***************************************************************** 09/02/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.204 ***************************************************************** 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 Guardian Unlimited: Mystery Unfolds Over Hunt for WMD in Iraq 2 Guardian Unlimited IAEA: Iran Has Tons of Gas for Weapon 3 BBC: India embarks on Iran diplomacy 4 BBC: Iran nuclear questions 'remain' 5 Xinhua: EU: Iran must return to nuclear talks 6 FT.com: Nuclear watchdog condemns Iran failures 7 Telegraph: Iran clings to atomic secrets, says UN report 8 Reuters: Iran says will continue to cooperate with IAEA 9 Reuters: WRAPUP 1-UN says Iran resumed atomic work, sets up EU clash 10 Reuters: EU to push for Iran UN nuclear referral if needed 11 Mehr News: U.S.-UK attempt to link Iran to nuclear smuggling network 12 Guardian Unlimited U.N.: Iran Has Tone of Gas for Nuke Bomb 13 Xinhua: EU: Iran must return to nuclear talks 14 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: 6-Way Talks Shouldn't be Overshadowed by 15 RIA Novosti: Russia approves date for resuming North Korean nuclear 16 RIA Novosti: Peaceful nuclear development is main focus of North Kor 17 Asia Times: Roadmap to a nuclear test 18 Reuters: Darkness is illuminating in N.Korea 19 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Envoy, U.S. Lawmakers Meet 20 UN Atomic Agency Steps Up Efforts To Tackle Looming Shortage Of Nucl 21 RIA Novosti UPDATE: U.S. will not recall Adamov extradition request 22 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear hypocrisy NUCLEAR REACTORS 23 US: NRC: NRC to Recruit Aggressively, Hire 350 New Employees in 2006 24 Bellona: Special train to deliver spent nuclear fuel from Beloyarsk 25 Bellona: Russian Federal Nuclear Agency to become joint stock compan 26 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl needs $1 bln 27 NEWS.com.au: Nuke safety fears overblown, says Downer 28 Japan Times: Work starts to revamp ill-fated Monju reactor 29 US: Reuters: CMS Michigan Palisades nuke shut to fix hydrogen leak 30 US: Reuters: No restart date yet for Entergy La. Waterford nuke 31 US: Reuters: Constellation N.Y. Ginna nuke off line at 3 pct power 32 US: Reuters: PSEG's N.J. Hope Creek nuke starts to exit outage 33 Business Day: Earthlife leaps on Eskoms reactor slip-up NUCLEAR SECURITY 34 Platts: German nuke life extension plan is against security law - st 35 Interfax China: How to tutorial on home-made nuclear bomb spreading NUCLEAR SAFETY NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 36 US: Rocky Mountain News: Ranchers fight plan for dump 37 RGJ: State files suit against over Yucca dump 38 Nevada Appeal: Nevada sues Nuclear Regulatory Commission 39 US: AU ABC: WA uranium policy utterly discredited - Opposition 40 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: State adds to lawsuits against project 41 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada hits NRC with suit over 1990 ruling 42 Platts: Nevada wants court to force NRC to reconsider Yucca Mt. ruli 43 US: Control Engineering: Custom valves pave way for nuclear waste cl 44 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Stand up to Envirocare 45 Japan Times: Radioactive soil again Seattle-bound in wake of acciden 46 Paper Chase: Nevada AG brings new challenge to Yucca Mountain 47 US: AU ABC: Aust must boost uranium exports - Downer PEACE 48 US: [southnews] Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rotblat Dies 49 US: [NYTr] Obit: Joseph Rotblat Dead at 96; Resisted Nuclear US DEPT. OF ENERGY 50 Colorado Daily News: Contamination discovered 51 Guardian Unlimited: Workers Get $4.7 Million in Hanford Trial 52 Rocky Mountain News: Flats still has hot spots ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Mystery Unfolds Over Hunt for WMD in Iraq From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 2, 2005 7:46 PM By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent Beneath the giant dome of a Baghdad palace, facing his team of scientists and engineers, George Tenet sounded more like a football coach than a spymaster, a coach who didn't know the game was over. ``Are we 85 percent done?'' the CIA boss demanded. The arms hunters knew what he wanted to hear. ``No!'' they shouted back. ``Let me hear it again!'' They shouted again. The weapons are out there, Tenet insisted. Go find them. Veteran inspector Rod Barton couldn't believe his ears. ``It was nonsense,'' the Australian biologist said of that February evening last year, when the then-chief of U.S. intelligence secretly flew to Baghdad and dropped in on the lakeside Perfume Palace, chandelier-hung home of the Iraq Survey Group. ``It wasn't that we didn't know the major answers,'' recalled Barton, whose account matched that of another key participant. ``Are there WMD in the country? We knew the answers.'' In fact, David Kay, quitting as chief of the U.S. hunt for WMD, or weapons of mass destruction, had just delivered the answer to the world. The inspectors were 85 percent finished, Kay said, concluding: ``The weapons do not exist.'' The story of the weapons that weren't there, the prelude to war, was over, but a long post-mortem is still unfolding - of lingering questions in Washington, of revelations from investigations, leaks, first-person accounts. Some 52 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration deliberately misled them about the presence of banned arms in Iraq, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken in June. Hans Blix, U.N. inspector, says Washington's ``virtual reality'' about Iraq eventually collided with ``our old-fashioned ordinary reality.'' Now, drawing from findings of the Iraq Survey Group and other official investigations, from U.N., U.S., Iraqi and British documents, from Associated Press interviews and on-scene reporting, from books by Blix and others, it's possible to reconstruct much of the ``ordinary reality'' of this extraordinary story, one that has changed the course of history. --- The story could begin behind the creamy stone walls of another palace, the hilltop Hashemiyah outside Amman, Jordan, where in August 1995 a prize Iraqi defector was pouring out for interrogators whatever they wanted to know about Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction. Hussein Kamel, son-in-law of President Saddam Hussein, had headed Iraq's advanced arms programs during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, when the Baathist regime unleashed chemical weapons against Iranian troops and Iraqi civilians in rebellious Kurdish areas. What the U.N., American and other debriefers learned from Kamel led to headline-making successes for U.N. inspectors as they tracked down banned arms-making gear inside Iraq. But an interrogation transcript shows he told them something else as well, something they questioned and kept to themselves: All Iraqi WMD were destroyed in 1991. Hussein Kamel, soon to be killed by fellow clansmen as a traitor, was telling the truth. The U.N. experts had entered Iraq in 1991, after U.S.-led forces drove Iraq's invasion army from Kuwait in a lightning war, and the U.N. Security Council required the defeated nation to submit to inspections and destruction of its unconventional arms. The inspectors withdrew in late 1998, in a dispute over access to sites. By then, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) teams could report that Iraq's nuclear program, which never built a bomb, had been dismantled. As for chemical and biological weapons, only scattered questions remained about possible hidden stockpiles. In fact, as President George W. Bush took office 25 months later, the CIA was reporting, ``We do not have any direct evidence'' Baghdad was rebuilding its WMD programs. But Baghdad was on Bush's mind. The new president quickly called an inner Cabinet meeting to discuss Iraq as a destabilizing force in the Mideast, ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill recalls in the book, ``The Price of Loyalty.'' Tenet unrolled a grainy satellite photo of an Iraqi factory, suggested it was making banned weapons, but said his CIA didn't really know, O'Neill said. Washington and Baghdad had glowered at each other throughout Bill Clinton's presidency, but for a decade it was largely a cold war. Now Bush was ending this White House meeting by ordering Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to study possible military action, O'Neill said. Soon U.S. policymakers began hearing more about Iraq. In April 2001, Pentagon intelligence said satellites spotted construction at old nuclear sites. Was Iraq resuming bomb research? That same month a CIA report told of another ``indicator'': Iraq was shopping for thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes, said to be useful as cores of centrifuges to enrich uranium, the stuff of atom bombs. Then a shipment of the tubes was intercepted in neighboring Jordan, news that upset Baghdad's military industry chief. Abdel Tawab Huweish needed those tubes - 3 feet long, 3 inches wide - to make standard artillery rockets. He now ordered another metal be found, one that wouldn't arouse U.S. suspicions, Huweish later told U.S. arms investigators. On April 11, 2001, a day after the classified CIA report was distributed, the Energy Department filed a swift dissent. Energy, home of U.S. centrifuge specialists, said the tubes' dimensions weren't well-suited for centrifuges, and were more likely meant for artillery rockets. The U.N. nuclear agency, the Vienna-based IAEA, told U.S. officials the same. Evidence shows Iraq in 2001 had little interest in nuclear ``reconstitution.'' In one captured document from that May, Iraqi diplomats in Kenya reported to Baghdad that a Ugandan businessman had offered uranium for sale, but they turned him away, saying U.N. sanctions forbade it. Meanwhile, other supposed WMD ``indicators'' were surfacing. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for months had been receiving reports from German intelligence about an Iraqi defector, code-named ``Curveball,'' who claimed to have worked on a project to build concealed bioweapons labs atop truck trailers. Around this time, in June 2001, the trailers that U.S. officials later thought confirmed his account were ordered built at the al-Kindi factory in northern Iraq, inspectors would learn. Contract No. 73/MD/RG/2001 called not for secret weapons labs, however, but for two trailer units to make hydrogen for weather balloons. By this time, too, U.S. intelligence had been informed that Curveball was a possible alcoholic and ``out of control.'' The tubes tale, Curveball's account and other questionable stories about Iraqi WMD would survive for two years, in presidential speeches and newspaper headlines, on the road to war. For now, in the summer of 2001, Iraq was back-page news. But Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser, assured an interviewer, ``Saddam Hussein is on the radar screen.'' By summer's end, in the traumatic aftermath of Sept. 11's terror, he was in the crosshairs. On the day after Sept. 11, the talk in the White House Situation Room was of ``getting Iraq,'' says former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke. Clarke's memoir says an insistent Bush ordered him to look for ``any shred'' to tie Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks - even though U.S. agencies knew al-Qaida was responsible and Iraq wasn't linked to the terror group. The immediate target was Afghanistan, however, invaded by U.S. forces in October 2001, and as 2002 began the WMD case against Iraq remained unimpressive. In his annual unclassified review, Tenet didn't even cite evidence of an imminent Iraqi nuclear threat. But Vice President Dick Cheney apparently thought he'd found such evidence, in a DIA report. It told of a deal in 2000 in which Iraq bought 500 tons of uranium concentrate from Niger in central Africa. The information came from Italian intelligence, based on what it said was an official Niger document. Because of Cheney's interest, the CIA dispatched a seasoned Africa hand, ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson, to Niger to check it out. After dozens of interviews, Wilson reported back that the story appeared unfounded. The State Department's intelligence bureau also deemed it implausible. In addition, the text of the supposed Niger document, transcribed for the Americans by the Italians, contained misspellings and mistaken titles for people that should have been easily detectable. It was a forgery. But ``Niger uranium'' had won a place in the case against Iraq. In Iraq itself, the government was far from resurrecting a bomb program: In April 2002 workers in the western desert were busy smelting down the last gear from a long-defunct uranium-enrichment project, U.S. inspectors later learned. Around this time, U.S. satellite reconnaissance was doubled over suspected Iraqi WMD sites, and analysts soon reported stepped-up activity, suggesting renewed production, at possible chemical weapons factories. What they apparently didn't realize, however, was that activity was being photographed more frequently - not that there necessarily was more activity. The White House, meanwhile, worked on a political plan. Leaked British documents show that Prime Minister Tony Blair told Bush at his Texas ranch in April 2002 that London would support military action to oust Saddam. But the British set conditions: Washington should seek re-entry of U.N. inspectors - which Saddam was expected to refuse - and then Security Council authorization for war. Blair's Cabinet fretted. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in the secret minutes of a July 2002 meeting, observed that the case for war was ``thin'' but Bush had made up his mind. Intelligence chief Richard Dearlove, fresh from high-level Washington talks, also told the 10 Downing St. session that war had become inevitable, and U.S. intelligence was being ``fixed'' around this policy. Blair and U.S. officials now deny war was predetermined and intelligence ``fixed'' to that end. From midsummer 2002 on, however, the Bush administration sharply stepped up its anti-Iraq rhetoric, along with U.S. air attacks on Iraqi defenses, done under cover of patrols over the ``no-fly zones,'' swaths of Iraqi airspace denied to Iraqi aircraft. It also stepped up its citing of questionable intelligence. As early as July 29, Rumsfeld spoke publicly of reports of Iraqi bioweapons labs ``on wheels in a trailer'' that can ``make a lot of bad stuff.'' A second Iraqi exile source had echoed Curveball's talk of such trailers. He was judged a fabricator by the CIA in early 2002, but by July his statements were back in classified U.S. reports. As for Curveball, whose veracity was never checked by the DIA, within three months his German handlers would be telling the CIA he was unreliable, a ``waste of time.'' As the summer wore on, Cheney struck an urgent, unequivocal tone in public. ``Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,'' the vice president told veterans assembled at an Opryland hotel in Nashville. In an unusual move, Cheney shuttled to the CIA through mid-2002 to visit analysts - 10 times, according to Patricia Wald, a member of the presidential investigative commission headed by Judge Laurence Silberman and ex-U.S. Sen. Charles Robb. The commission concluded analysts ``worked in an environment that did not encourage skepticism about the conventional wisdom.'' That conventional wisdom took on more urgency on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002, when the lead article in The New York Times, citing unnamed administration officials, said Iraq ``has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb.'' The ``tubes'' story had been resurrected. Condoleezza Rice went on the TV talk circuit that morning saying the tubes were suited only for uranium centrifuges. Four days later in New York, President Bush was at the marble podium of the U.N. General Assembly, demanding the world body take action on Iraq or become ``irrelevant.'' He, too, cited the aluminum tubes - proof of danger. But neither the Times story nor administration officials hinted at the background debate over whether the tubes, in reality, were meant for Huweish's rockets. In fact, a CIA officer had recently suggested obtaining dimensions of an Italian rocket on which the Iraqi design was based, to compare them with the tubes. His idea was rejected. As U.S. officials built up the threat, Saddam handed them a surprise: Iraq would allow Blix's U.N. inspectors back unconditionally. Bush promptly labeled the Sept. 16 announcement a ``ploy.'' But Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, told the General Assembly his country was ``totally clear'' of banned arms. Democratic senators, wary as war momentum built in Washington, demanded a comprehensive intelligence report on Iraq. The CIA and other agencies patched together a classified National Intelligence Estimate, made available to lawmakers in early October. Its unclassified version, a 25-page White Paper, was packed with ``probablys,'' ``mays'' and ``coulds,'' uncertainties that somehow led to certainties: ``Iraq has continued its weapons of mass destruction programs,'' and ``Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons.'' It would eventually emerge that the DIA, a month before the White Paper, had reported there was ``no reliable information'' on Iraqi chemical weapons production, and it didn't know the nature, amounts or condition of any biological weapons. Across the Atlantic, Blair's government issued an assessment like the U.S. estimate, with conclusions unsupported by evidence. ``We were told there was other intelligence that we, the experts, could not see,'' senior British government analyst Brian Jones has since said. It later became clear such intelligence never existed, Jones said. The Australian biologist Barton, a 1990s weapons inspector who by 2002 was a top Blix aide, was amazed at the British report's unexplained claim that Iraq could ``deploy'' chemical or biological weapons ``within 45 minutes'' - a claim picked up by Bush in a radio address. Over an Irish-pub dinner in New York, Barton asked old friend David Kelly, a British bioweapons specialist, how he could have allowed something ``so silly'' in the report. ``He just shook his head and said something like, 'People put in what they want to put in,''' Barton recalled. Months later Kelly would commit suicide, caught in a political furor as a source for news reports that the WMD dossier was ``sexed up.'' The 93-page classified U.S. report had more qualifiers than the White Paper. But Wald says her commission learned that only 17 Congress members read the lengthier estimate. On Oct. 10-11, the two houses voted overwhelmingly to authorize Bush to use military force against Iraq. Then the U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Nov. 8 to send Blix's inspectors to Iraq with expanded powers. It denied Washington ``trigger'' authority, however, to attack if the Americans deemed Iraq in violation of the resolution. Blix knew U.S. leaders were impatient. In his book on the crisis, he writes that he met with Cheney at the White House and was told inspections could not go on forever, and Washington ``was ready to discredit inspections in favor of disarmament'' - that is, forcible disarmament. On Nov. 27, 2002, the U.N. teams returned to Iraq. Springing surprise inspections across the countryside, the experts soon were debunking U.S. claims. At the Fallujah II chemical plant, for example, caught in a satellite's camera lens in the October U.S. estimate, they found the production line long broken-down. By December, Saddam was informing senior generals in secret meetings that Iraq truly had no chemical or biological arms, U.S. investigators later learned. Baghdad's troops would have to fight without them. Back in Washington, WMD ``indicators'' were being further undercut. ``The Administration will ultimately look foolish - i.e. the tubes and Niger!'' an Energy Department analyst told a colleague in an e-mail later uncovered by Senate Intelligence Committee investigators. Preparing for Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, and sensing the weakness, Rice's national security staff asked the CIA for more. It responded with the report of a Niger uranium sale. That story had grown still more dubious since Wilson's Niger visit 11 months earlier. In October 2002, the State Department had obtained a copy of the original ``Niger document.'' Its analysts told sister agencies they suspected forgery, and in mid-January alerted all that it ``probably is a hoax.'' In October, too, Tenet had warned Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, against using the alleged uranium sale in a Bush speech. This time, however, Hadley accepted the uranium nugget - though attributed to the British - to bolster the State of the Union speech. The tubes story also had slipped deeper into murkiness. State Department intelligence was siding with Energy in viewing them as likely rocket casings. The CIA arranged for centrifuge-like testing of the tubes in January, and they seemed to fail, only to supposedly pass after a ``correction'' was made. On Jan. 28, 2003, with the world listening, Bush delivered his annual address. ``The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,'' he said. ``Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.'' The U.S. chief executive also claimed Iraq had mobile bioweapons labs, but this story of Curveball's would fall further apart in the coming days. On Feb. 3, 2003, word went up the CIA ladder that this Iraqi informant's German handlers ``cannot vouch for the validity of the information.'' The next day, Senate investigators found, a CIA superior e-mailed a worried analyst that ``this war's going to happen regardless of what Curve Ball said or didn't say.'' The timing was critical - the eve of a pivotal presentation by Colin Powell. That next morning, at the U.N. Security Council's horseshoe table, with CIA chief Tenet behind him, the secretary of state delivered an 80-minute indictment of Iraq, complete with aluminum tubes, up to ``500 tons of chemical weapons agent,'' and artist's conceptions of Curveball's questionable ``mobile labs.'' Powell's sources went unidentified, tapes of intercepted conversation were cryptic, claims made about satellite photos were uncorroborated. It turned out the State Department's own analysts had warned, futilely, against saying vehicles in spy photos were chemical ``decontamination trucks,'' since they might be simple water trucks. And a senior CIA officer has told investigators he raised the Curveball concerns with Tenet the night before the speech, something Tenet denies. After watching the performance on CNN in Baghdad, Amer al-Saadi, Iraqi liaison for the inspections, lamented that ``the fiction goes on. It goes on and on.'' But Powell's sober authority worked in America, where support for action soared. On the ground in Iraq, meanwhile, Blix's inspectors grew frustrated at the Iraqis' failure to explain leftover discrepancies from the 1990s. The chief inspector emphasized, however, that ``unaccounted for'' didn't necessarily mean weapons existed. In one example, former Iraqi bioweapons specialists would eventually tell U.S. arms hunters that they never documented destruction of one batch of their anthrax in 1991 because it was dumped near a Saddam palace. They feared the dictator's wrath. By January 2003, the experts from Blix's U.N. commission and Mohamed ElBaradei's IAEA had inspected 13 major ``facilities of concern'' from the previous fall's U.S. and British reports, and found no signs of weapons-making. The IAEA publicly exposed the Niger document as a forgery, and found the aluminum tubes poor candidates for centrifuges. Checking supposed sites for manufacturing mobile labs, Blix's teams debunked Curveball's tale at the Iraq end. Washington was unmoved. Administration loyalists dismissed the ``so-called inspections.'' In late February 2003, a Powell aide sternly told Blix nothing would suffice short of Iraq's unveiling its ``secret hide sites.'' Most significantly, Bush ordered no reassessment of his government's collapsing claims. Blix told the Security Council he could complete the work within months. The White House wasn't interested. ``More time, more inspectors, more process, in our judgment, is not going to affect the peace of the world,'' Bush said on March 6, as the Pentagon counted down toward war. Cheney at one point even told a TV audience - without challenge from the host - that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons. Of ElBaradei, whose IAEA refuted the claims about uranium and tubes, Cheney said, ``I think Mr. ElBaradei, frankly, is wrong.'' But the CIA had already accepted ElBaradei's judgment on the Niger uranium document. On March 17, in New York, U.S. diplomats gave up trying to win Security Council backing for war. That evening, on television, Bush told the American people there was ``no doubt'' Iraq had ``some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.'' The bombing began two days later, and as U.S. troops swept up the Tigris and Euphrates plain to easy victory, they searched for WMD. ``We know where they are,'' Rumsfeld claimed on March 30. But despite a flurry of false ``finds'' by eager troops, they weren't there. Finally, on April 19, U.S. weapons hunters celebrated: An equipment-packed truck trailer had been seized in northern Iraq. Just before the war, al-Kindi company technicians had tested the unit and it worked, its tubes spewing hydrogen for weather balloons. They could deliver on the 2001 contract. To empty-handed U.S. analysts, however, the vehicle and a second trailer looked like the artist's conception of Curveball's mobile labs, ready to concoct killer germs. The White House embraced this illusion. ``We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories,'' President Bush assured Polish television on May 29. By then, however, experts had tested a trailer and found no trace of pathogens or toxins. ``They have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on April 10. But soon the Washington line shifted to claims Iraq had not weapons, but WMD ``programs'' - also untrue, inspectors later certified. Then the war was framed as one to democratize Iraq. Through 2003, Iraqis watched their land slip into a chaos of looting, terror bombings and anti-American insurgency. ``A country was destroyed because of weapons that don't exist!'' Baghdad University's president, Nihad Mohammed al-Rawi, despaired to an AP reporter. Month by month, David Kay and his 1,500-member Iraq Survey Group labored over documents, visited sites, interrogated detained scientists and came to recognize reality. But when he wanted to report it, Kay ran into roadblocks in Washington. ``There was an absolutely closed mind,'' Kay tells AP. ``They would not look at alternative explanations in these cases,'' specifically the aluminum tubes and bioweapons trailers. In December 2003, Kay flew back to Washington and met with Tenet and CIA deputy John McLaughlin. ``I couldn't budge John, and so I couldn't budge George,'' he says. Kay resigned, telling the U.S. Congress there had been no WMD threat. Ex-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, speaking for Tenet, points out that Kay himself, in Senate testimony at the time, said the tubes remained an ``open question,'' although it was ``more than probable'' they were rocket casings. The Bush administration then sent Charles Duelfer - like Kay a senior U.N. inspector from the 1990s - to take over the arms hunt. He arrived in time for Tenet's secret visit and palace pep talk on Feb. 12, 2004, but, like Kay before him, Duelfer could find no sign of WMD. Still, the pressure continued. Barton, recruited as a Duelfer adviser, told AP the American chief inspector received an e-mail that March from John Scarlett, head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, urging that nine ``nuggets,'' past allegations, be dropped back into an interim report by Duelfer's group. Those ``sexy bits,'' as the Australian called them, are believed to have included, for example, baseless speculation that Iraq worked to weaponize smallpox. Duelfer called the nuggets ``fool's gold,'' Barton says, and left them out. Asked about this, the British Foreign Office said Scarlett contacted Iraq Survey Group leaders as part of his job, but that the report's content was Duelfer's responsibility alone. Barton said CIA officers in the Iraq Survey Group insisted that its reporting should not discredit the mobile-labs story ``because that contradicts what Tenet has said.'' They also wanted the report to suggest the tubes might have been for centrifuges, although Duelfer's experts concluded otherwise. Duelfer's interim testimony to Congress in March 2004 said nothing about mobile labs and said the tubes remained under study. As late as Sept. 30 last year, in an election debate, Bush stuck to his views. ``Saddam Hussein had no intention of disarming,'' Bush maintained. A week before, Duelfer had conveyed his 1,000-page final report to the CIA, saying Saddam had disarmed 13 years earlier. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited IAEA: Iran Has Tons of Gas for Weapon From the Associated Press [UP] Saturday September 3, 2005 12:31 AM By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has pumped out about seven tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment since it restarted the process last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Friday. A former U.N. nuclear inspector said that would be enough for an atomic weapon. In unusually strong language, an IAEA report also said despite its investigation, questions remain about key aspects of Iran's 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity and that it still was unable ``to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran.'' ``Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue,'' said the confidential document obtained by The Associated Press. The document listed perceived Iranian failings and called for ``access to individuals, documentation related to procurement ... certain military-owned workshops and research and development locations.'' Among the unanswered questions, according to the report, were gaps in the documented development of Iran's centrifuge program used in uranium enrichment - and in what was received, and when, from the black market network headed by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. Overall, the report confirmed recent revelations that most of the traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market - even though the report said it was not possible to determine the origins of other traces enriched to less than weapons grade. That finding hurts U.S. arguments that the traces were likely the result of enrichment done in Iran, as part of a secret program to make nuclear weapons. Iranian state television quoted Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani as saying the conclusion showed that the country's nuclear program is ``completely peaceful and has never been diverted to illegal activities.'' But the key issue in the report was uranium conversion - changing raw uranium into gas that then is spun by centrifuges into enriched uranium. The report, prepared by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, said Iran had produced about 15,000 pounds of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feed stock that is spun by centrifuge into enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, that substance can be used either as a source of power or as the core of nuclear weapons. But David Albright, a former IAEA nuclear inspector, said that were Tehran to use the material for weapons purposes, it would be enough for one atomic bomb. The Iranian state television report did not quote or acknowledge the IAEA statements faulting Iran for a lack of transparency, but the newscaster quoted Larijani as saying some comments by ElBaradei were ``non-legal'' and were ``made to lead to further bargaining'' or ``made under U.S. pressure.'' The newscaster did not say which remarks Larijani was referring to. But ``Iran will confine its cooperation with the IAEA to IAEA regulations and to defined international agreements,'' the newscaster quoted Larijani as saying. After Iran resumed conversion last month, key European nations set a Sept. 3 deadline for Tehran to reimpose its freeze of the process or face the threat of referral to the U.N. Security Council - a warning most recently repeated last week by French President Jacques Chirac. The 35-nation IAEA board meets Sept. 19 on Iran and will debate options that could include a U.S.-EU push for Security Council referral. The Security Council, in turn, could impose sanctions - although members China and Russia are believed to oppose them. At a minimum, the issue would receive world attention if debated by the U.N.'s top body. The document, prepared for that board meeting, did not report on Iran's conversion activities past the end of August, the time of the date of the last visit by IAEA inspectors to the central city of Isfahan, where the activities are taking place. But with no word from Iran that it would cease conversion before the deadline Saturday, there was little hope that Tehran was interested in deflecting the threat. The report said Iran has informed the IAEA that it would move its raw uranium feedstock into tunnels at the facility at Isfahan, which diplomats familiar with Iran's nuclear program say have been hardened against ``bunker buster'' bombs. Tehran last month rejected economic and other incentives offered by Britain, France and Germany - negotiating on behalf of the EU - and resumed conversion, a prelude to enrichment. Iran argues that it has a right to enrichment for peaceful purposes. The Europeans say Tehran broke its word by unilaterally resuming conversion while still negotiating with the Europeans on ways to reduce international suspicions about its nuclear agenda. --- On the Net: www.iaea.org Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 BBC: India embarks on Iran diplomacy Last Updated: Friday, 2 September 2005 By Sanjeev Srivastava BBC News, Delhi [Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (l) and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh] Iran may see India as a go-between The Indian Foreign Minister, Natwar Singh, was beginning a three-day visit to Iran on Friday. The visit marks India's first high-level political exchange with the new government in Tehran. The two sides are likely to discuss a proposed $7.4bn (Ł4bn) joint gas pipeline programme, as well as Tehran's controversial nuclear programme. These talks follow the visit of Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to Delhi earlier this week. Iran is an old friend of India. Natwar Singh's visit is largely aimed at reiterating that relationship at a time when Tehran finds itself increasingly isolated due to its controversial nuclear programme. 'Delicate balancing act The two sides will discuss the ambitious gas pipeline project and the possibility of increasing co-operation in areas like science and technology. [Isfahan plant] Iran resumed uranium conversion despite international pressure They may also discuss ways of boosting trade between India and Russia and central Asia through Afghanistan. But there is, perhaps, also a more strategic edge to this visit. Indian diplomats are not willing to say anything on the record but some foreign affairs analysts believe that Iran wants Delhi to play the role of an intermediary and to convey Tehran's point of view to the West, particularly the US. It's a theory which has gained more acceptability after Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, visited Delhi earlier this week. Whether or not India plays the role of a mediator, or even a messenger, there's a realisation in Delhi that it's playing a delicate balancing act. It's not easy to maintain a longstanding relationship with Iran, while also moving closer to Washington. But Indian diplomats see no contradiction in their efforts to be friendly with both Tehran and Washington. Some of them even believe that such a relationship may eventually benefit all three countries. ***************************************************************** 4 BBC: Iran nuclear questions 'remain' Last Updated: Friday, 2 September 2005 [Two technicians carry a box containing yellowcake at the Iranian nuclear facility at Isfahan] The EU and the US have hardened their stance against Tehran The United Nations atomic agency says questions about Iran's nuclear programme remain unanswered, despite an intensive investigation. In a key report, the IAEA urges Iran to clear up outstanding issues, saying Iran's full transparency was "overdue". Tehran said the findings were politically motivated but that it would continue to co-operate with the agency. The US has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its programme is for peaceful purposes. Iran resumed uranium conversion activities at its Isfahan plant last month after a 10-month suspension. 'Intensive inspections' The report, written by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, says about four tons of yellowcake - uranium ore - had been fed into the conversion process at Isfahan. The agency is not yet in position to clarify some of the important outstanding issues [ src=] Mohamed ElBaradei IAEA chief However, the report said Iran has not engaged in uranium enrichment, which if processed to a high grade, can be used in nuclear weapons. But the IAEA was concerned that after two and a half years of "intensive inspections" questions remained about Iran's nuclear programme. The report said the agency was "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran". It said Iran's full transparency was "indispensable and overdue". Outstanding issues included traces of enriched uranium contamination found at various locations in Iran and its research into advanced centrifuge technology. 'UN referral' Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said many of the questions raised in the report have already been answered. "There are some minor questions remaining and our co-operation with the agency will continue in order to answer those questions," he told Iran state TV said. The EU has indicated it is ready to take steps towards referring Iran to the UN Security Council if the suspension was not resumed. Tehran resumed its nuclear fuel work after rejecting incentives tabled by the UK, France and Germany aimed at persuading it to abandon nuclear fuel production. ***************************************************************** 5 Xinhua: EU: Iran must return to nuclear talks www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-02 09:39:09 LONDON, Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) said on Thursday that they will refer Iran to the UN Security Council unless Iran returns to talks on its nuclear program, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. At an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Newport, Wales, the EU trio of Britain, France and Germany deplored the recent collapse of negotiations with Tehran and said UN intervention could well become the only option if Iran did not return to talks. EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Iran should not underestimate European resolve, according to the BBC report. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to report on Saturday on Iran's nuclear activities, following its decision to resume nuclear enrichment last month. Iran denies US claims that it seeks nuclear arms, saying its purposes are peaceful. However, referral to the UN Security Council could eventually lead to sanctions against Iran, BBC said. Negotiators from France, Britain and Germany suspended talks with Tehran after it resumed uranium conversion, but have said thedoor remains open for a return to negotiations. Ferrero-Waldner said this invitation to negotiate the issue should not be seen as a sign of weakness. "The Iranians should not make the mistake of underestimating the strength of us in Europe," she told reporters. "Nobody wants to go to the Security Council but it might becomeunavoidable if they don't cooperate," she said. However, speaking after the first day of meetings, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the EU would deal with matters "one step at a time." The EU will wait for Saturday's IAEA report before deciding whether to go to the Security Council, he said. By resuming its nuclear work, Tehran turned down an offer of economic incentives by France, Britain and Germany. Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said last week that Tehranwould come up with new proposals for talks with the EU within a month. The EU foreign ministers are gathering for a two-day informal meeting on Thursday and Friday. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 FT.com: Nuclear watchdog condemns Iran failures By Roula Khalaf and Christopher Adams in London and Daniel Dombey in Newport Published: September 2 2005 20:05 | Last updated: September 2 2005 20:05 [Iran's nuclear aspirations] The UN's nuclear watchdog on Friday strongly criticised the pace of Iranian co-operation on its controversial nuclear programme, but its much-awaited report provided no new dramatic revelations. The assessment of Iran's nuclear activities, distributed on Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the 35 nations on its governing board, gave some ammunition to both supporters and opponents of a referral of the case to the UN Security Council for a reprimand, the first step toward possible sanctions. Since last month's collapse of talks between Iran and the EU3 - the UK, France and Germany - European governments have joined the US in a diplomatic drive to send the Iran dispute to the Security Council. But they face resistance from Russia and China, which favour a more lenient policy towards Tehran. Friday's IAEA report, obtained by the Financial Times, said Iran had produced tons of the gas used in uranium enrichment after resuming work at a conversion plant in Isfahan. Iran had announced its intention to restart the plant, a move that breached an understanding European governments had reached with Tehran last year. The report also reiterated a long list of past Iranian failures to report the processing and use of nuclear material. It detailed important outstanding issues that Iran had yet to convincingly answer, including gaps in the development of its centrifuges, used in enriching uranium. "Iran's policy of concealment continued until October 2003 and resulted in many breaches of its obligation to comply" with its agreement under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, said the report. Although Iran had made "good progress" in correcting the breaches, the report underlined the exasperation of the agency with the general pace of Iranian co-operation. "In view of the fact that the agency was not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after two and half years of intensive inspections and investigations, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue." In a more positive note for Tehran, the IAEA said preliminary findings revealed that traces of weapons-grade uranium found on Iranian centrifuges came from Pakistan, not Iran. The results undermined American claims that Iran was producing highly-enriched uranium to make weapons. Though the report provided no smoking gun that proves Iran is building atomic bombs, it said the IAEA was not in a position "to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran". European diplomats said on Friday they would consider Iran's cover-up of many aspects of its nuclear work as a basis for a referral to the UN. © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. ***************************************************************** 7 Telegraph: Iran clings to atomic secrets, says UN report Saturday 3 September 2005 telegraph.co.uk By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 03/09/2005) Iran has failed fully to reveal its secret nuclear programme and has produced tons of chemicals for uranium enrichment in defiance of international demands, the United Nations atomic watchdog said yesterday in a report that could provoke political and economic sanctions. The document issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency said inspectors had been unable to resolve key questions about whether Iran was seeking nuclear weapons. Mohammed ElBaradei: 'Transparency is overdue' Mohammed ElBaradei, its director general, wrote that since the IAEA "is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after two and a half years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue". Moreover, he said the IAEA was "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran". In other words, inspectors could not say whether Iran's programme was entirely peaceful, as Teheran claims, or an attempt to build an atomic bomb, as America and many in Europe suspect. Mr ElBaradei's comments will form the basis of a diplomatic battle later this month, when the US and key European countries try to convince the IAEA's governing board to refer Teheran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions. However western diplomats said Iran still had considerable support from developing countries on the IAEA board, and there is no assurance that the Security Council would agree to impose sanctions. Teheran earlier this summer reneged on an agreement with Britain, France and Germany to freeze the most sensitive parts of its nuclear programme. It restarted its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, where uranium ore is turned into uranium hexafluoride, a key step in the process of making enriched uranium. Iran factfile] The IAEA report said Iran had made several tons of the gas, despite an IAEA resolution calling on it to resume the suspension. However Iran has so far stopped short of feeding the gas into special centrifuges that extract the fissile material. Iran says it has a right to make low enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, but the West fears the process would give it a short cut to highly enriched uranium for nuclear bombs. The IAEA report said there were open questions about Iran's work with plutonium, another possible material for nuclear bombs. 24 August 2005: Uranium checks 'will back Iran's nuclear arguments' 9 August 2005: Iran condemned over nuclear move 7 August 2005: EU won't intimidate us over uranium, says Iranian leader © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms &Conditions ***************************************************************** 8 Reuters: Iran says will continue to cooperate with IAEA Fri Sep 2, 2005 1:37 PM ET TEHRAN, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Friday an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran's atomic programme contained some negative points but Tehran would continue to cooperate with the agency. "This report has both positive and negative points," Ali Larijani told state television. "Because of Iran's close cooperation with the agency ... fortunately many of the questions have been answered from a legal and technical point of view." "There are some minor questions remaining and our cooperation with the agency will continue in order to answer those questions," he added. Larijani said some elements of the report were there because of pressure exerted by the United States and its allies. Washington accuses Iran of trying to develop a covert nuclear weapons programme. Tehran says its atomic facilities will be used only for peaceful purposes. "Demanding things beyond their (the IAEA's) legal authority and the safeguards ... are merely political tendencies and Iran will not pay attention or deem them important at all," said Larijani, apparently referring to references in the report to the resumption of uranium conversion at Iran's Isfahan plant last month. EU officials have said they will try to send Iran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council for punitive action if it does not halt work at Isfahan. But Tehran says it has every right to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that its previous suspension of uranium conversion was entirely voluntary. "We will cooperate with the agency in the framework of its regulations and no more," Larijani said. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Reuters: WRAPUP 1-UN says Iran resumed atomic work, sets up EU clash Fri Sep 2, 2005 3:42 PM ET By Louis Charbonneau and Francois Murphy VIENNA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday questions remained about Iran's atomic programme and confirmed Tehran had resumed activities suspended under a deal with the European Union. It sets the stage for Iran's possible referral to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions. The confidential report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained by Reuters, said the agency was "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran". The report, penned by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, said: "In view of the fact that the agency is not yet in a position to clarify some of the important outstanding issues after 2-1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue." Iran, which denies wanting nuclear weapons as suspected by Washington and the European Union, says it has answered almost all of the IAEA's questions and shown its atomic ambitions are limited to harnessing nuclear power to generate electricity. But it angered the EU by resuming uranium processing work last month at a plant in Isfahan -- a move which brought talks between Iran and the EU close to collapse and led EU officials to threaten the Security Council referral. The report said that since resuming work at Isfahan, Iran had produced 6.8 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride gas, the form of uranium fed into centrifuges to enrich uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb if was purified into highly enriched form. And it said Iran had fed 4 tonnes of raw uranium into the plant to prepare for enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel in atomic power plants or bombs. "The whole (Isfahan plant) is operating," a senior official close to the IAEA said about the agency's findings. SECURITY COUNCIL REFERRAL? Confirmation that Iran refused to resume the suspension, which was the cornerstone of a deal in November with France, Britain and Germany, will likely prompt the EU to join Washington in pushing for Iran's case to be referred to the Security Council for punitive action, EU diplomats said. "There's nothing in this report that's likely to alter the European view that a report to the Security Council will be necessary unless Iran re-suspends all activities at Isfahan," a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity. After two years of negotiations, the EU trio last month offered Iran economic and political incentives if Tehran gave up all work related to the production of nuclear fuel. Iran rejected the offer and restarted Isfahan. The IAEA board of governors demanded Iran resumed the suspension and asked ElBaradei to report on Tehran's compliance by Sept. 3. The board meets again on Sept. 19 to discuss how to respond to ElBaradei's report. The report also says Iran needed to go beyond its legal obligations and give the IAEA access to all documents, individuals and sites relevant to its nuclear programme, which Washington says is aimed at developing atomic weapons. "Two and a half years have passed and patience is wearing thin," the senior official close to the IAEA said. IRAN: IAEA REPORT "POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE" Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told state television the report had "positive and negative points". "Because of Iran's close cooperation with the agency ... fortunately many of the questions have been answered from a legal and technical point of view," he said. "There are some minor questions remaining and our cooperation with the agency will continue in order to answer those questions," he said, adding that the harsher comments were the result of U.S. pressure on the IAEA. The IAEA report said it appeared very likely that Iran's explanation for traces of highly enriched uranium particles found in the country were from centrifuges shipped from Pakistan rather than the result of development work done by Iran. However, it also said there were still some particles whose origin had not been accounted for. The report said the agency still had questions about Iran's contacts with a clandestine network linked to Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atom bomb programme. The senior official said the agency suspected Iran had not handed over all documents related to an offer the network made Iran in 1987 -- at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. Other areas where the IAEA probe continues are Iran's experiments with plutonium, which can also be used to fuel bombs, work with uranium enrichment centrifuges and the possibility of undeclared enrichment at a site called Lavizan. The agency also said Iran has not permitted a follow-up visit to a military site called Parchin where Washington suspects Tehran experimented with explosives useable in atom bombs, a request the IAEA first made over half a year ago. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Reuters: EU to push for Iran UN nuclear referral if needed Fri Sep 2, 2005 2:49 AM ET By Katherine Baldwin NEWPORT (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Thursday to press for Iran to be referred to the United Nations Security Council if the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirms Tehran has resumed suspect nuclear activities. Referral to the U.N. body could eventually lead to sanctions and would end years of negotiations by the EU to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear programme the West fears is a cover for developing an atomic bomb. But EU foreign ministers said they would wait for a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran's nuclear programme and consult other IAEA board members before taking action and they stopped short of setting a deadline. EU diplomats say the IAEA will confirm on Saturday that Iran has restarted uranium processing at a plant at Isfahan. "Unless suspension was reinstated there would have to be a response, for example a report of the IAEA's wider concerns about Iran's nuclear programme to the U.N. Security Council," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who is chairing a meeting of his EU counterparts in Newport, Wales. Tehran suspended nuclear work at Isfahan in November 2004 under an agreement with Britain, France and Germany but resumed uranium conversion last month -- a preliminary stage towards making enriched fuel for nuclear reactors or to make weapons. The EU, the United States and their allies hope the IAEA board will unanimously adopt a resolution that sends the issue to the Security Council, diplomats say. "All the EU countries that are IAEA board members spoke in favour of referral," a European diplomat said after talks at Newport. But asked if a September 19 IAEA board meeting was the deadline for Iran, Straw said: "We're not making decisions today about whether we put forward to that meeting that there should be referral to the Security Council." "We want to wait and see what (IAEA director general) Dr. (Mohamed) ElBaradei says ... and also consult with international partners, so we take it one step at a time," he added. DOOR STILL OPEN Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said the important thing was for the Security Council to throw its weight behind the IAEA's demands. "We don't think now is the time to discuss sanctions," she told reporters. EU officials said the bloc was still willing to negotiate but Tehran must agree to replace broken seals at Isfahan. "We are not closing the door. Iran can come back within the 2004 negotiations framework," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said, adding the Iranians were isolating themselves by their decision to resume uranium conversion at Isfahan. The EU trio has tried for two years to persuade Iran to give up uranium enrichment to assure the world it is not pursuing atomic weapons. In exchange, the EU offered economic and political incentives that Tehran rejected as inadequate. The IAEA has been investigating Iran's long-concealed nuclear programme for almost three years. It has found no hard evidence to back U.S. allegations that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons, but is not convinced Iran's atomic ambitions are peaceful. A European diplomat told Reuters the IAEA report would not have a harsh tone but was expected to confirm that Iran had ended part of the suspension. The spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Aghamohammadi, reiterated on Thursday that Tehran would never give up its atomic programme. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Mehr News: U.S.-UK attempt to link Iran to nuclear smuggling network MehrNews.com - Iran, world, political, sport, economic news and TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (MNA) – U.S. and British diplomats in Vienna are pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohammad ElBaradei to alter several articles of his draft report on Iran’s nuclear issue expected to be released today, an informed source announced on Friday. The U.S. and Britain, in a new move, are trying to keep Iran’s nuclear dossier open by repeating some old ambiguities and linking Iran to a nuclear smuggling network, the Vienna-based diplomat told the Mehr News Agency. He added that in his recent report, the draft of which was presented to certain countries including the U.S. and Britain over the past two days, ElBaradei had stressed the necessity for the continuation of transparent cooperation between Iran and the IAEA. “The report also mentioned that the previous ambiguity on the origin of highly-enriched uranium contamination in Iran had been totally resolved. “But the U.S. and Britain have even asked the agency to submit a report to the UN on Iran’s disobedience of the IAEA Board of Governors’ recent emergency resolution.” The diplomat said such measures are natural since European Union has failed to play a constructive role in its nuclear negotiations with Iran. “In an attempt to conceal this failure and to negatively influence Iran’s firm decision in resuming the activities in the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, Washington and London have illegally prepared a new scenario accusing Iran of having links with the nuclear smuggling network although they are sure third countries particularly Pakistan will not welcome such an issue and adopt an inactive approach toward the whole case.” The source noted that Tehran should take a vigilant diplomatic approach toward this “baseless” and “politicized” scheme. He added that the United States has clearly asked ElBaradei to repeat in his new report the first article of the agency’s November resolution which says Iran has failed to adequately inform the IAEA about its nuclear activities for 18 years. The main points in ElBaradei’s report will probably include a final explanation on the issue of LEU and HEU contamination, the issue of polonium and the P2 centrifuges, the source announced. “The IAEA has proved that the contaminated particles had a foreign origin, thus confirming Iran’s previous remarks, so the most outstanding issue in Iran’s nuclear issue has been resolved. “However, the fact that ElBaradei has brought up previously resolved issues such as the issue of polonium and the issue of centrifuges shows that he is only seeking a pretext to leave the Iran dossier open.” The source noted that since the recent IAEA resolution had stressed that the suspension of the Isfahan UCF was a voluntary act by Iran, the agency could not technically or legally mention Iran’s measure in reopening the plant as a breach or violation of the IAEA regulations. “However, it seems ElBaradei will report, under U.S. pressure, that Iran did not heed the request by the IAEA board.” The source went on to say that the fact ElBaradei has presented a draft of his report to a group of countries clearly shows how the IAEA reports undergo changes when political interests are involved as well as indicating ElBaradei’s distrust of the findings of the IAEA inspections. HL/MS End MNA © 2003 Mehr News Agency ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited U.N.: Iran Has Tone of Gas for Nuke Bomb From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 2, 2005 7:01 PM By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has produced nearly seven tons of the gas used in uranium enrichment since last month, a U.N. report said Friday. Experts said that amount was enough to produce a nuclear bomb. In unusually strong language, the report also said questions remain about key aspects of 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity on Iran's part despite more than two years of investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency. ``The agency is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after 2 years of intensive inspections and investigation,'' according to the confidential document, which was seen by The Associated Press. ``Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue.'' The report, prepared by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, came on the eve of an informal deadline for Iran to cease conversion activities at a nuclear facility in central Iran. It said Iran had produced about 15,000 pounds of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feed stock that is spun by centrifuge into enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, that substance can be used either as a source of power or as the core of nuclear weapons. The document did not make a finding on whether Iran was pursuing such a weapon, and Tehran insists its intentions are only to generate nuclear power. But former IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright said that - were Tehran to use the material for weapons purposes - it would be enough for one atomic bomb. The United States says Iran is interested in enrichment as part of a secret weapons program. Among the unanswered questions, according to the report, were gaps in the documented development of Iran's centrifuge program used in uranium enrichment and in what was received, and when, from the black market network headed by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. Overall, the report confirmed earlier recent revelations that most of the traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported to Iran on equipment from Pakistan that it bought on the black market - even though it said that ``it is still not possible at this time to establish a definite conclusion,'' particularly about the origins of other traces enriched to less than weapons grade. That finding hurts U.S. arguments that the traces were likely the result of enrichment done in Iran, as part of attempts to make weapons-grade uranium. But the key issue was uranium conversion - changing raw uranium into gas that then is spun by centrifuges into enriched uranium. After Iran resumed conversion last month at Isfahan, key European nations set a deadline that would expire Saturday for Tehran to reimpose its freeze of the process or face the threat of referral to the U.N. Security Council - a warning most recently repeated last week by French President Jacques Chirac. Iran argues it has a right to enrichment for peaceful purposes and has given no indication it would cease conversion before the deadline. The 35-nation IAEA board meets Sept. 19 on Iran and debates options that could include a U.S.-EU push to refer the issue to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions. The confidential document, prepared for that board meeting, did not report on Iran's conversion activities past the end of August, the time of the date of the last visit by IAEA inspectors to Isfahan. --- On the Net: http://www.iaea.org Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 13 Xinhua: EU: Iran must return to nuclear talks www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-02 09:39:09 LONDON, Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) said on Thursday that they will refer Iran to the UN Security Council unless Iran returns to talks on its nuclear program, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. At an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Newport, Wales, the EU trio of Britain, France and Germany deplored the recent collapse of negotiations with Tehran and said UN intervention could well become the only option if Iran did not return to talks. EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Iran should not underestimate European resolve, according to the BBC report. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to report on Saturday on Iran's nuclear activities, following its decision to resume nuclear enrichment last month. Iran denies US claims that it seeks nuclear arms, saying its purposes are peaceful. However, referral to the UN Security Council could eventually lead to sanctions against Iran, BBC said. Negotiators from France, Britain and Germany suspended talks with Tehran after it resumed uranium conversion, but have said thedoor remains open for a return to negotiations. Ferrero-Waldner said this invitation to negotiate the issue should not be seen as a sign of weakness. "The Iranians should not make the mistake of underestimating the strength of us in Europe," she told reporters. "Nobody wants to go to the Security Council but it might becomeunavoidable if they don't cooperate," she said. However, speaking after the first day of meetings, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the EU would deal with matters "one step at a time." The EU will wait for Saturday's IAEA report before deciding whether to go to the Security Council, he said. By resuming its nuclear work, Tehran turned down an offer of economic incentives by France, Britain and Germany. Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said last week that Tehranwould come up with new proposals for talks with the EU within a month. The EU foreign ministers are gathering for a two-day informal meeting on Thursday and Friday. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: 6-Way Talks Shouldn't be Overshadowed by One Issue - Ban Updated Sep.2,2005 14:25 KST Ahead of the six-party nuclear talks set to resume in the week of September 12, the South Korean foreign minister spoke to members of the diplomatic corps in Seoul, stressing that North Korea should dismantle its existing atomic programs before discussing its peaceful use of nuclear energy. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon says the issue of North Korea's peaceful use of nuclear energy was one of the key issues during the first session of the fourth round of talks and will continue to be once the talks resume. But he stresses this is not the only agenda on the table. "We came to a common understanding that the scope of nuclear dismantlement and the peaceful use of nuclear energy should not overshadow the talks, as if they were the only remaining problems. In fact, we have other important differences to address, bearing in mind the principle that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed'." Ban said. While meeting with some 70 members of the diplomatic corps in South Korea in a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of a Korean journal "Diplomacy," Minister Ban said Pyongyang's civilian nuclear program is closely related to the scope of its nuclear dismantlement. "With regard to the scope of the dismantlement, North Korea should accept the elimination of all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs." Minister Ban said all five countries would like to see North Korea dismantle all of its nuclear programs. And if this happens, North Korea could receive economic, energy assistance as well as security guarantees and possibly operate a civilian nuclear facility. He said during the second session of the talks, Seoul will exert maximum efforts to achieve tangible results, like a joint document, by encouraging other parties to address Pyongyang's concerns and offer incentives. Arirang News ***************************************************************** 15 RIA Novosti: Russia approves date for resuming North Korean nuclear talks 02/ 09/ 2005 BEIJING, September 2 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Yefimov) - Russia approves of North Korea's proposal to resume six-party talks over the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula in mid-September, a Russian Embassy spokesman in China said Friday. On August 29, a representative of the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that Pyongyang was ready to resume the talks, which involve North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan, during the week beginning September 12. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has also agreed to this date. The fourth round of talks, which started on July 26, was suspended on August 7. © 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 16 RIA Novosti: Peaceful nuclear development is main focus of North Korean nuclear talks 02/ 09/ 2005 MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - The six-party North Korean nuclear talks to resume in mid-September hope to secure an agreement on the main issue - North Korea's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, a diplomatic official said in Moscow Friday. He added that if no agreement were reached on this sticking point, the prospects for further talks would be fairly vague. So far, there is no sign that the Untied States has changed its position and agreed to Pyongyang's demand to leave its civil nuclear program alone. The official said the draft document that outlines general principles to solving the nuclear problem was 95% ready. "The main objective for us is to come to an understanding on the main point - the peaceful nuclear program of North Korea," the official said. According to the official, Russia did not want the document to include excessive details. It is essential to coordinate the fundamental principles, and then experts will work on the specifics later. For example, the parties have agreed on mutual inspections in both Koreas. "It will be up to the experts to discuss how the inspections will be conducted and who will be in charge," the official said. © 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 17 Asia Times: Roadmap to a nuclear test Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang News By Jephraim P Gundzik The first three rounds of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs showcased the absence of diplomacy inherent to US foreign policy. Rather than isolating the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) as the Bush administration had hoped, the fourth round of six-party talks has isolated the US. Washington's isolation and the Bush administration's inability to grasp diplomacy strongly indicate that the fourth round of six-party talks, which are scheduled to resume this month, will fail to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, paving the way for an escalation in the nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang. Undiplomatic history of the six-party talks The six-party talks, which include the DPRK, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the US, Japan, Russia and China, were initiated in August 2003. From the outset, the Bush administration aimed to use this forum as a means to coordinate international pressure on Pyongyang, forcing it to discard its nuclear programs. Rather than offering the DPRK anything of substance in return for what was termed complete, verifiable, irreversible, dismantlement (CVID) of its nuclear programs, Washington made vague offers of security guarantees and the provision of food and power. These ill-defined commitments would be available only after CVID was established. The absence of diplomacy inherent to Washington's non-negotiable posture was furthered by the Bush administration's refusal to hold direct bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang. Bilateral negotiations would reduce or eliminate international pressure on the DPRK - pressure crucial to Washington's plan of diplomatically isolating Pyongyang. Naturally, Pyongyang balked at the Bush administration's obstinateness. The first two rounds of the six-party talks, held in August 2003 and February 2004, ended acrimoniously with Pyongyang and Washington hurling insults at one another. In the third round of six-party talks, held in June 2004, Washington, under pressure from Moscow, Beijing and Seoul, unveiled a new proposal to Pyongyang. This proposal required the DPRK to completely disclose its plutonium producing and uranium enrichment capabilities as well as an inventory of all nuclear materials, weapons and production equipment. After verification of the disclosure, the destruction of all these items was to start within three months. Pyongyang would begin to receive shipments of heavy fuel oil following its agreement to Washington's proposal. After verification of its nuclear disclosure, multilateral security assurances would be provided as would a study of the DPRK's energy needs. Discussions on normalization of relations between Washington and Pyongyang would also begin once the dismantlement of the DPRK's nuclear programs began. Interestingly, the Bush administration's proposal offered nothing directly from the US except "discussions" on bilateral relations. Both fuel oil and security guarantees were to be provided by other countries involved in the six-party talks. The third round of six-party talks ended as acrimoniously as the prior two rounds with Pyongyang insisting that Washington provide incentives for CVID prior to the beginning of the process. The Bush administration retorted that it would offer no rewards to the DPRK prior to the beginning of CVID. As in the first two rounds, Washington made little diplomatic effort in the third round of six-party talks. Rather than offering its new proposal as a starting point for negotiations, the Bush administration presented this proposal as a fait accompli for Pyongyang. Unsurprisingly, officials in the DPRK never formally responded to the US proposal. Following a 13-month hiatus, which included childish name-calling on the part of President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pyongyang was cajoled back to the six-party talks by the goodwill of government officials in Seoul. Fourth round no different from before The fourth round of six-party talks, which lasted for an unprecedented 13 days, promised to be a diplomatic departure from the prior three rounds for Washington. Former US ambassador to the ROK and current Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was appointed as Washington's head envoy. In addition to more experience in Korean affairs than his predecessor, James Kelly, Hill was given exceedingly more leeway to engage DPRK officials and the media. In a major concession to other countries involved in the talks, including the DPRK, Hill held numerous bilateral meetings with DPRK officials in what resembled bilateral negotiations. Hill also conducted nightly news conferences. Hill artfully used these news conferences to mold media coverage of the six-party talks, forcefully portraying the US as flexible and willing to go great lengths to produce results. In contrast to the media image he created for Washington, Hill repeatedly suggested that inflexibility among the delegation from the DPRK was holding up a joint statement, the principal reason why talks extended for 13 days. During several news conferences Hill depicted the DPRK as being on one page and all other parties in the talks, including the US, being on another. As the fourth round of six-party talks dragged on into early August, the prospect of a joint statement on principals for future negotiations, the key goal of the round, became increasingly remote. Such a statement was meant to provide a diplomatic framework for settling the Korean nuclear issue. When the fourth round adjourned on August 7 the gap between Washington and Pyongyang was as wide as ever. Washington's isolation apparent One issue that received much attention was the DPRK's demand to continue operating a civilian nuclear power program. Hill stressed ad nauseam in interviews that the US as well as the ROK, China, Russia and Japan were not willing to cede this demand because of Pyongyang's previous deceit over its civilian nuclear power program. However, in the past three weeks Russia, China and the ROK have all endorsed Pyongyang's right to a civilian nuclear power program. Only the US and Japan remain unwilling to allow such a program to exist in the DPRK. Apart from the civilian nuclear power issue, there remains numerous obstacles to the resolution of the Korean nuclear issue. These obstacles make a diplomatic breakthrough extremely unlikely when the six-party talks resume, particularly since Washington is the isolated party rather than Pyongyang. The DPRK's civilian nuclear power program is a minor issue compared to the other stumbling blocks to diplomatically solving the Korean nuclear issue. With proper safeguards and international monitoring, it would be extremely difficult for the DPRK to utilize militarily any aspect of a light water nuclear reactor system, the type of civilian power system Pyongyang is demanding. This is why Russia, China and the ROK are amenable to this demand. The underlying issue in Washington is the Bush administration's desire to control what countries are, and are not, in the nuclear club. Like the DPRK, the Bush administration does not want Iran in the nuclear club. However, the opposite is true regarding India, which recently won the support of the Bush administration for its civilian nuclear power program. The bottom line appears to be that nuclear power is okay for democratic countries or those resembling democracies, like Pakistan, but not okay for countries with authoritarian governments such as Iran and the DPRK. Distrust characterizes talks Beltway logic dictates that authoritarian regimes are more likely proliferators than democratic governments, excepting Pakistan - once the world's most active proliferator of nuclear materials - of course. The Bush administration simply does not trust authoritarian regimes, and the DPRK is no exception. However, trust is essential to diplomacy in general and to resolution of the Korean nuclear issue specifically. Without trust there can be no negotiations as demonstrated during the fourth round of six-party talks. The same is true in Pyongyang. Exceedingly justifiable distrust of Washington's intentions on the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia drove the DPRK to develop nuclear weapons. Though officials in Washington have repeatedly stated that the US is not interested in promoting "regime change" in the DPRK, officials in Pyongyang don't buy it - witness Iraq. Mutual distrust is an enormous stumbling block that has manifested in several ways, including in Pyongyang's demand that Washington eliminate its military threat to the DPRK, which ostensibly includes 30,000 US troops stationed in the ROK and another 50,000 in Japan. In addition, Pyongyang would like Washington to scale back its vast amount of military hardware from these countries, including nuclear weapons, and halt activities related to US plans for a regional nuclear umbrella. Officials in Washington have indicated that there is no possibility of negotiations on regional US military installations. Several other significant issues stand in the way of a diplomatic breakthrough on the DPRK's nuclear programs. These include the timing of Pyongyang's nuclear dismantlement, the existence of a highly enriched uranium program, the DPRK's long-range missile program and human rights issues - a clever moniker for democratization. The timing of economic and energy assistance, and security guarantees - rewards for Pyongyang in return for nuclear dismantlement - is another issue of mutual trust or distrust. Pyongyang wants its rewards up front while Washington insists that rewards will only come after the dismantlement process has begun. The issue of timing could be overcome by simultaneity of action by the US and the DPRK, an idea supported by the ROK, Russia and China. The Bush administration believes that in addition to a plutonium-based nuclear weapons program that the DPRK also has a highly enriched uranium weapons program. Pyongyang denies the existence of such a program. Neither Russia nor China believes such a program exists in the DPRK. In addition to its nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration is demanding that Pyongyang scrap its formidable long-range missile program. Without at least a partial reduction of US military capabilities in the ROK and Japan, Pyongyang is unlikely to scrap its missile program. Finally, Washington would like to see a vast improvement in human rights in the DPRK. Such an improvement is unlikely under the current regime. Improved human rights is a thinly disguised push for regime change, which is how both the ROK and the DPRK view Washington's push for improved human rights. The ROK does not want regime change in the DPRK as such a change implies a flood of refugees into the ROK and economic disaster. Like the ROK, both Russia and China border the DPRK and are strongly resistant to regime change in Pyongyang. Neither country wants US military forces any closer and both countries would like to see US military capabilities in the region dramatically scaled back. Both Moscow and Beijing presumably support Pyongyang's long-range missile program, having helped create it. Washington's growing diplomatic isolation in the six-party talks makes it very unlikely that the talks will succeed in their goal of forcing the DPRK to dismantle its civilian and military nuclear programs. This may be what Washington wants. Washington wants nuclear test Rather than isolating the DPRK, Washington's still heavy-handed approach to the six-party talks has isolated the US. In fact, it seems that only Tokyo supports Washington's efforts to isolate Pyongyang in the six-party talks. This support could also bolt depending on the outcome of Japan's Lower House elections scheduled for September 11. The media manipulation inherent to the fourth round of six-party talks is strongly reminiscent of the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war media manipulation. By creating the appearance of inflexibility in Pyongyang, Washington can justify to the American public that stronger action against the DPRK must be taken. Rather than a diplomatic push for reconciliation and mutual understanding, the Bush administration is using the six-party talks as a bully pulpit for foisting its non-negotiable position on the DPRK and the other participating countries. This effort has very little chance of success in vanquishing Pyongyang's nuclear programs, particularly since Washington's demands are not supported in Seoul, Moscow or Beijing. Washington must be plainly aware that its approach to nuclear dismantlement in the DPRK has little hope for success. From this position it seems obvious that the Bush administration does not want to negotiate a settlement. Rather, it intends to use the six-party talks and the inevitable failure of these talks to rally American support for stronger action against the DPRK. Stronger action against the DPRK, whether militarily or through UN censure, would almost certainly provoke Pyongyang to conduct a nuclear test in order to demonstrate its deterrent capability. The Bush administration may be purposefully pushing the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test to drum up international support for isolating Pyongyang - support that Washington sorely lacks. Unfortunately, escalation of the nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang is likely. This escalation carries strong negative global economic implications. Jephraim P Gundzik is president of Condor Advisers, Inc. Condor Advisers provides emerging markets investment risk analysis to individuals and institutions globally. Please visit www.condoradvisers.com for further information. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 ***************************************************************** 18 Reuters: Darkness is illuminating in N.Korea Fri Sep 2, 2005 5:54 AM ET By Nopporn Wong-Anan PYONGYANG, Sept 2 (Reuters) - It is eight o'clock on a Saturday night and darkness envelopes virtually all of Pyongyang, serving as a vivid reminder of communist North Korea's pressing energy needs. World leaders such as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have talked of satellite pictures of the Korean peninsula taken at night that show a brightly illuminated South and the North in total darkness. Miles beneath the high-tech flying eyes, Pyongyang residents have become adept at riding bicycles through the gloom, playing cards by the light of hotel billboards or negotiating sidewalks with shuffling, tiny steps to avoid collisions. Apart from a few illuminated windows in apartment blocks, the only lights on are at the hotels for foreign visitors and the halls designed to show the greatness of the North Korean system of self-reliance. The floodlights were blazing inside the cavernous May 1 Stadium for weekend ceremonies celebrating the end of World War Two, but the thousands of students waiting to perform the mass choreography had to queue up in the darkness. A couple of blocks away, as dozens of people waited for an electric tram -- already packed with passengers -- the only light came from the occasional passing car. "We can't turn on many street lights because energy is scarce," a North Korean official told a group of Thai journalists through his translator over a dinner after the mass dance show. "Our country faces many problems, but the most serious one is we don't have enough energy," said the official, who spoke only Korean and French and identified himself as "Mr Choi". North Korea has sought help from the outside world, particularly South Korea, to alleviate its power shortage. One of the stumbling blocks in recent six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programmes was whether Pyongyang should have the right eventually to civilian nuclear power. North Korea has the potential to generate about 7,800 megawatts of electricity, but fuel shortages have cut output to nearly a third, data from South Korean state agencies show. The shortage has kept more than two-thirds of its factories idle. Conversely, no power or expense is spared on the symbols or ceremonies central to the history and ideology of the communist state, one of the most isolated countries in the world, or the few places foreigners are allowed to visit. Electricity is available around the clock at the twin-tower Koryo hotel, which charges customers at least 110 euro ($134) a night for a twin bedroom on any of its 35 floors. Lights are left on until at least 10 p.m. at empty hotel restaurants. Outside, the streets are pitch black. DAZZLING CONTRASTS In the May 1 Stadium, the dazzling, 90-minute show of Arirang dances, involving 50,000 performers twirling about to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of Japan's imperial rule over the peninsula, provides an illuminating contrast. The show tells how the country overcame the harsh foreign occupation to become a prospering and productive state with a powerful army in the 21st century. But at his dinner with visiting journalists, Mr Choi said North Korea lacked the infrastructure and fuel to generate enough electricity -- hence its need for nuclear power plants. "We don't have enough coal nor water supplies to generate power," he said. "The solution is a peaceful nuclear programme." South Korean state firms said the North had the capacity to produce most of its power from hydroelectric plants with a combined generation potential of 4,810 megawatts. The North also has a five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon complex, the heart of its nuclear programmes. But the power that generates is believed to be barely enough to run the complex, let alone to be distributed outside. The United States suspects that North Korea cannot be trusted with a peaceful nuclear programme because that could merely serve as a figleaf for the continued pursuit of nuclear weapons. Seoul has offered to provide the North with electrical supplies roughly equal to its current output if the impoverished state dismantles its nuclear arms programmes. The answer may come when the six-party nuclear talks resume in Beijing in the week of September 12. Echoing top Pyongyang officials, Mr. Choi insisted that North Korea needed a nuclear deterrent to ensure its peaceful development and self-defence. "Look what happened to Afghanistan and Iraq. If we did not have nuclear weapons to defend ourselves, we would end up like them," he said referring to the US-led invasions. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Envoy, U.S. Lawmakers Meet From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 2, 2005 6:16 PM SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's chief envoy for talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons ambitions met visiting U.S. lawmakers Friday as the communist country criticized joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. Kim Kye Gwan was present at a meeting between North Korean officials and the U.S. delegation led by Rep. James Leach, R-Iowa, the Korean Central News Agency reported in a short dispatch, without providing details of the talks. Kim Yong Dae, vice president of the Presidium of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, was also at the meeting, according to KCNA. Leach and Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., met Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in Pyongyang on Thursday. Also Friday, an unnamed spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said the annual U.S.-South Korea military drills show ``who is chiefly to blame for disturbing peace on the Korean Peninsula and escalating the tension and confrontation.'' The Ulchi Focus Lens exercise, which is largely a computer-simulated war game, ended Friday after a 12-day run. The six-party nuclear talks went into recess last month after failing to agree on a statement of principles meant to lead to an overall resolution of the nuclear standoff. The talks - among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - were supposed to resume this week, but the North said Monday it wants to resume the talks during the week of Sept. 12, citing the military exercises. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 20 UN Atomic Agency Steps Up Efforts To Tackle Looming Shortage Of Nuclear Workers Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 12:01:25 -0400 UN ATOMIC AGENCY STEPS UP EFFORTS TO TACKLE LOOMING SHORTAGE OF NUCLEAR WORKERS New York, Sep 2 2005 12:00PM Continuing its efforts to ensure the safe and economic use of nuclear science and technology, the United Nations atomic agency recently co-organized a workshop of 41 experts from 24 countries to tackle such issues as the lag in the rise of a new generation to replace the current ageing nuclear workforce. “The purpose was to continue efforts to raise awareness of the nuclear knowledge management challenge, to share best practices, and provide a forum for the exchange of information among participating nuclear professionals,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a news release today. “The need to manage (preserve and transfer) knowledge has been widely recognized in the international community. The need is compounded by ageing work force issues in many industries and is not limited to areas of nuclear technology,” it added of the workshop, jointly organized by the IAEA, the Abduls Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), and the World Nuclear University in Trieste, Italy. The 22-26 August workshop heard presentations on a broad range of nuclear knowledge management issues, including the role of technology, preserving expert knowledge, and preparing the new generation of nuclear worker. The IAEA has repeatedly spotlighted recent industry trends that include falling student enrolment, the risk of losing nuclear knowledge accumulated in the past, and the need to build capacity and share knowledge. The nuclear workforce is ageing with more and more workers approaching retirement age without a corresponding influx of appropriately qualified younger personnel to replace them, the Agency has noted. Fewer young people are studying nuclear science, nuclear engineering and related fields at university level, and a growing number of universities are giving up their nuclear education programmes altogether. In recognition of these and related trends, a number of IAEA advisory committees, as well as the IAEA Board of Governors and General Conference, have called for measures to better identify the nature and scope of the problem, to understand what countries are doing to address it, and to determine what co-operative international actions might be appropriate. “Whether or not nuclear power witnesses an expansion in the coming decades, it is essential that we preserve nuclear scientific and technical competence for the safe operation of existing facilities and applications,” IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the agency’s 47th General Conference two years ago. 2005-09-02 00:00:00.000 ________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml ***************************************************************** 21 RIA Novosti UPDATE: U.S. will not recall Adamov extradition request 02/ 09/ 2005 GENEVA, September 2 (RIA Novosti, Yekaterina Andrianova) - The United States has not given up in its attempts to secure the extradition from Switzerland of a former Russian minister, a spokesman for Swiss Federal Department of Justice said Friday. The U.S. Department of Justice notified Switzerland that it still wanted to see ex-Russian Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov face embezzlement charges in America rather than in Russia, where he is also wanted. "The response reads that the U.S. is insisting on its request to have Adamov extradited," spokesman Folco Galli said. The Swiss Justice Department sent the relevant request to the U.S. after Adamov had agreed to be extradited to Russia August 25 and said the Russian authorities could also prosecute him for offenses with which he was charged in the U.S. Adamov is in a Swiss prison, and the Swiss Federal Department of Justice will decide whose extradition request should be given a priority. The department can consider this issue for as long as it believes it necessary. Moreover, Adamov's lawyers can appeal any resolution of the department in Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne. The U.S. sent Switzerland an official request to have Adamov extradited on June 24. The U.S. authorities have charged Adamov and his business partner, U.S. citizen Mark Kaushansky, with embezzling $9 million the U.S. government gave Russia for nuclear security projects. Russia sent a request to have the ex-minister extradited on May 17 three days after Moscow's Basmanny court issued an arrest warrant. The Prosecutor General's Office launched criminal proceedings against Adamov on charges of fraud and abuse of office. Adamov who was nuclear power minister in 1998-2001 was arrested on May 2, 2005 in Bern on the request of the U.S. Justice Department. © 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 22 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear hypocrisy Comment Kate Hudson Friday September 2, 2005 The Guardian Attempts by John Bolton, the new US ambassador to the UN, to strip nuclear disarmament out of the draft document for this month's UN summit, comes as no surprise. It's just the latest in a series of efforts by the US to change the international framework on non-proliferation. These are part of the US's increasingly aggressive foreign policy, manifested not only in the illegal war on Iraq but in contempt for international law and multilateral treaty frameworks. Article continues For decades, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation have been linked through the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Nuclear weapons states have agreed to get rid of their arsenals, while in return non-nuclear weapons states have committed not to develop nuclear weapons. In recent years the US has sought to sideline or overturn the disarmament requirement, focusing on preventing more countries acquiring nuclear weapons. The US seeks to reinterpret the NPT as legitimising the possession of weapons by existing nuclear states, while using it as the justification for confrontation with states accused of proliferation. It is not widely understood how strongly other nations feel, both about the need for nuclear disarmament and the hypocrisy of the nuclear states and their attitude of do-what-we-say-not-as-we-do. Many believe this is the type of approach that will lead other countries to proliferate. In Britain pressure for nuclear disarmament is often portrayed as an eccentric activity confined to campaigning organisations; but elsewhere in the world it is viewed not only as a treaty obligation that must be fulfilled but also, literally, as a matter of life and death. This is ever more apparent as the US embraces the notion of "useable" nuclear weapons and the development of new weapons for use, even against non-nuclear weapons states. These are frightening developments that increase desires internationally for nuclear disarmament. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty originated in enormous international pressure from the non-nuclear weapons states. It was made stronger in 2000 through efforts by states pressing for movement after 30 years of hollow promises. The world court in 1996 called for nuclear disarmament obligations to be met, as did the UN high level panel. Britain's attitude towards nuclear disarmament is shameful and flies in the face of demand for treaty compliance. It has made no progress on disarmament - despite government claims that getting rid of old systems and replacing them with more powerful ones is somehow a form of disarmament. The Trident system will reach the end of its lifespan in the 2020s and a decision on replacement will have to be taken in this parliament. Reports suggest that a decision to replace it has already been taken, although the government denies this. No parliamentary debate has yet taken place. But what is the likely outcome? In April the prime minister stated: "We've got to retain our nuclear deterrent ..." This suggests that a Trident replacement is a foregone conclusion. But his answer raises questions. Who exactly are we deterring? Of all the threats Britain faces, how many would be addressed by spending more than Ł15bn on a supposed nuclear deterrent? So should we assume that Tony Blair is living in a past of predictable super-power relationships and has not realised how the world has changed? No, this is clearly not the case. A look at replacement options reveals his appeal to the familiar deterrent rhetoric as disingenuous in the extreme. The delivery system is likely to be a multi-role submarine which can carry both conventional and nuclear missiles. The warheads may well be a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons for use on the battlefield, or so-called bunker-busters, designed to hit deeply buried facilities. The consequences of either of these weapons would be catastrophic. Far from wanting to maintain an unusable so-called deterrent, the government is going down the US path - developing new nuclear weapons for potential use. Britain's empty phrases in support of the NPT mean nothing when massive building work progresses apace at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, preparing for these new developments. But there is another option for a British government committed to international law and compliance with its treaty obligations, as desired by the vast majority of the international community. There is the option not to replace Trident. · Kate Hudson is the chair of CND, which is hosting a conference, Preventing Trident Replacement, in London tomorrow; details from 0207 700 2393 or www.cnduk.org [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 23 NRC: NRC to Recruit Aggressively, Hire 350 New Employees in 2006 News Release - 2005-12 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 05-122 September 2, 2005 its recruiting efforts to hire approximately 350 new entry-level and experienced employees by the end of next year. This enhanced recruiting activity is designed to offset expected retirements and to increase staffing levels in anticipation of potential new reactor license applications in 2007 and 2008. The NRC is particularly seeking individuals with scientific and engineering skills, such as health physicists and mechanical engineers. Maintaining a high quality workforce and strong scientific knowledge base ensures that the agency will continue to carry out its primary mission of protecting public health and safety, the environment, and the common defense and security with regard to civilian use of nuclear materials and nuclear power. The NRC will conduct more than 40 recruiting events at colleges and universities over the next year. We hope to showcase the NRC and make it the Federal agency of choice for a select group of highly qualified individuals, said James F. McDermott, Director of the Office of Human Resources. The NRC will use novel recruitment strategies to attract talented engineers and scientists. Recruitment incentives, a special pay scale for scientists and engineers, and comprehensive benefits make the NRC an attractive place to work. The American University has identified the NRC as one of the 10 best Federal agencies to work for based on the results of the Office of Personnel Managements 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey. Programs such as the Student Career Experience Program, the Nuclear Safety Professional Development Program, and the Graduate Fellowship Program are expected to continue to attract highly qualified and motivated employees to the agency. To strengthen the diversity of its workforce, the NRC plans to reach out to specific student groups, participate in recruitment events focusing on minorities and people with disabilities, and bolster relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other schools with high minority populations. Almost half of the recruiting events scheduled for this fall involve such specialized organizations. The recruiting season begins on September 8 with the University of Marylands Intern Fair in College Park, Maryland. NRC employment information and links to the NRCareers job application system can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/employment.html. For dates and details of other planned recruitment events, those interested should contact Jim Horn at 301-415-7703 or JEH2@nrc.gov. Last revised Friday, September 02, 2005 ***************************************************************** 24 Bellona: Special train to deliver spent nuclear fuel from Beloyarsk NPP to Siberia A special train for shipment of the containers with spent nuclear fuel is under construction at the Beloyarsk NPP in Sverdlovsk region, Uralpressinform reported 2005-09-02 16:24 The spent fuel in question was unloaded from the plant’s two reactor units, which are shut down now. The fuel is stored in the reactor pools. It is planned to load this spent nuclear fuel on the newly constructed train and ship it to Zheleznogorsk in Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia for long-term storage. 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 ***************************************************************** 25 Bellona: Russian Federal Nuclear Agency to become joint stock company The Russian Federal Nuclear Agency, or Rosatom, is to submit a draft to the government of the law development on Rosatom’s conversion into a joint-stock company until the end of Septemberá Vremya Novostey reported. 2005-09-02 19:14 The working group intends to approve the final versions of the conception on converting into a joint-stock company and the draft by the middle of September. Then the documents will be submitted to the legislation governmental commission headed by the vice-prime minister Alexander Zhukov. The conception of Rosatom reconstruction implies that all the current nuclear plants and the ones under construction will remain branches. The nuclear materials will also remain state property. 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 ***************************************************************** 26 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl needs $1 bln 02/ 09/ 2005 KIEV, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Over $1 billion is needed to build a new shelter for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the Ukrainian emergencies situations minister said Friday. David Zhvania said the new shelter, a construction called 'the arch,' would preliminarily cost $1,91,000,000. He said Ukrainian experts had done the calculations and coordinated them with the Bank of Europe. Donor countries intend to announce their final contributions at the next assembly session of the Chernobyl foundation, Shelter. In addition, Ukraine must conduct work costing $22 million on dismantling the unstable constructions of the previous NPP shelter. Zhvania said that works would help to provide more than 3,000 Ukrainians with highly paid jobs. The results of the tender for the construction of 'the Arch' will be announced no earlier than by the end of November 2005. © 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 27 NEWS.com.au: Nuke safety fears overblown, says Downer (02-09-2005) From: AAP September 02, 2005 FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer has played down the likelihood of Australia resorting to nuclear energy despite advocating its benefits. As Australia considers selling some of its vast uranium reserves to China, Mr Downer has promoted the benefits of nuclear power. Delivering the 2005 Sir Condor Laucke Oration in the Barossa Valley last night, Mr Downer said nuclear power plants produced no greenhouse gas emissions and concerns about their safety were overblown. "Safety concerns about nuclear power are inaccurate perceptions of risks that are not backed up by facts," he said in a speech. While everyone had heard of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia, it was the result of old reactor technology, Mr Downer said. He was perplexed by the arguments of some against nuclear energy, but who also claimed they wanted to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "Over 30 countries have nuclear power programs ... (and) in doing so, they avoid emissions of some 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each ear," he said. He said the number of reactors globally was expected to increase significantly and Australia would have a vital role to play in the future of global nuclear power. But at the same time, it was unlikely Australia would turn to nuclear energy itself soon. "Here in this country we have very cheap coal, we are blessed with enormous coal resources," Mr Downer said on ABC radio after the speech. "Not only do I think that's likely to be a problem economically, just think of the political controversy and opportunism that surrounded the issue of a nuclear waste dump." Mr Downer told the audience that although the use of nuclear power in Australia may be a way off, the nation would still play a major role in the nuclear energy debate because of the growing demand for uranium. Australia has about 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves. "As global demand for greenhouse-friendly nuclear power grows, global demand for uranium will also grow," Mr Downer said. "As the holder of the world's largest uranium reserves, we have a responsibility to supply clean energy to other countries, even if so far we've chosen not to use nuclear energy ourselves." Mr Downer said it was important that the growing use of nuclear energy did not have a negative effect on nuclear non-proliferation efforts. But withholding uranium would not deter those wanting it for nefarious means. "It is important to understand uranium is not a scare material, every country has some uranium," Mr Downer said. Australia has begun formal negotiations on the export of uranium to China but has promised adequate safeguards to strike an export deal. Search for more stories on this ***************************************************************** 28 Japan Times: Work starts to revamp ill-fated Monju reactor Friday, September 2, 2005 TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. (Kyodo) Work started here Thursday to modify the Monju experimental fast-breeder reactor, which has remained shut down since it suffered a sodium leak and fire nearly 10 years ago, the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute said. [News photo] The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor on the Sea of Japan coast in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, has stood idle since a 1995 sodium leak, fire and coverup bid. The work, expected to last 17 months, is aimed at enhancing the detection of similar accidents and minimizing their impact at the fast-breeder reactor complex, designated as a prototype for future reactor models. "Human error-induced disasters can be prevented through our efforts. I want you all to proceed with the work with the priority on safety," Yuichi Tonozuka, president of the institute, told about 800 workers who took part in a ceremony launching the work. The work is a prerequisite for restarting the Monju, which is designed to generate more plutonium than it consumes for power generation. The reactor is expected to be ready to go on line in early 2008 after the modifications are tested. The move comes three months after the Supreme Court overturned an earlier high court ruling that invalidated the central government's 1983 approval of its construction due to safety concerns. The Fukui Prefectural Government, which hosts the complex in the city of Tsuruga, had agreed in February to the start of the modification work. The Monju project was approved by the state in 1983. It began delivering power in August 1995. But in December 1995, more than a ton of volatile liquid sodium leaked from a secondary cooling system at the reactor, causing a fire. While no radioactivity leaked and nobody was injured, a design flaw was blamed for the leak, which officials tried to initially cover up. The precursor to the institute, the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., which ran Monju at the time of the accident, came under severe criticism after it was made known that it had concealed video footage showing the extensive damage from the leak and that it had submitted a falsified report. The state has spent more than 800 billion yen on Monju. The Japan Times: Sept. 2, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 29 Reuters: CMS Michigan Palisades nuke shut to fix hydrogen leak Fri Sep 2, 2005 7:41 AM ET NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Management Co. (NMC) shut CMS Energy Corp.'s (CMS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 767-megawatt Palisades nuclear power station in Michigan on Sept. 1 due to a main generator hydrogen leak, the plant operator told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an event report. In the report, NMC said it tripped the reactor from about 100 percent power. NMC said the source of the hydrogen leak was a cracked weld the operator could not fix with the unit on line. The Palisades station is in South Haven in Van Buren County, about 60 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan. One MW powers about 800 homes, according to North American averages. Wisconsin-based NMC operates Palisades for CMS' Consumers Energy subsidiary. Michigan-based CMS subsidiaries own and operate more than 14,000 MW of generating capacity in the United States and abroad, market energy commodities, and distribute electricity (1.7 million) and natural gas (1.6 million) to customers in Michigan. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 30 Reuters: No restart date yet for Entergy La. Waterford nuke Fri Sep 2, 2005 1:51 PM ET NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp. (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said Friday there was still no projected restart date for the Waterford 3 nuclear power station in Louisiana, which shut on Aug. 28 as Hurricane Katrina approached southern Louisiana. A company spokeswoman said the restart depended on the approval of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and the ability of the grid to accept the reactor's output. Currently, there are more than 730,000 customers in Louisiana, or 59 percent of the total, still without service. The storm did not damage the plant, she said. The station has access to power from the grid, the spokeswoman noted, but was still using standby diesel generators to supply power for key safety systems on site. The NRC and FEMA have said they will not approve a restart until the off-site evacuation routes are open and emergency sirens are available. The 1,911 MW Waterford station is located in Taft, in St. Charles Parish, about 30 miles west of New Orleans. There are three units at the Waterford station, including two 411 MW natural gas- and oil-fired units 1 and 2, and the 1,089 MW nuclear unit 3. One MW powers about 800 homes, according to North American averages. Entergy's regulated Entergy Louisiana Inc. subsidiary owns the station. Entergy's subsidiaries own and operate about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, market energy commodities, and transmit and distribute power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Reuters: Constellation N.Y. Ginna nuke off line at 3 pct power Fri Sep 2, 2005 7:12 AM ET NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Constellation Energy Group Inc.'s (CEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 497-megawatt Ginna nuclear power station in New York went off line by early Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. On Thursday, the unit was operating at full power. The Ginna station is located in Ontario in Wayne County, about 20 miles east of Rochester, New York. One MW powers about 800 homes, according to North American averages. Baltimore-based Constellation's unregulated Constellation Generation subsidiary owns and operates Ginna. Constellation's subsidiaries own and operate more than 12,000 MW of generating capacity, market energy commodities in North America, and transmit and distribute electricity and natural gas to customers in Maryland. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 32 Reuters: PSEG's N.J. Hope Creek nuke starts to exit outage Fri Sep 2, 2005 7:27 AM ET NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.'s (PEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 1,049-megawatt Hope Creek nuclear power station in New Jersey started to exit an outage and ramped up to 4 percent of capacity by early Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. On Aug. 28, the unit shut due to the inoperable vacuum breaker. The company fixed the breaker by Aug. 30 and started to perform some other work. Vacuum breakers act as a check valve to prevent a vacuum from forming in the reactor building that could affect the structural integrity of the containment during an accident. With any outage at Hope Creek, traders are always interested in whether the work will keep the unit down long enough (about three weeks) to require PSEG to replace a vibrating recirculation pump shaft. In an agreement with the NRC in January, PSEG agreed to replace a vibrating recirculation pump shaft during the unit's next refueling outage in the spring of 2006 or during an outage expected to last at least three weeks. The Hope Creek station is located in Hancocks Bridge in Salem County, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. One MW powers about 800 homes, according to North American averages. Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Chicago-based energy company Exelon Corp.'s (EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Exelon Generation Co LLC subsidiary, operates the station for PSEG. In December, Exelon, the biggest nuclear power operator in the United States, agreed to acquire New Jersey-based PSEG. Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals, the companies expect to complete the deal in 2006. Exelon's subsidiaries own and operate more than 38,000 MW of generating capacity, market energy commodities, and transmit and distribute electricity (5.1 million) and natural gas (460,000) to customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania. PSEG's regulated and unregulated subsidiaries own and operate more than 16,000 MW of generating capacity, market energy commodities, and transmit and distribute electricity and natural gas to customers in North America, South America, the Middle East, Europe and India. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 Business Day: Earthlife leaps on Eskoms reactor slip-up Posted to the web on: 02 September 2005 Chris van Gass and Ernest Mabuza CAPE TOWN  Documents that power utility Eskom sent by mistake to environmental activist group Earthlife Africa reveal internal warnings that a planned nuclear reactor could incur excessive costs. The utilitys lawyers inadvertently sent Earthlife papers meant for Eskoms own preparation in a court case brought by the group to challenge the planned construction of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, Eskom said. The 120-odd pages of documents include a business-risk assessment of the reactor in 2000 that said the business plan for the reactor was inherently risk intensive. The documents show a presentation to Eskoms main board in April 2002, after a mini due-diligence investigation by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated that the reactor was not competitive in SA. Cost estimates made then indicated an equal probability of a loss of $122m or a profit of $399m, and the results were outside the benchmark parameters for projects of this nature. Eskom said last night that it had asked Earthlife to return the documents, which it regarded as not in the public domain. Alison Tilley of the Open Democracy Advice Centre, which is acting for Earthlife, said the body had not yet received a formal request for the return of the papers. Olivia Andrews, Earthlifes campaign co-ordinator, said yesterday that the documents had already been distributed to various news organisations. Tilley said it appeared as if it were a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. The papers also showed the uncertainty of other participants in the project felt. Governments own Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) halved its shareholding in the project from 25% to 12,5%. This increased the potential liability for Eskom. Remaining investors indicated they would not increase their stakes and it was stated that the funding requirement from Eskom may become excessive. With a 40% stake in 2002, Eskoms contribution would be in excess of R3,5bn over the next 10 years. At 65%, however, this figure would increase to more than R5,7bn over the same period, the documents showed. Revelations about Eskoms own assessment of the project, challenged by Earthlife on environmental and economic grounds, came after the state-owned power utility had spent yesterday arguing that information access laws meant public bodies need not disclose certain information. The Promotion of Access to Information Act said public bodies did not have to disclose information that could be used for formulating policies in the performance of their duty, Eskom said in the Johannesburg High Court yesterday. Eskom counsel Michael Kuper said the act allowed for nondisclosure if that information could reasonably be expected to frustrate the success of that policy. Earthlife brought the case last year, requesting Eskom to provide the minutes of board meetings where the reactor was discussed. Eskom said it explained to Earthlife last year why it had refused to disclose certain information. Information that the applicants (Earthlife) sought will be of no use to anyone other than the competitors, suppliers and contractors, Kuper said. He said the power utility explained it could not disclose the information requested as that contained trade secrets, such as cost of production and cost of supply. © 2005 BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 34 Platts: German nuke life extension plan is against security law - study + The German opposition CDU party's planned extension of the lives of nuclear power plants violates German law after terror attacks on New York on Sep 11 heightened internal security concerns, a report commissioned by the German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) said Friday. The CDU and its likely coalition partner, the FDP, plan to extend the lives of nuclear power plants by eight years to 40 years. However, the new CDU energy adviser Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of Siemens, wants the lives to be extended even more and re-evaluate nuclear power plants' status in Germany. Von Pierer has suggested an extension to 60 years. "We found that new regulations following Sep 11 mean that German decommissioning has to be continued because it is no longer a small risk that a nuclear unit would be attacked by terrorists," said DUH, citing internal security regulations from the home office. The group also noted that nuclear power plant operators had waived the unlimited operating permissions of their reactors when they signed the exisiting SPD-Green party coalition government's nuclear decommissioning program in June 2000. Now each reactor has a certain amount of power left to generate, after which their operating permission becomes invalid. "The idea of the CDU and FDP to undo that process cannot be held up legally," said Reiner Geulen, the nuclear law expert who carried out the study. He said local inhabitants or communities could take legal action against the nuclear plants' operation and the chances were good that they would win. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week Report at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ Freiburg (Platts)--2Sep2005 Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 35 Interfax China: How to tutorial on home-made nuclear bomb spreading over Chinese websites Shanghai. September 2. INTERFAX-CHINA - An online tutorial on how to make a nuclear bomb at home has been posted on many Chinese BBS websites, saying that it only takes one week to craft an atomic bomb if the raw materials are available. According to a 6,000 word tutorial posted on www.tianlanlan.com, a website operated by a college in northeast China's Liaoning Province, making an atomic bomb at home needs 30 kg of uranium 235, which is "about the size of a baseball." The uranium can be stolen from a nuclear reactor in a university, where the security measures are flawed, the tutorial said. After the uranium is ready, it needs to be melted into two hemispherical containers using an acetylene torch. The filled containers will then be stored in lead boxes and buried in an underground cement cellar. Afterwards, a fuse and timer should be installed, the tutorial said. Although the tutorial reads as very practical and systematic, people tend to believe that it is just a joke or hoax, instead of a real workable instruction. A BBS user nicked "orange" commented "so, can you please show me a bomb that you have made?" Police in Liaoning said that this tutorial is a "purely a hoax" and it is not possible to make a atomic bomb from materials at a college, local newspaper Liao Shen Wan Bao reported. 1991-2005 Interfax Information Service. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 36 Rocky Mountain News: Ranchers fight plan for dump Waste dispute pits town of Last Chance against state officials By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News September 2, 2005 Allies of ranchers near Last Chance launched an effort Thursday to keep low-level radioactive waste out of the small eastern Plains town. Adams County commissioners, some ranchers and 7th Congressional District candidate Ed Perlmutter issued statements asking the state and its representatives to leave the town alone. "Our children could end up drinking out of potentially contaminated water due to this waste site," rancher Steve Baker said. State officials called the statements politically driven, overblown and scientifically irresponsible. At issue is a disagreement between people in the rural area and the state health department over what to do with a hazardous waste landfill called Deer Trail. The landfill has accepted hazardous wastes since 1991. Its corporate owner is asking the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for permission to accept two types of low-level radioactive material commonly found in Colorado. The health department is accepting public comment on draft proposals to allow "naturally occurring" and "technologically enhanced naturally occurring" materials at the dump. Naturally occurring, or NORM, materials, would mainly include dirt containing century-old uranium mill tailings from Denver. The other type, TENORM, would include sludge from ponds outside metro-area municipal water treatment facilities. "I strongly support the Adams County commissioners in their opposition to the Deer Trail facility becoming a regional nuclear waste dump," Perlmutter said. Michael Huttner, executive director of the nonprofit group ProgressNow.org, said the proposal would create a "dangerous nuclear waste dump." "The nuclear claim is just a flat-out knowing falsification," said Doug Benevento, executive director of the state department of health. " . . . You can tell this is political by the people who are attacking, and by the people who are being attacked." 2005 © Rocky Mountain News ***************************************************************** 37 RGJ: State files suit against over Yucca dump [Reno Gazette-Journal] September 02, 2005 Reno, Nevada, USA 775-788-6200 ASSOCIATED PRESS Posted: 9/1/2005 11:42 pm LAS VEGAS — Nevada filed suit Thursday against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, accusing the agency of prejudging an upcoming Energy Department application for a license to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. “The only way NRC can meet its requirement that a repository will be available by 2025 is to presume it will give Yucca a license,” Attorney General Brian Sandoval said in a statement. “For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful.” The 15-page petition filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeks to overturn a commission decision to reject a March 1 challenge the state filed against the so-called “waste confidence rule.” The rule, adopted in 1990, lets the NRC continue licensing new nuclear plants and power plant waste storage facilities around the country with the expectation that, if the Yucca repository never opens, the government will find and open another site by 2025. NRC spokesman David McIntyre denied Sandoval’s claim, saying the commission has yet to decide whether it will award the Energy Department a license to operate Yucca Mountain. “We do not accept that the waste confidence decision prejudges the NRC decision on a potential license for Yucca Mountain,” he said. The commission notified state lawyers Aug. 10 and published notice in the Federal Register on Aug. 17 that the March challenge misconstrued the 1990 waste confidence rule. It said the NRC was committed to a fair and comprehensive review of the Energy Department’s application, which is expected to be filed next year. Recent setbacks have pushed back the target date for receiving waste from 2010 to 2012 or later. The new lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges the state has filed against the federal plan to bury the nation’s most radioactive waste beneath a mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The state also has a suit pending in the same federal court challenging an Energy Department plan to build a dedicated 319-mile railroad line across Nevada to ship nuclear waste to the Yucca Mountain site. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled Oct. 18. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a ***************************************************************** 38 Nevada Appeal: Nevada sues Nuclear Regulatory Commission September 2, 2005 Appeal Capital Bureau Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval says a 1990 rule used to license nuclear power plants must be changed because it presumes Yucca Mountain will be licensed as a waste dump. The state sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week demanding the so-called "Waste Confidence Rule" be changed. The rule states that the NRC can continue to license new nuclear power plants because a geologic repository to dispose of radioactive waste will be available by 2025. "Today, the only way NRC can meet its requirement that a repository will be available by 2025 is to presume it will give Yucca a license," he said. "For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful. Frankly, it's also appalling public policy." The state petitioned NRC to change the rule in March but was rejected in August. Sandoval said that is the first time in NRC history a rulemaking petition was rejected without public comment. "They're bending over backwards to ram this project forward and we're confident the court will see through it," he said. All contents © Copyright 2005 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 39 AU ABC: WA uranium policy utterly discredited - Opposition Friday, 2 September 2005. 11:19 (AEST)Friday, 2 September 2005. The Western Australian Liberal Party is alleging chinks in the Government's ban on uranium mining, despite being yet to decide whether it supports the policy. The Opposition has come under growing pressure to take a position on uranium mining, with the Government this week moving a motion in Parliament to support its existing ban. Opposition Leader Matt Birney says the Liberal Party will wait until its annual conference later this month to determine a policy. Mr Birney says Labor has confirmed under questioning in the Senate that the ban only applies to mining leases granted after June 22, 2002. "I'm getting sick of Geoff Gallop telling anybody who will listen that the Labor Party have a no uranium mining policy in this state because either he doesn't understand his own policy or he's just simply telling an untruth," Mr Birney said. Mr Birney claims there were five mining leases granted over known uranium deposits prior to the ban being announced. "I would certainly like the Government to tell us what the status of those leases is currently, because as the law stands today you can mine those five leases in Western Australia," he said. "Geoff Gallop's no uranium mining stance has now been completely and utterly discredited." ***************************************************************** 40 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: State adds to lawsuits against project Friday, September 02, 2005 Filing marks at least the eighth legal case that Nevada has pressed in recent years By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for Nevada returned to federal court on Thursday to file a new lawsuit on Yucca Mountain. The state charged in legal papers that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted improperly when it declined this month to consider changing one of its nuclear waste regulations. Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the NRC's "waste confidence rule" prejudges the completion of the proposed Nevada waste repository and will influence officials when they decide whether to license the project. "For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful," Sandoval said. "Frankly, it's also appalling public policy." The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It marked at least the eighth legal case the state has pressed in recent years related to the government's efforts to build a high-level nuclear waste center in Nevada. The waste confidence regulation, written in 1990, guides the NRC's consideration of power plant extensions and waste storage permits. For purposes of streamlining the process, the regulation assumes that an underground repository will be open by 2025 to handle waste generated by nuclear facilities. Although it does not mention Yucca Mountain, that is the only waste site being developed. Nevada attorneys petitioned the NRC in March to change the rule, arguing that Yucca Mountain flaws makes it improbable that the government will have a repository ready by 2025. But as long at the waste confidence rule remained on the books, they contended, the nuclear agency could be pressured to approve the Yucca site. The state's lawsuit asks judges to direct the NRC to revise its regulations. The NRC rejected Nevada's request on Aug. 10. Sandoval said that, to his knowledge, it was the first time the agency had rejected a rulemaking petition outright without seeking public comment. "It shows how afraid they are of having a level playing field for Yucca," Sandoval said. "They're bending over backward to ram this project through, and we're confident the court will see through it." NRC attorneys had not reviewed the lawsuit yet and the agency had no immediate comment on it, spokesman Dave McIntyre said. He confirmed that it was rare, if not unprecedented, for the NRC to reject a petition without inviting public reaction first. In rejecting Nevada's petition, the NRC said the state had misinterpreted the regulation. Opening it up for reconsideration "would not be a prudent use of the agency's limited resources," the agency said. The commission said it was committed to a "fair and comprehensive" review of Yucca Mountain that would not be affected by the regulation. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 41 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada hits NRC with suit over 1990 ruling Today: September 02, 2005 at 11:6:17 PDT By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada has filed yet another lawsuit aimed at thwarting Yucca Mountain. The state on Thursday sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, charging that an obscure NRC rule illegally prejudges the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. In a 1990 rule, the NRC formally recognized the national waste plan in its so-called "waste confidence" rule. It states that a geologic repository will be available by 2025. To avoid the appearance of NRC bias toward Yucca, the 15-year-old NRC rule stated that if Yucca failed to obtain a license by 2000 that there would be plenty of time for the nation to license and construct another repository. But now there's no time to develop any waste site except Yucca, Attorney General Brian Sandoval said. "Today the only way NRC can meet its requirement that a repository will be available by 2025 is to presume it will give Yucca a license," Sandoval said. "For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful. Frankly, it's also appalling public policy." The agency will judge the Energy Department's license application to build Yucca Mountain, but faces a conflict of interest because it oversees the licensing and re-licensing of nuclear facilities, Nevada's lawyers say. Nuclear plants must explain a long-term waste plan, which, in line with what Congress has deemed to be a national waste plan, is the permanent storage of waste in a geological repository. The problem, Nevada attorneys say, is the NRC can't approve the plant licenses without approving Yucca Mountain. The state first formally objected to the NRC rule in a petition it filed March 1, arguing that the agency should change its rule by stripping out the 2025 requirement. The NRC rejected the petition last month. Sandoval said that was the first time the NRC had rejected a rule-making petition without publishing it in the Federal Register and seeking public comment. "They're bending over backwards to ram this project forward, and we're confident the court will see through it," Sandoval said. NRC spokesman David McIntyre said he could not comment because the NRC had not reviewed the lawsuit. But in rejecting Nevada's petition in an Aug. 10 letter to the state, the NRC stated that "reasonable assurance exists that at least one mined geologic repository will be available by 2025." The NRC asserted that the agency "remains committed to a fair and comprehensive adjudication" and that the commitment is not jeopardized by the 2025 rule. The letter even noted that there is still the "potential" that the NRC could deny a license to Yucca. The letter states that the NRC will not reconsider the 2025 rule unless the NRC rejects Yucca or unless the Energy Department abandons Yucca. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 42 Platts: Nevada wants court to force NRC to reconsider Yucca Mt. ruling [The McGraw-Hill Companies] + Nevada has asked a federal appeals court to order NRC to reconsider the state's petition seeking a change in NRC's Waste Confidence rule. The 1990 rule says the commission is confident that spent fuel can be safely stored in casks at reactor sites for 100 years and that irradiated fuel will be moved to a geologic repository by 2025. Nevada has been fighting the repository DOE plans to build at Yucca Mountain. The state argued in a complaint it filed today with the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. that NRC's recent denial of the state petition was unlawful, according to Joseph Egan, an attorney for Nevada. The state maintains the 2025 date is "arbitrary and capricious" and that DOE will not have a repository ready by then, he said. Separately, Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said the state would closely monitor NRC and Environmental Protection Agency regulation developments for a Yucca Mountain repository, indicating legal action on that front was possible if the agencies did not change their two-tiered approach. Washington (Platts)--1Sep2005 Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 43 Control Engineering: Custom valves pave way for nuclear waste cleanup Control Engineering September 2, 2005 A set of custom valve and valve automation products from Flowserveis playing a significant role in a major nuclear waste cleanup effort. The devices are being used for the control, isolation, and treatment of radioactive waste slurries at the Hanford Waste Treatment Project (WTP) in Washington State. The site has one the of the largest concentrations of radioactive waste in the world, the result of 45 years of plutonium production for nuclear weapons from the Manhattan project through the Cold War. Some 53 million gal. of waste is stored there in 177 underground tanks. In December 2000, the U.S. Department of Energys Office of River Protection awarded Bechtel National Inc.a contract to design, construct, and commission the WTP to remediate the hazard. The $5.7 billion build-out is expected to take up to 10 years to complete. Among the many needs of the waste treatment process were specialized valves for installation in containment vessels called bulges. Each bulge is roughly the size of a small swimming pool and designed to contain the pumps, valves, and piping required to transfer radioactive liquid waste slurry from existing storage tanks to a waste pretreatment building for processing. Flowserve recommended high-performance plug valves for the slurries. Although it did not yet have a valve in its product line that would meet the contractors remote repair requirements, its Durco Mach 1 high-performance plug valve, which had not yet been released, could be modified for the needed remote operation and repair and met other requirements. Changes were made to design and build adjustable stainless steel extensions with double universal joints to enable remote operation and repair of the valves from outside the bulge containment vessels. In addition, Flowserve modified another plug valve design to meet the need for jumper valves within the pretreatment building. Here, the challenge was to develop a jack nut feature that would enable remote release and replacement of the plug and sleeve cartridge assembly by a robot. Successfully meeting these requirements led to a multi-million order for the automated jumper valves. Click hereto download a pdf that describes all the details of this project. Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, Control Engineering, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com © 2005, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 Salt Lake Tribune: Stand up to Envirocare Opinion Article Last Updated: 09/01/2005 11:50:59 PM Envirocare's proposal to double the size of its radioactive waste dump west of Salt Lake City spells bad news for Utah residents. In recent years, more than 90 percent of the radioactive waste dumped in commercial facilities has been dumped at Envirocare. Much of that waste was brought into Utah from other states. Every commercial radioactive waste dump that has ever existed in the United States has proved unsafe, contaminating the environment in some way. Radioactive waste exposure can lead to cancer, birth defects, and a host of other health problems. At a time when 10 other states are fighting hard to keep nuclear waste out, Utah residents should stand up to Envirocare by contacting their representatives. Michael Zarkin Salt Lake City © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 45 Japan Times: Radioactive soil again Seattle-bound in wake of accident Friday, September 2, 2005 TOTTORI (Kyodo) Work resumed Thursday to ship uranium-contaminated soil from a mountain forest in Tottori Prefecture to the United States. The work by the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute began Monday but was suspended on the first day after one of the bags packed with contaminated soil fell from a truck. Officials at the institute said the delay will not affect its plan to ship the soil from the port in Kobe to Seattle in early October. After being shipped to the U.S., an unnamed contractor will dispose of the soil at a cost of 660 million yen and use the extracted uranium for power generation there. The shipping work was resumed as the institute deployed larger transport vehicles to ensure that the bags containing contaminated soil will not fall off on rough roads. On Monday, the bag fell off from a truck as the vehicle lost its balance on a steep dirt road. On Thursday morning, about 40 workers from the institute loaded bags packed with contaminated soil onto large trucks at a mountainside storage site in the town of Yurihama. Each truck carries four bags, and the institute plans to ship 33 bags a day. The shipment is aimed at paving the way toward solving a long-standing legal row between the local community and the nuclear institute that erupted after the existence of the contaminated soil came to light in 1988. The Japan Times: Sept. 2, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 46 Paper Chase: Nevada AG brings new challenge to Yucca Mountain waste site www.blogger.com --> Friday, September 02, 2005--> Chris Buell [JURIST] Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval[official website] has challenged a Nuclear Regulatory Commission[official website] decision on regulations for the proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain[official project website], adding to a rash of litigation that has stalled the project for years. Sandoval's office on Thursday filed a suit over the NRC's refusal to consider its petition to alter a regulation that assumes a nuclear waste site will be open by 2025. The Department of Energy[official website] has been preparing an application to have the site licensed by the NRC, and Sandoval claimed the regulation made it more likely that the application would be approved without considering its merits. The regulation does not reference Yucca Mountain specifically, but it is the only site being considered by DOE. The suit is the eighth to challenge the project, which has remained bogged down since DOE received a green light to proceed in 2002. Read a Nevada Attorney General press release[PDF text] on the suit. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has more. ***************************************************************** 47 AU ABC: Aust must boost uranium exports - Downer AM - Friday, 2 September , 2005 08:25:00 Reporter: Alexandra Kirk TONY EASTLEY: The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is talking up the case for Australia to dramatically boost uranium exports, espousing the environmental merits of nuclear energy to contain global warming. In a speech last night in the Barossa Valley, Mr Downer said Australia has a responsibility to sell uranium to nuclear energy producing countries. And he questioned the logic of people concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, but who oppose nuclear energy. Mr owner maintains the safety concerns about nuclear power are unfounded. Alexandra Kirk prepared this report. ALEXANDRA KIRK: Australia has 40 per cent of the world's uranium reserves. The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says as more countries are likely to turn to nuclear power, to satisfy the growing demand for energy and reduce greenhouse emissions, global demand for uranium will go up, creating a vital role for Australia. ALEXANDER DOWNER: And as the holder of the world's largest uranium reserves, we have a responsibility to supply clean energy to other countries, even if so far we've chosen not to use nuclear energy ourselves. ALEXANDRA KIRK: Australia's started negotiations to export uranium to China, and Mr Downer's keen to dismiss the spectre of Chernobyl, saying it was old reactor technology that's being phased out. ALEXANDER DOWNER: Anti-nuclear groups irresponsibly exploit these concerns to pursue their own mythology. Excluding the 50 who died in Chernobyl, since 1970 there has only been a handful of fatalities directly attributable to accidents in the nuclear power industry. ALEXANDRA KIRK: Having previously called for a debate on nuclear power generation in Australia, the Minster's now gone a step further. ALEXANDER DOWNER: Frankly though, from the view of logic, one could comprehend someone not caring about cutting greenhouse gases and being opposed to nuclear energy, but it takes quite a challenge of the intellectual imagination to say you're concerned about greenhouse gases and you're opposed to nuclear energy. ALEXANDRA KIRK: But Greens leader Bob Brown says it's Mr Downer who is thinking very strangely. BOB BROWN: That's Alexander Downer at his silliest. He's forgetting here the best option of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and what he's also forgetting is that China is a nuclear weapons state which has rockets that can reach Australia and which is a potential threat to Australia in the future. The Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane wants more uranium exports too, but with some 300 years' supply of coal and gas, says Australia doesn't need to move to nuclear energy. The Science Minister Brendan Nelson, though, wants Australia to become a nuclear power producer to slash carbon emissions and drive water desalination plants. Alexander Downer says some may well ask why Australia would not contemplate using nuclear energy, arguing in the 21st century the responsible position is to recognise nuclear power has an important place in the overall global energy mix. But Mr Downer, when pressed, doubts Australia will go down that path any time soon. ALEXANDER DOWNER: Because here in this country we have very cheap coal. I mean, we are blessed with enormous coal resources. Not only do I think that's likely to be a problem economically, but just think of the political controversy and opportunism that surrounded the issue of a nuclear waste dump, I mean just for a low-level waste dump. Mr Downer's shadow, Labor's Kevin Rudd, is perplexed. KEVIN RUDD: Well this seems to be yet another thought bubble from Foreign Minister Downer. Is he actually formally advocating on behalf of the Government the establishment of a domestic nuclear power generation industry in this country, or is he not? Frankly, I think it'd be better if the Foreign Minister stuck to his day job. TONY EASTLEY: Labor's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd ending that report from Alexandra Kirk in Canberra. 2005 ABC| Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 48 [southnews] Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rotblat Dies Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 12:17:10 -0500 (CDT) WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give at-risk students the materials they need to succeed at DonorsChoose.org! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Ryu7JD/LpQLAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to resign from the Manhattan Project and who later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to rid the world of atomic weapons, has died at the age of 96, his spokesman said Thursday Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rotblat Dies - By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer Thursday, September 1, 2005 (09-01) 07:53 PDT LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to resign from the Manhattan Project and who later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to rid the world of atomic weapons, has died at the age of 96, his spokesman said Thursday. Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the group he founded to promote nuclear disarmament, received the prestigious prize in 1995. Rotblat, who was born in Warsaw, died peacefully in his sleep in London on Wednesday night, the group said. "Joseph Rotblat was a towering figure in the search for peace in the world, who dedicated his life to trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and ultimately to rid the world of war itself," said M.S. Swaminathan, president of the Pugwash Conferences. Rotblat's penchant for holding science accountable began early in his career, when he was a part of the Manhattan Project that was seeking to build an atomic bomb. He resigned from the project after it became clear that Germany was not developing its own nuclear weapon. On July 9, 1955, Rotblat and 10 other scientists, including Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Frederic Joliot-Curie and 1962 Nobel peace laureate Linus Pauling, issued a manifesto in London declaring that researchers must take responsibility for their creations, such as the atomic bomb. Later, in 1957, Rotblat helped to found the group in Pugwash, Nova Scotia.Pugwash takes its name from the Indian word "pagwechk," which means "shallowwater." In awarding the peace prize, the Nobel committee said it was honoring efforts by Rotblat and his group to "diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms." They have worked to get scientists to "take responsibility for their inventions" out of a "desire to see all nuclear arms destroyed and, ultimately, in a vision of other solutions to international disputes thanwar," the Nobel citation read. In his Nobel lecture, Rotblat called the group's goals realistic. "What we are advocating in Pugwash, a war-free world, will be seen by many as a Utopian dream. It is not Utopian," he said. "There already exist in theworld large regions, for example, the European Union, within which war isinconceivable. What is needed is to extend these to cover the world's majorpowers." The group's secretary-general, Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, said Pugwash owed itsexistence to Rotblat. "Jo Rotblat possessed the extraordinary combination of scientific rigor and moral integrity that we believe is, and has been, the hallmark of thePugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs since 1957," he said. "Indeed, without Jo, there would have been no Pugwash, and far less pressure from the scientific community on governments to abandon nuclear weapons." Rotblat's other honors included a knighthood in 1998, the Albert EinsteinPeace Prize in 1992, the Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Scientists in 1996, and the Jamnalal Bajaj Peace Award in 1999. The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 49 [NYTr] Obit: Joseph Rotblat Dead at 96; Resisted Nuclear Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2005 23:58:22 -0500 (CDT) WHITE_PHRASE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The New York Times - Sep 2, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/obituaries/02rotblat.html Joseph Rotblat, 96, Dies; Resisted Nuclear Weapons By HOLCOMB B. NOBLE Sir Joseph Rotblat, a physicist who was the only scientist to quit working on developing the atomic bomb for moral reasons and who won the Nobel Peace Prize a half-century later for his worldwide campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons, died Wednesday night in London. He was 96. His death was announced by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which he and other scientists founded in 1957. Dr. Rotblat, a Polish-born physicist, was 87 when the Nobel committee awarded the 1995 peace prize to him and the Pugwash conferences for convening scientists, scholars and, later, political leaders, from both East and West "to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the long run to eliminate such arms." "We have been trying for 40 years to save the world, sometimes against the world's wishes," Mr. Rotblat said. The Pugwash meetings for many years provided the only channel of communications between scientists who knew one another personally or through their publications to speak to each another as individuals, not as representatives of countries or organizations, about the technicalities of disarmament and arms control. Their meetings were able to range more widely than those of diplomats operating under strict instructions from their governments. Historians credit them with laying the groundwork for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. Dr. Rotblat led the talks from the first meeting in 1957, held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, until 1997. In 1955 he was a principal author of the manifesto that inspired them. That declaration had been signed by Albert Einstein, who died before the meeting, and Bertrand Russell, who could not attend because he was ill. "Remember your humanity, and forget the rest," it said. That statement and the Pugwash gatherings challenged the prevailing view that scientists should stick to science. Because they best knew the powers of technology, Dr. Rotblat and his colleagues believed they had no choice but to address political questions. Initially calling for destroying all nuclear weapons, the conferences became more nuanced in both issues and proposed solutions as the big powers reached a precarious balance of terror. The Pugwash experts, without ever renouncing their goal of disarmament, took on the tangled, intricate issues of arms control. No matter how technical some of these issues were, Dr. Rotblat found himself buffeted by strong and conflicting outside forces. Some, particularly conservatives in the Reagan administration, accused him of being a servant or unwitting tool of the Soviet Union. Others saw him as a symbol of resistance: the Nobel committee said his prize was partly a protest against Chinese and French nuclear tests. Joseph Rotblat was born in Warsaw on Nov. 4, 1908, one of seven children of prosperous Jewish parents. He went to work at 15 as an electrician, but managed to pass the entrance exams to University of Warsaw by studying at night. In 1930, he met and married Tola Gryn, a literature student. Enthralled with Einstein's discoveries about the nature of energy, he obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in physics. In 1939, he won a research fellowship to Liverpool University, where he studied with Sir James Chadwick, the discoverer of the neutron. His wife stayed in Warsaw because the fellowship's stipend was small. When his stipend increased, he returned to Poland to fetch his wife. She was ill and could not leave. The day after he left for London without her, Hitler invaded Poland. He tried to rescue her, but never saw her again. He never remarried, explaining that he never learned anything "definite" about his wife. He left no immediate survivors. On his return trip to Poland, Dr. Rotblat visited Ludwik Wertenstein, director of the Radiological Laboratory of Warsaw. Dr. Rotblat showed him some calculations he had done on how an atomic bomb could be made and asked, "Should I be doing this?" Dr. Wertenstein answered that he himself would not work on such a project. "This wasn't a great help, I'm afraid," Dr. Rotblat said. After the war started, Dr. Rotblat decided the only way to stop Hitler from making an atomic bomb was to make sure the Allies could threaten retaliation in kind. Back in Britain, Dr. Chadwick told him to go ahead with his research. In 1944, Dr. Rotblat and Dr. Chadwick became members of the British team assigned to the Manhattan Project to help build a bomb. As the Allies began to win the war without an atomic bomb, Dr. Rotblat felt deeper and deeper misgivings about the project. His colleagues responded that it was important to see the experiment through, but late in 1944 Dr. Chadwick told him that intelligence indicated the Germans were not working on a nuclear weapon. Dr. Rotblat left the project after nine months on it. After the war, he was visited by American intelligence agents who accused him of spying for the Soviet Union and planning to fly from Britain into Poland to give atomic secrets to the Soviets. He convinced the agents of his loyalty, but was threatened with arrest if he divulged his reasons for quitting the Manhattan Project. He was banned from entering the United States until 1951. Allegations of being a spy, or at least a Russian sympathizer, continued, but no proof was established. In 1997, he addressed the accusations in an interview, saying he would never spy on his government. He said he would publicly blow the whistle on his country if it was "a threat to humanity," but never to a foreign country wanting to "engage in the same wrong." In 1995, in an interview with William J. Broad of The New York Times, he was asked if he thought that past atomic spying by the Soviet Union on the United States was a good thing if it helped level the precarious balance in which the two superpowers were caught. He said yes, under some circumstances. "My philosophy is to never say never," he said. After he left Los Alamos, N.M., home of the Manhattan Project, he returned to Dr. Chadwick's lab in Liverpool. He remained silent until the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, then began giving talks in England to convince his fellow scientists of the need for a moratorium on nuclear weapons. In 1949, he joined the Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London where he led studies on the effect of radiation on living organisms. After the American test of a hydrogen bomb in Bikini Atoll in 1954, he met Bertrand Russell on the set of the BBC Television program "Panorama." Lord Russell started to come to him to ask for information about the bomb, then decided to get eminent scientists from around the world to join in issuing a statement on the dangers of thermonuclear war. They soon had the enthusiastic support of Einstein. Dr. Rotblat was the youngest of the 11 who signed the manifesto, and was the last to die. Signers included nine Nobel Prize winners, including Einstein, Linus Pauling, Frederic Joliot-Curie, the German physicist Max Born and the Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa. The scientists got the backing of Cyrus Eaton, a Canadian industrialist and self-styled global peacemaker, who offered money and his boyhood home in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, for their gathering. Mr. Eaton thought the scientists might get lost in the rush of events if they met in a big city, but could attract attention in a remote location. Only 22 people attended, but they included Aleksandr Topchiyev, vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and George Brock Chisholm, first director general of the World Health Organization. "What 22 people!" Dr. Rotblat said. The conference's report concerned the radiation hazards of nuclear testing and made recommendations on arms control and the social responsibilities of scientists. The conclusions were sent to leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, Britain and the Soviet Academy of Scientists. Only Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, leader of Dr. Rotblat's adopted country, did not reply. Over the years, Dr. Rotblat's off-the-record meetings of Nobel laureates came to include government advisers and well-connected academics from both sides of the Iron Curtain. The resultant lines of communication aided the passing of vital information during the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War and other times of tension. An example was Henry A. Kissinger's role as an intermediary for the United States in talks with North Vietnam on a bombing halt before he joined the Nixon administration. "Pugwash played a major, pioneering role, starting before everyone else, in helping soften the edges of the cold war, and taming it," Charles William Maynes, a former editor of Foreign Policy, once observed. He cited the greater openness of people speaking unofficially. For example, at the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, India, in 1964, American scientists with connections to the Defense Department suggested banning antimissile missiles. The Soviets questioned why anyone would give up the right to intercept a missile heading for its own border. Over the ensuing three years an antimissile ban continued to be discussed at Pugwash meetings. Finally, in 1967, at a hotel on the shore of the Black Sea in Sochi, Yevgeny Velikhov, director of the Kurchatov Institute, a huge weapons research center in the Soviet Union, rose and said he had changed his mind. "Moses cast his rod on the ground and it became not only a serpent - but all the serpents of hell," he said, explaining his position that defensive missiles would just spawn more offensive ones. Five years later, during the Nixon administration, the Antimissile Treaty was signed. Since Communism sputtered out in 1989, Pugwash has redefined its mission for a world without two distinct power centers. In particular, it has brought together scientists, experts and policy makers to discuss ways to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly to terrorists. The original goal of disarmament persists. In 1993, Dr. Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences published a book titled "Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Is It Desirable? Is It Feasible?" and translated it into seven languages. It argued that dividing the world into countries that are allowed to have nuclear weapons and those that are not is hardly a basis for stability. The solution, the book said, is to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely as well as to change political systems to end war itself. Some experts see this solution as naove. George Rathjens, a physical chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was once chairman of the American chapter of the Pugwash Conferences, said: "If the United States were to disarm and Britain kept its nuclear weapons, I would not be upset. But if Libya did, I certainly would not be happy." Dr. Rathjens said Sir Joseph was not interested in such nitty-gritty details, but was "a very great man" because of his broad vision. By contrast, Richard N. Perle, assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration, said the Pugwash leaders were "definitely Communist dupes." He cited the antimissile treaty, he said, because he believed it served Soviet purposes. Sir Joseph's response was that he and his colleagues "were never working for the Russians in any way to make life sweeter for them." He declared: "We were working for the whole of civilization." In 1996, he convened the 208th Pugwash Conference, in Hiroshima, and, a few days later, he addressed a seminar in Nagasaki. Sir Joseph was knighted in 1998. Courtly and brimming with Old World charm, and fired by the enthusiasm of a man half his age, Sir Joseph traveled the world, sometimes making three speeches a day on disarmament. "Once I get on this subject, I'm always energized," he said. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 50 Colorado Daily News: Contamination discovered By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer Thursday, September 1, 2005 9:04 PM MDT Crews decontaminating the former Rocky Flats plutonium trigger facility have found several areas on site over the past three months with radiation readings above cleanup agreement levels, according to an Associated Press report. John Corsi, spokesperson for cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill Company, said the discoveries came after U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials asked Kaiser-Hill to do additional testing near an area called the "903 Pad." Corsi said the pad area has been the largest area for Flats soil remediation, in part because of windblown spreading of contamination. "We went beyond sampling protocols required by the Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement (RFCA), we found five areas with radiation above the action levels described in RFCA, and we immediately went in and cleaned them up," said Corsi. Niels Schonbeck, a biochemistry professor at Metropolitan State College in Denver who has researched Rocky Flats, said he believes crews will be able to find additional currently unidentified areas with elevated radiation, and said DOE and Kaiser-Hill are downplaying the contamination danger. "The people who are cleaning this up want to do it for the lowest amount of money and be credited with cleaning up the site," said Schonbeck in the AP account. Corsi said he disagreed with Schonbeck's statements, and said officials will spend $7 billion on the cleanup effort, a sum he called a substantial amount of money. "Also, we've said all along, as part of our final site sampling and verification, if we find something we'll act on it," said Corsi. "We're not done until we're done." The Flats site is scheduled to become a National Wildlife Refuge after the regulatory agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, have approved the cleanup. Corsi said Kaiser-Hill is in the final stages of the cleanup, and said DOE has again asked for additional soil testing. Corsi said the RFCA requires soil in the Flats industrial zone to read 50 picocuries of radiation per gram of soil or less. A picocurie is one-trillionth of a curie, and a curie is the radioactivity of one gram of radium. He said the five elevated samples measured at an average of "70-90 picocuries," and said Kaiser-Hill removed "about 75 cubic yards" of soil from the site and shipped it to an Envirocare waste storage facility. Contact Richard Valenty about this report at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126 or . | Colorado Daily Online Edition 2610 Pearl St. Boulder, CO 80302 303.443.6272 ***************************************************************** 51 Guardian Unlimited: Workers Get $4.7 Million in Hanford Trial From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 2, 2005 10:16 PM By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press Writer YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A jury awarded more than $4.7 million in damages Friday to 11 workers who say a contractor fired them for expressing safety concerns about work at Hanford nuclear reservation. The workers say seven pipefitters objected in 1997 when they were told to install a valve rated to withstand less pressure than was needed for a test of radioactive waste pipes. The crew was later laid off, but a settlement required the contractor, Fluor Federal Services, to rehire them. The plaintiffs' attorneys contended that foremen on the job were told they would have to lay off seven other pipefitters to bring the first seven back. Attorneys for Fluor Federal Services argued there simply was not enough work at the Hanford site for all of the pipefitters. An attorney said the company would consider an appeal. The jury awards ranged from $89,700 for one plaintiff to more than $553,000 for another. They sought lost wages and all but one sought damages for emotional distress. The lawsuit involved five of the original seven pipefitters and six included in the second layoffs. The workers were gratified by the ruling, but dismayed that it took as long as it did, said Tom Carpenter, director of the nuclear oversight program for the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower group that sued on behalf of the workers. The lawsuit had been filed six years ago but was delayed by appeals. Randall Walli, the foreman assigned to the crew that refused to install the valve, said he hopes the verdict sends a message to managers at Hanford's contractors. GAP said the jury awarded Walli $456,900. ``It's the workers who are putting themselves in danger when things don't go right, and they are the ones, for the most part, who know what they are working around,'' Walli said. ``If they have concerns, they need to be addressed, and they need to be addressed properly.'' Carpenter said attorney's fees and a fine would be sought against Fluor Federal Services. Randy Squires, an attorney for Fluor Federal Services, said the company has 30 days to file notice that it plans to appeal. ``The company's view is that it did not retaliate against these people,'' he said. The valve that was to have been installed was located in Hanford's so-called tank farms, which hold 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste left from Cold War-era nuclear weapons production. Some of the 177 aging, underground tanks are known to have leaked, threatening groundwater and the Columbia River less than 10 miles away. The Hanford site was created as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. Cleanup costs are expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion, with the work to be finished by 2035. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 52 Rocky Mountain News: Flats still has hot spots Low-level radiation found in some areas thought to be clean By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News September 2, 2005 Final review of the clean-up of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant has found spots of unexpected low-level radioactive contamination in areas thought to have been cleared. U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard immediately responded to the announcement of the test results Thursday night with a press release questioning "whether the site has been sufficiently cleaned up." Allard said Rocky Flats will not be closed until it has met its clean-up standards. But the Energy Department's John Rampe dismissed the minor hot spots as too small to be of concern in the 6,000-acre site 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver. Rampe, who announced the test results Thursday night at a public meeting at Front Range Community College, said the chance of getting cancer at the site is still only one in a million. Rocky Flats, which manufactured the cores of tens of thousands of atomic bombs, is nearing the end of a 10-year decontamination effort. It expected to return to meadow as soon as October. Several years after that, most of it is to be opened to the public for hiking as a wildlife refuge. Three tests were conducted on the site in recent months to double-check that the clean-up is complete. One test found slightly higher levels of contamination than the very strict clean-up standard in 1.6 percent of the areas sampled. "So, two of 100 people are going to get contaminated?" asked Earl Guria, a retired Navy nuclear submarine officer, now a technical adviser to the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory board. "That's not going to give people a warm and fuzzy (feeling)." Rampe replied that the areas of contamination "are too small to be significant." David Abelson, executive of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, another watchdog group, said the test results "raise a lot of questions that need to be answered." First, the Energy Department is not requiring clean-up of all the minor hot spots to the legal standard - 50 trillionths of a curie of radiation, Abelson said. Second, if examiners found hot spots in the few small areas they double-checked, Abelson wants to know what might be in the rest of the site that didn't get an intensive re-examination. "In an area that we thought had no problem, that (we thought) was remediated, we find elevated levels," Abelson said. "I can't tell my board there's not a problem." Rampe insisted the radiation was statistically insignificant. "If we find a couple of pennies on the beach, you don't conclude that the beach is made of copper," he said. But Erin Hamby of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center objected to that analogy. She said pennies aren't as dangerous as plutonium, where an inhaled speck can cause cancer. Watchdogs were most concerned about Tan area, where plutonium and solvents stored in drums leaked into the soil and then blew in the wind to the east and south. Clean-up contractor Kaiser-Hill removed tons of contaminated soil from the site and shipped it to a nuclear waste storage facility. The Department of Energy ruled the site clean. Nevertheless, this summer's examination found 13 slightly hot spots. Another test of the boundaries of the same cleaned-up area found 28 of 178 sites checked had elevated levels of contamination. Retesting brought that number down to five. All those boundary hot spots were cleaned up in August. In a third test long-sought by Rocky Flats skeptics, a helicopter crisscrossed every bit of the site, taking 44,000 readings, checking for spots where radioactive waste had been secretly dumped. That test found one unexpected low-level hot spot just south of the site and east of Colorado 93, on a cattle pasture owned by the State Land Board. imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5438 © Rocky Mountain News ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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