***************************************************************** 09/16/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.215 ***************************************************************** 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: Iran May Offer Nukes for Supervision 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Confident on Iran After Putin Meeting 3 AFP: Europeans revive talks with Iran; united action urged against 4 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Iran's nuclear programme 5 IRNA: Ahmadinejad rules out comments by violators of safeguards - 6 Guardian Unlimited: Britain leads threat to impose nuclear sanctions 7 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Set to Give Nuclear Info to Others 8 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Urges China to Intercede on N. Korea 9 Guardian Unlimited: Koreas Agree to Work Toward Peace 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: Nuke Talks Still 'In Business' 11 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Talks in 'Stalemate' Over Reactor 12 Guardian Unlimited: China Offers Revised Disarmament Proposal 13 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Slams U.S. for Refusing Demand 14 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Rejects China's Nuclear Proposal 15 Guardian Unlimited: Korea's Refusal Stalls Six-Nation Talks 16 China CRI: Six-Party Talks 4th Day Report 17 Reuters: North Korea nuclear talks in disarray 18 Reuters: N.Korea says will accept nuclear energy inspections 19 US: Other Voices: A threat to environmental law 20 US: Consortiumnews.com: Powell's Widening Credibility Gap 21 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Disputes Top Bush-Putin Meeting 22 UPI: Analysis: U.N. summit winds up NUCLEAR REACTORS 23 US: POST Newspapers: N-power high on emissions 24 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy to give Kent reactor further 25 ForUm :: United States' Nuclear Regulation Commission visited Cherno 26 India: Rediff: Russia endorses civilian nuclear energy pact 27 US: Las Vegas RJ: Companies plan nuclear power plants 28 US: Las Vegas SUN: French, U.S. companies to build nuke power plant 29 US: toledoblade.com: Skip FirstEnergy case, 5 Ohio justices urged 30 US: Times-Standard: NRC announces results of Humboldt Bay nuke rod i 31 Xinhua: ITER partners want immediate construction of nuclear reacto 32 UK: HSE: Quarterly statement of incidents at nuclear installations 33 US: NRC: Callaway Plant, Unit 1; Notice of Consideration of Issuance 34 Japan Times: Japan nixes North's demand for reactor 35 US: Hudson Valley News: County officials upset with Indian Point sir 36 Telegraph: Ten more years for nuclear power station 37 BERNAMA: Scientist Says Malaysia Must Look At Nuclear Energy For Pow NUCLEAR SECURITY 38 US: Washington Times: 3 illegals arrested at nuclear station NUCLEAR SAFETY 39 US: NRC: Transportation Package Response to the Baltimore Tunnel Fir 40 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Fini 41 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find 42 Yokwe: Marshall Islands and US Reps Meet for Nuke Legacy Review NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 43 US: AU ABC: Uranium exploration planned despite mining ban 44 Bellona: Construction of reactor storage facility in Sayda bay behin 45 Las Vegas SUN: NRC is told quality comes first on Yucca Mountain 46 RGJ.com: New Yucca leadership? 47 Chillicothe Gazette: Report: Centrifuge poses no big risk to environ 48 US: LA Daily News: Water cleanup plan set 49 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Waste casks stand up to searing flames' heat 50 Pahrump Valley Times: Katrina proved we really are on our own 51 AU ABC: Katherine lobby group to fight nuclear dump plans - 52 US: Deseret News: U.S. checking on PFS 53 US: Deseret News: Navajos fight against uranium mining PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 54 AZOM: ORNL Project to Investigate Design of Future Fusion Power Plan ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iran May Offer Nukes for Supervision From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 5:46 PM By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran may offer to put its nuclear activities under broader international supervision when its president addresses the U.N. General Assembly this weekend, European officials and diplomats said Friday. Speaking to The Associated Press a day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled speech, the officials were guarded about the chances that Ahmadinejad might announce a new freeze on uranium conversion just weeks after Tehran resumed the practice - and sparked the present crisis over its atomic program. Divulging some details of a closed meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. summit in New York, the officials and diplomats said members of the Iranian president's team told the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany that Tehran's right to develop and apply the nuclear cycle was not up for debate. Uranium conversion, a precursor to uranium enrichment, is part of that cycle. All those agreeing to discuss the topic demanded anonymity because of the confidentiality of the meeting. Iran says it is interested in enrichment only to generate power, but the United States says Tehran wants to create weapons-grade uranium as part of a nuclear arms program - an accusation repeated Friday by the spokesman for the U.S. mission in Vienna. ``Iran has used its nuclear program as a cover and pretext for efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capability,'' said Matthew Boland of the mission, which deals with the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran's nuclear dossier. Washington has been a key force in trying to marshal enough support at Monday's board meeting of the Vienna-based IAEA for referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could consider sanctions. Boland said ``the board must live up to its obligations'' and ask for council involvement unless Iran stops its ``provocative (nuclear) activities.'' Momentum for Security Council action grew after Tehran last month rejected economic and other incentives offered by Britain, France and Germany - negotiating on behalf of the EU - and resumed uranium conversion. The Europeans say Tehran broke its word by unilaterally restarting that activity while still discussing ways to reduce international suspicions about its nuclear agenda. But the U.S.-European effort for Security Council involvement has run into trouble due to stubborn resistance from council members Russia and China, as well as by India, Pakistan and other key nations. Diplomats and European officials said the Security Council option formally remained, but an idea was gaining favor of giving Iran a deadline of several weeks to comply with international demands meant to reduce suspicions about its nuclear activities. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also said after the New York meetings with the Iranians that the previous offers ``are still on the table.'' ``We're going to listen carefully'' to Ahmadinejad's comments Saturday to the General Assembly, ``and make an assessment from there'' on what action to pursue at the IAEA board meeting, he said. Ahmadinejad said Thursday his country was willing to offer nuclear technology to other Muslim states, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. At the United Nations for a summit of leaders, Ahmadinejad also repeated promises that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons, the report said. France has no objection to Iran's proposal to provide nuclear technology to other Muslim states, as long as it respects the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said. Respecting the international treaty is ``paramount,'' Simonneau said. The State Department expressed concern about Ahmadinejad's proposal. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Confident on Iran After Putin Meeting From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 11:01 PM AP Photo WHCD102 By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush predicted Friday that Iran will be called to account before the United Nations Security Council over what the United States claims is a rogue nuclear program, but he acknowledged that step may not come as quickly as he wants. ``I am confident that the world will see to it that Iran goes to the U.N. Security Council if it does not live up to its agreements,'' Bush said following a meting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ally of both the United States and Iran. ``When that referral will happen is a matter of diplomacy,'' Bush said. ``And that's what we talked about; we talked about how to deal with this situation diplomatically.'' His words were a signal that the United States has apparently given up hopes that the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency would vote to send Iran's case before the Security Council when it meets in Vienna next week. The Bush administration had been lobbying hard for that outcome, but ran into opposition from several nations, including Russia. If the International Atomic Energy Agency delays action on Iran, as is now expected, it will be the second time in a row that the body has skipped an opportunity to initiate punishment for Tehran. Bush and Putin called one another by their first names and seemed friendly as they spoke to reporters following an Oval Office meeting. Each left his strongest criticism of the other unsaid: Bush didn't say anything about U.S. concern that Putin is overseeing a creep toward authoritarian rule in post-Soviet Russia, while Putin was silent about what Russia views as U.S. slights and double standards over democratic political expansion on old Soviet turf. Bush thanked Putin for Russian assistance following Hurricane Katrina, and Putin returned to the hurricane frequently during the question and answer session. ``These events, to the entire world, have become a serious lesson, not only for the U.S.,'' Putin said. ``Today I told George that in Russia we, too, will draw our conclusions'' about preparing and planning for similar disasters, Putin said. Before their meeting, Putin had been quoted as saying he was dumbfounded that images of the destruction on his television screen came from the powerful United States. Both men stressed ongoing cooperation in fighting terrorism - the foundation of improved U.S.-Russian relations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Bush also said he wants expanded economic ties with Russia, and noted that Russia can sell energy the United States is keen to buy. Although U.S.-Russian bonds have frayed a bit in the last two years, nuclear nonproliferation remains an area of strong cooperation. That cooperation includes the present effort to persuade North Korea to give up its declared nuclear program, but the United States and Russia have parted ways over Iran. Putin made a point Friday of noting that he had just met with Iran's new hard-line president during the United Nations summit in New York, and that the Iranian leader had repeated his assurance that Tehran is interested only in producing energy, not nuclear weapons. The United States is openly skeptical of that claim, although Bush said nothing about it Friday. Bush noted, and Putin agreed, that the two leaders do share the goal of preventing Iran from building a bomb. ``Now, as regards as to how we can control this situation, there are many ways and means to do so,'' Putin added. Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant, and the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said it sees no basis for referring Tehran to the Security Council. The Security Council could impose punitive economic sanctions on Iran if it agrees that Iran has worked to disguise a covert weapons program. The European Union has taken the lead in trying to persuade Iran to halt development of nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons. In exchange, Iran would win economic concessions. If the case does end up before the Security Council, Russian cooperation could be critical. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia could veto any resolution punishing Iran or could abstain. China also could veto any possible punishment. The White House acknowledged Wednesday that Bush was unable to get a commitment on Iran during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: Europeans revive talks with Iran; united action urged against terror 16/09/2005 04h16 German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer speaks to the press after meeting with his British, German and Iranian counterparts ©AFP - Don Emmert UNITED NATIONS, (AFP) - Three European foreign ministers revived talks with Iran here in a bid to head off a showdown over its nuclear program as world powers pressed for united action to combat terrorism on the second day of the UN summit. The ministers of Britain, France and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart and later conferred briefly with the Islamic Republic's new president in a diplomatic push brokered by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The talks came four days before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was to meet in Vienna to discuss seeking possible UN action against Iran for resuming suspected nuclear weapons activities. "We had a very thorough exchange of the different positions of the EU-3 and the new government of Iran," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after the 80-minute session with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the ministers had a "very frank discussion" in the first talks between Iran and the so-called EU-3 since a May 25 session in Geneva. The ministers later sat down with Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who planned to unveil what Tehran called new proposals to resolve the standoff in a speech here Saturday. "We're going to listen carefully to what the president has to say and we'll take it from there," Straw said afterwards. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who also attended the meeting with Ahmadinejad along with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, stressed there were no actual negotiations. "We have only prepared the ground," Solana said. "If it is possible to continue? .... it's not clear yet. We have to wait until the speech." Douste-Blazy insisted the EU-3 strategy had always been to avoid involving the Security Council, but added that the next step would depend on how far Ahmadinejad's speech goes in addressing the Europeans' concerns. "If there's no movement, no change ... it's not at all impossible that there will be a referral to the Council," he said. Annan organized the meeting between Iran and the EU-3, which has been trying for nearly two years to wean Tehran off its suspected nuclear arms ambitions with economic and security incentives. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ©AFP/ITAR-TASS - Alexey Panov On the margins of the summit, Russian President Vladimir also huddled with Ahmadinejad but a Russian official who was present for the first half of the hour-long meeting said the two leaders did not discuss Tehran's nuclear program. Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, a move which has sparked controversy as the United States and other Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to secretly build nuclear weapons. Moscow has indicated it will not support hauling Iran before the UN Security Council over its suspected weapons-related nuclear program, as sought by the United States and its European allies. Making his debut appearance on the international stage Wednesday, Ahmadinejad lashed out at Western "interventionism" but did not touch the thorny nuclear issue when he addressed the General Assembly. Ahmadinejad has defended his country's nuclear program as purely peaceful. The United States has been lobbying for world support to haul Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions but has signaled it may not have enough backing when the IAEA board convenes Monday. Meanwhile taking the podium on the second day of the summit, Putin said collective international action was the best weapon to defeat terrorism which he called "the ideological successor of Nazism." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ©AFP - Maxim Marmur He insisted that the United Nations and its Security Council "must remain the main centers for coordinating international cooperation in the fight against terrorism as the ideological successor of Nazism." Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also made a desperate plea to confront the terrorist "forces of darkness" seeking to destabilise his country. He spoke just hours after suicide bombers struck Baghdad for the second day, killing at least 23 people, after a devastating string of car bomb attacks left some 150 dead and several hundred more wounded. Chinese leader Hu Jintao also urged the summit to establish a new "fair and effective" security order and step up cooperation in combating global terrorism. The leader of the Asian Communist giant made it clear that the United Nations should be "the core" of collective security efforts. "Such a role can only be strengthened and must not in any way be weakened," he said. Hu, whose country has begun to flex its economic muscle, also said the world "should work actively to establish and improve a multilateral trading system that is open, fair and non-discriminatory." In other developments, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters here Thursday that the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December was one of a series of milestones on the way to ridding the planet of extreme poverty. Copyright Disclaimer ©AFP 2005 ***************************************************************** 4 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Iran's nuclear programme World Crises | Reuters.com Fri 16 Sep 2005 5:12 AM ET Sept 16 (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors begins meeting on Monday, and the United States and European Union may press for Iran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the EU hoped to avoid referring Iran's nuclear programme to the Council, but the next step would depend on proposals to be made by the new Iranian president on Saturday. Here are some major events since the nuclear programme first came to light: Aug. 2002 - An exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says there is a massive uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water plant at Arak. Dec. 2002 - With the help of satellite photos of Natanz and Arak, the United States accuses Iran of "across-the-board pursuit of weapons of mass destruction". Feb. 2003 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei and his team inspect Natanz and Arak. June 2003 - IAEA issues first report after the inspection, saying Tehran has failed to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). July 2003 - Diplomats tell Reuters the IAEA has found traces of weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) at Natanz. Sept. 2003 - IAEA finds weapons-grade HEU traces at a second site in Iran, the Kalaye Electric Company. Oct. 2003 - Iran tells French, British and German foreign ministers negotiating for the European Union -- the so-called EU3 -- it will suspend all enrichment-related activities. Dec. 2003 - Iran signs protocol allowing snap inspections of its nuclear facilities. March 2004 - IAEA board "deplores" Iran's omissions of key atomic technology from its October declaration. June 2004 - IAEA board says Iran's cooperation with the agency was not full, timely and proactive. In retaliation, Iran says it is resuming production and testing of centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium. Sept. 2004 - IAEA asks Iran to suspend uranium enrichment programme immediately. Nov. 2004 - Iran promises France, Britain and Germany it will suspend all nuclear fuel processing and reprocessing work. Jan. 2005 - Iran agrees to allow U.N. inspections of military site where Washington believes work linked to bomb-making. Feb. 2005 - President Mohammed Khatami says no Iranian government, present or future, will give up nuclear technology programmes, including uranium enrichment. Iran signs a nuclear fuel supply deal with Russia, opposed by the United States, to start its first atomic power plant by 2006. May 2005 - Iran agrees at a meeting with the EU in Geneva to hold off on plans to restart the Isfahan uranium processing plant for two months after EU warnings it would be referred to the U.N. Security Council. July 2005 - Khatami says Iran will resume some key work on its nuclear fuel cycle regardless of what the Europeans propose. Aug. 5, 2005 - The EU presents Iran with proposals on economic and political cooperation and insists Tehran give up nuclear fuel work. Iran rejects the offer. Aug. 9, 2005 - The IAEA meets in crisis to try to stop Iran pursuing a nuclear programme a day after Tehran resumed work at a less sensitive area of the Isfahan uranium plant. Aug. 10, 2005 - Iran breaks U.N. seals at its Isfahan uranium conversion plant, breaching the suspension of sensitive nuclear work agreed with the EU3 in November. Aug. 11, 2005 - IAEA board unanimously passes resolution calling on Iran to resume the suspension agreed with the EU3. Sept. 2, 2005 - A report by IAEA chief ElBaradei confirms Iran restarted uranium conversion at Isfahan and says the IAEA is "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran". Sept. 14 - France's prime minister says the EU3 are determined to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council unless it resumes a full suspension of sensitive nuclear work, including Isfahan, despite IAEA's misgivings about a U.N. referral. Sept. 15 - Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says in New York that Tehran is ready to transfer nuclear know-how to other Islamic countries. (Compiled by Francois Murphy in Vienna) © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 IRNA: Ahmadinejad rules out comments by violators of safeguards - New York, Sept 16, IRNA --- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that countries violating nuclear safeguards are not competent to comment on other states' peaceful nuclear program. In an interview on the sidelines of the UN summit, Ahmadinejad said disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons are the most important chapters of the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "A country, which possesses the biggest nuclear arsenal, embarks on proliferation of nuclear weapons in defiance of the safeguards and threatens to use them against others, is not competent to comment on peaceful use of nuclear know-how by other states." In a meeting with several American chief editors and directors of the highly circulated newspapers and news and TV channels, he stressed that instead of raising any claims, such a country should be brought under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and be accountable for its conducts and measures. "The present era marks the era of awakening of public opinion and the implementation of the will and wishes of nations. The era of bullying and resorting to force is passing away because it is the resolve of nations that has the last say." He ruled out opining by a few countries on behalf of the international community, saying, "The world has not allowed anybody to speak on behalf of the world nations. "Therefore, the countries assigning other states should know that such an approach worldwide will not guarantee a lasting order." Ahmadinejad said those who have used shells contaminated with depleted uranium in Iraq should be accountable for their move, saying the shells were used against Iraqi people and even the occupying forces were not immune of their adverse impacts. "Had former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein been the main target, they could have stopped supporting him and let Iraqi nation decide about him and their own future," added Ahmadinejad. Asked about possibility of Iran's using fossil fuel reserves, he said all scientists and pundits know well that fossil fuel reserves are depleting and the US, despite having giant fossil fuel reserves, has made considerable amount of investment in the nuclear energy field. "If countries are to be forced to use a special kind of product, in that case many restrictions should be imposed on the US," said the president. He said that as a developing state, Iran should speedily increase its investment in different energy related sectors and undoubtedly, it will benefit from its legal and natural right and will not miss the chance to use nuclear energy, which is a clean source of energy. He dismissed as "unreasonable and unacceptable" the dual approach which considers the use of nuclear energy "good" for some states and "bad" for certain other states. Turning to the developments in Iraq, Ahmadinejad said that based on the international relations laws, Iraq's occupiers are responsible for the country's security. "It seems that insecurity in Iraq has provided a pretext for continued occupation of the country but experience has proved that presence of occupiers is in contradiction with the interests of the country's people," said the Iranian president. He stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran is sensitive towards the developments in Iraq. "Strong emotional and cultural affinities between the Iranian nation and the Iraqi people from different walks of life, including Kurds, Turkmens, Shiites and Sunnis, prompt Tehran to be sensitive towards Iraqi issues. "Iran supports Iraqi people's right to decide their own fate and takes security in its neighboring country as its own." He said the bullying of those possessing nuclear weapons worldwide have made the world insecure. "Where will the world lead to with this model of domination, intimidation and threat and use of a literature of supremacy," he asked. Ahmadinejad said the UN Security Council is a haven to promote peace worldwide not a place to threaten and intimidate people. "When the Security Council turns into a tool to threaten the rights of nations, it will surely lose its efficiency and the adverse impacts of such relations will affect the whole world," said the president. "The military, economic and media supremacy of a country would not reserve any rights for it and such a country cannot demand any rights beyond what the international regulations have officially recognized for it. Therefore, the US should stop dealing with the world from a position of supremacy." In another part of the interview, Ahmadinejad said love, affection and kindness towards human beings would guarantee lasting peace and security worldwide. "We should love human beings to move towards goodness and virtues. If we do not like human beings, we will not be contented with anything less than genocide, tyranny and development of weapons of mass destruction," he said. Ahmadinejad said if the US administration wants lasting and durable peace and security, it should change its approach towards nations, the approach which is based on supremacy and humiliation, and instead stand beside nations and love them. ***************************************************************** 6 Guardian Unlimited: Britain leads threat to impose nuclear sanctions on Iran Tough talks with Iran's leaders fail to end nuclear standoff Straw and EU partners try to break deadlock Tehran leadership accuses Bush of undermining UN Ewen MacAskill in New York, Ian Traynor Friday September 16, 2005 The Guardian A diplomatic move by Britain, France and Germany to end the standoff over Tehran's expanding nuclear power programme failed to achieve a breakthrough yesterday after top level talks with the new Iranian leadership at the United Nations. On the sidelines of the UN summit, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and his French and German counterparts, Philippe Douste-Blazy and Joschka Fischer, met Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's new foreign minister for what they described as "tough talks". No new proposals were put forward by either side. Article continues The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, brokered the talks and organised a further meeting last night between the European troika and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Iranian president. It was the first meeting between Mr Ahmadinejad and western European leaders. Mr Straw welcomed the chance to meet the new president to gauge his intentions. The US government, Israel and the three European countries all suspect Iran is intent on building nuclear weapons capability. Iran claims it only wants a civilian nuclear programme. The Europeans have been pursuing the diplomatic route for two years in the face of scepticism from the US and Israel, but negotiations collapsed last month when Tehran restarted its uranium enrichment programme, a step towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability. Mr Ahmadinejad, one of the regime's hardliners, said he had "new proposals" but he intended to hold them back until tomorrow. The Europeans were not hopeful the proposals would be meaningful. Addressing the UN general assembly, he said the global body was being undermined by the unilateralism of the US. As he spoke, the US delegation walked out. The US has had no diplomatic ties with Iran since Americans were taken hostage in Tehran two decades ago. Mr Ahmadinejad also told Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, at a meeting on the sidlelines that Iran would be happy to export civilian nuclear technology to other Islamic countries. Mr Bush has been lobbying to find a majority on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN atomic watchdog based in Vienna, in favour of referring Iran to the security council, which has the power to impose sanctions. The board meets on Monday. British officials are drafting a toughly worded resolution to report Tehran to the security council unless the Iranian regime backs down and reinstates its freeze on uranium processing activities. "It seems we're on track for the security council," a diplomat in Vienna said. "The Iranians are being given every opportunity to climb down. If they don't, it's New York." Another senior diplomat close to the IAEA who opposes reporting Iran to New York said: "People are running headlong into a brick wall. It's not looking good." There is no consensus on the 35-member board, but a British government official said last month that the Europeans and the US had a "modest majority". Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, appeared less certain when she played down expectations of a referral. "If we get a referral on September 19, that will be good. But I think the issue of a referral is something we will be working for [for] a while." Mr Bush appealed to Hu Jintao, the Chinese leader, to support a referral but was rebuffed. Russia too has rejected that approach. guardian.co.uk/iran [UP] Guardian Unlimited ¿ Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Set to Give Nuclear Info to Others From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 2:31 AM AP Photo NYJJ103 By SAM F. GHATTAS Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iran is willing to provide nuclear technology to other Muslim states, Iran's hard-line president said Thursday. Hours later, European nations renewed an offer of economic incentives if the Mideast nation would halt its uranium enrichment. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment after talking with Turkey's prime minister during a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. Ahmadinejad repeated promises that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons, the report said. Then he added: ``Iran is ready to transfer nuclear know-how to the Islamic countries due to their need.'' At the United Nations, foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany - the three European countries negotiating with Iran on behalf of the European Union - said Ahmadinejad was expected to respond to the renewed offer in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday. The European announcement came after the troika of ministers met with Ahmedinejad and his team as well as U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. ``We put forth proposals. They are still on the table,'' British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after the 80-minute meeting. ``They have yet properly to be considered by the other side.'' Straw said the Iranian leader would make his country's proposals in a speech to the General Assembly. He said Ahmedinejad did not indicate in their meeting whether Iran would halt uranium enrichment. German Foreign Minister Joshcka Fischer said they ``discussed into the details the situation'' with Ahmedinejad and his team and repeated the EU position. The EU is now waiting for the Iranian president's speech. ``Hopefully, we will have a positive direction but I can't predict that,'' he said. After the earlier meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Fischer said the European troika ``underlined that our position is on the table, our position is unchanged.'' The U.N. spokesman, reporting on the president's meeting with Annan, said there were ``cordial discussions on the need to continue the negotiations on the nuclear issue in search of a mutually agreed solution.'' A statement said Ahmedinejad reaffirmed his intention to put forward new proposals in his General Assembly speech on Saturday. The U.S. State Department expressed concern about Ahmedinejad's reported proposal on transferring nuclear technology, saying it makes it more vital that other countries work in concert to stop the Iranian threat. The EU-Iranian meetings took place amid growing opposition from countries to referring the Iran nuclear dispute to the U.N. Security Council. The United States, which suspects Iran may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and European countries warned last week that Tehran is running out of time to freeze uranium processing activities or face referral to the Security Council. But Tehran, which says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy production, has rejected the threat and has warned the United Nations not to go down that road. On Sunday, Mottaki said his country wants to continue dialogue with Europe without preconditions. Diplomats and officials said in Vienna that due to opposition by veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China, as well as by India, Pakistan and other key nations, Washington and the EU were reluctantly weighing less severe options for Monday's board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. They spoke on condition of anonymity. France, Britain and Germany, together with the European Union, have sought for two years to persuade Iran to give up some nuclear activities that can be used to make weapons, but negotiations broke down over the summer and it ended an agreement reached in Paris. Since then, Iran has resumed activities related to uranium enrichment after rejecting a European package of proposals that had called on Iran to permanently stop its uranium enrichment program in return for a supply of nuclear fuel and economic incentives. Straw pointed out that the meetings Thursday were the first with the Iranian side since the election of Ahmedinejad in June. Asked whether the Europeans were losing ground in the negotiations, Straw replied: ``What we're doing is talking and that is always better than not talking. There is a new government. They wish to explain their position.'' France's foreign minister called the discussions a significant moment. ``We had a very frank discussion, which allows me to explain what I've been saying from the very beginning so as to avoid a crisis and to be able to speak in full confidence,'' Philippe Douste-Blazy said. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 8 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Urges China to Intercede on N. Korea From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 5:01 AM AP Photo XIN201 By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - The United States tried Friday to salvage stalled talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, urging China to persuade its communist ally to give up its weapons program without receiving a reactor for generating power. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the six-nation talks were in a ``stalemate,'' with North Korea demanding a light-water reactor before dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for bowing to demands that it give up the weapons program. ``I hope that China will feel a certain responsibility to try to convince the DPRK that the deal is there on the table and it only awaits the decision of the DPRK to take that deal,'' Hill said early Friday, referring to the North by the initials for its official name. Hill said he was headed to a meeting with the Chinese side. Japan, Russia and South Korea are also participating in the talks. China is the North's last major ally and its leading supplier of food and energy aid. Beijing has earlier called for the sides to seek compromise. Hill said he also would meet with the South Korean and Japanese delegations, but had no scheduled meetings with the North Korean delegation. Japan also said Pyongyang needs to drop its demands for atomic power. ``I think it is important that North Korea re-examine its position on this light water reactor problem,'' Kenichiro Sasae, the head of Japan's delegation, said Friday. Chinese officials would not immediately comment on a report by Japan's Kyodo News agency that Beijing was drafting a new proposal for the talks. Citing unidentified sources, Kyodo also reported that North Korea told other nations at the negotiations that it would boost its production of nuclear material if its demand for such a reactor is not met. ``The basic stumbling block has to do with the issue of providing a light-water reactor,'' North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong said Thursday in the first comment from the delegation since the talks resumed. Hill and other delegates said the talks would continue, with no end date set. The United States has said giving such a reactor to the North is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation's history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear technology to build weapons. North Korea was offered two light-water reactors as a reward under a 1994 agreement with the United States to give up weapons development brokered by the Clinton administration. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use. Construction on those reactors was halted in 2002 with the outbreak of the latest nuclear standoff, when U.S. officials said the North admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration has been loudly critical of the earlier deal. ``This is a problem related to the United States' political will to get rid of its hostile policy toward us and peacefully coexist,'' Hyun said. But the North Korean spokesman added that his government still hoped to ``solve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue.'' Hill called the reactor demand a ``nonstarter.'' North Korea, ``not for the first time, has chosen to isolate itself,'' Hill said Thursday evening. The country ``has a rather sad and long history of making the wrong decision on things.'' The latest talks ended a five-week recess after the last session failed to yield an agreement after 13 days of meetings. On Wednesday, a Washington-based think tank released a satellite photo showing that North Korea's reactor at Yongbyon has apparently been restarted. The photo, taken Sunday and released by the Institute for Science and International Security, apparently shows a steam plume rising from the plant's cooling tower. The reactor was shut down earlier this year and the North said its fuel rods were removed, a move that would allow it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea is believed to have reprocessed enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen bombs, and claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons. However, it hasn't performed any known nuclear tests that would confirm its arsenal, which Pyongyang says it needs to deter a U.S. invasion. Washington denies it intends to attack. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 9 Guardian Unlimited: Koreas Agree to Work Toward Peace From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 5:31 AM SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North and South Korea pledged Friday to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on their divided peninsula. The two sides also agreed in a joint statement to stage more reunions of separated families this year and hold their next ministerial talks on South Korea's Jeju Island in December, according to a pool report from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. The divided states remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce rather than a peace treaty, but exchanges have flourished since a historic meeting between their leaders in 2000. This week's talks, which began Tuesday, have been overshadowed by six-nation negotiations under way in Beijing aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: Nuke Talks Still 'In Business' From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 10:46 AM AP Photo BEJ104 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - The chief U.S. envoy to talks on ending North Korea's atomic weapons program met Friday with his North Korean counterpart in an effort to break a stalemate, and said afterward that the negotiations are still ``in business.'' Meanwhile, host China presented a revised proposal saying North Korea has a right to nuclear energy technology, asking other delegations to respond by Saturday afternoon, Russia's envoy to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, told reporters. ``It is a compromise wording which could satisfy both sides,'' Alexeyev said. ``I keep my fingers crossed because still nothing is accepted.'' Further details on the Chinese proposal were not immediately available. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he had ``good'' discussions with the North's chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan. ``At this point, I don't know where these will lead,'' Hill said after a lunch with the South Korean and Japanese negotiators. However, he added: ``We are still in business.'' Hill had said earlier Friday that the six-nation talks were at a standstill over the North's demands for a nuclear reactor in exchange for dismantling its weapons programs, and that he wasn't planning to meet the North Koreans. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 11 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Talks in 'Stalemate' Over Reactor From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 9:01 AM AP Photo XIN201 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - Hoping to salvage six-nation talks, the United States on Friday urged China to persuade its longtime ally North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor for generating power. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks were in a ``stalemate,'' with North Korea demanding a light-water reactor before dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for bowing to demands that it give up the weapons program. ``I hope that China will feel a certain responsibility to try to convince the DPRK that the deal is there on the table and it only awaits the decision of the DPRK to take that deal,'' Hill said Friday morning, referring to the North by the initials of its official name. In New York, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said any comprehensive settlement of the nuclear standoff would have to include normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States. Roh, who is attending a U.N. summit, said he was optimistic the crisis could be resolved but that it still makes him nervous. ``Every time I think about the North Korean nuclear weapons issue, I always pray to God,'' he said. ``I ask you to do the same.'' Despite the nuclear standoff, the North and South have continued reconciliation efforts while remaining technically at war. On Friday at high-level talks between the two sides in Pyongyang, the Koreas pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on the divided peninsula. In Beijing, Hill said he was headed to a meeting Friday with the Chinese side. Japan, Russia and South Korea are also participating in the talks. Hill said he thought the Chinese had a responsibility to exercise their influence with North Korea, noting the two sides had a ``very long history.'' China is the North's last major ally and its leading supplier of food and energy aid. Beijing has called for compromise, saying all reasonable concerns of any country at the talks deserve to be considered. Hill said he also would meet with the South Korean and Japanese delegations but had no scheduled meetings with the North Koreans. Japan also said the North needs to drop its demands for nuclear power. ``I think it is important that North Korea re-examine its position on this light-water reactor problem,'' Kenichiro Sasae, the head of Japan's delegation, said Friday. Chinese officials would not immediately comment on a report by Japan's Kyodo News agency that Beijing was drafting a new proposal for the talks. Citing unidentified sources, Kyodo also reported that North Korea told other nations at the negotiations that it would boost its production of nuclear material if it did not get the reactor. ``The basic stumbling block has to do with the issue of providing a light-water reactor,'' North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong said Thursday in the first comment from the delegation since the talks resumed. Hill and other delegates said the talks would continue, with no end date set. The latest nuclear talks reconvened following a five-week recess after the last session failed to yield an agreement during 13 days of meetings. The United States has said giving a reactor to the North is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation's history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear technology to build weapons. The North was promised two such reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use. ``This is a problem related to the United States' political will to get rid of its hostile policy toward us and peacefully coexist,'' Hyun said. But the North Korean spokesman added that his government still hoped to ``solve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue.'' Hill called the reactor demand a ``nonstarter.'' North Korea, ``not for the first time, has chosen to isolate itself,'' Hill said Thursday evening. The country ``has a rather sad and long history of making the wrong decision on things.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: China Offers Revised Disarmament Proposal From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 12:31 PM AP Photo BEJ104 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - China proposed Friday that North Korea retain the right to a peaceful nuclear program after abandoning its weapons, but Pyongyang rejected the idea. ``We will never give up our nuclear'' program before the U.S. nuclear threat is removed from the Korean peninsula, North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters, referring to Pyongyang's claims that it needs nuclear arms to defend itself. ``We will just do it our way. For us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute,'' Hyun said, reading from a written statement. The North Korean statement came after China issued a new proposal aimed at breaking a deadlock at the six-nation negotiations that would allow it to maintain a nuclear program for peaceful use, according to Russia's chief envoy. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 13 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Slams U.S. for Refusing Demand From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 7:16 PM AP Photo BEJ103 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - North Korea criticized the United States for insisting it give up all its nuclear programs without receiving any concessions first, saying Friday it will keep up with its atomic development until given a reactor in exchange for abandoning weapons development. Striving to bridge the impasse, China proposed a revised draft agreement at the six-nation arms talks, affirming Pyongyang's right to civilian nuclear technology. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted Washington's patience is running out. There was no direct response from North Korea or the United States to the new proposal, but delegates were supposed to give their input by Saturday afternoon, negotiators said. Russia's chief envoy said there was a possibility the talks then would go into recess. The North so far has spurned an offer of economic aid, security guarantees, diplomatic recognition and energy aid from South Korea, saying it wants a light-water nuclear reactor for generating power in return for dismantling its atomic weapons program. ``If the United States continues to assert that it cannot give us a light-water reactor that will be the barometer for trust, for us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one moment,'' North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters. Washington has insisted the North cannot be trusted with any nuclear program given its history of pursuing atomic bombs and has refused to budge from demanding that the North disarm first before any concessions are made. ``These demands are that we first disarm, but we think these are very naive,'' Hyun said. Washington ``should not even dream'' about the North accepting such ``brigandish'' demands, he said. Rice, in a newspaper interview, said the North had a matter of days to show its willingness to disarm, suggesting the United States would not continue the talks indefinitely. ``We'll see, I think in the next ... four or five days, whether or not they're prepared to make a strategic choice about their nuclear weapons programs,'' Rice told the New York Post in an interview released Thursday by the State Department. ``That will show us whether we can get a deal.'' In February, the North publicly claimed it had nuclear weapons, but it has not performed any known tests that would confirm it can make them. Experts have said they believe the North is capable of building about six bombs. Rice said Washington was taking measures to stop the spread of nuclear technology regardless of what happens at the North Korea talks, through intelligence sharing and freezing of assets of those involved. ``We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us,'' she said. ``So we're not wholly dependent on negotiations to get this done.'' Rice spoke before the new Chinese proposal Friday allowing the North to keep a nuclear program for peaceful use, according to Russia's chief envoy. The draft contains ``compromise wording which could satisfy both sides,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said, referring to Washington and Pyongyang. Hill did not make his usual evening meeting with reporters Friday and instead was holed up at the embassy, apparently consulting with Washington over the new proposal. ``I keep my fingers crossed because still nothing is accepted,'' Alexeyev said. The North Korean spokesman said his country would be willing to see the nuclear reactor co-managed and would make it open to international inspections. It was unclear if those comments would make any difference to the U.S. side, which has branded the idea a ``nonstarter.'' The North was promised two light-water reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use. Earlier Friday, Hill met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan and said they had ``good'' discussions. ``At this point, I don't know where these will lead,'' Hill said of the meetings, speaking after a lunch with the South Korean and Japanese negotiators. However, he added: ``We are still in business.'' Hill also urged Beijing to seek to persuade North Korea, its longtime ally, to give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor. The North and South have continued reconciliation efforts aside from the nuclear standoff. On Friday at high-level talks between the two sides in Pyongyang, the Koreas pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on the divided peninsula. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Rejects China's Nuclear Proposal From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 1:16 PM AP Photo BEJ112 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - North Korea rejected a Chinese proposal to end the stalemate over its nuclear weapons programs, saying again Friday it would not give up its peaceful nuclear program without concessions the United States is unlikely to grant. Beijing proposed that North Korea retain the right to a peaceful nuclear program after abandoning its atomic weapons, according to Russia's chief envoy to the six-nation talks. That proposal contains ``compromise wording which could satisfy both sides,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said, referring to the United States and North Korea. But Pyongyang vowed anew not to give up its atomic program without getting concessions first. ``We will never give up our nuclear'' program before the U.S. nuclear threat is removed from the Korean peninsula, North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters, referring to Pyongyang's claims that it needs nuclear arms to defend itself. ``We will just do it our way. For us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute,'' Hyun said, reading from a written statement. North Korea has demanded it be given a nuclear reactor for generating electricity before disarming. But Washington has insisted the North cannot be trusted with any nuclear program given its history of pursuing atomic bombs. All six countries at the talks are set to discuss the new draft with their capitals and reconvene Saturday afternoon to discuss their responses. The nations could either approve it or agree to take a recess, Alexeyev said. The talks also include Japan and South Korea. ``I keep my fingers crossed because still nothing is accepted,'' he said. Earlier Friday, the chief U.S. envoy to the talks met again with his North Korean counterpart. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said at the start of the day that the six-nation talks were at a standstill over the North's demands for a reactor in exchange for its weapons programs. But he said later he had ``good'' discussions with the North's chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan. ``At this point, I don't know where these will lead,'' Hill said of the meetings, speaking after a lunch with the South Korean and Japanese negotiators. ``We are still in business.'' Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was taking measures to stop the spread of nuclear technology regardless of what happens at the North Korea talks, through intelligence sharing and freezing of assets of those involved. ``We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us,'' Rice told the New York Post in an interview released Thursday by the State Department. ``So we're not wholly dependent on negotiations to get this done.'' Hill also urged Beijing to seek to persuade longtime ally North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor. The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for bowing to demands that it give up the weapons program. In February, the North publicly claimed it had nuclear weapons, but it has not performed any known tests that would confirm it can make them. Experts have said they believe the North is capable of building about six bombs. The United States has said giving a reactor to the North is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation's history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear technology to build weapons. The North was promised two such reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use. Hill said he believed China, the North's last major ally and its leading supplier of food and energy aid, had a responsibility to exercise its influence over North Korea. ``I hope that China will feel a certain responsibility to try to convince the DPRK that the deal is there on the table and it only awaits the decision of the DPRK to take that deal,'' Hill said Friday morning, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In New York, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said any comprehensive settlement of the nuclear standoff would have to include the normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States. Roh, who is attending a U.N. summit, said he was optimistic the crisis could be resolved, but he said it still makes him nervous. ``Every time I think about the North Korean nuclear weapons issue, I always pray to God,'' he said. ``I ask you to do the same.'' The North and South have continued reconciliation efforts while remaining technically at war. At high-level talks Friday between the two sides in Pyongyang, the Koreas pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on the divided peninsula. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 15 Guardian Unlimited: Korea's Refusal Stalls Six-Nation Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 4:46 PM AP Photo BEJ112 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - North Korea said Friday it will not give up its civilian nuclear program without concessions the United States is unlikely to grant, stalling progress in six-nation talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to dismantle its atomic weapons program. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier implied the United States will not continue the talks indefinitely, saying in a newspaper interview that the North had just a few days to show its willingness to disarm. China proposed that North Korea retain the right to a civilian nuclear program after abandoning its weapons, according to Russia's chief envoy to the six-nation talks. That proposal contains ``compromise wording which could satisfy both sides,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said, referring to the United States and North Korea. But Pyongyang vowed anew not to give up its atomic program without getting concessions first. ``We will never give up our nuclear'' program before the U.S. nuclear threat is removed from the Korean peninsula, North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters, referring to Pyongyang's claims that it needs nuclear arms to defend itself. ``We will just do it our way. For us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute,'' Hyun said, reading from a written statement. Hyun did not react directly to China's proposal, aimed at breaking a stalemate over Pyongyang's demand that it be given a nuclear reactor to generate power - a demand the United States rejects. The North also blasted Washington's contention that it first give up all nuclear programs, saying the United States ``should not even dream'' about the North accepting such ``brigandish'' demands. North Korea has demanded it be given a nuclear reactor for generating electricity before disarming. But Washington has insisted the North cannot be trusted with any nuclear program given its history of pursuing atomic bombs. Hyun said Pyongyang would be willing to see the nuclear reactor co-managed and that it would be open to international inspections. It was unclear if those comments would make any difference to the U.S. side, which has branded the idea a ``nonstarter.'' All six countries at the talks are set to discuss the new draft with their capitals and reconvene Saturday afternoon to discuss their responses. The nations could either approve it or agree to take a recess, Alexeyev said. The talks also include Japan and South Korea. ``I keep my fingers crossed because still nothing is accepted,'' he said. Earlier Friday, the chief U.S. envoy to the talks met again with his North Korean counterpart. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said at the start of the day that the six-nation talks were at a standstill over the North's demands for a reactor in exchange for its weapons programs. But he said later he had ``good'' discussions with the North's chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan. ``At this point, I don't know where these will lead,'' Hill said of the meetings, speaking after a lunch with the South Korean and Japanese negotiators. ``We are still in business.'' Meanwhile, Rice said Washington was taking measures to stop the spread of nuclear technology regardless of what happens at the North Korea talks, through intelligence sharing and freezing of assets of those involved. ``We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us,'' Rice told the New York Post in an interview released Thursday by the State Department. ``So we're not wholly dependent on negotiations to get this done.'' Rice also said the United States would give Pyongyang only a few days before deciding whether a deal can be reached. ``We'll see, I think in the next five or so days, four or five days, whether or not they're prepared to make a strategic choice about their nuclear weapons programs,'' Rice told the Post. ``That will show us whether we can get a deal.'' Hill also urged Beijing to seek to persuade longtime ally North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor. The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for bowing to demands that it give up the weapons program. In February, the North publicly claimed it had nuclear weapons, but it has not performed any known tests that would confirm it can make them. Experts have said they believe the North is capable of building about six bombs. The United States has said giving a reactor to the North is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation's history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear technology to build weapons. The North was promised two such reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use. Hill said he believed China, the North's last major ally and its leading supplier of food and energy aid, had a responsibility to exercise its influence over North Korea. ``I hope that China will feel a certain responsibility to try to convince the DPRK that the deal is there on the table and it only awaits the decision of the DPRK to take that deal,'' Hill said Friday morning, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In New York, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said any comprehensive settlement of the nuclear standoff would have to include the normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States. Roh, who is attending a U.N. summit, said he was optimistic the crisis could be resolved, but he said it still makes him nervous. ``Every time I think about the North Korean nuclear weapons issue, I always pray to God,'' he said. ``I ask you to do the same.'' The North and South have continued reconciliation efforts while remaining technically at war. At high-level talks Friday between the two sides in Pyongyang, the Koreas pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on the divided peninsula. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 16 China CRI: Six-Party Talks 4th Day Report 2005-9-16 21:07:22 Anchor: As the Six-Party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue entered their fourth day in Beijing on Friday, there was obviously "some business" still to be attended to by the parties concerned, especially by the United States and North Korea. CRI's Qiu Wei is covering the talks and filed this report. Reporter: The Chinese delegation, who are hosting the talks in Beijing, presented a revised proposal on Friday, asking the other delegations to respond by Saturday afternoon. The proposal states that North Korea has a right to nuclear technology for energy generation. However, the detail of the revised proposal has not been revealed. Earlier on Friday, the head of the US delegation to the talks, Christopher Hill, said, that after meeting with his North Korean counterpart, the talks are still "in business". The US delegation also held one-on-one meetings with the Chinese, South Korean and Japanese sides on Friday to discuss "where the involved parties are and what the way forward is". The US urged China to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, without the promise of receiving a reactor for generating power in exchange. "The Chinese hosts tried to put forward some ideas. We gather the Chinese had had some lengthy discussions with the DPRK. I also saw the DPRK delegation very briefly, the head of the DPRK delegation very briefly. So I would say the discussions are ongoing. We'll know better later on whether we're really made any progress. These are just some general ideas at this point. We have to see later in the day." Mr Hill said he had "good" discussions with the North's chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan. Japan's delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, agreed, saying that after Thursday night's deadlock, things were getting better. "Last night I think we were totally deadlocked, but today I think there were some discussions initiated to try to work out something better." The US Chief Negotiator and other delegates said the talks would continue, with no end date set. Qiuwei, CRI news, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing. Copyright of crienglish.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Reuters: North Korea nuclear talks in disarray World Crises | Reuters.com Thu 15 Sep 2005 9:44 PM ET By Brian Rhoads and Teruaki Ueno BEIJING, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programme were in disarray on Friday as a stand-off over Pyongyang's demand for a light-water reactor was exacerbated by its threat to boost weapons production. As delegations gathered for a fourth day of talks, the United States said the North's demand was holding up an end to a three-year crisis that would allow aid and security guarantees for the impoverished state if it abandoned all nuclear programmes. "We are at a bit of a stand-off at this point. We have to see how this plays out," chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing, where North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China are meeting. "I want to stress that we all want to resolve this through a diplomatic way. (North Korea), not for the first time, has chosen to isolate itself," Hill said. Failure to reach an accord at the Beijing talks could prompt Washington to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council and press for sanctions. China opposes such a move, and North Korea has said sanctions would be tantamount to war. The North is standing firm on its demand for light-water reactors, which generate electricity but are unsuitable for making nuclear arms. "The issue of a light-water reactor is one that's related to the political commitment by the United States to clear its hostility against us and to peacefully co-exist," a spokesman for the North Korean delegation told reporters. "We are demanding something specific, not an empty right to peaceful nuclear activities. All the countries have expressed understanding of our position, but only the United States is adamantly against it." South Korea has said it would not be opposed in principle to Pyongyang having a civilian atomic energy programme in future. NUCLEAR WEAPONS Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted sources at talks as saying North Korea has indicated it will "keep boosting production" of nuclear weapons if it is not given a light-water nuclear reactor. Kyodo said that according to the sources, North Korea told the U.S. and Japanese delegations to the talks in Beijing: "As long as our concerns about the light-water reactors are not fulfilled, we cannot abandon nuclear weapons." Apart from raising the stakes with hints on boosting weapons production, North Korea also indicated it was proceeding with the processing of spent fuel rods into plutonium, Kyodo said. U.S. intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has already produced enough bomb-grade plutonium fuel from a five-megawatt reactor shut down in 1994 to make nine or more nuclear weapons. Washington says Pyongyang, once branded as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, must end all nuclear programmes verifiably and irreversibly. It says the North can then expect aid and security guarantees, but Pyongyang wants the aid and guarantees first. Washington has urged North Korea to focus on a draft joint statement that sets out the principle of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and contains a South Korean offer to supply the North with electricity roughly equivalent to Pyongyang's total output. "We have a pretty good deal on the table," Hill said. The latest talks resumed on Tuesday, five weeks after a marathon 13-day session at which the six countries failed to reach agreement even on a statement of basic principles. Negotiations first began in 2003. The stand-off began in October 2002 when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret programme to enrich uranium, used to make nuclear weapons, in violation of a 1994 agreement. North Korea denied the charge at the time, and responded by throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors at the end of 2002 and withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003. Last February, the North said it had nuclear bombs. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in TOKYO) © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Reuters: N.Korea says will accept nuclear energy inspections World Crises | Reuters.com Fri 16 Sep 2005 7:28 AM ET BEIJING, Sept 16 (Reuters) - North Korea stood firm on its demand for nuclear energy on Friday, but said it would accept joint management and inspections of a light-water reactor. The statement offered a sign of leeway at six-country talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear programme, which have seen Pyongyang and Washington at odds over the North's insistence on its right to atomic energy. "Light-water reactor is a measure of trust between the U.S. and North Korea," a North Korean official told reporters. "But in order to dispel U.S. concerns in the provisions of a light-water reactor, we said we would leave its operation to joint management and will also accept inspections. So our demand is not unreasonable," he said. But North Korea also tempered its offer with a threat, saying it would go its own way if no compromise could be found. "If the U.S. continues to insist that is will not give us a light-water reactor, which is a measure of trust, then we have no choice but to continue our own way for our own peaceful nuclear activities," the official said. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Other Voices: A threat to environmental law Opinion By Glen Besa September 16, 2005 Some members of Congress recently have taken it upon themselves to "reform" the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), complaining that this bedrock environmental law is slowing economic development. Appreciating the growth this country and our region have been experiencing, one might question the underlying premise that our economic development has been slow. Nonetheless, this "Improving NEPA Task Force" will be coming to Norfolk for a Congressional field hearing this Saturday at Old Dominion University to hear testimony from several witnesses who will tell us how NEPA has raised the cost of doing business including energy prices and caused unacceptable delays. There is another side to this story. The National Environmental Policy Act, adopted by Congress in 1970 and signed into law by then-President Richard Nixon, is the "First Amendment" of our environmental rights in this country. The First Amendment to our United States Constitution, first among our Bill of Rights, guarantees our right to free speech and to freedom of the press. It ensures the rights of Americans to peaceably assemble and to petition our government for the redress of grievances. NEPA reaffirms those principles with respect to our rights to clean air and clean water, ensuring that before a major federal project goes forward or a federal permit is issued, detailed information be gathered regarding the impact of that action on the people, the economy and the environment. NEPA guarantees that the public and media will have access to this information and that citizens will be allowed to comment on and participate in the decision-making process for the government action contemplated, whether it is a new highway built with federal dollars or a nuclear waste dump. And under NEPA, when the federal government doesn't do its job well, citizens have the right to petition their government for redress. Do these NEPA studies cost money? Absolutely. Does the process of public participation take some time? Of course. Democracy is not the quickest form of governance. But our democracy and the National Environmental Policy Act help ensure that our decisions will be better and better informed. It is no accident that the most progress in protecting the environment and ensuring citizens' rights to clean air and clean water have occurred in the United States and other democracies. In contrast, consider countries that make up the former Soviet Union, where citizens were routinely denied access to information and the right to participate in the decision-making process. As a result they live today with some of the worst pollution imaginable, including the legacy of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The National Environmental Policy Act, by expressly extending our First Amendment Constitutional rights to environmental protection, is the cornerstone of our environmental progress in this country. As a result of NEPA, much progress has been made in getting the sewage out of water and the toxins out of our air. But recalling the beach closures at Virginia Beach this past summer and the record dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, we recognize that much remains to be done. It is the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, which will ensure that citizens have the right to the free flow of information about the state of our environment and access to a process of public participation which ensures that decisions made will benefit the public and the environment. NEPA works! It ain't broke, so don't fix it. Besa is Appalachian Region director of the Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter. Get home delivery of the Daily Press for less than $3.33 a week. Jesse Todd | 928-6448 Associate Editor Carol Capo| 247-2837 Associate Editor Gordon Morse| 258-4422 Editing Assistant Sandra Owen| 247-4611 Copyright ©2005 Daily Press ***************************************************************** 20 Consortiumnews.com: Powell's Widening Credibility Gap Editorials By Robert Parry September 17, 2005 Former Secretary of State Colin Powell appears to have widened his credibility gap with his latest attempt to shift the blame for bogus evidence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction onto mid-level intelligence analysts – and away from himself and other senior officials. In an interview with ABC News, Powell fingered “some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn’t be relied upon, and they didn’t speak up. That devastated me.” But he spared from criticism high-ranking Bush administration colleagues as well as then-CIA director George Tenet. As for his personal feelings about his false WMD testimony before the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, Powell told ABC’s Barbara Walters that he saw the incident as a “blot” on his reputation. “It was painful,” Powell said. “It’s painful now.” However, in shifting the blame down the line of command, Powell also seems to have touched a raw nerve with a number of CIA veterans and everyday Americans, who e-mailed us over our story about Powell’s interview, “.” Our article put Powell’s blame-shifting in the context of his lifelong record of protecting his superiors and his own image. But one reader, Ava, took us to task for relying on ABC’s cleaned-up transcript of Powell’s words. In the actual broadcast, Ava noted, Powell was less articulate, interspersing his comments with phrasing errors and the utterance, “uh,” that ABC deleted from the quotes used in its Web about the interview. “Powell is obviously fumbling on the broadcast interview. The impression the smooth alteration gives doesn’t imply that to the reader of ABC’s Web story,” Ava wrote. [For details on her objections, see blog.] Disingenuous Defense Other readers, including former CIA analysts, challenged Powell’s comments as disingenuous because they are certain the former secretary of state knew how thin the WMD evidence was at the time and how aggressively the administration was stretching it. Indeed, Powell may have been one of the best positioned officials to know that the threat from Iraq was being exaggerated. In February 2001, Powell personally cited the effectiveness of the UN sanctions in crippling Saddam Hussein’s military capabilities. “Frankly, they have worked,” Powell said of the sanctions. “He [Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.” After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, however, the Bush administration began zeroing in on oil-rich Iraq as a target of opportunity. Whereas before, Powell and other officials downplayed the Iraqi threat; now they were playing it for all it was worth. By summer 2002, this pattern of exaggeration was evident to virtually anyone involved in the process. On July 23, 2002, in the so-called Downing Street Memo, the chief of British intelligence reported back to Prime Minister Tony Blair about a recent trip to Washington and said bluntly that the facts were being “fixed around the policy.” “This is not the way intelligence is done,” former CIA analyst Ray McGovern told me. “You don’t just decide to have a war and then arrange the intelligence.” As the recent CNN documentary, “,” also made clear, many senior intelligence officials, especially inside Powell’s State Department, were aware of the shoddy intelligence behind the Iraqi WMD claims. Greg Thielmann, who monitored WMD issues for the State Department’s bureau of intelligence, said his unease dated back to August 2002, when Vice President Dick Cheney declared that “there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction” and that “we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.” Cheney was drawing from alarmist intelligence being collected by a special Pentagon office established by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and staffed by neoconservative policymakers set on war with Iraq. “That speech it seemed to me was basically a declaration of war speech,” Thielmann said. “That’s when I, for the first time, became really alarmed about where we were going on this.” As recently as this summer, Bush has continued to deny that in that time period, “we had made up our mind to go – to use military force to deal with Saddam,” adding “there is nothing farther from the truth.” Resigned to War But the evidence is clear that the die was cast for war by summer 2002. As the Downing Street Memo shows, all that was left was lining up public support. The CNN documentary, which aired on Aug. 21, 2005, reported that by September 2002, “the Pentagon has quietly positioned forces in countries around the Persian Gulf. The United States will be ready to move against Saddam in as little as 60 days.” According to former CIA counterterrorism expert Michael Scheuer, “There was just a resignation within the agency that we were going to war against Iraq and it didn’t make any difference what the analysis was or what kind of objections or countervailing forces there were to an invasion. We were going to war.” In that climate, any scrap of information about Iraq’s WMD was scooped up by the administration and often passed on to the news media. For instance, when aluminum tubes were discovered heading to Iraq, one inexperienced CIA analyst came up with the dubious conclusion they must be for enriching uranium. Nuclear experts, including those at Powell’s State Department and inside the Energy Department, concluded otherwise, that the tubes matched the requirements for conventional Iraqi rockets and weren’t suitable for nuclear enrichment. But the administration embraced the nuclear-tube argument. “Why would you immediately jump to the conclusion that these were for their nuclear program?” asked Carl Ford, former assistant secretary of state running the State Department’s bureau of intelligence. “Once an analyst starts believing their own work and quits doubting themselves and starts saying, ‘I'm going to prove to you that they've got nuclear weapons,’ watch out.” Next, the nuclear-tube story was leaked to a credulous New York Times, which put the article – coauthored by Judith Miller – on the front page of the Sept. 8, 2002, editions. The story contained what would become an administration refrain: “The first sign of a smoking gun may be a mushroom cloud.” Terror Ties Having succeeded in planting this one bogus claim, the Bush administration went to work on another, that Saddam Hussein’s secular dictatorship was somehow in league with al-Qaeda, a group of Islamic fundamentalists who publicly had condemned Hussein. Again, the Bush administration brushed aside evidence that contradicted the desired rationale. Former CIA analyst Scheuer told CNN that a careful review of intelligence information over nearly a decade “could find no connection in the terms of a state sponsored relationship with Iraq … but it apparently didn’t have any impact.” Instead, Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice stripped the claim of any uncertainty. “Clearly, there are contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented. There clearly is testimony that some of these contacts have been important contacts and there’s a relationship there,” she said. By fall 2002, Bush had requested authority from Congress to launch a preemptive war against Iraq, but still had not ordered up a formal National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD. So, Congress took the extraordinary step of requesting one directly from the CIA. “Totally unusual,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., told CNN. “The agencies understand that if we're about to take a major military action or even consider one, you bring all your intelligence agencies together and say, ‘what do you know, and what do you know for sure before we put our troops in harm’s way, before we risk the reputation and treasure and bodies of our servicemen? What do we know?’” During the NIE process – despite the objections from the experts at State and Energy – Tenet defended the opinion of the inexperienced CIA analyst who had come up with the nuclear-tube theory. In perhaps the most remarkable disclosure in the CNN documentary, the CIA may have prevailed in this key debate because the Energy Department had sent over the wrong analyst. “The Department of Energy was present but did not have the right individual there to argue the case,” said then-CIA deputy director John McLaughlin. “So when confronted with the data, this individual was not quite prepared to say, ‘well, let me lay out all of the technical reasons why we would have a different view.’ It's one of those elements of life and bureaucracy that intervened at a critical moment to make a difference in what the final product said.” In other words, the U.S. government lurched down a course toward war rather than have someone stop the meeting and insist that the Energy Department send over the right briefer. An open-minded intelligence debate on war and peace would not have allowed such a bureaucratic snafu to play a decisive role. State’s Skepticism Powell’s own intelligence agency remained skeptical of the case being constructed about Iraq’s supposed nuclear program. “We couldn't really buy on to any of the things being said so the State Department's intelligence bureau put in a very deliberate and strong and lengthy dissent,” said intelligence chief Ford. Still, with the dissenting views largely buried, the NIE helped secure congressional approval for Bush’s war plans. Soon, however, the fragile case on Iraq’s WMD began to crack. At the CIA, doubts grew about WMD claims from Iraqi defectors, including one codenamed “Curveball” who had asserted that Iraq had mobile WMD labs, but who was suspected of fabrication. Tyler Drumheller, former chief of the CIA’s European Division, said his office had issued repeated warnings about Curveball’s accounts. “Everyone in the chain of command knew exactly what was happening,” said Drumheller, who scoffed at claims by Tenet and McLaughlin that they didn’t know about Curveball’s credibility problems. [Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2005] UN inspectors also had returned to Iraq and were not finding evidence of WMD at sites that had been considered the most likely locations of weapons caches. The crumbling evidence prompted the White House to dig up another questionable charge for Bush’s State of the Union speech in January 2003, that Iraq had sought enriched uranium in Africa. The claim raised more eyebrows among intelligence professionals. By the time, Powell was assigned to make the case for war before the UN Security Council in February 2003, the secretary of state was among the growing list of officials nervous about the quality of the WMD intelligence. Col. Larry Wilkerson, Powell’s longtime friend and chief of staff, told CNN that Powell was upset with the White House instructions about what to highlight in his speech. “He came through the door that morning and he had in his hand a sheaf of papers and he said this is what I’ve got to present at the United Nations according to the White House and you need to look at it,” Wilkerson said. “It was anything but an intelligence document. It was as some people characterized it later, some kind of Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose. … “There was no way the secretary of state was going to read off a script about serious matters of intelligence that could lead to war when the script was basically unsourced.” The Speech Powell’s skepticism led to his legendary “four day and four night” encampment at the CIA reviewing the intelligence. Despite assurances from CIA Director Tenet, Powell recognized the shakiness of the case. Wilkerson said Powell “turned to the DCI, Mr. Tenet, and he [Powell] said, ‘everything here, everything here, you stand behind?’And Mr. Tenet said, ‘absolutely, Mr. Secretary.’ And he [Powell] said, ‘well, you know you’re going to be sitting behind me tomorrow. Right behind me. In camera.” But Powell didn’t give any indication of his internal doubts when he performed confidently in his hour-long UN speech. “What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence,” Powell said. At one point, for dramatic effect, he held up a small vial to demonstrate how lethal some of Iraq’s alleged poisons were. “Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons on chemical-weapons agent,” Powell said. “That’s enough to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets.” Powell also asserted that some of the WMD was in four bunkers observed by U.S. spy satellites. The proof that these were WMD bunkers was the presence of decontamination vehicles, Powell said. But State Department WMD expert Thielmann later told CBS News that “these particular vehicles were simply fire trucks.” UN inspector Steve Allinson also said some trucks spotted by U.S. satellites were fire trucks and other vehicles were so unused that they had cobwebs inside. At another point in his UN speech, Powell embellished on quotes pulled from intercepts of Iraqi conversations to make the words seem more incriminating. Trying to prove that Iraqis were removing illegal weapons before a UN inspection team arrived, Powell read from one supposed transcript of an Iraqi official giving orders: “We sent you a message yesterday to clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there.” What the full State Department transcript said, however, was: “We sent you a message to inspect the scrap areas and the abandoned areas.” There was no order to “clean out all of the areas” and there was no instruction to “make sure there is nothing there.” [Powell’s apparent fabrication of the intercept was first reported by Gilbert Cranberg, a former editor of the Des Moines Register’s editorial pages.] Tubes, Redux Powell also trotted out the CIA’s disputed claims about the aluminum tubes, noting that while “there is controversy about what these tubes are for, most U.S. experts think they are intended to serve as rotors in centrifuges used to enrich uranium.” But Houston Woods, a consultant who worked on the Oak Ridge analysis of the tubes, later told CBS News that Powell’s presentation was misleading, since the nuclear experts, who were concentrated in the Energy Department, knew the tubes were unsuited for uranium enrichment. “I thought when I read that there must be some other tubes that people were talking about,” Wood added. “I was just flabbergasted that people were still pushing that those might be centrifuges.” [, Feb. 4, 2004] UN inspector Allinson described the reaction of the UN team as it watched Powell’s much ballyhooed address. “Various people would laugh at various times because the information he was presenting was just, you know, didn’t mean anything, had no meaning,” Allinson said, adding that the conclusion of the inspectors after Powell’s speech was that “they have nothing.” Though many WMD experts didn’t buy the Bush administration’s case, Powell’s speech worked wonders with the U.S. news media. Almost across the board, American commentators and pundits – long enamored of Powell’s glittering reputation – hailed Powell’s evidence as overwhelming and unassailable. After the speech, however, Colin Powell was one person who knew how shaky the evidence really was. The savvy insider turned to his friend Wilkerson and “said words to the effect of, I wonder how we’ll all feel if we put half a million troops in Iraq and march from one end of the country to the other and find nothing,” Wilkerson told CNN. For his part, Wilkerson now says, “I look back on it and I still say it’s the lowest point in my life. I wish I had not been involved in it.” When CBS News asked former State Department WMD analyst Thielmann why Powell would distort the findings of his own intelligence agency, Thielmann responded that “I can only assume that he was doing it to loyally support the President of the United States and build the strongest possible case for arguing that there was no alternative to the use of military force.” [, Feb. 4, 2004] Blindsided To this day, Powell is still trying to make the case that he was blindsided by bad intelligence, the fault of some lower-level bureaucrats who kept the reality from Tenet, Bush and Powell himself. Yet this case for Powell’s innocence is undercut further by the fact that some journalists and independent experts were challenging the WMD evidence months before Powell’s UN address – and were disclosing the pressure being brought on U.S. intelligence officials to toe the White House line on Iraq’s supposed WMD. For instance, Knight Ridder’s Warren Strobel and Jonathan Linday reported in October 2002 that “intelligence professionals and diplomats … privately have deep misgivings about the administration’s double-time march toward war. These officials charge that administration hawks have exaggerated evidence of the threat that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein poses.” These contemporaneous articles also reported complaints from U.S. officials about administration efforts to squelch dissent and pressure analysts to produce intelligence reports that would support Bush’s case for preemptive war. One anonymous official told the reporters that “analysts at the working level in the intelligence community are feeling very strong pressure from the Pentagon to cook the intelligence books.” To believe Powell now – that he was oblivious to the doubts within the U.S. intelligence community – would require accepting that this knowledgeable secretary of state was unaware of disclosures in the news media as well as the internal dissension within the intelligence bureau of his own State Department. It’s much easier and more logical to conclude that Powell did what he had done many times before – that he chose to do the bidding of his superiors and protect his status within the Washington power structure. [For more on Powell’s biography, see Consortiumnews.com’s “."] Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.' Back to Home Page Consortiumnews.com is a product of The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc., a non-profit organization that relies on donations from its readers to produce these stories and keep alive this Web publication. To contribute, click here. To contact CIJ, click here. ***************************************************************** 21 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Disputes Top Bush-Putin Meeting From the Associated Press [UP] Friday September 16, 2005 8:46 AM AP Photo MOSB105 By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree on how the world should confront the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea, a member of Bush's ``axis of evil.'' They disagree over how to address Iran's nuclear ambitions and have long-running differences over the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Bush's famous list of international outlaws included those nations, too. Bush was expected to argue at his meeting with Putin on Friday that Iran deserves to be summoned to the U.N. Security Council to account for what the U.S. contends is a record of nuclear deceit. Putin has grievances over what Russia views as U.S. slights and double standards in its support for democracy movements on former Soviet turf. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Russian leader was getting a view of the U.S. in a vulnerable moment. Putin was quoted soon after the flooding in New Orleans as saying he could not believe the images he saw came from the powerful United States. At their first meeting in months, Bush and Putin also were expected to raise their differences over whether there is creep toward authoritarian rule in Russia and discuss Putin's current leadership of the Group of Eight industrial nations. Bush and Putin call one another friend. Their bond was forged largely after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when Russia delivered help in the fight against terrorism. The political relationship has frayed with each passing year. Nuclear nonproliferation, however, has proved an area of considerable cooperation. On North Korea, the U.S. and Russia are among five nations negotiating in unison to persuade the communist North to give up its declared nuclear weapons in return for energy and security guarantees. The current round of talks has come to a standstill in Beijing. U.S. and Russian diplomats agree that North Korea cannot be trusted with the civilian nuclear power plant it seeks. The story is different on Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful energy production. Russia is helping Iran develop nuclear energy, and the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said it sees no basis for referring Tehran to the Security Council. When the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency meets next week, it could vote to send Iran's case to the Security Council for possible penalties. The International Atomic Energy Agency could put off a vote, despite the Bush administration's preference for a quick referral. Bush's hand may have been strengthened by statements from Iran's president on Thursday. Iran's state-run news agency said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York to attend the U.N. world summit, said his country is willing to provide other Islamic nations with nuclear technology. The European Union has taken the lead in trying to persuade Iran to halt development of nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons. In exchange, Iran would win economic concessions. If the case does end up before the Security Council, Russian cooperation could be critical. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia could veto any resolution punishing Iran or could abstain. China also could veto any possible punishment. The White House acknowledged Wednesday that Bush was unable to get a commitment on Iran during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Iran has said it does not fear the Security Council. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran and must apply pressure through international organizations or allies with political and economic ties to Tehran. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli tried to play up a bright spot in U.S.-Russian dealings over Iran on Thursday. Russia has agreed to impose controls on its joint nuclear operations with Iran that will keep nuclear fuel out of direct control by the Iranians. ``I think that's very clear evidence of the concern that Russia has about Iranian activities and the measures that they are prepared to take in response to those concerns,'' Ereli said. Ahmadinejad is expected to make new proposals by the weekend at the U.N. summit in hopes of defusing the nuclear standoff. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 22 UPI: Analysis: U.N. summit winds up United Press International - By WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Was the three-day 2005 World Summit marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations a success or a failure? It was the largest gathering ever of heads of state and government; 151 according to a U.N. spokeswoman, and in the eyes of some a success. However, more than 200 speakers were on the slate, counting intergovernmental and other international organizations and observer entities on the U.N. roster. It was called to discuss the Millennium Development Goals of reducing by half extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, making primary education accessible to everyone, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing infant mortality, improving the health of mothers, combating HIV-AIDS and other transmittable diseases, guaranteeing environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships for development. The fact representatives of 189 disparate nations agreed on a single statement also allowed many to claim the conclave held in the Great Hall of the U.N. General Assembly was a success because for a while before the meeting began Wednesday failure was feared on reaching agreement on the "Outcome Document" the leaders were to release at the end of the summit. As did others, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had a mixed reaction to the document. It called for boosting development in poor countries, combating terrorism and called for creation of a Peacebuilding Commission, a Human Rights Council and U.N. reform. Annan said it was a good instrument he could work with and build upon to streamline the world organization to meet the many new challenges of the 21st century. But, he deplored the omission of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament from the text of the 35-page paper. "This is a real disgrace," he told reporters shortly after the document was presented. "We have failed twice this year. We failed at the (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference) and we failed now." Annan added he hoped the leaders would "pick up the ashes" and show leadership on an issue "We are all concerned about, weapons of mass destruction and the possibility that they may even get into the wrong hands." He also was disappointed disarmament couldn't be agreed on and there wasn't concrete support for reforming the world organization, which he sought. His proposals included strengthening the role of the secretary-general by reducing General Assembly micro-management. Many smaller states objected to losing a power they exercised. "We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required," Annan said, warning that ignoring the basic principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law for the sake of expediency undermined confidence in collective institutions. "That is why a healthy, effective United Nations is so vital." The secretary-general said that if the world organization was properly utilized, "it can be a unique marriage of power and principle, in the service of all the world's peoples." Reforming the world body was necessary to restore confidence in its "integrity, impartiality and ability to deliver," he said. His sentiments were echoed by many speakers. In a surprise to many, remarks by U.S. President George W. Bush were rather well received, notably because of their conciliatory tone. He called on nations to work to ease suffering, spread freedom, and lay the foundations of peace for children and grandchildren. No nation could remain isolated and indifferent to the struggles of others, as threats passed easily across oceans and borders and could threaten the security of any country, the U.S. president said. Terrorism was spread by anger and despair, and those who had not seen attacks on their own soil still shared in the sorrow of others. Nations must complete the comprehensive convention on international terrorism, because terrorism could not be justified or legitimized by any cause or grievance, Bush said. It was necessary for terrorists to know that wherever they went, they could not escape justice. He urged the gathering to sign and implement the international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism in order to "send a clear message to the rulers of outlaw regimes that sponsored terrorism that they will not be allowed to threaten the peace and stability of the world." Bush signed the treaty the same day, Wednesday. He said the United States was determined to help nations that were struggling with poverty, and was committed to the Millennium Development Goals. Only days before, in negotiating the outcome document, Washington made it known it didn't want the goals from the Millennium summit mentioned as the MDG package. Negotiators later relented. Nations had a moral obligation to help others, and a moral duty to make sure their actions were effective, said Bush, expressing gratitude to those nations who offered aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. leader said continuing on the road to reform meant creating a genuine partnership between developed and developing countries, adding his nation was ready to work with other nations to eliminate agricultural subsidies and create open markets. The two nations among the total U.N. membership of 191 states who registered objections to the outcome document, approved by consensus, were Cuba and Venezuela. Both were vociferous in their objections, pulling no punches in blaming the United States. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said the United Nations had outlived its model and that the 21st century required profound changes that meant a recasting of the organization, not merely reforms. A revamped United Nations required expansion of the Security Council working methods improved to increase transparency, he said. The "elite mechanism" of the veto decision should be removed in the Security Council, and the role of the secretary-general should be strengthened. Adding some excitement Thursday night, Chavez waved what he said was a copy of the Outcome Document aloft and said it was decided by the gavel of a "dictator," referring to General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, of Sweden, who marked approval by consensus Tuesday night with his gavel. Friday, President Ricardo Alarcon of Cuba's National Assembly of the People's Power echoed Chavez. "We were summoned to review the progress made in complying with the commitments articulated in the millennium declaration and those derived from the major U.N. conferences and summits," he said. "This aim however has been completely destroyed." He said, "Very little has been done to reach those goals. In a number of areas there has been outright retrogression." Saying what was needed to be discussed, wasn't. "We have before us an unforgivable sham," he said. "The objective of this meeting was held hostage through tortuous manipulation," Alarcon said. "Those who fancy themselves the world's owners do not even want to remember those promises and the hypocritical fanfare with which they were proclaimed," referring to the United States. "Worse yet they seek to impose so-called reform of the United Nations designed solely to subjugate the organization completely and turn it into an instrument of their world dictatorship," he said. While the Chavez nearly half-hour presentation received some hearty, rather sustained applause, Alarcon's six-minute message was accorded polite recognition. As ever, if the summit a success or failure was in the eye of the beholder. Copyright 2005 by United Press International ***************************************************************** 23 POST Newspapers: N-power high on emissions Online: Letters Perth, Western Australia 17, 2005 Although Gordon Coates's belief in nuclear power as the answer to greenhouse gas emissions is tempting in its simplicity, sadly the facts belie his argument. The reality is that the preparation process necessary, before the use of uranium in power plants, causes more greenhouse gas emissions than that caused by the use of traditional power plants. The industry does not count the preparation process in its propaganda, which is why nuclear power can be made to appear cleaner. Jane Ralls Daglish Street, Wembley copyright © 1999 - 2005 Post Newspapers Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy to give Kent reactor further 10 years of life Terry Macalister Friday September 16, 2005 The Guardian British Energy, the nuclear power generator, is to extend the life of its Dungeness B station in Kent by 10 years despite continuing maintenance problems on many of its older plants. The move has alarmed environmental campaigners who insist the ageing atomic reactor fleet is unsafe, but it will take some of the heat out of growing fears about future power shortages. The company said technical and economic evaluations had convinced it that Dungeness B - brought on stream 22 years ago - could be kept in operation until 2018. Article continues Bill Coley, chief executive of British Energy, said the move safeguarded 550 jobs and a £30m annual contribution to the local economy as he dismissed any safety fears. "This decision is an important step in securing safe and profitable life extensions for our power stations, adding to the UK's security of electricity supply and contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions," he said. He insisted that the decision on Dungeness B did not automatically mean other reactors would be kept open, although this is clearly the long-term aim of British Energy. Six other plants will be subject to separate evaluations that should all be completed within three years of their potential closure. But the move in Kent - which must be approved by the Department of Trade and Industry as well as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, comes at a difficult time. This week British Energy revealed it had found cracking at its two Hartlepool reactors and had decided for safety reasons to temporarily close them, as well as sister units at Heysham 1 in Lancashire. The power company has committed itself to spending between £230m and £250m this financial year and the same in 2006/7 on major repairs of its older plants. Friends of the Earth nuclear campaigner Roger Higman said the Dungeness decision was wrongheaded and gave false security to those worried about future electricity supplies in Britain. "The fact is that British Energy cannot continue to operate the existing fleet without cracking and safety problems emerging and forcing them to temporarily close," he said. Squeezing a few more years out of Dungeness B did not take away from the fact that there was no long-term future for nuclear power, said the green campaign group. "It is uneconomic, unsafe and deeply unpopular. The radioactive waste produced will remain a threat for thousands of years, and cost the taxpayer many millions of pounds to safeguard," said Mr Higman. Amicus trade union representative Tim Davison said Dungeness staff were delighted. "All the employees, whether British Energy or contractors, are proud of what has been achieved and delighted we can continue for a further 10 years." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 25 ForUm :: United States' Nuclear Regulation Commission visited Chernobyl nuclear plant News / 16 September 2005 | 12:13 A delegation from the United States' Nuclear Regulatory Commission led by the commission's head Jeffrey Merryflied visited the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on Thursday. According to information from the press service of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the delegation is in Ukraine to evaluate the implementation of a technical cooperation program under the 1993 Ukrainian-American agreement on raising the operational safety of Ukrainian nuclear facilities, reducing their levels of risk, and strengthening their regulation. The delegation inspected work on the new facility for storage of nuclear waste at the plant and the state of the shelter over the plant's destroyed fourth reactor. The delegation met with Ukraine's First Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Tetiana Amosova and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's Director Igor Hramotkin. Mrs. Amosova informed the delegation about the tasks of her ministry, focusing attention on solution of problems connected with the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and the exclusion zone surrounding it as well as ways of accelerating the relevant international projects. Possible areas of cooperation with the United States were also considered. Editorial staff:english@for-ua.com All rights are reserved by © LTD. Inter-Media, ForUm 2001-2005 ***************************************************************** 26 India: Rediff: Russia endorses civilian nuclear energy pact V S Chandrasekar in New York | September 16, 2005 11:14 IST Russia has appreciated the recent deal between India and the United States on civilian nuclear energy and the movement towards cooperation in relaxation of rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which it is a member. The endorsement of the civilian nuclear energy deal signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US in July, came during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Dr Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York on Thursday. The Russian President said Dr Singh's visit to the US in July would further improve cooperation between New Delhi and Washington in civilian nuclear energy area, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters. He said, in this context, Russia's cooperation with India in civilian nuclear energy was recalled, in particular, the cooperation relating to Kudankulam project, which is nearing completion. + Manmohan meets Putin at the Kremlin On the issue of defence cooperation between India and Russia, which was based on traditional good ties between the two countries, the proposed visit of the Russian Defence Minister to India came up for discussion. The visits of the Russian prime minister and the Speaker of the Russian Upper House also figured during discussions. Dr Singh thanked Russia for its support to India's case for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, its participation in the ITER project and in getting membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Group. The issue of UN reforms and regional issues, including the Iran nuclear programme, also came up for discussion. Dr Singh said the strategic relationship between India and Russia was based on traditional ties. But, he felt, the economic relationship did not not reflect the full potential between the two countries for which efforts should be made. + Russia may build more N-reactors in India It was proposed that a comprehensive study on economic ties between the two countries be set up, the spokesman said. India was awaiting Russia's response to the terms of reference it had sent and the President promised it would be ready by the time Dr Singh visits Moscow in December for the annual summit. Complete coverage: Prime Minister at the UN 7333: The Latest News on Your Mobile! © Copyright 2005 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or Copyright © 2005 rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 Las Vegas RJ: Companies plan nuclear power plants Friday, September 16, 2005 Venture aims for 2008 licensing, which would end decades-long hiatus in United States By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Twenty-seven years have passed since a business ordered a new nuclear power plant in the United States, but two energy companies Thursday announced a joint venture to seek a license for a new nuclear plant by spring 2008. Constellation Energy, a Baltimore-based electric company, and Areva, a French-owned nuclear reactor manufacturer, are forming UniStar Nuclear with the goal of launching a new era of nuclear power plants in the United States. Bechtel Power Corp. would build the new plants. "Over the past decade, America's energy consumption has grown about 40 times faster than our production," said Michael Wallace, executive vice president of Constellation Energy. "Nuclear power is the one energy source that is completely domestic, environmentally friendly and able to generate massive amounts of electricity," Wallace said. Citing a favorable market and helpful provisions in an energy bill recently signed into law by President Bush, Wallace and Areva Chief Executive Officer Thomas Christopher said they hope to start building new nuclear power plants in the United States by 2010 and operating them by 2015. "For the first time in at least a generation, we will be making large nuclear components for commercial nuclear plants in the United States," Christopher said. Radioactive waste from the new plants probably would be stored at a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "We believe Yucca Mountain needs to be the ultimate solution to spent fuel high-level waste storage," Wallace said. But even if a Yucca Mountain repository is not ready, new nuclear power plants would continue to have the options of on-site storage, Wallace said. Commonwealth Edison was the last company to order a new nuclear power plant, in December 1978 in Carroll County, Ill., a spokesman at the Nuclear Energy Institute said. The April 1979 partial meltdown of a core reactor at the Three Mile Island power station near Harrisburg, Pa., is cited as the reason new nuclear power plants have not been ordered. Bob Loux, chief of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, said he is unconcerned about the possibility that new nuclear power plants will increase pressure to open a repository at Yucca Mountain. "I believe Yucca Mountain is never going to open," Loux said. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 28 Las Vegas SUN: French, U.S. companies to build nuke power plant Today: September 16, 2005 at 10:2:31 PDT By Benjamin Grove <> SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- A French firm with Yucca Mountain ties and a U.S. nuclear company aim to win the race to construct the first new U.S. nuclear power plant in nearly 30 years, despite the nation's problem-plagued nuclear waste plan. France's state-owned AREVA Inc. -- with a U.S. headquarters in Maryland, 8,000 U.S. employees, and a history of plant construction -- has joined with U.S. nuclear giant Constellation Energy to form the Annapolis, Md.-based UniStar Nuclear, officials announced Thursday. UniStar would have at least two connections to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. COGEMA Inc., an AREVA affiliate, won a $29.7 million, 4 1/2-year contract to design material handling systems at Yucca in May 2003. Also, UniStar would design plants based on AREVA technology, but the reactors would be constructed by Bechtel Power Corp. in this country. The Bechtel family of companies include Bechtel SAIC, an affiliate that is the lead Energy Department contractor at Yucca Mountain. So Bechtel could be involved in constructing new plants -- and constructing the future home of the plant waste. UniStar aims to create streamlined approach to the expensive and complex proposition of designing, building and licensing new power plants, officials said. They want to market a new generation plant technology powered by a 1,600-megawatt reactor. Design is nearing completion and a new plant could be "on the grid," by 2015, they said. Investors in the new plants could include other U.S. energy companies. The announcement of the new venture came five weeks after Congress approved energy legislation laden with fiscal incentives for the nuclear industry. "With the recent passage of the Energy Policy Act, we now believe the time is right to build nuclear power plants in America," Michael Wallace, co-executive UniStar officer, said. Nuclear energy officials for several years have said it was time for a U.S. nuclear "renaissance," especially with oil prices on the rise -- and with President Bush and leaders in the GOP-controlled Congress dangling financial incentives in front of the industry. Nuclear plants generate nearly 20 percent of America's electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. But numerous obstacles have snared the drive to construct new plants, including investor wariness of massive costs and a complicated regulatory maze. The industry also has battled a public perception that nuclear plants are unsafe since the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania, although industry leaders have boasted of their safety record since then. And there's the waste problem. More than 40,000 tons of waste has piled up at both closed plants and at 103 active reactors nationwide since the first commercial nuclear plant began operating in 1957. The federal government has deemed Yucca Mountain the nation's waste solution, and the Energy Department aims to open the proposed underground high-level waste dump site as early as 2012. But the program has been beset by budgetary setbacks, delay and scientific controversy, and it continues to face legal challenges from Nevada. Nuclear industry officials have said in the past that solid progress on Yucca was needed before they could build new plants. But they have softened that rhetoric as it seemed more likely that they could pursue new nuclear plants. The new venture firmly believes Yucca Mountain is the "best option" as a long-term waste solution, Constellation Energy spokesman Robert Gould said. He said there are alternatives for waste storage until Yucca is complete. "We need to see a path forward" on Yucca, Gould said. "But we do not see that (Yucca problems) as an impediment." Nevada lawmakers say that Congress has renewed interest in other alternatives, including continuing to store waste at plants until a better solution than Yucca is developed. There is renewed interest among key lawmakers in recycling waste, they say. "Yucca is dead -- that's a dirty little secret around here," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said in an interview at the Capitol. The nuclear industry knows that another waste solution would be needed for any new plants, Ensign said. Yucca by law would be designed to hold 77,000 tons of waste and filled to capacity by 2036. "They (new plants) would need a second Yucca Mountain," Ensign said, arguing that on-site storage and developing waste-recycling technology were better options. However, Yucca advocates, including its powerful supporters in Congress, say the nation needs Yucca whether it pursues other waste solutions or not. Nuclear industry critics scoffed at the new venture. Investors know that nuclear power is not a good investment because it reliable or economical, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear power expert with the Union for Concerned Scientists. He noted that the government underwrites an insurance plan in case of catastrophic plant accidents. He also noted the energy bill included a $200 million incentive for the constructors of a new plant, as well as a promise that taxpayers would pay for construction delays beyond five years. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 toledoblade.com: Skip FirstEnergy case, 5 Ohio justices urged Article published Friday, September 16, 2005 Watchdog cites $125,000 in campaign gifts By JIM PROVANCE BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU COLUMBUS - Five of seven sitting Ohio Supreme Court justices have received nearly $125,000 in campaign cash connected to FirstEnergy Corp. over the last decade, prompting a call for them to remove themselves from an upcoming case worth billions to the company. Recent recusals in two high-profile, politically charged cases have raised questions as to where the bar has been set for when the government's umpire should take itself out of the game to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. In May, five Republican justices who received $23,510 in campaign contributions from Tom and Bernadette Noe, former Lucas County Republican chairmen, recused themselves from a case related to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation's failed $50 million investment in rare-coin funds run by Mr. Noe. Six months earlier, four justices - three Republicans and one Democrat - removed themselves from consideration of an election matter involving a group that spent millions promoting or attacking Supreme Court candidates. "Giving money to the referee in the middle of the game is not workable," said Catherine Turcer of the government watchdog Ohio Citizen Action. Yesterday, the organization mailed letters to Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Maureen O'Connor, Terrence O'Donnell, and Judith Lanzinger urging them to sit out oral arguments in the FirstEnergy case on Sept. 25. The Ohio Consumers' Counsel has challenged the legality of an Aug. 4, 2004, decision of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. That decision essentially locked in for another three years the amount that FirstEnergy, Akron-based parent of Toledo Edison, has been allowed to recoup from customers for nuclear power plants and other investments, even when the consumer purchases power from another supplier. The estimated total cost across all consumer classes, including residential, commercial, and industrial, is $2.9 billion, according to the consumers' counsel. Chief Justice Moyer said he has yet to make a decision whether to participate in the FirstEnergy case, but he believes Citizen Action has no standing to make such a request. "The reason we got off [the Noe] case was it appeared to us he was personally liable," said Chief Justice Moyer. "But, obviously, if we got off every case for campaign contributions, you'd have very few judges sitting on cases. Our system requires us to raise funds, unfortunately." Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander has no plans to request recusal, saying she believes the justices can decide the case fairly. Justice Lanzinger, of Toledo, said Mr. Noe's role as her campaign chairman prompted her earlier recusal. "Certainly, because we have an elected system, candidates are going to be receiving contributions from a variety of sources," she said. "I would certainly hope that the mere fact that somebody has given a contribution within the limits does not mean I am going to be biased in favor of that individual." On Aug. 6, 2004, two days after the PUCO finalized its order allowing FirstEnergy to charge its customers billions more over the next three years, 44 contributions from FirstEnergy's political action committee, employees, and their families totaling about $61,000 were funneled to the campaigns of Justices Moyer, Lanzinger, and O'Donnell. All were from a fund-raiser hosted by FirstEnergy CEO Anthony Alexander in his Akron-area home. Tens of thousands of extra dollars were raised from attendees without direct connections to FirstEnergy. Company spokesman Ellen Raines said the fund-raiser was scheduled well in advance of Aug. 6 and that the arrival of checks two days after the PUCO ruling was coincidental. "The bottom line is these contributions were made legally by people who have the right to participate in the political process," she said. "This is all about the consumers' counsel pulling out all the stops to derail a rate plan that has been proven to be good for consumers." According to an analysis by Citizen Action of campaign finance records at the Ohio Secretary of State's office, none of the three Democratic challengers in 2004 received contributions. Neither did Justice Paul Pfeifer, a Bucyrus Republican who had no opposition. Recusals result in the temporary appointment of replacements from the pool of Ohio Court of Appeals judges to preside over those cases. That process was triggered when Chief Justice Moyer and Justices O'Donnell, Lanzinger, Stratton, and O'Connor recused themselves from a case in which The Blade sued the Workers' Compensation Bureau to force release of records associated with its investment in Mr. Noe's coin funds. "They felt it was necessary in the Tom Noe case to recuse themselves and that was only a few thousand dollars," said Ms. Turcer. Chief Justice Moyer and Justices Stratton, O'Donnell, and Alice Robie Resnick recused themselves from an elections challenge against the Ohio Chamber of Commerce's nonprofit political arm, Citizens for a Strong Ohio, which spent millions in corporate cash on ads attacking Justice Resnick and promoting the others. "The argument could be made that justices would be handcuffing themselves if the standard policy was they would not participate in cases where one of the law firms had given a contribution," said Larry Baum, Ohio State University political science professor. "There might even be concern that law firms would strategically contribute in order to disqualify a judge they don't like," he said. Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 30 Times-Standard: NRC announces results of Humboldt Bay nuke rod investigation James Faulk EUREKA -- While maintaining Pacific Gas and Electric Co. did a thorough job in looking for its missing fuel rods and addressing the surrounding issues, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced at a public meeting Thursday that the company will face possible fines for the violations that led to their disappearance. "As a result of our investigation, we identified three potential violations of our regulations and that will be the subject of escalated enforcement action," said Victor Dricks, public affairs officer with the NRC. The company apologized for the missing fuel rods. "We're here to tell you that we regret what happened," said Donna Jacobs, vice president of Nuclear Services with PG&E. "We apologize for the need to have this meeting tonight." She said the company did not live up to its responsibilities in controlling and maintaining its special nuclear material. In the fall of 2003, an inventory of a spent fuel pool at the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant led to the discovery of fuel fragments that were not accounted for in the company's records. That cast the company's records into doubt, said NRC Heath Physicist Emilio Garcia, and kicked off an internal investigation to find out where the fragments came from. During that investigation, it was found that three 18-inch fuel rod segments that were supposed to be hanging from the wall of the pool were missing. A company investigation found that the rods were likely broken up but still in the pool, or that they had been shipped to a radioactive waste disposal site. Commission staff said Thursday they essentially agreed with those findings, although Garcia said it's more likely that the material was shipped to a waste facility. Theft is highly unlikely, he said, because detectors in the facility would have alerted employees that the rods were being moved; because moving the material without the proper protection would cause serious injury or death; and because moving the material with the proper protection would need cranes and other heavy equipment, as well as more than one person. Such a "conspiracy" does not pass the "straight-face test," Garcia said. PG&E was found by the commission to have violated three of its regulations. "They failed to keep records that show the inventory, transfer or disposal of the three segments," said Dricks. "They failed to establish, maintain and follow adequate written material control and accounting procedures; and they failed to conduct an accurate physical inventory of all the spent nuclear material in their possession every 12 months." The company has until Monday to respond to the NRC's findings. "We're going to concur with the findings that we've talked about tonight," said Jacobs. "We agree with what's been found and we're taking corrective actions." Roy Willis of the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant said insufficient training and procedures for the control and accountability of special nuclear material was one cause of the problem. Another was a lack of industry guidance and standards for control and accountability of fuel fragments. There was guidance for larger fuel bundles, but little for segments of the size that are unaccounted for at the Humboldt Bay plant, he said. The company has established a formal qualification system for plant personnel responsible for managing special nuclear material at the plant, he said. It's improved the programs and procedures for the control and accountability of the material, he said. And they've completed a detailed inventory of all the special nuclear material stored at the plant, he said. Within 45 days of receiving the company's response, the NRC will announce the amount of any fine. A nuclear power plant on the East Coast was fined more than $200,000 for a similar situation, Dricks said. © 2005 Times - Standard ***************************************************************** 31 Xinhua: ITER partners want immediate construction of nuclear reactor www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-17 05:54:36 PARIS, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project's six partners released a statement on Friday, saying they had asked Japan to nominate the chief of the project as well as its construction as soon as possible. "In particular, the delegations expressed the wish to see Japan identify suitably qualified candidate(s) to be designated as nominee director-general," negotiators from the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China said in the statement following a meeting on Monday at Cadarache in southern France, the chosen site for the multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion reactor. Three meetings between ITER negotiators were planned between September and December 2005 to finalise the choice of director-general and to draft the agreement establishing the ITER organization. Monday's meeting also discussed the structure of the ITER organization, staffing, resources and risk management, the statement said. EU promised Japan 20 percent of staff posts and construction contracts, besides the director-general's office. The Japanese physicist, Yasuo Shimomura, is the interim leader of the ITER project team. The ITER centre is to be built beside the existing Cadarache nuclear research park, 70 kilometres from the southern French port of Marseilles. Nuclear fusion produces no greenhouse gas emissions and much lower quantities of radioactive waste than conventional fission reactors. "In a separate meeting, the ITER delegates had an informal exchange with a delegation from India on India's interest in the possibility of participating in ITER," according to the statement. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 32 UK: HSE: Quarterly statement of incidents at nuclear installations E121:05 14 September 2005 A statement on incidents at nuclear installations in Britain which meet Ministerial reporting criteria is reported to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Scotland and is published every quarter by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). For the period 1 April to 30 June 2005 there was one incident at a nuclear licensed installation that met the reporting criteria. A copy of the statement is attached. Notes to Editors + The arrangements for reporting incidents were announced to Parliament by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy on 30 April 1987 (Hansard col. 203-204). A minor modification to arrangements for reporting on nuclear incidents was announced in HSE press notice E108:93 of 30 June 1993. + Normally each incident mentioned in HSE's quarterly incident statements will already have been made public by the licensee or site operator either through a press statement or by inclusion in the newsletter for the site concerned. Statement of Nuclear Incidents at Nuclear Installations: Second Quarter 2005 - single copies of each free from the Nuclear Safety Directorate Information Centre, HSE, Room 004, St Peter’s House, Stanley Precinct, Bootle L20 3LZ. PUBLIC ENQUIRIES : Nuclear Safety Directorate Information Centre: 0151 951 4103 Press Enquiries : Journalists only : Mark Wheeler 020 7717 6905 Out of hours 020 7928 8382 Appendix - Quarterly Nuclear Statement 2 nd quarter 05 INCIDENT 05/2/1 Sellafield (British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited) On 20 April 2005 British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd, (BNGSL), the licensee, discovered a leak which had occurred within the THORP Head End Feed Clarification Cell. The leak was from pipe-work to a vessel designated an Accountancy Tank that held dissolved fuel in nitric acid solution while accountancy calculations were made. The leak was estimated at 83 cubic metres. HSE’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) was informed of the leak later the same day. The relevant plant and operations including fuel shearing were promptly shut down by BNGSL. Some downstream parts of the plant were subsequently restarted, after discussion with NII, in order to drain other tanks in the same cell which had liquor held within them when the plant was shut down. The leak was into a stainless steel clad, heavily shielded cell designed to contain such leaks, and there has been no indication that any liquid leaked from the cell. Plant radiation monitoring showed that there was neither abnormal radioactivity in air nor radioactivity released to the environment as a result of this event. BNGSL has concluded that no workers or members of the public have been affected. Camera inspections within the cell showed that other pipe work and vessels within the cell showed no sign of leakage. BNGSL criticality assessors concluded that a criticality was not possible based on the properties of the leaked liquor. On notification of the event, NII set up an internal review group to consider the adequacy of the actions taken to recover the situation. NII was kept fully informed of recovery plans and monitored the situation closely to ensure that safety remained assured. The cell has built-in equipment for the recovery of any leaked liquor back into primary containment tanks and all the leaked liquid has now been recovered this way. NII is satisfied that the plant remains in a safe state and that there have been no harmful effects to people or the environment. Liaison was maintained throughout with the Environment Agency. BNGSL evaluated this event as INES category 3, because of the significant release of radioactivity into the secondary containment. Subsequent to the completion of the ‘make safe’ operations, an NII team commenced an investigation at the site on 16 May 2005. The preliminary findings led NII to issue two Improvement Notices on 17 June to ensure that BNGSL promptly rectified deficiencies in compliance with nuclear site licence conditions relating to the operation of the THORP Feed Clarification Cell. The Improvement Notices compel BNGSL to improve compliance in the areas of leak detection, operating instructions, record keeping and maintenance and testing of safety related equipment. The NII investigation is continuing, but it is too soon to say whether this will result in further regulatory action. In the meantime, BNGSL is considering options for the restart of the plant and has liaised with regulators on its initial ideas, but a firm proposal has not yet been submitted. + Updated 15.09.05 ***************************************************************** 33 NRC: Callaway Plant, Unit 1; Notice of Consideration of Issuance of FR Doc E5-5086 [Federal Register: September 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 179)] [Notices] [Page 54776-54778] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16se05-162] Amendment to Facility Operating License, Proposed No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, and Opportunity for a Hearing The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is considering issuance of an amendment to Facility Operating License No. NPF-30 issued to the Union Electric Company (the licensee) for operation of the Callaway Plant, Unit 1, in Callaway County, Missouri. The proposed amendment, submitted in the licensee's application dated September 9, 2005, would revise Surveillance Requirements (SRs) 3.7.3.1 and 3.7.3.2 and add SR 3.7.3.3 in Technical Specification (TS) 3.7.3, ``Main Feedwater Isolation Valves (MFIVs).'' The new SR 3.7.3.3 would add Figure 3.7.3-1, the acceptable valve closure time versus the steam generator pressure for the MFIVs, to the TSs. Before issuance of the proposed license amendment, the Commission will have made findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations. The Commission has made a proposed determination that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration. Under the Commission's regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Section 50.92, this means that operation of the facility in accordance [[Page 54777]] with the proposed amendment would not (1) involve a significant increase in the probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated; or (2) create the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated; or (3) involve a significant reduction in a margin of safety. As required by 10 CFR 50.91(a), the licensee has provided its analysis of the issue of no significant hazards consideration, which is presented below: 1. Does the proposed change involve a significant increase in the probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated? Response: No. Revision of the MFIV stroke time limit has no impact on the frequency of occurrence of those events for which feedwater isolation is credited or assumed. The MFIVs themselves are not part of the initiating mechanisms or failure modes for such events (such as steamline break or feedwater line break). Therefore, the proposed change has no impact on the probability of occurrence of such events and does not involve a significant increase in the probability of an accident previously evaluated. With regard to consequences of previously evaluated accidents, evaluations were documented in References 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 [(the licensee's letters to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dated June 27 and December 12, 2003, and September 17, 2004, respectively)] that assessed the impact of the change in MFIV actuators and an associated 15-second MFIV stroke time (for operating conditions that include secondary system pressures above the reference pressure that corresponds to [the] P-11 permissive) on LOCA [loss-of-coolant accident] mass and energy releases; main steamline break mass and energy releases; LOCA and LOCA related transients; non-LOCA transients; LOCA hydraulic forces and steam releases used for radiological consequence calculations. The consequences of those evaluations are not adversely affected by the proposed change to an increasing MFIV stroke time limit where appropriate for lower secondary system pressures. The evaluations discussed in Section 4.0 [of Attachment 2 to the licensee's application dated September 9, 2005,] demonstrate that such an increase in the MFIV stroke time from the 15 seconds assumed in the analyses performed in support of the Callaway RSG [Replacement Steam Generator] Program (Reference 7.3) to a higher bounding stroke time value of 90 seconds where appropriate for lower secondary system pressures is acceptable with respect to the impacted accident analyses. The resulting interpolated TS curve proposed as TS Figure 3.7.3-1 provides an MFIV stroke time limit that is pressure dependent but bounding, as it ensures the applicable FSAR [Callaway Final Safety Analysis Report] Chapter 15 events that credit MFIV closure remain bounding. Therefore, the proposed change does not result in a significant increase in the probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated. 2. Does the proposed change create the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated? Response: No. The proposed changes do not involve any hardware or design changes [n]or any changes in the methods by which safety- related plant systems perform their safety function. No new accident scenarios, transient precursors, failure mechanisms, or limiting single failures are introduced as a result of this request. There will be no adverse effect or challenges imposed on any safety- related system as a result of the proposed change. Therefore, the proposed change does not create a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously evaluated. 3. Does the proposed change involve a significant reduction in a margin of safety? Response: No. The proposed changes to incorporate a pressure- dependent MFIV surveillance stroke time limit and to delete the Notes on SR 3.7.3.1 and SR 3.7.3.2 do not affect any safety analysis acceptance criteria nor involve any change to a safety analysis limit, limiting safety system setting, or safety system performance criterion. There will be no effect on the manner in which safety limits or limiting safety system settings are determined nor will there be any effect on those plant systems necessary to assure the accomplishment of protection functions. The radiological dose consequence acceptance criteria will continue to be met. There will be no significant impact on the overpower limit, departure from nucleate boiling ratio limits, heat flux hot channel factor (FQ), nuclear enthalpy rise hot channel factor (F-delta-H), loss[-]of[- ]coolant accident peak cladding temperature (LOCA PCT), peak local power density, or any other margin of safety. The radiological dose consequence acceptance criteria listed in the Standard Review Plan will continue to be met. Therefore, the proposed change does not involve a significant reduction in the margin of safety. The NRC staff has reviewed the licensee's analysis and, based on this review, it appears that the three standards of 10 CFR 50.92(c) are satisfied. Therefore, the NRC staff proposes to determine that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration. The Commission is seeking public comments on this proposed determination. Any comments received within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice will be considered in making any final determination. Normally, the Commission will not issue the amendment until the expiration of 60 days after the date of publication of this notice. The Commission may issue the license amendment before expiration of the 60- day period provided that its final determination is that the amendment involves no significant hazards consideration. In addition, the Commission may issue the amendment prior to the expiration of the 30- day comment period should circumstances change during the 30-day comment period such that failure to act in a timely way would result, for example in derating or shutdown of the facility. Should the Commission take action prior to the expiration of either the comment period or the notice period, it will publish in the Federal Register a notice of issuance. Should the Commission make a final No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, any hearing will take place after issuance. The Commission expects that the need to take this action will occur very infrequently. Written comments may be submitted by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and should cite the publication date and page number of this Federal Register notice. Written comments may also be delivered to Room 6D59, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. The filing of requests for hearing and petitions for leave to intervene is discussed below. Within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice, the licensee may file a request for a hearing with respect to issuance of the amendment to the subject facility operating license and any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding must file a written request for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene. Requests for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene shall be filed in accordance with the Commission's ``Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing Proceedings'' in 10 CFR part 2. Interested persons should consult a current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is available at the Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/ reading-rm/ doc-collections/cfr/. If a request for a hearing or petition for [[Page 54778]] leave to intervene is filed by the above date, the Commission or a presiding officer designated by the Commission or by the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, will rule on the request and/or petition; and the Secretary or the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will issue a notice of a hearing or an appropriate order. As required by 10 CFR 2.309, a petition for leave to intervene shall set forth with particularity the interest of the petitioner in the proceeding, and how that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding. The petition should specifically explain the reasons why intervention should be permitted with particular reference to the following general requirements: (1) The name, address and telephone number of the requestor or petitioner; (2) the nature of the requestor's/petitioner's right under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; (3) the nature and extent of the requestor's/petitioner's property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and (4) the possible effect of any decision or order which may be entered in the proceeding on the requestors/petitioner's interest. The petition must also identify the specific contentions which the petitioner/requestor seeks to have litigated at the proceeding. Each contention must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted. In addition, the petitioner/requestor shall provide a brief explanation of the bases for the contention and a concise statement of the alleged facts or expert opinion which support the contention and on which the petitioner intends to rely in proving the contention at the hearing. The petitioner/requestor must also provide references to those specific sources and documents of which the petitioner is aware and on which the petitioner intends to rely to establish those facts or expert opinion. The petition must include sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with the applicant on a material issue of law or fact. Contentions shall be limited to matters within the scope of the amendment under consideration. The contention must be one which, if proven, would entitle the petitioner to relief. A petitioner/requestor who fails to satisfy these requirements with respect to at least one contention will not be permitted to participate as a party. Those permitted to intervene become parties to the proceeding, subject to any limitations in the order granting leave to intervene, and have the opportunity to participate fully in the conduct of the hearing. If a hearing is requested, the Commission will make a final determination on the issue of no significant hazards consideration. The final determination will serve to decide when the hearing is held. If the final determination is that the amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration, the Commission may issue the amendment and make it immediately effective, notwithstanding the request for a hearing. Any hearing held would take place after issuance of the amendment. If the final determination is that the amendment request involves a significant hazards consideration, any hearing held would take place before the issuance of any amendment. Nontimely requests and/or petitions and contentions will not be entertained absent a determination by the Commission or the presiding officer of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the petition, request and/or the contentions should be granted based on a balancing of the factors specified in 10 CFR 2.309(c)(1)(I)-(viii). A request for a hearing or a petition for leave to intervene must be filed by: (1) First class mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (2) courier, express mail, and expedited delivery services: Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (3) e-mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV; or (4) facsimile transmission addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff at (301) 415-1101, verification number is (301) 415-1966. A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and it is requested that copies be transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to (301) 415-3725 or by e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to the John O'Neill, Esq., Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, 2300 N Street, NW., Washington, DC 20037, attorney for the licensee. For further details with respect to this action, see the application for amendment dated September 9, 2005, which is available for public inspection at the Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, File Public Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of September, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jack Donohew, Senior Project Manager, Section 2, Project Directorate IV, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E5-5086 Filed 9-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 34 Japan Times: Japan nixes North's demand for reactor Friday, September 16, 2005 Japan will not accept Pyongyang's demand for a light-water nuclear reactor because it would be used to produced atomic weapons, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Thursday. "It has always been Japan's position not to approve even the peaceful use (of nuclear technology) for countries that are not credible," Hosoda told a regular news conference in Tokyo, referring to North Korea's demand, which has become a fresh obstacle at the six-party talks in Beijing. Construction "of a light-water reactor is equivalent to approving the enrichment of uranium (in North Korea) and would lead to the manufacturing of uranium atomic weapons. "We cannot accept discussions that appear to say that it is all right (for North Korea) not to have strict inspections as long as (a reactor) is for civilian use." North Korea has insisted it has a right to civilian nuclear program and to build a light-water nuclear reactor under a new framework separate from a now-defunct 1994 deal with the United States, in exchange for giving up its nuclear arms program. At the six-way talks, which resumed Tuesday after a five-week break, Japan stood with the United States in opposing Pyongyang's request, while China, South Korea and Russia appeared to support it. On Tuesday, President George W. Bush endorsed Iran's right to civilian nuclear energy. More bilateral talks BEIJING (Kyodo) The chief Japanese and North Korean delegates to the six-nation nuclear talks met bilaterally Thursday in Beijing for the second straight day, Japanese officials said. The Japan Times: Sept. 16, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 35 Hudson Valley News: County officials upset with Indian Point siren test Friday, September 16, 2005 Copyright © 2005 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc. Wednesday evenings Indian Point sirens test was almost flawless, if you ask Entergy officials. If you talk to county officials surround the nuclear power plant. Entergy Spokesman James Steets said two of 156 sirens  both in Westchester  failed. In Rockland, backup radio transmitters didnt work. That was believed to have been caused by a computer system glitch. We do these tests periodically to be sure that the sirens work, and if they dont to fix it. This is what improves their reliability. Thats why we conduct these tests, he said. These are mechanical devices. They are sophisticated computers and communications equipment that is hooked to them. You want to run these tests to be sure they work. Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano yesterday renewed his call to shut down Indian Point. Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef also criticized the siren test in which Rocklands 51 sirens failed to activate twice. The four-county radio backup system was tested at the insistence of Rockland County emergency management officials, who doubted its reliability. The primary siren activation system has failed at least three times in the last month. MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's ***************************************************************** 36 Telegraph: Ten more years for nuclear power station The operator said the decision to keep Dungeness B open until 2018 would allow it to continue making a "powerful contribution" to the UK's energy needs and would safeguard hundreds of jobs. It insisted that the decision would not pave the way for further extensions at its other nuclear power stations in the UK. The move will increase the lifetime of the plant to 35 years - in line with many of its other sites. British Energy, which produces around one-fifth of the UK's electricity, has already been granted extensions to the life of six of its seven other plants. Environmental campaigners criticised the decision, saying it had "little relevance" for the future of Britain's energy policy. The Government has suspended any decision on its future nuclear power policy until it resolves issues such as nuclear waste but is under pressure to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 60pc by 2050. British Energy chief executive Bill Coley said the move was important in helping the UK achieve its climate change goals on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. He said: "The life extension for Dungeness B is not indicative of potential for further life extensions at the company's other nuclear power stations." He said tests would be carried out on other stations at least three years before their scheduled closing dates. British Energy has seen a major improvement in output from Dungeness B in the last couple of years. The Kent plant is one of the region's largest employers, with more than 550 full-time staff, and brings in an estimated £30 million a year to the local community. It first started supplying the National Grid in 1983 and has so far generated 75.87 terawatt hours (TWh) of power - an amount that could provide all the electricity needed for Greater London and the South East for a year. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms &Conditions of reading. ***************************************************************** 37 BERNAMA: Scientist Says Malaysia Must Look At Nuclear Energy For Power Malaysian National News Agency :: September 16, 2005 20:42 PM PENANG, Sept 16 (Bernama) -- A Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) scientist says Malaysia must urgently consider nuclear energy as an alternative source of power as its crude oil reserves are forecast to run out in 19 more years. USM Centre for Education, Training and Research in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CETREE) director Prof Dr Kamarulazizi Ibrahim said the government should review the national nuclear policy and consider generating nuclear energy for the nation's needs. He said nuclear energy should not be viewed negatively any more because Malaysia has the technology to contain it safely. "Crude oil reserves in Malaysia are expected to be depleted in the next 19 years while natural gas supply may last only another 33 years. "We are in a desperate situation. The government must start looking for new energy sources in the next 10 years and the process to create nuclear materials actually takes about 10 years," he told reporters Friday. To date, Malaysia only uses nuclear energy for medical research. Kamarulazizi said in the next 19 years, Malaysia could possibly become a crude oil importer while the usage of the fuel would multiply because of the increasing number of motor vehicles. He said in order to overcome the problem, studies on the possible utilisation of palm oil fuel and biodiesel should be encouraged. Kamarulazizi said Malaysia has many experts in the nuclear field and the government only needed to provide a nuclear plant site and find a country that wished to procure the waste. "A nuclear plant in this country will be safe from natural disasters as Malaysia does not have earthquakes," he said. He said there were countries that bought nuclear waste for the manufacture of certain products and Malaysia could be a nuclear waste exporter if the government decided to utilise nuclear energy. -- BERNAMA Copyright © 2005 BERNAMA. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 Washington Times: 3 illegals arrested at nuclear station By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES September 16, 2005 Three illegal aliens were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week when they reported for work as outside contractors at a secure area of a Nebraska nuclear power station. ICE spokesman Dean Boyd yesterday said the men, all Mexican nationals, had been hired by an independent contractor to perform maintenance work at the Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station. As they attempted to enter a secure area of the plant, Mr. Boyd said, the men presented identification documents that raised the suspicions of Omaha Public Power District employees. They, in turn, contacted ICE agents for assistance. The men were arrested after agents determined they were in the United States illegally. Mr. Boyd said all three have been placed in immigration removal proceedings, adding that the arrests occurred Tuesday but were made public yesterday. He said ICE is investigating the circumstances under which the private contractor hired the aliens, but that the agency determined the men were not engaged in terrorist activity. "America's security depends on controlling access to sensitive facilities like nuclear power plants," said ICE Agent Michael Ward, who heads the agency's Omaha office. "ICE works closely with these industries across the nation to identify vulnerabilities that pose a potential security threat, then we aggressively act to remove that threat. "In this case, the system worked exactly the way it was supposed to because the nuclear plant detected the illegal aliens before they could enter." The arrests were the latest in a series of ICE apprehensions of illegal aliens performing contract work at nuclear plants and other nuclear-related facilities. In March, agents arrested an illegal alien who was performing contract pipe insulation work at the Duane Arnold Energy Center Nuclear Power Plant in Palo, Iowa. A federal grand jury later indicted him on charges of using and possessing fraudulent documents, as well as making false statements to federal agents. During a two-week period in March, ICE agents arrested six illegal aliens doing contract maintenance work at the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant in Citrus, Fla. One of the illegal aliens was indicted on criminal charges of re-entering the country after deportation, while the others have been placed in immigration removal proceedings. In November, ICE agents arrested 44 illegal aliens at the Marley Cooling Technologies factory in Olathe, Kan., where cooling towers for nuclear plants are manufactured. The aliens used fraudulent documents and made false statements to gain employment. Mr. Boyd said the ongoing arrests are part of "Operation Glow Worm," a joint law-enforcement initiative begun by ICE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the September 11 attacks to screen workers at the nation's 104 nuclear power plants. Numerous unauthorized workers have been arrested and warning notices issued to those employing unauthorized workers, he said. ***************************************************************** 39 NRC: Transportation Package Response to the Baltimore Tunnel Fire FR Doc E5-5083 [Federal Register: September 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 179)] [Notices] [Page 54780] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16se05-165] Scenario AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Allen Hansen, Thermal Engineer, Criticality, Shielding and Heat Transfer Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Telephone: (301) 415- 1390; Fax number: (301) 415-8555; E-mail: agh@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction Under contract with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory prepared a draft NUREG/CR report, ``Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response to the Baltimore Tunnel Fire (BTF) Scenario.'' This NUREG/CR documents the thermal analyses of three different spent fuel transportation packages exposed to the BTF scenario: TransNuclear TN-68, Holtec HI-STAR 100 and the NAC LWT. Consequence analyses prepared by the Spent Fuel Project Office staff are also included. The NRC is soliciting public comments on this draft NUREG/CR which will be considered in the final version or subsequent revisions. II. Summary The purpose of this notice is to provide the public an opportunity to review and comment on the Draft NUREG/CR thermal analyses, the consequence analyses and the conclusions. III. Further Information Documents related to this action are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents related to this notice are provided in the following table. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. ADAMS NUREG/CR Files accession No. Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response to the ML052500391 Baltimore Tunnel Fire Scenario......................... Appendix A--Material Properties for COBRA-SFS Model of ML052490246 TN-68 Package.......................................... Appendix B--Material Properties for ANSYS Model of HI- ML052490258 STAR 100 Package....................................... Appendix C--Material Properties for ANSYS Model of Legal ML052490264 Weight Truck Package................................... Appendix D--Blackbody View Factors for COBRA-SFS Model ML052490268 of TN-68 Package....................................... Appendix E--HOLTEC HI-STAR 100 Component Temperature ML052490270 Distributions.......................................... These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Comments and questions on the draft NUREG/CR should be directed to the NRC contact listed below by October 31, 2005. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received after this date. Contact: Allen Hansen, Thermal Engineer, Criticality, Shielding and Heat Transfer Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Telephone: (301) 415-1390; fax number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail: agh@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 9th day of September, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. M. Wayne Hodges, Deputy Technical Review Directorate, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E5-5083 Filed 9-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 40 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Fining of FR Doc E5-5084 [Federal Register: September 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 179)] [Notices] [Page 54779-54780] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16se05-164] No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Whittaker Corporation's Facility in Greenville, PA AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marjorie McLaughlin, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406, telephone (610) 337-5240, fax (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license renewal and amendment to Whittaker Corporation for Materials License No. SMA-1018. The proposed action would allow for the continued decontamination and decommissioning of the Whittaker waste storage facility in the Reynolds Industrial Park near Greenville, Pennsylvania. The proposed action also includes NRC approval of site- specific dose concentration guideline levels (DCGLs) for use in developing the Decommissioning Plan for the site. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this action in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. II. EA Summary The purpose of the action is to renew and amend the NRC license for decontamination and decommissioning (D) of the Whittaker waste storage facility in Greenville, Pennsylvania. This action allows for the continued characterization and other decommissioning activities at this site, and approves site-specific DCGLs which will define the cleanup criteria for radioactive contaminants. Whittaker Corporation was authorized by NRC from December 15, 1969, to use radioactive materials for minerals processing purposes at the site. Some of the raw materials used in these processes contained licensable quantities of natural thorium or uranium which were concentrated in the waste byproduct. Processing operations utilizing licensable materials ceased in 1975, and decommissioning activities began. A portion of the site was released for unconditional use in 1985. Whittaker Corporation has been maintaining control over the radioactive materials at the remaining site, while developing a plan for remediation. On May 28, 2004, Whittaker Corporation requested renewal of NRC License No. SMA- 1018 to allow for the continued D of the site. On August 10, 2004, Whittaker Corporation submitted a Dose Assessment of the site to support the use of proposed DCGLs for site contaminants. The dose assessment shows that the site will meet the dose-based License Termination Rule criteria in 10 CFR 20 Subpart E if the contaminants are remediated to the proposed DCGLs. The DCGLs will be incorporated into the Decommissioning Plan being developed by Whittaker Corporation to describe final site remediation activities. The Decommissioning Plan will also be submitted for approval by the NRC, and will be noticed in the Federal Register separately. z The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed the dose assessment and the procedures and controls submitted by Whittaker Corporation. Based on its review, the staff has determined that the affected environment associated with D at the [[Page 54780]] Whittaker Corporation's facility will have no significant environmental impact, and that a Finding of No Significant Impact is appropriate. III. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of the license renewal and amendment to authorize continued D of the Whittaker waste storage facility in Greenville, Pennsylvania. On the basis of the EA, the NRC has concluded that there are no significant environmental impacts from the proposed action, and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action. IV. Further Information Documents related to this action, including the application for the license amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at . From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents related to this Notice are: The Environmental Assessment [ML052440421], Telephone Log Dated 2/17/05 Re. Questions in Support of License Renewal [ML050490050], Deficiency Response Letter [ML050680314], Revision I of Scientech Document No. 82A9534, ``Dose Assessment in Support of Establishing Derived Concentration Guideline Levels for the Whittaker Decommissioning Site'', dated August 10, 2004 [ML042310154]. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at (800) 397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to . Documents related to operations conducted under this license not specifically referenced in this Notice may not be electronically available and/or may not be publicly available. Persons who have an interest in reviewing these documents should submit a request to the NRC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instructions for submitting a FOIA request can be found on the NRC's Web site at . Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 9th day of September, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Marie Miller, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I. [FR Doc. E5-5084 Filed 9-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 41 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of FR Doc E5-5085 [Federal Register: September 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 179)] [Notices] [Page 54778-54779] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr16se05-163] No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Pharmacia & Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Peter J. Lee, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region III, 2443 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532- 4352. Telephone: (630) 829-9870; fax number: (630) 515-1259; e-mail: pjl2@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuing a license amendment of Material License No. 21-00182-03 issued to Pharmacia & Upjohn Company (the licensee), to authorize release of its 200 Portage Road facility for unrestricted use. The NRC staff has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in [[Page 54779]] support of this amendment in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The amendment will be issued following the publication of this Notice. II. EA Summary The purpose of the proposed action is to amend the licensee's byproduct material license and release its 200 Portage Road facility for unrestricted use. On April 24, 1958, the Atomic Energy Commission authorized the licensee to conduct the radiological operations. The primary radioactive materials used at 200 Portage Road facility were hydrogen-3, carbon-14, phosphorus-32, phosphorus-33, sulfur-35, and iodine-125. On June 20, 2005, the licensee submitted a license amendment request to amend its license to release its 200 Portage Road facility for unrestricted use. The licensee has conducted surveys of the facility and provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that the site meets the license termination criteria in 10 CFR 20.1402, ''Radiological Criteria for Unrestricted Use.'' The staff has examined the licensee's request and the information provided in support of its request, including the surveys performed to demonstrate compliance with the release criteria. The staff has found that the environmental impacts from the proposed action are bounded by the impacts evaluated in the ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Facilities'' (NUREG-1496). Based on its review, the staff has determined that there are no additional remediation activities necessary to complete the proposed action and a Finding of No Significant Impact is appropriate. III. Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the EA, the NRC concluded that there are no significant environmental impacts from the proposed amendment and determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement. IV. Further Information In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' documents related to this action, including the application for amendment and supporting documentation, will be available electronically for public inspection and copying from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) of NRC's document system (ADAMS) accessible from the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents related to this notice are: ML051740182 for the June 20, 2005, amendment request, and ML052520086 for the EA summarized above. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Dated at Lisle, Illinois, this 9th day of September, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jamnes L. Cameron, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region III. [FR Doc. E5-5085 Filed 9-15-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 42 Yokwe: Marshall Islands and US Reps Meet for Nuke Legacy Review A high-level meeting to discuss nuclear legacy issues brought Republic of the Marshall Islands and United States delegations to the table in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 13. The long-awaited meeting, called by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, was held at the Interior headquarters. This year, both the US House and Senate held oversight hearings on the US nuclear testing legacy, opening the door for consideration of the Marshalls' Changed Circumstances Petition. The Petition requests additional compensation in light of recently declassified documents and new medical reports. Marshallese have high rates of cancer and face continuing battles with disease and displacement. The people of Bikini and Rongelap have yet to resettle in their islands. Issues discussed by the two and one-half hour meeting covered the needs and status the 177 Health Care Plan and the Department of Energy (DOE) medical program for the people of Rongelap and Utrik. A nationwide health care plan for the Republic of the Marshall Islands was also discussed. Weighing heavy of the minds of the people of Enewetak is the Runit Dome which covers radioactive waste from the testing. It is the desire of the Enewetakian people for the US to provide a long-term monitoring solution for the dome. The status of the land claim issues of the 4 atolls against the US government was also discussed. Numerous options were considered as to the disposition of these problems, from court actions to Congressional appropriations. Secretary Norton was not in attendance due to obligations in New Orleans. RMI President Kessai Note was expected to meet with the US Secretary on Thursday morning. Attending the meeting for US government were representatives from the US State Department, led by US Ambassador to the RMI, Greta Morris, US Department of Energy representatives, and numerous staffers of various US Congressmen from both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. The Interior Department delegation was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary David Cohen, who chaired the meeting. Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerald Zackios led the RMI delegation. Senators, mayors and representatives of Bikini, Enewetak, Utrik, and Rongelap also attended. The people of the 4 atolls have been waiting for this kind of meeting for 5 years," said Jack Niedenthal, liaison to the people of Bikini Atoll. Compiled by Yokwe Online - coverage by Jack Niedenthal Everything Marshall Islands :: http://www.yokwe.net Sep 17, 2005 - 12:52 AM ***************************************************************** 43 AU ABC: Uranium exploration planned despite mining ban 16 September 2005. 12:02 (AWST) A Perth-based explorer says it will begin exploratory drilling for uranium later this month despite the Western Australian Government ban on its mining. Redport says it will be the first company to probe for yellowcake in Western Australia in several years when drilling starts at its Lake Maitland deposit, 130 kilometres south-east of Wiluna. Malcolm Mason from Redport says the main aim of the drilling program is to further define the nature of the core deposit, which will form the basis of a pre-feasibility study. Mr Mason says the company is well aware of the State Government's strong stance on the mining of uranium, but it remains optimistic about the future. "Nuclear power is now much more accepted than it used to be," he said. "Our belief is that a change in the world's attitudes and a change in Australia here will force a change and that will happen, well we hope, maybe within three of four years." ***************************************************************** 44 Bellona: Construction of reactor storage facility in Sayda bay behind schedule The date of start-up of the reactor storage facility in Sayda bay, Kola Peninsula, is postponed from September until November 18. 2005-09-16 09:16 Such a decision was made at the meeting of the managing Russian-German Committee in August, Interfax reported. The initial agreement signed in 2003 stipulated September 2005 as the completion date for the first part of the facility in sayda bay. However, after geological research on the site, it turned out that the site is more complicated and therefore demands more work and money, Interfax reported referring to the source at the Nerpa shipyard. The General director of the Murmanskmorstroy company Aleksey Kudrenko said to the local TV channel Murman, that 80 percent of the project is completed and complained about the nonregular payments, which go through St Petersburg company Mostostroy no.6, and the bigger volumes of work, not mentioned in the initial contract. He is afraid the completion date can be postponed. The first part of the facility should accommodate from 30 to 40 reactor compartments. The whole facility, which is to enter service in 2008, should contain 120 compartments as well as the waste from the nuclear service ships. The second part stipulates construction of the additional foundation for the remaining reactor compartments and the waste. Germany allocated 300m euro for both parts of the project. The 300m euro expenditure is seen by Germany as part of its obligation to the framework of the “10 plus 10 over 10” plan agreed upon by the Group of Eight industrialised nations, or G-8, in 2002 at the group’s summit in Kananaskis, Canada. Under this agreement, seven of the G-8 member countries will contribute $10 billion toward solving nuclear dismantlement and security issues in Russia. A representative of the German Economics and Labour Ministry, who was interviewed by email by Bellona Web, confirmed that the 300m euro is just a start to what he said would be an overall 1.5 billion euro contribution within the “10 plus 10 over 10” framework. He added, though, that getting the current deal onto the table in a form that both sides could accept “was no easy task.” He refused to elaborate. He did say that the remaining 1.2 billion euro commitment would help finance other radioactive waste storage projects as well, though the government had not yet decided what its next project will be. 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 ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas SUN: NRC is told quality comes first on Yucca Mountain work Today: September 16, 2005 at 11:24:32 PDT By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is now more focused on the quality of its Yucca Mountain work than on meeting a specific schedule, department officials told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday. The department is still working diligently to submit to the NRC an application for a license to construct the underground high-level nuclear waste repository, officials said. They still aim to submit it sometime next year. But department officials would not give the commission a specific date during a quarterly management meeting at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. "It's going to be ready when it's done," Acting Yucca Chief Paul Golan told the commission. "A quality organization does things right the first time." Golan said he is implementing a "trust but verify" culture for the Yucca program. The license application will be independently reviewed within the department before becoming final, Golan said. The Energy Department is also seeking to organize its massive collection of Yucca research documents in preparation for submission to the NRC. Golan said the documents, too, will be independently assessed. W. John Arthur, deputy director of the department's Office of Repository Development, said he may recommend certifying -- that is, finalizing -- the documents by the end of the month. Under commission regulations, the department has to make all its documents related to the project public six months before it can submit the license application. This allows Nevada, the commission, the public and other interested parties to look through the material. The documents are important because the Energy Department says its research proves that Yucca is a safe place to bury the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste. The NRC is charged with reviewing the massive data collection and determining whether Yucca is safe. The NRC is responsible for licensing, and ultimately regulating, Yucca. Arthur said the collection contains 3.3 million documents, including about 1.5 million e-mails and about 1 million technical reports and analysis. Only about 1 percent of the documents in the database could be withheld as privileged documents, officials have said. Other Yucca work continues, Arthur said. The department is continuing to develop a plan for dealing with broken fuel rods that arrive at Yucca after shipping, he said. Officials are also updating the license application so it complies with the revised Environmental Protection Agency radiation protection rule released last month. Arthur said he did not believe any additional scientific work will be needed for the department to determine whether it can meet the new EPA radiation standard. The department is also reviewing water infiltration studies because quality assurance documents that back up the research may have been falsified. The department discovered e-mails by U.S. Geological Survey employees in March that suggest Yucca several researchers did not follow proper procedures and "fudged" data, according to the e-mails. Arthur said it would take at least until next April to finalize the water studies. The studies are important because critics have said water flow inside the mountain could ultimately cause radiation to leak from the repository. The department agreed to brief the commission on an upcoming review of the e-mail issue and how it may have affect the project, but did not set a date. Also at Thursday's meeting, the NRC said it has reviewed all 293 "key technical issues" -- a checklist of unanswered questions about Yucca science that department and commission officials have been working to resolve for several years. Elmo Collins of the commission's Division of High-Level Waste Repository Safety said 256 have been "closed" and 29 need additional information. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 46 RGJ.com: New Yucca leadership? Reno Gazette-Journal] September 16, 2005 Rebate plan turns on fairness SNAPSHOT TOPIC: Yucca Mountain nominee OUR VIEW: Confirmation hearings for a man to oversee the repository project can yield information useful for Nevadans. Confirmation hearings for the man nominated to head the office that oversees the Yucca Mountain project hardly compares with the Supreme Court justice deliberations for most of the nation. But for Nevadans, the person chosen to do that job could yield critical information about the project. His progress through the confirmation process should be followed closely. If confirmed as head of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and after the resignation of the Energy Department's Margaret Chu, Edward "Ward" Sproat would be tasked with reinvigorating the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project. In other words, he'd work to get the project back on track. The underground repository that the administration has earmarked to store nuclear waste from the nation's reactors has not been entirely derailed as yet, but it has suffered serious threats through years of opposition from state officials, environmental activists, insufficient safety standards, fraud allegations and several rounds of budget cuts. Sproat admits -- for now -- that he is unfamiliar with many of the project details. But he has long years of experience as a consultant and successful negotiator for the nuclear industry. He'll likely get up to speed quickly. He is, perhaps, the big gun the administration might have been looking for, hoping finally to push through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and into operation. Senators who will participate in the confirmation hearings will develop an intimate acquaintance with Sproat, his philosophies, his methods and his mandate. They should not, however, bear the sole responsibility for knowing who this nominee is or how the administration hopes to proceed if he is confirmed. Others who oppose burying thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste near a major population center also should make it their business to know him. (It will be interesting to see how Nevada senators, who reject the repository, will handle the Sproat hearings and vote. Someone, after all, must fill the position and approving him or anyone else for the job will be akin to choosing an adversary for the state.) Bob Loux, a major opposition leader, has been quoted as conceding that "the die is cast" and that it matters little who handles the day-to-day operation. Other factors can make the difference in how this project proceeds -- factors the hearings can reveal: Whether he is being sent in as an advocate for safe plant operation, or whether he's just supposed to use any method to get it up and running, for instance. Is the plan for him to eventually negotiate with utilities? And, does the administration think of Nevada as just a nuclear waste dump or do officials really care about the state? Answers to those questions can be crucial to how the opposition responds at every juncture. The hearings aren't likely to begin soon or to be as long and involved. Two justices and Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval must face the Senate, along with a long list of other nominees. But when Sproat does come up for confirmation, Nevadans should pay close attention to what the hearings reveal. Whether the project moves smoothly under Sproat or whether the name of the game for Nevada ultimately must be "delay," the old saw about keeping friends closer and enemies closer applies. ***************************************************************** 47 Chillicothe Gazette: Report: Centrifuge poses no big risk to environment www.chillicothegazette.com Friday, September 16, 2005 By GREG WRIGHT Gannett News Service WASHINGTON - A proposed uranium processing plant in southern Ohio should bring hundreds of new jobs and some traffic jams, but not pose a major environmental risk, according to a preliminary U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report. Officials at U.S. Enrichment Corp., the firm that wants to build the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, said the report is good news. The NRC must give U.S. Enrichment Corp. an operating license before the company can build the facility on the site of a closed government plant that once processed uranium for nuclear bombs. The American Centrifuge would use newer, more electricity-efficient technology to enrich uranium for a peaceful purpose - fuel for nuclear power plants in the U.S. and abroad. The project is expected to cost up to $1.7 billion, U.S. Enrichment Corp. spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle, in Bethesda, Md., said. "The impact of the American Centrifuge will be minimal on the environment," she said. "It is a very green and safe plant to the environment." Despite assurances, some residents oppose the plant. Vina Colley says workers and the public are at risk because there is still radioactive and chemical contamination at the centrifuge site. And she worries toxic waste could be stored there. "I think we are becoming the national sacrifice zone for nuclear waste," said Colley, who used to work at the old government plant and is now co-chair of National Nuclear Workers for Justice. The NRC will hold a third meeting in Piketon Sept. 29 to get public input on the plant before releasing a final environmental impact statement around February. The NRC may not decide if it will issue an operating license until August 2006 or later, spokesman David McIntyre said. There are 103 nuclear power plants in the U.S. that supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs. The U.S. is forecast to build the equivalent of five new large nuclear plants by 2020 to keep up with increased electricity demand, the NRC report says. The Ohio plant would help increase national security by making the U.S. less reliant on foreign uranium, the report said. The plant would also be a boon to economically distressed parts of southern Ohio. The plant will generate 3,362 full-time jobs during construction between 2006 and 2010 and 1,500 plant jobs between 2010 and 2040, the report said. "That is a significant number of jobs for a rural, highly depressed economy that has an often double-digit unemployment," said Robert Walton, director of the Scioto County Community Action civic group. The NRC report highlighted other ways the American Centrifuge will affect the region: - Traffic will be heavier on U.S. Route 23 and to a lesser extent on Ohio 32 during five years of construction. The report forecast 18 traffic injuries a year involving employees and one fatality during this period. - There is a small risk workers and the public will get cancer from exposure to radiological material along transportation routes, even if an accident releases contaminants. The projected worst-case scenario calls for fewer than one radiation-related cancer death over 30 years of operation. - There is a moderate risk potentially deadly uranium hexaflouride will be released during transport. This gas forms when uranium, a metal, is converted to a gas to be enriched. When the gas hits air it becomes corrosive and leaks have caused deaths at some enrichment plants, said Ed Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. - The chance of employee or public radiation exposure is small. - U.S. Enrichment Corp. does not anticipate radioactive liquid discharges from the plant. An approved spill control plan should also limit the potential for spills or leaks to contaminate local water or soil. The plant expected to generate 630,000 tons of slightly radioactive, depleted uranium over 30 years. It will be shipped by rail to a Western disposal site, the report said. -- On the Web: www.usec.com, U.S. Enrichment Corp. www.nrc.gov, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC report highlighted other ways the American Centrifuge will affect the region: + Traffic will be heavier on U.S. 23 and, to a lesser extent, on Ohio 32 during five years of construction. The report forecasts 18 traffic injuries a year involving employees and one fatality during this period. + There is a small risk workers and the public will get cancer from exposure to radiological material along transportation routes, even if an accident releases contaminants. The projected worst-case scenario calls for fewer than one radiation-related cancer death over 30 years of operation. + There is a moderate risk potentially deadly uranium hexaflouride will be released during transport. This gas forms when uranium, a metal, is converted to a gas to be enriched. When the gas hits air it becomes corrosive, and leaks have caused deaths at some enrichment plants, said Ed Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. + The chance of employee or public radiation exposure is small. Originally published September 16, 2005 Copyright ©2005 Chillicothe Gazette. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 LA Daily News: Water cleanup plan set NWSSantaClarita Article Launched: 09/16/2005 01:00:00 AM CLWA board OKs cleanup plan By Eugene Tong, Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA - The Castaic Lake Water Agency has adopted an estimated $15.3 million cleanup plan that would ultimately rid local groundwater of perchlorate contamination. The water agency's board on Wednesday unanimously approved the two-step project intended to remove the rocket-fuel chemical that has sullied the Saugus Aquifer and forced the shutdown of five local wells. Officials then will restore any lost water supply by building three new wells. "We're in the design and coordination phase," Ken Petersen, the agency's engineering manager, said Thursday. "These were projects that the technical people agree to. There is a consensus." Defunct weapons manufacturers include Whittaker-Bermite, which tested small rockets and missiles on 996 acres off Soledad Canyon Road for nearly 50 years and contaminated the site with various compounds. They include perchlorate, which migrated into the Santa Clarita Valley's groundwater system. Four municipal wells were shut down in 1997 after tests revealed high concentrations of the chemical, and another well was capped in 2002. The CLWA and local water sellers are scheduled to meet next week with insurers for the bankrupt company to continue negotiating a cleanup settlement. Perchlorate in large doses can interfere with thyroid function, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment deemed water with as much as 6 parts per billion safe to drink. The vote - a formality - allows the CLWA to design the pumps and filtration systems to prevent the pollution plume from spreading and treat contaminated water from two of the five capped wells, Petersen said. The estimated cost for this phase is $6.1 million, and is expected to begin in 2006. The estimated $9.2 million second phase calls for two deep water wells west of Interstate 5 and an shallow alluvial well to replace one near the Saugus Speedway capped in 2002. But drilling new Saugus Aquifer wells on property west of Six Flags California Magic Mountain can take longer - the land is inaccessible, pending extension west of Magic Mountain Parkway. The Newhall Land and Farming Company is developing the 5,000-home Mission Village phase of its mammoth Newhall Ranch development nearby, and could build the road. But work won't begin until at least 2009. "It's a few years away," Newhall Land spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said. "We're looking at how access can be constructed and how it can occur." "The place we're taking is pretty far away from perchlorate contamination, and this has been a known production area for the Saugus Aquifer," Petersen said. When completed, the well projects would restore more than half of the water capacity lost to contamination, which the agency is relying on to help meet demand into 2030. According to the CLWA's draft 2005 Urban Water Management Plan, usage is expected to swell over 25 years from 91,700 acre-feet to 139,700 acre-feet. One acre-foot is the amount of water required to cover one acre of land one foot deep - or 325,851 gallons. -- Eugene Tong, (661) 257-5253 eugene.tong@dailynews.com Los Angeles Newspaper Group ***************************************************************** 49 Salt Lake Tribune: Waste casks stand up to searing flames' heat Article Last Updated: 09/16/2005 12:39:11 AM Model safe: Computers show containers would securely store nuclear waste bound for Utah By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune WASHINGTON - Even in a large-scale fire, the containers that would be used to ship and store nuclear waste to Private Fuel Storage's proposed waste site in Utah would not rupture, according to a study by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC used computer models to look at how three types of casks withstood a fire with temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees. One was the Holtec Hi-Star 100, which Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of electric utilities, plans to use to ship waste to a temporary storage site on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes reservation about 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. The intense heat did not affect the Holtec cask, said Earl Easton of the NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office and a senior adviser on transportation issues. The heat, however, would break down seals on two other types of casks tested, creating a possibility that cobalt deposits could flake off the fuel rods and escape, although Easton said if that did occur, exposures would be less than received in an X-ray. Neither of those casks would be used for PFS shipments, although they could be used for transport to the proposed Yucca Mountain waste dump. Experts who have studied cask safety as part of Nevada's opposition to Yucca Mountain dispute the findings, and argue that the NRC should subject the casks to real-life tests rather than digital models. “The bottom line is this: All their analysis is based on computer simulations and questionable assumptions. I don't believe their conclusions are correct, based on the analyses we've done,” said Bob Halstead, transportation adviser for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which is resisting Yucca Mountain. “If they're so confident of the performance of these casks, why do they refuse to submit them to full scale tests?” asked Halstead. But Easton said that sometimes computer models impose an even higher safety standard on the casks than simply testing to see if they would survive being dropped or burned. “Full-scale testing of casks is not always the magic bullet people think it to be,” he said. The NRC is soliciting comment on the draft report on the cask study, Easton said. PFS, which last week received NRC approval for its license to store the waste in Utah, proposes shipping about 200 casks by rail each year to the facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation - 44,000 tons in all - using the Holtec Hi-Star 100 cask. The cask has a welded steel canister that holds the fuel rods, which is then put inside another reinforced steel casing. The 17-foot-high, 8-foot in diameter casks would then be stood on end on concrete pads on 100-acres of the reservation. In previous rulings, the NRC determined the casks could withstand an array of calamities, from earthquake to wildfire to a crash from an F-16 fighter jet. The NRC study was prompted by a 2001 fire in a Baltimore rail tunnel, started when train cars carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and ignited. It burned for three days with temperatures estimated as hot as 1,800 degrees. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 50 Pahrump Valley Times: Katrina proved we really are on our own September 16, 2005 DOUG McMURDO MORE COLUMNS The only thing that blew harder than the 175-mph winds unleashed by Hurricane Katrina as she crashed into the Gulf Coast Aug. 29 was the hot air that flew from the mouths of our national politicians. The blame game began before the storm was even done destroying everything in its path. Republicans shamelessly attacked Democrats. Democrats viciously assailed Republicans. Both sides are full of - golly, I really wish I could spell out a four-letter word here. If any good will come from this epic tragedy it is this: All Americans now realize once and for all that their government is effective at one thing and one thing only: taxing its middle- to low-income citizens to the brink of starvation. Republicans and Democrats used Katrina as a springboard to assault one another when they could have been using their influence to save lives. Members of the Republican Bush family took advantage of the disaster to show the world just how clueless they are to the plight of the common man and woman. Democrat Senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton solidified her reputation as a woman who, in her heart of hearts, is Cruella DeVille. And all of those highly paid federal bureaucrats - on both sides of the aisle - demonstrated how the depth of their corruptibility is exceeded only by the breadth of their incompetence. No event in the past 229 years illustrates with such utter clarity how desperately the American voter needs more choices on Election Day. Katrina's main lesson, however, is that Americans should not depend on Uncle Sam for anything but an outrageous tax bill. There is also the nepotism, cronyism, and party ideology that puts elephants and donkeys above moral duty and common decency, but try telling that to a dyed-in-the-wool Reagan Republican or a delusional Kennedy Democrat. The simple, irrefutable fact is this: Katrina was going to lay waste to the Gulf Coast regardless of which party had one of its members living in the White House. Katrina was going to end or disrupt the lives of God-only-knows how many people whether or not the director of FEMA was familiar with basic CPR, much less knew how to draw upon and effectively mobilize thousands of resources in response to the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. Certainly there is blame to place, but the way our top leaders behaved in the wake of Katrina broke something inside of me, inside all of us. What else did Katrina churn up and toss out on her devastating path? Well, let's take an inventory: • The government doesn't care about its poor as much as it does its rich. Duh. • The old saying "It isn't what you know, it's who you know" still holds true. • Racism is alive and well in the South - and everywhere else in this land of plenty. Last week a Katrina survivor told me he heard, on television, a white man from Mississippi speak of New Orleans in these terms: "I say we burn all the bridges (out of town) and let the niggers rot." Who talks like that in 2005? I thought all those people died with my grandparents' generation. • If you're wondering why hundreds of thousands of people didn't evacuate when they had the chance, wonder no more. They stayed because every year about this time a weather forecaster does his or her job and warns people a storm is brewing in the Gulf and it's time to head for higher ground. Nine out of 10 times the storm never materializes, but workdays are lost and most people need to be on the job just to pay the bills. Add to the mix the fact it would cost a minimum-wage earner more than a day's pay to fill up his or her car with today's obscene fuel prices and you've got folks willing to gamble. They just didn't know their lives would be the ante. • Cities by the sea should not be built below sea level. • Every man, woman and child in the world should have a 72-hour emergency kit full of water, food, first-aid supplies, flashlight, batteries. • There are elements of our society that will exploit tragedy. Profiteers, opportunists, looters, call them what you will. By the way, is a woman who takes diapers from a store destroyed by a hurricane a looter or a mother doing her best to care for her baby in a time of absolute crisis? What would you do? • Expect nothing from the federal government except cover-ups, unfunded mandates, and more cover-ups. And taxes. Lots and lots of taxes. • Expect much more, however, from your local government - your county commission and town boards - and from your first responders should catastrophe make its way to your doorstep. At least our leaders know we exist. • Oh, here's one more point to ponder as you slip between the sheets tonight: The same government that failed so miserably in its reaction to Katrina is the very same government that plans to bottle and ship, from 39 states straight to Nye County, 77,000 tons of America's high-level radioactive waste - the deadliest substance on the planet. Sleep tight. Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com. Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 ***************************************************************** 51 AU ABC: Katherine lobby group to fight nuclear dump plans - 16/09/2005 Katherine residents have formed a lobby group to fight Federal Government plans to build a nuclear waste facility south of the Northern Territory town. A small but vocal crowd met last night. The group argues the proposed site at Fishers Creek is inappropriate on environmental, social and economic grounds. Sharon Hill, from the Katherine Catchment Landcare Group, says the Northern Territory should not have to bear a national responsibility. "This is a fairly emotive situation ... I've recently had to use or radioactive medical equipment to assist me with an illness that I had and I believe I have a responsibility to at least come up with some solution for the storage of that waste," Ms Hill said. "I'm into waste management as well because we've got waste management issues here in Katherine too but I think there has to be an appropriate site in Australia. "And considering the Northern Territory's producing 1 per cent of the nuclear waste, how could we be totally responsible for that?" + ABC Online Home Page© 2005 ABC| Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 52 Deseret News: U.S. checking on PFS [deseretnews.com] Friday, September 16, 2005 Repository security under Homeland Security review By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reviewing security aspects of the Private Fuel Storage high-level nuclear waste repository in Tooele County at the request of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. A week ago, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission — knowing the review was ongoing — issued a license to build the plant with the finding that it can be constructed and operated safely. Earlier, Homeland Security officials took a look at the PFS site, located in Skull Valley, 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. But the fact that the department was doing an actual review of the issues apparently was not released until Thursday. Confirmation of the Homeland Security review came from NRC spokesman David McIntyre, speaking on "RadioWest," a public affairs program broadcast by KUER, the University of Utah station. Program host Doug Fabrizio asked McIntyre whether the license decision indicated the federal government was interested in increasing use of nuclear energy. "I don't think that that's particularly the conclusion that should be drawn," McIntyre replied, speaking by telephone from NRC offices in Rockville, Md. He said the PFS proposal was made by industry years ago, not by the government. However, he added, "The government now is moving towards rejuvenating the nuclear industry." By that, he said, he meant the U.S. Department of Energy, not the NRC, which he said is not an advocate in the matter. McIntyre was asked to detail the steps the NRC took to review concerns about a possible attack by terrorists. "Part of the application from PFS included a physical protection plan, a security plan, for the proposed facility," McIntyre said. Commission officials evaluated the plan a couple of years ago, he added. Part of the findings might be proprietary, meaning they could not be released publicly because they involved sensitive security issues. "The Department of Homeland Security is currently doing a review of the security aspects of the PFS facility at Gov. Huntsman's request, and NRC is participating in that to some degree," McIntyre said. Asked what would happen if Homeland Security were to conclude that the risk of a terrorist attack made the project unacceptable, he replied, "I can't really predict what DHS (Department of Homeland Security) would come up with." Pressed to say what would happen if Homeland Security did make such a finding, McIntyre said, "I don't know whether they would come down and try to block it or say, 'OK, you need to do this, that or the other to alleviate those concerns.' " McIntyre said the NRC is "always looking at security for these facilities." Whenever it finds a possibly vulnerable aspect, he said, it takes action "to shore that up." In February, the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued a finding in favor of PFS, ruling against concerns raised by the state of Utah. The board's finding included the statement that "long-standing commission precedent circumscribes board hearings by explaining they are not the place to consider deliberate terrorist-type attacks. That precedent was followed here." A footnote added that the agency refusal to consider deliberate attacks was a "long-term practice, dating from the days of the Atomic Agency Commission." Instead, protecting nuclear facilities against terrorism has been undertaken by the commission itself, working with other federal agencies. That takes place "outside the hearing process," says the report. Sen. Orrin Hatch R-Utah, commenting on the issuance of the license before the Homeland Security review was completed, called this a fairly good example of the apparent bias within the NRC. He termed the project a reckless proposal. "The fact that they would make this premature decision without the Homeland Security report is outrageous," Hatch said in a statement sent by e-mail. "But it's no secret that the NRC had its own motivations for granting this license, and we have already set our sights on other ways to make sure this waste never makes a home in Utah." Contributing: Jerry Spangler E-mail: bau@desnews.com © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 53 Deseret News: Navajos fight against uranium mining [deseretnews.com] Friday, September 16, 2005 Apparent losing battle resembles Utah's N-storage oppositionBattle resembles Utah's opposition to N-storage By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — It is a story familiar to Utahns: A government leader lobbies Congress to block nuclear activities but watches helplessly as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues a license anyway. But this time it isn't Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. fighting the losing battle with the NRC, which last week issued a license to a consortium of nuclear power utilities to store spent nuclear fuel on Goshute tribal lands in Skull Valley. It is Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, who is fighting his own losing battle to block uranium mining on tribal lands. "We have control of our lands, but we do not have control of the NRC, and that is the reason I am here today," Shirley said in an interview. The Navajo Nation, which straddles the borders of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, is locked in a fierce battle with the NRC, which has issued a license to Hydro Resources Crownpoint Uranium Project to mine at four sites in New Mexico — despite a Navajo law that prohibits it. Shirley was in the nation's capital this week, lobbying members of Congress to support the tribal government's Dine Natural Resource Protection Act, passed last April, which prohibits new uranium mining on tribal lands. The law is rooted in a long history of Navajos who worked in uranium mines and mills in the Four Corners area during the Cold War, and who were sickened and later died of radiation-caused cancers the U.S. government hid from the uranium workers. "Uranium has killed too many of our people, and our elderly, who knew the sacred songs and sacred stories of life, are stricken with cancer on their death beds," Shirley told the Deseret Morning News. "Our culture is dying with them. Why should we have more uranium mining and afflict ourselves with more incurable cancers?" The Navajo opposition to uranium mining and all things nuclear stands in stark contrast to the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, who see nuclear waste as an economic ticket out of poverty. They stand to become fabulously wealthy, even though terms of the lease with the consortium, Private Fuel Storage, have not been released. Shirley, who won election on a campaign to stop the uranium mines, said the opposition is not negotiable, even with the lure of jobs. All things nuclear, from raw uranium to spent fuel rods, are foreign concepts to the Navajo — and they reject them in totality, he said. "Even making money galore is a concept that is foreign to us," Shirley said. "We are not interested in the money. Life is sacred." The Navajos are still living with the deadly legacy of uranium mining from 1948 to 1971 when thousands worked in the mines and mills. They are eligible for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, originally sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Hatch spokesman Adam Elggren said the senator has worked to get RECA coverage for "as many deserving claimants as possible," but a problem with documentation seems to be more an administrative issue than a legislative one. "We will certainly keep an eye on it," Elggren said. The problem is many of the afflicted Navajos are traditionalists who do not have documents — things like birth and marriage certificates — required by the current legislation. Shirley was hosted at a Thursday afternoon congressional briefing by Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah; Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. Shirley said he has found sympathetic ears everywhere he has turned in Washington. "I went to sleep last night with a glad heart," he said. But sympathy won't stop the mines. And like the state of Utah, the Navajo Nation will probably have to make its arguments in federal court, Shirley said. Getting Congress to change RECA may be a lot easier than getting the NRC to change its mind. Shirley said the NRC has ignored the tribal government's laws and its scientific evidence. "The NRC is not even looking at the scientific data we submitted as a nation," he said, "but the data submitted by mineral companies, well, (the NRC) listens to them. I would not be surprised if there is something in the works behind the scenes." The NRC disputed Shirley's allegations, saying it "looks at all information provided to us during licensing reviews, including information from opponents of a proposed facility," according to NRC spokesman David McIntyre. The Navajo Nation has made the argument — unsuccessfully, so far — that the mining proposal strikes at the heart of tribal sovereignty, threatens public health and could contaminate the regional aquifer that provides drinking water for 20,000 people. The mining proposal is not the first time the Navajos have turned down economic development for environmental reasons. Shirley said the same nuclear power utilities who now plan to send their waste to Goshute lands once approached the Navajo Nation about storing nuclear waste in a remote county there. The Navajos said no, and that position has never wavered. "The Earth is sacred, and we will not introduce anything into it that is foreign," he said. "We will continue to say no." © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 54 AZOM: ORNL Project to Investigate Design of Future Fusion Power Plants Knowledge gained by Oak Ridge National Laboratoryresearchers and colleagues through an initiative to begin this fall could answer several long-standing questions and give the United States a competitive edge in the design of future fusion power plants. The $10 million five-year Department of Energy SWIM (Simulation of Wave Interactions with Magnetohydrodynamics) project combines the talents and massive computing capabilities of ORNL with resources at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and several other institutions. The goal is to study high-performance fusion plasma and perform comprehensive simulations that are essential to the development of fusion. Magnetized fusion plasmas contain electrons and the fusion fuel -- ions of deuterium and tritium. Plasma contained within a fusion device behaves very differently depending on the shape of the magnetic field and distribution of the electric current. Because no material can withstand the 100 million degree temperature of the plasma, it is the magnetic field that actually contains the plasma. Being able to control the plasma is critical to the success of fusion as a source of energy. High-power radio frequency electromagnetic waves can heat plasmas to the astronomical temperatures required for fusion and they can also exert control, said Don Batchelor, who heads the theory group in ORNLs Fusion Energy Division. For example, waves can either produce instability or prevent instability depending on how they are used. Consequently, understanding and being able to predict the effects of radio frequency waves remains one of the key challenges. Batchelor and colleagues plan to use computer modeling to develop a better scientific understanding of the interaction between plasma stability and radio frequency power, and to be better able to design radio frequency systems to control the instabilities inherent in plasma. Such an achievement would be huge and would remove one of the barriers to obtaining fusion power, which offers the potential of a virtually limitless source of energy with none of the disadvantages of todays energy sources. In a distinct departure from past strategies to understand magnetically confined plasmas, the SWIM project emphasizes an integrated approach. This method, Batchelor notes, is much like those used for climate-change predictions and takes into account the many interactions and complexities inherent in plasma physics and in nature. We are bringing together two areas of fusion physics that have previously been studied separately, Batchelor said. As with systems biology or climatology, the science of the whole of what takes place in a fusion plasma is far richer than the science of the pieces, and we simply cannot understand the organism, the evolution of climate or the plasma until we understand the couplings between the various contributing phenomena. The project builds upon the successes of DOEs Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing programs by taking several of the most advanced fusion computer codes, combining them to provide a unique tool in the worldwide fusion program and running them at the National Leadership Computing Facility at ORNLs Center for Computational Sciences. The Center for Computational Sciences, established in 1992 as a DOE high-performance computing research center, is a designated user facility with several missions, including to help solve grand challenges in science and engineering. Last year, DOE designated ORNL as the site for the National Leadership Computing Facility, which will provide the foundation to propel the U.S. back to the forefront of high-performance computing. Our new computers will play a big part in making this project a success, Batchelor said. Being able to run large-scale numerical simulations that take into account the many coupled processes at work in magnetized plasma taking place on disparate time scales is vital to the development of fusion energy. Not only do plasma simulations serve to advance science by allowing researchers to evaluate and test basic theory through comparison with experiments, they also maximize the productivity of experimental facilities and support design decisions for new facilities. For a device like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which will cost up to $1 million per day, such decisions can have multi-billion dollar consequences, Batchelor said. ITER is the experimental step between todays studies of plasma physics and tomorrows electricity-producing fusion power plants. ITER, which will be located in Cadarache, France, represents a collaboration among The European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United States and The Peoples Republic of China. Completion of ITER is scheduled for 2016. Funding for the project is provided by DOEs Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research within the Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed for the Department of Energy by UT-Battelle. Posted September 16th, 2005 href="http://www.azom.com AZoM" - Metals, Ceramics, Polymers, Composites, An Engineers Resource...AZoM.com Pty.Ltd Copyright © 2000-2005 ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************