***************************************************************** 07/28/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.178 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 IRNA: UNSC cannot deprive Iran of its inalienable right - Cleric 2 IRNA: Iran-China-Nuclear 3 AFP: UN to give Iran until August 31 to suspend uranium enrichment - 4 Guardian Unlimited: Security Council Reaches Accord on Iran 5 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Wants U.S. Sanctions Dropped 6 BBC: N Korea rejects calls for talks 7 AFP: Asia, US hold talks without defiant North Korea 8 AFP: Asia, US hold talks without defiant North Korea 9 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Again Refuses 6-Nation Talks 10 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: U.S. Ready for N. Korea Negotiations 11 AFP: Bush urges swift approval of India nuclear pact 12 IPS-English SOUTH ASIA: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Sows Resentment, 13 Guardian Unlimited: Top Indian civil servant 'was CIA spy' 14 NYT: 2 Steps Back: Rice’s Careful Diplomacy Falters Under Renewed NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 US: Heat Wave Shows Limits Of Nuclear Energy 16 US: Think new reactors can be built economically? Think again; and 17 US: [NukeNet] Heat Wave Shows Limits Of Nuclear Energy 18 US: Philadelphia Inquirer: Limerick board OKs nuclear-storage plan 19 US: Herald News: Exelon officials tour tritium remediation at Braidw 20 US: Platts: NRG Energy plans to order major components for ABWRs by 21 US: Platts: US NRC fines FPL unit for security failures at Seabrook 22 Platts: Japan orders inspection of No 2 unit at Hokuriku nuclear pla 23 US: NRC: Exelon Generating Company, LLC; Notice of Availability of t 24 US: NRC: Yankee Atomic Electric Company; Yankee Nuclear Power Statio 25 US: NRC: Final Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability 26 US: NRC: In the Matter of Texas A University, (Nuclear Science Cente 27 US: NWAnews.com: Scientists wary of aging nuclear plants 28 US: DECATUR DAILY: NRC, TVA plan meeting on Browns Ferry Unit 1 29 US: Providence Journal: Coming soon: More nuclear-power plants 30 US: Decatur Daily: TVA ready to calculate cost of 2nd reactor at Wat NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 31 US: adn.com alaska: Feds commit to Amchitka checkups 32 US: IAEA: Radioactive Sources Recovered in Georgia 33 Bellona: Radiation accident on Russian nuclear submarine NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 34 US: Platts: Senate Energy panel to examine DOE nuclear waste bill on 35 reviewjournal.com: New Yucca analysis sought 36 RGJ.com: In 2008: America, meet Nevada 37 US: SHJ: Congress is trying to kill the only option left for removin 38 US: TheStar.com: Uranium for hydro aids Cameco 39 US: AU ABC: Martin's uranium stance 'inconsistent'. 40 Daily Record: DOUNREAY WASTE PLAN PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 41 DOE: Energy Department Early Career Scientists and Engineers Honored 42 DOE: DOE Seeks Proposals for Expanded Large-Scale Scientific Computi 43 Hanford News: Hanford interpretive center planners optimisic 44 Hanford News: Group doubts Hanford thyroid study findings 45 Tri-City Herald: CH2M Hill to cut 75 jobs in September 46 TPR: Nuke Lab Privatization Moving Forward 47 lamonitor.com: Plutonium puzzle nags investigators 48 Knox News: EnergySolutions cuts Oak Ridge jobs ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 IRNA: UNSC cannot deprive Iran of its inalienable right - Cleric July 28, IRNA -- The UN Security Council cannot prevent Iran of its inalienable right on access to peaceful nuclear technology by issuing a resolution, substitute Friday leader of Tehran Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khatami said here Friday. "The Islamic Iran will never renounce its right on access to peaceful nuclear energy," Khatami said in his second Friday prayers sermons at Tehran University campus. Pointing to Iran's nuclear talks with the Europeans, he added, "The Europeans offered their proposed package of incentives to Iran but sent its nuclear case to the Security Council before Tehran expresses its response." On June 6, the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana offered a package of incentives on behalf of the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- Russia, China, US, UK and France -- plus Germany (Group 5+1) to Iran to settle the dispute over the country's nuclear program. "Their negotiations were a trick in principle," Khatami said. He addressed European states saying that it would be within their interests to use a "language of logical negotiations with no preconditions instead of a language of force or threat". ***************************************************************** 2 IRNA: Iran-China-Nuclear China urges settlement of Iran's N-case at IAEA Today: Saturday July 29, 2006 United Nations, New York, July 28 IRNA -- China on Thursday stressed settlement of Iran's nuclear case at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said Iran's nuclear dossier is removed from the UN Security Council's agenda for an unspecified period of time. He added the Security Council got involved in Iran's nuclear case just to help the IAEA and not to bring the case under its own control. He said that members of the Security Council have no common stance on Iran's nuclear case because China believes that the IAEA is the only source to review the issue. As participants at a meeting held in London in January believe, performance of the Security Council is aimed at strengthening the IAEA's role, Wang said. He rejected remarks by certain members of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany (Group 5+1)-- including Russia, on reaching a consensus on Iran, saying the six countries are working together to examine ways the Security Council can help and strengthen the IAEA's role. On Iran's nuclear case, the Chinese ambassador said, no state speaks of resort to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to adopt a resolution against Iran. China's stance on Iran's nuclear case has not been changed since January, he said, adding the Security Council's role was merely to strengthen the IAEA's role. He said the UN nuclear watchdog is the main body to raise the case, stressing the six states would not get Iran's nuclear dossier from the IAEA. ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: UN to give Iran until August 31 to suspend uranium enrichment - by Tim Witcher Fri Jul 28, 4:02 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council would consider sanctions against Iran" /> Iranif it does not halt uranium enrichment by August 31, under a resolution drawn up by the six major powers, diplomats said. A text of the proposed resolution was distributed to the 15 council nations on Friday, and US ambassador John Bolton told reporters at the UN headquarters that a vote could be held early next week. If Iran continues to pursue uranium enrichment, "the next step will be the consideration of sanctions in the Security Council, and it would be our intention to move forcefully to get those sanctions adopted," Bolton said. The first stage would be political and economic sanctions, diplomats stressed. The United States and its allies believe that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Iran has insisted its programme is peaceful but has refused to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) orders to suspend uranium enrichment and other activities. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent members of the Security Council -- and Germany drew up the draft resolution during weeks of painstaking talks. Russia and China have led opposition to any talk of sanctions in the resolution. Russia's ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, stressed that the new resolution would not threaten sanctions and that it was "an invitation to dialogue" with Iran. But he also acknowledged that if Iran did not respond, the Security Council would then consider "measures of pressure, like sanctions" under Article 41 of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. Article 41 would not allow the use of force. Churkin insisted sanctions would be "the next step, a possibility along with other possibilities." The draft resolution calls on Iran to follow IAEA directives "without further delay" and highlights the three years the IAEA has spent trying to get information about Iran's nuclear programme. If passed, it would call on the IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei to give a report on whether Iran has complied by August 31. While warning of further measures, the resolution "underlines that further decisions will be required should such additional measures be necessary," meaning that a new resolution would have to be passed to get sanctions. Diplomats said the resolution would increase pressure on Iran to respond to an offer of economic and political incentives to halt its nuclear production that was made by Britain, France and Germany in June. Iran has said it will not reply before August 22, nine days before the proposed UN deadline. Bolton said the resolution would be "a mandatory command" to comply with IAEA resolutions and set out a tough line on the issue. "The draft text will impose a mandatory and binding requirement on Iran that it suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities," said Bolton. "I think the resolution will put the ball back in Iran's court," he said. "They can take one path and suspend their uranium enrichment activities and come into discussions on the very generous offer," made by the European Union" /> European Uniontrio, or "they will face increased international isolation, economic and political pressure," said Bolton. The vote is virtually certain to be passed without difficulty, as all five permanent members support it, lifting any threat of a veto. The accord on a draft resolution was sealed despite China hinting it could hold up other key UN business after the United States refused to accept criticism of Israel" /> Israelin a Security Council statement this week on the killing of four UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. Bolton said he had not seen any sign of Chinese objections to the text. Russia is believed to have greater influence over Iran among the UN's major powers. Russia's President Vladimir Putin" /> Vladimir Putinspoke about the nuclear dispute with Iran's hardline president Mahmud Ahmadinejad in telephone talks on Tuesday, the Kremlin said. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: Security Council Reaches Accord on Iran From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 28, 2006 9:16 PM AP Photo XAW103 By NICK WADHAMS Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council reached a deal Friday on a resolution that would give Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions. The draft was formally circulated to the full 15-member council late in the day and will likely be adopted next week. Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text is weaker than earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold further discussions before it considers sanctions. ``There (are) no sanctions introduced on Iran in the draft resolution which we are finalizing,'' Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. Churkin stressed that work on the resolution was not finished, raising the possibility the introduction of the draft could be postponed. The resolution, drafted by Britain, France and Germany with U.S. backing, is a followup to a July 12 agreement - by the foreign ministers of those four countries, plus Russia and China - to refer Tehran to the Security Council for not responding to incentives to suspend enrichment. The ministers asked that council members adopt a resolution making Iran's suspension of enrichment activities mandatory. Tehran said last week it would reply Aug. 22 to the Western incentive package, but the council decided to go ahead with a resolution and not wait for Iran's response. Iran on Friday called again for international negotiations on its nuclear ambitions and said it was considering the incentives. Western nations have dismissed the idea of such talks without a halt to Iran's uranium enrichment. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking to reporters in Malaysia, said Tehran considers the package as a ``positive step'' toward a diplomatic solution. The U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is purely peaceful and aimed at generating electricity. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Wants U.S. Sanctions Dropped From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 28, 2006 9:01 PM AP Photo KL106 By SCOTT NEUMAN Associated Press Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - North Korea on Friday spurned appeals to join talks on its nuclear and missile programs, saying the United States should drop financial sanctions before any negotiations occur. A U.S. envoy said the communist nation was sinking deeper into isolation. At a conference in Malaysia, North Korea struck a defiant tone as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top diplomats from other regional powers discussed Asian security matters without their counterpart from Pyongyang. ``I hope that today's gathering will begin the basis for cooperation of a new, regional dialogue that can help us overcome these tensions, help us increase security throughout the region,'' Rice said before entering the meeting. She added that the United States hoped for a resumption of stalled six-party talks on North Korea, which also include South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. ``It's unfortunate that the PRK (People's Republic of Korea) has been unwilling to return to the six-party talks,'' she said. ``The United States remains ready at any time, at any place, without any conditions'' to resume the talks. Outside the convention center where they met, hundreds of anti-U.S. protesters broke through a police cordon and marched to the building's entrance. The protesters, mostly members of Malaysia's ruling coalition, raised fists and chanted slogans against Washington's backing of Israel in the Lebanon conflict. North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons are a source of global concern, and the North deepened the standoff when it test-fired seven missiles earlier this month. At the same time, U.S. sanctions against banks linked to North Korea have sapped the communist country's cash flow. ``The U.S. says it's difficult to lift the financial sanctions, but there is nothing difficult. If the U.S. wants to, it can do it easily,'' North Korean spokesman Chong Song Il said in Kuala Lumpur. ``We believe if the U.S. earnestly wants dialogue, it can do this.'' Chong had harsh words for the United Nations, which condemned the missile tests and barred U.N. member states from dealing with North Korea in material or technology for missiles or weapons of mass destruction. ``The missile launches were part of a routine military exercise and a self-defense project,'' Chong said. ``It's brigandish for the U.N. Security Council to take issue with this.'' North Korea's foreign minister, Paek Nam Sun, told delegates to the ASEAN Regional Forum that his country might pull out of the security conference attended by 25 countries and the European Union if it condemned North Korean actions, according to diplomats. ``They say there's nothing against their firing the missile, this is their own routine military exercise, there's no law to prevent them from doing that, there is blackmail by one superpower,'' said Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The North's diplomatic isolation was evident in the decision by the United States and other nations to hold a separate meeting on the sidelines of ARF without Paek, ostensibly to discuss northeast Asian security. ``They are completely isolated,'' said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. ``If it's isolation they want, it's going to be isolation they get.'' However, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing downplayed the separate meeting in an indication that it was likely to be a show of unity rather than an opportunity to craft policy. ``It's nothing formal, it's just going to be like a tea party,'' he said. The sideline meeting included Rice, foreign ministers from countries involved in the six-party talks, and the foreign ministers of Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada and New Zealand. The addition of peripheral players in the North Korean standoff was a delicate maneuver to avoid the impression that nations in the six-party process were ganging up on North Korea. The international community remains divided on how to deal with the communist nation. South Korea, for example, favors engagement with its neighbor, while the South's chief ally, the United States, takes a harder line. China appears to be frustrated with North Korea's belligerence, but does not want to apply pressure that could destabilize the regime there. --- Associated Press writers Jae-Soon Chang, William Foreman and Sean Yoong contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 6 BBC: N Korea rejects calls for talks Last Updated: Friday, 28 July 2006 [North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun (left) with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing] The North Korean delegation refused to hold talks Asian and Western nations have failed to persuade North Korea to resume talks on its nuclear programme at an Asian security forum in Malaysia. Officials from 10 countries met to discuss security in North Asia on the fringes of the Asean Regional Forum, but North Korea refused to take part. Its foreign minister threatened to leave the forum if a joint statement criticised its recent missile tests. The crisis in the Middle East was also high on the agenda, as was Burma. The Asean Regional Forum brings together 24 nations, as well as the EU, for one day of talks at the end of the annual Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) meeting. 'Impossible' This year the forum had been expected to focus on North Korea, amid heightened concern in the wake of its missile tests on 5 July. ARF MEMBERS Asean: Brunei, Cambodia Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam Six nation talks on N Korea: US, China, N Korea, S Korea, Japan, Russia Others: Australia, Canada, India, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, PNG, E Timor Plus: EU Officials were hoping that delegates from Pyongyang would attend six-party talks on their country's nuclear ambitions on the sidelines of the meeting, but North Korea made it clear this would not happen. At the forum's opening ceremony, North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun threatened to leave the forum if Asean members chose to condemn its missile tests. "If ARF strongly imposes contents of a joint statement against the will of some countries without consensus, we will think about whether we will remain," he said. Earlier, North Korean spokesman Jong Song-il said US financial sanctions were "making it impossible for us to go to the six-party talks". Officials from 10 countries - including the five nations engaged in dialogue with North Korea - later met without the delegation from Pyongyang for security talks on the fringes of the forum. Ms Rice said it was "unfortunate" that North Korea had declined to hold talks, but said that the US was ready "at any time" to return to the multilateral dialogue. A chairman's statement released at the end of the talks expressed concern over the tests, which it said could have "adverse repercussions" on stability in the region. 'Tremendous concern' The ongoing situation in the Middle East has also been high on the forum's agenda. Ms Rice told a news conference that she recognised the "tremendous concern" that governments in the Asia-Pacific region had about the crisis and said she wanted to see "as early an end to the conflict as possible". But Ms Rice did not give a timetable for her return to the region. "I do think it is important that groundwork be laid so I can make the most of whatever time I can spend there," she said. Earlier in the week, Asean members called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, contradicting Washington's line. Adding to the pressure was the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who held joint talks with the foreign ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan on the sidelines of the forum. Outside the convention centre, several hundred anti-US protesters broke through a police cordon to chant slogans criticising its backing of Israel. The forum also addressed the issue of Burma and its failure to introduce democratic reform. Earlier in the week, the 10-member Asean grouping issued a statement calling on Rangoon to demonstrate "tangible progress", which international observers criticised as not strong enough. But Ms Rice called the statement an "important evolution", adding that Asean had spoken "quite clearly" on the need for political reform. The chairman's statement raised concerns over the pace of reform in Burma, but said the country needed "time and political space to deal with its many and complex challenges". ***************************************************************** 7 AFP: Asia, US hold talks without defiant North Korea by Jun Kwanwoo Fri Jul 28, 6:42 AM ET KUALA LUMPUR(AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Ricehas urged North Korea" /> North Koreato rejoin negotiations on its nuclear programme as ten world powers held Asian security talks without the communist regime. Rice told the meeting in Kuala Lumpur that the United States was ready "at any time, at any place and without any conditions" to meet North Korea under a six-nation framework that began three years ago. But North Korea, which left the six-way talks in November and caused further outrage this month when it test fired seven missiles, said it would not return until US financial sanctions against it are dropped. Friday's ten-way dialogue involved North Korea's previous nuclear negotiating partners -- South Korea" /> South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Russia -- along with Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand. The apparent compromise talks followed failed diplomatic efforts to sway North Korea at the ASEAN Regional Forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. "We do need to deal with the security problems that are currently bedeviling the region, especially concerns about the nuclear program of the DPRK," Rice said, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The launching of seven ballistic missiles on July 4-5 here in Asia that violated the self imposed nuclear moratorium was indeed a dangerous action," she said. North Korea -- which this week branded Rice an "imbecile" -- rejected a UN Security Council condemnation of the missile tests and said they were part of its legitimate right to self-defence. "It is sheer robbery to have unduly taken this issue to the UN Security Council and made it public," North Korean delegation spokesman Chung Sung-Il said. "Unless the United States lifts its sanctions on us, we will never, ever attend the six-party talks or other types of talks involving the six nations," he said. North Korea said it was also considering withdrawing from the ASEAN Regional Forum, one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends. Asian nations tried to salvage something from the negotiations, saying that the ten-way talks were a one-off and that the six-party discussions should continue. China, which was angered when close ally Pyongyang's ignored its appeals to halt the missile tests, called for all sides to "increase contact" to breathe life back into the process. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Xiaoxing met his North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun on Friday and later told reporters that the North was "willing to go back to the six-party talks but they have conditions." Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said: "China told us he (Li) tried to bring Paek to the meeting of ten nations to the last minute." South Korea, which cut food aid to the North after the missile tests, urged Pyongyang to "come out of this self-imposed isolation," foreign ministry official Cho Tai-yong said. However Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer welcomed the wider ten-way talks, saying they were an "opportunity ... to broaden the focus region-wide." North Korea walked out of the talks in November after Washington accused a Macau-based bank of helping Pyongyang launder earnings from fake US currency, and told US financial institutions to stop dealing with the bank. The US says the clampdown on the bank is a criminal matter and should not be linked to the nuclear issue. Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the counterfeiting was "dirty illicit activity." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Asia, US hold talks without defiant North Korea by Jun Kwanwoo Fri Jul 28, 1:09 PM ET KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Riceurged North Korea" /> North Koreato rejoin negotiations on its nuclear program as 10 world powers held Asian security talks without the communist regime. Rice told the meeting in Kuala Lumpur that the United States was ready "at any time, at any place and without any conditions" to meet North Korea under a six-nation framework that began three years ago. But North Korea, which left the six-way talks in November and caused further outrage this month when it test fired seven missiles, said it would not return until US financial sanctions against it were dropped. Friday's 10-way dialogue involved North Korea's previous nuclear negotiating partners -- South Korea" /> South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Russia -- along with Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand. The apparent compromise talks followed failed diplomatic efforts to sway North Korea at the ASEAN Regional Forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. "We do need to deal with the security problems that are currently bedeviling the region, especially concerns about the nuclear program of the DPRK," Rice said, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The launching of seven ballistic missiles on July 4-5 here in Asia that violated the self imposed nuclear moratorium was indeed a dangerous action," she said. North Korea -- which this week branded Rice an "imbecile" -- rejected a UN Security Council condemnation of the missile tests and said they were part of its legitimate right to self-defence. "It is sheer robbery to have unduly taken this issue to the UN Security Council and made it public," North Korean delegation spokesman Chung Sung-Il said. "Unless the United States lifts its sanctions on us, we will never, ever attend the six-party talks or other types of talks involving the six nations," he said. North Korea said it was also considering withdrawing from the ASEAN Regional Forum, one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends. Asian nations tried to salvage something from the negotiations, saying that the 10-way talks were a one-off and that the six-party discussions should continue. China, which was angered when close ally Pyongyang's ignored its appeals to halt the missile tests, called for all sides to "increase contact" to breathe life back into the process. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Xiaoxing met his North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun on Friday and later told reporters that the North was "willing to go back to the six-party talks but had conditions." "We met for over an hour. We had discussions on a wide range of topics. The content was rich," he said, adding that Paek had agreed on a need to continue the talks. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said: "China told us he (Li) tried to bring Paek to the meeting of 10 nations to the last minute." South Korea, which cut food aid to the North after the missile tests, urged Pyongyang to "come out of this self-imposed isolation," foreign ministry official Cho Tai-Yong said. However Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer welcomed the wider 10-way talks, saying they were an "opportunity ... to broaden the focus region-wide." North Korea walked out of the talks in November after Washington accused a Macau-based bank of helping Pyongyang launder earnings from fake US currency, and told US financial institutions to stop dealing with the bank. The US says the clampdown on the bank is a criminal matter and should not be linked to the nuclear issue. Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the counterfeiting was "dirty illicit activity." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 9 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Again Refuses 6-Nation Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 28, 2006 1:16 PM AP Photo KL119 By KATHERINE SHRADER Associated Press Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brushing aside North Korea's latest statement refusing to take part in multinational talks on its nuclear weapons program, said Friday the United States is ``ready at any time'' to go back to negotiations in that format. Appearing before reporters at a summit here of Asian nations not long after North Korea served fresh notice here of its position, Rice reiterated the Bush administration view that a series of missile launch tests in early July was ``a dangerous act.'' ``We need a robust dialogue,'' Rice said. ``I hope we can arrange a new regional dialogue'' that can help overcome tensions on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia. Beyond that, Rice said she hopes the United States and its allies in the region can work to ``lay a better foundation for enhanced prosperity.'' ``I hope that today's gathering will begin the basis for cooperation of a new, regional dialogue that can help us overcome these tensions, help us increase security throughout the region,'' Rice said before going into a meeting. In addition, she said, the United States wants the six-party talks resumed with Pyongyang, reiterating the administration's position against suggestions of direct talks with President Kim Jong Il. ``It's unfortunate that the PRK (People's Republic of Korea) has been unwilling to return to the six-party talks,'' she said. ``The United States remains ready at any time, at any place, without any conditions'' to return to the talks. ``In the absence of that,'' she said, ``I hope we can have a discussion on how to move forward on cooperation and security.'' Speaking to reporters, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said, ``The North Koreans are putting themselves in a position, not only in defiance of the United Nations Security Council but also in defiance of the entire international community.'' He said there is ``absolutely no support anywhere in the world'' for Pyongyang's position. ``They are completely isolated,'' Hill said, ``and if it's isolation they want, it going to be isolation they get.'' Hill, saying that Pyongyang has ``some thinking to do,'' spoke before going into a meeting involving the United States and its partners in the six-party talks - China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Added to the meeting were representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Indonesia. ``I want to emphasize, this is just an opportunity for countries to get together to discuss ideas,'' he said. ``This is not a new format or something. This is not some new organization. This is simply a meeting of like-minded states who are interested in peace and security in the Pacific region.'' The Bush administration has been trying to get China to put pressure on Pyongyang to stop its missile tests and return to the international nuclear disarmament talks. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the administration's point man on North Korea, said earlier this month that Beijing is a critical nation in getting a solution to the bargaining standoff in the wake of the July 5 test-firing of seven missiles, including some that possibly could reach the American continent. China is North Korea's main ally and trading partner. Burns said on July 10 that the diplomatic aim was to ``convince the North Koreans that they're isolated, that they have no support in the world, and they've got to come back to'' stalled six-nation negotiations aimed at ridding the reclusive, communist-led nation of its nuclear weapons program. Those talks involve the Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: U.S. Ready for N. Korea Negotiations From the Associated Press [UP] Friday July 28, 2006 1:46 PM AP Photo KL157 By KATHERINE SHRADER Associated Press Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brushing aside North Korea's latest statement refusing to take part in multinational talks on its nuclear weapons program, said Friday the United States is ``ready at any time'' to go back to negotiations in that format. Appearing before reporters at a summit here of Asian nations not long after North Korea served fresh notice here of its position, Rice reiterated the Bush administration view that a series of missile launch tests in early July was ``a dangerous act.'' ``We need a robust dialogue,'' Rice said. ``I hope we can arrange a new regional dialogue'' that can help overcome tensions on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia. Beyond that, Rice said she hopes the United States and its allies in the region can work to ``lay a better foundation for enhanced prosperity.'' ``I hope that today's gathering will begin the basis for cooperation of a new, regional dialogue that can help us overcome these tensions, help us increase security throughout the region,'' Rice said before going into a meeting. In addition, she said, the United States wants the six-party talks resumed with Pyongyang, reiterating the administration's position against suggestions of direct talks with President Kim Jong Il. ``It's unfortunate that the PRK (People's Republic of Korea) has been unwilling to return to the six-party talks,'' she said. ``The United States remains ready at any time, at any place, without any conditions'' to return to the talks. ``In the absence of that,'' she said, ``I hope we can have a discussion on how to move forward on cooperation and security.'' Speaking to reporters, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said, ``The North Koreans are putting themselves in a position, not only in defiance of the United Nations Security Council but also in defiance of the entire international community.'' He said there is ``absolutely no support anywhere in the world'' for Pyongyang's position. ``They are completely isolated,'' Hill said, ``and if it's isolation they want, it's going to be isolation they get.'' Hill, saying that Pyongyang has ``some thinking to do,'' spoke before going into a meeting involving the United States and its partners in the six-party talks - China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Added to the meeting were representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Indonesia. ``I want to emphasize, this is just an opportunity for countries to get together to discuss ideas,'' he said. ``This is not a new format or something. This is not some new organization. This is simply a meeting of like-minded states who are interested in peace and security in the Pacific region.'' The Bush administration has been trying to get China to put pressure on Pyongyang to stop its missile tests and return to the international nuclear disarmament talks. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the administration's point man on North Korea, said earlier this month that Beijing is a critical nation in getting a solution to the bargaining standoff in the wake of the July 5 test-firing of seven missiles, including some that possibly could reach the American continent. China is North Korea's main ally and trading partner. Burns said on July 10 that the diplomatic aim was to ``convince the North Koreans that they're isolated, that they have no support in the world, and they've got to come back to'' stalled six-nation negotiations aimed at ridding the reclusive, communist-led nation of its nuclear weapons program. Those talks involve the Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 11 AFP: Bush urges swift approval of India nuclear pact Thu Jul 27, 11:06 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bushurged the Senate to swiftly approve a controversial US-India civilian nuclear energy deal a day after the House of Representatives did so overwhelmingly. "I want to applaud the House of Representatives for passing an important piece of legislation when it comes to America's relationship with India," Bush said in a speech to a manufacturing association on Thursday. The House voted 359-68 late Wednesday in favor of the legislation, which supporters say will be the cornerstone of a strategic alliance and critics charge will only fuel tensions between India and nuclear rival Pakistan. "The president urges the Senate to act expeditiously to pass companion legislation to enable this important initiative to become a reality," Bush spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement. "The US-India civil nuclear cooperation initiative will help India generate more nuclear power to meet its enormous energy needs in a manner that does not increase greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, or increase demand on global oil and gas supplies," said Snow. "This initiative also advances US nonproliferation objectives by bringing India into the international nonproliferation mainstream," the spokesman said. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 12 IPS-English SOUTH ASIA: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Sows Resentment, Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:03:53 -0700 Praful Bidwai NEW DELHI, Jul 27 (IPS) - Just as the nuclear cooperation agreement betwe en the United States and India receives a major boost in Washington with the House of Representatives strongly voting for it, the deal continues to face flak in India's own Parliament. On Thursday, the House approved by 359 to 68 ballots a bill which facilit ates resumption of civilian nuclear commerce with India, although this co untry has tested and possesses nuclear weapons. A similar bill is likely to be passed by the U.S. Senate either very soon, or in September, after the U.S. Congress reassembles post recess. Earlier, the foreign relations committees of both Chambers had negotiated legislations to amend certain sections of the U.S. atomic energy act of 1954 by giving the President special authority to waive their restrictive provisions. However, precisely because both bills lay down certain conditions for granting such waiver, they have provoked domestic opposition in India, both 66rom the political Left and the Right. The governments in New Delhi and Washington will have to exert themselves a great deal to reconcile diffe rences with the bill's critics and perhaps amend their text. Meanwhile, ominous signs have appeared of a likely acceleration of the nu clear arms race on the sub-continent following a report in The Washington Post94 on Jul. 24 that Pakistan is building a large plutonium produc tion reactor, which will allow it to make 40 to 50 Nagasaki-type fission bombs a year, thus narrowing the nuclear warhead gap with India. The U.S.-India nuclear deal was initialled a year ago between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington. It has bee n described as historic and representing a tidal shift in Ind ia-U.S. relations, and as the most important foreign policy initiative undertaken by Bush. The Bush administration, joined by powerful Indian-American and Zionist-I sraeli lobbies in Washington, as well as by public relations agencies eng aged by New Delhi, has invested a major effort in promoting the deal, thr ough which Washington hopes to recruit once-Non-Aligned India as its strategic partner or junior ally. One objective of such partnership is to contain China's influence as a rising power. The administration's effort has whittled down much of the opposition to t he deal from those members of the U.S. Congress who resist making a speci al one-time exception for India in the global nuclear order. Such an exce ption is necessary to permit civilian nuclear cooperation with India alth ough it is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970. However, the Bush administration has had to pay a price for getting a con sensus favouring the deal. This lies in negotiating compromises which tak e the critics' concerns on board and alter the bills it originally presen ted to the two chambers of Congress. These alterations change the sequence of steps India must take before the U.S. Congress ratifies the deal. More important, they impose conditions such as annual certification of India's nuclear activities by the U.S. Pr esident. These were not part of the original Bush-Singh agreement signed last year. Nor did they figure in the plan for separating India's civilia n and military facilities agreed to with Bush in March. What rankles the political opposition in India is divergences between the bills and the statements made by Singh in Parliament on Jul. 29, last ye ar, and this past March 7. Some opposition parties are pressing for Sense of the House resolutions recording their differences with the U.S. Congress bills. The Singh government has warned that such resolutions could lead to the fall of the ruling coalition. (The Left supports the Centrist coalition from the outside, because it is keen to prevent the Hindu-Right wing Bharat iya Janata Party from making a bid for power.) On Wednesday, Singh tried to reassure Parliament personally that he would not agree to any departure from the commitments made in the past agreeme nts with Bush. But this did not satisfy the opposition parties, which reg ard the U.S. bills as interference with India's sovereignty and independe nt strategic decision-making. The parties raised strong concerns over The Washington Post report that Pakistan is building a plutonium production reactor, and demanded to know what India is doing in response. This disclosure was first highligh ted by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Secur ity, which has published satellite images of the facility under construct ion at Khushab, in the Punjab. According to ISIS, the reactor has a capacity of 1,000Mw (thermal) and can produce 200 kg of plutonium a year, enough for 40 to 50 bombs. The reac tor has been under construction since 2000 but is nowhere near completion . There is speculation in India's so-called strategic community about whether Pakistan has the capacity to design and build a reactor of this size, and also to make crucial ingredients for it, such as heavy water. Pakistan's experience with this technology is limited so far to a small (40 - 70 Mw thermal) plutonium reactor, and a heavy water facility which o nly produces tiny quantities of about 10 -15 tonnes. It is not known if the small reactor has successfully produced weapons-grade material, and in what quantities. But what is much more interesting is that the U.S. government says it has known of the existence of the reactor for a long time, says M.V. R amana, an independent nuclear expert based at Centre for Interdisciplinar y Studies in Environment and Development, Bangalore. Now, depending on how long it has known this, it has either silently acquiesced in Pakista n's plutonium production programme, or subtly hinted that such a reactor could compensate Pakistan for the disadvantage likely to be caused vis-E0-vis India by the Bush-Singh nuclear deal. In either case, India is likely to step up its own production and stockpi ling of fuel for nuclear weapons so as to deny Pakistan an edge. This in turn could spur Pakistan to further expand its nuclear weapons capability and missile prowess and thus accelerate the nuclear arms race between the two neighbours. Whatever shape the India-U.S. nuclear deal finally takes, it is certain to influence rivalry in South Asia (END/IPS/AP/IP/WD/NU/DV/SC/PB/RDR/06) ***************************************************************** 13 Guardian Unlimited: Top Indian civil servant 'was CIA spy' Randeep Ramesh in Delhi Friday July 28, 2006 The Guardian [Former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh] Former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh. Photograph: EPA Moles, nuclear secrets, espionage in high places are all essential ingredients for a racy spy thriller - but they have also ensured the memoirs of India's former foreign minister will be a runaway publishing success. In A Call to Honour, published this week, soldier-statesmen Jaswant Singh claims one of India's top civil servants was in the pay of the CIA and leaked secrets to the United States about India's nuclear programme in the early 1990s. In a country where conspiracy theories abound about the penetration of the establishment by foreign intelligence services, the book is said to be on course to sell 50,000 copies - 10 times the normal level of a bestseller in India. The memoirs have sparked furious denials from retired mandarins, and the country's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has asked Mr Singh to reveal the name of the mole. It is all a far cry from Mr Singh's days in power. Friendly with Bill Clinton and an admirer of Charles de Gaulle, he was seen as a tough nationalist who bargained hard with the Chinese. In a seemingly deft display of public relations, the former minister has teased journalists with details of the mole's identity. He was a civil servant "in such a high position that he was privy to a lot of information". Then it was revealed that he was no longer in office. Next that he lived abroad. Retired intelligence officials say Mr Singh is right. "We know the Americans had somebody inside. They knew about plans to test nuclear weapons and stopped us in the early 90s," said B Raman, who worked for the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external espionage agency, until 1994. "The question is, was the American information from a paid informant or from an official who liked to talk too much?" During the 1971 war between India and Pakistan that culminated in the independence of Bangladesh it was claimed the CIA had a spy in the Indian cabinet. Last year the Mitrokhin Archive - a book by a respected Cambridge academic based on information about the Russian spy agencies gathered by a minor civil servant - detailed how the KGB funded India's left-leaning parties during the 1960s and 70s. In the past few weeks one of India's former intelligence officials who ended up working for Microsoft has been arrested, prompting the departure of a senior US embassy official from Delhi. However, some of Mr Singh's friends say he would be aghast to find himself at the centre of a spying scandal. "This was not a sensational book. It was supposed to be a serious part of the jigsaw puzzle that is modern-day India," said Ashok Malik, who edited Mr Singh's book. Useful links Government of India Times of India Hindustan Times Week magazine [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 14 NYT: 2 Steps Back: Rice’s Careful Diplomacy Falters Under Renewed Assertiveness by the U.S. - New York Times Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary General Kofi Annan before a meeting Wednesday in Rome on the Lebanon crisis. By HELENE COOPER Published: July 28, 2006 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Friday, July 28 — For the past year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Ricehas worked assiduously to resurrect the importance of traditional diplomacy and building consensus among world leaders after America’s go-it-alone approach to Iraq. She has managed to hold together a fragile coalition of countries seeking to curb Iran’s nuclear program by offering to end America’s three-decade-long refusal to talk to Tehran if it suspends its uranium-enrichment program. And she has a similar coalition holding together on North Korea’s nuclear efforts. But in the space of one hour in Rome on Wednesday, the public rewards of that hard work — the view around the world that the United States may now be more willing to play nice with others — may have been undone. Once again, it seemed, the United States had reverted to its my-way-or-the-highway approach, and Ms. Rice was on the defensive. Certainly, she won the diplomatic battle in Rome: she squeezed out of world leaders extra time for Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, arguing for a “sustainable” cease-fire including political elements rather than an immediate cease-fire. In the vision of Ms. Rice, who came here from Rome for a meeting with Asian leaders, that would shift the balance of power in the Middle East. The Lebanese government could finally assert its authority over its country. Syria and Iran, backers of Hezbollah, would see their influence diminish. “I say to the Lebanese people, no one wants to see the spilling of Lebanese blood,” Ms. Rice said. “But I also don’t want to see the spilling of Lebanese blood three months from now because we allowed the situation to go back to the status quo ante.” In reality, while many diplomats have called for an immediate cease-fire, they support the American package as the only way to cobble together a peace plan that shores up the government of Lebanonand leads to the disarmament of Hezbollah. But Ms. Rice lost the public relations war. Reports of the Rome meeting uniformly painted her as isolated in one corner, refusing to yield to impassioned calls for an immediate cease-fire to end mounting civilian casualties in Lebanon. It all came down to an almost one-hour fight over the wording of one passage in the final communiqué. While other countries were pushing for a statement that said the group would work toward an “immediate cease-fire,” Ms. Rice insisted on “work immediately” toward a cease-fire. That may be a small point to most people, but it is a huge one diplomatically since it shifts the burden away from an immediate cessation of violence and more toward diplomacy, a shift that also buys Israel more time to keep up its campaign. Ms. Rice’s insistence on that phrasing gave European and Arab leaders at the meeting the leeway to say truthfully that the United States blocked pursuit of an immediate cease-fire. “Everybody else took a free moral ride while she took the blame,” said Martin S. Indyk, the United States ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration. The Bush administration, Mr. Indyk said in a telephone interview from Washington, should have been more sensitive to the perception that the United States, through its backing of Israel, was in part responsible for the civilian deaths in Lebanon. He said President Bush, early in the crisis, should have sent an envoy to Arab capitals — even Syria’s — to show that the United States was trying to broker a cease-fire, even as it worked on the diplomatic package being constructed by Ms. Rice. Lost in the uproar after the meeting in Rome is that world leaders have agreed on the framework of an eventual cease-fire package, which ultimately is likely to come out of the United Nations Security Council. That package would call for a cease-fire, recognize the sovereign authority of the Lebanese government over all of the country, including the south. It would seek to boost the Lebanese Army, which would be backed by an international peacekeeping force. It would demand that a 2004 United Nationsresolution, which calls for the disarming of Hezbollah and other militias, be carried out. Still to be determined is the makeup of the international force, and what will be done about Lebanese demands that Israel withdraw from Shebaa Farms, which the United Nations has ruled is officially part of Syria but which Hezbollah claims as part of Lebanon. Middle East analysts and diplomats say that if the United States can broker a deal that gives Shebaa Farms back to the government of Lebanon, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora can use that to further isolate Hezbollah, by saying he has taken away from the militia group its excuse to attack Israel. The Bush administration contends that such a package has more of a chance of working if Israeli forces are able militarily to degrade Hezbollah. But the path of sacrificing civilian lives now in hopes of a greater peace later holds potential peril — not only for the civilians caught between Hezbollah and Israel, but also politically, for Israel and the United States. Israel’s bombing campaign could strengthen Hezbollah, as Mr. Siniora suggested in an anguished speech to the Rome meeting. “What fruit, other than one of pain, frustration, financial ruin and fanaticism can stem from this rubble?” he said. For the United States, the path makes some sense, since the avenue of direct talks with Hezbollah or its backers, Iran and Syria, isn’t one administration officials are willing to take yet. But it risks further damage to America’s image internationally, and particularly in the Arab world. NYTimes.com Copyright 2006The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 15 Heat Wave Shows Limits Of Nuclear Energy ENVIRONMENT: Julio Godoy PARIS, Jul 27 (IPS) - The extreme hot summer in Europe is restricting nuclear energy generation and showing up the limits of nuclear power, leading environmental activists and scientists say. The heat wave since mid-June has led authorities in France, Germany, Spain and elsewhere in Europe to override their own environmental norms on the maximum temperature of water drained from the plants' cooling systems. The French government announced Jul. 24 that nuclear power plants situated along rivers will be allowed to drain hot water into rivers at higher temperature. The measure is intended "to guarantee the provision of electricity for the country," according to an official note. France has 58 nuclear power plants, which produce almost 80 percent of electricity generated in the country. Of these, 37 are situated near rivers, and use them as outlet for water from their cooling systems. The drought accompanying the hot summer has reduced the volume of water in the rivers, and might force some power plants to shut down. Under normal circumstances, environment rules limit the maximum temperature for waste water in order to protect river flora and fauna. "For many years now, French authorities have defended nuclear power arguing that it is clean energy, good for the environment, and that it will help combat global warming, for it does not emit greenhouse gases," Stephane Lhomme, coordinator of the environmental network Sortir du Nucléaire (Phase Out Nuclear Power) told IPS. "Now, with global warming leading to extreme hot summers, we are witnessing that it is the other way round," Lhomme said. "Global warming is showing the limits of nuclear power plants, and nuclear power is destroying our environment." During the hot summer of 2003, French authorities had allowed nuclear power plants to drain excessively hot water into rivers, leading to considerable damage to flora and fauna, Lhomme said. According to the minutes of the National Surveillance Committee on water drained from reactors Aug. 21 and Sep. 3 2003, "hot water temperatures might have led to high concentrations of ammoniac, which is potentially toxic for the rivers' fauna." The minutes point to a European norm on the concentration of ammoniac in rivers, which France did not respect. Meanwhile France is importing some 2000 megawatts of power per day from neighbouring countries to compensate for shortages in production at nuclear power plants. While the French authorities have overridden their own environmental norms, in Germany energy providers have slowed down some nuclear reactors to limit waste water temperature and to protect flora and fauna. Reactors Kruemmel, Brunsbuettel and Brokdorf situated along the river Elbe which flows through Eastern and Northern Germany have all been slowed down. So have traditional fossil fuel power plants situated along the river Rhine. The nuclear reactors Isar 1 near Munich, and Neckarwestheim near Stuttgart have being authorised to drain hotter water into the nearby rivers than normally allowed. In Spain, the nuclear power plant at Santa Maria de Garoña, one of eight Spanish reactors, was shut down last weekend due to the high temperatures recorded in the river Ebro, into which the reactor drains the water used in its cooling system. The power plant, Spain's oldest, provides 20 percent of the electricity generated in the country. German energy expert Hermann Scheer says the situation shows a need for radical change in policy. "We must massively invest in renewable energy sources, and get rid of nuclear power as soon as possible," he told IPS. Scheer is president of Eurosolar, the European association for renewable energy resources, and winner of the 'Alternative Nobel prize' for his commitment to the environment. In France, nuclear scientist Hubert Reeves urged the government to "invest massively" in renewable energy resources. "We are behind many of our European partners such as Germany, Denmark and Spain in this matter, and cannot wait until the energy crisis reaches its climax to find an alternative to our present model," he told IPS. A crisis, he said, "is round the corner." Fossil energy sources are about to be exhausted, and "nuclear technology will not solve present problems within a reasonable period of time.we should abandon nuclear power and invest in alternative sources." (FIN/2006) ***************************************************************** 16 Think new reactors can be built economically? Think again; and on-time? Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:59:39 -0700 NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477); Fax: 301-270-4291 nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org THINK NEW ATOMIC REACTORS CAN BE BUILT CHEAPLY AND ON-TIME? THINK AGAIN! The Bush Administration and nuclear power industry have asserted that new nuclear reactorsunlike the current generation--would be built at competitive prices and on schedule. The Nuclear Energy Institute, for example, has made repeated claims that new power reactors can be built for about $1,500-$2,000/kw.[1] This means a standard 1,000 MW reactor could be built for about $1.5-$2.0 billion; a large 1,500 MW reactor would be expected to cost about $2-$2.25 billion. Current real-world experience shows that these claims are just pipedreams. *On July 11, 2006, the Finnish government reported that the construction schedule for its new EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) already has slipped by a full 12 monthsand construction of this reactor began only 15 months ago, in April 2005![2] Cost for this 1600 MW reactor is estimated to be three billion Euros, or about $3.7 Billion dollars, and that is with extremely favorable loan interest rates that wouldnt be available to private US utilities. Several US utilities, such as Constellation Energy, have expressed interest in the EPR design. *In June 2006, Toshiba purchased the worlds largest manufacturer of atomic reactors: Westinghouse. The company heralded the purchase by asserting that Westinghouse could expect 20 or more new reactor orders in the next several years. Industry analysts quoted by Reuters said each reactor order would be worth $2.6 Billion to Toshiba, a price already above the NEIs stated cost goal.[3] Since Toshiba only supplies the reactors and doesnt perform the construction, nor much of the non-nuclear side of the plant, actual prices for a fully-constructed Westinghouse reactor can be expected to reach at least the range of the EPR, and probably even higher. On the other hand, the cost of the EPR can be expected to increase as further construction delays are experienced. In short, anyone thinking a new generation of atomic power reactors can be built at competitive prices should think againand think hard. One more quick news item: in July 2006, it was reported that uranium prices have risen some 600% over the past five years: from $7.25/pound in January 2001 to $45.50/pound in June 2006. Continued price rises would threaten nuclear powers traditional operating cost advantage over some other fuel sources (coal, gas), making nuclears economics outlook even bleaker. Michael Mariotte Executive Director July 28, 2006 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New fact sheets on NIRS website: View them and use them! Are Federal Permissible Standards for Tritium Too Permissive? image0032.gifNew NIRS fact sheet Why New Nukes are Risky. image0032.gifCoalition briefing paper on the economic risks of nuclear power, presented to Wall Street analysts. Nuclear Power and Climate: Why Nukes Can't Save the Planet. image0032.gifNIRS factsheet. And dont forget to send this link to all of your friends/work colleagues/church groups/college classmates and everyone you meet to encourage them to sign the Petition for A Sustainable Energy Future! http://www.nirs.org/petition/index.php?r=ft [1] For example, see Nuclear Energy Institute Wall Street Briefing, A Solid Business Platform for Future Growth,February 2, 2006, http://www.nei.org/documents/Wall_Street_Briefing_2-2-06.pdf To be conservative, the NEI financial analysis assumes a capital cost of approximately $2,000 per kilowatt for the first few plants built, declining to approximately $1,500 per kilowatt for the later plants. [2] Finland's 5th Nuclear Reactor Delayed,Tuesday July 11, 2006, by Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press 3 Toshiba sees US nuke plant orders for Westinghouse,Tuesday, June 27, 2006, Reuters Attachment Converted: image0025.jpg: 00000001,628a8d0e,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: image003220.gif: 00000001,628a8d0f,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: image003221.gif: 00000001,628a8d10,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: image003222.gif: 00000001,628a8d11,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 17 [NukeNet] Heat Wave Shows Limits Of Nuclear Energy Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:59:41 -0700 X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61] X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61 X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Xanthe Hall" To: "Abolition Caucus List Serve" Cc: "Ulla Klötzer" Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 4:05 AM Subject: [abolition-caucus] Heat wave shows limits of nuclear energy ENVIRONMENT: Heat Wave Shows Limits of Nuclear Energy Julio Godoy PARIS, Jul 27 (IPS) - The extreme hot summer in Europe is restricting nuclear energy generation and showing up the limits of nuclear power, leading environmental activists and scientists say. The heat wave since mid-June has led authorities in France, Germany, Spain and elsewhere in Europe to override their own environmental norms on the maximum temperature of water drained from the plants' cooling systems. The French government announced Jul. 24 that nuclear power plants situated along rivers will be allowed to drain hot water into rivers at higher temperature. The measure is intended "to guarantee the provision of electricity for the country," according to an official note. France has 58 nuclear power plants, which produce almost 80 percent of electricity generated in the country. Of these, 37 are situated near rivers, and use them as outlet for water from their cooling systems. The drought accompanying the hot summer has reduced the volume of water in the rivers, and might force some power plants to shut down. Under normal circumstances, environment rules limit the maximum temperature for waste water in order to protect river flora and fauna. "For many years now, French authorities have defended nuclear power arguing that it is clean energy, good for the environment, and that it will help combat global warming, for it does not emit greenhouse gases," Stephane Lhomme, coordinator of the environmental network Sortir du Nucléaire (Phase Out Nuclear Power) told IPS. "Now, with global warming leading to extreme hot summers, we are witnessing that it is the other way round," Lhomme said. "Global warming is showing the limits of nuclear power plants, and nuclear power is destroying our environment." During the hot summer of 2003, French authorities had allowed nuclear power plants to drain excessively hot water into rivers, leading to considerable damage to flora and fauna, Lhomme said. According to the minutes of the National Surveillance Committee on water drained from reactors Aug. 21 and Sep. 3 2003, "hot water temperatures might have led to high concentrations of ammoniac, which is potentially toxic for the rivers' fauna." The minutes point to a European norm on the concentration of ammoniac in rivers, which France did not respect. Meanwhile France is importing some 2000 megawatts of power per day from neighbouring countries to compensate for shortages in production at nuclear power plants. While the French authorities have overridden their own environmental norms, in Germany energy providers have slowed down some nuclear reactors to limit waste water temperature and to protect flora and fauna. Reactors Kruemmel, Brunsbuettel and Brokdorf situated along the river Elbe which flows through Eastern and Northern Germany have all been slowed down. So have traditional fossil fuel power plants situated along the river Rhine. The nuclear reactors Isar 1 near Munich, and Neckarwestheim near Stuttgart have being authorised to drain hotter water into the nearby rivers than normally allowed. In Spain, the nuclear power plant at Santa Maria de Garoña, one of eight Spanish reactors, was shut down last weekend due to the high temperatures recorded in the river Ebro, into which the reactor drains the water used in its cooling system. The power plant, Spain's oldest, provides 20 percent of the electricity generated in the country. German energy expert Hermann Scheer says the situation shows a need for radical change in policy. "We must massively invest in renewable energy sources, and get rid of nuclear power as soon as possible," he told IPS. Scheer is president of Eurosolar, the European association for renewable energy resources, and winner of the 'Alternative Nobel prize' for his commitment to the environment. In France, nuclear scientist Hubert Reeves urged the government to "invest massively" in renewable energy resources. "We are behind many of our European partners such as Germany, Denmark and Spain in this matter, and cannot wait until the energy crisis reaches its climax to find an alternative to our present model," he told IPS. A crisis, he said, "is round the corner." Fossil energy sources are about to be exhausted, and "nuclear technology will not solve present problems within a reasonable period of time.we should abandon nuclear power and invest in alternative sources." (FIN/2006) _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://mail.energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 18 Philadelphia Inquirer: Limerick board OKs nuclear-storage plan | 07/28/2006 | By Sandy Bauers Inquirer Staff Writer In voting to approve little more than a 56,000-square-foot concrete pad and a small building at the Limerick nuclear power plant, the Limerick Township supervisors last night removed the last township obstacle to building a new storage facility for highly radioactive spent fuel. The board unanimously approved the building plan, with the contingency that the plant's owner, Exelon Corp., provide extra hazardous-materials training and radiation-protection kits and other equipment for the two fire companies that serve the area. The pad will provide the foundation for concrete "casks," each slightly larger than a one-car garage, to hold steel canisters containing spent fuel. Supervisor Chairman David Kane said, however, that concerns about the plant and the fuel-storage plan remained, even though that was out of the township's purview. Kane reiterated that the township has "no jurisdiction over use or safety" at the plant; that is up to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he said. But he described township correspondence with federal elected officials and said it would continue. "Let's not let it end here. Let's not let the safety and our concerns end in two meetings," Kane said, referring to the two supervisors' meetings at which the plans were discussed. "We will continue to fight for whatever benefits we can," he said, "but we are limited." Longtime township resident Bill Miller asked what would happen if the township voted against the building plan. "It would be immediately overturned by the Court of Common Pleas," Kane said. "We have looked at everything we can do here. What we're not going to do is waste taxpayer money or stop the inevitable." Resident Cookie Shearer complained that more people didn't show up to object because "they feel like they have no recourse... . They will fight against a supermarket or a store, but they won't come out and comment on nuclear waste in their backyard." Limerick, like many other nuclear power plants in the United States, is running out of space for its spent fuel rods, about a third of which are replaced in each reactor every year. The spent rods - still highly radioactive for thousands of years - go into racks in a water-filled pool next to each reactor for cooling. But even though Limerick has reconfigured its racks to hold more spent fuel, officials there say the pools will be full in about three years. At one time, nuclear facilities planned to transport spent fuel to the proposed national storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. But with that stalled - the latest, most optimistic estimate is that it could open in 2017 - facilities have to find other options for spent fuel. So, like more than half of the nation's 65 commercial nuclear power sites, Exelon decided to construct a "dry cask" system. Critics worry about radiation leaks and the potential for a terrorist attack damaging a cask and releasing a cloud of radioactivity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and proponents of dry-cask storage say the system is safe. Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers at 215-854-5147 or . The ***************************************************************** 19 Herald News: Exelon officials tour tritium remediation at Braidwood [SuburbanChicagoNews.com] Cleanup in progress MICHAEL R. SCHMIDT / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Allan Haeger of Exelon Corp. opens the hatch of a vacuum breaker valve along the discharge line in Braceville on Thursday. Trace amounts of tritium leaked out into the soil earlier this year from the valve. By Ken O'Brien STAFF WRITER BRACEVILLE Exelon Corp. has made progress in its cleanup effort at a pond where radioactive tritium was leaked from the Braidwood Nuclear Plant, officials said Thursday. Company officials and consultants discussed the effort during a tour of the pond, which was outside the plant property when elevated levels of tritium were discovered late last year. Exelon has since bought the pond and a horse farm north of it. In May, a Will County judge approved a remediation plan drafted by Exelon, the Will County state's attorney's office, the Illinois attorney general and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. In high levels, tritium is suspected of causing cancer. To comply with the agreement, the company on June 11 began pumping the 16-foot deep pond in order to reverse the flow of contaminated groundwater. The goal is to drain six to seven feet from the pond. The water is being sent in an underground pipe to a nearby cooling lake to be treated. The treated water is then pumped into the Kankakee River with levels well below federal standards of 20,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of drinking water, officials said. Before the pumping operation began, the water was flowing away from the pond, said Keith Polson, the site vice president at the plant. Now, the groundwater is now flowing into the pond from three directions, with progress being made to reverse it from the fourth direction, the north. Exelon has pumped about 37.9 million gallons from the pond, which amounts to half of the goal for reducing the water level. The company is ahead of schedule in pumping the man-made pond formerly used for mining sand, officials said. "We have the remediation process going, it is working and we are in control of the groundwater flows in this area," Polson said. "We have stopped the flow from going out to any (where else) in the area." After the tour, Braidwood Mayor Wayne Saltzman said he receives almost daily updates about the cleanup. Braidwood residents aren't talking to him as frequently about the topic since the company held informational meetings in the area this spring. "Everything seems to be going fine," Saltzman said of the cleanup. "They are doing a good job of remedying the problem. I feel very comfortable with Exelon as our neighbor." Later, company officials showed a nearby site where a pipeline valve broke in 1998, spilling tritium into the groundwater and the pond. No detection system was in place then, but one is now operating there, Polson said. "If the water comes up an inch (in the pipeline), we would get an alarm in the control room," he added. - Reporter Ken O'Brien can be reached via e-mail at 07/28/06 SuburbanChicagoNews.com — © Digital Chicago & Sun-Times ***************************************************************** 20 Platts: NRG Energy plans to order major components for ABWRs by 2007 Washington (Platts)--27Jul2006 NRG Energy plans to order major components, including the nuclear steam supply system, by 2007 for two new General Electric ABWRs it plans to construct in Texas, according to information provided NRC July 27. In a presentation to NRC, representatives of STP Nuclear Operating Co., which will interact with NRC in the licensing process, said the goal is to have the new units online by 2014-2015. NRG holds a 44% stake in the two-unit South Texas Project, which is operated by STP Nuclear. STP Nuclear said it plans to submit a combined construction-operating license to NRC for the new units -- South Texas Project-3 and -4 -- in the latter part of 2007. Separately, Amarillo Power has made public in a newly released letter its plans to also build two ABWRs in the vicinity of Amarillo, Texas and has told NRC that it will work with STP Nuclear on a standard ABWR design to submit to NRC. Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 21 Platts: US NRC fines FPL unit for security failures at Seabrook plant Washington (Platts)--28Jul2006 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined the FPL Group unit responsible for operating the Seabrook nuclear plant in New Hampshire $65,000 for a violation related to security requirements at the facility. The agency late Thursday said it sent a special inspection team to the plant after a routine security inspection uncovered issues in May 2005. The fine stems from the inspection and additional follow-up, NRC said, adding that FPL too immediate actions to correct the problems and NRC inspectors have since found the company to be in compliance. As a result of the inspection, NRC cited the company for failing to maintain complete and accurate records of test results. A second violation, attributed to inadequatea management oversight, was characterized by NRC as being of low to moderate security significance and did not draw an additional fine. FPL has 30 days from receiving the notice of violation to either pay the penalty or protest it. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41& products_id=67 Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 22 Platts: Japan orders inspection of No 2 unit at Hokuriku nuclear plant Singapore (Platts)--28Jul2006 Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has ordered an inspection of No 2 unit at the Hokuriku Electric nuclear power plant because the unit uses the same type of turbine blades as Chubu's affected unit. Chubu Electric shut down its Hamaoka nuclear plant's No. 5 unit in mid June due to cracks found in the vanes of its turbine. Hokuriku Electric shut the 1.359-GW Shika No. 2 unit on July 5 for checks and announced July 25 that it found cracks in 146 out of the 560 blades checked. The unit has a total of 840 blades from three turbines. The company has not said how long the unit will remain shut. Meanwhile, the 540MW Shika No. 1 unit remains in operation, according to information on the company's website. Hokuriku Electric's Shika No.2 unit only entered commercial operation on 15 March but was already plagued by other problems apart from cracks in its turbine blades. The Kanazawa district court had ordered the Shika-2 unit to suspend operation on the grounds that doubts existed about its earthquake resistance, but the unit was permitted to remain running until an appeal by the company is heard. The Shika nuclear power plant supplies roughly half its output to two other Japanese utilities Kansai Electric and Chubu Electric, according to industry sources in Japan. Chubu Electric, which itself is suffering from the shutdown of the 1.38 GW No. 5 reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear plant, has already been actively seeking spot LNG cargoes to boost its gas-based generation to compensate for the loss of nuclear output. As of last week, the company was heard having bought, or in advanced negotiations to buy, three to five spot LNG cargoes from Algeria, Qatar and Oman for August and September delivery, according to traders. Chubu Electric reportedly agreed to prices in the range of $8 to $9 plus per MMBtu, depending on the cargo origin, for the shipments on a delivered basis. A Chubu source this week declined to provide an update on the status of company's spot LNG purchases, except to say it was still trying to secure more supplies. Another company source said it was investigating the impact on its LNG requirements from the loss of power supplies from Hokuriku Electric. "The impact would depend on the temperature, among other factors," the source said. Japan experienced rather mild summer temperatures for the past two weeks because of a longer-than-usual rainy season, which reduced the demand for electricity for air conditioning, according to trading sources. "There was a lot of rain last week, so we had cooler temperatures than usual," said one trader. Apart from Chubu Electric, most other Japanese utilities are currently facing high LNG inventories because of low power demand, traders said. This means Chubu Electric may be able to get LNG supplies from other Japanese utilities through swapping or borrowing, thus reducing the need to source for spot cargoes from the global market, they said. -- KimFeng Wong, kim_f_wong@platts.com For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 23 NRC: Exelon Generating Company, LLC; Notice of Availability of the FR Doc E6-12075 [Federal Register: July 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 145)] [Notices] [Page 42884-42885] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28jy06-108] Final Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Exelon ESP Site Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) has published NUREG-1815, ``Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Exelon ESP Site: Final Report.'' The site is located near the town of Clinton in DeWitt County, Illinois. The application for the ESP was submitted by letter dated September 25, 2003, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations part 52 (10 CFR Part 52). The application included a site redress plan in accordance with 10 CFR 52.17(c) and 52.25. If the site redress plan is incorporated in an approved ESP, then the applicant may carry out certain site preparation work and preliminary construction activities. A notice of receipt and availability of the application, which included the environmental report (ER), was published in the Federal Register on October 24, 2003 (68 FR 61020). A notice of acceptance for docketing of the application for the ESP was published in the Federal Register on October 30, 2003 (68 FR 61835). A notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and to conduct the scoping process was published in the Federal Register on November 25, 2003 (68 FR 66130). A notice of availability of the draft EIS was published in the Federal Register on March 10, 2005 (70 FR 12022). The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that NUREG-1815, ``Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Exelon ESP Site: Final Report,'' Volumes 1 and 2, is available for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 [[Page 42885]] Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, 20852, or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), and will also be placed directly on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. (the (the Public Electronic Reading Room). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301- 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. In addition, the Vespasian Warner Public Library, located at 310 North Quincy Street, Clinton, Illinois 61727, has agreed to make the FEIS available for public inspection. For Further Information Contact: Thomas J. Kenyon, New Reactors Environmental Projects Branch, Division of New Reactor Licensing, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Mr. Kenyon may be contacted by telephone at (301) 415-1120 or by e-mail at http://www.ClintonEIS.gov . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of July 2006. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. David B. Matthews, Director, Division of New Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E6-12075 Filed 7-27-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 24 NRC: Yankee Atomic Electric Company; Yankee Nuclear Power Station; FR Doc E6-12077 [Federal Register: July 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 145)] [Notices] [Page 42880-42882] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28jy06-106] Partial Exemption 1.0 Background Yankee Atomic Electric Company (YAEC, the licensee) is the licensee and holder of Facility Operating License No. DPR-3 for the Yankee Nuclear Power Station (YNPS), a permanently shutdown decommissioning nuclear plant. Although permanently shutdown, this facility is still subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). YNPS is a deactivated pressurized-water nuclear reactor located in northwestern Massachusetts in Franklin County, near the southern Vermont border. The YNPS plant was constructed between 1958 and 1960 and operated commercially at 185 megawatts electric (after a 1963 upgrade) until 1992. In 1992, YAEC determined that closing of the plant would be in the best economic interest of its customers. In December 1993, NRC amended the YNPS operating license to retain a ``possession- only'' status. YAEC began dismantling and decommissioning activities at that time. Transfer of the spent fuel from the Spent Fuel Pit (SFP) to the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) was completed in June 2003. With the exception of the greater than class C waste stored at the ISFSI, the reactor and all associated systems and components, including those associated with storage of spent fuel in the SFP, have been removed from the facility and disposed of offsite. In addition, the structures housing these systems and components have been demolished. Physical work associated with the decommissioning of YNPS is scheduled to be completed in 2006. By letter dated February 15, 2006, as supplemented on March 23, 2006, YAEC filed a request for NRC approval of a partial exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3). 2.0 Request/Action YAEC is requesting the following exemption, for records pertaining to systems, structures, or components (SSCs) and/or activities associated with the nuclear power generating unit, Spent Fuel Pit, and associated support systems, from the retention requirements of: (1) 10 CFR part 50 Appendix A Criterion 1 which requires certain records be retained ``throughout the life of the unit''; (2) 10 CFR part 50 Appendix B Criterion XVII which requires certain records be retained consistent with regulatory requirements for a duration established by the licensee; (3) 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3) which requires certain records be maintained until ``termination of a license issued pursuant to'' part 50; and (4) 10 CFR 50.71(c) which requires records retention for the period specified in the regulations or until license termination. 3.0 Discussion Most of these records are for SSCs that have been removed from Yankee and disposed of off-site. Disposal of these records will not adversely impact the ability to meet other NRC regulatory requirements for the retention of records [e.g., 10 CFR 50.54(a), (p), (q), and (bb); 10 CFR 50.59(d); 10 CFR 50.75(g); etc.]. These regulatory requirements ensure that records from operation and decommissioning activities are maintained for safe decommissioning, spent nuclear fuel storage, completion and verification of final site survey, and license termination. Specific Exemption Is Authorized by Law 10 CFR 50.71(d)(2) allows for the granting of specific exemptions to the record retention requirements specified in the regulations. NRC regulation 10 CFR 50.71(d)(2) states, in part: * * * the retention period specified in the regulations in this part for such records shall apply unless the Commission, pursuant to Sec. 50.12 of this part, has granted a specific exemption from the record retention requirements specified in the regulations in this part. Based on 10 CFR 50.71(d)(2), if the specific exemption requirements of 10 CFR 50.12 are satisfied, the exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B, and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3) is authorized by law. Specific Exemption Will Not Present an Undue Risk to the Public Health and Safety With all the spent nuclear fuel transferred to the Yankee ISFSI, there is insufficient radioactive material remaining on the Yankee 10 CFR part 50 licensed site to pose any significant potential risk to the public health and safety under any credible event scenario. This provides additional assurance that the partial exemption for [[Page 42881]] the specified hard copy records will not present any reasonable possibility of undue risk to the public health and safety. The partial exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3), for the hard copy records described above is administrative in nature and will have no impact on any remaining decommissioning activities or on radiological effluents. The exemption will merely advance the schedule for destruction of the specified hard copy records. Considering the content of these records, the elimination of these records on an advanced timetable will have no reasonable possibility of presenting any undue risk to the public health and safety. Specific Exemption Consistent With the Common Defense and Security The partial exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3), for the types of hard copy records described above is consistent with the common defense and security as defined in the Atomic Energy Act (42 U.S.C. 2014, Definitions) and in 10 CFR 50.2 ``Definitions.'' The partial exemption requested does not impact remaining decommissioning activities and does not involve information or activities that could potentially impact the common defense and security of the United States. Rather, the exemption requested is administrative in nature and would merely advance the current schedule for destruction of the specified hard copy records. Considering the content of these records, the elimination of these records on an advanced timetable has no reasonable possibility of having any impact on national defense or security. Therefore, the partial exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3), for the types of hard copy records described above is consistent with the common defense and security. Special Circumstances NRC regulation 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2) states, in part: (2) The Commission will not consider granting an exemption unless special circumstances are present. Special circumstances are present whenever--(ii) Application of the regulation in the particular circumstances would not serve the underlying purpose of the rule or is not necessary to achieve the underlying purpose of the rule. Given the status of Yankee decommissioning, special circumstances exist which will allow the NRC to consider granting the partial exemption requested. Consistent with 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2)(ii), applying the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3) to the continued storage of the hard copy records described previously is not necessary to achieve the underlying purpose of the rules. The NRC's Statements of Consideration for final rulemaking, effective July 26, 1988 (53 FR 19240 dated May 27, 1988) ``Retention Periods for Records,'' provides the underlying purpose of the regulatory recordkeeping requirements. In response to several public comments leading up to this final rulemaking, the NRC supported the need for record retention requirements by stating that records: * * * must be retained * * * so that they will be available for examination by the Commission in any analysis following an accident, incident, or other problem involving public health and safety * * * [and] * * * for NRC to ensure compliance with the safety and health aspects of the nuclear environment and for the NRC to accomplish its mission to protect the public health and safety. The underlying purpose of the subject recordkeeping regulations is to ensure that the NRC staff has access to information that, in the event of an accident, incident, or condition that could impact public health and safety, would assist in the recovery from such an event and could also help prevent future events or conditions that could adversely impact public health and safety. Given the current status of Yankee decommissioning, the records that would be subject to early destruction would not provide the NRC with information that would be pertinent or useful. The types of records that would fall under the exemption would include hard copy radiographs, vendor equipment technical manuals, and recorder charts associated with operating nuclear power plant SSCs that had been classified as important to safety during power operations, but that are no longer classified as important to safety, are no longer operational, or have been removed from the Yankee site for disposal. As indicated in the excerpts cited above under the heading ``NRC Regulatory recordkeeping Requirements to be Exempted,'' the regulations include wording that states that records of activities involving the operation, design, fabrication, erection, and testing of SSCs that are classified as quality-related and/or important to safety should be retained ``until the Commission terminates the facility license'' or ``throughout the life of the unit.'' As stated in 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A: A nuclear power unit means a nuclear power reactor and associated equipment necessary for electric power generation and includes those structures, systems, and components required to provide reasonable assurance the facility can be operated without undue risk to the health and safety of the public. With the majority of the primary and secondary systems removed for disposal, the Yankee site no longer houses ``a nuclear power reactor and associated equipment necessary for electric power generation.'' Thus, with respect to the underlying intent of the recordkeeping rules cited above, Yankee is not able to generate electricity and is no longer a nuclear power unit as defined in 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A. In addition, with all the spent nuclear fuel having been transferred to the ISFSI, there is not sufficient radioactive material inventory remaining on the 10 CFR part 50 licensed site to pose any significant potential risk to the public health and safety. Thus, there are no longer any ``structures, systems, and components required to provide reasonable assurance the facility can be operated without undue risk to the health and safety of the public.'' This provides additional assurance that, with respect to the underlying intent of the recordkeeping rules cited above, Yankee is no longer a nuclear power unit as defined in 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A. Based on the above, it is clear that application of the subject recordkeeping requirements to the Yankee hard copy records specified above is not required to achieve the underlying purpose of the rule. Thus, special circumstances are present which the NRC may consider, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2)(ii), to grant the requested exemption. 4.0 Conclusion The staff has determined that 10 CFR 50.71(d)(2) allows the Commission to grant specific exemptions to the record retention requirements specified in regulations provided the requirements of 10 CFR 50.12 are satisfied. The staff has determined that the requested partial exemption from the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; [[Page 42882]] 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3), will not present an undue risk to the public health and safety. The destruction of the identified hard copy records will not impact remaining decommissioning activities; plant operations, configuration, and/or radiological effluents; operational and/or installed SSCs that are quality-related or important to safety; or nuclear security. The staff has determined that the destruction of the identified hard copy records is administrative in nature and does not involve information or activities that could potentially impact the common defense and security of the United States. The staff has determined that the purpose for the recordkeeping regulations is to ensure that the NRC Staff has access to information that, in the event of any accident, incident, or condition that could impact public health and safety, would assist in the protection of public health and safety during recovery from the given accident, incident, or condition, and also could help prevent future events or conditions adversely impacting public health and safety. Further, since most of the Yankee SSCs that were safety-related or important-to-safety have been removed from the plant and shipped for disposal, the staff agrees that the records identified in the partial exemption would not provide the NRC with useful information during an investigation of an accident or incident. Therefore, the Commission grants YAEC the requested partial exemption to the recordkeeping requirements of 10 CFR 50.71(c); 10 CFR part 50, Appendix A; 10 CFR part 50, Appendix B; and 10 CFR 50.59(d)(3), as described in the February 15, 2006, letter as supplemented on March 23, 2006. Pursuant to 10 CFR part 51.31, the Commission has determined that the granting of this exemption will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment as documented in Federal Register notice Vol. 71, No. 127, dated July 3, 2006. This exemption is effective upon issuance. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of July, 2006. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Keith I. McConnell, Deputy Director, Decommissioning Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E6-12077 Filed 7-27-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 25 NRC: Final Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability FR Doc E6-12078 [Federal Register: July 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 145)] [Notices] [Page 42885-42886] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28jy06-109] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a revision to an existing guide in the agency's Regulatory Guide Series. This series has been developed to describe and make available to the public such information as methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses. Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92, entitled ``Combining Modal Responses and Spatial Components in Seismic Response Analysis,'' provides licensees and applicants with improved guidance concerning methods that the NRC staff considers acceptable for combining modal responses and spatial components in seismic response analysis of nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, systems, and components (SSCs) that are important to safety. As defined in Appendix A, ``General Design Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants,'' to Title 10, part 50, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR part 50), Criterion 2, ``Design Bases for Protection Against Natural Phenomena,'' requires, in part, that SSCs that are important to safety must be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomena (such as earthquakes) without losing their capability to perform their respective safety functions. Such SSCs must also be designed to accommodate the effects of, and be compatible with, the environmental conditions associated with normal operation and postulated accidents. Appendix S, ``Earthquake Engineering Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants,'' to 10 CFR part 50 specifies, in part, requirements for implementing General Design Criterion 2 with respect to earthquakes.\1\ \1\ Appendix S to 10 CFR part 50 applies to applicants for a design certification or combined license pursuant to 10 CFR part 52, ``Early Site Permits; Standard Design Certifications; and Combined Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants,'' or a construction permit or operating license pursuant to 10 CFR part 50 after January 10, 1997. However, the earthquake engineering criteria in Section VI of Appendix A to 10 CFR part 100 continue to apply for either an operating license applicant or an operating license holder whose construction permit was issued before January 10, 1997. For several decades, the nuclear industry fulfilled Criterion 2 using the response spectrum method and the time history method for seismic analysis and design of NPP SSCs. Then, in 1976, the NRC issued Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.92, which described then up-to-date guidance for using the response spectrum and time history methods. Since that time, research in the United States has resulted in improved methods that yield more accurate estimates of SSC seismic response, while reducing unnecessary conservatism. In view of those improvements, Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92 describes methods that the NRC staff finds acceptable for combining modal responses and spatial components in seismic response analysis. The NRC staff initially published Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92 as DG-1108, dated August 2001. The staff subsequently considered stakeholders' feedback on DG-1108, incorporated the necessary changes, and again solicited public comment on the revised guide by publishing a Federal Register notice (70 FR 7777) concerning Draft Regulatory Guide DG-1127 on February 15, 2005. Following the closure of the public comment period on April 15, 2005, the staff considered all stakeholder comments in the course of preparing Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92. The staff's responses to all comments received are available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession ML061630344. The NRC staff encourages and welcomes comments and suggestions in connection with improvements to published regulatory guides, as well as items for inclusion in regulatory guides that are currently being developed. You may submit comments by any of the following methods. Mail comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hand-deliver comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Fax comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301) 415-5144. Requests for technical information about Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92 may be directed to Dr. T.Y. Chang, at (301) 415-6450 or via e-mail to TYC@nrc.gov. Regulatory guides are available for inspection or downloading through the NRC's public Web site in the Regulatory Guides document collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/. Electronic copies of Revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.92 are also available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html , under Accession ML053250475. In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached by telephone at (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4205, by fax at (301) 415-3548, and by e- mail to PDR@nrc.gov. Requests for single copies of draft or final guides (which may be reproduced) or for placement on an automatic distribution list for single copies of future draft guides in specific divisions should be made in writing to the U.S. [[Page 42886]] Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Reproduction and Distribution Services Section; by e-mail to DISTRIBUTION@nrc.gov; or by fax to (301) 415-2289. Telephone requests cannot be accommodated. Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is not required to reproduce them. (5 U.S.C. 552(a)) Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of July, 2006. For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brian W. Sheron, Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. E6-12078 Filed 7-27-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 26 NRC: In the Matter of Texas A University, (Nuclear Science Center FR Doc E6-12105 [Federal Register: July 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 145)] [Notices] [Page 42882-42884] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28jy06-107] TRIGA Research Reactor); Order Modifying Amended Facility Operating License No. R-83 I. The Texas A University (the licensee) is the holder of Amended Facility Operating License No. R-83 (the license). The license was issued on December 7, 1961, by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and subsequently renewed on March 30, 1983, by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the NRC or the Commission). The license includes authorization to operate the Nuclear Science Center TRIGA Research Reactor (the facility) at a power level up to 1,000 kilowatts thermal and to receive, possess, and use special nuclear material associated with the operation. The facility is on the campus of the Texas A University, in the city of College Station, Brazos County, Texas. The mailing address is Nuclear Science Center, Texas Engineering Experimental Station, Texas A University, 3575 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843-3575. II. On February 25, 1986, the Commission promulgated a rule, Section 50.64 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), limiting the use of high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel in domestic research and test reactors (non-power reactors). This regulation requires that if Federal Government funding for conversion-related costs is available, each licensee of a research and test reactor authorized to use HEU fuel shall replace it with low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The Commission's stated purpose for these requirements was to reduce, to the maximum extent possible, the use of HEU fuel in order to reduce the risk of theft and diversion of HEU fuel used at research and test reactors (51FR 6514). The provisions of 10 CFR 50.64(c)(2)(iii) require the licensee to include in its conversion proposal, to the extent required to effect conversion, all necessary changes to the license, the facility, and licensee procedures. III. On June 13, 2006, the licensee submitted a letter as part of its conversion proposal, which indicated that changes to the Uranium-235 possession limit in its license were needed to support the proposed schedule for conversion to LEU fuel. The possession of the LEU fuel is required by the licensee at this time to prepare the fuel in bundles in order to meet the proposed timely conversion. The LEU fuel contains the Uranium-235 isotope at an enrichment of less than 20 percent. The NRC staff reviewed the licensee's proposal and the requirements of 10 CFR 50.64, and has determined that the public health and safety and common defense and security require the licensee to receive and possess the LEU fuel so that the LEU fuel may be prepared to convert from HEU fuel in accordance with the schedules planned by the Department of Energy to support U.S. non-proliferation policies. Issuance of this Order will, therefore, allow the conversion to proceed in accordance with the planned schedule. The NRC staff also determined that there should be a prohibition on receiving additional HEU fuel and a reduction in the associated authorized possession limit concurrent with the effectiveness of the amendment authorizing receipt and possession, but not use, of the LEU fuel. The specific conditions needed to reduce the HEU fuel possession limit, to amend the facility license to allow possession of the LEU fuel, and to be made a part of the license in accordance with this Order are: 2.B.(2) Pursuant to the Act and 10 CFR Part 70, ``Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material,'' to possess and use up to 12.0 kilograms of contained Uranium-235 at enrichment equal to or less than 70 percent in connection with operation of the reactor. 2.B.(8) Pursuant to the Act and 10 CFR Part 70, ``Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material,'' to receive and possess, in addition to the amount specified under License Condition 2.B.(2), up to 15.0 kilograms of contained Uranium-235 at enrichments equal to or less than 20 percent. The attached safety evaluation provides additional details on the NRC staff analyses resulting in the determination to order these changes. IV. Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 51, 53, 57, 101, 104, 161b, 161i, and 161o of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and to Commission regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR 50.64, it is hereby ordered that: Amended Facility Operating License No. R-83 is modified by amending the license to include the license conditions as stated in Section III of this Order. This Order will be effective 20 days after the date of publication of this Order in the Federal Register. [[Page 42883]] V. Pursuant to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, any person adversely affected by this Order may submit an answer to this Order, and may request a hearing on this Order, within 20 days of the date of this Order. The answer may consent to this Order. Any answer or request for a hearing shall set forth the matters of fact and law on which the licensee, or other person adversely affected, relies and the reasons why the Order should not have been issued. Any answer or request for a hearing shall be filed (1) by first class mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; or (2) by courier, express mail, and expedited delivery services to the Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Because of continuing disruptions in delivery of mail to the United States Government Offices, it is requested that answers and/or requests for hearing be transmitted to the Secretary of the Commission either by e-mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ; or by facsimile transmission addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff at 301-415-1101 (the verification number is 301-415-1966). Copies of the request for hearing must also be sent to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and to the Assistant General Counsel for Materials Litigation and Enforcement, Office of the General Counsel, with both copies addressed to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and the NRC requests that a copy also be transmitted either by facsimile transmission to 301-415-3725 or by e-mail to . If a person other than the licensee requests a hearing, he or she shall set forth in the request for a hearing with particularity the manner in which his or her interest is adversely affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set forth in 10 CFR 2.309. If a hearing is requested by the licensee or a person whose interest is adversely affected, the Commission shall issue an Order designating the time and place of any hearing. If a hearing is held, the issue to be considered at such hearing shall be whether this Order should be sustained. In accordance with 10 CFR 51.10(d) this Order is not subject to Section 102(2) of the National Environmental Policy Act, as amended. The NRC staff notes, however, that with respect to environmental impacts associated with the changes imposed by this Order, as described in the safety evaluation attached, the changes would, if imposed by other than an Order, meet the definition of a categorical exclusion in accordance with 10 CR 51.22(c)(9). Thus, pursuant to either 10 CFR 51.10(d) or 51.22(c)(9), no environmental assessment nor environmental impact statement is required. For further information see the June 13, 2006, letter from the licensee (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML061720033), and the NRC staff's safety evaluation attached to this Order (ADAMS Accession No. ML061810481), available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, . Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who have problems in accessing the documents in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to . Dated this 21st day of July 2006. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. J.E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Attachment Safety Evaluation by the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Supporting Order on Possession Limit Changes To Allow Conversion From High-Enriched to Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel 1.0 Introduction By letter dated June 13, 2006, the Texas A University (the licensee) indicated that changes to the Nuclear Science Center (NSC) TRIGA Research Reactor possession limit was needed to allow for the timely conversion from the use of high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel in accordance with Sec. 50.64 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). This regulation was promulgated to reduce the risk of theft and diversion of HEU fuel used in non-power reactors. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff determined as discussed below that the following changes to the possession limit license conditions were acceptable. The change to the current License Condition 2.B.(2) removes the authority to receive HEU fuel and decreases the possession limit of contained Uranium-235 (U- 235) with enrichments up to 70 percent from 17.0 to 12.0 kilograms (kgs) to allow the continued possession and use of material at the facility. The changes also involve the addition of License Condition 2.B.(8) to allow receipt and possession, but not use, of up to an additional 15 kgs of contained U-235 at enrichments equal to or less than 20 percent (LEU fuel). 2.0 Background The license currently includes a possession limit of special nuclear material to allow for operation of the facility. This limit allows for an amount of special nuclear material so that the facility can continue to conduct its licensed research reactor activities. In its June 13, 2006, letter, the licensee indicated that an increase to the possession limit for special nuclear material is required to allow for the timely conversion to LEU fuel. The licensee indicated that it is working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), DOE contractors, and the NRC to convert the NSC TRIGA Research Reactor from HEU fuel to LEU fuel in support of non-proliferation policies. The licensee's letter stated that in order to avoid prolonged reactor shutdown and accomplish the conversion in support of non-proliferation goals, a period will exist in which the NSC TRIGA Research Reactor will need to possess a quantity of U-235 in excess of the current licensed maximum. As additional evidence, the licensee also provided a DOE letter dated April 13, 2006. In the April 13, 2006, letter, DOE indicated that the project schedule for conversion includes shipping a fresh fuel core to replace the fuel currently in the reactor. Further, DOE indicated that in order to support the timeliness of this effort as planned, the license will need an increase in the special nuclear material possession limit to accommodate the fuel inventory at the facility during the process. 3.0 Evaluation The licensee has not requested any changes to the Technical Specifications (TSs) nor security plan. Thus, the additional material will be received and possessed under the current terms of the reactor license. The NRC staff reviewed the license, TSs, and security plan requirements for the facility and finds that the possession of the additional [[Page 42884]] LEU fuel will not require additional safety or security controls or conditions beyond those already in place. The NRC staff also finds that this increase in the fuel possession limit is within the normal possession limit for research reactors. The increased possession limit does not allow operation with the fuel other than that already authorized by the license and TSs. This change does not authorize conversion to the new LEU fuel planned for conversion, i.e., 30 weight percent (Wt%) vice the currently authorized 9 Wt%. (The authorization for conversion will be the subject of an ongoing separate evaluation). Therefore, the radioactive fission product inventory will not be increased by the increased fuel possession limit and the routine effluent or potential accident release levels will not increase beyond those already analyzed and accepted under the current license and TSs. Further, in accordance with the existing TSs, reactor fuel will be stored in a geometrical array where the effective multiplication is less than 0.8 for all conditions of moderation. Therefore, the potential for accidental criticality is not increased with the increased fuel possession limit. The increase in the special nuclear material possession limit does not impact the security requirements for the facility. In accordance with 10 CFR 73.2, the increase possession would be consistent with special nuclear material of moderate strategic significance (Category II). The licensee's current security plan meets or exceeds the requirements for this level of material under 10 CFR 73.67(d). The license changes are to allow for conversion in a manner that is timely to support the non-proliferation goals of the nation and allow continued research and development in accordance with the license and regulations. They do not change the security plan requirements which are consistent the provisions of 10 CFR 73.67(d) for special nuclear material of moderate strategic significance (Category II) in accordance with 10 CFR 73.2, because the addition of the LEU fuel is within the possession limit for that category of material. The inspection program has found that the licensee has routinely used such material safely and securely. The licensee submitted a proposed license condition in its June 13, 2006, letter. The NRC staff noted several changes from the proposed license condition were needed to allow for possession of the current material and allow for receipt, but not use, of the new LEU fuel. Specifically, the licensee's authority to receive additional HEU fuel is removed from License Condition 2.B.(2), and the amount of material possessed under that license condition was reduced from 17.0 to 12.0 kg. Further, License Condition 2.B.(8) is added to allow for the receipt and possession, but not use, of the LEU fuel for conversion. A telephone conversation between the project manager and the Associate Director of the NSC TRIGA Research Reactor facility on July 6, 2006, confirmed that these differences were understood and could be implemented consistent with protecting the public health and safety. Because the requested increased possession limit may be possessed safely and securely under the terms of the existing TSs and security plan, the increase in special nuclear material possession limit as specified above is acceptable to the NRC staff. Further, the NRC staff has determined that the public health and safety and the common defense and security require the licensee to receive and possess the LEU fuel so that the LEU fuel may be configured into fuel bundles to convert from HEU fuel in accordance with the schedule planned by the DOE to support U.S. non-proliferation policies. 3.0 Environmental Consideration In accordance with 10 CFR 51.10(d), an Order is not subject to Section 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act. The NRC staff notes, however, that even if these changes were not being imposed by an Order, the changes would not require an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment. The license changes involve use of a facility component located within the restricted area as defined in 10 CFR part 20 or changes in inspection and surveillance requirements. The NRC staff has determined that the changes involve no significant increase in the amounts or types of any effluents that may be released off site and no significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational radiation exposure. Therefore, pursuant to 10 CFR 51.22(b), no environmental impact statement or environmental assessment is required. 4.0 Conclusion The NRC staff has concluded, on the basis of the considerations discussed above, that (1) The proposal by the licensee for possession of LEU fuel is consistent with and in furtherance of the requirements of 10 CFR 50.64, (2) there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by the proposed activities; and (3) such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations and will not be inimical to the common defense and security or the health and safety of the public. Accordingly, it is concluded that an enforcement order as described above should be issued pursuant to 10 CFR 50.64(c)(3). Dated: July 21, 2006. M. Mendonca. Principal Contributor: [FR Doc. E6-12105 Filed 7-27-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 27 NWAnews.com: Scientists wary of aging nuclear plants Northwest Arkansas' News Source BY BILL W. HORNADAY Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 Once or twice a month, Arkansas Nuclear One discharges 10,000 to 25,000 gallons of radioactive water into Lake Dardanelle. The water barely meets the definition of radioactive, plant officials say. Never in the plants 32-year history have tritium levels in water from its reactor cooling system exceeded its federal limit, plant spokesman Phil Fisher said. The fish dont seem to mind. Some of the nations top bass tournaments are held on the 34,300-acre stretch of the Arkansas River near Russellville. Areas near the plant are said to yield some of the best catches, he said. "It's almost undetectable," Fisher said. At least that goes for the water that plant officials know about. As the 103 nuclear reactors that provide about one-fifth of the nations electricity continue to age, scientists worry that undetected leaks may put public health at risk. Since 1996, the Union of Concerned Scientists has tracked at least seven events where radioactive water from U. S. nuclear plants leaked undetected into the ground. Some leaks began up to 12 years before their discovery, said David Lochbaum, director of the unions Nuclear Safety Project. Many were found in the past year, mostly by accident rather than plant monitoring, he said. One occurred at Indian Point Energy Center just north of New York City. That plant is operated by Entergy Corp., which also runs Arkansas Nuclear One. Ten years ago you used to see this sort of thing about once every two years, Lochbaum said. Now its every few months. Because they seem to be occurring with more frequency, more needs to be done to police the industry. As a result, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industrys lead policy group, is completing plans to check groundwater tables at all plants, including Nuclear One, for elevated radioactivity. The effort began after the union asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January to order the industry to promptly report such leaks. But the regulatory commission proposed to deny the unions request  because the industry has pledged to provide the information, commission spokesman Scott Burnell said. Why demand information theyre going to provide anyway ? he asked. The union last week accused the commission of shirking its duty by relying sight unseen on an undocumented promise from an industry with a long track record of broken promises. Lochbaum noted 10 times in the past decade when the nuclear commission cited plant owners for incomplete, inaccurate or falsified information. He also questioned whether data supplied to the commission by an industry with contractual ties to its own trade group would be any more reliable. Such concerns are overblown, Burnell said. The data will go directly to the nuclear commission as the institute serves a coordinating role, not as a gatekeeper that could filter the findings, he said. Neither is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concerned that some plants could opt out of the effort. Its our understanding that every chief nuclear officer in the industry has signed off on this, Burnell said. If anybody is out there that doesnt plan to take part in this, were not aware of it. Nuclear institute spokesman Mitch Singer said his group has the most to lose, particularly in terms of public credibility, if reporting problems occur. Our policy is zero tolerance, he said. We take very seriously any matter that involves a radioactive release. Any undiscovered leaks are unacceptable, and we will deal with it. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It occurs naturally when the suns rays hit the atmosphere and is a byproduct of nuclear reactors that generate electricity. Because its most common form is in water, tritium ends up in water used to cool a nuclear plants reactor system. One of the weakest forms of radiation, it is commonly used in such items as exit signs in buildings, luminescent paint, watch dials and aircraft gauges. Yet scientists have long argued how radiation, even in the smallest of doses, affects human health. Last month a National Academy of Sciences panel found that the slightest exposure to radiation brings the risk of cancer over a persons life span and that the risks increase with repeated exposure. It rebutted the notion that low doses are harmless or sometimes beneficial. While low doses usually carry low risk, the panel concluded it is unknown exactly how much risk comes with such everyday procedures as X-ray imaging. High tritium doses carry an increased risk of cancer or leukemia, but only if ingested, according to a 1995 study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Thats because tritium radiation travels only 5 millimeters by air and is stopped by a sheet of paper or ordinary clothing, the study found. So far, the nuclear institute says that no public health threat has come from tritium releases at the Braidwood Generating Station in Illinois or any other commercial nuclear plant. But with the academys findings, new scrutiny could arise over radiation levels allowed at nuclear sites. In particular, the findings cast a shadow over the recent spate of radioactive water leaks discovered in six states. The worst case so far involves Braidwood, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. Owned and operated by Chicago-based Exelon Corp., it is the states largest nuclear power producer, according to the Energy Information Administration. A subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, ran the plant until 2000. In six occurrences since 1996, more than 6 million gallons of tritiated water have oozed from an underground pipe. The pipe runs 4. 5 miles to the Kankakee River, where the plant was allowed to purge water. Two other leaks, including one in March at a tank where the wastewater is now kept, are also cited in a lawsuit by Illinois attorney general. The suit seeks more than $ 36 million in fines and remedies, including penalties for alleged failure to report some of the leaks until December 2005. In at least one instance, leaks were not found until elevated tritium levels appeared outside the plant, including in the groundwater used by residents of such nearby villages as Godley and Braidwood. There was so much of this stuff. You had standing water in the middle of a field, Lochbaum said. Exelon also owns three other Illinois plants  Dresden, Byron and Zion  where tritium leaks have been discovered. Dresden and Byron remain operational, while reactors at the Zion plant shut down in 1998. In most cases, such leaks have been isolated. Last month, Exelon officials began a yearlong remediation project at Braidwood that entails drawing the contaminated water into a collection pond, mixing it with water from the plants cooling lake, then pumping it into the Kankakee River. But at Entergys Indian Point Energy Center near Buchanan, N. Y., officials are still trying to pinpoint the source of radioactive leakage believed to emanate from a spent-fuel storage tank. At each of Entergys nine nuclear plants, including Arkansas Nuclear One, potential sources and pathways where tritium could enter groundwater on the plant site were recently assessed, Fisher said. Each plants operating history was also reviewed, as were underground water flow studies, he said. The results of these tests are now being analyzed, Fisher said. From the start of Nuclear Ones construction in the late 1960 s until the late 1990 s, on-site tests showed no elevated levels of tritium, Fisher said. At present, the regulatory commission has no requirement for Nuclear One to conduct groundwater checks, he said. Neither has the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services, although surface water samples are taken near the plants intake and discharge canals, spokesman Ann Wright said. That will change by July 31, when the nuclear institute will require each U. S. nuclear plant to conduct annual on-site and off-site groundwater sample tests and document those results, the institutes Singer said. © 2001-2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 DECATUR DAILY: NRC, TVA plan meeting on Browns Ferry Unit 1 serving the Tennessee Valley in North Alabama Officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority will meet Thursday to discuss TVA's effort to restart Browns Ferry nuclear plant's Unit 1 reaction. The meeting, which will be open to the public, will be from 6 until 8:30 p.m. at Calhoun Community College's main campus near Decatur. online edition: I thought TVA officials have said they expect to have Unit 1 ready for operation on or before early 2007. TVA restarted Unit 2 in 1991 and Unit 3 in 1995. All three were idled in 1985. decaturdaily.com. ***************************************************************** 29 Providence Journal: Coming soon: More nuclear-power plants Rhode Island news | projo.com | Opinion: Columnists M.J. Andersen: 01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 28, 2006 Recently, a top government official in Britain told members of Parliament that nuclear power would have to make up part of the country's energy supply in the coming decades. It was the kind of news that would barely make a ripple in the United States. But I heard about it while visiting Scotland, and wondered if there, it might spark a bit of a row. (Travel in the United Kingdom can have you thinking in British-isms, while taking note of local customs. The best place for a row, in Glasgow at least, is Sauchiehall Street, not just because it is a crowded shopping thoroughfare but because the name is pronounced "Suckyhall." On summer evenings, young men rove there, and, depending on how many pints they have had, are more or less inclined to invent scores, and settle them.) Because the British face the same energy problems we do, the word from industry secretary Alistair Darling struck me as a grim preview. Soon, Americans will be hearing about nuclear power, and deciding how much more of it they will tolerate. The British have a longstanding abhorrence of things nuclear. So I was surprised to learn that nuclear power currently generates about 20 percent of the United Kingdom's electricity -- about the same proportion as in the United States. (The French, hog-wild for nuclear, draw on it for 78 percent of their power.) People in developed countries have begun feeling trapped on the question of future energy needs. And that could lead many of us to embrace moves we once might have rejected. Ironically, in the case of nuclear power, it could be environmentalists who end up leading the way. Most experts who have looked at the U.S. energy problem say no single approach will do. They argue for multi-pronged strategies (e.g., throwing nuclear power into the mix), both as a way of promoting energy independence and of combating global warming. As Jon Gertner noted in a July 16 New York Times Magazine article, the electricity question is separate from the problem we have learned to call "our dependence on foreign oil." Oil furnishes only a tiny percentage of U.S. electrical power. About half comes from coal-burning plants, which add to global warming. Partly because of supply constraints, natural gas (another leading source) has become increasingly expensive. The most desirable alternatives -- wind and solar power -- so far supply only negligible amounts. It could be decades before they become major sources. As U.S. energy demands grow, and problems associated with global warming increase, Americans and Britons alike will look to nuclear power as the nearest quick fix. It produces none of the gases believed to cause global warming. And uranium, though messy to mine, is relatively cheap. Some experts believe that intensive conservation efforts could erase the need for substantial new power supplies. But few political leaders are leaping to promote, say, more energy-efficient appliances, or encourage "green" buildings -- for that matter, to do any kind of advance planning. President Bush is already on the bandwagon for expanding nuclear power. He also resists traditional approaches to curbing greenhouse gases (higher fuel-economy standards, policies favoring mass transit, etc.) Other, more imaginative strategies for reducing the gases -- so-called geoengineering -- are ridiculed and go unfunded. Instead, the president proposes another trip to the moon, where perhaps he intends to live. By one estimate, the world has a 10-year window to forestall the more significant effects of global warming. Yet, between election cycles and quarterly reports, Americans live in a short-term world. We will act only when our backs are to the wall. It appears inevitable that some new nuclear plants are on the way, probably to be sited near old ones. Most existing plants will soon reach their expiration dates, and have to be shut down. New plants will be needed if only to replace the power they supply. Emissions caps on coal burning are likely to hasten the day, making the costs of nuclear power relatively more appealing. The trouble, of course, is what it always was: What to do with reactors' remarkably lethal spent fuel? Already, our nuclear plants (103 of them, in 31 states) have generated 50,000 tons of highly radioactive waste. And because the federal disposal site at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, is not ready (nor will be, for another dozen years), the waste is being stored in its home states. It is frightening enough that the stuff could kill or injure people accidentally. The new worry is that terrorists could get hold of it, and wreak serious intentional damage. More and more people have a sense that we are walking the plank -- that because of our failed resolve, we will stock the world with more poisons than we already have, leaving them for our children to deal with. It is more than a bit dodgy, as they might say in Scotland -- and worthy of a tremendous row indeed. M.J. Andersen is a member of The Journal's editorial board. Providence Journal Co., 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902. ***************************************************************** 30 Decatur Daily: TVA ready to calculate cost of 2nd reactor at Watts Bar http://www.decaturdaily.com FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2006 By Duncan Mansfield Associated Press Writer KNOXVILLE  The Tennessee Valley Authority is ready to pursue a study on completing a second nuclear reactor at its Watts Bar station  the last nuclear plant to come on line in the United States, a top official said Thursday. Directors of the nation's largest public utility will be asked Friday to approve $20 million for a detailed engineering study to show how much it will cost to complete Watts Bar Unit 2, TVA President and acting CEO Tom Kilgore told The Associated Press in an interview. "That doesn't mean that they are deciding to do Watts Bar 2," he said. "It means that we are asking them to spend money so that we can decide how much it would cost." TVA will continue working with a group of utilities looking at another nuclear option  using TVA's unfinished Bellefonte nuclear reactor site in Alabama to build a modern nuclear reactor, which would be more reliable and less costly than current reactors. "It is not an either-or on Bellefonte," Kilgore said. "It is more of timing with Bellefonte. In other words, we could finish Watts Bar 2 faster than we could finish Bellefonte." TVA believes it will need new base generation capacity by 2014. The unfinished 1,160-mega-watt reactor at Watts Bar in Spring City, Tenn., about 50 miles south of Knoxville, could produce enough electricity to serve more than 670,000 homes. Safety concerns Construction on the Watts Bar station halted in 1985 with the rest of TVA's nuclear program because of safety concerns. Construction later resumed on Watts Bar 1, which came on line in 1996  the last nuclear reactor to start up in this country. TVA currently operates three nuclear stations in Tennessee and Alabama with five running reactors. A sixth reactor is slated to return to service in 2007 at the Browns Ferry station near Athens after a $1.8 billion modernization project. There are 103 licensed reactors operating at 65 sites in the United States. The Browns Ferry Unit 1 reactor would be the 104th, which TVA expects to start around May 2007. "There are a number of letters from a number of utilities saying they are contemplating applying for early site permits and-or construction permits for new reactors. None have come in yet," said Ken Clark, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Designed in the 1970s, the Watts Bar Unit 1 reactor took nearly 23 years and $7 billion to complete. The twin Unit 2 reactor was more than half finished when construction stopped in 1985. Finishing Unit 2 is expected to cost less than Watts Bar 1  Kilgore estimated $2 billion to $3 billion  because of common facilities, but still would require replacing parts that have been cannibalized for other TVA reactors. "If we were to go back today and start finishing Watts Bar 2 we would obviously need to replace all those parts, and we would need to also update a lot of things. Controls and even processes. We would really have to look at everything to see what needed to be not just replaced but renewed," Kilgore said. The TVA board of directors will consider the study request as part of a nearly $9 billion budget request for fiscal 2007 that will include a staff recommendation to cut electric rates by 3.5 percent to 5 percent. TVA provides electricity to 158 distributors serving about 8.6 million consumers in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Copyright 2005 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. AP contributed to this report. --> Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 31 adn.com alaska: Feds commit to Amchitka checkups Anchorage Daily News: Alaska's Newspaper Last Update: July 28, 2006 7:07 PM TEST SITE: Radiation from underground blasts is deadly for thousands of years, experts say. By DON HUNTER Anchorage Daily News Published: July 28, 2006 Last Modified: July 28, 2006 at 03:28 AM Federal contractors will return to Amchitka Island at least every five years to see if the former atomic test site has begun to leak deadly radioactive byproducts buried there decades ago. Officials with the U.S. Department of Energy made the commitment in meetings in Anchorage this week. State officials and the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, which represents people who live in villages on other Aleutian islands, have pressed the federal agency to launch such a long-term monitoring program for years. Amchitka was the site of three underground nuclear tests between 1965 and 1971. The last -- the detonation of a 5-megaton Spartan warhead a mile beneath the surface -- was the largest underground test conducted by the U.S. government. Scientists say the radiation buried in the three blast pits will remain deadly for thousands of years, and eventually will begin seeping out. They say that could happen in 10 years, or 100, or not for thousands of years. Tom Pauling, project manager for the energy department's Office of Legacy Management, said the government has a "perpetual commitment" to check for leakage at Amchitka and other old nuclear sites. "There's nothing we can do to make it go away," he said. Two years ago, an independent group of university scientists collected samples from fish, plants, birds and marine mammals in the waters around Amchitka. Tests of those subsistence foods found everything safe for human consumption, and no signs of radiation above normal background levels expected from fallout, the scientists said. The fallout comes from atmospheric weapons testing by the United States and the Soviet Union through the early 1960s. Amchitka is 1,340 miles southwest of Anchorage. It has been used as a military base and radar station over the years since the blast. It is currently uninhabited, although it is occasionally visited by crews of fishing vessels and others. The island is located in one of the most earthquake-prone areas of the planet. The government said it may conduct extra monitoring of the site after strong earthquakes. Daily News reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.comor 257-4349. © Copyright 2006, The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company ***************************************************************** 32 IAEA: Radioactive Sources Recovered in Georgia + [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] New IAEA/Georgian Search Initiative Yields Find Staff Report 27 July 2006 [Georgia Radioactive Sources] Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation source specialist, locating a caesium-137 orphan source in an abandonded factory in Iri, Georgia. (Photo: P. Pavlicek/IAEA) + Story Resources + Security of Radioactive Sources + Safe Homes for "Orphan" Sources + Department of Nuclear Safety & Security + Trafficking Statistics + Nuclear Security Two abandoned and potentially dangerous radioactive devices have been successfully secured in the first three days of a new effort to trace lost radioactive sources in Georgia. Such abandoned sources are known as orphan sources. A Georgian Ministry of Environment and IAEA team, scouring the isolated alpine region of Racha, found a powerful source in a pile of dirt on the floor of a derelict factory. The team also found a second smaller source inside a house - in a tin of nuts and bolts above a work bench. Just a thin, wooden wall separated the source from the family bedroom. In the village of Iri, where the first source was located, background radiation levels were elevated 12 times above normal in the village centre. "It could have resulted in serious injuries, or even death, if someone had picked it up and put it in their pocket for a period of time," said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, a radiation source specialist in the IAEA, who accompanied the start-up of the mission. Villagers were shocked by the discoveries. "Of course no one had any idea it was here," said 14 year old Salome Gagnigze, standing near the derelict factory in Iri as Georgian inspectors equipped with sensors combed the complex of ruined buildings. An animal shelter is among the ruins but continues to be used as a place of storage for farmers. Neatly stacked bean poles stand a few metres from where the source was found. In the second village, Likhaura, residents requested investigators to check their houses for possible sources after the discovery. The radioisotope in both sources was Caesium 137, a powerful gamma emitter, among the most common radioactive isotope in industrial use for instrumentation to check materials for flaws and for industrial measurements. New, powerful, backpack-mounted instrumentation with which the search team was equipped helped reveal and locate both sources. Because records are not available, search team leaders said they had no clear knowledge of the origin of the sources. The first source may have been overlooked when the factory was abandoned - the second was presumably picked up and taken to the house where it was found. Both would originally have been contained in shielded containers. As many as 300 radioactive sources have been recovered in Georgia since the mid 1990´s and there has been at least one death and many injuries to the public as a consequence. Among the most powerful orphan sources found have been unshielded strontium 90 sources that powered radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Some RTGs, originally located in remote areas as stand-alone electrical generators remain unaccounted for. A legacy of Georgia´s sharp economic decline after the break-up of the Soviet Union was a loss of control of radioactive sources used in industry. The collection and sale of scrap metal from abandoned factories has also provided a means of livelihood and some orphan sources have been found in shipments of scrap. Many orphan sources have also been found on former military bases. An added impetus to recovery operations is concern that some radioactive sources could be used for radiological dispersal devices (RDDs) if they fell into the hands of terrorists. Since 1997 the IAEA has been working with Georgia to upgrade levels of radiation safety and to secure orphan sources. The current search and recovery mission, funded by the United States through the IAEA´s Technical Cooperation Program, is scouring the mountainous region of Racha, about 300 km north-west of the capital Tbilisi, focusing on former industrial centres in the valleys of the Rioni River. It is the last area of Georgia to have gone unchecked for orphan sources. But the problem of unaccounted for radioactive sources is not confined to Georgia, said Ms. Mac Kenzie. "Although there have been significant strides in improved security, there are frequent reports of incidents where sources go missing and accidents occur. This is a global problem, an indication that the control and management of radioactive sources still needs to be improved. Yet radioactive sources are an irreplaceable tool providing a huge benefit to society, in the practice of medicine, in industry and research." The technical assistance provided by the IAEA to Georgia is part of its global effort to improve the security of radioactive sources and nuclear material. Georgia is nearing the final steps of commissioning a new secure storage facility where radioactive sources will be stored. Copyright ©, 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 ***************************************************************** 33 Bellona: Radiation accident on Russian nuclear submarine Victor III Tambov K-448 --> --> One of the multipurpose nuclear submarines of the Russian Northern Fleet suffered a leakage in the first reactor circuit. The top Russian navy representatives contradict each other saying it was radioactive water and feeding non-radioactive water. The reactor’s condition is unknown. The submariners reportedly are delivered to the hospital. Bellona, 26/07-2006 According to Murmansk local media reports, the accident happened on 671 RTM Victor-III class submarine K-448 Tambov at Vidayevo base in Murmansk region on July 26. A nuclear submarine of Russias Northern Fleet has leaked a small amount of feeding water during scheduled removal of the propulsion system, an aide to the Russian Navy Commander Igor Dygalo told Interfax news agency. A little later Dygalos boss the Russian navy commander Vladimir Masorin said to Interfax: There is no radioactive contamination at the Northern Fleet Vidayevo base, where nuclear submarine with leakage of radioactive water is situated. Feeding water, however, cannot be radioactive, so it was apparently the highly radioactive cooling water from the first reactor circuit. The head of Northern Fleet press department Vladimir Navrotskiy did not mention feeding water at all and described the accident in more details to the Murmansk local TV channel Murman on July 26. He said that on the 10th minute of the reactor shutdown operation radiation level increased in the reactor compartment. It was preliminary determined that the reason for the accident had been the leakage of the first circuit of the left reactor. The reactor was shut down. The crew did not suffer and the radiation levels in the other compartments did not exceed the permitted levels, Navrotsky said. The special commission headed by Northern Fleet vice-admiral Nikolay Maximov was established to find out the reasons and eliminate the consequences of the failure, he concluded. According to the latest reports, the first circuit is in order and it is likely that one of the reactor cooling maintenance valves caused the accident. Commenting on the accident, former submariner, the first rank captain Alexander Nikitin who is today the chairman of Environmental Rights Centre Bellona in St Petersburg, said that a leakage from the first reactor circuit on the submarine is characterised as radiation accident. According to Nikitin such an accident could lead to radioactive contamination. It is hard to say whether contamination is local or not, it depends how much water leaked and to which place. It is also important to find out the condition of the reactor, which suffered the accident. Grani.ru reported with the reference to the Northern Fleet headquarters that the crew members who had eliminated the leakage were sent to the hospital. The Northern Fleet representatives said to Grani.ru that their health condition did not raise concerns and that the health examination is necessary in such cases. In 1989 the leakage in the first reactor circuit led to the serious accident onboard the Russian K-159 in the Norwegian Sea. The accident resulted in the partial reactor meltdown, radiation exposure of the crew and discharges of iodine-131 into the sea and atmosphere. ***************************************************************** 34 Platts: Senate Energy panel to examine DOE nuclear waste bill on August 3 Washington (Platts)--27Jul2006 A key US Senate committee is set to examine the Department of Energy's proposed nuclear waste bill during a hearing August 3, setting in motion the legislative process on a bill the department has said is central to its ability to begin operating a repository in 2017, officials said Thursday. The 10 am EDT hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. No information was available immediately on how far through the legislative process committee Chairman Pete Domenici hopes to move the bill before Congress adjourns in early October. Domenici, Republican-New Mexico, co-sponsored the DOE-crafted bill in the Senate. Domenici's counterpart in the House, Joe Barton, Republican-Texas, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and who introduced the bill in the House, has not publicly committed to holding hearings on the bill in 2006, but has indicated there might be time to consider it. Meanwhile, there is growing speculation that Congress will return for a lame duck session after the mid-term elections in November. Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 35 reviewjournal.com: New Yucca analysis sought Jul. 28, 2006 Reid, Ensign press Bush administration for access to impact study By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators say White House environmental advisers were supposed to have completed a new Yucca Mountain analysis by now, and they are demanding to know where the document is. Federal law requires the White House Council of Environmental Quality to prepare impact studies to accompany proposed bills, the senators said. So Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., asked council chairman James Connaughton in a letter Wednesday for the report on a Yucca Mountain bill that the Bush administration sent to Capitol Hill on April 5. "The CEQ must provide this analysis to Congress," Ensign said. The demand was viewed as a fresh shot across the bow of the Bush administration as the Nevada senators load new ammunition in their battle against the proposed nuclear waste repository. Aides said that the senators suspect a report has not been written and that Reid and Ensign plan to bring the subject up at a Yucca Mountain hearing set for next week before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "CEQ's analysis is necessary for members of Congress and the public to understand the impact and parameters of the proposal," Reid and Ensign said in the letter. A CEQ spokeswoman on Thursday declined to discuss the status of any Yucca Mountain report or to confirm whether one has been written. The spokeswoman would not say whether the White House believes one was required or not. "We will be responding to the senators' letter, and we will share the response after the senators see it," spokeswoman Kristy Hellmer said. The Senate committee is scheduled to examine a Bush administration bill aiming to clear away some of the obstacles that Energy Department officials say are holding up the repository project. The measure would reclassify the Yucca Mountain fund so that DOE can gain access to funds needed for construction. It would withdraw the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas from public land status and would lift a cap of 70,000 metric tons on how much nuclear waste can be placed inside the mountain. The bill also would make it easier for DOE to claim water rights for the repository despite Nevada opposition. In addition, it would expand the energy secretary's authority on nuclear waste transportation. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006 Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement ***************************************************************** 36 RGJ.com: In 2008: America, meet Nevada Posted: 7/28/2006 Over this past week, you've probably heard that the Democratic National Committee has chosen Nevada to hold its second-in-the-nation presidential caucus in 2008. The political community in Nevada and the nation is certainly weighing the ramifications of this decision, while a few east coasters are whipping out their dusty atlases to find out where, exactly, Nevada is. With a booming, diversifying population and a penchant for leaning toward the winner "" we've only picked the loser twice in the past hundred years "" Nevada would be a good choice for an early caucus for either party. The best part for less-than-partisan Nevadans: it's not all about the party. Democrat, Republican, or Independent, Nevadans should recognize this as a positive for the state. The Presidential election, especially in the last decade, has become an ongoing media event. Already, cable news networks are preparing fancy splash screens of red, white and blue declaring the obvious with phrases like "America Decides: 2008," or "Decision: America 2008." This time, the second major event: us. This will be well before the media or the public lose interest in other states' decisions; before that forgotten clump of primaries that don't really matter because the parties have each reached a level of inevitability. No "" Nevada will be front, center and important. A lot of our issues are the same as the nation at large: immigration, minimum wage, taxes, health care, security and the war. A few of our issues are decidedly not, however; and pundits are already discussing how the candidates will wiggle their way around the elephant "" err, donkey "" in the room: Yucca Mountain. Democrats are probably better equipped to deal with the issue, considering it was a Republican who made the final decision (although we re-elected him afterwards, so maybe we've moved past that). Perhaps the tougher hurdle will be post-Nevada; after a solid week of talking to Nevadans about keeping the waste out, Democratic hopefuls will need to deal with South Carolina just ten days later, and South Carolinians want just the opposite. Although the issue might be a new one in the primaries, the dance is very old. Democrats and Republicans alike often have to play to their base in order to get the party nod "" before moving toward the center in order to win the November election. As the second Democratic caucus "" right after the famously first Iowa caucuses "" the candidate field is likely to be wide open; for Democrats, a bellwether state is exactly what they'll need to get a sneak peek at which of their candidates are going to be competitive nationwide. Traditionally partisan states will certainly be able to pick the best Republican or the best Democrat, but it won't always be the most competitive Republican or Democrat. Nevada, for all its growing, has consistently kept itself on the political center line, although both parties wish it weren't. Perhaps it's our live-and-let-live attitude; perhaps it's the fact that regardless of our party affiliation, we all seem to have a libertarian streak (even though we don't always show it). However it might affect us, just fifteen days into the election year, all eyes will be on Nevada, as the full slate of Democratic hopefuls descends on our state to woo the Nevada Democrats to their side. So, schedule your haircuts and iron your good shirts: like it or not, Nevada's about to move into the spotlight. Ryan McGinness is a Nevada native living and working in Washington, D.C. He can be reached via e-mail at . Reno Gazette-Journal network ***************************************************************** 37 SHJ: Congress is trying to kill the only option left for removing plutonium from South Carolina | Spartanburg Herald Journal GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg, S.C. Published July 28, 2006 Article Options " Discuss this article When federal officials decided to send surplus plutonium to South Carolina, they promised it would not stay long. They had two methods to dispose of the dangerous, highly radioactive material. Some of it would be encased in glass logs and permanently stored in a new high-level nuclear waste facility under construction in Nevada. The rest would be reprocessed at the Savannah River Site into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. The new permanent disposal site in Nevada is in limbo, the subject of interminable and unreasonable congressional debate and litigation. Now, the U.S. House has voted to kill funding for the plant that would reprocess the weapons-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) for commercial power plants. That would not only kill a major jobs project in that area of the state, it would leave South Carolina with no way to get rid of the plutonium, which has already been sent here. South Carolinians always knew this was a possibility. The federal government has a terrible track record on carrying out any plan that involves handling nuclear waste. The state sued the federal government to keep the plutonium out of the state and lost. The best compromise was a federal law that requires Washington to make hefty payments to the state if the plutonium stays here longer than the original plan. The state's congressional delegation must hold its colleagues to that deal. It is the state's only leverage. This plutonium is being stored at the Savannah River Site, which is not in a suitable location for long-term plutonium storage. The facility is also not designed for that purpose. Federal officials have an obligation to South Carolina to reprocess this material and get it out of the state. Congress must fund the MOX plant, and it must move forward the plans for the disposal facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The alternative means breaking faith with South Carolinians and creating a long-term environmental and health hazard, as well as a potential terrorist threat. The federal government forced this material on South Carolina. In doing so, it forced a hazard on the state. It must recognize its obligation to remedy the situation. ©2006 Spartanburg Herald-Journal | Staff directory ***************************************************************** 38 TheStar.com: Uranium for hydro aids Cameco Fri. Jul. 28, 2006. | Updated at 10:55 PM SASKATOON (CP) — Cameco Corp. (TSX: ), the world's largest uranium producer, says its second-quarter profit soared to $149 million from a year-earlier $32 million on a big tax-related gain and a 45 per cent increase in overall revenue. Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30 amounted to 40 cents a diluted share, up from nine cents, the Saskatoon-based company reported Friday. Cameco recorded a non-cash recovery of $73 million for future income taxes, related to reductions in federal and provincial income tax rates. "For the second quarter in a row, Cameco has significantly increased revenue, earnings and cash flow, compared to last year," said CEO Jerry Grandey. "The electricity and gold businesses helped results in the second quarter, while the uranium business made the largest contribution in the first quarter." Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: ), a unit of Cameco, reported Thursday its second-quarter profit rose to $29 million US from $15 million in the same period a year ago on higher spot and realized prices. Fro the full year, Cameco said it expects consolidated revenue to grow by about 50 per cent over 2005 due to improved uranium markets and the consolidation of revenue from the Bruce Power nuclear reactors in Ontario. "In the uranium business, we expect revenue to be about 15 per cent higher, due to a stronger realized price, partially offset by a decrease in sales volumes," the company said in a release. "We also anticipate that revenue from the fuel services business will be about 50 per cent higher than in 2005 due to an anticipated 10 per cent increase in sales deliveries, an increase in the average realized selling price and the inclusion of revenue from Zircatec Precision Industries Inc. Bruce Power earnings are projected to be moderately less than in 2005 "mainly as a result of lower than expected electricity prices, which were very strong in 2005." Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All ***************************************************************** 39 AU ABC: Martin's uranium stance 'inconsistent'. 28/07/2006. ABC News Online Posted: Friday, July 28, 2006 . 8:38am --> Last The independent Member for Nelson, Gerry Wood, says the Northern Territory Chief Minister is being hypocritical for supporting more uranium mining whilst being opposed to a nuclear waste facility. Clare Martin this week revealed she intends to back federal leader Kim Beazley's push to change Labor's no new uranium mines policy at its next national conference. But Mr Wood says Ms Martin's position is contradictory. "It's been telling us how bad having a nuclear waste facility in the Northern Territory would be and now it's talking about increasing the amount of uranium we send overseas," he said. "What it's saying, it doesn't mind other countries having nuclear energy, it doesn't mind other country's having a nuclear waste facility in another country but it opposes in Australia. "If you oppose it in Australia, then why send it overseas?" He says the Labor Party is "totally inconsistent and totally hypocritical" on the issue. "If they were being honest, if they were being consistent they would say we're not going to mine, we're not going to export uranium at all, end of story," he said. ; 2006 ABC| Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 40 Daily Record: DOUNREAY WASTE PLAN ATOMIC energy bosses want to build a waste treatment plant as part of the clean-up at Dounreay. The UK Atomic Energy Authority have lodged plans with Highland Council, seeking permission to build the Caithness facility. The plant would treat almost 80 per cent of all radioactive waste as part of the decommissioning of the site, which is expected to take until 2036 to complete. ***************************************************************** 41 DOE: Energy Department Early Career Scientists and Engineers Honored July 26, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC  At a White House ceremony today, seven early career researchers, funded by the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Office of Science and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), were honored for their work ranging from the study of elements produced by exploding stars, to the validation of computer simulations in support of the nations nuclear stockpile stewardship program. DOEs scientists are among 56 researchers supported by nine federal departments and agencies who received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The Presidential award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent careers. Each Presidential award winner received a citation, a plaque and a commitment for continued funding of their work from their agency for five years. Dr. John Marburger, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, presented the awards. All of us here at the Energy Department are very pleased that these individuals are being recognized by the President for the intellectual rigor, relevance and high technical standards of their work, Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. We are proud to honor these seven awardees as a means of encouraging promising young scientists and engineers to pursue work in areas of importance to the Department of Energys energy research and national security missions. After the White House awards ceremony, the seven researchers described their work at a ceremony at DOE headquarters hosted by DOE Under Secretary for Science Dr. Raymond L. Orbach and NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Thomas P. D'Agostino. At the DOE event, four of the scientists from its national laboratories were also presented DOE's Office of Science Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award. The winners are: Daniel W. Bardayan (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) For innovative precision nuclear spectroscopy measurements clarifying the production of elements and radioisotopes in exploding stars, and for mentoring undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral associates as well as organizing a summer school for graduate students to explore exotic beam physics. Todd Munson (Argonne National Laboratory) For pioneering developments in algorithms, software, and problem-solving environments for the solution of large-scale optimization problems, and for mentoring students in the summer student program and conducting tutorials to graduate students on numerical optimization. Wynne K. Schiffer (Brookhaven National Laboratory) For pioneering work in integrating neurobiology, chemistry, physics, and instrumentation in order to translate multi-disciplinary discoveries and new knowledge into advances in human health, and for providing educational outreach on brain imaging and drug abuse to educators and the public. Yanwen Zhang (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) For internationally recognized, seminal contributions to the fields of ion-beam physics and ion-solid interactions in materials, including the development of a novel approach for measuring electronic stopping, and for mentoring high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students and providing Chinese translation of scientific information. At the same time, three university researchers received the Office of Defense Programs Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award. NNSAs national security laboratories nominated the recipients in recognition of their work in support of the administration's national security mission. The winners are: Christopher J. Roy (Auburn University) For the development of verification and validation methodologies critical to improving accuracy and building confidence in computational science and engineering simulations, for the development of unsteady hybrid turbulence models for fluid dynamics simulations, and for providing high quality educational opportunities for the next generation of American scientists and engineers. Wendelin Wright (Stanford University) For research into the deformation and failure of metals and polymers under dynamic loading using high-speed and spatially-resolved infrared measurements of temperature, for guidance and leadership of fellow researchers, and for her exceptional ability to communicate difficult technical concepts to colleagues and students. Michael A. Zingale (Stony Brook University) For advancing the detailed simulation of turbulent combustion and demonstrating parallel, multi-physics methods used in national security-related applications, for pioneering collaborations with fellow researchers, and for training students in computational astrophysics. Biographical information on the winners and their award citations are available on the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and EngineersWeb site. Media contact(s): Jeff Sherwood, (202) 586-5806 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 | e/General ***************************************************************** 42 DOE: DOE Seeks Proposals for Expanded Large-Scale Scientific Computing July 27, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC  Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman announced today that the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is seeking new proposals to support innovative, large-scale computational science projects. Successful proposals will be given the use of substantial computer time and data storage on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world that reside in the departments scientific computing centers in Berkeley, Calif.; Argonne, Ill.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Richland, Wash. Since launching INCITE in 2003, both the number of proposals and amount of computing time requested indicate that high-performance computing resources, such as those at our national labs are in high demand, Secretary Bodman said. This unique program opens up the world of high-performance computing to a broader research community. So far, INCITE has enabled scientists to make significant progress in such key research areas as combustion, astrophysics, protein structure, chemistry and engineering. Each year, the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program seeks computationally intensive, large-scale research projects. The program encourages proposals from universities, other research institutions and industry. Industry is specifically solicited to propose challenging problems that may be solved using high-performance computing systems. The Office of Science expects to make a small number of large awards. In 2005, 15 projects were awarded a total of 18 million processor-hours from the 43 proposals submitted, which requested a total of 95 million process-hours of computing time. In 2007, the INCITE program will provide an opportunity for researchers to request time on the new Leadership Class Cray supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Other Office of Science computing resources available for the INCITE program include the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) resources at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Hewlett-Packard massively parallel system at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the IBM Blue Gene/L system at Argonne National Laboratory. In the past, these advanced computers have not been commonly available to academia or the private sector. The array of high performance computing systems now available through the INCITE program means that researchers can bring appropriate computational architectures to bear on problems that were previously thought to be unsolvable, said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, DOE Under Secretary for Science. When you combine these resources with the sophisticated technical support available through our computing centers, its no wonder that we are receiving more requests than we can accommodate  and seeing results that are groundbreaking. INCITE proposals will be peer reviewed both in the area of proposed research and also for general scientific merit, comparing them with proposals in other disciplines. Current Department of Energy sponsorship is not required for this program. DOE plans to announce the awards in December. Read the for more information and the list of projects receiving allocations under INCITE in 2006. DOEs is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation and ensures U.S. world leadership across a broad range of scientific disciplines. (including DOE policies for proprietary work) Media contact(s): Jeff Sherwood, (202) 586-5806 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 | e/General ***************************************************************** 43 Hanford News: Hanford interpretive center planners optimisic This story was published Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 By Elena Olmstead, Herald staff writer Three and half years may have passed with little visible work completed at the Hanford Reach interpretive center site, but organizers are optimistic about the future. Tuesday night, members of the Richland Public Facilities District and the Reach boards met with Richland City Council to discuss the $37 million project. Ron Hicks, project manager, told the council he's proud of the work done at the interpretive center during the past few years. He said the Richland project is at a point it took those creating the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles six years to reach. He also pointed to the fundraising efforts that have gone on in the past year since the public facilities district board met with council. In April 2005, Hicks said $11 million had been raised toward the interpretive center project. Today that number stands at $21 million. Hicks said the next fundraising phase, which the Reach board is organizing, will focus on private donations from citizens and corporations. Hicks said the project also is meeting its budget, telling the council to date $7 million has been spent on the interpretive center. That money has gone to pay for bringing utilities out to the Columbia Point south site and for detailed designs of the roads and pathways that will surround the center, as well as for the exhibits and building. Despite Hicks' positive message about the project, several council members still had questions. "I think the eyes of the community have seen this coming for four years and I think some of those eyes expected this to happen already," said Councilman John Fox. He said he's also concerned about the project because of the rising cost of the construction. Hicks said work at the site is at a standstill while the area's Native American tribes conduct a cultural resource study of the area. Councilwoman Sheila Sullivan asked for comparisons between the Richland project and the discovery center in The Dalles. Hicks said The Dalles center estimates that more than 60,000 visitors come through its doors annually. Sullivan said The Dalles center may get that many visitors, but that it's also on a major interstate. She also asked for comparisons in terms of maintenance costs and overall cost of the project. Bill King, deputy city manager, told Sullivan it's information that can easily be obtained for her. Although there were questions about the project, council members supported both boards' efforts and the work that has gone into the project to this point. "There's just no room for failure on this project," said Mayor Rob Welch. © 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 Hanford News: Group doubts Hanford thyroid study findings This story was published Thursday, July 27th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Federal researchers who conducted a new study of Hanford health effects faced a skeptical but small crowd at a Wednesday meeting in Richland. The study, released Monday, found a small increased risk of underactive thyroids among men who grew up near or downwind of the Hanford nuclear reservation in the 1940s and 1950s. It was conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, with a budget of $900,000, in response to community concerns that radioactive releases from Hanford might have caused autoimmune or heart disease. "We consider this study to be fatally flawed," said Gerald Woodcock, representing the Eastern Washington Section of the American Nuclear Society. The study conclusions are at sharp variance with other, more powerful, studies of radiation health effects at Hanford, he said. That includes the $22 million Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, which failed to find a connection between thyroid disease and radiation releases from Hanford when it was producing plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The new study by ATSDR compared rates for autoimmune and heart disease in a sample of people who spent childhood years in Benton, Franklin and Grant counties near Hanford to rates in Mason, San Juan and Whatcom counties in Western Washington. It found no other increases in 27 other diseases for those who grew up in counties near Hanford, and no increase in underactive thyroids for women who lived near Hanford. The control counties were on or near saltwater, which could have increased iodine consumption and protected against thyroid disease, said Warren Nechodom, of Richland, one of a dozen people at the meeting. James Dukelow, who is a retired risk analyst and adjunct faculty member at Washington State University, said the study statistically would have had some false positives with as many diseases and groupings of populations as were considered. He questioned the validity of the single positive finding of underactive thyroids among men near Hanford. "There are limitations to the study," said Alden Henderson, who worked on it as an environmental health scientist. The study did not attempt to link radiation releases from Hanford with underactive thyroid cases, he said. Those who have questions about the study may contact the principal researcher, Caroline Cusack, at 1-888-422-8737. © 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Tri-City Herald: CH2M Hill to cut 75 jobs in September Published Friday, July 28th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer CH2M Hill Hanford Group plans to cut 75 positions in September, the Department of Energy contractor told employees Thursday. About 22 of those cuts will come from employees who have volunteered for layoffs and a few more positions could be cut through normal attrition. The remainder of the cuts will come through layoffs. Affected employees will be notified in mid-September. Fiscal year 2007 begins Oct. 1. In addition, the contractor has notified potential subcontractors that it will have less money to spend in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. CH2M Hill's contract was set to expire at the end of this year, but has been extended for up to two years while DOE solicits proposals for a new contract. CH2M Hill expects to have a 79 percent reduction in discretionary subcontracting spending from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2007. Many CH2M Hill subcontractors saw a substantial reduction in contract amounts in the current fiscal year, and fiscal year 2007 business volume is expected to be about half of the current year, according to a CH2M Hill memo. The emphasis in awarding subcontracts will be on small businesses, CH2M Hill said. Congress has not approved a final fiscal year 2007 budget for the Hanford tank farms, which CH2M Hill operates for DOE. The farms include 177 underground tanks holding 53 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a 2007 tank farm budget that is $52 million less than the current budget, and the House has passed a budget that is $32 million less. It added $20 million to restore money for the bulk vitrification demonstration project, which is planned to show whether that technology could be used to supplement the Waste Treatment Plant's glassification of low-activity radioactive waste for permanent disposal. The planned workforce cuts at CH2M Hill would leave about 1,100 people working for the contractor. CH2M Hill's last layoffs were near the start of the current fiscal year. It laid off 170 workers in October in addition to 59 workers who volunteered for layoffs. © 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 46 TPR: Nuke Lab Privatization Moving Forward THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR) DIG. DISCOVER. DISCLOSE. Investigative reporting and occasional satire by writer Steve Peacock July 27, 2006 [Nagasaki1_thumb] The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is one step closer to handing over operation and management of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to private contractors. According to a recently revised Request for Proposals(RFP), potential bidders on the project have been meeting with the Dept. of Energy (DOE) over the past two months to discuss this voluntary surrender of control. Despite the eventual privatization of this San Francisco Bay Area facility -- which contains a nuclear weapons stockpile as well as a nuclear bomb-development and R&D complex -- contracts will continue to cost U.S. taxpayers $1.2 billion annually, not including a DOE-estimated $500 million in "reimbursable worK" that the selected prime contractor may conduct yearly. July 26, 2006 | Permalink ***************************************************************** 47 lamonitor.com: Plutonium puzzle nags investigators The Online News Source for Los Alamos Los Alamos Historical Document and Retrieval project also concerned with beryllium, chromium ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor POJOAQUE - Contractors for the Centers for Disease Control said they were still puzzled by the discrepancy between laboratory accounts and other evidence for historical plutonium releases at the laboratory during the unbridled early days of the Manhattan Project and its successors. "Plutonium is the most nagging question," said Tom Widner, the project director at a public meeting Wednesday night. Previously, the project reported finding evidence in soil measurements of 10-100 times more plutonium having been released than the laboratory's own historical accounts had estimated. Widner, who works for ChemRisk under a contract with CDC, said the two accounts are coming closer together, but his current best estimate is about 50 times more plutonium releases than lab estimates. At the same time, he acknowledged that a wide range of uncertainty persists. Widner said the project has been giving special attention to Building D, the original plutonium processing facility located southwest of Ashley Pond in the town center. Photographs of building D show 80-85 release points from the top of the building. "They were all unfiltered and unmonitored," said Widner. In a brief exposition on the various stages of chemical processing of the plutonium - producing an alloy, roughcasting pressing, flattening surfaces and nickel-plating it - he described the work performed in Building D, before the laboratory began reporting releases. Observers at the time were aware of the building's radioactivity, according to Widner's research. One wrote, "D Building was the hottest place in town." Another observer said it was "some Gehenna of radioactivity." (A "Gehenna" is a biblical reference to the dump outside Jerusalem.) Before plutonium processing was moved out to the Delta Prime site at the end of DP road, Widner said, fire and explosions were a major hazard, and there were several close calls. Another important concern about Building D is that it was located in proximity to housing. Widner said further soil tests were needed, but that other analytical methods would be applied as well, including a study of human tissue samples from some 200 people who lived around Los Alamos, both workers and non-workers and among the workers, both high and low-hazard occupations. Another concern that will be investigated by the Los Alamos Historical Document and Retrieval project is the matter of whether beryllium migrated off-site. Beryllium is a very toxic element, known to cause lung cancer among other diseases. Widner said the project was completing new milestones. During the second quarter, he said, the project reviewed 2,483 folders and 37,000 reports. Since January 2005, they have examined 29,072 folders and 245,026 reports. "Within a month or so all the centralized repositories will be complete," he said. Attention will now turn to localized records collections. These include collections retained by individual divisions - chemistry, dynamic experiment, environmental stewardship, health, safety and radiation, material science and technology and physics - or whatever these groups may be named now. Widner said he had a 10-inch binder that tracks organizational name changes at the lab. A new search engine for the project database was demonstrated by Bob Burns. After the meeting, a reporter asked for a search of documents referring to chromium. The contaminant hexavalent-chromium has been found at levels above state and federal standards in one of the laboratories deep test wells. With the assistance of Susan Fleck, who works for ChemRisk, a rather short list of documents was summoned, including one from 1969 that reported on effluents in Los Alamos Canyon. The memo stated that none of the concentrations approached published radiological or chemical limits, "with the exception of hexavalent chromium which is being discharged continuously in effluent water." Fleck said the memo was written before the federal government cracked down on toxic metals. "In 1969, everybody was doing it," she said. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 Knox News: EnergySolutions cuts Oak Ridge jobs By News Sentinel staff July 28, 2006 OAK RIDGE — EnergySolutions, a broad-based nuclear firm that includes a number of Oak Ridge holdings, is eliminating about 100 jobs as part of a restructuring. Most of those jobs will be cut from the Oak Ridge facilities, the company said in information distributed to the news media. EnergySolutions was formed earlier this year, merging the assets of Envirocare, BNG America (formerly BNFL Inc.) and Duratek. The company is based in Utah. In a statement released Thursday evening, EnergySolutions said the senior managers of the combined companies wanted to eliminate duplicate positions and consolidate job functions between now and the end of the year. Steve Creamer, the president and chief executive officer, said, "This is a difficult process and we have spent considerable time designing a program that gives those affected the best opportunity to find new employment." He said the company was offering two "generous" severance options. One of those would focus on a lump-sum cash payment, while the second would provide continuing salary and benefits and outplacement services. The Oak Ridge holdings including the nuclear-waste operations on Bear Creek Road that were formerly held by Duratek, as well as depleted-uranium processing operations at the Manufacturing Sciences Corp. facility on Highway 62. EnergySolutions also operates a nuclear landfill for the U.S. Department of Energy. Company officials were unavailable for additional comment. 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************