***************************************************************** 11/15/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.266 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 [NYTr] How The NY Times Discovered "WMDs" in Iraq & Cuba 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Escalates Bitter Iraq War Debate 3 Interfax: Moscow opposes transfer of Iran's nuclear dossier to UN 4 RIA Novosti: Iran hopes to improve position by next IAEA session 5 IRNA: Safari to hold talks with Indian counterpart on IAEA vote 6 IRNA: Russian nuclear talks with Iran 'useful', says Straw 7 Xinhua: Iran rejects US laptop evidence on nuclear ambition 8 IRNA: Peaceful use of nuclear energy, Iran's inalienable right 9 INSIDE JoongAng: North offers 5-step plan for nuclear dismantling 10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Seoul to Push for Progress on N.K. Nukes 11 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.Korea Tops Agenda of Bush's Asia Trip 12 Interfax: Russia, China unanimous on N. Korea, Iran, Syria - Russian 13 RIA Novosti: Russia, China discuss Korea situation, Iran nuclear iss 14 AFP: Bush urges resolve on North Korean nuclear crisis - 15 United Press International: North Korea proposes nuclear disarmament 16 ITN: Conservatives back nuclear plan 17 US: KTLA: Alarmed by 'Cycle of Anti-Environmentalism' 18 Asia Times: Delhi knocked out over China 19 Mos News: Former Putin Envoy Appointed Head of Russian Nuclear Agenc NUCLEAR REACTORS 20 US: NRC: Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 21 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC extends time for testimony at hearing 22 PTI: Intl coop in peaceful use of nuke energy without compromising 23 RIA Novosti: Kiriyenko takes over Russian nuclear agency 24 RIA Novosti: ITER project to solve global energy problems 25 Indiadaily.com: India urges international cooperation in nuclear fie 26 business.iafrica.com: company news Nuclear firm awards R20m contract 27 US: APP.COM. Anti-nuclear activists question strength of Oyster Cree 28 US: Burlington Free Press.com: MYTURN: Vermont Yankee uprate is crit 29 US: nbc30.com: Rate Hike To Decommission Nuclear Plant Called 'Outra 30 US: NRC: Nuclear Security Coalition; Boiling-Water Reactors of Mark 31 US: NRC: License No. Dpr-28; Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and 32 US: NRC: TXU Generation Company, LP; Biweekly Notice; Notice of Issu 33 US: Advocate: Rate hike to decommission nuclear plant called "outrag 34 US: Hudson Valley News: Company sells IP alerts 35 US: Hudson Valley News: Most Indian Point sirens sound in today's te 36 US: WTNH.com: Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's NUCLEAR SECURITY 37 US: BBC: US 'failing to stem terror risk' 38 US: ABQJOURNAL: N.M. Helping Texas Investigate Theft of Radioactive NUCLEAR SAFETY 39 US: [du-list] Vets: Gulf War research spending falls short of 40 [du-list] Reports of war crimes from 2nd USUK massacre at 41 US: Deseret News: Fallout victimization absolutely not exaggerated 42 US: Cincinnatti Enquirer: Chilling true-life account of nuclear clos NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 43 US: AP Wire: Judge says nuclear dump can keep permit 44 AU ABC: Public airs waste dump plan worries 45 Interfax: Britain to concentrate aid on Northern Fleet nuclear waste 46 RIA Novosti: Russia, U.S. to discuss submarine disposal in Severodvi 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Standing up to criticism 48 US: Salt Lake Tribune: The price of access 49 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Resigned to uranium 50 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Interim Staff Guidance Documents 51 Loux: Yucca Restructuring, Again, Or, Back To The Future DOE Style 52 Nevada Observer: Yucca Mountain: The Counting Has Begun As Congress 53 US: AU ABC: Uranium sampling discrepancy shocks miner. 54 US: WIStv.com Columbia, SC: Barnwell County nuclear dump keeps permi 55 KVVU FOX5: Yucca Mountain Podcast is Music to Nevadans' Ears? 56 US: Tribune-Review: Landfill drops plans to take radioactive ash - 57 UK: News & Star: Plant can deal with terror 58 UK: News & Star: ‘I was hoping he‘d got stuck,’ says colleague 59 Guardian Unlimited: House-Senate Freeze Education Spending PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 60 Albuquerque Tribune: Anxiety grips Los Alamos as decision on lab dra 61 www.GovExec.com - Rocky Flats cleanup contract called model for 62 Daily Texan: Los Alamos decision forthcoming: 63 Rocky Mountain News: U.S. to buy Flats mineral rights ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [NYTr] How The NY Times Discovered "WMDs" in Iraq & Cuba Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:47:54 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How The New York Times Discovered All Those WMDs in Iraq and Cuba by Jane Franklin November 17, 2005 "U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts" blared the lead article of the New York Times on Sunday, September 8, 2002. That fateful article is now a notorious example of the disastrous symbiosis between the White House and corporate media. Using White House sources, co-authors Judith Miller and Michael Gordon stated as fact that "Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium" for use in making nuclear bombs. The article warned that American officials are "alarmed" by Iraq's "quest for nuclear weapons": "The first sign of a 'smoking gun,' they argue, may be a mushroom cloud." Here was the perfect gift to President Bush's quest for war: an article parroting the Administration's own words on the front page of the liberal New York Times, "the newspaper of record." Timed for the Sunday talk shows and their White House guests, the article was deployed within hours of its publication by Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, each seizing the opportunity to spread their scary disinformation to TV audiences throughout the country and the world. On "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, Cheney cited the article as evidence for the administration's case: "There's a story in the New York Times this morning...I want to attribute the Times. I don't want to talk about, obviously, specific intelligence sources, but it's now public that, in fact, [Saddam Hussein] has been seeking to acquire...the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge" as a step toward building a nuclear bomb. General Colin Powell, the media's image of a moderate (despite such achievements as his cover-up of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, support for the contras in Nicaragua, and oversight of the invasion of Panama), was part of the show. In his interview on "Fox News Sunday" by Tony Snow and Brit Hume, Powell delivered a bellicose argument for quick "regime change" because "time is not on our side." "As we saw in reporting just this morning," he gravely warned, Hussein has ordered "the specialized aluminum tubing one needs to develop centrifuges that would give you an enrichment capability" for making nuclear bombs. Condi Rice, interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition," stated that the White House knows of "shipments going into Iraq" of aluminum tubes "that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." She failed to mention that her own staff had been informed a year earlier of serious doubts about that claim. Borrowing a key phrase from the Times article, she warned, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." This phrase became a rallying cry used by President Bush on October 7 in Cincinnati in his speech that took the nation to war. "Iraq," he said, "has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." "Facing clear evidence of peril," he continued, "we cannot wait for the final proof--the smoking gun--that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Four days later, a cowering Congress surrendered to Bush the authority to make war. So the collusion between the Bush Administration and the New York Times contributed to a catastrophic war. Journalists reported what White House sources reported and then the White House reported what the journalists reported. Even though the so-called facts--later revealed as bald concoctions--were already in dispute, White House fiction subtly morphed into truth because it bore the respected imprimatur of the Times. After the damage had been done, Times editors published on May 26, 2004, a pathetically anemic apology, given the role they had played in facilitating a so-called War on Terror that threatens to be the Forever War. Embarrassed by blatantly false reports, the editors particularly mentioned six articles, including, of course, the September 8, 2002 history-making piece. Judith Miller was responsible for more of the articles than any other reporter (author or co-author of four out of the six) but there were four other reporters who were authors or co-authors: Chris Hedges, John Tagliabue, Patrick E. Tyler, and Michael Gordon. Those five of course are not the only eager mouthpieces. Now publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is blaming Times editors as well as Judith Miller for the phony pre-war reports about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said editors "didn't own up to it quickly enough." Where was he? And why did the Times publish those jingoist articles about WMDs in Iraq in the midst of a massive White House campaign aimed at building support for Bush's plan to take out Hussein and take Iraq? When it comes to foreign policy, the owners of the New York Times are embedded with the White House team that feeds "information" to the eager mouthpieces of corporate media. They share, for examples, the same clear positions on such crucial matters as Israel and Cuba. Misinformation and disinformation in the New York Times and other corporate media are of course nothing new. Those who want to explore the sordid record, especially of the Times, should start by consulting Lies of Our Times, a monthly magazine published from January 1990 through December 1994; Edward Herman's forthcoming article, "The New York Times Versus The Civil Society," in the December, 2005, Z Magazine; and Howard Friel and Richard Falk's The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy. Judith Miller was able to use her job at a prestigious newspaper to embed herself with key personalities like Cheney's favorite, Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi with Iranian ties able to produce lying defectors. At the White House itself Miller embedded herself with various acolytes of Dick Cheney, not just I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Her entanglement with John R. Bolton is equally insidious. Just as she collaborated with the White House to stampede us into invading Iraq, she attempted to do the same with Cuba. In the spring of 2002 former President Jimmy Carter was scheduled to visit Havana, becoming the first president in or out of office to visit the island since the revolution of January 1, 1959. Because the visit was contrary to the White House policy of isolating Cuba with sanctions against travel and trade, the White House of course wanted to sabotage Carter's trip. On May 6, six days before Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were to fly to Havana, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton delivered a speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington called "Beyond the Axis of Evil: Additional Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction." He announced, "The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support BW [biological warfare] programs in those states." On cue, Judith Miller immediately published in the New York Times an alarming article headlined "Washington Accuses Cuba of Germ-Warfare Research." Framed in the "he says-she says" format of what passes for "objective" journalism nowadays, Miller adroitly presented the case on behalf of her White House connection. Who is the only person she could find to deny or even question Bolton's claims? Why, a Cuban official, of course. On the other side, cited in support of Bolton were a Soviet defector, a Cuban defector, and unnamed "administration officials." Miller ended her article with a quote from right-wing Cuban-American Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Republican of Florida), who has publicly called for the assassination of President Fidel Castro. Diaz-Balart said that Bolton's remarks "'begin to put into the proper perspective the debate about Cuba, a terrorist state with biological weapons 90 miles from the shores of the United States.'" Thus, the article proceeded from Bolton's claim of a "research and development effort" to Diaz-Balart's affirmation of "biological weapons" 90 miles from Florida. Hurried newspaper readers would probably miss the article's internal evidence indicating opposition to Bolton's claim among Washington's intelligence agencies. Miller reported that Bolton "publicly alluded to conclusions that American intelligence agencies have reached in recent months after protracted internal debate." Internal debate? What's that about? An investigative reporter could have easily found out. Bolton's unsubstantiated charge was so outrageous that it became one of the main issues in his failure to be confirmed by the Senate last summer as ambassador to the United Nations because he had tried to bully analysts into saying that there was a definite attempt by Cuba to develop biological weapons. Reportedly due to Cheney's urging, Bush gave him the job anyway with a recess appointment. The New York Times, which hardly pretends to cover news about Cuba fairly, seemed like a good site for promoting Bolton's onslaught. Miller's report aimed to convince Times readers that Cuba's vaunted health system is actually a cover for terrorist activities. Why would Jimmy Carter want to visit a rogue nation armed with germ weapons? But this time the Administration was going too far. Even much of the rest of the corporate media recognized how perverse it was to portray Cuba's health system, admired and helpful around the world, as a terrorist threat. There was a virtual chorus of "Where's the evidence?" The Florida Sun-Sentinel brought up the question of timing, following up with an editorial that asked, "Where's the beef?" New York's Newsday called the charge of terrorism a "Preposterous suggestion," noting that the upshot is that Cuba has "the most sophisticated biomedical resources in Latin America," and adding, "So what?" Skeptical responses came from all over, including the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the Guardian of London. (Bolton's charge was part of a broader campaign alleging WMDs in Cuba, as explored in my article, "Looking for Terrorists in Cuba's Health System," Z Magazine, June 2003.) Jimmy Carter did not call off his trip. Quite to the contrary. As he and Rosalyn took a tour with Fidel Castro of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, he revealed that during briefings before his visit, he asked the White House, State Department and CIA if there were any "possible terrorist activities that were supported by Cuba," and the answer from all three was "No." Why didn't Judith Miller do that? Why didn't her editors make sure she did? It would have been interesting to be the fly on the wall when Bolton visited Judith Miller last summer while she was in jail. Was it friendship or fear that took him there? The New York Times has never apologized for the May 7, 2002, report that promoted Bolton's false charge about Cuba even though the editors must have heard what Carter had to say just a week later. In October, as her stories continued to unravel, Miller told Times reporters, "'W.M.D.--I got it totally wrong.'" Blaming her sources, she said, "'The analysts, the experts and the journalists who covered them--we were all wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong.'" It shouldn't take much effort to find better sources than Ahmad Chalabi, John Bolton, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Bush mob. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Escalates Bitter Iraq War Debate From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 15, 2005 6:01 am AP Photo AKAG104 By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AP) - President Bush escalated the bitter debate over the Iraq war on Monday, hurling back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world. ``They spoke the truth then and they're speaking politics now,'' Bush charged. Bush went on the attack after Democrats accused the president of manipulating and withholding some pre-war intelligence and misleading Americans about the rationale for war. ``Some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past,'' Bush said. ``They're playing politics with this issue and they are sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy. That is irresponsible.'' The president spoke to cheering troops at this military base at a refueling stop for Air Force One on the first leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. During the stopover, he also met privately with families of four slain service members. After a Latin American trip with meager results earlier this month, the administration kept expectations low for Asia. ``I don't think you're going to see headline breakthroughs,'' National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said on Air Force One. He dashed any prospect that Japan would lift its ban on American beef imports during Bush's visit and said a dispute with China over trade and currency would remain an issue after the president returns home. On Sunday, Hadley acknowledged ``we were wrong'' about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted in a CNN interview that the president did not manipulate intelligence or mislead the American people. Iraq and a host of other problems, from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation, have taken a heavy toll on the president. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency and a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism. Heading for Asia, Bush hoped to improve his standing on the world stage. ``Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people,'' Bush said. He quoted pre-war remarks by three senior Democrats as evidence of that Democrats had shared the administration's fears that were the rationale for invading Iraq in 2003. Bush did not name them, but White House counselor Dan Bartlett filled in the blanks. -``There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.'' - Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. -``The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as (Saddam Hussein) is in power.'' - Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. -``Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the president's approaching this in the right fashion.'' - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., then the Democratic whip. ``The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded that only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world - and that person was Saddam Hussein,'' Bush charged. In the Senate, 29 Democrats voted with 48 Republicans for the war authorization measure in late 2002, including 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, John Edwards of North Carolina. Both have recently been harshly critical of Bush's conduct of the war and its aftermath. On Capitol Hill, top Democrats stood their ground in claiming Bush misled Congress and the country. ``The war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history,'' Kerry told a news conference. Bush is expected to get a warmer welcome in Asia than he did earlier this month in Argentina at the Summit of the Americas, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a protest against U.S. policies and Bush failed to gain support from the 34 nations attending for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone. Japan, the first stop on Bush's trip, and M, are likely to give him the most enthusiastic response, while China and South Korea probably will be cooler but respectful. In South Korea, Bush also will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan, where 21 member states are expected to agree to support global free-trade talks. The summit also is expected to agree to put early-warning and information-sharing systems in place in case of bird flu outbreaks. ``It is good for the president to show up in Asia and say, `We care about Asia,' because that is in doubt in the region,'' said Ed Lincoln, senior fellow in Asia and Economic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. At Bush's first stop, in Kyoto, Japan, the president will deliver what aides bill as the speech of the trip on the power of democracy, not only to better individual lives but contribute to the long-term prosperity of nations. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 3 Interfax: Moscow opposes transfer of Iran's nuclear dossier to UN Nov 15 2005 12:07PM MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak has confirmed that Moscow, as previously, opposes the transfer of Iran's "nuclear dossier" to the UN Security Council. "There are several issues which remain unsettled. But Iran has done a great deal in recent years to make its nuclear program transparent. This is so. The work must go on, while the search for solutions should proceed through and within the International Atomic Energy Agency," Kislyak told Interfax on Tuesday. 1991-2005 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 4 RIA Novosti: Iran hopes to improve position by next IAEA session 15/ 11/ 2005 TEHRAN, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - Following talks with Syrian leaders Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister said the country would be in a better position by the upcoming IAEA session on its disputed nuclear program. "We will be in a far better position at the November session of the IAEA Board of Governors than we were in at the international organization's September session on Iran," Manouchehr Mottaki said. Mottaki cited several factors that have boosted Iran's position: Iran has been cooperative with UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran's nuclear facilities recently passed inspections, and the country has held a series of useful meetings with IAEA senior officials. Mottaki suggested, however, that the United States might "launch a new campaign against Iran before the session begins." The minister said Syria, which recently joined the organization's board of governors, supported "Iran's legitimate right to have peaceful nuclear technology" and would side with Iran at the session. Iran's nuclear program has long been an issue for debate, with Iran claiming it enriches uranium to generate energy and not to develop nuclear weapons, a position that is supported by Russia. The IAEA passed a resolution proposed by the EU troika (Britain, France, and Germany) that recommended Iran's "nuclear file" be handed over to the UN Security Council, where sanctions might ensue. The resolution, which passed with 22 votes of the 35-member board, urges Iran to end uranium enrichment and give up plans to develop a complete nuclear fuel cycle. Twelve board members, including Russia and China, abstained, and Venezuela voted against the resolution. 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 5 IRNA: Safari to hold talks with Indian counterpart on IAEA vote New Delhi, Nov 15, IRNA India-Iran-Minister Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari is expected here almost a week ahead of the IAEA meet on the Iran nuclear issue on November 24. Tehran's attempt to reach out to New Delhi comes as international efforts are being intensified to reach a consensus and avoid a vote. Safari is scheduled to arrive here on Thursday for a two-day visit during which he will meet top South block officials besides holding talks with his Indian counterpart, Rajiv Sikri, secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. India has been in favor (the PM himself has said as much) of settling the matter within the ambit of the IAEA instead of escalating it by referring Iran's nuclear dossir to the UN Security Council. The last political contact between the two sides took place last month when former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh met Iranian Vice-President Parviz Davoudi in Moscow. Safari was accompanying Davoudi on that visit, the English daily `Indian Express' reported here today. The EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) has been discussing a fresh proposal to defuse the crisis. According to reports, the compromise proposed would allow Iran to convert raw uranium ore into gas but enrichment will have to be undertaken in Russia. Russian National Security Advisor Igor Ivanov was in Tehran this week to discuss the proposal with the Iranian leadership. 2160,1/2321/1414 ***************************************************************** 6 IRNA: Russian nuclear talks with Iran 'useful', says Straw London, Nov 15, IRNA Iran Nuclear Program-Russia Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated Tuesday that some progress may have been made in Russia's nuclear talks with Iran. "I had reports and think they were useful but not conclusive," Straw told London-based Middle East journalists at a briefing, dominated by Iraq and Syria. Igor Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Security Council, held weekend talks with Iran, where he was reportedly proposing a compromise plan that will permit Iran to continue uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant. Straw said that he had discussions with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov about Ivanov's visit, when he was in Moscow last week with an EU Foreign Minister's Trokia delegation. "We are very anxious to cooperate fully with the Russian Federation on Iran's dossier," he said without specifying whether the proposal signified a shift in the EU's demand for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The offer, which reportedly recognizes Iran's right to nuclear technology, is said to have made a key concession of allowing Iran to develop an early part of the fuel cycle. It also provides safeguards against the diversion of materials for any weapons program by stipulating that all uranium enrichment be carried out on Russian territory at a plant to be built and jointly owned with Iran. The UK has not ruled out the compromise proposal. A Foreign Office spokesman told IRNA last week that it was 'technically complicated and would require detailed international consideration'. Straw made no mention of whether the offer meant that the EU may be prepared to restart negotiations with Iran on the basis of allowing uranium conversion work at Isfahan. He said that EU discussions were focused on what will be said and reported at next week's board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Last month, Britain's Ambassador to Tehran Richard Dalton told IRNA that the EU could be planning to advance its original offer made to Iran to break the deadlock in negotiations with Iran. "We think that the proposal that EU put forward can be certainly improved and the proposal (the Iranian President) His Excellency Mr Ahmadinejad made in New York can clearly go on to the table," Dalton said. ***************************************************************** 7 Xinhua: Iran rejects US laptop evidence on nuclear ambition www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-16 05:52:46 TEHRAN, Nov. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran on Tuesday rejected a laptop evidence submitted by the United States that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, terming it as a new fabricated scenario ahead of a UN nuclear watchdog meeting. "This is a systematic procedure: every time, before a nuclear watchdog agency's meeting, they try to blow up a crisis," Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying. US intelligence officials have recently presented the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a laptop which wassaid to be stolen from Iran and contained the country's nuclear weapons designs. Javad Vaidi, Larijani's deputy, was also quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the laptop was actually a "scenario" staged by the United States and Israel to launch accusations on Iran. "Like before, a few days before an IAEA meeting on Iranian nuclear program, the United States and Israel have fabricated anew scenario," Vaidi said, adding that their previous charges andevidence were all proven baseless by IAEA inspectors. The IAEA's Board of Governors will hold a meeting on Nov. 24,with Iran's nuclear program high on the agenda. The agency adopted a resolution in late September, urging Iran to re-suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment with the warning of referring the case to the UN Security Council. The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Iran as politically motivated. Enditem Copyright 2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 IRNA: Peaceful use of nuclear energy, Iran's inalienable right Tehran, Nov 15, IRNA Iran-Venezuelan Envoy-IRNA Chief Venezuelan Ambassador to Tehran Arthura Anibal Galeh Gouss Ramirez in a meeting with the Head of Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Ahmad Khademolmelleh on Tuesday underlined that Iran is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear technology. He added that Venezuela's support for Iran in the recent IAEA Board of Governors meeting was based on the country's Bolivarian Revolution, which underpins the independence of world countries. Ramirez expressed the firm belief of Venezuelans that every country has the right for access to nuclear technology for peaceful application. He urged that atomic resources should not be merely available to a number of specific countries. For his part, IRNA chief said that every country is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. He said that propagandist hue and cry over Iran's nuclear program is part of the media campaign launched by the administration of the US President George W. Bush against Iran. Turning to the media and news campaign currently underway by the US administration against Iran and Venezuela, Khademolmelleh called for general media cooperation, in particular between the news agencies of the two countries, to counter such ploys. "The US media, in an attempt to hinder the dissemination of the truth about both countries overseas, distort relevant news," he added. Stressing that the actual developments in the two countries are subject to embargo in the American media, he underlined that the media and news agencies of Iran and Venezuela should overcome such embargoes through close cooperation. Khademolmelleh pointed to the media attack on the presidents of both states and reiterated the need for aborting such propaganda. "Given my experience with the media in New York and news coverage about Venezuela, I am able to distinguish the discriminatory US policies against both countries and understand the problems facing Venezuela." He said that Venezuela is currently is a forerunner in the campaign against the US and noted, "IRNA is determined to draw world attention to the truth about Venezuela away from the hue and cry raised by the US mass media." The Venezuelan diplomat welcomed the proposal of IRNA chief for broader news exchange between the two countries and said that this could facilitate reflection of truth about developments in both countries. "Such cooperation would also make further coverage of news related to South American and Asian states easier." He referred to such news exchange as the best way to obstruct unilateral trend in news dissemination on the international scene. At the meeting, the two sides decided to create grounds for more extensive collaboration between the media and news agencies of Iran and Venezuela. ***************************************************************** 9 INSIDE JoongAng: North offers 5-step plan for nuclear dismantling November 15, 2005 North Korea presented five steps for its nuclear disarmament at the latest round of six-party talks in Beijing, South Korea's top unification policymaker said yesterday. However, what Pyongyang proposes appears to differ greatly from Washington's plan. At a televised discussion with broadcasting journalists, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said North Korea's proposed steps were to postpone nuclear tests, ban nuclear sales, stop additional nuclear production, halt and abandon nuclear activities, with verification, and return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency. "North Korea presented the steps and reconfirmed the principles of nuclear dismantlement through verification," Mr. Chung said. "That is the achievement of the six-nation talks." The North's proposal, however, falls short of U.S. demands that Pyongyang immediately freeze its nuclear activities in Yongbyon and stop all production. The North has been saying activities at Yongbyon nuclear facilities will stop only after it receives light-water reactors. The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States met for three days last week in Beijing, but failed to make any substantial progress. China issued a chairman's statement, saying the talks will reconvene at the earliest possible date. At yesterday's discussion, Mr. Chung also said he would do his best to hold another inter-Korean summit at an appropriate time. by Ser Myo-ja myoja@joongang.co.kr> Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Seoul to Push for Progress on N.K. Nukes Through APEC > Updated Nov.15,2005 19:50 KST N.Korea Tops Agenda of Bush's Asia Trip South Korea hopes to use a Leaders Statement that will conclude the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit as another means of pushing for an early resolution of the North Korean nuclear dispute, sources said Tuesday. An official said the Leaders Statement will appraise the progress of six-party talks currently in recess in Beijing and urge a swift resolution to the issue to promote stability and peace in the region. The statement requires unanimity of leaders from the 21 APEC member states when they debate it on Nov. 18-19. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon talks with his counterparts from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations prior to the first APEC Ministerial Retreat at BEXCO in the southern port city of Busan on Tuesday. The government reportedly hopes to win an endorsement from the leaders for a statement of principles agreed in the last round of six-party talks in September, whereby North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for energy aid and security guarantees. However, some countries such as China, which is close to North Korea, are said to be unhappy with the plan and the pressure it would mean for Pyongyang. The APEC forum went into its fourth day in Busan on Tuesday, with a Ministerial Retreat bringing foreign and finance ministers of member countries together at a round table. They also expressed hope of an early resolution to the North Korea problem. In bilateral talks on the same day, meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing expressed concern over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumis repeated visits to a controversial war shrine. In the evening, Ban met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and discussed cooperation in energy development. (englishnews@chosun.com ) ***************************************************************** 11 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N.Korea Tops Agenda of Bush's Asia Trip Home> National/Politics Updated Nov.15,2005 22:12 KST Seoul to Push for Progress on N.K. Nukes Through APEC U.S. President George W. Bush will continue to adhere to a policy of no economic aid for North Korea before it gives up its nuclear programs, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said Monday. Hadley was speaking to reporters aboard the presidents plane at the start of an Asia trip that ends on Nov. 21. Hadley said the most urgent issue on Bushs four-nation whistlestop tour was discussion of the nuclear situation in North Korea. He said the U.S. had made its decision on how to deal with the nuclear issue, but the North had yet to make a clear statement of how it intends to verifiably dismantle its nuclear programs and when. These matters must be addressed when the current round of six-nation talks on the matter reconvenes, he added. Asked about a schedule for providing North Korea with the civilian light-water reactor it is demanding from the U.S., the advisor said the North must first dismantle all its nuclear programs. Hadley spoke positively of relations between the U.S. and Asian countries, saying ties were especially good with Korea and Japan, its closest allies in the region. Regarding relocation of U.S. forces in Japan, which is causing some jitters in the island country, the advisor said his government solved the same tough issue with South Korea, where the aim was to decrease the forces impact on the daily lives of Koreans while reinforcing security on the Peninsula. On his visit to South Korea, Bush will congratulate the country for transforming itself from a military dictatorship into a successful democracy over the last 40 years, Hadley added. (englishnews@chosun.com ) ***************************************************************** 12 Interfax: Russia, China unanimous on N. Korea, Iran, Syria - Russian Foreign Ministry Nov 15 2005 6:23PM MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Russia's and China's positions on the North Korea nuclear problem and the situations surrounding Iran's nuclear program and Syria coincide, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement circulated in Moscow on Tuesday, following a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in South Korea's Pusan. In addition, Lavrov and Li discussed "a schedule for bilateral contacts at the top and high levels, other relevant aspects of Russian- Chinese relations, the current condition of interaction, including under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other multilateral organizations, and prospects for their expansion," it said. 1991-2005 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 13 RIA Novosti: Russia, China discuss Korea situation, Iran nuclear issue 15/ 11/ 2005 BUSAN, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - The foreign ministers of Russia and China met at an APEC gathering in the South Korean city of Busan to discuss the North Korean nuclear problem, the Middle East peace process, the situation in Syria and the Iran nuclear issue, the Russian delegation said Tuesday. Russia's Sergei Lavrov and China's Li Zhaoxing "exchanged opinions on the most topical and important issues of the agenda, including closer integration within APEC and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization," the source said. 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 14 AFP: Bush urges resolve on North Korean nuclear crisis - Tue Nov 15, 6:16 PM ET KYOTO, Japan (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said in a speech to be given that the United States and its partners in talks with North Korea must show "firm resolve" to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear arms. "China, Japan, and Russia have joined with the United States and South Korea to find a way to help bring peace and freedom to this troubled peninsula," he said in remarks to be delivered before leaving Japan for South Korea. "The six-party talks have produced commitments to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. These commitments must be implemented. That means a comprehensive diplomatic effort from all the countries involved -- backed by firm resolve," said Bush. [US President George W. Bush (R) and his wife Laura arrive at Osaka International Airport. Bush said in a speech to be given that the United States and its partners in talks with North Korea must show 'firm resolve' to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear arms.(AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi)] AFP Photo US President George W. Bush (R) and his wife Laura arrive at Osaka International Airport.... Add headlines to your Copyright 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 United Press International: North Korea proposes nuclear disarmament 11/14/2005 7:47:00 AM -0500 SEOUL, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- North Korea has proposed a five-step plan to give up its nuclear weapons program, a top South Korea official said Monday. However, the plan was said to appear contingent upon Pyongyang getting the aid it is demanding. It was believed to be the first time North Korea has detailed an action plan, Voice of America said. South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told reporters in Seoul that Pyongyang presented a five-point plan during last week's six-nation meeting in Beijing. He said the North Koreans say they would halt plans for a nuclear test and refrain from transferring nuclear materials or technology. Later, the nation would formally end construction of any more nuclear weapons, and eventually dismantle its nuclear programs under international supervision. As a final step, North Korea would return to the global Non-Proliferation Treaty it withdrew from in January 2003. Chung calls the North Korean proposal "meaningful." Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 16 ITN: Conservatives back nuclear plan 12.16PM, Tue Nov 15 2005 The Conservatives have offered their support to the Prime Minister over his plan to replace Trident, Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. The plan is expected to cause further divisions within the Labour party, with some left-wingers likely to oppose a costly new programme. Conservative defence minister Julian Lewis said he wanted to offer "some comfort" to the Government front bench on the issue. The Conservatives, he said, would back Prime Minister Tony Blair in the belief that Britain needs to have nuclear weapons as long as other countries have them - even if Mr Blair couldn't rely on the support of his own backbenchers. Defence Secretary John Reid said Labour's election manifesto committed the party to the retention of an "independent, minimum nuclear deterrent," while the Conservative manifesto made no mention of the issue. Labour's Gordon Prentice, a frequent critic of the Government, said the Prime Minister had said he wanted to hear the views of Members and there should be an informed debate. He called for a Green Paper setting out the options for the House to consider. Mr Reid said once the preliminary work had been done and he'd had a chance to look at the recommendations "I will let you know of my decision". ***************************************************************** 17 KTLA: Alarmed by 'Cycle of Anti-Environmentalism' From the Los Angeles Times Q&AB | RUCE BABBITT By Frank Clifford Times Staff Writer November 15, 2005 The environment has never faced greater political peril in America than it does today, says former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "History, however, instructs us that the trajectory of environmental protection is moving ever upward over time, even as the trend line occasionally breaks downward," Babbitt asserts in his new book "Cities in the Wilderness." A Democrat, Babbitt ran the Interior Department for eight years under President Clinton, who in Babbitt's words "protected more acres of land and water than any of his predecessors." If parts of that legacy are in jeopardy now, as Babbitt says they are, he remains confident that the public, in time, will again demand that the federal government play a stronger role in protecting natural resources. In his book, he examines the conservation record of the Clinton era. One failure he highlights was his inability to marshal public support for a plan to ease the threat of catastrophic flooding on the lower Mississippi River. The plan would have required removing some levees on the upper Mississippi, allowing the river to overflow its banks in undeveloped areas, thus reducing downstream flows and the potential for disaster in places such as New Orleans. Among the successes, Babbitt cites his partnership with the Republican administration of former California Gov. Pete Wilson to design a program, dubbed CalFed, to put an end to the political wars that have raged over management of the state's largest source of fresh water  the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But Babbitt now says the future of that program, which tries to balance the water needs of the region's environment, agriculture and cities, is in jeopardy. Today, Babbitt describes himself as a "free agent," dividing his time between the World Wildlife Fund, of which he is a director, and various nonprofit groups working on conservation issues ranging from the Amazon Basin to the Pacific Northwest. Question: Critics of the Bush administration fear that much of America's legacy of environmental laws and protections is under assault. Do you agree? Answer: We are in the worst down cycle of anti-environmentalism in the history of conservation. It's really quite striking. In this administration, they presented a friendly face of consensus-building beneath which the systematic destruction of the environmental consensus is actually without parallel. Q. There are efforts in play in Congress to weaken both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, laws that protect wildlife and open space and give people the right to object to developments that will change their own environments. Are they in jeopardy? A: It's hanging in the balance right now. Congress is hell-bent on destroying environmental laws. The administration is egging them on. Q: In your book, you say the Clinton administration preserved as much land as Teddy Roosevelt. Is that part of the Clinton legacy in jeopardy? A: The striking thing to me is the degree to which they have been tampering with the national park system. That really is, if you will, an indication  nothing is sacred to this administration. Typically, national parks have been absolutely inviolable. The Republicans come to office saying they were going to improve the national parks. This latest park policy that was put out was simply a broad attempt to commercialize the parks, to alter the basic philosophy of the national parks which has been in effect since 1890. Q: So far, voters don't seem to have expressed much outrage. How do you explain that, given that most public opinion polls consistently say people want more, not less, protection? A: The environmental issues have been swept up in this tide of anti-government rhetoric. The prevailing mood of the electorate is intensely anti-Washington. And that has given the Congress the space, and the administration the space, to do things. Q: You write that the purpose of your book is to show how we can protect natural and cultural landscapes and watersheds through stronger federal leadership in land-use planning. What are the prospects for that kind of leadership? A: It's not going to happen in this Congress. It's not going to happen in this administration but I'm confident that the time will come. I see these cycles in American history, and I'm convinced that before too long, this sort of nihilistic, destructive set of policies is going to yield to public pressure for a more constructive vision. Q: One place where the federal government has the opportunity almost to start from scratch with land-use planning is on the Gulf Coast and in southern Louisiana. Is there any evidence that the federal government is leading that effort? A: No. In my judgment, the lack of leadership here is a national disgrace. Congress is busy using Katrina as a pretext to cut food stamps and Medicaid rather than dealing with the issue. The president says it's a local issue. It's not just a local issue. It's a national issue that involves the management of the Mississippi River, which the federal government has been doing for 50 years, which involves the management of offshore oil and gas, which has undermined the integrity of the wetlands. Now, those issues can't be dealt with by the mayor of New Orleans. It's going to have to have national leadership to say, "What are we going to do about the infrastructure issues? What are we going to do about sea level rise?" Louisiana has got 5 million people; 2 1/2 million live less than 3 feet above sea level down in that delta country. And the consensus for sea-level rise is now between 2 and 3 feet. Those are big scare problems, and we've had zero national leadership. Q: No natural resource is more critical to so many Californians as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. You helped set up a process involving both the state and federal governments to apportion delta water to all of its competing interests. Is that process working? A: We have to make it work. There is no alternative. Now the fact is that the administration has not kept its half of the bargain. As you know, the state has done a better job than the federal government in the funding of the partnership to make that work, but there's not much energy on either side now. If that all comes apart, we're just going to be back in World War III over California water. We've got a consensus that is workable, but it's going to cost money. Q: What does the administration need to do to hold up its end of the bargain? A: It needs to do two things. One is to provide some leadership to the federal agencies, that's the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers. Two is to carry out the terms of the agreement and to enforce the regulations and provide the funding that is necessary. You've got to do all of those things and move forward with the feasibility studies for more surface [water] storage. That's part of the bargain, and we ought to move forward with it. It's not going fast enough. Q: What about Sacramento's role? A: The funding is slacking off. The funding, in the early years, came from the bond issues. That's just about exhausted. Neither the Legislature nor the government has come up with a permanent funding source. Political leadership has to come from political leaders, and it's lacking on both sides. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has remained a champion in Washington, but she hasn't gotten much help. Q. Didn't it surprise some people a few years ago when you went to work for a law firm representing development interests at the Ahmanson Ranch and the Hearst Ranch in California and the proposed Yucca Mountain storage site for radioactive waste in Nevada? A: I've always been pro-development. We live in a world that is so polarized that there doesn't seem to be any middle space  if you're an environmentalist, you must oppose everything. That doesn't describe me. It never has. I believe that nuclear power is the lesser [evil] of the only two alternatives that are on the table right now. One is to fry this planet with continuing use and burning of fossil fuels, and the other is to try to make nuclear power work. That's been my position since 1978, when I served on the Three Mile Island commission. I've endured a lot of hassle over it, but that's my judgment. We've got to get away from fossil fuels fast, or this planet, as we know it, is not going to exist. Copyright 2005, The Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 18 Asia Times: Delhi knocked out over China By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - India for a long time has taken for granted its primacy in the Indian sub-continent comprising Pakistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The notion was rudely shaken at the 13th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit that concluded this week in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Playing the spoiler in the region (for India, that is) is China, which is very keen to nose its way into the affairs of the sub-continent, with other nations willing to play ball in order to counter New Delhi's perceived overbearing presence. Consider how events unfolded. On the eve of the summit it was a foregone conclusion that Afghanistan would become the eighth member of the SAARC grouping, a move strongly backed by Pakistan, before the China factor came into play. India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said: "Before we came to Dhaka, we had come prepared for allowing the membership of Afghanistan to SAARC ... but there was also another application, and that from China, to be associated in some cooperative manner with SAARC." However, matters took a different turn when Nepal's King Gyanendra, who is increasingly leaning on Beijing for moral and logistical support against the Maoist insurgents and the pro-democracy movements in his country, linked the inclusion of Afghanistan to China's application to be associated with SAARC. This held up the consensus on Afghanistan for two days before the final announcement of Kabul's entry. Under the SAARC charter, new admissions to the regional grouping require consensus of member states. It became apparent during the course of the summit that India was not too keen on an early entry for China into the seven-nation grouping, either as an observer or a dialogue partner, arguing strongly against Beijing's inclusion being clubbed with Afghanistan. India supports Kabul as a member of SAARC as it opens a window of opportunity to minimize the influence of Pakistan in the affairs of Afghanistan. Failing to find much support on China, India cited procedural delays to Beijing being included, saying these could only be ironed out during a special session of the standing committee of the organization, which will be convened early in 2006. To India's surprise, the reasoning against an immediate inclusion of China found support only from Bhutan, which does not have any diplomatic relations with Beijing. Perhaps sensing India's discomfiture on the issue, the five other members of SAARC, namely Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, made it apparent that they preferred China's immediate association. Given the recent positive engagement between Thimpu (capital of Bhutan) and Beijing, it will be a matter of time before Bhutan jumps to join the chorus favoring China. The writing was there for New Delhi to see: that the Indian sub-continent that comprises nations on the south of the Himalayas will no longer be its own backyard, with the smaller powers wresting for the influence of Beijing. "We have agreed to induct Afghanistan as a new member. We also welcome China and Japan as observers since they have shown interest," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a news conference at the conclusion of the summit, setting at rest uncertainty over Afghanistan's inclusion as well as over the nature of China's involvement in SAARC. "Afghanistan is very close to us. It is now in our group." Saran later clarified India's stand, "The standing committee meeting of the council of ministers of SAARC will finalize the status of China and Japan while it is now only for Afghanistan to sign an agreement of the SAARC charter and join as a member." Echoing the views of other member countries, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the inclusion of Afghanistan would "undoubtedly enrich our organization and add to its strength". On China, he said, "We welcome the interest of our friend and neighbor to be associated with the organization as an observer or dialogue partner." It may be recalled that China and Pakistan have enjoyed close military relations and that China is often accused of planning Islamabad's nuclear arsenal. Aziz later told a Pakistani daily newspaper that Islamabad would push for full SAARC membership for China. "If and when the issue of inducting China as a full member comes up in SAARC, Pakistan would strongly support it because it sees the organization as an inclusive one, which must be strengthened by greater institutionalization." Various media reports have quoted Pakistani officials who have claimed credit, along with Nepal, for trying to secure observer status for Beijing and accused India of "blocking" the move. Giving an indication of the behind-the-scene parleys, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan said a couple of delegations had raised technical issues to requests of both Afghanistan and China. Without naming any country (which everybody knew was India), Khan said "reservations" were voiced mainly on account of first settling guidelines for granting such a status before considering such a request. A comment in the Indian Express newspaper reads: "Chinese interest in South Asian multilateralism, however, is only the icing on top of a layered but powerful engagement with the sub-continent. Like in all its other neighboring regions, China is keen to deepen its cross-border economic and transportation links with South Asia. India can hardly object to that, given China's long border with the sub-continent. Just as Beijing cannot stop India from developing abiding economic and political links with China's neighbors elsewhere in Asia, Delhi should not smugly believe it could forever keep China out of the sub-continent. While India's relations with each of its South Asian neighbors is weighed down by a different degree of complexity, China has had a free hand in expanding economic, political and military links with them." Indeed, the differences over China are a reflection of the individual distrust that exists between nations, chiefly India and Pakistan, that has also prevented substantial economic integration in the region. It remains to be seen whether the SAARC nations will be able to iron out differences to bring into force the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) on January 1, despite the pledges at Dhaka. "SAARC is mired in conflict, you cannot deny it," Aziz told a news conference. "The truth is we need to take issues head-on and come up with solutions, whether it's Pakistan-India or any other countries in the region." Raking up the bilateral issue of Kashmir, which is against the multilateral charter of SAARC, Aziz reiterated: "We must make progress on Kashmir and then move in parallel on other issues. We do not subscribe to the view that let's do everything else and Kashmir will resolve itself. For sustainable peace, we must address Kashmir." In response, addressing a news conference, Manmohan said Pakistan was still not doing enough to dismantle the terror outfits operating from its soil. "There has been some reduction. But, unfortunately, we feel all that needs to be done has not been done." In a pointed reference to Pakistan and India's anxiety on the matter, Manmohan said, "India could choose its friends but not its neighbors." On the recent Delhi triple blasts that killed more than 70 people, he said "available clues did suggest external linkages" of the terrorist outfits involved in the incident. But he refrained from saying anything substantial since investigations are underway. "We have to do business with the Pakistan government," he said. "There is a trust deficit between the two countries but it's our obligation to convert it into a surplus. Nothing great is achieved by using harsh language in full public glare." Manmohan has also ruled out any demilitarization or troop-reduction in Indian Kashmir until cross-border terrorism is stopped. Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing .) Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 ***************************************************************** 19 Mos News: Former Putin Envoy Appointed Head of Russian Nuclear Agency - MONEY - MOSNEWS.COM Image by MosNews.com Former Putin Envoy Appointed Head of Russian Nuclear Agency Created: 15.11.2005 16:18 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:07 MSK MosNews Former presidential plenipotentiary to the Volga Federal District Sergei Kirienko has been appointed the head of the Russian Nuclear Agency (RosAtom), the head of government staff, Sergei Naryshkin, said on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Naryshkin said that the relevant order was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. As MosNews reported on Monday, Nov. 14, President Putin dismissed Kiriyenko from his position of presidential envoy in connection with transferring to another job. RosAtom is a federal agency which carries out the state policy functions in the sphere of nuclear energy. It provides state services and manages state property in this sphere. RosAtom occupies itself with issues of using nuclear energy, development and the safe functioning of nuclear energy objects. It also manages the nuclear arms complex, nuclear science and technology, and nuclear and radiation safety. RosAtom oversees non-proliferation of nuclear materials and technology and international cooperation in this sphere. Its operating utility is Rosenergoatom, which is responsible for deliveries of nuclear energy and is not controlled by Russias power grid monopoly Unified Energy System. Kiriyenko has previously served as Russias prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin. Kirienko was appointed to the post in the summer of 1998 on the eve of the infamous financial crisis which hit Russia on Aug. 17, 1998. The whole cabinet was dismissed on Aug. 23, 1998, following the crisis in which Russias domestic currency, the ruble, fell almost five-fold against the U.S. dollar and the government defaulted on its financial obligations both to foreign and domestic investors. Copyright 2004 MOSNEWS.COM ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board FR Doc 05-22099 [Federal Register: November 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 219)] [Notices] [Page 69362] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15no05-89] Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: U.S. Army (Jefferson Proving Ground Site) This Licensing Board is being established pursuant to a Commission memorandum and order, CLI-05-23, 62 NRC--(Oct. 26, 2005), that (1) Affirmed a Presiding Officer's decision to reinstate this proceeding, see LBP-05-25, 62 NRC--(Sept. 12, 2005); and (2) directed that a three- member Licensing Board be appointed to conduct this reinstated proceeding, which is to be adjudicated using the revised procedural rules that became effective in February 2004, see 69 FR 2182 (Jan. 24, 2004). The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: Alan S. Rosenthal, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Paul B. Abramson, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Richard F. Cole, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302. Issued at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of November 2005. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. 05-22099 Filed 11-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 21 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC extends time for testimony at hearing November 15, 2005 Brattleboro, VT By Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- Today and Wednesday, area residents will get some of their final opportunities to speak out before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides if Vermont Yankee can complete a proposed power boost. There has been very high demand for opportunities to speak at two public meetings, tonight and Wednesday, so organizers have extended each of them by two hours. The NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will host meetings at the Quality Inn on Putney Road. There, a panel will hear testimony from Entergy Nuclear, owners of the Vernon plant, and nuclear watchdog groups. In the afternoon, the public will get a chance to voice concerns and get information about the potential uprate. Initially, the meetings were scheduled to go all day until 5:30 p.m., but now they will last until 7:30 p.m. The change was made upon request from U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt. His aide, Erin Campbell, said Sanders' office heard from constituents that were concerned that they would not be able to make the meeting. In response, Sanders asked the NRC to extend the hours, which they agreed to do. Anyone who'd like to speak at the meeting should contact Ralph Caruso. He can be reached at (301) 415-8065 or by e-mail at rxc@nrc.gov.It'snot necessary to sign up in advance, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC. Those who would like to speak will also be allowed to register at the meeting. However, the NRC is offering first priority to people who sign up. Copyright 1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc., ***************************************************************** 22 PTI: Intl coop in peaceful use of nuke energy without compromising strategic need: PM Mumbai, Nov 15 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India was keen on establishing an environment that was conducive to international cooperation in peaceful use of nuclear energy without compromising the country's national policy of maintaining the strategic requirement. Addressing nuclear scientists at the 16th annual conference of the Indian Nuclear Society here at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Singh said India must create the space for a quantum jump in nuclear energy production in coming years. However, this will be done without constraining strategic and R&D related aspects of the country's nuclear programme. "The future energy programme will be carried out in a manner that is consistent with our national policy of maintaining integrity of our three-stage nuclear energy programme without constraining strategic and R&D related aspects of the programme," Singh said. The Prime Minister is visiting the BARC for the first time since the Indo-US agreement in July on cooperation in civilian nuclear energy sector. PTI Copyright PTI 2003-2004 ***************************************************************** 23 RIA Novosti: Kiriyenko takes over Russian nuclear agency 15/ 11/ 2005 MOSCOW, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - Sergei Kiriyenko, who was replaced as presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District Monday, has been appointed head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, a senior official said Tuesday. Alexander Rumayntsev, the former head of the agency, which controls the country's nuclear production and research facilities, the development, testing and production of nuclear weapons and the elimination of nuclear warheads and munitions, was appointed to a new position. Kiriyenko was replaced by Bashkortostan's Prosecutor Alexander Konovalov. Kiriyenko, 43, has held a series of senior government positions, including that of fuel and energy minister in 1997-1998 and prime minister from April 1998 to August 1998 under President Boris Yeltsin. He is also chairman of the state commission on chemical disarmament, a member of the Security Council and the presidential council, which oversees priority national projects. 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 24 RIA Novosti: ITER project to solve global energy problems Opinion & analysis - 15/ 11/ 2005 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatiana Sinitsyna). -- The International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor (ITER) is a joint international project, which involves countries conducting extensive research on controlled thermonuclear fusion. If successful, ITER would provide mankind with an unlimited source of energy. Some people compare this reactor to an artificial sun, whose internal temperature will reach 150 million degrees centigrade. However, the Sun that shines for all of us has a temperature of only 20 million degrees centigrade. This difference seems incredible. "Mankind is lucky to have accomplished this objective," one of the project's organizers Yevgeny Velikhov, full-time member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, president of the well-known Kurchatov R&D Institute and head of the Institute's ITER Council, said. Physicists have long dreamed of harnessing thermonuclear fusion, which is much safer than nuclear energy. Thermonuclear reactors cannot explode the way the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's No. Four reactor blew up on April 26, 1986. Moreover, they will not spew radiation because deuterium - tritium fusion is their basic principle of operation. At the same time, existing nuclear reactors utilize the nuclear-fission concept. This planet has an unlimited amount of hydrogen isotopes for powering thermonuclear reactors. However, the really intricate thermonuclear power plant will feature unheard-of technologies. Its reactor will be subjected to immense pressures and temperatures. Scientists spent decades trying to solve this problem and to ignite thermonuclear plasma. Experimental thermonuclear reactions have now been harnessed in several countries. Nobody seemed to know anything about thermonuclear fusion only fifty years ago. Nobel Prize winner Academician Igor Tamm and one of his post-graduate students, Andrei Sakharov, who would also become an Academician later and receive the Nobel Prize, were the only scientists capable of discussing this subject. In 1934, Tamm published a textbook on the theory of electricity that outlined the concept of thermonuclear fusion. The situation has changed greatly since then. Today 75% of mankind are infatuated with this idea. It all began in 1992 when Russia, the United States, the European Community and Japan decided to jointly develop the first-ever international thermonuclear experimental reactor on the basis of TOKAMAK (Toroidal Chamber in Magnetic Coils) technologies. Soviet physicists developed the first TOKAMAK units in line with Andrei Sakharov's ideas. Sakharov suggested the TOKAMAK concept back in the 1960s. The world's physicists offered 114 "thermonuclear" concepts. However, TOKAMAK alone has survived to this day. Sakharov's concept was eventually tested at the Kurchatov R&D Institute, and has proved to be a success. Russian achievements in the field of superconductors, as well as unique electron-plasma heating methods, were instrumental in implementing the ITER project. "We can be proud because this idea was authored, initiated and promoted by us. In his time, Gorbachev reached an agreement with Mitterrand and Reagan. But for this, the project would have never materialized," Velikhov stressed. This project, which will require an estimated $5 billion to complete, now involves three more countries, namely, China, India and North Korea. A country, whose territory has been chosen for building the reactor, shall contribute 50% of this sum total. The parties to the project debated this issue rather hotly, with France and Japan offering to accommodate the reactor. It was eventually decided to construct the ITER reactor in France's Gadarache (Provence). Russia undertakes to finance 10% of this promising and ambitious project. The Government of Russia will support the ITER project in line with the federal target program "ITER International Thermonuclear Reactor". ITER is the most ambitious undertaking in the history of mankind, dwarfing the International Space Station (ISS) in terms of its intellectual and financial resources. "The project hinges on new principles of equitable cooperation. The inequality of owners and consumers has been rectified within its framework. This is an act of intellectual globalization," Velikhov noted. Each country will contribute an ITER segment. Once complete, the reactor would feature 100 times more high-precision parts than a B-747 jumbo jet does. An international directorate will oversee the entire construction project. Moreover, the GLORIAD telecommunications network will handle tremendous data flows. St. Petersburg is to host the next G8 summit in the summer of 2006. The final agreement on ITER construction will apparently be signed during that summit. And the groundbreaking ceremony may take place in late 2006. The concerned parties are now analyzing all aspects of this agreement. Some other countries, such as Kazakhstan, Brazil and Mexico, may also join the ITER project. Russia initiated the ITER project's subsequent development. In 2003, Moscow suggested the construction of another ITER center. This center, due to be built in northern Japan, will help develop a commercial thermonuclear power plant as soon as possible. "We will require state-of-the-art technologies, models and computers," Velikhov stressed. According to Velikhov, "computers with a speed of several thousand teraflop will help build a thermonuclear reactor model." This seems like a mind-boggling task because a teraflop is one trillion floating point operations per second. Moreover, the world's fastest computer has a speed of just 100 teraflop. Velikhov also claims that "all technical aspects are clear." Still the creation of software packages and computer models is the most difficult aspect. But a team of leading Russian theoretical physicists is already working in Japan. The ITER project is called on to remove the last obstacle hindering the creation of the world's first thermonuclear power plant that promises to solve global energy and environmental problems. A thermonuclear power plant may appear by 2030, requiring tremendous amounts of energy. "Those involved in the ITER project understand that thermonuclear fusion will become a powerful and reliable source of energy," Velikhov said. 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 25 Indiadaily.com: India urges international cooperation in nuclear field Nov. 15, 2005 India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday [15 November] said India was keen on establishing an environment that was conducive to international cooperation in peaceful use of nuclear energy without compromising the country's national policy of maintaining the strategic requirement. Addressing nuclear scientists at the 16th annual conference of the Indian Nuclear Society here at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Singh said India must create the space for a quantum jump in nuclear energy production in coming years. However, this will be done without constraining strategic and R [research and development] related aspects of the country's nuclear programme. "The future energy programme will be carried out in a manner that is consistent with our national policy of maintaining integrity of our three-stage nuclear energy programme without constraining strategic and R related aspects of the programme," Singh said. The prime minister is visiting the BARC for the first time since the Indo-US agreement in July on cooperation in civilian nuclear energy sector. On international cooperation, Singh said that increasingly large-scale scientific projects have made it imperative for nations to join hands both to share costs and to benefit from the largest pool of expertise. Some of these projects are now subject to public interest like those of International Thermonuclear Experimental reactor project, the Large Hadron collider in Geneva, the generation IV international forum to develop advanced nuclear reactors and the satellite navigation programme. To cope up with manpower requirement for the country's expanding nuclear energy programme, Singh said it was important that the newly-formed deemed university Homi Bhabha National Institute should seize this opportunity to become a major contributor to the country's growing pool of scientific manpower. He said that in order to pool our national resources, it was important to have better cooperation between Indian institutions and the country's systems and institutions must evolve a culture of flexibility, receptivity and adaptability to external ideas and personnel. Earlier, the Prime Minister inaugurated the new super computing facility at BARC which housed the latest TeraFlop Class 512 node ANUPAM supercomputer, high resolution Tiled display cluster Terabyte storage clusters and many powerful compting clusters integrated seamlessly using ultra-fast network technology via computing Grid. Appreciating the achievements of the nuclear scientific community, Singh said "they have to redouble their efforts to achieve the long-awaited qantum jump in power production and the need for success is all the more pressing as we strive to raise millions of our people from the clutches of poverty." ----------------------------------------------------------------- POLITICAL ARTICLES Sonia and Natwar must resign first and Government of India step aside to allow free and fair investigation on oil for food scam Balaji Reddy Congress president Sonia Gandhi today declared that action would be taken against any individual found guilty in the inquiry into allegations of pay offs in the Iraqi oil deals. But what about herself involved in the scam? www.indiadaily.com ***************************************************************** 26 business.iafrica.com: company news Nuclear firm awards R20m contract Helmo Preuss Tue, 15 Nov 2005 South Africa's nuclear firm, Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) on Tuesday awarded a R20-million contract to SLMR, a joint venture company of Canada's SNC-Lavalin (SL) and South African construction company Murray &Roberts (MR). The contract is phase one of a longer-term relationship to build a PBMR Demonstration Power Plant at Koeberg in the Western Cape. The signing of this engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) deal, together with a Memorandum of Understanding represents Phase 1 of a longer-term contract. The MOU is an umbrella agreement for both phases. Phase 2 will be negotiated based on the terms and conditions of the MOU and the outcome of an approximate six-month in-house scoping period. Construction to begin in 2007 The contract for Phase 2 is expected to be signed during 2006, so that construction can begin in 2007 with electricity generation starting in 2010. PBMR Ltd is waiting for the positive Record of Decision from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the licence to begin construction from the National Nuclear Regulator. Both these milestones are anticipated during 2006. In 2004, the South African government allocated a significant amount to the project, while the Minister of Public Enterprises, Alec Erwin, stated an intent to eventually produce 4000 Megawatts (MW) to 5000 MW of power from pebble bed reactors in South Africa. This is equivalent to between 20 and 30 PBMR reactors of 165MW each. The government funding enabled PBMR to secure the contracts for the development of key components such as the turbine machinery and the helium test facility. In November 2004, a contract was awarded to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan for the Basic Design and Research and Development of the PBMR helium driven Turbo Generator System, as well as the core barrel assembly. Important milestone An important milestone was also reached on November 22 2004 with the turning of the first sod for the construction of a helium test facility at Pelindaba. The HTF is a high-temperature, high-pressure rig which will test the complete helium cycle system for the PBMR. It will also simulate the fuel-handling, reactivity control and shut-down systems. PBMR in April 2005 awarded a $20-million contract for the design, procurement, construction and cold commissioning of its pilot fuel plant utilities and infrastructure at Pelindaba to Uhde, a South African division of Germany's Thyssenkrupp Engineering Ltd. The facility will have an initial capacity of 270 000 nuclear fuel spheres per year. The PBMR concept is based on experience in the US and particularly Germany where prototype reactors were operated successfully between the late 1960s and 1980s. The utilities to serve the fuel plant will be designed and installed as part of this contract, are scheduled to be completed in January 2007. The PBMR reactor consists of a vertical steel pressure vessel lined with graphite bricks. It uses silicon carbide coated particles of enriched uranium oxide encased in graphite to form a fuel sphere or pebble (hence the name), each containing about 15 000 uranium dioxide particles. Helium is used as the coolant and energy transfer medium. Black-outs The 2003 black-outs in Europe, Asia and North America highlighted the urgent need for more electricity generation capacity. Coal is not the answer, given environmental concerns about carbon dioxide emissions. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has forecast a threefold rise in nuclear power globally to one trillion watts by 2050, a move that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 1.8 billion tons annually. At the end of 2002, there were 441 nuclear power plants operating in 30 countries, representing a total capacity of 359 Gigawatts, more than 10 000 reactor-years of operating experience, 16 percent of global electricity generation and seven percent of global primary energy use. In at least 16 countries, nuclear power contributes more than 25 percent of the total electricity produced in each of those countries, with France and Lithuania producing more than 80 percent of their total electricity from nuclear power. The Swiss in 2003 voted not to scrap nuclear power after the government argued it would be premature to shut down a cheap energy source that met 40 percent of the country's power needs. I-Net Bridge Copyright 2002-2005 iafrica.com, a division of ***************************************************************** 27 APP.COM. Anti-nuclear activists question strength of Oyster Creek drywell | Asbury Park Press Online Tuesday, November 15, 2005 STAFF WRITER Anti-nuclear and environmental activists filed a petition Monday seeking a hearing into the adequacy of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant's drywell liner, an important structure designed to contain radioactive releases in the event of a reactor accident. The Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service led the appeal to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is considering a request by Oyster Creek operator AmerGen to extend the plant's operating license by 20 years. Plant critics just met the NRC deadline to file the petition, said Paul Gunter, director of the information center's Reactor Watchdog Project. "We're requesting a hearing and evaluation on a single contention, that the licensee's application is deficient by failing to ensure the integrity of the drywell liner for 20 years," Gunter said. The petition specifically calls for a new round of ultrasonic testing to ensure the steel drywell liner has not corroded past safety margins, Gunter said. Shaped like an inverted light bulb, the drywell surrounds the reactor vessel. In the event of an accident, steam and gases from the reactor would be contained inside the drywell and diverted through large vents into the torus, a doughnut-shaped chamber at the base of the reactor structure that holds 1 million gallons of water to cool and contain a discharge. Citing inspection reports from the 1990s, the petition states that some areas of the drywell liner thinned to within 0.064 inches of minimum design tolerances. Corroded sections of the liner were repaired in 1994, Gunter said. "They pressure-cleaned that area down there and painted it with an epoxy coating," Gunter said. The entire liner, including its deepest sections located in the so-called sand bed area, needs new ultrasonic testing along with visual inspections, the petition contends. "We perform regular inspections and analysis of the drywell liner," said Rachelle Benson, a plant spokeswoman. "We performed an ultrasonic inspection in 2004 and that showed the drywell liner will not corrode to within (safety) standards before 2029." State Department of Environmental Protection officials who are tracking the relicensing application have indicated they are satisfied the corrosion issue has been addressed, with repairs by previous plant operators and monitoring since then. However, "the petitioners submit that in fact the margins of safety left by severe corrosion and compliance (repairs) are extremely narrow," says the petition, prepared by Lavallette lawyer Michele R. Donato on behalf of Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, the Sierra Club, New Jersey Environmental Federation and Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety. "The NRC did give them a waiver in '95 but that was for the (original) 40-year license," Gunter said. "Now that they're applying for the 20-year extension, that's only reasonable." If the NRC accepts the petition it would empanel three administrative law judges to review the groups' contention, and a public hearing would follow. Staff writer Todd B. Bates contributed to this story. Copyright 2005 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Burlington Free Press.com: MYTURN: Vermont Yankee uprate is critical : Opinion burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont Published: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 By Doug Griswold While it is no secret that consumers and businesses are bracing for high-priced fuel this winter an even more distressing question is arising: Will we have enough and will the lights stay on? Vermont utilities have warned of possible rolling blackouts this winter. Going forward, prospects are even more distressing. Joseph Kelliher, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently said, I am concerned that the situation in New England bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the situation facing California in the late 1990s. Gordon van Welie, President and CEO of ISO New England the non-profit operator of the regional electrical grid is similarly blunt: Without new investment, New England could face an energy future much like Californias recent past, including frequent power emergencies. One factor driving concern is a feared disruption of natural gas supplies, as occurred after Hurricane Katrina. With New England at the end of the natural gas pipeline, we are the ones most vulnerable to a shortage or supply disruption. Drastic measures are now being contemplated. On October 19, The Boston Globe reported that Massachusetts Governor Romney was considering easing air-pollution restrictions on oil-fueled power plants to allow them to produce more electricity to stave off potential catastrophic blackouts and natural gas shortages this winter. Some of that pollution, undoubtedly, will make its way to Vermont. Fortunately, Vermont is not yet a place where blackouts, and the disruptions they create for businesses, homeowners -- and even life threatening situations for the frail and elderly -- are inevitable. What can be done to make sure we do not go down this path? First and foremost federal and state officials should approve the proposed power increase, or uprate, at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which supplies one-third of Vermonts electricity. The uprate will provide 100 additional megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 100,000 homes. This will provide an important margin of safety and stability to the New England power grid. For three years Entergy, the owner of Vermont Yankee, has been providing officials with information about the safety and viability of the project, and subjecting itself to rigorous scrutiny from all levels of government and the general public through the regulatory process. Thats how it should be. But the time for a final decision is at hand. To be sure an uprate is not a novel concept at a nuclear plant. More than 20 uprates have been approved across the country. Entergy, one of the largest nuclear plant operators in the United States, made it clear when it purchased Vermont Yankee in 2002 that it intended to seek a power increase, having assessed the plant as an excellent candidate for this expansion. Since then, the company has invested millions of dollars into the plant to improve and upgrade the facility, on the expectation the uprate would be approved. Given the companys expertise, resources, and thorough discussions with regulators, and the process by which the government has considered the proposal, the safety issues should certainly be able to be addressed. In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given conditional approval to the uprate, as has the Vermont Public Service Board. The uprate power will help to strengthen our regional economy, by ensuring that we have reliable electricity, and low-cost nuclear electricity at that, which businesses and consumers need. In addition, while the power is initially expected to be used outside Vermont, many jobs and a lot of additional business activity will be created in Windham County and the state as the plant continues its expansion. Furthermore, the availability of this additional generation in the grid will put some downward pressure on electricity prices. On the environmental front the emission-free nuclear power reduces the need for Massachusetts to burn high-polluting oil-based fuels. It also helps Vermont to maintain its track record of having low-polluting power sources, which are an important factor in maintaining the pristine character of the state. Longer term, the expanded power at Vermont Yankee provides an important, additional power source that the states utilities can bid on assuming the plant is re-licensed in 2012. Locally generated base load power is important for the states energy infrastructure. Considering that a major new power plant has not been built in the state in 20 years, and that our electrical needs continue to rise every year, the uprate power will no doubt be a vital resource for Vermont in the years ahead. Its time to approve the uprate. Doug Griswold is president of S. T. Griswold &Co. Inc. and the representative of the Vermont Business Roundtable to the Vermont Energy Partnership. Copyright 2005 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 29 nbc30.com: Rate Hike To Decommission Nuclear Plant Called 'Outrageous' POSTED: 8:30 am EST November 15, 2005 HADDAM, Conn. -- A quarter of Connecticut Yankee Power Co.'s $831 million rate increase to decommission Connecticut Yankee's Haddam Neck Nuclear Power Plant is unjustified, a member of the state Public Utility Control Department said Monday. Commission member Anne George said "mismanagement" added more than $200 million to the decommissioning costs. The rate increase was quietly implemented in February and customers have been paying it while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decides whether part or all of it is prudent. If FERC determines any of the rate increase is excessive, customers will get a rebate. If no rebate is ordered, customers will be paying $1 extra a month for five years. George called that "outrageous." Connecticut Yankee is receiving $26 million annually from Connecticut Light & Power Co. and $7 million from United Illuminating customers to pay for decommissioning. DPUC and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in testimony submitted to FERC, charge that Connecticut Yankee has included inappropriate costs under the decommissioning umbrella. Connecticut Yankee considers the rate increase fully justified. Hugh Curley, chairman of the regional Citizens Decommissioning Advisory Committee, called it "a little strange" that he learned about the 456 percent increase in The Hartford Courant. Curley generally praises the discommissioning process, and said Connecticut Yankee should update the committee at its meeting at 6 p.m. in Higganum, Conn. For the latest news, stay tuned to NBC 30 Connecticut News and NBC30.com [NBC 30 Connecticut News] Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 30 NRC: Nuclear Security Coalition; Boiling-Water Reactors of Mark I and FR Doc E5-6269 [Federal Register: November 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 219)] [Notices] [Page 69361-69362] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15no05-88] II Design; Notice of Issuance of Director's Decision Under 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given that the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, has issued a Director's Decision with regard to a Petition dated August 10, 2004, filed by the Nuclear Security Coalition (the Petitioner, comprised of 45 independent organizations), pursuant to section 2.206 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). The Petition was supplemented by Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an organization which is a member of the Nuclear Security Coalition, on November 29, 2004; December 6, 2004; March 15, 2005; March 28, 2005; April 12, 2005; and April 19, 2005. The Petitioner requested that the NRC take the following actions: (1) Issue a demand for information to the licensees for all Mark I and II boiling-water reactors (BWRs) and conduct a 6-month study of options for addressing structural vulnerabilities; (2) present the findings of the study at a national conference attended by all interested stakeholders, providing for transcribed comments and questions; (3) develop a comprehensive plan that accounts for stakeholder concerns and addresses structural vulnerabilities of all Mark I and II BWRs within a 12-month period; (4) issue orders to the licensees for all Mark I and II BWRs compelling incorporation of a comprehensive set of protective measures, including structural protections; and (5) make future operation of each Mark I and II BWR contingent on addressing their structural vulnerability with participation and oversight by a panel of local stakeholders. In a letter dated October 19, 2004, the NRC informed the Petitioner that the issues in the Petition were accepted for review under 10 CFR 2.206 and had been referred to the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation for appropriate action. A copy of the acknowledgment letter is publicly available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML042860465. A copy of the Petition is publicly available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML042370023. The Petitioners' representatives met with NRC staff on September 23, 2004, to provide additional details in support of this request. This meeting was transcribed and the meeting summary with the transcript attached is publicly available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML042870571. The NRC sent a copy of the proposed Director's Decision to the Petitioner for comment on June 29, 2005 (Accession No. ML051250010). The Petitioner and two of its member organizations commented on the proposed Director's Decision by letters dated July 29, 2005 (Accession Nos. ML052340473; ML052350440; ML052310022). The Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation has determined that (1) The proposed demand for all licensees of Mark I and II BWRs to conduct a 6-month study of options for addressing structural vulnerabilities has, in effect, been granted; (2) the proposed national conference to present the findings of the study has been denied; (3) the proposed development of a comprehensive plan to account for stakeholder concerns and address structural vulnerabilities of all Mark I and II BWRs is considered to have been granted; (4) the proposed issuance of orders to the licensees for all Mark I and II BWRs compelling incorporation of a comprehensive set of protective measures is denied; and (5) the proposed requirement that future operation of each Mark I and II BWR be contingent on addressing their structural vulnerability, with participation and oversight by a panel of local stakeholders, is denied. The reasons for these decisions are explained in the Director's Decision pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 (DD-05-04), the complete text of which is available in ADAMS, and is available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O-1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records are accessible from the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site, . Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR reference staff at [[Page 69362]] 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to . A copy of the Director's Decision will be filed with the Secretary of the Commission for the Commission's review in accordance with 10 CFR 2.206 of the Commission's regulations. As provided for by this regulation, the Director's Decision will constitute the final action of the Commission 25 days after the date of the decision, unless the Commission, on its own motion, institutes a review of the Director's Decision in that time. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of November 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. J.E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E5-6269 Filed 11-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 31 NRC: License No. Dpr-28; Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and FR Doc E5-6272 [Federal Register: November 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 219)] [Notices] [Page 69360-69361] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15no05-87] Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.; Notice of Issuance of Director's Decision Under 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given that the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) has issued a Director's Decision with regard to a Petition dated December 7, 2004, filed pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) section 2.206 by Mr. Raymond Shadis, hereinafter referred to as the ``Petitioner.'' The Petition concerns the operation of the Vermont Yankee [[Page 69361]] Nuclear Power Station (Vermont Yankee). The Petition requested that the NRC take immediate action to address the degraded alert and notification system at Vermont Yankee. The Petition also requested that the NRC order Vermont Yankee to go into cold shutdown until Entergy Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (the licensee) has provided a workable emergency warning system and until the NRC has verified the operability of that system. As the basis for his request, the Petitioner stated that the emergency warning system could not assure that the public would be notified in a timely manner should an emergency occur. The Petitioner stated that equipment and human failures over time were cumulatively sufficient to show that Vermont Yankee was operating without a functional emergency response plan. By teleconference on January 6, 2005, the Petitioner, along with two representatives of the organization Nuclear Free Vermont, discussed the petition with the NRC's Petition Review Board. This teleconference gave the Petitioner and the licensee an opportunity to provide additional information and to clarify issues raised in the Petition. The NRC staff sent a copy of the proposed Director's Decision to the Petitioner and to the licensee for comment by letters dated May 24, 2005. The Petitioner submitted comments by letter dated June 24, 2005, and these comments are addressed in the final Director's Decision. The Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation has determined that the Petitioner's request is denied. The reasons for this decision are explained in the Director's Decision pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 (DD-05-03), the complete text of which is available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, or electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . A copy of the Director's Decision will be filed with the Secretary of the Commission for the Commission's review in accordance with 10 CFR 2.206 of the Commission's regulations. As provided for by this regulation, the Director's Decision will constitute the final action of the Commission 25 days after the date of the decision, unless the Commission, on its own motion, institutes a review of the Director's Decision in that time. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of November 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. J.E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E5-6272 Filed 11-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 32 NRC: TXU Generation Company, LP; Biweekly Notice; Notice of Issuance FR Doc E5-6273 [Federal Register: November 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 219)] [Notices] [Page 69360] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15no05-86] of Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses; Correction AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Issuance; Correction. SUMMARY: This document corrects a notice appearing in the Federal Register on October 25, 2005 (70 FR 61667), that incorrectly issued Amendment No. 120 for Units 1 and 2. The correct amendment No. is 122. This action is necessary to correct the incorrect amendment numbers. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mohan C. Thadani, PM, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulation Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone (301) 415-1476, e-mail: mct@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On page 61667, in the first column, in the first complete notice, sixteenth line, it is corrected to read from ``Amendment Nos. 120 and 120'' to ``Amendment Nos. 122 and 122''. Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of November 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Mohan C. Thadani, Senior Project Manager, Section 1, Project Directorate IV, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E5-6273 Filed 11-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 33 Advocate: Rate hike to decommission nuclear plant called "outrageous" Connecticut News Associated Press Published November 15 2005 HADDAM, Conn. -- A quarter of Connecticut Yankee Power Co.'s $831 million rate increase to decommission Connecticut Yankee's Haddam Neck Nuclear Power Plant is unjustified, a member of the state Public Utility Control Department said Monday. Commission member Anne George said "mismanagement" added more than $200 million to the decommissioning costs. The rate increase was quietly implemented in February and customers have been paying it while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decides whether part of all of it is prudent. If FERC determines any of the rate increase is excessive, customers will get a rebate. If no rebate is ordered, customers will be paying $1 extra a month for five years. George called that "outrageous." Connecticut Yankee is receiving $26 million annually from Connecticut Light &Power Co. and $7 million from United Illuminating customers to pay for decommissioning. DPUC and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in testimony submitted to FERC, charge that Connecticut Yankee has included inappropriate costs under the decommissioning umbrella. Connecticut Yankee considers the rate increase fully justified. Hugh Curley, chairman of the regional Citizens Decommissioning Advisory Committee, called it "a little strange" that he learned about the 456 percent increase in The Hartford Courant. Curley generally praises the decommissioning process, and said Connecticut Yankee should update the committee at its meeting at 6 p.m. in Higganum. Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com Copyright 2005, The Associated Press 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 34 Hudson Valley News: Company sells IP alerts Tuesday, November 15, 2005 The day before the latest tests of the Indian Point nuclear power plants siren system today, a company announced a service offering to send alerts by e-mail to computers, cell phones and other wireless devices in the event of elevated radiation levels in the Indian Point area. The company notes the failures of the IP siren system in recent testing. "We decided that with all of the siren system problems, it was time to make this service available to the public," David Bruce, head of planning for Crossfire Products, said in a news release. There was no way to contact management through their website. The company, at www.ipradmon.com, offers its alert system for $9.95 per year. HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 35 Hudson Valley News: Most Indian Point sirens sound in today's tests Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Two tests of all 156 Indian Point sirens today resulted in most of the units working. All sirens in Putnam and Orange counties sounded on the primary and backup system tests this morning. In Rockland County, one failed in the first round and siren didnt work in the second test, according to James Steets, spokesman for Indian Point owner Entergy. In Westchester County, all the sirens worked in the first test, and in the second test, five sirens appeared to have communications problems, which Steets said indicates radio transmission issues. This is the third set of tests on the siren system for the nuclear power plants. In each of the previous two tests, sirens failed in part of the territory. Software computer problems were addressed and appear to have been corrected, Steets said. Indian Point has promised to install new equipment to ensure the proper functioning of the emergency siren system in the future. HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 36 WTNH.com: Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's unsafe by Mark Davis (Hartford-WTNH, Nov. 15, 2005 5:30 PM) _ It was an unusual sight geared at raising serious questions about safety near the Millstone nuclear power plant. An anti-nuclear power group says the area is radioactive and a goat's milk proves it. + by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark Davis The anti-nuclear group brought a goat and a prominent professor of radiology here today to make their point. It's not every day that you see someone walking a goat on the state Capitol lawn, but Katie the goat is a strong tool of the anti-nuclear power movement in Connecticut. Katie has been living, along with some other goats, for the past seven years grazing on grass in a pasture just five miles north of the Millstone nuclear power complex in Waterford. Her milk has tested very high for 'strontium-90,' a radioactive isotope that is known to destabilize cells causing bone cancers, leukemia and other diseases of the immune system. "Levels occurred that were twice as high as measured during the height of nuclear bomb testing way back in the 1950's," says Dr. Ernest Sternglass, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Are these pasturelands habitable for people, since they're obviously not for goats?" says Nancy Burton, Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone. But the owners of Millstone say their tests on their emissions prove they are not the source of the high concentrations of 'strontium-90' which backs up the federal government's claim that what's in the ground in this field dates back to the country's nuclear bomb testing and that Katie has just been eating the grass, roots and all. The anti-nuclear group is sounding the alarm because the goat farm is about to be sub-divided and developed into new housing. There is a known link between 'strontium-90' and various cancers, including breast cancer. That's part of why the anti-nuclear group brought Katie the goat here today to get the attention of Governor Jodi Rell. .gif"> Content Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow, WTNH, and ***************************************************************** 37 BBC: US 'failing to stem terror risk' Last Updated: Tuesday, 15 November 2005 [Thomas Kean (l) and Lee Hamilton report on progress on the 9/11 commission recommendations ] The group warns reports of detainee abuse are damaging to the US The US government is not doing enough to thwart attempts by terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons, members of the former 11 September inquiry have said. The US must also improve its image abroad, damaged by reports of abuse of terror suspects, the group said. It was reporting on the government's progress in meeting key recommendations made by the 9/11 commission last year on how to prevent new terror attacks. The pressure group was formed after the 9/11 commission was disbanded. Called the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the bipartisan body consists of the same commissioners that investigated the 11 September attacks. Nuclear security In their report they said "minimal" or "insufficient" progress had been made on many of the 9/11 commission's key recommendations. Some praise was given for US efforts to crack down on global terror financing. The group also said "good progress" had been made in encouraging Muslim nations to integrate into global trade. It called on President George Bush to make thwarting arms proliferation "his top national security priority". The most striking thing to is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response Thomas Kean Chairman of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project "Preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of national security must be elevated above all other problems of national security," the group said. There were particular concerns about the security of nuclear materials in Russia, said the group's chairman Thomas Kean - who also headed the 9/11 inquiry. An agreement between the US and Russia in February which gave US weapons inspectors greater access to Russian nuclear sites was a step forward, he said, but not enough to contain the risk of material going astray. "The most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response," said Mr Kean. "We have no greater fear than a terrorist who is inside the US with a nuclear weapon." He added that al-Qaeda had sought weapons of mass destruction for years, and had said it was willing to use them. Torture denied The group also criticised the Bush administration's efforts to improve its global image, tarnished by reports of the mistreatment of terror suspects. The government "should work with its allies to develop mutually acceptable standards for terrorist detention", it said. Lee Hamilton - who was co-chairman of the disbanded commission - added that "detainee abuse in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere undermines America's reputation as a moral leader". Mr Bush has previously defended his government's treatment of detainees, denying claims of torture and insisting "any activity we conduct is within the law". The 9/11 commission's report in July 2004 urged sweeping changes to how the intelligence services operated, after finding the government had "failed to protect American people" from the 11 September 2001 attacks. ***************************************************************** 38 ABQJOURNAL: N.M. Helping Texas Investigate Theft of Radioactive Material Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Albuquerque Journal--> Associated Press SANTA FE New Mexico environmental officials are helping Texas authorities and the FBI investigate the theft of radioactive material from a shipment sent from an Albuquerque company to Kilgore, Texas. Authorities believe the two vials of antimony-124 were stolen in Texas because the shipment never left its tractor-trailer until Abilene, New Mexico Environment Department spokesman Adam Rankin said Tuesday. The carrier switched trailers in Abilene, and the shipment, which was supposed to go to Tyler and then to Kilgore, was accidentally sent to Dallas, Rankin said. There, he said, it was shrink-wrapped but the shrink-wrap was missing when the shipment arrived Nov. 3 in Kilgore. The names of the carrier and the material's licensee are not being released for security reasons, the Environment Department said. The material is not considered a terrorist threat because of the small amount involved. Direct exposure to antimony-124, extensively used in the oil and gas industry, can cause skin ulcers. Gamma rays from the material can reduce the production of red blood cells and lead to leukemia with prolonged exposure. Antimony-124 which also is toxic can be lethal if ingested. The shipment was packed in a World War Two-style green ammo box weighing 80 pounds and containing two 30-mililiter plastic vials labeled as radioactive. "We don't wish to alarm the public; only to ask them to be on the lookout for the ammo box or vials and to contact us if they think they may have seen if or have any information on its whereabouts,'' Environment Secretary Ron Curry said. Authorities said anyone seeing the box should not touch it, open it or tamper with it or the vials. They said the safest course is to stay at least 15 feet away and call authorities. The loss of the material was reported to the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The department is working with the Texas Department of Health Services, the licensee and the FBI. Two members of the New Mexico Radiation Control Bureau went to Texas on Nov. 7 and are to interview the driver and a facilities manager Wednesday, Rankin said. People with information can call John Parker, chief of the Radiation Control Bureau, at 505-827-1080, the Environment Department's emergency number at 505-827-9329 or voice mail at 1-866-428-6535. Copyright Albuquerque Journal Steve@abqjournal.com ***************************************************************** 39 [du-list] Vets: Gulf War research spending falls short of Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:54:35 -0800 Mercury News and the AP has picked up this part of the story... Paul D. Lyons, Desert Storm, Justice Foundation, Inc. www.dsjf.org Posted on Mon, Nov. 14, 2005 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/13166227.htm Vets: Gulf War research spending falls short of pledge SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press WASHINGTON - Despite pledging to spend $15 million a year on Gulf War illness research, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent only $400,000 this year on studies of how toxic substances affected the war's soldiers, says an advocate for the veterans. In addition, no money has been spent on a new center to study treatments for soldiers exposed to oil fires, vaccines, nerve gas and other toxic substances as former VA Secretary Anthony Principi promised last year, said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group. "They are breaking the covenant that they made with soldiers of taking care of them when they come home," Robinson said. Robinson was to be among witnesses to testify at a hearing planned for Tuesday by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. Shay's Government Reform subcommittee wants to know how well Veterans Affairs has done in following a law that regulates research on Gulf War illness. Shays is chairman of a House subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations. The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thousands of Gulf War veterans have experienced undiagnosed illnesses with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance. For years, the government denied mysterious illnesses were linked to the war. Texas businessman Ross Perot personally helped fund research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on Gulf War illnesses. In 1998, Congress required VA to create a Gulf War illness research panel, but that did not happen until January 2002. Last year, with much fanfare, Principi unveiled a report by the panel, the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness. The panel spent two years reviewing recent Gulf War illness studies and recommended the VA abandon stress studies and focus on toxic substances veterans encountered during the war. Principi backed the panel's findings by announcing the VA would set aside $15 million a year for Gulf War illness studies and it no longer would pay for studies seeking to show stress as the primary cause of the ailments afflicting veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. VA's Office of Research reported in September it would spend more than $9 million for Gulf War research and a similar amount in 2006. But Robinson said members of the advisory panel found - after reviewing where money was spent - that only $1.7 million was for new projects and more than $7 million was for projects already in place before 2005. Most of the $1.7 million was for research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. The fatal, neurological disease affects about 100 Gulf War veterans. Robinson said all new ALS research is being identified as Gulf War research, even though the disease affects more elderly veterans than Gulf War veterans. "VA again has not delivered," Robinson said in prepared remarks. Shay's office said the 1998 law requires VA to determine which illnesses may be associated with wartime toxic exposures. "The purpose of the law is to give sick veterans the benefit of the doubt about whether wartime service caused subsequent illnesses," Shays said. ON THE NET House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations: http://reform.house.gov/NSETIR/ Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov --------------------------------- 2005 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.mercurynews.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ***************************************************************** 40 [du-list] Reports of war crimes from 2nd USUK massacre at Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:54:41 -0800 a.. The fog of war: white phosphorus, Fallujah and some burning questions By Andrew Buncombe and Solomon Hughes in Washington Published: 15 November 2005 The controversy has raged for 12 months. Ever since last November, when US forces battled to clear Fallujah of insurgents, there have been repeated claims that troops used "unusual" weapons in the assault that all but flattened the Iraqi city. Specifically, controversy has focussed on white phosphorus shells (WP) - an incendiary weapon usually used to obscure troop movements but which can equally be deployed as an offensive weapon against an enemy. The use of such incendiary weapons against civilian targets is banned by international treaty. The debate was reignited last week when an Italian documentary claimed Iraqi civilians - including women and children - had been killed by terrible burns caused by WP. The documentary, Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, by the state broadcaster RAI, cited one Fallujah human-rights campaigner who reported how residents told how "a rain of fire fell on the city". Yesterday, demonstrators organised by the Italian communist newspaper, Liberazione, protested outside the US Embassy in Rome. Today, another protest is planned for the US Consulate in Milan. "The 'war on terrorism' is terrorism," one of the newspaper's commentators declared. The claims contained in the RAI documentary have met with a strident official response from the US, as well as from right-wing commentators and bloggers who have questioned the film's evidence and sought to undermine its central allegations. While military experts have supported some of these criticisms, an examination by The Independent of the available evidence suggests the following: that WP shells were fired at insurgents, that reports from the battleground suggest troops firing these WP shells did not always know who they were hitting and that there remain widespread reports of civilians suffering extensive burn injuries. While US commanders insist they always strive to avoid civilian casualties, the story of the battle of Fallujah highlights the intrinsic difficulty of such an endeavour. It is also clear that elements within the US government have been putting out incorrect information about the battle of Fallujah, making it harder to assesses the truth. Some within the US government have previously issued disingenuous statements about the use in Iraq of another controversial incendiary weapon - napalm. The assault upon Fallujah, 40 miles from Baghdad, took place over a two-week period last November. US commanders said the city was an insurgent stronghold. Civilians were ordered to evacuate in advance. Around 50 US troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents were killed. How many civilians were killed is unclear. Up to 300,000 people were driven from the city. Following the RAI broadcast, the US Embassy in Rome issued a statement which denied that US troops had used WP as a weapon. It said: "To maintain that US forces have been using WP against human targets ... is simply mistaken." In a similar denial, the US Ambassador in London, Robert Tuttle, wrote to the The Independent claiming WP was only used as an obscurant or else for marking targets. In his letter, he says: "US forces participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom continue to use appropriate, lawful and conventional weapons against legitimate targets. US forces do not use napalm or phosphorus as weapons." However, both these two statements are undermined by first-hand evidence from troops who took part in the fighting. They are also undermined by an admission by the Pentagon that WP was used as a weapon against insurgents. In a comprehensive written account of the military operation at Fallujah, three US soldiers who participated said WP shells were used against insurgents taking cover in trenches. Writing in the March-April edition of Field Artillery, the magazine of the US Field Artillery based in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which is readily available on the internet, the three artillery men said: "WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions ... and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ... We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents using WP to flush them out and high explosive shells (HE) to take them out." Another first-hand account from the battlefield was provided by an embedded reporter for the North County News, a San Diego newspaper. Reporter Darrin Mortenson wrote of watching Cpl Nicholas Bogert fire WP rounds into Fallujah. He wrote: "Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused." Mr Mortenson also watched the mortar team fire into a group of buildings where insurgents were known to be hiding. In an email, he confirmed: "During the fight I was describing in my article, WP mortar rounds were used to create a fire in a palm grove and a cluster of concrete buildings that were used as cover by Iraqi snipers and teams that fired heavy machine guns at US choppers." Another report, published in the Washington Post, gave an idea of the sorts of injuries that WP causes. It said insurgents "reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns". A physician at a local hospital said the corpses of insurgents "were burned, and some corpses were melted". The use of incendiary weapons such as WP and napalm against civilian targets - though not military targets - is banned by international treaty. Article two, protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons states: "It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by incendiary weapons." Some have claimed the use of WP contravenes the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention which bans the use of any "toxic chemical" weapons which causes "death, harm or temporary incapacitation to humans or animals through their chemical action on life processes". However, Peter Kaiser, a spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which enforces the convention, said the convention permitted the use of such weapons for "military purposes not connected with the use of chemical weapons and not dependent on the use of the toxic properties of chemicals as a method of warfare". He said the burns caused by WP were thermic rather than chemical and as such not prohibited by the treaty. The RAI film said civilians were also victims of the use of WP and reported claims by a campaigner from Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, that many victims had large burns. The report claimed that the clothes on some victims appeared to be intact even though their bodies were badly burned. Critics of the RAI film - including the Pentagon - say such a claim undermines the likelihood that WP was responsible for the injuries since WP would have also burned their clothes. This opinion is supported by a leading military expert. John Pike, director of the military studies group GlobalSecurity.org, said of WP: "If it hits your clothes it will burn your clothes and if it hits your skin it will just keep on burning." Though Mr Pike had not seen the RAI film, he said the burned appearance of some bodies may have been caused by exposure to the elements. Yet there are other, independent reports of civilians from Fallujah suffering burn injuries. For instance, Dahr Jamail, an unembedded reporter who collected the testimony of refugees from the city spoke to a doctor who had remained in the city to help people, encountered numerous reports of civilians suffering unusual burns. One resident told him the US used "weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud" and that he watched "pieces of these bombs explode into large fires that continued to burn on the skin even after people dumped water on the burns." The doctor said he "treated people who had their skin melted" Jeff Englehart, a former marine who spent two days in Fallujah during the battle, said he heard the order go out over military communication that WP was to be dropped. In the RAI film, Mr Englehart, now an outspoken critic of the war, says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete ... Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children." In the aftermath of the battle, the State Department's Counter Misinformation Office issued a statement saying that WP was only "used [WP shells] very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters." When The Independent confronted the State Department with the first-hand accounts of soldiers who participated, an official accepted the mistake and undertook to correct its website. This has since been done. Indeed, the Pentagon readily admits WP was used. Spokesman Lt Colonel Barry Venables said yesterday WP was used to obscure troop deployments and also to "fire at the enemy". He added: "It burns ... It's an incendiary weapon. That is what it does." Why the two embassies have issued statements denying that WP was used is unclear. However, there have been previous examples of US officials issuing incorrect statements about the use of incendiary weapons. Earlier this year, British Defence Minister Adam Ingram was forced to apologise to MPs after informing them that the US had not used an updated form of napalm in Iraq. He said he had been misled by US officials. Napalm was used in several instances during the initial invasion. Colonel Randolph Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, remarked during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003: "The generals love napalm - it has a big psychological effect." In his letter, Ambassador Tuttle claims there is a distinction between napalm and the 500lb Mk-77 firebombs he says were dropped - even though experts say they are virtually identical. The only difference is that the petrol used in traditional napalm has been replaced in the newer bombs by jet fuel. Since the RAI broadcast, there have been calls for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the battle of Fallujah. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has also repeated its call to "all fighters to take every feasible precaution to spare civilians and to respect the principles of distinction and proportionality in all operations". There have also been claims that in the minutiae of the argument about the use of WP, a broader truth is being missed. Kathy Kelly, a campaigner with the anti-war group Voices of the Wilderness, said: "If the US wants to promote security for this generation and the next, it should build relationships with these countries. If the US uses conventional or non-conventional weapons, in civilian neighourhoods, that melt people's bodies down to the bone, it will leave these people seething. We should think on this rather than arguing about whether we can squeak such weapons past the Geneva Conventions and international accords." The controversy has raged for 12 months. Ever since last November, when US forces battled to clear Fallujah of insurgents, there have been repeated claims that troops used "unusual" weapons in the assault that all but flattened the Iraqi city. Specifically, controversy has focussed on white phosphorus shells (WP) - an incendiary weapon usually used to obscure troop movements but which can equally be deployed as an offensive weapon against an enemy. The use of such incendiary weapons against civilian targets is banned by international treaty. The debate was reignited last week when an Italian documentary claimed Iraqi civilians - including women and children - had been killed by terrible burns caused by WP. The documentary, Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, by the state broadcaster RAI, cited one Fallujah human-rights campaigner who reported how residents told how "a rain of fire fell on the city". Yesterday, demonstrators organised by the Italian communist newspaper, Liberazione, protested outside the US Embassy in Rome. Today, another protest is planned for the US Consulate in Milan. "The 'war on terrorism' is terrorism," one of the newspaper's commentators declared. The claims contained in the RAI documentary have met with a strident official response from the US, as well as from right-wing commentators and bloggers who have questioned the film's evidence and sought to undermine its central allegations. While military experts have supported some of these criticisms, an examination by The Independent of the available evidence suggests the following: that WP shells were fired at insurgents, that reports from the battleground suggest troops firing these WP shells did not always know who they were hitting and that there remain widespread reports of civilians suffering extensive burn injuries. While US commanders insist they always strive to avoid civilian casualties, the story of the battle of Fallujah highlights the intrinsic difficulty of such an endeavour. It is also clear that elements within the US government have been putting out incorrect information about the battle of Fallujah, making it harder to assesses the truth. Some within the US government have previously issued disingenuous statements about the use in Iraq of another controversial incendiary weapon - napalm. The assault upon Fallujah, 40 miles from Baghdad, took place over a two-week period last November. US commanders said the city was an insurgent stronghold. Civilians were ordered to evacuate in advance. Around 50 US troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents were killed. How many civilians were killed is unclear. Up to 300,000 people were driven from the city. Following the RAI broadcast, the US Embassy in Rome issued a statement which denied that US troops had used WP as a weapon. It said: "To maintain that US forces have been using WP against human targets ... is simply mistaken." In a similar denial, the US Ambassador in London, Robert Tuttle, wrote to the The Independent claiming WP was only used as an obscurant or else for marking targets. In his letter, he says: "US forces participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom continue to use appropriate, lawful and conventional weapons against legitimate targets. US forces do not use napalm or phosphorus as weapons." However, both these two statements are undermined by first-hand evidence from troops who took part in the fighting. They are also undermined by an admission by the Pentagon that WP was used as a weapon against insurgents. In a comprehensive written account of the military operation at Fallujah, three US soldiers who participated said WP shells were used against insurgents taking cover in trenches. Writing in the March-April edition of Field Artillery, the magazine of the US Field Artillery based in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which is readily available on the internet, the three artillery men said: "WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions ... and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ... We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents using WP to flush them out and high explosive shells (HE) to take them out." Another first-hand account from the battlefield was provided by an embedded reporter for the North County News, a San Diego newspaper. Reporter Darrin Mortenson wrote of watching Cpl Nicholas Bogert fire WP rounds into Fallujah. He wrote: "Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused." Mr Mortenson also watched the mortar team fire into a group of buildings where insurgents were known to be hiding. In an email, he confirmed: "During the fight I was describing in my article, WP mortar rounds were used to create a fire in a palm grove and a cluster of concrete buildings that were used as cover by Iraqi snipers and teams that fired heavy machine guns at US choppers." Another report, published in the Washington Post, gave an idea of the sorts of injuries that WP causes. It said insurgents "reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns". A physician at a local hospital said the corpses of insurgents "were burned, and some corpses were melted". The use of incendiary weapons such as WP and napalm against civilian targets - though not military targets - is banned by international treaty. Article two, protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons states: "It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by incendiary weapons." Some have claimed the use of WP contravenes the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention which bans the use of any "toxic chemical" weapons which causes "death, harm or temporary incapacitation to humans or animals through their chemical action on life processes". a.. a.. a.. a.. from The Independent & The Independent on Sunday 15 November 2005 21:53 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article327136.ece 'I treated people who had their skin melted' By Dahr Jamail Published: 15 November 2005 Abu Sabah knew he had witnessed something unusual. Sitting in November last year in a refugee camp in the grounds of Baghdad University, set up for the families who fled or were driven from Fallujah, this resident of the city's Jolan district told me how he had witnessed some of the battle's heaviest fighting. "They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," he said. He had seen "pieces of these bombs explode into large fires that continued to burn on the skin even after people dumped water on the burns". As an unembedded journalist, I spent hours talking to residents forced out of the city. A doctor from Fallujah working in Saqlawiyah, on the outskirts of Fallujah, described treating victims during the siege "who had their skin melted". He asked to be referred to simply as Dr Ahmed because of fears of reprisals for speaking out. "The people and bodies I have seen were definitely hit by fire weapons and had no other shrapnel wounds," he said. Burhan Fasa'a, a freelance cameraman working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), witnessed the first eight days of the fighting. "I saw cluster bombs everywhere and so many bodies that were burnt, dead with no bullets in them," he said. "So they definitely used fire weapons, especially in Jolan district." Mr Fasa'a said that while he sold a few of his clips to Reuters, LBC would not show tapes he submitted to them. He had smuggled some tapes out of the city before his gear was taken from him by US soldiers. Some saw what they thought were attempts by the military to conceal the use of incendiary shells. "The Americans were dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah," said one ousted resident, Abdul Razaq Ismail. Dr Ahmed, who worked in Fallujah until December 2004, said: "In the centre of the Jolan quarter they were removing entire homes which have been bombed, meanwhile most of the homes that were bombed are left as they were." He said he saw bulldozers push soil into piles and load it on to trucks to carry away. In certain areas where the military used "special munitions" he said 200 sq m of soil was being removed from each blast site. The author is an unembedded journalist reporting from Fallujah Abu Sabah knew he had witnessed something unusual. Sitting in November last year in a refugee camp in the grounds of Baghdad University, set up for the families who fled or were driven from Fallujah, this resident of the city's Jolan district told me how he had witnessed some of the battle's heaviest fighting. "They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," he said. He had seen "pieces of these bombs explode into large fires that continued to burn on the skin even after people dumped water on the burns". As an unembedded journalist, I spent hours talking to residents forced out of the city. A doctor from Fallujah working in Saqlawiyah, on the outskirts of Fallujah, described treating victims during the siege "who had their skin melted". He asked to be referred to simply as Dr Ahmed because of fears of reprisals for speaking out. "The people and bodies I have seen were definitely hit by fire weapons and had no other shrapnel wounds," he said. Burhan Fasa'a, a freelance cameraman working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), witnessed the first eight days of the fighting. "I saw cluster bombs everywhere and so many bodies that were burnt, dead with no bullets in them," he said. "So they definitely used fire weapons, especially in Jolan district." ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.0/168 - Release Date: 11/14/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ***************************************************************** 41 Deseret News: Fallout victimization absolutely not exaggerated [deseretnews.com] Tuesday, November 15, 2005 By Mary Dickson In a newspaper that has a proud legacy of uncovering the hard truths of what fallout from nuclear testing did to unwitting Americans living downwind, Lee Benson's column, "Are Utah Fallout Stories Grossly Exaggerated," is particularly irresponsible. Benson lent credence to retired Dixie College chemistry instructor Daniel Miles' assertion that only five to 10 people were the victims of fallout, calling the tragic stories of downwinders "urban myths." Of course, we would all like to believe that our government's reckless program of nuclear testing did not make us sick or lead to the deaths of friends, family and other loved ones. But the evidence suggests otherwise. In fact, for every source Miles cites that minimizes the health effects of testing, we can cite sources linking fallout exposure to health consequences. Dr. Carl J. Johnson's 1984 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, for instance, found a "startling increase" in cancer rates among residents living in an area of Utah downwind of the test site higher rates of leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, cancers of the breast, thyroid, colon, stomach and bone in a population that prior to testing lacked the environmental and lifestyle factors associated with cancer. That fallout from hundreds of nuclear tests a quarter of them more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima affected people across the country is well-established. Data show that downwinders exist not just in southern Utah, but in northern Utah, Idaho, Montana, Missouri and New York. In 1953, independent scientists from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute documented dangerous levels of radiation blanketing their city in the wake of Shot Simon, a very dirty blast that rained out on upstate New York 2,300 miles from the test site. At the time, government meteorologists said they feared even higher levels were raining out on Missouri, where no one was recording them. The National Cancer Institute in a major study released in 1997 concluded that every county in the continental United States got some level of fallout from nuclear testing and that as many as 212,000 cases of thyroid cancer alone may be linked to testing. That's only one radiation-related cancer. There are dozens of others, as well as radiation-related immune system and genetic disorders some of which do not show up for decades after exposure. Factor these in and the number of illnesses is likely much higher than the NCI's 212,000 estimate. Just last April, after sifting through countless scientific studies and taking testimony from experts and downwinders, the National Academy of Sciences Board on Radiation Effects Research acknowledged that because fallout affected people in every county in the country, limiting compensation to geographic boundaries makes no sense. The rub has always been in the proof. Definitively establishing cause and effect, as any scientist will tell you, is impossible, whether it be fallout causing a myriad of health ills or smoking causing lung cancer. What scientists can show is a clear correlation as well as a high probability that one leads to the other. We will never know for certain how many downwinders were created by nuclear testing. But we can be certain that fallout from 100 atmospheric tests and 828 underground tests made far more than five to 10 Americans sick. The government, incidentally, conceded that 11,000 cancer deaths during the years of testing were related to fallout. A reliance on numbers, however, overshadows the truth of our lives. The compelling testimony of American downwinders is important evidence. Our bearing witness to the painful facts of our nation's past does not represent an inability to "separate fact from fiction," nor is it a recantation of "popular tales," as Benson implies. Our surgeries, suffering, radiation and chemotherapy treatments are very real. The death of our loved ones are not fiction. The headstones in cemeteries are not anecdotes; they are the only plaques downwinders have to the casualties of the Cold War. Mary Dickson of Salt Lake City is the author of "Downwinders All" in the anthology "Learning to Glow, A nuclear Reader." 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 42 Cincinnatti Enquirer: Chilling true-life account of nuclear close call Tuesday, November 15, 2005 By Norman N. Brown For The Associated Press RED STAR ROGUE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A SOVIET SUBMARINE'S NUCLEAR STRIKE ATTEMPT ON THE U.S. By Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond. Simon & Schuster. 305 Pages. $25. "Red Star Rogue" is as exciting as any novel. It is full of dramatic circumstances, tales of impending world danger and the possibility of a nuclear war. But this is not fiction. It is a true story that will horrify readers as they realize that a nuclear attack on the United States was seconds away from occurring on March 7, 1968. These events have been brought to light by co-authors Kenneth Sewell, a nuclear engineer and a veteran of intelligence operations with the U.S. Navy's submarine branch, and Clint Richmond. In 1968, the Cold War was raging. The Soviet Union continued its saber-rattling and attempts to spread communism. The United States was involved in Vietnam and was concerned with military preparedness for threats from the communist world including China, a growing military power and a dangerous foe. But the Soviet empire was becoming bankrupt trying to keep its military on a par with America's while supporting the armies of its satellite countries. There was dissension within the Soviet government fueled by hardliners. [Cincinnati.Com] Copyright1995-2005. The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett Co. ***************************************************************** 43 AP Wire: Judge says nuclear dump can keep permit | 11/15/2005 | Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. - An environmental group plans to appeal a judge's ruling allowing a company to keep its permit to run a low-level radioactive waste dump in Barnwell County. The Sierra Club had challenged Chem-Nuclear Systems' permit to operate the site, saying the company needed to change the way it handles its incoming waste - tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Traces of the gas have been detected in trenches at Barnwell as far back as 1974. While it emits weak radiation levels and leaves the body relatively quickly, tritium exposure can increase the risk for cancer. While Administrative Law Judge John D. Geathers agreed there were concerns, he said the Sierra Club failed to meet the burden of proof that would lead him to rescind the company's permit. The company must study ways to improve its disposal practices, according to Geathers' ruling last month. Geathers ordered Chem-Nuclear to evaluate whether it is feasible to make changes that would keep rain out of its underground disposal trenches and provide temporary dry storage facilities for radioactive waste received during wet weather. The company also must consider sealing its concrete containers, known as vaults, to limit water intrusion, he said. The company-funded study is due by early April. "We're more than happy to comply," Chem-Nuclear spokeswoman Deborah Ogilvie said. Sierra Club attorney Jimmy Chandler says the judge's ruling provides no punishment if Chem-Nuclear fails to address environmental concerns. "He said we brought up legitimate issues that needed study and other things that in his own words were problems," Chandler said. "But the bottom line was that he affirmed the permit without anything with any teeth in it. If there are problems, we need to fix them through the permitting process. "Ordering a study ... without saying what happens next is not much of a consolation." Chandler said the Sierra Club will appeal the decision to the Department of Health and Environmental Control. Some environmental groups have pushed for Chem-Nuclear to start storing hazardous waste in above-ground facilities and in waterproof chambers. The company has said it would be unrealistic to make substantial changes at the site, which by state law will be closed in mid-2008 to all waste except that from South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. Chem-Nuclear has said its practices have changed over the years and the company no longer puts waste packages into trenches. Rather the waste goes inside concrete vaults before it is buried. "We feel the site has been operated safely," Ogilvie said Monday. The company's vaults "are not sealed against water intrusion," Geathers said in his ruling. Also, when rainfall accumulates in the trenches, it eventually percolates into the soil and "drives the groundwater movement that is carrying tritium and other radioactive materials" into a nearby creek, he wrote. In one instance, Chem-Nuclear had to excavate 13,000 cubic yards of soil from a nearby church property and replace it after tritium contaminated the groundwater in the late 1990s. The hazardous conditions that can result from leaching "cannot be ignored," Geathers said. Chem-Nuclear has buried nuclear waste, including radioactive clothing from hospitals and reactor parts, in Barnwell County since 1971. Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net ***************************************************************** 44 AU ABC: Public airs waste dump plan worries Tuesday, 15 November 2005. 12:13 (AEDT)Tuesday, 15 November South-west residents have used a public meeting to express concerns about the location of a proposed hazardous waste treatment facility at the Kemerton Industrial Park. The Core Consultative Committee on Waste has shortlisted eight sites in regional Western Australia for the processing of industrial waste, with three sites to be recommended to the Government after community consultation. More than 50 people attended a meeting in Australind last week, expressing concern about the possible impact of the treatment facility on noise, emissions, ground water and truck movements. The committee's Lee Bell says the meeting was also effective in clearing up misconceptions about the proposed facility. "People turned up expecting everything from a nuclear waste dump to a waste incinerator of some sort and we've made quite clear to people wherever we've gone that the issue of hazardous waste landfilling or incineration of waste would be banned within the precinct." ***************************************************************** 45 Interfax: Britain to concentrate aid on Northern Fleet nuclear waste site Updated: Nov 16 2005 4:25AM (MSK) Nov 15 2005 7:10PM SEVERODVINSK. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Britain is completing the funding of nuclear submarine disposal projects in Severodvinsk, north Russia. British naval attache to Moscow Jonathan Holloway, who visited Zvyozdochka shipyard with an embassy delegation, said this block of projects is being completed, while Britain now intends to concentrate on resolving the problems of the Russian navy radioactive waste site in the Andreyev Bay in Murmansk region. Holloway said that in 2003-2004, Britain implemented a $16-million project for the disposal of two nuclear submarines at Sevmashpredpriyatiye in Sverodvinsk in which Zvyozdochka acted as a subcontractor. The ship-repair facility Nerpa in Murmansk region is completing a project to scrap another submarine of the Viktor class. 1991-2005 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 46 RIA Novosti: Russia, U.S. to discuss submarine disposal in Severodvinsk 15/ 11/ 2005 ST. PETERSBURG, November 15 (RIA Novosti - Northwest, Olga Vtorova) - Russian shipyard Sevmash and a U.S. task force will discuss the disposal of nuclear submarines in the Russian arctic city of Severodvinsk under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR), Sevmash said Tuesday. The parties will discuss the disposal of two Project 941 Akula (Typhoon) attack nuclear submarines and the production of transportation package containers for spent nuclear fuel, Sevmash said. Sevmash has recently completed the disposal of the first Akula submarine, the world's largest nuclear powered naval vessel, under the CTR program. There is an agreement with the U.S. on the disposal of another Akula submarine, which is already in the dockyard of Sevmash, the company said. The parties are also expected to discuss the disposal of yet another submarine in the Russian Northern Fleet. The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program stipulates assistance to former Soviet republics to eliminate weapons of mass destruction under the START-I strategic arms reduction treaty. 2005 "RIA Novosti" ***************************************************************** 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Standing up to criticism Today: November 15, 2005 at 9:28:28 PST Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn named one of nation's top five governors by Time magazine for weathering the ire of conservative political base Las Vegas Sun Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has been named one of the nation's top five governors by Time magazine in part because of his $830 million tax hike in 2003 that angered fellow Republicans and launched a brief recall campaign against him. In its Web editions Sunday, Time called Guinn's controversial tax increase "a realistic step to shore up the overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state," adding that his overall approval rating of almost 60 percent shows Guinn has the leadership skills to pull off what for most would have been political suicide. Raising taxes brought Guinn considerable criticism from many right-wing Republicans in the Nevada Legislature. The Wall Street Journal's far-right editorial page in 2003 went so far as to call Guinn the nation's worst Republican governor. The criticism from the radical right couldn't have been more off-base and was devoid of reality. Guinn, a fiscal conservative who is entering the last year of his second and final term, took office in 1999 at the end of a 10-year-period in which Nevada's population increased 66 percent, to almost 2 million residents. Despite that growth, Guinn first re-organized the state government by cutting 800 positions, freezing another 1,600 and opposing proposals that would have created 3,000 new state jobs. Time also noted Guinn's efforts to broaden the state government's revenue base beyond tourism-driven sales tax and gaming. Those two sources provide two-thirds of the state's income, a concentration that nearly proved disastrous when the state's economy plunged after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The slowdown resulted in a budget deficit approaching $1 billion. Other achievements mentioned by Time include Guinn's fight against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, his Millennium Scholarship program for helping high school graduates pay for college and privatizing the state's workers' compensation program. Critics told Time that Guinn has fallen short of his desire to improve health care and has failed to find long-term funding for some initiatives, such as the Millennium Scholarships. But, as Time noted, he did have the guts to stand up to the right-wing base in his own political party and made some far-reaching decisions based on what was best for Nevada. We hope future governors display the same kind of leadership. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 48 Salt Lake Tribune: The price of access Opinion Article Last Updated: 11/14/2005 11:24:57 PM The work of the press and watchdog organizations is to hold government accountable. When the governor's office threatens to pick up its ball when questioned about potential conflicts of interest, the whole state loses. Paul Rolly's column Nov. 7 referenced Gov. Huntsman's office cutting off Jason Groenewold's access because he raised concerns about the influence Huntsman's brother-in-law might have on the governor's decision as to whether Envirocare should be allowed to double the size of its nuclear waste dump. Not only is Huntsman's brother-in-law a new financial investor in Envirocare, but he was also the chief financial officer for the Huntsman Corporation and is a trustee of the Huntsman Foundation. Questioning the influence this may have should not be greeted with the threat of losing access to the state's top decision-maker, or legal action. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have witnessed the governor's staff threaten someone's access. Prior to his election, Huntsman asked to meet with us, praised our work at great length and promised we would have an open door. I guess it's only open to those who don't raise difficult questions. Claire Geddes Cottonwood Heights © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 49 Salt Lake Tribune: Resigned to uranium Last Updated: 11/15/2005 12:53:48 AM By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune The Energy Department has won the trust of the new site's neighbors, Rod and Lani Asay, whose relatives homesteaded the area four generations ago. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune CRESCENT JUNCTION - You get comfortable having boundless blue sky and wide-open range for neighbors when you live here. So the Asays, whose kin homesteaded the area four generations ago, naturally were surprised last spring when they heard they might get a new neighbor. Then they were downright shocked when they learned that a monster pile of radioÂactive waste was moving in. The U.S. Department of Energy had decided to move uranium tailings and toxic chemicals - as much as 18 million tons of them - from the banks of the Colorado River in Moab to just beyond the family land where the Asays live in a modest, ranch-style home, built by Rod and a friend two decades ago. Most people would expect people like the Asays to resist. And, while they did at first, they have come to accept the Energy Department's decision, thanks to some time, distance and a measure of trust. "I've got to hand it to the DOE because they have been very responsive to our requests," says Rod, a worker-safety trainer. Sipping coffee at the dining table, Lani, a real estate office manager, agrees: "I have never dealt with a government agency that was so nice." How the Asays have come to handle the situation may someday become a case study The Atlas Uranium site near Moab is fenced and posted with warning signs. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune) in dealing with the siting of hazardous waste facilities. NIMBY - or the "Not-In-My-Backyard" syndrome - is what the usual reaction has come to be called by the companies and government agencies typically proposing such projects. And for years, they have struggled with people who want nothing to do with facilities that might bring a new hazard to their neighborhoods, like a radioactive waste cell. Some might say NIMBY was what drove the Energy Department's decision to move the tailings from Moab, 32 miles south, to land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management at the foot of the Book Cliffs in Crescent Junction. For decades, the tailings have been piling up at the old uranium mill site, just north of the Moab city limits. As more became known about environmental impacts of the tailings, the campaign to move the waste swelled. Ammonia from the pile was leaching into the river and was thought to be harming endangered fish. Wind gusts sometimes would roil tainted dirt into the air. And the threat of uranium-tainted mill waste polluting the river increasingly worried officials and representatives of millions of people downstream who rely on Colorado River water - especially in light of evidence suggesting a big flood might wash the pile into the river. Pressure from U.S. The Department of Energy put this air monitor on Rod Asay's land. The government plans to store uranium tailings nearby. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune ) lawmakers from Utah and downstream states took the pile out of the hands of the Atlas Corp.'s bankruptcy trustees and under the jurisdiction of the Energy Department. On April 6, the Energy Department announced it would haul the waste to Crescent Junction by rail. David Ropeik, director of risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, suggests the Asays and people who wanted the tailings moved viewed the potential harm from dramatically different perspectives. People downstream probably felt more fearful because the hazard - the tailings pollution - was foisted upon them, because they had no control. Contrast that, he suggests, with the feelings of trust the Energy Department has built with the Asays. By working with the couple to give them a greater sense of control - by providing information and promoting openness with the family - the Energy Department may have been able to avert a NIMBY reaction, he suggests. "If you trust the people who impose a risk on you, you are much more likely to accept that risk," he says. Kent E. Portney, a political scientist at Tufts University, says another factor in the Asay's reaction might be a reflection of something broader, that the public recognizes there are limits to their ability to stall or kill hazardous waste facilities. "A lot of it has to do with what I call the political realism of it," he says. There was certainly some of that with the Asays. Lani Asay, whose great aunts staked the original claim on 320 acres at Crescent Junction, felt cheated and angry when she first learned about the tailings. In the Grand County government offices, she had been assured the Energy Department preferred two other options over land near her family's. She recalls returning to the county council "in tears." She fielded "irate" calls from outraged family members, many of them among the 26 people who own the remaining 200 acres of the homestead. Rod Asay is resigned. "I don't like it," he says. "I'd just as soon they put it out in the desert, that it wasn't going to come here. But it's gonna come here." Shortly after the Energy Department announcement, the Asays arranged a Saturday picnic with Donald Metzler, the DOE project manager for the Atlas cleanup, and Lani's worried relatives. The officials assured them the risk was small that the low-level radioactivity would have an impact on them, their land or the environment. "It's not like waste rods out of a plutonium reactor," says Rod. "And even though it's low-level, they want to take every precaution." Air monitors have been installed at and around the Asays' home to gather data. Water monitoring is planned, too. They will not get any compensation. The couple is confident the Energy Department will take care to engineer a safe disposal cell, which will look like a flat-topped mound. Rod hopes they will never have to deal with contamination. Meanwhile, Lani is in close touch with Metzler and Joel Berwick, another Energy Department employee handling the Atlas project. She vows to stay on top of the issue. "I said [to Metzler], 'Are you tarping these loads?' He said, 'If that's what you want, that's what you get.' I said, 'That's what I want.' " Metzler says he is intent on holding up the Energy Department's end of the bargain. "It turns out we really built some strong allies with the Asays. They are a great barometer for us, a huge asset." He concedes his agency does not have a strong tradition of good public relations. Metzler's seen big changes, especially since the Cold War ended. A member of the Grand Junction-based team that has cleaned up 24 former mill sites in the past two decades, he has seen greater focus put on being open and fostering public trust. "DOE has realized the public has to be part of the solution." fahys@sltrib.com The Atlas pile The pile now covers about 130 acres. It will take about 10 years to clean up. The new disposal cell at Crescent Junction is expected to cover 300 acres or more. The federal government expects to spend between $458 million and $697 million to clean up and move the tailings. © Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 50 NRC: Notice of Availability of Interim Staff Guidance Documents for FR Doc E5-6268 [Federal Register: November 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 219)] [Notices] [Page 69362] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15no05-90] Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Casks AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Einziger, Materials Engineer, Structural and Materials Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. telephone: (301) 415-2597; fax number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail: ree1@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) prepares draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) documents for spent fuel storage or transportation casks or radioactive materials transportation package designs. These ISG documents provide clarifying guidance to the NRC staff when reviewing licensee integrated safety analyses, license applications or amendment requests or other related licensing. The NRC is soliciting public comments on Draft ISG-22, ``Potential Rod Splitting Due to Exposure to an Oxidizing Atmosphere During Short-Term Cask Loading Operations in LWR or Other Uranium Oxide Based Fuel,'' which will be considered in the final version or subsequent revisions. II. Summary The purpose of this notice is to provide the public an opportunity to review and comment on the Draft Interim Staff Guidance-22 concerning exposure of spent fuel to an oxidizing atmosphere during the air blowdown operation. Draft Interim Staff Guidance-22, Revision 0, provides guidance to NRC staff on what documents should be reviewed and evaluated to ensure that sufficient controls are in place to prevent any part of the fuel rods from being exposed to an oxidizing atmosphere. III. Further Information Documents related to this action are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/isg/spent-fuel.html . From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents related to this notice are provided in the following table. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301- 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Interim staff guidance ADAMS accession number ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Interim Staff Guidance-22.............. ML052560673 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Comments and questions on the draft SFPO ISG-21 should be directed to the NRC contact listed below by December 30, 2005. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received after this date. Christopher Brown, Materials Engineer, Structural and Materials Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Comments can also be submitted by telephone, fax, or e-mail, which are as follows: telephone: (301) 415-2597; fax number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail: ree1@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 31st day of October, 2005. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Gordon Bjorkman, Chief, Structural and Materials Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E5-6268 Filed 11-14-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 51 Loux: Yucca Restructuring, Again, Or, Back To The Future DOE Style Bob Loux Vol. 3, No. 2November 15, 2005 Nevada's Online State News Journal It is no surprise that Nevada officials reacted with skepticism to the U.S. Department of Energys October 25th announcement of a fundamental change in the design for a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository system. For those of us who have been associated with the DOE repository program for the two decades or more, DOE restructurings, reassessments, and reorganizations are nothing new. Ideas come and go, the organizational chart changes, the game of organizational musical chairs starts and stops, but the fundamental problems and flaws with Yucca Mountain are never dealt with. And for good reason. To do so would mean admitting that Yucca is a bad site for a geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste. Octobers announcement of the next best DOE idea is no exception. Paul Golan, the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Managements current acting director, revealed that DOE was moving ahead to hire a contractor to implement a plan to operate the Yucca Mountain repository as a clean or non-contaminated facility. Golan proposes to do this by eliminating spent fuel handling facilities at the repository and using only standardized canisters where radioactive waste would be loaded into the containers at the point of origin (i.e., at nuclear power plants), and then stored, transported and disposed of without having to reopen the packaging. Problem is, this new idea has been floated before back in 1992 as the Multiple Purpose Canister (MPC) initiative and it was rejected then as being too costly and too logistically difficult to implement. To be fair, the proposal made some sense 13 years ago, when most utilities were still storing spent fuel in water filled pools where it could be moved, relatively easily, into sealed canisters and from there into MPCs for dry storage, transport and disposal. Today, however, a significant percentage of nuclear utility companies are already storing spent fuel in dry storage installations using a variety of sealed storage systems, none of which are compatible with Golan standardized canister idea. Whats really going on here is a desperate attempt by DOE to cover up just how scientifically, legally, and morally bankrupt the Yucca Mountain program is. Things are so bad that DOE has had to resort to the fiction of a major restructuring of the repository system design this late in the game - at a time when the Department is supposed to be in last phase of preparing its license application to NRC, something that DOE has now been forced to place on indefinite hold. It is instructive to note that all this is taking place in the context of an emerging major some would say quantum shift in Congress approach to federal nuclear waste policy. The 2006 Energy and Water Appropriation Act, for the first time, combined deep cuts in the Yucca project with new appropriations for building reprocessing capabilities. Rumors are persistent that a landmark agreement is in the works between two key legislators Nevadas Senator Harry Reid and New Mexicos Senator Pete Dominici, that would fundamentally revamp national nuclear waste policy, focusing onreprocessing, waste reduction, and interim storage while deemphasizing Yucca Mountain. At the very least, the changes Mr. Golan is proposing will add many months and perhaps years to the timetable for submittal of DOEs Yucca Mountain license application and will likely require new environmental documentation both for the repository and for the proposed HLW transportation system. The bottom line: Yucca Mountain is still Yucca Mountain. You can try to dress it up with all sorts of diversionary restructurings, but the site remains a porous, fractured and entirely unsuitable repository location that cannot pass muster in the NRC licensing arena. There is, nevertheless, a certain irony in watching the array of Yucca Mountain fixes over the years come full circle. In honor of this new, new approach, perhaps it would be appropriate, for now, to rename Yucca, the Golan Heights. (Mr. Loux is the Director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects) ***************************************************************** 52 Nevada Observer: Yucca Mountain: The Counting Has Begun As Congress Slowly Turns The Concept Of Recycling All That Nuclear Waste Into Useable Fuel by Johnny Gunn Opinion Vol. 3, No. 2 November 15, 2005 Nevada's Online State News Journal When Dan DeQuille wrote for the Territorial Enterprise of Virginia City fame, back in the 19th century, he used this depiction of a braying, angry, miner's burro. He always called it, as did most of the prospectors of the day, "A Washoe Canary." Below are some of our brayings, that is, Washoe Canary Songs. One by one it seems many in Congress are seeing the reality known as the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository for what it is; a disaster. Many such as Utah Senator Robert Bennett (D) have been saying for some time that the answer isn't to transport thousands of tons of the most dangerous radioactive waste across the country and bury it under a Nevada mountain. Bennett called for the change in an impassioned speech before his peers saying keep the spent nuclear fuel at the power plants and begin the process of recycling. He used as an example the fact we have been working to recycle the military nuclear product recovered from Soviet Union warheads. If we can do it for military grade nuclear debris we can do it for power plant waste was what he promoted. Bennett has picked up some help recently. Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D) is calling for recycling, and on November 8 U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the top ranked democrat in the senate, has decided to join the battle as well. Reid has been opposed to Yucca Mountain virtually from the first, but it's believed that this is the first time he has come out in favor recycling the waste. The change came about from pure politics, but it is a positive change. Reid announced that he will drop his opposition to a provision that would create a new wilderness area near the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. The wilderness designation could potentially prevent the opening of a nuclear waste storage facility on the reservation, something Utah's elected leaders have fiercely opposed. The Senator said that after a recent conversation with Utah's Senator Bennett he agreed to set aside his concerns in order to help the efforts of Bennett and other state officials to prevent the nuclear site from opening. "While I continue to have concerns about the Cedar Mountain wilderness proposal, of even greater concern is the threat posed by deadly nuclear waste." Reid believes the Nevada plans at Yucca Mountain "continue to be delayed indefinitely, putting that project in jeopardy." Reid believes in "a more realistic approach to solving the nation s nuclear waste storage problems by leaving the waste at the sites where it is generated." Reid has hinted that legislation to that effect could be introduced soon. Bennett and Reid along with many other members of congress may be getting some help from an unexpected source. Edward Sproat has been picked by President George W. Bush to oversee the Yucca project as head of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. During his confirmation hearings in Washington Sproat voiced a desire to see more recycling of spent fuel waste. Sproat said he believed the original intent of the nuclear industry and its regulators was to recycle the waste. He believed that was the primary prospect back in the 1960s. He said he believes recycling makes perfectly good sense. While the budget for Yucca Mountain has been reduced by congressional action at least $50 million has been set aside for continued study of recycling. When one looks at the alternative, that is more waste being developed every year than Yucca can hold, never mind what's on the ground is already more than the repository is designed to hold, all being transported through mega-population centers just to sit on the ground and possibly contaminate future generations, recycling is the only answer. The Department of Energy has continued to postpone attempts at licensing; there is no date on the books for the process to begin. DOE has attempted to change the rules for storage of nuclear waste more than once. DOE has changed transportation plans from railroad to truck, back to railroad, and now railroad and truck. When all else fails in their grasping for an argument over storage, DOE usually plays the terrorist card saying having high level nuclear waste stored all over the country is too dangerous. Terrorists might steal some bomb grade material. Hundreds of trains and trucks moving the high level waste isn't dangerous? If recycling is good enough for weapons grade nuclear material it certainly should be good enough for the high level waste coming from energy plants. More plants are coming on line all the time, more plants are being designed regularly, and if there is a fuel source such as recycled nuclear waste available, it looks like more than one question has been answered. The Nuclear Energy industry forced this horrible concept on the American public because if taxpayers could pay for transportation and storage of the waste, so much the better. DOE and the NRC must start working with each other for betterment of nuclear energy, not force its will on a population that simply doesn't want Yucca Mountain. It's bad science, it was a bad idea then, it's a bad idea today. Cartoon by Thomas Nast, April 12, 1874 ***************************************************************** 53 AU ABC: Uranium sampling discrepancy shocks miner. 16/11/2005. ABC News Online A Western Australian exploration company says it is at a loss to explain a massive discrepancy in sampling results for its uranium deposit near Alice Springs. Deep Yellow says latest tests on samples taken from the Napperby deposit, 150 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, show vastly less uranium than was found by three previous drilling campaigns. Executive chairman Leon Pretorius says the results are a shock. "I think that's putting it very mildly or lightly, I cannot tell you publicly what I said when I found out," he said. "When you get an inconsistent value for your standard then you have reason obviously to doubt the rest of the data they've supplied you. That'd be the easy answer. "Obviously at this point it points to the fact that maybe the laboratory used ... possibly the wrong factor when they were finalising the numbers." But Mr Pretorius says a control sample tested at the same lab has also come back with a lower than expected reading and Deep Yellow now hopes laboratory error will explain the discrepancy. The company has informed the Australian Stock Exchange and suspended trade, worried shareholders would panic and sell upon seeing the unexpectedly poor drill results. ***************************************************************** 54 WIStv.com Columbia, SC: Barnwell County nuclear dump keeps permit (Charleston-AP) November 15, 2005 - A judge says Chem-Nuclear Systems can keep its permit to run a low-level radioactive waste dump in Barnwell County. Administrative Law Judge John D. Geathers says the company must study ways to improve its disposal practices after an environmental group raised serious concerns, but that admonition was not enough for the Sierra Club. The environmental group brought the case and says it plans to appeal Gathers' ruling. Sierra Club attorney Jimmy Chandler says the judge's rule provides no punishment if Chem-Nuclear fails to address environmental concerns. Posted 8:20am by Bryce Mursch y.gif"> All content Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and WISTV. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 55 KVVU FOX5: Yucca Mountain Podcast is Music to Nevadans' Ears? Clark County is taking advantage of new Internet technology most often reserved for downloading music on popular players known as "iPods." Clark County's Nuclear Waste Program becomes apparently the first government entity in Nevada to use the latest technology with a public information twist. The Yucca Mountain Podcast is an online informational audio program. Unlike some traditional media, Podcasts are conveniently played on demand - people can download them and play them in their favorite MP3 player whenever and wherever they want. To access the inaugural Yucca Mountain Podcast program, visit online at: http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/comprehensive_planning/YuccaMoun tainPodcast.htm, or just go to the Clark County home page and click on the podcast link. The Yucca Mountain Podcast was created by the Comprehensive Planning Department's Nuclear Waste Program to help inform Nevada residents about Clark County's oversight activities of the Yucca Mountain Project, the proposed national high-level nuclear waste repository. All content Copyright 2001 - 2005 WorldNow and KVVU. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 56 Tribune-Review: Landfill drops plans to take radioactive ash - PittsburghLIVE.com Tuesday, November 15, 2005 ] Back to headlines By Sam Kusic TRIBUNE-REVIEW An East Huntingdon Township landfill has dropped its plans to bury tons of radioactive ash. The Greenridge Reclamation landfill had won a contract to dispose of the uranium-contaminated ash, but now has rescinded its bid after the public, township supervisors and the Southmoreland School District promised to fight the plan. The Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority is responsible for cleaning up the ash. Authority manager Robert Kossak said the authority was notified of the landfill's decision on Monday. Dave Smith, the landfill's general manager, did not return phone calls seeking comment. The authority is under a state Department of Environmental Protection order to dispose of 12,000 cubic meters of ash, which is sitting in a wastewater treatment lagoon in Allegheny Township. The ash is the leftover of incinerated sewage sludge generated by the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. and its successor companies, Atlantic-Richfield Co. and Babcock &Wilcox. Three DEP-qualified landfills put in bids to accept the ash. Waste Management Inc. facilities in Penn Township and Monroeville, along with Greenridge, submitted bids. Greenridge won out, but residents and school district officials were troubled that radioactive material would be trucked into the community, especially to a place near three of the district's school buildings. At a meeting last week, the school board asked the landfill to reconsider and said it would join the township to pursue legal action if the bid wasn't withdrawn. "I'm very pleased that they rescinded the bid," said Superintendent John Halfhill. "They used good judgment in not allowing it to come into this landfill." DEP officials have insisted the ash poses no threat to the public. They said the landfills had to show that once the ash was buried, it wouldn't emit more than 1 millirem of radiation per year. A person's average exposure to radiation in the United States is about 360 millirems per year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Web site. Some, however, are still skeptical not only of the DEP's claims, but of the landfill's decision to withdraw its bid. "I want to see this in ink," said Julie Martinosky, who lives close to the landfill and is a member of a citizens group that has formed because of the issue. "Just because they pulled the bid doesn't mean that it's over," she said, asking what is to prevent the landfill from accepting a similar waste material in the future. And though the ash apparently won't be deposited in the township, no other community should have to live with it, either, she said. It wasn't clear yesterday whether the two remaining bidders are still interested in taking the ash. Managers at those landfills couldn't be reached for comment. Patty Ameno, an environmental activist from Leechburg who has been fighting the authority over the ash, said it doesn't belong in area landfills. Rather, she said the authority should pack the ash in sealed, above-ground storage containers and ship it to a nearby nuclear waste dump in Parks Township, where it would be temporarily stored for later transportation to a nuclear waste repository. "I don't want that damnation shared with any community," she said. The ash issue is to be discussed at a school board meeting and a township supervisors' meeting, both scheduled for Thursday. Sam Kusic can be reached at skusic@tribweb.comor 724.463.8742. Images and text copyright 2005 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 57 UK: News & Star: Plant can deal with terror Published on 15/11/2005 SELLAFIELD says it is well-prepared for dealing with the threat of terrorism after a nuclear reactor in Sydney, Australia, was believed to be the possible target of a terror cell. An extensive review was carried out at Sellafield following the September 11 attacks in America four years ago, and a large number of changes have now been made at the plant. A spokeswoman for operator British Nuclear Group said the site’s security record was “exemplary”. Measures in place include a system for detecting nuclear materials being carried into or out of the plant and increasing patrols. ***************************************************************** 58 UK: News & Star: ‘I was hoping he‘d got stuck,’ says colleague Published on 15/11/2005 [ Decommissioning: Neil Cannon, circled, with colleagues in front of the Sellafield chimney where he fell 350ft to his death in January 2003. His inquest has heard from colleagues who witnessed his death] Decommissioning: Neil Cannon, circled, with colleagues in front of the Sellafield chimney where he fell 350ft to his death in January 2003. His inquest has heard from colleagues who witnessed his death By Anna Burdett A MAN who witnessed a steeplejack falling 350ft to his death down a radioactive Sellafield chimney told an inquest yesterday how he pulled up a safety line to find no one on the end of it. Malcolm Holliday was working with 36-year-old Neil Cannon, of Cleator Moor, inside the chimney when the tragedy happened in January 2003. Mr Holliday, a decommissioning officer, told the third day of an inquest in Whitehaven how he saw what he thought was a blue harness hanging over the edge of a working platform. He quickly realised it was Mr Cannon’s safety line. He said: “The lanyard [safety line] came up and I realised no one was on the end of it. “I looked over the edge to look for Neil but I could not see him and I shouted for him. I was hoping he had got stuck further down.” Mr Cannon, a father of one, was working in the diffuser section of the B6 chimney for PC Richardson, who were dismantling the structure. Labourer Stephen Rose, of Whitehaven, was observing Mr Cannon on video monitors while he was detaching steel beams from the walls at the top of the chimney. After detaching one beam, he said Mr Cannon stepped off the working platform onto a ledge and started lifting it closer to the edge. Mr Rose said: “One end of the beam came up. I am not sure if it cut his lanyard on the way up or down. One end of the beam went through a gap and then I saw Neil fall headfirst, it all happened very fast.” The CCTV cameras were not recording when the accident happened. Because of the high levels of radiation, workers had to wear protective clothing and breathing equipment and could only stay in the chimney for 40 minutes at a time. The jury heard earlier in the hearing that a written system of work, drawn up by PC Richardson and BNFL, was not always followed because of practical difficulties. The hearing continues. ***************************************************************** 59 Guardian Unlimited: House-Senate Freeze Education Spending From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 15, 2005 9:01 AM By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal aid for education would be frozen under a bill emerging from House-Senate negotiations. Aid for special education would increase by less than 1 percent while programs funded under President Bush's No Child Left Behind program would be cut by more than 3 percent. To avoid cutting more deeply into education, medical training and Pell Grants, lawmakers are reluctantly giving up about $1 billion worth of home state projects from a sweeping bill funding education, labor and health and human services programs. The bill remained in negotiations after House-Senate talks Monday night. But the spending levels in the measure, which flow from Bush's budget, as endorsed by Congress, are so low that the lead Senate negotiator, moderate Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, called them ``scandalous'' and said he may vote against the bill. ``It's that bad,'' Specter said. A bill financing energy and water projects got a friendlier reception Monday as the Senate approved a big cut for the budget for the troubled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump while adding $1 billion over Bush's budget for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects. The $450 million Yucca Mountain budget - down $127 million from each of the last two years - is included in a final bill funding energy and water programs for the 2006 budget year, which cleared the Senate by an 84-4 vote. House-Senate negotiators also approved money for veterans programs, including $2.5 billion above Bush's original budget for Veterans Affairs medical care, where costs are rapidly spiraling beyond earlier estimates. The outcome of talks on a bill funding a broad array of social programs within the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education is less clear. The removal thousands of local projects is certain to prove unpopular. Without hometown projects, lawmakers wary about cutting from No Child Left Behind and other programs have little incentive to vote for the bill, and House GOP leaders are likely to face a big struggle getting it passed before stopgap spending authority expires Friday. Lawmakers are trying to wrap up work on the 11 spending bills, comprising approximately one-third of the federal budget, that Congress passes each year. After years of consistent increases, the overall budget for domestic agencies - with the exception of the Homeland Security Department - is essentially frozen or even slightly below last year's levels. Six of the 11 spending bills have passed Congress, and lawmakers hope to complete action on the remaining domestic bills by Friday. A $453 billion defense bill, though nearly complete, is being held in reserve despite protests from the Pentagon. GOP leaders may use the politically unstoppable bill to carry other legislative freight. The White House, working with House GOP leaders, has forced the Senate to give up on a series of budget tricks it used to add funding. The Senate has had to relent on plans to transfer $7 billion from defense to domestic programs. Senators also abandoned more than $3 billion made available through an accounting gimmick for programs including health research, medical training and heating subsidies for the poor. That move came during talks on the labor, health and education measure, which provides $143 billion in funding for programs at lawmakers' discretion. Without the extra cash, lawmakers were unable to fulfill funding promises made under the No Child Left Behind education law, whose programs would be cut by 3 percent from the previous fiscal year. Research funding for the National Institutes of Health would be virtually frozen after years of double-digit increases. All told, programs funded by the education and health bill faced a $1.4 billion cut over last year's levels once extra costs to implement the new Medicare prescription drug benefit are factored in. Delays in the Yucca Mountain project caused lawmakers to curb the budget for the nuclear waste site. Those cuts helped free up funds for the Corps of Engineers, which received $5.4 billion, $1 billion above Bush's request. That includes $8 million requested by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for the Corps to design a plan to boost south Louisiana's hurricane protection. The bill also kills off a program to study development of a ``bunker buster'' nuclear warhead, ending a three-year battle between the Pentagon and lawmakers opposed to the project. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 ***************************************************************** 60 Albuquerque Tribune: Anxiety grips Los Alamos as decision on lab draws near By Heather Clark Associated Press November 15, 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 during 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 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 National 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 top-flight 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 during the past 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 shortly after their bid was submitted in August, 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 that the dialogue started after a letter from Robinson was downloaded 1,800 times from the blog. The office itself 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 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." 2005 The Albuquerque Tribune ***************************************************************** 61 www.GovExec.com - Rocky Flats cleanup contract called model for future federal efforts (11/15/05) By Joe Fiorill, Global Security Newswire The just-completed cleanup of a plutonium pit-production facility in Colorado should serve as a model for future U.S. cleanup work, senators and officials said at a committee hearing Tuesday. Of particular importance to completing the Rocky Flats project on a tight schedule, said the officials and lawmakers, were financial incentives for speed and performance built into the Energy Department's contract with Kaiser-Hill Co. "This contract was clearly the flagship in being innovative in this approach," Assistant Energy Secretary James Rispoli said at the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. Witnesses drew attention to 1995 estimates that the cleanup would take 70 years and cost $35 billion. The United States contracted with Kaiser-Hill in 2000 to clean up Rocky Flats, and the company declared the project finished last month at a cost of $7 billion. The cleanup involved removing the site's remaining plutonium, as well as nuclear and other waste; decontaminating and demolishing buildings; and decontaminating groundwater and soil. "Few believed that they would be alive when the site was finally cleaned up," said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., speaking as a witness at the hearing. Kaiser-Hill managers and workers responded to incentives for good work and for keeping on schedule, witnesses said. They stressed the importance of worker "buy-in" - employees' belief in the importance of the job, and their acceptance of cleanup employment as temporary - and of local and state governments' willingness to agree to "accelerated" planning approaches forgoing certain notifications for work that was to be conducted at the plant. "The community viewed Rocky Flats as a greater asset gone than it did as a job provider," said Kaiser-Hill Chief Executive Officer Nancy Tuor. The site is now being turned into a wildlife refuge, an approach that has drawn environmentalists' ire because it can mean allowing higher contamination levels to remain than if the site were to be used for purposes such as housing or development. Tuor said high standards were enforced with the future wildlife-refuge workers in mind. "It has literally been turned from an environmental liability to an asset for the community," she said. "The site has been returned to the way it was before plutonium production at Rocky Flats began," added Allard, citing radiation levels that now reflect only standard background radiation. Senators were effusive in praising the job done at Rocky Flats, which Allard called "one of the Department of Energy's greatest achievements." Lawmakers and witnesses said the project should serve as a model for other Energy Department nuclear cleanups, such as those at Hanford in Washington state and Savannah River in South Carolina. "I am very pleased to hold it up, because it does set forth something that can be done," said committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "I wish you would get a lot more notoriety in the country, because all we hear about is, 'We can't clean up radiation, therefore we should just give up,'" Domenici said. 2005 by National Journal Group Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 62 Daily Texan: Los Alamos decision forthcoming: UT-Lockheed alliance would manage labs, expand research fields By Yashoda Sampath As the clock ticks down to the Dec. 1 announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy on who gets to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the UT-Lockheed Martin alliance is beginning to reveal details of its plans, should it be chosen, in the face of growing public apathy. "I think everyone's just waiting for a decision - and anxiously," said Don Carson, spokesman for the alliance. "The bidding has gone on for several months now and people are ready for it to be concluded." The lab, managed by the University of California since its inception in the 1940s, went up for bid after accusations of mismanagement and security problems in 2003. The UT System submitted and withdrew a bid at that time. Lockheed Martin Corp. decided to bid, and the University joined it in 2005, forming the UT-Lockheed alliance. The team submitted a final bid in May. The team includes construction firms Fluor Daniel and CH2M HILL. Doug Roberts, a retired employee of the lab, who now runs a Web log for lab employees called "LANL: The Real Story," said that much of the feedback lately has been resigned - employees want the announcement to be made so they can move on with their jobs. "One of the first things we know we must do is win the hearts and minds of the people and establish our presence there," said the alliance's proposed director Paul Robinson. An academic-industrial partnership composes the bedrock of the UT-Lockheed bid, said Robinson, citing the peer review instituted at Sandia National Laboratories, where Robinson is the director. "We basically want to take that model and put it on steroids," Robinson said. "We want to make collaboration a universal way of conducting business to answer the shortage in qualified recruits." Nineteen universities across the nation would conduct the peer review, and three New Mexico universities would be invited to join if the alliance wins the bid. Part of the impetus to have such a wide base comes from a need to share qualified researchers, Robinson said. The alliance has also selected seven board members who would take charge: four from Lockheed and three from the UT System. According to Robinson and UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof, Lockheed would get greater representation, because they would provide the majority of the performance guarantee to the Department of Energy. That guarantee would also give Lockheed greater responsibility in dealing with problems. "They have the greater investment in the lab with board members, but the director and four other high offices cannot be selected without the concurrence of the UT System," Yudof said. "We wanted to ensure our place in the peer review process." A change in leadership will also affect research priorities, expanding them beyond nuclear testing. "One of the first things we're going to do is engage in an extensive strategic planning process to carefully figure out the research priorities," said Yudof, citing a need for research that would provide returns to the nation - technology that can be transferred into commercial areas, and where Los Alamos can get ahead of the competition. New research at the lab analyzes saliva's similarity to blood and the use of supercomputers in biological models. Another key feature of the alliance bid is a reorganization of the bureaucracy. Yudof said that in early Los Alamos history, the lab pioneered team science, which was later divided into groups that didn't collaborate well. The alliance proposed a three-phase process: Organize existing divisions along mission lines and identify strong leaders for those missions; build management systems fitting those missions; and optimize the entire process to ensure collaboration when more people want to be involved. "The life-blood of the lab is the employees, and we'll make sure to engage in heavy dialogue with them every step of the way," Robinson said. ***************************************************************** 63 Rocky Mountain News: U.S. to buy Flats mineral rights Congress approves $10 million, opening way for wildlife site November 15, 2005 Congress on Monday approved $10 million to buy out privately owned mineral rights on the site of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, clearing the way for the creation of a 6,000-acre national wildlife refuge. Once heavily polluted with plutonium, most of Rocky Flats was declared safe last month after a cleanup that took up much of the past decade and cost $7 billion. U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Mark Udall worked together to convert Rocky Flats from a place that hosted some of the most lethal known substances into a refuge that will be a scenic buffer on the edge of the metro area. "Now that $10 million has been appropriated to purchase these mineral rights, the final pieces of the puzzle are in place to make the wildlife refuge at Rocky Flats a reality," Allard said in a statement. Owners of mineral rights have the right to mine, even if they don't own the land on the surface. The threat of such mining would have made it impossible to open a wildlife refuge on the site. "The purchase of these mineral rights is the culmination of over 18 months of negotiations with the federal government, the state of Colorado and private mineral rights owners," said Allard. "This is a fair settlement for both the government and the private interests involved." A 400-acre industrial zone, where much of the bomb-building took place, will remain off-limits because there is still contamination. But the rest of the property can be transferred to the Department of the Interior. The department's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will manage the wildlife refuge, which isn't expected to be open for several years. Subscribe | | | | 2005 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************