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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Plame Outing Linked with Fake Iraq WMD Operation
2 [NYTr] US Claims Laptop Shows Iran Has Nuke War Ambitions
3 IRNA: Larijani: IAEA should respect application of NPT 
4 IRNA: Iran, Russia emphasize expansion of bilateral cooperation
5 Independent: Iran 'trying for nuclear warhead' 
6 IRNA: No new proposal on Iran's nuclear issue, says Asefi 
7 AFP: Russian envoy in Iran over nuclear offer 
8 AFP: Iran confirms rejection of nuclear compromise 
9 Mos News: Russia’s Security Chief Makes No Atomic Offer to Iran - 
10 IRNA: Iran insists on carrying out uranium enrichment inside country
11 IRNA: Compromise nuclear offer could take years, says Samore
12 AFP: Stolen Iranian laptop displayed as evidence of nuclear program 
13 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Chief to Press Iran on Compromise
14 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rules Out Compromise Nuclear Deal
15 [NYTr] Korea Nuke Talks: Two Views
16 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Message to North Korea   
17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: No date for next nuclear talks
18 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S., N. Korea to Discuss Sanctions in Ta
19 Minjok-Tongshin: U.S. Exercises for Preemptive Aerial Nuclear Attack
20 AFP: NKorea insists US end sanctions 
21 AFP: US-NKorean mistrust seen as biggest hurdle to nuclear talks -
22 Guardian Unlimited: N.Korea Offers Reactor-for-Concessions Bid
23 US: WorldNetDaily: Whoops! There she goes again
24 Daily Yomiuri: Antinuclear sentiment misguided over carrier : 
25 Sunday Herald: ArmisticeDay bombpractice slammed - 
26 Xinhua: Merkel: grand coalition agreement reached   
27 AFP: Behind the headlines, UN labs test for nuclear violations -
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
28 Sunday Herald: Powerful arguments for change in energy policy - 
29 Independent: DTI minister backs nuclear new-build 
30 US: Times Herald-Record: Indian Point sirens will be tested again
31 US: courant.com: State Questions Nuclear Rate Hike 
32 US: ABQJOURNAL: Makeover Will Boost Palo Verde's Generating Capacity
33 US: Newsday.com: State officials vow to fight rate increase for Conn
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
34 AU ABC: Nuclear reactor may have been terrorist target. 
35 NEWS.com.au: Terror suspects 'near N-reactor' - 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
36 US: DenverPost.com: A rocky road ahead as ex-Flats workers lose out 
37 US: HVN: State legislation proposes to help veterans exposed to depl
38 CBC News: Iraq's hazardous waste a health risk - UN
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
39 TIME.com: A Gambling Governor Makes a Smart Bet 
40 KRT Wire: Congress to investigate chemical-weapons dumping in oceans
41 US: Deseret News: Can GOP resist Envirocare?
42 US: San Bernardino County Sun: Plan gives Goodrich 10 months to buil
43 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Huntsman and Envirocare: Governor acts to pro
44 US: Deseret News: Did feds try to help N-waste company? 
45 Salt Lake Tribune: Bush's Yucca pick endorses recycling of N-waste
46 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Guv says 'N-O' to N-dump times two 
47 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Skull Valley: Western states should stand
48 AU ABC: Dump debate stifled for Territorians, Martin says. 
49 US: La Crosse Tribune: Activists: Keep nuclear waste here
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
50 LANL: Unease marks lab ahead of contract announcement     
51 SF Chronicle: Livermore Lab's future tied to risky laser project 
52 Chillicothe Gazette: Piketon plant jobs protected
53 LA Daily News: Field lab health claims in limbo
*****************************************************************
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Plame Outing Linked with Fake Iraq WMD Operation
 
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 11:34:03 -0600 (CST)

X-Fingerprint: owner-imap@chumbly.math.missouri.edu-127.127

www.waynemadsenreport.com

November 11, 2005 -- New aspect of Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings
exposure revealed. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the White
House exposure of Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates
was intended to retaliate against the CIA's work in limiting the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. WMR has reported in
the past on this aspect of the scandal. In addition to identifying
the involvement of individuals in the White House who were close
to key players in nuclear proliferation, the CIA Counter-Proliferation
Division prevented the shipment of binary VX nerve gas from Turkey
into Iraq in November 2002. The Brewster Jennings network in Turkey
was able to intercept this shipment which was intended to be hidden
in Iraq and later used as evidence that Saddam Hussein was in
possession of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence sources
revealed that this was a major reason the Bush White House targeted
Plame and her network.

CIA counter-proliferation network prevented a WMD "salting" operation
by Bush White House in Iraq.

In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment
of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and
1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was
established in 1987 -- The Carlyle Group.

U.S. intelligence sources have also confirmed that Israeli military
officers served unofficially with the U.S. Central Command headquarters
in Baghdad. The Israelis were attached to the J2X (Joint Intelligence
Liaison) in Baghdad. Their presence in Baghdad, according to the
sources, was kept secret.
*****************************************************************
 2 [NYTr] US Claims Laptop Shows Iran Has Nuke War Ambitions
 
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:17:10 -0600 (CST)

X-Fingerprint: owner-imap@chumbly.math.missouri.edu-127.127

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Walter Lippmann

The New York Times - November 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com

The Laptop

Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims

By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER

In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the
leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a
skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents
of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table
selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer
simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long
effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen
European and American participants in the meeting.

The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not
prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the
strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its
nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a
compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach
Israel and other countries in the Middle East.

The briefing for officials of the United Nations' International
Atomic Energy Agency, including its director Mohamed ElBaradei, was a
secret part of an American campaign to increase international
pressure on Iran. But while the intelligence has sold well among
countries like Britain, France and Germany, which reviewed the
documents as long as a year ago, it has been a tougher sell with
countries outside the inner circle.

The computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear
warhead, said European and American officials who had examined the
material, including a telltale sphere of detonators to trigger an
atomic explosion. The documents specified a blast roughly 2,000 feet
above a target - considered a prime altitude for a nuclear
detonation.

Nonetheless, doubts about the intelligence persist among some foreign
analysts. In part, that is because American officials, citing the
need to protect their source, have largely refused to provide details
of the origins of the laptop computer beyond saying that they
obtained it in mid-2004 from a longtime contact in Iran. Moreover,
this chapter in the confrontation with Iran is infused with the
memory of the faulty intelligence on Iraq's unconventional arms. In
this atmosphere, though few countries are willing to believe Iran's
denials about nuclear arms, few are willing to accept the United
States' weapons intelligence without question.

"I can fabricate that data," a senior European diplomat said of the
documents. "It looks beautiful, but is open to doubt."

Robert G. Joseph, the under secretary of state for arms control and
international security, who led the July briefing, declined to
discuss any classified material from the session but acknowledged the
existence of the warhead intelligence. He called it one of many
indicators "that together lead to the conclusion Iran is pursuing a
nuclear weapons capability."

Even if the documents accurately reflect Iran's advances in designing
a nuclear warhead, Western arms experts say that Iran is still far
away from producing the radioactive bomb fuel that would form the
warhead's heart. American intelligence agencies recently estimated
that Iran would have a working nuclear weapon no sooner than the
early years of the next decade.

Still, nuclear analysts at the international atomic agency studied
the laptop documents and found them to be credible evidence of
Iranian strides, European diplomats said. A dozen officials and
nuclear weapons experts in Europe and the United States with detailed
knowledge of the intelligence said in interviews that they believed
it reflected a concerted effort to develop a warhead. "They've worked
problems that you don't do unless you're very serious," said a
European arms official. "This stuff is deadly serious."

In fact, some nations that were skeptical of the intelligence on Iraq
- including France and Germany - are deeply concerned about what the
warhead discovery could portend, according to several officials. But
the Bush administration, seeming to understand the depth of its
credibility problem, is only talking about the laptop computer and
its contents in secret briefings, more than a dozen so far. And even
while President Bush is defending his pronouncements before the war
about Iraq's unconventional weapons, he has never publicly referred
to the Iran documents.

R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political
affairs, who has coordinated the Iran issue with the Europeans, also
declined to discuss the intelligence, but insisted that the Bush
administration's approach was one of "careful, quiet diplomacy
designed to increase international pressure on Iran to do one thing:
abandon its nuclear weapons designs and return to negotiations with
European countries."

Until now, there has been only one official reference to them: a year
ago in a conversation with reporters, Colin L. Powell, then secretary
of state, briefly referred to new, missile-related intelligence on
Iran. Since then, reports in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington
Post and other publications have revealed some details of the
intelligence, including that the United States has obtained thousands
of pages of Iranian documents on warhead development.

In interviews in recent weeks, analysts and officials from six
countries in Europe and Asia revealed a more extensive picture of the
intelligence briefings. In turn, several American officials confirmed
the intelligence. All who spoke did so on the condition of anonymity,
saying they had pledged to keep the intelligence secret, though it is
being discussed by an array of senior government officials and
International Atomic Energy Agency board members.

Officials said scientists at the American weapons labs, as well as
foreign analysts, had examined the documents for signs of fraud. It
was a particular concern given the fake documents that emerged
several years ago purporting to show that Saddam Hussein had sought
uranium from Niger. Officials said they found the warhead documents,
written in Persian, convincing because of their consistency and
technical accuracy and because they showed a progression of
developmental work from 2001 to early 2004.

Within the United States government, "the nature and the history of
the source has left everyone pretty confident that this is the real
thing," said a former senior American intelligence official who was
briefed on the laptop.

But one nongovernment expert cautioned that the intelligence could
simply represent the work of a faction in Iran. "What we don't know
is whether this is the uncoordinated effort of a particularly
ambitious sector of the rocket program or is it, as some allege, a
step-by-step effort to field a nuclear weapon within this decade,"
said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, who said he had not seen the secret documents.

The Iranians themselves deny any knowledge of the warhead plans. "We
are sure that there are no such documents in Iran," Ali A. Larijani,
secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the country's
chief nuclear negotiator, said in an interview in Tehran. "I have no
idea what they have or what they claim to have. We just hear the
claims."

As a measure of the skepticism the Bush administration faces,
officials said the American ambassador to the international atomic
agency, Gregory L. Schulte, was urging other countries to consult
with his French counterpart. "On Iraq we disagreed, and on Iran we
completely agree," a senior State Department official said. "That
gets attention."

Inspectors and Secret Sites

For years, American intelligence agencies argued that Iran was hiding
a range of nuclear facilities. Then, in February 2003, inspectors
from the International Atomic Energy Agency went to Iran and
confirmed reports of two secret sites under construction that could
make concentrated uranium and plutonium, standard fuels for nuclear
arms. At Natanz, in central Iran, they found preparations for more
than 50,000 whirling centrifuges meant to purify uranium. At Arak, to
the west, they found construction of a heavy-water plant and reactor
meant to make plutonium.

Iran insisted the sites were for conducting peaceful research and
making fuel for nuclear power, and were kept secret to evade
American-led penalties on sales of atomic technology to Iran.

Over time, a string of revelations challenged that explanation, even
as inspectors eventually uncovered at least seven secret nuclear
sites.

In August 2003, agency inspectors discovered traces of uranium
concentrated to the high levels necessary for a bomb, rather than the
low levels for a power-producing reactor. Some of the uranium was
shown to have arrived in Iran on nuclear equipment purchased from
Pakistan, but a European diplomat disclosed that the origin of the
rest was still a mystery.

Then there were questions about what Iran had obtained from the
atomic black market run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani rogue
nuclear engineer. Iran has acknowledged buying from Dr. Khan, but the
extent of those dealings is still under investigation.

By late 2003, many government and nongovernment experts agreed that
Iran was rapidly progressing. "Most people," said Gary Milhollin,
director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in
Washington, "believed that they had mastered the essential
capabilities and had the potential to develop what they needed to
make a bomb."

Diplomacy aimed at defusing Iran moved haltingly. Tehran agreed to
suspend the enrichment of uranium as it negotiated with the West over
the fate of its atom program, but months later began making uranium
hexafluoride, the raw material for enrichment.

If Iran hid parts of its atomic program, it boldly displayed its
missiles. And in August 2004, it conducted a test that deepened
suspicions that it was at work on a nuclear warhead.

Tehran test-fired an upgraded version of the Shahab - shooting star
in Persian - in a flight that featured the first appearance of an
advanced nose cone made up of three distinct shapes. Missile experts
noted that such triconic nose cones have great range, accuracy and
stability in flight, but less payload space. Therefore, experts say,
they have typically been used to carry nuclear arms.

Iran insists it is pursuing only peaceful energy, and notes that
nations like Japan, South Korea and Brazil have advanced civilian
nuclear programs and sophisticated missiles, but have been aided by
the West in building their programs rather than being accused of
trying to make atomic warheads.

"Second-class countries are allowed to produce only tomato paste,"
said Mr. Larijani, Iran's nuclear negotiator. "The problem is that
Iran has come out of its shell and is trying to have advanced
technology."

A Laptop's Contents

American officials have said little in their briefings about the
origins of the laptop, other than that they obtained it in mid-2004
from a source in Iran who they said had received it from a second
person, now believed to be dead. Foreign officials who have reviewed
the intelligence speculate that the laptop was used by someone who
worked in the Iranian nuclear program or stole information from it.
One senior arms expert said the material was so voluminous that it
appeared to be the work of a team of engineers.

Without revealing the source of the computer, American intelligence
officials insisted that it had not come from any Iranian resistance
groups, whose claims about Iran's nuclear program have had a mixed
record for accuracy.

In July, as the Bush administration began stepping up the pressure on
the United Nations to take punitive action against Tehran, it decided
to brief Dr. ElBaradei on the contents of the laptop. The session on
July 18 on the top floor of the American mission in Vienna was a
meeting of former rivals. Before the Iraq war, Dr. ElBaradei had
attracted the wrath of the Bush administration by declaring that his
agency had found no evidence that Saddam Hussein was reconstituting
his nuclear program. And the administration had tried to oust Dr.
ElBaradei, an Egyptian, from his post, partly because they found him
insufficiently tough on Iran.

The briefing primarily revealed computer simulations and studies of
various warhead configurations rather than laboratory work or reports
on test flights, according to officials in Europe and the United
States. But one American official said notations indicated that the
Iranians had performed experiments. "This wasn't just some
theoretical exercise," he said.

In an interview, Dr. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in
October, declined to discuss the secret briefing.

Assessing just how far the Iranians have gone from plan to product is
difficult. "It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that
beautiful pictures represent reality," a senior intelligence official
said. "But that may not be the case."

One major revelation was work done on a sphere of detonators meant to
ignite conventional explosives that, in turn, compress the
radioactive fuel to start the nuclear chain reaction. The documents
also wrestled with how to position a heavy ball - presumably of
nuclear fuel - inside the warhead to ensure stability and accuracy
during the fiery plunge toward a target. And a bomb exploding at a
height of about 2,000 feet, as envisioned by the documents, suggests
a nuclear weapon, analysts said, since that altitude is unsuitable
for conventional, chemical or biological arms.

After more than a year of analysis, questions remain about the
trove's authenticity. "Even with the best intelligence, you always
ask yourself, 'Was this prepared for my eyes?' " one American
official said. Several intelligence experts said that a sophisticated
Western spy agency could, in theory, have produced the contents of
the laptop. But American officials insisted there was no evidence of
such fraud.

Gary Samore, the head of nonproliferation at the National Security
Council in the Clinton administration, who recently directed a report
on Iran that drew on interviews with government officials in many
nations, said, "The most convincing evidence that the material is
genuine is that the technical work is so detailed that it would be
difficult to fabricate."

An Unclassified Briefing

In August and September, as the United States was preparing for a
showdown vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency on whether to
recommend action by the United Nations Security Council against Iran,
the Bush administration stepped up its campaign.

The United States rarely shares raw intelligence outside a small
circle of close allies. But it decided to disseminate a shortened
version of the secret warhead briefing. Mr. Joseph and his colleagues
presented it to the president of Ghana and to officials from
Argentina, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Nigeria, among other nations.

But the administration felt uncomfortable sharing any classified
intelligence with another ring of countries. For them, it developed
the equivalent of the white paper on Iraq that Britain and the United
States published before the Iraq war. The 43-page unclassified
briefing includes no reference to the warhead documents, but uses
commercial satellite photos and economic analysis to argue that Iran
has no need for nuclear power and has long hidden its true ambitions.

Analysts from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory wrote the briefing paper for the State
Department, which distributed it widely. In graphic detail, the paper
offers a tour of the previously hidden sites, saying, for instance,
that a "dummy" building at the centrifuge plant in Natanz hides a
secret entrance ramp to an underground factory.

The briefing asserted that Iran did not have enough proven uranium
reserves to fuel its nuclear power program beyond 2010. But it does
have enough uranium, the report added, "to give Iran a significant
number of nuclear weapons."

The briefing landed with something of a thud. Some officials found
its arguments superficial and inconclusive. "Yeah, so what?" said one
European expert who heard the briefing. "How do you know what you're
shown on a slide is true given past experience?"

Even so, the American campaign helped produce a consensus among
International Atomic Energy Agency board members, although a fragile
one. On Sept. 24, the board passed the resolution against Iran by a
vote of 22 to 1, with 12 countries abstaining, including China and
Russia.

It cited Iran for "a long history of concealment and deception" and
repeated failure to live up to its obligations under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, which it signed in 1970. The resolution said
Iran's failings had set it up for consideration by the Security
Council for possible punishment with economic penalties, though it
left the timing of the referral to a future meeting.

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, denounced the resolution
as "illegal and illogical" and the result of a "planned scenario
determined by the United States."

Debating the Next Step

On Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, the board of the international atomic
agency plans to meet again to confront the Iranian nuclear question -
and decide whether to take the next step and send the issue to the
Security Council.

The Bush administration is confident in its evidence. "There is not a
single country we deal with that does not believe Iran is seeking a
nuclear weapon," said Mr. Burns, the under secretary of state.

The Iranians have taken steps to forestall any penalties. After
months of delays, they have allowed inspectors into a secret military
site, shared more information about the history of their program, and
signaled a willingness to reopen negotiations, even while vowing to
continue turning raw uranium into a gas that can be enriched. Those
steps may convince some atomic agency board members. And at least two
countries rotating onto the board for the next meeting - Cuba and
Syria - are almost certain to defy Washington. (In September, only
Venezuela voted with Tehran.)

Given those politics, the fresh intelligence that the United States
says proves Iran's true intentions may not be pivotal in the long
confrontation with Tehran. One reason is that the United States has
so far refused to declassify the warhead information, making it
impossible to seek a detailed explanation from the Iranians.

Dr. ElBaradei said his agency was bound to "follow due process, which
means I need to establish the veracity, consistency and authenticity
of any intelligence, and share it with the country of concern." In
this case, he added, "That has not happened."

European nations and the international atomic agency are now working
out details of a new proposal that offers Tehran the chance to
conduct very limited nuclear activities in Iran, but move any
enrichment of uranium to Russia - part of the effort to keep the
country from obtaining the nuclear fuel that could go atop the Shahab
missile.

Some European diplomats are concerned that confronting the Iranians
with strong evidence of the warhead studies could cause Tehran to
abandon negotiations with the West, expel international inspectors
and move forward with its plans, whatever they may be.

"It's a card that will explode the system in place, so the question
becomes when and how you play it," a senior European diplomat said.
"If there is information that can serve to make progress with the
Iranians, without blowing up the system, that's better."

[Dexter Filkins contributed reporting from Tehran for this article.]
       
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*****************************************************************
 3 IRNA: Larijani: IAEA should respect application of NPT 

Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA                                                                                                             

Iran-Armenia-Larijani 

Head of Armenian Presidential Office Artashes Tumanxan in Tehran 
on Sunday exchanged views with Secretary of Supreme National 
Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani on bilateral and regional 
issues.

 After the meeting, Larijani told reporters that his talks with 
Armenian official focused on economic cooperation adding that 
both Iran and Armenia believe that economic cooperation would be 
effective for regional peace and understanding.

 On Iran's nuclear program, Larijani said that International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should respect application of 
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at international level and it is 
not acceptable to add a note for every individual member state.

 "If you add an extra note for every member state, the NPT will 
lose its legitimacy," he said.

 The UN agency had better remain as the reference for technical 
examination of nuclear program of every member state and not to 
be driven by politics, he said.

 Armenian official said that he conveyed a message from Armenian 
President Robert Kocharyan to President Ahmadinejad.

 He told reporters that he did not discuss nuclear issues with 
Larijani.

 He said that Iran had already undertaken mediation on Karabakh 
conflict with Azerbaijan and called for Iran to proceed with 
mediation between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

 He said that he was pleased with Iranian contribution to 
regional stability.

*****************************************************************
 4 IRNA: Iran, Russia emphasize expansion of bilateral cooperation

Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA                                                                                                             

Iran-Russia-Meeting 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Russian Secretary of
National Security Council Igor Ivanov on their Saturday evening
meeting here discussed bilateral ties, the latest regional
developments and ways of expansion of cooperation between the
two countries in different fields as well as Iran's nuclear
program.

 According to Foreign Ministry Media Department, the Russian top
security official called his negotiation with Iranian officials
in Tehran 'helpful' and said Russian government intends to
strengthen ties with Iran.

 He added both countries pursue strengthening of stability and
believe that exchanging views and cooperation will bring
stability in the region.

 Referring to current world problems like drugs, organized
crimes, and mass destruction weapons, Ivanov stressed on the
good cooperation record between Iran and Russia in establishing
stability and tranquility in Tajikistan, decreasing crisis in
Afghanistan and Iraq, Caspian Sea and other regional issues.

 " Effective consultations on Middle East situation indicat both
sides' intention and will to strengthen peace and security in
the region," underlined Ivanov.

 He elaborated on Russian position on Iran's peaceful nuclear
activity and said, "Russia insists on Iran's rights to access to
peaceful nuclear technology and is trying to prevent this issue
from getting more complicated".

 He also emphasized the continuation of consultations between
the two countries and said his government is willing to see the
negotiations between Iran and EU-3 continue.

 At the meeting, Foreign Minister Mottaki explained Tehran's
viewpoints concerning mutual ties and the prospect of future
cooperation between the two countries adding Iran's new
government has new ideas on bilateral ties and intends to
strengthen them.

 Referring to the cooperation level in different economic,
political, defense and cultural fields, Mottaki emphasized
employing all existing capacities.

 Completion and commissioning the Bushehr Powerplant is a
turning point in bilateral cooperation, foreign minister said.

 He condemned efforts by certain countries to mislead world
public opinion, to distort Iran's peaceful nuclear activities
and to make hue and cry against Iran.

*****************************************************************
 5 Independent: Iran 'trying for nuclear warhead' 

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor 

Published: 14 November 2005 

The New York Times has published allegations that Iran is
attempting to build a nuclear warhead. The claims come less than
two weeks before a decision by the UN nuclear watchdog on
whether to report Tehran to the Security Council over its
suspected weapons programme. 

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the report as an
attempt to step up pressure on Tehran before the International
Atomic Energy Agency meeting on 24 November. 

According to The New York Times, senior American intelligence
officials had shown the IAEA experts computer simulations
contained on what they described as a stolen Iranian laptop. The
US officials said the data was the strongest evidence so far
that Iran was trying to develop a compact warhead for its Shahab
missile, but they would not say where the laptop came from. 

Diplomats told AP news agency that they expected Mohamed
ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, to go to Tehran in the next few
days to discuss a proposal that calls on Iran to move its
uranium enrichment programme to Russia. 

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd. 
*****************************************************************
 6 IRNA: No new proposal on Iran's nuclear issue, says Asefi 

Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA                                                                                                             

Iran-Nuclear-Asefi 

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Sunday denied
existence of any proposal on Iran's nuclear activities.

 Certain local media reported that Russia had made a proposal to
Iran that it proceed with the first phase of uranium enrichment
which includes turning raw uranium into gas inside its territory
but that the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle would
be conducted in Russia in a joint Iranian-Russian center.

 "As far as I know, no proposal has been discussed. It is
natural some (Western media) are after their own goals. But the
Islamic Republic has transparent stance which has been outlined
by Iranian officials," Asefi told domestic and foreign reporters
at his weekly press conference.

 He assessed as "very good and constructive" the talks held
between Iranian and Russian officials on Saturday and between
Iran and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) troika on Friday and
Saturday.

 "The talks were very useful but no plan was proposed," he said.

 Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, Cuba's
 Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and the South African
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad held talks with Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Secretary of Supreme
National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani on Iran nuclear
issue and the issue of disarmament by nuclear powers.

 The NAM delegation also met with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.

 Asefi added during the meeting with NAM troika, two rounds of
talks were held at ministerial level and six at experts level.

 "At the end of the meeting with the NAM troika, an important
statement was issued which included issues and points such as
recognition of Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear
technology," the spokesman noted.

 He pointed to the leading role of the NAM member states and
said, "We expect the Non-Aligned Movement to find its position
at international circles and play its role during the next
meeting of the board of governors (of the International Atomic
Energy Agency) in its best way."
 Shifting to the recent unrest in France, the spokesman
expressed hope such events would be ended in the near future and
the French government would adopt appropriate mechanisms to put
an end to the turmoil.

 "Inviting the French ambassador to Tehran to the Foreign
Ministry, we voiced our concern over such unrests."
 Asefi condemned the recent bombings in Amman and said, "The
bombings were suspicious. Reports indicate the Zionist regime
has been behind the event."

 Three suicide bombings ripped through luxury hotels in Jordan's
capital on Friday which killed 57 people.

*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: Russian envoy in Iran over nuclear offer 

 Sat Nov 12, 3:24 AM ET 		 	 

TEHRAN (AFP) - A top Russian official is visiting Tehran to
sound out Iranian offficials about a deal aimed at averting an
escalation in Iran" /> Iran's nuclear standoff. 

 Igor Ivanov, the head of the Russian Security Council, is due
to hold talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over the
possibility of Russia conducting sensitive nuclear fuel work for
Iran. 

Iran said Friday it still wanted to conduct the nuclear work on
its territory but was willing to discuss its uranium being
enriched abroad. 

"What is important for Iran is to enrich (uranium) on its soil,"
local news agencies quoted nuclear chief Ali Larijani as saying. 

Larijani said he had not received any formal proposal for
enrichment abroad. If one was offered, "we will discuss it," he
said. 

Under a proposal reportedly being floated, Iran would be allowed
to carry out an initial step in making nuclear fuel --
converting uranium ore into the uranium hexafluoride gas that is
the feedstock for making enriched uranium. 

But enrichment itself could be carried out in Russia under an
offer said to be under consideration by the European Union" />
European Unionand the United States. 

Moscow was awaiting a swift response from Tehran on the
proposal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. 

"We are expecting to have results in the near future," Lavrov
said at a news conference. 

Russia has staunchly backed Iran's right to a civilian nuclear
energy programme. The United States has alleged that the effort
is a cover to develop weapons, something Tehran roundly denies. 

Russia, which is veto-wielding permanent member of the UN
Security Council, has a lucrative contract to build Iran's first
nuclear power reactor. 

However, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza
Ricedenied on Thursday that the United States and Europe had
agreed on any proposal. 

  Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Iran confirms rejection of nuclear compromise 

 Sun Nov 13, 1:40 PM ET 		 	 

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranconfirmed it would not accept a
compromise on its disputed nuclear programme that involved
sensitive uranium enrichment activities being conducted outside
the country. 

"Enrichment should be carried out on Iranian soil, as other
Iranian officials have said before," foreign ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Asfi told reporters. 

That position was spelled out on Saturday by Iran's Atomic
Energy Organisation head Gholamreza Aghazadeh after a meeting
with Igor Ivanov, the head of Russia's Security Council. 

Under a proposal reportedly being floated, Iran would be allowed
to carry out an initial step in making nuclear fuel --
converting uranium ore into the uranium hexafluoride gas that is
the feedstock for making enriched uranium. 

But enrichment itself would be done in Russia under an offer
said to be under consideration by the European Union" />
European Unionand the United States. 

Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to low levels for
atomic reactor fuel and argues such work is a right enshrined by
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

The enrichment process can be diverted to military purposes, and
the United States and European Union fear the clerical regime is
merely using an atomic energy drive as a cover for weapons
development. 

It was still not clear exactly what offer Ivanov had presented
to the Iranians and the Russian official insisted that he had
come with no specific proposal. 

"As far as I know there is no such proposal (on enrichment),"
Asefi said, describing Ivanov's visit as "positive". 

Asefi also said that calls for Iran to return to a freeze of
uranium conversion, a precursor to enrichment, was not discussed
either. 

Ivanov's visit came ahead of a November 24 meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic
Energy Agency(IAEA) board, which will consider referring Iran to
the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. 

Iran triggered the latest standoff in August when it effectively
broke off negotiations on a package of incentives for
restraining its nuclear plans and resumed conversion activities
it had suspended a year ago. 

The IAEA has demanded Iran return to a full freeze of
enrichment-related work and return to negotiations with Britian,
France and Germany. Iran says it is willing to negotiate, but
not suspend all of its activities. 

Asefi said Iran wanted to see a "balanced approach" to its
nuclear programme, and repeated that talks needed to be widened
to involve countries other than the so-called EU3. 

He also reacted to reports that US intelligence officials have
shown IAEA members a stolen Iranian laptop computer containing
nuclear designs as proof the country is secretly pursuing a
nuclear weapons programme. 

The New York Times reported on its website Saturday that during
the demonstration, which took place in Vienna in mid-July,
officials displayed selections from more than a thousand pages
of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments,
saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead. 

"This is worthless and naive. We usually don't carry our secrets
around in laptops," Asefi laughed when asked to respond to the
report. 

  Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 9 Mos News: Russia’s Security Chief Makes No Atomic Offer to Iran - 

MOSNEWS.COM

Photo from www.newsru.com               
 	 	
Created: 12.11.2005 14:36 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:36 MSK 	
 	
MosNews 
	 	 	 	 
	 	 		 	
Russia’s security chief Igor Ivanov met Iranian nuclear
officials on Saturday, but dismissed speculation he had brought
an EU proposal intended to solve a dispute over whether Iran is
seeking atomic arms, the Reuters news agency reported. 

Iran is facing referral to the U.N. Security Council for
possible sanctions after failing to convince the world its
nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful. Britain, France and
Germany have drafted a proposal offering Iran the chance to
transfer its uranium enrichment activities to Russia, an EU
diplomat told Reuters on Friday. 

EU diplomats say Iran could allay international fears its
uranium is intended for use in warheads by handing over the
enrichment process to Russia. Iran has repeatedly said it would
be unacceptable for any other country to enrich the uranium
which it mines in its central deserts. Tehran says it wants to
enrich this uranium only for use in power stations. 

Ivanov, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, told Iran’s
official IRNA news agency he had not presented any proposal at a
meeting in Tehran with Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear
negotiator. “He denied some news agency reports on Russia
proposing at a meeting with Ali Larijani a shared enrichment
centre in Russia,” IRNA’s bulletin read. 

Ivanov gave no indication on whether such a proposal could be
handed over at a future meeting. 

The EU diplomat said Europe and the United States would push to
refer Iran to the Security Council at a board meeting of the
U.N. nuclear watchdog on November 24 if Tehran did not accept
the proposal.

Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM

[Ðåéòèíã@Mail.ru]       
*****************************************************************
 10 IRNA: Iran insists on carrying out uranium enrichment inside country -
      
Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA                                                                                                             

Iran-Asefi-Nuclear 

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Sunday stressed
that uranium enrichment should be conducted inside the country.

 Asefi made the remark while talking to domestic and foreign
reporters at his weekly press conference.

 "Balance in nuclear talks and other issues is all Iran wants,"
he said in response to a question on a change in stance of
Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani who
stressed the importance of Europe in nuclear talks and his
previous remarks on a look at East in nuclear talks.

 "There is a balance on agenda of our diplomacy and approaches.
We attach importance to all countries including West and East.

 "The Islamic Republic believes it should hold talks with all
states and scope of negotiations should be broad," he said.

 Asked whether the Russian Security Council Secretary Igor
Ivanov, during his meeting with senior Iranian officials,
presented a new proposal on resumption of nuclear work at
Isfahan's Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF), he said, "Such a
proposal was not offered."
 He also rejected the idea that Iran has made any decision to
boycott French goods in line with coordination between economic
and political policies.

 In response to a question on recent remarks by the Information
Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei on definite role played by
Britain in Ahvaz unrest, the spokesman said, "According to
initial reports, such measures are guided from outside the
country and have foreign origins.

 "By the time we receive the full report of the Information
Ministry, we will speak to certain countries and express our
protest.

 "In case of Britain, messages were exchanged between the two
sides. We voiced our concerns to the Britons.

 "The issue is under investigation through diplomatic channels.

 We have warned Britain against the repetition of such measures,
which raise suspicion."
 Asefi termed claim made by the German government on dual use of
certain equipment exported by the country to Iran as "quite
unfounded".

 He also assessed as a baseless scenario the `New York Times'
claims about nuclear information which was discovered from a
stolen laptop computer in Iran.

 According to reports, the New York Times on its website on
Saturday said that in mid-July, senior American intelligence
officials called on the senior IAEA officials in a high rise
building overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the
contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

 Asked about the situation of the four kidnapped Iranian
diplomats and measures taken by Iranian Foreign Ministry in this
regard, he said, "Numerous measures have been taken in this
regard but we should not expect results in a short period of
time due to complications of the case."
 The then Iranian charge d'affaires to Beirut Mohsen Moussavi,
diplomat Taqi Rastegar-Moqaddam, military attache Ahmad
Motevasselian and IRNA photojournalist Kazem Akhavan were
kidnapped in Beirut in 1982 while being escorted by Lebanese
police on their way back home from a mission in northern Lebanon.

 On Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's call for Iran's
mediation role between Syria and Lebanon, the spokesman said he
had not heard about such a news.

 "But we always underline the importance of friendship between
these two states within the framework of Iran's good relations
with Syria and Lebanon."
 He further said, "Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is
to pay a visit to Syria on Monday to discuss bilateral and
regional issues."
 Asefi said he confirms all activities of the Foreign Ministry
including those related to human rights.

 He expressed his condolences to world art society and family of
Hollywood Arab film director Moustapha Akkad who was killed in a
suicide bombing in Jordan's capital.

 "Inappropriate attitude towards the phenomenon of terrorism has
made the world insecure and exposed it to the threats of
terrorists."
 Asked about measures by the Zionist regime to block Iran's
presence in the World Cup under the pretext that politics
influences sports in Iran, he said, "There is no serious reason
for raising of such issues."
		 				 		 			
*****************************************************************
 11 IRNA: Compromise nuclear offer could take years, says Samore

Nov 13, IRNA                                                                                                           

Gary Samore, former National Security advisor to US President
Bill Clinton, has welcomed the 'uranium compromise' offer being
made to Iran but suggests that it could take years to negotiate
because of its complexities.

 "In fact, Iran had a similar arrangement with a French
enrichment company during the days of the Shah, the so called
EURODIF arrangement, and that took years to negotiate," Samore
said.

 "So if Iran wants it can put the discussions with Russian
experts for weeks, months and even years before reaching a final
decision about whether a proposal is acceptable," he told IRNA.

 Clinton's senior director for Non-Proliferation and Export
Controls said his understanding of the offer, which allows Iran
to continue uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant, was
'developed by Russia'.

 The main elements of the compromise include Iran producing UF6
material, which would then be exported to Russia for enrichment
at a plant with joint ownership with Iran.

 "In return for that ownership Iran would have guaranteed access
to the low enriched uranium produced at the facility which would
be fabricated in the fuel for Iran's nuclear power program,"
Samore said.

 He said that these kinds of joint ownership arrangements are
very complicated to negotiate but he believed if Iran shows its
willingness to consider the proposal and has further discussions
then the IAEA Board of Governors would decide to defer any
decision on referring to the UN Security Council.

 "I think it is an excellent proposal, but I am skeptical that
the proposal would be accepted by the Iranian government," said
Samore, who is now vice president of Global Security and
Sustainability at the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation.

 But in an exclusive interview with IRNA, he suggested that
despite Iran insisting on its right to develop its own fuel
cycle, it may not wish to reject the proposal without having the
chance to study it.

 "Furthermore, the Iranian government may want to continue the
discussions with the Russians through the IAEA Board of
Governors meeting on November 24," the former senior advisor to
Clinton said.

 He believed that if Iran said no to the proposal then the US
and Europeans would be in a strong position to press Russia to
refer Iran to the Security Council at this month's IAEA board
meeting.

 "For purely tactical reasons the Iranian government may wish to
have further discussions with Russia to study the proposal
before making a decision about whether they will accept it."
 The former director of studies at the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies has often been
skeptical about the peaceful intentions of Iran's civil nuclear
programs despite making numerous visits to the country's sites.

 With regard to the upcoming IAEA meeting, he said that there
had been 'very positive developments', emphasizing that Iran has
been co-operating in some issues and had given the IAEA
additional access to the Parchin military industrial complex.

 "Also the IAEA has got some additional information on the
history of the Iran's centrifuge program and early contacts with
A Q Khan network. So government of Iran has met some of the
demands of the Board asking for more cooperation," Samore said.

 "Diplomacy is partly working and partly not: It has failed in
the sense that Iran has now resumed its conversion activities
despite the threat from the EU3 to refer Iran to the Security
Council," he said.

 The non-proliferation expert referred to the resumption of
conversion as 'a very bad sign and an indication that Iranian
government was prepared to go to the UN'.

 But he added that 'the good development is that Iran is
continuing to observe its suspension on enrichment activities
including the testing, installations and operations of
centrifuges at Natanz and it is not manufacturing centrifuge
components."
 Despite the very positive development, Samore suggested the
unknown factor was Iran's new government, saying that 'people
are worried' it may decide at some point to resume some
enrichment related activities.

 If this happened, he warned that 'then there would be a crisis
and it is very likely that the IAEA would refer Iran to New
York'.

 "Once the case goes to New York, the situation can escalate and
get out of hand quickly," he feared.		 				 		 			

*****************************************************************
 12 AFP: Stolen Iranian laptop displayed as evidence of nuclear program -
     
 Sun Nov 13, 2:58 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US intelligence officials have shown leaders
of the International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International
Atomic Energy Agencya stolen Iranian laptop computer containing
nuclear designs as proof the country is secretly pursuing a
nuclear weapons program, a report said. 

 The The New York Times newspaper said on its website that
during the demonstration, which took place in Vienna in
mid-July, officials displayed selections from more than a
thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of
experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a
nuclear warhead. 

The Americans acknowledged that the documents do not prove that
Iran" /> Iranhas an atomic bomb, the report said. 

But they presented them as the strongest evidence yet that the
country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its
Shahab missile, which can reach Israel" /> Israeland other
countries in the Middle East. 

The briefing for officials of the IAEA, including its director
Mohamed ElBaradei, was a secret part of a US campaign to
increase international pressure on Iran, The Times said. 

But while the intelligence has sold well among countries like
Britain, France and Germany, which reviewed the documents as
long as a year ago, it has been a tougher sell with countries
outside the inner circle, according to the report. 

The computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear
warhead, according to European and US officials who had examined
the material, including a telltale sphere of detonators to
trigger an atomic explosion, the paper said. 

Nonetheless, doubts about the intelligence persist among some
foreign analysts because US officials, citing the need to
protect their source, have largely refused to provide details of
the origins of the laptop computer beyond saying that they
obtained it in mid-2004 from a longtime contact in Iran,
according to The Times. 

"I can fabricate that data," the paper quotes an unnamed senior
European diplomat as saying of the documents. "It looks
beautiful, but is open to doubt." 

*****************************************************************
 13 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Chief to Press Iran on Compromise
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Sunday November 13, 2005 8:16 PM

AP Photo VAH106 

By GEORGE JAHN 

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring
agency has thrown his weight behind a proposal that calls for
Iran to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia and plans
to carry the details with him to Tehran within days, diplomats
said Sunday. 

The planned trip by International Atomic Energy Agency head
Mohamed ElBaradei is meant to persuade Tehran to accept the
initiative aimed at eliminating Iran's capacity to make fuel for
nuclear weapons, despite an initial rejection. 

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of the Iranian nuclear agency,
ruled out the compromise proposal on Saturday and insisted the
uranium enrichment program must be carried out in Iran. 

But a European official and a diplomat close to the agency
played down Aghazadeh's reaction, saying it was given before he
had seen the plan, which would first be presented in its
entirety to the Iranians by ElBaradei and his delegation. Both
officials demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing
confidential information. 

Speaking from outside Vienna, the European official told The
Associated Press that ElBaradei was acting with the approval of
the European Union and the United States, which have endorsed
the arrangement. 

The official said Iran had little choice but to accept the
proposal if it wanted to avoid the likelihood of a European-U.S.
push to refer it to the U.N. Security Council for possible
sanctions when the IAEA's 35-nation board meets Nov. 24 in the
Austrian capital. 

White House spokesman Trent Duffy had no comment on the report. 

Washington says Iran is aiming to produce nuclear warheads.
Tehran says its program is solely to produce electricity and
insists it has the right to develop the entire nuclear fuel
cycle on its own. 

In an effort to blunt chances of referral to the Security
Council, Iran recently allowed IAEA inspectors to revisit the
Parchin military site, about 20 miles southeast of Tehran. 

Another diplomat close to the agency told AP on Sunday that
initial results of environmental samples from the site showed no
trace of radiation, although U.S. officials say the site may be
part of Iran's nuclear arms research program. 

The diplomat emphasized, however, that further tests were needed
before a conclusion could be reached. Experts have said Iran
could have conducted ``dry testing'' without radioactive
components even if it was working on a nuclear weapons program
in Parchin. 

Diplomats said earlier this year that U.S. officials presented
computer simulations to IAEA officials this summer indicating
that Iran was trying to design a nuclear warhead to fit on its
Shahab missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and other
Middle Eastern countries. 

Reacting to a report in The New York Times Sunday that offered
new details on the presentation, Iranian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran that the
U.S. intelligence information was ``rubbish.'' 

The Times said the Americans claimed the simulations and other
documents came from a stolen Iranian laptop computer. The
computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear
warhead, including detonators to trigger an explosion roughly
2,000 feet above a target, according to the report, which cited
European and American officials who had examined the material. 

One of the diplomats who saw the U.S. presentation was
noncommittal, telling AP Sunday that it would have been more
convincing had it been ``original data'' instead of U.S.
material based on what the Americans said was first-hand
documentation. 

Aghazadeh rejected the enrichment plan Saturday after speaking
with Russian envoy Igor Ivanov. But a diplomat close to the
agency suggested the deal was far from dead, with not only
Russia and ElBaradei exerting pressure on the leadership to
soften its stance, but also China, South Africa and other
influential Iranian allies. 

Uranium in its natural state does not have a sufficiently high
concentration of fissile isotopes for it to be used in nuclear
reactors or weapons and the concentration must be raised through
the enrichment process. 

Carrying out the enrichment in Russia theoretically would deny
Iran the capacity to make fuel for nuclear weapons. 

The matter has troubled Moscow-Washington relations for years.
Iran's nuclear program includes the nearly finished
Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant, a $800 million
project that is a significant source of income for Moscow. 

Russia in the past has floated various ideas for overcoming
Western concerns, including enrichment in Russia, and it has
assured the West that Iran will send back to Russia all the
reactor's spent nuclear fuel rods, which could be processed into
plutonium for use in weapons. 

--- 

On the Net: http://www.iaea.org 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 14 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Rules Out Compromise Nuclear Deal
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday November 12, 2005 9:01 PM

AP Photo VAH106 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The head of Iran's nuclear agency ruled out
a compromise proposal to enrich uranium for his country's
controversial nuclear program in Russia, saying Saturday the
process must be done in Iran. 

The United States and European negotiators reportedly were
willing to accept the compromise to allow Iran to move ahead
with its nuclear program while ensuring it does not produce
atomic bombs. Enrichment can produce material either for a bomb
or for nuclear reactor fuel. 

Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads the
country's nuclear agency, said Iran was open to other proposals,
referring to an earlier Iranian idea that other countries
participate in the enrichment process on Iranian soil as a
guarantee the program is used only for peaceful purposes. 

``What is important for us is that we be entrusted to carry out
enrichment in Iran. As for participation by other countries in
Iran's uranium enrichment program, we will consider it if there
is any proposals,'' he said. 

But, when asked if Tehran would agree to carrying out enrichment
abroad, Aghazadeh said, ``Iran's nuclear fuel will be produced
inside Iran.'' 

Iran already has taken initial steps to pave the way for uranium
enrichment inside Iran. 

On Wednesday, Aghazadeh said Iran will give the outside world a
35 percent share in its uranium enrichment program, allowing
other countries to have a role in and monitor uranium enrichment
at Iran's facility in the central town of Natanz. Aghazadeh said
then that giving other nations and foreign companies such a role
was the ``maximum concession'' Tehran could offer. 

Washington says Iran is aiming to produce nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies that charge, saying its program is intended solely
to produce electricity while insisting it has the right to
develop the entire nuclear fuel cycle on its own. 

Aghazadeh spoke after talks with Russian envoy Igor Ivanov.
Iranian and Russian officials refused to confirm whether Ivanov
presented any compromise proposal to Tehran. 

Iranian state run television quoted Ivanov as saying his visit
reflects Russia's desire to help ease tensions between Iran and
the Europeans over its nuclear program. 

In Vienna, Austria, on Friday, a diplomat accredited to the
International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a position
paper entitled ``Elements of a Long-Term Solution'' was passed
on to the Russians about a week ago. 

Under the reported compromise, Iran would be allowed to do the
conversion work, but the enrichment would be done in Russia - an
arrangement that theoretically would deny Iran the capacity to
make fuel for nuclear weapons. 

Uranium in its natural state does not have a sufficiently high
concentration of fissile isotopes for it to be used in nuclear
reactors or weapons, and the concentration must be raised
through the enrichment process. 

The IAEA plans to discuss during a Nov. 24 meeting whether to
refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions
connected to its nuclear program. 

Last month, Iran allowed IAEA inspectors to revisit Parchin
military site, a sprawling complex about 20 miles southeast of
Tehran. U.S. officials say the site may be part of Iran's
nuclear arms research program. 

Tehran also has given the IAEA key information about its nuclear
activities. Iran hopes such cooperation will help it avoid
referral. 

Iran's cooperation prompted IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to say
last week that his inspectors were making ``good progress'' in
their effort to probe Iran's nuclear intentions, remarks that
ease the threat of U.N. sanctions. 

The matter has troubled Moscow-Washington relations for years.
Iran's nuclear program centers on the Russian-built Bushehr
nuclear power plant, an $800 million project that is a
significant source of income for Russia as well as a symbol of
its technological sophistication. 

Russia in the past has floated various ideas for overcoming
Western concerns, including enrichment in Russia, and it has
assured the West that Iran will send back to Russia all the
reactor's spent fuel rods, which could be processed into
plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 15 [NYTr] Korea Nuke Talks: Two Views
 
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 17:05:17 -0600 (CST)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[Associated Press says "no progress," while Prensa Latina says
"step forward."  You decide...-NY Transfer]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Step Forward in Korean Nuke Talks

Beijing, Nov 12 (Prensa Latina) The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) hailed Saturday the results of the fifth round of the six-party talks
on the Korean Nuclear issue.

For North Korean authorities, the negotiators have taken the first step
toward fulfilling the common statement issued in the fourth round of talks.

The statement from the fourth round of the six-party talks in September
reaffirmed the goal of the talks: the verifiable denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.

The first phase of the fifth round talks, which ended Friday afternoon in
Beijing, made progress, although it only lasted two and a half days, Kim
Gye-gwan, chief negotiator of the DPRK, told Xinhua at Pyongyang Sun-an
Airport upon his arrival.

"The parties concerned should eliminate suspicion and establish trust for
each other if they really want to make progress in the talks. The DPRK is
ready to make sincere efforts to fulfill the common statement," Kim Gye-gwan
said.

For his part, Kim Yong-il, deputy minister of the DPRK's Foreign Ministry,
told Xinhua that only if the parties concerned make joint efforts based on
respecting the spirit of the common statement and fulfil the reached
consensus, progress can be made on the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.

The six parties agreed to hold the second-phase of the fifth round talks at
the earliest possible time.

The six-party talks involved China, the DPRK, the United States, the
Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.

mh

                             ***

AP via USA Today - Nov 11, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-11-11-korea-nuclear_x.htm?csp=34

North Korea nuclear talks recess with no sign of progress

BEIJING (AP)  Talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program recessed
Friday with no sign of progress amid rancor between the North and the United
States. Diplomats promised to meet again but set no date.

The fifth round of discussions, which began Wednesday, had been scheduled to
break off Friday so diplomats could attend an Asian-Pacific economic
conference in South Korea.

The recess came after the North reportedly demanded that the United States
lift sanctions on firms accused of weapons proliferation and drop
accusations that Pyongyang counterfeits U.S. currency.

Washington was pressing the North to suspend work at a plutonium-producing
reactor. But the U.S. envoy said North Korean diplomats refused to do that
before a formal agreement is reached.

China issued a statement as chairman of the talks saying negotiators
affirmed that they would "fully implement" the declaration at the last round
of talks in September, when North Korea promised to disarm in exchange for
aid and a security guarantee.

The five-sentence statement said envoys put forward proposals for
implementing that September declaration but gave no details.

Participating in the talks are the United States, Japan and Russia, as well
as China and the two Koreas.

"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," the statement said.

It was read out by China's chief delegate, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei,
before the other envoys, who applauded but made no comments of their own.

The dispute erupted after Washington said North Korean officials 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.

Earlier, North Korea reportedly accused the United States of undermining the
cooperative spirit of the talks and demanded that the U.S. lift sanctions
against firms suspected of weapons proliferation and stop accusing the North
of counterfeiting U.S. money.

The United States was pressing North Korea to shut down its nuclear reactor
at Yongbyon and immediately stop reprocessing plutonium  a fuel for bombs 
without waiting for negotiators to draft a disarmament plan.

But North Korea "has taken the position that they will not shut down until
there is an implementation plan. That is, a fully elaborated plan on when
they will actually abandon their nuclear programs," the U.S. envoy,
Christopher Hill, said Thursday.

Delegates say this week's discussions were to focus on working out the
contentious details of the September agreement.

But the North refuses to disarm completely without getting concessions along
the way. In particular, North Korea has demanded a civilian nuclear reactor
for power generation before it disarms. Hill said Washington wouldn't
discuss the reactor until after the North has dismantled its nuclear
programs.

"There have been disputes from the beginning of this round of talks and it
has been very difficult to integrate the opinions," said Japan's chief
envoy, Kenichiro Sasae.

The North also voiced displeasure over President Bush's reference last week
to a tyrant in North Korea, Yonhap said.

"They made clear that they are not happy" about the sanctions and
counterfeit accusations, Hill said. "They expressed concern about this and I
had to make clear to them that these are law enforcement issues and not
six-party issues."

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 order froze any assets in areas under U.S. jurisdiction, but it wasn't
clear whether that had any impact, because the United States bans trade with
North Korea.

The United States also accuses North Korea of producing high quality
counterfeit $100 bills known as "supernotes."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
       
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*****************************************************************
 16 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] Message to North Korea   

The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
 
2003-11-18 ±è´ë¸® ¼öÁ¤          -->   
      
It is hardly surprising but still disappointing that the latest 
round of the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's 
nuclear development program has made no progress. The major 
stumbling block turned out to be a standoff between Washington 
and Pyongyang not only on the nuclear dispute but also on U.S. 
financial sanctions on the communist country. 

The fact that the delegates, after three days of talks in
Beijing, failed to set the dates for the next round and that
North Korea unexpectedly raised the U.S. economic sanctions
confirmed again that there is a long, bumpy road to a full
resolution of the nuclear problem. 

It is true that few anticipated major progress in the latest
session because it had been scheduled to last only for three
days to allow diplomats from all but North Korea of the
participating countries to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation conferences in Busan. One can share the view of the
U.S. chief delegate, Christopher Hill, who said three days was
too soon and too short a time to work out a complete
implementation of the joint statement the six parties signed in
September. 

But there was hope that the session would, at the least, clear
some ambiguities in the Sept. 16 statement, in which Pyongyang
agreed to abandon its nuclear development programs in return for
energy aid and security guarantee, and set the favorable
environment for further discussion. For that, there should have
been substantial exchanges of views about the central issues. 

Instead, the North raised issues that have little to do with the
talks' agenda. It is none other than Pyongyang's usual go-slow
tactics that its delegates took issue with Washington's
financial sanctions and currency counterfeiting and money
laundering accusations. It is a small relief that the two sides
agreed to hold separate talks on the issues. 

One can assume that the North raised the financial sanctions in
order to strengthen its ground for rejecting the U.S. demand to
shut down its reactor in Yongbyon and halt processing of spent
fuel. No wonder it insisted on its demand for the provision of a
light-water reactor beforehand. The North's obstinacy and the
consequent lack of progress in the latest session worry us that
the six-party talks, which began in August 2003, may lose its
momentum earned by the Sept. 16 agreement. 

The North Korean leadership ought not to try to play with the
time and should take due steps before the time runs out and
patience of the other parties are exhausted. The six-party talks
are the last opportunity to settle the nuclear dispute in a
peaceful manner. 

For their part, the other five countries need to work together
to put further pressure on the North. Their leaders' gathering
in Busan this weekend could offer a good opportunity for them to
send a clear, unified message to Pyongyang.

2005.11.14
 
*****************************************************************
 17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: No date for next nuclear talks

  November 12, 2005 ¤Ñ BEIJING ¡ª Unable to even agree on the
next meeting date, the six nations trying to hammer out a
resolution of the latest North Korean nuclear problem gave up
and went home yesterday. 

The only new promise in three days of meetings, a North Korean
diplomat said, was an agreement with the United States to meet
bilaterally to discuss Washington's financial sanctions on the
communist state and some of its commercial arms.

 The six parties initially planned for the chairman of the
talks, the chief Chinese envoy, to issue a statement that would
include a date for reconvening, but North Korea's sudden
complaints about U.S. financial sanctions forced a change in
plans. North Korean delegates said they would not continue
talking because of U.S. pressure on a Macau bank to end its
dealings with North Korea. 

Washington had accused the bank of cooperating in North Korean
distribution of counterfeit U.S. currency.

 A statement by China after the meeting said only that the six
nations agreed to continue the talks as soon as possible.

 Christopher Hill, the U.S. chief negotiator, said he wanted the
talks to resume before February, and said the complaints against
the Macau bank were an effort to fight financial crimes, not to
target Pyongyang.

 With the Pacific Rim meetings in South Korea beginning today,
and crucial global trade talks and a meeting of Northeast Asia
leaders following soon thereafter, prospects for another round
of talks this year appeared dim.

 Seoul again implicitly defended North Korea against charges
that it was the cause of the breakdown. "There were matters
other than North Korea's claims that influenced our failure to
finalize a date," Song Min-soon, South Korea's chief negotiator,
told the press. "What is important is not when to resume talks,
but what kinds of substantial progress will be made when the
talks are held."

 In the chairman's statement, the six nations reaffirmed that
they would fully implement the joint statement issued at the
last round in September. The September accord said that North
Korea would end its nuclear arms programs in return for economic
aid and security assurances. 


by Choi Sang-yeon, Ser Myo-ja myoja@joongang.co.kr>   
	  
   
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
 18 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S., N. Korea to Discuss Sanctions in Talks Break
 
  Home> National/Politics    Updated Nov.13,2005 19:03 KST   
 
to hold bilateral talks while a new round of the six-party
nuclear negotiations in Beijing is in recess. Topping their
agenda will be economic sanctions imposed on North Korean
companies by Washington. 

North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan told reporters in
Beijing the two sides decided to discuss the issue which was
raised during Thursday's general session. The U.S. has taken a
series of punitive actions against the North, accusing Pyongyang
of trafficking counterfeit dollars and narcotics. Last month,
the U.S. Treasury Department identified and froze the assets of
eight North Korean companies suspected of aiding in the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

Washington's chief envoy Christopher Hill said the U.S.
sanctions were law-enforcement issues irrelevant to nuclear
disarmament talks. The North Korean negotiator said the
sanctions have violated the spirit the joint statement of
principles adopted in September by the six countries. Some North
Korea analysts see Pyongyang's move as a protest against
Washington's demand for the communist country to scrap all its
nuclear programs. 

The decision to hold bilateral talks came after the talks on
Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions recessed on Friday with no
breakthrough and no date set for their resumption. Hill said
while the participating countries discussed reconvening the
meeting in December, the next round was unlikely to open within
this year due to tight diplomatic schedules. 

Arirang News 

*****************************************************************
 19 Minjok-Tongshin: U.S. Exercises for Preemptive Aerial Nuclear Attack on DPRK unde

2005.11.13 03:41:40                                     

 KCNA

 2005-11-12 - Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The U.S.
imperialist aggressors are now getting more frantic in their
preparations for a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK,
according to a military source. They let Guam-based "B-1B"
strategic bombers fly in the air above Wonju and Thaebaek on
Nov. 9 and 10 for madcap bombing exercises under the simulated
conditions of preemptive nuclear attacks on the DPRK. 

On Nov. 8 their Guam-based "B-1B" strategic bomber made a
shuttle flight in the air above Yongdong and Kongju to get
familiar with long-distance navigation and terrain conditions. 

Such exercises staged for preemptive nuclear attacks with
overseas-based strategic bombers involved clearly indicate that
they are becoming more undisguised in their nuclear threat to
the DPRK behind the scene of the six-party talks. 

Copyright © 1999-2005 Minjok Tongshin                                                            
*****************************************************************
 20 AFP: NKorea insists US end sanctions 

 Sat Nov 12,12:39 PM ET 		 	 

BEIJING (AFP) - North Korea" /> North Koreais insisting that the
United States lift sanctions against eight companies controlled
by the Stalinist regime as South Korea" /> South Koreavoiced
optimism the row would not sidetrack six-way nuclear talks. 

 "The lifting of sanctions is not something needed to keep
negotiations alive, but something that should be implemented as
promised," said Kim Gye-Gwan, North Korea's chief delegate to
the talks. 

Kim was speaking to reporters Saturday as he prepared to leave
Beijing after three days of talks on his country's nuclear
ambitions that also involving China, South Korea, the United
States, Japan and Russia. 

After the talks ended Friday, Kim said it would be impossible to
make progress in negotiations on dismantling its nuclear program
unless Washington lifted financial sanctions against the North
Korean companies. 

He was referring to an announcement by the US government on
October 21 that it had blacklisted eight North Korean entities
as proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and frozen
whatever assets they had under US jurisdiction. 

The action also prohibited all transactions between US citizens
and the entities, the Treasury Department" /> Treasury
Departmentsaid. 

North Korea's position, which it has voiced since Friday, is
that the sanctions violate a joint statement issued by the six
parties at the end of the previous round of talks on September
19. 

"To lift sanctions is not something to be implemented
conditionally, but something already agreed on," Kim said
Saturday. 

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-Il, who has been intimately
involved in earlier six-nation talks, sounded a similar note in
Pyongyang, speaking to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. 

"Only if the parties concerned make joint efforts based on
respecting the spirit of the common statement and fulfill the
reached consensus, progress can be made on the denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula," he said. 

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, his nation's
chief delegate at the talks, said Saturday in Beijing he
expected the problem could be solved. 

"Both sides (the United States and North Korea) know about the
problem, so I believe things will go well," Song told AFP. 

Even so, North Korea's decision to raise the sanctions issue at
the end of the talks Friday could threaten to bring the talks
back to stalemate. 

"We have seriously proposed the US should lift financial
sanctions on us," Kim, the North Korean negotiator, said Friday.
"We came out for negotiations because the US said it would stop
its hostile policy and co-exist with us." 

Aside from the US sanctions against the eight North Korean
companies, operations at a bank in Macau were also recently
closed down for allegedly doing business with North Korean
companies, after a US investigator raised concerns of
counterfeiting and money laundering. 

The US delegation told the North Koreans the sanctions had
nothing to do with the talks and instead restated its demand
that Pyongyang immediately and irreversibly begin dismantling
its nuclear weapons program. 

As delegation chief Kim arrived at the Sunan Airport near
Pyongyang later Saturday, he told Xinhua that trust was
important for the talks to continue. 

"The parties concerned should eliminate suspicion and establish
trust for each other if they really want to make progress in the
talks," he was quoted as saying. 	 		 			
					 						Recommend It: 						Not at All 						Somewhat
*****************************************************************
 21 AFP: US-NKorean mistrust seen as biggest hurdle to nuclear talks -
    
 Sun Nov 13, 2:16 AM ET 		 	 

SEOUL (AFP) - Mistrust between the United States and North
Korea" /> North Koreais the biggest hurdle in the latest nuclear
disarmament talks and no quick settlement is in sight, analysts
say. 

 Three days of six-nation talks ended in stalemate in Beijing on
Friday as the two main protagonists indicated their deep-rooted
suspicion of each other. 

"Mistrust is very, very high," said Peter Beck, director of the
Northeast Asia Project at the International Crisis Group. 

The problem is agreeing a sequence of actions to implement a
September 19 agreement under which the communist state committed
to disarm in return for energy aid and other benefits from the
United States and other countries. 

"One statement is not going to overcome years of, you could even
argue, decades of, mistrust," Beck said. The two countries
battled each other in the 1950-53 war and have been Cold War
adversaries since then. 

Nam Sung-Wook, a professor and North Korea expert at Seoul's
Korea University, said the latest round was "a killing-time
session of talking tough" before developing into real actions. 

"It requires time for leaders in Washington and Pyongyang to
feel their bullying tactics have limitations and to feel like
making progress," Nam said. 

The North insists it should receive a light water nuclear
reactor -- a legacy of an aborted 1994 disarmament deal -- to
generate power before it halts its existing nuclear programmes. 

The US says the North must first abandon its programmes. 

Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill, indicating distrust of the
North's record, said the issue would not be solved by it merely
freezing operations at its nuclear facilities. 

"Anything frozen can become unfrozen," he said Friday. "We're
just not interested in that type of reversible step. We're
looking for irreversible steps. 

The latest nuclear crisis flared in October 2002 after the US
accused North Korea of cheating on the 1994 accord by running a
secret uranium-enrichment programme to make weapons. 

The North responded by throwing out UN International Atomic
Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agencyweapons
inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

North Korea's chief negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan meanwhile accused
the US of breaching the September agreement -- which stipulates
no US hostility -- by imposing sanctions on its firms. 

Last month the US blacklisted eight North Korean firms allegedly
involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

Operations at a bank in Macau were also recently closed down for
doing business with North Korean companies, after a US
investigator raised concerns about counterfeiting and money
laundering. 

Kim insisted the United States should lift the sanctions. "The
financial sanctions violate the joint statement and make it
impossible to carry out the commitments to implement the joint
statement," he said. 

The North Korean and US delegations will hold bilateral
discussions on the sanctions issue before the talks resume,
probably in January next year. 

In an apparent bid to ease distrust betweeen the main players,
South Korea" /> South Korea's chief negotiator Song Min-Soon
proposed studying "some easy-to-take measures to build trust"
before drawing up an action plan for nuclear disarmament. 

But analysts say the North is not ready to take any action
towards nuclear disarmament for the time being. 

"I don't think they feel the urgency any more. They found the
economic assistance they need from Seoul and Beijing," said
Beck. "They don't feel they have much more to lose than they
have to gain from the talks." 

The six nations -- the two Koreas, the United States, China,
Russia and Japan -- pledged Friday to continue pushing ahead
with diplomatic efforts and enter a second phase of the current
fifth round of talks soon. 

Delegates said this would most likely be in January, as the
international diplomatic calendar for next month was too
crowded. 	 		 			
					 						Recommend It: 						Not at All 						Somewhat
*****************************************************************
 22 Guardian Unlimited: N.Korea Offers Reactor-for-Concessions Bid
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday November 12, 2005 10:46 AM

AP Photo TOK201 

By KWANG-TAE KIM 

Associated Press Writer 

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea on Saturday stood by its demand for
aid in exchange for shutting down a plutonium-producing nuclear
reactor, saying it won't act until Washington offers
concessions. 

``As we have to follow the `action for action' principle, we
will act if action is made,'' the North's envoy to six-nation
disarmament talks, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, told The
Associated Press. ``We will never move first.'' 

Kim didn't say what concessions the North wanted. He spoke at
the Beijing airport as he prepared to return to Pyongyang
following the end of the latest round of talks Friday. 

After landing in Pyongyang, Kim said his government was
committed to carrying out a September joint declaration in which
it promised to disarm in exchange for aid and a security
guarantee, the North's official news agency reported. 

Kim said Pyongyang was ``ready to make sincere efforts to
fulfill the common statement,'' the Korean Central News Agency
reported. 

Kim said participants in the talks - which also include China,
South Korea, Japan and Russia - have taken the first step toward
fulfilling that September declaration. 

``The parties concerned should eliminate suspicion and establish
trust for each other if they really want to make progress in the
talks,'' Kim said, according to KCNA. 

The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill,
urged the North on Friday to shut down the reactor at Yongbyon
but said he had rejected Kim's demand for aid in exchange. 

Asked whether the North was willing to shut down the reactor if
the United States offered suitable concessions, Kim said: ``Of
course.'' 

He didn't elaborate. 

There was no indication of progress this week toward agreeing on
details of how to carry out North Korea's pledge in September to
abandon nuclear development in exchange for aid and a security
guarantee. 

The North is insisting on receiving aid in stages as it
dismantles its nuclear programs, while Washington refuses to
reward Pyongyang until that goal is achieved. 

The diplomats agreed to meet again but didn't set a date. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
 23 WorldNetDaily: Whoops! There she goes again

  SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12 2005           
                            
[Supercritical Thoughts] [Gordon Prather] 
 
Posted: November 12, 2005
 
Well, Judith Miller is no longer spreading neo-crazy lies and
misleading statements on the front page of the New York Times.
However, David Sanger is still on the job: 

The Bush administration and three European allies have approved
a new offer to be made to Iran in a last-ditch effort to head
off a confrontation over its suspected nuclear weapons program. 

The proposal was discussed at length on Tuesday during a meeting
between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mohamed
ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency,
said officials who described their conversation. 

Dr. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, will
take the proposal to Iran on behalf of Britain, Germany, France
and the United States, the officials said. 

Sanger's report on what U.S. "officials" said was immediately
contradicted by Condoleezza Rice. 

Let me make a few comments about the story that was there this
morning. The first thing is there is no U.S.-European proposal
to the Iranians. 

I want to say that categorically! 

There isn't and there won't be! 

We are doing what we have been doing for some time, which is
keeping our partners – our diplomatic partners are keeping us
apprised of their thinking about the future of their
negotiations with the Iranians. 

Whoops! Keeping our partners apprised? 

We are not parties to these negotiations and we don't intend to
become parties to the negotiation! 

Did you get that? 

We are not now, never have been, and don't intend to be a
"party" to the Paris negotiations! 

You know – the negotiations wherein the EU3 has undertaken to
provide the Iranians "objective guarantees" that the EU3 will no
longer be intimidated by the United States, and that the EU3
will ensure that Iran's "inalienable" right under the Treaty on
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to the "production and use
of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination"
will be respected. 

But then Condi went on to say: 

But I don't want to get any further into details about what may
be being contemplated by other parties to the negotiations – by
the parties to the negotiations. 

Whoops! Other parties to the negotiations? 

So, who is telling the truth – Sanger or Condi? 

Of course, even if Sanger is telling the truth, he's not telling
the whole truth. 

In particular, Sanger has never reported on the offer the
Iranians made to the EU last March to voluntarily "confine"
their nuclear activities. 

In particular, the Iranians offered to forego indefinitely the
chemical processing of "spent fuel" to recover "unspent" uranium
and plutonium. 

The Iranians also offered to limit their uranium-enrichment
activities to those required to meet the contingency
requirements of Iran's power reactors. [In other words, if we
prevent the Russians from providing new fuel for the power
reactor they are building at Bushehr – as we have already done
for Russian-built reactors in India – the Iranians want to be
able to produce their own fuel.] 

Finally, the Iranians offered to submit to "continuous on-site
presence of IAEA inspectors at the conversion and enrichment
facilities to provide unprecedented added guarantees." 

The Iranian offer was made, confidentially, to the EU3 on March
23, 2005. 

Of course, "our diplomatic partners" have been "keeping us
apprised" with respect to their confidential negotiations with
the Iranians (to which we are not a party). 

But Sanger didn't tell us about the confidential Iranian offer,
much less the substance of it. 

<img width=300
height=250
src="http://z1.adserver.com/w/cp.x;rid=14;tid=7;ev=1;dt=3;ac=26;c
=327;" border=0>

When the Iranians got no response to their offer – nor an offer
on the part of the EU3 – the Iranians went public, announcing on
Aug. 1, 2005, the "phased" implementation of the "confined"
uranium-enrichment program set out in their March proposal [<I>a
.pdf document</I>].

Sanger still didn't tell us the substance of the March proposal,
now made publicly. 

But on Aug. 9, the EU3 responded  [<I>a .pdf document</I>]as
follows: 

We do not believe that Iran has any operational need to engage
in fissile material production activities of its own, nor any
other reason to resume [UF-6 production] activity at Esfahan, if
the intentions of its nuclear program are exclusively peaceful. 

That, by coincidence, is Condi-baby's belief, too: 

I think it's fair to say that we would be very concerned if the
Iranians were left with stockpiles of UF-6 that could be used in
nuclear weapons. But I don't want to get any further into
details about what may be being contemplated by other parties to
the negotiations – by the parties to the negotiations. 

Other parties? Whoops!
 
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico. 


[WorldNetDaily.com] 

webmaster@worldnetdaily.com
--> news@worldnetdaily.com--> Contact WND
*****************************************************************
 24 Daily Yomiuri: Antinuclear sentiment misguided over carrier

Editorial : DAILY

The Yomiuri Shimbun 

The U.S. Navy recently announced it would deploy for the first
time a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Naval Base
in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, starting in 2008. 

Both the Kanagawa prefectural government and the Yokosuka
municipal government have stated their opposition to the plan,
with a protest campaign also being launched. 

This issue should be considered first of all from the viewpoint
of the peace and security of Japan as well as the whole
Asia-Pacific region. 

In addition to having a greater cruising range than conventional
aircraft carriers, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier also has
better combat and operational capabilities. 

=== 

Deployment key for region 

According to U.S. Forces in Japan, the decision to deploy a
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka was taken because
the forward deployment of high-performance navy ships is
necessary in light of the security environment of the
Asia-Pacific region. 

The deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is also
part of the realignment of U.S. forces that takes into
consideration the military buildup of China, the nuclear
development of North Korea, and the "Arc of Instability" that
stretches as far as the Middle East. 

Boosting U.S. readiness to respond promptly to contingencies
would contribute greatly to the peace and security of Japan and
the Asia-Pacific region. 

Yet citing concerns over nuclear safety, Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi
Matsuzawa and Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya have called for the
deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be
canceled, demanding the deployment of a conventional aircraft
carrier instead. Their opposition reflects the antipathy among
local residents toward a nuclear carrier. 

The United States will replace its conventional carriers with
nuclear-powered carriers in the future. There are only two old
conventional carriers in operation now, including the Kitty
Hawk, which is presently based at Yokosuka. 

To deploy a conventional carrier, a new one would have to be
built at considerable cost. It seems unreasonable for Japan to
ask the United States to do so. 

Since the mid-1960s, U.S. nuclear-powered navy ships have made
calls at Japanese ports on more than 1,200 occasions without any
nuclear reactor-related mishaps. 

For the deployment of the nuclear-powered carrier in Japan,
Washington said it would take such measures as not having the
nuclear reactor repaired or fuel rods changed at Yokosuka Naval
Base, in addition to having the nuclear reactor stopped when the
carrier is at anchor. 

The Japanese government also needs to do its utmost in taking
safety measures and reassuring local residents. 

=== 

Leftist foes continue Cold War 


Among the protesters, there are those similar to the opposition
to the United States and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty seen
years ago, based on leftist ideology. 

Local government heads should not be influenced by movements
that continue Cold War hostilities. 

Meanwhile, some have said the deployment of nuclear carriers may
contradict the government's three nonnuclear principles of "not
to possess, not to produce, not to introduce nuclear weapons."
They also say the deployment should be subject to prior
consultation, as stipulated in the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. 

Yet it is obviously absurd to consider a navy ship that uses
nuclear power to drive its engine as a nuclear weapon. 

The deployment of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has nothing
to do with the three nonnuclear principles and is not subject to
prior consultation. 

The issue should be dealt with level-headedly and not be swayed
by antinuclear sentiment. 



(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 13 ) (Nov. 13, 2005) 

 Copyright © The Yomiuri Shimbun.   
*****************************************************************
 25 Sunday Herald: ArmisticeDay bombpractice slammed - 

13 November 2005 

  By Alan Crawford 
 
 It is the one day of the year when the UK comes to a solemn
halt and thoughts turn to those who lost their lives fighting in
the many conflicts since the first world war. 

But that didnt stop the RAF from choosing Armistice Day to drop
a bomb on a firing range in Galloway, prompting anger from some
residents.

Local MSP Alasdair Morgan yesterday called for a full
explanation of what happened on Friday, November 11, at
Dundrennan firing range near Kirkcudbright. But an MoD
spokeswoman dismissed the incident as standard business. 

Morgan said: Clearly thats an unusual thing for aircraft to be
dropping bombs. If theyre doing that on land, I dont think thats
acceptable. Even if its in the water close to the land, thats
not acceptable either. I would like to know a lot more about
this. 

Morgan, who lives in Kirkcudbrightshire, added that Armistice
Day was perhaps not the most appropriate day to carry out a
bombing exercise.

The rest of the nation is standing at two minutes silence and
these guys are going round dropping bombs  thats not very smart
at all.

The incident is likely to increase speculation over activities
at Dundrennan, the only range in Britain where depleted
uranium-tipped shells are tested. The weapons were last tested
at Dundrennan in 2003 in preparation for the conflict in Iraq. 

There are long-standing concerns over the possible health
effects of spent DU rounds fired into the Solway Firth, although
the Ministry of Defence rejects such claims.

 Chloe Bruce, of Galloway Coalition for Justice and Peace, said
there was distrust in the community about what was going on at
the range, adding that bombing on Armistice Day was just not
right. 

The bombing run was part of an RAF exercise in the region. The
exercise, which was advertised to locals in advance, ends on
Wednesday. 

  © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 26 Xinhua: Merkel: grand coalition agreement reached   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-12 12:59:45   
    
  CSU head Edmund Stoiber (L-R), German chancellor designate
Angela Merkel, outgoing SPD leader Franz Muentefering and his
designated successor Matthias Platzeck pose for a photograph in
Berlin November 11, 2005.  


    BERLIN, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- German conservative leader
Angela Merkel confirmed on Friday that a grand coalition
agreement had been reached. 

    "The coalition agreement is completed. I'm convinced that
the coalition creates a genuine opportunity for Germany, "
Merkel told a news conference. 

    The finalizing of the agreement of more than 130 pages
between Merkel's Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social
Union (CDU/CSU)and the Social Democrat Party of outgoing German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has put an end to nearly two months
of political uncertainty in Germany. 

    The deal is a last-minute horse-trading on contentious
issues such as new taxation and the future of the country's
nuclear powerplants. 

    The parties agreed to raise the main value-added tax rate by
three points to 19 percent from 2007 to contain budget deficit
and lower non-wage labor costs to promote employment. 

    
  German Chancellor designate Angela Merkel smiles during a news
conference after coalition talks came to an end in Berlin
November 11, 2005. (Xinhua/AFP)   

    The conservatives also agreed to levy more tax on high
income earners and to phase out all nuclear power plants in
Germany over the next two decades as Schroeder's government had
committed itself to doing so. 

    On foreign policy, the new government will seek improved
ties with the United States, which have been soured over German
opposition to the Iraq war, and strengthen relations with
European Union partners. 

    They also accepted a compromise formulation on Turkey's bid
to join the European Union. 

    The accord is to be approved by separate party conventions
on Monday to pave way for the parliament to elect Merkel on Nov.
22 the first female chancellor in Germany's history. 

    Germany has been locked in political uncertainty since an
inconclusive September 18 election, which forced the both
parties to open coalition talks. 

    The last time Germany had a grand coalition was in the late
1960s. Enditem
                                
  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 27 AFP: Behind the headlines, UN labs test for nuclear violations -
                           
 Sun Nov 13, 3:45 PM ET 		 	 

SEIBERSDORF, Austria (AFP) - While headlines scream about Iran"
/> 's nuclear program, UN scientists in white coats are quietly
doing the high-tech laboratory work that may tell whether Tehran
is secretly making atomic weapons. 

In block buildings standing in fields some 40 kilometres (25
miles) southeast of Vienna, the scientists use X-ray
fluorescence, gamma spectrometry and other technology to filter
out microsopic particles of uranium and plutonium in the hunt
for isotopes that will show or disprove weapons work. 

"We can obtain a truly amazing amount of information from a tiny
amount of materials in samples," said David Donohue, who heads
the Clean Laboratory Unit of the UN watchdog International
Atomic Energy Agency" /> 's Safeguards Analytical Laboratory . 

The samples are gathered by IAEA inspectors who visit nuclear or
suspected nuclear sites. 

The inspectors swipe surfaces using a 10 X 10 centimeter square
of specially clean cotton cloth to get what are called
environmental samples, Donahue explained to reporters visiting
the laboratory Friday. 

The samples are then analyzed at the IAEA and other laboratories
in "clean" rooms, where air flow and hermetic seals maintain a
contamination-free environment. 

White walls and floors are offset by the gleaming metal of
machines like a secondary ion mass spectrometer which can
provide a complete picture of the isotopic composition of
uranium and plutonium from particles 100 times smaller than the
width of a human hair. 

And this all comes from looking for dust. 

"We train our inspectors to look for dust" because that is where
particles gather," Donahue said. 

He said gathering soil does not make for good sampling because
there is too much organic material. 

"If the inspectors can not get into a building and have to
sample from the outside, they should take samples from window
sills, from road signs, any place dust collects," Donahue said,
standing in front of the picture windows that give a full view
of the clean rooms. 

Donahue said IAEA inspectors have honed their techniques since
starting environmental sampling in Iraq" /> in 1996. 

"We like to see dirty samples (full of dust traces). What we
don't want to see is a kilogram of soil," Donahue said. 

In Iraq, inspectors brought back "whole trees" as they were
looking for traces of tritium, a radioactive isotope of
hydrogen, but this was not effective. 

"Inside buildings is better," Donahue said, explaining that the
inspectors have learned to make structured searches, instead of
just grabbing whatever they can. 

The Seibersdorf lab has already helped analyze samples taken at
two sites in Iran and which have revealed traces of highly
enriched uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. 

But Iran, which says its nuclear program is a strictly peaceful
effort to generate electricity, claims these particles were
contamination that came along with equipment it imported and
this claim is so far borne out by other evidence. 

The Seibersorf lab is currently handling a crucial step in the
IAEA's investigation of Iran's nuclear program -- analyzing
samples from the Parchin military site where Washington charges
that the Islamic Republic is doing secret testing of implosion
explosions of the type used in atomic bombs. 

Initial results have shown no signs of nuclear activity,
diplomats told AFP Friday, although final results are not yet
in. 

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. 

Donahue said "some Parchin analysis has been done" at
Seibersdorf but refused to say what the results were. 

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. The Seibersdof
facility is part of a network of 14 IAEA laboratories in eight
countries. 

Donahue said IAEA inspectors take six swipes at a time so they
have replicas and then have at least two analyzed, one in
Seibersdorf, the other at another lab. The remaining samples are
stored in archives at Seibersdorf. 

Donahue would not give the total number of swipes taken at
Parchin on the last visit, November 1, but he said: "It's not
hundreds." 	 		 			
 							 				 					 					 					 					 					 					 					 					
  Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 28 Sunday Herald: Powerful arguments for change in energy policy - 

13 November 2005 

  Alf Young says Scotland will be left in the dark unless it
plans now for future energy production 
 
 AWAY from the soul searching about what can be done to stop
Scotlands biggest industrial company, ScottishPower, falling
under German control, theres just as significant a debate
beginning to simmer about how well keep the lights on in
Scotland 10 years from now. 

When ScottishPower and Scottish Hydro-Electric were owned by the
state, security of supply simply wasnt an issue. The power
engineers who ran things back then made sure they built enough
generating capacity to leave a very healthy margin for error. 

Inverkip was built to run on oil, eventually done for when the
soaring price of crude proved prohibitive. It flickered briefly
into life to help see off Arthur Scargill and his striking
miners, but it was soon in mothballs again, its turbines shipped
off as spare parts to the highest bidder. 

I once got into big trouble for writing a story suggesting the
old SSEB top brass had received permission to built the Torness
nuclear station without any credible evidence its output was
actually needed. 

Such gung-ho days of build and be damned are long gone. The
industry has been privatised and has gone through waves of
consolidation and restructuring. 

There was a rush, post- privatisation, to build a lot of new
gas-fired capacity. Now theres an equivalent rush  sweetened by
some fat subsidies but impeded by planning foul-ups  to build
lots of wind turbines. 

Since April, a new UK-wide electricity trading system, Betta,
has been launched, creating a UK-wide transmission network with
a single operator, National Grid. 

Where once the interconnector between the separate Scottish and
English grid networks was regarded as a one-way opportunity for
Scotland to export its excess output south, now it is seen by
the regulator Ofgem as a barrier to efficient trade.

Betta and its new transmission charging regime is designed to
facilitate open, transparent and non-discriminatory trade in
electricity across Great Britain. But that assumes there will be
enough of the stuff to trade. 

Its a long time since anyone built new baseload capacity, such
as the fossil-fuelled or nuclear stations that sprang up right
across the UK in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. With most of them
coming to the end of their productive lives, its little wonder
there is growing talk of a looming energy gap. 

This week, an authoritative scientific estimate of that
shortfall was launched at the Royal Society in London. Energy,
it concluded, will inevitably become less available and more
expensive than it has been for the last few decades. 

Domestic and industrial users are already familiar with the
latter trend, as their power bills continue to soar. However,
availability has not yet become a pressing problem, although
there is talk of big industrial users, on interruptable supply
contracts, finding their gas supplies cut off at times of peak
demand this winter. 

The report, the fruits of a multidisciplinary conference
involving 150 experts in October, predicts that, within a decade
on current trends, Britain will only be generating 80% of the
electricity it needs. 

The Scottish picture may prove even darker. This week,
ScottishPower confirmed that its two main coal-fired stations,
Longannet and Cockenzie, will have shut down completely by 2015. 

Longannet, a mainstay station, will have its output nearly
halved long before it finally closes. Its operator does not
believe the cost of making it compliant under new EU emissions
regulations (some £200 million) makes economic sense. 

By the time those two fossil stations on the River Forth are
closing, the Hunterston B nuclear station on the Clyde will
already have shut up shop. And by the early 2020s, the Torness
nuclear facility, on the coast near Dunbar, will also be heading
towards decommissioning. 

With no new Scottish baseload stations currently planned by
ScottishPower, British Energy or Scottish & Southern Energy, our
looming energy gap looks, on the face of it, even more daunting
than that predicted for the UK as a whole by that scientific
panel this week. 

When the SNPs Richard Lochhead called at Holyrood this week for
a national energy strategy for Scotland, he claimed urgent
action is needed to avoid an energy gap in the next decade. 

Lochhead knows what he doesnt want to see in any future
generating mix. The only thing our party accepts about nuclear
power, he told MPs, is that it is dirty, dangerous and
expensive. 

That rather begs the question of what will be there. There are
renewables, of course, with the Scottish Executive currently
targeting a hugely-ambitious and almost certainly undeliverable
40% share by 2020. 

And theres that welcome plan to generate 350 megawatts from a
new hydrogen-fired unit at Peterhead, with the by-product CO2
used to enhance oil recovery from the Miller field in the North
Sea, the carbon then captured in the reservoirs geology. 

Theres lots of ambitious talk of clean-coal generation. But with
Longannet and Cockenzie closing by 2015, where is that going to
take place? 

Privately, ScottishPower and SSE executives insist the market
will decide what fills any energy gap in the next 10 years.

And since, under Betta, that market is now a UK-wide one, theres
a very substantial probability that any replacement generating
capacity for Longannet, Torness, Cockenzie and Hunterston will
be built south of the border. 

Its all down to economics. Ofgems new transmission charging
regime works on the principle that sources of power should,
ideally, be located as close as possible to where the biggest
demand for power lies. 

So far, the main gripe in Scotland about this system is what it
does to the competitiveness of wind generators on Skye, say,
compared with their equivalents in Cornwall. 

But the same logic applies to where Scotlands future baseload
electricity might come from. 

Unless there are fundamental changes to the charging regime, an
awful lot of it may have to be imported from generators down
south. 

  © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 29 Independent: DTI minister backs nuclear new-build 

By Tim Webb 

Published: 13 November 2005 

Building a new fleet of nuclear reactors is a "no brainer",
according to a government minister with responsibility for
global energy and climate change. 

Conservative politicians said the Government risked pre-empting
its energy review, which will begin soon and will consider how
to replace Britain's ageing nuclear reactors. The Government
claims it is keeping an open mind over how to maintain a secure
supply of energy while at the same time meeting targets on
cutting CO2 emissions. 

The comments from Ian Pearson, the minister for trade with a
brief on energy issues, are the most explicit expression of
support for nuclear power from a senior Labour figure. Nuclear
power is virtually carbon free. 

"My personal view is that we ought to look at a limited
new-build nuclear programme, probably based around existing
sites," he said. "That strikes me as pretty much a no-brainer.
To meet our future climate-change targets, it is the right thing
to do, and in terms of the energy mix." He conceded that "there
are a whole series of concerns you have to get right" over
nuclear energy, for example how to safely store radioactive
waste. 

Mr Pearson stressed that the Government had not made a decision
on the outcome of the energy review. "The Government view is
that we will be conducting a review and looking at all the
options. Alan Johnson [the Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry] has said we have got a completely open mind on it." 

But Bernard Jenkin, the shadow Energy minister, insisted the
question of whether to build new nuclear reactors should be an
economic, not a political decision. "It's for investors and
generators to decide if nuclear power is the most effective way
of generating electricity and reducing CO2. Ministers should
avoid either pre-empting their own review or promoting one
technology over the other." 

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, which is
responsible for recommending to the Government, next summer, how
to store the 470,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste in the UK,
will hold a public briefing on Thursday. 

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd. 
*****************************************************************
 30 Times Herald-Record: Indian Point sirens will be tested again

November 12, 2005

    Orange County siren test, take two. 

   Four weeks after the county's Indian Point warning system
failed miserably during a routine sounding, emergency management
officials are ready for another try.

    From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Orange County will
conduct two activations of the siren alert system. Each test,
scheduled to coincide with testing in Rockland, Westchester and
Putnam counties, will be from three to four minutes. During a
real emergency at the Westchester County nuclear power plant,
the sirens would alert residents to tune into local radio or
television stations for potential evacuation information.

    When 10 of Orange County's 16 sirens failed to sound during
testing last month, Orange County Executive Ed Diana ordered the
November do-over, vowing to "get to the bottom" of the problem. 

   Record Online is brought to you by the Times Herald-Record,
       serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills.
                                 
     40 Mulberry Street * PO Box 2046 * Middletown, NY 10940
  Telephone 845-341-1100 or 800-295-2181 outside the Middletown,
                           N.Y., area.
                                 
        Orange County Publications. All rights reserved. 

*****************************************************************
 31 courant.com: State Questions Nuclear Rate Hike 

CONNECTICUT NEWS   

 Electric Customers Could Get Rebates If Judge Deems 456 Percent
Increase Excessive

 November 12, 2005 

By GARY LIBOW, Courant Staff Writer   

The state's consumer counsel Friday questioned whether the 456 
percent rate increase given Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co. 
to decommission the Haddam Neck plant is justified.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission quietly allowed 
Connecticut Yankee to increase its annual decommissioning 
ratepayer charge from $16.7 million to $93 million in February. 
The rate increase was included in customer bills with little 
fanfare.

Consumer Counsel Mary Healey said her office, the state
Department of Public Utility Control and attorney general have
been fighting the "awfully high" decommissioning charges, now
estimated at approximately $831.3 million.

"Just the order of magnitude raises questions whether it was
prudent or not," Healey said.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in a telephone interview
Friday, said he considers the performance of Connecticut
Yankee's management "incompetent and outrageous." Ratepayers
shouldn't be forced to subsidize Connecticut Yankee's
mismanagement, he said.

An administrative judge is reviewing Connecticut Yankee's cost
estimate to determine its validity and is expected to make a
recommendation to FERC in December. FERC typically grants the
rate increase requests quickly to keep from burdening the
applicant financially while the request is deliberated. Costs
deemed excessive would be rebated.

Connecticut Yankee spokeswoman Kelley Smith said the utility,
which had the burden to prove its rate increase was prudent and
justified, cites four primary causes for the increase.

Smith said the 9/11 terrorist attacks resulted in increased
security and insurance costs. The Department of Energy's
continued failure to permanently remove Connecticut Yankee's
spent fuel was likewise costly, she said.

 Connecticut Yankee has built concrete casks to house more than
1,000 uranium-laden spent fuels. The utility claims the costs to
continue to store the rods and provide around-the-clock security
continues to mount and the federal government has not taken
steps to move the contaminants off-site to a permanent
repository.

Smith also pointed to the negative impact of declines in the
financial markets during 2000-2002 that cut earnings on the
decommissioning fund and termination of the decommissioning
contract with Bechtel Nuclear that left Connecticut Yankee to
complete the work itself.

 If FERC determines the $93 million decommissioning price isn't
prudent, Connecticut Yankee would be directed to issue rebates.

Blumenthal, the DPUC and other state consumer watchdogs say
Connecticut Yankee's lengthy avoidance in measuring levels of
potentially cancer-causing Strontium-90 at its decommissioned
plant will cost ratepayers millions of dollars.

The ratepayers are customers of the nine utility companies,
which include Connecticut Light &Power Co. and United
Illuminating Co., that own Connecticut Yankee.

 Strontium-90 is found in nuclear reactor waste, a by-product of
the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency considers
Strontium-90 "one of the more hazardous constituents of nuclear
wastes." Internal exposure to the chemical similar to calcium is
linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue, and leukemia,
the agency states.

Jim Reinsch, president of Bechtel Nuclear, the firm Connecticut
Yankee contracted in 1999 to decommission the site and later
fired, testified under oath that plant ownership didn't want to
test for contaminants like Strontium-90.

When Strontium-90 was found in 2001 to have "severely
contaminated" the nuclear plant's groundwater, Reinsch testified
Bechtel informed Connecticut Yankee of the urgent need for
extensive groundwater characterization and monitoring.

"CY would not own up to its responsibilities to determine the
extent of groundwater contamination and then develop a cost
effective means to address it and would not accept Bechtel's
recommendations for doing so," Reinsch stated.

Bechtel sued Connecticut Yankee for $93.5 million, accusing the
utility of grossly understating the levels of groundwater
contamination making it impossible for Bechtel to complete the
job on schedule and within budget. Connecticut Yankee
counter-sued Bechtel, accusing the company of delaying the
decommissioning and failing to abide by the terms of its
contract. Bechtel, which was fired in 2003, is seeking $90
million from Connecticut Yankee for unlawful termination.

Blumenthal said Connecticut Yankee has a moral and potentially
legal responsibility to identify contamination.

courant.com is Copyright © 2005 by The Hartford Courant   
*****************************************************************
 32 ABQJOURNAL: Makeover Will Boost Palo Verde's Generating Capacity 

the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. 

Friday, November 11, 2005 

Albuquerque Journal--> Associated Press 

PHOENIX — A generating unit at the Palo Verde nuclear 
power plant is undergoing a multimillion-dollar repair job that 
will ultimately boost the plant's output. 

Construction crews this week put twin steam generators into 
the guts of Unit 1 — one of three at the plant. The makeover 
will also include new turbines. 

The $235 million job is the most expensive at Unit 1 since 
the reactor began producing electricity in 1986. A similar 
repair was completed at Unit 2 in 2003; Unit 3's steam 
generators and turbines will be swapped out in 2007. 

Steam generators perform a vital function at the plant about 
50 miles west of Phoenix by converting heated water from the 
reactor's core into steam, used to spin turbines and produce 
electricity. 

The steam generators were originally expected to last the 
duration of the four-decade license of the nuclear power plant. 

But plant operator Arizona Public Service discovered during 
the initial years of use that the generators had worn out more 
quickly than expected. 

The 1,250-megawatt Unit 1 reactor will add an additional 80 
megawatts of power when the new equipment is installed and work 
crews complete the refueling by Christmas. 

Palo Verde is the largest nuclear power plant in the 
country. When running at full capacity, the plant provides 
electricity for about 4 million households served by the plant's 
seven owners in Texas, New Mexico, California and Arizona. 

Arizona Public Service, the state's largest electricity 
provider, and another Phoenix-area utility, Salt River Project, 
own nearly half of the plant. 

Palo Verde has experienced several unplanned outages this 
year due to everything from equipment failures to regulatory 
concerns about the plant's design. 

The outages since April forced APS to buy replacement fuel 
from other power plants at a cost of $40 million, money that the 
utility will seek to recoup next year in the form of higher 
electricity bills for its customers. 

Albuquerque and New Mexico News 

Copyright Albuquerque Journal 

Steve@abqjournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 33 Newsday.com: State officials vow to fight rate increase for Connecticut Yankee
 
November 12, 2005, 12:17 PM EST

HARTFORD, Conn. --       A significant rate increase given by 
federal regulators to Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co. to 
decommission its plant at Haddam Neck is drawing fire from state 
officials and is under review by a judge. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February allowed 
Connecticut Yankee to increase its annual decommissioning 
ratepayer charge from $16.7 million to $93 million, a rise of 
more than 450 percent. 

Consumer Counsel Mary Healey said Friday that she, the state
Department of Public Utility Control and state Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal have been fighting the decommissioning
charges that are now estimated at about $831.3 million. 

"Just the order of magnitude raises questions whether it was
prudent or not," she said. 

Blumenthal told The Hartford Courant on Friday that the
performance of Connecticut Yankee's management is "incompetent
and outrageous." 

Ratepayers should not be forced to subsidize Connecticut
Yankee's mismanagement, he said. 

Kelley Smith, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Yankee, said the
utility had to prove its rate increase was prudent and
justified. 

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in increased
security and insurance costs and the U.S. Department of Energy
has failed to permanently remove Connecticut Yankee's spent
fuel, she said. 

Connecticut Yankee has built concrete casks to house more than
1,000 spent fuels that contain uranium. The utility claims the
costs to continue to store the rods and provide around-the-clock
security continues to mount and the federal government has not
taken steps to move the contaminants offsite to a permanent
repository. 

Smith also pointed to declines in financial markets in 2000-02
that cut earnings on the decommissioning fund and termination of
the decommissioning contract with Bechtel Nuclear that forced
Connecticut Yankee to complete the work itself. 

Blumenthal, state utility regulators and other consumer
watchdogs say Connecticut Yankee's avoidance in measuring levels
of potentially cancer-causing Strontium-90 at its decommissioned
plant will cost ratepayers millions of dollars. 

The ratepayers are customers of the nine utility companies,
including Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating
Co., that own Connecticut Yankee. 

Strontium-90 is found in nuclear reactor waste, a byproduct of
the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors. 

An administrative judge is reviewing Connecticut Yankee's cost
estimate and is expected to make a recommendation on its
validity to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in
December. 

___ 

Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com 

 Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
*****************************************************************
 34 AU ABC: Nuclear reactor may have been terrorist target. 

14/11/2005. ABC News Online

Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor has been revealed as
allegedly a possible target for a group of men arrested on
terrorism offences.

 A police fact sheet has been released this morning.

 A group of nine men was arrested in Melbourne during
counter-terrorism related raids last week.

 The eight men arrested during counter-terrorism raids in Sydney
last week have been charged with preparing for a terrorist act
and are not due back in court until next month.

 But the details of the allegations against them have been
released this morning in court documents.

 Police fact sheets allege that in December of last year, three
of the men were stopped by police near the Lucas Heights nuclear
reactor in Sydney and that an access gate had been cut. 

It is also alleged that the men had been trying to stockpile
hundreds of litres of chemicals used to manufacture a highly
volatile explosive called TATP. 

It is alleged that on two occasions in March and April of this
year some of the men attended jihad training camps in far
western New South Wales and have links to the men arrested in
Melbourne for similar alleged offences. 

*****************************************************************
 35 NEWS.com.au: Terror suspects 'near N-reactor' - 

NSW/ACT - Breaking News 24/7

From: AAP                       
November 14, 2005   		 		 		 

POLICE stopped three Sydney terrorist suspects near the Lucas
Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004, a court has been told.
The police fact sheet tendered in relation to eight Sydney
terrorist suspects who faced Sydney's Central Local Court last
Friday was released to the media this morning. 

The document states that Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul
Rakib Hasan were stopped in their car by New South Wales police
near the nuclear facility at Lucas Heights, in Sydney's south,
in December 2004.

 The men also had a trail bike and claimed they were there to
ride it, the document said.

 But according to the fact sheet, when interviewed separately,
all three gave different versions of the day's events to police.

 "Police inquiries revealed the access lock for a gate to a
reservoir of the reactor had recently been cut," the fact sheet
said.

Mr Touma, Mr Elomar and Mr Hasan, along with five other Sydney 
men, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives 
in preparation for a terrorist act.

 They will reappear in Central Local Court on December 5. 		  		

*****************************************************************
 36 DenverPost.com: A rocky road ahead as ex-Flats workers lose out on benefits

Article Launched: 11/13/2005 01:00:00 AM                                                        
		
  By Karen Augé Denver Post Staff Writer   

      Leo Chavez was six days from his 50th birthday and
lifetime medical benefits when his Rocky Flats job ended. Sen.
Wayne Allard is trying to help with legislation to provide
extended benefits for cleanup workers. (Post / Will Singleton)  
    
That's what stood between Leo Chavez and a lifetime of medical
benefits - not to mention a sizable pension - in return for
years of work at Rocky Flats. 

In October 2004, Chavez was six days shy of his 50th birthday,
an event that would have triggered his eligibility for the
benefits, when his bosses told him his work at the former
munitions plant was finished. 

Doug Woodard, 45, was much further from eligibility when his job
was done: six weeks. 

"I begged them please let me use my vacation to bridge that gap.
They politely told me that it was against company policy,"
Woodard said. 

The company, Kaiser-Hill, officially pronounced Rocky Flats
clean on Oct. 13, seemingly ending what project managers say was
the largest project of its 				 				 					 					 					 				 				
				 					 					 				 kind on a U.S. Department of Energy or
federal Superfund toxic-waste site. 

The job was finished roughly 14 months ahead of schedule, which
is good news for taxpayers, who could save an estimated $500
million, and for Kaiser-Hill, which stands to get a portion of
that savings. 

But it is bad news for many of the workers. 

Had the job not finished early, about 75 of them would have had
enough service at the plant to qualify for a heftier pension and
lifetime medical benefits. 

That didn't seem fair to Colorado's Republican Sen. Wayne
Allard, who wrote legislation that would have provided $15
million in extended benefits for the cleanup workers. 

But senators killed the proposal, offered as an amendment to the
Defense Authorization Act, in a 53-38 				 				 					 					
					 				 				 				 					 					 				 vote Monday. 

Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who led opposition to
Allard's amendment, said awarding workers the extended benefits
would set a potentially expensive precedent. 

Retooling an existing contract "is not a road that we need to go
down," Sessions said on the Senate floor before the vote. 

But a spokeswoman for Allard said he worries his colleagues sent
another, unintended message, one that could be just as
expensive: that hard work and efficiency may pay off for the
company that contracts with the government, but not for workers. 

That's certainly the message Woodard heard. 

"I used to be real proud of my work at Flats. Now it's kind of
turned to disgust for the greed that's going on," he said. 

Rocky Flats produced plutonium triggers from 1952 to 1989 for the 
U.S. nuclear arsenal. Every nuclear weapon in the current 
stockpile contains the Rocky Flats-produced component, which 
would help detonate the bigger bomb. 

For its part, Kaiser-Hill officials say there is nothing they
can do - they were simply adhering to the contract they had with
the government and to terms of the collective bargaining
agreement with the workers' union. 

"I feel for these people. I think they're heroes; they did an
outstanding job," said company spokesman John Corsi. "But it's a
tough issue. Wherever you draw the line in the sand (for
eligibility), there is going to be someone else on the other
side." 

Both Woodard, who is looking for a job, and Chavez, who works at
a mortgage company, have COBRA health benefits 				 				 					
					 					 				 				 				 					 					 				 for now. 

But after one year, the cost of those benefits will double. And
both worry that they will have trouble paying those costs and
finding a company that would insure their health after years of
working at a plutonium plant. 

"I'm a diabetic. I can't afford not to afford it," Chavez said,
referring to COBRA. 

After Monday's vote, Allard told his Senate colleagues that he
hasn't given up. 

"My hope is we can continue negotiating with the Department of
Energy," he said on the Senate floor, and maybe ratchet
insurance costs down a bit so the department would pick some of
them up. 

Woodard said he isn't finished, either. "If I don't get it in
the end, so be it. But if I didn't try, I couldn't live with
myself." 

Staff writer Karen 				 				 					 					 					 				 				 				
					 					 				 Augé can be reached at 303-820-1733 or
kauge@denverpost.com. 				 				 				 			   		 		 		
 			   				 					 					 					 				 			   			   				 					 					
All contents Copyright 2005 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
 37 HVN: State legislation proposes to help veterans exposed to depleted uranium   

Hudson Valley News 

Sunday, November 13, 2005 

Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet has been pressing for
action on helping veterans exposed to depleted uranium (DU) to
get the best screening and treatment available.
 
Zimet has found an ally in the state legislature  Assemblyman
Jeffrey Dinowitz. Basically he has chosen to pick up the battle
on behalf of the veterans who are coming home incredibly sick
and not getting the proper treatment that they need and
deserve," she said. "He is going to be introducing legislation
at the state level. 

The legislation would direct the New York State Division of
Veterans Affairs to aid any soldier or veteran in obtaining
federal treatment services, including the best medical practices
used to screen for DU. A task force would be established to
study the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium.
 
Zimet joined Dinowitz in Manhattan for a news conference to
announce the legislation.

  HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's
                only Internet radio news report. 
*****************************************************************
 38 CBC News: Iraq's hazardous waste a health risk - UN
 	 	 	 	 	
 Last Updated Sat, 12 Nov 2005 12:13:57 EST CBC News 

A UN Environment Program report says Iraq has thousands of
heavily contaminated sites that pose a danger to the environment
and public health. 

A report by UNEP assesses five environmental "hot spots" that
were bombed or looted during the coalition-led war. 

The report finds all of these locations are contaminated by
various toxic compounds, chemicals or pesticides. Four are
situated near Baghdad and one near the city of Mosul,
potentially putting millions of people at risk. 

UNEP executive director Klaus Topfer says Iraq has a legacy of
contaminated and derelict industrial and military sites. 

"There are older sites. There is history of contamination,
linked with massive neglect of the environment." 

About $40 million is needed to identify and clean up
contaminated sites in Iraq, including $22 million for the
construction of a hazardous waste disposal facility, and to
enact environmental legislation, according to UNEP. 

The report says it will take years to investigate the thousands
of contaminated sites that exist in Iraq. Among them are 311
sites polluted by depleted uranium. 

UN staff members aren't allowed to work in Iraq for security
reasons, so the project was carried out by Iraqis. More than 30
experts from Iraq were trained abroad in assessment techniques. 

The UN Environment Program plans to begin cleaning up two of the
most contaminated sites in December. 

  Copyright © CBC 2005   
*****************************************************************
 39 TIME.com: A Gambling Governor Makes a Smart Bet 

America's 5 Best Governors -- Nov. 21, 2005 -- Page 1
 
0 Sun Nov 13 08:36:37 2005              

Kenny Guinn/Nevada

More often than not, incurring the wrath of your own party is a
recipe for failure in politics. But in 2003, when Nevada
Governor Kenny Guinn fought for the largest tax increase in
state history, he not only infuriated his core Republican
supporters but also sparked a bitter legal battle and a
short-lived recall campaign against him. So it is a testament to
Guinn's savvy and leadership that instead of being wounded in
the civil war, he actually came out stronger, eventually
broadening his public support and raising his standing among
good-government watchdogs. "The state will be better off for
years to come," says Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of
Governing magazine. 

As Guinn enters the final year of his busy two terms in office,
his signature achievement remains the $830 million tax hike, a
still controversial but realistic step to shore up the
overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state.
"People say, 'Well, growth ought to pay for growth,' but I'm
here to tell you, it doesn't," says Guinn, 69. When he was
elected in 1998, little about Guinn's low-key personality or
career background indicated he would try to be such a radical
reformer or turn out to be such a polarizing figure. Having
spent most of his career as an education administrator and
corporate executive in banking and energy, he was widely viewed
as the handpicked candidate of the state's casinos, a proven
consensus builder and skilled manager who could smoothly
shepherd Nevada's pro-business agenda. 

While the economy has continued to thrive on his watch, Guinn
has tried to leave Nevada with a broader and more solid
foundation for the long-term future. Most notably, he
established a Millennium Scholarship program to help high school
graduates pay for college, and privatized the state's
underfunded workers' compensation program—a move that took the
$2 billion shortfall off Nevada's books and helped lower the
insurance rates companies pay into the system. Along the way,
Guinn helped fight the Federal Government's plan for a nuclear
waste site at Yucca Mountain; moved to diversify Nevada's
gambling-dependent economy; and worked to address its many
social ills, which include some of the nation's highest rates
for suicide, teen pregnancy, youth violence and high school
dropouts. 

Guinn's critics say he has failed to fulfill many of his
goals—especially to improve health care—and that he has been
inconsistent in his plans to finance them. Long-term funding for
the scholarships, for instance, is still up in the air. And
during his seven years in the Governor's mansion, Guinn
initially ruled out raising taxes, then embraced the idea, and
most recently has, of all things, pushed through a one-time $300
million tax rebate. Still, no matter how he went about it, Guinn
managed to put Nevada's long-term fiscal health above his own or
his party's political considerations. That's a risky gamble for
any politician. But with his approval numbers back near 60%,
Guinn has gone a long way in showing that it can pay off in the
end. —By Daniel Eisenberg. Reported by Stacy J. Willis/Las Vegas
and Amanda Bower/San Francisco 

Table of ContentsNov. 21, 2005 

  Copyright © 2005 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 40 KRT Wire: Congress to investigate chemical-weapons dumping in oceans

| 11/13/2005 | 

 
BY JOHN M.R. BULL

 Newport News (Va.) Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Federal lawmakers are demanding the Army
reveal everything it knows about where it dumped chemical
weapons into the world's oceans, as well as provide proof the
munitions won't leak and cause an environmental catastrophe. 

Hearings in the House Armed Services Committee are likely if the
Army's response is inadequate, said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews,
D-N.J. and a committee member. 

"We're not going to let this go," Andrews said. "I'm not going
to be satisfied with the Army saying, in effect, `We know the
facts, and we don't think there is a problem - trust us.'" 

Andrews has been pushing for more information from the Army
since the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., published an
investigation into the Army's decades-long ocean dumping off at
least 11 states, including New Jersey. 

The newspaper found that the Army dumped at least 64 million
pounds of chemical weapons, mostly mustard and nerve gas, from
World War II until 1970 and more than that off 16 other
countries. The weapons likely are still active and slowly
corroding in the salt water. 

The newspaper's investigation was circulated globally and
brought demands for action from across the country and
astonishment worldwide. Recent developments include: 

_New Zealand issued a formal query through diplomatic channels,
asking the United States to provide all information that it had
on chemical-weapon dumpsites the United States might have
created off that country. 

_Greenpeace said it was considering a diving expedition to one
of the 26 identified Army chemical-weapon dumpsites off the
United States to see whether the long-submerged weapons were
leaking. 

_A worldwide environmental group called for an international law
to require the United States and other countries to inspect,
monitor and clean up their chemical-weapon ocean dumps. 

New Jersey's Andrews wants to know where exactly the dumps are,
why they haven't been monitored, and why the Army told no one in
Congress or at the state level of the potential dangers lurking
offshore. He wants proof that the weapons aren't leaking and
won't leak, he said. 

Other lawmakers are also demanding answers. 

"The decision to dump these weapons was made in a different era,
at a time when the consequences were not understood the way they
are today," said U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii. 

"Still, the Department of Defense and the U.S. government bear a
responsibility for remedying the problem," he said. " I will
make it a priority to enact legislation to deal with the problem
and communicate the urgency of this issue to the Pentagon." 

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., issued a formal letter of inquiry to
the Army and has scheduled an informal briefing with military
officials for Monday afternoon. Warner is chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee. 

Under fire, the Army has decided to conduct a full search of all
surviving ocean-dumping records to identify any other
chemical-weapon dumpsites. It's also preparing a formal response
to questions from Congress. And it's expected to designate which
military agency will oversee the record search, as well as any
other response deemed necessary. 

"The U.S. Army is actively engaged with members of Congress
regarding the disposal of munitions at deep-sea locations," Army
spokesman John P. Boyce Jr. said. "As always, the U.S. Army will
work closely with Congress and other government agencies on
these ordnance-disposal issues to ensure the safety of others
and the protection of our environment." 

It's long been known that the Army dumped chemical weapons into
the ocean. But only now has it come to light just how much was
involved, what kind of weapons were thrown into the ocean and
the rough nautical coordinates of some locations. 

The Army says it doesn't know the locations of almost half the
dump zones that it created off the United States after World War
II. Records are vague or missing or were destroyed. 

More chemical-weapon dumpsites likely exist because the Army
hasn't reviewed dumping records from the World War I era, when
throwing chemical weapons into the ocean was common. 

Some evidence suggests the weapons might have leaked or will
leak in the future as the ordnance corroded from exposure to
salt water. Steel containers and shell casings corrode at
different rates, depending on the depth and temperature of the
water. 

When released, nerve gas lasts about six weeks in the ocean,
killing every organism that it touches. Mustard gas forms a
concentrated gel that survives at least five years in salt
water, rolling around on the ocean floor. 

Army reports dating to 1989 identified the locations and
contents of more than a dozen dumpsites. Only now have those
reports come to light. 

"It just seems so unconscionable to me for the military to just
wash their hands of it and not tell people where they are until
now," said John Hocevar, an ocean specialist for Greenpeace, a
worldwide environmental organization. "It seems like it's a
threat that won't just go away." 

Greenpeace - known to stage dramatic demonstrations to garner
publicity for its causes - is considering an expedition to one
of the dump zones identified with nautical coordinates by the
Army, Hocevar said. 

The idea is to dive with cameras and environmental testing
equipment to see whether the weapons are leaking or whether
there's evidence that they've leaked. A Geiger counter would be
brought along to ascertain the danger from about 500 tons of
Army-dumped radioactive waste at the sites important because the
Army doesn't know how radioactive it might be, Hocevar said. 

"They need to tell us where all of it is," said Michael Town,
director of the Sierra Club of Virginia. "They need to be
transparent. They need to tell us what the impact is to the
environment and our coasts. The public needs to be kept abreast
about what they're finding. The public has been in the dark too
long." 

The Daily Press' investigation was published in news media
outlets worldwide and drew an international response. 

New Zealand's diplomatic query was prompted by revelations from
U.S. National Archives records that the United States kept a
chemical-weapon stockpile in that Pacific Ocean country at the
close of World War II. 

Newly released Army records show that the United States dumped
its overseas stockpiles, as well as captured enemy stockpiles,
off whatever country the weapons were in when the war ended.
Those included Australia, India, Japan, Italy, France and
Denmark. 

The Varda Group is an international environmental organization.
It's called for an international law to require all countries
that dumped chemical weapons into the world's oceans to
publicize their locations, monitor the sites to see whether
they're leaking, and clean them up or contain them, if possible. 

Such a law "should develop and disseminate best practice for
waste retrieval, capping or any other appropriate measure on a
case-by-case basis to avoid passing the buck to future
generations," Varda Group spokesman Rmi Parmentier said. 

An international treaty signed in 1975 prohibits the ocean
dumping of chemical weapons but doesn't cover dump zones created
before the ban. The Army halted ocean dumping in 1970. 

The Daily Press investigation was also discussed at a recent
symposium on chemical weapons in Moscow. The conference was
attended by minister- and ambassador-level representatives from
around the world. It was conducted to talk about Russia's delays
in adhering to a separate international treaty that requires
disposal of its chemical-weapon stockpile by 2011, as is being
done by the United States. 

During breaks in the conference, the newspaper's articles were
read and translated for those who couldn't read English, Craig
Williams said. He was there for the Chemical Weapons Working
Group, a grass-roots organization in Kentucky that's active in
chemical-weapon disposal issues. 

No one was especially surprised to learn that the United States
extensively dumped chemical weapons into the ocean, Williams
said. But many attendees were astonished to learn that the U.S.
Army didn't know where it tossed all the weapons, he said. 

"It was quite a topic of conversation," Williams said. "The
general response was `You're telling me they took this out and
dumped it, and they don't know where it all is?' Well, yes."   

*****************************************************************
 41 Deseret News: Can GOP resist Envirocare?
 
[deseretnews.com] 

Saturday, November 12, 2005                              

Can GOP resist Envirocare?                            

After recent news that Envirocare had bought the support of Joe 
Cannon, head of Utah's Republican Party, and several other 
prominent Utah Republicans, I was beginning to despair that any 
Utah Republican would be immune to Envirocare's offers of cash 
for votes. I was therefore pleased and surprised to wake up this 
morning to the headline (Nov. 11) that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will 
oppose the expansion of Envirocare.

       As a Democrat, I applaud the governor. Will any others of 
his party have the courage to join him in protecting Utah from 
becoming the world's nuclear dumping ground?

 Edwin Firmage Jr.
 Salt Lake City
 			  		 		   
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 			 		 	 [ /] 
*****************************************************************
 42 San Bernardino County Sun: Plan gives Goodrich 10 months to build test wells
 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 			 
Nikki Cobb, Staff Writer   

  The water board charged with pursuing polluters has targeted
BF Goodrich among dozens it says is responsible for toxic
perchlorate contamination, and it plans to hold that company
accountable.

 The Santa Ana River Regional Water Quality Control Board will
hear public comment on the plan from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in
Rialto Council Chambers, 150 S. Palm Ave.

 "Perchlorate has caused a good level of controversy in recent
years," said Bob Holub, division chief of the water board. "We
want the public to have the ability to comment on actions we're
proposing to take.

"This is our effort to involve everybody," Holub said.

 According to the agreement, Goodrich would have 10 months to
construct five to nine test wells downstream of the contaminated
site.

 Perchlorate, an ingredient in munitions, fireworks and rocket
fuel, is thought to cause thyroid malfunction.

 Wells in Rialto, Fontana, Colton and county areas are
contaminated with perchlorate. The chemical has been seeping
into the cities' water supplies since World War II, when the
U.S. Department of Defense and numerous contractors used it to
manufacture munitions on what is now county land, near the West
Valley Sanitary landfill.

 Rialto has filed suit against the Department of Defense, San
Bernardino County, Goodrich and 39 other "potentially
responsible parties." The city wants the water cleaned up, or
replacement water provided.

 In 2003, Goodrich paid $1 million each to Rialto, Fontana,
Colton and the West Valley Water District to help treat wells
contaminated with perchlorate.

 With that payment, the water board agreed not to require
additional remedial measures from Goodrich for two years. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, required the
corporation to install some test wells during that time. Those
wells turned up perchlorate and trichloroethylene, an organic
solvent.

 In a prepared statement, Goodrich said it is working with the
water board to assess responsibilities for the pollution and
determine the extent of the problem.

 "Goodrich intends to continue its assistance in addressing
these issues despite ongoing litigation among the water
purveyors and (potentially responsible parties)," the statement 
reads.

 An agreement by Goodrich also could help Rialto and the water
board in their court battles with other parties responsible for
the pollution.

 The city and the board will still pursue the other alleged
polluters, Holub said. But if Goodrich shoulders the financial
responsibility for part of the cleanup, it might file lawsuits
of its own to get the other parties to help pay for the cleanup.

 Holub said according to a recent court decision, in order for
Goodrich to be eligible for repayment by other responsible
parties in the future it must show that public and private
agencies have reviewed and approved the work.

 "Goodrich wants the ability in the future to go back and
recover the costs from some of these other parties," Holub said. 

"This is partly for Goodrich to preserve its rights to get
payment from other (potentially responsible parties) for work
they're doing," Holub said.

 Rialto Councilman Ed Scott said his concern is enforcement of
the agreement, especially in a time frame that will help the
city when it's needed.

 "BF Goodrich is trying to get themselves off the hook with the
water board, put in some wells," Scott said. "I understand their
side of the equation; any time you give somebody 10 months to
lollygag around it ends up being two years."

 Scott said he doesn't believe that Goodrich has been responsive
to Rialto residents' needs.

 It remains to be seen whether the corporation will now take the
problem seriously, Scott said. "They need to get on the ball and
do something," he said.

 "What is being proposed is a good thing," Scott said. "I hope
the water board will hold their feet to the fire and make them
abide by the 10 months, and not extend it past that."

Los Angeles Newspaper Group 
*****************************************************************
 43 Salt Lake Tribune: Huntsman and Envirocare: Governor acts to protect his reputation

Opinion                     
 			 			 				 			 	 			 			 				 			 	 			 			 			 			 				 			
Article Last Updated: 11/11/2005 11:00:55 PM                              
                   
  	   
  "Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he
that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not
enriches him, And makes me poor indeed." 
   - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
   Othello, Act 3, Scene 3 
    
   No matter how much influence Envirocare might have thought it
had bought, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. made it clear Thursday that,
as long as he is governor, Utah won't be buying a radioactive
pig in a bureaucratic poke. 

   Good on him. 

   In announcing that Envirocare won't get his essential
permission to expand its nuclear waste storage facility near
Tooele, Huntsman spoke of the damage that would be done to the
state's image, even its sovereignty, if Utah developed a
reputation as the nation's nuclear dumping ground. 

   True. But Huntsman undoubtedly was also moved by concern for
his own good name, which was being increasingly threatened by
the actions of people Huntsman does not control but who are
linked to him professionally, politically and even by kinship. 

   First, Envirocare's critics complained that the presence of
Huntsman brother-in-law Rick Durham among that company's owners
constituted a conflict of interest. While the governor's office
was still taking offense at that suggestion, we learned that
Envirocare had hired the chairman of the Utah Republican Party,
Joe Cannon, and two directors of Huntsman's political action
committee, Max Farbman and Greg Hopkins, as lobbyists. 

   Supposedly, their lobbying was to be done at the federal 
level. But even if that were true, it still didn't pass the smell 
test. 

   Not only was Huntsman being double-dog-dared to deny a
business with lucrative connections to some of his key political
allies, the fact that Envirocare was so actively fishing for
business with the feds only fed fears that doubling its land
would mean a vast increase in the amount, and possibly the
danger, of what it would store there. 

   Thursday, all of Envirocare's best-laid plans blew up in its
face. Rather than waiting for the appeals process before the
Utah Division of Radiation Control to run its course, or even
for the next session of the Legislature, Huntsman said, "No,
N-O," to Envirocare's expansion. 

   Those who seek to fill their purse by storing radioactive
trash must take care what they do to a governor's good name. 
    
Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 44 Deseret News: Did feds try to help N-waste company? 

[deseretnews.com] 

Friday, November 11, 2005 

Utahns pleased funding for attorneys dropped from bill 	 		 		 

By Jerry Spangler 
Deseret Morning News 

The final version of a transportation appropriations bill will 
not include authorization for the federal government to hire 
attorneys to defend a consortium of nuclear power utilities 
seeking to send nuclear waste to Utah. 

"I am pleased that the House conferees receded to the 
Senate language in the final bill and agree that this is not a 
proper role for the federal government," said Sen. Bob Bennett, 
a member of the conference committee who, along with the rest of 
the Utah delegation, has been fighting the shipment of nuclear 
waste to Utah. 

"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," the Utah Republican 
added. 

The House-passed version of the bill included funding for 
two federal attorneys designated to handle legal challenges by 
the state of Utah over the proposed shipment of spent nuclear 
waste to Utah's Skull Valley on the Goshute Reservation. The 
funds were designated for the Department of Transportation's 
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which 
would oversee transportation of the waste. 

During the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on 
Transportation meeting in July to discuss the 2006 budget bill, 
Bennett, a member of the subcommittee, successfully struck that 
provision from the Senate's version of the bill. 

Additionally, he added language that "denies funding for 
new positions to administer shipment activities of spent nuclear 
fuel and high-level radioactive waste to a private interim 
storage facility." 

The request for funding caught the Utah delegation 
off-guard because it appeared the Bush administration, while 
publicly saying it only supported permanent storage at Yucca 
Mountain, Nev., was working behind the scenes to ensure smooth 
sailing for nuclear waste storage in Utah by Private Fuel 
Storage, which is seeking to store up to 40,000 tons of spent 
fuel on Goshute tribal lands southwest of Salt Lake City. 

At that time, Bennett spoke with Office of Management and 
Budget Director Josh Bolten to confirm the Bush administration's 
support for Utah's efforts to block the waste from coming to 
Utah and ensure that it would not work to restore the House 
language in conference. 

"The federal government should not be in the business of 
mounting legal challenges for a privately owned company," 
Bennett said last summer. "The language passed by the House 
specifying shipments of nuclear waste to Skull Valley is in 
direct conflict with administration policy and something I was 
happy to eliminate from the Senate bill." 

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. issued a terse statement last 
summer saying he was shocked and dismayed by a vote in the U.S. 
House of Representatives to allocate federal funding to address 
anticipated "legal challenges" that might be brought by the 
state of Utah. 

"The federal government should not be funding the 
litigation expenses of a privately owned, for-profit enterprise 
in its efforts to force spent nuclear fuel on a state that 
doesn't want it," Huntsman said. "This is public policy at its 
worst and represents a dramatic departure from previous 
statements made by congressional leaders." 

Once the conference committee finishes work on the bill, 
both Senate and the House must approve the compromise version. 
But funding for PFS legal challenges cannot be slipped back in. 

E-mail: spang@desnews.com			 		 		 

© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 			 		 	 [ /] 
*****************************************************************
 45 Salt Lake Tribune: Bush's Yucca pick endorses recycling of N-waste

Article Last Updated: 11/11/2005 12:41:07 AM 

By Erica Werner The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON - President Bush's pick to oversee the troubled 
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada said the country 
should move toward recycling - not just burying - spent nuclear 
fuel. 

Edward ''Ward'' Sproat, a nuclear industry executive tapped 
to head the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive 
Waste Management, made the comments at his Energy Committee 
confirmation hearing Thursday. 

''If the country decides to go and close the fuel cycle, go 
to full reprocessing like our original intent was back in the 
1960s and early 1970s, the impact would be a significant 
reduction in the amount of high-level radioactive waste that 
would have to be disposed of in a deep geological repository,'' 
Sproat said in answering a question from Sen. Jeff Bingaman, 
D-N.M. 

''I personally believe it makes a lot of sense,'' Sproat 
said. 

The United States abandoned reprocessing in the 1970s over 
fears that the resulting plutonium could be seized by 
terrorists, but the Bush administration has proposed reviving 
the approach. 

Lawmakers this week agreed to spend $50 million on recycling 
initiatives in 2006, even as they cut the budget for the lagging 
Yucca Mountain project. 

The project has been without a permanent director since 
Margaret Chu resigned in February. Since then, two different 
acting directors have overseen Yucca Mountain as it suffered 
setbacks, including the disclosure of e-mails suggesting 
government scientists on the project falsified data. 

Yucca Mountain is planned as a national repository for 77,000 
tons of defense waste and used reactor fuel to be buried beneath 
the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The planned opening 
date of the project has been pushed from 2010 until 2012 at 
earliest. 

Sproat told senators that even if the country starts 
recycling nuclear waste, Yucca Mountain will still be needed to 
expand the use of nuclear power. 

The Energy Committee is expected to vote next week to approve 
Sproat's nomination and send it to the full Senate. 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 46 Salt Lake Tribune: Guv says 'N-O' to N-dump times two 

Updated: 11/11/2005 12:35:04 AM 

Huntsman decision angers Envirocare, pleases its foes 

By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune 

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., bent on protecting Utah from becoming a 
national dumping ground for radioactive waste, announced 
Thursday he will reject plans to double the size of Envirocare 
of Utah, a landfill for government and reactor cleanup waste in 
Tooele County. 

"No. N-O," the Republican governor told KSL TV. "This is on 
our soil. It's our sovereignty. It's our image and reputation, 
and I happen to see it in that sense." 

The announcement dashed Envirocare's hopes of doubling the 
size of its Tooele County site to 1,079 acres - for at least as 
long as Huntsman is in office. The state Division of Radiation 
Control signed off on the expansion last summer, but approval is 
not final until the governor and legislators say "yes," too. 

Envirocare did not expect the news, said Tim Barney, senior 
vice president for the Salt Lake City-based company. 

"For him to ask us to go through the [expansion licensing] 
process and tell us he would make up his mind at the appropriate 
point in the process, and then for him to make up his mind now 
is premature and very disappointing," Barney said. 

Huntsman made his position known after a group called 
Citizens Against Radioactive Waste sent letters Thursday to 
Huntsman and Utah's 104 legislators calling on them to reject 
the expansion. The letters said that the privately owned and 
operated facility has accepted 93 percent of government 
radioactive waste that went to the U.S. commercial facilities 
between 1998 and 2003 and, with 12 million cubic feet of waste 
accepted during the first six months of this year, it is on 
track to have another record. 

"I'm thrilled," said Jim McConkie, a Salt Lake City lawyer 
and a co-founder of Citizens Against Radioactive Waste. "These 
[opposition efforts] take time and money. And you hate to feel 
like you are forcing people to do the right thing. 

"In the end, the governor did the right thing." 

Mike Mower, the governor's deputy chief of staff, said 
Huntsman was clear when running for office "that Utah shouldn't 
become a dumping ground." 

The governor had been very vocal about his position on 
nuclear waste. He opposed Envirocare's earlier efforts to accept 
hotter class B and C waste. He has fought plans by a different 
industry group for a high-level radioactive waste site on the 
Skull Valley Goshute Reservation. Huntsman also lobbied the 
federal government to move the Atlas Corp. uranium mill tailings 
from the Colorado River's edge. 

In short, Utah's soil, its image is at stake, Mower told The 
Tribune. "You can't put a dollar value on that." 

"He felt that he had received a great deal of information 
about this, but it is a core issue," Mower added. "At the end of 
the day, he makes his own decision about what he thinks is right 
for Utah." 

McConkie said that in response to the letters he had 
received several e-mail messages from Utah lawmakers opposed to 
the expansion. 

The group Citizens Against Radioactive Waste was formed in 
2002 to fight for Initiative 1, which would have outlawed hotter 
waste in Utah and increased taxes on radioactive materials 
already permitted in the state. 

McConkie said he "revitalized" the dormant organization 
after news reports this week disclosed that Envirocare had hired 
as lobbyists three key figures of the Utah Republican Party. One 
is GOP Chairman Joe Cannon. Two others, Max Farbman and Greg 
Hopkins, are high-profile fundraisers on contract with 
Huntsman's political action committee and the state GOP. 

McConkie, a Democrat, said the connections made it look like 
the whole Republican Party represents Envirocare. 

"It's a clear conflict of interest," said McConkie, calling 
for Cannon's resignation from either the party post or the 
lobbying job. "You can't represent the people's interest in 
politics on one hand and, on the other hand, serve Envirocare. 
You can't serve two masters. You've got to choose." 

Cannon decried McConkie's call for his resignation as "a 
cheap tactic." 

"He's a Democrat," said Cannon. "That's one of the cheapest 
tactics he can use." 

Cannon noted that he is registered as a lobbyist for 
Envirocare in the state, "but most of my activity for Envirocare 
is at the federal level." 

It's possible Envirocare will still try to expand. The Utah 
Board of Radiation Control is currently considering an appeal of 
state regulators' license approval, which cites legal, safety 
and technical concerns. 

But, if the appeal fails, Envirocare's partly approved 
license can be put on hold for up to five years before the 
company would have to start over with a new application. 

Envirocare has waited before. Its pending license to accept 
class B and C radioactive waste lingered for more than three 
years before the company withdrew its request. 

Soon after, lawmakers voted to outlaw the waste, which can be 
thousands of times more radioactive than the class A waste 
Envirocare is currently licensed to accept. 

Another possibility is that Envirocare will seek a 
scaled-down expansion request. 

The company has in recent years said it could continue 
accepting waste at the current rate for another 15 or 20 years 
before its disposal cells are filled. While a proposed 
resolution for the expansion already includes the entire 
536-acre parcel, a few acres might be all that the company needs 
to streamline its operations without putting more waste on the 
site and triggering a political showdown. 

fahys@sltrib.com 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 47 Salt Lake Tribune: Skull Valley: Western states should stand
together against fuel rods 

Opinion 

Article Last Updated: 11/10/2005 11:43:24 PM 

The myth says that rugged loners won the West. In fact, people 
out West always have worked together. Survival demanded it. 

So we tip our hat to Harry Reid, the senior U.S. senator from 
Nevada, who is making common cause with Utah in its effort to 
keep 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods out of the Beehive 
State. Reid, the leader of the Senate's Democratic minority, has 
dropped his opposition to a Utah-sponsored bill that would 
create a wilderness area around Cedar Mountain. Wilderness 
designation would make it impossible for a group of Eastern 
bushwhackers to build a rail line to a nuclear holding pen they 
propose to build on the Goshute Reservation in Utah's Skull 
Valley. 

The bushwhackers, otherwise known as Private Fuel Storage, 
are a consortium of Midwestern and Eastern public utilities that 
operate nuclear-fueled electric power plants. Because it is 
becoming inconvenient for them to store their spent fuel rods at 
their reactor sites, they want to move them to Utah. 

The highly radioactive fuel rods would be entombed in glass, 
encased in giant cannisters and set upright on a giant parking 
lot. There they would stay for 20 years, or until they or their 
contents could be moved to a permanent repository inside Yucca 
Mountain, Nev. 

That's where Sen. Reid comes in. He and other Nevadans don't 
want a toxic tomb in their state any more than Utahns want a 
plutonium parking lot in theirs. 

But Utah and Nevada are not the only Western states with a 
dog in this fight. The waste would have to move through 
neighboring states on its way to either Utah or Nevada. Which is 
why Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and other states should be joining 
a Western compact to keep the spent fuel rods at the reactor 
sites. Transport through numerous cities and towns across the 
nation creates greater risk of accident. 

If Western leaders can get together and stump for things like 
a combined presidential primary - a good idea - they should 
certainly form a posse on this fuel rods issue. 

We regret that Utah's congressional delegation did not take 
Nevada's side during earlier votes on Yucca Mountain. But, with 
the exception of Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah's congressional 
delegation, led by Sen. Bob Bennett, has since realized that 
joint interest is self-interest. Other Westerners - and Hatch - 
should too. 

Â© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 48 AU ABC: Dump debate stifled for Territorians, Martin says. 

13/11/2005. ABC News Online

Last Update: Sunday, November 13, 2005. 12:27pm (AEDT) 	 
 
The Northern Territory Chief Minister says she is disgusted a
Senate inquiry into a national nuclear waste dump will not hold
public meetings in the Territory, where the facility will be
built.

 Legislation before the Senate will remove the ability for the
Northern Territory Government to stop the facility going ahead.

 Three sites in the Territory have been shortlisted for the dump.

 Clare Martin says a public hearing will be held in Canberra,
stifling the opportunity for Territorians to speak up against
the proposal.

 "No it's not inevitable and I refuse to accept that, on behalf
of Territorians who do not want this facility on three sites the
Federal Government has chosen just because they can, that's not
about science, that's not about the future and I reject this
bill, very, very firmly," she said. 

*****************************************************************
 49 La Crosse Tribune: Activists: Keep nuclear waste here

- Sunday, November 13, 2005

By REID MAGNEY / La Crosse Tribune . Storing nuclear waste
nearby in places like Genoa, Wis., and Prairie Island, Minn., is
better than shipping it cross-country to Utah or Nevada,
anti-nuclear activists said Saturday in La Crosse.

Moving nuclear waste on trains and trucks creates risk of
accidents and terrorist attacks, said Kevin Kamps, a nuclear
waste specialist with the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear
Information and Resource Service.

Kamps was one of several activists and experts who spoke at a
conference Saturday at UW-La Crosse dealing with the dangers of
transporting nuclear waste and the impact on American Indian
people. About 50 people attended the event, sponsored by the
UW-L Native American Student Association.

Nuclear power plants across the U.S. are running out of space to
store spent fuel, and the federal government hasnt been able to
complete its Yucca Mountain long-term storage site in Nevada.
Several utilities, including Xcel Energy and Dairyland Power
Cooperative, formed a company called Private Fuel Storage LLC
and recently got approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
to create an interim waste storage site on American Indian land
in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage is headquartered in La Crosse, and its
chairman, John Parkyn, is a former executive with Dairyland. He
said recently that it will be several years before the facility
is ready to accept shipments, and that shipment plans and routes
are subject to further approval of the U.S. Department of
Transportation.

Margene Bullcreek, a member of the Skull Valley Goshute tribe in
Utah, said tribal leaders decided to let Private Fuel Storage
operate on their land, but the decision is not supported by the
members.

No matter how safe they say it is, theres always some kind of
a manmade accident, Bullcreek said. This is high-level nuclear
waste. Its poison.

Dairyland officials say they have not yet decided whether to
ship spent fuel from their closed Genoa reactor to Utah, and are
considering storing it on-site in dry casks. They are starting
to decommission the plant.

Kamps and others at the conference said they prefer the waste
stay where it is. Kamps called nuclear waste shipments
pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction because it wouldnt
take a terrorist attack, just an accident to cause a major leak.

However, waste stored on site must be safeguarded against
accidents and secured against attacks, Kamps said.

Oscar Shirani, a nuclear industry whistle-blower who said he
traveled from France to attend the conference, raised questions
about the safety of dry storage casks that will likely be used
to move and store spent fuel.

Shirani worked in the nuclear industry for 23 years, and was a
structural engineer and auditor at Exelon Corp., which operates
nuclear plants in Illinois and elsewhere. He said he found
problems with casks being made for Exelon, but the company
covered up his findings and eventually laid him off. He recently
lost a whistle-blower claim against his former employer.

Shirani said hes concerned that the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission isnt doing enough to ensure safety of waste storage
casks and that its audits only look at procedures, not the
actual manufacturing of the casks.

Dairyland officials did not attend the conference. In an
interview last week, Parkyn said the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission took 81/2 years before approving the license for
Private Fuel Storage.

He said the states of Nevada and Utah and other opponents made
their arguments against the Skull Valley site, but that
opponents were not able to convince the NRC not to grant a
license.

Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or
rmagney@lacrossetribune.com. . 				 				 				 Related 				
  
 Copyright © 1997 - 2005 The La Crosse Tribune. All rights
*****************************************************************
 50 LANL: Unease marks lab ahead of contract announcement     

Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:17 am                                                                                                      

By Heather Clark | The Associated Press         

November 12, 2005                                               

LOS ALAMOS -- Many people in this isolated mesa-top community
are anxious or fearful about who will win a contract to manage
Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Others have had enough of the speculation.

"It's at the top of every grocery-line conversation, every
coffee-shop conversation right now," said Los Alamos County
spokeswoman Julie Habiger, whose husband works at the
nuclear-weapons lab.

Loan activity at a local bank is down, and retailers say
customers are waiting for the announcement before they make
expensive purchases.

The main contenders for the contract are two limited-liability
corporations, one headed by Lockheed Martin and the University
of Texas and the other led by Bechtel Corp. and the University
of California, which has been the sole manager of the lab since
Manhattan Project scientists gathered in World War II to develop
the world's first atomic bomb.

No matter which team wins the contract worth up to $79 million,
both recognize it's in the nation's interest to ease anxiety
among 9,500 lab employees to ensure a smooth transition for
scientists charged, in part, with maintaining the nation's
nuclear-weapons stockpile.

Many scientists are tired of the buzz surrounding the competition 
announced in April 2003 by then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. 
The announcement of the winner is expected by Dec. 1.

Debbie Clark, an engineer in the Physics Division, said
scientists "are concentrating on their first love -- science --
and not thinking about these changes."

Other employees say work is stressful. John Horne, a 22-year lab
veteran who was disciplined for his role in a 2004 security
lapse, said his co-workers in the lab's DX Division are
despondent. "People are basically dazed and walking around in a
state of shock," he said.

Lab spokesman Kevin Roark denies the contract change is
affecting the lab's work. He says the fiscal year ending Sept.
30 saw no major milestones slip, and the results were "excellent
given the turmoil in the early part of the fiscal year."

But the first contract competition in the lab's 62-year history
is expected to usher in change, especially since either team
will bring a corporate presence to the lab for the first time.

"There's a lot of fear because of the uncertainty of who's going
to get the contract," said Ingrun Roberts, a Los Alamos teacher
and wife of a computer scientist who hosts a popular Web blog
that has been critical of the lab.

"What benefits will remain?" she wondered. "Will my husband have
to transfer? What kind of jobs will remain? ... Is the focus of
the lab changing?"

Both teams have opened offices in Los Alamos to answer such
questions from the community.

Maintaining the quality of science at the lab is top of the
agenda for visitors to a storefront office run by the
Lockheed-UT team called Los Alamos Alliance, said Rod Geer, a
Sandia Laboratories employee who helps staff the office.

Office visits are averaging eight people a day since its opening
Oct. 5, he said.

When Geer, who grew up in Los Alamos, asks employees what their
top concern is during this transition, "overwhelmingly, we're
hearing people say ... the ability to do great science work."

Maintaining topflight benefits to retain and recruit scientists
was of secondary concern, Geer said.

Retirements from the lab were up slightly in the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30. Six percent of the lab's work force resigned,
up from a 4 percent annual norm over the last decade.

But lab spokesman James Rickman said the increase was due more
to an aging work force than worries about the contract.

Still, many current and retired scientists fear the lab could
see an exodus of its brightest scientists next spring, when the
bid winner puts its benefits to paper.

Scientists have until the end of May to decide whether to sign
on with the new manager.

Across town, the UC-Bechtel team, known as Los Alamos National
Security LLC (LANS), has opened its doors across the street from
the main laboratory complex.

Joe Scarpino, senior executive for LANS, said that in August,
shortly after their bid was submitted, up to 20 people a week
visited the office, but that number has dropped somewhat in
recent weeks.

"I think everybody's kind of getting to the point where they're
waiting for the conclusion," he said, noting some are saying
"they're tired of talking about it."

Doug Roberts, a 20-year lab veteran who retired from the lab
this year -- but still hosts a Web blog for lab employees called
LANL: The Real Story -- said Los Alamos Alliance's choice for
lab director, C. Paul Robinson, has engaged in a dialogue with
blog readers, while LANS has remained distant.

Lab officials have dismissed the blog as containing posts from a
handful of disgruntled lab employees.

Geer explained the dialogue started after a letter from Robinson
was downloaded 1,800 times from the blog. The office handed out
only 20 hard copies. Robinson then issued a second letter
addressing concerns posted on the blog, Geer said.

"There's a big difference between the two LLCs and how they are
interacting with the community," Roberts said. "One of them is
very open and is encouraging people to engage in discussions
regarding areas of interest. ... The other is behind a locked
door that requires a badge to get in. They're discouraging
discussion with the community."

Both teams are tightlipped about specific changes they would
make, should they be chosen. Both say such information is
proprietary until the winner is named.

Some lab employees and retirees welcome a new corporate presence
at the lab.

They say poor business practices at the lab led to a purchasing
scandal and a series of embarrassing security and safety lapses
that culminated in a seven-month shutdown, which the Department
of Energy estimated cost about $367 million. UC put the cost at
$110 million.

Both teams stress they will stop the safety and security lapses
and update the lab's business practices.

Whichever team wins, Los Alamos residents agree the hand over
will mean the end of an era where UC was the exclusive operator
to run the lab.

"It will have a different feel from this day forward," Habiger
said, "but how different it will be is what remains to be
seen."		 	   	 	 	 			
 		   			 		   	 		 							
*****************************************************************
 51 SF Chronicle: Livermore Lab's future tied to risky laser project 

/ Fusion attempt fosters doubt in Congress and among scientists
 

Sunday, November 13, 2005

[Generating thermonuclear fusion at the National Ignition ...]
[Eight years after breaking ground at Lawrence Livermore N...] 
 				   				 				 		 		 				   				 
The fate of a super-laser -- a multibillion-dollar project under
construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that is
central to the nuclear weapons lab's future -- is in serious
doubt, despite Congress' decision last week to grant it a
reprieve. 

As originally planned, the laser was to be America's high-tech
ticket out of the scary era of nuclear explosions. During the
Cold War, that was the Pentagon's favorite way to determine if
nuclear bombs work -- by blowing them up in the Nevada desert.
But nuclear blasts scared other nations and dumped radioactive
poisons into the ground and atmosphere. In 1992, soon after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the first President Bush declared
a moratorium on U.S. bomb tests -- and the desert hasn't rumbled
since. 

The Pentagon didn't want to give up all its nuclear bombs,
though, and the scientists at the University of California-run
Livermore lab were eager to continue refining their expertise.
Livermore scientists warned that the United States' nuclear
weapons might decay over the coming decades; hence, in the
post-detonation testing era, the nation needed a new way to
monitor the reliability of bombs to ensure they would still
explode if needed decades from now. 

The scientists championed a new way: by building the National
Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's grandest laser, a thicket
of 192 laser beams that would interact and emit a
mega-laser-blast worthy of Darth Vader himself. This super-laser
would mimic hydrogen bomb blasts inside sealed chambers at
Livermore, allowing scientists to better understand what happens
during a nuclear detonation. Being so enlightened, they could
better assess whether aging bombs will "fizzle" -- the
Pentagon's word for a nuclear dud. 

That was Livermore's sales pitch, anyway. But now, eight years
after the facility's groundbreaking at Livermore lab, the
project has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion, at least three
times the projected cost, and the tab should exceed $4 billion
between now and the projected completion in 2009-2010.
Meanwhile, only a small percentage of the projected 192 lasers
have been installed and tested. 

Worst of all, there is serious scientific doubt whether the
laser will achieve its near-mythic goal: ignition, the holy
grail of nuclear physics. Ignition requires the laser-blasting
of a pea-size pellet of nuclear fuel to crush or "implode" its
atomic nuclei together. Like a miniature hydrogen bomb, this
process unleashes thermonuclear "fusion" energy in the form of a
mini-sun. Livermore scientists hope to use the experiments to
double-check the accuracy of computer codes that model nuclear
bombs and, thus, to determine whether changes in the bombs --
say, rust -- will affect their ability to detonate. 

But a recent study by top Pentagon advisory panel cites many
technical obstacles and says there's no assurance the project
will work. 

For years, the laser has been controversial inside Congress and
the scientific community, and critics call it money wasted. If
it doesn't survive the next few budget cycles, or if it fails to
achieve ignition, then Livermore's days as a nuclear weapons lab
could be numbered. 

On Monday, four months after construction funds were axed by a
Senate vote, a joint committee restored all but $10 million of
the Bush administration's proposed $337 million budget for the
laser project in the 2006 fiscal year. 

But the restored funds came with two warnings -- one from a
former defender of the project, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and
the other from the joint committee itself, which asked the
Energy Department "to justify the value of NIF" should it fail
to achieve ignition. 

Domenici, now a vocal critic of the project, said in a statement
after last week's vote: "Although we've settled on continuing
construction at NIF, I remain skeptical that (the Department of
Energy) will be able to deliver on its promises regarding
schedule, cost and scientific capability" of the facility. 

Concerns about the project achieving its prime mission are
justified, according to a prestigious team of official weapons
advisers to the federal government. The group, known as "Jason,"
pointed out in a recent report that the project is rife with
technical problems. 

This is an embarrassment that UC can ill afford at a time when
federal officials are close to making a crucial decision on
another one of the university system's vital relationships with
the Department of Energy. 

On Dec. 1, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA),
which oversees the nuclear weapons complex on behalf of the
Energy Department, is scheduled to announce the winner of a
competition between UC and its industrial partners for the next
contract to run Livermore's sister nuclear weapons lab, Los
Alamos National Laboratory. UC has managed Los Alamos for six
decades without competition, and Livermore almost as long. But
in 2003, the Energy Department and Congress ordered the contract
competition after managerial, financial, security and safety
scandals at Los Alamos raised questions about UC's management of
the ignition facility. 

Although little known to the public, the facility is the
Livermore lab and Energy Department's vaunted No. 1 scientific
workhorse for the future nuclear weapons complex. No project is
more central to Livermore's destiny as a nuclear lab, especially
now that Energy Department officials are considering moving the
lab's prized cache of plutonium -- the fissile ingredient in
most nuclear bombs -- to a safer, more remote site in another
state. 

Optimism for NIF was high in 1994 when President Bill Clinton's
energy secretary, Hazel O'Leary, announced approval of the
initial funding for the project, which officials expected to
cost $1.2 billion. 

In a visit to Livermore lab, while 20 youngsters from a local
school stood nearby, O'Leary called the super-laser an "awesome
project" and said it would protect America's national security
and "economic security." The facility's first chief, E. Michael
Campbell, handed out T-shirts that said "The NIF is Our Future."
Behind them loomed a big sign: "National Ignition Facility --
for America's national security, energy, science, and economic
future." 

The optimism didn't last. O'Leary resigned in 1997 under
scrutiny from Congress for allegedly overspending on her travel
budget, while Campbell was forced out of Livermore when
officials discovered that he had never completed his doctoral
dissertation. The project itself came under investigation by the
Energy Department and the Government Accountability Office (an
investigative arm of Congress then called the General Accounting
Office) after incurring major delays and hundreds of millions of
dollars in cost overruns. 

An August 2000 accounting office report noted that officials at
Livermore lab had long known that the project would cost more
than they initially acknowledged. Yet, the report said, "they
accepted this unrealistic budget in the belief that the Congress
would not fund NIF at a higher cost and that the value of NIF to
the future of the Laboratory overshadowed potential cost
concerns." 

The report blamed the problems on the Department of Energy,
Livermore lab and UC officials, who, the agency said, "lacked
the appropriate skills to manage and oversee the project and
exercised oversight powers poorly." 

The project officials "simply lied to us," charged Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, during a hearing in 2000. 

The idea for the super-laser had emerged in the 1960s, when some
scientists thought it would be comparatively easy to create a
mini-hydrogen bomb effect by bombarding a pellet of nuclear fuel
with numerous laser beams. 

As the years passed, Livermore scientists built bigger and
bigger lasers in an ever-more-desperate effort to achieve
ignition, but each attempt was unsuccessful. With the National
Ignition Facility, they hope to spark ignition with a laser that
is 1,800 times as powerful, and far bigger and more expensive,
than their calculations anticipated in a 1972 study. Yet, even
now, they can't guarantee it will work. The project's chief
scientist, John Lindl, suspects ignition will eventually be
achieved, but admits "it's an enormously ambitious undertaking." 

"There could well be problems that come up," he said. "I think
the plan we've laid out gives us a good shot at ignition in 2010
(as hoped), but can I promise ignition in 2010? No." 

Through the years, Department of Energy and Livermore officials
have publicly maintained an upbeat attitude about the facility.
In a July 2000 letter to the General Accounting Office, an
official with the National Nuclear Security Administration,
which oversees Livermore, said "only one technical challenge
(for the project) remains to be completed, with good progress to
date." In reality, five years later, the facility faces a
plethora of technical challenges and problems. These are so
daunting that in recent years, some congressional critics have
accused Livermore lab and the Energy Department of trying to
back away from their original mission to use the laser to
achieve thermonuclear fusion and ignition. 

For example, in 2002, the Energy Department quietly tried to
change the name of the federal program that oversees the
super-laser project -- Inertial Confinement Fusion -- to "High
Energy Density Physics," thereby eliminating "Fusion" from the
title. Two congressional committees that had bankrolled the
project in the belief that the facility was ignition-bound
protested the "apparent retreat from ignition" and the Energy
Department changed the name back. 

Department officials got into trouble again in 2004, when they
delayed the date for achieving ignition from 2010 to 2014. In
protest, the House Appropriations committee suggested the NNSA
was settling for "less challenging goals for the NIF," and added
that "any diversions represent significant risk to a project
that has already experienced well-publicized cost and schedule
problems." Sheepishly, the Energy Department moved the date back
to 2010. 

Transcripts show that during a 2004 hearing, Domenici, who for
years had played a key role in pushing the project's budgets
through Congress, warned Everet H. Beckner, NNSA's deputy
administrator for defense programs: "I want to say ... that I've
been hoodwinked, and not a little hoodwink. Big one." Domenici
said he perceived that the lab was trying to change the project
from a weapons-related project into "a big civilian tool" that
won't do what it was funded to do. 

"And I tell you," Domenici added, "if I see that (change)
coming, (you) better not be asking me for any (more) money,
because I'd close it down." 

The toughest blow to the project came in June, with the issuance
of the Jason study by the nation's most elite band of scientific
advisers to the Pentagon. These top scientists, who are
supervised by a leading defense contractor, Mitre Corp. in
Virginia, concluded that a successful ignition "in 2010, while
possible, is unlikely." The report cited numerous technical
problems that make it "extremely difficult" to estimate how long
it will take to achieve ignition after 2010, if ever, and
warned: "NIF's success ... is not assured." 

In an interview last week, Lindl, the ignition facility's chief,
acknowledged criticisms of the project but says he has high
hopes for solving the problems. 

"I personally think the chances of getting ignition by the end
of 2011 are quite good," said Lindl, who has worked on ignition
at Livermore since 1972. 

But one of the facility's harshest critics denies the
super-laser is worth the expenditure in taxpayer dollars and
scientific talent. Stephen Bodner, a former leader of fusion
research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, who served as a
consultant to the Jason report, told The Chronicle, "The major
issue is not the NIF laser and target problems, and the fact
that it is likely to fail, but rather whether it was in the
national interest to ever build it." 

"I am in the camp of those who think it was less than worthless,
in addition to being too ambitious, too risky, and likely to
fail." 

A former Los Alamos physicist and laser-fusion expert, Leo
Mascheroni, has been warning since the late 1980s that such
super-lasers would not be able to trigger thermonuclear
ignition. 

Mascheroni said that when he raised his concerns back then, the
Energy Department took away his security clearance based on
various unstated suspicions. According to news reports at the
time, a Los Alamos security investigator later concluded the
charges against Mascheroni had been "trumped up" and that his
security clearance should be restored. It never was. 

Still, in June, Mascheroni was invited to address the
prestigious U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum in Arlington, Va., whose
members advise government agencies on nuclear weapons issues.
According to a summary of his speech, Mascheroni told them: "The
National Ignition Facility will not achieve ignition and even
if, by miracle, ignition is achieved with NIF, it is irrelevant
for the assessment and design of the (nuclear weapons)
stockpile." 

Status report 

The National Ignition Facility faces serious technical problems,
according to the "Jason" report issued in June by top weapons
advisers to the Pentagon. For decades, "the Jasons" (as the
advisers are sometimes called, in plural form) have included
some of the world's brightest scientists. Past members of the
Jason group ranged from physicist-author Freeman Dyson (father
of computer guru Esther Dyson) to physicist-astronaut Sally
Ride. According to the 2002 account in Science magazine, the
group owes its name to ancient mythology: "When physicist Marvin
Goldberger, a Jason founder then at Princeton University, told
his wife that the government had named the new group Project
Sunrise, she said that a more fitting name for problem-solvers
would be the sea-faring hero in Greek mythology, Jason." The
Jasons' June 29 report, chaired by Cal Tech physicist-nuclear
engineer David A. Hammer and UC Santa Barbara astrophysicist
Lars Bildsten, details the ignition facility's daunting
problems: 

The need for exquisite timing: The laser blasts generate X-ray
"shocks" inside the gold cylinder, called a "hohlraum." The
X-ray shocks must impinge on all sides of the nuclear fuel
pellet simultaneously so the pellet can shrink or "implode"
smoothly. Timing less precise than 50 to 100 "picoseconds"
(trillionths of a second) could spoil the implosion. The Jasons
said, "We suspect that getting the final timing of the shocks
will be a much more difficult problem than the current ignition
plan acknowledges." 

Leakage of laser light: A "serious potential risk" is "laser
backscattering," in which laser beams are distorted inside the
hohlraum by "plasma," a super-hot cloud of electrically charged
particles and electrons. The distortion causes laser beams to
leak out of the hohlraum through its two entrance holes -- like
gas leaking through holes in a gas tank -- thereby weakening the
laser blasts' intensity and ruining the implosion of the pellet.
"The high level of scattered light is cause for concern," the
Jasons say. 

Voids: NIF will laser-blast fuel pellets within shells of the
element beryllium. If implosion is smooth, then the beryllium
shells will compress the pellet evenly on all sides. The trouble
is, the manufacturing process for the tiny beryllium shells
inadvertently forms voids, like cavities in a tooth, that during
implosion can trigger instabilities and wreck the implosion. 

Poor "diagnostics": A high-speed X-ray camera will record the
implosion in infinitesimal fractions of a second. In this way,
scientists hope to observe the pellet's changing shape as it
implodes, and thus to correct for any instabilities that ruin
implosions. Unfortunately, the X-ray scanner's images are far
too imprecise to yield the needed information. "Much improvement
will be required here," the Jasons said. 

Generating thermonuclear fusion at the National Ignition
Facility 

Don’t try this at home, folks: 

Inside Lawrence Livermore lab’s super-laser, the National
Ignition Facility (NIF), scientists hope to generate
thermonuclear fusion by using laser beams to blast and
super-compress pellets of nuclear fuel. 

HOW IT WORKS:
 

1. Almost 200 laser beams enter the hohlraum via two entrance
holes and generate X-rays within the cylinder. 

2. The X-rays strike all sides of the pellet with equal
intensity, causing it to “implode” to a size about one-thirtieth
its original diameter. 

3. The implosion will, in theory, compress the pellet’s atomic
nuclei, causing them to merge or “fuse” and unleash
thermonuclear energy. According to most scientists’ definition
of the word, “ignition” is reached when the imploded pellet
releases as much energy as the lasers have pumped into it. 

Pellet: A frozen, hollow sphere of hydrogen isotopes (deuterium
and tritium) with gaseous hydrogen isotopes inside its core; it
is encased in a capsule made of plastic or beryllium 

Hohlraum: Tiny gold cylinder that contains the pellet 

Capsule fill tube: Prior to test firings, the pellet’s supply of
deuterium and tritium is replenished via this thin tube 

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Five time-lapse photos, snapped by an
extremely high-speed X-ray camera over one billionth of a
second, show the implosion of a pellet (a half-millimeter wide)
in an experiment that Livermore researchers conducted while
using a different laser at the University of Rochester. 

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 

Page A - 17 			

The San Francisco Chronicle] 
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 52 Chillicothe Gazette: Piketon plant jobs protected

www.chillicothegazette.com - Chillicothe, OH
 
Staff, wire reports 

PIKETON - A bill passed in the U.S. House this week protected
261 jobs at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant.

Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, and Rep. Dave Hobson,
R-Springfield, worked together on the final version of the bill,
which was passed Wednesday.

Two provisions inserted in the Senate would have eliminated a
barter agreement and cut $17 million out of funds for cleanup at
the plant. "This is a great victory for the folks who work at
the (Piketon plant). By preventing the unnecessary loss of 261
jobs, we were able to retain the years of experience and unique
expertise these people possess," Schmidt said.

The funding proposal still must be approved by the Senate and
the president.

The bill also provides $750,000 for Scioto County sanitary sewer
renovations and replacements.

These updates will help prepare the area's infrastructure for
economic development and were passed as part of the Appalachian
Regional Commission $66 million budget request.

The House had originally ignored Bush's request and proposed
spending $38.5 million on the ARC.

A letter from Reps. Bob Ney, R-Heath, and Ted Strickland,
D-Lisbon, to Hobson warned the House's plan to cut funding by 41
percent "would cripple (the) ARC's mission."

Also, U.S. Enrichment Corp. said this week the first phase of
construction work for the new American Centrifuge project is
complete.

About $17.5 million of high-risk work was completed in 2004 and
2005, and USEC and its contractors completed this work safely
with no injuries.

Originally published November 12, 2005 Print this article    

 Copyright ©2005 Chillicothe Gazette
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 53 LA Daily News: Field lab health claims in limbo

Article Launched: 11/13/2005 12:00:00 AM                                                        
		
Field lab health compensation delayed, denied
 			 			 			 			 			 			 
By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer   

  Five years after President Bill Clinton pledged billions of
dollars to former nuclear employees who got sick from their Cold
War-era jobs, just seven of the nearly 600 claims filed by
workers at the Santa Susana Field Lab and other local facilities
have been compensated. 

The U.S. Department of Labor, which is responsible for doling
out the payments, has struggled with a backlog of 20,000 claims
nationwide. 

But in the cases of men and women who worked on nuclear power
research at the field lab and former North American Aviation
facilities in Canoga Park, Chatsworth and Downey, their
applications were stalled for several years by legal wrangling
over who was eligible for the money. The operations were taken
over by Rocketdyne and eventually Boeing. 

Among them is John Pace, who applied for compensation for lung
damage he believes resulted from radiation exposure and inhaling
toxic chemicals while cleaning up the nuclear reactor meltdown
at the lab in 1959. 

"I sure don't appreciate the delays in it. They should recognize
the fact that a lot of people were harmed from working there and
they should do something about it," said Pace, 66. 

"It'd be nice to get it over with so we could help those that
have medical bills." 

Hundreds of local workers were denied or delayed compensation,
while the Department of Labor and Department of Energy debated
which workers qualified for the program. 

The Department of Energy, which contracted with North American
Aviation, tried to limit the compensation to a select group of
employees who worked in a 90-acre section of the Santa Susana
Field Lab. 

As a result, many former employees who worked on Energy
Department nuclear projects were denied compensation for
illnesses they maintain were caused by radiation or toxic
exposure. After four years of debate, the Department of Labor in
September overruled the Department of Energy's decision and
opened the program to everyone who worked at the Santa Susana
Field Lab's Area IV and North American Aviation/Rockwell's
Canoga Park, De Soto and Downey facilities. 

That means more men and women who worked alongside nuclear
reactors, and helped in the development of reliable power for
space exploration and satellites, now have a shot at federal
compensation. 

Department of Labor officials are reviewing all cases that were
denied earlier, and are trying to reach sick employees, many of
whom are in their 70s, to let them know about the program
changes. 

"It was a very sticky policy issue," said Peter Turcic, director
of the Department of Labor's Division of Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation. 

"There are probably a lot of people who were under the
assumption that if they didn't work within those 90 acres, then
they didn't even apply." 

Much-needed money 

For Charleen Roesch, money from the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program would help cover the
medical expenses for her late husband, James, who died of
cancer, and the legal fees from their unsuccessful fight for
workers' compensation. 

"That would mean I wouldn't have to worry. I wouldn't be a
burden on my children. I would have a nest egg I could draw from
instead of having to worry," she said. 

James Roesch was an equipment mechanic and volunteer firefighter
at the field lab from 1955 to 1967. He died in 1998 at age 62
from multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells. 

Over the years, Roesch used potent chemical degreasers, like
trichloroethylene, to clean valves, pumps and pipes used in
rocket tests and nuclear reactors - often without gloves or
other protective gear. Later he decontaminated test engines
laden with hydrazine, a probable carcinogen. 

In 1997, Roesch wrote a five-page work history, homing in on an
incident in 1959 - the same year there was partial meltdown in
the Sodium Reactor Experiment, the nation's first civilian
nuclear power plant. 

Roesch wrote that he was called to the reactor to put out a
fire. He rushed in with a fire extinguisher but found only
smoke. He saw large, twisted steel beams overhead and men in
white smocks working in a small room. 

"They looked quite surprised upon seeing me enter the room. One
of them asked me what I was doing in there? I explained that I
was looking for spot fires. He said, in what I would consider an
almost panicked voice, 'There is no fire in here! Get out of
here! Quick! Get out now.' I left." 

Afterward, the auxiliary firefighters were taken to a fire
station, ordered to shower thoroughly and given company
coveralls to wear home. They were told to have their wives
launder the clothes that night. 

Roesch wrote the work history in 1997, the year after he was
diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a condition his doctor
suggested could be work-related. 

Roesch underwent chemotherapy and spent long periods in the
hospital, racking up medical bills. He was denied workers'
compensation, and hired an attorney to appeal the decision. 

He died before the case went to trial, but his widow continued
to press the case for three more years. 

"The Boeing attorneys said they would never settle, they would
take it to Supreme Court," Charleen Roesch said. "It was very
intimidating for a regular person, who had never been in a
courtroom, to go through that." 

The judge overseeing the case died before issuing a decision,
but a judge who took over the case ruled in 2001 that Roesch's
illness was unrelated to his work at the field lab. Charleen was
devastated by the decision and stopped her fight for
compensation - until now. 

Uninformed, unprotected 

It was for workers like James Roesch that Congress passed and
Clinton signed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Act in 2000. 

The goal was to assess whether employees developed cancers and
other illnesses from their work with radiation and toxic
materials. If they did, workers and their survivors could claim
up to $150,000. 

Too often, nuclear workers in the 1950s and 1960s weren't
informed of the risk or adequately protected. Later, the
Department of Energy had a policy of encouraging its contractors
to oppose workers' compensation claims filed by these Cold War 
workers, Clinton wrote in his executive order approving the act. 

From the beginning, the compensation program had problems. 

The Department of Labor was in charge of evaluating the claims
of workers made sick from radiation exposure. 

The Department of Energy was responsible for evaluating the
claims of workers made sick from toxic exposure, and for helping
them apply for workers' compensation from their state programs. 

However, critics said the Department of Energy was reluctant to
divert money from other projects to fund the program. The
department soon developed a tremendous backlog, and secured
payments for only 31 workers out of 23,000 claims. 

In 2004 Congress voted to give the Department of Labor control
of both radiation and toxic exposure claims. The DOE handed off
25,000 unresolved cases to the Department of Labor. 

At the Santa Susana Field Lab, those problems were complicated
by disagreements over which workers were eligible for the
program. 

The Department of Labor relied on the Energy Department and
Boeing to confirm whether claimants worked on DOE projects. 

But DOE and Boeing said only a small group of atomic workers was
eligible for the compensation program, and they rejected many
Rocketdyne division workers and other employees who may have
been exposed. 

Turcic, with the Department of Labor, said the issue was
primarily a disagreement over how to interpret the law. After
researching the issue and talking to workers, his division ruled
that many other employees who worked on the nuclear research
should be covered by the compensation program. 

Steve Lafflam, director of safety, health and environmental
affairs for Boeing, said the company never tried to limit
coverage of employees. 

"We follow their very strict guidelines. If they worked on a DOE
contract, we verify employment." 

At least 150 radiation claims out of 581 claims have been
denied, but the Department of Labor couldn't say how many
workers were rejected because of the disagreement with DOE.
Seven claims paid out roughly $1 million. The rest are
unresolved. 

Now, the Department of Labor has asked the DOE and Boeing to
provide more detailed employment history information on
claimants that have been denied. After workers prove they worked
at one of the four DOE sites, they must show they developed an
illness that can be linked to chemicals or radiation exposure at
the site. 

So far, the Department of Labor has awarded more than $1 billion
in more than 16,000 claims nationwide. Former employees can
receive up to $250,000 and their spouses and dependent children
can receive up to $175,000. 

The wait goes on 

John Pace applied for compensation four years ago, hoping to
show that his lung damage was linked to the toxic chemicals or
radiation he inhaled during the year he worked at the Santa
Susana Field Lab. 

In 1958, Pace was 19 years old and training to be an atomic
reactor operator on the Sodium Reactor Experiment. It was a good
opportunity and he was eager to learn how to take readings on
gauges and monitor reactor operations. 

But he was worried about radiation, especially after he helped
clean up the reactor after the meltdown in 1959. He remembers
using pads dipped in soap or chemicals to clean the floors, and
being checked every night to see if he had "hot spots" on his
clothing or body. 

"You can't see it, the only way you can tell is with a Geiger
counter. All you're doing is cleaning up something that's
invisible, so we went around with a Geiger counter, cleaning,"
Pace recalled. 

"It was a very unusual time and scary, too, because you're
working with something you can't see, smell or taste." 

Pace worked at the lab for only a year, but he soon developed
lung problems and found he was extremely sensitive to
strong-smelling chemicals and perfumes. His lungs would tense up
and he would often develop bronchitis. 

Also, his wife suffered five miscarriages in the seven years
after Pace worked at the field lab, and his doctor suggested
radiation exposure could have damaged his reproductive system. 

Pace applied for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program, and was tested for beryllium disease,
which is lung scarring caused by inhaling the dust of beryllium,
a metal used in industrial operations. He tested negative. 

Pace, now retired and living in Idaho, hopes after four years of
delays he'll hear from the Department of Labor soon. He'd like
to use the money to visit a specialist to assess his lung
condition. 

"They put my stories down and put my records down, and from that
point on it's been a waiting game. I'm in limbo. I would sure
like to be able to have some compensation for the damage to my
lungs." 

Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 

kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com

INFORMATION 

For more information on the Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program, call the resource center in
Livermore, Calif., at (866) 606-6302. To check a claim, call the
Department of Labor's Seattle district office at (888) 805-3401. 

Los Angeles Newspaper Group 
    
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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
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