***************************************************************** 05/12/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.113 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 All Sides Must Return 'to The Table' To Discuss Iran's Nuclear Progr 2 [NYTr] US must talk directly to Iran: Annan 3 [NYTr] Rattling Iran's Cage Won't Work: Tariq Ali 4 AFP: Iran leader blasts US "propaganda war" 5 AFP: Iran halting uranium enrichment remains a 'red line' - US - 6 AFP: US shrugs off pressure for direct talks with Iran 7 AFP: US must talk directly talk to Iran - Annan 8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's President Says Nuke Talks Possible 9 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Urges U.S. to Resume Talks With Iran 10 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Leader Taps Into Anti-West Sentiment 11 Guardian Unlimited: Envoys Say Enriched Uranium Found in Iran 12 US: The Tech: Secretary Bodman Gives Views on Nuclear Energy - 13 RIA Novosti: U.S. backs missile defense cooperation with Russia -1 14 US: Spectrum: Woman plans bomb protest 15 Mos News: U.S. Plans for Nuclear Warhead Replacement Irresponsible - 16 Bellona: Former Russian PM Kasyanov slams Kremlin government and Rus NUCLEAR REACTORS 17 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2005 Performance Assessment for Monticello N 18 US: AP Wire: Ameren shuts down nuclear plant after high vibrations i 19 BBC: Miliband 'open minded on nuclear' 20 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet in Rockvill 21 US: Times Herald Record: Kelly: Tug can't protect nuclear plant 22 US: NRC: Notice of Meeting; Sunshine Act 23 US: Hudson Valley News: Kelly questions Coast Guard about Indian Poi 24 Telegraph: Nuclear plant women in 'hot pants' row 25 US: Times Herald-Record: Indian Point finds radiation leak 26 US: Living on Earth: Nuclear Renaissance 27 US: TimesUnion.com: Indian Point officials zero in on leak NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 28 US: LovelandFYI: Disaster drill at nuclear site earns ‘A-minus’ 29 asahi.com: A-bomb victims win recognition 30 Sydney Morning Herald: Islanders kicked out in Cold War may return h NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 31 US: AP Wire: Simpson: INL not threatened by cuts to nuclear reproces 32 reviewjournal.com: Yucca funding advances 33 US: Burlington Free Press: Group wants board to reconsider waste sto 34 US: Times Argus: Group wants board to reconsider nuke waste storage 35 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Sponsor denies N-dump funds bill is for Skull 36 US: San Bernardino County Sun: Perchlorate study in bill 37 US: KVIA.com: The El Paso News Leader - Groups agree on WIPP permit 38 Business Gazette: NUKE LEAK WENT ON FOR MONTHS 39 News & Star New radiation alert systems for N-plant PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 40 DOE: DOE Secretary Promotes E85 Use in Indianapolis 41 Tri-City Herald: DOE plan for pensions hits snag 42 Tri-City Herald: House calls for reforms at vit plant 43 Inside Bay Area: Officials: Lab needs to be like Los Alamos 44 cbs4denver.com: Juror: Panel Was Bullied Into Rocky Flats Verdict 45 Knox News: OR nuke experts sent to Venezuela ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 All Sides Must Return 'to The Table' To Discuss Iran's Nuclear Programme: Annan Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 12:00:35 -0400 ALL SIDES MUST RETURN ‘TO THE TABLE’ TO DISCUSS IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME: ANNAN New York, May 12 2006 12:00PM United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Vienna today again stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme, urging “every important stakeholder” to return to the negotiating table in a spirit of openness to find a solution.

From the start, Iran, like Germany, the Netherlands or Japan, has wanted its programme to take in the full nuclear cycle, including uran! ium enrichment; Russia has several times threatened to impose conditions on fuel deliveries. Enrichment centrifuges were surreptitiously imported from neighbouring Pakistan; not the process, but the failure to report it, was in contravention of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreements. There is no evidence that Iran is much closer to nuclear weapons now than was Iraq in September 2002, when Blair and Cheney assured the world that Baghdad represented a "genuine nuclear threat". Reports in 2003 by a somewhat demented sect, the Mojahedin e-Khalq, of preliminary nuclear research at the Natanz installation were no such proof. But in the competitive scramble by European powers to enhance their standing with Washington after the invasion of Iraq, France, Germany and Britain were keen to prove their mettle by forcing extra agreements on Tehran. The Khatami regime immediately capitulated. In December 2003, they signed the "Additional Protocol" demanded by the EU3, agreeing to a "voluntary suspension" of the right to enrichment guaranteed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Within three months, the IAEA was condemning them for having failed to ratify it; in June 2004, its inspectors produced examples of Iranian enrichment work, perfectly legal under the NPT, but ruled out by the Additional Protocol. Israel has boasted of its intention to "destroy Natanz" - the contrast to its stealth bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981 a measure of the new balance of forces. In the summer of 2004, a large bi-partisan majority in the US Congress passed a resolution for "all appropriate measures" to prevent an Iranian weapons programme and there was speculation about an "October surprise" before the 2004 presidential poll. Plans were thus well advanced before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 2005 Iranian presidential election. Ahmadinejad reaped the vote against Khatami's miserable record between 1997 and 2005. Economic conditions had worsened and Khatami was prepared to defend the rights of foreign investors, but not those of independent newspapers or protesting students. Manoeuvring ineffectually between contradictory pressures, he exhausted his moral credit. Contrary to some reports, Ahmadinejad has not so far imposed any new puritanical clampdown on social mores. Instead, the most likely constituency to be disappointed is Ahmadinejad's own: the millions of young, working-class jobless, crammed into overcrowded living conditions, in desperate need of a national development policy that neither neoliberalism nor Islamist voluntarism will provide. Nor is fundamentalist backwardness exhibited in the denial of the Nazi genocide against the Jews and the threat to obliterate Israel, a basis for any foreign policy. To face up to the enemies ranged against Iran requires an intelligent and far-sighted strategy - not the current rag-bag of opportunism and manoeuvre, determined by the immediate interests of the clerics. Clearing the way for the overthrow of the Iraqi Ba'ath and Afghan Taliban regimes and backing the US occupations has bought no respite. The US undersecretary of state has spoken of "ratcheting up the pressure". Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz has said that "Israel will not be able to accept an Iranian nuclear capability, and it must have the capability to defend itself with all that this implies, and we are preparing." Hillary Clinton accused the Bush administration of "downplaying the Iranian threat" and called for pressure on Russia and China to impose sanctions on Tehran. Chirac has spoken of using French nuclear weapons against such a "rogue state". Perhaps it is simply high-octane rocket-rattling, the aim being to frighten Tehran into submission. Bullying is unlikely to succeed. Will the west then embark on a new war? If so, the battlefield might stretch from the Tigris to the Oxus and without any guarantee of success. [Tariq Ali is author of the recently released Street Fighting Years (new edition) and, with David Barsamian, Speaking of Empires & Resistance. ] * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 4 AFP: Iran leader blasts US "propaganda war" by Victor Tjahjadi Fri May 12, 3:24 AM ET JAKARTA (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hit back at what he called a US propaganda war, keeping up his firebrand attacks on the West a day after saying that Israel" /> Israelwould one day vanish. Ahmadinejad, who has become the public face of the Islamic republic in its quest for nuclear know-how that critics say is a bid to build the atom bomb, said his nation was a great force that would not bow to the US and its allies. "They perhaps are using propaganda to start a war of ideology but they actually know that the Islamic Republic of Iran" /> Iranis a great force," he told a summit of Islamic and political leaders in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. "They actually are carrying out propaganda with a sour face and are using strong words to intimidate our people, but I'm telling you the people of Iran are not afraid of them." Asked if Iran was preparing for a potential military strike, he replied: "We deem that this matter is far from the possibility of taking place." Ahmadinejad later attended Friday prayers at Jakarta's Istiqlal mosque, the largest in Indonesia, where he was mobbed by a crowd of thousands eager to catch a glimpse of him and shake his hand. The congregation chanted "God is great!" when he was introduced by Indonesia's religious affairs minister. "Indonesian people are people of faith and I am honoured to have come here," he told them. Ahmadinejad's visit comes amid a backdrop of frantic international diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The United States and European Union" /> European Uniontroika of Britain, France and Germany are pushing for a binding UN resolution that could clear the way for economic sanctions, possible escalating toward military action. They are meeting resistance from China and Russia, however, which both have close economic ties with Iran. On Wednesday Washington, which has so far failed to win support for UN sanctions against Tehran, said it would give its European partners "a couple of weeks" to draft a fresh approach. On Thursday, the Iranian leader ramped up his rhetoric against the West, calling Israel a "cancer" that would "one day vanish". "We believe that a government such as this one will not last long because it is built on tyranny and tyranny will not last long," he said as he also brushed off the threat of sanctions and war against Tehran. "The idea of going to war is a joke, it's like a joke. Why should there be a war?" he said. "They do know that any mistreatment of the Iranian people will actually cause more losses to them than for us." Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who met with Ahmadinejad on Wednesday, backed Tehran's claim that its nuclear program was peaceful. But on Thursday, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said his country had not offered to mediate in talks aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear stand-off as Yudhoyono's spokesman earlier told reporters. Ahmadinejad was due to fly to Bali Friday afternoon to attend a summit of the Developing-8 (D-8) group of large Muslim countries on Saturday. Iran's courting of Indonesia comes as both the United States and Britain have been keen to build ties with it and hold up its moderate version of Islam and democratic credentials as an example to other Muslim nations. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 5 AFP: Iran halting uranium enrichment remains a 'red line' - US - Fri May 12, 6:41 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US Ambassador John Bolton said the suspension of Iran" /> Iran's uranium enrichment activities remained a "red line" for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. He also denied suggestions that Washington had "caved in" by shelving for two weeks Security Council consideration of a tough draft resolution that would legally require Tehran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work that could be used for bomb-making. Washington agreed to allow France, Britain and Germany in the interval to put together a package of "carrots and sticks" to try to lure Tehran away from uranium enrichment. "The suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing remains a red line for the Europeans. It certainly remains a red line for us. We believe it's a red line for Russia and China," the US ambassador said. "This is a delay but it's intended to show the American willingness to try and exhaust every diplomatic possibility, and it proves again that the key to this still lies in Iran's hands," he added. Western powers suspect Tehran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to seek nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its program is peaceful and has vowed not to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Bolton said the US stance would be determined by whether the council's veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United Nations" /> United Nations-- reached consensus on the European package of economic, energy and security incentives for Iran. Diplomats said negotiators from the Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany planned to meet in London on May 19 to weigh a new package of incentives as well as penalties. "I am confident that one way or the other there's going to be a resolution along the line we were pushing, because it is important to make mandatory on Iran the requirement of suspending its enrichment-related activities," he noted. The draft now on hold invokes Chapter Seven of the UN Charter that can authorize sanctions or even military action as a last resort. But its Western sponsors stressed any decision on sanctions at a later stage would require a separate resolution. Russia and China, which have close trading ties with Tehran, have made it clear they oppose coercive measures to rein in Iran's nuclear activities. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: US shrugs off pressure for direct talks with Iran by Peter Mackler Fri May 12, 12:54 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite growing pressure at home and abroad for direct talks with Iran" /> Iran, the United States is pointedly staying behind the scenes in efforts to rein in Tehran's suspected nuclear arms program. The Americans have resisted calls they sit down with the Iranians even as European efforts to negotiate a solution were stalled and a drive for tough UN action appeared to be going nowhere. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan" /> Kofi Annanwas the latest world figure to call for greater US involvement in negotiations to head off Iran's uranium enrichment research and alleged bid to build a nuclear bomb. Annan told reporters in Vienna on Friday that as long as the Iranians felt European negotiators had to check back with Washington on any decision, "I am not sure they will put everything on the table." Some European officials, particularly in Germany, have also urged the Americans to join the talks as have leaders from both sides of the political aisle in the United States. Former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, a Republican, and Madeleine Albirght, a Democrat, both urged President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bushto follow up on a letter sent to him this week by Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If the White House dismissed the first official contact between the governments in 26 years as nothing new, Kissinger saw it as a sign Tehran may want to settle the nuclear row. "Maybe it is the beginning of an understanding that they must come to some terms with the international community," he told reporters Friday in Lisbon after meeting with Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva. But the United States, which broke relations with Iran in 1980 after the seizure of US hostages in Tehran, has turned a deaf ear to calls to resume direct contacts with the Islamic republic on the nuclear issue. "The problems that Iran has right now are with the rest of the world, not just between the United States and Iran," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. He said there were channels if Iran truly wanted to talk. The United States carries on contacts through the Swiss embassy in Tehran; the Iranians are represented here by Pakistan and have a UN mission in New York. Washington has also authorized its ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, to confer with the Iranians on the situation in Iraq" /> Iraq, but no meetings have yet been reported. Still, the United States has preferred to leave its European allies Britain, France and Germany at the forefront of negotiations with Iran, which spurned an initial package of trade and other incentives. With a US push for sanctions against Iran running into opposition from Russia and China, the so-called EU-3 is currently trying to refashion a new offer for Tehran. But again, Washington is staying on the sidelines. A senior US official, who asked not to be named, said that despite some of the comments made in public, the Europeans were happy to keep the United States in a supporting role in the negotiations. "It's in our interest to be exactly where we are," the official told reporters this week after ministerial talks among the world powers in New York. "We have absolutely zero pressure." The US approach to Iran contrasts with its willingness to take part in multilateral negotiations on North Korea" /> North Korea's acknowledged and more-advanced nuclear weapons program. US officials have never gone into detail about the diverging tacks. Asked about it Thursday, McCormack said only, "There are completely different histories and completely different situations." But the Americans have also refused to offer Iran the same security guarantees they have agreed to put in writing for Pyongyang. A State Department official said it was because of Tehran's documented links to terrorism. But the other senior US official, insisting such guarantees were "not in our interest," also evoked the US refusal to rule out the US of military force against Iran if diplomacy fails. "President Bush has said every time he has been asked over the last year and a half (that) all options are on the table and that means all options on the table." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 7 AFP: US must talk directly talk to Iran - Annan Fri May 12, 8:03 AM ET VIENNA (AFP) - The United States must talk directly to Iran" /> Iranabout its disputed nuclear programme because Tehran will not negotiate seriously if Washington is not involved, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan" /> Kofi Annansaid. "As long as the Iranians have a sense that they are negotiating with the Europeans ad referendum (needing referral for a final decision), and what they discuss with them will have to be discussed with the Americans, and then come back again to them, I am not sure they will put everything on the table," Annan told reporters in Vienna on Friday. European Union" /> European Unionefforts since 2003 to win guarantees that Iran is not making nuclear weapons have foundered, with Iran pushing ahead since April on enriching uranium for what can be nuclear reactor fuel but also nuclear bomb material. The United States has refused to talk directly to Iran but backs the EU diplomacy. "I have asked all sides to lower their rhetoric and intensify diplomatic efforts to find a solution," Annan said. "I have also stated very clearly both in private and in my contacts with the American administration and publicly that I think it is important that the United States come to the table and that they should join all the European countries and Iran to find a solution," he said on the sidelines of a European Union-Latin American summit. On Wednesday the United States, which has failed to win support for UN sanctions against Iran, announced it would give its European allies "a couple of weeks" to draft a fresh approach to persuading Tehran to drop its disputed nuclear activities. Diplomats said negotiators from the Security Council's permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany planned to meet in London on May 19 to weigh a new package of incentives as well as penalties. The United States charges that Iran is using a nuclear program it says is a peaceful effort to generate electricity to hide the development of nuclear weapons. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran's President Says Nuke Talks Possible From the Associated Press [UP] Friday May 12, 2006 6:46 AM AP Photo JAK114 By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press Writer JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Iran's president said Thursday he was ready to hold talks over his country's nuclear program, but he warned that efforts to force Tehran to the negotiating table with threats could backfire. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also launched a scathing attack on Israel and told more than 1,000 cheering Muslim students in the Indonesian capital that the West was being hypocritical in pressing Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program. ``The big powers ... have a lot of nuclear weapons in their warehouse,'' Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the world's largest Muslim majority nation amid a deepening international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program and suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons. ``We want to use technology for peace and the welfare of the Muslim people around the world,'' he told students who gathered at Islamic University on Jakarta's southern outskirts. ``But they want to use it to invade other countries. This is the difference between us and them.'' Ahmadinejad, known for his fiery rhetoric, has become a pariah in the West. But he received a warm welcome in Indonesia, where his willingness to criticize the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - seen by many here as attacks on Islam - his outspoken criticism of Israel, and his refusal to stand down to international pressure on the nuclear dispute resonates with many of its young people. ``I think you are the man of the year,'' one student stood to say. ``We will always be with you. You will never walk alone,'' said another. Key U.N. Security Council members agreed Tuesday to postpone a resolution that would have delivered an ultimatum to Tehran, giving Iran another two weeks to reevaluate its insistence on developing its uranium enrichment capabilities. The Chinese and Russians have balked at British, French and U.S. efforts to put the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Such a move would declare Iran a threat to international peace and security and set the stage for further measures if Tehran refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment operations. Those measures could range from breaking diplomatic relations to economic sanctions and military action. The Iranian leader brushed off the threat, saying Friday that his country was not afraid of a U.S. military attack. He added that he thought such a strike was ``very unlikely because they know the Islamic Republic of Iran is a strong country.'' ``They are waging a propaganda campaign with strong words so our country is afraid,'' Ahmadinejad told an audience of Islamic leaders. ``The people of Iran and the country are not afraid of them.'' In an interview with Metro TV on Thursday, Ahmadinejad said the West had more to lose than Tehran did if it was internationally isolated. Sanctions would serve only to ``motivate'' Iran's nuclear scientists, he said. Asked what it would take to begin talks to resolve the standoff, Ahmadinejad told the station Iran was ``ready to engage in dialogue with anybody.'' ``But if someone points a weapon at your face and says you must speak, will you do that?'' Ahmadinejad also continued his verbal attacks on Israel - last year he said the Jewish state should be ``wiped off the map'' and questioned whether the Holocaust was a myth - calling it a ``a tyrannical regime that one day will be destroyed.'' He repeated earlier allegations that European countries were driven by anti-Semitism when they decided after the Holocaust to establish a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries. They wanted the Jews out of their own backyard, he said, and by surrounding them with their enemies paved the way for their ultimate destruction. Israeli officials - who have described Iran's nuclear quest as the Jewish state's greatest threat - had no immediate comment on Ahmadinejad's latest remarks, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Indonesia has cordial relations with Iran, supporting its right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful means. Like Tehran - which recently announced plans to invest $600 million in the Southeast Asian nation's oil and gas sector, a much-needed cash infusion - Jakarta also refuses to recognize Israel. But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also enjoys good ties with the United States, which considers him a close ally in the war on terror. He offered this week to mediate the nuclear dispute. The students who crammed into the auditorium at the Islamic University - where U.S. envoy Karen Hughes received a grilling last year over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East - were enthusiastic supporters of the Ahmadinejad, clapping and cheering throughout his 90-minute speech. He told the crowd every country should have the right to new technology to meet energy needs. ``If nuclear technology is such a bad thing, why do you (Western countries) have it?'' Ahmadinejad said, drawing more applause. He got the same response earlier in the day when he addressed a crowd of about 300 at the University of Indonesia, where students held signs saying ``Iran in our Hearts,'' and ``Nuclear for Peace.'' ``I loved him, he was very charismatic,'' said a first-year economics student who identified herself as Deslina. ``If it comes to that, they should go to war. If I could, I would fight the United States.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 9 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Urges U.S. to Resume Talks With Iran From the Associated Press [UP] Friday May 12, 2006 11:16 AM AP Photo VM115 VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday urged the United States to join with Europe to resume talks with Iran and to ``lower the rhetoric'' in the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. ``I have asked all sides to lower the rhetoric and intensify diplomatic efforts to find a solution,'' Annan told reporters in the margins of an EU-Latin America summit. ``Everyone, every important stakeholder should be at a table,'' Annan said. ``I urge all parties to be open, Iran included, and come back to the table and find a solution.'' Annan said proposed talks between the European Union countries of Britain, Germany France with Iran, would be more productive if they included the United States. Washington however, has so far refused to take part and directly negotiate with Tehran. ``I have insisted very clearly both in private in my contacts with the American administration and publicly that I think it's important that the United States come to the table, and that they should join the European countries and Iran to find a solution,'' Annan said. The EU and the United States fear Iran's nuclear program is being used to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran said it wants to make nuclear power. At a meeting Tuesday, representatives of the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany agreed to tell Iran the possible consequences of its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program and the benefits if it abandons it. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she and her counterparts on the U.N. Security Council agreed to give Iran another two weeks to reconsider its position. Both China and Russia have so far refused to sign on to a U.N. resolution, which would declare Iran a threat to international peace and security and set the stage for further measures, which could range from breaking diplomatic relations to economic sanctions and military action, if Tehran refuses to comply. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Leader Taps Into Anti-West Sentiment From the Associated Press [UP] Friday May 12, 2006 11:01 AM AP Photo JAK102 By ERIC TALMADGE Associated Press Writer JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man at the center of the showdown over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, doesn't immediately come across as a firebrand. Like most of his countrymen, he dresses conservatively in shades of gray. Giving speeches, he rarely shows much expression, rarely raises his voice, or his fists. But among many Muslims, he's fast becoming a model of defiance. Here and elsewhere in the Muslim world, Ahmadinejad is working to build a reputation as a courageous, hard-line leader unafraid to stand up to the West, speak his mind on Israel - which he has said should be ``wiped off the map'' - or lecture President Bush on history and religious values. ``Fight America, fight Israel!'' a crowd shouted after the Iranian leader offered prayers Friday at the main mosque in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. To a cheering audience Thursday at the University of Indonesia, he called Israel ``a tyrannical regime that one day will be destroyed.'' Many students held up posters of support. One read ``Iran in our Hearts.'' Before about 1,000 students at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University on Jakarta's southern outskirts, he lashed out at the ``double standard'' of the big powers, eliciting loud applause when he asked, ``If nuclear technology is bad, why do they have it?'' Despite the growing pressure on Iran to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities or possibly face U.N. sanctions, Ahmadinejad was on friendly ground in this country, the world's most populous Muslim nation. ``I think you are the man of the year,'' one student stood to say. ``We will always be with you. You will never walk alone,'' said another. Although Indonesia is relatively moderate and maintains generally cordial relations with the West, the Iranian leader's message resonates with many of its young people. ``He impresses me,'' said Riswanto Hidayat, 21, who attended the rally at Islamic University. ``He gives a voice to the opposition of Muslims to the arrogance of the United States.'' It is often an angry voice. In a letter to Bush earlier this week, Ahmadinejad brushed aside the concerns over Tehran's nuclear program, choosing instead to press other buttons - suggesting a U.S. government-led conspiracy was behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for example, or that the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews never happened. Educated Muslims don't necessarily share those views. ``I understand the frustrations, but his position is too extreme and I don't think he represents the mainstream of Islam,'' said 19-year-old Nurmela Sari. ``His positions just bring out the anger in the West and Israel.'' Ahmadinejad's own countrymen have mixed feelings about his fiery style. His announcement last month that Iran produced enriched urananium for the first time was a source of national pride. Yet some Iranians have expressed concern that his tough rhetoric is worsening the country's isolation. But Ahmadinejad has demonstrated a knack for tapping into a pool of frustration over the perception that Washington is, at best, insensitive to a wide range of Muslim concerns or, at worse, a bully trying to keep Muslims down. ``We want to use technology for peace and the welfare of the Muslim people around the world,'' he said. ``But they want to use it to invade other countries. This is the difference between us and them.'' At a dialogue with Indonesian Islamic leaders Friday, one member of the audience urged Ahamdinejad to go ahead and develop nuclear weapons, saying the ``enemies of Islam'' also had them. The Iranian leader did not reply directly, but quipped that ``every young man in the Islamic world is an atomic bomb because they have faith, God and love the character of the Prophet Muhammad.'' Yet Ahmadinejad was careful to not to shut the door on dialogue over the nuclear standoff. During his stay in Indonesia, which began Wednesday and was to end Sunday, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said he welcomes further negotiations. But he has just as frequently vowed not to kowtow to the West. ``We have never oppressed anyone, and have never been oppressed by anyone,'' he said. ``We will hit whoever attacks our interests.'' Iran says its nuclear development is for peaceful production of nuclear energy. The United States, European nations and others accuse Iran of using the civilian energy program to hide ambitions to build a nuclear weapon. The U.S., Britain and France support a proposed Security Council resolution that could set the stage for range of measures - including economic sanctions or military action - if Iran presses ahead with uranium enrichment, a key ingredient to make both energy and bombs. Ahmadinejad said he is unafraid of threats or sanctions. ``Iran will survive,'' he told the cheering Islamic students. ``Iran will not give up.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 11 Guardian Unlimited: Envoys Say Enriched Uranium Found in Iran From the Associated Press [UP] Friday May 12, 2006 9:01 PM AP Photo JAK101 By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium on equipment from an Iranian research center linked to the military, diplomats said Friday - a revelation likely to strengthen U.S. arguments that Tehran wants to develop nuclear arms. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging the confidential information, cautioned that confirmation still had to come through other laboratory tests. Initially, they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads. But later a diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was below that, although higher than the low-enriched material used to generate power and heading toward weapons-grade level. Still, they said, further analysis could show that the find matches others established to have come from abroad. The IAEA determined earlier traces of highly enriched uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market during nearly two decades of clandestine activity. Even then, nevertheless, the find would be significant. Because Iran has previously denied conducting enrichment-related activities at the site, the mere fact the traces came from there bolsters arguments that it has hidden parts of a program that can create the fissile material used in nuclear warheads. Additionally, the site's connection to the military weakens Iranian arguments that its nuclear program is purely civilian. ``That has long been suspected as the site of undeclared enrichment research and ... the Iranians have denied that any enrichment research had taken place at that location,'' said Iran expert Gary Samore of the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. ``It certainly does reinforce the agency's suspicion that Iran has not fully declared its past enrichment research.'' The development, however, was unlikely to result in an immediate American push for strong U.N. Security Council action against Tehran. The Americans recently agreed to put such efforts on hold and give new European-led attempts to find a negotiated solution a chance in the face of fierce Russian and Chinese opposition to a strong signal from the council. Moscow and Beijing have balked at British, French and U.S. efforts to put a Security Council resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Such a move would declare Iran a threat to international peace and security and set the stage for further measures if Tehran refuses to suspend uranium enrichment. Those measures could range from breaking diplomatic relations to economic sanctions and military action. Despite their declared support for the European effort to persuade Iran to give up enrichment, the Americans are ignoring calls for direct contacts with Iran - a stance criticized Friday by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Calling on ``all sides to lower the rhetoric,'' Annan said Washington should ``come to the table'' and join the Europeans and Iranians. Iran's president remained defiant. He accused the Americans of ``waging a propaganda campaign'' against his country. ``The people of Iran and the country are not afraid of them,'' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Islamic leaders in Indonesia. Uranium enriched to between 3.5 percent and 5 percent is used to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity. It becomes suitable for use in nuclear weapons when enriched to more than 90 percent. Iran denies it wants to make nuclear arms and says it is interested in uranium only to generate power. It already has enriched uranium to low levels - an accomplishment that opens the pathway to weapons-grade enrichment. Diplomats accredited to the IAEA on Friday noted that Tehran's enrichment program has progressed faster than agency experts had expected. That also suggests Iran has hidden research and development from IAEA inspectors, they said. To argue that it never produced highly enriched uranium domestically, Tehran cites the IAEA's tentative conclusion last year that traces collected from Iranian sites with no suspected ties to the military arrived on equipment from Pakistan. But the origin of the samples now being studied created some concern in that regard. One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that the samples came from vacuum pumps that has various applications, including use in uranium-enriching centrifuges at a former research center at Lavizan-Shian. The center is believed to have been the repository of equipment bought by the Iranian military that could be used in a nuclear weapons program. The United States alleges Iran conducted high-explosive tests that could have a bearing on developing nuclear weapons at the site. The State Department said in 2004 that Lavizan's buildings had been dismantled and topsoil removed to hide nuclear weapons-related experiments. The IAEA later confirmed the site had been razed. In an April 28 report, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said the agency took samples from some of the equipment of the former Physics Research Center at Lavizan-Shian. --- On the Net: www.iaea.org Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 12 The Tech: Secretary Bodman Gives Views on Nuclear Energy - By Curt Fischer STAFF REPORTER By the time secret service agents led U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman ScD 65 into the Stata Centers Kirsch Auditorium on Tuesday, a packed house sat waiting to hear him speak about Americas energy future. The talk was sponsored in part by the Energy Research Council and followed the release of the councils initial report last week. In his talk and in the following question and answer session, Bodman, a former associate professor in chemical engineering at MIT, highlighted proposed federal budget increases to several energy research areas, including solar and wind energy, clean coal, and efficient hybrid vehicles, but the two topics that received the most attention were nuclear energy and cellulosic ethanol. We in this country need more nuclear energy, said Bodman. I am convinced we will see new nuclear plants in our country, he said. We dont need six new reactors, we need 16, we need 26, we need 46. Another new nuclear thrust discussed by Bodman was Bushs new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, an international effort to develop responsible management of nuclear waste through advanced reprocessing technology. This technology relies on advanced burner reactors, which can use fast neutrons to consume and eliminate elements which are otherwise removed from todays reactors as waste. These advanced reactors produce more electricity and less nuclear waste than current technology. The GNEP arrangement carries the potential to allow poorer nations to leapfrog over some of the dirtiest & fossil fuel-based technologies, he said. GNEP is set to begin in fiscal year 2007, Bodman said, pending Congresss approval of an initial $250 million of funding. By 2026, cellulosic ethanol could account for as much as a quarter of Americas transportation fuels usage. While most ethanol is currently formed from corn, cellulosic ethanol is derived from feedstocks such as wood chips, prairie switchgrass, or the leftover leaves and stalks of corn plants, all of which are more abundant than corn grain. Today, ethanol comprises less than 5 percent of U.S. fuel use, partially because this years national ethanol production  at 5.6 billion gallons  comes from corn. Last year, about 14 percent of the nations corn crop went into ethanol, Bodman said, but reliance on corn could lead to economic disturbance of food markets. Nuclear energy and cellulosic ethanol highlight the short-term focus that Bodman is bringing to the Department of Energy. In response to a question on the long-term potential of nuclear fusion, for example, as an energy source, Bodman said that he was trying to foster a lets get some things done attitude at the department, which contrasted with the abundance of research projects that seemed to have no end in the department when he took office in 2005. Basic research a priority Bodman also spoke passionately about the need for basic science and research, and the DOEs commitment to funding basic research, particularly in the physical sciences. While recent advances in biology, genetics, and medicine have been nothing short of outstanding & it is a risky business in my view to fund one area of study at the possible expense of others. Bodman cited the ongoing construction of a coherent x-ray light source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, an increased investment in microbial research, and the creation of five nanoscale science research centers at DOE labs around the country as examples of the departments commitment to basic science. Also touted by the Secretary of Energy were several new initiatives on energy from the Bush administration. One, the American Competitiveness Initiative  a watershed for American science and engineering, would fund not only breakthroughs in research, but also the education of future scientists and engineers at the elementary and high school levels, he said. Increased funding is crucial Bodman also repeatedly and candidly acknowledged the political realities he faces in Washington. Several times he mentioned that his departments overall budget has been flat and openly stated that certain energy policies that are widely favored by analysts, such as raising national fuel taxes, are simply politically untenable. The President has committed to doubling the budget of the DOEs Office of Science over the next 10 years, Bodman said, as part of Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative. For fiscal year 2007, this offices budget would expand 14 percent, from $3.6 billion to $4.1 billion, he said. These expanded funds could support 2,600 new energy researchers in 2007. Bodman paralleled the national security, public health, and competitiveness challenges of today to the times of his youth. I was a product of the Sputnik generation, which was a time of fear, that led to not only the space race but a massive increase National Science Foundation funding, he said. Sputnik and fear of Russian dominance led America to recognize that its economic preeminence required substantial and sustained investment in science and technology. That investment must continue today, said Bodman, saying that this government is committed to holding up our end of the bargain to scientists and engineers. Bodman singled out MIT at several points in his lecture. He congratulated the Institute on its recent selection to participate in the DOEs Solar Decathlon, which involves the design and construction of solar-powered, energy-efficient houses on the Mall in Washington, DC. He also reflected fondly on his time in Cambridge and MIT, saying that his experiences taught him not only chemical engineering or problem solving, but also how to be in the world. Perhaps it was these larger lessons that inspired the best punchline of the secretarys talk: after strongly defending President Bushs decision not to sign the Kyoto protocol, he smiled and added, By the way, I dont agree with the President on everything, but if I dont, you wont hear about it from me. This story was published on Friday, May 12, 2006. Volume 126, Number 25 Copyright and distribution information. ***************************************************************** 13 RIA Novosti: U.S. backs missile defense cooperation with Russia -1 12/ 05/ 2006 WASHINGTON, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an amendment to defense-spending legislation calling for cooperation with Russia on missile defense. The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which said cooperation between Russia and the U.S. on missile defense was in U.S. interests and should be tighter, was passed by majority vote Thursday, the Office of the Clerk said. The document also called for studying innovative and nontraditional means of cooperation with Russia in the area, including the use of Russian target missiles to test specific equipment elements of the U.S. Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency to detect and track down missiles. Lawmakers also proposed "the provision of early warning radar to the Missile Defense Agency by the use of Russian radar data." The U.S. move comes in the wake of President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address to parliament on May 10, in which he said Russia's Armed Forces had to be able to react to multiple threats, ranging from a traditional enemy attack or pressure exerted by another country to an attack carried out by international terrorists. He said current research in the country focused on the development of unique high-precision weapons and warheads "whose trajectory could not be predicted by a potential enemy," and that two strategic nuclear submarines would be commissioned this year. Russia has criticized Washington's plans to deploy the missile shield in Europe, but has said it remains open to cooperation on the issue. © 2005 RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 14 Spectrum: Woman plans bomb protest St. George UT. - www.thespectrum.com - By BRIAN PASSEY Though St George resident Hughette Nordin lived in Iowa during the Cold War-era atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, she decided after reading about a planned non-nuclear bomb blast at the site that she wanted to do something to stop history from repeating itself. Nordin said she and her husband, John, who grew up in Carbon County during the testing, thought of their grandchildren's future as they began planning a protest of the 700-ton ammonium nitrate-fuel oil explosion. Downwinders - those who claim health problems related to above-ground atomic testing at the site during the 1950s and 1960s - and special interest groups have taken notice and Nordin now has an old-fashioned grassroots protest scheduled for Saturday morning at Bluff Street Park. "I think people were ready to do this, but they were just a little shy for some reason," she said of the protest. Though Divine Strake has been postponed from June 2 until June 23 at the earliest due to litigation, this and other demonstrations are still on schedule because their goal is not to delay the test, but to stop it. Many residents are concerned that a blast of that magnitude could stir up radioactive components left over from the former atomic testing, redistributing the fallout downwind of the site. Though the federal government issued a finding of "no significant impact" after an environmental assessment of the test, Nordin and others, like local Downwinder Michelle Thomas, are not going to take the government's word for it. They argue that the government was not forthcoming with information during the early atomic testing. Though she lived in Iowa, Nordin remembers how inefficient safety instruction were during the Cold War. "We were told everything was safe as long as we got under our desks," she said. Thomas, who will speak at the event, said she is impressed that Nordin and other organizers who were not in Southern Utah during the testing see the new test as a real threat. "When I see that people new come here and say, 'We don't want this to happen to us, it's bad enough that it happened to them,' it's so heartwarming," Thomas said. "It gives me hope. It breathes new light into an issue that isn't dead." Not everyone, however, agrees that the protest is necessary. Bruce Church, a Hurricane resident and former Department of Energy employee at the test site, said concerns about the test are not valid. "I think their concerns make them look silly," he said. "It's the same old issues about government lies." Church said he too sees the need for more information reaching the public. But he and the Downwinders differ on the type of information. He recently completed a lecture series on living in a radioactive world among such things as granite countertops, certain foods and sunlight. Church said radiation is all over in the environment and that people are constantly being bombarded by it. The protest Saturday is designed to inform people about Divine Strake and possible associated health concerns. There also will be a petition for residents to sign asking Utah's two Republican Senators, Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, to do all they can to stop the blast. Nordin said they are seeking to educate both those new to the area and the younger generations. She encouraged parents to bring their children. Originally published May 12, 2006 IF YOU GO + WHAT: Divine Strake bomb blast protest + WHEN: 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, press conference at 10 a.m. + WHERE: Bluff Street Park, between 600 North and 700 North in St. George. Copyright ©2006 The Spectrum. ***************************************************************** 15 Mos News: U.S. Plans for Nuclear Warhead Replacement Irresponsible - Russian Official - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM Photo from www.parowanprophet.com Created: 12.05.2006 14:43 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:43 MSK Russia has expressed concern over U.S. plans to replace nuclear warheads with conventional charges on some intercontinental missiles, warning it would be impossible to tell one from the other on launch, the Financial Times said Friday. A senior Kremlin official condemned the switch being discussed in the U.S. as “irresponsible”. “You can imagine, a rocket is fired, especially from a submarine, and no one knows what kind of warhead it is carrying,” the official said. “It doesn’t say on the rocket whether it has a conventional or nuclear warhead.” He said the Pentagon’s plans were “extremely dangerous” and the launch of such a missile could lead to an “inappropriate” response from other nuclear states. The comments came a day after President Vladimir Putin referred to the danger, in his annual state of the nation address, although he made no specific reference to the U.S. “The media and expert circles are already discussing plans to use intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry non-nuclear warheads. The launch of such a missile could . . . provoke a full-scale counter-attack using strategic nuclear forces,” said Putin. The Russian president’s seventh state-of-the-nation address placed heavy emphasis on the need to modernize the country’s military forces, including its nuclear arsenal, to enable it to withstand external pressures. Putin also said Russia needed to “preserve the strategic balance of forces”, noting that the U.S. was spending 25 times as much as Russia on defense. He pledged not to repeat the mistakes of the cold war, when the Soviet Union spent so much on arms that it weakened its economy, but warned that the arms race was not over — an apparent reference to U.S. plans to develop new types of nuclear weapons. “What’s more, the arms race has entered a new spiral today with the achievement of new levels of technology that raise the danger of the emergence of a whole arsenal of so-called destabilizing weapons,” he added. “There are still no clear guarantees that weapons, including nuclear weapons, will not be deployed in outer space. There is the potential threat of the creation and proliferation of small capacity nuclear charges.” In February, the Pentagon unveiled its Quadrennial Defense Review — a major assessment of the capabilities needed by the U.S. over the next 25 years — which called for the conversion of some intercontinental ballistic missiles from nuclear warheads to conventional weapons. While some military officers concede that problems exist regarding the difficulty for other countries to detect the kind of warhead launched, they say the changes are needed to improve U.S. strike capability. Write us: info@mosnews.com Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM ***************************************************************** 16 Bellona: Former Russian PM Kasyanov slams Kremlin government and Russian energy policy BRUSSELS—In an appearance in Brussels, former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov criticised the direction away from democracy the Kremlin is taking and said that there should be closer ties between Moscow and its biggest neighbour, the European Union (EU). The flag of the EU, Russia's biggest neighbour and potential partner. Bellona Archive Claire Chevallier, 2006-05-12 10:56 Kasyanov also labeled Russia’s notorious standoff with Ukraine over natural gas price hikes as a “big mistake.” Kasyanov's lashing of the government of his former ally President Vladimir Putin in Brussels on Wednesday was significant in that his statements constituted his first stinging international criticism of Moscow since his ouster in the winter of 2004. Such a practice by former Russian Prime Ministers is common enough, but Kasyanov's statements in Brussels put him squarely in opposition to Putin, an exceedingly dangerous position to take in today’s political climate in Russia. Kasyanov spoke on May 10th in Brussels at a conference co-organized by Member of European Parliament (MEP) Ari Vatanen and the European Enterprise Institute, a non-profit, non-party affiliated organization, which aims to promote entrepreneurship in the EU policy community, as well as to provide a platform for the ideas and philosophy of entrepreneurship throughout Europe. The conference attracted some 75 participants from the European Commission, the energy industry, journalists, and NGOs. Undemocratic developments In particular, Kasyanov singled out the extreme pressure placed on the judiciary and the fact that there is no independent media in Russia anymore. “Overall, Russia is moving in the wrong direction,” said the former Prime Minister, who also mentioned that “state-enterprises are eating more and more [of] the competitive sector.” Kasyanov spoke at length about Gazprom, the Russian gas giant and the world’s third largest corporation, just after Exxon Mobil and General Electric. The biggest natural gas extractor in the world and the world’s longest pipeline network with 150,000 kilometers, Gazprom also controls assets in banking, insurance, media, construction, and agriculture. According to Kasyanov, all the reforms aiming at making the gas and electricity sectors more transparent in Russia have been halted. “Gazprom is destroying the market in Russia,” said Kasyanov. “It should stick to gas production and transport.” Currently, the only way to gain access to the pipeline in Russia is through Gazprom, which prevents any other gas-exploiting company to sell directly to customers. Energy supply Russia’s decision to cut-off gas supplies to Ukraine in January 2006 was a “big political mistake” according to Kasyanov, who understands that it “leads to reasonable worries about Russian gas supplies.” Russia is the biggest supplier of gas to the EU, where this winter’s gas dispute with Ukraine therefore had special resonance. Christian Cleutinx, director and coordinator of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Transport and Energy said that up to 70 percent of EU energy demand could be covered by imports by 2030 and that demand for natural gas could rise by 60 percent in the same period. According to Kasyanov, the EU-Russia energy dialogue is currently on hold; only general statements are made, which contain no strategic views for the future. Kasyanov emphasised that the EU and Russia should “start a real technical and political energy dialogue.” Cleutinx agreed, stating that; “The EU-Russia dialogue is based on a mutual need of each other and should be revitalised.” Deteriorating relations Kasyanov’s general mention of the cooling relations between Russia and the West was echoed by Erik Berglof, chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development who expects a deterioration in relations between the EU and Russia after the G8 summit in St. Petersburg this summer. MEP Vatanen wished to put things on the positive side, reminding all that “our futures are inseparable and can only be built on universal values, beyond the political power game.” 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 ***************************************************************** 17 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2005 Performance Assessment for Monticello Nuclear Power Plant News Release - Region III - 2006-02 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III No. III-06-022 May 12, 2006 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Nuclear Management Co. on Wednesday, May 17, to discuss the agencys assessment of safety performance for last year at the Monticello Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is located in Monticello, Minn. The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at the Monticello Community Center, 505 Walnut Street, Suite 4, in Monticello. The NRC will respond to questions or comments from the public before the close of the meeting. The NRC continually reviews the performance of the Monticello plant and the nations other commercial nuclear power facilities, NRC Region III Administrator James Caldwell said. This meeting will provide an opportunity for a discussion of our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and with local officials and residents who live near the plant. Our goal is to explain the NRC oversight process and make as much information as possible available to the public regarding our regulation of these facilities. A letter sent from the NRC Region III Office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during the period and will serve as the basis for the meetings discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/mont_2005q4.pdf [PDF Icon] . The NRCs assessment concluded that the Monticello plant operated safely during the period. The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start with green and then increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. All of the inspection findings and performance indicators for Monticello during 2005 were determined to be green. As a result of this performance, the NRC will conduct the normal, baseline level of inspections during the upcoming year. Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region III Office in Lisle, Ill. Among the areas of plant operations to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are access control to radiologically significant areas, alert and notification system testing, identification and resolution of problems, and evaluation of changes, tests, or experiments. Current performance information for Monticello is available on the NRCs web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/MONT/mont_chart.html. Last revised Friday, May 12, 2006 ***************************************************************** 18 AP Wire: Ameren shuts down nuclear plant after high vibrations in turbine 05/12/2006 | CHRISTOPHER LEONARD Associated Press ST. LOUIS - Ameren Corp. shut down its Callaway nuclear plant Friday morning after unusually high vibrations were detected in the power turbines. The episode did not pose a danger to the public and was not an emergency, according to Ameren and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates the plant. The nuclear reactor in Fulton remained closed Friday afternoon as Ameren investigated the cause of the vibration. St. Louis-based Ameren runs dozens of power plants in Missouri and Illinois to provide electricity to 2.4 million customers. State and federal regulatory agencies are investigating safety procedures within the company after its Taum Sauk reservoir collapsed last year. NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said Ameren's safety procedures worked smoothly Friday morning. Strasma said the nuclear reactor itself was never in danger - only the separate machinery in the plant that generates electricity. Ameren spokesman Mike Cleary said employees at the mid-Missouri nuclear plant were conducting repairs Thursday night. They reduced power at the plant to 45 percent so they could replace instruments there, he said. As power was lowered, an alarm went off indicating vibrations in the turbines. They were manually shut down, he said. Minutes later, water levels built up in a steam generator, so employees manually shut down the nuclear reactor itself, according to NRC's report of the incident. "It's an operating problem that happens in power plants and it's not an emergency," Cleary said. At the Callaway plant, electricity generation starts in the reactor. Nuclear reactions there heat up rods, which are then cooled by flowing water. Steam from the water is funneled into the power turbines, which spin and make electricity. Fulton residents didn't seem worried by the shutdown. Angela Pyatt, owner of Mom's Restaurant downtown, said she didn't know about the closure. She said none of her customers had mentioned the event. "And people in here talk, believe me. I think if anybody knew about it they'd be talking about it," Pyatt said. ***************************************************************** 19 BBC: Miliband 'open minded on nuclear' Last Updated: Friday, 12 May 2006 [David Miliband] David Miliband says he wants to cut carbon emissions The new Environment Secretary David Miliband has said he is "open-minded" on the issue of nuclear power. He said no option should be taken off the table when looking at ways to cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The government is currently considering building new nuclear plants as part of a review of Britain's energy needs. But it faces opposition from environmentalists and its own advisory panel which has warned against a nuclear "quick fix". Mr Miliband's appointment in last week's Cabinet reshuffle - replacing Margaret Beckett who was known to be sceptical about nuclear power - was widely seen as clearing one obstacle to building more nuclear plants. His appointment means he will go head-to-head on green issues with Conservative leader David Cameron, who has made the environment one of his top priorities. 'Framework' Mr Cameron's environment policy adviser Zac Goldsmith is known to be vehemently opposed to nuclear power. But the Tory leader has refused to be drawn on the issue, urging voters to wait for the outcome of an internal Tory policy review. He recently told The Independent: "I'm neither dogmatically in favour of nuclear power, nor dogmatically against. "The most important thing is to set a framework which brings forward the least cost, least environmentally damaging ways of achieving the twin objectives of any sensible energy strategy: security of supply, and tackling climate change. "We'll have more to say on this when we publish the conclusions of our own energy review in the next few months." The Liberal Democrats are against building new nuclear plants. Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said: "While Mr Miliband's acknowledgment of the scale of the climate change challenge is welcome, his comments on nuclear power are worrying. "Not only does nuclear cause a great threat to the environment through the large amounts of waste produced, but it is also economically unviable." He said the government should spend any money earmarked for nuclear subsidies on the "development of genuinely sustainable technologies". 'Open-minded' Mr Miliband has said it would be wrong to rule out nuclear power in the government's energy review when it offered a way of reducing emissions. "I am open-minded about how we meet the climate change challenge," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Obviously the benefit of nuclear power is that it emits zero carbons but obviously there are costs associated with nuclear power and there are also waste issues, which are very important. "If you believe that climate change is the number one issue facing the planet, which I do, it seems to me I cannot come and say 'by the way, I have taken off the table one way in which to generate power in a zero carbon way'." 'Social justice' Mr Miliband emphasised that he was committed to tackling climate change and warned that dealing with the issue would mean far-reaching change to the way people lived. "If we are going to meet the challenge of climate change, no part of British life is going to be untouched, whether it be in government or in business or in individual life," he said. "I would say the challenge of environmental sustainability is as big a challenge in the 21st century for people on my side of politics as the drive for social justice was in the 20th century. "Throughout the 20th century people from the progressive side of politics established a social contract, a welfare state, to bring forward social justice. "In the 21st century we need to establish an environmental contract that is as enduring, as deep, as the social contract that was established." ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet in Rockville, Maryland, May 23-26 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. 06-065 May 11, 2006 The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will meet May 23-26 in Rockville, Md., to discuss matters related to the management of commercial low-level radioactive waste (LLW). Among other items, the committee will also be briefed on the National Academy of Sciences report on radioactive waste stored in tanks at three Department of Energy sites, the NRCs Standard Review Plan for Waste Determinations, an International Commission on Radiation Protection report, and on the NRCs spent fuel storage program. The committee reports to and advises the Commission on all aspects of nuclear waste management. The LLW sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The session on Thursday will run from 8:25 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the Friday session will run from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North Building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. Anyone wanting to use video teleconferencing to observe the meeting should contact Theron Brown, at 301-415-8066 to ensure availability. A complete agenda will be available on the NRCs Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acnw/agenda/2006/. Individuals interested in making statements or those seeking more information should contact Michael Snodderly, at 301-415-6927. Last revised Friday, May 12, 2006 ***************************************************************** 21 Times Herald Record: Kelly: Tug can't protect nuclear plant May 12, 2006 Buchanan The Coast Guard needs a faster patrol boat with bigger guns to fully protect the Indian Point nuclear power plant, Rep. Sue Kelly said yesterday. Kelly, R-Katonah, told Coast Guard officials at a House Transportation Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., that the 65-foot long tug used to guard the Hudson River power station is too slow. "Neither we nor the Israelis guard naval port facilities in the Middle East with tugs," Kelly said. "So why would the Coast Guard use a tug to protect a waterside nuclear facility in New York?" But Jim Steets, a spokesman for Indian Point's owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said "protection from the river is assured by both the Coast Guard and National Guard in a variety of way. We're confident in our existing security capabilities." Greg Bruno Record Online is brought to you by the Times Herald-Record, serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills. © Orange County Publications. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 NRC: Notice of Meeting; Sunshine Act FR Doc 06-4521 [Federal Register: May 12, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 92)] [Notices] [Page 27744-27745] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr12my06-105] Agency Holding the Meetings: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Date: Week of May 15, 2006. Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. Status: Public and closed. Additional Matter to be Considered: [[Page 27745]] Week of May 15, 2006 Tuesday, May 16, 2006 9:25 a.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) (Tentative). a. Hydro Resources, Inc. (In situ leach mining license), 40-8968- ML, concerning LBP-06-1 (PID--Radioactive Air Emissions) (Tentative). * * * * * * The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call (recording)--(301) 415-1292. Contact person for more information: Michelle Schroll, (301) 415-1662. * * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the Internet at: . * * * * * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from the public meetings in another format (e.g., braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, Deborah Chan, at 301-415-7041, TDD: 301-415-2100, or by e-mail at . Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. * * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition, distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic message to . Dated: May 9, 2006. R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary. [FR Doc. 06-4521 Filed 5-10-06; 1:33 pm] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M ***************************************************************** 23 Hudson Valley News: Kelly questions Coast Guard about Indian Point security Friday, May 12, 2006 Congresswoman Sue Kelly Thursday questioned why the Coast Guard is using a tugboat for security patrols at the Indian Point nuclear facility. During a House Transportation Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Kelly raised the questions to Coast Guard top brass. They agreed with her assessment that an enhanced patrol boat is necessary to fully protect the plants from any potential security breach along the Hudson River. "With such close proximity to New York City, this facility is a highly-visible target for terrorists, and therefore security at the plant is a top priority," Kelly said. Kelly said that the main source of protection for Indian Point, outside of the private security provided by the plant's owners, is supplied by the N.Y. Naval Militia. The Coast Guard patrols Indian Point with the Cutter WIRE, which is a 65-foot Inland Tug, and weekly surveillance flights. The Naval Militia also has a patrol boat at Indian Point every day, she said. Kelly urged the Coast Guard to reassess the boat currently assigned to patrol Indian Point, saying that a faster patrol boat with stronger weaponry would provide markedly better security. "I don't think that a weekly fly-by and cutter cruise represent the best the Coast Guard can do," Kelly said. "No WYTL-class Tugs have been deployed in the Persian Gulf. Neither we nor the Israelis guard naval port facilities in the Middle East with tugs. So why would the Coast Guard use a tug to protect a waterside nuclear facility in New York?" Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich said in his response to Kelly, "I absolutely agree with your construct, that the vessel in itself is not properly armed to do the mission that you're talking about." He said he could not really speak to the peculiarities of the security there, but I absolutely will take this back and we'll look at what is being done and what else might be done with different sorts of assets that would be available to properly tend to that concern." "The devastation from a successful attack on a New York-area nuclear plant would be considerably worse for our nation than a successful attack on something like an oil tanker or military vessel," Kelly said. "The level of security provided should be at least comparable." HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 24 Telegraph: Nuclear plant women in 'hot pants' row By Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 12/05/2006) Women at a nuclear plant claim that they are being discriminated against - over their underwear. Scores of female staff at the Sellafield site in Cumbria go in and out of potentially radioactive areas. But while those employed by British Nuclear Group are entitled to an annual underwear allowance of £70, those brought in by agencies are not. At the same time, under a 30-year-old union deal, every man at the plant is entitled to both boxer-style briefs and vests. One female agency worker wrote in her local newspaper on the ''hot pants'' issue: "Males, whether they are BNG, contractor or agency, are provided with underwear. Surely this is discrimination." © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006. | Terms & ***************************************************************** 25 Times Herald-Record: Indian Point finds radiation leak May 12, 2006 Buchanan - Owners of the Indian Point nuclear power station feel certain they have found the source of a strontium 90 leak that is contaminating ground water beneath the plant. Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said water samples have confirmed the leak is originating from the Indian Point 1 spent fuel pool. That reactor was shut down in the 1970s, but its old fuel rods remain. "We have a very high degree of confidence that the strontium 90 is coming from the IP1 spent fuel pool," Steets said. Since August, strontium 90 and tritium, another radioactive isotope, have been found in some of the wells dug to monitor the contamination. The discovery was made after cracks were found in the Indian Point 2 fuel pool. Steets said plant officials are still looking for the source of the tritium. Greg Bruno Record Online is brought to you by the Times Herald-Record, serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills. | | | | | | © Orange County Publications. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 Living on Earth: Nuclear Renaissance / Bruce Gellerman Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice. [Make a Donation to Living on Earth] Air Date: May 12, 2006 Not long ago, nuclear energy was seen as a dying industry. There hasn't been a nuclear power plant built in 30 years, and the disaster at Three Mile Island all but sealed the industry's fate. But today there are serious moves underway to bring nuclear back, and they are set to begin in the South. Host Bruce Gellerman reports. (7:00) Going Against the Green Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore spent 15 years advocating against atomic power. Then he had a change of heart. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with Moore about his new role as a lobbyist for the nuclear industry. (5:00) HOST: Bruce Gellerman GUESTS: Patrick Moore, David Helvarg, Lucinda Delaney Schroeder REPORTERS: Ashley Ahearn, Cameron Lawrence NOTE: Emily Taylor [THEME MUSIC] GELLERMAN: From NPR, this is Living on Earth. [THEME MUSIC] GELLERMAN: I'm Bruce Gellerman. How many nuclear power plants does it take to turn on billions of light bulbs? Try at least 16 new ones. Electric utilities have big plans for nuclear power. O'DRISCOLL: Oh boy, they do (laughs). They do. The goal is to make nuclear the premier source of power generation, but it's a very difficult, very politically difficult, very expensive process to get that done. GELLERMAN: Also, a co- founder of Greenpeace sees the light and it's lit by atomic energy. And a young boy's wish sparks an effort to save some of the nation's last remaining fire towers. ARGOW: And he asked me what they were going to do with the tower, the lookout. And I said, 'well, they can't burn it, Son, so they'll probably dynamite it.' And he said 'Dad, you can't let them do that.' And without even thinking, I said 'I won't, Son.' GELLERMAN: Those stories this week on Living on Earth. Stick around. [Back to Top] [NPR NEWSCAST] ANNOUNCER: Support for Living on Earth comes from the National Science Foundation and Stonyfield Farm. [THEME MUSIC] Nuclear Renaissance GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman, sitting in for Steve Curwood. Coming up, a founder of Greenpeace sees the light – and it's powered by nuclear energy. But first: There are 103 nuclear plants operating in the United States. And they generate about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. There were plans for a lot more nuclear plants. Then in 1979 the meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island put the kibosh on the industry. But now, like a phoenix, nuclear power is rising out of the ashes. Concerns over the burning of fossil fuels and global warming and the rising price of energy are setting the stage for a nuclear power renascence. Mary O'Driscoll, a senior reporter for Environment and Energy Daily says the industry has big plans. O'DRISCOLL: Oh boy, they do. (laughs) They do. The goal is to make nuclear the premier source of power generation, but it's a very difficult, very politically difficult, very expensive process to get that done. GELLERMAN: There hasn't been a nuclear power plant built in the United States in nearly 30 years. Despite past difficulties, utilities are taking steps to build no less than 16 new nuclear power plants over the next decade. Mary Olsen, with the Nuclear Information and Research Service, says three-quarters of the plants will be located in the south. OLSEN: And, indeed, the southeast is the nuclear heartland of the United States because of the number not only of reactors, but fuel factories, nuclear bomb factories, and all the supporting facilities. And this is already a disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities in the United States. GELLERMAN: But recent public opinion polls suggest 56 percent of Americans now favor nuclear power. And many people who once said "not in our backyard" now say, "put it in the front." So, when Duke Power just announced plans to build two new reactors in South Carolina, Jim Cooke, head of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, set out the welcome mat. COOKE: It is huge news. We were just keeping our fingers crossed. We didn't want to say, 'we knew they were looking at several different sites.' GELLERMAN: Duke chose Cherokee County, population 54,000. The textile mills and peach industries are long gone. Unemployment hovers near eight percent and Jim Cooke says just building the new reactors would put a thousand people to work. COOKE: The number of jobs that they bring in during construction, and those types of folks coming in, will bring a lot of money in. And tax-wise it'll be a windfall for our county. I don't even think we realize the economic impact that it's going to have here yet. GELLERMAN: To sweeten the deal, Cherokee County is cutting Duke Power's property taxes on the proposed 2,000-acre site in half. The company already runs a natural gas-powered plant nearby and seven nuclear reactors around the state. COOKE: Duke power has been a great corporate citizen here. They're a good company and they're not just gonna come in here and go away. GELLERMAN: Actually, once Duke did come to the county with plans to build a nuclear plant. And it did go away. COOKE: We got our hopes up earlier, back in the – whoo, wow, I was in the service – probably the 80's. They were gonna build here on this exact site. Matter of fact, there's an old reactor that they had started and then, for different political and economic reasons, you know, boom, Duke Power pulled out of it. And they sold it to this fella in North Carolina, and he ran a film company and actually made a few films down there...if you recall the film "The Abyss." [SOUNDS OF A HELLICOPTER] MAN: That there is a bottomless pit, baby. Two and a half miles straight down. GELLERMAN: The filmmaker of "The Abyss" flooded the unfinished reactor containment vessel and used it for the underwater scenes. Ironically, the movie deals with recovering a sunken nuclear submarine. MAN: Whatever happens, it's up to us. MAN 2: That guy scares me more than anything that's down there. GELLERMAN: The site is now a rusting shambles. The cost to build and abandon the reactor: $600 million. But Duke spokesman Tim Petite says times and attitudes have changed and the old Cherokee site is the perfect place to build a nuclear power plant. PETITE: Well, right now we're estimating that'll be somewhere between four and six billion dollars, the initial investment in these. GELLERMAN: Lot of money. PETITE: It is a lot of money. These are, you know, very large capital investments just like any large generating station is. But again, as you look at the life of that plant, the fuel costs associated with nuclear is much less than the other generation, and so it pays benefits to the company, the shareholders and the customers over the long-term. GELLERMAN: To jumpstart the nation's stagnate nuclear industry, the federal government is providing $13 billion in incentives and subsidies. If there is an accident the utilities liability is largely covered. The licensing process has also been streamlined, and taxpayers will pay half the $47 million application fee. Anti-nuclear activist Mary Olsen says the money is just a down payment on the trillions of dollars nuclear power will eventually cost. OLSEN: Nuclear power is not cost-effective or competitive. The only way to build new reactors is put tax dollars into it. What if we put trillions of dollars into wind, efficiency and solar? Couldn't we do it faster? I bet we could. GELLERMAN: One issue is slowing down the renaissance in nuclear power is radioactive waste. Right now there are 50,000 tons of spent fuel rods at power plants around the nation. The controversial federal repository that was supposed to store reactor waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. To speed things up, the Bush administration has proposed streamlining the licensing process and lifting the cap on the amount of radioactive waste that can be buried at Yucca. Still, energy reporter Mary O'Driscoll says waste remains the industry's Achilles heel. O'DRISCOLL: They are paying to store nuclear waste on spent fuel onsite which does not make them happy, doesn't make their shareholders happy, doesn't make their rate payers happy. A lot of members of Congress aren't happy. And so it's a very difficult situation to resolve, and the feeling is that until you resolve, finally, the Yucca Mountain situation and get it operating and make sure it's operating, that the future of nuclear power in the United States is really going to be questionable. PETITE: Well, certainly that's something we're taking a look at. We'll follow that very closely. GELLERMAN: Again, Tim Petite from Duke Power. PETITE: We want to see a lot of progress made on that front. And before we decide to go forward with building additional nuclear plants we'll certainly be evaluating the storage of the fuel before that decision is made. GELLERMAN: Petite says that decision could be made in a year...maybe two. -->--> Related links: -->- Duke Energy Corporation - Nuclear Information and Resource Service - The Nuclear Energy Institute - U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission--> [SOUNDS FROM THE ABYSS] Going Against the Green GELLERMAN: One of the leading advocates of nuclear power today was once one of its most outspoken opponents. Dr. Patrick Moore was a co-founder of the environmental group Greenpeace and served seven years as a director of Greenpeace International. Nowadays Moore has teamed up with former EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman to spread the word about nuclear power. Their organization, The Clean And Safe Energy Coalition, lobbies on behalf of the industry. CASEnergy co-chair Dr. Patrick Moore takes questions from the media. (Photo courtesy of CASEnergy Coalition) [ height=] MOORE: Yes, I am very proud to be a spokesperson for nuclear energy, for the technology. I'm not pushing any particular company or any particular group of companies or any particular organization, for that matter, other than the Coalition for Clean and Safe Energy. That's the only one I'm backing, and the reason for that is because I support the technology. GELLERMAN: Well, the environmentalists call you a traitor. MOORE: Well, name-calling doesn't really help much with the discussion, does it? I think it's important to get to the issue. And it's certainly not about me. The whole issue of energy for this world, and the other issue of climate change, which is very strongly related to energy in the form of fossil fuels, which account for about 85 percent of our total energy consumption in this world. These are big issues. One could say that the relationship between energy for civilization and the potential for climate change is the biggest issue we have today. And, from a scientific point of view, perhaps the most difficult. GELLERMAN: So climate change poses a difficult choice. Is nuclear power the lesser of many evils? MOORE: If you want to think of everything as evil, like so many of the activists do today. One of the reasons I left Greenpeace was because I had to be against everything all the time. I was really more interested, after about 15 years of being against things every day, I was trying to figure out what the solutions were and figuring out what I was in favor of instead. And when it comes to energy these days there's sort of two schools of thought from an environmental point of view. One group, which I think includes Greenpeace and many other of the activist organizations, actually believes that we can phase out fossil fuels and nuclear energy, and at the same time they don't like hydroelectric dams. That accounts for about 99 percent of all of the energy in the world for making electricity. You cannot propose a solution which eliminates 99 percent of the world's energy. So I believe, and I think the second school of thought, would be that the only way to substantially reduce fossil fuel consumption is to have a combination of renewables plus nuclear. Because you have to have a base load; you cannot make base load electricity with wind and solar, which are intermittent and unreliable. They can only fill a certain niche. And the only base load sources of power are hydroelectric, coal and nuclear. Hydroelectric, unfortunately, is largely built out to capacity. Therefore, the real choice is between coal and nuclear. And, in addition, nuclear energy does not produce greenhouse gases and does not produce air pollution like coal does. So I don't think it's so much the lesser of two evils as, in fact, a very clean choice. And if you actually look at the statistics, a very safe choice for energy production. GELLERMAN: Hmm. Your old organization Greenpeace reported just in April 2006 that it reviewed NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, documents and found there were two hundred near-misses to meltdowns since 1986. MOORE: Well, near-misses. You know, there's actually ten levels of incidence that need to be reported to the NRC. Most of these are very minor. It's sort of like saying you have two hundred car crashes where nobody was hurt. You know, well, okay, so the cars have to be fixed, but no one was hurt. And no one has ever been hurt by a nuclear reactor accident in the United States. It's plain and simple. Even the worst accident that ever occurred, at Three Mile Island, did not hurt anybody. So, okay, accidents can happen. Accidents may happen in the future. But you have to weigh the risk against the benefit and in addition to that you have to look at the record. And the record shows that with the exception of Chernobyl, which was a stupid design, that nuclear reactors have been safe. France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and it has not had a history of accidents that have hurt anybody, whereas 6,000 people die in coal mines every year, 45,000 that die in the U.S. just from car accidents – it's 1.2 million worldwide – and yet no one is banning the automobile. Why do people have such different perceptions of risk for different technologies? I do not understand this. GELLERMAN: Well Dr. Moore, I want to thank you very much. MOORE: Thank you Bruce, it's been enjoyable talking to you. GELLERMAN: Dr. Patrick Moore is head of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and chief scientist of Greenspirit. -->--> Related links: -->- Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. - Clean and Safe Energy Coalition - Greenpeace, International--> GELLERMAN: Coming up: federal regulations limiting their catch snare commercial fishermen, but no matter how you count them the net result is less. Stay tuned to Living on Earth. [MUSIC: Tom Verlaine "Depot (1958)" from 'Warm & Cool" (Thrill Jockey Records – 2005)] Out to Sea GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth, I'm Bruce Gellerman. Back in 1976 when the Magnuson-Stevens Act was passed, it laid the groundwork for managing the nation's fishing industry. Over the years, the law has been revamped and renewed several times. Still, the stock of fish off our shores continues to collapse. Now, members of Congress, including California Republican Richard Pombo, say it's time to update the law that has fish and fisherman on the hook. POMBO: Fisheries management requires balance. Having fisheries with no fishermen left to harvest this wonderful protein source is unacceptable. Having fishermen with no fish to catch is equally unacceptable. GELLERMAN: There are a number of bills pending before Congress that would regulate what fisherman can take out of the sea, and how long they can set their nets and lines. To learn how the government's plans might affect those who make their livelihood from the ocean, Living on Earth's Ashley Ahearn went to some New England docks. [ENGINE REVVING AND THEN SLOWING] AHEARN: The fishing vessel Sea Hound docks at the Chatham Fish Pier on Cape Cod, Massachusetts to unload her catch as a huge steel bucket swings down on to her deck. [KACHUNK-KACHUNK. WHEELING SQUEAK. ENGINE. KLUNK-KLUNK OF FISH INTO EMPTY STEEL BUCKET] AHEARN: First Mate Jeremiah Perry fills the metal container with glassy-eyed haddock and codfish. Perry and Captain Peter Taylor are just back from three days at sea. Way out at sea. A thousand dollars in gas round trip, out at sea. TAYLOR: We were fishing 100 miles offshore. We go out there because that's kind of the end of the line now. Really the only place to find fish. AHEARN: But Captain Taylor says Cape Cod fishermen didn't always have to go that far to cast their nets. TAYLOR: When I started you could fish five miles offshore or you could go up the beach, we call it up off the highlands, and be within three miles off land up there and catch all the fish you wanted. Times have definitely changed in that regard. AHEARN: Fishstocks in the Northeast dropped drastically in the late 1980's. And as the science caught up with the crisis, restrictions on catches soon followed, forcing many fishermen out of business and creating a lot of animosity between the fish-counters and the fish-catchers. But Captain Taylor knows that if the Northeast's fish stocks are to rebound, it's time to change fishing regulations. TAYLOR: New England has been great at stalling, delaying, and that's how it's worked. And this is so short-sighted, the management now. You know, they say they're looking out for the fishermen. Well, how do you look out for fishermen if you put them out of business because there aren't any fish left? AHEARN: When it comes to regulating commercial fishing, New England does things a little differently. The rest of the nation uses what's called a Hard TAC or Total Allowable Catch system. It sets a scientifically determined quota for the amount of fish that can be caught. When fishermen exceed that quota, they have to catch less of that kind of fish the following year. In New England, fishermen are regulated by the number of days they're allowed to go out to sea. If they catch too many fish this year, then next year their days at sea are cut. But regulating fisherman by days at sea, says Andy Rosenberg, isn't enough to stop over-fishing. ROSENBERG: If you overfish while rebuilding, what will happen is that you'll dig a bigger hole and it will take longer to get out, or you'll have this slow death by a thousand cuts. AHEARN: Rosenberg was the regional administrator for New England Fisheries when the government first started addressing the over-fishing crisis in the mid-90's. He says that when fast, strict recovery plans were put in place, fish stocks like haddock were able to bounce back. But with slower, more gradual recovery plans, like the one for cod fish, the results were lacking. ROSENBERG: For cod we phased it in really slowly. There were big arguments from the industry, 'oh you can't make the adjustments so quickly.' Cod has just never recovered. KANE: What was Cape Cod named for? Cape cod. Now we call it the cape without the cod. You can't call it Cape Cod anymore. AHEARN: Raymond Kane's been fishing out of Chatham, on the Cape for 34 years. And although fishermen have historically been wary of fishery scientists, Kane is starting to put a little faith in the research. KANE: Andy Rosenberg told us back in '88 and '89 that there was something wrong with the stock. And, of course, back then I didn't want to believe him, but, in retrospect, along with myself and other men my own age, we started talking amongst each other saying 'there is something wrong here.' [SEAGULLS AND DOCK SOUNDS IN GLOUCESTER] AHEARN: In Gloucester Massachusetts, one of the oldest fishing ports in the nation, there's a different view about just how many fish are in the sea. CROSSEN: The fish are out there, we're just not allowed to catch them. AHEARN: Captain Billy Crossen is aboard his ship, the Odessa, tied up at Fisherman's Wharf. He's been fishing out of Gloucester for 29 years and is frustrated by mounting regulations. CROSSEN: If I was free to go fishing now the way I fished twenty, thirty or even 15 years ago, I would make myself very, very wealthy in a very short time. AHEARN: Crossen and other Gloucester fishermen don't want to abandon the days at sea system for quota regulations because they think the science that sets the quotas isn't completely in touch with the actual numbers of fish to be caught on a year-to-year basis. Vito Giacalone, who works with the Northeast Seafood Coalition representing fishermen, agrees. GIACALONE: We have very good science here for giving us trends, something to look at. We do not have the kind of science that's ready to deliver this kind of precision to allocate the fish. It's gonna be unsafe for the fish stocks and it's gonna be unsafe for the fishing communities. AHEARN: Ten years ago, 14 of the 19 commercial stocks in New England were over-fished. Now it's down to eight. So while some fish stocks may be recovering, scientists say more regulation and protective measures are crucial. There are varying opinions among New England fisherman about how best to manage the Northeast fishery. But one thing they all have in common is a certain degree of stubbornness and determination. The kind that keeps fishermen like Captain Taylor of Cape Cod hanging on to his boat in the hopes of smoother, more fish-filled waters ahead. TAYLOR: I don't want to switch now. It's one of those things. Midlife crisis and what do you do? I bought a motorcycle instead. (LAUGHS) AHEARN: For Living on Earth, I'm Ashley Ahearn in Chatham, Massachusetts. -->--> Related links: -->- The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman's Association - The Northeast Seafood Coalition - U.S. Ocean Fish Recovery: Staying the Course--> GELLERMAN: The world's oceans may seem infinite and eternal, but they're limited, and, says David Helvarg, they're dying. In 2003, David Helvarg created the Blue Frontier Campaign. It's purpose: to raise awareness about environmental threats to our seas. His latest book is called "50 Ways to Save the Ocean." One of the ways is to visit an aquarium. So I asked Helvarg to meet at the New England Aquarium in downtown Boston. [CROWD NOISE] GELLERMAN: Well, David, thank you for coming to the aquarium. I really appreciate it. HELVARG: Well, it's great to be here. Almost as fun as the ocean. Let's enjoy. GELLERMAN: What are you showing me first? HELVARG: Well, let's see what we find. It's always a mystery what you're going to run into. [DOOR OPENS] HELVARG: Let's go in. GELLERMAN: Okay. HELVARG: Penguins. A community of penguins chills out at the New England Aquarium. (Photo: Ashley Ahearn) [ height=] [PENGUIN BLEATING, SQUEEKING] GELLERMAN: We're looking at three scuba divers, and they're feeding these little penguins with these very bushy eyebrows. HELVARG: Yeah, these noisy fellows are Rockhoppers, like one of, what, 17 species of penguins. Slightly spoiled. You see three people hand-feeding them fish. You've got a penguin colony. It like combines the ambience of a heavy metal rock concert and a cow barn. [BLEATING, SQUEEKING] GELLERMAN: David, now you've got 50 ways to save the ocean, basically, and I was interested in number 41, which is "visit an aquarium." Why visit an aquarium? HELVARG: Because they're changing. When I was a kid they were pretty much just medium-security fish jails. Now they're very engaged. A number of aquariums have gotten engaged with marine education and conservation. And, you know, it's education for action. I think aquariums are a great way for millions of Americans to get engaged and turned around to become citizen advocates for the oceans, what I call "seaweed rebels," marine grassroots activists. David Helvarg (right) with host Bruce Gellerman. (Photo: Ashley Ahearn) [ height=] GELLERMAN: I was reading your book, and you quote Jim Watkins, who's a retired admiral in the U.S. Navy. He says that the U.S. Commission on the Oceans policy warns that we have five to 10 years left to save the oceans before it's too late? HELVARG: He believes that there is a tipping point and that we're very close to it, and if we don't start to turn things around – not in our lifetime, but in this decade and the following – that it may simply be too late. When you reach a certain point – we've seen it in localized areas, you know, cod off Canada. They stopped fishing it but it didn't come back. We realized they only reproduce in aggregations of certain areas. You see it with a lot of sea life. We lost 90 percent of the large pelagic fish, the top predators in the open ocean, since 1950. And they're beginning to see where the genetics change, where you take out so many big fish that the ones that come up behind them are smaller. There's a scientist in Oregon, Mark Hixon, who talks about fat old females in a positive sense. Fat old females are the most productive and fecund fish. They produce more viable fish and, I mean, more viable eggs, and more of them. So if you start taking out the big fish at the top you're weakening the whole system. And we used to think we knew what we were doing in the ocean. We used to say when we take out the big fish small ones grow up behind them. Then we discovered groupers are transsexual; all the small groupers are females and they convert to males as they get bigger. You take out the big fish and now you've got a bunch of lonely bachelorettes looking for a date. GELLERMAN: Well, David, let's go here. This is where they have a tank with a grouper, I guess. Wow, look at this fish! It's looks like a rock. It looks like a boulder! HELVARG: Yeah, a big Goliath grouper. GELLERMAN: Look how humongous it is! HELVARG: They're big. They get bigger, too. You leave them alone and they grow to six, eight hundred pounds. People in the South Pacific, early divers, got really nervous about being swallowed by these guys. And there are stories of it. When I was on a dive trip in Australia one of the crew actually was killed. He was free diving and they found him dead on the bottom, and they suspect he was knocked unconscious by one of these big groupers, what they call Potato Cod over there. And the problem was that when you go down and dive...at the time they had a bucket of fish they would feed these giant three, four hundred pound behemoths, and they started associating people with food. I almost got knocked over by one. But this big is probably a "he." A lot of grouper species, they start out small as females and as they get larger they transition to male. And so you have to have the big ones there to keep the species going. We're learning it just as we're destroying it, and we're destroying it at a tremendous rate. Right now, we're taking about 80 million tons of wild biomass out of the oceans every year. I visited the USS Dennis, landed on the aircraft carrier doings ops off San Diego. This is like one of these monster ships, you know, you're on a four-acre flight deck, they're doing night ops, and it's very impressive. I'm up on the bridge with the captain and we're talking, and I realize every year we're taking the equivalent of 900 aircraft carriers of living weight out of the oceans. That's how much fishing we're doing. I mean, we used to have natural sanctuaries for fish called too far and too deep. And then after World War II we developed all these military technologies like Lorans and sonar and radar. And now we use satellites to chase fish into the deep oceans, and we've got rock-hopper devices to troll rocky bottoms, and there's no refuge for fish unless we create them. We need to create national parks in the ocean. We need to stop using military technologies to catch fish faster than they can reproduce. GELLERMAN: Look at that! HELVARG: This is beautiful. Sea Dragon. David Helvarg checks out the Aquarium's seadragon, a close relative of the seahorse, which uses its leafy appendages to hide in seaweed and kelp. (Photo: Ashley Ahearn) [ height=] GELLERMAN: Oh my gosh! Look at that! It looks like – HELVARG: Like a princess should be riding it. GELLERMAN: Gosh, it's like a sea horse with wings! Look at its gills in the back moving so fast! HELVARG: And it's about a foot long, and when it goes back into that kelp it disappears. It's magical. I mean, when I was a kid I was angry, really, that I look up to the stars and think I was a generation too soon to explore alien worlds. When I first put on a snorkel and starting seeing things like Sea Dragons I realized there's alien life right here. GELLERMAN: What's inconceivable to me is the amount of difference in the ocean, how many of these varieties and species, and just completely different from anything you'd see on land. HELVARG: This is the wonder. We talk about the world being 71 percent ocean, but that's just the surface – 97 percent of all the living habitat is in our seas. From, you know, the surface where sea turtles are munching on jellyfish and the dorsal fins of the sharks are floating, to seven miles down in the Mariana Trench where you have, you know, fish and deep thermal vents. That we used to think photosynthesis was the basis of life – it's even hard to talk when you've got a couple Sea Dragons cruising by. They're just wondrous. GELLERMAN: You have a recommendation in the book: get married on the beach. HELVARG: Get married on a wild beach. GELLERMAN: On a wild beach! HELVARG: Because, you know, get married on any beach you love because the things you associate with love and commitment, you're more likely to go back and commit yourself to. I mean, you know, my life's love, I remember, first kiss in a sandstone beach in a tide pool in Moss Landing. A lot of people both love and loss associated. I mean, I had a memorial at the beach for a loved one. You look out, it was a feisty day, you know, the wind was blowing, it was kind of – it reminded me of her. And sometimes you feel like, you know, you still feel a part of something larger even when large parts of your own soul is torn away. We all come from water, salt water, at both an individual and evolutionary basis, and I think that connection's vital. You know, we're spending billions to go into space to Mars or other planets and what's the first thing we look for? Water. GELLERMAN: Let me ask a cynical question. Why should I care? I mean, you know, I can come to the aquarium and see penguins. I'm never going to Antarctica. What does it matter to me? HELVARG: Well, this is what people say. What's the ocean and ocean life matter to me? But we're a water planet. Life derives from the ocean and we're dependent on it. We're dependent...the air we breath, I mean, the oceans are – we talk about the rainforests are the lungs of the planet, it's really the algae in the ocean that's absorbing that excess carbon and turning it into the oxygen we need to survive. If you're living in Iowa, if you're a farmer, the ocean's what drives the weather and climate. Depending on how the oceans act depends on the rain you'll need for the fields to raise your crops. We also depend on the ocean for recreation, for transportation, for trade, for protein. And also just that spiritual connection, that sense of wonder and awe that so many of us feel when we get there on the water's edge. GELLERMAN: So David, here we are in front of this small submersible submarine. It's about two bathtubs long, it's painted yellow – yellow submarine. HELVARG: Yellow submarine. GELLERMAN: Would you ever get into a submarine like this and go to the bottom of the ocean? HELVARG: I'd love to. At least as far as it's depth-qualified for. GELLERMAN: Well, if you go, take me along. HELVARG: Okay. You drive. GELLERMAN: (Laughs) David Helvarg is president and founder of the Blue Frontier Campaign. His most recent book is "50 Ways to Save the Ocean." -->--> Related link: [MUSIC: Jean Michel Jarre "Oxygene 2" from 'Oxygene' (Dreyfus - 1993)] GELLERMAN: You can hear our program anytime on our website or get a download for your personal listening device. The address is loe.org. You can reach us at comment@loe.org. Our postal address is 20 Holland St. Somerville, Massachusetts 02144. And you can call our listener line at 800-218-9988. CDs and transcripts are 15 dollars. Just ahead: targeting illegal hunters. A rare women federal agent sets her sights on poachers of endangered species. First this Note on Emerging Science from Emily Taylor. [SCIENCE NOTE THEME] Emerging Science Note/Lawnmower No More TAYLOR: The grass is always greener, right? Well, thanks to recent research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland, you may soon be able to have green grass and get rid of that noisy, polluting lawnmower to boot. Researchers led by Joanne Chory were able to map the signaling pathway of a crucial hormone in plants that regulates growth and development, thus creating grass that stays green and never needs mowing. Now they believe they can manipulate the pathway and control a plant's stature and its yield. The group of hormones the team examined are called Brassinosteroids, and they act as a chemical messengers of plant development. Without them all plants would be infertile, tiny dwarves. By limiting the effect of brassinosteroids, Chory and her team believe they may be able to create a genetically modified strain of dwarf grass that stays green all the time. And by enhancing the amount of the steroid they may be able to create types of plants that would yield greater amounts of seeds. Other studies have shown that brassinosteroids can regulate their own expansion in nature, allowing plants to adapt to their growing conditions in a particular environment. The mainstream effects of this new research could drastically change the face of horticulture in the future, producing sturdier, more fruitful crops. That's this week's Note on Emerging Science, I'm Emily Taylor. -->--> Related link: -->Howard Hughes Medical Institute Press Release--> GELLERMAN: And you're listening to Living on Earth. ANNOUNCER: Support for NPR comes from NPR stations, and: Kashi, maker of all natural foods, founded on the belief that everyone has the power to make healthful changes. Kashi: seven whole grains on a mission. The Kresge Foundation, investing in nonprofits to help them catalyze growth, connect to stakeholders, and challenge greater support. On the web at Kresge dot org; The Annenberg Fund, for excellence in communications and education. The WK Kellogg Foundation, from vision to innovative impact, 75 years of philanthropy. This is NPR -- National Public Radio. [MUSIC: Ozric Tentacles "Iscence" from 'Erpland' (Snapper Classics UK - 2003)] Hunt for Justice GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. Lucinda Delaney Schroeder is five foot two with eyes of blue, a wife and a mother, too. But don't let her small size and demeanor fool you. For thirty years she worked as a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service where she would frequently go undercover to track down some of the most despicable of species: bloodthirsty hunters who kill for fun, care nothing for the animal, and less for the law. She's written a book about her experience as an undercover wildlife agent called "A Hunt For Justice," and she joins me. Ms. Schroeder, welcome to Living on Earth. SCHROEDER: Thank you Bruce, I'm delighted to be here. GELLERMAN: Back in 1974, you were one of the first women at the Fish and Wildlife Department's law enforcement arm, is that right? SCHROEDER: Yes, I was. GELLERMAN: How could that be just about 30 years ago they didn't have any women? SCHROEDER: Because prior to 1971 it was illegal for women to carry firearms in federal service. So they weren't hiring women until just shortly thereafter. GELLERMAN: Had you fired a firearm before entering the federal service? SCHROEDER: No, I hadn't. GELLERMAN: So what would make a nice woman like you want to take up a firearm? SCHROEDER: Well, I had a degree in criminology. I graduated from the University of Maryland in 1974. And I really wanted a job as an investigator. I wanted a job where I could go out and find bad people doing bad things. And the Fish and Wildlife Service attracted me because it was a job where I could do something with a cause. One of the things that I liked to do in my career was find the very worst, the very worst of the wildlife violators out there who were doing the most damage. GELLERMAN: A goodly part of the book is you find them in Alaska. SCHROEDER: Yes, I do. My book concentrates on one case because it is so dramatic and it does show what tremendous damage a small ring of international poachers can do to wildlife. GELLERMAN: It's not so much that these guys are hunters as herders. They're using snowmobiles and airplanes to basically channel animals into a killing field. The fly-in hunting camp owned and operated by Bob Bowman--located on the Ivishak River in the Brook Range, Alaska (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) [ height=] SCHROEDER: That's exactly right. When I was there, small airplanes that are called "supercubs" were used to herd animals into shooting range of the hunters. The animals were primarily grizzly bear. Many people may not realize this, they're one of the easiest animals to herd, and they can be corralled and they can be herded in almost any direction. And this was happening day after day while I was at the camp. In fact, the grizzly bear hunt usually takes three to five days. The airplanes were cutting these hunts down to 15 to 30 minutes, from three to five days. GELLERMAN: Not much sport there. What were these people after? SCHROEDER: The hunters that I encountered were not interested in sport. They were living by what I call "the creed of greed." They were just simply interested in the trophy. Their only ammunition was their checkbook. They went to the camp knowing full well that there was going to be some very serious violating going on, and they went there and they killed their animals very quickly and went home with their trophies. GELLERMAN: A lot of these hunters aren't good ol' boys, they're international bankers and politicians – these are people with big bucks. Lucinda with an illegal overlimit of waterfowl. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) [ height=] SCHROEDER: The hunters that I met in Alaska were indeed wealthy individuals. They used their money to buy easy, sure, quick and guaranteed hunts. They had prestigious positions in Europe and they cared nothing about the sport and they cared nothing about the actual challenge of the hunt. They used their money to come to the United States and steal our wildlife. GELLERMAN: The organizers in this operation want you to go after Dall sheep. And they're on the cover of the book, they're magnificent animals, but why Dall sheep? Why not grizzlies or... SCHROEDER: Well, Dall sheep are one of the premier animals for trophy hunters, and they're also one of the most difficult to hunt. The trophy hunters who go to Alaska really like to hunt Dall sheep and the outfitter wanted me, a woman, to hunt a Dall sheep so he would have a photograph to put on his brochure for the upcoming hunting season. But the Dall sheep that I ended up shooting was shot on a national wildlife refuge without a permit and it was an illegal sheep. And after I shot that sheep – I was forced to shoot it, I had no choice in the matter – and after I shot the sheep I was very upset. I was very angry. But I vowed that this sheep would not be shot in vain, and that this sheep would be used to make sure that this never happens again, this camp would be shut down, and that this outfitter would pay the price for killing all the animals that he had killed. GELLERMAN: In going after these bad guys it sounds almost like James Bond. You have secret tape recorders and you have to have an alias. You go as "Jane." It is dangerous, isn't it? SCHROEDER: It can be very dangerous, especially since all the work is done in remote areas and there is no backup. In my investigation I didn't take any tape recorders with me because I couldn't run the risk of having one found on me. And I didn't take a handgun with me. I had a rifle, of course, because I was posing as a hunter, but I didn't have firearms, I didn't have identification, I didn't have anything. I had no way of contacting any other agents or other backup while I was in the Brooks Range for help. So I was strictly on my own, and I had to rely on my wits every moment. GELLERMAN: What would they have done to you had you blown your cover? SCHROEDER: It's hard to say. Obviously, the worst thing they would have done is left me on the tundra, considered me a lost hunter. They might have killed me outright. It's just impossible to say but it would not have been good. GELLERMAN: In the book, in the investigation that you conducted in Alaska – I mean, some of these animals are so magnificent. I'm thinking of these nine-foot grizzly bears. In the end, when you catch these bad guys and they get some time in prison, it's not much time, a year or two, and a couple thousand dollar fine. What kind of justice is that? SCHROEDER: For the most part wildlife violators don't serve a lot of time in jail, and they get back out in the woods and they're back to violating again. But in the case of my investigation I was fortunate enough in that the camp was closed down completely. All of the violators who participated in the violations that I investigated are no longer in the field. They've been out of business for many years. So it was a very successful investigation from that standpoint. GELLERMAN: The Fish and Wildlife Service, the portrait that you paint, is of some very dedicated people, dramatically under-funded. How many agents were there in the United States? SCHROEDER: Right now there's about 230 for the whole country. It's always been between about 210 and 230. The numbers are pathetically low. It doesn't get the support that it needs, it has a huge job, the agents are all overworked, and, as the years go by, their jobs are getting more and more difficult. GELLERMAN: I mean, you're literally out-gunned. SCHROEDER: Absolutely. GELLERMAN: Is the problem getting better or worse? Are people toeing the line? Obeying the laws? SCHROEDER: It's hard to say because most wildlife crime goes undetected. So, it's hard to say if it's getting better or worse but there's no indication that it's getting vastly better. There are still violators out there. They still need to be caught. And the American public can do an awful lot by reporting wildlife crimes. GELLERMAN: Ms. Schroeder, are you still hunting? SCHROEDER: A little bit. I'm busy with a lot of other occupations so it's difficult to get time to hunt, but I do a little. GELLERMAN: Ms. Schroeder, than you very much. SCHROEDER: Well, thank you. I've enjoyed talking to you very much. GELLERMAN: Lucinda Delaney Schroeder's book, the true story of a woman undercover wildlife agent is called "A Hunt for Justice." -->--> Related link: -->"A Hunt for Justice" website--> [Back to Top] [MUSIC: 16 Horsepower "Flutter" from 'Folklore' (Jet Set Records – 2002)] View From the Top – Preserving the Nation’s Fire Towers GELLERMAN: Once, there were 8,000 fire lookout towers in the United States. From these vantage posts generations of men and women kept a watchful vigil over the nation's forests. But today, with fewer than 2,000 of the towers left, there's a movement underway to protect those that remain. Cameron Lawrence has our story. [SOUND OF MEN WORKING AND TALKING AT THE ROUTE 377 VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT] LAWRENCE: There's an easy camaraderie among the members of the Route 377 Volunteer Fire Department located among the rolling ridges of northeastern Kentucky, near Morehead. Most of the men working at the firehouse on a spring Saturday grew up nearby and have a deep commitment to the region. [SOUND OF MEN TALKING AND WORKING] [ border=] [ height=] Hickory Flats Fire Tower. (Photo: D. Cameron Lawrence) [ height=] LAWRENCE: Forty-one year-old Dowe Blevins is the fire department's chief. For years, as he drove area roads, he'd spot the abandoned Hickory Flats Fire Tower, an 80-foot skeletal structure capped with a small lookout, sitting atop a hill high in the 700,000 acre Daniel Boone National Forest. On one of those drives through the country, Blevins hatched an idea. BLEVINS: We come back one night, and I just took my hat off and said 'hey, guys, we gotta buy a fire tower.' LAWRENCE: Blevins says that in the past, Hickory Flats was a big part of community life. People often hiked to the tower and visited with the lookouts. But after decades of abandonment, it was falling apart. That bothered Blevins. BLEVINS: It'd probably been 20 years since I'd been up there. And we walk up there, and it's all grown up and trees as tall as it is. You know, some of them. But we went up there and we said, 'well, this is doable.' LAWRENCE: The first part of the effort was raising the money to buy the tower. BLEVINS: So what we done is we just added another fundraising night. LAWRENCE: Danny Blevins is Dowe's older brother and the department's training officer. DANNY BLEVINS: We raise funds for trucks and equipment, so we decided we would start have a couple of fundraisers just for the fire tower, and that's what we've done. We were able to raise a little bit of money from a fish fry and then some donations to help put into the tower. LAWRENCE: Diving into historical research, the men discovered that Hickory Flats was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934 and that it was among 180 other fire lookouts that once stood in Kentucky. [ border=] [ height=] Route 377 Volunteer Fire Department in front of the cabin or "ground house" they are restoring. Fire chief Dowe Blevins is front-center, Danny Blevins is second from left. (Photo: John Gregory) [ height=] In the 1980s, no longer using the tower, the U.S. Forest Service had traded it to private owners for other land the agency wanted. The men of Route 377 tracked down the tower's owner. They bought it for 400 dollars. Next, the men put in a driveway and started restoring the cabin and tower. Danny Blevins says the work has been worth it. DANNY BLEVINS: When you get in the tower you don't take anything for granted. The beauty is spectacular. It really wakes you up to what you've got at your own back door. LAWRENCE: The Route 377 fire department is among a growing cadre of enthusiasts around the country working to save the nation's fire towers. It's a story whose beginnings go back to the early days of natural resource management in this country. Keith Argow is a former district ranger with the U.S. Forest Service and president of the National Woodland Owners Association, a group of non-industrial private forest landowners. He says when the Forest Service was founded in 1905, there were just a few fire lookout towers in the country. But that would soon change. ARGOW: Gifford Pinchot, of course, was the first chief of the Forest Service, and he witnessed the tremendous 1910 fires. LAWRENCE: Those fires were the largest in American history. Called "When the Mountains Roared," the inferno raged across three million acres of northern Idaho and western Montana. The blaze led to a call for a national fire lookout system. By the end of the 1930s, with major help from the Civilian Conservation Corps, more than 5,000 lookouts housed tower men and women watching for smokes in the distance. MAUK: You had Hickory Flats, Triangle, Tater Knob...(FADES UNDER] LAWRENCE: Eighty-six year-old Joe Mauk recounts the towers that once stood in this part of Kentucky. During a 40 year career with the Forest Service, he oversaw fire protection efforts in this region. Mauk says in western forests, lightening strikes are one of the major causes of fires. But in eastern forests, it's usually people who are to blame. MAUK: Back at that time we had a lot of tobacco farmers around the country. In the spring, they'd built plant beds, pile brush on them and burn them to fertilize the tobacco beds. Quite often while they were burning them a wind would come up and blow out and start fires. And then people burning stuff around their homes at that time, started quite a few fires. [ border=] [ height=] An alidade used to locate fires. From an old Kentucky fire tower, donated by a private collector to the Route 377 Volunteer Fire Department. (Photo: John Gregory) [ height=] LAWRENCE: Mauk says each lookout had an instrument called an alidade, a device that took location readings. When a tower man or woman spotted smoke, they took a reading and called the information into a dispatcher, who'd get readings from other towers and pinpoint a fire's location. It was the same system used in all of the nation's lookouts. But by the 1970s, most lookout towers were abandoned as state and federal forest agencies turned to aerial surveillance, satellite detection and other high-tech methods. Again, Keith Argow. ARGOW: It was a very sad period which I witnessed as a district ranger at the time, and on my unit, I fought hard to maintain all of my lookouts. But they're all gone now. LAWRENCE: For liability reasons, agencies burned, dynamited or toppled most towers. Others were vandalized. More than 25 years ago while hiking in Mt. Hood National Forest, Argow decided to try to save the nation's remaining fire lookouts. ARGOW: I had taken my son up to one that was a stone structure built in the Civilian Conservation days, and it had been abandoned. And he was only five years old, and he was sitting up there at dusk, and asked me what they were going to do with the tower. And I said, 'well, they can't burn it, son, so they'll probably dynamite it.' And he said 'Dad, you can't let them do that.' And without even thinking, I said, 'I won't, son.' LAWRENCE: That promise led to an eight-year effort to establish the National Historic Lookout Register, which does research on old lookouts and now lists more than 672 of them. [SOUNDS OF CLIMBING METAL STEPS] LAWRENCE: I definitely have the white knuckle thing going on! DOWE BLEVINS: We almost got it whipped now! [ border=] [ height=] Hickory Flats Fire Tower. (Photo: John Gregory) [ height=] LAWRENCE: On a warm spring day, brothers Dowe and Danny Blevins take me to the Hickory Flats Fire Tower. Next to the tower is a cabin where the lookouts lived and that the men are restoring. On the tower itself, there are eight flights of see-through metal steps. It helps not to look down. At the top, a trap door leads into a small wooden cab, about seven feet square and 80 feet off the ground. DANNY BLEVINS: This is a big time tree house! LAWRENCE: The view is an expansive 360-degree panorama of wooded ridge tops, delicately decorated with the pink of redbud trees in bloom. Dirt logging roads cross some of hillsides. Small farms nestle in the valleys. From this high post, it's easy to see how a lookout could spot smoke in the distance. Again, Danny Blevins. [ border=] [ height=] Looking out from the top of the Hickory Flats Fire Tower. Both privately-held land and the Daniel Boone National Forest are in view. (Photo: John Gregory) [ height=] DANNY BLEVINS: And if you think about this, here it is 2006, I'd be willing to bet that we're the only four people in the state of Kentucky sitting in a fire tower. And that's pretty neat, that you'd be able to experience this. LAWRENCE: Many of the nation's fire lookout towers out west that have been restored are available for overnight rental to hikers and backpackers. The Route 377 Volunteer Fire Department hopes that soon Hickory Flats will be the first fire lookout tower in the East open for overnight guests. For Living on Earth, I'm Cameron Lawrence near Morehead, Kentucky. GELLERMAN: Our story about the fire tower watchers of Kentucky was co-produced by John Gregory. -->--> Related link: -->Forest Fire Lookout Association--> [Back to Top] [MUSIC: Shelby Merchant "Fire Tower Road" from Sweet Tea (James Shelby Music – 2005)] [SOUNDS OF SAGE GROUSE CALLING] GELLERMAN: We leave you this week near the Owyhee Mountains in southern Idaho, just before sunrise. GELLERMAN: Jeff Rice recorded these sage grouse strutting and puffing up their chests as part of their spring mating ritual, while two young coyotes call in the distance. EARTH EAR: "Sage Grouse & Coyotes" recorded live by Jeff Rice (Owyhee Mountains, Idaho – 2006)] GELLERMAN: Living on Earth is produced by the World Media Foundation. Our crew includes Chris Ballman, Eileen Bolinsky, Jennifer Chu, Ingrid Lobet and Jeff Young - with help from Christopher Bolick, Kelley Cronin, and James Curwood. Our interns are Bobby Bascomb and Emily Taylor. Our technical director is Dennis Foley. Alison Dean composed our themes. You can find us at LOE dot org. Steve Curwood returns next week. I'm Bruce Gellerman. Thanks for listening. ANNOUNCER: Funding for Living on Earth comes from the National Science Foundation, supporting coverage of emerging science; Kashi, maker of all natural cerials and snacks for health and wellness. Kashi, seven whole grains on a mission. And Stonyfield Farm. Organic yogurt, smoothies, and milk. Ten percent of profits are donated to efforts that help protect and restore the earth. Details at Stonyfield dot com. Support also comes from NPR member stations, the Ford Foundation, the Town Creek Foundation, and the Saunders Hotel Group of Boston's Lennox and Copley Square Hotels. Serving you and the environment while helping preserve the past and protect the future, 800-225-7676. ANNOUNCER 2: This is NPR. National Public Radio. Living on Earth wants to hear from you! Email us at comments@loe.org, or call our listener line (1-800-218-9988). Our mailing address is: Living on Earth 20 Holland Street Suite 408 Somerville, MA 02144-2749 Copyright © 2006 Living on Earth and World Media Foundation. All rights reserved. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold, or transmitted without the written authority of World Media Foundation. ***************************************************************** 27 TimesUnion.com: Indian Point officials zero in on leak Source of radioactive strontium 90 turning up in groundwater believed to be from spent fuel rod pool Associated Press First published: Friday, May 12, 2006 BUCHANAN -- Officials at the Indian Point nuclear power station believe they have found the source of the radioactive strontium 90 that has contaminated the groundwater beneath the reactors, a spokesman said Thursday. Jim Steets, spokesman for Indian Point owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said a leak that dates back to the early 1990s from the spent fuel pool at the Indian Point 1 reactor apparently had escaped the system that was in place to contain it. "We're probably as sure as we'll ever be" that the pool is the source, he said. Indian Point 1 was mothballed in the 1970s but its old fuel rods remain on the site, immersed in water to keep them from emitting radiation into the environment. The water is highly radioactive. When the old leak was discovered, an elaborate system was installed to collect 25 to 50 gallons that drained from the pool each day, which was then treated and released into the Hudson River. Steets said it became clear that some pool water was escaping this system when strontium 90 was found in high concentrations in an underground sump near the pool. The sump was part of an unrelated system designed to collect water used in emergency cooling of the reactors. Since August, strontium and tritium, a less-dangerous isotope, had turned up in some of the 23 testing wells dug to monitor the groundwater after a tiny leak was discovered at the Indian Point 2 spent fuel pool. Both isotopes were found, on occasion, at concentrations higher than permitted in drinking water, but the groundwater is not used for drinking. Both are also believed to have flowed into the nearby Hudson River. To pinpoint the leak in the IP1 fuel pool, Entergy will dig 12 new wells around it, Steets said. He said it was unclear what measures would be taken once the leak is found, but the cleanup will be "cleaner and faster" because the pool is scheduled to go out of use in the next few years as the fuel rods are transferred into dry cask storage. Meanwhile, testing will continue to find any other leaks, he said. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. ***************************************************************** 28 LovelandFYI: Disaster drill at nuclear site earns ‘A-minus’ Reporter-Herald. Loveland, Colorado Publish Date: 5/12/2006 By Ben Ready For the Reporter-Herald PLATTEVILLE — Two Idaho companies specializing in nuclear fuel have in recent years provided Weld County’s former nuclear power plant with the following: An earthquake, an exploding propane truck, an improvised explosive device dropped from a small plane, a nuclear fuel spill and — on Wednesday — a tornado. “There are people up there with twisted minds to come up with this stuff,” joked U.S. Department of Energy spokesman Chris Powers. The DOE and its Idaho contractors have supplied mock-disaster training every two years for the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation since it began housing used nuclear fuel in 1991. The 1,800 pounds of spent uranium and 15.3 tons of spent thorium it shields behind 6-foot-thick concrete walls came from the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Power Plant on the same site just northwest of Platteville. Cracks found in a steam generator and other mechanical problems led to the closure of the plant in 1989. Officials say the plant’s old fuels are almost incapable of reaching critical mass or exploding, but even depleted radioactive materials — especially uranium — emit gamma radiation waves that are dangerous to people. The DOA requires all facilities under its watch — whether they are laboratories, weapons plants or administrative buildings — to suffer the morbid machinations of disaster managers. Under Wednesday’s scenario, a stealth tornado tore through central Weld, its funnel cloud striking first between the abandoned nuclear power plant and Xcel’s still-operational natural-gas-fired power plant at the site. It then ripped metal roofing off part of the nuclear storage building, leaving the fuel untouched but injuring five people, killing power and scattering five radioactively charged tools around the 4-acre site. The exercise ran from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and called upon a real-life response from the Milliken and Johnstown police departments, Platteville/Gilcrest Fire Protection District, Weld County dispatch, Office of Emergency Management and paramedics, Milliken Fire Department and Fort St. Vrain Security, among others. “We had tremendous support from local facilities. I’d give it an A-minus,” said Jay Newkirk, an emergency coordinator who works with the DOE. Medical crews transported two actor-victims off in ambulances but only pretended to fly out a third victim by helicopter. After the training, emergency officials reported minor trouble communicating over radio channels but said they were pleased with their work to secure the facility, aid the victims and find and secure the radioactive tools. “You’d have to come up with a really wild scenario for that fuel to be disturbed,” Powers said. “Maybe if you hit it with a jet. ...” Daily Reporter-Herald | Contact Us All contents Copyright © 2006 Daily Reporter-Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 29 asahi.com: A-bomb victims win recognition 05/13/2006 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN OSAKA--A court here Friday widened the scope on certifying sufferers of atomic bomb-related illnesses, saying nine plaintiffs, including two who weren't in Hiroshima or Nagasaki when the bombs exploded, should be eligible for special medical payments. The Osaka District Court's ruling could affect 12 similar lawsuits filed at district courts around the nation by about 160 plaintiffs seeking recognition as sufferers. Presiding Judge Tomoichiro Nishikawa said the government's criteria for certification should not be applied automatically in judging whether a person is suffering from an atomic bomb-related illness. The nine plaintiffs developed cancer and other illnesses linked to the fallout in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. They applied for government recognition for the illnesses. But the government rejected their applications, saying they failed to meet the requirements. The government's criteria for recognition is based on the distance the applicant was from ground zero during the nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Seven of the plaintiffs were 1.5 kilometers to 3.3 km from ground zero when the bombs exploded. The other two were affected by radiation after taking part in rescue efforts. The ruling said it was reasonable to believe that the nine plaintiffs, now between the ages of 69 and 81, fell ill because of radiation from the atomic bombs. The court ruling thus nullified the government's non-recognition of the nine as patients of atomic bomb-related illnesses. A person recognized as a patient suffering from illness or injuries related to the atomic bombings can receive 137,000 yen a month for medical treatment. But the court rejected the plaintiffs' compensation demands for 3 million yen each from the state, saying the health minister cannot be held professionally negligent in making a decision about recognition. At the end of March 2005, more than 200,000 people were certified as atomic bomb victims, or hibakusha. But only about 2,000 were recognized as suffering from illnesses related to the atomic bombs.(IHT/Asahi: May 13,2006) + The Asahi Shimbun Company ***************************************************************** 30 Sydney Morning Herald: Islanders kicked out in Cold War may return home - www.smh.com.au By Neil Tweedie in London May 13, 2006 IT WAS one of the most shameful episodes in British postwar history: the secret expulsion of an entire population of islanders, carried out in clear violation of international law, to make way for a giant US military base. On Thursday, after more than 30 years in exile and endless court battles, the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago won the right to return to their home, a group of 65 islands lost in the Indian Ocean and dominated by the American air and naval base on Diego Garcia. In its verdict, the High Court in London condemned as "repugnant" the decision at US insistence to remove the 1500 islanders in a series of expulsions between 1967 and 1973. It overturned orders in council made by the British Government in 2004 that reversed a previous court decision and banned anyone from living on the islands, known officially as British Indian Ocean Territory. The judges, Lord Justice Hooper and Justice Cresswell, were scathing in their assessment of British policy, concluding: "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an order in council, exile a whole population from a British overseas territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is to us repugnant." The decision is an embarrassment to the Foreign Office, which has been put under strong pressure by the US to keep the Chagos islands empty save for US military personnel and guest workers on Diego Garcia. The US demanded the expulsions in a secret 1966 agreement in which Britain received a discount on the Polaris submarine-launched nuclear missile system in return for a 50-year lease on Diego Garcia. Margaret Beckett, the new Foreign Secretary, must now decide whether to appeal against the decision or relent and allow the islanders to re-establish their homes. Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP and consistent supporter of the Chagossians, tabled a motion in the Commons on Thursday calling on the Government to accept the verdict, while the Liberal Democrats' David Heath sought a statement on the ruling, saying: "They [the islanders] have been treated in an appalling way." After the hearing, Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossians, delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister to honour the decision of the court and allow his people to go home. He said: "We have always believed that a human being has the right to live in the place of his birth. Everywhere, the British Government paints itself as the champion of human rights - so what about the human rights of the Chagossian people?" Richard Gifford, the solicitor for the islanders, said: "The responsibility of our present Government for victimising its own citizens, and its subservience to the demands of a foreign power, are all too obvious. This is the fourth time in five years that Her Majesty's judges have deplored the treatment inflicted upon this fragile community." The US argues that allowing people back on to the islands would threaten the safety of aircraft and ships operating out of Diego Garcia, which played a central role in the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. But the supposed threat of missile attack or jamming has been dismissed as minimal. Telegraph, London Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. *****************************************************************