the contamination levels
posed no risk to the public.
The lab has said the researcher failed to follow procedures.
In the case of the chemical fumes, one employee experienced
temporary shortness of breath. The other had prolonged
respiratory symptoms and was hospitalized for six days in July.
Doctors preliminarily concluded that chemical exposure likely
contributed to the employee's condition.
Officials were learned of the incident after the employee
returned from the hospital and informed the lab's medical staff.
Spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas said Wednesday the lab is still
monitoring the employee's health.
DeLucas, citing the ongoing investigation, would not release
details of the employee who was placed on leave or why. She said
the investigation is expected to take several weeks.
The lab also checked the work space and found no hazards for
other workers.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
Steve@abqjournal.com
*****************************************************************
40 Xinhua: IAEA deputy director: more attention on nuclear usage safety
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-10 22:45:13
BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Nuclear energy will be
increasingly important in the new century but safety should come
first, Tomihiro Taniguchi, Deputy Director General of
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told the 18th
International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor
Technology (SMiRT 18), being held in Beijing.
"Despite the safe operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP),
the public is still concerned about nuclear safety. Terrorism in
recent years has also aroused vast awareness of safety in
nuclear usage," Taniguchi said.
"Asia and the pacific area are vibrant in developing nuclear
technology and are supposed to give a boost to the safe use of
nuclear power worldwide," said Taniguchi.
Asia has seen rapid growth in energy technology and it is
currently the only area where nuclear power enjoys a bright
future.
China is in great need of nuclear energy and has included it
into its national electricity development program, said Li
Ganjie, head of the China National Nuclear Safety Administration
(NNSA)at the conference.
Currently, China has nine nuclear power units in operation,
with a combined installment capacity of 6.7 million kilowatts,
accounting for 1.7 percent of the country's total installment
capacity. By 2020, China's installed nuclear power capacity will
rise to 40 million kilowatts, accounting for 4 percent of the
national total.
"No incidents have taken place in all NPPs in China and no
harmful impacts on the environment were reported in the past few
years," said Wang Jun, vice-director with national nuclear
safety administration. "But we also face challenges in
supervision since the types of the reactors as well as the
standards vary widely."
The NNSA will take measures to minimize hazards such as
enhancing the surveillance and evaluation of safe operation, and
promoting international nuclear cooperation.
It's the first time Beijing has hosted the biannual SMiRT
since it was launched 34 years ago. The five-day Beijing SMiRT,
scheduled to end of Friday, has attracted 252 representatives
from 27 countries. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
41 Hawk Eye: Labor Dept. plans two IAAP meetings
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
The Hawk Eye
The Department of Labor plans two town hall meetings in
Burlington next week to explain portions of a compensation
program for former nuclear weapons workers at the Iowa Army
Ammunition Plant.
Labor department officials will discuss Part E of the Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act at 7
p.m. Tuesday at the Grand Orleans Hotel and Conference Center,
2759 Mount Pleasant St.
A second session is planned for 1 p.m. the following day, Aug.
17.
The Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy built
and tested nuclear weapons components at the ammunition plant in
Middletown from 1949 until 1974.
Many workers from that era developed cancer and other diseases
that may be job related.
Recent amendments to the compensation program created Part E to
pay former Department of Energy workers who became ill from
exposure to toxic substances.
The new rules also benefit survivors of covered employees.
Most of the attention in the Burlington area has focused on Part
B of the program, which covers beryllium lung disease and cancer
caused by radiation.
People eligible for Part B benefits also may be eligible for
compensation through Part E.
Compensation program experts from the labor department will help
former workers or survivors fill out claims forms after the two
town hall meetings. To arrange an appointment, call toll–free,
(866)–540–4977.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
*****************************************************************
42 lamonitor.com: Late reported accident hospitalized lab worker
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, , Monitor Assistant Editor
Los Alamos National Laboratory management learned last week that
two employees apparently suffered work-related injuries in June.
A lab statement on Tuesday said two postdocs had inhaled "aqua
regia," a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, on June 16,
while working at the laboratory. One of them was hospitalized
for six days in July.
The incident is now under investigation.
Kathy Delucas of the LANL Public Affairs Office said this
morning that the laboratory could not disclose the work location
or division involved in order to "maintain the integrity of the
investigation."
The Department of Energy will investigate the circumstances of
the injury under a procedure known as a Type B investigation.
Type B accidents are required for any accident that results in
the hospitalization of one or more DOE or contract employees or
members of the public for five continuous calendar days or
longer.
The Project on Government Accountability, a Washington, D.C.,
public interest group that has been highly critical of the
laboratory's safety and security failings, released a leaked
copy of the preliminary occurrence report of the accident.
POGO charged that the injured worker might have been told to
keep working, despite complaints of dizziness.
An internal memo from LANL Director Robert Kuckuck on Tuesday
did not specifically mention the inhalation accident, but urged
employees to work safely.
"I want every one of you to know that should you choose to stop
work at this laboratory for any safety-related concern, I will
back your decision 100 percent," Kuckuck wrote.
"If raising the issue to management does not result in
resolution of the problem, then employees can raise the issue to
a higher management level - even to me - if required. Safety is
that important."
A recent event involving off-site contamination by americium-241
has also been designated a Type B investigation.
Another criteria, which applicable in that case is in an
accident in which the estimated cost of "cleaning,
decontaminating, renovating, replacing, or rehabilitating
structures equipment or property" is more than $1 million.
Kirk Keilholtz, assistant manager for facility operations at the
Los Alamos Site Office, said he recommended the Type B
investigation because the costs so far of decontamination
activities in Los Alamos, Colorado and Kansas have been costly.
"We're above $500,000 and moving close to $1 million in response
issues," he said.
The DOE regulation also calls for a Type B investigation for
"cross-cutting issues and issues warranting the attention of
local news or interest groups."
"We've had calls from business groups, the Environmental
Protection Agency and the state," Keilholtz said.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
43 Pahrump Valley Times: Guesswork at root of radiation standards
August 10, 2005
By PHILLIP GOMEZ PVT
The United States Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday
said that a million years from now Amargosa Valley residents,
living closest to the border of the proposed Yucca Mountain
Repository, would be exposed to the same levels of radiation as
urban residents of Salt Lake City or Denver, or "what people
routinely accept (today)."
In a telephone news conference from Washington, D.C., with the
nation's major news media, EPA Assistant Administrator for Air
and Radiation Jeffrey Holmstead asserted that the agency was
being responsive to a federal court of appeals ruling last
summer that said 10,000 years was an insufficient period of time
for Yucca Mountain to be guaranteed safe.
In response, the EPA's new radiation standard projects 1 million
years into the future.
Holmstead began by saying the court ruling had set an
unprecedented challenge for the EPA to meet in analyzing the
health and safety risks of the repository containing stored
nuclear waste for more than a million-year period.
"If looked backward, that's 995,000 times longer than human
history," Holmstead said. The risk protection standards
established Tuesday were "unprecedented in human history," he
said.
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required EPA to develop standards
for possible radiation leakage from the Yucca Mountain site. The
long-term standards were designed to protect the public and the
environment from exposure to the radioactive wastes stored in
the federal facility operated by the Department of Energy.
The court ruling in July 2004 upheld most of the standards
established by EPA in 2001, designed to protect people living
closest to the repository within a range the agency deemed an
acceptable level of risk up to 10,000 years.
The standards limited an individual's annual radiation exposure
from ingestion, inhalation or physical contact to no greater
than 15 millirem (a measure of the actual biological effects of
radiation absorbed in human tissue).
That's roughly the radiation dosage from three chest X-rays per
year.
But the court's decision was that EPA had ignored the longer
1-million-year standard recommended by the National Academy of
Sciences, which the Energy Policy Act required EPA to base its
standards upon and be consistent with.
The standards are important because the National Regulatory
Commission must include the EPA's level of safety assurance in
its licensing regulations for the repository.
Tuesday's revision of the standards, intended to satisfy the
court by providing assurance up to 1 million years out, put the
EPA's credibility on the line that it could guarantee the
public's health based on sound science.
In responding to a Washington Post reporter's question about
how the revision differed from the previous standard, Holmstead
said, "We have retained the 10,000-year standard. Amargosa
Valley residents will be exposed to no more than 15 millirem of
radiation (up to 10,000 years)." Beyond that, up to 1 million
years, Amargosa Valley residents would only be exposed to
radiation levels as great as 750 millirem, or the equivalent
background radiation that urbanites in Salt Lake City or Denver
are exposed to in 2005.
The reporter on the line from National Public Radio asked, "How
can the public have any confidence in the (new) standard?"
Using phrases such as "a real scientific challenge" and "as
much as we possibly can," Holmstead responded that science could
only credibly certify eventualities up to 10,000 years.
"No one in the U.S. has gone out to 1 million years," he said.
"In all the EPA programs we only go out to 10,000 years."
Retained in the standard was the requirement from 2001 that the
overall radiation dose limit of 15 millirem for individuals and
for protection of drinking water derived from Amargosa Valley's
aquifer after 10,000 years. In the latter case, groundwater
standards are the same as national standards established by the
EPA.
Holmstead said that Amargosa Valley residents today were exposed
to a natural background radiation of 350 millirem, compared to
Denver residents' exposure to 700 to 750 millirem. "One million
years from now," he said, "it would be acceptable for people in
Amargosa Valley to be exposed to the same levels as Denver
today."
The standards require the Yucca Mountain facility to withstand
the effects of earthquakes, volcanoes and any climate change
producing increased rainfall, and that any deterioration of the
waste canisters does not compromise the safety of nearby
residents or the potability of the underlying aquifer.
In a 1995 report, the National Academy of Sciences said, "peak
risks might occur tens-to-hundreds-of-thousands of years or even
farther into the future." The academy recommended that
computer-modeling techniques about radiation uncertainties be
measured for the time of peak risk "which is on the order of 1
million years."
With the new standards in place, the National Regulatory
Commission will be responsible for evaluating how well the
Department of Energy has complied with the EPA's requirements
guaranteeing the safety of Yucca Mountain, Holmstead said.
Asked by a Gannett reporter how confident he was that the new
revised rule would meet with the approval of the federal court
of appeals, Holmstead said, "Quite confident. ... We hope it
will not be challenged in court. We are quite confident for all
science that goes in the repository. A lot of time and effort
has gone into (the study of Yucca Mountain's safety.)"
For comment or questions, please e-mail
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005
*****************************************************************
44 asahi.com: A-bomb survivor puts brave face on tragedy
08/10/2005 By KAZUYO NAKAMURA The Asahi Shimbun
NAGASAKI-Katsuji Yoshida, 73, knows his scarred face makes
people uncomfortable.
Entering a classroom filled with children, Yoshida breaks the
ice with a joke, "When I was a young guy, I was as hot as (the
SMAP heartthrob) Kimutaku-and I'm not kidding."
The classroom fills with laughter. Even those students who
couldn't look at him at first now turn to him.
It's not that Yoshida has grown immune to having a face
disfigured by the atomic bombing. There is not a day Yoshida
doesn't wish he could exchange his face for another-or, at least
that his scars were somewhere they could be hidden away.
And that is precisely the reason why he is involved in
Nagasaki's Peace Education program, giving talks to children.
That's why he jokes about his damaged face.
"The atomic bomb creates such distorted bodies. I've got to have
people see me, to make sure they get the message that we must
never use the bomb, ever again," he says.
"We can't allow anyone else to get their bodies mangled like
mine. Us grandpas have to be the last generation that suffers."
Yoshida was just a schoolboy when the atomic bomb was dropped
Aug. 9, 1945, on Nagasaki.
The right side of his face and neck were so deeply charred by
the radiation his parents almost gave up. They discussed funeral
plans with him.
However, the penicillin he took finally worked, and Yoshida
recovered sufficiently to be discharged from the hospital, after
a long stay. On the packed train back home to Nagasaki, the seat
on Yoshida's right side remained empty, however.
Yoshida could feel the people staring at the burned black side
of his face.
When he went to the neighborhood barber to get a haircut, he was
relieved that the customers didn't turn to look at him.
But then he noticed someone sneaking a curious glance, using the
barber's mirrors.
Being stared at like a freak devastated Yoshida.
"I'd rather be dead," he cried out to himself.
He couldn't even bear to look at his face when it was reflected
in the water of his wash basin.
He shut himself up at home and wept.
One day, his mother said to him, "If crying is going to make the
hurt go away, I'll help you all you want."
But she gently nudged him into a better frame of mind and
suggested he make a fresh start by thinking differently.
Finally, Yoshida did, step by step.
Their house was at the foot of a shrine that stood atop a hill
with a commanding view of the Nagasaki landscape-a city full of
hills.
Yoshida forced himself to walk as far as the first torii gate of
the shrine, aiming for the second gate the next day.
He gradually trained himself to venture outside his home and get
back into the swing of things.
Yoshida was hired at a food warehouse company in Nagasaki, and
assigned to a sales position after a year. He married and had
two sons.
He is not sure when he actually started feeling comfortable
enough to strike up conversations with strangers.
However, he recalls one incident vividly; it is a memory that
still sustains him.
Many years ago, his younger son begged Yoshida to come to his
sports meet. Yoshida desperately tried to wriggle out of it,
saying that his face wouldn't be wanted there.
But his son persisted. He was adamant his father come to school.
So Yoshida went.
At the meet, his son's friend said, "Your dad's face is sure
scary!"
But Yoshida's son didn't flinch. He proudly announced: "It was
the atomic bomb that got daddy."
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yoshida has been kept busy, giving talks
at schools and community centers on an almost daily basis.
Still, even he cannot put a brave face on everything. He never
leaves his house without wearing a patch that covers up his
right ear-it is just a hole.
But he doesn't cover his face. He wants the peace message to
come across.
"I haven't got a spare. That's why everyone should get a good
look at my face," he says.(IHT/Asahi: August 10,2005)
The Asahi Shimbun Company
*****************************************************************
45 American Centrifuge Plant
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:00:41 -0700
X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
The transcript of the 3-hour phone conference on July 19 in the USEC
ACP licensing case is available at the NRC website. The conference
involved the 3 ASLBP judges, USEC's lawyers, the NRC Staff, including
most of those most directly involved with the licensing proceeding,
Geoffrey Sea, and PRESS representatives Vina Colley and Ewan Todd.
You can find it by going to
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html
clicking on "Begin ADAMS Search" and entering the document number
ML052070174.
To find other documents in the case, after you have clicked on "Begin
ADAMS Search", click "Advanced Search", then enter the docket number
07007004 (with all the zeroes) in the "Docket Number" field.
3706 McDermott Pond Creek Road, McDermott, OH 45652
Ph.740-353-2275 Ph: 740.259.4688 cell 740-357-8916
Vina Colley, President, e-mail: vcolley@earthlink.net
Co-Chair National Nuclear Workers for Justice.
www.nnwj.com
*****************************************************************
46 [du-list] Uranium producers rush to reopen mines.. SOLD !
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:00:46 -0700
autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com
Uranium producers rush to reopen mines
http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/08090000aaa0616b.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=FRONTPAG&Type=News&Filter=Front%20Page
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Australia, Canada, Russia and the United States
are rushing to reactivate uranium mines now that China and India have
committed the nations to nuclear power.
Concerns about safely disposing of nuclear waste led to a bust in uranium
prices in the 1980s and systematic mine closures as nations such as the
United States moved from using radioactive materials to generate electricity.
However, China, India and other developing countries have committed to
nuclear power as fossil fuel prices soared and global warming concerns
increased.
That has pushed uranium demand to 180 million tons a year while mines
worldwide produce 90 million to 100 million tons, The Washington Post reported.
"The price of uranium has just about tripled since 2003," U.S. Energy
Department analyst Ed Cotter told the newspaper. "The analysts all seem to
agree that it's going to keep going up and up as the world moves more and
more to nuclear power plants. And this time, the market is global."
A dozen uranium mines have reopened in Colorado and Utah and one expert
told the newspaper hundreds could be operating in the next three years.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
+ http://www.caseyresearch.com/
We've already seen a distinct price hike in uranium stocks, but caution is
advised: since it has become clear that there's money to be made with
uranium-lots of money-exploration companies have begun shouting their
supposed U3O8 resources in the ground from the rooftops. That doesn't mean
they really have any.
PS
The Australian govt. is negotiating to supply China and has taken over the
control of sources in Northern Territories whose local govt. has
declined all mining applications in the last 2 years.
db
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47 [NYTr] Heaps of Unburied Rad Waste on US-Mexico Border
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:49:11 -0500 (CDT)
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Foreign Policy in Focus - Aug 5, 2005
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/178/
Discovery of Radioactive Scrap near Border Begs Proper Burial
By Talli Nauman
Lurking in the dunes along the highway just 50 kilometers south of the
U.S.-Mexico border city area of El Paso - Ciudad Juarez are heaps of
uncontained radioactive waste. The secret in the desert sands recently
was revealed by Mexican nuclear physicist Bernardo Salas Mar, a former
employee of the federal atomic power plant in Veracruz state who was
fired after publicly disclosing its radioactive contamination of the
Gulf of Mexico.
Salas, now a professor at the Mexican National Autonomous University
(UNAM), investigated the border public health threat in cooperation
with the rural residents of the municipality of Samalayuca, adjacent
to Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua. His field
research turned up four mounds of metal scraps, each about six cubic
meters in size, exposed to wind and water. The radiological inspection
determined that the risk of radiation contamination in the human food
chain from this abandoned site warranted protective measures.
Salas, not an anti-nuclear activist but a proponent of safe use of
nuclear technology, recommended such drastic measures as burial of the
waste and a fence around it. The Sociedad Espaqola de Proteccisn
Radiolsgica (Radiological Protection Society of Spain) has invited him
to present his findings at its upcoming tenth national congress.
But like so many other prophets in their own lands, Salas encountered
colleagues' unwillingness to admit the results of his work in Mexico.
Three domestic institutions similar to the one in Spain refused to
accept his conclusions at their congresses.
The Sociedad Mexicana de Seguridad Radiolsgica and the Sociedad
Nuclear Mexicana, told him the rejection was because he hadn't sought
permission to enter the abandoned lot where the waste is located. The
Sociedad Mexicana de Fmsica would not answer his written request for
its reasons.
The location is on top of the burial grounds of other waste from what
Chihuahua journalist Ignacio Alvarado Alvarez calls the worst nuclear
disaster of this hemisphere, "Our Chernobyl." That is the fiasco that
began 21 years ago in 1984 when guards at Los Alamos Nuclear
Laboratories near Santa Fe, New Mexico, detected a truckload of rebar
from Old Mexico contaminated by radioactive Cobalt-60.
It is a twisted tale typical of the bi-national boundary line's
environmental predicament. A U.S. gamma radiation chamber sent
illegally to Mexico was scrapped in Ciudad Juarez with other metal,
which it contaminated. The contaminated metal was made into the rebar
and shipped for sale in the United States. Only then was it discovered
to be dangerously radioactive, and it was returned to Mexico for
confinement.
The defunct state-run Aceros de Chihuahua foundry made the rebar by
recycling material obtained at the Yonke Fenix. The Ciudad Juarez
junkyard is now famous because among the objects it received for
resale was the gamma radiation chamber with pellets of Cobalt-60 that
the most expensive private hospital in the city had acquired as
contraband from a U.S. supplier.
U.S. importers of the resulting rebar were located. The rebar in the
United States was carted back to Mexico for burial. But south of the
border many shipments of recycled metal that different foundries made
with the contaminated scrap from the Fenix junkyard were delivered and
never recovered for interment.
Perhaps the waste mounds that Salas verified are a miniscule part of
what somehow was picked up around the country.
Meanwhile, the radioactive construction material remains in at least
half the states in Mexico. Millions of people are being exposed to the
elevated radiation from the rebar in more than 17,000 shopping centers
and public buildings, according to conservative estimates. The harm,
in terms of cancer and mutations, to this and future generations is
incalculable.
As the world reflects on the tragedy of radiation damage from the
atomic bomb explosions' destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years
ago during the first week of August, the less obvious calamity of the
Cobalt-60 contamination in Mexico also continues.
The least society can do is admit to the mounds at Samalayuca and
procure a proper burial at the site.
[Talli Nauman is a program associate at the Americas Program of the
International Relations Center (online at www.irc-online.org). She
originally published this opinion in her weekly column at The Herald
Mexico, based at El Universal in Mexico City, as part of her
independent media project Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness,
which she initiated with support from the MacArthur Foundation.]
(c) 2005 Foreign Policy in Focus
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48 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca radiation limits unveiled
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Standards will be good for 1 million years, EPA says
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday
unveiled a new set of radiation limits for Yucca Mountain that
appear headed on a path to prolong and intensify clashes over
the safety of burying nuclear waste in Nevada.
A top EPA official said the standards, rewritten to satisfy a
federal court ruling, would offer health protection to Nevadans
from buried canisters of decaying nuclear fuel for as long as 1
million years.
But the federal agency's plan was met with immediate and strong
criticism from Nevada leaders and citizen advocates.
They charged the EPA limits are lax and will do more to ensure
a nuclear waste repository is built at Yucca Mountain than they
will protect the public from exposure to radioactive particles
expected to escape into the environment over thousands of years.
If EPA officials fail to change the benchmarks after fielding
public comments over the next 60 days, Attorney General Brian
Sandoval said Nevada "will sue them again."
"Never in our wildest nightmares would we have anticipated such
a ridiculous standard," Gov. Kenny Guinn said. "This is junk
science at its worst."
The radiation health standard is a primary benchmark used to
ensure that safety protections are designed into the nuclear
waste tunnels the Department of Energy proposes to build 100
miles northwest of Las Vegas.
EPA proposed a unique two-part standard, with one set of limits
for the first 10,000 years of repository operation and a second
set for the succeeding years, out to a million years.
The repository's potential impacts are projected through the use
of complex computer modeling. Still, scientists vary in their
levels of confidence to determine what Nevada's climate, geology
and its population will be like thousands of years into the
future.
"It is clear this is an unprecedented standard. We've never
tried to regulate for this period of time," said Kevin Crowley,
director of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the
National Academies of Science.
Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA assistant administrator for air and
radiation, said the agency was attempting to set limits that
will affect 25,000 generations.
"It's a real scientific challenge but we think we've done it in
a way that is consistent with the best science," Holmstead said.
The Energy Department believes it can meet the proposed EPA
standard, DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said. It was unclear what
additional work DOE may need to perform to demonstrate
compliance or what it might add to the project in terms of time
or cost.
Yucca supporters said the proposed standards may finally give
the Department of Energy some target to shoot for as its
struggles to form a license application for the nuclear waste
site.
The project has been delayed by several problems over the past
year, most notably a federal court ruling last July 9 that threw
out portions of the EPA's previous radiation standard.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
ruled the EPA improperly limited its benchmark to 10,000 years.
A National Academies of Science study ordered by Congress
concluded in 1995 that long-lived radioactive particles could be
escaping from Yucca Mountain at maximum dose levels for as long
as 1 million years.
Holmstead maintained the revised limits should satisfy the
judges.
"We're quite confident we've paid careful attention to what the
court said," Holmstead said. "We are quite confident to the
extent this is challenged it would be upheld."
Crowley, who was staff director of the panel that wrote the 1995
report, said it appeared "EPA has been very careful to link what
they are doing to the recommendations in our previous report."
But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said what EPA has proposed is
"voodoo science and arbitrary numbers.
"I am astounded that the EPA actually put those recommendations
on paper," Reid said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., called the proposal "arbitrary and
grossly misguided." Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., called it
"irrational and misguided."
The EPA "is giving the finger to the court. It is almost as if
they want it thrown out again," said Bob Loux, executive
director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"The EPA can propose any number it wants, but the real trick
will be proving this new standard can be met, and it remains to
be proven that can be done," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
For the first 10,000 years of operation, the Energy Department
would need to calculate that a hypothetical farmer living 11
miles south of the repository, around Amargosa Valley, would be
exposed to radiation from repository operations of no more than
15 millirem of radiation annually.
Holmstead said for comparison a chest X-ray exposes a patient
to 10 millirem while a mammogram results in a 30 millirem
exposure.
The repository exposures would be calculated on top of what
people receive in natural background radiation given off by
rocks and soil, building materials and cosmic rays. The EPA
estimated the background radiation at Amargosa Valley at 350
millirem, while it said the national average was 300 millirem.
For the period beyond 10,000 years, EPA proposed to set the
repository limit at 350 millirem above natural background. There
is no corresponding groundwater standard.
In getting to that number, the EPA searched for a western state
that it said would be "fairly well populated" and similar in
other respects to Nevada. It settled on Colorado as a point of
reference.
According to the EPA, Colorado's estimated annual average
background radiation level is 700 millirem. The agency set 350
millirem as its post 10,000 year limit by subtracting Amargosa
Valley's background levels from those in Colorado.
In that way, Holmstead said, "even in a million years from now,
a person living at the border of the nuclear repository would
not be exposed to radiation at levels any higher than what
people are routinely exposed to throughout the country today."
The EPA also directed the Energy Department to perform
additional analyses over the million-year time frame to
determine how earthquakes, volcanic activities, a rainier
climate and corrosion processes would affect its compliance with
the reworked limits.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the EPA approach was too much of
a stretch.
"I am appalled at the complete arrogance of the EPA in
announcing these standards," he said. "The EPA has provided no
scientific basis for the 350 millirem figure."
"The EPA now has the dubious distinction of proposing a standard
that would be the worst in the Western world, by far," said
environmental scientist Arjun Makhijani, president of Institute
for Energy and Environmental Research. "No Western programs
explicitly allow as large as 350 millirem per year at the time
of peak dose."
Steve Frishman, a Nevada technical adviser, said the new rules
also cut DOE a break by allowing it to use median values in
calculating radiation doses, allowing it effectively to discard
high measurements. EPA said the change ensures compliance is
measured by "the most likely performance" of the repository.
In its 216-page proposed regulation, the EPA noted it
considered a two-part radiation standard in 1999 but rejected
it. But due to the federal court's decision last summer "it is
necessary for us to re-evaluate potential approaches," the
agency said.
Given the uncertainties far into the future, the EPA's approach
is "scientifically defensible," said Rod McCullum, a senior
project manager for the Nuclear Energy Institute.
At 350 millirem, "it still is a small level of radiation,"
McCullum said. "You don't get health effects until you get into
the hundreds of thousands of millirem."
But Judy Treichel, director of the nonprofit Nevada Nuclear
Waste Task Force, pointed to a recent National Academies study
that concluded radiation exposures of any level increase health
risks.
"This doesn't protect public health. It protects DOE's ability
to build the dump," Treichel said.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
49 BBC: Inquiry after men
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 August 2005
[Sellafield] Sellafield will be decommissioned
over the next 10 years
An investigation is under way after two contamination
incidents at Cumbria's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.
In the first, two men working at the site's magnox reprocessing
complex were found to have picked up contamination to their
hands.
A spokesman for British Nuclear Group, which operates the site,
said the men were treated and were not in danger.
Another incident involving contamination of a floor area at the
complex is also being investigated.
The British Nuclear Group spokesman said: "Two plant operators
received some localised hand contamination following work in the
charge-machine area of the magnox reprocessing plant.
Barriered off
"The contamination was picked up during routine monitoring and
the operators were successfully decontaminated. The work area
was then also monitored to locate the source of the
contamination.
"Work was suspended and the affected area barriered off, until
decontamination operations were complete.
"In a second event within the plant, surveys identified
contamination on the floor area where a PVC tent had been
removed.
"Some contamination was also found on the shoes and coveralls of
two of the plant operators involved in the job. There was no
spread of activity away from the immediate area."
The spokesman said neither was considered a major incident.
Earlier this month it emerged two senior staff were disciplined
after a major leak of nuclear material at the Sellafield
complex.
*****************************************************************
50 BBC: Early run-down for Dounreay plant
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 August 2005
[Dounreay and cows]
Dounreay could go through decommissioning earlier than planned
The Dounreay nuclear plant may be decommissioned sooner than
expected under revised plans.
New government body, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA),
is due to publish its draft strategy for dealing with all nuclear
plants.
The decommissioning of Dounreay, which is the biggest employer in
Caithness and northern Sutherland, was due to be completed in
just over 30 years time.
However, the new body is reviewing all of its timetables.
Dounreay, which is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority
(UKAEA), provides one in five jobs in the area.
The NDA wants to prioritise dealing with high level radioactive
waste, which means it also wants a long term disposal route. It
is expected to favour a deep storage solution.
*****************************************************************
51 Platts: EPA proposes two-tiered radiation standard for Yucca Mtn.
+ The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a
two-tiered standard under which radiation releases from a
repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. would be regulated for
1-million years.
The proposal unveiled today would maintain the EPA's existing
10,000-year radiation protection standard for the site as the
first tier, limiting maximum releases to 15 millirem (mrem) a
year from all pathways and maintaining a separate groundwater
protection standard of 4 mrem/yr.
Post-10,000 years, the limit would be 350 mrem/yr and a separate
groundwater limit would no longer exist.
"It is an unprecedented scientific challenge to develop proposed
standards today that will protect the next 25,000 generations of
Americans," said Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA assistant administrator
for air and radiation.
If it becomes final, the proposed regulation would replace the
10,000-year standard a federal court remanded to the agency last
year because it did not comply with the National Academy of
Science's recommendation that it be long enough to cover the peak
radiation dose, which DOE has projected could occur more than
400,000 years after the repository is sealed.
Washington (Platts)--9Aug2005
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
52 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A miracle -- overnight
Today: August 10, 2005 at 9:2:29 PDT
LAS VEGAS SUN
The Environmental Protection Agency spent just a little more
than a year in revising its radiation standard for Yucca
Mountain. This short period of time is ridiculously inadequate
for such a life-and-death determination. Yucca Mountain, in a
desert area 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is where Congress
and President Bush have chosen to bury the nation's high-level
nuclear waste. Construction on underground tunnels and burial
vaults is under way by the Energy Department, which hopes to
have a license to operate the repository by at least 2015.
The original radiation standard was a proposed maximum amount
of radiation that would be allowed to escape from the repository
each year over a period of 10,000 years. The standard was
created by calculating how well the waste would be protected
from the outer environment once it was buried under the
mountain's thick rock in man-made casks. A federal court, basing
its decision on a recommendation by the National Academy of
Sciences, ruled last year that the proposed daily maximum amount
of escaping radiation should be in place far longer than 10,000
years.
On Tuesday the EPA came out with its revision. The new standard
retains the proposed maximum Yucca-related exposure for 10,000
years, which is 15 millirems per person per year (a single chest
X-ray is 10 millirems). But in an effort to comply with the
court order, the EPA announced that it was adding another
proposed radiation standard for the next 990,000 years. During
this period, the standard would be 350 millirems per person per
year. The EPA says this second standard is equivalent to the
natural and man-made radiation that people absorb each day. This
second standard also requires the Energy Department to study
what could happen to Yucca Mountain over 1 million years in
terms of destructive events such as earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, climactic changes and corrosion of the mountain and
the man-made structures that would contain the waste.
In announcing the new standard, the EPA was affirmative in its
belief that it could be achieved. "It is an unprecedented
scientific challenge to develop proposed standards today that
will protect the next 25,000 generations of Americans," said
Jeffrey Holmstead, the EPA's assistant administrator for air and
radiation. "EPA met this challenge by using the best available
scientific approaches and has issued a standard that will
protect public health for a million years."
Well, pardon our skepticism. The EPA has been around now for 35
years and in all that time hasn't even learned how to protect
the public from dirty air and water. So how could it learn, in
just over a year, how to protect the public from Yucca
Mountain's radiation for an extra 990,000 years? And how can it
expect the Energy Department to protect people in the distant
future from cataclysmic events affecting the mountain? We hope
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will rule on the new
radiation standard, comes around to sharing our skepticism.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
53 Las Vegas SUN: EPA proposal gives Yucca a boost
Today: August 10, 2005 at 11:11:30 PDT
Nevada officials vow to challenge radiation standard
By Benjamin Grove and Suzanne
Struglinski
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency gave Yucca
Mountain a burst of momentum on Tuesday when it issued a revised
radiation-release rule that Nevada officials say is dangerously
lax.
Energy Department officials said the proposed nuclear waste
repository could meet the standard and they hope the new rule
will help put the beleaguered project back on track.
But Nevada officials vow to again take the fight over radiation
standards to court.
"If this bogus new standard, or anything close to it, ends up
being adopted by EPA, Nevada will sue them again," Attorney
General Brian Sandoval said.
The proposed new standard actually offers future generations
less protection from radiation than the old one and does not
mesh with a federal court's requirement for a new standard,
Nevada officials and Yucca critics said.
Gov. Kenny Guinn called it "junk science at its worst."
"I can't imagine how they could have done anything to make
themselves more vulnerable in the court of law as well as the
court of science," Guinn said.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed
regulations that limit the amount of radiation that could be
safely emitted from the proposed underground repository for
high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest
of Las Vegas.
The agency in 2001 established a 15-millirem radiation exposure
limit for up to 10,000 years, which means a person living in the
immediate vicinity of Yucca could receive that much radiation in
a year -- roughly equivalent to a chest X-ray.
But delivering a major setback to Yucca last year, a federal
court threw out that standard, saying it was not "based upon and
consistent with" recommendations by the National Academy of
Sciences, as Congress required.
The court said the academy rejected 10,000 years "as a proper
benchmark but EPA used it anyway." The academy said the standard
should go out to the "peak dose," when the radiation levels
would be at their highest. This could occur about 100,000 years
or more into the future.
That left two courses of action for Yucca to proceed: Congress
could allow the agency to create a standard outside of what the
academy wanted, or the EPA could revise the standard to bring it
in line with the academy's recommendation.
The agency proposed a "two-tiered" rule Tuesday. One tier
maintains the 15-millirem standard for up to 10,000 years, and
the other limits exposure to 350 millirem per year for 10,000 to
1 million years.
The rule is not final. It will go through a 60-day public
comment period before a finished rule is published and
implemented by the agency.
Energy Department officials seemed content with the standard.
"The department believes this is a standard that can be met,"
Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said. "This is a
positive step in the process."
The radiation standard is important because the Energy
Department must prove that Yucca can meet the standard in order
to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The
NRC ultimately will determine whether Yucca can meet the
standard, and whether Yucca can be licensed as a safe repository
site.
The next step now for the department is to submit a license
application, which it aims to do early next year. The NRC could
take up to four years to review and approve the license before
construction could begin. Yucca is not expected to begin
accepting waste until 2012 at the earliest.
Nevada cannot challenge the new standard in court until it
becomes final, but state officials will use the time to prepare
a challenge, Nevada senior deputy attorney general Marta Adams
said.
"It's amazing how much this deviates from what the NAS
requires," Adams said.
Among the complaints of Yucca critics and Nevada officials is
that the EPA is proposing a more lax standard at the time when
the repository's radiation levels would be at their highest --
after 10,000 years. Nevada believes the waste storage containers
and other man-made elements will fail by that time and the rock
will not offer enough protection to contain radiation.
Joe Egan, a lawyer who handles Yucca issues for the state, said
the EPA gave no justification for a standard that increases
23-fold between 10,000 and 10,001 years, except that the
performance of the repository is uncertain.
"What does that have to do with how much radiation a human
should get?" Egan said. "They fit the rule to meet the
repository."
Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA's assistant administrator for air and
radiation, said EPA officials had carefully reviewed the federal
court ruling and were "quite confident" that their new standard
would hold up in court if Nevada officials challenge it.
As part of its deliberations, the EPA considered current levels
of background radiation in a number of major U.S. cities, he
said. Currently, U.S. citizens receive various levels of
"background" radiation from a number of sources, mostly natural
sources, depending on where they live and their lifestyles.
People can receive radiation from natural sources that include
the sun, soil, rocks, even food and other people. Radon gas is a
common source of radiation often found in homes. People also get
doses from man-made sources such as X-rays. A chest X-ray emits
about 10 millirem of radiation and a mammogram about 30
millirem, Holmstead said.
People receive about 350 millirem a year on average, Holmstead
said.
People living in the high-elevation city of Denver receive
about 700 millirem of radiation a year, Holmstead said. In part
relying on that statistic, the EPA deemed it "acceptable" for a
person living near Yucca to receive roughly 350 millirem in
background radiation, plus an additional 350 millirem from
Yucca, Holmstead said.
Egan said this means the federal government is saying Nevadans
can get twice the background levels of radiation than the rest
of the country.
Holmstead said the EPA had avoided trying to set a radiation
standard beyond 10,000 years in its first attempt in 2001
because it was so difficult to set standards that far into the
future.
The EPA spent seven years researching and developing the
standard released in 2001. It took just over a year to release a
revised standard.
Devising a new 1 million-year standard was "a real scientific
challenge," but the EPA issued it in order to respond to the
court's direction, he said.
"The time frame we're dealing with here is really
unprecedented," Holmstead said.
When pressed on how the public could have confidence in the
standard, Holmstead said, "We do the best job we can based on
all the science we have."
The radiation standard's 10,000-year compliance period would
begin when Yucca is filled to capacity, currently set at 77,000
tons, and sealed, which could be roughly 50 years after it
begins collecting waste.
A 60-day public comment period begins immediately. There will
be two public comment hearings in Nevada and one in Washington,
Holmstead said. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., had asked for three hearings in Nevada
and a 180-day comment period.
Some nuclear power industry officials, as well as state
officials in states with nuclear waste piling up at power
plants, were initially pleased with the EPA standard.
"On the surface, it gives the DOE the opportunity to move on
with the license application," said Martez Norris, executive
director of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, another
coalition of state government agencies and nuclear utilities.
"It's a very positive sign."
Energy Department officials likely will not be surprised or
troubled by the 350-millirem standard, said Charles Pray, Maine
state nuclear safety advisor and a former Energy Department
official. Department officials all along have anticipated that
they might have to meet a two-tiered standard, said Pray, who is
also co-chairman of the Yucca Mountain Task Force, a coalition
of state regulatory agencies and nuclear industry officials
advocating for Yucca.
"I think the science and the technology are there" for Yucca to
meet the post-10,000-year standard, Pray said.
Brian O'Connell, director of the nuclear waste program at the
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, agreed
Yucca should be able to meet the 350-millirem standard.
"It looks comfortable for compliance," O'Connell said. "I'm
glad it's not 15 millirem for a million years."
But Guinn and Sandoval argued that the standard suggests that
it is acceptable for Nevadans to receive twice a normal
radiation dosage.
"For the first time ever in the world, it seeks to establish
the level of 'natural background radiation' received by
Americans as a tolerable threshold for additional radiation from
man-made sources," they said in a news release.
Sandoval said, "In a snub to the scientific community and a
federal appeals court in Washington, the EPA today issued a
proposed standard for the licensing that is 100 times more
lenient than what the government permits for releases from
nuclear power plants."
The two Republican state officials said Nevadans could suffer
100 more times radiation exposure than what the federal
government now permits for residents living near nuclear power
plants. They said it is "by far the most lenient radiation
protection standard proposed for any nuclear waste disposal
project in the world."
Reaction from Nevada's congressional delegation was swift and
shrill.
"I am appalled at the complete arrogance of the EPA in
announcing these standards," Ensign said. "We've been down this
road before. The federal appeals court already determined that
the 10,000-year standard violated the law. This new standard is
no better, and the EPA has provided no scientific basis for the
350 millirem figure."
"I am astounded that the EPA actually put those recommendations
on paper," Reid said. "What the agency released today is nothing
more than voodoo science and arbitrary numbers."
The post-10,000-year standard is not grounded in science, Rep.
Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said.
"EPA has an obligation to protect public safety today,
tomorrow, and in a million years," Gibbons said. "Yet, the EPA
thought it would be OK to increase its radiation standard from
15 millirem to 350 millirem -- a 23-fold increase when the clock
hits 10,000 years and 1 day simply because we don't know what
the future holds."
Gibbons noted the contrast in the EPA previously arguing for a
very low standard for arsenic in drinking water because
scientists do not know what level of arsenic is safe.
"They have failed us," Gibbons said of the EPA, during an
appearance on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable channel 19.
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., asked, "Where's the proof that an
additional 350 millirem per year of radiation won't have a
negative impact on a human being? That contravenes 50 years of
radiation science."
Reid and Berkley also alleged that the EPA had issued its
standard as part of a Bush administration effort to jump start
the stalled Yucca program.
So did Arjun Makhijani, president of the Maryland-based
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, noted that the
Energy Department in 1999 told Nuclear Waste Technical Review
Board, a congressionally mandated watchdog group, that the
maximum dose from Yucca would be 200 to 300 millirem per year
several hundred thousand years into the future. That's
conveniently just under the 350-millirem level, Makhijani noted.
"The dose limit seems designed to protect the industry's
interest in a bad site, rather than public health," said
Makhijani, who supports geologic disposal of nuclear waste, but
believes Yucca is a bad site. "This is one more example of what
I have called the 'double-standard standard.' When Yucca
Mountain cannot meet the rules, the federal agencies change the
rules to fit Yucca Mountain."
A 350-millirem level is still dangerous, Makhijani said. He
said a person exposed to 350 millirem per year every year for 70
years would run a 1-in-40 chance of getting cancer. He called
the EPA standard the worst single action the agency has taken
since he began analyzing the agency nearly 25 years ago.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
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54 Salt Lake City Weekly: Let’s (Not) Make a Deal
City Week - August 11, 2005
Desperate to stop N-waste on a Utah Indian reservation, state
politicians pin their hopes on lobbying the Bush administration.
In the eight years since the Skull Valley Band of Goshute
Indians inked a deal to store waste for the nuclear energy
industry in the state’s west desert, Utah politicians have
tried everything they could think of to thwart the deal.
Without success. They’ve tried paying off the Goshutes, as
well as federal court challenges. Nearly every objection raised
to the project’s federal permit has been dismissed by federal
nuclear regulators. As the project moves ever closer to an
expected federal permit this summer, Utah’s congressional
delegation is attempting increasingly desperate measures, from
designating the area around the proposed above-ground storage
site as wilderness to stalling the plan through a terrorist
threat study.
For at least one Utah politician, the prospect of stopping
Private Fuel Storage (PFS) looks bleak.
“I’m not an attorney, and I can’t say the state of Utah
has exhausted its legal options, but so far it seems like
they’ve gone through a lot of steps and have not been
successful,” U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson told City Weekly.
Matheson is a co-sponsor of a bill introduced by fellow Utah
Rep. Rob Bishop to create a wilderness area on land PFS needs
for a railroad line. That bill still has a chance, but Matheson
isn’t holding his breath. Instead, he is putting his hope in
the state’s new push—a direct appeal to the Bush
administration.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton can stop PFS because, as the
government’s trustee for American Indians, she must sign off
on any business lease of Indian land. Utah’s senators are
leading the congressional charge to persuade the administration.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has met with Norton and recently hired a
D.C. lobbying firm to continue pressing the case.
Those discussions are fledgling, said Mike Lee, Huntsman’s
lawyer. When the lobbying gets under way in earnest, it might
not prove any easier than efforts to challenge PFS through the
courts.
The strategy won’t work and isn’t fair, said Sue Martin, PFS
spokeswoman. “The state has every opportunity to fight the
project on a scientific and legal basis. That ought to be
enough. To ask the Department of the Interior not to sign off on
the lease seems to me to be an infringement on the sovereign
rights of the Goshute Indians.”
Norton can’t just slap down the PFS plan willy-nilly. As
trustee, she is supposed to look out for the tribe’s best
interest. The case that big nuclear waste money isn’t in the
interest of the impoverished tribe could be a hard sell.
By law, the secretary also must take into account potential
environmental impacts on the reservation and surrounding land,
as well as the adequacy of emergency services. A few B-list
celebrities joined by two tribal members opposed to PFS tried to
make the environmental argument while lobbying in Washington,
D.C., last month, saying the waste plan would pollute Indian
land and tradition.
That may or may not be true. But it’s hard to argue with $3
billion. That’s tribal Chairman Leon Bear’s estimate of the
value of the band’s contract with PFS, a consortium of nuclear
energy producing companies searching for a place to park spent
fuel rods in the absence of a federal depository like the
stalled Yucca Mountain project.
Bear believes the Interior Department already gave its blessing,
pending approval by nuclear regulators, and said if Norton
reverses the approval, there will be a lawsuit.
Norton “doesn’t have that trust responsibility to the state,
she’s got it to the tribe,” he said. “If she disallows
[PFS], the band falters in their economics. That is not within
her purview.”
Not all tribal members see PFS as salvation. Margene Bullcreek,
a tribal member leading opposition to Bear’s leadership, filed
suit in March seeking to overturn the PFS deal. She emphasized
the opposition isn’t fighting against PFS, but for tribal
sovereignty. Among their chief concerns are that windfall from
the deal hasn’t been shared equally and that Bear, whose
leadership is disputed, shouldn’t have been allowed to ink the
deal.
Those issues aside, the PFS proposal is bad on its face,
Bullcreek said. Nuclear waste “contains poison that has
affected other indigenous tribes,” she said. “All the money
they are promising us is not enough to be able to sacrifice who
we are as an indigenous tribe to store waste on our reservation
that someday may do away with us.”
If all else fails, the state may have to beg the tribe. That may
be the tallest order of all.
Bear said Utah would have to put up a lot to convince the tribe
to give up its lucrative PFS deal. Ideally, that would include
property from the Salt Flats to Salt Lake City and other
traditional tribal lands. State help is the bottom line for
Bullcreek, as well. Support for PFS among tribal members is
eroding, she claimed, but added the state must offer an
alternative for economic development.
Bear distrusts overtures from the governor’s office after his
experience during the administration of Mike Leavitt, when he
felt the tribe was promised money that never materialized as an
incentive to avoid PFS.
“If the state of Utah comes back to us and says, â€We are
going to do this for you,’ well, fine, whatever. It doesn’t
mean anything to us,” Bear said.
Lee, Huntsman’s general counsel, said talks with the tribe, as
other efforts, haven’t panned out. Still, he is less
pessimistic than some. Rulings that have gone against the state
so far “are very small parts in an overall battle that we are
going to win,” he said.
Utah already has hired a lawyer to launch a federal appeals
court challenge if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as
expected, grants a permit for the PFS project.
PFS and the Goshute’s leaders aren’t backing down either.
The tribe has put lawyers on contract for the expected permit
challenge. PFS spokeswoman Martin said the nuclear consortium
will fight on. “We are so close at this point,” she said.
“I can’t imagine they will back down now.” story
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55 Salt Lake Tribune: Forum opposes larger Envirocare
Article Last Updated: 08/10/2005 01:50:41 AM
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune
Speaker after speaker on Tuesday protested plans by Envirocare
of Utah to double the size of its hot-waste landfill in Tooele
County.
Some said it will harden Utah's image as a dumping ground for
other states' radioactive and hazardous waste. One questioned
the company's treatment of labor. Others took issue with
granting a license that appears to sanction millions more tons
of contaminated waste without specific blueprints.
"To me, it is totally absurd to allow an office building
without understanding the future objectives of the company" to
add capacity, said Naomi Franklin, an expansion opponent.
The state Division of Radiation Control hosted the meeting
strictly for comments on the legal and safety issues now
pending.
The company has asked the agency to apply the regulations for
its current 543 acres to another 536 acres immediately north of
its Tooele County site. For the time being, Envirocare is only
requesting new capital projects to serve the existing facility.
But a license amendment would allow disposal someday, after a
study of proposed disposal cells.
Dane Finerfrock, director of the state Radiation Control
Division, noted at the outset of the hourlong public hearing
that regulators must judge the expansion application purely on
technical grounds, not philosophical ones.
The hearing was a requirement for the second of a four-part
approval the company needs to get for what is considered a major
license change.
Envirocare already has completed the first step by securing
the approval of the Tooele County Commission. Assuming the DRC
grants says OK on technical grounds, the Legislature and Gov.
Jon Huntsman Jr. must give approval on political grounds.
Marilyn Zipser, secretary of the League of Women Voters, said
specific plans are necessary now.
She said: "Voters want to be sure that approval by their
elections representatives is based on complete information about
whether the added land will be suitable and safe for the
public's health and environment."
The comment period for the expansion ends next week.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
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56 EPA Press Release: Proposed Yucca Mountain Standards to Protect
Public Health For a Million Years
Contact: John Millett, 202-564-4355 / millett.john@epa.gov
(Washington, D.C.-August 9, 2005) EPA is proposing public
health standards for the planned high-level radioactive waste
disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada that will protect
public health for 1 million years. Under the standards, people
living close to the facility would not receive total radiation
higher than natural levels people experience routinely in other
areas of the country.
"It is an unprecedented scientific challenge to develop proposed
standards today that will protect the next 25,000 generations of
Americans," EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation
Jeffrey Holmstead said. "EPA met this challenge by using the
best available scientific approaches and has issued a standard
that will protect public health for a million years."
The proposed standards set a maximum dose level for the first
10,000 years, more than twice as long as recorded human history.
To provide safety beyond 10,000 years to 1 million years, EPA is
proposing a separate, higher dose limit based on natural
background radiation levels that people currently live with in
the United States. The proposed standards also require that the
facility must withstand the effects of earthquakes, volcanoes
and significantly increased rainfall while safely containing the
waste during the 1 million-year period.
Congress authorized different federal agencies to perform
different functions related to Yucca Mountain. EPA sets
standards to protect human health and safety. The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) is responsible for implementing
EPA's standards and determining if the Yucca Mountain facility
can be safe enough to contain nuclear waste. The Department of
Energy (DOE) owns, constructs, applies for licenses, and will
operate the facility, should it be approved. The Yucca Mountain
facility will open only if it meets EPA's standards to protect
human health and the environment.
The proposed standards retain and add to EPA's original Yucca
Mountain standards issued in 2001 and are also responsive to the
ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit issued in July 2004.
EPA will accept written public comment for 60 days after the
rule is published in the Federal Register. The agency will also
hold public hearings during the comment period. To learn more
about this action, visit: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/yuccaor
call 1-800-331-9477.
Release date:08/09/2005
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57 Jim Gibbons: Gibbons Statement on EPA's New Radiation Standard for Yucca
Mountain
Public health and safety standards should not be based on
speculation and supposition
8/9/2005
-- Washington, DC --- An ardent opponent to the Yucca Mountain
project, Congressman Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) released the following
statement regarding the new radiation standard for Yucca
Mountain as announced today by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
“The standard released by the EPA today is arbitrary and grossly
misguided. EPA has an obligation to protect public safety today,
tomorrow, and in a million years. Yet, the EPA thought it would
be OK to increase its radiation standard from 15 millirem to 350
millirem—a 23 fold increase— when the clock hits 10,000 years and
1 day simply because we don’t know what the future holds. They
have no scientific evidence to show such a dramatic increase is
warranted or safe.
“The EPA should not speculate that a standard which is not
deemed safe today could miraculously become a safe standard in
the future. Public health and safety standards should not be
based on speculation and supposition. Nevadans deserve better,
and I will stand united with our Congressional delegation and
our state leaders in fighting any future progress on the Yucca
Mountain Project.”
For more information, contact:
Amy Spanbauer Maier
Communications Director
Congressman Jim Gibbons
Phone: 202-225-6155
FAX: 202-225-5679
URL: http://wwwc.house.gov/gibbons/press_contact.asp
Congressman Jim Gibbons · 100 Cannon House Office Building ·
Washington D.C. 20515
Voice: 202-225-6155 · Fax: 202-225-5679
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58 Press Releease: Reid, Ensign secure hearing on public safety standards at
proposed Yucca Mountain site
Monday, August 8, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign
are working to ensure Nevadans continue to have a voice in the
ongoing fight to stop the proposed Yucca Mountain project.
The project was already years behind schedule, and recently
received a substantial set back after a court ruling that the
project must meet much stronger radiation standards than the
Bush Administration had proposed. The court determined that any
radiation limit set for the Yucca Mountain project must be based
on the time the public would be exposed to the peak level of
radiation. The Department of Energy, the agency trying to open
the project, had been hoping for a much weaker standard.
Based on the court ruling, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), tasked with setting the limit on how much total radiation
the public can be exposed to, is working on setting a new
standard to which DOE must comply. EPA is expected to release
the revised radiation very soon. As required by law, that
standard will be subject to a public comment period before it
becomes final.
Under pressure from the two Nevada Senators, EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson promised to hold a public comment hearing in Las
Vegas so the community has a chance to be heard. In a letter
sent to Administrator Johnson today, Reid and Ensign reminded
him of that commitment and asked that the agency also hold
hearings in Reno and Amargosa Valley. The Senators expect the
EPA to fulfill their responsibility of making public safety and
sound science a top priority and to include any opposition and
concerns when setting the final limit for radiation exposure.
A copy of that letter follows:
August 8, 2005
The Honorable Stephen Johnson
Administrator
United States Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Johnson:
We are writing in regard to the public hearing that the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to hold in Las
Vegas, Nevada, following EPA’s publication of its revised
radiation standard for Yucca Mountain.
We appreciate your commitment to hold a public hearing in Las
Vegas on your upcoming proposed radiation standard for the
proposed Yucca Mountain repository. It is important that those
members of the public potentially most affected by the radiation
standard be given the opportunity to meaningfully participate in
the decision-making process. As discussed with you and your
staff, the structure of the hearing is critical to ensuring full
participation and that Nevadans’ concerns are given careful
consideration and adequate response. Accordingly, the following
recommendations are critical to ensuring that this is done.
The comment period for this proposal must be no less than 180
days. This will provide sufficient time to review and provide
comments on the proposal. This is particularly important as we
understand that your proposal may depend on assessments in DOE's
draft license application that to date DOE has been unwilling to
provide. Nevadans may not be in a position to respond fully to
the EPA rule until DOE releases this key information. In
addition, the rule should be published, and the public should
receive notice of the hearing, at least 60 days before the date
of the hearing.
We also encourage EPA to hold hearings in Reno and Amargosa
Valley as well as Las Vegas. However, hearings in other
locations should in no way be seen as a substitute for holding a
hearing in Las Vegas. At a minimum, the hearing should have a
satellite feed in order to enable community members in multiple
locations to participate. Likewise, we urge EPA to accept video
and written testimony from those who cannot attend the hearing
in person.
Finally, we urge you to personally attend the hearing so that
you can hear and see the depth of Nevadans’ opposition to a
weak radiation standard that does not meet the National Academy
of Sciences guidelines, thus needlessly exposing them to public
health risks. Because of the enormity, time span and risk of the
proposed project, any standard must err on the side of caution
in order to guarantee the protection of public health and the
environment for hundreds of thousands of years
Given the magnitude of human health and safety implications of
the proposed Yucca Mountain project, we hope that you will act
to fully implement these recommendations. We appreciate your
attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
HARRY REID, United States Senator
JOHN ENSIGN, United States Senator
Cc: Kenny C. Guinn, Governor of Nevada
Bob Loux, Executive Director, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects
Brian Sandavol, Attorney General, State of Nevada
Samuel Bodman, Secretary, Department of Energy
Nils Diaz, Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
B. John Garrick, Chairman, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
G. Paul Bollwerk III, Chairman, Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board
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59 North-West Evening Mail: Nuke train fears over rusty viaduct
barrow in furness, barrow news sport, ulverston news sport, lake
district news
Published on 10/08/2005
NUCLEAR safety fears have been raised over the state of the rail
link between Barrow and Sellafield.
The condition of Foxfield Viaduct has prompted concerns from
local councillors about trains carrying nuclear fuel to the West
Cumbrian plant.
The line is used to carry spent nuclear fuel from power stations
in Britain to Sellafield for reprocessing. It also carries
passenger trains six days a week.
Jos Curwen, who represents nearby Broughton at South Lakeland
District Council, told the Evening Mail he had raised the issue
with Stephen Byers during his time as Secretary of State for
Transport.
He also highlighted the point at a recent public inquiry into the
detrunking of the A595.
Cllr Curwen said: “Safety should be of paramount importance
whatever they’re carrying over it, but they’re carrying these
loads of nuclear fuel."
A spokesperson for Direct Rail Services, the agency contracted by
the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to transport nuclear flasks
between power stations and Sellafield, said: “We work very
closely with Network Rail and it is their responsibility to keep
the line at the appropriate level.”
A spokesperson for Network Rail said the last detailed inspection
of the viaduct took place in November 2000, with the next one due
at the end of next year.
An annual visual inspection was carried out in October 2004, with
the next one expected this autumn.
There are no current temporary or emergency speed restrictions on
the viaduct, and no weight limit for trains passing over it.
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60 IEER: EPA Yucca Mtn. Standards, IEER press release
For Immediate Release, 9 August 2005
For further information contact:
Arjun Makhijani 301-270-5500 or 301-509-6843
P R E S S R E L E A S E Environmental Protection Agency's
Proposed Rule on Repository for High-Level Radioactive Waste
Would Seriously Undermine Public Health
Rule Seems Designed to Fit Yucca Mountain
Proposed Standard Would Allow Largest Radiation to Future
Generations in the Western World
Takoma Park, Maryland, 9 August 2005: The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed rule for radiation doses to
future generations would overturn all established principles of
public health protection, according to the Institute for Energy
and Environmental Research (IEER). The dose limit of 350
millirem per year beyond 10,000 years is three-and-a-half times
the maximum limit allowed to the public from any human activity
(other than medical radiation) according to current limits
established in the United States and all western countries.
The new rule is being proposed in response to a federal court
decision that required the EPA to limit radiation doses to
future generations at the time of maximum radioactivity releases
from the deep geologic repository being proposed for Yucca
Mountain, Nevada. The most highly radioactive and dangerous
waste from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons production
is proposed to be buried there.
"The EPA now has the dubious distinction of proposing a standard
that would be the worst in the Western world, by far," said Dr.
Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER. "No Western programs,
explicitly allows as large as 350 millirem per year at the time
of peak dose."
The goal of the French repository program, for instance, is to
limit maximum doses, estimated to occur hundreds of thousands of
years in the future, to 25 millirem per year. This proposed EPA
limit beyond 10,000 years is more than ten times the French
goal. The Canadian program limits doses to about 10 millirem per
year for 10,000 years but does not allow a sudden increase after
that. The EPA proposal would allow a sudden jump from 15
millirem per year to 350 millirem per year at 10,000 years.
IEER charged that the rule seems tailored to fit Yucca Mountain
so that it could be licensed. According to estimates made by the
U.S. Department of Energy, which DOE presented to the
Congressionally-mandated Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in
1999, the maximum dose from Yucca Mountain would be expected to
be 200 to 300 millirem per year several hundred thousand years
from the present. This is just under the proposed limit. The DOE
charts can be seen at
http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/vol_7/7-3/yucca.html
"The dose limit seems designed to protect the industry's
interest in a bad site, rather than public health," said Dr.
Makhijani. "This is one more example of what I have called the
'double-standard standard.' When Yucca Mountain cannot meet the
rules, the federal agencies change the rules to fit Yucca
Mountain."
Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to advise the
EPA on setting standards especially for Yucca Mountain in the
early 1990s, when it appeared that the site could not meet one
of the limits set for nuclear waste repositories set by the EPA
in 1989. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has also changed its
rules for licensing since Yucca Mountain became the only site
under investigation in 1987.
The 350 millirem limit proposed by the EPA is, according to its
press release, supposed to be "based on natural background
radiation levels that people currently live with in the United
States." IEER noted that besides natural radiation from cosmic
rays and other sources that people get when they are outdoors,
the 350 millirem per year number includes exposure to radon
inside houses, which constitutes about two-thirds of the total.
"It is wrong to consider indoor radon, which is an artifact of
construction, as part of 'natural background'" said Dr.
Makhijani. "Only doses that are truly natural, that cannot be
controlled, should be regarded as natural."
"The EPA is misleading the public when it says that this rule is
based on natural background radiation levels," said Lisa
Ledwidge, IEER's Outreach Director. "The dose limit that EPA is
proposing is in addition to, not in place of, the amount of
radiation exposure people will already be getting. If the EPA
had a number to present they should have presented it without
trying to deceptively downplay the risks."
It is especially regrettable that the EPA has proposed such a
lax rule just on the heels of a National Academy of Sciences
report that showed that children are far more susceptible to
radiation than adults, and that women and considerably more at
risk than men. If a person is exposed to 350 millirem per year
every year for 70 years, the lifetime risk of getting cancer due
to the exposure would be about 1 in 40. For women it would be
about 1 in 30. The risk of dying from that cancer would be about
half the risk of contracting it.
"A lifetime risk of getting cancer of 1 in 30 violates every
risk-based health standard the EPA has ever set for the public
even if it far into the future -- it opens the door to a
wholesale relaxation on other fronts, such as cleanup of
contaminated sites, said Dr. Makhijani. "I consider this the
worst single action that the EPA has taken on radiation issues
ever since I began analyzing them almost 25 years ago."
-30-
Also see:
+ EPA Yucca Mountain Standards page- contains information and
instructions on submitting comments
Also available on this site:
+ Energy Dept. "Rushing Ahead with a Defective Yucca Mountain
Design," Says Former U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Member, IEER press release, June 14, 2004
+ Yucca Mountain: An Example Not to Follow, Presentation to a
Greenpeace Briefing, December 2, 2003
+ "If not Yucca Mountain, then what?", IEER fact sheet, December
2001
+ EPA's Rule on Repository for High-level Radioactive Waste
Seriously Undermines Safe Drinking Water Standards, IEER press
release, 6 June 2001
+ Letter from IEER to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review
Board
re: suitability of proposed Yucca Mountain repository,
May 25, 2001
+ IEER Comments on the Draft EPA Standards for a Yucca Mountain
High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository, November 23, 1999
+ Some Evidence of Yucca Mountain's Unsuitability as a
Repository, from SDA vol. 7 no. 3, May 1999
+ Fluid inclusion studies of samples from the Exploratory Study
Facility, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, report prepared for IEER by
Yuri V. Dublyansky, Ph.D., December 1998 Institute for Energy
and Environmental Research Comments to ieer[at]ieer.org
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA
Posted August 9, 2005
Links added August 10, 2005
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61 Pahrump Valley Times: Feds challenge Nye's oversight spending
August 10, 2005
By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Government auditors in a report Thursday challenged
$1.2 million that the state of Nevada and three counties spent
from federal funds to oversee Department of Energy activities at
Yucca Mountain.
An inspector general's investigation concluded Nye, Clark, and
Lincoln County officials misspent almost $1.1 million between
them on un-permitted consultant tasks, salaries, travel to
conferences and office expenses.
Auditors also said the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects
misapplied $81,000 in payments to its nuclear waste law firm.
The audit report said more than $74,000 was paid back during the
investigation.
Officials in Nye and Clark counties disputed the audit and said
they planned to appeal. However, Nye officials have not
discussed the issue in a public forum and have not announced the
results of the audit. The nuclear waste coordinator for Lincoln
County was not available.
Local officials said they also were frustrated. Many of the
expenses flagged by auditors had been approved by Yucca Mountain
managers, they maintained.
"Basically, with no disrespect to the auditors, but they know
nothing of what DOE has asked the counties to do or what we are
allowed to do," said Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell.
Yucca Mountain is sited in Nye County, roughly 50 miles
northeast of Pahrump and 20 miles north and east of Amargosa
Valley and Beatty, respectively. "Some of the responsibility
ought to be on DOE for having approved our work plans."
If the audit findings are upheld, counties could lose Yucca
Mountain grants to make up the shortcomings.
An inspector general's audit two years ago challenged $3.3
million in county spending, although some of that was allowed
after appeals. Nye County still is challenging more than $1
million in questioned spending from that audit, Trummell said.
The audit released Thursday challenged more than $163,000 in
Clark County spending, about $720,000 spent by Nye County and
more than $200,000 for Lincoln County.
"We don't believe any of our costs were questionable," said
Irene Navis, Clark County director of nuclear waste planning.
"We believe we are completely within the law and the intent of
Congress. We welcome the scrutiny but it should be fair."
The Energy Department will ask the counties to submit monthly
expense reports to avoid problems in the future, DOE spokesman
Allen Benson said.
"It's in nobody's interest for the counties to have to get
these constant audit findings," Benson said. "We want to work
with them."
Navis said the counties would probably reject the idea. With
DOE and Nevada heading toward conflicts over repository
licensing, county officials are looking to loosen ties not
strengthen them, she said.
Auditors reviewed invoices and work plans from May 2002 to July
2004, a period where the state and three counties spent $11.7
million appropriated by Congress to monitor the Yucca project.
The $1.2 million in questionable spending was less than the
$3.3 million that inspectors challenged in a similar audit two
years ago.
Still, DOE inspector general Gregory Friedman said, the audit
"suggests that this program is still not fully achieving its
intended results" to help counties weigh the potential local
impacts of the proposed nuclear waste repository.
Federal law allows the county governments to use federal money
grants to hire consultants to judge the repository's local
impacts, to review Yucca science and to communicate with
residents and with DOE.
Counties cannot spend federal money on lobbying or lawsuits.
Nye County has spent the bulk of its oversight funding on
consultants who have performed independent studies separate from
the Energy Department's work. Additionally, millions of dollars
have been spent on the Early Warning Drilling Program in
Amargosa Valley near Yucca Mountain, which helps scientists
determine water quality. Groundwater flow paths have also been
studied and countless other scientific efforts have been
undertaken. Nye County has not lobbied against the project nor
is local government party to the state's official opposition to
the repository.
Auditors said Nye County improperly allocated $224,000 in
oversight funds for worker salaries that should have been
charged to a separate Yucca Mountain grant. Trummell responded
DOE had okayed the accounting.
Auditors also questioned $12,000 in travel costs for Nye County
officials, including a trip to a National Association of
Counties meeting in New Orleans and reimbursements for trips to
the Nevada Test Site.
A $70,000 payment for an Indian Springs report commissioned by
Clark County was challenged, as well as $87,000 given to a
consultant to analyze federal legislation. Navis responded the
audit figures were inflated, and the costs were allowable in
both cases.
In Lincoln County, auditors questioned $86,000 in consultant
fees to track legislation and review lawsuits related to the
project.
Doug McMurdo contributed to this story.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005
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62 Bradenton Herald: A tainted bargain
| 08/10/2005 |
Piney Point purchase bears too much liability
Six-hundred acres in fast-growing North Manatee County for just
$4 million? In today's inflated real estate market, land at
$6,600 an acre is a bargain that a smart investor would be
foolish to turn down.
Unless the land were a potential time bomb of chemical
pollutants, an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
Which is exactly what much of the old Piney Point phosphate
plant site is, and after flirting with the idea of acquiring the
site for future expansion of Port Manatee, the Manatee County
Commission the other day wisely rejected the bargain land deal.
As Commission Chairman Ron Getman succinctly put it, "We don't
need a Tallevast North," a reference to the toxic chemical plume
from the former American Beryllium Co. plant that has polluted
much of the Tallevast community in South Manatee.
Commissioners had several reasons for wanting to buy the
600-acre site. Port Manatee is running out of land, and the
plant site across U.S. 41, long zoned industrial, would be an
ideal extension to bring in new port tenants. It also would
provide a corridor for a new road connecting the port to
Interstate 75. And the four huge gypsum stacks have the
potential to store millions of gallons of reclaimed water to
sell to agriculture users and/or residential customers for
irrigation.
But those stacks are also the reason why the county had to say
no to the purchase. The state of Florida has already spent $65
million to empty the tainted water from the stacks and put in a
heavy, impermeable lining to prevent seepage. It expects to
spend another $50 million to finish the clean-up and monitoring
over the next five years.
It could be argued that since the state will have done the
costly rehabilitation of the site, the county should step in and
reap the benefits. But the gypsum stacks remain a liability. The
earthen sides are subject to erosion. The lining could crack or
deteriorate with age, and need replacing. And as Lockheed-Martin
has learned to its disadvantage in Tallevast, once you own it,
you are responsible for the consequences, including the
clean-up, of a pollution event though you had nothing to do with
creating the mess.
However, the Piney Point site may not be an entirely lost cause
for port expansion. Some 130 to 140 acres of the 600-acre tract
fronting the highway are said to be pollution-free and
environmentally safe. If that is confirmed by thorough testing,
this would seem to be a good buy for the county to make the leap
across U.S. 41. The way land is being grabbed up in North
Manatee, this may be one of the last chances the port has to
expand before it is hemmed in by houses.
As for the Piney Point plant itself and the gypsum stacks,
perhaps someday a buyer will come along with a feasible plan to
convert the site to a new use. In fact, such a buyer is already
in the picture. U.S. EnviroFuels, the company trying to build an
ethanol plant at the port, wants to withdraw up to 500,000
gallons a day of the water in the stacks to use in its refining
of corn into ethanol. Since potability is not an issue in this
process, it seems an ideal way to get some benefit from the
potential pollution source without endangering the environment.
The commission decision last week to permit Enviro-Fuels to
negotiate a lease on port land is a first step in what could
turn out to be a modest reclamation of the Piney Point site -
but not at Manatee County's expense.
*****************************************************************
63 AU ABC: Greens to challenge NT uranium power shift
(AEDT)Wednesday, 10 August 2005. 10:49 (AWST)
The Greens says they will introduce a motion to the Senate
rejecting the Federal Government's assertion of responsibility
for approving of new uranium mines in the Northern Territory.
Greens Senator Christine Milne says she intends to introduce the
motion tomorrow.
Senator Milne says the Northern Territory Government could put
up a bigger fight, despite legal advice that the Commonwealth
does have the over-riding power.
"I think it's fairly clear, although we're still taking legal
advice, but it's fairly clear that the Federal Government does
have the power to over-ride the government of the Northern
Territory in terms of expanding uranium mining, but it doesn't
have the moral authority to do so," she said.
*****************************************************************
64 Daily Yomiuri: Nagasaki remembers atomic bomb attack
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Nagasaki marked the 60th anniversary of the city's atomic
bombing Tuesday, with about 6,000 survivors of the bombing,
bereaved families and others attending an event to mourn for the
victims.
In his speech at the ceremony held at the city's Peace Park,
Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito denounced U.S. nuclear weapons policies
and urged citizens of the United States, which was attacked by
terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, to join the global movement to
abolish nuclear weapons. He also said he remained determined to
abolish nuclear weapons and realize world peace.
High school students rang the Bell of Nagasaki to start the
ceremony at 10:40 a.m. Three lists with the names of 2,748
people who suffered ill effects from the bombing and died within
the past year, as well as the names of victims who died
previously and whose deaths were confirmed over the same period,
were placed in a box in front of the Peace Statue in their
honor. The box contains the names of 137,339 people.
After the bereaved families dedicated water to the victims, a
representative of the Russian Embassy in Japan, who was the
first participant of the annual ceremony to represent a nuclear
power, offered flowers along with atomic bomb survivors residing
in the United States, South Korea and Brazil, who were invited
for the first time in a decade.
At 11:02 a.m., when the bomb was dropped 60 years ago, the bell
tolled and sirens across the city and horns of ships in Nagasaki
Port were sounded. The ceremony participants offered a minute of
silent prayer.
In the peace declaration, Ito said even 60 years later many
atomic bomb survivors continue to suffer.
Mentioning the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference
in May, he said, "I'm angry that the leaders of the nuclear
powers trampled on the hopes of people around the world who want
to abolish nuclear weapons." He specifically denounced the
United States.
He also urged the central government to establish a nuclear-free
zone in Northeast Asia and legislate the three nonnuclear
principles against producing, possessing or allowing nuclear
weapons into the country.
Ito said, "I hope the government will play a central role in
abolishing nuclear weapons by showing that it won't depend on
the nuclear umbrella."
He added that the central government should provide further
support to atomic bomb survivors abroad and survivors who have
suffered mentally as they have got older.
Ito declared that Nagasaki would continue making efforts to
achieve peace with individuals and nongovernmental organizations
around the globe.
Following Ito's speech, Fumie Sakamoto, a 74-year-old bomb
survivor, said, "We promise before the souls of the victims that
we'll keep doing our best to make Nagasaki the last city to be
attacked with an atomic bomb." However, she said it was
frustrating that their demands for the abolition of nuclear
weapons had not been met.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said: "The hope of Nagasaki
citizens reaches people around the world along with the sound of
the peace bell. I believe Nagasaki will develop as an
international city that delivers a message of peace." (Aug. 10,
2005)
+ THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
Copyright © The Yomiuri Shimbun.
*****************************************************************
65 SF Chronicle: HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI / Nagasaki mayor has stern words
for America / Bombing commemorations feature paeans to peace as
well as admonitions
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Nagasaki, Japan -- The physical devastation is mostly gone or
covered over, and the rolling mountains that open into a wide
seaport are lush again with greenery.
Still, this forgotten city remembers all too well the day 60
years ago Tuesday when the United States dropped the 4.5-ton
bomb called "Fat Man."
Nagasaki is an international city that has become a growing
tourist hub in Japan. But it often plays second fiddle to
Hiroshima, its unfortunate twin in atomic destruction, even
though the devastation wrought here Aug. 9, 1945, was just as
heart-wrenching and widespread as that touched off by the first
atomic bomb three days earlier and some 200 miles northeast.
Air-raid sirens sounded and bells tolled at 11:02 a.m. Tuesday
in Nagasaki as about 6,000 people gathered at the site of the
bombing to remember the 40,000 to 70,000 who died instantly and
74,000 others who were horribly wounded that morning. The city
added another 2,748 names to its bomb death toll this year, as
the hibakusha -- atomic bomb survivors -- age and fade away.
Fumie Sakamoto, a junior high school student home for lunch when
the bomb struck Nagasaki, spoke to the crowd with resolve and
anger. "The world around me was lost in a cloud of dust," she
said, and she ran for shelter in the forest.
"People, clothes ripped and torn, with gaping chest wounds,
whose hearts were exposed and could still be seen twitching;
people burned so badly one could not tell front from back," she
said. "The wood was full of such people."
Sakamoto, dressed in a deep purple kimono, her eyes and voice
sharp and clear, said doctors had told her she was bound for
death and not worth treating. She somehow survived over a "long
and painful road."
"Yet war still persists on this Earth and, far from abolishing
nuclear arms, I have heard there are even plans to develop
nuclear weapons with new capabilities," she said. "We have
devoted our lives to demanding that there never be A-bomb
victims again, but why are our voices not heard?"
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh chastised the United States for
continued nuclear proliferation and Japan for taking cover in
America's nuclear fold.
"The nuclear weapons states, the United States of America in
particular, have ignored their international commitments and
have made no change in their unyielding stance on nuclear
deterrence," Itoh said. "We strongly resent the trampling of the
hopes of the world's people."
Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- fresh from dissolving
the lower house of parliament a day earlier after losing his
battle to privatize the banking arm of the nation's postal
service -- spoke briefly and pledged to work toward nuclear
nonproliferation. This gathering was much smaller than the one
in Hiroshima, but security around Koizumi was far tighter.
Nagasaki's anniversary ceremonies were less staid, packed more
emotion and carried more vibrant color than did Hiroshima's.
Nagasaki's famous paper cranes have a lot to do with that. In a
tradition started years ago, children from Japan and
subsequently around the world make origami cranes to symbolize
peace. These vibrant strands of reds, golds, purples and greens
now are draped throughout the town on memorials and in the
worst-hit areas.
One of those is the site of the rebuilt Urakami Cathedral, which
took nearly a direct hit from the atomic bomb. Then called the
grandest Catholic church in East Asia, the cathedral was blown
to bits and all its clergy killed. This anniversary was very
special for the cathedral; it displayed the surviving
11-inch-tall head of the original cathedral's Virgin Mary
statue, which somehow remained intact. Long hidden from public
view, the head rests on an altar carved by the son of a woman
killed by the bomb.
Leaders of Japan's religious sects gathered at the Nagasaki bomb
site Monday to pay homage to victims and pray for world peace.
From Shinto monks in brilliant white with traditional black
headdresses to robed Catholic bishops and gold-clad Buddhist
monks, they made a brilliant display of color and music.
"We stand together for peace and human rights," said a Buddhist
priest name Kanzaki, who was 5 years old and living in a nearby
suburb when the bomb hit.
Nestled on the country's far southwestern edge, Nagasaki has
been compared to San Francisco for its rolling hills, streetcars
and broad bay, and to some European cities for its legacy of
literature and poetry.
For some two centuries during Japan's period of world isolation,
it was one of few trading ports open to the outside world. As
the setting for Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly,"
Nagasaki feels far less wholly defined by the A-bomb than its
bigger sister. Nagasaki simply didn't need to rely on A- bomb
history for economic development, said Brian Burke-Gaffney, a
Canadian professor of cross-cultural studies who has lived in
Nagasaki since the early 1980s.
The city also is relatively open about its wartime past.
Nagasaki is still a major base of operations for Mitsubishi, a
leading Japanese arms and warship producer during World War II.
In fact, local museums and books point out that the bomb landed
on a munitions factory, and many of the people killed in the
initial blast were building weapons.
Dozens of those killed in Nagasaki were not Japanese. Many were
Chinese, Dutch, Korean and other prisoners of war forced into
shipbuilding and other severe labor. The bomb destroyed a
wartime prison near Urakami, killing 44 international inmates in
what the Nagasaki Testimonial Society describes as "the greatest
single disaster in the history of penal servitude."
So why doesn't the world pay as much attention to this place as
it does to Hiroshima? It wasn't even the first choice to bomb,
hit only after the U.S. plane made three passes over Kuroka to
the north and quit because of smoke and cloud cover.
Maybe it's human nature. Scholar Robert Dujarric of the Japan
Institute of International Affairs compared it to the moon walk.
"If you're first, you're famous, Neil Armstrong," he said. "If
you're second, you're less, Buzz Aldrin."
Page A - 4
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
66 Alamogordo News: Atomic flame extinguished at Trinity Site
Updated: August 10, 2005 - 10:31:30
By Laura Hunt, Staff Writer
Aug 10, 2005, 10:27 am
A flame lit by embers from the first atomic bomb, which exploded
over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, smoldered into ashes
Tuesday at Trinity Site on White Sands Missile Range, the
birthplace of atomic weapons.
Completing the circle – Japanese Buddhist monks use three
torches to light a sacred cloth scroll during a ceremony at the
obelisk at Trinity Site’s Ground Zero on the 60th anniversary of
the atomic bombing of Nagasaki Tuesday at White Sands Missile
Range. The burning of the cloth signified the unification of the
trinity – Trinity Site, where the first atomic device was
detonated, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the world’s first
and second atomic bombs were dropped. The flame was then
extinguished, hoped by many to bring full circle the unleashing
of nuclear power. The original flame had been lit from flames
from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 60 years ago. Ellis
Neel/Daily News
Buddhist monks, joined by about 50 peace activists and
supporters, participated in a silent ceremony while
extinguishing the flame on the 60th anniversary of the Nagasaki,
Japan, bombing.
During the ceremony, the monks mouthed prayers that atomic
weapons will never be used on a civilian population again, said
Matt Taylor, Global Nuclear Disarmament Fund co-executive
director.
“I was raised in Japan, and I’ve known about the monks who’ve
been walking all my life,” Taylor said. “The explanation I was
given as a chid when I asked ‘why are they walking?’ was because
if they stopped, the destruction would continue beyond Nagasaki.
Of course they’re voiceless monks who don’t do this for
recognition. They don’t to this to impress anybody. It’s their
humble prayer and sacrifice that this will stop at Nagasaki.”
The flame has been carried on peace marches around the world for
the past 60 years, he said. In Zen culture, 60 years is the end
of a cycle.
“They believe that everything good and bad happens in circles,”
he said. “The atomic bomb was born at Trinity Site, then used on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For 60 years, the world has been living
in fear that Nagasaki wouldn’t be the last place it was used.”
The Japanese monks walked the 60-year-old atomic flame 1,600
miles from San Francisco— a 25-day journey that began on July
16, the 60th anniversary of the test at Trinity Site.
Rev. Daijho Ota led the group as they arrived at Trinity Site.
Ota, dressed in black robes and walking solemnly, carried a red
and black dictionary-sized box.
He raised the box to the Trinity Site monument — similar to how
one would hold up an offering — and bowed his head. A plaque on
the monument reads, “Trinity Site. Where the world’s first
nuclear device was exploded on July 16, 1945.”
After several minutes, the monks bowed to each other and kneeled
on cushions arranged in a circle around a stake in the ground.
The lantern, which contained three flames representing Trinity
Site, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, was passed from one monk to
another and to six supporters standing nearby. It traveled in a
circle until coming back to Ota. He placed it aside, unrolled a
prayer cloth and covered the cloth with brightly-colored origami
peace cranes, which were created by children in Arizona and New
Mexico.
The cloth was rolled again and placed on the stake in the center
of the four monks.
Ota held the lantern while the other monks each lit a torch from
one of the flames. The lantern was extinguished and the monks
touched their torches to the cloth in the circle’s center.
The monks prayed, heads bowed, as the atomic flame dwindled down
to embers and then was gone.
Ota opened the red and black box, which had four compartments,
and the monks put the ashes and dirt from the site into it.
Three sections of the ashes will be sent to Hiroshima, Nagasaki
and a museum in the United States, possibly the Smithsonian,
Taylor said. The remaining ashes will be divided into eight
parts and sent to the heads of countries that possess nuclear
capabilities, including the United States, he said.
Taylor said, as the ceremony concluded, a circular cloud formed
above the group.
“It was really amazing to see that happen and to see 60 years of
prayer come to a conclusion,” he said. “They opened a new circle
that will see a new beginning for the younger generation.”
Part of that new beginning, Taylor said, is looking at and using
nuclear power in a positive way instead of a destructive way.
“There’s a lot of things that have also evolved, like nuclear
medicine,” Taylor said. “The hydrogen bomb was created and used
in war, but now Toyota is developing hydrogen technology to
offer clean energy for cars... A technology created to destroy
humanity can be curved to help humanity.”
Copyright © 2004 Alamogordo News, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper.
*****************************************************************
67 Japan Times: Nagasaki mayor raps nuclear deterrence
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
NAGASAKI (Kyodo) Nagasaki on Tuesday observed the 60th
anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, with Mayor
Itcho Ito criticizing nations possessing atomic weapons for
relying on nuclear deterrence for security.
[News photo]
Catholics attend Mass early Tuesday at Urakami Cathedral in
Nagasaki to pray for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing.
"The nuclear weapons states, and the United States of America in
particular, have ignored their international commitments, and
have made no change in their unyielding stance on nuclear
deterrence. We strongly resent the trampling of the hopes of
people worldwide," he said in a ceremony at Peace Memorial Park.
The U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9,1945.
Ito's remarks were a criticism of the breakdown in talks of the
Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in May.
The NPT meeting, held every five years, ended without any
substantive progress toward abolishing nuclear arms.
While criticizing the U.S. government, Ito appealed to the
American public.
"We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of the
horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Yet, is your security
actually enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining
10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated subcritical
nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new mini
nuclear weapons?" Ito asked.
He urged Japan to lead efforts to abolish nuclear weapons,
break away from the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" and give greater aid
to atomic bomb survivors, including those who live abroad.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gave a speech similar to the
one he gave in Hiroshima, vowing to abide by the war-renouncing
Constitution and the three principles of not possessing,
manufacturing or allowing nuclear arms within Japan's borders.
Nagasaki invited to the ceremony ambassadors from 11 countries,
including the five major nuclear powers -- the United States,
Britain, France, Russia and China -- and two other declared
nuclear weapons states -- India and Pakistan. But only delegates
from Russia, China and Ukraine took part.
Russia sent Mikhail Galuzin, deputy head of the Russian Embassy
in Tokyo. It is the first time Russia has attended the Nagasaki
memorial ceremony.
The almost one-hour ceremony started at 10:40 a.m., after which
a moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m., the time the
atomic bomb was dropped.
Fumie Sakamoto, 74, read a statement known as the "pledge for
peace" on behalf of atomic bomb survivors.
City officials said nine overseas hibakusha, from South Korea,
Brazil and the U.S., attended the ceremony. It is the first time
in 10 years the city has invited overseas survivors.
The Japan Times: Aug. 10, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
68 Japan Times: No rationalization for Nagasaki attack
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By BRAHMA CHELLANEY
NEW DELHI -- History is written by victors and thus abounds in
well-cultivated rationalizations for the winners' actions,
however unjustifiable or gory they might be. Vanquishers are
rarely burdened by guilt. Sometimes the rationalization stops
with their first major slaughter in a war, as if their willful
repeat of similar blood baths were automatically defensible.
This is best illustrated by the United States' atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If the incineration of Hiroshima was
justifiable as a means to end the war and save American lives --
a thesis that even most liberal Americans accept -- what was the
justification for the destruction of Nagasaki three days later
before Japan had a chance to grasp the message from the first
nuclear attack?
The U.S. actions arose not from any rage but from cool,
calculated thinking. The intent was to deliver a crippling
psychological blow to Japan by obliterating two of its important
cities. No warning was given to the residents of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki before unleashing the nuclear holocaust.
When a U.S. Air Force B-29 bomber dropped an untested uranium
bomb, code-named "Little Boy," on a sweltering morning and
reduced Hiroshima to ashes, the mass death and destruction set
off celebrations in some American cities. The revelers were
celebrating America's newborn technological prowess.
U.S. President Harry Truman, applauding the bomb as "the
greatest achievement of organized science in history," ordered a
second surprise atomic attack on a Japanese city three days
later. "Fat Boy," based on the design of an implosion-type
plutonium bomb which had been secretly tested in the New Mexico
desert more than three weeks earlier, was dropped on Nagasaki.
Picturesque Nagasaki became the second victim of nuclear
holocaust by an accident of weather: Kokura, the city chosen for
the attack, was under a heavy cloud blanket, so the bomber was
diverted to Nagasaki. To U.S. officials, the dropping of the
plutonium bomb mattered more than which Japanese city it
vaporized.
The political use of a technological discovery to incinerate
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was made possible by a political-military
culture in industrial societies that approved civilian massacre
as a legitimate tool of warfare. Before the nuclear genie was
let loose, mass killings had already become a feature of the war
for all sides.
On a single night, for example, nearly 200,000 citizens burned
to death when U.S. bombers doused Tokyo with jellied petroleum
in March 1945. Indeed, in the months before the nuclear
bombings, half a million Japanese had already died and 14
million rendered homeless in U.S. firebombing raids on cities.
The Anglo-American firebombing of Dresden in February 1945 left
some 39,000 Germans dead in an air campaign Churchill
acknowledged amounted to "terror bombing." Hitler's massacres of
Jews, and Japanese atrocities in China, reflected a similar
disdain for civilian life.
By the time Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reduced to smoldering
ruins, 50 million people in the world had already been killed in
conflict since 1939.
The culture that made those blood baths possible remains
embedded in the strategic doctrines of a number of powerful
states today.
Nuclear deterrence, for example, relies on targeting civilian
and industrial centers. Conventional military strategies still
seek to destroy an adversary's civilian infrastructure. The
world can never be safe as long as Armageddon-ready nations
armed with weapons of mass murder pursue military strategies
pivoted on first use and on intentional civilian targeting, even
if it ended up destroying civilization.
Just as the nuclear problem has persisted, the questions
arising from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings still call for
answers. Despite the large-scale bloodletting during World War
II, couldn't the U.S. have demonstrated its new technological
might by dropping an atomic bomb on an uninhabited island? Or
why were nuclear bombs dropped in a way to maximize civilian
casualties?
Before Hiroshima was flattened, Hitler had committed suicide in
April and a battered Japan was on the brink of defeat, with its
military searching for an honorable surrender. More than half of
Tokyo and Kobe, a third of Nagoya and a quarter of Osaka had
been destroyed.
The military logic of the two nuclear bombings was to establish
U.S. primacy in the postwar order. The bombings helped put the
stamp of Pax Americana on the globe. Yet, questions relating to
the Nagasaki bombing continue to haunt today.
Before dropping the second bomb, shouldn't the U.S. have given
Japan a reasonable and firm deadline to surrender? In rushing
into a second nuclear attack before Japan could grasp the
strategic significance of the first bombing, Truman achieved
little more than showing that a tested implosion-type bomb
worked.
The U.S. establishment has shied away from an objective
examination of the past use of nuclear weapons primarily because
it still remains wedded to nuclear first use. Any reevaluation
of the past use would bring into question the present nuclear
posture
The past, however, will continue to be a heavy burden on the
American conscience -- Hiroshima because it was the first atomic
attack, and Nagasaki because it was a wanton act, militarily and
politically. Even those who still justify Hiroshima offer no
rationalization for Nagasaki.
Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the
privately funded Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, is a
regular contributor to The Japan Times.
The Japan Times: Aug. 10, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
69 Santa Fe New Mexican: DOE probes another LANL mishap
Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:47 pm
By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican
LOS ALAMOS A Los Alamos National Laboratory employee was
hospitalized for six days in July after being exposed to fumes
from a toxic chemical, the lab reported Tuesday. A second
employee was exposed to the same mixture of hydrochloric and
nitric acids, but was not hospitalized .
The labs top management apparently didnt learn of the
early-June incident resulting in the hospitalization until Aug.
3.
Now a third employee has been placed on paid leave while lab
officials and federal Department of Energy investigators look
into the incident and why Director Robert Kuckuck was not
informed until last week.
The department is sending in a team of experts to look into this
incident as well as another contamination case, which involved
americium 241, a made-made radioactive metal, lab spokeswoman
Kathy DeLucas said Tuesday.
Lab managers bear the responsibility for ensuring and promoting
a safe working environment at this laboratory, Kuckuck told
employees Tuesday afternoon via e-mail . Employees have a right
and a responsibility to stop work for a safety-related reason.
He encouraged the labs roughly 8,000 employ- ees to tell
their managers of safety problems, and if that doesnt get
results, contact him directly.
Safety is that important, Kuckuck wrote.
According to a lab news release:
The two employees, postdoctoral students, were mixing acids to
form a highly corrosive, fuming liquid called aqua regia,
Latin for royal water.
The employees inhaled fumes while working. One experienced
temporary shortness of breath. The other had prolonged
respiratory symptoms and was later hospitalized for six days in
July.
The labs top managers were not informed of the exposure until
the hospitalized employee returned and informed medical staff.
H e a l t h w o r k e r s t h e n checked the work space where
the incident occurred.
The assessment did not indicate a hazard for other workers ,
the release said. Laboratory medical personnel will continue to
monitor the injured employees progress and assist with
treatment.
Kuckuck said the investigations are important because we simply
cannot allow anymore incidents of this type to occur. It is my
hope that these investigations will help us put more safety into
the system and not just more paperwork .
He also said if anyone wants to stop work at this laboratory
for any safety-related concern, I will back your decision 100
percent.
On July 14, a different employee was exposed to americium 241
while handling a package of enriched uranium pellets, according
to a recently-released lab report.
But a lab supervisor didnt find out about that incident until
July 25 when they found a radioactive-material tag in a trash
can, the report said. Four homes have been decontaminated in
three states as a result of that incident.
Privacy Policy | ©2005, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights
reserved.
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Front Page news state
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
LANL Worker Put On Leave After Accident
Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE— A Los Alamos National Laboratory worker has been
placed on leave after two researchers inhaled acid fumes during
preparation for an experiment.
The accidental inhalation of concentrated nitric and
hydrochloric acids sent one of the researchers to the hospital
for nearly a week with respiratory problems.
The accident occurred in early June but was not reported
until July, after one of the researchers returned to work from
the hospital. LANL management did not learn of the incident
until Aug. 3, according to a lab news release.
LANL director Robert Kuckuck told employees in a labwide
e-mail that all workers have the right to stop work if they feel
conditions are unsafe.
"... I will back your decision 100 percent," he wrote.
LANL radiological specialists have recently been dealing
with the spread of americium-241 contamination by a LANL
researcher who did not follow procedures when opening a package
labeled with a radiological tag.
LANL officials say the contamination, which has been spread
to Colorado, Kansas and a Pennsylvania laboratory, is not a
threat to public health.
"We recently have had a series of safety incidents, some of
which have resulted in significant injuries," Kuckuck wrote.
"These incidents are of great concern to me because the safety
of individuals at this Laboratory is paramount."
The two LANL researchers were using the acids, which are
used in etching and certain analytic procedures, in lab work
when the fumes were inhaled.
One employee experienced shortness of breath and no other
symptoms. The other experienced prolonged respiratory problems
and was hospitalized for six days in July.
The LANL worker who was put on leave was not one of the two
researchers who inhaled the acid fumes.
LANL health experts reviewed the work space and determined
there was no additional threat to other workers, according to
the news release.
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71 Tri-City Herald: Bechtel Hanford settles in safety incidents
This story was published Wednesday, August 10th, 2005
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
Bechtel Hanford has agreed to pay the U.S. government $125,000
in an agreement to resolve safety incidents that occurred as
workers dug up old burial grounds at the Hanford nuclear
reservation.
Before 2004, much of the work to clean up the ground along the
Columbia River required removing soil tainted by contaminated
liquids. But when workers began digging up burial sites, they
found all sorts of radioactively contaminated material not
listed on historical records.
The agreement stems from two incidents in which workers
unexpectedly unearthed items contaminated with plutonium, one of
them an old safe with a bottle holding plutonium-laced liquid.
Bechtel Hanford voluntarily reported the problems to the
Department of Energy's Office of Price-Anderson Enforcement,
which ensures nuclear safety requirements are followed.
Because of Bechtel Hanford's history of taking an aggressive
approach to identifying and resolving nuclear safety issues, the
Office of Price-Anderson Enforcement agreed to a consent order
and settlement payment, said Stephen Sohinki, director of the
office, in a letter to Bechtel Hanford. The office could have
issued a notice of violation or a civil penalty.
"In addition, the corrective actions we developed were
broad-based, they addressed the deficiencies and were effective
and timely," said Rick Donahoe, a remedial action project
manager for Bechtel Hanford.
Sohinki called the investigation "comprehensive and thorough."
By not issuing a notice violation or civil penalty, the office
hopes to encourage full disclosure and responsiveness, he said.
However, he said he was aware of the significant radiological
challenges posed by digging up burial grounds, and his office
will continue to monitor progress on the project and the
effectiveness of anticipating and controlling radiological
hazards.
The first incident included in the consent order involved a
decades-old safe dug up Dec. 14, 2004, at a burial ground in the
300 Area just north of Richland. That area was used starting
during World War II to fabricate uranium fuel to be irradiated
in Hanford reactors to produce plutonium for the nation's
nuclear weapons program. Research also was done there, including
testing processes later used in plutonium separation in central
Hanford.
When workers discovered the safe with several containers of
unknown liquids, work stopped, but not immediately as required,
Donahoe said. The project was operating under a safety plan that
did not authorize any work with liquids.
Not only did the liquid in one of the flasks contain plutonium,
but the inside of the safe also was contaminated with it.
The second incident occurred two days later when two
radiological control technicians were checking a small
laboratory cup found in a large pile of waste that had been dug
up and was being sorted.
Uranium is the major radioactive contaminant in the 300 Area and
workers expected any plutonium to be mixed with uranium or other
fission projects that could be detected with beta-gamma
monitoring.
The two technicians were not wearing respiratory protection and
were exposed to airborne plutonium that was not detected with
beta-gamma monitors as they took smear samples from the cup.
The Bechtel Hanford investigation found that work planning and
radiological monitoring did not anticipate the presence of
separated plutonium, and the workers were not adequately trained
in the potential hazards.
Bechtel Hanford has held the contract for environmental
restoration at Hanford for more than a decade. However, on Aug.
27 Washington Closure will become the new contractor for cleanup
along the Columbia River corridor. It's a limited liability
corporation led by Washington Group International with Bechtel
National and CH2M Hill.
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
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