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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 US: AFP: Embattled Bush defends case for Iraq war
2 AFP: First results from Iran site show no nuclear activity - diploma
3 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, EU, US Discuss Iran Nuke Dispute
4 Xinhua: Chairman's statement issued at 6-party talks   
5 AFP: Nuclear talks stalemate after North Korea rejects US call to cl
6 Guardian Unlimited: Amid Deep Discord, N.Korea Nuke Talks End
7 Guardian Unlimited: Text of China's Statement From North Korea
8 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., North Korea Each Urge Concessions
9 US: Times Leader: Bush denies his administration misused prewar inte
10 Reuters: S.Asia leaders gather for summit amid Indian warning
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
11 US: IPS-English ENVIRONMENT: Debate Rages Over Nuke Power Revival
12 US: North Country Gazette: Court Upholds Key Environmental Regulatio
13 US: Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Plant loses nuke fuel | 
14 Bellona: The public and the prosecutors’ office against illegal oper
15 US: Burlington Free Press: More cracks found in Vermont Yankee steam
16 US: Poughkeepsie Journal: First dive fails to locate any leaks at In
17 US: Poughkeepsie Journal: Nuke plant faces cooling towers fight
18 US: Rutland Herald: Vermont Yankee has more cracks; probe demanded
19 US: lamonitor.com: Group weighs U.S.-India nuclear pact 
20 US: Vermont Guardian: Speaking truth about power
21 US: Brattleboro Reformer: 62 cracks found at Vt. Yankee
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
22 US: [du-list] UNEP & Iraq: No DU in bunker busters, cruise
23 US: Janes: Current trends in cannon ammunition (DU)
24 asahi.com: Nuke repair worker tried to hide mistake
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
25 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast: Lockheed told to dig deeper
26 reviewjournal.com: 'Significant reduction' in nuclear waste seen
27 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Congress won't fund PFS fight
28 US: kgw.com: Congress requires quarterly reports on Hanford waste tr
29 Korea Times: Research Begins on Hi-Level Nuclear Waste Storage 
30 US: Deseret News: Huntsman won't OK Envirocare expansion
31 Pahrump Valley Times: YUCCA PROJECT QUESTIONS RISE 
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
32 Santa Fe New Mexican: LANL weapons program draws split positions   
33 Santa Fe New Mexican: LANL contender courts Espanola     
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 AFP: Embattled Bush defends case for Iraq war
 
11/11/2005 22h42

 George W. Bush
©AFP - Jim Watson 

TOBYHANNA, United States (AFP) - Embattled US President George
W. Bush hit back at "deeply irresponsible" charges that he won
support for war in Iraq by exaggerating intelligence on Saddam
Hussein's weapons programs. 

"These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and
to an enemy that is questioning America's will," he said in a
speech here to former and active US military personnel on the
Veterans Day holiday. 

Opposition Democrats fired back that Bush had highlighted Iraqi
intelligence that supported his position and ignored or
suppressed data that did not, and some said his speech smacked
of political desperation. 

Unabated violence in Iraq has overshadowed political progress
there, helping to drive Bush's poll numbers to their worst
levels ever, even as the number of US soldiers killed there
passed the symbolic milestone of 2,000. 

And with the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction at
the core of Bush's case for war, opposition Democrats have
redoubled their charges that he intentionally exaggerated the
threat posed by Saddam to justify the conflict. 

Bush countered that the United Nations, intelligence services
around the world, and many Democrats at home all agreed with him
before the US-led March 2003 invasion that Saddam possessed
unconventional weapons. 

"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision, or
the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite
the history of how that war began," he said at an army depot. 

Bush pointed to ample support among Democrats "who had access to
the same intelligence" for a congressional resolution in late
2002 that authorized him to use force to remove Saddam Hussein. 

Bush also mentioned the repeated UN resolutions on Iraq that
cited Saddam's alleged possession of weapons of mass
destruction, as well as the stated belief by his 2004 Democratic
rival for the White House, Senator John Kerry, that the Iraq
dictator had such arms. US Marine in Iraq
©AFP - David Furst 

The president also pointed to a Senate Intelligence Committee
investigation that found "no evidence" of political pressure on
intelligence analysts to change their findings about Iraq's
suspected arsenals. 

But Democrats have noted that neither that probe, nor a
bipartisan panel known as the Silberman-Robb commission, looked
at whether the administration misused the intelligence they
received. 

Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy punched back, calling the speech
"a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by
tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear
manipulation of intelligence." 

Kerry, who voted in favor of authorizing Bush to use force in
Iraq, charged in a statement that Bush was "playing the politics
of fear and smear" on a day set aside for honoring US veterans. 

"This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking
intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition," said
Kerry. "It's a dangerous day for our national security when an
administration's word is no good." 

A spate of recent polls have shown deep and growing pessimism
about the situation in Iraq and found that many in the United
States now think that Bush deliberately misstated Saddam's
capabilities. 

Democrats, in a dramatic move, invoked a little-used rule last
week to shut the Senate in secret session in an effort to force
Bush's Republicans to restart an investigation into whether
intelligence was misused. 

News reports since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam
Hussein have found that individual US intelligence agencies
disputed some of the central charges made publicly by Bush and
other senior officials. 

The most famous is the controversy over whether Iraq sought
uranium from Africa, which led, through a torturous series of
events, to the indictment of a senior White House aide in
connection to a CIA leak probe. 

  + Арабский 	 	Copyright Disclaimer ©AFP 2005 	
*****************************************************************
 2 AFP: First results from Iran site show no nuclear activity - diplomats
                                
Saturday November 12, 4:07 AM
 
VIENNA (AFP) - Initial results from a UN inspection of the
Parchin military site in Iran have shown no signs of nuclear
activity, diplomats told AFP, although final results are not yet
in. 

If confirmed, the results would strengthen Tehran's case that
there is no suspicious activity at Parchin against charges from
Washington that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons at
the explosives testing center. 

"The very first preliminary results have not found anything so
far," a diplomat close to the Vienna-based UN watchdog
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, stressing that
these were still early indications. 

A second diplomat said that the IAEA was waiting for more
analysis from environmental swipes taken November 1 at Parchin,
30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Tehran. 

Visits to sites like Parchin are beyond nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards requirements, which
are limited to inspecting sites where there is sure to be
nuclear material. 

It is possible there may be no nuclear material present at
Parchin if the Iranians did "dry testing" bomb simulations with
non-radioactive metals. 

In any case, a diplomat said, "we don't expect those samples to
show any undeclared nuclear activities, after all the time Iran
was given to sanitize those sites." 

IAEA inspectors had first visited Parchin in January but saw
only five out of what are a much larger number of buildings. The
Iranian government had up until November refused a follow-up
visit. 

Final results are not expected until after a meeting November
24-25 in Vienna of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors,
which in September found Iran in non-compliance with the NPT. 

This opened the door to bring Iran before the UN Security
Council, which could impose penalties such as trade sanctions to
get Tehran to suspend all nuclear fuel work and cooperate fully
with IAEA inspectors. 

Diplomats say that Tehran appears to be showing more cooperation
with IAEA investigators in order to avoid referral to the
Security Council. 

A diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency may decide that it
wants to hold off on deciding on referral since new information
is still coming in that will have to be assessed before such a
move can be taken. 

In addition, there appears to be movement on the diplomatic
front. 

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Larijani said Friday in Tehran that
Iran wants to conduct sensitive nuclear work on its territory
but would be open to having the uranium enriched abroad. 

Washington denied backing a proposal to resolve the nuclear row
by letting enrichment be done in Russia. 

The swipes at Parchin are samples taken by rubbing a cotton
cloth on surfaces to see if traces of radioactive particles can
be found that would prove the presence of nuclear material. 

Full analysis of the samples by spectrometry and other
techniques can take up to six weeks. 

David Donahue, a unit leader at the IAEA's Seibersdorf
laboratory which analyzes the swipes, told reporters Friday that
"some Parchin analysis has been done." He refused to say what
the results were. 

But he said Seibersdorf had more swipes to analyze and would be
doing more intensive tests on swipes already run through
spectrometry experiments. 

In addition, the IAEA is waiting for results from a second lab,
in another country, to confirm the results. 

Donahue said IAEA inspectors take six swipes at a time so they
have replicas and then have at least two analyzed. Others are
stored in archives. 

Donahue refused to indicate the total number of swipes taken at
Parchin on November 1 but he said: "It's not hundreds."         
 
Copyright © 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, EU, US Discuss Iran Nuke Dispute
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday November 11, 2005 11:16 AM

AP Photo MOSB111 

MOSCOW (AP) - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that
Russia, the European Union and the United States were working
closely to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, but
declined to comment on reports that a compromise proposal had
been reached. 

Officials and diplomats have said in recent days that the United
States and the EU are willing to accept a program under which
Iran would be allowed to covert uranium into a gas that is the
precursor to making enriched uranium, but that the enrichment
itself would be done in Russia. 

Uranium as found in nature does not have a sufficient
concentration of fissile isotopes to be used as reactor fuel or
in weapons. The West fears Iran wants to use its nuclear program
to develop atomic weapons; having the uranium enrichment done in
another country would in theory make weapons-grade uranium
unavailable to Iran. 

Asked about the reports, Lavrov told a news conference that
Russia was cooperating with the EU, the United States and
representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency ``in
order to achieve a political settlement on issues relating to
Iran's nuclear program. Different options are being discussed by
experts, diplomats and nuclear experts.'' 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 4 Xinhua: Chairman's statement issued at 6-party talks   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-11 19:14:47   

    BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The latest session of the
six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue ended with a
chairman's statement, which experts say signifies all parties
endeavor to translate the commitments into actions. 

  [Wu Dawei ]   
  Chinese delegation head Wu Dawei, central front, reads the
chairman's statement at the closing of the First Session of the
Fifth Round of the Six-Party Talks in Beijing, on Nov. 11, 2005.
  

    The first session of the six-party talks, the fifth since
2003, began Wednesday and focused on "outlining details, ways
and procedures for the implementation" of the landmark joint
statement, which was adopted at the fourth round of talks in
September. 

    The chairman's statement issued Friday said the parties
reaffirmed that they would "fully" implement the joint statement
in line with the principle of "commitment for commitment, action
for action." 

    "The statement shows that the talks have got a clearer focus
and are drawing closer to the actual actions," said Liu
Jiangyong, expert on international studies of Tsinghua
University. 

    The talks group China, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea(DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea(ROK),
Russia and Japan. 

    Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill described the talks as
"achieving benchmark," saying that the delegations of China,
ROK, Japan and Russia have all made "good approaches and
positive suggestions." 

    China shared with other parties its "roadmap" at the
beginning of the latest session Wednesday. 

    Wu Dawei, China's chief negotiator, suggested that the fifth
round be carried out in phases: the delegation heads of the six
nations first table a general scenario and a working group or
expert panel works out detailed rules and submit them to the
delegation heads for consultations. 

    Head of the Japanese delegation Kenichiro Sasae Friday
hailed the chairman's statement, saying it gave full
consideration to the interests of all parties and would help
implement the joint agreement in a comprehensive and rapid
manner. 

    Earlier, Sasae proposed setting up "two working groups
"specializing respectively in DPRK nuclear dismantlement and
inspection, and economic and energy aid to the DPRK. 

    Qin Gang, spokesman for Chinese delegation, told a press
briefing Wednesday that it might be an "appropriate choice" to
setup working groups or expert teams so as to implement the
joint statement. 

    "It will be more easier to reach consensus within working
groups than in the plenary session as working groups tend to be
more efficient," said Ruan Zongze, deputy director of the China
Institute of International Studies. 

    But the positions of the two primary actors, the DPRK and
United States, remained widely apart. 

    ``We have raised very seriously the financial sanctions
which were imposed by the U.S. on (North Korea),'' Kim Gye-Gwan,
DPRK's chief delegate, told reporters after three-days of
negotiations Friday. 

    Washington imposed sanctions in October on some North Korean
companies. 

    "These kinds of sanctions are in violation of the joint
statement we have adopted and is going to hinder the
implementation of the commitment we have made," Kim said. 

    Chief US negotiator Hill repeatedly told reporters during
the latest session that DPRK did not stop running its nuclear
facilities after the landmark joint agreement. He reiterated the
US position to urge the DPRK to abandon its nuclear weapon and
uranium enrichment programs at an early date. 

    Yet there is still ground for the two parties to build up
trust. 

    " The DRPK and the United States have focused discussion on
confidence building," Kim said, adding that the two parties
"addressed each other's concerns and will take steps in phased
manner." 

    "There will be technical meetings and discussions" in the
near future, Hill told reporters. 

    The DPRK and the US have agreed to hold bilateral talks to
solve the financial sanction issue and other issues, Kim noted. 

    Kim also called on all concerned parties to take
simultaneous actions to narrow the differences. 

    The Parties agreed to hold the second session at the
earliest possible date, chairman's statement said. Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: Nuclear talks stalemate after North Korea rejects US call to close reactor - 

 Fri Nov 11, 3:09 AM ET 		 	 

BEIJING (AFP) - The latest session of six-nation talks on North
Korea" /> North Korea's nuclear program is set to wind up, with
little progress made after the Stalinist regime rejected US
calls to immediately close its reactor. 

 US chief delegate Christopher Hill said the North had dismissed
repeated urgings from the United States during the first two
days of talks to close its nuclear reactor, which can produce
weapons-grade plutonium. 

After a series of plenary and bilateral contacts topped off by a
six-party dinner on Thursday evening, Hill told reporters that
North Korea was "not prepared at this point to tell us when they
could shut off the reactor". 

The United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan began
their fifth round of talks on Wednesday aiming to devise ways of
implementing a September 19 agreement in which the North
committed to disarm in return for energy aid and other benefits. 

However the refusal of the North to accede to demands on closing
the 5,000-kilowatt experimental graphite-moderated nuclear
reactor in Yongbyong has proved a major sticking point at the
talks. 

With the session only lasting three days before resuming again
in December or January, the short time frame also curtailed
chances of progress. 

"The three-day session is too soon and too short a time to be
working out a complete implementation plan," Hill said. 

"But I hope that at our next session, we will be able to make
some progress on this and that I can assess how ready the DPRK
(North Korea) is to do so." 

Hill warned during the talks that the North Korean nuclear
problem had become worse since the September 19 deal because of
the reactor issue. 

"Every day that goes on, the amount of this plutonium
theoretically increases. That is our concern and that means we
have a bigger problem than on September 19," he said. 

"I think that the time to stop reprocessing, the time to stop
the reactor, is now. Once that is stopped, we look forward to
the DPRK making declarations of what it has in the way of
nuclear programs." 

The North has been equally firm, insisting that, not only would
it keep the Yongbyong reactor running, it intended to make no
meaningful moves towards disarmament until the United States
supplied it with a light-water nuclear energy reactor. 

The Japanese side also expressed frustration at the lack of
progress in the talks, with chief delegate Kenichiro Sasae
Thursday criticising North Korea's go-slow tactics as "not
constructive" and "inappropriate". 

The nuclear crisis has been boiling since October 2002, when the
United States accused North Korea of running a secret
uranium-enrichment program. 

The North responded by throwing out UN International Atomic
Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agencyweapons
inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

It has since declared itself a nuclear power, much to the
consternation of the United States -- whose President George. W.
Bush declared the regime as part of an "axis of evil" -- and
most of the rest of the world. 

The six-party talks began in August 2003, with this week's
session the fifth round of negotiations. 

The six nations were having a round of bilateral meetings on
Friday morning, with the talks expected to end in the afternoon.
Delegates said it was still unclear whether a joint statement
would be issued at the end of the day. 	 		 			


*****************************************************************
 6 Guardian Unlimited: Amid Deep Discord, N.Korea Nuke Talks End
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday November 11, 2005 11:16 AM

AP Photo BEJ102 

BEIJING (AP) - The United States rejected North Korea's demand
for aid in exchange for suspending nuclear development, the U.S.
envoy to disarmament talks said as the negotiations ended Friday
with no word of progress or a firm date to meet again. 

The North's negotiating partners also agreed that its demand for
a civilian nuclear reactor should not be discussed until it has
dismantled its atomic programs, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State Christopher Hill. 

``We're not prepared to make a separate agreement for them to
freeze programs,'' Hill told reporters. ``We don't want to get
into a situation where they stop the programs, in short, freeze
the programs, and then expect us to compensate them for a
freeze.'' 

The talks ended amid rancor, with the United States pressing the
North to stop work at a plutonium-producing reactor and the
North demanding that Washington lift sanctions imposed on eight
North Korean companies accused of weapons proliferation. 

``These kind of sanctions are in violation of the joint
statement we have adopted and are going to hinder the
implementation of the commitment we have made,'' said the North
Korean envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan. 

The other participants are China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. 

This week's round of talks - the fifth in a series - began
Wednesday and had been scheduled to recess after three days to
let diplomats attend an Asian-Pacific economic conference in
South Korea. 

A chairman's statement issued by China said negotiators affirmed
that they would ``fully implement'' a declaration issued at the
last round of talks in September, when North Korea promised to
disarm in exchange for aid and a security guarantee. 

``The parties reaffirmed that they would fully implement the
joint statement in line with the principle of `commitment for
commitment, action for action,' so as to realize the verifiable
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at an early date,''
said the statement, read out by China's chief delegate, Vice
Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, before the other envoys, who
applauded. 

The statement said diplomats agreed to meet again at the
earliest possible date. 

But the South Korean envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Song
Min-soon, warned that might not be until next year due to
scheduling conflicts in December with a regional Asian meeting
and the Christmas holiday. 

``There was an assessment that it will be a little bit difficult
to hold tangible meetings,'' Song said. 

Pyongyang refuses to disarm completely without receiving
compensation along the way. But the United States says it will
not reward the North until the programs are completely and
irreversibly dismantled. 

Song appeared to support the North's demand to be compensated
for interim steps, saying the suspension of work at its reactor
should be followed by a ``corresponding step.'' He didn't
elaborate. 

Hill said the other five governments agreed they shouldn't
discuss North Korea's demand for the civilian light-water
reactor for power generation until after its nuclear programs
are dismantled. 

``All five countries have been very clear on the view that there
will be no discussion of the light-water reactor until the
appropriate time. That appropriate time is not now,'' he said. 

The dispute erupted in 2002 after Washington said North Korea
admitted operating a secret nuclear program in violation of a
1994 deal that gave the isolated, impoverished North energy aid
in exchange for giving up atomic development. 

Hill said that in response to North Korean complaints about the
sanctions, he told the North's diplomats those were law
enforcement issues and not part of the six-party talks. 

Washington imposed sanctions in October on eight North Korean
companies accused of acting as fronts for sales of banned
missile, nuclear or biological weapons technology. 

The United States also accuses North Korea of producing high
quality counterfeit $100 bills known as ``supernotes.'' 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 7 Guardian Unlimited: Text of China's Statement From North Korea
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday November 11, 2005 6:31 AM

By The Associated Press 

Text of the statement issued Friday by China at talks in Beijing
on North Korea's nuclear program: 

The first session of the fifth round of the six-party talks was
held in Beijing from Nov. 9-11, 2005. The parties conducted
serious, pragmatic and constructive discussions and put forward
proposals on how to implement the joint statement of the fourth
round of the six-party talks. 

The parties reaffirmed that they would fully implement the joint
statement in line with the principle of ``commitment for
commitment, action for action,'' so as to realize the verifiable
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at an early date and
contribute to lasting peace and stability of the Korean
Peninsula and Northeast Asia. 

The parties emphasized that they are willing to comprehensively
implement the joint statement through confidence building, carry
out all commitments in different areas, commence and conclude
the process in a timely and coordinated manner and achieve
balanced interests and win-win result through cooperation. 

The parties agreed to formulate concrete plans, measures and
steps to fulfill the joint statement in accordance with the
aforementioned spirit. 

The parties agreed to hold the second session of the fifth round
of six-party talks at the earliest possible date. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., North Korea Each Urge Concessions
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday November 11, 2005 7:31 PM

AP Photo TOK201 

By JOE McDONALD 

Associated Press Writer 

BEIJING (AP) - The United States and North Korea urged each
other to make concessions as a round of six-nation talks aimed
at ending the North's nuclear programs concluded Friday with no
sign of progress or a date to meet again. 

The chief U.S. envoy called for the North to shut down a
plutonium-producing nuclear reactor. The North's delegate
insisted that Washington lift sanctions on companies accused of
weapons proliferation. 

There was no indication of progress toward the goal set by host
China for this week's talks - agreeing on details of how to
carry out North Korea's pledge in September to give up its
nuclear program in exchange for aid and a security guarantee. 

The competing demands highlight the key dispute in the talks -
North Korea's insistence on receiving compensation before it
disarms completely, and Washington's refusal to reward Pyongyang
until that goal is accomplished. 

North Korea also wants a light-water civilian nuclear reactor
for power generation before it disarms. But Hill said the other
governments agreed that they should not even discuss that until
the North's other programs are dismantled. 

The talks, the fifth set in a series, began Wednesday and were
due to last only three days so diplomats could attend an Asian
economic forum in South Korea. The participants are the two
Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. 

China issued a brief, upbeat chairman's statement saying
negotiators affirmed their September declaration to achieve the
``verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.'' 

The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill,
called on North Korea to suspend use of a reactor at Yongbyon
that Washington says is producing plutonium, a fuel for bombs. 

``They should be stopping their programs immediately,'' Hill
told reporters. 

But Hill said he rejected the North's proposal to be compensated
with aid for the interim step of shutting down the reactor. He
repeated Washington's insistence that it would not discuss aid
until all the North's programs are dismantled permanently. 

``We are not prepared to launch a separate negotiation to have a
freeze because freezing programs does not solve this problem,''
he said. ``We have to get rid of these things.'' 

North Korea's envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, pressed
Pyongyang's demand for an end to the U.S. sanctions imposed in
October on eight companies accused of trafficking in nuclear,
missile or biological weapons technology. 

It was unclear whether those sanctions would have any effect,
since the United States already bans trade with North Korea. But
sanctions also were applied to a Macau bank that dealt with
North Korean companies, disrupting Pyongyang's commercial
activities. 

``These kind of sanctions are in violation of the joint
statement we have adopted and are going to hinder the
implementation of the commitment we have made,'' Kim told
reporters outside the North's Embassy. 

China's statement said negotiators agreed to meet again at the
``earliest possible date.'' 

Diplomats said that could be as late as January because of
conflicts with other official meetings and the Christmas
holiday. 

``There was an assessment that it will be a little bit difficult
to hold tangible meetings,'' said the South Korean envoy, Deputy
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 9 Times Leader: Bush denies his administration misused prewar intelligence

Posted on Fri, Nov. 11, 2005  
   
 
By Michael P. Buffer and Jonathan S. Landay

 Knight Ridder Newspapers

        TOBYHANNA, Pa. - President Bush on Friday offered his 
most vigorous defense yet of his decision to invade Iraq, 
rejecting as "false" and "baseless" accusations that his 
administration twisted intelligence to support its case for war. 

        The attempts by Democratic lawmakers and others to 
rewrite history are demoralizing U.S. troops and encouraging 
their radical Islamic foes, Bush said. 

        Bush's assertions were in response to renewed questions 
about how the administration used intelligence in making its case 
for war. The revived interest follows the indictment of I. Lewis 
"Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick 
Cheney, on perjury charges. That case involved the leak of the 
identity of a CIA officer married to a critic of Bush's use of 
Iraq intelligence. 

        Polls show that a majority of Americans don't believe 
that Bush is honest, and his approval rating has dropped to 37 
percent. 

        Meanwhile, the number of American servicemen and women 
killed in Iraq has reached 2,050. 

        Standing before a poster reading "Strategy for Victory," 
Bush spoke at the Tobyhanna Army Depot of the dangers of violent 
Islamic radicalism and what he asserted has been progress in the 
fight to defeat terrorism and build democracy in Iraq and 
elsewhere. 

        He also responded to critics' accusations that his 
administration misused intelligence to hype the threat posed by 
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. No evidence has been found 
to substantiate the administration's claims that Iraq was hiding 
chemical and biological weapons, secretly pursuing nuclear ones 
and might give them to al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations. 

        "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and 
the national interest is too important for politicians to throw 
out false charges," Bush declared. "These baseless attacks send 
the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is 
questioning America's will. 

        "As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to 
destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected 
leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind 
them," he continued to applause and cheers. 

        Senior Democrats accused Bush of misusing Veterans Day 
for partisan politics, and they urged him to cooperate with a 
Senate probe into the handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq. 

        "Attacking those patriotic Americans who have raised 
serious questions about the case the Bush administration made to 
take our country to war does not provide us a plan for success 
that will bring our troops home," said Senate Minority Leader 
Harry Reid, D-Nev. 

        "I wish President Bush knew better than to dishonor 
America's veterans by playing the politics of fear and smear on 
Veterans Day," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "This administration 
misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and 
stretching the truth beyond recognition." 

        Bush said that many of his Democratic critics had access 
to the same prewar intelligence that he'd read. And, he noted, 
those critics were among the more than 100 Democrats in the House 
of Representatives and the Senate who voted for a resolution 
authorizing the use of force against Saddam. 

        "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my 
decisions or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible 
to rewrite the history of how the war began," Bush said. 

        Bush and his aides contended that Saddam was concealing 
nuclear, biological and chemical warfare programs in violation of 
a United Nations ban. 

        Saddam, they said, was in league with al-Qaida and had to 
be toppled before he could give banned weapons to terrorists. 

        The administration relied in part on a seriously flawed, 
hastily written October 2002 U.S. intelligence assessment, which 
concluded that Saddam was hiding an illegal nuclear weapons 
program and stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. 

        But the administration's assertions about Iraq's ties to 
al-Qaida weren't supported by U.S. intelligence agencies. In 
fact, prewar CIA reports found no operational cooperation between 
Iraq and al-Qaida, a conclusion also reached by the independent 
9/11 commission. Moreover, CIA reports discounted the possibility 
that Saddam would turn chemical or biological weapons over to 
terrorists. 

        The White House also relied on bogus and exaggerated 
information from Iraqi defectors supplied by the Iraqi National 
Congress, a former exile group with close ties to Cheney and 
senior Pentagon hawks, even after U.S. intelligence officials had 
rejected their claims. 

        In his speech, Bush asserted that a bipartisan Senate 
inquiry into the prewar U.S. intelligence assessment on Iraq's 
banned weapons had "found no evidence" that administration 
officials pressured intelligence analysts to support their case 
for war. 

        But senior Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee 
said in comments accompanying the panel's July 2004 report that 
analysts had worked "in a highly pressurized climate." 

        The 1,800 people who attended Bush's speech were largely 
employees of the Tobyhanna Army Depot and their families, said 
depot spokesman Kevin Toolan. The rest were veterans and invited 
guests. 

        Bush's speech coincided with a new poll that found that 
six out of 10 Americans don't believe that the president is 
honest or that his administration has high ethical standards. The 
Associated Press-Ipsos poll pegged Bush's popularity at 37 
percent. 

Buffer reports for the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 

About KRWashington.com | About the Real Cities Network | Terms
of Use & Privacy Statement | About Knight Ridder | Copyright 
*****************************************************************
 10 Reuters: S.Asia leaders gather for summit amid Indian warning
                   
Reuters.com
 	 	
Fri 11 Nov 2005 7:35 AM ET                                      
                                                                 
By Y.P. Rajesh

 DHAKA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Presidents, prime ministers and a
king began arriving in Bangladesh on Friday for a weekend South
Asian summit as India issued a blunt warning that failed states
could emerge in the region.

 The Nov. 12-13 summit of the South Asian Association for
Regional Co-operation (SAARC) in Dhaka hopes to give new
direction to a two-decade grouping which has largely failed to
achieve its aim of regional integration due to old rivalries and
internal strife in many members.

 "The danger of a number of failed states emerging in our
neighbourhood has far-reaching consequences for our region and
our people," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a
lecture in New Delhi shortly before he left for Dhaka.

 "The impact includes crises which generate an inflow of
refugees and by destabilisation of our border areas," he said.

 "We see signs of the ills of disaffection, alienation and
conflict not only in India, but also across our neighbourhood."

 Although Singh did not name any country, analysts said the
references could be to Nepal and Bangladesh.

 Nepal is struggling to fight a bloody Maoist insurgency while
political parties are up in arms against King Gyanendra, who
sacked the government and took power earlier this year.

 Bangladesh is in the grip of a major security clampdown after a
wave of bombings in recent months by Islamist militants.

 SAARC, formed in 1985 as an economic grouping, includes India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and the kingdoms
of Nepal and Bhutan. Bhutan is sending its prime minister to
Dhaka, not its king.

 The group aims to integrate the economies of one of the poorest
regions in the world, home to nearly 1.5 billion people, boost
trade and help growth to raise the living standards of the
millions who live on less than a dollar a day.

 FREE TRADE PACT

 The Dhaka summit also seeks to give a final push to a South
Asian free trade pact, talks on which have stalled only weeks
before it is scheduled to come into force.

 A free trade area is due to be launched from 2006 but members
are yet to agree over tariff cuts, a list of sensitive trading
items and a system to compensate poorer members for loss of
revenue.

 The summit needs to send a positive message to end differences,
said A.H.M. Muniruzzaman, a senior Bangladesh diplomat.

 "There has to be a meeting of minds at the highest level to
emphasise the point that meeting the (free trade) deadline is
important," Muniruzzaman told reporters.

 The summit is being held in near-curfew conditions in Dhaka as
unprecedented security measures have been put in place after the
bombings across Bangladesh.

 However, bilateral talks between India's Singh and his
Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz, due to be held on Saturday,
are expected to overshadow summit proceedings.

 Ties between the nuclear-powered neighbours have warmed
considerably since they came close to war over Kashmir in 2002
but peace talks to resolve the territorial dispute over the
Himalayan region have made slow progress.

 India's Singh is expected to send a tough message to Islamabad
-- which New Delhi accuses of not doing enough to control
anti-Indian militants -- after a series of bombs which killed 66
people in the Indian capital last month were suspected to be the
handiwork of Pakistan-based militants.

 Analysts said SAARC was at a crossroads.

 India, as the biggest power in the bloc, should show more
flexibility and make generous offers to its neighbours to
bolster the grouping, the Times of India said in an editorial on
Friday.

 "In case of continuing recalcitrance from them, however, it
should expend less energy on SAARC in future and hitch its
horses to more dynamic entities like ASEAN," it said. 

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.                                              [ border=]  
*****************************************************************
 11 IPS-English ENVIRONMENT: Debate Rages Over Nuke Power Revival
 
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:27:09 -0800

<x-flowed>
ROMAIPS NA EN HE IP KP=20
ENVIRONMENT: Debate Rages Over Nuke Power Revival
Sam Garman

WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (IPS) - It is sometimes a hero, and more often a villa=
in, but there is little doubt that nuclear power has become a star of the=
  global warming debate.

The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil contributes to the warming =
of the Earth's atmosphere, which in turn contributes to stronger hurrican=
es, rising sea levels, more frequent forest fires, and agricultural catas=
trophes.

And many experts believe that nuclear power, which produces fewer of the =
emissions that contribute to global warming, could offer a partial soluti=
on.

As the international community seeks alternative energy policies, the nuc=
lear power industry is moving to cast itself as one of those alternatives=
. But the industry is not promoting itself alone. Arguments in favour of =
nuclear power are coming from many places, some of them quite unexpected.

Patrick Moore, who in the 1970s helped found the environmental group Gree=
npeace, argues that decreased use of the fossil fuels can only work if co=
upled with increased use of nuclear power.

=94Six billion people wake up every morning on this planet with real need=
s for food, energy and materials,=94 Moore said at a recent conference in=
  Virginia that drew several dozen experts in environmental and energy pol=
icy to discuss the role nuclear power might play in the world's collectiv=
e effort to solve the problem of global warming.

The modern environmental movement, according to Moore, is out of touch wi=
th these real needs.

=94In the U.S., people tend to be against nearly everything,=94 he told I=
PS, noting that the opposition of Western environmental groups has derail=
ed several hydroelectric projects that could aid the developing world.

Moore does not see nuclear power as the only solution to the world's ener=
gy needs, but he does see it as part of the solution, along with hydroele=
ctric power and other renewable energy resources.

Powerful members of the United States Congress agree. Senator John McCain=
  of Arizona, a likely 2008 presidential candidate, inserted a provision i=
nto his recent global warming bill that would offer government loan guara=
ntees for the construction of new nuclear power plants.

But nuclear power's traditional opponents have reacted to its renewed pro=
spects with dismay.

Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute a=
nd the organiser of the Nov. 7-8 conference, believes that nuclear power'=
s cumulative detrimental effects on public health and safety are too grea=
t a cost to bear. Because of the use of unsafe nuclear technology, =94eve=
ry male in the Northern Hemisphere has plutonium in his testicles,=94 she=
  noted with characteristic bluntness.

Many experts in energy policy have come to the same conclusion as Caldico=
tt, but for economic reasons. =94Nuclear is getting walloped in the marke=
tplace,=94 Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, which advoc=
ates market-based solutions to environmental problems, said at the meetin=
g.

David Freeman, a former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, recounted=
  how he inherited 14 nuclear power plants when assuming that post, and im=
mediately had to shut down eight of them as hopelessly uneconomical.

=94I have never seen a technology fail as horribly as nuclear power has f=
ailed,=94 he said. Moreover, notes Freeman, =94Public opposition to nucle=
ar power is a fact,=94 and this fact must be included in any cost-benefit=
  considerations surrounding the construction of new nuclear power plants.

McCain's bill, called the Climate Stewardship Act, once enjoyed the suppo=
rt of many environmentalists. But the loan guarantees for nuclear power p=
lants, which environmentalists and free market advocates see as a giveawa=
y to a deadly, dying industry, have dampened enthusiasm dramatically.

As Angelina Galiteva, chairperson of the World Council for Renewable Ener=
gy, put it, =94No other power source brings forth fear the way nuclear po=
wer does.=94

Even nuclear power insiders recognise the depth and breadth of public con=
cern over an industry that was born in the violence of World War II, and =
which, by its very existence, creates waste notable even among industrial=
  outputs both for its toxicity and the longevity of that toxicity.

Gregory Jaczko, a titular member of the government Nuclear Regulatory Com=
mission, readily admitted: =94We still have a long way to go to convince =
the public that the NRC is an effective, independent regulator.=94

Many people who oppose nuclear power are also strong advocates of active =
energy conservation.

Lovins, who advises large corporations on energy efficiency, sees great o=
pportunity for increased energy availability through more efficient energ=
y use. =94It is cheaper to save fuel than to buy fuel,=94 he said, noting=
  that companies like DuPont and Texas Instruments have increased profits =
through increasing efficiency.

Others see the problem of global warming as an opportunity for entreprene=
urial adventures in the field of renewable energy technology.

Phil Connor, of the Australian solar power company Sunengy, is currently =
in the United States promoting his Liquid Solar Array technology, which w=
ould use harbour-protected floating plastic solar reflectors as a means o=
f generating power on a massive, industrial scale.

Connor says his technology would work best in North Africa, West and Cent=
ral Asia, South America and his native Australia -- in other words, the p=
laces where the sun shines a lot. He has come to the United States not as=
  an idealist, but as a businessman, looking to fill a need in the marketp=
lace and to make money doing it.

=94All I need,=94 he told IPS, =94is a smart capitalist.=94
*****
+Rocky Mountain Institute (http://www.rmi.org/)
+Nuclear Policy Research Institute (http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/)

(END/IPS/NA/EN/HE/KP/IP/SG/KS/05)

=20
=3D 11111718 ORP014
NNNN

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 12 North Country Gazette: Court Upholds Key Environmental Regulation 

11-10-05 © 2005 


WESTCHESTER COUNTY---A state appellate court has rejected an 
attempt by the owner and operator of the Indian Point nuclear 
power plant to overturn a key state clean water regulation.

 "This is a huge victory for the Hudson River and other New York 
waters that suffer damage when power plants and other industrial 
users withdraw massive amounts of water," Attorney General Eliot 
Spitzer said. "Thanks to the existence of technological 
alternatives, power plants can cool their facilities without 
using vast quantities of water and killing billions of fish." 

State Department of Environmental Conservation Acting 
Commissioner Denise Sheehan said: "Today's ruling was critical in 
upholding New York's ability to protect the Hudson River and 
water bodies throughout the state. The Hudson River is one of the 
most important estuaries in the country and this decision will 
ensure the continued protection of this and other precious 
aquatic resources."

 Entergy, the owner of Indian Point, located in the town of 
Buchanan in Westchester County. withdraws billions of gallons of 
water from the Hudson River every day to cool its twin nuclear 
reactors. More than a billion fish are killed each year when they 
are sucked out of the river and into the power plant's cooling 
systems. Indian Point uses 700 billion gallons of Hudson River 
water each year - - more than the volume of the entire river, 
from the Battery in Manhattan to the federal dam in Troy. Indian 
Point's peak withdrawal of 2.5 billion gallons per day is twice 
the daily drinking water consumption of New York City and 
Westchester County combined.

 In 1974, the State of New York adopted regulations to protect 
rivers and lakes, such as the Hudson River, from damage caused by 
industrial plant cooling water intakes. The regulations have 
governed operations at scores of power plants and industrial 
facilities throughout the state. In November 2004, DEC warned 
Entergy that the regulations required it to reduce the 
environmental impact of the Indian Point cooling system.

 Entergy argued that the regulations were invalid because of a 
company claim that there was no public hearing on one element of 
the regulation. A five-judge appellate court Thursday unanimously 
rejected this argument and allowed the state's water regulations 
to stand. 

As part of the case, Entergy had sought to overturn the state 
rules, which are more protective of the environment than new 
federal rules that were adopted by the Environmental Protection 
Agency in 2004. Those EPA rules are currently being challenged in 
federal court by New York and other states.

 The decision was issued by the Appellate Division, Third 
Department, located in Albany. 

COPYRIGHT 2005 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
*****************************************************************
 13 Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Plant loses nuke fuel | 

ajc.com
 
Southern Co.: Misplacement poses no threat
 		 	
By MARGARET NEWKIRK

        Published on: 11/11/05                                                                                                                                  

Southern Co. said Thursday it is unable to locate some of its 
spent nuclear fuel at the Edwin L. Hatch nuclear plant near 
Baxley. 

The missing fuel comes from rods about the diameter of a pencil. 
Southern Nuclear Operating Co. reported to the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission that about 5 feet, 8 inches of rod that should be in 
its spent fuel pools apparently is not. Southern Nuclear operates 
the plant for Southern Co.'s Georgia Power.

The company was inspecting its spent fuel in accordance with a
February order from the NRC. 

Both Southern Co. and the NRC said Thursday that they did not
believe the missing fuel was a threat to public health or
safety. 

They said the discrepancy could be a record-keeping problem and
that the missing fuel may have been sent to a secured off-site
storage facility already. 

They said pieces of rod could still be in the spent-fuel ponds
but haven't been found. 

Although the NRC's order that nuclear plants inventory their
spent fuel was partly prompted by terrorism fears, the
commission and the company also both say that it's highly
unlikely that the missing fuel was stolen from Plant Hatch. 

"It's highly unlikely that it left the plant and got into an
uncontrolled area," said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. "It's
extremely radioactive. It couldn't easily be removed without
shielding and remote handling." 

Security around the plant, along with radiation monitors that
track all radioactive material, also make it unlikely the
material was stolen, said Tal Wright, a spokesman for the
company. 

"We don't want to minimize it," said Wright. "It's important
that we do everything we can to find it. But it's fair to say
that we won't find all of it. It will either be in a location
that we can't reach or it's been cleaned out and sent to
storage." 

Wright said the company believes the fuel problem stems from a
period in the 1980s when a condenser made water in the plant
corrosive and damaged the integrity of some of the nuclear rods. 

Those rods would have been more likely to break off into pieces. 

Among Southern's three nuclear plants, only Hatch had the
corrosive water problem. 

Inventories of nuclear fuel at the company's other two nuclear
plants have found no discrepancy. 

The discrepancy wasn't discovered earlier, Wright said, because
nuclear operators weren't required to actually measure their
fuel rods until this year. In the past, they simply counted the
rods and matched that number with records. 

The NRC is closely monitoring efforts to locate the missing
fuel. 

The spent-fuel inventory is going on at nuclear plants across
the country now. Reports are due in January. 

Southern's Hatch is the fourth plant nationally that has found
missing fuel in the course of the inventory, said the NRC's
Hannah. 

The other plants are in Vermont, Connecticut and California. 

Separately, last month Southern had to temporarily shut down the
Hatch plant because of a fire emergency. The fire in a
transformer was controlled but not before an unknown quantity of
oil spilled into the Altamaha River. 	   

  © 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|
*****************************************************************
 14 Bellona: The public and the prosecutors’ office against illegal operation
extensions for Kola NPP reactors
 
Commentary

APATITI, Northwest Russia—A protest was staged earlier this week
against the government’s plans to extend the engineered
life-span of two reactors at the Kola Nuclear Power Plant, an
extension the Murmansk area Prosecutors’ Office considers
illegal and against which it is preparing documentation for the
Prosecutor General in Moscow. 

  Rashid Alimov/Bellona   

Rashid Alimov, 2005-11-10 09:36

The organisers of the protest from Murmansk’s Nature and Youth
presented the Murmansk Region with a symbolic gift—a huge
mock-up lock with which the governor could close the aged
reactors at the nuclear power plant (NPP). It was accepted on
the governor’s behalf by his assistant, Aleksei Barabanov. 

As announced by the Murmansk prosecutors’ office, extending the
life-spans of reactors No. 1 and 2 at the Kola NPP (KNPP), which
was granted by the Russia’s nuclear regulatory body within the
Federal Service for Energy, Technological and Atomic Oversight
(FSETAN) was fundamentally illegal: No state environmental
impact studies were carried out, nor any public hearings on the
issue held, as required by law. Protestors carried placards and
banners that read “Open the truth—shut the reactor.” 

“The reactor that exploded at Chernobyl was brand new and had
been in operation for barely two years. The now-extended first
generation reactors and old. Their operation cold turn into a
catastrophe any day,” said Bellona researcher Igor Kudrik.

  Kola Nuclear Plant Operating Illegally   
  
  The Murmansk Region’s Prosecutor has declared the granting of
an operating licence for the Kola Nuclear Power Plant's No. 1
and 2 reactors to be illegal.

Violations 

The Nos. 1 and 2 reactor at the KNPP went online in 1973 and
1974 respectively and are part of Russia’s first generation of
reactors (the VVER 440/230 type). They were designed to work for
30 years. Correspondingly, they should have been shut down in
2003 and 2004. 

But this did not happen. Instead, their operational life-spans,
with a few upgrades, were granted. The licence for the their
five-year operation extentions—granted by Russia’s civilian
nuclear regulator Gosatomnadzor, FSETAN’s predecessor—were
issued without conducting an obligatory state environmental
impact study. Conducting such federal level studies is mandated
by the law “On environmental impact studies” in article 11.
 
It should be noted that the first extension for the old reactors
was issued in summer 2003—almost precisely after former Deputy
Minister of Atomic Energy Andrei Malyshev was installed as
Gosatomnadzor’s chief. 

He replaced Yury Vishnevsky at this post. Vishnevsky had been an
outspoken critic of the former Ministry of Atomic Energy, now
known as the Federal Agency for Atomic energy, or Rosatom. 

In April 2005, the Murmansk Regional Prosecutor issued a
recommendation to annul the violations surrounding the reactor
life-span extensions and force regulatory bodies and
Rosenergoatom, Russian’s nuclear power plant operational
conglomerate, to carry out the environmental impact studies. But
none of these structures did as they were ordered. 

The Murmansk Prosecutors again ordered the state structures to
fulfil the earlier order, but got only the run around in return.
In the near future, the Regional Prosecutor will send
documentation on the case to the Prosecutor General in Moscow
after a possible court petition regarding the non-compliance
with the prosecutors’ recommendations.

  The Murmansk Prosecutors’ Office letter on the illegality of
prolonging the operating life-spans of the KNPP’s Nos. 1 and 2
reactors. The letter was received by Bellona in response to an
inquiry filed by Bellona’s “Environment and Rights” magazine for
information used in an earlier article “The Highway to the
Forbidden Zone.”   

  Rashid Alimov/Bellona   

Nature and Youth and Bellona’s “Environment and Rights” magazine
first drew the attention of prosecutors to the illegality of
prolonging the life-spans of the reactors in 2004. 

Bellona’s Position 
In Bellona’s opinion, as expressed in it’s recently released
“The Russian Nuclear Industry—The Need for Reform” report,
extending the operating life-spans of reactors is a dangerous
practice performed at the expense of western donors, and yet
another indication of crisis within the nuclear industry.

  Bellona's 'Red Report' released   

  The Bellona Foundation has presented its report “The Russian
Nuclear Industry—The Need for Reform” to high-ranking US
government officials and NGOs in Washington, DC to a warm
reception and the accolades of those working within the United
States non-proliferation and environmental establishment.

The most defective reactors—including the KNPP’s first two
blocks, and two reactors at the Leningrad NPP—were singled out
for operational extensions. All of these reactors have fatal
construction and engineering flaws that are impossible to
correct with the help of so-called “complex measures for
prolonging resources and extended operations,” the official
terminology for such operations. 

By Rosatom’s account, the safety of this generation of reactors
(primarily those that are slated to receive extensions) is
achieved mainly by increasing the quantity of safety systems and
systems of limiting the escape of radioactivity and more
stringent requirements for equipment and personnel. 

As a result the NPP becomes more and more complicated, expensive
and unreliable. It could be said that, by the current received
wisdom about safety, atomic energy is close to its terminal
economic level: Further build-up of safety systems will lead to
the decrease of the nuclear industry’s competitive edge. 

In the mid 1990’s, Russia signed an agreement with the European
Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) within the
framework of the Nuclear Safety Account, in which obligations to
take first generation reactors out of service were fortified.
However, after Russia had received financial resources from this
programme, authorities refused to hold up their side of the
bargain.

  International aid to the Kola NPP   

  The cost of operating life-span projects form 1989 to 1992 for
reactor Nos.1-4
     Cost in millions of $
   
  Total 
    208   
  Of them 
* reactors 1,2 
* reactors 3,4     
154
 54   
  Includning techichal assistance*     34,68   
  Norway     9,15   
  Finland     0,63   
  Sweden     2,0   
  USA     7,54   
  EBRD     13,52   
  TACIS     1.84   

  
Between 1991 and 2005, TACIS’s nuclear safety programme spent a
$500m. But in 2004-2005 Norway, reacting negatively to
supporting the life-span extensions of the KNPP reactors,
decreased its financial support of the KNPP. But Europe
continues to buy electricity produced by, among others, the
reactors at the KNPP, thereby supporting the practice of reactor
life-span extensions. 

Bellona’s 2001 “Arctic Nuclear Challenge” report refers to the
fact that even in 1989 the Gosatomnadzor Commission concluded
that the KNPP’s Nos. 1 and 2 reactors should be operated at a
more sparing regime, limiting their power to 50 to 75 percent in
order that these reactors “smoothly end their life cycle.”
Unfortunately, the Commission’s demands were never met. 

Operating the two first generation VVER 440 reactors, the KNPP
is, according to the opinion of the Gosatomnadzor commission, as
well as of several Swedish and Finnish specialists, one of the
most dangerous nuclear power plants in Russia. 

A half-step from an accident 
“They are conducting an absolutely illegal experiment on
extending the operation life-spans of reactors that were
designed to operate for 30 years at one of the oldest NPPs in
Russia,” said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the environmental
group Ecodefence!. 

“This could lead to a nuclear catastrophe as reactor Nos. 1 and
2 are of the first generation of Soviet reactors, comparable to
the safety level of Chernobyl. The prosecutor is obliged to
punish the management of the NPP for its ‘to-hell-with-it’
attitude toward the law and secure the cancellation of the
[extension] licence.” 

Even as far back as June 11th 1992, the acting minister of
safety, Nikolai Glushko, wrote a memo to then Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin, saying: “Urgent is the question of further
operation of VVER-440 energy blocks, which operate at the
Novovoronezh and Kola NPPs, and which do not satisfy
contemporary safety demands. At the same time, the conclusions
of Minatom specialists about [the reactors’] reconstruction are
not economically reasonable.” 

In 1993, the KNPP found itself on the brink of the most serious
accident in its history. As the result of a fierce storm, the
station lost all electrical power, which almost led to the loss
of control over the reactor, which could have resulted in a
serious accident. 

  A young activist named Margarita hands out leaflets about what
to do in case of a radioactive accident.   

  Rashid Alimov/Bellona   

Life-span extension instead of dismantlement 

The last unit built under Soviet power was reactor No3 at the
Smolensk NPP—a Chernobyl-style RMBK-1000 reactor constructed in
1989. In post-Soviet Russia, only three units were built over 15
years: reactor No. 4 at the Balakovo NPP, reactor No. 1 at the
Rostov NPP, and reactor No 3 at the Kalinin NPP. The
construction of these units began in Soviet times, but was
frozen in the late 1980s. Completing their construction cost
more than $3m, despite the fact that when construction was
halted the units were some 70 percent complete. 

Plans proclaimed by Rosatom include completing construction of
reactor No. 5 at the Kursk NPP, reactor No. 3 at the Kalinin
NPP, and reactor No. 2 at the Rostov NPP. The Kursk NPP reactor
is a Chernobyl-style RMBK-1000. The construction of the Kursk
units was started in the 1970s and is now 60-70 percent
complete. According to Rosatom the cost of the construction is
going to be about $1m per unit. 

International experts, however, say that the building of a new
1-giga-watt reactor costs from $1.5 to $2.8 billion. 

With such estimates, even the three units where construction was
halted can scarcely be built in the next five years, to say
nothing of the proposed units. Realizing that the reactors’
construction is unprofitable and impossible economically,
Rosatom turns to extending the operational life-spans of
existing reactors. 

One of the reasons for extensions, according to the Rosatom
representatives, is the lack of any real funds for NPP
decommissioning and spent nuclear fuel management. Thus, the
dismantling of four shut down reactors at the Beloyarsk and
Novovoronezh NPPs that were taken off the grid for safety
reasons before the end of their service lives in 1981, 1984,
1989 and 1990 is moving very slowly. The spent nuclear fuel from
the Novovoronezh NPP was ready to be shipped from the plant only
after more than a decade of work, in 2003.

  Activists bring a symbolic gift to the administration of the
Murmansk Region.   

  Rashid Alimov/Bellona   

According to the Greenpeace experts, Rosatom will need to spend
from 20 to 60 billion roubles ($800m to $2 billion) on
dismantling over the next 14 years. But the government's decree
No.68 from January 30th 2002 sets funding allocations for
dismantlement at a level several times lower than needed
(1.3percent of the profit of Rosenergoatom). 

Moreover, according to the Russian Audit Chamber, the
decommissioning fund has not even been created yet, in violation
of Russian law. So, it is unclear whether the decommissioning
funds have been allocated at all. It is furthermore quite
possible that the responsibility for dismantlement problems will
be shifted to Russia’s regional governments where the plants are
located. 

In the 2001-2005, the operational life-spans of seven reactors
were extended: reactor Nos. 3 and 4 of the Novovoronezh NPP,
reactor Nos. 1 and 2 at the Kola NPP, reactors Nos.1 and 2 at
the Leningrad NPP and reactor No. 1 at the Kalinin NPP. All
reactors continue to operate, producing radioactive waste. 

No approach has yet been developed for soil and water
rehabilitation near the Mayak reprocessing plant in the
Chelyabinsk region, or for the decommissioning of the highly
radioactive waste stored there. It is precisely to Mayak,
though, that radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel are sent
for reprocessing. Owing to the plants reprocessing work, a
permanent radioactive catastrophe is in the works, including the
continued discharge of liquid waste into open water bodies and
reservoirs. 

Charges were brought by the Prosecutor General against Mayak
this year and an investigation is underway. 

Aside from that, Russia’s regulators admit that the country has
created no state system for auditing and accounting for
radioactive substances and waste, and that there is no unified
system for dealing with radioactive waste. 

“Every day, reactors produce radioactive plutonium with the
half-life of 24,000 years,” said Nature and Youth nuclear expert
Ozharovsky. “For thousands of years this plutonium will present
a danger. We have no right to send such a “parcel” to future
generations.” 

It is apparent that in the coming years Rosatom will have to
start decommissioning NPPs. And the sooner expired reactors are
shut down the fewer problems there will be during NPP
dismantlement and radioactive waste storage.

  Vitaly Servetnik, Nature and Youth coordinator.   
  Rashid Alimov/Bellona   

The Situation on the Kola Peninsula 

“The governor bears responsibility for everything that happens
on the territory of the [Murmansk] region,” said Vitaly
Servetnik, the coordinator of anti-nuclear projects for Nature
and Youth. 

“A program for decommissioning the Kola NPP must be developed in
the Murmansk region as well as a strategy for energy savings and
the development of wind power.” 
At present, energy abounds on the Kola Peninsula. Realising
this, Rosatom is lobbying for the construction of an aluminum
factory in Kandalashka in order to have an argument against
closing the dangerous reactors. The factory would presumably
supply the ailing reactors with parts. 

A similar initiative was undertaken to justify the extension of
the LNPP reactors, however public protest and the lack of any
economic benefit from the project brought it to a halt. 

The energy power of the Kola NPPs reactors No. 1 and 2 comprise
880 MWts. 

The energy lost by taking these reactors of the grid could be
temporarily compensated for by thermoelectric energy, as well as
with the help of wind energy. 

“Just using the existent hydropower, windmills could be
installed with a power output of 550 MWts,” Valery Minin,
laboratory chief at the Kola Scientific Centre in the town of
Apatiti, told Bellona Web in an interview. 

All the prerequisites for joint use of hydroelectric power and
wind power are there: The biggest consumption of thermal and
electrical energy comes during the winter, and with winter comes
maximum intensity winds and minimum flow in freezing rivers. By
the same token, both forms of energy could compliment one
another. 

The yearly wind energy potential on the Kola Peninsula,
according to the Kola Scientific Centre’s data, is 350 TWts per
hour. This corresponds to a wind park with a general established
power level of 120,000 MWts. The technical resources of wind
energy along a narrow seaboard strand (some 15-20 kilometers
wide) where the average yearly wind speed is 8 kilometers an
hour has been established as producing 125 TWts per hour a year,
which constitutes a 40,000 MWt wind park.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 15 Burlington Free Press: More cracks found in Vermont Yankee steam dryer

burlingtonfreepress.com  |  Burlington, Vermont 

Published: Friday, November 11, 2005
 
By David Gram The Associated Press
 
MONTPELIER -- The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has found dozens
more cracks in a key plant component, but plant and Nuclear
Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday that they don't
matter much. 

Vermont's three-member congressional delegation wrote to the NRC
urging it to take a close look at the issues surrounding the 62
cracks found in the plant's steam dryer, a component at the top
of the reactor that removes moisture from steam before it is
sent to the plant's turbine. 

Entergy Nuclear, Vermont Yankee's owner, said the cracks had
been found with a new, higher-resolution remote camera. It said
it had consulted with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and with
General Electric, which built the reactor, and that all agreed
the cracks "are acceptable because they are not structurally
significant and are likely to have occurred in the early years
of plant operation and further operation will not affect their
condition." 

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman with the NRC's Northeast regional
office, concurred. "We're satisfied that the plant can safely
operate with its current power level," he said. 

Whether Vermont Yankee can run at a 20 percent higher power
output -- a change it is seeking the NRC's permission to make --
is an open question, Sheehan said. 

"As far as whether they can operate under uprate conditions,
they owe us an evaluation by the end of the month of these new
cracks and how they might affect that," he said. 

Vermont's congressional delegation -- Sens. James Jeffords and
Patrick Leahy and Rep. Bernard Sanders -- sent a joint letter to
the NRC saying that the steam dryer cracking should be studied
closely, particularly given Vermont Yankee's request to increase
its power output. 

"As the NRC reviews the Vermont Yankee power uprate request, we
believe it is essential that our constituents receive needed
information about whether the plant's steam dryer will be able
to withstand boosted power conditions and operate safely and
reliably," the lawmakers said. "The functioning of this piece of
equipment should receive the (NRC's) full and thorough attention
during the review of the uprate application." 

Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry engineer who has been
acting as a technical adviser for the nuclear watchdog group New
England Coalition, said that if the 62 cracks were present for
years or even decades, that meant plant personnel missed them
when they did an inspection last year that found just 18. 

"It certainly calls into question the first inspection,"
Gundersen said. "Either they were wrong in 2004 or they're wrong
in 2005."

The fact that the NRC agreed with Vermont Yankee that the cracks
would not affect the plant at its current power level
"demonstrates the NRC's priorities for protecting the licensees
as opposed to protecting the public health and safety," said
Raymond Shadis, a technical adviser to the New England
Coalition. 

"Anybody that is involved in any kind of metal fabrication,
welding, metalurgy or related disciplines understands that
surface cracks are ... a significant symptom of larger
stresses," Shadis said. 

Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien declined to comment on
the newly found cracks. His department negotiated a settlement
with Entergy under which it supported Vermont Yankee's power
boost request before the Public Service Board, which gave it
conditional approval in March of 2004. 

Copyright ©2005 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 16 Poughkeepsie Journal: First dive fails to locate any leaks at Indian Point fuel pool
 
  PoughkeepsieJournal.com

Friday, November 11, 2005 

The Associated Press
		 		 
BUCHANAN — A diver studded with radiation sensors has found no
leaks so far in the liner of the spent fuel pool at the Indian
Point 2 nuclear power plant, the plant’s owner said Thursday.

Entergy Nuclear Northeast is trying to find the source of a
small amount of radioactive water discovered outside the spent
fuel pool. 
A remote-controlled video camera lowered into the pool last week
detected three areas, 16 to 22 feet down, that looked like rust
spots and might have been leaking.

The diver — tethered to keep him away from the highly
radioactive spent fuel — slipped into the pool on Tuesday and
fixed a vacuum box over two of the three spots. 

The vacuum action would have pulled material in through the
flaws if there were a leak, but that did not happen, Entergy’s
Jim Steets said.
The third and deepest spot is to be examined by a diver next
week, Steets said.

The 40-foot-deep pool holds the highly radioactive fuel
assemblies that have been used in the nuclear reactor in
Buchanan.

Concern about the leak grew last month after low levels of
tritium, a radioactive isotope, were found in water in six
sampling wells on Indian Point property.           


	   Copyright ©2005 PoughkeepsieJournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 17 Poughkeepsie Journal: Nuke plant faces cooling towers fight
 
  PoughkeepsieJournal.com   

Friday, November 11, 2005 

'04 ruling upheld; court favors state
 
Greg Clary The Journal News
 		 		 
BUCHANAN — A state appellate court Thursday upheld a 2004 ruling
about New York's regulating power that sets up a battle between
Indian Point and the Department of Environmental Conservation
over how the nuclear plant must cool Hudson River water before
discharging it back into the river.

In October 2003, Indian Point lawyers sought to invalidate the
DEC's power to regulate the use of local water in the operation
of 227 industrial plants scattered across the state. Entergy
claimed the DEC had not properly advertised the proposed
regulations prior to when they went into effect in 1974.

A panel of five judges unanimously agreed with a lower court
ruling Entergy's suit was filed too late.

"The statute of limitations expired 30 years ago," said Susan
Taylor, the assistant state attorney general who defended the
case brought by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, Indian Point's owner.

"That's really good for a billion fish."

Opponents of Indian Point maintain the plants are killing fish
in great numbers when they are sucked into the site to cool the
heat-generating creation of electricity.

Entergy officials maintain the overall effect on the river is
negligible because the water is returned to the Hudson close to
its original temperature.

Regulators want Entergy to build cooling towers to ensure the
water used during the plant's operations is returned to the
Hudson with the least possible impact on the aquatic environment.

Company officials have said the towers could cost 1.5 billion
and aren't necessary.

Federal regulations allow companies to use river water to cool
their equipment as long as they use combinations of screens and
other technologies to reduce the amount of river life destroyed.

Indian Point uses such screens.

State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer called the appellate court
ruling "a huge victory for the Hudson River and other New York
waters that suffer damage when power plants and other industrial
users withdraw massive amounts of water."

Official: Ruling anticipated 

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Indian Point, said company officials
had not seen the decision, and wouldn't comment on a possible
appeal without reading the ruling.

"We were anticipating it," Steets said of the ruling. "We'll
proceed with making our case that the cooling towers are not a
good fit for Indian Point and would not be an environmental
benefit, but actually an environmental negative." He said the
ruling was very narrow, dealing only with the timeliness of the
lawsuit.

Victor Tafur, a lawyer for Riverkeeper, the environmental
organization that was a party to the lawsuit, agreed the
decision was small, but called it significant because of what it
sets up.

"The regulations have been affirmed," Tafur said. "This has
cleared the way to get to a real determination."

DEC officials also hailed the decision, which Taylor said
continued the environmental agency's right to do its job.

"(The) ruling was critical in upholding New York's ability to
protect the Hudson River and water bodies throughout the state,"
Denise Sheehan, the DEC's acting commissioner, said in a
prepared statement. 

Greg Clary can be reached at gclary@thejournalnews.com          

What's next   
  
The state Department of Environmental Conservation must set
hearing dates on Indian Point's expired permit to use Hudson
River water.   

Copyright ©2005 PoughkeepsieJournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 18 Rutland Herald: Vermont Yankee has more cracks; probe demanded

Rutland Vermont News & Information

November 11, 2005 

By Susan SmallheerHerald Staff   
  			 
BRATTLEBORO — A key component at Vermont Yankee nuclear power
plant has developed dozens of additional cracks, the plant's
owner announced late Thursday.

Entergy Nuclear said that sophisticated technology discovered a
total of 62 cracks in the steam dryer during a special
inspection during the power plant's ongoing shutdown and
refueling. The company had reported last year that there were 16
cracks in the 17-foot-wide steel steam dryer.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that despite the cracks,
the reactor was safe to resume operation, but it said the new
cracks raised unanswered questions about the plant's ability to
withstand the additional pressures that would come with its
plans to generate more power.

The large number of cracks quickly caught the attention of the
state's congressional delegation. Led by Sen. James Jeffords,
I-Vt., the ranking member of the Senate committee that oversees
nuclear power plants, the delegation called for federal
regulators to do their own investigation into the cause of the
cracks in the steam dryer.

"We request that the condition of the steam dryer be fully
evaluated, using the techniques of the most recent inspection
and any other appropriate means, as the NRC considers Entergy
Nuclear's request to produce an additional 100 megawatts of
power from Vermont Yankee," said the statement from Jeffords,
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., to
NRC Chairman Nils Diaz.

"We believe it is essential that our constituents receive needed
information about whether the plant's steam dryer will be able
to withstand boosted power conditions and operate safely and
reliably," the letter added.

Cracking in steam dryers has been a critical issue in Entergy's
ambition to boost power production by 20 percent, or 110
megawatts, because other General Electric-designed reactors have
developed cracks in their steam dryers, resulting in failure.
Entergy's long-stalled application for a power boost has been
largely delayed over the NRC's concerns about the steam dryer.

According to NRC information, only six reactors out of the 100
commercial reactors in the country have developed such cracks.

The steam dryers are not a safety component by themselves, but
their failure, which could result in pieces of steel falling
back into large steam valves, which lead back to the reactor,
could create serious safety problems.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Thursday the NRC was sure that
the plant was safe to continue to operate and the plant had
clearance to resume operation. The plant has been shut down for
its regular refueling and maintenance outage since Oct. 24.

But Sheehan said the NRC had asked Entergy for additional
information about the cracking issue, a report that is expected
by the end of the month.

Sheehan said 16 cracks had been discovered in April 2004, the
last time the plant was shut down for its regular refueling and
maintenance. He said a testing with increased magnification
revealed the additional cracks.

"Our evaluation is these cracks don't pose any sort of a
problem," Sheehan said.

He said the NRC and Entergy had concluded that the cracks had
been there "a long time," probably "early in the power history
of Vermont Yankee." The reactor started operation in November
1972.

Sheehan said he didn't know how big the cracks were, but said
they were "very minor."

"We don't believe these pose any problem for restarting," he
said.

The uprate or power boost is another matter, he said.

Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy, said the cracks were
"insignificant and didn't pose a safety hazard."

Last year, the plant originally announced finding only four
cracks, with one as long as 14 inches and another 3 inches long.
They were cleaned and welded. Months later, the company later
increased the number to 16.

Williams said a "high-resolution inspection" had revealed 62
"shallow hairline surface cracks that Entergy, General Electric
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have determined are
acceptable because they are not structurally significant."

Williams said the cracks are "similar to those found at other
boiling-water reactors." He said the cracks occurred in metal
less than a quarter-inch thick, while the "hairline" ones were 1
to 5 inches long.

Unlike the cracks discovered last year, these cracks didn't have
to be welded or reinforced, Williams said.

Raymond Shadis, senior technical advisor for the anti-nuclear
group New England Coalition, said it was "insulting to the
public" that the information was released so late in the day, on
the eve of a federal three-day weekend holiday, and leading up
to important NRC hearings in Brattleboro on the technical
problems of the so-called uprate.

"These (surface) failures are indicators of future structural
failures," Shadis said, saying that anyone with commonsense
experience in welding, metal fabrication or metalurgy knew that
cracking was a precursor to failure.

He said Entergy, having now identified defects which probably
existed since plant construction, "should have undertaken an
analysis to determine whether or not they would have an effect
on future safety."

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
   
© 2005 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
 19 lamonitor.com: Group weighs U.S.-India nuclear pact 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 

ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor

The Los Alamos arms control group kicked around the awkward idea
of a new nuclear agreement between the United States and India,
a nuclear weapons state outside the regime of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 
At a meeting Wednesday the group reviewed the nuclear
implications of the formal understanding between President Bush
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, signed on July 18, during the
latter's visit to the United States this summer.

The agreement caught a number of arms control watchers by
surprise. 


The nuclear understanding was tucked into a broader document,
covering mutual economic, environmental, technological and
security interests.

"President Bush conveyed his appreciation to the Prime Minister
over India's strong commitment to preventing WMD proliferation,
and stated that as a responsible state with advanced nuclear
technology, India should acquire the same benefits and
advantages as other such states," according to the joint
statement. 
In recent testimony before the House Committee on International
Relations, David Albright, president of the Institute for
Science and International Security, said the agreement was hasty
and might have unintended consequences for the NPT, the basic
international accord that governs nuclear issues among and
between nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states.

"This agreement could pose serious risks to the security of the
United States," Albright said in his written testimony. "If
fully implemented, it could catapult India into a position as a
major supplier of both nuclear and nuclear-related materials,
equipment and technology." 
It could also incite other nuclear powers like Russia and China
to seek their own exceptions to the rules, he said.

Members of the Los Alamos Committee on Arms Control and
International Security (LACACIS) turned the matter over a few
times and informally concluded that there might be something
more positive about the new relationship than first appeared.

"India is not a signatory (to the NPT)," said Cheryl Rofer, the
committee's program director who led the discussion. "That's the
big and important fact here."

India and Pakistan never joined the convention and, like Israel,
now find themselves on the outside, with no real mechanism to
join as nuclear nation states.

Iran's nuclear ambitions, however they may play out, are still
somewhat contained within the safeguards of the treaty, which
include regulations and inspections by the International Atomic
Energy Agency. North Korea was once a member of the NPT, but
withdrew in January 2003.

"This is not the NPT I grew up with," said Maurice Katz, a
former nuclear counselor for the IAEA.

Rofer said that Mohammad El Baradei, Director General of the
International Atomic Agency has been reported to endorse the
U.S.-India agreement, which would represent a significant
endorsement.

El Baradei won the Nobel Peace Prize this year on behalf of the
peacekeeping agency, which has the key responsibility for
assuring international compliance with the NPT.

David Thomson, an arms control authority and author of the book,
"A Guide to the Nuclear Arms Control Treaties," suggested a
closer reading of the text of the NPT, to clarify what is
permissible in this case.

"You can't give them weapons, but you can give them nuclear
technology," he said.

In the joint statement, India agreed to "identifying and
separating civilian and military facilities and program in a
phased manner and filing a declaration regarding its civilians
facilities with the IAEA."

There was apparent agreement in the group that a great deal will
depend on how well and how seriously such important steps in the
nonproliferation process are managed by India and viewed by the
world.

But not all the consequences were predictable.

"I'm worried that this agreement will hurt us in the short term
in negotiations with North Korea," said Gerry Strickfaden. "We
are cozying up with a state that may not be violating, but is
also not complying with the NPT."

India's thirst for increased energy resources as a developing
nation and U.S. interests in exporting nuclear power technology,
may also be a factor, a point emphasized in the LACACIS meeting,
where the types of reactors and varying degrees of proliferative
potential were considered.

A final rule published in the Federal Register on Aug. 30, less
than two weeks after the agreement was signed cleared the way
for "the removal of license requirements for exports and
re-exports to India of items controlled unilaterally for nuclear
non-proliferation reasons," and removed several Indian entities,
including the Indian Space Research Organization from a list of
controlled entities.

Among the more skeptical members in the discussion, Pete Sheehey
said he was dubious about the Bush administration's approach to
diplomacy.

"But it looks like there are two sides to this, and it's up to
us to push the positives," he said.

The group had scheduled a talk with LANL historian Roger Meade,
who was unable to attend. Meade, who has new research to report
on the subject of President Truman and the H-bomb, will be
rescheduled.   


  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 20 Vermont Guardian: Speaking truth about power

posted November 11, 2005 

We are down to the wire on Vermont Yankee. On Nov. 15-16, a
meeting of a key federal subcommittee in Brattleboro is expected
to be the last public hearing in Vermont before the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission makes its decision early next year on
Entergys proposal to increase power at the aging Vernon reactor.
The meeting also marks a unique confluence of state and federal
regulatory interests, since the last real remaining state hurdle
 a certificate from the Public Service Board  could hinge on
this subcommittees recommendation to the full NRC. 

The hearing is important, because Entergys application is not
just about a 20 percent uprate. The subtext of the uprate
application is Entergys intention to run VY for 20 years beyond
its initial license period, which ends in 2012, and run it
hotter than it was designed for. The Louisiana-based corporation
has hinted that without the ability to generate and sell
additional power, Vermont Yankee would cease to be profitable
and thus could close even before its current license expires. 

Mindful of the significant share of Vermonts total power that
comes from VY, state officials have reacted to this threat not
by devising new and forward-thinking power options, but with
capitulation. From the Republican Douglas administration to the
Democrat-controlled Legislature, officials have caved on demands
for serious environmental and financial protections for the
spent fuel that will likely be stored on the banks of the
Connecticut River  storage that gives the company the latitude
to generate more power and create more waste. 

In response to Entergys fear-mongering, the state has backed
away from stringent terrorism and radiation shields. Whats more,
Entergy gets off the hook for storage costs a mere 30 years
after the company leaves town, leaving generations of Vermonters
left to pay with their health and their taxes. 

Residents who live within the 10-radial-mile VY emergency
planning zone are regularly reminded of the risks posed by this
reactor. They listen to the shriek of the monthly siren tests,
tape potassium iodide pills to the inside of their medicine
chests, keep an ear out for tone-alert radio broadcasts, post
calendars that instruct them what to do in case of a radiation
release, and make schoolchildren practice evacuations. Yet many
Vermonters outside the area remain oblivious to the brunt born
by south-state residents on behalf of their monthly electric
bills, at best paying little attention to the VY question, and
at worst parroting Entergys company line about clean, low-cost
power. 

It is worth reminding these folks of a few salient points: 

 Nuclear power it not a solution to global warming. When the
full cycle  from uranium mining to the disposal of high- and
low-level nuclear waste  is taken into account, nuclear power
produces tons of CO2. 

 Tens cents of investment will buy 1 kilowatt of nuclear
electricity, 1.2-1.7 kilowatts of wind power, 2.2-6.5 kilowatts
of small-scale cogeneration, or up to 10 kilowatts of energy
efficiency, according to a recent paper by physicist Amory
Lovins. 

 Nuclear power fails the free-market test. A new nuclear power
plant has not been ordered or built in this country for more
than three decades, and the only way the industry can even
consider expansion is through billions of dollars in government
subsidies and a congressionally mandated pass on insurance
liability. The U.S. nuclear industry has received 33 times as
much government subsidy as wind power, while at the same time
enjoying a regulatory system of its own design, notes Lovins. 

Many of the people and some of the elected officials of the
tri-state region around Vermont Yankee have, through a handful
of under-funded and overworked citizens organizations, waged an
unprecedented fight against the uprate. VYs uprate application,
filed more than two years ago, marks the first time that outside
organizations have been granted intervenor status by the NRC, a
bureaucracy that has routinely rubber-stamped more than 100
uprates in an average of one year or less. The NRC has exceeded
by more than 5,000 hours the time it expected to devote to the
VY application, reflecting a level of citizen-driven
participation that will not go unnoticed in an industry
accustomed to kid-glove regulatory treatment. It signals to
people throughout the country that their time and energy can
make a difference, that they do have a voice in an energy future
that does not have to include a heavily subsidized, risk-laden,
nonrenewable energy source. 

Nuclear power makes no sense for a state like Vermont, which has
emerged as one of the few places on the planet where this
message is being sent. This is the home stretch  a critical time
to speak the truth about power to the powers that be. 
Send us your news tips, a letter to the editor or general
comments.
 
* All fields required - This information is used for
verification purposes only - Thanks! 


Vermont Guardian
 PO Box 335
 Winooski, VT 05404 

PO Box 335, Winooski, VT 05404
 Southern Vermont: 139 Main Street, Suite 702, Brattleboro, VT
05301
 Contact: 802.861.4880 (ph) | 802.861.6388 (fax) | 877.231.5382
(toll-free)

 ©2005 Vermont Guardian | 

Visit us: www.vermontguardian.com
 This document can be located online:
www.vermontguardian.com/commentary/112005/November11Editorial.sht
ml 
*****************************************************************
 21 Brattleboro Reformer: 62 cracks found at Vt. Yankee

November 11, 2005 Brattleboro, VT                                                                                 
 			 								 					
By KRISTI CECCAROSSI Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- There are 62 cracks in an important piece of 
equipment at Vermont Yankee, but plant officials and federal 
regulators say that's not a problem.

 The hairline, surface cracks in the plant's steam dryer were 
found this month during a routine shutdown. Entergy Nuclear, 
owners of the plant, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said 
the cracks pose no safety threat.

 The cracks are not structurally significant and they are 
probably from the plant's early years of operation, according to 
Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC. They "appear to be old," he 
said.

 However, nuclear watchdogs say the cracks are one more reason 
why the NRC should put the brakes on Entergy's plans to boost 
power at the plant to 120 percent. A so-called "uprate" at 
Vermont Yankee is pending final review by the NRC.

 In other nuclear plants that have been uprated, cracks in the 
steam dryer have been a persistent concern. 

Vermont's congressional delegation has identified the cracks as a 
problem, too. The state's senators and sole representative wrote 
to the NRC on Thursday, urging the agency to evaluate the steam 
dryer issue before approving the uprate.

 The Vernon reactor has been off line for re-fueling since Oct. 
22. During the outage, plant engineers looked at the reactor and 
the steam dryer, located at the top of the reactor. They found 42 
cracks, ranging from 1 inch to 5 inches in length, said Rob 
Williams, spokesman for the plant.

 The other 16 cracks were discovered in March 2004, during the 
last refueling outage.

 The cracks could have been on the steam dryer more than 20 
years, but they've only been discovered now because engineers are 
using cameras with higher resolutions than ever before.

 The images show the cracks have been reviewed by Entergy 
officials, as well as the NRC and General Electric.

 Vermont Yankee is a boiling water reactor that started running 
in 1972.

 When the reactor heats up, it produces steam which, eventually, 
produces power. Before the steam hits the plant's turbines, it 
passes through the steam dryer, where any traces of water are 
removed.

 The Quad Cities Generating Station in Illinois, also a boiling 
water reactor that went on line in 1972, was granted a 17.5 
percent uprate by the NRC in 2002.

 Since then, the steam dryer has failed twice because of 
cracking. In one instance, a piece of the dryer broke off and 
damaged other components of the reactor. The plant has been shut 
down a number of times to try to fix the problem.

 The NRC is scrutinizing the steam dryer issue at Vermont Yankee 
as a result. This fall, it told plant officials that in order to 
have their uprate approved, they'd have to adhere to more 
stringent maintenance of the steam dryer. Entergy agreed to the 
condition.

 Ray Shadis, technical advisor for the nuclear watchdog New 
England Coalition, said the added oversight amounts to "an 
experiment on the banks of the Connecticut River."

 "They are now making the assertion that because these are 
surface cracks, they will go no further."

 And particularly in light of a 20 percent boost in power output 
at the plant, Shadis said, "that's preposterous."

 Entergy officials have until the end of the month to prove that 
the cracks won't be exacerbated by an uprate, said Sheehan, of 
the NRC.

 Plant engineers will evaluate the steam dryer and submit a 
report to the NRC for review. The NRC will not investigate the 
issue itself.

 However, in a letter to the NRC chairman, Sens. Patrick Leahy, 
D-Vt., and Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., 
indicated that's what they'd like the agency to do.

 "We request that the condition of the steam dryer be fully 
evaluated, using the techniques of the most recent inspection and 
any other appropriate means," the letter states. "... it is 
essential that our constituents receive needed information about 
whether the plant's steam dryer will be able to withstand boosted 
power conditions and operate safely and reliably."

 While Vermont Yankee was shut down, plant officials refueled the 
reactor with a fuel specifically designed for the plant's 
"uprated" production, according to Williams, plant spokesman. 
During last year's outage, plant officials installed the same 
fuel.

 Entergy has reportedly done other work at the plant in 
preparation for the power boost, but Williams could not say how 
much officials have spent in anticipation of an uprate.

 The uprate has been approved by the state's Public Service 
Board, a quasi-judicial panel that handles all matters related to 
utilities. The board's approval is not final, however; members 
are still deliberating whether they want an independent safety 
assessment of the plant done first.

 The NRC is the last, major agency that must endorse the uprate. 
This month, it all but granted tentative approval. It's "draft" 
evaluation will bear public review on Nov. 15 and 16, when an 
agency panel hosts hearings at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro.

 NRC officials have said they will issue a final evaluation of 
the uprate early next year.

       Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc., a 
*****************************************************************
 22 [du-list] UNEP & Iraq: No DU in bunker busters, cruise
 
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:31:57 -0800

<x-flowed>
Although DU contamination was not the primary concern at the five
sites that are the subject of this preliminary assessment, here is
what the just-released UNEP report, "Assessment of Environmental
'Hot Spots' in Iraq"  has to say about the sources of DU in Iraq (pp 115-116):

--quote--
Depleted uranium (DU) rounds:
Multi-national forces used depleted armour piercing DU ammunition in
the 2003 conflict as 30mm shells in A10 ground attack aircraft and as
100 and 120mm anti-tank rounds used in American and British tanks.
DU is used in military operations as its very high density makes it
suitable for use as penetrators which destroy armoured vehicles by
punching a hole in solid steel walls and breaking up inside the
vehicle.
Many of the destroyed Iraqi tanks and APCs were hit by DU rounds,
normally 2 -7 times per armoured vehicle. These vehicles are
therefore expected to have extensive DU contamination in the form of
dust and large fragments. Over time, DU corrodes to uranium oxide
powder, causing further dispersion.
DU presents a chemical hazard as it is moderately toxic
(approximately the same as other heavy metals such as lead). It also
presents a low-level radioactive hazard[10].
If DU is included in tanks taken away for scrap metal recovery, its
fate can vary according to its form and the type of processing:
- DU and uranium oxide dust and fragments will be distributed on the
ground surface around the original combat area and the scrap yard
storage and processing areas;
- Whole DU rounds or pieces may stay intact and be exported with other scrap;
- The uranium may be smelted with the steel scrap and be incorporated
in the ingots;
- Some of the uranium may burn during smelting, releasing uranium oxide dust.
By these processes, the original DU contamination may spread widely,
causing additional problems and increasing the difficulty of future
clean-up work.
--end quote--

Apparently, UNEP (and presumable Iraq's Ministry of the Environment,
which participated in this work) still has NO evidence that DU was
used in bunker-buster bombs, cruise missile warhead penetrators,
cluster bombs, etc., as alleged by those who continue to promote the
companion myth that 2,000 tons (or 1,000, or 4,000....) DU was fired
in 2003.
No one seriously disputes the Pentagon claim that about 300 tons of
DU were fired in 1991, yet few DU critics take seriously the Pentagon
claim that less than 200 tons were fired in 2003.  What changed? Only
the unfounded assumption that DU must be in most weapons if it is in
any at all.

We don't have to believe everything the Pentagon says (I certainly do
not) to acknowledge that, like it or not, the burden of proof in a
tort claim or in Congress, is on those critics who continue to make
the claim that the Pentagon is lying by a factor of 10, as well as
lying about which weapons incorporate DU.
Such needless exageration of what is known just seems
counterproductive to our efforts to end the use of this radioactive
weapon.

Jack Cohen-Joppa


_____________________________________
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                    "a chronicle of hope"
                        P.O. Box 43383
                      Tucson  AZ 85733
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         - information about and support for
imprisoned anti-nuclear and anti-war activists -
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US$15/year/US$20 Canada/US$25 overseas
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*****************************************************************
 23 Janes: Current trends in cannon ammunition (DU)
  
    11 November 2005   

By Anthony G Williams, Joint Editor of Jane’s Ammunition
Handbook 

Ammunition for aircraft cannon 

Armour-piercing ammunition remains in use for special purposes,
mainly for ground attack. The most notable examples are the US
types with cores of Depleted Uranium (DU): the 30 Ч 173 mm
PGU-14/B for the GAU-8/A gun in the A-10/A aircraft, and the 25
Ч 137 mm PGU-20/U for the GAU-12/U in the AV-8B. 

Fixed-wing aircraft cannot use the more effective subcalibre
Armour-Piercing Discarding-Sabot (APDS) and Armour-Piercing
Fin-Stabilised Discarding-Sabot (APFSDS) ammunition used in
ground guns because of the risk of pieces of discarded sabot
hitting the aircraft or being sucked into the engines; there was
one experiment with firing APFSDS rounds from the side-firing 40
mm Bofors guns in the AC-130, as these are sited behind the
engines, but this was not successful. Helicopters are not
subject to such restrictions, and the 20 Ч 102 mm M197 gun on
the US Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra has been qualified to fire the MK
149 APDS rounds from the naval Phalanx Close-In Weapon System
(CIWS). 

Ammunition for ground-based guns 

When armour penetration is the top priority, the supreme
projectile type is the APFSDS, particularly in DU form, as used
in the US Army's 25 Ч 137 mm M919 round for the M242 Bushmaster
chain gun. As with HEDP, there were initially technical
difficulties in getting APFSDS projectiles to perform in a
rifled-barrel gun, in this case because their flight is
destabilised by being spun, but these have been overcome, and
this type of round (albeit with projectiles of tungsten alloy
rather than DU) is now available for most 25 to 40 mm guns used
in MICVs. 

Significant exceptions to this are the British Army, which has
been trying for some years to acquire an APFSDS loading for the
30 Ч 170 mm Rarden (it still relies on the less effective APDS),
and the Russian Federation, whose 30 Ч 165 mm 2A42 and 2A72 guns
also rely on APDS. However, Arsenal Company of Bulgaria has
recently announced an APFSDS loading in this calibre, as has RWM
Schweiz, which incidentally also offers FAPDS for the old
Russian 23 Ч 152 B mm ZU AA round. 

Ammunition for naval guns 

Ammunition for the manually controlled 20 to 40 mm guns has
largely followed the same path as that for army AA guns (indeed,
it is usually the same ammunition). The old Second World War
Oerlikon Type S, in 20 Ч 110 RB mm calibre, still lingers on for
'policing' duties, although it has largely been replaced by more
modern rounds such as the 20 Ч 128 mm in the Oerlikon KAA. The
25 Ч 137 mm (Oerlikon KBA, Bushmaster), 30 Ч 170 mm (Oerlikon
KCB) and 30 Ч 173 mm (Mauser MK 30, Bushmaster II) also feature,
with the last of these becoming the main focus of recent
development. 

467 of 3,760 words 


Armour-piercing ammunition remains in use for special purposes,
mainly for ground attack. The most notable examples are the US
types with cores of Depleted Uranium (DU): the 30 Ч 173 mm
PGU-14/B for the GAU-8/A gun in the A-10/A aircraft, and the 25
Ч 137 mm PGU-20/U for the GAU-12/U in the AV-8B. --> 	 [End of
non-subscriber extract.]
 

  © 2005 Jane's Information Group. All rights reserved   |  
*****************************************************************
 24 asahi.com: Nuke repair worker tried to hide mistake

11/11/2005 The Asahi Shimbun

A worker connected a wrong pipe--and concealed his
error--allowing his mistake to be nearly used in repair work for
the nation's deadliest accident at a nuclear power plant,
officials said Thursday. 

According to the officials, the error occurred at Mitsu-bishi
Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Takasago factory in Hyogo Prefecture in
February. 

The worker's superior noticed the mistake and ordered the worker
to "fix it." 

However, the worker thought the superior wanted the
manufacturing number on the pipe--not the pipe itself--to be
changed, the sources said. 

The worker filed off the number and replaced it with the
"correct" manufacturing number, they said. 

The pipe was to be used at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in
Fukui Prefecture during restoration work following the Aug. 9,
2004, rupture of a pipe in the No. 3 reactor. Scalding steam
from the pipe killed five people and injured six others. 

However, an inspector of Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO),
operator of the plant, noticed the mistake and instructed
Mitsubishi Heavy to connect the correct pipe. 

However, KEPCO reported to the central government that there
would have been no problems if the erroneous pipe was used. In
its report, KEPCO wrote that it was not even necessary to change
the pipe. 

The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the
mistake was not serious enough to delay the resumption of
operations at the No. 3 reactor at the plant. 

But it did say, "There is a problem with Kansai Electric Power's
stance on quality control."(IHT/Asahi: November 11,2005) 
  
  + The Asahi Shimbun Company  

*****************************************************************
 25 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast: Lockheed told to dig deeper

11/11/2005 | 

Corporation asked to go 2 feet deep in its soil sampling

 DONNA WRIGHT

 Herald Staff Writer

TALLEVAST - State environmental regulators want Lockheed Martin
Corp. to expand its soil sampling to determine how far
contaminants in the Tallevast plume may have spread. 

The latest request from the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection asks Lockheed to go down 2 feet in its sampling
rather than the 1-foot depth Lockheed recently proposed. 

Gail Rymer, Lockheed spokeswoman, said the defense giant is
willing to revise its sampling methods to meet DEP's request. 

Rymer said Lockheed scientists plan to meet next week with Bill
Kutash, the DEP geologist supervising the Tallevast plume
cleanup, to discuss the request. 

"We will then move out to do the sampling," Rymer said. 

Lockheed's proposal for shallower sampling was part of its
response to DEP's Oct. 5 review of the latest data gathered on
the plume of underground pollution stemming from the former
Loral American Beryllium Co. plant at 1600 Tallevast Road. 

That critical DEP review questioned whether the defense giant
had adequately defined the extent of the underground plume now
known to cover more than 131 acres. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised the same
questions in its review of Lockheed's data. 

Recent results from independent tests on private drinking water
and irrigation wells in Tallevast also indicated that the plume
may have migrated farther and faster than Lockheed's data
indicate. 

Kutash requested the deeper soil sampling in a Nov. 8 letter to
Lockheed. He said deeper soil samples will help distinguish what
contaminants may be naturally occurring in the soil from those
that may have migrated from the former Loral American Beryllium
Co. plant. 

Kutash also wants soil samples examined for benzo(a)pyrene, one
of a group of compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
or PAHs. 

PAHs are not produced or used commercially but are commonly
found as a result of incomplete combustion or organic materials,
according to the EPA. The EPA lists benzo(a)pyrene as a
potential carcinogen. Short-term exposure can cause red blood
cell damage, leading to anemia and a suppressed immune system.
Long-term exposure can have developmental and reproductive
effects and cause cancer, the EPA says. 

Wilma Subra, a nationally known chemist and toxic-waste expert
who reviewed Lockheed's latest data for The Herald in August,
said the trace amounts of benzo(a)pyrene already observed in
Lockheed's soil samples must be investigated further. The levels
found exceed safe criteria, Subra said, and she urged Lockheed
and DEP to pursue methods to remove benzo(a)pyrene and other
soil contaminants including arsenic and lead from the soil in
Tallevast residents' yards. 

As the owner of the former beryllium plant when the pollution
was discovered in 2000, Lockheed has responsibility for cleaning
up the mess under DEP and EPA's supervision. 

Lockheed became owner of the property in a 1996 corporate buyout
of Loral, which operated the beryllium plant from 1961 through
1996, manufacturing parts for nuclear weapons and missile
guidance systems for the U.S. government. 

Tallevast residents believe the plume of toxic waste from a
broken sump under the plant has caused widespread illness and
even death in the community. 

Residents have filed two suits against Lockheed claiming damage
to their property and injury from the plume. 

Rymer said Lockheed is committed to a comprehensive
investigation. 

"Lockheed Martin and the state want to make sure we do a
comprehensive investigation of the area," Rymer said. "We want
to make sure we do a good investigation." 

Rymer noted that DEP has approved all of Lockheed's proposed
locations for additional monitoring wells. 

The only well in question is one slated for the southeast corner
of Tallevast Road and 15th Street East intersection. Because of
its proximity to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, the
Federal Aviation Administration must give its approval. 

Pamala Vazquez, spokeswoman for DEP, said the investigatory
process, driven by science and data, is proceeding as it should. 

"We let the science take us through the story," she said. "We
are in the middle of the story and far from the end, but the
story is unfolding. It is not unusual at this point for
different people to have different opinions. Nobody is way off
base on where we are going. It is just that everybody has a
different way of getting there." 

Laura Ward, president of Family Oriented Community United
Strong, or FOCUS, an advocacy group representing Tallevast
residents, welcomed DEP's emphasis on deeper and broader soil
sampling. 

"They most definitely should be looking at the benzo(a)pyrene,"
Ward said. "EPA says there should be a zero detect level of
benzo(a)pyrene in the soil." 

Lockheed test data include samples in which levels of
benzo(a)pyrene exceeded targeted cleanup levels. 

Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be
reached at 745-7049 or at dwright@HeraldToday.com.   

*****************************************************************
 26 reviewjournal.com: 'Significant reduction' in nuclear waste seen
 
Nov. 11, 2005

Yucca Mountain nominee testifies before panel    

By TONY BATT <br/>STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
	
WASHINGTON -- Even if technology is developed to dispose of
nuclear waste, a repository will be necessary, the nominee to
direct the Yucca Mountain Project told a Senate committee on
Thursday. 

Edward "Ward" Sproat acknowledged techniques like reprocessing
could result in a "significant reduction" in the 77,000 tons of
highly radioactive nuclear waste to be stored at Yucca Mountain,
100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

"No matter which way we go ... you will still need at least one
high-level geological repository for waste emplacement," Sproat
said. 

But Sprout said the country should plan to recycle and not just
bury nuclear waste. He made his comments during his confirmation
hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee. 

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Sproat's nomination may be
approved by the panel as early as next week. 

Directing the Yucca Mountain Project "will consume you, and
sometimes you will wonder for what," Domenici told Sproat. 

The confirmation hearing occurred one day after the House voted
399-17 to cut Yucca Mountain's budget by $127 million next year.
The House also rejected a proposal for interim storage sites to
supplement the Yucca Mountain repository. 

In written questions submitted to Sproat, Domenici said Yucca
Mountain may not begin receiving nuclear waste until 2015. The
Energy Department has postponed earlier opening dates of 1998
and 2010. 

"If you're trying to change the law to, in some way, expedite
Yucca, you've got to pass it through the Senate; and I'm not
advising the (Bush) administration that I know how to do that,"
Domenici said. 

Sproat, a nuclear industry executive from Pennsylvania, was
nominated in September by President Bush to be the director of
the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management. 

Sproat was the lead negotiator for PECO Energy Company of
Philadelphia, which reached an agreement with the Energy
Department in July 2000 to reduce PECO's payments into a federal
fund for nuclear waste storage. It was the first time a utility
reached an agreement with the Energy Department for the
department's failure to meet a Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin
storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. 

Sproat said he intends the upcoming licensing activities for
Yucca Mountain to be a "transparent process." 

"The people who are going to be affected by this project both
within the state of Nevada and along the transportation routes
have every right to expect that they will get a chance to
participate, learn, understand and influence how the spent fuel
transportation and disposal system is going to work and impact
them," Sproat said. 	   

    
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005
*****************************************************************
 27 Salt Lake Tribune: Congress won't fund PFS fight

Article Last Updated: 11/11/2005 12:41:06 AM                              
                   
  WASHINGTON - Congress has formally denied funding to a
Department of Transportation request for two attorneys to handle
challenges to Private Fuel Storage's plans to ship waste to
Skull Valley. Sen. Bob Bennett had the funding stripped from the
Senate version of the transportation spending bill in July, and
the Transportation Department withdrew its request. 

However, the House had already approved the funding, and it 
remained in the bill until House and Senate members agreed 
Thursday to strip it out. Bennett said he is pleased the House 
members agreed to remove the language and that they "agree that 
this is not a proper role for the federal government." "I remain 
committed to fight against any effort to bring spent nuclear fuel 
to Utah, and firmly believe that this waste should be stored 
where it currently is until we work out the economics and 
technology to reprocess it," Bennett said in a statement. The 
Transportation Department said earlier that it did not intend for 
the attorneys to fight Utah's attempt to block the waste from 
being shipped to the state, but admitted the request for funds 
was poorly handled. The compromise transportation bill will 
likely be finished next week, receive a final vote by the House 
and Senate, and sent to the president for his signature. 
    

В© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 28 kgw.com: Congress requires quarterly reports on Hanford waste treatment plant 

| News for Oregon and SW Washington | AP Wire

11/11/2005 

Associated Press 

The U.S. Department of Energy will be required to make progress
reports to Congress four times a year on its efforts to build a
waste-treatment plant at south-central Washington's Hanford
nuclear reservation, according to a new report. 

The so-called vitrification plant is being built to convert
millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste  the remnants
of decades of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear
weapons arsenal  into glasslike logs for permanent disposal in
a nuclear waste repository. 

However, a report last year found that the Energy Department had
underestimated the impact a large earthquake could have on the
plant. That report and other construction problems have resulted
in significant delays and skyrocketing construction costs, and
the agency halted construction on large portions of the plant
earlier this year. 

The department has repeatedly refused to release a new cost
estimate for the plant, already tagged at more than $5.8
billion. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman notified a House
committee by letter Tuesday that the estimated cost to build and
test the plant is expected to increase more than 25 percent. The
work also will take longer to complete, Bodman said. 

The letter fulfilled a requirement in the 2003 defense
authorization act that the Energy Department notify Congress if
a major project's cost estimate increases more than 25 percent. 

It was the most information the department has so far released
on the plant's rising cost. 

The plant was expected to cost $4.3 billion when the contract
was initially awarded in 2000. The cost had grown more than 30
percent before the latest problems were uncovered. 

Congress now is requiring the department to give a full report
by Dec. 1 "on actions taken to rectify the management failures"
at the vitrification plant. Quarterly reports will be due to the
House and Senate appropriations committees beginning Jan. 1,
2006. 

A House-Senate committee approved the new reporting requirements
as part of the 2006 Hanford budget, which has yet to go to the
full House and Senate for a vote. The budget cuts funding for
the waste treatment plant from $690 million to $526 million for
fiscal 2006. 

The committee report blamed the latest cost increase on
contractor estimating problems, technical problems and
"insufficient project contingency." 

"It is unclear what steps DOE will take to better ensure
effective management and oversight of the project in the longer
term," the report said. 

"The high-level waste vitrification program at Hanford has had a
long history of failure  more than $9 billion has been spent
over the last 15 years," the committee report said in criticism
leveled at the Energy Department. 

About 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste is stewing
in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford site, which was created
as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic
bomb. Some of the tanks are suspected of having leaked into the
aquifer, threatening the Columbia River less than 10 miles away
and making removal of the waste a top priority. 

This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by
the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page,
but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow.     

&copy; 2005, KGW-TV  
    
*****************************************************************
 29 Korea Times: Research Begins on Hi-Level Nuclear Waste Storage 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Biz/Finance   

Research Begins on High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository 
  
By Kim Yon-se Staff Reporter

 The government has launched a feasibility research on the
construction of a high-level nuclear waste storage, following
the designation of Kyongju in North Kyongsang Province as the
first dumpsite for low- and mid-level radioactive waste.

 The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) is poised
to highlight the global issue on the handling of the most highly
radioactive waste.

 ``We started out to study domestic and foreign research
documents on the high-level nuclear waste dumpsite,ЎЇЎЇ Cho
Seok, a director general in charge of new energy &nuclear power
at the MOCIE, told The Korea Times yesterday.

 Saying that several developed countries are in active
discussion to set up a high-level nuclear repository,
respectively, he stressed the issue is a matter of urgency to
Korea, which also ranked 10th in energy consumption in the world.

 ``We expect a series of backlashes from environmentalists and
NGOs,ЎЇЎЇ Cho said. ``I believe the nationЎЇs atomic energy use
would be impossible in the long run without a storage for
waste.ЎЇЎЇ

 But he admitted that advanced countries, including the United
States, are also taking a wait-and-see attitude as the issue may
trigger resistance among global activists as well as
domestically.

 There is no nation that has a high-level nuclear dumpsite while
there are about 70 low- and intermediate-level repositories in
more than 30 countries.

 High-level nuclear waste could be a fatal threat to mankind
while low- and mid-level waste would turn into harmless products
in around 300 years. ``It takes more than 10,000 years for
high-level waste to become safe for humans,ЎЇЎЇ Cho said.

 The U.S. designated Yucca Mountain, Nevada as the high-level
waste storage in 2002. The central government is set to launch
construction in consultation with the state government.

 Japan is also deep in internal discussions, aiming to operate a
high-level waste facility in the 2030s. European countries, such
as Sweden, Finland and Britain, have named a site or are in the
final-stages of research.

 Korea has temporary dumpsites for the radioactive waste in
several locations. But the storage capacity will hit the ceiling
before 2010, according to atomic energy experts.

 On Nov. 2, South Korea named Kyongju as the low- and mid-level
nuke dumpsite via respective votes at four candidate locations.
The designation through bidding competition involving voting was
a worldwide unprecedented case, according to MOCIE officials. 

kys@koreatimes.co.kr 11-11-2005 18:53         
  

*****************************************************************
 30 Deseret News: Huntsman won't OK Envirocare expansion
 
[deseretnews.com] 

Friday, November 11, 2005                                

N-waste facility has been hopng to double its size 	 		 		 By

Joe Bauman

Deseret Morning News                          

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday he will not approve the 
proposed expansion of Envirocare — one of three steps essential 
for any expansion of the Tooele County nuclear waste disposal 
facility.

       This apparently ends a half-year fight by Envirocare to
double the size of its operations near the railroad siding
called Clive.
       Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News about his
opposition during an interview Wednesday. The paper asked about
allegations by the anti-nuclear group Healthy Environment
Alliance of Utah or HEAL-Utah that Envirocare was seeking to buy
access to the governor by hiring as Washington lobbyists two men
with close ties to the governor.
       Did that place pressure on the governor to approve the
company's expansion plans?
       "First of all, you have to assume I was going to sign
some kind of expansion — which I won't do," Huntsman said.
       He campaigned from the first on the position that he did
not favor Utah ever being seen as some sort of dumping ground,
he said.
       "I've taken care of the mill tailings in Moab," the
governor added. These are the radioactive wastes that the U.S.
Department of Energy said it would move far from its present
site near the Colorado River, a decision made after state
officials argued strenuously for the move.
       "I'm fighting every day, aggressively" to prevent highly
radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods from being stored at the
Private Fuel Storage plant proposed for Skull Valley, Tooele
County, he said.
       As for the Envirocare expansion, he added, "If it were to
cross my desk today, I would not sign it."
       Utah law requires three steps before Envirocare's plans
could be authorized: approval by state regulators, by the
Legislature and the governor. The company attempted to have the
expansion brought before the Legislature in April's special
session, but it did not make it on the list of subjects up for
consideration.
       Since then, it has been approved by regulators,
challenged by HEAL-Utah, and then subjected to an appeal hearing
because of HEAL's opposition. Some observers expected the
Envirocare expansion to be on the schedule for the next
legislative session.
       "We're extremely disappointed," said Envirocare senior
vice president Tim Barney regarding Huntsman's position.
       "The governor had asked us to go through the regulatory
process, which we are doing. We're in the middle of that
process. There's an appeal pending in front of the Radiation
Control Board."
       Huntsman had told Envirocare that he would make his
decision at the appropriate time "in that process," Barney said.
       "We think a decision at this time is premature and is
disappointing."
       The company began its drive to expand last March or
April, he said.
       The land, 536 acres adjacent to Envirocare's original
property, was purchased earlier this year from Charles Judd,
former Envirocare president. Before then, Judd planned to use
the site for his own disposal operation, Cedar Mountain
Environmental.
       Asked if the governor's position would prompt Envirocare
to drop the expansion petition before state regulators, Barney
said he did not think so.
       "We're still evaluating our options," he said.
       Jason Groenewold, HEAL's director, issued a press release
shortly after word circulated of Huntsman's opposition.
       "We commend Gov. Huntsman for putting the health and
well-being of Utahns over the profits of Envirocare's
investors," said the release. "He clearly showed his resolve to
keep Utah from becoming entrenched as the nation's nuclear waste
dumping ground."
       He added that the governor has allayed concerns HEAL had
that Envirocare hiring people close to Huntsman would affect his
decision about the Envirocare expansion.
       When Groenewold raised questions about the matter, he
said in a Deseret Morning News interview, a Huntsman staff
member told him the governor would no longer talk to him until
he apologized.
       On Thursday, Huntsman got an apology from Groenewold.
       "His opposition to Envirocare's expansion shows Gov.
Huntsman is a man of integrity," Groenewold said in the e-mail
press release. "To the extent that I misjudged where the
governor would come down on this issue, I offer my sincere
apologies."
       Listed as Envirocare lobbyists on the federal level, in
records of the U.S. Senate, is Farbman Hopkins and Associates,
56 Exchange Place. The form lists as individual lobbyists
Gregory L. Hopkins and Max A. Farbman. Their efforts for
Envirocare are described as "political strategy, business and
management consulting."
       Farbman was chairman of Huntsman's special initiative
office, handling fund-raising. Hopkins was the director of the
governor's transition team.
       Earlier Thursday, Barney said Farbman and Hopkins were
hired only to lobby for Envirocare on the federal level, not in
Utah.
       "If you're going to lobby state officials, in this case
the governor or state legislators or the attorney general or any
state official, then you need to register as a state lobbyist,"
Barney said.
       For lobbying on the federal level, he said, they must
lobby with the federal government.
       "We hired Farbman and Hopkins exclusively as federal
lobbyists," he said. They would not be allowed to lobby in Utah,
and they were not hired for that purpose, he added.
       "Any claims of conflict of interest is just an outrageous
claim," Barney said, "and it's not more than someone trying to
find a conspiracy under every rock."
       Farbman and Hopkins could not be reached for comment.

E-mail: bau@desnews.com			  		 		   

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 			 		 	 [ /] 
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 31 Pahrump Valley Times: YUCCA PROJECT QUESTIONS RISE 

November 11, 2005

Congress negotiators agree to cut spending in 2006 

By ERICA WERNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers agreed Monday to cut 2006 spending for
Yucca Mountain well below past-year levels and President Bush's
budget request, reflecting the faltering prospects for locating
the nation's nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert. 

House and Senate negotiators also ditched a House plan to
supplement Yucca Mountain with interim storage sites for nuclear
waste, settling instead on spending $50 million to promote
recycling spent nuclear fuel. 

In finishing work on a $30.5 billion bill to fund energy and
water projects, lawmakers agreed to spend $450 million in 2006
on Yucca Mountain, the planned underground repository for 77,000
tons of the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste. 

The project's budget was $577 million in each of the past two
years, and Bush asked for $650 million for the dump in his 2006
budget request. 

The final figure also was less than the House and the Senate
agreed to separately earlier this year, but lawmakers and aides
said delays on the project kept the number low. 

"No matter what side of Yucca you're on, the truth of the matter
is Yucca is ... not on the schedule that even was predicted the
last time. It's behind schedule," said Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's energy
and water subcommittee. 

"We think that this will keep what should be done on schedule,"
he told reporters. 

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has opposed locating the
dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, saw progress of another
kind. 

"The Yucca Mountain project is fraught with inadequate science
and insidious mismanagement," the Nevada Democrat said. "The
project is never going to open and each year we grow closer to
killing it." 

Two years ago, the Energy Department projected needing $1.2
billion for Yucca Mountain in 2006. That was when officials were
hoping to quickly submit a license application to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and open the dump by 2010. 

Since then, a series of setbacks - including a required rewrite
of radiation safety standards - have slowed the project. 

Now it's not clear when the license application will be
submitted, and the projected opening date has slipped to 2012,
at the earliest. 

"While this funding decision may force us to go at a slower
pace, it will not deter us from our principles of using sound
science to develop a high-quality license application and a
disposal facility that is safe and reliable to operate," Energy
Department spokesman Craig Stevens said. 

Lawmakers deleted a House proposal to spend $10 million for the
Energy Department to produce a plan for temporary aboveground
storage for spent reactor fuel from commercial nuclear power
plants. 

Instead the bill contains $50 million for spent fuel recycling,
including $20 million for states or localities to compete to
host a recycling facility and $30 million for research and other
work. 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov 

For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 
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 32 Santa Fe New Mexican: LANL weapons program draws split positions   

 Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:11 pm   							 						

By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican             

Congressional committees have more than doubled funding for the 
Reliable Replacement Warhead program, money that will go to Los 
Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.

But proponents and a nuclear-watchdog group are already arguing
about what the program means.

Supporters say the program is just a concept for now, but one
that could create more reliable parts for an aging
nuclear-weapons stockpile. Critics say it's the backdoor to a
totally new weapons program.

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a leading supporter, said in a
written statement Thursday that the "program is designed to
build on the successes that we've had using a science-based
approach to improving the design of existing weapons. This is
not intended to be a new weapons program, but rather a method to
improve the way that we manufacture existing weapons."

The goal will be to reduce the maintenance costs of nuclear
weapons and improve safety and reliability, Domenici's office
explained in a news release earlier this week.

A nuclear-disarmament group is opposed to the idea.

"The reliable replacement warhead is not needed," Greg Mello of
the Los Alamos Study Group said. " ... Designing a new warhead
and building a new warhead ... is just a sharp stick in the eye
to the rest of the world."

The program has been allocated $25 million this year from
Congress -- up from $10 million the year before.

The money, Domenici reported, will support a design competition
between Los Alamos and Livermore labs "to create replacement
components on existing weapons."

Both labs will submit their concepts to the U.S. Department of
Energy in March, LANL spokesman Kevin Roark said. The labs will
also submit "a very firm plan on how to get it done," he said,
and the department will decide what to do with the concept.

"Nothing's been decided," Roark said.

Mello, whose group advocates nuclear disarmament, said the
project will cause other countries to consider whether they
should invest in new nuclear-weapons programs.

And the project, he said, "will entail a multibillion-dollar
program of construction and operation for these manufacturing
facilities. It's a backdoor in an upgrade of the U.S. nuclear
arsenals, and it's not something that the House of
Representatives or the Senate can control ... once they let the
dog out of the pen here."

A new budget bill pending congressional approval appears to
restrict what can be done with the money.

"Any weapon design work done under the RRW program must stay
within the military requirements of the existing deployed
stockpile, and any new weapon design must stay within the design
parameters validated by past nuclear tests," a report on the
2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Act reads. 

Roark also said the program could lead to less nuclear weapons.

The directors of the program "are firm in their belief that the
(reliable replacement warhead) really furthers the cause of
stockpile reduction. Because if we have a robust reliable
replacement for existing warheads then we don't need as many
warheads in reserve. And so the hope is this will eventually
lead to a reduction in the overall stockpile."

The programs and other weapons issues received more attention
this week since Congressional committees negotiated a $30.5
billion appropriations bill that covers the Department of Energy.

A second project to receive more money includes a new chemistry
and metallurgy research building at Los Alamos, where
nuclear-chemistry work would take place.

The lab is scheduled to break ground on the $800 million project
early next year, Roark said. Not all the money has been secured. 

Domenici secured $55 million for the project this year and
nearly $40 million the year before.

Congressional committees have also directed the National Nuclear
Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear labs, to
strengthen the manufacturing capability at Los Alamos to produce
plutonium pits, or triggers for nuclear bombs.

The last new pit, or trigger for a nuclear bomb, was produced
about 15 years ago at the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats
weapons complex, Roark said.

"The U.S. lost its capability to make new weapons when Rocky
Flats closed," Roark said. "We are slowly regaining that
capability with limited pit production at Los Alamos."

Some would argue this federal spending, and potential for more,
is a good thing for New Mexico's economy.

Although $25 million could build a new school in New Mexico,
it's just a small chunk of the estimated $4.4 billion that
Domenici estimates the Department of Energy will spend in New
Mexico during the 2006 fiscal year.

By comparison, New Mexico's state government budget is about
$4.7 billion this year.

But Mello argues that reliance on federal spending actually
depresses New Mexico's economy because it discourages innovation
and encourages complacency.

"The nuclear-weapons business has hurt New Mexico economically,"
he said. "And the rise of the nuclear-weapons business has
coincided with the relative decline of New Mexico in comparison
to other states."

Contact Andy Lenderman at 995-3827 or
alenderman@sfnewmexican.com.		 	   	 	 	 			
 		   			 		   	 		 							
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 33 Santa Fe New Mexican: LANL contender courts Espanola     
 	
Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:11 pm                                                                                                       

By Heather Clark | The Associated Press         

ESPAСOLA -- A team vying to manage Los Alamos National
Laboratory has opened an office here, just three weeks before
the expected announcement of the contract winner.

Los Alamos Alliance, led by Lockheed Martin and the University
of Texas, greeted Espaсola residents Thursday at the recently
remodeled, 3,000-square-foot office.

The team is competing with another group, Los Alamos National
Security LLC, headed by Bechtel Corp. and the University of
California, which has managed the nuclear-weapons lab since it
became the birthplace of the atomic bomb during World War II.
The winner is expected to be announced by Dec. 1.

C. Paul Robinson -- former president of Sandia National
Laboratories and the Lockheed/UT team's choice for director of
Los Alamos lab -- met with visitors.

"It's our intent to bring the mission to the entire community,
so that's why we're here in Espaсola," Robinson said.

Fifty-eight percent of lab employees live outside Los Alamos
County, mainly in Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties.

Both teams have similar offices doing community outreach in Los
Alamos.

Jeff Berger, spokesman for Los Alamos National Security, said
representatives met with several hundred employees and residents
over the weekend at the Los Alamos Harvest Festival.

Team representatives also have met with individuals and small
groups -- elected officials, educators, small-business people
and American Indians living in nearby pueblos -- in Espaсola and
Santa Fe.

"The cornerstones of our community plan center on economic
development, education and corporate giving, and so our
interactions with people are tied to those endeavors," Berger
said.

Espaсola Mayor Richard Lucero said there is support for both
teams in his community, about 20 miles northeast of Los Alamos.

But, he said, residents are hopeful about the possibility of
Robinson becoming director of Los Alamos labs because they have
seen the economic development that came to Albuquerque from
Sandia labs.

"They find that very exciting because Sandia has done so much
for the city of Albuquerque in many, many projects, which is
something that we in Espaсola have been wanting forever," Lucero
said.

During Robinson's tenure as director, Sandia labs helped
establish a science and technology park in Albuquerque that
contains private businesses in formal partnerships with the
lab.		 	   	 	 	 			
 		   			 		   	 		 							
    
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