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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 New questions over death of David Kelly
2 IRNA: Iran, Russia to expand road, transport cooperation 
3 AFP: Iran warns UN against tough nuclear resolution 
4 AFP: Rice to seek pressure on Iran, Syria - Bush 
5 Guardian Unlimited: Russian Opposition Threatens Unity on Iran
6 Guardian Unlimited: Iranian Official: Enrichment on the Table
7 AFP: US welcomes six-party North Korea talks at ASEAN meeting -
8 AFP: North Korea 'completely irresponsible', 'dangerous' - Rice -
9 US: [southnews] Defiant US Fires Long-Range Test Missile
10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S.-Russian Plutonium Deal Founders
11 [NYTr] Hiroshima/Nagasaki Anniv & US Missile Tests
12 Bellona: Bellona shocked with Russian statements on possibility to r
13 The Observer: It wasn't the 'Yo' that was humiliating, it was the 'N
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
14 US: MiamiHerald.com: Regulators delay FPL's proposed merger
15 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Public input solicited on Diablo safety
16 US: Washington Post: Creative Alternatives to Nuclear Power
17 Independent: Serco brings in Bechtel for Ł70bn nuclear bid 
18 US: Detroit Free Press: Old nuclear site catches state's eye
19 US: Times Argus: NRC asks Vt. Yankee for more safety data
20 International Herald Tribune: French nuclear plants fight long heat 
21 Sofia News Agency: Power Plant Bidders Disappoint Bulgaria    
22 IAEA: IAEA Chief Calls for Global Framework on Energy Security
23 US: Houston Chronicle: New South Texas reactors: Build and risks wil
24 Guardian Unlimited: Addicted to the nuclear option
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
25 Edinburgh Evening News: Terrorism fears as nuclear train passes thro
26 US: ScrippsNews: Feds issue warning to Nevada anti-terror institute 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
27 AU ABC: Company downplays mine workers uranium exposure
28 BBC: Radioactive
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
29 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast begins sealing wells
30 AP Wire: Leading Nevada candidates for U.S. Senate face primary oppo
31 BBC ON THIS DAY | 23 | 1984: Sellafield 'not linked' to cancer clust
32 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush serves his own agenda, not America's 
33 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca director pressed on costs         
34 reviewjournal.com: Critics question Yucca Mountain upgrade plan
35 US: ABC Asia Pacific: Contamination scare at Australian uranium mine
36 US: AU ABC: SA mine drinking water contaminated with uranium. 
37 US: AU ABC: EPA to probe miners' uranium exposure. 
38 times and star: Nuke dump plan for Lillyhall
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
39 USATODAY.com: Nuclear weapons plant becomes nature preserve
40 Santa Fe New Mexican: DOE Agency braces for nuke-site blazes    
41 Rocky Mountain News: Ex-workers echo claims equipment was thrown awa
42 Tri-City Herald: Gregoire sees opportunity at Hanford 
43 Pahrump Valley Times: Test site displays set for libraries    
44 The Enquirer: Retired supervisor now battles system
45 The Enquirer: Final chapter for Fernald
46 Inside Bay Area: Livermore lab chief would keep post if UC bid wins
47 Sacramento Bee: UC enlists Bechtel for Livermore lab bid - 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 New questions over death of David Kelly
 
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 21:18:14 -0500 (CDT)

X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY

DAILY MAIL

New questions over death of David Kelly
By JONATHAN OLIVER, The Mail on Sunday 22:00pm 22nd July 2006

David Kelly: Major investigation has cast doubt on the official verdict that
he committed suicide

Alarming new questions about the death of Iraq weapons inspector David Kelly
have been raised as a major investigation cast doubt on the official verdict
that he committed suicide.

The inquiry by campaigning MP Norman Baker will spark renewed speculation
about how the Government's leading expert on weapons of mass destruction was
found dead in a field in Oxfordshire three years ago.

In particular, the dossier compiled by the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes shows
that the method of suicide said to have been chosen by Dr Kelly, far from
being common as was claimed at the time, was in fact unique.

Dr Kelly was the only person in the United Kingdom that year deemed to have
died from severing the ulnar artery in his wrist, a particularly difficult and
painful process as the artery is deep and Dr Kelly had only a blunt garden
knife.

The MP reveals that the Oxfordshire coroner held an 'unusual' meeting with
Home Office officials before he determined the cause of Dr Kelly's death.

And he claims that a 'cosy cabal' of Mr Blair's friends, including Peter
Mandelson and Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, hand-picked Lord Hutton, a
retired Law Lord from Northern Ireland, to lead the official investigation in
2003.

Writing exclusively in The Mail on Sunday, Mr Baker insists it is time to
question the findings of the Hutton report. He says: "I challenge the
conclusion on the basis that the medical evidence cannot support it, that Dr
Kelly's own behaviour and character argues strongly against it and that there
were grave shortcomings in the legal and investigative processes set up to
consider his death."

Dr Kelly's body was found shortly after he was named as the source for a BBC
report which claimed Downing Street 'sexed up' the official dossier on Saddam
Hussein's chemical and biological arsenal.

The six-month inquiry that followed concluded that the pressure of being
exposed prompted the scientist to take his own life through a combination of
an overdose of painkillers and slashing his wrist.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=3
97129&in_page_id=1770

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of dkelly220706_228x177.jpg]
*****************************************************************
 2 IRNA: Iran, Russia to expand road, transport cooperation 

Moscow, July 22, IRNA

Iran-Russia-Cooperation 

An Iranian delegation is to head for Russia to participate in an
Iran-Russia Transport Working Committee meeting.

 Deputy Minister of Roads and Transportation Hamid Behbahani
will head the Iranian delegation in the meeting which is slated
for July 24-26 in Moscow.

 In the meeting, the two sides will discuss avenues for
expanding ties in the roads and transport sectors as well as
removing obstacles in the way of development of bilateral
relations.

 They will also discuss ways of promoting the north-south
corridor within the framework of their bilateral cooperation.



*****************************************************************
 3 AFP: Iran warns UN against tough nuclear resolution 

 Sun Jul 23, 7:08 AM ET 
		 	 
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran " /> has warned it would retaliate if the UN 
Security Council passed a resolution ordering it to stop 
sensitive nuclear work, but also made a fresh appeal for 
negotiations "without preconditions". 

"Any harsh measures will face a proportionate reaction," foreign
ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday.
 
"If the other side chooses anything but the path of
negotiations, our attitude will change accordingly," he added,
without elaborating on how Tehran could retaliate.
 
The warning came as a draft resolution was circulated in the UN
Security Council. If adopted, Iran would be legally obliged to
suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, at
the centre of fears the country could acquire nuclear weapons.
 
Iran insists that it only wants to enrich uranium to make
reactor fuel, and argues that this is a right under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
 
Several senior Iranian officials have already warned that the
Islamic republic could end UN inspections and leave the NPT.
 
"Iran will clearly not give up its rights. Our rights are
non-negotiable," Asefi said, while at the same time appealing
for negotiations "without any preconditions" to resolve the
nuclear standoff.
 
The five permanent Security Council members plus Germany decided
to send the Iran nuclear dossier back to the Security Council
after Tehran failed to respond to an offer of incentives in
exchange for a halt to enrichment.
 
Iran has said it is prepared to negotiate, but not suspend first.
 
"Everything should be a result of negotiations," Asefi said,
adding that Iran was still studying the proposal.
 
"After the committees' work is done, we will give a response and
start talks for achieving results," he said.
 
Iran has promised to reply by August 22.
 
Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 4 AFP: Rice to seek pressure on Iran, Syria - Bush 
 
 Sat Jul 22, 2:49 PM ET 
		 	 
CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush " /> 
President George W. Bushsaid that one of US Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice " /> Condoleezza Rice's chief goals on her 
upcoming Middle East trip would be to try to isolate Iran " /> 
Iranand Syria " /> Syria. 

Bush also urged Israel " /> Israelto exercise "the greatest 
possible care" in avoiding civilian casualties as it pounds 
targets in Lebanon in an effort to wipe out the Hezbollah Shiite 
militia that has been firing rockets into Israel.
 
At the same time, Bush blamed Hezbollah for touching off the
crisis and said in his weekly radio address: "I believe
sovereign nations have the right to defend their people from
terrorist attack, and to take the necessary action to prevent
those attacks."
 
The US president's comments came after Rice announced that she
would travel to the Middle East, to meet Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, before heading
to Rome for an international conference on the violence
paralysing Lebanon.
 
"Secretary Rice will make it clear that resolving the crisis
demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the
attacks and the nations that support it," Bush said.
 
He said Syria was "a primary sponsor" of Hezbollah and has given
the Shiite militia Iranian-made weapons, and he criticized
Iran's "ambition for nuclear weapons and aid to terrorist
groups."
 
"Their actions threaten the entire Middle East and stand in the
way of resolving the current crisis and bringing lasting peace
to this troubled region," said the US president.
 
"Were also concerned about the impact the current conflict is
having on Lebanon's young democracy," he said. "Hezbollah's
practice of hiding rockets in civilian neighborhoods, and its
efforts to undermine the democratically elected government, have
shown it to be no friend of Lebanon.
 
"By its actions, Hezbollah has jeopardized Lebanons tremendous
advances and betrayed the Lebanese people," said Bush, who added
that Washington would join efforts to get humanitarian aid to
the Lebanese people.
 
Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited: Russian Opposition Threatens Unity on Iran
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday July 22, 2006 9:46 PM
 	
AP Photo MOSB108 
By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Unexpected Russian opposition to key
wording of a U.S.-backed Security Council draft resolution is
straining international unity on how to deal with Iran's nuclear
defiance, U.N. diplomats said Saturday. 

The apparent change of heart is the latest obstacle in the
months-long attempt to pressure Iran's hardline Islamic
government to suspend uranium enrichment, which many countries
fear Tehran wants to use for a nuclear program. 

Iran argues its needs enrichment to make energy and is entitled
to it under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

Although it initially urged restraint, Russia, as recently as
July 12 in Paris, signaled it was ready to support a tougher
line. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and counterparts
from the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany
agreed then to resume Security Council deliberations after Iran
refused requests to respond to an international offer to
negotiate its nuclear program. 

A statement on behalf of the six said they agreed to ``seek a
... Security Council resolution which would make ... suspension
mandatory.'' 

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the
sensitive nature of the matter, say particularly vexing is
Moscow's refusal now to endorse language that would tell Tehran
it has no choice but to freeze uranium enrichment or face
sanctions. 

Work on a resolution was suspended May 3 to allow the six powers
to devise incentives for Iran to freeze enrichment and start
talks meant to secure its agreement to a long-term moratorium on
the activity, which can produce material for use in the fissile
core of nuclear warheads as well as fuel for reactors. 

The incentives include advanced technology and the easing of
U.S. sanctions on the sale of aircraft and aircraft parts. The
United States, breaking with decades of policy, has said it is
willing to join in the multinational talks 

Iran has not turned down their offer, but has shown no sign it
is ready to give up enrichment. Tehran has said it will respond
Aug. 22 to the package - a date which the six nations extending
the offer have rejected as too late. 

In remarks made available to The Associated Press Saturday,
chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani repeated that
enrichment belongs to ``the inalienable rights of the Iranian
nation'' and warned his country would ``reconsider its nuclear
policies'' if pressured too harshly - a possible threat to quit
the NPT. 

The remarks were made Thursday to Iran's Supreme National
Security Council and were forwarded by Tehran to the
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency with a request
that it be circulated among members of its 35-nation board. 

One of the diplomats said Russia seems to be distancing itself
from the Paris declaration and is seeking a resolution that is
not legally binding. 

The diplomat said other differences - including Russian
objections to describing Iran as a ``threat to international
peace and security'' were close to being solved. 

Russia's reluctance could seriously undermine efforts to secure
a compromise from Iran, especially as the United States, Britain
and France insist that the freeze be made mandatory. 

The West wants an Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to comply on the
freeze demand. But if that demand is anything less then
mandatory, any ultimatum loses much of its meaning because there
is little else concrete left to enforce. 

While the diplomats told the AP there was no indication what
brought about the apparent change of heart, it could be as
simple as Moscow believing that Iran will not give up its right
to enrichment. Any resolution demanding this and threatening
sanctions, therefore, is something the Russians fear could lead
to military action which they oppose. 

The wording of a draft resolution drawn up by Britain and
France, and circulated last week among most of the 15-members of
the council, ``decides'' that Tehran ``shall suspend all
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities ...'' 

In a nod to Russia's resistance to the military option, the
draft also refers to Article 41 of Chapter 7 in the U.N.
Charter. This allows punishments that do not involve the use of
armed force, such as economic penalties, banning air travel or
breaking diplomatic relations. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 6 Guardian Unlimited: Iranian Official: Enrichment on the Table
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday July 23, 2006 10:16 AM
 	
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran left open the possibility Sunday that
it might consider suspending uranium enrichment, one of the most
contentious features of its suspect nuclear program. 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have
said they will never abandon uranium enrichment, which the
United States and allies fear could be used for a nuclear arms
program. 

But a foreign ministry spokesman suggested Sunday that Tehran
may have softened its position. 

``Everything should come out through negotiations ... Leave
everything for negotiations,'' Hamid Reza Asefi said. 

The United States and four other permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council have teamed up with Germany to offer Iran a
package of incentives that would include help with peaceful
nuclear development in exchange for a stop to uranium
enrichment. Iran has said it will respond to the package on Aug.
22. 

The spokesman shrugged off the transfer of Iran's nuclear file
to the U.N Security Council July 12, after world powers decided
that Tehran had taken too long to reply to the package. 

``The Security Council is not the end of the world. Any extreme
action would cause an equivalent reaction, `` Asefi said. 

Tehran has insisted on exercising its right to produce nuclear
fuel as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Western powers are suspicious of its intentions because it
concealed parts of its nuclear development from U.N. inspectors
for years. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: US welcomes six-party North Korea talks at ASEAN meeting -
     
 Sat Jul 22, 2:58 PM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States welcomed the prospect of 
six-party talks on North Korea " /> North Korea's nuclear weapons 
program on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting next week, as 
momentum appeared to gather for seizing the opportunity. 

Japan and China agreed Friday that all six nations party to the 
talks should meet at the regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, and 
China indicated it opposed holding talks without Pyongyang, 
Japan's Kyodo news agency said.
 
The United States and South Korea " /> South Koreahad shown 
interest in holding five-way talks if North Korea refused to 
return to the negotiating table.
 
But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice " /> Condoleezza 
Ricesaid Friday she would be "very happy" to attend six-party 
talks in the Malaysian capital.
 
Speaking to a group of Asian journalists, Rice stressed that any 
nuclear negotiations with North Korea must be within the 
six-party framework of the two Koreas, Japan, the United States, 
China and Russia.
 
"If the North Koreans want to come to six-party talks at any
level, I think it would be fine, but we need to do it at six
parties," the secretary of state said when asked if she would be
willing to meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun
who was expected to attend the July 28 ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF).
 
"But if we could have a six-party meeting in Kuala Lumpur, I
would be very happy to attend," she said.
 
Rice defended Washington's insistance on a six-party framework,
saying last week's UN Security Council resolution criticizing
Pyongyang's test launches showed "that this is a problem that
North Korea has with the entire international community."
 
North Korea has shunned the six-way talks since November to
protest US financial sanctions on a Macau bank accused of money
laundering on its behalf.
 
Japan and South Korea have agreed to use the regional security
forum, organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
to press for North Korea's return to six-nation talks.
 
China's President Hu Jintao
" /> Hu Jintaoused a phone conversation Friday with his South
Korean counterpart, Roh Moo-Hyun
" /> Roh Moo-Hyun, to call for new six-nation talks on North
Korea's nuclear weapons, China's state media said.
 
Hu urged "calm and restraint" as regional tensions remained high
over Pyongyang's July 5 missile launches, according to the
official Xinhua news agency.
 
Rice called North Korea "a completely irresponsible state and
dangerous" for its missile tests.
 
"When you look at them testing missiles, not telling anybody
they're firing them in all different directions, and they're
saying that they have a nuclear weapons capability ... that they
could make those together is very dangerous," she said.
 
Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East
Asian affairs, who will attend the ASEAN meeting with Rice, said
that even if North Korea keeps up its boycott of nuclear talks
the United States would still seek talks with the other four
nations.
 
"We hope to be meeting the six-party partners," Hill told a
meeting with journalists.
 
"At this point I can't tell you in what format we will meet them
and I cannot tell you whether the North Koreans will be a part
of a meeting," he added. "But our purpose is to consult our
partners on the way ahead."
 
But North Korea has showed no sign that it will return to
nuclear talks and angrily rejected the UN resolution over its
missiles. It has vowed to bolster its defences, blaming the
"hostile" policy of the United States for the new emergency. 
"North Korea is not listening to too many people these days,"
said Hill.
 	 		 			
Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: North Korea 'completely irresponsible', 'dangerous' - Rice -

 Sat Jul 22, 2:43 AM ET 
		 	 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice " /> 
Condoleezza Ricecalled North Korea " /> North Korea"a completely 
irresponsible state and dangerous" for its July 5 missile tests. 

"When you look at them testing missiles, not telling anybody 
they're firing them in all different directions, and they're 
saying that they have a nuclear weapons capability ... that they 
could make those together is very dangerous," Rice told a group 
of Asian journalists.
 
Rice stressed that last week's UN Security Council resolution
criticizing Pyongyang's test launches shows "that this is a
problem that North Korea has with the entire international
community."
 
She added that she would be happy to attend a meeting of the six
parties trying to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem if it
is organized during the Association of South East Asia Nations
Regional Forum next week in Kuala Lumpur.
 
Rice confirmed she would attend the meeting following her trip
to the Middle East to try to help find a framework for peace in
the embattled region.
 
Host Malaysia had earlier warned that Rice, who skipped the
meeting last year, would send a negative message with another
no-show.
 
She told the Asian reporters the United States had three aims
for the ASEAN meeting: to deepen relations between the United
States and the 10-member group; to talk about cooperation on
terrorism and weapons proliferation, and especially North Korea;
and to discuss the Middle East conflict, particularly with
countries that are taking a strong interest in it like Malaysia
and Indonesia.
 
Rice also said the she and US President George W. Bush
" /> President George W. Bushwere looking forward to visiting
Vietnam later this year on the back of rapidly improving
bilateral relations.
 
"It's in many ways a quite remarkable story how our relations
are evolving," she said.
 
"The Vietnamese people are known for their tremendous industry
... they're very hardworking and entrepreneurial."
 
Copyright Š 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 9 [southnews] Defiant US Fires Long-Range Test Missile
 
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:17:02 -0500 (CDT)

X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY

Defiant US Fires Long-Range Test Missile

3rd Minuteman III Launch This Year Threatens Global Peace and Security

Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA -- Less than a week after the United 
Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning 
North Korea for test launching several ballistic missiles, the United 
States launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic 
missile at 3:14am this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 
California. The missile, carrying three dummy warheads, was fired 4,200 
miles across the Pacific toward the missile test range at Kwajalein 
Atoll in the Marshall Islands, with a flight time of about 30 minutes. 
The missile launch, originally scheduled for July 19 was delayed for 24 
hours due to complications with air traffic control radars in the 
Southwest region of the U.S.

The test is intended to test the reliability and capability of the 
missile system. The U.S. currently deploys 500 Minuteman III missiles, 
kept on high alert and each carrying a single nuclear warhead with a 
yield, depending on the configuration, of 170 kilotons or 335 kilotons, 
respectively 10 or 20 times more powerful than the U.S. atomic bomb that 
devastated Hiroshima nearly 61 years ago, on August 6, 1945.

This test is the latest in an ongoing series of regularly scheduled 
ballistic missile tests conducted by the U.S. military. In the period 
between January 2000 and the present, the U.S. has conducted at least 48 
tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine 
launched ballistic missiles, including some 23 Minuteman III ICBMs, 
launched from Vandenberg. The last test of a Minuteman III occurred on 
June 14.

According to Lt. Col. S.L. Davis, 576th Flight Test Squadron commander, 
the mission director for this launch: "This mission continues a long 
string of successful ICBM flight tests from Vandenberg," Colonel Davis 
added: "It clearly demonstrates the capability of both the Minuteman III 
weapon system and those who maintain and operate it..." The Vandenberg 
news release announcing the launch also mentioned: "The reliability and 
accuracy data will also be used by United States Strategic Command 
planners."

Colonel Davis, in a June 14 News Release issued by the 30th Space Wing: 
"While ICBM launches from Vandenberg almost seem routine, each one 
requires a tremendous amount of effort and absolute attention to detail 
in order to accurately assess the current performance and capability of 
the Nation's fielded ICBM force that is always on-alert in Montana, 
North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. This specific test will 
provide key accuracy and reliability data for on-going and future 
modifications to the weapon system, which are key to improving the 
already impressive effectiveness of the Minuteman III force." (Emphasis 
supplied.)

In a June 22 op-ed in the Washington Post, William Perry, President Bill 
Clinton's Secretary of Defense, and Ashton Carter, his assistant 
Secretary of Defense, called upon the Bush administration, "if 
necessary," to strike and destroy North Korea's Taepodong missile before 
it could be launched - even at risk of igniting a war.

According to Michael Spies, Program Associate with the Lawyers' 
Committee on Nuclear Policy in New York City: "The ongoing conduct of 
these tests represents yet another example of U.S. exceptionalism; the 
U.S. feels no embarrassment in criticizing others for the same 
activities it or its allies engage in." Spies added: "The recent UN 
Security Council resolution condemning the North Korean tests also 
exemplifies the one-sided approach to international security, pursued by 
all the major powers and imposed on the world through their 
disproportionate influence over inter-governmental bodies. The North 
Korea resolution reaffirms that the 'proliferation of nuclear, chemical 
and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes 
a threat to international peace and security.' However, the resolution 
is silent on the threat to others posed by the continued possession, 
reliance, improvement and testing of such weapons and their related 
delivery systems by the permanent members of the Security Council, and 
the 35 other states that have acquired or developed ballistic missile 
capabilities."

Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of the Oakland, California 
Western States Legal Foundation concluded: "These tests are yet more 
evidence of blatant nuclear hypocrisy by the United States, yet the 
silence in response has been deafening. Following the international 
chorus of condemnation of the North Korean missile tests, partially led 
by the U.S., today's Minuteman III launch demonstrates the height of 
hubris. North Korea was labeled by the Bush administration as part of 
the 'axis of evil,' it appeared on the U.S. nuclear target list revealed 
in the Nuclear Posture Review, and it has been threatened with 
preemptive strikes by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. The 
U.S. maintains a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 warheads and is 
upgrading its delivery systems in pursuit of a 'prompt global strike' 
capability. Who's threatening whom? As recognized by the Blix Commission 
on Weapons of Mass Destruction, it's high time for the world's first 
nuclear state to implement its long-past-due obligations under the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to start negotiations on the global 
elimination of nuclear weapons."

_______________________________

On the 2006 World Conference against A & H Bombs

By Akahata
Political Affairs Magazine - New York,NY,USA
Jul. 17  Jul. 23

The following is an Akahata interview with Taka Hiroshi, Japan Council 
against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) secretary general. He discussed the 
significance of the 2006 World Conference against A & H Bombs to be held 
on August 2-9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

* * *

The 2006 World Conference will be held under a situation in which the 
world stands at a major crossroads with regards to nuclear weapons. We 
live in an era in which nuclear weapons can be eliminated by the 
solidarity of people of the world.

Rallying broadest possible forces

At the World Conference to be held in atom-bombed Japan, we will 
emphasize the call for a total ban on nuclear weapons. At the same time, 
we will seek to create a worldwide movement by bringing together the 
broadest possible domestic and international movements such as the 
anti-war peace actions boosted by the struggles against the Iraq war and 
the actions in Japan to defend the Constitution and to oppose U.S. 
military bases.

Last year, the World Conference took place soon after the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. This year, the World 
Conference is tasked to significantly change the balance of power in the 
world in favor of the anti-nuclear weapons and peace movement.

The war in Iraq has bogged down in a quagmire with no future. Withdrawal 
of the U.S. forces from Iraq is the only way to get out of it.

It is Francis Fukuyama, a neo-conservative leader, who said that the 
United States stands at a crossroads.

After the September 11 terrorist attack, it is repeatedly said, "There 
is a danger that terrorists may obtain nuclear bombs. It is the biggest 
threat of our time." The invasion of Iraq was used as an opportunity to 
deal with this "threat".

In Iraq, however, neither weapons of mass destruction nor any clue to 
link Iraq and the al-Qaida's attack have been found. The moral 
foundation of the United States has crumbled. This is what the 
neo-conservative leader pointed out.

The world shares this understanding. Despite the Bush administration's 
claims, the world has not seen a "proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction." Bush also claimed the democratization of Iraq, but it can 
never justify the war on Iraq.

Total ban without delay

Crimes, atrocities, and murders by U.S. troops are being exposed in 
Iraq, which is one of the devastating outcomes of the unjustifiable war. 
This shows that U.S. soldiers have nothing to rely on.

Not only in Spain but also in Italy, governments that had followed the 
U.S. Bush administration were displaced. In the United States, anti-war 
sentiments seem to continue to rise in view of the midterm election this 
fall.

The Bush administration argues that they need nuclear weapons in order 
to counter terrorists and the "rogue states". Such an argument can never 
justify the more than 20,000 nuclear weapons existing in the world. If 
they perceive nuclear proliferation as dangerous, they should hurry all 
the more to achieve a total ban on nuclear weapons.

The overwhelming majority of countries in the world are demanding that 
nuclear weapons be eliminated. At the same time, current discussions 
also shed light on the essence of nuclear proliferation. The Weapons of 
Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix, who led the United 
Nations inspections of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, issued a 
report. Members of the commission included former U.S. Secretary of 
Defense William Perry.

They are saying that it is not convincing for the nuclear 
weapons-possessing countries to press non-possessing countries for 
non-proliferation by threatening them with force, and that only a 
solution based on international law can prevent nuclear weapons from 
proliferating. This is a world opinion.

Goal to establish a nuclear-free zone

North Korea launched missiles. It is anachronistic to believe that 
nuclear weapons development or missile launches can be a diplomatic card 
in U.S. -North Korea and Japan-North Korea negotiations. Using a threat 
of force as a diplomatic card will inevitably end up in armed conflicts. 
In the 21st century, it is no longer appropriate to try to settle 
conflicts of opinion or interest by force. What is needed is reason.

In order to accomplish the abolition of nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapons 
possessing states, first of all, should make honest efforts to fulfill 
their promise to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. At the same time, 
since the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is an agreed goal, 
all interested parties should respond in good faith to achieve this.

It is also important to explore ways for Japan to assume a role in 
calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and world peace.

At the U.N. General Assembly last year, even the phrase calling for the 
"abolition of nuclear weapons" was dropped from Japan's draft 
resolution. Being in isolation from the international community because 
of the war on Iraq, the United States is focusing on dragging its allies 
into the prosecution of war. Japan has jumped at the role.

Based on remorse over the past war of aggression and the experience of 
the atomic bomb tragedies, Japan renounced war and adopted the 
Constitution that stipulates non-possession of a military. It also 
established the Three Non-nuclear Principles as its national policy. The 
world now requires of Japan to make use of its Constitution and the 
national policy in Japan's diplomacy.

In the United Nations, 80-90 percent of member countries have voted for 
resolutions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and tens of 
millions of people throughout the world took to the streets to oppose 
the Iraq War. I believe that Japan can ensure its own security by 
gaining trust from people in Asia and the rest of the world through 
honestly sticking to its Constitution and the Three Non-nuclear Principles.

Today, more and more Japanese people are seeking to play a part in the 
movements against nuclear weapons and for peace. A variety of such 
movement will converge at the 2006 World Conference.

Dialogue with residents

The Yamaguchi Prefectural Gensuikyo recently visited some communities in 
Iwakuni City, and collected nearly 500 signatures in support of the 
"Call for the Swift Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" through dialogues with 
local residents. This shows that the movement against A and H Bombs has 
an important role to play in strengthening the move for peace by 
promoting dialogues concerning the elimination of nuclear weapons with 
which most of the residents can agree.

Government representatives will take part in the 2006 World Conference, 
including Mexico which facilitates nuclear-free zones in the world, 
Egypt which plays a major role in making a nuclear-free Middle East, and 
Cuba and Malaysia which are active in the non-aligned movement. 
Representatives of anti-nuclear weapons movements from the five 
nuclear-weapons possessing countries, victims of nuclear testings and 
accidents, as well as Japanese grassroots movements will discuss ways to 
establish a world without nuclear weapons.

In Vancouver, the "Abolition 2000" in its general meeting held as part 
of the World Peace Forum in June decided to jointly submit with Japan 
Gensuikyo the signatures for the "Call for the Swift Abolition of 
Nuclear Weapons" to the United Nations in October.

U.N. initiative

In the NPT Review Conference last year, the U.S. blocked every move that 
could lead to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Because of this 
situation, the United Nations must fulfill its mission to "save 
succeeding generations from the scourge of war" (Preamble to the Charter 
of the United Nations) and to eliminate nuclear weapons stated in its 
first resolution.

Max Kampelman, an arms control negotiator for President Ronald Reagan, 
recently wrote in the New York Times that President Reagan was able to 
propose the abolition of nuclear weapons because he had a vision of how 
the world should be while leading the nuclear confrontation in the "cold 
war". Kampelman stressed that President George Bush should call for a 
total ban on nuclear weapons at the U.N. if he is serious about security 
and that he should make clear that the U.S. is prepared to eliminate its 
nuclear arsenal provided that the international framework for this end 
is established.

The U.N. has taken important initiatives such as the holding of the 
Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Disarmament, the signing 
of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the convening of the 
U.N. Security Council open session on Iraq that stimulated public 
opinion in the world. Now is the time for the U.N. to take the 
initiative again.

The driving power for the World Conference against A & H Bombs held 
annually in Japan is the sharing of the Hibakusha's experiences of the 
atomic bombing. Hibakusha have filed concerted lawsuits at 13 district 
courts calling for their diseases to be officially recognized as A-bomb 
related. The Hiroshima District Court is expected to issue its ruling as 
early as the beginning of August. We hope that the World Conference will 
strengthen support for Hibakusha and send the stories of the Hibakusha 
and the anti-nuclear peace messages more widely throughout the world.

Inheritance and solidarity

Young people will assemble in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the call for 
"inheritance". The anti-nuclear peace movement sends an important 
message to all young people. In present-day society where people are 
divided into a tiny group of "winners" and a large group of "losers", 
the anti-Iraq war movement has convinced many people that they can 
change the world. Although it could not stop the Iraq war, in the 
overwhelming majority of countries public opinion has made even their 
respective governments oppose the war. The idea of the elimination of 
nuclear weapons that had been regarded as a mere dream now is shared by 
the governments and citizens of most countries. This idea has been sent 
out to the world by Hibakusha and the movement against A & H Bombs.

At last year's World Conference, one-third of the participants were 
young people in their twenties. The conference's motto this year is to 
create "solidarity beyond generations." Participation of young people 
gives hope to all generations.

I believe that the 2006 World Conference will give us a hopeful vision 
of our future.

 From Akahata

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3861/1/199/
?PrintableVersion=enabled

The archives of South News can be found at
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ 
*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: U.S.-Russian Plutonium Deal Founders
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 
Saturday July 22, 2006 5:46 PM
 	
AP Photo GFX508 
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hailed six years ago as a breakthrough in
safeguarding Russia's nuclear materials, a U.S.-Russian plan to
rid the world of tons of plutonium has foundered and achieved
little. 

Even though the U.S. has spent $1.4 billion, none of the
plutonium has been removed from the weapons stockpile, nor is
any expected to be destroyed anytime soon. In addition, Moscow
recently acted on its own to change the program so it better
suits its energy goals. 

With the Bush administration beginning talks with Russia on
broader cooperation on nuclear energy, the troubled plutonium
program sheds light on how difficult the negotiations between
the countries can become. 

At the just-concluded summit of world powers, President Bush and
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised continued discussions
on the program, which calls on each country to eliminate 34
metric tons of plutonium from weapons stockpiles. 

The program got under way with great fanfare in 2000 as an
``unprecedented'' initiative to curb nuclear nonproliferation.

The U.S. and Russia would work on parallel tracks to take the
plutonium from warheads, blend it with uranium so it can be
burned in commercial power-producing light-water reactors. 

The amount was a fraction of the militaries' plutonium
stockpiles. While exact numbers are classified, the United
States is believed to have about 100 metric tons and Russia
about 145 metric tons. 

The program was seen as a way to get Russia to start destroying
its excess plutonium, removing the possibility of theft in a
country with fewer safeguards than the United States. 

Originally both countries were to build a plant to convert the
plutonium to a mixed-oxide fuel - a blend of plutonium and
uranium. That led to a string of problems as Russia didn't want
to pay for its plant and there was a long dispute over who would
be liable in case of worker injuries. 

Russian officials said this year they no longer were interested
in turning the plutonium into the mixed-oxide fuel, but wanted
to burn the plutonium in a type of reactor that, under some
conditions, can produce more plutonium than it burns. 

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the proposed U.S. conversion
plant in South Carolina has jumped from $1 billion to $4.7
billion, and a second plant needed to take apart the plutonium
pits removed from warheads has grown to $2 billion, four times
what it was projected to cost five years ago, according to a
House committee monitoring the program. 

``Somebody ought to rethink the idea,'' said Rep. David Hobson,
R-Ohio, chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee that
this year eliminated money for the program. The full House went
along. 

A Senate committee, however, wants to keep spending on the South
Carolina plant - $335 million next year to start construction.
But to reflect its displeasure with Russia, the committee
eliminated $35 million that was to go to advance the Russian
program. 

Matthew Bunn, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at Harvard
University, says the original program is on the verge of
collapse. 

``The idea of doing it in parallel, if not dead, is drawing its
last breath,'' Bunn said. 

Linking the programs was essential to nonproliferation efforts
because it would push the Russians into a commitment to cut its
plutonium stocks, he said. 

``We've had a lot of diplomatic effort and spent a lot of money
and we haven't gotten rid of a gram of plutonium,'' Bunn said. 

Administration officials say the program is moving forward and
they want to start building the conversion plant this fall. They
have accepted Russia's shift toward using a different kind of
reactor, known as a breeder, and believe the Russians can start
burning plutonium in four to six years. 

``We're both going to get rid of it. They will be burning
plutonium before we will,'' Linton Brooks, head of the National
Nuclear Security Administration, said recently in response to
questions about the viability of the program. 

In a speech last week on nonproliferation, Brooks said the
Russians ``told us ... and told the international community that
they remain committed to disposing 34 metric tons of plutonium.

We expect them to keep this commitment and will work with them
to achieve it.'' 

But experts say Russia's small breeder reactor can accommodate
less than one-third of a ton of plutonium a year, compared with
four tons a year that the mixed-oxide program would have
handled. 

They say Russia really wants financial help from the U.S. and
others to build a larger fast-breeder reactor that could burn
more plutonium - and perhaps even produce new plutonium. 

``We have feared all along that the Russians would try to
leverage the plutonium disposition program to get a new breeder
reactor,'' said Tom Clements, nuclear nonproliferation adviser
to Greenpeace International. 

Brooks said the United States remains ``opposed to fast reactors
that are used as breeders.'' He noted that ``fast reactors can
be breeders or burners,'' depending on their configuration. 

Hobson said he is convinced that the Russians never were
interested in converting plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel to burn
in a commercial power reactor. 

``The Russians will technically live up to their side of an
agreement,'' Hobson said in an interview. ``But you need to
understand how they view these agreements. They view them
differently than we do.'' 

Hobson said the chief of Russia's civilian nuclear program made
clear to him in a meeting last April that the Russians would not
pay for any of the costs of building a mixed-oxide plant and
want to use the breeder reactors - presumably with help from the
West. 

``I think the Russians are smarter about this than our people
are,'' Hobson said. 

^--- 
On the Net: 
National Nuclear Security Administration: www.nnsa.doe.gov 
Institute for Science and International Security:
http://www.isis-online.org/ 
Nuclear Threat Initiative: http://www.nti.org 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 11 [NYTr] Hiroshima/Nagasaki Anniv & US Missile Tests
 
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:21:12 -0400 (EDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Dave Muller (southnews)

Political Affairs Magazine - Jul. 17-23, 2006
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3861/1/199/

On the 2006 World Conference against A & H Bombs

By Akahata

[The following is an Akahata interview with Taka Hiroshi, Japan Council 
against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) secretary general. He discussed the 
significance of the 2006 World Conference against A & H Bombs to be held 
on August 2-9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.]

The 2006 World Conference will be held under a situation in which the 
world stands at a major crossroads with regards to nuclear weapons. We 
live in an era in which nuclear weapons can be eliminated by the 
solidarity of people of the world.

Rallying broadest possible forces

At the World Conference to be held in atom-bombed Japan, we will 
emphasize the call for a total ban on nuclear weapons. At the same time, 
we will seek to create a worldwide movement by bringing together the 
broadest possible domestic and international movements such as the 
anti-war peace actions boosted by the struggles against the Iraq war and 
the actions in Japan to defend the Constitution and to oppose U.S. 
military bases.

Last year, the World Conference took place soon after the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. This year, the World 
Conference is tasked to significantly change the balance of power in the 
world in favor of the anti-nuclear weapons and peace movement.

The war in Iraq has bogged down in a quagmire with no future. Withdrawal 
of the U.S. forces from Iraq is the only way to get out of it.

It is Francis Fukuyama, a neo-conservative leader, who said that the 
United States stands at a crossroads.

After the September 11 terrorist attack, it is repeatedly said, "There 
is a danger that terrorists may obtain nuclear bombs. It is the biggest 
threat of our time." The invasion of Iraq was used as an opportunity to 
deal with this "threat".

In Iraq, however, neither weapons of mass destruction nor any clue to 
link Iraq and the al-Qaida's attack have been found. The moral 
foundation of the United States has crumbled. This is what the 
neo-conservative leader pointed out.

The world shares this understanding. Despite the Bush administration's 
claims, the world has not seen a "proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction." Bush also claimed the democratization of Iraq, but it can 
never justify the war on Iraq.

Total ban without delay

Crimes, atrocities, and murders by U.S. troops are being exposed in 
Iraq, which is one of the devastating outcomes of the unjustifiable war. 
This shows that U.S. soldiers have nothing to rely on.

Not only in Spain but also in Italy, governments that had followed the 
U.S. Bush administration were displaced. In the United States, anti-war 
sentiments seem to continue to rise in view of the midterm election this 
fall.

The Bush administration argues that they need nuclear weapons in order 
to counter terrorists and the "rogue states". Such an argument can never 
justify the more than 20,000 nuclear weapons existing in the world. If 
they perceive nuclear proliferation as dangerous, they should hurry all 
the more to achieve a total ban on nuclear weapons.

The overwhelming majority of countries in the world are demanding that 
nuclear weapons be eliminated. At the same time, current discussions 
also shed light on the essence of nuclear proliferation. The Weapons of 
Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix, who led the United 
Nations inspections of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, issued a 
report. Members of the commission included former U.S. Secretary of 
Defense William Perry.

They are saying that it is not convincing for the nuclear 
weapons-possessing countries to press non-possessing countries for 
non-proliferation by threatening them with force, and that only a 
solution based on international law can prevent nuclear weapons from 
proliferating. This is a world opinion.

Goal to establish a nuclear-free zone

North Korea launched missiles. It is anachronistic to believe that 
nuclear weapons development or missile launches can be a diplomatic card 
in U.S. -North Korea and Japan-North Korea negotiations. Using a threat 
of force as a diplomatic card will inevitably end up in armed conflicts. 
In the 21st century, it is no longer appropriate to try to settle 
conflicts of opinion or interest by force. What is needed is reason.

In order to accomplish the abolition of nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapons 
possessing states, first of all, should make honest efforts to fulfill 
their promise to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. At the same time, 
since the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is an agreed goal, 
all interested parties should respond in good faith to achieve this.

It is also important to explore ways for Japan to assume a role in 
calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and world peace.

At the U.N. General Assembly last year, even the phrase calling for the 
"abolition of nuclear weapons" was dropped from Japan's draft 
resolution. Being in isolation from the international community because 
of the war on Iraq, the United States is focusing on dragging its allies 
into the prosecution of war. Japan has jumped at the role.

Based on remorse over the past war of aggression and the experience of 
the atomic bomb tragedies, Japan renounced war and adopted the 
Constitution that stipulates non-possession of a military. It also 
established the Three Non-nuclear Principles as its national policy. The 
world now requires of Japan to make use of its Constitution and the 
national policy in Japan's diplomacy.

In the United Nations, 80-90 percent of member countries have voted for 
resolutions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and tens of 
millions of people throughout the world took to the streets to oppose 
the Iraq War. I believe that Japan can ensure its own security by 
gaining trust from people in Asia and the rest of the world through 
honestly sticking to its Constitution and the Three Non-nuclear Principles.

Today, more and more Japanese people are seeking to play a part in the 
movements against nuclear weapons and for peace. A variety of such 
movement will converge at the 2006 World Conference.

Dialogue with residents

The Yamaguchi Prefectural Gensuikyo recently visited some communities in 
Iwakuni City, and collected nearly 500 signatures in support of the 
"Call for the Swift Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" through dialogues with 
local residents. This shows that the movement against A and H Bombs has 
an important role to play in strengthening the move for peace by 
promoting dialogues concerning the elimination of nuclear weapons with 
which most of the residents can agree.

Government representatives will take part in the 2006 World Conference, 
including Mexico which facilitates nuclear-free zones in the world, 
Egypt which plays a major role in making a nuclear-free Middle East, and 
Cuba and Malaysia which are active in the non-aligned movement. 
Representatives of anti-nuclear weapons movements from the five 
nuclear-weapons possessing countries, victims of nuclear testings and 
accidents, as well as Japanese grassroots movements will discuss ways to 
establish a world without nuclear weapons.

In Vancouver, the "Abolition 2000" in its general meeting held as part 
of the World Peace Forum in June decided to jointly submit with Japan 
Gensuikyo the signatures for the "Call for the Swift Abolition of 
Nuclear Weapons" to the United Nations in October.

U.N. initiative

In the NPT Review Conference last year, the U.S. blocked every move that 
could lead to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Because of this 
situation, the United Nations must fulfill its mission to "save 
succeeding generations from the scourge of war" (Preamble to the Charter 
of the United Nations) and to eliminate nuclear weapons stated in its 
first resolution.

Max Kampelman, an arms control negotiator for President Ronald Reagan, 
recently wrote in the New York Times that President Reagan was able to 
propose the abolition of nuclear weapons because he had a vision of how 
the world should be while leading the nuclear confrontation in the "cold 
war". Kampelman stressed that President George Bush should call for a 
total ban on nuclear weapons at the U.N. if he is serious about security 
and that he should make clear that the U.S. is prepared to eliminate its 
nuclear arsenal provided that the international framework for this end 
is established.

The U.N. has taken important initiatives such as the holding of the 
Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Disarmament, the signing 
of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the convening of the 
U.N. Security Council open session on Iraq that stimulated public 
opinion in the world. Now is the time for the U.N. to take the 
initiative again.

The driving power for the World Conference against A & H Bombs held 
annually in Japan is the sharing of the Hibakusha's experiences of the 
atomic bombing. Hibakusha have filed concerted lawsuits at 13 district 
courts calling for their diseases to be officially recognized as A-bomb 
related. The Hiroshima District Court is expected to issue its ruling as 
early as the beginning of August. We hope that the World Conference will 
strengthen support for Hibakusha and send the stories of the Hibakusha 
and the anti-nuclear peace messages more widely throughout the world.

Inheritance and solidarity

Young people will assemble in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the call for 
"inheritance". The anti-nuclear peace movement sends an important 
message to all young people. In present-day society where people are 
divided into a tiny group of "winners" and a large group of "losers", 
the anti-Iraq war movement has convinced many people that they can 
change the world. Although it could not stop the Iraq war, in the 
overwhelming majority of countries public opinion has made even their 
respective governments oppose the war. The idea of the elimination of 
nuclear weapons that had been regarded as a mere dream now is shared by 
the governments and citizens of most countries. This idea has been sent 
out to the world by Hibakusha and the movement against A & H Bombs.

At last year's World Conference, one-third of the participants were 
young people in their twenties. The conference's motto this year is to 
create "solidarity beyond generations." Participation of young people 
gives hope to all generations.

I believe that the 2006 World Conference will give us a hopeful vision 
of our future.

                                ***

Defiant US Fires Long-Range Test Missile

3rd Minuteman III Launch This Year Threatens Global Peace and Security

Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA -- Less than a week after the United 
Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning 
North Korea for test launching several ballistic missiles, the United 
States launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic 
missile at 3:14am this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 
California. The missile, carrying three dummy warheads, was fired 4,200 
miles across the Pacific toward the missile test range at Kwajalein 
Atoll in the Marshall Islands, with a flight time of about 30 minutes. 
The missile launch, originally scheduled for July 19 was delayed for 24 
hours due to complications with air traffic control radars in the 
Southwest region of the U.S.

The test is intended to test the reliability and capability of the 
missile system. The U.S. currently deploys 500 Minuteman III missiles, 
kept on high alert and each carrying a single nuclear warhead with a 
yield, depending on the configuration, of 170 kilotons or 335 kilotons, 
respectively 10 or 20 times more powerful than the U.S. atomic bomb that 
devastated Hiroshima nearly 61 years ago, on August 6, 1945.

This test is the latest in an ongoing series of regularly scheduled 
ballistic missile tests conducted by the U.S. military. In the period 
between January 2000 and the present, the U.S. has conducted at least 48 
tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine 
launched ballistic missiles, including some 23 Minuteman III ICBMs, 
launched from Vandenberg. The last test of a Minuteman III occurred on 
June 14.

According to Lt. Col. S.L. Davis, 576th Flight Test Squadron commander, 
the mission director for this launch: "This mission continues a long 
string of successful ICBM flight tests from Vandenberg," Colonel Davis 
added: "It clearly demonstrates the capability of both the Minuteman III 
weapon system and those who maintain and operate it..." The Vandenberg 
news release announcing the launch also mentioned: "The reliability and 
accuracy data will also be used by United States Strategic Command 
planners."

Colonel Davis, in a June 14 News Release issued by the 30th Space Wing: 
"While ICBM launches from Vandenberg almost seem routine, each one 
requires a tremendous amount of effort and absolute attention to detail 
in order to accurately assess the current performance and capability of 
the Nation's fielded ICBM force that is always on-alert in Montana, 
North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. This specific test will 
provide key accuracy and reliability data for on-going and future 
modifications to the weapon system, which are key to improving the 
already impressive effectiveness of the Minuteman III force." (Emphasis 
supplied.)

In a June 22 op-ed in the Washington Post, William Perry, President Bill 
Clinton's Secretary of Defense, and Ashton Carter, his assistant 
Secretary of Defense, called upon the Bush administration, "if 
necessary," to strike and destroy North Korea's Taepodong missile before 
it could be launched - even at risk of igniting a war.

According to Michael Spies, Program Associate with the Lawyers' 
Committee on Nuclear Policy in New York City: "The ongoing conduct of 
these tests represents yet another example of U.S. exceptionalism; the 
U.S. feels no embarrassment in criticizing others for the same 
activities it or its allies engage in." Spies added: "The recent UN 
Security Council resolution condemning the North Korean tests also 
exemplifies the one-sided approach to international security, pursued by 
all the major powers and imposed on the world through their 
disproportionate influence over inter-governmental bodies. The North 
Korea resolution reaffirms that the 'proliferation of nuclear, chemical 
and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes 
a threat to international peace and security.' However, the resolution 
is silent on the threat to others posed by the continued possession, 
reliance, improvement and testing of such weapons and their related 
delivery systems by the permanent members of the Security Council, and 
the 35 other states that have acquired or developed ballistic missile 
capabilities."

Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of the Oakland, California 
Western States Legal Foundation concluded: "These tests are yet more 
evidence of blatant nuclear hypocrisy by the United States, yet the 
silence in response has been deafening. Following the international 
chorus of condemnation of the North Korean missile tests, partially led 
by the U.S., today's Minuteman III launch demonstrates the height of 
hubris. North Korea was labeled by the Bush administration as part of 
the 'axis of evil,' it appeared on the U.S. nuclear target list revealed 
in the Nuclear Posture Review, and it has been threatened with 
preemptive strikes by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. The 
U.S. maintains a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 warheads and is 
upgrading its delivery systems in pursuit of a 'prompt global strike' 
capability. Who's threatening whom? As recognized by the Blix Commission 
on Weapons of Mass Destruction, it's high time for the world's first 
nuclear state to implement its long-past-due obligations under the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to start negotiations on the global 
elimination of nuclear weapons."

The archives of South News can be found at
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ 

       
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*****************************************************************
 12 Bellona: Bellona shocked with Russian statements on possibility to resume nuclear tests 

 (Click on image to enlarge it) Bellona ship M/S Genius near
Novaya Zemlya in 1990, demonstrating against Russian and
American nuclear bomb tests. "Stop the nuclear bomb tests in
Nevada and at Novaya Zemlja," says the banner in Russian. 

Thomas Nilsen/Bellona --> --> Subject: --> 


+ Inspecting on Wednesday testing area at the Novaya Zemlya
archipelago, Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov claimed, the
area is maintained in permanent readiness, and nuclear tests can
be resumed at any moment. 20/07-2006 

"We are guided by reality and maintain the testing ground in a
state of permanent readiness, simultaneously observing all of
the commitments assumed," Ivanov told the press in Novaya
Zemlya, mentioning that several nuclear powers have not ratified
the nuclear test ban treaty. 

We are shocked with Ivanovs statement, - Frederic Hauge,
president of Bellona Foundation says.  Resuming nuclear tests in
the Arctic area will cause enormous international protest.

 In 1990 Bellona protested against nuclear testing at Novaya
Zemlya with its Genius boat near the archipelago. The boat was
detained but later left free by the Soviet frontier guards.

 When Russia stopped nuclear tests, it was a signal of peace,
and the United States had to follow. Now the words of the
defense minister about very possibility of resuming the tests
cause instability,  Hauge says.

 According to Hauge, Bellona will use all activities to stop
such tendencies.

 For forty years, 132 explosions had thundered at Novaya Zemlya.

Novaya Zemlya is the northern extension of the Ural Mountains
which divide the European and Asian continents. Novaya Zemlya is
made up of two islands divided by the Matochkin Strait. The two
islands are 900 kilometres long in all, and cover approximately
82,179 square kilometres. There are also a number of other small
islands, covering a surface of approximately 1,000 square
kilometres. Most of the northern, and parts of the southern
island, is covered by glaciers. The permafrost reaches down 300
to 600 metres into the ground. The rock of Novaya Zemlya is
brittle and has deep crevices. The highest mountain of Novaya
Zemlya is 1,547 metres above sea level. The closest area of
settlement of any significance on the mainland is the town of
Amderma, 280 kilometres east.

Mer bakgrunn
 --> ďťż Support Bellona's work for the environment - Phone +47
23 23 46 00 | E-MAIL: info@bellona.no 
*****************************************************************
 13 The Observer: It wasn't the 'Yo' that was humiliating, it was the 'No'

Comment | 

[UP] 

Tony Blair wanted Britain to look big in the world. But being a
satellite of George Bush is making him and us look small 

Andrew Rawnsley

Sunday July 23, 2006 The Observer             

You will have your own view - there's so much to choose from -
on which part of the open-mic conversation between George W Bush
and Tony Blair at the Yo Summit was the most toe-curling. One of
my favourite excruciating moments is when Bush thanks Blair for
sending him a Burberry sweater as a birthday gift. The American
President sends up the British Prime Minister by mocking: 'I
know you picked it out yourself.'

There's no question which exchange is most enjoyable for those
with contempt for the Prime Minister. It is the moment that
makes Mr Blair look like the poodle of popular caricature.

Worse, he comes over as a poodle who can't even beg his master
to toss him a dog biscuit. It is the same bit of the encounter
that has caused the most wincing among the Prime Minister's
friends.

When Tony Blair offers himself as a Middle East peace envoy, he
is casually rebuffed by the American President between bites on
a bread roll. Told by Bush that 'Condi is going', the normally
fluent Blair is reduced to inarticulate jabbering. 'Well, it's
only if, I mean, you know, if she's got a... or if she needs the
ground prepared as it were... Because obviously if she goes out,
she's got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just
talk.' Yeah, just talk.

It was awful for Tony Blair to be caught asking for permission
to go to the Middle East. It was dire to hear George Bush saying
he wouldn't let the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom go out
- not even on a pointless trip. It looks even more humiliating
when the French Foreign Minister is going.

In the build-up to the action to remove the Taliban in
Afghanistan, George Bush was delighted to let Tony Blair go
globe-trotting as an ambassador-at-large. The American President
was happy to use Mr Blair in the same way on the road to war in
Iraq. When it does not suit the White House, the Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom is grounded.

The foreign policy realists in the British government will argue
that a Blair trip to the Middle East would have no chance of
achieving anything without American support. But that serves to
underline a truth about Britain as an international actor which
this country doesn't like to hear and Tony Blair doesn't want to
tell. Britain has no independent leverage on any of the players
in this crisis. When Sir Menzies Campbell pressed him to do more
about the escalating conflagration in Lebanon, the Prime
Minister replied testily: 'May I just point out that our
influence with Hizbollah has been somewhat limited.' British
influence over Israel, Iran or Syria is also 'somewhat limited'.

The only favour done to the Prime Minister by the broadcast of
his rap with George Bush has been to illustrate a little of what
he has been up against over the past five years in dealing with
this American President. We have been frequently told by his
defenders that, whatever verbal dyslexia he may display in
public, the private Bush is as smart as a whip, with a
sophisticated grasp of the complexities of the geopolitical
situation. Analysing the carnage unfolding in Lebanon, the view
of the American President is this: 'What they need to do is to
get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's
over.'

The unguarded mic also picked up the American President saying
he didn't want to prepare any closing remarks for the G8 Summit.

'Just gonna make it up,' he shrugs. To the Chinese premier, he
remarks, 'This is your neighbourhood.' They are in St
Petersburg. Continuing his conversation with the Chinese leader,
President Bush goggles: 'Russia's a big country and you're a big
country,' like a seven-year-old who has just discovered them in
the atlas.

That fragment of Bush and Blair will be an interesting specimen
for future historians to examine when they try to assess British
foreign policy under Blair. The question that he has wrestled
with, just as his predecessors have done and his successors will
have to do, is how Britain can continue to be a player of global
importance when its relative strength is declining. Britain is
still the world's fifth or sixth biggest economy, depending upon
how you do the sums. She is still a power in world financial
markets, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a
nuclear power. She has key seats on the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.

Set against that, Britain has just one per cent of the world's
population and a declining share of the global economy. As
China, India, Brazil and other rising powers grow in clout,
there will be an ineluctable diminution in Britain's capacity to
shape world events, except in concert with other powers.
Tony Blair - and in this, again, he has not been as unlike his
predecessors as he may have thought - has tried to have a
foreign policy that punched above his country's weight. In some
respects, you can say he has been successful. Britain's record
in pushing other countries towards agreements on debt relief and
climate change is by no means perfect, but it has displayed more
energy and commitment than many other world actors.

The Blair doctrine of humanitarian interventionism has not been
put into practice in Burma, North Korea or Zimbabwe, as he will
regretfully acknowledge. Where Britain could act alone it did in
Sierra Leone, where I account it a very good thing to have saved
the people of that oppressed corner of West Africa from the
sadistic thugs who specialised in hacking the limbs off
children. It was a highly creditable act when Tony Blair took
considerable risks to lead the case for intervention in Kosovo.

Without the pressure he put on Bill Clinton, it is highly
unlikely that the Americans would have agreed to threaten
Slobodan Milosevic with a ground invasion. Without that threat,
the Serbian dictator would have completed the ethnic cleansing
of the Kosovars. A side-effect of that intervention became
apparent later in the build-up to the war in Iraq and during its
searing and grossly mismanaged aftermath. Because he had
succeeded in turning around Bill Clinton on Kosovo, it gave Tony
Blair an exaggerated sense of his capacity to influence the
behaviour of US Presidents.

Another result of this Prime Minister's enthusiasm for a big
British presence on the world stage is that she is taking on
burdens which others decline to share and which she is now
struggling to bear. The most senior British general in
Afghanistan has just warned that the country is 'close to
anarchy' and that western forces are 'running out of time'.

British forces in Afghanistan have already had to be reinforced
because the perils of that mission have been terribly
under-estimated.

Tony Blair came to power believing that the best way to enhance
British global power was through its relations with Europe and
the United States. His single most important objective in terms
of the EU was to take Britain into the single currency. He
failed. Standing outside the euro has not had such bad
consequences as Tony Blair once feared. As it turned out, it was
the Iraq War that had a much more souring effect on his
relations with some key European leaders. Tony Blair found
himself doing what every previous British Prime Minister has
done, with the partial exception of Ted Heath. Mr Blair has
invested most weight on the 'special relationship' with the
United States.

History dealt him a tricky hand to play in terms of America. It
first gave him Bill Clinton, who was ideologically close, but
politically shattered and weakened internationally by his
scandal-stained second term. Then the American electoral system
produced George Bush, one of the most right-wing Presidents to
occupy the White House in decades. The Blair line has always
been that unswerving support for the White House in public is
the price you pay, however unpopular it might be with the
British public, to win private influence. Better, in the Prime
Minister's view, that Bush greets him with 'Yo, Blair' than with
'Piss off, Blair'.

It is hard to argue that this has served him well in the eyes of
either the rest of the world or his own country. Over Guantanamo
Bay, over extraordinary rendition and more recently over the
extradition treaty, Britain has ended up looking like an
unconditional supporter of - at best as an awkward apologist for
- the United States.

When the Lebanon crisis was debated in the Commons, there was an
extraordinary unanimity among MPs. They were united, across the
parties and ranging from those who had been passionately for the
war in Iraq to those who had been as passionately against it.

MPs were as one in condemning Hizbollah. They were also
universally of the view that Israel's crippling assault on
Lebanon is recklessly disproportionate and will prove to be
utterly counter-productive. Against this consensus stood the
lonely and increasingly battered figure of Margaret Beckett, as
the Foreign Secretary stuck with the Prime Minister's refusal to
show an inch of difference with America. Britain's position
lines her up with the United States against the European Union,
the United Nations and nearly all of the rest of world opinion.

That is because Tony Blair will never even murmur disagreement
with the United States. Especially not when he is going to
Washington this week.

You can easily see why he calculated that staying close to
America made Britain a bigger player in the world. When this
prevents his country having a voice of its own during a crisis
as serious as this, the effect of being glued to the United
States is to make Britain sound smaller than she is. 

Useful links
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Department for International Development

Email comments for publication to:
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk

[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 14 MiamiHerald.com: Regulators delay FPL's proposed merger

07/22/2006 | 

UTILITIES
 
Regulators say it will take until 2007 to decide whether a 
proposed FPL Group merger in Maryland violates a federal 
requirement.

 BY JOHN DORSCHNER jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com

Already delayed in Maryland, FPL Group's proposed $11 billion
merger with Constellation Energy received yet another setback
Friday when federal regulators announced they needed more time
to examine the deal. 

The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission issued a two-paragraph
order saying it will take until Feb. 2, 2007, to study whether
the merger might violate a federal requirement that a merger not
result in regulated utilities being used to subsidize
unregulated aspects of the business. 

FPL Group owns the regulated Florida Power & Light.
Constellation has Baltimore Gas & Electric, the regulated
utility for the city. 

The regulated entities have their pricing set by state
commissions to make certain the utilities make a reasonable
profit. 

Some Maryland politicians are concerned that these regulated
profits would be used to subsidize Constellation's and FPL
Group's unregulated businesses, which involve a broad range of
power generation, from wind to nuclear, that the companies are
doing throughout the country as they compete with others to sell
deregulated power. 

FERC spokeswoman Barbara Connors told Bloomberg News that the
commission has never rejected a merger, but has occasionally put
conditions on previous deals. 

Florida regulators do not have to approve the merger, but in
Maryland the Democratic-controlled Legislature has become
actively involved, passing a bill to fire the present state
regulatory commission and appoint new members to closely study
the proposed merger. 

Because of the delays in Maryland, FPL and Constellation have
stopped their work toward integrating the companies. 

*****************************************************************
 15 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Public input solicited on Diablo safety

07/23/2006 | 

Federal nuclear regulators will discuss inspections and respond
to comments in a pair of meetings set for Tuesday

 By David Sneed dsneed@thetribunenews.com

  + read the federal report on the Diablo Canyon nuclear power
plant (PDF)

The public on Tuesday has an opportunity to hear a review of
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plants safety performance during
2005 and share concerns about the plant with federal regulators
in a town-hall-style meeting. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two meetings in San
Luis Obispo at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 333 Madonna Road. 

The first will begin at 2:30 p.m. NRC officials will review with
plant managers the results of the various inspections held at
the plant last year. 

Those inspections showed that the plant was operated in a safe
manner but identified some recordkeeping problems that resulted
in incorrectly reporting that several unsuccessful emergency
drills had been successfully completed. 

These problems caused an area of the plants color-coded safety
matrix to be downgraded during part of last year from the
optimal green to white, indicating that improvements needed to
be made. Corrections have been made, and all the plants safety
codes are now green. 

The public will have an opportunity to make comments to the
agency before the first meeting ends. 

The second meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Eight NRC officials
from the agencys regional office near Dallas will be on hand to
answer questions and take public comment. 

The agency began holding these open- microphone meetings several
years ago after county residents said they were dissatisfied
with the agencys responsiveness over concerns about terrorist
attacks and the safety of Diablo Canyons nuclear waste storage
facility. 

*****************************************************************
 16 Washington Post: Creative Alternatives to Nuclear Power

washingtonpost.com > Opinions  > 

Saturday, July 22, 2006; Page A16

Regarding Jim Hoagland's

July 16 op-ed column, "Bush's Nuclear Energy":

Is the Economy Helping or Hurting You?
 
Americans will need a lot of convincing that nuclear energy is a
safe response to energy security needs and global warming. Here
in Pennsylvania, the No. 2 reactor of Three Mile Island still
stands as a monument to nuclear energy's potential hazards.
Spent fuel is a certain hazard, and no solution yet exists to
deal with the waste that nuclear power plants produce.

We are historically an innovative nation. We should not be
seeking a "new nuclear world order," as Mr. Hoagland said, but
rather to increase the availability and reliance on renewable
energy such as wind, solar and ethanol, and to further develop
cleaner-burning coal gasification plant technology.

These options could help reduce global warming emissions and
increase energy security while avoiding nuclear waste and higher
risks of nuclear power.

IVAN CHAN

Philadelphia

 Š 2006 The Washington Post Company 
*****************************************************************
 17 Independent: Serco brings in Bechtel for Ł70bn nuclear bid 

By Tim Webb 

Published: 23 July 2006 

Services group Serco has teamed up with US construction giant
Bechtel to bid for a slice of the Ł70bn UK nuclear
decommissioning market. The move could lead to an offer for
British Nuclear Group (BNG). 

Confirmation of Bechtel's involvement in the consortium will be
controversial. The US company helped set up the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, the state-run body that will set the
terms of BNG's sale and start handing out decommissioning
contracts this autumn.
 
The Government originally barred Bechtel from bidding for
contracts until 2008 to avoid any conflict of interest. But the
ban was lifted earlier this year, which has angered rival
companies wanting a share in the market.
 
Companies see securing decommissioning work as a key to winning
contracts to build and operate new reactors, as these will be
located next to the stations that are being decommissioned.
 
Serco, which has exchanged confidentiality agreements with the
US company, is expected to announce its consortium within weeks.
The company already has expertise in the nuclear field through
its stake in the AWE joint venture that runs the UK's Trident
nuclear programme. It is responsible for assessing the safety of
nuclear submarines when they leave port and is also involved in
civil decommissioning work in Russia.
 
Bechtel wants Serco to lead the consortium because of its
government links and knowledge of the UK nuclear industry.
 
All UK nuclear sites are being decommissioned before a new
tranche is built. BNG operates a number of these, including
Sellafield, and is involved in decommissioning. In the autumn it
will be given a five-year contract to clean up Sellafield, worth
Ł5bn, which BNG's buyer will inherit. Bechtel is known to be
interested in purchasing the company.
 
The US company CH2M Hill, which also wants to buy BNG, has
already formed a rival decommissioning consortium. 

Š 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 18 Detroit Free Press: Old nuclear site catches state's eye

 Freep.com 

Michigan
 
July 23, 2006
 	 	 	
ASSOCIATED PRESS
 		 		 		 		 		 		 
CHARLEVOIX -- A nearly 500-acre tract of undeveloped northern
woodland is for sale, and the State of Michigan is interested in
buying it. But there's a catch.

In addition to the forest and more than a mile of spectacular
Lake Michigan shoreline, the property features a storage area
for highly radioactive waste. It previously was the site of the
Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant, which shut down in 1997 and
has since been dismantled.

When land restoration work is completed next month, the only
evidence that the plant existed will be the waste: 441 fuel
bundles, each containing more than 100 spent nuclear fuel rods.
They're stored in concrete casks in a fenced-off area about the
size of a basketball court and likely will remain there until a
national repository for high-level radioactive waste is
established.

That probably won't happen before 2010, said Tim Petrosky,
spokesman for Consumers Energy, which operated Big Rock Point
and owns the property.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Traverse
Bay Conservancy want to buy the land and hope the Michigan
Natural Resources Trust Fund will provide about half of the
$20-million asking price. The trust fund buys land for public
recreation with royalties paid by companies that lease oil and
gas rights from the state.

The DNR is seeking an up-front grant of $3 million and more
later. "There are all sorts of ways we can finance this project.
It would likely be spread out," spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said.

The Little Traverse Conservancy is pushing hard for a public
purchase. But competition for the trust-fund money is fierce,
and the Big Rock Point proposal has snags because of the waste,
board member Sam Washington said.

"If it stays on the site, they will have to convince the board
that the plans for safeguarding it and safeguarding the public
are credible," he said.

Consumers wants to sell the land, excluding the waste site.
Developers have shown interest, but the company is waiting to
see whether the state and the Little Traverse Conservancy can
swing a deal for public acquisition.

The trust-fund board will decide before year's end whether to
award a grant.
                
Copyright Š 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.
*****************************************************************
 19 Times Argus: NRC asks Vt. Yankee for more safety data

Vermont News & Information

July 22, 2006 

Associated Press   
  
BRATTLEBORO  Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear still needs
to provide a little more information to the Nuclear Regulatory
agency as its bid for a license extension continues.

NRC staff has asked Entergy to provide information that would
submit its application to extend its license by 20 years beyond
the current expiration of 2012. But the staff said it concurred
with 95 percent of the process used by Entergy and Yankee staff
to evaluate the application.

"I want to stress that in most cases, (this) doesn't mean
they're in error or they're wrong," staff member Gary Galetti
said. "We understand the process they went through, but we
didn't think they were as clear as they needed to be."

The NRC is currently evaluating whether the plant has looked
into the integrity of its various systems, structures and
components and how well they would hold up through another 20
years of operation.

Yankee officials have followed the lead of other similar boiling
water reactors in assembling its application, but there are some
issues specific to the Vernon plant that need a little more
attention, NRC officials said.

For example, the staff wants additional documentation about how
Vermont Yankee would respond to such things as floods, storms
and earthquakes. It also needs an evaluation of some components
that support safety systems.

Yankee says it would rely on the nearby Vernon hydroelectric
plant if there were a blackout, but the NRC wants more detail on
the mechanical and electrical systems of the dam.

Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said some of the information
already has been given to the NRC, such as about the Vernon dam.
Other information will be provided, also, he said.

Hearings before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board are
scheduled to begin Aug. 1.
   
*****************************************************************
 20 International Herald Tribune: French nuclear plants fight long heat wave

Reuters

Published: July 23, 2006

PARIS France's government has approved a request from the 
electricity giant EDF to allow its nuclear reactors to discharge 
water used as a coolant into rivers at above-normal temperatures 
because of a prolonged heat wave.
 
The heat at which water is discharged into rivers is controlled 
by law to protect freshwater plants and fish, but the heat wave 
was threatening to force some reactors to shut down.
 
"The electricity grid manager has identified minimum production 
requirements at some reactors which are needed to guarantee the 
network's balance and continued supplies to consumers," France's 
Ministry of Industry said in a statement Saturday. "In these 
conditions and as a preventative measure, the government has 
decided to respond favorably to the request from EDF."
 
Which reactors benefit from the waiver will be decided by the 
electricity grid manager - itself a unit of EDF - as the 
conditions arise, the ministry said.
 
EDF warned that without action the two-week-old heat wave - 
forecast to last around another week - "could threaten the 
balance between supply and demand in electricity."
 
The electricity company, which took similar measures during 
France's last major heat wave in 2003, said that it was closely 
monitoring the impact of the discharges on the environment.
 
EDF also said it would continue spot purchases in the European 
power market and postpone planned nuclear plant maintenance in 
order to cope with current demand.
 
The heat wave has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 22 
people in France.
 
The national weather service said on Sunday that temperatures in 
many areas had cooled, but it maintained a hot weather alert in 
26 of the 96 administrative departments in France proper, mainly 
in the south and east of the country.
 
 
PARIS France's government has approved a request from the 
electricity giant EDF to allow its nuclear reactors to discharge 
water used as a coolant into rivers at above-normal temperatures 
because of a prolonged heat wave.
 
The heat at which water is discharged into rivers is controlled 
by law to protect freshwater plants and fish, but the heat wave 
was threatening to force some reactors to shut down.
 
"The electricity grid manager has identified minimum production 
requirements at some reactors which are needed to guarantee the 
network's balance and continued supplies to consumers," France's 
Ministry of Industry said in a statement Saturday. "In these 
conditions and as a preventative measure, the government has 
decided to respond favorably to the request from EDF."
 
Which reactors benefit from the waiver will be decided by the 
electricity grid manager - itself a unit of EDF - as the 
conditions arise, the ministry said.
 
EDF warned that without action the two-week-old heat wave - 
forecast to last around another week - "could threaten the 
balance between supply and demand in electricity."
 
The electricity company, which took similar measures during 
France's last major heat wave in 2003, said that it was closely 
monitoring the impact of the discharges on the environment.
 
EDF also said it would continue spot purchases in the European 
power market and postpone planned nuclear plant maintenance in 
order to cope with current demand.
 
The heat wave has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 22 
people in France.
 
The national weather service said on Sunday that temperatures in 
many areas had cooled, but it maintained a hot weather alert in 
26 of the 96 administrative departments in France proper, mainly 
in the south and east of the country.
 
 
PARIS France's government has approved a request from the 
electricity giant EDF to allow its nuclear reactors to discharge 
water used as a coolant into rivers at above-normal temperatures 
because of a prolonged heat wave.
 
The heat at which water is discharged into rivers is controlled 
by law to protect freshwater plants and fish, but the heat wave 
was threatening to force some reactors to shut down.
 
"The electricity grid manager has identified minimum production 
requirements at some reactors which are needed to guarantee the 
network's balance and continued supplies to consumers," France's 
Ministry of Industry said in a statement Saturday. "In these 
conditions and as a preventative measure, the government has 
decided to respond favorably to the request from EDF."
 
Which reactors benefit from the waiver will be decided by the 
electricity grid manager - itself a unit of EDF - as the 
conditions arise, the ministry said.
 
EDF warned that without action the two-week-old heat wave - 
forecast to last around another week - "could threaten the 
balance between supply and demand in electricity."
 
The electricity company, which took similar measures during 
France's last major heat wave in 2003, said that it was closely 
monitoring the impact of the discharges on the environment.
 
EDF also said it would continue spot purchases in the European 
power market and postpone planned nuclear plant maintenance in 
order to cope with current demand.
 
The heat wave has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 22 
people in France.
 
The national weather service said on Sunday that temperatures in 
many areas had cooled, but it maintained a hot weather alert in 
26 of the 96 administrative departments in France proper, mainly 
in the south and east of the country.
 
 
PARIS France's government has approved a request from the 
electricity giant EDF to allow its nuclear reactors to discharge 
water used as a coolant into rivers at above-normal temperatures 
because of a prolonged heat wave.
 
The heat at which water is discharged into rivers is controlled 
by law to protect freshwater plants and fish, but the heat wave 
was threatening to force some reactors to shut down.
 
"The electricity grid manager has identified minimum production 
requirements at some reactors which are needed to guarantee the 
network's balance and continued supplies to consumers," France's 
Ministry of Industry said in a statement Saturday. "In these 
conditions and as a preventative measure, the government has 
decided to respond favorably to the request from EDF."
 
Which reactors benefit from the waiver will be decided by the 
electricity grid manager - itself a unit of EDF - as the 
conditions arise, the ministry said.
 
EDF warned that without action the two-week-old heat wave - 
forecast to last around another week - "could threaten the 
balance between supply and demand in electricity."
 
The electricity company, which took similar measures during 
France's last major heat wave in 2003, said that it was closely 
monitoring the impact of the discharges on the environment.
 
EDF also said it would continue spot purchases in the European 
power market and postpone planned nuclear plant maintenance in 
order to cope with current demand.
 
The heat wave has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 22 
people in France.
 
The national weather service said on Sunday that temperatures in 
many areas had cooled, but it maintained a hot weather alert in 
26 of the 96 administrative departments in France proper, mainly 
in the south and east of the country.

Herald Tribune All rights reserved   [IHT]    
*****************************************************************
 21 Sofia News Agency: Power Plant Bidders Disappoint Bulgaria    

  Author: Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace                                              22 Jul 2006
11:07:36     

  Your article describing Economy and Energy Minister Ovcharov 
being disappointed by the bids for the Belene NPP project 
contains several distortions and factual mistakes.
 
The bidding consortia based their proposal on their technical
and financial possibilities. There are good reasons why the price 
proposal is what it is - and knowing the urgent need for new 
orders that both companies have, these are certainly not bids 
with overdrawn budgets. In reality, both consortia (Skoda 
Alliance and Atomstroyexport / Areva NP) are notorious for their 
budget overdraws and timeline extensions. If Ovcharov demands 
shorter time lines and lower budgets - and if he gets them - he 
is only fooling himself. Ovcharov is not the one to demand, but 
he is faced with the reality that nuclear power is expensive.
 
You mention a budget price of 2 Billion Euro. This is incorrect.

The orientation sum for this tender was 2,6 Billion Euro, but 
several experts as well as people within the Bulgarian government 
have pointed out that a budget of around 3 Billion Euro is more 
realistic.
 
You write that all reactors in Kozloduy will close under pressure 
of the EU. This is not true. In Kozloduy, six reactors were 
built. Four of them will have to be closed after extensive 
negotiations with the EU, as their VVER 440/230 reactors are 
deemed in near-consenus amongst experts to be too unsafe. 
Bulgaria was part of these negotiations and accepted this 
judgement, which means that closure of these blocks is not "under 
pressure of the EU". Blocks 1 and 2 were closed in 2002 and are 
currently waiting dismantling. Blocks 3 and 4 will have to be 
closed before the end of this year. Block 5 and 6, both VVER 
1000/320 reactors will continue to function. Block 5 had a 
serious (INES 2) incident on March 1st of this year and is 
currently off-line for repairs and inspections. These two 
reactors were built with a designed life time of 30 years, which 
means they will operate until 2017 and 2021 respectively.
 
Greenpeace thinks that the Belene NPP is not necessary in 
Bulgaria and that also the Kozloduy blocks can graduately be 
phased out on a relative short term. Bulgaria has an immense 
potential in energy efficiency that will be cheaper per kWh than 
nuclear energy. On top of that it has a very large and virtually 
untapped potential for the use of renewable energy sources as 
wind, biomass, small hydro and sun, which could provide the 
country with true energy security and independence from imports 
from for instance Russia. Instead of continuing with megalomanian 
projects as Belene, Greenpeace calls on Minister Ovcharov to 
change the direction of its energy policy in a more economic and 
sustainable direction. [reply]   
    
Author: Dirk                                                    

22 Jul 2006 12:04:16     

  Mr Greenpeace,
 
Nuclear power is much cleaner, much cheaper, etc then any other. 
Make your studies objective and you'll find out.
 
If you want loads of free energy, go jump into a vulcano. Btw,
God is responsible for the polluting volcanoes. Go file a report.

  Power Plant Bidders Disappoint Bulgaria    view initial story 
   
  Author: Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace   						  24 Jul 2006
10:21:23     

  Nuclear power is *not* clean. Mining, fuel production and spent 
fuel processing are very dirty activities, which, by the way, 
also consume large amounts of fossil fuel and therefore emit CO2. 
Nuclear power also produces high level radioactive waste for 
which there is no solution, and which has to be kept out of the 
environment for tens of thousands to hundred thousand years. 
Nuclear power, more than any other energy source, is pushing the 
negative effects of our energy hunger towards future generations. 
[reply]   
    
  Power Plant Bidders Disappoint Bulgaria    view initial story 
   
  Author: /0                                              

22 Jul 2006 11:45:49     
  Jan: wind, biomass, small hydro and sun
 
All except small localized hydro have proven to be, not only
economically inefficient, but as, or more polluting in the long
term than oil.
 
Although nuclear power has it's dangers (accidents) and waste
storage problems, Bulgaria's energy infrastructure, in my
opinion, need them, not for energy Independence, but as an
economic resource for export.
 
I used to be a Greene, with a 'Burn wood, not atoms' bumper
sticker. I am no longer such a naive hippie. Global warming
caused by the burning of 'so-called' fossil fuels, or even
worse, wood and coal, have to be curtailed. The price of petrol,
going over 3$ a gallon now and heading toward 5 if war with Iran
is begun, is a big help. (not that I support war as a solution)
 
I think the 'Greenies' have, historically, done more harm than
good.
 
  Author: Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace   						  24 Jul 2006
10:32:40     
  Dear anonymous... american? (petrol price in USD/gallon)...
 
Wood is - when burned in a clean way (and there are many 
techniques available to do so) - CO2 neutral, provided the wood 
does not come from deforestation but from sources in which it is 
re-grown.
 
Your information on economic efficiency and pollution of 
renewables is simply bogus. If you are really interested, the 
German institute DLR worked out an energy development scenario in 
which it is made clear that in the EU 25, renewables will be on 
the long run more economic than the present energy development:
 
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/energy-revo
lution-a-sustainab
 
On www.greenpeace.org and many other websites you can find
information about environmental impacts of different energy
sources. Nuclear cuts of very badly, as well as oil and coal.
 
Indeed - Bulgaria would like to expand its electricity
generation capacity mainly for export reasons. This is not a
good development for two reasons. The first one is that where
Bulgaria exports nuclear electricity, the negative consequences
remain in the country (risk for accident / terrorist attack,
nuclear waste). The second is that long distance transport of
electricity is a wasteful activity: Bulgaria looses incredible
amounts of primary energy because of generating it far away from
where it is used. Export only increases that. Bulgaria has many
other possibilities for economic activity and economic growth.
But even if it decides that electricity export should be an
important activity: it can create electricity overproduction a
lot more effictive by focusing now on energy efficiency. And it
has very large resources of renewable energy that are until now
virtually untapped. Bulgaria does not need nuclear - in fact its
nuclear lobby harms a healthy and modern development of the
country.

  Author: /0 24 Jul 2006 11:49:48     

  Jan: But even if it decides that electricity export should be
an important activity: it can create electricity overproduction
a lot more effictive by focusing now on energy efficiency. 

You're talking out of your ass again. Waste is a national
passtime here. You have NO idea what your talking about or to
whom you're talking. Go chain yourself to a redwood tree, please.
 
/0 (and send lots of EU money so the politicians can have bigger
cars and longer vacations)
    
  Author: /0 24 Jul 2006 11:41:57     
  Jan: Dear anonymous... american? 

I am not anonymous. My handle is /0, Divide by Zero, get it?
(probably not)
 
If you had even bothered to read the forum, instead of just
using it for your spam, you would know that I have posted my
real name several times: David Wolf, formerly of Santa Rosa,
California, formerly involved in the environmental movement
there before I learned what idiots we all had been, and now
living in beautiful Bulgaria. Leave us the FK alone, idjiot.
 
Author: /0 24 Jul 2006 10:57:14     
  Jan, well, let's see:
 
Wind power: Housings and blades made of plastic, takes
petrochemicals to produce and burns petrochemical in production.
The generator's metallic parts take petrochemical or nuclear
energy to smelt, transport from the mine to the smelter, from
the smelter to the manufacturer, and then to the assembly point,
and then there's the wiring to put it into the grid, coated in
plastic, I might mention. Nothing is free.
 
Once the units are assembled they must be installed in some,
usually pristine, location. Hundreds of them, requiring
transport, new roads, cars and trucks driven by assembly crews,
etc.
 
Then they must be maintained, and the average life span of a
single generator is 10 years.
 
Very bad economics, I say. Better nuclear.
 
And you can stick your wood heat where the sun don't shine.
Unless it is perfectly balanced recycled wood waste burned in a
very expensive controlled combustion stove, wood is one of the
worst polluters, besides coal, there is.
 
I burned wood when I lived in America because I lived in a
forest and it cost me nothing (except chain saw gas), except the
breathing part. But, heck, everybody there burned wood, and even
plastic garbage outside...
 
Greenies are just not realists.
 
/0
[reply]   
    
  Power Plant Bidders Disappoint Bulgaria    view initial story 
   
  Author: /0   						  24 Jul 2006 11:18:15     
  Let's look at geothermal.
 
I lived near the Geysers geothermal electrical plant in
Sonoma-Mendocino county.
 
I had been going there since I was a kid. A wonderful place,
minimally developed for some theraputic baths with great hiking
and natural caves filled with steam for us hippies to use for
free.
 
Along comes GE and builds fences, plugs off all the steam vents
and runs generators and turbines that only lasted 5 years before
the high sulfer content corroded all the piping and turbines and
the site was abandoned and is now on the CA toxic clean-up list.
A total net loss for the company, passed on, of course, to the
consumer.
 
Gee, thanks Greenie. Good fking idea.
 
Author: /0 24 Jul 2006 11:24:28     

  Biomass: Takes petrochemicals, in the form of fertilizers to
produce it, Petro, in the form of diesel to harvest and
transport it. The process of converting it into alcohol creates
more CO2 than simply burning the petro fuel used to transport it
would, and it requires retrofitting of older vehicles (at great
cost, both in $ and in MORE petrochemical use in manufacturing,
transport, etc.) as well as new manufacturing to use an already
obsolete fuel.
 
Hey, Greenie, go save some whales, or something, eh?
 
/0 (likes whales)
    
Author: /0 24 Jul 2006 11:32:01     

  Hydrogen fuel cells, same story, only 10X worse. A pipers
dream (makes for good PR, though)
 
Solar collectors, again, sameo, sameo. PLASTIC COMES FROM PETRO
CHEMICALS! The highly toxic metal parts, guess what NEED PETRO
CHEMICALS TO PRODUCE!
 
Wow, how fking stupid can you be?
 
Energy self reliance is the only answer, individuals or
neighborhood cooperatives,but it often comes at the expense of
the world, as a whole. I'll buy my damn solar cells, at the
expense of the world at large.
 
The only one that works and doesn't do more harm than good, if
you can do the math, is small scale (town sized) hydo power.
 
Been there, done that, liked it and it was fun to manage.
 
/0 (and no fish were hurt in the process)

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 22 IAEA: IAEA Chief Calls for Global Framework on Energy Security

+ [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] 
 
New International Pact and Body Needed, He Says
 
Staff Report

 21 July 2006 [Mohamed ElBaradei and President Hu Jintao ] 
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei confers with President
Hu Jintao of China during the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg,
Russia. (Photo: V. Cserveny/IAEA) 

  + Story Resources 
  + G8 Action Plan on Global Energy Security
  + IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy 
  + Planning and Economic Studies Section (PESS) 
  + IAEA & Nuclear Security 
  + Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
[pdf] 
With energy needs rising especially in poor countries, IAEA
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has proposed developing a new
global pact and an associated global energy body to address the
challenge of global energy security. Dr. ElBaradei made the
proposal during the summit meeting of the Group of 8 (G8)
leading industrialized countries on 17 July, 2006 in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
 
Global energy security means fulfilling the energy needs of all
countries, Dr. ElBaradei said. At the summit, the G8 adopted an
Action Plan identifying seven areas for enhancing global energy
security, ranging from increasing stability of global markets to
addressing climate change and sustainable development. The G8
leaders agreed that dynamic and sustainable development of our
civilization depends on reliable access to energy. G8 countries
include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian
Federation, United Kingdom, and the United States.
 
The key issue, he said, is how can these be implemented, i.e.,
to move from the expression of laudable intentions to real
action. Dr. ElBaradei stressed the need for a comprehensive
approach, which would:
 

  + balance demand with energy supplies and associated
technologies; 
  + create global approach of energy supply and distribution
that would be equitable and grant universal access to affordable
energy and transparent and functioning markets that serve both
producers and consumers; as well as protect the environment; and 
  + include a system or framework to achieve all these and
ensure every country´s basic needs are met. 

Dr. ElBaradei believes such a framework, consisting of a global
energy pact and associated international energy body would be
able to address the seven key areas identified in the G8 plan of
Action. Additionally, it would be able to address specific
issues, including:
 

  + How much energy and in what form is needed globally,
particularly in developing countries; 
  + How best to address the need for robust comparative energy
assessment leading to detailed concrete practical
recommendations (energy mix, infrastructure) on a national and
regional basis; 
  + How to assist developing countries in building the internal
capability (and capacity) to take energy matters in their own
hands and how can the energy needs in developing countries be
financed; 
  + How best to ensure transparent, open and functioning
competitive markets to address the needs of both producers and
consumers; and 
  + What R&D needs to be coordinated globally in addition to
that undertaken by the private sector? 

"There is no development without energy," the Director General
said, "and without energy there is poverty, resentment and
frustration - a fertile breeding ground for violence and
extremism." He pointed out that 1.6 billion people still have no
access to electricity and the grossly unequal access to energy
between OECD countries (8,500 kWh per capita per year) on one
extreme and Nigeria (148 kWh per capita per year) on the other
end.
 
"Nuclear power is going through a rennaisance driven by energy
demand, a quest for energy security, concern about climate
change, and a sustained safety record over the past 20 years,"
Dr. ElBaradei said. "However, if nuclear power is to play a role
as part of an energy mix, a new framework is needed to address
multilateral approaches to the fuel cycle, assurance of supply
and a better system to protect nuclear facilities and material".
 
The bottom line, Dr. ElBaradei said, is that "energy security no
longer makes sense as a concept to be addressed in national
terms".
 
Energy issues around the world today are dealt with in a
fragmented manner, both in terms of geographical coverage and
resources. For example, OPEC is limited to oil and in its
membership; the European Energy Charter caters to Europe and
some observers; UNESCO focuses on solar energy, and the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) assists developing countries in
renewables and energy efficiency.
 
Global structures charged with global oversight and monitoring
exist in many key areas, among those: the World Health
Organization (WHO) for health; the World Trade Organization
(WTO) for trade; International Marine Organization (IMO) for
marine transport; and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
for agriculture. So why not in the energy area, the Director
General asked.
 
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
 
Also at the G8, Dr. ElBaradei expressed his support for the new
U.S./ Russian "Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism".
Dr. ElBaradei hopes that this new global effort will complement
ongoing efforts to better protect nuclear material and
facilities by helping countries to implement nuclear security
measures called for under the International Convention for the
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and Security Council
Resolution 1540.
 
Dr. ElBaradei urged all countries to join in global efforts to
ensure that terrorists have no means to obtain nuclear or
radioactive materials, or ways to attack nuclear facilities. He
pledged IAEA support in working with Governments under this
initiative to expand existing efforts to upgrade nuclear
security.
 
At this year´s summit Dr. ElBaradei, along with a number of
heads of States and leaders of other international organizations
like the International Energy Agency of the OECD, the United
Nations, UNESCO, the World Bank, the World Health Organization,
and the World Trade Organization were invited to participate in
the discussions.
 Copyright 2003-2005, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O.
Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria 
Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail:
Official.Mail@iaea.org
*****************************************************************
 23 Houston Chronicle: New South Texas reactors: Build and risks will come
More study of radiation threats, disease rates needed

Viewpoints, Outlook     

July 21, 2006, 6:53PM

By JOSEPH J. MANGANO

LAST month, NRG Energy notified federal officials of its 
intention to build and operate two new nuclear reactors at the 
South Texas Project site near Bay City. The action by NRG, based 
in Princeton, N.J., has national implications, as utility 
companies move closer to the first new order of a nuclear reactor 
in the United States since 1978.

NRG gave several reasons for supporting the move to expand 
nuclear power in Texas, such as meeting a growing demand for 
energy and the high cost of other sources such as natural gas. 
But the most important issue, safety and human health, was 
ignored.

Perhaps the best-known health threat that nuclear reactors pose 
to humans is the worst-case scenario of a meltdown. A reactor 
core and waste pools store massive amounts of highly toxic 
radioactivity. Any accident or act of sabotage can release these 
chemicals into the air and cause large casualties. Reactors 
around the world have experienced accidents, with the 1986 
Chernobyl being the most catastrophic.

But another Chernobyl isn't necessary for reactors to harm 
humans. Every day, reactors release a small portion of the 
radioactivity they produce into the atmosphere. This 
radioactivity takes the form of more than 100 chemicals that are 
breathed and consumed in food and water by humans. These 
chemicals harm the body in varying ways. Strontium-90 attaches to 
bone and teeth, Cesium-137 distributes in soft tissues and 
Iodine-131 seeks out the thyroid gland.

Each of these chemicals injures and destroys cells once inside 
the body. All cause cancer, particularly in infants and children, 
who are most susceptible to radiation's toxic effects.

The issue of whether new reactors will affect persons living near 
South Texas Project is better understood by examining the record 
of the two reactors now operating there. These reactors started 
up in 1988 and 1989, and are the largest of the 103 reactors in 
the United States. They now produce about 5 percent of the 
electricity in Texas.

South Texas Project is located in the center of Matagorda County, 
which has had a population of about 38,000 for the past quarter 
century. All county residents live within 15 miles of the plant. 
The county is very similar to the state of Texas in a number of 
ways. It has roughly the same age, race and gender distribution, 
and about the same poverty, educational and homeownership levels.

In the years 1986-1989, just as South Texas Project was starting 
operations, death rates for infants and children in Matagorda 
County were well below state rates.

But in the following four years, as the reactors began emitting 
radioactivity into the environment, the infant and child death 
rates rose 60 percent and 33 percent, respectively, while state 
rates declined.

Today, Matagorda County rates remain higher than state rates.

The death rate for all cancers combined in Matagorda County was 5 
percent below Texas' in 1986-1989. But the rate is now 16 percent 
higher than Texas', as is the county incidence rate. Each year, 
about 200 county residents are diagnosed with cancer and about 90 
die of the disease.

Changes in death rates for infants and children, and in overall 
cancer rates, may be affected by many reasons. However, none is 
apparent to explain the decline in Matagorda's health record. The 
county has two hospitals and is just 90 miles from Houston, where 
world-class specialty care is available. It does not have 
overwhelming numbers of poor or uneducated persons. The fact 
remains that a county with below-average death rates turned into 
one with above-average death rates after South Texas began 
operating.

The only federal study of cancer near U.S. nuclear plants was 
conducted by the National Cancer Institute. But because the study 
took place in the late 1980s, reactors such as South Texas 
Project were omitted, as no cancer data after the plant opened 
were available. Thus, health risks in the South Texas Project 
area remains unexamined.

Because an environmental health risk such as radiation is often 
complex to understand, caution must be exercised. More study 
should be given to understanding the increase in Matagorda 
County's disease rates - especially before the proposal to expand 
the plant goes into effect. The public must be fully informed of 
any risks to its health from basic functions such as breathing 
air, drinking water and eating food. Until these risks are known, 
non-toxic forms of electricity should be pursued.

Mangano is national coordinator of the Radiation and Public 
Health Project research group based in New York.

*****************************************************************
 24 Guardian Unlimited: Addicted to the nuclear option

Columnists | [William Keegan] In my view 

Sunday July 23, 2006 The Observer             

Some years ago, a senior American diplomat asked a group of
Observer journalists: 'What is best for a country like the UK:
to have a strong economy; to be a member of the United Nations
Security Council; or to possess a nuclear deterrent?' His answer
was, 'to possess a nuclear deterrent'.

Nuclear deterrence was not much use against the home-grown
terrorists who caused mayhem in London just over a year ago. Nor
was it much good in the power-play between a standing,
supplicant, British Prime Minister and a sitting US President in
St Petersburg. No, George W Bush could do without a personal
visit by Tony Blair to the Middle East, although he was grateful
for the present of a sweater. He would send his own woman.
 			 		 			 			Article continues
Now, in any discussion about our relations with the US, we must 
remember that the US came to our (indeed, Europe's) rescue in two 
world wars (albeit after a significant time lag). Also, Marshall 
Plan aid helped Western Europe to get off the devastated ground 
after 1945. Those of us who are critical of George W Bush are not 
anti-American. We also have it on Dick Cheney's authority that 
Blair's obeisance to Bush and disingenuousness towards us were 
neither here nor there: the Cheney gang would have invaded Iraq 
anyway. What is more, a Conservative government would have been 
just as ingratiating towards Bush - why, their new man, David 
Cameron still approves of the invasion.

As it turned out, there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq. There
are in Israel, India and Pakistan; and Iran and North Korea are
working on them. The US, Russia, China, the UK and France have
had them for years. Our own have been dependent on US supplies;
the French deterrent was in part born of anger at the way the
US, quite rightly, pulled the rug from under the Anglo-French
Suez venture in 1956.

Now, the defence of the realm is the priority of economic
policy. Aristotle believed being surrounded by water was a good
defence in itself, but he wrote before the invention of nuclear
weapons. Adam Smith regarded defence as the most important
'public good'.

But defence has to move with the times. Nuclear weapons pointed
at Russia (by the way, they don't anymore) became an
anachronism. They can't do much good if pointed towards the
Levant, either. Denis Healey, once hawkish, no longer sees the
need for Trident.

Another (Conservative) former cabinet minister tells me he would
not embark on a nuclear weapons programme now but, given that we
possess them, 'it is difficult to give them up' - although he
would rather our supplies were entirely independent of the US.

British governmental decisions about the nuclear deterrent have
usually been made in secret, not least by Labour Prime
Ministers. Which brings us back to Gordon Brown's recent
statement that the Trident programme would be continued and
updated at a time when the high priest of nuclear deterrence,
Sir Michael Quinlan (former permanent secretary at the Ministry
of Defence), has been calling for a public debate on the subject
rather than automatically advocating renewal.

Now, even if the cabinet and public went along with the wishes
of Gordon Brown (and presumably Tony Blair), it would still be
important to debate the form, size, timing and expense of a
renewed 'deterrent' - possibly in a European context - while
being mindful of our non-proliferation treaty commitments.

Everyone from Aristotle to Adam Smith and Sir Michael Quinlan
thinks expenditure on defence is the foundation of economic
policy; and it was Smith, all those years ago, who urged Britain
to adapt to 'the mediocrity' of her circumstances.

The former Labour leader, Michael Foot (93 today), has long
campaigned against nuclear weapons. It did him no good in the
1983 election, although Foot was no pacifist and backed Thatcher
to the hilt against General Galtieri. (It will be recalled that
Thatcher had been the most unpopular Prime Minister since
records began until the Falklands affair.)

In July 2003, Tony Blair held a 90th birthday celebration for
Michael Foot at 10 Downing Street. Blair said he owed a great
deal to Foot, who had helped him in his early career, and Foot
congratulated Blair for his political courage in the early
1980s. Foot added that he could not understand what had happened
since. Indeed, in front of half the cabinet in the garden of
Number 10, Foot made his feelings about the Iraq venture
abundantly clear. More recently, Foot elaborated: 'We went to
war in circumstances which are still bringing great discredit on
our party.'

The irony is that our backing of the Iraq invasion was founded
on the assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass
destruction. Foot notes in his introduction to The Uncollected
Michael Foot: Essays Old and New 1953-2003: 'The absence of
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq should at least give some
satisfaction to the nuclear disarmers.'

Since then, all hell has been let loose in Lebanon. The big oil
crises of the 1970s - and subsequent recessions - were sparked
off by, in turn, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the Iranian
revolution of 1979. Who knows where we are going from here, but
one thing is certain: our possession of a nuclear deterrent is
hardly a deterrent to the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

Aneurin Bevan famously performed an about-turn over nuclear
weapons, saying a British Foreign Secretary must not go 'naked
into the conference chamber'. But, as Geoffrey Goodman points
out in his memoir From Bevan to Blair, the chamber Bevan had in
mind was for a conference on general nuclear disarmament. Some
50 years later, we are still waiting and the omens do not look
good.

Email your comments for publication to:
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 25 Edinburgh Evening News: Terrorism fears as nuclear train passes through Edinburgh
 
Back issue: Saturday, 22nd July 2006 Change

TRAINS carrying nuclear waste pass through central Edinburgh
several times a week at peak times, according to detailed
timetables revealed by green campaigners. 

The Greenpeace report has sparked fears that terrorists could
exploit the information. 

The timetables show the trains travel through Edinburgh and stop
at Lockerbie on their way south from Torness. Lib Dem
environment spokesman Chris Huhne said that Greenpeace's
exposure was "a dream come true for terrorists". 

Sarah North of Greenpeace said the timetables were
"frighteningly easy" to uncover and work out. 

The Department of Trade and Industry said radioactive fuel was
transported in flasks with 14-inch thick walls capable of
withstanding the worst accident. 

Trains with higher grade fuels had armed guards. 

Comments Add your comment
1. Colin, Glasgow / 8:14pm 22 Jul 2006          

As usual. Greenpeace hints at the imagined horrors of such an
event, but doesn't describe the actual effect of a "successful"
attack.

Consider the worst case scenario, where the containment flasks
are somehow ruptured, and a radioactive plume was released. This
would cause the immediate deaths of precisely zero members of
the public. The dose would not be high enough to cause acute
effects like radiation sickness.

The only effect would possibly be a small increase in the cancer
rate, which would take decades to manifest and would be so small
as to be undetectable against the number of "natural" cancers.

In all it might shorten the lives of a few thousand people by a
few weeks.

Perhaps this explains why no group has ever attempted this.
There are many other targets that could cause far more immediate
carnage.

I would agree that there needs to be more public awareness of
the risks, and more advice on what to do, in order to avoid
unnecessary public panic. Report as unsuitable                  

2. neil / 8:26pm 22 Jul 2006 + 

Why give terrorists ideas like this by publicising this kind of
info in the newspapers?

This really hacks me off! Report as unsuitable                  

3. Phil, Fife / 12:24am 23 Jul 2006 + 

The UK follows the standards of the International Atomic Energy
Agency with regard to the safety standards of its flasks. Whilst
these are less stringent than those adopted in the US it could
hardly be claimed that the trains would make an easy target for
terrorists: they have to be able to withstand an impact at
speeds of up to 48 mph and an 800 degree c fire for 30-60
minututes for example. An ordinary passenger train would make a
much easier target as we have seen in Madrid and Mumbai. Report
as unsuitable                   

4. Patrick Stevens, Washington D.C. / 3:19am 23 Jul 2006 + 

In an application to the Scottish Parliment Broadcast Office as 
Follows from context: Dated 06/July/2006

Folks, In section 3 Conditions, there is the word competition
that describes this application. The process of fundamental
communicated public information is essential to a society. The
regulation of the process must be a co-operative understanding
for existence of process. That being, since I have coined the
phrase â We have dawned the age of communicative warfareâ a
government must be dedicated to the advancement of
communications to itâs own national purpose and the survival
of itâs sovereignty. Hence the reason there is the broadcast
arm of the U.S, Network Civil Defense and Preparedness policy.
If the Scottish Parliament can not uniquely communicate itâs
dissemination of public information with this purpose, it was
the loss of this developmental process that brought the gateway
to 9/11, that should be realized, then we can not meet the
challenge of the emergency needs of the people of Scotland that
have been just pointed out recently. There lies the apostrophe
of this competition.

Patrick Stevens July 6 2006 
U.S. Network /Washington D.C.

Released for Facilitated Electronic Text

2006 Scotsman.com| contact
*****************************************************************
 26 ScrippsNews: Feds issue warning to Nevada anti-terror institute | 

By JEFF GERMAN

The failure of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's embattled
Institute for Security Studies to keep the Energy Department
abreast of its changing counterterrorism mission over the last
three years is threatening its federal funding.

The department's National Nuclear Security Administration
informed the counterterrorism institute in writing this week
that it has authority to withhold $5 million in unused funding
if the institute does not comply with the terms of its original
2004 grant and explain why it has strayed from its objectives.

That warning comes after the institute, in a June 30 application
for $2.5 million of that unused funding, told the Nuclear
Security Administration that it has reorganized again. It said
it has now washed its hands of its master's degree program in
crisis and emergency management, the centerpiece of its promised
academic mission, and placed it under the university's direct
control.

The institute's pledge to focus on academics helped it to sell
itself to the federal agency and university regents in 2003.

The Nuclear Security Administration's concerns about the way the
institute has kept the federal agency in the dark were conveyed
in a letter Wednesday to the UNLV Research Foundation, a
nonprofit fundraising organization tied to UNLV that runs the
institute.

Martha Youngblood, a contracting officer at the Nuclear Security
Administration's service center in Albuquerque, N.M., said the
institute has failed to file required progress reports
explaining why it has changed direction.

"You are hereby directed to submit a corrective action plan that
identifies the changes made to the original grant objectives,
includes the necessary justification for the changes proposed
and identifies the impact of the proposed amendment on the
project," Youngblood wrote.

The institute, Youngblood said, has five business days to submit
the plan to her agency.

The aura of secrecy surrounding the institute's operations was
illustrated further in a heavily censored copy of the June 30
grant application that the university provided to the Sun at the
newspaper's request. The copy is so heavily censored _ to
protect proprietary information, officials say _ that it is
impossible to determine precisely how the institute plans to
spend the money. (Federal officials have an uncensored copy of
the application.)

Regent Steve Sisolak, who oversees the audit committee of the
Board of Regents, said he is troubled by the institute's latest
attempt to conceal its activities. The regents and UNLV
currently are auditing the institute.

"This is one of those 'trust me' deals, and right now I don't
have much trust in them," Sisolak said. "This is taxpayer money.
It doesn't grow on trees. We have an obligation to see that this
money is being spent appropriately. This whole thing is beyond
embarrassment."

*****************************************************************
 27 AU ABC: Company downplays mine workers uranium exposure
 
ABC West Coast SA | Local News | Story 

(ACST)Sunday, 23 July 2006. 06:16 (AEST)Sunday, 23 July 2006.

 The company that runs the Beverley Uranium mine in far north
South Australia, Heathgate Resources, says it is confident
workers exposed to uranium-contaminated drinking water will not
suffer any ill effects. 

A weak solution of uranium was accidentally put into one of the
mine's desalination units by a worker during cleaning on
Thursday. 

About 100 workers had access to contaminated water for about
three hours and tests revealed the water contained more uranium
than guidelines allow. 

But the mine's managing director of operations, Patrick Mutz,
says the concentration was not strong enough to cause any harm. 

"When the South Australian authorities set a drinking water
standard, they set that standard at a level which means you can
drink that water every day for 365-days-a-year and in this case,
the uranium concentration was just slightly above that level,"
he said. 

"But there was only about a three-hour window where anyone could
even have had a cup of it, if you will." 

*****************************************************************
 28 BBC: Radioactive
 
Last Updated: Sunday, 23 July 2006
 
A shipment of radioactive metal is still being stored in a 
freight terminal eight years after arriving in Scotland, it has 
been confirmed. 

The scrap metal is the subject of a dispute between the UK and 
Egypt. 

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) confirmed that 
two containers were still in storage at the Roadways Container 
Logistics depot in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. 

Sepa said it still intended to return the waste to Egypt. 

It said the Department of Transport wrote to the Egyptian Atomic 
Energy Authority about the matter last month, asking for 
confirmation it would take the containers back, but no reply has 
been received. 

'Pose a hazard' 

A Sepa spokeswoman said: "Efforts have been ongoing to secure the 
repatriation of the shipment in line with guidance and policy 
from the Scottish Executive. 

"This has involved protracted discussion and correspondence 
between the exporter, the importer, the shipping line, UK 
Government and the Egyptian authorities." 

The spokeswoman added that the shipment was regularly inspected 
and did not "pose a hazard" to public safety. 

Elaine Smith, Labour MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, voiced 
concerns and said she wanted the containers moved to a facility 
designed for holding radioactive material while negotiations 
continue.                                                        



*****************************************************************
 29 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast begins sealing wells

07/22/2006 | 

 DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer 

TALLEVAST - Under a relentless sun Friday afternoon, Milton
Peterson watched crews pour cement down the well his family had
relied upon for decades for drinking, bathing and washing. 

"When they put that well in the ground many years ago, I thought
I would be using it for the rest of my life," said Peterson.
"But not now." 

Once set, the cement will form a permanent barrier that will not
only make the well inoperable but also prevent poisons in the
ground water or soil from escaping up through the well, said
Michael T. Green, project scientist with Blasland, Bouck & Lee,
the Tampa engineering firm hired by Lockheed Martin Corp. to
investigate a plume of toxic chemicals under Tallevast. 

The goal of the well-closure program is to protect the community
from future exposure to underground toxins that have spread to
more than 200 acres under Tallevast and beyond from an old
beryllium plant in the heart of the historic community, said
Green. 

Although Peterson's family now has access to clean, safe
drinking water via county lines, the 54-year-old Tallevast
native worries about what damage he and his family may have
already sustained from drinking contaminated water. 

The source of the 200-acre plume has been traced to a broken
sump at the former Loral American Beryllium Co. plant at 1600
Tallevast Road, just two blocks away from Peterson's backyard. 

Now owned by WPI Inc., the plant is used to manufacture cable
for industrial use. 

As the owner of the beryllium plant when the contamination was
discovered in 2000, Lockheed is responsible for cleaning up the
contamination under the supervision of the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection, even though the defense giant never
operated the Tallevast plant. 

Peterson's well is one of many in Tallevast that were found to
be contaminated by the toxic chemicals that leaked from the
plant. 

The Petersons and other families who had relied on private
drinking water wells were switched to county water in 2004 at
Lockheed's expense. 

Peterson's well was one of 10 BB&L closed this week with the
help of subcontractor Prosonic Corp. of Ocala. 

Each closure requires a permit from Manatee County's
Environmental Management Department. 

A county inspector must be present to witness each closure to
make sure it is done correctly, said Paul Panik, a county
environmental manager who arrived at the Peterson home shortly
after workers began to measure the backyard well. 

The crew first dropped a tremie line, or one-inch pipe that is
used to pour concrete into water, down the well shaft to gauge
its depth. 

The depth multiplied by the circumference of the well indicates
how much concrete must be used to plug the hole, said Green. 

The closure of the Peterson well went smoothly until crews hit a
hole in the casing at 30 feet below the ground surface, Panik
said. 

Workers then dumped a bag of hole-plug - a naturally occurring
material that expands to fill gaps in rocks - down the well
shaft. 

More concrete was then poured on top of the hole plug until the
well was filled. 

On Monday, Prosonic Corp. crews will return, weather permitting,
to top the Peterson well with more concrete to fill any space
created by natural settling over the weekend, Panik said. 

After months of investigation, Lockheed has identified 35 wells
that must be abandoned to protect against future exposure to the
plume, Green said. 

"Our educated guess is we have found all of the wells," said
Gail Rymer, Lockheed's spokeswoman. 

But some longtime Tallevast residents say there are more wells
yet to be found, because none of the homes in this historic
community had water until the mid-1980s, said Wanda Washington,
vice president of Family Oriented Community United Strong, or
FOCUS. 

"If someone knows of other wells we have not yet identified,
they need to let us know," said Rymer. 

"We want to find these wells," said Panik. "That is the intent
of this whole project. We want to have all of the wells
plugged." 

Lockheed, the county, the state and even Tallevast's own
consultants agree the well closures are critical to protecting
the community. 

The well closures are progressing slowly because of afternoon
thunderstorms and the need to wait for a county inspector to be
on hand to sign off on a well closure, said Rymer. 

"We will move forward as quickly as we can," she said. 

Rymer is still waiting on agreements from couple of residents
who have not replied to Lockheed's letters requesting permission
to seal their wells. 

Any resident with an operable well will be paid $10,000 in
compensation upon the well's closure, said Rymer. 

The checks will be available when Lockheed community
representative Clovia Russell gets confirmation the well has
been appropriately closed. 

Rymer said Russell will hand-deliver the check, unless property
owners are not at home or they do not want Lockheed knocking on
their doors. In those cases, the checks will be sent by
overnight courier, Rymer said. 

For each inoperable well identified for closure, Lockheed will
make a $500 charitable donation to Kinnan Elementary School or
Abel Elementary school in the name of the owner of the well. 

Anyone with information regarding wells not yet identified by
Lockheed, can contact Russell at (941) 360-1843 or Rymer at
(301) 535-9500. 

Read more about the Tallevast investigation and view important
documents. 

*****************************************************************
 30 AP Wire: Leading Nevada candidates for U.S. Senate face primary opponents

07/22/2006 | 

 BRENDAN RILEY Associated Press 

CARSON CITY, Nev. - This fall Nevada voters will choose among
Republican U.S. Sen. John Ensign, two splinter party hopefuls
and Democrat Jack Carter, former President Carter's son -
assuming predictable wins by Carter and Ensign over their Aug.
15 primary opponents. 

The conservative Ensign, seeking a second six-year term, faces a
long-shot Republican primary challenge from perennial candidate
Ed "Fast Eddie" Hamilton of Las Vegas, a former Chrysler Corp.
supervisor who says he's the "only peace candidate" in the GOP. 

Carter, a Las Vegas investment consultant, is running in the
Democratic primary against political unknown Ruby Jee Tun of
Carson City, a middle school science teacher. 

Also in the Senate race are Libertarian Brendan Trainor of Reno
and the Independent American Party's David Schumann of Minden -
and Nevada's "none of these candidates" option, which can't win
a race but can embarrass a contender who gets fewer votes than
"none." 

Ensign has pulled far ahead of all the candidates in the Senate
race in raising money. The latest federal campaign finance
reports show him with $5.2 million in contributions. Carter was
the only other candidate to list substantial contributions - and
he's far behind at $1.1 million. 

While Ensign is the prohibitive favorite in the primary,
Hamilton says he's giving the incumbent a fight anyway because
Ensign should face more than a "coronation." 

Hamilton wants the United States to get out of Iraq. He said he
backed the removal of Saddam Hussein but believes Iraqis have to
"work it out among themselves." 

Hamilton ran unsuccessfully for many offices in Michigan before
moving to Las Vegas. That included bids for the Michigan
Legislature, the U.S. Senate and for governor - once as a
Democrat and once as a Republican. 

In 2002, he ran simultaneously for U.S. Senate and Michigan
governor, although he dropped out of the latter race after
failing to get enough signatures to make the primary ballot. 

Ensign, a veterinarian who served two terms in the U.S. House
before winning his Senate seat in 2000, has decried the spread
of Islamic fundamentalism and has called for stronger public
support for the Iraq war, tougher immigration laws and cuts in
government spending. 

He touts his efforts to bring a veteran's hospital to southern
Nevada, his support of legislation that opened up federal land
in Nevada to development and parks, and his efforts to block the
nation's nuclear waste from being stored at Yucca Mountain. 

Ensign, a strong supporter of President Bush, is known for his
good working relationship with Senate Democratic Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nev., who defeated him in his first Senate try in 1998
by a mere 428 votes. 

In her bid for the Democratic nomination, Jun isn't accepting
campaign contributions and concedes there may not be "a
snowball's chance" that she can win. She also says the United
States shouldn't leave Iraq in anarchy and chaos, and the
president's executive powers should be checked. 

Tun, whose mother and one of her grandfathers were immigrants,
says the Senate shouldn't lose sight of citizens who are in the
U.S. legally. She also wants an end to big tax breaks for major
corporations. 

In his campaign ads, Carter reminds voters of his famous father
and compares the U.S. government to a discount wholesaler. He
also notes his rural roots and Navy service in Vietnam. 

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter both have visited Nevada to support
their son's first bid for elective office. 

Carter also has criticized the Bush administration's domestic
spying program and the new Medicare drug program as a boon to
the pharmaceutical industry. He promised to fight against
federal efforts to place a high-level nuclear dump in Nevada. 

Carter has a degree in physics from Georgia Tech University and
law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. He was
in his late 20s when his father won the presidency in 1976, and
never lived in the White House. After working as a lawyer in
Georgia, he became an investment consultant specializing in
hedge funds. 

*****************************************************************
 31 BBC ON THIS DAY | 23 | 1984: Sellafield 'not linked' to cancer cluster
 		 
1984: Sellafield 'not linked' to cancer cluster         

A government report into cancer levels near the controversial 
nuclear plant at Sellafield in Cumbria has confirmed suspicions 
of higher-than-normal levels of leukaemia in the area. 

However, it says, too little research has been done to
definitely link the high levels of the disease to the nuclear
plant itself. 

The report was commissioned to address concerns following a
television documentary last year which suggested there was a
cluster of cancer cases in the area around Sellafield. 

'Qualified reassurance' 

The investigators, led by Sir Douglas Black, found two of
Britain's three highest death rates from leukaemia in areas
around the plant. 

But Sir Douglas called for much more detailed studies to find
out if the deaths were linked to Sellafield. 

"We can give a qualified reassurance to people about possible
health hazards in the neighbourhood of Sellafield," he said.
"However, there are uncertainties concerning the operation of
the plant." 

He said the theory that the plant was a factor in the high rate
of leukaemia could not be categorically dismissed, but nor was
it easy to prove. 

The report suggests control over permitted discharges at
Sellafield could be tightened, and also says medical records
about cancer deaths should be more accurate. 

It also says there could be genetic risks associated with
exposure to low levels of radiation. 

Recommendations 

The report made 10 main recommendations, all of which have been
accepted by the government. 

It suggested two main investigations: into cases of leukaemia
and lymphoma diagnosed in people under 25 living in west
Cumbria, and into the records of all children born since 1950 to
mothers who lived at Seascale, where Sellafield is based. 

Children are thought to receive the greatest doses of discharges
from the plant through shore sand, inhaling it as tiny
particles, or eating contaminated fish and shellfish. 

British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which runs Sellafield, has
welcomed the findings. 

Sellafield has had a controversial history ever since it was
opened in 1956 as Windscale. 

A fire broke out in a chimney the following year, spreading
radioactivity across the Cumbrian countryside. It remains
Britain's most serious nuclear accident. 

The plant was renamed Sellafield in 1981 when it was taken over
by BNFL. 

Last year another accident closed a 30-mile stretch of coastline
either side of the plant due to radioactive contamination. 	

[Sellafield]                                    

Sellafield has been dogged by controversy since it opened 28 
years ago
 		 	 	   
"People have just been frightened to come": the people of
Seascale talk to the BBC's Mike Ridley (broadcast 24 August
1984)   			 			 		

"The majority of the audience hadn't been reassured": the BBC's
Cathy Harvey reports (broadcast 7 Sept 1984)   			 

  In Context   		 		 		 			
   			 				 				 	The Black report led to a flurry of
investigations into the incidence of cancer clusters around the
Sellafield nuclear plant. 

The most controversial was published in 1990 by Professor Martin
Gardner, and found that fathers who worked at Sellafield passed
on an increased risk of leukaemia to their children. 

The Gardner report led to a High Court test case brought in 1992
by two Sellafield workers. They lost their claim for
compensation against BNFL. 

Two government reports, published in 1997 and 1999, failed to
support Gardner's findings. 

Other reports, however, most notably by the North of England
Children's Cancer Research Fund in 2002, have found evidence to
support Gardner's conclusions. 

A television documentary in 2004 also suggested evidence of a
further cancer cluster in North Wales, along the coast facing
the Sellafield plant across the Irish Sea. 

However, BNFL and the government continue to assert that there
is no evidence to support a link between leukaemia and nuclear
power plants. 

The Sellafield nuclear complex was closed and handed over for
decommissioning in April 2005. The process is expected to take
about 100 years to complete. 
			 			   		 		 		
*****************************************************************
 32 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush serves his own agenda, not America's 

July 23, 2006 

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this supposed to be a
democracy? 

The majority of Americans are in favor of stem-cell research,
yet, we allow Bush to dictate what he believes in. He created
the war in Iraq, which has killed thousands of our soldiers, not
to mention thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children.
I guess he does not consider these lives important. He would
rather protect embryos that would be discarded anyway rather
than try to save someone from a debilitating disease. 

Did he forget that he was an elected servant and not king? Don't
we have a right to decide where we want our tax dollars spent?
We did not choose to go to war in Iraq, yet most of our tax
dollars are being spent in the war. Our tax dollars, which were
supposed to go to Hurricane Katrina relief, were spent on plasma
TVs and golf course vacations. 

He has shoved the Yucca Mountain waste repository down our
throats even though he promised he would consider scientific
evidence to decide whether it was safe. Obviously, another lie
he told us. He has blocked the investigation into his domestic
surveillance program. That should tell us something. What is he
hiding? 

Even though Congress and the Senate passed bills, he used a
signing statement that would override the laws that he does not
agree with. This man thinks he is king and is above the law. 

Nevada, he has shown that he is not our friend. 

Dolores Kelley, Las Vegas 


All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 33 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca director pressed on costs         

Jul. 21, 2006 

 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS -- As many as 500 workers at the proposed nuclear
waste dump at Yucca Mountain will receive notices next week that
they might be laid off at the end of September. 

Officials said Friday that the layoffs were part of an ongoing
reorganization at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

Notices are being prepared for about a fourth of the work force
employed by managing contractor Bechtel SAIC and for its
commercial and federal laboratory subcontractors, Bechtel
spokesman Jason Bohne said. 

Many of the employees affected are scientists, engineers,
computer modelers and technical workers. Some of the workers are
expected to be retained by Bechtel as it repositions its work
plans, Bohne said. 

Others are expected to be offered jobs by the Sandia National
Laboratories, which is taking over portions of the Yucca project
from Bechtel. 

Bohne and Sandia representative Kate Rivera said they did not
know how many workers might be offered new jobs and how many
might face layoffs in the fall. 

The Energy Department announced the reorganization in January,
saying it expected the transition to be complete by October. 

Under the reorganization Sandia will assume control of science
and technical components, including projections of how long the
underground repository might prevent residue of highly
radioactive and decaying nuclear waste from escaping into the
environment. 

Sandia performed a similar role in coordinating the Waste
Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad, N.M., a repository that
began receiving transuranic nuclear waste for disposal in 1999. 

DOE managers said the reorganization was designed to improve the
project's credibility with scientists and regulators. The
department wanted to open the dump in 2010, but allegations that
government scientists skirted quality control requirements and a
federal court's invalidation of the government's proposed
radiation safety standards have pushed back the opening date. 
                                
07/21/2006                                                                                              11                   

webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright Š Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 34 reviewjournal.com: Critics question Yucca Mountain upgrade plan
 
Jul. 22, 2006

DOE plans to spend $100 million at site          

By KEITH ROGERS <br/>REVIEW-JOURNAL
	
Although they are at least two years away from seeking a license 
to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Department 
of Energy officials intend to spend $100 million over the next 
several years to build roads, power lines and a central 
operations area at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
 
The upgrade plan has raised questions among critics about the 
need for new construction, its drain on water resources and the 
potential for stirring up toxic dust. 

Details of the proposed infrastructure improvements are
contained in a draft environmental assessment plan that the
federal agency put out for public comment this month. Comments
should be submitted no later than Aug. 7, according to the
Federal Register notice.
 
The plan calls for construction of up to 33 miles of new and
replacement roads, more than 20 miles of power lines and a
central operations area with six buildings to replace existing
facilities that in some cases have exceeded their operational
life, according to the 70-page draft document.
 
The buildings include a 43,000-square-foot field operations
center for offices, training, computer operations and emergency
facilities; a 10,000-square-foot station for fire and medical
support; and a 43,000-square-foot craft shop for maintenance and
repair operations.
 
None of the work is directly related to the planned repository,
nor is the work being done to construct concrete pads for
storing nuclear waste aboveground so that it can age before it
is entombed inside the mountain, project spokesman Allen Benson
said.
 
"Whatever we're doing is to ensure the safety of our workers and
our guests," he said Friday. "This is for safety and security."
 
But Nevada critics of the repository plan, including Steve
Frishman, a full-time consultant to the State Nuclear Projects
Agency, said the upgrades are "totally unjustifiable."
 
"The real issue in this whole thing is that we can't find in the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act that they can have authorization to do
this kind of work," he said late Friday.
 
"It's pretty clear, especially with the new schedule, that this
has got to be a leg up for getting deeper in the expense for
going forward," Frishman said.
 
On April 19, the project's facility operations director, Scott
Wade, told a meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
advisory committee on nuclear waste that the upgrades would cost
roughly $100 million.
 
Some of the construction activities could potentially affect air
quality, wildlife, water resources and American Indian cultural
resources, the report indicates.
 
Another potential issue is water needed for construction
activities. Litigation continues over the state engineer's
denials in 2000 and 2003 of the Energy Department's request for
permanent rights to 430 acre-feet per year for the Yucca
Mountain Project.
 
There has been no resolution in the water appropriation matter,
but under a stipulation, the project is currently allowed to use
about five acre-feet per year for its facilities and sanitation.
 
Construction activities would require much more temporary use of
the water, however, between 230 acre-feet and 297 acre-feet,
according to the report. 

There are about 326,000 gallons in an acre-foot, which is almost
enough water to supply two average Las Vegas homes for one year. 

As much as 150,000 cubic yards of fill material would be hauled
to the site and graded flat. Some of the fill material could be
obtained from either the existing muck pile near the North
Portal, existing pits or a new one 15 miles from the mountain. 

The material would have to be crushed and screened, the report
states.
 	   
Copyright Š Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
 35 ABC Asia Pacific: Contamination scare at Australian uranium mine
 
  22/07/2006 21:07:14 AEST

Health and workplace safety authorities in Australia are 
investigating how water became contaminated with uranium at the 
Beverley mine in South Australia's far north.

Our reporter, Nick Harmsen, says up to 100 workers may have been
exposed to the contamination.

The mine's owner says the contamination occurred on Thursday
when a worker cleaning a desalination unit mistakenly used an
acid solution containing uranium. 

Mine operator, Heathgate Resources, says the water was shut off
as soon as the error was realised. 

Managing Director Patrick Mutz says there were three hours when
the workers might have come into contact with the water, and
they have been told of the problem.

"From our initial investigations and discussions with the
authorities, there are no health checks required because of the
extremely low levels of uranium," he said. 

Water tests have shown uranium levels were above the national
guidelines. 

Heathgate Resources says the desalination unit has been
disconnected, and will be replaced.
 
ABC Asia Pacific TV / Radio Australia   

*****************************************************************
 36 AU ABC: SA mine drinking water contaminated with uranium. 

22/07/2006. ABC News Online

About 100 workers at the Beverley uranium mine in South
Australia's far north have potentially been exposed to uranium
through contaminated drinking water.

 The mine's owner, Heathgate Resources, says the water supply
was contaminated on Thursday when a technician cleaning a
desalination unit mistakenly added a solution containing uranium.

 The company says the water supply was quickly shut off but
workers could have been in contact with the water for about
three hours.

 Heathgate managing director Patrick Mutz says the workers who
may have been exposed have been alerted to the problem.

 "From our initial investigations and discussions with the
authorities, there is no health checks required because of the
extremely low levels of uranium," he said.

 Water tests have shown uranium levels were above the national
guidelines. 

Heathgate Resources says the desalination unit has been
disconnected, and will be replaced.

 The Greens want an independent inquiry into how the water
became contaminated.

 Greens Senator Bob Brown says it highlights the dangers of
uranium.

 "It points out the hazards of the human involvement, it points
out the inevitable danger that human beings will fail at some
stage in what is a very dangerous industry," he said. 

*****************************************************************
 37 AU ABC: EPA to probe miners' uranium exposure. 

24/07/2006. ABC News Online


The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is to start
investigation into a uranium contamination at the Beverley mine
in the South Australia's north.

 A weak solution of uranium was accidentally put into one of the
mine's desalination units by a worker during cleaning on
Thursday.

 About 100 workers had access to contaminated water for about
three hours and tests revealed the water contained more uranium
than guidelines allow.

 The company that runs the mine, Heathgate Resources, says it is
confident workers exposed to the contaminated drinking water
will not suffer any ill-effects.

 The EPA says the concentration of uranium was very low and
appears to pose no risk to workers' health.

 EPA director of radiation protection Keith Baldry says the
authority will start investigating the case this week and
consider whether a prosecution is likely.

 "That'll be part of the investigation that we undertake," he
said.

 "We'll do that in consultation with other agencies including on
the occupational health and safety side, that'll be part of the
investigation." 

*****************************************************************
 38 times and star: Nuke dump plan for Lillyhall

workington lake district

Published on 22/07/2006

RADIOACTIVE waste from across the country could be brought into 
Lillyhall if plans for a new store and treatment plant get the 
go-ahead.
 
Gateshead nuclear services company Studsvik UK Limited, part of 
Swedish-owned Studsvik AB, has applied to the Environment Agency 
for authorisation to âaccumulate and dispose of radioactive 
waste from non-nuclear premisesâ at a building on Joseph Noble 
Road. 

Material would include contaminated metallic items from nuclear, 
non-nuclear and Ministry of Defence sites. 

David Moore, the chairman of the independent Sellafield watchdog, 
the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group, and Copelandâs 
Conservative leader, said waste could come in from all over the 
country. 

Radioactive waste could come from hospitals, universities, or 
research facilities. 

It could include items decommissioned from cancer treatment
which emitted a potentially lethal radioactive beam â up to
1,000 times above danger level â when the container it was
being transported in leaked as it was driven to Winscale from
Leeds in 2002. 

In its application, Studsvik says it wants to keep and use
metallic items with radioactive contamination from nuclear,
non-nuclear and MoD sites for treatment involving size reduction
and decontamination. 

Very low level and low level solid waste would be accumulated
and very low and low level gaseous and aqueous,waste would be
disposed off. 

Gaseous waste would be disposed off via a 12 metre high chimney,
aqueous waste through the sewer, very low level waste would go
out with normal refuse and low level waste would be sent to the
waste repository at Drigg. 

Mike Scott, of the Environment Agencyâs Nuclear Regulation
Group, said the radiological impact of disposals to the
atmosphere and sewers would be very low and the volume of
disposals of very low level waste âinsignificant.â 

But the proposal to build the plant at Lillyhall has angered
councillors who say the location is inappropriate and that West
Cumbria does not need a third nuclear licensed site, since it
already has two, Sellafield and the low level waste repository
at Drigg.

*****************************************************************
 39 USATODAY.com: Nuclear weapons plant becomes nature preserve
 
The fight of her life is almost over and Lisa Crawford feels a
little bit of everything. 

Relief, certainly. Triumph. A little sadness. 

And a very real worry that she might be bored with no more toxic
waste sites to clean up. 

"I feel like I'm sending my kid off to college," said the
50-year-old community activist said. 

In 1984, residents who lived around Fernald learned workers
accidentally released more than 300 pounds of uranium dust into
the environment. They also learned that in 1981 three
residential water wells were contaminated with waste from the
site. 

"One of them was ours," said Crawford, who became president of
Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH).
"After that, we just became the biggest agitators and the
biggest troublemakers, and we just raised holy living hell." 

Until Crawford and her neighbors started pressuring the U.S.
Department of Energy and the plant's operator in 1985 to clean
up the site, Crawford had never spoken in public. She had never
even been on an airplane until she flew to Washington to testify
before Congress about Fernald. 

Production at the site didn't end until 1989, and then cleanup
could finally take precedence. "We spent most of the '90s doing
regulatory paperwork crap," she said. 

Crawford said it was important to make sure everyone had a say
in how the site should best be cleared: Residents, federal
regulators, environmentalists, even the foundry workers, who'd
been distrustful of the activists since the beginning. 

The cleanup seemed to take forever, she said. 

But in 1994, Plant 7 came down, the first production structure
to be demolished. When the red-and-white checkered water tower,
long a reminder of the site's existence, came down in 2003, it
was "stunning," Crawford said. 

It's almost hard for her and the other FRESH members to visit
the site now; once the contamination they fought so hard to get
rid of is gone, their organization will be, too. 

Residents around the site have worried for years if the
contamination it held might cause them or their families cancer
or other sicknesses. The Crawfords, including son Kenny, now 28,
are all fine so far. 

As hard as the fight has been, figuring out the future might be
harder. 

"Somebody said, 'What are you going to do now?'" she said. "And
I was like, 'God, I don't know.' " 

-- Peggy Farrell, The Cincinnati Enquirer  

  Nuclear weapons plant becomes nature preserve  

 
  Updated 7/22/2006 7:46 PM ET     E-mail | Save | Print |   

By Peggy O'Farrell, The Cincinnati Enquirer CROSBY TOWNSHIP,
Ohio  The Fernald uranium foundry was built in the 1950s to
help the United States defeat a clear-cut foe: The Soviet Union
and its growing nuclear arsenal. 

Five decades later, an ambitious $4.4 billion project to battle
a different foe  the toxic stew left behind at the poster child
for America's nuclear waste scandal  is drawing to a close. 
Just more than 900 of Fernald's 1,050 acres are being turned
into a nature park that includes prairie, wetland and woodland
ecosystems, said John Homer, who oversees the restoration. 
Birds not seen in Southwest Ohio in decades, including grassland
dwellers bobolinks and dickcissells, are nesting on the site.
Some endangered species have taken up residence. 

Fluor Fernald, the U.S. Department of Energy contractor handling
the cleanup, expects to finish by mid-September, putting the
final touches on a plan approved in 1996. 

When the project is complete, the site will include a treatment
plant to remove contamination from the Great Miami Aquifer, a
major source of drinking water for the area, and a visitors'
center that will feature displays on the Cold War, the uranium
foundry and the cleanup project. 

"Fernald is a fascinating symbol of the era," said Peter
Robinson, a historian at the College of Mount St. Joseph. "It
helped protect the nation and reinvigorate and support the local
and national economy. It made us feel safer at the time in our
race with Soviet Union, but that safety and that prosperity came
with tremendous costs, both in terms of the environment and the
cleanup itself." 

Fernald's mission was secret for decades. Workers purified raw
uranium ore and molded it into ingots and other products that
would be turned into uranium at other sites. 

Even though news stories at the time reported a uranium
processing plant being built, many residents thought the site
was a dog food factory. Seeing the red and white checkerboard
pattern on the Feed Materials Production Center's water towers,
they assumed Ralston Purina ran the factory. 

Employees had to undergo a background check and get special
security clearances. Signs inside the plants reminded them they
were "production soldiers" and cautioned them not to talk about
what went on at the foundry. 

"The Cold War was reality," said Gene Branham, president of the
Fernald Atomic Trades and Labor Council, the union representing
the workers. "There was a certain pride and a great deal of
secrecy for workers at Fernald." 

Not until 1984, when officials revealed that 300 pounds of
radioactive uranium oxide dust had been released into the
environment, did residents understand what the plant really
produced. 

Lisa Crawford, 50, of Crosby Township, learned that her family's
well was one of three contaminated by uranium runoff from
Fernald. She and her husband, Ken, were among the property
owners who promptly sued National Lead of Ohio, the company that
then ran the foundry. 

She's the president of Fernald Residents for Environmental
Safety and Health and a member of the Citizens Advisory Board
that has guided the cleanup. 

"There were times we'd go to meetings and just be like, 'It's
never going to happen,'" said. "But the last four, five years,
it's all really started to click. When you begin to see
buildings go down and water towers go down and waste being
shipped offsite, those are the milestones." 

Dennis Carr, now the deputy manager for the Fernald project,
came to work for the foundry in 1981 as a civil engineer
focusing on environmental issues. He went to work for Fluor
Fernald when it was awarded the cleanup contract. 

The site, he said, was a mess: 82,000 drums of radioactive waste
were stored on it, along with almost 1 million pounds of
radioactive waste. About 31 million pounds of uranium metal had
to be removed, he said. 

As scary as the radioactive material was, it wasn't the biggest
danger, Carr said. "From day one, we knew the industrial hazards
were going to be the key element that had to be controlled," he
said. 

The chemicals the workers used to process the uranium  uranium
hexafluoride, raw uranium, anhydrous ammonia, nitric acid and a
host of others  were often more dangerous than the uranium
itself. Many were toxic or explosive. Foundry workers wore only
hard hats, boots and work gloves. Years later, cleanup workers
would go into production areas in full environmental suits with
respirators. 

Now, many workers battle cancers they believe they got from
handling dangerous materials. 

The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Labor
has set up a program to compensate former atomic workers who
became ill or died because of exposure to uranium, beryllium or
other materials. 

But many workers felt they were viewed as the bad guys once the
extent of Fernald's toxic mess became known. 

"The uranium production mission really ended on a sour note. In
reality, the average guy here working on the line didn't do a
bad thing. He did a great job," said Carr. 

  Posted 7/22/2006 7:13 PM ET   

  [One of the last structures remaining at the Fernald uranium
foundry in Crosby Township, Ohio, was torn down June 29. The
lengthy cleanup work at the Fernald site included removing
almost 1 million pounds of radioactive waste and about 31
million pounds of uranium metal, said Dennis Carr, deputy
manager for project.]       

By Craig Ruttle, The Cincinnati Enquirer   
    
  One of the last structures remaining at the Fernald uranium
foundry in Crosby Township, Ohio, was torn down June 29. The
lengthy cleanup work at the Fernald site included removing
almost 1 million pounds of radioactive waste and about 31
million pounds of uranium metal, said Dennis Carr, deputy
manager for project.   

Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.       
*****************************************************************
 40 Santa Fe New Mexican: DOE Agency braces for nuke-site blazes    
   
By CHRISTOPHER SMITH | Associated Press         
                        
July 23, 2006                           
 		
BOISE, Idaho -- In the summer of 2000, wildfires raged across
nuclear compounds in the West, destroying buildings, forcing the
evacuation of highly secure labs and creating a health panic
over harmful radioactive contaminants being dispersed by smoke.

 After five quiet fire seasons, U.S. Department of Energy fire
officials say they are better prepared as the potential for a
fiery summer sequel increases.

 "Our training has improved, we're more focused on restricting
potential human sources, and we've completed the evaluation of
our areas of soil contamination so we have a better
understanding what the potential effects would be if a fire
burns through one of those," said Eric Gosswiller, fire marshal
for the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory, a DOE
nuclear-research compound in Idaho's high southeastern desert.

 Three huge wildfires roared across INL in July 2000, scorching
nearly 100 square miles inside the secure federal site, coming
close to a test reactor and forcing emergency evacuations.

That same season, an out-of-control wildfire burned 40
percent of the 586-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation in
the sagebrush of south-central Washington state and briefly
threatened a nuclear-waste warehouse, while the Cerro Grande
fire burned 7,500 acres of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
site in New Mexico, prompting an 11-day evacuation.

 A subsequent federal investigation found the Energy Department
was unprepared for large-scale firefighting and the unique
hazards that fires on nuclear sites present.

 "We learned a lot of lessons complexwide," Gosswiller said
Wednesday during a gathering of DOE fire and
environmental-monitoring officials at INL.

 Armed with mobile water cannons and off-road fire trucks that
shoot streams of foam, INL crews now have detailed site maps
showing areas where the soil has higher-than-background levels
of radiation, where volatile or hazardous waste was dumped or
spilled and the locations of large amounts of unexploded World
War II ordnance left over from the period when the Navy used INL
as a gunnery test range.

 Recent Western fire seasons haven't matched the scorching
summer of 2000. But the potential this season is high. Two
consecutive years of wet winters and springs have spurred growth
of fast-burning grass and brush on normally barren rangelands.

 Arjun Makhijani, a physicist and president of the
Maryland-based watchdog group the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research, said DOE has not fully investigated the
health and environmental risk of wind-driven fires dispersing
radioactive particles that litter the ground of many federal
nuclear-research reservations.

 Besides operating routine air-monitoring networks, DOE crews
downwind of wildfires collect samples of smoke for quick
analysis of airborne contaminants. At INL, the state of Idaho
also operates its own air-quality monitors and posts real-time
results on a Web site to alert the public during wildfires.

 Scott Lee, environmental-monitoring program leader at INL, said
air samples taken during previous blazes show INL firefighters'
exposure to radiation is about one-twentieth of the acceptable
limit.

 Samples of radioactive particles collected during and after
wildfires also have shown most of the radionuclides came from
global fallout of Cold War nuclear-weapons tests, Lee said.
Detection of airborne radioactive particles at INL usually
increases after a wildfire, when desert winds blow dirt exposed
by the loss of vegetation. The dust contains radioactive
particles.		

Š2006, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights reserved. Opinions
*****************************************************************
 41 Rocky Mountain News: Ex-workers echo claims equipment was thrown away

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

July 22, 2006 
                                                                                          
Allegations that enormous stores of new equipment were thrown 
away in the haste to close Rocky Flats and earn the contractor 
early cleanup bonuses have been echoed by several workers who 
contacted the Rocky Mountain News after the newspaper published 
initial claims in April. 

The complaints, now under review by the Department of Energy's
Office of Inspector General, involve assertions by former
workers at the now-demolished plant that supervisors with
cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill found it easier to throw away the
materials, many of which were still in boxes or wrapped in
plastic, than to find new homes for them. 

"It got to where you just had to turn a blind eye because if you
didn't, it would make you sick," said Andrea Sierra, who worked
for the company that was hired by Kaiser-Hill to auction off
excess equipment during the closure. "Nothing stuns me anymore." 

Workers believe the throwaway mentality was wrapped up in
Kaiser-Hill's push to get the cleanup finished ahead of a
deadline and under budget - an outcome that netted what proved
to be $170 million worth of bonuses from the Department of
Energy. 

Kaiser-Hill, however, has disputed claims that there was
widespread waste of usable materials and argued that completing
the job quickly and cheaply saved U.S. taxpayers big dollars,
noting the project came in $400 million under projected costs. 

"As I've stated before, we're very confident we followed all DOE
guidelines on proper disposition of property at Rocky Flats,"
said John Corsi, a spokesman for CH2M Hill, one half of the
former joint venture with Kaiser Group Holdings.After the News'
initial report on the workers claims, the Department of Energy's
Office of Inspector General said it would reopen a review into
an earlier worker's complaint about "wasteful practices" during
the closure of the former nuclear weapons plant 16 miles west of
Denver. 

Since then, two inspectors with the OIG flew to Denver to meet
with a group of workers, including Steven Weber, the original
complainant who began writing to the OIG about his concerns in
2004. 

Inspectors have also met with officials associated with
Kaiser-Hill. 

"We were contacted (by OIG) (three) weeks ago. We spent a brief
meeting with them," Corsi said. "They asked a few
straightforward questions for some documentation, and we're in
the process of providing that documentation." 

Corsi said the documents relate to the company's procedures for
disposing of property at Rocky Flats. 

Marilyn Richardson, a spokeswoman for the OIG, said the agency's
review is "ongoing" and declined to provide further detail. She
encouraged former workers to contact OIG by phone or e-mail if
they have additional concerns. 

Workers interviewed by the News have reeled off a long list of
usable materials - often costly and never used - that were
pitched into cargo containers for burial at waste sites in
Nevada and Utah. 

"It got worse and worse and worse as the years went on and got
closer and closer to closure," said David Flora, who worked for
Kaiser-Hill for 15 years, both as an employee with the
steelworkers union and, later, as a foreman for a subcontractor. 

Flora and others say sometimes they were told it was too costly
and time-consuming to inspect items for any possible radioactive
contamination. But in many cases, workers say, the items in
question were nowhere near contaminated areas, in so-called
"cold" areas of the facility. 

'The usual answer' 

The throwaway culture dates back years to when Flora first
worked at the site in 1990, he said, when contractor EG was
overseeing Rocky Flats, before Kaiser-Hill took over the job in
1995. 

"The amount of waste surprised me," Flora said. "I was in the
Army, so I was sort of used to it, but it was never on the scale
of Rocky Flats." 

During his tenure, he asked why items were being thrown away
that were still in the original manufacturers' cartons. 

"I asked as many people as I could at the time," he said. "I'd
get the usual answer: It's easier just to throw it away." 

Sierra worked for Integrated Logistics Services Inc., or ILSI,
the company that corralled usable equipment during the
facility's closure and sold it at auction, deriving some $6
million from excess materials. 

But Sierra said company workers were often frustrated in their
efforts to get the material because Kaiser-Hill supervisors were
in such a hurry to clear out buildings that they wouldn't give
ILSI enough time to collect it and move it to a warehouse. 

"We'd have a cargo container full of tools and have until the
close of business (that day) to pick them up, or they were going
to get thrown away because they wanted to meet their deadlines,"
Sierra recalled. 

The accounts of Sierra and Flora, along with several others
interviewed by the News since the newspaper's first report in
April, echo the complaints of Weber. It appears his complaints
dating to 2004 led to at least a cursory review by the OIG, but
the agency never interviewed Weber, nor took any public action. 

In January, an OIG official informed Weber in an e-mail that the
office's review of his complaints "did not reveal waste." 
The same month, the News sought records to determine the extent
of the OIG's examination of Weber's complaints. The records were
not provided. 

After the News published a story in April revealing the
complaints from Weber and others, the OIG announced it would
reopen its previous review but didn't say why. 

Then, on May 22, the OIG formally notified the News it wouldn't
provide documents related to that initial examination, saying in
a letter that the material in question "includes documents
pertaining to an ongoing investigation and includes case
processing forms and printouts and emails of investigative
activity." 

The letter went on to say releasing such documents wasn't in the
public interest, when such a release "could tend to prematurely
disclose enforcement efforts, or provide individuals involved in
the investigation an opportunity to fabricate defenses, destroy
evidence, intimidate actual or potential witnesses, or otherwise
impede an appropriate resolution of the investigation." 

What was discarded 

A sampling of items listed by former Rocky Flats worker Steven
Weber of equipment thrown away during the demolition of the
former nuclear weapons plant: 

 "Brand new, still in the boxes" 10-horsepower electric motors.
Value: $1,551 each. 

 New "high-voltage suits," including hoods. Value: $6,000 to
$8,000. 

 Twelve to 15 eight-drawer tool chests, some with tools still
in them, as well as 12-drawer chests. Value: $487 to $909. 

 "Brand new" insulated high-voltage tools still in boxes. Tool
value: $40 to $45 each. 

 Boxes of Hubbell cord caps, locking plugs and connectors.
Value: $48.60 each. 

 Several trolley hoists, 5-ton and 2 1/2-ton.Value: $2,500
each. 

 Still in the cases Makita drills and sanders. Value: $600
each.

2006 Š The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
 42 Tri-City Herald: Gregoire sees opportunity at Hanford 

Published Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
 
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The story of Hanford's B Reactor needs to be told, said
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire after her first boat tour of the
Hanford Reach on Friday. 

On one side of the Columbia River, nine old Hanford reactors
line the banks, while on the other side is the Hanford Reach
National Monument, including the stark walls of the White Bluffs
rising above the water. 

Gregoire said after her jet boat returned to Richland that she
saw "beauty and economic opportunity." 

Also on the tour were her husband Mike, her daughter Michelle
and Jay Manning, director of the Washington state Department of
Ecology. Greg Hughes, monument project manager for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, and Michele Gerber, a historian and board
member for the planned Hanford Reach National Monument Heritage
and Visitor Center, provided information for the tour.
 
Gregoire pointed out that during her town hall visit to the
Tri-Cities last week she found that economic development was the
top concern of Tri-City voters. 

On Friday's tour, she and Manning heard about plans to develop
the Reach visitor center in Richland and to give visitors
opportunities to tour B Reactor in north Hanford and to take
boat tours through the Reach, which includes the most productive
chinook spawning habitat in North America. 

"It's gorgeous," Gregoire said. "The White Bluffs are
phenomenal." 

But opportunities for eco-tourism will disappear if the Columbia
River is contaminated by the Hanford nuclear reservation or if
there's the perception of contamination, she said. 

The tour was a reminder of the need to keep Hanford cleanup on
course, she said. 

Hanford is contaminated with radioactive and hazardous chemical
wastes from the past production of plutonium for the nation's
nuclear weapons program. Ground water underneath the site moves
toward the river and 80 square miles of the aquifer is polluted
with radioactive material and hazardous chemicals. 

"Time's not on our side," Gregoire said. 

There needs to be renewed emphasis on ground water at the site,
Manning said. 

Gregoire also discussed efforts to preserve Hanford's B Reactor
as a museum. The Atomic Age began in large part at Hanford as
workers raced to build the B Reactor to produce plutonium before
Nazi Germany could produce an atomic bomb during World War II. 

B Reactor was the world's first full-scale production reactor.
It made plutonium for the world's first nuclear explosion in the
New Mexico desert and the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan,
helping end the war. 

The story of B Reactor should be told and told without bias as a
part of history, the governor said.
 
Š 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Test site displays set for libraries    

Jul. 21, 2006 

 PVT 

Three federal Department of Energy, Nevada Site Office
Environmental Management, displays regarding groundwater at the
Nevada Test Site and radioactive waste transportation and
disposal there are on exhibit at various Nye County libraries.
 
A groundwater display is at the Amargosa Library, at 829 East
Farm Road, Amargosa Valley. The hours are Monday, Wednesday and
Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7
p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
 
A low-level radioactive waste transportation display is at the
Pahrump Community Library, 701 East St., Monday-Thursday from 9
a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 
It depicts low-level radioactive waste shipment routes to the
test site used by approved waste generators.
 
The third display depicts radioactive waste disposal at the test
site and is available at the Beatty Library, 400 N. 4th St. at
the corner of Ward Street.
 
It describes through a timeline design activities at the test
site from the 1950s to the present day, including the number of
waste shipments.
 
The library is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4
p.m.; Tuesday, noon to 7 p.m.; and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m.
 
The Amargosa Valley and Pahrump displays will be up through Aug.
23. The Beatty Library display will be up through Sept. 20.
 
For more information on the displays programs, log onto .
 	     
Copyright Š Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 44 The Enquirer: Retired supervisor now battles system
 	 
Last Updated: 5:34 am | Sunday, July 23, 2006

BY PEGGY O'FARRELL | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Rudy Crawford is battling skin cancer and prostate cancer. He
started at Fernald while it was under construction in 1951 and
retired as a foundry supervisor in 1987.

"I was there when they were putting up walls and bringing in
machinery," said Crawford, 79, of Harrison. "Then, even the
salaried men had to go push the big trucks out of the mud if
they got stuck."

The company line at Fernald's Feed Materials Production Center
was that the uranium the workers handled could never make anyone
sick.

"The most dangerous thing you could do with our uranium is drop
it on somebody's head," an official with National Lead of Ohio,
the company that operated Fernald, told a reporter in 1984.

Crawford knew better.

Decades later, he's helping the men he worked with try to prove
just how false the company line was.

Like many men who worked at Fernald, Crawford was a World War II
veteran who saw working at the foundry as a way to do his part
to win the Cold War.

His attitude changed over the years.

National Lead managers lied to workers about the risks they
faced, Crawford said, and hired "goons" to bully them into
working harder and keeping quiet about what they saw inside the
compound. Signs also reminded workers the plant's mission was
top secret.

The company did not respond to a call for comment.

Crawford retired after almost 35 years as a supervisor. National
Lead of Ohio's parent company, National Lead Co., changed its
name to National Lead Industries in the 1970s, and has faced
numerous lawsuits for its lead-based paint and other products.

Now, Crawford works with retirees to keep track of their
benefits and helps former colleagues get compensation from the
U.S. Department of Labor for cancers they believe they
contracted working at the plant.

He received compensation under a special program from the U.S.
Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Labor for former
atomic workers who became ill or died because of exposure to
uranium, beryllium or other materials.

He said too many former colleagues' claims are being denied. He
said federal officials didn't properly calculate how much
radiation workers were exposed to, and made the application
process too complicated.

He called the program "the biggest farce I ever did see" and
said it's designed to deny, not pay, rightful claims.

When friends tell him their claims were denied, he tells them to
re-file and helps them navigate the paperwork.

"I don't know how the second go-round will go," he said.

"I hope I can make it to the finish line," he said. "I've got a
big job, trying to help all these boys."

E-mail pofarrell@enquirer.com					 					 					
 					 					[E-mail this] E-mail this   |   [Printer-Friendly]
[Rudy Crawford says that workers at Fernald were lied to about 
the hazards, and that the compensation system now is designed to 
deny workers' medical claims.] 
					  			 			 
[This plate is one of the few reminders that Crawford and his 
wife keep about Fernald.] 
					  			 			 
Copyright Š 1995-2006:   Use of this site signifies
*****************************************************************
 45 The Enquirer: Final chapter for Fernald
 	 
Last Updated: 10:36 pm | Sunday, July 23, 2006

Final chapter for Fernald Uranium plant goes from A-bomb cog to 
toxic site, and now to nature park 

BY PEGGY O'FARRELL | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

CROSBY TWP. - The uranium foundry at Fernald was a key link in
the United States' nuclear weapons program for decades.

Born during the most frigid period of the Cold War, the
top-secret plant sprawled over 1,030 acres. Workers were warned
not to talk about what went on there.

The secrecy lasted until the mid-1980s, when accidents spewed
uranium into the air and some neighbors of the plant learned
their wells were contaminated.

A decade ago, officials and residents agreed on a $4.4 billion
plan to close Fernald and clean up the toxic atomic mess created
by 40 years of uranium processing.

That cleanup is coming to an end. Hundreds of buildings have
been leveled, thousands of tons of contaminated waste have been
shipped to Utah and Texas. Hundreds of acres are being reclaimed.

By September, managers at the site expect to finish the job.

Today's special report looks at what has been done to clean up
Fernald and what the relic from the Cold War arms race will look
like when the project is done.

FERNALD IS CLEAN
 
The Fernald uranium foundry was built in the 1950s to help the
United States defeat a clear-cut foe: The Soviet Union and its
growing nuclear arsenal.

Five decades later, a $4.4 billion project to clean up the toxic
stew left behind by almost 40 years of uranium refining is
drawing to a close.

The only clear-cut enemies now at the site - once the poster
child for America's nuclear-waste scandal - are the deer that
eat the young trees and shrubs planted to turn the Superfund
cleanup site into a natural area.

Fluor Fernald, the U.S. Department of Energy contractor handling
the cleanup, expects to finish by mid-September, putting the
final touches on a plan approved in 1996.

Just over 900 of Fernald's 1,030 acres are being turned into a
nature park that includes prairie, wetland and woodland
ecosystems, said John Homer, who oversees the restoration.

Birds not seen in Southwest Ohio in decades, including bobolinks
and dickcissels, are nesting on the site. Some endangered
species have taken up residence.

When the project is complete, the site will include a treatment
plant to remove contamination from the Great Miami Aquifer and a
visitors' center that will feature displays on the Cold War, the
uranium foundry and the cleanup project.

It's hard to say what happened at Fernald to make the site such
an environmental mess. Although it was impossible to forget the
destruction wrought by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in World War II, no one in Cold War America seemed
inclined to question what risks uranium - the raw material for
atomic energy - might pose.

Scientists didn't have years of data on health effects of the
radioactive ore. The urgency to contain the Soviets' atomic
arsenal might have overshadowed concerns about those long-term
risks.

Fernald's mission was top secret. Workers purified raw uranium
ore and molded it into ingots and other products that would be
turned into uranium at other sites.

Americans in the 1950s and early 1960s weren't inclined to
question authority, said Peter Robinson, a historian at the
College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi. Some were too frightened
by the McCarthy era to speak up. Some were too tired after the
Great Depression and World War II, and embraced normalcy and
prosperity.

"Fernald is a fascinating symbol of the era," Robinson said. "It
helped protect the nation and reinvigorate and support the local
and national economy. It made us feel safer at the time in our
race with Soviet Union, but that safety and that prosperity came
with tremendous costs, both in terms of the environment and the
cleanup itself."

After the Vietnam War, Watergate and the near-catastrophe at
Three Mile Island, he said, people living around the foundry
were more than ready to stand up and demand answers when they
learned in 1984 what was hidden on the site.

CLOSING DELAYED
 
Lisa Crawford, 50, of Crosby Township, has watched the site
since 1984, when she learned her family's well was one of three
contaminated by uranium runoff from Fernald. She and her
husband, Ken, who lived across the road from the foundry, were
among the property owners who sued National Lead of Ohio, the
company that ran the foundry.

She's the president of FRESH (Fernald Residents for
Environmental Safety and Health) and a member of the Citizens
Advisory Board that has guided the cleanup.

The early years were excruciatingly slow.

"There were times we'd go to meetings and just be, like, 'It's
never going to happen.' But the last four, five years, it's all
really started to click. When you begin to see buildings go down
and water towers go down and waste being shipped offsite, those
are the milestones."

Once Fluor Fernald's work is done and approved, maintenance will
be turned over to S.M. Stoller Corp., a Colorado-based company.

There's not much left to maintain.

The Feed Materials Production Center - some 200 structures in
all - was torn down. Structures built to help the clean-up
project are being demolished now.

A barren chunk near the center of the site looks like the
surface of the moon. Three waste silos that held the worst of
the contamination once stood there.

Before the cleanup is finished, grass will be planted on that
ground.

Dennis Carr, now the deputy manager for the Fernald project,
came to work for the foundry in 1981 as a civil engineer
focusing on environmental issues. He went to work for Fluor
Fernald when it was awarded the cleanup contract.

A TOXIC 'MESS'
 
The site, he said, was a mess: 82,000 drums of radioactive waste
were stored on it, along with almost 1 million pounds of
radioactive waste filling six pits.

About 31 million pounds of uranium metal had to be removed, he
said.

As scary as the radioactive material was, it wasn't the biggest
danger, Carr said. "From day one, we knew the industrial hazards
were going to be the key element that had to be controlled," he
said.

Those hazards were the many chemicals used to process uranium,
and many of those chemicals were more dangerous than the uranium.

Another challenge crews faced was doing such a big job, removing
more than 120 million cubic feet of contaminated soil and toxic
sludge. When the cleanup was at its peak, about 3,000 workers
and their bulldozers and trucks were on the 750-acre site.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission - now the Department of Energy
- authorized building the foundry in 1949, the year the Soviets
tested their first atomic bomb.

Currently, the much-anticipated closure date keeps getting
pushed back a week or two at a time.

That's because thousands of details have to be managed as work
wraps up, said Jeff Wagner, a Fluor Fernald spokesman.

One detail Fluor and its subcontractors will have to deal with
until the site is turned over to the Department of Energy is
managing the construction vehicles.

Each piece of "yellow iron" has to be decontaminated before it's
sent to its next job. Crews are also dismantling parts of a rail
line.

HEALTH ISSUES LINGER
 
In addition to continued cleaning of the aquifer, one big piece
of unfinished business remains - the health care of workers
exposed to dangerous chemicals.

The chemicals they worked with - uranium hexafluoride, raw
uranium, anhydrous ammonia, nitric acid and a host of others -
were radioactive or toxic. Many were explosive.

Protective equipment was almost non-existent. Foundry workers
wore hard hats, boots and work gloves. Years later, cleanup
workers would go into production areas in full environmental
suits with respirators.

Now, many workers battle cancers they believe they got from
handling dangerous materials.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Labor
set up a program to compensate former atomic workers who became
ill or died because of exposure to uranium, beryllium or other
materials.

Larry Elliott, of the National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health, said estimates of radiation exposure are based on
profiles of activities done at each site.

"We have a very good understanding of what occurred at these
sites," he said. "We have a lot of documentation and information
about processes, monitoring practices and programs."

None of the Fernald workers' claims that have been denied has
gone to court, he said. A petition from former workers, asking
to be considered a special group, is under consideration, he
said.

Elliott said his institute feels the program is fair and
accurate.

Gene Branham, president of the Fernald Atomic Trades and Labor
Council, started working at Fernald as a machinist shortly after
it opened. He thinks the compensation program is too slow and
complicated and wonders if the government is just waiting for
the former workers, many in their 70s and 80s, to die.

He filed for, and received, compensation for lung cancer.

The program has paid Fernald workers $37,854 in compensation
since 2001, plus $379,189 for medical bills for 255 cases of
radiation-induced cancer.

Program officials have reviewed 1,208 cases. So far, 261 have
been approved, and 668 have been denied.

In 2004, the Department of Labor established a second portion of
the compensation program that pays workers exposed to uranium
and other toxic substances for lost wages and disabilities.

PROUD COLD WAR WARRIORS
 
Fernald's mission was secret for decades.

Even though news stories at the time reported a uranium
processing plant being built, many Crosby Township residents
thought the site was a dog food factory. Seeing the red and
white checkerboard pattern on the Feed Materials Production
Center's water towers, they assumed Ralston Purina ran the
factory.

Employees had to undergo a background check and get special
security clearances. Signs inside the plants reminded them they
were "production soldiers" and cautioned them not to talk about
what went on at the foundry - not even with co-workers.

Most workers were veterans of World War II and Korea. They
believed they were fighting the good fight against the Soviet
Union on the homefront, said Rudy Crawford, who served in the
Army in World War II and worked at Fernald from 1951 to 1987.

"The Cold War was reality," Branham said. "There was a certain
pride and a great deal of secrecy for workers at Fernald."

But many workers felt they were viewed as the bad guys once the
toxic mess became known.

"The uranium production mission really ended on a sour note. In
reality, the average guy here working on the line didn't do a
bad thing. He did a great job," said Carr.

[Lisa Crawford stands on top of the Soil and Disposal Facility at 
Fernald, where tons of waste are being stored. The very waste 
under Crawford's feet, now safely contained, changed her life 
forever, and her decades of activism helped change the site.] 
 					   			 			 
Disposal Facility at Fernald, where tons of waste are being 
stored. The very waste under Crawford's feet, now safely 
contained, changed her life forever, and her decades of activism 
helped change the site.
 					   			 			
+ Graphic: Transforming Fernald (PDF)                                                                                                                                                 

How toxic is toxic?                                                                                            

As bad as uranium is, it wasn't the worst threat housed at the 
old Fernald uranium foundry. Toxic materials on the site 
included:

Uranium hexafluoride - A gaseous form of uranium that, when
combined with water, can form a corrosive hydrogen fluoride and
another compound called uranyl fluoride. It can be fatal if
inhaled. Risk from radiation is fairly low.

Hydrochloric, hydrofluoric and nitric acids - All corrosive
substances that can cause severe burns or death if inhaled or
ingested.

Anhydrous ammonia - A corrosive and explosive chemical that can
cause severe burns and, in some cases, frostbite. It can be
fatal.

Radon - A radioactive gas that is a byproduct of uranium, it can
cause lung cancer. Radon was a serious risk to workers cleaning
out the three waste storage silos at Fernald. Contractors built
a ventilation system to filter out the radon before they could
begin clearing out the contaminated waste.

Sources: U.S. EPA, Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease
Registry
 					   				 			
[Two Fernald workers inspect uranium target element cores for the 
Hanford plutonium production facility in Washington state. During 
its heyday, workers handled toxic materials with little 
protection.] 
 					   			 			 
U.S. GOVERNMENT/UNDATED PHOTO

Two Fernald workers inspect uranium target element cores for the 
Hanford plutonium production facility in Washington state. During 
its heyday, workers handled toxic materials with little 
protection.
 					   			 			
[One of the last structures, used during Fernald's cleanup, is 
roped off last week.] 
 					   			 			 
THE ENQUIRER/CRAIG RUTTLE
 			   			 			 
One of the last structures, used during Fernald's cleanup, is 
roped off last week.
 					   			 			
[Cleanup at the former Fernald foundry is coming to a close, with 
most of the toxic waste shipped to Utah and Texas. Buildings have 
been leveled, and hundreds of acres at the site are being 
reclaimed.] 
 					   			 			 
THE ENQUIRER/CRAIG RUTTLE

Cleanup at the former Fernald foundry is coming to a close, with 
most of the toxic waste shipped to Utah and Texas. Buildings have 
been leveled, and hundreds of acres at the site are being 
reclaimed.
 					   			 			
Copyright Š 1995-2006:   Use of this site signifies your 
agreement to the and , updated June 7, 2005.
 	   	 
*****************************************************************
 46 Inside Bay Area: Livermore lab chief would keep post if UC bid wins

Article Last Updated: 07/22/2006 02:40:35 AM PDT  

Miller known as tireless weapons programs proponent

  By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER  
    
  A veteran nuclear weapons scientist who now is head of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was tapped Thursday to
lead the University of California's competitive bid to keep
running the nuclear weapons lab for the federal government. 
George Miller, 61, is very much a weaponeer's weaponeer, a
tireless proponent of new weapons-related programs  he led
Livermore's program for 11 years  and the lab's ranking voice
of resistance to a nuclear test ban into the Clinton
administration. 

"I'm really just looking forward to leading the laboratory into
the future, extending the basic values of the university in its
tradition of national service and technical excellence in
national security," Miller said after his appointment Thursday
by the university's governing Board of Regents. 

His selection means Miller's tenure as lab director, which began
in March, would continue through 2009 if the university retained
the management contract to operate Livermore. 

Miller went straight into weapons work out of graduate school at
William and Mary and spent all of his 35-year career at
Livermore, save one year of advising former Secretary of Energy
James Watkins on nuclear weapons. Much of his years were spent
in Livermore's B Division, home to the weaponeers most steeped
in the physics of thermonuclear ignition and burn. 

In the last chapters of the Cold War, Miller strongly
contributed or led weapons design teams that put a half dozen
H-bomb designs in the U.S. arsenal, including the W84
ground-launched cruise missile warhead that is now shelved as 
inactive for lack of a delivery vehicle but is considered by many 
as the most advanced nuclear weapon that the United States 
stocked. 

In 1999, cost overruns and mismanagement threatened to kill
construction of Livermore's largest experimental project, the
National Ignition Facility, putting the world's largest laser to
work on questions of nuclear fusion, weapons design and weapons
longevity. Miller stepped in with a massive, new project
management plan that brought discipline to construction of the
big laser and has kept it within a revised budget of just over
$4 billion. 

"I think it's a very good choice for Livermore," said Bill Madia, 
executive vice president at Battelle Memorial Institute, a 
nonprofit contractor likely to challenge UC for the Livermore 
contract. "George knows the laboratory and has a great 
appreciation for the weapons side of the program. He understands 
that yet has enough broad, forward-looking vision to lead the lab 
well." 

The university's choice of Miller over scientists who are younger 
or have more varied careers outside of the nuclear weapons 
business was taken as a sign that UC is confident in keeping the 
contract and believes the federal government wants Livermore to 
remain first and foremost a nuclear weapons lab.   
                  
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 47 Sacramento Bee: UC enlists Bechtel for Livermore lab bid - 

sacbee.com
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 SAN FRANCISCO -- The University of California is preparing to
fight for a third federal nuclear lab contract since a series of
accounting and security mishaps pushed the U.S. Department of
Energy to order competitive bidding.

 The UC's governing body, the Board of Regents, agreed last week
to team with the Bechtel Corp., a giant engineering and
construction firm, to bolster a bid to retain control of the
Lawrence Livermore nuclear lab.

 Last year the company helped UC hold on to its management
contract at Los Alamos labs in New Mexico.

 UC has operated the historic labs in Berkeley, Livermore and
Los Alamos since they were opened, in the 1940s and '50s.
University officials have said the labs are critical to its
status as a pre-eminent research school.

 The labs may have brought prestige to the university, but
they've also brought headaches. In the 1990s, congressional
hearings followed espionage allegations and security leaks at
Los Alamos.

 Investigators grilled UC officials in recent years about
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, including
more than 400 personal computers, reported missing at Los Alamos.

 Investigators also have slammed a superlaser project at
Lawrence Livermore for being more than six years behind schedule
and likely to pass $4 billion in costs -- more than twice the
original price tag.

 UC officials accepted responsibility, fired and reassigned top
officials and dispatched auditors to put in place a series of
reforms.

 Bids for Lawrence Livermore are due Oct. 12. It is unclear if
any other universities or private firms will seek the contract.
The winner will be announced in spring 2007.

 UC was unopposed last year for the Lawrence Berkeley lab. But
it did have to beat out a University of Texas team last year for
the Los Alamos contract.

 The University of Texas teamed up with defense contractor
Lockheed Martin for the Los Alamos contract -- a different
approach than UC took with Bechtel to ensure science and
research would remain the top priority at the lab.

 "We are not in the weapons production business," said UC
regents chairman Gerald Parsky.

 Bechtel is a premier leader in facility management, said UC lab
spokesman Chris Harrington. "When you look at Katrina, Bechtel
is there," Harrington said. "When you look at Iraq, they're
there. Major government projects -- Bechtel is there."

 Bechtel also has been in the news recently. The company was
involved the Big Dig highway project in Boston, where a motorist
was crushed earlier this month by falling concrete slabs in a
connecting tunnel.

 Lawrence Livermore director George Miller said he was not
troubled by Bechtel's connection to the Boston accident. "We're
really excited by the partnerships that the university is
putting together," he said.

 Lawrence Livermore has a $1.7 billion annual budget and about
8,500 employees. UC's current contract to run Lawrence Livermore
expires on Sept. 30, 2007.

 The lab, named after UC Berkeley physicist Ernest O. Lawrence,
has its roots in atomic bomb research. Scientists there are
responsible for monitoring the country's aging nuclear weapons
stockpile -- figuring out which bombs are now duds. The lab also
has expanded into homeland security and bioterrorism research.

 The UC will make a final decision on its Lawrence Livermore bid
this summer. Regents chairman Parsky said a new lab management
contract needs to place the greatest weight on science and
research.

 "If it doesn't, I think we need to carefully rethink whether or
not we want to participate," Parsky said. "The role of science
and the role of the university most be foremost in pursuing
these lab contracts."

 Criteria for evaluating the bids include the potential
contractor's management approach to "conducting world-class
science and technology," the organizational structure for
managing the laboratory and past performance, according to the
National Nuclear Security Administration, the nuclear science
arm of the Energy Department.

 Meanwhile, activists in Livermore continue to raise concerns
about the dangerous scope of work being conducted in the highly
populated Bay Area.

 "UC needs to get out of the bomb business," said Tara Dorabji
of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, at
the beginning of a regents hearing last week.

 
About the writer:
 
  + The Bee's Eric Stern can be reached at (916) 321-1048 or . 

[The Sacramento Bee] Unique content, exceptional value. 

Contact The Bee: (916) 321-1000 | 
		 			
    
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