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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 No Diversion Of Nuclear Material In Iraq, Says UN Agency
2 [NYTr] Russia rejects EU move to report Iran to UN
3 SF Chronicle: Split over nuclear Iran
4 Xinhua: Diplomacy on Iran's nuclear issue still under way: EU diplom
5 Reuters: Russia shields Iran from UN action over atom plans
6 Guardian Unlimited: Europe backs down over hardline stance on 
7 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Demands Reactor for Disarmament
8 Guardian Unlimited: North Korean Leader Wants Meeting With U.S.
9 Washington Times: The 21st century nuclear club - Editorials/Op-Ed
10 Signatories To UN Test Ban Vow To 'spare No Effort' To Bring It Into
11 FPIF News | Feeding the Nuclear Fire
12 China CRI ENGLISH: China Urges Ratification of Nuclear Treaty   
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
13 China CRI ENGLISH: First Heavy-Water Nuclear Power Station Approved 
14 US: Green Bay Press-Gazette: Area’s two nuclear plants improve safet
15 Xinhua: Yangtze to get more hydro-plants   
16 US: NRC: Hurricane Update
17 Daily Times: India to build four new nuclear power stations 
18 India: Deccan Chronicle: Cabinet nod for 8 new reactors   
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
19 UN Atomic Watchdog Strengthens Safeguards Against Diversion Of Nucle
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
20 SA: Mail & Guardian: Nuclear health study 'looks like a whitewash'  
21 Scotsman.com News: Origin of beach radiation sought
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
22 Las Vegas RJ: Nevada wins Yucca ruling 
23 Las Vegas RJ: Hatch weighs Yucca stance 
24 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain workers face layoffs 
25 Las Vegas SUN: Geologist: Nevada at risk for major quake 
26 Las Vegas SUN: White House still has eye on county land sales 
27 Las Vegas SUN: NRC orders Energy Department to turn over draft Yucca
28 Salt Lake Tribune: Hatch takes heat over Yucca stance 
29 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Lawyer pleads guilty to theft from Goshutes
30 Salt Lake Tribune: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Bob Bennett's right to throw in
31 Pahrump Valley Times: 'Caliente Corridor' discussed in Goldfield 
32 KUTV: Hatch Talking With White House Over Nuclear Dump 
33 US: Mohave Daily News: Environment-friendly county plan OK'd
34 US: Deseret News: Burying 'spent fuel' is a waste
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
35 cbs4denver.com: Rocky Flats Contractor Says Speedy Clean-Up Safe
36 Rocky Mountain News: Feds laud Flats cleanup work
37 Daily Princetonian: Labs fuse efforts with federal grant
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 No Diversion Of Nuclear Material In Iraq, Says UN Agency
 
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 11:01:32 -0400

 

 
NO DIVERSION OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL IN IRAQ, SAYS UN AGENCY
New York, Sep 23 2005 11:00AM
The United Nations atomic watchdog agency has completed its annual 
inspection of remaining nuclear materials in Iraq to ensure that 
they conform to the country's safeguard obligations against the 
spread of weapons under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (<"http://www.un.org/events/npt2005/npttreaty.html">NPT) 
and has found 
no diversion of material.

The inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2005/prn200514.html">IAEA<a/>) 
is 
separate from earlier UN Security Council-mandated investigations 
which probed whether ousted leader Saddam Hussein was developing 
weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Those checks ceased 
in mid-March 2003 shortly before the war.

The material, natural or low-enriched uranium, is consolidated at 
a storage facility near the Tuwaitha complex, south of Baghdad.

The two-day inspection was conducted with the logistical and security 
assistance of the Multinational Force, the Office of the UN 
Security Coordinator, and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), 
the Vienna-based IAEA said in a statement today.

Every non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT that has declared 
holdings of nuclear material is required to undergo the annual Physical 
Inventory Verification. The inspectors verify the correctness 
of the state´s declaration, and that material has not been diverted 
to any undeclared activity. Such inspections have been performed 
in Iraq on a continuing basis.
 2005-09-23 00:00:00.000 


________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml
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 2 [NYTr] Russia rejects EU move to report Iran to UN
 
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 16:23:35 -0500 (CDT)

 
	autolearn=ham version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Simon McGuinness

The Irish Times, Fri, Sep 23, 05 
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2005/0923/837612326FR23IRAN23.html

Russia rejects EU move to report Iran to UN

by Daniel Dombey in Vienna 

RUSSIA: The European Union was yesterday struggling to salvage its [US
imposed] policy on Iran's nuclear programme after it tried and failed to
win Russian backing for a new plan to report Tehran to the United
Nations Security Council.

Moscow's rejection of the EU's latest initiative, coming after days of
escalating rhetoric, means that the united international approach on
Iran's nuclear programme may be beyond repair. The EU was left
contemplating pushing through a resolution at the UN's nuclear watchdog
without consensus on the 35-member board - a step that India's
representative warned could put the international nuclear
non-proliferation system "in jeopardy".

Britain, Germany and France began yesterday at the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by attempting to win round
Russia to a draft resolution that called for Iran to be reported to the
Security Council, but left the timing and the nature of the report open.

But Russia objected to the draft's wording that Iran was in
"non-compliance" with the IAEA's rules and to the assertion that the
issue was now "within the competence of the Security Council".

Pushed by the US, the EU is now deciding whether to proceed with a
considerably tougher earlier resolution that would take Iran to the
Security Council immediately.

Yesterday, diplomats indicated that the EU would indeed proceed with
immediate referral to New York - unless Iran allowed IAEA inspectors
greater access to suspected nuclear sites.

Yesterday, Iran invited Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's director
general, to Tehran, but did not give any more concrete commitments.

"Reporting Iran's non-compliance to the UN Security Council is long
overdue," said Greg Schulte, US ambassador to the IAEA, yesterday. "We
appreciate the EU's effort to continue to develop the broadest possible
consensus to find Iran in non-compliance and prepare a report to the UN
Security Council," he said.

Several countries at the IAEA board meeting in Vienna yesterday resisted
taking the issue to New York. Russia said that such a step would be a
"questionable decision", although it also called on Iran to maintain a
freeze on activity related to uranium enrichment. South Africa and China
issued similar warnings.

The EU and the US calculate that they have between 19 and 21 votes on
the board - enough to carry a resolution - through the support of
countries such as Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Argentina,
Singapore, Ecuador and Ghana.

But unless a large number of dissenting countries abstain, the US and
the EU run the risk of a damaging split that could undermine the
international message of concern over Iran's nuclear programme expressed
by recent IAEA resolutions.

While Iran maintains that its intentions are purely peaceful, the US and
the EU suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons capacity,
particularly since Tehran concealed details of its nuclear activities
for many years.

The IAEA stepped up calls on Iran to freeze all activities related to
uranium enrichment - which can produce weapons-grade uranium - after
Tehran's August decision to restart work on uranium conversion, a
process which prepares the way for enrichment.

But Russia and, to a lesser extent, China, which both have Security
Council vetoes, oppose reporting the issue to New York because they fear
such a step could escalate the dispute and put at risk Iran's continuing
freeze of uranium enrichment itself. Tehran has already threatened to
resume enrichment and scale down co-operation with the IAEA if the issue
is taken to New York. France, Germany and the UK seemed likely yesterday
to delay formally proposing their resolution. - (Financial Times)

) The Irish Times ) Financial Times  
       
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 3 SF Chronicle: Split over nuclear Iran
 
EDITORIAL     

Friday, September 23, 2005 

THE INTERNATIONAL community is dangerously divided on how and
whether to crack down on Iran's provocative nuclear program.
Symptomatic of this was the European Union's backing down on
Thursday from a U.S.-supported resolution to have the
International Atomic Energy Agency haul Iran before the U.N.
Security Council for possible imposition of political and
economic sanctions. 

One trouble with that hard-line approach to Tehran's alleged
violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty is that a sizable
minority of the agency's governing board (a dozen to 15 of the
35 members) oppose that course, ruining the impact of a strong
consensus. 

The other major flaw in any hasty referral to the Security
Council is that two veto-wielding permanent council members --
Russia and China -- oppose putting sanctions on Iran. 

At issue is Iran's declared intention to continue enriching
uranium in order to produce "peaceful nuclear energy," although
that technology can also be used to make weapons. The Iranian
claim of peaceful intent honoring the Nonproliferation Treaty is
countered by criticism of that country's secrecy in its nuclear
activities. But Iran's adamancy on the issue could not have been
clearer in new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech to the
U.N. General Assembly last weekend. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin says further negotiation with
Iran is the way to discourage nuclear proliferation. Indeed, if
the hammer of sanctions cannot be raised, we may be reduced to
attempting to use sweet reason on the not-so-reasonable rulers
of Iran. 				
Page B - 8 			


The San Francisco Chronicle] 
*****************************************************************
 4 Xinhua: Diplomacy on Iran's nuclear issue still under way: EU diplomat

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-23 17:31:27   

    VIENNA, Sept. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Diplomatic discussions on
the European Union's new draft resolution on Iran's nuclear
issue are still going on and an IAEA board vote on the
resolution is not impending, diplomats in Vienna said Friday. 

    On Thursday, the EU trio -- France, Germany and Britain --
tabled a revised draft resolution, taking out the content about
reporting the issue to the UN Security Council, signaling a
softened position. 

    However, Russia rejected the new proposal on Thursday while
the United States threatened to push for a vote on the old draft
resolution that demands the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) report the issue to the UN Security Council which has a
say on whether to impose sanctions on Iran. 

    The IAEA board meeting, which was previously scheduled to
end on Friday, adjourned on Friday morning, and its members
continued their close-door diplomacy on the new resolution, a
diplomat told Xinhua. 

    The diplomat, who declined to reveal his name, said the EU
has not yet formally circulated the new draft resolution,
implying that no vote is impending on the new resolution.
Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 5 Reuters: Russia shields Iran from UN action over atom plans

World Crises | Reuters.com
                
Fri 23 Sep 2005 5:31 AM ET

By Louis Charbonneau

 VIENNA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Russia wants to water down an IAEA
resolution that would have cleared the way for reporting Iran to
the U.N. Security Council over its suspected ambition to build
nuclear bombs, EU diplomats said on Friday.

 They said Moscow had proposed a revised draft resolution to try
to break a deadlock at the International Atomic Energy Agency
over how to deal with an Iranian nuclear programme that the West
fears has military aims, despite Iranian denials.

 The Russian draft, obtained by Reuters, removes all language
that would force the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the
Security Council, which can impose sanctions, by declaring it in
non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 "They would like us to back down," a diplomat from one of the
European Union's three biggest powers -- Britain, France and
Germany -- said about the Russian proposal. But he said use of
the term non-compliance was "non-negotiable" for the Europeans.

 After days of backroom discussions at the IAEA governing board,
Western diplomats said Moscow was showing some willingness to
move towards their position, but appeared unwilling to
compromise about referral to the Security Council.

 The United States and EU want to ratchet up the pressure on
Iran to give up nuclear technology that could be used to make
weapons, technology that it hid from the IAEA for 18 years.

 Veto-wielding, permanent Security Council members Russia and
China fear a Council report would spark an international crisis.

 Russia is building a $1 billion nuclear reactor at Bushehr in
Iran and considers Tehran a key ally in the Middle East. China
needs Iran's energy resources to fuel its booming economy.

 QUEST FOR CONSENSUS

 The EU and Washington want consensus and are convinced that if
they win over Russia, a dozen other opponents on the 35-nation
IAEA board would drop their objections to hauling Iran before
the Security Council.

 Simply being on the council's agenda can be embarrassing. The
U.N. body can issue anything from verbal warnings to travel
restrictions for officials or even impose a total trade embargo
on countries if it chooses.

 Bowing to Russian and Chinese pressure, France, Britain and
Germany had dropped a demand from their first draft resolution
that would force the board to report Iran now, diplomats said.

 Iran hailed that as a "significant victory".

 Rather than sending the case immediately to the Security
Council, the second EU draft, which diplomats said was prepared
in close consultation with Washington, obliges the board to send
the matter to the Council at a later, undefined date.

 Russia rejected this second version on Thursday, saying it
refused to allow the issue to go before the Council at all.

 For two years, Britain, France and Germany have tried to
persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear fuel programme to convince
the world its atomic ambitions are peaceful.

 While these talks continued, the EU trio, Russia, China and
other IAEA board members repeatedly blocked Washington's
attempts to bring Iran's case to the U.N.'s highest body.

 Last month, the talks collapsed after the Islamic republic
restarted uranium processing and rejected an EU offer of
economic and political incentives if it scrapped its uranium
enrichment programme, prompting the EU trio to join Washington
in calling for the case to be sent to the Security Council.

 Washington still hopes for a tough resolution against Iran.

 "We think that we can get a referral, we have the votes. The
question now is building a broader consensus," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington on Thursday. 

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.                                                                                                    

*****************************************************************
 6 Guardian Unlimited: Europe backs down over hardline stance on 
Iran's nuclear ambition
 
· EU fails to win support for UN security council action 

· Opposition from China and Russia splits IAEA          
 		
Ian Traynor
Friday September 23, 2005
 		
Britain and its EU allies were heading for failure last night in 
their first attempt to penalise Iran for its nuclear ambitions by 
having Tehran reported promptly to the UN security council. 

But a British-crafted compromise backing away from an instant
referral to the security council retained withering criticism of
Iran and held open the option of security council action at a
later date. 

Amid frantic discussions at the International Atomic Energy
Agency in Vienna, the EU troika of Britain, France, and Germany
withdrew a hardline draft resolution that called for Iran to be
reported to the security council for breaching the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty (NPT). 

The wording could not command sufficient support among the 35 
countries on the IAEA board, with Russia in particular rejecting 
security council action. 

Rather than pushing the resolution to a divisive vote, the
British drafted a new formula which was being discussed last
night. The tough language, however, remained hard to swallow for
Russia, India, China and most of the 14 non-aligned members of
the board. 

"If you go with this language, it still ends up at the security
council," said a diplomat familiar with the IAEA. "This is not
conducive to negotiations. It's still a fait accompli. This new
resolution is unlikely to fly, there's no consensus." 

EU members, with strong American backing, were demanding
unanimous support for the new revised formula. Otherwise they
could revert to the earlier demand for instant security council
referral and insist on putting that to the vote. 

With Russia and China opposed - countries which have vetoes on
the security council - the EU and the Americans were reluctant
to push the issue. 

The new British-authored document, obtained by The Guardian,
says: 

· Iran is not complying with the NPT; 

· There is an international "absence of confidence that Iran's
nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes"; 

· Iran must expand the scope of UN nuclear inspections by
providing "any access to location, personnel and information"
requested by IAEA investigators; 

· It must reinstate the freeze on uranium processing lifted by
the Iranians last month; 

· It must return to negotiations with the EU that collapsed last
month. 

The tough wording also holds open the possibility of future
resort to the security council by referring to IAEA statutes and
by declaring that Iran's conduct has "given rise to questions
that are within the competence of the security council". There
was no mention of sanctions, which the security council is
empowered to impose. 

For the past two years of negotiations on the nuclear dispute
between Iran and the EU, the Europeans kept to their pledge to
the Iranians to resist US pressure to take the crisis to the
security council. This week for the first time joined the
Americans, with Britain taking the lead in Vienna and in talks
with senior Iranian figures in New York. "This is a critical
moment," said a senior Iranian official. 

But the Iranians appear to have the upper hand, successfully
lobbying for support from Russia, India and China. 

But the outcome is still unclear. Even the new document being
haggled over last night may be unacceptable to a significant
minority of the IAEA board and could be opposed by the IAEA
chief, Mohamed ElBaradei. 

Dr El Baradei, while frustrated by the Iranians' tactics and
their frequent ploys aimed at confounding the UN nuclear
inspectors, fears that taking the dispute to the security
council will hobble his inspections and worsen the crisis. 

Tehran publicly hailed yesterday's tabling of a new document as
a European climbdown. In private, Iranian officials viewed it as
a face-saving formula for both sides that could lead to resumed
negotiations. "The British are taking the lead on this. They are
being bolder than the others," said a senior Iranian official. 

The IAEA board invariably takes decisions by consensus. But
strong statements to the closed board session on Wednesday from
the British and US ambassadors as well as from Canada, Australia
and Japan, calling for security council action on Iran, were
followed yesterday by opposing speeches from Russia, China,
India, and non-aligned countries. 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 7 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Demands Reactor for Disarmament
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday September 23, 2005 4:01 AM

AP Photo XUNBM111 

By EDITH M. LEDERER 

Associated Press Writer 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - North Korea's deputy foreign minister
urged the United States Thursday to provide it with a nuclear
reactor as a ``simultaneous'' step in its disarmament, and said
his country would welcome a visit by the chief U.S. arms
negotiator. 

U.S. officials had downplayed Pyongyang's insistence on reactors
soon after an agreement was announced this week at six-party
nuclear talks in Beijing in which North Korea pledged to drop
its weapons development efforts before the subject of
light-water reactors is discussed. 

But North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon Choe
repeated the demand Thursday for the reactor and added that its
provision should be part of ``simultaneous action'' on
disarmament. 

Choe said he expects that the light-water reactors and
compensation to North Korea for dismantling its nuclear reactor
will be discussed when talks resume in November. 

Choe also said North Korea would not impose any conditions on a
visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the
top American negotiator at the six-party talks. 

``If Christopher Hill is willing to visit my country with an
intention of resolving the nuclear issue, then we would always
welcome him,'' Choe told a small group of reporters. ``There
will be no condition if he is willing to come to my country with
a view to resolving the nuclear issue and other issues of his
concern.'' 

Choe's repeated demand for the reactor Thursday made clear how
important the issue is to North Korea. 

In a speech earlier to the General Assembly's ministerial
meeting, Choe said, ``What is most essential at this stage is
for the United States to provide light-water reactors to (North
Korea) as soon as possible as evidence proving the former's
substantial recognition of the latter's right to peaceful
nuclear activities.'' 

Negotiators at the six-party talks agreed to meet again in
November, where they are expected to move to concrete
discussions on implementing the broad principles outlined in
Monday's agreement. 

Choe reiterated that North Korea's ultimate goal is the full
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula ``at any cost,'' but he
said that can happen only after relations are normalized with
the United States. 

While he pointedly condemned the United States, Choe was far
more subdued in his criticism than previous statements out of
North Korea. 

Choe also confirmed that North Korea informed the United Nations
that it wants all humanitarian assistance from the United
Nations and other international organizations terminated by the
end of the year, partly because of U.S. interference. 

He said the humanitarian situation has improved ``to a great
extent,'' grain production is expected to increase, and the
government can feed the people. But he said another reason for
the termination is the attempt by 13 countries, especially the
United States, ``to politicize the humanitarian assistance'' by
linking it to human rights in North Korea. 

Choe said this constitutes interference in the internal affairs
of the country. 

The nation of 23 million has received emergency food from the
U.N. World Food Program and other international groups since
natural disasters and mismanagement caused its economy to
collapse in the mid-1990s. 

During a meeting Wednesday, Choe said he thanked
Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the humanitarian help and told
him North Korea now wants development assistance. He said Annan
said he would try to provide it. 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: North Korean Leader Wants Meeting With U.S.
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday September 23, 2005 9:46 AM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has
ordered his aides to arrange a meeting with a high-ranking U.S.
official, possibly with President Bush, a South Korean news
agency reported Friday. 

The Yonhap news agency said Kim told his Foreign Ministry to set
up a visit to the North by a prominent U.S. figure, specifically
mentioning Bush, former President Bush and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice as possibilities. The report cited an anonymous
source familiar with North Korean affairs. 

Officials at South Korea's Unification Ministry and Foreign
Ministry could not confirm the report. 

The latest round of international talks on North Korea's nuclear
program in Beijing produced a landmark accord Monday in which
Pyongyang pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for
economic aid, security assurances and improved ties with the
United States. 

After the talks, chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said he
was willing to visit North Korea to keep channels of
communication open. 

North Korea has long tried to engage the United States in
bilateral talks, believing such meetings would boost its
international status and help it win bigger concessions at the
nuclear talks. 

In October 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
visited Pyongyang and met the North Korean leader. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 9 Washington Times: The 21st century nuclear club - Editorials/Op-Ed

TODAY'S COLUMNIST By Frederick Grab 

September 23, 2005                                                                                       

While I was attending high school and college in New York City,
two bridge construction projects were going on: the Throggs Neck
Bridge between my home borough of Queens and the Bronx and the
Verazanno-Narrows Bridge, linking Brooklyn to Staten Island.

Subliminally, I learned a serious lesson about major feats of
engineering: They require diligence, time and expertise to
complete. The same insight applies to other, less benign,
efforts, like the Iranian nuclear program. 

    As noted in a UPI analysis published in these pages last
October, and despite contrary claims from Iran, there is little
doubt that its nuclear program is directed at the construction
of atomic weapons. Iranian outrage over as yet unsuccessful
international pressure to abandon the weapons potential of its
nuclear program is indicative of its true goal: recognition of
its abstract "right" to whatever nuclear program it desires.	 

    By 1981, Iraq, rather than Iran, was on the verge of nuclear
capability. The Osiraq reactor, a French contribution to world
stability, was ready to receive its fuel rods. Time was of the
essence: once the rods were in place, destruction of the
facility would have resulted in unacceptable dispersion of
radiation. And so that June a small group of Israeli fighter
bombers destroyed Iraq's reactor. Ten years later,
then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney recognized that but for
the controversial raid, coalition forces in the Gulf war would
in all likelihood have found themselves confronting an Iraq
possessed of nuclear weapons. Whether Saddam would have used
these nukes or not, clearly the stakes in the operation would
have been raised exponentially and perhaps even more so in 2003
where the toppling of his regime was the goal. 

    There are some who would argue that Iran, as a sovereign
nation, has the "right" to build any weapons it chooses. After
all, the "nuclear club" now includes numerous states  India,
Pakistan, North Korea and Israel  aside from the old hands, the
United States, Britain, France, China and Russia. But there are
clear distinctions between these nations and Iran. Most
significant is the fact that after protracted periods of
possession (North Korea aside), none of them has used these most
potent of WMDs since the USSR ended the US monopoly. 

    Can we anticipate the same self restraint of Iran, the
nation that sacrificed a million men in its war with Iraq,
seized the US embassy and detained our diplomats, supports
terrorism and actively assists the insurgency in Iraq? And are
we, the world's most heavily armed nuclear power, entitled to
decide which nations may develop such weapons? 

    Perhaps part of the answer lies in the perceived degree of
constraint and self control of these states. Like a bridge over
troubled waters, certain nations exhibit the political coherence
and sanity to be seen as members of the international community.
We may become frustrated with our erstwhile allies, the French,
but few complain that they are not citizens of a responsible,
modern state. We may strongly disapprove of certain policies and
pronouncements of the Peoples' Republic of China  such as the
bellicosity directed at Taiwan  but hopefully Beijing will
continue to be mindful of the unacceptability of nuclear
conflict. So it would seem that it is through this necessarily
subjective appraisal that the United States achieves its "right"
to decide which states may develop nuclear weapons. 

    There was another bridge which attracted attention years
ago, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge  dubbed "Galloping Gertie" 
that rattled itself into oblivion when wind gusts matched the
resonant frequency of the span. The news footage was spectacular
and surreal: concrete pavement bucking up and down, knocking
vehicles and workers aside. Was this an example of incredible
engineering incompetence? Not really. No such
phenomenonhadeverbeen observed before (and fortunately the
bridge failed before being opened to the public). The solution
was simple: airfoils exerting a downward force were installed
solving the problem and resulting in the completion of another
of mankind's arguably grandest structures. 

    Bridges are not only majestic: they are utilitarian,
connecting domains previously less accessible. The same may
sometimes be said about ideas. The notion of eliminating Iran's
nuclear ambitions may seem farfetched or overpriced in light of
our experience in Iraq, but such thinking occurs on an island
which takes Desert Storm as the only model. To be sure, the
United States is capable of crossing the bridge to a far more
fecund mainland which offers other options, such as the Israeli
raid in 1981. The Iranians are building their own bridge,
perhaps for us a bridge too far. We owe it to ourselves and the
rest of the world to prevent its completion. If you doubt this,
I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying. 
     
    Frederick Grab is a former California deputy attorney
general. 
    
*****************************************************************
 10 Signatories To UN Test Ban Vow To 'spare No Effort' To Bring It Into Force
 
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:00:24 -0400

 

 
SIGNATORIES TO UN-BACKED TEST BAN VOW TO 'SPARE NO EFFORT' TO BRING 
IT INTO FORCE
New York, Sep 23 2005  3:00PM
With eleven crucial States still not aboard the Nuclear Test Ban 
Treaty, signatories to it agreed at United Nations Headquarters today 
to spare no effort and use all avenues to get those countries 
to sign and ratify the treaty, allowing it to come into force.

In the declaration concluding the fourth Conference on Facilitating 
the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty 
(CTBT), which began at on 21 September, the parties also reiterated 
that the cessation of all nuclear weapon tests was a meaningful 
step in the effort to achieve nuclear disarmament.

The 1996 treaty, which seeks to ban all nuclear tests for all time, 
has so far been signed by 176 countries and ratified by 125 States.

However, of  the 44 countries whose ratification is essential for 
the treaty to go into force, 11 States have still not ratified, 
including China and the United States, as well as the Democratic 
People’s Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, Indonesia, 
Iran, Viet Nam, and Colombia.

Of those eleven countries only China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia 
and Israel attended and spoke at the conference, said Australian 
Ambassador Deborah Stokes, President of the CTBT Article XIV Conference.

“[The conference was still] very successful in terms of demonstrating 
the very wide political commitment to this treaty and that was 
demonstrated, very, very clearly,” she added.

However, citing heightened global anxiety over weapons of mass destruction, 
particularly nuclear weapons, Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
Wednesday expressed alarm that countries whose ratification 
is essential for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) 
to enter into force had still not acted.

“The longer entry into force of the treaty is delayed, the greater 
the risk that someone, somewhere, will test nuclear weapons. That 
would be a major setback for the cause of non-proliferation and 
disarmament,” he added.
 2005-09-23 00:00:00.000 


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 11 FPIF News | Feeding the Nuclear Fire
 
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 02:37:12 -0500 (CDT)

 
	version=3.0.4
X-Spam-filter-host: pascal.ctyme.com - http://www.junkemailfilter.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New at FPIF Working to
make the United States a more responsible global leader and partner
http://www.fpif.org/

September 22, 2005 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introducing the latest policy analysis from Foreign Policy In Focus

Feeding the Nuclear Fire By Zia Mian and M.V. Ramana

There are two fundamental questions at the core of the Indo-U.S.

nuclear agreement. The first is whether India needs nuclear energy
for its development. A good case can be made that it does not. The
second is whether the country needs nuclear weapons if it wants to
live in peace with the world. Many believe, with good reason, that
it does not.

The outcome of the deal therefore is a future in which a nuclear-powered
and nuclear-armed India swaggers along in the shadow of Washington.
The choice could not be more stark.

Zia Mian (zia@princeton.edu) is a Pakistani physicist with the
Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School
of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. M.V.
Ramana (http://www.geocities.com/m_v_ramana/) is an Indian physicist
based at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment
and Development in Bangalore, India. Both are frequent contributors
to Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org). This report is a
slightly revised version of an article published in Economic and
Political Weekly, August 27, 2005.

See new FPIF Special Report online at:

http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/659

With printer-friendly pdf version at:

http://www.fpif.org/pdf/reports/SR0509indianuke.pdf

For More Analysis from Zia Mian & Foreign Policy In Focus

Sixty Years Without Nuclear War By Zia Mian, R. Rajaraman and Frank
von Hippel (August 22, 2005) http://presentdanger.irc-online.org/pd/363

Unraveling of the U.S. Military By Zia Mian (August 22, 2005)
http://presentdanger.irc-online.org/pd/375

A New American Century?

By Zia Mian (May 4, 2005)
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2005/0505amcent.html

U.S.-Russian Lessons for South Asia By Zia Mian, R. Rajaraman, and
Frank von Hippel (August 2, 2002)
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0208nukelessons.html

Nuclear War in South Asia By Matthew McKinzie, Zia Mian, M.V. Ramana,
and A.H. Nayyar (June 2002)

http://www.fpif.org/papers/nuclearsasia.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For media inquiries:    Emily Schwartz Greco, emily@ips-dc.org
202-297-5412

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Produced and distributed by FPIF:A Think Tank Without Walls, a joint
program of International Relations Center (IRC) and Institute for
Policy Studies (IPS).

For more information, visit http://www.fpif.org. If you would like
to add a name to the Whats New At FPIF list, please email:

communications@irc-online.org, giving your area of interest.

Please consider becoming an IRC member or donor. You can join the
IRC and make a secure donation by visiting
http://www.irc-online.org/donate.php. Thank you.

Also see our Progressive Response newsletter at:

http://www.fpif.org/progresp/index.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

International Relation Center (IRC) http://www.irc-online.org/ Siri
D. Khalsa Outreach Coordinator Email: communications@irc-online.org
P.O. Box 2178 Silver City, NM 88062
*****************************************************************
 12 China CRI ENGLISH: China Urges Ratification of Nuclear Treaty   
    
  2005-9-23 14:49:37      CRIENGLISH.com   
    
  China urged the international community to reach agreement on
the abandonment of nuclear tests, and to accelerate the
ratification of the Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT). 

Zhang Yishan, China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the
United Nations, made the remarks during the fourth round meeting
of the Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty on Thursday. 

He says, as the representative of one of the countries among the
first group of nations to sign the treaty, China will continue
steadfastly upholding CTBT, and calls on countries around the
world to observe the treaty on the grounds of mutual trust and
benefit. 

Of the 176 countries that signed the agreement in 1996, 125 have
since ratified the treaty.   

  


            Copyright of crienglish.com. All rights reserved. 

Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted
provided that both the source and author are acknowledged and a
*****************************************************************
 13 China CRI ENGLISH: First Heavy-Water Nuclear Power Station Approved   
    
  2005-9-23 13:30:25      CRIENGLISH.com   
    
  China's first heavy-water nuclear power station for commercial
use---the Qinshan stage III generator set ---was finally
sanctioned for use by the state on Thursday. 

The Qingshan III station is a key project for the nation, as
well as the biggest trade cooperation project between China and
Canada, with a total investment of 2.9 billion US Dollars. The
CANDU reactor, with two 728MW-capacity generation units imported
from Canada, is designed to have a life span of 40 years. 

With construction work starting in June 1998, the No.1 and No. 2
generation sets were separately completed and put into operation
in 2002 and 2003. 
  

Copyright of . All rights reserved. 




*****************************************************************
 14 Green Bay Press-Gazette: Area’s two nuclear plants improve safety
 
Posted Sept. 23, 2005 

  Point Beach Energy Center

To inquire about Point Beach Energy Center group tours, contact
Lauretta Krcma-Olson at (800) 880-8463, or e-mail
Lauretta.krcma-olson@nmcco.com
   
Point Beach may reopen for tours 

By Richard Ryman
 rryman@greenbaypressgazette.com

TWO CREEKS — Safety continues to be a front-burner topic at the
area’s two nuclear plants, but some adjustments are being made
as systems and procedures are refined.

For example, the Point Beach Energy Center may re-open to the
general public early next year.

Point Beach Nuclear Plant and Kewaunee Power Station
representatives hosted a reception at the center Wednesday night
to discuss joint safety efforts. Point Beach in Two Creeks and
Kewaunee in Carlton are about five miles apart, midway between
Two Rivers and the city of Kewaunee.

Kewaunee Power Station was purchased this summer by Dominion
Resources Inc. from Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Alliant
Energy. The change of ownership has not effected safety
planning, said Jim McCarthy, director of site operations at
Point Beach and a former Dominion employee.

Lauretta Krcma-Olson, supervisor of the Energy Center, said
officials are discussing whether to re-open the facility. It was
closed to everyone from Sept. 11, 2001, to the following March,
after which school and other groups making advance reservations
were allowed to visit. And they do, especially in the spring.

“We are pretty much booked from the end of March to June, four
to five days a week,” Krcma-Olson said. 

McCarthy and Mike Gaffney, site vice president at Kewaunee, said
the plants continue to drill regularly on internal and external
emergencies. Kewaunee recently completed a force-on-force drill
in which former special forces members working for the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission attempted to infiltrate the plant.

“We were successful. We had no findings from the NRC,” Gaffney
said.

Dominion and We Energies, Point Beach’s owner, jointly purchased
a building at 3060 Voyager Road in Green Bay for a Joint Public
Information Center to be used during emergencies. That center is
expected to be operational by September 2006. They will continue
to use a Wisconsin Public Service Corp. facility in downtown
Green Bay until then.

Lori Hucek, emergency disaster director for Kewaunee County,
said an emergency information calendar is distributed to
everyone within a 10-mile radius of the plants. The calendar
includes evacuation routes, emergency contact numbers, emergency
instructions and other information, much of it printed in
English, Hmong and Spanish.

“We have calendars floating around all over,” she said. “When
9/11 occurred, we had tons of people from outside the area
requesting them.”

The state and communities within 10 miles of a nuclear plant are
required to prepare and test emergency response plans. The plans
include procedures for warning the public, carrying out
evacuations and providing shelter.

“We can see from the whole situation in the South, planning and
practicing your plan is key to successful execution,” Gaffney
said.

Copyright © 2004 
*****************************************************************
 15 Xinhua: Yangtze to get more hydro-plants   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-23 08:23:15   

    BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- State-owned infrastructure
and energy investor, State Development & Investment Corp (SDIC),
plans to inject some 140 billion yuan (US$17.3 billion) to build
at least six more hydro-power plants on the upper reaches of the
Yangtze River in Sichuan Province. 

    The total installed capacity of the hydro plants, including
one the company built in the early 1990s, is expected to reach
more than 20 GW (gigawatts), a senior official from the
Beijing-based investment company, who declined to be identified,
yesterday told China Daily on the sidelines of an energy
conference in Beijing. 

    One of the new hydro-plants, located in the Yalong branch of
the Yangtze River, has been approved by the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC) - the country's top economic policy
planner, and is scheduled to generate electricity by 2012, the
official yesterday said. 

    The SDIC official yesterday said the company had not set a
timetable for the operation of the remaining plants. 

    "The government will approve the plants one by one," said
the official. 

    Construction of the new plants will be financed by equity
capital and bank loans, the company official said. But he did
not elaborate further on the capital structure. 

    SDIC will set up joint-ventures with local energy companies
in Sichuan Province for building these plants, and SDIC will
take a controlling stake in the ventures. 

    The single generator plants will have a capacity of less
than 600 MW (megawatts), with supply of the equipment and
technology open for tenders from abroad, the official said. 

    Du Zhigang, a director for corporate development of the
State Grid Corp of China yesterday told the energy conference
that the grid company will complete a high-voltage transmission
line to link SDIC's hydro-plants with the country's power grids
by 2011. 

    In order to clean skies clouded by smog from coal-fired
power stations and meet the country's surging demand for power,
China is vigorously pushing hydro-power generation in resource
rich areas especially in the western region. 

    "We will push hydro-plant construction," Xu Dingming, head
of the energy department under the NDRC yesterday told the
energy conference. 

    China aims to more than double its hydro-power capacity to
some 246 GW by 2020, which will account for about 25.9 per cent
of the country's total energy consumption, said the NDRC source. 

    Coal currently fuels 67.7 per cent of China's energy needs. 

    Zhuang Laiyou, a senior advisor for the China Development
Bank, said nuclear and hydro sources have the greatest potential
to replace coal in power generation in China. 

    The country, based on current estimates, has the potential
to generate 350-400 GW of hydro-power, the senior advisor said. 

    Zhuang said the country's limited oil and gas reserves rule
out the possibility of massively developing oil and gas-driven
power generation, while renewables such as wind and solar power
will only serve as a supplementary source for future power
generation, due to their high costs. 

    (Source: China Daily)   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 16 NRC: Hurricane Update

 What We Do > Emergency Preparedness and Response > How We
Respond to an Emergency > Response to Hurricanes > Hurricane
Update 
Hurricane Update - 9/23/05 


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission continues to track the path of
Hurricane Rita from both its emergency response centers in
Rockville, Md., and Arlington, Texas. The centers are staffed
around the clock as the hurricane approaches east Texas where it
is expected to make landfall Saturday morning between Beaumont
and Port Arthur. 

Using the Emergency Response Data System, NRC staff are
monitoring conditions at three nuclear power plants where
tropical storm force winds and heavy rain are projected. The
plants are: South Texas Project, near Bay City, Texas; the
Waterford nuclear plant about 20 miles west of new Orleans; and
the River Bend plant about 24 miles northwest of Baton Rouge The
current path of the storm is not expected to bring it within 100
miles of the three plants. 

Waterford, South Texas Project Unit 1, and River Bend were
operating at 100 percent power at 6:30 this morning; South Texas
Project Unit 2 was at 94 percent coasting down to a refueling
outage. The South Texas plant no longer intends to shut down the
units because of the northerly shift in Ritas projected path.
However, severe emergency preparation plans continue to be
implemented at all three sites. 

The NRC is in close communication with the plants and has sent
six additional inspectors to the plants to monitor licensee
activities and provide around the clock coverage if the need
arises. We have also established a point of contact with FEMA
while plant operators coordinate with local emergency
responders. Additionally, NRC has contacted Louisiana, Texas and
some licensees to move to a safe location or secure in place
radioactive materials used in medicine and industry.   

 	Last revised Friday, September 23, 2005 	   
*****************************************************************
 17 Daily Times: India to build four new nuclear power stations 

  Friday, September 23, 2005

NEW DELHI: India’s cabinet on Thursday approved the sites for 
four new nuclear power stations, a government spokesman said. 

The new plants would be located in the western states of 
Maharashtra and Gujarat, the southern state of Tamil Nadu and the 
northwestern state of Rajasthan, S Jaipal Reddy, information and 
broadcasting minister, told reporters. 

Two of them would be pressurised heavy water reactors and the 
other two light water reactors, a government statement released 
later Thursday said. No financial details were provided. The 
cabinet decision came nearly two months after India and the 
United States agreed on a programme of civilian nuclear 
cooperation, though the landmark deal is subject to US 
Congressional approval. ap Home | National           


  
            
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
 Site developed 
      and hosted by WorldCALL Internet
*****************************************************************
 18 India: Deccan Chronicle: Cabinet nod for 8 new reactors   

  Friday September 23, 2005, New Delhi: 

The government has given a formal go-ahead to the construction of 
eight new nuclear power reactors at four sites. At its meeting 
here on Thursday, the Union Cabinet gave an “in principle” 
clearance of sites for setting up nuclear power stations and for 
“pre-project activities” — like acquisition of land — at these 
places.   

  These sites are Kakrapar, Gujarat, where two 600-megawatt
heavy water reactors will come up; Kundankulam (two 1000
megawatt light water reactors); Jaitapur, Maharashtra (two light
water reactors) and Rawatbhata, Rajasthan (two 700 megawatts
heavy water reactors).

Apart from these proposed eight, nine reactors are under
construction at seven sites across the country. These include
Kakrapar, Kundankulam and Rawatbhata where more reactors will
now be built. At present, 14 nuclear power plants are already in
operation. The construction of 17 more reactors in the coming
years will considerably boost nuclear power capacity. The
government hopes that the recent “relaxation” in sanctions in
the supply of fuel to Indian civilian nuclear plants by America
and other Western nations will help in the expansion.

In another decision taken at the meeting, the Cabinet expanded
the terms of reference of the National Commission for Religious
and Linguistic Minorities. The commission would now also go into
the issue of reservations for Scheduled Castes “within”
religious minorities. The commission tenure has also been
extended till 30 April 2006. A commission of inquiry into the
collapse of the Daman Ganga bridge in 2003 has been given a
further extension of six months. The Cabinet also approved
continuation of subsidised helicopter services in Arunachal
Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura.   

  © 2003-Copyrights World News Exchange. Site maintained and
*****************************************************************
 19 UN Atomic Watchdog Strengthens Safeguards Against Diversion Of Nuclear Material
 
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:00:24 -0400

 

 
UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG STRENGTHENS SAFEGUARDS AGAINST DIVERSION OF NUCLEAR 
MATERIAL
New York, Sep 23 2005  3:00PM
Stepping up efforts to prevent nuclear materials from falling into 
terrorist hands and other diversions, the United Nations atomic 
watchdog has moved to plug a loophole in its safeguards system by 
strengthening reporting and inspection terms for States that have 
little or no nuclear material and no such material in facilities.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed 
ElBaradei today called the action by the agency's Board of Governors 
"timely and necessary."

"It redresses some important limitations and will serve to reinforce 
the nuclear safeguards system," he said of the Board-approved 
modifications to the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), currently 
in force in 76 States as addendums to their comprehensive safeguards 
agreements with the <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2005/strengthening_sg.html">IAEA.

The changes include requirements that States provide initial reports 
to the IAEA inspectorate on all their nuclear material and design 
information for any planned nuclear facilities, and reinstate 
the Agency´s right to conduct inspections in SQP States.

The previous standard text allowed States to possess small amounts 
of nuclear material without having to report those holdings to 
the IAEA.

The IAEA has been reviewing the implementation of SQPs for some time. 
In June, the Board endorsed the view that SQPs constitute a 
weakness of the safeguards system, and considered strengthening options. 
In early September, the Agency conducted a seminar for Member 
States to provide detailed answers to relevant technical, legal 
and financial questions associated with those options.

As a next step, the IAEA will now contact SQP States on the necessary 
changes to texts of the protocols.

Over the past year, Mr. ElBaradei has frequently called for a whole 
raft of measures to strengthen safeguards, including reinforcing 
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
 2005-09-23 00:00:00.000 


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*****************************************************************
 20 SA: Mail & Guardian: Nuclear health study 'looks like a whitewash'  
               
Pretoria, South Africa      
    
  23 Sep 2005 10:38  
    
  Earthlife Africa expressed concern on Friday over the
exclusion of its nominees to a team conducting a health study at
the country's nuclear facility in Pelindaba.

"We now have no hope that the Necsa [Nuclear Energy Corporation
of South Africa] study will be independent. It looks like a
whitewash," said spokesperson Mashile Phalane.

Phalane's statement follows a recent meeting by ill workers of
Necsa, Earthlife Africa, the Congress of South African Trade
Unions and the justice and peace desk of the Catholic Bishops
Conference, with investigation head Mogwera Khoathane to discuss
civil society participation in the study.

Khoathane was appointed by the Necsa board to probe allegations
made against the occupational health and safety practices of
Necsa as well as events leading to the death of employee Victor
Motha at the company's nuclear reactor near Pretoria.

Khoatane's team includes Annanda How, an internationally
registered International Organisation for Standardisation
auditor and trainer for quality and environmental management
systems, and Shaun Guy, a radiation-protection and radioactive
waste-management expert.

Other members are Mokgothu Brian Nkonoane, a practising attorney
with experience in personal-injury claims and litigation
matters; Monde Ntwasa, a molecular biologist; and Barney de
Villiers, an occupational-health expert.

Earthlife Africa had proposed environmental lawyer Richard
Spoor, occupational health specialist Murray Coombs,
environmental scientist and toxicologist Willie van Niekerk,
organisational psychologist AA Ngwezi, international
public-health specialist Gordon Thompson and international
epidemiologist Richard Clapp.

"Our experts were rejected out of hand," said Phalane.

He said that because some of the group's nominees were not from
South Africa, they could be independent of Necsa since they did
not depend on the organisation for contracts or employment.

"We now have no hope that the Necsa study will be independent,"
he said.

He said Khoathane was previously employed by Necsa and
questioned how independent he would be.

Initially, Earthlife Africa identified 29 workers and former
workers at Pelindaba who had become ill, and obtained medical
records for 23 of them.

Five of these people have died, 13 have undergone medical
examinations and 10 have been diagnosed with diseases linked to
radiation exposure, including skin cancers and eye diseases.

The group's own health studies will be continued by Coombs. It
requested the medical records of a further 210 workers in April
and is still waiting for these.

Comment from Necsa was not immediately available. -- Sapa  

All material copyright Mail&Guardian.                           
*****************************************************************
 21 Scotsman.com News: Origin of beach radiation sought
 
Fri 23 Sep 2005   			 			
9:46am (UK)

An environmental services company has been named as the most 
likely source of radioactive particles found on a beach. 

Scotoil Services, which discharges naturally occurring radiation, 
is thought to be responsible for the particles which closed off a 
stretch of Aberdeen beach last month. 

But an investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency (SEPA) has found that that the risk to the public was
"negligible" and that the company, which is based at Aberdeen
Harbour, had not committed an offence. 

A joint statement issued by SEPA, NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City
Council said: "Based on SEPA's investigations, Scotoil's
licensed discharge is the most likely source of the
radioactivity. 

"Scotoil has not breached its authorisation or committed any
offence. 

"SEPA's investigations also concluded that the radioactivity is
reaching the beach through natural tidal and sediment movement.
SEPA is reviewing Scotoil's authorisation to ensure that every
reasonable step is being taken to minimise the environmental
impact and health risk of the radioactive discharge." 

They added that this review was underway before the issue came
to light and the company was co-operating fully. 

As a precautionary measure SEPA is also planning to take further
samples from the beach over the next few months. 

A 100-yard sweep of the beach was closed to the public for a
week in August after the radioactive material was found in the
sand during routine monitoring. 

Scotoil Services has provided descaling, decontamination and
disposal services for the oil and gas industry since 1983. 

Â© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2005, All Rights Reserved. 

*****************************************************************
 22 Las Vegas RJ: Nevada wins Yucca ruling 
 
Friday, September 23, 2005
 

DOE told it must release draft copy of license application 
By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL
 
Chalk one up for the Nevada lawyers fighting the planned Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository.
 
 A three-judge panel for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled
Thursday that the Department of Energy must release a draft copy
of the license application that it intends to submit for the NRC
to review.
 
 The panel, chaired by administrative Judge Thomas S. Moore,
concluded that DOE's 2004 draft license application "is
documentary material and is a circulated draft ... not protected
by any deliberative process privilege."
 
 The ruling gives more leverage to Nevada officials and other
opponents of DOE's plans to build a maze of tunnels inside Yucca
Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to entomb 77,000
tons of the nation's spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive
defense wastes.
 
 Having access to a draft before the final license application
is submitted means that state attorneys will be able to preview
the direction DOE is heading with its design for the
below-ground repository and above-ground staging facilities. It
also will give them insights on how DOE plans to meet the
Environmental Protection Agency's two-tiered, 1 million-year
radiation safety standard. 
The panel ordered DOE to make the draft document available on
the Licensing Support Network "no later than the time it makes
its initial certification."
 
 An attempt by DOE to begin certification of the Web-based
Licensing Support Network was shot down this summer by the NRC's
Pre-License Application Presiding Officer Board.
 
 State Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux and the state's
lead nuclear waste lawyer, Joe Egan, could not be reached for
comment late Thursday.
 
 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman's press secretary, Craig
Stevens, read a prepared statement that said, "Department
lawyers are currently reviewing the document. Once that review
is completed, the department will assess its options and go from
there."
 
 Similarly, NRC spokesman David McIntyre wrote in an e-mail that
"we have only just received the ruling and cannot comment until
we've had a chance to give it a thorough review."
 
 DOE had planned to submit a license application last year but
since has decided not to set a target date for the submission.
 
 The repository, once targeted to open in 2010, is not expected
to be ready until 2012 at the earliest, barring any delays in
the NRC's license review or from legal actions.

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault contributed to
this report.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 23 Las Vegas RJ: Hatch weighs Yucca stance 
 
Friday, September 23, 2005
 

With Skull Valley in play, Utah senator keeps options open By
JENNIFER TALHELM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
WASHINGTON -- Days after Utah Sen. Bob Bennett joined Nevada
Sen. Harry Reid in saying the nation should not store its
nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch
said he might be willing to work with Reid too.
 
 At the moment, however, he said he's going to continue to lobby
the Bush administration and try legislation, noting that is the
best bet to keep nuclear waste from being stored in Utah's Skull
Valley.
 
 "This is a continuing dialogue and I'm going to continue to
talk" to the White House, Hatch said at a news conference
Thursday. The White House and several federal agencies still
could agree to block the proposed site in Utah, and he wants to
keep those options open.
 
 But he added that he'd consider anything, "including, if I have
to, aligning with Senator Reid. But frankly I don't see how he's
going to help us to solve this problem under the current
circumstances. But I'm open." 
In the ongoing chess match between Utah and Nevada over proposed
nuclear storage options, Hatch has the next move.
 
 A temporary nuclear waste storage facility proposed for the
Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation got an OK from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month. Private Fuel
Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of
spent nuclear fuel at the site, about 45 miles southwest of Salt
Lake City, until a permanent repository could be built at Yucca
Mountain.
 
 The two states' senators have butted heads over the issue in
the past. Hatch and Bennett, both Republicans, supported Yucca
because it could mean the Skull Valley site wouldn't open.
 
 Bennett changed all that on Tuesday when he said on the Senate
floor that he was wrong in voting for Yucca Mountain.
 
 The move isolated Hatch.
 
 He planned to introduce a bill this week that would establish a
moratorium to prevent storage of spent nuclear fuel on
nonfederal, off-site facilities. On Thursday, he added that he
too questions whether Yucca Mountain should be built.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 24 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain workers face layoffs 

September 22, 2005 

By Benjamin Grove <grove@lasvegassun.com>
 SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- Budget cuts may force Yucca Mountain worker
layoffs, the program's top contractor said.

 The Energy Department, which manages the proposed nuclear waste
repository project, two weeks ago informed top contractor
Bechtel SAIC that it likely was facing a 30 percent budget cut,
Bechtel spokesman Jason Bohne said today. The notice came in the
form of an "interim budget planning guidance," a document the
department sends the contractor every year so Bechtel can plan
its expenditures.

 Bechtel in mid-October will present the Energy Department with
an answer -- specific estimates of what the proposed cut would
translate to in numbers of laid-off workers, as well as the type
of work that would have to be delayed, Bohne said.

 Bechtel has about 1,400 workers. It's likely that "pretty
close" to 30 percent of workers could face layoffs, he said.

 "A 30 percent cut in the budget doesn't necessarily mean a 30
percent cut in the workforce, but you can't cut 30 percent and
not have and impact on the workforce," he said.

 Workers will be notified within "weeks" if they are to be laid
off, Bohne said. It would more likely be a "matter of months"
before they are actually laid off the job, he said.

 Congress approved $571 million for Yucca Mountain for the
current fiscal year. Bechtel received about $325 million, Bohne
said.

 President Bush proposed $651 million for Yucca in the next
fiscal year, but Yucca budgets often are trimmed in Congress,
due largely to the negotiating of Yucca foe Senate Minority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who also sits on the Senate
Appropriations Committee.

 Yucca has long suffered delays and budget setbacks. The program
is under increasing scrutiny in Congress. This week, Sen. Robert
Bennett, R-Utah, withdrew long-time support for Yucca, saying he
no longer supported the plan to ship the nation's most
radioactive waste across the country for permanent burial in
tunnels under the Nevada desert ridge.

 Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said it's possible the
department could impose a smaller cut on Bechtel. He said
department managers proposed the 30 percent cut to Bechtel as a
"planning exercise" to force Bechtel and the department to
review work priorities.

 "It's an evaluation of what we are doing and a question of
should we be doing it," Benson said.

 It's not clear how the budget cut would affect Yucca's
schedule, Bohne said. The next Yucca milestone is the Energy
Department's submission of an application for a license to
construct the repository. Energy Department officials had said
they were aiming to submit the application early next year.

 But the department's acting Yucca chief Paul Golan last week
announced that the department was focused more on quality work
than following a strict timetable.

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 25 Las Vegas SUN: Geologist: Nevada at risk for major quake 

Today: September 23, 2005 at 10:29:55 PDT 

Fault lines could affect Yucca dump

 By J. Craig Anderson LAS VEGAS SUN

Floods, tremors, volcanoes and radioactivity may terrify the
average citizen, but to a group of geologists meeting this week
in Las Vegas for a conference, they are the spice of life.

 "Nevada has gold, earthquakes, water and nuclear waste -- what
more could you want?" Nevada State Geologist Jonathan Price said
jokingly to an audience of about 150 during Wednesday's opening
session of the 48th annual Conference of the Association of
Engineering Geologists, which runs through Monday at the
Flamingo.

 Price began the conference with an overview of the state's
various geologic hazards before he launched into a detailed
explanation of the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain
and how conditions under the earth's surface there could cause
radioactive contamination to escape.

 Of all the state's geologic hazards, earthquakes pose the
greatest risk to residents, with seismic hazard data pointing to
the south and west as the most unstable regions.

 Carson City is comparable to Los Angeles or San Francisco when
it comes to the likelihood of earthquakes, he said.

 The Las Vegas area is less prone to earth-shattering seismic
activity, but the cost in human lives could be far greater than
in Carson City if a major quake does occur.

 "The risk might be higher because there's a lot more population
at risk," Price said.

 A Federal Emergency Management Agency study based on 2000
census data indicates a 10 to 20 percent chance that a major
earthquake -- 5.9 or greater on the Richter scale -- will hit
within striking distance of Las Vegas during the next 50 years.

 A conservative estimate of the economic damage is $3 billion to
$8 billion, based on the FEMA study. A stronger earthquake of
6.9 on the Richter scale or more could do as much as $25 billion
in damage. Price said because the area's population has grown so
rapidly during the past five years, the FEMA estimates may not
be high enough.

 It is difficult to predict how some hotels would hold up during
a serious earthquake because of their unusual designs, he said.
Still, Price wasn't sure if the FEMA estimates specifically took
into consideration the valley's abundance of casino resorts.

 The reason Nevada is so prone to earthquakes is that two
tectonic plates -- slowly shifting land masses that make up the
continents -- are sliding in different directions along the
state's western border.

 The plates don't slide smoothly. They tend to lock into place
until enough pressure builds to snap them apart, thus causing an
earthquake.

 Nevada is actually moving away from Utah, "and not just
philosophically," Price said, adding that the movement adds
about 1 1/2 new acres of land to the Silver State each year.

 Price then turned to the subject of Yucca Mountain, the site
chosen by Congress in 1987 as the future repository for the
nation's most radioactive nuclear waste.

 Federally mandated research on the location "really brings to
bear quite a bit of geological issues," he said, such as
fracturing of the earth that could result from nearby fault
lines.

 Price said there is evidence that, over thousands of years,
rainwater could seep down to the storage area. The containers
that hold the waste will corrode eventually, and contaminated
water could find its way back into natural springs and wells
from which people drink.

 "The concern is how much groundwater will flow through those
faults," he said.

 A string of small, relatively young volcanoes in the region
also could have an impact on the containment of nuclear waste by
facilitating shifts in the underground rock, Price added.

 Price said social and political factors tend to outweigh
geotechnical ones when it comes to the placement of waste dump
sites because geologists face so many uncertainties when it
comes to predicting the odds of a disaster.

 "Our job as scientists often becomes narrowing down the
uncertainties so that rational decisions can be made," he said.

 Scott Ball, chairman of the association's Southwest section,
said the conference's purpose is to give engineering geologists
-- who often do consulting on large construction projects such
as tunnels, pipelines and dams -- new ideas, investigative
techniques and approaches.

 He said Nevada's geology is a good subject for such a
conference.

 "It's a great place," Ball said. "There's a lot of things here
that other people don't necessarily run into." 


All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 26 Las Vegas SUN: White House still has eye on county land sales 

Today: September 23, 2005 at 11:12:40 PDT 

By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
 SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- The proposal to shift Clark County federal land
sale profits from Nevada to the U.S. Treasury is still being
quietly discussed as a cost-savings measure for an increasingly
burdened federal budget, congressional sources said.

 Early this year the Bush administration proposed funneling the
land sale proceeds to the federal government to help offset the
ballooning federal deficit. Public land has been sold at auction
under terms of the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management
Act.

 Profits have vastly exceeded expectations -- and caught the
attention of the White House. More than $2 billion has been
netted from the sales so far.

 The land sale profits currently stay in Nevada -- 10 percent
goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for water projects,
5 percent for state public education, and 85 percent is used for
land conservation and projects like parks and trails.

 White House officials have argued that some of the money from
federal land sales should go back to federal taxpayers. Nevada
lawmakers have fought to keep the money in the state. Nevada's
senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign,
earlier this year said the proposal was dead in the Senate.

 A few House lawmakers have shown quiet interest in siphoning
some percentage of the land sale money back to Washington, but
it was believed that the proposal was most likely dead for the
year.

 Now as part of a budget review process ongoing in the House,
the House Resources Committee has included a version of the Bush
proposal in an internal document that includes a long list of
possible cost-savings measures that would help the panel save
$2.4 billion, the environmental news service Greenwire reported
today. A panel source confirmed that.

 The draft of the document proposes funneling 40 percent of land
sale money to the U.S. Treasury. Nevada would keep 60 percent.
The proposal recommends that the state education fund be
increased from 5 percent to 35 percent; that the land program
share be shrunk from 85 percent to 15 percent; and that the
water authority keep its 10 percent.

 But most, if not all, of the cost-savings measures -- including
the Clark County land sale proposal -- are not likely to be
pursued as the budget reconciliation process advances, likely
next month, a congressional source who spoke on the condition on
anonymity said today.

 The panel is more likely to pursue another cost-saving option,
the source said.

 Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who sits on the House Resources
Committee, has been in regular contact with panel Chairman
Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to stress his opposition to the
administration's proposal, according to his office.

 "The chairman and Jim have spoken about it and he (Pombo) has
said he will not do anything to hurt Nevada," Gibbons
spokeswoman Amy Maier said.

 Gibbons is united with the rest of Nevada's congressional
delegation against the Bush proposal. But he had suggested a
formula change in the way land sale proceeds are distributed,
proposing that 35 percent be given to state education. Gibbons
has backed off that proposal for now to avoid "opening the
floodgates" to proposed changes to the 1998 law.

 Maier said there have been rumors about what may or may not be
under consideration as part of the budget reconciliation process.

         All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 27 Las Vegas SUN: NRC orders Energy Department to turn over draft Yucca document 
 
September 22, 2005 

By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Key weaknesses in the Yucca Mountain project
should be revealed in a draft license application that a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission panel ordered the Energy Department to
make public, a lawyer for Nevada said Thursday. 

This will help the state's case," said Joe Egan, a Vienna,
Va.-based lawyer leading the state's fight against burying the
nation's nuclear waste in Nevada. He called the order by a panel
of three NRC administrative judges another in a string of
setbacks for the project. 

Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens downplayed the 53-page
order, and said department lawyers had not decided whether to
appeal to the full Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

"The department has been forthcoming and open on this entire
project," Stevens said from Washington, D.C. 

He compared the draft license application to a college term
paper being checked for spelling and syntax before being handed
in, and said it would have become public anyway once it was
submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

"We believe the science is sound, but we're going to check the
work," Stevens said. 

The Energy Department has spent more than 20 years developing
its plan to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive
commercial, industrial and military waste in tunnels beneath
Yucca Mountain, an ancient volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of
Las Vegas. 

The plan relies on meeting an Environmental Protection Agency
radiation safety standard that is being rewritten after a
federal appeals court invalidated the proposed limit in July
2004. 

The court said a 10,000-year radiation limit set by the EPA was
too short. 

The EPA last month proposed two-tiered Yucca Mountain radiation
rules. The new standard would apply for 1 million years, but
allow more radioactivity to be released. 

Egan said he suspects the license application also is being
rewritten, but that the draft will show the Energy Department
knows it cannot meet safety standards once the repository waste
begins emitting peak doses of radioactivity. 

"My guess is the computer models all showed them violating the
EPA limit after 10,000 years," he said. 

The Energy Department must meet the EPA standard in its license
application. Project officials originally expected to submit the
finished document in December 2004, but in recent months have
said only that they expect to submit the application to the NRC
later this year. 

The program also has been slowed by budget shortages and
investigations of e-mails exchanged between project scientists
discussing possible falsification of scientific data. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov 

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 28 Salt Lake Tribune: Hatch takes heat over Yucca stance 

Article Last Updated: 09/23/2005 08:52:21 AM 

Join us: The governor says it's time to support Utah's position 
rather than the White House's 

By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune 

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is criticizing Sen. Orrin Hatch's 
refusal to join members of Congress from Utah and Nevada in 
fighting to keep nuclear waste out of both of those states. 

"It's ill-advised," Huntsman said Thursday. "It would be nice 
to be able to speak with some sense of unanimity as a state and 
a delegation, as I believe Nevada is doing, on something as 
important as this." 

Through a spokesman, Hatch declined to respond to the 
governor's criticism Thursday. 

Huntsman commented about his fellow Republican a day after 
Hatch reiterated his support for the White House's nuclear waste 
strategy. 

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and JGov. Jon Huntsman Jr. disagree 
about the state's nuclear waste strategy. 

The senator insisted that working with the Bush 
administration is the only way to scuttle plans to store nuclear 
waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation in Utah, 
and that it hurts the state's cause to "kick them in the teeth." 

The governor sees it differently. 

"I do believe that as we come together with one voice and one 
mind that there are some things legislatively that we can 
accomplish with the help of our friends in Nevada," Huntsman 
said Thursday in his monthly KUED news conference. "That's only 
possible if we come together in a unified way. And that's 
something that I have encouraged, and I will continue to 
encourage." 

Utah's senior senator clings to his view, despite it 
conflicting with the rest of Utah's congressional delegation, 
including Sen. Bob Bennett, who publicly renounced his earlier 
support for Yucca Mountain, saying it is clear the waste dump 
will never be built. 

Instead, Bennett and other members of Utah's delegation have 
embraced a proposal by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to store the 
reactor waste at the power plants that produced it and find 	 	 
ways to reprocess and reuse the material. 

Such an approach would make it unnecessary to ship the waste 
to either Yucca Mountain or the Skull Valley site, where a group 
of electric utilities known as Private Fuel Storage proposes 
storing 44,000 tons of waste above ground in steel casks. 

Hatch has drafted a bill that would impose a moratorium on 
shipping waste to a private storage site such as Skull Valley. 
Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has not introduced 
any legislation to make his plan a reality, although Rep. 
Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is sponsoring such a bill in the House. 

"After eight years of trying it his way, it's time for Hatch 
to join Team Utah," said Vanessa Pierce of Healthy Environment 
Alliance of Utah. "He should know we're stronger united than we 
are divided." 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a license for 
the PFS facility, although other obstacles remain, including 
winning Interior Department approval of the lease with the Skull 
Valley tribe and a right-of-way for a rail line to ship waste to 
the site. 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 29 Salt Lake Tribune: Lawyer pleads guilty to theft from Goshutes

Article Last Updated: 09/23/2005 01:40:08 AM                              
                   
  By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune 
    
   A South Jordan attorney has pleaded guilty in federal court
to stealing about $11,000 from the Skull Valley Band of
Goshutes. 

    Duncan Steadman represented a faction of the Skull Valley
community, an American Indian band in turmoil over a lease
leaders signed to store high-level nuclear waste at the tribe's
Tooele County reservation. 

    The faction believed they had ousted the leaders in a 2001
election and, with bogus documents drawn up by Steadman, began
to access tribal bank accounts. The federal Bureau of Indian
Affairs weighed in months later and indicated the leadership had
not changed and, in effect, that Steadman's faction had no
authority to use tribal funds. 

    The three would-be tribal leaders also have pleaded guilty
to theft from a tribal organization rather than go to trial on
all six counts, which carried possible jail time of 185 years
and fines of up to $5.25 million. 

    Steadman's single felony count carries a punishment of up to
five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. 

    After entering the new plea on Tuesday, Steadman said he was 
stunned that the three tribal members he had represented had 
agreed with the government that they were not truly elected. He 
said the $11,000 the trio paid covered attorney fees for hundreds 
of hours worked by him and his partner. 

    "We have never been in this to get rich," he said. "We tried
to help the Skull Valley Band regain control of the tribe." 

    Steadman's law license was suspended by the Utah Bar earlier
this month for nonpayment of fees. U.S. District Judge Tena
Campbell set sentencing for December. 
    
Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 30 Salt Lake Tribune: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Bob Bennett's right to throw in
with Nevada 

- Opinion 

Article Last Updated: 09/23/2005 01:40:06 AM 

Neighbors in need 

Welcome to the fight, senator. 

Bob Bennett's decision to throw in with our neighbors in 
Nevada and oppose efforts to entomb the nation's most dangerous 
nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain is the right thing to do. It's 
the right thing for Nevada, it's the right thing for Utah and 
it's the right thing for the West. 

Why? Because it doesn't make sense to risk an accident 
transporting the stuff through as many as 43 different states to 
a central repository somewhere, whether it's Yucca Mountain or 
the dry-cask parking lot proposed for the Goshute Reservation in 
Utah's Skull Valley. 

If dry-cask storage is as safe as the nuclear industry 
claims, then it can be used to keep the stuff temporarily at the 
reactor sites where it is now. 

Over the long term, it makes more sense to reprocess and 
recycle the spent fuel rods to produce more energy. President 
Carter issued a directive in 1978 to outlaw commercial 
reprocessing out of fear that plutonium and enriched uranium 
produced during recycling could fall into enemy hands for 
weapons. But a new process separates fissionable materials from 
the waste, but not from each other, so no weapons-grade material 
results. 

True, there still would be waste, but it would be dangerous 
for hundreds of years, not the thousands of years for the 
material that is proposed for burial or parking now. Plus, the 
volumes of waste from recycling would be much smaller. 

We've been arguing since 1997 that Utah should join Nevada in 
the effort to get this done right. However, Utah's two U.S. 
senators, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, have taken the view that 
if the waste could be dumped on Nevada, Utah would be in the 
clear because interim storage on the Goshute Reservation would no
longer be attractive. In 2002, they both voted to overrule the 
Nevada governor's veto of the Yucca Mountain project. 

However, Bennett reversed course this week. He has come to 
the realization that the engineering challenges (geological, 
hydrological and metallurgical) to permanent storage at Yucca 
Mountain probably will not be overcome. There also is a new 
theological factor. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day 
Saints announced this month that it opposes the PFS plan for 
Utah, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved. 

Utah's members of the U.S. House all have come around, too. 
That leaves Hatch as the only outlier. 

How about it, Orrin? 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 31 Pahrump Valley Times: 'Caliente Corridor' discussed in Goldfield 

September 23, 2005
 
ENERGY DEPARTMENT, OTHER OFFICIALS PUSH FOR PREFERRED RAIL ROUTE
TO YUCCA PROJECT 

By HEIDI J. BERTOLINO SPECIAL TO THE PVT
 
The long-anticipated meeting between the Department of Energy's
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and Esmeralda
and Nye county residents was a mellow one on Sept 13 - despite
rumblings the federal officials would be "rode out of town on a
rail."

 The Department was in Goldfield with Bureau of Land Management
and state employees to explain and collect comments on the draft
environmental assessment on the Caliente Corridor, otherwise
known as the proposed rail route that would be used to transport
the nation's high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain.

 The final document is in support of a proposed land order that
would protect the proposed 308,600 acres of public land for
10-20 years from surface disturbance and new mining claims. The
mile-wide corridor is being considered for the construction of a
railroad to haul spent nuclear fuel from Caliente to the Yucca
Mountain Repository near Amargosa Valley. 

The withdrawal is necessary so the Energy Department can study
the corridor and choose a final route for the proposed railroad. 

Yucca Mountain, BLM and state representatives outnumbered the
public in attendance at any given time. Residents who asked
serious questions related to the proposed railroad, not
addressed in the draft environmental assessment, were told their
worries would be answered in the Rail Alignment Environmental
Impact Statement, which has yet to be released.

 According to representatives from the various offices, the
comments collected in written and verbal form will be collected
and assessed for preparation of the final environmental
assessment. Currently, the department has until the end of
December until its temporary withdrawal expires. When the final
document is prepared it will be issued to the Department of the
Interior, which manages the Bureau of Land Management. 

Then the assistant secretary can issue a federal land order for
withdrawal of the public lands from 10-20 years. According to
the draft, the DOE would prefer a 10-year withdrawal, as opposed
to the previously sought-after 20-year withdrawal.

 According to the document, livestock grazing and existing valid
mining claims will not be affected, nor would recreation. The
document said all of the department's activities in the
corridor, during the 10-20 year withdrawal period would be
considered "casual use," such as surveying and mapping and would
not disturb any of the cultural, historic or natural resources
in the mile-wide corridor. 

Only new and future mining claims and surface disturbance will
not be allowed under the land order, if it is issued. 

Allen Benson, manager of Communications for the Office of
Repository Development, said the Rail Alignment EIS would draw a
much bigger crowd than the discussion on Tuesday. He said the
process that includes the assessment of the land withdrawal is
exactly like it would be if a highway was being built. He also
said the rail impact statement would address the actual route of
the proposed railroad within that mile-wide corridor, and the
possible ramifications to the environment and citizens nearby.
The current assessment only addresses the ramifications of the
department's "casual use" of the land.

 According to Benson the information brought forth in the Rail
Alignment EIS would produce a record of decision. When the final
route for the train is designated, the department can then apply
for a railroad right-of-way, which includes 200-feet off the
centerline of the track, and not the mile-wide corridor that
could be withdrawn. 

It is expected that when the formal right-of-way is issued the
land order would become unnecessary. The department expects to
complete all preliminary work in the mile-wide corridor in 10
years. 

Esmeralda County Commissioners and Nye County Commissioners took
turns asking questions and relating information to the
representatives present. Esmeralda County Commissioner Bill
Kirby sat down with Benson and reminded him the commissioners
had signed a resolution that requested the DOE look at an
alternative route, not currently listed, in Esmeralda County. 

The commission's proposed route is more westerly, and according
to officials would not impact the Goldfield Mining District to
the degree it might if the railroad is built in the current
corridor. Benson said the DOE would have to apply for a land
withdrawal of that proposed stretch if it wanted to seriously
consider the land. 

The commission's suggested westerly route is supposedly
addressed in the upcoming rail alignment impact statement but
has yet to be withdrawn for study and surveying. Benson said the
contents of the draft statement for the rail alignment would not
be ready until at least spring of 2006.

 The Caliente Corridor travels through large portions of Lincoln
and Nye counties and barely turns into and then out of Esmeralda
County. Among the alternatives is one route that will butt up
against the Esmeralda County line, without entering the county.
If the department chooses this route it would leave Esmeralda
County out of the current three-county stake holder's financial
pie. With the exception of Caliente, the community of Goldfield
sits the closest to the proposed rail route at four miles.
Esmeralda County is also the least prepared to respond to a
large-scale emergency. Beatty is also within 10 miles of the
corridor and proposed railroad.

 Written comments on the draft environmental assessment for the
Caliente Corridor land withdrawal can be sent to Mr. Lee Bishop,
Office of National Transportation, Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, 1551
Hillshire Drive, M/S 011, Las Vegas, NV 89134 or faxed to
1-800-967-0739 until Tuesday's deadline. 

For comment or questions, please e-mail 
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 
*****************************************************************
 32 KUTV: Hatch Talking With White House Over Nuclear Dump 

+ CBSnews.com + CBS.com                               
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 
 Sep 22, 2005 5:48 pm US/Mountain 

WASHINGTON Days after Utah Sen. Bob Bennett joined Nevada Sen.
Harry Reid in saying the nation should not store its nuclear
waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch says he
might be willing to work with Reid too. 

At the moment, however, he's going to continue to lobby the Bush
administration and try legislation. He says that is the best bet
to keep nuclear waste from being stored in Utah's Skull Valley. 

``This is a continuing dialogue and I'm going to continue to
talk'' to the White House, Hatch said at a news conference
Thursday. The White House and several federal agencies still
could agree to block the proposed site in Utah, and he wants to
keep those options open. 

But he added that he'd consider anything, ``including, if I have
to, aligning with Senator Reid. But frankly I don't see how he's
going to help us to solve this problem under the current
circumstances. But I'm open.'' 

In the ongoing chess match between Utah and Nevada over proposed
nuclear storage options, Hatch has the next move. 

A temporary nuclear waste storage facility proposed for the
Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation got an OK from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month. Private Fuel
Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of
spent nuclear fuel at the site, about 45 miles southwest of Salt
Lake City, until a permanent repository could be built at Yucca
Mountain. 

The two states' senators have butted heads over the issue in the
past. Hatch and Bennett, both Republicans, supported Yucca
because it could mean the Skull Valley site wouldn't open. They
have blamed Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, for blocking
their efforts to thwart the Skull Valley storage site. 

Bennett changed all that on Tuesday when he said on the Senate
floor that he was wrong in voting for Yucca Mountain. He said he
would join Reid in supporting storage of nuclear waste at the
sites where it is generated. 

The move isolated Hatch, who said afterward that he was going to
continue to work on all options to keep the waste out of Utah. 

He planned to introduce a bill this week that would establish a
moratorium to prevent storage of spent nuclear fuel on
nonfederal, offsite facilities. 

On Thursday, he added that he too questions whether Yucca
Mountain should be built. 

``We had to vote for it or it would have been stuck in Utah,''
he said. ``I certainly don't believe we should do Utah Skull
Valley. I think the material ought to be kept in place, and it
ought to be reprocessed in place or at a Department of Energy
reprocessing site.'' 

Michael S. Lee, chief counsel for Gov. Jon Huntsman, has said
Utah will take a three-pronged approach to fight the NRC
decision, taking their objections to federal court, to Congress
and to federal agencies. 

Utah officials contend the Skull Valley facility would be too
close to a major population center and that the risk of a jet
fighter from Hill Air Force Base crashing into the storage casks
is too great. 

(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) 

*****************************************************************
 33 Mohave Daily News: Environment-friendly county plan OK'd
 
By JIM SECKLER
 
Thursday, September 22, 2005 7:48 PM PDT 


KINGMAN - The Mohave County Planning and Zoning Commission
officially adopted the county general plan preserving open space
amidst the rapid growth of the county.

The amended general plan encourages new industries that are not
major polluters. The plan also calls for pursuing industries
that use less water and create fewer emissions. 
To further combat air pollution, the county would pave roads
that carry more than 200 vehicles a day.

The county would also encourage the use of solar and wind
systems in subdivisions and with local utilities. 

The county would also encourage water conservation including
installing gray water plumbing systems and harvesting rain water.

New subdivisions would also be buffered from noise from highways
and railroads. The plan also calls for preserving historic
structures and add rest stops in road improvements.

Land use goals are placing homes, wells and septic systems away
from the federally established 100-year flood plains.

The amended general plan also adds the Interstate 40 Industrial
corridor in promoting industrial developments along with the
county's three major incorporated cities - Bullhead City,
Kingman and Lake Havasu City.

The plan also calls for discouraging the storage and transport
of high-level radioactive waste within the county.

Another goal is to develop hillside homes that are not in the
path of a potential wild fire. The county would also limit the
increase in housing density outside of fire districts and where
roads are substandard.

The general plan now goes before the county supervisors at the
Nov. 21 Board meeting.

The planning and zoning department held a series of public
hearings throughout the county since November.

State law requires the county to review the county's general
plan every 10 years. Public comments at the hearings focused on
issues such as water and land conservation.

The commission also approved major amendments to the general
plan for four of the five subdivisions planned by Las Vegas
developer Jim Rhodes near Kingman, Golden Valley and Meadview.

The commission approved major amendments for the Village in
White Hills, the Golden Valley South, the Peacock Vistas and
Peacock Highlands near Kingman.

The commission postponed a major amendment to the general plan
for the Retreat at Temple Bar until the Oct. 12 planning and
zoning commission meeting.

The Retreat at Temple Bar would include 3,040 acres built within
the Lake Mead National Recreation Area about 10 miles southeast
of Temple Bar and about 12 miles southwest of Meadview.

The amendment to the county general plan for each subdivision
would change from rural development area to an urban development
area.

The zoning changes include neighborhood and general commercial,
low, medium and high density residential, light industry, public
facilities and parks.

The commission did approve Rhodes' plans to build a 5,750-acre
community in the southern part of Golden Valley called Golden
Valley South.

The subdivision would be bordered by Shinarump Road to the north
and Ash Drive to the south and Yuma Road to the east and
Tombstone Trail to the west.

Also approved was The Village, a 2,727-acre community located
east of Highway 93 on either side of White Hills Road.

The commission also approved the Peacock Vistas and Peacock
Highlands near Kingman.

The Peacock Vistas would include 2,088 acres northeast of
Kingman in the foothills of the Peacock Mountains with access to
state Route 66.

Peacock Highlands would include 7,176 acres east of the Kingman
airport and west of the Peacock Mountains.

The commission also approved minor amendments to the county's
general plan at five areas consisting of 1,345 acres in the
Golden Valley area.

The amendment would change from rural development area to an
urban development area land use.   

Tri-State Online // Mohave Daily News Privacy Policy 2435 Miracle 
Mile / Bullhead City, Arizona 86442-7311 / 928-763-2505 Last 
updated: Friday, September 23, 2005   
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 34 Deseret News: Burying 'spent fuel' is a waste
 
[deseretnews.com] 

Friday, September 23, 2005                               

I can only say "bravo" for the new stand that Sen. Bennett has 
taken with respect to the of spent nuclear fuel. He was quoted as 
saying, "It makes sense for (nuclear) waste to be stored on site 
and to be shipped to a reprocessing center."

       I have known for many years that the proper nuclear
energy program is a Complete Nuclear Energy Program. This
includes reprocessing spent fuel and sending the fuel component
to fuel fabrication plants to be used in fuel for breeder
reactors. I have always thought it was a horrible waste of our
natural resources to consider this "spent fuel" as waste and
propose permanently burying it in a deep geological repository.

If Utah's politicians and news media had put all the money and
effort expended in the ill-advised fight to oppose the private
fuel-storage license into support of the Complete Nuclear Energy
Program, there would have been no reason for a temporary storage
site.

 Blaine N. Howard
 health physicist (retired)
 Hyrum
 			  		 		   
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 			 		 			 		 			 		
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 35 cbs4denver.com: Rocky Flats Contractor Says Speedy Clean-Up Safe

[clock] Sep 22, 2005 7:52 pm US/Mountain 
 
By ROBERT WELLER
 
Associated Press Writer

(AP) DENVER The Government Accountability Office issued a
preliminary report Thursday that said the contractor in the $7
billion cleanup of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant assured
auditors that its speeded up cleanup is safe.

The GAO report quotes the contractor, Kaiser-Hill, and federal
and state regulatory agencies as saying an estimated $510
million bonus led to innovations to complete the work next
month, more than a year ahead of schedule, and within budget.

In 2001 the GAO had said the cleanup was behind schedule and
over-budget.

The agency says its staff did not "review the science
underlying" the claims of the contractor, U.S. Department of
Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado health
department.

"We reviewed the data used to prepare this report and determined
that they were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of the
report," wrote Gene Aloise, director of the GAO's natural
resources and environment.

The report was requested by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.,
after environmentalists said the cleanup of the plant where
plutonium triggers were manufactured during the Cold War was
incomplete because radioactive waste had been dumped
clandestinely and illegally on the 6,500-acre compound 10 miles
downwind from Denver.

Further, the GAO said that once the cleanup is deemed complete
the work must be reviewed and approved by federal and state
agencies.

The report noted that after an independent team found some
contaminated areas that had not been cleaned up, "DOE has
remediated some of these already and plans to remediate the
others." Initially the Energy Department said the contamination
was not significant.

Once the cleanup is complete and health officials have declared
the area safe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to turn
a portion of the area into a wildlife refuge with hiking,
hunting and other public uses.

Erin Hamby of the Rocky Mountain Justice and Peace Center said
the GAO had not been asked to determine itself whether the
cleanup was adequate or safe. "I don't have the confidence that
the site will ever be cleaned up enough to say it is safe. The
contractor might be able to say they have met their obligation
but that is a far cry from saying it is safe," she said.

Allard, whose office made a letter from Aloise available to The
Associated Press, said GAO investigators told him they "were
very impressed by the Department of Energy's effort to cleanup
the radioactive contamination at Rocky Flats."

Allard added, "Even though we are almost done, we can't let up.
It remains my expectation that the site be cleaned up to the
standards of the Rocky Flats Clean-up Agreement. I'm confidant
that the EPA and the state of Colorado will ensure that this
gets done." 

(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) 
 
© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [ /] [ /] [
*****************************************************************
 36 Rocky Mountain News: Feds laud Flats cleanup work

'Monumental task' to be finished soon

By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News

September 23, 2005

The Government Accountability Office gave a thumbs-up Thursday
to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant cleanup, which will be 
finished within weeks. 

The GAO told Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., that demolition of the 
huge industrial complex was a "monumental task," but one that is 
being completed ahead of schedule and under budget. 

 "What has been achieved so far was far beyond GAO's
expectations," Allard said. 

The last loads of plutonium-laced rubble are being packed up now
and all but a few temporary buildings are gone, said John Corsi,
spokesman for the cleanup contractor, Kaiser-Hill. 

The company now is tearing up roads and railroad tracks,
recontouring hills and planting seeds. 

"We should be done in weeks," Corsi said. 

All 360 spots that were suspected of being contaminated have
either been cleared of concern or cleaned up, said John Rampe of
the Department of Energy, which ran atomic bomb manufacturing at
the plant for decades and has paid for the decontamination. 

Cleanup of about 20 of those 360 locations is still being
reviewed by environmental regulators, he said. 

The last few low-level hot spots found in soil contaminated by
leaks of radioactive solvent will be dug up and hauled away next
week, Rampe said. 

Those hot spots caused considerable concern in the community.
They were found this summer in an area thought to have been
cleaned up. As a result, some watchdogs have called for further
testing around the site. 

The last time GAO looked at Rocky Flats, in 2001, so much work
remained that the congressional investigation agency doubted
that Kaiser- Hill could finish by 2006.  

© Rocky Mountain News
*****************************************************************
 37 Daily Princetonian: Labs fuse efforts with federal grant
 		
Friday, September 23, 2005 

Viola Huang Princetonian Staff Writer
 
    The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), in
collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in
Tennessee, was recently awarded a grant of $10 million from the
federal government to be given over a five-year period.
 
    The grant is part of the Department of Energy's Simulation
of Wave Interactions with Magnetohydrodynamics (SWIM) project,
which aims to create computer simulations that can correctly
model the movements of plasma and subsequently facilitate the
development of fusion energy.
 
    "The goal of the [simulations] is to understand how radio
waves affect plasma motion and how that motion affects the radio
waves, so that we can use the process most effectively for
driving current while keeping plasma in [a] magnetic field,"
said astrophysics professor Robert Goldston, director of the
PPPL.
 
    The effect of radio waves and the motion of the plasma,
which were previously studied independently, are brought
together by the collaboration of the University and ORNL.
 
    "If you fire radio waves into fusion fuel, you can heat and
control [the fuel] in various ways," Goldston explained. "ORNL
is arguably the world leader in the calculation of how radio
waves shine into fusion fuels. We are arguably the world leaders
on calculations of how plasmas move around."
 
    The goal, he said, is to take the most advanced codes that
calculate two different aspects of what goes on in fusion
plasmas and determine how the two interact.
 
Ideas ignited
 
    The idea for the SWIM project stemmed from a lobbying effort
that called for the government to devote resources to computer
simulation of advanced fusion technology.
 
    Astrophysics professor Steve Jardin, the principal research
physicist at the PPPL, was part of a subcommittee put together
by a high-level advisory committee of the fusion energy division
of the Department of Energy. The group met a few years ago to
come up with recommendations of how to increase the use of
computer simulation in fusion.
 
    "The Department of Energy wanted to launch a large-scale
fusion simulation project at $20 million a year to put together
all of the isolated computer models of different aspects of a
fusion plasma and produce a totally integrated model," Jardin
said.
 
    He compared the idea to the aircraft industry where, in the
past, wind tunnels were used to test small plane models. Careful
measurements of drag and lift could be taken to help the
engineers make the necessary modifications.
 
    "Now we don't have to do that because computer programs are
so good that we have numerical wind tunnels where you can input
the exact shape of an airplane and the computer program can very
accurately model lift and drag," Jardin said. "A fusion plasma
is something like the air, just a lot more complicated because
of a strong magnetic field and all of the plasma effects. We've
developed through the years a lot of computer programs that are
very similar in spirit to wind tunnels that use a lot more
computational physics."
 
    Based on the recommendations of the subcommittee, the
Department of Energy put together a competition to award the
SWIM grant. The joint PPPL and ORNL proposal, one of four
applications, was ultimately successful.
 
Cost of research
 
    Jardin said he believes the PPPL and ORNL won the grant
because the members of the proposal were the most qualified,
some of them being the actual authors of the major component
codes they are now going to couple together.
 
    "For one thing, we are very enthusiastic about it, and I
think that big labs like Princeton and Oak Ridge have the
resources to make this thing a success," he added.
 
    Money from the grant will add to PPPL's $70 million research
endowment. Though $2 million per year is a significant sum, the
PPPL was hoping for closer to $5 million per year, Jardin said.
 
    "It's really because of budgets," Jardin said. "The
government's fusion program budget is way down from what it used
to be and probably what it should be. Our friends in the
Department of Energy are trying hard to make ends meet."
 
    Fusion, one of the focuses of the PPPL, has many advantages
as an energy source.
 
    It produces no carbon dioxide, a plus for those worried
about the effects of global warming, and generates less
radiation than current fission power plants do.
 
    "In a fission plant, when you operate for 30 years, the core
will be radioactive afterwards for 10,000 years. Now they're
planning on burying the used core at Yucca Mountain in Nevada,
which is angering the residents. Fusion doesn't have anything
like that," Jardin said.
 
    Fusion also has no potential weapons fallout, since there is
no possible way to make an atomic bomb out of a fusion plant.
 
    Goldston said the PPPL grant will have a significant effect,
both on ongoing experiments at a smaller scale and on the
massive International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
project that is to be built in France.
 
    PPPL and ORNL are heading the project office for the United
States, which has already contributed 10 percent of the $1
billion estimated cost of the ITER project.
 
    The ITER project spawned from a deal made 20 years ago
between former President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet
president Mikhail Gorbachev with the ultimate goal of making a
prototype fusion reactor that will generate 500 million watts of
fusion power.
 
    "The five years they've laid out is a reasonable time period
for us to get to that point," Goldston said. "This being
science, you never really finish anything. Newton thought he
figured out gravity, then Einstein came. At the end we will have
a computational tool that will allow us to do things we couldn't
before, like finishing ITER. But we'll keep going afterwards.
It's not just building for five years and using it on ITER.
We'll keep identifying new scientific issues and going back to
modify." 

Copyright 2005 Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. All 
Rights Reserved. 
    
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