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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: U.S., Russia Discussing Iran Nukes
2 ContraCostaTimes.com: IAEA officials contend U.S. is misleading abou
3 IRNA: Nagashima: Japan will suffer in case of Iran sanctions
4 AFP: India and Iran stress need for closer ties -
5 AFP: Iran only week or two away from pilot uranium enrichment diplom
6 AFP: Iran, Syria blast Israel over nuclear programme 
7 AFP: Iran to talk with US conditionally: Ahmadinejad 
8 AFP: Iran supports Russian, Chinese line on nuclear dispute 
9 AFP: UN nuclear chief wants urgent reform of Security Council -
10 AFP: US, Russians meeting to end deadlock on Iran 
11 AFP: Khamenei urges Iran to resist threats on nuclear 
12 AFP: Rice "certain" US, Iran will hold talks on Iraq 
13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's Enrichment Program to Be Inspected
14 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., S.Korea Begin Military Exercises
15 Korea Herald: IAEA chief hopes to inspect N.K. sites   
16 reviewjournal.com: EDITORIAL: Nuclear testing         
17 IRNA: Merkel criticizes American-Indian nuclear deal: Der Spiegel -
18 Norwich Bulletin: Retaining workers critical to maintaining sub flee
19 SF Chronicle: Bush's nuclear agreement with India on shaky legs / Se
20 US: TheStar.com: California's clean break
21 London Times: Nuclear arms safety
22 Times of India: 'Lot depends on India nuclear bill'
23 Indiatimes: Irrelevance of Indo-US nuclear pact
24 Sunday Herald: The man who keeps Britains nuclear deterrent ship-sha
25 Xinhua: Arab FMs demands Israeli nuclear facilities be inspected   
26 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: UK's nuclear deterrent, a myth 
27 	 	 	 	 	 		
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
28 US: Nuclear Reactors Found to Be Leaking Radioactive Water
29 US: 3 Mile Island Documentry On Tuesday March 28th
30 Guardian Unlimited: Countries Building, Considering Plants
31 Guardian Unlimited: France Leads New Push for Nuclear Power
32 The Observer: Adam Higginbotham: Chernobyl 20 years on
33 Guardian Unlimited: UN accused of ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl deaths
34 Guardian Unlimited: Most EU leaders back reviving nuclear power
35 US: Arizona Republic: APS to fix reactor immediately 
36 US: Charlotte Observer: From power plant to film set, back
37 REGNUM: Rosatom to participate in International exhibition of nuclea
38 Daily Yomiuri: N-power plant safety thrown into doubt 
39 US: Rutland Herald: Vt. Yankee opponents face stiff license test
40 The Enquirer: Cincinnati still helping Chernobyl
41 US: Cincinnati Post: Cinergy purchase clears last obstacle
42 Mos News: 20 Years On, UN Accused of Ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl Deat
43 KnoxNews: World leaders thinking nuclear
44 TheStar.com: AECL unveils group of nuclear partners
45 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran to build 2 nuclear power plants 
46 Boston Globe: Nuclear safeguard stalled
47 US: KnoxNews: TVA gets defensive
48 AFP: Japan's long-stalled nuclear power project gets boost 
49 SA Sunday Times: Shock over new Cape nuclear plan
50 Japan Times: Court orders new reactor's halt 
51 Guardian Unlimited: Key Events in History of Nuclear Energy
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
52 US: [NukeNet] 60 Minutes - Dec. 15, 2004 Wednesday - Dirty Bombs: 
53 Guardian Unlimited: Bombing civilians is not only immoral, it's inef
54 US: Paducah Sun: Contractor: Workforce for cleanup not decided 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
55 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada calls for results of probes into Yucca Mountai
56 US: Deseret News: Speak out against nuclear waste storage in Utah 
57 US: Tracy Press: Lab considers cleanup options 
58 US: Herald News: Tritium incident reported
59 Las Vegas SUN: Benjamin Grove describes the joys and sorrows of
60 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Quittin' time for Yucca Johnny
61 reviewjournal.com: Yucca probe forwarded
62 US: APP.COM: Don't trifle with tritium | 
63 Independent: Three years on, experts fail to agree on nuclear waste 
64 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah to put environmental files online 
65 US: Boston Globe: Radioactive waste source being sought 
66 Telegraph: Government set for Ł1bn BNG sale
67 Japan Times: Genkai, Saga grant request to burn MOX 
68 US: MDN: The dangers of trash: Radioactive medical waste is hardly a
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
69 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Experts list 28 problems to fix at Hanfo
70 Courier News: IEPA cites Fermi over tritium
71 Courier Journa: Potential layoffs at Paducah plant have officials wo
72 toledoblade.com: Fermi II is taken off-line for month-long refueling
73 KnoxNews: With renovations, new facilities, ORNL to increase hold on
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: U.S., Russia Discussing Iran Nukes
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday March 26, 2006 8:01 PM

AP Photo VAH102 

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and Russian officials worked over the
weekend on how best to oppose Iran's nuclear program as the Bush
administration's efforts for U.N. action against Tehran have
bogged down. 

``The Iranians are defying the world's will, and the
international community needs to speak and speak with one
voice,'' Rice told ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``There are some
tactical issues about how best to express that.'' 

Tehran has been referred to the Security Council over fears it
may want to use its nuclear program to produce weapons. 

The council has been at loggerheads over U.S.-led efforts to
ratchet up the pressure on Iran. The United States, Britain and
France support tough language calling on Tehran to return to a
freeze of uranium enrichment. Russia and China, the two other
permanent Security Council members, are opposed. 

``We have the same views of the problem. The Russians do not
want a nuclear weapon in Iraq either,'' Rice said on NBC's
``Meet the Press.'' ``It's been very clear in everything that
they've tried to do.'' 

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sunday that
Iran would stand firm against any action taken to pressure it to
abandon its nuclear program, Iran's state-run television
reported. 

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy
purposes. 

Also Sunday, Rice said the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan,
Ronald Neumann, had met with Iran's ambassador there several
months ago to addressed security issues. 

``We will see when it is desirable to do so again,'' Rice said
on CNN's Late Edition. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 ContraCostaTimes.com: IAEA officials contend U.S. is misleading about Iran

Posted on Sun, Mar. 26, 2006 

Recent statements about Tehran's ability to enrich uranium
called 'pure speculation and misinformation'

 By George Jahn ASSOCIATED PRESS 

VIENNA, Austria - U.N. inspectors should know by next week how
far Iran has advanced on the path to nuclear enrichment,
diplomats said Saturday -- findings that could shape Security
Council action against Tehran and hurt U.S. claims that Iran has
accelerated its efforts. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency -- the U.N. nuclear
watchdog -- is clearly rankled by the U.S. assertions just days
ahead of a trip by IAEA inspectors to Natanz, the site of Iran's
known enrichment efforts. 

IAEA officials normally refuse to be identified as such when
discussing sensitive topics such as disputes with leading IAEA
board members, such as the United States. 

But reflecting exasperation, a senior agency official dropped
such reservations Saturday as he called the U.S. claims that an
agency briefing on the advances made by Iran on enrichment was a
bombshell "pure speculation and misinformation." 

"It comes from people who are seeking a crisis, not a solution"
to the confrontation over Iran, the official said. 

The senior IAEA official did not offer details on the spat. 

But a diplomat in Vienna, who demanded anonymity in exchange for
discussing confidential information, said some U.S.
administration officials were misrepresenting a recent briefing
by the agency to Vienna-based representatives of America,
Russia, China, France, and Britain -- the five permanent
Security Council members. 

The information on where Iran was on enrichment and where it was
headed was not new, but the U.S. officials claimed "the . . .
IAEA was blown away by (Iran's) progress and had the U.S.
redefining its timeline" for Iran's capacity to make its first
nuclear weapon down to three years, the diplomat told the
Associated Press. 

Just last year, U.S. officials cited intelligence estimating
Iran would need 10 years for its first bomb. 

IAEA experts planned a trip to Natanz "in the next few days" and
will report to the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog by early
next week, said an official close to the agency. 

Their findings on how close Iran is to putting 164 centrifuges
to work at uranium enrichment at its pilot plant at Natanz will
come at a crucial time. 

The U.N. Security Council is deadlocked on how to react to
Tehran's defiance of international pressure on its nuclear
program, and the report by IAEA inspectors could help -- or hurt
-- U.S.-led efforts to ratchet up the pressure on Iran in the
form of a harshly worded council statement. 

Tehran is far from its ultimate goal of running 50,000
centrifuges to enrich uranium at Natanz for what it says will be
the fuel requirements of its nearly finished Russian-built
Bushehr reactor. It has fewer than 1,000 centrifuges. 

But former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright recently told
the AP that Iran has enough black-market components in storage
to build the 1,500 operating centrifuges it would need to make
the 20 kilograms -- or 45 pounds -- of highly enriched uranium
needed for one crude weapon. 

Still, Iran has been open about its enrichment plans in recent
months, telling the IAEA earlier this year it plans to start
installing the first of what will be a 3,000-centrifuge plant at
Natanz later this year. 

The U.S. mission in Vienna declined to comment on how the
Americans viewed last week's briefing. But Western diplomats
from permanent Security Council nations said it revealed little
new. 

One of those briefed described Tehran's progress toward
enrichment -- including plans to activate the 164-pilot plant at
Natanz -- as similar to a paper presented by the Iranians a year
ago at talks with key European nations. 

Those talks collapsed after Iran ended its freeze on
enrichment-related activities -- a move that led the 35-nation
board to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council. 

The council has been at loggerheads since taking up the issue
earlier this month. 

Britain and France support tough language calling on Tehran to
return to a freeze of enrichment but Russia and China, the two
other permanent council members, are opposed. 

In a telephone conversation Friday with his Iranian counterpart,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow's view
was that the nuclear dispute should be resolved "through
political diplomatic means within the framework of the
International Atomic Energy Agency," his office said in a
statement. 

The statement indicates that Russia has not altered its position
that the IAEA -- and not the Security Council -- should take the
primary role.
*****************************************************************
 3 IRNA: Nagashima: Japan will suffer in case of Iran sanctions

Tokyo, March 24, IRNA                                                                                                            

Iran-Japan-Nagashima 

Japan will suffer if sanctions are imposed against Iran and for
the same reason Tokyo is cautious towards talks at the UN
Security Council, said a Japanese party member here on Friday.

 "The Japanese government faces a dilemma in relations with its
ally - the US - and Washington's stances, that are
understandable for the global community, and also in its ties
with Iran which it does not want to see hurt," Japanese
opposition Democratic Party member Akihisa Nagashima said in an
interview with IRNA.

 "We want Iran to reach agreement with the international
community before Japan takes a final decision," he said.

 Nagashima said he well understands and respects the Iranian
people's national pride and its intention to use modern
technology, but the issue is now intertwined with politics.

 In order to prove that its nuclear energy is peaceful, Tehran
is required to convince the international community over the
issue, he added.

 He urged Iran to benefit from Japan's experience in peaceful
use of nuclear energy and at the same time cooperate with the
 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) openly and
transparently to reach agreement with it.

 To institutionalize its nuclear energy policy, Japan acted in a
highly transparent way and revealed everything, said Nagashima,
adding that if Iran did the same, it could more easily persuade
the global community.

 If Iran is really pursuing nuclear energy, the Russian proposal
is a good option, said the Japanese partisan.

 If the Iranian government shows in practice that it is trying
to allay global concerns, the US would not be able to convince
the global community to launch military strike against Iran, he
commented.

 Since the US is still trapped in the Iraqi quagmire, it seems
unlikely that it would wage another war, he added.

 Iran is a big country and a war against it could be a big risk,
he said.


*****************************************************************
 4 AFP: India and Iran stress need for closer ties -

 Saturday March 25, 09:02 PM 

  [Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (right) and Iranian
Vice-President Rahim Mashaee (left)]   
    
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Iranian
Vice-President Rahim Mashaee held talks in New Delhi during
which they stressed the need to strengthen bilateral ties,
particularly in the energy sector.

"They agreed on the need for an early meeting of the India-Iran
Joint Commission," the Indian foreign ministry said in a
statement on Saturday, referring to a special committee set up
to explore ways to expand bilateral ties.

"The two leaders emphasized the importance they attach
(Advertisement)
[ src=]  to the civilization ties between the two countries and
need for further strengthening bilateral cooperation,
particularly in the energy sector," it said.

Energy-hungry India is in negotiations with Iran for the supply
of gas via a pipeline that would run through Pakistan, with a
next round of talks scheduled for late April.

India plans to initially draw 60 million cubic metres (2.11
billion cubic feet) of gas from the pipeline and increase the
quantity to 90 million cubic metres (3.17 billion cubic feet)
within two to three years.

Despite initial opposition, US President George W, Bush said
during a visit to India this month that he had no objections to
New Delhi buying gas from a country that Washington accuses of
supporting terrorism and attempting to make a nuclear bomb.

Singh and Mashaee, who is also Chairman of Iran's Cultural
Heritage and Tourism Organisation, agreed to promote the common
cultural heritage of the two countries, the foreign ministry
said.

Saturday's meeting is the first high-profile talks between
leaders of the two countries since India in February voted with
26 other nations to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over
its nuclear program.

Singh earlier this month urged the international community to
avoid a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program, saying
it could worsen tensions in the region.

"We remain hopeful that a solution acceptable to all sides will
be found, we do not favour confrontation," Singh told
parliament. 

AFP

*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: Iran only week or two away from pilot uranium enrichment diplomats - 

 Saturday March 25, 09:05 PM 

[The Iranian nuclear power plant of Natanz, 270 kms south of
Tehran]   
    
VIENNA (AFP) - Iran could be running a 164-centrifuge pilot
cascade to enrich uranium by the end of March or beginning of
April, diplomats close to the UN nuclear watchdog told AFP.

This comes as the United Nations Security Council is stalled
over issuing a statement that would call on Iran to suspend
enrichment, which Tehran says is to produce nuclear reactor fuel
but can make atom bomb material.

At the pilot cascade in the Iranian city of Natanz, "there is
just piping to be finished, Advertisement
 [ src=] then they do vacuum tests, then they would test with
inert gas and finally they would put in uranium gas to begin the
process," said a diplomat close to the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity
of the issue, said the cascade might be ready to begin
enrichment as quickly as "within a week, maybe a week or two
longer."

While the cascade at Natanz is too small to produce
weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU), the reported
progress "has really raised the anxiety level" about Tehran's
nuclear program, a Western diplomat said.

"Iran is closer to mastering centrifuge cascade operations than
we expected," the diplomat said.

Nuclear expert David Albright of the Institute for Science and
International Security in Washington said Iran could make
low-enriched uranium which it could enrich further to bomb grade
"a lot quicker."

The Western diplomat said Iran's progress in enrichment "means
diplomacy has less time to succeed. Much less time. And yet the
Russians are dithering."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday telephoned
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a new attempt to break a
deadlock at the Security Council.

Rice told a news conference in Washington that she and Lavrov,
whose country has resisted tough action against Iran, agreed to
step up work on a statement aimed at forcing Tehran to renounce
any ambitions to develop atomic bombs.

Rice's earlier warned "there can't be any stalling" in dealing
with the potential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Iran in mid-February dropped a self-imposed moratorium on
enrichment -- meant to show it did not seek nuclear weapons --
by putting uranium hexafluoride gas into single centrifuges in
Natanz, followed by 10-centrifuge and a 20-centrifuge cascade.

The next step would be the 164-centrifuge cascade, a
research-level operation to learn about techniques used in
running thousands of centrifuges.

Iran, which strongly denies it wants nuclear weapons but insists
on its right to enrich uranium for fuel, needs more than 50,000
centrifuges to produce enough for up to a dozen atom bombs a
year. 
                                
AFP
*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: Iran, Syria blast Israel over nuclear programme 

[Manouchehr Mottaki]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - Top officials from Syria and Iran, close allies
under severe pressure from the international community, stood
together to denounce Israel's nuclear programme as a threat to
the Middle East.

Visiting Syrian First Vice President Faruq al-Shara and Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki regarded "the nuclear arms
of the Qods occupier regime (Israel) and the fact that it does
not join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a real
threat in the Middle East", state television said.

Iran has signed the NPT, which governs the peaceful use of
nuclear energy, but the Islamic republic is under fire from
Western countries which accuse it of concealing a nuclear
weapons programme. Tehran vigorously denies the charges.

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons although it
has stuck for the past 40 years to a policy of "strategic
ambiguity" of neither confirming nor denying its arsenal.

The two officials also discussed Iraq, calling on foreign
ministers of Iraq's neighbours for a meeting to look for ways to
help the establishment of security and stability in the country.

Al-Shara, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, delivered a message
from the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the Iranian
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The report did not give more detail on al-Shara's meeting with
the Iranian president.

The Syrian official wraps up his two-day meeting on Saturday
afternoon.

This visit follows a January trip by Ahmadinejad to Damascus,
Tehran's main regional ally.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of involvement
in Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri's murder last year, made a
similar visit to Tehran in August 2005. 

Copyright Š 2006 Yahoo! UK Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: Iran to talk with US conditionally: Ahmadinejad 

  [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad(R) with Faruq al-Shara]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly
said Tehran will hold talks on neighboring Iraq with Washington
"in spite of distrusting Americans."

"We will ... talk with America about Iraq because of requests by
the Iraqi people and government, but with consideration of
Iraqis and the Islamic world's interests and in consultation
with Islamic countries," Ahmadinejad said during a meeting with
Syria's visiting First Vice President Faruq al-Shara according
to the ISNA news agency.

"We basically do not trust Americans," he added.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday gave a
tacit blessing to talks between the Islamic republic and the
United States, but said the Islamic republic wanted Washington
to leave Iraq.

The idea was first floated just over a week ago by Ali Larjani,
head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, its nuclear
chief and one of the country's most visible officials.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she was
"quite certain" that US officials would hold direct talks with
Iran on the turmoil in Iraq, but could not say when.

In an interview with the Washington Post, US envoy to Baghdad
Zalmay Khalilzad, who would lead talks with Tehran, accused the
Islamic republic of aiding Iraqi militia and insurgents groups.

The White House suspects Iran waited months to accept the US
offer, first approved last November, in order to deflect
pressure from Tehran's atomic energy program, which has been
referred to the UN Security Council.

The United States charges Iran with seeking to obtain nuclear
weapons, while Tehran insists its programme is meant only for
peaceful purposes. 

AFP '); [ src=] 
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Iran supports Russian, Chinese line on nuclear dispute 

 Sat Mar 25, 2:27 AM ET 		 	 

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran" /> Iransupports the stance taken by Russia
and China to take the diplomatic route in the search for an
international solution to the thorny nuclear issue, Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said. 

Mottaki made his comments during three-way telephone talks with 
his Russian and Chinese counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Li 
Zhaoxing, the semi-official Iran agency reported. 

Iran "supports and is happy with the position (of Russia and
China) in favour of pursuing negotiations in a bid to find a
solution acceptable to all parties and examination of the
(nuclear) question under the auspices of the International
Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency"
(IAEA), Irna quoted Mottaki as saying. 

The UN Security Council has attempted in vain to agree on a
deadline for Tehran to comply with IAEA demands to abandon all
activities linked to the enrichment of uranium. 

Russia, backed by China, insists on the Security Council playing
a supporting role to the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, and
rejects any deadline which appears like an ultimatum linked to
possible sanctions. 

Lavrov said Friday that Moscow could not accept any decision on
Iran reached by Western powers without prior consultation with
Russia. 

"I doubt we would accept (a proposal) taken behind our back and
then presented to us as the only outcome possible," Lavrov told
reporters in Moscow. 

He was commenting on reports earlier this week that Britain had
been carrying out secret negotiations with other Western
capitals. 

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza
Riceon Friday also telephoned Lavrov in a new attempt to break
the deadlock over Iran's nuclear program. 

Rice told a news conference that she and Lavrov agreed to step
up work on a statement aimed at forcing Tehran to renounce any
ambitions to develop atomic bombs. 

The call came a day after Rice expressed impatience over the
slow pace of UN talks on the issue and warned "there can't be
any stalling" in dealing with the potential threat of a
nuclear-armed Iran. 

Diplomatic sources in Berlin said Rice would travel next week to
key European allies Germany, France and Britain to discuss the
issue. 

The United States and its allies believe Iran's civilian nuclear
program hides an effort to develop weapons. Tehran says its
research is peaceful. 

Russia has repeatedly said the Iran nuclear crisis should be
resolved within the IAEA, effectively ruling out sanctions
against Tehran. 

Russia has previously proposed a compromise under which Iran
would enrich uranium on Russian, not Iranian, soil. Tehran has
rejected that plan. 

Mottaki denounced "certain Security Council member nations who
are in the minority and who are pursuing political objectives
and are seeking confrontation". 

He added that the return of the Iranian nuclear dossier to the
IAEA by the Security Council would permit random inspections of
Iranian nuclear sites. 

Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 9 AFP: UN nuclear chief wants urgent reform of Security Council -
     
 Sat Mar 25, 4:00 PM ET 		 	 

BERLIN (AFP) - The head of the United Nations" /> United
Nationsnuclear watchdog called for urgent reform of the UN
Security Council to give it greater powers, especially in
addressing the threat of nuclear proliferation. 

 "It is clearly time for the Security Council to be reformed,
expanded and strengthened, as part of the current efforts to
reform and revitalize the United Nations," said Mohamed
ElBaradei, head of the International Agency for Atomic Energy
(IAEA) in Vienna, currently at the centre of a tense stand-off
with Iran" /> Iranover nuclear power. 

In a highly critical review of the UN body's record, he said a
lecture, the text of which was published on the IAEA website:
"When dealing with threats of nuclear proliferation and arms
control, the Security Council has too often fallen short." 

In specific cases of arms control, the Security Council's
efforts had not been very systematic or successful. 

In the case of Iraq" /> Iraq, it had over a decade imposed a
series of blanket economic sanctions "which were manipulated to
the advantage of the ruthless regime in power, and resulted in
the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians. 

"The Council could not later agree, in 2003, on either the need
for or the timing of the use of force in Iraq." 

The Council had also "made little effort to address nuclear
proliferation threats in context, by dealing with the drivers of
insecurity that give rise to proliferation. 

"It has not responded or followed up effectively to the
emergence of new countries with nuclear weapons. And it has not
exercised its arms limitation mandate." 

"Too often, the Security Councils engagement is inadequate,
selective, or after the fact," ElBaradei said. 

"The tragedies of recent years in Rwanda, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Darfur are cases in point. 

"In the case of Rwanda in mid-1994, the Security Council was
unable to move much beyond hand-wringing, with the result that
800 000 people lost their lives in the span of a few months." 

In the DRC War, its efforts in the interest of diplomacy and
peacekeeping had not been enough to prevent the deaths of an
estimated 3.8 millions. 

The UN Security Council is currently stalled over issuing a
statement that would call on Iran to suspend enrichment, which
Tehran says is to produce nuclear reactor fuel but can make atom
bomb material. 

Washington and its European allies have been pressing Tehran to
suspend its uranium enrichment activities and return to
negotiations aimed at weaning them from suspected nuclear
ambitions with economic and other incentives. 

Iran denies claims that it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons
and insists that as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, it has a right to conduct uranium enrichment. 

Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 10 AFP: US, Russians meeting to end deadlock on Iran 

 Sun Mar 26, 1:55 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US and Russian diplomats were meeting in a
new bid to end the impasse over a UN response to Iran" /> Iran's
controversial nuclear program, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice" /> Condoleezza Ricesaid. 

 Rice acknowledged during a round of Sunday television talk
shows that differences persisted over the language of a UN
Security Council statement seeking to keep Iran from pursuing
sensitive nuclear work. 

She said she spoke Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and they agreed to have their negotiators work through
the weekend in an attempt to hammer out language acceptable to
both. 

"I think they're going to meet later today, to try and resolve
these differences, because we do need to speak and speak with
one voice," the chief US diplomat told the Fox News Sunday
program. 

"But we shouldn't delay," she later told CNN's "Late Edition,"
adding that "we do need a presidential statement that makes
clear to the Iranians what is clear to everyone." 

No word was available on the progress of efforts to thrash out a
Security Council presidential statement on Iran's
uranium-enrichment activities that Washington suspects are aimed
at building a nuclear bomb. 

Russia and China, two of the council's five veto-wielding
permanent members, have balked at even threatening sanctions
against Iran for a nuclear program that Tehran insists is for
strictly peaceful purposes. 

The United States has been pushing for a tough approach, backed
by France and Britain -- which are also permanent members of the
Security Council -- and Germany. 

Rice told NBC television that once agreement was reached on a UN
statement, the United States might seek a ministerial meeting of
the council's permanent members plus Germany "to talk about
charting a course forward." 

Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 11 AFP: Khamenei urges Iran to resist threats on nuclear 

 Sunday March 26, 04:56 PM 

  [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
has urged Iranians to resist "the enemy's threats" amid
international warnings for the country to halt sensitive atomic
activities.

"Some of these threats may also be put in practice. A nation
will be able to preserve its honor and glory in this case if it
resists without retreat," Khamenei told commanders and members
of the Basij, Iran's Islamic militia force.

"The enemy wants to dominate Iran again and today they follow
the (Advertisement)
[ src=]  same objective by propaganda, rumors and lies about the
nuclear issue," he said, referring to talks at the UN Security
Council on Iran's nuclear programme.

The United States and its allies believe Iran's nuclear program
conceals an effort to develop weapons and have urged it to halt
sensitive uranium enrichment activities.

Iran vehemently denies the charges, saying its research is
peaceful and meant to provide fuel for its power plants.

Khamenei also termed moves on the Security Council as "lining up
against Iran's interests."

"They call it international consensus, but the international
consensus is against America's interference and war-mongering."

Iranian hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underscored
Tehran's insistence on having full access to nuclear technology.

"The world must know that Iranian nation will not back down even
a step from its right on the issue of nuclear technology," he
told Iranians in the southern province of Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad,
in a speech broadcast live on television.

Ahmadinejad also shrugged off the UN Security Council's
discussions.

"Don't mind these threats, naggings, frowns and meeting after
meeting ... they want to take a concession from us. Our response
is that Iranian nation will not give you the least concession
and is not worried that you are angry."

The UN Security Council is currently deadlocked over Iran's
nuclear program.

Discussions, which began Monday, have been snagged by the
refusal of Russia and China, two of the council's five
veto-wielding permanent members, to consider sanctions against
their ally and major trading partner in Tehran. 
                                
AFP
*****************************************************************
 12 AFP: Rice "certain" US, Iran will hold talks on Iraq 

 Fri Mar 24, 4:08 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" />
said she was "quite certain" that US officials would hold direct
talks with Iran" /> on the turmoil in Iraq" /> , but could not
say when. 

A week after Iran moved to take up a US offer of talks on Iraq,
Rice and other officials reported no progress in organizing the
meetings between the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad,
and the Iranians. 

But the chief US diplomat was confident the two sides would hold
the discussions, which analysts have said could represent a
breakthrough toward melting a generation of animosity between
the countries. 

"I'm quite certain that at some point they will meet," Rice told
reporters at a news conference here with visiting Mexican
Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez. 

Rice authorized Khalilzad last year to reach out to the Iranians
for direct talks, but only about specific issues relating to US
concerns that Tehran was stirring up trouble in neighboring
Iraq. 

"In this narrow set of issues about security in places where we
find ourselves in a sense on their border, it's important that
we not have any miscommunication or misinformation," she said
Friday. 

"And so it's important that we have a chance to talk about our
concerns," Rice said. But she gave no sense of urgency, saying
Khalilzad's authority "has been there for a while. And the
issues are not going to go away." 

US officials have stressed that any talks would be totally
separate from US efforts to rein in Iran's suspected nuclear
weapons program. 

Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's Enrichment Program to Be Inspected

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday March 25, 2006 10:46 PM

AP Photo VAH102 

By GEORGE JAHN 

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. inspectors should know by next week
how far Iran has advanced on the path to nuclear enrichment,
diplomats said Saturday - findings that could shape Security
Council action against Tehran and hurt U.S. claims that Iran has
accelerated its efforts. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear
watchdog - is clearly rankled by the U.S. assertions just days
ahead of a trip by IAEA inspectors to Natanz, the site of Iran's
known enrichment efforts. 

IAEA officials normally refuse to be identified as such when
discussing sensitive topics such as disputes with leading IAEA
board members, such as the United States. 

But reflecting exasperation, a senior agency official dropped
such reservations Saturday as he called the U.S. claims that an
agency briefing on the advances made by Iran on enrichment was a
bombshell ``pure speculation and misinformation.'' 

``It comes from people who are seeking a crisis, not a
solution'' to the confrontation over Iran, the official said. 

The senior IAEA official did not offer details on the spat. 

But a diplomat in Vienna, who demanded anonymity in exchange for
discussing confidential information, said some U.S.
administration officials were misrepresenting a recent briefing
by the agency to Vienna-based representatives of America,
Russia, China, France, and Britain - the five permanent Security
Council members. 

The information on where Iran was on enrichment and where it was
headed was not new, but the U.S. officials claimed ``the ...
IAEA was blown away by (Iran's) progress and had the U.S.
redefining its timeline'' for Iran's capacity to make its first
nuclear weapon down to three years, the diplomat told The
Associated Press. 

Just last year, U.S. officials cited intelligence estimating
Iran would need 10 years for its first bomb. 

IAEA experts planned a trip to Natanz ``in the next few days''
and will report to the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog by
early next week, said an official close to the agency. 

Their findings on how close Iran is to putting 164 centrifuges
to work at uranium enrichment at its pilot plant at Natanz will
come at a crucial time. 

The U.N. Security Council is deadlocked on how to react to
Tehran's defiance of international pressure on its nuclear
program, and the report by IAEA inspectors could help - or hurt
- U.S.-led efforts to ratchet up the pressure on Iran in the
form of a harshly worded council statement. 

Tehran is far from its ultimate goal of running 50,000
centrifuges to enrich uranium at Natanz for what it says will be
the fuel requirements of its nearly finished Russian-built
Bushehr reactor. It has less than 1,000 centrifuges. 

But former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright recently told
the AP that Iran has enough black-market components in storage
to build the 1,500 operating centrifuges it would need to make
the 20 kilograms - or 45 pounds - of highly enriched uranium
needed for one crude weapon. 

Still, Iran has been open about its enrichment plans in recent
months, telling the IAEA earlier this year it plans to start
installing the first of what will be a 3,000-centrifuge plant at
Natanz later this year. 

The U.S. mission in Vienna declined to comment on how the
Americans viewed last week's briefing. But Western diplomats
from permanent Security Council nations said it revealed little
new. 

One of those briefed described Tehran's progress toward
enrichment - including plans to activate the 164-pilot plant at
Natanz - as similar to a paper presented by the Iranians a year
ago at talks with key European nations. 

Those talks collapsed after Iran ended its freeze on
enrichment-related activities - a move that led the 35-nation
board to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council. 

The council has been at loggerheads since taking up the issue
earlier this month. 

Britain and France support tough language calling on Tehran to
return to a freeze of enrichment but Russia and China, the two
other permanent council members, are opposed. 

In a telephone conversation Friday with his Iranian counterpart,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow's view
was that the nuclear dispute should be resolved ``through
political diplomatic means within the framework of the
International Atomic Energy Agency,'' his office said in a
statement. 

The statement indicates that Russia has not altered its position
that the IAEA - and not the Security Council - should take the
primary role. 

--- 

On the Net: www.iaea.org	 
		 	 	   

      Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 14 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., S.Korea Begin Military Exercises
           
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday March 25, 2006 5:16 AM

By KWANG-TAE KIM 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea and the United States
began joint military exercises on Saturday amid angry protests
by North Korea, which has denounced the annual exercises as
preparations for a pre-emptive nuclear attack. 

About 25,000 U.S. troops and an undisclosed number of South
Korean soldiers will participate in the weeklong exercises,
which involve a computer-simulated war game and field exercises
aimed at improving U.S. and South Korean forces' defense
capabilities, according to the U.S. military command. 

``The purpose of the drill is defensive,'' said Kim Yong-kyu, a
spokesman for the U.S. military command in Seoul, dismissing as
``nonsense'' North Korea's claims that the military exercises
are preparations to invade the communist state. 

North Korea has stepped up its anti-U.S. rhetoric over the
exercises, vowing to take an unspecified strong measure of
self-defense and suggesting it had the ability to launch a
pre-emptive attack on the United States. 

The drills are being held out of view of any spectators. 

About 29,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a
legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire, not
a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war. The
number of American troops is set to decline to 25,000 by 2008 as
part of the Pentagon's worldwide realignment of its forces. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 15 Korea Herald: IAEA chief hopes to inspect N.K. sites   
        
2006.03.27

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday he
was hopeful of traveling to North Korea to inspect its nuclear
activities.

 North Korea has refused since November to resume the six-nation
talks on ending its nuclear ambitions, demanding that the United
States lift financial restrictions imposed on North Korean
companies for alleged complicity in counterfeiting and money
laundering.

 In October, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said after a trip
to North Korea that Pyongyang indicated that under certain
circumstances, it might be willing to invite International
Atomic Energy Agency officials, possibly including agency head
and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei.

 "Hopefully we'll go," ElBaradei told reporters. North Korea
expelled his agency in early 2003.

 Earlier Saturday, North Korea said the lifting of U.S.
financial sanctions on the country cannot be discussed in the
six-party nuclear talks since it is a precondition for resuming
the negotiations.

 "The U.S. is insisting on discussing the issue of financial
sanctions at the six-party talks in a bid to shift the
responsibility for the delayed talks on to the DPRK (North
Korea) side," the North's official Central News Agency (KCNA)
said in a commentary.

 "If Washington truly wants to resume the six-party talks, it
had better just lift financial sanctions before talking about
the resumption of the talks," the commentary said.

 The agency was commenting on a reported remark by U.S.
Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow that the communist state
could discuss the financial sanctions in the context of the
six-way talks. The envoy reportedly made the counterproposal
last week after the North proposed the establishment of a
non-permanent consultative body aimed at handling the sanctions
issue within the framework of the multilateral negotiations.

 Last September, the U.S. Treasury Department designated
Macau-based Banco Delta Asia as a "primary money-laundering
concern" facilitating Pyongyang's illicit financial activities.

 
*****************************************************************
 16 reviewjournal.com: EDITORIAL: Nuclear testing         

Opinion - 

  Mar. 26, 2006
 										Copyright Š Las Vegas Review-Journal 
The Cold War might be over, but the possibility of nuclear war
is still very real. 

Only last week, the communist psychopaths running North Korea
warned that they have built atomic weapons for use in a
pre-emptive strike against the United States. And Iran's supreme
leader made it clear that his nation will not accept U.N.
sanctions if his country presses forward with uranium
enrichment, saying he "will never accept Security Council
decisions that go against our national interests." 

Brash statements from two rogue nations would hardly justify the
resumption of full-scale nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada
Test Site, but they illustrate why the federal government is
wise to leave the option in its back pocket. 

Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security
Administration, used a Tuesday visit to the agency's North Las
Vegas office to reiterate that the Bush administration has no
plans to start detonating warheads under the desert northwest of
Las Vegas after a nearly 14-year moratorium. 

"We have absolutely no evidence that we're going to need to
test. ... We don't see any specific reason now that leads us to
believe we'll need a test," Mr. Brooks said. 

"On the other hand," he said, "we don't know everything about
the future." 

For the United States, such tests aren't about demonstrating
power. The bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 and the more than 900
tests conducted in Nevada between 1951 and 1992 took care of
that. 

Tests are necessary to ensure the safety and reliability of the
country's nuclear arsenal. The NNSA accomplishes that today with
so-called "subcritical" experiments that explode small amounts
of nuclear material. 

But if Iran's nuclear program ever proceeds toward a successful,
full-scale test, the United States may well determine that it
should do the same, just to make doubly sure our weapons are in
working order. 

In a dangerous world, the Bush administration's hedge -- and its
refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty -- is the
right call. 

The Nevada Test Site may never again see the kind of activity
and employment that made it central to the state's identity for
nearly five decades, but its continued readiness will continue
to serve our national security for decades to come. 	   

Copyright Š Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
 Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement
*****************************************************************
 17 IRNA: Merkel criticizes American-Indian nuclear deal: Der Spiegel -
      
Berlin, March 25, IRNA                                                                                                           

Germany-US-India 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized the latest
US-Indian nuclear deal during a long phone conversation with
American President George W. Bush, the weekly news magazine Der
Spiegel said on Saturday.

 Merkel's criticism of the US-Indian nuclear accord followed
earlier statements by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier who had questioned "the timing of such a deal".

 Under the Indian-US nuclear deal, Washington has agreed to
provide nuclear power technology, if New Delhi separates its
civilian and military nuclear programs and opens its civilian
nuclear facilities to international inspections.

 In other related news, Der Spiegel said America is pressuring
the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to revamp its rules
to permit India to receive US nuclear technology.

 While Russia, France and Britain have expressed support for the
US demand, China and Brazil refuse to back the American move.

 Meanwhile, Germany has yet to take a clear position on the US
request but Berlin will be forced to make a decision in June
when the US officially calls for the approval of the Indian
nuclear accord during the NSG plenary assembly meeting.

*****************************************************************
 18 Norwich Bulletin: Retaining workers critical to maintaining sub fleet

www.norwichbulletin.com - Norwich, Conn.
 
 By RAY HACKETT Norwich Bulletin 


GROTON -- Dick Flagg, formerly of Norwich and retired Electric
Boat employee, believes the Groton shipbuilder's future is
secure because of its reputation as the finest designer and
builder of nuclear submarines.

Electric Boat, which is planning potentially massive layoffs
this year and next, is the nation's premier submarine builder,
lending Groton the distinction of calling itself "The Submarine
Capital of the World." But there is concern the loss of the
highly skilled workforce through layoffs could severely damage
the company's ability to stay afloat.

But for those who have spent a good portion of their lives
working at EB, nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only
will EB survive, but its success is to continue doing what it
does best -- designing and building the world's best submarines. 

Flagg said his confidence in the company stems from the fact EB
has been, and always will be, a major part of the nation's
defense manufacturing industry. He supports that argument by
noting that, several years ago, when Newport News Shipbuilding
in Virginia needed a new nuclear power plant system for an
aircraft carrier under construction there, Electric Boat was the
company it turned to for help.

"Newport News hadn't designed a nuclear power plant since the
SSN688 (Los Angeles Class submarines) 30 years prior," said
Flagg in an interview from his North Carolina home. "Newport
News didn't have the engineers with the background to develop
this system. They relied on the expertise of Electric Boat to
get the job done."

Newport News, owned by Grumman-Northrop, manufactures large Navy
surface ships and, at one point, was EB's main competitor in
submarine construction. Today, the two companies work together
in building the Virginia Class subs now under construction,
sharing the workload 50-50.

But Flagg admits EB's future is not as bright today. The lack of
a new design contract for the next generation of submarines does
not bode well.

"I believe that the workforce will keep shrinking until there is
only a small nucleus of key design and operations personnel
left," he said.

Ray Filosa Jr. of North Stonington, a 33-year employee at the
company, began his career at EB as a draftsman and worked his
way up to a management spot before retiring in 1997.

"The future of the company is predicated on design work," he
said. "At the rate the workforce is diminishing, and the new
technology where you don't need as many people, it's hard to
keep the core together. And once you let it go, it's gone."

North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas H. Mullane II, another
former EB worker, said he remains hopeful the state's
congressional delegation can convince the Navy to rescind its
decision not to include EB in future maintenance and repair
work. It's that level of work, Mullane believes, that can help
stabilize the company's workforce until a new design contract is
awarded.

"The government has to come to understand that the ability to
assemble submarines is to keep the design task force intact," he
said.

One glimmer of hope on the horizon, Mullane said, is the effort
to secure contracts for diesel-powered submarines for Taiwan.

"I think maybe the Navy might also want to look at that," he
said, noting diesel subs likely would cost significantly less
than nuclear-powered subs, which could enhance the Navy's
submarine fleet without affecting the Navy's shipbuilding budget
significantly.

The Navy has shown no interest in diesel submarines, however.

"In the meantime, hopefully they can get more of the repair and
maintenance work to keep them afloat," he said. 

Reach Ray Hackett at 425-4225 or rhackett@norwich bulletin.com 

Originally published March 25, 2006

*****************************************************************
 19 SF Chronicle: Bush's nuclear agreement with India on shaky legs / Several
countries, some in Congress want more details
 
[San Francisco Chronicle] 

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Growing resistance to President Bush's proposed nuclear
cooperation deal with India is threatening to slow, and possibly
kill, an agreement that the president has described as vital to
improved relations with the budding South Asian power. 

The deal, involving a change in the law that would permit sales
of civilian nuclear power technology and equipment to India, was
the capstone of Bush's visit to India earlier this month and was
hailed as the key to a breakthrough in what have long been wary
relations between the two countries. 

Shortly after the president returned from India, the White House
sent Congress draft legislation to enact the agreement. But some
members of Congress and a number of congressional staffers said
the proposed bill would sharply limit congressional oversight,
which has increased skepticism from Republicans and Democrats
who are worried about the proliferation of nuclear technology
and about possibly boosting India's nuclear weapons program. 

"Every day that more questions are asked about this deal is
another day toward the deal being placed in jeopardy," Rep. Ed
Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on
Nonproliferation, said in an interview. "The more (lawmakers)
understand the deal, the more trouble the deal will have." 

In another potential setback, the Bush administration ran into
serious questions this week about the deal from other countries
that must approve any changes to the rules on trade in nuclear
equipment and materials. Under international rules, such sales
are prohibited because India, which possesses a nuclear weapons
arsenal, has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, the key international agreement preventing the spread of
technology and materials that can be used to build weapons. 

The Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 45-nation body that regulates
trade in nuclear technology, must agree to make an exception for
India to allow the deal to proceed. But at a meeting of the body
in Vienna this week, the United States faced a number of serious
questions about the agreement and ultimately failed to get other
members to place the India deal on the agenda for the group's
annual meeting in May, at least for now, several people with
knowledge of the talks told The Chronicle. 

A State Department spokeswoman said she had received no official
word on the Vienna meeting and so could not confirm the reports. 

But one diplomatic official in Washington, who requested
anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly,
confirmed to The Chronicle that the Bush administration had been
slowed in its efforts to obtain approval from the Nuclear
Suppliers Group, at least for now. 

Markey said he had heard, too, that there was resistance to
quick passage of an exemption for India from some member
countries of the suppliers group. 

"Yes, there are several countries that have reservations about
the deal," Markey said. "They are insisting on getting enough
time to ask their questions." 

Nuclear experts and some members of Congress have expressed
concern that the deal, although limited to civilian sales, might
indirectly aid India's weapons program, spurring an Asian arms
race and encouraging other countries to seek exemptions from the
restrictions on nuclear trade. Some lawmakers said they would
consider modifications to ensure that the deal does not allow
India to expand its weapons program. 

At the least, concerns over the legislation could slow
congressional consideration of the deal, perhaps until next
year, which would represent a major reversal for the Bush
administration, which is facing resistance on a number of other
policy fronts. 

"In Congress, this one clearly crosses party lines," said Daryl
Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in
Washington, which opposes the agreement. "The bottom line is
this will not come out of Congress the way it came in." 

One well-placed GOP staffer, who asked that he not be identified
because only members of Congress are allowed to publicly express
opinions on the deal, said some Republican lawmakers are
especially concerned that the safeguards in the agreement Bush
brought back from New Delhi appear to be weaker than expected,
raising fears that India could build more nuclear warheads with
minimal international monitoring. 

"There is tremendous ambivalence on this" in Congress, the
staffer said. "We are going to expose some fault lines in this
agreement that the White House doesn't want us to expose, and it
may not pass." 

The White House has continued to press hard for the deal. Bush,
speaking in West Virginia on Wednesday, said it is important to
improve relations with India and insisted that the Indians have
"proven themselves to be a nonproliferator, that they're a
transparent democracy, that it's in our interest for them to
develop nuclear power to help their economy grow." 

Under the terms of the agreement, U.S. companies would be
permitted to sell civilian nuclear power technology to India in
return for India permitting international inspections of some of
its civilian nuclear facilities. But facilities used for weapons
production would remain off-limits. All in all, 14 of India's 22
nuclear facilities would be opened, but the precise terms of the
agreement have not been finalized, another factor slowing
congressional action. 

The deal would open a new market for American power reactor
producers -- as well as those from other countries -- and would
give the booming Indian economy a source of desperately needed
energy, as well as recognition as a legitimate nuclear power. 

What has particularly upset some critics, including members of
Congress, is that India would have the right to choose which
facilities were monitored and which were not, including any
facilities it builds in the future. In particular, a breeder
reactor that can produce large amounts of plutonium for weapons
is to remain off limits to inspectors. 

In addition, the proposed legislation contains language that
appears to reduce congressional oversight. 

Under current law, the president can create an exception for a
country. But for civilian nuclear trade to proceed, the Senate
and the House of Representatives must pass resolutions affirming
the exemptions from current prohibitions. If a country is
already a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the nuclear
trade can be halted only if both chambers of Congress pass a
resolution rejecting the sales within 90 days of the president's
order. 

The package drafted by the White House seeks to have it both
ways for India. It suggests that India be granted an exemption
from the laws prohibiting nuclear technology trade with a
non-treaty country. But it also insists that India should be
treated like a signatory country, which means only a hasty joint
resolution by both chambers could stop the deal. That timetable
would be very difficult to meet. 

"I can tell you, a lot of people are concerned that the
legislation is just too high-handed," said another congressional
staffer. "It all but eliminates congressional oversight, and the
members are just not interested in giving that up." 
E-mail James Sterngold at . 				

Page A - 5
 			
 The San Francisco Chronicle] 

*****************************************************************
 20 TheStar.com: California's clean break
 
Sun. Mar. 26, 2006. | Updated at 11:01 AM 

Here's a choice:

Your power company replaces the electricity meter on your house.
It's a new design, linked to the thermostat on your air
conditioner as well as to the company's control centre.

In anticipation of the next summer heat wave, you can:

Decide, no matter what, when the temperature soars you intend to
keep your air conditioner cranked up. Your house will stay
nicely chilled, but you'll pay through the nose for the
privilege. 

Or let the company automatically turn up the thermostat by a few
degrees. The house will get a bit warmer. But you'll avoid
paying the huge premium and, possibly, help to avert a blackout.

Almost everyone in California will soon be asked to make this
choice. The peak price for those who insist on full
air-conditioning will likely be six times the normal rate.

 Ontario also intends to put a "Smart Meter" in every home by
2010, to reduce electricity use at times of peak demand. They
might be primitive versions that simply divide each day into
three zones, charging the least for electricity consumed
overnight, and the most at dinnertime. But the advanced,
automatic versions are under consideration. If they're adopted
here, it will be a case of Ontario following the leader.

After 30 years of effort  with more and more people using more
and more power-hungry gadgets  California has made itself the
most efficient place in North America.

Remarkably, since it began during the oil price shock of the
early 1970s  as its population and economy soared, and
electricity demand everywhere else in the U.S. grew steadily 
the state's consumption per person has stayed the same. As a
result, the state has avoided having to build another 65,000
megawatts worth of generating stations  equivalent to more than
double Ontario's current total capacity. It saves the average
household about $1,000 (U.S.) a year in energy costs.

Ontario is trying to catch up.

"I'm jealous of the 30 years they've had," says Peter Love,
Ontario's chief conservation officer. "We've had 10 months." 

Energy Minister Donna Cansfield insists the province now has
plans and targets even more ambitious than the Golden State's.
But we're starting well behind, she notes. California had to
create a "culture of conservation ... . It didn't happen
overnight."

Ontario is "virtually following in the same template," copying
appliance standards and spending more, relative to its
population, on conservation and efficiency. "Come back in 15
years: We'll be in the same place."

Three of California's senior energy officials were in Toronto
last week to explain to Cansfield, her bureaucrats, and a public
meeting what's been done.

Their main message was simple: Instead of leaping to build new
generating stations out of fear we face an electricity crisis,
Ontario should take a deep breath, calm down, and look at all
the options.

"Everyone is in a rush to make a decision, and I don't think
there's a big hurry," says Arthur Rosenfeld, one of five members
of the California Energy Commission, that state's main energy
planning and policy body. "You need to take time to get it
right."

Despite Cansfield's enthusiasm, and some recent moves in the new
direction, Ontario is embroiled in a tug of war between those
who prefer the traditional approach  build big new, mostly
nuclear, power plants  and others who push as hard as possible
for conservation, efficiency and alternative sources of energy.

In California, that debate is over.

"It's no longer controversial," says Steven McCarty, director of
demand-side resources at Pacific Gas and Electric Co., one of
the four big privately owned power utilities that, combined,
serve 80 per cent of the state. "It's the cheapest, fastest and
cleanest resource, and it's very reliable. It's now part of what
our customers expect from us."

The move to efficiency and alternatives has survived both
Republican and Democratic state governments. It faltered, then,
picked up steam during the crisis caused by an ill-advised
attempt at electricity deregulation six years ago. Rising prices
have given it new urgency.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, unlike other Republican leaders
in the White House and elsewhere, is an efficiency advocate. "He
legitimizes it," says John White, executive director of the
Centre for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, a lobby
group based in Sacramento. "This is his legacy." Most business
people are onside. Homeowners over-subscribe to most
conservation programs. The power companies often exceed their
targets.

The state hasn't achieved a miracle, and its experience does
offer some ammunition to those who argue Ontario must build new
power plants.

California's total appetite for electricity continues to rise.
New generating stations are needed  an estimated 24,000
megawatts by 2016  to replace aging sources and handle growth.
Thanks in part to price disputes between generators and
distributors, construction lags demand. And regulations only
cover the big privately owned utilities. Small private companies
and the two main municipally run systems haven't yet been
brought in, and their performances vary widely.

While standards for new buildings and appliances are "the best
they can be," White says, not enough is being done to upgrade
those that already exist.

California isn't resting on its laurels: The so-called "advanced
meters" are among several new measures intended to actually
reduce per capita consumption by half a per cent each year, and
cut peak demand at double that rate.

But even if that's accomplished, demand will still grow by about
0.65 per cent a year in the state. That's about twice the rate
the Ontario Power Authority forecasts in the "supply mix" report
it issued in December, if the province meets conservation
targets.

"Despite improvements in power plant licensing, enormously
successful energy efficiency programs and continued
technological advances, development of new energy supplies is
not keeping pace with the state's growing demand," an energy
commission report said last November.

California's per capita consumption of electricity is about
7,300 kilowatt hours a year. The U.S. rate is above 12,000.
Ontario's is more than 11,000. 

The state and province aren't exactly comparable. Ontario has
steel mills, pulp and paper and other power-hungry industries.
It is far bigger than California, with more hard-to-reach
consumers. And, since electricity prices here are only about
half California's average of about 13.5 cents per kilowatt-hour
 the amount of power needed to run ten 100-watt light bulbs for
an hour  the potential savings aren't yet as big.

So it's unlikely Ontario could get consumption down to
California's level  a feat that would make any notion of a
supply crunch a distant memory.

Still, California does demonstrate the potential of a different
approach that could, at least, ease the sense of crisis being
created over Ontario's plan to close its polluting coal-fuelled
generating stations and the power authority's recommendation for
$40 billion or more worth of new nuclear plants.

"A lot of the things they've done, we haven't done yet," says
John Bennett, of the Sierra Club of Canada. "If we do what
they've done, we can forestall construction of new power plants."

The state was initially motivated by soaring prices, as the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries slashed its oil
production in 1973. Environmental concerns were added to the
mix. Now, a combination of costs and shortages in conventional
supplies have convinced Californians that the new way is simply
good business. For one thing, Rosenfeld says, efficiency costs
less than one-third as much as new supply. It also creates a lot
of jobs.

The state has two nuclear plants, but since 1976 has banned
construction of more until the U.S. government finds a way to
safely handle their radioactive waste. That's nowhere in sight,
White says. Coal is burned, but new generation will only be
allowed in "clean" power plants, with systems to capture and
store emissions that contribute to pollution and global warming.
That, too, is a long way off.

The good hydroelectric sites have been developed, natural gas is
increasingly expensive, and imports  now about 20 per cent of
the total supply  are getting less reliable.

With all these incentives and restrictions, California:

Requires its power companies to look at conservation and
efficiency measures before anything else when they seek to
balance electricity demand and supply. When they must generate
more, their top choices have to be solar, wind, hydro or other
renewable resources, and they must favour small-scale
generation, close to consumers, ahead of major power plants.

Turns on its head the traditional idea that power company
profits increase as sales and revenues rise. Now, the companies
can raise their rates if their sales drop. That's good for
shareholders. Consumers benefit, too: Since they buy less power,
their total bill goes down. 

Adds a "public goods charge" of about 3 per cent to electricity
rates to help the power companies pay for conservation,
efficiency, renewable sources and other programs. That includes
a wide array of incentives for homeowners and businesses.
Spending from that fund totals $2 billion (U.S.). Savings to
consumers are estimated at $3 billion. These programs have
achieved about half the total reduction in energy demand. The
rest is split equally between state-imposed efficiency standards
for appliances and equipment  which generally lead the rest of
North America  and tough building codes.

The companies are doing even more than the surcharge allows
because they see efficiency as a supply alternative, not just an
obligation, White says. 

Measures the impact of every program. Regulators reward how much
energy is saved, not how much money has been spent. "There are
no reports in Ontario about what's being saved," says Mike
Messenger, a project manager with the energy commission. "We
offered to help them with some of the systems we've set up."

Appliance standards are increasingly strict. Refrigerators now
use one-quarter as much electricity as those built 30 years ago.
Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs will supplant
century-old incandescent technology. 

Nothing is beyond notice: Standby power on computers, TVs,
garage-door openers and other "instant-on" devices each require
three to five watts of power. Individually, that's small, but,
increasingly, all those small loads add up to a lot. So,
starting this year, at a cost of no more than 30 cents each, new
models will be limited to no more than half a watt.

High-efficiency traffic lights are being installed everywhere,
and street lamps are being redesigned to ensure light isn't
wasted shining upward.

Solar water heating, and geothermal units  which carry heat to
and from underground pipes  are being installed in many new
homes.

Building owners with flat roofs are encouraged to paint them
white, to reflect heat. 

On top of that, California aims to get one-third of its
electricity supply from renewable sources by 2020. It's now at
about 12 per cent.

It will also replace one major wind farm and build two others. 

By law, 3,000 megawatts of solar panels are to be installed on
residential and commercial roofs by 2014. (Canada's total solar
production now is one megawatt.) Last year, the first of the
program, one-third of the cost was subsidized. The support is to
drop a little each year, as the equipment is expected to get
cheaper. 

Work is underway on "big solar"  giant networks of pipes filled
with a liquid that's heated by the sun, then creates steam to
run generators. 

All this, White says, is a product of necessity and common
sense. But California's culture also plays a part. "We're proud
of what we are, that we're different. We don't want to wait for
Washington to act. The voters expect us to lead in this area, so
we're trying."

Cansfield wants Ontario to adopt that kind of attitude, along
with some of California's programs. The aim, she says, is for
people to realize that it's not just "a nice thing to do. It's
something we must do."

Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of
*****************************************************************
 21 London Times: Nuclear arms safety

The Sunday Times        March 26, 2006

THE chairmen of CND and the British Pugwash Group assert that 
reviewing our nuclear deterrent after Trident would break the 
non-proliferation treaty, but as always it is quoted selectively 
(Letters, last week).

Article VI of the NPT commits the signatories "to pursue 
negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the 
cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date, and to 
nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete 
disarmament under strict and effective international control". 
Only the first provision is time-limited - and Britain, by 
following a policy of minimum strategic deterrence, has never 
been involved in a nuclear arms race. The rest of the article 
commits us to the creation of a world free both of nuclear 
weapons and of conventional weapons as well - an aspiration many 
would regard as utopian.

There is nothing requiring us to achieve a nuclear-free world 
prior to achieving an arms-free world too. This is just as well, 
as to achieve the one without achieving the other would simply 
make the world safe once again for conventional war between the 
major powers.

Dr Julian Lewis MP
Shadow Defence Minister
House of Commons, London 

The Times and The Sunday Times. 

*****************************************************************
 22 Times of India: 'Lot depends on India nuclear bill'

 Sunday, March 26, 2006 04:22:00 pmIANS ]

CHICAGO: The outcome of a bill to amend US laws to facilitate
the civil nuclear energy deal with India will have a
considerable impact on bilateral ties one way or the other,
India's Ambassador Ronen Sen said. 

"A negative outcome will have a ripple effect (on bilateral
relations) which may not be easy to contain. On the other hand a
positive outcome will help relations continue its upward
trajectory," Sen told an audience of select Indian American
leaders who command influence with US lawmakers. 

The ambassador was referring to the bill that is now in Congress
and Senate aimed at amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1959 in
order to exempt India from the nuclear technology export
restrictions. 

Since India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), US law forbids export of nuclear technology or
fuel to the country. 

 Sen's visit was part of his exercise to interact with Indian 
Americans to explain to them the broad contours of the bilateral 
agreement that was signed during President George W Bush's visit 
to India March 1-3.

Taking care not to cross the diplomatic line by asking Indian 
Americans to lobby with Congress and Senate members on behalf of 
the Indian government, Sen spoke in terms of the larger bilateral 
and global gains expected out of the nuclear deal.

He said the nuclear deal, quite like cooperation in other areas, 
was founded on the principle that it would be beneficial to both 
the US and India as well as the rest of the world.

Responding to a suggestion by one of the Indian Americans that 
perhaps India should consider signing the NPT as long as it was 
changed to addresses its concern, Sen categorically rejected it. 
"We will not sign the NPT unless it is amended to include India 
as a nuclear weapons state," he said.

"India was the first country to call for a comprehensive test ban 
and ask for stop to proliferation as well as call for an export 
control regime which is more stringent than the NPT," he said. He 
emphasised that India's track record was "as good, if not better 
than, as members of the Nuclear Supply Group (NSG)".

On the question of how Congressional and Senate leaders view the 
current deal, he said "it would be tragic if this is seen as a 
partisan issue". In the same breath he said categorically there 
was no question of any modification to the deal.


Copyright Š2006Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For
*****************************************************************
 23 Indiatimes: Irrelevance of Indo-US nuclear pact

>The Economic Times>                                                                                        Editorial>
											Article   
EDITORIAL
    

 MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2006 12:28:36 AM]   

  Russia's willingness to supply fuel for Tarapur lends weight
to the proposition that the Indo-US nuclear deal strengthens
political ties rather than India's nuclear programme, says B C
Gopal. 

The announcement by India and Russia that the latter is willing
to provide fuel for Tarapur under the safety exemption clause of
the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines, similar to the
last shipment by Russia in 2000, requires a re-examination of
the costs and benefits of the recent Indo-US clear agreement. 

According to reports, Tarapur has sufficient fuel in stock now
to operate unit-1 for six months and unit-2 for 18 months. With
the fresh stock of fuel Tarapur will be able to generate
electricity well into the middle of next decade. With this,
Tarapur will be oldest nuclear power generating station in the
world. It is, therefore, unlikely that it will be operational
beyond the current phase and may not need any more fresh stocks
of fuel. 

 Sen's visit was part of his exercise to interact with Indian 
Americans to explain to them the broad contours of the bilateral 
agreement that was signed during President George W Bush's visit 
to India March 1-3.

Taking care not to cross the diplomatic line by asking Indian 
Americans to lobby with Congress and Senate members on behalf of 
the Indian government, Sen spoke in terms of the larger bilateral 
and global gains expected out of the nuclear deal.

He said the nuclear deal, quite like cooperation in other areas, 
was founded on the principle that it would be beneficial to both 
the US and India as well as the rest of the world.

Responding to a suggestion by one of the Indian Americans that 
perhaps India should consider signing the NPT as long as it was 
changed to addresses its concern, Sen categorically rejected it. 
"We will not sign the NPT unless it is amended to include India 
as a nuclear weapons state," he said.

"India was the first country to call for a comprehensive test ban 
and ask for stop to proliferation as well as call for an export 
control regime which is more stringent than the NPT," he said. He 
emphasised that India's track record was "as good, if not better 
than, as members of the Nuclear Supply Group (NSG)".

On the question of how Congressional and Senate leaders view the 
current deal, he said "it would be tragic if this is seen as a 
partisan issue". In the same breath he said categorically there 
was no question of any modification to the deal.

 According to a recent DAE study, nuclear power capacity will be 
29,460 MWe by 2022. Of this, 18,460 MWe will be based on PHWRs, 
AHWRs (Advanced Heavy Water Reactors) and FBRs (Fast Breeder 
Reactors) based on plutonium from PHWRs, 8,000 MWe from imported 
LWRs (Light Water Reactors) and 3,000 MWe from FBRs based on 
plutonium from imported LWRs. Of this 2,000 MWe is already 
accounted for by Koodankulum. As for plutonium from imported 
reactors, it's uncertain if India will be allowed to reprocess 
the spent fuel from these reactors. This renders the 3,000 MWe 
based on plutonium from imported reactors uncertain. Thus even 
with the Indo-US pact in place, the most optimistic projection 
for nuclear power capacity by 2022 will be only 26,460 MWe.

By 2032 the situation turns even more in favour of indigenous 
resources. The generating capacity (without access to plutonium 
from imported reactors) would be 52,900 MWe, of which 44,970 MWe 
would be from domestic resources. This means that, accounting for 
Koodankulam's 2,000 MWe, addition of only 6,000 MWe in a total of 
52,900 MWe as a result of the Indo-US pact! That is, with DAE 
assuring the nation of its global leadership in fast breeder 
reactors, there is no need for India to rely on any imports of 
reactors in the long run. In the short run, they will not be 
available in any case. The importance of the Indo-US nuclear deal 
lies only in the addition of a couple of thousand MWe in the 
medium term.

Thus, in so far as electric power generation is concerned, the 
Indo-US nuclear agreement is not important. The political 
significance of the deal is far greater. But, paradoxically, this 
has been given the least consideration by the political 
leadership, although it has not been lost in the US. There is 
enough evidence to substantiate this. First of all no political 
party leadership in India - other than the prime minister and 
few, if any, of his Cabinet colleagues - have come out openly in 
support of this agreement. 

 Secondly, and more importantly, major political parties have, in 
fact, opposed the agreement, citing national security 
considerations. Indeed, far from appreciating the political 
fallout of this agreement, the political parties suspect the 
motives of US and are fearful of the political consequences. 
Thirdly, even the committed political leadership had surrendered 
the negotiations to the DAE, particularly on the civil-military 
separation plan. In fact, a newspaper quoted Mr T A K Nair, 
principal secretary to the PM, saying that Dr Kakodkar always had 
the "veto."

Many more problems are likely to arise in the coming months. The 
safeguards agreement and the additional protocol have to be 
negotiated. Conditions on fuel supply and reprocessing of spent 
fuel are likely to bring fresh problems. In all these the DAE 
will undoubtedly insist on a minimalist approach resulting in 
further strains in the negotiations. It is unlikely that the US 
would give in to all of DAE's demands, especially given Bush's 
domestic political handicaps. All these are likely to result in 
the US Congress imposing conditions on the Indo-US nuclear 
cooperation agreement, which, in turn, will result in the Indian 
political class charging the US of bad faith.

Is all this necessary? It would seem not. Analysts in both 
countries reckon that Indo-US relations would improve 
irrespective of the nuclear agreement. The economic relations are 
independent of government actions. They are dictated by 
commercial, financial and market considerations. If the Indian 
economy maintains its growth rate and the reforms, economic 
interactions between the two countries will continue to grow. 
Political relations will also improve. There are many positive 
aspects, such as shared democratic values, the multi-ethnicity of 
the two societies and the increasing political and economic 
presence of the Indian diaspora in the US, all of which will only 
contribute to better relations.

At the same time, not proceeding with the agreement will assure 
all those who have been concerned about its implications on 
India's national security that it has not been compromised. The 
DAE, which has all along been a reluctant partner, can now be 
assured that its R &D will not be affected and let it prove its 
claims by achieving nuclear power generation targets.
  
  
Copyright Šnbsp2006Times Internet Limited. All rights
*****************************************************************
 24 Sunday Herald: The man who keeps Britains nuclear deterrent ship-shape -

  By Valerie Darroch 
 
 AS you enter the heavily-guarded gates of the Faslane naval
base on the eastern shores of Gare Loch, a long black shape
looms into view in the dock.

Sleek as a dolphin, huge as a whale, the 150 metre-long Vanguard
sub marine, armed with 16 Trident missiles, is one of four which
form Britains nuclear deterrent.

Each missile is 44ft long, weighs 130,000lb and is capable of
deploying multiple warheads. Its 135-strong crew will spend
three months at sea at a stretch, ready to strike at any time.

Sailors sit nonchalantly on the nose of the sub, watching as
John Howie, managing director of Babcock Naval Services (BNS),
and the highest ranking civilian on the base, tries to get
clearance for his guests to take a closer look. 

He fails, and retreats with his guests to a vantage point behind
a high fence topped with barbed wire. At least you can see we
take security seriously around here, says Howie, who oversees
contracts worth more than Ł800 million to provide support and
maintenance services on the base for the Ministry of Defence
(MoD). There is always one (Vanguard sub) in deep maintenance
and there are always two at sea  submerged, silent and
invisible, says the man who is the driving force behind BNS
winning an initial Ł400m five-year contract to manage all
submarine and surface ship maintenance on the base in 2002.

The contract was the first of its kind between the MoD and the
private sector, and was introduced in an attempt to reduce costs
at the Faslane site and the neighbouring naval site at Coulport. 

BNS is part of Babcock International whose shares shot up last
week on news that BAe Systems (owner of the Scotstoun and Govan
shipyards) is talking to VT Group (which has a shipyard in
Portsmouth) about a potential joint bid for Babcock. The MoD has
been pushing for consolidation of defence suppliers in efforts
to cut procurement costs. 

Howie commented: The MoDs new Defence Industrial Strategy means
all the key defence suppliers have to see how they can work
together to take a share of a smaller cake.

We were required to deliver cost savings of Ł75m cumulatively 
Were on target to deliver Ł90m and weve achieved all of our
first five year indicators three years into the contract, Howie
says. He stresses that cost savings have not resulted in a
compromise on safety issues. Our key performance indicators show
that the costs savings did not adversely affect safety or
operational performance, he adds.

The MoD awarded BNS an extension to the contract, 18 months
ahead of schedule, until the end of March 2013. 

BNS has also just won another MoD contract in partnership with
Devonport Management Ltd (DML) to maintain the Trafalgar class
nuclear-powered sub HMS Torbay. The MoD said its aim was to
demonstrate that co-operation can deliver reduced maintenance
timescales and better value for money.

As well as the four Vanguard subs, which will reach the end of
their life cycle in 2020, the base is home to three
nuclear-powered Swiftsure class hunter-killers carrying Tomahawk
cruise missiles and eight Sandown class mine hunters (nicknamed
Tupperware boats because they are made of glass reinforced
plastic) .

BNS also has responsibility for all ancillary services at the
base, from logistics to facilities management, and Howie is in
charge of 1485 staff, including 214 seconded from the Royal Navy
and 51 from the MoD.

From Howies office you see a mix of men in suits, boiler suits
and naval uniforms pass by, a reminder that naval officers are
reporting to a man without stripes on his arm, perhaps for the
first time in their careers (Some of them also report to a woman
for the first time as the base commander is Commodore Carolyn
Stait, the highest-ranking female in the Royal Navy and the
first woman to command a base). 

Howie admits the job presented a management challenge but he
could not wait to start. The biggest thing I faced was cultural
change, meshing Navy and civilian cultures. The hardest thing is
that a group of people were forcibly transferred to Babcock so
winning hearts and minds was and remains the biggest challenge,
Howie says.

He inherited a bureaucratic system with seven management layers
and stripped out three, saving money by streamlining processes
and renegotiating subcontracting deals. He is in the process
making a further 60 people redundant. Organisational change is
my big hot button. I kept asking the five why questions  why,
why, why, why, why?, Howie says.

We dont do anything twice. We have introduced single systems for
health and safety, a single vision and single management board,
he says.

Howie says civilian staff used to focus more on infrastructure
issues. The focus for everyone now is on serving the ships and
subs. Without them you might as well flatten the buildings and
build a fairground, he says. Im passionate about partnering. Ive
never been comfortable with the baseball bats at dawn approach,
he says.

He says that 85% of cultural change programmes fail because
management fail to address soft issues such as peoples beliefs,
and he brought in a team of industrial psychologists who used
methods used in bereavement counselling to help staff cope with
the changes. The emotional process of denial, depression and
acceptance is the same as in bereavement, he says.

Did he think twice about taking a job which involves tackling
tough security issues and fielding politically sensitive
questions on Britains nuclear arms policy? No, he replies
instantly. I think people should say Wow when I say what I do
and when I tell them that the Clyde naval base puts Ł280m into
the Scottish economy every year  and Ł180m of that is spent in
the local community, Howie adds.

Im fascinated by this place and I still find it deeply, deeply
exciting, he says, adding that he has been at sea in one of the
subs, though only on a short trip. 

People imagine its like the U-boats in the old war movies. Its
more like Star Trek because of the advanced weapons systems.

As for the peace protestors (their ranks have dwindled but their
numbers are swelled periodically by regular demonstrators,
including MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Rosie Kane), Howie is adamant
the relationship with base staff is a civilised one.

They are entitled to exercise their democratic right to protest.
Having someone who constantly causes you to challenge security
arrangements is not a bad thing, he says, adding that the Royal
Marines are the last line of defence in incidences of security
breaches. They have a policy of Final Denial, he says.

Political debate has begun on a successor to Trident. Labour has
said it is committed to keeping Britains nuclear deterrent and
will decide on a replacement before the next election, but the
MoD is already investing heavily in the Faslane base, including
a new Ł125m accommodation unit for the 2500 sailors on the base. 

Although the Trident debate continues, Howie says he is
confident that Faslane will continue to be an important MoD base
for the next 30 years. 
26 March 2006 

 Š newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved 			 		
*****************************************************************
 25 Xinhua: Arab FMs demands Israeli nuclear facilities be inspected   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-25 21:03:33   

    Khartoum, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Arab foreign ministers, 
gathering here Saturday to prepare for an upcoming Arab 
summit,demanded that Israeli nuclear facilities should be 
inspected.Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol made the remarks, 
while addressing the opening session of the ministerial meeting 
after assuming the chairmanship of the Ministerial Council. 

    He told the session that the Jewish state should sign the
international treaties banning nuclear weapons and other weapons
of mass destruction. 

    "The international society should exert pressures on Israel
for this purpose," Lam Akol said. 

    "We must make the Middle East to be a region free of nuclear
weapons, and we call on the international society to refrain
from observing double standard in treating the issue of nuclear
weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction," urged the
Sudanese official. 

    Announcing his council's condemnation for all forms of
terrorism, Lam Akol underlined that the terrorism had
constituted a dangerous threat for the security and stability of
the region and had caused damage to the economic and social
development as well as civilians' life. 

    "Besides our condemnation for the terrorism, we must affirm
the necessity to distinguish the terrorism from the legal right
of resisting the occupation," he added. 

    The Sudanese official, meanwhile, reiterated his
government's commitment to find a comprehensive and just
settlement to the crisis in the country's western Darfur region. 

    Praising other Arab states for their support of Sudan's
position rejecting the deployment of international forces in
Darfur, Lam Akol suggested that Arab forces could be sent to
Darfur in order to thwart any attempt of deploying international
forces in the restive area. 

    He called on Arab countries to provide necessary material
assistance for the 7800-strong African forces monitoring the
implementation of a 2004 ceasefire accord in Darfur. Enditem   

Editor: Yang Li   

  Copyright Š2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 26 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: UK's nuclear deterrent, a myth 

2006/03/25   
  
  
London, March 25 - Britain is not a true nuclear power that can
make their own nuclear weapons but are "mere clients of the US,"
according to defence analyst Dan Plesch. 

"The independent British nuclear deterrent is a myth - whatever
else it may be, it is not independent," said the research
associate of the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy
of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. 

At a time when the UK is debating whether to upgrade its trident
nuclear system, he said the reality "renders meaningless the
government's suggestion that it is time to renew `our' nuclear
arsenal." 

In an article for the new statesman, Plesch said that supporters
of Britain's having a new generation of its own bombs the
decades was "nonsense." 

"Declassified national security directives uncovered in the
archives of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush
Sr leave no doubt about this dependency," he said. 

The defence analyst referred to documents obtained by the
natural resources defence council in the US showing that "for 45
years the UK has been given blueprints of many US weapons to
help build bombs for royal navy missile submarines and raf
bombers." 

"For decades, too, all British nuclear testing was done in the
US, and access to the Nevada test site is still essential to the
UK program," he said. 

Britain's factory at Aldermaston in west of London that makes
the bombs was said to use US equipment and was actually
co-managed by the Lockheed Martin Corporation of Bethesda,
Maryland. 

Even the submarine maintenance base in Plymouth, on the
south-coast of England, "is largely the property of Dick
Cheney's old firm, Halliburton." 

As for whether Britain could fire a trident missile if the US
objected, Plesch said the prime minister would be "trying to
find a radio that was not jammed, hoping that none of the
software had a worm and that the US navy wouldn't shoot the
missiles down." 

He further suggested that if Britain had not joined the invasion
of Iraq, then UK's mutual defence agreement with the US may not
have been renewed for another 10 years in 2004.   

All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
*****************************************************************
 27 	 	 	 	 	 		
+  
                  Secondly, and more importantly, major political 
parties have, in fact, opposed the agreement, citing national 
security considerations. Indeed, far from appreciating the 
political fallout of this agreement, the political parties 
suspect the motives of US and are fearful of the political 
consequences. Thirdly, even the committed political leadership 
had surrendered the negotiations to the DAE, particularly on the 
civil-military separation plan. In fact, a newspaper quoted Mr T 
A K Nair, principal secretary to the PM, saying that Dr Kakodkar 
always had the "veto."

Many more problems are likely to arise in the coming months. The 
safeguards agreement and the additional protocol have to be 
negotiated. Conditions on fuel supply and reprocessing of spent 
fuel are likely to bring fresh problems. In all these the DAE 
will undoubtedly insist on a minimalist approach resulting in 
further strains in the negotiations. It is unlikely that the US 
would give in to all of DAE's demands, especially given Bush's 
domestic political handicaps. All these are likely to result in 
the US Congress imposing conditions on the Indo-US nuclear 
cooperation agreement, which, in turn, will result in the Indian 
political class charging the US of bad faith.

Is all this necessary? It would seem not. Analysts in both 
countries reckon that Indo-US relations would improve 
irrespective of the nuclear agreement. The economic relations are 
independent of government actions. They are dictated by 
commercial, financial and market considerations. If the Indian 
economy maintains its growth rate and the reforms, economic 
interactions between the two countries will continue to grow. 
Political relations will also improve. There are many positive 
aspects, such as shared democratic values, the multi-ethnicity of 
the two societies and the increasing political and economic 
presence of the Indian diaspora in the US, all of which will only 
contribute to better relations.

At the same time, not proceeding with the agreement will assure 
all those who have been concerned about its implications on 
India's national security that it has not been compromised. The 
DAE, which has all along been a reluctant partner, can now be 
assured that its R &D will not be affected and let it prove its 
claims by achieving nuclear power generation targets. Secondly, 
and more importantly, major political parties have, in fact, 
opposed the agreement, citing national security considerations. 
Indeed, far from appreciating the political fallout of this 
agreement, the political parties suspect the motives of US and 
are fearful of the political consequences. Thirdly, even the 
committed political leadership had surrendered the negotiations 
to the DAE, particularly on the civil-military separation plan. 
In fact, a newspaper quoted Mr T A K Nair, principal secretary to 
the PM, saying that Dr Kakodkar always had the "veto."

Many more problems are likely to arise in the coming months. The 
safeguards agreement and the additional protocol have to be 
negotiated. Conditions on fuel supply and reprocessing of spent 
fuel are likely to bring fresh problems. In all these the DAE 
will undoubtedly insist on a minimalist approach resulting in 
further strains in the negotiations. It is unlikely that the US 
would give in to all of DAE's demands, especially given Bush's 
domestic political handicaps. All these are likely to result in 
the US Congress imposing conditions on the Indo-US nuclear 
cooperation agreement, which, in turn, will result in the Indian 
political class charging the US of bad faith.

Is all this necessary? It would seem not. Analysts in both 
countries reckon that Indo-US relations would improve 
irrespective of the nuclear agreement. The economic relations are 
independent of government actions. They are dictated by 
commercial, financial and market considerations. If the Indian 
economy maintains its growth rate and the reforms, economic 
interactions between the two countries will continue to grow. 
Political relations will also improve. There are many positive 
aspects, such as shared democratic values, the multi-ethnicity of 
the two societies and the increasing political and economic 
presence of the Indian diaspora in the US, all of which will only 
contribute to better relations.

At the same time, not proceeding with the agreement will assure 
all those who have been concerned about its implications on 
India's national security that it has not been compromised. The 
DAE, which has all along been a reluctant partner, can now be 
assured that its R &D will not be affected and let it prove its 
claims by achieving nuclear power generation targets.

Additional tritium suits filed

Herald Writer

 CHICAGO  Twenty-three individual families are suing Exelon
Nuclear in two separate lawsuits over the utilitys series of
tritium-laced water leaks at Braidwood Generating Station at
Braceville.

The lawsuits are separate and apart from the class-action
lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Chicago on behalf of
14,000 residents within a 10-mile radius of Braidwood Station,
noted attorney Todd A. Smith, partner in Power Rogers &Smith of
Chicago.

This lawsuit also is separate from the civil lawsuit filed a
week ago in federal court in Chicago by Illinois Attorney
General Lisa Madigan and Will County States Attorney James
Glasgow, said Smith, who filed the second of his two lawsuits
Thursday in Will County Circuit Court in Joliet.

Smith said today the 23 families in his two cases are not
involved in the class-action lawsuit by the McKeown Law Firm of
Joliet.

He said his cases were filed because of the significant loss of
property value he believes the plaintiffs have incurred by way
of the series of tritiated water leaks at Braidwood Station.

The leaks began in 1996, but were not made public by the utility
until December of last year.

We think its pretty clear theres been a significant
diminution of property values in the area by the negligence of
Exelon  not once, not twice, but multiple times, and now its
all coming to light, he said.

So many in the community and beyond struggle to have any
confidence at all in the things told to them about whats going
on there, and the ability of Exelon to even deal with the
methods in which they handle radioactive waste like this.

Its troubling that, even last week, the open container spilled
over from wind blowing and such, he added. Its just one thing
after the other.

His reference was to the March 13 incident in which about 200
gallons of tritiated water escaped from the temporary tank yard
at Braidwood Station. The incident happened after strong winds
apparently blew down a section of the foot-high concrete wall
surrounding the vessels containing tritiated water.

In previous incidents, about six million gallons of tritiated
water seeped into the groundwater from a 4.5-mile long
underground blow down discharge pipe leading from the plant to
the Kankakee River. The pipe is in the Smiley Road area, where a
number of homes are located.

Tritium is a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen that emits
a very low level of radiation, and is found in more concentrated
levels near nuclear generating stations.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have gone on record as
saying the incidents are not a public health and safety concern.

Smith said no hearing dates have yet been set on either of his
two cases, especially in that the second lawsuit was filed only
Thursday.

I imagine eventually the two will be consolidated in some
fashion, at least for discovery purposes, he said. Thats also
an efficiency for the citizens to be consolidated like this,
although this is not a class-action case.

Its more efficient to pursue this as kind of a larger group,
but still being recognized individually on their damages.

Smith said it is his frank belief the class action lawsuit by
the McKeown firm was not well founded.

You dont want to dump people who have individual cases into a
class action. Class actions are for people who are suffering
common damages, he said.

Here you have people who have property of varying sizes,
various development levels, so each case is going to have to be
taken on its own merits, as opposed to a typical class action in
which everyone generally has suffered damage.

We believe the class action route for citizens of the area is
the wrong way to go, he added. Thats important to get out so
people have an understanding of whats the better way to go.

Madigan and Glasgow filed action in their lawsuit that only they
can do under certain statutes, Smith noted.

They are the ones who are entitled and given the responsibility
for pursuing the kinds of fines Glasgow mentioned in what I read
(about the case), he said. This is wherefore the days beyond
which the condition continues, each day is a separate fine, as I
understand it.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Thursday by Smith are Martin
Devine, Susan Devine, Jay Faletti, Steven Flynn, Walter Hess,
Alycia Hess, Bernadine Hess, Robert Jones, Three B Investors,
Kenneth Kapke, Susan Kapke, James Mikel Sr., Doris Mikel, Philip
Milburn, Susan Ourado, Robert Scamen, Nancy Scamen, Mary
Williams, Kenneth Banderman, and Charles E Wren.

Plaintiffs in the suit filed last week by Smith are Michael D.
Sheck and Wendy Sheck, James Annis and Christine Annis, Dwayne
Bawcum, 

Terry Chastain and Colleen Chastain, Vincent DeSalvo and Judith
DeSalvo, Harold Gonis and Kathleen Gonis, Lowell Lide, Gerry
Sikic, Vivian Fisher, Thomas Zimmer and Judith Zimmer and John
Zubik.

   Morris Daily Herald  1804 N. Division St.  Morris, Illinois 
60450 (815) 942-3221  (800) 215-9778 Software Š 1998-2006 , All 
Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 28 Nuclear Reactors Found to Be Leaking Radioactive Water
 
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:01:43 -0600 (CST)

    The New York Times

    Friday 17 March 2006

[IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

Illinois officials stood Thursday by a map that showed an underground
pipeline believed to be leaking at the Braidwood Generating Station.
(Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP)

    Washington - With power cleaner than coal and cheaper than natural
gas, the nuclear industry, 20 years past its last meltdown, thinks it is
ready for its second act: its first new reactor orders since the 1970's.

    But there is a catch. The public's acceptance of new reactors depends
in part on the performance of the old ones, and lately several of those
have been discovered to be leaking radioactive water into the ground.

    Near Braceville, Ill., the Braidwood Generating Station, owned by the
Exelon Corporation, has leaked tritium into underground water that has
shown up in the well of a family nearby. The company, which has bought
out one property owner and is negotiating with others, has offered to
help pay for a municipal water system for houses near the plant that have
private wells.

    In a survey of all 10 of its nuclear plants, Exelon found tritium in
the ground at two others. On Tuesday, it said it had had another spill at
Braidwood, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, and on Thursday, the
attorney general of Illinois announced she was filing a lawsuit against
the company over that leak and five earlier ones, dating to 1996. The
suit demands among other things that the utility provide substitute water
supplies to residents.

    In New York, at the Indian Point 2 reactor in Buchanan, workers
digging a foundation adjacent to the plant's spent fuel pool found wet
dirt, an indication that the pool was leaking. New monitoring wells are
tracing the tritium's progress toward the Hudson River.

    Indian Point officials say the quantities are tiny, compared with the
amount of tritium that Indian Point is legally allowed to release into
the river. Officials said they planned to find out how much was leaking
and declare the leak a "monitored release pathway."

    Nils J. Diaz, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said
he would withhold judgment on the proposal until after it reached his
agency, but he added, "They're going to have to fix it."

    This month, workers at the Palo Verde plant in New Mexico found
tritium in an underground pipe vault.

    The Union of Concerned Scientists, which is critical of nuclear power
safety arrangements, said recently that in the past 10 years, tritium had
leaked from at least seven reactors. It called for a systematic program
to ensure there were no more leaks.

    Tami Branum, who lives close to the Braidwood reactor and owns
property in the nearby village of Godley, said in a telephone interview,
"It's just absolutely horrible, what we're trying to deal with here." Ms.
Branum and her children, 17-year-old twin girls and a 7-year-old boy,
drink only bottled water, she said, but use municipal water for
everything else. "We're bathing in it, there's no way around it," she
said.

    Ms. Branum said that her property in Godley was worth about $50,000
and that she wanted to sell it, but that no property was changing hands
now because of the spill.

    A spokesman for Exelon, Craig Nesbit, said that neither Godley's
water nor Braidwood's water system was threatened, but that the company
had lost credibility when it did not publicly disclose a huge fuel oil
spill and spills of tritium from 1996 to 2003. No well outside company
property shows levels that exceed drinking water standards, he said.

    Mr. Diaz of the regulatory agency, speaking to a gathering of about
1,800 industry executives and government regulators last week, said
utilities were planning to apply for 11 reactor projects, with a total of
17 reactors. The Palo Verde reactor was the last one that was ordered, in
October 1973, and actually built.

    As the agency prepares to review license applications for the first
time in decades, it is focusing on "materials degradation," a catch-all
term for cracks, rust and other ills to which nuclear plants are
susceptible. The old metal has to hold together, or be patched or
replaced as required, for the industry to have a chance at building new
plants, experts say.

    Tritium, a form of hydrogen with two additional neutrons in its
nucleus, is especially vexing. The atom is unstable and returns to
stability by emitting a radioactive particle. Because the hydrogen is
incorporated into a water molecule, it is almost impossible to filter
out. The biological effect of the radiation is limited because, just like
ordinary water, water that incorporates tritium does not stay in the body
long.

    But it is detectable in tiny quantities, and always makes its source
look bad. The Energy Department closed a research reactor in New York at
its Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, largely because of a
tritium leak.

    And it can catch up to a plant after death; demolition crews at the
Connecticut Yankee reactor in Haddam Neck, Conn., are disposing of extra
dirt that has been contaminated with tritium and other materials, as they
tear the plant down.

    After years of flat employment levels, the industry is preparing to
hire hundreds of new engineers. Luis A. Reyes, the executive director for
operations at the regulatory commission, told the industry gathering last
week, "We'll take your rC)sumC) in hard copy, online, whatever you can
do," eliciting laughter from an audience heavy with executives of reactor
operators and companies that want to build new ones.



 

*****************************************************************
 29 3 Mile Island Documentry On Tuesday March 28th
 
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 23:06:23 -0500


    Tuesday March 28, 2006 marks the  27
anniversary of  the partial  meltdown at TMI.
Please forward this to all lists, media outlets
and interested journalists:


   >"Three Mile Island Revisited," directed by
Steve Jambeck, will be aired on
>Free Speech TV Tuesday at 3 a.m., 6 a.m., 10
a.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 10
>p.m. Free Speech TV broadcasts via the Dish
Satellite Network (Channel
>9415) and on 156 cable TV stations in 33 states
reaching 25 million homes.

For more information visit: www.envirovideo.com
  The award-winning EnviroVideo documentary "Three
Mile Island Revisited"
  will be aired on Free Speech TV through the day
Tuesday, March 28 ---the
  27th anniversary of the major accident at the
nuclear plant in
  Pennsylvania.

  The documentary challenges the claim of the
nuclear industry
  and government that "no one died" as a result of
the core meltdown at Three
  Mile Island. Utilizing the testimony of area
residents and scientific
  findings, it reveals that deaths, especially
from cancer, and birth defects
  in children, were widespread in years following
the accident.

  Indeed, states the documentary's narrator and
writer, Karl Grossman,
  speaking in front of the nuclear facility, the
area around it became a
  "valley of death" following the accident. The
plant's owner quietly
  settled damage cases with persons seriously
impacted by the accident, it
  discloses.

  "Three Mile Island Revisited," directed by Steve
Jambeck, will be aired on
  Free Speech TV Tuesday at 3 a.m., 6 a.m., 10
a.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 10
  p.m. Free Speech TV broadcasts via the Dish
Satellite Network (Channel
  9415) and on 156 cable TV stations in 33 states
reaching 25 million homes.

  For more information visit: www.envirovideo.com

*****************************************************************
 30 Guardian Unlimited: Countries Building, Considering Plants
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday March 25, 2006 6:01 PM

By The Associated Press 

Some countries building or considering new nuclear reactors: 

UNITED STATES: No new reactor has been ordered since 1973. But a
consortum of eight U.S. utilities recently announced potential
sites for new reactors, and President Bush is promoting nuclear
power. The U.S. reactor market could become the world's largest
after China. 

CHINA: The biggest potential nuclear power consumer. Beijing
wants to more than double its nuclear generating capacity by
2020. 

INDIA: Fast growth has pushed it toward nuclear power to meet
energy demands. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac visited
this year and clinched major nuclear energy deals, overlooking
India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

JAPAN: Has the largest reactor fleet in Asia, markets to other
Asian customers, and has a major nuclear reactor maker, Toshiba.
To further reduce dependence on imported oil, Japan is
developing reactors fueled by plutonium instead of enriched
uranium. 

FINLAND: Building the first new reactor in western Europe since
1991, adding to its fleet of four. It's the first country to use
the third-generation nuclear reactors, choosing a model made by
Areva and Germany's Siemens. 

BALTIC STATES: Lithuania is scheduled to shut down its
Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear plant by 2009, but prime ministers
of the three Baltic states now want to build a new one to
protect their vulnerable energy sectors. 

ITALY: Italy gave up nuclear power in a referendum in 1987, a
year after the Chernobyl disaster. It is Europe's largest
importer of electricity - and has its highest electricity bills.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi says he would favor a return to
nuclear energy though the public is opposed. 

BRITAIN: Is closing older reactors but considering building new
ones despite public opposition - and has called in French
experts to consult. It is a major customer for French
electricity. 

NETHERLANDS: Extended the life of its one reactor in 2004. While
previous governments had pledged to phase out nuclear power, the
current conservative leadership says it must reconsider in order
to meet energy demand and environmental targets. 

RUSSIA: Russia is slowly overcoming the public's post-Chernobyl
trauma and launched a new reactor in 2001. It wants to invest
$60 billion in 40 new nuclear power plants over the next 25
years. 

IRAN: Iran has been building a nuclear plant at Bushehr for more
than a decade. The United States and Europe fear Iran is using
the program to develop nuclear weapons and wants it to stop
nuclear activities. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 31 Guardian Unlimited: France Leads New Push for Nuclear Power
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Saturday March 25, 2006 5:46 PM

By ANGELA CHARLTON 

Associated Press Writer 

CHALON-SUR-SAONE, France (AP) - At a factory nestled among
Burgundy vineyards, workers shape, bore, polish and test pieces
needed to put together a nuclear reactor. At each work station,
technical charts are pasted next to a map of the country buying
the product. 

A reactor core marked for the Salem plant in New Jersey is
propped on its side, 16.5 feet wide and resembling a chunk of an
enormous railroad tunnel. Nearby, workers prepare to broach
holes into a plate for 15,000 cooling tubes for a reactor in
Ling'ao, China. 

Twenty years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant coughed a cloud
of radiation over much of Europe and scared consumers and
governments away from atomic power for a generation, a new crop
of leaders, from North America to Europe to Asia, is thinking
nuclear. 

One country has done perhaps the most to push back the pendulum:
France. 

As the only European country that continued making new nuclear
plants after Chernobyl, France has up-to-date expertise that
it's keen to export. And the market is ballooning. 

Oil threatens to become unaffordable, gas pipelines run through
zones of political uncertainty and coal-fired power plants clog
lungs and may overheat the Earth. With energy worries topping
the world's agenda, even a few environmental activists are
reconsidering nuclear power, persuaded by improved safety and
the fear that fossil fuels pose even greater dangers to the
planet. 

China and India are embracing nuclear energy to support
breakneck growth. The United States and Russia are reviving
long-dormant nuclear plans, overriding concerns about
proliferation of the potentially deadly technology. 

Finland is building the first new reactor in western Europe
since 1991, made by Germany's Siemens and Areva, the world's
biggest reactor manufacturer, which operates the factory in
Burgundy. 

Not everyone is softening on nuclear power. Sweden and Germany
are shutting down, not starting up, reactors. But even Britain,
Italy and the Netherlands are talking about the option. So far
it's only talk - but groundbreaking talk, given these countries'
two-decade taboo on the topic. 

``We're positioned rather well for a nuclear renaissance,'' says
Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, an Areva vice president. 

France's key partner in promoting that renaissance is an
unexpected one: the United States. After two decades on the
defensive, the nations' industries are cooperating closely in
hopes of a new boom in nuclear power. 

France is the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, with
59 reactors churning out nearly 80 percent of its electricity.
The French state owns the world's biggest electricity utility,
Electricite de France, or EDF, and nuclear group Areva, the key
to France's international nuclear influence. 

France is selling more than electricity and reactor parts. It's
preaching an updated version of the long-abandoned nuclear idea,
a gospel of emission-free energy to wean nations off foreign
fuel and harness the atom for a peaceful, electrified future. 

Some 25 reactors are under construction around the world, adding
to the network of 440 commercial nuclear power plants spread out
over 31 countries that supply 16 percent of the world's total
electricity. Areva is directly involved in at least five of the
new projects. 

To Helene Gassin of Greenpeace, who has fought France's
all-powerful nuclear industry for years, the thriving, expanding
reactor factory in this modest industrial town is an alarming
sight. 

``Whenever we see an offer on nuclear energy, anywhere in the
world, it comes from France,'' said Gassin. ``Nuclear is the
French identity.'' 

Greenpeace insists that despite the industry's claims, safe
nuclear power is a myth. Reduced consumption, it says, is the
key to solving the world's energy dilemma. 

Unlike other European countries, France has never had intense
debate over nuclear energy. Gassin and the few nuclear opponents
in France's legislature say that's because the industry is run
by a monopoly - EDF - which is in turn run by the state. 

France has also never suffered an accident the likes of
Chernobyl or the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in
Pennsylvania in 1979. 

Greenpeace calls that luck. Besides, say critics, nuclear energy
generates radioactive waste that is costly to store and prone to
theft by terrorists. More than 35 million cubic feet are stored
in France alone. 

London-based energy analyst David Bryant says the French
government has made safety paramount because it's key to keeping
the crucial industry afloat. Now, as more and more governments
join research into the next generation of reactors, the industry
says Generation IV will be the most efficient yet, will produce
less waste and will be simplified to better handle and prevent
accidents. 

France, without oil, gas or much coal, chose the nuclear path in
the 1970s and hasn't turned back. But only in the last few years
has its nuclear industry gone so aggressively global, as Areva's
bulging bank accounts attest. 

The company has become a showcase of French industrial might,
with revenues of $12 billion last year and net profits up 54
percent since 2002, excluding one-time gains. When French
President Jacques Chirac makes major trips abroad, Areva chief
Anne Lauvergeon accompanies him. 

Welding technician Tajeddine Taoufik has watched the
Chalon-Sur-Saone plant's fortunes rise, fall and rise again
since he started here in 1976. ``At this moment, I'm glad I'm
still here,'' he said. 

Taoufik is a veteran among an increasingly young work force.
Areva is basking in the praise of local leaders for boosting
employment, especially among youth, whose 22 percent jobless
rate the government is desperate to reduce. 

While France has been working as the world's atomic advocate,
any global nuclear rebound hinges on the United States, because
it has more nuclear plants than any other country and is the
world's biggest energy consumer. 

The Bush administration has enraged environmental groups with
its new ``alternative energy'' plan which, while promising money
for wind and solar energy, makes the government's first big
pitch for nuclear energy in 27 years. 

Washington and Paris are aligning closely on the subject in a
way few would have pictured during their clashes over Iraq. This
month former U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was appointed
chairman of the board of Areva Inc., the company's U.S.
operation. 

Bush and Chirac both recently visited India and snared major new
nuclear energy deals - and even consulted with each other to
ensure their stances were in sync. 

Critics accuse the presidents of double standards in embracing
India's nuclear power ambitions yet tolerating its nuclear
weapons - while clamping down on Iran. 

A key to the resurgent interest in nuclear power is cost. While
each new reactor costs several hundred million dollars, a
University of Chicago study concluded that a new fleet of more
efficient reactors can be expected to produce power as cheaply
as coal and natural gas. 

France's electricity is among the cheapest in western Europe,
costing $0.11 per kilowatt hour before taxes, below that of
anti-nuclear neighbors Germany ($0.15) and Italy ($0.17),
according to the EU statistics agency. 

The high-profile battle for control of U.S. nuclear company
Westinghouse - which Toshiba recently bought from British
Nuclear Fuels for $5.4 billion, twice the expected price -
underscores the business world's view that the industry is
poised for a takeoff. 

Still, for anti-nuclear activists, the shadow of the world's
worst nuclear accident, the April 26, 1986, explosion at
Chernobyl in then-Soviet Ukraine, will never recede. 

Some, though, have switched sides. 

Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, now says nuclear plants
could safely help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and satisfy
rising energy demand in the United States and abroad. 

The most surprising new nuclear debate, however, is happening
within Europe. While European public opinion remains strongly
anti-nuclear, some governments are hoping that a European Union
proposal to boost nuclear energy will help them overcome the
naysayers. 

The plan's architect? France. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 32 The Observer: Adam Higginbotham: Chernobyl 20 years on
 
Meet the helicopter pilot who spent months flying through 
radioactive dust; the engineer who saw the first three men die; 
the family evacuated with 40 minutes' notice... Two decades after 
the world's worst man-made disaster, Adam Higginbotham enters the 
30km exclusion zone             
 		
Sunday March 26, 2006
The Observer 		
 		
It's late and growing colder; darkness gathers in the stairwell, 
and nothing breaks the silence but the grinding of broken glass 
underfoot. Outside, the February snow has settled deeply around a 
Ferris wheel no one has ever ridden; the clock above the 
municipal swimming pool remains frozen at six minutes to 12.

Long after everyone had left, the streetlights still came on 
every night, and his secret visits to the empty town would 
frighten Valeri Sluckij a little. But now, at 59, he is used to 
it: 'It's hard,' he says. 'I spent the best years of my youth 
here. But you can get used to anything.'

Up on the fourth floor of the building on Stroytely Street, 
Valeri stands in the living room of his old flat, beside the 
gutted carcass of his TV set; the green botanical-print paper 
curls from the walls. On the day they left, Valeri, his wife 
Natalia and their two children were given 40 minutes to pack 
their belongings.

'We thought we were coming back,' he says. 'So we just took a
few things.' They filled five plastic carrier bags with their
papers, Natalia's English textbooks, a few science fiction
novels and a handful of cutlery.

And on the evening of 27 April 1986, Valeri carefully locked the
door of the flat behind him and joined his neighbours on a fleet
of buses that would take them to a small village 70km away. That
night, 21,000 people were evacuated from the town by bus. They
were told they would be back in three days. But nearly 20 years
later, the deserted streets of Pripyat remain at the heart of a
30km exclusion zone, protected by three paramilitary
checkpoints: the most radioactive town on earth.

At 1.23am on 26 April 1986, a series of explosions destroyed
Reactor No 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, three
kilometres from Pripyat in the then Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
Fifty tons of uranium fuel from the reactor core vaporised
immediately, and were blasted high into the atmosphere; a
further 70 tons of uranium and 900 tons of highly radioactive
graphite were dispersed into the area around the reactor,
starting more than 30 fires; the 800 tons of graphite that
remained in the reactor core caught fire at once, creating a
radiological inferno that would burn for 10 days, sending a
continuous plume of lethal radionuclides roiling into the sky.
The Soviet government would wait nearly three full days before
acknowledging that an accident had taken place, and did so only
after the drifting plume set off radiation alarms in a nuclear
plant in Sweden. The contaminants, which included plutonium
isotopes with a halflife of 24,360 years, eventually travelled
around the globe, depositing radioactive material as far away as
the lakes of Japan and the hill farms of north Wales. It was not
merely the most devastating accident in the short life of the
nuclear power industry; it was the greatest man-made disaster in
history.

There were 176 operational staff on duty at the Chernobyl plant
that night, and the subsequent efforts to contain the results of
the disaster would eventually involve more than half a million
men and women. Many of them were subjected to enormous doses of
radiation; some were killed instantly; others died agonising
deaths soon afterwards in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, and in the
specialist radiological wards of Moscow's Hospital No 6. The
doses received by the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and
reservists - 'liquidators' - who decontaminated the poisoned
landscape of Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus were either
classified or never officially recorded.

Those that survived have lived to see the events of those days
in 1986 clouded by myth, disinformation and controversy. The
official account of the Chernobyl disaster was originally
documented by a Soviet state only five years from total
disintegration. The men who worked at the plant were made
scapegoats for what happened, and became victims of the last
Soviet show-trial ever staged. The long-term health effects of
the accident continue to be the subject of statistical debate
and manipulation by governments, NGOs, scientists and doctors
around the world. Now, nearly 20 years after the disaster, the
survivors of Chernobyl are scattered across the former Soviet
Union, gradually succumbing to cancer and early heart attacks.

Sitting nervously over a cup of tea in the foyer of a Kiev
hotel, retired helicopter pilot Sergei Volodin taps the medal
given to him by the president of Ukraine in 1996; it's the same
one that 10 years before had been posthumously awarded to the
firemen killed fighting the blaze at Reactor No 4. 'In 1986,' he
says, 'the firemen were all awarded it for dying. After 10
years, we were awarded it for still being alive.'

Friday, 25 April 1986, was a warm day in Pripyat, more like
summer than early spring. Alexander Yuvchenko, the chief
mechanical engineer of the No 4 reactor department, was
scheduled to work the late shift that night; that afternoon, he
took his two-year-old son Kirill for a ride on the handlebars of
his bike.

Twenty kilometres from Chernobyl, the ancient Ukrainian town
from which the power station would take its name, Pripyat had
been built from scratch in 1970 to house the staff of the
nuclear plant; the average age of the new town's population was
27. The station - with four reactors already online and a fifth
and sixth under construction - was planned as the largest
nuclear power plant in the world, and regarded as a prize
posting for engineers. Pripyat was a model town, renowned as one
of the finest places to live in the entire Soviet Union. Those
who visited at the time would later remember it idyllically,
filled with roses and children.

That night, Reactor No 4 was due for a long postponed safety
test, to assess the systems' ability to keep the reactor core
cool in the event of a power cut. No 4 was a 1,000 megawatt RBMK
reactor - a colossal structure composed of 1,660 10-metre-long
channels filled with uranium fuel, separated by 1,700 tons of
moderating graphite arranged into 2,488 columns. The power of
the reactor was regulated by 211 boron carbide control rods,
raised or lowered into the reactor core to modulate the rate of
reaction. Protecting the station workers from the radiation of
the reactor was a steel and concrete biological shield three
metres thick and 17 metres in diameter. The technicians called
this the pyatachok, or 'five kopek piece'.

The RBMK was regarded as the workhorse of Soviet atomic energy,
thrifty and reliable - and safe enough to be built without an
expensive containment building that would prevent the release of
radiation in the event of a serious accident. In fact, the
reactor had serious design faults: when run at low power it was
dangerously unstable and difficult to control; additionally, for
the first four seconds after being inserted, the control rods
would do the opposite of what they were supposed to - instead of
slowing reaction, they would cause a sudden power surge. Under
normal conditions these faults were not regarded as dangerous;
but were the reactor ever to be pushed beyond its normal limits,
they could prove catastrophic.

And in the early hours of 26 April, all the somnambulant working
practices bred by the Soviet Union's years of stagnation -
bumbling management, bad design and an expedient disregard for
rules - fell into deadly alignment around Chernobyl's Reactor No
4. The safety test commenced with the unstable reactor operating
at low power, with five separate safety systems disabled or
disconnected and all but five of the control rods withdrawn.
When the experiment caused an unexpected power surge, the
emergency shut-down button was pressed, sending 211 control rods
into the core. Within four seconds, steam pressure and power
readings went off the scale; the zirconium fuel assemblies and
the channels containing them disintegrated. And at 1.23.58, the
reactor was torn apart by the first of several catastrophic
hydrogen explosions: the 500-tonne pyatachok was hurled into the
air, exposing the core. At his post in the main circulating pump
room, machinist Valeri Khodemchuk was the first to die. His body
has never been found.

At 45, Alexander Yuvchenko is still a big man, his 6'5" frame
almost filling the tiny lift that takes us to his ninth-floor
flat on Moscow's Vernadsky Prospekt. These days, he doesn't much
like talking about what happened: 'I don't advertise the fact
that I was there,' he says. 'We've lived in this apartment for
11 years, and none of my neighbours know.'

As he begins to speak, rivulets of sweat run through his
close-cropped hair; the blue handkerchief he kneads is soon
soaking wet.

Yuvchenko was in his office on Level 12.5, halfway between the
third and fourth reactors, when the blast came. It buckled the
metre-thick walls, the door blew in and the lights went out: he
thought that war had finally broken out with the West. A
powerful shockwave followed, bringing with it a cloud of choking
milky grey dust carrying radioactive isotopes of iodine,
caesium, strontium and plutonium. From outside came the hissing
of escaping steam; leaving his office with a stretcher, he found
one of the pump operators, badly burnt, filthy, wet and
shivering with shock, who told Yuvchenko to rescue Valeri
Khodemchuk. But when he looked up toward the place where the
machinist was supposed to be, he saw nothing but empty space.
Together with foreman Yuri Tregub, Yuvchenko ran outside to see
what had happened; standing in the road beside the plant a
little more than a minute after the explosion, the two men were
the first to begin to comprehend what had happened to Reactor No
4: 'Half the building had gone,' he says now. 'There was nothing
we could do.'

It was an apocalyptic sight: flames shot into the sky; sparks
showered from the severed 6,000-volt cables hanging from the
smashed circulation pumps; burst water and nitrogen tanks
dangled in the air above the red-hot wreckage of the reactor
hall; and from the centre of the building, an unearthly,
delicate, blue-white light shot upwards into the night - a shaft
of ionising radiation from the exposed core. 'I remember
thinking how beautiful it was,' Yuvchenko says.

Momentarily transfixed by the eerie glow - known as Cherenkov's
Light - Yuvchenko was dragged away by Tregub, who realised they
were standing in a lethal field of gamma radiation.

Inside, Yuvchenko met Valeri Perevozchenko and two junior
technicians sent to lower the apparently jammed control rods
into the core by hand. But, as Yuvchenko explained to them,
'there were no control rods left'. Nonetheless, the four men
climbed a stairwell to Level 35 to survey the damage from a
ledge 114ft up. Yuvchenko wedged his body against the massive
steel and concrete door into the reactor hall to keep it open,
while Perevozchenko and the technicians inched on to a ledge to
search for the control rod mechanism. 'If the door had closed,
they would have been buried there,' says Yuvchenko.

Perevozchenko held out a torch, and the three men gazed with
horror into the blazing maw of the ruined reactor: they realised
their mission to lower the control rods was absurd. They
remained on the ledge for only as long as Yuvchenko held the
door: a single minute. But by that time it was too late; all
three had received a fatal dose of radiation. 'They were the
first to die,' Yuvchenko says, 'in the Moscow hospital.'

Just after 1.25am, as flames leapt 600ft into the air around the
reactor hall, the alarm sounded at Fire Station No 2 of the
Chernobyl plant. In the telephone room, the 6ft-square status
board, with its hundreds of red lamps - one for every room in
the entire complex - suddenly lit up from top to bottom.

On the night crew was fireman Anatoli Zakharov, who had been
stationed at Chernobyl since May 1980. It had been an uneventful
six years, but Zakharov had seen Reactor No 4 being built, from
the inside out. So when he parked his fire engine beside the
burning wreckage of the building, and saw the chunks of graphite
scattered across the asphalt, he knew there was only one place
it could have come from.

'I remember joking to the others, "There must be an incredible
amount of radiation here. We'll be lucky if we're all still
alive in the morning."'

Zakharov is 53 now: a short, tubby man who welcomes me
cheerfully into his flat on the 16th floor of a forbidding
Soviet-era tower block in the Kiev suburb of Vystavka. He wears
goldframed spectacles and slippers, on each of which is
embroidered a cartoon hand clenched into a jaunty thumbs-up
sign. He tells me that of his shift of 28 men who went out to
fight the fire that night, only 16 are still alive.

The hot debris from the exploding reactor set light to the
bitumen-covered roofs of the surrounding buildings, threatening
to spread the blaze into the kilometre-long turbine hall, and -
even more catastrophically - to neighbouring Reactor No 3. While
Zakharov remained with his engine on the ground, his commander,
Lieutenant Pravik, took officers Titenok, Ignatenko and the
others and climbed a ladder to the roof to fight the fire. It
was the last time Zakharov ever saw them. They had no protective
clothing, or dosimetric equipment to measure radiation levels;
the blazing radioactive debris fused with the molten bitumen,
and when they had put the fires out with water from their hoses,
they picked up chunks of it in their hands and kicked it away
with their feet. When the fires on the roof were under control,
Pravik and men summoned from the Pripyat brigade climbed into
the ruins of the reactor hall to train hoses on the glowing
crater of the core itself, where the graphite was burning at
temperatures of more than 2,000C. This heroic but utterly futile
action took them closer to a lethal source of radiation than
even the victims of Hiroshima - where the bomb emitted gamma
rays for only the instant it was detonated, 2,500ft above the
ground.

A fatal dose of radiation is estimated at around 400REM - which
would be absorbed by anyone whose body is exposed to a field of
400 roentgen for 60 minutes. On the roof of the turbine hall,
both gamma and neutron radiation was being emitted by the lumps
of uranium fuel and graphite at a rate of 20,000 roentgen an
hour; around the core, levels reached 30,000 roentgen an hour:
here, a man would absorb a fatal dose in just 48 seconds. It was
a full hour before Pravik and his men, dizzy and vomiting, were
relieved and rushed away by ambulance. When they died two weeks
later in Hospital No 6, Zakharov heard that the radiation had
been so intense the colour of Vladimir Pravik's eyes had turned
from brown to blue; Nikolai Titenok sustained such severe
internal radiation burns there were blisters on his heart. Their
bodies were so radioactive they were buried in coffins made of
lead, the lids welded shut.

Anatoli Zakharov remained on duty at the power station until
2pm, and then cycled home. He drank three litres of apple juice,
and went to bed. Shortly afterwards, he was hospitalised in
Kiev, where he remained for two months; they told him that he'd
absorbed 300REM of radiation. 'That's what they wrote down. But
only God really knows what my dose was.' In 1986, he was awarded
the Order of the Red Star for bravery; in 1992, he was declared
a total invalid. Now, he says the men from Fire Station No 2
never doubted the risks they were taking.

'Of course we knew!' he laughs. 'If we'd followed regulations,
we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral
obligation - our duty. We were like kamikaze.'

During the early hours of 26 April, 37 fire crews - 186 firemen
and 81 engines - were summoned to Chernobyl from all over the
Kiev region. By 6.35am they had extinguished all the visible
fires around the buildings of Reactor No 4. The deputy fire
chief of Kiev reported that the emergency was over; and yet,
from around the displaced disc of the pyatachok came an ominous
red glow. Reactor No 4 was gone; in its place was a radioactive
volcano of molten uranium fuel and burning graphite - a blaze
that would prove all but impossible to extinguish.

Sergei Volodin arrives to meet me for coffee in the lobby of
Kiev's Hotel Rus wearing the full dress uniform of a colonel in
the Ukrainian Air Force. This is the first time he's ever worn
it; he had to make the holes in the tunic for his medals
especially for today. Gentle and avuncular, he brings newspaper
cuttings, and pictures of himself and his two-man crew taken
years ago by Soviet Union magazine. 'There were rumours that we
were all dead,' he explains, 'so they took pictures to show we
were still alive.' He speaks quickly, eager to impart as much of
his story as he can; but when he stops and reaches for his tea,
his hands tremble.

Volodin began flying helicopters from the Soviet Air Force base
in Kiev in 1976. It was a quiet posting: he spent the years
flying bureaucrats and generals around the country in an Mi-8
helicopter specially equipped with lounge chairs, toilet and a
bar. Once in a while, he'd pass the Chernobyl plant and, just
out of curiosity, turn on the dosimeter that measured radiation
inside the cockpit; there was never a flicker.

On the night of 25 April 1986, Captain Volodin and his crew had
the emergency rescue shift for the Kiev area. Their helicopter
was the first on the scene at Chernobyl. As the government
assembled an emergency commission to tackle the disaster,
Volodin was instructed to fly around Pripyat with an army major
on board to take dosimeter readings; they would use these to map
the radioactivity around the town. They set off without
protective clothing, dressed only in shirtsleeves; it was
another clear, cloudless day. But as Volodin flew toward the
plume of smoke and steam rising from Reactor No 4,
strange-looking, viscous droplets of liquid began beading on the
canopy. Below, he could see a village where people were at work
in their gardens; when he looked up at the dosimeter, the
reading had gone off the scale. He flicked the device through
all its settings - 10, 100, 250, up to 500 roentgen per hour:
'Above 500, the equipment - and human beings - aren't supposed
to work.' Yet each time the needle ran off the end of the dial.
Suddenly the major burst into the cockpit with his own
dosimeter, screaming at Volodin, 'You murderer! You've killed us
all!'

'We'd taken such a high dose,' the pilot says now, 'he thought
we were already dead.' Later, Volodin discovered that the plume
he had flown through was emitting 1,500 roentgen an hour. Having
established radiation readings for the map, the pilot then flew
technicians from the plant around the reactor, to assess the
damage; a photographer shot pictures of the destruction through
the open window of the helicopter. Afterwards, Volodin was told
he and his crew had been so irradiated they could no longer fly.
Hospitalised in a Kiev cardiology ward, the doctors told him to
drink as much wine and vodka as he liked; they had no idea how
to treat him. Volodin stayed until late May, and returned to fly
in and out of the disaster site for another five months.

Volodin retired as a pilot in 1991 to take a desk job. 'I have a
strange illness,' he says. 'I'm afraid of flying.' Now 58, he
has heart problems; his flight engineer is an invalid. In
recognition of his work at Chernobyl, he receives a special
liquidators' pension of 26 Ukrainian Hryvna a year. He points
sadly at the drinks in front of him: 'The tea costs 35.'

On the morning of 26 April, as Pripyat hospital began filling up
with casualties, there was still no official announcement about
the accident. That Saturday began as usual: children went to
school, a wedding was celebrated on the banks of the broad
river, and sunbathers took advantage of the warm weather. But
the ground beneath the path of the plume issuing from the
reactor had been scattered with nuclear particles which emitted
a field of up to 10,000 roentgen per hour; the air was filled
with the entire range of radioactive isotopes. Throughout the
day, station director Viktor Brukhanov refused to sanction an
evacuation of Pripyat, insisting to the authorities that the
radiation in the town was normal.

But when the chief of the plant's training programmes, Veniamin
Prianichnikov, returned home that morning from a business trip
to Lvov, he saw the streets being washed down with
decontaminants. 'I knew something was happening,' he says. When
he got back to his flat, he discovered that the phone had been
cut off and his wife was out of town at their dacha, tending her
flowers, directly in the path of the plume. She refused to
believe anything was wrong - even when he showed her the specks
of graphite on the petals of her wild strawberry plants.

Prianichnikov has been a nuclear physicist for more than 40
years, and has worked everywhere from the plutonium factory at
Krasnoyarsk-26 to the atomic testing grounds of Kazakhstan. We
meet on a freezing night in a deserted bar near his flat in the
suburbs of Kiev. At 62, he's a thick-set, sardonic man with a
patient, knowing gaze; he brings with him paper and a pen, in
case he needs to draw me diagrams. Prianichnikov has already
undergone one heart operation he ascribes to the accident; his
experience has left him under no illusions about the realities
of living in the Soviet state. He says he always tried to steer
clear of the Communist Party: 'I never liked them that much.
They killed my father, they killed my grandfather, many of my
relatives. Is that not enough?'

From the outset, Prianichnikov suspected the accident was
catastrophic, but without a dosimeter he found it hard to
convince his neighbours of such a heretical idea: 'People
wouldn't believe me - and they could give you eight years in
prison for going around saying things like that.' When he
finally got through to his boss at the station, he was told that
an exercise was being conducted. But by the time the sunbathers
had been hospitalised with nausea and vomiting, Prianichnikov
had shut his wife and daughter indoors, and had them packed and
ready to leave. That night, from the sixth-floor balcony of the
flat, they watched yellow and green flames flare from the torn
ruins of Reactor No 4.

On Sunday the 27th, Pripyat was finally evacuated. The
population went quickly and calmly under the eyes of the
militia, but were forced to leave their pets behind. Their coats
hopelessly irradiated, many dogs ran after the buses as far as
they could, but eventually fell back to the town, where they
began to turn feral. A group of local hunters with shotguns was
sent in to shoot the animals. By 29 April, the streets of
Pripyat were littered with their radioactive corpses.

The graphite in Reactor No 4 had been burning for almost 24
hours when the Chernobyl Commission decided the only way to
extinguish the fire was to smother it. The scientists suggested
sand, boron and lead, to absorb radiation and cool the melting
core - 4,000 tons would do it, dropped into the blazing reactor
from the air. On the afternoon of the 27th, two Mi-8 helicopters
from Kiev began the first of hundreds of firefighting sorties.
The pilots navigated through a forest of pylons surrounding the
power station to hover 100 metres above the burning building,
and, aiming by eye, dropped individual bags of sand from the
helicopters' open doors. The radiation directly over the reactor
was such that the pilots soon began being sick in the air;
eventually they started flying in respirators, and sliding lead
panels under their seats. By 1 May, they had dropped 4,450 tons
of sand into the reactor.

But on 2 May, the engineers and physicists at Chernobyl made a
horrifying discovery: the temperature of the core and the volume
of radionuclides rising from it were both increasing. They
suspected that the whole helicopter operation had been a
terrible mistake: the sheer weight of everything they had
dropped on the reactor from the air - including 2,400 tons of
lead - had not only caused structural damage but was pressing
the hot reactor core against its concrete base. And if the
uranium reached meltdown temperature - 2,900C -a single sphere
of molten fuel would burn through the concrete foundations of
the reactor building, and keep going until it reached the water
table. At that moment, there would be another explosion,
exponentially more devastating than the first; the three
remaining reactors would be destroyed in a nuclear blast that
would render Ukraine, Belarus and Russia uninhabitable for
decades to come.

'That was the most terrifying thing,' says Veniamin
Prianichnikov. 'We were petrified of meltdown, walking around
like zombies.'

A plan was devised: to freeze the earth around the reactor with
liquid nitrogen, and then build a heat exchanger in the ground
beneath it to cool the core and prevent meltdown. Prianichnikov
himself was sent in with temperature and radiation probes to
discover how long they had before the core burned through the
two metres of concrete foundations; meanwhile, miners were
summoned from the coalfaces of Donetsk and the subway projects
in Kiev to dig tunnels beneath the reactor. The scientists
feared that pneumatic drills could disturb the foundations of
the reactor, so they worked with hand tools, in conditions where
wearing protective clothing was practically impossible, amid
extraordinary fields of radioactivity. To freeze the ground, all
the liquid nitrogen in the western Soviet Union was sent to
Chernobyl: when it didn't arrive quickly enough, director
Brukhanov received a late-night telephone call from the minister
in charge of the operation. 'Find the nitrogen,' he was told,
'or you'll be shot.'

On 10 May, the fire finally subsided; it now seems possible that
the graphite simply burnt itself out. The nitrogen was found,
and the subterranean heat exchanger built, but by mid-May the
temperature of the core had dropped to 270C; the exchanger was
never even turned on. 'The miners died for nothing,' says
Prianichnikov. 'Everything we did was a waste of time.'

When I ask him if he received any recognition for what he did,
Prianichnikov smiles darkly. 'I didn't go to court, and I wasn't
put in prison. That was the recognition I received.'

In the weeks following 26 April, hundreds of thousands of
scientists, soldiers and civilian workers were sent by train to
Chernobyl from every republic of the USSR. They camped in
settlements and tents in the newly established 30km exclusion
zone, or were billeted on Black Sea cruise ships moored on the
River Pripyat.

After the decimation of the station management by the accident,
Nikolai Steinberg was appointed technical director of the plant.
He was charged with containing the wreckage of Reactor No 4,
protecting the population of Ukraine and Belarus from the
contamination spread across the landscape, and restarting the
three remaining reactors of the station, shut down in the
immediate aftermath of the accident.

Steinberg worked from an office with lead plates covering the
windows and developed an instinct for sensing radiation: when he
encountered a field in excess of 135 roentgen an hour, he says
he could feel it 'like a punch in the eye'. Now Ukraine's deputy
minister for nuclear energy, Steinberg is wry and charming, but
deploys the careful evasiveness of a practised politician. He
speaks in a dry whisper, a result of throat cancer diagnosed in
1996; but he refuses to connect it with Chernobyl: 'It happened
- but I smoked for 25 years. I'm still alive.'

During May and June 1986, the 600,000 liquidators were set to
work: soldiers were sent to Kiev to cut the leaves from every
bush and tree in the city and bury them; helicopter crews
sprayed a special polymer film from the air to capture
radioactive particles on the ground; the Pripyat was dammed to
prevent irradiated water flowing into the Dnieper; 135,000
people were evacuated from the exclusion zone; 70 villages were
so contaminated that they were flattened and buried in their
entirety.

To collect pieces of fuel and graphite from the roofs around
Reactor No 4, three lightweight robots were bought in Germany
for one million gold roubles. But up on the roofs, the machines
were useless: their electronics failed in the intense fields of
radioactivity; they got bogged down in the melted bitumen and
became entangled in abandoned fire hoses. 'The best robots,'
Steinberg explains bitterly, 'were people.'

So, 3,400 army reservists with picks and shovels were sent to
clear the roofs. The men were given strict time limits - 20
seconds, 25 seconds, two minutes - to limit their exposure, and
makeshift lead clothing made from metal torn from the walls of
the plant. But little practical protection was possible: 'It
could reduce radiation by two or perhaps three times, but it
wasn't enough,' Steinberg says. 'The dose was immense.'

Although they were volunteers - two minutes on the roof was said
to count for two years of military service - few had any real
understanding of the risks they were taking. One soldier later
described a friend climbing the tower overlooking Reactor No 4
to hoist a flag, 'to symbolise man's power to conquer
radiation'. Sometime afterwards, the soldier became paralysed.

With the clean-up complete, the Sarcophagus - the huge
prefabricated steel and concrete shell built to contain the
ruins of Reactor No 4 - was put together by cranes; a six
metre-thick wall protected the builders from gamma radiation. It
took five months. On 1 October 1986, the turbines of Reactor No
1 at Chernobyl came back online; No 2 and No 3 followed soon
afterwards.

When I ask Nikolai Steinberg what dose of radiation he received,
he smiles. 'Enough. It can't be measured. I can only guess.' And
then, from his desk drawer, he produces a photograph of a small
child with dark hair. It is his three-year- old son; Steinberg
will be 59 in June. 'So,' he says, 'I suppose I must be OK.'

In Moscow, Yuvchenko is still recovering from the single minute
he spent holding open the door for his friends in the early
hours of 26 April 1986. That night, when they put him on the
plane to Hospital No 6, he thought he would be in the Moscow
clinic for a few days. 'It turned out to take a year,' he says.
'And the rest of my life.' The door into the reactor hall had
been covered with radioactive dust; Yuvchenko's clothes were
soaking wet from steam and escaping cooling water. Where his
left shoulder, hip and calf touched the door, he suffered
terrible beta and gamma radiation burns. His skin turned black
and sloughed off; his left arm was in bandages for seven years.
Today his arms and back are scarred violet-red with the results
of skin grafting operations so numerous he stopped counting at
15. He doesn't know if the radiation made him infertile, but he
and his wife Natalia were advised not to try to have any more
children, as a result of possible DNA damage. He still has two
weeks of check-ups every year.

Yuvchenko returned to work in 1989, taking a job at the Moscow
Research Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. This
year, his son Kirill will turn 23; he's currently in his sixth
year of medical school in Moscow. 'He's so good,' says Natalia,
'that I think he's a reward for everything that's happened to
us.'

The total number of deaths caused by the explosion of Reactor No
4 remains the subject of fierce debate; early predictions of
hundreds of thousands of fatalities have apparently proved
unfounded. Last year, a WHO and International Atomic Energy
Authority-backed report estimated that of the 600,000 people
across the Soviet Union exposed to high levels of radiation by
the accident, 4,000 would eventually die.

Alexander and Natalia Yuvchenko say that the effects the
radiation has had on their health aren't as bad as people think.
'The doctors keep telling me I've survived - so I can carry on
now without worrying,' says Alexander. 'But when I went back to
Ukraine, they started telling me about people who had died. But
was it due to radiation? I don't know. I don't understand
anything about statistics. But when my friends ask me about it,
I tell them: the less you think about it, the longer you'll
live.'

Back in the deserted town of Chernobyl, near the war memorial,
opposite the tombs of the Heroes of the Soviet Union who fell
recapturing the town from the Germans in 1944, is a heavy
concrete monolith inscribed with neat rows of names. At first
glance it looks like any other memorial to men long-dead and
half-forgotten. But this one is slightly different; it
commemorates those killed by the explosion at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant: above an inscription are three polished
steel plates filled with the dozens of names of those who had
died by 1996; beside that are 200 names added in 2001. And
beside these, at the far end of the monument, the builders have
left a long, empty space: for the deaths yet to come.
 	
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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 33 Guardian Unlimited: UN accused of ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl deaths
 
John Vidal, environment editor

Saturday March 25, 2006
 		
United Nations nuclear and health watchdogs have ignored evidence 
of deaths, cancers, mutations and other conditions after the 
Chernobyl accident, leading scientists and doctors have claimed 
in the run-up to the nuclear disaster's 20th anniversary next 
month.

In a series of reports about to be published, they will suggest 
that at least 30,000 people are expected to die of cancers linked 
directly to severe radiation exposure in 1986 and up to 500,000 
people may have already died as a result of the world's worst 
environmental catastrophe.

But the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World 
Health Organisation say that only 50 deaths can be directly 
attributed to the disaster, and that, at most, 4,000 people may 
eventually die from the accident on April 26 1986.

They say only nine children have died of thyroid cancers in 20
years and that the majority of illnesses among the estimated 5
million people contaminated in the former Soviet Union are
attributable to growing poverty and unhealthy lifestyles.

An IAEA spokesman said he was confident the UN figures were
correct. "We have a wide scientific consensus of 100 leading
scientists. When we see or hear of very high mortalities we can
only lean back and question the legitimacy of the figures. Do
they have qualified people? Are they responsible? If they have
data that they think are excluded then they should send it."

The new estimates have been collated by researchers commissioned
by European parliamentary groups, Greenpeace International and
medical foundations in Britain, Germany, Ukraine, Scandinavia
and elsewhere. They take into account more than 50 published
scientific studies.

"At least 500,000 people - perhaps more - have already died out
of the 2 million people who were officially classed as victims
of Chernobyl in Ukraine," said Nikolai Omelyanets, deputy head
of the National Commission for Radiation Protection in Ukraine.
"[Studies show] that 34,499 people who took part in the clean-up
of Chernobyl have died in the years since the catastrophe. The
deaths of these people from cancers was nearly three times as
high as in the rest of the population.

"We have found that infant mortality increased 20% to 30%
because of chronic exposure to radiation after the accident. All
this information has been ignored by the IAEA and WHO. We sent
it to them in March last year and again in June. They've not
said why they haven't accepted it."

Evgenia Stepanova, of the Ukrainian government's Scientific
Centre for Radiation Medicine, said: "We're overwhelmed by
thyroid cancers, leukaemias and genetic mutations that are not
recorded in the WHO data and which were practically unknown 20
years ago."

The IAEA and WHO, however, say that apart from an increase in
thyroid cancer in children there is no evidence of a large-scale
impact on public health. "No increases in overall cancer
incidence or mortality that could be associated with radiation
exposure have been observed," said the agencies' report in
September.

In the Rivne region of Ukraine, 310 miles west of Chernobyl,
doctors say they are coming across an unusual rate of cancers
and mutations. "In the 30 hospitals of our region we find that
up to 30% of people who were in highly radiated areas have
physical disorders, including heart and blood diseases, cancers
and respiratory diseases. Nearly one in three of all the newborn
babies have deformities, mostly internal," said Alexander
Vewremchuk, of the Special Hospital for the Radiological
Protection of the Population in Vilne.

Figures on the health effects of Chernobyl have always been
disputed. Soviet authorities covered up many of the details at
the time. The largest radiation doses were received by the
600,000 people involved in the clean-up, many drawn from army
conscripts all over the Soviet Union.

 Backstory

The worst nuclear accident in history took place on April 26
1986 when one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl complex 80
miles north of Kiev in Ukraine began to fail. Operators shut
down the system, but a large chemical explosion followed a power
surge and the 1,000-tonne cover blew off the top of the reactor.
Design flaws in the cooling system were blamed for the accident,
in which 31 people were killed immediately. The worst-affected
area was Belarus, which took the brunt of the 4% of the 190
tonnes of uranium dioxide in the plant that escaped. Ukraine was
also contaminated. Some 600,000 workers (mainly volunteers) who
took part in recovery and clean-up operations were exposed to
high levels of radiation; the Soviet government first suppressed
news of the incident, but evacuated local people within a few
days. Five million people were exposed to radiation in Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia, and there was a dramatic increase in thyroid
cancer among children living there.

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
 		 		 		 	 	 		 		 		 	 	 		 	 	 		 	 	 	 		 	 	 	 		 		 		 	 	 
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 34 Guardian Unlimited: Most EU leaders back reviving nuclear power
 
David Gow in Brussels

Monday March 27, 2006
The Guardian 		
 		
The overwhelming majority of leaders at last week's European 
Union summit, including Tony Blair, strongly backed a revival of 
nuclear power as the answer to Europe's growing dependence on 
overseas supplies and to combat climate change.

Only Germany and Austria explicitly rejected the nuclear option 
in secret summit talks, according to senior German diplomats, who 
pointed out that Angela Merkel, the chancellor and a trained 
physicist, favoured it personally but was bound by her Social 
Democrat coalition partners to reject it.

Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner and author of this 
month's green paper on a common energy policy, made it plain in 
an interview that a revival of atomic power was not the "silver 
bullet" for meeting Europe's triple objectives of security of 
supply, sustainable development and competitiveness.

"There are no silver bullets and you cannot believe that, if you
build new nuclear power stations, that will solve everything,"
he told the Guardian. "Countries with expertise are well placed
to replace existing plants or build new stations but we should
not say that nuclear energy will meet all three objectives
cheaply and efficiently. It has huge costs and lots of
complications, including the issue of waste and final storage."

Mr Piebalgs, a Latvian, said countries pursuing the nuclear
option needed to emulate Finland, which is building Europe's
first new nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 20 years
ago (a French-designed pressurised-water reactor).

"Finland's decision was based on a thorough analysis of the
nuclear option and a political debate, including about safe
final storage, so each citizen knows that he is not condemning
his children to a dangerous future," he said, adding: "The only
genuine silver bullet is energy efficiency and conservation."

Last week's summit endorsed the notion of an EU action plan
designed to save 20% of energy consumption by 2020 and plans to
raise the 6% of energy provided by renewables to 20% by the same
date.

But EU leaders rejected Mr Piebalgs' call for a European energy
regulator to police the market and provide the framework to
invest in common gas and electricity grids that, with new power
plants, could cost 1,000bn (Ł700bn) by 2030. By then the EU will
import 70% of its energy, mainly gas from Russia, Algeria and
Norway, as North Sea reserves run out.

Mr Piebalgs, who also favours the use of clean coal, carbon
sequestration and biomass, indicated that a critical answer to
Europe's long-term supply needs was to increase the market for
liquefied natural gas (LNG), which could be imported from
several countries. He suggested that LNG should provide 20%-25%
of European energy within the next 25 years.
 	
Useful links
British Energy
Department of Trade and Industry
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Greenpeace
HSE nuclear glossary
Come Clean WMD awareness programme
UK atomic energy authority
National Radiological Protection Board
Friends of the Earth
World Nuclear Association
World Nuclear Transport Institute

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 35 Arizona Republic: APS to fix reactor immediately 

New timetable likely to cost less 

Ken Alltucker 

Mar. 25, 2006 12:00 AM                                           

One of three reactors at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating 
Station will remain shut down for several more weeks as crews 
attempt to fix a vibrating pipe that has reduced the nuclear 
plant's electricity output since December.

 Arizona Public Service Co., the plant's operator, said late 
Friday that it would repair Unit 1 immediately by relocating a 
key valve instead or waiting until June to tackle the planned 
repair.

 The Phoenix-based utility expects its new repair schedule will 
increase the odds the triple-reactor plant will return to full 
power this summer, when the Valley's peak electricity demand 
arrives. 

The new timetable also should cost less money. APS said Friday
that it now expects Unit 1's reduced output will cost $46
million after taxes to buy fuel and power to replace the lost
electricity. APS earlier estimated the June repairs would cost
$58 million after taxes. 

Nevertheless, utility customers will be asked to pick up the tab
through higher electricity bills.

 "The fact is, we are going to get it done sooner and it will
cost customers less," APS spokesman Jim McDonald said.

 APS did not pinpoint the reason for its repair schedule change,
other than to say that tests performed last week identified
"non-standard operating conditions that could impact operations."

 Unit 1's electricity output has ranged from 25 to 32 percent of
capacity since the utility discovered the vibrating pipe in late
December. 

The other two reactors at Palo Verde, the nation's largest
nuclear-power plant and a significant source of electricity for
the Southwest, remain at full power. 

APS attempted one repair and studied two other temporary fixes
at Unit 1 before deciding this month that the best approach
would be to shut down the reactor and relocate a key valve on
the unit's emergency shutdown line. 

The utility closed Unit 1 last weekend to conduct tests and
other preparatory work for the planned June repair. But those
tests showed that the reactor's vibrating pipe had the potential
to exceed safety limits established in the plant's license
issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

 In addition to relocating the valve, APS said it would complete
other repairs, conduct more inspections and gather more evidence
to investigate the root cause of the vibrations. The utility
expects all necessary repairs will be completed by the beginning
of summer. 

State regulators who have monitored Palo Verde's performance and
its impact on electricity bills said the quicker repairs are a
better approach.

 "They decided just to tend to it all right now, and I can't
second-guess that," Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Jeff
Hatch-Miller said. "They indicated this will save money in terms
of purchased power."

 Although the plant has operated with a consistent record over
much of the past decade, reactors have been shut down 19 times
since February 2004 because of worn equipment and design,
maintenance and other problems. 

APS wants the Corporation Commission to allow it to increase
electricity bills to recover $44.6 million related to Palo Verde
outages last year. APS is expected to seek money from ratepayers
at a later date due to Unit 1's troubles. 

APS is allowed to recover 90 percent of prudently incurred fuel
and replacement power costs under state- approved guidelines.

 Even though the current outage is expected to last longer than
five weeks, APS estimates it will be able to secure replacement
electricity at a cheaper rate during the spring. Summer
electricity costs are typically higher because of increased
demand. 

APS also said its other power plants are operating at a higher
capacity, which also has saved money.

Reach the reporter at ken.alltucker@arizonarepublic.comor (602)
444-8285.

Copyright Š 2006, azcentral.com. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 36 Charlotte Observer: From power plant to film set, back

03/26/2006 | 

IN MY OPINION
 
Duke's announcement reminds me of S.C. site's other incarnations

 JOE DEPRIEST 

The aerial photo took me back to a chameleon-like corner of the
Carolinas. 

It turned from undeveloped farmland into the incomplete shell of
a nuclear power complex. The next makeover turned it into Shelby
moviemaker Earl Owensby's studio, creating diverse worlds from
Cuban jungles to the bottom of the sea. 

Quite a ride. And I was along for part of it. 

The aerial picture in a recent edition of the Observer showed
the massive construction Duke Power Co. did on a nuclear power
plant near Gaffney, S.C., before pulling the plug in the early
1980s. The shutdown came after projections for power demand in
the Carolinas had fallen off. 

But the big story wasn't about the past. It was about Duke
picking the same site for the country's first new nuclear power
plant in decades. 

Whether that will ever happen is uncertain. But the attention
focused on the sprawling property in Cherokee County, S.C., is a
reminder of what's happening regionwide. 

New potential is being found in land once taken for granted. 

A cool place 

I didn't see much future for the former Duke property in 1985
when I toured it with the new owner.Earl, the maverick actor,
producer and studio boss, made more than 20 low-budget films
with names such as "Wolf Man" and "Death Driver." The N.C. Film
Commission would rightly credit him as one of the founders of
North Carolina's film industry. 

As Earl and I walked his S.C. property, the partially built
reactor containment vessel, turbine pit, cooling tanks, rusty
cranes and buildings reminded me of the ruins of some ancient
Roman city. 

We rode a small train that came with the deal. (Earl donned an
engineer's hat.) We climbed around the giant containment vessel
and checked out warehouses full of leftover industrial stuff. 

The real-estate package included 2,023 acres of rolling land
along the Broad River, where Revolutionary War soldiers had
crossed in the Southern campaigns of 1780-81. 

A cool place. But I didn't understand why Earl had gone out on a
limb to get it. He already had a studio near Shelby. 

The junky construction site didn't seem right for moviemaking. I
had a lot to learn. 

Somehow, Earl convinced Hollywood producers a former nuclear
power plant would fit nicely into their scripts. 

The first bite came from HBO Pictures with "Florida Straits."
The late Raul Julia played a former Cuban army major released
from prison after 20 years for taking part in the Bay of Pigs
Invasion. 

"Florida Straits" is a personal favorite because Julia and
co-star Fred Ward treated the B-movie script like it was
Shakespeare. A few palm trees here and there, and you had a
credible Cuban set. 

Seeing possibilities 

Other films made at Earl's S.C. studio included Universal-MCA's
TV pilot "Probe," based on a story by sci-fi writer Isaac
Asimov, and starring Parker Stevenson and Ashley Crow. 

Belmont City Council member Irl Dixon, who was cinematographer
on several Owensby movies, shot "Probe" and worked on "Florida
Straits." 

The set for "Probe" was built inside an old Duke Power
warehouse, and Dixon remembers it as "the largest interior set I
ever worked on." 

Odds and ends scavenged from the former nuclear complex were
used as props. 

"It was really a unique place for filming," Dixon said. "There
were woods, if you needed to shoot there, and lakes, if you
needed them. And the buildings could double for ruins or
anything along those lines." 

The U.S. Department of the Interior assembled a short
documentary there on the 1889 Johnstown Flood. It won an Academy
Award in 1989. 

I couldn't imagine what director James Cameron had in mind for
the studio that chilly, rainy afternoon we met there. 

The director of "The Terminator" and "Aliens" had spent hours
probing the property from top to bottom. His jeans and sneakers
were soggy and mud-splattered. 

But his eyes flamed as he talked about possibilities. One was
filling the old containment vessel with 10 million gallons of
water and filming the biggest underwater movie ever made. 

I couldn't quite see it, but he could. Cameron shot most of his
1989 epic, "The Abyss," right there in a bunch of old buildings
by Broad River. 

He went on to greater fame with "Titanic" in 1997. 

Earl sold the S.C. property in the early 1990s. Now Duke sees
nuclear potential again for property it got rid of more than 20
years ago. 

The circle turns. No matter where, new possibilities are always
out there if we look hard enough. 

Joe DePriest: (704) 868-7745; jdepriest@charlotteobserver.com
*****************************************************************
 37 REGNUM: Rosatom to participate in International exhibition of nuclear
industry in Beijing - 

10:10:00  ¤  March 27, 2006 Subscribe 

From March 28 to 31, 9th International Exhibition NUCLEAR
INDUSTRY,CHINA'2ÎÎ6 (NIC'2006) will take place in Beijing.
Rosatom organized a thematic exposition dedicated to Russian
nuclear facilities, a REGNUMcorrespondent has been informed in
Rosatom. 

NIC'2006 is also a part of events in the framework of Russian
Year in China, in 2006. 

In the framework of the exhibition a Russian-Chinese seminar is
planned, dedicated to cooperation in peaceful use of nuclear
energy. 

NIC'2006 is the largest nuclear industry exhibition in Asia
region, where all world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of
facilities and technologies to nuclear power plants participate. 

In next 20-30 years, China plans to introduce a hundred of new
power-generating units. Chinese power engineering is created in
cooperation with the number of countries, including Russia that
participates in construction of Tianwan nuclear power plant.
During his visit in China, head of Rosatom Sergey
Kiriyenkostressed that for Russia, China is a long-term and
perspective strategic partner in peaceful use of nuclear energy,
and expressed confidence, that all perquisites for cooperation
development in this sphere exists, but first, Russia must
concentrate on construction of Tianwan nuclear power plant.
Permanent news address: www.regnum.ru/english/612134.html

10:19 03/25/2006

*****************************************************************
 38 Daily Yomiuri: N-power plant safety thrown into doubt 

Toshiaki Sato and Michihiro Kawashima / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff
Writers 

The Kanazawa District Court ruling Friday that ordered a nuclear
power plant in Ishikawa Prefecture to stop operating one of its
reactors due to unsound seismic design has thrown into doubt the
government's system for checking the earthquake resistance of
nuclear power facilities 

Even though the government was not the defendant in the case,
the ruling on Hokuriku Electric Power Co.'s operation of its No.
2 reactor at its Shika nuclear power plant also highlighted the
difficulties involved in ensuring the government system is up to
date and Japan's nuclear power plants are safe. 

About 10 percent of the world's earthquakes occur in Japan,
which means earthquake-resistant design is essential to ensure
the safety of a nuclear power plant. These quake-resistant
designs are based on government guidelines. 

If there is an active fault line within 30 kilometers of a
planned nuclear power plant construction site, the guidelines
require the plant operator to study the activity of the fault
over the past 50,000 years to adequately formulate a design
capable of withstanding earthquakes at two levels. 

The two quake levels are known as S1, the maximum earthquake
intensity that could reasonably be expected to hit a given site,
and S2, the largest conceivable ground motion that could
possibly hit a site. At the S1 level, the site design must be
able to prevent seismic damage to the reactor and its
facilities. At the S2 level, the design must prevent the reactor
and its facilities from collapsing, even if a quake causes some
damage to the site. 

A double-check system conducted by both the Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission
determines whether nuclear power plant operators have designed
their nuclear power stations in such a way that important
equipment and pipelines are prevented from being damaged in the
case of an S1-level quake. The design must also ensure that
during an S2-level quake the safety functions of the plant are
maintained to ensure the reactor can be shut down quickly and
safely. 

The court ruled the assumed maximum size of a quake that could
hit the Shika plant had been underestimated, meaning the design
of the plant's No. 2 reactor was insufficiently quake-resistant. 

The basis for the ruling said that lax methods were used to
assess the dangers posed by a nearby active fault, and the
likely scale of vibrations that could be caused by such a quake
were underestimated. 

In response to the court ruling, NISA refuted the judge's
finding that the determination of the S1 and S2 levels was made
solely on the basis of reports by the government's Earthquake
Research Committee, saying that the NISA and NSC surveys were
more detailed. 

Because the survey by the ERC put top priority on the promotion
of antidisaster measures by local governments, it strictly
assessed the dangers posed by an active fault for which
inconclusive risk data exists. It seems the court ruling used
the ERC survey, which was meant for other purposes, too freely. 

The judge also took public sentiment into account when assessing
the use of inadequate methods. 

The government guidelines for antiseismic designs were drawn up
in 1978, and partially reviewed in 1981. Although knowledge of
earthquakes has increased since then--particularly in light of
the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake--it has not resulted in
changes to the guidelines, which critics say are outdated. 

For example, in August 2005 an earthquake with a magnitude of
7.2 struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. The quake shook
Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa nuclear power plant in the
prefecture at levels that exceeded the estimated maximum
predicted using the guidelines. 

The ERC has said an earthquake measuring about 7.5 will occur
off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture within the next 30 years, and
that there was a 99 percent chance the Onagawa plant would be
affected. 

Tohoku Electric conducted a follow-up investigation into the
possible effects of a major earthquake, and in January restarted
some of its reactors after they were confirmed safe. 

Chubu Electric Power Co.'s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in
Shizuoka Prefecture is in the zone estimated to be affected by
the Tokai Earthquake, an earthquake predicted to hit someday.
The plant has started reinforcing its facilities in order to
withstand a quake 1.7 times stronger than predicted and to meet
the government's antiseismic design requirements. The power
company said the reinforcement work would make local residents
feel safer. 

=== 

Heading to high court 



A review of the government guidelines has been delayed due to
differing opinions among seismologists and engineers. 

Shoichi Katayama, secretary general of the NSC, said: "We
understand the public expectation that nuclear power plant
facilities be safe and want to make efforts to review the
guidelines swiftly. I've asked our expert committee to make a
decision on the review from a broad perspective." 

Hokuriku Electric intends to appeal to the high court over the
district court's ruling. The hearing will be held at Nagoya High
Court's Kanazawa branch. 

Hokuriku Electric President Isao Nagahara said at a press
conference Friday: "Concerning the antiseismic design, our
company couldn't prove it was sufficiently strong. We want to
explain our case more clearly at the high court hearings." 

Masaaki Iwabuchi, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said: "We'll ask
Hokuriku Electric to prove the safety of the antiseismic design
of its reactors and other facilities, and try to disprove what
Hokuriku Electric says." 

There are four main lawsuits pending in courts nationwide over
the operation and construction of nuclear power plants. Among
them, cases involving the Hamaoka plant and Chugoku Electric
Co.'s Shimane plant in Matsue will be fought over the adequacy
of their antiseismic designs. Friday's ruling likely will
influence the outcome of these cases. 

The lawsuit filed by a citizens group with the Shizuoka District
Court in July 2003 for the suspension of operation of the
Hamaoka plant lists three main points of contention: 

-- Whether the maximum scale of an earthquake that could hit the
area has been underestimated. 

-- How stable the ground is on which the plant is built. 

-- Whether the plant's antiseismic design is adequate. 

Another citizens group filed a lawsuit with the Shimane District
Court in April 1999 calling for the suspension of operations at
the Shimane plant, after Chugoku Electric found in its survey an
active fault about 2.5 kilometers southeast of its Nos. 1 and 2
reactors. 

The plaintiffs in the Hamaoka case said they expected the ruling
at the Kanazawa District Court would influence the Shizuoka
case. (Mar. 26, 2006) 


 Š The Yomiuri Shimbun.   
*****************************************************************
 39 Rutland Herald: Vt. Yankee opponents face stiff license test

Rutland Vermont News & Information
 	 	 	 	 	 
March 25, 2006 

By DAVID GRAM The Associated Press   
  			 
BRATTLEBORO  Groups opposed to the Vermont Yankee nuclear
plant's request for a new 20-year operating license have 60 days
beginning next week to ask the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to hear their concerns.

But if the NRC's track record on granting such requests is any
indication, they're likely to come away frustrated.

The NRC has granted license extensions for 39 of the nation's
103 commercial reactors; it is currently reviewing applications
from 12 more. So far no intervener hearings have been held.

The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is the first stop
for such a request. Last month, it said it would hold hearings
on contentions raised by a coalition of environmental groups
about corrosion in the reactor containment at the Oyster Creek
nuclear plant in New Jersey, which also is seeking to extend its
license.

Both plant owner AmerGen and the NRC staff have appealed the
Oyster Creek decision to the NRC's five commissioners. In two
previous instances in which the licensing board granted
petitions for hearings  on two plants in the Carolinas  the
commission reversed those decisions.

The relicensing review process also looks at a much narrower
range of issues than those routinely raised by industry critics.
Worries about a nuclear plant's vulnerability to terrorism, the
lack of a permanent disposal site for radioactive waste or the
chances that an evacuation plan will work in a real emergency
are not considered germane, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

"The commission has said time and time again that issues like
emergency planning, spent fuel storage and security should be
dealt with in the here and now and not in connection with a
license renewal," Sheehan said.

Despite those odds, Raymond Shadis, adviser to the anti-nuclear
group New England Coalition, said his group would seek to
intervene. "Of course we are."

Shadis acknowledged that the hurdles are high. "Over time the
NRC has accrued unto itself case law. (The industry has) won
little bits and pieces and over time and in the aggregate they
have damn near eliminated the public hearing right," he said.

He also complained that while a nuclear plant could take a year
or more to prepare a license renewal application, opponents will
have 60 days to try to absorb 900 pages of highly technical
material and hire expert witnesses "willing to put their
professional reputations on the line" to challenge the
application.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said plant engineers
actually had spent 2-1/2 years preparing the application, and
that it was 1,100 pages. "It involved 40,000 engineering staff
hours," he said.

He added, "We think that two months is an adequate time for
anyone who wishes to intervene to decide whether they want to do
that."

Shadis said it would take some time to develop the issues his
group might want to raise. One could be the same sort of
corrosion seen in the primary reactor containment at Oyster
Creek, he said.

"When they ordered all the parts and pieces (when Vermont Yankee
was built), they were specified for 40 years of endurance,"
Shadis said. "Now not only do they want to run them beyond that
time, but ... exposed to more extreme conditions," stemming from
the plant's recently won permission to increase its power output
by 20 percent.

Jonathan Block, a Putney lawyer who has represented the
anti-nuclear Citizens' Awareness Network in past regulatory
proceedings, said the odds of getting a hearing before the NRC
were not as long as some were trying to paint them.

"It's propaganda that the agency (NRC) is putting out with the
intent of discouraging participation in this process," he said.

Sheehan said industry's unbeaten record on winning license
extensions  it has a similar record on requests to increase the
plants' power output  shouldn't be taken as an indication that
nuclear plants get a free pass from the NRC.

"You have to look at the broader perspective here. Before
companies even submit applications (for license renewal) they
have to do a tremendous amount of advance work," Sheehan said,
adding that the license renewal process typically costs a
nuclear plant owner about $10 million.

Sheehan said once the application is submitted there was
extensive back-and-forth between the utility and the NRC as NRC
staff ask for clarifications or more information about a wide
range of technical issues. He added that while the NRC hadn't
rejected any applications outright, it had sent two back for
more work.
   
*****************************************************************
 40 The Enquirer: Cincinnati still helping Chernobyl
 	 
Opinion                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Last Updated: 5:08 am | Sunday, March 26, 2006
 					   				 			
Leland M. Cole                                                                                                                                                                                          

Today is the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl, the worst nuclear
accident the world has ever seen. Two decades later, the local
population is still rebuilding their lives, and Cincinnati has
helped them.

After the accident, three of Chernobyl's four nuclear reactors
were still operating, producing electricity. One of these had a
fire in 1991. International efforts helped Ukraine shut down the
remainder of the plant completely - the third reactor in 1996,
the fourth in 2000.

America's contribution was a promise to help construct a giant
sarcophagus over the plant and to redeploy plant employees in
new jobs. Cincinnati's Center for Economic Initiatives (CEI)
helped with both of those promises by hosting two groups of
professionals from the Chernobyl area, one in construction and
one in information technology. [ADVERTISEMENT] 
						 

The construction group visited our Moscow, Ohio, and East Bend
power plants, as well as many other sites. They saw modern
techniques for building and operating power plants. Their
learning resulted in substantial improvements to the quality of
the sarcophagus and in recapturing steam escaping from the
plant. These are important improvements, as we're talking about
entombing highly radioactive materials that will stay
radioactive for many generations to come.

The IT program is helping the local population redirect their
lives by creating new industries and jobs and helping them
transition from government employment to private-sector
employment. In Cincinnati, says Larisa Nikitenko, from a
Chernobyl-area economic development agency, "I realized that in
our country, the future belongs to information technologies."

Twice I've been to the observation site one-quarter of a mile
from Chernobyl. I saw the concrete slabs positioned around the
reactor building. There were gaps between the slabs, with
radiation escaping into the atmosphere. To stop this, a huge
Quonset-like structure is being built adjacent to the reactor.
When completed, it will be rolled over the reactor and the ends
filled in. The Chernobyl construction engineers who came to
Cincinnati are helping to build this structure.

After 20 years, Chernobyl remains a dangerous place, ringed by
an 18-mile people-exclusion zone. Workers take a special train
to the site, passing through large Geiger counters upon arrival
and departure. Wild game abounds in the zone, including some
that has mutated, such as the nine-foot catfish in the cooling
lake.

There's no way to minimize the Chernobyl disaster, but at least
we here in Cincinnati have played a role in helping local safety
and also job opportunities.

Leland M. Cole is president of Cincinnati's Center for Economic
Initiatives, which helps developing countries build their
economies. 					 					 					
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 41 Cincinnati Post: Cinergy purchase clears last obstacle
 
By Emery P. Dalesio
Associated Press 

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina utilities regulators approved
Duke Energy Corp.'s purchase of Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp.
on Friday, clearing the way for a $9 billion deal that will
create one of the nation's largest public utilities.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission placed more than 70
conditions on the deal, including a requirement that
Charlotte-based Duke Energy must use $117.5 million for a
one-year, across-the-board cut in electricity bills for North
Carolina consumers.

The company had already received regulatory approval from the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, and regulatory bodies in its combined service area
of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Shareholders of both companies approved the deal two weeks ago.

North Carolina "is the last state regulatory body," Duke Energy
spokesman Randy Wheeless said. "We're pleased that the
commission has taken action. The order is 122 pages so we
haven't had the chance to fully review it."

Duke Energy agreed in May to buy Cinergy in a deal that will
create a company with about 5.4 million customers and $70
billion in assets.

Paul Anderson, chief executive and chairman of Duke Energy,
expects to close the Cinergy acquisition before the end of April.
Once the deal is completed, Duke will be the nation's top power
generator until Chicago's Exelon Corp. closes its acquisition of
New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., which is
expected later this year.

James Rogers, chief executive and chairman of Cinergy, will
become the chief executive officer of the combined company.
Anderson is slated to move into a role as executive chairman.

The companies argued that a merged operation with a combined 3.7
million retail electricity customers and about 1.7 million gas
customers will be better able to compete.

"Known and potential benefits to North Carolina ratepayers in
particular include economies of scale and scope that will enable
Duke Power to offer lower rates than otherwise would have been
possible," the utilities commission said in its order.

Under the merger agreement, each Cinergy share will be converted
to 1.56 shares of the new Duke Energy at the close of the deal.
Duke expects to save about $655 million in five years as a
result of the deal, mostly through job cutbacks. 

Publication date: 03-25-2006 
  
      [Cincinnati.Com]     

*****************************************************************
 42 Mos News: 20 Years On, UN Accused of Ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl Deaths -
                       
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
                
Photo: AP               
 	
Created: 26.03.2006 17:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:15 MSK 	
 	
MosNews
 	 	 	 	 	 	 		 	
In a series of reports about to be published, they will suggest
that at least 30,000 people are expected to die of cancers
linked directly to severe radiation exposure in 1986 and up to
500,000 people may have already died as a result of the worlds
worst environmental catastrophe, The Guardian reported Saturday. 

But the UNs International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World
Health Organization say that only 50 deaths can be directly
attributed to the disaster, and that, at most, 4,000 people may
eventually die from the accident on April 26 1986.

They say only nine children have died of thyroid cancers in 20
years and that the majority of illnesses among the estimated 5
million people contaminated in the former Soviet Union are
attributable to growing poverty and unhealthy lifestyles.

An IAEA spokesman said he was confident the UN figures were
correct. We have a wide scientific consensus of 100 leading
scientists. When we see or hear of very high mortalities we can
only lean back and question the legitimacy of the figures. Do
they have qualified people? Are they responsible? If they have
data that they think are excluded then they should send it.

The new estimates have been collated by researchers commissioned
by European parliamentary groups, Greenpeace International and
medical foundations in Britain, Germany, Ukraine, Scandinavia
and elsewhere. They take into account more than 50 published
scientific studies.

At least 500,000 people  perhaps more  have already died out
of the 2 million people who were officially classed as victims
of Chernobyl in Ukraine, said Nikolai Omelyanets, deputy head
of the National Commission for Radiation Protection in Ukraine.
[Studies show] that 34,499 people who took part in the clean-up
of Chernobyl have died in the years since the catastrophe. The
deaths of these people from cancers was nearly three times as
high as in the rest of the population.

We have found that infant mortality increased 20% to 30%
because of chronic exposure to radiation after the accident. All
this information has been ignored by the IAEA and WHO. We sent
it to them in March last year and again in June. Theyve not
said why they havent accepted it.

Evgenia Stepanova, of the Ukrainian governments Scientific
Centre for Radiation Medicine, said: Were overwhelmed by
thyroid cancers, leukaemias and genetic mutations that are not
recorded in the WHO data and which were practically unknown 20
years ago.

The IAEA and WHO, however, say that apart from an increase in
thyroid cancer in children there is no evidence of a large-scale
impact on public health. No increases in overall cancer
incidence or mortality that could be associated with radiation
exposure have been observed, said the agencies report in
September.

In the Rivne region of Ukraine, 310 miles west of Chernobyl,
doctors say they are coming across an unusual rate of cancers
and mutations. In the 30 hospitals of our region we find that
up to 30% of people who were in highly radiated areas have
physical disorders, including heart and blood diseases, cancers
and respiratory diseases. Nearly one in three of all the newborn
babies have deformities, mostly internal, said Alexander
Vewremchuk, of the Special Hospital for the Radiological
Protection of the Population in Vilne.

Figures on the health effects of Chernobyl have always been
disputed. Soviet authorities covered up many of the details at
the time. The largest radiation doses were received by the
600,000 people involved in the clean-up, many drawn from army
conscripts all over the Soviet Union.

The worst nuclear accident in history took place on April 26
1986 when one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl complex 80
miles north of Kiev in Ukraine began to fail. Operators shut
down the system, but a large chemical explosion followed a power
surge and the 1,000-tonne cover blew off the top of the reactor. 

Design flaws in the cooling system were blamed for the accident,
in which 31 people were killed immediately. The worst-affected
area was Belarus, which took the brunt of the 4% of the 190 tons
of uranium dioxide in the plant that escaped. Ukraine was also
contaminated. Some 600,000 workers (mainly volunteers) who took
part in recovery and clean-up operations were exposed to high
levels of radiation; the Soviet government first suppressed news
of the incident, but evacuated local people within a few days.
Five million people were exposed to radiation in Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia, and there was a dramatic increase in thyroid
cancer among children living there.

Copyright Š 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
 43 KnoxNews: World leaders thinking nuclear

With energy worries high, many countries exploring other options                           
                                                                                                
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press 
                                
March 26, 2006                                                          

CHALON-SUR-SAONE, France - At a factory nestled among Burgundy 
vineyards, workers shape, bore, polish and test pieces needed to 
put together a nuclear reactor. At each workstation, technical 
charts are pasted next to a map of the country buying the 
product. 

A reactor core marked for the Salem plant in New Jersey is 
propped on its side, 16 1/2 feet wide and resembling a chunk of 
an enormous railroad tunnel. Nearby, workers prepare to broach 
holes into a plate for 15,000 cooling tubes for a reactor in 
Ling'ao, China. 

Twenty years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant coughed a cloud of 
radiation over much of Europe and scared consumers and 
governments away from atomic power for a generation, a new crop 
of leaders, from North America to Europe to Asia, is thinking 
nuclear. 

One country has done perhaps the most to push back the pendulum:
France. 

As the only European country that continued making new nuclear
plants after Chernobyl, France has up-to-date expertise that
it's keen to export. And the market is ballooning. 

Oil threatens to become unaffordable, gas pipelines run through
zones of political uncertainty, and coal-fired power plants clog
lungs and may overheat the Earth. With energy worries topping
the world's agenda, even a few environmental activists are
reconsidering nuclear power, persuaded by improved safety and
the fear that fossil fuels pose even greater dangers to the
planet. 

China and India are embracing nuclear energy to support
breakneck growth. The United States and Russia are reviving
long-dormant nuclear plans, overriding concerns about
proliferation of the potentially deadly technology. 

Finland is building the first new reactor in western Europe
since 1991, made by Germany's Siemens and Areva, the world's
biggest reactor manufacturer, which operates the factory in
Burgundy. 

Not everyone is softening on nuclear power. Sweden and Germany
are shutting down, not starting up, reactors. But even Britain,
Italy and the Netherlands are talking about the option. So far
it's only talk - but groundbreaking talk, given these countries'
two-decade taboo on the topic. 

"We're positioned rather well for a nuclear renaissance," says
Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, an Areva vice president. 

France's key partner in promoting that renaissance is an
unexpected one: the United States. After two decades on the
defensive, the nations' industries are cooperating closely in
hopes of a new boom in nuclear power. 

France is the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, with
59 reactors churning out nearly 80 percent of its electricity.
The French state owns the world's biggest electricity utility,
Electricite de France, or EDF, and nuclear group Areva, the key
to France's international nuclear influence. 

Some 25 reactors are under construction around the world, adding
to the network of 440 commercial nuclear power plants spread out
over 31 countries that supply 16 percent of the world's total
electricity. Areva is directly involved in at least five of the
new projects. 

To Helene Gassin of Greenpeace, who has fought France's
all-powerful nuclear industry for years, the thriving, expanding
reactor factory in this modest industrial town is an alarming
sight. 

"Whenever we see an offer on nuclear energy, anywhere in the
world, it comes from France," said Gassin. "Nuclear is the
French identity." 

Greenpeace insists that despite the industry's claims, safe
nuclear power is a myth. Reduced consumption, it says, is the
key to solving the world's energy dilemma. 

Unlike other European countries, France has never had intense
debate over nuclear energy. Gassin and the few nuclear opponents
in France's legislature say that's because the industry is run
by a monopoly - EDF - which is in turn run by the state. 

France has also never suffered an accident the likes of
Chernobyl or the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in
Pennsylvania in 1979. 

Greenpeace calls that luck. Besides, say critics, nuclear energy
generates radioactive waste that is costly to store and prone to
theft by terrorists. More than 35 million cubic feet are stored
in France alone. 

London-based energy analyst David Bryant says the French
government has made safety paramount because it's key to keeping
the crucial industry afloat. Now, as more and more governments
join research into the next generation of reactors, the industry
says Generation IV will be the most efficient yet, will produce
less waste, and will be simplified to better handle and prevent
accidents. 

France, without oil, gas or much coal, chose the nuclear path in
the 1970s and hasn't turned back. But only in the last few years
has its nuclear industry gone so aggressively global, as Areva's
bulging bank accounts attest. 

The company has become a showcase of French industrial might,
with revenues of $12 billion last year and net profits up 54
percent since 2002, excluding one-time gains. When French
President Jacques Chirac makes major trips abroad, Areva chief
Anne Lauvergeon accompanies him. 

While France has been working as the world's atomic advocate,
any global nuclear rebound hinges on the United States, because
it has more nuclear plants than any other country and is the
world's biggest energy consumer. 

The Bush administration has enraged environmental groups with
its new "alternative energy" plan, which, while promising money
for wind and solar energy, makes the government's first big
pitch for nuclear energy in 27 years. 

Washington and Paris are aligning closely on the subject in a
way few would have pictured during their clashes over Iraq. This
month, former U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was
appointed chairman of the board of Areva Inc., the company's
U.S. operation. 

Bush and Chirac both recently visited India and snared major new
nuclear energy deals - and even consulted with each other to
ensure their stances were in sync. 

A key to the resurgent interest in nuclear power is cost. While
each new reactor costs several hundred million dollars, a
University of Chicago study concluded that a new fleet of more
efficient reactors could be expected to produce power as cheaply
as coal and natural gas. 

France's electricity is among the cheapest in western Europe,
costing 11 cents per kilowatt hour before taxes, below that of
anti-nuclear neighbors Germany (15 cents) and Italy (17 cents),
according to the EU statistics agency. 

The high-profile battle for control of U.S. nuclear company
Westinghouse - which Toshiba recently bought from British
Nuclear Fuels for $5.4 billion, twice the expected price -
underscores the business world's view that the industry is
poised for a takeoff. 

Still, for anti-nuclear activists, the shadow of the world's
worst nuclear accident, the April 26, 1986, explosion at
Chernobyl in then-Soviet Ukraine, will never recede. 

Some, though, have switched sides. 

Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, now says nuclear plants
could safely help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and satisfy
rising energy demand in the United States and abroad.

Copyright 2006, Associated Press. All rights

Š 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 44 TheStar.com: AECL unveils group of nuclear partners
 
Aims to cut risk on reactor sales

Approach marks `dramatic' change

Mar. 25, 2006. 09:26 AM 

TYLER HAMILTON BUSINESS REPORTER

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has created a private-sector 
consortium that is promising to absorb the risk of building any 
new nuclear plants in power-hungry Ontario, which is still 
stinging from cost overruns and delays in earlier projects.

The move is a pre-emptive strike against foreign nuclear-reactor
companies looking to muscle their way into an Ontario market
increasingly open to non-CANDU technologies.

"Team CANDU"  a partnership of AECL, SNC-Lavalin, GE Canada,
Hitachi Canada and Babcock and Wilcox  is to announce next week
that Ontario would not be alone in shouldering the risk if the
province chose to install next-generation CANDU technology.

The announcement anticipates a decision by Premier Dalton
McGuinty's government next month on expanding the province's
nuclear generating assets.

Robert Van Adel, president and chief executive officer of
federally owned AECL, told the Toronto Star the approach marks a
"dramatic" departure from past uncertainties.

"The major players are involved upfront at the beginning,
developing solutions, supporting development and other
associated costs, rather than AECL on its own seeking to develop
opportunities and then going out to look for major suppliers and
partners."

Under the new model, which the Crown corporation says creates a
"powerhouse" of expertise and experience, each partner takes on
its share of the project risk to deliver new CANDU plants,
including the next-generation Advanced CANDU Reactors, or ACRs,
on a turnkey basis under a fixed price.

"The private-sector partners will have the largest share of the
project scope," said Ken Petrunik, chief operating officer of
the Crown corporation, which has built all 22 reactors in Canada
but hasn't received a new domestic order since the 1970s.

"They form a very powerful, credible delivery team that has a
track record of delivering nuclear projects on schedule and on
budget."

Assuming the province decides to endorse more nuclear power,
experts say, nuclear operators would probably prefer to gain the
higher efficiency benefits of next-generation reactor
technology, including designs from General Electric and
Westinghouse, both of the United States, and France's Areva.

Areva is the only one building a next-generation advanced
reactor, under a project commissioned in Finland. No ACR has yet
been sold worldwide, but AECL hopes to use a new plant in
Ontario as a springboard for international sales. Without
Ontario, the Crown corporation's future business plan is on the
line.

Patrick Lemarre, president of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, acknowledged
the challenge involved with being the first to build such a
reactor, but added the deal and the terms can be designed to
financially shelter the province from any unexpected problems.

The fact that all partners are putting their reputations on the
line is a vote of confidence in AECL and its reactor technology,
said Howard Shearer, president and CEO of Hitachi Canada. 

"We recognize our serious responsibility to our shareholders. We
have a lot at stake in this. We would not undertake such a
model, such a partnership, without having a high level of
confidence in the technology and capability we can deliver to
the table."


Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
 45 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran to build 2 nuclear power plants 

  2006/03/26   
  
Tehran, March 26 - "Iranian government allocated 200 million
dollars for construction of two nuclear power plants," Head of
Management and Planning Organization, Farhad Rahbar said.

 He added the the agreement of the project was exchanged between
Management and Planning Organization and Iranian Atomic Energy
Organization.

 "We will allocate ratified budget to the project during next
days," Rahbar said.



  Copyright 2004, 
All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
News Network 

E-Mail: Webmaster@IRIBNEWS.ir
  
  
*****************************************************************
 46 Boston Globe: Nuclear safeguard stalled

March 26, 2006 

FOLLOWING the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986,
there were virtually no cases of thyroid cancer in many nearby
areas because residents quickly took potassium iodide pills. In
areas without the pills, many cases of the cancer, especially
among children, were reported as a result of the accident's
release of radioactivity. That and the Sept. 11 attacks spurred
Massachusetts to become a leader in making the pills available
to anyone within 10 miles of a nuclear plant. But since then,
both the Romney and Bush administrations have lagged in
following up on clear legislative mandates to make the pills
more available.

Historically, opposition to the pills came from the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, which feared they could undercut
confidence in the safety of nuclear power. Sept. 11 helped lay
that self-serving concern to rest, since it showed that
terrorists could turn even a safely operated nuclear plant into
a disaster. The NRC currently supports limited use of the pills.
No one contends that they substitute for evacuation or
protective shelter, since they protect against just one of the
radioisotopes that a damaged reactor could emit, but they do so
cheaply, at about 20 cents a pill, and effectively.

Both the state Legislature and the US Congress passed new laws
in 2002 on distribution of the pills. The state law called for
distribution on Cape Cod and the islands, which are downwind
from the Plymouth power plant, and Cape Ann, which is near the
Seabrook, N.H., plant. The federal law called for pills to be
available within 20 miles of plants. But four years later, there
is limited progress.

The federal law required the Department of Health and Human
Services to draw up guidelines for stockpiling and distributing
the pills. The draft that HHS has finally produced, four years
later, still leaves Representative Edward Markey extremely
dissatisfied. He found the guidelines provide little real advice
on stockpiling and distribution of the pills and even raise
doubts about their effectiveness, though they have been
recommended by the Food and Drug Administration and the World
Health Organization.

The state says that flaws in the 2002 law and the difficulty of
getting the affected towns to sign up for the pills have slowed
their distribution. But a letter that the head of the
Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Cristine McCombs,
sent to HHS in 2004 suggests the pills are a low priority. She
wrote that the state sees the pills' benefits to be ''marginal
at best" in comparison with evacuation or sheltering and opposes
the 20-mile distribution zone, despite the Legislature's vote
for pills beyond 20 miles.

Both Congress and the Legislature should call on the
foot-draggers to get moving, and explain why the public does not
have millions more of these pills ready to be used in an
emergency.[ /]  Š 

Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company. More: 
*****************************************************************
 47 KnoxNews: TVA gets defensive

Says N.C. lawsuit unfair slap after all utility's cleanup efforts

By REBECCA FERRAR, ferrarr@knews.com 
                                
March 26, 2006

CLINTON - TVA has spent $4.4 billion on pollution control devices 
at its coal-fired plants since 1977 and said this month it 
achieved its lowest emission levels ever in 2005, but that's not 
good enough for Roy Cooper. 

North Carolina's attorney general is the latest critic - and a 
high profile one at that - who's attacking TVA for a problem the 
federal power producer insists it's working hard to solve. 

Cooper's "public nuisance" lawsuit demands an end to air 
pollutants he claims float into North Carolina and contribute to 
more than 15,000 illnesses and hundreds of emergency room visits 
and even deaths each year. 

"It's especially disheartening to be on the receiving end of a
lawsuit like this when you know the things TVA has done," said
Bill Baxter, chairman of the federal power producer's board. 

"When you compare (TVA) to the plants in North Carolina, TVA has
done so much more. Our emissions have gone down. North Carolina
emissions by some measures have gone up." 

North Carolina, however, says TVA could do more to reduce sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and soot that blows east from
coal burning plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. 

"If the TVA would cut air pollution like North Carolina
utilities have agreed to do, then this legal action would be
over," said Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for Cooper. "Better air
quality from the TVA will help the people of Tennessee even more
than the people of North Carolina. What we want TVA to do is
make a binding commitment to reduce air pollution." 

North Carolina's federal suit asks that TVA cut air emissions by
two-thirds - a step already under way by North Carolina's power
plants under a state law. 

Cooper argues that pollutants from TVA plants make North
Carolinians sick with lung disease and contaminate the fish they
catch. 

"This air pollution also degrades the environment, ruining
visibility in the scenic mountains, and harms North Carolina's
economy," a statement from the North Carolina attorney general's
office said. 

But Baxter says the largest contributors to air pollution in
North Carolina are the state's own utilities, other plants and
automobiles. In addition, he said North Carolina utilities emit
more sulfur dioxide than every other state in the Southeast
except Georgia, where TVA has no plants. 

TVA's announcement March 15 noted the agency's 11 coal plants
achieved their lowest emission levels in 2005 while producing
near-record levels of electricity. 



The cost of compliance A federal lawsuit carries with it the
specter of costly, court-required solutions should North
Carolina win, but asked about the potential of rate hikes,
Baxter said he expects the lawsuit to be dismissed. 

He also said TVA's compliance with U.S. Clean Air Interstate
Rule will mean stricter air pollution standards for the
Tennessee Valley. 

As for the possibility of needing more revenue, Baxter said, "We
are currently budgeted for expenditures to keep us in line with
the Clean Air Act. Compliance with CAIR means further reductions
in emissions between now and 2015. We will have to determine if
our current revenue stream is sufficient to comply with CAIR. We
have not made that determination, yet." 

TVA has made a commitment to spend another $1.3 billion on
pollution controls at its 59 coal units at 11 plants by the end
of this decade. 

Coal plants produce 62 percent of the power generated by TVA,
which serves parts of seven states. 

Some observers give the agency kudos for its efforts, and TVA
expects to bring more energy on line with the restart of Browns
Ferry Nuclear Unit 1 in Northern Alabama in 2007. 

TVA, the nation's largest public utility, burns thousands of
tons of coal each day, releasing tons of pollutants into the
air. 

Just one of those plants - Bull Run, in Clinton - burns 7,400
tons of coal daily. 

"That's a lot of coal, but it puts out a lot of power and
generates in excess of 900 megawatts of electricity," said Greg
Nunley, Bull Run assistant plant manager. A megawatt generates
enough power to heat 585 homes. 

Critics note that nuclear energy has its problems, the same as
electricity produced by coal plants. 

While nuclear power is clean on the front end, there is no place
yet to permanently bury the nuclear waste building up at nuclear
plants across the nation - waste that will be radioactive for
hundreds of years. 

Baxter insists TVA has been "steadily reducing emissions and
cutting pollution from its coal plants for decades." 

"We are already seeing the quality of our air improve throughout
the valley," he said. "Even the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park is seeing a steady decline in those pollutants and a steady
improvement in the quality of air." 

The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency enforces the Clean Air Act, and the standards
have been tightened over the years. 

Despite the North Carolina lawsuit, both the EPA and the
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation say TVA is
in compliance with federal and state air regulations. 

TVA has built Selective Catalytic Reduction systems at Bull Run
and other coal-fired plants to remove much of the nitrogen oxide
that is going into the environment, particularly during the
summer months when ozone levels are highest. Nitrogen oxide
contributes to ozone. 

The federal utility also is building scrubbers at Bull Run and
other plants to filter out most of the sulfur dioxide from the
environment. Scrubbers are also being built at the Paradise and
Kingston plants. 

"We picked the six largest plants for scrubbers," Baxter said.
''We try to strategically select plant by plant where we'll get
the most bang for the buck." 

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy, has both praise and criticism for TVA's actions. 

Smith praises TVA for its efforts to get rid of nitrogen oxide,
rating the efforts a "B." 

"Where TVA deserves the most credit is in the area of nitrogen
oxide," Smith said. 

But Smith says there's more to consider. 

"There's not one pollutant we're looking at," Smith said. "We're
looking at four - nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury and
carbon dioxide." 

Baxter says TVA is meeting guidelines established by the Bush
administration regarding mercury. 

He says that the SCRs and the scrubbers are removing much of the
mercury in the process of removing the other pollutants. 

Still, Smith said he would give TVA an "F" for their strategy on
reducing mercury pollution. 

"We think they should have a much more aggressive stance on
mercury," Smith said. "And Bull Run puts out as much carbon
monoxide as a million cars. Those coal plants are major
contributors to pollution, even after TVA put controls on them." 

TVA has reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by about 80 percent
since 1995 and sulfur dioxide emissions 78 since 1977. 

Alternatives won't replace coal U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of
Tennessee says he would "pat TVA on the back" for three things:
the installation of SCR equipment to control nitrogen dioxide,
the construction of scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide and TVA's
commitment to nuclear power, which Alexander supports as a clean
energy source. 

Alexander urges TVA to consider building scrubbers at all of its
coal-fired plants. He also urges TVA to consider building coal
gasification plants - coal-fired plants that do not emit the
harmful pollutants like the older coal plants. TVA has shown no
interest in pursuing coal gasification, which is considered a
complex and expensive technology. 

"We've looked at coal gasification through the years," said TVA
spokesman John Moulton. "Right now, it's not economical for us
to build new coal gasification plants. So far, it's not
competitive for us." 

Baxter said TVA agrees that coal gasification will allow
utilities to continue to use coal, which is an abundant American
resource. But the challenge, he said, is that it costs 20
percent more to produce electricity than a standard coal plant. 

TVA's second phase of its air emissions reduction strategy will
comply with the CAIR, a regional solution to reduce air
pollution. During this phase, TVA plans to install scrubbers at
80 to 90 percent of its fossil generation capacity by 2015. 

Smith differs with Alexander as to whether TVA should put
scrubbers on all its coal plants. Smith says the older, less
efficient plants are not worth the multi-million-dollar
scrubbers. 

Despite the nuclear plant TVA is revamping, the agency has made
no commitment to back off from using coal. 

Smith, however, notes government officials have not solved the
problem of what to do with nuclear waste. 

Both TVA's Sequoyah and Browns Ferry nuclear plants have run out
of room to store nuclear waste in the spent fuel pools. The
spent fuel at those plants is now being stored on site in huge,
heavy-duty dry casks, which TVA considers a proven and safe
technology. 

For years, the federal government has planned to store spent
nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. It has been voted on
by the Congress and signed into law by President Bush. But local
controversy has delayed that operation. 

"Yucca Mountain is the correct answer for our country," Baxter
said. 

Now, President Bush has requested $250 million in his current
budget for a new nuclear fuel reprocessing initiative as a way
to reduce nuclear waste. 

But Smith and other critics argue that reprocessing is dangerous
because of the possibilities for nuclear proliferation by
terrorists. 

"It's risky because of the security," Smith said. "We don't see
nuclear power as a viable option in response to cutting down air
pollution. We still don't have a solution to the radioactive
waste." 

Business writer Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at 865-342-6357.

PHOTOS BY CLAY OWEN NEWS SENTINEL                           
 				
Š 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 48 AFP: Japan's long-stalled nuclear power project gets boost 

 Sunday March 26, 02:35 PM 

  [Hokuriku Electric's nuclear power plant in western Japan]   
    
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's long-stalled controversial plan to use
recycled fuel in nuclear power reactors received a boost after a
rural town accepted the method despite nationwide safety
concerns.

The mayor of Genkai in southern Japan and the local governor
said they accepted a plan by regional power utility Kyushu
Electric Power Co. to begin using uranium-plutonium mixed oxide
(MOX) fuel at one of its reactors.

"We are assured that the plan is safe," Saga governor Yasushi
Furukawa told a WWF Adoption March MPU, advert_format=GIF
Banner, advert_id=6056, site=yahoo_300250cpc -->[''] [ src=] 
news conference, after Toshihiro Nikai, the minister of economy,
trade and industry, inspected the reactor in Saga prefecture and
met local administrators.

"Minister Nikai gave us a strong message that the government
would do its best to ensure safety at the reactor," he added
Sunday. 

Kyushu Electric plans to start operating a reactor at its Genkai
nuclear power plant with MOX fuel in the business year to March
2011. It will become Japan's first plant to use MOX fuel.

In the so-called pluthermal process, plutonium extracted from
spent nuclear fuel is combined with uranium oxide to create MOX
fuel, which is then burned in light-water reactors.

The Japanese government has been pushing the pluthermal process
since 1997 as the center of its nuclear-fuel recycling policy to
make up for the country's poor reserves of natural resources.

Its plan to use a fast-breeder reactor, which produces more
plutonium than it uses, had been suspended due to a sodium leak
accident in 1995 at its pilot plant Monju.

Plutonium can be used to produce nuclear bombs and its
management is a cause for concern, particularly among ecologists
and peace activists.

Japan relies on nuclear power for one third of its electricity,
and the ratio is expected to go up to 40 percent by 2010.

The Japanese electric industry has plans to use the pluthermal
method at 16-18 nuclear reactors in the country by the year to
March 2011. But they have been stalled by a series of accidents
and scandals.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, who heads the Federation of Electric Power
Companies of Japan, welcomed Genkai's move as "an extremely
significant step forward."

In September last year, Kyushu Electric obtained central
government approval to install a pluthermal reactor at the
plant, pending consent from local administration.

In August 2004, a steam burst from a ruptured pipe killed five
workers at a nuclear power plant run by Kansai Electric Power
Co. in central Japan, forcing its pluthermal project to be
postponed indefinitely.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. planned to use MOX fuel at plants in
Niigata and Fukushima prefectures in northern Japan.

But local residents voted against the Niigata plan and the
governor of Fukushima scrapped the project in his prefecture
after the company's cover-up of nuclear reactor faults at its
plants came to light. 
                                
AFP
*****************************************************************
 49 SA Sunday Times: Shock over new Cape nuclear plan
 					
Saturday March 25, 2006 08:59 - (SA)                                    
 					
Environmental group Earthlife Africa says it is shocked by recent 
media reports regarding Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin's 
announcement that Eskom plans to build a new conventional nuclear 
power station at Koeberg. 

"It is shameful that Erwin should make such an announcement at an 
international conference before consulting South African 
citizens, who would be the main financiers of such a project," 
Earthlife said. 

"Much has been said about the lack of transparency and 
accountability with respect to the latest round of power outages 
as all parties tried desperately to shift the blame," the 
organisation said. 

"Perhaps the purchase of a new nuclear power station is a 
condition of the sale of EDF's spare rotor to Eskom to repair 
Koeberg's Unit One. Either way, we will surely remain in the dark 
for some time to come," Earthlife stated. 

I-Net Bridge 					
 					
All material copyright Sunday Times
   ÂŠ Johnnic Media Investments Limited 1996-2005. All Rights
*****************************************************************
 50 Japan Times: Court orders new reactor's halt 

Ruling days after startup issued over quake risk Compiled from

Kyodo, AP 

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. -- The Kanazawa District Court ordered 
Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to shut down the No. 2 reactor at its 
Shika power plant Friday in Ishikawa Prefecture, recognizing a 
citizen group's claim that it would be vulnerable, as it sits 
near a fault line, if a major quake hit. Hokuriku Electric Power 
began full operation of the upgraded 1,358-megawatt boiling-water 
reactor on March 15. It is the nation's 55th commercial reactor 
and second-largest in terms of output. 

  [News photo]   

  Plaintiffs celebrate their win at the Kanazawa District Court,
which ordered Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to shut down its No.2
reactor at the Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa Prefecture.
  
The 135 plaintiffs, from 17 prefectures, filed the lawsuit in
August 1999, initially demanding the reactor not be built. The
plaintiffs had said the reactor was too weak, noting it was
built using 20-year-old antiquake-design guidelines from the
government. 

They said residents were at serious risk of being exposed to a
major accident because the reactor is near the Ochigata fault
line, which the government's Earthquake Research Committee has
said could have a major temblor of magnitude 7.6. 

Their suit also said the advanced boiling-water reactor is more
dangerous than conventional boiling-water reactors as the
advanced model was created for cost efficiency and the power
supply in the Hokuriku region currently exceeds demand. 

Presiding Judge Kenichi Ido said the utility "has not taken into
consideration an earthquake that may occur at the Ochigata fault
belt." 

"There is a possibility that the plaintiffs may be exposed to
radiation in an accident at the plant caused by an earthquake
that is beyond the defendant's expectation," Ido said. 

The court also said the shutdown will not affect the utility's
overall electric power supply in the short term. 

"Residents' rights will be violated if radioactive material
above tolerable levels is released" into the atmosphere, he
said, adding "A suspension order on the reactor will by no means
cause major problems to Hokuriku Electric's power supply in the
short term." 

When the ruling was handed down, the courtroom filled with
applause. "Our voices have reached the judge," said Tetsuya
Tanaka, one of the plaintiffs, immediately afterward. 

Hokuriku Electric had argued that it took all necessary
precautions to ensure the reactor is safe and claimed its
operation was necessary to secure a stable power supply. 

The plaintiffs are mostly residents of Ishikawa and Toyama
prefectures. But people from Fukushima, Tokyo, Kanagawa,
Niigata, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Shiga, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara,
Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima and Kumamoto prefectures also took
part in the suit. 

The utility began construction of the reactor on Aug. 27, 1999.
On Aug. 31 that year, the 135 citizens filed the lawsuit with
the Kanazawa District Court demanding a halt in construction of
the reactor. 

Hokuriku Electric began trial operations of the reactor last
April 26, and the group changed their lawsuit last May 13 to
demand the utility stop its operation. 

The utility said it will appeal the ruling to the high court. 
At a news later in the day in Kanazawa, Kenichi Doshita, leader
of the plaintiffs, renewed their resolve to continue their fight
while welcoming the court ruling. 

Lawyer Masaaki Iwabuchi said the reactor halt order has great
significance in a nation that experiences frequent earthquakes. 
"This ruling has set a significant precedent for future lawsuits
involving nuclear reactors," Iwabuchi said. 

Meanwhile, officials at Hokuriku Electric Power expressed
dissatisfaction at a separate news conference in Kanazawa. 

Spokesman Masato Kontani said it was extremely regrettable the
Kanazawa District Court did not recognize the utility's
argument, adding the utility will soon file an appeal. 

Regarding the quake-resistance capability of the No. 2 reactor,
Hokuriku Electric officials said the company had made its utmost
efforts to ensure the safety, repeating its claim in the past
court sessions. 

"Operations will continue," another official said at the news
conference. 

The Japan Times: Saturday, March 25, 2006 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 51 Guardian Unlimited: Key Events in History of Nuclear Energy

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday March 25, 2006 6:01 PM

By The Associated Press 

Key dates in the history of nuclear power: 

1897: French scientists Marie Curie and Henri Becquerel discover
radioactivity. 

1942: Manhattan Project begins, creating top-secret nuclear
research and production facilities. 

1951: U.S. reactor creates first usable electricity from nuclear
fission. 

1956: France's first nuclear reactor goes on line. 

1979: Accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania causes
partial meltdown, halting expansion of U.S. nuclear industry and
spurring the anti-nuclear movement. 

1986: Reactor at Chernobyl plant in Soviet Union explodes,
killing four people immediately and exposing millions to
radiation, which reached as far as Sweden and Germany. Nuclear
programs across Europe are halted or scrapped in the ensuing
years. 

2001: Russia starts up first new reactor in the former Soviet
Union since Chernobyl. 

2002: Finland, going against the grain in western Europe,
announces plans for new reactor. 

2006: Russia-Ukraine gas dispute prompts Europe-wide worries
about energy security and revives interest in nuclear; China
promises 32 nuclear plants to meet burgeoning energy needs;
United States and France sign major nuclear energy deals with
India; 20th anniversary of Chernobyl accident. 
		 	 	   

Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 52 [NukeNet] 60 Minutes - Dec. 15, 2004 Wednesday - Dirty Bombs: 
 
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:56:54 -0800

<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

60 Minutes CBS TV
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/14/60II/printable660982.shtml>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/14/60II/printable660982.shtml

DIRTY BOMBS WAITING TO HAPPEN?
Dec. 15, 2004

----------
(CBS) One of the dirty little secrets about international terrorism is that 
it doesn't take much radioactive material to make a dirty bomb.

And theres plenty of that material in Georgia  the Georgia that used to 
be part of the Soviet Union.

During a year-long investigation, 60 Minutes Wednesday found that 
radioactive material just keeps turning up in Georgia  on military bases, 
in the woods, outside apartment buildings.

Its not difficult to find, and as Correspondent Dan Rather reports, it's 
not difficult to transport, either.

----------
Georgia, now an independent country, was known for decades as a lawless, 
corrupt place. And now, terrorism has become a major challenge for Mikhail 
Saakashvili, the smart, energetic, new president of the country.

"Terrorism is a valid concern from everybody," says Saakashvili, who was 
educated in the United States.

Is he concerned about the possibility of terrorists getting hold of some of 
these radioactive materials? "We still have certain signs that we should be 
concerned," says Saakashvili. "Because terrorists are getting more 
sophisticated. And sometimes, they could be more sophisticated than the 
state."

Listen to Tamaz's story, and you'll realize that in Georgia, terrorists 
don't have to be very sophisticated to find and transport enough 
radioactive material to make a dirty bomb. Tamaz has been driving his 
beat-up taxi in the capital of Tblisi for more than 30 years. Last year, he 
says two customers told him to drive to the train station. Then, they asked 
him to make a detour and go up a hill.

Tamaz says he wondered where they were taking him. He was asked to stop and 
load some very heavy boxes into his trunk. On the way back down the hill, 
the police pulled him over, but only because the cab was so weighted down 
in the back.

Tamaz said he got out of the car and showed the officer his license. Then 
he was asked to open the trunk and says he almost fainted when he saw what 
was inside.

Pictures taken after Tamaz was stopped showed what was in his trunk: heavy 
boxes lined with lead and stamped with radiation symbols. Inside were two 
kinds of radioactive material, Cesium 137 and Strontium 90, and some 
poisonous gas. There are reports the materials were being transported to 
the Turkish border.

"Concern is that this stuff might end up in the hands of terrorists," says 
Gela Bezhuashvili, Georgias national security adviser. "This is a real 
threat that they, any terrorist group, can find the stuff, take it and then 
explode it either in Georgia or anywhere else."

----------
Long before Sept. 11, mountainous Georgia was known as a place where 
terrorists could easily hide. Georgia has a rich, centuries-old culture and 
heritage, but its in a dangerous part of the world. Chechnya is just 
across the border.

Russia has dumped or left all kinds of dangerous materials in Georgia that 
are difficult to keep secure. And it's not just radioactive materials. A 
director of one research facility showed 60 Minutes Wednesday in Tblisi a 
small room with several refrigerators packed with deadly pathogens and 
diseases.

One refrigerator has a collection of anthrax; another has plague; another 
tularemia; and another botulism.

The anthrax, plague and botulism -- and lots of radioactive materials -- 
were all left behind when the Russians departed in the '90s, after the 
collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russians abandoned the materials at about 
150 military bases without telling or warning anybody. And they didn't 
leave a clean-up fund.

"We didnt get much cooperation on those issues from the Russians," says 
Saakashvili. "Unfortunately, old Russian military bases, they left the 
country without proper agreement on how those things should have been 
handled. It was rather chaotic process."

In fact, it was so chaotic that no one had any idea what the Russians had 
dumped there until 1997. Thats when a dozen Georgian soldiers accidentally 
picked up capsules of Cesium 137 at a military base. Most of them received 
severe radioactive burns.

In 1998 and 1999, radioactive Strontium 90, used by the Russians in an 
airline navigation system, were found in a remote mountain village. With no 
biohazard suits available, Georgian authorities did their best to remove 
the material safely. Then, near an apartment building in Tblisi, more 
Cesium 137 was found just lying on the ground. In the winter of 2002, more 
Strontium was removed from a village called Lia. Three woodcutters were 
severely injured.

Georgia has also been a pipeline for the international transport of 
dangerous materials. In December 2001, an Armenian man was arrested 
carrying uranium that apparently had come from a nuclear power plant in 
Armenia. He told a television reporter that "I wanted to sell each 
container for $7,000."

During 60 Minutes Wednesday's year-long investigation in Tblisi, they were 
told someone could buy enough Cesium to make a dirty bomb for $10,000.

Georgias former environmental minister, Nino Chkhobadze, has also heard 
reports that Cesium is for sale. She says shes concerned because it would 
take only a small amount to make a dirty bomb. She said that most of the 
radioactive material from Soviet days has been recovered, but she also 
knows that some is still missing.

"Everything that was recovered can be used to create dirty bombs. Terrorism 
has no borders and it is practically impossible to fight against it if the 
country is not organized," says Chkhobadze.

The Georgian government insists it has safely stored all the Cesium its 
found, but 60 Minutes Wednesday learned that security is rather lax. There 
are 200 canisters stored at one undisclosed facility. The canisters were 
sealed, but the radiation level was 80 times higher than outside the building.

In front of the building, there was just one guard with an automatic 
weapon. There were no guards behind the facility; just a wall, a wire fence 
and no security cameras. Sasha Gurevich, a former Georgian TV journalist, 
showed 60 Minutes Wednesday that the crumbling wall is not secure enough to 
keep out intruders.

"I went over the wall, walked up a little hill, looked around. There was no 
security so I felt safe. Continued going. I saw the facility it is about 
150 meters from the wall. I walked right to it," says Gurevich.

"It was about 10 meters away from me. There was no security around. Nobody 
was walking around. There was only one rusty lock on the gate, and there 
was a huge sign of radioactivity on the gate turned around came back, 
crawled through the wall."

"The government tells us that police should be here in case of trespassing 
within two or three minutes," adds Gurevich. "Nobody is here. I am standing 
here for the last 10 minutes now. There is no big gate. There is one little 
gate and one lock on the gate."

Saakashvili said he needs more money to upgrade security at facilities like 
this one. And the United States is trying to help. American money will pay 
for a new building to store Russian radioactive material at a military base 
near Tblisi.

The American military is also trying to help by training the soldiers at an 
army base near the capital. From what we saw, they need a few more lessons.

U.S. military assistance to Georgia is expected to keep increasing. 
Georgia, in fact, has been getting so much help from the United States that 
some hard-line Russians have been calling President Saakashvili an American 
spy. He says it's nonsense, but when we talked in New York, he did not hide 
his affection for the United States.

"I sometimes miss the United States. I miss New York. I love New York. And 
when I come here, it is very, you know, sentimental and nostalgic for me," 
says Saakashvili, who lived in New York, and graduated from Columbia Law 
School in 1994. Back then, his plan was to be a big-time lawyer in New York.

How did he get to where he is now? "I had a choice to make, and the choice 
was to become a lawyer at Manhattan law firm," he says. "But the point was 
that I came from the country where, at the time, there was still war. It 
was ravaged by poverty. It was ravaged by despair."

He says corrupt politicians and Mafia-style gangsters ran the country: 
"They stole Georgias natural riches. They stole our taxes. They stole the 
foreign assistance that came to Georgia."

Saakashvili decided to return to Georgia, start a reform party, and run 
against the corrupt regime of former President Eduard Shevardnadze. After a 
contested election, Saakashvili took over and almost immediately began 
cracking down on corruption. He fired the hated traffic police, who had 
hassled and shaken down drivers for years, making more in bribes than 
wages. And he hired a brand new force.

"We basically manage to crack down on corruption and to basically eliminate 
the issue of corruption," says Saakashvili. "To tackle the issue of 
corruption in our security service. And this was very important."

But the president knows its only a first step.

"I think our security is much more efficient at this point, but of course, 
there still could be something out there that's not fully under control," 
says Saakashvili.

"I think we are getting there, but we are not there yet. Because we need to 
have much more efficient system that nothing like this could happen."

_______________________________________________________________________
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*****************************************************************
 53 Guardian Unlimited: Bombing civilians is not only immoral, it's ineffective

Guardian daily comment | 

It was not allied area bombing that won the second world war, any 
more than did 'shock and awe' in Iraq in 2003            
 		
AC Grayling

Monday March 27, 2006
The Guardian 		
 		
No one knows how many civilians have died violently in Iraq since 
the US-led invasion in 2003. The most careful assessment, by the 
website Iraq Body Count, estimates at least 36,000. The true 
figure could be three times higher. The uncertainty is explained 
by General Tommy Franks' now-notorious remark, "We don't do body 
counts."

Three interesting facts nevertheless help shape a sense of the
possibilities. One is that the US forces insist that they use
precision techniques to minimise "collateral damage". The second
is that the coalition recently and controversially admitted
using phosphorus weapons in its attack on Falluja. The third is
that one of the US marine air wings operating in Iraq announced
in a press release in November 2005 that since the invasion
began it had dropped more than half a million tons of explosives
on Iraq.

The felt inconsistency between the first fact and the other two 
reminds one that ever since the deliberate mass bombing of 
civilians in the second world war, and as a direct response to 
it, the international community has outlawed the practice. It 
first tried to do so in the fourth Geneva convention of 1949, but 
the UK and the US would not agree, since to do so would have been 
an admission of guilt for their systematic "area bombing" of 
German and Japanese civilians.

But in 1977 a protocol was added to that convention at last
outlawing civilian bombing, and the UK signed it. The US still
has not done so. Because enough nations are signatories the
protocol is now part of customary international law, putting the
US out on a limb.

Looking at area bombing through the lens of the 1977 protocol
explains why it has always been controversial. Even during the
second world war there was a vigorous campaign opposing area
bombing, most strongly supported in places such as London and
Coventry which had themselves been "blitzed". One of the
campaign's leaders was Vera Brittain, whose pamphlet Seed of
Chaos caused an outcry in the US; not having been bombed, it was
enthusiastic about flattening enemy cities and their occupants.

The second world war bombing story is clouded by
misunderstandings, largely because the victor nations, rightly
condemning the far greater crimes committed by nazism, have yet
to inquire properly into aspects of their own behaviour.

Confessing to a tactic which for decades before 1939 had been
universally condemned as immoral, and which from early in the
war was recognised as having little military value (and indeed
perhaps the opposite), would have invited awkward questions
about why it was done, and seemed unfair to the airmen whose
extraordinary courage and sacrifice was called upon to carry it
out.

Defenders of the area-bombing campaigns point out that losing
the war against such wicked, dangerous enemies would have been
the biggest immorality of all. They are right. But stooping to
tactics as barbarous as those of the axis powers could only have
been justified if there were no other arguably better ways of
using the bombing weapon.

It has been hypothesised that if allied bombing had been
relentlessly focused on fuel and transport in Nazi-controlled
Europe, the war would have been shorter by two years. To their
credit, the Americans understood this and in Europe did not join
the RAF in indiscriminate area bombing, but concentrated on
these crucial assets. As a result they share with the Russian
army the largest single credit for victory over nazism. But when
the US got within bombing range of Japan it adopted the RAF
tactic with a vengeance, and in less than a year killed as many
Japanese civilians as were killed in Germany in the entire war.

Details are more eloquent than statistics. Night after night,
for years, the RAF rained upon Germany's cities a mixture of
high-explosive and incendiary bombs, the latter outnumbering the
former by four to one. The high explosives blew out windows,
doors and roofs, allowing fires to spread. The incendiaries
variously contained petroleum jelly, phosphorus and oil-soaked
rags. When phosphorus splashed on to a human being, burning
ferociously, it could not be dislodged. Victims leapt into
canals, but the flames would spontaneously reignite when they
clambered out. Among the bombs were time-delay devices, set to
explode at intervals in the hours and days after a raid to
disrupt ambulance, firefighting and rescue services.

Compared to the weight and ferocity of RAF and US bombing, the
Nazi "blitz" and its V-rocket attacks of 1944 were small beer.
Yet it was not allied civilian bombing that won the second world
war, any more than did "shock and awe" in Iraq in 2003. What
both show is that bombing civilians is not only immoral, but
ineffective. It takes nuclear weapons, delivering absolutely
massive civilian extermination, to have the desired effect of
reducing a people to submission; but employing such a tactic
today would be self-defeating, for all it offers is victory over
a radioactive wasteland.

The main lesson of second world war area bombing for the
international community has been to define it as a war crime.
Its main lesson for today's militaries, by contrast, appears to
be: "Don't do body counts."

ˇ AC Grayling's latest book is Among the Dead Cities: Was the
Allied Bombing of Civilians in WWII a Necessity or a Crime?

a.grayling@philosophy.bbk.ac.uk
 	
Useful links
Imperial War Museum
spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
The Second World War Experience Centre

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 54 Paducah Sun: Contractor: Workforce for cleanup not decided 

Paducah, Kentucky 

Uncertainty lingers over salaried employees of Paducah
Remediation Services. 

Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com 270.575.8656 

Saturday, March 25, 2006 

Paducah Remediation Services is still trying to determine how
many salaried employees will be needed when it takes over for
Bechtel Jacobs April 23 as the new cleanup contractor at the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. 

That is one of the uncertainties facing the Hopkinsville-based
West Kentucky Workforce Investment board, which provides
services to dislocated workers. The organization has run out of
federal money in its 17-county area, fears still deeper budget
cuts and has notices of potentially another 750 layoffs. Nearly
half of those are at Bechtel Jacobs and Weskem, the lead plant
waste management contractor, but many if not all of those people
may be rehired by Paducah Remediation Services (PRS) and the
firms working under it. 

Although Weskem reportedly issued voluntary layoff notices
Friday, company officials could not be reached for elaboration. 

About 560 people are employed by Bechtel Jacobs and its various
subcontractors. Of those, about 160 are members of the plant
nuclear workers´ union. Union President Rob Ervin said he
expects few if any hourly workers to lose jobs. 

There may be some reduction on the salaried side of the fence,
he said. But it´s not applicable to the union. 

The number of salaried workers needed will be resolved by
analyzing the amount of work PRS must do, given an extensive lag
between the time it bid for the work and was awarded the
contract, said Yvette Cantrell, public affairs officer for PRS. 

In January 2005, the Department of Energy awarded a $303 million
contract to North Wind Paducah Cleanup Co., but several other
bidders balked. Their protests were dismissed with DOE´s
agreement to rebid the work last summer. At that time, the
agency said ongoing work by Bechtel Jacobs would reduce the
value of the cleanup to about $279 million. 

When DOE awarded the revised contract to PRS in December, it was
worth about $192 million. Its contract runs through Sept. 30,
2009. 

The difference in contract values does not mean a decrease in
employment, Cantrell said. It doesn´t at all suggest a
different approach to employment that Northwind might have had
versus PRS. She said the assessment of how many salaried workers
will be needed factors in how much work Bechtel Jacobs did or
didn´t accomplish during the lag time, as well as how much new
work is required of PRS. 

It´s just too early for us to make that projection, Cantrell
said. The gap analysis is to try to maximize the number of jobs
needed. 

Whoever is rehired will go to work immediately with PRS, she
said. 

Bechtel Jacobs and Weskem have given notice to the work force
board of a total of 346 workers potentially being laid off with
the ending of their contracts. The board has not been informed
how many of those workers, if any, might actually lose jobs,
Director Sheila Clark said. 

Clark said many of the remaining 404 layoff notices in the
Pennyrile area are particularly associated with cuts in the
garment industry. They are spread over a wide variety of
employers, she said. 

Last fall, the board received $945,470 from the Department of
Labor to serve dislocated workers for the next two years. The
money has already been spent because of the heavy number of
existing layoffs, notably 730 when Continental Tire ceased
production in Mayfield 15 months ago, Clark said. 

To make matters worse, the board is very concerned about
President Bush´s 2007 budget, which effectively cuts 15 percent
across all DOL work force funding categories, she said. The
budget also basically rewrites part of dislocated worker-funding
legislation by proposing that 75 percent of the services be
through career advancement accounts capped at $3,000 per
dislocated individual for all services, Clark said. 

We find that this would effectively reduce services for
dislocated workers, as services are normally more expensive in
rural areas in addition to supportive costs such as travel, she
said. This is very important to constituents in western
Kentucky, and the number of dislocated workers continues at high
levels. 

*****************************************************************
 55 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada calls for results of probes into Yucca Mountain e-mails 

March 24, 2006 

By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The federal government should release the
results of yearlong investigations into whether laws were broken
by scientists at the nation's planned nuclear waste dump, a
Nevada official said Friday. 

A spokeswoman at the Energy Department inspector general's
office said the matter was being reviewed by federal
prosecutors, and an Interior Department official said an
investigation there was continuing. 

"It's critical to know whether the law's been broken at Yucca
Mountain," said Bob Loux, chief of the Nevada state office
working to stop the project. Loux asked for results of the twin
investigations in a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Samuel
Bodman and outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton. 

Energy Department investigators probing allegations of criminal
activity have turned information over to the U.S. Attorney's
office but no official report has been issued, Energy Department
spokeswoman Denise Smith said Friday. 

U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman A.B. Wade said she couldn't
characterize the scope of an Interior Department investigation.
The USGS is a branch of the Interior Department. 

"We're waiting for the results of the inspector general report
before determining the appropriate course of action, if any,"
Wade said. 

Loux's call for action came after Bodman told a House
subcommittee March 8 that his department was trying to fix a
"broken" project. On Thursday the General Accounting Office
released a report that said the project's quality assurance
needed improvement. 

The state also filed a lawsuit this week invoking the Freedom of
Information Act to try to obtain Energy Department documents
that state officials say will show the planned nuclear dump
cannot safely hold the nation's most radioactive waste. 

Loux said it had been more than a year since it was disclosed
that e-mails written from 1998 to 2000 suggested scientists
falsified data that helped persuade President Bush and Congress
to approve the Yucca Mountain site in 2002. 

The Energy Department plans to ship some 77,000 tons of spent
nuclear fuel now stored in 39 other states to the site 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas. 

Nevada argues that the radioactivity of the waste would far
outlive the manmade and geologic measures taken to entomb it,
and contaminate the air and the groundwater. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov 

Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 56 Deseret News: Speak out against nuclear waste storage in Utah 

[deseretnews.com] 

Sunday, March 26, 2006 

By Orrin G. Hatch 

Utahns can put a full-court press on plans to store high-level 
nuclear waste in Skull Valley. But we only have through May 8 to 
make our voices heard and convince the Bureau of Land Management 
that transporting waste to Skull Valley is not in the public's 
interest. 

A few nuclear power utilities want to transport 44,000 
tons  almost one-half  of our nation's spent nuclear fuel to 
an above-ground, away-from-reactor storage site at a tiny Indian 
reservation in Tooele County. These companies formed a shell 
corporation, Private Fuel Storage, and have secured the nation's 
first-ever license from the nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 
private, offsite storage site. With its license in hand, PFS has 
declared victory, saying the site is inevitable. But the license 
is meaningless if the site isn't built, and construction depends 
on the BLM approving either a rail spur to Skull Valley or an 
intermodal transfer facility to transfer the large casks of 
spent fuel to trucks that would carry the fuel on an existing 
road. Should the BLM deny these rights of way, the PFS plan is 
dead. 

Thanks to a wilderness bill sponsored by Congressman Rob 
Bishop and pushed through with the help of the entire Utah 
congressional delegation, PFS's first option, the rail spur, has 
been blocked for good. Now, the last stand in the Skull Valley 
fight is over the BLM's approval of PFS's second option: the 
intermodal transfer facility. The BLM has made it very clear 
that its decision will be based on whether this option is in the 
public's interest. If the BLM determines that the answer is 
"no," it will be forced to deny PFS's last viable transportation 
option. 

I urge everyone in Utah to contact the BLM and let it 
know that this reckless proposal is not in the nation's public 
interest. 

This is a threat to our security here in Utah. PFS's 
transfer facility would sit immediately adjacent to Interstate 
80, a major freeway and the only east-west corridor in the state 
of Utah. Nearly 80 percent of Utah's population sits within 50 
miles of the facility. It is dangerously close to our 
international airport. PFS intends to offload very large casks 
of nuclear waste from rail cars and load them onto oversize 
semitrailer trucks for transportation down a narrow road with no 
shoulders or proper road bed. 

Most people in Tooele live near the Tooele Chemical Agent 
Disposal Facility. In the case of a mishap at this facility, 
Skull Valley road is one of only three emergency evacuation 
routes for Tooele County's ever-growing population and the Skull 
Valley Band. It would not be in the public's security or health 
interest to approve a plan that would regularly place these 
gigantic trucks on any of these evacuation routes. 

The transfer facility also lacks any federal oversight. 
The Department of Energy says the PFS plan is outside the scope 
of our nation's policy for handling spent nuclear fuel. Because 
it's a private facility, the DOE would not oversee or take 
responsibility for this waste. Instead, the security and safety 
measures at the site would be managed by a shell corporation of 
private companies. Many question if it would have the resources 
to handle a major crisis. 

I want to stress that this is far from a 
"not-in-my-back-yard" argument. Even the only nuclear engineer 
on the three-member nuclear Regulatory Commission is against 
this. In fact, six of the eight members of PFS have now publicly 
distanced themselves from the PFS plan. 

We have a solid case, but we need to make it  repeatedly 
and resoundingly. Comments should be directed to the BLM through 
Pam Shuller, , or by fax at 801-977-4397. 

PFS can't go forward without the BLM's approval. Let's 
make sure the BLM has the public record it needs to deny this 
thing once and for all. 

Orrin G. Hatch is Utah's senior senator. 

Š 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 		 			 		 		 		 		 [ 
*****************************************************************
 57 Tracy Press: Lab considers cleanup options 

Tracy CA
 
March 26, 2006 Tracy, CA       

Federal officials have a plan to contain contaminated
groundwater just west of Tracy Hills  and find out if the public
has anything to say about it. 

So far, at least one Tracy man is worried that the radioactive
water might seep toward new homes, and he said he hopes city
officials will insist on a comprehensive cleanup. 

Bob Sarvey, a local businessman who regularly speaks out on
environmental issues, including air quality and water quality,
said the U.S. Department of Energy appears to prefer the least
expensive option for controlling the migration of groundwater
from a series of landfills in the hills of Site 300, a high
explosives test site run by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. 

It was poor planning by the Department of Energy to put it there
in the first place, and they should pay for their mistake,
Sarvey said. 

Site 300 is an 11-square-mile test site southwest of Tracy. The
lab still uses the site to test non-nuclear high explosives
similar to those used in nuclear warheads. Through the 1960s,
70s and 80s, debris contaminated with depleted uranium and
tritium  a radioactive isotope of hydrogen  was routinely dumped
in landfills in the remote hills. 

In this case, there is a series of four landfills in a small
canyon near Elk Ravine, which drains into Corral Hollow Creek.
According to the U.S. Department of Energys cleanup plan for the
Pit 7 Complex, the pits are filled with debris leftover from
explosives tests. 

The debris includes wood, plastic and the remains of tents and
structures used to hold high explosives. The DOE lists volatile
organic compounds, nitrate, perchlorate, tritium and depleted
uranium as the contaminants in the debris. 

During heavy rains, the groundwater rises to the bottom of the
pits and soaks the debris. Over the years, the contaminated
groundwater has spread to the east. The labs reports show that
tritium has spread through groundwater 6,000 feet east of the
pits. 

The lab proposes construction of drainage trenches around the
pit complex in order to keep rainwater from flowing across the
pits and down the slopes toward Elk Ravine. It would cost the
DOE between $11 million and $15 million for this option. 

Another option would be for the DOE to excavate two of the four
pits, which contain about 55,000 cubic yards of contaminated
debris. That would prevent any further release of radioactive
material into the water but would also cost between $57 million
and $74 million to excavate and remove the debris. 

John Belluardo, public affairs director for Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, said lab officials are concerned mostly
about safety. He added that several years ago a lab worker got
sick after being exposed to debris in the pits. 

We dont feel confident that we have enough data to properly
characterize the contamination there, Belluardo said, adding
that documentation from the 1960s and 70s is incomplete, so the
lab doesnt have a complete picture of whats in the pits. You
dont want to excavate at the risk of injuring your employees, he
said. 

Sarvey said the city of Tracy should at least consider urging
excavation of the pits in order to prevent further contamination
of groundwater. 

It doesnt cost the city a dime to pass a resolution, he said.
Why wouldnt the city want the maximum cleanup possible? 

Others who study the site dont believe the contamination is much
of a risk, mainly because the radioactivity in tritium
deteriorates relatively quickly, and the seepage doesnt look
like it will contaminate the Tracy Hills area. 

It just isnt moving that fast, and the modeling the lab did show
that it would not go off the site at levels that would pose a
health risk, said Kathy Setian, the Site 300 project manager for
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She added that
excavation would present another problem when the DOE tries to
find another place to put the contaminated material. 

Tracy Deputy Public Works Director Steve Bayley said the city
may still make comments on the project, but so far isnt too
concerned, in part because Tracy Hills would not use groundwater
anywhere near its development. 

Generally, it is far enough away from Tracys groundwater supply,
so we dont feel it would cause any contamination to our water
supply, Bayley said.   

Copyright Š 2006 Tracy Press Inc, All Rights Reserved   
*****************************************************************
 58 Herald News: Tritium incident reported

[SuburbanChicagoNews.com]   

 Braidwood nuclear plant: Rains wash low levels into drain tile
and ditch 

By Kim SmithSTAFF WRITER 

BRACEVILLE  This week's heavy rains washed low levels of
radioactive tritium along a narrow path and into a drain tile
and ditch near the Braidwood nuclear plant, the power company
Exelon said Friday.

 The result was low, but detectable, concentrations of the
radioactive isotope, the company said.

 Test results showed tritium levels up to a maximum of 1,000
picocuries per liter  about 5 percent of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's safe drinking water standard of 20,000
picocuries per liter, according to a press release from Exelon.

 Recent heavy rains collected in an underground cistern and
flowed into a drainage tile near the power station, apparently
carrying with it tritium along a narrow path for about 400
yards, the press release said. The runoff does not pose a health
or safety hazard, but the pathway needs to be eliminated, Exelon
said. 

The drainage tile has been monitored for several months, and no
runoff was detected until the recent storms. Subsequent testing
confirmed low levels of tritium in the ditches for about 200
yards on the west and 60 yards on the east, Exelon said.

 Environmental technicians are seeking access to private land so
a pumping system can be installed to prevent the cistern from
filling with rainwater, thereby eliminating runoff, the company
said.

 

Call for suspension

 
Meanwhile, an environmental advocate wants power generation
suspended at the Braidwood nuclear plant.

 On Friday, the advocate said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
should enforce the suspension at the facility.

 Arjum Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research, made the call after reviewing
information that Exelon Corp. has placed on its Web site
regarding the recent disclosure of numerous tritium spills.

 Makhijani said the suspension should be considered in view of
the "continued and what appears to be studied ignorance" of the
company to the elementary basis of regulations of radiation in
water. 

"I found the Exelon FAQ deficient, even troubling on some key
issues," said Makhijani, who holds a doctorate in engineering
and specializes in nuclear fusion.

 Makhijani said it is not clear on the Web site how long the
practice of storing tritium-contaminated water in tanks will
continue, and why it is even necessary to store the water if it
is really safe and under the 20,000 picocuries per liter
considered safe for drinking by the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency.

 Makhijani's group is based in Maryland.

 Exelon had been diluting tritium-laced water and disposing of
it through an underground pipe into the Kankakee River.

 "The established science is, and has been for some time, that
there is no threshold for cancer risk of radiation, and
therefore no level of exposure to radiation is safe," Makhijani
said. "While it is true we are all exposed to natural background
radiation, this does not mean that natural background radiation
is safe. By the same reasoning, one could imply that exposure to
an influenza virus is safe because the virus is natural."

 Jan Strasma, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
said he did not want to comment on the issue of the Exelon
documents, but did say there is no reason to shut down the
Braidwood plant.

 "The plant is operating safely, and they are safely addressing
the problems caused by the leaks," Strasma said. "They are not
discharging any fluids even though they are permitted to do so
by the IEPA."

 

Legal actions

 
On Thursday, a fourth lawsuit was filed by a dozen more families
against Exelon Corp. Attorney Todd Smith said it is more than
likely that the latest suit will be combined with a suit filed
last week in Will County. The families live near the Braidwood
station.

 Last week, State's Attorney James Glasgow and Attorney General
Lisa Madigan also filed suit in Will County court. There is also
a class-action suit pending in federal court. The lawsuits
accuse the power company of not disclosing information of the
spills when they occurred and are seeking compensation for lost
property values and medical monitoring.

 The mayors of Braidwood and Wilmington recently have issued
releases to the public deeming their public water systems as
safe and not related to the problems faced by private well
owners in Godley and unincorporated Reed Township.

 Braidwood has five deep wells ranging from 800 feet to 1,733
feet deep. City officials said the tritium leaks have only
affected surface waters and shallow wells nearly 30 feet deep.

 "The drinking water in Braidwood has been tested quarterly for
tritium from 1995 to the present," said David Tutterow,
superintendent of water in Braidwood. "Since the recent tritium
leaks, all of the wells were tested last month and will be
retested quarterly."

 Wilmington draws its drinking water from the Kankakee River
downstream from the pipe where tritium-tainted water once was
released. The practice has been discontinued by Exelon after
discovery of the elevated levels of tritium in and around the
power plant properties.

 Mayor Roy Strong said the water is tested for tritium once a
week and has been since 1994, with levels often coming back
undetectable.

 "I drink it and will continue to do so," Strong said. 

Exelon officials have maintained that there are no health or
safety hazards to the public because of the spills. The company
recently implemented a bottled-water plan and has been
distributing free water to 420 residences surrounding the
station and is participating in well testing. The company has
pledged to help residents of Godley establish a new public water
source.

 Officials from Wilmington and Braidwood have offered to sell
water to Godley. 


- Reporter Kim Smith can be reached at (815) 729-6067 or via
e-mail at ksmith@scn1.com.

 03/25/06 
          
SuburbanChicagoNews.com  Š  Digital Chicago & Sun-Times
*****************************************************************
 59 Las Vegas SUN: Benjamin Grove describes the joys and sorrows of
covering D.C. and the challenge of moving on 

Today: March 26, 2006 at 7:32:16 PST 

WASHINGTON - I was changing my infant son at 3 a.m. recently,
and as I pitched a diaper in the pail I wondered what happens to
all those nasty things. I thought: This country needs a
high-level waste repository for all my kid's dirty diapers. 

I chuckled at my little joke - a reference to the proposed
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Only the Las Vegas
Sun's sleep-deprived Washington reporter would think that's
funny. 

After nearly seven years in this job covering Yucca Mountain, as
well as Nevada's five congressional lawmakers and other Nevada
news from the nation's capital, this is my last story. My wife
and I are moving to Minnesota to be closer to family. My last
day was Thursday. It was a strange gig. 

                                
 

One thing Washington reporters learn first is that the "news"
and the truth are not the same. 

The news here has layers. The first layer gets reported  it is
what Washington's armies of press handlers distribute to us; it
is what the policy makers tell us at press conferences. When
reporters have time and inclination, they dig deeper. On
occasion we uncover layers that are closer to the truth  the
full narrative, its context, the motivations of the players,
what it means to people outside Washington. 

The relationship between reporters and government press officers
is a strange dance. There are a few exceptions, but many press
officers believe their first job is to make their bosses look
good. It is not to tell the public the unvarnished truth. They
do not view reporters as a conduit for getting information to
the public. Often we are treated as a foil to be engaged and
misdirected. 

There is so much spinning in Washington that reporters are
sometimes stunned by honesty. We write about it as if it is an
endangered species ("In shockingly candid remarks today, Sen.
So-and-So said Ś"). 

One day a few years ago, several reporters chased down former
Yucca chief Margaret Chu in an Energy Department hallway after a
budget briefing. After a few questions, she told us Yucca
wouldn't open until 2012 at the earliest. Of course, we all knew
that  it likely will be 2015 or later  but that was the first
time anyone at the department had acknowledged that the
department's 2010 target date had slipped. 

Reporters looked at each other in disbelief, and wondered aloud:
Why would she tell the truth like that? It wasn't that Chu was
dishonest, but she was a government bureaucrat and they rarely
answer tough questions directly. 

Chu announced her resignation three days later. 

I was always interested in the tales of back room maneuvering.
Back before Congress voted once and for all on Yucca Mountain, I
heard a story I could never get anyone to talk about on the
record. The story was about a senator who was struggling to get
enough votes for a bill he introduced. An aide asked if he had
Sen. Harry Reid's support. The senator said he did  he had
played his "Yucca card," promising Reid he'd vote against Yucca
if Reid would support his bill. 

I often thought of that grammar school lesson about how a bill
becomes a law. Two decades later, I saw that lawmakers do not
vote based solely on an issue's merits. They also act based on
the horse-trading deals they made, party pressure, how their
vote might "play" in the media, and special interest influence. 

If that sounds cynical, I would add this: Despite the partisan
politicking and the scandals, most lawmakers are good people. 

Most get into public service for the right reasons. 

But as the years go by, some get distracted by fundraising,
partisan battles, committee seniority. They get distracted by
attention and power. They start talking like politicians. They
overuse words like vetted, impact, panacea, circumspect, and
phrases like "in the field," "on the ground," "moving forward,"
"forward-leaning." 

Some lawmakers stay truer to themselves than others. 

In my humble opinion, the least phony of the Nevada lawmakers is
Rep. Shelley Berkley. She speaks her mind more than most. 

Rep. Jim Gibbons was the stiffest politician. But he could be
genuine. He once told me about how he had tried to comfort his
son Jimmy during the anthrax scare in Washington. He dropped
that TV-anchorman voice and spoke with tenderness. 

Of Nevada's five lawmakers in Congress, I knew Rep. Jon Porter
least well. Porter always struck me as a good guy who was trying
to do good work in Congress, but who was always a little
preoccupied with impressing party leaders. 

Sen. John Ensign was straightforward whenever I talked to him,
and clearly he's a charismatic rising GOP star in the Senate.
But his aides didn't seem to like him talking to the media. He
had the most secretive office. 

It's hard to sum up Harry Reid. He sent me several hand-written
notes over the years, including a sympathy card after my grandma
died. It struck me as both the move of a savvy politician and a
sincere gesture. 

What's most interesting about Reid, of course, is not who he is
and where he is from (few in Washington have been spared his
Searchlight spiel). The most interesting question is: Where is
the Minority Leader taking the Democratic Party? 

                                
 

Certain memories of working in Washington will stick with me. 

Just a month after Sept. 11, I wrote about running a marathon
that snaked past the burned out side of the Pentagon. Runners
wept. 

After the Senate anthrax scare, I had my nasal passages swabbed. 

I tailed protesters in the blazing August heat through the
streets of Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican convention,
then stood in the bitter cold outside the U.S. Supreme Court
where justices were deciding the fate of the presidential
election. 

And I took a ride with Berkley in a black sedan that was racing
to the Capitol for a vote. I interviewed her as we lurched
around in the backseat. Police stopped us for going the wrong
way on a one-way and the driver and cop exchanged tense words.
Berkley never stopped talking. Never even paused. 

I remember meeting President Clinton, looking bone-weary in the
final days of his second term. 

But the people who really stand out to me did not have fancy
titles. 

When the International Spy Museum opened here in 2002, I toured
it with a retired real-life spy. He was soft-spoken, unassuming
- nothing like the James Bond imaginings of Hollywood. He talked
about the personality traits of a spy  the willingness to take
huge risks for no credit, not even an occasional pat on the
back. He talked about some narrow scrapes during his years in
North Africa, South America and Europe. 

When we parted I shook his hand. He was missing a finger. 

I am always amazed by people who talk to the media about the
loss of a loved one. I talked to the gracious parents of
21-year-old Army Ranger and Boulder City High graduate Matthew
Commons just a few hours after they buried their son at
Arlington National Cemetery. He was killed in Afghanistan. 

"I really respected my son and to hear him say, 'I want to be a
teacher like you,' that's a prideful experience," Greg Commons
told me. His mother, Patricia Marek, managed to share a few
laughs and warm memories after the funeral. "At some point the
reality will hit and I will realize that I don't have him to
talk to, that I won't have my best friend anymore," Marek said. 

                                
 

The biggest news event of my time here, of course, came on Sept.
11, 2001. 

Minutes after Flight 77 plunged into the Pentagon, I rushed to
the Capitol to track down Nevada's lawmakers, and I ran into a
friend who said it was rumored more planes could crash  perhaps
on Capitol Hill. In a city that often feels detached from
reality, that moment was truly unreal. 

Lawmakers and their staffs had evacuated their office buildings.
Congressional aides and a few lawmakers shuffled aimlessly in
the park north of the Capitol, fruitlessly trying to make cell
phone calls that jammed networks couldn't process. Sen. John
Warner, R-Va., said, "America is going to be changed forever." 

I tried to take the Metro train back to my office, but the
station was closed. Traffic gridlocked. Sirens wailed. I walked
14 blocks to my office and wrote a story on deadline that
reported that Nevada's lawmakers had evacuated their offices and
were safe. But nobody in Washington felt that way. 

                                
 

Since 1999, I have watched Nevada issues ebb and flow in
Washington  federal money issues, land issues, gaming issues. 

But one issue  Yucca Mountain  never goes away. 

I spent countless hours every year in Yucca meetings, covering
panels with names like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, where slow-tongued,
gray-haired scientists and policy eggheads pored over Yucca's
most obscure details. 

To spice things up I hit the road. I spent a few days driving
through New Jersey with Yucca critic Kevin Kamps, who was
hauling a mock nuclear waste container with an SUV and preaching
the dangers of waste shipping. On other assignments I visited
nuclear power plants to better tell the industry's side of the
story. 

I see the nuclear industry's side: Congress promised to haul
waste away to Yucca beginning in 1998, then reneged on the
contract - the federal government broke its promise. Industry
officials with impressive scientific backgrounds believe
research proves Yucca is a good site for a national nuclear
waste dump. 

But I see Nevada's point: Humankind has never tried to store so
much of something so dangerous for so long  how can it be safe?
I am highly skeptical of big-ticket Energy Department projects.
Many fail. A Yucca failure would be a spectacular one. 

                                
 

As I get older, what I may remember most about my years at the
Sun will be that it was the job I had when I was a young man. It
was the job I had when I lost a beloved grandmother, a good dog,
and, in a very strange day, my appendix during emergency
surgery. 

I was working for the Sun when my mom successfully battled
cancer, and when my sister joined the Peace Corps in Bolivia. 

It was the job I had when I met my wife. I started at the Sun in
1998 in Las Vegas, as the education reporter. Not long after,
city hall reporter Denise Cardinal and I skipped out early one
Friday afternoon and went pool hopping at the Flamingo. The rest
is history. 

Now we have a son named for the late Sun Executive Editor Mike
O'Callaghan. We're calling him Cal for now. It's a big name to
grow into. 

If I could sound one final note in this little swan song it
would be to thank readers who sent me feedback over the years. I
appreciated that  even the e-mails that told me to stick it.
Other readers corrected my syntax and grammar. 

Because of them I will never again use the logic-defying phrases
"endless columns of data" or "docked off the coast." 

I often ended e-mail responses to those folks with the same
phrase: 

Thanks for reading. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 60 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Quittin' time for Yucca Johnny

March 25, 2006 
 
Web site for children promoting Yucca Mountain as a nuclear
waste dump misses the mark

Just when it seemed that the Energy Department couldn't get any
more desperate or extreme in its push to bury high-level nuclear
waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, out steps Yucca Johnny. 

According to a story in Friday's Las Vegas Sun, the agency's
latest propaganda scheme is a Web site that tells children in
kindergarten through 12th grade why the government thinks it is
a good idea to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Nevada. 

"What if we took out the garbage, but let it pile up in our
yards?" Yucca Johnny asks. "Over time, our neighborhoods would
become very unhealthy places to live." 

So we dump our garbage in the neighbors' yard instead? Yucca
Johnny doesn't say that, but it's what the Energy Department
proposes to do. Nevada is to be the nation's unlucky neighbor. 

Allen Benson, external affairs director for the Yucca project,
told the Sun that such federal "Youth Zone" Web sites typically
are used to explain federal programs to children. "Our job in
the Youth Zone is to present factual information on the project
at a level the kids can understand," he said. What Yucca Johnny
doesn't say is that the Energy Department's version of the facts
is the problem, not the solution. 

We have laws against using cartoon characters to sell slot
machines and cigarettes (think Joe Camel) because children might
embrace concepts that are bad for them. Why would we accept
using a cartoon to sell them on the idea of burying all of the
nation's high-level nuclear waste less than 100 miles from their
hometown? 

Children don't need a cartoon character to tell them what is
easily understood by most people: Nuclear waste is dangerous.
Don't let anyone bury it in your back yard. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 61 reviewjournal.com: Yucca probe forwarded
 
Mar. 25, 2006

Federal prosecutors reviewing evidence   

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are reviewing evidence gathered 
by investigators into whether scientists falsified quality 
assurance documents at Yucca Mountain, officials confirmed 
Friday. 

Inspectors general for the Interior and Energy departments sent a 
report to U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Las Vegas in the past 
month, said Roy Kimes, a spokesman for Interior Department 
Inspector General Earl Devaney. 

"The investigative work has been done, and the report has been
forwarded to the Department of Justice," Kimes said. "It is not
considered finalized until we get an indication from DOJ that
they are going to prosecute or not going to prosecute." 

Neither Kimes nor Denise Smith, a spokeswoman for Energy
Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman, would discuss
details. 

Smith said "it is possible" that evidence of wrongdoing was
discovered, but communications between investigators and
prosecutors do not necessarily signal the probe is near an end. 

"As evidence is uncovered, there are dealings with the U.S.
attorney's office, and oftentimes the U.S. attorney may have us
do additional work or not depending on what is found," Smith
said. 

Inspectors were asked to determine possible criminal activity by
federal employees after the disclosure in March 2005 of
provocative e-mails. 

In the messages, which were written between 1998 and 2000,
several workers discussed possible alterations of quality
assurance documents that backed up their water infiltration
models at the nuclear waste site. 

Natalie Collins, an aide to Bogden, said she would not confirm
or deny the federal attorney's involvement in the matter. 

A person familiar with the process said, "I wouldn't think they
would send something over (to Bogden) that they didn't think
ought to be considered for prosecution." 

On Thursday, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., told reporters that a
Justice Department evaluation "was forthcoming." 

"They want to find out if it was done maliciously or done in
error," Porter said of the allegations of document mishandling.
"They want to find out if there was any criminal activity." 

Porter heads a House subcommittee that has been conducting a
separate probe of quality assurance at Yucca Mountain and issues
related to the e-mails. 

The Yucca project was rocked and investigations were triggered
when the e-mails were disclosed by Energy Secretary Samuel
Bodman and by Charles Groat, then-director of the U.S.
Geological Survey. 

The messages circulated among a small number of employees. The
primary authors later were identified as USGS hydrologists
Joseph Hevesi, Allen Flint and Lorraine Flint. 

Hevesi appeared before Porter's subcommittee in June and offered
explanations for some of the messages. He testified under oath
that he did not alter documents or data. The Flints, who are
married, were questioned by subcommittee investigators but have
not commented publicly. 

The Energy Department recently completed an audit of the work
performed by the USGS scientists. A report issued Feb. 17
concluded the science was valid but the research would be redone
by Sandia National Laboratories to meet quality assurance
standards. 

The hydrologists remain employed at the USGS, spokeswoman A.B.
Wade said. Agency officials have said any possible disciplinary
action was being postponed until completion of the inspectors
general probe. 

Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report. 	
  
Copyright Š Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
 62 APP.COM: Don't trifle with tritium | 

Asbury Park Press Online
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Saturday, March 25, 2006

In the wake of recent disclosures about leaks of radioactive 
material from nuclear reactors around the country, the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission has created a task force to study the 
problem.

It will review the public health threats posed by tritium  a
radioactive isotope of hydrogen that increases the risk of
cancer and birth defects  and make recommendations on how to
handle tritium that has seeped into groundwater.

Industry officials have vowed to go beyond satisfying themselves
the leaking tritium doesn't exceed allowable limits in order "to
maintain trust" with the public.

If it's trust they're after, they should ask the NRC to include
environmentalists and representatives from the National Academy
of Sciences, a nonprofit research organization, on the task
force, which now consists of 11 agency experts and a
representative from a yet-to-be-named state. Expanding the
membership to include experts from outside the industry would
help ensure a more objective assessment of the problem.

Oyster Creek, the oldest commercial nuclear plant in the
country, should be of particular concern. Aging pipes and other
plant infrastructure are suspected as the cause of tritium
leaks. Adding to that concern is a lawsuit filed by the state of
Illinois against Exelon Corp., which recently disclosed four
tritium spills  dating back to 1996  at three plants. Exelon
also owns Oyster Creek. The state Department of Environmental
Protection should conduct its own assessment of Oyster Creek and
New Jersey's three other nuclear plants.

One NRC physicist who said tritium leaks had not been a major
issue acknowledged that the recent string of disclosures makes
it seem "like the whole world is raining tritium now." That's
likely how it feels to those who live or work near those plants.
Federal and state officials must make certain the health of
every one of those citizens is protected.

  Copyright Š 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 63 Independent: Three years on, experts fail to agree on nuclear waste 

By Tim Webb 

Published: 26 March 2006 

The organisation looking into ways of disposing of the UK's
nuclear waste may not be able to make a unanimous decision when
it reports next month, its chairman has admitted. 

The Committee on Radio-active Waste Management (CoRWM) has spent
the past three years examining the different options for storing
an estimated 470,000 cubic metres of current and future nuclear
waste at more than 30 temporary sites around the country. 

CoRWM has whittled down an original list of 14 options to a
shortlist of four: using temporary or permanent storage, either
on or near the surface; a sealed deep underground bunker; or an
underground bunker where waste can be retrieved. 

But the 11 members of the committee, drawn from academia and the
public sector, are unlikely to reach full agreement. CoRWM's
recommendation, due at the end of next month, is expected to
contain a caveat spelling out members' opposition to a majority
decision. 

Deep underground storage is the main disposal method likely to
be recommended. But this will be opposed by the anti-nuclear
lobby, which fears that an "out of sight" solution to the
problem will encourage the building of more nuclear power
plants. 

At least one committee member is expected to table objections to
this recommendation. 

CoRWM's chairman, Gordon MacKerron, said: "I am aiming for
consensus. It would be surprising if every member agreed with
every decision we make." But dissenting members are unlikely to
produce a "minority report", he said. 

Two rebel members of the committee who had accused it of failing
to use scientific methods lost an employment tribunal case
earlier this year, against the government department sponsoring
CoRWM. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
successfully argued in a pre-trial hearing that the two men had
not been its employees. 

Š 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 64 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah to put environmental files online 

Article Last Updated: 03/26/2006 12:42 AM MST 

Activists rejoice: Records will be accessible to anyone on the 
Internet perhaps as soon as April, officials say 

By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune 

Sarah Fields and other Moab-area activists have twice made the 
four-hour trek to Salt Lake City this year to tell state 
radiation regulators their frustration. 

Ever since the Utah Radiation Control Division took over 
regulation of International Uranium Corp.'s recycling mill near 
Blanding, the watchdogs say it has been a long-distance struggle 
to keep up with the company's requests to take contaminated 
material. 

Now it looks like their concerns have been answered with the 
help of technology. State Radiation Director Dane Finerfrock and 
Department of Environmental Quality Director Dianne Nielson said 
many future - and key historical - records will go online. 

I think we should be able to provide the access you want no 
later than April, Finerfrock said, noting that anyone will be 
able to access them via the Internet. They will be on the Web 
site. 

When the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had oversight, 
they say, it was much easier to know when new shipments of 
uranium-saturated dirt might soon be rolling down U.S. 191 to 
the mill. 

That changed nearly two years ago, when the state assumed 
regulatory control - a move intended to make regulation more 
sensitive to local concerns. 

You really need public input, Fields told the Radiation 
Control Board earlier this month. Any agency really can't do 
its job without timely input. 

In more than 30 pages of technical letters filed with the 
radiation division, Fields has raised questions about the 
public's ability to weigh in on a new waste stream International 
Uranium had asked to process. She told the board a lack of 
openness about uranium mills for 45 years resulted in 
contaminated ground and surface water at Atlas before the nuclear
commission began posting its documents electronically in 1999. 

The polluted water and tainted dust from International 
Uranium poses a threat to people living in nearby San Juan 
County communities, including the White Mesa Ute Indian village 
adjacent to the mill. 

Fields said she has waited weeks to get public records under 
the state Government Records and Management Act and had to 
scramble to meet the state deadlines for public input. And she 
said the radiation division has been slow to respond to her 
questions. 

Well-known environmental activist Ken Sleight also weighed 
in with the state. He pushed the radiation division for 
additional International Uranium license-amendment hearings 
beyond the one Jan. 5 in Blanding. 

He also pushed to make related documents available in Grand 
County, San Juan County and at the Aneth Chapter House of the 
Navajo Reservation. Keeping low-income Utahns who live in the 
area informed is essential to preserving justice and preventing 
environmental racism, he said. 

They [environmental regulators] have to do more than that, 
he said of the single hearing. They even have to educate people 
about what this is all about. 

fahys@sltrib.com 

ÂŠ Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 65 Boston Globe: Radioactive waste source being sought 

By Bill Clapper, Globe Correspondent  |  

March 26, 2006 

Town officials want to know who has been dumping low-level
radioactive waste at the Casella Waste Systems trash transfer
station on Washington Street.

''It is a frustrating problem," said Town Administrator Paul
LeBeau. In three incidents -- last week, two weeks ago and in
January -- the radiation was detected aboard trucks leaving the
facility. But the radiation was not detected when it entered the
trash transfer station aboard other trucks that dumped their
loads, said LeBeau.

Town officials were quick to point out that the low levels of
radiation pose no threat to residents, workers in the transfer
station, or drivers.

Once radiation is detected, it becomes a matter for the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Radiation Control
Program. ''That office makes a determination if the vehicle can
go back on the road, stay where it is, or, if there is a serious
problem, conduct a containment response" and cleanup, said
LeBeau.

In each incident so far, the state has not allowed the trucks to
leave the transfer station until the radiation levels had
declined.

''We routinely respond to events similar to what happens in
Holliston at an average of once a week," said Donna Rheaume,
spokeswoman for the Radiation Control Program. ''In nearly all
cases it is low-low-level patient waste from nuclear medical
procedures."

Most of the radioactive isotopes used in medical procedures
rapidly decay completely, some within days, said Rheaume.

The Board of Health is working with Casella officials to
determine what company or individuals may be dumping radioactive
trash at the transfer site. Casella will supply a list of
customers by April 3.

''Trucks are constantly coming in and dumping trash," said
LeBeau, who noted that a variety of vehicles use the site,
including trash collection trucks, pickup trucks, and roll-off
container trucks.

Trash is dumped on the facility's tipping floor before being
loaded into large hauling trucks that take it to a recycling
center, landfill, or incinerator.

The town will monitor Casella's equipment to determine why
radioactive material is entering the station undetected, said
Board of Health Chairman Richard Maccagnano.

''The goal is to catch these trucks as they come into the
station, not when they leave," he said.

After the January incident, the town required Casella to better
monitor for radioactive waste and notify officials when
radioactive materials are found. Maccagnano said Casella has
been working with the town

"The system is working," said Mike Wall, regional vice president
of Casella. "We were able to catch the trucks as they went out
of the facility."[ /]  Š 

Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
*****************************************************************
 66 Telegraph: Government set for Ł1bn BNG sale
 
Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, is 
believed to be ready to announce the decision in Parliament later 
this week. The board of BNFL decided to sell BNG last September 
but a deal has been held up by objections from the unions. A 
final decision, however, rests with the Government. 

Analysts estimate that the sale could raise between Ł500m and
Ł1bn. The most likely buyers are American engineering and
construction companies including Washington Group, Fluor and
Bechtel. 

BNG employs 14,000 people and operates at 18 sites in the UK,
which include the reprocessing site at Sellafield in Cumbria. If
approved, its sale would follow that of Westinghouse, another
BNFL subsidiary, which was sold to Japan's Toshiba for Ł2.8bn
earlier this year. 

The sale of Westinghouse and BNG would leave BNFL with just its
research arm, Nexia, and a one-third stake in Urenco, the
uranium enrichment company. 

Approval for the sale would come just days after Gordon Brown
announced in the Budget there would be a wide-ranging divestment
of various publicly owned assets. He named Urenco as one of the
companies earmarked for sale, as well as the Government's stake
in British Energy. 

BNG said: "The content and timing of any announcement is a
matter for the Secretary of State." 

Š Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
*****************************************************************
 67 Japan Times: Genkai, Saga grant request to burn MOX 

SAGA (Kyodo) The mayor of Genkai and the governor of Saga 
Prefecture told Kyushu Electric Power Co. President Shingo Matsuo 
on Sunday that they will grant the utility's request to use the 
controversial uranium-and-plutonium mixed oxide fuel called MOX 
in the Genkai nuclear power plant. 


  [News photo]   

  People shout in front of the Saga Prefectural Government
Office to protest the governor's approval of a pluthermal
project that Kyushu Electric Power Co. will conduct at a nuclear
reactor in Genkai.   


Mayor Tsukasa Terada relayed his consent to Matsuo after a
meeting with visiting Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Toshihiro Nikai and Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa on the issue.

Furukawa followed suit later in the day. 

"As Minister Nikai gave us assurances about safety and
(prospects for) regional development, we finally approved it,"
Terada told reporters, adding that any accident at the power
plant could end up reversing the decision. 

Separately, Nikai said he voiced the government's determination
to ensure safety there once operations commence. 

The move came after the Genkai town assembly adopted a statement
last month calling on the local government to accept the
so-called "pluthermal" plan. 

Under a safety agreement it has signed with the prefecture and
the town, Kyushu Electric is obliged to receive prior consent to
any changes it wants to make to the nuclear reactors at the
Genkai plant. 

Pluthermal, or plutonium-thermal power generation, burns MOX
made from spent fuel at nuclear reactors. The method, approved
by the Cabinet in 1997, is the core of Japan's plan to recycle
its steadily growing stockpile of plutonium. 

Pluthermal generation has become the main pillar of the
government's policy of reusing nuclear fuel ever since a massive
sodium coolant leak and coverup at the Monju experimental
fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, in 1995,
forced the closure of that facility. 

Furukawa had vouched for the plan's safety in previous
announcements, while the central government approved it in
September after carrying out safety assessment procedures. 

Kyushu Electric first asked the central government for
permission to install a pluthermal reactor in May 2004. 

Shikoku Electric Power Co. is expected to be the next utility to
get its pluthermal program off the ground, as the Atomic Energy
Commission has already given the green light for MOX to be used
in the No. 3 reactor at Ikata power plant in Ehime Prefecture.

Final government approval is expected soon. Quake-resistance unit 
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will set up a 
division that will be in charge of checking nuclear reactors' 
resistance to earthquakes, METI chief Toshihiro Nikai said 
Sunday. 

Nikai unveiled the plan in Genkai, Saga Prefecture, after meeting 
with Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa about a plan by Kyushu Electric 
Power Co. to conduct plutonium-thermal power generation at a 
reactor in the town. 

The division will be set up April 1. 

The Japan Times: Monday,
March 27, 2006 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 68 MDN: The dangers of trash: Radioactive medical waste is hardly a rarity in garbage

MetroWestDailyNews.com

 By John Hilliard/ Daily News Staff

 Sunday, March 26, 2006 - Updated: 02:20 AM EST

Though state law doesnt require trash handlers to screen for 
radioactive waste, the material regularly pops up in garbage 
across the state.

    "We see it a couple of times a week," said Department of 
Public Health spokeswoman Donna Rheaume. "We want to make sure it 
is (hospital) patient waste."

    In Holliston, radioactive material was found three times
this year at a trash transfer station owned by Casella Waste
Systems. Town officials -- who require the company screen for
radiation -- have questioned whether the material is medical
waste illegally dumped at Casella.

    "Were working with haulers and customers who could possibly
generate this material, and (tell them) that this is not
acceptable," said Casella Regional Vice President Michael Wall.

    According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, low-level
radioactive waste includes clothing, laboratory animal tissues,
used medical equipment and isotopes from nuclear medicine
treatments.

    Low-level waste does not include spent fuel from a nuclear
reactor, according to the NRC.

    The NRC allows low-level radioactive waste to be stored by
licensed producers until radiation has decayed to natural
background levels, when it can be dumped with ordinary trash.

    The state DPH oversees radioactive waste through its
radiation control program. Rheaume said medical waste makes up
the bulk of radioactive material found in garbage.

    She said no state rules require private haulers or trash
facilities to scan material for radioactive waste. Local
communities and some businesses do screen for the material, she
said.

    Hospitals are required to keep track of any isotopes used in
medical procedures, she said.

    If radiation is found, state inspectors decide whether to
isolate the material or send it back to its source. Rheaume said
the Department of Transportation -- which limits radioactive
material travel on public roads -- allows states to issue
temporary permits to take radioactive waste back to its source.

    Area hospitals which use radioactive isotopes say they keep
tight control over the material. [continue]

"You have to account for all of it," said Kathy Franco-Anthony, 
director of imaging services at MetroWest Medical Center. "It's 
like a nurse using a needle -- after you use it, you want to 
dispose of it properly."

    She said MetroWest Medical Center, which produces low-level 
radioactive waste from nuclear medicine treatments, keeps an 
inventory of medical isotopes and collects bodily waste from 
patients undergoing treatment.

    The hospital stores the waste until any radiation has 
decayed, as well as inspects regular trash containers to ensure 
radioactive material isn't accidentally released.

    She said radiation from most medical isotopes decays within 
hours.

    "I don't think there's a high risk to the public," said 
Franco-Anthony. "All the waste...is always captured, recorded and 
Geiger countered."

    At Marlborough Hospital, syringes used to administer isotopes 
are sent back to the manufacturer daily in protective containers, 
said Paul Riggieri, director of diagnostic imaging.

    At Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a lead-lined chamber is used to 
store radioactive waste until radiation levels fall to normal 
background levels. The hospital still screens every piece of 
trash before it is thrown out, said Charlotte Roy, with the 
hospital's imaging services department.

    "The goal is to catch the material before it leaves the 
facility," said Roy.

    Similar steps are taken at Milford Regional Medical Center, 
which sends trash through a radiation sensor before it is 
released. Hospital representative Deb Hyder said nuclear medicine 
treatments are done daily.

    "Nothing goes out the door hot," said Hyder. "Nothing gets 
disposed of without going through that sensor."

    For private haulers such as E.L. Harvey in Westborough, 
radiation isn't a common problem, said Chief Executive Officer 
James Harvey.

    "I can't imagine three times in one year," Harvey said of 
Casella's radiation trouble. "It's unheard of." 

His Westborough facility doesn't screen for radiation since the 
operation only handles household waste, he said. Material from 
Harvey's operation is checked at disposal facilities, but it has 
been more than a year since any radioactive waste was found.

    Harvey said Casella's station could be receiving hospital 
waste that wasn't properly screened for radiation.

    "Do I think someone is doing it on purpose? I don't think 
that," Harvey said.

    Towns without local trash operations, such as Natick and 
Ashland, don't have screening rules in place, said officials in 
both towns.

    Ashland would likely consider such requirements if a trash 
operation were proposed in town, said Health Agent Mark Oram.

    Weston Department of Public Works Director Robert Hoffman 
said the town doesn't require radiation screening at its 
municipal transfer station.

    He said workers clear out banned materials -- including TVs 
and recyclables -- but the town relies on a private contractor in 
Millbury to screen its trash for hazardous and radioactive waste.

    Most transfer stations handling residential waste don't 
screen for radiation, he said, but stations that process 
commercial materials should do it.

    "It's good practice to screen for that," said Hoffman.
    (John Hilliard can be reached at 508-626-4449 or 
jhilliar@cnc.com.)

*****************************************************************
 69 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Experts list 28 problems to fix at Hanford waste plant

[seattlepi.com]     

Saturday, March 25, 2006 

 Study by 30 experts cost $4 million 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHLAND -- A waste treatment plant under construction at the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation faces 28 technical issues that could
prevent it from reliably treating radioactive waste, a team of
experts concludes in a new report. 

However, the experts also concluded that the problems are
fixable and that the plant is essential for cleaning up the
highly contaminated south-central Washington site. 

The so-called vitrification plant is being built to treat highly
radioactive waste left from decades of plutonium production for
the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. The waste is now being
stored in 177 underground tanks, with plans to eventually run it
through pipes to the plant. 

Since late 2004, technical and management problems have pushed
the cost estimate for the plant from $5.8 billion to more than
$10 billion. The start date also has been pushed from 2011 to
2017, though the U.S. Energy Department expects to issue a final
cost estimate and startup schedule sometime this summer. 

The Energy Department, which manages Hanford cleanup,
commissioned the latest $4 million independent study to help
restore credibility in the project amid those skyrocketing costs
and delays. The panel of 30 scientists and engineers,
representing chemical and nuclear industries as well as
universities, spent nearly five months answering the question,
"Will this plant operate?" 

The slurry of solid and liquid waste that would be piped through
the plant for treatment will clog lines and keep it from
operating consistently if changes are not made, John Lowe, one
of the team leaders, said this week. That was the only problem
the experts identified that would keep the plant from operating. 

The report also noted that the radioactive and hazardous
chemical waste waiting to be treated has already caused plugging
problems in the tank farms. 

The experts identified 16 other problems that would prevent the
plant from running efficiently. But none of these issues
requires the development of new technologies, Lowe said. The
remaining 11 issues were described as possibly causing operating
inefficiencies. 

Lowe estimated that fixing all of the problems might add 1
percent to 3 percent to the cost of building the plant. 

[advertising] John Eschenberg, project manager for the Energy
Department, said those costs are included in contingencies for
the plant under the latest cost estimate. 

The report concluded that the plant will operate, but made a
number of recommendations that might make it operate more
efficiently, Eschenberg said. 

"We're taking steps to deal with all of them. For some of it,
we're doing a technical evaluation, and some of it we're
actually making design changes," he said. "But all of the
recommendations coming out of this team are being evaluated." 

Eschenberg said it was too soon to say if any design changes
would impact parts of the building that have already been built. 

Design of the plant is about 70 percent complete, while about 30
percent of it has been built. 

The one-of-a-kind plant will use a process called vitrification
to convert waste into glasslike logs for permanent disposal in a
nuclear waste repository. Once completed, it will stand 12
stories tall and be the size of four football fields. 

Cleanup of the entire 586-square-mile Hanford site is expected
to total $50 billion to $60 billion, with completion by 2035.   
             
Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 
(206) 448-8000
 
Š1996-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
*****************************************************************
 70 Courier News: IEPA cites Fermi over tritium

[SuburbanChicagoNews.com]   

By Andre SallesStaff Writer 

BATAVIA  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has issued
a permit violation notice to Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory over radioactive materials found in Indian Creek last
year.

 However, officials at Fermilab say there is no reason for alarm
and that levels of that material have remained below detectable
levels for months.

 Small amounts of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen,
were discovered in December 2005 by lab staff performing routine
environmental tests, according to Judy Jackson, Fermilab's
public relations director. The leak was traced to a pipe
connecting two cooling pools.

 Indian Creek begins on Fermilab property and runs southwest
into a pond at the center of the Savannah subdivision at Kirk
and Butterfield Roads. 

Tritium, Jackson said, is produced as a byproduct of Fermilab's
normal particle accelerator operations. 

According to the IEPA Web site, it is one of the least dangerous
of radioactive materials, because it emits weak radiation and
leaves the body quickly. Tritium has been linked to cancer but
is only harmful in large doses.

 The levels discovered  3.3 picocuries per milliliter, far below
the EPA's drinking water standard of 20 picocuries per
milliliter  did not even require Fermilab to inform the
neighbors, Jackson said, but the lab did so anyway.

 "We're very big believers in being open," Jackson said.

 It's that very belief that led it to the IEPA violation 
Fermilab's first  issued because the lab's permit for operations
does not stipulate tritium production. Fermilab contacted the
IEPA on Dec. 6, 2005, to report the discovery of tritium in the
creek, which violates its National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System permit.

 "We never listed tritium before because we'd never seen any,"
Jackson said. "Because it is a byproduct of our operations, it
should be on our official permit."

 The IEPA notice also states that Fermilab is in violation of
groundwater quality regulations and systems reliability rules.
Fermilab has 30 days to present a written response to the state
agency, detailing the steps the lab has taken to return to and
remain in compliance.

 "We have the same goals as the IEPA," Jackson said. "We're
looking forward to working with them to ensure that our
operation is not harmful to Illinois waters."

 Jackson pointed out that although the violation notice bears a
March date, no new leaks have been found, and he said regular
testing of all bodies of water on the lab site has turned up no
new traces of tritium.

 Jackson also said it is impossible for the tritium discharged
from Fermilab to reach underground streams and contaminate
drinking water. 

"There is 70 feet of clay between the surface water and the
ground water," she said. "It would take 800 years for the
tritium to get though that, and it has a half life of 12 years.
So there is no way this could contaminate the groundwater."

 Tritium fears have been in the news lately because of the
recently disclosed series of spills from Exelon's Braidwood
nuclear power station in Will County. Neighbors of that plant
filed a class-action lawsuit earlier this month, charging that
Exelon did not properly maintain pipes which carried
tritium-laced water, causing four separate spills between 1996
and 2003.03/25/06 

SuburbanChicagoNews.com  Š  Digital Chicago & Sun-Times
*****************************************************************
 71 Courier Journa: Potential layoffs at Paducah plant have officials worried

courier-journal.com 

Sunday, March 26, 2006    

Assistance limited by federal cuts 

Associated Press

PADUCAH, Ky. -- If workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant are laid off when cleanup begins at the facility next
month, they may not be able to receive government assistance in
finding a new job. 

The Hopkinsville-based West Kentucky Workforce Investment board,
which provides services to dislocated workers in 17 counties,
has run out of federal money and fears more cuts are coming. 

Bechtel Jacobs and Weskem, the lead plant waste management
contractor, have given notice to the board that as many as 346
workers could be laid off when their contract ends. 

The board has not been informed how many, if any, might lose
their jobs, said Sheila Clark, Workforce Investment board
director. 

Clark said President Bush's proposed 2007 budget cuts 15 percent
from all federal Department of Labor work force funding
categories. The budget also proposes that 75 percent of
dislocated worker services be through "career advancement
accounts" capped at $3,000 per dislocated individual for all
services, Clark said. 

"We find that this would effectively reduce services for
dislocated workers, as services are normally more expensive in
rural areas in addition to supportive costs such as travel,"
Clark said. 

Last fall, the board received $945,470 from the Department of
Labor to serve dislocated workers for the next two years. That
already has been spent because of the large number of existing
layoffs, notably 730 that came 15 months ago when Continental
Tire ceased production in Mayfield, Clark said. 

Paducah Remediation Services will determine how many salaried
employees are necessary when it takes over from Bechtel Jacobs
as the new cleanup contractor at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant on April 23. 

About 560 people are employed by Bechtel Jacobs and its various
subcontractors, with about 160 of them members of the plant
nuclear workers' union. 

Union President Rob Ervin said few, if any, hourly workers will
lose their jobs. 

"There may be some reduction on the salaried side of the fence,"
he said. "But it's not applicable to the union." 

Paducah Remediation Services will decide how many salaried
workers are needed by analyzing the amount of work it must do,
given the extensive lag time between its bid for the work and
when it was awarded the contract, said spokeswoman Yvette
Cantrell. 

"It's just too early for us to make that projection," Cantrell
said. 

Copyright 2005 The Courier-Journal.
*****************************************************************
 72 toledoblade.com: Fermi II is taken off-line for month-long refueling

Sunday, March 26, 2006
 
NEWPORT, Mich.  Detroit Edison Co.s Fermi II nuclear plant
yesterday went off-line for what is expected to be about a
month-long outage to refuel the plants reactor and do routine
maintenance as well as one major improvement.

The improvement is the installation of more efficient moisture
separator reheaters, devices that dry steam before it enters the
plants turbines.

Improving the quality of steam with those new devices alone is
expected to boost the 1,100-megawatt plants capacity by about
eight more megawatts. Thats about enough electricity for 4,000
homes during their peak summer usage, said John Austerberry, a
Detroit Edison spokesman.

The new devices also are expected to result in less wear and
tear on the plant, he said.

The outage began at 5:15 a.m. yesterday, Mr. Austerberry said.

Nuclear reactors are typically refueled every 18 months to two
years, depending on the level in which their fuel has been
enriched with uranium.

 The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660
, (419) 724-6000 
*****************************************************************
 73 KnoxNews: With renovations, new facilities, ORNL to increase hold on 
research world

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 
                                
March 26, 2006

OAK RIDGE - Jeff Wadsworth, director of Oak Ridge National 
Laboratory, has traveled the world and spent time at all the 
great research institutions, but he says there's no place he'd 
rather be than at ORNL. 

There are plenty of reasons for his enthusiasm. 

With a cadre of brand-new research facilities - soon to be topped 
by the opening of the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source - 
and the lab's leadership in scientific computing and advanced 
materials and broad success in other areas, Wadsworth keeps busy 
counting his lucky stars. 

The SNS is scheduled to begin operations sometime this summer. 

The giant research complex, spread across 75 acres on Chestnut
Ridge a couple of miles from the main ORNL campus, will
reportedly be the world's top source of neutrons for
experiments. Scientists will use pulses of neutron to explore
the atomic essence of materials of all types. Once the kinks are
worked out and equipment fully tested, the SNS is expected to
annually attract a couple thousand scientists from around the
world. 

The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, the first of the
several nanoscience research facilities being funded by the
Department of Energy, is already open for business. It is
adjacent to the SNS office structure, and researchers at the
nanoscience labs will able to take knowledge gained from SNS
experiments and put it to use in engineering and testing the
capabilities of advanced materials. 

ORNL was built during the World War II Manhattan Project, but
it's no longer showing its age - thanks to a $300 million
modernization program during the past few years. There are at
least a dozen new buildings, adding about 700,000 square feet of
research and office space, as well as other enhancements to
welcome visitors and boost the work of lab research staff. 

One of the recent additions is the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced
Studies, a think tank that is trying to bring researchers and
policymakers together at one location to work out difficult
science issues of the day. One of the first topics involved
global climate change and the ability to better predict changes
on a regional scale. 

Paul Gilman, former science chief at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, is the think tank's founding director. 

The Oak Ridge lab is working with Cray Corp. to develop the
world's fastest supercomputer for scientific uses, perhaps by
the end of this year, and during the next several years, there
are plans to build a machine capable of 1,000 trillion
calculations per second (one petaflop). 

While the SNS has attracted most of the news when it comes to
neutron sciences, ORNL also is completing a series of upgrades
at the High Flux Isotope Reactor. The ORNL facility is sometimes
referred to as the lab's "other" billion-dollar machine. It is
the world's most powerful research reactor, and it is used to
perform experiments similar to - but different from - those to
be done at the Spallation Neutron Source. 

The University of Tennessee has been an ORNL collaborator for
decades, but the university took on a new role a few years ago
when it joined with Battelle to win the lab management contract.
UT-Battelle recently signed a new five-year contract with the
U.S. Department of Energy. 

ORNL already is looking ahead for work in fiscal 2007, with a
proposed budget of more than $1 billion. 

Meanwhile, the other big federal plant in Oak Ridge, the Y-12
National Security Complex, also is undergoing a major
modernization program. 

A new $350 million storage complex for weapons-grade uranium is
under construction. Completion is scheduled for early 2007,
after which the plant will consolidate its uranium stocks in the
high-security center. A conceptual plan is under way for a new
warhead-manufacturing center at Y-12 that could ultimately cost
about $1 billion to build and furnish with equipment. 

Meanwhile, Lawler-Wood of Knoxville is the developer on a
privately financed project at Y-12, building a giant new office
complex for the plant's engineering and technical staff, as well
as a new visitor center and museum at the plant's entrance on
Scarboro Road. 

BWXT, a partnership of BWX Technologies and Bechtel National,
manages Y-12 for the federal government. 

Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.

Š 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
    
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