*****************************************************************
02/21/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.44
*****************************************************************
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 UPI Outside View: Iraq's Pandora's Box
2 Prevent Iran War - Pls Sign Iran Appeal/Write Your Government
3 IRNA: Iran, Russia discuss outlines of Russian offer on nuclear fuel
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran, Russia Differ on Nuke Talks
5 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, Iran Resume Nuclear Talks
6 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Toughens Stance in Russian Nuke Talks
7 BBC: Iran-Russian nuclear talks close
8 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran will keep going independently
9 IRNA: Islam forbids use of nuclear weapons - Theological scholar
10 IRNA: Iran, Russia conclude 2nd round of nuclear talks
11 AFP: Rice heads out on delicate Mideast swing
12 AFP: Iran to hold no more nuclear talks with EU-3 -
13 IRNA: Iran criticizes Europe's double standards on human rights issu
14 IRNA: Iran, Russia agree to continue nuclear talks on Tuesday
15 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Six-Party Talks Could Resume in Late Marc
16 FT.com: China - US urges China action on N Korea talks
17 Xinhua: US calls for early resumption of six-party talks
18 AFP: Chinese diplomat in US in bid to break Korean nuclear deadlock
19 Chernobyl+20: Conference and US activities news and updates
20 IRNA: US president's nuclear partnership to cap India's nuclear arm
21 Daily Telegraph: Coming clean on US bombers
22 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Canada to Update Defense Treaty
23 US: Guardian Unlimited: Bush Promotes Renewable Energy Proposals
24 US: BBC: US 'reclassifying' public files
25 Kyodo: U.S. to ask Japan, other nations for nuclear fuel program fun
26 US: AFP: Bush calls for nuclear construction by 2010 -
27 US: UPI: Bush continues energy push
28 Chernobyl+20: Conference and US Activities News and Updates
29 Guardian Unlimited: Brave new world for King Coal as it tries to
30 Platts: EU utilities fear new Wenra rules could impose costly backfi
NUCLEAR REACTORS
31 US: [NukeNet] Nuclear Plant Declares, Lifts Emergency
32 [NukeNet] Pluthermal plan for Genkai reactor
33 US: TMI to check water for contamination
34 US: [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] APP. Feb 14 Evacuation plan depends
35 US: NRC: NRC Begins Special Inspection at LaSalle Nuclear Plant Foll
36 RIA Novosti: Russia's nuclear chief spells out $1.5bln investment pl
37 RIA Novosti: Russia's nuclear generating body inks memorandum with F
38 US: Herald News: Local nuclear plant declares emergency
39 US: Platts: NRC issues SER for Exelon's Clinton ESP application
40 US: APP.COM: Time for leaders to start leading |
41 China Daily: 'Pebble-bed' cracker to begin construction
42 US: NRC: NRC Issues Final Safety Evaluation for Clinton Early Site P
43 US: Atlanta Business Chronicle: Georgia Power asks for $51M nuclear
44 ITAR-TASS: Kazakhstan working out nuke power industry programme
45 US: Morris Daily Herald: Feds order inspections of nuclear stations
46 US: Morris Daily Herald: Blame falling on Exelon
47 US: North Jersey Media Group: State presses nuclear concern
48 CNIC: Pluthermal plan for Genkai reactor
49 FAS: The half-life of plutonium recycling information.
50 US: UPI: Emergency measures taken at nuke plant
51 IRNA: Media must reveal aspects of West's opposition to nuclear prog
NUCLEAR SECURITY
52 US: NRC: NRC Sends Augmented Inspection Team to Review Security at F
NUCLEAR SAFETY
53 [du-list] UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells - details to
54 US: [downwinders] Nuclear Workers benefits at risk
55 [du-list] Aldermarston Uranium data - updated report
56 US: [du-list] DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
57 US: [du-list] uranium toxicology references
58 [du-list] Dhafir trial and DU
59 London Times: Leak of deadly rays costs 'cavalier' firm ś400,000
60 UK HSE: Transport case prompts HSE reminder on the importance of
61 US: EPA: National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
62 US: Cape Cod Online: State to issue limits for base pollutant
63 US: KLASTV.com: Exclusive: Dying Atomic Workers Still Waiting For He
64 US: FreeMarketNews.com: DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
65 DOE: Technical Report Confirms Reliability of Yucca Mountain
66 Bellona: Sevmash to manufacture containers for icebreakers’ spent nu
67 US: NRC: NRC Issues Report for Comment on Spent Nuclear Fuel Transpo
68 US: reviewjournal.com: Cleanup languished amid bickering
69 US: APP.COM: Recycling nuclear waste getting fresh attention |
70 US: DenverPost.com: Don't delay Moab cleanup
71 AFP: China urges Iran to refrain from uranium enrichment -
72 Japan Times: MOX plan to get Saga governor's nod
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
73 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Blames Cuts at Energy Lab on Mix-Up
74 DOE: President Bushs Radio Address Focuses on Energy Issues
75 DOE: DOE Transfers $5 million to NREL, Jobs to be Restored
76 DOE: Office of Environmental Management; Environmental Management
77 Waste News: Energy Dept. report supports earlier infiltration modeli
78 CMO: U of C to co-head Fermilab as Argonne bidding continues
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
1 UPI Outside View: Iraq's Pandora's Box
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
2/21/2006 2:47:00 PM -0500
By DANIEL JORDAN AND NEIL WOLLMAN
UPI Outside View Commentator
MANCHESTER, Ind., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- "She opened it and out flew
all the terrible things like greed and envy, hatred and cruelty,
poverty and hunger, sickness and despair, and more . . ."
The fable of Pandora's Box applies well to Iraq. War supporters
wish us to judge the invasion and war on the removal of the
brutal Saddam Hussein. A broad up-to-date analysis yields a
disturbingly more negative assessment, with implications
reaching far into the future.
Are the Iraqi people better off today? No. A 2004 Lancet study
based on U.S. approved research methods puts the war's Iraqi
death toll at 100,000. However, Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Les
Roberts, who led the study, said that the results were based on
"conservative assumptions." Deaths increased 1.5 times since the
invasion, mostly among women and children, and caused by diverse
factors, like U.S. air strikes and military interventions,
devastated water and health care systems, and militia or death
squad activities. International news sources cite studies
pointing "to about 250,000 excess deaths since the outbreak of
the U.S.-led war" when deaths in Fallujah are included.
Surviving Iraqis confront multiplying tragedies: Poverty rose to
20 percent; A year-old U.N. report shows childhood malnutrition
doubled; Minority Rights Group International cites Iraq as the
country where minority rights are most under threat; the
brain-drain of professionals leaving Iraq takes away its future;
a rampant "kidnap-and-ransom" industry complicates security;
inflation is skyrocketing; the U.S. backed Iraqi constitution
privatizes State industries, expatriating profits into Western
pockets; and the budget for the highly touted U.S. Iraqi
reconstruction has dried up. Iraq is a deadly mess.
Even if Iraq overcomes internal maladies, effects reaching
beyond its borders make this war a disaster for the world and
the U.S.
Is the world (including the U.S.) safer? No. Ethnic cleansing in
Iraq is pushing the country closer to civil war, risking chaos
in the region. The International Institute for Strategic Studies
(London) stated "al-Qaeda's recruitment and fundraising was
greatly boosted by the U.S. invasion of Iraq." Militants
expanded their influence across the region, be it the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt, the growing militant threat on Pakistan's
border with Afghanistan (New York Times), increased al-Qaeda
influence in Afghanistan (noted by its Defense Minister), the
recent success by Hamas in Palestine, and the hard-liners in
Iran (now also influencing Iraq).
Iraq is now a breeding ground for terrorism. An embarrassed
State Department discontinued its annual terrorism report
because international terrorist attacks are at the highest level
since the first report in 1984. The U.S. sponsored National
Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism counted 3,991
global terrorist attacks in 2005, up 51 percent from 2,639 in
2004. Ironically, a war intended to produce freedom has,
according to Amnesty International, lead to an increase in
worldwide human rights violations. Tyrants can legitimately
argue that since the U.S. waged pre-emptive war, so can they. In
2003, North Korea stated "preemptive attacks are not the
exclusive right of the U.S."
U.S. foreign policy has also suffered, with our reputation at an
all time low. We found no WMDs. We just heard from a former CIA
chief for the Middle East that the Administration "cherry-
picked" pre-war intelligence. Britain's Downing Street memo
stated that U.S. "intelligence and facts were being fixed around
the policy" of invasion. Western Alliances are in tatters, while
our self-declared "New American Century" has us creating a world
empire, with Iraq being the first step.
John McCain understands that torturing Iraqi prisoners puts our
soldiers (and even vacationing citizens) at greater risk.
Besides the hazards of combat, American military members are
also at risk from health impacts caused by depleted uranium (a
UN declared WMD) and mental health disorders (with 100,000 such
diagnoses).
Domestically, the war has polarized the American public. Privacy
and democracy have also suffered In this so-called "War on
Terror," which the Administration irrelevantly centers In Iraq.
President Bush's view of executive privilege makes Nixon's
"Imperial Presidency" and COINTELPRO attacks on privacy and
democracy appear quaint. Language has devolved into Orwellian
lunacy with war opponents labeled traitors and the president and
media calling spying on American citizens a "terrorist
surveillance program." Apparently everyone who questions
authority is a terrorist.
War expenses are diverting vast resources to corporate profits
under "starve the beast" economic policies that harm the needy
among us. Research by Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and
Linda Bilmes puts the eventual costs of the war at around two
trillion dollars. About 6,800 dollars for every U.S. citizen is
going to corporations like Halliburton, whose stock and profits
have doubled since the war began.
This Pandora's Box has spread destruction around the world, and
the blowback will hit the U.S. We must demand our government
close this box and never open it again. We must call our
government, and ourselves, to account and understand that just
as empires rise, they also fall, brought down by their own
hubris. It is time to admit mistakes and ask the world to work
with us to rectify them.
--
(Daniel Jordan, PhD; Instructor, Ventura College and research
consultant. Neil Wollman; Ph. D.; Senior Fellow, Peace Studies
Institute; Professor of Psychology; Manchester College, IN.)
--
(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are
written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of
important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect
those of United Press International. In the interests of
creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
© Copyright 2006 United Press
International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
2 Prevent Iran War - Pls Sign Iran Appeal/Write Your Government
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:56:58 -0800
Prevent Iran War - Pls Sign Iran Appeal/Write to Your Government
Please forgive us if this is the hundredth time you have seen this appeal,
especially if you have already signed it.
If you havent signed it do please sign it.
If you have please get another organisation to sign it and write to your
government.
Parliamentarians and NGOs: PLEASE SIGN PARLIAMENTARIANS AND CIVIL SOCIETY
APPEAL ON IRAN AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS, LETTER TO KOFI ANNAN.(urls and text below)
Individuals - PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR GOVERNMENT/UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL
To sign please email this adress with your name,
position, name of organisation, and (if you are a parliamentarian) party
and electorate. Please do not forget location and COUNTRY.
(urls for Parliamentarians and Civil Socety Appeal and Letter to Kofi Annan
below)
Individuals (as well as Parliamentarians and NGOs) are also strongly urged
to write to your foreign minister and/or Security Council representative in
the same sense as the Appeal, urging a peaceful solution to the crisis with
Iran. Please FAX or write to your government, preferably handwritten or
printed on letterhead.
(Security Council anf foreign ministers fax numbers below).
PARLIAMENTARIANS AND CIVIL SOCIETY APPEAL ON IRAN AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
A PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO THE IRAN CRISIS AND A NUCLEAR-FREE MIDDLE EAST
NO 'FIRST USE' OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
To:
President George Bush
Secy of State Condoleeza Rice
UN Ambassador John Bolton
President Ahmadinejad of Iran
Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Jharze
Iran UN Ambassador, H.E. Zarif-Khonsari
Ehud Olmert, Acting Prime Minister of Israel,
Israel Foreign MinisterTzipi Livni,
H.E. Mr. Dan Gillerman, Israel UN Mission
cc
Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of UK
Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
The Hon. John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia
The Hon. Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia
M. Jacques Chirac, Président de la République Française
M. Dominique de Villepin, Premier Ministre
M. Philippe Douste-Blazy, Ministre des Affaires Etrangčres
S.E. Jean-Marc de la Sabličre, Représentant permanent auprčs des Nations-Unies
Herr Horst Köhler, Bundespräzsident Deutschlands
Frau Angela Merkel, Bundeskanzlerin Deutschlands
Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Deutsche Bundesaussenminister
Mr Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations
Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, Director of the IAEA
Wolfgang Schussel, President of the European Union, Chancellor of Austria,
President Putin of Russia
Foreign Minister Ivanov of Russia
China UN, Geneva and IAEA Missions
IAEA Board Members
Dear Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign
Ministers, Secretaries of State, IAEA Board Members, and Ambassadors,
The proliferation of nuclear weapons is possibly the single greatest threat
to civilisation. If a feared cascade of proliferation occurs, the
probability that by malice, madness, miscalculation or malfunction, nuclear
weapons will at some point be used will increase sharply. All nations have
a responsibility to ensure that the number of nations with nuclear weapons
does not grow, to prevent non-state actors from obtaining them, and for
those who posses nuclear weapons to eliminate and abolish them.
Threats and rumours of military action or even nuclear weapons use only
worsen a growing crisis between Iran, the United States, and Israel.
Reports of preparations for and explorations of military options, no matter
how speculative, are highly disturbing and are in themselves dangerous.
Such explorations must cease. There must be no talk of war.
But there IS talk of war, both from the United States and from Israel.
President Ahmadinejad, you have spoken of "wiping Israel from the map." In
the US and Israel, 'hotheads' call openly for "swift military action",
while 'responsible' leaders speak of "no option being ruled out." President
Bush, we heard these same two formulations used just months before the
invasion of Iraq. We urge that the explorations of military or nuclear
options cease immediately, and support IAEA General Director, Mohamed
ElBaradei in calling for this belligerent talk from all parties to stop now.
The United States and other Nuclear Weapon States and de facto nuclear
weapon states -nations that already possess nuclear weapons- have made
little progress toward the internationally mandated goal of the total and
unequivocal elimination of those weapons. Although there has been some
limited progress in lowering total nuclear stockpiles, the established
nuclear weapons possessors continue to rely on those weapons in their
security doctrines, and do not envisage change in that posture 'for the
foreseeable future'.
This continues in spite of a clear international consensus to the effect
that nuclear weapons are a continuing threat to civilisation and life, in
spite of repeated calls by the international community for progress toward
their total and unequivocal elimination.
Nations that possess large nuclear arsenals cannot consistently or credibly
call for others to eliminate or cease the pursuit of nuclear weapons
arsenals of their own while not moving to eliminate their own nuclear
weapons. A global commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons is a
global commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons, and applies
equally to all parties. There can be no exceptions. Those who now posses
nuclear arsenals are obliged to eliminate those arsenals. Those who do not
have them must not pursue them.
Similarly, the violation of the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East by one
party does not in any way excuse its violation by another party. However,
the renunciation of the nuclear option by one party will facilitate its
renunciation by another party.
Israel's nuclear arsenal and the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran - if
indeed that is taking place - are dangerous per se and open the gate for
further proliferation by other Middle Eastern nations, and for a middle
eastern arms race that would be dangerous in the extreme. This must not happen.
Serious concerns exist over the possibility that US nuclear doctrine may
envisage strikes against other nations that involve a first use of nuclear
weapons, or possibly the use of nuclear weapons against nations that are
not themselves nuclear - armed. We note with approval the recent letter by
US senators and others in this matter.
A third use of nuclear weapons must never take place. It would be a
catastrophe not only for Iran or Israel but for the entire region and even
for the entire world, because of its radioactive fallout, its chaotic
effects, and because it would break the taboo against the use of these
weapons that has so far held place for the last 60 years. Breaking this
taboo could result in the further use of nuclear weapons, with a lower and
lower bar for such use. The widespread use of nuclear weapons would be
catastrophic for the world. We urge all parties to renounce the pursuit
of nuclear weapons, and to adopt policies that rule out their use.
The Parliamentarians, civil society organisations, and prominent
individuals signed below hereby urge a solution to the crisis in relations
between the US and Iran, Israel and Iran, based on the following clearly
defined principles:
1) No use of any military option whatsoever by any party for any reason.
2) A clear commitment by all nuclear-armed parties not to use nuclear
weapons in this situation, and a broader commitment to the doctrine of no
'first use' of nuclear weapons.
3) The implementation of the 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Resolution on a
Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East, implementation of the annual
consensus-adopted General Assembly resolutions on 'Establishment of a
Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in the region of the Middle East'.
4) A clear commitment by all parties to the global elimination of nuclear
weapons, including through reaffirming the Final Declaration of the 2000
Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, and relevant General Assembly
resolutions.
5) A diplomatic path to the removal of tensions between the US, Israel, and
Iran, involving compromise on both sides, recognition of the legitimate
security concerns of all parties including both Israel and Iran, and
refraining from inflammatory statements or the exploration of military
options by any party.
URLS AND FAX NUMBERS BELOW
urls for Parliamentarians and Civil Society Appeal on Iran:
In french:
Tu le trouveras sur le site d'ACDN : http://www.acdn.net en français et en
anglais.
PNND website at the following url:
http://www.gsinstitute.org/pnnd/ParliamentariansIranNukes.htm
It is also on the GANA website of Ak Malten at:
http://www.cornnet.nl/~akmalten/Iran_Nuclear_letter.html
Letter to Kofi Annan url:
http://www.ippnw.org,
below "Udates and News".
Some Important Fax Numbers:
(contact details for all security
council members may be found on:
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
George Bush, President, USA:1-202-456-2461
Condoleeza Rice, Secy of State USA: 1-202-647-6047
USA UN Mission NY - 1-212-415-4443 (Amb John Bolton)
Iran Minister of Foreign Affairs 0098-21-667-43149
Iran UN Ambassador NY - 2-212-867-7086
Israel Minister of Foreign Affairs 97-225-303015
Israel UN Mission NY 1-212-499-5515
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany: 49-228-56-2357 or 49-30-4000-2357
Germany UN Mission 1-212-940-0402
Russia Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 7-095-244-9248/4112
Russia NY UN Mission 1-212-628-0252
China UN Mission 1-212-634-7626
Brazil Geneva UN mission 43-1-513-8374
Canada Foreign Ministry 1-613-992-2482
Canada UN mission 1-212-848-1195
Sweden Foreign Ministry 46-8-723-1176
Sweden UN Mission 1-212-832-0389
Norway Foreign Ministry 47-2224-9580
Norway UN mission 1-212-688-0554
Jack Straw, UK Secy of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
44-207-270-2833
UK Un Mission 1-212-745-9316
Hon. Alexander Downer, Australian Ministry for Foreign Affairs 61-2-6273-4112
Australia UN Mission 1-212-351-6610.
*****************************************************************
3 IRNA: Iran, Russia discuss outlines of Russian offer on nuclear fuel cycle -
Moscow, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Russia-Nuclear Talks
Iran and Russia believe that Iranian nuclear program should be
examined in the context of International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and it should not be reported to United Nations Security
Council.
Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council
(SNSC) Ali Hosseini-Tash, who is in Moscow at the head of a
delegation told IRNA that the negotiations indicated that there
is positive prospect for development of cooperation between Iran
and Russia in the field of producing nuclear energy.
"Russian offer needs to be taken into consideration, developed
and completed in the context of bilateral cooperation,"
Hosseini-Tash said.
"The two countries have emphasized the need to resolve crisis
over Iranian nuclear program within the UN specialized nuclear
energy." He said that the two parties indicated during the talks
that reporting Iranian nuclear program to UN Security Council
would be detrimental to Iran-Russia cooperation on nuclear
energy and were unanimous in not reporting Iran to the Security
Council.
Hosseini-Tash said that the two parties agreed to base Russian
offer as a common formula for bilateral cooperation in future.
Asked about the venue of carrying out Russian proposal for
setting up of fuel cycle plant, he said that details of the plan
including whereabouts of the plant and modality of partnership
were not discussed.
"We discussed with Russian partners the outline of Russian
offer to set up fuel cycle plant," he said.
He said that in his negotiations with Russian officials
including the secretary of Russian National Security Council
they reached agreement on envisaging the political, technical
and economic aspects of Russian offer.
Iran-Russia nuclear talks were held in Kremlin on Monday and at
Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
The Iranian delegation held talks with Secretary of Russian
National Security Council Igor Ivanov and his deputy Valentin
Sobolev.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyac was also present
in the meetings.
In the meantime, the Iranian delegation left Moscow for Tehran
at the end of negotiations.
*****************************************************************
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran, Russia Differ on Nuke Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 12:46 PM
AP Photo MOSB101 By HENRY MEYER
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Iran and Russia held ``positive'' talks on a
Kremlin offer to conduct uranium enrichment for Tehran, Iran's
chief negotiator said Tuesday, but there was skepticism in
Moscow that the Islamic regime is ready for compromise.
``In our belief, the trend of negotiations was positive and
constructive,'' Ali Hosseinitash told state-run Iranian
television as he left Moscow after two days of meetings, adding
that the two countries had agreed to continue talks.
``There are elements in these negotiations that give us grounds
for hope that we will reach an agreement,'' Russia's Interfax
news agency quoted Hosseinitash, the deputy secretary of the
Supreme National Security Council, as saying.
The negotiations ended without any visible progress, but Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declined to label the talks a
failure.
``I would be cautious about using the term 'failure' or
'setback' as long as the negotiations have not finished,'' he
said in televised remarks. Russia's atomic chief, Sergei
Kiriyenko, visits Iran on Thursday for further talks.
However, a senior Russian lawmaker expressed frustration.
``Unfortunately, Iran so far has not shown sufficient good
will,'' Konstantin Kosachev, head of the lower house of
parliament's foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying by
news agencies.
The Russian offer, which is backed by the United States and the
European Union, is widely seen as the last chance for Iran to
address the West's concerns before a March 6 International
Atomic Energy Agency meeting that could start a process leading
to punishment by the U.N Security Council.
Under Moscow's plan, Iran's enrichment activities would take
place on Russian soil to ensure no uranium is diverted for
nuclear weapons. Enrichment is a process that can produce either
fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
Russia, which has strong interests in Iran and is building the
Mideast country's first nuclear power station, is anxious to
avoid sanctions against Tehran and win prestige by helping find
a solution to the dispute.
However, Hosseinitash and other Iranian officials have rejected
Russia's demands that Iran restore a freeze on uranium
enrichment it broke last month and made clear that Tehran did
not intend to renounce its right to produce nuclear fuel
domestically.
Tensions escalated earlier this month when the IAEA reported
Iran to the Security Council. Iran responded by suspending
certain aspects of its cooperation with the IAEA - including
allowing surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities - and
confirmed that it had resumed small-scale uranium enrichment
Iran insists its nuclear program is purely to meet civilian
energy needs, but the United States and other Western nations
see it as a cover-up for a suspected atomic weapons drive.
Experts have said Iran would like its scientists to have access
to the Russian enrichment facility and hope to retain the right
to conduct some part of the enrichment process at home.
Kiriyenko, the atomic energy chief, said Moscow was ready to
``do everything possible to give (Iran) a chance to get out of
this difficult situation in a peaceful, constructive way,'' the
RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
But Kosachev voiced fears that Iran's defiance of the
international community could land it in the same predicament as
North Korea, which openly says it is pursuing a nuclear weapons
program.
``In this situation, we could start moving toward the North
Korean scenario, with Iran isolating itself, leaving the
(Nuclear) Nonproliferation Treaty and ending cooperation with
the IAEA,'' Interfax quoted him as saying.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
5 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, Iran Resume Nuclear Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 9:16 AM
AP Photo VM109
By HENRY MEYER
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Iranian and Russian officials resumed faltering
talks Tuesday on a Kremlin offer to conduct uranium enrichment
for Iran, widely seen as Iran's last chance to stave off
international sanctions over suspicions it has a covert nuclear
weapons program.
An initial round of consultations between top national security
officials from both countries on Monday made no visible
progress, and Moscow downgraded the discussions on Tuesday to
the level of experts in an apparent sign of its pessimism
regarding their outcome.
The Foreign Ministry said the second round of talks was taking
place with the participation of experts from the ministry and
Russia's atomic energy agency.
The Kommersant daily on Tuesday, citing an official in the
Russian delegation, reported that the closed-door talks the
previous day broke up after more than five hours without ``any
hope of reaching an agreement.''
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the negotiations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after Monday's talks
that Iran should resume the moratorium on uranium enrichment
that it broke last month and assuage international concerns
about its nuclear activities to avoid Security Council
intervention.
``To achieve that, it's important for Iran to resume a
moratorium on uranium enrichment on its territory and continue
contacts between all interested parties to achieve mutually
acceptable agreements,'' Lavrov said.
He didn't give any details of the negotiations but said there
were reasons to be hopeful that the issue could remain in the
hands of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
The Russian offer, which is backed by the United States and the
European Union, is widely seen as the last chance for Iran to
address the West's concerns before a March 6 IAEA meeting that
could start a process leading to punishment by the U.N Security
Council.
Under Moscow's plan, Iran's enrichment activities would take
place on Russian soil to ensure no uranium is diverted for
nuclear weapons. Enrichment is a process that can produce either
fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
The head of the Iranian delegation in Moscow, deputy secretary
of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Hosseinitash, took
a tough stance before the meeting, rejecting any link between
the Russian plan and demands for Iran to restore a freeze on
uranium enrichment that it broke last month.
He added that Iran did not intend to renounce its right to
produce nuclear fuel domestically.
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei recently suggested that the
international community might have no choice but to accept
small-scale enrichment on Iranian soil as a condition for Tehran
to agree to move its full program abroad, a diplomat familiar
with ElBaradei's thinking said Sunday.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
6 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Toughens Stance in Russian Nuke Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 4:01 AM
AP Photo MOSB101 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Iran and Russia launched talks Monday on the
Kremlin's offer to enrich uranium in Russia - seen as a last
chance for Tehran to stave off international sanctions - but the
day of discussions ended without any apparent breakthrough.
Iran's top negotiator dismissed Russia's call for his country to
freeze its domestic enrichment program.
The Russian offer, backed by the United States and Europe, was
widely seen as the final opportunity for Iran to address the
West's concerns before a March 6 meeting of the U.N.'s
International Atomic Energy Agency, which could start a process
leading to U.N. Security Council sanctions.
Iran defends its right to maintain a domestic enrichment
program, which the United States and other Western nations
suspect is a cover-up for a weapons program. Iran insists its
nuclear activity is solely geared toward generating energy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the talks that
Iran should resume the moratorium on uranium enrichment that it
broke last month and assuage international concerns about its
nuclear activities to avoid Security Council intervention.
``To achieve that, it's important for Iran to resume a
moratorium on uranium enrichment on its territory and continue
contacts between all interested parties to achieve mutually
acceptable agreements,'' Lavrov said.
Enrichment is a process that can produce either fuel for a
nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
The head of the Iranian delegation in Moscow, Ali Hosseinitash,
rejected any link between the Russian plan and demands for Iran
to restore a freeze on uranium enrichment. According to Russia's
ITAR-Tass news agency, he said Iran did not intend to renounce
its right to produce nuclear fuel domestically.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking in Brussels
where he met with European Union officials, also reaffirmed
Tehran will continue nuclear research even if it accepts
Russia's enrichment offer.
``If we reach some compromise ... we can continue our
cooperation from where we are now,'' Mottaki said. ``It means
the research department continues its activity and Russia's
proposal is for major nuclear fuel production.''
But he told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee
that ``nuclear weapons are not in Iran's interest.''
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the talks with
Mottaki had failed to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the
West.
In Moscow, the office of Igor Ivanov, the head of Russia's
presidential Security Council, issued a terse statement after
the closed meeting between Russia and Iran, saying that
negotiators had ``agreed to continue talks.''
The Foreign Ministry said the talks will continue Tuesday.
Analysts had warned against expecting a decisive outcome Monday,
saying that any breakthrough would more likely emerge during
Russian atomic energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko's visit to Iran on
Thursday.
Lavrov said he hopes that the meeting will register ``Iran's
fulfillment of the IAEA's requests,'' referring to the nuclear
watchdog's efforts to determine whether Tehran has tried to
develop atomic weapons.
Tensions escalated earlier this month when the IAEA reported
Iran to the Security Council. Iran responded by suspending
certain aspects of its co-operation with the IAEA - including
allowing surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities - and
confirmed that it had resumed small-scale uranium enrichment
Experts have said Iran would like its scientists to have access
to the Russian enrichment facility and hope to retain the right
to conduct some part of the enrichment process at home.
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei recently suggested that the
international community might have no choice but to accept
small-scale enrichment in Iran as a condition for Tehran's
agreement to move its full program abroad, a diplomat familiar
with ElBaradei's thinking said Sunday.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
7 BBC: Iran-Russian nuclear talks close
Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
[Iranian technicians]
Western powers suspect Iran's nuclear ambitions are not peaceful
Iranian and Russian officials have ended two days of talks on a
Russian plan to enrich uranium on its territory for use in Iran's
reactors.
It is not clear what the talks may have achieved as the Iranian
delegation prepared to leave Moscow on Tuesday.
A senior Iranian official described the talks as "positive and
constructive" and said they would continue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was too early to
declare the talks a failure.
Russian atomic agency head Sergei Kiriyenko is expected to visit
Iran on Thursday for further discussions.
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said
Tehran would no longer hold nuclear talks with the EU-3 of
Britain, France and Germany.
He said Iran attached greater weight to negotiations with Moscow
on a Russian compromise plan.
"Our contacts with the European Union will no longer be held with
the EU-3, but with the different countries of the European
Union," Mr Mottaki said a day after talks with EU officials in
Brussels.
'Last chance'
The Russian proposal was being seen by many as a last chance for
Iran to compromise with the UN nuclear agency, the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
On 6 March the agency is due to issue a report that might move
the whole issue to the UN Security Council.
Iran has previously insisted that it will not give up the right
to enrich uranium on its own territory.
The agency reported Iran to the security council in January over
a lack of co-operation and transparency in its nuclear
activities.
Western powers are concerned Iran aims to develop nuclear
weapons, but Tehran says its programme is not military.
Iran resumed small-scale uranium enrichment earlier this month.
Enrichment can produce fuel for either civilian nuclear reactors
or nuclear bombs.
The nuclear crisis has intensified since Iran resumed nuclear
activity last summer after a two-and-a-half year freeze.
*****************************************************************
8 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran will keep going independently
IranNews Tehran Times Iran Daily
2006/02/21
08:52:52 Ţ.Ů
Brussels, Feb 21 - Iran's visiting Minister of Foreign Affairs
Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting here Monday with his Belgian
counterpart Carl De Gucht stressed that Iran would adopt
independent stands on continuation of its nuclear activities
based on international laws.
Further elaborating on the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear
activities, Mottaki said, "No deviation from the international
laws and the NPT treaty has taken place and if the EU wishes to
have a constructive presence at this scene it must keep in mind
two significant points. On the one hand they should work on
trust-building that is very important for Iran today, since we
too, need to have trust in Europeans, and on the other hand, the
Europeans need to cooperate with Iran to achieve its right in
having the full cycle of the nuclear fuel technology."
Mottaki and De Gutch during the meeting surveyed the two
countries' ties, international developments, and the latest
status of Iran's nuclear program, adding, "Iran would continue
its cooperation with the IAEA within that framework."
He added, "Therefore, any other assumption based on Iran's
intention to cease cooperation with the agency is baseless."
The Iranian top diplomat elaborating on current status of
Iran-Belgium relations, emphasized, "There are lots of unused
potentials and huge room for broadening ties."
On the Russian proposal, he said, "keeping in mind the good
relations between the two countries, the two sides are surveying
the various aspects of the proposal."
Mottaki referred to the enthusiasm of the three European
countries in the past to pursue dialogue with Iran on its
nuclear program in the past and expressed hope that the same
process would be pursed under the current conditions, as well.
Referring to the publication of anti-Islamic caricatures in
certain European press, Mottaki said, "The hidden hands behind
that plot are after fueling the flames of war between
civilizations."
He added, "Based on the internal laws of some European
countries those that have insulted the exalted Prophet of Islam
(PBUH) must be summoned to courts of justice and be put to
trial."
The Iranian Foreign Minister said, "Denmark must apologize to
the Islamic world to extinguish the anger and incited sensations
within the Muslim nations."
Referring to the different reactions of the European officials
to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks, he said, "Europe is
very impatient. They talk about respecting the freedom of
expression, but they act quite selectively instead."
He reiterated, "Bilateral ties are defined based on mutual
interests, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, too, naturally
pursues its own national interests, although we believe in
pursuing them based on political realism.
KH
Copyright 2004,
All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
News Network
*****************************************************************
9 IRNA: Islam forbids use of nuclear weapons - Theological scholar
Qom, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Nuclear-Islam
Hojatoleslam Mohsen Gharavian, a scholar at Qom Seminary, on
Monday rejected rumors appearing on some websites quoting him as
saying that the use of nuclear weapons is allowed according to
the Islamic tenets.
The British weekly "Sunday Telegraph" in its last edition wrote
that religious leaders in Iran have issued a new fatwa
(religious decree) that permits the use of atomic weapons
against enemies.
The theologian, who was talking in an exclusive interview with
IRNA, added, "We do not seek nuclear weapons and the Islamic
religion encourages coexistence along with peace and friendship."
Recalling his statement, Gharavian reiterated, "I said if the
enemies plan to launch attacks on our vital sites, we have the
capacity to defend ourselves and take retaliatory measures
against them.
"Unfortunately, these websites have tried to misquote me," he
reiterated.
He said Iran is doing its best to promote spirituality and
humanistic and Islamic values and never wages a war.
The religious figure said the distortion of his remarks
betrayed the enemies' desperation.
"I have just stated an idea, but it is obvious that the Islamic
Republic of Iran plans to settle its nuclear case through
negotiations.
"The enemies aim to create pretexts and misuse the issue
through hue and cry."
*****************************************************************
10 IRNA: Iran, Russia conclude 2nd round of nuclear talks
Moscow, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Russia-Nuclear
Iranian and Russian delegations held their second round of
nuclear talks to discuss Moscow's nuclear proposal to enrich
uranium in Iran's behalf.
During this round of talks, the sides exchanged views on
details requested by Iran on Moscow's offer to set up a site in
Russia for joint uranium enrichment with Iran.
Iran-Russia nuclear talks which resumed in the Kremlin on
Monday produced no agreement. The talks continued on Tuesday at
the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Iranian delegation was headed by Deputy Secretary of the
Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Hosseini-Tash while
the the Russian delegation was headed by Russian Security
Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov. Ivanov's deputy, Valentin
Sobolev, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak were
also present at the talks.
No details of the talks have been disclosed.
Iran had earlier assessed the Russian nuclear proposal as
"constructive," saying it may be a positive step towards
resolving the nuclear issue if its shortcomings and ambiguities
were removed.
Most countries and international circles have called on Iran to
accept the Russian offer under current circumstances and
transfer some of its uranium enrichment activities to Moscow to
dispel doubts it could be trying to produce the fuel needed for
an atomic bomb.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly announced it is not
interested in nuclear weapons and would in no way give up its
legal right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy within its
territory.
*****************************************************************
11 AFP: Rice heads out on delicate Mideast swing
Mon Feb 20, 2:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice " />
Condoleezza Ricewas heading out on a five-day Middle East swing
seeking to shore up US policies challenged on several fronts in
the volatile region.
Facing a showdown over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the prospect of
a militant Islamist group running the Palestinian terrorities and
a polarizing Shiite Muslim government in Iraq " /> Iraq, Rice was
treading a tough diplomatic road.
Her trip to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
comes at time when the US strategy of promoting full-bore
democracy as an antidote to Islamic extremism and terrorism was
being second-guessed by some here.
Henry Hyde, Republican chairman of the House International
Affairs Committee, warned last week that "the magic formula of
democracy alone" would not work without an open-ended commitment
of US time and resources.
Topping the agenda for Rice's talks this week was Iran, which
has come under US fire for its suspected nuclear arms program as
well as what she called its efforts to destabilize the Middle
East.
Washington has been seeking to isolate Tehran, which it calls
the "central banker" for world terrorism, and to win support for
eventual UN sanctions unless it renounces any hope of building
an atomic bomb.
But the influence of Tehran's Shiite regime appeared instead to
be spreading, with the emergence of a Shiite government in Iraq
and the electoral success of the radical Shiite group Hezbollah
in Lebanon.
Iran is making overtures to the radical group Hamas, which was
set to form a new government in the Palestinian territories and
was looking for new sources of financing amid threats of a
cutoff of Western aid.
Rice acknowledged the growing threat last week, telling Arab
journalists that Iran, Syria
" /> Syriaand Hezbollah had formed a "nexus" of troublemakers as
part of Tehran's bid to spread "Iranian influence and Iranian
mischief-making."
The chief US diplomat will lobby the United States' Arab allies
for help in reining in the Iranians' regional activities as well
as support to keep its nuclear plans in check with the threat of
eventual sanctions.
She will also seek to draw a diplomatic cordon around Hamas,
whose shock victory in last month's Palestinian parliamentary
elections dealt a strong blow to hopes of reviving US-backed
peace talks with Israel
" /> Israel.
The United States has vowed to withhold all but critical
humanitarian aid unless Hamas renounces violence, recognizes
Israel's right to exist and respects accords struck by the
previous Palestinian government.
Rice made it clear in her session with Middle East journalists
that she would ask moderate Arab governments to folllow suit.
"I would hope that any state that is considering funding a
Hamas-led government would think about the implications of that
for the Middle East and for the Middle East peace process," she
said.
But the secretary signaled she would press the Saudis in Riyadh
and the Gulf allies meeting with her later in Abu Dhabi to open
their purses to help rebuild Iraq three years after US-led
forces toppled Saddam Hussein
" /> Saddam Hussein.
Rice was also scouting Arab support for Washington's efforts to
boost the participation of Iraq's minority Sunni Muslim
commmunity in a fledgling political system dominated by majority
Shiites and Kurds.
As violence continued in Iraq unabated, the US ambassador to
Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, warned Monday that ethnic and sectarian
tension was "the fundamental problem" in Iraq and was helping
fuel a stubborn insurgency.
While Rice looks for comfort from leading US allies in the
Middle East, she might run into some uneasy moments at the start
of her trip in Egypt amid new strains over Cairo's pace of
democratic reform.
Rice and other US officials registered unequivocal objections
last week when the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
" /> Hosni Mubarakmoved to delay upcoming local elections for
two years.
After similar US barbs following last year's violence-plagued
legislative elections and the jailing of opposition leader Ayman
Nur, Rice confirmed Friday the time was "not right" to begin
free trade talks eagerly sought by Cairo.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
12 AFP: Iran to hold no more nuclear talks with EU-3 -
Tuesday February 21, 08:37 PM
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran will no longer hold talks on its nuclear
programme with the EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany but with
individual European countries, Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki said.
"Our contacts with the European Union will no longer be held
with the EU-3, but in a unilateral manner with the different
countries of the European Union," Mottaki told reporters on
Tuesday.
The negotiations between Iran and the EU-3 had broken off when
Tehran announced on January 10 that it was resuming activities
linked to uranium enrichment.
While attaching little weight to negotiations with the European
Union, Mottaki said Iran was putting the most emphasis on its
discussions with Russia over Moscow's proposal for Tehran to
enrich uranium on Russian soil.
"At the current time the European Union has said it is ready to
accept an eventual agreement between Iran and Russia. This means
that if there is a need to have official discussions with the
European Union it will be to complete the Russian proposal," he
said.
However Mottaki made clear that Iran was not going back on its
resumption this year of small-scale uranium enrichment at home
for research purposes.
"At the moment we are at the beginning of the road for
enrichment in the laboratory. Any new idea for negotiations
needs to go from this point."
Enrichment is a process that involves feeding uranium gas
through cascades of centrifuges. When purified to low levels,
the result is reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to
make the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
13 IRNA: Iran criticizes Europe's double standards on human rights issue
Tehran, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Mottaki-Reporters
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Tuesday that in
his recent talks with representatives of the European
Parliament, he criticized EU double standards on human rights
issue.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 6th session of
the Ministerial Council of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for
Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), Mottaki said he also mentioned
to the representatives, cases of human rights violation
regarding religious minorities, particularly Muslims, in Europe,
including the recent insulting cartoons in Danish newspapers of
the Holy Prophet of Islam Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him).
As for terrorism, the minister said that he discussed the need
to find a clear-cut and distinctive definition of terrorism so
that it would differentiate between nations' struggle to
liberate their homelands and the acts of terrorism perpetrated
by terrorists.
Touching upon the issue of weapons of mass destruction (WMD),
Mottaki said he had stressed in the European Parliament that
Tehran has been and still is committed to its opposition to the
deployment of weapons of mass destruction while Europeans
violated their commitments in this regard by providing Iraq with
such weapons during Iraqi 8-year imposed war against Iran under
the ousted Saddam Hussein.
With the help of over 200 European and American companies, said
the minister, Iraq had been able to use WMD against Iranians 400
times during its imposed war.
"I told them (EP representatives) in a friendly and clear tone
that it was their countries that provided Iraq with such
destructive facilities," Mottaki added.
As for the issue of Iran's nuclear programs, the minister said
he made it clear for the Europeans that Tehran was ready to
discuss a new plan regarding the issue so that it could make a
link between stance of Europeans and that of Iran on its right
to use peaceful nuclear technology.
Referring to the stances of Europe and Iran, He added
"Europeans fear that Iran would probably deviate from its
peaceful nuclear program towards building atomic bombs whereas
Iran is seeking ways to act upon its indisputable right for
acquiring peaceful nuclear technology."
Mottaki noted that concerning Iran's policy to support Iraq and
formation of an Iraqi government as the final step in this
respect, "We recommended two significant issues of terrorist
moves and continued occupation of Iraq to be added to the agenda.
"At the meeting, we stressed that the Iraqi government should
promote and indigenize security in the country."
The minister said that it was pointed out that a time table
should be drawn up for the withdrawal of foreign troops from
Iraq and it was reminded that continued occupation can lead to a
pretext for further terrorist acts.
"The other point about Iraq mentioned at the meeting was the
horrible images of the Abu Ghraib prison in the city of Basra,
southern Iraq, where the Iraqi youth were tortured by the US and
British soldiers and the head of EU Foreign Relations Commission
was called upon to assign a committee with research on the issue
and report the outcome to the European Parliament," he added.
The official said that Iran's proposal was welcomed and that
the Europeans referred to a similar move in Guantanamo Bay
prison.
"Similar to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, they called
for closure of this detention center," he added.
He said that this was followed by a one-hour question-answer,
during which questions were brought up by EU representatives,
which provided a suitable opportunity for enlightenment of
Europe's public opinion and their closer acquaintance with
Iran's stance.
"Judging by the questions raised at the session, we realized
that further steps are required for making contact with the
public opinion of the European states.
"He declared the readiness of Iran's government and Foreign
Ministry to pave the way for broader communication between the
European communities and universities and Iranian higher
educational centers," he said.
In response to a question whether Holocaust was discussed at
the meeting, he said in reply to the great number of questions
raised on the issue, they were recommended to consider the right
form of question asked by Iran.
"It is interesting that they were by no way prepared to discuss
the issue openly, but rather underlined that this was a
historical event, while emphasizing the crimes committed by
themselves.
"Meanwhile, we told them that if you insist on admitting that
you have actually burnt six million men, neither President
Ahmadinejad nor the Iranian nation will raise any objection. The
second question concerned the reason the Europeans abuse Muslims
to make up for such crimes, to which nobody answered," concluded
Mottaki.
*****************************************************************
14 IRNA: Iran, Russia agree to continue nuclear talks on Tuesday
Moscow, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Moscow-Talks
The Iranian and Russian negotiating teams agreed to pursue later
on Tuesday their talks on Moscow's proposal to enrich Iranian
uranium on Russian soil, it was reported here Monday evening.
The Iranian delegation, headed by Deputy Secretary of the
Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Hosseini-Tash, told
IRNA at the end of his talks Monday with the Russian side that
any further discussions or final decision would be made after
the talks on Tuesday (today).
He declined to explain details of his five-hour talks Monday
with the Russian side.
On Monday, Hosseini-Tash held closed-door talks with his
Russian counterpart, Valentin Sobolev, Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergei Kislyac and Russian National Security Council
chief Sergei Ivanov in the Kremlin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whom President Vladimir
Putin assigend to report to him on the progress of the
negotiations, said that Moscow hopes Iran's nuclear case will be
resolved within the framework of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA).
Iran had earlier assessed the Russian nuclear proposal as
"constructive," saying it may be a positive step towards
resolving the nuclear issue if its shortcomings and ambiguities
were removed.
*****************************************************************
15 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Six-Party Talks Could Resume in Late March
> Updated Feb.21,2006 21:28 KST
A high-ranking government official says countries in six-party
talks on North KoreaˇŻs nuclear program are looking at the end
of March or beginning of April to resume the stalled
negotiations.
ˇ°There have been various contacts between the U.S., North Korea
and Chinaˇ± which established that the talks can resume as soon
as a solution to WashingtonˇŻs financial sanctions that have
stalled progress arise, the official said. ˇ°But whether the
talks are really held at that time will depend on the progress
made between North Korea and the U.S.,ˇ± he added. Pyongyang is
boycotting the talks over sanctions Washington has slapped on a
bank it says was North KoreaˇŻs main money-laundering channel.
Meanwhile, the official dismissed a suggestion that South Korea
could pay for measures to reduce the income gap by slashing the
defense budget.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
16 FT.com: China - US urges China action on N Korea talks
/ Asia-Pacific /
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Anna Fifield in Seoul
Published: February 22 2006 00:30 | Last updated: February 22
[North Korea Nuclear] The US wants North Korea’s neighbours
– particularly China – to put more pressure on Pyongyang to
return to negotiations about its nuclear ambitions.
But in spite of the impasse in the six-party talks, Washington
remains optimistic that the negotiations will resume in Beijing
imminently, perhaps as soon as this month.
“As soon as the Chinese let us know that they’re ready,
we’ll be there. The sooner the better,” Christopher Hill,
the US’s assistant secretary of state and chief negotiator in
the nuclear talks, said. “The Chinese would like to get it
going as early as this month . . . As long as we feel
we’re making progress, we’re going to continue this
process.”
The six parties’ joint statement signed in September was
heralded as a breakthrough in the tumultuous talks process, but
the negotiations have stalled because of North Korea’s
objections to a US crackdown on its alleged counterfeiting and
money laundering. Nor has there been any progress in fleshing
out the September agreement in which Pyongyang promised, in
principle, to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Negotiators in Washington and Seoul, in particular, are
increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress, with Mr Hill
suggesting that China – North Korea’s largest aid donor and
closest political ally – could do more.
The other parties are Russia and Japan.
“China has enormous leverage with North Korea, but China is
also North Korea’s neighbour. And when you’re a neighbour
you sometimes don’t always use all the leverage that you could
have,” he said. “We think everybody should try to do
more . . . We cannot have a situation where North Korea
is left to develop nuclear weapons.”
However, against a backdrop of mounting scepticism about the
Chinese-hosted talks, Mr Hill said that they could be revived as
early as this month.
“I don’t think [North Korea is] going to walk away from an
agreement that involves all of its neighbours because [it] is
going to live with those neighbours for a long time,” he said.
In Seoul yesterday, a senior South Korean official said the
talks could resume in late March.
“Currently, there are several contacts going on between the US
and North Korea and between China and North Korea and if a
solution to the financial problem comes up through these
[contacts], the next round of talks will be held,” he told
reporters on condition he not be identified.
Separately, the government said Song Min-soon, South Korea’s
top security official and former talks negotiator, would go to
Washington this week to discuss issues, including the talks.
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2006. "FT"
and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.
*****************************************************************
17 Xinhua: US calls for early resumption of six-party talks
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-22 05:26:48
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States said on
Tuesday that it wants to see an early resumption of the
six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"We obviously remain eager to see resumption of talks. We
continue to consult with our partners in the process about how
to achieve that objective," State Department deputy spokesman
Adam Ereli said at a briefing.
However, Ereli declined to comment on reports by South
Korean media that the six-party talks will resume in March or
April.
"At this point, however, I'm not aware of any dates that
have been decided upon," he said.
The DPRK has said that it would not return to the six-party
talks unless the United States lifts the sanctions imposed on
the country for the DPRK's alleged counterfeiting and money
launderingactivities. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
18 AFP: Chinese diplomat in US in bid to break Korean nuclear deadlock -
Tue Feb 21, 6:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A senior Chinese diplomat held talks with US
officials to lay the groundwork for President Hu Jintao
" /> Hu Jintao's Washington visit and help break the impasse
over the North Korean nuclear crisis, officials said.
Vice foreign minister Yang Jiechi held discussions with
Christopher Hill, the top US envoy to stalled talks aimed at
ending North Korea " /> North Korea's nuclear weapons program,
and is scheduled to meet with Deputy Secretary of State Robert
Zoellick " /> Robert Zoellicklater Tuesday.
"They'll be talking about a number of issues: first and
foremost, I think, the upcoming visit of President Hu in April,
but I expect that the issue of six-party talks would also come
up in their discussions," Adam Ereli, the deputy State
Department spokesman, told reporters ahead of the scheduled
talks.
"We obviously remain eager to see a resumption of" the six-party
nuclear talks among the United States, China, the two Koreas,
Russia and Japan, he said when asked to comment on South Korean
media reports that the negotiations could resume in March or
April.
Ereli said, "At this point, however, I'm not aware of any dates
that have been decided upon."
For the last two years, China has been host to the six-party
talks which ran into problems after the United States imposed
financial sanctions on North Korea over its alleged
counterfeiting and money laundering activities.
Pyongyang said it would not return to the negotiating table
until the sanctions were removed, a demand the United States has
flatly refused.
Beijing is keen to remove stumbling blocks to the talks before
Hu makes his visit to Washington sometime in April, diplomats
said.
Stalinist North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il paid a
visit to China last month and told Hu he wanted to pursue
nuclear disarmament talks, according to the North's official
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Kim and Hu discussed the six-party talks and agreed to push for
"a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue," it said.
The nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington erupted in
2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a
secret uranium-enrichment program.
North Korea responded by throwing out UN International Atomic
Energy Agency
" /> International Atomic Energy Agencyweapons inspectors and
abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
19 Chernobyl+20: Conference and US activities news and updates
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:58:30 -0800
February 21, 2006
The press release below announces some of the speakers and background
information for the Chernobyl+20 conference in Kiev, Ukraine April 23-25,
2006 (note that the conference materials use the Ukrainian spellings for
Chornobyl and Kyiv&), an event NIRS is proud to be co-sponsoring.
We encourage you to distribute it widely; a formatted version (pdf file) is
available on NIRSwebsite (www.nirs.org) and the
conference website (www.ch20.org). More speakers and
participants will be announced in the coming weeks, as well as more
background information on the issues. For example, check these sites now
for new studies on nukes and climate, nuclear economics, and nuclear
hazards, sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.
If you are interested in attending the conferenceand we hope many of you
are--please pre-register at the www.ch20.org website.
We are hopeful of obtaining some financial aid; if you need that, please
indicate so when you pre-register (note, U.S. citizens may contact NIRS for
financial assistance at nirsnet@nirs.org).
For those of you not making the trip to Kiev, we encourage you and your
groups to hold Chernobyl+20 related activities. Some groups are planning
film festivals, others press conferences and rallies, some are making new
materials overlaying maps of Chernobyl contamination on their local areas,
some are organizing a coordinated bell-ringing across the countryyour
ideas, imagination and enthusiasm can help make this April a suitable
commemoration for the victims of Chernobyl and a clear statement that more
nuclear power is simply unacceptable. There will also be a Congressional
briefing on the ongoing consequences of Chernobyl, and much more.
But please let us know what you and your group are doing! Please provide us
with all the specifics you can (times, dates, addresses, etc): we will be
posting this information on the NIRS website and encouraging media
attention to local activities. Please send your activities to
nirsnet@nirs.org.
At this time when the Bush administration is promoting new nuclear power
almost daily, is attempting to reinstate dangerous and dirty reprocessing
of atomic waste, and is planning to give billions of our tax dollars to the
already wealthy nuclear industry, it is more important than ever that we
all take advantage of this opportunity and make the loudest and clearest
statements we can.
Michael Mariotte
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
Dont forget to sign the Petition for a Sustainable Energy Future, at
www.nirs.org, and forward it to all your friends and
colleagues as well!
___________________________________________
This is the NIRS E-Mail Alert list. You are on this list because you signed
up on our website, at a NIRS table at a concert, on a petition, or directly
to NIRS. Your name and address are never sold, rented, or traded with
anyone for any reason.
For address changes or to unsubscribe, just send an e-mail to
nirsnet@nirs.org. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to be on
this list, have them send a note to nirsnet@nirs.org
HEINRICH BÖLL STIFTUNG
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE
WORLD INFORMATION SERVICE ON ENERGY
GREENS/EFA IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
BUNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN
INTERNATIONAL PHYSICIANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF NUCLEAR WAR
EARTH DAY NETWORK
ECOCLUB
www.ch20.org
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact: Tetyana
Murza, Ecoclub
February 21,
2006 +380
97 5952346; +380 44 483-2961
tanyam@nirs.org;
www.ch20.org
KYIV, UKRAINE CONFERENCE ON 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHORNOBYL BRINGING TOGETHER
EXPERTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
WILL FOCUS ON NEW INFORMATION ON CHORNOBYL CONSEQUENCES, FACTS ON NUCLEAR
POWER TODAY & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CHOICES
With the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster rapidly
approaching, organizers of the Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future
conference today announced more details about conference speakers and
format. The international conference will be held April 23-25, 2006 at the
House of the Teacher in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine.
The conference will consist of four main sections, supplemented by numerous
workshops. The first session, on Sunday, April 23, will feature an opening
for the wider public with reputed Ukrainian writers and poets, introduced
by European Parliament member Rebecca Harms. Among the speakers will be
Yury Andruhovych, an internationally well-known poet, novelist and
essayist, who just received the Leipzig book prize for European cooperation.
On Monday morning, scientists and experts will present a new critique of
the September 2005 International Atomic Energy Agency report on Chornobyl
consequences, which many believe substantially understates the devastating
reality of the disaster. Led by the United Kingdoms Dr. Ian Fairlie,
coordinator of the new critique, the morning sessions will also feature
Professor Alexey Yablokov, a former advisor to Russian President Boris
Yeltsin; Dr. Angelina Nyagu of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine;
Alex Kuzma of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, Dr. Angelika Claussen
of IPPNW, and many more.
Monday afternoon is devoted to highlighting the current debate on nuclear
energy, addressing safety and proliferation issues as well as economic
aspects of nuclear technology. Among confirmed speakers are co-authors of a
new study series on the topic, Felix Matthes of the Öko Institute and
independent consultant Antony Froggatt. The study was commissioned by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation and will be presented at the conference. Also
featured are Vladimir Chuproff of Greenpeace Russia; Yury Urbansky of
Bankwatch; and Ada Amon of Energia Klub in Budapest, and many more.
Tuesdays session, entitled Roadmap to a Sustainable Energy Futurewill draw
on the potential role of renewable energy sources as well as energy
efficiency strategies while at the same time taking into consideration the
specific energy policy realities in Ukraine and other Central and Eastern
European countries. Featured experts of the sessions include, among others,
author and researcher Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism; Ed Smeloff,
former chief of the San Francisco and Sacramento electric utilities; Andriy
Konechenkov of Renewable Energy Agency in Ukraine; Professor Victoria
Vereshchak of Dnepropetrovsk University, and German MP Reinhard Loske,
Alliance 90/The Greens.
The conference will conclude Tuesday afternoon with a press conference and
an afternoon NGO networking session for environmental and grassroots groups
from across the world.
More speakers will be announced over the next few weeks. Registration for
Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future can be done through the conference
website, www.ch20.org. The website also includes
background material on Chornobyl and the issues to be raised at the
conference, information on the conference organizers, and regularly updated
program and speaker information.
BACKGROUNDCHORNOBYL CONSEQUENCES
The disaster at Chornobyl was a unique industrial accident due to the scale
of its social, economic and environmental impacts and their longevity. It
is estimated that, in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia alone, around 9 million
people, among them about 3 million children, were directly affected
resulting from the fact that the long lived radioactivity released was more
than 200 times that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Across the former Soviet Union the contamination resulted in evacuation of
some 400,000 people. About 200,000 km2 of land was, and is, contaminated by
radioactive Caesium-137 above 37kBq/m2 (intervention level). In addition,
about 3,900,000 km2, about 40% of the surface area of Europe, was
contaminated above the level of 4 kBq/m2. This contamination will persist
for centuries, and many countries as well as Belarus, Ukraine and Russia
will need to continue with food restriction orders for many decades to
come. The economic consequences of the accident remain a massive burden on
the countries most affected; Ukraine and Belarus continue to spend around
6% of their Gross National Product on trying to deal with the consequences
of the accident.
The full health impact of the Chornobyl disaster might never be known.
Although official accounts point to 4,000 expected cancer deaths from
Chornobyl in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, the real prediction in IAEA/WHO
reports is more than 9,000 cancer deaths. However this excludes the more
than 30,000 anticipated cancer deaths from the collective doses in all
other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Over 6,000 thyroid cancer cases
have been diagnosed so far in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, and more are
anticipated. Recent scientific studies are revealing increased incidences
of solid cancers, including breast cancer, as well as cardiovascular and
ophthalmic effects. These effects have long latency periods of more than 20
years. The general state of health is in decline and contaminated
territories show low birth rates, relatively high rates of prenatal losses
and infant mortality. The health situation is further complicated by the
persisting social-economic crisis in the three most affected countries. The
current medical condition of the affected population indicates that the
adverse health legacy from Chornobyl is continuing and is more severe than
officially admitted.
Chornobyl, is the clear and indisputable example of the possible
consequences of nuclear power. It is a lesson to the world that nuclear
power is too dangerous, dirty and expensive.
In the U.S., contact Michael Mariotte at Nuclear Information and Resource
Service, 202.328.0002, nirsnet@nirs.org.
--30--
*****************************************************************
20 IRNA: US president's nuclear partnership to cap India's nuclear arm -
New Delhi, Feb 21, IRNA
India-US-Nuclear
US President George W Bush has made it very clear that all
"partners" under his new USD 250 million "Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership" proposal will "have to agree to use nuclear power
only for civilian purposes and forego uranium enrichment and
reprocessing activities that can be used to develop nuclear
weapons."
In return, the US will provide the countries "with small-scale
reactors that will be secure and cost-effective."
"We will also ensure that these developing nations have a
reliable nuclear fuel supply," President Bush said in a radio
address to the American people made available here.
India and the US are working hard to salvage their civilian
nuclear energy agreement although the absence of transparency is
creating sufficient confusion within the strategic establishment
not directly associated with the ongoing talks, a leading
English daily, Asian Age, reported here today.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed on Monday at a joint
press conference with French President Jacques Chirac that "all
facilities procured by India through international cooperation
on civilian nuclear energy will of course be subjected to
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards," even as
his aides spread the word that Washington was likely to agree to
keeping the fast breeder reactor out of the civilian list of
nuclear facilities for a few more years.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns
has now announced that he will be flying to Delhi to discuss the
deal as "90 percent" of the work has been done and just "10
percent remains."
This was so even after the nuclear agreement has been opposed
on different counts by the Department of Atomic Energy, the BJP
and the Left parties with Prime Minister Singh and his aides,
however, insistent that the nuclear agreement would go through.
The separation plans remain a closely guarded secret, with the
government undecided whether Prime Minister Singh will make a
statement in Parliament on the subject before or after the visit
of President Bush. Prime Minister Singh did not give a
categorical date to the Council of Ministers at the recent
meeting convened by him here.
President Bush, in his radio message on Saturday, was far more
forthcoming and gave details of his proposal, for which he will
be traveling to India to seek a firm agreement.
America, he announced, will work with nations that have
advanced civilian nuclear energy programs such as France, Japan
and Russia.
He said they will together "develop and deploy innovative,
advanced reactors and new methods to recycle spent nuclear fuel"
as these will produce more energy while "dramatically reducing
the amount of nuclear waste and eliminating the nuclear
byproducts that unstable regimes or terrorists could use to make
weapons." At the same time, President Bush said, the US will
work with its partners in developing countries "to meet their
growing energy needs" by providing them with secure and
cost-effective, small-scale reactors and a regular fuel supply.
And, "in exchange, these partners will agree to forego uranium
enrichment and reprocessing activities for developing nuclear
weapons."
He told the American nation that under his scheme the US would
be in a position to "provide the cheap, safe and clean energy
that growing economies need while reducing the risk of nuclear
proliferation."
The US president preceded those remarks with a strong pitch for
nuclear power, pointing out that France has built 58 nuclear
power plants and gets more than 70 percent of its electricity
from nuclear power.
"Yet here in America we have not ordered a new nuclear power
plant since the 1970s," he said, pointing out that just last
summer he had signed an energy legislation offering incentives
to encourage the building of nuclear plants in the US and was
optimistic that the construction of these new nuclear plants
would start by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, all-out efforts are on by the Manmohan Singh
government to get the deal through during President Bush's
visit, with Burns now expected to work on the "let us leave the
fast breeder reactor out of the separation plans till 2010"
proposal.
There is visible excitement in government circles now that
Burns, who had made it clear that he would not visit New Delhi
unless there was something concrete to discuss, had decided to
come later this week for further discussions.
He has spoken of the need for "flexibility" on both sides and
it remains to be seen now whether the one-page list initially
submitted by the Department of Atomic Energy has extended to
more pages.
News sent: 14:33 Tuesday February 21, 2006
*****************************************************************
21 Daily Telegraph: Coming clean on US bombers
February 22, 2006
NONE of the weapons the US Air Force drops on Australian
military training ranges will contain depleted uranium, the
Government said yesterday.
Under an agreement reached at the Australia-US ministerial
consultations in Adelaide last November, US Air Force bombers
are to make greater use of our military ranges.
In answer to a question on notice released yesterday, former
junior defence minister De-Anne Kelly said the exact numbers of
US aircraft operating over Australia had yet to be determined.
But it could consist of between one and three B-1, B-2 or B-52
aircraft conducting combined training activities each month.
Mrs Kelly said they would drop conventional and practice
munitions plus precision guided weapons.
But she could give an assurance that no weapons dropped during
the training exercises would contain depleted uranium, a super
hard material used for added penetration.
Copyright 2005 Nationwide News | Produced by The Daily Telegraph
*****************************************************************
22 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Canada to Update Defense Treaty
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 12:46 AM
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) - The defense treaty between the
United States and Canada will be expanded to include maritime
surveillance, Ottawa's newly appointed defense minister said
Monday.
Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor said the joint maritime
surveillance and the existing agreement on continental air
defense - the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD
- would not compromise Canada's control over its military.
He also emphasized the expanded treaty would not lead to
automatic adoption of the Bush administration's plans to
establish a ballistic missile defense shield.
The expanded treaty is expected to be signed in May, when the
current one expires.
O'Connor, in his first public statement since Conservative Prime
Minister Stephen Harper came to power last month, downplayed the
significance of the updated treaty, dismissing the suggestion it
could lead to U.S. warships patrolling Canadian waters.
The agreement will mean ``merely a transfer of information,'' he
told reporters in the hangar deck of the Canadian frigate HMCS
Halifax, after touring the navy dockyard.
``It doesn't change our responsibility as a country,'' he said.
``We have to look after our own sovereignty. We have to deal
with any threats coming from the sea.''
Once ratified, the new treaty would allow intelligence on
shipping data and threats to the sea lanes to be sent directly
into NORAD headquarters, which is staffed by Canadian and U.S.
military at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.
NORAD was founded in 1958, at the height of the Cold War, to
counter the threat of Soviet nuclear bombers and missiles. Since
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there has been increasing
pressure to modernize the organization's role.
Critics have said an expanded treaty could inadvertently sweep
Canada into the U.S. government's contentious and largely
unproven ballistic missile defense program.
A year ago, the now-ousted Liberal government turned down a U.S.
request for Canada to join the program, which would include
bases across the continent where small missiles could be
launched to shoot down ballistic missiles fired at North America
by rogue nations.
O'Connor restated the Conservative government's position that it
would be willing to negotiate with the United States on defense
program.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
23 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Promotes Renewable Energy Proposals
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 9:46 AM
AP Photo WIJR105 By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - President Bush says he wants to
diversify the nation's energy mix to end America's dependence on
foreign oil, yet some critics are wary of his commitment and
point to cutbacks at a government energy laboratory here.
Two weeks ago, 32 workers, including eight researchers, were
laid off at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden. The lab helps develop the very renewable
energy technologies the president is promoting.
Then, over the weekend, just before Bush's planned visit to the
lab on Tuesday, the government restored the jobs. His trip to
the renewable energy laboratory is part of a two-day,
three-state trip to promote the energy proposals he outlined in
his State of the Union address.
At the direction of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, $5 million
was transferred to the Midwest Research Institute, the operating
contractor for the lab, to get the workers back on the job, the
Energy Department announced Monday.
Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust,
said the decision restores only $5 million of the $28 million
budget shortfall at the lab that forced the layoffs.
``The $5 million stopped the bodies from going out the door, but
it doesn't provide the money for the (renewable energy)
programs,'' Clapp said.
Gary Nakarado, who has worked at the lab for 13 years, said he
hasn't received a call to return to work. He said he had ``a
sense of irony'' about the layoffs announced just a week after
Bush declared in his State of the Union address that the nation
needs to end its ``addiction'' to foreign oil.
The president has proposed a 22 percent increase in funding for
clean-energy technology research at the Energy Department. He
wants to change the way the nation fuels its vehicles and powers
homes and businesses by focusing on nuclear, solar and wind
power as well as better batteries to power hybrid-electric
autos.
In 1985, three-quarters of the crude oil used in U.S. refineries
came from America, Bush said Monday at a stop in Milwaukee at
Johnson Controls, which is developing advanced batteries for
hybrid-electric autos. Today, less than half the crude oil used
in U.S. refineries is produced in America, while 60 percent
comes from foreign countries, he said.
``Some of the nations we rely on for oil have unstable
governments, or fundamental differences with the United
States,'' Bush said. ``These countries know we need their oil
and that reduces influence. It creates a national security issue
when we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may
not like us.''
Lab employee Tina Larney said that even though the jobs are
being reinstated, she still questions the government's resolve
in finding alternative energy sources.
``There is technology available now, there is the know-how
now,'' Larney said. ``What is lacking is leadership on the large
scale at the national level.''
The White House says Bush is providing that leadership. They say
he wants to invest more in zero-emission, coal-fired plants, as
well as support solar and wind research, promote cars that run
on hydrogen, encourage more nuclear power plant construction and
fund work to produce ethanol - not just from corn, but from wood
chips and switch grass.
Critics of the Bush administration are skeptical of Bush's
energy proposals.
Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., co-chairman of the House Renewable
Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, said the government has
funded only one-third of the money the 2005 energy bill
authorized for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Clapp claims the president is promoting renewables because polls
show his job approval numbers are being weighed down by
Americans' concerns about high utility bills this winter and the
cost of gasoline at the pump.
---
Associated Press writers Judith Kohler and Colleen Slevin
contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
NREL: http://www.nrel.gov
Energy Department:
http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/index.htm
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
24 BBC: US 'reclassifying' public files
Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
[President Bush views the Emancipation Proclamation
at the National Archives, January 2006 ]
The reclassification is said to have accelerated under President
Bush
US intelligence agencies have been removing thousands of
historical documents from public access, the New York Times has
reported.
The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 pages
began in 1999, the paper said.
At that time, the CIA and five other agencies reportedly objected
to what they saw as a "hasty release" of sensitive information.
The files include documents already published or obtained by
historians.
The New York Times said the reclassification programme
accelerated after President Bush took office and especially after
the 9/11 attacks.
But because it runs in secrecy, it continued without being
noticed until December 2005.
According to the report, it was intelligence historian Matthew
Aid who noticed that dozens of documents he had copied years ago
had been withdrawn from the National Archives' open shelves.
Those are said to include decades-old State Department reports
from the Korean War and the early Cold War.
'Silly'
Under existing guidelines, government documents are supposed to
be declassified after 25 years unless there is a particular
reason to keep them secret.
But some historians argued that the reclassification program is
removing material that can do no conceivable harm to national
security, the New York Times said.
Mr Aid mentioned among the "innocuous" files removed a 1948
memorandum on a CIA scheme to float balloons over countries
behind the Iron Curtain to drop propaganda leaflets.
Another reclassified document that Mr Aid had copied gives the
CIA's assessment on 12 October 1950 that Chinese intervention in
the Korean War was "not probable in 1950" - two weeks before
Chinese troops crossed into Korea.
Another historian, William Burr, is quoted by the New York Times
as saying that he considered "silly" the reclassification of a
dozen files he obtained at the National Archives.
He mentioned a 1962 telegram from the then US ambassador to
Yugoslavia containing an English translation of a Belgrade
newspaper article on China's nuclear weapons program.
After Mr Aid and other historians complained, the archives'
Information Security Oversight Office began an audit of the
reclassification program, according to the New York Times.
*****************************************************************
25 Kyodo: U.S. to ask Japan, other nations for nuclear fuel program funding
Friday February 17, 10:14 AM
(Kyodo) _ The United States said Thursday it will seek
technical and financial contributions from Japan and other
countries taking part in a new U.S.-initiated international
nuclear fuel program.
"I think we will ask for all of these countries to participate,
hopefully financially and hopefully to participate in the
technical work," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told reporters
after testifying at a congressional hearing.
Bodman said the program will cost somewhere between $20 billion
and $40 billion but noted the estimate is "my personal sense."
The secretary identified Japan, Britain, China, France and
Russia as "potential international partners" for the program.
U.S. officials recently visited the five nations to explain the
new initiative aimed at safeguarding against nuclear
proliferation by providing nuclear fuel to developing nations
and advancing technologies for recycling and protecting nuclear
fuel and waste.
On Feb. 6, the Energy Department announced the program, called
the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, in seeking $250 million
from Congress as part of President George W. Bush's budget plan
for fiscal 2007 starting Oct. 1.
Separately at a press conference Thursday at the Foreign Press
Center, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell expressed strong hope
for Japan's technical cooperation.
"Japan has great capability in recycling technologies," Sell
said, referring to its nuclear fuel plants, including what he
called "the world's newest commercial reprocessing facility" to
be opened soon.
"We think there are potential opportunities there to test and
demonstrate new technologies," Sell said. 
[ src=]
2005 Kyodo News © Established 1945. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 AFP: Bush calls for nuclear construction by 2010 -
Tue Feb 21, 8:33 AM ET
MILWAUKEE, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush " />
warned that US dependency on oil left the country "hostage" to
countries that may be hostile and urged new nuclear plant
construction by 2010.
"Some of the nations we rely on for oil have unstable
governments, or fundamental differences with the United States,"
he said during a trip here, without naming the countries to
which he was referring.
"These countries know we need their oil and that reduces
influence. It creates a national security issue when we're held
hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us,"
said Bush.
Drawing on the examples of France, China, and India, the
president pushed a 1.1 billion dollar program to promote the
construction of new nuclear power plants, something the United
States has not done since the 1970s.
"We ought to start building nuclear power plants again. I think
it makes sense to do so. Technology is such that we can do so
and say to the American people, these are safe -- and they're
important," he said.
The US leader, echoing remarks he made at his State of the Union
speech last month, said the United States was "addicted" to oil
and that some crude imports came from countries that have
"unstable governments or fundamental differences with the United
States."
In his speech to the US Congress on January 31, Bush called for
research into ethanol, coal-fired plants, solar and wind
technologies and nuclear energy so that 75 percent of oil
imports from the Middle East can be replaced by 2025.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
27 UPI: Bush continues energy push
United Press International - NewsTrack -
2/21/2006 2:59:00 PM -0500
GOLDEN, Colo., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush
visited an energy research lab to talk about ways the United
States can wean itself off what he calls an addiction to oil.
Bush has been pushing his overall energy program since his State
of the Union speech when he declared the United States was
"addicted to oil." In his weekly radio address last Saturday he
touted nuclear power. On Monday he visited a Wisconsin plant
that is developing electric cells to power vehicles.
Tuesday he participated in an energy conservation and efficiency
panel at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
"So that's why we're here, to talk about a variety of options to
achieve a great national goal," Bush said.
As he had been doing, Bush touched on several sources of energy
technology or renewable sources he wants to see advanced.
He said: "In order for us to achieve this national goal of
becoming less dependent on foreign sources of oil, we've got to
spend money and the best place to do that is through research
labs such as NREL."
In something of an embarrassment, several workers at the NREL,
part of the Department of Energy, were let go after the Bush's
budget was released because of a perceived cut in funding. Those
jobs were restored before the president headed to Colorado as
what Bush described as "discrepancies" were cleared up.
© Copyright 2006 United Press
International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
28 Chernobyl+20: Conference and US Activities News and Updates
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:33:48 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Mariotte
To: nukenet@energyjustice.net
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 3:21 PM
Subject: [NukeNet] Chernobyl+20: Conference and US
activities news andupdates
February 21, 2006
Dear Friends:
The press release below announces some of the
speakers and background information for the
Chernobyl+20 conference in Kiev, Ukraine April
23-25, 2006 (note that the conference materials
use the Ukrainian spellings for Chornobyl and
Kyiv.), an event NIRS is proud to be
co-sponsoring.
We encourage you to distribute it widely; a
formatted version (pdf file) is available on NIRS'
website (www.nirs.org) and the conference website
(www.ch20.org). More speakers and participants
will be announced in the coming weeks, as well as
more background information on the issues. For
example, check these sites now for new studies on
nukes and climate, nuclear economics, and nuclear
hazards, sponsored by the Heinrich Boell
Foundation.
If you are interested in attending the
conference-and we hope many of you are--please
pre-register at the www.ch20.org website. We are
hopeful of obtaining some financial aid; if you
need that, please indicate so when you
pre-register (note, U.S. citizens may contact NIRS
for financial assistance at nirsnet@nirs.org).
For those of you not making the trip to Kiev, we
encourage you and your groups to hold Chernobyl+20
related activities. Some groups are planning film
festivals, others press conferences and rallies,
some are making new materials overlaying maps of
Chernobyl contamination on their local areas, some
are organizing a coordinated bell-ringing across
the country-your ideas, imagination and enthusiasm
can help make this April a suitable commemoration
for the victims of Chernobyl and a clear statement
that more nuclear power is simply unacceptable.
There will also be a Congressional briefing on the
ongoing consequences of Chernobyl, and much more.
But please let us know what you and your group are
doing! Please provide us with all the specifics
you can (times, dates, addresses, etc): we will be
posting this information on the NIRS website and
encouraging media attention to local activities.
Please send your activities to nirsnet@nirs.org.
At this time when the Bush administration is
promoting new nuclear power almost daily, is
attempting to reinstate dangerous and dirty
reprocessing of atomic waste, and is planning to
give billions of our tax dollars to the already
wealthy nuclear industry, it is more important
than ever that we all take advantage of this
opportunity and make the loudest and clearest
statements we can.
Thanks for your help and activism!
Michael Mariotte
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
Don't forget to sign the Petition for a
Sustainable Energy Future, at www.nirs.org, and
forward it to all your friends and colleagues as
well!
___________________________________________
This is the NIRS E-Mail Alert list. You are on
this list because you signed up on our website, at
a NIRS table at a concert, on a petition, or
directly to NIRS. Your name and address are never
sold, rented, or traded with anyone for any
reason.
For address changes or to unsubscribe, just send
an e-mail to nirsnet@nirs.org. If you have friends
or colleagues who would like to be on this list,
have them send a note to nirsnet@nirs.org
HEINRICH BÖLL STIFTUNG
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE
WORLD INFORMATION SERVICE ON ENERGY
GREENS/EFA IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
BUNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN
INTERNATIONAL PHYSICIANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF
NUCLEAR WAR
EARTH DAY NETWORK
ECOCLUB
www.ch20.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tetyana Murza, Ecoclub
February 21, 2006
+380 97 5952346; +380 44 483-2961
tanyam@nirs.org; www.ch20.org
KYIV, UKRAINE CONFERENCE ON 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF
CHORNOBYL BRINGING TOGETHER EXPERTS FROM ACROSS
THE GLOBE
WILL FOCUS ON NEW INFORMATION ON CHORNOBYL
CONSEQUENCES, FACTS ON NUCLEAR POWER TODAY &
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CHOICES
With the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear
disaster rapidly approaching, organizers of the
Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future
conference today announced more details about
conference speakers and format. The international
conference will be held April 23-25, 2006 at the
House of the Teacher in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine.
The conference will consist of four main sections,
supplemented by numerous workshops. The first
session, on Sunday, April 23, will feature an
opening for the wider public with reputed
Ukrainian writers and poets, introduced by
European Parliament member Rebecca Harms. Among
the speakers will be Yury Andruhovych, an
internationally well-known poet, novelist and
essayist, who just received the Leipzig book prize
for European cooperation.
On Monday morning, scientists and experts will
present a new critique of the September 2005
International Atomic Energy Agency report on
Chornobyl consequences, which many believe
substantially understates the devastating reality
of the disaster. Led by the United Kingdom's Dr.
Ian Fairlie, coordinator of the new critique, the
morning sessions will also feature Professor
Alexey Yablokov, a former advisor to Russian
President Boris Yeltsin; Dr. Angelina Nyagu of the
Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine; Alex Kuzma
of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, Dr.
Angelika Claussen of IPPNW, and many more.
Monday afternoon is devoted to highlighting the
current debate on nuclear energy, addressing
safety and proliferation issues as well as
economic aspects of nuclear technology. Among
confirmed speakers are co-authors of a new study
series on the topic, Felix Matthes of the Öko
Institute and independent consultant Antony
Froggatt. The study was commissioned by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation and will be presented at
the conference. Also featured are Vladimir
Chuproff of Greenpeace Russia; Yury Urbansky of
Bankwatch; and Ada Amon of Energia Klub in
Budapest, and many more.
Tuesday's session, entitled "Roadmap to a
Sustainable Energy Future" will draw on the
potential role of renewable energy sources as well
as energy efficiency strategies while at the same
time taking into consideration the specific energy
policy realities in Ukraine and other Central and
Eastern European countries. Featured experts of
the sessions include, among others, author and
researcher Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism; Ed
Smeloff, former chief of the San Francisco and
Sacramento electric utilities; Andriy Konechenkov
of Renewable Energy Agency in Ukraine; Professor
Victoria Vereshchak of Dnepropetrovsk University,
and German MP Reinhard Loske, Alliance 90/The
Greens.
The conference will conclude Tuesday afternoon
with a press conference and an afternoon NGO
networking session for environmental and
grassroots groups from across the world.
More speakers will be announced over the next few
weeks. Registration for Chornobyl+20: Remembrance
for the Future can be done through the conference
website, www.ch20.org. The website also includes
background material on Chornobyl and the issues to
be raised at the conference, information on the
conference organizers, and regularly updated
program and speaker information.
BACKGROUND-CHORNOBYL CONSEQUENCES
The disaster at Chornobyl was a unique industrial
accident due to the scale of its social, economic
and environmental impacts and their longevity. It
is estimated that, in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
alone, around 9 million people, among them about 3
million children, were directly affected resulting
from the fact that the long lived radioactivity
released was more than 200 times that of the
atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Across the former Soviet Union the contamination
resulted in evacuation of some 400,000 people.
About 200,000 km2 of land was, and is,
contaminated by radioactive Caesium-137 above
37kBq/m2 (intervention level). In addition, about
3,900,000 km2, about 40% of the surface area of
Europe, was contaminated above the level of 4
kBq/m2. This contamination will persist for
centuries, and many countries as well as Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia will need to continue with food
restriction orders for many decades to come. The
economic consequences of the accident remain a
massive burden on the countries most affected;
Ukraine and Belarus continue to spend around 6% of
their Gross National Product on trying to deal
with the consequences of the accident.
The full health impact of the Chornobyl disaster
might never be known. Although official accounts
point to 4,000 expected cancer deaths from
Chornobyl in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, the real
prediction in IAEA/WHO reports is more than 9,000
cancer deaths. However this excludes the more than
30,000 anticipated cancer deaths from the
collective doses in all other countries in the
Northern Hemisphere. Over 6,000 thyroid cancer
cases have been diagnosed so far in Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia, and more are anticipated.
Recent scientific studies are revealing increased
incidences of solid cancers, including breast
cancer, as well as cardiovascular and ophthalmic
effects. These effects have long latency periods
of more than 20 years. The general state of health
is in decline and contaminated territories show
low birth rates, relatively high rates of prenatal
losses and infant mortality. The health situation
is further complicated by the persisting
social-economic crisis in the three most affected
countries. The current medical condition of the
affected population indicates that the adverse
health legacy from Chornobyl is continuing and is
more severe than officially admitted.
Chornobyl, is the clear and indisputable example
of the possible consequences of nuclear power. It
is a lesson to the world that nuclear power is too
dangerous, dirty and expensive.
In the U.S., contact Michael Mariotte at Nuclear
Information and Resource Service, 202.328.0002,
nirsnet@nirs.org.
*****************************************************************
29 Guardian Unlimited: Brave new world for King Coal as it tries to
clean up its act
· Soaring gas prices signal a return to the old fuel
· Fear that UK will rely too heavily on foreign imports
Terry Macalister
Tuesday February 21, 2006
The Guardian
The government yesterday gave its clearest signal yet that King
Coal is ready for a comeback as it emphasised that clean
technology could help the fuel play a new role in future energy
needs.
Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary, said the UK
should make sure its "eggs aren't in one basket," both in terms
of power sources and their countries of origin.
"If a new, cleaner coal generation is viable, then I think it
could have an important part to play in making sure we have
diverse generation in the future.Coal is easy to store and it
comes from a variety of well-established sources around the
world," he said.
Last week, Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, was similarly
upbeat about coal, telling a conference in London that "we still
have substantial coal reserves and there are arguments for
maintaining production from them".
No new coal-fired power stations have been built in 30 years, but
Germany's E.ON has recently talked of the possibility of building
a plant on the south coast.
Coal still provides around 33% of the power needed in Britain for
generating electricity, but this winter that figure soared to 50%
as generating companies switched away from gas, as its cost
soared.
Growing interest in coal comes at a critical time. The government
has launched an energy review, and there is a growing realisation
that without coal or nuclear, Britain could be reliant on foreign
gas imports from volatile places such as Russia.
Supporters say coal, which has helped power the UK since the
industrial revolution, has advantages over renewables such as
wind because it can be burned all the time and is not dependent
on the weather.
But supporters and critics are both aware that coal is dirty,
unlike wind or solar. Not only does coal produce greenhouse
gases, but it also emits sulphur and nitrogen, at a time when
stricter pollution controls are being introduced all over Europe
to prevent acid rain. This makes coal less attractive, and the
presumption is that by 2020, coal will provide only 16% of UK
electricity, at a time when the current batch of nuclear power
stations are also coming to the end of their natural lives.
Some coal-fired power stations in the UK have already decided to
invest in "scrubbing" devices to reduce noxious gases, but to
make an impact on CO2 output, stronger measures are needed.
These "clean coal" measures range from a new generation of more
efficient coal-fired power stations, to plants that can burn a
mix of coal plus biomass crops, or the most unproven, but
potentially rewarding - carbon dioxide capture and permanent
underground storage.
Mitsui Babcock, a designer and engineer of new "clean coal"
plants, has already seen its products built and run in locations
from Germany to China. These power stations are not greenhouse
gas-free, but they emit far less CO2 and, a company spokeswoman
said there is only one reason for them not being adopted in
Britain: cost.
"It really needs government to provide incentives to invest in
coal-fired plant. They could be financial incentives or
legislative action," she added.
"We don't have all the answers, but clearly one way would be to
provide something similar to the Renewable Obligation which
encourages electricity providers to use alternative power, such
as wind," she added.
The government appears interested, but the key is whether it will
pay for it. Mitsui Babcock believes it would cost Ł10bn to
convert all coal-fired stations to ultra-efficient plants capable
of co-firing, coal and biomass. To go the whole way with carbon
capture and storage would cost a further Ł10bn, it estimates.
Last summer, Tony Blair, the prime minister, used his presidency
of the European Union to announce a project to demonstrate a
near-zero emissions coal fired plant technology in China and
Europe by 2015.
His government has already set aside Ł35m for local research into
clean coal and the climate change programme review - due to be
published at the end of next month - is also looking at the scope
for further public money to go into this.
But while politicians and consultants fret about how to find the
cleanest solutions, the British coal industry continues to
decline with two collieries, Rossington in Yorkshire and Harworth
in Nottinghamshire, set to close.
The main local provider, UK Coal, ran up first-half losses of
Ł30.5m and is struggling to make many of its mines pay despite a
big increase in the global price of coal. The collieries are
hobbled by the depths of the reserves underground and opposition
to new surface mines from local residents. The current switch
from gas to coal by local power stations has mainly benefited
mines in South Africa, Australia and Russia. The only new
investment going into British coal handling is at ports. While UK
Coal recently closed Selby, once the biggest coal complex in
Europe, in 2004, Associated British Ports is spending Ł65m - its
biggest single investment ever - at Immingham about 50 miles
away.
Two massive cranes, each with giant grabs of 32 tonnes' capacity,
have just been installed enabling them to handle 3,000 tonnes of
coal an hour. Ironically, the ports in this east coast area were
built in the 1900s to export black gold from the newly opened
Yorkshire coalfields.
Backstory
Britain once led the world in "clean coal technology", designed
to minimise pollution. In the 1960s the government looked at
clean coal, with an experimental facility opening at Grimethorpe
colliery, Barnsley, in 1975. The plant was funded by more than 20
countries but was closed after the 1984-85 miners' strike and
subsequent privatisation of the industry by the Thatcher
government. At the start of the strike there were 170 working
pits; now there are fewer than 10.
Useful links UK Coal Department of trade and industry:
coal National coal mining museum Coal resources in the public
records office Coal mining history resource centre Mining deaths
and injuries in Great Britain
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
30 Platts: EU utilities fear new Wenra rules could impose costly backfitting
London (Platts)--20Feb2006
European utilities last week welcomed the initiative by European
Union (EU) regulators to harmonize national nuclear safety rules,
but expressed concern that the proposed "safety reference levels"
could lead to requirements for backfitting existing plants that
would be "very costly and/or impossible" to meet.
In comments to a seminar in Brussels Feb. 9 organized by the
Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (Wenra), utility
representatives said they feared in particular that new rules for
severe accident management, derived from criteria applied to new
plant designs, would be applied to existing nuclear plants
designed decades ago, possibly requiring them to shut down.
They said other problems with the reference levels stem from
confusion over some definitions in the Wenra harmonization
report, from a requirement for "continuous" safety improvement,
and from rules on safety culture and changes in utility
organization.
One of the utilities' most serious concerns appears to be that
the Wenra safety reference levels, despite granting high
importance to probabilistic safety analysis (PSA), still rely on
deterministic criteria for overall safety assessment, reducing
operators' flexibility in demonstrating compliance using
probabilistic means.
Bernard Fourest of Electricite de France (EDF), speaking on
behalf of the European Nuclear Installations Safety Standards
Initiative (ENISS), said the only way for licensees to comply
with some of the "reference levels" on severe accident management
"would be to install specific equipment such as core catchers or
dedicated depressurization systems that very few, if any,
presently operating reactors in Europe are provided with. ...We
agree with the objective of avoiding containment meltthrough but
this issue should be treated with a probabilistic objective" that
would "let industry choose the (most) cost/beneficial way to
achieve" that goal, he said.
He said ENISS, which represents EU operators, doesn't "understand
why Wenra did not choose to set a global safety goal in
probabilistic terms, as the IAEA has done. We strongly urge
Wenra" to adopt such a goal, Fourest said.
Dana Drabova, chief regulator in the Czech Republic, said at a
press conference after the seminar that the EU nuclear power
industry "is seeing the advantage of PSA as a tool for
cost-cutting." Indeed, several EU utilities have sought to
introduce elements of risk-informed regulation into their
national regulatory systems, based on probabilistic analysis. The
Wenra reference levels actually promote the use of PSAs and
require a Level 2 PSA (including an assessment of releases) for
all facilities that takes into account all external initiating
events. But Andre-Claude Lacoste, director general of French
nuclear safety authority DGSNR, told the press conference that
that requirement causes some difficulty. There needs to be "a
better definition of the technical foundation of a PSA," and
exactly how it should be done, he said.
Wenra, which comprises chief nuclear regulators from 17
countries, published three harmonization reports last month on
its Web site ( (Inside NRC, 23 Jan., 9). The most complete report
deals with nuclear power plant safety, the two others with spent
fuel and waste storage and with decommissioning. The group has
asked for comments by June 1 and plans to agree on final
"reference levels" for reactor safety by the end of this year,
along with presentation of national action plans for compliance.
The intent is for all the Wenra member countries to have
implemented all the reference levels, at least in legal terms, by
2010. Several regulators acknowledged that was a highly ambitious
goal. "We're beginning to realize that 2010 is not that far
away," Lacoste said.
According to Wenra's reactor safety working group (RHWG), Wenra
chose the term "reference levels" instead of "requirements"
because "both legally binding generic national requirements and
formally issued general recommendations qualify as evidence" for
compliance with the levels. The Feb. 9 seminar, which was
attended by nearly 190 people from a wide variety of institutions
and countries, was the first formal roll-out of the Wenra
documents.
Fourest, who chairs ENISS' administration group, told the seminar
that utilities share Wenra's goal to harmonize nuclear safety
requirements across the EU both because "it will enhance public
confidence" in nuclear safety and because an open electricity
market means nuclear power producers "need similar rules of
operation and supervision (throughout) Europe."
The EU's 163 nuclear power plants (including those in
Switzerland, Romania and Bulgaria) produce 33% of the region's
electricity, and more than 50% of its baseload power, according
to Karl-Frederik Ingemarsson of Vattenfall AB, chairman of the
ENISS steering committee. He said "the nuclear renaissance is now
a reality" in Europe, with "several countries reviewing their
nuclear strategy and reassessing their current and future energy
needs."
Ingemarsson noted Wenra's finding that 88% of the reference
levels for reactor safety are already implemented at existing
reactors, saying it reflected a high degree of responsibility
among licensees for continuous safety improvement. But he said
ENISS found the waste and decommissioning reports "imbalanced"
and premature compared to the reactor safety report, and that it
is thus "impracticable" to provide comments on those reports by
June 1.
Fourest said utilities will try to reach agreement with Wenra on
a text expressing "common interpretation of the reference levels"
for reactor safety by June 1, but it "might take more than four
months."
ENISS was formed within Foratom, the European Atomic Foratom,
last year to facilitate a unified industry response to the Wenra
work and provide an industry partner for dialogue with the
regulators' group (INRC, 26 Dec. '05, 7).
The seminar featured presentations on all three reports, reports
on national assessments of compliance with the Wenra reference
levels (RLs) from France and Hungary, analyses of the broader
implications of the Wenra harmonization work?including in the
context of licensing a new reactor?and remarks from stakeholders,
including ENISS. This story was originally published in Platts
Nucleonics Week.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill
Companies]
*****************************************************************
31 [NukeNet] Nuclear Plant Declares, Lifts Emergency
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:56:56 -0800
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Mothersalert: http://www.mothersalert.org
http://www.mothersalert.org/moreinfo.html
CRAC-2 Report:
http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Emergency.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Nuclear Plant Declares, Lifts Emergency
a.. E-Mail This
b.. Printer-Friendly
c.. Save Article
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 20, 2006
Filed at 12:20 p.m. ET
SENECA, Ill. (AP) -- Operators at a nuclear plant
declared an emergency for several hours early
Monday when instruments indicated a problem during
a planned shutdown, but no damage was done,
officials said.
There were no injuries, no radiation released and
no equipment damaged at the LaSalle Generating
Station in LaSalle County, officials said. The
plant, which is owned by Chicago-based Exelon
Corp., is about 55 miles southwest of Chicago.
The nature of the incident -- a control rod not
going into the reactor -- automatically triggered
the declaration of a ''site area emergency,'' but
''it never really progressed into being a
danger,'' said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the
Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
A site area emergency is the second-highest of the
four categories in the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's emergency response system. Emergency
operations centers were activated in LaSalle and
Grundy counties, Thompson said.
The plant was scheduled to shut down early Monday
for a refueling outage, but it did not shut down
properly, officials said.
Company officials said instruments showed three of
the 185 control rods failed to insert fully into
the reactor core and operators declared a ''site
area emergency'' at 12:28 a.m.
Operators reset the control rod position
indication system and then found one rod was out
of position, company officials said.
The investigation by Exelon Nuclear officials and
NRC officials was continuing.
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
*****************************************************************
32 [NukeNet] Pluthermal plan for Genkai reactor
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:57:02 -0800
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Riding roughshod over the citizens
21 February 2006
The Governor of Saga Prefecture today indicated for the first time that
he intends to approve the pluthermal plan for Genkai-3 reactor. On
February 7th Saga Prefecture released a report concluding that the
pluthermal plan for Genkai is safe. The issue will be debated by the
Prefectural Assembly in March. If the Prefectural Assembly supports the
plan, it is expected that the governor will promptly sign the required
amendment to the safety agreement.
Genkai Village Municipal Assembly indicated its acceptance of the plan
on February 17th, but the plan is not supported by a municipality
neighboring the plant. On February 20th, Karatsu City Municipal
Assembly passed a carefully worded resolution which said, "in the
current circumstances it would be difficult to agree to implementation
of the plan". That is, of course, a polite way of saying that it
opposes the plan.
The Genkai pluthermal plan has already received safety approvals from
the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency and the Nuclear Safety
Commission. The final step is to obtain the approval of the local and
prefectural governments. This is required under the safety agreement
between Kyushu Electric, Saga Prefecture and Genkai Village.
Karatsu City is not a party to the safety agreement and the municipal
assembly's resolution is not binding on any of the parties, but it
would be an injustice for the plan to be approved in spite of Karatsu's
opposition. The border between Karatsu and Genkai is only 600 meters
from the power plant. Furthermore, there are four times more Karatsu
residents than there are Genkai residents within a 10 kilometer radius
of the reactor. Understandably, the Karatsu City Council is unhappy
that it is not a party to the safety agreement with Kyushu Electric.
Saga Prefecture's February 7th report basically concluded that the
government's safety assessment was reasonable. It considered the
following eight issues raised by opponents of pluthermal:
1. Control of the reactor (effectiveness of the control rods and the
boron, self-control, particular characteristics of power distribution)
2. Safety of the fuel (melting point, internal pressure - plutonium
spots)
3. Experience with MOX (plutonium enrichment, burn-up)
4. Radiation exposure during normal operation (workers)
5. Impacts of accidents (possibility of damage to containment vessel,
range of impact in case of accident)
6. Spent MOX fuel (storage)
7. Possibility of terrorism
8. Earthquake response
Saga Prefecture uncritically accepted the proponents arguments on all
the above and was satisfied with Kyushu Electric's safety record and
safety measures. The governor has already indicated that he accepts the
contents of this report.
For an overall picture of Japan's pluthermal plans, see the links below.
Philip White
International Liaison Officer
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
3F Kotobuki Bdg, 1-58-15, Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003
Phone: 81-3-5330-9520
Fax: 81-3-5330-9530
http://cnic.jp/english/
cnic@nifty.com
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
*****************************************************************
33 TMI to check water for contamination
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:57:09 -0800
TMI to check water for contamination
Sunday, February 19, 2006
BY GARRY LENTON
Of The Patriot-News
The operators of Three Mile Island, Peach Bottom and Limerick nuclear power
plants are checking their systems for leaks of water laced with tritium, a
radioactive isotope linked to cancer.
Chicago-based Exelon Energy Co., which owns the plants, ordered the
inspections after water contaminated with tritium was found in the
groundwater or in test wells at three of its plants in Illinois. Exelon
owns 10 nuclear plants.
The company ordered each plant to conduct inspections of systems that carry
tritium-laced water. The inspections will include pipes, pumps, valves,
tanks and other equipment, said Ralph DeSantis, a spokesman for AmerGen
Energy, the operator of TMI and a subsidiary of Exelon.
Advertisement
Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, is a byproduct of the nuclear
reaction. In large doses, it has been linked to cancer.
"Our purpose is to ensure that we have a full understanding of the health
of our systems that handle tritium and that we have satisfied ourselves ...
that our equipment has a high degree of integrity," said Charles Pardee,
Exelon's nuclear chief operating officer.
TMI officials have been monitoring tritium since shortly after the 1979
accident that destroyed the Unit 2 reactor. About a dozen monitoring wells
are checked at TMI quarterly, DeSantis said.
Higher-than-usual tritium levels were found in a test well at TMI last
fall, said David Allard, the director of the state Department of
Environmental Protection's Radiation Control Program. The amounts never
exceeded 19,000 picocuries per liter of water. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency allows up to 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking
water. There is no standard for groundwater.
The leak was traced to a sump pump and corrected, Allard said.
Tritium-laced water is routinely released into the Susquehanna River by
TMI, where it is diluted.
The DEP monitors the river at Steelton and Columbia. "I'd be very surprised
if we ever saw any tritium," Allard said.
Eric Epstein, the chairman of the watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert,
called on Exelon to be more aggressive with its well testing.
The EPA describes tritium as one of the least dangerous radioactive
substances because it emits weak radiation and usually leaves the body
within a month.
GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com
*****************************************************************
34 [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] APP. Feb 14 Evacuation plan depends
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:57:19 -0800
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Coalition for Peace and Justice; UNPLUG Salem Campaign, 321 Barr Ave,
Linwood; NJ08221; 609-601-8583
----------
From: JerseyShoreNuclearWatch@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:JerseyShoreNuclearWatch@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Edith
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:05 AM
To: JerseyShoreNuclearWatch@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [JerseyShoreNuclearWatch] APP. Feb 14 Evacuation plan depends upon
many who lack training
APP.COM - The Jersey Shore's Biggest and Best News Source
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
In the third part of a five-day series, the Asbury Park Press examines
whether the
evacuation plan would work.
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/14/06
BY TODD B. BATES, NICHOLAS CLUNN
AND KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITERS
Russell Goyette uses a wheelchair to get around. He's worried that no one
would help him if an evacuation were ordered because of an accident at the
Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.
The Waretown resident, who lives about four miles south of the Lacey plant,
believes that volunteer "first-responders" would evacuate themselves and
their families "before ever getting handicapped people."
"I cannot drive," the retired advertising executive said. "How would I ever
get out?
"I feel I'm in constant danger," said Goyette, 63, whose wife works about
40 miles north in Monmouth Beach and might not be able to make it home if
there were an emergency at the plant. "The plant may have an accident and
(is) a target for terrorists, and the current operator has a dismal
operating record."
Goyette is far from alone in believing that the state's Oyster Creek
evacuation plan, part of the New Jersey Radiological Emergency Response
Plan, will not or may not work. State legislators, the Ocean County
freeholders, several municipalities surrounding the plant, activists and
citizens alike have voiced skepticism.
An investigation by the Asbury Park Press found that the plan would rely on
volunteers, public bus drivers and municipal employees with no radiological
training to help law enforcement officials.
Several public works employees interviewed said they have not been trained
on what to do during a nuclear emergency, or how to protect themselves from
possible radiation exposure.
An emergency at the plant could play out over days, hours or even minutes,
depending on the accident's severity. Plant officials say the likelihood of
a deadly radiation release is remote, about a 1 in 1.7 million chance a year.
But the state has an evacuation plan that a top proponent said will work
only if everyone follows the rules.
The NRC will not consider the emergency plan during its review of Oyster
Creek's request for a 20-year extension to its operating license beyond
2009, NRC spokesman Neil A. Sheehan said.
Emergency planning is "one of those issues we believe should be dealt with
on an ongoing basis," he said.
The state's plan obviously can never be tested in a realistic way. But
weaknesses in such mass-evacuation plans became evident last year during
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Before Rita hit the Gulf Coast, for example, Texas and Louisiana officials
ordered more than 3 million residents to evacuate. Thousands were trapped
for more than 10 hours in traffic jams afterward, according to the National
Climatic Data Center.
Clearing a 10-mile radius
For the Jersey Shore, this is one way an evacuation could play out:
A reactor accident at Oyster Creek forces plant officials to declare a
general emergency, the highest-level warning. It signals that radiation
releases are likely to drift beyond the plant's perimeter.
Emergency sirens within a 10-mile radius of Oyster Creek would sound, and
public officials would use radio stations to instruct residents in the
areas that must be evacuated.
Those told to leave would hit the roads and those told to remain indoors
would be expected to do so.
Those without vehicles would get rides from neighbors or friends. Those
outside the evacuation zones would be told to stay put, but there would be
no real way to enforce such a rule other than using roadblocks.
In the evacuation zones, NJ Transit buses would be sent in to pick up
people without cars. First aid squads, fire and police departments and
Ocean County officials would help evacuate the infirm and handicapped
people, the state plan says.
If the evacuation were called during school hours, parents are not supposed
to rush to schools to pick up their children. The pupils would be bused to
central locations outside the 10-mile emergency planning zone.
Law enforcement officials would control the flow of traffic and limit
access into the 10-mile zones.
Critics predict that congested roads, human behavior and Ocean County's
growing population would lead to gridlock.
But many officials say they think the evacuation plan, designed for up to
244,000 people on a peak summer day, would work.
FEMA endorses plan
In October, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reaffirmed its finding
of "reasonable assurance" for Oyster Creek's plan that the health and
safety of people around the plant will be protected during a nuclear
accident, according to a FEMA letter.
The preparedness directorate in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is
now responsible for reviewing radiological emergency response plans for
nuclear power plants, including evacuation plans, said Mike Beeman, a
spokesman for FEMA's Region II office in New York City. FEMA is also within
the department.
Bradley M. Campbell, the state Department of Environmental Protection
commissioner until he left office Jan. 17, said DEP officials will closely
scrutinize the evacuation plan.
"I think there are a number of issues that will need to be addressed
there," Campbell said. "I think Hurricane Katrina (which hit the Gulf Coast
last summer) has highlighted the practical difficulties with large-scale
evacuations, and we will be reviewing the evacuation plan with those issues
in mind."
In an October letter to an NRC official, Jill Lipoti, who directs the DEP's
Division of Environmental Safety and Health, wrote: "Complacency in
emergency planning is a very bad thing.
"The thought that all emergency plans are just fine the way they are, and
that no improvements are needed, simply does not pass the straight face
test given governmental response to a recent natural disaster," Lipoti
wrote. "Every plan can be improved."
In its review of the state radiological emergency response plan, the Press
found that:
Municipal public works employees in at least three towns within 10 miles of
the plant Lacey, Stafford and Long Beach Township haven't been trained in
how to protect themselves from radiation exposure. Under the evacuation
plan, municipal workers would be called upon to set up traffic control
barriers and clear roads.
County and state officials responsible for training such workers say it's
up to each municipality to determine which employees will receive training.
Several parents interviewed say they will disregard guidance from officials
and go to schools to pick up their children. Parents showing up at schools
would cause traffic problems, according to the state plan.
The plan does not provide for traffic control outside the 10-mile emergency
planning zone, according to Sgt. Thomas Scardino, assistant head of the
State Police Radiological Emergency Response Planning Unit. Plan critics
say many people outside the 10-mile zone who are not supposed to evacuate
will leave anyway, jamming the roadways for the people who do need to
evacuate. Scardino said traffic control outside the 10-mile zone could be
added during an emergency.
Diane Nase, a Brick bus driver who is a union vice president, said she's
never received radiological training in 24 years, despite the fact that
Brick would be called on to send 108 buses to evacuate schoolchildren in
districts within the evacuation zones. Officials maintain that all bus
drivers have been trained.
Mike Ocskasy, a 36-year-old Passaic firefighter who lives in Lacey, said he
thinks an evacuation due to an emergency at Oyster Creek would be "so chaotic."
Jennifer Styler, 36, who works in sales and lives in Lacey, said, "I
honestly don't think the town (of about 26,000) is prepared for it the way
the town has expanded in the past couple of years."
During an evacuation of Long Beach Island, people in Surf City and Ship
Bottom would be told to stay put while people fleeing from towns north of
those two boroughs would be told to drive right through, according to parts
of the evacuation plan and instructions printed in telephone directories
for Ocean County.
"I doubt if you are going to have people who are willing to wait," Surf
City resident Frank Cilluffo, 73, said. "I think a lot of people will panic."
Will the plan work?
Harvey Cedars Mayor Jonathan S. Oldham, who is the borough's emergency
management coordinator, said he thinks evacuation as a result of a nuclear
plant accident would be difficult in the summertime. The island has one way
off a four-lane bridge.
"There isn't a ton of infrastructure to get people out," he said.
But Dave Bossi, a Barnegat Light councilman and borough deputy emergency
management coordinator, said he has "great faith" in the evacuation plan.
"I have more faith in that than trying to convince people to leave" because
of a hurricane, Bossi said. In 2004, Barnegat Light officials considered
using fishing boats to evacuate people to the mainland.
Ocean County Undersheriff Wayne R. Rupert said he believes the state's
evacuation plan will work "if people will do what they're supposed to do
when they're supposed to do it."
"If you're on the upwind side of the plant and you're going to evacuate and
get in the way of people (on) the downwind side of the plant, that's not a
good idea," Rupert said. "You're only going to screw up the evacuation and
not gain anything.
"If everybody tried to evacuate the entire 10-mile ring (around the plant)
all at the same moment, there would be a problem," he said.
For any evacuation to be successful, "you've got to have compliance on the
part of the people who are being evacuated" as well as among those not
being evacuated so they don't get in the way, Rupert said.
20 evacuation areas
Years ago, the NRC drew 10-mile radius circles around Oyster Creek and
other nuclear plants to mark out emergency planning areas.
The areas are numbered on maps in the blue pages of Ocean County telephone
directories, where residents are referred for information about evacuations.
With 20 mapped evacuation areas, the plan is for emergency managers to
direct people to take cover or evacuate. Who gets told to move would depend
on the nature of a plant accident and weather conditions, including wind
speed and direction. Radioactive particles would drift with the wind.
Suzanne Leta, an advocate with the New Jersey Public Interest Research
Group, an environmental and consumer activist group, said the NRC is not
concerned about whether an evacuation plan might work 10 or 20 years from now.
She believes that evacuation is "nearly impossible now."
But NRC spokesman Sheehan said if FEMA says the emergency plan can't work
in, say, 10 years, Oyster Creek would have to shut down.
In 2004, then-Gov. James E. McGreevey sought an independent study of the
emergency plan to "ensure plant safety" until 2009, when its current
license expires, according to a letter he sent to AmerGen Energy Co., which
runs Oyster Creek.
Lipoti, of the DEP, said, "I guess when it comes to emergency planning, we
think we've done a credible job."
"But the idea of having independent reviewers is always a good idea," she said.
"You know that we take our plan to the public each year with public
hearings and ask for input . . . and we're never satisfied," Lipoti said.
Officials feel that "there can constantly be improvements."
Staff writer Joe Cacchioli contributed to this story. Todd B. Bates: (732)
643-4237 or tbates@app.com; Nicholas Clunn: 609-978-4597 or nclunn@app.com;
Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728 or kmoore@app.com
E-mail E-mail article Printer Print article Subscription Subscribe
Newsletters Get e-mail alerts
(STAFF PHOTO: TIM MC CARTHY)
"I cannot drive. How would I ever get out? I feel I'm in constant danger."
Russell Goyette, a 63-year-old disabled Waretown resident who fears no one
would come for him if an evacuation were ordered.
Related Articles
" NRC chief shuns plea for license hearing
February 19, 2006
" DEP raises questions about nuclear plant's backup power
February 19, 2006
" Safety a concern at Salem County plants
February 16, 2006
" Closing Oyster Creek would be anything but simple
February 16, 2006
" Spent fuel likely to stay indefinitely
February 16, 2006
" Activists, Nevada don't want waste site
February 16, 2006
" Oyster Creek has brought jobs and money to Lacey
February 15, 2006
" Nuke plant critics say they're stifled
February 15, 2006
" Nuclear power is regenerating interest
February 15, 2006
" If cooling towers are required, plant might close
February 15, 2006
" Spent fuel pool is vulnerable, critics say
February 14, 2006
" In nuclear emergency, students would go to reception centers
February 14, 2006
" Mass chaos feared if too many leave
February 14, 2006
" Fired scientist says boss overruled reactor operators
February 14, 2006
" Evacuation zone excludes southern LBI
February 14, 2006
" KI pills protect thyroid from radiation
February 14, 2006
" Escaping could take 9 1/2 hours
February 14, 2006
" Safety upgrades made after TMI
February 13, 2006
" Control room is nuclear plant's nerve center
February 13, 2006
" Corrosion test sought for radiation barrier
February 13, 2006
" Boiling water reactors: more troubling events
February 13, 2006
" Can a 40-year life be extended to 60?
February 13, 2006
" Electric bills could rise if plant closes
February 13, 2006
" Radiation barrier failure is likely in major accident
February 13, 2006
" Hard-to-inspect cables, pipes create problems
February 13, 2006
" Relicensing Oyster Creek: Is It Worth It?
February 12, 2006
" Oyster Creek manager lost job after positive test for cocaine
February 12, 2006
" Near-miss prompts safety wake-up call
February 12, 2006
" Property values far exceed insurance fund limit
February 12, 2006
" "Degraded" list means greater NRC oversight
February 12, 2006
" Human error hurts plant's safety record
February 12, 2006
Related news from the Web
Latest headlines by topic:
" Nuclear Energy
" Discuss Nuclear Energy
Powered by Topix.net
Advertisement
Partners: Jobs: CareerBuilder.com " Cars: Cars.com " Apartments:
Apartments.com " Shopping: ShopLocal.com
Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy. (Updated June 7, 2005)
Site design by Asbury Park Press / Contact us
USA Today " USA Weekend " Gannett Co. Inc. " Gannett Foundation
JERSEY SHORE NUCLEAR WATCH
P.O. Box 3085
Toms River, NJ 08756-3085
732-240-5107 www.jerseyshorenuclearwatch.org
gbur1@comcast.net
SPONSORED LINKS
Environment
Save
the environment
Oyster
Office
environments
Environment
design
Issues
----------
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
* Visit your group
"JerseyShoreNuclearWatch"
on the web.
*
* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
*
JerseyShoreNuclearWatch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
*
* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
Yahoo! Terms of Service.
----------
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
*****************************************************************
35 NRC: NRC Begins Special Inspection at LaSalle Nuclear Plant Following Control Rod
Problem During Automatic Reactor Shutdown
News Release - Region III - 2006-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region III No. III-06-005
February 20, 2006 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663
Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a special
inspection at the LaSalle Nuclear Power Station at Seneca,
Illinois, following a problem with control rod instrumentation
during an automatic shutdown of the Unit 1 reactor. The LaSalle
plant near Seneca, Ill, is operated by Exelon Generation Co. and
has two 1,197-megawatt reactors.
The utility declared a Site Area Emergency at the plant early
Monday when reactor instrumentation showed that three control
rods failed to insert fully into the reactor core during an
automatic reactor shutdown. The plant was at 6 percent power when
the automatic shutdown occurred.
Subsequently, the reactor instrumentation showed the plant was
fully shut down. The plant staff verified that all control rods
were fully inserted except for one for which the position
indication remained indeterminate. The reactor has 185 control
rods which control power and insert into the reactor core to shut
down the reactor.
All plant safety systems functioned normally with the exception
of the control rod position indications, and there was no release
of radioactivity associated with the event. The reactor remained
in a stable condition.
After verifying plant conditions, the utility terminated the Site
Area Emergency Classification at 4:27 a.m. CST. A Site Area
Emergency is the second highest of the four emergency categories
in the NRCs emergency response system. The emergency was declared
because of the uncertainty caused by the instrumentation problems
for the three control rods.
The NRCs two resident inspectors responded to the plant and the
agency staffed its emergency response facilities in its Region
III office in Lisle, Ill., and its Headquarters in Rockville,
Md., to monitor the situation at the LaSalle plant.
At the time of the incident, the plant was shutting down for a
refueling outage. Preliminary information showed that the
automatic reactor shutdown was caused by a malfunction of the
plants turbine control system.
The NRC inspectors will review the circumstances surrounding the
shutdown, including the control rod indication problems. A
written report of the special inspection will be issued about 30
days following the completion of the inspection. It will be
available on the NRCs web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/listofrpts_body.html#lasa
Last revised Monday, February 20, 2006
*****************************************************************
36 RIA Novosti: Russia's nuclear chief spells out $1.5bln investment plan
21/ 02/ 2006
MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian regions could
receive $1.5 billion in investment, if they build nuclear power
plants under a peaceful atomic energy program, the country's
nuclear chief said Tuesday.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear
Agency, said after a board meeting of an association of
territories and nuclear energy operators that the development of
nuclear energy in Russia should include joint work with regions.
"It is very important for us to ensure joint work with regions
at the stage of drafting a peaceful nuclear energy development
program," Kiriyenko said. "The construction of nuclear power
plants can bring regions $1.5 billion. Now regions are competing
for this investment."
According to Kiriyenko, this competition must be open and
understandable.
He added that the Russian government had issued instructions to
prepare a map for the location of generating capacities in the
country.
Kiriyenko said the nuclear industry had to build two atomic
power plant units a year to maintain its share in the country's
electricity output.
Kiriyenko earlier said the share of nuclear energy in Russia's
electricity output was expected to rise to 25% by 2030 from the
current 17% under the country's energy strategy.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
37 RIA Novosti: Russia's nuclear generating body inks memorandum with French firm
21/ 02/ 2006
MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - Rosenergoatom, the federal
company responsible for power generation at Russia's nuclear
plants, has signed a memorandum of understanding with French
company AREVA on peaceful nuclear energy use, the Russian
company's press office said Tuesday.
The document stipulates the implementation of a program of
cooperation between the two companies, and its development in
2006-2008.
In particular, cooperation will cover efforts to modernize and
improve the safety of nuclear power plants, and improve the
quality of maintenance, and the safety and operational readiness
of nuclear power plants.
The parties also agreed to exchange information on regulatory,
and scientific and technical documentation, and render each
other assistance in dismantling and withdrawing nuclear power
plants from operation.
Rosenergoatom and AREVA also intend to improve the joint
cooperation committee designed to draft specific cooperation
proposals, sign additional agreements, set up task forces, and
obtain financing sources.
© 2005 "RIA Novosti"
*****************************************************************
38 Herald News: Local nuclear plant declares emergency
[SuburbanChicagoNews.com]
LaSalle Generating Station: Improper shutdown; no injuries or
damage reported
The Associated Press
SENECA An emergency was declared at a nuclear power plant early
Monday when operators could not confirm the position of three
control rods after the reactor shut down, officials said.
There were no injuries, no radiological releases and no
equipment damage at the LaSalle Generating Station in
Brookfield, according to Exelon Nuclear officials.
The plant, which is owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp., was
scheduled to shut down early Monday for a refueling outage.
According to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the
reactor did not shut down properly.
Company officials said instruments showed three of the 185
control rods failed to insert fully into the reactor core and
operators declared a "site area emergency" at 12:28 a.m. That is
the second-highest of the four emergency categories in the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's emergency response system.
The emergency was over about four hours later, Exelon Nuclear
officials said.
Operators reset the control rod position indication system and
then found only one rod was out of position, company officials
said.
Exelon Nuclear officials are trying to determine why the
control rod indicators originally showed the rods weren't
inserted properly. The NRC said it also will investigate the
shutdown and the IEMA is monitoring the station.
Preliminary information showed a malfunction of the plant's
turbine control system caused the automatic reactor shutdown,
according to the NRC.
The plant is about 55 miles southwest of Chicago. 02/21/06
SuburbanChicagoNews.com — © Digital Chicago & Sun-Times
*****************************************************************
39 Platts: NRC issues SER for Exelon's Clinton ESP application
+ NRC issued a final safety evaluation report (SER) for Exelon's
Clinton early site permit (ESP) application. The SER, which
provides the NRC staff's technical evaluation of the site's
suitability to host another reactor, marks a milestone in the ESP
review process.
NRC's announcement today did not include the staff's findings.
Before the commission makes a decision on the permit, a final
environmental impact statement must be issued by the staff, the
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards must issue a report, and
the Atomic Safety &Licensing Board hearing must be concluded.
The agency expects a commission decision around May 2007. The SER
will be available in about two weeks, after Exelon has reviewed
it, on NRC's Web site (http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/newlicensing/
esp/clinton.html).
Washington (Platts)--17Feb2006
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
40 APP.COM: Time for leaders to start leading |
Asbury Park Press Online
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has yet to deny a request for a
license extension for a commercial nuclear reactor. If Oyster
Creek's application is to become the first to be rejected, as we
believe it should be, it will require more hard work by citizen
groups and activists, more networking with groups that have had
experience dealing with the NRC and broader political support
from key state and congressional political players.
To their credit, the grassroots groups and citizens who have
fought to prevent Oyster Creek from getting license renewal have
done all the right things. They have reached out to other
like-minded organizations in other parts of the country,
garnered local political support, worked tirelessly to educate
people about the risks posed by Oyster Creek and recruited
knowledgeable people to help them navigate the NRC's murky
bureaucratic waters.
If there has been any missing piece in the effort to shut Oyster
Creek, it has been the lack of leadership from the state's
senators, the congressman whose district includes the town where
Oyster Creek is located and whose residents are most at risk,
and the Ocean County Board of Freeholders, whose belated support
has been half-hearted at best.
Reasonable people can disagree on the risks posed by Oyster
Creek. But there should be no disagreement about the importance
of making certain the issues are fully and impartially aired. It
is unconscionable for any public official to sit back and watch
while the NRC rubber stamps another license renewal request.
Oyster Creek has a unique set of issues, related to its age, its
design, the vulnerability of its spent fuel pool to terrorist
attack, its safety record and its poor management. All of these
issues deserve intense scrutiny. The list of those who have
failed to do enough to ensure the plant receives such scrutiny
is headed by Rep. H. James Saxton, whose district includes
Oyster Creek's host town Lacey. Saxton needs to come out of
hibernation and speak out publicly and forcefully on behalf of
his constituents in Ocean County. So do the state's two
senators, Robert Menendez and Frank R. Lautenberg. Menendez has
an excuse; he's only been a senator for four weeks. Lautenberg
has been missing in action on this issue for the past two years.
We're pleased that Lisa Jackson, the new state Department of
Environmental Protection commissioner, has been pushing for a
special judicial hearing on Oyster Creek. At a minimum, that is
what every official who represents residents in the areas
potentially affected by a nuclear accident or terrorism incident
at Oyster Creek has an obligation to do.
Citizens, environmental groups and the DEP have worked hard to
focus attention on the safety threats posed by Oyster Creek. But
they need to rachet up the intensity level — and quickly. As
early as next week, the NRC may have a response to two petitions
seeking formal hearings on safety concerns at Oyster Creek. The
NRC staff has contended the issues raised are without merit and
not germane to the renewal application.
They may not be relevant to the NRC staff, but they clearly are
relevant to the people who live in the vicinity of the nation's
oldest nuclear reactor. Our public officials must insist that
the issues be thoroughly and publicly examined. And they should
make it known that they will pursue the matter in the courts if
the NRC continues to brush aside citizens' legitimate concerns.
Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
41 China Daily: 'Pebble-bed' cracker to begin construction
Bizchina
By Mai Dou (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-22 06:30
A US$370 million nuclear plant using a new kind of technology is
expected to start its construction this year.
The project is led by China Huaneng Group, the parent company of
Hong Kong-listed Huaneng Power International Inc.
Industry analysts said the plant's new technology, called the
"pebble-bed technology," is a high-temperature, gas-cooled
reactor technology that is supposedly safer.
Nuclear plants commonly use pressurized water or boiling water
reactors.
Nine out of the 11 nuclear reactors running in China are
designed with pressurized water technology imported from France
and Russia, and the remaining two use Canada's pressurized
heavy-water technology.
Liu Wei, vice-president of Beijing Institute of Nuclear
Engineering, yesterday said that now is not the right time to
use the pebble-bed technology commercially in building reactors,
because the cost is still much higher than other technologies
and it can be only used in small reactors.
Cost for building the pebble-bed reactors will be about US$500
more per kilowatt in capacity, compared with other
commercialized technologies, Liu said.
Industry analysts said the pebble-bed technology can only be
used in reactors of less than 300 MW, but China is building
reactors of at least 1,000 MW each.
However, as the research evolves, the new technology could be
competitive in 2020 or 2030, said Liu.
Huaneng Group will take a 50 per cent stake in the planned
190-megawatt (MW) reactor, located in Weihai of East China's
Shandong Province, while China Nuclear Engineering and
Construction Corp and Tsinghua University will own 35 per cent
and 5 per cent respectively, said Li.
The three parties signed an investment agreement for the nuclear
plant in Beijing at the end of 2004.
The owner of the remaining 10 per cent has not been determined,
but could go to a local company, Huaneng spokesman Li Zhaokiu
said.
The project is scheduled to start operation by 2010, Li said.
(China Daily 02/22/2006 page10)
*****************************************************************
42 NRC: NRC Issues Final Safety Evaluation for Clinton Early Site Permit Application
News Release - 2006-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 06-027 February 17, 2006
evaluation report (SER) for an Early Site Permit (ESP) for the
Clinton site, which is located about six miles east of Clinton,
Ill.
The ESP process allows an applicant to address site-related
issues, such as environmental impacts, for possible future
construction and operation of a nuclear power plant at the site.
The Clinton application was filed Sept. 25, 2003, by Exelon
Generation Company, LLC. If approved, the permit would give
Exelon up to 20 years to decide whether to build one or more
nuclear plants on the site and to file an application with the
NRC for approval to begin construction.
The SER summarizes the NRC staff's technical evaluation of the
Clinton sites suitability in terms of seismology, geology, and
other environmental and safety factors. Along with completing
the SER, the staff must complete an Environmental Impact
Statement, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards must
issue a report on the ESP application, and the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board must conclude its hearing on the matter before
the Commission can reach a final decision on issuing the ESP.
The NRC expects to finish this process by early 2007.
Exelon will have 14 days to review the SER for proprietary
information. The report will then be available electronically to
the public in the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Md. It will also be available on the NRCs Web
site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/esp/clinton.html. In
addition, the Vespasian Warner Public Library in Clinton has
agreed to make the SER available for public inspection.
Last revised Tuesday, February 21, 2006
*****************************************************************
43 Atlanta Business Chronicle: Georgia Power asks for $51M nuclear fee -
2006-02-21
Georgia Power asks for $51M nuclear fee
on Feb. 20 filed a request with the to charge customers about
$51 million for licensing and pre-construction costs for new
nuclear generation units at existing facilities in Georgia.
"This measure will diversify Georgia's energy mix by expanding
nuclear generation at existing plants in our state," Public
Service Commission Chairman Stan Wise said in a prepared
statement. "We all are aware of natural gas price volatility and
what it means to Georgians. I certainly have said for the past
five years that the expansion of nuclear power is a necessity
for the future of all Georgians."
Atlanta-based Georgia Power owns a majority of two nuclear power
facilities in Georgia -- Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro and Plant
Hatch near Baxley. These plants contribute 22.5 percent of the
total generation mix with coal, natural gas and other fuels
making up the difference.
Georgia Power is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co.
(NYSE: SO).
Metros that can afford more pro teams - and those that can't.
» 10 attractive expansion markets | » 10 overextended markets
© 2006 American City Business Journals Inc. Add RSS Headlines
*****************************************************************
44 ITAR-TASS: Kazakhstan working out nuke power industry programme
21.02.2006, 12.22
ASTANA, February 21 (Itar-Tass) - The Ministry of Energy and
Mineral resources of Kazakhstan is drafting a programme for the
development of the country’s nuclear power industry for the
period up to 2030, as was announced at the Monday evening
governmental meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister
Danial Akhmetov, it is said in a report of the government press
service circulated here.
In the course of the meeting Akhmetov stressed the “necessity of
the intensification of work in this sphere.” The meeting
participants decided to form a working group headed by the prime
minister that will be on a permanent basis working on this
issue. Akhmetov issued an instruction to work out within a month
a plan of measures aimed at the further development of the
atomic power industry in the country.
It was noted at the meeting that 4,300 tonnes of uranium were
recovered in Kazakhstan last year, which is an almost five-fold
increase as against 1997. However, the cost of production of one
kilogramme of uranium went down during this period over two
times.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
45 Morris Daily Herald: Feds order inspections of nuclear stations
Greater Grundy County
news@morrisdailyherald.com
2/21/2006 2:40:00 PM Email this article • Print this
CHICAGO (AP) — Federal regulators have ordered inspections of
all Illinois nuclear power plants following a brief emergency at
one facility and a series of leaks of radioactive tritium at
plants owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered the inspections
Monday, a few hours after officials at Exelon Nuclear declared
an emergency at its LaSalle Generating Station in rural
Brookfield Township in LaSalle County.
Company officials said the plant’s turbine control system
malfunctioned as workers were shutting down a reactor for
refueling. At 12:28 a.m., operators declared a “site area
emergency,” the second-highest of the four emergency categories
in the NRC’s emergency response system.
The emergency was over about four hours later, Exelon Nuclear
officials said. State and federal safety regulators said there
were no radiological releases.
Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit confirmed the all-clear status at
press-time today. He said the company was issuing a news release
later this afternoon, detailing what happened to cause the
incident.
Exelon recently has come under fire in Will County, where the
state’s attorney’s office earlier this month began an
investigation into why the company did not disclose until
recently a series of tritium-containing wastewater leaks between
1996 to 2003 at its Braidwood Generating Station, about 60 miles
southwest of Chicago.
Then last week, Exelon said it found elevated levels of
radioactive tritium in water that leaked from two other plants:
the Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County and Byron
Nuclear Generating Station, about 25 miles southwest of
Rockford. Exelon officials have said none of the leaks posed a
health or safety threat.
NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said Monday that inspections would be
done at all Illinois plants that handle tritium, including seven
Exelon facilities. A special investigation into Monday’s
emergency at the LaSalle plant also is planned, according to the
NRC.
Tritium is a radioactive substance commonly found in small
concentrations in most surface water, but is more concentrated
in water used in nuclear reactors. Studies have shown long-term
exposure — through drinking or bathing — can lead to cancer and
birth defects.
In Monday’s mishap at the LaSalle station, instruments showed
three of the plant’s 185 control rods failed to insert fully
into the reactor core. If more than one control rod fails to
insert properly, the facility is required to declare a site-area
emergency, Exelon Nuclear spokesman Craig Nesbit.
Nuclear fuel can escape into cooling water if more than one
control rod does not insert properly, increasing the chances of
public exposure to radioactivity, said David Lochbaum, director
of nuclear safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a
nuclear safety advocacy group.
It was the nation’s first site area emergency since one was
declared at Nine Mile Point 2 reactor in New York in 1991,
Strasma said.
Nesbit said that after the emergency was declared, workers reset
the control rod instruments and found only one rod was out of
position.
Morris Daily Herald • 1804 N. Division St. • Morris, Illinois
60450
(815) 942-3221 • (800) 215-9778
*****************************************************************
46 Morris Daily Herald: Blame falling on Exelon
The Greater Grundy County Area
news@morrisdailyherald.com
2/21/2006 2:37:00 PM
Congressman Jerry Weller, R-Morris, left, briefs the press
Monday regarding tritium leaks at Braidwood and Dresden
generating stations, flanked by State Representative Careen
Gordon, D-Morris, and State Senator Gary Dahl, R-Granville. The
elected officials called for Exelon to take responsibility for
cleaning up the leaks. (Herald Photo/Jo Ann Hustis)
Blame falling on Exelon
Officials: Exelon should be better neighbor
By Jo Ann Hustis
Herald Writer
JOLIET – Morris Congressman Jerry Weller is telling Exelon
Nuclear to clean up its tritium spill at Braidwood Generating
Station, and Will County Board Chairman Jim Moustis is saying
Exelon could have been a better neighbor.
“Our statement to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is very
clear — Exelon made the mess, they’re responsible for the mess,”
Weller said during a news conference late Monday afternoon at
his district office.
“Exelon is responsible for fixing it — the cleanup, and they
also need to be held accountable by the NRC. Their report, due
at the end of March, is to show where Exelon should be held
accountable, and, of course, penalties that occur as a result of
that.”
The Republican also asked the NRC to conduct a full and
independent inspection of every nuclear site in Illinois.
“They all deserve the same full inspection that’s now occurring
at Braidwood,” Weller noted.
The incident at Braidwood Generating Station at Braceville
occurred in 1998, when the valve on an underground discharge
pipe leaked about three million gallons of tritium-laced water
into the groundwater at the plant site, instead of into the
Kankakee River, its ultimate destination.
A similar incident occurred in December 2004 at Dresden
Generating Station east of Morris, when a pipe failed that
carried water from the station’s purification system to a
storage tank on-site.
Exelon said at the time there were no radiological elements in
the water. However, spokesman Jan Strasma of the NRC’s Region 3
in Lisle noted last Thursday the water contained tritium, of
which he said Exelon was aware.
Spokesman Craig Nesbit for Exelon said today he thought the
independent inspection of all nuclear generating stations in
Illinois was “a good idea.”
“We announced last week we’re doing the same thing,” Nesbit said
today. “So, it looks like we’re all thinking along the same
lines.”
Moustis said at the press conference the Will County Board’s
Health Agency Committee was meeting Monday, Feb. 27, in Godley,
for additional input and community response to the Braidwood
incident.
“At the end of the day, Exelon has to be held accountable. The
regulators, I think, will take on their responsibility,” he said.
“But Exelon could have been a better corporate neighbor. I’m
hoping they’ll be a better corporate neighbor going forward and
help us find a safe supply of drinking water and bathing water
for the folks in Godley. I call on Exelon to do the right thing.”
Prior to the press conference, Weller met for more than two
hours in his district office with NRC officials and area elected
officeholders on the tritium-laced water leaks at Braidwood and
Dresden stations, and also at Byron Generating Station near
Rockford.
Weller said he asked the NRC to give local officials a full
briefing on the status of the agency’s investigation at
Braidwood, Dresden, and other nuclear power stations.
“These plants have been in our community for decades now,”
Weller said during the media conference. “Exelon has been an
active member of the community. Our first concern is for the
health, safety, and well-being of our constituents. We want to
ensure they are protected, their concern addressed, and Exelon
is responsible for what occurred.”
“We believe Exelon is responsible for fixing what has occurred,
and we also believe Exelon should be held accountable for what
has occurred,” he added.
Weller also called for a top-to-bottom review of NRC
regulations, with emphasis on communities’ right to know
information pertaining to nuclear stations, including tritium
leaks and such.
“As a result of this briefing here, many are learning this
information for the first time, and information they only
learned about in the local paper in the last few months, (of)
situations that occurred almost a decade ago,” he noted.
“There has to be a better way local, state, and county officials
are informed when an incident occurs at a nuclear plant.”
Weller said the NRC indicated to him the inspection and audit at
Braidwood Station will be completed and the report given to the
state at the end of March.
“We requested they share that document with local, county, and
state officials attending this meeting,” he said.
Senator Gary Dahl, R-Granville, noted the village of Godley,
near Braidwood Station, and its residents, are badly in need of
a new water system. The village is served now with private wells.
“And Exelon is just adding to that need,” he said during the
press conference. “We need to know what happened and how, and
how Exelon is going to keep (the tritium incident) from
happening again.”
On behalf of Exelon, Dahl said the utility realizes it made a
huge mistake in not coming forward with the tritium incidents.
“They realize they have a huge hole to dig themselves out of as
far as neighborhood trust is concerned,” he said. “I think
they’ll be coming forward and helping in any way they possibly
can to see the information is going to be there for the public,
and is going to be up front.
“I think they understand they are part of the community, and if
the community doesn’t trust them, they’ve got a big problem. The
fact they’re policing themselves is a part of the situation
where they realize they have made mistakes.”
State Representative Careen Gordon, D-Morris, noted her
legislative district includes three nuclear generating stations,
the most in Illinois.
“Exelon has been here a very long time, and providing services
and jobs for the community,” she said. “But right now, they have
admitted wrongdoing, and they also know they have a pretty big
hole to climb out of, based on some incidents that have occurred.
“They readily admit wrongdoing. They said, ‘We have done wrong.’”
Gordon introduced a bill last Friday to the General Assembly to
change the way the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
monitors generating stations.
The legislation will give the IEPA more oversight in its
jurisdiction under the Groundwater Protection Act, so the agency
can do inspections of nuclear generating stations at the state
level as well, she said.
“One of the concerns we all had today as well is that Exelon is
policing itself and is being allowed to do that. We need to make
sure that, if that is going to happen, they will give us the
information they are required to give us,” she said.
“If they don’t do that, we need to take some action on both the
state and federal level to make sure the people get the
information they need.”
She said she will give the legislation to Dahl to carry to the
Senate “to make sure people in the area do have some more
support so they know what’s going on with the nuclear plants.”
Gordon also is looking into the possibility of a tritium leak
or leaks at the GE nuclear storage facility near Dresden
Station. Spent nuclear rods are kept below water at the facility
while awaiting permanent storage.
The meeting prior to the press conference was conducted by James
Caldwell, regional administrator of NRC Region 3; Anne Boland,
deputy director of the Division of Nuclear Safety, who oversees
the team doing the inspections at the stations; and Steve Orth,
health physics program manager for the NRC.
Morris Daily Herald • 1804 N. Division St. • Morris, Illinois
60450
(815) 942-3221 • (800) 215-9778
*****************************************************************
47 North Jersey Media Group: State presses nuclear concern
[NorthJersey.com]
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
By BOB IVRY STAFF WRITER
BETH BALBIERZ / THE RECORD ['arrow'] The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission is considering Exelon's application to renew the
license of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, near Toms River.
The state has "serious concerns" about safety at Oyster Creek,
the nation's oldest operating nuclear power plant.
Lisa Jackson, New Jersey's acting environmental commissioner,
wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold a public hearing
on those concerns before it rules on the plant's license renewal
application. Jackson threatened to hold her own hearing if the
federal agency declines to comply.
The NRC, which has sole authority over relicensing, and Exelon,
the Illinois-based energy giant that owns Oyster Creek through a
subsidiary called AmerGen, oppose a hearing. They argue that the
state is worried over nothing.
Jackson's demand falls short of expressing outright opposition
to relicensing -- New Jersey officials have no say in the NRC's
final decision -- but it nevertheless puts the state in the same
corner as a coalition of environmental and citizen groups. That
coalition has adopted the name STROC -- Stop the Relicensing of
Oyster Creek -- and has enlisted the pro bono aid of the Rutgers
Environmental Law Clinic to help it wedge itself into the NRC's
years-long and sometimes opaque license renewal proceedings.
Oyster Creek's operating license expires in 2009, but because
renewal takes years, Exelon submitted a relicensing application
last summer. If approved, it would keep Oyster Creek open until
2029 -- a total of 60 years. The reactor came online in 1969.
The outcome has national implications. Many of the country's
nuclear plants, built in the late 1960s and 1970s, are nearing
the end of their license periods, and the NRC has approved all
39 renewal applications it has decided on so far. For the first
time since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, U.S.
utilities are planning to build new reactors.
Both the state and STROC have filed what the NRC calls
"contentions" -- essentially, objections based on specific
problems with the plant -- to try to force the federal agency to
consider their concerns when ruling on the plant's application.
So far, lawyers for both the NRC and Exelon have challenged
those contentions in an effort to avoid delay in the relicensing
process.
"I find it curious that the NRC lawyers actually aggressively
try to exclude citizens from the process," said Richard Webster,
staff attorney at the Rutgers clinic.
Critics of the plant, nine miles south of Toms River, say the
agency's criteria for relicensing are too narrow.
"We look at two things," NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said.
"Whether [plant operators] have programs in place to manage
aging equipment and whether continued operation would cause
damage to the environment."
A three-judge panel is expected to rule on the contentions by
Feb. 28.
A 1-inch metal shield
At issue is a layer of metal less than an inch thick. It
protects the inside of the reactor's reinforced concrete
containment area, called the drywell.
In the event of a nuclear disaster, the metal may be the only
barrier keeping deadly radiation from seeping to the outside. It
also provides structural support for water and steam hoses and
control cables that run in and out of the reactor core.
In 1980, Oyster Creek inspectors discovered corrosion on the
liner, near its base, in a place where a sand bed was used to
support the liner and keep it from buckling.
Water had leaked out of cracks in the reactor vessel head during
the plant's biannual refuelings and had collected in the sand.
When technicians hunted for the cause of the water buildup, they
found that drains installed when the plant was built in the
1960s were blocked with construction debris. They cleared the
debris, scooped out the sand and applied a layer of epoxy over
the corrosion.
Technicians continue to monitor the corrosion with ultrasonic
testing equipment, said Exelon spokesman Peter Resler. In other
words, they use sound waves to gauge the thickness of the metal
liner where it's impossible or impractical to eyeball.
Opponents are unhappy with the frequency of those tests and say
they shouldn't be confined to spots on the metal that have had
corrosion problems.
"If you don't look, you don't find. That's the current motto of
Oyster Creek's operator," said Paul Gunter, director of the
reactor watchdog project of the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service in Washington, D.C.
Gunter fears undiscovered patches of corrosion have weakened the
metal, increasing the likelihood that the structure will buckle
under its own weight. In that case, Gunter said, radiation might
be released and pipes that carry coolant to the core would be
crimped or severed by the collapsing metal.
To avoid any chance of this, Gunter wants Exelon to dig up the
concrete at the base of the metal liner to check for corrosion.
Adding weight to Gunter's argument was an estimate done by the
plant's owner and found in its 2,400-page relicensing
application. It said the barrier had a 74 percent chance of
failing if the reactor core melted or its fuel suffered damage
in an accident.
Resler, however, said concern over a meltdown is misplaced.
"If there were that 1 in 10 million chance of a severe disaster
with core damage, any release of radiation would be contained
within that structure by a very thick reinforced concrete
shell," Resler said, referring to the containment vessel.
The concrete varies in thickness from 4 to 6 feet and is
reinforced by steel bars, Resler said.
"It's fully designed to withstand what an anticipated accident
would put on it in terms of pressure," he said.
To force a public hearing, relicensing opponents must apply for
what's called "intervener status." They must prove to the three
judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel that they
have a legitimate "contention" with Exelon's application.
The state's contention also cites what it calls the
vulnerability of the plant to an aircraft attack and a concern
that Exelon relies on a separate company for emergency backup
power. Lawyers for both the NRC and Exelon argued that all the
challenges were "inadmissible" on the grounds that they were
"outside the scope of a renewal proceeding" because they failed
"to establish that a genuine dispute exists on a material issue
of law or fact."
"The NRC is renowned as being a hostile forum for citizens,"
said Webster of Rutgers. "It's very hard to get information.
It's very hard to really meaningfully participate in the
decision-making process."
NRC's mixed signal
On Jan. 31, however, a team of NRC technicians discussed in a
public conference call their concern that the metal drywell
liners of boiling water reactors, like Oyster Creek, ought to be
examined for corrosion whenever plant operators apply for
license extensions. They were speaking generally, and not
specifically about Oyster Creek. Thirty-four of the nation's 103
commercial reactors are boiling-water reactors.
"So here you have on the one hand NRC technical people saying
corrosion is a concern, and on the other hand, you have NRC
legal people trying to quash any discussion of corrosion,"
Gunter said. "It's kind of schizophrenic."
Six of the 17 reactors owned by Exelon have received 20-year
license extensions. The six Exelon reactors, in Pennsylvania and
Illinois, have approval to remain open until 2029 to 2034.
About half the electricity used in New Jersey is generated by
nuclear power. Oyster Creek supplies electricity to the
equivalent of 600,000 households. New Jersey has three nuclear
plants in Salem County. The closest nuclear facility to North
Jersey is the pair of reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center
in Westchester County, N.Y., 15 miles north of the New Jersey
border.
Exelon's annual revenues are $14 billion, and Resler called
Oyster Creek "a valued part of our fleet." So much so, Resler
said, that Exelon will spend $20 million on the license renewal.
"That's a major investment," Resler said. "We don't make that
investment unless we think it's a good one. And we do believe
it's a good investment at Oyster Creek."
The Record and
Herald News!
Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Copyright Infringement Notice User Agreement &Privacy Policy
*****************************************************************
48 CNIC: Pluthermal plan for Genkai reactor
(Citizens' Nuclear Information Center)
riding roughshod over the citizens
21 February 2006
The Governor of Saga Prefecture today indicated for the first
time that he intends to approve the pluthermal plan for Genkai-3
reactor. On February 7th Saga Prefecture released a report
concluding that the pluthermal plan for Genkai is safe. The
issue will be debated by the Prefectural Assembly in March. If
the Prefectural Assembly supports the plan, it is expected that
the governor will promptly sign the required amendment to the
safety agreement.
Genkai Village Municipal Assembly indicated its acceptance of
the plan on February 17th, but the plan is not supported by a
municipality neighboring the plant. On February 20th, Karatsu
City Municipal Assembly passed a carefully worded resolution
which said, "in the current circumstances it would be difficult
to agree to implementation of the plan". That is, of course, a
polite way of saying that it opposes the plan.
The Genkai pluthermal plan has already received safety approvals
from the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency and the Nuclear
Safety Commission. The final step is to obtain the approval of
the local and prefectural governments. This is required under
the safety agreement between Kyushu Electric, Saga Prefecture
and Genkai Village.
Karatsu City is not a party to the safety agreement and the
municipal assembly's resolution is not binding on any of the
parties, but it would be an injustice for the plan to be
approved in spite of Karatsu's opposition. The border between
Karatsu and Genkai is only 600 meters from the power plant.
Furthermore, there are four times more Karatsu residents than
there are Genkai residents within a 10 kilometer radius of the
reactor. Understandably, the Karatsu City Council is unhappy
that it is not a party to the safety agreement with Kyushu
Electric.
Saga Prefecture's February 7th report basically concluded that
the government's safety assessment was reasonable. It considered
the following eight issues raised by opponents of pluthermal:
1. Control of the reactor (effectiveness of the control rods and
the boron, self-control, particular characteristics of power
distribution)
2. Safety of the fuel (melting point, internal
pressure - plutonium spots) 3. Experience with MOX (plutonium
enrichment, burn-up) 4. Radiation exposure during normal
operation (workers) 5. Impacts of accidents (possibility of
damage to containment vessel, range of impact in case of
accident) 6. Spent MOX fuel (storage) 7. Possibility of terrorism
8. Earthquake response
Saga Prefecture uncritically accepted the proponents arguments on
all the above and was satisfied with Kyushu Electric's safety
record and safety measures. The governor has already indicated
that he accepts the contents of this report.
For an overall picture of Japan's pluthermal plans, see the
links below.
Philip White
International Liaison Officer
Other links
CNIC translations of
Federation of Electric Power Companies 6 January 2006 Plutonium
Utilization Plan and the Atomic Energy of Japan's 24 January
2006 judgment on this plan.
Letter sent to IAEA re Japan Atomic Energy Commission approval
of faulty Plutonium Utilization Plan (3 February 2006)
Rubber Stamp for Inappropriate and Untransparent Plutonium
Utilization Plan (24 January 2006)
The eyes of the world are watching - Will Japan uphold its
international commitment to not produce surplus plutonium (18
January 2006)
English (pdf 472 KB) Japanese (pdf 548 KB )
Press release and letter sent to International Atomic Energy
Agency (11 January 2006)
Press release and petition sent to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (5 January 2006)
Status of light water reactors using MOX fuel in Japan
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
TEL.03-5330-9520
FAX.03-5330-9530
*****************************************************************
49 FAS: The half-life of plutonium recycling information.
Strategic Security Project Blog
www.fas.org
No Questions on Military budget.
Thinking the President might mention it in his State of the
Union Address, I had put up on the FAS website a page on the
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, which includes a plan to
restart plutonium reprocessing in the United States after a
thirty year hiatus. The President did not, in fact, mention the
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership specifically but it figured
prominently in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) FY2007 budget
rollout.
After the DOE budget came out, I needed to update my Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership page (which is the number two hit in
Google, right after DOE’s page, and the update will be done in
a day or so). The one attempt the US ever made at commercial
plutonium reprocessing was in West Valley, New York. So I
googled “West Valley New York plutonium” to get some
information on it. It turns out the DOE wrote a history of
plutonium reprocessing at West Valley and it was, as you might
expect, the very first Google hit: Plutonium Recovery from Spent
Fuel Reprocessing by Nuclear Fuel Services at West Valley, New
York from 1966 to 1972, U.S. Department of Energy, February
1996.
A couple of entries ago, I wrote how the ethos of blogs is to be
absolutely up-to-the-minute. Well here you go. When I started
writing this entry, I included the Google-produced link above
taking you to the DOE’s Office of Science and Technology
Information (OSTI) and made the point that it takes you to a
“404 page not found” message. Now, an hour later, even that
broken link is gone. The half life of plutonium is 24 thousand
years but apparently the half life of government information
about plutonium is about an hour. Thank goodness for Google
caches. We have an older version of the page and it is now on
the FAS website here. On Google, even the cache is now gone. A
search using the OSTI search engine results in 200 hits for
“West Valley.” They are annual reports and some highly
technical documents. But the Plutonium Recovery document is not
there. Apparently, the DOE is working on its websites as I
write. We don’t have the manpower to do it all but if others
are interested in discovering soon-to-be “disappeared” DOE
documents, we will consider hosting them on the FAS website.
While I was at it, I looked for other information on plutonium.
A DOE official history, Plutonium: The first 50 years, also
yielded a “404 Page Not Found” message when I first did a
search of “plutonium first years” on the OSTI page. Now the
search engine just produces zero hits. I confess, this one I do
not understand because this report, in fact, is on the DOE site
here, it just doesn’t show up on their search engine. (The
link was discovered by our ever-resourceful Research Assistant,
Lucas Royland.) Perhaps DOE doesn’t realize it is on their
site. I bet that, before tomorrow morning, it will be gone too.
Just in case the DOE decides they don’t want us to know the
history of plutonium, we have also put the file on the FAS
website here.
Posted by Ivan Oelrich on February 21, 2006 03:56 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.fas.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/95
*****************************************************************
50 UPI: Emergency measures taken at nuke plant
United Press International - NewsTrack -
2/20/2006 9:48:00 PM -0500
SENECA, Ill., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Emergency operations were
activated Monday during a scheduled shutdown of one of the
reactors at Excelon Corp's La Salle Nuclear power plant.
An Excelon spokesman says no one was injured and no radiological
material was released from the plant located near Seneca, Ill.,
about 75 miles southwest of Chicago.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency said an emergency was
declared at 12:28 a.m. after the reactor failed to shut down
properly during a routine refueling.
Excelon said plant instruments indicated three of 185 control
rods used to shut down the reactor were not fully inserted. If
more than one control rod fails to insert properly, a site-area
emergency must be declared, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"There actually wasn't a danger to the public during that time,"
Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency
Management Agency, told the Tribune.
© Copyright 2006 United Press
International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
51 IRNA: Media must reveal aspects of West's opposition to nuclear program -
Tehran, Feb 21, IRNA
Iran-Media-Salimi
The media and the press are expected to disclose different
aspects of the current situation which has been created against
Iranian nuclear program, the head of the Institute for
Historical Studies of the Islamic Revolution Abbas Salimi Namin.
Speaking to IRNA, he said that since the challenge over Iranian
nuclear program is serious and has become a national aspiration
for Iranians and observers regard the program as more important
than nationalization of oil industry in 1951, the press would
play a key role in countering Western opposition to Iran's plan
to get access to nuclear energy.
He said that the press should analyze the reasons that the
negotiating parties have put forward for their opposition to
Iranian nuclear program in order to enlighten the people about
their main objectives.
He appreciated the step taken by Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting (IRIB) for live broadcast of negotiations between
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and members of the
European Parliament.
Salimi Namin said that if the media analyze context of the
Western states to the public opinion, it would be helpful to
deal with an array of propaganda campaign stirred up against
Iranian nuclear program.
He said that the Western governments have focused on clash of
civilizations rather than dialogue among civilizations and their
propaganda campaign against Iranian nuclear program account for
their preference of clash of civilizations.
*****************************************************************
52 NRC: NRC Sends Augmented Inspection Team to Review Security at Florida Nuclear Power
Plant and Issues Confirmatory Action Letter
News Release - Region II - 2006-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region II No. II-06-003
February 17, 2006 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D.
Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov
Inspection Team (AIT) to review security issues at the Turkey
Point nuclear power plant, operated by Florida Power & Light
Company near Florida City, about 30 miles southeast of Miami.
An AIT is formed to review the circumstances surrounding more
significant issues at NRC- licensed facilities. The NRC team
inspection includes specialists from the agencys Region II office
in Atlanta and from its headquarters in Rockville, Md. The team
is expected to spend about one week at the site before returning
to the regional office where the information they have gathered
will be analyzed and evaluated.
In addition to the AIT, the NRC is issuing a Confirmatory Action
Letter to FP&L to confirm that the company has taken or plans to
take appropriate corrective actions and has initiated its own
investigation of the issues.
This inspection team will comprehensively assess the Turkey Point
security issues to ensure that the security program is being
effectively implemented, said NRC Region II Administrator William
Travers.
Details of NRC inspections of security at the nations nuclear
power plants are not publicly available. The NRC has determined
that certain security information should not be made public if it
could reasonably be useful to an adversary.
Last revised Tuesday, February 21, 2006
*****************************************************************
53 [du-list] UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells - details to
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:24:07 -0800
This has just come from the low level radiation campaign, plus its article
in the sunday times and is worth reading. Please circulate
davey garland
pandora du research project
A new Green Audit report, featured in UK's Sunday Times 19th February
2006, shows that depleted uranium from Gulf War 2 "Shock and Awe" bombing
in 2003 spread across Europe, reaching Britain within 9 days. This is fresh
evidence of the indiscriminate effects of uranium armour piercing weaponry
which make it illegal under international law (which also means Bush and
Blair are war criminals.)
There are persistent reports of adverse health effects associated with
exposure to inhalation of DU aerosols despite official beliefs that
resulting radiation doses are too low to cause any observable impact.
Recent publications from a number of radiation risk agencies indicate,
however, that the concept of "dose" is not valid for many types of
exposure; a typical example is internal exposure to insoluble Uranium Oxide
particles in the sub-micron range (i.e. smaller than 1 millionth of a meter
in diameter).
The risk agencies referred to here are: the International Commission on
Radiological Protection, the European Committee on Radiation Risk, the
French Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, and the UK's
Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters.
The full report from Green Audit is at www.llrc.org/aldermastrept.pdf
(558 Kb). Or go to www.llrc.org and follow links to the Depleted Uranium
pages of the site. Low Level Radiation Campaign
UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shellsMark Gould and
Jon Ungoed-Thomas
RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold
increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe”
bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report. Environmental
scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws
say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by
wind currents to Britain. NI_MPU('middle');
Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by
radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from
local sources.
The results from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment
(AWE) in Aldermaston and four other stations within a 10-mile radius were
obtained by Chris Busby, of Liverpool University’s department of human
anatomy and cell biology. Each detector recorded a significant rise in
uranium levels during the Gulf war bombing campaign in March 2003. The
reading from a park in Reading was high enough for the Environment Agency
to be alerted. Busby, who has advised the government on radiation and is
a founder of Green Audit, the environmental consultancy, believes “uranium
aerosols” from Iraq were widely dispersed in the atmosphere and blown
across Europe. “This research shows that rather than remaining near the
target as claimed by the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate
both locals and whole populations hundreds to thousands of miles away,” he
said. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) countered that it was “unfeasible”
depleted uranium could have travelled so far.
Radiation experts also said that other environmental sources were more
likely to blame. The “shock and awe” campaign was one of the most
devastating assaults in modern warfare. In the first 24-hour period more
than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad. During the
conflict A10 “tankbuster” planes — which use munitions containing depleted
uranium — fired 300,000 rounds. The substance — dubbed a “silver bullet”
because of its ability to pierce heavy tank armour — is controversial
because of its potential effect on human health. Critics say it is
chemically toxic and can cause cancer, and Iraqi doctors reported a marked
rise in cancer cases after it was used in the first Gulf conflict. The
American and British governments say depleted uranium is relatively
harmless, however. The Royal Society, the UK’s academy of science, has also
said the risk from depleted uranium is “very low” for soldiers and people
in a conflict zone. Busby’s report shows that within nine
days of the start of the Iraq war on March 19, 2003, higher levels of
uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire. On two occasions, levels
exceeded the threshold at which the Environment Agency must be informed,
though within safety limits. The report says weather conditions over the
war period showed a consistent flow of air from Iraq northwards. Brian
Spratt, who chaired the Royal Society’s report, cast doubt on depleted
uranium as a source but said it could have come from natural uranium in the
massive amounts of soil kicked up by shock and awe. Other experts said
local environmental sources, such as a power station, were more likely at
fault. The Environment Agency said detectors at other sites did not record
a similar increase, which suggested a local source.
A MoD spokesman said the uranium was of a “natural origin” and there was
no evidence that depleted uranium had reached Britain from Iraq.
---------------------------------
To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo!
Security Centre.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to
du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type
unsubscribe and send.
*****************************************************************
54 [downwinders] Nuclear Workers benefits at risk
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:25:28 -0800
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Nuclear worker benefits at risk
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
Associated Press
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 11:20 PM EST
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Bush administration is
taking steps to limit costs associated with a benefits program for Cold
War-era nuclear workers who developed cancer from radiation exposure,
according to a White House document.
Republicans and Democrats say they are
concerned, with one GOP lawmaker saying he plans to have hearings.
Locally, Dan Minter, president of the United
Steel Workers Local 5-689, said that it will take further evaluation to
find out if this will affect the area.
Home | Copyright © 2006 The Portsmouth Daily Times | Top
*****************************************************************
55 [du-list] Aldermarston Uranium data - updated report
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:25:55 -0800
Messages on the Internet (WISE & DU-list) criticising Busby & Morgan's
report about Uranium dust at Aldermarston posted on the LLRC website would
have been usefully addressed to the authors first for clarification or
correction.
However Jack's message pointing out an editing error was useful. When I
checked the LLRC site copy it was obvious that an earlier draft of the
report had been posted by mistake. It was not the completed version that I
have been re-analysing and that was reported in the UK Sunday Times on 19
Feb. The complete version has 18 pages not 15.
I brought this to LLRC's attention yesterday and the complete version has
now been posted at www.llrc.org . Anyone who downloaded the report in the
last two days can get the complete version today.
Dai Williams
Surrey, UK
eosuk@btinternet.com
*****************************************************************
56 [du-list] DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:26:08 -0800
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=8018
DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers
telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary,
Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a
massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by
the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.
In the article Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for
Constitutional Law, reportedly wrote that "thousands of our military have
suffered and died from, [and depleted uranium] has finally been identified
as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth
is now being revealed." Bernklau went on to detail several alarming
statistics. The historical disability rate amongst soldiers last century
was about 5 percent, although it approached 10 percent during Vietnam. But
due to the use of depleted uranium in the battlefield, 56 percent of the
580,400 solders that served in the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical
Disability by 2000. 11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739
Gulf War Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical disability.
Principi, under the order of the Bush Administration, had been
allegedly covering up the disastrous results of using depleted uranium
since 2000. However, with so many soldiers having serious health problems
it has become impossible to keep secret.
staff reports - Free-Market News Network
----------
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.0.0/266 - Release Date: 2/21/06
*****************************************************************
57 [du-list] uranium toxicology references
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:26:35 -0800
Low-level radiation exposure has very little to do with
uranyl inhalation poisoning from breathing uranium
combustion products. Study the chemical toxicity of
uranyl oxide instead. These references should help.
1. Neurotoxicity
Briner, W. and J. Murray (2005) "Effects of short-term and long-term
depleted uranium exposure on open-field behavior and brain lipid
oxidation in rats," Neurotoxicology and Teratology, vol. 27, pp. 135-44:
http://www.bovik.org/du/du-on-rats.pdf
Abstract: "DU is a toxin that crosses the blood-brain barrier, producing
behavioral changes in male rats and lipid oxidation regardless of gender
in as little as 2 weeks...."
Monleau, M.; C. Bussy; P. Lestaevel; P. Houpert; F. Paquet; V. Chazel
(2005) "Bioaccumulation and behavioural effects of depleted uranium in
rats exposed to repeated inhalations," Neuroscience Letters, vol. 390,
pp. 31-6. Abstract: "depleted uranium is able to enter the brain after
exposure to repeated inhalation, producing behavioral changes."
2. Reproductive toxicity
Kang H, Magee C, Mahan C, Lee K, Murphy F, Jackson L, Matanoski G.
(2001) "Pregnancy outcomes among U.S. Gulf War veterans: a
population-based survey of 30,000 veterans." Annals of Epidemiology,
vol. 11, pp. 504-11:
http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/PIIS1047279701002459/abstract
Abstract: "Both men and women deployed to the Gulf theater reported
significant excesses of birth defects among their liveborn infants.
These excess rates also extended to the subset of "moderate to severe"
birth defects [males: OR= 1.78 (CI = 1.19-2.66); females: OR = 2.80 (CI
= 1.26-6.25)]." Note that the effect in females is larger. Citations:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=link:XqJzd8GBUFoJ:scholar.google.com/
Arfsten, D.P.; K.R. Still; G.D. Ritchie (2001) "A review of the effects
of uranium and depleted uranium exposure on reproduction and fetal
development," Toxicology and Industrial Health, vol. 17, pp. 180-91:
http://www.bovik.org/du/reproduction-review-2001.pdf
(Authors' affiliation: Naval Health Research Center Detachment -
Toxicology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) Summary: "A number of
studies have shown that natural uranium is a reproductive toxicant...."
Hindin, R.; D. Brugge; B. Panikkar (2005) "Teratogenicity of depleted
uranium aerosols: A review from an epidemiological perspective,"
Environmental Health, vol. 4, pp. 17.
http://www.ehjournal.net/content/4/1/17
"Conclusion: In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is
consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of
persons exposed to DU."
3. Developmental toxicity
Domingo, J.L. (2001) "Reproductive and developmental toxicity of
natural and depleted uranium: a review," Reproductive Toxicology, vol.
15, pp. 603-9. Abstract: "Decreased fertility, embryo/fetal toxicity
including teratogenicity, and reduced growth of the offspring have
been observed following uranium exposure at different gestation periods."
Durakovic A. (1999) "Medical effects of internal contamination with
uranium," Croatian Medical Journal, vol. 40, pp. 49-66. Abstract:
"well documented evidence of reproductive and developmental toxicity...."
4. Immunological toxicity
McDiarmid, M.A., et al. (2006) "Biological monitoring and surveillance
results of Gulf War I veterans exposed to depleted uranium," in
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, vol.
79, pp. 11-21. Abstract: "genotoxicity measures continue to show
subtle, mixed results...."
Schröder, H.; A. Heimers; R. Frentzel-Beyme; A. Schott; W. Hoffmann
(2003) "Chromosome aberration analysis in peripheral lymphocytes of Gulf
war and Balkans war veterans," Radiation Protection Dosimetry, vol. 103,
pp. 211-220:
http://www.bovik.org/du/chromosome-abberations.pdf
Abstract: "there was a statistically significant increase in the
frequency of dicentric chromosomes (dic) and centric ring chromosomes
(cR) in the veterans. group...."
Miller, A.C.; M. Stewart; K. Brooks; L. Shi; N. Page (2003) "Depleted
uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha
particle decay," Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, vol. 91, pp. 246-252:
http://www.bovik.org/du/Miller-DNA-damage.pdf
Abstract: "chemical generation of hydroxyl radicals by depleted uranium
in vitro exceeds radiolytic generation by one million-fold...."
5. Uranyl oxide gas vapor is an aerial combustion product of uranium
Monomeric (monomolecular) uranium trioxide gas is produced by the
oxidation of U3O8 at temperatures above 1000° Celsius. Uranium
combustion in air produces U3O8 particles as 75% of all particulate
products (Gilchrist et al. 1979) at uranium's atmospheric burning
temperature of between 2200 and 2800 Kelvin (Mouradian et al. 1963),
which cool through the 1000 to 2000 Kelvin range, reacting with O2
to produce monomeric UO3 gas vapor (Ackermann et al. 1960.) This
reaction is "not infrequently ignored" (Gmelin vol. U-C1, p. 98.)
In solid form, uranium trioxide will decompose at above 150° C, by
releasing O2, decreasing the proportion of oxygen to eventually render
uranium dioxide under conditions of large surface area and high
sustained heat. Individual UO3 gas vapor molecules will not decompose
because uranium monoxide is electrovalently impossible. UO3(g)
molecules will adhere to surfaces, precipitating out of air as
nanometer-scale particles and film.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.04.001
R.J. Ackermann, et al., "Free Energies of Formation of Gaseous Uranium,
Molybdenum, and Tungsten Trioxides," Journal of Physical Chemistry,
vol. 64 (1960) pp. 350-355.
Mouradian and Baker (1963) "Burning Temperatures of Uranium and
Zirconium in Air," Nuclear Science and Engineering, 15, 388-394.
Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry, 8th ed., English translation,
vol. U-C1 (1977), page 98.
«Gmelin Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie» 8th ed., vol. U-C2, pp.
118-120.
Gilchrist, R.L., J.A. Glissmyer, and J. Mishima (1979) "Characterization
of Airborne Uranium from Test Firings of XM774 Ammunition," Technical
report no. PNL-2944, Richland, WA: Battelle Pacific Northwest
Laboratory, November 1979.
6. Therefore, isotope ratio urine studies which depend on particulate
uranium aerosol remaining un-dissolved in the lung will not correctly
measure total inhalation exposure.
Sincerely,
James Salsman
*****************************************************************
58 [du-list] Dhafir trial and DU
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:26:51 -0800
See also Press Release, on DU in Oz, at bottom. An Australian
parliamentarian has been assured that the US will drop no bombs containing
DU on Australian test ranges (eg Shoalwater Bay, Lancelin). Why make
assurances if no such weapons exist? Disinformation?
-----------------------------
Crime Of Compassion
By Katherine Hughes
20 February, 2006
Dhafirtrial.net
On October 27, 2005, after being detained 31 months and being denied access
to his own records, Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an oncologist from Upstate New York,
was sentenced to 22 years in Federal prison.[1] A man of Iraqi descent and
Muslim faith, he lived in the U.S. since 1974 and has been an American
citizen for almost 30 years. As a direct response to the humanitarian
catastrophe created by the Gulf War and U.S. sanctions Dhafir founded the
charity Help the Needy (HTN). Despite many difficulties, including the U.S.
embargo and a brutal dictatorship in Iraq, HTN got food and medicines to
millions of starving Iraqis for 13 years.[2] Without HTN aid the UN
statistic of 5,200 preventable deaths per month of children under the age of
five would undoubtedly have been much higher.
On February 26, 2003, the day that Dhafir was arrested, Attorney General
John Ashcroft announced that "supporters of terrorism had been apprehended."
Since that day senior government officials have continued to paint Dhafir as
a terrorist, and Judge Norman Mordue denied Dhafir bail on four occasions.
Yet local prosecutors successfully lobbied Mordue to prevent the charge of
terrorism from being part of the trial. This ruling turned into a brick wall
that the defense kept hitting during the proceedings: prosecutors could hint
at more serious charges, but the defense was never allowed to follow this
line of questioning. Despite denying Dhafir the right to address the charge
in court, Mordue allowed prosecutors to bring the charge to his sentencing.
Although the government continues to characterize Dhafir as a criminal
supporting terrorism, the only context in which this case makes any sense is
the overwhelming humanitarian crisis created by the brutal U.S. sanctions on
the country of Iraq.[3]
Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness (VITW), speaking about mainstream
U.S media coverage before the Iraq War had begun, said, "I try to point out
to the mainstream journalists that they have succeeded enormously in
informing the U.S. public about the horrors committed by the current regime
in Iraq while for the most part neglecting the horrors the United States has
committed. That the regime here has used chemical weapons, engaged in
torture, and violated the political and civil rights of Iraqi civilians is
repugnant to all who cherish human rights. And yet, what the U.S. public
doesn't understand and will possibly never comprehend is that the greatest
violations of human rights in Iraq since the Gulf War have happened as a
result of U.S.-led UN economic sanctions against Iraq."[4] Indeed, three
senior UN officials living and working in Iraq resigned because they
considered the sanctions to be a "genocidal" policy.[5]
Talking about her return to the U.S. after a 1998 visit to Iraq, Kelly said,
"Upon our return to the U.S., customs agents turned my passport over to the
State Department, perhaps as evidence that, according to U.S. law, I've
committed a criminal act by traveling to Iraq. I know that our efforts to be
voices in the wilderness aren't criminal. We're governed by compassion, not
by the laws that pitilessly murder innocent children. What's more, Iraqi
children might benefit if we could bring their story into a courtroom,
before a jury of our peers."[6]
IRAQ UNDER SANCTIONS
During the course of the proceedings the government did its utmost to
prevent any discussion of the state of Iraq under the sanctions from being
part of the trial. Government employees, including Susan Hutner, of the
Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), testified to having no knowledge of
the effects of the sanctions. As the government attorney addressing the
situation in Iraq, she helped draft the initial legal documentation to
implement the sanctions and then worked on the sanctions for 12 years. When
the defense attempted to question Hutner about the Oil for Food program, the
court ruled the line of questioning irrelevant.[7]
Several government witnesses of Iraqi descent broke down on the stand when
they began to talk of the effects of the sanctions on their families.[8]
Each time this happened the prosecution immediately interrupted the
testimony.[9] The only newspaper reporting on the proceedings, the local
Syracuse Post-Standard, failed to address the sanctions as they pertained to
the case.
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 1, 1990, and on August 2, U.S.
sanctions against Iraq were put in place. On January 17, 1991, the first
bombs of the Gulf War were dropped on Baghdad. Before this war the people of
Iraq had a standard of living comparable to many Western countries. Although
a brutal dictatorship, the government provided universal healthcare and
education including college for all its citizens. There was virtually no
illiteracy and the education system and health system were the best in the
region.
The result of the war was total devastation: more bombs were dropped on Iraq
in a six-week period than were dropped by all parties together in the whole
of World War II. Taken together, these bombs are at least six times more
powerful than two atomic bombs. Many types of bombs were used including ones
containing depleted uranium (DU), the waste matter from nuclear plants;
hundreds of tons of DU ammunition now lie scattered throughout Iraq. The DU
dust has entered the food chain through the soil and the water, and as a
result many formerly unknown diseases have become prevalent in Iraq. Many
pregnant women are delivering their babies as early as six months, and many
babies are born with terrible deformities. Cancer rates have skyrocketed,
and if current trends continue 44% of the population could develop cancer
within the next ten years. [10]
All major bridges and communication systems were bombed, making any
communications both inside and outside the country extremely difficult. The
water purification system was bombed and the UN has never allowed it to be
repaired; as a result 15 years of raw sewage has piled up in the streets.
This has been the cause of much disease and death, particularly among the
young and very old. Hospitals and schools were not spared and, as a result
of the bombing and the sanctions, the health and education systems in Iraq
went from being the best in the region to being the worst. [11]
Robert Fisk in his new book about the Middle East says, "There was one final
scourge to be visited upon the Iraqi people, a foul cocktail in which both
our gunfire and our sanctions played an intimate, horrific role, one that
would contaminate Iraqis for years to come, perhaps for generations. In
historical terms, it may be identified as our most callous crime against the
Middle East, against Arabs, against children. It manifested itself in
abscesses, in massive tumours, in gangrene, internal bleeding and child
mastectomies and shrunken heads and deformities and thousands of tiny
graves."[12]
In 1998 Denis Halliday, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
resigned from the UN after thirty-four years of distinguished service. At
the time he was serving as the humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad, and his
resignation was a direct result of the conditions he witnessed. He said, "I
had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of
genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively killed well over a
million individuals, children and adults. We all know that the regime,
Saddam Hussein, is not paying the price of economic sanctions; on the
contrary, he has been strengthened by them. It is the little people who are
losing their children or their parents for lack of treated water. What is
clear is that the Security Council is now out of control, for its actions
here undermine its own Charter, and the Declaration of Human Rights and the
Geneva Convention. History will slaughter those responsible."[13]
Hans Von Sponeck succeeded Denis Halliday as humanitarian coordinator in
Baghdad and, and in early 2000 he too resigned from that position. Von
Sponeck, talking about the Oil for Food program, said that it was impossible
for each person to live on the $100 per year that was being allocated,
especially because of the conditions prevalent in Iraq at the time. He said,
"Set that pittance against the lack of clean water, the fact that
electricity fails for up to 22 hours a day, and the majority of sick people
cannot afford treatment, the sheer trauma of trying to get from day to day,
and you have a glimpse of the nightmare. And make no mistake, this is
deliberate. I have not in the past wanted to use the word genocide, but now
it is unavoidable."[14]
And in a report to the UN Secretary General, Professor Marc Bossuyt, an
authority on international law, stated that the ".sanctions regime against
Iraq is unequivocally illegal under existing human right law and could raise
questions under the Genocide Convention."[15]
WHAT HELP THE NEEDY DID
Over the course of 13 years, from 1990 until 2003, HTN sent food and
medicines that reached millions of starving Iraqi civilians. The aid was
first sent to Maher Zagha in Jordan. Zagha is a former Onondaga Community
College and Utica College student who lived in the Upstate New York area for
several years before returning to Jordan.[16] He is listed as a
co-conspirator with Dhafir on the indictment.
On the day of Dhafir's arrest, Zagha was arrested in Jordan and then held in
solitary for 21 days. The Jordanians interrogated him and released him and
since then he has gone about his normal life, including traveling
internationally. After Dhafir's conviction in February 2005 the remaining
HTN money in Jordan, $138,564.53 was confiscated along with $25,000 of
Dhafir's personal money.
Throughout the period of the sanctions container loads of food were shipped
by HTN from Jordan to Iraq. Receipts from the purchase of food were shown in
court. For example, an invoice from January 29th, 1997, showed the purchase
of 25 tons of Thailand rice, 35 tons of flour and 2000 cans of cooking oil.
Invoices from other days and years list tons of; American rice, Turkish
sugar, Iranian flour, chickpeas and Iraqi lentils. Tea and tomato paste was
also shipped.[17] Zagha sent the aid into Iraq using the correct official
channels required by the Jordanian authorities. When he was unable to
comply, he gave the aid over to the authorities. In 1990 when Dhafir sent
900 kilograms of medicine to Zagha without the correct paper work, Zagha had
to give the medicine to the Iraqi embassy in Jordan. It was the only way to
get the medicine into Iraq and he could only hope that it would reach the
people for whom it was intended.
>From 1996 through 2003 Zagha sent money to Iraq and local exchangers were
used because there were no banks operating at that time. The money was sent
to Dhafir's brother Najim in Baghdad (also a physician) and two other men,
Mustapha and Ammar. By getting money into Iraq from Jordan HTN was able to
provide starving civilians with meat protein. The three men in Baghdad
bought animals at the open markets surrounding the city, and these purchases
usually coincided with the major holidays of the Muslim faith. For example,
in January 2003, for one of the most holy of Muslim holidays, Eid, Zagha
sent four lots of money totaling $285,000. This money bought about 4,000
lambs and cows which were sacrificed, and the food was distributed to the
needy.[18] Looking at the quantities of aid provided to Iraqi civilians by
HTN, it is easy to believe that they were indeed feeding more people in Iraq
than all the other aid agencies put together.[19]
An email read in court showed that Dhafir believed that the U.S. government
was not opposed to Iraqi civilians receiving humanitarian aid of the form
that HTN was supplying. HTN and other groups, like VITW, openly advertised
that they were sending aid to civilians. They did this through leaflets,
websites and fundraising events. For 13 years the government took little
action against people who sent aid to Iraqi civilians, and this tacit
approval must have helped confirm Dhafir's belief.[20]
Since the day of his arrest, using unfair tactics and innuendo, the
government has managed to transform Dhafir from a compassionate humanitarian
into a crook and supporter of terrorists. They have done this with the aid
of a complicit press and a willfully ignorant public.
THE GOVERNMENT APPROACH
>From the outset in this case the approach of the government has been one of
circumambulation. Michael Powell of the Washington Post said, "There is a
shadow-boxing quality to the terror allegations lodged against Dhafir. In
August [2004], Gov. George E. Pataki (R) described Dhafir's as a 'money
laundering case to help terrorist organizations . . . conduct horrible acts.'
Prosecutors hinted at national security reasons for holding Dhafir without
bail. But no evidence was offered to support the allegations."[21]
In April 2004 the U.S. government brought new charges against Zagha to
Interpol, and Zagha had to give up his passport. It was returned so that he
could make a business trip to Syria, but on December 20, 2005, the
authorities again took his passport.
To this day no evidence has been offered to link Dhafir to terrorists. And
yet, on November 15, 2005, the government presented a lecture at Syracuse
University's law school entitled, "A Law Enforcement Approach to Terrorist
Financing," in which Dhafir's case was highlighted. [22] The three
prosecutors from the case, Michael Olmstead, Greg West and Steve Green were
present along with Jeff Breinholt, Deputy Chief, Counterterrorism Section
United States Department of Justice who was the main speaker.
Breinholt asserted that the Dhafir case had been "under prosecuted," this
despite the fact that the government brought 60 counts against Dhafir and
gained conviction on 59. He cited HTN's use of tax exemption numbers other
than its own as an example of how charities functioned in their criminal
activity. Many of Dhafir's convictions on tax evasion and fraud charges are
based on the assumption that people who gave money to HTN used the tax
exemption number of another charity and therefore did not pay tax. The
government is holding Dhafir responsible for this lost tax revenue.
One of the two numbers Dhafir used was from a charity that is the Saudi
Arabian equivalent of the American charity United Way.[23] The use of
another charity's number is not an uncommon practice. What is uncommon is
the fact that it resulted in a criminal prosecution. Barrie Gewanter,
Director of the Central New York ACLU, has explained the normal procedure
for this type of situation in numerous interviews about the HTN case.
Ordinarily the state government intervenes and shuts the charity down until
the situation is sorted out to their satisfaction. When and if this is
achieved, the charity continues its work.[24]
The government's philosophy in prosecuting this case was made clear in the
course of the lecture. Olmstead, the head prosecutor of the Dhafir case,
cited the philosopher Emmanuel Kant's imperative, "To obey the law because
it is the law." He added that "if you break the law, you must pay the
price," apparently regardless of the unfairness of the law and the
humanitarian nature of the act. Compassion comes with a very high price.
Dhafir is undoubtedly paying the price of breaking the genocidal policy of
U.S. sanctions against Iraq. However, the government was unwilling to
prosecute him for this without the attendant obfuscation and cover provided
by the laundry list of charges that he faced. A clear message is being sent
that humanitarian acts like this will not be tolerated and will be punished
accordingly.
By hosting this lecture on terrorist financing, Syracuse University Law
School provided the government with a platform that gives credence to an
accusation that is wholly lacking in evidence. They have become the most
recent government accomplice. The "shadow boxing" continues with the media,
public and the local law school as willing participants in the charade.
The journalist John Pilger writes, "It is not enough for journalists to see
themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of
the message and the myths that surround it"[25] It is also not enough for
citizens in a democracy to see themselves as mere receptors of information.
As citizens in a democracy we have an obligation to seek justice for each
other. In this case it means actively going beyond the government's
obfuscation and seeking hard facts and other sources of information. If this
can be achieved, Dhafir and the other HTN defendants will be vindicated; but
it is no easy task.
ACHIEVING JUSTICE
Many people are reassured by the fact that Dhafir can appeal against his
conviction and sentencing. But most have no idea what this means in terms of
practicalities. Under the best possible circumstances the chances of a
successful appeal are slim.
Seven government agencies investigated this case for five years. The
prosecutors presented the case in minutia over the course of the seventeen
weeks of proceedings. What was expected to be a 6-week trial turned into a
17-week trial and the three defense lawyers have received a fraction of
their fee. Due to this lack of finances a request for transcripts was made
at the beginning of the trial.[26] Judge Mordue denied this request and so
one of the three defense lawyers typed the proceedings on his laptop.
But official transcripts are essential to an appeal and even if ordered
today, it would take two years to get the transcript in full. The cost would
be around $60,000. before any lawyer fees or other costs are taken into
account.
Dhafir has been bankrupted by this course of justice and has no money for an
appeals lawyer. His only hope is that people who care about compassion and
justice will be able to raise enough money for him to have a viable chance
of a successful appeal.
-------
Katherine Hughes is a potter and a voracious reader of history and current
events. She responded to a request from the ACLU for court watchers and
attended virtually all of the Dhafir trial. To find out more about this
case, please visit her website: www.dhafirtrial.net.
----------
[1] Write to Dr. Dhafir: Rafil Dhafir, 11921-052, FCI-Fairton, PO Box 420,
Fairton, NJ 08320.
[2] We learned in the proceedings that a HTN volunteer was killed by Saddam
Hussein's regime.
[3] The first 15 counts of Dr. Dhafir's 60-count indictment involve
violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA),
commonly known as the sanctions. The full indictment is available on my
website:
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/static/indictment.pdf
[4] Kathy Kelly, "Other Lands Have Dreams" (Oakland: Counterpunch and AK
Press, 2005), p.51.
[5] John Pilger, "The New Rulers of the World" (London: Verso 2002), p.54.
[6] Ibid, Kelly. P.37.
[7] From my witness of the proceedings and official transcript of Susan
Hutner's cross examination by the defense, November 10, 2004.
[8] One witness broke down on the stand when testifying that his mother had
died because she did not have access to necessary blood pressure medicine.
[9] A video of an HTN fundraising event was shown early in the proceedings.
The government intended to play only the first few minutes, but the defense
insisted that the whole video be shown.
[10] John Pilger, "The Impact of the Sanctions," found at
http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq/impact
[11] Information about Iraq under the sanctions can be found on the Voices
in the Wilderness website. A video of a fundraising event in which Dr.
Dhafir describes conditions of Iraq using the Pentagon and UNICEF as his
sources is available at the address below. The file is 12 MB: QuickTime
version: http://www.a39.net/Dhafir/Dhafir.html
Flash version: http://www.a39.net/Dhafir/DhafirFlash.html
[12] Robert Fisk, "The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the
Middle East" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2005) p.727.
[13] John Pilger, The New Rulers of the World (London: Verso 2002), p.53.
[14] Ibid, Pilger, p.59
[15] Ibid, Pilger, p.95.
[16] In Syracuse, New York, and Rome, New York, respectively.
[17] From my witness of the proceedings
[18] Maher Zagha sent me pictures of the animals being slaughtered. A sign
in each photograph shows that the animals were purchased by HTN.
[19] From my witness of the proceedings, correspondence with Maher Zagha and
Dr. Dhafrir's sentencing statement to the media.
[20] The government's tacit approval in this case reminds me of the way that
people are granted dual-citizenship: this is achieved by taking the Oath of
Allegiance (and swearing away their original citizenship) and keeping the
country of origin passport. This is the "accepted" practice and the media
write freely about "dual-citizens." But what if the government decides to
prosecute this action in years to come?
[21] Michael Powell, "High-Profile N.Y. Suspect Goes on Trial: Arrest Was
Called Part of War on Terrorism, but Doctor Faces Other Charges," The
Washington Post, October 19, 2004.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43278-2004Oct18.html
[22] The lecture was advertised by the "Institute For National Security and
Counterterrorism", INSCT, which is hosted by Syracuse University Law School:
http://insct.syr.edu/Research_SWP0506.htm
A photograph of Greg West can be seen at this site. It was taken during the
lecture and IEEPA violations are chalked on the blackboard behind him.
[23] Elaine Cassel, The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have
Dismantled the Bill of Rights (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2004). See the
chapter, "Guilt by Association: The Islamic Charities," pp 87 - 105
[24] See WCNY Public Television, "Access" with George Kilpatrick. This
program aired on Wednesday, 26th October at 11pm, the night before Dr.Dhafir's
sentencing. I was part of a three-person panel with Barrie Gewanter (ACLU)
and Julienne Oldfield, another of the Dhafir trial court watchers.
[25] John Pilger's Homepage:http://www.johnpilger.com//
[26] Pages that need to be transcribed cost $5.75 each, and already
transcribed pages cost 50c a page.
WWW www.countercurrents.org
---------------------------------------------
Coming clean on US bombers
February 22, 2006
NONE of the weapons the US Air Force drops on Australian military training
ranges will contain depleted uranium, the Government said yesterday.
Under an agreement reached at the Australia-US ministerial consultations in
Adelaide last November, US Air Force bombers are to make greater use of our
military ranges.
In answer to a question on notice released yesterday, former junior defence
minister De-Anne Kelly said the exact numbers of US aircraft operating over
Australia had yet to be determined. But it could consist of between one and
three B-1, B-2 or B-52 aircraft conducting combined training activities each
month.
Mrs Kelly said they would drop conventional and practice munitions plus
precision guided weapons.
But she could give an assurance that no weapons dropped during the training
exercises would contain depleted uranium, a super hard material used for
added penetration.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,18233195-5001022,00.html
*****************************************************************
59 London Times: Leak of deadly rays costs 'cavalier' firm ś400,000
The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
February 21, 2006
By Andrew Norfolk
A NUCLEAR waste company must pay ś400,000 in fines and costs for
allowing a lethal beam of toxic radiation to escape from a casket
during a 130-mile road trip.
The radiation leak, which could have endangered thousands of
people, was the result of a series of mistakes caused by a
culture of carelessness and arrogance at the privatised company,
a court heard.
AEA Technology (AEAT), formerly part of the United Kingdom Atomic
Energy Authority, was lambasted by a judge yesterday for flawed
management practices and the "cavalier indifference" to safety
shown by two employees.
They used the wrong packaging equipment and failed to carry out
essential safety checks before the radioactive cobalt-60 was
taken on a 3«-hour lorry journey from West Yorkshire to Cumbria.
By "pure chance", the pencil-thin beam of escaping gamma rays -
up to 1,000 times more powerful than a "very high dose rate" -
was directed downwards and no one came into direct contact with
it. Had the beam travelled horizontally, anyone within 300 yards
of the low-level trailer would have been at risk of
contamination.
Radiation experts from the Health and Safety Executive said that
anyone exposed to the beam could have exceeded the legal dose
within seconds and suffered burns within minutes. One scientist
has estimated that someone standing a yard from the source and in
the direct path of the rays would have been dead in two hours.
Judge Norman Jones, QC, the Recorder of Leeds, fined AEAT
ś250,000 and ordered the company to pay more than ś150,000 costs.
He blamed "poor management" at Safeguard International, an AEAT
subsidiary that won a ś245,000 contract to take radioactive
materials from hospitals in Leeds to a waste processing plant at
Windscale.
One of the trips, in March 2002, involved a radioactive source
removed from a radiological machine used for the treatment of
cancer patients.
The judge said that the specialist 2.6-tonne packaging used by
the company was "wholly inappropriate". It failed to prevent
lateral movement by the cobalt-60, which was placed inside a
tubular flask, and a protective shield plug that should have been
under the flask was missing.
Particular criticism was directed by the judge at Mark Ord, the
manager responsible for the day-to-day running of Safeguard, and
Paul Gilbert, an employee who was in charge of the March 2002
operation. Each signed documents which wrongly stated that
adequate safety checks had been carried out.
The judge said that both men "were substantially remiss in their
failure to ensure that the equipment they were using was
appropriate".
Behind these errors and omissions, the judge said, lay "a
cavalier and somewht indifferent manner" and "a degree of
arrogance". Mr Ord and Mr Gilbert subsequently resigned.
The judge accepted that AEAT had, with the exception of the 2002
incident, an excellent safety record.
AEAT pleaded guilty to six criminal breaches of health and safety
legislation and regulations governing the transportation of
radioactive materials.
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
60 UK HSE: Transport case prompts HSE reminder on the importance of
radiation protection controls
E017:06 20 February 2006
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today issued a reminder to
companies working with radiation on the importance of protection
control measures, including basic monitoring. The reminder
follows the conclusion of a case brought jointly by HSE and the
Department for Transport (DfT) against specialist contractor,
AEA Technology plc (AEAT).
At Leeds Crown Court today, the Oxfordshire-based company was
fined a total of ÂŁ250,000 and ordered to pay ÂŁ151,323
prosecution costs. The company had previously pleaded guilty to
criminal charges under health and safety and road transport law,
of exposing employees and subcontractors to potentially very
high risks from radiation.
James Taylor, a Principal Specialist Radiation Inspector with
HSE, said: “This case should serve as a reminder that
radiation protection should never be taken for granted and that
management must understand the principles, not least of which is
the need to supervise their staff properly.”
The first hearing of the case is scheduled for 12 April 2006 at
Neath Magistrates' Court.
The joint HSE/DfT prosecution followed an incident in March
2002, when AEAT were contracted to remove material , previously
used in cancer treatment, from a Leeds hospital and transport it
by road to Windscale, Cumbria, for disposal. At Windscale, very
high radiation levels were discovered coming from the specialist
container used to transport the material.
A joint HSE/DfT investigation revealed that the fact a vital
shield plug was missing from the transport container, allowing a
beam of radiation to emit from its base, had gone unnoticed. A
primary cause of the incident was the company’s failure to
supervise and support their staff properly.
Passing sentence, Judge Norman Jones (QC?), Recorder of Leeds,
commented that there was no room for carelessness in radioactive
waste disposal and the company had fallen way beyond accepted
standards.
James Taylor continued: “I am pleased that the court clearly
saw this as a serious matter. While there is no evidence that
anyone received a significant exposure during the preparation
and transport of this material, there was clearly the potential
for an extremely serious incident. Anyone exposed to the beam
coming from the container could have exceeded the legal dose
limit within seconds and suffered radiation burns within
minutes.
“The case also highlights the need for proper preparation and
monitoring of transport packages. Adhering to approved operating
procedures would have detected the omission of the shield plug
before the radioactive material was loaded to the package.
“HSE is always willing to work with companies handling
radioactive materials to ensure that workers and the public are
not exposed to excessive and therefore unacceptable levels of
radiation. In HSE’s judgment, however, the management failures
and the level of risk in this case merited prosecution, in line
with our published enforcement policy.”
Notes to Editors
1. The prosecution alleged that AEA Technology plc (AEA T):
2. Failed to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the
health safety and welfare at work of employees during work
associated with the removal of a Cobalt 60 radiation source from
a teletherapy machine at Cookridge Hospital, Leeds and its
transport by road to Windscale for disposal, contrary to Section
2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974;
3. Failed to conduct its undertaking, namely the transport and
management of radioactive materials, in such a way as to ensure,
so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons not in its
employment who may be affected thereby were not exposed to risks
to their health or safety, contrary to Section 3(1) of the
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974;
4. Failed to take all necessary steps to restrict, so far as
reasonably practicable, the extent to which employees and others
were exposed to ionising radiation, contrary to Regulation 8(1)
of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 (IRR).
5. Failed to ensure that ionising radiation levels were
adequately monitored, contrary to Regulation 19(1) of IRR.
6. Caused a package containing a radioactive source to be
transported without determining the Transport Index of that
package, contrary to Regulation Regulation 14(1) of the
Radioactive Material (Road Transport) (Great Britain)
Regulations 1996; and
7. Failed to ensure that requirements for package inspection
were satisfied before shipmen, contrary to Regulation 31(2) of
the above Regulations.
8. Following a preliminary hearing before Leeds District
Magistrates’ Court on 9th November 2005, AEAT appeared at
Leeds Crown Court on 14th December 2005. The company pleaded
guilty to the above charges and the case was adjourned for
sentencing on Friday 17th February 2006.
Information on radiation safety can be obtained from HSE’s
website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/radiation/index.htm
Press enquiries
Paul Clements 020 7717 6915
Out of hours 020 7928 8382
Public enquiries
HSE's InfoLine 0845 3450055 Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly
CF83 3GG + Updated 21.02.06 + © Copyright
*****************************************************************
61 EPA: National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
FR Doc E6-2405
[Federal Register: February 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 34)]
[Notices] [Page 8854-8856] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21fe06-50]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-2005; FRL-8034-3]
(Radionuclides), Availability of Updated Compliance Model
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of availability.
SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 112 of the Clean Air Act, the
Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the availability of
Version 3 of the CAP88-PC model used to demonstrate compliance
with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
(NESHAPs) applicable to radionuclides. CAP88-PC is approved for
this use by EPA.
Version 3 includes an expanded library of radionuclides and
incorporates updated radionuclide risk conversion factors. Hence,
it is recommended that Version 3 be used for future compliance
demonstrations.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Behram Shroff, Office of
Radiation and Indoor Air, Radiation Protection Division (6608J),
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20460- 0001; telephone number: (202) 343-9707; fax
number: (202) 343-2304; e- mail address: shroff.behram@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. General Information
A. Does This Action Apply to Me?
You may be potentially affected by this action if you are
subject to the reporting requirements for radionuclide NESHAPs
found in 40 CFR part 61, subpart H. This subpart applies to
Department of Energy (DOE) facilities.
B. How Can I Get Copies of the Model and Related Information?
1. Docket. EPA has established a docket for this action under
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050; FRL-XXXX-X. Publicly
available docket materials are available either electronically
through http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air and
Radiation Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West,
Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA
Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The
telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744,
and the telephone number for the Air and Radiation Docket is
(202) 566-1742.
2. Electronic Access. You may access this Federal Register
document electronically through the EPA Internet under the
``Federal Register'' listings at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/.
3. EPA Web site. You may download the CAP88-PC model and
documentation from EPA's Web site at
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/assessment/CAP88/index.html . II.
Background
On October 31, 1989, EPA promulgated the National Emissions
Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) under Section
112 of the Clean Air Act to control radionuclide emissions to the
ambient air from a number of different source categories (54 FR
51654, December 15, 1989 (Docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050, Item
0028)). Subpart H of 40 CFR part 61 is one of the source
categories covered in this 1989 final rule. Facilities owned and
operated by the Department of Energy (DOE) are covered by subpart
H. DOE administers many facilities, including government-owned,
contractor-operated facilities across the country.
Some of these DOE facilities handle significant amounts of
radioactive material and can emit radionuclides into the air in
various physical and chemical states. The purpose of subpart H is
to limit radionuclide emissions (not including radon) from the
stacks and vents at DOE facilities so that no member of the
public receives an effective dose equivalent of more than 10
millirem per year (mrem/yr).
III. CAP88-PC Model for Demonstrating Compliance
A. CAP88-PC Model History
EPA is today announcing the availability of Version 3 of the
CAP88- PC model for use in demonstrating compliance with the
requirements of 40 CFR part 61, subpart H. CAP88 (Clean Air Act
Assessment Package-- 1988) (Docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050, Items
0033 through 0036) is a set of computer programs, databases and
associated utility programs for estimation of dose and risk from
radionuclide emissions to air. CAP88- PC implements, on the
personal computer platform, modified versions of the AIRDOS-EPA
and DARTAB codes that were written in FORTRAN 77 and executed in
a mainframe computing environment. CAP88-PC provides for dose and
risk assessments of collective populations, maximally-exposed
individuals, and selected individuals. The complete set of dose
and risk factors is provided.
The original CAP88-PC software package, Version 1.0 (Docket
EPA-HQ- OAR-2002-0050, Items 0040 and 0041), allowed users to
perform full- featured dose and risk assessments in a DOS
environment for the purpose of demonstrating compliance with 40
CFR 61.93(a); it was approved for compliance demonstration in
February 1992.
CAP88-PC Version 2.0 (Docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050, Items 0042
and 0043) provided a framework for developing inputs to perform
full- featured dose and risk assessments in a Windows environment
for the purpose of demonstrating compliance with 40 CFR 61.93(a).
Version 2.0 was approved for compliance demonstration in 1999.
Version 2.1 included some additional changes compared to the DOS
version and the previous Windows version, 2.0.
[[Page 8855]]
The changes included the addition of more decay chains,
improvements in the Windows code error handling, and a modified
nuclide data input form. Section 1.6 of the CAP88-PC Version 3
User's Guide (Docket EPA- HQ-OAR-2002-0050, Item 0047) provides a
summary of the changes incorporated into Version 2.1 relative to
Version 2.0.
CAP88-PC Version 3.0 is a significant update to Version 2.1.
Version 3 incorporates dose and risk factors from Federal
Guidance Report 13, ``Cancer Risk Coefficients for Environmental
Exposure to Radionuclides'' (FGR 13, Docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050,
Items 0037 through 0039, also available at
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/federal/techdocs.htm ), in place of
the RADRISK data that was used in previous versions. The FGR 13
factors are based on the methods in Publication 72 of the
International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP),
``Age-Dependent Doses to Members of the Public from Intake of
Radionuclides''. In addition, the CAP88-PC database, the user
interface, input files, and output files, were modified to
accommodate the FGR 13 data formats and nomenclature. Section 1.7
of the CAP88-PC Version 3 User's Guide (Docket
EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0050, Item 0047) describes the modifications
incorporated into Version 3 relative to Version 2.1.
B. CAP88-PC Model Summary
All versions of CAP-88 PC use a modified Gaussian plume
equation to estimate the average dispersion of radionuclides
released from up to six types of sources. The sources may be
either elevated stacks, such as a smokestack, or uniform area
sources, such as a pile of uranium mill tailings. Plume rise can
be calculated assuming either a momentum or buoyant-driven plume.
Assessments are made for a circular grid of distances and
directions for a radius of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) around
the source. The Gaussian plume model produces results that agree
with experimental data as well as any model, is fairly easy to
work with, and is consistent with the random nature of
turbulence. Site specific information on population locations and
meteorological conditions are provided to CAP88-PC as input files
developed by the user. The formats for these input files have not
changed from the original mainframe version of the CAP88 code
package.
There are a few differences between CAP88-PC and earlier
mainframe versions. When performing population dose assessments,
CAP88-PC uses the distances in the population array to determine
the sector midpoint distances where the code calculates
concentrations. When an individual assessment is run, the sector
midpoint distances are input by the user on the Run Option tab
form. CAP88-PC only uses circular grids, whereas the mainframe
version allowed users to define a square grid. Also, direct user
input of radionuclide concentrations in each sector is not an
option in CAP88-PC.
CAP88-PC is also modified to do either ``Radon-only'' or
``Non- Radon'' runs to conform to the format of the 1988 Clean
Air Act NESHAPs Rulemaking. ``Radon-only'' assessments, which
only have Rn-222 in the source term, automatically include
working level calculations; any other source term ignores working
levels. When performing ``Radon- only'' runs, CAP88-PC has the
capability to vary the equilibrium fractions for the Radon
daughters based on the distance from the source; previously the
equilibrium fractions were set to a constant of 0.7. Synopsis
reports customized to both ``Radon Only'' and ``Non- Radon''
formats are automatically generated. Input of any additional
radionuclides, even Rn-220, will cause CAP88-PC to omit working
level calculations. Version 3 has not changed the ``Radon Only''
methodology relative to the previous Versions 2.0 and 2.1.
The calculation of deposition velocity and the default
scavenging coefficient in CAP88-PC is defined by current EPA
policy. Deposition velocity is set to 3.5 x 10-\2\ (0.035) m/sec
for Iodine, 1.8 x 10-\3\ (0.0018) m/sec for particulate, and 0.0
m/sec for gas. The default scavenging coefficient is calculated
as a function of annual precipitation, which is input on the
Meteorological Data tab form. Version 3 has not modified these
calculations.
Organs and weighting factors have been modified in Version 3
to follow the FGR 13 method. In accordance with the FGR 13 dose
model, the code now calculates dose for twenty-three (23)
internal organs, rather than the seven (7) organs used in earlier
versions. A twenty-fourth organ is also calculated, which is the
total effective dose equivalent. The code now reports cancer risk
for the fifteen (15) target cancer sites used in FGR 13. As was
the case in Version 2, changing the organs and weights will
invalidate the results.
C. Validation of the CAP88-PC Model
The CAP88-PC programs represent one of the best available
validated codes for the purpose of making comprehensive dose and
risk assessments. The Gaussian plume model used in CAP88-PC to
estimate dispersion of radionuclides in air is one of the most
commonly used models in government guidebooks. It produces
results that agree with experimental data as well as any model,
is fairly easy to work with, and is consistent with the random
nature of turbulence. Version 3 has not modified the basic
Gaussian plume algorithm used by the AIRDOS module of CAP88-PC,
and comparison of cases between Versions 2 and 3 has shown no
significant changes in the dispersion calculations.
The Office of Radiation and Indoor Air has made comparisons
between the predictions of annual average ground-level
concentration to actual environmental measurements and found very
good agreement. In the paper ``Comparison of AIRDOS-EPA
Prediction of Ground-Level Airborne Radionuclide Concentrations
to Measured Values'' (Docket EPA-HQ-OAR- 2002-0050, Item 0048),
environmental monitoring data at five DOE sites were compared to
AIRDOS-EPA predictions. EPA concluded that the concentrations
predicted by AIRDOS-EPA are in substantial agreement to the
measured concentrations, within an acceptable uncertainty level.
D. Limitations of the CAP88-PC Model
Like all models, there are some limitations in the CAP88-PC
system. While up to six stack or area sources can be modeled, all
the sources are modeled as if located at the same point; that is,
stacks cannot be located in different areas of a facility. The
same plume rise mechanism (buoyant or momentum) is used for each
source. Also, area sources are treated as uniform. Variation in
radionuclide concentrations due to complex terrain cannot be
modeled. Errors arising from these assumptions will have a
negligible effect for assessments where the distance to exposed
individuals is large compared to the stack height, area or
facility size.
Dose and risk estimates from CAP88-PC are applicable only to
low- level chronic exposures, since the health effects and
dosimetric data are based on low-level chronic intakes. CAP88-PC
cannot be used for either short-term or high-level radionuclide
intakes.
These limitations, common to all versions of CAP88, have not
changed in Version 3.
E. Summary of CAP88-PC Changes From Version 2.1 to Version 3
Version 3 of CAP88-PC is a significant update to Version 2.1.
The most significant change is the incorporation of the FGR 13
dose and risk factors. FGR 13 includes both dose and risk factors
for 825 isotopes rather
[[Page 8856]]
than the 265 previously available. The decay chains for these 825
isotopes are now modeled using a full implementation of the
Bateman decay equations to replace the predefined decay chains in
previous versions. The FGR 13 dose and risk factors also
introduce new functionality and terminology. Ingestion and
inhalation factors are now a function of the chemical form of the
isotope, which is entered by the user. The radionuclide
inhalation absorption ``Class'' terminology has been replaced by
the new ``Type'' nomenclature. The new types are F (fast), M
(medium), and S (slow), analogous to the older classes D (day), W
(week), and Y (year). FGR 13 assumes a 1.0 micron size for
inhaled particles, so Version 3 sets all particle sizes to 1.0
micron.
Gas and vapor forms use a particle size of 0.0. Although not
implemented in Version 3, CAP88-PC now also contains additional
functionality that may be added in later versions, including age
dependent factors, factors for morbidity in addition to
mortality, and factors for additional exposure pathways.
To accommodate the FGR 13 methodology, CAP88-PC Version 3
also now calculates dose equivalent to 23 internal organs, and
estimates the risk of cancer for 15 potential cancer induction
sites. Additionally, CAP88-PC Version 3 no longer estimates
genetic effects because genetic effects are not part of the FGR
13 dose and risk factor dataset.
The pathway transfer factors for all elements in the CAP88-PC
database have been updated in Version 3 to the values from the
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP)
report number 123, ``Screening Models for Releases of
Radionuclides to Atmosphere, Surface Water, and Ground''. This
was done to ensure that all the elements represented by the 825
isotopes in FGR 13 have appropriate elemental transfer factors.
CAP88-PC Version 3 still reports data in the same report
structure used by previous versions of CAP88-PC. This has been
done to retain conformance of the model to the applicable
regulation, 40 CFR part 61, subpart H. Accordingly, the dose
factors used in Version 3 are the values in FGR 13 for adults,
and the risk values reported by Version 3 are those for
mortality, not morbidity, although additional dose factor sets
are now included in CAP88-PC Version 3. It is important to note
that because of the extensive data modifications, Version 3 does
not allow the use of case input files created under earlier
versions to be used as input for Version 3. Previous POP and WIND
files are still usable with Version 3.
CAP88-PC Version 3 will generate dose and risk results that
differ from those results calculated by previous versions. The
primary reason for this difference is the change in dose and risk
conversion factors. Revisions of CAP88-PC up to Version 3 used
dose factors generated by the RADRISK code, which was based upon
the uptake and dose models contained in ICRP Publications 26 and
30. Risk was calculated in the earlier versions from dose using a
constant conversion factor of 0.0004 risk per rem of whole body
dose. Version 3 of CAP88-PC implements the dose conversion
factors of FGR 13, which are calculated using models from more
recent publications of the ICRP such as Publications 56, 66, 67,
69, and 71, and calculates risk using risk factors that are
specific to the isotope rather than using the conversion factor
method of previous versions. The effective dose coefficient in
FGR 13 is calculated using the tissue weighting factors of ICRP
publication 60. Dose factors in CAP88-PC Version 3 are also now
in many cases a function of the chemical form of the isotope.
This functionality was not present in previous versions of
CAP88-PC.
Dose and risk results from CAP88-PC Version 3 also will
differ from those calculated using previous versions because of a
change in the elemental transfer factors. CAP88-PC Version 3
contains isotopes representing many more elements in the periodic
table than were represented in previous versions of CAP88-PC. A
new set of elemental transfer factors were required to support
these new elements. CAP88-PC Version 3 replaces the transfer
factors from the previous version of CAP88-PC with the factors
listed in NCRP Publication 123.
Dose and risk results calculated by CAP88-PC Version 3 may
also differ from those calculated by previous versions because
Version 3 provides for a full incorporation of the decay chains
for the radioisotopes represented in FGR-13. The new decay chain
representation will most directly affect calculations that
involve those radioisotopes that were not part of the decay
chains represented in the earlier versions. The changes
implemented in Version 3 of CAP88-PC improve the
code by bringing both the software code base and the modeling
data used by the code up to the latest standards. The updated
code base makes CAP88- PC Version 3 run faster and with greater
stability on the latest Windows platforms, and provides improved
debugging and troubleshooting tools. The updated code base also
eases future coding modifications to make code support easier. By
implementing the dose and risk factor data from FGR 13 and the
elemental transport factors from NCRP 123, CAP88-PC Version 3 now
incorporates the latest dose and risk modeling data recommended
by EPA. The new data, combined with the improved methods for
calculating decay chains, provides Version 3 of CAP88 with a much
larger library of radioisotopes and a more current scientific
methodology for calculating dose and risk.
Dated: February 7, 2006. Bonnie C. Gitlin, Acting Director,
Radiation Protection Division, Office of Radiation and Indoor
Air. [FR Doc. E6-2405 Filed 2-17-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE
6560-50-P
*****************************************************************
62 Cape Cod Online: State to issue limits for base pollutant
(February 21, 2006)
By AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITER
The state will publish drinking water and hazardous waste
cleanup standards for perchlorate within a month, according to
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert
Gollege.
If the proposed standards become legal, Massachusetts would be
the first state in the nation to have such standards for
perchlorate - a salt of perchloric acid.
About seven groundwater plumes of perchlorate have been
discovered flowing under the Massachusetts Military Reservation,
caused by pyrotechnics and military activity at the National
Guard base.
Perchlorate can disrupt the uptake of iodide by the thyroid,
potentially causing developmental and other health problems at
high doses.
The state has advised that pregnant woman, children and people
with thyroid conditions should not drink water containing
perchlorate at one part per billion - roughly equivalent to a
drop of water in a 700,000-gallon, Olympic-sized swimming pool.
But only a legal standard can determine how much perchlorate
water suppliers can allow to reach faucets or compel polluters
to clean up.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which sets drinking water
standards at the federal level, began evaluating perchlorate
years ago.
But that effort has became bogged down in political
controversy. The Defense Department, a major consumer of
perchlorate, has argued that safe doses of perchlorate could be
as high as 200 parts per billion.
Last month, the EPA issued guidelines that advised local
environmental officials to use a 24.5 parts per billion standard
as a ''preliminary cleanup goal'' for perchlorate.
The level was in line with a safe dose suggested by a National
Academies of Sciences panel last year.
The dose meant a 154-pound adult could safely ingest 24.5 parts
per billion of perchlorate a day through drinking water,
assuming all perchlorate consumed came from water.
The Food and Drug Administration found perchlorate in milk and
lettuce, suggesting that perchlorate ingestion could come from
other sources.
Gollege has openly advocated for a low standard of one part per
billion, citing concern for sensitive populations. Most places
statewide have only traces of perchlorate. The military
reservation plumes range from less than one part per billion to
more than 100 parts per billion.
Gollege said delays in Massachusetts' standard-setting process
have in some ways been a blessing because it has allowed state
officials to consider the latest health information as studies
are completed.
Amanda Lehmert can be reached at alehmert@capecodonline.com.
(Published: February 21, 2006)
Copyright © 2006 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
63 KLASTV.com: Exclusive: Dying Atomic Workers Still Waiting For Help
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Dose Reconstruction Study
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
The clock is ticking for thousands of former Nevada Test Site
employees, many of whom are sick or dying because of exposure to
radiation during the atomic testing program. Critics say the
government is waiting for the workers to die so it doesn't have
to compensate them. Now, there's a new weapon that can be used
in the fight.
Patty Cook, daughter of test site worker, said, "My mom was
proud to work out there. She caught a bus at 5:30 in the morning
and came home at 6:30 at night for years and years."
Patty Cook's mother Irene worked for 20 years at the Nevada Test
Site during a period when hundreds of atomic devices were
exploded in underground tests. Irene wasn't directly involved in
the testing program, but like tens of thousands of others at the
nuclear range, she was routinely exposed to radiation. Many of
those underground tests accidentally vented radiation into the
air. On Irene's final day of work at the test site, the infamous
Baneberry Test sent a gigantic cloud of radioactive dust into
the sky.
Patty Cook said, "After a shot with leakage, they'd put them on
a bus and send them to Mercury for an hour or so and she'd be
walking back. She would even tell me, as a little girl, 'you
know Patty, the guys were out there in the white suits cleaning
up and we were walking across the rocks in our shoes.' And she
was pretty concerned about that."
In 1995, after years of severe back pain, Patty's mom had some
tests done and received the bad news -- terminal bone cancer
that transformed itself into multiple myeloma. Patty Cook
continued, "It metastasized into her lungs, into her breasts,
and during her final days, all the way up into her brain."
Irene's death was long and painful, and tough on her caregiver
as well. When Patty Cook learned in 2001 about the federal
program that compensates atomic workers who develop
radiation-related diseases, she applied. It took two years
before she was allowed to speak to a person about the claim. It
took another two years before she had a second conversation and
learned the Department of Labor had messed up its evaluation of
the case and had to start over. Eventually, Cook was told that
her late mother didn't qualify for the program because she
hadn't been exposed to enough radiation to cause cancer.
The government uses what's known as dose reconstruction studies
to reach such conclusions, guestimating how much radiation might
have been present 30 or 40 years prior, and how much a given
worker might have encountered. Critics say dose reconstruction
has been used as an imprecise bludgeon to deny benefits to
thousands of people who did their jobs and became sick as a
result.
Of the more than 3,200 claims filed by former test site workers
in the past six years, a mere 297 have been approved. Fewer
still have been paid. Ray Slaughter, who worked in the tunnels
at the test site, is now suffering with two kinds of cancer and
was told he has less than two years to live. The government told
him it will take longer than that to even process his claim.
Ray Slaughter said, "It seems like they look for reasons not to
compensate you instead of trying to help and give the benefit of
the doubt. They take every single thing they can to try and stop
it."
Senator Harry Reid and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley helped to
get the compensation program through the Congress. Both are
sickened by the bureaucratic foot dragging. In November, Reid
appealed to President Bush to take action. Months later, there
has been no response from the White House, so Reid is planning a
new approach that will be announced next week.
He and the test site workers will have a new arrow in their
quiver. A government funded study, completed in December and not
yet made public, analyzed the dose reconstruction process as it
applies to test site workers and found much of it to be quote,
"not scientifically defensible since it almost certainly
underestimates radiation exposures in several different ways."
Back in January, Patty Cook had one final meeting with the
Department of Labor to consider her claim. She wanted to talk
about dose reconstruction problems in her mom's case but was
informed the topic was off limits. The I-Team accompanied her to
the meeting but the hearing officer barred our camera from the
office.
After the meeting, we asked Patty Cook how it went. She said,
"When it's all said and done... not a chance."
Senator Reid's office has called for a special meeting of test
site workers and their families. It will be held next Tuesday
afternoon at the Painters' Union Hall in Henderson.
Nevada Test Site Workers Special Exposure Cohort Meeting
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 21
Time: 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Where: The Painters' Union
Address: 1701 Whitney Mesa Drive, Henderson, 89014
RSVP by: Friday, Feb. 17 at 702-388-5020
Email investigative reporter George Knapp at gknapp@klastv.com
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Nevada Test Site Workers Compensation
Help may be on the way for hundreds of former Nevada Test Site
workers who are suffering from cancer because of radiation
exposure. Senator Harry Reid is asking President Bush to brush
aside bureaucratic red tape and make it easier for workers, or
their survivors to get compensation.
More>>
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Clock is Ticking For Dying Test Site Workers
The clock is ticking for hundreds of Nevadans who are now dying
because of work they did in the atomic weapons program years
ago. Read Part 2 -- Post to the new message board.
More>>
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Clocking is Ticking for Dying Test Site Workers -- Part 2
Eyewitness News has been swamped in the past few days with
messages from test site workers or their survivors about the
shoddy treatment they've received from the federal government.
Post your comments on the Test Site Workers board.
.gif"> All content © Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and KLAS.
All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
64 FreeMarketNews.com: DU SCANDAL EXPLODES
http://www.FreeMarketNews.com
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 -
The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its
subscribers telling them that the real reason the former
Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned
was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering
up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of
depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.
In the article Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans
for Constitutional Law, reportedly wrote that “thousands of our
military have suffered and died from, [and depleted uranium] has
finally been identified as the cause of this sickness,
eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being
revealed.” Bernklau went on to detail several alarming
statistics. The historical disability rate amongst soldiers last
century was about 5 percent, although it approached 10 percent
during Vietnam. But due to the use of depleted uranium in the
battlefield, 56 percent of the 580,400 solders that served in
the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical Disability by 2000.
11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739 Gulf War
Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical
disability.
Principi, under the order of the Bush Administration, had been
allegedly covering up the disastrous results of using depleted
uranium since 2000. However, with so many soldiers having
serious health problems it has become impossible to keep secret.
staff reports - Free-Market News Network
Copyright © 2006 Free-Market News Network, Corp. All rights
*****************************************************************
65 DOE: Technical Report Confirms Reliability of Yucca Mountain
Technical Work
February 17, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC The Department of Energys Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) today released a report
confirming the technical soundness of infiltration modeling work
performed by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employees.
The report makes clear that the technical basis developed by
the USGS has a strong conceptual foundation and is corroborated
by independently-derived scientific conclusions, and provides a
solid underpinning for the 2002 site recommendation, said
OCRWMs Acting Director Paul Golan. We are committed to
opening Yucca Mountain based only on sound science. The work
that we do must be without question or qualification, and this
report confirms that we are on the right path forward.
Last March, DOE disclosed e-mails between USGS employees that
appeared to suggest that these employees had failed to follow
certain quality assurance procedures during their work. This
report was developed to assess how issues raised by the e-mails
may have impacted some of the scientific conclusions
contributing to the Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation of 2002
and the Key Technical Agreements between DOE and NRC. The
report found no impact on those conclusions.
The 144-page final report, entitled Evaluation of Technical
Impact on the Yucca Mountain Project Technical Basis Resulting
From Issues Raised by E-mails of Former Project Participants,
examined work products developed by the USGS employeesmainly
the infiltration contributing to the evaluation of the long-term
performance modeling of the underground repository. The report
concludes that the net infiltration ranges, as determined by the
USGS employees, were consistent with ground water recharge rates
determined by other scientists studying other arid and semi-arid
regions in the United States and provides reasonable inputs to
models used for the 2002 site recommendation.
Although the reports findings indicate that the infiltration
rate estimates are corroborated and consistent with other
independently derived work, OCRWM will replace or supplement the
infiltration modeling work, as needed, and will review or verify
the supporting documentation.
As part of OCRWMs comprehensive review process, preliminary
drafts of the report were supplied to three, non-DOE affiliated
experts in hydrology and computer modeling in October 2005. The
independent experts studied the drafts and associated
references, and their feedback is reflected in the final report.
The technical report is available at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/.
Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, 202/586-4940 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585
1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 |
*****************************************************************
66 Bellona: Sevmash to manufacture containers for icebreakers’ spent nuclear fuel
Sevmash defence enterprise located in Severnaya Dvina
(Arkhangelsk region) concluded a contract on the manufacture of
a new batch of transport-packaging sets (TUK-120) for spent
nuclear fuel.
2006-02-20 17:36
The representatives of the Sevmash plant, the Murmansk Shipping
Company, and UK company Crown Agents signed the contract. The
project is sponsored by the United Kingdom.
Containers TUK -120 are intended for the storage of spent fuel
of Russian atomic icebreakers based at Atomflot Enterprise in
the Murmansk region. All 50 containers are to be placed in a
specially equipped coastal storage facility to ensure the safe
storage of non-processible nuclear fuel of Russian icebreaker
fleet in the next fifty years.
Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
67 NRC: NRC Issues Report for Comment on Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation Cask Response to Caldecott
Tunnel Fire Scenario
News Release - 2006-02 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: No. 06-026 February 17, 2006
a study of how a truck cask for transporting spent nuclear fuel
might perform in a severe tunnel fire.
The report models the performance of the NAC International Model
LWT (NAC) spent fuel cask under the conditions of the April 1982
fire in the Caldecott highway tunnel near Oakland, Calif., when a
gasoline tanker carrying 8,800 gallons of gasoline overturned and
caught fire. Severe, intense fires such as the Caldecott fire are
extremely rare. However, they provide an opportunity to study how
transportation packages might perform under very severe accident
conditions.
The results of this study strongly indicate that any radioactive
release from the NAC model or a similar spent fuel shipping cask
involved in a severe tunnel fire such as that of the Caldecott
highway tunnel accident would be within regulatory limits. The
peak internal temperatures predicted for the NAC cask in the
analysis of the Caldecott fire scenario were not high enough to
result in rupture of the fuel cladding (protective metal tubing
around the fuel). Therefore, it would not be expected that any
radioactive material (including spent nuclear fuel particles or
fission products) would be released from the fuel rods.
The maximum cask temperatures experienced around the lid, vent
and drain ports exceeded the seals rated service temperatures,
making it possible that the seals might degrade. In this event,
there is a very small chance that some surface contamination
might fall off the fuel rods and escape through the degraded
seals. However, the cask design limits the potential releases so
that they are within the regulatory limits.
Last September, the NRC released for public comment a similar
report modeling the July 2001 Baltimore rail tunnel fire. The
study modeled the performance of two rail casks and the NAC truck
cask in a severe tunnel fire. The report concluded that potential
releases from any of these casks under such conditions would be
within regulatory limits. The Baltimore tunnel fire report
(NUREG/CR 6886) is available at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/contract/cr6
886/cr6886.pdf [PDF Icon] .
The Caldecott study Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response to
the Caldecott Tunnel Fire Study Scenario (NUREG/CR 6894) is
available on-line at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/docs4comment
.html or http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this
site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and
Management System (ADAMS), and enter accession number
ML060330028. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if you have
problems in accessing the document in ADAMS, contact the NRC
Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209,
301-415-4737, or by email to .
Comments and questions on the Caldecott report can be entered
on-line or directed to Allen Hansen at or (301) 415-1390, (301)
415-8555 (fax), by May 30, 2006. 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.
Last revised Friday, February 17, 2006
*****************************************************************
68 reviewjournal.com: Cleanup languished amid bickering
Feb. 21, 2006
Internal documents on mine mistakenly turned over to
whistle-blower
By SCOTT SONNER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Evaporation ponds, lighter area, lower left, at the northeast
end of the abandoned Anaconda copper mine in Yerington are shown
in an aerial photograph on Jan. 28, 2004. Photo by Cathleen
Allison / The Associated Press.
RENO -- Disagreements and distrust among regulators charged with
directing the cleanup of a polluted Nevada copper mine hampered
the government agencies' efforts and likely stalled removal of
contamination now expected to take at least a decade, records
obtained by The Associated Press show.
Internal documents the Interior Department mistakenly turned
over to a whistle-blower suing one of its agencies reveal a turf
battle spanning five years between federal and state
environmental regulators at one of the most contaminated
abandoned mines in the West.
In one, an Interior Department lawyer said the cleanup order the
state wanted Atlantic Richfield Co. to adopt in 2002 at the
former Anaconda copper mine was so weak the Justice Department
would forbid federal regulators from accepting it.
In another, the head of the Nevada Division of Environmental
Protection complained that the cleanup approach his agency
advocated was "a polar opposite" of one backed by Interior's
Bureau of Land Management, which he accused of acting out of its
own "self-serving interest" to absolve itself of liability.
The mine about 65 miles southeast of Reno was the biggest
producer of copper in the United States in the 1950s before it
was abandoned in 2000. Although it was not known publicly until
2003, processing the copper produced uranium, which contaminates
the site along with arsenic and other heavy metals.
Federal health officials say the radioactive and toxic materials
are a threat to residents of the neighboring community of
Yerington and to farmers and Indian tribes in the surrounding
Mason Valley.
Documents show federal regulators wanted to push Arco harder and
have the six-square-mile mine declared a Superfund site, which
would have put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in
charge of the project with the authority to order cleanup
actions or do them itself and bill Atlantic Richfield for the
costs.
State regulators, who were leading the government agencies'
efforts, favored a cooperative approach with the company and
opposed Superfund status.
The documents surfaced last week as part of a hearing on a
whistle-blower complaint against the BLM brought by its former
mine site manager, Earle Dixon. He claims he was fired partly
because he criticized state regulators.
Among the most revealing of the documents are internal memos
between Interior's lawyers in its regional solicitor's office in
Denver and BLM officials in Nevada.
They were stamped "Attorney/Client Privileged, FOIA Exempt -- Do
Not Release," meaning they were not subject to the Freedom of
Information Act and were to be kept private.
One shows the department was convinced as early as July 2002
that there was little hope of persuading Atlantic Richfield to
voluntarily assume responsibility for cleaning up the mine.
In it, Interior lawyer Casey Padgett took issue with a directive
that BLM was trying to negotiate with the state to order Arco to
investigate the mine site.
"I am principally concerned about the overall weakness of the
state's (administrative order of consent ), the likelihood that
it is unenforceable and the probability that ARCO will attempt
to use the AOC to shield itself from investigating and cleaning
up the site in an acceptable fashion," Padgett wrote to BLM
Deputy State Director Tom Leshendock on July 24, 2002.
"The draft AOC is far weaker, in ways that are too numerous to
itemize, than any AOC that the United States would typically
sign," he said.
"The interests of BLM and the department would be compromised by
NDEP's AOC to such an extent that I doubt the Department of
Justice would allow BLM to sign it."
Similar infighting between EPA and the state was outlined in a
more recent memo admitted as evidence at Dixon's whistle-blower
hearing.
Jim Sickles, EPA's project manager, warned that Nevada's cleanup
effort as of May 2004 was "completely lacking," with ineffective
planning, inadequate technical expertise and inappropriate
contact with Arco.
The turf war extended beyond the agencies to the halls of
Congress.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., chairman of the House Resources
subcommittee on energy and minerals, trumpeted the state's
cleanup efforts to Gov. Kenny Guinn and complaining about the
BLM's lack of success, while Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
of Nevada condemned the state's lack of progress and urged Guinn
to turn over control to EPA for Superfund listing.
Throughout, the agencies appeared unable to work together, the
documents show.
Padgett said in the July 2002 memo that the state had made "no
meaningful concessions" to BLM, "in fact, in each new draft
submitted by the state, the document has become weaker."
"As we have moved closer to the state's position, the state has
moved farther from ours," he said, concluding that BLM "should
no longer attempt to negotiate an acceptable AOC with the state
but instead should pursue a different approach to accomplish our
objectives."
A month earlier, the head of the Nevada Division of
Environmental Protection complained to EPA that the state's view
was "a polar opposite of BLM's."
"The NDEP believes strongly that significant progress has been
made over the last six months," Allen Biaggi wrote June 10,
2002. He said sites of this magnitude and complexity demand
careful planning to ultimately be successful.
"BLM's apparent failure to recognize this demonstrates a level
of inexperience that is of concern to NDEP," he wrote.
"BLM's perception of good faith negotiations is distorted and is
influenced by its own self-serving interests. While BLM purports
to share the goal of site remediation as a priority, its
negotiation strategy is dominated by its primary goal of
escaping liability."
Dixon, who managed the site for BLM for a year until he was
fired in October 2004, said the disclosures validate his claim
that the state was aligned mostly with Arco against more
stringent cleanup demands sought by BLM and EPA.
"The lack of progress at the site was an issue before I came on
board," Dixon said.
Dixon said if BLM had taken a harder stand with Arco or
initiated cleanup efforts without Arco's support in 2002, the
mine would have been well on its way to a safer condition.
Worried neighbors of the mine agree.
"The EPA has been asking for testing and surveys to be done
since 2001," said Peggy Pauly, leader of the Yerington Community
Action Group. "Here we are more than four years later and I
still don't know if the water is safe or the air is safe for my
daughters to breathe."
The state resisted EPA's call for Superfund designation and
refused to give up its regulatory role until December 2004, when
it formally asked EPA to assume control under the same law that
covers Superfund sites.
Leo Drozdoff, administrator of Nevada's Environmental Protection
Division, said that the state wanted to focus on areas of
immediate concern, working in steps with Arco's cooperation to
speed cleanup at the lowest cost to taxpayers.
"The EPA and BLM put greater emphasis on the front end. They
want all the planning for the project to be done first. That
really became the philosophical divide," he said.
Biaggi, now director of the state's Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources, declined to say whether he believed more
progress was being made with EPA now the lead regulator.
"It's now been 14 months since EPA took over the site. Some
people would say it has been going fine and some would say not
enough work has been done. I would leave that to the eye of the
beholder," he said.
But he took exception to criticism of the state's cleanup
efforts that began about five years ago when mine owner,
Arimetco Inc. of Tucson, Ariz., abandoned the mine, leaving Arco
responsible.
"The state of Nevada was the only one who took up the ball and
in my opinion undisputedly averted disaster" by taking over
management of toxic fluids at the mine, Biaggi said.
Sickles wouldn't speculate how much work might have been done if
EPA had assumed control sooner because progress would depend
partly on whether Arco was "cooperative or adversarial."
He said EPA has addressed several parts of the cleanup the state
initiated and has collected about 1,200 soil samples and 40
groundwater samples that are improving understanding of the
contamination and the possibility some of it has moved into
neighboring wells.
Biaggi and Sickles don't believe the disagreements caused any
long-term harm to their agencies' relationship.
"While there were some contentious issues on the site," Biaggi
said, "the bottom line is we are all still working for the same
goals and objectives."
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement
*****************************************************************
69 APP.COM: Recycling nuclear waste getting fresh attention |
Asbury Park Press Online
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
BY JAMES MCGOVERN
Without much hoopla, an important nuclear technology that was
shelved in the United States almost 30 years ago is on the verge
of a revival. The recycling of spent fuel that's in storage at
nuclear power plant sites around the country — including more
than 1,700 metric tons in New Jersey — holds the promise of
making further use of a valuable energy resource, while providing
a long-term solution for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste.
This year could be pivotal for nuclear recycling, which would be
highly appropriate. Utilities in eight states are gearing up to
build 16 nuclear power plants to meet the nation's growing need
for electricity. Since nuclear plants generate large amounts of
"base-load" power without emitting carbon dioxide or other
greenhouse gases, they play a pivotal role in the critically
important effort to stop global warming.
The possibility of recycling spent fuel, which contains uranium
and plutonium that can be used again to make more nuclear fuel
for electricity production, is being taken seriously. The Bush
administration is requesting nearly $250 million in the coming
fiscal year to demonstrate and deploy technologies for
recycling, along with advanced new reactors that can burn the
recycled spent fuel.
Recycling would remove about half the material from nuclear
waste, dramatically decreasing storage costs and, in effect,
doubling the capacity of a waste repository like Yucca Mountain
in Nevada. The use of recycling — known in the nuclear industry
as reprocessing — would mean that a second and third repository
would not have to be built, at least for many decades —
resulting in an enormous savings.
On the other hand, without recycling, Yucca Mountain will reach
its storage limit — 70,000 tons — with waste produced by 2010
from existing nuclear power plants. But recycling would reduce
the volume and toxicity of waste stored at Yucca Mountain,
enabling far more waste to be kept there. Thus, it's essential
that we complete the Yucca Mountain repository, so that waste
from commercial reactors and the defense program can be disposed
of in the underground facility.
Critics question the economics of recycling. It may not be
competitive with the cost of the natural uranium we are using
today. But a rapid growth in nuclear power generation around the
world — which is gaining momentum — could drive up the cost of
uranium in years to come. And when we factor in the cost of
additional permanent storage facilities like Yucca Mountain,
recycling could look much better economically. In any event, we
need to have that option developed and available for the time
when it does become competitive.
Several other countries are already recycling their used fuel
into new fuel, including Great Britain, France and Japan. They
have decades of experience in proving its safety and reliability.
Certainly the United States, which has more nuclear power plants
than any other nation and a strong research capability, can
develop a new technology for recycling that's economic and
secure, from the point of view of nuclear proliferation. The
heart of the Bush administration's initiative on recycling is a
technology being developed by Argonne National Laboratory in
Illinois. It is a method of removing plutonium and other
long-lived radioactive elements in spent fuels that makes the
elements reusable in nuclear power plants, but difficult to use
for making weapons.
We need funds both to pursue research on processing and to
complete the Yucca Mountain facility. The right way to
accomplish that is to remove the Yucca Mountain project from the
annual budget process, so that it has assured funding from
consumer contributions to the Nuclear Waste Fund.
The wrong way would be to draw funds away from the Yucca
Mountain program. We would pay a huge price for such
shortsightedness in construction delays and increasing storage
costs at nuclear plant sites.
We need recycling for the long term, and Yucca Mountain for the
near term. Without either, we could seriously limit the ability
of nuclear power to provide the emission-free energy the world
desperately needs.
James McGovern, Ocean Grove, has been a consultant to industry
and government on nuclear energy issues for many years.
Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
70 DenverPost.com: Don't delay Moab cleanup
OPINION
Article Launched: 02/21/2006 1:00 AM MST
editorial
Buried in President Bush's 2007 budget plan is a funding cut
that many Western states will find disquieting, with the
potential to affect all seven states that share the Colorado
River.
A 12 million-ton pile of toxic uranium mine waste sits in a
flash flood zone right above the Colorado River near Moab, Utah.
Scientists warn that a major flood through the site is a near
certainty, and one would plunge radioactive material into our
region's biggest waterway. Nuclear material could very well
contaminate Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area (Lake Powell). While most experts believe the
tailings would settle in Powell, the river still would flow
through the Grand Canyon and eventually into the public drinking
water systems of Las Vegas, San Diego, suburban Los Angeles and
even parts of Arizona.
Last year, the Department of Energy announced an eight-year,
$472 million plan to move the tailings from the river banks to a
site in Utah where they wouldn't threaten environmental harm.
The excellent proposal deserved the region-wide applause it got.
Now the Bush administration wants to reduce spending on the
project from $28 million last year to $23 million. If such
penny-pinching continues, DOE officials acknowledge that the
cleanup will take an additional 14 years. During the delay the
tailings would remain vulnerable to gully washers. In a worst
case, Uncle Sam could be left with a cleanup bill much larger
than the savings, with enormous risk that parks and other public
lands could be left unusable.
Foot dragging on the Moab cleanup entails another subtle risk. A
1922 compact allocates water among four states in the Colorado
River's upper basin (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico) and
three lower basin states (California, Nevada and Arizona). By
using Lake Powell as a holding pen, the upper basin has been
able to send the lower basin the water called for in the 1922
pact. Anything that threatens Lake Powell could upend that
delicate Western water pact.
In the past decade Colorado was grateful for the political
support that U.S. senators and representatives from other states
in our region, including Utah, gave the cleanup of Rocky Flats,
the now-demolished nuclear bomb factory near Boulder. This year,
it's Colorado's turn to support a nuclear cleanup in a
neighboring state. For the sake of the West's water, the Moab
project needs proper funding so it can proceed in a timely way.
All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
71 AFP: China urges Iran to refrain from uranium enrichment -
Tue Feb 21, 3:35 AM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - China has urged Iran" /> to end its uranium
enrichment activities and focus on making progress in ongoing
talks with Russia to resolve its long-standing nuclear issue.
"We hope that Iran will restore its moratorium on all
activities related to uranium enriching and create conditions
for the resolution of this issue through negotiations," foreign
ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
"We support Russia's negotiations with Iran on this issue, and
we hope this negotiation will yield positive results."
Iranian and Russian officials resumed Tuesday the second day of
talks in Moscow on a Russian plan to resolve the standoff.
Russia is hoping to persuade Iran to reinstate a moratorium on
uranium enrichment activities by offering to create a joint
enterprise that would enrich uranium for Tehran on Russian
territory.
But such a goal appeared unrealistic after Iranian negotiator
Ali Hosseini-Tash ruled out linking "a moratorium on uranium
enrichment and talks on the Russian proposal", according to
official Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
China is seeking a negotiated solution while also trying to
protect its increasingly lucrative energy ties with Iran.
Barring a break through in the Moscow talks, the issue could be
put before the UN Security Council in early March in a move that
could result in UN sanctions on Tehran.
"Now that we see difficulties in seeking a solution to this
issue, we are willing to stay in close contact with all parties
concerned so as to continue to seek the resolution of this issue
within the framework of the IAEA ( International Atomic Energy
Agency" /> )," Liu said.
He said he had no information on the reported visit to Iran next
month of China's top economic planner Ma Kai.
Chinese reports have said Ma is planning the trip to sign a
contract allowing Chinese companies to develop an Iranian oil
field, as well as a 25-year deal to buy up to 100 billion
dollars worth of Iranian natural gas.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
72 Japan Times: MOX plan to get Saga governor's nod
SAGA (Kyodo) Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa said Tuesday he will
endorse a plan by Kyushu Electric Power Co. to use
uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, at the No. 3 reactor
of the nuclear plant in the town of Genkai.
Furukawa told the prefectural assembly: "I would like to accept
the plan. I will make a final decision following discussions at
the prefectural assembly."
Last Friday, the Genkai Municipal Assembly adopted a resolution
calling on the city to accept Kyushu Electric Power's MOX plan
for the plant, located on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Genkai
Mayor Tsukasa Terada conveyed the town's consent to the governor
Monday.
The governor's statement means the prefectural government is
likely to accept the MOX-burning plan by the end of March at the
earliest.
The 118,000-mw No. 3 reactor at the four-reactor Genkai nuclear
plant is expected to become the country's first reactor to use
MOX fuel.
Kyushu Electric Power, which provides electricity to seven
prefectures in Kyushu, plans to begin using MOX fuel by fiscal
2010. The central government approved Kyushu Electric's MOX plan
last September.
The Japan Times: Feb. 22, 2006 (C) All rights reserved [
*****************************************************************
73 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Blames Cuts at Energy Lab on Mix-Up
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday February 21, 2006 11:46 PM
AP Photo COEA103
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - President Bush, on a three-state trip to
promote his energy policy, said Tuesday that a budgeting mix-up
was the reason 32 workers at one of the nation's premier
renewable energy labs were laid off and then reinstated just
before his visit.
Bush addressed the funding problem as soon as he began speaking
here at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, which is developing the sort of renewable energy
technologies the president is promoting.
``Sometimes, decisions made as the result of the appropriations
process, the money may not end up where it was supposed to have
gone,'' Bush said.
``My message to those who work here is we want you to know how
important your work is. We appreciate what you're doing and we
expect you to keep doing it, and we want to help you keep doing
it.''
Two weeks ago, the lab workers, including eight researchers,
were laid off at the lab because of a $28 million budget
shortfall. Then, over the weekend, at the direction of Energy
Secretary Samuel Bodman, $5 million was transferred back to the
lab to get the workers back on the job.
Lab officials are ecstatic about getting the positions back,
although they say the remaining $23 million shortfall has forced
delays in research subcontracted to universities and companies.
Still, it was an untimely issue for the president, who flew to
Colorado to push the energy initiatives he announced in his
State of the Union address.
The president has proposed a 22 percent increase in funding for
clean-energy technology research at the Energy Department. He
wants to change the way the nation fuels its vehicles and powers
homes and businesses by focusing on nuclear, solar and wind
power as well as better batteries to power hybrid-electric autos
and hydrogen-fueled cars.
``The idea is to have an automobile, say, that can drive 40
miles on the battery ... and if you're living in a big city,
that's probably all you're going to need for that day's
driving,'' Bush said. ``And then you can get home and plug your
car right into the outlet in your house. We're close to this.''
Critics of the administration's energy policies say Bush's
proposals are modest, and that the president is promoting
renewable energy because polls show his job approval numbers are
being weighed down by American's concern about high utility
bills and the price of gasoline.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who wrote letters and had discussions
with Bush administration officials to get the jobs restored,
said the president's 2007 budget is a first step toward energy
independence, not the last. Breaking America's addiction to
foreign oil is not a modest goal and will require more than a
modest commitment of effort and funds, he says.
``As the premier renewable energy lab, it makes no sense to
begin an effort to achieve America's energy independence with
cuts to the lab that will likely lead the way,'' said Drew
Nannis, a spokesman for Salazar.
Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for the Natural Resources
Defense Council, said this year's energy efficiency and
renewable energy portion of the budget is slightly smaller than
that in the last year of the previous administration. When
inflation is factored in, it amounts to a decrease of more than
$130 million, he said.
``This is a series of photo-ops entirely driven by polls that
tell the president that he isn't doing enough on energy,'' said
Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.
``The president is talking a good game, but his budget doesn't
back it up.''
Before holding a panel discussion with lab, business and other
officials, Bush toured a ``mini brewery'' where the lab makes
ethanol - a replacement for gasoline - from the stalks and other
nonfood parts of corn, said George Douglas, media relations
manager at the lab.
Ethanol already is made from corn. In the late 1980s and 1990s,
research was done to see if it was worthwhile to remove sugar,
used in making ethanol, from the non-kernel parts of the corn,
which farmers typically plow under.
During a panel discussion, Dan Arvizu, director of the lab,
explained in scientific terms how the process is done. Bush
interrupted to translate for the layman: ``I think what he's
saying is that one of these days we're going to take wood chips,
put them through a factory, and there's going to be fuel you can
put in your car.''
On Monday, Bush stopped in Milwaukee at Johnson Controls, which
is developing advanced batteries for hybrid-electric autos.
Outside Detroit, Bush toured United Solar Ovonic, a maker of
flexible film products that convert sunlight into energy.
---
On the Net:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: http://www.nrel.gov
Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
74 DOE: President Bushs Radio Address Focuses on Energy Issues
February 18, 2006
WASHINGTON , DC This morning President Bush discussed the
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) during his weekly radio
address. The transcript is below. Also attached is a
Department of Energy FACT SHEET on GENP. THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary (Lake Buena Vista, Florida)
Embargoed Until Delivery At 10:06 A.M. EST Saturday, February
18, 2006 RADIO ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION THE
PRESIDENT: Good morning. This coming week, I will visit
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Colorado, to discuss our strategy to
ensure that America has affordable, reliable, and secure sources
of energy. The best way to meet our growing energy needs is
through advances in technology. So in my State of the Union
Address, I announced the Advanced Energy Initiative. We will
pursue promising technologies that will transform how we power
our vehicles, businesses, and homes -- so we can reduce our
Nation's dependence on foreign sources of energy. This
morning, I want to speak to you about one part of this
initiative: our plans to expand the use of safe and clean
nuclear power. Nuclear power generates large amounts of
low-cost electricity without emitting air pollution or
greenhouse gases. Yet nuclear power now produces only about 20
percent of America's electricity. It has the potential to play
an even greater role. For example, over the past three decades,
France has built 58 nuclear power plants and now gets more than
78 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. Yet here in
America, we have not ordered a new nuclear power plant since the
1970s. So last summer I signed energy legislation that offered
incentives to encourage the building of new nuclear plants in
America. Our goal is to start the construction of new nuclear
power plants by the end of this decade. As America and other
nations build more nuclear power plants, we must work together
to address two challenges: We must dispose of nuclear waste
safely, and we must keep nuclear technology and material out of
the hands of terrorist networks and terrorist states. To meet
these challenges, my Administration has announced a bold new
proposal called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Under
this partnership, America will work with nations that have
advanced civilian nuclear energy programs, such as France,
Japan, and Russia. Together, we will develop and deploy
innovative, advanced reactors and new methods to recycle spent
nuclear fuel. This will allow us to produce more energy, while
dramatically reducing the amount of nuclear waste and
eliminating the nuclear byproducts that unstable regimes or
terrorists could use to make weapons. As these technologies
are developed, we will work with our partners to help developing
countries meet their growing energy needs by providing them with
small-scale reactors that will be secure and cost-effective. We
will also ensure that these developing nations have a reliable
nuclear fuel supply. In exchange, these countries would agree
to use nuclear power only for civilian purposes and forego
uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities that can be used
to develop nuclear weapons. My new budget includes $250 million
to launch this initiative. By working with other nations under
the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, we can provide the cheap,
safe, and clean energy that growing economies need, while
reducing the risk of nuclear proliferation. As we expand our
use of nuclear power, we're also pursuing a broader strategy to
meet our energy needs. We're investing in technologies like
solar and wind power and clean coal to power our homes and
businesses. We're also investing in new car technologies like
plug-in hybrid cars and in alternative fuels for automobiles
like ethanol and biodiesel. Transforming our energy supply
will demand creativity and determination, and America has these
qualities in abundance. Our Nation will continue to lead the
world in innovation and technology. And by building a global
partnership to spread the benefits of nuclear power, we'll
create a safer, cleaner, and more prosperous world for future
generations. Thank you for listening. DOE FACT SHEET on GENP
Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, 202/586-4940 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585
1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 |
*****************************************************************
75 DOE: DOE Transfers $5 million to NREL, Jobs to be Restored
February 20, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC At the direction of Energy Secretary Samuel W.
Bodman, $5 million was transferred to Midwest Research
Institute, the operating contractor for the Department of
Energys (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), over
the weekend. DOE has been informed that the NREL lab director
will use these funds to immediately restore all of the jobs that
were cut earlier this month due to budget shortfalls. The
programs at NREL are critically important to realizing the
Presidents vision to diversify and strengthen our nations
energy mix, Secretary Bodman said.
The action we are taking today will allow the dedicated
employees at NREL to continue their work that will bring us great
innovation in renewable energy technologies. DOE transferred
the $5 million from other accounts. The department is working
with Congress to restore funds to those accounts through one of
several methods, including the deobligation of funds provided to
several congressionally directed projects in 2001 and 2002 that
have failed to make progress. President Bushs FY 2007 budget
request seeks a 78 percent increase in solar energy research, a
65 percent increase in biomass research, and a 42 percent
increase in hydrogen research all core areas of research work
done at NREL. Should the Congress fully fund the Presidents
request, unencumbered by earmarks, NREL should be able to
maintain a vibrant and stable workforce in the future.
Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, 202/586-4940 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585
1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 |
*****************************************************************
76 DOE: Office of Environmental Management; Environmental Management
FR Doc E6-2402
[Federal Register: February 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 34)]
[Notices] [Page 8847-8848] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21fe06-41]
Advisory Board Meeting AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Advisory Board (EMAB). The Federal Advisory Committee
Act (Public Law 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice
of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday, March
23, 2006, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
[[Page 8848]]
ADDRESSES: Augusta Towers Hotel and Convention Center, 2652
Perimeter Parkway, Augusta, GA 30909.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Terri Lamb, Executive Director
of the Environmental Management Advisory Board (EM-30.1), U.S.
Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington,
DC 20585. Phone (202) 586-9007; Fax (202) 586-0293 or e-mail: .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Meeting: To provide the
DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management with
information, advice, and recommendations concerning issues
affecting the EM program.
The Board will contribute to the effective operation of the
Environmental Management Program by providing individual citizens
and representatives of interested groups an opportunity to
present their views on issues facing the Office of Environmental
Management and by helping to secure advice on those issues.
Tentative Agenda Wednesday, March 22, 2006 9 a.m. Welcome and
Remarks; Opening Remarks; EM Program Update; EM Re- Organization;
Human Capital Development Presentation; Roundtable Discussion;
Public Comment Period 12 p.m. Lunch Break 1 p.m. Waste
Disposition and Strategy Presentation; Roundtable Discussion;
Lessons Learned from Small Business Contracting; Roundtable
Discussion; Public Comment Period 5 p.m. Adjournment Thursday,
March 23, 2006 9 a.m. Board Business 11:30 p.m. Public Comment 12
p.m. Adjournment Public Participation: The meeting is open to the
public.
Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or
after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements
pertaining to agenda items should contact Terri Lamb at the
address or telephone number above. Requests must be received five
days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision will be made
to include the presentation in the agenda. Those who call in and
register in advance will be given the opportunity to speak first.
Others will be accommodated as time permits. The Board Chair is
empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will
facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing
to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes
to present their comments.
Minutes: The minutes of the meeting will be available for viewing
and copying at the U.S. Department of Energy Freedom of
Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585 between 9:00 a.m.
and 4 p.m., Monday- Friday except Federal holidays. Minutes will
also be available by calling Terri Lamb at (202) 586-9007. Board
meeting minutes are posted on the EMAB Web site within one month
following each meeting at: .
Issued at Washington, DC on February 15, 2006.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-2402 Filed 2-17-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
77 Waste News: Energy Dept. report supports earlier infiltration modeling work
| Waste Management/Recycling/Landfill Headlines
[Wastenews.com
Feb. 21 -- The U.S. Department of Energy has released a report
supporting the technical soundness of infiltration modeling work
performed by U.S. Geologic Survey employees studying the Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository project.
The U.S. Geologic Survey studied how water seepage might impact
plans for building a high-level radioactive waste repository in
the Nevada desert. E-mails discovered last year between some
USGS employees revealed that they apparently failed to follow
certain quality assurance procedures and may have falsified
information in conducting their work.
Despite the concerns raised by the e-mails, independent
scientific conclusions support the USGS employees´ findings,
according to the Energy Department report and department
officials.
"We are committed to opening Yucca Mountain based only on sound
science," said Paul Golan, acting director of the Energy
Department´s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
"The work that we do must be without question or qualification,
and this report confirms that we are on the right path forward."
Despite finding that the U.S. Geologic Survey conclusions are
valid, the Department of Energy plans to replace or supplement
the infiltration modeling work as needed, according to
department officials.
The technical report is available online at www.ocrwm.doe.gov.
Entire contents copyright 2006 by Crain Communications Inc.
*****************************************************************
78 CMO: U of C to co-head Fermilab as Argonne bidding continues
[Chicago Maroon Online Edition] The independent student
newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892
By Isaac Wolf
February 21, 2006 in News
Academic consortium Universities Research Association (URA), the
current steward of national research laboratory Fermilab, has
asked the University to co-manage the $300-million-a-year lab.
The pairing comes amid a competitive bidding process to manage
several national laboratories, including Argonne, which the
University oversees. The University will collaborate with URA to
submit a management proposal for Fermilab, located 35 miles west
of the Loop.
Meanwhile, the University is preparing a separate proposal to
keep management privileges for Argonne, the $500-million-a-year
lab 25 miles southwest of the Loop. The University’s contract to
manage Argonne expires September 30, 2006.
The URA partnership boosts the University’s reputation for
management operations and may strengthen its case to keep
control of Argonne.
“Our reaching out to the University of Chicago is clearly a vote
of confidence,” said URA spokesman Ezra Heitowit. “Does that
influence their chances [of winning the Argonne contract]? I
don’t know.”
URA selected the University because of its strong reputation for
large-scale management, Heitowit said. He cited the University’s
oversight of Argonne and the University of Chicago Hospitals’
strong reputation.
The University’s familiarity with Fermilab contributed to URA’s
decision. University researchers have used the lab “since it was
created,” Heitowit said. “We know the University of Chicago. We
have a very close relationship.”
Fermilab, built in 1967, focuses on research into matter,
energy, time, and space. It employs 2,000 and draws an
additional 3,000 visiting scientists from 31 countries.
URA, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1965 following the
recommendation of President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory
Committee and the National Academy of Sciences.
The University embraced the URA’s offer. Thomas Rosenbaum, the
University vice president for Argonne, said the URA helps
attract leading scientists worldwide to work at Fermilab.
Heitowit said the precise management relationship between URA
and the University has not yet been ironed out. He said the two
organizations would have “reasonably equal” shares of control
over the lab.
URA and University officials emphasized the possibility for
research collaboration, noting that Argonne and Fermilab each
have particle accelerators among the world’s most
state-of-the-art.
Fermilab houses the Tevatron, the world’s highest energy
particle accelerator. Fermilab wants to be the site of a
world-class electron-positrion collider. If built, the proposed
International Linear Collider (ILC) would rival the world’s
largest particle physics center, the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN), which is located on the border between
France and Switzerland.
Argonne, meanwhile, hosts the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator
System (ATLAS), the linear accelerator for heavy ions. Argonne
has proposed to build the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA), which
would be the world’s most powerful tool for exploring isotopes
not normally found on earth.
“That’s a big undertaking, and Argonne would gain by having
Fermilab’s expertise in accelerator technology,” Heitowit said.
“When you combine the two labs, that’s a pretty potent pool of
expertise.”
Rosenbaum said the management partnership supports Fermilab’s
campaign for the ILC and Argonne’s bid for the RIA.
Researchers from the two labs would combine work on accelerator
science, particle physics, astrophysics, theory, computation,
and detector instrumentation, Rosenbaum said.
“Strong leadership and a shared interest in supporting
outstanding science will be the most important determinants of
our success,” he said.
The University’s prospects for keeping Argonne management rights
look bright: The University was the only major research
institution or large corporation in attendance at a January 26
workshop for potential bidders, according to Department of
Energy (DOE) documents. In particular, Battelle, a nonprofit
group that manages five national labs and has been considered a
possible competitor, was not in attendance.
Jacobs Engineering Group, the University’s principal partner
enlisted to help manage Argonne, and BWX Technologies, another
of the University’s Argonne partners, did attend.
Asked about the lack of competitors at the workshop, Rosenbaum
said, “We are working harder than ever to prepare a proposal
that will exceed DOE’s expectations.”
URA’s contract to manage Fermilab expires at the end of the 2006
calendar year.
URA is “reasonably confident” that the University and URA will
win the Fermilab contract, Heitowit said. That contract is
expected to run at least through 2011. E-mail this
article-->Send a letter to the editor Permanent URL:
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/news/articles/2006/02/21/u_of_c_to_coh
ead_fer.php
by Isaac Wolf
Copyright © 1995-2006 Chicago Maroon
*****************************************************************
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:
*****************************************************************