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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US: Guardian Unlimited: Cheney has no regrets over Iraq invasion
2 IPS-English IRAN: Sabre-rattling Won't Work
3 IRNA: Mottaki meets Japanese delegation, stresses peaceful nuclear r
4 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Iran Makes Fuel Rods for Reactors
5 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Tops Bush, German Chancellor's Talks
6 Guardian Unlimited: Britain, France Introduce Iran Resolution
7 Guardian Unlimited: French PM: Force Not Solution for Iran
8 Guardian Unlimited: French Leader: Don't Fight Iran
9 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI will not give up its relevant rights
10 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran's nuclear issue is technical
11 AFP: Nuclear energy an 'essential right': Iranian foreign minister -
12 AFP: Security Council weighs binding draft on Iran nuclear program -
13 AFP: Defiant Iran looks to neighbours for support as pressure mounts
14 AFP: Israel has power to defend itself from nuclear Iran
15 IRNA: IPPNW calls for diplomatic settlement of Iranian nuclear dispu
16 AFP: White House rejects direct talks with Iran
17 IRNA: Iran, Portugal welcome closer cooperation to resolve nuclear r
18 IRNA: Experts to attend UNSC session on Iran's N-case
19 IRNA: French PM: Iran's nuclear issue should be solved through polit
20 Xinhua: India rejects amendments to nuclear deal
21 Guardian Unlimited: Cheney's Sharp Criticism Miffs Russia
22 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear deja vu
NUCLEAR REACTORS
23 France Can Phase Out Nuclear Power + Achieve Low CO2
24 US: DOS: U.S. Nuclear Power Industry Sees Expansion in Near Future-
25 The Australian: End debate on N-power
26 US: NRC: NRC Seeks Public Input on Environmental Review Associated w
27 US: Platts: New plant tax credit guidance posted on IRS web site
28 US: reviewjournal.com: Senators reserve judgment on nominee
29 US: NRC: NRC Proposes Additional Guidance on Information Required in
30 THERECORD.COM: Nuclear energy is safe
31 US: NRC: Report to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences; Fiscal Year 200
32 US: NRC: Regulatory Guide: Issuance, Availability
33 US: NRC: NRC Renews Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Operating Licenses fo
34 US: Orlando Sentinel: House sees future in nuclear power -
35 US: Rutland Herald: State drops objections to Yankee uprate
36 UPI: Tunisia also seeking nuclear technology
37 Whitehaven News: Chernobyl still casts a long shadow
NUCLEAR SECURITY
38 Edinburgh Evening News: Motorists warned of nuclear convoy dangers
NUCLEAR SAFETY
39 US: Rocky Mountain News: Delays in nuke compensation angers Congress
40 US: Guardian Unlimited: House Approves Cargo Screening at Ports
41 US: New Mexican: Lawmakers criticize comp program for nuclear worker
42 BBC: Radioactive warning on Fife beach
43 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $16,250 Fine for Marcus Hook, Pa., Company for
44 US: Platts: Brush Wellman gets $7 million beryllium order for fusion
45 News & Star: Group faces court after radioactive leak
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
46 US: JCLDS: Church Urges Alternatives for Nuclear Waste
47 Guardian Unlimited: Undiagnosed nuclear waste lurking in Sellafield'
48 US: Helsingin Sanomat: Demonstrators come to Helsinki to protest aga
49 Bellona: Criminal action over nuclear leak at Sellafield
50 US: BBC: Living next to India's uranium mine -
51 reviewjournal.com: Survey suggests opposition
52 US: LA Daily: Water board reviews Boeing pollution waiver
53 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Senators blast security plans for N-waste
54 US: Salt Lake Tribune: LDS Church issues statement urging nuclear wa
55 US: The Dispatch: Olin Corp. Off the Hook
56 HSE: HSE to prosecute British nuclear group following leak at Sellaf
57 Whitehaven News: Troubled N-waste firm has eyes on Sellafield
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
58 DOE: DOE Issues Draft Request for Proposals for Fermi National
59 DOE: Secretary Bodman Hosts Energy Ministers from Canada and Mexico
60 Tri-City Herald: Hanford landfill moves forward
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Guardian Unlimited: Cheney has no regrets over Iraq invasion
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday May 4, 2006
The Guardian
Three years into the war that has come to define the legacy of
the Bush administration Dick Cheney, the vice-president, has said
he has no regrets about the decision to invade Iraq.
Mr Cheney's refusal to admit to doubts about going to war
highlights his isolation from an administration which has
demonstrated a degree of candour about Iraq, as well as the rest
of the country where only 37% approve of the White House's
handling of the conflict. Mr Cheney has even less support; his
approval ratings have dipped below 20%. But in an interview to
appear in June's Vanity Fair magazine, he remained a picture of
certitude.
Asked whether in his "darkest nights" he ever doubted the
decision to go to war, he said: "I think what we've done has been
what needed to be done."
Mr Cheney was unmoved by postwar disclosures about the use of
hyped and faulty intelligence to make the case for the invasion
- some of which has been tied directly to his office.
He said: "In the end, you can argue about the quality of the
intelligence and so forth, but ... I look at that whole spectrum
of possibilities and options, and I think we did the right
thing."
Mr Cheney's refusal to countenance doubt caps a career in
politics and business where he was chairman of Halliburton in
the 1990s, guided by deeply conservative views. According to
Vanity Fair Mr Cheney's first thought on visiting Moscow's Red
Square in the 1980s was: "'Well, I guess we're at ground zero'"
of any American nuclear strike."
Other members of the government have admitted to mistakes in the
war. Last month Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, said
the US had made thousands of tactical errors.
Meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz and some other ardent supporters of
the war have left the administration. Those departures have left
Mr Cheney diminished within a government in which he had earlier
been viewed as the guiding force. In the early days of George
Bush's term Mr Cheney assembled a bigger national security staff
than any of his predecessors. He also wanted to preside over
meetings of the National Security Council in the president's
absence - but was thwarted.
Although Mr Cheney has suffered four heart attacks, there are
hardline Republicans who would like him to run for president.
But in recent months his power appears to be waning and he is
increasingly viewed as a liability.
In the interview Mr Cheney acknowledged that he had image
problems, but appeared disinclined to repair that image. "My
image might be better out there, this caricature you talk about
might be avoided, if I spent more time as a public figure trying
to improve my image, but that's not why I'm here," he said.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
2 IPS-English IRAN: Sabre-rattling Won't Work
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 14:52:19 -0700
ROMAIPS AP CR DV HD IP NU=20
IRAN: Sabre-rattling Won't Work
Analysis by Praful Bidwai=20
TEHRAN, May 4 (IPS) - With Russia and China signalling opposition, the dr=
aft resolution circulated in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) b=
y Britain, France and Germany, asking Iran to halt uranium enrichment, is=
unlikely to enjoy smooth passage.
The resolution demands that Iran should stop its nuclear research and dev=
elopment activities, as well as the construction of a heavy water reactor=
, or face 'further measures' under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter. Resol=
utions passed under this chapter are binding; and their breach can lead t=
o penalties such as sanctions, or military action.=20
This resolution, backed by the United States, further escalates the West'=
s pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear activities, suspected to be for mi=
litary purposes. It follows Iran's defiance of a non-binding UNSC resolu=
tion on Mar. 29 asking Iran to suspend its nuclear activities, and two ad=
verse votes at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.=20
However, pressure or threat of military strikes is unlikely to convince I=
ran to abandon its nuclear programme which, it maintains, is entirely pea=
ceful and fully compatible with its obligations and rights under the nucl=
ear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Indeed, Iran has stiffened its stance=
and announced that it has increased the level of uranium enrichment in i=
ts pilot-scale facility at Natanz, from 3.6 percent to 4.8 percent.=20
Discussions with non-governmental security affairs experts here suggest t=
hat direct talks between Iran and the U.S. leading to a compromise would =
be a far superior and realistic way out of the present crisis than diplom=
atic or political pressure.=20
A possible compromise would involve agreement by the U.S. and the Europea=
n Union that Iran can conduct research on uranium enrichment on a pilot-s=
cale on its own soil. It can also send uranium for industrial-scale enric=
hment to Russia and then use it in its nuclear power reactors without rep=
rocessing their spent fuel for plutonium. Iran must get guarantees of sec=
urity and non-aggression by the U.S. In return, Iran would place its nucl=
ear activities under intrusive IAEA inspections to ensure that materials =
are not diverted to military use.=20
Such a compromise would become possible only if the U.S. gives up its obs=
ession with =91regime change' in Iran and revises its assessment of the g=
overnment in Tehran as irredeemably fundamentalist and the greatest sourc=
e of =94international terrorism=94 and extremism.=20
Washington's European partners do not share this assessment. Last week, =
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a conference in Brussels that =
no one is thinking of military action against Iran and that the EU would =
not join a =94coalition of the willing=94 to attack Iran.=20
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met President George W. Bus=
h in Washington for discussions on, among other things, Iran. While agree=
ing with him that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, she also advocate=
d a step-by-step and peaceful approach within a diplomatic framework, dra=
wing in =94as many partners as possible into the fold=94.
In contrast, the U.S. is less interested in =94behavioural change=94 than=
in =94regime change=94. It has reportedly drawn up plans for military st=
rikes on up to 400 targets in Iran to take out its nuclear facilities.=20
Influential members of the U.S. establishment, such as former national se=
curity advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former secretary of state Madelein=
e Albright, have warned against such an adventurist course, which will ha=
ve a devastating impact on U.S. influence and image in the Middle East.=20
Many Iranian experts, who insisted on anonymity for fear of harassment by=
the government, told IPS that such sabre-rattling and military threats a=
re unlikely to cow Iran into abandoning its nuclear activities. =94On the=
contrary=94, said one, =94threats will strengthen the hands of the hardl=
iners and unite the people behind the government. Iranians, especially th=
e youth, who form a majority of the population, want greater freedom and =
democracy. But they probably value national sovereignty and independence =
even more=94.=20
Another analyst said: =94most Iranians retain a strong historical memory =
of Western meddling in their affairs throughout the last century, includi=
ng the toppling of the nationalistic, democratically elected Mossadegh go=
vernment, support for the Shah's bloody regime, visceral hostility toward=
s all Islamic leaders. They are unlikely to be impressed by the nuclear h=
ypocrisy of the Big Powers. These Powers want Iran not even to have a pea=
ceful nuclear programme, but they have no intention of fulfilling their c=
ommitments under the NPT to disarm their nuclear weapons, which run into =
thousands=94.=20
A central assumption behind the West's hostility towards Iran is guided b=
y a stereotype. Iran is seen as a kindred version of Saudi Arabia or Tali=
banist Afghanistan, with a brand of Islam that is intolerant, doctrinaire=
, and inflexible. Iranian society is regarded as backward, anti-modern, a=
nd marked by medieval attitudes. Within the stereotype, most people readi=
ly submit themselves to fanatical mullahs, who regulate their daily life.=
=20
These assumptions are not supported by ground reality. Sociologists and s=
cholars say that Islam in Iran is more ritualistic than ideological or do=
ctrine-driven. In the streets of Tehran, one comes across portraits of va=
rious prophets and the great Shia imams, including Hossain.=20
Middle class Iranians are more interested in Hindu spiritual gurus and cu=
lt-figures like Rajneesh, Sai Baba, Mahesh Yogi, Satya Sai Baba and Sri S=
ri Ravi Shankar than in Islamic clerics. Many are yoga enthusiasts and ve=
getarians.=20
The clerics do not command universal respect in Iran. Taxi-drivers often =
refuse to be hired by them. They are seen as overbearing and intrusive of=
people's privacy. The hijab dress code can only be imposed with a degree=
of coercion. Many women defy it subtly or overtly. They routinely wear l=
ipstick, expose their ankles, and cover their heads only partially.=20
Young Iranians hate to be regimented and are thoroughly modern in outlook=
. In their behaviour on a university campus or in cafes, they are not par=
ticularly distinguishable from say, Indian, Thai or South African student=
s. Iran has high Internet connectivity and the world's third largest numb=
er of blogs. Farsi is the fifth most used language by bloggers worldwide.=
=20
Unlike in many parts of the Middle East, Iran has an active, lively civil=
society as well as a vibrant intellectual and artistic life.
*****
+Defiant but Ready to Deal=20
(http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D33031)
(END/IPS/AP/IP/CR/NU/DV/HD/PB/RDR/06)=20
=20
=3D 05041854 ORP008
NNNN
*****************************************************************
3 IRNA: Mottaki meets Japanese delegation, stresses peaceful nuclear rights -
Tehran, May 4, IRNA
Iran-Japan-Nuclear
Visiting Japanese Parliamentary delegation met here Wednesday
with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and discussed bilateral
relations, regional developments and Iran nuclear dossier, the
Foreign Ministry Press Department reported.
Mottaki referred to Iran's efforts on establishing stability
and security in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iran has 10,000 years of civilization, history and culture and
has always striven to safeguarded peace and stability in the
region.
He also referred to Japan as a trusted ally of Iran. There are
no negative episodes in Iran Japan relations.
He said confidence building is a two-way street. We suspended
all enrichment activities for three years, but Europe did not
present an acceptable offer.
"Hence, we have lost confidence in the West and is now the
West's turn to build confidence with us."
He added that the referral of Iran's nuclear dossier devoted to
research and scientific activities to the US Security Council is
politically-motivated.
They want us to build confidence with those who have started
two world wars in the last century and are the first to use
nuclear weapons.
Mottaki further said that suspension of nuclear research is
"impossible."
Iran is ready to discuss ways to protect our rights entitled to
as part of our membership in the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) and provide objective guarantees for not deviating
from Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he stated.
Mottaki also referred to the nationalization of Iran's oil
industry and efforts by Britain to refer Iran's case to the
Security Council saying "the instrumental use of Security
Council will lead to its weakness."
"We are ready to form a consortium with Japan or other nations
to embark on joint enrichment under the supervision of the
consortium." Head of Japanese delegation Okada decried his
opposition to "negative actions" towards Iran.
The non-membership of the US in NPT, lack of decisive acts with
regards to reducing weapons of mass destruction across the
globe, claims by Washington in using nuclear weapons if needed
and membership in the nuclear club by some countries without
regards to the NPT revisions, will gradually weaken the
agreement, he added.
He said the failure of the US in Afghanistan and its unilateral
attack on Iraq should be a lesson for the US.
Meanwhile, Iran will implement the Additional Protocol to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty if International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) is tasked with the probe, deputy head of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization (IAEO) for International Affairs, Mohammad
Saeedi, told IRNA on Sunday.
Iran's refusal to implement the Additional Protocol so far was
a "correct policy", he said, stressing, "Expansion of Iran's
cooperation with the IAEA will never be tantamount to suspension
of uranium enrichment."
Pointing to Friday report by the IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei
on Iran's nuclear program, Saeedi said, "The report did not use
phrases such as the IAEA cannot prove peaceful purpose of Iran's
nuclear activities, mentioned in previous reports.
"Although we are not completely satisfied with the report, but
there were fewer biting words in it compared with previous
ones." The IAEO official said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran
will proceed with cooperation with the IAEA and is ready to go
ahead with more confidence-building measures in terms of
enforcing Additional Protocol to NPT.
"The IAEA will continue visits to Iran's nuclear facilities.
The last round of inspections was conducted on April 25. The
inspectors left Iran but will come back again."
*****************************************************************
4 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Iran Makes Fuel Rods for Reactors
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 7:01 PM
AP Photo VAH102
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran is producing fuel rods for nuclear
reactors, state radio reported Thursday in the government's
latest attempt to boost a nuclear program that world powers are
trying to curb.
Power-control rods, or fuel rods, contain low-enriched uranium
and are inserted into a nuclear reactor's core to make the
reactor run.
``After sanctions from the U.S., experts from Iran's atomic
energy organization have produced better quality rods than the
foreign samples,'' the radio reported.
It said these Iranian-produced rods were already in use in a
5-megawatt reactor built by the United States - before Iran's
1979 Islamic revolution - at the nuclear research center in
Tehran.
Enriched uranium can be used in the production of nuclear energy
or weapons. Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, insists its nuclear program is aimed only at producing
electricity.
But the United States, France and Britain are pressing for a
U.N. Security Council resolution that would demand Iran abandon
uranium enrichment or face the threat of unspecified further
measures.
Wade Boese, a research director at the Arms Control Association,
said that mastering the production of fuel rods was not a major
technical development.
``It doesn't strike me as the most significant step forward,''
Boese said in Washington.
The key notch toward nuclear technology and weapons is the
capacity to enrich uranium, which Iran has already announced.
Boese said the power-control rod was a purely technical device
used in any nuclear reactor.
The new announcement showed Iran was trying to prove its overall
intent to produce energy, not warheads, Boese said. ``I think
they're saying this to bolster their peaceful bona fides,'' he
said.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said earlier this
week that a first nuclear plant would be fully operational in
2007. Iran had expected the Bushehr plant, which was built with
Russian help, to be in operation by the end of this year.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
5 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Tops Bush, German Chancellor's Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 9:01 AM
AP Photo WHGH108
WASHINGTON (AP) - In their second meeting at the White House,
President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to keep
pressing Iran on its nuclear program as other allies took the
issue to the United Nations.
``We will continue to consult with our partners as to how to
achieve a diplomatic solution to this issue.'' Bush said after
his Oval Office meetings with Merkel on Wednesday.
``Under no circumstances must Iran be allowed to come into
possession of nuclear weapons,'' Merkel said.
Merkel was going to New York on Thursday for a meeting with
business leaders. She was to return to Washington later Thursday
to address the American Jewish Committee's gala marking the
organization's 100th anniversary. No other German chancellor has
addressed the AJC.
Her comments with Bush on Wednesday came as Britain and France
introduced a U.N. Security Council resolution, with U.S. and
German backing, that would be legally binding and set the stage
for sanctions against Iran if it does not abandon uranium
enrichment.
Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council with
veto power, oppose sanctions against Iran, while Britain,
France, Germany and the United States say they will seek to make
the demand on uranium enrichment compulsory.
Iran, meanwhile, continued to publicize the nuclear weapons work
it insists it's doing to produce energy, not weapons.
The resolution asserts that Iran ``shall suspend all enrichment
related and reprocessing activities,'' according to the text
presented to the council.
Bush also announced that he would be traveling to Germany in
July as part of a trip to Europe for the Group of Eight summit
in Russia.
This was Merkel's second visit with Bush in four months. Other
issues on their agenda were Iraq, trade, the Middle East, Darfur
peace talks, Merkel's scheduled visit to China next month and
the G-8 summit.
Merkel and Bush had a friendly meeting during the chancellor's
first trip in January, despite her criticism of the U.S. prison
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was a sharp contrast to the
chill that existed between Bush and Merkel's predecessor,
Gerhard Schroeder, who was a vigorous critic of the war in Iraq.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
6 Guardian Unlimited: Britain, France Introduce Iran Resolution
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 8:46 AM
AP Photo UNDK115
By NICK WADHAMS
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Over Chinese and Russian opposition,
Western nations circulated a U.N. Security Council resolution
that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment or face the
threat of unspecified further measures, a possible reference to
sanctions.
Britain and France, backed by the United States, hope to wrap up
negotiations on the legally binding resolution before a meeting
of foreign ministers in New York on Monday. However, diplomats
acknowledged that resistance from China and Russia may prolong
talks well beyond that.
The resolution, presented Wednesday, is the latest in weeks of
negotiations over how to confront suspicions about Iran's
nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.
The United States and France accuse the country of secretly
trying to build nuclear weapons.
``Once again, the key to this lies in Iran's hands,'' U.S.
Ambassador John Bolton said. ``If they give up the pursuit of
nuclear weapons, a lot of things are possible. If they continue
to bluster and to threaten and obfuscate and try to throw sand
in our eyes, then we're onto a different circumstance.''
The resolution mandates that Iran suspend enrichment and warns
the council would ``consider such further measures as may be
necessary to ensure compliance'' - language that opens the door
to sanctions.
It calls on Iran to stop construction of a heavy-water reactor
and demands that nations ``exercise vigilance'' in blocking the
transfer of goods and technology that could help Iran's uranium
reprocessing and missile programs. The council would also seek a
report back from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, on Iran's compliance.
No timeframe has been set for that report but France's U.N.
Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said he wanted it no later
than early June.
The resolution was written under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter,
which makes any demands mandatory and allows for the use of
sanctions - and possibly force - if they are not obeyed. Any
sanctions would require another resolution.
That could force a showdown with Russia, which has arms and
technology deals with Iran, as well as China. Both nations have
said they adamantly oppose tough council action, including
sanctions, and the two could use their veto power on the council
to block it.
``I don't think this draft as it stands now will produce good
results,'' China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said as he
emerged from the Security Council meeting where the draft was
introduced. ``I think it's tougher than expected.''
The resolution was drafted by Britain, France and Germany, the
three European Union nations that have led negotiations with
Iran. Ambassadors said discussions between the three EU nations,
the United States, China and Russia were only beginning over the
resolution.
Ambassadors said the Chapter 7 element was the core of the
resolution, suggesting that other language, like the threat of
further measures and blocking technology transfers, could be
scrapped.
``On the strategic objective, there's nothing between the six of
us. We do not want to see an Iran with a nuclear weapon
capability,'' Britain's Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said. ``On
the detail of the resolution, there have been exchanges of views
and those will continue.''
President Bush has stressed that the United States will continue
to focus on diplomacy. But he refuses to rule out military
action if necessary. When asked last month if the United States
would consider ``the possibility of a nuclear strike'' if Tehran
refuses to halt uranium enrichment, Bush replied, ``All options
are on the table.''
Russia, a firm opponent of the resolution, was clearly wary that
some language in the new draft could be seen as opening the door
to military action.
That would likely include the reference to ``further measures.''
``We do not believe the matter can be resolved by use of force,
so that does reflect in our attitude to various possibilities in
the text of the resolution,'' Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin said.
Wang said he also opposed language that refers to the
``proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program''
and ``the threat to international peace and security.''
Last month, the Security Council issued a nonbinding statement
that Iran comply with previous demands to abandon enrichment,
which can also be used to make the fissile core of nuclear
weapons. That statement asked for a report from IAEA
director-general Mohamed ElBaradei in 30 days on Iran's
compliance.
As had been widely expected, ElBaradei issued a report Friday
saying Iran had not complied, laying the groundwork for
Wednesday's resolution.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
7 Guardian Unlimited: French PM: Force Not Solution for Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 11:31 AM
PARIS (AP) - France's prime minister said Thursday that military
action is not the solution to the international standoff over
Iran's nuclear program.
President Bush has stressed that the United States will continue
to focus on diplomacy in trying to persuade Iran to halt the
enrichment of uranium, which can be used to develop nuclear
weapons. However, he refuses to rule out military action if
necessary.
When asked last month whether U.S. options regarding Iran
``include the possibility of a nuclear strike'' if Tehran
refuses to halt uranium enrichment, Bush replied, ``All options
are on the table.''
``My conviction is that military action is not the solution,''
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said at a monthly
news conference Thursday. He also urged ``unity'' and
``firmness'' within the international community in dealing with
Iran.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
8 Guardian Unlimited: French Leader: Don't Fight Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 1:31 PM
AP Photo XFM104
PARIS (AP) - France's prime minister said Thursday that military
action is not the solution to the international standoff over
Iran's nuclear program.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the war in Iraq
should serve as a warning against attacking Iran.
``My conviction is that military action is not the solution,''
Villepin said at a monthly news conference. ``We have already
lived through this type of scenario and we know that not only
does it settle nothing, but it can raise risks. We have seen
this in the most clear way with Iraq.''
President Bush has refused to rule out military action if Iran
ignores U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment, though he has
stressed that the United States will continue to focus on
diplomacy. When asked last month whether U.S. options regarding
Iran ``include the possibility of a nuclear strike,'' Bush
replied, ``All options are on the table.''
France and other Western nations circulated a U.N. Security
Council resolution Wednesday that would demand Iran abandon
uranium enrichment or face the threat of unspecified further
measures - a possible reference to sanctions. China and Russia
oppose the measure.
The resolution is the latest effort to pressure Iran to stop
what the United States and its allies suspect is a clandestine
nuclear weapons program. Iran says it is developing nuclear
technology purely for energy.
Villepin urged ``unity'' and ``firmness'' within the
international community on the standoff, adding that Russian and
Chinese support for any resolution was necessary ``for the
credibility of our action, the pressure on Iran.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
9 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI will not give up its relevant rights
2006/05/04
10:08:51 Ţ.Ů
Tehran, May 4 - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here
Wednesday called on the negotiators involved in Iran's nuclear
issue to understand and accept the realities and solve the issue
through talks.
In response to the deceleration of the French Foreign Ministry
issued about the Paris meeting, he said that development of
Iran's nuclear programs are based on the safeguard agreement and
NPT.
"As indicated by the reports of the UN nuclear watchdog, no
deviation from peaceful nuclear path has been observed and Iran
has been complying with the NPT," he added.
Asefi underlined that the world community is not concerned about
Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, rather the US and a few
other states declare their own view as that of the world
community.
He recommended the parties who attended the Paris meeting to
solve the issue through reasonable ways such as talks instead of
using the language of force, which merely makes the situation
more complicated and difficult.
The Spokesman said, "As a country possessing nuclear technology,
Iran will not give up its relevant rights. Such a fact should be
understood by the negotiators involved in the case."
SAM
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Webmaster@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
10 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran's nuclear issue is technical
2006/05/04
Islamabad, May 4 - Diplomatic solution to any problem is the
most viable and durable option to resolve any issue and it is
imperative for the world community to influence settlement of
Iranian nuclear question through talks, a member of Pakistan
parliament said here on Wednesday.
Pakistan Peoples' Party (opposition) lawmaker Manzoor Wassan
told IRNA here in an interview at the Parliament House that war
of words or hurling threats would only aggravate the situation,
which in no way would serve the cause of peace in the world.
"The issue is of technical nature that is being painted as
political by the United States and its allies," he maintained.
The member of the National Assembly, (Lower House of the
Parliament) supported Iran's right to peaceful use of nuclear
technology for progress and well-being of its people.
"The West will have to do away with the policy of double
standard on allowing its favorites to do whatever they want to
and forcing others, particularly Muslim countries, to remain
ignorant and technologically obsolete," he decried.
He criticised the US because of not paying attention to the
Zionist regime's nuclear arms' stockpile.
SAM
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
*****************************************************************
11 AFP: Nuclear energy an 'essential right': Iranian foreign minister -
Thu May 4, 7:46 AM ET
BAKU (AFP) - Iran" /> insists on developing nuclear energy and
hopes the United Nations" /> Security Council will not politicise
this "essential right", Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki revealed.
"The member states of the NPT should enjoy... their right,
which is peaceful nuclear technology. We are insisting on that,"
Mottaki said Thursday, in a reference to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Mottaki called on the international community not to violate
"the essential rights of countries" and said Iran was opposed to
action by the UN Security Council on his country's nuclear
programme.
"The nuclear issue of Iran is a technical issue in the framework
for consideration in the IAEA and taking the case to the
Security Council or anywhere else is a political decision which
is not acceptable," Mottaki said, in a reference to the UN's
nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency"
/> .
"Returning the case to the IAEA will prepare the ground for a
return to full cooperation," he said.
Mottaki was attending a regional economic conference of the
10-country Economic Cooperation Organisation taking place in
Iran's neighbour Azerbaijan.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due in Baku later
Thursday and was scheduled to meet Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
A summit of top officials from the 10-country group, which
includes Afghanistan" /> , Pakistan and Turkey, was to take
place Friday.
The meeting was being held after Britain and France began
circulating a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that
would legally oblige Iran to comply with UN demands that it
freeze uranium enrichment.
Mottaki said Iran was ready to cooperate with the international
community provided that its nuclear programme was treated as a
"technical issue".
"In such a case, definitely Iran is in a position to continue
its full cooperation," he said. "The issue must not be
politicised."
There were no grounds for Western suspicions that Iran's nuclear
energy programme is a cover for developing nuclear weapons, he
added.
"Our position on nuclear weapons is clear: we are against, and
support removing all nuclear weapons in the world," Mottaki
said.
For his part, Azerbaijan's foreign minister appeared to reflect
worries about the heightened tensions surrounding his country's
large neighbour.
While Azerbaijan was bound by all UN resolutions, "we said that
any state a member of the UN and the IAEA has a full right
developing its nuclear energy under IAEA control" Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
12 AFP: Security Council weighs binding draft on Iran nuclear program -
Thu May 4, 6:09 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council mulled a binding
Franco-British draft resolution demanding a halt to Iran" />
Iran's uranium enrichment work as Paris ruled out using force to
end the standoff with Tehran.
Envoys of the council's five permanent members -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- met behind closed
doors to review the text as technical experts of the full
15-member council met separately to pore over it for possible
changes.
"We had a very frank discussion and we understand better our
positions," French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said as
he emerged from the gathering. "We will propose another meeting
tomorrow..I still believe we can have things move swiftly."
"We had a good discussion," British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry
concurred. "We (the P5) are going to meet again tomorrow
morning.'
"I hope the full council will meet in the afternoon (Friday) to
consider where we are," US Ambassador John Bolton said.
Council ambassadors meanwhile awaited instructions from their
capitals ahead of a vote which US officials now say is not
expected before Monday's New York meeting of foreign ministers
of six major powers working on the Iran nuclear issue.
The six countries are Britain, China, France, Russia and the
United States -- the five veto-wielding council permanent
members -- plus Germany.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
ambassadors of the "P5" plus Germany would discuss the draft
over dinner in New York on Monday.
"I don't really expect it (the resolution) to come to a vote
before the dinner," a senior US official, speaking on background
on condition of anonymity, said in Washington.
In his first public reaction to the draft, Iran's UN envoy Javad
Zarif said that "if it is an attempt to get Iran to agree, it is
not a good one ... Iran does not respond to threats and
intimidation."
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are strictly peaceful. But
Washington and its European allies accuse Tehran of using its
civilian program as a cover to build atomic weapons.
The Franco-British draft invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter,
which can authorize economic sanctions or even military action
as a last resort in cases of threats to international peace and
security. It needs at least nine yes votes and no veto from any
of the council's five permanent members to pass.
It demands that Iran suspend "all enrichment-related and
reprocessing activities, including research and development, and
suspend the construction of a reactor moderated by heavy water".
It also calls on all states to "exercise vigilance" in
preventing the transfer to Iran of equipment that could assist
its nuclear and missile programs.
The text, drafted in close consultations with Germany and the
United States, did not set a specific timeframe for Iran to
comply, but France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said
Tehran was expected to do so "no later than early June".
Russia and China have already indicated that they have a problem
with the reference to Chapter 7, because it had been used by
Washington to justify going to war in Iraq" /> Iraqeven though
there was no explicit UN authorization.
Beijing and Moscow, which have close trading ties with Tehran,
are cool to sanctions and adamantly oppose resorting to military
action against Iran.
In Paris, French Premier Dominique de Villepin also said
Thursday that military action was not the answer, drawing on the
US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq as an example.
"We know that not only would it not solve anything, but that
sometimes worsens, further, the situation. We saw that in a
clear way with Iraq," he noted.
Meanwhile Washington rejected a call by one of its key allies,
Germany, for one-on-one US-Iran talks on Tehran's nuclear
program. Iran and the United States have not had direct
relations since 1980, which many experts say is a major factor
in the current diplomatic impasse.
In another burst of defiance, Iran claimed Thursday it had made
more progress in ultra-sensitive nuclear work.
"Iran can now mass-produce centrifuges. This is an important
success, because no other country was willing to sell us this
technology," a deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation,
Hossein Faghihian, was quoted as saying in Iranian media.
Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium for either nuclear
reactor fuel or atomic bomb material.
In a related development, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
arrived Thursday in neighbouring Azerbaijan to seek regional
support.
Ahmadinejad met the leaders of Afghanistan" /> Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkey Thursday, before attending a
10-country economic forum Friday, Azerbaijan's presidential
office said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
13 AFP: Defiant Iran looks to neighbours for support as pressure mounts
Thu May 4, 12:50 PM ET
BAKU (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has flown to
neighbouring Azerbaijan to seek regional support as Tehran
reiterated its "essential" right to nuclear power.
Ahmadinejad was meeting with leaders of Afghanistan" /> ,
Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkey -- all neighbours of Iran" /> --
on the sidelines of a 10-country economic forum, the Azeri
presidential office told AFP.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also lashed out at
Western pressure for tough UN action aimed at stopping his
country's nuclear programme.
"Member states of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)
should enjoy... their right, which is peaceful nuclear
technology. We are insisting on that," Mottaki told journalists
in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.
Mottaki called on the international community not to violate
"the essential rights of countries."
The United States and Europe allege that Iran is trying to
acquire a nuclear bomb under cover of a civilian power network
currently being built with Russian help.
A draft UN Security Council resolution sponsored by Britain and
France would legally oblige Iran to comply with UN demands that
it suspend enrichment of uranium or face possible sanctions.
Iran says it needs enriched uranium as fuel for its civilian
nuclear programme and refuses to halt the work.
Underlining the defiance Thursday, a deputy head of Iran's
Atomic Energy Organisation, Hossein Faghihian, announced a new
breakthrough in the country's enrichment capability, according
to Iranian media.
The international crisis overshadowed Ahmadinejad's presence at
the summit in Baku of the Economic Cooperation Organisation
(ECO), which comprises Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan,
Turkey and the ex-Soviet Central Asian states.
But the economic forum also gave Iran a chance to lobby for
support from fellow Muslim countries.
Ahmadinejad's meetings were scheduled to include the presidents
of Afghanistan and Azerbaijan as well as the prime ministers of
Pakistan and Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be urging Ahmadinejad to compromise.
"All of us should make efforts for peace. We should insist on
diplomatic means and find a compromise," he said on Turkish NTV
television.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, however,
highlighted Iran's right to nuclear power.
While Azerbaijan is bound by UN resolutions, "we said that any
state (which is) a member of the UN and the IAEA has a full
right developing its nuclear energy under IAEA control,"
Mammadyarov told journalists.
He said he was "deeply convinced" of the need to avoid
escalating the international standoff into a military
confrontation.
He also expressed fears among Iran's neighbours at the wider
fallout from possible economic sanctions.
"We said that the most difficult situation will be for
neighbouring countries," Mammadyarov said.
Referring to previous international sanctions against Iraq" />
and in the Balkans, he said: "It is not clear who suffered more
-- the countries under sanctions, or their neighbours."
Mottaki was adamant, declaring that Iran was ready to discuss
the standoff with experts from the UN monitoring body -- the
International Atomic Energy Agency" /> (IAEA) -- but not in the
UN Security Council.
"The nuclear issue of Iran is a technical issue in the framework
for consideration in the IAEA... Returning the case to the IAEA
will prepare the ground for a return to full cooperation,"
Mottaki said. "The issue must not be politicised."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
14 AFP: Israel has power to defend itself from nuclear Iran
Thu May 4, 12:42 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel" /> Israelhas the power and ability to
defend itself from a nuclear Iran" /> Iran, which is the most
dangerous threat to world peace, incoming Israeli prime minister
Ehud Olmert told lawmakers.
"Israel, which has become a target for destruction of the evil
tyrants in Tehran, is not powerless and has the ability to
defend itself from every threat," Olmert said in a speech to
parliament in which he presented his new government guidelines.
Tehran has been under international pressure to suspend its
nuclear activities, which it insists are for civilian energy
purposes but which the West and Israel believe are a mask for
manufacturing an atomic bomb.
"The drive of the dark tyrant and terror-supporting regime to
develop nuclear weapons is the most dangerous development in the
world nowadays and the international community must do
everything in its power to stop it," Olmert said.
"The looming threat from Iran is casting its shadow on the
entire region and threatens world peace."
Olmert, who recently likened Iranian President leader Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to Adolph Hitler, renewed his attack on the
hardliner, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Olmert said "the Iranian president's statements should not be
taken lightly -- he means every word he says."
US and European officials are pushing for a tough, binding UN
resolution demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment.
Less-enriched uranium can be used as fuel in nuclear reactors,
but a much purer version can form the explosive core of bombs.
"Only a resolute and uncomprimising international front in the
face of Iran's objectives could stop this danger," Olmert told
lawmakers.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
15 IRNA: IPPNW calls for diplomatic settlement of Iranian nuclear dispute
Berlin, May 3, IRNA
Germany-Iran-IPPNW
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
(IPPNW) on Wednesday urged a diplomatic settlement of the ongoing
nuclear row with Iran.
The organization said in a press statement that any diplomatic
solution of the crisis must involve 'the legitimate security
interests of all parties'.
IPPNW rejected continued US military threats against Iran.
The doctors' group also called for the creation of nuclear
weapons-free Middle East and the global destruction of all
nuclear arms.
Meanwhile IPPNW urged the German government to halt its exports
of 'Dolphin' submarines to Israel which can be modified to carry
nuclear warheads.
*****************************************************************
16 AFP: White House rejects direct talks with Iran
Thu May 4, 12:31 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House again rejected the idea of
one-on-one talks with Iran" /> Iran, saying that the dispute over
Tehran's nuclear program is not bilateral, but one that affects
many countries.
"This is a threat posed to the region and to the world," White
House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
He added: "This is not a bilateral issue between the regime and
the United States, this is an issue between the regime and the
international community." Iran and the United States have not
had direct relations since 1980, which many experts say is a big
factor in the current diplomatic impasse.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister of US ally
Germany, recently called for direct talks between the two
countries.
McClellan expressed US support for a resolution circulated by
France and Britain in the UN Security Council, calling on Iran
to halt its uranium enrichment program.
Meanwhile Tehran claimed Thursday it had made more progress in
ultra-sensitive nuclear work, showing yet more defiance in the
face of Western lobbying for tough Security Council action.
The Franco-British text, worked out in close consultation with
Germany and the United States, invokes Chapter 7 of the UN
Charter, which can authorize economic sanctions or even as a
last resort the use of force in cases of threats to
international peace and security.
Russia and China -- which both have veto powers on the Council
-- appear to be opposed the text, but McClellan said the process
is in its early stages.
"This is a draft resolution," said McClellan. "It's been
circulated by the United Kingdom and France, and we are
supportive of it."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
17 IRNA: Iran, Portugal welcome closer cooperation to resolve nuclear row
Madrid, May 4, IRNA
Iran-Portugal-Nuclear
Portugal's deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs said
Wednesday that his country welcomes a diplomatic solution
supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over
Iranian nuclear standoff.
in meeting Iranian ambassador to Lisbon Mohammad Taheri,
Fernando Noush said that Portugal believes that all countries
including Iran have the right for access to peaceful nuclear
energy.
He also expressed hope that Iran could satisfy the IAEA by
removing ambiguities regarding its nuclear program based on the
provisions delineated in the Non-Proliferation-Treaty (NPT) to
reach a diplomatic solution.
He also referred to the report by the IAEA secretary general
confirming Iran cooperation with the nuclear watchdog agency and
non-deviation in Iran's nuclear activities.
He said that his country as a member of IAEA Board of Directors
welcome closer cooperation with Tehran over the issue.
Taheri also alluded to the recent developments in the region
and visits by many of the high-ranking officials and leaders and
Iran's thorough consultations with other countries over its
nuclear dossier.
He also stressed Iran's legitimate right to use peaceful
nuclear technology.
Taheri said that given the biased and one-sided views expressed
in the Western media, there is a need for increasing exchange of
visits by the two nations' officials with the aim of gathering
correct and pertinent information.
In related news, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi
said Sunday that the only way to end the current situation is to
place Iran's nuclear dossier on the agenda of the UN nuclear
watchdog.
Speaking to domestic and foreign reporters at his weekly
briefing session, he said that reporting the nuclear issue to
the UN Security Council (UNSC) is actually a humiliation for the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Asefi said that the UNSC does not have the capability to
examine the case, given that it is not specialized in the field.
*****************************************************************
18 IRNA: Experts to attend UNSC session on Iran's N-case
May 4, IRNA
--
The UN Security Council's rotating president for the month of
May, Congolese Ambassador to the UN Basile Ikouebe, said here
that experts will attend the Council's session next Thursday
that will discuss Iran's nuclear case.
Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters in New York, Ikouebe
said technical people will be present in the session to give
their views on the latest report of International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA)Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran's
nuclear activities.
The US, France and Britain have circulated among Security
Council members a tough draft resolution for the Council's
approval which will legally oblige Iran to comply with the
demand to halt all nuclear enrichment activities.
ElBaradei had confirmed that Tehran had not deviated from its
declared nuclear activities for peaceful purposes.
Iran has repeatedly given the assurance that its nuclear
programs are for peaceful, civilian purposes.
*****************************************************************
19 IRNA: French PM: Iran's nuclear issue should be solved through political means
Paris, May 4, IRNA
Iran-France-Nuclear
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said here Thursday
that Iran's nuclear issue should be resolved through political
means.
Speaking to reporters, he said France has put finding a
political solution to Iran's nuclear standoff on its agenda.
The international community's concerns about Iran's uranium
enrichment is on the rise, he said, adding that the
international community should take a firm decision based on the
reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the
country's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
France has called on the UN to issue a resolution on Iran's
nuclear program to indicate that the international community
would take a united stance against Iran.
Military action against Iran is not a suitable solution to put
an end to the country's nuclear dossier, he said.
Referring to US aggression on Iraq, he said any military action
against Iran cannot solve the country's nuclear standoff and the
issue should be resolved through cooperation between the
international community and the United Nations.
There is another solution which is to let UN inspectors resume
their inspection of the country's nuclear installations, he
underlined.
Every body knows that Iran's nuclear standoff would not be
resolve thorough short-time military operations and this would
create numerous problems for the whole region, he said.
*****************************************************************
20 Xinhua: India rejects amendments to nuclear deal
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-04 21:57:15
NEW DELHI, May 4 (Xinhua) -- India Thursday rejected
suggestions by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that New
Delhi accept "amendments" to the civil nuclear agreement and
asserted that it will strictly go by the July 18 joint statement
agreed upon between the two countries last year.
"The government of India's position remains that our
commitments are those that are outlined in the joint statement
of July 18, 2005," Indo-Asian News Service quoted Indian
external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna as saying.
He was responding to media reports that quote Rice telling
Indian parliamentarians visiting the US that India should "be
ready for some amendments" to the nuclear deal.
Last month India had rejected a U.S. condition that it will
terminate nuclear cooperation if New Delhi tested a nuclear
device.The clause was included in a U.S. draft agreement on
civil nuclearcooperation between the two countries.
New Delhi underlined that it had already announced a
voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests.
India and the U.S. reached a deal on civil nuclear
cooperation during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to Washington last July. The deal on separating India's
civilian and military facilities was clinched when U.S.
President George Bush visited Delhi in March.
As the two countries negotiate a bilateral civil nuclear
cooperation agreement and the debate on Capitol Hill becomes
more intense, the Bush administration stressed on an early
passage of the bill through Congress for amending the Atomic
Energy Act 1954 in favor of nuclear commerce with India.
Some Congressmen have been insisting on imposing extra
conditions to the nuclear deal, but New Delhi has made it clear
that such attempts would end up killing the deal. Enditem
Editor: Yan Zhonghua
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
21 Guardian Unlimited: Cheney's Sharp Criticism Miffs Russia
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 10:31 PM
AP Photo XMK144
By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday
accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political
rights and using its energy reserves as ``tools of intimidation
or blackmail.'' It was a hard slap at Vladimir Putin as the
United States seeks Russia's cooperation in punishing Iran.
Cheney's criticism - some of the administration's toughest
language about Russia - came just two months before President
Bush joins Putin in St. Petersburg for a summit of major
industrial powers. Cheney warned that Russia's backsliding could
harm Moscow's relations with the United States and Europe.
``Russia has a choice to make. And there is no question that a
return to democratic reform in Russia will generate future
success for its people and greater respect among fellow
nations,'' the vice president said in remarks to Eastern
European leaders who govern in Moscow's enormous shadow.
Russian officials reacted angrily.
``Cheney's speech looks like a provocation and interference in
Russia's internal affairs in terms of its content, form and
place,'' former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was quoted as
saying by the Interfax news agency. Deputy Foreign Minister
Grigory Karasin expressed annoyance that Russia had not been
invited to the conference of former Soviet republics and allies.
A Russian lawmaker, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
dismissed Cheney's comments as ``absolutely false accusations.''
He said Cheney had expressed the opinion ``of only part of the
U.S. political elite'' but not that of Bush.
The White House said Cheney's criticism was a reiteration of
concerns expressed by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice.
Early this year the administration angered Russia with criticism
that the Kremlin had used its energy resources as a political
weapon by sharply raising natural gas prices to Western-leaning
Ukraine amid a sharp dispute that led to a halt of gas exports
to other European nations. An agreement eventually ended the
impasse, but it raised questions of Russia's dependability as a
supplier.
Washington has since tried to avoid provoking Russia, during
sensitive negotiations over the international response to Iran's
disputed nuclear program. Russia stands as the main obstacle to
tough penalties or other measures to deter Iran from pursuing
nuclear technology the West says is part of a drive to build a
bomb.
Russia is a permanent, veto-holding member of the U.N. Security
Council and has said it is opposed to tough punishment for Iran,
a major trade and investment partner. Russia recently rebuffed
U.S. requests to end or scale back nuclear cooperation and arms
deals with Tehran.
Rice has said it is too soon to tell whether Russia will allow
the Security Council to act against Iran.
Cheney's address was the centerpiece of his six-day trip to
Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Croatia. He held individuals meetings
Thursday with the leaders of Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland
and Georgia.
In his speech, Cheney said opponents of reform in Russia ``are
seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade'' after the 1991
collapse of the Soviet empire.
``In many areas of civil society - from religion and the news
media to advocacy groups and political parties - the government
has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her
people,'' Cheney said.
``Other actions by the Russian government have been
counterproductive and could begin to affect relations with other
countries,'' he said.
Cheney said ``no legitimate interest is served when oil and gas
become tools of intimidation or blackmail ... and no one can
justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a
neighbor or interfere with democratic movements.''
U.S. officials said Cheney's remark concerning territorial
integrity was meant to apply to Georgia and Moldova, both former
parts of the Soviet Union where the administration says Russia
is playing an unhelpful role in solving separatist conflicts.
Russia has had military bases in Georgia as well as troops in
Moldova. The United States says Russia has completed agreements
for the withdrawal of almost all its forces from Georgia, but
talks with Moldova have not been as satisfactory.
Moldova fought a war more than a decade ago with Trans-Dniester,
a Russian-speaking breakaway enclave.
Much of the vice president's speech was a compliment to Eastern
European countries for the strides they have made toward
democracy, a summons to maintain a ``steady, hopeful advancement
over time'' and a pledge that the United States would help.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, who hosted the conference,
voiced concern that the freedoms gained since the end of the
Cold War might not prove to be as durable as hoped. ``Even if
the choice of democracy is open to all states and peoples, the
threat of new Iron Curtains in minds and on the ground has not
disappeared,'' he said from the same podium where Cheney later
delivered his own remarks.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
22 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear deja vu
> [David Fickling]
The international community frets over Iran's nuclear ambitions,
but it has been here before.
May 4, 2006 10:46 AM |
The situation seems oddly familiar: a Middle Eastern nation sets
up its own nuclear power programme. The international community
suspects it is a cover for nuclear weapons development.
Policy chiefs fear the programme will upset the balance of
regional peace. The US calls for the facilities to be checked
out, but inspectors are only granted limited, unsatisfactory
visits. A foreign government calls on the nation to rein in its
nuclear programme. It is answered by defiant boasts that the
nation's sovereignty will not be compromised.
The country in question is not Iran in 2006, but Israel in 1969.
Any Washington policy-makers with a sense of history should be
suffering deja vu at the moment, because the current crisis over
Iran's nuclear programme has striking parallels with that
sparked off by Israel's attempts to acquire the bomb in the 60s.
Documents by the US national security archive last week make the
comparison clearer still, and may well give a clue to how
current events will pan out.
Israel's Dimona reactor was set up with French and British help
in the wake of the Suez crisis, with the ostensible purpose of
running a desalination plant to green Israel's Negev desert.
But, by the early 60s, the US government became aware that
Dimona was being used to enrich uranium, and insisted on
inspections. Israel refused IAEA inspections but allowed US
inspectors on biannual, prescheduled visits (pdf) that like
something out of the secret diary of Hans Blix.
Despite the inspections turning up nothing, Washington knew that
Israel was developing atomic weapons. On the cusp of the Johnson
and Nixon administrations, American diplomats tried to push
Israel into giving up or at least scaling down the programme.
That policy emphasis appears to have changed once Nixon took
office, and a visit to Washington in September 1969 by Israeli
prime minister Golda Meir laid the groundwork for the current
policy of deliberate ambiguity that has allowed Washington to
turn a blind eye to Israel's nuclear arsenal ever since.
The full details of the case are still classified, and even at
the time the issue was shrouded in secrecy: one of the
declassified papers (pdf) indicates that Washington's ambassador
to Israel and Nixon's top Middle East adviser were unable to
find out the exact nature of the agreement between Nixon and
Meir.
But a few lessons can be drawn even from the skeleton of facts
revealed by the declassified documents. One is that the
international community has little chance of stopping a
relatively developed country determined to produce nuclear
weapons. A state with the technology to produce an atomic bomb
can easily manage the smoke-and-mirrors sleight of hand needed
to evade nuclear inspections.
Another is that a nuclear weapons programme bestows a sense of
confidence on a country that will make it even less willing to
bow to foreign demands. The details (pdf) of a three-week
correspondence (pdf) between US assistant secretary of defence
Paul Warnke and Israeli ambassador (and later prime minister)
Yitzhak Rabin reads like the transcript (pdf) of a poker game,
in which Warnke gradually realises his opponent holds all the
cards (pdf).
A third point is that acquiring nuclear weapons seems to give
countries a voice in world affairs that they previously lacked.
In the 50s and 60s the US regarded Israel as an irritant, an
embarrassment and a distraction from the grander geopolitics of
the cold war. One crucial side-effect of Israel's possession of
the bomb was that Washington suddenly had to take it seriously.
The dramatic warming of US-Israeli relations in the 70s happened
against the backdrop of Israel's new nuclear capability.
One last point to bear in mind is that nations capable of
acquiring nuclear weapons seem to have a sharp enough sense of
their own self-preservation not to think about using them. That
was the essence of the cold war doctrine of mutually assured
destruction, and it has proved itself several times since the
USA and USSR last stood eye to eye.
Israel didn't come close to deploying the bomb when faced with a
surprise invasion from Egypt and Syria in the 1973 October war
and India and Pakistan have shown no sign of coming to nuclear
blows since they tested their respective atomic weapons in 1998.
If Iran ends up with an atomic bomb, it will be as aware as any
other nuclear power that deployment means destruction.
That fact should give the US pause for thought before it turns
up the heat on Tehran. In the late 60s, Washington's
policy-makers were abuzz with the fear that the mere existence
of an Israeli bomb would be enough to blow apart Middle Eastern
stability. Those fears seemed justified, but they have not been
borne out by history.
Whatever danger an Israeli bomb may have posed has been averted
not by tough talk and tougher actions, but by America making
sure that Israel was its best friend in the region. If the US
wants to reduce the threat from Tehran it needs to do the same:
start thinking of ways to bury the hatchet, and bring Iran back
into the fold.
This entry was tagged with the following keywords: iran israel
usa nuclear
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006.
Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396
Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR
*****************************************************************
23 France Can Phase Out Nuclear Power + Achieve Low CO2
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 18:39:10 -0700
For Release on May 4, 2006
Contact: Arjun Makhijani or Annie Makhijani, 301-270-5500
d
P R E S S R E L E A S E
France Can Phase Out Nuclear Power and Achieve Low Carbon Dioxide Emissions
French Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rising Despite Nuclear Power, New Study Finds
Subsidies for Plutonium and Pro-Nuclear Policies Inhibiting Secure,
Low-Carbon Future
Takoma Park, Maryland: A new report,
Low-Carbon Diet without Nukes
in France, examines the feasibility of phasing out nuclear power in France
while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 40 percent in the next few
decades. France is considered as exemplary by advocates of nuclear power,
which provides almost 80 percent of French electricity generation, because
the use of that energy source has been crucial to its relatively low
greenhouse gas emissions. The Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research (IEER) report is the first to detail technologies and policies
that could meet the same lifestyle and economic choices as a high-nuclear,
high carbon emissions future without nuclear energy and significantly
reduced carbon dioxide emissions.
“The nuclear industry has presented itself as part of the solution to
global warming” said Annie Makhijani, a co-author of the report and Project
Scientist at IEER. “But nuclear power creates serious long-term security
issues in the form of risks of proliferation, severe nuclear accidents, and
vulnerability to terrorism. It’s not a desirable trade-off. The IEER
analysis shows that nuclear power is not necessary even in France to
achieve a low-carbon emissions future.”
France obtains 75 to 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power,
making it one of the lowest carbon-emitter countries in Europe per unit of
GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Because of that, France is not obligated to
reduce its CO2 emissions relative to 1990 under the Kyoto protocol, while
other European countries have to reduce their emissions to 8 percent
(collectively) below their 1990 levels sometime between 2008 and 2012.
Nuclear power has not been the solution to eliminating greenhouse gas
emissions in France, however. Low-Carbon Diet without Nukes in France
shows that, despite the essential elimination of the use of oil in the
French electricity sector since 1973 and the reduction of coal use,
greenhouse gas emissions are high and have been rising. This is because
the main greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector as
well as from the use of oil and natural gas in the residential, commercial,
and industrial sectors.
According to the report, the constraint is not a lack of carbon-free energy
sources energies but that existing resources are devoted disproportionately
to nuclear energy to the detriment of other sources. Official studies of
the use of plutonium as a fuel in 20 nuclear reactors in France indicate
that this aspect of nuclear power alone gets about $1 billion per year in
subsidies. Yet, until the past few years total investment in wind energy
in France had not even reached the annual plutonium subsidy.
“It is not possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in France
significantly without large efficiency increases in the transportation
sector and in residential and commercial heating,” said Dr. Arjun
Makhijani, president of IEER and co-author of the report “The
technologies are commercial or nearly so. But the official devotion to
nuclear energy, including heavy subsidies for plutonium fuel production,
has sidelined other aspects of energy policy.”
IEER presents two scenarios that use official economic projections of high
energy use to show that nuclear power would be phased out over a period of
30 to 40 years while setting a path to much reduced carbon dioxide
emissions. The scenarios use existing technology or more advanced
technology to achieve 20 percent and 40 percent CO2 reductions with a
simultaneous phase out of nuclear power. It acknowledges that nuclear
power must be phased out gradually rather than abruptly, because it is such
a large part of France’s electricity sector and because abandoning existing
plants prematurely would divert resources that could be used for
investments in efficiency and renewable energy sources, notably wind energy.
“There is no question that France will have to dig deeper into the advanced
technology basket to produce the same percentage of reductions in carbon
dioxide emissions as the United States,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani. “But
the country that invests in that future can grab future technological and
economic leadership on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
“France has unfortunately chosen its technological leadership in the energy
sector to be in nuclear technology,” noted Annie Makhijani. “But France
and the world are ignoring warning signs, like the statement of Ichiro
Ozawa, the Japanese Labor Party leader, that the commercial nuclear energy
sector could provide plutonium for nuclear weapons.”
The French company AREVA, which is majority-owned by the French government,
provides reprocessing services to Japanese utilities. Japan has a large
stock of separated plutonium as a result, stored partly in Japan and partly
in France.
The report notes that a low carbon, zero-nuclear-power future for France by
the middle of the 21st century will involve significant technical and
policy changes, including
* Regulations requiring new cars to achieve an average fuel efficiency
of 100 miles per gallon by the year 2020 and improvements in efficiency of
delivery vehicles and trucks.
* Improvements in heating and cooling in the residential and commercial
sector that use existing technologies like co-generation and earth-source
heat pumps.
* Government procurement of advanced technologies to stimulate
innovation, in place of tax breaks for existing technologies.
* Abandonment of reprocessing and retirement of nuclear power plants
when they reach the end of the licensed lifetime (40 to 45 years after
start up).
* National policies to put wind, pumped hydro, and natural gas and, in
the more advanced technology scenario, solar photovoltaic cells, at the
center of the electricity sector.
The report is posted in full at on IEER’s website,
www.ieer.org
---30---
En
Français.
This press
release is also available in French.
Lisa Ledwidge
Outreach Director, United States, and Editor of Science for Democratic Action
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)
PO Box 6674 | Minneapolis, MN 55406 USA
tel. 1-612-722-9700 | fax: please call
first | ieer@ieer.org | http://www.ieer.org
IEER's main office: 6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 201 | Takoma Park,
MD 20912 USA | tel. 1-301-270-5500 | fax 1-301-270-3029
*****************************************************************
24 DOS: U.S. Nuclear Power Industry Sees Expansion in Near Future-
U.S. Department Of State
Rising energy demand, pollution concerns improve prospects,
officials, industry say
By Andrzej Zwaniecki Washington File Staff Writer
This is the second in a series of articles on nuclear energy.
Washington -- U.S. energy companies, supported by the Bush
administration, are pressing ahead with an ambitious plan for
revival of nuclear power, an industry representative says.
"We are very bullish on the prospect that we will see some new
nuclear power plant orders coming up in the next couple of
years," for the first time since 1978, says Steve Kerekes, a
spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), an industry
group.
With nuclear plants running at 90 percent capacity and demand
for energy rising, the industry needs to build new plants to
keep up or increase its 20 percent share of the electricity
market, he said in a March 23 interview. U.S. demand for
electricity will increase by 50 percent between 2004 and 2030,
according to the Energy Department.
NUCLEAR OR COAL?
New orders for nuclear plants would be a sign of a turnaround
for the U.S. industry, which has stagnated mostly due to factors
beyond its control -- licensing and construction delays, high
interest rates on capital, varying plant designs, low natural
gas prices and public opposition to nuclear energy, according to
Andrew Paterson, a U.S. Energy Department policy analyst. For
the past 25 years, the industry has added no new plants and
focused instead on improving efficiency and safety and
increasing production at the existing 103 plants.
But in recent years, conditions have changed, Paterson said in
an April 20 interview. Interest rates, despite recent rises,
are relatively low; uranium fuel is relatively inexpensive and
readily available in Canada and Australia, both U.S. allies;
nuclear plants enjoy strong local support in areas where plants
currently are located; and there are fewer reactor designs and
nuclear companies, making planning and running plants easier, he
said.
These factors, plus concerns that greenhouse gas emissions,
mostly carbon dioxide, contribute to global warming, favor
nuclear energy's expansion, Paterson said.
That expansion has been made more urgent because over the next
decade, more than 100,000 megawatt (MW) of less-efficient coal
plants will need to be replaced, most likely by a new generation
of coal plants, nuclear plants or a mix of both, according to
Paterson.
Although newer coal-fired plants cause less pollution than older
ones, they still would add a significant amount of carbon
emissions. Today, the more than 600 coal-fired U.S. plants emit
nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to
the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. These
plants also release other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen oxides.
In contrast, nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases or other
pollutants. (Uranium enrichment produces some.)
Nuclear energy is likely to displace even more harmful emissions
if, as envisioned by the administration, advanced reactors are
used to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen-fueled vehicles, with almost
no emissions, not only would reduce dramatically the demand for
oil but also, as dramatically, would cut harmful emissions from
the transportation sector, another major source of greenhouse
gases and other pollutants.
"Nuclear is stable, high-quality power, with low marginal fuel
costs, not dependent on weather and without emissions," Paterson
said.
GOVERMENT ENDORSES NUCLEAR POWER
What makes revival plans more viable, Paterson said, is that the
industry is enjoying strong government support for the first
time in a long time.
The Bush administration saw that in the long-term the United
States would need all the domestic energy resources it could
muster to meet rising demand for electricity while lessening
reliance on unstable global sources for the bulk of oil and gas
supplies, he said.
In 2002, the administration launched Nuclear Power 2010 (NP
2010), a $1.1 billion public-private partnership to identify
sites for new nuclear plants, develop advanced nuclear plant
technologies and test new regulatory processes. Paterson
believes that one or two dozens new reactors can be added at the
existing nuclear sites.
However, James Muckerheide, a nuclear engineer and director of
the Center for Nuclear Technology and Society at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said the U.S. nuclear
expansion program needs to be more robust to meet the energy and
environmental needs of the future. In a 2005 article, he argued
that 5,000 to 6,000 plants, one thousand megawatts each, should
be built in the United States by 2050 with government direction
and support.
WHAT ARE THE HURDLES?
Utilities planning to add new reactors to their portfolio face
significant risks.
The prospect of pouring billions of dollars into construction of
a plant, only to have it stopped on a licensing technicality or
by a court order, was the top risk cited by industry, investors
and experts in a 2002 study for the Energy Department. It
indicated that those groups have not shaken off completely the
memory of the Shoreham nuclear plant, which was built on Long
Island near New York but never became operational and eventually
shut down in 1994 after years of regulatory and legal battles to
get an operating license.
NEI's Kerekes said the industry sees the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) licensing process established in 1992 as the
most immediate issue.
Ten energy companies or consortia have said they will apply to
build at least 16 new nuclear reactors, according to a NEI
February review. The NP 2010 assumes that, if all goes well, the
first new nuclear power plant order will be placed by 2009 and
construction of a new plant will be completed by 2014.
See also “Nuclear Gaining Favor as Clean Energy Source for
World.”
For additional information, see Energy Policy.
Created:03 May 2006 Updated: 03 May 2006
[usinfo.state.gov url]
*****************************************************************
25 The Australian: End debate on N-power
Flannery | The Nation |
+ NEWS.com.au
Amanda Hodge May 05, 2006
PROMINENT scientist Tim Flannery has called for an end to the
uranium debate, saying all alternative energy sources to fossil
fuels must be considered in the fight against climate change.
The author of The Weather Makers and director of the South
Australian Museum said yesterday he had softened his view on
nuclear power.
Dr Flannery said the nation could not afford to get "bogged down
in a debate about the three mines policy" or nuclear power and
instead should develop a cohesive response to global warming.
"People say we can't have uranium mining because there's a
danger of proliferation and that's true," Dr Flannery said. "But
we have to weigh all of this stuff and deal with this in the
context of threat to climate change and that's why people are
getting away with rubbish about wind and uranium.
"Having travelled around the world looking at energy options, I
am more favourably disposed towards nuclear power than I was
previously, particularly when you look at the scale of the
problem in China and the use of coal."
Dr Flannery's comments come a day after the chief executive of
the nation's second-largest environment group, WWF Australia,
accepted the Government's planned expansion of uranium mining
and exports to China.
WWF chief executive Greg Bourne told The Australian the nation
was "destined" to mine and export uranium and said the key was
to ensure it was used only for peaceful purposes and the waste
was stored safely.
His comments provoked a furious response from green groups
yesterday and a prediction from both sides of the debate that
WWF's position could influence Labor Party policy.
Opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese denied the
claims, but federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane welcomed
Mr Bourne's comments as the third "notable backflip on the
expansion of uranium mining in recent weeks - Kim Beazley, Peter
Beattie and now the WWF".
"The uranium debate is one Australian has to have," he said.
Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
26 NRC: NRC Seeks Public Input on Environmental Review Associated with License Renewal Proposed
for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant
News Release - Region I - 2006-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-030
May 3, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A.
Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
meetings on Wednesday, May 17, on the environmental review for
the application seeking renewal of the Pilgrim nuclear power
plants operating license. Members of the public are invited to
attend and comment on environmental issues the NRC should
consider during its review of the extension request for the
plant, which is located in Plymouth, Mass., and operated by
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
There will be two sessions held that day in the Plymouth Harbor
Ballroom at the Radisson Hotel, 180 Water St. in Plymouth. The
first session will begin at 1:30 p.m. and continue until 4:30
p.m., as necessary. The second session, which will be a repeat
of the first session, will get under way at 7 p.m. and continue
until 10 p.m., as necessary. The NRC will host an open house
beginning 1 hour before the start of each meeting to provide
members of the public with an opportunity to talk informally
with agency staff. However, formal comments must be offered
during the transcribed meetings.
Both sessions will begin with an overview and an NRC staff
presentation on the environmental review process for license
renewal applications. After the NRC presentation, members of the
public will be given an opportunity to present their formal
comments on environmental issues they believe the NRC should
consider during its review.
Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a
nuclear power plant has a term of 40 years. The license may be
renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are
met. The current operating license for the Pilgrim plant is due
to expire on June 8, 2012.
Entergy submitted its license renewal application for Pilgrim on
Jan. 25. As part of its application, the company submitted an
environmental report. The application can be reviewed via the
NRCs web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/pilgrim.html.
In addition, the document is available for review at the
following libraries:
+ The Plymouth Public Library, 132 South St., Plymouth;
+ The Duxbury Free Library, 77 Alden St., Duxbury, Mass.; and
+ The Kingston Public Library, 6 Green St., Kingston, Mass.
An existing NRC document, Generic Environmental Impact Statement
for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants (NUREG-1437),
assesses the scope and impact of environmental effects that
would be associated with license renewal at any nuclear power
plant site. The document for which the NRC will gather
information at the May 17th meetings will be a supplement to
that generic environmental statement that is specific to
Pilgrim. It will contain a recommendation regarding the
environmental acceptability of the license renewal action.
At the conclusion of the information-gathering process, the NRC
staff will prepare a summary of the conclusions reached and
significant issues identified. A copy will be sent to each
person who participated in the scoping process. The summary will
also be available on the NRCs web site through the Public
Electronic Reading Room at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html and
at the previously mentioned libraries. Help in accessing
documents through the Reading Room is available by contacting
the NRCs Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or by e-mail at
pdr@nrc.gov.
The NRC staff will subsequently prepare a draft environmental
impact statement (EIS) supplement for public comment and will
hold a public meeting to solicit comments. After consideration
of comments on the draft report, the NRC will prepare a final
EIS.
Interested individuals may register to attend or present oral
comments at the May 17th meetings by contacting Robert Schaaf at
1-800-368-5642, ext. 1312, or Alicia Williamson, ext. 1878, or
by sending an e-mail to PilgrimEIS@nrc.govno later than May 12.
Those who wish to offer comments may also register at the
meetings within 15 minutes of the start of each session.
Individual oral comments may be limited by the time available,
depending on the number of persons who register.
In addition, members of the public may send written comments on
the environmental scoping process for the supplement to the
Generic Environmental Impact Statement to: Chief, Rules and
Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office
of Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001. Comments may also be
delivered to the NRC, Room T-6D59, Two White Flint North, 11545
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
during Federal workdays. To be considered, written comments
should be postmarked by June 16. Electronic comments can also be
sent via e-mail to PilgrimEIS@nrc.gov, again no later than June
16. Comments will be available on the NRCs web page via the
electronic documents system.
Last revised Wednesday, May 03, 2006
*****************************************************************
27 Platts: New plant tax credit guidance posted on IRS web site
Washington (Platts)--3May2006
Guidance on the allocation of production tax credits for new
advanced nuclear power plants has been posted on the IRS web
site.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the credits as an
investment stimulus.
The Internal Revenue Service guidance sets out the process for
distributing a 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour tax credit for 6,000
MW of new nuclear generating capacity that comes on line before
2021. The notice (2006-40) is at:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb06-18.pdf.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
28 reviewjournal.com: Senators reserve judgment on nominee
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN:
May 04, 2006
Ensign, Reid not yet commenting on Klein
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada senators are keeping their powder dry on
Dale Klein, a Bush administration official with a Yucca Mountain
past who has been nominated for chairman of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Wednesday he will place a hold on
Klein's nomination until he can meet with the nominee.
"The NRC has such a huge part in the licensing of Yucca
Mountain, to have somebody nominated as chairman that was so
involved in pro-Yucca activities is very concerning," Ensign
said.
"I am going to give him a fair interview and see how it goes,"
Ensign said.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has not commented publicly on Klein and
spoke through an aide on Wednesday.
"Senator Reid is reviewing Mr. Klein's record," spokeswoman
Sharyn Stein said. "He plans to meet with him. He wants to
discuss his views and determine whether he will be able to be an
impartial arbiter on Yucca Mountain."
Klein, a nuclear waste expert who was an associate dean in the
College of Engineering at the University of Texas, participated
in the "Nevada Initiative," an advertising and public outreach
campaign funded by the American Nuclear Energy Council that
began in October 1991.
Klein appeared in a series of TV spots produced by ANEC, a
forerunner of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's major
trade association and lobbying arm.
Repository critics maintain Klein as a result cannot be
impartial when the NRC weighs a license for Yucca Mountain. Bush
nominated Klein for a five-year term on the five-member
commission, a term that could coincide with the commission's
handling of a repository application.
Klein's defenders said he participated as a science expert and
not an advocate in the commercials, at one point stating that
Yucca Mountain "is not a done deal."
He presently works at the Pentagon where he is assistant to the
secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical
programs. A Defense Department spokeswoman said Klein was in
meetings and could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
White House spokesman Peter Watkins said Bush believes Klein "is
well qualified for this position. The president looks forward to
working with the Senate to see that he gets confirmed."
Trish Conrad, a Nuclear Energy Institute spokeswoman,
characterized Klein's television appearances as "educational and
informational."
The institute released transcripts of 60-second TV spots in
which Klein was interviewed by Ron Vitto, a former Las Vegas
sportscaster who served as narrator in the commercials.
Speaking on safety issues, Klein said spent nuclear fuel "just
sits there" in a repository. "It doesn't move; it's not active;
it's really sort of boring," according to a transcript.
Klein said the public "should fear the transportation of toxic
waste much greater than they should fear the transportation of
spent nuclear fuel." He said the waste shipping container "has
undergone rigorous design," and nuclear fuel is shipped in
pellet form that "cannot explode, period."
Klein was asked if Yucca Mountain was "a done deal," according
to a transcript.
"It is not a done deal," Klein said. "There is enough oversight
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state oversight, a
lot of independent scientists, and if it is not technically
suitable it will not be selected and that's just the end of the
discussion."
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear
Projects, said Klein's comments appeared noncontroversial on the
commercials but it remained that he got paid from an industry
"promotion" of Yucca Mountain.
"That is probably not a role in the background of someone who is
going to be the chairman of the board that will independently
determine if Yucca Mountain is safe.
"The fact of the matter is Yucca Mountain is not safe and it has
been selected," said Loux, who added the state planned to post
video of at least one of Klein's commercials to its Web site.
Reid is taking a low-key approach on Klein in part because he is
trying to win re-nomination for another NRC commissioner,
Gregory Jaczko, according to Senate sources. Jaczko worked for
Reid until he was placed on the commission in 2004.
Ensign said he planned to ask if Klein would recuse himself in
Yucca Mountain matters.
"I want to explore that, although I am not sure he should be
there (at the NRC) in the first place," Ensign said.
The "Nevada Initiative" sought to build public support for Yucca
Mountain. But opinion polls showed its message was not taking
hold, according to an account of the campaign in a 1995 article
in PR Watch.
The campaign, planned to run three years and to cost $8.7
million, was abandoned short of its run after its commercials
were mocked on Las Vegas radio and television, and after "highly
embarrassing" internal strategy documents were leaked to the
public, according to PR Watch.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
29 NRC: NRC Proposes Additional Guidance on Information Required in License Renewal Applications
News Release - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-060 May 4, 2006
covering license renewal applications for boiling water reactors
with Mark I containments that have steel drywell shells.
The proposed guidance would require applicants to include a
specific aging management program to address potential corrosion
in inaccessible areas of the drywell shell, an important
safety-related structural component. Concrete in close proximity
to the shell makes visual inspection difficult in those areas.
The drywell shell issue has already been addressed for reactors
initial 40-year licenses and for relevant plants that have
received a renewed license for an additional 20 years of
operation. The proposed guidance will clearly identify the
information that must be submitted for NRC staff to evaluate
future license renewal applications.
Comments should be submitted within 30 days of the proposed
guidances publication in the Federal Register, expected shortly.
Comments received after that date will be considered if
practical. Comments may be submitted to: Chief Rules and
Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001. Comments
can be hand-delivered to: 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.,
between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays, or sent via
e-mail to LNT@nrc.gov. The proposed guidance will be available
through the NRCs electronic document database, ADAMS, by
entering accession number ML061120003 at this address:
http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/dologin.htm. For further
information on the proposed guidance, contact Linh Tran,
telephone 301-415-4103 or e-mail LNT@nrc.gov.
Last revised Thursday, May 04, 2006
*****************************************************************
30 THERECORD.COM: Nuclear energy is safe
GREGORY D. WESTFALL
(May 4, 2006)
Let's put Chornobyl in perspective: Chornobyl was the worst
accident in the over 50 year history of nuclear power; it
happened 20 years ago; 47 people died in the accident and the
most recent estimates say it will eventually contribute to the
deaths of 4,000.
Chornobyl was a very poorly designed, poorly maintained and
operated, aging reactor in the former Soviet Union, that didn't
even have a secondary containment area -- the thick concrete
dome that every reactor in the Western world is equipped with to
contain such a disaster. In the end, the worst case scenario
played out and there was, for the first time in nuclear power's
history, an event that caused nuclear material to escape
containment and cause loss of life.
Now, let's talk about the alternatives: every month over 5,000
people in this world die of black lung disease as a result of
working in the coal industry. I don't deny that coal can be a
perfectly clean burning fuel, as recent letters have correctly
pointed out, but it will never be a clean fuel. In the 20 years
since Chornobyl, well over one million people have died working
in coal mines -- a lot more than 47 or 4,000.
In terms of environmental damage, Chornobyl amounts to little
more than a drop in the lake that you find behind any major
hydroelectric project in this world. Nothing does more damage to
the natural environment than hydro. The only reason people are
opposed to nuclear energy is because they don't understand it
and it scares them. Nuclear power is clean, safe and renewable.
Gregory D. Westfall
Waterloo
160 King St. East, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2G 4E5
519-894-2231
*****************************************************************
31 NRC: Report to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences; Fiscal Year 2005;
FR Doc E6-6746
[Federal Register: May 4, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 86)] [Notices]
[Page 26393-26397] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04my06-67]
Dissemination Of Information Section 208 of the Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974 (Pub.
L. 93- 438) defines an abnormal occurrence (AO) as an unscheduled
incident or event which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) determines to be significant from the standpoint of public
health or safety.
The Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 (Pub. L.
104-66) requires that AOs be reported to Congress annually.
During fiscal year 2005, 9 events that occurred at facilities
licensed or otherwise regulated by the NRC and/or Agreements
States were determined to be AOs. The report describes three
events at facilities licensed by the NRC. All three events
occurred at medical institutions. The first event involved a
patient who received the incorrect dose distribution while
undergoing therapeutic brachytherapy \1\ treatment. The second
event involved an infant who was administered the incorrect
diagnostic dosage of technetium-99m. The third event involved
three patients who received unintended radiation doses to the
skin of their thighs while undergoing therapeutic treatment. The
report also addresses 6 AOs at facilities licensed by Agreement
States. [Agreement States are those States that have entered into
formal agreements with the NRC pursuant to section 274 of the
Atomic Energy Act (AEA) to regulate certain quantities of AEA
licensed material at facilities located within their borders.]
Currently, there are 34 Agreement States. During Fiscal Year
2005, Agreement States reported six events that occurred at
Agreement State- licensed facilities, including five therapeutic
medical events and one diagnostic medical event. All six events
met the criteria for AO categorization. As required by section
208, the
[[Page 26394]] discussion for each event includes the date and
place, the nature and probable consequences, the cause or causes,
and the action taken to prevent recurrence. Each event is also
being described in NUREG-0090, Vol. 28, ``Report to Congress on
Abnormal Occurrences, Fiscal Year 2005.'' This report will be
available electronically at the NRC Web site
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \1\ Brachytherapy means a method of radiation therapy
in which sources are used to deliver a radiation dose at a
distance of up to a few centimeters by placement of sources on
the body surface, in natural body cavities, or by placement
directly in tissues.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Nuclear Power Plants During this period, no events at
U.S. nuclear power plants were significant enough to be reported
as AOs.
Fuel Cycle Facilities (Other Than Nuclear Power Plants) During
this period, no events at U.S. fuel cycle facilities were
significant enough to be reported as AOs.
Other NRC Licensees (Industrial Radiographers, Medical
Institutions, etc.) During this reporting period, three events at
NRC-licensed or regulated facilities were significant enough to
be reported as AOs.
05-01 Medical Event at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis, Minnesota Criterion IV, ``For Medical Licensees,''
of Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a medical
event that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or greater than
1 Gy (100 rads) to a major portion of the bone marrow, to the
lens of the eye, or to the gonads or (2) equal to or greater than
10 Gy (1,000 rads) to any other organ; and represents a
prescribed dose or dosage that is delivered to the wrong
treatment site will be considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--January 24, 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Nature and Probable Consequences--The licensee reported that a
patient being treated for cervical cancer received an incorrect
dose distribution. One area of the cervix received 8.21 Gy (821
rads) instead of the intended 16.43 Gy (1,643 rads). Another area
of the cervix received 3.72 Gy (372 rads) instead of the intended
4.65 Gy (465 rads). Additionally, other locations received higher
than intended doses. The intended doses to the bladder and the
rectum were 11.47 Gy (1,147 rads) each, but they received 14.48
Gy (1,448 rads) and 20.12 Gy (2,012 rads), respectively. The
treatment involved an applicator with an insert which contained
low-dose radiotherapy sources. The licensee cut the insert 6
centimeters (cm) too short so that when the applicator was
positioned in the patient's cervix, the three cesium-137 (Cs-137)
sources were not extended the proper distance. The referring
physician and patient were informed of this event. The licensee
does not believe that this event will have any adverse health
effects on the patient. The patient subsequently received a
follow-up treatment to deliver the full intended dose to the
treatment sites.
Cause(s)--This event was caused by human error. The incorrect
dose was administered to the incorrect location.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence--Corrective actions taken by
the licensee included stopping all low dose-rate treatments until
all individuals are trained, and modifying their procedures to
incorporate a dual verification system.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
05-02 Medical Event at St. Johns Mercy Hospital in St. Louis,
Missouri Criterion I.A.2, ``For All Licensees,'' of Appendix A to
this report states, ``Any unintended radiation exposure to any
minor (an individual less than 18 years of age) resulting in an
annual total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) of 50 millisieverts
(mSv) (5 rem) or more, or to an embryo/fetus resulting in a dose
equivalent of 50 mSv (5 rem) or more,'' will be considered for
reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--March 9, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri. Nature and
Probable Consequences--The licensee reported that a 5- month old
infant was prescribed 18.5 MBq (0.5 mCi) of technetium-99
metastable (Tc-99m), but instead received 414.4 MBq (11.2 mCi) of
Tc- 99m. Hospital personnel did not look at the dosage label to
verify the dose to be administered. The whole body dose to the
infant was calculated to be between 0.052 to 0.10 Sv (5.2 to 10
rem). The physician informed the infant's parents. The NRC's
medical consultant determined that there were no acute or
subacute effects noted in the patient, but recommended that a
pediatric gastroenterologist monitor the patient for cancer for
an extended period of time.
Cause(s)--The event was caused by human error. The hospital staff
member did not look at the dosage label before administering the
radiopharmaceutical.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence--Corrective actions taken by
the licensee involved revision of their procedures to require
dual verification of all dosages to be administered to children
and retraining the staff on the new procedures.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
05-03 Medical Event at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in
South Bend, Indiana Criterion IV, ``For Medical Licensees,'' of
Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a medical event
that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or greater than 1 Gy
(100 rads) to a major portion of the bone marrow, to the lens of
the eye, or to the gonads or (2) equal to or greater than 10 Gy
(1,000 rads) to any other organ; and represents a prescribed dose
or dosage that is delivered to the wrong treatment site will be
considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--Between January 26 and March 22, 2004 (reported
March 25, 2005 due to a misinterpretation of reporting
requirements by the licensee), South Bend, Indiana.
Nature and Probable Consequences--The licensee reported in March
and April 2005, that between January 26 and March 22, 2004, three
patients received unintended radiation doses to the skin of their
thighs from cesium-137 brachytherapy sources. The vaginal
applicator used for the treatments was loaded with incorrectly
sized cesium-137 sources, which migrated from the intended
treatment position through the placement spring when the patient
moved to a more up-right position. As a result of the sources
moving, the patient's inner thighs received unintended doses of
radiation. Approximately two weeks after treatment, the patients
developed skin lesions on their inner thighs. The licensee
determined that these patients received unintended doses to a
small area of the skin on the upper thigh of approximately 2000,
1500, and 2000 cGy (rad), respectively. Based on clinical
observations, the licensee determined that all patients received
the respective prescribed doses to the intended treatment areas.
The referring physician and patients were notified of the event.
The licensee referred the patients to other institutions and care
providers for specialized followup wound care to treat the
recurring skin ulcerations. The NRC retained a medical consultant
during the inspection associated with the event. The long-term
health effects on the patients, as a result of the unintended
doses, is unknown.
Cause(s)--The causes of these events were improper source
selection, inadequate manufacturer instructions, inadequate
management oversight, and inadequate procedures.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence--Corrective actions taken by
the licensee involved modifying the applicator by using different
hardware to hold the sources in place, revising
[[Page 26395]] their procedures, and retraining the staff on the
new procedures.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
Agreement State Licensees During this reporting period, six
events at Agreement State- licensed facilities were significant
enough to be reported as AOs.
AS 05-01 Iridium-192 Brachytherapy Seed Medical Event at LDS
Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah Criterion IV, ``For Medical
Licensees,'' of Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a
medical event that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or
greater than 1 Gy (100 rads) to a major portion of the bone
marrow, to the lens of the eye, or the gonads, or (2) equal to or
greater than 10 Gy (1,000 rads) to any other organ; and
represents a prescribed dose or dosage that is delivered to the
wrong treatment site, will be considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--October 26, 2004; LDS Hospital; Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Nature and Probable Consequences--A patient received 27.56 Gy
(2,756 rads) instead of the prescribed 5 Gy (500 rads) during a
high dose-rate (HDR) treatment for larynx cancer. The event
involved an iridium-192 (Ir-192) source with an activity of 244.2
GBq (6.6 Ci). The error was caused by the use of the diameter
instead of the radius of a circular tool to mark the treatment
site in a computer software program. As a result, the area
treated was 2 centimeters (cm) away from the intended treatment
site. The error was discovered before the third fraction. The
prescribing physician stopped the treatment until dosimetry
information was completed. The licensee notified the patient and
the patient's referring physician of the event. The licensee
determined that the impact of the additional dose is probable
acute radiation effects and possible late or chronic toxicities.
Cause(s)--This event was caused by human error. The incorrect
size button corresponding to the circle tool was used, which
caused the diameter instead of the radius to be used in the
dosing plan.
This caused the incorrect dose to be administered to the
incorrect location.
Actions Taken To Prevent Recurrence Licensee--The licensee
suggested that the software manufacturer print the word
``RADIUS'' on the ``size'' button located adjacent to the circle
tool. To date, the manufacturer has not responded to this issue.
The licensee will measure the distance on the brachytherapy
device's hard copy output with a ruler to confirm that the
distance is entered correctly. The licensee also modified the HDR
dose check program so that, in addition to confirming the doses
to coordinates entered into the device's input, user specified
point coordinates may be manually entered into the check program
and compared to what is calculated.
State Agency--The Utah Division of Radiation Control investigated
the event on November 3, 2004 and approved the corrective actions
that the licensee implemented to prevent the recurrence.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
AS 05-02 Diagnostic Medical Event at Baystate Health Systems in
Springfield, Massachusetts Criterion IV, ``For Medical
Licensees,'' of Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a
medical event that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or
greater than 1 Gy (100 rads) to a major portion of the bone
marrow, to the lens of the eye, or the gonads, or (2) equal to or
greater than 10 Gy (1,000 rads) to any other organ; and
represents a prescribed dose or dosage that is delivered by the
wrong treatment mode, will be considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--January 7, 2005; Baystate Health Systems;
Springfield, Massachusetts.
Nature and Probable Consequences--The licensee reported that a
patient should have received 0.63 MBq (0.017 mCi) of iodine-131
(I-131) for a thyroid uptake study but instead received 133.2 MBq
(3.6 mCi) of I-131 for a total body scan. A nuclear medicine
technologist incorrectly placed the order for a total body scan
instead of a thyroid uptake study without looking at the
diagnosis. The I-131 was administered and it was later discovered
that the wrong procedure was administered. The administration
resulted in a thyroid dose of 131 Gy (13,100 rads). The patient
and referring physician were notified of the error. The licensee
indicated there would be no negative health effects from this
administration because the patient had hyperthyroidism, thus, the
unintended thyroid dose will be taken into account when
additional I-131 is given to the patient.
Cause(s)--Human error in that the procedure was erroneously
posted as a total body scan when it was actually a thyroid uptake
study. This caused the wrong quantity of I-131 to be
administered.
Actions Taken To Prevent Recurrence Licensee--Corrective actions
taken by the licensee involved modifying procedures to include
removing Central Booking from radioisotope ordering (the
referring physician will fax the order directly to Nuclear
Medicine), switching from I-131 to I-123 for thyroid uptake
studies, and revising the nuclear medicine request form for
thyroid procedures.
State Agency--The State reviewed and approved the corrective
actions taken by the licensee and will follow-up at the next
inspection.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
AS 05-03 High Dose-Rate Afterloader Medical Event at Saddleback
Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California Criterion IV,
``For Medical Licensees,'' of Appendix A to this report states,
in part, that a medical event that results in a dose that is (1)
equal to or greater than 1 Gy (100 rads) to a major portion of
the bone marrow, to the lens of the eye, or the gonads, or (2)
equal to or greater than 10 Gy (1,000 rads) to any other organ;
and represents a prescribed dose or dosage that is delivered to
the wrong treatment site will be considered for reporting as an
AO.
Date and Place--January 24-28, 2005; Saddleback Memorial Medical
Center; Laguna Hills, California.
Nature and Probable Consequences--A patient undergoing
therapeutic radiation treatment following a breast lumpectomy was
treated with a high dose-rate (HDR) device using an iridium-192
(Ir-192) source with an activity of 277.5 GBq (7.5 Ci). The
prescribed dose was 35 Gy (3,500 rads) to the inside of the
breast at the site of the excised tumor, but instead the patient
received 70 Gy (7,000 rads) to other portions of the breast
during treatment. The unintended irradiation occurred when the
HDR device was mispositioned. Re-evaluation of the treatment plan
revealed that the wrong source wire travel distance was used
during the treatment. The Ir-192 source was positioned 8
centimeters (cm) short of the planned location. The licensee
believes the error occurred when the source wire travel distance
was input to the HDR device; however, since no record was
maintained of the source wire travel distance measured by the
therapy technologist, this could not be verified. It is known
that the incorrect distance was input to the HDR planning system.
The patient and the referring physician were notified of the
event.
No long-term health effects are expected due to the unplanned
tissue dose.
Cause(s)--This event was attributed to human error and an
inadequate procedure.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence
[[Page 26396]] Licensee--A procedure was developed specifying the
need to verify and document the verification of source wire
travel distance determination and training on the correct input
to the treatment planning system was performed. In addition,
nominal source wire travel distances for expected types of HDR
usage were added to the form utilized for recording the HDR
treatment quality assurance checklist, thus providing a check on
the determination of this parameter.
State Agency--State inspectors investigated the medical event and
issued written violations for failure to follow a license
condition that required independent verification of HDR treatment
data input, and for failure to report the medical event to the
state within 24 hours of its discovery. The State reviewed the
licensee's corrective actions and found them adequate to prevent
recurrence.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
AS 05-04 Yttrium-90 Therapeutic Medical Event at University of
Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin Criterion IV, ``For Medical
Licensees,'' of Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a
medical event that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or
greater than 1 Gy (100 rads) to a major portion of the bone
marrow, to the lens of the eye, or the gonads, or (2) equal to or
greater than 10 Gy (1,000 rads) to any other organ; and
represents a prescribed dose or dosage that is delivered to the
wrong treatment site will be considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--April 5, 2005; University of Wisconsin in
Madison; Madison, Wisconsin.
Nature and Probable Consequences--A patient was administered a
1.78 GBq (48 mCi) dose of yttrium-90 (Y-90), instead of the
intended 1.04 GBq (28 mCi) Y-90 dose. As a result of the medical
event, the patient received a dose of 1.07 to 3.20 Gy (107 to 320
rads) to the red bone marrow, with a median exposure of 2.31 Gy
(231 rads) from Y-90. The error was discovered on April 7, 2005,
during a licensee review of records. The patient and referring
physician were notified of the event. The licensee indicated
there will be no negative health effects from this
administration.
Cause(s)--Lack of management oversight which attributed to
failure to prepare a written directive prior to the
administration, a poor training program, and human error.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence Licensee--The licensee
suspended the use of Y-90 and conducted a root cause
investigation of the event. The licensee's corrective actions
included writing new policies and procedures, implementing new
training programs, and hiring new personnel.
State Agency--The State of Wisconsin investigated the event on
April 11, 2005 and determined that the licensee (1) failed to
prepare a written directive prior to administering the Y-90, (2)
failed to prevent usage of a dose that differed from the intended
dosage by more than 20 percent, (3) failed to establish
appropriate administrative procedures, (4) failed to ensure
radiation safety activities were performed under approved
procedures, and (5) failed to instruct individuals working under
the supervision of an authorized user of the licensee's written
directive procedures. A medical consultant contracted by the
State of Wisconsin determined that no adverse medical effects
occurred as a result of this medical event. As a result of the
State's investigation, the licensee implemented the corrective
actions detailed above. The State reviewed the licensee's
corrective actions and found them adequate to prevent recurrence.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
AS 05-05 Therapeutic Medical Event at University of Utah in Salt
Lake City, Utah Criterion IV, ``For Medical Licensees,'' of
Appendix A to this report states, in part, that a medical event
that results in a dose that is (1) equal to or greater than 1 Gy
(100 rads) to a major portion of the bone marrow, to the lens of
the eye, or the gonads, or (2) equal to or greater than 10 Gy
(1,000 rads) to any other organ; and represents a prescribed dose
or dosage that is delivered to the wrong treatment site, will be
considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--August 4, 2005; University of Utah; Salt Lake
City, Utah.
Nature and Probable Consequences--A patient received radiation
therapy to the left bronchus using a high dose-rate (HDR) device.
The HDR contained a 252 GBq (6.81 Ci) iridium-192 (Ir-192)
source. The prescribed radiation therapy treatment plan called
for three treatments to the left bronchus, each fraction to
deliver a dose of 7 Gy (700 rads). The medical event, which
occurred during the second treatment, was due to a 3-centimeter
(cm) error in the source wire travel distance. The source wire
distance was entered incorrectly by a medical physicist. As a
result, a 3 cm length of the left bronchus received approximately
6.40 to 18.60 Gy (640 to 1,860 rads) at a 0.5 cm depth and 2.54
to 6.62 Gy (254 to 662 rads) at a 1 cm depth. A 3-cm region next
to the intended treatment site received up to 6 Gy (600 rads)
less than the prescribed dose. The licensee notified the patient
and the patient's referring physician of the event. The patient
received no adverse health effects from the medical event.
Cause(s)--This event was attributed to human error in that the
treatment site was not verified.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence Licensee--The licensee
implemented a new procedure adding a question to verify the
treatment distances during HDR treatments.
State Agency--The State has reviewed and accepted the licensee's
corrective actions. This event is closed for the purpose of this
report.
AS 05-06 Dose to Fetus at Riverside Methodist Hospital in
Columbus, Ohio Criterion I.A.2, ``For All Licensees,'' of
Appendix A to this report states, ``Any unintended radiation
exposure to any minor (an individual less than 18 years of age)
resulting in an annual total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) of
50 millisieverts (mSv) (5 rem) or more, or to an embryo/fetus
resulting in a dose equivalent of 50 mSv (5 rem) or more,'' will
be considered for reporting as an AO.
Date and Place--November 2 and November 16, 2004; Riverside
Methodist Hospital; Columbus, Ohio.
Nature and Probable Consequences--On November 2, 2004, a patient
was administered 7.59 MBq (0.205 mCi) of iodine-123 (I-123) as
part of a diagnostic procedure for hyperthyroidism. On November
16, 2004, the patient returned for a therapeutic treatment and
was administered 469.9 MBq (12.7 mCi) of iodine-131 (I-131) as
treatment. Prior to this administration, the patient was
counseled regarding pregnancy and acknowledged, in writing, that
she was not and could not be pregnant at that time. A pregnancy
test was not performed to confirm this declaration. Later, the
patient saw her physician because of abdominal pain. A radiograph
of the abdomen revealed the pregnancy. A prenatal specialist
determined that the fetus was 17 weeks old at the time of the
I-131 administration. The dose estimate for the fetus was 0.024
Gy (2.04 rads) to the whole body and 224 Gy (22,400 rads) to the
fetal thyroid from both I-123 and I-131 administrations. The
perinatal specialist performed a blood test on the fetus and
confirmed that the fetus had hyperthyroidism. An ultrasound test
on the fetus showed no abnormalities in fetal development. The
perinatal specialist will perform treatments in-
[[Page 26397]] utero to mitigate the effects of hyperthyroidism.
The referring physician and patient were notified of the medical
event.
Cause(s)--The cause of the event was human error. At the time of
the administration, the patient was unaware of her pregnancy
status and completed forms indicating that she was not pregnant.
Actions Taken to Prevent Recurrence Licensee--The licensee has
implemented a policy performing a serum pregnancy test and
receiving the results within 80 hours of administration of
therapeutic amounts of I-131. This test will be performed on all
women 13 to 50 years of age, unless the women have been
surgically sterilized.
State Agency--The Ohio Department of Health performed an on-site
investigation on January 28, 2005 and determined that the
licensee followed all required procedures. The State agency will
conduct periodic inspections to ensure that the licensee's
actions taken to prevent recurrence were implemented.
This event is closed for the purpose of this report.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 28th day of April, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. E6-6746 Filed 5-3-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
32 NRC: Regulatory Guide: Issuance, Availability
FR Doc E6-6747
[Federal Register: May 4, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 86)] [Notices]
[Page 26392-26393] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04my06-66]
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a
revision to an existing guide in the agency's Regulatory Guide
Series.
This series has been developed to describe and make available to
the public such information as methods that are acceptable to the
NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the NRCs
regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating
specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the
staff needs in its review of applications for permits and
licenses.
Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.201, ``Guidelines for
Categorizing Structures, Systems, and Components in Nuclear Power
Plants According to Their Safety Significance,'' which is being
issued for trial use, describes a method that the NRC staff
considers acceptable for use in complying with the Commission's
requirements in Title 10, section 50.69, of the Code of Federal
Regulations (Sec. 50.69), with respect to the categorization of
structures, systems, and components (SSCs) that are considered in
risk-informing special treatment requirements. This
categorization method uses the process that the Nuclear Energy
Institute (NEI) described in Revision 0 of its guidance document
NEI 00-04, ``10 CFR 50.69 SSC Categorization Guideline,'' dated
July 2005.\1\ Specifically, this process determines the safety
significance of SSCs and categorizes them into one of four
risk-informed safety class (RISC) categories.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \1\ NEI 00-04, ``10 CFR 50.69 SSC Categorization
Guideline,'' is available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS),
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/ web- based.html, under
Accession ML052910035.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- The NRC has promulgated regulations to permit power
reactor licensees and license applicants to implement an
alternative regulatory framework with respect to ``special
treatment,'' where special treatment refers to those requirements
that provide increased assurance beyond normal industrial
practices that SSCs perform their design-basis functions. Under
this framework, licensees using a risk-informed process for
categorizing SSCs according to their safety significance can
remove SSCs of low safety significance from the scope of certain
identified special treatment requirements.
The genesis of this framework stems from Option 2 of SECY-98-300,
``Options for Risk-Informed Revisions to 10 CFR Part 50,
`Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities',''
dated December 23, 1998.\2\ In that Commission paper, the NRC
staff recommended developing risk-informed approaches to the
application of special treatment requirements to reduce
[[Page 26393]] unnecessary regulatory burden related to SSCs of
low safety significance by removing such SSCs from the scope of
special treatment requirements. The Commission subsequently
approved the NRC staff's rulemaking plan and issuance of an
Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) as outlined in
SECY-99-256, ``Rulemaking Plan for Risk-Informing Special
Treatment Requirements,'' dated October 29, 1999.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \2\ Commission papers cited in this notice are
available through the NRC's public Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ doc-
collections/commission/secys/, and the related Federal Register
notices are available through the Federal Register Web site
sponsored by the Government Printing Office (GPO) at
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html .
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- The Commission published the ANPR in the Federal
Register (65 FR 11488) on March 3, 2000, and subsequently
published a proposed rule for public comment (68 FR 26511) on May
16, 2003. Then, on November 22, 2004, the Commission adopted a
new section, referred to as Sec. 50.69, within Title 10, part 50,
of the Code of Federal Regulations, on risk- informed
categorization and treatment of SSCs for nuclear power plants (69
FR 68008).
The NRC issued a draft of this guide, Draft Regulatory Guide DG-
1121, for public review and comment as part of the Sec. 50.69
rulemaking package in May 2003. The staff subsequently received
and addressed public comments in developing the previous revision
of this guide, which the agency published in January 2006, and
has since incorporated additional stakeholder comments in
preparing the current revision. However, since this is a new
regulatory approach to categorizing SSCs, and to ensure that the
final guidance adequately addresses lessons learned from the
initial applications, the NRC decided to issue this guide for
trial use. Therefore, this trial regulatory guide does not
establish any final staff positions for purposes of the Backfit
Rule, 10 CFR 50.109, and may continue to be revised in response
to experience with its use. As such, any changes to this trial
guide prior to staff adoption in final form will not be
considered to be backfits as defined in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1). This
will ensure that the final regulatory guide adequately addresses
lessons learned from regulatory review of pilot and follow-on
applications, and that the guidance is sufficient to enhance
regulatory stability in the review, approval, and implementation
of probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) and their results in the
risk-informed categorization process required by Sec. 50.69. The
NRC staff encourages and welcomes comments and suggestions in
connection with improvements to published regulatory guides, as
well as items for inclusion in regulatory guides that are
currently being developed. You may submit comments by any of the
following methods.
Mail comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Hand-deliver comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and
4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays.
Fax comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, at (301)
415-5144.
Requests for technical information about Revision 1 of Regulatory
Guide 1.201 may be directed to Donald G. Harrison at (301)
415-3587 or via e-mail to DGH@nrc.gov. Regulatory guides are
available for inspection or downloading through the NRC's public
Web site in the Regulatory Guides document collection of the
NRC's Electronic Reading Room at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections. Electronic copies
of Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.201 are also available in the
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html , under Accession
ML061090627.
In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at
the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; the PDR's mailing address is
USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached
by telephone at (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4205, by fax at (301)
415-3548, and by e- mail to PDR@nrc.gov. Requests for single
copies of draft or final guides (which may be reproduced) or for
placement on an automatic distribution list for single copies of
future draft guides in specific divisions should be made in
writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001, Attention: Reproduction and Distribution Services
Section; by e-mail to DISTRIBUTION@nrc.gov; or by fax to (301)
415-2289. Telephone requests cannot be accommodated. Regulatory
guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is not
required to reproduce them.
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 552(a). Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this
1st day of May, 2006.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brian W. Sheron,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. E6-6747 Filed 5-3-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
33 NRC: NRC Renews Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Operating Licenses for an Additional 20 Years
News Release - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-061 May 4, 2006
each for an additional 20 years.
The Browns Ferry plant is located on the north shore of Wheeler
Reservoir in Limestone County, Ala., approximately 10 miles
northwest of Decatur. The licensee, the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA), submitted its license renewal application Dec.
31, 2003. With the renewal, the license for Unit 1 is extended
until Dec. 20, 2033; the license for Unit 2 is extended until
June 28, 2034; and the license for Unit 3 is extended until July
2, 2036.
The renewed licenses were signed today at the plant by James
Dyer, director of the NRCs Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
NRC Chairman Nils J. Diaz attended the signing ceremony.
The NRC is utilizing a fair, equitable and safety-driven process
to review license renewal applications in a timely manner, Diaz
said at the signing ceremony.
All three units of the Browns Ferry plant were shut down in 1985
but retained NRC operating licenses. Unit 2 was restarted in
1991 and Unit 3 was restarted in 1995. TVA has been doing
extensive work on Unit 1 and says it expects to have that unit
ready to begin operating again by 2007.
The NRCs environmental review for this license renewal is
described in a site-specific supplement to the NRCs Generic
Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear
Power Plants (NUREG-1437, Supplement 21), issued in June. The
review concluded there were no environmental impacts that would
preclude renewal of the licenses for environmental reasons.
Public meetings to discuss the environmental review were held
near the plant April 1, 2004, and Jan. 25, 2005.
After carefully reviewing the plants safety systems and
specifications, the staff concluded that there were no safety
concerns that would preclude license renewal, because the
licensee had demonstrated effectively the capability to manage
the effects of plant aging. The Safety Evaluation Report Related
to the License Renewal of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Units
1, 2 and 3" (NUREG-1843) and a supplement were published in
April. In addition, NRC conducted inspections of the plant to
verify information submitted by the licensee. The reports
relating to the Browns Ferry renewal are available on the NRC
Web site at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/browns-ferry.html.
On March 23, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards - an
independent body of technical experts which advises the
Commission - issued its recommendation that the operating
licenses for Browns Ferry be renewed. That recommendation is
contained in Report on the Safety Aspects of the License Renewal
Application for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Units 1, 2 and
3. This document is available on the NRC Web site at this
address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/letters/2006/.
The Browns Ferry renewals bring the total number of renewals to
42 reactor units. A complete listing of renewal applications can
be found on the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html.
Last revised Thursday, May 04, 2006
*****************************************************************
34 Orlando Sentinel: House sees future in nuclear power -
The bill encourages building new plants, renewable energy and
conservation efforts.
David Fleshler |
Tallahassee Bureau Posted May 4, 2006
TALLAHASSEE -- An energy plan that encourages construction of
nuclear-power plants and provides tax breaks for renewable energy
won overwhelming approval Wednesday in the Florida House.
Proposed by Gov. Jeb Bush, the plan removes many legal and
financial obstacles to nuclear power, in an attempt to diversify
the state's fuel sources, now dominated by natural gas. It also
creates a tax holiday for the purchase of energy-saving
appliances and provides tax credits and other incentives for
solar power and other forms of alternative energy.
"This is a comprehensive energy package that provides
conservation incentives as well as lays the foundation for
Florida's energy future," said Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach,
the bill's House sponsor.
The Senate already approved the bill, but the House made
changes that will send it back to that chamber.
The plan allows utilities to add construction costs to
customers' electric bills during construction of a nuclear
plant, rather than following the usual procedure of waiting
until the plant goes into service.
Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light Co. have announced
plans to build nuclear plants in Florida.
They say they need this change to persuade investors to put up
the money for nuclear plants, which can cost $4 billion.
The bill also shortens the state approval process, making it
more difficult for local governments to stop power plants, a
provision that concerned some members.
"That's not local control," said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-Royal
Palm Beach, the only member to vote against the bill. "If it's
going to affect local individuals, they should have a voice."
Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, another sponsor, said the
change was necessary to prevent a small community from vetoing
projects that could free the state from dependence on Middle
East oil and gas.
"We certainly want input from local communities, but this is a
massive project that will serve the state for years to come," he
said.
The legislation originally said nothing about global warming.
But the bills create a state Energy Commission, an advisory body
to the Legislature, and amendments in the House and Senate
require the commission to come up with ways to reduce emissions
of greenhouse gases.
Adding global warming to the agenda of an advisory commission
leaves Florida trailing many large states, such as New York and
California, which are already crafting specific plans to reduce
heat-trapping gases. But environmentalists said it was a victory
to see it mentioned at all.
"I am very happy that the state of Florida will now be dealing
with greenhouse-gas emissions," said Susan Glickman, Florida
representative for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The
evidence has become so overwhelming about global warming and its
implications for Florida."
David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or
850-222-5564.
© 2006 Orlando Sentinel Communications
*****************************************************************
35 Rutland Herald: State drops objections to Yankee uprate
May 4, 2006
By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff
MONTPELIER - The Department of Public Service has dropped its
formal objections to the power boost at Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant, announcing late Tuesday it had negotiated additional
safety concessions from Entergy Nuclear.
The department had filed an appeal with the Atomic Safety
Licensing Board in 2004, saying it was worried Entergy's plans
would reduce safety margins for the pumps in the emergency core
cooling system.
The formal hearing on the state's concerns was slated to be held
in September.
William Sherman, the state's nuclear engineer with the Department
of Public Service, said that the state had "gotten what it
wanted" from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during its lengthy
review of the power uprate case and thus was dropping its
objections.
The concessions include Entergy's agreement to a full containment
pressure test in 2010, before the plant is relicensed. Sherman
termed that test, which would require the plant to shut down for
three days, "a big deal."
The company also has agreed to share information about the amount
of nitrogen used in the containment, which is an indication of
the containment's integrity and whether there are any leaks, the
engineer said.
Entergy also has agreed to perform a special inspection on the
torus after each outage. The torus, a giant water-filled
reservoir within the containment, is a key part of the emergency
core cooling system.
Sherman said until the state filed its objections back in 2004,
the NRC wasn't going to do its own calculations about some of the
stress effects from the power boost.
But, he said, the state forced the NRC to do its own calculations
rather than relying on the work of Entergy, Sherman said.
While the state has dropped its objections, the New England
Coalition has two formal objections still pending with the board,
and the anti-nuclear group recently filed four additional ones
connected to problems that have come up during the power boost.
"The NRC ended up asking a lot of extra questions about
over-pressure," he said.
Sherman said the state was also able to air its concerns before
another semi-independent nuclear panel, the Advisory Committee on
Reactor Safeguards, which late last year endorsed the power
boost, but not before demanding additional calculations about the
plan from Entergy.
"The bottom line is we got what we wanted - a complex review of
the uprate," Sherman said.
Vermont Yankee has halted the power boost at 117.5 percent power
since late last week, after more acoustic vibrations developed
and increased moisture levels were detected in the steam dryer, a
critical component in the power boost. The company said it would
do about 10 days of tests and analysis to determine the possible
safety effects of the two potential problems.
"It's a sad day. The small concessions they've gotten in no way
can provide the public with little or no assurance that the
emergency safety systems are going to work. The pumps we are
talking about are emergency cooling pumps," Raymond Shadis of the
New England Coalition said.
"We are exploring whether we can adopt the state's discarded
contention," Shadis said, noting the issue was really about the
reduction of safety margins at nuclear power plants.
Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
said the ASLB would be in Brattleboro next month to hear from the
public about its concerns about the uprate. The formal hearing is
still scheduled for September, he said.
*****************************************************************
36 UPI: Tunisia also seeking nuclear technology
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
5/4/2006 7:46:00 AM -0400
TUNIS, Tunisia, May 4 (UPI) -- Nuclear technology fever is
apparently sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, as Tunisia
has said it is considering the construction of a nuclear plant.
Minister of Scientific Research and Technology al-Tayeb Hazri
said Thursday his government is seriously studying the
possibility of setting up a nuclear plant to produce
electricity.
Speaking before parliament during a debate of the basic by-laws
of the Arab Agency for Nuclear Energy, Hazri said several
studies have been conducted in the past to determine the
feasibility of building such a plant.
His ministry is currently focusing on studying the location and
financing of the plant that would produce 600 megawatts of
nuclear energy at a cost of $1.14 billion, Hazri said.
The minister pointed out that the period between the start of
construction and actual production will be at least 10 years.
He also stressed that several industrial and agricultural
projects in Tunisia depend on nuclear energy, including
pasteurizing food items and desalinating sea water.
© Copyright 2006 United Press
International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
37 Whitehaven News: Chernobyl still casts a long shadow
Published on 04/05/2006
['TWENTY years on:Farmer Kevin Holliday at Strudda Bank Farm.
"We tried to convince the powers-that-be that there was very
little chance of a "hot" animal getting into the food chain, but
they would not listen’' width=] TWENTY years on:Farmer Kevin
Holliday at Strudda Bank Farm. â€We tried to convince the
powers-that-be that there was very little chance of a â€hot’
animal getting into the food chain, but they would not listen’
NINE hillfarms in West Cumbria are still under restrictions
caused by events 20 years ago when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor
exploded.
Among those who recall the way the winds brought radioactive
contamination to the fells are the Hollidays, who farm near
Calderbridge.
When the radioactive cloud struck, Kevin Holliday and his wife
Yvonne had only been married a few months and had just moved into
500-acre Strudda Bank Farm on Cold Fell.
They had 800 breeding ewes and it was lambing time.
He explained: “Within six weeks of moving in, Chernobyl
dropped. The alarm bells rang at Sellafield and we were told we
were not to go out.
“It was raining every day, but we were lambing day and night.
We got the warning but we had to keep going.”
Heavy rain on May 2 and May 3 washed the radioactive caesium into
the fells and it was soaked up by the plants.
Agriculture officials monitored milk and foodstuffs from the
affected areas and it was found that only sheep meat was
contaminated to levels that caused concern for food safety.
A radioactive limit of 1,000 becquerels per kilogram was set
(lower than a later EU-approved limit) per animal and a â€mark
and release’ scheme was introduced.
This meant agriculture officials visited affected farms,
monitored animals with a Geiger counter and any â€hot’ sheep
would be marked with paint and were not allowed off the farm.
â€Clean’ sheep were allowed to go to market as normal and
farmers were paid ÂŁ1.30 for every animal tested.
Strudda Farm was one of 1,670 in England placed under
restriction, covering a total of 867,000 sheep.
Mr Holliday, 45, said: “We were issued with tins of swimming
pool blue paint and had to shave a three-inch strip on the
sheep’s head and dab the paint on.
“We found that when we brought the sheep off the fells to
finish them on pasture, the radiation would be cleaned out in a
fortnight.
“We tried to convince the â€powers-that-be’ that there was
very little chance of a â€hot’ animal getting into the food
chain, but they would not listen.
“We got into a routine of going to market every fortnight, that
gave us time to clear the animals out and notify the officials to
come check they were not â€hot’.”
The lambing was normal that first year, and the year after, but
the next crop of youngsters saw a horrific number of deformities.
Lambs were born disfigured, which can happen naturally, but not
in the numbers Mr Holliday and his neighbours saw, he says. Two
of the worst were an eight-legged lamb and one born with a lung
on the outside of its body. It died within weeks.
“I was getting 10 a year for the next two years,” he said.
“I have never seen anything like that before, or since. Now
I’m back down to none.”
In January this year, the government revealed that restrictions
on sheep still remained in nine farms in the south and west of
Cumbria, as well as farms in Scotland and parts of North Wales.
Some 6,600 sheep are affected in Cumbria; 176,000 at 355 farms in
Wales; and 18,000 sheep at 11 Scottish farms.
Strudda Bank Farm was under restriction orders for five years,
though the deformities continued until the mid-Nineties.
When the restrictions were lifted, it took a while to sink in.
Mr Holliday said: “We got into such a routine over the years
that when restrictions were over, it didn’t feel right going to
auction without the paperwork.
“It was so drilled into me, it felt as though I was doing
something wrong.”
Kevin’s father, Dennis Holliday lost his jaw and has had his
tongue â€mashed’ by cancer, impairing his speech.
Despite this, the 74-year-old is thoughtful, eloquent and
forceful on the subject of radiation dangers and the effects of
Chernobyl.
He believes the Chernobyl cloud â€topped up’ the residual
radiation that was already in the ground from the 1957 Windscale
fire.
He says that most of his friends had died at an early age of one
form of cancer or another. But he doesn’t blame Sellafield,
Chernobyl or radiation for his illness.
He says it is ironic and a coincidence.
The farmer said Chernobyl was a much-needed wake-up call for the
nuclear industry to tighten daily practice and security.
He said: “If I had known all those years ago that we would
suffer like this, I would not have moved here from Penrith.
“Before Chernobyl, I had serious concerns about radiation
because of the lambs and calves being born with problems in the
Seventies.
“Chernobyl showed that we had residual contamination round the
nuclear establishments in Britain.
“It was a wake-up call for everyone that our safety was not up
to scratch.”
Mr Holliday has had a farm on land lying between Sellafield and
St Bees for the past 20 years. Before that, he was at Strudda for
20 years, before handing it on to Kevin.
He said: “Most people are surprised that I’m a supporter of
the nuclear industry, but we need nuclear power.
“I don’t blame the industry for my cancer, it is just a
coincidence.
“It is ironic that after all the years I’ve spent warning
about the safety of the industry, I’ve been affected by
cancer.”
Research by the Centre of Ecology in Dorchester has confirmed
that as much as 60 per cent of the radioactive caesium on some
affected farms derived from the 1957 Windscale fire rather than
from Chernobyl.
Meanwhile researchers for the government’s Food Standards
Agency say restrictions have to stay in place on some farms, not
including Strudda Bank.
The agency stated: “In both 2004 and 2005, a number of sheep
presented estimated activity concentrations above or close to the
Working Action Level (currently 645 Bq/kg).
“This seems to contradict the previous downward trend of
results observed between 1996 and 2000, which saw the maximum
estimated activity concentration drop below the Working Action
Level and the estimated mean concentration fall to background
levels.
“However, allowing for temporal variation in the availability
of radiocaesium in the environment, it would suggest levels are
consistent with those found in the period to 1999 (the 2000
results being particularly low) and it is unlikely that the farm
will be suitable for de-restriction in the near future.
Youngsters from Belarus whose lives have been affected by the
explosion have been holidaying as guests of Cumbrian families for
11 years.
Kevin Holliday was host to two youngsters and he said: “When
they arrived they were like two little ghosts. But they had a
great time playing in the field and helping with the hay and at
the end of their month-long stay they bounced out.”
The children, aged seven to 11 are invited over by the
Cockermouth branch of the charity Friends of Chernobyl’s
Children.
They stay for a month and can return for up to three years before
another child is given the chance to enjoy a glimpse of Cumbrian
life.
Belarus was hit hardest by the fall-out from Chernobyl and the
children there still suffer from health disorders caused by its
legacy.
Co-ordinator Kate Wilson is back at home in Dearham after a
harrowing trip to the Mogilev district of Belarus – home to the
children.
This is Kate’s ninth year as a host, but the five day visit was
her first trip to Mogilev.
She said: “It was hard, emotionally. In Belarus, only 10 per
cent of children are well.
“They suffer from respiratory illnesses, immune deficiencies,
kidney problems and thyroid cancers.
“We went to take medicines and money and see how they live.
“It was a real eye-opener and they are the most desperate
living conditions.
“The majority of our children are from single parent homes and
they live in a one-room flat where they eat and sleep and share
toilets and a kitchen with five other families but they were not
in any way dirty and the food they cooked for us was delicious.
“They make the best of it and it is quite humbling.”
The charity has provided much-needed holidays for about 60
children.
Host families undergo a rigorous quizzing before they are
accepted but the 46-year-old mother of two said the trips were
just as good for the hosts.
She said: “As a family you benefit from having these
children.”
Anyone interested in hosting a child should contact Kate Wilson
on 01900 813765, although there is a waiting list to be a host.
*****************************************************************
38 Edinburgh Evening News: Motorists warned of nuclear convoy dangers
Thu 4 May 2006
GREEN politicians today posted a reminder to drivers on the city
bypass of the dangers posed by road convoys carrying nuclear
warheads between nuclear bases.
Lothians MSP Mark Ballard unveiled a huge banner on a flyover at
Lothianburn.
The heavily guarded convoys transport completed warheads from
Aldermaston, Berkshire, to the Coulport MoD base by Loch Long,
north of Glasgow.
Convoys pass through Scotland roughly once every six weeks.
It is thought that the convoys can carry up to 8kg of plutonium
in each trip and Mr Ballard claimed that any accident involving
an explosion or fire could lead to a radioactive plume spreading
for miles around the Capital.
He said: "It is terrifying to think vehicles carrying such
dangerous materials drive along Edinburgh roads, and that those
in the area are given no information."
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com
*****************************************************************
39 Rocky Mountain News: Delays in nuke compensation angers Congress
By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
May 4, 2006 Nearly 90 percent of sick nuclear
weapons plant workers seeking a particular type of federal aid
for their illnesses are still waiting for answers six years
after Congress approved the compensation program.
During a hearing Thursday, members of Congress from both parties
expressed frustration with this slow response, and with plans by
the Bush Administration to cut the program's budget.
The program was created in 2000 by Congress to provide medical
care and typically $150,000 in compensation to workers who were
sickened or died as a result of radiation or chemical exposure
while building the nation's atomic bombs.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Washington, said that half the program is
moving along, reaching decisions for 74 percent of the workers
with illnesses such as cancer and beryllium disease. But the
second half of the program, which covers more unusual illnesses,
continues to be mired in delay, despite a reform passed last
year. The second half, called Part E, has provided decisions to
only 10.5 percent of the nearly 40,000 workers who filed claims,
Hastings said.
Several members of Congress from states with weapons plants,
including Colorado's Rep. Mark Udall, used the hearing to
condemn plans by the Bush Administration to cut the aid program
by $686 million in 2007 for budget reasons.
An administration budget document "outlines an outrageous
attempt to circumvent congressional intent," Udall said.
Rep. Zack Wamp, R-Tenn., said that when the program was approved
in 2000, lawmakers agreed that sick workers should be helped
even if the cost added to the national debt. "You owe
compensation to people the government has harmed," he said.
"It's like a court order."
Hastings noted that workers in his state managed to build the
world's first nuclear reactor to create plutonium for the first
nuclear bomb during World War II in just 13 months.
"It should not take five years for processing claims."
2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
40 Guardian Unlimited: House Approves Cargo Screening at Ports
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday May 4, 2006 11:31 PM
AP Photo NYET572
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House overwhelmingly approved legislation
Thursday to try and stop nuclear weapons from being smuggled
into the country by screening nearly all cargo for radiological
materials at seaports. Yet the technology will not be available,
the Bush administration said.
The 421-2 vote capped months of election-year debate in Congress
over how to make the 140 U.S. seaports less vulnerable to
terrorist threats without curbing commerce.
The bill ``will improve the safety of the American people and
the security of our global supply chain,'' said Rep. Dan
Lungren, R-Calif. He said it ``ensures our shores are our last
line of defense, not our first.''
The Homeland Security Department currently opens for inspections
6 percent of the 11 million cargo containers that enter U.S.
seaports annually. Those containers are considered high-risk,
said department spokeswoman Leah Yoon, for reasons such as the
security of the originating port or a shipper's history.
The department aims screen 65 percent of goods for radiological
materials by October, Yoon said.
In a statement, President Bush described himself as pleased with
the bill, which he said will ``enhance the security of our
nation's ports.'' But the White House Office of Management and
Budget picked apart the $5.5 billion plan, which it said will
``have serious resource implications'' in putting detectors at
22 major ports by next year, as the legislation requires.
The White House office also termed as unnecessary a $400 million
annual grant program over six years to pay for other security
measures at ports. The bill does not provide the funds for the
added security measures.
A debate over the bill briefly escalated into a shouting match
when the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, GOP
Rep. Peter King of New York, said his Long Island district lost
more 150 residents in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Taking aim at Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who earlier held
up a cargo container's lock to call for stronger security seals,
King said, ``I don't need visual aids to remind me what happened
on September 11.''
``There were Bostonians on that plane!'' Markey yelled back.
Congress made port security a priority after the fight this year
over a Dubai company's purchase of a British company that
controlled of some operations at six American ports. The outcry
led the Dubai company, DP World, to decide to sell the U.S.
operations to an American company.
House Democrats said the legislation does not go far enough to
secure ports as they pushed an alternative that would require
X-rays for all cargo at foreign ports that is headed to the
United States.
Republicans said this requirement would snarl port traffic and
stymie the economy because the high-tech X-ray technology needed
is not widely available.
``All it takes is one atomic or radiological bomb to make 9-11
look like a firecracker,'' said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. ``If
we really want to make this country safer, we must demand that
before any container is put on a ship bound for the United
States it must be scanned electronically in the foreign port.
It's too late if we find a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles or New
York.''
The bill calls for screening 98 percent of all incoming cargo
with the nuclear detectors by Oct. 1, 2007. The measure
includes:
-$2.4 billion for ports security grants over six years; King
said the money would be shifted from U.S. Customs funds.
-$1.2 billion to expand and enhance security measures at foreign
ports. That could mean buying radiation detectors to install
worldwide.
-$536 million for research and development at Homeland
Security's office of domestic nuclear detection. Of this, an
estimated $157 million would be spent on the radiation monitors,
House aides said.
Currently, 214 radiological monitors that screen for nuclear
materials are installed at U.S. seaports, at an estimated cost
of $350,000 each, Yoon said.
The House bill would require port workers to secure ID cards
with tamper-resistant digital photographs - something Homeland
Security is already doing.
A Senate committee has approved a similar bill that would
require Homeland Security to provide nuclear screening and X-ray
imaging of cargo at three foreign seaports as a test pilot that
could be expanded.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
41 New Mexican: Lawmakers criticize comp program for nuclear workers
Thu May 4, 2006 5:11 pm
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - House lawmakers who represent sick nuclear
weapons workers said Thursday the federal government should step
up its efforts to compensate the workers.
"You sense the urgency from all the claimants," Rep. Tom Udall,
D-N.M., said of the workers and their families. Many of the
workers, or their surviving spouses, are elderly.
"These nuclear weapons workers served America well, and honor
demands that they be well served in return," said Rep. Mark
Udall, D-Colo.
The Udalls, who are cousins, joined Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in testifying before a House
Judiciary subcommittee on the compensation program.
Wamp, whose district includes facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn.,
said he has received complaints about the length of time it takes
for claims to be processed. He also said some claimants have had
trouble getting information from the agencies involved.
"Our nation's nuclear workers and their families deserve fair
and timely compensation for work-related illnesses," Wamp said.
The hearing was the second in a series examining the compensation
program, which was created by Congress in 2000. Workers exposed
to cancer-causing radiation or beryllium and silica _ which cause
lung diseases _ get a lump sum payment of $150,000 plus medical
benefits.
The Labor Department estimates it has paid out more than $1
billion in straight compensation, not including medical
payments, under the program. Most of the workers were at Energy
Department facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New
Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
Wamp defended Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the government
contractor helping to administer the program. Critics say the
Tennessee-based company has failed to police conflicts of
interest among its staff.
For example, some contractor employees who are writing reports
about the nuclear facilities were responsible for monitoring
radiation there over the years. Some also served as expert
witnesses for the government during the period in which the
government fought compensation claims.
Wamp said the contractor has a good track record, but that he
welcomed a congressional investigation into its performance.
Rep. John Hostettler, R-Indiana, who chaired the hearing and has
jurisdiction over government claims, ordered the investigation.
Hostettler decided to hold hearings after an internal White
House budget document was publicized that discussed limiting the
program's costs, including calling for administration clearance
of benefits decisions.
Hostettler said Bush administration officials and claimants
would be asked to testify at an upcoming, not-yet-scheduled
hearing. Hostettler said he has been in talks with Bush
administration officials and has "heard more on the reassuring
side" lately.
Still, the administration's memo remains a sore spot with
lawmakers.
"This amounts to injecting a political budgetary element into
independent science and fact-based decisions on the payment of
workers' claims," Hastings said.
___
On the Net:
Program statistics:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/owcp/eeoicp/weeklystats.ht
m
©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights reserved. Opinions
*****************************************************************
42 BBC: Radioactive warning on Fife beach
Radioactive
Last Updated: Thursday, 4 May 2006
[Dalgety Bay]
Traces of radiation have been turning up along the foreshore
Notices warning of radioactivity have been put up on a beach in
Fife after the discovery of dozens of contaminated items.
The move follows foreshore monitoring at Dalgety Bay on the Firth
of Forth.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) believes the
risk is low but warned people to take precautions.
The contamination is believed to have come from the luminous
dials of wartime aircraft thought to have been dumped there after
World War II.
Sepa has been carrying out a risk assessment at the bay and now
wants a detailed investigation to be carried out.
Skin burn
It concluded warning signs should be erected at the beach, which
has been carried out by Fife Council.
More than 90 radioactive items were discovered during monitoring.
The notices advise that radioactive material has been found on
the beach, that people should wash their hands after handling any
material and that nothing should be removed, including fish or
shellfish.
However, the risks from coming into contact with radioactive
material were said to be low, with the likely effect being a skin
burn.
More radioactive items have been found at Dalgety Bay than at
Sandside Beach, near the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness.
*****************************************************************
43 NRC: NRC Proposes $16,250 Fine for Marcus Hook, Pa., Company for Violations Involving
Radiation Exposures
News Release - Region I - 2006-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-031
May 4, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A.
Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
civil penalty for a Marcus Hook (Delaware County), Pa., company
for several violations of agency requirements. The most
significant violation by Epsilon Products Co. involved exposures
exceeding regulatory limits to five employees and contractors of
the firm who are not radiation workers and are therefore
considered members of the public.
Last Aug. 27th, Epsilon notified the NRC that a gauge containing
radioactive material (cesium-137) had malfunctioned at its
Marcus Hook site, with its radioactive source failing to retract
to the shielded position. The gauge was located outside of a
chemical process tank in order to monitor the buildup of
polymerized material within the vessel. Initially, the
unshielded source was not detected due to an inadequate
radiological survey conducted by a company technician.
Subsequent radiological surveys and interviews determined that
five workers who cleaned the interior of the tank between Aug.
23 and 27 received a radiation dose in excess of the regulatory
limit of 100 millirems because the source was unshielded at the
time. The doses ranged from 103 to 197 millirems. The highest
estimated dose is approximately 4 percent of the annual
allowable level for radiation workers. It is not expected that
these exposures will result in adverse health effects for the
exposed individuals.
A millirem is a measure of exposure to radiation. The average
American is exposed to about 360 millirems of radiation exposure
each year from natural and manmade sources.
In response to the event, the NRC performed a Special Inspection
at the facility between last Aug. 30 and Dec. 16, 2005, with the
inspectors identifying six apparent violations. Besides the
violation for radiation exposures experienced by the employees
and contractors, the other violations include: 1) failure to
maintain dose rates in unrestricted areas below 2 millirems in
any 1 hour; 2) failure to perform appropriate radiological
surveys in unrestricted and uncontrolled areas; 3) failure to
provide appropriate training to an authorized user of
radioactive materials; 4) failure to conduct adequate physical
inspections of the fixed gauge at the required 6-month interval;
and 5) failure to develop and implement operating and emergency
operating procedures that included instructions for testing each
gauge for proper operation.
While none of the employees received a radiation exposure that
is considered harmful, the NRC considers the failure to control
radiation doses within regulatory limits to any individuals who
are considered members of the public a serious matter, Region I
Administrator Samuel J. Collins wrote in a letter to Epsilon
regarding the enforcement action.
The company has taken steps to prevent a recurrence that include
removing the gauge involved from service; conducting a review of
its entire radiation safety program and recommending the
revision and/or development of radiation safety procedures; and
taking steps to ensure that only appropriately trained staff
members are permitted to use gauges containing radioactive
material.
Epsilon is required to provide the NRC with a written reply to
the violations within 30 days.
Last revised Thursday, May 04, 2006
*****************************************************************
44 Platts: Brush Wellman gets $7 million beryllium order for fusion reactor
New York (Platts)--3May2006
Brush Wellman's Beryllium Products business unit has received a
$7 million order to provide beryllium metal for the Joint
European Torus, the largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor
in the world. JET is located in England.
The order calls for delivery of 4.4 mt of beryllium
beginning late in the third quarter of 2006 and is expected to be
completed in the first half of 2007.
The order is from the European Fusion Development Agreement, the
agency that provides funding to JET. The beryllium will be used
for inner wall plasma facing components that will line the inside
of the reactor as part of a major recommissioning project to
prepare JET for fusion reaction testing. An earlier generation of
beryllium replacement tiles, also from Brush Wellman materials,
serviced the reactor beginning in the late 1980s.
"The beryllium specified for the JET application is our
high-purity S65 grade material," said Michael D. Anderson,
president of Beryllium Products. "Representatives of our Elmore,
Ohio, manufacturing facility have been working closely with JET
scientists in the United Kingdom, and we are prepared to begin
production of the material immediately."
JET produces a 100,000,000 degrees C reaction by fusing
deuterium and tritium in an intense magnetic field. The reactor
is a precursor for a planned larger, even more sophisticated
facility called ITER, which is scheduled to be built in France.
It is hoped that ITER will provide critical data to support the
technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power plant in
30 to 50 years.
Scientists see fusion as a practical source of future power
needs due to its low production of nuclear waste and high amount
of energy produced. Since no actual combustion occurs during the
reaction, fusion will not produce air pollution. Also, deuterium,
one of the fuel sources, can be extracted from seawater, while
tritium can be produced in the fusion reactor itself from
lithium.
Brush Wellman, the world's only fully integrated producer of
beryllium, beryllium-containing alloys and beryllia ceramic, is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered Materials. Brush
Engineered Materials is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
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]
*****************************************************************
45 News & Star: Group faces court after radioactive leak
Published on 04/05/2006
By Andrea Thompson
THE Health and Safety Executive has announced that it is bringing
a criminal prosecution against British Nuclear Group over a
massive radioactive leak which went undetected at Sellafield’s
Thorp plant for months.
Operators BNG is charged with breaching conditions regarding the
safe storage of radioactive materials.
The decision to bring the prosecution follows a detailed
investigation by the HSE’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
into the discovery of 83 cubic metres of radioactive liquor
which had leaked inside a protected area of the ÂŁ1.8billion
flagship reprocessing plant in April last year.
Two managers were suspended after the leak of acid containing
uranium and plutonium leaked from a pipe inside the shielded
area of the processing plant. The substance leaked into a
stainless steel-lined cell with 1.5m thick concrete walls and
was discovered on April 19, 2005.
HSE officials said there is no current evidence of any harm to
workers or the public. The facility remains closed and both
managers have now been reinstated after an internal inquiry.
It is thought the fluid may have been leaking for several months
before it was uncovered, said a Sellafield spokeswoman.
The HSE has applied to the courts for summonses alleging that
BNG breached three conditions attached to the Sellafield site
licence granted under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965.
A Sellafield spokeswoman said: “The company has fully
co-operated with the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
throughout its investigation and continues to make good progress
against the measures needed to enable the Thorp facility to
become operational again subject to regulations.”
She added that it would be inappropriate to comment further as
the case was the subject of legal proceedings.
An initial legal hearing has been scheduled for June 8 at
Whitehaven Magistrates Court.
*****************************************************************
46 JCLDS: Church Urges Alternatives for Nuclear Waste
4 May 2006
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints today asked the federal government to look for alternative
options for the disposal of nuclear waste.
In light of the ongoing discussion of the possible storage of
nuclear waste in Utah’s Skull Valley area, the First Presidency
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the
following statement:
“The transportation and storage of high-level nuclear
waste create substantial and legitimate public health, safety,
and environmental concerns.
“It is not reasonable to suggest that any one area bear a
disproportionate
burden of the transportation and concentration of nuclear waste.
“We ask the federal government to harness the technological
and creative power
of the country to develop options for the disposal of nuclear
waste.”
# # #
Contact a Church public affairs representative (journalists only)
Style guide note: When reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, please use the complete name of the Church
in the first reference. For more information on the use of the
name of the Church, go to our online style guide.
*****************************************************************
47 Guardian Unlimited: Undiagnosed nuclear waste lurking in Sellafield's 'ponds'
Neasa MacErlean
Thursday May 4, 2006
[Sellafield nuclear plant, where the Thorp reprocessing plant
has been closed]
The 'ponds' at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant contain
old machinery and equipment from the reactors. Photograph:
Christopher Furlong/Getty
They look like grotesque open-air swimming pools - and they
contain some of the UK's biggest problems regarding nuclear
waste.
Built 50 years ago at Sellafield, the "ponds" were part of the
cooling process on the nuclear bomb development programme and
then the Magnox reactors, built in the 1960s, to generate
electricity.
After the UK moved to better reactor technology, these ponds -
two uncovered, one covered - were half forgotten. Records were
mislaid and even birds flying overhead would add their
contribution to the 100 metre long, 20 metre deep, 40 metre wide
constructions.
But lurking in the water (officially described as "sludge") are
vast quantities of old machinery and equipment from the reactors
- such as the Magnox cladding.
Now, however, the ponds - these three and another three closed
pools which were built to better standards more recently - are
top of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency's (NDA) agenda.
The NDA is spending a third of its Ł1bn budget this year on
Sellafield, including work on the ponds and an assessment of how
much they have leaked their radioactive contents into the soil
around them.
The costs of processing the waste could well be greater than was
first imagined - especially since the scale of the problem and
how much land is contaminated is not known. For instance, the
NDA recently increased its cost projections for cleaning up the
UK's nuclear total legacy by 12% to Ł63bn.
The NDA's duties at Sellafield are deemed so important that they
were spelled out in the Energy Act 2004 - and must be completed
by April 2007.
The reason for focusing on this long-neglected part of the
nuclear waste programme is the current debate on whether the UK
should build more reactors. The government knows that it could
not move towards a nuclear future while the legacy of the past
is not just untreated, but undiagnosed.
Nirex, the government-owned body in charge of setting standards
on nuclear storage and decommissioning, is clear that a lot more
information needs to be obtained before physical action can be
taken to deal with the problems of the pools, contaminated land
at Sellafield, and similar issues in other locations, such as
the waste shaft at Dounreay on the Scottish coast.
Francis Brown, one of the senior scientists at Nirex, told
Guardian Unlimited: "The storage ponds may be cracked and
leaking. A big problem is trying to identify where the
contamination has taken place and how big it is. Soil has been
moved around - and so the contamination has moved around."
The Environment Agency - one of the regulators of the nuclear
industry - has similar views. A spokesman said: "We've got a
wide variety of radioactive waste in the UK. Some of it needs to
be characterised in more detail."
The problems the UK faces in dealing with nuclear waste are not
just about the real nasties in their pure forms - the plutonium,
uranium and spent nuclear fuel which can stay radioactive for
thousands of years.
In addition - because of our military history - the UK has a
large number of different radioactive substances and it is
difficult to be sure how these all react with each other and to
other elements and conditions.
So while Finland - which is building another new reactor - has
less than 30 different types of nuclear waste, the UK has 1,119,
according to Nirex's latest radioactive waste inventory.
British Nuclear Group (BNG) - which currently manages most
operations at Sellafield, including the ponds - sounded more
confident than the regulators.
"We've got very, very good, detailed records," a spokeswoman
said.
But BNG, and everyone else involved, will soon find out just how
good those records are. BNG uses a small submarine to assess the
equipment and compounds lying in the Sellafield ponds - but it
will have to persuade Mr Brown and his colleagues that they are
totally sure of what every milligram contains.
"They have to demonstrate that they know what they've got," Mr
Brown said.
By the time the public turns its gaze to such issues - when the
current nuclear debate is further down the road - the nuclear
industry and its supporters hope that the ponds, their contents
and the soil they contaminated, will have been dealt with.
This means turning the waste into solid form - much safer to
handle and store than a gas or liquid - by mixing it with
concrete and storing it in 500-litre drums.
Environmental group Greenpeace believes that nobody knows the
true scale of the problem.
"Whatever inventory is given now will not, by any means, be the
final figure," the pressure group's spokeswoman Jean McSorley
said.
The NDA may or may not reach its target date of April 2007 for
dealing with the ponds. Although BNG is sounding confident, no
one else is prepared to say exactly what lurks in the water.
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
*****************************************************************
48 Helsingin Sanomat: Demonstrators come to Helsinki to protest against uranium
exploration rights
Friday 5.5.2006
A delegation of the citizens of Askola and Pukkila, two
communities in Eastern Uusimaa, protested in Helsinki on
Wednesday against the French uranium company Cogema's plans to
start mining activities in their home municipalities.
"In Pukkila almost all citizens oppose the project. As the
decision-makers in Helsinki are not willing to come and listen to
us, we came here to voice our concern", noted Mika Tervo from
Pukkila. The protesters waved their banners and placards, daubed
with angry slogans, at the Senate Square before submitting their
message to the Ministry of Trade and Industry as well as to MPs.
The demonstration was arranged by the civic movement
Uraaniton.org ("Uranium-Free") that gathered some 200 protesters,
including a couple of dozen citizens of Askola and Pukkila who
had arrived in Helsinki driving their tractors.
Previously in HS International Edition:
*****************************************************************
49 Bellona: Criminal action over nuclear leak at Sellafield
The operators of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in
Cumbria are to face a criminal prosecution over the leak of
tonnes of radioactive material.
2006-05-04 12:48
Acid containing 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium
spilled from a ruptured pipe into a sealed cell at the site's
Thorp complex. The leak was discovered in April 2005, but
investigators claimed it could have happened eight months
earlier. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says it is
bringing the action. Operators British Nuclear Group Sellafield
Ltd (BNGSL) were strongly criticised after the incident. No-one
was hurt and no radioactive material escaped into the
atmosphere, reported BBC.
An investigation by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII)
found "significant deficiencies" in procedures at the site. Work
at the Thorp complex was halted when the leak was discovered.
The HSE alleges BNGSL breached conditions attached to the
Sellafield site licence which were granted under the Nuclear
Installations Act 1965. It says the company failed to ensure
that safety systems were in good working order and that
radioactive material was effectively contained. A spokesman for
British Nuclear Group said: "The company has co-operated fully
with the NII throughout its investigation and continues to make
good progress against its measures needed to enable the Thorp
facility to become operational again. "As this matter is before
the courts it would not be appropriate for us to comment
further”, BBC reported.
Publisher: , President:
Information: , Technical contact:
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
50 BBC: Living next to India's uranium mine -
Last Updated: Thursday, 4 May 2006
By Mark Whitaker BBC, India
Despite its achievements, India still can't shake off the
problems of poverty, disease and malnutrition. And, as Mark
Whitaker's been finding out in the eastern state of Jharkhand,
the search for prosperity and progress has its victims too:
[7-year-old Guria]
Seven-year-old Guria can neither speak nor walk
If you met Guria, you would fall in love with her.
Guria is a dark-eyed little girl who lies in the shade of her
house on a bed made of rope, waiting for her daddy to come home
from work.
She grins as she sees him, and those dark eyes of hers light up.
Her father returns her smile as he scoops her up in his arms. But
his eyes are filled with tears.
For Guria cannot speak. Nor can she walk. Her hands - if you can
call them hands - are bent, and quiver. But her eyes reach out.
Her father pedals a rickshaw for a living. He earns a pittance
and tells me he will do all he can to care for Guria, while he is
alive. But what will happen when he dies?
Guria is seven years old.
A stone's throw from her house, another girl lies on another rope
bed. She is 23.
In many ways, she is like Guria, save for the fact that she seems
to be in pain.
She gasps for breath. Her look is anguished, hurt.
She is dressed in a sari, but she never goes anywhere, and has
never been anywhere. For 23 years this has been her life.
Village transformed
The parents of these girls are not sure what has caused their
daughters' plight. There are around 50 other children in
Jaduguda, in India's eastern state of Jharkand, in a similar
condition.
But the state-owned corporation responsible for the vast uranium
mining complex which dominates the village insists it is not to
blame.
Over the past 30 to 40 years, the Uranium Corporation of India
Limited (UCIL) has transformed Jaduguda, bringing jobs, money and
housing for the workers.
But its critics say progress has come at a high price.
Many people here saw their land requisitioned when the mines
came. Instead of living on it, they must now work beneath it.
Once, these hills were the haunt of bear, elephant and tiger. But
no more.
The forest canopy is sparse now, but among the trees there stands
a roadside shrine.
Surrounded by offerings of coconut and incense, it is dedicated
to the goddess Rankini, a local deity whose realm encompasses
Jaduguda alone.
The people of the village put their faith in their goddess - or
else in witch doctors.
Rankini's jurisdiction may be limited, but from her vantage point
the goddess can spy on mere mortals toiling in the valley below.
I saw some of them. They were digging for water. Each bucket they
brought to the surface was brown ooze. So they dug deeper.
Above them, barely a stone's throw from their makeshift well,
there was a wall. The wall of a dam - behind which lie millions
of tons of slurry and waste from the uranium pits.
And, in the river which runs past Jaduguda, I saw villagers
washing their vegetables.
Upstream, the river's waters mingle with the murky outflow from
the mine workings.
[Tipper truck]
UCIL has successfully defended its health &safety record in court
There are no signs to warn of contamination. Just as there are no
signs on the trucks which carry uranium ore from the mines or
bring nuclear waste from across India for dumping.
Court case
Back in 1998, when India announced it had conducted tests of a
thermo-nuclear device in its north-western deserts, the people of
Jaduguda came out onto the streets to celebrate "their" bomb.
After all, Jaduguda produces all of India's uranium.
Many in the village think they have shown pride in their
country's nuclear achievements. Now they say it is time their
country started to do more for them, and offered them proper
protection and health monitoring, medical care and compensation.
People are wary too of outsiders asking questions. One accused me
of being an informer. When you have spoken to us, he said, you
will drink wine with the bosses from the company.
As for the company, UCIL, it promised me an interview. But at the
appointed time I waited outside the mine headquarters in vain.
There was no interview. And no wine.
A survey suggested that nearly one in five of all women living
near the mine has suffered either a miscarriage or a stillbirth
within the previous five years.
The state legislature described the deaths and health problems as
deplorable.
But a court case brought by local activists against UCIL - which
is a subsidiary of the department of atomic energy and of the
government of India - failed, after the company insinuated the
problems were the result of poor hygiene and diet, and alcohol
abuse.
So now, in the courtyard of a house in a small village in India,
two teenagers - brother and sister - squat on crumpled limbs on a
dirt floor scooping rice from metal bowls with their misshapen
hands.
In the village's main street, another boy mends bicycles he will
never be able to ride - because when he was nine his legs
suddenly started to bend and break. They look now as if they have
melted.
And as night starts to fall, Guria's father cradles his little
girl - with her beautiful dark eyes - and wonders what on Earth
will happen to her when he is gone.
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 28 March,
2006 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the for World
Service transmission times.
*****************************************************************
51 reviewjournal.com: Survey suggests opposition
May 04, 2006
REVIEW-JOURNAL
A survey of 600 Southern Nevada residents conducted in February
by a Clark County consultant found that 71 percent would vote
against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project if they had a
chance to, according to a statement Wednesday from county
planners.
More than two-thirds of the respondents thought that if the
project goes forward and a repository for deadly spent fuel is
built 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, it would have a negative
effect on their quality of life.
The statement quotes Irene Navis, a county planning manager, as
saying, "The timing of this survey is important because Congress
is currently considering a bill that could accelerate the
licensing process for Yucca Mountain."
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
52 LA Daily: Water board reviews Boeing pollution waiver
Article Launched: 05/04/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT
BY KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer
Under pressure from environmental groups and a state senator,
the state water board said Wednesday that it will reconsider a
decision that gave the Santa Susana Field Lab an eight-month
break from complying with tough new pollution rules.
The decision by the state's "Supreme Court of water" overrules a
controversial order in March by board member and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger appointee Jerry Secundy that froze pollution
limits until a hearing later this year to determine whether the
lab's water permit is too strict.
In his decision, Secundy agreed with Boeing's argument that the
company could face penalties, bad publicity and citizen lawsuits
if it violated the permit while the review is pending.
But environmentalists immediately protested the decision and
Sen. Sheila Kuehl threatened to hold up the water board's budget
unless the full board reconsidered Secundy's decision.
"The decision appeared to put the interest of an industrial
polluter above the protection of the public," said David
Beckman, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense
Council.
"I would hope this (new decision) signals an awareness within
the State Water Resources Control Board that when it comes to
major discharges of pollution at a rocket test facility upstream
of neighbors, that the most important and fundamental goal the
water board should be going for is (protecting the public) and
not giving Boeing a free ride."
Boeing spokeswoman Inger Hodgson said the company hadn't
received formal notice that the water board would reconsider the
decision, and she couldn't comment until seeing that.
In the past, Boeing has said the lab's water permit is too
stringent and the company needs more time to comply with
regulations, particularly given the lab's size and terrain and
the fact that most of the water leaving the site is stormwater.
Boeing's 2,800-acre Santa Susana Field Lab sits in the Simi
Hills on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The
site was used for nuclear energy research from the late 1940s
through 1988 and conducted regular rocket engine tests until
late last year.
The debate over the lab's water permit began in 2004, when the
Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board set strict new
limits on pollutants that flow off the hilltop lab in
surfacewater and stormwater.
That water runs in local creeks through communities in west San
Fernando Valley and Simi Valley.
Between July 2005 and November 2005, Boeing received 71 permit
violations for higher than allowed levels of dioxins, mercury
and other contaminants.
Last year, Boeing announced that a federal grand jury had
subpoenaed records monitoring stormwater pollution leaving the
field lab.
Just last month, Los Angeles water officials sent a letter to
Boeing warning that water leaving the lab had higher than
allowed levels of dioxins, copper and strontium-90, a
radioactive contaminant earlier found in 1993 in the soil just
outside the lab's property line. The lab later bought the
property.
Boeing had asked Los Angeles officials to relax the permit for
four years while the company developed a plan to prevent
pollution from moving off-site, but the board refused.
"Our history with Boeing has showed that when we take a more
stringent stand, then the permittee has pursued compliance more
aggressively," said H. David Nahai, chairman of the L.A.
regional water board.
Boeing appealed that decision and the full state water board
will review the field lab permit before November to determine if
it's too strict.
Two of the five seats on the board are vacant and environmental
groups have published editorials asking Schwarzenegger to
appoint clean-water advocates to the board rather than people
who have lobbied for or have ties to businesses and industries
regulated by the water board.
(213) 978-0390
Los Angeles Newspaper Group
*****************************************************************
53 Salt Lake Tribune: Senators blast security plans for N-waste
transit
Article Last Updated: 05/04/2006 07:25:25 AM MDT
By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett say Private
Fuel Storage has not provided any security plan for a station
where casks of nuclear waste would be moved from trains to
trucks bound for temporary storage, posing an unacceptable
threat to the safety of Utahns.
The senators are asking the Bureau of Land Management to
prevent Private Fuel Storage from building the transfer facility
on federal land near Interstate 80 as part of a public comment
period on the project.
The proposed transfer facility is where 44,000 tons of
nuclear reactor fuel would be moved from trains to trucks, then
driven down a two-lane highway to the planned temporary storage
site on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, 45 miles
southwest of Salt Lake City.
"Currently, there is no plan or commitment for security
either for the intermodal transfer facility or the truck
transport of [spent nuclear fuel] casks from the facility to the
Skull Valley Reservation," the senators wrote in a letter to the
BLM on Tuesday. "This lack of security presents an unacceptable
risk to Utah citizens."
Sue Martin, spokeswoman for PFS, said the senators'
suggestion that the waste would not be protected is false. The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Transportation
set standards for shipments, including the transfer point.
"Of course we would comply with those regulations, which
include armed guards and various other measures," Martin said.
"If the implication in what the politicians are saying is that
there is no security, that is absolutely false."
The transfer facility is essentially the only remaining option
for PFS to deliver the waste to the temporary storage site.
Congress passed legislation creating a wilderness area adjacent
to the Indian reservation, blocking construction of a rail line
to transport the spent nuclear fuel.
Glenn Carpenter, manager of the BLM's Salt Lake City field
office, said more than 2,000 public comments have been received
so far, and several hundred more have been pouring into the
office each of the last several days as the May 8 deadline
approaches. However, many have not shed new light on the
decision-making, he said.
"Many of the comments we have received have, in effect, been
votes and that's not exactly what we were hoping to have," said
Carpenter. "We were looking for empirical data we might be able
to use in our analysis. While we respect people's feelings,
votes aren't what we were looking for."
Hatch and Bennett also argued that the transfer facility
violates the land management plan for the area, would hurt Air
Force training on the nearby Utah Test and Training Range, and
would be a target for terrorists intent on stealing nuclear
material or blowing up the transfer facility.
Martin said the NRC has reviewed the threat of an aircraft
crash at the facility and found it to be so remote that it
granted the license. "We really believe that issue has been put
to rest," she said.
The NRC granted PFS a license to build the facility in
February, but the remaining pieces of the former consortium -
which has lost several members - must have a way to deliver the
waste to the facility and adequate funding for the project.
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
54 Salt Lake Tribune: LDS Church issues statement urging nuclear waste
disposal alternatives
Article Last Updated: 05/04/2006 03:58:53 PM MDT
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged the
federal government this afternoon to promote alternatives to
nuclear waste disposal.
While Mormon leaders voiced objections last year to storing
nuclear waste at the Skull Valley Goshutes Reservation in Tooele
County in Skull Valley, they remained silent on the broader
issues, such as the federal government's plan to bury reactor
waste forever at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The latest statement
appears to cover Yucca Mountain as well as the Skull Valley
project, and it gives a boost to technologies such as nuclear
reprocessing, as proposed by Salt Lake City-based
EnergySolutions.
"The transportation and storage of high-level nuclear waste
create substantial and legitimate public health, safety, and
environmental concerns," said the First Presidency in a rare
statement on public policy.
"It is not reasonable to suggest that any one area bear a
disproportionate burden of the transportation and concentration
of nuclear waste," the statement continues. "We ask the federal
government to harness the technological and creative power of the
country to develop options for the disposal of nuclear waste."
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
55 The Dispatch: Olin Corp. Off the Hook
Thursday, May 04, 2006
By Serdar Tumgoren
Gilroy - A regional water board says it does not have enough
information to pin perchlorate contamination in northeast Morgan
Hill on the Olin Corporation, a road flare manufacturer ordered
to clean up the potentially harmful substance from groundwater
south of the city.
"There are a lot of questions, a lot of complexities, and at
this time we don't believe we have sufficient information to
assign responsibility (for the northeast area)," said Hector
Hernandez, an engineer overseeing clean-up efforts for the
Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The agency elaborated its reasoning in a 22-page report sent to
Morgan Hill City Hall earlier this week. In it, the water board
argues that numerous sources could be responsible for the
perchlorate found in the Nordstrom Park well north of Tennant
Avenue. In addition to the factory Olin operated from 1955 to
1987, the report states that perchlorate - a sodium known to
cause thyroid dysfunction in large enough quantities - could
have come from fertilizer, groundwater from nearby ponds and
chlorine bleach from city wells and local mushroom farms.
The report also points out that perchlorate concentrations at
the well have fallen below the public health goal since 2003,
when perchlorate was first discovered in South Valley.
The agency said it would not order Olin to conduct additional
studies to determine the source of pollution. Instead, officials
will await a forensic analysis of groundwater by the Santa Clara
Valley Water District. That analysis is due in summer 2007.
The report caps a year-long wait by Morgan Hill officials, who
asked the regional water board to investigate Olin's
responsibility for the northeast contamination at the beginning
of 2005.
"It's been a letter long coming and it's pretty extensive, but I
think it's fair to say we're disappointed," Morgan Hill City
Manager Ed Tewes said. "It seems to say that we the board of the
regional water agency acknowledge that there is perchlorate
north of Tennant Avenue, but we're not sure they're the
discharger and we hope that some day, somebody else will figure
it out."
Tewes said he expected greater engagement from the agency and
plans to voice his dismay at a May 12 water board meeting.
In the meantime, the city's 36,000 residents will continue to
pay a monthly surcharge on their water bills for perchlorate
clean-up, while a thousand families south of Tennant Avenue
receive free bottled water from Olin. The company, which spends
$60,000 per month to supply the water, has accepted
responsibility for the 9.5-mile perchlorate plume that stretches
south through San Martin and east of Gilroy. But it has
steadfastly denied responsibility for contamination to the north.
"I think that through the preponderance of evidence, the
decision is clear - there is not one source of perchlorate in
the area. There are multiple sources," said Rick McClure, an
Olin engineer and spokesman. "We thought that this was a
decision appropriate some time ago. Olin has extended
significant funding to investigate (the northeast) area and we
never really thought we were responsible for that."
In recent weeks, Olin has tried to shift some responsibility for
the southern plume to mushroom farms, but McClure said the
company will proceed with a clean-up plan due at the end of June.
In coming months, the regional water board will establish a
baseline clean-up level for the southern plume that will
determine how much remediation the company must perform. And in
a little more than a year, the agency expects to have the
forensic analysis of northeast contamination in hand.
"We're hoping it will give us a better sense of whether we can
assign responsibility or not," Hernandez said. "If we get to the
point where we assign responsibility to Olin, the (southern
clean-up level) may affect the extent of what we require them to
do in the northeast."
Serdar Tumgoren
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The
Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or stumgoren@gilroydispatch.com.
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56 HSE: HSE to prosecute British nuclear group following leak at Sellafield plant
E052:06 03 May 2006
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is bringing a criminal
prosecution against British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd (BNGSL)
in connection with an incident at the Sellafield reprocessing
site.
The prosecution follows a detailed investigation by HSE’s
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate into a leak of radioactive
liquor inside a heavily shielded facility at the THermal Oxide
Reprocessing Plant (THORP). HSE was notified of the incident on
20 April 2005.
HSE has applied to the courts for summonses alleging that BNGSL
breached three conditions attached to the Sellafield site
licence granted under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as
amended). In summary these conditions require the licensee: to
make, and comply with, written instructions; to ensure safety
systems are in good working order; and to ensure radioactive
material is contained and, if leaks occur, they are detected and
reported.
An initial hearing is scheduled for 8 June 2006 at Whitehaven
Magistrates Court, Cumbria.
Notes to editors:
1. The Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended) provides for
the licensing and inspection of sites used for operating nuclear
reactors; manufacturing, storing and reprocessing nuclear fuel
and related activities. No site may be used for operating a
nuclear installation without a licence granted by HSE. The form
of the site licence is the same for each installation and
contains a standard set of 36 conditions, dealing with a variety
of safety requirements. Contravention of any condition
constitutes an offence under the Act.
2. THORP reprocesses nuclear fuel from overseas and UK
second-generation commercial reactors. The plant has been shut
since April 2005. The liquor leaked into a stainless steel-lined
cell with 1.5m thick concrete walls. There is no current
evidence of any harm to workers or the public.
3. Your attention is drawn to the fact that the provisions of
the Contempt of Court Act apply to this matter.
Press enquiries Mark Wheeler 020 7717 6905
Out of hours   020 7928 8382               Â
Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG
HSE information and news releases can be accessed on the
Internet www.hse.gov.uk/
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57 Whitehaven News: Troubled N-waste firm has eyes on Sellafield
Published on 04/05/2006
ONE of the likely bidders to run Sellafield has come under fire
in the US for its handling of highly radioactive waste similar to
that at Sellafield.
CBS News TV documentary 60 Minutes recently visited Hanford,
where Bechtel have hit big problems with a clean-up project.
CBS reported: “Hanford, located along the Columbia River, is
home to the most contaminated piece of real estate in the world,
outside of Russia.
“It is contaminated by waste left over from the production of
nuclear weapons. There are 53 million gallons of highly
radioactive liquid waste stored in underground tanks that are now
so old they have leaked one million gallons of the stuff.
“With a million people downstream, there's a sense of urgency
about cleaning up the site, which is huge.
As with Sellafield the plan in the US is to pump the waste out of
the tanks and route it through miles of pipes to convert the
radioactive waste into glass logs.
CBS report that after three years of welding, pouring cement and
laying miles of pipes and tons of steel, construction by Bechtel
came to a screeching halt in 2005 because the Energy Department
underestimated by 40 per cent how strong the building must be to
withstand an earthquake.
CBS claims the US Energy Department and the contractor, Bechtel,
went ahead with the plant knowing their seismic standard might be
off.
Just as construction was about to begin in July 2002, an
independent safety board sent a letter, warning the department.
But construction continued.
The seismic miscalculation is costing at least $800 million and
a two- to four-year delay in completing the building. This
practice of pushing ahead with construction before the
engineering is complete is known as "fast track."
Costs on the US project are up more than 150 per cent, and the
start date for making glass logs has slipped seven years, to
2018.
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58 DOE: DOE Issues Draft Request for Proposals for Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory Contractor
May 4, 2006
WASHINGTON , DC - The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking
comments on a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for the
competitive selection of a management and operating (M&O)
contractor for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab),
a major DOE Office of Science single program research facility
located on 6,800 acres approximately 45 miles west of Chicago,
Illinois.
Fermilab is a DOE Office of Science high-energy physics
laboratory with an annual budget of about $315 million.
Fermilabs mission is to advance the understanding of the
fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership
and resources for qualified researchers to conduct research at
the frontiers of high-energy physics and related disciplines.
Approximately 2,500 scientists from 230 universities and
laboratories in 35 states and 30 countries carry out research at
the energy frontier, the highest energy environment for
discovery of particle physics in the world.
Fermilab operates user facilities that include the Tevatron, the
worlds highest energy particle accelerator, the MiniBooNE, a
neutrino oscillation experiment, and NuMI/MINOS, a long-baseline
neutrino oscillation experiment. In addition, Fermilab is the
Host Laboratory for U.S. participation in the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) Compact Muon Solenoid detector, construction of
certain LHC accelerator components, and the U.S. LHC Accelerator
Research Program.
The draft RFP includes provisions to
facilitate competition, encourage superior science, and achieve
excellent management performance. For example:
* The successful offeror will be required to form a stand-alone
corporate entity to manage and operate the laboratory, as opposed
to a single parent institution or firm. Following the model of
other recent M&O contract selections, this will serve to clarify
lines of responsibility and accountability under the new
agreement.
* The contract includes award-term provisions to permit
extension of the resulting contract for incremental periods up to
15 years beyond the initial five-year term as an incentive for
superior performance.
* The new contract will include a newly developed Laboratory
Performance Appraisal Process, which is intended to enhance
performance management, bring increased emphasis on effective
operations and improved results at Office of Science
laboratories, and link performance appraisal to the contracts
award-term provisions. This new appraisal process is expected to
bring greater comparability, consistency, and transparency to
performance reviews, better tailor incentives to motivate
contractor performance and generate more useful information for
DOE management decisions.
* The RFP contains provisions requiring the new contractor to
retain the current workforce with the exception of the specified
top-level positions.
The draft RFP describes the criteria DOE will use in selecting a
successful future contractor. Key criteria include the potential
contractors management strategy and approach to achieving
excellence in both world-class scientific research and
development, as well as in operations and business management;
key personnel, including the proposed laboratory director;
experience and past performance in both science and business
management; strategy for fulfilling DOEs mission for the
laboratory; offerors involvement/resources; and proposed
transition plan.
The draft RFP is available to interested parties on the DOE
e-Commerce web site: http://e-center.doe.gov/. In addition, an
information library regarding the solicitation is available on
the DOE Office of Science web site at http://rfpfnal.sc.doe.gov/
. Comments on the draft RFP, suggested changes to the draft
contract provisions, and questions should be submitted to the
Submit Questions feature on IIPS by June 5, 2006. Responses
to questions and other information about the draft RFP will also
be posted to this site. During the comment period, DOE will
conduct one-on-one meetings with prospective offerors. The
one-on-one meetings will be held during the week of May 22, 2006,
at the DOE Chicago Office, 9800 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL.
Specific information on the meetings will be posted on the
e-Commerce web site listed above.
Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940 Sandra Geib,
(630) 252-2420 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 |
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59 DOE: Secretary Bodman Hosts Energy Ministers from Canada and Mexico
May 4, 2006
WASHINGTON , DC U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today
met with Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Gary Lunn and
Mexican Secretary of Energy Fernando Canales Clariond to discuss
further integration of North American energy markets. The
energy leaders addressed energy security and prosperity through
investments in science and technology research, enhanced natural
gas markets, and the expanded use of alternative energy sources
among the three countries.
Canada and Mexico are the top
energy suppliers to the U.S. accounting for 30% of U.S. crude
oil imports. Our nations have a long tradition of close
cooperation that provides a base for economic and energy
security, Secretary Bodman said.
Today we built on this strong relationship during our meetings
and we will continue to do so in pursuing our renewed agenda.
The energy ministers acknowledged that traditional sources of
energy will continue as a significant part of the regions energy
mix in the near and medium-term and discussed the importance of
commercializing clean energy technologies and diversifying our
energy supplies for significant energy gains.
The ministers discussed improving transparency and regulatory
harmonization among the countries, strengthening energy
efficiency standards, and developing and deploying alternative
energy sources such as biofuels, clean coal, hydrogen and gas
hydrates. The energy leaders also highlighted the importance of
finalizing a legal framework for intellectual property protection
to promote the exchange of funds necessary to ensure research and
development collaboration.
Todays trilateral meetings of the North American Energy Working
Group (NAEWG) implement the energy security initiative
established by Presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox and
Prime Minster Stephen Harper during their Cancun meeting of the
Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) on March 30-31, 2006.
The NAEWGs ongoing work has put particular emphasis on the
importance of open, efficient and transparent markets through
regulatory cooperation and energy information exchange that
support market transparency. The NAEWG, formed in 2001 by the
three leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada, is led by
the energy ministers of each country and has been successful in
fostering cooperation through integration of markets and
resolution of energy issues.
Canada is the top supplier of imported crude oil and petroleum
products to the United States, accounting for more than 16
percent of total imported crude. Canadas oil sands industry and
its reserves of 175 billion barrels make Canada second only to
Saudi Arabia in proven reserves. Canada is also the top supplier
of imported natural gas to the United States, supplying more than
15 percent of U.S. gas requirements and nearly all imported
electricity. Mexico is the second largest supplier of crude oil
and petroleum products to the United States, providing the United
States with 1.5 million barrels per day, or 13 percent of total
US crude imports. Mexico ranks ninth in the world for proven oil
reserves, with 15.7 billion barrels. Mexico has the potential to
grow as a natural gas exporter because of its sizeable reserves
and as a future liquefied natural gas exporter as new
liquefaction facilities under construction come on line.
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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60 Tri-City Herald: Hanford landfill moves forward
Published Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
Hanford has a new landfill for radioactive waste, the last major
landfill planned for the remaining cleanup of the nuclear
reservation.
Construction is complete on the first two waste disposal cells
of the Integrated Disposal Facility, which eventually could be
expanded to cover 26 acres.
Now it's a 42-foot-deep hole in central Hanford that is 1,500
feet long and 765 feet wide. It will be used to hold 200,000
cubic yards of waste.
Its cost was estimated at $36 million, but it was completed for
about $25 million, partly because of good bid competition for
the earth work, said Greg Parsons, CH2M Hill Hanford Group
project manager.
What may look like a hole in the ground is an engineered
facility to prevent contamination of ground water with
radioactive waste that will be buried there. At its bottom is a
7-foot-thick liner system.
It includes a system to collect rain or snow melt and pump it in
a nearby tank above ground. That's backed up with two leak
detection systems.
One alerts operators if moisture penetrates a layer of plastic
below the pumping system and the other should detect liquid if
it hits the soil beneath the 7-foot liner system.
Around its top is a "shine berm," a 7-foot-tall wall of dirt to
shield workers from radiation. Cranes will be used to put waste
in the facility.
When it closes, it will be topped with a soil cap designed to
keep water out.
"It's a state-of-the-art-built facility," said Suzanne Dahl,
tank waste disposal project manager for the Washington state
Department of Ecology, which regulates Hanford.
Work on the landfill began after a construction subcontract was
awarded by CH2M Hill nearly two years ago.
Now there's no definite start date for when the facility will
accept its first waste, "but the state very much believes it is
a needed facility," Dahl said.
It was built to permanently store the least radioactive of the
glassified waste now waiting in Hanford's underground tanks to
be treated and to help allow Hanford to stop its old practice of
burying some low-level radioactive waste in unlined trenches.
Two projects to vitrify, or turn tank waste to glass, have
fallen behind schedule. The Department of Energy has stopped
construction on the bulk vitrification pilot plant until it has
more technical and cost information. The pilot plant was
expected to produce the first of 50 blocks of low-activity
radioactive waste as early as last December.
In addition, the soonest the Waste Treatment Plant, the main
plant to glassify waste, could be producing low-activity glass
is 2011. That assumes operations to treat low-activity waste
start at the plant years before treatment of high-level waste.
Only the low-activity glass will remain at Hanford. High-level
glass is to be sent to a national repository in Yucca Mountain,
Nev.
There has been concern DOE could plan to eventually use the
Integrated Disposal Facility for radioactive waste imported to
Hanford. However, no waste can be imported unless DOE wins a
federal lawsuit allowing it to bring waste to Hanford for
permanent disposal without first cleaning up waste already at
Hanford.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
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