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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Stands by Position on Enrichment
2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Defenses Can Withstand Any Invasion
3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Ready to Negotiate on Enrichment
4 Guardian Unlimited: Democrat: Intelligence on Iran Inadequate
5 Guardian Unlimited: If one side in a conflict goes nuclear, the 
6 IRNA: MP: Nuclear weapons not in Iran's defense doctrine - Irna
7 IRNA: Iran nuclear case hanging in the balance between IAEA, UNSC - 
8 AFP: Iran vows to press on with nuclear work 
9 AFP: Germany calls for direct US-Iran talks on nuclear program -
10 AFP: Iran isolated in its 'defiant' nuclear stance - White House -
11 Korea Herald: Six-party nations to meet in Japan   
12 BBC: N Korea to attend security talks
13 Xinhua: China hopes all parties strive for early resumption of six
14 Xinhua: China hopes all parties strive for early resumption of six
15 Reuters: U.S.-N.Korea mistrust hurdle to talks, says China
16 Japan Times: N. Korea, Iran firms on WMD watch list 
17 Japan Times: Six-party delegates to visit for security conference ne
18 BBC: Pakistan and US in nuclear talks
19 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting
20 The Hindu: U.S. Congress not consulted on nuclear deal - report 
21 US: UPI: Desert explosion to simluate mini-nuke
22 Platts: ANALYSIS: Ground rules set out in Germany's long-term energy
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
23 Nature 9/92: Thyroid Cancer 7.5 years after Chernobyl, soaring 
24 [NukeNet] S Korea/Indonesia, Australia/China NPP Deals
25 Guardian Unlimited: EC paves way for UK nuclear privatisation
26 theage.com.au: Government rejects nuclear power 
27 US: MiamiHerald.com: FPL to seek a new nuclear plant
28 US: SLO Trib: Nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry reque
29 US: NRC: NRC Uses Risk Insights to Revise Mitigating Systems Categor
30 US: MiamiHerald.com: Probe into hole at nuclear plant begins
31 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl accident was inevitable - senator 
32 US: USNews.com: Inside Washington: Nuclear energy moves front and ce
33 US: Herald News: IEPA cites Exelon again
34 EBR: UK energy: nuclear clean-up bill acceptable cost to bear -
35 Independent: 20 years after meltdown, life returns to Chernobyl 
36 AFP: Blair indicates possible future switch to nuclear power 
37 US: Ithaca Journal: Nuclear power needed
38 US: NEI: Nuclear Energy Industry Maintains Near-Record Levels of Saf
39 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting of the AC
40 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collecti
41 US: NRC: Groundwater Contamination (Tritium) at Nuclear Plants
42 Deccan Herald: India to set off PR blitz on nuclear deal - 
43 US: MSNBC.com: Leaks at nuclear plants a trend? - Environment - 
44 Telegraph: Opinion | Finns blaze nuclear trail 
45 US: CBS: Are Nuclear Plants Safe Enough?, Report - Since 9/11, 103 U
46 Telegraph: Finns give nuclear plant a positive reaction
47 IRNA: India, UK discuss nuclear energy cooperation 
48 US: Newsday: Feds say Indian Point nuclear complex can brace for air
49 US: WQAD: Lawmakers OK tougher reporting of radioactive leaks
50 US: BBJ: : Once spurned, nuclear plants become energy's cash cow 
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
51 Rediff: 'India must stop fissile production'
52 Xinhua: Japan mulls joining US network of ports nuclear screening   
53 US: AFP: US regulators shaped nuclear security to industry tastes - 
54 US: Guardian Unlimited: Report Questions Security for Nuke Plants
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
55 US: Wash Post: EPA Faces Internal Outcry On Airborne Emissions Plan
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
56 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Admin. Wants to Bury More Nuke Waste
57 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast lawsuit returned to state court
58 US: Deseret News: Energy secretary denies looking at Skull Valley 
59 DOE: DOE to Send Proposed Yucca Mountain Legislation to Congress
60 US: Herald News: Weigh in on Fermi waste permit
61 US: Times Record: DOE's nuclear fuel storage policy shifts   
62 US: kgw.com: Study: DOE faces problems removing nuke waste from buri
63 US: NWTRB: Resume of William Murphy
64 NO: Mercury Storage Plans Won't Go Away, State Agencies Wary Of 
65 NO: Yucca Mountain: Government Accountability Office Blisters 
66 US: Newsday: State ready to sue federal government over nuclear clea
67 US: AU ABC: Australian uranium producers strike deal with Taiwan
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
68 ContraCostaTimes.com: Group wants lab toxins containment plan to go 
69 DOE: Dennis Spurgeon Sworn-in as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Ene
70 Platts: Senate confirms Spurgeon to restored DOE nuclear position
71 Hanford News: DOE compensation claims review expected Thursday
72 Hanford News: Vit plant cost up nearly a billion
73 Chicago Maroon: DOE reprimands Argonne for nuclear safety violations
74 Knox News: Engineer shortage concerns nuclear power industry
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Stands by Position on Enrichment
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday April 4, 2006 3:01 PM

AP Photo VAH104 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran is prepared to negotiate on the
large-scale enrichment of uranium but will never abandon its
right to enrich uranium, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
said Tuesday, reaffirming its position in the international
standoff over its suspect nuclear program. 

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend all
enrichment of uranium and last week asked the U.N. nuclear
agency to report back in 30 days on whether Iran had complied. 

However, Mottaki maintained Iran's line that it would not comply
with the Security Council demand, saying the small-scale
enrichment it began in February was strictly for research and
was within its rights. 

Iran would need large-scale enrichment to fuel a nuclear
reactor. Enrichment makes uranium suitable for reactor use but,
taken to a high degree, it becomes suitable for a nuclear bomb. 

Moscow had been trying to persuade Tehran to accept a
U.S.-backed compromise proposal under which large-scale uranium
enrichment for Iran's nuclear program would take place in
Russia. But negotiations ended in a stalemate after Tehran
rejected a Russian demand to suspend uranium enrichment
activities at home. 

The United States and France have accused Iran of seeking
enrichment as a part of a secret program to build nuclear
weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear ambitions
are confined to the generation of electricity. 

``The enrichment of uranium ... is Iran's right as defined as a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,'' Mottaki
said. ``One thing we can't give up and that is the right of the
Iranian nation ... We can't hold a dialogue with any country
about giving up our rights.'' 

He added, however, that Iran was prepared to talk to the
international community about large-scale enrichment. He didn't
elaborate further. 

Mottaki said there were two options for Iran's nuclear program:
cooperation or confrontation. 

``Iran prefers the first option,'' he said. 

The big three European powers - Britain, France and Germany -
negotiated with Iran for two years endeavoring to persuade it to
abandon enrichment. Iran gave up on the negotiations last August
and began resuming parts of its nuclear program that it had
suspended as a goodwill gesture. 

When Iran resumed small-scale enrichment early this year, the
Europeans decided to push for Security Council action on the
issue. Experts say that while one could build a bomb with
uranium enriched on a small scale, it would take a long time,
perhaps years, to do so. 

The nuclear program is a source of national pride in Iran, and
even government opponents have expressed support for the
program. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Defenses Can Withstand Any Invasion
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday April 4, 2006 6:46 PM

AP Photo XHS102 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A top Iranian military official said Tuesday
the country can now defend itself against any invasion
originating from outside the region - a clear reference to the
United States - as it tested a second new radar-avoiding
missile. 

The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control
and searching systems, state-run television reported. It said
the new missile, called Kowsar after the name of a river in
paradise, was a medium-range weapon that Iran had the capability
to mass-produce. 

It also asserted that the Kowsar's guidance system could not be
scrambled, and it had been designed to sink ships. 

Shortly after the test, the chief of the elite Revolutionary
Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned that Iran was now able
to ``confront any extra-regional invasion,'' referring to the
United States without mentioning it by name. 

``The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via
positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able,
while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any
extra-territorial invasion,'' the official Islamic Republic News
Agency quoted Safavi as saying. 

Safavi also called for foreign forces to leave the region. The
U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, from where it patrols the
Gulf. 

``Iran wants durable peace in the Persian Gulf and it can't be
achieved without foreign forces and those which invaded Iraq
leaving (the region),'' IRNA quoted Safavi as saying. 

On Friday, the country tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said
can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using
multiple warheads. Iran also has tested what it calls two new
torpedoes. 

The second torpedo, unveiled Monday, was tested in the Straits
of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital
corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to
the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to
disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf. 

The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military,
have been holding their maneuvers - code-named the ``Great
Prophet'' - since Friday, touting what they call domestically
built technological advances in their armed forces. 

But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the
high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may
have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of
Kyrgyzstan. 

Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are.
Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for
example - meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's
radar but not more advanced types. 

The United States said Monday - after the second torpedo test -
that while Iran may have made ``some strides'' in its military,
it likely is exaggerating its capabilities. 

``We know that the Iranians are always trying to improve their
weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures,''
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington. ``It's
possible that they are increasing their capability and making
strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology.'' 

But ``the Iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate
their statements about greater technical and tactical
capabilities,'' he said. 

It has not been possible to verify Iran's claims for the new
armaments. But the country has made clear it aims to send a
message of strength to the United States amid heightened
tensions over its nuclear program. 

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran give up uranium
enrichment, a crucial part of the nuclear process. Washington is
pressing for sanctions if Tehran continues its refusal to do so,
though U.S. officials have not ruled out military action as an
eventual option, insisting they will not allow Iran to gain a
nuclear arsenal. 

In Russia, a Kremlin-allied lawmaker on Tuesday criticized the
recent torpedo and missile tests as a counterproductive show of
might at a time when it should be trying to allay fears that it
is trying to build a nuclear weapon. 

``It is clear that Iran is demonstrating its muscle in order to
forestall any discussions of a possible operation using force
against Iran,'' Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the
parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying
according to the RIA Novosti news agency. 

On Tuesday, state-run television also said the elite
Revolutionary Guards had tested what it called a ``super-modern
flying boat'' capable of evading radar. TV showed a brief clip
of the boat's launch. 

``Due to its advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can
detect it. It can lift out of the water,'' the television said.
It said the boat was ``all Iranian-made and can launch missiles
with precise targeting while moving.'' 

The television showed the boat, looking like an aircraft, taking
off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water.
It said the craft can fly with a speed of 100 nautical miles per
hour. 

Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted Sunday and Monday.
The torpedo - called a ``Hoot,'' or ``whale'' - is able to move
at 223 mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude. 

Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to
improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment
such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers. 

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war
with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992,
Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers,
missiles and a fighter plane. 	 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Ready to Negotiate on Enrichment
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday April 4, 2006 9:31 PM

AP Photo VAH103 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Tuesday it is willing to negotiate
with world powers on large-scale enrichment of uranium but will
never give way on their key demand - to cease all enrichment, a
process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or material
for bombs. 

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend all
uranium enrichment activities and asked the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency to report back by April 28 on whether Iran had
complied. 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated that Iran would
not comply with the Security Council demand, saying the
small-scale enrichment it resumed in February was strictly for
research and was within its rights. 

The United States and France have accused Iran of pursuing a
secret program to build atomic weapons, but Tehran claims its
nuclear program is peaceful and aimed only at generating
electricity. Enrichment makes uranium suitable for reactor use
but, taken to a high degree, it becomes suitable for a nuclear
bomb. 

``The enrichment of uranium ... is Iran's right as defined as a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,'' Mottaki
said. ``One thing we can't give up and that is the right of the
Iranian nation ... We can't hold a dialogue with any country
about giving up our rights.'' 

He added, however, that Iran was prepared to talk to the
international community about large-scale enrichment. 

Mottaki did not specify with whom Iran wants to hold
negotiations. The United States is facing calls from its
European allies for it to enter direct talks with Iran to
resolve the standoff. 

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier underlined his
country's support for U.S.-Iran nuclear talks ahead of a meeting
in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

``I think it is recognized here in Washington that the British
and the German foreign ministers are positive on this
question,'' he told reporters Tuesday. 

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday the cause of
the standoff was ``not because the United States isn't in
negotiations'' but because Iran was defying international
pressure and ``moving with apparently great determination to
develop an enrichment capability.'' 

``So don't suggest that the way to solve this is for the U.S. to
jump into negotiations. The way to resolve it is to get Iran to
cease and desist from its active refusal to be a responsible
member of the international community,'' Ereli said. 

Iran and the United States have agreed to hold rare direct,
high-level talks to discuss how to stabilize Iraq. While both
sides have insisted the talks won't touch on the nuclear issue,
U.S. officials say they suspect Tehran is looking to open the
door for nuclear talks. 

Since the U.N. Security Council issued its demand last week,
Iran has taken a stance of rejection - while playing up hopes
for a negotiated solution. 

Mottaki said Iran's nuclear program had two options: cooperation
or confrontation. ``Iran prefers the first option,'' he said. 

On Monday, hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
the United States and Europe were ``confused'' if they thought
they could stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. But he vowed Iran's
nuclear program would be ``transparent'' and under the
supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Past negotiations have faltered over the enrichment issue.
Britain, France and Germany negotiated with Iran for two years
on behalf of the European Union, endeavoring to persuade Tehran
to abandon enrichment. Iran gave up on the negotiations last
August and resumed parts of its nuclear program that it had
suspended as a goodwill gesture. 

Moscow then tried to persuade Tehran to accept a U.S.-backed
compromise proposal under which large-scale uranium enrichment
for Iran's nuclear program would take place in Russia. But
negotiations ended in a stalemate after Tehran rejected a
Russian demand to suspend uranium enrichment activities at home. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 4 Guardian Unlimited: Democrat: Intelligence on Iran Inadequate
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday April 4, 2006 10:01 PM

AP Photo XHS101 

By KATHERINE SHRADER 

Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. intelligence information on Iran is
inadequate and may contain misinformation that spy agencies are
accepting as solid, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee said Tuesday. 

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., told a Council on Foreign Relations
gathering that she and other lawmakers recently received a
briefing from intelligence agencies based on information shared
with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N.
Security Council. 

Her bottom line: ``I remain skeptical - lots of unanswered
questions.'' 

``The conjecture that I have is that if I were Iran, and I
wanted to put out disinformation, it might look a lot like what
our government is claiming is information,'' she said. ``I can't
tell you that's true, but I can't tell you it's not true.'' 

Harman didn't provide details on the classified session. 

With tensions growing between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear
program, Tehran in the past week has touted new weapons
including missiles supposedly invisible to radar and torpedoes
too fast to be avoided. Experts have questioned Iran's claims
about the weapons' capabilities. 

The announcements came as the Bush administration was working
toward a diplomatic solution to address its belief that Iran
intends to produce nuclear weapons. Iran says it aims only to
generate electricity, but it has thus far defied U.N. Security
Council demands that it give up key parts of its program. 

Last week, the Security Council unanimously approved a statement
demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment. 

When asked about Iran's recent weapons announcements Tuesday,
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran's ``aggressive
military program and defiant rhetoric are further examples of
how the regime is isolating itself.'' But he stressed the
administration hopes to work toward a diplomatic solution. 

McClellan said the United States has a number of concerns about
Iran's behavior, including its efforts to conceal its nuclear
activities, support of terrorism, use of threatening rhetoric
and disregard for the demands of the international community. 

Harman said she does not doubt that Iran is a threat. ``The
issue is how capable are they and what are the real intentions
of Iran's leaders, and I think the jury is out on both of
those,'' Harman said. 

In recent months, she and others on Capitol Hill have been
seeking information about how to deal with Iran. Bruises in
Congress and elsewhere in the government remain fresh on the
botched prewar intelligence on Iraq's never-to-be-found weapons
of mass destruction. 

``I want to be absolutely sure that we base decisions -
especially tough decisions like what are the next steps with
Iran, and I surely hope they are diplomatic because I think
those are our best options - on pristine and pure intelligence
or the closest we can get to that,'' Harman said. 

She was echoing the words of former U.S. weapons inspector David
Kay, who was in charge of the hunt for Iraq's arsenal until he
quit his position in January 2004. Then, he said that ``pristine
intelligence, good accurate intelligence'' was fundamental to a
pre-emptive military policy, which the Bush administration
adopted after Sept. 11, 2001. 

Harman spoke alongside former acting CIA Director John
McLaughlin, a veteran intelligence analyst who was the agency's
No. 2 official in the run-up to the Iraq war. He politely
quibbled with the use of the phrase ``pristine intelligence.'' 

``It's important, I think, to realize that intelligence isn't
going to be pristine and pure,'' McLaughlin said. 

He said intelligence is often incomplete and at some point
policy decisions must be made. ``We are getting a little caught
in the idea that intelligence has the answer to everything,'' he
said. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Rep. Jane Harman: http://www.house.gov/harman/ 

Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/ 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited: If one side in a conflict goes nuclear, the 
other is bound to follow suit
 
Comment 
		
The Iranian crisis can only be understood as the inevitable 
result of Israel's US-backed WMD monopoly in the region          
 		
David Hirst
Tuesday April 4, 2006
The Guardian 		
 		
There is widespread international agreement that Iran's 
acquisition of nuclear weapons is an alarming prospect, but very 
little attention is paid to the most obvious, immediate reason 
why: that there is already a Middle Eastern nuclear power, 
Israel, insistent on preserving its monopoly.

So the crisis has been foreseeable for decades; it would be 
automatically triggered by the emergence of a second nuclear 
power, friendly or unfriendly to the west. Iran is the 
unfriendliest possible, encouraging the widespread assumption 
that it alone is responsible for creating the crisis - and 
settling it. But is it?

It certainly isn't blameless. First, its nuclear arming would
deal a major blow to an already fraying international
non-proliferation regime. Second, it would involve a huge
deceit. Third, the US divides actual or potential nuclear powers
into responsible and irresponsible ones. Iran would be
irresponsible, being already the worst of "rogue states".

Typically, a "rogue state", as well as being oppressive,
ideologically repugnant and anti-American, unites an aggressive
nature with disproportionate military strength, thereby posing a
constant, exceptional threat to an established regional order.
What could now more emphatically consign Iran to such company
than its new president, with his calls to "wipe Israel off the
map"?

Yet, in nuclear terms in the Middle East, Israel is the original
sinner. Non- proliferation must be universal: if, in any zone of
potential conflict, one party goes nuclear, its adversaries
can't be expected not to. No matter how long ago it was, by
violating that principle Israel would always bear a
responsibility for whatever happened later. Second, its deceit
was no less than Iran's, though, there being no
non-proliferation treaty at the time, it was only the US it
deceived. Mindful of what Israel's mendacity portended, the CIA
warned in 1963 that, by enhancing its sense of security, nuclear
capacity would make Israel less, not more, conciliatory to the
Arabs; it would exploit its new "psychological advantages" to
"intimidate" them.

Which, thirdly, points to the irresponsible use Israel has
indeed made of it. Sure, it always justified it as its "Samson
option", its last recourse against neighbours bent on destroying
it. There is no such threat now; but if there was once, or will
be again, the question is why.

A major part of the answer is that on most counts except
hostility to the US Israel has always behaved like a "rogue
state". It came into being as a massive disrupter of the
established Middle East order, through violence and ethnic
cleansing. Such a settler-state could only achieve true
legitimacy, true integration into a still-to-be-completed new
order, by restoring the Palestinian rights it violated in its
creation and growth.

That, at bottom, is what the everlasting "peace process" is
about. The world has a broad definition of the settlement lying
at the end of it. It doesn't involve the full emancipation of an
indigenous people that has been the norm in European
decolonisation; only a compromise vastly more onerous for the
defeated Palestinians than the Israelis.

But settlement never comes, because Israel resists even that
compromise. Its nuclear power, on top of its already
overwhelming conventional superiority, ensures that. Such
irresponsible use of it is what Shimon Peres was alluding to
when he said that "acquiring a superior weapons system would
mean the possibility of using it for compellent purposes - that
is, forcing the other side to accept Israeli political demands".
Or what Moshe Sneh, a leading Israeli strategist, meant when he
said: "I don't want the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to be
held under the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb." As if the
Arabs haven't had to negotiate under the shadow of an Israeli
bomb these past four decades.

There are three ways the crisis can go. The first is that Israel
insists on, and achieves, the unchallenged perpetuation of its
"original sin". For it isn't so much "the world", as President
Bush keeps saying, that finds a nuclear Iran so intolerable, but
the world on Israel's behalf; not the risk that Iran will attack
Israel that makes the crisis so dangerous, but that Israel will
attack Iran - or that the US will take on the job itself. In
effect, Israel's nuclear arsenal, or the protection of it, has
become a diplomatic instrument against its benefactor.

t is a legacy of America's own "original sin", that first,
reluctant acquiescence in a nuclear Israel, subsequently turned
into uninhibited endorsement of it by seemingly ever more
pro-Israeli administrations. So here is a superpower, wrote the
US strategic analyst Mark Gaffney, so "blind and stupid" as to
let "another state, ie Israel, control its foreign policy". And,
in a brilliant study, he warned that a US assault on Iran could
end in a catastrophe comparable to the massacre of Roman legions
at Cannae by Hannibal's much inferior army. For in one field of
military technology, anti-ship missiles, Russia is streets ahead
of the US. And Iran's possession of the fearsome 3M-82 Moskit
could turn the Persian Gulf into a death trap for the US fleet.
And sure enough, from the Bush administration itself, the first
hints have been coming that, given the regional havoc Iran could
indeed wreak, there may be nothing the US can do to stop it
going nuclear.

This points to a second way the crisis could go - with Israel
obliged to renounce its monopoly and the Middle East entering a
cold-war-style "balance of terror". It could be a stable one.
Clearly, like Israel, the mullahs would make irresponsible,
political use of their nukes. But, like Israel's, Iran's nuclear
quest is essentially defensive, even if not in quite the same
fundamentally "existential" sense. Nothing could have more
convinced it of the need for an unconventional deterrent than
the fate of that other "rogue state", Saddam's Iraq, which the
US had no qualms about attacking because it didn't have one.

The third way - Iran's abandonment of its nuclear ambitions -
would stand its best chance of being accomplished if Israel were
induced to do likewise; not just because reciprocity is the
essence of disarmament, but because it would signify a
fundamental change in America's whole approach to the region.

And that might have positive effects beyond the nuclear. "There
is only one way," said the Israeli military analyst Ze'ev
Schiff, "to avoid a nuclear balance of terror: to use the time
left, while we still have a monopoly in this field, to make
peace ... In the framework of peace, a nuclear-free zone can be
established." But that is the wrong way round.

To make peace, as the CIA foresaw, Israel doesn't need the
intransigence that absolute security brings, but the spirit of
compromise that a judicious dose of insecurity might. A utopian
notion perhaps, with the world now so focused on the villainy of
Iran - yet better than a US onslaught that would add so thick a
layer to an already mountainous deposit of anti-western feeling
that Israel could barely hope ever to win acceptance in the
region.

· David Hirst reported from the Middle East for the Guardian
from 1963 to 2001 dhirst@beirut.com

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 6 IRNA: MP: Nuclear weapons not in Iran's defense doctrine - Irna
 
, April 3, IRNA                                                                                                                  

-- 

Spokesman of IRI Parliament's Foreign Policy and National
Security Commission Kazem Jalali said here on Monday that Iran
is not after acquiring nuclear weapons since they have no place
in country's defense doctrine.

 Speaking to Turkey's Channel 7 TV, Jalali added, "More
important than any existing law for us Iranians there are the
decrees issued by our grand sources of jurisprudence, who have
made it religiously forbidden to manufacture, stockpile, or use
the atomic bombs." Jalali referred to Iran's trust-building
efforts throughout the past three years, arguing, "We had
voluntarily suspended all our enrichment and research activities
while we were engaged in negotiations with the Europeans."

 He said, "IAEA's 1,300-page report on Iran is inclusive of our
country's entire nuclear activities, including our voluntary
implementation of the NPT additional protocol. That report is
the result of more that 1,500 IAEA inspectors' thousands of
hours of field studies, which is only a fraction of our trust
building measures."

 The Majlis Defense Commission spokesman added, "While we were
busy adopting such tough trust building measures and all our
enrichment activities were suspended the United States was
incessantly asking for sending Iran's dossier to the UN Security
Council." Stressing that Iran is a member of the NPT, Jalali
said, "Iran has always met all its commitments regarding that
treaty and now wishes to benefit from the rights granted to the
members of that international pact."

 He said, "The self-contradictory and double-standard policies
pursued by the United States are quite obvious. Washington deals
quite leniently with those countries that have not signed the
NPT, and even cooperates with them in their nuclear programs,
and is yet seriously after depriving Iran of its right, despite
the fact that we are an NPT member."

 Pointing out the Zionist lobby and US administration's
significant role in highlighting Iran's nuclear issues at the
international scene the way it is today, he said, "Neither the
US threats against Iran nor the sanctions' issue are none
serious." In response to a question on US scenarios for
launching a military attack against Iran, and how probable he
thought they were, he said, There are many probabilities in
today's world, but the point should not be ignored that Iran
differs a lot from Afghanistan and Iraq." Jalali added, "The
previous regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan were both undemocratic,
and above that, puppet regimes of Washington itself."

 He referred to the nationwide support for the country's nuclear
program, adding, "Even the Iranians abroad ask Tehran not to
yield to US pressure regarding this issue."

 Focussing on Iran-Turkey relations and the influence of Iran's
nuclear program on them, he said, "Iran and Turkey are the
largest and most ancient countries in the region and can play
joint, or independent roles in securing regional peace and
stability." Asked if Iran expects Turkey to play a mediator's
role, or not, Jalali said, "We do not define any duties for
Turkey, but if Turkey would offer any proposal, we would
seriously study it."

 Announcing that Washington and Tel Aviv try to introduce Iran
as a threat for the region, he said, "Iran has provided regional
countries ith full details of its nuclear activities and we hope
they would not be influenced by the US-Israeli propagation."

 In response to a question on direct Iran-US talks he said,
"Iran has no direct contacts with the United States currently."

 Jalali further elaborated, "Holding direct talks with the US is
not a taboo for Iran and we have in the past talked to them on
important cases, such as the Afghanistan issue, and within the
next couple of days Iranian and US officials would hold direct
talks on Iraq's security."

 Jalali emphasized "Neither the Iranian nation, nor the IRI
government trust the United States due to that country's
policies, particularly those adopted regarding our peaceful
nuclear activities."

*****************************************************************
 7 IRNA: Iran nuclear case hanging in the balance between IAEA, UNSC - Asefi - 

April 4, IRNA                                                                                                                  

-- 
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Tuesday said
Iran's nuclear case is currently hanging in the balance between
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC).

 Asefi, who was talking to reporters on the sidelines of Majlis
open session, added, "We said from the very beginning that the
case should be settled in the agency and there is no reason for
sending it to another body.

 "The dossier should be returned to the main body. It is not yet
late."
 The spokesman noted that the prolongation of talks in the
Security Council during the past weeks shows that the case has
been politicized.

 If the issue was discussed technically, it would be settled in
one or two sessions, he added.

 Asefi said the case has turned into a political one under
pressure from the US and its allies.

 "Of course, we know that some countries resisted the decision
with an aim of supporting nations' rights.

 "The dossier should be given back to the agency as the UNSC
lacks the capacity to settle it. This does not suit the UNSC's
dignity and will weaken the agency."
 The Foreign Ministry's parliamentary deputy said the IAEA will
dispatch a team to Iran next week.

 There will be no snap inspections because the country is not
currently enforcing the Additional Protocol, explained Asefi
adding the inspections have to be coordinated in advance.

 The team's coming visit has been already coordinated.

 "Iran is ready to hold negotiations with other countries. We as
a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are
determined to enjoy our rights and fulfill our obligations, as
well. The obligations cannot be imposed unilaterally.

 "The IAEA member states should know that negotiation is the
sole alternative. Iran will not give up its rights under
pressure and threat."

*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Iran vows to press on with nuclear work 

Tuesday April 4, 11:30 AM 

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's foreign minister vowed that Tehran would
press on with its controversial nuclear programme despite a call
by the UN Security Council to suspend its activities.

"The Islamic republic started its peaceful activities to obtain
its rights under the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and
these activities will go on under the supervision of the
(International Atomic Energy) Agency," Manouchehr Mottaki told a
press conference.

Iran has refused to comply with a Security Council demand to
freeze uranium enrichment, defying a warning from major world
powers which fear that the Islamic republic secretly wants to
develop an atomic bomb.

A non-binding statement approved unanimously by the world body
on March 29 gave Iran 30 days to abandon the sensitive nuclear
work, but without issuing a threat of sanctions.

Mottaki condemned Iran's referral to the Security Council as a
"political decision which, unfortunately, shows that the logic
of domination has taken the upper hand over reason ...

"There are two paths available to us: that of understanding,
cooperation, dialogue and work within the framework of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and that of
confrontation.

"The Islamic republic prefers the former," he said.

Iran has refused to freeze its nuclear research and development
-- which includes uranium enrichment -- that it resumed in
January, insisting on nuclear technology for peaceful purposes
as its right.

Mottaki reiterated that Iran would not be using oil as a weapon
in its nuclear standoff with the West.

"Energy and the security of energy are important for the
producer and the consumer, the Islamic republic is committed to
its oil contracts and to supplying energy to its commercial
partners". 

AFP '); [ src=] 
*****************************************************************
 9 AFP: Germany calls for direct US-Iran talks on nuclear program -
     
 Tue Apr 4, 10:45 AM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier urged the US government to address Iran" /> Iran's
disputed nuclear program in bilateral talks with Tehran on Iraq"
/> Iraq. 

 Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Ricelater Tuesday that there
was growing consensus both in Europe and in some US circles that
direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran could bring a
breakthrough in the protracted crisis. 

He said he had addressed the issue with White House National
Security Advisor Stephen Hadley" /> Stephen Hadleyafter he
arrived in Washington Monday. 

"Based on reports that there are apparently talks taking place
arranged by the American ambassador in Baghdad with the Iranian
leadership about the situation in Iraq, I advised that the
topics should not be limited just to Iraq but expanded to
include one of the most urgent problems confronting us all: the
suspicion that Iran, the Iranian leadership, is pursuing secret
atomic weapons programs," he told reporters. 

Steinmeier said he had the impression during talks with State
Department officials, congressional leaders and think tank
analysts Monday that the idea of bilateral discussions with Iran
on its nuclear ambitions could bear fruit. 

But he noted that the US government appeared reluctant to
broaden the scope of the talks. 

"We are oversimplifying the situation if we say that there is
European pressure on the United States, on the American
administration -- this is above all an internal American
discussion," he said. 

"But at the moment, I cannot see any signs that they are
prepared to take part in such discussions." 

Iran's charge d'affaires in Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Gomi, said
Tuesday that talks between Iran and the United States on the
situation in Iraq would take place in Baghdad with Iraqi
participation. No date was set. 

Any direct meeting would mark a break in a near three-decade
pause in direct contacts between US and Iranian officials
following the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. 

Rice was in Berlin Thursday for a meeting of the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States -- plus Germany on the Iranian
nuclear program. 

Ministers of the six countries discussed the road ahead one day
after the council adopted a non-binding statement urging Iran to
halt within 30 days all uranium enrichment activities, which
Western leaders fear are part of an effort to build an atomic
bomb. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 10 AFP: Iran isolated in its 'defiant' nuclear stance - White House -

 Tue Apr 4, 3:55 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Recent military activity inside Iran" />
Iranoffers proof of Tehran's willingness to brook international
isolation in pursuit of its nuclear ambitions, a White House
spokesman said. 

 "Their aggressive military program and defiant rhetoric are
further examples of how the regime is isolating itself and the
Iranian people from the rest of the world," spokesman Scott
McClellan said at a press briefing. 

"It is also a reminder of why the international community is
united in its concern about the regime's possible development of
nuclear weapons and why the international community is calling
on Iran to comply with its international obligations or face
further isolation." 

Tehran's military activities have aroused international concern.
McClellan said the world community speaks with one voice in
urging Iran to abandon its nuclear program -- reflected, he
said, in last week's unanimous statement from the UN Security
Council giving Iran 30 days to abandon the sensitive nuclear
work, but without issuing a threat of sanctions. 

"Last week the Security Council sent a very clear statement to
the regime, and said, 'Comply with your obligations, come
clean'," McClellan said. 

"You have 30 days to come clean, make a commitment to come clean
and comply with your obligations, or we're going to back at the
Security Council consulting about next steps to take." 

The spokesman called on Tehran "to suspend its uranium
enrichment and enrichment-related activity and come back to the
negotiations and act in good faith." 

Meanwhile, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier,
who met with various US officials in Washington on Tuesday,
urged the administration to address Iran's disputed nuclear
program in bilateral talks with Tehran. 

Any such direct meeting would mark a break in a near
three-decade pause in direct contacts between US and Iranian
officials following the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. 

Tehran has refused to comply with a Security Council demand to
freeze uranium enrichment, defying a warning from major world
powers which fear that the Islamic republic secretly wants to
develop an atomic bomb. 

Iran insists its nuclear research program is for peaceful
purposes, which it asserts is its sovereign right. 

McClellan suggested Iran is trying to create an impression that
Washington is at fault for the worsening relations between the
two already-estranged powers. 

"I know the regime would like to make it an issue between the
United States and itself, but this is an issue that the regime
has with the world," he said. 

"There appears to be a pattern to its behavior, a pattern of
concealing its nuclear activities, a pattern of supporting
terrorism, a pattern of threatening rhetoric and a pattern of
disregarding the demands of the international community. 

"We are working to address this by working with our partners in
the international community," he said. 

McClellan made his remarks as thousands of Iranian troops
continued war games involving the Revolutionary Guards Corps
navy and air force, Iran's regular army and navy, the volunteer
Basij militia, and the Iranian police. 

The exercises, which kicked off last Friday, are due to run
until Thursday. 

Iran warned the West on Monday not to "play with fire" and said
the success of its war games demonstrated that it would never
back down over its nuclear program. 

Tehran also announced Tuesday that it had successfully
test-fired a new land-to-sea missile and had successfully tested
a "domestically developed" hydroplane -- new weaponry which it
said would help Iran turn back any possible extra-regional
invasion. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 11 Korea Herald: Six-party nations to meet in Japan   
        
2006.04.05

From news reports

 Officials from the six countries participating in the stalled
talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament will meet at a
privately sponsored security conference in Japan next week, the
U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Tuesday.

 Representatives from the United States, China, Japan, Russia
and South and North Korea will attend the conference, said U.S.
Embassy spokesman Michael Boyle.

 The unofficial talks come amid efforts to salvage the nuclear
negotiations, which have been stalled since November by a
dispute over restrictions the United States imposed on a
Macau-based bank and North Korean companies.

 Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top
U.S. negotiator on North Korea's nuclear program, will represent
Washington, but he had no plans yet for bilateral meetings with
the North Korean delegation, Boyle said.

 Hill "expects to meet with the heads of the Japanese and South
Korean delegations to the six-party talks on the margins of
those meetings," Boyle said. Hill will arrive on April 10 and
depart for Seoul two days later, he added.

 The conference will be sponsored by the University of
California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Boyle
said. Kyodo News agency said the event would be co-sponsored by
the Japan Center for International Exchange.

 The Asahi newspaper also had a report on the meeting, saying
the conference would run from Sunday until Wednesday, April 13.

 Kyodo reported that Tokyo has issued entry permits to North
Korea's four-member delegation, led by Jong Thae-yang, deputy
chief of the Foreign Ministry's U.S. affairs department for an
April 7-14 stay.

 Asahi reported that South Korea would be represented by its top
nuclear envoy, Chun Young-woo, a deputy foreign minister.

 Meanwhile, Chinese and North Korean defense chiefs held
"comradely and friendly" talks Tuesday on improving relations
between the two allies, official media reports said.

 North Korean Defense Minister Kim Il-chol met his Chinese
counterpart Cao Gangchuan, who arrived in Pyongyang on a
three-day official visit earlier Tuesday, said the North's
official Korean Central news agency.

 "At the talks both sides exchanged views on boosting the
traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the
two countries and the two armies and issues of mutual concern.
The talks took place in a comradely and friendly atmosphere," it
said.

 China is one of North Korea's few allies and has been hosting
the stalled six-nation talks aimed at ending the Stalinist
state's nuclear weapons drive.

 Cao's latest visit to North Korea precedes a five-day trip to
South Korea, a key trade partner since 1992 when Seoul and
Beijing established diplomatic ties.

 The Chinese defense chief is scheduled to visit South Korea
from April 15-19 for talks with Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung,
the Defense Ministry in Seoul said.

 Cao and Yoon will discuss ways of preventing accidental clashes
in the West Sea and holding a joint rescue operation by their
navies.

*****************************************************************
 12 BBC: N Korea to attend security talks
 
Last Updated: Tuesday, 4 April 2006
 
[Satellite image of North Korea's Yongbyon Nuclear Centre]                                 

North Korea says it has nuclear weapons                                                                 

A North Korean envoy is to attend a security conference in Tokyo 
next week aimed at encouraging the resumption of talks on the 
North's nuclear programme. 

High-level representatives from the other nations involved in the 
six-party talks - Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the US - 
are set to be there. 

The North Korean official might hold talks on the sidelines with 
Japan, reports from Japan have said. 

Talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme have been stalled since 
November 2005. 

At the time, Washington placed sanctions on North Korean firms it 
said were engaging in illegal international activities. 

No US meeting 

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will attend the 
private meeting. 

He has been Washington's representative at international 
negotiations trying to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear 
weapons programme, but US officials said there were no plans at 
present for the two sides to meet. 

Last September, North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear goals 
and return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

However, its demands that it be given a civilian nuclear reactor 
and a row over US financial sanctions brought talks to a 
standstill, with no date set for more negotiations. 

In a separate development, Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan 
is in North Korea for an official three-day visit. 

South Korean media said Mr Cao would travel to Seoul afterwards, 
where he would hold talks about security and defence issues. 

*****************************************************************
 13 Xinhua: China hopes all parties strive for early resumption of six
party talks: FM spokesman   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-04 21:25:22   

    BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that all parties
concerned to the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear
issue will make continuous efforts to resume the talks as soon
as possible, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman here on
Tuesday. 

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks in
reply to a journalist's question at a regular press conference. 

    He said several months have passed but the six-party talks
have not resumed. The reason for the stalemate of the talks
still lies in the mutual distrust between the United States and
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, he said. 

    "We hope related parties should show sincerity and
flexibility and take into account the overall situation of peace
and stability and the denuclearization object in Northeast Asia
in handling related problems," said Liu. 

    He said China holds that the goals of denuclearization in
the Korean Peninsula must be insisted on and the peaceful and
dialogue solution to the issue must also be insisted on. 

    China has made "active" and "hard" efforts in promoting the
process of the six-party talks, said Liu, adding that the
crucial parties of the issue are the DPRK and the United States 

    "China is playing its role, but the progress of the talks
does not completely depend on China's efforts. The key to
resolving the issue is in the hands of the DPRK and the United
States, two main parties concerned," said Liu. 

    He said China has noted related parties are keeping contacts
in various forms and hopes such contacts will make achievements. 

    The six parties adopted a joint statement in September 2005
at the end of the fourth round of talks. The talks have been
staled since the first phase of the fifth round of talks ended
in November, 2005. Enditem 

      Editor: Mo Hong'e   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 14 Xinhua: China hopes all parties strive for early resumption of six
party talks   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-04 19:14:16   

    BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that all parties
concerned to the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear
issue will make continuous efforts to resume the talks as soon
as possible, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman here on
Tuesday. 

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks in
reply to a journalist's question at a regular press conference. 

    He said several months have passed but the six-party talks
have not resumed. The reason for the stalemate of the talks
still lies in the mutual distrust between the United States and
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, he said. 

    "We hope related parties should show sincerity and
flexibility and take into account the overall situation of peace
and stability and the denuclearization object in Northeast Asia
in handling related problems," said Liu. 

    He said China holds that the goals of denuclearization in
the Korean Peninsula must be insisted on and the peaceful and
dialogue solution to the issue must also be insisted on. 

    China has made "active" and "hard" efforts in promoting the
process of the six-party talks, said Liu, adding that the
crucial parties of the issue are the DPRK and the United States 

    "China is playing its role, but the progress of the talks
does not completely depend on China's efforts. The key to
resolving the issue is in the hands of the DPRK and the United
States, two main parties concerned," said Liu. 

    He said China has noted related parties are keeping contacts
in various forms and hopes such contacts will make achievements. 

    The six parties adopted a joint statement in September 2005
at the end of the fourth round of talks. The talks have been
staled since the first phase of the fifth round of talks ended
in November, 2005. 

    IAEA to supervise Taiwan's nuclear activities 

    The Chinese government and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) have made the relevant arrangements for assurances
and supervision of Taiwan's nuclear activities, Liu said. 

    Australia confirmed uranium sales to Taiwan on Tuesday. 

    Liu said at the routine news conference on Tuesday afternoon
that the IAEA had all along sought assurances and supervision of
Taiwan nuclear activities on a non-governmental basis, so as to
ensure the peaceful use of nuclear energy. 

    Vice premier Hui to visit 4 European nations 

   Chinese Vice Premier of the State Council Hui Liangyu will
pay official visits to Poland, Czech, Albania and France from
April 12 to 25, Liu said. 

    Hui's European trip is at the invitation of Deputy Prime
Minister Zyta Gilowska of the Republic of Poland, Deputy Prime
Minister Jiri Havel of the Czech Republic, Deputy Prime Minister
Ilir Rusmajli of the Republic of Albania and the Government of
the Republic of France, Liu said. 

    Georgian president to visit China 

   At the invitation of Chinese president Hu Jintao, Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili will pay a state visit to China
from April 10 to 15, Liu said. 

    China to continue contribution to int'l mine sweeping work 

    China has been actively involved in activities of aiding
international mine sweeping and will continue to make
contributions in this regard, said Liu. 

    At a regular press conference, a journalist asked that
Tuesday is the International Mine Action Day and if China plans
to sign the Ottawa convention against land mines. 

    Liu said although China did not sign the Ottawa convention,
China agrees with the aims of the convention. 

    "China has signed the Amended Landmine Protocol [to the
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons] and will strictly
abide by the restrictions on landmine production and use," Liu
said. 

    He said in order to help mine-affected countries sweep land
mines, China has actively launched related aid activities in
recent yeas, including donations to the United Nations mine
sweeping fund, mine sweeping equipment and holding training
classes on international mine sweeping technologies. 

    "China has also sent experts to mine-affected countries to
make on-the-spot guidance and training for mine sweeping," said
Liu, adding that China will continue to strengthen exchanges and
cooperation with related countries and make continuous
contributions to international demining efforts. 

    China prepares for upcoming SCO summit 

    China is preparing to host the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization's (SCO) sixth summit, which is scheduled for June
in Shanghai, Liu said. 

    This year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment
of the SCO, and its member nation leaders will attend the summit
including Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin. 

    Dubbed a new model for regional cooperation, the SCO was
founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. Its main focus is regional
security and anti-terrorism. 

    The permanent members of the SCO are China, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its four
observer states are Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran. 

    The observer countries will send high-ranking officials and
some other countries in the region have been invited to attend
the summit, Liu said. 

    He said the coming summit will set forth a plan on the
future development of the organization and provide a summary of
its work over the past five years. 

    The Shanghai summit will further expand the organization's
influence among the international community, Liu said. 

    He said China, which is currently holding the presidency,
has begun full-scale preparations for the summit and
commemoration events. 

    "The Chinese government and the Shanghai Municipal
government will try their best to provide a better environment
for the delegates," Liu said. 

    China, US agree to combat terrorism, illegal immigration 

China and the United States have reached an important consensus
on combating terrorism and illegal immigration, said Liu. 

    Liu made the remarks at a regular news conference when asked
about the visit of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael
Chertoff, who visited China from April 2 to 4 at the invitation
of Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhou
Yongkang. 

    During his China tour, Chertoff met with Luo Gan, a member
of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the
Communist Party of China Central Committee, and talked with his
Chinese counterpart Zhou Yongkang. 

    Chertoff also met with senior officials of the Chinese
Foreign Ministry, the General Administration of Civil Aviation
of China, and the Ministry of Justice. 

    The two sides exchanged views on anti-terrorism cooperation,
fighting "East Turkistan" terrorist forces, the campaign against
illegal immigration, arresting and repatriating suspects,
security cooperation for the Olympic Games, air police
cooperation and law enforcement training, Liu said. 

    China and the United States will severely punish organizers
of illegal immigration, and speed up the repatriation of illegal
immigrants. 

    The two sides will also cooperate on border management and
on combating fake visas and passports, Liu said.

      Editor: Mo Hong'e   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 15 Reuters: U.S.-N.Korea mistrust hurdle to talks, says China
         
Tue 4 Apr 2006 7:16 AM ET                                       

 BEIJING, April 4 (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday mistrust
between North Korea and the United States was the main hurdle to
negotiations on the North's nuclear programme as the Chinese
defence minister held talks in Pyongyang.

 China, North Korea's main benefactor, has been urged to
persuade North Korea to agree to another round of so-called
six-party talks also involving the United States, South Korea,
Japan and Russia.

 "The cause of the current stalemate is the mistrust between
North Korea and the United States and their differences over
some specific issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu
Jianchao told a regular news conference.

 He said all sides should stick to the goal of eventual
denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

 "China as a major mediator has always been making active and
difficult efforts," Liu said. "The progress of the six-party
talks is not totally up to Chinese efforts. The key to resolving
problems is in the hands of North Korea and the United States."

 The six countries agreed in principle in September that the
North would dismantle its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid
and better diplomatic ties. But their latest session in November
ended without progress.

 North Korea has said it would be unthinkable to return to the
nuclear talks while Washington is trying to topple its leaders
through action against Pyongyang's purported counterfeiting,
drug trafficking and money laundering.

 North Korea has denied involvement in any illegal activities.

 Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan held talks on Tuesday
with Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army, Kim il-Chol, also
minister of the People's Armed Forces, at a time when Pyongyang
is facing strong pressure to return to the negotiations.

 "The talks took place in a comradely and friendly atmosphere,"
the North's KCNA news agency said.

 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu said he did not know if
Cao would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.

 The two Koreas are still technically at war after their
fratricidal 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace pact.

 A North Korean official will make a rare visit to Japan later
this week to take part in a private forum on security issues and
could have talks with negotiators to the six-party nuclear
talks, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.

 And U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill is expected to
arrive in Tokyo on Monday for talks with his counterparts from
Japan and South Korea, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.

 On April 15, Cao is due to lead a delegation of 18 senior
military officers to the South for talks on promoting military
exchanges between the two countries, South Korea's Defence
Ministry said in a statement.

 Cao will also meet South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and
inspect military units and industrial plants, the ministry said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.                                              [ border=] 
*****************************************************************
 16 Japan Times: N. Korea, Iran firms on WMD watch list 

Japan has added 20 North Korean and four Iranian companies and
research institutions to its export control list over fears that
high-technology exports to the entities could be used in the
development of weapons of mass destruction, the trade ministry
said Tuesday. 

The North Korean bodies include trading, chemical and cement
companies, as well as Kim Chaek University of Technology,
Pyongyang Maternity Hospital and Tanchon Commercial Bank,
according to ministry officials. 

The four Iranian organizations are mainly petrochemical, energy
and electronics firms. 

The list is updated annually by the ministry and covers entities
suspected of developing missiles and nuclear, biological or
chemical weapons. 

This year the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry took one
North Korean and one Iranian organization off the list, along
with two Indian bodies, bringing the total number of
organizations subject to the restrictions to 185, in eight
countries plus Taiwan. 

The five other countries covered by the export control list are
Israel, Syria, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

North Korea has the most companies and institutions on the list
at 58. They include Choson Central Bank, a public library, a
road construction company and the Pyongyang city construction
bureau, METI officials said. 

The Japan Times: 

*****************************************************************
 17 Japan Times: Six-party delegates to visit for security conference next week 

BEIJING (Kyodo) Senior officials involved in the six-party talks
on North Korea's nuclear programs will gather next week in Tokyo
for an academic conference on security issues, Japanese and U.S.
government officials said Tuesday. 

The meeting will be the first gathering of the delegates from
the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia since
the multilateral nuclear negotiations stalled after they were
last held in Beijing in November. 

Representing the U.S. in the conference will be Assistant
Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Christopher Hill, said Michael Boyle, spokesman at the U.S.
Embassy in Tokyo. 

Hill will meet with Japanese and South Korean delegates
separately on the sidelines of the meeting, but there are
currently no plans for him to meet with the North Koreans
bilaterally, Boyle said. 

The six-party talks stalled after North Korea refused to return
to the table unless the U.S. agreed to lift financial sanctions
on entities suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for
the communist regime. 

Jong Thae Yang, Pyongyang's deputy representative to the
six-party talks, will represent North Korea at the meeting,
Japanese government sources said. 

In a rare move, Japan has issued entry permits to the
delegation's four members, including team leader Jong, deputy
chief of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. affairs
department, for a one-week stay from Friday to April 14, the
sources said. 

Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic ties, and Tokyo
rarely grants entry to North Korean officials. 

Excluding a visit by North Korean sports officials in February
2005 for a World Cup soccer qualifying match, the last visit by
a North Korean official was made in October 2002, when North
Korean Red Cross officials accompanied five Japanese who had
been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The Japan Times: Wednesday, April 5, 2006 (C) All rights reserved 

*****************************************************************
 18 BBC: Pakistan and US in nuclear talks
 
Last Updated: Tuesday, 4 April 2006
 
		 		 		 
                                                                         
Pakistan has asked the US to address what it calls its legitimate 
needs in the civilian use of nuclear power. 

Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Kursheed Kasuri, has called for a 
similar approach to be adopted towards India and Pakistan on 
nuclear issues. 

During talks with the senior US diplomat Richard Boucher, he said 
this was needed to prevent an arms race. 

The BBC correspondent in Islamabad says the talks were largely 
focused on last month's India-US nuclear deal. 

		 	 		 	 	 




*****************************************************************
 19 NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting
 
                         
FR Doc 06-3258 

[Federal Register: April 4, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 64)] 
[Notices] [Page 16838-16839] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04ap06-74]                         
 
Agency Holding The Meetings: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Date: Weeks of April 3, 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8, 2006.
 
Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
 
Status: Public and closed.
 
Matters To Be Considered: Week of April 3, 2006 Monday, April 3, 
2006-- 3:55 p.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) 
(Tentative). a. USEC, Inc. (American Centrifuge Plant); Geoffrey 
Sea appeal of LBP-05-28 (Tentative).
 
b. USEC, Inc. (American Centrifuge Plant)--Appeal of LBP-05-28 by 
Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and 
Security (PRESS) (Tentative).
 
c. Hydro Resources, Inc.--Petition for Review and Partial Initial 
Decision on Phase II Cultural Resource Challenges (Tentative).
 
Week of April 10, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled 
for the Week of April 10, 2006.
 
Week of April 17, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled 
for the Week of April 17, 2006.
 
Week of April 24, 2006--Tentative Monday, April 24, 2006-- 2 p.m. 
Meeting with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), FERC 
Headquarters, 888 First St., NE., Washington, DC 20426, Room 2C 
(Public Meeting). (Contact: Mike Mayfield, (301) 415-3298). This 
meeting will be Webcast live at the Web 
address--http://www.ferc.gov .
 
Wednesday, April 26, 2006-- 1 p.m. Discussion of Management 
Issues (Closed-Ex. 2). Thursday, April 27, 2006-- 1:30 p.m. 
Meeting with Department of Energy (DOE) on New Reactor Issues 
(Public Meeting).
 
 
[[Page 16839]] This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web 
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
 
Week of May 1, 2006--Tentative Tuesday, May 2, 2006-- 9:30 a.m. 
Briefing on Status of Emergency Planning Activities--Morning 
Session (Public Meeting) (Contact: Eric Leeds, (301) 415-2334).
 
1 p.m. Briefing on Status of Emergency Planning 
Activities--Afternoon Session (Public Meeting).
 
These meetings will be Webcast live at the Web 
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
 
Wednesday, May 3, 2006-- 9 a.m. Briefing on Status of 
Risk-Informed, Performance-Based Regulation (Public Meeting) 
(Contact: Eileen McKenna, (301) 415-2189).
 
This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web 
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
 
Week of May 8, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled 
for the Week of May 8, 2006.
 
* * * * * *The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to 
change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call 
(recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more 
information: Michelle Schroll, (301) 415- 1662.
 
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the 
Internet at: 
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * * 
* * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with 
disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable 
accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need 
this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from 
the public meetings in another format (e.g. braille, large 
print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, 
Deborah Chan, at 301-415-7041, TDD: 301-415-7100, or by e-mail at 
DLC@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable 
accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
 
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred 
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like 
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the 
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301 415-1969). In addition, 
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is 
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission 
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic 
message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: March 31, 2006.
 
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
 
[FR Doc. 06-3258 Filed 3-31-06; 11:56 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M

 
*****************************************************************
 20 The Hindu: U.S. Congress not consulted on nuclear deal - report 

 Wednesday, Apr 05, 2006     

  Washington Postsays experts want it modified   

Washington: The India-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement is turning
out to be a "controversial deal" and a "hard sell" on Capitol
Hill primarily because the Congress was not consulted, according
to the Washington Post. 

The agreement is in trouble because there was little
consultation with the Congress or within the foreign-affairs
bureaucracy before it was announced, it said. 

Last month in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S.
President George W. Bush reached an agreement on how India will
implement the deal. But nuclear specialists in the U.S.

Government said their concerns about weapons proliferation also
were overridden in the final talks, the newspaper said. 

The Post report came just two days before Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice is to defend the deal in her testimony before
Congress. 

The Post said that beyond the invasion of Iraq, "few of Bush's
decisions have as much potential to shake the international
order than his deal with India." 

"He decided to change laws to enable India to buy foreign-made
nuclear reactors if it opened its civilian facilities to
international inspections — while being allowed to substantially
ramp up its ability to produce materials for nuclear weapons,"
the Post said. 

Now, nuclear experts from across the political spectrum have
urged Congress to modify the accord, which the administration
and Indian officials say would tantamount to killing it. 

"There are times when you have to engage in incremental
diplomacy and there are times you need someone who is willing to
make a bold move. The President was willing a make a bold move
towards India, and it is going to pay off for the United States
now and into the future," the Post quoted Under Secretary of
State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, the chief negotiator
on the deal. 

Many diplomatic turning points, such as President Richard M.
Nixon's historic decision to open relations with China are first
conducted in secret because established bureaucracies tend to
resist new ideas. 

Senior U.S. officials reject complaints that the expertise of
government non-proliferation specialists was ignored. But as one
person involved in the policy development put it, "it is no
accident that [nuclear experts] were not included, because you
didn't have to be a seer to know how much they would hate this." 

The Post also said the deal also went against two national
objectives — the desire to stop the spread of nuclear weapons
and the desire to counter the rise of China, in this case by
accelerating New Delhi's ascent as a global power. 

The newspaper also carried an extensive background on how the
deal came about from the stage of an idea in the Bush
administration to its final announcement by the President during
his visit to India early last month. — UNI

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication
*****************************************************************
 21 UPI: Desert explosion to simluate mini-nuke
     
United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 

4/4/2006 12:43:00 PM -0400                              

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- A massive explosion planned for
June 2006 is meant to simulate a low-yield nuclear weapon to
help Pentagon officials determine the effect on tunnels. 

According to the Federation of American Scientists, a
Washington, D.C.-based arms control group, the test to take
place in the Nevada desert will detonate 700 tons of explosives,
equivalent to about half the power of the lowest yield nuclear
bomb in the U.S. inventory. 

The planned explosion, overseen by the Defense Threat Reduction
Agency, was first reported last week. 

But the low-yield nuclear simulation was not reported at the
time. The bomb was characterized as an experiment to determine
the effects of a massive conventional explosion on hardened
targets. 

It is part of the Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept
Technology Demonstrator, "a planning tool that will improve the
warfighter's confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear
yield to destroy underground facilities while minimizing
collateral damage." 

DTRA confirmed that "Divine Strake" -- the desert test -- is
part of the Tunnel Target Defeat ACTD in an April 3 email to
FAS. 

The low-yield nuclear connection could throw the program into
controversy. Congress has repeatedly turned down Pentagon
funding requests for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program
over concerns that building a new low-yield bomb optimized for
use against buried and hardened targets would lower the nuclear
threshold. Currently, the devastation that would result from
even the smallest bombs in the U.S. inventory is considered so
great it serves as its own deterrent to use. 

Southern Methodist University was awarded the contract to
collect the seismic data from the Divine Strake explosion on
March 16.

© Copyright 2006 United Press
International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 22 Platts: ANALYSIS: Ground rules set out in Germany's long-term energy plan
 
Cologne (Platts)--4Apr2006
 
After months of political discussions, papers and statements on 
the many aspects of Germany's current and future energy supply, 
last night's energy summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel, federal 
ministers, the big utilities and manufacturers as well as 
consumer representatives could hardly live up to expectations. 

     There was no dramatic change of course on nuclear or 
renewables, nor was there any official statement on rules for CO2 
trading, either for Phase Two or beyond 2012. On the contrary, a 
lot more talking is to come. "The future of our country depends 
on an economic, secure and environmentally friendly energy 
supply," said Merkel, heralding an "energy policy framework 
concept" for mid-2007 which will set the course to 2020. The aim 
will be "to reduce dependency on imports, prevent a further price 
increase and keep an eye on environmental-political challenges."  

     Nuclear power was touched on. In developing a sustainable 
energy concept including the nuclear phase-out law, "the question 
of how nuclear power can be replaced must be answered," said 
Merkel. "The details of nuclear closures will be discussed, 
probably with much controversy." 

     Until now Merkel, of the conservative CDU party, has held to 
the letter of the post-election coalition government agreement. 
Because of a lack of agreement with coalition partner the Social 
Democrats, the agreement ring-fences the nuclear phase-out law 
from debate during this legislature period. Economics minister 
Michael Glos, of the CDU's Bavarian sister party CSU, stressed 
that the coalition agreement runs only until 2009, while the 
future energy concept is to run until 2020, so the nuclear 
phase-out "has to be discussed." 

     Glos, a nuclear proponent, and federal environment minister 
Sigmar Gabriel, a nuclear opponent who champions renewables, 
found common ground by underlining the importance of containing 
energy costs. But this summit was just the first in a number of 
such meetings. The next will take place in September, when the 
picture should become a little clearer. For more news, request a 
free trial to Platts Power in Europe at

http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill 
Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 23 Nature 9/92: Thyroid Cancer 7.5 years after Chernobyl, soaring 
 
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:16:46 -0700

<x-flowed>

Article: 1095 of sgi.talk.ratical
From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Subject: <http://www.nature.com/>Nature 9/92: Thyroid Cancer 7.5 years 
after Chernobyl, soaring
Summary: fallout from Chernobyl "on schedule" despite Official "No Danger" 
Myths
Keywords: thyroid carcinoma, fetal thyroid concentrating iodine
Date: 25 Jun 1995 21:15:11 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 341
( <http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.txt>ASCII text )


One of the most pervasive myths about 
<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/Chernobyl/>Chernobyl is that only 3% of 
the reactor core was released into the biosphere when the explosion 
occurred on April 26, 1986. Vladimir Chernousenko, Scientific Director of 
the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences' Task Force for the Rectification of the 
Consequences of the Accident, in his 1991 book 
<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/Chernobyl/ChernobylIftI.html>Chernobyl, 
Insight from the Inside, dispels this myth (and 
<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/Chernobyl/ChernobylIftI.html#MYTHS>a 
partial list of 20 others), citing,

A more official view on `The Nuclear Accident in Block 4 of the Chernobyl 
Nuclear Power Station and the Safety of the RBMK Reactor' give[s] the 
following excerpts from an unpublished report by A.A. Yadrikhinskii, 
Nuclear Safety Inspection Engineer of the USSR State Atomic Energy Survey 
Commission (Kurchatov town, RSFSR February, 1988):
. . . Radiation emission was no less that 80% of the core (with a total of 
192 tons), which amounted to 6.4 x 10^9 Ci.[16] If we divide the figure by 
the population of the whole earth (4.6 x 10^9 people) then we get 1 Ci per 
person.[17]

Choosing to ignore the facts about how we are collectively contaminating 
this Earth with lethal-to-all-life-doses of man-made nuclear fission 
products will ensure the cessation of billions of years of life exploring 
itself on this planet. It doesn't have to go down this way. If we were 
living in the areas that the children described below are, we would not be 
able to ignore the facts which the International Nuclear Mafia continuously 
deny when they parrot the line in the global media about how "There's no 
health danger from nuclear power" and "No one died at Chernobyl" and "This 
form of energy is clean and safe; anyone who says otherwise doesn't know 
what they're talking about".

-- ratitor

from the San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, September 3, 1992:
And see the June 30, 1999 Reuters story 
<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#063099>below 
regarding
Thyroid cancer 10 times higher in Chernobyl kids


Thyroid Cancer on Rise For Chernobyl Children

New York

Children who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power 
plant disaster are developing thyroid cancer sooner and in larger numbers 
than expected, researchers report.

The results are the first reliable data in the population downwind of the 
Chernobyl accident in 1986, said Dr. Marvin Goldman, a radiation biologist 
at the University of California at Irvine who was not involved in the new 
study.

An increase in thyroid cancer had been reported earlier, but some Western 
health officials had expressed concern about the reliability of the data.

In a letter published yesterday in <http://www.nature.com/>Nature, a 
British science journal, Dr. Vasily S. Kazakov of the Belarus Ministry of 
Health in Minsk and his colleagues say that the thyroid cancer rates in the 
regions most heavily irradiated began to soar in 1990.

In Gomel, the most contaminated region studied, there used to be just one 
or two cases of thyroid children a year. But Kazakov and his colleagues 
found that there were 38 cases in 1991. In six regions of Belarus and the 
city of Minsk, the investigators found 131 cases of thyroid cancer in young 
children, some of whom were still in the womb when the Chernobyl accident 
occurred.

Because of questions about the cancer reports, the World Health 
Organization sent a team of scientists to Minsk to verify the reports. In 
an accompanying letter in <http://www.nature.com/>Nature yesterday, they 
confirmed Kazakov's results.

Children are particularly susceptible to thyroid cancer from radioactive 
iodine because their thyroid glands are small and concentrate the iodine 
from radioactive fallout because they drink more milk and get larger doses 
of radioactive iodine and because their thyroids are thought to be more 
vulnerable to the radiation.

Thyroid cancer is usually very amenable to treatment, said Dr. Blake Cady, 
a cancer surgeon and thyroid cancer specialist at the New England Deaconess 
Hospital in Boston. But investigators were struck by the seeming 
aggressiveness of some of the children's cancers. A 7-year-old child died 
and 10 other children are seriously ill, they reported.

_________________________________________________________________________



NATURE, Vol. 359, 3 SEPTEMBER 1992
6fe21.jpg SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE

Thyroid cancer after Chernobyl

SIR--We would like to report a great increase in the frequency of thyroid 
cancer in children in Belarus, which commenced in 1990 and continues. Table 
1 shows the incidence of thyroid cancer in children in the six regions of 
Belarus and Minsk City from 1986 to the end of the first half of 1992. It 
can be seen that the overall incidence rose from an average of just four 
cases per year from 1986 to 1989 inclusive, to 55 in 1991 and is projected 
to be not less than 60 in 1992. This increase is not uniformly distributed 
across the country: for example, there is no significant increase in 
Mogilev, Minsk City or Vitebsk. By far the greatest increase is seen in the 
Gomel region, from one or two cases per year to 38 in 1991, and a less 
obvious increase is seen in the Brest and Grodno regions.


  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
     TABLE 1     Incidence of thyroid cancer in children in Belarus
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Region of                          Years
  Belarus      1986   1987   1988   1989   1990   1991   1992*    Total

  Brest          0      0      1      1      6      5      5        18
  Vitebsk        0      0      0      0      1      3      0         4
  Gomel          1      2      1      2     14     38     13        71
  Grodno         1      1      1      2      0      2      6        13
  Minsk          0      1      1      1      1      4      4        12
  Mogilev        0      0      0      0      2      1      1         4
  Minsk City     0      0      1      0      5      2      1         9

  Total          2      4      5      6     29     55     30       131
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  * Six months of 1992

The Gomel region lies immediately to the north of Chernobyl and is known to 
have received a high level of radioactivity as fallout after the breakdown 
of reactor number 4 on 26 April 1986. The plume passed first over the Gomel 
region in the first few hours after the major release of radioactivity, and 
then over the Brest and Grodno regions. The fallout contained large amounts 
of iodine-131 and significant amounts of the short-lived isotopes of 
iodine, although these were too short-lived to be measured.

We have classified the tumours according to the World Health Organisation 
classification (2nd edn) and find that virtually all are papillary 
carcinomas (128 of 131). They are, however, relatively aggressive, as can 
be seen from Table 2. Fifty-five of the 131 cases showed direct extension 
to the perithyroid tissues and six distant metastases, mostly in the lungs. 
It can be seen that only about 23 per cent were less than 1 cm in diameter. 
One of the children has died at seven years of age and ten others are 
seriously ill.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE 2 Extent of spread (TNM classification) of thyroid cancer in children
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Total               Lymph node metastases
               TNM     number of   -------------------------------------
              symbol     cases     None(N O)  Ipsilateral(N 1a)  Other(N 1b)

Tumour size
   <1 cm         T1        30           17             10              3
   1-4 cm        T2        33           17              8              8
   >4 cm         T3         7            3              4              0

Extending
to surrounding
tissues         T4        55           14             18             23

Distant
metastases      M1         6            1              1              4

Total                    131           52             41             38
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Classification as in TNM Atlas 3rd edn, eds Spiessl, B. et al.,
UICC (Springer, Berlin, 1990).

The occurrence of this increase in thyroid cancer in children within a few 
years of exposure to radioactive isotopes of iodine is unexpected, but 
real. It poses both humanitarian and scientific problems, and is placing 
great strains upon the health services of our new country. It also provides 
an opportunity, which we hope will not be repeated, to study the 
consequences of major exposure of a population to isotopes of iodine from 
fallout. We are collaborating with several international groups and are 
preparing detailed reports of various aspects of the problem.

We believe that the only realistic explanation for the increase in the 
frequency of thyroid cancer is that it is a direct consequence of the 
accident at Chernobyl.
Vasili S. Kazakov
Ministry of Health of Belarus,
House of Government.
220010 Minsk, Belarus

Evgeni P. Demidchik
Thyroid Tumour Centre,
F. Skorinay Avenue 64,
220600 Minsk, Belarus

Larisa N. Astakhova
Radiation Medicine Institute,
Masherov Avenue 23,
220600 Minsk, Belarus



SIR--We have recently visited Belarus under the auspices of the WHO 
regional office for Europe and the Swiss government, and have had the 
opportunity to see some of the children with thyroid cancer, to study the 
pathology of the cases and to examine the relevant data.

We examined 11 children who had had operations for thyroid carcinoma and 
were now hospitalized for post-operative management or evaluation of 
metastatic disease. We were shown the complete records for these patients, 
including X-rays and echograms before and after treatment. All were 
diagnosed during the past 3 years, eight having been living in the Gomel 
region at the time of the Chernobyl accident and two in the Brest region. 
The age at diagnosis of the six females and five males was between 4 and 13 
years of age; the youngest was born two days after the accident.

We have studied the histological slides from 104 cases of children from 
Belarus in whom the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma had been made since 
January 1989. We agree both with the diagnosis of malignancy and of the 
type of malignancy in 102 of the cases. We also examined the data on the 
incidence of thyroid carcinoma in Belarus. There is a marked increase in 
frequency from 1990 onwards over the average for the years from 1986 to 
1990. This increase started only 4 years after the Chernobyl accident, a 
surprisingly short time by comparison with studies of thyroid carcinoma 
that have followed exposure to external radiation in 
infants<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn1n2>[1,2<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn1n2>]. 
Of the children with thyroid carcinoma in Belarus since 1990, the eight 
youngest at exposure were in utero, but were more than 3 months of fetal 
age at the time of Chernobyl. The fetal thyroid is known to start 
concentrating iodine at 12-14 weeks of gestation.

We do not believe that increased ascertainment of cases could have played 
more than a minor role in the recorded incidence of thyroid carcinoma. The 
proportion of resected nodules that are malignant is high and the type of 
tumour is aggressive. The ratio of thyroid carcinoma in children to that in 
adults has increased dramatically, although there are now signs that the 
incidence in patients over the age of 15 is beginning to increase. The rate 
is greatly in excess of the reported incidence of this disease in children 
under 15 years of age, which is of the order of I per million per 
year<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn3_6>[3-6<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn3_6>]. 
In the Gomel region (total population about 2.5 million), the region of 
Belarus that received the highest fallout from Chernobyl, the incidence in 
1991 and the first part of 1992 is approximately 80 per million children 
per year.

It is generally accepted that external radiation to the neck is associated 
with an increased incidence of thyroid carcinoma in man, and there is an 
increased sensitivity of the infant thyroid to the carcinogenic effect of 
radiation<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn2>[2<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn2>]. 
In some animal studies, but not 
all<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn7n8>[7,8<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn7n8>], 
external radiation is found to be a more effective carcinogen for the 
thyroid than iodine-131. Clear evidence that the diagnostic or therapeutic 
use of radioiodine in man carries a carcinogenic risk is 
lacking<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn9n10>[9,10<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn9n10>], 
and iodine-131 has provided a safe and effective treatment of Graves' 
disease in adults, although it is rarely used in young children.

The combination of the high level of exposure to radioactive fallout and 
the numbers exposed within a short time after its release makes the 
Chernobyl accident an unprecedented event. In the Marshall Islands, 
although the doses were probably comparable, the number of people exposed 
was several orders of magnitude 
smaller<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn11>[11<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn11>]. 
In the case of the accident at Windscale (now called Sellafield), the 
number exposed was substantial but the doses were 
smaller<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn12>[12<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn12>], 
and no adequate study of any long-term thyroid effects has yet been 
reported. Other studies of fallout from weapons and of nuclear accidents 
(such as on Three Mile Island) have yielded inconclusive evidence. A close 
relationship between radiation dose and the incidence of thyroid carcinoma 
has been documented in atomic bomb survivors in 
Japan<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn13>[13<http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html#fn13>], 
but the radiation received was mostly external and the contribution from 
fallout is uncertain.

We believe that the experience in Belarus suggests that the consequences to 
the human thyroid, especially in fetuses and young children, of the 
carcinogenic effects of radioactive fallout is much greater than previously 
thought. Studies of the Marshall Islanders, of the atomic bomb survivors 
and of the effects of external radiation on the thyroid suggest that the 
incidence of thyroid cancer in Belarus will be raised for many years.

The accident and its impact on Belarus poses a challenge to the 
international community to help, both in dealing with the extensive present 
and future public health consequences, and in promoting research for the 
understanding of the basic processes underlying the phenomenon. 
Understanding the consequences of Chernobyl will provide an important basis 
for preventive action in future.

Keith Baverstock
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health,
00156 Rome, Italy

Bruno Egloff
Pathology Institute, Kantonspital,
8401 Winterthur,
Switzerland

Aldo Pinchera
Institute of Endocrinology,
University of Pisa, 56100 Pisa, Italy

Charles Ruchtl
Pathology Institute, University of Berne,
3010 Berne, Switzerland

Dillwyn Williams
Department of Pathology,
University of Wales College of Medicine,
Heath Park,
Cardiff CF4 4XN, UK



_________________________

    * Shore, R. E. et al. J. natn. Cancer Inst. 74, 1177-1184 (1985).

    * Ron, E. et al. Radiat. Res. 120, 516-531 (1989).

    * Brown, P. D. et al. Int. J. Epidem. 18, 546-555 (1989).

    * McWhiner, W. R. & Petroeschevsy, A. L. Int. J. Cancer 45, 1002-1005 
(1990).

    * Young, J. L., Ries, L. G., Silverberg, E., Horm, J. W. & Miller, R. 
W. Cancer 58, 598-602 (1986).

    * Muir, C., Waterhouse, J., Mack, T., Powell, J. & Whelan, S. IARC Sci. 
Publ. no. 88, Vol. 5 (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon. 
1987).

    * National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP report 
no. 80 (Washington DC, 1985).

    * Lee, W., Chiacchierini, R. P., Shleien, B. & Telles, N. C. Radiat. 
Res. 92, 307-319 (1982).

    * Holm, L. E., Dahiqvist, I., Israelsson, A. & Lundell, G. New Engl. J. 
Med. 303, 188-191 (1980).

    * Holm, L. E. et al. J. natn. Cancer Inst. 80, 1132-1138 (1988).
    * Conard, R. A. in Radiation Carcinogenesis Epidemiology and Biological 
Significance, Boice, J. D. & Fraumeni, J. F. eds (Raven, New York, 1984).

    * Baverstock, K. F. & Vennart, J. Health Phys. 30, 339-344 (1976).

    * Ezaki, H., Ishimaru, T., Hayashi, Y. & Takeichi, N. GANN Monogr. 
Cancer Res. 32, 129-142 (1986).
______


. . . the number of children and grandchildren with cancer in their bones, 
with leukemia in their blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem 
statistically small to some, in comparison with natural health hazards, but 
this is not a natural health hazard--and it is not a statistical issue. The 
loss of even one human life, or the malformation of even one baby--who may 
be born long after we are gone--should be of concern to us all. Our 
children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be 
indifferent.

-- President Kennedy, June, 1963



Thyroid cancer 10 times higher in Chernobyl kids
Wednesday, June 30, 1999

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The rate of thyroid cancer remains 10 times higher 
than normal among young Ukrainian children 13 years after the accident at 
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, researchers said Wednesday.

They reported 577 cases of thyroid cancer in Ukrainian children between 
1986, when the accident occurred, and 1997, compared to 59 cases in the 
same age group from 1981 to 1985.

The reactor at Chernobyl caught fire in the early hours of April 26, 1986, 
spreading a radioactive cloud over much of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and 
other parts of Europe. It killed 31 people and affected thousands more.

In Belarus, where 70 percent of the radiation was deposited, the World 
Health Organization says thyroid cancer rates among children are 100 times 
pre-accident levels.

"Children constitute the most vulnerable group of exposed individuals, 
because their thyroid sensitivity to radiation is high, and there is a 
longer life span to manifest its effects," Dr. Virginia LiVolsi of the 
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, said in a 
statement.

"These factors make it necessary to follow thyroid function in exposed 
subjects for decades."

Reporting in the journal cancer, LiVolsi said her team found that 64 
percent of all Ukrainian thyroid cancer patients aged 15 or younger lived 
in the most contaminated regions -- the provinces of Kiev, Chernigov, 
Zhitomir, Cherkassy and Rovno.

More than 40 percent of patients were children 4 or younger at the time of 
the accident.

"The group at maximum risk is those exposed to high radiation levels when 
they were younger than 5 years," LiVolsi said. "This is the age when the 
thyroid gland is most sensitive to ionizing radiation."

The American Cancer Society predicts that more than 18,000 adults in the 
United States will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1999. About 1,200 
will die.

There is a way to help prevent thyroid cancer caused because of exposure to 
radioactivity. In Poland, where potassium iodide was given to 97 percent of 
children, there has been no similar increase in thyroid cancer although the 
country was also exposed to radioactive clouds from Chernobyl.

Last week the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed that potassium 
iodide be stockpiled to protect the public from a major release of 
radiation during a nuclear power plant accident.


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 24 [NukeNet] S Korea/Indonesia, Australia/China NPP Deals
 
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:17:33 -0700

<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)


    Mothersalert: http://www.mothersalert.org
http://www.mothersalert.org/moreinfo.html

    The cancer is spreading [no pun intended]:


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-indonesia-korea.html
  South Korea to Help Develop Nuclear Power in
Indonesia
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By REUTERS
Published: April 3, 2006
Filed at 5:06 a.m. ET

Skip to next paragraph
JAKARTA (Reuters) - South Korea, one of the
world's biggest oil and liquefied natural gas
importers, wants to help Indonesia develop nuclear
power, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon
said on Monday.

``We hope that both Indonesia and Korea will be
able to conclude a nuclear energy cooperation
agreement as soon as possible,'' Ban told a joint
news conference with Indonesa's Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirajuda.

``We are one of the countries with high tech
technology and know-how in this area,'' he added.

Nuclear power plays an important role in providing
an alternative source of energy in South Korea,
which imports all of its oil and liquefied gas.

According to the London-based World Nuclear
Association, South Korea currently has 20 nuclear
reactors providing some 40 percent of the
country's electricity.

Wirajuda welcomed the possible cooperation but
gave few details of the plan.

``We visualise that one day Indonesia, too, should
develop nuclear energy and certainly Korea is an
important potential partner,'' Wirajuda added.

Ban, who is pitching to succeed Koffi Annan as the
next United Nations secretray general, said he
asked for Indonesia's support.

``There is a wide-ranging consensus of opinions
among the member states of the United Nations that
the next secretary general... should come from
Asia''

``I need your support and I'll be honoured if i'll
be elected secretary general of the United
Nations. I will be fully commited to work for the
entire world community,'' he said

Wirajuda made no comment on the issue, but as a
member of ASEAN -- which groups countries in the
Southeast Asia region -- Indonesia may support the
nomination of another Asian contender, Thailand
Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.



http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-australia-china.html
  Australia, China Sign Uranium Trade Deal
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By REUTERS
Published: April 3, 2006
Filed at 2:54 a.m. ET

Skip to next paragraph
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia and China signed a
nuclear safeguards deal on Monday that set the
stage for huge uranium exports to Beijing for its
power industry, but Canberra said the trade was
unlikely to start for some years.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and
his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, signed the
nuclear safeguards deal in the presence of
visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian
Prime Minister John Howard.

``Given China's high projected growth in
electricity demand over the coming years, there
are clear environmental benefits in diversifying
from fossil fuels to low greenhouse-emission
technologies such as nuclear power,'' Downer said
in a statement.

China is expected to build 40 to 50 nuclear power
plants over the next 20 years and needs steady
supplies of uranium. Its own uranium stocks are
dwindling, not very rich and difficult to extract.

Australia has about 40 percent of the world's
known uranium reserves, but it will only export to
countries that have signed

the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and
who also agree to a separate bilateral safeguards
deal.

India also wants to buy uranium from Australia,
but has not signed the NPT and Howard has said he
was not planning to change his strict uranium
trade policy just because New Delhi signed a
nuclear technology deal with the United States.

The U.S.-India deal agreed last month requires New
Delhi to separate its military and civil nuclear
facilities and open civilian plants to inspections
in return for U.S. nuclear fuel and technology,
but still needs approval from the U.S. Congress.

Australia only has three operating uranium mines,
owned by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and General
Atomics of the United States, and Resources
Minister Ian Macfarlane has said big uranium
exports to China were unlikely to start until
2010.

Macfarlane said China's predicted uranium
consumption was estimated at 20,000 tons a year,
while Australia currently produced only about
10,000 tons a year from its existing three mines.
He said extra capacity would be needed to supply
China.

``WORLD LESS SAFE''

Australia has 19 bilateral nuclear safeguard
agreements covering 36 countries, including the
United States, France, Britain, Mexico, Japan,
Finland and South Korea.

The NPT requires the five nuclear-weapon states --
Russia, the United States, United Kingdom, France,
and China -- not to transfer nuclear weapons,
other nuclear explosive devices, or technology to
non-nuclear-weapon states and non-NPT countries.

``I'm firm in the belief that with the considered
effort of both countries, China-Australia
relations and cooperations will yield rich
fruits,'' Wen told a lunch at Parliament House.

About 25 human rights protesters gathered out the
front of Parliament House in Canberra in
opposition to Wen's visit, including a former
Chinese diplomat who granted residency in
Australia after he first sought political asylum.

Minority Australian Greens party politician
Christine Milne said Australia was putting money
before human rights and global security by
allowing communist China to import uranium.

``Make no mistake -- selling Australian uranium to
China will make the world less safe,'' Milne said
in a statement.

Australia and China are also negotiating a free
trade deal and Wen said the two countries had
agreed to accelerate talks.

``That is in the next one or two years China and
Australia should work together to strive for
breakthroughs on major issues related to the FTA
negotiation ... to lay the foundation for the
arrival of an overall agreement,'' Wen said.

Howard praised Wen and said that the nuclear and
other deals signed on Monday highlighted the
countries developing ties.

``You represent a leader of a remarkable nation
which is destined to play an even greater role in
the affairs of the world and a nation with which
Australia seeks to build an ever closer, more
effective and more permanent partnership,'' Howard
said.

Some analysts say the safeguards deal with China
will test Australia's skills at juggling growing
ties with Asia's emerging power and its strong
alliance with the United States, which is wary of
Beijing's military and economic ambitions.


_______________________________________________________________________
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*****************************************************************
 25 Guardian Unlimited: EC paves way for UK nuclear privatisation
 
David Gow in Brussels

Wednesday April 5, 2006
The Guardian 		
 		
Tony Blair's plans to build a new generation of nuclear power 
stations received a significant boost yesterday when the European 
commission cleared the £15bn transfer of assets and liabilities 
from the state-owned company British Nuclear Fuels to the new 
quango, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The controversial decision, which had been delayed three times in 
recent months because of political sensitivities, helps clear the 
way for BNFL's £1bn sale of its clean-up business, British 
Nuclear Group, to private companies within the next 18 months. 
BNG operates the huge Sellafield complex in Cumbria which is to 
be cleaned up over the next 150 years.

Green campaigners privately fear that the decision to allow the 
transfer of clean-up liabilities to the decommissioning quango 
will set a precedent for the new nuclear plants that the prime 
minister and several cabinet ministers favour and that are being 
examined under the government's current energy review. 
Campaigners insist that companies operating the plants should 
bear the cost of decommissioning them.

Welcoming the decision, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
said it "removes a period of uncertainty regarding the financing
of the NDA" and "means we can focus exclusively on the delivery
of our primary remit - the safe and cost-effective
decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy".

The EC, despite known misgivings among senior officials, finally
agreed under considerable political pressure from Britain that
BNFL complied with the "polluter-pays" principle - that it was
responsible for the cost of decommissioning its plants - and had
therefore received no state aid.

It added that the NDA, which is taking over four Magnox nuclear
power plants still in operation as well as seven either being
closed or being decommissioned, had agreed not to
cross-subsidise the plants' commercial operations in the
wholesale electricity market. The EC decision means that the NDA
cannot use its state funding to undercut competitors when
selling power directly to business customers.

The four plants, which provide 7% of Britain's power, are Wylfa
on Anglesey, Dungeness, Sizewell A and Oldbury. All Magnox
plants are due to close by the end of the decade.

They are among 20 sites owned by the NDA which date back as far
as the mid-1950s and will cost an estimated £70bn to operate and
clean up. Last week the estimate of decommissioning costs for
the plants was raised a further £12bn to £56bn. It is understood
that the EC took account of the extra nuclear liabilities when
it made its decision.

Neelie Kroes, competition commissioner, said: "I am committed to
taking full account of the polluter-pays principle in the
implementation of state aid policy." Some Brussels officials,
however, believe that the government's offer to meet shortfalls
in the cost of decommissioning amounts to illegal state aid.

Jean McSorley, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner, said: "Though we
are disappointed with the commission's ruling, the decision
creates a headache for those hell-bent on building a new
generation of nuclear reactors." She added: "Any future plans
for new reactors must take into account that the operator is
liable for the unknown and potentially massive costs of dealing
with radioactive waste."

Other environmental activists said the commission had been left
with little option but to approve the state aid given that the
bulk of UK government aid - some £63bn transferred to the NDA -
had been approved in the past.
 	
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 © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 26 theage.com.au: Government rejects nuclear power 

Katharine Murphy and Misha Schubert

April 5, 2006

THE Howard Government has refused a request for an inquiry into
nuclear power in Australia, claiming nuclear energy must be a
decision for "generations to come". 

Federal Parliament's bipartisan industry and resources committee
had asked the Government to establish an inquiry into the merits
of nuclear power following a year-long examination of
Australia's expanding uranium industry. 

The inquiry would have established a platform for Australia to
consider nuclear power generation — an idea with support in the
ministry and on the Coalition backbench. 

But the request has been flatly rejected by Resources Minister
Ian Macfarlane. 

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that our
abundance of clean coal makes it very, very hard for domestic
nuclear power to stack up economically," Mr Macfarlane said
yesterday. "Even (Labor resources spokesman) Martin Ferguson
agrees with that." 

Mr Macfarlane said domestic nuclear energy was a "decision
reserved specifically for the people of Australia in generations
to come". 

The rejection of an inquiry follows the signing on Monday of a
bilateral nuclear agreement under which billions of dollars
worth of Australian uranium will be exported to China. 

It also follows news that two Australian mining companies — ERA
and BHP Billiton — have signed contracts to sell uranium to
Taiwan, following an agreement sanctioned by Parliament in 2002
to allow uranium sales to Taiwan via the United States. 

Treasurer Peter Costello yesterday tried to maintain pressure on
the Labor states that ban uranium mining, warning that Canberra
might override their objections and allow uranium to be mined
and exported. 

But environmental groups raised strong objections about
Australia's export agreement with China, arguing that the
safeguards regime contained a "huge hole". 

Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear campaigner Dave
Noonan said that under the pact, Australian uranium would
disappear from the inspections regime into a military conversion
facility, before a matching amount of uranium was handed over
for civilian use in power plants covered by the safeguards. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website says
"uranium conversion facilities are before the starting point for
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards procedures
and are not included in IAEA safeguards agreements with nuclear
weapon states". 

But it argues that forcing the Chinese Government to add the
same amount of yellowcake to the inventory of an enrichment
plant "will have exactly the same effect as if the yellowcake
had moved through the conversion plant". 

Mr Noonan said the admission proved the Howard Government's
insistence that Australian uranium could not be used in Chinese
nuclear weapons was wrong. 

"Once it goes into the conversion facility, it just disappears
off the safeguards radar," he said. "We've been told
emphatically that Australian uranium will only be used for
peaceful purposes — but that is factually wrong." 
	 				 				 				 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 		 	 	 		 	 	 	 	 	 	
Copyright © 2006. The Age Company Ltd. <img
*****************************************************************
 27 MiamiHerald.com: FPL to seek a new nuclear plant

| 04/04/2006 | 

Florida Power &Light said it plans to start the process to build
a new nuclear power plant, perhaps in South Miami-Dade.

 By JOHN DORSCHNER 

Laying the groundwork for what could clearly be a long
regulatory and public relations battle, FPL announced Monday it
plans to submit a formal application in 2009 to build a new
nuclear plant in the state. 

FPL spokeswoman Rachel Scott said a site will be chosen in the
next three years. 

''This is a surprise!'' said Mark Oncavage, a Miami member of
the pro-environment Sierra Club. ''The nuclear industry hasn't
figured out what to do with high-level waste,'' which keeps
growing at Turkey Point and other nuclear sites around the
country. ``Why should they be allowed to expand?'' 

While nuclear power is gaining popularity in Asia and Europe as
a cheap fuel source, no nuclear plant has been approved in the
United States since 1973, and after the near-meltdown at
Three-Mile Island in 1979, virtually no one has even broached
the subject. 

But with soaring fuel surcharges adding up to 40 percent to many
of the state's customers' bills and U.S. policy experts seeking
ways to make the country less reliant on Middle East petroleum,
electric utilities have been taking a new look at nuclear fuel
in the past several years. At least three other firms have said
they are starting the process to get licenses for new plants. 

Over the past several months, FPL executives have been hinting
about their nuclear plans. In an interview with The Miami Herald
in January, FPL President Armando Olivera said Turkey Point in
South Dade had room for another nuclear reactor, or the utility
could choose a ''green site,'' a place with nothing at present. 

FILING AN APPLICATION 

The utility said it plans to file an application with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but hadn't yet decided how far it
will go with them. 

Its final decision will be based ''on a number of factors, such
as regulatory climate, financial market conditions and competing
fuel technology costs,'' the firm said. 

''A decision to build is not expected for several years. Siting,
licensing and constructing a nuclear unit could take
approximately 12 years to complete,'' FPL stated, meaning it
would take until at least 2021 for FPL to open a new nuclear
facility. 

The announcement came as part of FPL's routine updating of its
10-year plan for increasing generating capacity to meet the
expected growth of 1.3 million additional homes. 

Because of soaring costs of natural gas and petroleum, which
together account for 59 percent of FPL's energy, the company has
been looking at cheaper alternatives, namely coal and nuclear. 

Both sources have environmental concerns and are likely to be
opposed by people living in the area. Last November, St. Lucie
County rejected the utility's attempt to build a coal plant
there. 

Scott said FPL is considering a ''very advanced technology'' for
a coal plant that would not have the dark-cloud air pollution of
older coal generators. 

She said the search for a new coal site will also serve as a way
of identifying places for a nuclear facility as well. 

The utility's priorities, according to Scott: 

• A large site. Coal would need to be brought in by train, and
they'd want a site large enough for a train yard. Nuclear energy
obviously needs isolation from its surroundings. 

• Sufficient and multiple water supplies for cooling. 

• Nearby existing high-voltage transmission lines. 

• ''Near where all the growth is taking place,'' in Central and
South Florida. 

That last requirement obviously presents a problem, because it's
most likely that the closer a power plant site is to heavily
populated areas, the more it would be opposed. 

`A CATCH-22' 

''It's a Catch-22,'' Scott acknowledged. 

The utility is hoping that soaring fuel surcharges will help
customers reconsider their long-time aversion to nuclear power. 

Oliver said nuclear plants, including FPL's at St. Lucie and
Turkey Point, provide power at one-fourth to one-third the cost
of fossil-fuel plants. ''These plants turned out to be an
incredible bargain,'' Olivera told The Miami Herald in January. 

Oncavage had other kinds of alternatives in mind. ``There's
wind. There's solar. And there's so much more you can do to use
electricity efficiently.'' 

Note: The Miami Herald has a business relationship with FPL in a
program to recruit subscribers. About Herald.com | About the
*****************************************************************
 28 SLO Trib: Nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry requests to 
weaken safety rules

San Luis Obispo Tribune 

| 04/04/2006 | 

A Diablo Canyon spokesman says the plant has gone beyond NRC
security requirements

 Tribune staff and wire reports The Tribune 

A government watchdog agency reports that the federal nuclear
regulatory agency weakened safety requirements in response to
industry requests, leading some lawmakers to criticize the
agency. 

These lawmakers noted that while steps are being taken to
prevent terrorist attacks at the nation’s nuclear facilities —
including Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant — they believe the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission is too closely related to the
industry it regulates. 

Jeff Lewis, spokesman for Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant,
said Monday that he could not address the specific findings
because he has not seen the Government Accountability Office
report. 

But he noted that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has spent $30
million on strengthening the facility and other capital
improvements to protect the plant from a terrorist attack since
Sept. 11, 2001. 

He added that Diablo Canyon has also been conducting security
drills and that it has doubled its security staff since the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

"We feel that we have responded (to new regulations) and in many
cases gone beyond the requirements of the NRC," Lewis said.


*****************************************************************
 29 NRC: NRC Uses Risk Insights to Revise Mitigating Systems Category in Reactor Oversight Process
 
News Release - 2006-04
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail:   
  No. 06-045     April 4, 2006   
  

Oversight Process (ROP) with the introduction of the Mitigating
Systems Performance Index (MSPI), which tracks the availability
and reliability of systems used to reduce the severity of
incidents at a nuclear power plant. 

The agency created the ROP six years ago to improve its
inspection and enforcement programs for commercial nuclear power
plants. At that time, the process included performance
indicators for safety system unavailability, but ongoing
experience with the ROP revealed the need for further
enhancement. The MSPI addresses this need and takes into account
plant-specific features. 

The MSPI constitutes a significant enhancement to the ROPs
performance indicators by more fully incorporating understanding
of how systems contribute to a plants overall safety picture,
said Jim Dyer, Director of the NRCs Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation. This change will improve our ability to track how
well utilities are running their plants. 

The NRC has worked with stakeholders on refining the MSPI since
a pilot program in 2002. The development of the new indicator
has included multiple public meetings and public comments, as
well as input from the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards
and other nuclear regulators interested in using similar
methods. The NRC and stakeholders have established a risk
assessment methodology and have developed software and databases
to provide the raw data necessary for evaluating the index. The
NRC will issue shortly a Regulatory Issue Summary on
implementing the MSPI.   



  


 	Last revised Tuesday, April 04, 2006 	   
*****************************************************************
 30 MiamiHerald.com: Probe into hole at nuclear plant begins

04/04/2006 | 

MIAMI-DADE
 
The source of a tiny drill hole found in the cooling system at
Miami-Dade's Turkey Point nuclear power facility is being
investigated.

 BY ELAINE DE VALLE 

Federal investigators began work Monday to help determine
whether a hole drilled into a cooling system for one of the
nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point power plant was an honest
mistake or an act of sabotage. 

The reactor -- one of two at the Miami-Dade County power plant
-- had been shut down for routine refueling and maintenance on
March 5, FPL spokeswoman Rachel Scott said. 

Workers discovered the 1/8-inch hole Thursday during a series of
tests and inspections before bringing the unit back online,
Scott said. There was little risk of danger, officials said. 

The hole was unquestionably man-made, Scott added. 

''It was definitely done intentionally. We just don't know if it
was someone who thought they were drilling in the right spot or
if it is something else,'' Scott said. ``There's a lot of
maintenance going on.'' 

The power company's investigation, as well as the damaged
equipment, is being reviewed by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission
inspection team, which arrived over the weekend and began work
Monday, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. 

''Mostly, they are going to be reviewing the circumstances
surrounding the damage to the pipe, talking to some people and
looking at it from a technical standpoint,'' Hannah said. ``The
plant has already repaired that particular pipe, and we'll also
look at FPL's response and a number of other issues.'' 

''Because the plant was coming out of a refueling outage, the
water in this particular pipe was not heated up nor was it at
pressure. There was really very little possibility of the plant
continuing to start up without this leak being noticed,'' he
said. 

``The procedures allowed them to identify the leak before they
got anywhere close to operating power.'' 

Scott, the FPL spokeswoman, said the reactor could be returned
to service by the end of this week. 

It is the second time in two months that inspectors from the
national agency have come to Turkey Point. In February, an NRC
team visited to look at security issues. 

''It relates to the security plan. There were some issues that
we wanted to look at,'' Hannah said, declining to give details
because they are about security. 

''Some of those are still open issues, but they are not issues
that directly affect the security of the plant. We feel
confident that they are implementing the security at the plant
appropriately,'' Hannah said. 

The two reactors at Turkey Point are shut down every 18 months
for refueling. 

Customers should not be affected by the routine shutdown, Scott
said. The power plant's second nuclear unit as well as two units
powered by oil and natural gas were fully operational, she said.

*****************************************************************
 31 RIA Novosti: Chernobyl accident was inevitable - senator 

04/ 04/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, April 4 (RIA Novosti) - The Chernobyl nuclear accident
was inevitable, the senator who oversaw clean-up efforts at the
nuclear power plant in 1986 said Tuesday. 

Speaking at an international conference ahead of the anniversary
of the tragedy, Nikolai Ryzhkov, then chairman of the Soviet
Union's cabinet of ministers, said: "The Chernobyl disaster was
not an accident. Russia's nuclear power industry had been
inevitably moving toward the tragic event." 

"I had the impression that scientists, builders, power plant
workers had lost the feeling of danger and vigilance," Ryzhkov
said. 

Ryzhkov singled out three reasons behind the April 26, 1986,
catastrophe, which affected 116,000 people and 640 populated
areas in Ukraine, then part of the U.S.S.R., and nearby regions:
reactor depreciation, a poor emergency protection system, and
poorly qualified personnel who routinely violated safety
requirements. 

He also blamed scientists who had not foreseen emergencies while
designing the reactor. 

The Chernobyl accident was a major blow to nuclear research in
Russia, Ryzhkov said. Coupled with funding problems, the tragedy
scared qualified experts away from nuclear research centers, he
said. 

While criticizing Soviet and Russian authorities for effectively
ignoring the health problems of clean-up workers and local
people, Ryzhkov also said the international community had
provided no aid to the former Soviet Union after the world's
worst nuclear disaster. 

"Instead of receiving medicines and equipment, we heard only
criticism," Ryzhkov said. 

While thousands of people have been evacuated from Chernobyl and
other affected areas, many people stayed in or have returned to
the city, although radiation is still being emitted from the
site. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 32 USNews.com: Inside Washington: Nuclear energy moves front and center

By Paul Bedard 

Posted 4/4/06 
 
Political analysts trying to foresee the next big issue believe
that nuclear power could become a 2008 powerhouse if oil and gas
prices continue to surge and Americans grow more concerned about
the impact of global warming and greenhouse gases. 

"Nuclear power is a new issue," says GOP pollster Frank Luntz. A
Democratic strategist said nuclear power could even become a
darling of the party after years of opposition. Luntz said that
it polls well. He said that about 60 percent or more of
Americans support nuclear power, and he predicted that support
could jump into the 70s in the coming election years. He and
others said the issue has regained traction among Americans as
fuel prices have risen and more people have become convinced
that global warming is a reality. 

The absence of any major accident in nearly 30 years and the
administration's new focus on promoting nuclear power are also
making it politically attractive and more profitable for energy
producers. 

"This could become the mainstream energy issue fast," says a GOP
political adviser. 

Copyright © 2006 U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights 
reserved.
*****************************************************************
 33 Herald News: IEPA cites Exelon again

  [SuburbanChicagoNews.com]   

• Dresden plant: Discharge of contaminants

By Kim SmithSTAFF WRITER 

MORRIS  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has issued
Exelon Corp. another violation notice as a result of their
ongoing investigation into numerous area tritium spills.

 This one concerns their Dresden Nuclear Power Plant. The IEPA
recently sent two violation notices for violations at the
Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant.

 "We expected this due to the leaks in the fall of '04 and the
one discovered in January," said Bob Osgood, spokesman for the
Dresden plant.

 Monitoring wells around the plant are tested on a regular
basis. 

Osgood said when they found a leak on Exelon property earlier
this year, the location of the leak was determined and the water
was rerouted.

 Tests were done on neighboring drinking water wells as a
precaution. Osgood said tritium was detected at a level well
below health-based drinking water standards and posed no health
or safety threats.

 Other leaks have recently been reported at their Byron
facility. 

This latest violation cites Exelon for discharging wastewater
containing contaminants to areas prohibited by the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit at their Dresden
facility. The letter goes on to say there were other operational
and reporting violations of their discharge permit.

 The letter also advises Exelon that due to the nature and
seriousness of the violations, further enforcement action may be
required that could include imposition of statutory penalties
and fines. The violation notices were referred to the Illinois
attorney general for enforcement action. 


- Reporter Kim Smith can be reached at (815) 729-6067 or
ksmith@scn1.com.04/04/06 
  
      SuburbanChicagoNews.com — ©  Digital Chicago & Sun-Times
*****************************************************************
 34 EBR: UK energy: nuclear clean-up bill acceptable cost to bear -
                     
Energy Business Review
 	 	 	 
 4th April 2006 By Staff Writer 

The UK's NDA has grown its estimate for the cost of cleaning up
the country's nuclear waste.
 
The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has raised its
estimate for the total cost of cleaning up the existing civilian
nuclear power plant sites in the UK to GBP70 billion. While the
total figure is substantial, for the total lifetime output of
these plants and the ancillary benefits that they bring, the
cost is still tolerable.

 Advertisement The NDA has announced that its estimate for the
total decommissioning costs for the civilian nuclear fleet is
now GBP70 billion, up from GBP55 billion last year. This
dramatic rise is cause for concern and attention should be given
to the reasons why this has occurred as it sets a damaging
precedent for the future. It also calls into question the
robustness of these estimates. However, the overall magnitude of
the cost that this implies for delivered nuclear power is still
in line with other forms of energy subsidized by the government.

From 1960 through until 2035, the current expected lifetime of
the UK's nuclear fleet, a little over 3,000 TWh of power is
likely to be produced, which includes the first series of
planned life extensions. This would imply a clean-up cost of
2.9p/kWh, which is reduced to 1.4p/kWh when a discount rate of
2.2% is applied to these costs to reflect the substantial time
frame over which this money will be spent. By comparison, this
is less than the incentive currently provided by the Renewable
Obligation scheme, which currently returns operators around
4.5p/kWh.

The total costs of either renewable power or nuclear power are
not encapsulated in these figures alone as the build cost,
output load factor, useful life and operating costs will provide
the key determinants of the competitiveness of the different
technologies available. Nuclear power plays a key role in the
current UK generating mix for its steady, controllable baseload
power that generators like renewables are simply not able to
provide. In addition, if new plants are built on old power plant
sites, the existing transmission infrastructure can be utilized
and the operating expertise of power plant operators maintained.

The UK needs a balanced portfolio of generation assets for the
future, which will hopefully be provided by the recommendations
of the current Energy Review that should be published in the
first half of this year. To discount nuclear purely on the basis
of its clean-up costs alone is premature.

©2006 Business Review Ltd 				 			 		 			 				 			 		 
*****************************************************************
 35 Independent: 20 years after meltdown, life returns to Chernobyl 

The world's worst nuclear accident created a radiation-soaked
wasteland. But nature has pushed its way through the cracked
concrete, as Andrew Osborn reports 

Published: 05 April 2006 


Less than a mile from what is left of Chernobyl's ill-fated
fourth reactor, a pair of elks is grazing nonchalantly on land
irradiated by the world's worst nuclear accident. In nearby
Pripyat, an eerie husk of a town where 50,000 people used to
live before they were forced to flee on a terrifying afternoon
in 1986, a Soviet urban landscape is rapidly giving way to wild
European woodland. 

Radiation levels remain far too high for human habitation but
the abandoned town is filled with birdsong and the gurgling of
streams forged by melting snow. Nobody thought it possible at
the time but 20 years after the reactor exploded on 26 April
1986, during an ill-conceived "routine" Soviet experiment,
Chernobyl's radiation-soaked "dead zone" is not looking so dead
after all. 

The zone - an area with a radius of 18 miles in modern-day
Ukraine - lives on in the popular imagination as a
post-apocalyptic wasteland irreparably poisoned with strontium
and caesium that would make a perfect setting for the next Mad
Max movie. It is a corner of Europe associated with death and
alarming yet nebulous stories of genetic mutation, a
post-nuclear badland that shows what happens when mankind gets
atomic energy wrong. 

The reality, at least on the surface, is starkly different from
the mythology, however. The almost complete absence of human
activity in large swaths of the zone during the past two decades
has given the area's flora and fauna a chance to first recover
and then - against all the odds - to flourish. It is a paradox
that has disturbed opponents of nuclear power who point to the
appalling, still unknown, human cost of the tragedy and the
terrifying invisible pollution that looks likely to blight the
area for centuries. 

That something remotely good could come of something so
obviously awful does not fit with orthodox thinking about
nuclear power and its all too apparent risks. The picture is
further complicated by the fact that the true human cost of the
tragedy and the damage wreaked on people's health by the
radioactive cloud emitted after the explosion may never be fully
known. 

Estimates of human fatalities, both direct and indirect, vary
wildly, from 41 in the immediate aftermath to tens of thousands
in the years that followed. It is estimated that five million
people were exposed to radiation in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
and that the radiation fallout - equivalent to 400 Hiroshimas -
triggered an epidemic of thyroid cancer that has yet to abate. 

Doctors claim convincingly that cancer rates are far higher than
they were before 1986 and that thousands of Ukrainians and
people in neighbouring Belarus (worse affected than Ukraine
because of the wind direction at the time) may have died
prematurely as a result. 

In the dead zone's so-called Red Forest, a pine forest that took
the brunt of the radioactive explosion, radiation levels today
can be as high as one roentgen, more than 50,000 times normal
background levels. 

Elsewhere, however, levels are much lower - to the point where
large animals such as elks, wild horses and wild boars appear to
be enjoying normal life spans. It is an unlikely scenario that
has begotten another improbable development - the arrival of a
trickle of intrepid eco-tourists who come to marvel at an area
that some, controversially, claim is one of Europe's most
promising wildlife havens. 

Astonishingly, most of the animals, with the exception of the
herds of wild Przewalski's horses brought in to gnaw on
radioactive grass to guard against forest fires, appear to have
returned to the zone of their own accord. The most recent count
by the authorities showed that the zone (including a larger
contaminated area in neighbouring Belarus) is home to 66
different species of mammals, including 7,000 wild boar, 600
wolves, 3,000 deer, 1,500 beavers, 1,200 foxes, 15 lynx and
several thousand elks. 

The area was also estimated to be home to 280 species of birds,
many of them rare and endangered. Breeding birds include the
rare green crane, black stork, white-tailed sea eagle and fish
hawk. Wild dogs are also in evidence, though they are prime
targets for wolves, a detail that prompted the American thriller
writer Martin Cruz Smith to call his latest novel, which is
partly set in the zone, Wolves Eat Dogs. 

The only animal that appears not to have made a comeback is the
bear. But ecologists say the return of large predators such as
wolves is a sure sign that things are moving in the right
direction. 

Sergey Franchuk, a guide and local expert who has been
associated with the area since 1982, says he believes the
radiation has purified the soil in an inexplicable way. "We
think that the land has been cleansed," he says, pointing up a
long, straight road flanked with pine forests that later give
way to silver birch forests straight from the pages of Boris
Pasternak's Dr Zhivago. 

"Nature is flourishing here, even more so than it was before the
accident. When Viktor Yushchenko [the Ukrainian President] came
here last year, he even suggested turning the area into a nature
reserve. That gives you an idea of what is happening here." What
Sergey doesn't mention is that Mr Yushchenko simultaneously
floated the idea of turning the exclusion zone into a dump for
foreign nuclear waste. 

Anywhere else, such a plan would have ecologists up in arms but
here some nature-lovers - who seem to regard radiation much in
the same way as keen gardeners in the West regard manure - think
it is nothing to fret about. "(If it happened) it would not take
up a huge amount of territory," says Mary Mycio, author of
Wormwood Forest, a book that describes itself as a natural
history of Chernobyl. 

Ms Mycio, an American foreign correspondent in the area, and a
biologist, was one of the first people to begin cataloguing
nature's unlikely comeback in Chernobyl and has made 24
different trips to the dead zone. 

"On the surface," she says, "radiation is very good for wildlife
because it forces people to leave the contaminated area. They
removed 135,000 people from an area twice the size of
Luxembourg. The people there now carry out very localised
activities and in vast regions of the zone there are no people.
It is a radioactive wilderness and it is thriving." 

Hunting and fishing in the dead zone is prohibited for obvious
reasons and according to Mr Franchuk there are only 337
squatters - people who obstinately refused to be resettled -
living in the zone. The vast majority of these settlers are
elderly and though many of them talk about radiation as if it
were about as harmful as rain, none of them lives in the heart
of the dead zone, a six-mile exclusion area that even they dare
not inhabit. 

A small army of about 6,500 nuclear workers comes in and out of
the zone on temporary assignments to try to patch up the cracked
sarcophagus that covers the stricken reactor, but none of them
is a permanent resident. Their impact on the environment is so
minimal that even the cooling ponds of the power station are
said to teem with fish. 

Ms Mycio argues that something good has come out of something
bad. "The sight of wild horses here is moving. I saw a wolf in
broad daylight once, and the bird-watching is excellent." She
admits, however, that some scientists question what is happening
to flora and fauna at a cellular and genetic level. 

The few studies that have been done have exposed minor genetic
changes in small animals and birds such as mice and barn
swallows, including depressed fertility. But Ms Mycio argues
that animals are adapting to living with radiation and are even
building up a resistance to it. She insists there is no serious
evidence of animals mutating in the zone. 

"Nature's law is the survival of the fittest. In the wild,
mutants die. And if they do survive, they are like the partly
albino swallows that appeared in the early years after the
disaster. They were not considered attractive and found it hard
to mate, so their mutations didn't pass on to future
generations." 

Sergey Franchuk, a self-confessed optimist, is among the many
who believe that animals sense whether the land they live on is
poisoned or not. He sees their return to Chernobyl as evidence
that the eco-system is rapidly cleansing itself, a state of
affairs he believes could see people moving back to parts of the
zone within 15 years. 

Others think that it will be centuries and warn that if humans
do return to the zone in significant numbers, the area's unique
flora and fauna will be put at risk. 

In the aftermath of the accident, many trees and plants were
killed outright by radiation and it seemed as if nothing would
grow again in their place. But the abandoned settlements of
Chernobyl appear to have become the site of an unlikely
renaissance. 

The town of Pripyat, just two miles from reactor number four, is
a case in point. Before the accident it was a model Soviet town
populated by power-station workers, its shiny concrete tower
blocks, crowned by giant steel Soviet emblems, symbolic of a
bright atomic future. Its creches, shops, and apartments were
regarded as the best the USSR could offer. Now its central Lenin
Square is a shadow of its former self. 

Trees encroach on its public spaces, steps are carpeted in grass
and moss. As the winter snow melts, the paving stones become a
shallow river bed, as water runs into a drainage system that has
long since ceased to be serviced. And as the concrete cracks,
nature advances. In one of the eerie children's play areas, the
only sound is cheerful birdsong. Branches spread across what
used to be an enclosure for bumper cars, a giant Ferris wheel
stands idle, and trees and weeds press in on every side. In
another 20 years it may be hard to discern the town's features
at all. 

In the village of Illintsi, Maria Shaparenko, 82, one of the
stubborn resettlers, claims Chernobyl was always a beautiful
area and that nothing has really changed. "It's very nice here
in summer, everything blooms. In fact nothing is wrong here,
it's just that people have been scared off by the radiation."
Outside in her yard a cockerel crows, and for a minute, it seems
like Chernobyl really is like anywhere else. 

But a few doors away, Roman Yushchenko, an old man riddled with
cancer, is turning black beside a chamber pot of his own
blood-red urine. 

Chernobyl may have turned into a sanctuary for flora and fauna.
For human beings it remains less welcoming. 

Scientists divided over radiation and regeneration 

When top predators such as wolves and eagles return to a damaged
habitat, it is a sure sign that the ecosystem is once again
healthy and vibrant. For several years, ecologists have reported
many sightings of rare species within the Chernobyl exclusion
zone which are hardly ever seen in other parts of Europe. 

Robert Baker, a biologist at Texas Tech University who has made
more than a dozen scientific excursions into the zone, said the
diversity of wildlife around the stricken plant was what might
be expected in a nature park dedicated to conservation. 

"The benefit of excluding humans from this highly contaminated
ecosystem appears to outweigh significantly any negative cost
associated with Chernobyl radiation," Dr Baker said. 

In a comprehensive assessment of the damage caused by the
Chernobyl accident, the British ecologists Jim Smith and Nick
Beresford point out that radiation levels considered potentially
dangerous to humans have little if any effect on wildlife. 

"Nearly 20 years after the accident there is some (often
contradictory) evidence of continuing radiation damage to
organisms, but this appears to be relatively minor (although
poorly understood)," they say in their book, Chernobyl -
Catastrophe and Consequences. 

"Radiation is considered to be a risk to humans when there is a
small, but significant, probability of cancer induction in later
life. Though cancer induction in animals is possible, a small
additional cancer risk does not affect wild populations as a
whole. Animals in the wild are less prone to cancer than human
populations. They are most likely to be killed by natural
predators or starvation before they reach an age at which cancer
risk increases," they say. 

Not all scientists accept this assessment. Anders Moller and
Timothy Mousseau studied swallows in the exclusion zone and
found they carry a significantly higher level of "germline"
mutations in their sperm and eggs compared to swallows
elsewhere. 

"Our work indicates that the worst is yet to come in the human
population. The consequences for generations down the line could
be greater than we've seen so far," said Dr Mousseau, a biology
professor at the University of South Carolina. 

Steve Connor, Science Editor 

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 36 AFP: Blair indicates possible future switch to nuclear power 

 Tue Apr 4, 5:26 PM ET                   

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair" /> Tony
Blairindicated that the country may need to rely more on nuclear
power to secure future energy supplies as he took part in a live
web chat. 

 In an online "question time" with five competition winners,
Blair was grilled in his Downing Street office in London about
Africa, the environment, climate change and energy supplies. 

He restated his view that Britain may need to continue to rely
on nuclear power in addition to renewable sources of energy such
as wind and water power. 

"I have a feeling it is possible we may need both. We are
undertaking a review now of what the energy needs are going to
be but it's possible... that we may actually need more than the
renewables," he said. 

"You can't be quite sure about this at the moment but looking
forward, for reasons of energy security as much as for reasons
of climate change, I think there is going to be a huge need to
develop all of this and incidentally clean coal technology as
well." 

Blair, who is widely believed to be in favour of reviving
Britain's nuclear power programme, ordered a review into the
country's future energy supplies late last year. 

He said at the time that urgent action was needed because of
rising energy prices, dwindling North Sea gas and oil supplies
and to counter the effects of climate change. 

Britain currently has about a dozen nuclear power stations, most
of them built in the 1960s and 1970s, providing about 25 percent
of the country's electricity. Natural gas provides about 40
percent. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 37 Ithaca Journal: Nuclear power needed

www.theithacajournal.com - Ithaca, NY
 
We Americans are electric power addicts.

We use it for everything from cooling (refrigerators, air
conditioners) to heating (stoves, microwaves), for
entertainment, for cleaning, for light, for information, at
work, in hospitals and health clubs. Our food is processed, put
in containers, transported and preserved using electric power.
Our clothing was made using electric power, our shelter, our
daily bread, and if we eat cake instead, that too.

Nuclear power plants produce over 25 percent of the electricity
in the United States. Many plants are nearing the end of their
useful lives. If we do not build new nuclear power plants, how
do we replace that power production? Coal plants produce acid
rain, and contribute to air pollution and global warming. The
cost of global warming is unimaginably greater than anything
connected to any other kind of power. Wind farms and solar
energy are land use intensive and relatively expensive. Wind
farms need wind, but not too much. Solar only works in the
daytime. We are already using almost all available hydroelectric
power, and in fact taking down some existing facilities because
of ecological and environmental problems created.

There are tradeoffs involved in all choices. Among the choices
available I would chose not to reduce our standard of living by
reducing our electric power production, and not to increase our
use of fossil fuels for electric power production. If those are
rejected, as I would, then nuclear power is the only current
technology that can provide for our needs.

Henry Bethe

Ithaca

Originally published April 4, 2006 Print this article     Email
	         
 Copyright ©2006 The Ithaca Journal.
*****************************************************************
 38 NEI: Nuclear Energy Industry Maintains Near-Record Levels of Safety 
and Operating Performance 

Nuclear Energy Institute :: 

WASHINGTON, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. nuclear power plants
continued to operate at high levels of safety and efficiency in
2005, according to plant performance indicators compiled by the
World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). 

For the fourth time in the past five years, the U.S. nuclear
energy industry's unit capability factor -- a measure of
efficiency -- topped 90 percent. The 90.3 percent capability
factor for 2005 was within one percentage point of the 91.2
percent record set in 2002 and matched in 2004. Unit capability
factor is the percentage of maximum electricity a plant can
supply to the electric grid, limited only by factors within the
control of plant managers. 

Excellent levels of efficiency at nuclear power plants, which
supply electricity to one of every five U.S. homes and
businesses, produced a near- record 783 billion kilowatt-hours
(kwh) of electricity. This nearly equaled 2004's all-time record
electricity output of 789 billion kwh, despite the fact that
more than 40 percent of the nation's 103 nuclear reactors
conducted scheduled refueling outages last spring, as compared
to only 25 percent with refueling outages in spring 2004. 

The nuclear energy industry similarly sustained near-record
levels of safety and operating performance in areas including
safety system performance, worker safety, unplanned automatic
plant shutdowns, and programs to protect workers from radiation
exposure. 

"The stellar 2005 performance indicators exemplify the nuclear
industry's ability to achieve excellence over a period of many
years," said Frank L. "Skip" Bowman, the Nuclear Energy
Institute's president and chief executive officer. "These
performance measures clearly demonstrate that the United States
continues to be a world leader in safe and secure nuclear plant
performance." 

The performance data compiled by WANO is analyzed by the
Atlanta-based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO),
which promotes excellence in U.S. nuclear power plant safety and
operations. INPO uses the data to help set challenging
benchmarks of excellence against which safety and plant
operation can be measured. Other highlights of the nuclear
energy industry's performance in 2005 include: 

Unplanned Automatic Reactor Shutdowns: The median industry value
was zero per plant for the second year in a row and the eighth
time in the past nine years. In 2005, the industry experienced
the fewest number of unplanned automatic shutdowns since WANO
began collecting data. In 2003, the only year in this recent
span when the median industry value was not zero (0.8 per
plant), unplanned shutdowns at nine plants occurred during the
Aug. 14 blackout that affected much of the Midwest and East
Coast. 

Safety System Performance: For the 11th straight year, 94
percent or more of key safety systems met industry goals for
availability. The three key standby safety systems are two main
cooling systems and back-up power supplies used to respond to
unusual situations. 

Last year, 96 percent of the key safety systems met their
availability goals. Nuclear power plants are built with
redundant safety systems and backup power supplies so these
systems are available, if needed, even when maintenance is being
performed on a similar system or component. 

Unplanned Capability Loss: The 2005 median value of 1.6 matches
the record set in 2001 and is below the 2005 industry goal of 2.
Unplanned capability loss measures how much a plant is off line
or unable to produce electricity due to power reductions,
unplanned shutdowns or outage extensions. A low value reflects a
plant's successful equipment performance and material condition
programs. 

Worker Safety: The nuclear industry is acknowledged as one of
the safest working environments, and U.S. nuclear plants
continue to post a very low industrial accident rate. In 2005,
the industry had only 0.24 industrial accidents per 200,000
work-hours, a near-record low. This is better than the industry
goal set for 2005. Statistics from other industries through
2004, as compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that
it is safer to work at a nuclear power plant than in the
manufacturing sector and even many other sectors. 

Collective radiation exposure: The WANO indicators showed that
collective radiation measurements for plant employees remained
well below federal safety standards, even though the industry's
performance at pressurized-water reactors (PWRs) was slightly
higher than 2004. This is due in large part to equipment
upgrades that position these plants to have their licenses to
operate extended for an additional 20 years. Boiling-water
reactors underwent equipment upgrades as well and saw a small
increase in collective exposure to workers in 2005 over the
previous year. 

To view charts of the WANO performance indicators for U.S.
nuclear power plants, go to the Nuclear Data section of NEI's
web site at http://www.nei.org/. 

The Nuclear Energy Institute is the nuclear energy industry's
policy organization. This news release and additional
information about nuclear energy are available on NEI's Internet
site at http://www.nei.org/. 

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations is based in Atlanta
and was established by the nuclear industry in 1979 to promote
the highest levels of safety and reliability -- to promote
excellence -- in commercial nuclear plant operations. 

The World Association of Nuclear Operators was created in 1989
to consolidate the efforts of nuclear operators worldwide to
enhance the safety and reliability of operating nuclear power
plants. Website: 
  
Issuers of news releases and not PR Newswire are solely
responsible for the accuracy of the content. 
Terms and conditions, including restrictions on redistribution,
apply. 

Copyright © 1996-2003 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights
Reserved. 

A United Business Media company. 
*****************************************************************
 39 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting of the ACRS 
 
                         FR Doc E6-4860 
[Federal Register: April 4, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 64)] 
[Notices] [Page 16838] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04ap06-73]                         
 
Subcommittee on Reliability and Probabilistic Risk Assessment; 
Notice of Meeting The ACRS Subcommittee on Reliability and 
Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) will hold a meeting on April 
20-21, 2006, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Thursday, 
April 20, 2006--8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of business 
Friday, April 21, 2006--8:30 a.m. until 12 Noon The Subcommittee 
will review the PRA for General Electric's next generation 
simplified boiling water reactor, the ESBWR. The Subcommittee 
will hear presentations by and hold discussions with 
representatives of the NRC staff and industry regarding this 
matter. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze 
relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and 
actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Eric A. Thornsbury, (Telephone: 301-415-8716) five days prior 
to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can 
be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and 
4:15 p.m.(ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged 
to contact the above named individual at least two working days 
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to 
the agenda.
 
Dated: March 29, 2006.
 
Michael R. Snodderly, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. E6-4860 Filed 4-3-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 40 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
 
                         FR Doc E6-4861 
[Federal Register: April 4, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 64)] 
[Notices] [Page 16837-16838] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04ap06-72]                         
 
Comment Request AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 
ACTION: Notice of pending NRC action to submit an information 
collection request to OMB and solicitation of public comment.
 
SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of 
continued approval of information collections under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
Chapter 35). Information pertaining to the requirement to be 
submitted: 1. The title of the information collection: DOE/NRC 
Form 742,
 
[[Page 16838]] ``Material Balance Report;'' NUREG/BR-0007, 
``Instructions for the Preparation and Distribution of Material 
Status Reports;'' and DOE/NRC Form 742C, ``Physical Inventory 
Listing.'' 2. Current OMB approval numbers: 3150-0004 and 
3150-0058. 3. How often the collection is required: DOE/NRC Forms 
742 and 742C are submitted annually following a physical 
inventory of nuclear materials.
 
4. Who is required or asked to report: Persons licensed to 
possess specified quantities of special nuclear or source 
material.
 
5. The number of annual respondents: DOE/NRC Form 742: 180 
licensees.
 
DOE/NRC Form 742C: 180 licensees.
 
6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the 
requirement or request: DOE/NRC Form 742: 900 hours.
 
DOE/NRC Form 742C: 1,080 hours.
 
7. Abstract: Each licensee authorized to possess special nuclear 
material totaling more than 350 grams of contained uranium-235, 
uranium-233, or plutonium, or any combination thereof, are 
required to submit DOE/NRC Forms 742 and 742C. In addition, any 
licensee authorized to possess 1,000 kilograms of source material 
is required to submit DOE/NRC Form 742. The information is used 
by NRC to fulfill its responsibilities as a participant in 
US/IAEA Safeguards Agreement and various bilateral agreements 
with other countries, and to satisfy its domestic safeguards 
responsibilities.
 
Submit, by June 5, 2006, comments that address the following 
questions: 1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary 
for the NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the 
information have practical utility? 2. Is the burden estimate 
accurate? 3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected? 4. How can the burden 
of the information collection be minimized, including the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology? A copy of the draft supporting statement may be 
viewed free of charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 
20852. OMB clearance requests are available at the NRC worldwide 
Web site: 
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The 
document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days 
after the signature date of this notice.
 
Comments and questions about the information collection 
requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda 
Jo Shelton, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, T-5 F52, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by 
Internet electronic mail at INFOCOLLECTS@NRC.GOV. Dated at 
Rockville, Maryland, this 28th day of March 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Brenda Jo Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information 
Services.
 
[FR Doc. E6-4861 Filed 4-3-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 41 NRC: Groundwater Contamination (Tritium) at Nuclear Plants
 
Tritium is a mildly radioactive type of hydrogen that occurs
both naturally and during the

 operation of nuclear power plants. Water containing tritium and
other radioactive substances is normally released from nuclear
plants under controlled, monitored conditions the NRC mandates
to protect public health and safety. The NRC recently identified
several instances of unintended tritium releases, and all
available information shows no threat to the public.

Nonetheless, the NRC is reviewing these incidents to ensure
nuclear plant operators have taken appropriate action and to
determine what, if any, changes are needed to the agencys rules
and regulations. The following information provides further
basic information on tritium and other isotopes released from
nuclear power plants, outlines the status of the unintended
tritium leaks and the NRC's actions. 

  + General Information on Liquid Radioactive Releases 
  + Safety Requirements 
  + Selected Plant Sites with Groundwater Contamination 
  + NRC Actions 
  + Communications 
  + Public Meetings 
Related Information
 
  + Fact Sheet on Environmental Monitoring 
  + Radiation Protection 
  + Spent Fuel Pools 
  + Regulation of Radioactive Materials   


Last revised Friday, March 31, 2006        
*****************************************************************
 42 Deccan Herald: India to set off PR blitz on nuclear deal - 
               
Wednesday, April 5, 2006       
    
From K S Subrahmanya DH New Service New Delhi: 
  
  Over the next two weeks, Delhi will play host to as many as
three US Congressional delegations in not-so-veiled efforts to
secure their endorsement for the nuclear deal that ran into some
initial trouble in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
And, in Washington, India has specially engaged the services of
three PR firms to enlist support for the deal in the two Houses. 
  
India is set to launch a concerted public relations campaign to
win over a large number of undecided and sceptical US
Congressmen in a bid to muster required support for the landmark
Indo-US nuclear deal even as US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice approaches Capitol Hill on Wednesday to sell the deal. Over
the next two weeks, Delhi will play host to as many as three US
Congressional delegations in not-so-veiled efforts to secure
their endorsement for the nuclear deal that ran into some
initial trouble in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
And, in Washington, India has specially engaged the services of
three PR firms to enlist support for the deal in the two Houses. 

This may not be the ideal time, weather-wise, for visiting
India. But the visit of the US delegations is happening at a
most critical time as both the Manmohan Singh government and the
Bush administration have invested a lot in the nuclear deal
projecting it as the turning-point in bilateral ties. 

In all, the three delegations will have seven members of the
House of Representatives, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, and
five Senators most of whom are counted in the category of
undecided as regards their stand on the nuclear deal. The three
delegations will be in the country between April 9 and16.
Easily, it will be the largest contingent of Representatives and
Senators visiting India in such a short period. Ten of them are
from the Republican Party and two from the Democratic Party that
includes Senator Edward Kennedy. 

The visits come in the backdrop of Foreign Secretary Shyam
Sarans visit to Washington last week during which it became
clear for both the Bush administration and the top Indian
official that the nuclear deal faced strong resistance in the US
Congress which must amend its domestic non-proliferation laws
and also ratify a bilateral civil nuclear energy co-operation
agreement that is being currently negotiated for the deal to
come through. 

US Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher will be here on Thursday
for consultations on the proposed agreement with his Indian
counterpart, Joint Secretary (Americas) in the External Affairs
Ministry, Jaishankar. 

While the Indian leadership will certainly lobby support for the
deal with the US Congressmen, some of them considered very
influential, visiting here, the Indian effort will not be
confined to just this exercise in public relations. Before Mr
Saran returned here from Washington, he gave the nod for hiring
the services of three US PR firms  Barbour, Griffith & Rogers
and Venables and Patton Boggs  to lobby support in House of
Representatives and Senate. Pro-India business interests are
backing this PR exercise. Engaging the PR firms has come in the
wake of the virtual ineffectiveness of the India Caucus in
Capitol Hill that is supposed to promote Indian interests. 

Mustering necessary support for the deal in the two Houses has
assumed immediacy as the biennial Congressional elections are
due later this year. Right now, Bushs Republican Party has
majority in both the Houses and this situation is seen as the
best bet to get the nuclear deal through the US Congress. 

The lobbyists 

The three PR firms engaged by India in 

Washington to lobby for the N-deal 

Barbour, Griffith and Rogers 

Venables 

Patton Boggs 

Highlights 

Delegation I (Delhi & Mumbai, Apr. 9-11) 

Senator Chuck Hagel (Republican) 

Member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee 

Delegation II (Delhi, Agra & Jaipur, Apr. 9-12) 

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Dennis Hastert
(Republican) 

Representative Michael Oxley (Republican) 

Representative Sherwood Boehlert (Republican) 

Representative Ray LaHood (Republican) 

Representative Paul Ryan (Republican) 

Representative Randy Neugebauer (Republican) 

Representative Dan Boren (Democrat) 

Delegation III (Bangalore, Delhi & Agra, Apr. 11-16) 

Senator Michael Enzi (Republican) 

Senator Edward Kennedy (Democrat) 

Senator Johnny Isakson (Republican) 

Senator Lamar Alexander (Republican) 

US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings   

  Copyright 2005, The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., 75, M.G.
Road, Post Box No 5331, Bangalore - 560001
 Tel: +91 (80) 25880000 Fax No. +91 (80) 25880523   
*****************************************************************
 43 MSNBC.com: Leaks at nuclear plants a trend? - Environment - 

Groundwater leaks at nuclear plants a trend?

Regulators to hear concerns about water tainted by low-level
radiation
  
  [IMAGE: VALVE AT NUCLEAR PLANT COVERED IN DUCT TAPE]   

  Exelon

The most serious known groundwater leaks at a U.S. nuclear plant
have occurred at Exelon's reactor in Braidwood, Ill. This valve,
covered in duct tape and tie-wraps, is part of a temporary
system used to collect leaking groundwater there. 

Miguel LlanosReporterMSNBC

  Miguel Llanos  
  Reporter  
  
Public fears about nuclear power plants have usually centered on
massive radiation releases into the air, but recent leaks of
water contaminated with low-level radiation have raised a new
concern: Local groundwater supplies could become a source of
long-term radiation exposure with potential health risks.

Are the leaks just a coincidence or signs of a trend? That's
what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will weigh on Wednesday
when it hears from petitioners demanding that the nuclear
industry disclose all information it has on any such incidents.

"We've accepted the petition ... we agree that they've raised a
legitimate issue," says NRC petition manager Bill Reckley. "We
will consider what they suggested."

The federal agency agreed to a meeting after a petition by 22
environmental groups last January cited leaks in the last decade
at nuclear power sites in Braidwood and Dresden, Ill.;
Lynchburg, Va.; Salem, N.J.; Haddam Neck, Conn.; and Indian
Point and Long Island, N.Y.

Since the petition was filed:
  + Two more plants - at Palo Verde, Ariz., and Byron, Ill. -
have reported groundwater leaks.
  + Illinois has sued Exelon over the Braidwood spill, caused by
a broken concrete pipe. 
  + A new spill was reported at Indian Point. 

Most of the leaks involve tritium, a byproduct of nuclear power
generation. Tritium also occurs naturally at low levels, but
large amounts, if ingested, can lead to cancers, birth defects
and miscarriages.

The biggest known tritium leak was at Exelon's nuclear reactor
at Braidwood, where 3 million gallons of tainted water spilled
in 1998 and 2000. Late last year, tests detected tritium in the
well of a nearby homeowner, indicating that the leak had spread. 

The NRC said the tritium levels were just 10 percent of what the
Environmental Protection Agency allows in drinking water, but
the finding was significant because it showed the tritium had
spread over time.

Task force created
At an industry conference on March 7, NRC Chairman Nils Diaz
urged the industry to "proactively address" what he called
releases that were "uncontrolled and identified after the fact."


  [IMAGE: LEAKING DRAIN AT NUCLEAR PLANT]   
  ExelonThis 4-inch drain, part of the Braidwood nuclear plant's
temporary system to collect contaminated water, started to leak,
so a catch basin was installed. 
  
Three days later, the NRC's executive director for operations,
Luis Reyes, created a "lessons learned task force," stating in
his order that "although the measured levels of tritium thus far
do not appear to present a health hazard to the public, I
believe it is necessary to do a broad review to determine
whether this is a generic issue for NRC licensees and to
recommend possible agency actions to be taken in this area."

The United States is home to 103 commercial nuclear reactors,
all at least 30 years old, and petitioners fear many leaks have
gone undetected.

"I fully expect about a quarter of the remaining plants to have
leaks," says Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear specialist at the Union of
Concerned Scientists, one of the petitioners.

Petitioners: NRC was slow
The petition doesn't claim that the leaks have threatened public
health. Instead, it asks the NRC to require that plant operators
detail any leaks and their methods for tracking them.

And it accuses the agency of having "treated these leaks as
isolated events" by not requiring operators to check for similar
leaks at other plants.


"The NRC has not taken steps necessary to ensure that members of
the public are not now being exposed to radiation from
undetected leaks," the petition stated.

Lochbaum says he doesn't expect any newly reported leaks "to
approach or exceed the leak at Braidwood" but feels it's
incumbent upon the NRC "to make sure there are no surprises out
there" - either with tritium or any other potential contaminant
from broken pipes or cracks in pools used to cool off highly
radioactive spent nuclear fuel.

Petitioners also question how industry has responded so far,
citing photographs submitted by Exelon to the NRC of a temporary
wastewater collection at Braidwood. One photo shows a valve
covered in duct tape; another shows a catch basin for a leaky
pipe.

The demands made on industry, Lochbaum says, could amount to a
couple million dollars per plant. "Compared to cost of cleaning
it up," he adds, "it's cheap insurance."

Industry perspective

For the industry, the leaks come as nuclear power has gained 
momentum. After a 20-year construction hiatus in the United 
States triggered by Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, several 
companies have said they hope to build reactors in the next 
decade.

Exelon

Exelon installed this temporary system to contain leaking 
contaminated water at its Braidwood nuclear plant.

Ralph Anderson, director of health policy for the Nuclear Energy 
Institute, says the industry has been acting on the groundwater 
issue since a public meeting with the NRC in December.
Story continues below  advertisement

Operators recognized that the system for reporting and monitoring 
groundwater spills hasn't worked well, he says.

"Some opportunities for improvement with regards to monitoring on 
site" exist, he says. "We need a process that identifies things 
earlier."

"This isn't a significant health and safety issue," he says of 
low-level radiation in groundwater, but "it clearly is one of 
trust and confidence."

"That issue of communication is clearly one that we need to deal 
with," he adds.

Task force goal: Late July
The agency task force has set the end of July as its goal for 
recommendations.

Lochbaum says he was "very encouraged" after a meeting last month 
with NRC and industry staff, and agrees with Anderson that the 
issue comes down to getting neighbors to trust nuclear plants.

"The real question" that the industry needs to answer, he says, 
"is: `What is your tritium doing in my well?'"

For Anderson, that's also the heart of the matter. "The fact that 
it's there and not supposed to be there," he says, "is what we're 
trying to solve."

But as civil as the discussion, nuclear power is still grist for 
fireworks.

In Illinois, state prosecutor James Glasgow alleged in filing the 
lawsuit that Exelon operates within "a culture of greed and 
deception."

And in New York, Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, a Democrat 
running for governor, said last month that closing the Indian 
Point nuclear plant was "an environmental imperative."

c 2006 MSNBC Interactive

MSNBC.com  

*****************************************************************
 44 Telegraph: Opinion | Finns blaze nuclear trail 

In this country, the review headed by Malcolm Wicks, the energy
minister, and the government-appointed Committee on Radioactive
Waste Management are due to publish their recommendations later
this year.

Sweden, which decided in 1980 to phase out nuclear power
generation, has decided to upgrade some reactors to compensate
for the closure of others. A debate along similar lines is under
way in Germany.

The wish to cut CO2 emissions, the rapid rise in fossil fuel
prices and heightened concern about the security of gas and oil
imports have all contributed to a revaluation of nuclear plants
as a source of electricity. 

In this, Finland has been a pioneer. The radioactive shadow of
Chernobyl contributed in 1993 to the rejection by parliament of
a fifth nuclear plant. But a similar proposal gained a narrow
majority (107 votes to 92) in 2002, the first such decision in
western Europe for more than a decade.

The plant, Okiluoto 3, is expected to be in operation around
2009. As for spent fuel, the operators of the current
facilities, TVO and Fortum, have undertaken to excavate a
repository 1,640ft down in igneous rock.

TVO, which is building the fifth reactor, is a public-private
partnership, in which the forestry giants UPM-Kymmene and Stora
Enso and the state-controlled energy group Fortum, all heavy
consumers, are major shareholders. The state has also
established a waste management fund from charges on generated
electricity. 

Having taken fright after Chernobyl, Finland is set to increase
the nuclear share of electricity supply from 26 per cent to 36
per cent.

Plans for storing waste fuel are well advanced. Paavo Lipponen,
who was the Social Democratic prime minister at the time of the
2002 vote and is now parliamentary speaker, ascribes the change
of heart to thorough public consultation set in the broadest
possible perspective.

There are lessons here both for Britain, which has long shirked
difficult decisions on nuclear energy, and for Germany, where
the debate is excessively emotional.         [Related links] 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006. Terms &Conditions
*****************************************************************
 45 CBS: Are Nuclear Plants Safe Enough?, Report - Since 9/11, 103 U.S.
        Nuclear Plants Are Only Slightly Safer

Interactive


  [Nuclear Disasters]     Nuclear Disasters
Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor suffered the world's most disastrous
nuclear meltdown 15 years ago. Discover what happened at the
Soviet power plant, see how the body responds to radiation
exposure and find out if there's a nuclear plant near you.
[Nuclear Disasters]   


NEW YORK, April 4, 2006

  Fast Fact

Critics say that terrorists consider nuclear power plants to be
top targets because they could cause mass casualties,
particularly if they're close to a large population center such
as New York. 
  

(Christian Science Monitor) This article was written by
Alexandra Marks. 


If the terror attacks of 9/11 taught one lesson, it was that
America must make itself less vulnerable to attack by air —
perhaps nowhere more urgently than at the nation's 103 nuclear
power plants, given their potential for inflicting massive
casualties and destruction if hit by a plane loaded with fuel. 

Yet 4½ years later, those plants are little safer from air
attack, say critics. And squabbling has set in over what the
security standards should be. 

Some anti-terror experts are concerned that the current criteria
do not require nuclear plants to be protected against a threat
equal to the one posed by the 9/11 hijackers, particularly if
they attack again by air. A report to be released Tuesday by the
Government Accountability Office is also critical of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), finding that it has not increased
standards enough to ensure plants are genuinely secure, but only
as much as industry officials believed was necessary. 

Those officials counter that nuclear power plants are already
the nation's best-protected critical infrastructure. They say
the government's current security requirements for nuclear power
plants, which are designed to protect from ground assaults, are
already too burdensome. As for an assault by air, the industry
is relying on the Transportation Security Administration — the
government agency designed to prevent terrorists from hijacking
another commercial jet. 

After tightening requirements for plant security in February
2002, the NRC is now reviewing those standards before making
them permanent. Known as the Design Basis Threat (DBT), they're
considered "sensitive" information and not made public. But
enough is known about them that they're prompting fresh
scrutiny, particularly because the nuclear industry is poised
for its first major expansion in a generation. 

"If the industry wants nuclear to have a viable future and
substantially expand its footprint in the U.S., it has to invest
some serious money in security," says Charles Ferguson, science
and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in
Washington and coauthor of "The Four Faces of Nuclear
Terrorism." "If there's any kind of attack on one of these
facilities, it could torpedo any plans for future expansion." 

Underlying this security debate are two diametrically opposed
views of nuclear power plants' likelihood of becoming a
terrorist target and the amount of destruction that would result
if one were attacked. 

Critics say that terrorists consider nuclear power plants to be
top targets because they could cause mass casualties,
particularly if they're close to a large population center like
New York City. They note the 9/11 commission report found that
Mohammed Atta, who piloted one of the planes into the World
Trade Center, had "considered targeting a nuclear facility," as
did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. 

The nuclear power industry says that nuclear facilities are so
well fortified and have so many redundant backup systems that
there's little probability of mass casualties. After 9/11, the
industry spent more than $1.25 billion upgrading its security
operations and increased its armed guard force from 5,000 to
more than 8,000. 

Stephen Floyd, vice president of regulatory affairs for the
Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) in Washington, acknowledges that
nuclear power plants are potential targets. But he argues
they're less likely to be hit than other, less-fortified
critical infrastructure, like a chemical plant. 

According to knowledgeable sources within the industry and the
NRC, the upgraded DBT requires that plants be able to repel an
attack from five or six well-armed terrorists, possibly working
in conjunction with an insider or two. That's twice as many as
they had to handle before 9/11. 

But the plants are not required to be protected against an attack 
by a rocket-propelled grenade or a large truck bomb, or to 
provide antiaircraft artillery or advance radar-based protection 
against an air attack.

Critics say plants should be protected against a threat at least 
equivalent to the one on 9/11, when 19 well-trained terrorists 
attacked from the air. "Because of the lame DBT, the threat that 
they have to guard against is totally unrealistic. The security 
is nowhere near as robust as it should be," says Peter Stockton, 
a senior investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, a 
Washington-based watchdog group. "If they don't have to be to the 
level of 9/11, they should at least be able to repel a squad size 
force [of about 12 or 13]."

While the industry won't comment on the specifics of the DBT, it 
says it already meets the 9/11 threshold. Floyd of the NEI, the 
lobbying arm of the nation's private nuclear power plants, notes 
that the 19 hijackers did not attack en masse; rather, three to 
four terrorists commandeered each plane for four separate 
attacks. He also says the current requirements, such as the 
thickness of the containment walls around the reactors and spent 
fuel-rod pools, already provide enough protection against RPGs. 
And he says those walls are thick enough to sustain a head-on 
attack from a jet, although that's contested by critics.

"Through the FAA and the North American Defense [Aerospace] 
Defense Command, they do have procedures and protocols in place 
now for interdicting flights much better than they did prior to 
9/11," says Floyd. "There's a fair amount of increased protection 
there."

But critics say this denies the risks the country faces. For 
instance, the Indian Point nuclear power plant is 35 miles north 
of midtown Manhattan. A 2004 report by the environmental group 
Union of Concerned Scientists found that if it were attacked, in 
a worst-case scenario as many as 44,000 people could be killed by 
a massive release of radiation.

"Nuclear plants are devices that are filled with absolutely 
immense amounts of radioactivity, and it stays inside the reactor 
only so long as the coolant operates," says Daniel Hirsh, 
president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a California-based 
nuclear watchdog group. "That gives the terrorists the ability to 
use very primitive technologies to turn our nuclear plants 
against us, very similar to the use of box cutters on jumbo 
jets."
The industry says such thinking is alarmist. "There's nobody 
who's stronger than we are," Floyd says. "If they're being 
critical that the nuclear industry cannot totally withstand a 
terrorist attack, I shudder to think of what that means for the 
rest of the critical infrastructure that hasn't done a tenth of 
what we have done."

The NRC is expected to finalize the upgraded security 
requirements by the end of the year. "The NRC is very serious 
about security," says Holly Harrington, spokeswoman for the 
commission. 



© 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved. 

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 46 Telegraph: Finns give nuclear plant a positive reaction
 
"Welcome to the most electric municipality in Finland", a
typical greeting reads. 

The town's biggest tourist attractions are the two colossal
nuclear power plants of Russian design that dominate the nearby
island of Olkiluoto in the Baltic and meet a fifth of Finland's
electricity needs. 

A third super reactor, Olkiluoto 3, is being fashioned out of
the same Nordic red clay, gneiss and granite. Huge lifting
cranes hover above a field of iron braces fastened into concrete
foundations, as 500 workers scuttle around the 50-acre
construction site in thick snow and temperatures that are below
freezing. 

It will be the first nuclear-power plant constructed in Europe
for more than a decade and, at 1,600 megawatts, the
French-designed reactor, which is due to go online in 2009, will
also be the world's most powerful. 

Finland's decision to pursue a nuclear future contrasts with the
policy of several European countries to close plants down.
Britain, however, is considering re-investing in nuclear fuel. 
At a time when energy has shot to the top of the agenda and in a
year during which Russia has alarmed many European countries by
turning off Ukraine's gas supply during a pay dispute,
Olkiluoto's supporters are convinced that "OK3" marks a turning
point for the nuclear industry. 

Finland is leading the way. Across Europe a spate of new nuclear
plant projects and proposals have emerged. Increasingly
governments are deciding that alternatives to nuclear power are
either too expensive, too unstable or too polluting. 

"What else should we do?" asked Martin Landtmann, the project
manager of TVO, the electricity conglomerate that operates the
reactors. "We don't want to extract more coal, we don't want to
import more gas from Russia, wind power is unreliable and we
need cheap energy to be able to compete. 

"So Finland has gone for the nuclear solution and as a result
everyone is looking at Finland. All countries face more or less
the same challenge - where they should get their energy from." 

Mr Landtmann responded to arguments that Finland was ignoring
alternative energy sources by saying that 6,000 wind turbines
would be needed along a 1,400-mile coastline to produce the same
amount of power as OK3. 

The reactor's French-German manufacturers, Framatome ANP, have
offered to build the reactor for the fixed price of £2 billion. 

As well as looking sturdily Scandinavian in design from the
outside, the reactor is furnished with sauna cubicles for its
workers. In another energy-efficient move, the warm outlet water
is circulated through a garden where water melons and Lithuanian
grapes are grown and from which Olkiluoto wine is produced. 

Eurajoki will also be home to a radioactive waste-storage site:
a 1,640ft-deep tunnel, a fifth of which has already been dug. 

It would be normal to expect a community to be alarmed at such a
prospect. But what is remarkable is the enthusiasm of most of
the public. 

There was very little protest locally or across the country, bar
a few young couples who went on a "baby-strike", refusing to get
pregnant until the plans were stopped. But they backed down once
it was narrowly passed in parliament. 

Pirjo Jaakola, Eurajoki's cultural commissioner and a mother of
five children, explained the locals' acquiescence. "Everyone
knows someone who works there and nothing has ever gone wrong
there so we have no reason to fear it."         [Related links] 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006. Terms &Conditions
*****************************************************************
 47 IRNA: India, UK discuss nuclear energy cooperation 

New Delhi, April 4, IRNA                                                                                                                 

India-UK-Nuclear 

Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and British Permanent
Undersecretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Sir
Michael Lay discussed civil nuclear energy cooperation besides
ways to enhance their countries' strategic partnership in their
Foreign Office consultations here.

 Michael led the respective delegations at the meeting that also
deliberated on the coming G-8 summit to be held at St Petersburg
during the annual talks.

 "The Foreign Office consultations covered the whole range of
bilateral political, economic and consular issues" said Navtej
Sarna, spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs.

 The discussion focused on ways to take the strategic
partnership between the two countries forward with focus on
reinforcing their partnership in combating terrorism, expansion
of economic ties and intensifying cooperation in the areas of
science and technology, education and culture, he said.

 "UN reform, including UNSC reform, was also discussed as was
civil nuclear energy cooperation," Sarna said.

 The two sides also had a useful and extensive exchange of views
on regional issues, including the EU, West Asia, Asia-Pacific
and the South Asia region.

 Their last round of consultations was held in London in March
2005.

*****************************************************************
 48 Newsday: Feds say Indian Point nuclear complex can brace for air attack
                         -- 
Newsday.com
 
By DEVLIN BARRETT

Associated Press Writer
 	 	
April 4, 2006, 6:24 PM EDT

WASHINGTON --    Federal officials assured Congress on Tuesday 
that Indian Point and other nuclear power plants can quickly 
change internal operations to protect the public from radiation 
exposure if the U.S. military warns a hijacked plane is headed 
toward a reactor. 

The assurances came at a House Government Reform subcommittee 
hearing chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. 

                Since Sept. 11, 2001, elected officials in New 
York and Connecticut have pressed for better security at the 
Indian Point facility in Buchanan, N.Y., about 35 miles north of 
midtown Manhattan. 

More recently, evidence in the death penalty trial of al-Qaida
member Zacarias Moussaoui showed the terror group considered
attacking a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania as part of the
2001 wave of airline hijackings, a detail repeatedly mentioned
in the hearing. 

Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Shays'
subcommittee that the agency has several safety measures in
place to reduce the impact of such an attack. 

Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr. said the nation's nuclear
power system had a contingency plan with U.S. military officials
who monitor airspace to get a quick warning if a hijacked
airliner is speeding toward a power plant. 

"We can put the plant, we think, with the help of (the
military), in the safest possible configuration that we can
place it, with a little bit of warning," McGaffigan said. "We've
had procedures in place, tested procedures in place, to do
precisely that so we think the combination ... adds up to a very
robust capability to protect the public health and safety." 

Due to security concerns, witnesses spoke broadly about nuclear
plant safety and avoided discussing specific locations. The NRC
does not operate the 65 facilities around the United States but
is charged with regulating their safety systems. 

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Indian Point's owner, Entergy
Nuclear Northeast, said the facility has tested an emergency
response for an incoming airliner. 

"We can shut down the plant instantaneously, and there are steps
that can be taken to secure a plant in light of that situation
that you might not take in a normal shutdown," he said. 

Environmentalists and nearby residents who seek the closure of
Indian Point say the impact from a plane could cause a release
of radiation. 

Phillip Musegaas, a policy analyst for the environmental group
Riverkeeper, said shutting the Indian Point complex before an
aircraft impact doesn't make it significantly safer. 

"It's slightly better to have the reactor shut down, but it
really makes little difference," he said. "Whether or not the
reactor process is shut down, the hot fuel is still inside the
reactor." 

The NRC said in 2004 that a speedy, significant release of
radiation is all but impossible at the Indian Point nuclear
power station, even if terrorists crash a jetliner into it. 

	 
http://www.newsday.com.
*****************************************************************
 49 WQAD: Lawmakers OK tougher reporting of radioactive leaks

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Illinois nuclear power plants would have to 
report leaks of radioactive substances to the state under 
legislation that was approved today.

The bill comes in response to a series of tritium (TRIT'-ee-um) 
leaks at Exelon (EX'-uh-lon) nuclear plants in northern Illinois.

Federal law does not require state officials to be notified of 
accidental releases if they pose no immediate public health or 
safety emergency.

So when water containing radioactive tritium leaked at a 
Braidwood nuclear plant in 1998, Illinois officials did not learn 
about it until November 2005. 

Other tritium leaks have been discovered since then.The Illinois 
House approved the reporting requirement 113-to-zero. It had 
already passed the Senate, so now it goes to the governor.

(The bill is HB1620. On the Net: http://www.ilga.gov )                                                  
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This 
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or 
redistributed.                                          
  
All content © Copyright 2001 - 2006 WorldNow and WQAD. All
*****************************************************************
 50 BBJ: : Once spurned, nuclear plants become energy's cash cow 
 
Baltimore Business Journal

- 2006-04-03
 
Owning a nuclear power plant is a pretty good business these
days. 

That wasn't the case in the late 1990s. Back then, the price of
power produced with other fuels such as natural gas was low.
Nuclear plants around the country had been plagued with huge
construction cost overruns and were valued at a fraction of
their cost. 

When Maryland embarked on electricity deregulation in 1999,
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.had invested hundreds of millions
in the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Southern Maryland and at
its coal plants on the Chesapeake Bay. 

As it prepared to transfer its power plants to its parent
company, Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group Inc., BGE
argued that it should be paid about $900 million for its
potentially unprofitable investments in power plants -- a
concept known as "stranded costs." Eventually BGE reached a deal
under which it would be paid $528 million over six years to
compensate for the risk of taking on those plants. 

But now, the cost of natural gas has soared, making coal and
nuclear plants highly profitable, according to energy industry
experts. 

And state lawmakers are feeling like they got a bad deal. A bill
passed by the state Senate on March 29 would hinge
Constellation's proposed $11 billion merger with Florida-based
FPL Group Inc.on Constellation's return of that $528 million to
BGE's residential ratepayers. The money would be used to defray
a 72 percent average increase in electricity bills looming this
summer for BGE customers. 

"We want to make sure that the consumer gets a fair deal this
time around," said the bill's sponsor, state Sen. E.J. Pipkin,
R-Eastern Shore. 

And consumer advocates agree that the money should be returned. 

"We gave them a lot of money under false pretenses," said Brad
Heavner, executive director of the Maryland Public Interest
Research Group. "It's going to remain an issue until they give
that money back." 

But Constellation and BGE officials are opposed to doing so.
They argue against re-opening a deal that was reached way back
in 1999. They also say the bill is unconstitutional and unfair
to business customers who helped foot much of the bill for these
costs. 

 bizjournals| BizSpace.com| BizjournalsHIRE.com| bizwomen.com

© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors.
*****************************************************************
 51 Rediff: 'India must stop fissile production'

US should ask India to cut-off fissile production: Expert

April 04, 2006 14:02 IST

A non-proliferation expert, in an editorial published in the
April 2006 issue of Arms Control Today, has urged lawmakers not
to approve the US-India nuke deal unless India stops production
of fissile material for weapons purposes.

Daryl G Kimball of the Arms Control Association said, "If they
do not, the proposal for nuclear cooperation with India would
constitute a dangerous sellout of core non-proliferation goals
and could become the catalyst for an Asian nuclear arms race." 
  + Bush in India

US diplomats failed to secure any new commitments from India to
restrain its nuclear weapons programme as called for in a 1998
UN Security Council resolution, Kimball said in the monthly
journal of the ACA. 

"Instead, India only restated its support for efforts to
negotiate a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. But, this pledge
means little given that FMCT talks have been delayed for years
due to competing negotiating priorities and US opposition to the
negotiation of a verification mechanism," Kimball remarked.

A fissile raw material production cutoff would stop the
production that all five of the original nuclear-weapon states
are understood to observe and also cap the growth of the
arsenals of India, Pakistan and Israel, he said. 
  + Indo-US nuke tango

Kimball was of the opinion that the controversial proposal for
full civil nuclear assistance to India would inadvertently put
the fissile material cutoff back in the spotlight. 

"To jump-start progress on an FMCT and help ensure that civil
nuclear trade with India will not aid its weapons programme,
Congress and the international community must press for concrete
action on the fissile production cutoff," he said.

"To leverage action on an FMCT and begin to address the flawed
proposal for nuclear assistance to India, Congress and Nuclear
Suppliers' Group member states should refuse to relax nuclear
trade rules with India until it halts production of fissile
material for weapons purposes," Kimball said adding, "at the
same time, they should urge others to halt fissile material
production pending the conclusion of a verifiable FMCT." 

US President George W Bush's "controversial proposal" to exempt
India from longstanding US and international nuclear trade
standards has brought to centrestage, the lack of progress on
halting the production of fissile materials for weapons by
India, Pakistan and other states, he said.

He pointed out that the deal would allow India to exclude from
safeguards all of its military production facilities, plus as
many as eight additional power reactors and existing spent
nuclear fuel.

India's fast breeder reactors, which are particularly well
suited for weapons-grade plutonium production, would be kept
off-limits. 

"As a result, a growing number of Congressional members and NSG
states believe the administration gave up too much and got few
non-proliferation benefits. They are concerned that the proposal
would implicitly endorse, if not indirectly assist the growth of
India's nuclear arsenal," he said. 

"If India got foreign nuclear reactor fuel supplies, it could
free up India's limited uranium reserves for the sole purpose of
adding to its arsenal of 50-100 nuclear bombs. Not only would
the US proposal undermine the non-proliferation system, but it
could also lead Pakistan to increase its fissile production and
tempt China to resume fissile production for weapons," Kimball
added. 

UNI

 Copyright © 2006 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 52 Xinhua: Japan mulls joining US network of ports nuclear screening   

  www.xinhuanet.com
    
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-04 21:30:48   

    TOKYO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Japan is in discussion with the
United States to join its network to screen cargo at seaports
for nuclear and other radioactive materials, Japanese media
reported Tuesday. 

    The two countries are talking about a initial screening test
at Nagoya port using the U.S. system, which was designed to help
block nuclear terrorist attacks, Japanese government sources
said on Monday. 

    The screening network, which is dubbed Mega ports Initiative
and run by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration,
was brought into implementation in 2003 and is currently
operational in the Netherlands, Greece, the Bahamas and Sri
Lanka, playing an active role in detecting hazardous materials
that could be smuggled to make "dirty bombs" or nuclear weapons,
reports said. 

    Participating countries are provided with equipment and
personnel training assistance by the initiative, one of the most
important methods of the U.S. anti-terrorism efforts. 

    The initiative is interested in Japan because it is a hub
for cargo shipments from Asia to North America, Kyodo News said,
adding that full-fledged implementation is in sight for other
major ports like Tokyo, Yokohama and Kobe. Enditem 

     
Editor: Pliny Han   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 53 AFP: US regulators shaped nuclear security to industry tastes - report

 Tue Apr 4, 5:43 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US government regulators tailored
post-September 11 nuclear power security controls to suit the
industry, the investigative arm of Congress said. 

 After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission sought changes in the security regimes at nuclear
power plants, according to the Government Accountability Office"
/> Government Accountability Office(GAO). 

The nuclear regulations required plants "to defend against a
larger terrorist threat, including a larger number of attackers,
a refined and expanded list of weapons and an increase in the
maximum size of a vehicle bomb," said the GAO, which oversees
government for Congress. 

However, after consulting the nuclear industry, the commission
backed off. 

"The NRC staff made changes to some recommendations after
obtaining feedback from stakeholders, including the nuclear
industry, which objected to certain proposed changes such as the
inclusion of certain weapons," the GAO said. 

"GAO found that the process used to obtain stakeholder feedback
created the appearance that the changes were made based on what
the industry considered reasonable and feasible to defend
against rather than an assessment of the terrorist threat
itself. 

"GAO recommends that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission improve
its process for making changes ... and evaluate and implement
measures to further strengthen its force-on-force inspection
program," the statement said. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 54 Guardian Unlimited: Report Questions Security for Nuke Plants

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Wednesday April 5, 2006 12:01 AM

By H. JOSEF HEBERT 

Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission scaled back
its blueprint of required security upgrades at nuclear power
plants after consulting with the nuclear industry, congressional
auditors said in a report released Tuesday. 

The Government Accountability Office report said that while
other factors also were involved in making the changes, the
procedures the NRC used ``created the appearance that changes
were made based on what industry considered reasonable and
feasible ... rather than an assessment of the terrorist
threat.'' 

The GAO report was presented Tuesday at a hearing by the House
Government Reform subcommittee on national security and emerging
threats. 

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., the panel's chairman, said the
GAO findings show ``a decidedly mixed picture'' of security at
the country's nuclear power plants. 

Although substantial improvements in security have been made
since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Shays said, ``The
GAO also found that stronger security standards did not
necessarily mean the NRC had sufficiently fortified itself
against the dangers of an overly cozy relationship with the
industry.'' 

The GAO report said that in developing the so-called Design
Basis Threat document - the largely secret requirements for what
operators of nuclear power plants must be prepared to defend
against - the NRC consulted extensively with industry. 

The report said industry had objected to the size of a vehicle
bomb a security force would be responsible to protect against
and several weapons that it should assume an attacker would
have. 

The NRC reduced the size of the vehicle bomb in its security
requirements and deleted two weapons from the list that it said
guards should assume an attacker might have, according to the
report. 

The report said the NRC told GAO auditors that while industry
feedback was taken into account, the changes were not made
``solely on industry views'' but on broader internal NRC
analysis. 

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, says
$1.2 billion has been spent since Sept. 11, 2001 on increased
security at power plants. The industry has acknowledged working
with the NRC on security improvements. 

The GAO said the updated security plan, most of which already
has been put in place at power plants, reflects ``substantial
security improvements'' in response to the heightened terrorist
threat. 

But the GAO also said those improvements have yet to be widely
tested against a live adversary. 

Fewer than half of the 65 commercial nuclear power plant sites
have had force-on-force mock attacks to test the system, said
Shays, citing the GAO findings. 

``It may be too early to claim success,'' he said. 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 55 Wash Post: EPA Faces Internal Outcry On Airborne Emissions Plan

By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 4, 2006; A04

A proposal to revise how the Environmental Protection Agency
regulates airborne toxic emissions from industrial plants has
sparked an outcry from the agency's regional offices, with a
majority suggesting that the change would be "detrimental to the
environment."

The proposed rule, whose wording was disclosed yesterday by the
advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), would
change the emissions standards for oil refineries, hazardous
waste incinerators, chemical plants, steel mills and other
plants that discharge thousands of pounds of airborne toxins
such as arsenic, mercury and lead.

Under current law, plants that emit 10 tons or more of a single
toxin in a year, or 25 tons or more of a combination of toxins,
must install "maximum achievable control technology" to cut
those emissions by 95 percent or more. The draft proposal would
lift that requirement from polluters that have reduced their
emissions to below 25 tons a year, potentially allowing
emissions to increase so long as they stay under the 25-ton
limit.

An internal EPA memo summarizing the position of eight of the
agency's 10 regional offices, dated Dec. 13, contended the
change could conceivably result in an increase in toxic
emissions. Seven of the offices agreed that the proposal would
allow polluters to "virtually avoid regulation and greatly
complicate any enforcement."

Individual regional offices occasionally object to proposed
policy shifts by EPA headquarters, but it is rare for such a
large number of regional offices to join forces in such a
forceful rebuke.

The new dispute follows a string of high-profile controversies
over the administration's enforcement of national air-quality
laws, many of them focused on regulation of aging coal-fired
power plants.

The dispute also points to a broader polarization within the
agency. The internal memo said that regional officials were
eager to comment on the proposal, but EPA headquarters was
"reluctant to share the draft policy with the Regional Offices.
This trend of excluding the regional offices from involvement in
the rule and policy development effort is disturbing."

One EPA official familiar with the proposal, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the rule
went further than many staff members thought was necessary.

"There are ways you could make regulations less burdensome for
industry," the agency official said. "This is beyond. . . . It
seems to be driven more by political considerations."

Industries likely to be affected by the proposed change welcomed
it.

Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and
Refiners Association, said in an interview that the
administration was trying to compensate for the fact that once a
polluter becomes subject to the technology requirement, it
remains stuck in the program permanently unless it can clean up
its plants within three years.

"All they're trying to do is explore ways they might encourage
[industrial] sources to install pollution reduction measures or
other emissions reduction mechanisms," Slaughter said.

The draft of the new rule acknowledges that some EPA officials
believe it could result in higher levels of airborne toxins but
calls the regional offices' concerns "unfounded. While this may
occur in some instances, it is more likely that sources will
adopt [emissions] limitations at or near their current levels to
avoid negative publicity and to maintain their appearance as
responsible businesses."

The regional offices wrote in their Dec. 13 memo that "this
statement is unfounded and overly optimistic."

John Walke, clean air director for NRDC, said the internal EPA
memo highlights the flaws in the administration's proposal.

"Such objections underscore how the EPA would weaken the law and
allow even more cancer-causing pollution into the air we
breathe. This proposal is indefensible," Walke said. "No wonder
even some of EPA's own experts are outraged by this secretly
hatched plan to please polluters and their powerful friends."

EPA spokeswoman Lisa Lybbert said in a statement that discussing
the proposal at this point is premature.

"This is a preliminary draft that is currently under development
and internal review which could change before EPA issues it as a
proposal. EPA will seek public comment when it issues the
proposal," she said.

The proposal drew fire from some in Congress.

"If this draft rule were to be put into effect, polluters could
emit many more tons of cancer-causing air pollutants and heavy
metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead, seriously jeopardizing
the health of millions of Americans," said Sen. James M.
Jeffords (I-Vt.), the ranking minority member on Environment and
Public Works Committee. "This rule turns the Clean Air Act
topsy-turvy by letting polluters run their controls at
half-speed."

The proposed rule change was drafted under the oversight of
William Wehrum, the acting assistant administrator for the EPA's
air and radiation office, who has been nominated to that post on
a permanent basis. He is slated to appear tomorrow before the
environment committee as it considers his nomination. 

© 2006 The Washington Post Company [ border=] 
*****************************************************************
 56 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Admin. Wants to Bury More Nuke Waste
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Tuesday April 4, 2006 11:01 PM

By ERICA WERNER 

Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration wants to bury tens of
thousands of tons more nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain dump
in Nevada than now allowed - part of a package of new proposals
meant to spur development of the controversial and long-delayed
dump. 

Legislation unveiled by Energy Department officials Tuesday
proposes lifting the 77,000-ton storage cap on the dump 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas and allowing as much waste as the
mountain can hold. That figure has been estimated by federal
environmental impact studies at 132,000 tons. 

Some 55,000 tons of nuclear waste are already waiting at utility
sites around the country. 

The department also proposed dedicating money in a special
nuclear waste fund to the dump, to try to ensure adequate
funding. The bill also would allow federal officials, who hope
to ship nuclear waste to the dump by rail, to pre-empt state and
local transportation regulations. 

Certain nonnuclear elements of the dump - including the rail
line to get there - could be built before the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission issues a license needed to build the dump. 

``This proposed legislation will help provide stability,
clarity, and predictability to the Yucca Mountain project,''
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement. 

The bill will be introduced in the Senate by Energy Committee
Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M. It faces a fight from ardent
Yucca Mountain dump opponent Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate
minority leader. 

Reid on Tuesday said the bill was ``not even on life support.
It's dead when it gets here.'' 

The bill does not propose moving nuclear waste to interim
storage sites while the Yucca Mountain dump is completed -
something key lawmakers want the department to consider. 

Yucca Mountain was approved by Congress in 2002 and officials
wanted it to open in 2010. Energy Department officials now say
they hope to open it by 2020, but they won't give an exact date.
They don't plan to apply for the NRC license until the 2008
fiscal year. 

The dump, which has cost $9 billion so far, has suffered a
series of setbacks. They include a criminal investigation into
accusations that government scientists flouted quality control
requirements, and a federal court's invalidation of the
government's proposed radiation safety standards for the dump. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 57 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast lawsuit returned to state court

04/04/2006 | 

 DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer 

TALLEVAST - A federal judge has sent Tallevast residents'
lawsuits against Lockheed Martin Corp. back to state court. 

The recent decision by Elizabeth A. Kovachevich of the U.S.
Middle District Court, Tampa division represents a win for about
250 residents who wanted their case heard in a local court. 

Tallevast residents are suing Lockheed Martin Corp. and others
for property damages related to a 131-acre plume of underground
pollution that leaked from the former Loral American Beryllium
Co. plant. 

Lockheed owned the facility in 2000, when the leak was
discovered. 

Although Lockheed reported the spill to county and state
authorities, as required by law, they were not legally obligated
to inform the community. Tallevast residents did not learn about
the poisons in their backyards until late 2003. 

Several residents living in close proximity to the plant were on
private drinking water wells later found to be contaminated.
Lockheed and Manatee County officials have switched all of the
known households on private wells to county water. 

The first Tallevast lawsuit was filed in the 12th Judicial
Circuit Court on Sept. 2 against Lockheed, Loral Corp., WirePro
Inc. and BECSD LLC, a limited holding company that now owns the
former beryllium plant. WirePro and BECSD LLC are located
outside Florida. 

Lockheed filed a motion to move the case to federal court on
Oct. 6 on the grounds that WirePro Inc. and its local
subsidiary, WPI Sarasota Division Inc., had nothing to do with
the contamination and were included by Tallevast's attorneys
simply to qualify the suit for state court. 

In a counter motion filed Nov. 10, Bruce L. Denson, a St.
Petersburg attorney on Tallevast's legal team, asked the federal
judge to send the case back to state court, claiming that
Lockheed's arguments did not meet the test of case law. Denson
argued that WPI Sarasota Division, as the current operator of
the site, is a Florida entity. Moreover, Denson argued, the
hazardous chemicals and substances historically used and
disposed of at the site continue to spread, studies have found. 

Lockheed filed another counter motion to keep the case in
federal court on Dec. 6, arguing that because of its many
contracts with the departments of Defense and Energy, Loral
American Beryllium Co. effectively worked as an agent of the
federal government as well as the U.S. military. 

For Tallevast residents, Kovachevich's decision to put the case
in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Manatee County means that
when and if the case comes to court, they can attend proceedings
without having to make the trek to Tampa. 

Tallevast attorneys have also said that they believe state laws
will provide the relief Tallevast residents seek. 
*****************************************************************
 58 Deseret News: Energy secretary denies looking at Skull Valley 

[deseretnews.com] 

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 

Company's nuclear storage pitch won't happen, Hatch says 	 	 	 

By Suzanne Struglinski 
Deseret Morning News 

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is not interested in becoming 
a client of Private Fuel Storage, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman 
told Sen. Orrin Hatch. 

The statement, which mirrors what the department has 
expressed before, comes at the same time anti-nuclear activists 
flooded congressional offices this week to lobby against the 
department's new nuclear power program and its plans to store 
nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, while nuclear utility 
officials called for Congress to move forward on the project. 

The department has previously said it is not interested 
in the nuclear waste storage site planned for Goshute Indian 
land in Tooele County, but Hatch said Bodman "made very clear 
that the administration does not support putting nuclear waste 
in Skull Valley." 

Private Fuel Storage, a private company originally made 
up by investments from eight nuclear power companies, sent a 
letter to Congress proposing that the department move nuclear 
waste to its recently licensed facility or that it reimburse 
utilities that would decide to move their waste there until 
Yucca opened. 

At a meeting at Energy Department headquarters Wednesday, 
Hatch said he and Bodman discussed strategy "for putting this 
plan to bed," although he would not go into details. Hatch said 
Bodman said there is "no interest whatsoever" from the 
department on moving waste to Utah. 

"This was a 'Hail Mary' pass in the last seconds of the 
game but the problem is they have no receivers," Hatch said of 
PFS's request for the department to become its client. 

Two of the original eight investors in PFS — Southern Co. 
and Florida Power and Light — have opted out of the program 
completely while Xcel Energy, which holds the largest percentage 
of the consortium, and Entergy Corp., will freeze future 
investments. 

Representatives from seven companies met with Hatch 
Wednesday. Genoa FuelTech, which owns the Dairyland Power 
Reactor in LaCrosse, Wis., and is the home base for PFS Chairman 
John Parkyn, did not participate. 

Other waste-related meetings took place here this week as 
the Alliance for nuclear Accountability's "DC Days" brought 
activists from all over the country including two from Utah: 
Vanessa Pierce, the program director for Healthy Environment 
Alliance of Utah and Mike Fife, a member of HEAL. 

Pierce met with Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell on 
Tuesday, who expressed the same disinterest in PFS that Bodman 
did with Hatch. 

The two Utahns also met with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, 
and staff members of the rest of the delegation to talk about 
the PFS project and other nuclear matters. 

Pierce's main goal was to encourage Utah's senators to 
support an existing bill that would expand a federal program 
designed to compensate those ill from radiation exposure to 
government testing to northern Utah. 

The compensation program has been around for almost two 
decades but only includes the 10 most southern counties in Utah, 
she said. 

Pierce and Fife also wanted the delegation, particularly 
Bennett who has a seat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee 
that writes the energy spending bill, to reject funding for the 
Energy Department's new nuclear power proposals. 

The Global nuclear Energy Partnership, known as GNEP, 
would encourage more nuclear power plants be built as well as 
allow the United States to begin a nuclear waste processing 
program. The department requested $250 million for the program 
in February. 

She said the biggest misconception of reprocessing is 
that power plants would be able to reuse all the fuel, but that 
is not the case. It can actually create more waste and not much 
of the reprocessed fuel can be used again safely. 

"It delays the day of reckoning and just create a bigger 
price tag," she said. 

Pierce fears that if PFS moves forward and reprocessing 
becomes a reality Utah will become "a nuclear waste version of 
California's Silicon Valley" with companies popping up that 
would want to reprocess waste stored at PFS or more types of 
waste going to EnergySolutions. 

She did not hear everything she wants out of all the 
offices but she said "its good to keep the dialogue going." 

Meanwhile, the nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition and the 
Yucca Mountain Task Force called on Congress Tuesday to move 
forward with its plan to permanently store nuclear waste at 
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Both groups are 
strong Yucca supporters and said they want Congress to 
reconsider storing nuclear waste at Yucca before the underground 
repository would open. 

LeRoy Koppendrayer, a member of the Minnesota Public 
Service Commission that heads the coalition, said PFS was a good 
idea for interim storage at one time, but utilities would need 
to get additional money if they decided to move it there. Money 
put aside for federal nuclear waste storage can only be spent on 
Yucca Mountain. 

"That doesn't take PFS off the table, this doesn't say 
that possibly that PFS could be economically more feasible than 
some sites where it's sitting out in the meantime," Koppendrayer 
said, but Yucca is what the ratepayers have put billions toward 
and still have nothing to show for it. 

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com 

© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company 	 		 		 	 		 		 		 		 		 
*****************************************************************
 59 DOE: DOE to Send Proposed Yucca Mountain Legislation to Congress
 
  April 4, 2006
 
WASHINGTON, DC  Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today
announced that on Wednesday, April 5, he will send to the U.S.
Congress a legislative proposal to enhance the nations ability
to manage and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste.  Submission of this legislation fulfills a
commitment contained in President Bushs Fiscal Year 2007
budget. 

We need to ensure a strong and diversified energy mix to fuel
our nations economy, and nuclear power is an important
component of that mix, Secretary Bodman said.  In order to
expand our nuclear generating capacity, we need a safe,
permanent, geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca
Mountain.  This proposed legislation will help provide
stability, clarity, and predictability to the Yucca Mountain
Project and will help lay a solid foundation for Americas
future energy security. 

The proposed legislation includes a comprehensive set of
provisions that will facilitate licensing and construction of
the geologic repository and will lead to the safe, permanent
disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste
deep within the mountain.  

Among other things, the proposed legislation would withdraw
permanently from public use the land at and surrounding the
Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, and would facilitate
Congress ability to provide adequate funding for the Yucca
Mountain Project.  Permanent withdrawal is needed to meet a
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing requirement for
the Yucca Mountain repository and will help assure protection of
public health and the environment.  Funding reform is necessary
to correct a technical budgetary problem that has acted as a
disincentive to adequate funding. 

The proposed bill would also eliminate the current statutory
70,000 metric ton cap on disposal capacity at Yucca Mountain, in
order to allow maximum use of the mountains true technical
capacity.  This provision would help provide the safe isolation
of the nations entire commercial spent nuclear fuel inventory
from existing reactors, including life extensions. 

Also included are provisions for a more streamlined NRC
licensing process, and for initiation of infrastructure
activities, including safety and other upgrades and rail line
construction, to enable earlier start-up of operations.  Other
provisions are designed to consolidate duplicative environmental
review. 

Currently, more than 50,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel
are stored at more than 100 above-ground sites in 39 states; and
every year, American reactors produce an additional 2,000 metric
tons of spent fuel.  In 2002, President Bush and Congress
decided that Yucca Mountain was the best location for a
permanent repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste.  This legislation will aid the
federal government in carrying that decision forward, and will
help the government meet its legal obligation to dispose of
those materials.  

As part of President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative, the
department recently announced the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership (GNEP), which would recycle spent fuel.  GNEP is a
comprehensive, global, nuclear energy strategy that will enable
the expansion of emissions-free nuclear energy worldwide in a
safe, environmentally clean, affordable manner that will
minimize waste and reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation. 
Even with the potential waste minimization benefits of GNEP, the
Yucca Mountain repository would still be needed to provide for
the safe, permanent geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel. 

Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940     [ ]   

  U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | 
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 | 
*****************************************************************
 60 Herald News: Weigh in on Fermi waste permit

  [SuburbanChicagoNews.com]   

 Up for renewal: Agencies invite public review, comment 

FROM WIRE REPORTS 

BATAVIA  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and U.S.
EPA are inviting public comment on the waste-handling permit
held by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory here.

 The agencies are considering renewal of the Hazardous and Solid
Waste Amendments permit held by Fermilab. The lab is managing
its mixed (hazardous and radioactive) and hazardous wastes under
its previous permit.

 Copies of the permit application, draft renewal permit decision
and related fact sheets can be viewed at the Batavia Public
Library, 31 S. Batavia Ave.

 Citizens may submit written comments on the proposed permit to
the addresses below during the 45-day comment period. Comments
must be postmarked by midnight May 15.

 If the agencies feel it is needed, a public hearing may be held
on the Fermilab permit.

 People may contact the U.S. EPA's offices in Chicago: Jim
Blough, DW-8J, U.S. EPA-Region V, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago,
IL 60604; phone (312) 886-2967. 

-  Sun-Times News Group

 04/04/06 

SuburbanChicagoNews.com — ©  Digital Chicago & Sun-Times
*****************************************************************
 61 Times Record: DOE's nuclear fuel storage policy shifts   

  04/03/2006  
 
  Maine Yankee officials await word on how the change might
affect dry cask storage program.

 WISCASSET  Maine Yankee officials "are concerned" by a recent
policy change at the U.S. Department of Energy that would
regulate the kind of canister spent nuclear fuel could be
transported in to a proposed federal repository in Nevada. 

The Department of Energy is pushing a new design called TAD for
"transport, aging and disposal" that would become standard. 

What worries Maine Yankee officials is that the federal energy
agency, in announcing the new standards, has not specified what
it will do with the nuclear waste already stored in dry cask
storage containers, as is the case at the former Maine Yankee
nuclear power plant. 

"We are monitoring the situation," said Maine Yankee spokesman
Eric Howes, during a quarterly meeting of the Community Advisory
Panel on Thursday. "Our concern is that the DOE has not
addressed the issue of what to do with spent nuclear fuel
already in storage at Maine Yankee and about 30 other sites
across the country." 

Howes said the dry cask storage system used by Maine Yankee is
licensed and approved by the Department of Energy, so there is
little danger of Maine Yankee getting stuck with something
federal regulators deem to be no longer appropriate. 

"The problem is lack of information," he said. "The DOE just
hasn't addressed the issue of what its plans are for dry cask
storage, given this new policy about standardized canisters." 

The Department of Energy has yet to set a schedule for when it
will begin transporting spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain,
but Howes said the agency is supposed to release the new
schedule this summer. 

The focus of the Department of Energy now is to develop the
license application for Yucca Mountain, working with the nuclear
industry to complete the preliminary design for the TAD,
planning the facilities needed to receive spent fuel, developing
transportation infrastructure and upgrading communication,
according to Howes. 

Meanwhile, Maine Yankee and other national nuclear energy groups
have opposed a Congressional bill that would have the Department
of Energy take title to the spent nuclear fuel now stored in
various reactor sites, including Maine Yankee. The bill was
sponsored by the Nevada and Utah delegations and has been
referred to committee with no action being taken so far. 

Maine Yankee did receive a letter from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in December congratulating it on a successful
decommissioning. At the same time, its suit against the federal
government over the Department of Energy's failure to move spent
nuclear fuel as required was ruled on by the U.S. Court of
Appeals. The ruling stated that Maine Yankee could not recover
future damages and limited damages to those that have actually
been sustained. 

Maine Yankee thus filed a claim of about $79 million for damages
sustained through 2002. 

Originally, the company had sought $160 million for damages
through 2010. 

A decision by a judge is expected later this year.   

(C) 2005 All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 62 kgw.com: Study: DOE faces problems removing nuke waste from buried tanks 

News for Oregon and SW Washington | AP Wire

04/04/2006 

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH  / Associated Press 

The U.S. Department of Energy is making good progress removing
highly radioactive waste from storage tanks at the Idaho
National Laboratory, but an independent panel of scientists
reported to Congress Tuesday they have "serious reservations"
about similar cleanup efforts at Savannah River in South
Carolina and Hanford in Washington state. 

The government-sponsored study found DOE has cleaned out only 2
of the 246 radioactive waste storage tanks at the three federal
nuclear compounds and none has been permanently sealed. 

The agency has been studying ways to immobilize the liquefied
radioactive waste stored in underground tanks and surface silos
at the three sites for 50 years. In 2004 Congress directed the
National Research Council, an arm of the National Academies of
Science, to assess progress and recommend improvements. 

The millions of gallons of highly toxic sludge was created by
chemical processing of spent nuclear fuel from plutonium
production for atomic weapons during World War II and the Cold
War. 

The panel was most concerned about cleanup efforts at Savannah
River, said study director Micah Lowenthal in Washington, D.C. 

"There are a lot of pressures to do things in the near-term at
Savannah River and to a lesser extent at Hanford," he said. "The
committee is concerned the schedule-oriented approach can
sometimes lead to decisions that you wouldn't make under more
ideal circumstances." 

Nuclear cleanup watchdogs praised the findings and said DOE
cannot be trusted to properly remove the waste. 

"Congress should heed the academies' recommendations and bring
radioactive tank cleanup under external regulation by the
Environmental Protection Agency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
and the affected states," said Geoffrey Fettus of the Natural
Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. 

But the DOE said immobilizing some of the sludge in place is a
more prudent approach that waiting for new advances in
technology to retrieve tank waste. 

"We believe that cleaning and closing tanks now through
protective waste disposal processes outweighs the risk
associated with waiting for incremental improvements in waste
removal technology," said Megan Barnett, a DOE spokeswoman in
Washington, D.C. 

The panel's report found it is not practical to remove all the
nuclear waste from the storage tanks because of the potential
danger to workers and the prohibitive cost of exhuming the
tanks, which vary widely in design, size and condition. 

But the 21-member committee of scientists did not specify how
much of the waste DOE should retrieve from the vats, encase in
glass and bury in an underground repository or how much it
should leave behind in the tanks, which would then be filled
with a cement-like grout and remain on site. 

Much of the Idaho waste is in a granular form, which the panel
found to be much more stable. 

"Because of treatment decisions INL made over the years to get
it into a granular form, they chemically made it easier to deal
with and we don't have the problems faced by the other two
sites," said Kathleen Trever, the state of Idaho's oversight
officer for INL. 

Federal law requires the DOE to retrieve highly radioactive
material from the tank sludge and encapsulate it in a solid
form, such as glass logs, for permanent disposal. 

In 2003, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise ruled that
the regulatory attempt by the Energy Department to reclassify
the waste so it would not have to be removed from the tanks
violated the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 

In response, Congress added language to the 2005 defense
spending bill giving DOE authority to reclassify some of the
tank waste as "incidental" waste in the Savannah River and Idaho
tanks so they could be grouted and sealed. 

The study panel said it was concerned over DOE's plans for tank
closure at Savannah River, questioning the accuracy of
assumptions the agency had made about potential exposure and the
amount of radioactive material to be disposed of on site. 

"This is a technical indictment of DOE's use of that authority
at Savannah River," said Fettus. 

The study also raised questions about DOE's plan to use a
process known as bulk vitrification for treating low-level
radioactive waste for disposal on site at Hanford. The panel
called for an independent technical review of the process to
determine its safety and performance, something that Barnett
said DOE is planning to do and something that Hanford watchdogs
say is longer overdue. 

"Our own analysis shows there are major problems with safety,
worker exposure and environmental contamination," said Tom
Carpenter of the Government Accountability Project's nuclear
oversight campaign in Seattle "This was just a quick and dirty
attempt to deal with high-level nuclear waste." 

This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by
the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page,
but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow.     

 2006, KGW-TV  
*****************************************************************
 63 NWTRB: Resume of William Murphy
 
[U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board]   

NWTRB Board Member
       
 Updated April 4, 2006
   
Dr. William M. Murphy was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board on March 20, 2006, by President George W.
Bush. 

Dr. Murphy is associate professor in the Department of
Geological and Environmental Sciences at California State
University, Chico. His research focuses on geochemistry,
including the interactions of nuclear wastes and geologic media.
From 1988 to the time that he joined the University faculty in
2000, Dr. Murphy worked at the Center for Nuclear Waste
Regulatory Analyses. Dr. Murphy worked previously (1986-1988) at
the Basalt Waste Isolation Project at Hanford, Washington. 

Dr. Murphy serves on the Steering Committee for the Symposium on
the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management. He was a
representative from the U.S. in the Natural Analogue Working
Group, and he holds a position as administrative judge on the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel of the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. 

In 1974, Dr. Murphy received a B.S. in earth science from the
University of California, Santa Cruz. He received an M.S. in
geology from the University of Oregon in 1977, and a Ph.D. in
geology from the University of California, Berekeley in 1985. 

Dr. Murphy resides in Chico, California.   


*****************************************************************
 64 NO: Mercury Storage Plans Won't Go Away, State Agencies Wary Of 
Safety Plans

Nevada Observer: Nevada's Online State News Journal             

Vol. 3, No. 11 April 1, 2006          

Governor Plans Fight, Says "Nevada Not The Nation's Dump Site"

As the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository debacle continues to 
unfold with seemingly daily problems coming to light the federal 
government now wants to store vast quantities of mercury in 
underground silos in Hawthorne, NV.  Hawthorne is home to the 
Army Ammunition Depot and has housed bombs and other armament for 
years.  The underground bunkers are built to withstand air raids 
and to the best of anyone's knowledge, there is very little if 
any water seepage.

Mercury doesn't fade away, doesn't rust into something inert, is 
a heavy metal that is very dangerous to humans, and the federal 
government owns more than 4,000 tons of the stuff, scattered 
across these United States.  The federal government has been 
creating stockpiles of the metal since the 1950s.

Besides weapons storage, Hawthorne is also host to the Navy's 
Submarine Warfare Center.  The base was opened in the 1930s, came 
very close to being closed during the recent spate of base 
closures, and is the chief employer in the city located just 
south of Walker Lake.  Mining flourished for a number of years 
during the 1980s but has fallen off recently.

In its natural state, mercury is a liquid and must be super 
cooled before it becomes solid.  It vaporizes, but only under 
intense heat.  Because of its liquid state the fear of mercury 
spills getting into ground water systems will force some changes 
at Hawthorne if plans proceed.

There is a rail line into Hawthorne but plans indicate that the 
tons of toxic metal will be transported by truck.  That would 
bring the metal through many rural neighborhoods in northern 
Nevada, none of which are immune to hazard waste being 
transported through their locations.

According to state officials including Governor Kenny Guinn other 
than voicing serious concern there isn't much the state can do to 
stop the shipments.  The military plans to begin shipments 
sometime during 2007 depending on when the upgrades can be ready 
in Hawthorne.  Guinn reiterated that "Nevada is not the nation's 
dump site," and said he plans to fight this as hard as possible, 
but doesn't have much hope in actually stopping the shipments.

One problem the state has with the storage plans is the fact that 
the Department of Energy and Department of Defense haven't been 
the best neighbors in the past, haven't had Nevada's best 
interests in their operations, and haven't been the best stewards 
of the land.  The federal government including the Department of 
Defense, Department of the Interior, Agriculture Department, and 
Department of Energy owns more than 85 percent of the state.
   
*****************************************************************
 65 NO: Yucca Mountain: Government Accountability Office Blisters 
Department Of Energy Quality Assurance Problems Account For Major 
Difficulties

Nevada Observer
  
Vol. 3,  No. 11          April 1, 2006 		

 Nevada's Online State News Journal             

by Johnny Gunn

One would think that a federal agency would respond immediately 
to congressional subpoenas, but in the case of the Department of 
Energy (DOE) totally ignoring them works best.  It took the State 
of Nevada Nuclear Projects Office to file requests through the 
federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get the ball 
rolling, and DOE still hasn't responded.  That type of supposed 
autonomy can only exist if someone very much higher than the 
Cabinet Secretary is giving the orders.  And there is only one 
person higher.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, testifying before Congress, said 
recently that the Yucca Mountain project is "broken" and he 
blamed his department among others for the failure.  But reading 
all the reports coming out of Washington, out of Yucca Mountain, 
out of Congressional subcommittees, and from news reports across 
the country, the system is more than "broken," those running it 
are all but criminally negligent.  The idea of a national 
repository for nuclear waste from electrical energy plants around 
the country is so repugnant that in the current issue of National 
Geographic Magazine, in a series of in-depth articles on Nuclear 
Energy, the magazine doesn't even bring up the concept of Yucca 
Mountain.  More than likely the reporters involved simply 
couldn't get a straight answer from DOE or anyone connected with 
the project.

Budget hearings are underway at this time and project DOE manager 
Golan continues to insist, "There is a clear national need for 
Yucca Mountain."  He also said during opening remarks, "We are 
taking steps to ensure that we develop and construct the safest, 
simplest, and most straight forward repository that we possible 
can, based on sound science and quality work."  His own boss 
Bodman repudiated those comments in his earlier statements to 
Congress.  One foot has no idea what the other foot has already 
tripped over.

DOE announced that Bechtel Corp., which has been the on-site 
contractor for many years, has been replaced.  They did not say 
that Bechtel had not lived up to contract terms, but simply 
replaced the giant company with the National Security 
Technologies, LLC associated with Northrop Grumman another major 
government contractor.  Bechtel is also the contractor at 
troubled Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State.

Nevada Congressman Jon Porter (R) is in receipt of a report 
issued during March by the United States Government 
Accountability Office (GAO), which says, "Quality assurance at 
DOE's planned nuclear waste repository needs increased management 
attention."  The report cites failure after failure in DOE's 
attempts to get a licensing procedure underway.  The report 
states flatly, "DOE has had a long history of quality assurance 
problems at the Yucca Mountain project."  The most recent 
problems the report points out are employee e-mails that seem to 
indicate fraudulent information was used specifically to pass 
quality assurance procedures.

There is a federal investigation underway at this time dealing 
with those alleged fraudulent reports.  Led by the Inspector 
General at DOE, the Inspector General at Interior and by the U.S. 
Attorney's office, the investigation could lead to criminal 
charges leveled at the DOE employees and possibly to others if 
the employees involved were in some way ordered or coerced into 
making fraudulent reports.  E-mail messages from 1998 and 2000 
allegedly discussed using two sets of books, one for quality 
assurance and one with actual data.

Porter has been relentless in efforts to get information from DOE 
including issuing Congressional Subpoenas.  Yucca Mountain has 
not been licensed despite the fact the DOE has been on site since 
the 1980s.  One snafu after another has the project in such a 
tangled mess that the Secretary of Energy himself told Congress 
it is a mess.  The agency has yet to verify the accuracy of about 
14,000 e-mails following disclosure of the tainted ones last 
year.

Nevada Attorney General George Chanos said at the time of the 
Nevada FOIA filing, "The federal government is required by law to 
share its important Yucca information with the host state."  He 
was emphatic in saying, "We are entitled to such information 
under the Freedom of Information Act as well.  DOE has refused to 
provide Nevada with this most important document for the past 
three years."

The document in question is the paperwork used by DOE to develop 
its request for licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  
It is referred to as the draft license application.  Nevada 
halted licensing procedures recently in court action when they 
challenged the length of time the high level nuclear waste could 
be considered safely stored.  DOE and the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) had said the storage needed to be safe 
for 10,000 years.  A federal court said that was far too short a 
time and has told EPA to come up with much longer standards.  
Many in the scientific community believe the waste will reach its 
most deadly potential after about 200,000 years.  There is no 
paper work available to indicate that the casks holding the waste 
could last that long under current Yucca plans.

Robert Loux is the Nevada Nuclear Projects head and said, "We 
want to see this document because we believe it will show that 
the repository is unsafe after 10,000 years, if not before.  
There have been scientific studies recently that indicate failure 
of the casks before the 10,000 years from water and humidity 
infiltration."

DOE refused to turn over the papers calling for "special 
privilege" at the agency level.  "There isn't a privilege in the 
world that should shield this from Nevada's citizens," Loux said.  
DOE has missed filing deadlines over and over in the last quarter 
century and officials don't believe they can have a license 
request available for possibly another ten years.  GAO's report 
to Congressman Porter said, "DOE has been relying on costly and 
time-consuming rework to resolve lingering quality assurance 
problems uncovered during audits and after-the-fact evaluations."

Porter is chairman, subcommittee on the federal workforce and 
agency organization, committee on government reform and has been 
holding hearings on the Yucca Mountain project.  It was the 
Porter subcommittee that discovered discrepancies in e-mails that 
indicated two sets of books were used, one for actual scientific 
data, one to be able to pass quality assurance standards.  GAO's 
report states, "DOE faces quality assurance challenges in 
resolving design control problems associated with its 
requirements management process -- the process for ensuring that 
high-level plans and regulatory requirements are incorporated 
into specific engineering details."  Some underground project 
work was halted in December 2005 due to problems with that 
process.  The underground management was turned over to a federal 
agency recently as well. 

GAO also questions whether DOE is capable of managing the 
operation.  "Significant personnel and project changes initiated 
in October 2005 create the potential for confusion over roles and 
responsibilities."  It was these types of problems that led to 
quality assurance problems years ago as well according to the 
report.

For a complete look at the GAO report as presented to Congress, 
go to http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/retrpt?GAO-06-313.

Yet another organization has come forward with a challenge to the 
concept of Yucca Mountain for storage of high level nuclear 
waste.  The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) says 
in their report issued March 28, "NIRS finds that all of the 
stated U.S. radioactive waste policies have failed, and/or hold 
no potential for success."  For 12 years they say they have been 
promoting drastic changes in DOE policy toward nuclear waste.  We 
believe, the reports says, "that an independent Blue-Ribbon 
Commission be established to start from ground zero and establish 
new, workable, scientifically-defensible radioactive waste 
policies."

The report was written by Kevin Kamps at NIRS, and he says "Had 
the U.S. done this 12 years ago, about seven billion dollars 
would have been saved that have been spent on a pyrrhic effort to 
open the proposed and unsuitable Yucca Mountain nuclear waste 
dump."  Many in congress and in Nevada have been touting the 
concept of reprocessing the waste into usable nuclear fuel for 
the electric generating plants.  The report dismisses 
reprocessing as a radioactive waste management approach.  
"Reprocessing," the report states, "would not only not solve the 
radioactive waste problem, it would lead to new dangers to the 
environment and public health, and to increased risk of nuclear 
weapons proliferation."

For a complete look at NIRS and the report, go to 
http://www.nirs.org/monoline/nm643.pdf.

Regarding the Nevada lawsuit to get DOE to release their license 
application paperwork, Chanos said, "What are they trying to 
hide?  If the repository is safe, you'd think they'd be anxious 
to prove it."


*****************************************************************
 66 Newsday: State ready to sue federal government over nuclear cleanup --
         
Newsday.com
    
By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
 	 	
April 4, 2006, 5:18 PM EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. --         The state is prepared to take the 
federal government to court to end an impasse over cleanup and 
long-term management of the West Valley nuclear site, which once 
housed the nation's only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing 
operation. 

Talks between New York and the U.S. Department of Energy stalled 
during the Clinton administration. Now, with the DOE cutting 
staff and funding at the site, state energy officials worry the 
federal agency is getting ready to leave. 

"DOE seems to be planning an early departure, and we don't want 
the taxpayers of New York state left holding the bag," said 
Vincent Delorio, chairman of the New York State Energy Research & 
Development Authority. 

The agency this week authorized litigation to determine the
federal government's responsibility at the Cattaraugus County
site 30 miles south of Buffalo. 

From 1966 to 1972, spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear
power plants and DOE sites was chopped and dissolved, and its
uranium and plutonium were extracted. The operation shut down
for upgrades in 1972 but remained closed after stricter
regulatory requirements passed during the closure made the
prospect of reopening too expensive. 

The 1980 West Valley Demonstration Project Act passed by
Congress obligated the DOE to decontaminate and decommission
facilities at the state-owned site, with the state pitching in
on the cost. 

Since 1981, West Valley Nuclear Services Co., the DOE's onsite
contractor, has solidified and stored more than 600,000 gallons
of high-level liquid radioactive waste, while shipping low-level
waste off site. More than 300,000 cubic feet of low-level waste
was removed last year. 

"As past performance shows, the U.S. Department of Energy
remains committed to meeting the requirements of the West Valley
Demonstration Project Act," DOE said in a statement issued
Tuesday in response to the NYSERDA action. "... Overall, DOE has
reduced the volume of legacy waste at the West Valley
Demonstration Project by 70 percent in the last few years." 

Legislation proposed by Rep. John "Randy" Kuhl would update the
1980 law and require the federal government to take ownership of
the site and full responsibility for its cleanup. The bill would
end the state's financial obligation, which has totaled more
than $200 million. 

NYSERDA views legal action as a last resort that would be
pursued if face-to-face negotiations and the legislation were to
fail, officials said. 

"The progress of the legislation is uncertain, and we feel
compelled to proceed simultaneously along the litigation track
to make sure that we get these responsibility issues resolved so
that we can move forward with the cleanup," NYSERDA President
Peter Smith said. 

"It's unfortunate that New York has to go this route just to get
the DOE's attention, but we're running out of options," said Bob
Van Wicklin, a spokesman for Kuhl, R-N.Y. 

The DOE last week said it would award a contract for continued
cleanup at West Valley in the coming months. West Valley Nuclear
Services spokesman Terry Dunford said the company, which has
held the contract since 1981, would seek to continue its work
there. 

http://www.newsday.com.
*****************************************************************
 67 AU ABC: Australian uranium producers strike deal with Taiwan
 
The World Today - Tuesday, 4 April , 2006  12:18:00
 
Reporter: Andrew Geoghegan

 ELEANOR HALL: With the ink barely dry on the Federal
Government's agreement to sell uranium to China, it's been
revealed today that Australian uranium is also heading for
Taiwan.

Australia's two uranium producers, BHP Billiton and ERA, have
struck deals to sell uranium to a Taiwanese electricity company,
via the United States.

So does this mean that the nuclear safeguard agreements are
being undermined?

Finance Correspondent Andrew Geoghegan reports.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Just which countries are getting their hands
on Australian uranium?

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade makes assurances
that all of Australia's exported uranium only goes to countries
with which Australia has a bilateral safeguards agreement.

The agreements state that the uranium is used for peaceful
purposes and may only be retransferred to a country or party
which has a safeguards agreement with Australia.

Seeking to broaden their market even further, Australia's
uranium producers, BHP Billiton and ERA have taken that
opportunity to strike a deal with Taiwan.

Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: It is possible to do it, and so they can
negotiate contracts, and if they're all in order, then those
exports can take place, but only via the United States.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: The Australian companies will supply uranium
to Taiwan indirectly, even though Taiwan is not a signatory to
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, because it's not
recognised as a sovereign state.
 
Four years ago the Australian Government signed an agreement
with the United States which allows uranium to be retransferred
to Taiwan, but only after it has first been converted and
enriched in the United States.

This has raised concerns that Australia could sell uranium to
India indirectly.

Alexander Downer.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Taiwan did originally sign the NPT, and all of
its nuclear facilities are subject to IAEA inspections. Now,
neither of those things are true of India.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Anthony Albanese, the ALP's staunch
anti-nuclear advocate, is alarmed that the Government has a
seemingly relaxed approach to Taiwan.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, certainly the Howard Government's
approach, as demonstrated by Alexander Downer on AM this
morning, where he seemed to not regard the fact that Taiwan
isn't a signatory to the NPT as being unimportant… that comes
after John Howard had three different positions in three days on
his visit to India about the supply of uranium to India, and
comes after the US-India agreement to supply uranium, even
though India is not a signatory to the NPT. That certainly
undermines the international effort on nuclear non-proliferation.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: And the Greens' energy spokeswoman, Christine
Milne, thinks the uranium deal with Taiwan will further
destabilise security in the region.

CHRISTINE MILNE: We now have the situation where Australia is
fuelling increased tensions in the region. Australia will now be
supplying uranium to both Taiwan and to China, in a situation
where there is the potential for a real flashpoint.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Alexander Downer dismisses such fears.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, we obviously discussed this with China
at the time, when we were negotiating the agreement. 

I can remember myself in the late 1990s raising this question
directly with the then Foreign Minister, Chen Chien-jen. 

And China always seemed comfortable with the idea, and as a
matter of fact I understand from my department in more recent
times, they've said they're pleased that we have this
arrangement in place because it means that it strengthens the
overall security and safeguards of any civil nuclear industry in
Taiwan.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Even though the deals were signed a year ago,
no Australian uranium is yet powering nuclear reactors in Taiwan
as both BHP Billiton and ERA have until now committed their
entire supply contracts to other customers.

ELEANOR HALL: Andrew Geoghegan reporting.   
*****************************************************************
 68 ContraCostaTimes.com: Group wants lab toxins containment plan to go further

04/04/2006 | 

ALTAMONT HILLS: In proposal, trench would be built around

Superfund site that leaks pollutants

 By Sam Richards CONTRA COSTA TIMES 

A proposal to dig a trench around a waste pit at Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory's Site 300 testing area in the Altamont
Hills is only a partial solution to containing the toxic
pollutants, according to a watchdog group concerned with
groundwater cleanup. 

At a meeting in Tracy on Wednesday, the federal Department of
Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency will describe a
plan to dig a trench around "Pit 7," which between 1958 and 1988
served as a dumping ground for nitrate, perchlorate, tritium and
depleted uranium. The chemicals were used for, or are byproducts
of, explosives testing. 

Pit 7 is now a Superfund site, qualifying for federal cleanup
dollars. 

The trench would divert water from the pit area -- water that
would both push underground contamination farther out and would
itself become contaminated. 

The trench is only part of the proposal, which also would
include removing and isolating contaminated groundwater. 

Marylia Kelley, executive director of the Livermore-based
Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
watchdog group, said the plan is fine -- as far as it goes. 

"But that alone probably will not stop the migration of the
contamination plume that's already there," said Kelley, whose
group wants "French drain" trenches not only above Pit 7, but at
elevations below it to further capture water already
contaminated. 

The estimated cost of the preferred plan is between $11 million
and $15 million over 30 years, according to a DOE report. 

The pit, which is lined, was found to have leaked the various
"principal threat wastes" with plumes stretching as far as two
miles from the pit. 

Pit 7 is in the northwest corner of the Site 300 property,
straddling the Alameda-San Joaquin County line 17 miles east of
Livermore and nine miles west of Tracy. 

"It's been found when the water table rises in the winter, the
pit leaks into the groundwater," said Lynda Seaver, a
spokeswoman for the lab. 

The greatest health threat posed by the various leaking
chemicals, according to a DOE report, is the potential
inhalation of evaporating tritium from the pit site. Only people
working around the pit would be susceptible to long-term
exposure, the report says, and other groundwater pollution poses
limited risks to people beyond Site 300's borders. 

Kelley and Tri-Valley CARES favor cleaning up the area
surrounding Pit 7 thoroughly enough so houses could be built on
the land. Site 300 probably won't operate forever, she said, and
may be developed someday for houses or other uses. 

Reach Sam Richards at srichards@cctimes.comor 925-847-2147. 

IF YOU GO 

PUBLIC MEETING FOR COMMENT ON SITE 300 "PIT 7" CLEANUP PLAN 

When: Wednesday, 6 p.m. 

Where: Tracy Community Center, 300 E. 10th St., Tracy 

Information: www-envirinfo.llnl.gov/;
www.trivalleycares.org

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 69 DOE: Dennis Spurgeon Sworn-in as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy
 
  April 4, 2006
 
WASHINGTON, DC  Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today
announced the swearing in of Dennis Spurgeon as Assistant
Secretary for Nuclear Energy.  Assistant Secretary Spurgeon was
nominated by President Bush on February 13, 2006, and confirmed
by the U.S. Senate on March 27, 2006.    

Denniss leadership will be a valuable addition to the 
department as we work together to expand our countrys use of 
nuclear energy as a safe, environmentally friendly power source, 
Secretary Bodman said.  

President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative calls for a 
significant increase in nuclear energy research at the Department 
of Energy, and Dennis will help lead the development and 
deployment of these cutting-edge technologies.   

Assistant Secretary Spurgeon is the first person to serve in this 
position in more than a decade.  In this position, Assistant 
Secretary Spurgeon is responsible for the Department of Energys 
(DOE) nuclear energy enterprise, including nuclear technology 
research and development, management of the departments nuclear 
technology infrastructure, and support to nuclear education in 
the United States.    

Mr. Spurgeon also leads the recently announced Global Nuclear 
Energy Partnership (GNEP), a comprehensive strategy aimed at 
accelerating the demonstration of a more proliferation-resistant 
closed fuel cycle and bringing the benefits of nuclear energy to 
the world in a safer and more secure manner, reducing the 
possibility that nuclear energy could be used for non-peaceful 
purposes.  GNEP is part of the Presidents Advanced Energy 
Initiative.   

I am excited for this opportunity to work with Secretary Bodman 
and my colleagues to achieve a more secure energy future for 
Americans, Assistant Secretary Spurgeon said.  

I am honored to be part of the departments efforts to ensure 
that the benefits of nuclear energy are realized here in the U.S. 
and in the world. Most recently, Assistant Secretary Spurgeon 
served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer 
for USEC, Inc. an international supplier of enriched uranium for 
nuclear plants. Prior to that, he served as Chairman, Chief 
Executive Officer and principal owner of Swift Group, LLC, an 
international leader in shipbuilding for commercial and military 
markets.       

He also held executive positions at the former United Nuclear 
Corporation, where as Chief Operating Officer he managed the 
manufacturing of reactor cores for the Navy and operation of the 
departments former N-reactor, located at the Hanford 
Reservation.   Assistant Secretary Spurgeon also worked for the 
General Atomic Company, where he assisted in the development of 
nuclear reactor plants for electric power generation. 
Additionally, he served in the U.S. Navy, achieving the rank of 
Captain.     

Assistant Secretary Spurgeon also held posts in the Ford 
Administration, including an assignment as Assistant Director for 
Fuel Cycle in the U.S. Energy Research and Development 
Administration.  He also served as a member of the White House 
task force that developed President Fords nuclear policy.  
Earlier in his career, as a U.S. Naval officer, he served as 
technical assistant to Commissioner Tommy Thompson and later to 
Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and 
predecessor agency of DOE.    

Assistant Secretary Spurgeon graduated with distinction from the 
U.S. Naval Academy.

 He holds a Masters of Science in nuclear engineering and the 
degree of Nuclear Engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. 

Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940     [ ]   

  U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | 
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 | 

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 70 Platts: Senate confirms Spurgeon to restored DOE nuclear position
 
Washington (Platts)--3Apr2006
 
The Senate has confirmed Dennis Spurgeon, a former USEC Inc. 
executive, as DOE's first assistant secretary for nuclear energy 
in more than a decade.

Spurgeon was confirmed March 27 in an 88-0 vote nearly two weeks 
after the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee approved 
the nomination. Energy legislation enacted last year re-created 
the assistant secretary position. The post was downgraded in 
1993, putting nuclear within the Office of Nuclear Energy, 
Science and Technology under the leadership of an office 
director.

Senator Pete Domenici, a staunch supporter of nuclear power and 
chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this week 
said the confirmation restored the position to the level of 
importance it deserves.

"We are on the cusp of a nuclear power renaissance in this 
country," the New Mexico Republican said. "I think Mr. Spurgeon's 
leadership and expertise come at a critical time."

Spurgeon assumes office as the country faces the need for new 
baseload generating capacity. "By DOE's own projections, 
electricity demand will grow 45% by 2030," said Alex Flint, 
Nuclear Energy Institute senior vice president of governmental 
affairs. Flint said that the industry, as well as NEI, looks 
forward working with Spurgeon to maximize nuclear energy's role 
in meeting the growing demand for electricity.

Spurgeon will be sworn in once President George W. Bush signs the 
necessary paperwork, DOE press secretary Craig Stevens said March 
28. Spurgeon has a master's degree in nuclear engineering from 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Most recently, Spurgeon was vice president and chief operating 
officer of USEC. Positions he held before that included chief 
operating officer for UNC Resources Inc. and assistant director 
for fuel cycle in the Energy Research and Development 
Administration, an energy R&D organization and DOE's predecessor.

Elaine Hiruo, Washington For more information, take a trial to 
Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com.
 

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill 
Companies]       
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 71 Hanford News: DOE compensation claims review expected Thursday
 
This story was published Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The state of Washington plans to tell Hanford workers Thursday
whether it believes the Department of Energy is correctly
handling their worker compensation claims. 

The state Department of Labor and Industries has completed a
review of DOE's administration of claims, as requested by DOE in
response to worker complaints. 

The findings are to be released at a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday
at the Red Lion Hanford House in Richland. Time for questions
and comments is planned. 

At Hanford's State of the Site meeting in June, several Hanford
employees said claims for serious health-related illnesses were
being denied, including some coverage for berylliosis, an
incurable lung disease caused by exposure to a metal used in
nuclear fuel fabrication. Workers too often are left with no
resort but to hire attorneys to fight claim denials, they said. 

DOE responded by starting a review of whether the contractor
that handles its self-insured worker compensation claims,
Contract Claims Services Inc. of Texas, is processing claims as
required by state law, processing them promptly and treating
employees with courtesy. 

To make the review independent, it asked the state to lead the
study. The state contracted with Miller &Miller, PS, a Seattle
audit and consulting firm. The company interviewed Hanford
workers, audited claim files and reviewed the structure DOE used
in administering the claims. 

However, the Government Accountability Project, which advocates
for workers, is concerned that it is not a truly independent
review and may not be based on a full examination of problems
causing or contributing to the program's problems. 

"The subject of the investigation, DOE, is instrumental in
guiding the investigation and the scope of work," said Lea
Mitchell, a GAP investigator. 

Among her concerns is whether DOE looked at whether incentives
in the contract with Contract Claims Services were influencing
decisions made on worker claims, she said. 

The Department of Labor and Industries has regulatory authority
over self-insured programs, pointed out Jerry Gilliiland, a
spokesman for L. 

The state said the review, which it has not released to GAP or
the public, includes an assessment of whether DOE is complying
with standards for injured-worker protection. It also includes
recommendations for improvement and an explanation of the
overlapping and complementary programs handling claims at the
Hanford nuclear reservation.

         
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
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 72 Hanford News: Vit plant cost up nearly a billion
 
This story was published Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The estimated cost of Hanford's vitrification plant climbed to
$11.3 billion Monday, up from the last estimate of $10.5
billion, and nearly double the $5.8 billion estimated at the
start of 2005. 

Congress received a report Monday prepared by a team of 16
independent experts hired to assess the credibility of the most
recent cost and schedule estimates prepared by Department of
Energy contractor Bechtel National. 

The study was ordered by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last
year to restore confidence in the project as management, budget
and technical problems were revealed. 

The review not only recommended an increased cost estimate, but
also extended the projected start of operations to July 2018 -
more than seven years past the legally required start date. The
most recent estimated start date was May 2017. 

The review also recommended an increased focus on risk
management and better trained staff for the startup of
operations. 

Bechtel's latest estimate for the project of $10.5 billion,
which was backed up with a 44,000-page report, is solid for the
costs it covered, said Ike Zeringue, the retired chief operating
officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority and a member of the
study team. 

That number covered the costs for work in Bechtel's contract.
But there are certain to be problems that come up that were not
predicted as even possibilities in the contract, Zeringue said. 

An additional $1 billion should be added to the budget of the
plant for those "unknown unknowns," the report said. 

They could include new regulations, new technical concerns
raised by an oversight board or budget cutbacks that delay and
extend construction. 

The additional $1 billion would bring contingency costs for the
project to about $3.3 billion. That would cover unanticipated
problems and also possible problems already taken into
consideration in the contingency budget, such as radioactive
waste having characteristics not considered in the plant design. 

The plant is being built to turn the worst of 53 million gallons
of radioactive waste now held in underground tanks at Hanford
into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The waste is
left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's
nuclear weapons program. 

In a few cases, the review found that contingency had been
overestimated by Bechtel. Once those figures were subtracted
from the $1 billion additional contingency recommended, the
estimated cost increased by $800 million to a total of $11.3
billion. 

The team relied on a report prepared for DOE by the Rand Corp.
in 1981 to conclude that contingency had been underestimated.
The 1981 report, which looked at 44 projects using new
processes, found that engineers typically are overconfident in
planning for first-of-a-kind plants, said Zeringue, who is an
engineer. 

The experience on the vitrification plant "is in line with other
pioneer process plants," the review said. "History thus shows
that unknown factors may lead to a significant underestimate of
project costs despite careful estimating procedures." 

The estimate in the review is one more step toward a final
estimate for the plant that's likely to be greater than $11.3
billion because of budget reductions. 

"The secretary has been clear in directing staff to establish a
more credible and defensible estimate for the cost and
schedule," said Megan Barnett, spokeswoman for DOE in
Washington, D.C. 

Bechtel's latest estimate, which was studied by the review team,
was based on an annual budget for the plant this year of $626
million and $690 million in future years. However, Congress,
concerned about problems at the plant, cut this year's budget to
$526 million, of which just $490 million was available for
Bechtel's use at the plant. 

Bechtel will have a revised estimate based on the reduced budget
completed later this spring. That estimate will be reviewed by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to produce what DOE considers a
validated budget and schedule by late summer. 

Both DOE and Bechtel need to improve the risk management program
by trying to identify risks earlier, Zeringue said. 

"The earlier you can identify a potential unknown, the better
you are able to mitigate," said Jim Henschel, Bechtel project
director. "You want to find them as soon as possible." 

However, putting together a risk program that finds those
unknowns early is difficult, Zeringue said. 

The review's findings on commissioning the plant were based on
experience in the nuclear industry, where plants are better
maintained and better operated if workers had been at the plant
since its beginning, Zeringue said. 

The review calls for hiring and training workers for the
vitrification plant testing who would then continue at their
jobs as the plant begins operating. Now plans call for hiring a
smaller crew for the commissioning that would be rotated through
different parts of the plant. 

The expanded commissioning staff and other changes would cost
$130 million more but would lead to a net savings of $300
million, the report said. 

Hiring permanent staff earlier also could help overcome a
projected shortage of nuclear workers when the plant begins
operating, Henschel said. An estimated 800 to 1,000 workers will
be needed to operate the plant about the time baby boomers who
work in the nuclear industry are retiring. 

The review team, which began work in January, included experts
in design, construction, operation, project management and cost
estimating of nuclear and chemical processing plants. The review
cost about $2 million. 

Congress already is leery of the growing cost of the
vitrification plant. Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of a
key House panel, said last month that his energy and water
appropriations subcommittee could not spend the planned $690
million on the vitrification plant in the next fiscal year. 

The subcommittee plans a hearing Thursday to learn more about
the vitrification plant.

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 73 Chicago Maroon: DOE reprimands Argonne for nuclear safety violations

The independent student newspaper of the University of Chicago 
since 1892 

By Isaac Wolf
 
April 4, 2006 in News

Argonne National Lab (ANL) received a reprimand last month for
nuclear safety violations dating back to 1999, blemishing the
University’s stellar management reputation. 

The Department of Energy (DOE) issued a preliminary notice of
violation to Argonne on March 7 for a myriad of violations,
including inadequate recordkeeping and safety precautions for
radioactive material. 

Argonne violated nearly all aspects of radiation protection and
quality assurance programs, the DOE’s enforcement office
director Stephen Sohinki said. 

“It is truly fortuitous that no one has been seriously injured
as a result of the deficiencies addressed in prior reviews of
ANL activities,” Sohinki wrote in a letter to Argonne director
Robert Rosner. 

The safety violation notice could not come at a worse time for
the University. Locked in a competitive bidding process to keep
Argonne stewardship rights, the University has projected itself
as a superlative manager of the national lab. 

The University’s contract to manage Argonne expires September
30, 2006. The University is preparing a proposal to keep
management privileges for Argonne, the $500-million-a-year lab
25 miles southwest of the Loop that was chartered in 1946. 

The University’s management expertise had also drawn praise from
outside Chicago. In February, Universities Research Association
(URA), the international research consortium that runs Fermilab,
cited Argonne’s “distinguished record” of managing major science
research facilities in selecting the University to co-manage the
particle physics lab, according to a URA press release. 

Despite the violation, the University appears to have no serious
competitor for Argonne. Battelle, which manages five national
labs and wrested control of Idaho-based Argonne National
Lab–West from the University in 2005, had previously been seen
as a strong competitor for Argonne. 

However, Battelle has decided not to pursue Argonne, according
to spokeswoman Katy Delaney. 

“We will not be in the competitive bidding process for the
Argonne laboratory,” she said. 

Asked how the violation notice would affect the University’s
campaign to keep Argonne management rights, Rosenbaum said:
“This comes against a backdrop of outstanding performance
ratings in science and management.” 

The violation notice was unrelated to the Argonne competitive
bidding process, Rosenbaum said. 

The violations carry a $550,000 penalty, which Sohinki decided
to drop. He did not blame the violations on Rosner, who has
served as Argonne director since April 2005. 

“You personally bear no responsibility for any of the
significant historic deficiencies described in this,” Sohinki
wrote in the letter. 

Argonne accepts responsibility for all the violations, said
Thomas Rosenbaum, the University vice president for Argonne. 

Rosenbaum defended Hermann Grunder, who preceded Rosner as
director of Argonne from 2000 to 2004. “Blaming one person is
inaccurate and facile,” Rosenbaum said. “We are providing new
leadership, increased oversight and accountability, and
additional resources to make Argonne ‘best in class.’” 

“Best in class” describes the superlative rating the DOE uses to
grade its labs. 

The violations have been well documented, Sohinki wrote.
Sohinki’s office outlined the deficiencies in 1999 and 2005,
another DOE review discussed them in 2002, and Argonne’s own
site office reviewed them in 2003. 

Argonne did not work to ameliorate earlier problems because the
DOE placed insufficient audit pressure on the lab, Rosenbaum
said. 

Argonne has corrected about 75 percent of the violations,
Rosenbaum said. The most important changes include: the creation
of a new, internal performance organization; the creation of a
new University Oversight Council; the reorganization of the
radiation safety program; and the hiring of new staff to address
safety concerns. 

The most costly correction will be to hire new Argonne staff,
Rosenbaum said. E-mail this article-->Send a letter to the
editor Permanent URL:

Copyright © 1995-2006 Chicago Maroon 
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 74 Knox News: Engineer shortage concerns nuclear power industry

By LANCE GAY 

April 3, 2006

As the nuclear industry stirs with the first plans in 30 years to 
build new power plants in the United States, there's an 
unexpected hurdle to be overcome: there may not be enough nuclear 
engineers around anymore to build and run them. 

But what's worse, the generation that built and ran America's 
nuclear plants is aging and headed towards retirement, taking 
away decades of know-how that have kept the reactors operating 
safely. 

"This is a huge problem for the nuclear industry, because it goes 
without saying it can't afford to make a single mistake," said 
David DeLong, a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology's AgeLab. 

DeLong said 28 percent of the 58,000 workers in the U.S.
nuclear-power industry will be eligible to retire within five
years, representing a huge loss of institutional memory. He said
New Mexico's Sandia Laboratories and the Tennessee Valley
Authority are both looking at urging potential retirees to stay
on their jobs longer. 

At the other end, America isn't producing enough new nuclear
engineers to fill the ranks of the retirees. 

The Defense Science Board says the number of engineers produced
at U.S. universities has declined 10 percent since the Cold War
ended in 1990. That poses national security concerns because the
military will need a new generation of engineers to design and
run the successors to America's long-range nuclear strike
systems like the Peacekeeper and Trident missiles. 

The industry is already taking steps to encourage universities
to attract more students into engineering. 

"We're watching this area very carefully,'' said Carol Berrigan,
senior project manager for advanced reactors at the Nuclear
Energy Institute. 

She said a low point came in 1998 when some universities
threatened to close nuclear programs because so few had
enrolled. The number of students has since increased, but "this
is a gathering storm for science and engineering nationally,''
Berrigan said. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it also is feeling the
pinch as it looks for engineers who can oversee regulation of
the nation's 103 nuclear power plants already operating. 

"The overall available crop of scientists and students is not
what it used to be," said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. He said
the agency gives grants to encourage students into engineering.
"We are aware we need a continuing stream of science and
engineering expertise,'' he said. 

The engineering shortage comes as the nuclear industry is
preparing the first construction of power plants in 30 years.
Construction of new nuclear power plants stopped because of
safety concerns after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. 

What's spurred interest in new plants is legislation adopted by
Congress last year. It provides more than $3 billion in
incentives to the industry for new plants and limits damage
awards from lawsuits in the event of nuclear accidents. 

The Nuclear Energy Institute expects 11 new plants to be built,
and the NRC's Burnell said the agency expects to consider the
first requests for new plants by next year or 2008. 

David Lochbaum, director for nuclear safety projects at the
Union of Concerned Scientists, said it's not just the lack of
experienced engineers, but other specialists who will be
required to build the plants. 

"When you move beyond the blueprint, it requires welders and
pipe fitters and others with specialized knowledge,'' he said.
"It's definitely a challenge." 

The industry says the new plants will incorporate three decades
of new knowledge, with new designs known in the industry as
"Generation 3-Plus" that will make the reactors safer to
operate. Newer generations of nuclear plants have upgraded
electrical systems and rely less on mechanical switches that can
be subject to human error, and more on natural gravity devices
to deal with emergencies. 

Advocates of nuclear power argue that after five decades, the
technology has shown it can be operated safely, but opponents
point to the Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 meltdown at
Chernobyl for what can go wrong. Lochbaum noted that since 1952,
when the first electricity-producing nuclear reactor opened, 40
of the 130 reactors that have operated in the United States have
been shut down for safety reasons for more than a year - a
measure of the dangers of the technology. 

Melissa Kemp, a policy analyst at Public Citizen, an
organization fighting new nuclear plants, said they wouldn't be
needed if Congress poured the same amount of incentives into
renewable energy sources - wind power, hydroelectric power and
biomass. 

"There have been direct subsidies of $115 billion to the nuclear
industry, and just $5.5 billion for wind and solar. That doesn't
make sense to me,'' she said. 

Kemp said universities should be encouraged to produce engineers
to improve the efficiency of equipment that uses renewable
energy. "Our main concern is that new nuclear plants are not
necessary, and they produce a tremendous amount of wastes that
no one knows what to do with,'' she said. 

Some utilities are revising their policies to try to keep
engineers from taking early retirement. 

MIT's DeLong, who is consulting with the NRC on the issue, said
the Tennessee Valley Authority is surveying older staff to
ensure that the agency continues to have specialists intimately
familiar with the nuclear system's designs and controls. TVA is
the nation's largest public utility with 18 power plants, three
of them nuclear. About 40 percent of TVA's 13,000-employee
workforce could retire within five years, DeLong said. 

DeLong said the federal government's Sandia Labs in New Mexico
is taking similar steps. 

Personnel managers there discovered the pension and retirement
plan gave its scientists and technicians every incentive to
retire early at 55. The retirement benefits package was adjusted
to encourage workers to stay on the job until they turn 62. 

Contact Lance Gay at GayL@SHNS.com

© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
    
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