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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 [NYTr] China, Russia Refuse to Join Iran Sanctions
2 [NYTr] Iran: Each to His Own Game (Part 1)
3 IRNA: Putin voices support for Tehran's nuclear right in talks with 
4 IRNA: Iran, China review mutual, latest nuclear developments
5 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Sends Mixed Signals on Response
6 Guardian Unlimited: Senate Backs President's Iran Policies
7 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Europe Urge Iran to Compromise
8 Guardian Unlimited: Putin: Iran Ready to Enter Negotiations
9 IRNA: Supreme Leader: Iran's access to nuclear technology, a histori
10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Europe Urge Iran to Compromise
11 IRNA: EU determined to solve Iran's nuclear crisis diplomatically -S
12 BBC: Iran 'will not bow to pressure'
13 IRNA: Ahmadinejad: EU package a "step forward" to peaceful solution 
14 AFP: Putin positive on Iranian nuclear issue after meeting Ahmadinej
15 AFP: Iran's Khamenei implicitly rejects nuclear suspension 
16 AFP: US says Iran offer more carrot than stick 
17 AFP: Putin positive on Iranian nuclear issue after meeting Ahmadinej
18 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog to hear reports on Iran 
19 IRNA: China-SCO-Iran -Commuinique SCO member states pledges 
20 IRNA: India facing heat over NAM support to Iran
21 IRNA: EU leaders to voice hope of finding diplomatic solution to Ira
22 Korea Times: Seoul Warns Against NK Missile Test 
23 Korea Times: Reconciliation Must Be Attained by Peaceful Means 
24 AFP: Inter-Korean talks held amid missile concerns 
25 AFP: US should stay focused on North Korean nuclear issue - senator 
26 US: Las Vegas SUN: Reid seeks to rein in Bush 
27 AFP: India, US move toward finalising landmark nuclear energy pact -
28 IRNA: US stands to gain over USD 35b through nuke deal with India -
29 Las Vegas SUN: House Debate on Iraq War Gets Under Way 
30 AFP: Putin says Iran has right to nuclear technology if it poses no 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
31 US: Nukes put Owe in Ontario: Straightgoods.com
32 US: [NukeNet] Village Voice : Letters  - June 15, 2006
33 NEWS.com.au: Fourth accident at Lucas Heights - 
34 Guardian Unlimited: Japanese Nuclear Reactor Shuts Down
35 AU: The Age: Nuclear debate ignites after accidents - 
36 Sydney Morning Herald: More nuclear spills at Lucas Heights - 
37 Sydney Morning Herald: Spate of accidents at Lucas Heights - 
38 AU ABC: ANSTO details more nuclear accidents
39 Independent: Russia's 'floating Chernobyls' to go ahead despite gree
40 US: Daily Item: Berwick nuclear reactor shuts down; no safety proble
41 US: Rutland Herald: Yankee disputes tax value increase
42 AFP: Australian government downplays nuclear accident 
43 BUCHAREST DAILY NEWS: Wanted: strong investors for nuclear reactor p
44 globeandmail.com: Beleaguered nuclear industry gets new lease on lif
45 TheStar.com: Critics slam exemption for energy plan
46 globeandmail.com: Nuclear plan skips key green review
47 Hudson Valley News: Kelly wants greater Coast Guard presence at Indi
48 UPI: Canada warms up to nuclear energy
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
49 NEWS.com.au: Nuclear incident 'handled properly' 
50 Guardian Unlimited: Washington, Moscow to Discuss Security
51 Guardian Unlimited: US seen as a bigger threat to peace than 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
52 NEWS.com.au: Scare for nuclear workers - NSW/ACT - 
53 AU: The Age: Nuclear worker receives radiation dose - 
54 AU ABC: Labor alleges nuclear accident cover-up
55 Democrat & Chronicle: Support vets poisoned by uranium 
56 AU ABC: Radioactive gas release no risk - ANSTO. 
57 US: KLASTV.com: Hearing Set For Divine Strake Lawsuit
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
58 Las Vegas SUN: State spent millions in legal fees 
59 US: Pasadena Star-News: Toxics found in well water 
60 US: TimesUnion.com: Funding shortfall alters soil cleanup
61 News & Star: Sellafield team’s explosive trip to American plant
62 Whitehaven News: Bechtel ‘will be able to bid for Sellafield
 
                           PEACE
 
63 US: DNA: Nobel laureates urge US to shelve N-deal - 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
64 KnoxNews: Science to get a power boost
65 The NewStandard: Energy Dept. Moves Forward With Livermore Biowar La
66 Tri-City Herald: Vit plant cost continues to climb 
67 Economist: Los Alamos National Laboratory | A good enough performanc
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 [NYTr] China, Russia Refuse to Join Iran Sanctions
 
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:16:01 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l)

AFP via Yahoo - Jun 13, 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060613/ts_afp/iranpoliticsnuclear

China, Russia refuse to join Iran sanctions statement

by Michael Adler

VIENNA (AFP) - China and Russia refused to join with other world powers in a
statement that would threaten sanctions over Iran's nuclear program,
during diplomatic jostling at the UN nuclear watchdog.

In a further blow to US efforts to present a united front at a meeting here
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, non-aligned nations were
preparing a text reaffirming Tehran's right to enrich uranium.

Diplomats played down the significance of the cracks, however, saying member
states on the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors would try not to hinder an
international offer to Iran of benefits if it reins in its nuclear
ambitions.

"Everybody feels they want this package (of benefits) to have every possible
chance of success," a Western diplomat told AFP.

China and Russia -- both Iranian allies and trading partners -- had joined
Britain, France, Germany and the United States on June 1 in urging Iran to
halt enrichment and join talks offering trade and other benefits in return
for it guaranteeing not to make nuclear arms.

The offer threatened UN Security Council action, including sanctions, if
Iran failed to comply.

A second Western diplomat said the United States had been seeking a new
statement in Vienna from the six world powers calling on Iran to accept the
June 1 offer and setting out both possible benefits and sanctions for Iran.

But Russia and China were reluctant to sign up this time.

Russia and China "didn't want a reference to sanctions or punitive actions"
in such a statement at the IAEA, the diplomat said.

A senior European diplomat said the failure to agree on a joint statement at
the IAEA board was no surprise.

The six world powers have never managed to get a united statement on the
matter at the IAEA, which oversees cooperation by nations with the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and set off the current crisis when it in February
cited Iran for NPT safeguards violations, the European diplomat said.

US Secretary of State        Condoleezza Rice discussed Iran on Tuesday with
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing by telephone, a Chinese foreign
ministry spokeswoman said in Beijing.

"China will continue to play a constructive role to help peacefully solve
the Iran nuclear issue through negotiations," the Chinese spokesman said on
the ministry's Internet site.

A vigorous debate on Iran but no resolution is expected at this week's
meeting IAEA governing board meeting, with the Iranian issue due to come up
officially Thursday or Friday during the week-long meeting.

The EU-3, which have spearheaded negotiations with Iran, are expected to
issue a joint statement of their own. Each of the six powers engaged with
the Iran nuclear crisis will also issue individual statements.

Iran is examining the major powers' offer of benefits and is expected to
respond by the end of the month.

Iranian MP Kazem Jalali said in Tehran Tuesday that Iran would not suspend
uranium enrichment -- a key precondition set by the major powers for talks
-- and was only willing to negotiate on the modalities of the sensitive
work, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.

A Western diplomat said the IAEA meeting had "no influence on the overall
situation," although this diplomat and others admitted that Iran would try
to exploit any division, perceived or real, among the world powers.

Delegates from several non-aligned nations, of which China is a member, were
nevertheless preparing a statement that supported Iran's right to
enrichment, as enshrined in the NPT, diplomats said.

A non-aligned diplomat said his group would "hold to a statement made by
non-aligned foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur in May," that backs Iran's
right to enrich.

Diplomats said Washington was fighting to prevent non-aligned states on the
IAEA board from issuing such a statement as the United States wants to keep
up pressure on Iran.

But many non-aligned states aspire to nuclear technology and are as much
concerned about protecting their right to enrich uranium as Iran's,
diplomats said.

The non-aligned diplomat said the bloc was planning a statement that would
renew a message first issued May 30 in Malaysia, when the the Non Aligned
Movement affirmed the right to atomic energy and opposed any attack on
nuclear facilities.

The United States wanted the bloc, which numbers some 16 mostly developing
nations on the IAEA board, to stick to the February IAEA resolution that
many of the non-aligneds had supported and which had called on Iran to
suspend uranium enrichment.
       
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*****************************************************************
 2 [NYTr] Iran: Each to His Own Game (Part 1)
 
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:16:09 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
InfoCubarte via Progreso Weekly - Jun 15, 2006
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Eduardo_Dimas&otherweek=1150347600

Iran: Each to His Own Game (Part One)

By Eduardo Dimas

(originally published by Infocubarte)

I have before me two versions of statements made by U.S. intelligence
czar John Dimitri Negroponte, reported by two news agencies. According
to one, Negroponte said that Iran could have a nuclear weapon within
10 years. According to the other, he said that Iran would have a
nuclear weapon by 2010 if it continued its process of uranium
enrichment. It is not the same for a country to develop a nuclear
weapon in four years or to do it in ten.

For all practical purposes, however, it's all the same. The real
problem the United States has with Iran is not whether Iran will have
a nuclear weapon but how the U.S. can prevent a nation considered as
one of the 60 or more "dark places" named by George W. Bush -- and a
nation accused by Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Negroponte & Co. of being
"the worst terrorist country in the world" -- from developing its
economy and preparing for a not-too-distant future when its reserves
of oil and gas will disappear.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest exporter of crude oil, and its
natural gas reserves are the second-largest, right behind Russia's.
Recently, it announced it had found important fields of uranium ore.
That's just one aspect of the story, because a lot of historical
problems exist.

The United States' problems with Iran go back a while. In 1953, after
the Central Intelligence Agency toppled the progressive government of
Prime Minister Mohammed Hydayat Mossadeq and installed Shah Mohammed
Reza Pahlevi, a honeymoon between Washington and Tehran began, which
ended in 1979 with the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, led by the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the overthrow of one of the most
corrupt and repressive regimes in the Middle East.

It was precisely during the Shah's rule that the U.S. began to provide
Iran with specific nuclear capabilities. In other words, it was the
U.S. government that delivered to the Persians the first nuclear
resources -- as early as 1957, according to some sources -- with the
objective of giving them a nuclear weapon.

The rise of the Islamic Revolution, with its nationalist and
profoundly religious current, inflicted a hard blow to Washington's
desire to dominate the oil resources of the Middle East. The U.S. was
left with only one powerful ally, Israel, who, from that moment on,
served as the point of the spear of the imperial policy in the Middle
East, along with some monarchies that swam -- and today still swim --
in crude oil.

Ever since, relations between the two countries have been nonexistent.
U.S. propaganda has demonized all Iranian governments and converted
them into the principal promoters of terrorism in the planet. However,
Iran has never attacked any of its neighbors and has devoted itself to
defending its sovereignty and independence.

The aggression by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government in 1980 and the
war of attrition that lasted until 1988 were an attempt by the major
powers to halt the development of the Iranian revolution. It was not a
whim that prompted the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union to
supply the Baghdad government with weapons of various types and
military intelligence information.

In addition, we should remember that the chemical and biological
weapons that Iraq utilized in that war and in its campaign against the
Kurds in 1987 were furnished by the administration of Ronald Reagan.
And we should also remember that the connecting link between the two
governments was the current U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld.

When the war ended, in 1988, without a peace accord, the two warring
nations found their economies exhausted. It was a perfect endgame for
the big powers, especially for the United States, because the Soviet
Union disappeared shortly afterward.

In 1981, the Israeli government of Menahem Begin destroyed Iraq's
nuclear capabilities when it bombed the nuclear plant at Osirak.
Perhaps there was not relation between the Iran-Iraq war and that
Israeli action, but -- seen from the present perspective -- both
events dovetail perfectly. Particularly if we consider that the two
enemies of Israel were destroying each other and were unable to
respond.

Nor can we forget the notorious Iran-contra scandal, in which the
Reagan administration supplied the Nicaraguan contras with weapons and
resources, while selling arms to Iran, something that was forbidden by
a law passed by the U.S. Congress after the 1979 revolution.

The famous hostage-taking of U.S. Embassy officials -- which
represented a great humiliation for the empire -- was one of the
reasons for Reagans' decisive triumph over Jimmy Carter in the 1980
election. Today, we know that the Republicans asked the Iranian
leaders to release the officials only after the election. In other
words, there's much to be said about that.

Iran is not known to have participated in the so-called Gulf War,
which was seized upon by the U.S. and NATO to crush Iraq's military
capabilities, after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Without
question, the Iraqi incursion was one of the worst political mistakes
in 20th-Century history because it presented the government of George
H. W. Bush Sr. and his European allies with a golden opportunity to
eliminate the only military force capable of confronting and halting
Israel, at a time when the Soviet Union and the rest of the socialist
bloc crumbled.

Anyone who remembers the manner in which the White House prepared the
world to accept the conflict will realize that lies are an integral
part of its imperial policy. The famous case of the hospital
incubators and the "eyewitness" to the crime is a good example. The
"eyewitness" turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador
to Washington, where she lived with her father.

As far as is known, Iran's only role in the Gulf War was to receive
more than 100 Soviet-built warplanes that Hussein sent to Iran in an
effort to save them from destruction. Those planes were not returned
to Iraq after the war, under the pretext of complying with the
restrictions placed on Iraq by the U.N. Security Council during and
after the war.

The Shiite Muslim revolt of February-March 1991 in Iraq was promoted
by the United States, which later allowed Hussein to crush it.
Apparently, Iran had not part in the revolt, despite the enormous
religious influence it has on Iraqi Shiites. Some analysts point out
that Tehran feared it might be an Iraqi provocation to justify an
attack on Iran at a time when large military forces were concentrated
in the Arab-Persian Gulf region.

An important element to understand what happened (an element that
seldom is mentioned) is that, before invading Kuwait, Hussein
communicated his decision to the ambassadors of the United States and
the Soviet Union, who -- according to some statements by the American
ambassador to Baghdad, who immediately quit her post -- accepted the
aggression. If that was so, Hussein fell into a trap that cost him
dearly.

Let us return to Iran. During the eight years of Bill Clinton's
administration, a relative calm existed in the relations between the
two countries, although the U.S. maintained the sanctions and no
serious high-level contacts occurred. According to some American
analysts, that truce coincided with the existence of two moderate
governments in Iran and the consolidation of the so-called New World
Order announced by Bush Sr. after the Gulf War.

The triumph of the Republicans in the presidential election of
November 2000 (a triumph achieved through fraud), and the rise to
power of the neoconservative group created the conditions for a return
of the hostile policy toward Iran.

That policy grew after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when
W. Bush tagged Iraq, Iran and North Korea as "the axis of evil," even
though the three nations had few things in common, other than being
distasteful to the U.S. power elite. North Korea is a lay, socialist
country, while Iraq was dominated by Sunni Muslims and Iran by
Shiites.

The only common element is the fact that all three were (and are)
members of the United Nations, of the Movement of Nonaligned
Countries, and the Group of 77. It was an attempt -- quite artificial,
of course -- to involve three countries that were being targeted by
the neoconservatives and their project for the New American Century,
for one reason or another.

Iran did not participate pro or con during the American aggression
against Iraq in March 2003. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, many
important Shiite clerics who had sought asylum in Iran returned to
Iraq and began to participate in Iraqi politics, in some cases fully
supporting the occupation, in others requesting or demanding the
withdrawal of the U.S.-British troops, and, in fewer instances,
opposing the occupation.

The influence of Iranian clerics on the Iraqis is beyond doubt,
something that has provoked more than a few commentaries about Iran's
collaboration with the U.S. in the control of Iraqi territories, since
the overwhelming majority of the new Iraqi Army, formed by the United
States, is composed of Shiites and Kurds. Also mentioned has been the
possibility that Iran will support the partition of Iraq into three
regions, with the Kurds in the north, the Sunnis in the center, and
the Shiites in the south.

If you take into consideration the fact that southern Iraq is richest
in hydrocarbons and a region populated mostly by Shiites, such a
division would suit Iran's interests and would give the Shiite current
of Islam an enormous economic power -- a situation that cannot be
agreeable to the government of the United States and its European
allies. I am sure they would not allow it. Also, despite religious
coincidences, there has never been a union of Persian and the Arab
Shiites.

This is the context in which the nuclear differences between Iran and
the U.S., Britain, France and Germany arise. I share the opinion that
it is an artificial crisis created by the U.S. for the purpose of
justifying an aggression against Iran.

In the least of cases, the aggression would involve a surgical strike
against Iran's nuclear, military and government installations,
probably together with an internal revolt of the sectors that oppose
the religious rigidity of the Iranian leaders. In addition, according
to disclosures by alternative news sources, the U.S. would use
tactical nuclear bombs to destroy underground installations.

The methods being used to prepare U.S. and world public opinion are
the same used to convert Iraq into a danger to the national security
of the United States. Except that in this case those preparations are
being seconded by France and Germany, the two allies that opposed most
strongly the United States' aggression against Iraq, although in
practice they made their territories available and contributed
intelligence information before and during the aggression.

It should be said that in this artificial conflict each of the
protagonists is playing its own game to safeguard its interests. Many
cards are on the table, among them geopolitical issues of great
import, issues of domination on a world scale, and -- no less
important -- the right of the nation-members of the Treaty of
Nonproliferation of Nuclear Arms to develop atomic energy for peaceful
purposes.

But that will be the subject of the second half of this article.
Meanwhile, I invite you to meditate.

[Eduardo Dimas Fernandez is an international analyst and a professor at
the School of Journalism of the University of Havana.]
       
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 3 IRNA: Putin voices support for Tehran's nuclear right in talks with Ahmadinejad - 

Shanghai, June 15, IRNA

Iran-Russia-Shanghai 

All countries, including Iran, have the right to access peaceful
nuclear technology, said Russian President Vladimir Putin here
Thursday during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.

 The meeting took place on the sidelines of the sixth summit of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held today.

 The summit was attended by presidents of SCO member and
observer states as well as representatives from a number of
international organizations.

 The two presidents discussed major bilateral, regional and
international issues during their meeting, which lasted over an
hour.

 The Iran nuclear issue was one of the major topics discussed by
the two presidents.

 Putin said he believed all countries, including Iran, had the
right to materialize their goals and objectives in the field of
high technology subject to the requirements of the
non-proliferation regime.

 "We believe that all countries in the world, including Iran,
have the right to fulfill their plans in the use of high
technologies for the benefit of their development," the Russia's
official news agency Itar Tass quoted him as saying.

 Putin was further quoted as saying "access to technologies
should be equal, free and non-discriminatory, and the control
should be effective."

 But the Russian president was also quoted as saying acquisition
of nuclear technology "should be certainly done in the way to
fully eliminate concerns of the world community on the
non-proliferation issues."

 The Russian leader said "Russia has always been a persistent
and reliable partner of Iran."

 He also offered to discuss new proposals made by mediators of
the six powers (5+1 Group plus Germany) to settle the dispute on
Iran's nuclear program, Itar Tass added.

 He told President Ahmadinejad he was interested to "learn your
views on the proposals that were made."

 At the end of their meeting, which was held in a friendly
atmosphere, the two presidents told reporters they were
satisfied with its outcome.
*****************************************************************
 4 IRNA: Iran, China review mutual, latest nuclear developments

Shanghai, June 15, IRNA

China-Iran-FMs 

Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki conferred
here Thursday with his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, on
expansion of mutual cooperation and Iran's peaceful nuclear
activities.

 According to Xinhua, Mottaki is in the entourage of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is currently in Shanghai to
attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
held Thursday.

 Iran was granted observer status in 2005 by the regional
organization, which groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

 Mongolia, India and Pakistan are also observer countries of the
SCO.

*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Sends Mixed Signals on Response
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 9:01 PM

AP Photo VAH106 

By NASSER KARIMI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran sent mixed signals Thursday on how it
will respond to the world's incentives to give up uranium
enrichment, with its supreme leader vowing his country would
never back down, while the president and chief envoy to the U.N.
nuclear watchdog said Tehran was prepared to negotiate. 

The Iranians spoke as American and European officials in Vienna
urged Tehran to freeze enrichment and stop withholding
information about its nuclear program. The chief U.S. delegate
to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory L. Schulte,
warned that if Iran rejected the incentives, it could face ``the
weight of the Security Council.'' 

But supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed such talk. 

``The Islamic Republic of Iran will not succumb to these
pressures,'' state television quoted Khamenei as saying. 

Speaking to Iranian nuclear experts, Khamenei said the
development of nuclear technology was more important than oil
extraction - the source of about 80 percent of Iran's foreign
exchange. 

``Let me tell you, the importance of achieving and using nuclear
energy is higher than oil exploration for our country,''
Khamenei said. 

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus
Germany, have offered Iran a package of incentives in return for
a long-term moratorium on enrichment - a process that can
produce fuel for nuclear power plants or material for atomic
weapons. The package calls on Iran to suspend enrichment for the
duration of any negotiations. 

Iran has not responded formally so far, but its officials have
insisted that enrichment is an inalienable right and that talks
must be unconditional. 

The country denies accusations by the U.S. and others that it is
seeking to develop nuclear weapons, saying its program would
only generate energy. 

White House spokesman Tony Snow said he fully expected Iran to
try any number of ways to shape the debate over its nuclear
program. 

``I think it is safe to say they will try to test the unity'' of
the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany,
Snow said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Iran was prepared to
negotiate on the basis of the incentives. 

Speaking after talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
in Shanghai for a regional summit, Putin said: ``The Iranian
side responded positively to the six-nation proposal for a way
out of the crisis.'' 

He added he hoped Iran would soon set a date for the start of
talks. 

Ehsan Jahandideh, a member of Ahmadinejad's delegation in
Shanghai, confirmed the president had offered to negotiate ``to
ease tensions.'' 

In Vienna, the chief Iranian delegate to the IAEA, Ali Ashgar
Soltanieh, warned the West against threatening Tehran, saying
``the carrot and stick has always been counterproductive.'' 

But Soltanieh told reporters Iran was ``determined to ... find a
negotiated solution.'' 

He spoke after the Europeans and the U.S. had criticized Iran
before the 35-nation IAEA board. 

``Cooperation with the agency has been reduced to almost nothing
these last few months and ... numerous important questions
remain to be resolved,'' said chief French delegate
Francois-Xavier Deniau, who was speaking on behalf of France,
Britain and Germany. 

Schulte agreed, saying, ``Iran continues to withhold cooperation
with the IAEA on almost every outstanding issue.'' 

When Iran received the incentives last week, it said they
contained ``positive steps'' but also ambiguities, which had to
be clarified in further talks. 

The package included some significant concessions by the U.S.,
aimed at enticing Tehran to freeze enrichment. The U.S. would
provide Iran with peaceful nuclear technology, lift some
sanctions and join direct negotiations with Tehran. 

The package also pulls back from demands that Iran outright
scrap its enrichment program as an initial condition for
negotiations, seeking instead a suspension. However, it also
contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains
defiant. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 6 Guardian Unlimited: Senate Backs President's Iran Policies
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 7:01 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Thursday endorsed President
Bush's diplomatic approach to the problem of Iran's nuclear
program after rejecting a proposal that would have increased
sanctions against the Tehran government and those helping it. 

The Senate voted 99-0 to support the decision, announced by
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on May 31, that the United
States would join other Western states in engaging Iran in
negotiations and offering a package of incentives if Tehran
suspends its uranium enrichment activities. 

That vote came minutes after a 54-45 vote to defeat a proposal
by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that would have imposed mandatory
sanctions on entities that help Iran acquire or develop weapons
of mass destruction. 

Both the Santorum measure, and the vote of support for the
administration, introduced by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., were
amendments to a defense spending bill the Senate is debating. 

Santorum's proposal was in line with a bill passed by the House
last April, over the objections of the administration, that also
would impose sanctions on those contributing to Iran's WMD
programs and cut off aid to countries investing in Iran's energy
sector. It also authorized $100 million to promote pro-democracy
efforts in Iran. 

The administration said the House bill would limit the
flexibility it needed to reach a diplomatic solution to the
deadlock over Iran's nuclear program. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 7 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Europe Urge Iran to Compromise
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 3:01 PM

AP Photo MOSB110 

By GEORGE JAHN 

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United States and Europe urged Iran
Thursday to lift the veil of secrecy about its nuclear
activities and freeze uranium enrichment, with Washington
warning that continued defiance could result in tough measures
by the U.N. Security Council. 

In response, Iran warned the West against undue pressure, saying
``the carrot and stick has always been counterproductive.'' 

An address delivered by Francois-Xavier Deniau, France's chief
delegate to the 35-nation board meeting of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, criticized Iran for a lack of cooperation
with the agency's probe of suspicious plutonium experiments and
other activities that could be linked to a weapons program. 

``Cooperation with the agency has been reduced to almost nothing
these last few months and ... numerous important questions
remain to be resolved,'' said the statement. 

Separately, U.S. chief delegate Gregory L. Schulte said ``Iran
continues to withhold cooperation with the IAEA on almost every
outstanding issue.'' He urged Tehran to accept a six-power offer
for talks on its disputed nuclear program, warning refusal could
bring to bear ``the weight of the Security Council.'' 

Iran's statement was relatively low key, promising to examine
the six-power package and praising some ``positive elements''
while noting unspecified ``ambiguities.'' 

Still, chief Iranian representative Ali Ashgar Soltanieh warned
against ``the use of the language of threat'' in trying to
persuade Tehran to cooperate. And the statement said Iran was
ready to negotiate only ``without any precondition'' - an
apparent rejection of a stipulation that Tehran must suspend
enrichment as a condition of starting talks. 

Separately, he told reporters that enrichment was Iran's
``inalienable right,'' but said his country was ``determined to
... find a negotiated solution.'' 

Iran's Supreme leader was less circumspect, dismissing the
nuclear standoff as a ``Western outcry'' and vowing not to
surrender his country's nuclear program. 

``The Islamic Republic of Iran will not succumb to these
pressures,'' Iranian state television quoted Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei as saying. 

On the agenda at the board meeting were two reports prepared by
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei highlighting Iran's refusal to
provide agency experts information on activities with a
potential nuclear weapons dimension. 

Diplomats from Britain, France and Germany - the key European
nations among six powers offering a package of incentives to
Tehran in return for talks - declined to comment going into the
meeting. 

But Schulte said there was widespread agreement among the IAEA
board that Iran must now cooperate. 

``With few exceptions, countries on the board ... call on Iran
to cooperate with the IAEA and create the conditions necessary
for a comprehensive settlement,'' he told reporters outside the
meeting. 

In his comments inside the meeting, Schulte said there was
international agreement on the choice Iran must make: accept the
offer of perks in exchange for a long-term moratorium on
enrichment and full disclosure of still-secret parts of its
nuclear program - or face the prospect of penalties. 

``Europe, Russia, China and the United States (are) standing
side-by-side in complete solidarity'' on that choice, he said,
alluding to the countries that met June 1 in Vienna to endorse
the package of incentives or punishments being offered to Iran. 

The United States said late last month that it was ready to
break with decades of policy and talk to Iran directly in a
multinational framework on its nuclear program. Russia and China
also seem ready to join. 

Still, China, Russia and possibly Germany might push to allow
Iran some tightly controlled and small-scale enrichment rather
than see talks founder, diplomats said. Russia and China also
might balk at enforcing selective U.N. sanctions on Iranian
officials and activities. 

The U.S. and European comments were relatively tough,
considering recent efforts by the West to tone down the rhetoric
out of concerns that riling Iran could lead to its decision to
reject the offer of talks. 

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also
sounded conciliatory, saying his country wanted to resolve the
nuclear standoff and describing the offer of incentives as ``a
step forward.'' Still, he suggested that Iran's insistence on
uranium enrichment was not negotiable. 

The United States and its allies say Iran wants to develop
nuclear weapons. Tehran says it only wants to generate energy. 

The six-power package calls on Iran to suspend enrichment for
the duration of any negotiations, and sets out the priority of a
long-term moratorium of such activity until the international
community is convinced that Tehran's nuclear aims are peaceful. 

A statement by the European Union noted that ``international
concerns about Iran's nuclear program remain to be resolved and
that repeated requests by the board remain to be fulfilled.'' 

Separately, the 16-nation nonaligned bloc said that all nations
have a ``basic and inalienable right'' to develop, produce and
use atomic energy. 

However, a Western diplomat said the statement did not amount to
direct support for Iran, adding that many nonaligned nations
backed the six-power package of incentives. 

--- 

Associated Press writers Veronika Oleksyn and Nasser Karimi
contributed to this report. 

--- 

On the Net: 

International Atomic Energy Agency: http://www.iaea.org 
		 	 	   
      Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: Putin: Iran Ready to Enter Negotiations
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 12:16 PM

AP Photo MOSB110 

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said
Thursday that Iran is ready to enter into negotiations on an
offer by the U.N. powers to encourage Tehran to relinquish its
nuclear fuel enrichment program. 

``The Iranian side responded positively to the six-nation
proposal for a way out of the crisis,'' Putin said after a
meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

The Russian leader said ``Iran is ready to enter negotiations''
and that he hoped in the near future that Iran would set a date
for the start of talks. 

Russia has been Tehran's staunchest backer in the nuclear
dispute with the U.S. The Shanghai meeting was the first
face-to-face discussion between Putin and Ahmadinejad since the
U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia agreed last
month to offer Iran incentives in return for negotiations
conditioned on Iran freezing its uranium enrichment program. 	 
		 	 	   

      Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 9 IRNA: Supreme Leader: Iran's access to nuclear technology, a historical move - 

, June 15, IRNA

-- 

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei here Thursday said that the honorable move of Iranian
youth to access indigenous nuclear technology is a historical
move contributing to promotion of civilization and urged that it
should expand in various directions.

 Speaking at a gathering of the officials of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization (IAEO) and a number of nuclear scientists
and experts while touring the exhibition on nuclear achievements
of Iranian scientists, the Supreme Leader said that science and
technology are the major keys to progress, power and prosperity
of every country.

 "Any nation determined to build up its own destiny should seek
such a key," added Ayatollah Khamenei.

 The Supreme Leader said that the self-confidence of gifted
Iranian youth and their belief in their potentials should be
celebrated by the Iranian nation, adding that this deserves
spiritual award unequal to any material one, given that it lays
the preliminary cornerstone for maintenance of independence and
dignity of the nation.

 Ayatollah Khamenei assessed the Iranian scientists' access to
the outstanding and complicated nuclear technology as more
significant than the exploration and extraction of oil.

 Turning to the hue and cry raised over the issue in the West,
the Supreme Leader said, "Iran will not contend to such
pressure. The growing trend of this scientific move is the major
goal set by Iran." The IAEO Chief Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, who
attended the gathering, pointed to Iran's access to complete
nuclear fuel cycle and presented a report on the latest
scientific achievements of Iranian scientists in the field and
the country's various potentials in different stages of nuclear
fuel cycle.

 "The IAEO has established a center for research on nuclear
sciences and technologies, which include several specialized
departments, to educate the gifted young individuals," said
Aqazadeh.

*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Europe Urge Iran to Compromise
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 12:31 PM

AP Photo MOSB110 

By GEORGE JAHN 

Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United States and Europe urged Iran
on Thursday to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding its nuclear
activities and freeze uranium enrichment, with Washington
warning that continued defiance could result in tough measures
by the U.N. Security Council. 

In response, Iran warned the West against undue pressure, saying
``the carrot and stick has always been counterproductive.'' 

The comments came as the International Atomic Energy Agency's
35-nation board met in Vienna to discuss two reports prepared by
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei highlighting Iran's refusal to
provide agency experts information on activities with a
potential nuclear weapons dimension. 

Francois-Xavier Deniau, France's chief delegate to the board
meeting, said Iran has refused to cooperate with the agency's
probe of suspicious plutonium experiments and other activities
that could be linked to a weapons program. 

``Cooperation with the agency has been reduced to almost nothing
these last few months and ... numerous important questions
remain to be resolved,'' Deniau said, according to a statement. 

U.S. chief delegate Gregory L. Schulte said Iran also continues
to withhold cooperation with the IAEA ``on almost every
outstanding issue.'' He urged Tehran to accept a six-power offer
for talks on its disputed nuclear program, warning refusal could
bring to bear ``the weight of the Security Council.'' 

Iran's statement was relatively low key, promising to examine
the six-power package and praising some ``positive elements''
while noting unspecified ``ambiguities.'' 

Still, chief Iranian representative Ali Ashgar Soltanieh warned
against ``the use of the language of threat'' in trying to
persuade Tehran to cooperate. And the statement said Iran was
ready to negotiate only ``without any precondition'' - an
apparent rejection of a stipulation that Tehran must suspend
enrichment as a condition of starting talks. 

In Shanghai, China, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin
met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and said Iran is
ready to enter into negotiations on the package. He said he
hoped Iran would set a date for the start of talks, but offered
no further details. 

Schulte said there was widespread agreement among the IAEA board
that Iran must cooperate now. ``With few exceptions, countries
on the board ... call on Iran to cooperate with the IAEA and
create the conditions necessary for a comprehensive
settlement,'' he told reporters outside the meeting. 

In his comments inside the meeting, Schulte said there was
international agreement on the choice Iran must make: accept the
offer of perks in exchange for a long-term moratorium on
enrichment and full disclosure of still secret parts of its
nuclear program - or face the prospect of penalties. 

``Europe, Russia, China and the United States (are) standing
side-by-side in complete solidarity'' on that choice, he said,
alluding to the countries that met June 1 in Vienna to endorse
the package of incentives or punishments being offered to Iran. 

The United States said late last month that it was ready to
break with decades of policy and talk to Iran directly in a
multinational framework on its nuclear program. Russia and China
also seem ready to join. 

Still, China, Russia and possibly Germany might push to allow
Iran some tightly controlled and small-scale enrichment rather
than see talks founder, diplomats said. Russia and China also
might balk at enforcing selective U.N. sanctions on Iranian
officials and activities. 

The U.S. and European comments were relatively tough,
considering recent efforts by the West to tone down the rhetoric
out of concerns that riling Iran could cause it to reject the
offer of talks. 

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also
sounded conciliatory, saying his country wanted to resolve the
nuclear standoff and describing the offer of incentives as ``a
step forward.'' Still, he suggested that Iran's insistence on
uranium enrichment was not negotiable. 

The United States and its allies say Iran wants to develop
nuclear weapons. Tehran says it only wants to generate energy. 

The six-power package calls on Iran to suspend enrichment for
the duration of any negotiations, and sets out the priority of a
long-term moratorium of such activity until the international
community is convinced that Tehran's nuclear aims are peaceful. 

A statement by the European Union noted that ``international
concerns about Iran's nuclear program remain to be resolved and
that repeated requests by the board remain to be fulfilled.'' 

Separately, the 16-nation nonaligned bloc said that all nations
have a ``basic and inalienable right'' to develop, produce and
use atomic energy. 

However, a Western diplomat said the statement did not amount to
direct support for Iran, adding that many nonaligned nations
backed the six-power package of incentives. 

--- 

Associated Press writer Veronika Oleksyn contributed to this
report. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 11 IRNA: EU determined to solve Iran's nuclear crisis diplomatically -Spain's FM - 

, June 15, IRNA

-- 
Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos said
here in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart that EU is
seriously determined to solve Iran's nuclear crisis resorting to
diplomacy.

 Moratinos added in his meeting with Manouchehr Mottaki at
Spain's Ministry of Foreign affairs, "Delivery of the 5+1
proposal of the permanent UN big five and Germany by the EU
Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana to I.R. of Iran last week,
inclusive of the proposed Western incentives for Iran, is among
the signs of Europe's determination to solve the problem
peacefully."

 He reiterated, "In that proposal Iran's right to have access to
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is recognized."

 Moratinos meanwhile pointed out that the Iranian officials'
refraining from rejection of the proposal so far "is a step
forward" and provides "a good atmosphere" for exchanging
viewpoints and achieving consensus over the issue.

 The Spanish FM meanwhile asked Iran to continue cooperation
with the IAEA.

 The IRI Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki, too,
described the contents of the 5+1 Western proposal as "a step
forward", but meanwhile stressed, "The Western package is
inclusive of ambiguities regarding the absolute rights of the
Iranian nation." He added, "The Islamic Republic of Iran would
present its reply to that proposal, after close scrutiny of its
contents, in the framework of its own proposal, to the EU."

 Among the other issues addressed during the meeting there were
the Middle East developments, particularly the latest status in
Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

 Moratinos said that the EU, and particularly Spain, were
willing for restoration of democracy in Palestine, adding, "We
are concerned about the probability of the outbreak of a civil
war among Palestinians, whose winner would be Israel."

 He asked Iran to mediate in that respect and pave the path for
peaceful solution of the Palestinian nation's internal problems.

 Mottaki, too, referring to the developments in Palestine after
the coming to power of the Hamas government, said, "We all have
to respect the people's votes and to assist the Palestinian
nation and government to solve their problems."

 Mottaki also referred to the constructive role Iran has played
in a bid to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan and Iraq,
adding, "Tehran backs up the full establishment of Iraq's new
popular government."

 Moratinos, too, agreed with Mottaki's viewpoints on Iraq and
elaborated on the role his country is playing in Afghanistan
currently with the stationing of 600 Spanish soldiers in that
easter neighbor of Iran.

 The two sides during the meeting expressed satisfaction over
the good level of bilateral ties, particularly in economic
field, pointing out that the volume of the two countries' trade
was around two billion euros in 2005.

 Mottaki said that President Ahmadinejad's government attaches
great importance to ties with Spain and wants all bilateral
agreements to be fully implemented.		 				 		 			

*****************************************************************
 12 BBC: Iran 'will not bow to pressure'
 
Last Updated: Thursday, 15 June 2006
 
[Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]                                

The supreme leader says nuclear energy is a prime objective                                                             

Iran will not bow to Western pressure over its nuclear programme, 
the country's supreme leader has said, according to Iranian state 
media. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments come as the Iran nuclear row is 
discussed by the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. 

But Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said Tehran was seriously 
considering a package aimed at inducing it to suspend nuclear 
work, Reuters agency said. 

Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran hoped for an "amicable solution" 
to the row. 

However, he warned against the "language of threat", and said his 
country would negotiate only without preconditions. 

The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China have put together a 
package of measures to try to persuade Tehran to end enrichment 
of uranium. 

Iran insists its programme is entirely peaceful and is designed 
to meet its energy needs only, but the US and other powers 
suspect it is aiming to develop a nuclear weapons capability. 

Oil less important 

Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would continue to enrich uranium, as 
one of its prominent scientific objectives. 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not succumb to these pressures 
and it considers the continuation [of its nuclear programme] a 
main objective," he was quoted as saying. 

Nuclear energy was more important to Iran than extraction of oil, 
he added. Oil makes up 80% of Iran's foreign exchange earnings. 

The IAEA is currently discussing two reports by its chairman, 
Mohammad ElBaradei, saying that Iran is continuing to obstruct 
its investigation into its nuclear intentions and refusal to halt 
enrichment. 

*****************************************************************
 13 IRNA: Ahmadinejad: EU package a "step forward" to peaceful solution of
Iran's N-case 

, June 15, IRNA
-- 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that
the 5+1 Group's incentives package for Iran is a "step forward"
in efforts to find a peaceful solution to his country's nuclear
standoff with the West.

 He made the remarks at a meeting with his Pakistani
counterpart, General Pervez Musharraf, on the sidelines of the
sixth summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

 The day-long summit concluded with the signing of 10 documents
for enhancement of cooperation among the organization's member
states.

 Reiterating that Iran's nuclear program was for peaceful
purposes, President Ahmadinejad told Musharraf that Iran has
consistently been cooperating with the United Nations' nuclear
watchdog on its nuclear activities.

 "Iran has always called for fair negotiations on equal terms to
find a solution to its nuclear case," said the president.

 On Tehran-Islamabad relations, he hoped the Iran-Pakistan-India
gas pipeline project would soon be finalized, saying its
realization would promote economic ties between the two capitals.

 The president also stressed the need for Iran-Pakistan closer
cooperation in providing security in their border areas.

 He said evildoers on both sides of their border should not be
allowed to mar the good, neighborly ties of the two countries
through terrorist acts.

 The Pakistani president, for his part, said that Islamabad was
keen to further broaden its ties and cooperation with Tehran.

 He asked his Iranian counterpart to speed up implementation of
the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, saying realization
of the pipeline would help boost Tehran-Islamabad economic ties.

 Describing Iran-Pakistan political ties as "good," the general
said Islamabad was ready to mount a new security and
intelligence cooperation with Tehran in order to boost security
in their border areas and intensify cooperation in the battle
against terrorism.

 Musharraf took the occasion to thank Tehran for its
humanitarian aid to survivors of Pakistan's killer earthquake.

 President Ahmadinejad arrived in China Wednesday afternoon to
attend the SCO summit.

 He held talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the
sidelines of the summit and is expected to also meet with the
presidents of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

 The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an inter-governmental
organization founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001 by six
countries -- China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.

 Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia are observer states in the
organization.

 Its main goals are to draw member states to work together to
maintain regional peace, security and stability and hopefully
establish a new international political and economic order
anchored on the principles of democracy, justice and rationality.

 1394/2321/1414
		 				 		 			
*****************************************************************
 14 AFP: Putin positive on Iranian nuclear issue after meeting Ahmadinejad - 

 Thu Jun 15, 9:16 AM ET 		 	 

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranhas reacted positively to an offer 
of incentives to end its uranium enrichment programme, Russian 
President Vladimir Putin" /> Vladimir Putinhas said after meeting 
the Iranian president. 

 "Concerning Iran I have a very positive feeling about this
meeting," Putin said after meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the
sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) annual
summit. 

"Iran has reacted positively to the proposals of the six sides.
Iran is ready to begin talks and in the near future I hope it
will state its position on the timing of the start of the
talks." 

Putin was referring to offers to Iran of technical and
commercial cooperation from the five permanent members of the
United Nations" /> United NationsSecurity Council plus Germany
in exchange for giving up its uranium enrichment. 

Putin, who met Ahmadinejad for more than an hour in Shanghai
Thursday, said as he went into the talks that Iran had the right
to use nuclear technology. 

"But they need to do it in a way that does not arouse concerns
on the part of the international community," he said. 

Ahmadinejad said before the talks with Putin that Iran would act
in the interests of global peace, but did not comment
specifically on the package of incentives. 

"Concerning security policy, our cooperation can have a serious
influence on the peace and security of the region... our
cooperation will be in the interest of global peace and
security," Ahmadinejad said. 

"Our views and relationship are very close and long term and are
developing in all spheres." 

Iran also foresees cooperation with Russia in the natural gas
sphere, Ahmadinejad added. 

"Concerning energy, if we cooperate closely, we can achieve much
more serious results," including in the gas sphere, he said. 

After much diplomatic maneuvering, Russia and China finally
sided with the United States, France, Germany and Britain in
offering Iran this month the package of incentives. 

Iran, which claims its nuclear program is strictly for energy
use and not an weapons program as the West fears, has given
mixed signals in recent days over the offer. 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Madrid on Wednesday
that the offer was "very positive" and would be examined
seriously. 

But Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday
his country would not bow to international pressure over its
nuclear program, according to Iranian state television. 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not bend to these pressures,
and the continuation of this scientific progress is its
fundamental and basic right," Khamenei reportedly said. 

Chinese President Hu Jintao" /> Hu Jintaois scheduled to meet
Ahmadinejad on Friday morning. 

The SCO groups China and Russia with the Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is one
of four observer nations to the group. 	 		 			

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 15 AFP: Iran's Khamenei implicitly rejects nuclear suspension 

 by Aresu Eqbali Thu Jun 15, 8:22 AM ET 		 	 

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran" /> Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei has said his country would not bow to pressure over its 
atomic program, implicitly rejecting international calls to 
suspend nuclear enrichment. 

 "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not bend to these
pressures," he said, referring to proposals drawn up by Britain,
France and Germany, and backed by the United States, Russia and
China, in a bid to defuse the nuclear crisis. 

"The continuation of this scientific progress is its fundamental
and basic right," Khamenei said Thursday, quoted by state
television in a meeting with staff of the Iranian Nuclear Energy
Organization. 

The big powers have urged Tehran to suspend its controversial
uranium enrichment program. 

They have offered an incentives package, including the lifting
of some US trade sanctions and international support for the
"building of new light water reactors in Iran," according to a
copy of the proposal shown to AFP. 

The world powers -- which presented the offer of trade, security
and technology benefits to Tehran on June 6 -- are holding off
on threatening sanctions until they receive a response from
Iran. 

"Iranian youths achieving the nuclear technology is a historical
milestone, and this move should be pursued in other (scientific)
fields," he added, after a briefing on Iran's nuclear
breakthroughs. 

"The main key of power, progress and happiness of a nation is
science and technology. A nation that is determined on building
its own fate must find this key," he said. 

Khamenei's defiant remarks came as the United States urged Iran
to "make the best choice" by accepting the benefits in return
for guarantees it will not develop atomic weapons. 

Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic
Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency, called on
"Iran to cooperate with the IAEA," which has been investigating
Tehran for more than three years. 

The UN nuclear watchdog has been meeting in Vienna to discuss
Tehran's disputed program. 

IAEA board members were reviewing two reports from agency chief
Mohamed ElBaradei, one from April 28 and the other from last
week, which show Iran has ignored calls to halt uranium
enrichment. 

The process can be used to make reactor fuel to generate nuclear
power, but can also produce atom bomb material. 

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki earlier Thursday
voiced optimism over the proposals by world powers and the
prospect of negotiations on the nuclear file. 

"They have submitted their package and asked about our opinion,
without the 'take-it-or-leave-it' attitude they showed
previously on the last year's package. This is a positive step
forward," he said on state television. 

"We are optimistic about the current atmosphere," Mottaki said.
"As soon as we finish studying the package, we will bring up our
points and opinions and start talks." 

But in Vienna, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar
Soltanieh, told the meeting that the international community's
"carrot-and-stick policy has always been counterproductive ... 

"Humiliation and the use of language of threat of referring the
nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council ... have had serious
impact on mutual trust and confidence on parties involved" in
negotiations, he warned. 

Diplomats from IAEA's 35-nation board of governors told AFP they
wanted to avoid conflict at this week's board meeting in order
to encourage a positive answer from Iran. 

ElBaradei said in opening the IAEA meeting on Monday that he
remained "convinced that the way forward lies through dialogue
and mutual accommodation among all concerned parties". 	 		 			

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 16 AFP: US says Iran offer more carrot than stick 

 Thu Jun 15, 7:02 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House indicated that the proposal 
meant to end the crisis over Iran" /> 's nuclear programs was 
heavy on incentives to freeze sensitive nuclear activities, not 
possible punishments for refusing. 

 "The focus at this point in time, of course, is trying to show
to the Iranian regime a positive path that is available to it,
and to the Iranian people," national security adviser Stephen
Hadley" /> told reporters. 

Hadley's comments were in line with a New York Times report that
the package agreed to by the United States, China, Russia,
France, Britain and Germany and presented to Iran by European
foreign-policy chief Javier Solana had no threat of sanctions,
just incentives to freeze uranium enrichment and reprocessing. 

The daily reported that Solana had verbally informed the
Iranians of the possible repercussions of refusing to freeze
such activities, which is a condition for resuming talks on
Tehran's nuclear program. 

"The goal here is to try and show to the Iranians an affirmative
path if they will suspend and return to the negotiations. But I
think it's also very clear that there is another path if they
refuse to do so, and that is a path that will involve
consequences for the government," said Hadley. 

Hadley, US President George W. Bush" /> 's national security
adviser, said the United States and its partners agreed that
Iran's failure to agree would mean taking Tehran before the UN
Security Council. 

"There has been discussions about the kind of measures that
might be adopted if Iran does not make the choice that we hope
it will make. That's already been discussed," he said. 

Hadley refused to set a deadline for Iran's reply, saying: "The
president and secretary of state have said is weeks, not months.
But weeks, not days. And we're kind of in that zone at this
point in time." 

The six countries dealing with Iran are thought to expect an
answer before the late-June meeting of the foreign ministers of
the Group of Eight -- seven major industrialized countries plus
Russia. 

But the topic is expected to loom large at next weeks US-
European Union" /> summit in Vienna, Hadley said, while
stressing: "I don't expect any news out of this." 

Earlier, White House spokesman Tony Snow suggested that Iran's
talks with Russia and China on its nuclear program might be an
attempt to divide the United States and its partners and
predicted that it would fail. 

"It's safe to say that they'll try to test the unity of the P-5
plus one, but everybody's agreed," Snow said, referring to the
United States, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany. 

Those countries, after much diplomatic maneuvering, united this
month behind an incentives package meant to ensure Iran does not
develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies that it seeks an atomic
arsenal. 

Asked whether Iran was trying to divide the United States and
its partners, Snow later said: "I'm not going to get into that.
But you'd expect them, as a negotiating tactic, to see if there
is any daylight (between the partners)." 

"There isn't," said Snow, who seized on Russian President
Vladimir Putin" /> 's assessment that Iran "is ready to begin
talks" as suggesting that Tehran had agreed to Washington's
precondition of freezing sensitive nuclear activities. 

"In our view, 'ready to negotiate' means meeting that first
condition, which is suspending enrichment-related and
reprocessing activities," said Snow. "They have to take that
first necessary step." 

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 17 AFP: Putin positive on Iranian nuclear issue after meeting Ahmadinejad - 

 Thursday June 15, 02:16 PM 

  [Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes with Iranian 
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]   
    
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Iran has reacted positively to an offer of
incentives to end its uranium enrichment programme, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has said after meeting the Iranian
president.

"Concerning Iran I have a very positive feeling about this
meeting," Putin said after meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the
sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) annual
summit.

"Iran has reacted positively to the proposals of the six sides.
Iran is ready to begin talks and in the near [ src=] future I
hope it will state its position on the timing of the start of
the talks."

Putin was referring to offers to Iran of technical and
commercial cooperation from the five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council plus Germany in exchange for
giving up its uranium enrichment.

Putin, who met Ahmadinejad for more than an hour in Shanghai
Thursday, said as he went into the talks that Iran had the right
to use nuclear technology.

"But they need to do it in a way that does not arouse concerns
on the part of the international community," he said.

Ahmadinejad said before the talks with Putin that Iran would act
in the interests of global peace, but did not comment
specifically on the package of incentives.

"Concerning security policy, our cooperation can have a serious
influence on the peace and security of the region... our
cooperation will be in the interest of global peace and
security," Ahmadinejad said.

"Our views and relationship are very close and long term and are
developing in all spheres."

Iran also foresees cooperation with Russia in the natural gas
sphere, Ahmadinejad added.

"Concerning energy, if we cooperate closely, we can achieve much
more serious results," including in the gas sphere, he said.

After much diplomatic maneuvering, Russia and China finally
sided with the United States, France, Germany and Britain in
offering Iran this month the package of incentives.

Iran, which claims its nuclear program is strictly for energy
use and not an weapons program as the West fears, has given
mixed signals in recent days over the offer.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Madrid on Wednesday
that the offer was "very positive" and would be examined
seriously.

But Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday
his country would not bow to international pressure over its
nuclear program, according to Iranian state television.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not bend to these pressures,
and the continuation of this scientific progress is its
fundamental and basic right," Khamenei reportedly said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to meet Ahmadinejad on
Friday morning.

The SCO groups China and Russia with the Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is one
of four observer nations to the group.
 
    Copyright � 2006 Yahoo! UK Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 18 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog to hear reports on Iran 

 Thursday June 15, 11:54 AM 

  [Director-general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Mohamed ElBaradei]   
    
VIENNA (AFP) - The United States has urged Iran to "make the
best choice" by accepting benefits in return for guarantees it
will not develop atomic weapons, as the UN nuclear watchdog met
to discuss Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic
Energy Agency, called on "Iran to cooperate with the IAEA,"
which has been investigating the Islamic Republic for more than
three years on US charges it is developing nuclear weapons.

IAEA board members (Advertisement)
 [ src=] are reviewing two reports from agency chief Mohamed
ElBaradei, one from April 28 and the other from last week, which
show Iran has ignored calls to halt uranium enrichment. 

The process can be used to make reactor fuel to generate nuclear
power, but can also produce atom bomb material.

Schulte told reporters Thursday: "Iran is not implementing any
of the confidence building measures" requested by the IAEA's
35-nation board of governors, namely the suspension of uranium
enrichment.

"We all hope that the leadership of Iran will make the best
choice for the people of Iran," he said.

In Shanghai, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Iran had the
right to nuclear technology, as he entered a meeting with
Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"All countries including Iran have the right to use high
technology but they need to do it in a way that does not arouse
concerns on the part of the international community," Putin said.

US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said in a CNN
interview Wednesday that if Iran suspended nuclear enrichment
activity Washington "would be willing to join France, Britain,
Germany, possibly Russia and China to sit down and try and
negotiate a permanent solution to that problem."

These six nations have offered to open talks with Iran on
incentives, including the lifting of some US trade sanctions and
international support for the "building of new light water
reactors in Iran," according to a copy of the proposal shown to
AFP.

The world powers -- which presented an offer of trade, security
and technology benefits to Tehran on June 6 -- are holding off
on threatening sanctions until they get a response from Iran. 

"We only handed over the positive part. The idea was not to give
Iran a pretext to turn the proposal down," a European diplomat
close to the IAEA said.

In Madrid on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki described the offer made to Iran as "very positive" and
said Tehran was "in the process of examining the proposal very
seriously and will reply to it as soon as possible".

Diplomats from IAEA's 35-nation board of governors told AFP they
want to avoid conflict at this week's board meeting in order to
encourage a positive answer from Iran.

ElBaradei said in opening the IAEA meeting Monday that he
remained "convinced that the way forward lies through dialogue
and mutual accommodation among all concerned parties."

Non-aligned states represented at the meeting said they were set
to back Tehran's right to use this sensitive fuel technology.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran
appreciated the non-aligned position and that three years of
"uninterrupted support of the NAM (non-aligned movement) . . .
shows that the majority of the international community supports
Iran."

Meanwhile, Britain filed a statement to ElBaradei, transmitting
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's summary of the
incentives proposal agreed upon by the six world powers on June
1.

Beckett said that if Iran suspended uranium enrichment to start
talks, the West would suspend action in the Security Council,
which is the body that has the power to impose sanctions.

If not, she warned, "further steps would have to be taken in the
Security Council. We urge Iran to take the positive path and to
consider seriously our substantive proposals which would bring
significant benefits to Iran."
 
    Copyright � 2006 Yahoo! UK Limited. All rights reserved.
AFP

*****************************************************************
 19 IRNA: China-SCO-Iran -Commuinique SCO member states pledges 
consultation with observer states 

Shanghai, June 15, IRNA

Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
issued a joint communique here Thursday saying the organization
will hold regular consultations with observers and concerned
international organizations.

 "This is applicable to the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group which
is already functioning," said the communique, issued at the end
of the SCO summit.

 The organization was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. It
comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan.

 Presidents of the six member states as well as presidents and
representatives of Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India, the
observer states of the organization, attended Thursday's meeting.

 Afghan President Hamid Karzai also attended as a guest.

 The organization stressed in its joint communique that member
states will enhance cooperation on the world stage.

 "The SCO will try to expand cooperation among member states in
the international arena in various forms and by various means."
The heads of state pointed out with satisfaction that the
initiative endorsed by the Council of Heads of State in Tashkent
2004 on establishing cooperative relations among international
 organizations in the Asia-Pacific region was warmly and widely
received.

 They welcomed the signing of cooperation documents between the
SCO and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian
Economic Community (EURASEC), it said.

 They reiterated that "the SCO is ready to forge similar ties
with other international organizations and financial
institutions on the basis of equality and mutual respect," the
communique said.

 "The SCO Secretariat should, together with the Executive
Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-terrorist Structure, closely
follow up implementation of the cooperation documents signed
between the SCO and other organizations and energetically
promote concrete cooperation with the observers."

 The communique further states that the heads of state also 
entrusted the Council of National Coordinators to make 
recommendations on the procedure for SCO membership enlargement, 
adding that this procedure should fully conform to the purposes 
and goals set forth in the SCO charter, ensure effectiveness of 
all treaties that form the legal basis of the SCO, help 
strengthen its unity and guarantee applicability of the principle 
of consensus to consultations on all matters and at all levels of 
the SCO.

 According to the communique, the next meeting of the Council of
Heads of State will be held in Bishkek in 2007.

 Kyrgyzstan will assume the SCO presidency next year.		 				 		
			
*****************************************************************
 20 IRNA: India facing heat over NAM support to Iran

New Delhi, June 15, IRNA

India-Iran-NAM 

New Delhi, which has entered into a nuclear deal with the US, is 
dogged by the Iran nuclear issue.

 India recently had to field US criticism on the Non-Aligned 
Movement's stand on Iran.

 And as the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of 
Governors enters its fourth day of discussions on Iran's nuclear 
program in Vienna today, the May 30 NAM resolution is being 
revisited with NAM refusing to back action against Iran.

 US officials chided India for the NAM statement.

 Issued in Putrajaya, Malaysia, after a ministerial meeting, the
statement supported the right of states "to develop research,
production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,
without any discrimination and in conformity with their
respective legal obligations," reports a leading English daily,
The Times of India, here today.

 Stressing that states should be allowed to develop atomic
energy for peaceful uses, it said their "choices and decisions
in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear technology and its fuel
cycle policies must be respected."
 Although several NAM countries, including Egypt, had voted
against Iran, the US has kept India within its cross-hair.

 The NAM statement was the strongest support for Iran from such
a large bloc of countries, and US officials knocked on India's
door the next morning after alarm bells sounded off in
Washington.

*****************************************************************
 21 IRNA: EU leaders to voice hope of finding diplomatic solution to Iran
nuclear issue 

, June 15, IRNA

- 

Leaders of the 25-member European Union begin a two-day summit
in Brussels Thursday evening focusing on the future of Europe.

 The current Austrian EU Presidency's agenda consists of three
main topics: the EU's future after France's and the Netherlands'
rejection last year of the EU Constitution, citizens' security
and life in the EU and a work plan for the future.

 European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told
reporters that the main topic of the summit will be "the way to
move Europe forward, a Europe with results and the European
Constitution." Some media are already dubbing the meeting as
"the dullest summit ever" as Europe's headlines focus on the
ongoing World Cup football tournament in Germany, noted
EUpolitix.com

 EU foreign ministers will hold a separate meeting to discuss
Iran, Iraq, Palestine and the Balkans.

 EU leaders in their summit conclusions are expected to express
hope of finding a negotiated settlement to the Iran nuclear
issue.

 They will underline the importance of understandings reached
between the EU3, (France, Germany and the UK ) China and Russia
earlier this month.

 "These understandings offer the chance for a negotiated
agreement with Iran," according to the draft conclusions.

 The EU leaders will also call on the Islamic Republic to give a
positive response to the new EU package which was delivered to
Tehran last week by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

*****************************************************************
 22 Korea Times: Seoul Warns Against NK Missile Test 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times   

Seoul Urges NK Not to Test-fire Missile
   
By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter

 KWANGJU _ The South Korean government delivered its concerns to
North Korean authorities about their country��s alleged move to
test-fire a long-range ballistic missile, a ranking government
official said here Thursday. 

The message was delivered through inter-Korean dialogue channels
after reports from the United States and Japan claimed Pyongyang
has recently been preparing to test-fire a Taepodong missile,
the official said on condition of anonymity. However, Seoul will
not consider halting inter-Korean business projects such as the
Kaesong Industrial Complex or tourism at Mt. Kumgang in North
Korea, he said.

 ``We have serious concerns about the (missile) issue and are
reviewing possible measures while continuing consultations with
relevant countries,���� the official said. 

The remarks reflect Seoul��s growing worries over the
possibility of Pyongyang test-firing a missile, which is likely
to deal a further blow to worsening relations between the United
States and North Korea and cement the hardliners�� position in
Washington.

 On Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and
trade, urged Pyongyang to stop preparations for the missile
test. 

He stressed that if Pyongyang implements the plan it would have
a considerably negative effect on the international situation,
especially on the process of resolving the dispute over the
North��s nuclear programs.

 ``South Korea and the United States share the understanding
that the North should not take such actions that would
deteriorate the situation,���� Ban said.

 Other top Seoul officials, including Unification Minister Lee
Jong-seok, are expected to continue efforts to persuade North
Korea to stop the suspected missile test preparations.

 A 19-member North Korean government delegation, led by Kim
Yong-dae, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme
People��s Assembly, is in Kwangju to participate in joint
celebrations marking the sixth anniversary of the inter-Korean
summit in Pyongyang.

 Government delegates of the two Koreas, including Lee and Kim,
were engaged in an hour-long roundtable discussion later in the
day. 

A Unification Ministry spokesman said there is no set agenda and
the two sides discussed a broad range of issues.

 Sources said the unification minister again relayed Seoul��s
concerns over the possibility of the North��s missile test at
the closed-door meeting.

 The meeting came as a scheduled excursion to a historical site
in the city was canceled. 

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr 06-15-2006 17:43         
  
*****************************************************************
 23 Korea Times: Reconciliation Must Be Attained by Peaceful Means 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation   

The following is a message sent by Jimmy Carter, former U.S 
president and 2002 Nobel Peace laureate, on the occasion of the 
2006 Kwangju Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates - ED. 

Jimmy Carter
   
Congratulations on the first summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to 
be held in Asia.

 This is a significant opportunity to discuss peace on the Korean 
Peninsula, which is important on both regional and global levels.

 It has been 12 years since I visited the Korean Peninsula for 
the resolution of its first nuclear crisis. It is regrettable 
that North Korea��s nuclear program remains an obstacle to world 
peace and security. 

Though the issue cannot be taken highly, reconciliation will 
never be attained by the use of military force, but rather must 
be achieved by peaceful means.

 In its current state, this nuclear crisis has become a great
stumbling block in the establishment of a peaceful regime in
Northeast Asia. It is clear, given the immense concentration of
well-trained forces with state of the art weaponry, that any
sort of military action is out of the question. 

Should a war arise again on the Korean Peninsula, the havoc that
would ensue would be much greater than that seen some 60 years
ago in the Korean War. 

In this context, initiatives for peaceful engagement and
dialogue are quite laudable. I strongly support South Korea��s
``peace and prosperity���� policy. 

You made a major breakthrough when you traveled to Pyongyang for
the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000. I am pleased that
you plan to do so again in late June, and I hope that your visit
will provide momentum for the peaceful resolution of the nuclear
issue, as well as for the further promotion of inter-Korean
dialogue and cooperation.

 Rosalyn joins me in sending our best wishes for a peaceful
summit and a productive visit to North Korea. 
06-15-2006 18:57         

*****************************************************************
 24 AFP: Inter-Korean talks held amid missile concerns 

 Thu Jun 15, 7:01 AM ET 
		 	 
GWANGJU, South Korea (AFP) - A North Korean delegation have held 
unscheduled talks with top South Korean officials amid jitters 
over a possible North Korean missile test. 

South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jong-Seok met Kim 
Yong-Dae, the head of the North Korean delegation visiting the 
southern city of Gwangju to mark the sixth anniversary of a 
landmark inter-Korean summit, Lee's office said.
 
Part of the official programme of the North Koreans has been
scrapped to make room for the closed meeting, according to one
of the programme organizers.
 
The closed meeting was set up after South Korea and the United
States confirmed on Wednesday that the Staolinist state was
preparing for a possible long-range missile test.
 
A unification ministry official, however, said he was doubtful
whether Lee would raise the missile threat with Kim Yong-Dae, a
more junior North Korean official who led a delegation of 140
officials and civilians to four days of cultural and sporting
events.
 
Lee said in an earlier open sesssion with the North Koreans that
the two Koreas should play a leading role in resolving the
nuclear standoff and other issues related to peace on the
peninsula.
 
"South and North Korea
" /> North Koreaare required to play an active role in breaking
a stalemate in the resolution of nuclear and other issues
concerning peace on the Korean peninsula," Lee said.
 
In response, Kim Yong-Dae suggested the two sides should end
their "anachronistic confrontation."
 
"After an open meeting, the two sides went into a closed
session," a unification ministry official told AFP.
 
YTN Television said the meeting would address a late June visit
to Pyongyang by former president Kim Dae-Jung for talks with
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il.
 
The two Kims held the first and only summit in Pyongyang in 2000.
 
Kim Dae-Jung said on Wednesday in a speech launching the
anniversary celebrations that he wants "frank talks" with Kim
Jong-Il about the future of the divided peninsula.
 
The two Koreas have been divided for more than five decades and
are still technically at war because the military armistice
ending the 1950-53 Korean War was never replaced by a peace
treaty.
 
But since 2000 ties have warmed despite the standoff over the
North's nuclear weapons drive.
 
On-off talks on ending the nuclear standoff have failed to
reduce tension despite North Korea's agreement in September to
dismantle its nuclear weapons programme in return for economic
aid and other benefits.
 
In November Pyongyang said it would boycott further six-party
talks bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and
the United States after Washington imposed financial sanctions
for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.
 
US ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow warned Wednesday that
Washington and its allies would "respond appropriately" if North
Korea test-fired a missile capable of reaching the United States.
 
He said Washington was monitoring preparations for a long-range
missile test that have reportedly been under way for more than a
month at a remote launch pad in northeastern North Korea. 
He stressed, however, consultations would take place with
partners to the six-party talks with North Korea before a
decision would be made on a response. 

In Washington, US senator Senator Lisa Murkowski urged the Bush
administration to focus on ending the nuclear dispute instead of
pushing the North to act on counterfeiting charges. 

"The United States must focus its efforts toward North Korea
first and foremost on the nuclear issue," said Murkowski, a
Republican party who chairs a key Senate panel on Asia-Pacific
affairs.


Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 25 AFP: US should stay focused on North Korean nuclear issue - senator -

 by P. Parameswaran Wed Jun 14, 9:28 PM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US senator has called on the administration 
of President George W. Bush " /> to focus on ending a nuclear 
standoff with North Korea " /> instead of pushing the Stalinist 
state to act on counterfeiting charges. 

"The United States must focus its efforts toward North Korea
first and foremost on the nuclear issue," said Senator Lisa
Murkowski, who is from Bush's Republican party and chairwoman of
a key Senate panel on Asia-Pacific affairs.
 
"While the issues of currency counterfeiting, weapons
proliferation, and human rights are all very important, the
reality is that without an agreement on the primary source of
irritation, there will be no progress on the other issues either.
 
"We need to solve the nuclear issue first, and then concentrate
on getting North Korea to act on other areas of concern," she
said, warning that US moves to sidetrack the nuclear issue had
also led to a "a growing split" in the six-nation forum aimed at
ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.
 
The United States had been involved with China, Russia, Japan
and South Korea
" /> in talks with North Korea to disband the reclusive state's
nuclear arms program in return for security and diplomatic
guarantees and energy aid.
 
Six-party talks climaxed in September 2005, with North Korea
agreeing in principle to end its atomic weapons program.
 
But talks collapsed two months later after the United States
imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged US dollar
counterfeiting and money laundering activities.
 
North Korea refused to come back to the table unless sanctions
were lifted, while the United States did not budge, saying it
cannot compromise on issues such as counterfeiting that threaten
national sovereignty.
 
Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley
" /> emphasized in an interview with broadcast network CNN on
Wednesday that North Korea should return to the six-party talks
and disband its nuclear weapons program.
 
He said it would be a "bad idea" for Pyongyang to launch any
long-range missile test, for which preparations have reportedly
been under way for more than a month.
 
Some experts say North Korea, aware that launch preparations are
easily monitored by US satellite, wants to use the threat of a
test-flight to force Washington to roll back the financial
sanctions.
 
Murkowski, speaking at a forum here of the US-based Asia
Society, said that South Korea and China, both of which she
visited together with Japan recently, felt that the counterfeit
currency issue raised by Washington only gave North Korea an
excuse not to return to the table.
 
"They urge the United States to prioritize its goals and have
patience with the talks. I agree," she said.
 
China is concerned that action by the United States on the
counterfeit currency issue was harming its ability to bring
Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, Murkowski said.
 
"Basically, the message was that if the United States would stop
making a mess of things, they could get the talks going again
and the overall chance of achieving peace, stability, and
denuclearization is good," she said.
 
In addition, she said, if the United States was going to bring
up the counterfeit issue in the six-party context, then Tokyo
would want North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals decades
ago included as well.
 
"But even as there is recognition of the benefits of the
six-party talks, cracks are showing in the alliance and North
Korea is trying very hard to widen those gaps," said Murkowski,
who is considering plans to travel with several senators to
Pyongyang.
 
"It is just in the initial stage of planning," her spokesman
Kevin Sweeney told AFP. 

The nuclear standoff with North Korea began in 2002 when
Washington accused the hardline communist state of running a
secret uranium-enrichment program, resulting in Pyongyang
throwing out UN weapons inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
 	 		 			
Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 26 Las Vegas SUN: Reid seeks to rein in Bush 

Today: June 15, 2006 at 7:17:23 PDT 

By J. Patrick Coolican and Lisa Mascaro 

Las Vegas Sun

During the fall of 2002, the Bush administration spoke darkly of
Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons - and
weeks before the November election, President Bush asked
Congress for authorization to go to war with Iraq. 

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and 28 other Democrats voted for the
resolution, which divided their party. The Democrats were beaten
badly in the election, and the war began a few months later. 

There will be no repeat with Iran, Reid said this week. He is
putting forth legislation that would impose strict oversight on
Bush's Iran policy, even forcing the administration to report to
Congress on its process for vetting the accuracy of all
statements of the president, vice president and others in the
administration. 

The legislation has virtually no chance of passing, and even if
it did, the administration would fight it as an intrusion into
its realm. As a political move, however, it offers a clear
picture of an aggressive Democratic strategy five months before
the election. 

Reid's proposed legislation, which he is attaching as an
amendment to the defense authorization bill the Senate is
debating this week, would also compel the president to report to
Congress what he knows about Iran's nuclear program and to
reveal what he intends to do about it. 

"Everything they say will have to be supported by facts," Reid
said in a statement. "I have no doubt the White House won't like
this requirement, but after what happened in Iraq, the American
people deserve nothing less." 

The bill is just one of a series of recent moves, including a
call for a troop drawdown in Iraq. Together, those steps
indicate Reid feels emboldened by recent polling, which shows
his party has drawn even with Republicans on national security
for the first time in years. 

The move also foreshadows what the government will look like if
the Democrats recapture a majority of one or both houses of
Congress. Reid and his counterpart in the House, Rep. Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., would push for aggressive congressional
oversight of the administration, setting up constitutional
conflicts over power and prerogative. 

But the Democratic strategy carries substantial risk, political
analysts said. Republicans can try to fire up their base of
hard-core supporters by warning that Democrats will try to
thwart the administration's initiatives and call hearings to
review its conduct of the last six years. 

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Middle East specialist and
currently a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise
Institute think tank, called Reid's proposal an attempt to tie
the administration's hands. 

Reid is "trying to show and demonstrate, I suspect, that you
don't have perfect intelligence," Gerecht said.	 

In reality, Gerecht said, intelligence can give a vivid snapshot
in time, but rarely provides lawmakers the definitive
information they seek. He said he suspects Reid is using a lack
of definitive information to avoid a confrontation with Iran. 

Some former intelligence officers, political scientists and
constitutional lawyers of both parties support more vigorous
congressional oversight of the administration. They say the
Republican Congress has failed to lead and represent the
American people on important issues, including the use or misuse
of intelligence before the war in Iraq, the planning and
execution of the war and the treatment of prisoners both in Iraq
and in the wider war on terrorism. 

"We recognize the importance of oversight," John Moseman, former
director of congressional affairs at the CIA, said at a forum
Tuesday at the liberal Center for American Progress. "It brings
some discipline to the system by making sure bad ideas don't get
acted on," said Moseman, who also worked for Republicans on
Capitol Hill. 

Richard Stoll, a political scientist at Rice University, called
Reid's bill a "shot across the bow" of the administration and a
way of reminding Bush that Congress has powers and
responsibilities in foreign policy. The Constitution gives
Congress the ability to declare war and control the Pentagon's
purse strings. 

"The senator is trying to sort of bring things back to what he
sees as their proper balance," he said. 

But other scholars believe that any attempt to vet
administration statements could amount to an illegal obstruction
of the president's ability to create foreign policy. 

Professor Douglas Kmiec of Pepperdine University, former
director of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel
under President Ronald Reagan, said the president's lawyers
would probably object by saying the law would intrude improperly
on the secret, internal deliberations of the president's staff. 

Politically, Reid's aggressiveness on foreign policy is a mixed
bag, analysts said. 

"The oversight, the preview of what things would look like under
a Democratic majority, that has pluses and minuses," said
Jennifer Duffy of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Now
that Democrats have made up ground on national security, they
can take their shot on Iran, which is a largely undefined issue,
she said. 

"It shows Democrats being activist on the national security
issue," she said. 

A call for more aggressive oversight could fire up the
Democratic base, Duffy said. But it also could backfire.
"Republicans have been talking to their base with the message of
fear. What happens if Democrats take majorities � this feeds
into that." 

Peter Beinart, who just published a book on liberals and foreign
policy called "The Good Fight," said more muscular congressional
oversight could have broad appeal if the public believes it will
lead to better policy. 

Scott Rasmussen, whose poll earlier this year revealed
Democratic parity on national security, said the danger for
Democrats is getting boxed into a perception that they're more
concerned with "legal niceties," while Bush and Republicans are
more focused on "catching bad guys," he said. 

Rasmussen also said that for the first time since 9/11, national
security may be less important than other issues, such as
gasoline prices and illegal immigration. J. Patrick Coolican can
be reached at 259-8814 or at patrick.coolican@lasvegassun.com.
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at
lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 27 AFP: India, US move toward finalising landmark nuclear energy pact -

 Wed Jun 14, 11:47 PM ET 		 	 

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India and the United States have made progress 
at talks to finalise the details of a landmark but controversial 
nuclear cooperation deal, officials from both sides said. 

 The talks, which began on Monday, were "constructive and
positive," US embassy spokesman David Kennedy told AFP. 

He said the US team was "very satisfied" with the discussions,
adding: "This was the first round of technical talks...The goal
is to finish the negotiations as soon as possible." 

An Indian official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the
two countries had made "good progress" on the text of the deal. 

Once finalised, the agreement would give energy-starved India
access to long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for
placing a majority of its nuclear reactors under international
inspection. 

The deal, first announced during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's visit to the United States last July, was formalized in
March when US President George W. Bush" /> visited India, but
the details have yet to be hammered out. 

The two sides had exchanged a few early drafts, but the talks in
New Delhi marked the first time the teams had sat down for
formal negotiations. 

Discussions this week centred on atomic fuel supply, fuel
storage and the sale of technology, the Press Trust of India
(PTI) news agency reported, quoting unnamed sources. 

The two sides decided to meet "fairly soon" for a second round
of talks, the report said. 

The US team -- consisting of officials from the US State and
Energy Departments and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- were
to leave India later Wednesday, Kennedy said. 

Indian officials said earlier there were differences with the
United States over a provision in the deal that would bar India
from conducting atomic weapons tests. 

New Delhi had objected to the condition which would give
Washington the legal right to halt cooperation if India were to
test a nuclear weapon. 

India tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and has been
banned by the United States and other countries from buying fuel
for reactors and other related equipment as a result. 

The deal faces hurdles in the US Congress, which must give the
green light to change the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which
prevents the United States from trading nuclear technology with
nations not party to nuclear treaties. 

Several US lawmakers have expressed concern over the deal since
India has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Some experts have said the agreement would not only make it
harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran" /> and
North Korea" /> , but also set a dangerous precedent for other
countries with nuclear ambitions. 

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 28 IRNA: US stands to gain over USD 35b through nuke deal with India -
                              
, June 15, IRNA

-- 

India will lose billions of dollars but the United States,
through their proposed civilian nuclear energy agreement, stands
to gain over USD 35 billion in hard cash, which is a
conservative estimate, without spending a penny if and when the
deal comes into force, according to a report.

 Washington will also have the satisfaction of gaining for the
first time a transparent insight into India's nuclear program
and of placing ceilings on its nuclear capability, said a report
published in a leading English daily, Asian Age, here today.

 Experts argue that the "non-quantifiable" gains will be far
more substantive for the United States than the monetary gains,
but admit that the dollars and cents argument being used by the
US State Department are an indication that Washington expects
major financial benefits from the nuclear deal.

 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the first to point
out that India was going to send USD 20 billion for eight
nuclear power reactors over the next six years.

 The US clearly hopes to get a sizeable share of this amount
that incidentally is far more than what India has invested in
building nuclear weapons and missiles since the 1998 Pokhran
tests.

 The US has assured India that it will be in a position to
provide the fuel for the nuclear plants, of course subject to
the many conditions that will be included in the various
agreements currently being negotiated with the US and IAEA.

 This in itself will earn vast sums of money for the Americans,
considering the fact that uranium prices are soaring and with
sugar having been the only commodity to register a higher
percentage of increase in the last year.

 Uranium prices jumped 76 percent in 2005 and again in 2006,
rising 57 percent between January and May.

 The non-quantifiable cost of the deal will, of course, lie in
the fact that it will make India dependent on the US for supply
of uranium that can be switched off, as was done in the case of
Tarapur, if New Delhi is perceived to have failed in meeting any
one of the many obligations under the nuclear agreement.

 India will lose further by discarding what even President APJ
Abdul Kalam advocated -- self sufficiency in thorium -- for this
dependency.

 The US will also be using the nuclear deal to revive its
nuclear power industry that has been lying dormant for decades.

 Rice herself admitted this when she said that this "initiative
will create opportunities for American jobs. Nuclear cooperation
will provide a new market for American nuclear firms as well as
assist India's economic development. The initiative may add as
many as 3,000 to 5,000 new direct jobs in the US and about
10,000 to 15,000 indirect jobs in the US, as the US is able to
engage in nuclear commerce and trade with India. By helping
India's economy to grow, we would thus be helping our own..."

 The United States has not developed a single new nuclear
reactor for the past 30 years and experts have pointed out that
its technology in this area is obsolete.

 The nuclear agreement has been linked by the Pentagon to more
arms sales.

 After India announced its ambitious separation plans on March
2, the Pentagon welcomed the nuclear deal as one opening
"promising prospects" for big weapon sales "whether in the realm
of combat aircraft, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft or
naval vessels." Lockheed Martin and Boeing have expanded offices
and staff here to be in a position to bid "with certainty" for
the big defence tenders.

 Apart from the 50 Boeing aircraft already purchased for Air
India, the US multinationals are seeking to monopolize the 126
fighter aircraft that India is currently shopping for with USD 9
billion.

 The US is currently a frontrunner for the multi-role combat
aircraft, the maritime reconnaissance aircraft for both the
Indian Air Force and Navy, 197 helicopters for the Army and at
least 20 items of equipment for the special services.

 As a defence analyst put it, the US companies are "carpet
bombing us" and added he, for one, was doubtful whether the
government would be able to resist the growing pressure with the
US now working to bring India into the Proliferation Security
Initiative.

 And, a nuclear expert also pointed out, "What happened on July
18, 2005, thus, was a nuclear coup against India staged in
Washington."
		 				 		 			
*****************************************************************
 29 Las Vegas SUN: House Debate on Iraq War Gets Under Way 

Today: June 15, 2006 at 14:21:4 PDT 

By LIZ SIDOTI ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House erupted in impassioned, election
year debate over Iraq war on Thursday, Republicans defending the
conflict as key to winning the global struggle against terrorism
while Democrats excoriated President Bush and his policies. 

"Is it al Qaida or is it America? Let the voters take note of
this debate," said Republican Rep. Charles Norwood of Georgia,
attacking war critics as defeatists who do not deserve
re-election. 

The war was "a grotesque mistake," countered the Democratic
leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. "The administration
continues to dig a hole. They refuse to come up and see the
light," she said. 

The debate unfolded four months before midterm elections that
will decide the control of Congress. 

The United States has absorbed the deaths of 2,500 troops in the
three-year conflict, which began when a U.S.-led invasion
toppled Saddam Hussein, but quickly turned sour in the face of a
brutal insurgency. 

Polls show the war has become unpopular. But Bush has tried to
rally support in the days since the death of terror leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, and the recent completion of an new Iraqi
government. 

The Pentagon prepared a battle plan for the debate, distributing
a highly unusual 74-page "debate prep book" filled with
ready-made answers for criticism of the war. 

"Iraq will become a haven for terrorists, murderers and thugs,"
if the United States leaves "before the job is done," the
booklet says. 

"We cannot cut and run," it says at another point, anticipating
Democratic calls for a troop withdrawal on a fixed timetable. 

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the 74-page document. It
was sent to both Republicans and Democrats and it laid out the
administration's positions in strong terms and offered page
after page of counterpoints to criticisms that Democrats
typically level against Bush's war policies. 

"In this fight for the future of peace, freedom and democracy in
the Middle East and around the globe, winning should be our only
option," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. 

Countered Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Mich.: "Retired generals
have spoken. We need a new direction. The troops should be
redeployed. They should be brought home at the most practicable
time with a plan that we don't now have under this
administration." 

Republicans arranged for the debate to culminate in a vote
either later Thursday or Friday on legislation - a resolution -
that labels the Iraq war part of the larger global fight against
terrorism and says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or
redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest. 

Across the Capitol, partisan tensions on the Iraq war were clear
as the Senate debated annual military legislation. Sen. John
Kerry, the Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2004 and a
potential 2008 standard-bearer, expected to introduce an
amendment that calls for the administration to redeploy combat
forces from that war zone by year's end. 

In the House, Republicans sought to put lawmakers of both
parties on record on an issue certain to be central in this
fall's congressional elections. 

"The fundamental question in this debate is: Are we going to
confront the threat of terrorism and defeat it, or will we
relent and retreat and hope the problem goes away?" House
Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, providing a preview
of the possible GOP line of attack should Democrats balk. 

As the death toll and price tag of Iraq rise, opinion polls show
voters are frustrated with the war and favor Democrats to
control Congress instead of the Republicans who now run the
show. 

Sensitive to those political realities, House Republican leaders
want to make Democrats defend their positions on Iraq - and
highlight deep differences on the matter within the Democratic
Party - while trying to present their own unified position
calling for staying the course in both Iraq and the larger war
on terrorism. 

But differences also exist within the GOP and those are sure to
be discussed as well. 

Republican leaders portray the debate as the first of its kind
since the Iraq war started in 2003. But they staged a similar
vote on a resolution rejecting the immediate withdrawal of
troops last year after Democratic Rep. John Murtha of
Pennsylvania, in a reversal, called for a quick exit from Iraq. 

Democrats dismiss the House GOP resolution as nothing more than
political theatrics, and they were expected to use the debate to
rail against Bush's wartime policies. Yet they also are mindful
that voting against such a resolution could leave them
vulnerable to attacks by Republicans who could claim that
Democrats who opposed the resolution don't support U.S. troops
and advocate a "cut-and-run" strategy. 

To that end, a memo this week by Boehner urged his fellow
Republicans to frame the debate as "a portrait of contrasts
between Republicans and Democrats." 

In both the House and Senate, Democrats appear to be divided
into three camps. Some want troops to leave Iraq this year.
Others object to setting any kind of timetable. A number of them
want the United States to start redeploying forces by year's end
but don't want to set a date when all troops should be out. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 30 AFP: Putin says Iran has right to nuclear technology if it poses no concern - 

  [Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes with Iranian
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]   

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Iran has the right to nuclear technology but it
must not cause concern to the rest of the world, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has said here as he met the Iranian
president.

"All countries including Iran have the right to use high
technology but they need to do it in a way that does not arouse
concerns on the part of the international community," Putin said
before meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization annual
summit Thursday,  Putin told Ahmadinejad he wanted to discuss the 
incentive offer put forward by Britain, China, France, Germany, 
Russia and the United States.

"I hope to discuss the suggestion formulated by the six-party
group solving the question of the nuclear problem. Russia has
always been an attentive and reliable partner of Iran," Putin
said.

Ahmadinejad replied that Iran would act in the interests of
global peace, but did not comment specifically on the package of
incentives being offered to Tehran in return for it giving up
uraniam enrichment.

"Concerning security policy, our cooperation can have a serious
influence on the peace and security of the region... our
cooperation will be in the interest of global peace and
security," Ahmadinejad said.

After much diplomatic maneuvering, Russia and China finally
sided with the United States, France, Germany and Britain in
offering Iran this month the package of incentives.

Iran, which claims its nuclear program is strictly for energy
use and not an weapons program as the West fears, has not given
a formal response.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday it welcomed Iran's
willingness to consider the proposal.

"We welcome their expression of willingness to negotiate with
parties for a solution and hope they could respond to the plan
positively," said ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to meet Ahmadinejad on
Friday morning.

The SCO groups China and Russia with the Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is one
of four observer nations to the group.

    Copyright � 2006 Yahoo! UK Limited. All rights reserved.
AFP 
*****************************************************************
 31 Nukes put Owe in Ontario: Straightgoods.com
 
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:23:58 -0500 (CDT)

from: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=387
Nuclear puts the owe in Ontario

Decision to build more reactors assures high debt and environmental questions.

Dateline: Tuesday, June 13, 2006

by Ish Theilheimer

It never seemed a matter of whether but when Ontario Premier Dalton 
McGuinty would give the go-ahead to building more reactors. This week that 
question was answered as well.

Ontario is doing now what Ontario has done repeatedly before. While 
mouthing platitudes about renewable energy and conservation, it is 
launching another ten-to-twelve figure adventure in nuclear power 
generation. (Remember Darlington, under Davis Conservatives started at $4 
billion in the 1970s, ballooned to $14 billion under the Peterson 
Liberals?) To its credit, the short-lived Rae government put a moratorium 
on nuclear expansion. Unfortunately, it introduced the same sort of half 
measures in terms of energy alternatives as the McGuintyites.

Set aside the nuclear question for a moment and consider the economics. 
Most Ontario homeowners and businesses have seen energy costs skyrocket. 
The reason is on every Hydro bill: debt repayment (plus other charges that 
probably mask the cost of it). We get monthly reminders that big-ticket 
megaprojects are extremely expensive.

695881.jpgAnd they are not, as corporate interests would have us believe, 
the only way to go. As a new report from a coalition of high-profile 
environmental groups asserts, and as we've all have heard for 30 years, 
"Energy efficiency and low-impact renewable energy sources have the 
realistic potential to provide more than double the amount of electricity 
needed in worst-case projections of Ontario's future electricity demand."

Titled "Put Some Energy Into a Smart, Green Strategy", the report was 
released on June 12 by a coalition that includes WWF-Canada, the David 
Suzuki Foundation, the Pembina Institute, Ontario Clean Air Alliance, the 
Sierra Club of Canada and Greenpeace.

Based on conservation-first approaches being used in Europe and US states 
like California, and drawing primarily on research commissioned by the 
government and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), their report concludes 
that Ontario has over 62,000 megawatts of green and clean energy potential 
that could be developed by 2020. Not all would be needed, as even the OPA 
estimates that peak demand will be only 29,500 megawatts by then.

As the report points out, the high cost and unreliability of nuclear has 
been proven by the province's continued dependence on coal. And the problem 
and cost of dealing with massive amounts of high-level radioactive waste 
cannot be dismissed....

whole editorial at: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=387

Penney Kome, author and journalist
http://penneykome.ca
Editor, Straight Goods, http://straightgoods.com 

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of 695881.jpg]
*****************************************************************
 32 [NukeNet] Village Voice : Letters  - June 15, 2006
 
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:18:18 -0700


<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

To: Nukenet,
I often wondered why Dr. Roy himself could not
get the Roy Process accepted by our own
government. Dr. Roy's own daughter-in-law
was in president Clinton's cabinet, so they knew
about it then.

It is clear to me now there is far more MONEY
in mischief, in killing people, in a toxic regime,
than the reverse.

The public, especially those who should care, the
so-called environmentalists, wouldn't help Dr. Roy
to save their own hides! But you can't fool Mother
Nature forever! At some point she sends the bill!

"Close enough for government work" is the mantra!
Spend trillions of tax payers money on junk science!
They don't care. Just keep those government pay
checks coming!

The Roy Process, photon transmutation of spent
fuel rods (nuclear waste) is real science and was
ready for commercial development in 1979 when
it made an AP world wide news story.

The below letter to the editor, has an interesting
view, when you wonder why!

Regards,
Dennis F, Nester
-------------------
   <http://www.villagevoice.com/>http://www.villagevoice.com/

Letter of the Week
American Reich

Good article by Nat Hentoff on this administration's secrecy 
["<http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0623,hentoff,73418,6.html>Black Site 
for Justice," Liberty Beat, June 7�13]. The fact that they shut down an 
investigation by the Justice Department at the request of Congress should 
be chilling to all Americans. However, most Americans will never know about 
it or think about what it means. Folks care more about American Idol than 
what their government is doing, and this makes me wonder. What would I have 
done during the rise of Hitler? Would the propaganda have overwhelmed me 
since the Nazis did control most media, or would I have thought it through 
and attempted to save the German republic? We are currently finding out 
what we would do in the situation and it is not even close to an 
overstatement to say this: Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

William Johnson
Dublin, Virginia


_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 33 NEWS.com.au: Fourth accident at Lucas Heights - 

From: AAP                       

By Max Blenkin, Paul Carter and Tara Ravens

 June 15, 2006                                                   

THE operator of Australia's only nuclear reactor insists it is
safe despite four accidents in the past week that threaten to
undermine the Federal Government's nuclear energy inquiry before
it begins. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO) today confirmed there had been four
accidents in a week involving radioactive material at Sydney's
Lucas Heights Reactor. 

Two of the incidents happened today and while ANSTO admitted it
was "extremely unusual" to have so many incidents in such a
short time, it insisted the events posed no threat to public
health. 

But Labor said all Australians should be concerned, and the
events were a warning of what could come if a nuclear power
industry was ever allowed to develop in the country. 

ANSTO today revealed a worker received a low radiation dose of
iodine-123 while packaging radiopharmaceuticals yesterday, and
two more "minor" incidents happened today. 

The first incident today involved a worker who was splashed in
the eye with radioactive material while cleaning up waste in a
production area. 

In the second incident, a worker dropped a small glass vial 
containing a radiopharmaceutical. 

The revelations follow a leaked email that detailed an accident 
at Lucas Heights on June 8 when various gases, including krypton, 
escaped into the atmosphere. 

"Two more incidents happened today involving radiopharmaceutical 
production workers," ANSTO said in a statement. 

But it stressed that dose levels were "significantly less" than 
the amount it was obliged to report to the nuclear safety 
watchdog. 

ANSTO's chief of research Dr George Collins said the company took 
safety very seriously, but admitted it was unusual to see so many 
such incidents in only a week. 

"The normal pattern of these minor incidences would be one a 
month, so all I can comment is that in the last few days it's 
very unusual to have such a cluster," Dr Collins told ABC radio. 

"We try to stop (accidents) happening, but these are particularly 
minor ones. 

"In all these cases I can emphasis that the doses these people
receive is well below the limits for these people and they do
not represent any concerns for the health of the workers." 

Mr Collins said ANSTO would not normally report the incidents
"because they're of a very minor nature and in many processing
things these things occur". 

But the company was working to ensure they did not happen again,
he said, adding that federal Science Minister Julie Bishop now
had "full details of all these cases". 

Labor said the spate of accidents showed Australians were right
to be nervous about what a nuclear power industry  an option
being examined by a new government-initiated inquiry  would mean
for the country. 

Ms Bishop refused to confirm yesterday's incident when
questioned in federal parliament today. 

Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said the worker
had ingested radioactive iodine 123 from a canister sent to
Lucas Heights from the National Medical Cyclotron at the Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney's Camperdown. 

"In relation to this further incident, what investigation and
action has the minister ordered into the cyclotron in
Camperdown, the transport of radioactive materials through
Sydney, and at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor?" Mr Albanese
asked Ms Bishop. 

The minister accused Labor of scaremongering and of wanting to
shut down Lucas Heights. 

"We know what this is all about. This is all about Labor trying
to get the Lucas Heights reactor closed down," she said. 

Three Labor MPs, including Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny
Macklin, were thrown out of parliament as Ms Bishop answered a
series of questions about yesterday's incident, and the one on
June 8. 

The June 8 event saw a pipe at the reactor rupture, venting a
small amount of gas into the atmosphere. 

"I am advised that the puff of inert gas was harmless ... in
fact, the air quality on that side of the house is more toxic,"
Ms Bishop said, pointing at the Labor benches. 

Lucas Heights was forced to temporarily shut down production and
ration supplies of an isotope used for medical scans as a result
of the June 8 incident. 

ANSTO spokeswoman Sharon Kelly said production of the isotope
used in many important diagnostic medical scans  Technetium-99m 
had been disrupted while an investigation into the mishap was
completed. 

Major hospitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and
Brisbane today received supplies of molybdenum, a liquid used in
production of Technetium-99m. 

However, most hospitals would only receive 55 per cent of their
normal weekly order, she said. 

"It's now up to these clinics to prioritise which patients will
get their scans done first," Ms Kelly said. 

The hospitals should have a full supply of the medical isotope
from June 26. 

In the meantime, Lucas Heights has stepped up production of
another radiopharmaceutical, thallium, which can be used instead
of technetium-99 in some heart scans. 		  		 		 		 			Search for
more stories on this topic on Newstext, our news archive
service. 

*****************************************************************
 34 Guardian Unlimited: Japanese Nuclear Reactor Shuts Down
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday June 15, 2006 2:46 AM

TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese nuclear reactor shut down automatically
Thursday because of a shaking turbine, and there was no release
of radioactivity, Kyoto News agency reported. 

The shutdown affected a reactor at the Hermosa nuclear power
plant, about 100 miles west of Tokyo, the report said. 

Kyoto said ``turbulence'' in the turbine triggered the shutdown,
but the report had no further details. 

The nuclear energy industry in Japan has been plagued by safety
violations, reactor malfunctions and accidents. 

The country's 52 nuclear reactors supply 35 percent of Japan's
electricity. 
		 	 	   

      Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 35 AU: The Age: Nuclear debate ignites after accidents - 

www.theage.com.au

June 16, 2006 - 5:14AM

The federal government's nuclear energy inquiry faces intense
opposition after the operator of Australia's only nuclear
reactor admitted to four accidents in the past week. 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
(ANSTO) has confirmed two accidents occurred on Thursday at
Sydney's Lucas Heights Reactor. 

In the first a worker was splashed in the eye with radioactive
material while cleaning up waste in a production area. 

In the second a worker dropped a small glass vial containing a
radiopharmaceutical. 

ANSTO also confirmed that a worker received a low radiation dose
of iodine-123 while packaging radiopharmaceuticals on Wednesday. 

The revelations follow a leaked email that detailed an accident
at Lucas Heights on June 8 when various gases, including
krypton, escaped into the atmosphere. 

ANSTO has sought to play down the incidents in the wake of a
nationwide energy debate, with nuclear power an option being
examined by a new government-initiated inquiry. 

"The normal pattern of these minor incidences would be one a
month, so all I can comment is that in the last few days it's
very unusual to have such a cluster," said ANSTO's chief of
research Dr George Collins. 

"In all these cases I can emphasise that the doses these people
receive is well below the limits for these people and they do
not represent any concerns for the health of the workers." 

But Mr Collins said ANSTO was working to ensure no more
accidents occurred, adding that federal Science Minister Julie
Bishop now had "full details of all these cases". 

Labor has warned the recent spate of accidents shows people are
right to be nervous about what a nuclear power industry will
mean for the country. 	

� 2006  AAP

*****************************************************************
 36 Sydney Morning Herald: More nuclear spills at Lucas Heights - 

www.smh.com.au

The Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney's south-west.

Photo: Quentin Jones     

Phillip Coorey, Political Correspondent

June 16, 2006

A TECHNICIAN at the Lucas Heights research reactor ingested
radioactive material in an accident at the plant on Wednesday.
Two more accidents happened yesterday. Combined with last week's
pipe rupture, there have been four accidents at the plant in a
week. 

As the ALP used the incidents to challenge the Government's
competence on nuclear energy, the Finance Minister, Nick
Minchin, pre-empted the Government's inquiry into nuclear energy
by saying its findings would support his view that nuclear power
was not viable. 

Fielding a question in the Senate, Senator Minchin also said it
was wrong to link the incidents at Lucas Heights to the nuclear
power debate. 

"Nuclear power could only really be viable if you so taxed the
coal and gas industries as to make them unviable," he said. 

"Assuming that this Government is not so silly as to price out a
business � then it is my view that nuclear power is unlikely to
be viable, but that is one of the things that we will discover
from this inquiry." 

In the House of Representatives, Labor's environment spokesman,
Anthony Albanese, said that on Wednesday morning a canister of
radioactive material delivered to Lucas Heights had
contamination on the outside that had vaporised during
processing. 

A technician working with the canister triggered an alarm. Tests
showed he had ingested radioactive iodine-123. 

The Science Minister, Julie Bishop, accused the Opposition of
"blatant scaremongering" over nuclear power and trying to have
Lucas Heights, which produces nuclear medicines, shut down. 

"You are trying to close down a medical service for cancer
sufferers across Australia," she said. 

The Australian Science and Technology Organisation said the
worker received only a small dose, significantly less than would
be administered to a patient with thyroid cancer. 

The incident was so small it did not warrant notification, and
the technician worker did not need any treatment. 

The science organisation also disclosed that two more incidents
had happened yesterday involving radiopharmaceutical production
workers. One received a small splash in his eye. The other
dropped a glass vial containing nuclear medicine. 

Both workers were assessed and were found to have received
non-harmful doses. 

"This is extremely unusual. Minor incidents of this nature
normally occur around once a month," the organisation said in a
statement. 

Last Thursday a small amount of radioactive gas escaped into the
atmosphere and a worker was washed down for contamination. 

Ms Bishop said she was unaware of any other incidents in the
past 12 months at Lucas Heights. 

The deputy Opposition leader, Jenny Macklin, said public
documents from the nuclear regulator, the Australian Radiation
Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, showed there were 12
incidents at Lucas Heights in 2005. "The minister's incompetence
is of serious concern at a time when the Howard Government is
pushing nuclear power," she said. 

2006-06-16

Copyright � 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
 37 Sydney Morning Herald: Spate of accidents at Lucas Heights - 

www.smh.com.au

June 15, 2006 - 9:15PM
 	 	
Four accidents have been reported at Sydney's Lucas Heights 
nuclear reactor in a week in what authorities say is an 
"extremely unusual" series of events. 

A worker at Australia's only nuclear reactor received a low dose 
of radiation yesterday, while two more "minor" incidents occurred 
today, said the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology 
Organisation (ANSTO). 

The accidents follow the escape of gases after the rupturing of a 
pipe at the reactor on June 8, which disrupted the production of 
isotopes used in medical scans. 

News of the incidents comes just days after Prime Minister John 
Howard announced an inquiry into nuclear power. 

Labor questioned the government in federal parliament today over 
yesterday's accident at Lucas Heights, saying a worker had 
ingested radioactive contamination from a canister. 

ANSTO tonight confirmed a worker received a low radiation dose
of iodine-123 while packaging radiopharmaceuticals for patient
use yesterday morning. 

It said the dose was four per cent of the annual limit for
radiation workers and significantly less than a patient would
receive getting a nuclear medicine scan for thyroid cancer. 

In a statement, ANSTO said the worker was examined and found to
have absorbed a small amount of radioactivity. 

However the worker did not need treatment and continued work as
normal. 

"While not common, incidents of this type are not unprecedented
and can occur in any production line process," ANSTO said. 

However it admitted two more incidents had occurred today
involving radiopharmaceutical production workers. 

"This is extremely unusual. Minor incidents of this nature
normally occur around once a month," ANSTO said. 

In the first incident today, a worker burst a pack of
radioactive material which splashed into his eye. 

The second involved a worker who dropped a small glass vial
containing a radiopharmaceutical. 

In both cases, dose levels were significantly less than the
amount ANSTO was obliged to report to the nuclear regulator
ARPANSA. 

"All these incidents will be thoroughly investigated and the
importance of safety underlined to staff," it said. 

Science Minister Julie Bishop refused to confirm yesterday's
incident when questioned in federal parliament. 

Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said the worker
had ingested radioactive iodine 123 from a canister sent to
Lucas Heights from the National Medical Cyclotron at the Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney's Camperdown. 

"In relation to this further incident, what investigation and
action has the minister ordered into the cyclotron in
Camperdown, the transport of radioactive materials through
Sydney, and at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor?" Mr Albanese
asked Ms Bishop. 

Ms Bishop accused Labor of scaremongering and of wanting to shut
down Lucas Heights. 

"We know what this is all about. This is all about Labor trying
to get the Lucas Heights reactor closed down," she said. 

Three Labor MPs, including Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny
Macklin, were thrown out of parliament as Ms Bishop answered a
series of questions about yesterday's incident, and the one on
June 8. 

The June 8 event saw a pipe at the reactor rupture, venting a
small amount of gas into the atmosphere. 

"I am advised that the puff of inert gas was harmless ... in
fact, the air quality on that side of the house is more toxic,"
Ms Bishop said, pointing at the Labor benches. 

Lucas Heights was forced to temporarily shut down production,
and ration supplies of an isotope used for medical scans as a
result of the June 8 incident. 

ANSTO spokeswoman Sharon Kelly said production of the isotope
used in many important diagnostic medical scans - Technetium-99m
- had been disrupted while an investigation into the mishap was
completed. 

Major hospitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and
Brisbane today received supplies of molybdenum, a liquid used in
production of Technetium-99m. 

However, most hospitals would only receive 55 per cent of their
normal weekly order, she said. 

"It's now up to these clinics to prioritise which patients will
get their scans done first," Ms Kelly said. 

The hospitals should have a full supply of the medical isotope
from June 26. 

In the meantime, Lucas Heights has stepped up production of
another radiopharmaceutical, thallium, which can be used instead
of technetium-99 in some heart scans. 

AAP 
*****************************************************************
 38 AU ABC: ANSTO details more nuclear accidents
 
ABC Sydney | Local News | Story 

 Thursday, 15 June 2006. 19:35 (AEDT)Thursday, 15 June 2006.

Spate of accidents: Dr Collins says ANSTO usually records one
incident a month.Reuters 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
(ANSTO) has revealed two more cases of people being exposed to
radiation at the organisation's Sydney facilities. 

ANSTO's chief of research Dr George Collins says two people were
splashed with radioactive materials today, bringing to a total
of four the number of workers that have been involved in
accidents since last Thursday. 

Dr Collins says in the first incident, a worker's clothes and
shoes were splashed with the material. 

"One was a very minor one of a spilling of a technetium-99m,
which is the radio isotope used in lots of nuclear imaging," he
said. 

"Some was splashed onto a worker's shoe and clothing this
morning. 

"A very very tiny amount was washed off and it was negligible." 

Dr Collins says in the second incident, a worker at the ANSTO
plant in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown was
splashed in the eye with a radioactive chemical. 

"In the processing of thallium-201 at our cyclotron at
Camperdown today, a worker received a small amount - again a
very small amount - in their eye and again they have had to have
that washed out," he said. 

Dr Collins says it is unusual to have so many accidents in a
week. 

"The normal pattern of these instances is that there would be
one a month but over the last few days it's very unusual to have
such a cluster," he said. 

"Normally we wouldn't report these incidences because they are
of a very minor nature." 

Dr Collins says ANSTO places a very strong emphasis on the
safety of its workers. 

"We are very concerned that these incidences have occurred," he
said. 

"In all these cases I can emphasise that the dose that people
receive is well below the limits for these people and do not
represent any concern for the health of the workers. 

"However, we are working as hard as we can to find out why they
happened and to ensure they do not happen again." 



Dr Collins says Science Minister Julie Bishop has the details of
all four cases. 

In Parliament earlier today, the Federal Opposition revealed one
worker had ingested radioactive iodine-123 yesterday morning. 

The worker had handled a contaminated canister from the
Camperdown cyclotron. 

Last Thursday, a ruptured pipe at the Lucas Heights nuclear
reactor exposed another worker to radioactive gases. 
Related Audio
 
More workers exposed to radiation at Lucas Heights
 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has
revealed that another three people have been exposed to
radiation at the nuclear reactor in Sydney's Lucas Heights.
MP3RealMedia 28k+WinMedia 28k+
*****************************************************************
 39 Independent: Russia's 'floating Chernobyls' to go ahead despite green fears 

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow 

Published: 16 June 2006 

Russia is to press ahead with the world's first floating nuclear
power station despite environmental concerns. The first
"floating Chernobyl" could be ready in four years. 

The Kremlin has approved the project and a shipyard in the far
north of Russia, used to build nuclear submarines, will begin
work next year. Rosenergoatom, the country's nuclear power
agency, says it intends to build up to six mobile power
stations, costing �182m each, the first scheduled for use in
2010.
 
Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of Rosenergoatom, said: "There will
be no floating Chernobyl," referring to the 1986 nuclear
disaster. Sergey Obozov, a senior official at the agency, said
they would be "reliable as a Kalashnikov assault rifle, which
are a benchmark of safety."
 
But environmentalists warned that the power stations could sink
in stormy weather, and could become a target for terrorists. A
report from Bellona Foundation, an independent Norwegian
research group, claims the floating power stations are "a threat
to the Arctic, the world's oceans, and the whole concept of
non-proliferation."
 
The structures will supply heat and electricity to far-flung
corners of Russia's far east and far north where it is difficult
and expensive to ship coal and oil. Russia also wants to sell
the structures to other countries, including China and India.
 
The structures will have a service life of 40 years, require a
crew of 69 people, and could power a medium-sized town. The
first power station will be moored in the White Sea off the town
of Severodvinsk in Russia's northern Archangel region. 

� 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 40 Daily Item: Berwick nuclear reactor shuts down; no safety problems reported
 		 		 
Daily Item - Sunbury, PA
 				 				 								 				 
        The Daily Item 200 Market Street Sunbury, PA 17801 (570) 
286-5671 (800) 792-2303

June 15, 2006                   

BERWICK � The Unit 1 reactor at PPL�s Susquehanna nuclear power 
plant in Luzerne County shut down automatically early this 
morning.

The shut down occurred at 3:02 a.m. while the unit was operating 
at full power and thewre were no safety issues related to the 
situation, said Lou Ramos, community relations manager for PPL 
Susquehanna. All plant systems responded as designed, he said. 
�While we are investigating the cause of the shutdown, 
preliminary indications are that we will be able to restart the 
unit within the next couple days,� Mr. Ramos said. 

At the time of the shutdown, the unit had been in service for 65
consecutive days since a scheduled maintenance and refueling
outage in April. Susquehanna Unit 2 continues to operate at full
power.
 	 		 		 				 	 	 		 			 	 		
The Daily Item is published by Ottaway Newspapers of PA, LP
Copyright � 2006 The Daily Item Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 41 Rutland Herald: Yankee disputes tax value increase

Rutland Vermont News & Information
 	 	 	 	 	 
June 15, 2006 

The Associated Press   
                
VERNON � The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is contesting a 25
percent increase in its property tax valuation, which the town
imposed after the plant boosted its power output by 20 percent.

Officials with Entergy Nuclear, the Louisiana-based company that
owns Vermont Yankee, say the new, $239 million valuation
violates a 2000 agreement between the town, the state and
Amergen, a company that was then trying to buy Vermont Yankee.

That agreement called for the plant's valuation to gradually
decline during this decade. Its 2006 valuation was to be $165
million, dropping to $120 million by 2009.

William Hammond, chairman of the town's Board of Listers, which
sets property values for tax purposes, said during an appeal
hearing Tuesday that the listers could discuss the process they
used to arrive at the $239 million valuation.

But he said questions about the 2000 agreement would have to be
taken up with the town's Board of Civil Authority, which is made
up of the Select Board and the town's justices of the peace.

Listers also said the 2000 agreement was rendered invalid when
Entergy made changes at Vermont Yankee designed to boost the
plant's power output by 20 percent, a process known as uprate.

The additional power is valuable. Most of the electricity
Vermont Yankee was generating previously was being sold at
below-market rates to Vermont utilities, under a contract signed
at the time Entergy bought the plant in 2002. The extra power
being generated as a result of the uprate can be sold at
prevailing market rates.

But Entergy tax officer Patricia Galbraith told the listers that
the plant's value should have been set in accordance with the
2000 agreement.

"We want to be on the record as stating that any value other
than what's in the contract would be incorrect on the grand
list," Galbraith said.

Hammond compared the situation to the increased property
valuation a homeowner faces after building an addition onto the
house. And he said the decision about the tax stabilization
agreement being invalidated by the power boost had been made by
the Select Board.

"All I can answer you is that the Select Board feels that the
uprate has changed (the agreement)," Hammond said. "When they
went into the stability agreement, it was out of the hands of
the listers.
   
*****************************************************************
 42 AFP: Australian government downplays nuclear accident 

 Thu Jun 15, 3:50 AM ET 		 	 

SYDNEY (AFP) - An accident at Australia's only nuclear reactor 
has forced Prime Minister John Howard's government onto the 
defensive, with political opponents saying the incident 
highlighted the dangers of nuclear power. 

 Small amounts of radioactive gases escaped from a ruptured pipe
at the Lucas Heights facility on the outskirts of Sydney last
Thursday. 

A worker was examined for radiation exposure, but was cleared
and there was no threat to the surrounding area, the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) said. 

The Lucas Heights plant was built in 1958 and is used only for
research and to produce radioactive material for medical and
industrial purposes. 

But the incident has proved an embarrassment for Howard's
government, which is trying to build support for nuclear power
plants in Australia and last week announced a wide-ranging
review of the industry. 

For the opposition Labor Party, which opposes nuclear power, the
incident was a timely boon. 

"Accidents like this show that the community is right to be
concerned about the safety of nuclear reactors," said the
party's deputy leader Jenny Macklin. 

"This accident is a stark reminder that things can go wrong with
nuclear reactors." 

ANSTO said the pipe ruptured inside an area producing medical
isotypes. It said small amounts of gases were released routinely
and did not pose a threat to the public. 

"The releases which occurred last Thursday evening were not
outside the normal release pattern, were well within regulatory
limits and could not be detected off-site," the organisation
said in a statement, adding the incident did not occur in a
reactor and had "nothing to do with reactor safety". 

ANSTO said that supplies of an isotope used for medical scans
would be rationed while it investigates the leak. 

Several hospitals across the country would only receive 55
percent of their normal weekly order and would have to
prioritise which patients received scans, the organisation
added. 

Science Minister Julie Bishop accused Labor of "deliberate
scaremongering". 

"This is just a beat-up by Labor trying to deflect from the fact
that we're having an open debate on nuclear power," she said. 

	 		 			
Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 43 BUCHAREST DAILY NEWS: Wanted: strong investors for nuclear reactor project 

No 506  Date: Friday, June 16, 2006

Ciprian Domnisoru 

Romanian authorities intend to select four or five companies on
the short list of investors which will take part in the
construction of the third and fourth units of the Cernavoda
nuclear plant, announced yesterday Ioan Rotaru, director of the
plant operator Nuclearelectrica. 

"Although we expect to receive many letters of interest, our
intention is to select no more than four or five companies. The
potential providers of goods and services will be excluded,"
Rotaru said. 

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) suggested the
simultaneous construction of the third and fourth reactors of
the Cernavoda nuclear plant, which requires a 2.2 billion euro
investment. 

The deadline for the submitting of letters of interest is June
23. Investors must contribute by a minimum of 50 million euros
in cash to the capital of the project company that will build
the two reactors. According to Rotaru, the companies selected by
a MEC commission on the short list will submit binding offers by
the end of July and negotiations will follow. "We expect the
process to be complete by October, including the status of the
new entity as a commercial company registered in Romania,"
Rotaru said. The Nuclearelectrica director mentioned that the
authorities do not want single, majority investors, so that none
of the participants may impose the policy of the future company.

Enel, RWE, Electrica and Marco Group are among the companies
that have announced their interest in the project. One of the
eligibility conditions is that the potential investor be quoted
by rating agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's or Fitch. 

At the end of 2004 companies LNM Holding, Enel and Ansaldo
(Italy), AECL (Canada), Hidro Nuclear & Power (South Korea), the
Tender Group (Romania) and AEFM had been selected to take part
in the construction of the third unit of the plant, after MEC
had received 12 letters of interest for this project. 

Rotaru said some of these companies would not be able to take
part in the bidding, as they will be unable to fulfill the
requirement to contribute to the nominal capital of the project
company. 

The nominal capital of the project company should originally be
of about 650 million euros, which represents about 30 percent of
the total value of the investment. The rest of the financing
will be supplied by credits, a reason for which the requirement
of being rated by the large evaluation agencies was introduced.

Several banks, among which BRD- Groupe Societe Generale, Merrill
Lynch, Calyon and Fortis Bank, have announced their intention to
finance the works at Cernavoda. 

"In 2007, we could have the financing ready, so that on January
1, 2008 we may begin works on the third unit," Rotaru said.

Construction of the fourth reactor is scheduled to begin in
September of 2008. 

Nuclearelectrica, operator of the first and second units at
Cernavoda, will take part in the construction of the new company
with existing assets, construction site, the land plot and
probably the first load of heavy water. Assets of the third
reactor have been evaluated at approximately 200 million euros,
which accounts for about 10 percent of the total value of the
project for the third and fourth reactors. Rotaru said that
investors are considering making Nuclearelectrica the operator
of the units. Investors will recover their funds for the project
by purchasing electricity at production costs. The third and
fourth reactors could sell energy at prices between 30 and 45
euros per MWh. Rotaru said that the works would be executed by a
main contractor, which will be selected by the end of the year
and which will assume responsibility for the entire project.    

The Cernavoda nuclear plant was designed for five reactors using
Canadian CANDU-type technology, with installed power of 700 MW
each. 

Currently the power plant has one functional reactor that 
provides about 10 percent of the national energy consumption. The 
second reactor is scheduled to be commercially viable in March of 
2007, thus increasing the Cernavoda output to 18 percent of the 
national electricity production. 

  Copyright � 2004-2006 Bucharest Daily News   
*****************************************************************
 44 globeandmail.com: Beleaguered nuclear industry gets new lease on life
 	
POSTED AT 8:19 AM EDT ON 15/06/06 	 		 			

[Headshot of Murray Campbell] MURRAY CAMPBELL Globe and Mail 

As it happens, the cr�me of Canada's nuclear industry was
meeting in Toronto this week when Energy Minister Dwight Duncan
confirmed a badly kept secret and said Ontario would be spending
billions of dollars in their neck of the woods. 

The smiles that broke out as the news spread were so dazzling
that they could have powered the city for a few weeks. The joy
came from the fact that Mr. Duncan was promising to spend up to
$46-billion to refurbish existing nuclear plants and to build
new reactors. But there was also relief because it was the first
bit of good news that the beleaguered industry has had in
decades. It was a Sally Field moment -- they like us, they
really like us. 

"A lot of people are in this industry because they're passionate
about the technology," said Jeremy Whitlock, a past president of
the Canadian Nuclear Society, which was holding its annual
meeting in a downtown hotel. "But at the same time you've got to
have very thick skin because you wake up every day and read
about how you're killing babies and that sort of thing. In that
sense . . . there's this feeling [with the announcement] that
somebody is standing behind us." 	 		 			 				 			 		 	 

All the major global nuclear companies had displays at the
three-day society meeting, making pitches and handing out
souvenirs and brochures that only a physicist could understand.
Areva, the French company, was touting its new 1,600-megawatt
reactor. U.S. giants Westinghouse and General Electric were
touting their advanced units, while Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
was pushing its hometown advantage. 

The prospect of Ontario spending billions to renew its nuclear
program -- through refurbishments and construction of 1,000 new
megawatts -- has the industry in as much of a tizzy as
fissionphiles can summon. 

"It is, for sure, a big investment piece for us," said Murray
Elston, a former Ontario cabinet minister who is now president
of the Canadian Nuclear Association. Paul Fehrenbach, an AECL
vice-president, rejected the suggestion that a feeding frenzy is
looming ("I think it will be a little more restrained than
that"), but he agreed that "there's going to be some good
competition." 

Ontario is joining what seems to be a worldwide upsurge of
interest in nuclear power resulting from concerns about
pollution-linked global warming and, in the United States,
energy security. 

There are 441 reactors operating in 31 countries, providing 17
per cent of the world's electricity. Another 27 units are under
construction, 38 being planned and 113 proposed. Most of the
activity is in Asia and Eastern Europe, although Areva is
building a reactor in Finland. 

Mr. Duncan said this week that he would prefer to deal with
AECL, but that he would review other bids. The Ontario program
isn't particularly large by global standards, since most of the
expenditure will go to refurbishing -- if it's practical -- the
existing fleet of 16 reactors. 

Last winter, AECL organized a "Team Candu" that includes itself
and its suppliers in anticipation of the Ontario announcement.
It desperately needs the deal because it would be a blow if the
second-biggest Canadian government turned its back. To this end,
it is showcasing its Candu 6 reactor, which is in operation in
seven countries, and its third-generation ACR-100 1,200-MW unit,
which is still on the drawing board. 

"Team Candu will deliver on schedule, on budget in Ontario,"
said senior vice-president David Torgerson. 

GE has signed up with the Candu consortium and likely won't
enter a bid, but Westinghouse and Areva will get involved.
"We're very, very interested," said Westinghouse spokesman
Vaughn Gilbert. "We see Canada as a logical extension of our
capability" in the United States, added Steve Hamilton of Areva
(which has offices in Canada). 

Candu offers a different technology from its counterparts --
using natural uranium and heavy water rather than enriched
uranium and light water. There is no reason the two technologies
couldn't sit side by side on an existing Candu site, but it
would create problems. 

For a start, Canadian regulatory authorities don't have the
expertise to oversee a non-Candu application. 

That's all down the road, however. For now, it's enough for
Canada's nuclear corps to know that, at long last, the gravy
boat is coming in to dock. 

mcampbell@globeandmail.com

Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights 
Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions 
of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, 
Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher
*****************************************************************
 45 TheStar.com: Critics slam exemption for energy plan
 
Thu. Jun. 15, 2006. | Updated at 08:19 PM 

DICK LOEK/TORONTO STAR FILE                           

The Pickering A nuclear generating station is pictured in this 
file photo.                 

STEVE ERWIN CANADIAN PRESS

Critics are accusing the Ontario government of behind-the-scenes
moves to avoid environmental assessments of a controversial
electricity generation plan that calls for the construction of
new nuclear reactors. 

The Liberal cabinet quietly passed a regulation Monday that
exempts the province�s 20-year energy strategy from
environmental assessments. 

Government officials said it was passed to provide �certainty�
to the government�s position that current Ontario laws don�t
require Energy Minister Dwight Duncan�s broad plan to be subject
to a provincial environmental review. 

Specific projects will be subject to environmental reviews in
any event, officials added. 

Insiders say a review of the entire plan would take years to
complete, further delaying the implementation of new electricity
generation sources to avoid shortages. 

But critics say the Liberals must have known their plan was at
risk of a review, otherwise they wouldn�t have passed the
regulation exempting their $70-billion electricity plan from
environmental assessments. 

�When you have a credible plan, a credible plan is able to
withstand close scrutiny,� said Jose Etcheverry, a climate
change analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation. 

�Precluding this right to Ontarians raises serious concerns
about the democratic process.� 

Greenpeace Canada�s Shawn-Patrick Stensil said the Liberals are
trying to dodge a lengthy and potentially costly review of the
plan so that they can roll ahead with nuclear projects without
an assessment that would consider alternatives. 

�If the (Liberal) government was sincere about public
consultation and environmental protection, they wouldn�t have
rewritten the Environmental Assessment Act to serve the nuclear
industry�s needs,� Stensil said. 

Stensil noted that when Environment Minister Laurel Broten told
the Ontario legislature Wednesday that a provincial
environmental assessment of the plan wasn�t needed, she didn�t
say anything about the regulation passed by cabinet. 

But Broten said Thursday that the Ontario Power Authority has
been directed to give more environmental consideration to the
plan it is now developing to implement the Liberal energy
strategy. 

The OPA said Thursday that they will initiate consultations with
energy sector stakeholders, including interest groups, but won�t
explain what format such talks will entail until June 29. 

�No new plant will be built in this province without being the
subject of an environmental assessment, whether that�s federal,
whether that�s provincial,� Broten said. 

During question period Thursday, New Democrat Leader Howard
Hampton called on Broten to resign. 

�It�s your job to stand up to the environment,� Hampton said.
``Instead, you are weakening Ontario�s environmental
protection.� 

Environmentalists are concerned about what they say is the lack
of a long-term plan for the storage of radioactive waste and the
cost of nuclear power. Past nuclear projects went billions of
dollars over budget and taxpayers are still paying off the debt. 

The Liberals have said all along that specific energy projects
will be subject to environmental assessments, with nuclear
plants falling under federal jurisdiction. 

Stensil, however, maintains the federal assessment process is
weak and called the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission �more of
a lapdog than a watchdog on environmental issues and on the
nuclear industry.� 

Mark Winfield, director of the Pembina Institute, said the
broader consultations are needed to show that Ontario doesn�t
have to replace energy produced by coal � long blamed for
pollution � with nuclear energy. 

But Duncan insists his �aggressive� plan would double
conservation efforts compared to the advice in the OPA�s
December recommendations. 

He said the plan also calls for the construction of dozens of
windmills and a reduction in nuclear�s overall share of
Ontario�s electricity to 40 per cent from 50 per cent. 


Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
 46 globeandmail.com: Nuclear plan skips key green review
 	
POSTED AT 4:24 AM EDT ON 15/06/06 			 						 			
			 
Critics blast Ontario's decision to forgo a complete
environmental assessment 
	 	 	 		 	 	 			 			 			 		 			 			 			 		 			 			
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT From Thursday's Globe and Mail                                                                                                                                                                                          

TORONTO � The Ontario government has exempted itself from a law
requiring a full environmental assessment for its plan to spend
up to $83-billion on nuclear plants and fixing the province's
aging electricity system. 

The action, which wasn't announced this week when Energy
Minister Dwight Duncan said the government intends to proceed
with the Ontario Power Authority's 20-year electricity supply
plan, is a sign the provincial Liberals are playing hardball
with their environmental opponents by fast-tracking approvals. 

It means that one of the biggest energy expansions undertaken in
Canada will occur without in-depth scrutiny because there will
be no independent review by outside experts of the government's
overall electricity program. 	 		 			 				 			 		 	 

Such a review would have added years to the approval process for
new nuclear reactors, and allowed environmentalists and others
to try to persuade the review panel that the government's plans
should be modified or rejected, or that there are other, less
costly ways to meet the province's power needs. 

The province will submit portions of its plan dealing with
individual nuclear generating stations to review under a less
rigorous federal environmental assessment. 

A spokeswoman for Mr. Duncan said the government believes its
electricity plan isn't covered by Ontario's Environmental
Assessment Act. To make sure this interpretation was clear and
would withstand a legal challenge, it issued a regulation
explicitly exempting the plan from scrutiny. 

"It's always been our position that this type of planning . . .
is not captured by the [environmental assessment], but we wanted
to make sure that wasn't misinterpreted," said Carmelina
Macario, a spokeswoman for the minister. 

The government signalled its intention to exempt itself from a
review yesterday on an obscure website covering Ontario statutes
and regulations. 

Environmentalists and opposition politicians immediately reacted
with anger. 

"The whole integrated plan needs to be examined from a health
perspective, from an alternatives perspective, from a financial
perspective," said Sarah Miller, a spokeswoman for the Canadian
Environmental Law Association. In a legal opinion, the group
concluded that a full assessment is necessary to comply with the
province's laws, and Ms. Miller called the exemption
"profoundly" wrong. 

"This is completely sneaky," NDP Leader Howard Hampton said in
an interview. "Here they are in the back room, secretly
exempting it, trying to escape any kind of public scrutiny." 

Premier Dalton McGuinty called the expansion the lesser of two
evils yesterday and said critics will have plenty of time to
debate it before the next election. 

"I think you've got to pick your poison here," Mr. McGuinty
said. "People say: 'I don't like nuclear.' Well, I don't like
nuclear either, but at least when it comes to waste you can put
it in a box and you can contain it." 

The last big Ontario electricity expansion, also introduced by a
Liberal government, was subjected to a review. 

That $100-billion proposal called for a raft of new generating
facilities and led to assessment hearings that began in 1989. 

It was similar in cost and scope to the current plan and called
for the construction of up to three nuclear plants and two
coal-fired stations, among other facilities. It was abandoned in
1993 after the power shortages predicted in 1989 turned into
gluts. 

A full assessment of the new project would likely cost tens of
millions of dollars and take about five years because of the
enormous scale of the government's plans. The expansion would
double the amount of energy saved through conservation, revamp
the transmission grid and double the amount of electricity from
renewable sources. 

The government will seek a less rigorous federal environmental
assessment for its plan to build new reactors and to refurbish
four existing ones at the provincially owned Ontario Power
Generation's Pickering B station outside of Toronto. 

The federal assessments typically investigate technical aspects
of a project, such as whether a site is suitable because it has
no earthquake risk or that workers' cars won't cause undue air
pollution. They do not allow opponents to question whether the
facilities are needed, or whether other sources would be
cheaper. 

Even so, the province says it believes a federal assessment is
the best way to evaluate its projects. 

"The government thinks it is better to assess the environmental
issues associated with specific sites and facilities and not
broad government policy," Ms. Macario said.

Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights
Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions 
of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, 
Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher                       
-->                                     -->     
*****************************************************************
 47 Hudson Valley News: Kelly wants greater Coast Guard presence at Indian Point   

Thursday, June 15, 2006 

The Coast Guards patrolling the Hudson River near the Indian
Point nuclear power plants part time with a 65-foot tug boat is
not sufficient to guard the power plants against attack,
Congresswoman Sue Kelly said Wednesday. 

Kelly has introduced legislation to make the Coast Guard the
primary federal agency for the naval defense of Indian Point and
require the Coast Guard to provide vessels capable of
intercepting and destroying water-borne threats while protecting
nuclear power plants. 

Entergy does not have a boat. Entergy does not have a 25 mm. gun
or larger and that is exactly what you must have if you are
going to try to stop a high-speed boat loaded with explosives
headed for Indian Point, she said. 

Kelly would like that Coast Guard vessel to patrol full time up
and down the Hudson River and keep an eye out, not only on
Indian Point, but on the Tappan Zee, Bear Mountain and
Newburgh-Beacon bridges, West Point and the oil tank farms along
the river. 

    
  
  HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's
                only Internet radio news report. 
*****************************************************************
 48 UPI: Canada warms up to nuclear energy
     
   United Press International - NewsTrack - 

6/15/2006 7:51:00 AM -0400                              

OTTAWA, June 15 (UPI) -- Ontario plans to spend $18 billion to
build nuclear reactors and refurbish some current units. 

The province also has decided to spend another $18 billion for
renewable energy projects and $5.3 billion for power
conservation, The New York Times reported Thursday. 

Upon completion of the 20-year venture, Ontario would maintain
the current level of nuclear-generated power, which provides
about half of the province's electricity. The other half is
provided mainly by hydroelectric dams and coal. 

"We have had a very bad financial history with nuclear power,"
the province's Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said. "The
challenge now is that we must manage these projects properly and
share the risk with potential suppliers."

 														
� Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 49 NEWS.com.au: Nuclear incident 'handled properly' 

From: AAP                       

June 15, 2006                                                    

THE nation's only nuclear reactor operator went out of its way to 
inform the public about an accident last week, Science Minister 
Julie Bishop said today Emails revealed by the Labor Party 
yesterday showed various gases, including krypton, escaped into 
the atmosphere at the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney last 
Thursday. 

A worker was examined for radiation exposure, but was cleared. 

Ms Bishop said the reactor operator, the Australian Nuclear
Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), had gone above and
beyond its duties to inform the public about the incident. 

"It was a burst pipe in a handling room some 400m from the
medical research reactor," she said today. 

"It was not even a notifiable incident, but ANSTO did notify in
any event. 

"They put out a press release on their website last Thursday and 
ABC radio ran a report of it last Thursday. 

"So this is just deliberate scaremongering by Labor in relation 
to a medical research reactor that delivers radio-isotopes and 
radio pharmaceuticals for cancer patients across Australia." 

Ms Bishop said she was not aware of any other incidents at the 
reactor in the past 12 months.                                                          

*****************************************************************
 50 Guardian Unlimited: Washington, Moscow to Discuss Security
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
 	 
Thursday June 15, 2006 5:16 PM

AP Photo MOSB107 

By JUDITH INGRAM 

Associated Press Writer 

MOSCOW (AP) - A top U.S. diplomat said Thursday that Moscow and
Washington are launching a regular dialogue on terrorism,
weapons of mass destruction, arms control and other security
issues - a signal that the two countries are seeking common
ground in an increasingly divisive relationship. 

``It's a bilateral strategic dialogue on a wide range of issues
that are important to both of us,'' Undersecretary of State
Robert Joseph said at the end of a one-day visit to Moscow. 

Joseph said he and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak had
set the groundwork for a permanent communications channel on
security issues. 

``This is a dialogue that both sides want basically to
re-establish,'' Joseph said in an interview with The Associated
Press. ``We've always continued to have discussions on these
issues, obviously, but to have a dedicated channel is, I think,
something that both countries would value.'' 

Joseph's visit came amid a chilly period in Russian-American
relations, with the Bush administration protesting what it said
was the Kremlin's backsliding on democracy and human rights and
Moscow complaining that Washington was dragging its feet over
World Trade Organization membership talks. 

Moscow has also objected to what it views as increasing U.S. and
NATO encroachment on former Soviet territory and, albeit in
veiled terms, Washington's alleged role in fomenting the
uprisings that brought long-entrenched regimes to an end in
Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. 

President Bush is expected to pay a working visit to Russia
ahead of next month's Group of Eight summit, which President
Vladimir Putin is hosting in St. Petersburg. 

Joseph's talks in Moscow focused on preparations for the summit
and touched on the Iranian nuclear crisis - another issue that
has caused tension between the U.S. and Russia, although both
nations are engaged in a joint effort to persuade Tehran to
resume its moratorium on uranium enrichment. Joseph said he had
reiterated Washington's opposition to planned Russian
conventional arms sales to Iran. 

``We have made clear and I made clear again the U.S. position
... that Russia should not sell arms to Iran and we have been
opposed and we've made this known publicly, for example, to the
sale of advanced air defense capabilities to Iran,'' Joseph
said. 

He suggested that continued Iranian intransigence could force
Russia to rethink its position on those sales. 

``I think that in the coming weeks we'll see what Iran's
decision is with regard to the very generous package that has
been presented,'' Joseph said, referring to the incentives
offered to Tehran last week to resume the moratorium. ``If it is
rejected ... then I think that there may be a significant change
that will have to be taken into account in how all nations deal
with Iran.'' 

He said Russia and China had sent a strong message to Iran to
stop its enrichment-related activities, and said both had helped
present a united front. But some diplomats have said that China,
Russia and possibly Germany might push to allow Iran some
tightly controlled and small-scale enrichment rather than see
talks founder, and Russia and China have balked at calling for
sanctions. 

Joseph skirted the question of whether the U.S. was satisfied
with the role Moscow has played in efforts to defuse the Iranian
crisis. 

``I'm satisfied with where we are today on this issue, in terms
of making this choice clear to Iran,'' he said. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 51 Guardian Unlimited: US seen as a bigger threat to peace than 
Iran, worldwide poll suggests
 
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor

Thursday June 15, 2006
The Guardian 		 

George Bush's six years in office have so damaged the image of 
the US that people worldwide see Washington as a bigger threat to 
world peace than Tehran, according to a global poll.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre, in a poll of 17,000 
people in 15 countries between March and May, found more people 
concerned about the US presence in Iraq than about Iran's alleged 
nuclear weapons ambitions.

The Pew Centre said: "Despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear 
ambitions, the US presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as 
Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to 
world peace."

The survey, carried out annually, shows a continued decline in 
support for the US since 1999. The US image for most of the 20th 
century has been relatively positive, being regularly identified 
with democracy, human rights and openness in spite of criticism 
from the left, which reached a height during the Vietnam war, and 
a residual suspicion in the Muslim world.

But even in the UK, Washington's closest ally, favourable ratings 
have slumped from 83% in 1999 to 56% this year. The pattern is 
similar in France, down from 62% to 39%, Germany 78% to 37%, and 
Spain 50% to 23%.

In Muslim countries with which the US has traditionally enjoyed a 
good relationship, such as Turkey - a member of Nato - and 
Indonesia, there have also been slumps. In Indonesia favourable 
ratings for the US have dropped from 75% to 30%, and in Turkey 
from 52% to 12%.

"It's all [because of] Iraq," Carroll Doherty, associate director 
of the Pew Centre, said. He added that it was a sign of how 
"dangerous Iraq is to the US image" that, in spite of common 
cause between the US and Europeans on Iran, there had been no 
improvement in the American position in Europe.

Mr Doherty said: "Short-term measures do have an effect. The
outpouring of US tsunami aid helped in Indonesia and India but
that faded quickly, and now we see US aid for Pakistan
earthquake victims only helping at the margins." Favourable
ratings of the US in India dropped over the year from 71% to 56%.

He said US domestic polling indicated that Americans were well
aware of how the country was perceived abroad. The US image has
become a political issue, with Republicans saying it doesn't
matter as long as the correct policies are being pursued
overseas, while Democrats argue that repairing the country's
image and relationships will be a priority for the next
president in 2009.

The poll provides little comfort for Condoleezza Rice, who has
worked hard at improving relations with Europe since becoming
Secretary of State last year.

As part of the overall decline in US support, the survey also
records a drop in support for the US-led "war on terror", even
in countries such as Spain, in spite of the Madrid bombings two
years ago by al-Qaida that left 192 dead. Support for the "war
on terror" dropped in Spain from 26% last year to 19% this year.

Throughout the period the poll was conducted the crisis over
Iran's nuclear programme, intensified by hardline comments from
its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was repeatedly in the news.
Iraq, too, has been in the news on an almost daily basis, with
the formation of a new Iraqi government being accompanied by
fears of a civil war.

Only in the US and Germany is Iran seen as a greater danger than
the US in Iraq. Public opinion in 12 of the other countries -
Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan,
Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, India and China - cite the US
presence in Iraq as being the greater danger. Opinion in Japan
was evenly divided.

As well as Iraq and Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
also high on the list of issues that present a danger to world
peace. Public opinion in about a third of the countries polled
put it at the top of their list of threats.

In the UK, the second biggest contributor of troops in Iraq, 60%
said the Iraq war had made the world more dangerous. Only 30%
said it had made the world safer, and 41% of British people said
the US presence in Iraq represented a great danger to world
peace, with 34% citing Iran as a big threat.

By contrast, concern about Iran has almost doubled in the US
over the past two years. Some 46% of Americans view Mr
Ahmadinejad's government as "a great danger" to stability in the
Middle East and world peace, up from 26% in 2003. The concern in
the US is shared in Germany, where 51% see Iran as a great
danger to world peace, against 18% three years ago.
 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
 		 		 		 	 	 		 		 		 	 	 		 	 	 		 	 	 	 		 	 	 	 		 		 		 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 52 NEWS.com.au: Scare for nuclear workers - NSW/ACT - 

Science Minister Julie Bishop was ambushed by Labor in federal 
Parliament yesterday over a separate incident on Wednesday 
involving a canister carrying radioactive material. 

"We know what this is about. This is about Labor trying to get 
the Lucas Heights reactor closed down," Ms Bishop said. "You are 
trying to close down a medical service for cancer sufferers 
across Australia." 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation 
confirmed last night that Ms Bishop had not been informed of the 
latest incidents when she attacked Labor over a "scare campaign". 

Just days after John Howard announced a feasability study into 
nuclear power, the safety scare sparked uproar in Parliament, 
with six Labor MPs expelled, including party deputy leader and 
science spokeswoman Jenny Macklin and Treasury spokesman Wayne 
Swan. 

But even the ALP was unaware that more safety scares were 
unfolding at Lucas Heights as Ms Bishop dodged questions over 
whether ANSTO had informed her of Wednesday's incident. 

"This is very unusual to have them all together," acting ANSTO 
executive director George Collins told The Australian. 

"It's again an incident we're not happy about but in all cases 
they represent no risk to the people involved. 

"Normally, we wouldn't report these, because they are not of 
significance. But because of the current climate we thought the 
best way was to say, 'to have the cluster is unfortunate'." 

Ms Macklin said Ms Bishop should ensure a full investigation is 
conducted. 

"The Australian public must be informed of these incidents and 
must know they will be fully investigated," the Opposition Deputy 
Leader said. 

"It's a serious matter that the minister knew nothing of these 
incidents - plainly, she needs to pay much closer attention to 
what's going on at these facilities." 

In both accidents yesterday, dose levels were significantly less 
than the amount ANSTO was obliged to report to the nuclear 
regulator. 

*****************************************************************
 53 AU: The Age: Nuclear worker receives radiation dose - 

www.theage.com.au

June 15, 2006 - 12:04PM

Four accidents have been reported at Sydney's Lucas Heights
nuclear reactor in a week in what authorities say is an
"extremely unusual" series of events.

A worker at Australia's only nuclear reactor received a low dose
of radiation on Wednesday, while two more "minor" incidents
occurred on Thursday, said the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

The accidents follow the escape of gases after the rupturing of
a pipe at the reactor on June 8, which disrupted the production
of isotopes used in medical scans.

News of the incidents comes just days after Prime Minister John
Howard announced an inquiry into nuclear power.

Labor questioned the government in federal parliament on
Thursday over Wednesday's accident at Lucas Heights, saying a
worker had ingested radioactive contamination from a canister.

ANSTO on Thursday night confirmed a worker received a low
radiation dose of iodine-123 while packaging
radiopharmaceuticals for patient use on Wednesday morning.

It said the dose was four per cent of the annual limit for
radiation workers and significantly less than a patient would
receive getting a nuclear medicine scan for thyroid cancer.

In a statement, ANSTO said the worker was examined and found to
have absorbed a small amount of radioactivity.

However the worker did not need treatment and continued work as
normal.

"While not common, incidents of this type are not unprecedented
and can occur in any production line process," ANSTO said.

However it admitted two more incidents had occurred on Thursday
involving radiopharmaceutical production workers.

"This is extremely unusual. Minor incidents of this nature
normally occur around once a month," ANSTO said.

In the first incident on Thursday, a worker burst a pack of
radioactive material which splashed into his eye.

The second involved a worker who dropped a small glass vial
containing a radiopharmaceutical.

In both cases, dose levels were significantly less than the
amount ANSTO was obliged to report to the nuclear regulator
ARPANSA.

"All these incidents will be thoroughly investigated and the
importance of safety underlined to staff," it said.

Science Minister Julie Bishop refused to confirm Wednesday's
incident when questioned in federal parliament.

Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said the worker
had ingested radioactive iodine 123 from a canister sent to
Lucas Heights from the National Medical Cyclotron at the Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney's Camperdown.

"In relation to this further incident, what investigation and
action has the minister ordered into the cyclotron in
Camperdown, the transport of radioactive materials through
Sydney, and at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor?" Mr Albanese
asked Ms Bishop.

Ms Bishop accused Labor of scaremongering and of wanting to shut
down Lucas Heights.

"We know what this is all about. This is all about Labor trying
to get the Lucas Heights reactor closed down," she said.

Three Labor MPs, including Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny
Macklin, were thrown out of parliament as Ms Bishop answered a
series of questions about Wednesday's incident, and the one on
June 8.

The June 8 event saw a pipe at the reactor rupture, venting a
small amount of gas into the atmosphere.

"I am advised that the puff of inert gas was harmless ... in
fact, the air quality on that side of the house is more toxic,"
Ms Bishop said, pointing at the Labor benches.

Lucas Heights was forced to temporarily shut down production,
and ration supplies of an isotope used for medical scans as a
result of the June 8 incident.

ANSTO spokeswoman Sharon Kelly said production of the isotope
used in many important diagnostic medical scans - Technetium-99m
- had been disrupted while an investigation into the mishap was
completed.

Major hospitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and
Brisbane on Thursday received supplies of molybdenum, a liquid
used in production of Technetium-99m.

However, most hospitals would only receive 55 per cent of their
normal weekly order, she said.

"It's now up to these clinics to prioritise which patients will
get their scans done first," Ms Kelly said.

The hospitals should have a full supply of the medical isotope
from June 26.

In the meantime, Lucas Heights has stepped up production of
another radiopharmaceutical, thallium, which can be used instead
of technetium-99 in some heart scans. 	

� 2006  AAP

*****************************************************************
 54 AU ABC: Labor alleges nuclear accident cover-up

ABC Sydney | Local News | Story 
June 2006. 13:31 (ACDT)Thursday, 15 June 2006. 10:31 (AWST)

New details: Labor says a leaked memo shows a worker was exposed
to radiation.Reuters 

The Federal Opposition says the Government has to tell the
public about the exact nature of an accident at Sydney's Lucas
Heights nuclear reactor. 

The accident has halted radio pharmaceutical production. 

A memo leaked to the Opposition revealed details that have not
been released publicly by the reactor's operator. 

According to the memo, the ruptured pipe led to a worker coming
into contact with a small amount of radiation that was washed
off. 

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation's
operations chief Ron Cameron says the worker has received no
internal radiation exposure. 

That contrasts with a media statement released on Friday which
said the worker was found not to have received any radiation
dose. 

It also said no measurable contamination dose was found outside
the area. 

The statement did not mention that a small amount of radioactive
gas was released into the atmosphere. 

The Science Minister, Julie Bishop, says the reactor's operator
reported the burst pipe, even though it was not classified as a
notifiable incident. 

"This is just deliberate scaremongering by Labor in relation to
a medical research reactor that delivers radioisotopes and radio
pharmaceuticals for cancer patients across Australia," she said. 

*****************************************************************
 55 Democrat & Chronicle: Support vets poisoned by uranium 

Essays
 	 	
Rochester DemocratandChronicle.com]

By James H. Barlow 


(June 15, 2006)  John DePersis, chairman of the New York
American Legion's New York state legislative committee, has
issued a memorandum in support of proposed state legislation to
assist soldiers returning from battle who may have been exposed
to radioactive "depleted" uranium used in weapons � or other
toxic materials. 

The bill would require the state Division of Veterans' Affairs
to help veterans who were exposed to hazardous chemicals during
combat to tap federal aid to finance medical services. Also
under the proposal, a task force would be set up to study the
effects of hazardous materials on soldiers and establish a
registry of veterans who may have been exposed to such materials
during the first Gulf War. 

Connecticut and Louisiana have already passed similar measures.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that 250,000
troops are disabled and 15,000 had early deaths from the Gulf
War of 1991. Vaccinations, oil well fires or exploded chemical
and biological agents may have been part of the cause. More
illness and deaths are being reported from the Iraqi invasion of
2003. 

One example: At age 22, Dustin Brim of Florida died in 2004 a
few months after serving in Iraq after a six-month battle with
what was eventually diagnosed as non-Hodgkins Diffuse large cell
B Type Lymphoma. 

Inhaled uranium dust also is the prime suspect in the civilian
illness, deaths and genetic damage to children in Bosnia-Kosovo,
Afghanistan, and in cases based on practice ranges in Puerto
Rico. 

What is even more troubling is that the Department of Energy has
admitted that depleted uranium stockpiles contain radioactive
waste from nuclear reactor cores and that traces of plutonium,
americium and neptunium are present in depleted uranium. 

To support our troops we need to know that the bill introduced
by Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D-N.Y., is A.9116.
State Sen. Thomas P. Morahan, a conservative Republican of New
York, followed with the introduction of S.6964. Readers should
let their state Assembly and Senate members know they stand with
the troops on these bills. 

Neither A.9116 nor S.6964 requires significant funding from New
York taxpayers. Voters also should know that neither the
Pentagon nor the V.A. offer adequate testing for uranium
contamination. 

Only the Uranium Medical Research Centre in Washington, D.C.,
under the direction of Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former U.S Army
colonel, is administering valid testing. 

Dr. Thomas Fasy of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, claims this
testing method is at least 2,000 times more sensitive than the
methods used by the U.S. Army and the V.A. 

Military families and uranium industry workers concerned about
health issues should first consult a physician. If they still
have unresolved questions about symptoms such as persistent
migraine headaches, night sweats, fatigue or unexplained
respiratory problems they can go to the Web site , where, under
"Analytical Services," they will find a "Preliminary Self
Assessment Questionnaire for Possible Uranium Contamination." If
many of the questions are answered in the affirmative, the
subject should then contact the Uranium Medical Research Centre
through the address on the Web site. 

Testing is time-consuming and refining the samples may take
months. It may cost between $900 and $1,100 in U.S. funds. Each
family has to raise that amount or fundraisers have to be
organized to assist them. 

Barlow, of Hilton, is a senior member, Society for Technical
Communications; and an organizer, Veterans for Peace. 


   GANNETT NEW YORK NETWORK:    �    �    �    �    �   
�    �   Copyright � 2006, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,
*****************************************************************
 56 AU ABC: Radioactive gas release no risk - ANSTO. 

15/06/2006. ABC News Online
 	
Update: Thursday, June 15, 2006. 5:46pm (AEST) 	 

Releases safe: ANSTO says the amount of radioactive gas released
is negligible. (Reuters)                

 
By Anna Salleh for Science Online 

The operator of Australia's only nuclear reactor has rejected
claims safety concerns have been raised by the release of
radioactive gases from its site after a pipe ruptured.

 The Federal Opposition says a leaked memo shows the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has withheld
details about an accident at the Lucas Heights facility in
Sydney last week.

 A pipe inside a "hot cell", which is used to produce medical
isotopes, ruptured last Thursday evening.

 Labor's spokeswoman for science and research, Jenny Macklin,
says she has obtained an internal email from ANSTO that contains
information not previously released by the organisation.

 The email says a small amount of radioactive gases - xenon and
krypton - have been released through the stack.

 However, ANSTO describes the incident as "trivial" although it
has informed the regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection
and Nuclear Safety Agency.

 ANSTO says small amounts of radioactive gases are routinely
released during radiopharmaceutical manufacture and reported to
the public via its annual environmental reports.

 It also says while the doses received by the public as a result
of those releases are so low as not to be directly measurable,
they can be calculated.

 ANSTO says the total maximum annual estimated dose to a member
of the public from those releases is only a very small fraction
of the radiation dose received by everyone each year from
naturally-occurring sources of radiation.

 "The releases which occurred last Thursday evening were not
outside the normal release pattern, were well within regulatory
limits and could not be detected off-site," a statement said.

Worker's radiation exposure

 The email obtained by Ms Macklin also says a worker involved in
the accident received a very small amount of contamination.

 The email says the radiation was quickly washed off and a whole
body monitor examination confirmed that he received no internal
radiation exposure.

 In a press statement released last week ANSTO said: "Only one
worker was in the vicinity of the incident, but after
examination he has been found not to have received any radiation
dose.

 "No measurable contamination was found outside the immediate
area where the incident occurred, and there are no off-site
consequences."

 The accident has disrupted production of radiopharmaceutical
technetium-99n, which is used in the scanning of bones and
organs.

Second incident

 The Opposition has also raised concerns about another suspected
incident at Lucas Heights.

 Labor's Anthony Albanese has questioned whether the Science
Minister, Julie Bishop, has ordered an investigation into an
incident in which a worker breathed in radioactive gas.

 "Has the Minister been briefed on a further incident at the
nuclear reactor at 11:00am yesterday," Mr Albanese said.

 "Can the Minister confirm that a canister carrying radioactive
material was received from the ANSTO cyclotron in Camperdown and
an apparent contamination on the outside of the canister
vaporised during processing at Lucas Heights."

 Ms Bishop did not confirm the incident, but accused Labor of
running a scare campaign about safety procedures at the reactor.

 "There are in place world standard practices for the Australian
Nuclear and Science and Technology Organisation, there is a
regulator in place." 

*****************************************************************
 57 KLASTV.com: Hearing Set For Divine Strake Lawsuit

News for Las Vegas, Nevada | 

A hearing is set for Friday, June 16 into the so-called "Divine
Strake" test. 

The Western Shoshone tribe and several downwinders for Utah
filed a suit against the government to stop the test. 

The government had planned to detonate a 700-pound non-nuclear
bomb at the Nevada Test Site to see if a bomb that size could
bust through underground bunkers like these. 

There were concerns that the test would kick up dust
contaminated by previous nuclear tests at the site. 

The government decided to delay the test indefinitely, but the
parties involved in the lawsuit to stop the test will still
discuss the issue Friday morning.   

  Opponents of 'Divine Strake' Celebrate

A huge test explosion was set to take place next month, 90 miles 
north of Las Vegas. But the project was pushed back and finally 
indefinitely postponed. Sunday, opponents celebrated. More>>
   
  'Divine Strake' Blast at Nevada Test Site Delayed Indefinitely 
The federal government has indefinitely postponed a planned 
explosion that was expected to generate a mushroom cloud over the 
Nevada desert. More>>
   
  Downwinders Gather 600 Signatures Against 'Divine Strake'
In two weeks, opponents of a planned explosives test in Nevada
have gathered 600 signatures in the area around St. George,
Utah, on petitions asking Utah's senators to help stop the test. 
More>>
   
  Adrian Arambulo, Reporter

Nevada Woman Takes on Operation Divine Strake

Plans for a massive experimental explosion at the Nevada test
site have been delayed. An energy department spokesperson says
the earliest that "Operation: Divine Strake" would take place
would be June 23.
More>>
   
  Shoshone Tribe, Downwinders File 'Divine Strake' Lawsuit
An Indian tribe and several nuclear fallout "downwinders" want a
federal court to halt plans for a huge non-nuclear blast that's
expected to generate a mushroom cloud over the Nevada desert. 

      All content � Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and KLAS. All
*****************************************************************
 58 Las Vegas SUN: State spent millions in legal fees 

Today: June 15, 2006 at 7:17:43 PDT 

By Cy Ryan <cy@lasvegassun.com> 

Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY - Nevada spends enormous sums of money for private
attorneys to handle legal matters for the state, government
officials said Wednesday. 

For example: 


+ A Virginia law firm has been paid up to $325 an hour by the
state to withdraw a contract that called for building a
controversial bridge south of Reno. 


+ The state has spent nearly $5 million in outside legal fees to
block the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain. 


+ A San Francisco law firm is earning more than $3 million to
handle lawsuits involving faulty construction on state
buildings. 

The state paid those legal bills despite having a staff of more
than 140 lawyers in the attorney general's office. 

Calling the amount of the contracts staggering, Senate Majority
Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, demanded better accountability.
"Someone needs to ride herd on these contracts," he told
Assistant Attorney General Randy Munn. 

The legal contracts were partly responsible for depletion of a
$3 million contingency fund available for unanticipated state
expenses. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee replenished
the fund Tuesday by adding $1.5 million to tide the state over
until the 2007 Legislature. 

The outside lawyers are needed, Munn told the finance committee,
to handle complex lawsuits "beyond the expertise of counsel on
staff." He also pointed out that there had been substantial
turnover in the attorney general's office. 

The biggest payout - about $5 million - has gone to outside
lawyers in the Yucca Mountain battle, for which the law firm of
Egan Fitzpatrick Malsch & Cynkar of Vienna, Va., is being paid
$430 to $485 per hour. 

Another seven-figure recipient of fees for outside legal work is
the San Francisco-based firm of Senn Meulemans, which has been
paid more than $3 million for handling various cases, including
the high-profile Las Vegas case involving developer Bill
Walters' attempt to convert his Royal Links Golf Club into a
residential community. 

Senn Meulemans, hired after Attorney General George Chanos
decided that his own land deal in Las Vegas posed a potential
conflict of interest, is being paid $265,000 . 

The firm, however, did not complete the inquiry by the deadline,
forcing the lawyers to get an extension last week from the state
Board of Examiners. That request drew an angry response from
Gov. Kenny Guinn, who told a representative of the firm that it
needed to quickly wrap up its investigation - and should not
expect any more money from the state. 

Senn Meulemans also received a $2.6 million contract ($250 per
hour) to defend the state Public Works Division in a suit by
Addison Inc., a construction company that was pulled off the job
during building of the state Veterans Home in Boulder City after
complaining about design deficiencies. Cy Ryan can be reached at
(775) 687-5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 59 Pasadena Star-News: Toxics found in well water 

  Article Launched: 06/15/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT  

Regional authority worries levels may rise

  By Patricia Jiayi Ho Staff Writer  

ALHAMBRA - Toxic chemical perchlorate has been detected in small
amounts in monitoring wells in the Alhambra Superfund site,
although water experts disagree on its significance. 

Because the levels fluctuate and have not been found in drinking
water samples so far, the federal Environmental Protection
Agency and the city water company are focusing on other
contaminants. 

But the regional water authority is more concerned. 

"Usually you get a hit, and usually over time it increases,"
said Gabriel Monares, director of resources for the San Gabriel
Valley Water Quality Authority. "It means there's a flow, and
it's starting to go that way." 

Perchlorate has not been found in wells that provide drinking
water when they were last tested in 2003, said Christine Montan,
the city's utilities director. Another test is planned for this
year, but is unscheduled. 

Perchlorate salts are used in rocket and missile propulsion, and
in the manufacture of road flares and fireworks. 

The chemical can affect the thyroid gland, causing developmental
problems in newborns and tumors in adults. 

Production wells are deeper than monitoring wells and can run
600 to 700 feet deep, Montan said. While monitoring wells are
designed to characterize underground contamination, they aren't
necessarily representative of water people are drinking, said
Lisa Hanusiak, U.S. EPA remedial project manager. 

"We intentionally install the wells where we think we are going
to detect contamination - in former industrial areas and
whatnot," she said. "Monitoring well data is more conservative
in measuring the highest levels of contamination." 

The EPA and city say focus should remain on cleanup of volatile
organic compounds, or VOCs, a major area contaminant. Driving
current investigations is the search for VOCs, specifically
those known as TCE, PCE and 1,2,3-TCP, Hanusiak said. 

The chemicals are commonly used as industrial solvents. The city
has awarded bids to construct a 7,000-gallon-per-minute facility
to treat those contaminants. 

However, the San Gabriel Water Quality Authority worries the
perchlorate problem could worsen, making cleanup more expensive
and complicated. 

"If perchlorate is there, it takes a $4 \ to $6 million project
and turns it into a $30 million dollar project," Monares said. 

According to recent EPA groundwater sampling, 2005 tests have
yielded results that are mostly at the non-detect level, but
range as high as 6.4 parts per billion and 7.1 parts per
billion. Though some controversy surrounds the level at which
perchlorate poses a threat, the state's public health goal is 6
ppb. 

Cleanup efforts for perchlorate are more costly than those for 
VOCs. Due to its chemical nature, it is difficult to treat. 

While VOCs can be removed from water with carbon beds, similar
to filters found in fish tanks, perchlorate removal requires an
ion-exchange process and more costly resin beds.The city water
company serves Alhambra's population of about 91,000. Eighty
percent of the water comes from groundwater, and the remainder
is from the Metropolitan Water District. 

In 1984, the EPA added areas of the San Gabriel Valley to the
Superfund list, a federal program to clean up hazardous waste
sites. 

Six divisions were created: Baldwin Park, El Monte, South El
Monte, Puente Valley, Whittier Narrows and what is called Area
3, a designation that includes Alhambra, San Gabriel, San
Marino, South Pasadena, Rosemead and Temple City. 

Area 3 was initially a low priority - contaminant levels were
and continue to be the lowest in the San Gabriel basin. 

The Baldwin Park, El Monte and South El Monte Superfund sites
have also had perchlorate hits. 

"That's the big bad word right now," said Bob Kuhn, San Gabriel
Basin Water Quality Authority board member. "That's what
everyone's afraid of." 

Large-scale production of perchlorate began in the 1940s. Though
its handling is regulated now, leaks and improper disposal took
place when rules were lax. 

It is believed that the perchlorate pollution is derived
primarily from defense and supporting industries. Ideally,
polluters are made responsible for cleanup. Otherwise, if no
state or federal funds are available, the burden will fall to
residents. 

No such parties have been identified yet in Alhambra, as the
city historically does not have such industries. 

"We're having a hard time finding out where it's coming from,"
Monares said, adding that funding any necessary cleanup becomes
trickier. "We need the state to step up and help us." 


(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4586

Copyright © 2006 Pasadena Star-News 
Los Angeles Newspaper Group     Feedback   
*****************************************************************
 60 TimesUnion.com: Funding shortfall alters soil cleanup

Army Corps of Engineers expects radioactive dirt excavated at 
former National Lead plant will have to remain on site until more 
money is found                                             
                               
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer                       
                      
First published: Thursday, June 15, 2006                                   

COLONIE -- The discovery this spring of more radioactive soil 
beneath a defunct Central Avenue munitions plant has created a 
funding gap that will force federal officials to keep the soil on 
site until money becomes available to ship it away.

The result is that a plan neighbors once fought, long-term 
storage of contaminated soil on site, likely will become reality 
at least until officials come up with more money.

The Army Corps of Engineers, the agency leading the cleanup of 
the former National Lead Industries plant, plans to meet with 
state environmental officials and other stakeholders Monday to 
brief them on a new plan, said James Moore, the project manager.

In part because neighbors opposed long-term storage of the
uranium-contaminated soil on the 11.2-acre site just west of the
Albany city line, the Army Corps amended the plan it had
inherited from the Department of Energy.

Instead, the corps opted to dig out more contaminated soil and
ship it west in rail cars to a disposal facility in Grand View,
Idaho -- a costly enterprise that accounts for more than
two-thirds of the project's yearly budget, Moore said.

This federal fiscal year, which lasts until the end of
September, the project received just more than $12 million,
Moore said.

But the project manager said he expects substantially less next
year, declining to elaborate on the amount.

The problem is this: Because the main cleanup was scheduled for
completion this year, corps officials had tentatively planned on
funding the program for a lesser amount for fiscal 2007. But the
discovery of a greater volume of contaminated soil upset that
timetable.

Now, excavation must continue to remove contaminated soil from
the remaining three acres, but that will not leave enough money
to ship the soil west, Moore said.

It is not even clear how much contamination remains because it
is difficult to measure that until crews begin digging on each
portion of the site, Moore said.

"We're going to receive funding to do work, but because we found
that extra soil, and so much soil, we don't have enough money to
send that soil away," Moore said.

Instead, Moore said the new plan is to keep digging while the
crews and equipment are on the site and create a temporary
storage pad on a part of the site that has already been cleaned
to store the dirt until more funds become available.

"We're so close, and you just don't know until you go out there
and put a shovel in the ground," Moore said. The new storage pad
would be covered and sealed.

The anticipated funding decrease could also delay the study of
groundwater on the site and cleanup of a much smaller
neighboring piece of land owned by freight rail company CSX
Transportation.

The project is just one of many in a program known as FUSRAP --
Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. The program was
established to help clean up land that had been polluted in the
United State's early nuclear research and is funded each year by
Congress in a lump sum as part of the Energy and Water
Development appropriations bill.

The Army Corps then decides how to divvy that money up. National
Lead Industries used the site between 1937 and 1984 for work
with several different kinds of radioactive metals, including
producing depleted uranium weapons.

Contamination spread throughout the neighborhood mostly through 
emissions from the smokestacks, and over the years some residents 
have blamed the pollution for cancer and other sickness.

Corps spokesman Gene Pawlik said the sites are funded based on a 
number of factors, including the amount and type of work 
remaining. Pawlik said it was too soon to discuss how much some 
sites might receive next year, especially because Congress has 
not yet passed a bill specifying funding for the program.

The House of Representatives has voted to give the program $130 
million, $10 million less than last year. The Senate has not yet 
voted on it.

Kimberly Chupa, a spokeswoman for the state Department of 
Environmental Conservation, said the agency was aware of the 
corps' situation. In an e-mail statement, Chupa said the DEC has 
"reached out to the state's congressional delegation to seek more 
funding" for Colonie and other sites.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the 
senator would oppose any cuts to the program. A message left at 
the office of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., was not 
returned. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green 
Island, also did not return a call for comment.

Town Supervisor Mary Brizzell said she did not recall being 
notified by the corps of this latest development. The town has an 
interest in seeing the site cleaned and back on the tax rolls as 
soon as possible.

Tom Ellis, an Albany resident who has been active in issues 
surrounding the National Lead cleanup for more than two decades, 
questioned the wisdom of delaying the project so near the end.

"I think it's sad and foolish for the federal government to cut 
the funding at this point," said Ellis.

                                                 
  All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital
Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

  All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital
Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

*****************************************************************
 61 News & Star: Sellafield team’s explosive trip to American plant
 						
Published on 15/06/2006

[Calder Hall: Cooling towers will be blown up later in year]                                                                   

By Andrea Thompson
 
MEMBERS of British Nuclear Group’s demolition team have been
to America to see the sort of explosion which will bring down 
four giant cooling towers at Sellafield later this year.
 
The team watched the demolition of a 499ft cooling tower on the 
Trojan nuclear site in Oregon.
 
It was carried out by Controlled Demolition Inc, the company 
contracted to bring down the four cooling towers at 
Sellafield’s old Calder Hall reactor later this year.
 
More than 2,900 holes were drilled into the 41,000-tonne 
structure, allowing nearly 3,000lbs of explosives to be packed 
into the concrete shell and supporting legs. 

Andy Scargill, decommissioning project superintendent; Dyan Foss, 
head of demolition; Andy North, Calder cooling tower project 
manager; and Mike Stevens, safety and environment risk 
management, were able to witness the final preparations for the 
demolition. 

Mr North said: “Although the final demolition was an
absolutely incredible sight, the purpose of the trip was to
gather information that will be useful in allowing us to execute
the demolition of the Calder Hall cooling towers with minimal
impact to the site and the local community.”
 
A spokesperson for BNG said: “Our aim is for the Calder Hall
cooling towers to be brought down by a process known as
explosive demolition using a carefully controlled number of
charges. 

“In preparing the preliminary safety report, we considered all
methods of demolition including piecemeal dismantlement and
high-reach excavators. 

“These were discounted due to the risk posed to workers
operating for sustained periods at height. 

“Explosive demolition is the standard method of demolition for
cooling towers based on worker safety and cost effectiveness. 

“During the last 30 years more than 200 cooling towers in the
UK have been demolished using this technique,” added the
spokesperson. 

“It’s a technique requiring that approximately 60 per cent
of the circumference of the tower shell and legs be removed by
explosive charges. 

“This causes the towers to tilt and collapse. 

“There is minimal impact on surrounding areas and the waste is
confined to a small area within approximately 10 metres of each
tower.”
 
AThompson@cngroup.co.uk
 
*****************************************************************
 62 Whitehaven News: Bechtel ‘will be able to bid for Sellafield
 		 		 		 		 		 	 	 	
Published on 15/06/2006
                                                                               
TOP MAN: Lawrie Haynes

THE chief executive of British Nuclear Group has said US 
multinational Bechtel will be able to bid for Sellafield. 

Lawrie Haynes has also said that BNG is not interested in the 
“furore” of lobbying over new nuclear reactors. 

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires last week, Mr Haynes 
said: “The decommissioning market is worth £70 billion today; 
the new-build market today is worth nothing.” 

He also said that BNG’s court case over last year’s 
radioactive leak at Thorp “won’t have any impact” on 
state-owned BNFL’s efforts to sell its nuclear operations arm, 
adding there was no reason why the Nuclear Installations 
Inspectorate’s legal action against BNG should slow or 
complicate the sale. 

The UK government announced the sale of BNG in March after the
NDA estimated the cost of decommissioning the UK’s aging
nuclear fleet had risen to £70 billion, and could rise further
still. The sale comes with a £5 billion, five-year contract to
manage Sellafield.
 
In February, BNFL sold Westinghouse, its US-based nuclear
construction unit, to Japan’s Toshiba Corp for $5.4 billion,
and Mr Haynes agreed the Government would want to replicate this
success. But he was confident the UK Treasury would “look at
the whole piece, not just the pounds and pence”. 

In looking for a buyer for BNG, Mr Haynes made a clear
distinction between two ideas of value. What he calls “Big
V” involves finding the “best organisation and marrying it
with British Nuclear Group”, which would ensure good career
prospects for staff and continued support for the West Cumbria
region. “Little v” is the price. 

“It is a possibility that the company with the best ‘Big
V’ won’t have the best ‘little v’,” he said. “My
view is – I think this is a common view with the NDA –
‘Big V’ is more important than ‘little v’. You don’t
mess around with Sellafield – we have to get the right
resources, the right people, the right management.” 

A separate team is reformulating the Sellafield contract to
reflect BNG’s shift from a government-owned entity to a
private body. “Pre-qualification is the hurdle that people
have to pass to get into the process proper,” Haynes said.
“If they don’t get past this, we don’t want them to bid,
full stop.” 

Some industry observers say US firms such as Fluor Corp and
Bechtel Group Inc stand the strongest chance of success, and Mr
Haynes has previously said their project management experience
and huge “bidding machines” would benefit his organisation. 

The benefits would also flow the other way, he felt, with BNG
bringing technical experience, brand value and a clutch of
contracts to the table. 

Mr Haynes dismissed the idea that going private would mean job
losses. 

As efficiency measures have kicked in, displaced staff are being
retrained and moved to different parts of the company, he added. 

“Flexibility is coming into the organisation. We’ve now got
a 25-year plan rather than a ‘close down and you leave’
plan.” 

*****************************************************************
 63 DNA: Nobel laureates urge US to shelve N-deal - 

Daily News &Analysis

WASHINGTON: Terming the Indo-US nuclear civilian nuclear
technology agreement as a ''formula for destroying American
nonproliferation goals,'' 37 Nobel laureates have urged the US
Congress not to approve the deal ''in its current form.'' 

''The recent nuclear agreement with India weakens the existing 
nonproliferation regime without providing an acceptable
substitute. Since nothing is more important to the US security
than blocking further proliferation and possible use of nuclear
weapons, the  lawmakers should withhold their seal of approval
until the deal can be rectified,'' they wrote in a letter,
supported by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). 

''While there are a hundred different areas in which the United
States and India could, and should, establish closer ties, this
nuclear agreement isn't it,'' the letter, released at a press 
conference here on Wednesday said. 

The laureates including Kenneth Joseph Arrow (Economics, 1972),
Paul Christian Lauterbur (Medicine, 2003), Alfred Goodman Gilman
 (Medicine, 1994), Roger Guillemin (Medicine, 1977) and Donald A
 Glaser (Physics, 1960) urged the lawmakers to vote against the
''enabling legislation'' currently pending before the Congress. 

They claimed the nuclear deal ''weakens the existing
nonproliferation regime without providing an acceptable
substitute'' and bilateral ad-hoc agreements such as the one
just announced with India undercut US and world security. 

''The Non-Proliferation Treaty -- the backbone of international
efforts to step the spread of nuclear weapon technology -- is 
crumbling and needs to be replaced with a new international
framework, one that reflects dramatic changes that have occurred
during the 30 years since the treaty was written,'' they wrote. 

"New agreements must preserve the many strengths of the current
treaty and increase international participation," they said in
the letter. 

The signatories, declaring that they ''strongly endorse actions
that can build stronger ties between India and the United States
in trade and research, said they believe "worldwide expansion of
civilian nuclear power has the potential to provide electricity
without increasing carbon emissions to the atmosphere". 

They noted that the rapid growth of civilian nuclear power will,
however, greatly increase both the amount of fissionable
material transported and stored worldwide, and the number of
nuclear fuel production facilities that can be used to build
nuclear weapons'. 		   	 

 2006 DILIGENT MEDIA CORPORATION LTD.
*****************************************************************
 64 KnoxNews: Science to get a power boost

Supercomputer set for an upgrade at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 
                                
June 15, 2006

OAK RIDGE - A new agreement with Cray Inc. will rapidly upgrade 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's "Jaguar" supercomputer, perhaps 
making it the world's fastest machine for open scientific uses by 
the end of this year. 

The $180 million contract also includes the delivery of an 
as-yet-unnamed supercomputer - capable of one "petaflop," or 
1,000 trillion calculations per second - by the end of 2008. 

"I'm on cloud nine," Thomas Zacharia, ORNL's scientific computing 
chief, said Wednesday. "From a laboratory perspective, we are 
very fortunate. This program is really coming to life." 

Zacharia said the contract with Cray was signed last week. The 
excitement is tempered only by the responsibility of bringing 
these awesome, groundbreaking machines to operation on a tight 
schedule and within the established scope and budget, he said. 

In 2004, the Oak Ridge laboratory was selected to head U.S. 
efforts to reclaim leadership in high-end scientific computing, 
and the venture with Cray is a big part of that program. 

ORNL has a stable of supercomputers in its National Center for 
Computational Sciences, and the leader of the pack is a Cray XT3, 
known as Jaguar. It currently is listed as the 10th fastest 
computer in the world, with a peak capability of 25 teraflops - 
or 25 trillion calculations per second. 

The Jaguar is used for scientific research on high-priority 
projects, from global climate change to nuclear fusion to complex 
biological structures. The new generation of computers allows 
scientists to attempt research projects and complex simulations 
that simply were impossible before. 

Within the next two months, the processors in the 
orange-and-white Jaguar cabinets will be doubled, pushing its 
peak capability up to 50 teraflops, Zacharia said. By the end of 
the calendar year, the supercomputer will be expanded, and the 
top end will reach 100 teraflops. 

In 2007, according to Zacharia, the number of processors will
again be doubled, with Jaguar's processing capability expected
to reach 250 teraflops, or 250 trillion calculations per second. 

The upgrades of Jaguar will lead ORNL into its next big
computing venture: a petaflop machine for scientific research. 

Zacharia said he believes the lab's contract with Cray is the
first ever to include the purchase of a petaflop machine. The
new supercomputer will have a superscalar architecture similar
to that of the Cray XT3, and it should be capable of being
upgraded to an "even much bigger system," he said. 

"Right now it's code-named 'Baker' by Cray," the associate lab
director said. It apparently will be manufactured as a Cray XT5,
he said. 

ORNL will give the computer a nickname, and Zacharia said lab
personnel are being asked to come up with nominations for the
milestone machine. 

Traditionally, the supercomputers have been named after speedy
animals, such as the jaguar and cheetah, but that could change
this time around, he said. 

"Petaflop is such a milestone," Zacharia said. "I think we want
to emphasize the scientific capability of this machine." 

Japan and European nations also are working on petascale 
computing projects, and the international competition is intense. 
ORNL is leading the U.S. government's effort in high-end 
scientific computing, although numerous other labs and 
institutions are supporting the endeavor. 

Zacharia said the computer advancements are complementing other 
big projects at ORNL, such as the Spallation Neutron Source, the 
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, and the U.S. 
headquarters for the International Thermonuclear Experimental 
Reactor. 

"There is so much scientific excitement at the laboratory," he 
said. 

Senior Writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.

� 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 65 The NewStandard: Energy Dept. Moves Forward With Livermore Biowar Lab - 

Associated Press                                                                                                                                                                  
							 								 									 								 								
Environmental Impact Natl Nuclear Security Administration                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
									 								 								
Testimony at hearing on plutonium reserves at Livermore 
 US House Armed Services Committee                                                               

Concern over Labs Plan to test Microbes 
 San Francisco Chronicle [ /] This News Report originally 
appeared in the June 15 editionof The NewStandard. Shreema Mehta 
is a contributing journalist.

by Shreema Mehta                                                                                                                                        
 	 	 		 		 		 		 			 				 			 		 			 			
June 15                                                                                                                                                                                 

Anti-nuclear groups and residents in California and New Mexico 
are accusing the federal government of starting construction on a 
controversial biodefense lab without fully assessing and 
publicizing its projected environmental impact. 

In a lawsuit brought to an appeals court in San Francisco on
Tuesday, the groups are demanding the Department of Energy (DoE)
expand its investigation into public-health threats they say the
agency’s project at the Livermore National National Laboratory
poses. 

The proposed lab, set to open in August, is a Biosafety Level 3
Facility, which is suited for working with airborne infectious
agents that can cause lethal diseases, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention definition. 

Activist groups Tri-Valley Cares and Nuclear Watch of New
Mexico, joined by California and New Mexico residents, argued in
a previous court briefing that the laboratory’s plans to
"aerosolize" bioagents would leave nearby residents in the
developed area vulnerable to exposure, especially in the event
of an earthquake. 

The activists also argued that adding the presence of bioagents
to a nuclear laboratory makes it more vulnerable to terrorist
attack. 

Circuit Chief Judge Mary Schroeder expressed concern about the
laboratory at Tuesday’s hearing. "What I find to be the most
troublesome thing is this is being built in a very highly
populated area," she said, according to the Contra Costa Times. 

The groups’ main legal linchpin is that the Department of
Energy did not release an environmental-impact statement, which
federal agencies must do before starting projects that could be
harmful to the public health. Such statements can take months to
complete. 

The Oakland office of the Department’s National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) filed its own environmental
assessment report of the project in December 2002. The NNSA
downplayed public-health risks in a statement released in
conjunction with the study. 

"Based on the analysis in the environmental assessment for the
proposed project," NNSA manager Camille Yuan-Soo Hoo said in a
statement, "NNSA has determined that no significant
environmental impacts are expected and the potential
consequences from routine operations would be minimal." The NNSA
manages the nation’s nuclear-weapons development programs on
behalf of the DoE. 

According to news reports, defense attorneys said the Department
considered the impact of catastrophes and determined no
significant dangers. 

But opponents of the lab said that given the area’s high
population and proximity to two fault lines, the Department
should have issued an environmental-impact statement. An EIS
would detail all harmful effects, natural resources used and
alternatives to the proposal, as well as require public
hearings. 

"As BSL-3 labs experimenting with aerosolized, highly contagious
and potentially deadly pathogens and toxins proliferate, the
risk of accidental releases of these poisons into the human
environment grows," they argued in a brief. 

One deadly pathogen that could be housed at the facility is
anthrax, which thousands of people could be exposed to if five
grams were accidentally released, according to Matthew McKinzie,
a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. McKinzie
calculated potential anthrax plumes in the event of a
catastrophe and provided written testimony during proceedings. 

Using the computer model Hazard Prediction and Assessment
Capability, McKenzie said that depending on wind direction, the
number of people exposed could be as low as 300 and as high as
128,000. McKinzie calculated that at a concentration in which a
person has a 2 percent chance of dying from exposure, the
dispersion could cause 6 to 2,500 deaths. 

The advocacy groups first sued the Energy Department in August
2003, calling for a halt on the construction of the lab. The US
District Court in Northern California sided with the DoE,
allowing the agency to begin construction of the laboratory. 

Legal controversies have not discouraged the University of
California, which operates the Livermore facility, from pursuing
the development of more biodefense labs. The public university
announced plans to bid on another "Bio Level 3-4 facility" that
would test even deadlier pathogens, according to a meeting of
the University Committee on Research Policy held in April. 			
			 			 		 	 		 	 	 	 	 	 		 			� 2006 The NewStandard. All
rights reserved. The NewStandard is a non-profit publisher that
*****************************************************************
 66 Tri-City Herald: Vit plant cost continues to climb 

Published Thursday, June 15th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

Hanford's vitrification plant potentially could cost as much as
$11.55 billion, according to Bechtel National's latest estimate,
a trade publication is reporting. 

The Department of Energy and Bechtel National, which is building
the huge plant to treat some of Hanford's worst radioactive
waste, both declined to confirm that number. 

However, the number is in line with Bechtel's estimate from
December, if an independent review's recommendations for
contingency costs and a reduced budget are factored in, said
John Britton, company spokesman. 

In December, Bechtel finished a 44,000-page report that
estimated the cost at $10.5 billion. However, that estimate was
based on a budget of $626 million being approved for building
the plant in fiscal year 2006. 

After Congress reduced the budget, leaving Bechtel just $490
million for construction of the plant, DOE requested that
Bechtel rework the estimate to figure the increased cost on the
final project after reducing spending this year. 

In the meantime, a team of independent experts reviewed
Bechtel's cost and schedule estimate and said it was solid. But
the team recommended more money be added to the schedule for
"unknown unknowns," or problems that come up that are not
predicted as even possibilities in the contract, to increase the
confidence level of the estimate to 80 percent. 

That would put the estimate at about $11.3 billion, the team
said in April. 

In May, Bechtel National told the Hanford Advisory Board that
when the updated preliminary estimate was completed at the end
of the month it would be somewhat higher than $11.3 billion. 

Bechtel National submitted the estimate to the Department of
Energy on May 31 and expects to turn in a summary report of it
today. DOE could release numbers as soon as next week. 

The trade publication Weapons Complex Monitor reported the
$11.55 billion estimate and a 2018 start to operations
Wednesday. The 2018 projected plant startup also was in the
independent team's April report. 

The plant's costs have increased from an estimated $5.8 billion
over the past 18 months because of technical and management
problems, including increased design standards to withstand a
severe earthquake, overly optimistic initial projections and
problems finding suppliers with nuclear quality experience. 

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is "looking to get an actual,
legitimate, defensible cost and schedule from which we can
effectively plan," said Megan Barnett, DOE spokeswoman in
Washington, D.C. 

Bechtel's new estimate will be verified by the Army Corps of
Engineers by mid- to late summer. 

� 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 67 Economist: Los Alamos National Laboratory | A good enough performance?

Economist.com 

Thursday June 15th 2006

America's most famous weapons laboratory is under new management
 
ON JULY 16th 1945 the skies of New Mexico lit up and a
thunderous roar whooshed across the desert. Los Alamos National
Laboratory has been living ever since on the reputation it won
from that history-changing event, the explosion of the first
atomic bomb. But smugness can breed complacency, and complacency
carelessness. In recent years the laboratory has been in the
news not for its successes but its failures. A series of
farcical events, ranging from secret data going missing (only to
be discovered behind a copying machine) to false charges of
espionage being laid against an American scientist of Chinese
descent, led the then director, Pete Nanos, to describe his
staff as cowboys and butt-heads, and to close the place down
for seven months in 2004, to try to clean things up. 	 	 	 	

The result is a change of management. At the beginning of June
the University of California, which had run Los Alamos since the
days of the Manhattan Project, ceded control to a consortium
known as Los Alamos National Security. Though the university
remains one of the consortium's members, it will now share what
bouquets and brickbats come Los Alamos's way with three firms
that make a lot of their money as military contractors. These
are Bechtel and Washington Group International, two large
engineering and construction companies, and BWX technologies, a
concern that specialises in managing nuclear facilities. 

Unlike the university, the new consortium will be aiming to make
a decent profit from its activities. It is also thought likely
to change the emphasis of the laboratory from research (in a
wide range of subjects, not all of them to do with defence, let
alone nuclear weapons), to the more mundane business of making
the detonators of nuclear warheads. 

The consortium is making reassuring noises. According to Jeff
Berger, its director of communications, There is a popular
misconception that we're out to change the lab's mission.
Nevertheless, many of Los Alamos's researchers sense a shift of
direction. Indeed, quite a few have left. That, though, is
hardly the point. The question is whether any change that does
come will serve America's national interest. 
Times they are a'changing
 

Los Alamos is one of three national nuclear-weapons laboratories
that sit in the American West under the watchful eye of the
Department of Energy. (The other two are Lawrence Livermore, in
California, and Sandia, which has establishments in both
California and New Mexico.) For years, weapons were their sole
mission. Then the cold war ended and they had to find other
things to do, as well. 

Part of this change was a logical extension of what they had
been up to in the past. Rather than producing new weapons and
conducting tests (which America stopped in 1992, even though it
has not ratified the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, which bans
such tests), they shifted their emphasis towards making sure
that the country's ageing warheads remained safe and usable.
Since they could no longer pluck warheads out of the arsenal at
random to test by letting them off, they ended up building huge
computing centres to process the complex virtual tests that
replaced the real thing. Having built these, it made sense to
use them for other things. That, in turn, led to the sort of
diversification that might be praised in a commercial
organisation where the main product was going out of fashion,
but risked looking suspiciously like job-justifying
mission-creep in a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy. 

All three laboratories did this. But only one of them found
itself in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. Since many
experts in the field have wondered noisily whether three weapons
labs is one too many, such poor publicity was not clever. 

Unfortunately for Los Alamos, some of its biggest critics are on
the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce. During a
hearing in May 2005, Congressman Bart Stupak chastised the
laboratory, the University of California and government
officials for years of mismanagement. Exasperated, he asked a
pair of obvious questions: Why do we have to have this place
any longer? and Is there any really unique science that can
only be done at Los Alamos and nowhere else? It is that last
point in particular that the new managers must address. 

Regardless of which way you look at it, a lot of good
off-mission science has been done at Los Alamos. Its
researchers have, for example, developed ways to handle what is
known as supercritical carbon dioxide. The result is an
environmentally friendly solventcertainly more environmentally
friendly than many of the noxious alternatives used for
industrial cleaning. The technology has been picked up by
businesses ranging from dry cleaners to semiconductor-makers to
cut back on the contaminants they produce. 

The laboratory's expertise in energy technology has also been
put to good use in research in the fashionable area of fuel
cells and into superconducting tape for electricity
transmission. This tape, which can carry 100 times as much
current as an equivalent chunk of copper wire, may eventually be
used to replace bulky transmission lines. And the futuristic
computer centre, which allows researchers to manipulate
graphical representations of nuclear data with their hands, as
if physically flipping through a book, may also be put through
its commercial paces. It is said to be the object of covetous
eyes at Disney. 

The laboratory's officials like to point out that its work on
safety has many possible uses. In its quest to study how
radioactive material might disperse, Los Alamos has concocted
models for the spread of everything from infectious diseases to
air pollution. City governments have tapped into the pollution
expertise, while researchers from other laboratories have
borrowed the epidemiological tricks to model the spread of AIDS. 

Perhaps, though, the best example of how Los Alamos's largesse
can help civilians is the Isotope Production Facility. This
research unit can churn out rare and expensive radioactive
isotopes for medical useparticularly in cancer therapy. Such a
facility, officials argue, could not be supported by the private
sector, because it would be too expensive. But given that Los
Alamos needs it anyway, it can be turned to medical work from
time to time. 

It is this sort of diversity that many of the laboratory's
scientists would like to keep. Others, however, have decided
which way the wind is blowing and left. 

Angel Garcia, a renowned biophysicist, has, for example, gone to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York state, where he
will continue to work on the crucial question of how proteins
fold into the right shapes to do their jobs properly. One of the
laboratory's best-known computer scientists, Wu-chun Feng, has
decamped to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Another, Erik
Hendriks, has left for Google. And an entire team working in the
burgeoning field of bioinformatics has formed a new laboratory
at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. 

The way that these and other researchers have been gobbled up by
the outside world suggests that Mr Stupak and the other
congressional critics have a point. Bioinformatics and
protein-folding theory are both crucial to the development of
biological understanding, but there is no reason to doubt that
the researchers will thrive in other institutions. Indeed, an
establishment doing highly classified work, with the security to
match, may not really be the right place for civilian
biologists, however distinguished they are. 

The computer scientists are a greater loss. In the absence of
real weapons tests, computing is at the core of the laboratory's
work. If the �bergeeks start leaving in numbers, that work will
get harder to do. 

On the other hand, from the scientists' point of view, this
exodus may prove far-sighted. For there may come a time when
even making the detonators of nuclear weapons might look like
part of a rosy future that never was. 
The lab-rats leave the sinking ship
 

At the moment, having closed the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado,
America relies on Los Alamos for the production of plutonium
pits, as these detonators are known. Most of today's American
nuclear warheads were made in the 1980s and have been
deteriorating slowly ever since. Hence the need for new
detonators. But Congress now wants to do more than just maintain
the existing arsenal. In 2005 it authorised what is known as the
Reliable Replacement Warhead Programme, to explore new ways of
making warheads like those in the existing stockpile, so that
they are safer, more reliable and less toxic. Los Alamos's
researchers are in competition with those at Lawrence Livermore
to come up with a design for these warheads. 

The Nuclear Weapons Council, composed of officials from the
Department of Defence and the Department of Energy, will decide
later this year which of the two laboratories' designs is the
winner. If the winning design actually gets built, and the
indications so far are that it will be, a further reorganisation
of the national laboratories would be almost inevitable. If Los
Alamos loses the reliable-warhead competition, it could find
itself in the humiliating position of being a sub-contractor
turning out the Livermore design. 

Despite the noises, a total shutdown is unlikely. Too many
sensitive jobsnot just those of the researchers, but of the
thousands of support staff at the laboratoryare at stake for
New Mexico's representatives in Congress to let the place close.
But the next year or two will see the old way of doing things
tested severely, as the new managers impose their will and that
of Congress. It may not be a test to destruction, but there will
be nothing virtual about it. It will be very real indeed. 

Los Alamos has a biography of Pete Nanos. Angel Garcia and
Wu-chun Feng (scroll down) have taken positions elsewhere. See
also Los Alamos National Security, Bechtel, Washington Group
International and BWX Technologies. 

Economist.com  | 

    
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