***************************************************************** 12/15/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.291 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Prague Post: R considers helping Iran with nuclear program 2 Guardian Unlimited: EU Grows Impatient With Iran Over Nukes 3 AFP: North Korea fails to honor accords and dodges nuclear talks 4 Reuters: S.Korea has trouble pushing North to nuclear talks 5 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Blames U.S. for Stalled Nuke Talks 6 Indiatimes: N-deal with US on strict reciprocity - PM 7 [progchat_action] FPIF News | IAEA's Nobel Peace Prize Mixed 8 [NYTr] Mixed Blessing: The Nobel Peace Prize to el Baradei 9 Xinhua: Indo-US nuke deal based on reciprocity - Manmohan 10 Guardian Unlimited: EU Summit to Address Ahmadinejad Comments NUCLEAR REACTORS 11 US: Re: Allegation of dive-bombing over Diablo Canyon NPP 12 US: Fulton Sun: Callaway Nuclear workers respond to Taum Sauk 13 US: Bradenton Herald: Report: FPL ponders major deal 14 US: The State: Notice filed on plans for nuke 15 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo officials deny claim that airpla 16 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: The X factor is Diablo 17 US: KSBY: Diablo Future Discussed 18 US: JS Online: Nuclear plant unit shut off for repair 19 US: newsobserver.com: Nuclear charges 20 RIA Novosti: Nuclear power future lies in fast neutron reactors - Ki 21 US: APP.COM: NRC rebuffs N.J. stand on Oyster Creek | 22 US: Rutland Herald: Advisory panel endorses power increase at Vt. Ya 23 Globe and Mail: Nuclear power on table, McGuinty says 24 US: NRC: American Energy Company, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safet 25 US: NRC: Notice of Issuance of Amendment to Materials License SNM 25 26 IHT: Japan - Bending the nuclear taboo - Editorials & Commentary - 27 AFP: France hid extent of Chernobyl contamination - report 28 Japan Times: Reactors needed for Kyoto goals, expert says 29 ITAR-TASS: Nuclear energy sector to remain under state control – Kir 30 ITAR-TASS: Russia to keep nuclear power tariffs low 31 Globe and Mail: Mining for a radioactive investment 32 US: Austin Chronicle: Hey, That's Our Nuke, Too 33 US: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The CEOs (@FPL) 34 US: OrlandoSentinel.com: FPL Group could acquire energy giant - 35 US: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: FPL Group could acquire energy giant 36 AFP: Ukraine rules out storing foreign nuclear waste at Chernobyl - 37 US: Dayton Daily News: Hobson urges feds to consider nuclear energy 38 ForUm: Yushchenko: Chornobyl won't become a cemetery for nuclear was NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 39 US: [du-list] Read & consider how much DU was around in 1945 40 US: [du-list] Here is source of references to uranium weapons 41 US: Yokwe Net: US : Senate Bill Introduces Eligibility for Energy Oc 42 Yokwe Net: RMI Embassy: Compensation for Marshallese Workers Bill NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 43 [du-list] Greenpeace claims nuclear industry has a dirty secret 44 US: Bradenton Herald: A toxic place 45 Bellona: Ukraine to import nuclear waste 46 US: reviewjournal.com: Nuclear waste bills introduced 47 US: RGJ.com: Keep nuke waste on-site, senators urge-Lawmakers say 48 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Reid bill: N-waste shouldn't be moved 49 US: Deseret News: House, Senate bills call for on-site nuclear waste 50 ITAR-TASS: Russia must maintain competitive edge in U-enrichment - v 51 ITAR-TASS: Spent nuclear fuel from nps to be stored near Krasnoyarsk 52 New Scientist: Greenpeace claims nuclear industry has a dirty secret 53 Nevada Observer: Nevada Nuclear Projects Claims Federal Conspiracy L 54 Nevada Observer: Conspiracy At The Highest Levels Charged 55 KLASTV.com: Reid, Ensign Expected to Introduce Yucca Legislation 56 KLASTV.com: New Legislation Proposed For Yucca Mountain 57 KLASTV.com: Yucca Mountain Health Concerns 58 US: Las Vegas SUN: Nevada, Utah lawmakers back plan for onsite nucle PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 59 Idaho Statesman: Idaho lab should post reports on safety problems on 60 lamonitor.com: Biosafety lab faces public concerns ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Prague Post: R considers helping Iran with nuclear program December 16th, 2005 But assistance must be in line with EU policy, warn ministry officials By Brandon Swanson Staff Writer, The Prague Post December 14, 2005 More than a year after Iran asked European Union countries for help with its civilian nuclear program at the United Nations General Assembly, it may have found an unlikely candidate in the Czech Republic. Czech Industry and Trade Minister Milan Urban said he discussed aiding the civilian nuclear aims of Iran during trade talks in early December — a surprising announcement considering that tension between the two nations is so high that in 1998 each pulled its ambassador from the other's country. "I was shocked," said Jana Hybáaková, a Czech member of the European Parliament (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee, recalling her reaction to Urban's comment. Iran has been under heavy pressure from both the EU and the United States over its nuclear program, which Iran claims is only aimed at producing nuclear energy. The EU and the United States claim that Iran wants to create nuclear weapons. Rocky relations + 1998 Radio Farda, a broadcast of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, begins airing to Iran. Iran denounces the move as meddling and recalls its ambassador from Prague. The Czech Republic recalls its ambassador in response + 2000 Czech Parliament passes a law banning deliveries to the Iranian nuclear plant in Bushehr + 2001 Czech exports to Iran dive to 728.8 million K ($29.5 million), less than half the amount from 2000 + 2004 Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi leaves Prague ahead of schedule, saying Czech President Václav Klaus refuses to receive him + February 2005 Iran tells the Czech Republic that, economically, it will be treated differently than other European Union countries because of Radio Farda + March 2005 EU Commissioner for External Trade Peter Mandelson pledges to help stop Iran's discriminatory trading policy toward the Czech Republic + June 2005 Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda stands by a law banning Czech firms from providing deliveries to Iran's nuclear power plant + October 2005 The Iranian newspaper Farhang-e-Ashti reports an embargo on Czech products; Iran does not officially release the embargo Source: Czech News Agency, Czech Statistical Office While the Iranian state-run press reported Urban's "readiness to participate," Industry and Trade Ministry spokesman Ivo Mravinac said the minister's comments need clarification. "There is a need to be very cautious in commenting on such issues," Mravinac said. The two sides only discussed cooperation with the development of nuclear energy program in Iran along with other trade issues, he said. The Foreign Affairs Ministry was more direct. "The Czech Republic is not considering nuclear cooperation with Iran," said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Richard Krpa . He said cooperation would not be possible because of a Czech law from 2000 banning deliveries for the Iranian nuclear facility in Bushehr. But earlier this year, Helena Bambasová, a senior director at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said an EU law preventing the export of any "dual-use" material to Iran — that is, material that could be used for both civilian nuclear power or for weapons development — superceded that law upon Czech accession to the EU. Both ministries agreed that any assistance on the Czech Republic's part has to be in step with EU policy on Iran, which is still taking shape. 'The wrong time' "There was a very complicated negotiation within the European Parliament," Hybáaková said. "The general consensus is to recognize the Iranian right for civil use for nuclear atomic energy." She said that the EP will not limit any member state's participation in an Iranian civil nuclear energy program, but in her opinion, the Czech Republic should wait. "If any country starts to collaborate with Iran before it comes back to the negotiation table, it is the wrong time," she said. The EU has asked Iran to put all of its nuclear programs under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mravinac said such oversight would have to be in place before his ministry would act. "We could only offer cooperation after Iran provides required political guarantees, which, at the moment, is not the case," he said. Jan Kr , press attaché with the U.S. Embassy in Prague, would not answer whether Czech–U.S. relations would suffer if the Czech Republic aided Iran, but said, "The Czechs are very aware that we are very concerned about the situation in Iran." A ruptured relationship It is unclear why the Industry and Trade Ministry would even consider getting itself tangled up in such a heated international issue, especially when it has to do with Iran – a country with which the Czech Republic has had a deteriorating diplomatic relationship. Tensions rose eight years ago, after Radio Farda — a special broadcast to Iran carried by U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — began airing stories critical of the Iranian government. Iran recalled its ambassador to the Czech Republic as a result. Iran has also placed restrictions on Czech imports since 2003, Krpa said, although it has not announced them formally. These goods — mostly metallurgy and manufacturing equipment — make up less than 0.1 percent of total Czech output. Earlier this year, the Czech Republic considered lifting the five-year-old law banning Czech firms from providing deliveries to Iran's nuclear power plant as a gesture of goodwill. Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda later nixed the idea. In September, the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that Iran is several years away from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. —Petr Kaapar contributed to this report. Brandon Swanson can be reached at bswanson@praguepost.com The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: EU Grows Impatient With Iran Over Nukes From the Associated Press [UP] Thursday December 15, 2005 10:31 PM AP Photo XHS111 By ROBERT WIELAARD Associated Press Writer BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European leaders warned Thursday that patience with Iran is running thin less than a week before envoys from Britain, France and Germany are to resume negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program. A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a ``myth,'' European Union foreign ministers drafted a statement condemning the remarks and calling them ``totally unacceptable.'' The statement was expected to be formally issued Friday after an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium. ``The government in Tehran must understand that the patience of the international community is not endless,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the parliament in Berlin before leaving for Belgium. Ahmadinejad first provoked an international outcry in October when he called for Israel to be ``wiped off the map.'' Then, on Wednesday, he said in remarks carried live by state-run Iranian television that the Holocaust was a ``myth'' the Europeans used to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world. ``Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets,'' he said. Nations from Europe to Asia condemned his remarks Thursday. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU external relations commissioner, called Ahmadinejad's views ``absolutely irresponsible.'' Denying the Holocaust - in which 6 million Jews died during World War II at Nazi hands - is a crime in several European nations. China, which maintains good relations with both Iran and Israel, said such remarks could undermine world stability. ``We are not in favor of any remarks detrimental to stability and peace,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday. ``Israel is a sovereign state.'' Moscow did not directly criticize Ahmadinejad but condemned any attempts to deny the Holocaust, and said it was necessary to restate Moscow's ``principled position.'' ``Speculation on these themes runs contrary to the principles of the U.N. Charter and the opinion of the world community,'' the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Arab governments appeared reluctant to condemn Ahmadinejad. In Saudi Arabia, government-controlled newspapers picked up the remarks from international news agencies but did not comment on them. The Palestinians tried to distance themselves. ``Ahmadinejad's statements hurt the Palestinian cause because Israel and the Holocaust enjoy international recognition, and any denial of the Holocaust and Israel hurt not only those behind it but also justify Israeli actions against them,'' said Hani al-Masri in the Al Ayyam newspaper, which is close to the Palestinian Authority. Steinmeier said Ahmadinejad's comments weighed heavily on talks over Tehran's nuclear program and showed ``with how much irresponsibility and cynicism the Iranian government currently regards the situation of Israel and the Near East.'' Envoys from Germany, France and Britain have been leading diplomatic efforts to allay fears over Iran's nuclear intentions. They are to resume negotiations with Tehran on Dec. 21. Some German lawmakers urged the government to consider excluding Iran from the World Cup soccer tournament to take place in Germany next year, but the organizers ruled that out. ``The government must work at all levels to isolate Iran politically,'' Volker Beck of the opposition Greens party said on Germany's N24 television. ``It's worthwhile to continue the discussion on whether to exclude Iran from the World Cup.'' --- Associated Press writers Stephen Graham in Berlin and Tarek al-Issawi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: North Korea fails to honor accords and dodges nuclear talks Thursday December 15, 7:20 PM Photo: AFP JEJU, South Korea (AFP) - South Korea criticized North Korea at high-level talks for failing to honor inter-Korean accords while the North dodged calls to return to nuclear disarmament dialogue. During sometimes tense exchanges, South Korea repeatedly urged North Korea to return to six-nation disarmament talks but its delegates refused to respond. North Korea insisted that it would talk only with the United States about the nuclear standoff and blamed Washington for the stalemate, said Kim Chun-Sig, spokesman for South Korea's delegation. The North said Sunday that stalled six-party talks last held in November would be suspended indefinitely because Washington had imposed economic sanctions on it over allegations of illicit financial dealings, including counterfeiting and money laundering. "North Korea says there has been no progress at six-party talks due to Washington's hostile policy," said Kim. "The North believes it should solve the nuclear issue with the United States." No progress was reported Thursday, the second of three days of cabinet-level inter-Korean talks which opened Wednesday, despite a one-on-one meeting between Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young, Seoul's chief delegate, and his North Korean counterparty Kwon Ho-Ung, a cabinet councillor. South Korea continued pressing North Korea Thursday to agree to the early resumption of disarmament talks grouping the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia, Kim said on Thursday. Back in September North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits and security guarantees. But at the last session in November it said US sanctions were blocking any progress. The US Treasury Department in September told US financial institutions to stop dealing with a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, which it accused of being a willing front for North Korean counterfeiting. A month later the US blacklisted eight North Korean companies allegedly involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Talks on inter-Korean relations were also tense, according to the South Korean side. North Korea took a lukewarm attitude on thorny issues including the delayed opening of cross-border railways, prisoners of war and military talks, prompting South Korea to express regret. Though economic exchanges have greatly increased following an inter-Korean summit in 2000, North Korea has balked at holding more high-level military talks on easing tension after two initial rounds. "Our side expressed deep regret over the delayed implementation of (inter-Korean) agreements," said spokesman Kim. In response North Korea insisted South Korea dismantle what it called "barriers", referring to its joint military exercises with the United States. Seoul and Washington, which stations 32,500 troops in South Korea, have been military allies for decades and regularly stage joint military drills aimed at deterring North Korean aggression. South Korea proposed that the two Koreas open talks next year on a new peace mechanism for the peninsula that would replace a fragile truce which ended the 1950-53 Korean War, Kim said. He indicated the two sides could strike a deal on a new round of direct and video reunions of separated families early next year, as well as a new round of Red Cross meetings to discuss prisoners of war. Copyright © 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information ***************************************************************** 4 Reuters: S.Korea has trouble pushing North to nuclear talks Reuters.com Thu 15 Dec 2005 10:53 AM ET By Jon Herskovitz SOGWIPO, South Korea, Dec 15 (Reuters) - North and South Korea found common ground on preserving Korean culture but could not reach an agreement on Thursday to hasten Pyongyang's return to multilateral negotiations on ending its nuclear programmes. At a meeting of ministers from North and South Korea, the two sides reiterated their support of trying to resolve a crisis over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons in a peaceful manner, a source close to the talks said. It was the first senior-level meeting between the two since Pyongyang threatened to pull out of separate six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme. The talks on the South Korean resort island of Cheju started on Tuesday and end on Friday. "Both sides confirmed their willingness to implement the Sept. 19 joint statement and try to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner," the source said. The source was referring to a deal reached at talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States where North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for economic aid, security assurances and greater diplomatic recognition. The support of the Sept. 19 agreement and a search for a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis covers no new ground because both sides have made similar pledges before. A joint statement from the ministerial meeting was expected on Friday. South Korean officials have said they wanted to try and prod North Korea back to the six-party talks at the meeting in Cheju. The source close to the talks said the two sides agreed to work to register cultural sites in the ancient Korean capital of Kaesong with UNESCO as part its world heritage project. They are also working on another round of reunions for families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War and a way to have an exchange of letters among families that have already met in previous rounds of reunions, the source said. Officials from the two Koreas have taken time away from the talks to see the sights in Cheju and even shared heart-shaped tangerines during their discussions. FROSTY TIES Ties between the two Koreas have warmed in recent months with rounds of ministerial talks producing agreements on business cooperation, humanitarian aid and ways to bolster the North's beleaguered agricultural sector. The two did not discuss a U.S. crackdown on North Korean finances, a Unification Ministry official said. While ties between Seoul and Pyongyang have been mostly warming in recent months, relations between Pyongyang and Washington has become downright chilly. Washington, which accuses North Korea of funding its nuclear programmes partly through money obtained from counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, has angered the communist North by freezing a few of its assets and trying to put the brakes on firms taking part in suspected illegal trade. The U.S. ambassador to South Korea recently called the North "a criminal regime." Pyongyang said this month the U.S. crackdown on its financial assets made it impossible to resume talks on dismantling its nuclear programmes. It labelled the U.S. envoy to Seoul as "the most bitchy and malignant ambassador in history," in a state media report on Wednesday. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. [ border=] ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Blames U.S. for Stalled Nuke Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Thursday December 15, 2005 5:01 AM AP Photo SEL201 By BO-MI LIM Associated Press Writer JEJU, South Korea (AP) - North Korea is blaming the United States for holding up the resumption of international negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament, a South Korean spokesman said Thursday at the second day of high-level talks between the two Koreas. South Korea has been trying to lure the North back to the six-party nuclear talks but little progress has been reported at the talks. ``The North holds a position that the lack of progress is due to the U.S. hostile policy'' toward it, South Korean spokesman Kim Chun-sig said. The North has made similar accusations in the past. Prospects for a resolution of the nuclear dispute have dimmed since the latest dispute between the North and Washington over U.S. financial sanctions against the communist nation for alleged illicit activities that include money laundering and counterfeiting. North Korea threatened last week to boycott the disarmament talks among the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas until Washington lifts the sanctions, which the North claims are based on ``sheer lies.'' The conflict has stalled implementation of a breakthrough Sept. 19 agreement in which the North agreed to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. ``It looks like the North thinks the U.S. is the cause of the latest stumbling block to the six-party talks,'' Kim told reporters Thursday. Kim said South Korea will continue its efforts to persuade the North at their meeting on the southern resort island of Jeju, the 17th such Cabinet-level negotiations between the two Koreas. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who heads the South Korean delegation at the talks, is to travel Sunday to Washington, where he is expected to relay the North's position and try to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. The North issued another call Thursday for the U.S. to lift the sanctions, denying allegations of counterfeiting. ``No matter how often American political imbeciles may orchestrate farces of every form at their back parlor, it will only reveal the moral vulgarity of the Bush group and further deteriorate the standoff over the nuclear issue,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. ``The only way for the Bush group to get rid of its present deplorable position is to lift its financial sanctions against (North Korea) and sincerely work to find a solution to the problem at the six-party talks,'' KCNA said. Officials from the two Koreas were expected to issue a joint statement Thursday evening on key issues including South Korean abductees and prisoners of war still believed held in the North. South Korea estimates 538 soldiers from the war were alive in the North as of December 2004. It also says the North is holding 486 South Korean civilians, mostly fishermen whose boats were seized after the war's end. The North denies holding any war prisoners and says the civilians defected voluntarily. The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, although exchanges between them have increased since a summit of their leaders in 2000. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 6 Indiatimes: N-deal with US on strict reciprocity - PM The Economic Times> Politics/Nation> TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005 02:52:24 AM] NEW DELHI: Prime minister Manmohan Singh today said the Indo-US nuclear deal was proceeding on the basis of strict reciprocity. He also said the government expected the Bush administration to use its full weight to get the necessary approval of the US Congress. Under the agreement, reached between US president Bush and Mr Singh on July 18, the US would lift restrictions on the supply of reactors and fuel for Indias civilian nuclear programme, provided New Delhi fulfilled a series of obligations. The prime minister had last week said that the exercise was at an advanced stage. Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Singh asserted that the decision to put certain facilities and reactors under international supervision was an entirely Indian decision and, therefore, there is no question of any other country forcing India to put this facility or that facility under control. "There is no stalemate," Mr Singh said while responding to a clarification sought by former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha on whether there was a stalemate in the implementation of the understanding. Seeking to allay members' apprehensions that the US administration has been asking for more concessions ever since the nuclear deal was reached, the prime minister made it clear that "if the US does not carry out its obligation, I think, we are also free not to carry out our obligation". Mr Singh said the nuclear working group headed by foreign secretary Shyam Saran and US under secretary Nicholas Burns held a "good meeting" and the next one was likely to take place on December 21-22. "As far as the speculation as to what the US is going to insist, I think, I have said it before in Parliament that the binding constraint is what is stated in the July 18 statement, which was jointly issued by President Bush and myself, and there is, I think, strict reciprocity," he said. Amar Singh wanted to know whether India had accepted a crucial provision of a future Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty even before it was negotiated by other nuclear weapon states. "That is a question for the future," the Prime Minister said, adding, "All that we have agreed is that we will work with other like-minded countries to facilitate the agreement on such a Treaty. When that treaty materialises, I think, it is very difficult for me to say." Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 [progchat_action] FPIF News | IAEA's Nobel Peace Prize Mixed Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 01:53:19 -0600 (CST) X-Fingerprint: owner-imap@chumbly.math.missouri.edu-127.127 New at FPIF Working to make the United States a more responsible global leader and partner http://www.fpif.org/ Introducing the latest policy analysis from Foreign Policy In Focus El-Baradei and the IAEAs Nobel Peace Prize a Mixed Blessing By Stephen Zunes My reaction to the awarding this past weekend of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director Mohammed El-Baradei was similar to my reaction to the awarding of the 2002 prize to former President Jimmy Carter: while they have pursued a number of policies contrary to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize, they have also done much to make the world a safer place. On the one hand, the IAEA has helped to promote nuclear energy, an extremely dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary means of electrical generation, and has been accused of downplaying the serious health and environmental impact of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and essentially being a shill of the nuclear energy. On the other hand, the IAEA and Dr. El-Baradei have, in the words of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, exemplified the principle that the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. Indeed, the choice of the Norwegian Nobel Committeelike their choice three years earlierwas at least in part meant to challenge the dangerous unilateral policies of the Bush administration. Hostility from the Bush administration and Capitol Hill toward El-Baradei and the IAEA has not been focused solely in regard to Iraq. It has also focused on the agencys demands that Israel cooperate with the effort to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons as well as its findings that Irans nuclear program is not as extensive or dangerous as the United States claims. Efforts to remove El-Baradei received very little support in the international community, however, even from the Bush administrations British allies. And now, as a Nobel Prize recipient, U.S. efforts to discredit the IAEA and El-Baradei have become all the more difficult. Unfortunately, there remains a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington that the United States has the right to determine which countries can develop nuclear weapons and which ones cannot, effectively imposing a kind of nuclear apartheid. Furthermore, both Republicans and Democrats insist that the United States has the authority to determine compliance with the non-proliferation agreements and how such agreements are enforced. According to this view, the IAEAand the United Nations as a wholecan be useful if its findings and policies support U.S. policy and can be ignored or rejected when they do not. Unless and until that changes, this noble effort by the Nobel committee in honoring El-Baradei and the IAEA will end up meaning very little. Stephen Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus (www.fpif.org). He serves as a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003). See new FPIF commentary online at: http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/2986 With printer-friendly pdf version at: http://fpif.org/pdf/gac/0512nobel.pdf For media inquiries Emily Schwartz Greco, emily@ips-dc.org, 202-297-5412 Siri Khalsa, media@irc-online.org, 505-388-0208 Produced and distributed by International Relations Center (IRC). For more information, visit http://www.irc-online.org/. If you would like to receive specific topic or regional material from either FPIF (http://www.fpif.org/) or the Americas Program (http://www.americaspolicy.org/), please email: communications@irc-online.org, with subscribe in the subject line and giving your area of interest. To manage your subscription log in at http://www.irc-online.org/lists/ To unsubscribe go to: http://www.irc-online.org/lists/unsubscribe?action=unsubscribe&mailing= &id= &email= 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. International Relations Center (IRC) http://www.irc-online.org/ Siri D. Khalsa Outreach Coordinator Email: communications@irc-online.org PO Box 2178 Silver City, NM 88062 ***************************************************************** 8 [NYTr] Mixed Blessing: The Nobel Peace Prize to el Baradei Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:21:53 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Foreign Policy in Focus - Dec 13, 2005 http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/2986 El-Baradei and the IAEAs Nobel Peace Prize a Mixed Blessing By Stephen Zunes My reaction to the awarding this past weekend of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director Mohammed El-Baradei was similar to my reaction to the awarding of the 2002 prize to former President Jimmy Carter: while they have pursued a number of policies contrary to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize, they have also done much to make the world a safer place. On the one hand, the IAEA has helped to promote nuclear energy, an extremely dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary means of electrical generation, and has been accused of downplaying the serious health and environmental impact of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and essentially being a shill of the nuclear energy. On the other hand, the IAEA and Dr. El-Baradei have, in the words of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, exemplified the principle that the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. 1 Indeed, the choice of the Norwegian Nobel Committeelike their choice three years earlierwas at least in part meant to challenge the dangerous unilateral policies of the Bush administration. The Bush administration, backed by a large bipartisan majority of Congress, has long opposed the principle that nuclear non-proliferation should be monitored and enforced by a law-based international body but should instead be at the whim of the U.S. government. The Bush administration and congressional leaders of both parties have rejected calls by El-Baradei and others for a nuclear weapons-free zone for Southwest Asia and the Middle East, with the United States blocking a December 2003 UN Security Council resolution to that effect with a threatened veto. Both Republicans and Democrats have asserted that the United States gets to determine which governments can have nuclear weapons and which governments cannot. For example, the United States has blocked enforcement of UN Security Council resolution 478 calling on Israel to place its nuclear program under the trusteeship of the International Atomic Energy Agency and resolution 1172 calling on Pakistan and India to eliminate their nuclear weapons program while insisting on going to war to enforce resolutions addressing Iraq's nuclear program (even though Iraq, at the time of the March 2003 U.S. invasion, was already in full compliance). IAEA Under Fire Given that the IAEAas part of the United Nations systemrepresents such universality, it has been a target of unremitting hostility by the Bush administration and its congressional allies, particularly in regard to Iraq. With President George W. Bush going as far as to claim that the IAEA's rigorous inspection regime in Iraq was tantamount to doing nothing, 2 the Nobel Committee's finding that its work was incalculably important 3 is significant. While UNSCOM inspectors in charge of locating and destroying Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs were periodically subjected to harassment and evasive actions by the Iraqi government prior to their withdrawal in December 1998, the IAEA had largely been able to engage in rigorous inspections without interference, visiting more than one thousand sites, virtually all without prior notification. Their conclusion, described in a detailed report published that month, was that it appeared that Iraq's nuclear program had been completely dismantled. 4 With the strict sanctions against the import of nuclear-related materialswhich had held firm since it was first imposed in August of 1990thereby denying Iraq any access to the necessary materials from France, Russia, and other countries which had made its former nuclear program possible, combined with no evidence from extensive U.S. spy satellites and other surveillance of any nuclear activity, it was no surprise that the 2001 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate unanimously confirmed the IAEA's assessment that Iraq's nuclear program had not been resumed. Iraq, IAEA, and Inspections Despite this, in an effort to frighten the American public into supporting an invasion and occupation of that oil-rich country, the administration repeatedly claimed in the year leading up to the March 2003 invasion that Iraq had resumed its nuclear weapons program. They were joined in their fear-mongering by leading Democrats, including John Kerry, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jay Rockefeller, and Harry Reid. Some supporters of the U.S. invasion of Iraq even went as far as to claim that Iraq had already developed nuclear weapons. Vice President Cheney insisted that We know [Saddam Hussein has] been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. 5 Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington insisted that the unique threat posed by Iraq will grow increasingly more dangerous as Saddam Hussein increases his nuclear stockpile. 6 When IAEA inspections resumed at the end of 2002, Dr. El-Baradei confirmed his assessments. In January 2003, the distinguished Egyptian lawyer reported to the UN Security Council that two months of inspections in Iraq had resulted in absolutely no evidence of prohibited nuclear activities, confirmed by what he referred to as useful interviews with Iraqi nuclear scientists. Regarding the aluminum tubes which U.S. officials had claimed were specifically designed for nuclear weapons development, the IAEA director noted that they, unless modified, would not be suitable for manufacturing centrifuges. 7 On March 7, in his final report to the Security Council before his inspectors were removed from Iraq in anticipation of the U.S. invasion, he concluded that the IAEA had found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq. 8 He also reiterated that documents cited by the Bush administration that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger were forged. In short, in order to frighten the American people into supporting an invasion and occupation of Iraq , the Bush administration and its Congressional supporters were required to ignore or discredit El-Baradei and the IAEA. For example, Vice President Cheney insisted in a nationally-televised interview that Mr. El-Baradei is frankly wrong. The vice president then falsely claimed that the IAEA had consistently underestimated or missed what it was that Saddam Hussein was doing and insisted that there was no validity to the IAEA's assessments. 9 In response, the Bush administration launched a concerted effort to deny El-Baradei a third term as IAEA chairman, falsely accusing him of all sorts of fanciful misdeeds, such as covering up for Iranian purchases of beryllium that the Iranian government never succeeded in procuring. As part of its campaign against the IAEA chief, the Bush administration had El-Baradei's phone wiretapped in an unsuccessful effort to find information to discredit him. The Washington Post reported that The plan is to keep the spotlight on El-Baradei and raise the heat. 10 In reality, rather than being soft on Iran and other potential developers of nuclear weapons, the Iranian regimealong with the governments of Pakistan, South Korea, and Brazil (also targets of IAEA investigations)supported removing El-Baradei for being too tough. Hostility from the Bush administration and Capitol Hill toward El-Baradei and the IAEA has not been focused solely in regard to Iraq . It has also focused on the agency's demands that Israel cooperate with the effort to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons as well as its findings that Iran's nuclear program is not as extensive or dangerous as the United States claims. Efforts to remove El-Baradei received very little support in the international community, however, even from the Bush administration's British allies. And now, as a Nobel Prize recipient, U.S. efforts to discredit the IAEA and El-Baradei have become all the more difficult. Unfortunately, there remains a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington that the United States has the right to determine which countries can develop nuclear weapons and which ones cannot, effectively imposing a kind of nuclear apartheid. Furthermore, both Republicans and Democrats insist that the United States has the authority to determine compliance with the non-proliferation agreements and how such agreements are enforced. According to this view, the IAEAand the United Nations as a wholecan be useful if its findings and policies support U.S. policy and can be ignored or rejected when they do not. Unless and until that changes, this noble effort by the Nobel committee in honoring El-Baradei and the IAEA will end up meaning very little. End Notes 1. Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 7, 2005. 2. White House Press Office, President George Bush Discusses Iraq in National Press Conference, March 6, 2003. 3. Norwegian Nobel Committee, op. cit. 4. International Atomic Energy Agency, Iraq Nuclear Verification Program, December 16, 1998. 5. NBC, Meet the Press, March 16, 2003. 6. Maria Cantwell, Remarks on the Senate floor, Congressional Record, Oct. 10, 2002. 7. IAEA report to UN Security Council, January 27, 2003. 8. IAEA report to UN Security Council, March 7, 2003. 9. NBC, op. cit. 10. Dafna Linzer, IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped: U.S. Pores Over Transcripts to Try to Oust Nuclear Chief, Washington Post, December 12, 2004, p. A01 . Stephen Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus (www.fpif.org). He serves as a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003). * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 9 Xinhua: Indo-US nuke deal based on reciprocity - Manmohan www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-15 18:20:58 NEW DELHI, Dec. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Thursday that India would not be bound to carry out its obligations in context of the Indo-US nuclear deal, in case the US failed to do so. He, however, made it clear that though the pact depended strictly on reciprocity, there had been no stalemate in the deal so far. "If the US does not carry out its obligations, we too are free to not carry out ours," he said. Certain allies of the Government had expressed concern over more concessions sought by the US from India to have the deal cleared. The Prime Minister said that the joint statement, issued by US President George W. Bush and him on July 18 after they signed their deal, was a "binding commitment." According to the deal signed in July this year, the United States promised to help India achieve civil nuclear cooperation from other nations. The deal also noted that the President would seek from the US Congress to adjust their laws to enable them cooperate in civil nuclear energy arena with India. In return, India said it would be ready to assume the same responsibilities and practices as other leading countries with advanced nuclear technology. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: EU Summit to Address Ahmadinejad Comments From the Associated Press [UP] Thursday December 15, 2005 12:16 PM AP Photo WBER101 BERLIN (AP) - European Union leaders will address the Iranian president's denial of the Holocaust as a ``myth,'' Germany's foreign minister said Thursday, warning that patience is running out with Tehran. The German government has condemned the remarks by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called on the United Nations as well as the EU to follow suit. Berlin says the comments will also weigh on talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The EU summit beginning Thursday in Brussels will address Ahmadinejad's statements ``also at our urging,'' Steinmeier said in the German parliament. The remarks showed ``with how much irresponsibility and cynicism the Iranian government currently regards the situation of Israel and the Near East.'' ``I say again: the government in Tehran must understand that the patience of the international community is not endless,'' Steinmeier said. Germany, along with France and Britain, has been leading diplomatic efforts to allay fears over Iran's nuclear intentions. Later this month, Iran is due to resume negotiations the issue with envoys from the three countries. Ahmadinejad first provoked an international outcry in October when he called for Israel to be ``wiped off the map.'' He then expressed doubt about the Nazi destruction of European Jewry during World War II and went further Wednesday - saying that the Holocaust is a ``myth'' that Europeans have used to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world. Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 11 Re: Allegation of dive-bombing over Diablo Canyon NPP Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 22:27:54 -0500 X-Fingerprint: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com-127.127 FW: Allegation of dive-bombing over Diablo Canyon NPP
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Epstein
To: Bill Smirnow
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 7:14 PM
Subject: FW: Allegation of dive-bombing over Diablo Canyon NPP




Allegation of dive-bombing over Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant

What follows is the complete communication that I sent to NRC Region IV at about 10:20 p.m. Dec. 14, following the NRC meeting held in San Luis Obispo. At that "town hall" meeting I read aloud the second and third paragraphs of the report in bold print, and asked if there was a no-fly zone over Diablo, as there is over Disneyland. The answer was that there is NOT a no-fly zone over Diablo.

Because MFP has now submitted the report as an allegation, the NRC will investigate and respond to our questions and concerns.

Feel free to contact me if you have further questions about this allegation or about MFP concerns about plant security. My contact information is included in the document that follows.  I am more likely to be home in the mornings and 7 a.m. is not too early to call.

- Jane Swanson, spokesperson
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace

December 15, 2005

TO:    Harry A. Freeman
   Allegations Coordinator
R4allege@nrc.gov
      U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region IV
Texas Health Resources Tower
611 Ryan Plaza, Suite 400
  Arlington, TX 76011-4005

FROM:   Jane Swanson,          
   San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
     janeslo@slonet.org
     475 Squire Canyon Road
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
  Phone (805) 595-2605    

RE:           Allegation of low flying plane over Diablo Canyon plant


In early December of 2005, the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (MFP) received a phone call from a person who reported a disturbing incident.  This person said s/he was a passenger in a small plane with a friend as pilot. The pilot flew directly over the Diablo plant, "dive-bombing" within 500 feet of the dome.  The person making the phone call (henceforth referred to as P, as in "plane") was feeling very guilty about being a part of such an irresponsible act, although P reported yelling at the pilot to fly away from rather than directly toward the plant. P was even more distressed that there was no response from plant security. P is seeking a means of reporting this incident for the purpose of forcing an improvement of plant security from attack by aircraft.

The identity of P is not known to MFP. P contacts myself, Jane Swanson via phone, and I do not have caller ID. I have made no attempt to discover the identity of P, and in fact have told P that I do not want to know. The responsibility for revealing or not revealing P's identity belongs with P, as I can not advise him/her as to possible legal consequences should his/her identity become known.

P has given to MFP the details of the incident in writing. P has requested that MFP transmit P's report to the NRC. Below in bold font please read P's narrative of the incident, followed by MFP comments and questions.

Dec. 6, 2005

TO:          San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace

FROM:  Unidentified source who contacted MFP by phone and
       followed up with this written report   

RE:     Concerns about lack of security from aircraft at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant and radioactive waste storage facility


I have lost many nights of sleep over the past six months after discovering the truth about the lack of security at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. The story I must now tell is true and very scary as plans to store additional nuclear waste on site is moving forward. My family lives close to this nuclear power plant and I must now speak out.

In the middle of May, 2005 I was flying with a friend whom I will call Jim. Jim and I are both pilots, and we both enjoy extreme sports. We were flying off the coast some two or three miles from the plant when I informed Jim that we may be too close to the plant and should head further out to sea. Crazy as it may seem, on a dare we decided to test the air security of the plant, not knowing what to expect. >From an altitude of 1,500 feet we began a high-speed aggressive dive at a 45 degree angle directly toward the power plant. At an altitude of only 500 feet we dive bombed directly over the top of the containment domes. We could have crashed our plane within seconds and within a few feet of any location at the plant.  We got their attention as I could see people running around below us. I thought for sure that we were being shot at and that a chase plane or helicopter would come after us. We flew to an airport, tied down our airplane and went home. Nothing happened!

Please make a note of this: NOTHING HAPPENED! Understand that the airplane we were flying is very unique and could have held up to 700 pounds of explosives!

I need to understand why there is not any air security around this nuclear plant. Why is there not a jump jet, cobra helicopter or some other high- speed aircraft that would have met us halfway? How is it possible for us to dive bomb this nuclear facility without anything happening in these times of terrorist attacks? How can PG&E consider storing nuclear waste on site or even having an unprotected plant so close to our homes? This is a nightmare waiting to happen!

I am very upset and want some answers, not excuses. People need to know the true nature of the lack of security at Diablo. I know the truth and it scares the hell out of me. I love the central coast and do not want my family and friends getting into our cars and driving away, never to return.

Please wake up, people!

Name withheld to avoid prisonSť.


MFP comment:

Jane Swanson and MFP fully recognize that MFP can not make any assertions as to the truth of this report. However, regardless of the report's veracity, it raises very serious questions about the safety of those of us living in the communities surrounding Diablo Canyon and its radioactive waste facilities.  



MFP questions of the NRC:

1. Was such an incident reported by PG&E to the NRC during the middle of May, 2005? If so, did they report to the NRC what PG&E's security force's response was to the plane?
2. If the incident is acknowledged, MFP would like to know if PG&E took measures to upgrade its security plan because of the incident and whether NRC has concurred with the revisions.
3. If PG&E did not report such an incident, MFP requests that NRC ask PG&E if such an event did occur.
4. Why is there not a no-fly zone over Diablo Canyon as there is over Disneyland? What instructions does the FAA or any other authority give to pilots, commercial or private, when flying in the vicinity of Diablo Canyon or other nuclear plants?


 ***************************************************************** 12 Fulton Sun: Callaway Nuclear workers respond to Taum Sauk www.fultonsun.com Posted: Thursday, Dec 15, 2005 - 01:26:18 am CST By The Fulton Sun Operations at Callaway Nuclear Plant were not expected to change after the Wednesday collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir in southeast Missouri, but CNP employees are lending a hand to their southern associates. Both power stations are owned by St. Louis-based AmerenUE, though their respective roles in the system differ greatly. #8220Taum Sauk is a peaking plant and Callaway is base load, AmerenUE spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said Wednesday. CNP typically generates at full capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while the hydroelectric Taum Sauk facility generates during periods of high demand. #8220This is not our peak demand time of year, Gallagher continued. Still, Callaway was able to send #8220some very sharp engineers who had some experience with hydro to assist in the wake of the Wednesday flood that emptied the 53-acre reservoir along the Black River. No deaths were reported in the incident. [spacer] All Contents Copyright © 2005 The Fulton Sun. All rights reserved. AP stories Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights ***************************************************************** 13 Bradenton Herald: Report: FPL ponders major deal | 12/15/2005 | ASSOCIATED PRESS BALTIMORE - Shares of power-plant operator Constellation Energy Group Inc. surged Wednesday on news that Florida power company FPL Group Inc. is in talks to buy Constellation for more than $11 billion in a deal that would create a huge electricity conglomerate stretching from Maine to Florida. Shares of Constellation rose $5.23, or 9 percent, to $61.50 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, still below the stock's 52-week high of $62.60. The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing people briefed on the negotiations, that the negotiations could lead to an announcement within the next two weeks, although the sources cautioned that talks were at a delicate stage and also could collapse. Constellation Energy Group owns Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., the utility serving the Baltimore metropolitan region, and 10 power plants around the country. It reported $12.5 billion in revenue in 2004. FPL Group Inc., based in Juno Beach, is the parent company of Florida Power & Light Co., serving 4.2 million customers and annual revenue of $10 billion. Constellation spokesman Rob Gould declined to comment on the report. FPL spokesman Bill Swank said it was company policy not to comment on speculation or rumor and that he had no information about whether the report was true. Mayo Shattuck, Constellation's chief executive officer, has been aggressively remaking the company into a high-growth power marketer with national brand recognition. The company has gone after nuclear and other power-generating assets and has pursued customers in deregulated markets. The company is seeking permission to build and operate a giant nuclear reactor, and has launched a joint venture to market a generation of new nuclear reactors to utilities nationwide. Buying Constellation would give FPL a much greater national presence. While it has operations in 26 states, Florida Power & Light accounts for 90 percent of its revenue. FPL has been saying for some time that it needs to upgrade its generating capacity to keep up with enormous growth in Florida. Last year, FPL added almost 100,000 customers and new residents keep moving to the state every day. The company went before Florida regulators earlier this year seeking a rate increase, citing the need to build new plants and upgrade other infrastructure as the driving reason. Ultimately, the company reached a settlement that put off any increase until at least mid-2007 when it could be allowed to raise rates to pay for an expected new power plant south of Miami. The company has also passed on to consumers this year higher fuel costs and some of the cost of recovering from several hurricanes. Some critics have said FPL shareholders should eat more of the company's costs instead of always passing them on to customers. "Florida ratepayers are paying out the nose for hurricane cost recovery, for fuel cost recovery, supposedly because FPL cannot afford to pay for these costs themselves," said David Bruns, a spokesman in Florida for the senior lobby AARP. "Somehow they can afford to pay $11 billion for another company? This is outrageous." Shares of FPL rose 13 cents to $43 on the NYSE. email this print ***************************************************************** 14 The State: Notice filed on plans for nuke 12/15/2 As expected, SCANA Corp. and Santee Cooper told federal regulators of intentions to build a nuclear power plant. The filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not name a location, and SCANA said it had not made a final decision about its plans. The filing just allows us to keep our place in line, a company spokesman said. SCANA operates and owns two-thirds of the V.C. Summer plant in Fairfield County. State-owned Santee Cooper owns the rest of the facility. Shares of SCANA closed at $40.38, up 26 cents. • BMW supplier might build plant in Union UNION  August Lapple &Co. might locate in Union County with 125 jobs, the first BMW supplier to locate in the county. The (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal reported that the German stamping company could have up to 200 workers at a plant making body panels. The investment would be worth $50 million and be for a third model to be made at the Greer BMW plant. • Friedmans emerges from bankruptcy SAVANNAH  Jewelry retailer Friedmans Inc. has emerged from Chapter 11 proceedings, less than a year after a Securities and Exchange Commission levied fraud charges and the company sought bankruptcy. The chain will pay $2 million to a fund to settle fraud charges, and it canceled its outstanding common stock and emerged as a privately held company controlled by investors. The company said it would close 51 of its 424 stores after the holidays. It has not named sites of stores that will close. • Two companies raise quarterly dividends Two companies with South Carolina ties said Wednesday they would raise their quarterly dividends: • The South Financial Group of Greenville will raise its quarterly dividend by 1 cent a share, to 17 cents. The new dividend will be paid Feb. 1 to shareholders of Jan. 15. Shares in the parent of Carolina First Bank closed at $29.40, up 15 cents. It announced the dividend increase after the market closed. • Progress Energy of Raleigh raised its dividend to 60.5 cents per share, up from 59 cents. The new dividend will be paid Feb. 1 to shareholders of Jan. 10. Shares of the company, which sells power in the Pee Dee region of the state, rose 55 cents to $44.78. It made its announcement before the market closed. • Faulds rejoins UCI Medical board Thomas G. Faulds has returned to UCI Medical Affiliates board of directors. He replaces Dr. Ashby M. Jordan, who resigned from the board Tuesday. His resignation said he had no disagreement with the company. Faulds, 64, has been president and chief operating officer of the BlueCross BlueShield Division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, which holds a major stake in the Columbia-based owner of Doctors Care facilities. Faulds was on UCIs board from 1996 to 2003. Shares closed at $3.40, up 5 cents, Wednesday. TheStateOnline ***************************************************************** 15 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo officials deny claim that airplane buzzed power plant | 12/15/2005 | An unidentified person says he swooped down over the domes to test security at the facility David Sneed The Tribune The possibility of an aerial attack on Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant took center stage at a town-hall meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday when a plane's alleged high-speed dive toward the plant was reported. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace spokeswoman Jane Swanson read a statement at the meeting she received from an unidentified person who said he was riding in a private airplane in May that swooped down on the plant. Plant officials denied that the incident happened. The NRC was meeting to take public input about a planned dry cask storage facility at the plant. The one-day meeting drew more than 100 people, and no decisions were made. "Crazy as it may seem, on a dare we decided to test the air security of the plant, not knowing what to expect," the person wrote in the statement. "From an altitude of 1,500 feet we began a high-speed aggressive dive at a 45-degree angle directly toward the power plant. At an altitude of only 500 feet we dive-bombed directly over the top of the containment domes." The person said he was upset when no aircraft were sent to intercept the plane and no one from the NRC or the Federal Aviation Administration has since contacted the pilot. Power plant workers were aware of the incident, the passenger said, because "people (were) running around below us." David Oatley, plant manager, said there is no report of a plane flying unsafely around the plant in May. Security officers are on the lookout for planes loitering around the plant and will report them, Oatley said. "If something like that had happened, I would have known about it," he said. When a plane is observed, its registration number on the tail is recorded and FBI and FAA officials will contact the pilot to investigate. Art Howell, a regional NRC official, said commercial pilots are warned to avoid the area and private planes are prohibited from loitering in the airspace above the plant. Swanson said she will file a formal allegation to the NRC, which will force the agency to investigate the alleged incident and make a written report. ***************************************************************** 16 San Luis Obispo Tribune: The X factor is Diablo [Jane Swanson, a member of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, keeps a selection of tape to seal the windows of her home in the event of an accident at Diablo Canyon. 'Masking tape is better than nothing, but it does not make me feel safe,' she says.] Tribune photo by David Middlecamp Jane Swanson, a member of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, keeps a selection of tape to seal the windows of her home in the event of an accident at Diablo Canyon. 'Masking tape is better than nothing, but it does not make me feel safe,' she says. More photos Posted on Thu, Dec. 15, 2005 Flirting with disaster The X factor is Diablo The nuclear power plant's presence magnifies the risk of other disasters by adding radiation to the equation; plus, responses to a leak depend on uncontrollable factors such as the weather Leslie Griffy The Tribune Responses to what could be one of the biggest disasters in the county -- a leak at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant -- depend on variables such as the weather and the time of day, factors out of emergency planners' control. The plant is the focus of much of the area's disaster planning, and it makes up about 73 percent of the county's disaster preparedness funding, about $690,731 for this fiscal year. Its presence magnifies the risk of other disasters, such as a catastrophic earthquake, by adding leaked radiation to the possible aftermath. Diablo is designed to withstand at least a magnitude-7.5 temblor on the fault nearest the plant. And emergency plans cover everything from how to check for a leak after an earthquake to dealing with a meltdown at the plant. Should a quake or terrorist attack or other disaster cause a leak from the plant, officials have two options: telling residents to evacuate or to shelter themselves in their homes by entering a small room and taping it off to outside air. If there is a release, no matter its cause, county officials must take into account the number of cars on the road at that time of day, weather and wind trends. They can't predict which safety precaution they'll ask residents to take. The response plans focus on the 148,000 people living from Cayucos to San Luis Obispo and south to Nipomo. At the plant If a radiation release could harm the public, Diablo workers have 15 minutes to notify state and local authorities, said Jeff Lewis, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the owner of Diablo. Then it's up to the county Office of Emergency Services to decide what to tell the public. About 40 employees from the plant would go to the county's emergency response headquarters to provide their technical knowledge about Diablo. An additional 200 specialized employees of Diablo, some of whom volunteer for emergency duty, are designated to stay behind to shut down the plant and fix the cause of any leaks. "Our job is: one, to make sure that nothing happens to cause a threat to the public; and two, that we fix it if it does," Lewis said. Workers at the plant go through dozens of drills a year to prepare for a range of potential disasters, he said. County response If there's a small release of radioactive material that county officials expect would disperse on Diablo property, they might not alert the public. But if such material does not dissipate before reaching Diablo's gates, county officials consider several variables. They might not ask people to evacuate if rush-hour traffic would increase exposure. Conditions such as rain change how quickly a radioactive plume would dissipate -- rain can break down a plume or wash radioactive material into the ground. And since a plume would be moved by the wind, the direction of the wind determines where evacuations would have to occur. "If the wind is blowing from the north," said county emergency services coordinator George Brown, "we are not going to evacuate Los Osos or Morro Bay." If schools are evacuated they go to specific sites: San Luis Coastal and Community School students would go to the California Mid-State Fairgrounds in Paso Robles and Lucia Mar students would be taken to Nipomo High School. Once the variables are considered, officials turn on sirens that alert affected residents to tune to local radio or television stations. Using information from the factors that control the plume's movement, county emergency coordinators tell residents what to do in those broadcasts, Brown said. If the broadcasts can't be heard by everyone or if power is out in the zone affected by Diablo, law enforcement officers will tell people what to do in any way they can, including using loudspeakers on their cars. Officials may tell some people to leave, while others could be told to stay indoors. Prepare for anything For some, that means preparing for anything. Jane Swanson's windows look out on hills where power lines from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant cross the landscape. They constantly remind her that her home south of San Luis Obispo -- about 10 miles from the plant's gates -- is in nuclear space. Swanson, a member of the anti- nuclear group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, keeps masking tape, duct tape and gaffer's tape on hand -- just in case the plant leaks and officials order residents to stay home with windows taped. "Masking tape is better than nothing," she said. "But it does not make me feel safe, knowing that is the best I can do to protect myself and my family from the effects of a radiation release." If officials do order an evacuation, that poses its own challenges. "The problem with San Luis (Obispo) is that it is very difficult to get out of," said Elizabeth Apfelberg, also with Mothers for Peace. "All you need is a minor traffic problem, and that closes off the Cuesta Grade." Lewis notes that because the wind tends to blow from a single direction, taking the plume with it, it is highly unlikely officials would ask the entire Diablo zone to evacuate. That limits the potential for snarling traffic, they say. ***************************************************************** 17 KSBY: Diablo Future Discussed By: Andrew Masuda Federal officials visit the Central Coast Wednesday night to discus security and the future of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, prompting a watchdog group has raised new concerns over the plant's security. "We want to have a say on if we clone it. We ask the N.R.C. to shut it down." The "Singing Sirens" first sing their concerns for the safety of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Then, with statements during a town hall style meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "That's their right and we're here to listen to their concerns and answer their questions," says Victor Dricks of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Diablo opponents are concerned about Pacific Gas and Electric's plan to store used nuclear fuel at the plant. The N.R.C. has already approved the dry-cast storage project. "It's a way to store the used nuclear fuel until Yucca Mountain, a permanent waste suppository is opened and can be transported there for a final resting place," says Diablo Canyon Vice President and General Manager David Oatley. "They want to go ahead with projects and then answer questions, and it's really more prudent to answer questions and then go along with the projects," says Rochelle Becker from the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. With the Yucca Mountain project facing roadblocks, Diablo opponents fear the temporary on-site storage will become permanent fixtures and targets for terrorists. And that's real possibility according to one watch dog group. "Whether it's true or not, it certainly raises interesting concerns," says Jane Swanson, who is with Mothers For Peace. She informed the Comission about an unconfirmed security breach at the plant told over the phone by an anonymous source. "This report says the individual was in an airplane that actually dive-bombed Diablo Canyon in the middle of may 2005. And the alarming thing is that nothing happened. There was no chase plane, there were no shots fired." Swanson wants the N.R.C. to investigate the claim. They want assurances, even if it's not true, that it can't happen. Utility officials call the report unsubstantiated. But if something like it happened, a utility spokesperson insists measures are in place to protect the plant from the air and the ground. The spokesperson says the plant also has one of the largest armed security forces in the county. An N-R-C spokesperson says it will take the comments and concerns under consideration. Diablo opponents, however, are skeptical. They think N.R.C. members are not taking their claims seriously. Copyright © 2004 Local Solutions Network ***************************************************************** 18 JS Online: Nuclear plant unit shut off for repair By RICK ROMELL rromell@journalsentinel.com Posted: Dec. 14, 2005 The operator of the Point Beach nuclear power plant in Manitowoc County manually shut down one of the site's two units early Tuesday after a circulating-water pump failed. The unit is expected to be brought back on line Thursday morning, said David Weaver, nuclear asset manager for Milwaukee-based We Energies, whose corporate parent owns the plant. It then will take another day to return the unit to full power. The shutdown didn't affect any electricity customers, Weaver said. Weaver said he believed the water pump failed after a bearing seized. The pump is outside the concrete-and-steel containment structure that surrounds the nuclear reactor. Weaver said it is one of four pumps at Point Beach that draw water from Lake Michigan for the power plant's cooling systems. Heat from the Point Beach nuclear reactors turns water into steam, which, in turn, spins giant turbines. The turbines then rotate generators, producing electricity. To turn the steam back into water and renew the cycle, lake water is channeled through a separate system of cooling tubes supplied by pumps such as the one that failed. Weaver said the unit could have run using one of the other lake-water pumps, but it was shut down to determine the cause of the failure. Hudson-based Nuclear Management Co. runs Point Beach for We Energies. The management firm also runs four other nuclear plants in the Upper Midwest. Point Beach stands along Lake Michigan about 10 miles north of Two Rivers. In its report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Management Co. described the shutdown as "uncomplicated." The unit generates 518 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 200,000 homes, a We Energies spokeswoman said. The other power-generation unit at Point Beach wasn't affected and kept operating. The unit that was shut down had returned to full power Nov. 26 after being out of service for about two months for scheduled maintenance and refueling. During the earlier shutdown, crews replaced the vessel head, or reactor cover. From the Dec. 15, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. | Produced by Journal Interactive | Privacy Policy Journal Sentinel Inc. is a subsidiary of Journal Communications. ***************************************************************** 19 newsobserver.com: Nuclear charges | Editorials Thursday, December 15, 2005 It's not alarming if a security guard sneaks a nap during the graveyard shift at a widget factory. It is if the guard's post is at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant, presumably a tempting target for terrorists. That's one of the more serious charges made by one or more guards to N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, a longtime critic of nuclear power, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based nonprofit. N.C. WARN has not publicly identified the supposed whistleblowers or even said how many there are, making it difficult to evaluate the person or persons' credibility. The group's stated concern is possible retaliation against someone making these kinds of charges by Progress Energy, which owns the power plant in southwestern Wake County, or by Securitas, the private company that guards the plant under contract. But the groups have passed on the allegations to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- which says it will investigate -- and to state Attorney General Roy Cooper. Even if there's no reason at this point to assume the allegations have any basis in fact -- Progress Energy denies that they do --the authorities certainly need to check into them as fully as possible. According to N.C. WARN, the guard or guards say that Progress executives ordered them in some cases not to search vehicles and equipment entering the plant's protected area, where the most sensitive operations take place and the most dangerous materials are stored. They also are said to claim instances when intruder detection equipment was flawed or missing, when alarms were ignored, and when improper weapons discharges were covered up. Securitas is said to have ordered some guards to cheat on security exams. N.C. WARN is a persistent critic of safety conditions at Shearon Harris. It clearly has an agenda. Still, it's the NRC's job to determine whether the allegations have any substance. It cannot permit any response amounting to a brush-off. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner. © Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company Government to discuss option with public before committing to energy program By MURRAY CAMPBELL AND KAREN HOWLETT Thursday, December 15, 2005 Page A13 TORONTO -- Premier Dalton McGuinty is promising "a very important conversation" with Ontarians before committing his government to a renewed nuclear-energy program. Mr. McGuinty, making his first public comments since a provincial advisory agency last week recommended spending up to $40-billion to refurbish existing reactors and build new ones, said "nuclear remains on the table for us." He said Ontario is in a difficult position in ensuring reliable supplies of electricity in the future because previous governments avoided making hard decisions. He said that he would prefer not to have to build new nuclear reactors, but his government has a responsibility to ensure the lights stay on. "We will not duck this. We look forward to engaging Ontarians in a very important conversation." Government officials reaffirmed yesterday that there is no guarantee that Ontario will go for Canadian-made CANDU reactors if the decision is made to build new nuclear reactors. Other technologies, from the United States and France, would be considered, they said. On a recent trade mission to China, officials took note that the new reactors being built there were not using CANDU technology even though the Canadian reactors built earlier there had been successful. Mr. McGuinty's comments cleared up the confusion about whether opponents of nuclear power would have the chance to air their views. Energy Minister Donna Cansfield said last week that the report from the Ontario Power Authority would be posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights website for 60 days. She did not commit herself to the full public debate promised by her predecessor, Dwight Duncan. However, Mr. McGuinty said public input will go beyond the website, but he did not elaborate. "This is too important a conversation to leave it just to a website." New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton criticized the government during Question Period for considering expanding the province's nuclear fleet, when such power is expensive and unreliable. He pointed to the fact that Bruce Power, a private consortium that operates a nuclear station on Lake Huron, was forced to shut down two reactors this week because of problems. Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance and a critic of nuclear power, welcomed the Premier's comments. He said the OPA report is biased in favour of nuclear power and ignores the possibility of a decentralized network of small-scale generation plants across Ontario. "We need to turn our schools, recreation centres, shopping malls, office towers and factories into mini-power plants." Globeandmail.com + © Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 NRC: American Energy Company, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety and FR Doc E5-7388 [Federal Register: December 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 240)] [Notices] [Page 74379] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15de05-95] Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: American Energy Company, LLC (Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station) A Licensing Board is being established pursuant to a September 15, 2005 notice of opportunity for hearing (70 FR 54,585) regarding the July 22, 2005 application for renewal of Operating License No. DPR-16, which authorizes the American Energy Company, LLC, (AmerGen) to operate the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station at 1930 megawatts (Mwt) thermal. The AmerGen renewal application seeks to extend the current operating license for the facility, which expires on April 9, 2009, for an additional twenty years. This proceeding concerns the November 14, 2005 requests for hearing/petitions to intervene filed by (1) the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, Inc., Grandmother, Mothers and More for Energy Safety, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, and the New Jersey Sierra Club; and (2) the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: E. Roy Hawkens, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Paul B. Abramson, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Anthony J. Baratta, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302. Issued at Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day of December 2005. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. E5-7388 Filed 12-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 25 NRC: Notice of Issuance of Amendment to Materials License SNM 2507 FR Doc E5-7389 [Federal Register: December 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 240)] [Notices] [Page 74379-74380] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15de05-96] Virginia Electric and Power Company North Anna Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of issuance of license amendment. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jill S. Caverly, Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-6699; Fax number: (301) 415-8555; E-mail: . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has issued Amendment No. 3 to Materials License SNM- 2507 held by Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion) for the receipt, possession, transfer, and storage of spent fuel at the North Anna Independent Spent Fuel Installation (ISFSI), located in Louisa County, Virginia. The amendment is effective as of the date of issuance. By application dated September 15, 2004, Dominion requested to amend its ISFSI license to revise Technical Specifications (TS). The revisions change the reference location where the plant specific titles and TS titles are correlated and relocate the Quality Assurance Program facility staff qualification requirements. This amendment complies with the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's rules and regulations. The Commission has made appropriate findings as required by the Act and the Commission's rules and regulations in 10 CFR Chapter I, which are set forth in the license amendment. In accordance with 10 CFR 72.46(b)(2), a determination has been made that the amendment does not present a genuine issue as to whether public health and safety will be [[Page 74380]] significantly affected. Therefore, the publication of a notice of proposed action and an opportunity for hearing or a notice of hearing is not warranted. Notice is hereby given of the right of interested persons to request a hearing on whether the action should be rescinded or modified. Also in connection with this action, the Commission determined that the action could be classified as a Categorical Exemption under 10 CFR 51.22(c)(11). Further Information The NRC has prepared a Safety Evaluation Report (SER) that documents the information that was reviewed and NRC's conclusion. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' final NRC records and documents regarding this proposed action including the amendment request dated September 15, 2004, and the SER are publically available in the records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). These documents may be inspected at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at . These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers, located at the NRC Public Document Room (PDC), O1F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy document for a fee. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of December 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jill S. Caverly, Project Manager, Licensing Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E5-7389 Filed 12-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 26 IHT: Japan - Bending the nuclear taboo - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2005 TOKYO When do the technologically proficient Japanese hesitate to accept a gift of something that's newer, faster, better-equipped and technologically superior? When it's a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recently modified security agreements with the United States seemed like a perfect package for Japan - fewer U.S. troops and an upgrade of U.S. Navy warships currently stationed near Tokyo Bay, all so Japan and the United States could update their security policy in the Pacific Rim. Local prefectures, while glad to see the number of U.S. troops being trimmed, have focused on a different issue: the outgoing aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is diesel-powered; the incoming U.S.S. George Washington is powered by a nuclear reactor. Local governments and a large portion of the Japanese population see this as one more step in Japan's slow abandoning of its pacifist, nuclear-free policy. Like Pacific neighbors Australia and New Zealand, Japan maintains a non-nuclear stance in public, though the details of the policies reveal a more graded approach toward permitting foreign nuclear vessels in their waters. New Zealand has banned nuclear-powered and nuclear-equipped vessels from its waters since 1985 despite American diplomatic and economic sanctions. Australia permits passage of U.S. nuclear-powered warships as part of its increased military cooperation with Washington. With many of the United States'aging conventional warships set for decommissioning, Japan seems to be moving closer to U.S. wishes for deployment of an increasingly nuclear-powered fleet at all friendly ports. At present, Koizumi's government seems to be resting on five hopes. The first is that popular opinion will agree that nuclear power is the wave of the future rather than an affliction of the past. Second is that Koizumi's own popularity can ride out the storm of public resistance. Third is that his supporters can convince the public that the threats of China and North Korea are more important than Japan's lingering aversion to all things nuclear. Fourth is that the public will accept that Japan has already entered the nuclear age (nuclear-powered ships have made more than 1,000 port calls in Japan, and the island nation has long possessed nuclear energy plants as well as reprocessing plants for mixed uranium-plutonium oxide, which involve weapons-grade plutonium. The fifth hope for Koizumi is that the public simply won't take notice. Koizumi hopes to achieve this by drawing attention to the other more palatable gains of the agreement. His main carrot for the voters is the fact that the U.S. troop levels in the far southern Okinawan island chain will be reduced. Located strategically between Taiwan and the Korean peninsula, the more than 10,000 troops have an ideal geographic positioning to provide rapid reaction to any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, or any North Korean threat to South Korea. The problem is that American troops based on Okinawa's Naha island have been running into near daily trouble with the local population. The lists of barroom brawls, drug incidents, helicopter crashes, hit-and-run accidents and gang rapes are easily recited by ordinary Japanese citizens. When Bill Clinton visited Japan as U.S. President, he pledged that U.S. forces would reduce their "footprint" on the island. Now Koizumi is betting that the reduction of troops on Okinawa will balance out an agreement for a nuclear-powered warship stationed year-round outside of Japan's largest population center. The anti-nuclear banner already has been taken up by local prefectures. The Kanagawa prefectural government, and the Yokosuka municipal government argue that the presence of the nuclear-powered ships violates three of Japan's post-war principles: not to possess, produce or introduce nuclear weapons. Supporters of Koizumi say that the U.S.S. George Washington will still be non-nuclear - the reactors will be shut down while the ship is anchored in port, and nuclear materials will not be transferred in a Japanese port. But the prefectural governments charge that Koizumi and the U.S. Navy are splitting hairs - reactor on or off, it's still a foreign nuclear-powered warship. (Shibly Nabhan is working on a doctoral dissertation in political science in Japan.) Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 27 AFP: France hid extent of Chernobyl contamination - report Thu Dec 15,12:31 PM ET PARIS (AFP) - French authorities deliberately suppressed information about the spread of radioactive fallout from the May 1986 Chernobyl disaster over France, according to details of an experts' report. Two independent physicists say in the report that the state-run Central Service for Protection against Radioactive Rays (SCPRI) knew of high levels of contamination in Corsica and southeastern France but kept the details under wraps. The study was commissioned by magistrate Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, who since 2001 has been examining allegations that the atomic cloud from Chernobyl caused a surge in cases of thyroid cancer in parts of France. This week Bertella-Geffroy handed over the report -- originally completed in March -- to civil plaintiffs in the case, who passed details to AFP. "Now we have proof that there was a breakdown in the system. So now the judicial case will succeed -- I can't see how it can do otherwise," said Chantal Hoir, president of the French Association of Victims of Thyroid Cancer. The report states that the SCPRI issued imprecise maps that concealed the high levels of fallout in certain areas, according to sources who saw the document. It also states that with full information health authorities could have taken targeted steps to reduce the exposure of vulnerable people such as children and pregnant mothers. It was the first time an independent study gave substance to long-standing accusations from anti-nuclear groups that the French government deliberately played down the risk posed by the nuclear cloud. "There was a veritable campaign of lies instigated by the state in order to protect the image of the French nuclear industry," said the campaigning organisation Sortir du Nucleaire (Get Out of Nuclear Power), welcoming details of the report. "As in other European countries, people should have been told not to eat fresh vegetables and milk products, which absorb most radioactivity, or to let their children play in sand-pits and so on," it said. Earlier this year anti-nuclear campaigners demanded that SCPRI's director at the time of the disaster, Pierre Pellerin, be placed under judicial investigation in the case. However scientific opinion remains deeply divided, with several renowned physicists sending an open letter to President Jacques Chirac" /> President Jacques Chiracin June commending Pellerin for not giving way to panic in his handling of the crisis. In April, France's high court of appeal confirmed a conviction for libel against leading Green party deputy Noel Mamere, who wrongfully accused Pellerin of claiming that the Chernobyl nuclear cloud stopped at the French border. Doctors also question the supposed link between Chernobyl and the rise in thyroid cancer, a trend which began in the mid-1970s. Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 28 Japan Times: Reactors needed for Kyoto goals, expert says Thursday, December 15, 2005 By ERIKO ARITA Staff writer Japan should promote nuclear power and renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels to fight global warming, a Canadian scientist said Wednesday. Although Japan has tried more sincerely than other developed countries to achieve its greenhouse gas emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, its efforts won't be effective enough to reach the goal, according to Patrick Moore, chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies, a Canadian environment consultancy. "The only solution I can see . . . is aggressive combination of renewable and nuclear energy," Moore told reporters Wednesday in Tokyo. Moore cofounded the environmental group Greenpeace, but has since left due to his advocacy of nuclear power. Under the protocol, Japan must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. But Japan is way behind. Emissions in fiscal 2004 were 7.4 percent higher than in the base year. Japan now has 54 nuclear plants since a reactor in Aomori Prefecture started up on Dec. 8. Atomic power accounted for 26 percent of the electricity Japan produced in fiscal 2003, while thermal power plants supplied 63 percent, according to the government. Moore was in Japan to give a lecture in Osaka at a symposium held by the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development, a nonprofit foundation funded and supervised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He said Canada is having difficulty achieving its Kyoto target. Canadian emissions are 25 percent above its 1990 level and it is committed to a 6 percent reduction, he said. For resource-poor Japan, using nuclear power makes more sense than it does in many other countries -- at least from the standpoint of energy security -- he said. "Uranium is in Canada and Australia, which are very stable democracies, whereas much of fossil fuel is not in such stable locations," Moore said. While environmental activists criticize Japan's difficult but ambitious plan to reprocess nuclear waste and use the plutonium gained from the process to fuel its nuclear reactors, Moore said he does not see any fundamental problems because Japan has the technological ability to use plutonium. Moore quit Greenpeace in 1986 because he did not agree with other leaders' ideas on environmental issues, including their opposition to the use of nuclear power, he said. Moore said Greenpeace's ideas are not based on scientific knowledge and border on "religion." The Japan Times: Dec. 15, 2005 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 29 ITAR-TASS: Nuclear energy sector to remain under state control – Kiriyenko 14.12.2005, 23.45 ZARECHNY, Sverdlovsk region, December 14 (Itar-Tass) -- The new head of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, said the participation of private investors in the nuclear energy sector would be impossible. “The nuclear energy sector must remain under state control, but attracting state investments is indeed a fundamental task,” he said on Wednesday while visiting the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant where the world’s only commercial fast reactor works. He mentioned the reorganisation of the Russian state-owned concern for the generation of electric and thermal power at nuclear power plants (Rosenergoatom) into a joint stock company, but said it is not a private investment. “It must be a 100-percent state-owned company,” he added. Kiriyenko stressed, “We must make a kilowatt/hour of electricity generated by nuclear power plants competitive.” He said tariffs for electricity generated by nuclear power plants would remain much lower than those of thermal power stations. “This is an important competitive advantage,” Kiriyenko said. He said, “The world has stepped up the development and construction of nuclear power plants because they are economically justified.” “Given the current price of natural gas, the Kyoto Protocol and payments for greenhouse emissions, the construction of nuclear power plants has become much more economically expedient,” Kiriyenko said, adding, “Even the countries that postponed their nuclear power engineering development programmes are bringing them back.” He said this is not quite so for fast neutrons yet, “but the cost of one kilowatt/hour of electricity generated by the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant is much more competitive than that of thermal power plants”. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 30 ITAR-TASS: Russia to keep nuclear power tariffs low 14.12.2005, 22.48 ZARECHNY, Sverdlovsk region, December 14 (Itar-Tass) -- The new head of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, said tariffs for electricity generated by nuclear power plants would remain much lower than those of thermal power stations. “This is an important competitive advantage,” Kiriyenko said on Wednesday while visiting the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant where the world’s only commercial fast reactor works. He said, “The world has stepped up the development and construction of nuclear power plants because they are economically justified.” “Given the current price of natural gas, the Kyoto Protocol and payments for greenhouse emissions, the construction of nuclear power plants has become much more economically expedient,” Kiriyenko said, adding, “Even the countries that postponed their nuclear power engineering development programmes are bringing them back.” He said this is not quite so for fast neutrons yet, “but the cost of one kilowatt/hour of electricity generated by the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant is much more competitive than that of thermal power plants”. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 31 Globe and Mail: Mining for a radioactive investment 1. Globeandmail.com > Uranium is a lesser-known natural resource, but one that's red-hot, writes THERESA EBDEN. Demand is outstripping supply and the price is on the up By THERESA EBDEN Thursday, December 15, 2005 Page B14 This year, investors looking to give their portfolios a special glow have been turning to uranium stocks. The price of uranium oxide used to power nuclear plants has risen this year by two-thirds to about $35.25 (U.S.) a pound as of last week, and some analysts are calling for $100 prices in coming years. Uranium oxide prices have increased every month so far this year, a far cry from 2001, when the metal's price dropped as low as $7. That's because 100 new nuclear plants are in the planning and development stage, even as operators of the existing 440 or so worldwide are growing concerned about future sources of radioactive fuel, said Laurence Roulston, editor of Resource Opportunities. In recent years, roughly half of the uranium supply has come from mines, with the balance coming from decommissioned warheads, of which Russia is a major supplier. "That has been a major part of the supply for the reactors for a decade or so. There's more out there, but the end is in sight -- it's not going to last forever," said Mr. Roulston, who is a geologist and former executive at several mining companies. "That's why the utilities are realizing they have to find more uranium." The result, he adds, is the 185 junior exploration companies that claim to be experts in finding uranium. Most of them are from Canada, where half of the worldwide equity in new mining activity comes from. But like any market on the way up, there is a danger of a bubble forming for uranium exploration stocks, Mr. Roulston cautions. "The bubble element is that a small number of those companies will be successful at the end of the day, but a lot will get attention from investors," he said. Even investing in existing uranium producers isn't entirely safe. New designs for reactors are expected to make more efficient use of uranium, possibly keeping the price in check in future decades. As a radioactive substance, uranium is subject to strict government controls, and mining the ore means radioactive dust must be carefully controlled. For this and other reasons, gaining a mine permit can be a long and difficult process. And in any given nation, sweeping government legislation has the potential to affect demand and supply. Large nuclear power plants exist in France, Germany, the UK and elsewhere. But nuclear facilities have been shut down in other countries, including a ban in Italy following a 1987 referendum. Depending on the type of reactor, the process isn't without dangers, which can ultimately affect not just the price of uranium, but greater public support for nuclear energy. Both dropped following the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Despite its controversial past, world demand for uranium will rise as new facilities come on-line in nations such as China and India, said David Mason, managing director at Augen Capital Corp. He has $30-million (Canadian) invested in 200 positions in emerging metals and minerals exploration companies. Uranium "is going to go much higher, it's in short supply. The world has been living off of inventories since the early 1980s," Mr. Mason said. "How high could it get? $100 (U.S.) a pound is within reason within the next year or two." Prices are reported by the utilities that consume uranium and the producers that mine it. Mr. Mason's uranium exposure includes Uravan Minerals Inc., which has a stake in the Thelon Basin on the border between Nunavut and Northwest Territories. He also holds CanAlaska Ventures Ltd., as well as Santoy Resources Ltd., run by respected geologist Ronald Netolitzky, one of the discoverers of the Eskay Creek mine in northwestern British Columbia. Another one of Mr. Mason's holdings is ESO Uranium Corp. Brendan Kyne is another investor who has been closely observing uranium and the burgeoning number of plants. As the chief investment officer at Leeward Hedge Funds Inc. puts it, "You can't willy nilly just turn off a nuclear reactor. It's a creation of fixed demand." That's why of the $320-million (Canadian) in investments his firm manages, 5 per cent is invested in Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer, which operates three mines in northern Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin area.Shares in Cameco have risen 69 per cent so far this year, as of last Friday's close. Mr. Kyne is optimistic for 2006, when he expects sold uranium hedge contracts will be renegotiated at higher prices. He also likes Denison Mines Inc. for its potential to increase production in its Canadian projects in northern Saskatchewan. Denison shares have risen 20 per cent in the same period. Mr. Roultson said many of the bigger players in uranium production such as Cameco are already reflecting a uranium price beyond today's level. Other uranium producers being watched include France-based Cogema, BHP Billiton, Energy Resources of Australia, UrAsia Energy and Denison.The latter two are Canadian-based, although UrAsia's production is solely in Kazakhstan. Theresa Ebden is an associate producer for Report on Business TV. A uranium primer Uranium isn't the type of expensive metal that you'd want to get as a Christmas gift, but it has a number of features that make it interesting to investors, physicists and even yachtsmen. When refined, the metal is toxic, mildly radioactive, and silver-white. Because of its high density, it is used in yacht keels and aircraft control surfaces. Forms of uranium can be found in everything from fluorescent glass to nuclear warheads and power generators. These atomic forms, called isotopes, have varying degrees of radioactivity. When exploration companies search the Earth's crust to find naturally-occurring uranium, they'll find a mixture of forms: Most is the relatively stable uranium-238, which takes about 4.46 billion years to break down by half. As it decays, it heats the earth's core. It comprises 99.3 per cent of naturally occurring uranium and is called U-238 because it has 92 protons plus 146 neutrons. The significantly more radioactive uranium-235 still has 92 protons, but just 143 neutrons. These atoms are split to create the heat needed to power steam turbines in nuclear generators. About 0.7 per cent of naturally occurring uranium is U-235, which has a half-life of 704 million years. It is the active ingredient in uranium fission bombs. In the power industry, once uranium ore is mined, it is treated and then sold as uranium oxide concentrate. Depending on the type of reactor it is destined for, uranium oxide might be converted to uranium hexafluoride gas. This enriches the portion of U-235 to roughly 4 per cent, which many reactors require. By comparison, the percentage of U-235 in modern nuclear weapons is greater than 90 per cent. The gas is converted into uranium dioxide pellets, which fill bundled metal tubes to fuel the core of the reactor. Or in the case of Canada's CANDU reactors, natural unenriched uranium oxide is used as fuel, bypassing the gas process. Spent fuel is then either reprocessed or buried underground. The world's largest uranium deposits have been found in Australia, and significant finds have been discovered in Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Russia and the United States. Canada is the largest exporter of uranium ore, much of it sourced from northern Saskatchewan. Globeandmail.com + © Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. Globeandmail.com: ***************************************************************** 32 Austin Chronicle: Hey, That's Our Nuke, Too DECEMBER 16, 2005: BY AMY SMITH Last month's news that a New Jersey energy outfit would buy Houston-based Texas Genco for $5.8 million came and went with barely a ripple in Austin. But within days of the mid-November announcement of the pending sale, former Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman sounded an alarm at the City Council. Then she sounded a second alarm, and the council took note: Texas Genco's sale of assets would include its 44% share of the South Texas (Nuclear) Project, and hey, that's our nuke, too. Which raises several questions: What effect will the sale have on Austin's 16% ownership of the South Texas plant? Is it too late for the city to throw itself into the discussion before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews the deal in January? And third, why did Austin Energy have to be prodded into briefing the council on the pending sale? The answers could be forthcoming today, in a private briefing between Austin Energy officials, council members, and city attorneys. The prospective buyer, NRG Energy, expects to close the deal in the first quarter of 2006, according to reports. Goodman believes it's imperative that the city get involved in the regulatory review process on behalf of local ratepayers to establish that NRG has the financial resources to keep the nuke up and running. That's a fair request given that NRG only recently emerged from bankruptcy. The sale also is providing a casebook study in how investors – not consumers – are benefiting from a deregulated industry. This is the second time Texas Genco has been bought and "flipped" in just over a year, leaving one Austin follower of nuke issues to question the judiciousness of flipping nuclear power plants like so much real estate. The four equity funds involved in the flip – Texas Pacific Group, the Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Hellman &Friedman – stand to make a cool $4.9 million profit from the sale, according to The New York Times. As Goodman noted in one of two letters to council members, city officials have an obligation to ratepayers to investigate the financial wherewithal of NRG. Should the South Texas plant have to shut down for any reason, Goodman said, NRG would not only be responsible for shouldering the cost of repairs, but also for finding replacement power in the interim. "Without substantial capital reserves or a rate base," Goodman wrote, it could be that "NRG will not have the resources, or could even default – leaving 56% of the STNP share owners with 100% of the cost responsibilities." Goodman asked that the council perform due diligence by requesting the Nuclear Regulatory Authority to ask for financial reassurance from NRG – "before they take on 44% of the nuclear plant we in Austin rely on." Copyright © 1995-2005 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights ***************************************************************** 33 South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The CEOs (@FPL) [Sun-Sentinel.com] Posted December 15 2005 FPL Group: Lewis Hay III Was named CEO in June 2001 and chairman in January 2002. Joined FPL as chief financial officer in 1999 and later was appointed president of FPL Energy. Before that he was with U.S. Foodservice, which was spun off from Sara Lee. U.S. Foodservice is located in Columbia, Md. Bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Lehigh University in 1977 and a master's of science in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. Recently elected to board of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and also serves on the board of Nuclear Energy Institute and Edison Electric Institute. Constellation Energy Group: Mayo Shattuck III Was named chairman, CEO and president of Baltimore Gas & Electric and parent Constellation Energy Group in July 2002. Previously held various positions including co-chairman and co-CEO of Deutsche Bank Securities, which acquired Bankers Trust Corp., where he had been vice chairman. Bankers Trust acquired Alex Brown Inc., of which he was president and COO. Bachelor's degree from Williams College and master's degree from Stanford University. Chairman of the Baltimore Gas & Electric Foundation and serves on the board of Capital One FSB, Capital One Financial Corp. and The Gap Inc. Copyright 2005, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc. Sun-Sentinel.com, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 ***************************************************************** 34 OrlandoSentinel.com: FPL Group could acquire energy giant - 9:31 AM EST, Dec 15, 2005 FPL Group could acquire energy giant Florida consumer advocates question $11 billion proposal By Marcia Heroux Pounds | Business Writer On the heels of two brutal hurricane seasons that walloped its primary market, FPL Group may be looking to speed diversification of its holdings and bolster its power sources with an acquisition that would add to its nuclear holdings. FPL Group won't confirm a reported bid to take over Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group Inc., which has three nuclear power plants, as does FPL. Wall Street analysts applaud the potential merger, citing complementary aspects of an $11 billion deal that would create an energy giant with operations across the United States. But the purported deal already has consumer advocates questioning why Florida ratepayers have to eat the cost of rising fuel costs and hurricane damage incurred by its regulated utility, Florida Power and Light Co., which provides 90 percent of the parent company's revenues. "Looks like they have plenty of money lying around, doesn't it?" said Harold McLean, Florida's public counsel. Florida ratepayers should not be concerned about higher rates because of a merger, he added. "They can buy a baseball team or an insurance company, but can't do it in such a way that it affects terms of service or the rates." While declining to comment on the purported deal, any acquisition candidate would have to be a good strategic fit, FPL said Wednesday. "We would be looking for a company similar to ourselves," said Bill Swank, spokesman for Juno Beach-based FPL. "We will review anything that would be a good fit for the company and shareholders." The New York Times reported the takeover talks on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the negotiations. Those talks could lead to an announcement within the next two weeks, although the sources cautioned that talks were at a delicate stage and also could collapse. Still, just six weeks ago Constellation Energy Group's board sweetened the severance agreements of Chairman and CEO Mayo A. Shattuck, 51, and five other senior executives to increase their benefits in the event the company is sold or merged with another company. For FPL, a merger would double its nuclear power holdings, further diversify its fuel mix and broaden its geographic base through industrial fuel sales in the Northeast and Midwest. A combined company also could result in significant savings from consolidating redundant operations. FPL Chairman and CEO Lewis Hay III, 50, has led the holding company for Florida Power & Light since 2001. If Hay is pursuing a merger with Constellation, it would be the first since the failed attempt in 2001 to merge with Entergy Corp. in New Orleans, which also had a strong nuclear base. The parties couldn't agree on who should run the combined operation. FPL has been saying for some time that it needs to upgrade its generating capacity to keep up with enormous growth in Florida. Last year, FPL added almost 100,000 customers and new residents keep moving to the state every day. "FPL, like Constellation, is looking for a national footprint and this gets them a foot in the ground in a hurry. They're both strong and have a strong nuclear base and good profit machine," said Roger Gale, a former Constellation board member who operates GF Energy, a utility consulting business in Washington, D.C. Constellation's large wholesale power market -- sale of power to industrial customers in the Northeast and Midwest -- also would be attractive to FPL, said David Parker, utility analyst at Robert W. Baird Co. in Tampa. While the regulated utility provides the bulk of FPL Group's revenues, its unregulated businesses have been the fastest growing. Constellation is also well-run and well-perceived on Wall Street, Parker said. FPL would seek to acquire a company like Constellation rather than a troubled entity. "FPL doesn't like to buy damaged goods," he said. FPL's fuel mix is heavily weighted in natural gas, though it also has nuclear, coal, oil and wind power. A merger with Constellation would pump up FPL's profitable nuclear business and add a thriving distribution business to industrial giants in the Northeast and Midwest. A merger would also likely result in consolidation of operations, other than the two utilities. There might be major cost savings in overlap areas such as administration and information technology. But Larraine Segil, a merger expert with Vantage Partners in Los Angeles, said an FPL-Constellation combination would be a strategic, rather than cost-saving move. Natural gas is burned to generate 37 percent of FPL's power, and oil and gas prices have been soaring. "The real story here is the nuclear side of this. Nuclear energy is becoming a power source that is coming back into vogue because of the cost of oil, and it's unregulated," she said. Analysts downplayed any consumer concerns. While hurricane-weary Floridians may criticize such a merger by FPL, "you're really looking at apples and oranges. That's why the utility holding thing works," Parker said. But some consumer advocates take a different view. Florida utilities lawyer Mike Twomey said any bid would show FPL is "flush with cash at [the] same time they want their customers to pay for all of the increased costs for fuel." "Management doesn't want shareholders to pay anything for unprecedented increases in fuel costs that are going to increase the average family's costs by 19 percent starting Jan. 1," Twomey said. State Attorney General Charlie Crist has criticized the Florida Public Service Commission for approving "unnecessary, high" rate increases. As Florida Power & Light was trying to restore power after Hurricane Wilma, the PSC granted FPL a 19 percent fuel increase to take effect Jan. 1. FPL had asked for a 16 percent increase. Public Counsel McLean said FPL has avoided many of the risks that companies in the free marketplace have to face. The risk of hurricanes is "borne by customers now to the nth degree," he said. McLean said FPL could argue that a merger with Constellation would help it borrow cheaper capital for utility system improvements. If FPL makes a play for Constellation, it would join the fray in the industry: Ohio-based Cinergy Corp. is hoping to merge with Duke Energy Corp. next year; financier Warren Buffett has purchased U.S.-based PacifiCorp from ScottishPower. Shares of Constellation rose $4.83, or 8.6 percent, to close at $61.10 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, still below the stock's 52-week high of $62.60. FPL's shares closed at $43.00, up 13 cents. FPL's last public bid for a major utility, New Orleans' Entergy Corp., ended in shareholder lawsuits. The merger was called off in April 2001. Even though the merger fell through, change-of-control payments of $62 million were made to former FPL Group Chief Executive James Broadhead, former President Paul Evanson, and other top executives. Shareholders sued and later reached a settlement with the executives and their insurers to pay back $22.25 million to FPL Group. Shareholders received nothing. This report was supplemented by Sun-Sentinel wire services and the Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Co. newspaper. Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6650. Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel © 2005 Orlando Sentinel Communications ***************************************************************** 35 South Florida Sun-Sentinel: FPL Group could acquire energy giant [Sun-Sentinel.com] By Marcia Heroux Pounds Business Writer Posted December 15 2005 On the heels of two brutal hurricane seasons that walloped its primary market, FPL Group may be looking to speed diversification of its holdings and bolster its power sources with an acquisition that would add to its nuclear holdings. FPL Group won't confirm a reported bid to take over Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group Inc., which has three nuclear power plants, as does FPL. Wall Street analysts applaud the potential merger, citing complementary aspects of an $11 billion deal that would create an energy giant with operations across the United States. But the purported deal already has consumer advocates questioning why Florida ratepayers have to eat the cost of rising fuel costs and hurricane damage incurred by its regulated utility, Florida Power and Light Co., which provides 90 percent of the parent company's revenues. "Looks like they have plenty of money lying around, doesn't it?" said Harold McLean, Florida's public counsel. Florida ratepayers should not be concerned about higher rates because of a merger, he added. "They can buy a baseball team or an insurance company, but can't do it in such a way that it affects terms of service or the rates." While declining to comment on the purported deal, any acquisition candidate would have to be a good strategic fit, FPL said Wednesday. "We would be looking for a company similar to ourselves," said Bill Swank, spokesman for Juno Beach-based FPL. "We will review anything that would be a good fit for the company and shareholders." The New York Times reported the takeover talks on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the negotiations. Those talks could lead to an announcement within the next two weeks, although the sources cautioned that talks were at a delicate stage and also could collapse. Still, just six weeks ago Constellation Energy Group's board sweetened the severance agreements of Chairman and CEO Mayo A. Shattuck, 51, and five other senior executives to increase their benefits in the event the company is sold or merged with another company. For FPL, a merger would double its nuclear power holdings, further diversify its fuel mix and broaden its geographic base through industrial fuel sales in the Northeast and Midwest. A combined company also could result in significant savings from consolidating redundant operations. FPL Chairman and CEO Lewis Hay III, 50, has led the holding company for Florida Power & Light since 2001. If Hay is pursuing a merger with Constellation, it would be the first since the failed attempt in 2001 to merge with Entergy Corp. in New Orleans, which also had a strong nuclear base. The parties couldn't agree on who should run the combined operation. FPL has been saying for some time that it needs to upgrade its generating capacity to keep up with enormous growth in Florida. Last year, FPL added almost 100,000 customers and new residents keep moving to the state every day. "FPL, like Constellation, is looking for a national footprint and this gets them a foot in the ground in a hurry. They're both strong and have a strong nuclear base and good profit machine," said Roger Gale, a former Constellation board member who operates GF Energy, a utility consulting business in Washington, D.C. Constellation's large wholesale power market -- sale of power to industrial customers in the Northeast and Midwest -- also would be attractive to FPL, said David Parker, utility analyst at Robert W. Baird Co. in Tampa. While the regulated utility provides the bulk of FPL Group's revenues, its unregulated businesses have been the fastest growing. Constellation is also well-run and well-perceived on Wall Street, Parker said. FPL would seek to acquire a company like Constellation rather than a troubled entity. "FPL doesn't like to buy damaged goods," he said. FPL's fuel mix is heavily weighted in natural gas, though it also has nuclear, coal, oil and wind power. A merger with Constellation would pump up FPL's profitable nuclear business and add a thriving distribution business to industrial giants in the Northeast and Midwest. A merger would also likely result in consolidation of operations, other than the two utilities. There might be major cost savings in overlap areas such as administration and information technology. But Larraine Segil, a merger expert with Vantage Partners in Los Angeles, said an FPL-Constellation combination would be a strategic, rather than cost-saving move. Natural gas is burned to generate 37 percent of FPL's power, and oil and gas prices have been soaring. "The real story here is the nuclear side of this. Nuclear energy is becoming a power source that is coming back into vogue because of the cost of oil, and it's unregulated," she said. Analysts downplayed any consumer concerns. While hurricane-weary Floridians may criticize such a merger by FPL, "you're really looking at apples and oranges. That's why the utility holding thing works," Parker said. But some consumer advocates take a different view. Florida utilities lawyer Mike Twomey said any bid would show FPL is "flush with cash at [the] same time they want their customers to pay for all of the increased costs for fuel." "Management doesn't want shareholders to pay anything for unprecedented increases in fuel costs that are going to increase the average family's costs by 19 percent starting Jan. 1," Twomey said. State Attorney General Charlie Crist has criticized the Florida Public Service Commission for approving "unnecessary, high" rate increases. As Florida Power & Light was trying to restore power after Hurricane Wilma, the PSC granted FPL a 19 percent fuel increase to take effect Jan. 1. FPL had asked for a 16 percent increase. Public Counsel McLean said FPL has avoided many of the risks that companies in the free marketplace have to face. The risk of hurricanes is "borne by customers now to the nth degree," he said. McLean said FPL could argue that a merger with Constellation would help it borrow cheaper capital for utility system improvements. If FPL makes a play for Constellation, it would join the fray in the industry: Ohio-based Cinergy Corp. is hoping to merge with Duke Energy Corp. next year; financier Warren Buffett has purchased U.S.-based PacifiCorp from ScottishPower. Shares of Constellation rose $4.83, or 8.6 percent, to close at $61.10 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, still below the stock's 52-week high of $62.60. FPL's shares closed at $43.00, up 13 cents. FPL's last public bid for a major utility, New Orleans' Entergy Corp., ended in shareholder lawsuits. The merger was called off in April 2001. Even though the merger fell through, change-of-control payments of $62 million were made to former FPL Group Chief Executive James Broadhead, former President Paul Evanson, and other top executives. Shareholders sued and later reached a settlement with the executives and their insurers to pay back $22.25 million to FPL Group. Shareholders received nothing. This report was supplemented by Sun-Sentinel wire services and the Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Co. newspaper. Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6650. Copyright 2005, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc. Sun-Sentinel.com, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 ***************************************************************** 36 AFP: Ukraine rules out storing foreign nuclear waste at Chernobyl - Thu Dec 15, 1:47 PM ET KIEV (AFP) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that no foreign nuclear waste will be stored at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster. Stockpiles of foreign nuclear waste "will exist in no case" in Ukraine, the president's office said in a statement. Yushchenko apparently discarded the idea after he sparked a loud public outcry last week when he said the government was studying the possibility of storing foreign nuclear waste at Chernobyl, in the north of the country less than 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the capital Kiev. He said waste from Ukraine's four working nuclear power plants -- currently primarily exported to Russia -- could also be stored there. A 30-kilometer exclusion zone was established around the site soon after Chernobyl's number-four reactor, in what was then the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. The power station was completely shut down on December 15, 2000. Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 37 Dayton Daily News: Hobson urges feds to consider nuclear energy as fuel source Lawmaker faces opposition to plan for reactor material WASHINGTON | The federal government should consider nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels as the nation wrestles with its dependency on foreign oil, Rep. David Hobson said Wednesday. Tools "There needs to be a dialogue," Hobson said. "There needs to be studies saying how do we take this country responsibly from energy dependence upon fossil fuels and get to something that will protect our way of life and our way to have jobs with relatively low cost energy." Specifically, Hobson is pushing reprocessing or recycling spent fuel from a nuclear reactor to reuse plutonium for energy. In a speech organized by the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington, D.C., think tank, the Springfield Republican said France is already reusing spent nuclear fuel effectively. However, he said the United States needs to develop a better way of reusing the fuel, which could help diminish the urgent need for storage facilities such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Hobson's remarks are meaningful because his role as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on energy and water development gives him oversight and funding authority over energy issues, including nuclear energy and oil. Hobson included $50 million in this year's energy and water development appropriations, and directed the Department of Energy to plan for and initiate a site selection process to develop spent fuel recycling facilities. The United States 30 years ago decided not to extract plutonium from commercial high-level radioactive waste. Critics, including the National Resource and Defense Council and Greenpeace, say trying to reuse the fuel could contaminate the environment and be too costly. They argue French use of this technology has not been as successful as Hobson has made it out to be, and that reprocessing spent fuel creates even more dangerous waste. "I can understand wanting to take waste and turn it into gold we've been wanting to do that since Rumplestiltskin and alchemy but the reality is this is a deadly material that should be removed from the biosphere and should be protected from terrorists," said Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst with Greenpeace. DaytonDailyNews.com: Contact Us | Advertise | | RSS | Customer Copyright ©2005 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 ForUm: Yushchenko: Chornobyl won't become a cemetery for nuclear waste [ForUm] Friday, 16 December, 2005,08:23 Yushchenko: Chornobyl won't become a cemetery for nuclear wast In an interview for the First Television Channel, Victor Yushchenko stressed that no nuclear waste from other countries would be stored in the Chornobyl zone. However, he added, Ukraine should open a new depot for its own processed nuclear fuel. “Let us frankly say that all Chornobyl projects are not being developed. It is time Ukraine should be active in each problem caused by the Chornobyl accident,” he said, reiterating that a new depot had not been built for years. “We say we need to make a political decision. We must immediately complete its construction. The word ‘immediately’ means we should have this depot in 2010,” Yushchenko stressed, reminding that Ukraine also faced the problem to store its nuclear fuel. “It is quite logical to ask experts to consider possibilities to store not only CNPP's waste but also processed fuel from other nuclear power plants of Ukraine,” he said, adding that this issue had both political and economic aspects, the political aspect being “extremely speculative.” The President stressed that all problems of the CNPP should be discussed publicly. He said professional and rational government would never pay colossal money to other states for storing nuclear waste. “Honest government should say: We have this problem, but we have these options. I will never make this decision secretly or under the table,” Yushchenko promised, assuring all there would be no “cemetery of nuclear waste from other countries” in Ukraine. ***************************************************************** 39 [du-list] Read & consider how much DU was around in 1945 Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:18:48 -0800 http://mediamayhem.blogspot.com/2004_03_28_mediamayhem_archive.html Scroll down to articles: Notes From the Cyclotron; and, Washington University's Nuclear History And for more: Journey into the world of the evil dressed in the clothing of self- importance and nationalism http://www.lanl.gov/history/ http://library.lanl.gov/infores/history/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ***************************************************************** 40 [du-list] Here is source of references to uranium weapons Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:21:04 -0800 http://www.freepatentsonline.com/ Search this data base and click on associted patents as well as PDF files. Its a mine of U munitons info, ballistic effects and analysis and is yet another piece of evidence re: the range of applications of U in non-fissile weapons: shaped charges, EFP's, incendiary, monolithic longrods, composite U casings and rods, DU/WHA composites, intermetallic and pyrogentic weapons U weapons, high explosive designs, rocket assisted uranium armor piercing warheads, fuel air bombs, bunker defeat weapons, thermite bombs using U; etc. Seek knowledge; go to China. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ***************************************************************** 41 Yokwe Net: US : Senate Bill Introduces Eligibility for Energy Occupational Illness Compensation | Everything Marshall Islands http://www.yokwe.net On Introduction of Trust Territory Coverage Under EEOICPA On December 14, 2005, Senate Bill 2098 "to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000" was introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska with co-sponsors Senators Daniel Akaka and Jeff Bingham. Senator's Murkowski's statement follows: I send to the desk for appropriate reference legislation that will clarify that citizens of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands are eligible for coverage and potential compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) for workers who developed radiogenic cancers and other ailments after working at the Pacific Test Site in the Marshall Islands. An estimated up to 500 Republic of Marshall Islanders and other Micronesian workers may have been employed by the Department of Energy (or its predecessor agency) or Department subcontractors prior to 1986 when the Trusteeship was terminated for all areas except Palau. Both Bikini and Enewetak atolls were the sites for numerous nuclear and thermonuclear tests. Other atolls, such as Rongelap and Utrik were affected by fallout from the Bravo hydrogen bomb test in March 1954. Congress in 2000 approved a compensation program to provide aid, and pay medical bills for those who suffered radiation-caused illnesses because of working on the nuclear weapons program. Congress specifically set up a "Special Exposure Cohort" to provide compensation to certain workers with radiogenic cancer and other illnesses, because it was presumed that their illnesses resulted from workplace exposure to radiation caused by their government work. Congress in 2004 amended the act, first approved in the 2001 Military Construction Authorization Act, to speed payments of compensation, including funds for lost wages to workers or their heirs, to those who worked for the Department of Energy and its predecessor agency on nuclear weapons programs. Mr. President, earlier this year the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held an oversight hearing to review a number of issues raised by the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands related to the effects of the nuclear testing program. One of the issues was coverage for residents of the then Trust Territory who were employed during the testing and subsequent clean-up. During that period, the United States was the Administering Authority over the area under a United Nations Trusteeship Agreement and exercised all the powers of a sovereign. It seems somewhat incongruous for the Congress to have established a program that applied to United States citizens, but not to those who lived and worked under United States administration. That also seems reasonable since there is little other reason for the specific inclusion of the Pacific Test Site if the workers were not to be covered. During Senate debate, Senator Bingaman, a conferee on the amendment, submitted a list of DOE facilities intended to be covered by the act - a list which included the Marshall Islands (146 Cong. Rec. S 4754-7). While most of the issues raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Marshall Islands during our oversight hearing are now being discussed with various federal agencies under the auspices of Secretary of the Interior Norton, this is an issue that will require Congressional action given the interpretations from federal agencies that questioned whether Congress intended the Act to apply extraterritorially. The Act, of course, applies to individuals not jurisdictions and the specific mention of the Pacific Test Site and Enewetak would seem to indicate that Congress intended to include workers at the site. Subsequent to the hearing, I had the privilege to meet privately with the President of the Marshall Islands when he visited Washington in early September. We had a good meeting and at the time I offered my assistance in ensuring that the proper agencies or groups would review the issues they had raised. As I indicated, most of these issues are properly now being discussed with representatives of the Marshalls through a multi-agency dialogue headed by Secretary Norton. This issue, however, may be one that is best handled directly through the Congressional process. Therefore, when I was asked by the Marshall's Embassy here in Washington if I would introduce a bill to clarify worker eligibility so that the proper Congressional Committees could review it, I agreed. Given the paperwork, record and radiation dosage requirements for receipt of compensation, it is far from clear how many Marshallese and Micronesian workers will actually qualify for the up to $150,000 in compensation, plus medical benefits and lost wage compensation for ailments caused by radiation stemming from the weapons tests. That is an issue that I hope the Congressional Committees will consider sympathetically. But it is only just that the program be opened equally to all Department of Energy workers or subcontract workers who labored to produce nuclear weapons to help this nation's national defense at a critical period of the Cold War. As an Alaskan from a State whose workers have been compensated for injuries they gained resulting from underground weapons testing at Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Chain almost immediately after the ending of weapons testing in the atmosphere over the Marshall Islands, it is impossible not to support aid for the Marshallese. While Congress and the Administration continue to weigh additional aid to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, passage of this measure would be a sign of this nation's continued commitment to aid the islanders who in February 1946 followed the advice of Bikinian leader, King Juda, and agreed to leave the Bikini Atoll so America could use it for weapons testing saying, "We will go believing that everything is in the hands of God." Mr. President, I appreciate the understanding and the patience shown by the Marshall's Government and their citizens as we proceed to review the issues raised concerning the effects of the nuclear testing program and I hope the introduction of this legislation will be seen as an example of our commitment to see that those issues receive a full and fair review and discussion. ***************************************************************** 42 Yokwe Net: RMI Embassy: Compensation for Marshallese Workers Bill Everything Marshall Islands :: http://www.yokwe.net Dec 16, 2005 - 01:28 AM Theme creado por dev-postnuke.com RMIPressReleases : MARSHALLESE WORKERS TO QUALIFY FOR COMPENSATION Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska introduced legislation today in order to clarify the eligibility of citizens of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands for compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The program provides individuals who worked on the U.S. nuclear weapons program with compensation of up to $150,000 plus medical benefits if they develop radiation-related illnesses. Marshallese workers make up the vast majority of the estimated 500 former Trust Territory citizens employed by the U.S. Government to work at its Pacific Test Site in the Marshall Islands. # ALSO: Senator Lisa Murkowski Statement On Introduction of Trust Territory Coverage Under EEOICPA The introduction of this piece of legislation follows on the heels of H.E. President Kessai H. Note's visit to Washington, D.C last week. President Note was in town to push for continued progress on RMI nuclear issues following successful hearings on Capitol Hill earlier in the year and his own round of high-level meetings here in September. Meeting with Senator Murkowski during that September visit, President Note was pleased to hear that the Senator understood the importance of the issues and the need for assistance. The Senate bill represents a concrete step forward in the effort to respond to the needs of those still suffering the effects of the testing program. Congress first approved the EEOICPA program in 2000. Although the authorizing legislation listed Bikini and Enewetak among the work sites that qualified for coverage, subsequent rulings by the Department of Labor, which administers the program, denied Marshallese workers compensation because they were not U.S. citizens. The new legislation seeks to clarify that Marshallese and other citizens of the former Trust Territory qualify for the compensation on the grounds that they lived under U.S. administering authority at the time. As Senator Murkowski remarked in a statement, "It seems somewhat incongruous for the Congress to have established a program that applied to United States citizens, but not to those who lived and worked under United States administration." Ambassador Banny deBrum welcomed the introduction of the Murkowski bill. He said: "The Embassy will work closely with Senator Murkowski and her colleagues to lobby for passage of this bill. Her initiative and commitment to addressing the real human needs of those affected by testing deserves our deepest appreciation and praise. I am sure that the workers who joined the Marshall Islands Radiation Victims Association to bring attention to this issue will be pleased. I only wish we could have shared this moment with MIRVA's founder and another great champion of this cause, the late Mr. John Milne." Ambassador deBrum also stated his satisfaction that work with the Senator and her staff paid off in the addition of Utrok and Rongelap to the list of recognized employment sites in the Marshall Islands. Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico co-sponsored the legislation. --RMI Embassy, Washington, DC, December 14, 2005 ***************************************************************** 43 [du-list] Greenpeace claims nuclear industry has a dirty secret Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:19:05 -0800 This is a serious issue. After the Anglo-Dutch-German uranium enrichment corporation Urenco (currently Areva) also the French plant in Pierrelat is re- enriching their DU stocks in Russia, while dumping the 'double' depleted stocks in Russia.... Henk van der Keur Greenpeace claims nuclear industry has a dirty secret The nuclear industry has a dirty secret, says Greenpeace, which claims that nuclear plants in western Europe have offloaded 100,000 tonnes of waste uranium to Russia. Western European nuclear fuel companies and the Russian uranium enrichment company Tenex have confidential contracts under which Tenex accepts depleted uranium and returns it after treatment as low-enriched uranium fuel, containing a few per cent fissile uranium-235. But according to Greenpeace, 90 per cent of the waste remains in Russia, while only 10 per cent is returned as fuel - a claim that is confirmed by an industry body, the World Nuclear Association. Greenpeace alleges this is illegal and is taking Tenex to court in Moscow, arguing that the uranium trade breaches a Russian law forbidding the import and storage of foreign waste. Tenex says the uranium is not waste because it will be used in future fast breeder reactors. Urenco, a major uranium enrichment company based in the UK, told New Scientist it had exported "several thousand tonnes of depleted uranium" to Tenex since 1995. In return for the waste Urenco said it "purchases and takes delivery of equivalent quantities of natural uranium". >From issue 2530 of New Scientist magazine, 17 December 2005, page 5 More information: WISE Uranium Project: http://www.wise-uranium.org/ediss.html#UPGRRUGEN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stichting Laka Laka foundation documentatie en onderzoeks- documentation and research centrum kernenergie centre on nuclear energy Ketelhuisplein 43 Ketelhuisplein 43 1054 RD Amsterdam NL-1054 RD Amsterdam tel: 020-6168294 Netherlands fax: 020-6892179 tel: +31-20-6168294 fax: +31-20-6892179 www.laka.org laka@antenna.nl ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ***************************************************************** 44 Bradenton Herald: A toxic place | 12/15/2005 | Tallevast residents deserve justice The air in Tallevast is becoming as poisoned by rancorous feelings as the ground underneath is by toxic chemicals. That's unfortunate, for it hinders what could be positive efforts to define the scope of the pollution problem and ease fears about its threat to human health. But lawsuits have a way of doing that. With two suits already filed against Lockheed Martin Corp., current owner of the former beryllium plant that is the source of the underground toxic plume, the level of trust needed for such progress is not there. Now, with county attorneys fearing Manatee County government could be dragged into the litigation, there's even more cause for anger as the bimonthly meetings by county planning and administrative officials with residents have been curtailed. County attorneys realize that, as with the Miranda warning given to criminal suspects, what county officials say can and likely will be used against the county in lawsuits. The ire of Tallevast residents, too, is understandable. First they were not informed of the pollution plume until three years after it was discovered. Then they were misinformed about the extent of the plume's migration. First they were assured it had not left the old American Beryllium Co. plant site. Then they were told it had spread to 50 acres, including beneath some homes in Tallevast that still relied upon well water for drinking and household use. The latest estimate of contamination is 131 acres, with the ultimate boundaries still to be defined by further drilling of test wells. The situation is exacerbated by the perception that Lockheed dragged its feet on testing, both of residents' health condition and of the soil beneath their properties. Residents aren't convinced Lockheed is putting their health above financial concerns. All of which set the stage for last week's community forum sponsored by Lockheed to clear the air and basically start with a clean slate, hiring a new engineering firm, naming a new spokesperson and opening an office in the community. As a public relations event it was pretty much a disaster. Even Lockheed's naming of a local civic activist to head up its new community office failed to win over many residents. There are at least three things Tallevast residents want: a soil testing program that accurately defines the depth, breadth and toxicity of the plume; a complete assessment of their own and family members' health; and a satisfactory clean up plan. Some want a fourth, drastic concession of Lockheed: to move the community to a new location. But that is not a universal wish, as many don't want to leave homes that have been in their family for generations. Certainly, Lockheed's projection that the clean up could take 20 years belies its assertion that fears about the plume are exaggerated. Twenty years! Who would want to live atop potentially toxic soil for 20 minutes, let alone 20 years? The people deserve definitive answers. Hopefully, the current phase of well-drilling, at least the third since Lockheed informed residents of a possible risk, will show the edges of the contamination so every resident knows where he or she stands. Then, those who wish to move should be assisted in relocating. And those who stay should be kept informed of progress in defining and reducing the contamination threat. If possible, Tallevast should be allowed to continue as a community. Herald reporter Donna Wright's Sunday feature was a moving portrait of its history and traditions, a close-knit community built and sustained by former slaves and descendants of slaves. Reading of that hardy band helps one understand why present residents so fiercely defend their property and demand justice for the damage done to it - and possibly them. It is not asking a lot. And though Lockheed didn't cause the pollution, the company is responsible for its clean up. A comprehensive, forthright plan to do that might help clear the air as well as the soil. email ***************************************************************** 45 Bellona: Ukraine to import nuclear waste Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is ready to analyze and make a political decision on burying nuclear waste from other countries in the Chernobyl zone after scientific approval and a public discussion of the matter, the RBC news agency reports. 2005-12-15 17:46 However, he underscored at a press conference in Chernobyl, the issue should first and foremost be approved by the people. The Ukrainian leader added that the second storage area for the Chernobyl station’s nuclear waste would be put into operation in 2010. The catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union) on April 26, 1986 is widely regarded as the worst in the history of nuclear power generation. 30 people were killed immediately after the fourth reactor of the plant suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown. Most of the workers who went inside the reactor after the accident had no protective equipment which led to fatal radiation burns, MosNews reported. The explosion produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people. A concrete sarcophagus was later erected over the plant, but the area had already been severely polluted, MosNews reported. Publisher: , President: Information: , Technical contact: Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 46 reviewjournal.com: Nuclear waste bills introduced Dec. 15, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Nevada and Utah lawmakers sought to spark new debate over nuclear waste storage in their states by introducing bills Wednesday that would force the Energy Department to keep radioactive spent fuel stockpiled at power plants. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a main sponsor, said the measures would stoke discussions about alternatives to the planned repository at Yucca Mountain, which has been set back by legal and technical questions since it won endorsement from President Bush and Congress in 2002. "We have to move past Yucca Mountain," said Reid, a leading critic of the nuclear dump plan. "We believe there is an opportunity to change the direction of this government as it relates to the storage of nuclear waste." The bills submitted in the Senate and House drew immediate opposition from the Department of Energy and from coalitions of nuclear utilities and regulators in states that have nuclear power plants and want to get rid of the waste they generate. More than 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste generated by 103 commercial nuclear plants are kept in pools and dry storage at reactor sites in 35 states. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a co-sponsor of the measure introduced Wednesday, said he doubted Yucca critics could win a vote outright in the Senate now, where most senators remain supportive of the repository. Rather, he said, the bills' purpose is to sow doubts about Yucca Mountain and promote alternatives like on-site storage or waste reprocessing. "We keep chipping away at this, and then people will think that is the reality," Ensign said. Critics said they expect the bill will get an airing because of Reid's position as Senate minority leader. But, they said, the Nevadans are recycling arguments they advanced and lost three years ago. "Reid's strategy for the last few years has been to leave the fuel on-site, which was an argument he was making during the 2002 debate," said Terry Freese, director of legislative programs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's main trade organization. Freese said Reid has added "new spin" by requiring the waste to be placed in dry cask storage, but his bill raises questions about costs and how the waste would be monitored and regulated. "We have consistently held (that) the federal government needs to move used fuel off-site and to take responsibility for its permanent disposal," Freese said. The bill requires nuclear utilities to move spent fuel into above-ground steel and concrete reinforced casks within six years after it is removed from reactors and placed in cooling pools. The Energy Department would take ownership title of the waste and assume responsibility for managing it. Money for the effort would be drawn from a utility-funded nuclear waste account, and that's another provision of the bill that drew criticism from industry executives. DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said the measure was merely "kicking the can down the road. "This bill in no way resolves the issue of permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel," Stevens said. "We continue to use sound science in our mission to get Yucca Mountain licensed and eventually opened." Reid began promoting the so-called "take title" bill more than a year ago, but held off submitting it formally until now. Congress is expected to recess at the end of the week and reconvene in January. "I think I have support for this now," Reid said, without elaborating. As introduced, the bill was co-sponsored by Ensign and Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Robert Bennett, both R-Utah. Hatch and Bennett are opposing a short-term nuclear waste site the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to license on the Goshute Indian Reservation, west of Salt Lake City. Senate sources said Reid is trying to persuade Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to sign on in support of his bill. That would provide a boost because Domenici is highly influential on nuclear power matters. Reid and Domenici reportedly were talking during the fall about collaborating on nuclear waste legislation that would combine Reid's on-site storage approach with a waste reprocessing initiative favored by Domenici. Congress passed Domenici-crafted legislation in November directing the Energy Department to step up efforts to identify a favored nuclear waste reprocessing technology and possible locations for a reprocessing factory. Domenici could not be reached for comment; but spokeswoman Marnie Funk said he did not plan to comment on the legislation introduced Wednesday. A similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Rep. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter, both R-Nev., and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, were co-sponsors. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005 ***************************************************************** 47 RGJ.com: Keep nuke waste on-site, senators urge-Lawmakers say feds should take control of storage at atomic plants Reno, Nevada, USA 775-788-6200 December 15, 2005 RGJ.com DABRAHMS@GNS.GANNETT.COM --> Posted: 12/15/2005 [Related Article] Nevadans feel pinch of energy costs [Related Article] Sparks creates pass program as part of plan for major flood [Related Article] Keep nuke waste on-site, senators urge [Related Article] A cozy chair would be very nice [Related Article] Judge who helped start drug, mental health courts retiring [Related Article] Mediator suggested for UNR morale woes [Related Article] Reno delays decision on annexation plan WASHINGTON -- Taking advantage of delays in the Yucca Mountain project, Nevada lawmakers called on the federal government to take control of nuclear waste and keep it stored at atomic power plants across the country. "The Yucca Mountain project is never going to open," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "Storing nuclear waste on-site is the safest, most reasonable and most effective way of allowing nuclear power companies to continue operating." Reid's comment came after he and other Nevadans introduced a bill that would require the Energy Department to take title to nuclear waste at commercial power plants after the used fuel rods have been sealed in casks. Some power plants already have started storing their nuclear waste in casks next to their power plants while they wait for Yucca Mountain to open. The bill also would allow utilities to get paid for their storage expenses from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which has been collecting money from electric customers for decades. U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, are co-sponsors. Utah lawmakers, who oppose a temporary nuclear-waste storage facility proposed for an Indian reservation about 50 miles west of Salt Lake City, also endorsed the proposal. The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group of nuclear power companies, opposes the legislation. The group wants the government to move forward on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project. Congress overwhelmingly approved the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in 2002 to satisfy the nation's need to store nuclear waste from atomic reactors, said Steve Kerekes, a Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman. "The law requires that used nuclear fuel be taken from plant sites," he said. "All (the bill) does is defer that issue to future generations." But Nevada lawmakers say the Yucca Mountain project is on the ropes. Congress continues to cut funding requested by the Bush administration for the project, located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. An appeals court decision last summer said that the project's radiation standard wasn't stringent enough, and the Environmental Protection Agency is still developing a new one. Earlier this year, the Energy Department pushed back Yucca Mountain's opening date by two years to 2012. Now the department no longer forecasts a date. Nevada lawmakers argue that the best solution is to leave nuclear fuel rods at reactor sites until a better technology can be developed to dispose of the uranium. "Yucca Mountain is not feasible and it is not acceptable," Ensign said. "The dry cask storage technology exists to provide a viable, on-site alternative to shipping waste across the nation." Reno Gazette-Journal network: | | | ***************************************************************** 48 Salt Lake Tribune: Reid bill: N-waste shouldn't be moved Article Last Updated: 12/15/2005 08:15:52 AM Utahns, Nevadans unite: They aim to keep the hot stuff out of the two states By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), poses for a portrait on Capitol Hill March 10, 2005 in Washington, DC. Reid is a member of the Mormon Church. (Shaun Heasley) WASHINGTON - Congressional delegations from Utah and Nevada united Wednesday to introduce legislation aimed at preventing shipments of high-level nuclear waste to either state and instead seeking to store the material at the reactors where it was produced. The prospect of on-site storage could significantly reduce the attractiveness of a proposed temporary storage site on Utah's Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. The bill's sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it would relieve energy companies of the burden of managing the waste, reduce the risk associated with shipping nuclear material across the country, and would buy time to develop workable alternatives to a proposed permanent waste facility beneath Yucca Mountain, Nev., which is badly behind schedule. "The Yucca Mountain project is never going to happen," Reid said in a statement. "Storing nuclear wastes on-site is the safest, most reasonable and most effective way of allowing nuclear power companies to continue operating while keeping the health and safety of Americans as a top priority." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said the steel casks that Reid's plan envisions containing the waste - like those that would be used to hold 44,000 tons of spent fuel at the proposed facility in Utah - can safely store the radioactive material for a century. The casks already are used at 33 nuclear power sites across the country. However, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the largest industry organization, was critical Wednesday of Reid's proposal, saying it doesn't solve the larger problem. The U.S. Energy Department also said the Reid proposal adds new costs without providing a permanent solution to nuclear waste disposal. Utah Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch joined Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., in introducing the Senate bill. Utah Rep. Jim Matheson introduced a similar bill in the House, co-sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop and Nevada's three House members. Hatch said it was an imminent nuclear waste disposal problem that "led to the lame-brained Skull Valley plan in the first place. This bill is a way to take the pressure off the need for Skull Valley." Hatch's support is notable, since he maintains that the Bush administration, not Reid, holds the key to defeating the Utah plan promoted by a consortium of nuclear power companies. His staff said Hatch has worked with Reid on the bill and supports it, but will not reject Yucca Mountain as Bennett publicly did in September. "My support for it does not change my support for Yucca Mountain, although it is clear that I am pursuing other reasonable or acceptable approaches to solving the disposal problem," Hatch said. "Rather, it shows that I stand with the senators from Nevada and Utah in signaling that the government must develop a nuclear waste disposal policy, the sooner the better." Under Reid's plan, the Energy Department would be legally responsible for the casks of waste, relieving the utilities of the liability and allowing the nuclear plants to continue operating. "I've always said that storage on site is the right scientific answer, but differing state laws have made it impossible. The Reid legislation resolves this problem, and buys us time to craft a sensible national policy on nuclear energy," Bennett said. Matheson said the bill seeks to show nuclear companies that "you don't need to be moving this away, and we're setting it up in a way that discourages moving it off site." "This hopefully will put a roadblock in place to dumping this waste on the West, one would hope, in the intervening decades," Matheson said. But a spokesman for the Energy Department said Reid's plan would not eliminate the need for Yucca Mountain. "It does add substantial additional costs, but it does not in any way resolve the permanent disposal issue, which Yucca Mountain is designed to do," said DOE spokesman Craig Stevens. Stevens said the department would have to study whether on-site storage could be part of a broader storage plan. The nuclear industry will not support Reid's plan, said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. "Taking title without physically removing used fuel from plant sites does not demonstrate the progress in used fuel management that our country should, nor does it meet the government's obligation to develop a geological repository at Yucca Mountain," Kerekes said. Reid proposalThe legislation introduced Wednesday would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to do the following: l The act would require utilities to transfer nuclear fuel from cooling pools into storage casks within six years. l It would require the Energy Department to take control of all spent fuel stored on site in dry casks within 30 days. l Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations would govern on-site storage sites and casks. l The Nuclear Waste Fund, created through a fee paid by nuclear reactor operators, would compensate utilities for transfer, storage and security costs. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 49 Deseret News: House, Senate bills call for on-site nuclear waste storage Utahns hope passage will doom a Skull Valley site By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — Nuclear waste would stay in containers at nuclear power plants, versus moving it to Utah or Nevada, under identical bills introduced Wednesday in the Senate and House. Utah GOP Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch and the state's three House members hope the bills' main intent — to stop the proposed federal nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — will also stop waste from moving to Tooele County's Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation as well. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have worked to finalize details on the legislation for a year. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced the House version, with the rest of the Nevada and Utah House members as co-sponsors. "I've always said that storage on site is the right scientific answer, but differing state laws have made it impossible," Bennett said in a statement. "The Reid legislation resolves this problem and buys us time to craft a sensible national policy on nuclear energy." Matheson said keeping it on site for the next few decades is the right decision. "The locations are going to have waste anyway," Matheson said. He said that when Congress passed the law in 1982 creating the Yucca site, dry cask storage was not even an option. He said new technologies for storing waste came on in the 20 years since Congress passed the law and more efficient ways can come in the future. The Spent Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2005 would allow utilities to use money now earmarked to move waste to Yucca to transfer waste to dry storage. The Energy Department would take responsibility for the waste once stored in the dry cask, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have to create rules on how to transfer the waste. Nuclear utilities have been waiting since 1998 for the Energy Department to take responsibility for used fuel and move it to Nevada, but financial, legal and scientific problems have delayed this for years. Nuclear power users have been paying a fee into the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account created in 1982 to fund the repository, but $17 billion remains that has not been spent. Meanwhile, the power plants have had to find other ways of storing their waste, including creating a temporary storage site proposed by Private Fuel Storage for Skull Valley. The government faces hefty liabilities for leaving waste with the utilities. Commercial utilities have filed numerous lawsuits against the department for failing to take the waste. Companies also are frustrated with paying into a fund for a site that has yet to open while also spending money to solve their individual waste problems. The bill would remove the liability because the government would take responsibility for the waste and give the utilities the means to store waste on-site. On-site storage is said to be safe for at least 100 years, according to Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen, so this will buy the country time to find a real nuclear waste solution. "In fact, it is clear that Yucca Mountain will never open," according to Reid's summary of the bill. "Taking title to spent nuclear fuel fulfills the federal government's obligation and commitment to retake control over nuclear materials." If signed into law, commercial power plants would have six years to move nuclear waste from storage pools to dry cask storage or six years after the waste is produced, according to the bill. In a proposed nuclear waste amendment to the energy bill earlier this year, Hatch and Bennett included a provision to study feasibility of the department "taking possession" of nuclear waste on-site at nuclear reactors but postponed the amendment, and the bill was passed without it. "This bill is a way to take the pressure off the need for Skull Valley," Hatch said in a statement. "My support for it does not change my support for Yucca Mountain, although it is clear that I am pursuing other reasonable or acceptable approaches to solving the disposal problem. Rather, it shows that I stand with the senators from Nevada and Utah in signaling that the government must develop a nuclear waste disposal policy, the sooner the better." Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said the bill is a good idea and a good first step, but more needs to be done. "We need to adopt a national policy of reprocessing this material, or the political tug-of-war over where this stuff should be stored will not end," Cannon said. "And, as long as that debate continues, Utah and other Western states will remain at risk of becoming dumping grounds." Cannon said he plans to introduce a bill next year that would have the government take responsibility for the waste on-site but also establish a reprocessing plan. "We can then stop haggling over where to best let it pile up. Only then will we be safe from the political temptation to make the west desert a solution to storage problems," he said. Yucca Mountain supporters oppose the bill filed Wednesday, saying it does nothing to solve the waste disposal problem. Brian J. O'Connell, the director of the Nuclear Waste Project Office at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said this does not permanently dispose of the waste and does nothing for the Energy Department and Defense Department waste, mainly from nuclear weapons construction. Weapons waste is destined for Yucca as well. O'Connell said there is no indication of how much this will ultimately cost or how it would be run. He estimated about 40 people might be needed for security and management at the power plants just for the waste portion. He said the government would likely hire contractors to do this, which in the end could end up being the power plant itself. "This makes security more difficult," he said. O'Connell said using Nuclear Waste Fund money for this "cripples" the repository program and could have large implications for the future of nuclear power. "This, in effect, says we're not going to solve the waste problem," he said. In addition to pursuing the bill filed Wednesday, Utah's members of Congress say they will continue to work other avenues to thwart the temporary storage facility proposed for Skull Valley. E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com © 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company [ /] ***************************************************************** 50 ITAR-TASS: Russia must maintain competitive edge in U-enrichment - view 15.12.2005, 14.47 NOVOURALSK, Sverdlovsk Region, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - New RosAtom (Russia's Atomic Energy Agency) chief Sergei Kiriyenko has called for maintaining the competitive edge of Russia in uranium enrichment. "In this country, separatory production is the world's best. Our task is to maintain this competitive advantage. With this end in view, we must launch a pilot production of next-generation centrifuges," he said on Thursday after touring the Ural electrochemical plant (UECP), which specialises in the manufacture of centrifuges for the isotopic separation of uranium. Kiriyenko's opinion is that the UECP "which is of considerable age uses cutting-edge technologies while quality control labs are altogether up to the world's top standards". He inspected the pilot plant for the production of new-generation centrifuges, which are used for the isotopic separation of uranium. Uranium hexafluoride gas is channelled into the centrifuges. Isotopes get separated resultant of centrifugal force. These are high-technology and high-dependability apparatus, the rotor of which has been revolving at a speed of more than 50,000 rpm for more than 20 years, a RosAtom official specified. Natural uranium requires enrichment, for it contains 0.7 percent of Uranium-235 isotope whereas 3.5 percent are needed as a rule for the production of nuclear fuel. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 51 ITAR-TASS: Spent nuclear fuel from nps to be stored near Krasnoyarsk 15.12.2005, 14.28 KRASNOYARSK, December 15 (Itar-Tass) -- A trainload of spent nuclear fuel from the Balakovo nuclear power plant in the Saratov region arrived in the city of Zheleznogorsk near Krasnoyarsk. The unloading of the train with 30 tonnes of spent fuel began on Thursday. Specialists of the dressing and chemical complex in Zheleznogorsk who accompanied the train with its load were watching around-the-clock over the temperature and radiation regime in the containers, Itar-Tass learned at the enterprise. It will take a week to reload the fuel from containers to storage. The unloading proceeds in a basin under a layer of water with the use of special gadgets. The fuel is loaded to 15 compartments for prolonged storage. Altogether 72 fuel elements weighing 500 kilograms each have already been brought to the complex from the Balakovo nuclear power plant. “The total capacity of the storage is 6,000 tonnes, and it has been filled to only 48 percent in the 17years it has been in use,” a source told Itar-Tass. “After 15 years of fuel elements’ storage under a layer of water, their radioactivity will decrease to such an extent that it will be possible to store them in a dry form. It is planned to build a dry storage in Zheleznogorsk. Part of spent nuclear fuel has been used over 40 years in a reactor as fuel for a local underground nuclear power plant, which is the main source of heat and electricity supply for Zheleznogorsk with its population of 100,000. Spent nuclear fuel is also brought to the complex from Ukraine and from Bulgaria. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 52 New Scientist: Greenpeace claims nuclear industry has a dirty secret - News [NewScientist.com] 16 December 2005 THE nuclear industry has a dirty secret, says Greenpeace, which claims that nuclear plants in western Europe have offloaded 100,000 tonnes of waste uranium to Russia. Western European nuclear fuel companies and the Russian uranium enrichment company Tenex have confidential contracts under which Tenex accepts depleted uranium and returns it after treatment as low-enriched uranium fuel, containing a few per cent fissile uranium-235. But according to Greenpeace, 90 per cent of the waste remains in Russia, while only 10 per cent is returned as fuel - a claim that is confirmed by an industry body, the World Nuclear Association. Greenpeace alleges this is illegal and is taking Tenex to court in Moscow, arguing that the uranium trade breaches a Russian law forbidding the import and storage of foreign waste. Tenex says the uranium is not waste because it will be used in future fast breeder reactors. Urenco, a major uranium enrichment company based in the UK, told New Scientist it had exported "several thousand tonnes of depleted uranium" to Tenex since 1995. In return for the waste Urenco said it "purchases and takes delivery of equivalent quantities of natural uranium". ***************************************************************** 53 Nevada Observer: Nevada Nuclear Projects Claims Federal Conspiracy Led To Yucca Rules Vol. 3, No. 4 December 15, 2005 Nevada's Online State News Journal Interagency Skullduggery At The Least, Illegal Conspiracy At The Most by Johnny Gunn In a 45-page response to proposed rules issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency claims there was widespread coordinated and largely secret interagency efforts involving the Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the NRC. The report is dated December 2 and was sent to the NRC with copies to Nevada's Congressional Delegation, the Secretary of Energy, and the president of the National Academy of Sciences among others. Executive Director Bob Loux claims in the report that "the conspiracy was designed to circumvent" a Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that invalidated previous EPA and NRC Yucca Mountain Standards. The District of Columbia court heard that EPA standards included a 10,000-year compliance period that the court held to be too short a time. National Science Academy (NSA) reports have suggested that the high level nuclear waste Yucca is supposed to hold won't reach its maximum strength until at least 250,000 years. NSA has said the 10,000-year limit would make compliance "rather easy" but had no basis in science. The state agency says, "This interagency effort included secret meetings and exchanges of draft rule language between the regulators (NRC and EPA), meetings and exchanges with the regulated entity itself (DOE), and even the direct interference of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)." The OMB is part of the executive office of the president. The state believes OMB, which has no nuclear regulatory experience, "apparently ran last minute interference on behalf of DOE to further limit NRC's ability to raise legitimate safety issues in its review of the Yucca Mountain license applications." The report goes on to say, "As Nevada's November 2005 comments to EPA explain in detail, this secret interagency effort produced an EPA proposed rule that is arbitrary, unsupported scientifically, and unlawful in virtually every important respect." According to the Nevada Nuclear Projects report, "NRC's currently proposed rule is similarly arbitrary, unsupported scientifically, and unlawful. It has a tainted and disgraceful origin." The report says NRC violated its own principles of good regulation when it participated in secret negotiations with DOE, its regulated entity to limit NRC's own ability to raise legitimate and substantial safety issues. The report is called the "State of Nevada's formal comments on NRC's implementation of a Dose Standard After 10,000 Years (10 CFR PART 63). The NRC's standard was posted in the Federal Register on September 8, 2005 (Federal Register/Vol. 70, No. 173/Proposed Rules, Page 53313-53320). As we go to press there is no response from any of the agencies mentioned in the report. DOE's Railroad project gets even more expensive The Department of Energy (DOE) has been working on the railroad for more than a livelong day and the expense factor has now skyrocketed to more than $2 billion. The 319-mile road has been on paper to extend from Caliente in eastern Clark County north into Lincoln County, west through Nye County, south through Esmeralda County, and back into Clark County ending at the unyet licensed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository. Initial plans said the project would only cost some $800 million and be ready for use in a matter of a few years. Now, DOE projects costs well more than twice that, and no projected dates for trains on the rails. Some projected costs for Yucca alone are closing in on $60 billion and there is no projected date for that facility to be open either. Plans change radically depending on current bad press, but at the latest word from DOE, trucks and trains will bring high level nuclear waste to Caliente where it will then be sent on trains to Yucca on the new rail line. Safety factors from points of origin, that is nuclear energy power plants across the country take a back seat to getting things like a railroad built across the expansive Nevada desert. Yucca is facing budget cuts in the current Congressional session, there is continuing fallout from representatives and senators, and Nevada's arguments in court are being heard and understood. How much longer DOE is going to continue the boondoggle is unknown at this time. ••• ***************************************************************** 54 Nevada Observer: Conspiracy At The Highest Levels Charged By Nevada Nuclear Agency It's High Time For Congressional Investigation That Should Lead To Criminal Charges by Johnny Gunn Opinion Vol. 3, No. 4 December 15, 2005 Nevada's Online State News Journal When Dan DeQuille wrote for the Territorial Enterprise of Virginia City fame, back in the 19th century, he used this depiction of a braying, angry, miner's burro. He always called it, as did most of the prospectors of the day, "A Washoe Canary." Below are some of our brayings, that is, Washoe Canary Songs. Opinion: Charges of collusion, conspiracy, even secret negotiations between the regulated and the regulator(s) have emerged in a response issued by Bob Loux of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, the state organization formed to fight the concept of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. Loux's charges even involve the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) getting into the nuclear regulatory business. A conspiracy in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (these are the regulators) work with the Department of Energy (DOE) (this is the regulated) to establish the rules under which the Yucca project works is about as close to criminal as it can get. To put it into terms that might be better understood, this would amount to La Cosa Nostra being tutored by the FBI in how best to get around laws and regulations. This isn't simply a case of trading information, it is a working conspiracy in which those who are by law deemed the regulators are working to create the rules of operation with the agency they are supposed to be regulating. "Nuclear regulation is supposed to be the public's business." Those are the words of a principle endorsed by the NRC. Secret negotiations are not in the best public interest. The rules being established will have an affect on life. High level nuclear waste is one of the most dangerous products on earth today and it should be treated with the utmost respect. The DOE, NRC, and EPA, working in collusion are playing with the lives of generations of Americans. Why? There is no obvious answer to that question. The DOE has made a financial disaster of the Yucca project. According to most reports coming out of Washington, the Yucca project is billions of dollars over budget, and there seems to be no timetable to even get licensing for the project. There are congressional investigations underway to determine if DOE-contracted scientists have been involved in fraudulent activities dealing with water mitigation assertions. The EPA and NRC standards initially in place for DOE and the Yucca repository were tossed out by a Federal Judge, and it appears that only saving face is involved in the current set of standards as outlined by the conspiracy. In the words of the Nuclear Projects Agency report, "NRC's proposal grew from a closely coordinated and largely secret interagency effort involving DOE, EPA, and NRC to circumvent the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidation of previous EPA and NRC Yucca Mountain standards." If even the least percentage of these charges is true, a full-scale congressional investigation must take place. This isn't a political football or pork barrel financing, this is a situation in which millions of people's health and safety is at risk. Transportation plans seem to change as radically as the Washoe Zephyr, standards of radiation emissions seem to fluctuate from 10,000 years to one million years, and now we have the OMB, an agency that has never been in the nuclear regulatory business, working in collusion with the DOE to create standards. How much money has to be flushed down the Yucca Mountain hole before someone with just a tad of empathy for future generations demands a stop to the process? _________________________ Cartoon by Thomas Nast, April 12, 1874 ***************************************************************** 55 KLASTV.com: Reid, Ensign Expected to Introduce Yucca Legislation Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senator John Ensign are expected to unveil their legislation for an alternative to Yucca Mountain. They want to leave the nuclear waste at the power plants that produced it. The senators have been working for the past year trying to gain support for their bill. The legislation is only expected to have three sponsors. Reid, Ensign and Senartor Robert Bennett of Utah. The Department of Energy is still working on its plan to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The D.O.E. is also crafting its own nuclear waste policy changes that could include storage at interim sites or plans to pursue recycling nuclear waste. Eyewitness News is following this story and will have the latest. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 56 KLASTV.com: New Legislation Proposed For Yucca Mountain Adam White, Photojournalist New Legislation Proposed For Yucca Mountain Nevada's senators have teamed up to propose legislation to keep nuclear waste from being brought to Southern Nevada. If the bill is approved, it would remove the need for the nuclear waste repository. Cindy Cesare, Reporter New Legislation Proposed For Yucca Mountain Nevada senators have teamed up to propose legislation to keep nuclear waste from being brought to Southern Nevada. If the bill is approved, it would remove the need for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Eyewitness News looks at what makes this plan different from others proposed in the past, and if this one would give the federal government ownership of the waste. The plan for Yucca Mountain -- the nation's single repository -- is that the waste from the 103 nuclear energy facilities would be permanently stored there. The site is two hours north of Las Vegas and has been questioned for years regarding transportation, water and earthquake concerns. Senator Harry Reid, (D) Nevada minority leader says, "Their procedures and processes have fallen apart in recent years and we believe there's an opportunity to change the direction of this government as it relates to the storage of nuclear waste." The Nevada senators' plan is to simply leave the waste where it is. Senator John Ensign, (R) Nevada says, "Dry cast storage on site is safe for 100 to 200 years. We've been saying that for the last several years. The difference with us introducing the bill today is we take title. The federal government actually takes title of the waste, which is significant to the nuclear power industry. It helps them get rid of some of their liability." The Department of Energy, of course, is moving forward to create a single nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain despite Wednesday's announcement from Nevada senators. Craig Stevens, Press Secretary for the Department of Energy, says the bill is essentially kicking the can down the road. The bill in no way resolves the issue of permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel. The DOE remains committed to the law, which states that we must develop Yucca Mountain as the site for a permanent repository. Senators Ensign and Reid plan on introducing their bill to Congress while trying to gain more support in Washington. The bill was also co-sponsored by Utah senators Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch. Members of the Nevada and Utah delegations introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. Contact Reporter Cindy Cesare All content © Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KLAS. All ***************************************************************** 57 KLASTV.com: Yucca Mountain Health Concerns Some of the strongest objections to the Yucca Mountain repository revolve around health concerns. The Eye on Health team spoke with a county planner about some of those concerns. If the planned repository becomes a reality, shipments of spent nuclear fuel will hit the highways and railways headed for Nevada. Ideally, trains would carry most of the radioactive waste, but trucks may also be used. Spent nuclear fuel is a collection of small ceramic pellets. The transporting of this material is highly regulated and shipment containers are largely impregnable, but not everyone is impressed by the safety features. Irene Navis is the planning manager for the Clark County Nuclear Waste Division. She says that health and transportation concerns still go hand-in-hand. "Radiation can be contained to some extent, but there's always going to be some emission no matter what kind of container it's in." Navis says the amount of radiation emitted from a sealed container over an hour would be equivalent to two x-rays. She said, "For at-risk populations, it could be a concern." Transport workers, including truckers, could be vulnerable to overexposure. Another issue is the possible contamination of groundwater. Although it's still is not clear if or when the Las Vegas water supply would be effected. Navis says, "Even after 20 to 25 years of study that is not clearly understood." There are still a number of hurdles for the Department of Energy to overcome before a Yucca Mountain repository opens for business. But Navis says planning for a related medical crisis must continue -- regardless. "While the agencies that are participating -- whether it's the health district or University Medical Center -- the different agencies of Clark County are investing in impact assessment. That is to be prepared should the time come that we have to actually have to deal with shipments and the repository." Navis encourages local residents to be proactive in learning more about the project. A Yucca Mountain science center is open to the public where tours of Yucca Mountain can be arranged. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and KLAS. ***************************************************************** 58 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada, Utah lawmakers back plan for onsite nuclear waste storage December 14, 2005 By ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Nevada and Utah lawmakers jointly introduced legislation Wednesday to store nuclear waste at reactor sites where it is produced. The bills introduced in the Senate and House would block radioactive waste from being transported from sites around the country to the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada or a temporary site proposed for Utah. The legislation had been long-planned by Nevada Sens. Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, who are trying to stop the federal government from completing the troubled Yucca Mountain dump in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The participation of Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett was another sign of growing cooperation on nuclear waste issues between the neighboring states, which were once at odds over the issue. Hatch and Bennett angered Nevada lawmakers by voting in favor of Yucca Mountain when Congress approved it in 2002, but now are trying to block a proposed temporary nuclear waste storage site in Utah's Skull Valley that's being pushed by a coalition of utilities. Bennett announced recently that his support for Yucca Mountain was a mistake, while Hatch still says he favors it. But both senators have concluded that the onsite storage plan is the best way to keep nuclear waste out of their state. "This country faces an imminent nuclear waste disposal problem. That's what led to the lame-brained Skull Valley plan in the first place," Hatch said in a statement. "This bill is a way to take the pressure off the need for Skull Valley." The "Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005" mandates that nuclear power plants move waste into aboveground casks approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission says so-called dry cask storage is safe and environmentally sound, and already is in use at about half the nation's more than 60 active nuclear power plants. Although the waste would remain at reactor sites, the Energy Department would take title to it. The government is facing mounting legal costs because it promised to accept utilities' nuclear waste beginning in 1998. The on-site storage plan has been opposed by the nuclear industry and the Energy Department, though Reid and Ensign contend nuclear waste could safely remain in dry casks for at least 100 years. "This bill is essentially kicking the can down the road. The bill in no way resolves the issue of permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel," Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said. "The department remains committed to the law, which states that we must develop Yucca Mountain as the site for a permanent repository." Yucca Mountain, planned to store 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste, has suffered a series of setbacks, funding shortages and delays. The government was forced to rewrite radiation safety rules for the site when a federal court threw out the first ones, and the final rules have yet to be issued. "The Yucca Mountain project is never going to open," Reid said. "It is time we put the safety of this country first and approach the storage of nuclear waste in a way that is productive and realistic." "What we are proposing today represents the safest and most responsible course of action available for storing nuclear waste," Ensign said. "The dry cask storage technology exists to provide a viable, on-site alternative to shipping waste across the country and it is time we make use of that technology." Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Nevada's representatives, Republicans Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons and Democrat Shelley Berkley, and Utah Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon, both Republicans, and Jim Matheson, a Democrat. --- On the Net: Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 59 Idaho Statesman: Idaho lab should post reports on safety problems on the Net Editorials - The Edition Date: 12-15-2005 The Idaho National Laboratory writes up "occurrence reports" frequently  170 so far this year  because site managers don't want minor safety issues to grow into major problems. Makes sense. But it also makes sense to give people easy access to the information  to let people know about waste containers that were mislabeled or about bolts that shook loose from a seismic brace at a nuclear reactor. The information, after all, is available, sort of. But you have to ask for the reports formally, under the federal government's Freedom of Information Act. Yes, the contents of these reports may be embarrassing to the INL. But by giving people the runaround, the Department of Energy compounds the public-relations damage by looking like it it has something to hide. Environmental groups have a reasonable request: They want the federal government to post these reports on the Internet. The Energy Department is considering the request, spokesman Tim Jackson said. The Energy Department cannot make the reports public without making sure the contents compromise neither national security nor security at the eastern Idaho nuclear lab, Jackson said. Those are necessary safeguards  but not an insurmountable obstacle. The Associated Press used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the reports and received them after security staff combed through the documents to black out  or, in government-speak, "redact"  sensitive material. "To my knowledge, they didn't redact anything," Jackson said. Nothing is stopping federal officials from reviewing the reports, as they should, and then releasing as much data as possible, as they also should. It's simple to do, and certainly the right thing to do. Environmentalists seeking these reports have an agenda. They oppose some controversial nuclear work proposed for Idaho  research on new nuclear reactor designs and a plan to produce plutonium-238, a radioactive heat source for batteries in deep space. They may well cite these reports as they argue against new projects. We'll take a different tack in arguing for openness. We understand the value of nuclear research: This work is the INL's mission, valuable both for the state and for the nation. But we want to see  and we want Idahoans to be able to see  how scientists respond to and learn from safety problems. Openness breeds comfort. Comfort breeds support. ***************************************************************** 60 lamonitor.com: Biosafety lab faces public concerns ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor How to breathe new life into an unused building at Los Alamos National Laboratory was the subject of two preliminary meetings this week. The environmental scoping process will continue today with a final session in Espanola. Officials representing the National Nuclear Security Administration and Los Alamos National Laboratory said they wanted the building to become the Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory that it was designed and built to be, containing two relatively small rooms that provide appropriate safety working on life-threatening organisms, under established laws and procedures. Alternatively, the building would be converted to some other purpose, like a library or office, or approved at Biosafety Level 2, which allows work on less dangerous biological materials. BSL-2 research is authorized in existing facilities at LANL. Activists and nuclear watchdog groups gave evidence at public meetings Tuesday in Los Alamos and Wednesday in Santa Fe that they would be watching each move in the process with no less attention than they gave the first time around, when the project became embroiled in court and indefinitely delayed. Ralph Ford-Schmidt of the New Mexico Environment Department asked a series of technical questions Wednesday relating to waste treatment volumes and processes that the proposing officials answered in part and deferred to the study for a more complete response. "This is a little bit different situation," said Lisa Cummings, an attorney with NNSA who will shepherd the formal environmental evaluation through a process prescribed by the National Environmental Policy Act for determining environmental impacts from actions that may significantly affect the quality of the environment. The main difference from the usual process is that the building is already built. It was constructed in 2003, except for some finishing touches and a commissioning process that was interrupted shortly afterward. To authorize that construction, NNSA prepared an Environmental Assessment, a simpler version of the full-blown Environmental Impact Statement that is now under preparation. Chuck Pergler, project manager for Tetra Tech, the company that will be preparing the EIS document said his team will rely to some extent on the earlier Environmental Assessment, but its evaluations will be independently reviewed. NNSA will use the EIS as a basis for its decision, expected by the end of next year. "We can't - not build," Pergler said. "The question to be addressed is what kinds of activities are appropriate for this facility." He asked for comments that would help his team include the essential issues in the draft and final versions of the study. Nathan Schwade, LANL's deputy associate director for bioscience in threat reduction, recalled the laboratory's historic interest in biological research, starting with questions related to radiological effects on human cells, but then expanding and advancing with the field to initiate the Human Genome Project. The lab provided forensic support, assisting national security agencies, in the investigation of the anthrax letters that terrorized locations along the east coast shortly after the attacks of 9/11. More than 350 BSL laboratories exist, he said, operating under licensure and supervision of the Centers for Disease Control. "This isn't new work at the laboratory," Schwade said, "We would like to take our place alongside the medical schools." The public was given the opportunity to comment for the record during the meetings, and written comments will be accepted until January 16, after a two-week extension was granted Wednesday night. Scott Novak of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, questioned the fairness of a 30-day comment period that included the Christmas holidays. "Will you be answering the phone on the 26th (of December)?" he asked. The delay was granted after a representative from Rep. Tom Udall's office made a similar request during the Santa Fe meeting. In Los Alamos, Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group probed for more detail about the seismic hazards of the construction site, which were acknowledged by the government in its formal notice, along with the potential problem that the building was built on the sloping edge of a canyon on fill material. A presentation prepared last year by several LANL geologists found evidence of earthquake activity along the "Pajarito fault system," described as "the active western boundary" of the Rio Grande rift near LANL, "where it strikes north to northeast along the western margin of Los Alamos." The paper found indications of three events estimated to have been about 7 on the Richter scale in the last 11,000 years and documented six minor quakes in the area since 1991. (The recent earthquake in Pakistan, by comparison, was measured at 7.6.) Safety issues were prevalent. A study by Eric Fairfield of Fairfield Enterprises prepared for the previous environment assessment, offered a model for measuring potential liabilities, suggesting that accurate numbers for incidents, consequences and human costs, would depended on the rigor of professional standards practiced. But such a quantitative estimate, needed to be made, he said. Chris Mechels, a retired laboratory employee, said worker safety at LANL is broken. Although DOE safety standards are supposed to have parallels with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, documentation is always out of date. "Workers don't know their rights," he said. Several comments related to fears that surfaced during the previous process about the potential for bioweapons work at a nuclear weapons laboratory. In Santa Fe, Cathie Sullivan said, "I am always concerned when this kind of work goes on behind the security curtain and the security blanket." Schwade said, "We will not do any biowarfare activity. It is against international law and we are outside any weapons work at the laboratory." After the meeting he noted, "We don't do it because it's the wrong thing to do, and we can't do it because our facility is not big enough." Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico commented that in the previous round, materials referenced by the environmental assessment were not readily available to the public and that he had encountered significant delays in the past. Pergler said that referenced materials would be available when the draft document was published. That is expected to be during the spring, at which point, another round of public comment will be solicited. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************