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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 AFP: White House snubs Iran invitation to debate
2 AFP: Defiant Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to TV debate
3 IRNA: France ready for talks with Iran over peaceful nuclear program
4 Korea Times: Seoul Should Be Consulted Before Further US Sanctions¡¯
5 Korea Times: Nuke Negotiator to Visit US
6 IRNA: Malaysia says Iran's N-activities quite peaceful
7 US: [NukeNet] WMD Here Plowshares
8 US: [shundahaialert] NNSA Schedules Sub-Critical Test for Aug 30
9 CIA used 'micro nuclear' bomb in Bali: Bashir
10 [NYTr] Canada's nuclear do or die
11 BBC: Japan premier heads to Uzbekistan
NUCLEAR REACTORS
12 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Leader Challenges Authority of U.N.
13 US: AP Wire: Federal panel examines nuclear proposal for SW Mississi
14 The Hindu: Prototype reactor to be ready before 2010
15 US: The NewStandard: Counties Eye Nuke Plants, Utilities Eye Govt. H
16 BBC: Nuclear plant protesters
17 Platts: Vattenfall refutes safety concerns over German Brunsbuttel n
18 Platts: Westinghouse signs contracts for Korean PWR projects
19 US: Clarion-Ledger: Nuke plant opponents: 'Greater threat'
20 US: Rutland Herald: Vt. Yankee's warm-water releases halted
21 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Judge tells VY to cool it
22 UBC: Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant sets BN-600 power generating
23 canadafreepress.com: Nuclear to the rescue
24 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for th
25 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Receipt and
26 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Notice: PG&E etc.
27 US: Cambridge Times: B all steamed up over nuclear contract
28 Russia Newswire: Beloyarsk NPP’s Energy Unit No. 3 Reaches Nominal
NUCLEAR SECURITY
29 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Police Probe Possible Nuke Exports
NUCLEAR SAFETY
30 Coastal Post: Doing the Wrong Thing in Afghanistan: Depleted Uranium
31 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Proposed Termination of License for Nuclear
32 Platts: Germany to investigate Brunsbuttel nuke safety concerns
33 US: reviewjournal.com: Non-nuclear experiment to be conducted at Tes
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
34 AU ABC: Alice Council will not speak against planned nuclear dump
35 US: Chicago Sun-Times: Residents fear quarry will be used for milita
36 US: Los Angeles Times: State Proposes Limit for Perchlorate in Drink
37 US: canada.com Uranium Still Rising
38 US: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Nuclear dump cleanup delayed in Parks
PEACE
39 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. May Hold Off on Confronting Iran
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
40 Lexington Herald-Leader: Paducah nuclear plant cleanup contractor cr
41 News 8: Congressmen Tour National Security Measure At INL
42 Hanford News: Solvent used at Hanford tied to health problems
43 lamonitor.com: Professor wants blue-marble view of planet
44 Ironton Tribune: Piketon in running for nuclear recycling site
45 Knox News: City of OR mulls nuclear facility
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 AFP: White House snubs Iran invitation to debate
Tue Aug 29, 11:41 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House rejected outright an offer
from Iran" /> Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hold a
televised debate with US President George W. Bush" /> President
George W. Bush.
"Talk of a debate is just a diversion from the legitimate
concerns that the international community, not just the US, has
about Iran's behavior, from support to terrorism to pursuit of a
nuclear weapons capability," a senior administration official
said, speaking privately.
"The Iranian regime knows what it has to do to engage
constructively with the international community," the official
added.
"We said we are willing to talk to Iran in the context of a
positive response to the P5+1 package," the US official added,
referring to an incentives package offered in June by the five
UN permanent Security Council members (Britain, France, China,
Russia and the United States) plus Germany.
The offer is contingent on Tehran first agreeing to suspend
uranium enrichment, and contains a threat of council action to
get Iran to renounce its nuclear program.
Iran says the program is for civilian energy purposes only.
Ahmadinejad Tuesday offered Bush a live television debate as he
shrugged off the threat of sanctions ahead of a looming UN
deadline for Iran to halt sensitive atomic work.
"I suggest we talk with Mr Bush, the president of the United
States, in a live television debate about world issues and ways
out of these standoffs. We would voice our opinions and they
would too," he told a news conference.
The debate "should be uncensored, above all for the American
public," said Ahmadinejad, who earlier this year sent Bush a
letter in the first contact in decades between leaders of the
two arch-foes.
But the outspoken president said that such a debate would not
necessarily mean reopening dialogue with the United States,
which froze diplomatic relations with Iran after the seizure of
the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
2 AFP: Defiant Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to TV debate
by Siavosh Ghazi and Hiedeh Farmani Tue Aug 29, 3:15 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged his US
counterpart George W. Bush to a live television debate as he
shrugged off the threat of sanctions two days ahead of a UN
deadline for Iran" /> Iranto halt sensitive atomic work.
"I suggest we talk with Mr Bush, the president of the United
States, in a live television debate about world issues and ways
out of these standoffs. We would voice our opinions and they
would too," he told a news conference.
The debate "should be uncensored, above all for the American
public," said Ahmadinejad, who earlier this year sent Bush a
letter in the first contact in decades between leaders of the
two arch-foes.
However a White House official rejected the debate offer
outright, dismissing Ahmadinejad's move as "just a diversion
from the legitimate concerns that the international community,
not just the US, has about Iran's behavior."
Ahmadinejad said Iran would be prepared to restore ties frozen
by the United States after the seizure of the US embassy in
Tehran in 1979, but Washington would first have to change its
tone towards the Islamic republic.
"We would like to have relations with all countries except for
the one country which we see as illegitimate and imposed," he
said, referring to Israel" /> Israelwhich Tehran refuses to
recognize.
"The US is not an exception, but United States cut the ties to
pressure us. The US administration is still dreaming about
returning the Iranian nation to 30 years back.
"They have to wake up from this dream, correct their behaviour
and language, take a fair stance. They cut the ties, they should
provide the conditions themselves," he told only his third news
conference since taking power.
Ahmadinejad was speaking as the clock ticked down to a Thursday
deadline from the UN Security Council to suspend all uranium
enrichment and reprocessing activities, with Iran facing
possible sanctions if it fails to comply.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency" />
International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) is to report to the
Security Council the same day on Iran's compliance with its
demands. Iran has insisted it has no intention of abandoning
such work.
But Ahmadinejad said he believed it was "unlikely" the Security
Council would act against Iran over its nuclear program, which
the US maintains is cover for a weapons drive.
"We have said everything in our response. I think the time to
use the instrument of the Security Council has expired," he
said.
He was referring to Iran's answer to a Western package of
incentives over its nuclear program, which Iran says is for
civilian energy purposes only.
"I see it as unlikely that they want to use it (the Security
Council). Using nuclear energy is Iran's right and we want to
use it according to international law," Ahmadinejad said.
British ambassador to the United Nations" /> United NationsEmyr
Jones Parry said he expected the Security Council to wait a
couple of weeks before discussing what action to take.
"I would expect the dossier to come back into the Council
shortly, but only after a further period of discussion among
capitals," he said in New York.
"I would expect activities here to resume toward the middle of
September."
Ahmadinejad, who last year caused outrage when he described
Israel as a tumour that should be "wiped off the map," said he
wanted the root of tensions in the Middle East to be "removed."
"Our position on the Middle East is clear. We want the root of
tensions to be removed. During these 60 years what was the root
of massacres, crimes and conflicts?" Ahmadinejad asked,
referring to the creation of Israel in 1948.
"The solution is clear and nothing has changed," he added.
Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the historical
veracity of the Holocaust, said that the Jewish state was
"founded upon a story" and complained how "questioning that
story has become an unforgiveable crime."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
3 IRNA: France ready for talks with Iran over peaceful nuclear program -
Paris, Aug 29, IRNA
Iran-Nuclear-France
French Foreign Minister France Philippe Douste-Blazy said
Tuesday Paris is ready to resume dialogue with Iran on its
peaceful nuclear program but will continue to insist that Tehran
suspend uranium enrichment first.
"However, such a dialogue must be a clear, concrete and
responsible," Douste-Blazy told a meeting of French ambassadors.
"We want this dialogue quickly, with a desire for serious
discussion and with an aim of finding a final solutions to the
Iranian nuclear problem," he added.
Referring to Iran's response to the P5+1 package of incentives,
Douste-Blazy said, "This move is essential to building
confidence between all the parties to the negotiations," he told
the ambassadors at their annual meeting in Paris.
Earlier French President Jacques Chirac stressed that the room
was open for talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
*****************************************************************
4 Korea Times: Seoul Should Be Consulted Before Further US Sanctions¡¯
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
Seoul has not yet been informed of any U.S. plan to increase
pressure on North Korea, although it is possible Washington will
consider stepping up financial sanctions against Pyongyang, a
senior South Korean official said yesterday.
``It is logically possible for the United States to consider
such a measure,¡¯¡¯ he said on condition of anonymity. ``But it
is a matter subject to prior consultations between the two
allies. We¡¯ve not yet heard of that officially.¡¯¡¯
His remarks contrasted with a recent media report that the
United States is set to make an announcement next week that it
would restore some economic sanctions it had partially lifted in
1994 and 2000.
While denying the immediacy, the official left open the
possibility that Washington might take steps to add more
pressure on the isolated North, which he said should be
understood as an extension of the July 16 U.N. Security Council
resolution.
Since the adoption of the resolution that condemned North
Korea¡¯s July 5 missile tests, the United States has been
tightening up the bolts to curb the financial resources of the
already impoverished North.
President Roh Moo-hyun is set to hold a summit with U.S.
President George W. Bush in Washington on Sept. 14 to discuss
the North Korean missile and nuclear problems along with other
bilateral and regional issues.
``They will discuss ways to resume the stalled six-party
talks,¡¯¡¯ the top security official said. ``One of the prime
goals of the summit is for the two heads of state to share
common understanding of the multilateral dialogue framework.¡¯¡¯
Roh and Bush met in Washington under similar circumstances in
June 2005 _ when North Korea had been boycotting the six-way
talks for months _ leading to a resumption of negotiations and a
broad agreement on Sept. 19 the same year.
In another development, the official displayed dissatisfaction
at some news reports which he argued exaggerated the financial
burdens caused by the planned transfer of wartime operational
command from the United States.
Some conservative dailies, which have opposed to an early
return of the military control, recently started to arouse
public concern that the transfer would claim a huge amount of
taxpayers¡¯ money.
``Some reported that it would require 621 trillion won ($646
billion) by 2020 and cause 50 million won in burdens per
family,¡¯¡¯ he said, adding they only instill a sense of crisis
among the public with wrong figures.
``The 621 trillion won they are saying is the total expected
budget for the national defense for the period of two
decades,¡¯¡¯ he said. ``Are they saying that we would use no
military budget in case we do not get the command back from the
United States?¡¯¡¯
He said the issue has not been considered as a matter that Roh
and Bush should deal with in their upcoming summit, but due to
some disputes in South Korea, it became inevitable for them to
reconfirm their consensus.
He stressed that despite some politically motivated arguments
by the opponents, the wartime command issue would be finalized
after close consultation between the allies. South Korea wants
it transferred by 2012, but the United States is expressing a
preference to return it by 2009.
jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 08-29-2006 18:05
*****************************************************************
5 Korea Times: Nuke Negotiator to Visit US
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
Chun Yung-woo, South Korea¡¯s top nuclear negotiator, will
travel to Washington today to discuss with his American
counterpart Christopher Hill ways to resume the stalled
six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear programs.
His two-day visit to the United States is a follow-up measure
agreed between the two officials at the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) in late July to continue consultations on the
denuclearization talks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade in Seoul said yesterday.
Other related moves to revive the momentum of the talks have
been spotted recently.
Japan¡¯s nuclear negotiator Kenichiro Sasae visited Seoul and
Song Min-soon, the chief national security advisor to President
Roh Moo-hyun, traveled to Beijing last week.
im@koreatimes.co.kr 08-29-2006 19:12
*****************************************************************
6 IRNA: Malaysia says Iran's N-activities quite peaceful
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 29, IRNA
Malaysia-Iran-Nuclear
Speaker of Malaysia's House of Representatives Ramli Talib said
here Tuesday that his country believes Iran's nuclear activities
are quite peaceful, stressing that no documents have been found
proving Iran's diversion from peaceful purposes.
Talib, whose country currently holds rotating presidency of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), made the remark in
a meeting with the visiting Head of Iran's Majlis National
Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi.
The Iranian MP arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, early Tuesday
to discuss the latest developments in Iran's peaceful nuclear
case.
The Malaysian speaker said nuclear activities for peaceful
purposes is an inalienable right of the Iranian nation, adding
West cannot deprive other states of a science which they,
themselves, use the most.
The European states not only refused to suspend non-peaceful
use of nuclear technology but they are producing and testing new
nuclear products, he added.
Ramli said Malaysia, as the OIC head, has repeatedly announced
its stance on Iran's nuclear case very transparently, adding
Kuala Lumpur still believes that Iran's nuclear program is
peaceful.
Boroujerdi, for his part, said Iran keeps doors open for
nuclear cooperation with other states.
Pointing to Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), he stressed that Tehran believes in a
world free from weapons of mass destruction.
He outlined Iran's long-term policies to produce 22,000MW
nuclear energy and expressed Tehran's firm determination to
continue peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"Tehran is also ready to follow up negotiations with Group 5+1
based on mutual respect on an equal footing and with no
preconditions," the MP said.
He assessed as "illogical" referral of Iran's nuclear dossier
to the UN Security Council, saying imposing sanctions against
Iran would have no impact on the nation's will to conquer peaks
of progress and development.
Boroujerdi, on behalf of Iranian Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali
Haddad-Adel, invited Talib to take part at a conference of
Parliaments of Asian States for Peace.
The sides also called for further expansion of relations
between the two countries.
*****************************************************************
7 [NukeNet] WMD Here Plowshares
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:52:39 -0700
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X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: Boyle, Francis
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 9:02 AM
To: abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: WMD Here Plowshares
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NORTH DAKOTA
SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION
CASE NO:
1:06-CR-59-DLH-CSM-_____________________________________________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
vs.
* CARL KABAT,
* GREGORY BOERTJE-OBED
* MICHAEL WALLI
Defendants.
______________________________________________________________
DECLARATION OF FRANCIS A. BOYLE
Pursuant to 28 USC 1746, Francis A. Boyle declares under
penalty of perjury:
1. I am a professor of law at the University of Illinois, at
Champaign, Illinois. I hold both a Juris doctor magna cum laude and a Ph.
D. in Political Science from Harvard University.
2. I am an expert in International Law and foreign policy. I have studied,
read, and written extensively in these areas, and have been qualified as an
expert witness in several courts across the country. I have also taught in
the field of criminal law. My resume is attached to this declaration and
incorporated by reference.
3. I offer this declaration in support of the Motions to Dismiss the charge
of malicious destruction of property (18 USC 1361) and in establishing the
content and application of the laws of war to elements of the offense
charged and in support of justification defenses including necessity and
crime prevention.
4. I am aware that expert opinion on points of law is ordinarily not
permitted in court. Opinion of published international legal scholars is an
important exception to that rule. The Statute of the International Court of
Justice provides that questions of international law shall be determined by
resort, inter alia, to the teachings of the most highly qualified
publicists of the various nations...Id., Art. 38 (1) (d). An integral part
of the United Nations Charter, which is a treaty and thus equivalent to a
federal statute as Supreme Law of the Land, this rule of evidence is
applicable in federal court. The Supreme Court expressed the same opinion
in The Paquete Habana, 175 US 677, 700 (1900). Cf. Fed. R. Crim. P. 26.1
(ordinary Rules of Evidence do not apply to determination of foreign law).
5. In the implementation of foreign policy, the current Administration has
threatened to use nuclear weapons and was on June 20, 2006, actively
threatening to use the Minuteman III, E-9 at issue in this case. Because
this threat or use of 300 kilotons of heat, blast and radiation are
uncontrollable and because the threat or use of this weapon is for a
first-strike,the Minuteman III, E-9, on June 20, 2006 was not merely
unlawful, but actually criminal. This conclusion is elaborated in
paragraphs 6-15 below.
6. The body of federal law which governs these matters includes rules and
principles of international law. International law is not higheror separate
law; it is part and parcel of the structure of U.S. federal law. The
Supreme Court so held in the landmark decision in The Paquete Habana, 175
US 677, 700 (1900), recently reaffirmed in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, (U.S.
Supreme Court, No. 05-1846. Argued March 28, 2006Decided June 29, 2006).
Thus international law must be considered along with Congressional
statutes, Constitutional law, administrative law, federal common law, Rules
of Court, military law, the laws of war, incorporated state law and any
other pertinent body of law, whenever it applies according to the pertinent
rules of supremacy, parallel construction, and choice of law.
7. International law, as part of US law, includes the laws of war. Under
the fourth Hague Convention, various types of weapons are absolutely
prohibited under all circumstances. For example, no nation may use a weapon
which causes unnecessary suffering to human beings. Second, the use of
poison or poison weapons is flatly prohibited by the Hague Regulations, by
the Geneva Protocol of 1925, and by the US Army Field Manual 27-10 on the
Law of Land Warfare (1965) and the US Department of the Air Force Pamphlet
on International Law -- The Conduct of Armed Conflict and Air
Operations(AFP 110-31, 1976). The United States is bound as a party to each
of these. Third, a nation may not adopt methods or tactics of warfare that
fail to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Because of the
inevitable effects of the explosion of the Minuteman III, E-9, each of
these rules prohibits its use. Other provisions of international law,
moreover, prohibit destruction of the natural environment, another
inevitable consequence of the explosion of any nuclear weapon including the
Minuteman III, E-9.
8. The most recent and most authoritative summary of the current and
binding laws of war as applied to any threat or use of nuclear weapons is
found in the International Court of Justice Opinion, Legality of the Threat
or Use of Nuclear Weapons , 8 July 1996. As further explained in my recent
book The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, the Minuteman III is in a
category of nuclear weapons that is, ipso facto, incapable of
distinguishing between civilians and combatants, is uncontrollable in space
or time and causes unnecessary suffering. Thus any threat or use of the
Minuteman III, E-9 was illegal and criminal.
9. The Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal made explicit that violations of
the laws of war are criminal and that individuals are punishable for
committing war crimes. In addition, the Nuremberg Charter defined crimes
against peace and crimes against humanity. The former basically consist of
waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of a treaty or other
international obligation. It is also important to note that the Nuremberg
Charter articulates inchoate crimes as well, such as the planning or
preparation and conspiracy to commit a crime against peace, a crime against
humanity or a war crime.
10. These provisions apply equally in times of formal peace as in times of war.
11. The various scenarios developed by the United States Government for the
use of nuclear weapons cannot be accomplished without violating
international law, including the laws of war. The plans for targeting of US
nuclear weapons are found in the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP),
which lists the targets to be destroyed in a number of nuclear and
non-nuclear countries. To employ these weapons, as is currently planned,
would clearly violate the Nuremberg Principles, in that the concept of a
crime against humanity specifically prohibits such wanton destruction.
12. I am aware from my reading and study, including the Nuclear Posture
Review (January, 2002) and the National Security Strategy (September 2002)
as well as fact sheets and reports published by the Air Force specifically
related to the Minuteman III, that US nuclear policy includes on-going
threats of a first-strikemade believableby maintaining the Minuteman III at
a high-alert rate (above 98 percent), prepared for launch on short notice.
I am further aware from my reading and study that a high degree of accuracy
of the Minuteman III is crucial to a first strike.
13. Any first use of nuclear weapons would, for that reason alone, violate
the United Nations Charter and the Hague Convention No. III of 1907,
prohibiting the opening of hostilities without a formal declaration of war.
And any use of even one nuclear weapon such as the Minuteman III, E-9 in
any circumstance whether in response or defense would violate the
principles of necessity and proportionality because it cannot be used
within the intransgressible rules and principles of humanitarian law.
14. Since the threat or use of the Minuteman III, E-9 is inherently
criminal under international and US law, anything used to facilitate its
operation is an instrument of a crime.
15. The judgment of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal meted out
severe punishment in 1946 against individuals who, acting in full
compliance with domestic law but in disregard of the limitations of
international law, had committed war crimes as defined in its Charter. 6
FRD 69 (1948). (That Charter has been enacted as a law of the United
States, 59 Stat. 5144 (1945). By implication, the Nuremberg judgment
privileges all citizens of nations engaged in war crimes to act in a
measured but effective way to prevent the continuing commissions of those
crimes. The same privilege is recognized in Article 38 of the Statute of
the International Court of Justice, General Principles of Law Recognized by
All Civilized Nations,which has been adopted as a Treaty by the United
States. In my opinion, such action certainly could include non-violent
exposure, inspection and symbolic disarmament of sites of ongoing war crimes.
16. In the present day, there has been a breakdown in the Constitutional
principle of checks and balances which implements the separation of powers;
most notably neither Congress nor the courts have been willing to ensure
that the Executive Branch act within the laws that limit methods and means
of the threat or use of military force. The fact that Minuteman III
missiles exist and that their use is actively threatened on high alert
reflects the stubborn refusal of the US to abide by its own fundamental
laws of war and to proceed with negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all
its aspects. In spite of years of in which these Defendants have
participated in citizens petitions, letters, referendums, civil cases,
requests for criminal prosecution and the recent decisions on these
questions with the full participation of the United States before the
International Court of Justice, the US flouts its responsibility to abide
by the laws of war, laws to which we are fundamentally bound. Under these
circumstances , where redress within traditional channels is refused and
ineffective, domestic criminal law coincides with the Nuremberg
privilegementioned in the preceding paragraph to afford a justification for
seeming violations of domestic criminal laws in an effort to prevent the
war crimes outlined above.
17. In my opinion the charge brought against these defendants in these
circumstances must be dismissed. This prosecution for malicious destruction
of property must be dismissed because the court may not apply the general
protection of property statute in a way that ignores or abrogates the
fundamental laws of war. In these circumstances, where the alleged
propertyis part of an illegal and criminal threat of use of a weapon of
mass destruction these defendants acted lawfully and reasonably to prevent
the most egregious and fundamentally prohibited of all crimes, war crimes.
18. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and
correct. I am prepared to testify under oath and answer questions on these
and related matters.
Signed this _28_____ day of
August 2006, at Champaign, Illinois
___________________________
FRANCIS ANTHONY BOYLE
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
_______________________________________________________________________
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8 [shundahaialert] NNSA Schedules Sub-Critical Test for Aug 30
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:52:56 -0700
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X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
Dear Friends,
Yesterday we learned that the National Nuclear Security Administration
plans on conducting a sub-critical test on August 30 at the Nevada Test
Site called Unicorn. While the test has been planned for some time, since
2003, the actual test date is so abrupt that yesterday's press release is
not even posted on the DOE web site.
You can read the Aug 22, 2003 press release here:
http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/newsreleases/UnicornSubcritical_NR08222003.pdf
And yesterday's Las Vegas Sun article here:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/aug/28/082810058.html
Here is the text of the press release we received by fax yesterday:
Unicorn Subcritical Experiment Scheduled
"The Unicorn subcritical experiment will be conducted on August 30, 2006,
at the Nevada Test Site.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is conducting the experiment to gather
scientific data that provides critical information to maintain the safety
and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons without having to conduct
underground nuclear tests.
The last subcritical experiment, Krakatau, was conducted on February 23,
2006. Unicorn will be the 23rd subcritical experiment conducted since they
began in July 1997.
Subcritical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly
shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives. Subcritical
experiments produce essential scientific data and technical information
used to help maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons
stockpile. The experiments are subcritical; that is, no critical mass is
formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur; thus, there
is no nuclear explosion."
Please call your local congressional office and tell your Senators and
Representatives:
--Continued testing at the Nevada Test Site violates the spirit, if not the
letter of test ban treaties. We should be setting the example, not pushing
limits.
--Asserting that these tests are necessary to the reliability of the
stockpile, implies the continued willingness to use nuclear weapons, and
such use is unacceptable.
--Testing of any kind at the Nevada Test Site is a violation of Western
Shoshone sovereignty and must cease.
Thanks you for your continued support.
Shundahai Network
www.shundahai.org
P.O. Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Phone- 801.533.0128
Fax- 801.533.0129
shundahai@shundahai.org
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9 CIA used 'micro nuclear' bomb in Bali: Bashir
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 01:07:41 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY
News Update from Citizens for Legitimate Government 29 August 2006
http://www.legitgov.org/ http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
"So the bomb that killed so many Australians, it was an American
bomb." CIA used 'micro nuclear' bomb in Bali: Bashir 29 Aug 2006
Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir claims America's top spy
agency was involved in the devastating 2002 Bali bombings. In an
interview tonight on ABC television's Foreign Correspondent, Bashir
claims the device that killed most people in the Bali attack was a
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "micro-nuclear" bomb. "The
micro-nuclear bomb that did so much damage was a CIA bomb, not
Amrozi's bomb,"
Bashir [convicted and imprisoned for having prior knowledge of the
attacks which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians] told the
ABC.
Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested.
Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up:
http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.
Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries. lrp/mdr
CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, General Manager. Copyright )
2006, Citizens For Legitimate Government . All rights reserved. CLG
Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.
*****************************************************************
10 [NYTr] Canada's nuclear do or die
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:37:45 -0400 (EDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: olm.blythe-systems.com
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Tim Murphy - Aug 27, 2006
The Tyee - Aug 22, 2006
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/08/22/NuclearThreat/
Canada's nuclear do or die
Apocalypse looms unless we take the lead against proliferation.
By Mel Hurtig
The bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about 15 kilotons. The
average U.S. nuclear warhead today is 100 kilotons, and some are 250
kilotons, and some are as high as five megatons. Just one of these bombs
could completely destroy a small country or a huge city, killing millions of
men, women and children, destroying all buildings, and making the entire
area uninhabitable for decades. All of this would happen in only a few
seconds, and most likely with little or no warning.
In Vancouver two months ago, Hans Blix, the U.N.'s former chief weapons
inspector spoke of "the stagnation of global disarmament..." the fact that
"the U.S. and Britain are developing a new generation of nuclear weapons..."
and that "last year heads of state at a UN summit failed to adopt a single
recommendation on how to attain further disarmament or prevent
proliferation." Moreover, "Work at Geneva has stood still."
At the UN, Blix said there is "a serious and dangerous loss of momentum in
disarmament and non-proliferation efforts...work has stalled...the nuclear
states no longer take their commitment to disarmament seriously."
And only a few days later, in a truly incredible statement, the deputy
director of Nuclear and Security Affairs for the U.S. State Department said
"the peaceful use of space is completely consistent with military activity
in space...there is no consensus about the supposed weaponization of space,"
"the Conference on Disarmament is not the appropriate venue for such
discussions" and "it's impossible to define a workable ban on space-related
weapons systems."
From Geneva, also in June, "The United States on Tuesday reasserted its
right to develop weapons for use in outer space...and ruled out any global
negotiations on a new treaty to limit them."
Big spender
From Stockholm, the same day, "the U.S. spends 48 per cent of all military
spending (2005) and accounted for 80 per cent of the 2005 military spending
increase." Per capita, China spends $31.20 while the U.S. spends $1,602
(51.4 times as much).
The 30-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commits the 177 non-nuclear
nations that signed the agreement not to acquire nuclear weapons and the
"Big Five" nuclear powers- the United States, Britain, France, China, and
Russia - to dismantle theirs.
But, the Big Five have now largely ignored their obligations, and the Bush
Administration's Nuclear Posture Review unilaterally withdrew its previous
promises. Meanwhile, both the U.S. and France have developed new ways of
designing new generations of nuclear weapons that skirt the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty, and Donald Rumsfeld has talked openly about violating the
treaty.
It has recently been suggested that if the U.S. proceeds with new testing,
up to 40 nations will take steps to begin to manufacture their own nuclear
weapons.
What the major nuclear nations that are now ignoring their previous
commitments are doing is encouraging many other countries to acquire these
weapons. And, why not? If the Big Five think they must have these weapons
for their own security, why would countries such as Iran, North Korea and
Syria not come to the same conclusion?
If the U.S. and China have not ratified the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty,
why would we expect Pakistan and India and Israel to abide by it? Or, any
other country?
In November 2004, there was a vote in the United Nations on a treaty to
place all production of fissile materials under international control, so
that these materials could be used for nuclear power, but not for nuclear
weapons. One hundred forty-seven countries voted in favour of such a treaty.
One country, and only one country, the United States, voted against.
If you take the $467 billion for the military that has already been approved
by the U.S. Congress, and add in additional spending for Iraq and
Afghanistan and other military costs to come, the total will be well over
$600 billion.
Heights of hypocrisy
The U.S. White House and Congress are becoming increasingly paranoid about
China, but China's military budget for this year is well under $50 billion.
The American hypocrisy is remarkable:
It is OK for the U.S. to have thousands of nuclear weapons and modernized
delivery systems to send them crashing to earth, anywhere on earth, but you,
Iran and North Korea, cannot have even one nuclear weapon.
It's OK for the U.S. to send a test missile with three dummy warheads 4,200
miles to targets in the Kwajelein Missile Range in the Marshal Islands, but
how dare North Korea try to test its own new long-range missile!
It's OK for Russia to launch a ballistic missile from a submarine to strike
a target in the Kamchatka Peninsula, 5,000 miles away, but others better not
have similar aspirations.
It's OK for the U.S. to budget a mammoth $6.4 billion for new nuclear
activities in 2007, but we all better start worrying about China's military
budget which is less than one tenth the American spending.
And it's OK for the U.S. and Russia to have over 95 per cent of the 27,000
stockpiled nuclear weapons, of which some 4,000 are dangerously on
hair-triggered alert, but other countries better not plan to build their own
supply of nuclear weapons.
It's OK for the U.S. to deploy 500 Minuteman III missiles on high alert,
each carrying a nuclear warhead with a yield 27 times more powerful than the
bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
It's OK for the U.S. to criticize others for testing missiles despite the
fact that the U.S. has conducted at least 48 tests of intercontinental
ballistic missiles in recent years.
It's OK for the U.S. under both the Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations to
target North Korea in its Nuclear Poster Review, and spend billions of
dollars to improve its global strike capability, but North Korea must be
condemned for its recent test by the United Nation Security Council.
It's OK for China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea and the United
States to have avoided ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,
which has been endorsed by more than 100 countries, while somehow expecting
that countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Iran and Syria will somehow
feel obligated not to test nuclear weapons in the future.
Bye, bye disarmament
So, just forget the 1995 and 2000 disarmament-related commitments by the
major nuclear powers.
Forget supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Forget allowing a verifiable ban on the production of fissile materials for
bombs.
Forget a moratorium on new uranium enrichment and plutonium separation
plants.
Forget any significant steps to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Forget any idea of withdrawing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from Europe.
Forget any agreement on the use of space for missile defence, even though
Russia, China, Japan and the European Union favour such a prohibition.
And, forget the fact that the new U.S.-India nuclear deal implicitly
promotes proliferation, a terribly dangerous double standard and a basic
weakening of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
'Aggravating arms races'
The new U.S.-India deal almost completely undermines international trade
rules to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and progress towards
disarmament, and sets in place double standards that will certainly entice
other countries to ignore the long-standing provisions of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Economist magazine summed up George W. Bush's plans in a single
sentence:
"What folly for America to spend billions on missile defences, while
unravelling the rules which limit the weapons that may some day get through
or around them."
As for the ridiculous, completely ineffective American missile defence
plans, Hans Blix urges the U.S. to abandon these plans because they threaten
global peace and security, and are "creating or aggravating arms races."
Over and above the already long list of detailed Pentagon and U.S. Air Force
plans for the weaponization of space, which I detailed in my last book, and
in my recent speech in Vancouver at the World Peace Forum, a brand new
report from Washington's Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis claims the
U.S. has no alternative but to place weapons in space, because otherwise
there will be major gaps in American national security, security which only
space can provide.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has agreed to sell 66 advanced F-16 fighter planes to
Taiwan after already agreeing to sell it 150 earlier versions of the F-16,
and eight submarines, plus 12 submarine-hunting aircraft, plus a large
supply of patriot missiles.
In 2005, the U.S. sold just under $19 billion in fighter planes, bombers,
helicopters, tanks and other weaponry, exporting more arms than the next six
exporters combined.
And now the U.S. has begun construction of a new $1 billion plutonium
research centre as part of an ambitious plan to modernize its nuclear
weapons and build more than 125 new nuclear bombs a year, at an extra cost
of $10 billion.
The real threat
Those who believe that the principal threat to North America will come from
ICBMs fired from thousands of miles away are incredibly naove.
The threat will come from missiles fired from submarines, from cruise
missiles launched from freighters 200 miles off the North American
shorelines, from nuclear bombs hidden in some of the myriad of unexamined
containers that land in North American seaports every day.
The real danger from North Korea is not the prospect of it developing ICBMs,
but rather the fact that it has had a 400 per cent increase in its stock of
plutonium, a dangerous supply some of which it would most likely not
hesitate to sell to the highest bidder, as it probably has already.
Given the activities of the evil Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan,
and his grossly irresponsible sale to North Korea, Iran and Libya, and
untold others, of nuclear bomb secrets in "full-service bomb builder
packages," given that most of his activities even today are still
unaccounted for, who among us cannot be fearful?
And terrorists? This is no fantasy. It is in fact an appalling, dangerous
reality. Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
said recently, "Extremists have become more sophisticated in trying to lay
their hands on nuclear weapons. This is a real threat."
And why would they have much difficulty in getting what they need from Iran,
or from North Korea, or even from sources in Pakistan? And why would they be
reluctant to use these horrible weapons on New York or Washington or London?
Or, since Afghanistan, on Toronto?
In the election campaign earlier this year, Stephen Harper promised that
Canada's foreign policy, under a Conservative government, would "reflect
true Canadian values and advocate Canada's nation interests."
But, since the election, Canada's foreign policy seems, more often than not,
simply a reflection of U.S. foreign policy.
Whether it's Afghanistan, missile defences, our new attitude towards
peacekeeping, the Middle East, our vastly increased military spending, the
Kyoto Protocol, our terribly poor foreign aid performance, or in many other
areas, more and more we've moved away from traditional Canadian policies,
and more and more we seem to echo George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice and that
awful man, Donald Rumsfeld.
An agenda for Canada
What should Canada be doing?
We should be leading the world and working with the dozens of like-minded
states to battle any plans by any country to weaponize space.
We should work with the same countries to quickly strengthen the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
We should lead the way in the development of a verifiable Fissile Materials
Cut-off Treaty.
We should do our best to have hold-out states sign and ratify the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
We should work with the International Atomic Energy Agency to help them
strengthen their verification capabilities.
We should develop in Canada a centre for the elimination of all nuclear
weapons, and invite Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia,
Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden and South Africa
and other willing, like-minded countries to join us in all these endeavours.
My friend Douglas Matten of San Francisco quotes Euripides: "Whom the gods
would destroy, they first make mad."
Matten goes on to ask "How else can you describe the strange apathy over the
daily threat posed by nuclear weapons?"
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists surely now have it wrong. The hands on
their doomsday clock should now be moved much closer to midnight.
The combined events of the past few years are the greatest threat to the
survival of our civilization that I can ever remember.
Do or die
The breakdown or abandonment of important international agreements, the
increasingly uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear
materials, the dangerous, belligerent U.S. administration, the rapid growth
of militant terrorists around the world, the broad dissemination of
bomb-making and bomb-delivery systems, U.S. plans to weaponize space and the
inevitable response from Russia and China to do the same, American, Russian
and Chinese plans to upgrade their nuclear weapons and to modernize their
weapons delivery systems...
Surely all of this is a guaranteed recipe for a cataclysmic nuclear
holocaust unless urgent steps are taken to reverse these potentially
horrific developments.
Ultimately, there is one and only one solution: the total abolition of all
nuclear weapons.
There should not be another goal as important for Canadians. We Canadians
should and can help lead the way to nuclear disarmament. Nothing should
distract us from this task. Nothing should ever allow us to forget Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
This is adapted from a speech, "The Terrible and Rapidly Increasing Danger
of a Nuclear Holocaust," given by Mel Hurtig at Nathan Phillips Square in
Toronto on August 9, 2006. Hurtig is the national chairman of the Committee
for an Independent Canada and is the founder and former chairman of the
Council of Canadians. Among his many bestselling books is Rushing to
Armageddon: The Shocking Truth About Canada, Missile Defence and Star Wars,
which the Globe and Mail review called "perhaps the most important book
published in Canada this year."
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11 BBC: Japan premier heads to Uzbekistan
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 August 2006
[Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi with President Nursultan
Nazarbayev in Astana]
Japan wants to improve energy ties with Central Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has arrived in
Uzbekistan on the second leg of his visit to the resource-rich
Central Asian region.
On Monday, Mr Koizumi held talks with President Nursultan
Nazarbayev in the Kazakh capital, Astana, and signed a deal on
joint uranium development.
The visit is the first by a Japanese premier to Central Asia.
Analysts say the trip is in part to counter growing Chinese and
Russian influence in the region.
It is also about energy, with Tokyo keen to reduce its reliance
on oil and gas from the Middle East.
"Japan has scarce natural resources while your country has huge
natural resources," Mr Koizumi said in the Kazakh capital,
Astana, on Monday.
A new atmosphere is emerging which it is simply impossible to
ignore Japan when you discuss Central Asia Taro Aso, Japanese
foreign minister Energy key to Cen Asia ties
"This visit signifies that Japan intends to actively develop ties
between Japan and Kazakhstan."
The two leaders had a general discussion on energy, officials
said, and signed a deal on joint cooperation to develop uranium.
Kazakhstan has the world's second largest uranium deposits and
Japan is keen to increase its use of nuclear energy - for which
it must import uranium.
Mr Nazarbayev, who called the visit "historic", said his country
would favour more Japanese investment.
Uzbek visit
Mr Koizumi has now arrived in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, for
talks with President Islam Karimov which are also expected to
focus on energy.
Mr Karimov has been snubbed by the United States and the European
Union since the crackdown in Andijan in May 2005.
Uzbek officials say 187 people died when troops fired on a group
of Islamic extremists, but witnesses says soldiers killed
anti-government protesters and put the figure much higher.
Mr Koizumi is in Tashkent for one day, before visiting the city
of Samarkand on Wednesday.
*****************************************************************
12 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Leader Challenges Authority of U.N.
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday August 29, 2006 11:16 PM
AP Photo VAH102
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged President Bush to a televised
debate, a proposal the White House immediately dismissed as a
``diversion.''
The challenge came during a freewheeling, 2-hour news conference
and only two days before a U.N. Security Council ultimatum
demanding Iran roll back its suspect nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad said no one can prevent Iran from pursuing what he
called a peaceful nuclear program - not even U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was expected to visit here
Saturday.
``Mr. Annan, too, has to move within the framework of
international regulations. No one has a special right or
advantage,'' he said.
The U.N. Security Council has set Thursday as a deadline for
Iran to suspend uranium enrichment - a process that can produce
either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons. Iran has
refused any immediate suspension, calling the deadline illegal,
and instead this week offered a counterproposal that the United
States and some European nations said fell short.
Ahmadinejad's latest show of defiance seemed to solidify the
country's determination to snub the Security Council, following
a string of war games and uncompromising public statements this
month on the nuclear standoff. But whether the U.S. can muster
enough support on the 15-nation council to impose economic or
political sanctions remains in question.
In his criticism of the Security Council, Ahmadinejad singled
out two of its permanent members with veto power - the United
States and Britain - for what he called their failure to listen
to the needs of other countries.
``The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions,'' he
said. ``At the Security Council, where they have to protect
security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them,
there is no place to take complaints to.''
``This (veto right) is the source of problems of the world,'' he
said. ``It is an insult to the dignity, independence, freedom
and sovereignty of nations.''
The United States' ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton,
dismissed Ahmadinejad's remarks, and Britain's ambassador to the
world body suggested, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that the
comments were mild compared to Ahmadinejad's past sharp rhetoric
against Israel and others.
``Given some of the comments he makes, we should probably take
that as a compliment,'' Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.
After an opening statement, Ahmadinejad allowed Iranian
reporters to ask questions. One Iranian journalist stood up and
showered him with praise. The local reporters were more casually
dressed than the foreign press, who later were allowed to
question him about a range of topics. At one point, the
president joked that he would call on a particular reporter
because he and Ahmadinejad were wearing similar outfits.
In his challenge to Bush, Ahmadinejad said the debate should
focus on ``world issues and the ways of solving the problems of
the international community.''
He did not rule out the possibility of direct diplomatic talks
with the United States, saying it could happen if unspecified
conditions were met. But he criticized the United States for
``living in the dream of getting the Iranian nation back to 30
years ago,'' before the Islamic revolution.
Earlier this year, Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to Bush portraying
the world as filled with an ``ever-increasing global hatred of
the American government.'' Washington promptly dismissed the
letter as irrelevant and not addressing the key issue of Iran's
disputed nuclear program.
The Bush administration had a similar reaction Tuesday to the
debate idea. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was
``just a diversion from the legitimate concerns that the
international community, not just the U.S., has about Iran's
behavior, from support for terrorism to pursuit of a nuclear
weapons capability.''
Iran offered last week to pursue negotiations on its nuclear
program but declined to suspend uranium enrichment as a
precondition to talks. The U.S. State Department described the
Iranian proposal as serious but said it fell short of what Iran
must do.
The Bush administration this week reaffirmed its intent to
pursue U.N. sanctions against Iran if it defies the approaching
deadline. But Russia, whose support for sanctions is essential,
has publicly counseled patience with Iran - a possible signal of
reluctance to go along with the U.S.
Divisions within the international community over Iran's nuclear
program could hand a victory to Tehran, French Foreign Minister
Philippe Douste-Blazy warned in an interview released Tuesday.
``The international community must not become divided, to cut
itself in two. That would be a victory for the Iranians,''
Douste-Blazy told Euronews television.
Tehran has pursued a confrontational stance on the nuclear issue
since Ahmadinejad's election last year. He has often used the
issue to encourage a sense of national pride among Iranians by
standing up to the United States and other Western countries.
He and other Iranian officials repeatedly have said the
country's nuclear program is intended solely to generate
electricity, while the United States and Europe contend Iran
secretly aims to develop weapons.
Washington recently warned against a heavy-water plant that Iran
opened over the weekend, fearing it could be used as a second
track toward building a warhead.
Heavy water contains a heavier hydrogen particle that allows a
nuclear reactor to run on the natural uranium mined by Iran,
without undergoing the enrichment process. But the spent fuel
from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract
plutonium for use in a bomb.
Large-scale military exercises also have been under way in Iran
over the past month. Iran says the weaponry is intended to
defend itself against the possibility of a U.S. attack and has
expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear
facilities.
Ahmadinejad said Israel was a threat to the Middle East and
called the Jewish state's creation a ``tale.'' Although he
recently said Iran was not a danger to Israel, he previously has
said Israel should be ``wiped off the map.''
``The Zionist regime has deprived the Palestinian nation and
other nations of the region of a single day of peace. In the
past 60 years, it has imposed tens of wars on the Palestinian
nation and others,'' he said Tuesday.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
13 AP Wire: Federal panel examines nuclear proposal for SW Mississippi
08/29/2006 |
Associated Press
PORT GIBSON, Miss. - Opponents are questioning the safety of a
proposed second nuclear reactor near this small southwest
Mississippi city, while supporters say the reactor would provide
much-needed jobs.
People on both sides appeared before a federal panel at a public
hearing Monday. Entergy Nuclear has requested an early site
permit as a step toward building a second reactor at the Grand
Gulf Nuclear Station in Claiborne County. Grand Gulf is in a
heavily wooded area near the Mississippi River between Natchez
and Vicksburg.
The hearing was conducted by the Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board, the legal arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A decision on whether the permit will be granted is expected in
November at the earliest.
During a hearing at Port Gibson City Hall, local officials
touted the benefits to their small town, while anti-nuclear
activists invoked the 1986 nuclear plant explosion at Chernobyl
in the Ukraine and warned of disastrous consequences if there is
a terrorist attack.
Avery Rollins of Madison, a former FBI agent, said although
there's no way for him as a private citizen to assess security
procedures that are in place, he is not going to take "trust me"
for an answer.
"I feel that this represents a greater threat than many people
in this room realize," said Rollins, who was a certified bomb
technician for the FBI and also did security assessments around
the country for the federal government.
Entergy has said the station is capable of defending itself from
a terrorist attack and security guards are posted around the
clock.
Port Gibson Mayor Amelda Arnold said she supports the plant not
just because of the jobs it would bring but also because Entergy
has been committed to the residents of Port Gibson.
"They don't hide anything from us, I don't think," she said.
She tried to allay fears that the plant has the potential to
cause great harm.
"Let's face it, nuclear energy is one of the safest types of
energies around," Arnold said.
Clearance to build doesn't necessarily mean Entergy will build,
said company spokeswoman Diane Park. The company must consider a
range of factors, including whether there is a customer demand
for electricity. The permit declares a particular piece of land
capable of supporting a reactor.
NuStart Energy Development LLC, a consortium of nuclear
companies formed in 2004, has selected the station as one of two
plant sites it will target for construction and operating
licenses.
*****************************************************************
14 The Hindu: Prototype reactor to be ready before 2010
Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006
Principal Correspondent
Coimbatore: A prototype fast breeder reactor that can produce
500 megawatts of electricity is likely to begin functioning at
Kalpakkam before 2010, Baldev Raj, Director, Indira Gandhi
Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), said here on Monday.
Mr. Raj told media persons at the PSG College of Technology that
construction work on the reactor was going on ahead of schedule.
The reactor was expected to supply electricity to the State grid
at Rs. 3.22 a kilowatt hour (kwhr) or `unit.' Advanced reactors
can produce electricity at Rs. 2 a kwhr.
To cater to the increasing energy needs, there were plans to
establish four more nuclear reactors. Using current technology,
it could generate up to 500 giga watts.
All conventional energy sources in the country would not be
enough to meet expected future requirements, so there was need
to concentrate on nuclear energy. .
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication
*****************************************************************
15 The NewStandard: Counties Eye Nuke Plants, Utilities Eye Govt. Handouts -
by Shreema Mehta
With the Bush administration pushing nuclear power as an
“alternative energy,†big utilities are looking to revitalize
what was recently a dormant industry, and some local governments
are keen on the potential industrial influx.
Aug. 29
A Maryland county recently offered $300 million in property tax
breaks to a nuclear-energy company to build a reactor, in a move
environmentalists say reflects a resurgence of the nuclear
industry.
[Add to My Morning Paper]
Calvert County officials offered the tax incentives to entice the
power company Constellation Energy, which is currently choosing
between Calvert and two counties in New York for the site of a
new nuclear reactor. If Calvert secures the deal, the company
would add a third reactor to the existing Calvert Cliffs Nuclear
Power Plant.
While some government officials tout nuclear energy as a solution
to the growing demand for energy, environmentalists consider it
extraordinarily expensive, ecologically harmful and a national
security risk. Instead, they are pushing for alternatives.
County officials estimate that adding a new reactor to the
company’s Calvert Cliffs location would bring approximately
3,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent positions to the
community. They say the expansion would also contribute to the
county tax base.
"It virtually changed the face of this county. People who
couldn’t find work did," said Linda Vassallo, director of the
Calvert County Department of Economic Development, referring to
the reactors that arrived in the 1970s. "Given the history of the
job, I think they’re going to attempt to hire locally," she
said. Officials added in a statement that the expansion would
also contribute to the county tax base. They also cited nuclear
energy as relatively safe and less polluting compared to other
sources.
z But Brad Heavner, executive director of the group Environment
Maryland, said the county is misguided in its support for the
nuclear industry. His group seeks to stir public opposition to
the new plant before Constellation obtains a license from the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Heavner predicted the new jobs would go not to state residents
but rather to skilled workers brought in from all over the
country. He also said adding a nuclear reactor would add waste
that could pose a threat to the local environment.
"The waste is already piling up, and increasing the amount of
waste generated is irresponsible," Heavner said. According to a
report released by Maryland PIRG, 44 tons of radioactive waste
are added to storage pools near Calvert Cliffs annually.
Currently, the facility holds 923 tons of radioactive waste.
Heavner also argued that "there are much smarter ways to get
electricity in the state," such as investing in "clean energy"
industries like solar or hydropower, which could also foster job
growth.
"It’s time for [the government] to start promoting the next
generation of technology," he said, such as upgrading homes and
factories to be more energy efficient.
"It’s time for [the government] to start promoting the next
generation of technology."
Though efficiency measures alone would not satisfy increases in
energy demand, they could have a significant impact, according
to the Environmental Protection Agency. In a study released in
July, the Agency found that comprehensive efficiency measures,
such as using renewable-energy grids that collect excess
generated electricity, or toughening efficiency standards on
traffic lights or electrical appliances, could reduce electricity
demand as much as 20 percent by 2025.
As Constellation eyes Calvert Cliffs for its proposed reactor
site, Environment Maryland plans to canvass and reach out to
local neighborhood and environmental groups. "We’ll be talking
to citizens in Maryland about the issue and [enabling] a lot of
people to participate in the process," Heavner said.
Other states and counties, including Amarillo, Texas and Oswego,
New York are also offering subsidies for nuclear plant
construction.
On top of state and county handouts, nuclear power companies
receive massive federal subsidies. With the passage of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005, the federal government offers nuclear
utilities a tax credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour for the
first eight years of a plant’s production, capped at $125
million annually. The Act also provided financial safety nets for
companies facing delays in production, and increases in loans for
"alternative energy" industries, which include nuclear reactors.
"The industry got a wish-list given to them by Congress," said
Geoffrey Fettus, a staff attorney with the national environmental
organization Natural Resources Defense Council. He noted that the
federal government not only subsidizes nuclear-reactor
construction but also helps companies manage their waste and
secure their facilities.
Critics point to heavy lobbying on local and federal levels by
the nuclear industry.
"The nuclear industry is a creature of long-term federal
subsidies," Fettus said, adding, "We think the question is,
‘[Why] should you subsidize a mature industry at these
astronomical levels when we have better, cheaper, cleaner
options?"
Critics point to heavy lobbying on local and federal levels by
the nuclear industry.
According to campaign finance filings from the Maryland Board of
Elections, Constellation, the company Calvert County seeks to
attract, has made over $200,000 in political contributions
through its Political Action Committee to candidates, parties and
business groups in the state, including to the Calvert County
Democratic Council.
Though a nuclear reactor has not been licensed for close to 30
years, Boyd said federal lobbying has contributed to recent
efforts to promote nuclear power to the public and build more
plants. The White House’s 2001 Energy Policy, jumpstarted the
development of the industry after years of stagnation. The policy
called for expediting license applications by nuclear companies.
In 2002, the federal government formed the Nuclear Power 2010
Program, which has the federal government and company collaborate
to seek out and develop new nuclear reactor sites.
© 2006 . All rights reserved. The NewStandard is a non-profit
*****************************************************************
16 BBC: Nuclear plant protesters
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 August 2006
[Protesters at Hartlepool nuclear power station]
The protest did not halt work at the plant
Protesters who chained themselves to the gates of Hartlepool
nuclear power station have been arrested.
A group of 20 green activists from Reclaim Power arrived at the
British Energy-owned complex early on Tuesday.
Six members chained themselves to gates at the front and rear of
the advanced gas reactor and had to be cut free by a team from
the Ministry of Defence.
The group, arrested for trespassing, is angry at the government's
plans to build more nuclear power stations.
The protestors, who chained themselves together using pipes and
metal plates, were cut free on Tuesday evening and arrested on
suspicion of aggravated trespass.
All 20 have been taken to separate police stations for
questioning.
Energy needs
Supt Steve Ashman of Cleveland Police said all of the protestors
had been given a chance to hold a lawful protest, but had blocked
a vital access road to the plant.
Reclaim Power claims to be a network of green campaigners made up
from other environmental organisations, including Greenpeace,
Friends of the Earth and the Camp for Climate Action.
Darren Locke of Reclaim Power said: "Nuclear power is not a
solution to climate change.
"While it may be true that nuclear power results in fewer
greenhouse gas emissions than burning fossil fuels, nuclear power
produces deadly waste which remains radioactive for thousands of
years."
Power generation began at Hartlepool in 1983. It is due to be
decommissioned in 2014.
Earlier this year the government said nuclear power could make a
"significant contribution" to Britain's future energy needs.
*****************************************************************
17 Platts: Vattenfall refutes safety concerns over German Brunsbuttel nuke
Freiburg (Platts)--28Aug2006
Sweden's Vattenfall Europe has refuted safety concerns over the
emergency power supply at its Brunsbuttel nuclear power unit in
Schleswig-Holstein state, Germany, in a statement Monday.
Ahead of a press conference to be held later Monday by
Schleswig-Holstein's state ministry, Vattenfall Europe Nuclear
Energy said emergency power supply was "secured in all events
imaginable."
In a response to an inquiry from Germany's federal
environment ministry, which it copied to the state ministry,
Vattenfall said it had proven that Brunsbuttel was "especially
well equipped to possible incidents in power supply."
It said the latest answers reiterated its previous
statements that the unit was safe even if the emergency back-up
diesel generator failed, as happened at Sweden's Forsmark-1
nuclear unit in late July.
The federal environment ministry Friday had expressed
concerns Friday over Brunsbuttel's emergency diesel back-up
generator. Should that fail, the nuclear unit would have to fall
back on battery operation, but the unit-- unlike any other in
Germany--needs alternating current for that.
Vattenfall said investigations had shown that even if all
the alternating current systems failed -- and that was very
unlikely -- emergency power supply was still secured. In such a
case, an extra safety system would kick in which was independent
to other systems.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill
Companies]
*****************************************************************
18 Platts: Westinghouse signs contracts for Korean PWR projects
Washington (Platts)--28Aug2006
Westinghouse signed contracts for participating in Korea's first
two 1,400-MW PWRs, the company announced August 28. Westinghouse
Electric Co. said the contracts are valued at more than $300
million.
The contracts cover components, instrumentation and control
equipment, and technical and engineering services for Shin-Kori-3
and -4, now under construction. The contracts are with Doosan
Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., Korea's prime nuclear
equipment fabricator, and the Korea Power Engineering Co., the
project's architect and engineering firm. The two units will be
owned and operated by the Korea Kydro & Nuclear Power Co., a
subsidiary of Korea Electric Power Corp.
Westinghouse signed contracts for a similar scope of work in 2002
for projects to build four standard 1,000-MW PWRs -- Shin-Kori-1
and -2 and Shin-Wolsong-1 and -2. All six of these reactors
currently under construction are based on original Combustion
Engineering designs. Westinghouse acquired ABB-CE in 2000. Korean
industry has been planning on building a second group of 1,400-MW
PWRs at Shin-Wolsong. No contracts with Westinghouse were
announced for these reactors.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
19 Clarion-Ledger: Nuke plant opponents: 'Greater threat'
August 29, 2006
+ Hearing gives residents, activists opportunity to offer
opinions on permit for second reactor near Port Gibson
Arnold
A decision on whether the permit will be granted is not expected
before November at the earliest.
PORT GIBSON — Opponents of Entergy Nuclear's plan to build a
second reactor in Claiborne County voiced objections before a
three-judge panel Monday, but it was unclear whether their
complaints would do any good.
The objections came as part of a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission hearing at City Hall, where the public was given a
chance to weigh in on the company's request for an "early site
permit" at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station near Port Gibson.
The comments came from both sides of the debate, with local
officials heralding the benefits of Entergy to their small town
and antinuclear activists invoking the name of Chernobyl, the
1986 nuclear plant explosion in the Ukraine, and warning of the
disastrous consequences of a terrorist attack.
"We are going to have this waste sitting here in Port Gibson
for, who knows, 10, 20, 50 years," said Melissa Kemp, an
organizer and analyst for Public Citizen, a national nonprofit
organization that opposes the building of new coal and nuclear
plants.
Kemp was one of about 40 people who crowded into the
standing-room-only hearing and spoke before judges with the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the legal arm of the NRC,
which reviews the commission's work.
Kemp came in from Washington, D.C., for the meeting. She told
the judges her organization did not think the NRC had done a
proper review and serious waste and security issues have been
ignored including the environmental impact of a terrorist attack.
She questioned how much waste is at the station now and said the
commission underestimated the state's wind and solar energy
potential.
Avery Rollins, a former FBI agent, said there was no way for him
as a private citizen to assess security procedures that are in
place, and he was not going to take "trust me" for an answer.
"I feel that this represents a greater threat than many people
in this room realize," said Rollins, a Madison resident who was
a certified bomb technician for the FBI and also did security
assessments around the country for the federal government.
Entergy has said the station is capable of defending itself from
a terrorist attack and that the community has no reason to worry
about safety. Security guards are posted at the station around
the clock, the company said.
Supporters, including local elected officials, said the
company's record was exemplary and the plant Entergy has there
now has not caused any trouble.
Mayor Amelda Arnold told the judges she supports the plant not
just because of the jobs and money it would bring to the area
but also because Entergy has been committed to the residents of
Port Gibson and she has every reason to trust the company.
"They don't hide anything from us, I don't think," she said.
She tried to allay fears that the plant has the potential to
cause great harm to the community. "Let's face it, nuclear
energy is one of the safest types of energies around," she said.
Then she asked if it were possible the plant could be a danger
to the community at some point in the future.
"Who knows?" she said. "I could walk out this door right now and
fall into a danger."
Arnold said she is ready for the commission to say, "Grant a
license," she said.
"Let them build the plant. We're ready for it," she said.
When asked whether Entergy minded protesters weighing in who
were not from Claiborne County, spokeswoman Diane Park said they
were "free to express their opinions."
"We are most interested in what our plant neighbors think about
us, but certainly everyone from everywhere is entitled to their
opinions," she said just before the meeting began.
Clearance to build doesn't necessarily mean Entergy will build,
she said. The company must consider a range of factors,
including the overall economy and whether there is a customer
demand for electricity.
The permit declares a particular piece of land capable of
supporting a reactor. NuStart Energy Development LLC, a
consortium of nuclear companies formed in 2004, has selected the
station as one of two plant sites it will target for
construction and operating licenses.
Electric companies need to continually assess growth in customer
demand for power and where that power might come from, said
Entergy Nuclear spokeswoman Kelle Barfield.
Some renewable sources, such as wind power, have the advantage
of being clean but sometimes are cost-prohibitive or not viable.
Companies in the past few decades have been able to benefit from
experience and see their technology evolve into safer and
cheaper forms, she said. They have embraced the need to
diversify since events in the Middle East can easily affect the
oil supply.
The last plant that went into operation in the United States was
in Tennessee in 1996, although construction began in 1973.
The commission has not licensed a nuclear power plant since the
1979 accident at Three Mile Island Unit near Middletown, Pa.
Although no one died or was injured, it was the most serious
accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating
history.
Nuclear power also is more accessible now because companies are
able to go after their plant construction and operating licenses
simultaneously. That option guards against a situation where a
company invests heavily in its construction only to be denied
permission to operate - a scenario that created the cost
overruns that nearly destroyed the industry the first time
around, Barfield said.
A decision on whether the permit will be granted is not expected
before November at the earliest.
©2006 The Clarion-Ledger
*****************************************************************
20 Rutland Herald: Vt. Yankee's warm-water releases halted
Rutland Vermont News & Information
August 29, 2006
By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau
VERNON — The state environmental court on Monday ordered the
Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to stop releasing warmer
water into the Connecticut River pending the outcome of an
environmental group's appeal.
In a four-page ruling, Vermont Environmental Court Judge
Merideth Wright said groups opposing the releases have shown a
"substantial possibility that they will prevail."
In March, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources issued a
permit allowing the Vernon-based nuclear power plant to increase
the temperature of the water it discharges into the Connecticut
River. Wright's ruling Monday means Vermont Yankee must
immediately cease the warmer releases.
The judge said the warmer water could harm young fish,
particularly the American shad that inhabit the river.
"Appellants have shown sufficient potential for irreparable
injury to American shad in the Connecticut River, both at
present as the juveniles become accustomed to cooler water
temperatures prior to their migration down the river in the
fall, and in the summer of 2007 for the growth of the next
generation of juveniles," the judge wrote.
Wright's ruling came in response to a motion filed by the
Connecticut River Watershed Council, the Saxtons River-based
environmental group that is appealing the discharge permit. The
stay will remain in effect until the appeal is decided. Two
other groups have joined the litigation. A trial is scheduled
for January 2007.
Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, the council's river steward,
called Monday's ruling a victory for the Connecticut River. He
said his group appealed the permit because the effect of warmer
discharges on fish is unknown.
About 500 American shad pass through Vernon's hydroelectric dam
each year, Deen said. A similar dam on the Connecticut River in
Holyoke, Mass., registers about 150,000 fish annually, he said.
"It appears as the temperature of the Connecticut River has gone
up after Vermont Yankee's discharges, the number of fish has
gone down," he said.
The plant is in the Southeast corner of Vermont, near the border
with New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It uses Connecticut River
water to cool steam that has passed through the turbines it uses
to produce electricity.
Vermont Yankee sought to release warmer water into the river in
the summer months as an alternative to sending the water through
its cooling towers, a process that requires about 10 megawatts
of electricity.
Rob Williams, a spokesperson for Entergy Vermont Nuclear, which
owns the plant, said the facility has a full-time environmental
staff that monitors the temperature of the river. He said there
is no evidence the warmer releases negatively affect the fish.
The company will comply with the judge's ruling by adhering to
the terms of its previous water discharge permit, issued in
August 2001, he said.
"Good stewardship of the river is important to us," Williams
said. "We're looking forward to making our case for the new
permit when the appeal is heard next year."
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
© 2006 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
21 Brattleboro Reformer: Judge tells VY to cool it
By DARRY MADDEN, Reformer Staff
Tuesday, August 29 BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont Yankee nuclear power
plant must reduce the temperature of the water it releases into
the Connecticut River until spring 2007 and possibly later, a
Vermont Environmental Court judge ruled Monday.
In March, the plant was granted a permit to increase the
temperature of the Connecticut River by 1 degree. That decision
was appealed by the Connecticut River Watershed Council, which
also asked for a stay at that time.
The stay means that river conditions will remain the same as
under Vermont Yankee's previous permit.
But because the plant will have to use its 20 megawatt water
towers to cool the water instead, it may mean that less power is
sold into the New England electricity grid.
The watershed council's central argument revolved around the
American shad population in the river.
This year, 156,000 American shad made it over the Holyoke dam in
Holyoke, Mass. Less than 500 made it past the Vernon dam, said
David Deen, a steward with the Connecticut River Watershed
Council. Deen is also a state lawmaker, representing Dummerston,
Putney and Westminster.
"The overall picture is that the three years of largest returns
were 1990 through 1993. Vermont Yankee raised the temperature of
the river in 1992," said Deen.
"But the challenge isn't about the science, per se," said Deen.
"It's that Entergy Vermont Yankee has to make their case. We do
not feel like they have made their case. They have to prove that
there will not be irreparable harm done to the river."
The decision from the court says that "the best interests of the
public" would be best served if the stay were in effect not only
for September and the first half of October 2006, when the new
American shad are returning to the ocean, but also in April when
the adults return to spawn.
"We have a full-time environmental staff and they made a very
good case for a change in this permit," said Rob Williams,
spokesman for Vermont Yankee. "We are looking forward to
discussing the merits of it in January 2007."
"In the meantime, we'll ensure that we comply with the
conditions of the previous permit," said Williams.
The permit that allowed the increase in river temperature was
issued by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Deputy Commissioner John Sayles said he did not have any comment
Monday "other than to say that the agency supports the permit
that it issued," Sayles wrote in an e-mail correspondence.
Darry Madden can be reached at dmadden@reformer.com, or (802)
254-2311, ext. 273.
» (802) 254-2311
» 62 Black Mountain Road
» Brattleboro, VT 05301-9242
*****************************************************************
22 UBC: Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant sets BN-600 power generating
unit at nominal capacity. Daily news çà
29.08.2006. UralBusinessConsulting
Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant sets BN-600 power generating
unit at nominal capacityPower generating unit BN-600 was set at
nominal capacity after eliminating some defects on August 28,
2006. The power of the unit was first lowered in the evening of
August 24, 2006 down to 400 megawatt by switching off one of the
reactor three loops. This was done in order to remove the defect
in the drain conduit located in a section of the steam
generator. The defects in the steam generators do not affect the
environment in terms of radiation. The incident was classified
as a zero event on the international INES scale, which means the
deviation from the norm is not going to influence the safety of
the reactor operation. The spokesperson for Beloyarskaya nuclear
power plant reported that the facility was functioning without a
flaw.
Phone: + 7 343 2575578
world@urbc.ru © Informational-analitical agency
«UralBusinessConsulting», 2000-2006
Information, structure, conception.
*****************************************************************
23 canadafreepress.com: Nuclear to the rescue
Electricity, Third World Nuclear to the rescue
Electricity is the key to a healthier, more prosperous Third
World
Paul Driessen
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
"The only good thing about the good old days is that they're
gone." My grandmother's wisdom came from experience. As a
teenager in late nineteenth century Wisconsin, she had cleared
tons of rocks from fields, toiled on the family farm, and hauled
countless buckets of water. If she had to select just one modern
technology, she said, she'd choose running water. But
electricity was a close second.
No wonder. Without electricity, modern life reverts to her
childhood: no lights, refrigeration, heating, air-conditioning,
radio, television, computers, safe running water or mechanized
equipment for homes, schools, shops, hospitals, offices and
factories.
Incredibly, this is what life is like every day for 2 billion
people in developing countries. Viewed at night from outer
space, Africa really is the Dark Continent: only 10% of its 700
million people regularly have electricity. While 75% of South
Africa is now fully electrified, only 5% of Malawi, Mozambique
and other countries are so fortunate. Much of poor and rural
Asia and Latin America faces a similar predicament.
Instead of rolling blackouts, neighborhoods have rolling power.
"In the western part of my country, families get electricity
maybe three hours every two weeks," says Pastor Abdul Sesay, a
Sierra Leone native who now resides in Maryland. "Eastern
communities get it maybe once a month!"
Instead of turning on a light or stove, millions of women and
children spend their days gathering wood, grass and dung, to
burn in primitive hearths for cooking and heating. Instead of
turning a faucet, they spend hours carrying water from distant
lakes and rivers that are often contaminated with bacteria.
Pollution from their fires causes 4 million deaths a year from
lung infections. Tainted water and spoiled food cause intestinal
diseases that kill another 2 million annually. Clinics and
hospitals lack modern equipment, reliable refrigeration and
clean tap water, exacerbating health problems that keep millions
out of work for extended periods. The dearth of electricity also
means minimal manufacturing and commerce -- and impoverished
countries forever dependent on foreign aid.
Abundant, reliable, affordable electricity is a critical
priority for developing nations. Hydroelectric projects like
Bujagali (Uganda), Narmada (India) and Three Gorges (China)
offer one solution; coal-fired power plants another. They aren't
perfect ecologically, but neither are wind turbines, which
require extensive acreage, kill birds, and provide inadequate
amounts of intermittent, expensive electricity that cannot
possibly sustain modern societies.
Now a new energy technology is about to make its debut. Designed
and built in South Africa, but with suppliers and partners in
many other nations, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a
revolutionary concept in nuclear power. The 165-megaWatt modules
are small and inexpensive enough to provide electrical power for
emerging economies, individual cities or large industrial
complexes. However, multiple units can be connected and operated
from one control room, to meet the needs of large or growing
communities.
Process heat from PBMR reactors can also be used directly to
desalinate sea water, produce hydrogen from water, turn coal and
tar sands into liquid petroleum, and power refineries, chemical
plants and tertiary recovery operations at mature oil fields.
This could launch new industries and make previously untapped
resources economical to produce. (It could also enable the
United States to squeeze every possible drop of petroleum from
places like Prudhoe Bay and turn the country's vast coal and oil
shale deposits into oil and natural gas, to replace resources it
refuses to develop in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Outer
Continental Shelf and other areas.)
The fuel comes in the form of baseball-sized graphite balls,
each containing sugar-grain-sized particles of uranium
encapsulated in high-temperature graphite and ceramic. This
makes them easier and safer to handle than conventional fuel
rods, says Pretoria-based nuclear physicist and business
strategy consultant Dr. Kelvin Kemm. The design also reduces
waste disposal problems and the danger of nuclear weapons
proliferation. In conventional nuclear plants, fuel rod
assemblies are removed long before complete burn-up, to avoid
damaging their housings; but pebble fuel balls are burnt to
depletion.
Because they are cooled by helium, the modules can be sited
anywhere, not just near bodies of water, and the reactors cannot
suffer meltdowns. If the chain reaction must be shut down in an
emergency, the fuel's residual decay heat dissipates slowly and
naturally.
The ability to locate PBMRs where needed also eliminates the
need to construct long, expensive power lines (from distant wind
turbine sites, for example). The presence of uranium deposits in
South Africa and Uganda adds to the logic of emphasizing the
technology in Africa. The simple design permits rapid
construction (in about 24 months), and the plants don't emit
carbon dioxide.
PBMR technology could generate millions of jobs in research,
design and construction industries -- and millions more in
industries that will prosper from having plentiful low-cost heat
and electricity. It will help save habitats that are now being
chopped into firewood -- and improve health and living standards
for countless families.
"I met a guy living in the bush who got electricity and promptly
started making wooden chairs," Dr. Kemm told me. "Not garden
stuff, but perfect Louis XIV chairs, because he could now use
electric saws, drills, routers and lathes." It's a story that
will be repeated all over the world as people gain access to the
miracle of electricity.
Not surprisingly, dozens of companies and countries are keenly
interested in PBMR technology, and the first pilot plant will go
online in 2011. But special interest groups have lined up
against it. George Soros's Open Society Foundation supports
anti-nuclear organizations that oppose PBMR. Danish interests
see it as undesirable competition for their wind turbine
businesses.
Representing the literal and figurative Forces of Darkness,
former Earth Island Institute writer Gar Smith asserts that
electricity "destroys" traditional cultures. "If there is going
to be electricity," he has said, it should be "decentralized,
small and solar-powered." Africans should have power "where they
need it," actor Ed Begley, Jr. intoned--in the form of little
solar panels "on their huts."
This is unacceptable, says Kenya's Akenyi Arunga. "Indigenous
lifestyles," she points out, "really mean indigenous poverty,
malnutrition, disease and childhood death."
Poor people everywhere hope these patronizing attitudes will
soon be replaced by a recognition that they have an inalienable
right to take their place among the Earth's healthy and
prosperous people. My grandmother would certainly agree.
Paul Driessen is CORE’s senior policy advisor and author
of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power · Black Death
(www.Eco-Imperialism.com)
Paul can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com
Canadafreepress.com
*****************************************************************
24 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for the
FR Doc E6-14283
[Federal Register: August 29, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 167)]
[Notices] [Page 51221] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29au06-81]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice
of the OMB review of information collection and solicitation of
public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the
following proposal for the collection of information under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension: Revision. 2.
The title of the information collection: NRC Form 790,
``Classification Record''.
3. The form number if applicable: NRC Form 790. 4. How often the
collection is required: On occasion. 5. Who will be required or
asked to report: NRC licensees, contractors, and certificate
holder who classify and declassify NRC information.
6. An estimate of the number of annual responses: 300. 7. The
estimated number of annual respondents: 1. 8. An estimate of the
total number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement
or request: 20.
9. An indication of whether Section 3507(d), Pub. L. 104-13
applies: Not applicable.
10. Abstract: Completion of the NRC Form 790 is a mandatory
requirement for NRC licensees, contractors, and only certificate
holder who classifies and declassifies NRC information in
accordance with Executive Order 12958, as amended, ``Classified
National Security Information,'' the Atomic Energy Act, and
implementing directives.
A copy of the final supporting statement may be viewed free of
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB
clearance requests are available at the NRC worldwide Web site: .
The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60
days after the signature date of this notice.
Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer
listed below by September 28, 2006. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but
assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received
after this date.
OMB Desk Officer, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(3150- 0052), NEOB-10202, Office of Management and Budget,
Washington, DC 20503.
Comments can also be submitted by telephone at (202) 395-3087.
The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo Shelton, 301-415-7233.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of August, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-14283 Filed 8-28-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
25 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Receipt and
FR Doc E6-14285
[Federal Register: August 29, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 167)]
[Notices]
[Page 51222]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29au06-82]
[[Page 51222]]
Availability of an Application for an Early Site Permit for the
Vogtle
ESP Site
On August 15, 2006, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC,
the
Commission) received an application from Southern Nuclear
Operating
Company filed pursuant to Section 103 of the Atomic Energy Act
and 10
CFR part 52, for an early site permit (ESP) for a location in
eastern
Georgia (near Waynesboro, Georgia) identified as the Vogtle ESP
site.
An applicant may seek an ESP in accordance with Subpart A of
10 CFR
part 52 separate from the filing of an application for a
construction
permit (CP) or combined license (COL) for a nuclear power
facility. The
ESP process allows resolution of issues relating to siting. At
any time
during the period of an ESP (up to 20 years), the permit holder
may
reference the permit in an application for a CP or COL.
Subsequent Federal Register notices will address the
acceptability
of the tendered ESP application for docketing and provisions for
participation of the public and other parties in the ESP review
process.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection
at the
Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White
Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland
and via
the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
The accession number for the
application is ML062290246.
Future publicly available documents related to the
application will
also be posted in ADAMS. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS
or who
encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS
should
contact the NRC Public Document Room staff by telephone at
1-800-397-
4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. The
application is
also available to local residents at the Burke County Library,
in
Waynesboro, Georgia, and it will be available on the NRC Web
page at
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/esp.html.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of August, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
David B. Matthews,
Director, Division of New Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear
Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. E6-14285 Filed 8-28-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
26 NRC: Sunshine Act Notice: PG&E etc.
FR Doc 06-7236
[Federal Register: August 29, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 167)]
[Notices] [Page 51222] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29au06-83]
Date: Weeks of August 28, September 4, 11, 18, 25, October 2,
2006.
Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 1155 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
Status: Public and Closed.
Matters to be Considered: Week of August 28, 2006 There are no
meetings scheduled for the week of August 28, 2006.
Week of September 4, 2006--Tentative Wednesday, September 6, 2006
1:50 p.m. Affirmation Session (Public) (Tentative) a. Pacific Gas
& Elec. Co. (Diablo Canyon ISFSI), Docket No. 72-26- ISFSI
``Motion by San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Sierra Club, and
Peg Pinard for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief with respect to
Diablo Canyon ISFSI''. (Tentative). b. AmerGen Energy Company,
LLC (License Renewal for Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station)
Docket No. 50-0219, Legal challenges to LBP-06-07 and LBP-06-11.
(Tentative). c. Pa'ina Hawaii, LLC, LBP-06-4, 63 NRC 99 (2006)
and LBP-06-12, 63 NRC 409 (2006). (Tentative). Week of September
11, 2006--Tentative Monday, September 11, 2006 9:30 a.m.
Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). 1:30 p.m.
Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1& 3). Tuesday,
September 12, 2006 9:30 a.m. Meeting with Organization of
Agreement States (OAS) and Conference of Radiation Control
Program Directors (CRCPD) (Public Meeting) (Contact: Shawn Smith,
301-415-2620).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address
http://www.nrc.gov .
1 p.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). Week of
September 18, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for
the week of September 18, 2006.
Week of September 25, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the week of September 25, 2006.
Week of October 2, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the week of October 2, 2006.
* * * * * *The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to
change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call
(recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more
information: Michelle Schroll, (301) 415- 1661.
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the
Internet at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * *
* * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with
disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable
accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need
this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from
the public meetings in another format (e.g., braille, large
print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator,
Deborah Chan, at 301-415-7041, TDD: 301-415-2100, or by e-mail at
DLC@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable
accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition,
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic
message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: August 24, 2006.
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 06-7236 Filed 8-25-06; 9:49 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
27 Cambridge Times: B all steamed up over nuclear contract
Second of 16 generators leaves city plant today for Bruce Power
Plant
Ray Martin, Cambridge
Fitter Gil Martin grinds out the next one on the assembly line
inside the plant.
[Cambridge Times Photo] RAY MARTIN, TIMES STAFF
Keirouz Diab, B's manager of manufacturing engineering, poses
with the latest steam generating unit being shipped to Bruce
Power
(Aug 29, 2006)
The third of 16 steam generating units planned for the Bruce A
nuclear electrical generating plant at Douglas Point is ready to
roll at Babcock and Wilcox Canada.
On Friday, the latest unit was moved onto a flatbed transport
truck in preparation for its departure today for the Bruce Power
plant near Kincardine.
Meanwhile, inside the Coronation Boulevard facility, work is
continuing on the rest of the steam vessels being built as part
of the Bruce Power contract.
Last October, B signed a contract with Bruce Power L.P. to
manufacture 16 replacement steam generators (RSGs) for the Bruce
A nuclear power plant, Units 1 and 2. The RSGs being engineered
and manufactured at B's Cambridge facility are scheduled for
delivery to the Bruce A site over the next two years. The new
steam generators are being installed as part of a re-start
project.
B originally manufactured the steam generators more than 30
years ago. The replacements will feature a number of technical
and design enhancements that reflect lessons learned from the
original equipment and B's experience in supplying generators
for U.S. and CANDU markets.
The Bruce A and B units each consist of four CANDU pressurized
heavy water nuclear reactors. Unit 1 and Unit 2 were taken out
of service in 1997 and 1995 respectively. Re-starting will
generate additional electricity output to serve the electricity
market.
Legal Notice:Copyright 2006. Fairway Newspaper Group. All
*****************************************************************
28 Russia Newswire: Beloyarsk NPP’s Energy Unit No. 3 Reaches Nominal Capacity
Your PR support in Russia -
Date: 29/08/2006
MOSCOW (RNWire) - Beloyarsk NPP’s Generator Unit No. 3 has
been restored to its nominal capacity of 600 MW, August 26, at
13.50 (Moscow time). This followed when it was connected to the
steam generator PG-5, which had been repaired after a
malfunction.
Beloyarsk NPP reports that this has not caused any risks or
safety problems at the plant. And, currently, the background
radiation levels at Beloyarsk NPP and its surrounding area are
said to be stable. They are in line with normal operation of
nuclear power generation plants and not exceed levels of natural
background radiation.
Site created by | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Copyright
© 2004-2006 Russia Newswire
*****************************************************************
29 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Police Probe Possible Nuke Exports
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Tuesday August 29, 2006 6:46 AM
By CARL FREIRE
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Police are investigating the possibility that a
Japanese manufacturer exported equipment to Iran that can be
used to make nuclear weapons, an official said Tuesday.
The president and four other executives and employees of
Mitutoyo Corp. were arrested Friday on suspicion they violated
trade control laws.
Police have also searched the offices of an Iranian trading
company based in Tokyo called Seian, trade ministry official
Hiroyuki Murakami said Tuesday.
Murakami said earlier that Mitutoyo, based just west of Tokyo,
is suspected of illegally exporting high-tech measuring devices
to its subsidiary in Malaysia in 2001. The equipment can be used
to make nuclear weapons.
According to Japanese news reports, Mitutoyo is also suspected
of having exported similar equipment by way of Seian to a
company connected with Iran's nuclear program.
Seian is believed to have exported various sensitive equipment
to Iran's military and defense ministry between 1984 and 1992,
according to Kyodo News agency.
A Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman who identified himself by
the surname Hagiwara declined to comment on the investigation.
Murakami refused to say whether the search of Seian meant that
police were now focusing on the Iran connection.
He said it was possible some equipment that Mitutoyo allegedly
exported could be used to enrich uranium, a key component of
nuclear weapons.
The U.N. Security Council has given Iran until Aug. 31 to stop
enriching uranium. The West fears Iran could produce an atomic
bomb and has offered a package of economic and other incentives
on condition it halts enrichment.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
30 Coastal Post: Doing the Wrong Thing in Afghanistan: Depleted Uranium
The Definitive Moral Paradox By Michael Clarke
Article September, 2006
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS (415)868-1600 -
(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
It is Canada Day evening, and I can barely hear the whistles,
booms and bangs of the fireworks. It sounds a bit like distant
bombs exploding, reminding me of the incredible moral paradox
our federal government's aggressive military role in Afghanistan
has created for all Canadians.
Our government, military, newspapers, television and radio media
are efficiently dispersing the official sound bytes: "our troops
in Afghanistan have the moral authority"; "Canada is doing the
right thing"; "it's a noble mission"; and, "we are just
spreading freedom and democracy".
But, they are not telling us that there is something else we are
spreading around Afghanistan that any truly moral person would
instinctively consider immoral and evil. It is something very
real, but some governments refuse to recognize it even exists.
Despite their duplicity, it certainly brings to the table a
supreme criminal culpability that historians may someday
benchmark as the definitive moral paradox marking the failure of
Western democracies to resist the rise of global corporate
fascism.
After the Taleban resistance fighters' ambush in May killed
Capt. Nichola Goddard, Canadian troops called in a US B-1 Lancer
stealth bomber which dropped a 500-pound bomb on a nearby
residential compound, killing an estimated 15 to 20 people.
According to the US Air Force, that was just one of nearly 2,000
air strikes that were conducted in Afghanistan between March and
May 2006.
Tragically, every air strike uses bombs and missiles that are
encased and ballasted with depleted uranium (DU) which
aerosolizes upon impact, instantaneously being released into the
atmosphere as insoluble ceramic uranium oxide nanoparticles. Its
gaseous characteristics allow DU to remain suspended in the air
and be distributed around the earth as a radioactive component
of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment and
indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all
living things wherever rain, snow and moisture remove it from
the atmosphere.
Nuclear experts agree that DU is a weapon for killing lots of
people that keeps on killing forever. It meets the US.
government's own definitions of weapons of mass destruction. And
there is no way to ever clean it up.
An estimated 900 tons of DU was released in the initial 2001
invasion of Afghanistan. The approximately 2,000 air strikes
this spring could easily have released another 250 tons of DU
into the air and onto the ground, water and crops. According to
the White House website a total of 24,000 bombs were used in the
first year of operations in Afghanistan, which would suggest a
minimum of 3,000 tons of DU was aerosolized in only the first 12
months of conflict. There is a lot of deadly radioactive DU
around there.
According to one nuclear expert, Leuren Moret, the United States
and its willing accomplices like Canada have effectively staged
a nuclear war in Afghanistan by using dirty bombs and missiles
that "slip the nukes under the wire". As quickly as the DU
aerosols are produced they will permanently contaminate vast
areas and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations
throughout the region. The permanent radioactive contamination
and environmental devastation is unprecedented, resulting in
huge increases in cancer and birth defects which will increase
over time due to chronic exposure, increasing internal levels of
radiation from DU dust and permanent genetic effects passed on
to future generations. Of course, DU weapons have also been used
in Yugoslavia and the Iraq wars with the same devastating
consequences.
Studies to monitor the Afghanis have been carried out by the
Uranium Medical Research Center, which has sent several field
teams to Afghanistan since 2002 to check the contamination and
health conditions around specific locations that are known to
have been bombed. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the
affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness,
including congenital problems in newborns. In Kabul those who
were exposed to US-British "precision bombing" showed extreme
signs of contamination consistent with uranium exposure. In
Nangarhar every person donating urine specimens tested positive
for uranium contamination. The researchers were stunned by the
astoundingly high levels of widespread contamination. Their
report warned, "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth
of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without
exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A
significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms
consistent with internal contamination by uranium."
Using the same calculation method that the UK Atomic Energy
Authority employed in their 1990 projection of potential DU
consequences in Iraq, the estimated 250 tons of DU from the
2,000 recent air strikes carried out in Afghanistan from March
to May 2006 could result in as many as 2,500,000 cancers within
the next ten years. The bomb dropped near Capt. Goddard produced
250 pounds of DU that could cause as many as 1,250 cases of
cancer in that village within the next ten years. But, the
bombing in the initial 2001 invasion could cause as many as
9,000,000 additional cancers within ten years. These horrible
estimates tend to support Leuren Moret's contention that this
has been a genocidal plan from the start; this was not a war in
Afghanistan, but a war against Afghanistan. And Iraq, and
Yugoslavia.
However, the laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have
deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle, or
remain active or cause harm after hostilities cease. The
military use of DU weapons violates international humanitarian
law (Hague &Geneva), violates the principles of international
environmental protection and contradicts the right to life
established by the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights. The UN Human
Rights Commission determined a decade ago that DU is a weapon of
mass destruction that should never be used. These rulings mean
that the use of DU is intrinsically immoral as well as illegal.
Of course, there will always be wags who insist that DU is
harmless so there really is no problem. Robert Jensen, a
professor of journalism at UT Austin, recently delivered a
speech at the Brisbane (Australia) Social Forum titled "The
Threats to Sustainable Democracy" in which he said, "Éthere is
no power so convinced of its own benevolence as the United
States. The culture is delusional in its commitment to this
mythology, which is why today one can find on the other side of
the world peasant farmers with no formal education who
understand better the nature of US power than many faculty
members at elite US universities."
Leuren Moret dramatically proved his point in an article
published in World Affairs - the Journal of International Issues
(July 2004) when she wrote, "Éeven uneducated Afghanis
understand the impact these [DU] weapons have had on their
children and on future generations:
"After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of
us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we
would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the
Americans had not sentenced us all to death. When I saw my
deformed grandson, I realized that my hopes of the future have
vanished for good, different from the hopelessness of the
Russian barbarism, even though at that time I lost my older son
Shafiqullah. This time, however, I know we are part of the
invisible genocide brought on us by America, a silent death from
which I know we will not escape." (Jooma Khan of Laghman
province, March 2003)
Genocide? The word fits too perfectly! The statistical potential
for numbers of DU cancer deaths in Afghanistan with the passage
of time easily surpasses the Holocaust victim total and sets new
upper limits for satanic crimes against humanity. When
government tells us that we are in Afghanistan with full moral
authority they are being disingenuous, because genocide can only
spring from immoral authority. Dr. K. Yagasaki has calculated
that the US has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity
equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs, and it has been spread all
around the planet. Despite the fact that Depleted Uranium
weaponry will eventually annihilate all species on earth, our
"leaders" continue to deploy it with full knowledge of its
destructive potential, even as they say there is no DU problem.
Throughout the history of this world there has been no greater
atrocity against the people and the planet. Dr. Bartell coined
the term omnicide to reflect DU's supreme immorality. Jooma Khan
will never believe that the foreign troops occupying his
province have any moral authority. It is no coincidence that a
major international Pew poll last month showed that the majority
of Muslim society around the world believes Western countries
are immoral.
So, here's the moral paradox for all Canadians: How can the
Conservatives, the military, the corporate media and the
regressive Liberals possibly be correct when they tell us that
Canada's mission in Afghanistan is noble and moral if our
soldiers initiate the deployment of illegal nuclear DU weapons
that deliver horrific radioactive genocide and cause the
permanent destruction of the environment?
The paradox is instantly resolved. Simply by requesting air
strikes with illegal radioactive DU weaponry Canadian soldiers
are, by definition, perpetrating immoral crimes against
humanity. Therefore, it is logically impossible that our mission
in Afghanistan is the "right thing to do". To the contrary,
Canada has become a state sponsor of terror just like America
which is the very wrong thing to do, and the DU problem we have
become involved with due to our unwise military commitments to
the US and NATO implicate us in terrorist acts much worse than
9/11. The Muslim world is astute. Western society is immoral.
Our supposedly superior democratic institutions have allowed the
DU atrocities to be perpetrated globally free from any threat of
international prosecution. In fact, the Canadian government has
suppressed those who would attempt to bring war crime charges of
torture against the United States, a far lesser crime in
comparison.
Take action now. Demand an international public enquiry about DU
war crimes and demand that Canada bring our troops home
immediately and stop expanding the killing fields.
But, be wary, because democracy around the world has had a
complete breakdown. The Depleted Uranium insanity is the
definitive moral paradox that marks the triumph of global
corporate fascism over the world's weak and easily corrupted
democratic institutions. Those who understand that fundamental
morality must begin with serving humanity and stopping the
destruction of Gaia must rise up in resistance. And they will
call us terrorists even though we strive for the highest moral
standards and the greatest good and, ironically, respect the
Nuremburg Principles.
As Robert Jensen warned the Brisbane Social Forum, "The world is
at risk."
*****************************************************************
31 NRC: NRC to Discuss Proposed Termination of License for Nuclear Materials Site in
Manchester Township, N.J., on Sept. 8th
News Release - Region I - 2006-04 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-048
August 28, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A.
Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
NRC staff will hold a meeting on Friday, Sept. 8, to discuss the
agencys plan to terminate the radiological materials license for
a site in Manchester Township (Ocean County), N.J. The agency is
also proposing to release the site for unrestricted use. The
property is located on Route 70 and owned by Heritage Minerals,
Inc.
The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Manchester Township
Municipal Complex, at 1 Colonial Drive in Manchester. Directions
to the facility can be found at:
http://manchestertownshipnj.org/court.htm. The meeting will be
facilitated by the townships mayor, Michael Fressola. Members of
the public are invited to attend and ask questions regarding the
proposed actions.
The site had been used for mining and processing local monazite
ores to extract heavy minerals. ASARCO, Inc., started operations
at the site in 1973, followed by Heritage Minerals, which began
work there in 1987 and ceased processing activities in August
1990. The processing of the ores resulted in a waste pile
containing natural thorium and uranium both radioactive in
sufficient quantities to require an NRC license.
While the site is almost 7,000 acres in size, the mining and
processing operations occurred on approximately 287 acres. The
NRC-licensed area is less than 1 acre in size.
In March 2005, Heritage Minerals, Inc., completed the activities
described in its approved decommissioning plan and requested
that its NRC license be terminated and the site released for
unrestricted use. The two mill buildings on the NRC-licensed
portion of the property have been demolished, with only the
concrete pads remaining. In addition, stockpiled licensed
material has been disposed of and the ground beneath the pile
and pockets of licensed materials excavated and removed.
Radiation surveys conducted by the company demonstrate that
these areas meet the license termination criteria for
unrestricted release. NRC staff evaluated the companys surveys
and performed independent confirmatory measurements. In
addition, the staff calculated radiation doses that could be
received under various uses of the NRC-licensed portion of the
site. Based on these calculations, using a conservative
realistic scenario, land use by a suburban resident would result
in the highest potential dose. This analysis shows that the
potential dose for individuals living on the site would be an
additional 40 millirems per year above background radiation. For
comparison purposes, an average American is exposed to about 360
millirems of radiation each year from both natural and manmade
sources. (A millirem is a measure of exposure to radioactivity.)
In this case, the radiation dose limit for a member of the
public is 100 millirems per year. That level, which is in
addition to the dose an individual receives from background
radiation, is considered safe.
The NRC staff has prepared an Environmental Assessment as part
of its review of the proposed license termination. A copy is
available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management
Systems (ADAMS) under accession number ML062350098. ADAMS is
accessible via the agencys web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is
available by contacting the NRCs Public Document Room at
1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV.
Last revised Tuesday, August 29, 2006
*****************************************************************
32 Platts: Germany to investigate Brunsbuttel nuke safety concerns
Freiburg (Platts)--29Aug2006
The nuclear watchdog of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein
plans to investigate a report presented Monday by Vattenfall
Europe outlining the safety of the Brunsbuttel nuclear unit.
Safety at the plant has come under the spotlight since an
environmental group raised concerns over the unit's emergency
power supply, which if it failed would result in the unit having
to fall back on battery operation. For that, the unit--unlike any
other in Germany--needs alternating current.
The operator said investigations had shown that even if all
alternating current systems failed, emergency power supply was
still secure. In such a case, an additional safety system would
kick in which was independent to other systems. However, the
ministry said the alternating current systems in the unit's
emergency power supply were only one aspect it was investigating
to find out whether the recent safety incident at Sweden's
Forsmark-1 reactor could happen at Germany's nuclear units.
Vattenfall Europe has to present a report to the Swedish
nuclear watchdog by September 6. For more news, request a free
trial to Power in Europe at
http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ or subscribe
now at
http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&p
roducts_id=55
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill
Companies]
*****************************************************************
33 reviewjournal.com: Non-nuclear experiment to be conducted at Test Site
Aug. 29, 2006
Government scientists were preparing Monday to conduct another in
a series of underground non-nuclear experiments at the Nevada
desert proving ground, the National Nuclear Security
Administration said.
The so-called subcritical test, dubbed Unicorn, was being
conducted at the Nevada Test Site by scientists from the
government's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said
Kevin Rohrer, a spokesman for the NNSA in North Las Vegas.
The planned test, scheduled Wednesday, would be the 23rd
subcritical experiment since 1997 at the 1,375-square-mile
federal reservation 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Subcritical tests involve the detonation of explosives around
radioactive material in a vault deep underground at the Nevada
Test Site. The explosions are designed not to reach critical
mass necessary for a self-sustaining nuclear reaction.
Federal officials call subcritical experiments essential to
maintaining the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear
arsenal.
Anti-nuclear groups criticize the experiments as contrary to the
spirit of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear
arms. The U.S. has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear
testing since 1992, but has not ratified the treaty.
The test site hosted 928 full-scale nuclear tests involving
1,021 nuclear detonations from 1951 to 1992.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
34 AU ABC: Alice Council will not speak against planned nuclear dump
Tuesday, 29 August 2006. 13:13 (AEDT)Tuesday, 29 August 2006.
The Alice Springs Town Council has rejected a proposal to speak
against a planned nuclear waste dump at the local government
national general assembly in November.
Alderman Jane Clark proposed the motion last night, which
objected to the process by which the Commonwealth made its
decision to place the dump in the Territory.
She says she is amazed many aldermen have changed their view on
the issue and is concerned about the message it is sending to
the Federal Government.
"The Federal Government continually gets away with overriding
Northern Territory decisions," she said.
"If we just shut up and let them do it, that was another
attitude within council as well - 'oh well, they're going to do
what they want to anyway' - but we're the elected members so
we're actually in a position where we should be getting up and
shouting, 'you can't get away with that'," she said.
*****************************************************************
35 Chicago Sun-Times: Residents fear quarry will be used for military tests
August 29, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Politicians, environmentalists and others
are concerned that the U.S. military might conduct a large test
explosion at a southern Indiana limestone quarry as soon as next
year.
Mitchell Mayor Butch Chastain and David Sanders, who is running
for the 4th District congressional seat, have planned a news
conference to discuss the ''Divine Strake'' test.
The test is scheduled for next year, pending legislation on the
floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate could vote on the bill as
soon as Sept. 5.
The $23 million test had been scheduled to take place this
summer in the Nevada desert. It would involve detonating 700
tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. However, the Defense
Threat Reduction Agency said Aug. 1 it was delaying the
controversial project at least until 2007 and considering other
locations.
Agency spokeswoman Cheri Abdelnour has not said whether the
quarry about 70 miles south of Indianapolis is under
consideration for the test.
However, smaller test explosions using up to 1.5 tons of
explosives occurred at Mitchell Quarry in 2004 and 2005 as part
of a project the military dubbed the Tunnel Target Defeat
Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration.
Timothy Baer of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition told 25
people at the Monroe County Public Library on Friday that he
believes the military plans to use the quarry for the Divine
Strake. The test could help develop weapons to penetrate
hardened, deeply buried targets.
''This is the largest conventional explosion ever,'' Baer said.
The explosion could harm the region's underlying cave system,
Baer said.
AP
Copyright 2006, Digital Chicago Inc.
*****************************************************************
36 Los Angeles Times: State Proposes Limit for Perchlorate in Drinking Water -
9:35 PM PDT, August 29, 2006
The proposed limit is more stringent than the U.S. requires
and would be enforceable.
By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2006
Perchlorate, a toxic ingredient of solid rocket fuel that is
contaminating hundreds of wells throughout Southern California,
would be limited in drinking water under a new state standard
proposed Monday.
The California Department of Health Services plans to set a
drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion, the same as a
goal the state established two years ago. The standard, however,
would be enforceable, whereas the existing goal is not.
ADVERTISEMENT The proposal allows the health department "to
address a contaminant that, unfortunately, is quite common in
certain areas of California," said state Public Health Officer
Mark Horton. "Perchlorate's potential for harm is of concern to
pregnant women and their developing fetuses, as well as
children, so limiting exposure to this contaminant is important
for protecting public health."
Most of the water contamination comes from military bases and
aerospace plants, where perchlorate was widely used as the
explosive component of solid rocket propellants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year set a
much higher interim cleanup goal for perchlorate 24.5 parts
per billion. But the federal agency has not yet set an
enforceable standard for drinking water.
"The states are again acting in the face of inaction by federal
EPA," said Bill Walker of the Environmental Working Group, an
environmental health advocacy organization. "While we would have
liked to have seen California's standard lower, and it could
leave some Californians at risk, the big story is the difference
between it and EPA's. This is another strong signal to EPA that
its [goal] is much too high and that they need to stop the
foot-dragging and move forward with a truly protective drinking
water standard."
Massachusetts is the only state with a mandatory drinking water
limit 2 parts per billion, which went into effect last month.
Environmental groups had urged California to adopt a more
stringent standard, from 1 to 2 parts per billion, but the
Pentagon and its contractors objected that such a low standard
would be unwarranted.
Taxpayers and industry "will face staggering costs to meet
requirements that could be set by California" or the U.S. EPA,
according to a report by a water quality group funded by
Lockheed Martin, Aerojet and other companies linked to
perchlorate contamination.
James Strock, who represents the aerospace industry group, the
Council on Water Quality, said that California should have set a
higher allowable level just as the EPA did, because it "ensures
a clear margin of safety for the most sensitive subpopulations,
including pregnant women, fetuses and newborns."
"At a time when California is urgently seeking all available
resources to apply to a range of urgent environmental priorities
… this regulation appears to divert resources in a direction
that will yield little if any additional public health
protection," said Strock, who was secretary of the California
Environmental Protection Agency under former Gov. Pete Wilson.
Walker said he was relieved that state health officials did not
back down to pressure from industry. The state had the option of
setting a less-stringent limit than the existing public health
goal because officials are allowed under state law to factor in
economic costs, not just health risks, when setting a final
standard for drinking water.
Scientists say perchlorate interferes with iodine uptake by the
thyroid gland, which can disrupt brain development in fetuses
and young children.
Once the standard is adopted, water providers throughout
California must monitor their supplies for the chemical and shut
down any wells and other sources that exceed the limits.
More than 450 wells and other water sources operated by more
than 100 water agencies in California primarily in Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Sacramento
counties have been contaminated by perchlorate, according to
the state health department. One of the biggest tainted sources
is the Colorado River, which supplies vast amounts of water to
Southern California.
The chemical also has been widely found in milk, cheese,
lettuce and other crops that are tainted by irrigation water, as
well as human breast milk and baby formula.
Kerr-McGee Corp., which produced the chemical at a now-closed
plant near Las Vegas, has already mounted a costly cleanup to
pump groundwater and remove perchlorate that flows into the
Colorado River. The river's perchlorate levels are now lower
than California's proposed limit.
In 2005, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences reaffirmed
the thyroid threat to pregnant women and gave the EPA a
recommendation of a safe perchlorate dose. Based on that advice,
the EPA came up with a guideline of 24.5 parts per billion. Some
scientists, including some at the California health department,
have questioned the panel's findings and suggested that the EPA
was misconstruing the academy's advice.
Melanie Marty, of California's Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment, told the EPA in March that the federal agency
needs to set a standard soon, and that it needs to be stringent
to protect children.
The EPA's interim goal "is not supported by the underlying
science and can result in exposures that pose neurodevelopmental
risks in early life," she wrote as chairwoman of the EPA's
Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee.
The state health agency will hold a hearing on its proposed
regulation Oct. 30 in Sacramento. Comments from the public will
be accepted until Nov. 3.
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
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37 canada.com Uranium Still Rising
The spot price of uranium continues to rise, according to the
latest monthly commodity price index report produced by
Scotiabank. It notes spot prices for uranium rose to $48 US a
pound in mid-August from about $45.50 US a pound in late June.
The bank says there are expectations of a price above $50 US for
the last part of 2006 as utilities around the world seek term
contracts for delivery of about 40 million pounds of uranium
from now until 2015. Among other commodities that have a direct
impact on Saskatchewan's economy, prices for lumber continue to
retreat because of the sharp decline in U.S. housing starts. By
contrast, Scotiabank reports market conditions have improved for
pulp producers, with prices rising to a 10-year high of $750 per
tonne. The bank's agricultural index showed some weakening of
cattle prices in July. Overall, the bank reports cattle prices
have strengthened greatly in the year since the U.S. border was
reopened to live cattle.
© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest
MediaWorks Publications Inc.. All rights reserved. Unauthorized
*****************************************************************
38 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Nuclear dump cleanup delayed in Parks -
By Tribune Review News Service
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
PARKS — Plans to clean up a nuclear waste dump in the township
have been delayed because government officials involved in the
planning can’t agree on a strategy.
“I guess there’s some discussion over which is the best option,”
said Bill Lenart, the project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
Congress charged the Corps of Engineers with cleaning up the
44-acre burial site in 2002 after residents complained that the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s cleanup was taking too
long.
Earlier this year, the Corps of Engineers said that cleanup,
originally scheduled for this year, wouldn’t begin until 2008.
Now, despite the delay in releasing a preliminary plan for the
work, Lenart said he still hopes to begin dealing with the 10
trenches full of beryllium, uranium and other cancer-causing
chemicals buried by an Apollo nuclear-processing operation in
two years.
The problem appears to be disagreement among government
officials over which strategy would best deal with the mess. The
preliminary planning process considered various alternatives,
from leaving the trenches in place to removing everything from
the site, Lenart said.
The Corps of Engineers had planned to settle on one option, and
reveal the plan for public scrutiny this summer.
Now, Lenart said he doesn’t know when the plan will be unveiled.
Parks Township Supervisor Chairman Paul Duriancik said he was
disappointed by the delay.
“We’re anxious to have it done,” he said.
The waste has been buried at the site along Route 66 since the
1960s when the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp.
(NUMEC) used the property as a dump for a toxic mix of
radioactive isotopes and chemicals.
Scientists and engineers planning the cleanup are uncertain
exactly what is in the trenches and precisely where they are on
the property.
The corps has performed several tests to attempt to map the
property and identify the exact placement of the trenches.
The agency announced last week it will begin another, more
sophisticated, survey of the land next month.
Engineers hope the tests will help detect buried objects and
differences in the underground soil without disturbing the
surface soil.
Lenart said the testing should help speed up the cleanup once
the Corps of Engineers settles on a plan.
Wynne Everett can be reached at weverett@tribweb.com.
Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
39 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. May Hold Off on Confronting Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday August 30, 2006 12:46 AM
AP Photo VAH101
By NICK WADHAMS
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council will need until
mid-September before acting on its threat to punish Iran if
Tehran's leaders flout a Thursday deadline to suspend uranium
enrichment as is widely expected, Britain's U.N. ambassador said
Tuesday.
Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry's prediction seemed to rule out the
immediate threat of sanctions against Iran if it disregards the
council's demands - spelled out in a resolution adopted this
month - to suspend enrichment by Thursday. Iran has already said
it would reject the deadline.
Jones-Parry said that before it can act, the Security Council
will need to receive a report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog,
the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Iran's compliance
with the resolution.
``Once we've had the report from the agency, had a further
chance to discuss that, capitals will have a clearer view of
exactly how this should be carried forward, but I would expect
activity here to resume toward the middle of September,''
Jones-Parry said.
Another obstacle to quick action will be the language that will
have to be worked out in the resolution. Russia, whose support
for sanctions is essential, has publicly counseled patience with
Iran - a possible signal of reluctance to go along with the U.S.
For now, most discussions are taking place in the capitals of
the permanent five Security Council nations, as well as Germany.
A council diplomat said diplomats in New York have discussed
ideas which could be included in a new resolution but that the
council was a long way from a formal meeting.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks
were private.
The negotiations over the earlier Iran resolution took weeks, as
did talks over a weaker statement passed this year in which the
council also demanded Iran suspend enrichment.
In July, the five permanent members of the Security Council plus
Germany offered Iran a package of incentives to entice it into
clearing up questions about its nuclear program and suspending
uranium enrichment.
The council then gave Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend enrichment
and warned it would consider economic and political sanctions if
Iran disobeys.
Although details of Iran's response last week have not been
released, officials and diplomats said it was not satisfactory.
Diplomats at the U.N. said they believed Iran's response would
not change between now and Thursday.
Enrichment is a process that can produce either fuel for a
reactor or material for weapons. Iran says its nuclear program
is intended solely to generate electricity, while the United
States and Europe contend it secretly aims to develop weapons.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the United States still has not
decided how it will respond once the Aug. 31 deadline expires.
But he reiterated that Washington will seek sanctions if Iran
disregards the resolution.
``They have until the 31st of August, but we've made it very
clear unless we get an unequivocal acceptance of that condition
in the Security Council resolution, that sanctions would
follow,'' Bolton said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
40 Lexington Herald-Leader: Paducah nuclear plant cleanup contractor criticized
08/29/2006 |
Posted on Tue, Aug. 29, 2006 email this print this
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PADUCAH - The U.S. Department of Energy has criticized the lead
nuclear cleanup contractor at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant for a series of safety problems.
An Aug. 16 letter from the DOE indicated Paducah Remediation
Services might lose some part of millions of dollars in
performance fees if corrective actions aren't taken immediately.
"There have been a number of minor accidents, but the Department
of Energy does see them as a potential trend, and we do as
well," said Mike Spry, Paducah Remediation Services president.
"We're trying to nip it in the bud before we have major
incidents."
PRS took over as the plant's cleanup contractor in April under a
$192 million contract. The company has since had "a significant
number of industrial and radiological safety incidents," Loretta
Parsons, contracting officer for the DOE's Lexington project
office, wrote in the letter.
"These safety incidents include multiple forklift accidents,
near-miss events, radiological control violations and first
aids," the letter said.
Paducah Remediation Services is evaluating its management team
and conducting safety training, Spry said. He wouldn't say how
much PRS expects to earn in performance fees, except to say the
amount was "a few million."
"The best way for DOE to track our performance and get it where
we want it to be is the fee mechanism," he said. "Obviously
we're responding to that because we don't want to see our fees
reduced."
The safety problems have forced employees to stop work at least
three times, Parsons wrote. The DOE also questioned how well
workers respond to safety problems.
Spry said there have been no serious injuries, and only a few in
which workers needed treatment. He said one violation of
radiation-control requirements was fairly serious and remains
under investigation.
The Energy Department hired PRS in an effort to reduce costs.
Immediately on takeover, PRS slashed 150 of 550 jobs.
*****************************************************************
41 News 8: Congressmen Tour National Security Measure At INL
Congressman Mike Simpson toured the Idaho National Laboratory
Monday to learn about cyber security measures, and although he
learned a lot, we're still a little fuzzy on the subject.
Simpson brought along Congresman Hal Rogers from Kentucky who
heads the U-S House of Representatives Subcommitttee on Homeland
Security Appropriations.
Since the two were discussing security measures, they could not
tell us much about the INL's capabilities or their extensive
morning tour of the facilities.
"Could you elaborate on that? no. {laughter}. Well, we're sort
of treading on thin water here. I can't tell you some places
where I think they'd feel a nitch in the department, because
we're treading on national security," said Congressman Hal
Roger, (R) Kentucky.
But Congressman Rogers could tell me that he does think the INL
has a good chance of getting more funding for security measures.
The only other information they could tell us is that since
2002, the site's been developing technology, tools, and training
to help increase physical and cyber security measures for their
electric power grids and the telecommunication network.
Story Created: Aug 28, 2006 at 10:36 PM MST
*****************************************************************
42 Hanford News: Solvent used at Hanford tied to health problems
This story was published Saturday, August 26th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
Evidence has grown in recent years that trichloroethylene is a
risk to human health, according to a report from the National
Academies' National Research Council.
The chemical, a solvent used as a degreasing agent, has
contaminated some ground water at Hanford.
However, it's not considered a primary contaminant of concern.
About 80 square miles of the Hanford nuclear reservations has
ground water contamination above drinking water standards.
The report is recommending more research to understand how
trichloroethylene, or TCE, causes cancer and other health
problems.
In 2001 the Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft
assessment on the health risks of TCE that was followed by
debate over the quality of evidence on TCE and how that evidence
should be assessed.
The National Academies concluded that enough information exists
even without the research it recommends for the EPA to complete
a credible human health risk assessment.
The committee reported that the evidence on cancer and other
health risks from TCE exposure has strengthened in five years.
Studies have linked TCE exposure to kidney problems, including
potentially to kidney cancer. However, the amount of exposure
needed to produce kidney damage remains unclear, the study
found. In addition, some studies show a higher incidence of
liver cancer among populations exposed to TCE, but the evidence
is inconsistent.
Studies also suggest that TCE exposure could be linked to
reproduction and developmental problems, impair neurological
function and autoimmune disease.
"The committee recommended studies to advance understanding of
the mechanisms by which TCE causes cancer and other health
problems, which populations are most sensitive to TCE's effects
and how exposure to a mixture of TCE and other chemicals affects
human health," according to a statement from the National
Academies.
TCE is not just a problem at Hanford. It has contaminated air,
soil and water at several military installations and hundreds of
waste sites across the nation.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
43 lamonitor.com: Professor wants blue-marble view of planet
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
A Harvard climate professor said Monday reports that the
leveling off of what had been a thinning stratospheric ozone
layer could be seen as a sign of recovery.
"The ozone hole over Antarctica is not getting deeper, but the
issue is still controversial," said Daniel J. Jacob, a prominent
professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering
who spoke at a laboratory colloquium.
A United Nations assessment released earlier this month has been
interpreted optimistically by some as confirmation of the
effectiveness of the 1987 Montreal Protocol that phased out
production and consumption of ozone-depleting compounds,
including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other related
emissions.
But the UN report said full recovery might be delayed by five to
15 years later than projected in its previous report and could
be accelerated by another 15 years with the hypothetical
elimination of all such ozone-depleting gasses.
Measuring ozone is only one aspect of the larger picture of the
chemical composition and dynamics of Earth's atmosphere and its
relationship to natural and man-made activities of its
biosphere.
While some people look at the famous blue marble photograph from
NASA's Apollo-era moon flights, as a symbol of environmental
consciousness-raising, Jacob sees that view of the Blue Planet
as an ideal vantage for his research.
"Space would be such a nice place to observe the details of
earth's systems," he said, noting that the current fleet of
satellites were measuring everything from the ozone layer to sea
level altitudes and crustal deformations on land, but there are
pluses and minuses to most current spacecraft.
Although the first ozone monitoring instrument, the Total Ozone
Mapping Spectrometer, was first launched in 1978 aboard NASA's
Nimbus-7 spacecraft, Jacob said, the scientific community was
not ready to take its data seriously, until a British team using
"primitive technology" made the alarming discovering that the
ozone shield, that protects life on earth from excessive solar
radiation, was disappearing in 1985.
Big questions that concern Jacob include forecasting air
pollution. He wonders about the long-range transport of
pollutants, how the U.S. will be effected by the rapid
industrialization of China? How should we go about monitoring
sources of emissions for international protocols?
The question of pollutant transport was a focal point of a
recent Los Alamos National Laboratory collaboration with the
Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and NASA.
The Milagro Project, mindful of the growth of urban areas and
their significance as sources of pollution, made a comprehensive
study of Mexico City emissions, using satellites, aircraft and
in situ measurements.
Manvendra Dubey of the lab's Hydrology, Geochemistry and Geology
that sponsored the colloquium Monday, also headed the Los Alamos
team on Milagro.
He introduced Jacob as a highly popular lecturer at Harvard and
as a member of the NASA earth sciences advisory committee.
Jacob has the "blue marble" in mind for a space project he and a
development team have proposed to NASA.
The mission is called "Janus," after the two-faced Roman god.
Like him, a Janus spacecraft would look at the sun and earth
from a single point at the same time. The location, known as
LeGrange-1, is a stationary position in which the spacecraft
would orbit with the earth and have a full hemisphere of earth
in perpetual daylight.
Such a mission would enable researchers to map synoptically the
manifold processes of earth, air and water along with human and
other biological interactions on earth from sunrise to sunset,
all in relation to solar activity.
Looking down through the instruments of Janus, the proposal
suggests, we could monitor the movement of key environmental
factors like greenhouse gases, aerosols and ozone, while looking
backward to solar phenomenon like storms and flares.
"We do need more resources to monitor earth," said Dubey. "We
need to make sure that the bucket of the climate change model
doesn't have any holes at the bottom."
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
44 Ironton Tribune: Piketon in running for nuclear recycling site
Friday, August 25, 2006 9:40 AM CDT
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) Community developers have proposed dusting off
a former uranium enrichment facility in southern Ohio to build a
nuclear waste recycling center.
A private-public partnership has applied for one of at least
four U.S. Energy Department grants to study if temporary storage
and a demonstration project for recycling spent nuclear fuel
rods can be built at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
The Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative is vying for site
study grants of up to $5 million. Similar proposals estimated
they could create more than 5,000 new jobs, said Greg Simonton,
head of the partnership applying for the grant.
The federal governments nuclear programs are nothing new in
Pike County, but the top local development official said its
too early to tell if the latest proposal is worth the risk.
I know our community doesnt want to become a highly
radioactive waste storage facility, said Jennifer Chandler,
Pike Countys community and economic development director.
Chandler said the county has a double-digit unemployment rate,
making the project intriguing, but only if more information can
be gathered.
Simonton said he still needs to find out what technology would
be used to stabilize the fuel rods and where the nuclear
materials would come from.
Obviously, safety would be a very important concern, he
said. I dont think we would embrace anything that wouldnt
have a certain degree of comfort and assurance.
But Simonton also said the Pike County site stands out because
it already has two nuclear projects under way the Energy
Department is building a uranium recycling facility and USEC
Inc. has a pilot uranium enrichment plant. USEC got the go-ahead
Friday to start operating under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
The Energy Department also is considering bringing nuclear waste
from other countries to the site thats finally chosen.
That worries Chandler, who said the Energy Department ignored
community requests that no outside uranium be brought into the
old facility, instead delivering two to three cylinders of the
weakly radioactive element each day from Oakridge, Tenn.
I just hope this time will be different, she said.
The areas Republican congresswoman, Jean Schmidt, is willing to
back the project, including the handling of foreign nuclear
waste, if the community is behind it. Her chief of staff, Barry
Bennett, said Thursday the community is already comfortable with
having nuclear material in its backyard.
The Energy Department said in a statement that it is looking for
welcoming communities when deciding how to distribute its $20
million in site review grants.
*****************************************************************
45 Knox News: City of OR mulls nuclear facility
Council to consider $5M grant for study
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
August 29, 2006
OAK RIDGE - Oak Ridge is showing tentative interest in hosting a
facility that would process or treat highly radioactive spent
fuel from U.S. nuclear reactors.
Oak Ridge City Council will meet Sept. 5 to consider a resolution
supporting an application for a $5 million grant to study 4,000
acres on the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation as
a possible site for a nuclear facility. Grant applications are
due Sept. 7.
As part of its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program, the
Bush administration wants to develop capabilities to process
spent fuel to minimize its hazards and extract useful products
from the highly radioactive mix. DOE announced earlier that it
would set aside $20 million for detailed studies of possible
sites, with up to $5 million available for individual sites.
In a draft memo to city council members, Oak Ridge Mayor David
Bradshaw wrote: "Oak Ridge could play a significant role in
meeting the needs of this new initiative, and the site evaluation
will be instrumental in determining the specific technical
capabilities and valuable resources Oak Ridge could offer."
Bradshaw said the city's support was important in getting the
grant money, but he emphasized that supporting the initial
studies does not commit the city to accepting a nuclear facility.
"Should Oak Ridge be deemed a viable site, the council will need
to participate in further review and discussion," Bradshaw said
in his memo.
Any project that makes Oak Ridge a destination point for highly
radioactive spent fuel is bound to have some opposition, even
though Oak Ridge - Tennessee's "Atomic City" - is widely
regarded as being nuclear friendly.
John Shewairy, public affairs manager in DOE's Oak Ridge office,
acknowledged the potential for negative fallout. At this stage,
federal officials want to gauge local interest before
proceeding, he said.
"A decision to support this particular DOE mission is one the
community is going to have to make," Shewairy said Monday. "If
they're interested in supporting the department's initiative,
then we'll have to wait and see what that brings with it."
The federal agency plans to help develop two types of
facilities: a processing plant to extract useful products from
the nuclear fuel and a burner reactor that would generate
electricity while "transmuting" some of the fuel's long-lived
radioactive elements into shorter-lived fission products.
According to Bradshaw's memo, the Community Reuse Organization
of East Tennessee, or CROET, is handling the grant application.
CROET is a non-profit organization that supports economic
development programs and use of surplus federal properties.
Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, is reportedly
involved in the effort, but SAIC vice president Mike Cuddy was
unavailable for comment Monday.
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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