***************************************************************** 08/22/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.194 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Mother Jones: Iraq's missing nuclear scientists 2 [NukeNet] Khamenei: Iran Won't Stop Nuke Enrichment 3 Concord Monitor: Iran has good reason to want its own nuclear weapon 4 Los Angeles Times: Coping with Iran's nuclear ambitions - 5 IRNA: Iran, effective country in nuclear technology - Khatami 6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.Korea May Be Willing to Drop Nuclear We 7 Reuters: US has 3rd N.Korea contact to prepare nuke talks 8 Reuters: US, S.Korea hold miltary drills ahead of nuclear talks 9 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., S. Korea Start Military Exercises 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Increase Nuclear Contacts 11 SA: News24: Nuclear weapons case postponed 12 e.sinchew-i.com: Japan To Give Up UNSC Bid For Now 13 US: LAUNCH ALERT: Minuteman III Launch V'berg to Kwajalein-August 25 14 Taipei Times: China's nukes grow up NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 US: Activist to Contest Transfer of Peach Bottom as Part of the 16 Korea Herald: Doosan Heavy bids for Westinghouse 17 Bellona: Rosatom to concentrate on more powerful reactors and 18 US: NCT: Unit 1 and 2, right, of the San Onofre nuclear plant on Mon 19 US: APP.COM: Feds to face nuclear plant foes on Wed. 20 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc.; Notice of 21 Sify: NTPC plans to augment installed capacity 22 Webindia123.com: Global meet to study N-plant risks from flooding NUCLEAR SECURITY 23 Bellona: Radioactive cargo seized in Vladivostok 24 Daily Times: Nuclear black market: Western companies let off: Kasuri NUCLEAR SAFETY 25 US: Nashua Telegraph Online: Military radiation poisoning discussed 26 Angola Press: Radiation Risks Awareness Campaigns Needed NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 27 reviewjournal.com: 'Trying to shield almost everything' (DOE-Yucca) 28 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: PR campaign, or snow job? 29 CEN News: University on charges over radioactive waste 30 Pahrump Valley Times: LETTER: Yucca rebuttal PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 31 SF Chronicle: Polluted shipyard tenants face eviction as Navy begins 32 SF Chronicle: Shipping out the tenants / Artists, others must leave 33 Daily Californian: Governor Tours Lab in Midst of Funding Crisis ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Mother Jones: Iraq's missing nuclear scientists Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, former nuclear scientist for Saddam" David Albright, former U.N. weapons inspector "> Kurt Pitzer, journalist covering Iraq's missing scientists"> Where are Saddam Hussein's former nuclear and bioweapons scientists? The Bush administration doesn't know, and it's a huge security risk. We talk to , the "mastermind of Saddam's former nuclear centifuge program," , former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, and journalist . [Mother Jones Radio Broadcast] Aired August 21, 2005 They were Iraq's only real WMDs. The U.S. refused to secure them. Now Saddam's nuclear and bioweapons scientists are dispersed and more dangerous than ever. , former nuclear scientist for Saddam P L U S : , former U.N. weapons inspector , journalist covering Iraq's missing scientists The Iraqi scientists from Saddam Hussein's nuclear and biological weapons programs posed a huge risk to international safety after Saddam's fall. So why did the Bush administration refuse to track down the scientists after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? Mother Jones reports that all but three of Saddam's top 200-some nuclear scientists are missing. Mother Jones Radio interviews Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, the "mastermind of Saddam Hussein's former nuclear centrifuge program," and the only Iraqi nuclear scientist known to have been granted refuge in the U.S. since the invasion. Joining him in this exclusive interview are David Albright, former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, and Kurt Pitzer, the author of Mother Jones' September 2005 cover story on the missing scientists. MotherJones.com released Pitzer's article, "In the Garden of Armageddon," simultaneously with the radio broadcast on Sunday, August 21, 2005. GET THE MOTHER JONES RADIO NEWSLETTER © 2005 The Foundation for National Progress ***************************************************************** 2 [NukeNet] Khamenei: Iran Won't Stop Nuke Enrichment Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:34:56 -0700 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) In addition to the potential [likelihood in my view] of Iran naking nuclear weapons, these nuclear reactors and their waste, like all nuclear reactors and n-waste, are sitting targets for terrorists, militaries in time of war [be that intentional or "collatoral damage"]. Imagine the Iran/Iraq war with nuclear power facilities in the line of fire. Or imagine a conventional war anywhere in the world where the battlefield contains one or more n-reactors. Vast swaths of space will be rendered uninhabitable in addition to the huge fatalities and economical and environmental devastation that will result from the use of non-renewable energy sources. Nuke terrorism site: http://www.tmia.com/sabter.html >Iran plans to build six more 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants until 2021, by when its electricity >consumption will reach 56,000 megawatts. Iran says it will need to produce 70,000 megawatts of >electricity, with 7,000 megawatts to be generated by nuclear power plants. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html Khamenei: Iran Won't Stop Nuke Enrichment a.. E-Mail This b.. Printer-Friendly By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 20, 2005 Filed at 6:46 a.m. ET TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran does not intend to build nuclear weapons, but it will continue to enrich uranium because it does not want to be dependent on others for its nuclear fuel needs, the country's supreme ruler said Friday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told tens of thousands of worshippers at Tehran University that Western allegations his country is secretly trying to make weapons are ''a propaganda trick to deceive their own public opinion.'' ''They (the West) speak as if Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and they oppose it,'' said Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters. ''I've said it repeatedly that we are not seeking nuclear weapons.'' Rather, Tehran wants to enrich uranium to low levels to use in reactors that will generate electricity, he said. Khamenei said Iran's next step will be to build nuclear power plants without outside help. Russia currently is putting the finishing touches on a new nuclear power plant in Bushehr on the shores of the Persian Gulf in southern Iran. It is expected to be operational by August 2006. ''We want to enrich our own uranium explored from our own mines with equipment and technology that belongs to ourselves developed by our young scientists to produce fuel for our nuclear power plants,'' Khamenei said. Iran plans to build six more 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants until 2021, by when its electricity consumption will reach 56,000 megawatts. Iran says it will need to produce 70,000 megawatts of electricity, with 7,000 megawatts to be generated by nuclear power plants. Khamenei's comments follow Iran's recent rejection of a European offer to permanently suspend uranium enrichment activities in return for a package of incentives, including supplying Iran with nuclear fuel. ''They (Europeans) say, 'Purchase it (nuclear fuel) from us.' That means dependency,'' the supreme leader said. Iran suspended uranium enrichment in 2003 and expanded its suspension in November to include uranium reprocessing activities and building centrifuges used to enrich uranium. The moves were made to avoid referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions and to build trust in negotiations with Europe. Efforts by Germany, Britain and France to rein in Tehran's nuclear program suffered a blow earlier this month when Iran partially ended the nine-month suspension and restarted work last week at its Uranium Conversion Facility in the central city of Isfahan. The move was sharply criticized by the West. President Bush indicated the military force may be an option if diplomacy fails to curb the nuclear program, which is a source of national pride for Iranians. German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder, who is campaigning for national elections next month, opposes that option. Iran has called on the Europeans to start negotiations to allow Tehran to restart actual uranium enrichment -- injecting gas into centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Tehran says it will never again suspend uranium conversion and has warned that Europe's reaction to Iranian demands will largely influence Iran's decision when to restart the work at its enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran. Khamenei said Iran will not give up its attempts to control the whole nuclear fuel cycle -- from extracting uranium to enriching it -- in line with rights granted by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran said it rejected the European package because it failed to recognize Iran's right under the NPT to enrich uranium. ''We don't fear anybody. We have the necessary might and means to defend our rights and we won't give up our rights,'' he said while drawing shouts of ''Never! Never!'' from worshippers. ''No one has the right to compromise over the rights of the nation.'' Some 500 worshippers demonstrated outside the university after Friday prayers to support Iran's decision to resume uranium conversion in Isfahan. Demonstrators shouted, ''Nuclear energy is our right!'' _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 3 Concord Monitor: Iran has good reason to want its own nuclear weapon Online - Concord, NH 03301 August 22, 2005 Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot P.O. Box 1177 Concord NH 03302 603-224-5301 Democracy in Iraq a long shot at best Delicately dealing simultaneously with Iran and Iraq, U.S. policy regarding the former is preposterous yet useful, and U.S. policy regarding the latter is lucid but delusional. Regarding Iran, the faded and tattered flag of arms control is being unfurled for yet another pious salute, the predictable result of which will be redundant confirmation of the axiom that arms control is impossible until it is unimportant. Regarding Iraq, the hope is that the democratic transformation that took centuries in much more promising social settings can succeed in Iraq, given another week. There has never been any reason for expecting the "international community," that frequently invoked and rarely useful fiction, to dissuade Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Today's Iran is culturally ancient and demographically young - a combustible compound. It nurses nostalgia about vanished Persian grandeur, and has a potentially turbulent population, the median age of which is just 24.2 (compared with 36.3, 38.9 and 42.2 in America, France and Germany respectively). Even Iranians of temperate and democratic inclinations, and especially the young, seeing four nuclear powers in the neighborhood - Russia, Israel, Pakistan and India - and a fifth, America, next door in Iraq and riding nearby waves, might think of nuclear weapons as validations of modernity and conferrers of political weight. If regime change someday puts people of civilized inclinations in power in Tehran, arms control will be possible, if unimportant. Meanwhile, acting for "Europe"- an old geographic expression and a freshly minted political fiction - Britain, France and Germany, that troika of old-world high-mindedness, have offered Iran, as inducements for abandoning its nuclear aspirations, the carrot of favors which translate into cash, and have threatened the stick of sanctions and "isolation."But Iran, floating on a sea of oil, neither feels nor fears the hot breath of penury breathing down its neck. Besides, nations rarely minutely calculate the cash value of glory, honor and power; all of which, together with paranoia and religious messianism, are entangled in Iran's decades-old drive for nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions, usually exercises in feebleness, probably would be blocked by Russia, an enabler of Iran's nuclear aspirations, or by China, which is voracious for oil. Regarding the dread of "isolation,"Iran has noticed that its nuclear program has seized the world's attention. And having noted that one distinction between the member of the Axis of Evil that has been attacked by America, Iraq, and the member that has not been, North Korea, is the latter's probable possession of nuclear weapons, the third member, Iran, may have come to an inconvenient conclusion. Nevertheless, President Bush wisely encourages others earnestly to try those things that he is despised for supposedly disdaining - multilateralism and diplomacy. U.S. policy should give the "international community,""Europe,"and the U.N. frequent occasions for demonstrating their impotence. Iraq - a frightening country but a fascinating seminar - is testing this postulate of political science: Democratic institutions do not necessarily spring from a hospitable culture, they can help create that culture. Arguably, they did, to some extent, in America. But Philadelphia in 1787 was rather calmer than Baghdad today because American differences were comparatively negligible. The great compromise struck by our Constitution's Framers - a bicameral legislature, with proportional representation of population in one chamber, equal representation of the states in the other - was necessary because small states worried that large states were alarmingly large, not that they were, as many Shiites and Sunnis think of each other, stenches in God's nostrils. Iraq's constitution-makers differ about fundamentals - the role of religion, the rights of women, the sovereignty of regions and the control of national wealth, meaning oil. Hectoring American voices say that, lest America seem overbearing, Iraq's constitution must be (a) distinctly Iraqi and (b) suffused with today's American values, including secularism, women's rights and federalism that accommodates ethnic and sectarian factions but achieves e pluribus unum. Sensible Americans understand that, whatever their opinions about the war's origins and execution, leaving Iraq as a failed state would be disastrous. They also understand that overreaching now would not be a rational response to having underachieved so far. Last December The Weekly Standard, a voice of neoconservatism, noted Syria's involvement in infiltrating foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq and suggested bombing "Syrian military facilities," occupying the Syrian border town "which seems to be the planning and organizing center for Syrian activities in Iraq" and going "across the border in force to stop infiltration." About the first two: U.S. forces already have quite enough bombing and occupying chores. About the third: Our imperial difficulties will not be diminished by expecting to have more success sealing Syria's eastern border than we have had sealing Arizona's southern border. ***************************************************************** 4 Los Angeles Times: Coping with Iran's nuclear ambitions - August 22, 2005 latimes.com : Opinion : Commentary + Threats won't work and accusations don't help. But soft diplomacy -- and the lessons of history -- could make a difference. By Fariborz Mokhtari, FARIBORZ MOKHTARI is a professor at the Near East South Asia Center of the National Defense University in Washington. This essay represents his opinion, not that of the university or the United States IRAN'S NUCLEAR POLICY is more about nationalism and pride than weapons and energy. If the United States' policy toward Iran ignores the national pride of the Iranian people, it could cause lasting repercussions that will set back relations between Iran, the United States and U.S. allies for a long time to come. The United States would be prudent to avoid the mistake the British made in 1951, when they turned a question of oil royalties into a groundswell of Iranian nationalism. Washington may now be creating exactly such a reaction with its suggestion that Iran should be required to import fuel for its reactors rather than be allowed to have access to a nuclear fuel cycle of its own. Such a requirement would make Iran a consumer, completely dependent on the nuclear market. That's not likely to sit well with the people of Iran, because they have learned the hard way not to trust foreign suppliers of essential resources. In 1975, Iran purchased 10% of France's Eurodif uranium enrichment plant for $1 billion  yet despite its shareholder stake in the plant, Iran has received no uranium from it to date. A German company  possibly due to pressure from the United States  backed away from its contract with Iran to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and Germany revoked export licenses for equipment for the plant that Iran had already purchased. During the Iran-Iraq war, Washington cut off Iran's supply of parts for its U.S.-made warplanes and, at the same time, shared sensitive aerial reconnaissance on troop movements with Iraq. Given this history, the Iranians' desire to be self-reliant is not unreasonable. BUT THAT is only part of the problem with U.S. policy toward Iran. Washington continues to accuse Iran of using its nuclear program as a cover for bomb making, even though the International Atomic Energy Agency found no direct evidence to support such a charge. The much-heralded "smoking gun"  highly enriched uranium traces discovered in June 2003 at two sites in Iran  was later debunked; the enriched uranium was found to have entered Iran on contaminated equipment purchased from Russia and Pakistan, thus confirming Iran's official explanation. Lost in the rhetoric is the truth that Iran needs a way to deter its perceived enemies. Its security concerns are real and legitimate. The country is surrounded by U.S. bases and troops. Instability in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iraq feeds its security apprehensions. If Pakistan's government and its nuclear arsenal were to fall into the wrong hands, it would be menacing to Iran. And Iran's Arab neighbors, with few exceptions, proved unreliable (and in some cases, hostile) when Saddam Hussein's forces invaded the country, even remaining deafeningly silent as Iraq showered the Iranians with Scud missiles and chemical warheads. Frankly, Iran cannot afford to develop only conventional deterrence against such threats, and it will not rely on imported armaments again. Which may explain why Iran's rulers would desire an alternative deterrent: limited nuclear weapons coupled with domestically manufactured missiles. Still, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, who has negotiated with Iran's rulers for months, says that although they will not give up the right to a nuclear program, they will allow the agency to monitor it to assure it would not turn into a weapons program. Iran's clerical rulers are a fraternity of cunning ideologues, but they are not suicidal. Talk of regime change and military attack from abroad only stiffens the clerics' hold on power, making them more inflexible. And Iranians, proud of their history as one of the world's oldest nations and profoundly nationalistic, would support the regime, even though it is unpopular, if the country were attacked. Rather than threatening Iran, the United States should recognize that the way to change its policy is through soft diplomacy and education. It is crucial to distinguish the Iranian people from their clerical rulers. The people, especially Iranian youth, must be cultivated and persuaded that the best hope for their national ambitions does not lie with the policies of the regime. If the people are persuaded, their rulers will follow, and Iran's policies will change. Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 5 IRNA: Iran, effective country in nuclear technology - Khatami Aug 22, IRNA -- Former president Mohammad Khatami said here Sunday evening that Iran has turned into an effective and creative country in the area of peaceful nuclear technology. Addressing a ceremony to commemorate the 16-year efforts of the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani, he called for the continuation of the trend to maintain the invaluable achievement. "Today, the West has taken a passive stand toward the Islamic Republic in the area of nuclear technology," Khatami added. Also addressing the ceremony, Rowhani said, "We have gone through one of the most difficult national challenges in the past few years. "Today, we have reached a point that is difficult for our enemies to believe." Rowhani said, "The SNSC did not let suspension turn into a legal commitment. Although such an issue was difficult for Europe, the EU accepted it. "We are ready for negotiations with Europe, but this is up to the EU to decide to continue talks with Iran." The peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear activities was proved in the course of negotiations, he said adding that Iran managed to make use of the opportunity to upgrade its nuclear technology. He wished success for his successor Ali Larijani in his new post. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Rowhani is an strategic personality for the past, present and future of the Islamic Republic system. Delivering a speech at the commemoration ceremony for Rowhani, he praised the great efforts made by the former SNSC secretary in various fields, particularly in the area of nuclear technology. At the end of the ceremony, Information Minister Ali Younesi lauded the remarkable services of Rowhani during his term in office. ***************************************************************** 6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.Korea May Be Willing to Drop Nuclear Weapons Program : Home> National/Politics Updated Aug.22,2005 15:05 KST South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon says North Korea appears to have made up its mind to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In an interview with CNN, Minister Ban said North Korea must first restore trust by ending all of its nuclear development programs before its demands for a peaceful nuclear program could be discussed again. Appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," Korea's foreign minister Ban Ki-moon said it appears that North Korea is willing to scrap its nuclear weapons program, hinting at a possible breakthrough in the current round of multilateral talks. "Chairman Kim Jong-il seems to have made up a strategic mind, a decision to abandon nuclear weapons program." Ahead of the resumption of the current six-party nuclear disarmament talks next week, Minister Ban struck an optimistic note, saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other high-ranking officials have reiterated their stance several times that they are determined to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear free. "I think we are more or less optimistic that we will be able to result in a substantive resolution of the nuclear weapons program this time." He also said North Korea must first dismantle all of its nuclear weapons and end its development programs, return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and comply fully with International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. He added that when these conditions are met, a peaceful nuclear program could be discussed again, emphasizing that Seoul and Washington share the same view regarding the matter. "Once the restoration of confidence is done with a full dismantlement of nuclear weapons, then we will have to discuss about this matter." Minister Ban arrived in Washington on Saturday to meet with U.S. officials and discuss next week's resumption of six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. He is scheduled to meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday. Arirang News ***************************************************************** 7 Reuters: US has 3rd N.Korea contact to prepare nuke talks Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:40 PM ET WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The United States on Monday had its third diplomatic contact in a week with North Korea to prepare for six-party talks on dismantling the nation's suspected nuclear arms programs, a U.S. official said. The United States and North Korea are due to restart negotiations next week in Beijing. The talks, which also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, broke off earlier this month after Washington rejected Pyongyang's demand that it has the right to develop nuclear power. The two nations' communications reflect growing intensity in the U.S.-North Korean dialogue despite assertions by Washington that it will not negotiate bilaterally with Pyongyang. The top U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill, met South Korea's deputy foreign minister in Washington over the weekend and was expected to meet a senior Chinese official on Monday. Last week, the United States approached North Korea through its U.N. mission in New York to tell Pyongyang it was open to answering any questions about its negotiating positions. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the North Koreans initiated a second contact last week and that a third had occurred on Monday. McCormack declined to say what was communicated. He said he did not know if the contacts were in person, writing or by telephone nor who initiated the Monday communication. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Reuters: US, S.Korea hold miltary drills ahead of nuclear talks Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:22 AM ET SEOUL, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea on Monday began annual war games that North Korea calls a show of force aimed at making Pyongyang cave in to U.S. demands that it dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes. The military exercises called Ulchi Focus Lens are computer-simulated drills designed to test U.S. and South Korean readiness and coordination of command posts. North Korea regularly calls any joint exercises between the two allies preparations for war on the peninsula. With six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes scheduled to resume the week of Aug. 29, the North's media was even more critical than usual. The exercises come "at a time when the U.S. war preparations have reached their final phase," the official KCNA news agency said on Saturday. The North's army said earlier this month the drills were designed to "force the DPRK to accept the unjust demands raised by the U.S. at the six-party talks," according to official media reports. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea has insisted at the six-party talks on retaining the right to operate a civilian nuclear programme. Washington wants Pyongyang to forswear all nuclear programmes in return for energy aid and security guarantees. The talks include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The drills will run until Sept. 2, the U.S. and South Korean Combined Forces Command said in a statement. The United States has about 32,000 troops on the Korean peninsula. U.S. officials have repeatedly said Washington has no intention of invading the North. South and North Korea are technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., S. Korea Start Military Exercises From the Associated Press [UP] Monday August 22, 2005 9:31 AM By KELLY OLSEN Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. and South Korean forces kicked off annual computer-simulated military exercises Monday that North Korea routinely criticizes as a rehearsal for an imminent invasion of the communist state. About 10,000 U.S. troops are participating in the drills, dubbed Ulchi Focus Lens 2005, said U.S. military spokesman David Oten. The exercises, scheduled to last until Sept. 2, are designed to evaluate and improve coordination for conducting defense operations on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. military said in a statement. Oten said about half of the U.S. troops were participating from bases outside South Korea. The number of South Korean forces taking part wasn't immediately available. This year's drills come at a sensitive time, a week ahead of the scheduled resumption of international talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear program and amid burgeoning economic and political exchanges between the two Koreas. The participants in the multinational talks - China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States - met for nearly two weeks in Beijing in late July and early August and are set to reconvene next week in the Chinese capital. The negotiations stalled over the issue of whether North Korea can have nuclear power for ``peaceful'' purposes such as energy generation. The United States says Pyongyang must have no access to nuclear power. North Korea regularly blasts the Ulchi Focus drills, accusing the United States of planning to launch an invasion of its territory. It also says Washington is preventing the two Koreas from achieving unification. North Korea characterized this year's exercises as ``fraught with greater danger of invasion as they are scheduled to take place at a time when the U.S. war preparations have reached their final phase,'' the official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. Relations between North and South Korea have warmed since a historic summit between their leaders in 2000. The have established a joint industrial zone in North Korea and regularly carry out talks on a variety of issues. About 32,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 war, which ended in a cease-fire, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Increase Nuclear Contacts From the Associated Press [UP] Monday August 22, 2005 11:46 PM AP Photo WCAP101 By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and North Korean diplomats have had three exchanges over the past week, the State Department disclosed Monday. The stepped-up diplomacy, which included fresh U.S. contacts with China, follows assertions by South Korea's foreign minister that a breakthrough could be imminent in efforts to talk North Korea out of its nuclear weapons program. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, in Washington to see Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, raised the possibility of a trade-off that would give North Korea a license to pursue peaceful nuclear activities in a CNN interview on Sunday. However, this and any other concessions would require North Korea to dismantle all of its nuclear weapons facilities and end a program that U.S. intelligence is convinced has already produced at least two bombs. Negotiations are due to resume in Beijing at the end of the month. While the Bush administration seeks to portray a united front with South Korea, Japan, China and Russia on the six-party talks, several of the U.S. partners seem more inclined to compromise. The administration, meanwhile, is urging China to put more pressure on Pyongyang. The senior U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill, held talks Monday with Cui Tiankai of the Chinese foreign ministry and planned to talk to South Korean and Japanese officials later this week. ``We're doing careful diplomatic preparations in anticipation of the beginning'' of new negotiations in Beijing, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Last week, McCormack said, there were two diplomatic exchanges between the United States and North Korea and another on Monday between U.S. diplomat Joseph DeTrani and a North Korean delegation to the United Nations. ``I am not going to get into the details of the diplomatic exchange,'' McCormack said. ``Only to say that it is part of the diplomatic process.'' However, he added that the negotiators are working on the draft of a statement of principles that is designed to lead to an overall agreement. --- 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 ***************************************************************** 11 SA: News24: Nuclear weapons case postponed Pretoria - The case of two men accused of breaking South African nuclear laws was postponed to October 4 in the Pretoria High Court in terms of an agreement between the state and the defence. Acting Judge Mahomed Ishmail stressed this was a preliminary date. It was understood the prosecution would add to the existing charges but state prosecutor Shaun Abrahams did not want to elaborate. Daniel Geiges, 66, a Swiss citizen who now permanently resides in South Africa, is out on R80 000 bail while Gerard Wisser, 65, a German national also residing in South Africa, is out on R900 000 bail. The two are facing four charges of contravening the Nuclear Energy Act and laws banning the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The state said it hoped to go to trial February next year. ***************************************************************** 12 e.sinchew-i.com: Japan To Give Up UNSC Bid For Now Tue, 23 August 2005 Updated:2005-08-22 15:55:20 MYT Japan will give up its bid to secure a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the time being after it failed to win enough international support, a daily said. Japan, the second largest UN donor after the United States, has been jointly lobbying for permanent council membership with Brazil, Germany and India as part of the so-called Group of Four or G4. The G4 proposal calls for increasing council membership from 15 to 25, with six new permanent seats without veto power--one each for Brazil, Germany, India and Japan and two for the African region, and four non-permanent seats. A two-thirds majority or 128 votes is needed in the 191-member General Assembly for adoption. But the Sankei Shimbun daily said only 90 nations, including Britain and France, supported the G4 blueprint. The United States, Japan's closest ally, has said it supports Japan's bid but not that of the other three. The G4 proposal is also opposed by China, Japan's regional rival, and the 53-member African Union. Any of the five current permanent members--Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States--could veto the proposals being considered by the UN General Assembly to expand the council. While Japan will give up its bid for now, the government still sees a permanent UN seat as a major diplomatic goal and plans to expand its UN work through foreign aid and peacekeeping operations, the paper said. Asia News Network Sinchew-i 2005/08/22 Copyright © 2005 Sinchew-i Sdn Bhd. All rights reserved.Privacy Statement--> ***************************************************************** 13 LAUNCH ALERT: Minuteman III Launch V'berg to Kwajalein-August 25 ICBM Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 13:13:39 Every Vandenberg AFB missile launch goes to the Kwajalein Islands. Please share this with group members and plan to attend the Oct 8 Vandenberg AFB rally to hear excellent speaker Tony de Brum of the Marshall Islands (www.vpeaceldf.org) -Sheila 2005 August 19 (Friday) 20:43 PDT MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH Vandenberg AFB News Release VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile is scheduled for launch from North Vandenberg August 25 as part of a developmental test to demonstrate the ability to integrate a safety enhanced re-entry vehicle into the existing Minuteman III weapons system. The six-hour launch window is from 1:01 a.m. to 7:01 a.m. PST. The missile will launch under the direction of the 576th Flight Test Squadron here. Captain Justine Adams, 576 FLTS, is the launch director. The 576 FLTS commander, Lt Col S.L. Davis is the mission director. Col Jack Weinstein, 30th Space Wing commander, is the spacelift commander. Members of the 576 FLTS have performed maintenance activities to include missile emplacement and installation of unique missile tracking, telemetry and command destruct systems to collect test data and meet safety requirements. In addition, missile crew members deployed from the 564th Missile Squadon, Malmstrom AFB, Montana led by Capt David Washer, along with members of the 576 FLTS Top Hand program will conduct missile crew duties to include issuing the final launch command. The missile's single unarmed re-entry vehicle is expected to travel approximately 4,200 miles in about 30 minutes, hitting a pre-determined target at the Ronald Reagan Test Site near the Kwajalein Atoll in the western chain of the Marshall Islands. This test continues a long tradition of ICBM test launches from Vandenberg AFB that serve to ensure a safe, secure and effective weapon system that that is critical to continued global stability. The best public viewing site for this launch is at a cement pad on Skyscreen Road off of Corral Road just before reaching the Weather Station. LAUNCH VIEWING AND PHOTOGRAPHY For information on Vandenberg launch viewing and photography, refer to the following articles: www.spacearchive.info/vafbview.htm www.spacearchive.info/vafbphoto.htm ***************************************************************** 14 Taipei Times: China's nukes grow up www.taipeitimes.com Mon, Aug 22, 2005 Beijing is upgrading its nuclear arsenal, and although its ability to menace the US with these weapons remains limited, some analysts say there is now a lot more to worry about By Jonathan Adams Monday, Aug 22, 2005,Page 9 ILLUSTRATION: YU SHA When hawkish Chinese general Zhu Chenghu (¦¶¦¨ªê) said last month that Beijing might launch a nuclear attack against the US if the US attacked China, security experts dismissed the remarks as intimidation tactics. They said China wouldn't dare use its meager force of some 20 outdated ICBMs against the continental US, which would strike back with a massive arsenal that would wipe the Middle Kingdom off the map. More likely, China's force would be pulverized in its silos by US precision-guided weapons before it could be used. True enough -- but such assessments are rapidly becoming obsolete. After some two decades of testing and development, China is on the verge of a major upgrade to its nuclear arsenal, a key part of its overall military modernization. It's now believed to be deploying its next-generation ICBM, the Dong Feng 31 (DF-31), a mobile, solid-fueled missile with an estimated range of at least 7,250km -- capable of hitting Alaska. Within the next few years, China is expected to deploy the DF-31A, which will be able to strike Washington and New York. Within the next 10 years, it's expected to field new submarine-launched nuclear missiles. And while predictions of the size of China's new arsenal are at this point only wild guesses, experts believe it will boast easily double or triple the warheads of today's known force. "This particular upgrade from silo-based missiles to mobile ICBMs is the most significant nuclear-force development in more than 20 years," says James Mulvenon of the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis in Washington. That doesn't necessarily mean the US needs to go back to the days of "duck and cover" drills. China's new arsenal does not represent an aggressive threat to the US, analysts say. Rather, it reflects China's effort to keep pace with US military advances and protect its small force. But it's a coming of age for Beijing's nuclear program that will give it a far more credible deterrent against the US' advanced weaponry, and against the US intent to raise a missile-defense shield over North America. Where before China had a force of clunky ICBMs stuck in silos that made them sitting ducks for a lightning-quick preemptive strike, now it will have a sleek new arsenal on wheels and rail -- and later, hidden underwater. DETERRENT This force, like China's current one, will be targeted primarily at US population centers as a powerful deterrent to any rash US action, or if that fails, as desperate retaliation in a devastating nuclear showdown. To be sure, based on how little is publicly known about China's nuclear program -- which Beijing shrouds in the utmost secrecy -- a healthy skepticism about its arsenal is in order. "All of us are guessing, and the people who know aren't talking," says Jeffrey Lewis, a research fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland in College Park. In the past, reports of China's nuclear deployments have been greatly exaggerated. And even when it is fully deployed, the might of China's new arsenal shouldn't be overstated. While a major advance in the context of China's missile program, it still pales next to the arsenals mounted during the Cold War. Says Evan Medeiros of the RAND Corp, a US think tank: "China finally deploying the DF-31 is kind of like China finally putting a man into space. It's like, `Congratulations, China, welcome to the 1960s.'" Even if China keeps expanding its arsenal, it's not likely to match any time soon those of Russia or the US, which still bristle with thousands of warheads ready to lob at potential enemies. So are concerns about China's new nukes alarmist? Not entirely, security experts say. No one would be paying much mind to China's buildup were it not for the possibility of a showdown over Taiwan. The island nation has been drifting slowly but steadily away from China, while Beijing has vowed to prevent a permanent break, by force if need be. The US is committed to sending its aircraft carriers to help defend Taiwan against an unprovoked attack. That adds up to a real, if remote, possibility for a three-way crisis that could play out in highly unpredictable ways. Most ominously, such a conflict could lead to a Chinese nuclear threat. General Zhu's comments were made in the context of just such a nightmare scenario. "Both China and the US are fully aware that Taiwan could be a trigger to escalate nuclear tension between the two powers," says Andrew Yang (·¨©À¯ª), secretary-general of the Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei. Moreover, while China publicly has a `no first use' nuclear policy, neither Chinese nor US analysts truly believe Beijing would honor that promise if push came to shove. "No US military planner in their right mind would operate under the assumption that China in a time of warfare would hold to its `no first use' pledge," Medeiros says. "It's not irrational to expect China, in the dark days of a nasty conflict, to redefine the conditions under which its `no first use' pledge applies." NOT CREDIBLE One Chinese security expert who did not wish to be identified said Beijing should drop its `no first use' pledge because it simply isn't credible. Like General Zhu, the analyst thought that China should make clear that it would "retaliate with whatever means we have" if it felt its core national interests were threatened. No wonder some experts are on edge. "There are a lot of people who are worried about this," Mulvenon says. "We don't know nearly enough as we should about how this would play out in a crisis." To be sure, such contemplations belong to the bleakest of doomsday scenarios. And analysts have pointed out that comments like Zhu's serve a useful psychological purpose: trying to make US planners believe China just might be crazy enough to nuke a US city. In a crisis over Taiwan, most believe cool heads would prevail -- at least enough to keep a conflict conventional. "Both the US and China would take very cautious steps, and be careful not to escalate the confrontation to a nuclear level," says Arthur Ding (¤B¾ð½d), a research fellow at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations in Taipei. For that reason, security analysts tend to be more concerned about China's conventional buildup: its arsenal of short-range missiles on the coast across from Taiwan (now above 700 and counting), its growing submarine force and its mounting ability to wage asymmetrical warfare through cyberattacks and other means. In one line of thinking, China's new nuclear arsenal may even be a good thing, insofar as it makes Beijing feel more secure in its deterrent capabilities. But for people paid to be pessimists, the possibility of tragic miscalculation, however slim, suggests a need for high-level, official US-China nuclear discussions and confidence-building measures, akin to those between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Too bad such talks don't appear to be happening. While defense officials from both sides meet regularly, nuclear issues aren't on the agenda, analysts say. "There's no channel of dialogue on these issues between the US and China," Medeiros says. "And there needs to be." According to Mulvenon, the Pentagon has on numerous occasions tried to engage Beijing in nuclear talks, but to no avail. That he chalks up to China's insecurity: For a country so outgunned by the US, Beijing sees little strategic interest in becoming more transparent. But with China putting the finishing touches on its new nuclear toys, and no solution to the Taiwan question in sight, a little more daylight could potentially go a long way. Jonathan Adams is a Taipei-based journalist. This story has been viewed 749 times. Copyright © 1999-2005 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Activist to Contest Transfer of Peach Bottom as Part of the Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:35:17 -0700 X-Spam-filter-host: darwin.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com Activist to Contest Transfer of Peach Bottom As Part of the Exelon-PSEG Merger* August 22, 2005 Contact: Eric Epstein: (717)-541-1101 ericepstein@comcast.net (Harrisburg, Pa) - Eric Epstein, Chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, Inc., a safe-energy organization founded in 1977, filed a Request for a Public Hearing at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relating to the Application for Approval of Indirect and Direct License Transfers of , Unit-1 to Exelon. Epstein stated, ³The NRC must examine the implications of reduced staffing, higher capital rates, and increased economic pressures on Exelon Generation.² Epstein added, ³The Commission must go beyond a cursory review of unsustained growth projections and rigorously examine the financial assurances provided by Exelon.² Epstein formally requested a public hearing under the auspices of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. _____ * Enclosed please find for filing an original of ³Eric Joseph Epstein¹s, Pro se, Request for a Public Hearing on the Applications for Approval of the Direct License and Indirect License Transfers of Facility Operating Licenses and Conforming Amendments of Exelon Generation Company, LLC and PSEG Nuclear LLC, at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3; [Docket Nos. 50­277 and 50­278]² to intervene under the 10 CFR NRC, Section 50: 80 § 2.309. Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\Request - Peach Bottom Hearing.doc" ***************************************************************** 16 Korea Herald: Doosan Heavy bids for Westinghouse Doosan Heavy Industries Co. plans to participate in the preliminary bid in mid-September for Westinghouse Electric Co., a U.S. leader of nuclear power technology. Having filed a letter of intent to British Nuclear Fuels Limited, which controls Westinghouse, Doosan Heavy was selected as one of the eligible bidders along with General Electric Co. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. The 119-year-old Westinghouse, which saw sales of $1.6 billion and operating profit of $130 million last year, is the provider of original technology to nearly half the nuclear powerhouses operating around the world. Korea's first Kori nuclear power plant in Busan and others in Uljin and Youngkwang were built with Westinghouse technology. Various firms in China give out nuclear powerhouse construction orders to only those that own original technology such as Westinghouse, GE, Framatome ANP and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. If Doosan Heavy successfully acquires Westinghouse, it will be able to control half of the global market for nuclear power technology. Having maintained a close partnership with Westinghouse since the late 1970s through a series of power plant construction projects, Doosan Heavy is also capable of producing diverse equipment, as it has built 20 nuclear power generating units. The main bid is scheduled to begin at the end of this year and the acquisition price of Westinghouse is estimated around at $1.7 billion, according to industry watchers. Separately, Doosan Group is under investigation for alleged accounting misconduct and slush funds worth 170 billion won ($166.3 million) as its former chairman filed a complaint to the Prosecutors Office last month. Park Yong-oh, former chairman of Doosan Industrial Development Co., a flagship subsidiary of the nation's No.10 conglomerate, accused his younger brothers Yong-sung and Yong-maan for the large-scale embezzlement on July 22. Yong-oh was then fired by Doosan board of directors. Yesterday, Doosan Heavy's labor union reinitiated a strike demanding Park Yong-sung, their current chairman and representative of Doosan Group's board of directors, to step down. The strike is also related to the annual wage negotiations between Doosan and its labor union which began in April. The strike follows an announcement by the Seoul Prosecutors Office on Sunday that it is tracing the personal accounts of suspected officials involved in the secret fund management. About 10 Doosan officials have already been barred from exiting the country as they are under probe. According to the results of the account tracking, the prosecutors plan to summon Park Yong-sung for questioning if necessary. The investigation team is also likely to raid Doosan Industrial Development Co., which recently confessed an accounting fraud amounting to 280 billion won The construction company admitted two weeks ago that it inflated sales by 279.7 billion won by adding the expected earnings from unfinished construction projects between 1995 and 2001. Park Yong-sung, who holds some 60 international and national official posts including the chairman of Korea Chamber of Commerce, is also the president of the International Judo Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee. The outgoing 64-year-old Park, formerly known for his straightforward comments towards the Korean business community, is under major pressure due to the investigations while he prepares for the IJF presidential elections on Sept. 5. (sophie@heraldm.com) By Kim So-hyun 2005.08.23 ***************************************************************** 17 Bellona: Rosatom to concentrate on more powerful reactors and hydrogen-based energy The creation of more powerful nuclear reactors and hydrogen-based energy are the main priorities for Russia’s atomic scientists, Aleksander Rumyantsev, the head of Federal Agency for Atomic Energy Rosatom said in a message congratulating nuclear sector workers on the 60th anniversary of the founding of nuclear science, Mosnews,com Russian news agency reported Monday. 2005-08-22 16:24 “Of course military matters still occupy an important place, as by handling these the security of the state is guaranteed, but atomic scientists are also promoting civilian conversion technologies, which today have already made it into space and exploit the world’s oceans,” Rumyantsev said, according to the agency . “We are making sure progress towards finding solutions to problems, which just yesterday were believed to be tasks for the distant future,” he said. He singled out “the move, on one hand, to 1,500 MW reactors and, on the other hand, to low capacity reactors, including floating reactors,” as being priorities in the energy sector. Among the projects named by Rumyantsev were heavy coolant reactors and also hydrogen power. “Currently a state programme for the development of hydrogen power is being drawn up. The possibilities it offers, being environmentally safe, are immense,” he said, as quoted by Mosnews.ru. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 18 NCT: Unit 1 and 2, right, of the San Onofre nuclear plant on Monday. North County Times - North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County columnists Archives Last modified Sunday, August 21, 2005 8:30 PM PDT By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer Editor's note: This periodical feature looks at things in our community that make us go, 'Hmmm ... What's up with that?' Whoever built the twin reactor domes of the San Onofre nuclear power plant seems to have had something against right angles. Since San Onofre's Unit 2 and 3 reactors were first opened in 1982 and 1983, their distinctive shape has caused many to wonder: What's up with that? Plant spokesman Ray Golden said engineers decided to enclose the plant's two 1,100-megawatt reactors inside 170-foot-tall domes because that particular shape offers much more strength than simple, square-cornered buildings. "It's purely for strength," Golden said. The ruins of ancient civilizations, from the Greeks and Romans to the Babylonians and Assyrians, show that mankind has long recognized the superior strength of the arch. Because they can hold up much greater loads than simple post-and-beam construction, arches are still used today wherever strength is paramount, from bridge supports to dam walls. Golden said a dome is simply an arch rotated 360 degrees and that it offers the same load-bearing advantages of an arch. He added that San Onofre's concrete containment domes ---- which range in thickness from 4 to 7 feet ---- are laced with steel rods and are crisscrossed with high-tension steel cables, adding additional strength to an already strong design. All that strength is necessary to contain the reactors' nuclear reactors in an emergency. The plant's reactors use heat generated by splitting atoms to create steam that turns turbines to generate electricity. But some of that hot water is radioactive. If either reactor suddenly sprung a big enough leak, it would release thousands of gallons of radioactive steam. And that steam must be stopped from entering the environment. To contain any leaks, the engineers who designed San Onofre, and many other reactors operating worldwide, chose a dome. The domes are airtight and are designed to contain every drop of radioactive steam if there's ever a leak. Golden said a peek inside either dome would show a comparatively small reactor and lots of open space. "About 100 feet of each 170-foot dome is just open space to allow the steam somewhere to go without getting out," Golden said. Those who have carefully scrutinized San Onofre's reactor containment domes may notice that each is capped with a smaller round structure at the very top. Golden said the caps are ventilation ducts that can bring fresh air into the domes when they are not sealed. - Note: If you have a suggestion for a 'What's Up With That?' item, please e-mail it to masingale@nctimes.com Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com. webmaster@nctimes.com © 1997-2005 North County Times - Lee Enterprises editor@nctimes.com ***************************************************************** 19 APP.COM: Feds to face nuclear plant foes on Wed. Asbury Park Press Online NRC reps to explain process on renewal for Oyster Creek Published in the Asbury Park Press 08/22/05 BY NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU WHAT: Information session on Oyster Creek's license renewal application. WHEN: 7 p.m. Aug. 24. WHERE: Lacey High School, 73 Haines St. CONTACT: Neil A. Sheehan, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, (610) 337-5331. LACEY — Federal regulators on Wednesday will attempt to familiarize the public with the controversial process under which the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey would receive a renewed operating license, allowing it to stay open past 2009. The evening visit to the township by staff from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be the first of several opportunities for the public to participate in the renewal process, which has been criticized for having a limited scope. One outspoken critic, Berkeley resident Thomas Cervasio, said he wants the federal government to require scientists independent of the commission to assess the plant. Yet another impartial group, he said, should review the plant's emergency response plan. Cervasio said he will attend the meeting, though he may face renewal advocates from the plant's hometown. "That's enemy territory," he said about Lacey, the only Ocean County municipality to adopt a resolution supporting a license renewal for the oldest operating reactor in the country. During the meeting a few miles from the plant at Lacey High School, commission staff will explain the process and how the public can participate. The public then will have an opportunity to ask questions, according to the commission. Members of plant watchdog group Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety want to know how they can voice concerns, said member Jeff Brown of Brick. The group also wants to find out how government officials can take part, so it can guide and encourage elected leaders to get involved, he said. "It's important that Governor Codey comes out on this issue," he said. Since plant owner AmerGen filed its renewal application on July 22, commission staffers have been reading the document to make sure it contains enough information for regulators to begin evaluating its content more thoroughly. Regulators will ask AmerGen to provide additional information and will delay a formal review if they find holes in the application. Meanwhile, three pieces of federal legislation that would reform the renewal process await action by House and Senate committees. Almost identical bills introduced by Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J., in February and by Sen. Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., in July would require the NRC to consider a plant's ability to store nuclear waste, its safety record, the size of its surrounding population and the impact of a radioactive release, among other subjects. Both bills reflect a sentiment held by their constituents — that regulators should broaden the criteria used when considering a renewal for Oyster Creek and other reactors. Similar calls by New Yorkers critical of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, about 25 miles north of Manhattan, prompted Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., in June to introduce a bill that would require the commission to make an evaluation of a plant's evacuation plan and its vulnerability to a terrorist attack part of the renewal review. As it stands now, the commission requires plant operators to prove that they can limit environmental impacts and manage age-related degradation over the renewal term. Regulators have said that the review areas proposed in legislation are already regularly monitored and should remain outside the renewal process. Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com the Asbury Park Press Copyright © 2005 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc.; Notice of FR Doc E5-4554 [Federal Register: August 22, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 161)] [Notices] [Page 48985-48987] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr22au05-116] Consideration of Issuance of Amendment to Facility Operating License, Proposed No Significant Hazards; Consideration Determination, and Opportunity for a Hearing The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is considering issuance of amendments to Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-68 and NPF-81 issued Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc. (SNC), for operation of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP), Units 1 and 2, located in Burke County, Georgia. The proposed amendment would revise, on a one-time basis, Technical Specification (TS) 5.5.9, ``Steam Generator (SG) Tube Surveillance Program,'' to incorporate changes in the SG inspection scope for VEGP, Unit 2 during Refueling Outage 11 and the subsequent operating cycle. The proposed changes are applicable to Unit 2 only for inspections during Refueling Outage 11 and for the subsequent operating cycle. The proposed changes modify the inspection requirements for portions of SG tubes within the hot leg tubesheet region of the SGs. The license for VEGP, Unit 1 is affected only due to the fact that Units 1 and 2 use common TSs. Before issuance of the proposed license amendment, the Commission will have made findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations. The Commission has made a proposed determination that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration. Under the Commission's regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Section 50.92, this means that operation of the facility in accordance with the proposed amendment would not (1) involve a significant increase in the probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated; or (2) create the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated; or (3) involve a significant reduction in a margin of safety. As required by 10 CFR 50.91(a), the licensee has provided its analysis of the issue of no significant hazards consideration, which is presented below: SNC has evaluated whether or not a significant hazards consideration is involved with the proposed changes by focusing on the three standards set forth in 10 CFR 50.92, ``Issuance of Amendment,'' as discussed below: 1. Does the proposed license amendment involve a significant increase in the probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated? No. The previously analyzed accidents are initiated by the failure of plant structures, systems, or components. The proposed changes that alter the SG inspection criteria do not have a detrimental impact on the integrity of any plant structure, system, or component that initiates an analyzed event. The proposed changes will not alter the operation of, or otherwise increase the failure probability of any plant equipment that initiates an analyzed accident. Therefore, the proposed change does not involve a significant increase in the probability of an accident previously evaluated. Of the applicable accidents previously evaluated, the limiting transients with consideration to the proposed changes to the SG tube inspection criteria, are the SG tube rupture (SGTR) event and the steam line break (SLB) accident. During the SGTR event, the required structural integrity margins of the SG tubes will be maintained by the presence of the SG tubesheet. SG tubes are hydraulically expanded in the tubesheet area. Tube rupture in tubes with cracks in the tubesheet is precluded by the constraint provided by the tubesheet. This constraint results from the hydraulic expansion process, thermal expansion mismatch between the tube and tubesheet and from the differential pressure between the primary and secondary side. Based on this design, the structural margins against burst, discussed in Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.121, ``Bases for Plugging Degraded PWR [Pressurized-Water Reactor] SG Tubes,'' [[Page 48986]] are maintained for both normal and postulated accident conditions. The proposed changes do not affect other systems, structures, components or operational features. Therefore, the proposed changes result in no significant increase in the probability of the occurrence of a SGTR accident. At normal operating pressures, leakage from primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) below the proposed limited inspection depth is limited by both the tube- to-tubesheet crevice and the limited crack opening permitted by the tubesheet constraint. Consequently, negligible normal operating leakage is expected from cracks within the tubesheet region. The consequences of an SGTR event are affected by the primary-to- secondary leakage flow during the event. Primary-to-secondary leakage flow through a postulated broken tube is not affected by the proposed change since the tubesheet enhances the tube integrity in the region of the hydraulic expansion by precluding tube deformation beyond its initial hydraulically expanded outside diameter. The probability of a SLB is unaffected by the potential failure of a SG tube as this failure is not an initiator for a SLB. The consequences of a SLB are also not significantly affected by the proposed changes. During a SLB accident, the reduction in pressure above the tubesheet on the shell side of the SG creates an axially uniformly distributed load on the tubesheet due to the reactor coolant system pressure on the underside of the tubesheet. The resulting bending action constrains the tubes in the tubesheet thereby restricting primary-to-secondary leakage below the midplane. Primary-to-secondary leakage from tube degradation in the tubesheet area during the limiting accident (i.e., SLB) is limited by flow restrictions resulting from the crack and tube-to-tubesheet contact pressures that provide a restricted leakage path above the indications and also limit the degree of potential crack face opening as compared to free span indications. The primary-to- secondary leak rate during postulated SLB accident conditions would be expected to be less than that during normal operation for indications near the bottom of the tubesheet (i.e., including indications in the tube end welds). This conclusion is based on the observation that while the driving pressure causing leakage increases by approximately a factor of two, the flow resistance associated with an increase in the tube-to-tubesheet contact pressure, during a SLB, increases by up to approximately a factor of three. While such a leakage decrease is logically expected, the postulated accident leak rate could be conservatively bounded by twice the normal operating leak rate if the increase in contact pressure is ignored. Since normal operating leakage is administratively limited (by NEI [Nuclear Energy Institute] 97-06) to less than 0.10 gpm (150 gpd) in the Vogtle Unit 2 steam generators, the attendant accident condition leak rate, assuming all leakage to be from lower tubesheet indications, would be bounded by 0.20 gpm, which is less than the accident analysis assumption of 0.35 gpm included in Section 15.1.5 of the Vogtle Unit 2 UFSAR. Hence it is reasonable to omit any consideration of inspection of the tube, tube end weld, bulges/overexpansions or other anomalies below 17 inches from the top of the hot leg tubesheet. Therefore, the consequences of a SLB accident remain unaffected. Based on the above discussion, the proposed changes do not involve an increase in the consequences of an accident previously evaluated. 2. Does the proposed license amendment create the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated? No. The proposed changes do not involve the use or installation of new equipment and the currently installed equipment will not be operated in a new or different manner. No new or different system interactions are created and no new processes are introduced. The proposed changes will not introduce any new failure mechanisms, malfunctions, or accident initiators not already considered in the design and licensing bases. Based on this evaluation, the proposed change does not create the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated. 3. Does the proposed amendment involve a significant reduction in a margin of safety? No. The proposed changes maintain the required structural margins of the SG tubes for both normal and accident conditions. Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 97-06, ``Steam Generator Program Guidelines,'' Revision 1 and Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.121, ``Bases for Plugging Degraded PWR Steam Generator Tubes,'' are used as the bases in the development of the limited hot leg tubesheet inspection depth methodology for determining that SG tube integrity considerations are maintained within acceptable limits. RG 1.121 describes a method acceptable to the NRC for meeting General Design Criteria (GDC) 14, ``Reactor coolant pressure boundary,'' GDC 15, ``Reactor coolant system design,'' GDC 31, ``Fracture prevention of reactor coolant pressure boundary,'' and GDC 32, ``Inspection of reactor coolant pressure boundary,'' by reducing the probability and consequences of a SGTR. RG 1.121 concludes that by determining the limiting safe conditions for tube wall degradation the probability and consequences of a SGTR are reduced. This RG uses safety factors on loads for tube burst that are consistent with the requirements of Section III of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code. Application of the limited hot leg tubesheet inspection depth criteria will preclude unacceptable primary-to-secondary leakage during all plant conditions. The methodology for determining leakage provides for large margins between calculated and actual leakage values in the proposed limited hot leg tubesheet inspection depth criteria. Therefore, the proposed changes do not involve a significant hazards consideration under the criteria set forth in 10 CFR 50.92(c). The NRC staff has reviewed the licensee's analysis and, based on this review, it appears that the three standards of 10 CFR 50.92(c) are satisfied. Therefore, the NRC staff proposes to determine that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration. The Commission is seeking public comments on this proposed determination. Any comments received within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice will be considered in making any final determination. Normally, the Commission will not issue the amendment until the expiration of 60 days after the date of publication of this notice. The Commission may issue the license amendment before expiration of the 60- day period provided that its final determination is that the amendment involves no significant hazards consideration. In addition, the Commission may issue the amendment prior to the expiration of the 30- day comment period should circumstances change during the 30-day comment period such that failure to act in a timely way would result, for example in derating or shutdown of the facility. Should the Commission take action prior to the expiration of either the comment period or the notice period, it will publish in the Federal Register a notice of issuance. Should the Commission make a final No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, any hearing will take place after issuance. The Commission expects that the need to take this action will occur very infrequently. Written comments may be submitted by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and should cite the publication date and page number of this Federal Register notice. Written comments may also be delivered to Room 6D59, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. The filing of requests for hearing and petitions for leave to intervene is discussed below. Within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice, the licensee may file a request for a hearing with respect to issuance of the amendment to the subject facility operating license and any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding and who [[Page 48987]] wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding must file a written request for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene. Requests for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene shall be filed in accordance with the Commission's ``Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing Proceedings'' in 10 CFR Part 2. Interested persons should consult a current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is available at the Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, . If a request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene is filed by the above date, the Commission or a presiding officer designated by the Commission or by the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, will rule on the request and/or petition; and the Secretary or the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will issue a notice of a hearing or an appropriate order. As required by 10 CFR 2.309, a petition for leave to intervene shall set forth with particularity the interest of the petitioner in the proceeding, and how that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding. The petition should specifically explain the reasons why intervention should be permitted with particular reference to the following general requirements: (1) The name, address and telephone number of the requestor or petitioner; (2) the nature of the requestor's/petitioner's right under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; (3) the nature and extent of the requestor's/petitioner's property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and (4) the possible effect of any decision or order which may be entered in the proceeding on the requestor's/petitioner's interest. The petition must also identify the specific contentions which the petitioner/requestor seeks to have litigated at the proceeding. Each contention must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted. In addition, the petitioner/requestor shall provide a brief explanation of the bases for the contention and a concise statement of the alleged facts or expert opinion which support the contention on which the petitioner intends to rely in proving the contention at the hearing. The petitioner/requestor must also provide references to those specific sources and documents of which the petitioner is aware and on which the petitioner intends to rely to establish those facts or expert opinion. The petition must include sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with the applicant on a material issue of law or fact. Contentions shall be limited to matters within the scope of the amendment under consideration. The contention must be one which, if proven, would entitle the petitioner to relief. A petitioner/requestor who fails to satisfy these requirements with respect to at least one contention will not be permitted to participate as a party. Those permitted to intervene become parties to the proceeding, subject to any limitations in the order granting leave to intervene, and have the opportunity to participate fully in the conduct of the hearing. If a hearing is requested, the Commission will make a final determination on the issue of no significant hazards consideration. The final determination will serve to decide when the hearing is held. If the final determination is that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration, the Commission may issue the amendment and make it immediately effective, notwithstanding the request for a hearing. Any hearing held would take place after issuance of the amendment. If the final determination is that the amendment request involves a significant hazards consideration, any hearing held would take place before the issuance of any amendment. Nontimely requests and/or petitions and contentions will not be entertained absent a determination by the Commission or the presiding officer of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the petition, request and/or the contentions should be granted based on a balancing of the factors specified in 10 CFR 2.309(c)(1)(I)-(viii). A request for a hearing or a petition for leave to intervene must be filed by: (1) First class mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (2) courier, express mail, and expedited delivery services: Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (3) E-mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ; or (4) facsimile transmission addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff at (301) 415-1101, verification number is (301) 415-1966. A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and it is requested that copies be transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to 301-415-3725 or by e-mail to . A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to Arthur H. Domby, Esquire, Troutman Sanders, NationsBank Plaza, 600 Peachtree Street, NE., Suite 5200, Atlanta, GA 30308-2216, the attorney for the licensee. For further details with respect to this action, see the application for amendment dated August 12, 2005, which is available for public inspection at the Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, File Public Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, . Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1- 800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of August 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Christopher Gratton, Sr. Project Manager, Section 1, Project Directorate II, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E5-4554 Filed 8-19-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 21 Sify: NTPC plans to augment installed capacity UNI Monday, 22 August , 2005, 13:28 New Delhi: The country's largest producer of electricity, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plans to have an installed capacity of 56,000 MW where the bulk of the production will be through its future forays into nuclear and hydel energy generation. NTPC is planning an installed capacity of 56,000 Mw by 2017 from 23,739 Mw by the end of this year despite the coal shortage facing the country. This would mean that thermal power will only be a short-term feasibility and the PSU which produces 27 per cent of the country's power will have to eventually shift from its traditional coal generation. Nuclear power is one of the viable alternatives in the long-run as the country's coal reserves will only last for another 50 years. The fuel has been the preferred option for countries like France and Japan who have low hydrocarbon reserves. The Corporation's officials have said against the backdrop of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signing a deal on the import of nuclear fuel with India, NTPC is gearing up to enter the nuclear energy business. The agreement with the US for fuel supply, will enable India to step up its civil nuclear programme with productions to go up from 10 giga watt to 275 giga watt by 2052, NTPC officials say. Refusing to elaborate on its nuclear plans, Chairman and Managing Director of NTPC C P Jain said, "We are looking at it as a long-term option." NTPC accounts for around 27 per cent of the power produced in the country as thermal generation continues to be its mainstay. On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha was informed that the country's power production will be augmented as the work on nine nuclear plants at a total cost of Rs 29,542 crores is continuing at a bristling pace. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan said while three reactors are being set up in Tamil Nadu with the total capacity of 2500 MWe, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka are setting up two reactors each with the capacity in MWe 1080, 440 and 440, respectively. TAPP Unit-4 (540 MWe) in Maharashtra has been connected to grid on fourth June, 2005 and expected to commence commercial operation in August, 2005, he said. Chavan said total power generation from the current crop of nuclear power plants in the country during 2004-05 was about 16,500 MUs. Fourteen reactors with installed capacity of 2770 MWe have generated 17010 Million Units in 2004-05. The generation of power in 2005-06 is expected to be around 17000 million units. The Minister said the present installed capacity of 2770 MWe is expected to reach 7280 MWe by March 2011 with the progressive completion of projects under construction. More projects are also planned so as to reach the capacity of 20,000 MWe by the year 2020, the Rajya Sabha was informed. As per projections nuclear power can account for up to 20 per cent of India's power generation by 2052, up from 5 per cent in 2012. At present, Nuclear Power Corporation is the only agency producing nuclear power in the country. Tata Power had evinced interest in nuclear power generation while other private players are also keen to foray into the sector. So far there is no indication for private players in the power sector to enter the nuclear energy field. Officials, however, said NTPC’s entry into the business would not pose much of a problem though the Nuclear Power Corporation would be interested in expanding its presence. The Central Electricity Authority has said that the installed capacity in the nuclear generation business was estimated at 3,310 Mw. At present, Nuclear Power Corporation operates 14 reactors with eight under construction. It intends to put up an installed capacity of 20,000 Mw by 2020. The 14 reactors include two boiling water reactors and 12 pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR). Of the eight under construction, two PHWRs of 540 Mw each are coming up at Tarapur in Maharashtra, two 220 Mw reactors at Kaiga in Karnataka and another two at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. © Copyright Sify Ltd, 1998-2004. All rights reserved. Sify.comhosted at SifyHosting India's first Level 3 Internet ***************************************************************** 22 Webindia123.com: Global meet to study N-plant risks from flooding New Delhi | August 22, 2005 3:25:06 PM IST Global experts will gather at the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu this month to review risks from natural disasters like the tsunami in December that led to flooding in the vital installation. "Learning from the lessons of this latest tsunami as well as from other flood events that occurred in the past will allow the review, revision and expansion, as appropriate for the agency safety standards on external flooding hazards," Ken Brockman, nuclear installation safety director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a statement Monday. The five-day International Workshop on External Flooding Hazards at Nuclear Power Plant Sites will begin Aug 29 at the Kalpakkam plant, which withstood the giant waves that engulfed the small township in Tamil Nadu when the tsunami struck Dec 26, 2004. Battered but safe, the plant shut down automatically after detectors tripped it as the water level rose. There was no release of radioactivity. The reactor was restarted Jan 1, six days after the catastrophic waves struck India's east coast. The IAEA issued the Kalpakkam reactor a clean bill of health in the tsunami's wake, rating the event a 'zero' or of 'no safety significance' on the international nuclear events scale. Around 3.5 cubic metres of seawater, sludge and muck had entered a construction pit at the Kalpakkam plant, where the foundations for a new Fast Breeder Reactor were being built. Water also entered a pump house for cooling water, tripping the nuclear power plant to shut down. The 17-country workshop at Kalpakkam will have Japan providing guidance on how it has put in place systems to protect reactors against earthquakes and tsunamis. Countries like France, whose Le Blayais reactor was hit by severe storms in December 1999, will also present case studies. It is common for nuclear power plants to be built in coastal areas, drawing the seawater to cool the reactor. The IAEA has stringent safety standards designed to guard nuclear power plants against natural calamities like earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, tsunamis and cyclones. The non-legally binding guidelines cover site and design requirements as well as appropriate monitoring and warning systems. (IANS) © 2000-2005 Suni System (P) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 23 Bellona: Radioactive cargo seized in Vladivostok A cargo of radioactive litter has been found in Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivistok, Russian news agencies reported on August 13. 2005-08-22 19:09 The Primtechnopolis radiation safety company became alarmed after its monitoring devices showed a radiation level surpassing the normal level 100 times in the port. A check revealed 89 radioactive items, previously spare parts for equipment, RIA Novosti reported. In a special operation that lasted six hours the dangerous pieces were sorted and taken away from the port, and the radiation level stabilized. Considering the small size of the cargo, the radiation level of 1,500 micro-roentgen per hour that it produced was very impressive, the Primtechnopolis representatives told Interfax. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 24 Daily Times: Nuclear black market: Western companies let off: Kasuri Tuesday, August 23, 2005 * FM says Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in Pakistan’s custody * Rejects Indian allegations of cross border infiltration Daily Times Monitor LONDON: Pakistan uncovered the involvement of Western companies in the nuclear black market that Dr AQ Khan operated in, but the US and UK have taken no action against them, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said. The US and Britain blacklisted 290 people who helped former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein build his nuclear set up, but they have not been touched, Kasuri said in an interview with the BBC Hard Talk programme. The minister said Pakistan had not and would not allow any foreign country or agency to interrogate Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who confessed to selling nuclear secrets to other countries. He said Pakistan had shared information gleaned from Dr Khan with the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He said Dr Khan had been pardoned because he had cooperated with Pakistan’s investigation agencies. Pakistan had dismantled all terrorist training camps and Indian accusations of infiltration into Kashmir were baseless, Kasuri said. The struggle in Indian-held Kashmir was indigenous and there was no infiltration across the Line of Control from Pakistan or Azad Kashmir. “We have dismantled all training camps that were functional earlier and were used during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets,” he said. Asked how Pakistan could maintain a strategic alliance with the US when the two countries differed on many issues, Kasuri said it was normal for countries to have differences with each other. He said Pakistan and the US had been engaged for over 50 years, with ups and downs. “We opposed the invasion of Iraq. Whatever is against our national interest, we will oppose it,” he said. The minister said Pakistan had arrested hundreds of terrorists since September 11, 2001, and extradited them to the US, but “this doesn’t mean Pakistan has given its defence into the hands of the US. All the operations in Pakistan have been carried out by Pakistan’s Armed Forces because they have been in the interest of Pakistan.” Kasuri said that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the Al Qaeda operative arrested in Karachi, had not been handed over to the US and was still in Pakistan’s custody. He rejected the notion that the London bombers had links with Pakistan. “They were born and raised in the UK ... they were educated in the UK and they have no links with Pakistan. If a persons visits Pakistan for ten or twenty days it is totally wrong that one should declare him an extremist. They got their training in the UK.” Asked why, if this was true, the government had banned foreign seminary students, he said the London bombings had created an atmosphere in which the president could take this decision. He said only a few seminaries teaching extremism and sectarianism. Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 25 Nashua Telegraph Online: Military radiation poisoning discussed By JESSIE SALISBURY, Telegraph Correspondent Published: Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 WILTON The military is using depleted uranium as ammunition and warheads, the so-called Gulf War syndrome is actually radiation sickness, and nobody is doing anything to stop it or to help the ill service people. That is the message in “Poison Dust,” a film by the Peoples Video Network shown Sunday during the ongoing Confronting the Issues program at the Town Hall. The films are sponsored by Women Making a Difference, a local nonpartisan group bringing various issues to the public. About 40 people attended the showing. A discussion after the film was led by William Thomas, a Cold War veteran and retired Concord teacher; World War II veteran Jack Minassian of Hollis and Nancy Iannuzzelli, an Amherst resident who is promoting two petitions concerning the subject. Thomas and Minassian are members of Veterans For Peace, a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to oppose U.S. supported wars. Their mission is to increase awareness of the costs of wars, end the arms race, reduce the use of nuclear weapons and seek justice for veterans. New Hampshire Reps. Jeb Bradley and Charles Bass have been asked to co-sponsor two bills before Congress, Thomas said, but neither have committed. House Bill 202 would provide for identification of members of the armed forces exposed during military duty to depleted uranium and provide for health testing of such people. House Bill 2410 requires studies regarding the effects of exposure to depleted uranium and the cleanup and mitigation of contamination of sites of depleted uranium production in the United States. Williams said several members of the New York National Guard are going to file a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Army charging that they were not provided adequate protection against depleted uranium while in Iraq. The film related the problems of several national guardsmen and career servicemen who suffer from radiation poisoning but have received little on no help. They suffer from various sorts of cancer and other problems, and one has had a child with severe birth defects. Testing has been minimal, and they have been told their problems are “psychological.” Depleted uranium is part of the tons of waste created by the manufacture of nuclear bombs. It is about 60 percent as radioactive as bomb-grade uranium. More information can be obtained from Minassian at semajack@aol.comand from Iannuzzelli at niannuzzelli@hotmail.com. The film series will conclude next Sunday with “Mercury,” contamination of New Hampshire wells. The discussion will be led by Catherine Corkery, president of the N.H. Sierra Club. Films are shown at 4:30 p.m. Donations are accepted. Contact The Telegraph PO Box 1008, Nashua, NH 03061 (603) 594-6440 Agreement The Telegraph Online Ver. 2.0 © 2005, Telegraph ***************************************************************** 26 Angola Press: Radiation Risks Awareness Campaigns Needed Luanda - Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 5:35:42 AM ANGOLA | An X-ray machine Luanda, 08/22 - The need for the population to be sensitised on the risks in the use of radioactive sources like X-rays machines and others in industries was defended today in Luanda by the Radio-protection Laboratory technician, Jesus Baptista. Speaking to Angop, the expert said that most of these sources are in hospital`s X-Ray machines and in industries, including the oil industry where there are neutron generators and other equipment. Jesus Baptista explained that, during X-Ray snaps patients are exposed to radiations capable of ionising the matter in the process. Still according to him, the same applies to X-Ray operators themselves, during their work. He considers it important for them to use protective material, such as leaded robes and not to work in rooms next to such machines. For protection against radiation, the equipment need to be well calibrated, he stressed, adding that nuclear technology are important for the production of electricity in nuclear stations, in agriculture and in the fight against plagues that damage seeds, as well as in health - in the treatment of cancer and in the eradication of the tse-tse flies. Therefore, when wrongly used, he stated, they can cause serious damages to the environment and to human beings. The Radio-protection Laboratory has been in operation since 2000, with the aim of sensitising, preventing and protecting citizens on radioactive matters. To that effect, it runs courses about Radio-protection and nuclear safety, as well as inspection and awareness visits. Meanwhile, five technicians from the Chemical Defence Department of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) Army Staff, were trained this month. Currently, its activities are restricted to the Angolan capital, but according to Jesus Baptista, the institution will expand its activity to the whole country from 2006. © 1996-2003 Angop. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 reviewjournal.com: 'Trying to shield almost everything' (DOE-Yucca) THOMAS MITCHELL: Opinion - Aug. 21, 2005 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal You've got to hand it to the government. And hand it, and hand it. Mostly in taxes, fees, assessments, fines, assorted charges, levies, tolls and duties. But when it comes to handing anything over to us, such as information about how all that money is being spent, that's when the brakes are slammed. Most states have public records laws that allow citizens to hold elected and appointed representatives accountable. At the federal level, the Freedom of Information Act, commonly referred to as FOIA, is supposed to give the public the key to the vault of government paperwork. It has been roundly flouted. Though the law says federal agencies must grant or deny a request for information within 20 days, many requests get no reply for years and often never. Flummoxed requesters can go to court, but that is extremely expensive and time consuming. Every now and then, a determined watchdog can crack the bureaucratic barrier. In early June, Steve Tetreault -- the Washington bureau chief for Stephens Media Group, which covers federal matters for the chain of newspapers that includes the Review-Journal -- listened in on one of the countless Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump dog-and-pony shows, an exercise designed to induce acquiescent torpidity. But someone slipped up and hinted at yet another flaw in the problem-plagued project. Tetreault immediately asked for a DOE report spelling out said problems. He was denied. So he filed an FOIA request. Surprisingly, and within the 20-day time frame, the Department of Energy's FOIA compliance officer overruled whoever it was who had stamped the document "Official Use Only," citing the ruse of attorney-client privilege. With document in hand, Tetreault began the legwork that resulted in a front-page article a week ago outlining how the Energy Department had failed to design its nuclear waste handling facilities to prevent damaged fuel rods from leaking and exposing the public and Yucca Mountain workers to hazardous levels of radiation. And this comes out just a few months before the department is supposed to apply for a license to build the Yucca Mountain complex. The report was written in March but kept under wraps by the attorney-client privilege dodge. Bob Loux, who heads up Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said DOE since this past summer has been in a mode of hiding as many documents as possible about the Yucca Mountain Project. He and Joe Egan, an attorney representing the state in its fight to block the Yucca Mountain dump, said the DOE has resorted to saying various documents are not subject to scrutiny because they are work products, part of the deliberative process (whatever that means), a draft, uncirculated or subject to attorney-client privilege. Egan said the document Tetreault obtained clearly was not privileged. "It would not pass the laugh test." Loux faxed me an e-mail a DOE attorney had sent to project scientists after Egan had successfully gotten the courts to reject an arbitrary 10,000-year limit for radiation exposure standards, even though the material in Yucca Mountain would be hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. Attorney Donald Irwin instructed the scientists to treat all their investigations of such things as "peak radiological dose, equivalent dose and associated risk to individuals and populations, from a repository at Yucca Mountain" as "confidential and attorney-client privileged." He further ordered: "Please limit your discussion of it to who are involved in it with you and to counsel, and protect our work product against unauthorized disclosure." Unauthorized disclosure to whom? Why, you the taxpayer, of course. "Clearly they're trying to hide everything from the public," Loux said. " 'We'd give it to you but we're afraid you'd give it to the public.' DOE claims it is the most open agency in government but it is trying to shield almost everything in every instance." A number of FOIA amendments are wending their way through the halls of Congress, including one by Sens. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, that would create a program to mediate disputes between the government and FOIA requesters. It also would prohibit agencies from using exemptions if they don't respond in 20 days. Nevada's delegation should be supportive. Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal. He writes about the role of the press, free speech and public access. His phone number is 383-0261 and e-mail is tmitchell@reviewjournal.com. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005 Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement ***************************************************************** 28 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: PR campaign, or snow job? Today: August 22, 2005 at 9:12:45 PDT LAS VEGAS SUN The energy bill signed by President Bush earlier this month has buoyed the pro-Yucca Mountain Nuclear Energy Institute. The Washington-based lobbying group for the nuclear power industry is ecstatic over the fact that the bill offers huge incentives for building new power plants. After 30 years of federal disinterest in adding any more problematic nuclear power plants to the more than 100 that already exist in the U.S., the NEI is reveling in the support from the Bush administration for renewed construction. The NEI is so energized by the vision of increased nuclear power production that it is planning a national public relations campaign. A newsletter for the energy industry, Energy Daily, reported last week that the NEI plans to spend as much as $8 million on the campaign. Steve Kerekes, NEI's spokesman, would not confirm that amount. "It could be more, it could be less," he told Las Vegas Sun Washington reporter Benjamin Grove. Kerekes said the campaign will focus on the potential that more nuclear power plants hold for meeting the nation's energy needs. Promoters of nuclear power have long focused singly on the power produced, and how clean it is. They are now talking about a "renaissance" in nuclear power, aided by the new energy bill and the nation's obviously increasing demands for power. Something they haven't focused on, however, is nuclear waste. We can envision a PR campaign for nuclear power that promises a new day for America, just as nuclear power was advertised back in the 1950s, when promoters put forth the vision that power would be so cheap it wouldn't even need to be metered. Our fear was all but confirmed when Kerekes said it wasn't clear yet how much the campaign would focus on Yucca Mountain. This site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is where the federal government is proposing to dump 77,000 tons of spent nuclear waste from the country's power plants. When nuclear power first came online, people didn't worry about the waste because they had faith that advances in "technology" would soon provide a solution to how to dispose of it. Well, it's been 50 years now, and the best that technology has come up with is to enclose the waste in metal casks and bury it under a mountain in Southern Nevada. This, despite the fact that it will still be deadly to human beings hundreds of thousands of years from now. We hope people aren't snowed by the slick ads planned by the NEI. The plan for the nuclear waste that has already accumulated -- unsafe burial and the unsafe transportation of it for at least 25 years all across the country -- is a strong reason to oppose any more nuclear power plants. Any NRI ads that do not mention the unsolved problem of nuclear waste should be regarded as sheer propaganda. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 CEN News: University on charges over radioactive waste CAMBRIDGE University is in the dock for allegedly breaking the law over the disposal of radioactive waste. The university faces eight charges relating to the disposal of radioactive substances at The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. The centre, which treats patients with acute brain injuries and claims to be the best equipped in the world, is based at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Two of the charges, which have been brought by the Environment Agency, accuse the university of having exceeded the prescribed daily disposal limit for the radioactive materials Oxygen-15 and Flourine-18. The university is also accused of failing to meet best practice when disposing of radioactive waste, failing to keep clear and legible daily records or have written operating procedures for the accumulation and disposal of radioactive waste, as well as failing to have adequate supervision of disposal of radioactive waste by a suitably qualified and experienced person. The offences allegedly took place between July and October 2003. Representatives of the university are due to appear before Ely magistrates ON Tuesday. Oxygen-15 and Flourine-18 are radioactive substances used in PET (Positron Emission Tomography) brain or body scanning. Usually the substances are produced on site using a special machine. They then may be mixed by a radiochemist with another substance before being given to a patient as an injection before the patient undergoes a scan. Oxygen-15 and Flourine-18 are not considered highly dangerous because both decay very quickly. Oxygen-15 has a half-life of 2.03 minutes and Flourine-18 109.7 minutes. A Cambridge University spokeswoman said: "The university has received notification that it is to be prosecuted by the Environment Agency in relation to the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. This relates to activity at the university's premises at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Addenbrooke's Hospital, between July and October 2003. "It has been acknowledged by all parties that at no time was there a risk to human health. For legal reasons it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage." 22 August 2005 Cambridge Newspapers Ltd ©2005 ***************************************************************** 30 Pahrump Valley Times: LETTER: Yucca rebuttal August 19, 2005 This relates to the Aug. 3 letter from W.E. Lopez, "Do the Math." It was confusing to follow in one manner and seems unrealistic in another, both pertaining to Yucca Mountain. Somehow Lopez sees a relationship between Yucca Mountain and an eminent domain taking of private property by the federal government. The federal government already owns the property needed for the proposed repository. Eminent domain is not needed. Lopez also suggests that "all new hires" at the Yucca Mountain project (if licensed) must have been a resident for at least 180 days. Does Nye County have such skilled personnel already in the county that are qualified and would seek such employment? Both the Department of Energy and its contractors need to hire qualified people, first and foremost. It may be more realistic to negotiate some incentives with DOE to have project personnel reside in Nye County once hired. BRIAN O'CONNELL P.E. DIRECTOR, NUCLEAR WASTE PROGRAM OFFICE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REGULATORY UTILITY COMMISSIONERS For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 ***************************************************************** 31 SF Chronicle: Polluted shipyard tenants face eviction as Navy begins cleanup Sunday, August 21, 2005 Tenants of a polluted former naval shipyard are being evicted from their homes and workspaces, so the Navy can begin an $80 million cleanup of the site. An eclectic community that includes more than 300 artists, as well as the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, a skateboard parts maker and the San Francisco Police Department's crime lab and SWAT team, has grown at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard since its deactivation in 1974. Last week, tenants were notified that they have six months before their leases expire. The Navy and San Francisco officials reached an agreement last year to transfer the former World War II-era ship repair hub to the city, but federal law requires that the Navy first clean up the property of radioactive contamination in the ground. The Navy says the evacuation is necessary to test every sewer and storm line for contamination. "It's a tough decision, but we don't see a way to move forward and dig up those lines and still have people out there," said Doug Gilkey, base closure manager for the Navy. Local officials and Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi are working with the Navy to devise a plan that would allow most of the artists to return after the work is complete. But many artists are concerned the displacement will hurt their livelihoods. Their biannual open studios draw about 25,000 people to the shipyard community. Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, ***************************************************************** 32 SF Chronicle: Shipping out the tenants / Artists, others must leave before toxic cleanup at Hunters Point SAN FRANCISCO Monday, August 22, 2005 [Artist Sue Averell, sitting with Zipper in front of her s...] [Zannah Noe and her fellow artists will have a hard time m...] [Robin Denevan packs artwork to send to a gallery. The shi...] [Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Chronicle graphic by Todd T...] From train buffs and artists to skateboard-makers and the police SWAT team, the eclectic mix that shares space at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco has one thing in common: Their landlord, the Navy, wants them out. The tenants learned last week that they have six months before their leases expire and the Navy embarks on a $80 million cleanup of the toxic site that since 1991 has been on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List. Those who enjoy the cheap rent and quiet isolation that come with working at the former World War II-era ship repair hub knew they would one day get their marching orders when the Navy decided it was time to turn the land over to the city. But now that the time has come, the prospect of what's next is daunting. "I don't know what I'm going to do," said 51-year-old painter Rhonel Roberts. "The solitude and serenity that we've come to enjoy here is about to change." An artist community of 300 to 400 painters, sculptors, woodworkers and the like have made their studios in old Navy buildings at the shipyard. It also is home to such tenants as the San Francisco Police Department's crime lab and SWAT team, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, cabinetmakers, storage facilities and a company that makes skateboard parts. The Navy, required by federal law to clean up the property before it can be transferred to the city, says it plans to excavate and test every sewer and storm line for contamination, and has no choice but to make the renters leave. "It's a tough decision, but we don't see a way to move forward and dig up those lines and still have people out there," said Doug Gilkey, base closure manager for the Navy. Many now face complicated moves and the even more complicated task of finding new digs. "The letter states very clearly that everything shall be removed," said Jim Bunger, president of the railroad museum, which has been at the shipyard since 1991 and houses 57 train parts, including valuable locomotives and passenger and freight cars. "Whether we can get it moved in the period of time they have given us is problematic," he said. "We are frantically searching for places and to make arrangements to move it all." Local officials and Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi are working behind the scenes with the Navy to devise a plan that would allow most of the artists to somehow stay on site after the work is complete. Ideas include moving most of the artists, now scattered around the 443 acres, into one area or having them leave in groups for three-week intervals while work is done near their studios. But few of them believe they will actually be displaced for just three weeks. And about 40 artists whose studios are located on a portion of the base that once housed a dump may be permanently displaced, city officials said. "This is a collective. It's really important for us to be together," said Sue Averell, 48, a painter who like many other artists there pays $1 per square foot each month to rent her small studio space. The community of artists is known for its biannual open studios, which draw about 25,000 people. For many of the artists, those shows are where they earn most of their annual income, and not having an open studio in the spring -- or even having it in a different location -- could be detrimental. "It's the major art event in the Bay Area," said Dimitri Kourouniotis, a 39-year-old painter who has rented space at the shipyard since 2001. "It's how we get represented in galleries and connect with the city." Officials don't want that to change. "I understand the artists' feelings of uncertainty and am committed to ensuring that the work is carried out with the least possible disruption to the shipyard artist community and their health and safety are protected," Pelosi said in a statement Friday. In the late 1940s, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was the country's leading location for the decontamination of ships that had been exposed to atomic weapons. It also was home to the country's foremost laboratory that studied atomic weapons and safety. The shipyard was deactivated in 1974, but by that time, radioactive materials had seeped into the land and had been discharged into the bay, the Navy said. Tests and cleanups have been conducted over the years; the EPA says that, to date, only low levels of radioactive materials have been found. The complex cleanup that would require everyone to be out of the shipyard by Feb. 15 involves shutting off the water, removing a sewage system that is more than 60 years old and testing the lines. "Our main concern was safety," Gilkey said. "These lines go under the roads. They go under buildings. When we start digging them up, we're going to have trenches all over the base. Because of the safety, we needed to terminate those leases." Michael Work, project manager with the EPA, said there would be no significant health risks for people who may move back after the cleanup. "What we've found is some low-level radioactive waste or spills that would only pose an unacceptable risk if somebody was living with it on a day- to-day basis for a lifetime," he said. The Navy handed over the first 75 acres of shipyard land to the city, which plans to turn the valuable real estate into commercial and retail space, parks, open space and housing, much of it for low-income families, in January. After the cleanup, the Navy expects to transfer two more portions of the shipyard to the city in 2007 and 2008. City officials say that while not everyone who wants to stay will be able to, the artists are guaranteed a place in the new community. "There's a very strong commitment to this art community," said Michael Cohen, city director of base reuse and development, "not just in the short term, but they will be a permanent part of the redevelopment of the shipyard." E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at . Page B - 1 The San Francisco Chronicle] ***************************************************************** 33 Daily Californian: Governor Tours Lab in Midst of Funding Crisis By VERONICA LOUIE Contributing Writer Monday, August 22, 2005 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the “incredible brain power” of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in a tour Friday, but behind the surface had a more practical concern: the millions in federal funding cuts the lab expects this fall. Schwarzen-egger toured the Advanced Light Source, one of the world’s brightest sources of ultraviolet light, and said he supported technological advances at the lab that help the state’s economy with new companies and jobs. At the same time, Berkeley lab officials said they face drastic budget cuts this year from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling about $5 million to $6 million and will be forced to cut jobs and freeze new hires. It would be the largest federal funding cut at the lab since 1995. The lab normally runs on an annual budget of $500 million with 3,800 employees, including about 500 UC Berkeley students. A memo last Monday asked some employees to consider an early retirement, and the hiring and promotion of scientists has come to a standstill, lab spokesperson Ron Kolb told the Berkeley Daily Planet Friday. Sixteen scientists from a lab light source project have accepted early retirement to help ease the burden of more layoffs. Kolb said further layoffs will depend upon which projects are in the highest demand and will then be determined by seniority. UC has managed the Berkeley lab since 1931. Last spring, it was granted a five-year management contract for $2.3 billion. The lab hosts unclassified research in areas like new energy systems, nanoscience and environmental solutions. Robert Clear, a part-time lab scientist, told the Daily Planet that the lab was facing funding cuts because it exclusively conducts unclassified research that is disclosed to the public. Other university-managed labs like the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories will not be facing the same kind of cut backs because they perform classified research. Livermore lab, for example, performs nuclear weapons research and is responsible for the safety of the nation’s nuclear weapons. The lab has an annual budget of $1.6 billion and over 8,000 employees. The lab receives funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as the energy department and will not be forced to layoff employees this year, lab spokesperson Anne Stark said to the Daily Planet. The press conference following Schwarzenegger’s tour of the lab however was geared toward the November election rather than the recent news of the funding cuts and the lab. Contact Veronica Louie at vlouie@dailycal.org. 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