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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 IPS-English IRAN-NORTH KOREA-NUKE PROGRAMME: U.S. warnings
2 [NYTr] Chomsky: Negotiated Solution with Iran Within Reach
3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran accuses Washington of using nuclear 
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran seeks links with Venezuela
5 IRNA: Iran's diplomat condemns technological apartheid 
6 IRNA: Lankan foreign minister meets India PM
7 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Relative calm in nuclear issue 
8 AFP: Iran reiterates commitment to uranium enichment 
9 IRNA: Muslim scholars stress nuclear rights for all 
10 IRNA: Mottaki: No deadline defined
11 Guardian Unlimited: Developments North Korea Missile Story
12 Guardian Unlimited: Little Known About N. Korea's Intentions
13 AFP: US says North Korea will pay a 'cost' for missile launch -
14 AFP: China, SKorea under US pressure to take tougher line on NKorea 
15 AFP: US denies 'warning' NKorea about missile 
16 US: Update: Kyl CTBT amendment goes nowhere
17 Guardian Unlimited: Cost of arms insurance policy
18 Times of India: India refutes reports on nuclear weapons programme
19 Belfast Telegraph: MPs may be denied vote on Trident decision
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
20 US: NRC: Licensing Board to Hear Oral Arguments and Receive Public C
21 Sydney Morning Herald: States reject wind farm code proposal - 
22 HindustanTimes.com: N-deal | 'Strategic capacity won't be hit'
23 US: Star News: Trip to the Nuclear Plant Visitors Center is as good 
24 US: Chicago Sun-Times: Exelon must lose some power to gain energy 
25 US: St. Petersburg Times: Nuclear plant comes at a cost
26 US: The Day: Rally Will Tout Self-contained Cooling For Millstone  
27 AFP: Taiwan anti-nuke group to stage nude protest 
28 US: AFP: Cheney warns Congress against delaying Indian nuclear deal 
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
29 Guardian Unlimited: MPs 'should get nuclear vote'
30 London Times: Let’s have the nuclear debate
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
31 US: Stop radwaste disasters: call Senate Monday
32 US: [NukeNet] Stop radwaste disasters: call Senate Monday
33 US: 2theadvocate.com: River Bend’s nuclear waste in new home
34 US: RIA Novosti: Kyrgyzstan asks Eurasec, Russia for help with urani
35 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca bill stalls, at least for this session 
36 reviewjournal.com: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Rail line option studied 
37 US: NRC: Notice of Public Meeting for Fuel Cycle Facilities
38 Times & Star: BNG set to restart Thorp
39 NEWS.com.au: Nuke facility set for indigenous station - 
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
40 DOE: USDA and DOE Announce National Renewable Energy Conference for 
41 kgw.com: Workers may have been exposed to PCBs from Hanford transfor
42 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridg
43 lamonitor.com: Security bypass road still on drawing board 
44 Knox News: ORNL director going back to UT
45 Knox News: Oak Ridge retirees let DOE have it
46 KnoxNews: Nuclear storage estimate grows
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 1 IPS-English IRAN-NORTH KOREA-NUKE PROGRAMME: U.S. warnings
 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:43:05 -0700

<x-flowed>
IRAN-NORTH KOREA-NUKE PROGRAMME: U.S. warnings fall on deaf ears

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Emirates News Agency (WAM)

DUBAI, June 23 (WAM) - Acting as global super-cop, the U.S. administration
finds itself walking a tightrope between Iran and North Korea, a United
Arab Emirates (UAE) paper opined.

"In both cases it involves perception and trust. President George W. Bush
perceives both countries to be part of the 'axis of evil' and therefore
not worthy of trust," wrote the 'Gulf News' in its editorial.

    In its daily comment, the Dubai-based daily paper said: "The U.S.
believes Iran is on the point of producing nuclear weapons, despite
denials by Iran and no evidence to support the charge. North Korea, which
says it already possesses nuclear weapons although not proven is about to
test fire a new long-range missile, thereby increasing tension in an
already volatile region.

    "The U.S. has warned both nations not to be precipitous in their
actions or it may be forced to take action. Since it is obvious the U.S.
cannot invade North Korea to 'teach it a lesson' and sanctions would be
pointless as there is virtually nothing to sanction, North Korea accepts
the U.S. is merely bluffing," the paper added.

    At the same time, the paper noted, Iran, with oil prices on a high,
believes it has the upper hand and can keep the West waiting as it also is
unlikely to be invaded, sanctions are irrelevant and could stop exporting
oil in return.

    "Therefore, the U.S. is left shouting helplessly on the sidelines,
hoping someone will pay heed," concluded the paper. (WAM)
                     (WAM)

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 2 [NYTr] Chomsky: Negotiated Solution with Iran Within Reach
 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 07:35:23 -0400 (EDT)

X-Sender-Host-Address: 127.127.127.127
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Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l)

COA News - Jun 22, 2006
http://coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=1033

A negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis is within reach

By Noam Chomsky

The urgency of halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and moving
toward their elimination, could hardly be greater. Failure to do so is
almost certain to lead to grim consequences, even the end of biology's only
experiment with higher intelligence. As threatening as the crisis is, the
means exist to defuse it.

A near-meltdown seems to be imminent over Iran and its nuclear programmes.
Before 1979, when the Shah was in power, Washington strongly supported these
programmes. Today the standard claim is that Iran has no need for nuclear
power, and therefore must be pursuing a secret weapons programme. "For a
major oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of
resources," Henry Kissinger wrote in the Washington Post last year.

Thirty years ago, however, when Kissinger was secretary of state for
President Gerald Ford, he held that "introduction of nuclear power will both
provide for the growing needs of Iran's economy and free remaining oil
reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals".

Last year Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post asked Kissinger about his
reversal of opinion. Kissinger responded with his usual engaging frankness:
"They were an allied country."

In 1976 the Ford administration "endorsed Iranian plans to build a massive
nuclear energy industry, but also worked hard to complete a
multibillion-dollar deal that would have given Tehran control of large
quantities of plutonium and enriched uranium - the two pathways to a nuclear
bomb", Linzer wrote. The top planners of the Bush administration, who are
now denouncing these programmes, were then in key national security posts:
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.

Iranians are surely not as willing as the west to discard history to the
rubbish heap. They know that the United States, along with its allies, has
been tormenting Iranians for more than 50 years, ever since a US-UK military
coup overthrew the parliamentary government and installed the Shah, who
ruled with an iron hand until a popular uprising expelled him in 1979.

The Reagan administration then supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran,
providing him with military and other aid that helped him slaughter hundreds
of thousands of Iranians (along with Iraqi Kurds). Then came President
Clinton's harsh sanctions, followed by Bush's threats to attack Iran -
themselves a serious breach of the UN charter.

Last month the Bush administration conditionally agreed to join its European
allies in direct talks with Iran, but refused to withdraw the threat of
attack, rendering virtually meaningless any negotiations offer that comes,
in effect, at gunpoint. Recent history provides further reason for
scepticism about Washington's intentions.

In May 2003, according to Flynt Leverett, then a senior official in Bush's
National Security Council, the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami
proposed "an agenda for a diplomatic process that was intended to resolve on
a comprehensive basis all of the bilateral differences between the United
States and Iran".

Included were "weapons of mass destruction, a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the future of Lebanon's Hizbullah organisation
and cooperation with the UN nuclear safeguards agency", the Financial Times
reported last month. The Bush administration refused, and reprimanded the
Swiss diplomat who conveyed the offer.

A year later the European Union and Iran struck a bargain: Iran would
temporarily suspend uranium enrichment, and in return Europe would provide
assurances that the United States and Israel would not attack Iran. Under US
pressure, Europe backed off, and Iran renewed its enrichment processes.

Iran's nuclear programmes, as far as is known, fall within its rights under
article four of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which grants non-nuclear
states the right to produce fuel for nuclear energy. The Bush administration
argues that article four should be strengthened, and I think that makes
sense.

When the NPT came into force in 1970 there was a considerable gap between
producing fuel for energy and for nuclear weapons. But advances in
technology have narrowed the gap. However, any such revision of article four
would have to ensure unimpeded access for non-military use, in accord with
the initial NPT bargain between declared nuclear powers and the non-nuclear
states.

In 2003 a reasonable proposal to this end was put forward by Mohamed
ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency: that all
production and processing of weapon-usable material be under international
control, with "assurance that legitimate would-be users could get their
supplies". That should be the first step, he proposed, toward fully
implementing the 1993 UN resolution for a fissile material cutoff treaty (or
Fissban).

ElBaradei's proposal has to date been accepted by only one state, to my
knowledge: Iran, in February, in an interview with Ali Larijani, Iran's
chief nuclear negotiator. The Bush administration rejects a verifiable
Fissban - and stands nearly alone. In November 2004 the UN committee on
disarmament voted in favour of a verifiable Fissban. The vote was 147 to one
(United States), with two abstentions: Israel and Britain. Last year a vote
in the full general assembly was 179 to two, Israel and Britain again
abstaining. The United States was joined by Palau.

There are ways to mitigate and probably end these crises. The first is to
call off the very credible US and Israeli threats that virtually urge Iran
to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent.

A second step would be to join the rest of the world in accepting a
verifiable Fissban treaty, as well as ElBaradei's proposal, or something
similar.

A third step would be to live up to article six of the NPT, which obligates
the nuclear states to take "good-faith" efforts to eliminate nuclear
weapons, a binding legal obligation, as the world court determined. None of
the nuclear states has lived up to that obligation, but the United States is
far in the lead in violating it.

Even steps in these directions would mitigate the upcoming crisis with Iran.
Above all, it is important to heed the words of Mohamed ElBaradei: "There is
no military solution to this situation. It is inconceivable. The only
durable solution is a negotiated solution." And it is within reach.


[Noam Chomsky's new book is Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the
Assault on Democracy; he is professor of linguistics and philosophy at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.]
       
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*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran accuses Washington of using nuclear 
issue as an excuse to topple government
 
Simon Tisdall, Ewen MacAskill, Robert Tait Tehran

Friday June 23, 2006
The Guardian 		 

The US is determined to topple Iran's Islamic government whether
or not the crisis over the country's nuclear activities is
resolved, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said
yesterday. 

US enmity towards Iran was entrenched, Mr Larijani told the
Guardian. "The nuclear issue is just a pretext. If it was not
the nuclear matter, they would have come up with something
else." 

The compromise package offered by the west on Iran's nuclear
activities amounted to a "sermon", he said, rejecting outright
President George Bush's demands this week that Iran suspend all
uranium enrichment. 
			 		 			 			Article continues
"If they want to put this prerequisite, why are we negotiating at 
all? Mr Bush is like a mathematician. When the equation becomes 
very difficult to work out, he likes to wipe it out altogether 
... the pressure they are putting on us is reason enough for us 
to be suspicious." Mr Larijani's remarks represented his most 
negative assessment since the west's package was presented on 
June 6, suggesting a quick resolution was unlikely. Diplomats say 
Iran has been given a de facto deadline of the G8 summit in St 
Petersburg in mid-July for a formal response. 

But Mr Larijani said Iran would present extensive and detailed
counter-proposals only when it was ready to do so, although
committees of experts were "working round the clock". A debate
is underway inside the government with hardline ayatollahs
calling for outright rejection of the west's ideas and some
officials stressing their positive aspects. 

Mr Larijani, former deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards,
is the most influential political figure in the country after
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and answers directly to the
Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. As chairman of the Supreme
National Security Council, he oversees security and defence
strategy. 

Mr Larijani said American policies in the Middle East, from Iraq
to Palestine, were deeply destabilising and had complicated
efforts to cut a deal. "If they continue on the same path, the
price of oil will skyrocket and it will strengthen our resolve.
They want to set fire to the region. The American strategy is to
use force to secure their interests." 

He also blamed Israel for many of the region's problems. "I
think those people advising the CIA are the Zionists. They are
pushing [the Americans] into this quagmire of war." 

He denied reports that Iran was planning to block oil export
routes through the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf,
if it was attacked or if UN sanctions were imposed. But he
warned that if hostile action was taken through the UN security
council, Iran would "reconsider its relationship" with the
International Atomic Energy Agency. That could spell an end to
already limited UN inspections of the nuclear plants at Natanz
and Isfahan.

Mr Larijani said he was in constant contact by telephone with
the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, contrasting Iran's
dialogue with the Europeans with a lack of contact with the Bush
administration. But he offered to talk to the White House if US
policies changed."We should put aside the [US] sanctions and
give up all this talk about regime change. 

"This is what we are looking for ... if the Americans change
their behaviour in the region and change their strategy, I
assure you that talking over the phone will not be a serious
problem." 

He was critical of US attempts to promote democracy inside Iran.

"They said they wanted to turn Iraq into a beacon of democracy.
And out of that whole venture came Abu Ghraib and atrocities
that were committed there on a daily basis ... the Palestinians
chose a Hamas government. Why are they so hostile towards them?" 

The $70m earmarked by the Bush administration to aid propaganda
efforts inside Iran was an insult, he said. "I think that money
is very little, to be honest," he said with a wry smile. "The
minimum acceptable amount should be $70bn so the citizens of
this country would at least get something out of it." 

Mr Larijani declined to discuss the specifics of Iran's coming
counter-proposals. "But suffice it to say [the west's package]
has a lot of ambiguous points. These ambiguities persist from
the beginning to the end of the package. 

"On many of the points, we do not know how they intend to go
about them. The package is more like a statement. If we are
going to get agreement, we do not need a sermon." 

Mr Larijani said there was no doubt that security guarantees
were badly needed as part of any deal - "but not what they have
talked about. They should not try to repackage their needs as
incentives and offer that to us as a concession". 

But he reiterated Iran's insistence that, despite western
suspicions to the contrary, it has no wish to acquire a nuclear
weapons capability. "We are not trying to construct the bomb. We
don't want the bomb. The Americans know this. And Mr [John]
Negroponte [the US intelligence tsar] announced some time ago
that that Iranians don't have the bomb and wouldn't be able to
make the bomb, even if they wanted to, for more than 10 years." 

He strongly objected to the west's perceived double standards in
objecting to limited nuclear-related "research and development"
by Iran while acquiescing in Israel's and India's nuclear
weapons programmes.
 
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran seeks links with Venezuela
 
Ewen MacAskill and Simon Tisdall in Tehran
Friday June 23, 2006
The Guardian 		 

[The former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami (l) and his
Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez sign agreements in Caracas
in 2005. Photogarph: Andrew Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images] 
 

 Iran is pursuing increased political and economic cooperation
with Venezuela and Sudan as part of a series of calculated
foreign policy moves that looks certain to exacerbate an already
tense stand-off with the Bush administration.
Faced by growing pressure from the US, Britain and other
European countries over its nuclear activities, Tehran is
anxious to win international support for its position.
High-level meetings have been held in recent weeks with Russia,
China and numerous Arab and Muslim states.
 			 		 			 			Article continues
"We have intensified our diplomatic activity to explain the 
situation to other countries," Hamid-Reza Asefi, the Iranian 
foreign ministry spokesman, told the Guardian.

But Iranian cooperation and investment in Venezuela, which is
led by George Bush's tormentor-in-chief, President Hugo Chávez,
and new business ventures with Sudan, where the US has said
genocide is taking place, may be viewed as a bridge too far in
Washington. It regards all three countries as "rogue" states.
"Our relationship with Venezuela has improved a lot," Mr Asefi
said. "We have good cooperation in construction, oil and gas,
and in infrastructure projects. Our people are busy there making
houses, roads, dams and in transport."

There were about 100 Iranians working in Venezuela, Mr Asefi
said, providing "know-how and knowledge". Both countries are
significant oil producers and members of Opec. Iranian officials
have estimated that actual and planned investment in Venezuela
could ultimately total $9bn (£5bn).

Mohsen Shaterzadeh, deputy industries and mines minister, said
this week that the two countries had finalised an agreement to
build a giant car plant in Venezuela. Iran will have a 51% stake
in the project.

Tractors are another of Iran's strengths. Mohsen Khadem
Arab-Baghi, who heads the Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company,
said the company is expected to make up to 30,000 tractors by
March 2007. Though its products are exported to 30 countries,
"our greatest target market is Venezuela, which accounts for
$85m of our tractor exports," he said.

The US slapped trade sanctions on Venezuela two months ago,
including a ban on the sale of spare parts for F-111 fighter
jets. In retaliation Mr Chávez threatened to sell the planes to
other countries, including Iran. Mr Asefi said Iran has "no
plans" to buy the aircraft.

In an apparent provocation aimed at Washington, Mr Chávez has
also proposed collaboration on nuclear energy research with
Iran. Mr Asefi said the two countries were cooperating on
scientific research in medicine and agriculture but not in the
nuclear field. The US believes Iran is trying to develop nuclear
weapons, a charge it denies.

Iran's relations with Sudan took a significant step forward on
Wednesday when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met the Sudanese
government's special envoy, General Salah Abdullah Mohammad, and
minister for international cooperation, Saleh Hudeib Al-Tijani,
in Tehran.

Mr Ahmadinejad said: "Tehran and Khartoum should enhance their
current trade volume." He added that Iranians had "always
supported Muslim and oppressed peoples in the world". It was not
known whether the discussions covered the crisis in Darfur,
where tens of thousands have died, or the Sudanese government's
recent refusal to allow UN peacekeepers into the area.

Already close relations between Iran and Syria have also been
upgraded following a visit to Damascus by Manouchehr Mottaki,
Iran's foreign minister. Defence ministers from the two
countries agreed last week to increase military cooperation.

"Iran and Syria can be good role models for all Muslim
countries," said Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, Iran's defence
minister. "Both countries believe there is no need for foreign
troops in the region." He said Iran would continue its research
into missile technology and new missile systems.
 
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 5 IRNA: Iran's diplomat condemns technological apartheid 

Vienna, June 23, IRNA

Iran-Nuclear-Policy 

An Iranian diplomat said on Thursday developing countries are
moving towards destroying technological apartheid.

 Delivering a speech among party members and scholars of
Austria, Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi
said Iran is trying to access advanced technologies including
the local nuclear know-how.

 Referring to reliance of Iran to its local capability, Vaeedi
said Iranian officials do not expect the US and the Europeans to
help Iranians' access nuclear technology.

 Vaeedi recalled Iran's international commitments towards its
nuclear program, saying it has fulfilled its cooperation beyond
its legal commitments to remove ambiguities and concerns of the
International community.

 "Iran's efforts to join disarmament treaties particularly
weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is a sign that
its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes," he said.

 Pointing to Iran's increasing cooperation with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, he said according to the
latest report of the AEA Secretary General Mohamed Elbaradei the
activities are not weapon-grade.

 Vaeedi further said Iran insists on its right to access
peaceful nuclear technology within the framework of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and will not abandon it.

 "We welcome any solution to remove ambiguities about possible
diversions in the uranium enrichment process in Iran," he
reiterated.

 he said Iran stressed continuation of nuclear negotiations,
adding any measure by the United Nations Security Council means
the end of negotiations.

*****************************************************************
 6 IRNA: Lankan foreign minister meets India PM

New Delhi, June 23, IRNA

India-Lanka-Samaraweera 

Visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera met
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here late Thursday.

 Samaraweera assured Singh that despite the grave provocations
and violations by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
Colombo was observing the Cease Fire Agreement and reaffirmed
that the Sri Lankan Government was committed to a negotiated
political solution to the ethnic problem.

 Samaraweera, who held an hour-long meeting with the Prime
Minister apprised Singh the latest political situation as well
as the progress in the peace process.

 He said several developments had taken place after his last
visit to New Delhi in May, which "regrettably have not been
conducive to the peace process."

 These developments included refusal of the LTTE to participate
in the discussion with the government in Oslo this month at the
initiative of Norway, which is facilitating the talks and the
intensified violence targeting innocent civilians.

 He said President Mahinda Rajapakse has reaffirmed the
government's commitment to a negotiated political solution based
on democracy and human rights that meets the aspirations of all
communities in Sri Lanka and will preserve the territorial
integrity of the country.

 At the same time, the government will continue to take all
measures necessary to protect the security of the people and the
country.

 The Sri Lankan Minister also discussed with the Prime Minister
the current progress in the All Party Conference, including the
appointment of a multi-ethnic committee of experts to develop
the legal provisions, for the realization of President
Rajapakse's vision of a negotiated political solution based on
maximum devolution of power in an undivided Sri Lanka.

 He also briefed the Indian leadership on the ongoing
developments work in the North and East to which a substantial
amount of government and donor funds have been committed.

 The Indian authorities appreciated the visit of Samaraweera,
which enabled continued consultations involving the highest
levels of leadership in India and in Sri Lanka.


*****************************************************************
 7 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Relative calm in nuclear issue 

  2006/06/23   
  
Tehran's Friday Prayers Leader Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in his
first sermon said he will choose the country's 20-years
Prespective Document as the theme of his future sermons in the
weeks to come.
 
Speaking to thousands of worshippers, Hashemi stated the
significant features of the Document as being arisen from
society's needs, being based on religious ideals and domestic
potentials, focousing on priorities and needs and eliminating
threats in the country's foreign policy.
 
The second sermon was devoted to the current political
developments. 

Concerning IRI's nuclear program, Rafsanjani said that the issue
experiences a relative calm at present, calling for further
rationality in the talks. 

"We should pave the way towards real resolving of the nuclear
issue through negotiations and avoid complicating an easy
handling situation," the prayers leader said. 

"The negotiators must rebuild confidence," he urged.
 
Referring to drug trafficking as the current century's
devastating disaster, the Prayers Leader said that the colonial
powers across the world are backing drug smuggling and using it
as a device to inpose pressures on the Muslim and
underdeveloping count ries.
 
"Having had occupied Afghanistan, the Americans could stop drug
trafficking, however, it has arisen by several times in
comparison to the pre-occupation period," Hashemi Rafsanjani
lamented. 

F/K   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: <font color="#ff0000" face>Webmaster@IRIBNEWS.ir</font> 
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Iran reiterates commitment to uranium enichment 

 Fri Jun 23, 8:16 AM ET 
		 	 
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran " /> Iranhas said that suspending uranium 
enrichment will be neither a pre-condition for talks with world 
powers on its suspect nuclear activities nor an outcome of those 
discussions. 

"Iran considers that suspension is neither a pre-condition to
nor the result of negotiations," Javad Vaidi, deputy secretary
of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told AFP on Friday.
 
The five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany have
offered Iran a package of incentives if it agrees to temporarily
halt uranium enrichment.
 
That work is at the centre of fears the hardline regime could
acquire nuclear weapons, though Tehran insists it is only to
provide fuel for nuclear energy.
 
Vaidi was speaking by telephone from Vienna, where he said
Thursday night that having nuclear weapons "would go against the
national interest of Iran's security."
 
At a meeting organised by Austria's far-right Freedom Party, he
said that if Iran owned nuclear weapons the United States would
gather the country's neighbours "under a military umbrella"
against Tehran, according to the APA news agency.
 
That would give Israel
" /> Israela pretext to back weapons of mass destruction, he
said.
 
Diplomats have said Iran was asked to reply by June 29 to the
offer of incentives, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said Wednesday Tehran would take until August 22 to answer.
 
Vaidi said the conditional offer contained "fundamental
uncertainties".
 
"Everything depends on the formula: to know who is ready for
what and when to guarantee Iran's right to continue developing
peaceful nuclear technology," he said, rejecting any possible
ultimatum from the United States.
 
Vienna's Jewish community protested Thursday against Iran's
participation in the meeting.
 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously called
for Israel to be "wiped off the map", said in China last week
there needed to be an independent investigation into the
Holocaust.
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 9 IRNA: Muslim scholars stress nuclear rights for all 

Kuala Lumpur, June 23, IRNA

Scholars-Muslims-Nuclear 

Muslim scholars from 53 countries supported the rights of Muslim
nations in accessing peaceful nuclear technology.

 In the final statement of the two-day Second International
Conference of Islamic Scholars in Indonesian capital Jakarta,
320 Muslim scholars stressed the undeniable and inalienable
right of all countries including Muslim nations in using nuclear
power for research and development and other peaceful purposes.

 They presented 37 proposals in the areas of globalization,
regional conflicts, economic development, poverty eradication,
educational promotion and social development.

 Muslim scholars called for unity among Muslims and creating
civil organizations in line with participation in economic and
social affairs for observing the rights of Muslim communities.

 They also demanded establishment an independent financial
system for furthering cooperation among Muslim countries
worldwide.

 The conference ended Thursday.


*****************************************************************
 10 IRNA: Mottaki: No deadline defined

Rome, June 23, IRNA

Iran-5+1 Group-Deadline 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said nobody should define a
deadline for Iran to reply to the recent proposals of the 5+1
Group, adding US President George Bush cannot and should not
haste.

 In an interview with Italy's La Republica published on
Thursday, Mottaki added no deadline was defined when the
proposals package was offered to Tehran.

 He said the only commitment of Iran was not to reveal the
content of proposals until the start of the real negotiations.

 "We fulfilled our promise and did not reveal the content of
proposals. We believe a new round of shuttle diplomacy has been
started," he added.

 Mottaki said Iranian high-ranking officials including President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and top negotiator Ali Larijani have
prepared themselves for making a "serious decision."
 "Our judgment on the proposals package is positive," he said.

 Asked about Bush's statement on the deadline, Mottaki said, "We
need a logical time to make our decision and Bush should clarify
that under what basis he says it is late or soon for Iran to
reply." Meanwhile, French Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters Thursday that Iran has some
weeks not months to reply to the proposals of the 5+1 Group.

 "The offer of the six powers to Iran is a good proposal. We
call on Iran to respond positively. In our minds, it's a matter
of weeks and not months," Mattei said.

 President Ahmadinejad earlier on Wednesday set August 22 for
replying Iran to the proposals.

 The 5+1 Group presented its proposals package to Iran on June 6.

*****************************************************************
 11 Guardian Unlimited: Developments North Korea Missile Story
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday June 23, 2006 7:31 PM
 	
By The Associated Press 

Developments Friday in the global reaction to a possible
long-range missile launch by North Korea: 

- Japan and the United States agree to expand cooperation on a
ballistic missile defense shield. Japan's Foreign Ministry says
the agreement commits the countries to jointly produce
interceptor missiles. 

- Japanese officials say a high-resolution radar that can detect
incoming missiles has been deployed at a base in northern Japan. 

- South Korea says its foreign minister wants to visit China
next week to discuss concerns about the possible missile launch. 

- The head of the Pentagon's missile defense program says he is
confident interceptor rockets would hit and destroy a long-range
North Korean missile if President Bush gave the order to attack
one headed for U.S. territory. 

- South Korea says it is pushing for a summit in September
between President Bush and President Roh Moo-hyun. 

- Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix warns that North
Korea represents the most urgent threat to global nuclear
security. 

- U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow says a
missile launch would further isolate North Korea. 

- U.S. forces wrap up their largest military exercise in the
Pacific since the Vietnam War, which they say shows their
ability to muster massive force in the region.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 12 Guardian Unlimited: Little Known About N. Korea's Intentions
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday June 23, 2006 7:46 PM
 	
AP Photo AKAG101 
By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer 

TOKYO (AP) - The global jitters over suspected North Korean
preparation to test a ballistic missile have underscored how
little the world knows about Pyongyang's intentions, its missile
capabilities or even what kind of rocket fuel it uses. 

The United States has insisted since last week that, at the very
least, intelligence is fairly certain the reclusive communist
regime has taken steps to ready a launch of a long-range
missile, most likely a Taepodong-2 with an estimated range of up
to 9,300 miles. 

Beyond that, it's all guess work. 

A key question has been whether the North Koreans have completed
the crucial step of fueling the missile, which analysts would
consider a significant sign Pyongyang is serious about a launch. 

Some experts say the fueling question is especially pertinent
because certain fuels could quickly corrode the inside of the
missile, meaning the North Koreans would have to launch it
within a fixed period or risk damaging it. 

Others, however, say Pyongyang has plenty of time. 

``The fuel can corrode the components in the missile, but that
would take months not days,'' said Duncan Lennox, editor of
Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems. ``We don't know precisely what
fuel they're using.'' 

Amid such unanswered questions, many are looking at North
Korea's past launches for clues about how the current crisis
will unfold. 

Pyongyang tested the Nodong 1, with a range of about 620 miles,
in 1993. Five years later, it shocked the world by firing the
more advanced Taepodong-1 missile over Japan into the Pacific
Ocean. 

Narushige Michishita, senior research fellow at Japan's National
Institute for Defense Studies, said the North Koreans this time
could test either a two- or a three-stage rocket. It could
either be a satellite-launch vehicle or an offensive missile. 

While an SLV would have technical downsides for Pyongyang, it
would at least give the North Koreans cover for the rationale
they offered in 1998: that the effort is part of a peaceful
program. 

``The upside is that they can exercise plausible deniability by
saying, `We are not testing a missile, we are simply launching a
satellite,''' Michishita said. 

The range of North Korea's missiles are crucial - especially for
the United States, which is concerned about whether Pyongyang
has the capacity to hit Alaska, Hawaii or even the West Coast
with a weapon. 

Analysts are all over the map on ranges. Jane's, for example,
issued a report last year saying the Taepodong-2's maximum range
was probably about 3,700 miles, but a Russian report said it was
about 5,600 miles, and an American report suggested 6,200 miles.

Other reports have quoted U.S. officials as saying the
116-foot-long missile has a firing range of 9,300 miles. 

Even further beyond the reach of certainty is the question of
whether North Korea can make a nuclear warhead - if it has
nuclear weapons at all - small enough to fit on the tip of its
rockets. 

The Japanese have publicly said they doubt it. 

``At this point, we have encountered no information that
indicates North Korea has the technology,'' Senior Vice Foreign
Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said this week. 

But Robert Dujarric, a North Korea expert in Tokyo, said the
United States by 1953 was able to develop a bomb small enough to
fit in a cannon bay - only eight years after exploding its first
atomic weapon. 

The disparity in opinion about the state of North Korea's
missile program is testament to the country's considerable
penchant for secrecy and deception. 

Much of the regime's technological work is done underground. And
when North Korea feels the eyes of the world are peering too
closely, it simply shuts the door: International Atomic Energy
Agency inspectors, for instance, were thrown out of the country
in 2002. 

One key to figuring out what North Korea will do is accurately
gauging its intentions - another highly speculative game. 

The general assumption is that Pyongyang is pushing for direct
talks with the United States, and North Korean officials this
week have suggested as much. But how far are they willing to go?

And do they really think a missile test will achieve that goal? 
Miscalculation by Pyongyang is another variable. 

``The danger in the current predicament is that North Korea may
misjudge or underestimate the resolve/intentions of the Bush
administration,'' John Swenson-Wright, an expert on North Korea
at the London-based Chatham House think tank, wrote in an e-mail
response to questions. 

Some analysts don't hold out much hope for accurately measuring
North Korea's capabilities until they are demonstrated
verifiably. 

Dujarric, for instance, said that in the absence of outside
inspections, conclusive proof that Pyongyang has a nuclear
weapon can only come when the regime explodes one. 

``If you want to know if they have a functioning nuclear device
that can be put on a missile, which is the real question, you'll
know it when they fire a missile and there's a mushroom cloud
wherever it lands,'' he said. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 13 AFP: US says North Korea will pay a 'cost' for missile launch -
     
 by Jim Mannion Fri Jun 23, 3:21 AM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said that North Korea " /> 
North Koreawould have to pay a "cost" if it launched a long range 
missile but Vice President Dick Cheney " /> Dick Cheneyrebuffed a 
call for a pre-emptive attack on the Asian state. 

Defense officials said the United States was ready to use its
missile defense system if necessary against any threatening
launch.
 
"If such a launch takes place, we would seek to impose some cost
on North Korea," Peter Rodman, US assistant secretary of defense
for international security affairs, told a Congress committee.
 
A North Korean missile test "would be a provocation and a
dangerous action which would have to have some consequences." He
told lawmakers "there would be a reaction, and it would be a
mistake for North Korea to do it."
 
Later in the day a US warship, with unprecedented operational
support from a Japanese destroyer, successfully shot down a mock
warhead 160 kilometers (100 miles) above the Pacific near Hawaii
in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the Pentagon
" /> Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said.
 
While the agency said the test was planned long before
Pyongyang's apparent planned missile launch, it underscored the
tensions in the ongoing crisis.
 
South Korea
" /> South Korea's Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said in Seoul
that he did not believe a missile operation was imminent, but
North Korea has received new warnings against making a launch.
 
North Korea's ambassador to Moscow, Pak Ui Chun, was summoned to
the Russian foreign ministry and warned that firing a missile
would threaten regional stability, the ministry said in a
statement.
 
Preparations for the launch of a multi-stage Taepodong-2 with a
range of up to 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) have been underway
for several weeks at Musudanri on the remote northeast coast of
North Korea. US reports have said a launch was imminent.
 
North Korea in 1998 fired a long-range Taepodong-1 over Japan
into the Pacific Ocean and last year said it would no longer
keep to a moratorium on launches.
 
Stephen Hadley
" /> Stephen Hadley, the US national security adviser, said
President George W. Bush
" /> President George W. Bushwanted to solve the crisis
diplomatically and called on North Korea to stick to the
moratorium.
 
Hadley, travelling with Bush in Hungary, warned that a missile
launch would be "disruptive" to stalled six-nation talks aimed
at convincing the North to drop its nuclear weapons ambitions.
North Korea has boycotted the talks since November.
 
US Vice President Dick Cheney said however that North Korea's
missile capability was not state-of-the-art. He also said a
diplomatic settlement should be pursued.
 
In a Washington Post opinion piece Thursday, ex-defense
secretary William Perry and Ashton Carter, another former
defense official, called for an ultimatum for North Korea to put
away the missile or face a US missile strike to destroy it.
 
"Intervening before mortal threats to US security can develop is
surely a prudent policy," they said.
 
But Cheney told CNN in an interview, "I think, at this stage, we
are addressing the issue in the proper fashion."
 
He added: "And I think, obviously, if you're going to launch a
strike at another nation, you'd better be prepared to not just
fire one shot."
 
At the same time, Cheney said that "North Korean missile
capabilities are fairly rudimentary" and that "their test
flights in the past haven't been notably successful. 

A senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the US military would use any capability it has
if a missile is launched at the United States. 

However, he said the US missile defense system would not
necessarily be used if a missile launched by North Korea was
headed into open ocean. 

His comments were the clearest official indication yet that the
United States has activated its missile defense system which has
been developed at a cost of tens of billions of dollars since
the 1980s.
					 						Recommend It: 						Not at All 						Somewhat
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 14 AFP: China, SKorea under US pressure to take tougher line on NKorea -
     
 by Lim Chang-Won Fri Jun 23, 3:49 AM ET 
		 	 
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea " /> South Koreaand China were urged to 
take a tougher line on North Korea " /> North Koreawhen 
Washington warned that Pyongyang would pay a price if it launched 
a ballistic missile. 

South Korea said that North Korea was not bluffing and appeared 
to be seriously planning a missile launch after US Vice President 
Dick Cheney " /> Dick Cheneyresisted calls for a pre-emptive 
attack on the isolated state.
 
A top US defense official said, however, that Pyongyang would
have to pay a price if it went ahead with the launch.
 
"If such a launch takes place, we would seek to impose some cost
on North Korea," Peter Rodman, US assistant secretary of defense
for international security affairs, said in Washington.
 
A top South Korean official said preparations to test-fire a
Taepodong-2 missile with a range of up to 6,700 kilometers
(4,200 miles) appeared to be genuine.
 
Unification Minister Lee Jong-Seok, the minister responsible for
handling North Korean relations, said Pyongyang appeared to have
made a tactical miscalculation, thinking that it could use a
missile launch to force a change in US hardline policy towards
the regime over the nuclear standoff.
 
The United States and North Korea have been locked in a tense
dispute over Pyongthan's nuclear ambitions for almost four years.
 
"The United States will not make a compromise even if North
Korea fires a missile," he said in parliament.
 
China and South Korea came under fire from outgoing US Deputy
Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
" /> Robert Zoellick, who blamed their soft line on North Korea
for the stalemate in efforts to end the standoff over
Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
 
South Korea, in line with its policy of engagement with the
Stalinist state, has been slow to criticize North Korea and has
frequently urged Washington to compromise. China has also called
for US flexibility towards Pyongyang.
 
Zoellick, in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, said
six-party talks were unlikely to succeed without a change of
heart in Beijing and Seoul.
 
"The South Koreans can't just see their role as offering
concessions every time the North Koreans engage in bad
behaviour," he said.
 
"China is going to have to also recognise the risks of
maintaining the current status quo," he added, and said China
must exert more pressure on North Korea to drop its illegal
activities.
 
Six-party talks between the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, the
United States and China stalled in November when North Korea
said it would boycott talks until the United States lifted
economic sanctions.
 
International condemnation of North Korea has been steadily
growing. China issued a statement Thursday expressing concern
and saying it would make "constructive efforts" for regional
peace and stability while Russia warned North Korea against a
missile test.
 
Washington has said that it is pursuing peaceful diplomacy in
handling the nuclear standoff and Vice President Cheney rejected
recommendations from a former defense minister for a pre-emptive
strike against the missile silo.
 
In a Washington Post opinion piece Thursday, ex-defense
secretary William Perry and Ashton Carter, another former
defense official, called for an ultimatum for North Korea to put
away the missile or face a US missile strike to destroy it.
 
"Intervening before mortal threats to US security can develop is
surely a prudent policy," they said. 
But Cheney told CNN in an interview, "I think, at this stage, we
are addressing the issue in the proper fashion." 
He added: "And I think, obviously, if you're going to launch a
strike at another nation, you'd better be prepared to not just
fire one shot." 
At the same time, Cheney said that "North Korean missile
capabilities are fairly rudimentary" and that "their test
flights in the past haven't been notably successful.
 	 		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 15 AFP: US denies 'warning' NKorea about missile 

 Fri Jun 23, 1:54 PM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House denied that the United States 
or its allies had issued "warnings" to North Korea " /> North 
Koreanot to fire a missile thought to be able to reach the United 
States. 

Spokesman Tony Snow's comments came amid an apparent effort by US 
officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney " /> Dick Cheney, 
to downplay the possible threat posed by the North Korean 
missile.
 
"If you listen to comments made in recent days by the government 
of Japan, the government of China, the government of South Korea 
" /> South Koreaand the Russians, also, they've all said to the 
North Koreans, 'you shouldn't fire a missile,'" spokesman Tony 
Snow told reporters.
 
"That is not a warning, that is a piece of advice," he said. "And 
the United States has said all along, we have not issued 
warnings, what we have said is it would not be constructive."
 
Japan has said it will "take severe action in discussion with
the United States" if the missile is launched, while the United
States has said it will "seek to impose some cost on North
Korea."
 
Preparations for the launch of a multi-stage Taepodong-2 with a
range of up to 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) have been underway
for several weeks at Musudanri on the remote northeast coast of
North Korea. US reports have said a launch is imminent.
 
"This is not the United States versus North Korea," said Snow,
who urged North Korea to return to six-country talks aimed at
ending the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
 
The problem, Snow said, is that North Korea is "not a
transparent society. So the idea that somehow we know what's
going on in the minds of Kim Jong Il or others; we don't. And
it's one of those things."
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 16 Update: Kyl CTBT amendment goes nowhere
 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:11:10 -0700

<x-flowed>
Hi, peace and environmental advocates:

This follows the action alert I circulated a few days ago. The UPDATE and
GOOD NEWS -- Senator Kyl's amendment, which would have encouraged the
President to "unsign" the CTBT, was dropped after cloture. The amendment
was deemed not germane.

THANK YOU to everyone who made phone calls and alerted your Senators to
Kyl's bad amendment.

KEEP ON...
Peace,
Marylia

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit us
there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 17 Guardian Unlimited: Cost of arms insurance policy
 
Michael White
Friday June 23, 2006

The Guardian             

Yesterday was quite like old times for nuclear cold warriors and
their ban-the-bomb counterparts as they unpicked Gordon Brown's
commitment to upgrading Britain's nuclear deterrent and dusted
off half-forgotten jargon about warheads and throw-weights.

In vain did defence minister Adam Ingram insist that no
decisions have been taken "in principle or detail" to renew or
replace the Barrow-built Trident submarine fleet, its US D5
missiles or the Aldermaston-designed warheads they can hurl
4,500 miles. Leftwing MPs can sense that Brown and Tony Blair
intend to go ahead. They are right.
 			 		 			 			Article continues
Much work has been done since Labour ministers
intervened to preserve Aldermaston's expertise four years ago.
But technical and cost issues remain to be resolved: exactly
what sort of platform (ie vessel), which mix of warheads, large
or small. Generals and some civilian officials will moan that
the MoD budget is already carrying the Eurofighter, Type 45
destroyers and two promised aircraft carriers, all costly and
controversial.

But the real issue when the Soviet threat is long gone is: why?

To which the dominant view in the defence establishment will
reply, as the debate unfolds, is that the cost and strategic
case is finely balanced, but that in the end it is an ethical
insurance policy against the unknown. They cannot be sure what
rogue nuclear states and their clients may do. Britain wants to
remain at the top table with global military reach.

Nor does Whitehall or Washington want France, deeply mistrusted
by the US since 1945, to be Europe's sole nuclear power. If
France upgrades its (larger) system, so must Britain, they say.

Ministers insist they have scaled down the deterrent, 48
warheads per boat (no longer 96), and that an upgrade will not
breach non-proliferation treaty pledges. But it will certainly
corrode the spirit.

How much does Labour care? Not as much as it did when the bomb
had totemic significance. Clare Short may have declared she will
no longer back Brown for leader, but only Jeremy Corbyn and
Harry Cohen turned up in the Commons to challenge Ingram from
the unilateralist left yesterday. If a vote were granted,
ministers would win with Tory support. Brown has always believed
in the deterrent, friends confirm. But the significance of his
Mansion House statement-of-the-pretty-obvious was meant to be
prime ministerial.

"It won't affect the succession. Gordon was appealing to
patriotic middle Britain," said one young apparatchik. "As an
issue the bomb is too retro." Insurance is not.
 
Have your say
Email your comments for publication to:
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 18 Times of India: India refutes reports on nuclear weapons programme

[ Friday, June 23, 2006 11:30:40 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: India on Friday refuted media reports that India had
the capability to make about 50 nuclear warheads every year, a
claim made by a retired intelligence official. 

The MEA spokesperson said there was a lot of "uninformed
speculation" about India's nuclear programme. 

"The argument that the nuclear deal with the US would enhance
our strategic capacity is as misplaced as its opposite extreme
— that it would cripple our programme. 

We believe that US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice has
accurately summed up the situation in her Congressional
testimony when she has noted that the nuclear deal would have no
impact on our strategic programme. India remains committed to a
credible minimum deterrent," he said. 

The MEA response comes days ahead of a new report by a US
think-tank, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which
says: "India is currently separating far less weapons grade
plutonium annually than it has the capability to produce." 

The evidence, says the new report by Ashley Tellis to be
released on Monday, suggests that the government of India is in
no hurry to build the biggest nuclear stockpile it could
construct based on material factors alone. 

This report will also come out as the India nuclear deal gets
ready for a mark-up vote in the US Congress. Tellis' study is a
response to the most serious criticism by opponents of the deal
that it would enable India to rapidly expand its nuclear
arsenal. 

"This criticism rests upon two crucial assumptions: that New
Delhi in fact seeks the largest nuclear weapons inventory its
capacity and resources permit; and, the Indian desire for a
larger nuclear arsenal has been stymied thus far by a shortage
of natural uranium." 

The MEA also took exception to US Senator Tom Lantos' remarks
about the US-India nuclear deal and its passage. 

Responding to questions, the spokesperson added: "We have been
negotiating the deal with the US administration on the premise
that it is an agreement about civil nuclear energy cooperation
on the basis of mutual benefit."       
    
Copyright ©2006Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 19 Belfast Telegraph: MPs may be denied vote on Trident decision

By Andrew Grice 23 June 2006 	

The Government may replace Britains Trident nuclear weapons
system without offering MPs a vote on the project. 

Downing Street said there would be a proper debate on whether
to renew the independent nuclear deterrent but stopped short of
granting demands by 93 Labour MPs for a full-scale parliamentary
vote on the scheme. 

Gordon Brown, who announced his personal support on Wednesday
for replacing Trident, wants to restore trust in politics by
boosting Parliaments powers  for example, by guaranteeing MPs
a vote before the nation goes to war. 

The Chancellor believes MPs could be persuaded to support a new
nuclear weapons system but accepts that a final decision will
have to be taken by the Cabinet, with Tony Blair and the Commons
Leader, Jack Straw, in the lead. Some ministers fear that
allowing a vote would turn into a procedural nightmare with
attempts by opponents to wreck the project. They might also need
to rely on the support of Tory MPs to win the vote. 

Mr Straw echoed No 10s line by declining to promise a vote. He
told the Commons there would be a White Paper on Trident
followed by a parliamentary debate in a form which shows proper
respect for this House. 

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary and a likely
candidate for deputy Labour leader when John Prescott stands
down, backed the Chancellor. He said: As Gordon Brown has said
it is absolutely right that we make the right long-term
decisions for our national security, including retaining our
independent nuclear deterrent. It is important that the detail
of how we implement this manifesto commitment should be the
subject of full debate in the party and in Parliament. 

Whatever the decision on a vote, Labour MPs fear they will be
presented with a fait accompli by the time they discuss the
issue. The Commons debate is expected early next year  after
the Cabinet makes a decision in principle. Ministers insisted
they had to give a lead, with the different options ranging
from £10bn to £25bn. 

Mr Browns surprise move provoked a furious reaction from Labour
opponents of updating Britains nuclear deterrent. His friends
were relaxed about that, hoping that it would reassure voters
that he would not position himself to the left of Mr Blair if,
as expected, he succeeds him as Prime Minister. 

Critics said that the Chancellors intervention could reduce his
level of support in the Labour leadership contest, although he
is still likely to crush a left-wing rival running on an
anti-Trident ticket. 

Clare Short, a former cabinet minister, said: It means a lot of
people who were happy to see Brown take over as leader will now
think theres got to be a contest and were not willing to
support him. I wont support him. I mean this is outrageous,
unless he changes his mind. 

John McDonnell, who chairs the left-wing Campaign Group of MPs,
said: The whole tenor of the Chancellors speech is a slap in
the face for the Labour and trade union movement. Gordon has
laid down a clear marker for the approach he intends to take to
the leadership of the party. It is a worrying sign that he is
prepared to ignore the strong feelings of Labour Party members
and trade unionists on this and other key issues of concern. 	 
           
© 2006 Independent News and Media (NI) 
*****************************************************************
 20 NRC: Licensing Board to Hear Oral Arguments and Receive Public Comment in Pilgrim
License Renewal Proceeding

News Release - Region I - 2006-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY 
COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, 
King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. I-06-038                          
June 23, 2006 CONTACT:     Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. 
Sheehan (610) 337-5331                     E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov  
  
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an independent judicial
arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will hear oral
arguments in the Pilgrim nuclear power plant license renewal
proceeding on July 6 and 7, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

The oral arguments are scheduled to be heard at the Radisson
Plymouth Harbor Hotel, 180 Water Street, in Plymouth. Oral
arguments will begin at 9:30 a.m. on July 6 and adjourn at 5:00.
If necessary, it will continue the next day beginning at 9:00
a..m. The sessions will be open for public observation.
 
The Board will also receive comments from interested members of
the public, known as limited appearance statements, in a session
on July 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the same location. Speakers
will be allotted approximately 5 minutes each for their
statements.
 
Anyone wishing to submit a written limited appearance statement
may do so by email to both hearingdocket@nrc.govand amy@nrc.gov.
Or by mail to the following addresses: Office of the Secretary,
Attn. Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff, Mail Stop: O-16C1,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001;
and Administrative Judge Ann Marshall Young, Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board Panel, Mail Stop: T-3F23, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
 
Requests for a hearing and petitions to intervene were submitted
by Pilgrim Watch and the Massachusetts Attorney General on May
25 and 26 respectively. The Board will hear oral arguments on
the admissibility of the issues raised in these filings and
whether an evidentiary hearing should be granted on them.
 Entergy submitted its application for a 20-year license renewal
for Pilgrim on January 25. The plants NRC license is due to
expire on June 8, 2012. Documents related to the license renewal
application are available on the NRCs web site at:
www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/pil
grim.html. 

Documents in the Licensing Board proceeding are available in the
NRCs online document library at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html.
   



  


 	Last revised Friday, June 23, 2006 	
*****************************************************************
 21 Sydney Morning Herald: States reject wind farm code proposal - 

www.smh.com.au

June 23, 2006 - 6:40PM
 	 	
State and territory governments have rejected a proposal for a
national code for wind farms claiming it would just add more red
tape.
 
A meeting of environment ministers (EPHC) in Sydney voted
against the federal government's call for a National Code for
Wind Energy Installations.
 
"A national wind farm code would just be more red tape to hold
up wind farms, to hold up the sort of clean, green energy that
we need in Australia," Victorian Environment Minister John
Thwaites said after the conference.
 
"What we don't need is a whole lot of bureaucratic red tape
imposed by the commonwealth which will strangle our wind farms
and lead to a reduction in that clean, green energy."
 
He said the states were "absolutely comfortable" with
communities voicing their opposition to wind farms.
 
"We encourage communities to express their support or opposition
to the particular proposal," Mr Thwaites said.
 
He said there was an "independent system to consider and assess
proposals" within the state system.
 
"And that's the appropriate way to go," Mr Thwaites said.
 
Mr Thwaites said it was ironic the proposal's rejection
coincided with the federal government's push for nuclear energy.
 
"The lack of support for wind farms from the Howard government
is coming at the same time that they seem to be supporting
nuclear energy," he said.
 
"We want to facilitate wind farms. We want to ensure the we can
get clean green energy, not nuclear power plants, in states that
don't want them."
 
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell denied the government
was trying to block wind farms with red tape.
 
"We are pro-wind energy, we are pro-renewable energy," he said.
 
"The reality is that the Australian government has supported,
through direct investment and through cross subsidies, a boost
in Australia's wind turbine numbers from 20 up to 600."
 
He said what the industry needed was a consistent approach to
the planning and an approvals process for wind farms that
involved local communities.
 
Senator Campbell said he would be convening a national round
table with the wind energy industry, local governments and local
communities to "progress work on a code".
 
The minister also accused the states of having an "ideological
bent against nuclear".
 
He said if Australia was going to address the world's energy
security needs and greenhouse gas consequences, all forms of
energy must be considered.
 
But he said it was important a national nuclear inquiry be held
before people jumped to conclusions.
 	
© 2006 	AAP

Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
 22 HindustanTimes.com: N-deal | 'Strategic capacity won't be hit'

  Deal with US won’t hurt nuke capacity: India

United News of India

New Delhi, June 23, 2006
   
India on Friday rubbished as "misplaced" reports that the
nuclear deal with the US would enhance or cripple its strategic
programme and reaffirmed its commitment to a Minimum Credible
Deterrent.

Describing as 'misplaced' media reports that the nuclear deal
with the US would enhance or cripple India's strategic capacity,
an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said, in response to a
question, that it must be remembered that the nuclear agreement
was about Civilian Nuclear Energy cooperation and not the
strategic programme.

"We have seen this report in question. Unfortunately, there has
been a considerable amount of misinformed speculation about our
nuclear programme. First of all, you must remember that our
nuclear deal with the US is about civilian nuclear energy
cooperation and not about our strategic programme," he said.

The spokesman said the issues touched upon in this report had
all been covered by the Nuclear Separation Plan, which had been
tabled in Parliament.

"It is clear and unambiguous, just as the July 18 Joint
Statement is. There is no room for misinterpretation. The
argument that the nuclear deal with the US would enhance
strategic capacity is as misplaced as its opposite extreme--that
it would cripple our programme," he said.

The spokesman said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had
accurately summed up the situation in her Congressional
testimony when she noted that the nuclear deal would have no
impact on India's strategic programme.

"India remains committed to a credible minimum deterrent," the
spokesman added.   
    
*****************************************************************
 23 Star News: Trip to the Nuclear Plant Visitors Center is as good as a
workout 

| StarNewsOnline.com | Star-News | Wilmington, NC

 Published June 22. 2006 

By Amanda Greene Staff Writers amanda.greene@starnewsonline.com

At the Brunswick Nuclear Plant, the energy is in the reactor.

At the Brunswick Nuclear Plant Visitor Center, the energy is in
you.

You see, nuclear plant officials don't much like you pushing
buttons. That must be the reason why only a few of the
push-button exhibits, which are supposed to provide interactive
fun and learning at the push of a button, work at the quaint
Progress Energy center, nestled in the pines off U.S. 87, before
you get to Southport.

But that doesn't mean you won't learn something if you visit.
You just have to work a little harder for the knowledge -
reading, peddling a tandem bicycle to fire a television, turning
a wheel to measure the radioactivity of certain objects or
working a hand-powered flashlight.

All this to teach you the building blocks of nuclear energy.

After all, you're never going to learn how a nuclear reactor
uses steam to turn turbines, which generates energy that gets
converted and sent out over power lines, while sitting in the
center's "Mini Theatre." It's closed for renovations.

Better stick to the written explanations on the walls.

Being women of certain child-bearing ages, we can't deny we had
nervous thoughts before visiting, even though we weren't all
that close to the actual nuclear plant.

Thoughts of giving birth to a three-legged child someday danced
through our heads.

But we must note that the flowers around the center looked quite
healthy, and it's actually quite safe for families to come there.

The center worked hard to make sure visitors were comfortable
with the idea of radiation. After all, radiation is everywhere.
In the air, in our bodies. A glow-in-the-dark watch is more
radioactive than Oak Island sand, according to one exhibit.

The center includes an example of a nuclear fuel pellet incased
in plastic on the wall.

Is that thing real, we wondered? Could someone steal the
dime-sized black pellet and make a bomb?

Well, it's not real uranium. It's just a simulated pellet. But
one of the real pellets produces the same amount of energy as
one ton of coal, 126 gallons of oil and can create enough heat
to operate a 1,500 square foot house for two months.

The further we went into the exhibit, the safer we felt.

After all, the plant has 58 million pounds of reinforcing steel,
enough to make 77 billion paper clips and enough to contain any
radioactive accident and protect the reactor from hurricanes or
other disasters.

In 2005, the plant produced 1,878 megawatts.

But the coolest part of the center were two tandem bicycles (one
of which was out of order) where we peddle-powered a hair dryer,
a TV, a florescent and UV light, and a fan.

The TV was the biggest challenge. We could barely get good
reception, peddling as fast as our little legs would go!

(True confession: Laura was better at making the TV buzz than
Amanda.)

At the end of our efforts to create electricity at the visitors
center, we were winded, but pleased to have gotten a hardy
workout.

Amanda Greene: 343-2365

amanda.greene@starnewsonline.com 


*****************************************************************
 24 Chicago Sun-Times: Exelon must lose some power to gain energy 


June 23, 2006

BY TINA SEELEY AND JIM POLSON 

Exelon Corp. will have to sell six power plants in Pennsylvania
and New Jersey to complete its $16.6 billion takeover of Public
Service Enterprise Group Inc., the U.S. Justice Department said.

 Under a settlement with the department, Chicago-based Exelon
and Newark, N.J.-based Public Service will sell plants capable
of generating more than 5,600 megawatts of electricity, enough
power for about 4.48 million average U.S. homes, according to
Energy Department estimates. The sales would resolve concerns
the combined company would dominate power markets in the
mid-Atlantic, the Justice Department said.

 The two companies still await approval from New Jersey's Board
of Public Utilities for the transaction that would create the
largest takeover in the history of the U.S. utility industry.

 "The merger would create one of the largest electricity
companies in the U.S. and combine the assets of two of the
largest competitors in the mid-Atlantic region," the department
said Thursday in a statement. "The combination of their assets
would enhance the incentive and ability of the merged firm to
raise wholesale electric prices."

 The plants that will be sold under the agreement reached by the
department and the companies are the Cromby and Eddystone plants
in Pennsylvania and the Hudson, Linden, Mercer and Sewaren
plants in New Jersey, the department said.

 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the
acquisition a year ago on the conditions that Exelon sells
plants with a capacity of 4,000 megawatts, and sell 2,600
megawatts of nuclear-plant output to competitors under long-term
contracts.

 The purchase still needs approval in New Jersey, where
regulatory staff has argued Exelon might reap $2.3 billion
annually by withholding output to inflate electricity prices.

 Exelon has said its plant divestitures and long-term sales
agreements would preclude it from manipulating markets.

 Shares in Exelon rose 10 cents to $56.83. Public Service added
85 cents to $66.60.

 John W. Rowe, chief executive officer of Exelon, told reporters
Tuesday that he expected to have to sell off more plants to win
approval from the Justice Department. He also said the deal won
quick approval from federal energy regulators "because they had
very clear rules about what we want, and we complied with them."

 "But Justice hadn't addressed a merger quite like this one
before and they've taken a very long time to figure out what
needs to be done," Rowe said.

 Bloomberg News

Copyright 2006, Digital Chicago Inc.   

*****************************************************************
 25 St. Petersburg Times: Nuclear plant comes at a cost

Online: Hernando County
 		 		 		 		 	 	 		 			
 By GREG HAMILTON, Citrus Times Editor of Editorials

 Published June 23, 2006

Sometime in the next few weeks, the leaders of Progress Energy
will make a decision that could forever change Citrus County. If
the North Carolina-based utility chooses to build a second
nuclear power plant at its Crystal River complex, the
implications would be staggering. 

Already, the sprawling energy complex pumps millions of dollars
in property tax revenue into the county budget. The new plant,
costing upward of $3-billion and taking 10 years to build, would
add untold millions in tax revenue for decades to come. 

Its work force, among the highest-paid in the region, also would
contribute an enormous amount of money to the local economy
through purchases of homes, cars and other essentials. And the
company has historically been generous in its community goodwill
donations to host communities. 

For those reasons, the Board of County Commissioners is on
record as unanimously inviting the company to build in Crystal
River. But this is hardly a done deal. And before the county
trips over itself, it needs to consider a few points. 

For starters, there is the question of the spent nuclear fuel.
Disposing of this radioactive stuff is a major issue nationwide,
and Citrus County officials should not turn a blind eye to this
enormous problem. 

Since coming online in 1977, the reactor along the shoreline
north of Crystal River has generated untold amounts of
electricity for a wide swath of Central Florida. It has also
created a huge pile of spent fuel pellets that are stored in a
deep pool on the site. 

The radiation diminishes over time in the pool, but the danger
remains real. Exposure would be instantly fatal. Proposed EPA
standards would call for keeping the spent fuel away from humans
for 1-million years. 

To use an entirely unscientific term, this is nasty stuff. And
Citrus gets to keep it all, at least until the federal
government figures out a better plan to dispose of it. 

A second plant would naturally mean even more spent fuel on our
doorstep. With space in the deep pool expected to run out by
2016, Progress Energy is considering another plan: storing it in
huge dry casks. 

These would be above ground. Yes, they would be hardened and,
presumably, able to withstand hurricane-force winds and other
natural threats. 

But what about a terrorist attack? Citrus Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has
pointed out that the regional antiterrorism task force lists the
Crystal River site as the No. 1 potential target for terrorists.
Would these huge casks of radioactive fuel be sitting ducks? 

During a visit with the St. Petersburg Times editorial board
last week, Jeff Lyash, the new CEO of Progress Energy Florida,
downplayed such concerns. 

"On-site storage is not a technical issue for the industry, but
a political issue," he said. 

The casks would be designed to handle such threats, he assured
the board. However, this is a theory that has never been tested.
No one ever expected the Twin Towers to collapse after being
struck by jetliners - until it happened. 

It would be foolish, and potentially disastrous, to
underestimate the importance of this issue. 

There are other, less-critical concerns. What about the
potential impact on development? 

Say a second, sprawling plant is built at Crystal River. That
would push way back the 5-mile zone around the site in which the
county prohibits development. 

With renewed attention being paid these days to developing that
part of Citrus County, how would the new plant affect these
building proposals? It does not take much imagination to
envision lawsuits from property owners who now would be
prevented from developing their land. 

Then there is the proposed Suncoast Parkway II project. One of
the suggested routes for the highway expansion would follow the
Progress Energy power lines that arc from Crystal River to the
Hernando County line. 

A second nuclear reactor would require either greatly upgrading
the existing lines or putting up new ones. If the new lines
follow the old path, would this limit or prohibit its use for
the proposed parkway? 

And if the enormous transmission towers go in another direction,
say due east to feed the central part of the state, how would
this affect developments already slated to be built across the
central and eastern parts of the county? How many homeowners
would object to having these towers as neighbors? 

It is obvious that Progress Energy is strongly considering
Crystal River as a home for the new nuke. CEO Lyash spelled out
several of the site's advantages, such as its geology and
proximity to cooling water, plus the fact that the community has
embraced the plant. 

He also noted some disadvantages, such as the concern over
having too much power generation at a single site. Utilities try
to spread generation sites around to avoid catastrophic
disruptions of service. 

But the planets are aligning in Progress Energy's favor. The
federal government is throwing hundreds of millions of dollars
in tax credits to utilities to develop new nuclear plants. In
Florida, the government has removed virtually all risk for
investors in these utilities. 

Battered by rising gasoline prices, the national mood seems
ready to accept any alternative fuel, including nuclear power.
Lyash expects the hard-core antinuke protesters to show up once
the site is announced. But communities, he said, are asking to
be considered for a site, not putting up barricades. 

Count Citrus County as one of those open-arms communities. 

While our elected officials and business leaders salivate over
the prospects of a second nuclear plant in our borders, they
should not forget that it will come with a price for the host
community. 

Greg Hamilton is editor of editorials of the Times' Citrus
County edition. [Last modified June 23, 2006, 07:16:05]

© 2006  All Rights Reserved  St. Petersburg Times 490 First 
Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111                                                    
*****************************************************************
 26 The Day: Rally Will Tout Self-contained Cooling For Millstone  

[theday.com]                                                    

  By Patricia Daddona Day Staff Writer\, Millstone\/business 
trends E-mail: p.daddona@theday.com Phone No.: (860) 701 - 4324   
  
Published on 6/23/2006 in Region » Region Briefs

A Clean Beaches-Close Millstone rally will be held at noon
Sunday in Liberty Park.

 The rally is sponsored by the Connecticut Coalition Against
Millstone and the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club.

 The coalition contends that Millstone Power Station's nuclear
reactors in nearby Waterford pollute Long Island Sound.

 Dominion, the owner of the nuclear complex, could mitigate
radioactive effluent by converting its cooling system, which
uses ocean water, to a self-contained, closed system, coalition
leader Nancy Burton said. 

Dominion disputes the organization's claims and maintains that
radioactive releases in water and air are safely below
thresholds set by the federal government.

 The park is at the corner of Main Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue in Niantic. 

A march to nearby Hole-in-the-Wall Beach will follow the rally.

 The rain date is July 2.

  Patricia Daddona   
  East Lyme  
    
[TheDay.com]                                                                  

Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200  |  New London, 
CT  |  © 1998-2006 The Day Publishing Co. [Beacon Locator] ~ IF 
*****************************************************************
 27 AFP: Taiwan anti-nuke group to stage nude protest 

 Fri Jun 23, 1:21 PM ET 
		 	 
TAIPEI (AFP) - Members of a Taiwanese conservation group will 
stage a nude protest next week in the hope of pressuring the 
government to cease construction work on a nuclear power station, 
its spokesman said. 

"We demand the government stop building the Fourth Nuclear Power 
Plant to preserve the Fulung beach," said Ho Tsung-hsun, 
secretary general of the Taiwan Enviromental Protection Union.
 
The protest, titled "Rather Nude than Nuke," is set to take
place Monday at Funlung beach in northern Keelung county where
the plant is under construction.
 
Ho said 25 people, including 22 men and three women, had signed
up for the event to form the English words "No Nuke" with their
bodies.
 
Construction of the island's fourth nuclear plant has been mired
in controversy due to strong opposition from environmentalists
and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) before it took
government in 2000.
 
Abolishing the project was one of President Chen Shui-bian's
major policy platforms during his campaign for the March 2000
presidential election, which he won.
 
In October 2000, the DPP scrapped the partly built 5.6-billion
US dollar plant without consulting parliament, as required by
Taiwan's constitution, plunging the island into months of
political turmoil.
 
The government reinstated the project in February 2001, having
added billions of dollars to its cost from delay compensation
and extra expense.
 
The plant is scheduled to be completed in five or six years with
its two reactors carrying a combined capacity of 2,770 megawatts.
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 28 AFP: Cheney warns Congress against delaying Indian nuclear deal -
     
 by P. Parameswaran Fri Jun 23, 3:04 AM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney " /> Dick 
Cheneywarned Congress against delaying approval of a landmark 
civilian nuclear deal with India, saying it would risk 
squandering a critical opportunity of building a strategic 
partnership with the world's most populous democracy. 

"We hope Congress will be quick to enact legislation that enables 
our two nations to move forward on this important agreement 
without delay," Cheney said at a meeting of American and Indian 
business leaders in Washington.
 
Given the agreement's "strategic" importance, Cheney said "we
must be sure amendments or delays on the US side do not risk
wasting this critical opportunity."
 
He said he and President George W. Bush
" /> President George W. Bushwere confident however that the
deal would receive "strong bipartisan support" in the US House
of Representatives and Senate.
 
Key foreign policy committees of the two chambers would vote on
the deal next week after poring over it for nine months.
 
Cheney called the deal, clinched in March between Bush and
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after an initial September
2005 agreement, as "one of the most important strategic foreign
policy initiatives of the government."
 
"The logic of the deal is straightforward," he said, citing,
among other reasons, India's immense energy needs and its "very
good nonproliferation track record."
 
The foreign relations committee of the House of Representatives
will meet on June 27 and its Senate counterpart the next day to
consider the deal, which requires mandatory Congress backing.
 
The panels' findings on the deal would then be submitted to the
two full chambers for consideration.
 
The Bush administration wants to secure passage of the deal
before the November mid-term Congressional elections but it
apparently lacks wide and bipartisan backing.
 
"I'm not going to be so rash, perhaps foolish to predict a vote
count but we are very confident that we have majority support in
the House and Senate," said Undersecretary of State Nicholas
Burns.
 
He warned however that the administration would oppose any moves
in Congress to make amendments that would effectively "kill the
legislation and force us to renegotiate" the complex deal.
 
Under the proposal, India, a non signatory of the nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would be allowed access to
long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for placing
its atomic reactors under international safeguards.
 
As Congress has to amend the US Atomic Energy Act, which
currently prohibits nuclear sales to non NPT signatories, some
legislators want to first study the international safeguards
being negotiated between India and the International Atomic
Energy Agency
" /> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), the global
nuclear watchdog.
 
The safeguards would be incorporated together with other key
technical details in another bilateral agreement, which the
lawmakers also wanted to study before endorsing the deal.
 
American weapons experts have warned that forging a civilian
nuclear agreement with non-NPT member India would not only make
it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran
" /> Iranand North Korea
" /> North Korea, but also set a dangerous precedent to other
countries with nuclear ambitions.
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 29 Guardian Unlimited: MPs 'should get nuclear vote'
 
[UP] 

Press Association 

Friday June 23, 2006 8:58 PM
 	
Former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson indicated that he
believes Tony Blair should give MPs a vote on whether Britain's
Trident nuclear missiles ought to be replaced.
 
Chancellor Gordon Brown ignited debate over Trident earlier this
week, when he said he favoured retaining the UK's independent
nuclear deterrent for the long-term.
 
Mr Blair has said that there should be the "fullest possible
debate" on the issue, but has steered clear of promising a
Commons vote.
 
Trident is set to be decommissioned by around 2024 as it becomes
obsolete, and Mr Blair says a decision on whether to replace it
must be made during this Parliament. Estimates of the cost range
from £10 billion to £25 billion.
 
On Wednesday, Mr Brown said that the Government would show
"strength of national purpose" in "protecting our security in
this Parliament and the long-term ... retaining our independent
nuclear deterrent."
 
Mr Mandelson warned that Labour MPs would not take kindly to the
implication that the decision was for ministers to take.
 
Speaking on BBC News 24, he said: "I don't how the party will
react to that position of his (Mr Brown's).
 
"Most of the party would say 'Let's have a debate about the
future of nuclear capacity in this country, ask ourselves
whether that's the chief priority for defence expenditure, ask
ourselves whether that's the most relevant commitment to make
given the new security challenges we have'.
 
"Then if they decide that is the best way forward, then they can
vote for it."
 
© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.
 
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 30 London Times: Let’s have the nuclear debate

June 24, 2006 

Sir, What is it about nuclear policy that seems to make it 
antithetical to democratic decision-making? Gordon Brown’s pledge 
to replace Trident with another nuclear WMD system (“Britain to 
buy new nuclear deterrent&#148;, June 22) follows soon after his 
announcement in The Times (“Business leaders must now make 
positive case for globalisation”) that he was following the Prime 
Minister in supporting new nuclear power plants. Mr Brown made 
his nuclear power pledge on the same day that the Prime Minister 
unveiled a Franco-British atomic energy research forum, which 
seemed aimed at solidifying his own backing for a nuclear 
renaissance in Britain. 

In civil and military nuclear policy sectors, the public has been 
promised a political debate by Mr Blair. Yet the two most 
powerful politicians in the UK have pre-empted any hope of an 
independent objective outcome of the Energy Review, and any 
public debate there may be over a Trident replacement, by 
announcing their certainty of what their outcome will be. Is this 
not an acute case of atomic premature evaluation? 

DR DAVID LOWRY
Stoneleigh, Surrey
   	 		
*****************************************************************
 31 Stop radwaste disasters: call Senate Monday
 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:11:12 -0700

<x-flowed>

image002.jpgNIRS Action Alert



Call U.S. Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Leaders on Monday

to Head Off Radioactive Waste Disasters in the Making!



Call the Capitol Switchboard during business hours to be plugged into 
Membersoffices:

(202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121





The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Appropriations will likely 
mark up its Fiscal Year 2007 funding bill next Tuesday, June 27th. Rabidly 
pro-nuclear Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, not only the Republican 
chair of this subcommittee, but also chairman of the powerful Senate Energy 
and Natural Resources Committee, told reporters this week that hes come up 
with another $1.25 billion (on top of the $29.5 billion he already had!) 
for next years funding bill, meaning he can fully fund or even fund at 
levels higher than the Bush administration has requested -- such nuclear 
nightmares as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), reprocessing 
and regional interimstorage of commercial high-level wastes at Dept. of 
Energy or private (such as the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in 
Utah) sites across the U.S., as well as MOX (re-use of dismantled U.S. 
nuclear weapons plutonium in fuel for commercial nuclear reactors) and the 
dangerous Yucca Mountain dump. Thats the bad news.



The good news is that the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Water 
Appropriations slashed funding well below that requested by the Bush 
administration for some of the nuclear nightmares. For example, citing the 
half-baked nature of the proposal, the House subcommittee cut Bushs 
requested $250 million budget for GNEP to a $120 million appropriation. The 
House completely zeroed out the MOX program funding, due to lack of 
progress or payback to the American taxpayer. A couple bad things about the 
House bill, though, are that it funded the Yucca dump project at a whopping 
$544.5 million, a large increase over last year for a program that is in 
complete disarray. It also threw $30 million to DOE to choose one or more 
sites across the U.S. for regional, long-term surface storage of commercial 
high-level wastes, which could launch Mobile Chernobyls onto our roads, 
rails and waterways in a great big hurry.



Even if Domenici overfunds these various nuclear nightmares, the House 
members on the conference committee that will be established to work out 
the differences between the two bills can still limit, or completely nix, 
the funding excesses they dont agree with.



What can you do about all this nuclear madness? Phone, fax, or email the 
leaders of both the Senate and House Subcommittees on Energy and Water 
Appropriations. Even if they are not your direct representatives in the 
Senate and House, they are making decisions that will impact the entire 
country, including your community. Also, if your direct reps in the House 
and Senate happen to sit on these appropriations subcommittees, or on the 
full House or Senate Appropriations Committees, contact them too. And 
lastly, if you have friends or family in the states or House districts of 
Senators or House members who sit on these subcommittees or committees, let 
them know to contact their elected officials who hold these key 
decision-making positions. The full subcommittee and committee lists are 
below, along with contact information.



What to say when you phone, fax or email? To oppose GNEP, reprocessing, 
interimstorage around the country, and the dangerous Yucca dump proposal, 
as well as the very risky Mobile Chernobyl plans that go along with all 
those dangerous proposals.



If you need background info. to bolster your arguments, be sure to check out:



<http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/reprocessing/>http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/reprocessing/ 
(especially the Letterssection for letters to Congress)



<http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/yucca/>http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/yucca/ 
(again, see Letters)



<http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/radwaste.htm>http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/radwaste.htm 
(see Yucca Mountainand Mobile Chernobylsections)



<http://www.ewg.org/reports/nuclearwaste/find_address.php>http://www.ewg.org/reports/nuclearwaste/find_address.php 
(to see how close any address in the Lower 48 Statesis to a targeted Yucca 
rail or road route!)



             Be sure to take action during business hours on Monday before 
the Senate subcommittee mark up session on Tuesday, and early in the week 
before the full Senate Appropriations Committee sits down for its mark up 
session on Thursday! Time is short! Thanks!



             The conference committee will take some time to kick in, so 
there is more time to contact House Appropriators, but we should start now!



---Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist, Nuclear Information and Resource 
Service

301.270.6477x14; <mailto:kevin@nirs.org>kevin@nirs.org; www.nirs.org



U.S. Senate SUBCOMMITTEE on
Energy and Water, and Related Agencies

<http://appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/subcommittees.htm>Back to 
Subcommittees

Republicans: Senator Pete Domenici (Chairman) (NM)
Senator Thad Cochran (MS)
Senator Mitch McConnell (KY)
Senator Robert Bennett (UT)
Senator Conrad Burns (MT)
Senator Larry Craig (ID)
Senator Christopher Bond (MO)
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Senator Wayne Allard (CO)


Democrats: Senator Harry Reid (Ranking Member) (NV)
Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV)
Senator Patty Murray (WA)
Senator Byron Dorgan (ND)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Senator Tim Johnson (SD)
Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)
Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)

Link to see list of members of Senate Appropriations Committee:

<http://appropriations.senate.gov/members/members.htm>http://appropriations.senate.gov/members/members.htm

Link to House Appropriations Committee website, where you can see full 
members listing, and subcommittee on energy and water approps members listing:

<http://appropriations.house.gov/>http://appropriations.house.gov/



</x-flowed>


Attachment Converted: image0023.jpg: 00000001,50bf0737,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
 32 [NukeNet] Stop radwaste disasters: call Senate Monday
 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:53:00 -0700

<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)


** NIRS Action Alert **

Call U.S. Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Leaders on Monday
to Head Off Radioactive Waste Disasters in the Making!

Call the Capitol Switchboard during business hours to be plugged into
Members' offices:
(202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121

The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Appropriations will
likely mark up its Fiscal Year 2007 funding bill next Tuesday, June
27th. Rabidly pro-nuclear Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, not
only the Republican chair of this subcommittee, but also chairman of
the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told
reporters this week that he's come up with another $1.25 billion (on
top of the $29.5 billion he already had!) for next year's funding
bill, meaning he can fully fund ­ or even fund at levels higher than
the Bush administration has requested -- such nuclear nightmares as
the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), reprocessing and
regional "interim" storage of commercial high-level wastes at Dept.
of Energy or private (such as the Skull Valley Goshute Indian
Reservation in Utah) sites across the U.S., as well as MOX (re-use of
dismantled U.S. nuclear weapons plutonium in fuel for commercial
nuclear reactors) and the dangerous Yucca Mountain dump. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Water
Appropriations slashed funding well below that requested by the Bush
administration for some of the nuclear nightmares. For example,
citing the half-baked nature of the proposal, the House subcommittee
cut Bush's requested $250 million budget for GNEP to a $120 million
appropriation. The House completely zeroed out the MOX program
funding, due to lack of progress or payback to the American taxpayer.
A couple bad things about the House bill, though, are that it funded
the Yucca dump project at a whopping $544.5 million, a large increase
over last year for a program that is in complete disarray. It also
threw $30 million to DOE to choose one or more sites across the U.S.
for regional, long-term surface storage of commercial high-level
wastes, which could launch Mobile Chernobyls onto our roads, rails
and waterways in a great big hurry.

Even if Domenici overfunds these various nuclear nightmares, the
House members on the conference committee that will be established to
work out the differences between the two bills can still limit, or
completely nix, the funding excesses they don't agree with.

What can you do about all this nuclear madness? Phone, fax, or email
the leaders of both the Senate and House Subcommittees on Energy and
Water Appropriations. Even if they are not your direct
representatives in the Senate and House, they are making decisions
that will impact the entire country, including your community. Also,
if your direct reps in the House and Senate happen to sit on these
appropriations subcommittees, or on the full House or Senate
Appropriations Committees, contact them too. And lastly, if you have
friends or family in the states or House districts of Senators or
House members who sit on these subcommittees or committees, let them
know to contact their elected officials who hold these key
decision-making positions. The full subcommittee and committee lists
are below, along with contact information.

What to say when you phone, fax or email? To oppose GNEP,
reprocessing, "interim" storage around the country, and the dangerous
Yucca dump proposal, as well as the very risky Mobile Chernobyl plans
that go along with all those dangerous proposals.

If you need background info. to bolster your arguments, be sure to check out:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/reprocessing/ 

(especially the "Letters" section for letters to Congress)

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewaste/yucca/ 

(again, see "Letters")

http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/radwaste.htm (see "Yucca Mountain" and
"Mobile Chernobyl" sections)

http://www.ewg.org/reports/nuclearwaste/find_address.php (to see how
close any address in the "Lower 48 States" is to a targeted Yucca
rail or road route!)

              Be sure to take action during business hours on Monday
before the Senate subcommittee mark up session on Tuesday, and early
in the week before the full Senate Appropriations Committee sits down
for its mark up session on Thursday! Time is short! Thanks!

              The conference committee will take some time to kick in,
so there is more time to contact House Appropriators, but we should start now!

---Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist, Nuclear Information and
Resource Service
301.270.6477x14; kevin@nirs.org; www.nirs.org

U.S. Senate SUBCOMMITTEE on
Energy and Water, and Related Agencies

Republicans: Senator Pete Domenici (Chairman) (NM)
Senator Thad Cochran (MS)
Senator Mitch McConnell (KY)
Senator Robert Bennett (UT)
Senator Conrad Burns (MT)
Senator Larry Craig (ID)
Senator Christopher Bond (MO)
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Senator Wayne Allard (CO)

Democrats: Senator Harry Reid (Ranking Member) (NV)
Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV)
Senator Patty Murray (WA)
Senator Byron Dorgan (ND)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Senator Tim Johnson (SD)
Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)
Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)

Link to see list of members of Senate Appropriations Committee:
http://appropriations.senate.gov/members/members.htm

Link to House Appropriations Committee website, where you can see
full members listing, and subcommittee on energy and water approps
members listing:
http://appropriations.house.gov/


_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings or access the archives at:
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*****************************************************************
 33 2theadvocate.com: River Bend’s nuclear waste in new home
 
Dry casks supplement full pool
 						
By Baker - Zachary bureau                  

Published: Jun 23, 2006                         
 			 				
Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig                                               
                        
Contract worker Robin Thomas leaves a massive tracked transport 
vehicle Thursday after checking its cargo, a 200-ton dry storage 
cask loaded with highly radioactive spent fuel removed from the 
River Bend Station nuclear power plant in West Feliciana Parish. 
Entergy employee Jesse Landry is at the controls of the 
transporter as it moves the cask at a snail’s pace to a site on 
the plant grounds for long-term storage.                
	 								 	 	 		


ST. FRANCISVILLE  Workers at the River Bend nuclear power plant
completed moving the second batch of highly radioactive spent
fuel Thursday from a temporary water-filled storage pool to an
outdoor storage area.
 					
The 68 fuel assemblies, used to produce electricity in the
plants early days, now are stored in a giant steel-and-concrete
cylinder filled with helium.
 					
The cylinders, called dry storage casks, weigh more than 200
tons and are expected to remain on a special storage pad outside
River Bends main buildings until the federal government opens a
repository for the nations high-level nuclear waste.
 					
A giant transporter vehicle lifted the cask a few inches off the
ground Thursday morning, locked it in place and began inching
along at an almost-imperceptible pace from the fuel storage
building to the new storage site.
 					
While a spotter stationed in front of the slow-moving
transporter guided the operator seated in the rear, armed guards
and a radiation protection worker trailed the cask as a
precaution.
 					
Entergy Operations Inc. officials allowed photographs of the
behemoth creeping down a limestone road, provided that none
showed security features or security personnel.
 					
River Bend moved its first dry cask of spent fuel in December
under the close scrutiny of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
 					
The procedure will become fairly routine from now on, plant
General Manager Don Vinci said.
 					
The storage pool is essentially full, he said.
 					
Mark Feltner supervised the two-week operation of loading,
sealing and moving the old fuel assemblies to the dry cask
storage area.
 					
He said the plant operates on an 18-month fuel cycle, with about
one-third of the reactors fuel replaced each time the plan shuts
down for refueling. From now on, River Bend will load and
transport three casks every 18 months.
 					
A third cask sits outside the storage pool building, waiting
empty as fuel is being loaded into an inner container.
 				
Louisiana Broadcasting LLC and The Advocate, 
Capital City Press LLC, All Rights Reserved. Click here to send
comments or questions about 2theadvocate.com. 		 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 34 RIA Novosti: Kyrgyzstan asks Eurasec, Russia for help with uranium facilities
 
23/ 06/ 2006                                  

MINSK, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan's leader asked Friday
member states of a post-Soviet regional organization and
particularly Russia to help in rebuild uranium waste storage
facilities in the country.

 President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told fellow member countries of the
Eurasian Economic Community - Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Belarus - a third of the 60 storage facilities
for uranium in his country needed urgent repairs.

 "We would greatly appreciate it if [Eurasec] member states and
primarily Russia would provide us a practical assistance in
rebuilding these storages, particularly using the possibilities
of Russia's Kurchatov Institute research center," he said.

 He added that in 1940s Kyrgyzstan, now one of the poorest
former Soviet republics, had a large-scale production of
uranium, but since then many storage facilities had been damaged
by the elements.

 Kyrgyzstan produced uranium and processed significant amounts
for modern-day Russia and Kazakhstan until the collapse of the
Soviet Union, but production has since stopped. Tailing sites
have raised health concerns since then because they are often
sited close to populated areas. 


© 2005 RIA Novosti   

*****************************************************************
 35 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca bill stalls, at least for this session 

Today: June 23, 2006 at 7:16:19 PDT 

Nuclear waste debate lacked recycling plan

 By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun
 
WASHINGTON - Despite strong pressure from the nuclear energy
industry and the Bush administration, Congress almost certainly
will not put Yucca Mountain on a fast track this year. 

Legislation to "fix Yucca" once and for all hit a wall shortly
after it was introduced in Congress two months ago. Republicans
and Democrats alike say the bill reaches for too much too fast,
while failing to address the latest darling in the nuclear
energy debate - recycling. 

Barring a miracle, the administration will have to try again in
the next Congress - the last of the Bush presidency - to get the
stalled Yucca nuclear waste storage plan moving again. 

"I'm hoping 11:30 at night, somebody's going to wake up and say,
'We have to do this. Let's get it done,' " said Charles Pray,
co-chairman of the U.S. Transport Council's Yucca Mountain Task
Force, a leading advocacy group for the nuclear transportation
industry. 

The apparent failure of the "fix Yucca" bill comes despite a
near-perfect alignment of powerful interests. The Bush
administration is the most pro-nuclear administration in
decades. Republicans control both houses of Congress. The
nuclear industry is pushing hard to get the project moving
again. 

But the Energy Department did not deliver its "fix Yucca" bill
as early in the year as Congress wanted. When the legislation
did arrive, it contained elements that many lawmakers opposed,
while failing to include provisions they sought. 

"It's a greedy bill and goes way beyond any realm of
sensibleness," said Michele Boyd, a legislative director at
Public Citizen, which has fought Yucca Mountain. 

"Even senators in the past who have voted for Yucca Mountain
say, 'No way.' " 

Yucca is years behind schedule, despite $8 billion in spending
and the involvement of 25,000 scientists dedicated to creating
the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository. 

Introduced by two leading Republican advocates of nuclear power
- Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. Joe Barton of Texas
- the bill would lift the cap on the amount of waste that can be
stored at Yucca Mountain, turn the site over to the Department
of Energy and guarantee a funding stream that could not be
knocked down by opponents in Congress. 

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the bill dead
on arrival when it was introduced in April. Both Reid and Nevada
Republican Sen. John Ensign oppose the development of Yucca
Mountain and especially do not want to cede so much authority to
the Energy Department. 

Reid might well have outmaneuvered Yucca supporters and bottled
up the bill. But he apparently didn't need to. The legislation
failed to include provisions about nuclear waste recycling that
is now a prominent issue in the Bush White House and a favorite
of Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, where the bill languishes. 

"Obviously there are a lot of things holding it up because you
have two generally sympathetic committee chairmen who could
schedule a hearing - and they're not," said a spokesman for Sen.
Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a nuclear energy advocate and the
ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee. No hearings have been set, either, in Barton's House
Energy and Commerce Committee. 

Despite dimming prospects for the bill, some Republicans and
nuclear industry officials still hope it will move forward this
year. Domenici signaled this week that he was trying to find a
way to include nuclear recycling in the legislation. 

Recycling is part of the Bush administration's far-reaching -
and some say unrealistic - initiative to develop technology that
would reprocess nuclear fuel in a way that would render the
waste less toxic and curtail its volume. Doing so would reduce
the risks involved in transporting and storing nuclear waste at
Yucca and also allow it to accept waste for many more years
before reaching its storage capacity. 

The Bush initiative, known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership,
could clear the way for construction of more domestic nuclear
energy plants. It also would stem the spread of nuclear weapons
by providing an alternative method of reprocessing nuclear fuel.
The current method, used elsewhere in the world, can be modified
to produce plutonium, a critical component of nuclear weapons. 

Critics, however, say the initiative is a boondoggle that would
cost tens of billions of dollars and take decades to come to
fruition. 

Dennis R. Spurgeon, assistant secretary for nuclear energy in
the Energy Department, acknowledged Thursday it will be
difficult to get the bill through this session. 

Pray, who has increased his travel budget by $10,000 this year
to rally nuclear-power generating states to the cause, said the
industry is well aware of the need to find success before the
Republican stronghold on Congress and the White House fades. 

"That would close opportunities," he said. 
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at
lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 36 reviewjournal.com: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Rail line option studied 

Jun. 23, 2006

DOE reviewing land ownership, mining claims related to western 
route    

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is updating 20-year-old data 
on railroad alignments in western Nevada and should decide by the 
end of the summer whether it wants to further explore an 
alternative route to ship nuclear waste by rail through the state 
to Yucca Mountain, a DOE manager said Thursday.
 
DOE officials are reviewing changes in land ownership and the 
status of mining claims in the region, said Gary Lanthrum, 
transportation director for the Yucca Mountain program.
 
They have inspected possible paths through the Walker River
Paiute Indian reservation and have examined topography at other
points, he said.
 
The department is working with the tribe and others to look at
"some of the aspects of alignments along the route to see if
they are feasible," Lanthrum said at a nuclear waste
transportation conference.
 
"Once a determination is made, we will figure out how to go
forward." Lanthrum said. DOE would consider moving forward with
formal action and environmental studies "if there is a feasible
route that looks like it might be a reasonable alternative."
 
The manager's remarks to a meeting of the U.S. Transport
Council, a group of nuclear waste shipping interests, expanded
on previous DOE statements about the so-called Mina route to the
proposed nuclear waste repository site.
 
The Energy Department already is conducting an official
environmental impact study of a proposed rail corridor across
rural Nevada from Caliente to Yucca Mountain.
 
But its interest in a possible Mina alternative was piqued when
the Walker River Paiute tribal leaders said they might consider
allowing railroad shipments of nuclear waste through their
reservation north of Walker Lake.
 
The tribe's position appears to have revived a DOE rail option
that was studied in the 1980s. It involves nuclear waste
traveling on existing rail along a corridor to Hawthorne, with
DOE improving old mining rail beds and building new rail through
Mineral and Esmerelda counties, and into Nye County where Yucca
Mountain is located.
 
Some transportation experts say the alignment would be shorter,
at 209 miles, and easier and less expensive to build than a
railroad from Caliente. DOE's cost estimate of a 319-mile
Caliente rail line was increased last year to $2 billion.
 
Lanthrum said it is too soon to tell.
 
"It is shorter, but we don't know if it would be less
expensive," Lanthrum said. "We have no information that is less
than 20 years old."
 	   
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
 37 NRC: Notice of Public Meeting for Fuel Cycle Facilities
 
                         FR Doc E6-9923 
[Federal Register: June 23, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 121)] 
[Notices] [Page 36138-36139] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr23jn06-70]                         
 
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Meeting notice and request for speakers.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Smith, Project Manager, 
Technical Support Section, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and 
Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001.
 
Telephone: (301) 415-6459; fax number: (301) 415-5370; e-mail: 
jas4@nrc.gov.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) is hosting a seminar, The Fuel Cycle Information 
Exchange 2006 (FCIX 2006), on August 30 and 31, 2006, to provide 
an opportunity for licensees, NRC staff, and other stakeholders 
to exchange information and discuss
 
[[Page 36139]] issues of interest pertaining to the regulation of 
NRC-regulated fuel cycle facilities.
 
The seminar will be held in Rockville, Maryland, at the 
Universities of Maryland at the Shady Grove Campus Auditorium and 
will be open to the public. Fuel Cycle licensees and other 
interested parties were previously notified of the possibility of 
this meeting in a letter from Robert Pierson, dated November 28, 
2005, (ADAMS accession number ML053220226). In that letter, Mr. 
Pierson also solicited topics of discussion and volunteer 
speakers for the meeting. We are expecting that NRC staff, 
licensees and certificate holders, and other interested parties 
and stakeholders will be making presentations on varying subjects 
of interest, with opportunity for followup discussion on each 
subject.
 
The proposed items of discussion are listed below; however, the 
NRC is seeking additional speakers to discuss topics of a broad 
nature, relative to the nuclear fuel cycle. If you would like an 
opportunity to discuss an issue, or to offer an additional topic 
of discussion, please contact the staff member listed below.
 
II. Currently Proposed Topics of Discussion 10 CFR Part 70, 
Subpart H Implementation Issues.
 
Databases and Items Relied on for Safety (IROFS) Tracking 
Systems.
 
Boundaries of IROFS.
 
Impact of Increased Use of Nuclear Energy in Domestic Electricity 
Generation.
 
IAEA Safety Documents Related to Fuel Cycle Facilities.
 
Status Report of Current NRC Fuel Cycle Related Initiatives.
 
360-Degree Feedback From the Industry and Public of Issues of 
Interest Pertaining to the Regulation of NRC-Regulated Fuel Cycle 
Facilities.
 
Overview and Experience Under the NRC's New Hearing Process by 
Fuel Cycle Applicants and Licensees.
 
III. Dates and Location Universities of Maryland at the Shady 
Grove Campus Auditorium, 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 
20850.
 
Dates: August 30, 2006, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; August 31, 2006, 9 
a.m.- 12 p.m. IV. Contact James Smith, Project Manager, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Division of Fuel Cycle 
Safety and Safeguards, Special Projects Branch, Mail Stop: T8F42, 
301-415-6459, Fax: 301-415-5370, e- mail: jas4@nrc.gov. V. 
Further Information The document related to this action is 
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can 
access the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management 
System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's 
public documents. The ADAMS ascension number for the document 
related to this notice is provided in the following table. If you 
do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing 
the document located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document 
Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by 
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th 
day of June 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Dennis C. Morey, Acting Chief, Technical Support Section, Special 
Projects Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
 
[FR Doc. E6-9923 Filed 6-22-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 38 Times & Star: BNG set to restart Thorp

Published on 23/06/2006
                                                        
BRITISH Nuclear Group says it is awaiting the go ahead to restart 
Thorp after a major radioactive leak for which the Sellafield 
operators are expected to have to pay a heavy fine.
 
The incident has already cost the group £50 million but the
company said it was “very close� to finishing off
modifications to the contained cell, into which 83,000 litres of
highly active radioactive liquor spilled.
 
Once the work to the cell and associated equipment has been
completed, British Nuclear Group will be in a strong position to
apply for the £1.8 million reprocessing plant to restart.
 
A sophisticated camera surveillance system has already been
installed to help prevent any recurrence of the serious spillage
which had gone undetected for several months.
 
But the group will only be allowed to restart once the Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate and the board of the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, which now owns Sellafield, give their
approval.
 
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has already said it wants
and expects Thorp to reopen and complete its big reprocessing
order book, mainly fuel from Japan and Europe.
 
The final go-ahead will only be given once the regulators are
satisfied that all the necessary improvements have been made to
ensure for operating the plant safely.
 
All Thorp staff who were deployed to other work on site after
the leak are now back on the plant awaiting a restart, while
some have had to be given a large amount of “behavioural and
technical� training. BNG said: “We don’t know exactly when
we will be able to re-start Thorp, it is out of our hands.�
 
*****************************************************************
 39 NEWS.com.au: Nuke facility set for indigenous station - 

From: By Nigel Adlam

 June 24, 2006

THE site for the Northern Territory's nuclear waste facility has
been chosen, with sources confirming to the Northern Territory
News that a deal has been done witht he owners of an Aboriginal
cattle station.
 
A well-placed source in Canberra told the Northern Territory
News last night: "There are a few minor matters to be sorted
out, but, to all intents and purposes, it's a done deal."
 
The $30 million depository will be built on Aboriginal-owned
Muckaty Station, 120kms north of Tennant Creek. The deal has
been struck between the Northern Land Council and the Federal
Government.
 
It is unknown how much Canberra will pay traditional owners.
 
Land council chairman John Daly and chief executive Norm Fry
stitched up the agreement in Canberra last week.
 
"The Government has tried to keep this very secret because it 
knows the greenies will go mad," the source said.
 
"They'll put all sorts of rubbish into the heads of indigenous 
owners.
 
"One traditional owner believes that the nuclear waste will be 
stored in 44-gallon drums and placed in water.
 
"She says, 'Everybody knows that the drums will rust and the 
radioactive waste will spill out'.
 
"This is the kind of nonsense greenies have been putting about."
 
Three Defence-owned sites were originally earmarked for the
facility.
 
They were:
FISHERS Ridge, 40km east of RAAF Base Tindal near Katherine;
HART'S Range, 200km northeast of Alice Springs; and
MOUNT Everard, 42km northwest of Alice.
 
The Muckaty site will be up to 200 hectares. But the outer
security fence will enclose only 25 hectares.
 
Work will begin in 2010 and be finished within eight months.
 		  		 		 		 			Search for more stories on this topic on , our
 Copyright 2006 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +
*****************************************************************
 40 DOE: USDA and DOE Announce National Renewable Energy Conference for October
 

  June 23, 2006
 
USDA and DOE Announce National Renewable Energy Conference for
October 

WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary 
Mike Johanns and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel 
Bodman today announced that the two agencies will co-host a 
national renewable energy conference to help create partnerships 
and strategies necessary to accelerate commercialization of 
renewable energy industries and distribution systems, the crux of 
President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI).  The 
conference, Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural 
Renaissance, is scheduled for October 10-12, 2006, in St. Louis, 
Missouri. 

Keeping America competitive calls upon us to work together to
expand sustainable, market-driven, domestic energy sources,
Johanns said. The October conference will build upon the
Presidents vision for overcoming our energy challenges and help
create new wealth opportunities in rural communities. 

Never has reducing our dependence on foreign oil been such a
pressing issue, Bodman said.  We have the will and the means
to replace significant quantities of foreign oil with homegrown
fuel.  We are hopeful this conference will identify major
impediments and critical pathways to get more domestically
grown, renewable energy sources out of the laboratory and into
consumers hands as soon as possible. 

Johanns also announced a loan guarantee and grant totaling $3.75
million for construction and operation of a new biodiesel
production facility in Iowa. 

From Wall Street to Main Street, investors are seeking to
understand potential markets.  This conference will focus on
elements of President Bushs AEI, specifically biomass, wind and
solar research and commercialization.  USDA and DOE expect the
conference to identify major impediments, review challenges and
make recommendations to help accelerate renewable energy
technology development; examine key incentives that would help
promote certainty and reduce risk for investors and developers
in the marketplace; review challenges of developing new
distribution systems; and raise public awareness. 

USDA and DOE expect conference attendees to cover a broad
spectrum of interests, including: agriculture, energy,
transportation, financial and investment, federal and state
government, and elected officials.  

In announcing the biodiesel facility loan and grant, Johanns
said the funding recipient is Riksch BioFuels LLC, which will
construct a plant near Crawfordsville, Iowa. Twenty-five
investors, including farmers and business owners, already have
raised over $3.3 million for the project and will receive
$400,000 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. 

For the past several years, USDA Rural Development has provided
renewable energy grants.  During FY 2005, 154 grants totaling
over $22 million were awarded.  Todays announcement brings the
amount of renewable energy loans guaranteed to $13.35 million. 
Since the start of the Bush Administration, Rural Development
has funded more than $356 million in renewable energy and energy
efficiency ventures through various programs. 

The Presidents AEI requests $2.1 billion, a 22 percent budget
increase at DOE.  The AEI aims to reduce Americas dependence on
foreign oil and increase production of domestically grown fuel,
which will in turn, promote U.S. job growth and increase energy
security.    

Information regarding the October conference will be available
on both USDA and DOEs website at and . 

Media contact(s): USDA Press Office: (202) 720-4623 DOE, Craig 
Stevens: (202) 586-4940     [ ]   

  U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | 
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 | 
  
*****************************************************************
 41 kgw.com: Workers may have been exposed to PCBs from Hanford transformer 

News for Oregon and SW Washington | AP Wire

06/22/2006 

Associated Press 

As many as five workers at a metal recycling yard may have been
exposed to PCBs from a transformer that was not properly emptied
before it was sent off the Hanford nuclear reservation in
south-central Washington. 

Fluor Hanford, a contractor handling cleanup at the highly
contaminated Hanford site, sent 60 transformers to Twin City
Metals, said Judy Connell, Fluor Hanford spokeswoman. The
transformers, once mounted on poles at Hanford, used to reduce
electricity to usable voltages. 

All should have been drained of dielectric fluid, a mineral oil
used to keep the transformers from overheating. However, one of
the transformers, weighing several hundred pounds, was not
drained. When it was dumped onto the ground at the metal
recycling yard on June 1, a part broke and about 50 gallons of
fuel drained out, Connell said. 

The concentration of PCBs was below Environmental Protection
Agency standards for environmental reporting and the fluid had
no radiological contamination, Connell said. 

At the time of the spill, several workers were driving forklifts
or other vehicles in the yard, said Craig Cameron, an EPA
environmental scientist. 

One of the workers has developed a type of rash linked to skin
exposure. The worker reported rummaging around in a load that
was dumped in the area where the liquid spilled, Cameron said. 

Fluor Hanford has offered to move him and his family out of
their home temporarily while the Hanford contractor determines
if he tracked home the PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. 

The level of exposure to the workers is not yet known. 
People are more commonly exposed to PCBs by eating contaminated
fish. Exposure can cause an acnelike rash, and long-term PCB
accumulation in the body can result in liver damage or cancer. 

The soil where the spill occurred at the recycling yard has been
dug up, and sampling will be done to determine that no
contamination was missed. 

Fluor Hanford has taken samples from the home and car of the
worker who appears to have symptoms of exposure. The company
also is conducting a formal assessment of the incident. 

The Department of Energy will conduct a formal assessment of the
incident and oversee Fluor's response, spokeswoman Karen Lutz
said. 

"We set high safety expectations from contractors to prevent
these types of incidents from occurring," she said. 

The federal government created the Hanford nuclear site in the
1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the
atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear
site, with cleanup expected to be completed in 2035. 

___ 
Information from: Tri-City Herald, http://www.tri-cityherald.com 

&copy; 2006, KGW-TV
  
*****************************************************************
 42 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge 
 
                         FR Doc E6-9927 
[Federal Register: June 23, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 121)] 
[Notices] [Page 36073] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr23jn06-41]                         
 
Reservation AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge 
Reservation. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 
86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be 
announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 6 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: DOE Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak 
Ridge, Tennessee.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat Halsey, Federal Coordinator, 
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001, 
EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831. Phone (865) 576-4025; Fax (865) 
576-5333 or e- mail: halseypj@oro.doe.gov or check the Web site 
at http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab .
 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of 
environmental restoration, waste management, and related 
activities.
 
Tentative Agenda: Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); Resource Conservation 
and Recovery Act (RCRA); Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); and Other Regulations.
 
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or 
after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements 
pertaining to the agenda item should contact Pat Halsey at the 
address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be 
received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision 
will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The 
Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the 
meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of 
business. Individuals wishing to make public comment will be 
provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments.
 
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Information 
Center at 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN between 8 a.m. 
and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or by writing to Pat Halsey, 
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001, 
EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, or by calling her at (865) 576-4025.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on June 19, 2006.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. E6-9927 Filed 6-22-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
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 43 lamonitor.com: Security bypass road still on drawing board 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 
DARRYL NEWMAN, lareporter@lamonitor.com, Monitor Staff Writer

Motorists accustomed to driving along East Jemez Road or
crossing the Los Alamos Canyon Bridge may not recognize the area
from what it resembled a year ago as construction on the
security perimeter project at Los Alamos National Laboratory
continues to move along. 
The guard checkpoints and large walls have been erected as just
the first phase of construction of the $20 million project being
carried out by the DOE and NNSA in an effort to bolster security
at LANL.

As part of a settlement agreement that was reached in U.S.
District court between the county and the federal government, a
two-lane bypass road would be constructed around the northern
end of the Research Park to reconnect NM 501 at Camp May Road. 

Construction on the Bypass Road, however, has not started as Los
Alamos County hasn't received the easement right-of-way from the
DOE it needs to proceed with its portion of the multi-million
dollar project.

Public Works Director Kyle Zimmerman said that before an
easement can be granted from the DOE, the county needs to know
exactly where the road will be constructed. 
"We're working with the state to get survey crews out to survey
the land," Zimmerman said. "After the survey we can determine a
location for the road and then the county can get the transfer
it needs."

Preliminary estimates place the county's portion of the Bypass
Road at $12 million - half of which Gov. Bill Richardson
promised to provide with state funding. 
"We don't have anything in writing with the state on this
funding," Zimmerman said, adding that the county would need to
draft a joint powers agreement with the state that would detail
specifics on funding.

The funding follows an announcement that Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-NM, made a year ago in securing $4.8 million in remaining
funds appropriated for restoration and improvements after the
Cerro Grande Fire in May 2000.

County Administrator Max Baker said the county is currently
working with the DOE and the NNSA in designing the construction
plans for the first portion of the Bypass Road, which would
stretch from Diamond Drive to the Research Park parking lot.

"We've been working cooperatively with the lab and the DOE on
this first portion," Baker said earlier today.

The public will have a chance to ask questions and comment on
the security perimeter project as part of two meetings that will
be hosted by the DOE/NNSA and Los Alamos County.

LANL Spokesman Bernard Pleau said the meeting dates have not
been scheduled.

"We want to meet with the public when we have something
significant to share with them about the project," Pleau said.
"We should have the first one next month."

Los Alamos County filed a lawsuit against the DOE/NNSA on Dec.
27, 2005, after attempts at working with federal government did
not yield in an agreeable solution in the plans for a security
perimeter project. The county alleged violations of the National
Environmental Policy Act in approving the project.

County leaders and sectors of the public claimed that restricted
public access to NM 501 would not allow for an adequate
emergency route out of the county.

The county also claimed that road restrictions would be
detrimental to the local economy, and limit access to tourism
areas such as the Pajarito Ski Hill and Bandelier National
Monument.

Printed 6/23/06   


  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
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 44 Knox News: ORNL director going back to UT

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

June 23, 2006                     
                                      
OAK RIDGE - Lee Riedinger, one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 
top administrators for the past six years, will leave the lab at 
the end of August to return to the University Tennessee. 

Riedinger confirmed Thursday that he would assume the position of 
vice chancellor for research on an interim basis for a year 
before returning to a faculty position to teach and do research. 

He chaired UT's Physics Department before becoming a part of the 
UT-Battelle team that sought and won the government contract to 
manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory in early 2000. "Everyone's 
known that I wanted to get back to the Physics Department before 
I retired," the 61-year-old physicist said Thursday. "It was a 
question of when and how." 

He said he wanted to spend more time on research projects related 
to the structure of nuclei. 

Riedinger spent most of his career at the University of
Tennessee, beginning in 1971 as an assistant professor. He took
a leave in 1983-84 to serve as science adviser to then-U.S. Sen.
Howard Baker Jr., R-Tenn., in Washington, D.C. 

When UT-Battelle, a partnership of the university and Battelle
Memorial Institute, won the ORNL contract, Riedinger was named
the lab's deputy director for science and technology. 

He essentially served as ORNL's chief research officer until a
management restructuring in 2004, when he took on the new
position of associate lab director for university partnerships. 

ORNL spokesman Billy Stair said it wasn't clear how the
laboratory would fill Riedinger's position. He said it's
possible the duties could be divided among other lab
administrators. 

UT's current vice chancellor for research, Cliff Woods, will
take on other assignments at the university, and Chancellor
Loren Crabtree will conduct a search for the full-time job over
the next year, Riedinger said. 

Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
 					
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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 45 Knox News: Oak Ridge retirees let DOE have it

Retired workers blast officials at meeting over pension plan 
changes 

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

June 23, 2006 

If there had been some rotten tomatoes in the house, the U.S. 
Department of Energy officials might have been red from head to 
toe. DOE took a verbal beating Thursday evening, mostly from its 
retired Oak Ridge employees who clamored for a pension increase. 
			 			
Hundreds of people jammed the performing arts center at 
Pellissippi State Technical Community College and put on a 
passionate show within the limited time allotment. They accused 
the federal agency of using creative math and misleading 
statements to justify a new pension program and to deny them a 
pay adjustment. 

"We may be from Tennessee, but we're not fools," David Reichle,
president of the Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees, told
officials from DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

Reichle, a former associate director of Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, said it was no wonder DOE was losing the trust of
people. He said it was using false assumptions and "bogus
examples" to lay out its case for pension changes. 

DOE held the meeting at the request of U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp,
R-Tenn., ostensibly to explain a proposed change in pension
programs nationwide among DOE contractors. To control costs, DOE
wants to get rid of defined-benefit plans and substitute
defined-contribution plans, using 401(k)-type systems, to make
funding allotments more predictable. 

The focus of Thursday's meeting, however, quickly turned to
retirees and their need for a pension adjustment to offset the
effects of inflation. 

Ingrid Kolb, director of DOE's Office of Management, made the
initial presentation and outlined the enormous financial
pressures the agency is facing to reimburse the cost of medical
benefits and pension plans among 46 contractors. DOE is
responsible for about 200,000 contractor employees - about half
active, half retired, she said. 

What has "alarmed" DOE is that the reimbursement costs have
grown 198 pecent since 2000, totaling $784 million this year,
Kolb said. The federal agency has a $23.6 billion annual budget,
and $1 out of every $23 in that budget goes to cover medical and
pension costs of the DOE contractors, she said. 

Those costs are expected to continue to rise, even though DOE's
funding base will be relatively flat for the foreseeable future,
Kolb said. If DOE doesn't do something to counteract that, the
federal programs - such as environmental cleanup and science
research - will suffer, she said. 

She said DOE is not in a position to give Oak Ridge's 12,000
retirees a pay adjustment. "I know that is not the message you
wanted to hear tonight," she said. 

She also said, "We have to look beyond the issues at a single
site." 

A number of speakers from the audience suggested that DOE was
intentionally blurring the line between medical benefits and
pension plans. Most of the dire numbers are associated with
rising medical costs that everyone is facing, they said, noting
there's still plenty of money in the Oak Ridge pension fund for
a pay increase. 

Mark Keck of BWXT Y-12, the conractor that manages the Y-12
nuclear weapons plant, said the "good news" is that people are
living much longer. But the bad news is that increases the
liability on the pension plan, he said. 

The crowd, which significantly exceeded the room's stated
capacity of 500, often jeered comments from DOE officials. There
clearly was a dispute over many of the facts presented by DOE. 

"You can tell from this room that you have no credibility,"
Chuck Landguth, a former vice president of Martin Marietta
Energy Systems, a DOE contractor in Oak Ridge, told the federal
officials. 

DOE in late April ordered its contractors to implement the
pension changes for newly hired employees by next spring.
However, under pressure from elected officials, unions and other
interest groups, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman recently
postponed the implementation for another year to gather more
input from stakeholders. 

Current employees would be grandfathered under the existing
benefits plan, as would retirees, but the DOE changes still have
generated uncertainty and, in many instances, opposition. 
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
 					
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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 46 KnoxNews: Nuclear storage estimate grows

Uranium facility's cost increase blamed on construction prices, 
design changes 

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

June 23, 2006 

OAK RIDGE - The projected cost of the government's new home for 
bomb-grade uranium has ballooned to half a billion dollars - 
about $150 million more than previous estimates. "That number is 
in the ballpark, but it's still under review and negotiation," 
Mike Monnett, a spokesman at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, said 
this week. 

Monnett said the change in the project's baseline cost
is being studied at U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in
Washington, D.C., and could be approved by the end of July. 
Oak Ridge officials blamed the increase on the rapidly
escalating cost of construction materials in the post-Katrina
period and multiple design changes to meet new security threats. 

Monnett said there have been three significant design
modifications to the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility
because of changes in the "design basis threat." 

The so-called DBT is the government's guidance on terrorist
threats, based on the latest intelligence information. Federal
nuclear facilities are required to meet standards for protection
against those threats. 

Monnett said the cost of construction materials needed for
Y-12's high-security uranium storehouse has gone up
dramatically, adding to the project's overall price tag -
previously estimated at $350 million. 

There also were add-on costs, estimated at $10 million, because
of problems with the building's reinforcing steel. An
investigation earlier this year revealed widespread
deficiencies, leading to a two-month construction shutdown and a
number of management changes. 

Clay Sell, the deputy secretary of energy, reportedly scolded
Y-12 officials during a June 9 visit to Oak Ridge. Sell had
harsh words regarding the uncontrolled cost of the uranium
storage project. 

Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security
Administration, the arm of DOE that oversees the weapons
program, said the project's price tag is still not certain. 

"There is no question that the cost of constructing (the storage
facility) will increase," Wyatt said. "The extent of the cost
increase and the likely impact on the budget is still being
determined. BWXT has proposed a $150 million increase for the
project. Headquarters is reviewing this proposal and is working
with Congress to address changes to the funding profile for the
project." 

Meanwhile, Stephen Sohinki, DOE's nuclear-safety enforcement
chief, last week sent a letter to BWXT that detailed the federal
agency's review of construction problems at the uranium storage
facility. 

While noting that there were numerous problems, including
violations of quality-assurance rules, Sohinki said his office
had decided not to take any formal enforcement action "at this
time" because BWXT recognized the issues early on and
aggressively addressed them. 

"We will continue to monitor your performance in this area and
your completion of the identified corrective actions," he said. 
The Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility is a major part
of the modernization program at Y-12. It will enable the plant
to consolidate its stocks of weapons-making materials in a
single location with enhanced security. 

The project has been a subject of continuing scrutiny. 

The Department of Energy's inspector general and the Project On
Government Oversight, a watchdog group, were critical of BWXT's
decision to eliminate an earthen berm from the initial design.
They said building the uranium vaults underground would bolster
protection against terrorists and perhaps save money in the long
term. 

BWXT, with concurrence from the National Nuclear Security
Administration, opted to build the storehouse above ground. 
There are future plans to build a similar structure next door to
house a $1 billion Uranium Processing Facility. The proposed UPF
would replace Y-12's existing warhead-manufacturing operations. 
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
 					
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
    
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have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
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